Ideas on what happened to the Dwemmer?

[Havapiyo]

This is probably really old and this post has probably been made hundreds of times within the year Skyrim was released, but I didn't quite get it as soon as it came out and I'm a bit late on things. I have just started looking things up like, where do you get this, what does this do etc and I stumbled upon a post on this website about what could possibly have happened to the Dwemmer; and I want a more refreshed, refined view on what happened. Considering a bit of time has gone since the post I read came up, I thought some more ideas can be thrown in? It's not so much as an interesting story, but it just pulls you in, I guess.

 

What I think could have happened was:

 

 

Some people say that they were sent to Oblivion by a tragic accident involving an Elderscroll, however if anyone has done the quest in that dude's post, North of Winterhold, you'd know that they have the technology to gain access to the Elderscroll's knowledge/power; So how could it have gone wrong?

 

 

 

I have read some books in-game about them trying to reach the realm of Atherius, something along these lines and I think it went terribly wrong and they were either punished, or went to the realm of Atherius or perhaps there was a huge accident in the making.

 

 

 

I have also read a book about the Falmer, how they were the Snow Elves of legend and that they didn't kill the Dwemmer, they were actually going to charge higher ground and raid them but the Dwemmer were already gone. So the Falmer didn't have a lot to do with the disappearance of the Dwemmer.

 

 

 

There is this last Dwemmer infected with some disease of some sort who uses a mechanical spider to walk in Elderscrolls Morrowind. This could mean there was a huge outbreak of disease, the flaw with this idea is that EVERY Dwemmer ruin is deserted, the disease couldn't have spread that far out surely? If it did, then the other inhabitants of Tamriel would also be dead.

 

 

 

Perhaps the machinery went crazy and killed every Dwemmer, even so there should still be some corpses lying around in Blackreach or even some tombs?

 

 

Something to think about:

In the books written about the Dwemmer, they are said to craft the most powerful armour, not technically the most powerful, there were more powerful etc but 'technically' as in most of their crafts are mostly renowned for the material rather than the craftsmanship. They vanished all vaguely at the same time, if not in the same hour, the same decade at the very least. A whole civilisation was wiped out, spread out across a whole continent, both over and underground, whatever took them out and not anything else other than them means that they must have done it to themselves or something purposefully targeted their race. Whatever killed them, it had to be BIG, perhaps we can bring Daedras into this?

 

[Tchos]

If you play Morrowind, the disappearance of the Dwemer is one of the major themes. This is one of the explanations you can find in Vivec's sanctuary.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Nerevar_at_Red_Mountain

 

This matches what you can find in the long-sealed Dwemer city in Tribunal, where there are piles of dust/ashes on the floor, in chairs, in beds, and in piles of armour.

[thompsonar]

Do a search of these forums and you will find all the threads that have come before about this. I just popped "dwemer" in the search and scanned the first couple results. This one has a decent back and forth about them, check it out.

 

http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/567261-skyrim-dlc-the-dwemer/page__hl__dwemer

 

I know there was an even more thorough thread about them somewhere on the nexus but don't really want to take the time to find it. I'm sure you could without much trouble though.

 

Apparently this is a touchy subject to some, even though it's been stated with pretty good certainty what happened. I've read it all before but I can't really recite it, so I won't try.

[Havapiyo]

Do a search of these forums and you will find all the threads that have come before about this. I just popped "dwemer" in the search and scanned the first couple results. This one has a decent back and forth about them, check it out.

 

http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/567261-skyrim-dlc-the-dwemer/page__hl__dwemer

 

I know there was an even more thorough thread about them somewhere on the nexus but don't really want to take the time to find it. I'm sure you could without much trouble though.

 

Apparently this is a touchy subject to some, even though it's been stated with pretty good certainty what happened. I've read it all before but I can't really recite it, so I won't try.

 

I'm sorry, I'm new here as you can tell so I am still getting used to everything and stuff. Thanks.

 

These kind of things, I'd have to ask the developers themselves, really. Sorry for posting this, I never knew it was this badly posted?

I just kind of feel annoyed that there aren't any Dwemmers in Skyrim, I hate not knowing how things are so I thought I'd throw this in, thanks for not screwing at me like those other guys did in that forum link that you sent me xD

Edited April 25, 2012 by Havapiyo

[sajuukkhar9000]

According to Bethesda the Dwemer were all merged into their giant robot numidium and their souls became its skin.

 

http://www.imperial-library.info/content/interviews-skeleton-man

Ah. I will tell you the truth, because you will believe none of it. The Brass God is Anumidum, the Prime Gestalt. He is also called the divine skin. He was meant to be used many times by our kind to transcend the Gray Maybe.

 

The first to see him was the Shop Foremer, Kagrenac of Vvardenfell, the wisest of the tonal architects [Mechanists - MN] Do not think as others do that Kagrenac created the Anumidum for petty motivations, such as a refutation of the gods. Kagrenac was devoted to his people, and the Dwarves, despite what you may have read, were a pious lot-he would not have sacrificed so many of their golden souls to create Anumidum's metal body if it were all in the name of grand theater. Kagrenac had even built the tools needed to construct a Mantella, the Crux of Transcendence. But, by then, and for a long time coming, the Doom of the Dwarves marched upon the Mountain and they were removed from this world.

