Many Fall, But One Remains

“Morrowind: Many Fall, But One Remains”
Drawn November 25th, 2007
Pencils used I think about HB to 6B

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind belong to Bethesda

Okay, so I drew this little picture for a guy who goes to my school who just so happens to be interested in Morrowind and I am too so I drew him this picture. It’s the only (and therefore the best) Morrowind picture I’ve ever drawn and I was rather pleased with how it cames out.

Okay, now for those who have played Morrowind, you probably know who most of these people are and you can probably recognize the objects as well. For those of you who don’t, I’ll run you through.

(Plot Spoiler Warning for the game)

Lord Vivec:At the top left is Lord Vivec, one of the members of Almsivi (The Tribunal or “gods” or rather “demigods” of Morrowind). He’s like a poet-warrior. His right side of his body is blue and his left is golden colored. I’ll explain why later.

Lord Indoril Nerevar: At the top right is Lord Nerevar Indoril Head of House Indoril and the bearer of the ring One-Clan-Under-Moon-And-Star. This is probably the one no one would really recognize, seeing as how he never really is seen in the game because he’s long dead as I’ll explain why later. But the game of Morrowind is that you (the main character playing) are the reincarnated Lord Nerevar (or rather, the “Nerevarine” basically just a person who takes on the attributes of Lord Nerevar) and you have to defeat the main antagonist and restore Morrowind to peace and rule the land justly. Nerevar is my fav.

Lord Voryn Dagoth Ur: Which comes to the next guy, in the middle is Lord Voryn Dagoth Ur, Head of House Dagoth, Lord Nerevar’s former best friend and the main antagonist of the story. He is trying to become a god, rule Morrowind, defeat the Imperial Empire and destroy its hold on Morrowind. (He’s wearing a mask, that’s not his face. But yeah, his nails are that long.)

Azura: The two eyes belong to the Daedroth Prince Azura, who is the Queen of Dawn and Dusk and really the only good Daedroth and she likes the Dunmer. The rest of the Daedra are pretty much evil. The Daedra are kind of like powerful spirits that can assume corporal form, like angels and demons.

Lady Almalexia: The person on the bottom left is Lady Almalexia. She was Lord Nerevar’s wife and is a member of Almsivi and she’s a “demi-god” along with Vivec and Sotha Sil. Actually, she’s uglier than this picture in the game. And no, that black stuff on her face and arms are not blood, they’re supposed to be her tattoos.

Sotha Sil: And the last of the gang on the bottom right is Sotha Sil. He’s also a member of Almsivi and is the wizard-mage of the bunch. I had the hardest time with his face and so I had to make up what I thought he looked like. Since the only time you ever see him he’s hanging from a bunch of wires and dead and he looks like he was burned or electrocuted and he doesn’t really have any limbs. So….it was rather difficult to imagine what he’d look like.

Okay, for the objects: At the top, these are the Tools of Kagrenac, weapons designed to tap into the energy of the Heart of Lorkhan (the heart of a dead god, I think) which would make the person using the tools a demi-god if used correctly. The gauntlet is called Wraithguard, and the bearer of the weapons must wear Wraithguard or else the weapons will kill the bearer. The knife is called Keening (from the word to wail in loud lamentation) and the hammer is called Sunder (from the word to separate). The two swords at the bottom are available only in one of Morrowind’s expansions called “Tribunal” (Also where you meet Sotha Sil). The one on the right that looks very strange is called “Trueflame” and it was Lord Nerevar’s sword. “Hopefire” is the other, and it was Almalexia’s sword. Trueflame burns with fire while Hopesfire burns with this blue smoky stuff. They were both given to Lord Nerevar and Almalexia as wedding presents from Kagrenac.

The Daedric Script of reads: Morrowind: Many fall, but one remains.

That last bit was from an Ashlander poem about the Nerevarine prophecy. The poem is called “The Stranger”:

When earth is sundered, and skies choked black,
And sleepers serve the Seven Curses,
To the hearth there comes a stranger,
Journeyed far ‘neath moon and star.

Though stark-born to sire uncertain,
His aspect marks his certain fate.
Wicked stalk him, righteous curse him.
Prophets speak, but all deny.

Many trials make manifest
The stranger’s fate, the curses’ bane.
Many touchstones try the stranger.
Many fall, but one remains.

Okay, so as I said I would explain the story and now I shall. And well, it’s rather depressing. Also, just to note, there are many different versions of the story (Vivec’s version, the Temple’s version, the Ashlander’s version, the Dissedent Priest’s version, etc), and there is one part that is particularly confusing on what happened first. So I may get things wrong, tell me and I’ll change it, though for the most part I think this is correct. At least, I prefer the Dissedent Priest’s version and the Ashlander’s version. At any rate, prepare to read.

