#sharmat

Text from Vivec's Sermon Fifteen, translated by me with the help of the unofficial Dunmeri dictionary, edited using Audacity to change the pitch and add reverb, and accompanied by an original MIDI composition of chimes, tuned gongs, and bass drum.

(Art also by me - I'll have to finish that drawing soon!)

(This was a ton of fun to do! Hit me up if you ever need help with translating into Dunmeri, if you want to commission a musical composition, or if you need a voice actor for anything.)

'The temporal myth is man.

i think this is actually a bit vague. yes, it could refer to "man" as "the human races of tamriel," i.e. nords, cyrods, bretons, redguards, etc. in which case, yeah, they don't live as long as elves do. but this could also refer to "man" as "humanity" in a broader sense, as in all mortal beings. even elves must die of old age eventually. (usually, at least.)

further, i think the overall phrase has a bit of a double meaning. my first impression was, "man is temporal, mortal, short-lived in the grand scheme of things, and therefore less important (mythical) than fact (reality)." however, i think you could take it another way: "man's temporality, his temporariness, his short-lived nature, is a myth, in that myths can be made of him long after his mortal demise." a great man lives long after he dies, because he was great, and made a name for himself through his actions in life.

'The magical cross is an integration of the worth of mortals at the expense of their spirits.

i thought long and hard about this part. i consulted other sources, and didn't care for their analyses, however intentional their conclusions might have been to the original text. i wanted an explanation less out-of-universe, more intrinsic to the setting. and here's what i came up with: the "cross" is the dual nature of anu and padomay, not as two extremes of a single axis, -∞ and ∞, but as two axes forming a plane of potential.

in this case, these two axes of anu and padomay are "an integration" of "the worth of mortals" (padomay giving dynamism and originality via chaos to mortals) "at the expense of their spirits" (the static concept of their being given via anu's order). these two concepts of "dynamism" and "staticism" (not sure that last one is a real word but work with me) are NOT opposites on a single spectrum, but dual spectra conjoined at an origin point. (we'll get back to that later.)

Surround it with the triangle and you begin to see the Triune house.

this part is easy. the triangle is, originally, the three good daedra (azura, boethiah, and mephala), and now the tribunal (sotha sil, almalexia, and vivec respectively). this concept of "houses" we see in multiple contexts throughout the lessons reappears.

It becomes divided into corners, which are ruled by our brethren, the Four Corners: BAL DAGON MALAC SHEOG.

technically, the corners existed prior to the triangle surrounding the cross. but okay, vivec. this is pretty simple, as well: the four corners of the house of troubles, molag bal, mehrunes dagon, malacath, and sheogorath. i'm not sure if you can like, place them in their own quadrants on this graph? if you can think of a good way to do this, let me know.

Rotate the triangle and you pierce the heart of the Beginning Place, the foul lie, the testament of the irrefutable-for-a-span.

here's the origin point! i'll be honest, i don't know what vivec means by "rotate the triangle." what does that even mean…….just spin it forever and ever until it's a circle? maybe… who can say! the origin point of the graph, "the Beginning Place," is…well. several things. it's a kind of "genesis" of two kinds. (this duality is, as you may have noticed, common in this sermon, as well as in the lessons in general.) the initial creation of the aurbis, but also the Convention which settled it into its current state. the initial conception by lorkhan is a "foul lie" in that he supposedly tricked his fellow et'ada into creating it, thereby trapping them within it. the Convention is a "foul lie" in that it designates auri-el as the chief of the aurbis, the origin of time itself.

"the testament of the irrefutable-for-a-span" is the kalpa, the cyclical period of time when the aurbis, the world as we know it, holds steady. it's irrefutable in its reality, its realness. but only "for-a-span"; it cannot hold forever.

this "origin point" serves a dual-dual purpose as being a representation of not CHIM itself, but the realization that brings about CHIM: the gnosis of the nature of the world.

Above them all is the horizon where only one stands, though no one stands there yet. It is proof of the new. It is the promise of the wise.

this refers to a concept which i don't think is ever referred to in-game (unless eso has proven me a liar once again) called "amoranth." amoranth is kind of like super CHIM: if CHIM is the gnosis that the world is the dream of anu, then amoranth is supplanting anu as the new dreamer of a new dream. this is something explored in kirkbride's C0DA, if you're interested.

Unfold the whole and what you have is a star, which is not my domain, but not entirely outside my judgment.

you might imagine this refers to almalexia somehow, since her domain is the stars. but given what we know about the sharmat, dagoth ur, from sermon 15, it's safe to say this is about him. generally speaking, you could say "the stars" is ayem's domain, whereas "a star" probably refers to the sharmat and the heart of lorkhan. vivec knows he cannot understand or master what the sharmat understands and masters, but he can yet judge it as false, nonetheless.

