The Cantimiric Velothi

[Deeza]

Today I was looking at the list of peoples in Black Marsh other than the Argonians. I noticed that as well as the Lilmothlit and the human tribes, there was also once (and perhaps still is) a tribe of elves called the CANTIMERIC VELOTHI.

I looked back through the forums and apparently at one point it was decided that if there are any left they should be more-or-less absorbed into House Dres.

Now, we could do that, but it would be boring, at least compared to what we could do with them instead if you look at Dunmer history and where they most likely come from. Two things stood out to me about this tribe:

1. The name. Why are they called Velothi? He was the name of the Dunmer prophet, no?

The Imperial Library says (quoting from a Morrowind Book I believe):

The Late Middle Merethic Era is the period of the High Velothi Culture. The Chimer, ancestors of the modern Dunmer, or Dark Elves, were dynamic, ambitious, long-lived Elven clans devoted to fundamentalist ancestor worship. The Chimer clans followed the Prophet Veloth out of the ancestral Elven homelands in the southwest to settle in the lands now known as Morrowind. Despising the secular culture and profane practices of the Dwemer, the Chimer also coveted the lands and resources of the Dwemer, and for centuries provoked them with minor raids and territorial disputes. The Dwemer (Dwarves), free-thinking, reclusive Elven clans devoted to the secrets of science, engineering, and alchemy, established underground cities and communities in the mountain range (later the Velothi Mountains) separating modern Skyrim and Morrowind.

The Late Merethic Era marks the precipitous decline of Velothi culture. Some Velothi settled in villages near declining and abandoned ancient Velothi towers. During this period, Velothi high culture disappeared on Vvardenfell Island. The earliest Dwemer Freehold colonies date from this period. Degenerate Velothi devolved into tribal cultures which, in time, evolved into the modern Great Houses of Morrowind, or persisted as the barbarian Ashlander tribes. The only surviving traces of this tribal culture are scattered Velothi towers and Ashlander nomads on Vvardenfell Island. The original First Era High Elven wizard towers along the coasts of Tamriel were also abandoned about this time.

So, instead of regular Dark Elves aligned with the Dres, these could be Old-School Dark Elves, keeping the Ancient Velothi traditions alive. As their civilisation declined in Morrowind and became the Great Houses and Ashlanders, some survived out in Black Marsh. Which brings us to my second question:

2. If Morrowind was the Velothi Promised Land, what are they doing in Black Marsh?

Remember, the Dunmer used to worship the Daedra (or at least the "good" ones) right up until the Tribunal murdered Nerevar and made themselves immortal (at least till he came back and killed them at any rate). During this time the people who followed the old Velothi ways were persecuted and forced to give up their faith and abandon their shrines (that's why they're all in ruins in Morrowind when you go there).

Now let's get back to the tribe's name: Velothi. From Morrowind's Lives of the Saints:

If you would learn daring, follow Saint Veloth the Pilgrim, Patron of Outcasts and Spiritual Seekers. Saint Veloth, prophet and mystic, led the Dunmer out of the decadent home country of the Summerset Isles and into the promised land of Morrowind. Saint Veloth also taught the difference between the Good and Bad Daedra, and won the aid of the Good Daedra for his people while teaching how to carefully negotiate with the Bad Daedra.

Is it hard to imagine a that group of hardcore fundamentalist Dunmer, disgusted by the Tribunal pretending to be living gods, might have taken the example of the founder of their religion, who led an exodus out of his decadent homeland, and decided to do the same? They could have left Morrowind and settled in Black Marsh, their own Promised Land.

