How did Vivec go from being a poor farmland to being Nerevar's most trusted general? Imma curious to know.

Also, where did the war of the first council take place before moving to Vvardenfell

I'd read his lessons, it's really the only insight into Vivec's childhood.

It started on Vvardenfell, or I suppose in Morrowind in general.

We won't really ever know what the Tribunal and Nerevar were before they became gods. Thats all be edited out and retconed and forgotten. My guess is that Vivec managed to work his way up the ranks by being both a shrewd diplomat and a good warrior. He was also a close friend to Nerevar, if the Sermons are to be believed.

Are there no more specific sources about it? The battle of Red Mountain is, of course, well known, but what exactly happened before that? I believe I read somewhere that the Dwemer took over modern day Velothis District and parts of Telvanni and the stuff found in Bamz-Amschend - namely the ashes next to Dwemer weapons and armour - I always took to mean that there were still Dwemer there at the time of Red Mountain. However, I'm not sure whether I actually read the former somewhere reliable or if I just somehow made it up myself. It would make sense, since the Dwemer were supposed to be aided by Nords and Orcs, who'd probably be comming in via Skyrim.

If something the two of us are trying to devise an RP set during the war of the First Council.

I had this really sweet reply typed out and then youtube froze safari and now I have nothing.

There were dwemer everywhere in Morrowind, until they were nowhere

You're siting either Nerevar at Red Mountain or War of the First Council. Both are unsourced, the later is Imperial and simplified. The other two sources are 36 Lessons and Songs of King Wulfharth, which are both more metaphor than actual history. I don't think the Nords fit thematically and don't make much logical sense, and I'm leaning towards dismissing the two historical accounts as having been based on the two untrustworthy mythical ones. But for the purposes of the RP you can have them there, as it doesn't really matter due to Dragonbreak and stuff.

Maybe the old school Chimer operated on a Meritocracy system that allowed exceptional people from the lower classes to move up.

Some of the best strategists from real life history, such as the great Zhuge Liang from China, were of the poor farm classes by birth.

It's possible these figures served as a partial inspiration to Vivec.

Vehk's got a lot of luck. He is a god.

Nerevar was married to Almalexia. She was a god, too. So was Sotha Sil. It's not coincidence that they all just happened to be together when the Three became ALMSIVI.

Vivec... Hm... He propably began as some unknown poet in some village, eventually gaining reputation at high up places and when the war came he came with some smart ideas for Nerevar and therefore Nerevar made Vivec some sort of general. Vivec learned the warriors proffesion and eventually he decided that Morrowind would live better with 3 mighty Immortal gods who lived on the earth instead of the Good Daedra who propably didnt do very much in general.
So he helped the Dunmer against various threats, trying to become the god which the daedra never had been. Someone who cared for the people and someone who helped them at all times. Someone who they could love and trust.
He propably suceeded pretty well.

Sotha Sil was a mystic-wizard. Propably one of those guys who like to do odd experiments and finds out important things... Perhaps came with ideas on how to defend against the dwarves with magical means... Wouldnt suprise me if Sotha Sil was the one who first suggested how the city of Vivec would look like... Sotha Sil was propably looking for Knowledge everywhere. To become a god is a natural step for such a person, gods can know anything they want. Gods can do as many experiments as they want. A god-send for Sotha.
But something went wrong and Sotha propably died in obscurity, noone knowing about it. It looked like he had made some sort of machine to keep himself alive. Or perhaps it was some new computer game he had made, while in that game he was completely cut off from what happened to his body (Almalexia ran in and killed him right when he was about to win...)
Pretty unserious about the last thing, but perhaps it was some way to let your spirit walk around the earth or to other planes and look over there.

Almalexia, the wife of Nerevar. She propably loved Nerevar, at first. Then she propably thought that she didnt get enough attention/power or thought that Nerevar didnt love her anymore. So she plotted against him and killed him. Then to get away from the shame of what she had done she became a god (gods cant answer in front of anyone, they are above the law) and began to do good deeds for her people so that she could think that his death lead to the better of the people (she propably didnt do very much)... Eventually she went mad though.

That's easy.

Once he became a god, he retroactively edited history to make himself Nerevar's friend so that he could become a god.

Sounds good.

Hurts brain. There's only so much time travel retconning you can do before it becomes ho-hum de rigueur.

Once or twice is fine and pretty cool. Having Dragon Breaks (wind) everywhere all the time just makes normal physics useless and then I have trouble suspending my disbelief.

Likewise, one's writing can only be so convoluted and erudite before it turns into a bombastic Foucault.

Few words, Vivec is an [censored]

That's why I enjoyed killing him.

Vivec is the greatest TES character, [censored].

Yeah, if you're into BS.

Doesn't mean he's not an ass.

How many were there that served as retcons? I can't think of one. Daggerfall's didn't actually change lore. Help me out.

So did I, very much.

Simple minds, simple pleasures.

Although I think Vivec's apotheosis did change the timeline so that he existed before his mortal birth, as a god, I don't think among the Tribunal's powers was the ability to alter history. That's too big a power; something only one of the Nine like Akatosh can do. Vivec chose to become a god, but I don't think he was in the same league as Akatosh.

Vivec was acted upon, he wasn't the puppeteer in this case.

So he changed history, but he didn't?

He started the ball rolling by helping kill Nerevar and achieved apotheosis, but history changed Vivec at that point -- he wasn't at the controls in the sense that an Akatosh would be.

When you break Akatosh, you're going from unbroken, to broken. Akatosh has himself figured out, then you're like 'svck on this,' and make him have to relearn himself all over again, and until that time, time is loose and really not time at all. So the Tribunal changed history.

The whole point to a Dragon break is, Akatosh isn't at the controls. He comes to the scene rather late, and after the manipulation causation leading up to the un-time period.

I'm reminded of Krishna for a moment. Krishna was an incarnation of the god Vishnu but was serving as Arjuna's charioteer, apparently human; until the day that he revealed his true nature to Arjuna during a civil war. Maybe Vivec was once a warrior-poet, the advisor and friend of Nerevar until the day that Vivec chose the power that the Heart of Lorkhan could give him. At that point he and the other two Tribunes became gods, and history was changed into a timeline with Vivec having been a god long before his mortal birth. But it's not as if Vivec would have said out loud: "Now I'll change history"; I think he had a more passive role in the timeline's change. Do you see the difference I'm getting at?

It seems to me all this was fate. The Velothi exodus, Azura's curse, the wars, the rise of Nerevar to power, the Tribunal's betrayal, and the changed timeline. It was all fated, maybe to help Lorkhan return. You can't really say "The Tribunal should have remained mortal, they shouldn't have followed their culture's dictates of murder". You wouldn't have a story then, anyway.

Anyway, for what it's worth. Sorry to pontificate, I'm no expert.

As I see things, there's nothing to be sorry about.