The grand design takes flight; it is transformed not only into a star but a hornet.

i'm not 100% sure what i think is meant by "hornet" here. here's my best guess: the grand design (the aurbis) takes flight (becomes active), and it is buzzing about with life (a hornet).

The center cannot hold. It becomes devoid of lines and points. It becomes devoid of anything and so becomes a receptacle. This is its usefulness at the end. This is its promise.

as a result of the hornets flitting about the world, the origin point at the center "cannot hold". this line, "the center cannot hold," is a direct reference to a line from william butler yeat's poem "the second coming," which i don't know much about beyond that. the title of the poem is evocative, of course, of the second coming of christ, the apocalyptic end of all things.

i believe "devoid of lines and points" COULD refer to the ongoing collapse of towers in tamriel, with "lines" being "towers" and "points" being "stones." without these reference points to tie down meaning on nirn, it becomes "devoid of anything," nearly meaningless, and therefore "a receptacle," a vacuum of meaning waiting to be filled.

'The sword is the cross and ALMSIVI is the Triune house around it.

confirming that the triangle is the tribunal, but also claiming that the cross and the sword are identical. refer to my post on sermon 23, the scripture of the sword. this also connects to the theme of duality in this sermon.

If there is to be an end I must be removed. The ruling king must know this, and I will test him. I will murder him time and again until he knows this. I am the defender of the last and the last. To remove me is to refill the heart that lay dormant at the center that cannot hold.

i think most of this is self-explanatory. the ruling king in these sermons refers both to nerevar and nerevarine. vivec "killed" nerevar and has persecuted the nerevarine cult, "killing" each attempted incarnation as they come. vivec is supposedly trying to teach nerevar (rather, his reincarnating soul) that he is an obstacle to the conclusion (said conclusion being the defeat of the sharmat and the "refilling of the heart", a.k.a. lorkhan's heart, now taking on the symbology of "the center that cannot hold") that must be defeated in some way in order to bring about the conclusion. in our story, vivec is defeated by proof rather than combat (canonically, at least). he is "the defender" until the truth he defends can no longer be denied.

I am the sword, Ayem the star, Seht the mechanism that allows the transformation of the world. Ours is the duty to keep the compromise from being filled with black sea.

okay, i know i said that "star" singular almost always refers to the sharmat/heart of lorkhan, with "stars" referring to ayem and her domain, but this is like, the only exception in the lessons. all other "star" references are either sharmat/heart or literal stars/astronomical objects.

"the compromise" here is aurbis, a blending of order and chaos, staticism and dynamism, anu and padomay. "the black sea" is the pure void of padomay outside the aurbis.

'The Sharmat sleeps at the center. He cannot bear to see it removed, the world of reference. This is the folly of the false dreamer. This is the amnesia of dream, or its power, or its circumvention. This is the weaker magic and it is barbed in venom.

"the center" ("that cannot hold") here refers to both meanings of the center, as both the irrefutable genesis of reality and the heart of lorkhan specifically. the sharmat wants a "world of reference," a world of false reality (for a "false dreamer", since anu is the true dreamer) to rule over. he forsakes the truth for a lie, "the amnesia of dream," and thereby finds a power, albeit a "weaker magic" that is "barbed in venom," in downsides.

'This is why I say the secret to swords is the mercy seat. It is my throne.

we've heard this before, from sermon 11: "The secret of weapons is this: they are the mercy seat."

what's the "mercy seat?" well, biblically, it's the lid of the ark of the covenant, where God's divine presence dwelt. but the bible doesn't exist in tamriel, so what would it mean within the setting's context?

well, we know that ayem is most commonly associated with "mercy" as a concept. but i don't think this really refers to her. vivec sees violence as his own kind of "mercy," as both as a coup de grâce, or mercy stroke, to put down the wounded after battle with the victor, but also a "sharpening" of the wounded into the victor. as God Himself, free from the restraints of luck, vivec decides the victor…and he decides when the defeated may become the victor later, after becoming stronger in their defeat. this plays into the themes of trauma and recovery in the lessons.

I am become the voice of ALMSIVI. The world will know me more than my sister and brother. I am the psychopomp. I am the killer of the weeds of Veloth.

by writing the lessons vivec becomes "the voice of ALMSIVI," the one willing to tell the truth, however couched in poetry and mystery as he is inclined to do so. "the world will know" him more than his "sister and brother," both because canonically he survives them both, but also due to his religious significance in the tribunal temple. almalexia is certainly an important figure in the temple, even walking among her children as their mother, but vivec contributes more to the spiritual lives of their devotees through his writings.

a "psychopomp" is a figure in a mythology who carries the dead to their afterlife destination; the ones you've most likely heard of are the egyptian anubis, the greek charon, and the norse valkyries. vivec claims to carry the "weeds of Veloth" directly to the afterlife by killing them personally.

