A Series of Literary Analyses by Sakiran Maesa Options

[Zalphon]

My name is Sakiran Maesa. I know that name probably does not mean much to you and I would not expect it to, but if you are familiar with the Ashlander Tribes of Vvardenfell, then you would likely be able to tell that my name is not of orthodox Dunmer descent, but rather of the more traditional descent.

None of this may mean much to you; I would actually go so far as to wager that it means nothing to you, but I would like to share with you that for the foreseeable future, I will be writing a series of literary analyses of both the literary and scientific texts native to my home and those foreign to it in hopes of demonstrating my scholastic ability and earning the privilege of studying at the Imperial City's world-renowned Arcane University.

I would greatly appreciate any feedback and review you could give on the analyses I write so that I may better my chances of impressing Archmage Travern and earning my place within the university. It is my dream to study under the great wizards of the West, for I find those native to my homeland--the Telvanni--to be most--detestable, a word I use only for purposes of civility.

I look forward to our scholastic acquaintanceship and I hope that our relationship proves to be mutually beneficial.

Always Yours,

Sakiran Maesa, Arcane University Applicant (Eventually)

[Zalphon]

An Analysis of Sermon Three of the Thirty-Six Sermons of Vivec

This sermon begins with the now-blind Netchman's wife wandering into a cave in her journey to the lands of House Indoril and it just so happening to be a Dwemer stronghold. Apparently the Dwemer knew she carried the egg of the Not-Man, Not-Woman and captured her for that reason and tied her head to her foot and stole her deep beneath the surface. Of everything I've read up to this point in these sermons, this is the most believable. Those despicable imps would not surprise me in the slightest if they were to kidnap a woman with child and do unspeakable things to her. I suppose the sermons are not completely unbelievable.

Apparently one of the Dwemer said, "Go and make a simulacrum of her and place it back on the surface, for she has something akin to what we have an so the Velothi will covet it and notice if she is too long away." This I find utterly absurd however. The notion that anyone would care if some netchman's wife went missing? Utterly absurd, at least if she has not been tracked up to this point anyways. Oh wait, nobody cares about the netchman's wife herself despite the horrors she's been subjected to; they care only about the egg of the Not-Son, Not-Daughter.

The Dwemer then tried to extract the egg from her with 'great knives', 'solid sounds' and then 'great heat'. Given these twits thought to use sounds to try cut open a woman's belly, I can only wonder if they realized a knife should be sharp. Perhaps that is why it didn't work, but one is supposed to infer that it was the Not-Son, Not-Daughter's protection that saved her. I find this even more absurd than the notion of trying to use sounds to cut open her belly, but I suppose at this point, the reader is supposed to be thoroughly drunk upon the lies of the False Gods and thus not question the obvious absurdity. Could I be the first person to read this who has not been thoroughly indoctrinated into their cult? Is this why nobody has questioned it before me? Certainly I must be, otherwise somebody with functional reasoning and rationality would have called out the Tribunal on their blatant embellishments and outright lies by now, right?

After accepting that the great knives (which likely were blunted), the solid sounds (which is utterly absurd), and the great heat (which was likely no heat at all) did not work to separate the egg of the Not-Son, Not-Daughter, a Dwemer said, "Nothing is of any use. We must go and misinterpret this." Even as cowardly and miserable as the machine-maters were, they were not stupid and making claims of their gross stupidity such as these is not only agitating, but insulting to the intelligence of anyone who is versed in the Dwemer culture, but wait, these sermons were written for the uneducated masses! It all makes sense! Why would they question the font of wisdom that is the Temple when all they know are the lies cut by them? It would take an ocean of ink and a forest's worth of paper to pen just how much I despise them for their transgressions against the proud sons and daughters of Morrowind, but that is not what this about, so I will try to stay my rage at these blatant and numerous abuses of their station.

The Not-Son, Not-Daughter felt that its mother was afraid and consoled her:

"The fire is mine: let it consume thee,
And make a secret door
At the altar of Padhome
In the House of Boet-hi-Ah
Where we become safe
And looked after"

What this means is let the challenges you're facing overcome you and give you insight into yourself where you will find yourself capable of changing and growth to become strong enough to plot and scheme to overcome them.

