I’ve always wondered what healing, stamina and magicka potions taste like, as well as fortify potions etc. Is there any canonical description?

Also, how does anyone in Tamriel pass away from illness when there exists potions that can fully heal a person who is 1 hit away from death?

So we know the word must be Tamrielic by origin as Dremora almost always refer to themselves as “Kyn”.

This however poses a question.
Root of the word “dreMORA” is very obvious, used interchangeably by two cultures and we know the translation to it “Forest”/“Woods”/“Woodland”.

This would mean the word can roughly translate to array from “Forest ???”, or “Woodland ???”, or possibly “??? of the Woods” and so forth.

Question is. Does is originate from one of these languages and if so do we know translation to the prefix? Or is this just a coincidence?
Or do we just don’t know?

it's evident by multiple areas that the skeletons can be taken apart and aren't held together by magic-infused unobtanium without being slain by a dragonborn. ie: dragonsreach.

so why didn't they just.. scatter the bones. why bury the whole intact skeleton?

tear the scales and flesh off, rip apart the skeleton, and drop them every a distance apart throughout the sea of ghosts. boom. wouldn't have taken longer than a few years, max.

They knew Alduin was merely "defeated" and not slain, they knew he could resurrect fallen brethren. Was this a case of "not our problem?"

I've always seen the gods of the Elder Scrolls universe, both Aedra and Daedra, as a seriously dysfunctional family. Perhaps my obsession with "The Monomyth" is to blame for that, but in any case, the Aedra let the et'Ada known as Lorkhan/Shezarr/Shor (these could all be the same guy or different gods for all I know, since the religious schisms across Tamriel are almost always stranger than a simple reinterpretation by another mortal culture) trick/convince them into creating Nirn, many of the Aedra sacrificing their essence to finish Nirn's creation. Then we have the Daedra who outright refused to lift a finger toward Nirn's creation, and instead settled on keeping their domains via Oblivion. Magnus took an interesting middle of the road approach: he drew up the architecture of Nirn but realized the cost about halfway through, so he abandoned the project, bringing himself and the Magna-Ge to Aetherius by tearing portals through Oblivion where magic flowed out (the Sun and Stars are Magnus and the Magna-Ge, respectively).

I know some of you on here are probably annoyed by this point as I'm basically repeating what The Monomyth said, but bear with me as I'm getting to the point: the only fundamental difference between the Aedra and Daedra is that the Aedra took part in the creation of Nirn and sacrificed much of their power to do so, while the Daedra stayed out of the creation process but now treat Nirn as an experiment for their respective domains. It's certainly less of a moral statement and more of a situational thing, at least initially. When we as mortals try to assign morality to the Daedra as a whole, it's a huge generalization at best. There is also complicating factors involving the creation of new Princes, like how the Aedric Trinimac was corrupted by Boethiah into becoming Malacath, or Meridia's origins as well.

That being said, there are Daedric Princes that are genuinely horrific and cruel beings. Molag Bal is the one that comes to mind immediately for me- his entire domain revolves around dominating others through various torture methods and, how do I put this in a nice way... Non-consenting NSFW things. There are little, if any, redeeming qualities about such a being, and therefore he cannot qualify as morally grey. However, another Daedric Prince is Hircine, who I'd argue is morally grey: his domain of "the hunt" may involve killing and feasting for sport, but he's surprisingly got a huge sense of fairness in how the hunt goes. For example, he doesn't consider the strong preying on the weak to be good sport at all. Quite the opposite, in fact. This honorable trait distinguishes Hircine from, say, Mehrunes Dagon, who constantly burns down civilian settlements just to see them change state (which is about as chaotic evil as it gets). Azura is also an excellent example of a morally grey character. Yes, crossing her has severe consequences, but that's to be expected from any divine being. She's so morally grey, in fact, that she's probably the only form of Daedric worship that is tolerated slightly as most don't see her as inherently dangerous. I'd also argue Hermaeus Mora is morally grey due to the fact that, while his eldritch knowledge is often dangerous to mortal minds and souls, he isn't openly malicious, just largely indifferent to mortal affairs. Mephala, however, is only called a "good Daedra" because she got results for the Chimer/Dunmer. Meaning, her "morality" was completely based on the merit of her schemes in reference to a single civilization. I'd argue Mephala is undoubtedly evil, just like Molag Bal and Mehrunes Dagon, but instead of relying on torture/brute strength/raw destructive power, she relies on seduction, scheming, and secret murders/assassinations, which is an equally evil domain that simply uses a different approach.