So instead of some regular Argonian-enslaving Dunmer, we can have a unique and interesting new culture who are fully justified in lore, who can be done with pre-existing models from Silgrad Tower Morrowind if they'll let us and who've been living in Black Marsh for centuries. They would be culturally similar to the Ashlanders from Morrowind, who also rejected the Tribunal, but not as nomadic. They'd worship their ancestors in temples rather than out in the wilderness, and probably meditate a lot and talk a lot of mystical mumbo-jumbo if this is anything to go by:

From the Imperial Library:

The Psijic Endeavor

What is the Psijic Endeavor?
The basis for the teachings of the Prophet Veloth, founder of present day Morrowind and father of Dunmeri culture. Veloth describes the Psijic Endeavor as a process of glorious apotheosis, where time itself is bent inward and outward into 'a shape that is always new'. Those who can attain this state, called chim, experience an ineffable sense of the godhead, and escape the strictures of the world-egg.

It should be noted that, while Veloth is given credit for establishing the anti-laws that govern the Endeavor, this process has its antecedents in the teachings of the Black Hands Mephala, Boethiah, Azura, Trinimac, and, of course, Lorkhan, through that lord's association with PSJJJJ.

What is "chim"?
From the Ehlnofex: an ancient sigil connoting 'royalty', 'starlight', and 'high splendor'. As with most characters of that dangerous language, the sigil CHIM constantly distorts itself. Those scholars that can perceive its shape regard it as a Crowned Tower that threatens to break apart at the slightest break in concentration.

Representations of the chim, and by extension the Psijic Endeavor, are always protean values, such as the anumidi models renowned by the Dwemer, the Scarab of contemporary astrolothurges, and the Striking ("exact egg-cracking") of old Argonia. All of these representations possess an innate and constant aspect of transformation.

What is the purpose of the Psijic Endeavor?
To transcend mortal boundaries set in place by immortal rulers. At its simplest, the state of chim provides an escape from all known laws of the divine worlds and the corruptions of the black sea of Oblivion. It is a return to the first brush of Anu-Padomay, where stasis and change created possibility. Moreso, it the essence needed to hold that 'dawning' together without disaster. One that knows CHIM observes the Tower without fear. Moreso: he resides within.

And what do the Velothi think about the three main Daedra they worship:

Boethiah
(Prince of Plots) Heralded by the Prophet Veloth, Boethiah is the original god-ancestor of the Dark Elves. Through his illuminations, the eventual 'Chimer', or Changed Folk, renounced all ties to the Aldmer and founded a new nation based on Daedric principles. All manner of Dark Elven cultural 'advances' are attributed to Boethiah, from philosophy to magic to 'responsible' architecture. Ancient Velothi allegories are uniformly heroic successes of Boethiah over enemies of every type, foundation stories of Chimeri struggle. Boethiah is also known as the Anticipation of Almalexia.
Lord Boethiah to the exodus: "Divide ye like your enemies, in Houses, and lay your laws in set sequence from the center, again like the enemy Corners of the House of Troubles, and see yourself thence as timber, or mud-slats, or sheets of resin. Then do not divide, for yet is the stride of Sithis quicker than the rush of enemies, and He will sunder the whole for the sake of a shingle."

Mephala
(Androgyne) Mephala is the Spinner, or the Spider God. In Morrowind, he/she was the ancestor that taught the Chimer the skills they would need to evade their enemies or to kill them with secret murder. Enemies were numerous in those days since the Chimer were a small faction. He/she, along with Boethiah, organized the clan systems that eventually became the basis for the Great Houses. He/she founded the Morag Tong. Also called the Anticipation of Vivec.

Azura
(Goddess of Dusk and Dawn) Azura was the god-ancestor that taught the Chimer the mysteries needed to be different than the Altmer. Some of her more conventional teachings are sometimes attributed to Boethiah. In the stories, Azura is often more a communal cosmic force for the race as a whole than an ancestor or a god. Also known as the Anticipation of Sotha Sil. In Elsweyr, Azura is nearly a wholly separate entity, yet she is still tied into the origins of Khajiiti out of Altmeri stock.

What do you think? Is it workable as an idea?

[llamaranger]

My opinion is absolutely YES! This is a great find/thought, i hope tlo and grey agree.

You are a useful chap to have around (btw, i think B2M is looking for someone to start interiors of rockguard?)

Edd

[Back2Murder]

Originally posted by llamaranger
(btw, I think B2M is looking for someone to start interiors of rockguard?)

