LE Return of the Dwemer/Snow Elves

[snipatomic]

With the release of the CK, I think an cooperative dwemer/snow elf mod could become epic.

 

Perhaps a long storyline that utilizes the wooden mask's apparent time-travel ability is in order:

 

Following the mission involving Keening, the player would be contacted by the psijic order involving a discovery made by Calcelmo involving a potentially dangerous and contagious disease. You would travel to Markarth to find Calcelmo sick and blind, his skin wrinkly and turning grey; effects of a magic poison created by the Dwemer. He would tell you to travel to Irkngthand to find a cure for this hideous disease. Upon entering Irkngthand, the player would discover the cure missing and the machines to make it destroyed. The Psijic order would come back on the scene and inform the player of the wooden mask used for time travel by the dragon priests. The player would go back in time by using the mask at the statue in Irkngthand to recover some key to the turning of the snow elves. When he arrived, the player would possess only robes and the mask and all skills, perks, and attributes would be reset, with no shouts or spells available.

 

The city would be populated by Dwemer (it seems that they would look like short, fat elves with beards) and snow elves (round-headed, long pointy ears, tattoos...something like elven monks in slavery). The player would be sent to jail when the dwemer found him and the mask would be taken away. ...And we'd be at the start of a new TES game!

 

The main questline would involve a choice of saving the snow elves from slavery (A) and horrific mutation and saving the Dwemer from absolute destruction (B). Throughout either of these questlines, the player would discover how power-hungry (and arguably evil?) the Dwemer were and would would side either with their cause of conquering the world, or side with the snow elves and overthrow the Dwemer in Skyrim.

 

Note: This entire storyline would take place in the vast underground labyrinth of Blackreach and the various Dwemer cities. No topside traveling would take place.

Note 2: For those who don't know, the snow elves were transformed into Falmer while living as slaves under the rule of the Dwemer.

Note 3: Perhaps the eye of the Falmer could be used in this storyline somehow?

 

Qusstline A:

***insert a series of quests here involving interactions with the snow elves in slavery and the building of a band of strong snow elves to aid the player***...

The player would discover that the transformation of the snow elves was caused by a Dwemer poison made from algae found in Blackreach. With the help of a band of unchanged snow elves, the player would make his way into Blackreach, destroy the poison factory, and find a cure (involving the crimson nirnroot, perhaps?). In the end, the player would free the snow elves in Irkngthand and seal Irkngthand off from Blackreach and the Dwemer armies and recover the wooden mask. However, the mask would be broken. After some quests and the help of a dozen or so snow elves, the room in which the statue stood would be converted into a time-travel machine, drawing on the power from the broken mask. The machine would be powered up, and the player brought back to the present with all of the snow elves who fought alongside him. All perks, spells, items, etc. the player had before would be put back in the player's inventory, but the robes would still be equipped. Over the course of a few in-game weeks, the snow elves would restore Irkngthand to its original glory and set it up as a present-day snow elf city. Irkngthand would now be much more vast, with huge halls and buildings cut out in the snow elf style.

 

The player would be given a home within Irkngthand.

 

The secret of the cure would be used to treat Calcelmo, and the Psijic order would congratulate the player in saving the snow elf race from total destruction.

 

Questline B:

The player would be put in charge of the prisoners by the guards (who want less responsibility). Here, the player could choose to help the snow elves, or to subject them to the poison that transforms them into Falmer. Eventually, the player would be set free by the guards and accepted by the Dwemer society after upper management saw what had been going on, and then ***insert questline here***

In the end, the player would be brought back to present-day by the Dwemer in Blackreach, and all Dwemer present at the time would be transported as well. All perks, items, etc. would be back as they were before time-travelling, and a gleaming gold Dwarven armor would be equipped. In present day, the remaining Dwemer would restore Blackreach to its original glory but would not venture outside of Blackreach into the other Dwemer cities nor above ground. The city within blackreach would become the new presence of the Dwemer from which they would seek to spread their power.

 

The player would be given a home within Blackreach.

 

In exchange for the player's help, the Dwemer leader would give the player the cure for the Falmer transformation which would be used on Calcelmo. The Psijic order would contact the player, warning him of the danger that he had brought upon the land by bringing back the Dwemer race.

 

 

 

Thoughts?

[JanusForbeare]

It sounds like a fun quest. I've often thought that some of the legendary battles and events you read about in the in-game books could make great settings for mods or future games.

 

One minor lore-related detail: the Dwemer aren't your standard high-fantasy Dwarves; they're actually a subrace of elves. If you played Morrowind, you might remember seeing the Dwemer spectres that haunted some of the ruins and recall that they're no shorter than any other race. Yagrum Bagarn is the only living Dwemer left, and could be used as something of a model, though he is pale and bloated from corprus infection, so he's a dubious representation at best.

[snipatomic]

Yeah, I remember the statues and spectres in Morrowind. I agree that they should be roughly modeled after these apparitions but we have to make sure they are measurably different from all the other races. When I mentioned "fat", I was thinking of Yagrum. I forgot about his disease...

The snow elves, on the other hand, could easily be set apart from the other races by round heads, longer ears, and pale/white skin.

[channel0]

the dwemer armor and helmet may give some clues to model the dwemer? bearded and rather stout :D

[thedemoninside]

This thread is interesting, as I have forgotten a lot about the dwarf from morrowind, as well as the specters. It would be cool if all the dwemer ruins were populated by updated models of those specters, in addition to all the machine type foes.

[snipatomic]

Once the models for the Dwemer are dreamed up, making specters would be a relatively easy step. I agree that that would make some of the ruins more interesting.

[RaktoastTheSandwichTopper]

maybe give them a bit of a Mesopotamian look

[SamuelCreelman]

I love this idea the only thing I'd like to see is the option to help both, for example the player could be contacted by a dwarf that has secretly become friends (lovers?) with a snow elf and asks for the players help in uniting the two races so that both races may once again be great, also I don't envision the dwemer as evil, morrowind was very knowledgeable in the dwemer and I took them to be intellectual, not seeking of power but of knowledge, one of the more practical races...

[TolarisOmega]

This sounds like the germ of an idea for a new TES game - TES VI RIse of the Dwemer or some such. Set back in time, centuries before the disappearance of the Dwemer. Maybe the events that lead to the seperation of the elves from the Ayleid ancestors.

I don't remember/know the time periods. Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim are in order, chronologically speaking, but where does Arena and Daggerfall fit?

I would love to be able to travel to Cyrodiil to see how everyone there is doing, how the families that we are introduced to fair in the aftermath of the Oblivion Crisis.

Then there's Elswyr and Black Marsh. So many places, so little time.

[62firelight]

Sounds very interesting for a Dwemer mod. Would love it if it was a created. But as Tolaris said, it sounds like a story idea for a new TES game. And to answer your question about Arena and Daggerfall, they are before Morrowind and on the Timeline for the Third Era. (From UESP)

 

Arena

3E 399 — Jagar Tharn is Defeated; Orsinium founded

A mysterious champion defeated the Battlemage in the dungeons of the Imperial Palace and frees Emperor Uriel Septim VII from his other dimensional cell.

 

Daggerfall

3E 405 — Investigation into Murder

Another mysterious character is sent by Uriel Septim VII to investigate the death of King Lysandus and to find the missing letter the Emperor sent to the Queen of Daggerfall, Mynisera.

 

Arena is set 28 years before Morrowind and Daggerfall is set 22 so it is in order.