#morwha

Linariel as a Yokudan goddess of love and fertility Morwha

I absolutely adore Morwha's statue in TESO, I find it incredibly beautiful and divine, so that was the most obivious inspiration for Lin's look for TES Gala Additionally, I've been drawing inspiration from that one wedding dress, also from TESO, which headdress looked quite like a traditional kokoshnik, and that led to the idea of decorating the whole outfit with pearls (like kokoshniks and fancy slavic dresses often were). I thought that depicting pearls in this manner is not only elegant on itself, but going further with a theme of fertility, represents drops of milk, an atribute of childbearing and parenting process which are aspets of the goddess. And instead of holding a belly, like the statue does, Lin is holding a decorative beehive (if it's a Gala event, maybe it's a purse or something), which statue Morwha also does, but with one of her extra arms and since Lin only has two of hers, we're doing what we can, creating this overall motherly look that is completely in line with Linariel's values and intentions. The color orange is picked as a reference to Erandur's priest robes (I know all aedra priests in Skyrim are wearing those robes, but I'm referencing Erandur specifically for his and Lin's love story that happens in my head), plus it looks lovely with red, another color that is often associated with passion and love. I'm only now realizing that what I intended to look like a long wedding veil kind of looks like Lin's hair because the color is so similar, but oh well. Initially I wanted to go with even more obivious choice of Mara's theme, but I adore Morwha's the depiction shown in TESO, it feels so expressive and joyful, the celebration of life and love personified which I find fantastic.

Morwha’s shrine is a beehive.