Yep, I just reacted to his response in the rockguard thread.

Btw, I will read this later. Kinda busy atm.

[Tlo1048]

Deeza you make my job so much easier. lol

Thanks a bunch for this, it'll make a fun turn on BM.

[Back2Murder]

Just read it and, This idea is great, it's really interesting and something different then all the argonians in the Black Marshes.

[Tlo1048]

Originally posted by Back2Murder
Just read it and, This idea is great, it's really interesting and something different then all the argonians in the Black Marshes.

Actually this reminds me...

When you guys are building cities or even interior make sure to not make all the NPCs Argonians, because after all most of BM's cities are Imperial/Dunmer oriented. Read this lore before making anything else.

Just look up Black Marsh
http://www.imperial-library.info/

[Back2Murder]

It will be done my lord :p

[Senten]

Originally posted by Back2Murder
It will be done my lord :p

Haha lol,nice one mate

[Deeza]

Update:

A Brief History of the Cantemiric Velothi

This is a history I have invented for the group, based as closely as possible on what little we can guess about these people. It is all speculation, as there's nothing in lore about them except a name, but I've based it all on existing Morrowind lore.

In the aftermath of the Battle of Red Mountain, the Disappearance of the Dwarves, the death of Nerevar Indoril and the apotheosis of the Tribunal, the Dunmer were not united. Many refused to accept their own gods, and others even accused them of murdering Nerevar. The majority became the nomadic Ashlanders of Vvardenfell, retreating to the wilderness where they could retain their traditions and ancestor worship far from the eyes of the Temple.

But there were other Dunmer, in the cities which would one day be controlled by the developing Great Houses, who also resisted the Temple's new religious orthodoxy. Subject to persecution, their beliefs became more fanatical, and eventually a council of their leaders, meeting in secret in a cave in the wilderness of Morrowind, decided that the "Promised Land" of Veloth had become incurably corrupted. They chose to follow the example of their Prophet, gathering their followers and leading a new Exodus to find a new homeland.

Possibly aided by magic provided by the Daedric Prince Boethiah, whose favour they had earned by staying true to him over and above the Tribunal, they succesfully evaded the Temple's agents and fled across the border, to lands into which their persecutors would never dare follow, the swamps of Black Marsh.

The arrival of their culture in Black Marsh disturbed the balance of power between the human tribes, Argonians and Lilmothlit. They had to fight to survive, but their fanatical faith, powerful magic and technology taken from Morrowind allowed them to carve out a niche for themselves in the tropical East of the Black Marshes, though many died from disease or the hazards of the swamp.

They constructed new settlements, Daedric Temples, and monasteries, using the traditional Velothi style imported from Morrowind, but using Black Marsh materials (ie. retextures to us). Out of necessity they abandoned the traditional Dunmer custom of slavery in order to avoid antagonising their neighbours, and in the end a live-and-let-live relationship was achieved. During the first invasion of Black Marsh by the Imperials a small group of fanatics fought, but the majority came to accept the Imperial presence on the coasts and retreated further inland.

Like all the other non-lizard peoples of Black Marsh, the Cantimiric Velothi were devastated by the Khanaten Flu epidemic. Whole villages and towns were wiped out overnight, and it was only due to the elaborate intervention of an ingenious priest that they avoided extinction.

They survived by making a Ghostfence of their own. This custom predated the Tribunal before it was perfected by them to build the giant one around Red Mountain, and was traditionally used to defend ancestral tombs. A Ghostfence is built by using a special clay to seal the bones of dead Dunmer into a wall whilst binding them in place with soulgems. We already saw in Morrowind that a Ghostfence with enough power can defend a very large area from infectious airborne diseases (ie. the Blight) reasonably successfully. The Cantemiric construction was smaller, and thus could better concentrate its power over a small area, and was much more effective as a result.

