#hermaeus

Hermaeus Mora

Ascension of the dwarves by Calcelmo.

Forward: To start with, the proper names for these "dwarves" is still, in fact, "dwemer", meaning "deep elves". Like my previous writings, I use the term "dwarves" on the cover due to the prevalence of the incorrect term. Secondly, I use the term "ascension" for lack of a better term, as the dwemer didn't believe in godhood. This will be explained later.

Now that that's out of the way, this book marks a recent breakthrough I've made regarding the dwemer and as such, I felt it made little sense to include it in my previous observations. This breakthrough is due to linguistic discoveries I've made in the ruin of Nchuand-Zel beneath my home of Markarth. Inside this ruin, made safe enough for scholars under trained guards and mages provided by the college thanks to the effort of a uniquely skilled sell-sword, a very unique display was found. 

It was a tree from the surface.

While surface foliage is not uncommon in these ruins due to the inevitable destruction that allows flora the basic requirements to grow, this one was unique, as it was purposely grown in a prominent location with a tablet of dwemer writing displayed with it. We had recovered the tablet shortly before a spider infestation, which in turn preceded a falmer incursion, preventing us from further study. Once the defenses were activated, due to the actions of the aforementioned sell-sword, a new expedition provided me with my most valuable artifact: a translation of the dwemer tablet in the original falmer language.

You see, I had previously translated the falmer language (from before they lost their sight and became feral monsters) but I was unable to translate the dwemer language because there were too few similarities. The translation of the dwemer tablet was thus: "and so it was today your people were given passage to our steam gardens, and the protections of our power.

Many of your people had perished under the roaring, snow-throated kings of Mora, and your walls were broken, and we heard you, and sent out machines against your enemies, to thereby take you under.

Only by the grace of the dwemer did your culture survive, and only by the fifteen-and-one tones did your new lives begin.

We do not require thanks, for we do not believe in it. We do not ask for gratitude, for we do not believe in it.

We only request you partake of the symbol of our bond, the fruit of the stones around us.

And as your vision clouds, as the darkness sets in, fear not.

Know only our mercy and the radiance of our affection, which unbinds your bones to the earth before, and sets your final path to the music of your new eternity."

This explains much more of the dwemer culture and their relationship with the falmer, than anything I've discovered before. The part in particular that caught my attention was the mention of these "fifteen-and-one tones". While I had the idea that it might be part of their numbering system, the pattern of the statement seemed to indicate something else. These were not elves that worshipped, and yet this statement sounded almost the same. It wasn't until I overheard a conversation about a missing priest overseeing our Hall of the dead nearby and a theory of daedric sacrifice that I made a connection.

Before this whole rebellion and the war preceding it there were nine divines. However, they were also frequently referred to as the "eight and one" referring to the divine that was the cause of these wars, Talos, the human that ascended. While I don't take part in the politics around it, I mention this because of the similarity of the phrase. Something else if note is the number of daedric princes : sixteen, or potentially: fifteen and one.

This led me to an area of study so different that my nephew thought I had gone mad. That is, until I discovered the link. You see, the dwemer didn't view the daedra as gods to be worshipped. They accepted their existence, but didn't see them as superior beings.

My theory is that the dwemer saw the daedra not as beings, but as a form of sentient energy, similar in a way to our schools of magick and that these "tones" were their version of magick. This would explain their use of soul gems without souls and their uses of flame and electricity that seems to have no source.

All hail and sacrifice to, he, the keeper of all secret knowledge and walker of woods. The lore keeper and memory hoarder. The reader of Fate in the Stars and heavens. It is he, the master, and you shall bow before him. 

*___* All hail...         ...the Master