All Alik’r Desert solo dungeons have been remodeled and polished. This is also the case with the Santaki dungeon. The Santaki shard is now located inside a small side room in the southeastern part. Once you enter it, keep going to your right and soon enough you’ll end up in this area.
You’ll recognize the entrance to Santaki dungeon by all the caravan wreckage scattered around nearby.
The shard inside Yldzuun is found in the large northeastern dungeon. It is a bit strange that the tunnels have more enemies than the larger areas, like these rooms. Nonetheless, the collectible is at the center of the room, next to the large central pillar. A quest item – Tharayya Journal Entry: 19 – can be found nearby.
Collectible is in a hole in the big central chamber of the Lost City. You can just drop down into the hole with the shard, but be careful because there is a Gargoyle guarding it. You can pick it up without alerting the Gargoyle and effectively solo picking it up. Otherwise bring some friends along because the mobs are tough for soloing.
| Collection: | Poetry and Song |
| Location(s): | Alik’r Desert, Eastmarch, Malabal Tor |
| Alik’r Desert | |
| Location Notes: | Found around west central part of Alik’r Desert, near Lesser Circle group enemy POI (west of Tu’whacca’s Throne). |
| Image walkthrough: | Loc 3: Inside Badwater mine. Entrance to the mine is in the southern cliff of Sentinel. Screenshot above shows the map location of the entrance to the mine. |
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| Eastmarch | |
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| Malabal Tor | |
| Location Notes: | This lorebook is located in Jathsogur (Ruins POI), southeastern Malabal Tor. |
| Image walkthrough: | Loc.1 – Inside the Silvenar’s Prison. You might need the quest The Prisoner of Jathsogur in order to enter this part of settlement. |
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How you and your mighty tusked beast silhouette against the great orange expanse.
Thundering footsteps herald your herd. Man and beast blazing trail together.
One in nature, each relying upon the other, more than just man and beast, but equals who need one another to survive.
How I long to run across the tundra in their mighty wake.
That would truly be my greatest honor.
The morning would be spent gathering dyes to paint our mammoths and then carve the fiercest images into their tusks.
Then it would be time for the skeever hunt. Our clubs would rain down upon the rat pests smashing the life out of them.
In the evening we could sit around the campfire and I would regale those nearby with songs of their majesty and grace.
They would let me sample some of the mammoth’s cheese. A food so foul yet with healing properties so great.
We’d snack on the roasted skeever we’d freshly caught that day before, lying under the stars to sleep.
I’d slowly fade to dream nested in the radiating heat of mammoth fur, its cold-resisting properties keeping me snug.
What a grand time we would have.
—Unknown
| Collection: | Poetry and Song |
| Location(s): | Alik’r Desert, Malabal Tor |
| Alik’r Desert | |
| Location Notes: | This lorebook is in and around Leki’s Blade Wayshrine and Sep’s Spine POI |
| Image walkthrough: | Loc 2: Inside Sep’s Spine entrance cave. Shown above is the location of the entrance into the cave that takes you to Sep’s Spine POI |
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| Malabal Tor | |
| Location Notes: | In vicinity of Abamath Wayshrine, southern Malabal Tor. |
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CHORUS:
Rise, rise to freedom rise,
Arise ye Breton sons and daughters!
Ride, ride to freedom ride,
Truth and glory to the brave!
And when the battle it was joined
Alessians three to one,
The sky lit bright
With magic’s light
And with magic it was won.
For all they stood on blessed ground
Whence all her power came
The rocks would yield
What might they wield
All in Direnni’s name.
CHORUS REPRISE
So children of this Breton land
Ye best remember well
All those who for High Rock stood
Brian, Ancois, Rielle;
Men of the north,
All who stood forth
Till all oppressors fell.
| Collection: | Poetry and Song |
| Location(s): | Alik’r Desert, Eastmarch, Malabal Tor |
| Alik’r Desert | |
| Location Notes: | Close to Sep’s Spine Wayshrine and around Coldrock Diggings solo dungeon. |
| Image walkthrough: | Loc 2: Inside the largest room of Coldrock Diggings solo dungeon, in the southeast corner, up on top of some wooden scaffolding. There is a quest item right next to it. |
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| Eastmarch | |
| Location Notes: | Located in the area around Darkwater Crossing POI, southwestern Eastmarch. |
| Image walkthrough: | Loc.1 – Lorebook is on a wooden box at Darkwater Crossing POI, next to a building with tents and clothesline in its yard. |
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| Malabal Tor | |
| Location Notes: | This lorebook is located in vicinity of Supplication House (area of interest POI), northern central Malabal Tor. |
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Speak none but good of the Gods.
We can have no opinions about Truth.
Rumors flow from the House of Troubles.
Count only the happy hours.
No child has a sinner’s heart.
Let faith be your only law.
Fear of the fool is the beginning of wisdom.
Almsivi in every hour.
