Post by DeAnnPost by j***@internetmailing.netAs you explore Morrowind and follow the early parts of the main quest,
you realise that something that happened at Red Mountain ages ago,
which set up the current story-line (the return of Nerevar). But what
"really happened" at Red Mountain? The books you get are confusing and
contradictory.
I think the game-makers erred by not having a clear plot outlining the
events at Red Mountain. Various books could still have been
written
Post by DeAnnPost by j***@internetmailing.netfrom various points of view, but without all the confusion of having
too many contradictory events.
There's a very brave attempt to sort out the "real" events on
http://til.gamingsource.net/fsg/sindervelvinarticle1.shtml but of
course others would have their own interpretations of what may have
happened.
Julie
I think the game makers were trying to be realistic in presenting the
conflicting views. At a trial, for example, you may hear widely
differing testimony that is in great contradiction. Everyone tells a
different story--a very different story--and there are few points
anyone agrees on. Not only do people see things differently, their
publicity agent side wants things to be remembered and recorded
differently. The victor writes the history books.
Personally, I take most credence in the Nord's account of the
battle.
Post by DeAnnVivec, Sotha Sil and Almalexia took the tools of Kragnorak and
changed
Post by DeAnna whole race of people into people who would treat them as gods.
They
Post by DeAnnhad a lot at stake for twisting the world's view of what happened.
Coming up and saying 'hey, we just killed your beloved king and hero
Nerevar so that we could warp your bodies into these twisted dark
things and make you worship us." is hardly the news they wanted to
broadcast.
The Nords, on the other hand, came to recover their lost god and
failed.
I thought this aspect of the game was pretty well done. However, it is
so obscur...trying to sort through the fragments of accounts in books
and notes....that I played MW quite some time before I started
trying
Post by DeAnnto track it down.
I like the fact that there are lots of conflicting accounts,
especially from different factions, and nobody seems to have been
quite sure who was on whose side. Or, indeed, if there was not, in
fact, MORE than one battle at Red Mountain, perhaps mere days apart.
The Nordic version seems to think that Nerevar's faction of Dunmer and
Dumac's faction of Dwemer were still allied with each other, against
the Nords, and that Nerevar's three lieutenants played no part in
Nerevar's death but ascribe most of the blame to Dagoth (and possibly
Kagrenac/Kragnorak) for betraying all sides after promising to ally
with them. However, their account of the later stages seems confused -
possibly consistent with the fact that, if there was more than one
battle at Red Mountain, the Nordic forces were slaughtered in the
first battle, either openly opposed or secretly betrayed by all sides,
and played no part in any subsequent events.
Some of the old Dwemer literature suggests that Dumac Dwarf-king
wanted to retain his alliance with Nerevar of the Dunmer (or possibly
they were still Chi-mer then), and was genuinely unaware of Kagrenac's
plans which seem to have been kind of confused between creating a god,
becoming a god, and absorbing his entire race into the artificial god
of his creation: but that Nerevar mistrusted Dumac because of
Kagrenac's dealings (possibly told to him in truth by Dagoth, who may
well have been spying for both sides), and that this mistrust led to
war between the races.
As for how Nerevar died: The Nords blame it on the artificial god and
the betrayal of all sides by Dagoth. The Tribunal Temple say, he died
in battle - either with Dumac, or Dagoth, or both (supporting the
theory that there was in fact more than one battle there). Either he
received his mortal wound from Dumac, and his Tribunal lieutenants
were forced to take the field against Dagoth in a subsequent battle
(and defeat him), or else Nerevar himself fought Dagoth and was
wounded even more severely, and later died.
The theory that the Tribunal themselves *murdered* Nerevar to set
themselves up as gods seems to be a minority one. I personally do NOT
think it is the true version: more likely a product of the suspicion
that must inevitably be engendered, when it turns out that the worst
enemy comes from within - that the worst enemy of all Dunmer/Chimer
was not the entirely foreign Nords, nor even the ancestral Dwemer foe,
but one of their own kind, Dagoth-Ur. Nor, I believe, is this theory
supported by Vivec's own conduct after the battle: he seems to be the
only one of the Tribunal that has actually remained true to the duty
of guarding the Ghostfence, after Sotha Sil has withdrawn entirely
into his clockwork world and Almalexia given in to despair and
madness. Vivec's intentions seem to be good - although he has become
not so much evil as weak: I cannot believe he is a murderer, even
though he has become so weak and detached from his own Temple as to
allow them to become not far short of tyrannical. He has even chosen a
similar person - good, but weak - as his Archbishop: Saryoni, who
cannot control the Ordinators.
No, what he - and the Tribunal - betrayed is Nerevar's memory and
ideals. Evidently Nerevar, while dying (either from battling Dumac, or
the created Akulakhan which was destroyed leaving only its Heart
intact, or possibly Dagoth-Ur) told his Tribunal lieutenants to ensure
that the Heart was *destroyed* - and they did not do so, but took its
power for themselves, setting themselves up as gods (and in the
process, having to rewrite history to exaggerate their own
contributions towards uniting the Dunmer, and reduce Nerevar's, making
it seem as if he was the servant rather than the leader of the
Tribunal.)
Who knows. It may even be that the Nordic account is the truest, where
Dagoth allied with all sides and betrayed them all right from the
start: and that Dumac finally discovered Kagrenac's own treachery and
opposed it at the last minute, standing alongside Nerevar rather than
fighting against him, and that both Dwemer and Chi/Dunmer were split
into two factions in the greatest battle, although all opposed the
Nords. Of course it suits the Dunmer now to say that *all* the Dwemer
opposed them - who is left that could contradict that story? Only
Vivec. And to have, in the "official" version of the story, the Dwemer
split into factions as well, would only raise more questions. Better
to treat them more like the Nords, as a "foreign" enemy.