#meridia

Meridia (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim)

A new hand touches the beacon.

There's this quest, it's a very clearly organized simple basic quest with some custom monsters that don't appear anywhere else in the game, you find this thing ("Meridia's Beacon") and the Goddess of Light talks to you and she wants you to go clear her temple of the necromancer infestation. "A new hand touches the beacon." You've probably heard of this.

The reward for this quest is a sword called, I'm not kidding, Dawnbreaker. Which is a cool metaphor for fighting the dark monsters and stuff, but probably kind of weird if you happen to be named Dawn. But anyway.

The hilt of this sword has a powerful light in it that actually makes it kind of hard to see what's happening in the frame if you're playing in first person because you hold it up in front of you. It's called Dawnbreaker, it has a visible light effect on it, It's granted to you by Meridia, Goddess of Light. I know the way metaphors work in fantasy literature; if you're not familiar, you would assume this is a good goddess who is being good and helping people and fighting evil and stuff but she's a lot more morally ambiguous than that. More than good or evil, her quest and her whole theme and everything revolve around light.

So why doesn't the sword light up the fucking room?

I mean the graphic of the sword, the 3D model with the scintillating light effect, is incredibly bright to the point of being marginally annoying. The whole theme around the basic project of the quest is light; the quest involves a beam of light passing through the entire temple that you have to kind of shepherd along. But the sword doesn't cast any light on anything itself. It's just there, looking like somebody took the focusing lens off a modern LED flashlight, this bright indiscriminate dot of light that casts a glare in every direction.

Except it has no effect at all

If you're in a dark room and you take out a torch, you can see the room better

Similarly there's a spell, Candlelight, that floats a little ball of magic light over your head so you can see better

 It is important to her that our emotions be engaged in her worship. And our love must also be directed inward. If we love her and hate ourselves, she feels our pain. I will, for all time, have no other mistress. —Sigillah Parate, Invocation of Azura

She is the daughter of Magrus, who loved only himself and his own creations. . . . Merid-Nunda is a cold spirit, born of light without love. She is intellect without wisdom, knowledge without purpose. —Amun-dro, The Adversarial Spirits

Some tesgala sketches I used my 1/4th of a fashion degree to whip up. Didn't do anything super historically accurate like I wanted, but what's scheduled is scheduled.

Asna (she/her) (right) is representing the serpent, which is the sign that she was resurrected/reborn under, with a dawn theme, the role of Magnus being eaten by it being taken by her hair sculpture.

Aldercaine (he/her) (middle) is representing his sign, the atronach, with a dusk theme, a long flowing cape and floating replicas of Masser and Secunda floating in her traditional reachman headdress.

Meridi- I mean- Their Third, an... Ayleid?? (she/her) (left) is representing the steed stone with a fractional light themed look.

Thoughts under the cut:

Good news, the situation on Solstice seems to be (mostly) resolved. In less Good news I THINK something happened with that knight I mentioned last time?

My Lieutenant won't give me specifics but apparently they went to an old Meridian temple on the island and apparently the knight did something that killed a bunch of Daedra in the span of a 3 minute conversation with what might've been a Manifestation of Meridia and the Lieutenant only found out when he turned back around?

I wasn't really able to get specifics out of either of them through all the alcohol and the others didn't have a clue what the hell happened but everyone's pretty freaked out and I'd rather not the knight become a Problem considering everything that it took for him to even be standing here again. Any thoughts? Preferably before this makes me need to do more paperwork?

I am going to teach you a phrase that saves a lot of paperwork if used sparsely enough: Daedric interference beyond mortal comprehension.

tagged by: @babyblueetbaemonster @hircines-hunter @sanzas-reverie @friend-of-giants @theoneandonlysemla @silly-little-diary @flycasual @saltymaplesyrup @caz-the-yarncromancer @chiqita @ashblind @nerevarbean thank you all!! 💚

I'm trying to work more on my etsy store. :) Finally working on designs I've had for too long for Meridia, Mephala, and Boethiah bookmarks. They've been transferred to a sheet of carving block to make into linoprints!

And a tiny taste of my TES Gala fic! :)

Lilliandra drops her gaze to his. Whatever old instinct had sharpened her since their arrival, whatever learned poise has settled over her shoulders, her eyes are the same as ever — keen, watchful, already half-amused by a future irritation. “Try not to look so severe,” she says. Miraak looks at her for a long moment. “No.” That wins her smallest laugh — more breath than sound, gone almost as soon as it arrives. “Very well.” She shakes her head, grinning. “Come frighten the nobility with me.”