Walk always in the presence of your Lords.
Comfort is given, justice is taken.
Learn by serving.
From the heart, the light; from the head, the law.
Blessed Almsivi, Mercy, Mastery, Mystery.
Forge a keen Faith in the crucible of suffering.
Engrave upon thy eye the image of injustice.
Death does not diminish; the ghost gilds with glory.
Faith conquers all. Let us yield to Faith.
Better to suffer a wrong than to do one.
The heavens are in their glory, applaud!
Folly secures its power to harm.
Though forbidden to some, not to you.
Oh, how rarely wisdom rules our hearts!
Blessed are we who serve Almsivi.
Three mouths sing Mercy, Mastery, Mystery.
Gather no seed in the fields of Oblivion.
The Thrice-Sealed House withstands the Storm.
By Breath and Blood protect us all!
Can ghosts or justice change with time?
Consider your end, mortal!
Accept grace without limits.
Enter the rhapsody of the God-Poet.
Kneel before the Teacher’s chair.
Three Hands, three Hearts, three Eyes.
Keep no secret from your Judge’s scale.
Forge Darkness into Light.
Refuse neither brother nor ghost.
Blessed Almsivi, through birth, life, ghost.
From glowing ashes the Poet’s wrath shall shine.
If Vivec is for us, who can stand against us?
Fate, monstrous and empty, the whirling wheel of evil.
How black my heart, roasting fiercely?
| Collection: | Poetry and Song |
| Location(s): | Malabal Tor |
| Location Notes: | This lorebook is found in vicinity of Falinesti Summer Site (Grove POI), western central Malabal Tor. |
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The gaunt ghostfires loom as subtle shrouds,
Smokes and shades on the biers of Red Mountain.
Arches and spires line the rock halls,
Dimly lit by the spirits of the dead.
The blood of broken hearths and houses
Runs in red rivers, blossoms in fountains.
Girdled round within walls of wit’s glass
The shattered hosts slumber in cradles of ash.
But when shall they wake?
What dark crucible may kindle their souls to light?
How long beneath red-reeking clouds
Must flickering watchfires burn?
How many lifetimes of labor and lament
Will it take to seal this restless tomb?
| Collection: | Poetry and Song |
| Location(s): | Malabal Tor |
| Location Notes: | This lorebook is located in vicinity of Ogrim’s Yawn (area of interest POI), northern Malabal Tor. |
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Rise from darkness, Red Mountain!
Spread your dark clouds and green vapors!
Birth earthquakes, shatter stones!
Feed the winds with fire!
Flay the tents of the tribes from the land!
Feed the burned earth with our souls!
Yet never shall you have your rule over me.
Never shall I tremble or flinch from your power.
Never shall I yield my home and hearth.
And from my tears shall spring forth
The flowers of grassland springs.
| Collection: | Oblivion Lore |
| Location(s): | Greenshade, Shadowfen |
| Greenshade | |
| Location Notes: | This lorebook is located in vicinity of Woodhearth (City POI), southwestern Greenshade. |
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| Shadowfen | |
| Location Notes: | In the Hatching Pools POI area and its surroundings. |
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Most Daedric servants can be summoned by sorcerers for very brief periods within the most fragile and tenuous frameworks of command and binding. This fortunately limits their capacity for mischief, although in a few minutes, most of these servants can do terrible harm to their summoners, as well as their enemies.
Worshipers may bind other Daedric servants to this plane through rituals and pacts. Such arrangements result in the Daedric servant remaining on this plane indefinitely, or at least until their bodily manifestations on this plane are destroyed, precipitating the return of their supernatural essences to Oblivion. Whenever Daedra are encountered at Daedric ruins or in tombs, they are almost invariably long-term visitors to our plane.
Likewise, lesser entities bound by their Daedra Lords into weapons and armor may be summoned for brief periods, or they may persist indefinitely, so long as they are not destroyed and banished. The class of bound weapons and bound armors summoned by Temple followers and conjurers are examples of short-term bindings. Daedric artifacts like Mehrunes’ Razor and the Masque of Clavicus Vile are examples of long-term bindings.
The Tribunal Temple of Morrowind has incorporated the veneration of Daedra as lesser spirits subservient to the immortal Almsivi, the Triune godhead of Almalexia, Sotha Sil, and Vivec. These subordinate Daedra are divided into the Good Daedra and the Bad Daedra. The Good Daedra have willingly submitted to the authority of Almsivi. The Bad Daedra are rebels who defy Almsivi, treacherous kin who are more often adversaries than allies.