 

 

It was later confirmed by series lore writer Michael Kirkbride, also known as MK, on the official Bethesda forums

http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/482103-made-up-word-round-up/page__p__6918676#entry6918676

""Kagrenac was devoted to his people, and the Dwarves, despite what you may have read, were a pious lot-he would not have sacrificed so many of their golden souls to create Anumidum's metal body if it were all in the name of grand theater. Kagrenac had even built the tools needed to construct a Mantella, the Crux of Transcendence."

 

Okay. So now everyone can stop posting about where the Dwarves went. I TOLD YOU EIGHTY YEARS AGO.

 

Filthy with it, I am. "

Edited April 25, 2012 by sajuukkhar9000

[Brandy1123]

There are a few Race mods that introduce Dwemer as palyer characters with interesting backgrounds. I think with all the accumulated lore it would be hard to be accurate on what did happen to them. There is enough grey area where you can draw your own conclusions. If you look at what remains of their culture, its kind of odd. A ton of self-repairing, mechanical creatures or at least self replicating. That means there are huge storehouses or smelters (possibly exuding the pressurized vapors powering it all) somewhere deep underground. The tubular tunneling either stretched for hundreds of miles or there are multiple mini networks. Now each of the mechanical critters is powered by a soul gem. We have never met a dwemer device that absorbs/steals/ acquires souls. We can only assume that there are countless filled soul gems somewhere that the mechanical creatures use or pick up. Afterall, each has some generic, non-mechanical usable weapon or items) in their inventory they picked up somewhere.

 

Azura is The Master of soul gems (hence Azura's star and the quest to go with it). So, my take is that under the curse of it all, the Dwemer were reduced to these gems deep in the earth (like the ones you can mine from BlackReach). If you go into a Dwemer ruin and watch the "spiders", they have different tasks then the rest of the mechanical critters. They are worker robots. They are always clearing debris, mining or poking and proding the ground. I think these little guys are who mine and bring the soul gems back to the assembly labs. The constructs themselves were programmed to use what is available in the "fabrication" of newer build. The countless souls and soul gems that are part of the make-up of these gaurdians, I consider the spirits/souls of the Dwemer. Possibly minded from the spot where they last stood.

 

That just my feeling and over active imagination running wild. :)

[Tchos]

In case my link from the in-game document was too long to read, I'll highlight a relevant passage:

 

Dagoth-Ur slew Kagrenac and took the tools the Dwemer used to tap the power of the Heart. He went to his dying lord Nerevar and asked him what to do with these tools. And Nerevar summoned Azura again, and she showed them how to use the tools to separate the power of the Heart from the Dwemer people.

 

And on the fields, the Tribunal and their armies watched as the Dwemer turned into dust all around them as their stolen immortality was taken away.

Edited April 25, 2012 by Tchos

[sajuukkhar9000]

In case my link from the in-game document was too long to read, I'll highlight a relevant passage:

 

Dagoth-Ur slew Kagrenac and took the tools the Dwemer used to tap the power of the Heart. He went to his dying lord Nerevar and asked him what to do with these tools. And Nerevar summoned Azura again, and she showed them how to use the tools to separate the power of the Heart from the Dwemer people.

 

And on the fields, the Tribunal and their armies watched as the Dwemer turned into dust all around them as their stolen immortality was taken away.

 

Well we have "word of god" confirmation that is not how things happened.

Edited April 25, 2012 by sajuukkhar9000

[Tchos]

If you consider an in-character story to be "word of god", sure. The MK quote that you place next to it does not directly confirm what he said in that story. Additionally, later in that same thread, MK made reference to that earlier text as "crap" that he hid in "fake interviews" on hard-to-find websites, apparently in a deliberate attempt to make people argue over the issue. (Post #38). Believe what you want, though. Perhaps you also have an explanation for the piles of ashes we see in Tribunal. Edited April 25, 2012 by Tchos

[sajuukkhar9000]

If you consider an in-character story to be "word of god", sure. The MK quote that you place next to it does not directly confirm what he said in that story. Additionally, later in that same thread, MK made reference to that earlier text as "crap" that he hid in "fake interviews" on hard-to-find websites, apparently in a deliberate attempt to make people argue over the issue. (Post #38). Believe what you want, though. Perhaps you also have an explanation for the piles of ashes we see in Tribunal.

As it is said, it took THEIR SOULS.

 

Their bodies need not go with their souls.

 

Given how we find

-no remains on Vvardenfell proper

-Ash piles on mainland Morrowind

-Skeletons in Skyrim

 

the effects it had on their bodies seems to be somewhat dependent on how far away they were from the heart.

 

Furthermore Arniel Gane's experiment in skyrim adds credence to the Skeleton man interview.

Edited April 25, 2012 by sajuukkhar9000