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So, once upon a time, on the continent of Tamriel, more specifically in the land of Morrowind, the Nords (humans like Norsemen) in the north and west were rampaging and trying to conquer the Chimer (elves who would later become the Dunmer or Dark Elves) and Dwemer (dwarves). Lord Nerevar of the House Indoril and the last Dwemer king Dumac became allies and fought the Nord invaders and drove them off. The two were good friends and worked together to bring peace to their two peoples. (By-the-by, the dwemer in Morrowind are not like typical dwarves that are short and live in the mines. They’re like elves, tall with pointed ears and they look Assyrian/Babylonian in terms of their clothing and hair styling.)

Lord Nerevar also had his four best friends and councilors. They were Lord Vivec, Lady Almalexia, Lord Sotha Sil and his best, best friend, Lord Voryn Dagoth. So, they were all getting along well and peacefully. Until one fateful day when Dumac’s archwizard/mage discovers the Heart of Lorkhan and decides to try and build a god and he designs the Tools to aid him in the thing’s construction. I believe it was Voryn Dagoth who found out about what the crazy wizard was doing and so he reported back to Lord Nerevar what the Dwemer were trying to do. Lord Nerevar is rather upset that his friend Dumac is trying to make a god because it is of course a perversion and a blasphemy. So when Nerevar confronted Dumac about it, the dwarf king became quite indignant and angry (even though he had no idea that Kagrenac was doing it and probably would have stopped him if he had known) that Nerevar would accuse him of something like that.

Vivec, Sotha Sil and Almalexia as Nerevar’s councilors, advised him to decare war on Dumac because they said it was the best way to prevent the Dwemer from using the god-machine to destroy them. Nerevar heeded their advice, assemblied an army and met the Dwemer army at Red Mountain (a volcano in the middle of Morrowind). There they fought a fierce battle, but inside the volcano the leaders battled as well. Nerevar slew Dumac and I believe that Dagoth killed Kagrenac. But before he died, Kagrenac tried to use the Tools on the Heart, and in doing so, the entire Dwarven race disappeared off the face of Tamriel and were never seen again (with the exception of this fat, corpus blighted Dwarf who lives in an asylum under Tel Fyr who doesn’t know what happened to everyone else. But that’s not important.).

Nerevar recovered the Tools, but he had no idea what to do with them. He left his trusted friend Dagoth in Red Mountain to guard the Tools while he himself to went to consult with Sotha Sil, Almalexia and Vivec. He told them what happened and they decided to go up to Red Mountain, examine the Tools and figure out what to do with them. So up they went, but when they came back, Dagoth refused to give up the Tools saying that Nerevar had told him to protect them. Because while Nerevar had been gone, Dagoth had been corrupted by the Tools and had tried to use the cursed things. He had become united in part to the heart and could not be destroyed unless it was destroyed. (Kind of like Sauron and the Ring.)

Dagoth attacked them, Nerevar and Dagoth fought and Dagoth was driven off and thought to be dead because of his mortal wounds (though he didn’t die because of the heart-connection thing). Once again, Nerevar had the dilemma of trying to figure out how to destroy them. He made the three swear a solemn oath that they would never use the Tools. Nerevar and the three councilors went back and tried to talk to Azura who was wise and knew what to do with them.

(Up until now the story has been rather depressing, lots of betrayals and friend-killings, but here comes the part that reads like a Shakespearean tragedy.)

While Nerevar awaited for Azura to arrive, Vivec, Sotha Sil and Almalexia got together and formed a conspiracy to kill Nerevar and take the Tools, making themselves gods and ruling over Morrowind as their gods. So they poisoned Nerevar and killed him. But Azura came anyway and cursed them, and all of the Chimer for betraying their lord Nerevar. The Chimer became Dunmer, and instead of golden skin, their eyes became like blood, and their skin like ash. She also prophesied that Lord Nerevar would return, destroy the Tribunal and Dagoth Ur, and return Morrowind to peace and prosperity.

After that, Sotha Sil found out how to use the Tools and make the three become gods, and then they became demi-gods and set themselves up as rulers over Morrowind.

Eventually, their power waned as Dagoth Ur came back because of the power of the Heart. When the Tribunal came to renew their “god-hood” they were ambushed by Dagoth Ur and his followers and barely escaped. The Tools were taken from them, and the Tribunal’s power waned even more. Dagoth Ur sent up blight storms and House Dagoth rose again.

Until the Nerevarine came and fulfilled the prophecy.

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Yeah I actually typed that all out, because I couldn’t find all the information all together in one place on the web. Yes. I am a nerd. I am also very Nerevar-biased.