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Bestia Infinium: The Soul Shriven Seekers

Tags: #event article  #Bestia Infinium 
  • September 14, 2017

    The Seekers of Apocrypha. One damn ugly and still very intriguing creatures, in all their Lovecraftian tentacle-ish glory. But I always wondered about one thing: What precisely are they?

    Yes, the answer comes easily. They're Daedra native to Apocrypha. But are they Daedra? Really? There is one book that always made me doubt that and that is Doors of Oblivion.

    Morian Zenas described to me an endless library, shelves stretching on in every direction, stacks on top of stacks. Pages floated on a mystical wind that he could not feel. Every book had a black cover with no title. He could see no one, but felt the presence of ghosts moving through the stacks, rifling through books, ever searching.

    Invisible ghosts riffling through books. If I remember correctly, Seekers can turn invisible in the game, right?

    I last received a whisper from him six months ago. Before then, it had been five years, and three before that. His thoughts are no longer intelligible in any language. Perhaps he is still in Apocrypha, lost but happy, in a trap he refuses to escape.

    And so Morian Zenas stayed trapped in the Apocrypha - well, trapped. Not inclined to leave. Forever searching through the stacks, most likely becoming another ghost riffling through the stacks of knowledge. Another...seeker? Yes, that's what I am trying to say. What if the ghosts the book is talking about are the Seekers? Mortals who over time turned into those ugly creatures?

    This is where it gets sort of tricky and difficult to find a reasonable explanation for it, which is why I turned to the Soul Shriven of ESO.

    Study of these sources reveals that Molag Bal desires, above all things, the enslavement of mortals' souls. Various loathsome means are employed to this end, the ultimate goal being the diversion of a soul from its journey to the afterlife to imprisonment and slavery on the plane of Coldharbour. Upon arrival in Molag Bal's realm, the soul attracts to itself some of the loose creatia of Oblivion, forming a corporeal body with the semblance of the shape it wore in life. These sad slaves, called the soul-shriven, then toil in torment for the glory and amusement of their master, Molag the Slave-Lord. - On the Nature of Coldharbour

    Diverting a soul from its journey to the afterlife. Raises a question for me. What happens when someone dies in Oblivion, namely on a plane ruled by Daedric Prince? Is that Prince capable of preventing the Anuic part of a soul from going to its afterlife? Or...is the Prince capable to form the chaotic creatia around the vestige once the Anuic soul leaves, creating a husk, a Padomaic mimic of the mortal that perished? ‘Daedrafying’ the vestige with the help of the chaotic creatia?

    the Soul Shriven expressed feelings of emptiness, hunger, and desire that no sustenance provided to them could fill. - On Soul Shriven

    This line sort of made me think about the Seekers. Hunger and desire that no sustenance could fill, always looking for knowledge, for all eternity even after they perish, their bodies changed in Mora's image. Could it be possible?

    Each is a mortal kidnaped from Mundus at the moment of death, his or her soul stolen by Molag Bal for some unthinkable purpose, and given in exchange the vestige that enables him or her to form a counterfeit body here in Coldharbour.  - Chaotic Create: Azure Plasm

     Sometime ago there was this discussion about small bit from ESO that said that memories of mortals go to water  after they perish. So memories go to water on Tamriel, while the soul goes to its afterlife. Memories=Padomaic,  soul=Anuic?

     Now when Daedra die, they go to waters too, but Waters of Oblivion. Azure Plasm in Coldharbour, the lava in  Dagon's Deadlands, oceans in Shivering Isles and...the green ugly slime in Apocrypha.

     Two things: First. If Daedra are reborn from the waters, does that mean that all the Daedra are...what?    Memories=Padomaic vestige?

     Second. Apocrypha is pretty much all ocean. Kinda figures if Mora is the Prince of ‘forbidden’ knowledge.

     But the whole point of this? If Seeker’s soul (an Anuic part) goes to afterlife and the memories (a Padomaic part)  go to waters where they died - Apocrypha - would it be possible for Herma Mora to use the memories as vestige  and form a body around it? Daedrafying a mortal into a Seeker?

     

  • Member
    September 14, 2017

    Nice one Karves, a very interesting subject indeed! Nicely put and I like the questions rasied. I'm thinking, what examples can we go with? Off the top of my head we have Haskill and Durnehviir who both have become vestiges, although in the dragon's case it's harder due to the soul thing. 

    Haskill, though, could provide the example. He is supposedly a human who became Sheo, much like the CoC. He is now a Vestige, confined to the Shivering Isles. Or maybe he isn't the first Haskill. Maybe when the next mortal mantles Ann-Marie, perhaps the CoC will become a new Haskill after. Madness. In any event, process should be similar in each realm...? 

    So while I love the water-memory and Mora connection, perhaps it isn't just Mora who can do that daedrification of seekers? 

  • September 15, 2017
    Another example I can think of, which I didn't want to include in the article itself, is Umbriel. Umbriel is basicaly piece of Vile's realm yeah? And what happens to people who die there? They are reborn, recycled. Now, it could be argued it's possible because of several things. Ingenium or Umbriel Hist for examples. But maybe it's also the Daedrafication as an effect of the Oblivion.
  • Member
    September 15, 2017

    So it could be a combination of time and consent? In Durny's,  Haskill's and Morian Zenas' case, there was the choice to stay. Zenas was not inclined to leave, as you say, Durny accepted an offer, and Haskill likely chose as the CoC did. So after consent is given, Daedric time plays the role of helping to determine whether daedrification happens...? If there are two parts to a soul, perhaps the crucial willingness to stay dtermines what the soul becomes - it's aligned AE. 

    Does that jive with the Umbriel thing? Iirc, most were unwilling. So I'm kinda thrown.