Veloth is the center that cannot hold. Ayem is the plot. Seht is the ending. I am the enigma that must be removed. These are why my words are armed to the teeth.

another "center that cannot hold"???? you betcha. vivec sees veloth (here referring to morrowind itself, not to the prophet) as the stage for the center's "unfolding," seeing as it was where the heart of lorkhan landed, and where gods (tribunal, dagoth ur, numidium and thereby talos) were made (and eventually unmade).

ayem is the plot because her anticipation is the prince of plots, boethiah. seht is the ending because his anticipation is azura, prince of (dawn and) dusk. vivec is an "enigma," a kind of puzzle that the nerevarine must solve in order to know truth, in order to defeat the sharmat and close this treacherous chapter of history. but what good's a game without stakes? an "enigma" without "words…armed to the teeth"?

'The ruling king is to stand against me and then before me. He is to learn from my punishment. I will mark him to know. He is to come as male or female. I am the form he must acquire.

the nerevarine ("the ruling king") stands against vivec as apocryphal messiah of the cult, then before him when vivec can refute them no more. they learn from vivec's "punishment," which is, again, twofold: both the punishment of the cult and dissident priests, and also the punishment vivec endures, as a lonely god. the nerevarine's form doesn't matter ("male or female"), because vivec's didn't matter.

'Because a ruling king that sees in another his equivalent rules nothing.'

if you don't inherently see yourself as better than everyone else, you cannot be "a ruling king." this is why the nerevarine must prove themselves worthy to defeat the sharmat:

"Hortator and Sharmat, one and one, eleven, and inelegant number. Which of the ones is the more important? Could you ever tell if they switched places? I can and that is why you will need me." - Sermon 11

by which vivec again asserts that he, as God Himself, is the decider of fate, not chance. vivec fills the role of observer in the enantiomorph between hortator and sharmat, nerevar and voryn, nerevarine and dagoth ur.

This is what was said to the Hortator when Vivec was not whole.

remember sermon 12, the pomegranate banquet. vivec has lost his "feet" and his "head" to "molag bal," "the king of rape." lots of quotations there because none of that is literal. vivec was raped (not literally by molag bal) and lost his sense of self, his sense of self-worth. he has not yet "repaired" himself, brought himself back together from the trauma he endured.

i'm not sure if vivec actually said anything like this to nerevar during this time. he could have been trying to put up a facade, to pretend nothing was wrong, doing what he usually does in advising the hortator. or this could just be a literary contrivance, putting this sermon here. it's hard to say.

and as always,

Ku-vastei, unsure how to respond, hesitates. But gradually she obliges, removing the dreugh helmet and obscuring her sight-line on the fallen god for but a second. In that second he has crossed the room to be mere feet from her. Her tail stiffens behind her.

“Ah,” says Dagoth Ur, surprise in his voice, “haven’t we met before? I don’t mean all those years ago when we were allies. More recently than that.”

Suddenly Ku-vastei remembers. “You were the one…and this was the place. The Staff of Chaos.”

“A paltry artifact compared to what you now carry with you,” answers Dagoth Ur. “I trust you have brought the tools? Keening, Sunder…” He stares at Ku-vastei’s begloved right hand. “Wraithguard.”

Ku-vastei drops the helmet and readies her spear.

“Do not be so quick to fight, Nerevar. Or do you call yourself by some new name?”

Ku’s lips are dry as she mutters, “Ku-vastei.”

“Tell me, Ku-vastei: are you truly Nerevar reborn?” The Sharmat’s sharp fingers dance at his sides.

Again, Ku hesitates. “What does it matter?”

Dagoth Ur places his hands on his hips and utters a hearty laugh. “It matters the world, my old friend.”

“I don’t know,” Ku-vastei whispers.

“Is that Moon-and-Star I espy on your other hand?” he inquires, shifting his gaze. “Then at least Azura hearkens to your claim.”

Ku-vastei removes her left hand from her spear’s shaft briefly to glance at the ring, with its entwined star and crescent. But quickly she returns to her fighting stance, keeping her eyes on Dagoth Ur.

“Another question, then: What are your plans for the heart if you manage to defeat me?” He grips the chin of his mask and tilts his head back, as if in deep thought. “Will you follow the Tribunal’s example, and establish a new thearchy? Or perhaps you will complete my divine mission, finishing Akulakhan and driving the mongrel dogs from Morrowind.”