The priest ordered his town, which was remote and the last to be affected by the plague, to empty their ancestral tombs and build a Ghostfence inside which they stocked all the food and water they could spare. Other villages came and added their own bones, but only those who showed no signs of disease were allowed to pass through the Ghostfence. As the infected surrounded the area, in an incredible gesture of self-sacrifice the dying built the bones of those who had already died into the Ghostfence to further strengthen it. For months they held out, the survivors inside the Ghostfence almost mad with horror and nearly dead themselves from hunger and thirst. But the plague was finally over at last. They had been spared.

Today the Cantimiric Velothi have five saints (remember that most Dunmer Saints were appointed by the tribunal, so they wouldn't revere them - neither to they have those prism-shaped altars, because those represent the Tribunal). Veloth and Nerevar, the priest who built the Ghostfence (need a name), the Thousand Selfless Martyrs, who gave their lives to protect their kin, and another Priest who voluntarily left the Fence's protection so that he could pray for those as they died, sacrificing his life in the process. The Cantemiric Ghostfence no longer works, but is a very holy site that is well-guarded.

The survivors tried to rebuild, but most of their settlements were too depopulated to recover and are empty ruins in the swamps to this day. Archon and Thorn, already abandoned after their capture by the Imperials, were left to crumble to dust. They tended to concentrate into a few settlements on the fringes of the inner Marsh, their faith renewed by having survived the test of the Khanaten Flu. Their numbers were swelled by new religious refugees arriving from Morrowind (precursors to the Dissident Priests), who took with them the art of making Dreugh Armour learned from Vivec. Unfortunately this alerted the Temple to their survival, who gave the slavers raiding Black Marsh a special dispensation to kill or enslave as many Cantimiric Velothi as they could.

Because of this, when Tiber Septim invaded Black Marsh, they welcomed him because of the token protection offered by the Imperial presence. In exchange for their help in refounding Archon and Thorn as Imperial bases they were granted a charter or perpetual freedom of religion by the Third Empire. The arrangement suited everyone and continues to this day, but their situation has become more precarious as the influence of the Empire wanes and that of the Archeins and Kleptocrats grows.

After thousands of years of the slave trade, the Argonians can be just as racist towards the Dark Elves as the Dunmer have always been to them. Though they dare not attack them directly, the Royal Court and their servants have used their newfound power to make life very difficult for the Cantimiric Velothi, inspiring some to move from Archon and Thorn to deeper into the swamp, rebuilding their ancestors' ruined settlements. But other things have since taken up residence...

Update 2:

Quests for the Cantimiric Velothi

The Cantimiric Velothi are even more xenophobic than their cousins in Morrowind, even towards their own species, due to the actions of the Temple against them. In fairness though, they do tend to like Imperials and "Imperialised" members of other races more than they like their neighbours in Black Marsh. Therefore, whilst they would not accept an outsider as a member of their faction (it is a way of life you have to be born to) they would definitely have a few interesting odd jobs to offer outsiders who had earned their trust.

The modern Cantimiric Velothi don't have an overall leader, and decisions that affect their whole community tend to be made by the most experienced or cunning warriors, priests and wise women. Ordinary members of the community will put the Player in touch with these people if they like them enough, and if they are impressed enough by the Player they will offer quests:

The Test of Faith
To prove the sincerity of your friendship, before you can receive any quests you must take a perilous trip through the swamp to make a pilgrimage to the shrine of the site of the Cantimiric Ghostfence. As in Morrowind, the shrine will give a powerful blessing if reached (resist disease would be appropriate). Once completed, you'll be given names of other people who want things doing. Here are some ideas:

Recover a lost sacred relic from a ruined monastery deep in the swamp.

Help settle the score with a group of Naga who've been paid to intimidate the Velothi.

"Persuade" a particularly troublesome Archein to cut the Velothi some slack.

Break some of their co-religionists out from the Dres slave-pens.

Make contact with some dissidents among the Dres faction.

A short questline of three or four quests, joining a Velothi expedition to re-found one of their lost settlements. It needs to be cleared out and the area secured. If the Player is successful, they will get a house in the new village.