Woodland Man #1 Fan

Sideblog to @owtechnolich

I'm putting my brainrot here

Tags:

doodles and art

the blorbos

Now lemme start by saying I haven't played ESO: Necrom, so you can absolutely throw everything I have out the window and ignore it. Also what bothers me isn't that Ithelia exists, it's that there's a "Daedra" (actually she's not even a Daedra but w/e) that has the power to unmake the universe that Lorkhan tricked everyone into creating in the first place. I don't think she should be able to do that. I also think that, based on what I've read on the UESP, there's a lot of mischaracterization of Daedra going on here. I'm the first to get on my stool and preach that the Daedra aren't evil, but I also don't think they're "saving the world" kind of gods, either. I don't think any god actually cares that much about it beyond "oh these lil mortal guys are useful it would suck if they're gone :/"

So like. Here's what I'm proposing: Ithelia is the Daedric Prince of Paths and Malleable Fate. This, in itself, isn't dangerous. Fate can be changed all the time by those who's will is strong enough. Like the whole point of TES's world is that it isn't real and you can change it if you believe hard enough. Ithelia is also responsible for the rise of heroes, the ones who have that willpower. Shit's all fine and good except it's a real problem for the other Princes who have anything to do with Fate.

For Hermaeus Mora in particular, it's basically a death sentence. Ithelia being allowed to do whatever she wants whenever she wants would destroy him, because he is the Fate that all mortals much follow. Obviously he needs her gone, or at least controlled, or he's going to fucking die. And that pisses him off so much because he's basically the first Daedra, and he's not going to let some wannabe Daedra, who is actually a cast out Magna-Ge, come around and fucking kill him. He doesn't care if she's the first Magna-Ge. That's bullshit. So he goes and looks for some allies to imprison her and erase all memory of her.

Now, for many gods, worship is power. Erasing Ithelia's memory will weaken her and make her easier to trap. It's nothing to do with saving the world, it's to do with making it easier to save himself.

So he gets three allies: Azura, the Prince of Prophecy. Ithelia is a threat to her because prophecy is meaningless if every mortal can choose their own fate. Mephala, the Prince of Murder and Plots. Ithelia is a threat to her because if all mortals can choose their own fate, who would choose to be subject to plots and lies? Boethiah, the Prince of Betrayal. Her reasoning is similar to Mephala's. Who would choose to be betrayed? Ithelia at least a perceived threat to all three of them, so they'll side with Mora.

Now we get to the Princes who oppose her imprisonment. Peryite, the Prince of Pestilence. Personally I've taken JBN's idea that dragon gods are gods of order, thus making Peryite a god of natural order. He's the most laid-back of the Princes when it comes to mortals. To him, free will is part of the natural order. You can't box every mortal into fate. Then we have Vaermina, the Prince of Nightmares. Vaermina doesn't actually give a shit about Ithelia, she cares about the tampering of memories. Memories are sacred to her and part of her domain, so finds Mora's plan to be a gross overstepping. I think there should actually he a third here, which is Meridia, because like Ithelia, Meridia is also a fallen Magna-Ge. But I don't think Meridia would express her disapproval because she's proud and stubborn, and Ithelia was one of the Magna-Ge that cast her out. Them being sisters means Meridia feels icky about it, but their history means Meridia won't speak up about it, either.

It's really important to me that none of them give a shit about Ithelia personally. Every one of these Princes is acting in their own interest here. Peryite and Vaermina feel their domains are being encroached on by Ithelia's capture, while Mora, Azura, Mephala, and Boethiah feel theirs are being encroached on by Ithelia's meddling (and then Meridia's off being passive-aggressive in the corner).

I also like to believe that none of these gods can truly lie. They can bend the truth until it's almost a lie, but there still needs to be truth in there. So basically Mora has to be real careful w what he says to convince the Vestige to help him. He can use words like "She will destroy the world as we know it," because that's true! It's also ominous! It could mean she'll destroy everything! But it doesn't necessarily mean that, either. Basically, the Vestige gets tricked and used, similarly to the last Dragonborn in the Dragonborn DLC. Is it the wrong choice for the world? Maybe. It could also be the right one.

I don't really know if Ithelia's destruction is still willing here. Maybe it is? Maybe she agrees to vanish and have her memory erased because the cycle of being imprisoned by four daedra, escaping, fighting them, and then being imprisoned again for all eternity is exhausting to her. This is at least the second time this is happening to her after all. Maybe a few more imprisonments could be added for funsies. Idk. But she does get destroyed in some way, be it leaving to a timeline where Daedra don't exist like in the game, or she actually gets fucking destroyed. The four Daedra that destroyed her would want to claim her power for themselves, maybe split it up between them or something. Idk that Daedra care about fairness like that, but they could do it under some kind of truce.

Now we get to the Magna-Ge, though, who are grossly underused in TES games. Mnemo-Li, mourning the true loss of her sister, intervenes and collects the most important power Ithelia had when it came to Malleable Fate: the ability to awaken heroes.

As a Magna-Ge, Mnemo-Li is unreachable by the Daedra. She's literally in Aetherius, which is only reachable by Oblivion through Mundus. Hermaeus Mora cannot feasibly stop her from enacting Prime Archon's will when it comes to awakening heroes. It also happens that Mnemo-Li is far less intrusive than her sister ever was, and she peacefully coexists with her opposite, Akatosh, so there's no potential ally there. Infuriating as it is, Mora has to accept that there will be some mortals who defy Fate. Perhaps this is why he always takes an interest in heroes: it's a way for him to try to control them with Fate when they have an innate ability to defy it.

As for the rest of Ithelia, I think the other Daedra get pieces of her. Azura is the easiest to assign, obtaining her Change. Mephala, I think, could get her Paths. Boethiah... babe do you just get the short end of the stick? Maybe Boethiah gets Willpower or something. Mora doesn't get anything. He didn't want it to begin with, since Ithelia is his antithesis. Destroying her is basically all he wanted, and so long as the other Daedra are sparing with their nudging of Fate, he doesn't really care.

And here's Felda-Ryn and Gosan repping the Thief and the Lover respectively. Don't worry, they're not that kind of thief! They'll only steal your heart. :)

Ashagen and Dalas are ready for the gala. These archeologists are probably very uncomfortable, they'd rather be among the dead than the living, tbh. But hey, at least you can say a living elder scroll and the last dragonborn came to your party!