After going through all these torture... Death traps of the dwemer, I've come to the realization that they'd just kill and torture everyone, bleh. They seem like really mean mer. Yargum Bargum was a teddy bear compared to these guys.

They managed to get on everyone's bad side. I haven't read a positive external account of the Dwemer ever, I think.

I don't think they did it out of spite or viciousness.
The traps seem more like security than anything.

Did anyone notice that Falion, the guy that cures your Vampirism, says he's spoken with Dwemer?

Last, but certainly not least, we have http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Falion, who claims he's seen Dwemer. Being a Redguard, it seems out of the question that he could possibly have been alive during their time, Telvanni magics included. Perhaps he's referring to Yagrum Bagarn? Perhaps he merely meant he saw a Dwemer Spectre. Or perhaps the Dwemer still exist somewhere, or there's just one more Deep Elf still roaming around somewhere. A very heavy claim that, unfortunately, we get no more information about.

Did anyone notice that Falion, the guy that cures your Vampirism, says he's spoken with Dwemer?

Isn't he a dunmer who claims to have also explored other worlds? I assumed he was a less-incistuous version of Divayth Fyr, and chilled with dwemer before they disappeared.

In a related note I have always wondered how Dwemer Animunculi were "Programed". And don't say "it's magic".

I found a journal in Arkathand(sp?) that stated that the Soul gems were not the source of power in the Dwemer machines, but that no discernible source could be found with in them. So there is some magic of some form or another used to a degree. There must be. Perhaps the soul gems simply posses the primal nature of the being trapped within, and transfer that nature to the Machine?

If you want new, awesome, Morrowindish stuff, look to MK. If you want things more along the lines of Daggerfall or Oblivion, look to other gamesas writers.

Tbh, in the case of Skyrim, it is like they finally started putting their minds around some of the stuff MK wrote. We got something that was both a rehashing of previous theoretical lore stuff, and a sort of middle ground between Morrowind/standard gamesas sides.

[EDIT]: One other note: "I also heard a strange story about the centurion spider that we captured and sent back to Cyrodiil. The ship captain I hired wrote to me with an odd story. He said that the spider nearly broke through its cage several times while near Vvardenfell, but once he left the Sea of Ghosts, the centurion suddenly stopped working. What happened next shows that he had more wits than I gave him credit for. He ordered the ship turned about and as they approached Vvardenfell again, the centurion began moving just as suddenly. This is a curious phenomenon and certainly deserves more investigation." - http://www.imperial-library.info/content/morrowind-senilius-report

The only way I can see to interpret this is that the constructs only work when they are near the Heart (or just Vvardenfell itself). So how does that work in Skyrim?

Falion is a Redguard, actually. That does sound far more like an http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Faelian name, though, or Merish in general.

Vvardenfell's Dwemer were separate from the Hammerfell and Skyrim Dwemer, I assume. Different tech and culture. The Heart was the key to the Vvardenfell constructs; soul-gems seem to be the same thing with regards to the Skyrim constructs.

Before Skyrim the assumption was that power or control signals were broadcasted from Dwemer towers. There were Animuculi in Hammerfell aswell.

Really? I'd always thought it had something to do with the Heart, and I'd heard others say the same.
But soop's post makes me think it isn't the soul gems anyways, so... :shrug:

Huh. But still, powerful wizards of any race can live for really long times, and I think the Ragada arrived in Tamriel before the Dwemer disappeared, right?

Nope. The Ra Gada arrived in Tamriel a little over a hundred years after the Battle of Red Mountain. It's also worth noting that Falion mentions he has seen a Dwemer as an example of the crazy things he has seen. I imagine if he had seen the Dwemer people casually as they still lived in Tamriel, it would not have been worth mentioning then.