Ku-vastei shakes her head furiously. “No. I have my own plans.”

Dagoth Ur waits for her to elaborate, but eventually nods when she doesn’t. “Very well,” he says. “Perhaps you may surprise me yet, Nerevar. Or perhaps you obscure your ambitions on principle.” He levels the three eyes of his mask with hers. “Or perhaps you are an instinctive bluffer. No matter.

“I have one final question for you to entertain,” he continues. “If I had offered to let you join me, would you have surrendered the tools to me to seal your oath?”

“No,” Ku-vastei says immediately. “I would never join you.”

“Thank you for the forthright response,” Dagoth Ur acknowledges. “Here I allow you to ask any questions of your own. Otherwise, you are the challenger. I grant you the opportunity of first blow.”

Ku-vastei pauses for a moment, trying to come up with suitable questions. She thinks suddenly of the Archmage Trebonius, and asks one question. “What happened to the Dwemer?”

“I have no idea what happened to the Dwemer,” Dagoth Ur answers plainly. “I have been denied the opportunity to study Wraithguard, and I am not sure how much of Kagrenac's lore was invested in her tools, and how much in her own sorcery and mastery. I have long studied Kagrenac, and have come to admire her wisdom and craft. Someday, after the campaigns of the Sixth House are secure, I hope to have time to dedicate to this mystery.”

Ku-vastei nods, disappointed.

“Have you no other questions?” Dagoth Ur asks. “I had assumed you would be more curious about your past life.”

“I don’t really care,” Ku-vastei says. Then she leaps forward, her tail spiraling behind her as she thrusts with all her might, piercing Dagoth Ur’s bare chest all the way through with uncanny ease.

“Oh!” Dagoth Ur exclaims, the sound accompanied by a burst of blood. “I did not expect to be so…easily bested.” He wraps his hands around the spear’s shaft, pushing back against Ku-vastei until the bloody tip reemerges from his chest. She tries to resist his force, and attempts to launch a new attack, but before she can, the Sharmat’s grip on the spear fails and he crumples to the floor.

There is a long silence in that room, where a devil has been vanquished. Ku-vastei keeps her breath held for a very long time. Finally she exhales, her lips blowing open. She tries to summon a feeling of victory, but fails.

She takes in a breath through her nostrils, but is again assaulted by the smell of rot. She takes a deep breath and holds it again as she approaches the corpse. Shakily she extends a hand towards the mask, and tries to remove it. She finds an incredible resistance, as if the mask were melded to his face. She sets aside her spear for a brief moment and commits both hands to the effort. Finally she tears the mask away, and -

She sees the face of God for only a brief moment before the body collapses into gorey ephemera, like the implication of rabid maggots feasting at heightened pace. Then all that’s left is the mask, dropped clattering to the floor in her shock, and a bloody stain in the shape of a man.

She does not let go of her breath until she is on the other side of the room, retrieving her discarded helmet. She dons it and turns back towards the fleeting remains of the body. For a moment, she fears that grace cannot truly exist in such a world as this. But then she resolves herself to finishing her task. She opens the door on the far side of the room.

Again she is confronted by the face of God, this time enormous and brass, staring down at her sparklessly. Its face takes a similar shape as the Sharmat’s mask, but more imposing. This, she remembers, is her true goal - to deny this God its terrible birth.

Then she looks away from the massive face, and down. Before her is the Sharmat, hands on his hips, laughing.

“What a fool you are,” Dagoth Ur bellows. “I'm a god. How can you kill a god? What a grand and intoxicating innocence. How could you be so naive? There is no escape. No Recall or Intervention can work in this place. Come. Lay down your weapons. It is not too late for my mercy.”

Ku-vastei sighs and brandishes her spear once more.

“Very well, Nerevar.” Dagoth Ur sprints towards Ku-vastei, giving her barely time to react, and lashes out with his accursed claws. She manages to put up a weak parry, but the force of the blow pushes her back. She glances at the new scars in the shaft of her spear - not just any spear, but an artifact of a god - and momentarily panics. In her fear she swings wildly, hoping to knock Dagoth Ur aside, remembering the ease with which she impaled him before. But the spear nearly bends around the Sharmat before bouncing back to shape, rattling Ku-vastei’s entire body. God laughs at her impudence.

Ku-vastei realizes there is only one option: run.

She jumps to the side, narrowly dodging another slash from Dagoth Ur, and sprints down the stone path ringing this massive chamber.

Dagoth Ur laughs, his voice filling the space and Ku-vastei’s ears, as though he were right behind her. “Hah-hah-hah-hah. Oh, dear me. Forgive me, but I am enjoying this.”

