So, I was strolling around in Riften when I met this Dunmer named Brand-Shei, an odd name for a dark elf. When I talked to him, I discovered that he was adopted and raised by an Argonian family in Black Marsh. He told me that he was fond wrapped in a cloth bearing the symbol of House Telvanni, and sent me to find a ship "Pride of Tel Vos". Locating it at the Sea of Ghosts, crashed, I found the Journal of Limdrann Telvanni, which gave me - a long time fan of Morrowind, Vvardenfell and especially House Telvanni and truly gruesome insight on the whereabouts of the aforementioned. It read:

Journal of Lymdrenn Telvanni.

Brandyl,
I hope this text of your father's last words find its way to your hands. I served House Telvanni as a wet nurse during your first months of life and wanted to repay your father's kindness. I've done all I can to locate you, but I regret that we'll never meet face-to-face.
Hidrya Olen

4E 6 Second Seed, Middas
Is this the end of all things? Are we to die by the cruel barbed blades of the Argonian invasion force? After surviving the Red Year, struggling to dig from the ash and rubble, and burying the thousands that died, is this to be our epitaph? The irony of our demise glows brighter than Masser on the summer solstice. We brought this upon ourselves; the Argonians simply answering a rallying cry incited by a millennia of suffrage imposed by my kind. And so here I sit, in the crumbling basemant of our family home while a thousand thousand booted feet echo above me and the screams of the dying find their way to my ears. So falls House Telvanni

But then I look into the eyes of this child, this blessing given to us the very year that Vvardenfell sprouted its fiery death across the land; this gift I hold my grasp. Is it too much to wish he be given the chance to survive and keep our memories alive? This small boy born in the midst of chaos and destruction must carry on. If nothing else, as a reminder to other dunmer that the Telvanni were once a proud and noble people.
Since the death of my wife, I haven't been able to bring myself to give my son a proper name. It never felt right without her. But my own life reaches its final hours as the luxury of time is escapes my embrace. I name him now: Brandyl, son of Lymdrenn and the sole living heir of House Telvanni. I will wrap him in his t'lonya, his birthing swaddle and leave his fate to Azura's will.

Live with virtue and pride, sera.

There is also a Dunmer up in the College of Winterhold saying she is from House Telvanni, going to Winterhold to escape the idea that she was destined to be a powerful mage, yada yada yada. This could possibly mean that it was only "pure" nobles of House Telvanni that is gone - or that Lymdrenn was wrong.

What do you guys make of this truly sad tale?

I'd say that the true house Telvanni, as in people actually named [x] Telvanni, are all dead, and the house as a whole got decimated. The Dunmer pupil was from a surviving branch. I'm also going to hazard a guess that a lot of magisters just levitated / teleported away, because, well, they're effin' Telvanni magisters.

^
Not to mention that:
1. Only Vvardenfell and the areas close to the Inner Sea would be directly harmed by the effects of the Red Year. (Well, not counting the subsequent ash fallout, but it's not like the Dunmer are incapable of handling that kind of stuff.) The Telvanni capital probably wouldn't be damaged at all, seeing as it is located in an even more favourable geographic location than Solstheim.

2. While most of Morrowind was severely weakened by the Oblivion Crisis and the Red Year, Telvanni probably only lost half its holdings at worst, most of them being the relatively unimportant - for the most part - Vvardenfellian settlements.

3. The Argonians would most likely be slaughtered before they could even approach the tower of any Telvanni magelord. If they did somehow manage to get there, the magelord would either teleport away or destroy the invaders with a wave of his hand. (They are supposed to be ridiculously powerful and ancient magelords, despite what we're shown in Morrowind.) Of course, that wouldn't stop said Argonians from killing innocent civilians and such.

You know I'd like to believe that, but how can we be so sure that it did not have major impacts on the mainland itself? Prove me wrong, please, heh..

Another question - just how much of Morrowind di the Argonians swallow as "their land"? Past Narsis?

It actually sounds like for the most part Morrowind had been 'reclaimed and rebuilt' if things were ever actually as bad as they seemed. Can't say i'm unhappy about it either. =D

Strange. I thought the Dunmer/Chimer naming tradition was House name, personal name, (family name). Like Hlaalu Edryno Arethi, Indoril Nerevar, Sotha Sil, Hlaalu Helseth and so forth. Someone with a last name like that has had to be literally a Telvanni, as in a direct descendant. I had no idea any of those were around.

Well i also heard from a certain Dunmer woman, during a certain quest, that believes in a certain Daedra Lord, that that certain Daedra Lord gave many Dunmer faithful to themselves forewarning of the Red Year and many escaped. In gratitude the Dunmer made a huge statue of that Daedra Lord in gratitude,

Probably misinformation. This guy was probably located in a Telvanni settlement on the mainland, or perhaps Vvardenfell. Argonian troops could have reached there and caused a lot of destruction and killed a lot of people. Without the Tribunal to defend them, without proper leadership and with the eruption of Red Mountain it is entirely possible that lines of communication weren't very good anymore. Personally I don't think the Argonians went to far north, or if they did that they were kicked out. This guy probably just didn't have all the information and wrote the letter in a moment of dispair.

Morrowind suffered, a lot, perhaps more then any other province but the Dunmer aren't under Argonian leadership and will likely kick the Argonians out of Morrowind entirely once they get back up to strength. They aren't the kind of people to just sit back and take defeat.

(I've done the quest.) I think it's Bethesda's way of reinforcing to us just how much the Houses were destroyed. I wouldn't kid yourself about how many Telvanni survived the Red Year. When Bethesda gives us a journal saying there's only one surviving heir of the House, maybe it's meant literally. Although it's true that the Dunmer student at the mage college calls herself a Telvanni. Maybe there were refugees?

