This is a big topic about the Lord Sotha Sil. First of all let's move the discussion of Sotha Sil's skin colour from the "Dunmer's resist to fire" topic to here.
Here are some of the arguments from that topic (there are a few so they're in Spoiler tags):

I have been reading 2920, Last Year of First Era and that is the ONLY reference to Sotha Sil having Dunmeri skin. But that series also states that Vivec is a tall Dunmer (not half-Dunmer and half-Chimer) and Almalexia has black hair (not red), so the debate hasn't finished.
My opinion is still that it would make sense for Lord Sotha Sil to be Dunmeri, but he doesn't look like it in-game and the only in-game reference can't be trusted.

Almalexia may have changed his skin to Chimer for some reason or other, maybe she took offence at him embracing the change.

As a Dunmer, I take offence to her taking offence to that! :tongue:
But why would she dislike the Dunmeri appearence? She is our their god after all. :shrug:

She seems more of a tyrant God than a motherly God, and Sotha Sil embracing the Dunmer skin tone (coupled with him being in the same class as her) takes her pedestal a step down, in other words, e isn't lording it up over the people that he can look Chimer, which makes people think of the Tribunal as Gods who are Dunmer, not supernatural beings, making er less revered (the fact she was insane at the time also makes this theory probable imo)

Fair enough, but how can she change him to Chimer? If Sotha Sil took the Dunmer "curse" upon himself by a Daedric Prince(ss) how can Almalexia change him (after not being able to renew her divinity)?

Pssst...MK, come here and sort this out.... :whisper:

A bit like http://images.amazon.com/images/G/01/dvd/aplus/007/600/goldfinger_2_600.jpg

:P, I doubt see actually made him Cimer, she just made him APEEAR Chimer, with the age old excuse Magic

Maybe I have to release http://i51.tinypic.com/1pz56u.jpg. That'll clear everything up :tongue:

I always assumed that after the Tribunal murdered Nerevar they immediately used the Heart to ascend to godhood, then Azura showed up and cursed the Chimer.
But, the Heart helped them to resist the magic (at the very least, just the skin and eye change, not the actual curse of eternal ill luck), so the Tribunal retained their Chimer appearance.

There's a 75% chance that I'm wrong though. :teehee:

I actually think you're right. The Tribunal were gods and resisted the conversion as much as they wanted to. Alma, the more vain one, chose to remain Chimer. Sil, the remorseful one, chose to bear his new people's burden and turned ashen.

Sounds right, and that's what I want to believe (not the part about the Tribunal murduring Nerevar though). But that doesn't explain why we see him as a...thing in Tribunal.

Isn't it pretty well confirmed that they did?


http://www.imperial-library.info/content/thirty-six-lessons-obscurity-and-deception


I assume he was supposed to look decayed, although I don't remember how long he was supposed to have been dead, not that long, I don't think. He ended up just having an odd skin tone that didn't look much like anything.

If by his own power he was gray, then in the absence of his power, he was not gray.

The Mystery is dead.

He wasn't gray by his own power..more like Almalexia and half of Vivec were gold by their power. Sotha Sil chose not to modify Azura's curse on his skin and eyes.

If Sotha wanted, he could look Chimer. But why look so splendorous, when you feel more connected with your own people? Alamexia is extremely vain, so it's no surprise she would still want to look above everyone else. And Vivec...well he's a weirdo.

It was stated by Almalexia that Sotha loved the Dunmer people most of all. She then snidely added "I know not why."

Seems to be the most reasonable to me. He both embraces the curse but also reminds his people about what they once were.

power

And a mystery like this deserves an answer like this. That's all.

It takes no concentrated effort to maintain an appearance that's the new default for your race. In this regard Sotha Sil is exercising his power by NOT exercising any power, which does make him a mysterious and imposing figure compared even to the other Tribunes, but not so mysterious that we can't understand what's going on. It might be a political move and it might be rooted in genuine affection for the Dunmer, his people, but he's not using a spell to make himself ashen. That's just what happened to his body when Azura cursed him. Almalexia on the other hand chose to transform her skin. She didn't revert when killed although I'm sure that's a game mechanic. Same with Twice Vehk.

Well, however it's figured. The authors neglect the fate of his skin for the sake of forum, I suppose.

Also, I just found this, while looking for Sotha Sil: here's http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bq6_cE4BJJQ/TCoJrXaWalI/AAAAAAAAZos/G1xfIEMsjtA/s1600/Roy%2BVolkmann%2B%C3%97%2BNatasha%2BHenstridge%2B-%2BSil%2Bwith%2BH.R.%2BGiger%27s%2BHarkonnen%2BCapo%2BChair%2B-%2B005.jpg.

When a body is drained of blood it turns pale,. He is a corpse.

But he was only dead for a few days tops. It seems VERY unlikely to go from a Dunmer skin tone to a near-human one in a few days.

Or he hasn't seen the sun in over 1500 years.

If somone passes out, they will also become pale, quite a bit of skin coloration is due to blood flow. Hellmouth also brings up a very valid point. In RL you know who visits a tanning booth this time of year, at least in the central United States.

I wonder if it's symbolic of him uploading his essence to his supercomputer to achieve a personal sort of CHIM.

Something I always thought was a fun possibility given that his city seems so modern-tech rather than dwemer steampunk tech was that he saw what the dwemer had made and using his god awareness bettered it into his own information age style technology. This would also play well with the commentary on other goings on in his city that seem incomprehensible and not ready for mortal eyes.

Leaving a withered husk for Alm's crazy self to "kill" while he knew he was beyond death.

Makes me wonder what the fifth era thinks of Sil.

Not every form of transcendence is CHIM. You don't have to apply that word so liberally to every unexplained thing. Sotha Sil either didn't know or care about CHIM. Neither did Almalexia. That was more Vivec's thing.

If he uploaded himself into a computer, it was literally just that - uploading himself into a computer. That's not the same as CHIM or even a representation of it. Well, maybe a minor one, since CHIM is supposedly being aware of the interconnectedness of all things while simultaneously retaining your individuality.

Except Sotha didn't care about his individuality any more, I don't think. Only his machines. It's more like he zero-summed in a fashion and was just an empty, drooling shell with Almalexia cut him down.

A letter from Divayth Fry in the obscure texts indicates that Sotha Sil, the city, is still there long after the events of Morrowind and that it has many inhabitants. We only saw the inner workshop of Sotha Sil where he constructed his fabricants. Perhaps others are carrying on his work in his absence. Maybe we haven't heard the last of House Sotha, but I strongly suspect it won't come up again in any future games. That bird has flown.

Just like Vivec. Did he achieve CHIM? Did he die at the hands of the Incarnate? Was he taken by Daedra? Did he simply throw on an old brown cloak and retire to the Ashlands to herd Netch and insects? Does it matter? His role in the narrative has ended. As MK put it, he was a beautiful character. The most fully realized character in all of fiction in a lot of ways. But his place in the narrative is over. He served his purpose in History. Whether or not he achieved CHIM is really not relevant to the future of the Elder Scrolls.

I prefer to think there's more than a passing probability he did, or attempted to, because I like the guy. But I doubt we'll see him again.