Character Build Lore Season 1: "Of Elven Culture"

• Posted by Talos of Atmora October 8, 2015 - 426 views

  Welcome to Season One of Character Build Lore!

  You can probably tell by the season title that the topic of the season is the elves; the Dunmer, the Altmer, and the Bosmer. These stories are created by me and are in the perspectives of my own character creations and characters already mentioned in the Elder Scrolls games and Lore. To start of the season, here is a small record of the history of each race of elven-kind.

  1) The Dunmer:

            The Dunmer, also known as the 'Dark-Elves', are the elven peoples of Morrowind. Their characters are usually grim and reserved, and they are known to be distrusting and disdainful of other races. Despite this general personality, their kind are often proud and ruthless, a great combination with their battle skill with the sword, bow, and their mastery of destruction magic. Beyond this physicality, the Dunmer live two to three times as long as humans do.

            The Battle of Red Mountain marks the date when the Dunmer came into being. The Dunmer were originally a race of elf called the 'Chimer'. The Chimer had pale golden skin and light eyes, unlike the Dunmer they have turned into today. The Chimer had come to Morrowind in following the prophet 'Veloth' in search of religious freedom. They came into contact with the previous residents of Morrowind, the Dunmer. At first the two races lived in peace, their societies coexisting. However, the Dwemer scorned the Chimer for their worship of the Daedric Lords. This lead to what is still known as the largest and most destructive conflict between the mortal races. The Chimer and the Dwemer were set against each other not just for religion but for the province of Morrowind as well.

            At this time the Chimer were lead by Lord Indoril Nerevar, who was a great warrior and strategist. He learned of an artifact found by the Dwemer in Red Mountain, and that they guarded it with ferocity. However, the Battle of Red Mountain distracted the Dwemer enough so that Lord Nerevar and his three councilors, Vivec, Sotha Sil, and his wife Almalexia, could sneak past the Dwemer to this artifact. This artifact is known as the 'Heart of Lorkhan', and it is the artifact of the Daedric Lord who gave himself to create the mortal realm. Akatosh punished Lorkhan by sending his heart deep into the depths of the Red Mountain, not foreseeing that it would be found by the Dwemer, and then misused by the Chimer. THe 'Heart of Lorkhan' held infinite divine power to be used by any who can connect with it. Lord Nerevar gave him life to use too much divine power that his mortal form could not handle, but it caused the disappearance of the Dwemer. In his death, Lord Nerevar and his patron, the Daedric Lord Azura, made the councilors Vivec, Sotha Sil, and Almalexia, swear an oath never to use that divine power for themselves.

            After Lord Nerevar's death, the councilors debated their oath, and in this debate they found that immortality pleased them more than keeping the oath to a Daedric Lord and Nerevar. They used the 'Heart of Lorkhan' to give themselves immortality, and in this act, angered the Daedric Lord Azura. In her anger Azura changed the entire Chimer race, their skin turning for pale gold to that of a grey, ashen color. Instead of light eyes, the Chimer now had eyes the color of dark blood. The Chimer were distressed by this change, but the three councilors talked to their Chimer people, and in their speech caused the Chimer to see them as immortal deities, and they became the three leaders of the new Dunmer people. The trio became known as the immortal deities of the 'Tribunal'.

             However, Azura warned the Tribunal that one day the reincarnation of Lord Nerevar, known as the Nerevarine, would return to Tamriel and Morrowind to seek revenge against the three councilors of the Tribunal. In the end this was proven true. As the Nerevarine came to Morrowind, the Tribunal lost power and was eventually killed by the Nerevarine.

           After the 'Heart of Lorkhan' was released from physical form on Tamriel, the Nerevarine refused power, and instead sailed to Akavir, leaving the Dunmer to make their own future. However, without Vivec to hold the moon in the sky, the moon descended upon the city of Vivec. At first, the city was protected by a 'Ingenium',  a barrier that held up the moon. However, this barrier required souls to work, and was thus rendered useless by a Dunmer named 'Sul' who destroyed the Ingenium to save the soul of his lover, which caused the moon to hit full force into the City of Vivec.

           In the aftermath, the Oblivion crisis ended, and the Argonian race had an army so strong they ran the Dunmer out of Morrowind. The Dunmer made homes in almost every province known, but eventually House Redoran trained an army and retook Morrowind. After this they set up their colonies, and are proud of Morrowind and have tried to create lives there ever since.

  2) The Bosmer:

            The Bosmer, known as the 'Wood-Elves' or the 'Tree-Sap-People', are a race of elves that reside in the forested province of Valenwood, the south-west portion of Tamriel. There is not much conflict among these people, they are seen as unruly and naive by most other races. However, the Bosmer are rumored to have created the bow, and this is supported by their superior skill with the bow, and are even known as the greatest archers in all of Tamriel. They are connected to nature and use it to their advantage.

            Many Bosmer in the forests of Valenwood follow the tenets of the 'Green Pact'. The Green Pact Bosmer are religiously carnivorous and cannibalistic, and do not harm the vegetation of Valenwood, they do not, however, shy away from using wooden or plant derived products made by others.

  3) The Altmer:

            The Altmer, also known as the 'High-Elves', are a self-proclamed "Cultured People", residing in the province of the Summerset Isles. These elves are very resistant to diseases, and are the most advanced in the use of the arcane arts out of all the races. They are thought to be the most alike descendants of the Aldmer elves, the original elves of Aldmeris. Most of Aldmeri and Altemiri history is lost or hidden, but it is clear that some structures, such as the 'Ceporah Tower', predate the known Aldmeri arrival by several hundred years.