If I remember right, his father doesn't sign his name as "Telvanni"; it's Temvanni or something. There's an "m" in the name.

Leave his fate to Azura's will?! Good lord the Dunmer need to wake the hell up and realize that the red year was made possible by that vindictive women. This Daedra worship has been nothing but trouble for them.

Betheda also told us that Vivec may or may not have been taken by the hordes of Oblivion. Bethesda says a lot of things.

The oldest and most noble of the Telvanni lived on the outskirts of society, not caring for society or the Telvanni itself. The House could fall with some of them not even noticing. I wouldn't be surprised if a few Telvanni towers and mage lords still exist in Morrowind, scattered in the wasteland of Molgread or the Boethian mountains or the edges of the coast of the Sea of Dreams completely unaware of the most of the worries of the world. But the bigger picture still stands, Morrowind has fallen from the glory of the days of the ALMSIVI.

I am very saddened at this.

The Columbine shooters saw a kid they liked in the parking lot, and told him to ditch school that day. Mercy doesn't stop you from being overall bad. Her vindictiveness and Vivecs... Vivecness killed whole lots of people.

Regarding the above:

so she save a few hundred of HER own followers and left tens maybe even hundreds of thousands of people to die so she could get revenge on 3 people and after all that was said and done she still hasn't lifted that curse she placed on the Dunmer.

Don't kid yourself man. The princes of Oblivion don't care about us because they can't love.

She also let some followers rot as vampires in a cave during "Oblivion". You can make a case that Azura is as vindictive as they come.

Maybe Telvannis has fallen, and maybe house Telvanni itself is now defunct.
But there were a lot of entrepeneurial Telvanni out there just trekking far into the wild to set up shop undisturbed.

People like Divayth and Baladas will have suvived.
I doubt the Argonian army could even see Baladas' tower if he didnt want them too, much less enter it.
And Divayth could conceivably just have levitated/ teleported his entire island away.
(Still hoping for a floating tower Skyrim mod.)

Someone like Aryon might have stayed to defend the people he loved, and have fallen to the onslaught of either Red Year or the Argonians.

The claim made in that trader's quest in Skyrim about him being the last Telvanni is refuted in that very same game, I believe.
I think there are other (ex) Telvanni in Skyrim.
Isnt that Dunmer associated with the red nirnroot quest a former Tel Mora alchemist? Not sure.

Anyway, maybe they are now underground, as the fifth house once was, but I think more likely most of the mage-lords have scattered to the winds and are continuing their own projects.

The first thing that crossed my mind upon reading this was, "How the hell could this guy have the slightest clue that he's the last Telvanni." If we're generous he might be able to say with so e certainty that he's the last Telvanni in his town, or his region/district, but the last Telvanni overall? Hardly. Who's to say they're aren't a dozen other folks holed up just like him, each thinking they're the last. With the isolationist tendencies of the Telvanni there's simply no way of knowing such information, short of being a deity, and I don't think our good friend is on the scale of Vivec being able to sense all time and space.

And if it's of any concern the Chimere-Marog letters mention a "wellspring at Fyr," which is at least something to think about.


Extra note: One easy way to know he's wrong, my character is a Telvanni, which means that guy couldn't have been the last. This also made it odd reading the letter in-game, reading some other guy's journal claiming that he's the last of your clan when you're standing right there.

Orly? I seem to recall those vampires boarding themselves up to prevent their own bloodlust, and Azura asking us to end their suffering. From all that I have read, if she does not care about her followers, she at least seems like she cares.

So...Redoran was destroyed by the Daedra...Vvardenfel is pretty much gone...Argonians took out a lot of the mainland and Telvanni..No word on Hlaalu (Not that I really care, honestly.) that I know of.

I'm going to be heartbroken if there is not some type of retribution towards the Argonians. Keeping some of them as slaves isn't [censored] compared to this.

The argonians wouldn't be holding Telvanni lands, as only parts of southern Morrowind (likely contested territory, and key for protection).

Also, the dunmer of Winterhold sure as hell don't make me feel any sympathy towards them.

You mean Windhelm? Winterhold only has about 3-4 Dunmer that I can think of. Jarl's fake wizard, the Telvanni girl and the Archmage. I leave a fourth slot because I am not sure if there is another one as I don't remember.

Going game persona here. The Nords are pretty rude to me, I must say. I am neither Bosmer nor Altmer. I am Dunmer dammit. I hate the Aldmeri Dominion like most of my race. Why are we lumped with the Altmer? Ignorant Nords...seriously though...they made them surprisingly ignorant for the most part. While most of the other races seem to be a little more informed. Intentional? If so why? I like the Nords lol. Of course I am only 150 hours in or so at this point.

Yeah, like that guy in Markarth. Of course Bethesda doesn't provide a dialog option for me to yell at him and tell him Dunmer hate the Aldmeri Dominion. :rolleyes:

That's why they are my all time favorite race in the entire ES series. They will take back Morrwind...stronger than ever!



I often wonder if this isn't perhaps a stroke of clever writing, or they just didn't realize it until it was too late.

Yes for the most part unless you are a Nord, the Nords come off as woefully ignorant.

Most if not all of the other 'human' races seem to have a better hold of the current situation, and treat people with a bit more respect.

That's because the Nord is an outdated Man-form. Notice how Tiber Septim was Imperial and Hjalti Early-Beard was Breton, and the ascendancy of Talos required the death of Wulfharth/Arctus/Ysmir, the Nord.