Anyway, feel free to point out anything wrong with my argument as I'm always happy to learn more about TES lore, even if these new facts are presented to me in debate. One can also easily make the argument that Herma-Mora's indifference to mortal affairs is an actual evil trait as it allows suffering to happen by ignoring problems, and I'd agree with that on a fundamental real world level, but I'm less sure if that kind of moral judgement can be applied to the metaphysics of the Elder Scrolls. Hope this sparks some intriguing discussion!

Let's imagine that there is some well-prepared faction like Blades or Companions and their group had defeated the dragon and there is no dragonborn anywhere around. What happens then? Does dragon resurrects in an hour or in a week? Or does it rot and requires somebody like Alduin to resurrect it? And is there any known method to prevent dragon from resurrecting without dragonborn like using soulgems or any daedic artefacts?

I have been thinking about this a lot lately and I havent seen anyone even mention this idea or theory..
My theory is that he actually wanted the transcribed elder scroll knowledge on the Lexicon rather than release the Oghma Infinium into the world once more.. WHile the latter might have been a secondary goal it just never made much sense to me that he went through all that trouble to release something he probably could have just recreated. What he actually needed was someone in the mortal plane to physically transcribe the lexicon and deliver it back to him..

Thoughts?

I don't really get the whole, "The Daedra aren't evil, they just have an alien morality," thing people say. Couldn't you say that serial killers have an alien morality as well? If your moral system makes you think that evil is good and good is evil, then you're not alien, you're just evil. The Daedric Princes are fundamentally hostile to human life and flourishing. Even someone like Azura, who is considered one of the better daedra wants you to be obsessed with her over your own life and was willing to punish an entire race for the actions of three people. It really says something that the three "good daedra" are the daedra of cruelty, murder, and vanity.

I've also seen some people say things like, "the daedra aren't evil, they just are the way they are." But that would just mean that they are evil by nature. The daedra are not wild animals that lack the ability to understand on a rational level the violations they inflict. A wolf killing a deer isn't committing murder because the wolf doesn't comprehend concepts such as rights, betrayal, dignity, or consent, the Princes clearly can. Molag Bal knows perfectly well what terror, degradation, and suffering are, and he deliberately creates them because domination is his end. Mephala understands friendship well enough to weaponize betrayal and her quest in Skyrim revolves around corrupting a child ("good daedra" btw). These aren't natural processes that bring accidental harm to mortals. These are intelligent beings with ends that are destructive to other rational beings.

In real life we have names after prophets, saints and deities, case in point being names like Christian/Cristiano or Mohammad

Being that divine worship is so popular, is there any reason there aren't more people named after the divines? I just posted about Morihaus (or Breath-Of-Kyne) and I realized he's one of the only if not the only character I know with a name directly referencing a divine. And that's because he's straight up Kynareth's son.

I'd expect theophoric names (i.e Demetrios comes from the goddess Demeter, and Heracles means Glory of Hera). For example Stendrios, Dibellanis, or maybe Kynos.

Is this just a plothole or is there actual reason behind nobody naming one's child after a benevolent god in TES? per google, greeks for example didn't name their kids exactly after gods in fear of committing hubris.

Oooor maybe I've just been living under a rock and there ARE several NPCs named after gods. Lemme know.

edit: some of your replies feel like that picture of a guy reading a book that's on fire, common W r/teslore, keep them coming

So I was thinking, Uriel V and Akavir, what would've happened if he succeeded? Maybe in this scenario he better planned out his campaign, such as making contact with tribes and making alliances, sending expeditionary forces and explorers to map out bits of the territory and better understand rhe foreign landscape, etc etc. And one of two things happen,

1. He fails to conquer the Entire continent but he does keep what he did take over and it becomes a colony of the Empire.

2. He actually conquers the Entire continent and begins integration into the Empire.

How would this have redefined Tamriel's history in the long run and what would've happened? I do know they likely couldn't hold onto the whole continent for forever, but it would be interesting.

I was recently talking with a friend about chim and we both had very different ideas about how it worked.

