So my friend and I frequently theorize about the games we play, The Elder Scrolls being a series easy to do so with.
One big thing we've discussed a lot is the disappearance of the Dwarves. There are a few quests in the game that deal directly with this subject, but never give you a clear answer(the experiment the mage tried but carried out improperly, the Dwemer puzzle box, etc). Before we found out that Falmer were snow elves, we initially thought that the dwarves may have mutated into them. What I believe Skyrim and the other Elder Scrolls games before it have pointed to the cause of the mystery at hand, was an ascended intelligence scenario. The dwarves were so far advanced in technology, they were able to build puzzle boxes that could keep out Daedric gods. They had robots, facilities that produced power and maintained themselves. Their alloys were some of the strongest alloys(only being overshadowed by ebony as far as natural materials go). If you remember the experience the mage tried to recreate, he had a tuned soul gem that he struck with Keening to create a teleportation frequency.

My theory is that the Dwarves created all elven races in their images as infant races and then traveled to another dimension where they could see them grow much in the same way the History Channel views "Ancient Aliens" today.

Thoughts? Ideas? Your own theories?

I have a feeling the next game is going to focus on their return or at least what happened to them.

Sounds like Morrowind...

They're extinct.

It was pretty well spelled out in Morrowind. They disintegrated. Into ash.

They were fighting the Chimer at Vvardenfell over Lorkhan's heart. Kagranac tried to tap into that power for the Dwemer, and they were all destroyed instead.

My theory:

Ysgramor's spirit revived itself, traveled through time, and kicked the living hell out of every Dwemer on the planet.

Damn it.. I wanna kill some little men

No, the dwemer aren't 'creators' in any way. They were relatively recent, and lived along with the chimer (current-day dunmer) and other mer races. How they disappeared? Their lead engineers decided to force their entire race to 'ascend' by abusing the power of "Heart of Lorkhan", that rested in Morrowind's Red Mountain. It's not known if the dwemer really ascended (no real proof for this other than the heart of Lorkan had the power to do so) or if they were banished to another realm of existence outside Mundus (iirc there was one in-game book that told this theory in either Morrowind or Oblivion), or if they were simple wiped out instantly by other deities such as Daedra or higher ones (or even as result of a failed experiment of ascension - some of the morrowind's dwemer ruins had ash piles next to armour & chairs).

It's hard to say as there were many clans spread across Tamriel which all disappeared at once. Possibly a uniquely dwarven disease, or they - a lot less likely - all gathered and ascended to, as you mentioned, another dimension, or traveled to another continent, or even still, off of Nirn itself.

They're not actually little, the name Dwarf is just a name, but has no connotations to being small as it does in reality.

P.S The heart of Lorkhan failed and they ended up just becoming the flesh of a God, literally the shell around a divine power, which was then channeled into a weapon (forget the name) which Tiber Septim used to defeat the Thalmor the first time around. It was explained on here earlier and in books in Skyrim and Morrowind.

Morrowind deals excessively with the disapperance of the Dwemer.
As with everything TES, there's no hard facts, but it's being hinted that it was either a divine punishment or an accident when they tried to either elevate their race to divinity, create a super weapon or to create Anumidium, "sacred", from their own profanity (that is, create magic opposite from usual practice).

Into ash.

The only reason why I have a hard time believing anything written in Morrowind is the fact that the Dwarves occupied the entire planet it seems. An extremely large population. Yet they all vanished, every last one, at the same time?

I stick by my theory that they will come back some way. Oblivion focused on Daedra and Skyrim on Dragons, so what else is there that can match that as a major threat?

Invasion of Fleas in Elsweyr?

Lorkhan killed them all or helped them.

Who knows.

They all vanished into thin air (or ash) when Kagrenac struck the Heart of Lorkhan with his enchanted tools, Sunder and Keening. They intentionally removed themselves from existence.


-- http://www.imperial-library.info/content/final-report-trebonius

It's been shown time and again that the Aedra and Daedra do exist. This is another example.

The Thalmor.