Dagoth Ur's Mask? : The Elder Scrolls Series Discussion

» Fri Feb 18, 2011 8:24 pm

His face looks like an ash vampire except that his middle eye is not shut it is open. I have seen this in the art files for Morrowind. He has his middle eye open because he is the most powerful of his kin. The regular ash vampires don't have an open middle eye because they are not as powerful as Dagoth Ur, and not completely a god like him.

Their third eyes DO open when you fight with them. It's rather disturbing as I believe it's supposed to be.

» Fri Feb 18, 2011 7:49 pm

They're third eyes DO open when you fight with them. It's rather disturbing as I believe it's supposed to be.

I stand corrected. Maybe the mask is to keep him unique so that you don't think less of him,because he looks just like the other ash vampires without the mask. So that you know he's diffrent from them and way more powerful.

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 1:04 am

Note what are either double sets of ears or devil horns.

This is probably irrelevant, and I know how much the members of this forum....dislike comparing TES to the real world, but the four ears immediately make me think of the Mesopotamian god, Marduk. Seeing as how the dwemer bare strong resemblances to Babylonians, perhaps this "four ears" connects Dagoth Ur to the dwemer?

» Fri Feb 18, 2011 9:02 pm

Wait I just had a thought if he dided while the dunmer where chimer why does he have dark skin?

The fact that he's been living in a volcano for thousands of years probably helps.

Also, I've read many culture's mythologies, and I've never read anything about Marduk having four ears. Where'd you get that from?

For the record, I actually don't think that Dagoth Ur mesh is actually what he looks like. My theory is that the devs just took an Ash Vampire mesh, modelled on a mask, and just went from there. The reason he looks like an Ash Vampire under there is because that is an Ash Vampire. I'd say that under that mask he looks much more like an Ascended Sleeper, or other high-ranking Ash creature, and that his face has already sloughed off a long time ago and now it's a writhing mass of tentacles. Be GLAD he has that mask on.

EDIT: Okay, I've came up with a good description of my view on Dagoth Ur under the mask. Spoilered because there'll definitely be some folks that'll think it's icky. NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH OR THOSE EATING LUNCH, you have been warned!

Spoiler

Without his mask, Dagoth Ur's face is horribly wasted away beyond recognition as the pinnacle of an Ash creature. The skin of his face from his scalp to the bottom of his throat, and extending back to behind his cheekbones, has melted away, leaving only bare skull and still-beating veins. His Coprus-ridden skull is sickly pale and distorted with many bulges, grown bulbous from the years of living within Red Mountain. His eyes, red and swollen due to the irritation of the surrounding volcanic ash, are all corrupted, and the third eye in the centre of his forehead watches on in their place. One eye has sunken back into its swollen socket, while the other has totally disintegrated. From various growths on his skull come great ashen tentacles, writhing chaotically around what is left of his face. From his torn scalp comes his mottled, ragged hair, grown rough from Coprus and ash. As he speaks, the tentacles surrounding his mouth part as his boil-ridden tongue moves about his rotten, crooked teeth, and as his third eye stares down, you know he means buisness....

Man, If only I had a scanner, I would SO draw that for you.

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 10:17 am

Also, I've read many culture's mythologies, and I've never read anything about Marduk having four ears. Where'd you get that from?

A version of the Enuma Elish in a text book called World Mythology.

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 9:04 am

But dagoth ur has long hair, you can see when you wacht him from behind,

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 3:14 am

For the record, I actually don't think that Dagoth Ur mesh is actually what he looks like. My theory is that the devs just took an Ash Vampire mesh, modelled on a mask, and just went from there. The reason he looks like an Ash Vampire under there is because that is an Ash Vampire.

That has always been my thoughts on that. I figured that since they put a mask on him they simply didn't bother to come up with a unique face. Personally, I like the idea that he wears the sun mask because - as the words of the Sharmat says - he wants everyone to orbit him. By his own admission he is vain and I can imagine him wearing the mask to make himself look more "godly" and mysterious. It's impossible to read someone's expression when you can't see their face. It makes them seem less "human" and more difficult to relate to.

