...This concept was never shown as well as it has in Skyrim.

As a player beginning from Morrowind (With a minor attempt at Daggerfall, couldn't do it. Sadly too low-tech for me :/), the Daedric princes were rarely shown as outwardly evil. A couple of them were dikes in Morrowind, and of course Mehrunes was the main 'boss' of Oblivion.
But the rest remained fairly sympathetic.

Maybe it was because I hadn't researched the lore as much, despite me being a grand fan of the series. Maybe everyone else knew something I didn't.

But damn. Skyrim? They are some murderous bastards. Just feels like half of them require you to kill some poor plebian that had the misfortune of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. For little reason.

Spoilers abound.


Molag Bal, the "Prince of [censored]", whose quests I no longer do in this series upon finding out that fact, has you kill a Vigilant of Stendaar. For the lulz.

Namirae and her peeps have you kill a priest of Arkay. For the lulz. (And the foods).

Boethiah has you wipe out their cultists. For the lulz. And that's after you sacrifice a follower. For the lulz.

Hermeaus Mora kills his own Emissary, himself. For absolutely no real reason. Except for the lulz.

Mehrunes Dagon, who's kind of a dike anyway, has you kill a loyal follower of his. For the lulz.

Mephala, the patron goddess of the Morag Tong, whom are legal, honorable assassins... Wants you to kill ten perfectly innocent people. For the lulz.

Vaermina has you kill a guy trying to protect an entire town.


Am I missing something? Have these people always been this kind of crazy?

Molag Bal is Evil. He is the Daedric Prince of suffering and domination, of course he is a jerk. In Morrowind he tells you to kill his daughter for falling in love with an Atronach and in Oblivion he has you trick an innocent man into murder.

Namira in Daggerfall was the Daedric Prince of Hunger, so a cannibal cult isn't outside of the ordinary.

Boethah was always a traitor. Also he likes pitting followers against eachother, as seen in the Tournament of Ten Bloods.

Hermaeus Mora? I don't know.

Mehrunes Dagon screwed over his followers in Oblivion too. The Mythic Dawn being tortured in the Deadlands and Paradise proves it.

Mephala is a god of secret murder. Her quest in Oblivion has you frame two innocent families to start a feud.

Vaermina is the Daedric Princess of fear and nightmares. Of course she is evil. Besides, she just wanted to protect her Skull.

Besides, Azura is shown to have saved Dunmer from the Red Year, and Peryite seems to genuinely care about his Afflicted.

I think, whatever people think of WoT, the description of the Snakes and Foxes is the most fitting for the Daedra. "Not evil, but so different that they may as well be."

The Daedra are not evil or (bar one or two) crazy, but to them humans are like easily replaceable dolls and/or tools for the most part, and they neither realize or care how easily their toys can break, or consider the fact that they do break so easily beneath their notice or goals. For example, Azura will allow people to die to further her own aims which are not always clear. Mehrunes dagon must CRUSH KILL DESTROY and, when there is no alternative, can it truly be called evil?

Hm. Maybe "sympathetic" wasn't the right term.
There's a lot more pointless murder being attributed to them in Skyrim. I just thought the Vigilants of Stendaar were just being silly.
But I get it, now.

Have you ever [censored] around in a game like Black and White or something like that? Was that evil? That's what the Mundus is to the Daedra; one giant bloody sandbox.

But yeah. "It's how they are! They just like killin'!" Ol' Hermy's was a bit unexpected and unexplained, though. I didn't get why he blitzed Septimus.

Seriously though, I don't get why he killed Septimus. In Oblivion Hermaeus Mora seemed to be helpful to his followers, by giving them souls to study.

I guess that makes some sense. As Yahtzee once said;

"It seems when you place most people in the position of a god and give them responsibility over many tiny lesser beings, then their attitude towards them is usually less about beloved children and more about target practice."

I still get points for Hermaeus' WTF moment, though.

Yeah, I agree. I think Beth overstepped, with that one.

Daedra are not evil; geez people, I thought you guys are like the Buddha of Elder Scrolls.

The Daedra know that when mortals die, it isnt always the end. Usually it is but not always. Im pretty sure Septimus is in Mora's realm now.

So far I've played about 4 Daedric Quests in Skyrim and they were all very fitting for the personality of the Prince.

Daedra are repulsive, if not evil. The cool thing about them is that they are their spheres and have no real free will.

Evil and good are bad concepts to categorize the daedra with. You are what you are. Isn't Akatosh evil for spreading lies? Sure, he might be insane, and the lie may be beautiful, but it's still a lie. The Earthen concepts of morality, as I recall, don't approve of lying.

Mehrunes Dagon just wants to get rid of the old kalpic pieces and become a King of Leapers again. He has a sad story.

I guess the Daedra reflect real world situations and emotions in their temperaments and interactions.

The entire continent just came out of the great war, and Skyrim itself is in civil war. The Daedra are simply reflecting our own brutalities.

If you look back to the Morrowind Daedra quests, they were all a little less bloodthirsty in tone.

many daedra may seem evil by mortal morals, but those morals dont apply to the daedra

they just are what they are, mortals think of them whatever they like and its all irrelevant to the daedra

They are and will always be evil, unlike the Aedra. Even Azura has done some pretty bad stuff back in her its days of terror.

That's like saying that you have no free will because who you are determines what you'll do.


That's a good point, actually. Maybe Hermaeus just had a purpose for Septimus in Apocrypha?

I don't believe that Hermy panfried Septimus as an act of treachery. Rather, The old kook got exactly what he wanted, or rather, the logical consequence of his labors. He sought hidden/forbidden knowledge, in so doing subtended the Prince's sphere on Mundus. That he couldn't maintain the integrity of his form afterwords says more about him than it does The Old Man of The Woods. I trace definite parallels to the myth of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actaeon.

i think that could actually be true

it might not apply to us or even most of the life forms in the series, but daedric princes don't change. they are what they are and cannot change themselves, they can only change others and things around them

Hmmm. Kinda. Anyway, when I said that I was thinking of "the brain shapes mind, but the mind can rewire the brain", so there's a chance that the Daedra Lords can change a few things here and there about their sphere, yet nothing more than that, because if they could change a lot of things, they would have done it. (or are they so overconfident they wouldn't?) I've read somewhere that the personality of a Daedra slightly changes once the Daedra recovers from banishment.

Daedra can be quite heavily afflicted by the experience of being trapped within the waters of oblivion.

As was said before, 'Evil' is a bad word to use. The princes are what they are.

Whether or not it is true IRL is a subject for a different forum.


Quoth Sheogorath: "Everything changes. Even Daedric Princes! Especially Daedric Princes."

Except that Sheogorath was referring to his unrelenting cycle between his current personality and the Jyggalag one. He's more regretting that he can't change that when he gives that little speech.

I disagree.

Didn't realize this'd spark such a discussion! Though I'm glad for it.

Yet people seem torn to a small degree.