would the official plug-ins for morrowind (seige at firemoth, helm of tohan) are they cannon lore wise? if so is there any lore about firemoth or the helm?

Yes, they're official. The only lore pertaining to them that I'm aware of is contained in NPC dialogue and journal entries in the actual game.

It's mostly fluff, an excuse to insert some more action and enchanted items. Nothing that strongly affects the overall world lore.

Seeing as there is nothing that contradicts them, then I'd say they're good. If you started asking about certain Oblivion DLC, then there'd be something to argue over.

What gives with that stupid shrine anyway?

Are you talking about the Sithis statue?

Indeed. The statue of the concept of nothing personified.

Did I miss the rationalisation of it somewhere along the way?

I thought it was arguably a misinterpretation of Lorkhan.
Though the likelihood of me being incorrect is rather high.

It was probably knocked up by an intern on his lunch break.

Apparently Todd thinks that familiar fantasy tropes sell better than originality.

Sithis worshippers (not just the Dark Brotherhood) have rather literally made something out of nothing. There HAS to be some Daedra lord behind it, probably Mephala. That said, they think Sithis is real, so they create a statue of what they think he looks like. Nothing lore-breaking about that, really.

I remember that this was controversial from the beginning, though. It's a little questionable to give Sithis a body in the way other gods have.

I like to think that Mephala is behind everything to some degree or another, being the motivating force behind opposing sides in a war, the force behind its eventual peace, and then its subsequent dissolution. But I'm a bit of a Romantic that way I guess. However, that being said, I do agree with you, but that's just because I have a very Elven outlook on mythology (like a lot of people here).

Also, shrine blessings do not derive their power from the God they are consecrated towards (with the possible exception of Sheogorath's Altar in the Sacellum Arden Sul). They're very magickal objects that have been enchanted heavily.

He even said that himself.

That being said, I see nothing lore breaking about a Sithis statue, it's not like we actually SAW Sithis, a statue is just a statue, it doesn't necessarily represent what its subject actually looks like, or indeed, something that exists at all. The Dark Brotherhood already talk about Sithis as some sort of anthropomorphic personification of the void, so it doesn't seem too much of a stretch that some Sithis worshipers might have thought to take that idea further and model their own representation of Sithis, this doesn't mean Sithis actually looks like that, or has a form at all.

But all that aside, I'd imagine that unless it is contradicted somewhere else, or Bethesda officially says that it "never happened", we can assume that all content within the downloadable plugins for both Morrowind and Oblivion is, for all intents and purposes, canon, just as the games are.

It's not as bad as it looks folks. No need to break out the outright denial just yet. It is somewhat counter productive even as people who created the statue (be it the actual artist or the Crimson Scars) must have had some line of thought in creating a statue.

I'll preface this with an earlier explanation. It doesn't go very deep, but I'll try to clarify and elaborate on specific assertions on request.



So it's possible to represent Death through Lorkhan. While Death does not imply half of everything in excistence as Sithis does, it does cover that which the Dark Brotherhood is worshipping. This means that conflict is not between Sithis, Sithis and Sithis but rather between the Cult of Lachance and the Cult of the Crimson Scars.

Lachance sees Death as a fundamental force and as such does not give it a physical representation. The Crimson Scars apparently have a more anthropomorphic vision and represent Death through Lorkhan. Both are valid visions, though it can be said that the Crimson Scars are more accurate.

So the only actual conflict here is between the believes of different cults dedicated to Murder. If only the cults of the Nine received this much attention..... <_<