The Good Daedra are Boethiah, Azura, and Mephala. The hunger is a powerful and violent lesser Daedra associated with Boethiah, Father of Plots—a sinuous, long-limbed, long-tailed creature with a beast-skulled head, noted for its paralyzing touch and its ability to disintegrate weapons and armor. The winged twilight is a messenger of Azura, Goddess of Dusk and Dawn. Winged twilights resemble the feral harpies of the West, though the feminine aspects of the winged twilights are more ravishing, and their long, sharp, hooked tails are immeasurably more deadly. Spider Daedra are the servants of Mephala, taking the form of spider-humanoid centaurs, with a naked upper head, torso, and arms of human proportions, mounted on the eight legs and armored carapace of a giant spider. Unfortunately, these Daedra are so fierce and irrational that they cannot be trusted to heed the commands of the Spinner. As a consequence, few sorcerers are willing to either summon or bind such creatures in Morrowind.
The Bad Daedra are Mehrunes Dagon, Malacath, Sheogorath, and Molag Bal. Three lesser Daedra are associated with Mehrunes Dagon: the agile and pesky scamp, the ferocious and beast-like clannfear, and the noble and deadly Dremora. The crocodile-headed humanoid Daedra called the daedroth is a servant of Molag Bal, while the giant but dim-witted ogrim is a servant of Malacath. Sheogorath’s lesser Daedra, the golden saint, a half-clothed human female in appearance, is highly resistant to magic and a dangerous spellcaster.
Another type of lesser Daedra often encountered in Morrowind is the atronach, or Elemental Daedra. Atronachs have no binding kinship or alignments with the Daedra Lords, serving one realm or another at whim, shifting sides according to seduction, compulsion, or opportunity.
| Collection: | Oblivion Lore |
| Location(s): | Greenshade, Rivenspire |
| Greenshade | |
| Location Notes: | This lorebook is found in southeastern Greenshade. |
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| Rivenspire | |
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It is improper, however customary, to refer to the denizens of the dimension of Oblivion as "demons." This practice probably dates to the Alessian Doctrines of the First Era prophet Maruhk—which, rather amusingly, forbade "trafficke with daimons" and then neglected to explain what daimons were.
It is most probable that "daimon" is a misspelling or etymological rendition of "Daedra," the old Elven word for those strange, powerful creatures of uncertain motivation who hail from the dimensions of Oblivion. In a later tract by King Hale the Pious of Skyrim, almost a thousand years after the publication of the original Doctrines, the evil machinations of his political enemies are compared to "the wickedness of the demons of Oblivion … their depravity equals that of Sanguine itself, they are cruel as Boethiah, calculating as Molag Bal, and mad as Sheogorath." Hale the Pious thus long-windedly introduced four of the Daedra Lords to written record.
But the written record is not, after all, the best way to research Oblivion and the Daedra who inhabit it. Those who "trafficke with daimons" seldom wish it to be a matter of public account. Nevertheless, scattered throughout the literature of the First Era are diaries, journals, notices for witch burnings, and guides for Daedra-slayers. These I have used as my primary source material. They are at least as trustworthy as the Daedra lords I have actually summoned and spoken with at length.
Apparently, Oblivion is a place composed of many lands—thus the many names for which Oblivion is synonymous: Coldharbour, Quagmire, Moonshadow, etc. It may be correctly supposed that each land of Oblivion is ruled over by one prince. The Daedric Princes whose names appear over and over in ancient records (though this is not an infallible test of their authenticity or explicit existence, to be sure) are the aforementioned Sanguine, Boethiah, Molag Bal, and Sheogorath, and in addition Azura, Mephala, Clavicus Vile, Vaermina, Malacath, Hoermius (or Hermaeus or Hormaius or Herma—there seems to be no one accepted spelling) Mora, Namira, Jyggalag, Nocturnal, Mehrunes Dagon, and Peryite.
From my experience, Daedra are a very mixed lot. It is almost impossible to categorize them as a whole except for their immense power and penchant for extremism. Be that as it may, I have here attempted to do so in a few cases, purely for the sake of scholastic expediency.
Mehrunes Dagon, Molag Bal, Peryite, Boethiah, and Vaermina are among the most consistently "demonic" of the Daedra, in the sense that their spheres seem to be destructive in nature. The other Daedra can, of course, be equally dangerous, but seldom purely for the sake of destruction as these five can. Nor are these previous five identical in their destructiveness. Mehrunes Dagon seems to prefer natural disasters—earthquakes and volcanoes—for venting his anger. Molag Bal elects the employment of other Daedra, and Boethiah inspires the arms of mortal warriors. Peryite’s sphere seems to be pestilence, and Vaermina’s torture.
In preparation for the next installment in this series, I will be investigating two matters that have intrigued me since I began my career as a Daedra researcher. The first is on one particular Daedra, perhaps yet another Daedric Prince, referred to in multiple articles of incunabula as Hircine. Hircine has been called "the Huntsman of the Princes" and "the Father of Man-beasts," but I have yet to find anyone who can summon him. The other, and perhaps more doubtful, goal I have is to find a practical means for mortal men to pass through to Oblivion. It has always been my philosophy that we need only fear that which we do not understand—and with that thought in mind, I ever pursue my objective.
