It occurred to me today while thinking about it, that the genesis of the Orsimer is strangely tied to the Chimer's war against the Dwemer. According to lore, Trinimac lead his people in war against the Chimer, who sought the technology of the Dwemer, and was subsequently devoured by Boethiah, twisting him into Malacath and transforming his followers into the Orsimer. However, Malacath himself says that this is not a literal recounting of what occurred - we can only assume it has some symbolic meaning relating to the reality of their genesis. Further, the Orsimer originated in Hammerfell, the centre of the Dwemer's power and the site of their transformation (they moved north after the arrival of the Redguards).

The orsimer are by no means a stupid race. Their armor and weapons are among the finest in Tamriel; that kind of smithing talent seems incredibly unlikely to have originated from their constant forced nomadism and barbarian culture. It seems more like the remnants of a deeper knowledge lost and carried on through traditional practice.

I'd like to know what you guys think. Is it possible that the Dwemer did something in the course of their war that twisted them into their current form? It seems a possible explanation for the sudden disappearance of an entire people, and the unexpected emergence of the Orsimer.

The fate of the Dwemer has been known for a long time now... let me see if I can dig it up for you. And the Chimer didn't seek the tech of the Dwemer, they sought to worship the Daedra in "peace" (i.e., away from the Altmer, who tend to be massive downers at most Daedric-fueled parties). They actually warred with the Dwemer just as much as with the Nords.

The fate of the Dwemer was, by the way, to give up themselves to join with/become Numidium... in blunt terms, people like to say that they "became its skin". I'm trying to find a decent source that goes into more detail and does a better job at explaining it than myself.

What? No.

The Orcs existed long before the Dwemer became Numidium.

no the dwemer were athiests, they unmade them selves...Probably, or maybe they just became teh divine skin of thier elf made god

The orsimer followed trimac (spelling), when he was corrupted so were his followers.

Not quiet "atheist"... more like... um... "Banol Ascensionists"?

I've always wondered how much you had to like Trinimac to become an Orc.

You've got your story mixed up. Triminac opposed the velothi exodus of the chimer to morrowind, (an important thing to note, the velothi exodites were leaving a culture a disagreed with, they did not know about the dwemer who were already in morrowind) and Boethiah retaliated. The center of dwemeri power was in Morrowind, not Hammerfell. Hammerfell only had a single dwemer clan living there, and they did not leave morrowind until AFTER the chimer arrived. To put it simply, the orcs cannot be the dwemer, because orcs were already around before the chimer met the dwemer in morrowind, and orcs and dwemer existed during some of the same time periods.

I stand well corrected, thank you all. Having only started playing Morrowind in the last month leading up to Skyrim's release, I find the amount of in-game lore more than a bit overwhelming. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining

Orcs are not dwemer, but they do seem to have a certain affinity for one another. There's orcs' industriousness and metallurgical skill, and then there was Dumac the Dwarf-orc pantomiming the role of Malacath at Red Mountain.

This would be an excellent heresy.

Eeyup

The dwemer were not atheists, but they doubted the gods as being the all powerful beings claimed. They also sought to become a god themselves, and do what the altmer have wetdreams about every night, reverse themselves back to being gods (save for the destroy mundus bit). The goal of the Numidium was wholly merrish, but with the added step further of going back to when Anu and Padomay first clashed, not just the Dawn.

Also, I might add that the Orsimeri reputation for armoring is due to necessity. They had to protect themselves. Breton and Raga raids were nearly constant. Yet they had limited resources. Via techno-cultural Darwinism, they had to make full use of every single morsel of material. Nothing went to waste. It couldn't. They would die otherwise.