The Dwemer survived?

[Rickious]

Apologies if any of this has already been discussed but I have a few suggestions which may or may not be possible.

• 1- I always thought a secret and vast underground network of Dwemer cities would add an amazing element to the game. Obviously this would be a full mod in itself. The Dwarves survived in deep, sealed underground cities all over Tamriel! Maybe some kind of portals to gain entry. And instead of keys, a full list of items which must be acquired to enter i.e. armour, jewellery. Some can be found, some self enchanted, but a fun and inventive list of dwarven items.
  
  For this mod maybe you only gain entry to a small area, an underground village which has been mostly abandoned apart from 1 elderly Dwemer druid/priest/mage who refused to leave and protected himself from whatever happened using magic but will tell the full story of the underground cities 'the young'uns' went off to build.
  
• 2- Even without going as far as the above. Maybe put the occasional hint that the Dwemer may have survived and sealed themselves into underground chambers where they took a vast amount of supplies etc (which would explain the lack of cogs, machinery etc)
  
• 3- Another option would be the same as both above but much darker. The Dwemer hid, they took everything with them and moved deeper underground. But they sealed their own fates with inbreeding, disease, and eventually mutations. 1 smaller city at least could be found where the survivors can be found. Friendly, intelligent but mutated, sterile and dying? OR cannibalistic, split into classes with the lower class males used as slaves, the lower class females kept like battery hens and bred to produce food. Sick but a good twist! This would not permanently ruin the Dwemer possibilities. These are the ones who ran and hid in 1 area, the entrance to which possibly found within the deepest darkest corner of the ruins.
  

[Razorwing]

From the perspective of a player I bet an underworld of dwemer ruins is a great idea but it presents a couple of problems from a modding perspective. Not only would it be a massive amount of work but it would also start feeling repetetive after awhile, which would undoubtedly suck the fun out of it.

Unfortunately the fate of the Dwemer is pretty much an open-and-shut case: the god(s) eradicated all of them in one fell swoop that reached the whole mortal plane. One survived, because he wasn't actually on the mortal plane at the time his brethren died.

I can understand the general allure of seeing them alive again, which is shared by many, but personally I think the idea of them being eradicated brings more ambience to the world of Elder Scrolls than it detracts. But either way the fact that they're dead and gone is solidly established in lore and in my opinion it'd be wrong for Silgrad Tower to go against that.

I hope I didn't deter you from pitching more ideas

[Seniosh]

Yeah, we really can't bring back living dwemer, both from a lore-wise perspective, and from a modding perspective. It'd be breaking massive, massive lore. Even the dwemer clan of Rourken in Hammerfell disappeared, and it's really implausible that the dwemer exist anywhere on Nirn currently. The only way to get around that would be to have the dwemer trapped in Azura's realm, but even that is just a possibility that's been casually tossed around in some of the lore forums and the Imperial Library.

Still, feel free to suggest more things, within the boundaries of lore (no living dwemer). We've still got an entire city to create, which means residential sections, mines, industrial, military, and the control center.

The city has plenty of room for all sorts of secrets and such, so keep coming up with ideas!

[Rickious]

What about the inbred mutated ones. they wend too far below so long ego and inbred that they can no longer be called Dwemer? just as a side-quest? In fact, this could be imperials? inbred cannibals, the cages etc. But the excuse for it being dwemer would be they went in an earlier crisis and kind of evolved or devolved into lower beings and were not talked about. Either fled in a crisis or were a family who were banished as they were brother and sister in love or something a little twisted?


Possibly even make a storyline and use one on the other planes of oblivion as the answer. Just put hints and bits of storyline out that the Dwemer are in another Deadric Princes domain. Either after slaying them or voluntarily, or even in slavery. In fact put all these rumours out just to make people think. Keep the dream alive without having to go there. But maybe have these rumours start after the lower dwemer cannibals quests?

[Seniosh]

Even creating mutated dwemer is really, really dancing on the edge of lore... For one thing, they would have had to survive for over 3000 years since being mutated, and it seems really unlikely that such a thing would happen, and that they would be changed enough not to be counted as Dwemer.

Also, from a resources point of view, there is nobody that i know of on this team who could create a mutated dwemer, rig it, texture it, ect. and have it work really well in a reasonable amount of time, and with a reasonable amount of effort. Basically, it's not worth it to put in that much work to make a mutated dwemer

I wouldn't be opposed to having some other dwemer ruins scattered around Silgrad, which connect to Dumac through tunnels, as per your original idea. The concept of a bunch of ruins being connected is really cool, and i don't think it would get repetitive, as long as the player doesn't actually have to walk through the tunnel, but instead activates a mine cart or something, and has that take him to the next ruin or such.

[Rickious]

Now thats an idea. Mine cart riding.

Could that work? actually moving in the minecart? Once inside could you freeze the player but still be able to look around?

Also i think that these places would be inhabited. The usual cave dwellers would get boring without a solid questline, but maybe twist existing creatures. Pale skinned-cave dwelling Khajiit?
Cave orcs- 20% larger, dont talk, just ugg!, no armour, just fists.

[Gez]

Originally posted by Razorwing
Unfortunately the fate of the Dwemer is pretty much an open-and-shut case: the god(s) eradicated all of them in one fell swoop that reached the whole mortal plane. One survived, because he wasn't actually on the mortal plane at the time his brethren died.

Actually, they eradicated themselves, being absorbed wholly into the Numidium, leaving behind just a small pile of ashes and a lone survivor tasked with pushing the "ON" button once the "absorbicide" was complete. But that last surviving dwarf, our good friend Yagrum, couldn't do so because the Red Mountain was occupied by four gods -- Dagoth Ur and the Triunes -- who wouldn't have let him do so, especially since they took the Tools of Kagrenac which were needed. Then he caught Corprus, went amnesiac, and found himself in Divayth Fyr's basement.

[Rickious]

good stuff!

[Seniosh]

That official lore Gez? Or just speculation. The only stuff i've seen is pretty darn fuzzy as to what happened...

And they wouldn't have been gods until after the battle of Red Mountain, when Nerevar was betrayed, the Heart's power was tapped, and the Tribunal ascended to godhood

Point is, no living dwemer. And actually, we do have a solid questline, which you can read in a text document at the bottom of this thread. And since this is a dwemer ruin, there aren't your usual cave-dwelling goblins, trolls, undead, whatnot.

Instead, we have Sphere and Spider Centurions, Dwemer Ghosts, and perhaps a few surprises...

And you can't really ride in a mine-cart, due to difficulties with the Collision. However, you CAN have an activate-able minecart that transports you to another ruin

[Rickious]

Thought so about the minecarts. And look forward to the plotline developing!