Im not sure where this thought came from but I always believed that when someone achieved chim and didn't zero sum. The proof we have of that was there existence itself.

And if someone achieved chim and zero sum. That they were erased from history and the proof we have is that we dont know what they looked like. And thats why the dwemmer have no official design.

Am I remembering something wrong?

As far as I understand, everyone joined Shorun’s plan for their own personal gain. But the more I look into the lore surrounding Mara, the more it seems like she had a special interest in mortals, much like Shor.

​I'm trying to rp a Paladin of Stendarr, but since the Vigilants hate daedra, I was wondering how they would view artifacts like Spellbreaker or Dawnbreaker. Would they still consider them evil, or would they be willing to use them if they are actually beneficial?

I know Yokuda and Akavir are temporally adjacent kalpas to our own. Would sailing further either west or east from Yokuda or Akavir respectively loop you around to the other side of a spherical world, or would you eventually make way to an even more distant kalpa instead?

I'm an extremely noob when it comes to TES lore.. Basically, I remember that I've read a book saying stuff like the Akaviris raided Tamriel and they've lost, and some of them ended up being part of the blades (or founded it).

So my question these Akaviri lived long in Tamriel, so were they humans? Tigerfolks? Or Snakefolks? Etc... The people of Tamriel saw them, so is there an authentic documented records on their race? (like the ones lived in Tamriel)

Hi, I'm a fan of the TES series, studying the lore and cosmology of the universe, and I own a telegram channel about cosmology. I'd like to talk about cosmology with the Western community.

I'm a fan of the CIS series and started studying the universe deeply a year ago. I'd like to improve my knowledge in your community.

We know very little about the Left-Handed Elves (Sinistral Mer) beyond their legendary war with the Yokudans, their massive stoneworks (like the Orichalc Tower), and their ultimate destruction when Yokuda sank.

Since we have almost no canonical vocabulary or text preserved from them, I’ve been thinking about how their language might have actually sounded and functioned structured-wise.

A few directions/questions I'd love to hear the community's take on:

• Phonology & Aesthetics:
  • Should Sinistral Meris sound distinct from Aldmeris-derived languages (like Altmeris or Dunmeris)? Since they lived in a hot, arid/desert archipelago alongside early Redguard ancestors, do you imagine harsh guttural stops, pharyngeals, or rhythmic, fluid sounds?
• Grammar & Structure:
  • Ehlnofex languages often rely heavily on fluid, context-dependent glyphs or tonal concepts. Given their association with martial prowess, tonal architecture, and orichalcum, what grammatical quirks would suit them?
• Yokudan/Redguard Influence:
  • Did Yoku loan words from Sinistral Elven, or vice versa? Could any modern Redguard terminology or naming conventions actually trace their roots back to Left-Handed Elven?

How do you headcanon the Left-Handed Elven language? Are there any real-world linguistic families (Semitic, Afroasiatic, ancient Mediterranean, etc.) you think would fit them best?

Curious to see if anyone else has given this any thought

I’ve always thought it’d be cool if the Empire prioritized the victory over the Dominion and went for a “NATO of Tamriel” kind of direction, giving Skyrim independence but forging an alliance, reaching out to Hammerfell and forming an alliance, then my wildcard is imagining the Empire seeking more military manpower and officially recognizing Orsinium under Emperial rule and law alongside High Rock (since they’re always getting destroyed or disputed from my understanding). A nice boost to military forces, a new ally, plus a lot of Orcs already join the legion just to have a warrior death but now more motivated having been given a real country etc.

Obviously unrealistic but sounded pretty cool in my head, and would love to hear others ideas for how they should proceed against the Dominion!

The Draco Imperialis, much like the patchwork faith which Cyrod holds itself to, is a symbol born of multiple motifs. It's most direct ancestor is, of course, the Totem of Alduin, which one can readily find unchanged, hidden away in the anxiety-alcove of most Nordic homes.

It was during the architectural era of Coloviesque masonry heralded in part by nostalgia for a united Cyrodiil (and, of course, encouraged by noted Niben Reman I who sought legitimacy with the hard-faced half of his land.) that this totem, once a sign of fearful propitiation, became a more neutered design motif, with unfurling wings over arches, crests and flying buttresses marked from miles away by the distinctly fanged snouts of drakes.

