Embrace your mother

"Sweet Mother, Sweet Mother

Send your child unto me

for the sins of the unworthy must

be baptized in blood and fear"

  ~ The Black Sacrament

 

Dream beyond Dreams

Little is known about Vaermina, the Daedric Prince of Nightmares. Her area of influence includes nightmares, evil omens, lost memories and other forms of psychological torment. She sounds lovely doesn't she?

She doesn't make an appearance in Elder Scrolls: Skyrim except for a brief communication with her voice. Her physical appearance is described as a typical female mage with snakes adorning her. 

Personally, I find that a little boring so I made my recreation of Vaermina as a half serpent, half human mage, beautiful enough to pull you into her realm of oblivion, yet monstrous enough to influence your dreams into nightmares.

Vaermina rules over the plane of Oblivion known as Quagmire or the Dreamstride. I picture this realm as having lots of water. Water holds memory. Vaermina steals dreams and memories and twists them into nightmares. The nightmares are personal, feeding off of whatever the mortal fears the most.

Although Vaermina does have a major quest in Skyrim and in ESO she is the main antagonist in the Stormhaven quests, little is known about her. Unlike some of the other more popular Daedric Princes, she is not mentioned as much in the lore of Skyrim. 

I think Vaermina probably likes it this way, as the air of mystery to mortals works in her favour. 

"One night you shall dream, and in your dream you will say the Name. And She will come."

- from The Omen of a Hundred Prophecies, Skyrim Lorebook

Photos taken in Second Life using the Black Dragon Viewer

Inexplicable Patron

After a recent discussion with a self-proclaimed "priest and scholar" of the Tribunal Temple, I find myself shamed (as I often am), but not surprised (as I never am) by the gross misunderstandings of the nature of the Daedra that "adopted" our ancestors. It seems that our priests these days are trained in little more than bland recitations and methods for parting pilgrims from their gold, a significant and disappointing departure from their traditional functions. Some may consider this blasphemy. I invite them to challenge me to debate—or magical contest, if they prefer. Though I do not often concern myself with society, someone must battle the tide of ignorance.

I do not expect every Dunmer to attain understanding comparable to my own. Indeed, the common Elf has his place minding the mundane details of our race's day-to-day survival. Even so, laziness in any respect is abhorrent, and intellectual complacency cannot be permitted even among the lower echelons. Allow me to provide an accessible examination of the Good Daedra, beginning with the most easily misunderstood: Mephala.

"Good" is an ill-suited descriptor for any Daedric being, and it is unfortunate it has come into casual use. As absolute expressions of their respective spheres, the Daedric Princes do not share our moral categorizations for behavior. The Daedra simply are. Mephala, Boethiah, and Azura have done much for the interests of the Dunmer, and in that sense they may appear to be good, but their motivations and goals (and the consequences of achieving them) are not known to us.

There's a reason Mephala is referred to as the "Webspinner," though modern Dunmer seem to ignore this appellation and instead project the sympathetic qualities they associate with Vivec—art in violence, cunning, enlightened poetry—back onto the Daedric being that "anticipated" him. This tendency serves to conceal much of Mephala's nature, which is exactly what the Prince would desire.

Mephala taught our ancestors the ways of secret murder, to be used against our enemies and even against our own in the place of all-out war, certainly "good" for our predecessors as they migrated across Tamriel and came into often-fractious contact with the Nords and Dwemer. We learned meticulous plotting and how to lie, ways to lure and trap our foes, how to manage complexity and predict outcomes. But few ask why this Daedric Prince would champion our people. The gullible fancy us chosen for our superior qualities and the cynical believe us a mere amusement for the Daedra, but these are both woefully simple-minded theories.

We must keep in mind that the Daedra are incapable of creation. They can only imitate, manipulate, and exaggerate. Some of them do perceive mortals as mere playthings, but I do not suspect this of Mephala. She does nothing without purpose, perceives all of Aurbis as an interconnected system of action and consequence, and employs herself in spinning new threads to influence outcomes.

To what end? That you must work out for yourself (as I have). Do you think me fool enough to reveal the secrets of the Prince of Secrets?

                                      - from Inexplicable Patron by Divayth Fyr, Skyrim

The coldest mother in Skyrim

"Most tales agree on only a few basic facts about Wispmothers. They are always female. They take the form of human (some say Elven) spirits, wreathed in mist and decaying rags. They have an affinity for frost magic, rarely appearing in more temperate climes.

But beyond that, the tales differ wildly. Some say they are ghosts, waiting to be laid to rest. Others, that they are all that remains of the Snow Elves who once ruled Skyrim. Some say they are native to Hjaalmarch (or the north more generally), but other tales mention them in forgotten places, on mountaintops as far away as the Jeralls.

Most reputable scholars dismiss these stories, preferring instead to focus on the few documented sightings from recent years. From these, two dominant theories have emerged:

Based on his extensive research into necromancy and Cyrodiil's culture, Master Sadren Sarethi posits that Wispmothers are a necrologic state, a type of lich-dom developed by a now-forgotten First Era culture. Under his theory, these are no mere ghosts - they are a cult of powerful sorceresses who achieved eternal life through undeath.

Alternately, Lydette Viliane of the Synod contends that Wispmothers are not undead at all, but rather elemental manifestations arising out of Nirn itself. By noting several similarities to Spriggans and Ice Wraiths, she contends that the Wispmothers are essentially elemental personifications of snow or mist, innately wielding the power of their element, instead of manipulating it through conventional sorcery."

            ~ Mathias Etienne, The Wispmother - Two Theories

The Draugr Queen

"The eyes seem to be key to their intent, and I will confess to more than one dream haunted by the glowing pinpoints in the darkness..." - from Amongst the Draugr by Bernadette Bantien, College of Winterhold