Look at Almalexia. The first several times you meet her she is without her mask since she is trying to come across as someone who cares about you and the rest of Morrowind. Then in the end when she's out to destroy you and reveals her plans to be the "one true god" she's wearing her mask which makes her look far more dangerous.

» Fri Feb 18, 2011 6:23 pm

For the record, I actually don't think that Dagoth Ur mesh is actually what he looks like. My theory is that the devs just took an Ash Vampire mesh, modelled on a mask, and just went from there. The reason he looks like an Ash Vampire under there is because that is an Ash Vampire.

That would certainly explain his rather disappointing appearance.

I'd say that under that mask he looks much more like an Ascended Sleeper, or other high-ranking Ash creature, and that his face has already sloughed off a long time ago and now it's a writhing mass of tentacles. Be GLAD he has that mask on.

Entering that chamber in the bowels of Red Mountain and encountering for the first time that tall, skinny, gray-skinned, diaper-wearing, epic-voiced god would've been much more terrifying, and therefore satisfying, if his face had looked like Cthulu was attempting to enter the Mundus through his head.

Or perhaps that's just me.

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 9:05 am

For what it is worth, the Ash Vampires are Dagoth Ur's brothers. So they're are bound to look alike.

If his face had looked like Cthulu was attempting to enter the Mundus through his head.

Yes, it would. Not just for Dagoth Ur but Vivec and Ayem too, it's just that the graphics weren't quite there yet.

» Fri Feb 18, 2011 10:52 pm

For what it is worth, the Ash Vampires are Dagoth Ur's brothers. So they're are bound to look alike.

I totally did not know that.

Yes, it would. Not just for Dagoth Ur but Vivec and Ayem too, it's just that the graphics weren't quite there yet.

*crosses fingers for a remake*

Just kidding.

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 6:58 am

I totally did not know that.

They are? Well, http://uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind%3a%44agoth_Endus makes some remark about being a brother to Dagoth Ur, I believe a literal biological one at that. I always assumed that all the other mentions of the Ash Vampires being his "kin" and "brothers" were simply metaphorical.

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 1:39 am

"Chief among his servants are his seven brothers, the ash vampires, powerful heartwights and cunning sorcerers of old. These creatures appear to die, but always are revived at the Heart. Somehow Dagoth Ur has conferred some portion of his immortality upon them. Or perhaps they sustain themselves through more conventional sorcery." - Vivec, on Dagoth Ur's servants.

Doesn't seem metaphorical to me and well, you know Chimer | Dunmer woman.

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 9:26 am

I don't say why "brother" couldn't be metaphorical in that passage (Vivec is a poet by nature and thus more inclined than most to speak metaphorically), but I don't doubt that the Ash Vampires were likely relations of some sort to Dagoth Ur. Weren't they the former leader of House Dagoth?

EDIT: Really though, it should be unimportant whether or not they are biologically related to Ur. The reason they look like him is because the transformation to an Ash Vampire is partially a physical one, and presumably Ur would have reamde his servants "in his own image" so to speak. You dig me?

» Fri Feb 18, 2011 10:34 pm

Maybe it's a welding mask to protect his face when he's welding Akulakhan together.

Best theory I've read so far in this thread :lol:

When he heard that someone was entering his work station, he tossed the Dwemer Welding Torch (the fourth of Kagrenac's Tools, didn't you know?) aside, but he had no time to take off the mask.

» Fri Feb 18, 2011 7:36 pm

Best theory I've read so far in this thread :lol:

When he heard that someone was entering his work station, he tossed the Dwemer Welding Torch (the fourth of Kagrenac's Tools, didn't you know?) aside, but he had no time to take off the mask.

LOL

Oh geez, I have GOT to remember that for the parody/spoof fic I want to write if I ever get around to finishing the serious version. That's just too good to pass up.