Has it been confirmed to what extent the lore in The Infernal City is canon? A lot of the stuff in there sounds ridiculous, and quite frankly depressing for Morrowind fans. T_T

As I understand it, Bethesda's official stance is that yes, the content of the book is considered canon. You may not like some of the new lore in it, and you don't have to, but that doesn't change the fact that it's canon, unless Bethesda decides to revoke its status as such.

Yes, Pete Hines confirmed the Infernal City (and it's sequel) are considered cannon on his twitter. http://twitter.com/DCDeacon/status/21951830233710592

Also, keep in mind all of the serious world changing events in the Infernal City were most likely in the plot outline and lore notes* they gave Greg Keyes and if it was of Greg's own design Bethesda had to approve every bit of the book.

*Speaking of which the one in particular you are referring to was already foretold in the lore at the time of Morrowind. You as the Nerevarine set those events in motion by destroying the power of the Tribunal.

Thanks, that's exactly what I was after. I wasn't sure whether Bethesda oversaw those larger events or Greg came up with them himself.

*Could I trouble you for a source on that?

Read the sermons. The Ministry of Truth was held up by love. How long can love be maintained for a god when the gods are gone?

From sermon 33:
When Nerevar returned, he saw the frozen comet above his lord's city. He asked whether or not Vivec wanted it removed.
'I would have done so myself if I wanted, silly Hortator. I shall keep it there with its last intention intact, so that if the love of the people of this city for me ever disappear, so shall the power that holds back their destruction.'

The sermons are the Temple's account of events and not the truth, are they not? It being held up by love sounds like it was made up by the Temple in order to keep the people faithful.

Ohh no, the Temple did not write the sermons, that was V-man himself. Hell, half the things V-man wrote in the Sermons would cause the temple to go into a tizzy. Plus, there is a very visible meteor above Vivec, so it's hard to not believe that passage.

I understand Vivec wrote them, but I thought they were considered to be the Temple's official stance on the events mentioned in the books. Sort of like the Temple's bible, similar to Saryoni's Sermons. Does that mean that they are not related to the Temple, and are instead related to the worship of Vivec specifically?

They were made specifically for the nerevarine.

As for the Temple's stance and whatnot...they kinda seem make up their own stuff to make the Tribunal look super duper awesome, while keeping their gods locked up in places, and "entertain" them once in a while. There's a reason why the dissident priests were heavily under fire and often assassinated.

What do you mean?

Dumbkid says it nicely here

And something I found from Lady Nerevar

I see. But surely if Vivec achieved CHIM, the false divinity he gained from the Heart wouldn't matter, right?

Hey, it takes a while to figure out how to achieve true divinity when no one else had tried it.

This is getting off-topic. Thanks for your help, Hellmouth, you've been most informative.