Something wizzes past Ku-vastei’s ear. She leaps to the side, fearing another shot, but lands right in its path. Her entire body burns without fire, her muscles and bones screaming out in pain, and she falls to her knees for the briefest of moments.

“Omnipotent,” the Sharmat’s voice echoes, “Omniscient. Sovereign. Immutable. How sweet it is to be a god!”

The feeling evokes the sensation of the Corprus spreading throughout her body; the memory triggers an association, and Malcius’ bloated face flashes before her eyes. Her aggrieved determination refreshed, she quickly climbs to her feet and keeps running, making sure to zigzag out of Dagoth Ur’s line of fire.

She clutches at her waist, where she has the tools fastened. As she fumbles for Sunder, she almost runs headlong into one of Dagoth Ur’s minions. Without thinking she crushes its skull with the enchanted hammer, leaving behind a horrifying dent in its head as it falls to the ground.

Ku-vastei sprints and dodges her way down to the ribcage of the nascent God, clobbering Dagoth Ur’s workers as she goes. Finally she glimpses the Heart, a red crystalline stone suspended amidst the ribs on the other side of a bridge. She nearly trips as she begins to cross it, and clambers her way to the Heart. Sunder nearly falls upon the Heart by accident before Ku-vastei can properly strike it.

Upon Sunder’s contact with the Heart, an enormous sound floods the chamber - not identifiable as any particular noise, but pure tone, fundamental and absolute. Knowledge forcibly enters Ku-vastei’s brain as if by telepathy from some unknown source: The God-tone.

Suddenly, Dagoth Ur’s laughter stops, drowned out by the sound.

Ku-vastei reaches now for Keening, returning Sunder to its place on her belt. She strikes the Heart again, slicing into the stone like through scrib jelly.

“What are you doing?” Dagoth Ur asks calmly.

Ku-vastei strikes the Heart a second time, and she feels the power reverberating around her, and she feels a tingle in Wraithguard.

“What are you doing?” Dagoth Ur shouts.

Ku-vastei strikes the Heart a third time, and the feeling in her hand becomes more pronounced, almost identifiable as pain.

“Fool!”

Ku-vastei strikes the Heart a fourth time, and her hand is suddenly aflame with agony. It takes all of her remaining willpower to maintain her grip on Keening.

“Stop!”

Ku-vastei hears Dagoth Ur on the wooden boards of the bridge behind her as she strikes the Heart a fifth time, her hand clenched by pained spasms around Keening’s grip. Just as soon as the sound completely evaporates, so does the Heart, completely vanishing from its hold within Akulakhan.

“This is the end,” Dagoth Ur mutters in the newfound silence just behind her, “the bitter, bitter end…”

Suddenly the sound of crumbling stone fills Ku-vastei’s ears, and she knows she must go. Tears in her eyes, she turns around, barreling past the now powerless Dagoth Ur. Just as she finishes crossing the bridge, it collapses, the rest of Akulakhan soon following, crashing into the lava below, its master along with it.

From her knees, Ku-vastei watches the spectacle in wonder until the dust has settled, and she remembers the pain in her hand. She attempts to remove Wraithguard, but all she earns for her efforts is more pain.

Slowly she rises and climbs back up the spiral pathway to the room where she first met Dagoth Ur, so as to escape the facility completely. Once she opens the door, she encounters God yet again.

She speaks: “You no longer bear the burden of prophecy. You have achieved your destiny. You are freed. The doomed Dwemer's folly. Lord Dagoth's temptation. The Tribunal's seduction. The God's heart freed. The prophecy fulfilled. All fates sealed and sins redeemed. If you have pity, mourn the lost. But let the weeping cease. The blight is gone, and the sun's golden honey gilds the land. Hail savior, Hortator and Nerevarine. Your people look to you for protection. Monsters and villains great and small still threaten the people of Vvardenfell. Enemies and evils abound, yet indomitable will might rid Morrowind of all its ills. For you, our thanks and blessing, our gift and token given. Come, take this thing from the hand of God.”

Her hands are outstretched, and between them floats a ring. Ku-vastei stares blankly.

Azura sighs. “Must I always repeat myself?”

Ku-vastei reaches with her Wraithguarded right hand, but winces.

“Ah,” Azura says, glancing at Wraithguard. “This I did not foresee. I am afraid this legacy of the Dwemer architect Kagrenac will be bound to you until you perish. The powers at play with the Heart were too much for your mortal shell to withstand.”

Ku-vastei opens her mouth to complain, but closes her eyes and takes the Ring of Azura with her left claw.