If there is to be any wisdom in this sermon, let it be said that this is it. I can not dispute the wisdom of this notion, because it is true that the fires of hardship do force us to grow and evolve to overcome them. It is why my people are strong and the Orthodox are weak. It is why we can survive in the harsh, inhospitable ashlands and our kin can only survive suckling the teet of the Great Houses and the Empire. They are as babes, sucking for dear life, because they can not survive without mother's milk.

This prayer made the Netchman's Wife smile and go into a deep sleep that when the Dwemer constructs like the centurion spheres came and mutilated her, she did not awake and died peacefully. How delightful. The Netchman's Wife dies yet again in service to the Not-Son, Not-Daughter. Tell me though, will she be given life oncemore in a moment of deus ex machinima or will she remain dead this time? I wish I knew, because she has died once before and by the act of Mephala, she was given life oncemore. Perhaps this time it will be Boethiah who breathes life back into her, or perhaps Azura? Or maybe for a twist, it will be Sheogorath, because that would be crazy (just like the rest of the events of these sermons).

Apparently from that point, the Not-Son, Not-Daughter was cut from her womb (apparently the Dwemer figured out how to sharpen their knives) and placed within a magical glass for further study. In order to 'confound his captors', eh channeled his essence into love, an emotion the Dwemer knew nothing about.

Again, this is insulting to anyone versed in the Dwemer society. They knew love, albeit a different kind of love than we understand, but it was love. Their love was more akin to a scientific fascination and almost compulsion and it was not developed between mates or between kin, but between one and his work. The fact that this text asserts that they did not know love infuriates me, but what about it doesn't?

Apparently the egg then said, "Love is used not only as a constitutent in moods and affairs, but also as the raw material from which relationships produce hour-later exasperations, regrettably fashioned restrictions, riddles laced with affections known only to the loving couple, and looks that linger too long." As I said before, they experienced love, just not in the way we understand it. I wish these people would actually study the peoples they're discussing instead of just rambling nonsensically. Any academic credibility this once had is lost by these unfounded claims.

The egg then continued, "Love is an often-used ingredient in some transparent verbal and nonverbal transactions where, eventually, it can sometimes be converted to a variety of true devotions, some of which yield tough, insoluble, and infusible unions. In its basic form, love supplies approximately thirteen draughts of all energy that is derived from relationships. Its role and value in society at large are controversial." This I do not disagree with, but it still does not accept that the Dwemer knew love. In fact, by this definition, the Dwemer most certainly did. They created a giant machine that Tiber Septim used to conquer Tamriel and that could rewrite history and the Not-Son, Not-Daughter wishes to say that love is amongst the most powerful materials in the universe and that the Numidian was made independent of Love? Utterly absurd, just like everything else said.

The Dwemer were somehow vexed at these words and tried to hide from them. They sent their machines to remove the egg from the stronghold and place it within the simulacrum they had of the netchman's wife. Oh joy. Now instead of writing the Netchman's Wife, I can write "The Simulacrum of the Netchman's Wife". I wish they had given her a name.

A Dwemer then said, "We Dwemer are only aspirants to this that the Velothi have. They shall be our doo,m in this and the eight known worlds, NIRN, LHKAN, RKHET, THENDR, KYNRT, AKHAT, MHARA, and JHUNAL." No Dwemer would admit that. Try again.

The last lines of this sermon are:

The secret to doom is within this Sermon.

The ending of the words is ALMSIVI.

I must say that these sermons get more and more ridiculous as they go on. Now not only have we seen a woman kidnapped by the Mad Goddess go on an adventure, get killed, and then resurrected, but now she was indestructible until some prayer was said by the Not-Son, Not-Daughter, and then she died. And now apparently there's a clone of her that the Dwemer made with the Not-Son, Not-Daughter inside of it. I will say that these sermons are incredibly creative, but I wonder if the writer did not ingest some hallucinogens before penning them.

Always Yours,

Sakiran Maesa