Hey guys so im a little confused on the dunmer belief system. I know they worshiped the tribunal who ruled them until the end of Morrowind, i also know they worship Azura but i don't know why, didn't she curse them, and do they worship any other gods. Also im confused on how their ancestor worship works. Thanks!

The Chimer worshiped the Three Good Daedra, also known as the Anticipations: Azura, Boethiah, and Mephala. After the war of the first council, when they turned into Dunmer, they worshiped the Tribunal, but revered the Anticipations (sort of like saints, basically precursors to the Tribunal). After the fall of the Tribunal, many returned to the worship of the daedra, and other's turned to the Nine (Eight) Divines.

As for ancestor worship, they respect and revere them, and employ sacred necromancy to keep them in this world. Here's a http://imperial-library.info/content/morrowind-ancestors-and-dunmer about it.

Plus, there are the various actual Saints the Dunmer also revere; Veloth, Nerevar, Jiub, Seryn, etc.

Ancestor worship is a convoluted concept at the best of times. Particularly when dealing with creatures who beleive themselves decended from gods.

On that note, the Altmer view their worship of the Divines as a form of Ancestor worship. Aedra means, in Aldmeris, Ancestor (Roughly anyway).

In order to understand Dunmer religious beleifs, you probably need a bit of a history lesson... First off, the Chimer, the ancestors of the Dunmer, were essentially Altmer who left Summerset during a period when the Altmer were switching from the worship of their Et'ada ancestors, to a more structured worship of the 8 Divines. Well... Technicly 9 at the time...

The Daedra Boethia consumed/controled/impersonated the Aedra Trinimac, and tricked/convinced the Chimer prophet Veloth to worship the 'Daedra' instead. Daedra means, varriably, 'Better Ancestor' or 'Not Ancestor'. This led to the creation of the Psijic endevour (not to be confused with the Psijic Order) in which the purpose is to trancend the weakness of their Aedra ancestors. Remember, the Aedra supposedly gave up most of their divinity creating Nirn.

The switch to Daedra worship brought with it a particular division, that being the 'Anticipations of Veloth', AKA Azura, Boethia and Mephala, presumably the Daedric Princes involved with teh Chimer's cultural shift, and the 4 Corners of the House of Troubles, Shaeogorath, Merunes Dagon, Molag Bal and Malacath (Who, ironicly, is said to have been created through Boethia's corruption of Trinimac).

This of course only includes 7 of the 16 Daedric princes, and we really have no further information on how the Dunmer view these 'others'.

As far as the Tribunal goes, there is most likely alot of revisionist history. First, the Anticipations are named as the Daedra who bowed to the divine power of the Tribunal. The House of Troubles are those who rebelled against them. Since we know Azura was none to fond of the Tribunal, we can assume this is propiganda on the side of Vivec, Almalexia and Sotha Sil. Most likely, they came up with that explination as to not cause too much turmoil when they announced themselves gods.

The one thing we don't really have information about is about how the Dunmer view Talos. As a general rule, the Dunmer in Morrowind were unpleasent if not outright hostile to the idea of the 9 Divines. However, despite that, Talos, Mara and Zenethar sent Avatar's to aid the Nerevarine, though discretely.

The Dunmer did not approve of the Nine, let alone stand Talos who was basically the guy that forced them into the Empire to begin with. That these Aedra help you says more about them then it does about the Dunmer religious views during Morrowind.

Since when do the Dunmer hate Tiber Septium, he agreed to their treaty, no one was forced into anything

He's still occupying their land and controlling how they live their lives (to an extent). Not to mention that Tiber leveled Mournhold before a treaty could be signed, and that the king of Morrowind could be said to be an Imperial puppet.

Although after Imperial Agents stopped both Dagoth Ur AND Mehrunes Dagon, a few have converted to +/- Nineism

The Dunmer aren't particularly fond of Eachother, let alone other races. Thats a given.

However, Talos's apothesis is a direct manifestation of the Psijic Endevour on the same, if not greater scale than that of the Tribunal. As such, i would imagine they hold something of a grudging respect for him. Assuming, of course, they give and credance to his godhood at all. They tend to be very Anti-Altmer, so they may just do it out of spite.

Tiber leveled Mournhold? Never knew, do you know of any books or what not where I can read about that?


Grudging respect maybe, but actual worship of the guy who brought their province into the Empire? Doubt it, they hated being part of the Empire so I see no reason why they should start worshiping him. Though of course after the fall of the Tribunal and the Oblivion crisis everything is left for grasps and it's entirely possible that some Dunmer flock to the Nine simply because they can not stand the Daedra... I still doubt that they would worship Talos though.


Assuming they actually know/accept any of that... The Nerevarine could done whatever he or she did without belonging to the Empire... The same goes for the CoC... Though they will likely thank Martin for that. On the other hand the Dunmer might just blame the Septims for letting it happen in the first place. With those people you just never know.

It's mentioned in http://imperial-library.info/content/skyrim-biography-barenziah-v1 and http://imperial-library.info/content/skyrim-real-barenziah-v1. I'm not sure if it's ever explored.

I think its a stretch to say that, with the exception of the Tribunal Temple, the Daedric faith system really involves any kind of worship at all. A reverance, sure, but worship implies the acceptance that something is your better. The basis of the psijic endevour is to trancend divinity, thus becomming better than your betters.

Something I'm wondering is, do any Dunmer actively worship Lorkhan? They do have a sort of reverence for him (contrary to the other merrish races) if I remember correctly.

Their reverance is only in regards to the Psijic Endevour, as far as i know. Since they are still something of an offshoot of the ancient Altmer base of Ancestor Worship (Again, i really don't think that word is appropriate, but thats what we're told) they probably have more of a love-hate relationship. They respect and revere him as a trial they have to overcome, but he's still amongst the most evil of the evil

That doesn't sound quite right?

I suppose, think of it as how a Christian would view Satan. They don't like him, but they acknolge his power and presence. He is a representation of what they strive to overcome, and thus revered as a 'holy' obsticle.

The Dunmer still follow the idea that Lorkhan was somehow involved in stripping their ancestors of their divinity through duplicity. Overcomming that shorcomming, and thus overcomming Lorkhan's trechery, and regaining their deserving godhood is a philosophical base to the Dunmer religion.

I thought their view of Lorkhan is that he made the Endeavor possible by creating the mortal plane, and as such it isn't a "trap". They definitely wouldn't think of the Endeavor as "overcoming", as CHIM is apparently a state better than what their proto-selves had pre-Mundus.

I could be convinced to agree with that perspective. Regardless, i don't think that the reverance for Lorkhan approaches anything like what they have for Azura, Mephala and Boethia.