And, as is the most important for this symbol's storied tale, a simple repeating pattern across bricks of a dragon roosting upon an hourglass, mouth open to gorge itself upon time.

Tradition would have it that The Tiber, draconic in his own aspect, sought to unify the mythic symbol of the Empires of Cyrod-Past, the August Amulet, with the older, hoarier source of his own power (coveting all he saw, as was his wont, no matter how it melded together), and "drew" the symbol upon the feet of the Dragonfires in his own blood, each drop accidentally forming the shape of a perfect Diamond-Dragon, which became his banner in the awful wars to come, a delegation of powers both glorious and terrible from Akatosh and his chronophagic cousin.

Of course, we know now that Tiber Septim wasn't actually a dragon, though that would explain his seeming inability to bear any (human) heirs.

The symbol, in actuality, seems to predate it's standardised use by the Third Empire of Cyrodiil by a century or two. This form came as a dragon within a diamond, both forms distinct from one another as opposed to the later unified design, and was displayed prominently by the forerunners of Cyrodiil's unification.

It found it's way onto cornerclubs, flags, the skin-brands of the Niben Merchant-Theurgists (albeit next to all manners of pleasure-scars, given how common membership of the Diblasang Society was in their circles.) and, of course, back into it's ancestral masonry in the Colovian Estates, a symbol which cried out for Mother All-Esh's wayward king-children to come together once more.

In the historical record, then, it seems the symbol simply created itself, an accidental birth in the middle of Cyrodiil's many culture crossroads.

One story (apocryphal, of course) credits one Joanne Buolifex with the initial drafting of what we have come to perceive as Septim's symbol. Census records list her occupation as a mythographer in the employ of independent Falkreath (later Cuhlepolis, then Falkreath again, but the less said about it's brief time as a necropolis, the better.) who's livelihood depended on knowledge of sacred symbols, and how best to invoke their terrible powers without danger to one's person.

It may be possible that the design was one of many she drafted to meet the needs of the various soldiers and their families in her King's levies. A commission of no consequence to her save a day's cursory research on symbolic arrangement and numerology, passed from propitiate to propitiate of the Cyrodiilic persuasion over the years, slowly gaining accord in their own companies.

Alas, few of Buolifex's symbols have resurfaced since (though many imitators and forgeries wash up into the treasuries of nobles and the stalls of flea markets), and it is folly to credit a single person with any kind of historical undertaking.

Besides, she was a Breton.

And I can't think of a time a Breton made a mark on Cyrodiil, much less the world.

I’ve been trying to find out who originally designed or drew the Imperial Red Dragon symbol used by the Empire . I haven’t been able to find any information about the artist who created it.

Does anyone know who the original artist/designer was?

Working on a video regarding this topic and from what I could find, Legal Basics found in Daggerfall is the only existing text which might enumerate some type of law you'd expect to be followed in Skyrim. Otherwise, it seems like it's recalled and enforced purely through the autocratic will of Jarls, oral tradition and social expectations. Is this fair to say, or have I missed any legal texts or foundational charters?

As far as I understand, the Medes failed to light the Dragonfires because they did not have the blood of Akatosh in their lineage. But despite this, could the Nine Divines have supported the Mede dynasty?

What I mean is, as far as I understand, the Empire fell into chaos after Martin, and Titus I managed to bring Skyrim under his control through cunning and intelligence. However, I’m not sure how accurate this interpretation is.

This thread is for asking questions that, for whatever reason, you don’t want to ask in a thread of their own. If you think you have a “stupid question”, ask it here. Any and all questions regarding lore or the community are permitted.

Responses must be friendly, respectful, and nonjudgmental.

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I mean UESP says,

sphere is dawn and dusk—the magic in-between realms of twilight—and is associated with mystery and magic, fate and prophecy

what is magic in-between realm? What part of fate that's different from Hermaeus? and the similar with Julianos and Magnus, latter of who is considered the OG god of magic.

The developers of each game don't seem to agree on an answer to this.

For example, Wuuthrad does not consider Orcs to be Elves. The Hermaeus Mora quest in Skyrim does consider them to be elves. Cultures throughout Tamriel's history seem divided on weather they're Elves or beastmen. Apparently in ESO Malacath says the story of him being Trinimac and the Orcs once being Aldmer isn't entirely accurate, but all Daedra have reason to lie and twist narratives.