I am starting to write a book that has a reasonably lengthy part that is written in the dragon tongue, but I would like to ask whether the Dragon Cult Leaders would actually write it in the style that I have, and more importantly are they capable of writing? or is that something that only the dragons themself do?

http://i1144.photobucket.com/albums/o483/Bassix/Rot_Se_Morokei03.png

Rot Se Morokei
Ahrk ond drey sahrot Drog Alduin ofan ok Aar morokei suleyk wah aak fin muz.
Daar suleyk lost wahlaan naal faal krein aak ful lun fin laas aak zii se joorre
Wah zin un drogge dun mu fen yah fin vahzah mulaag se daar suleyk.

Words of Morokei
And lo did mighty Lord Alduin give his servant Morokei power to guide the men.
This power was created by the sun and so leeches the life and spirit of mortals
To honor our lords grace we will seek the true strength of this power.

---

I am trying to make sure that the 'feel' of the dragon language is still in the words and the way that the sentences are structured, however I think I will no doubt need to create new words in the dragon tongue for things.

Is there some way that I can try and do this but still maintain good lore coherency?

EDIT: just to make it clear, this is my work, not me trying to decipher a word wall

I have no idea if the language is correct, but it is very likely that the dragonpriests who speak the dragon language are capable of writing in it as well. If documents were made along side the dragons then I would assume the dragons prefer to have it in their own language as their seems to be a general distaste for the normal common tongue that most people speak.
The priest in Labyrinthian for instance hates speaking in anything other then the dragon tongue, going so far as to have entire conversations with you before realizing that you don't understand what he's saying.

ok, so the priests would have written the language down on things, which fits into my understanding of the lore behind it so far.

But for things like research, would the dragon priests do any research? So my above story mentions the reasons behind why the priests would like to do research, but is this something that the dragons would allow to happen, ignore or encourage?

Research, as a way of trying to find out better ways to worship Alduin, or simple magic, technology probably yes.
As a way of understanding the universe or even who or what Alduin is? I doubt it, if I were Alduin I certainly wouldn't want something like that. Just think of the dragonrend debacle. Surely Alduin must have realized the power of his language and would not have wanted mere mortals to go around toying with it.

ok, so in the case of my vague story, where the power that Alduin gave Morokei was the Staff of Magnus, and learning about that would not in term end with knowledge about Alduin or any knew Thu'um making. so its all good.

Did Morokei actually have the Staff time out of mind, though? 'Cause in 3E 427 it was in a cave in Vvardenfell.

True, this would be rather hard to explain. The staff of Magnus seems to handle more like a Daedric artifact in the sense that it keeps switching owners. It has appeared in every game except for Oblivion according to UESP. So Morokei having the staff for thousands of years would be a bit hard to explain.

Not only the dragon priests knew how to read and write dragon language, but it seems common Nord knew as well. The word walls were raised to commemorate "trivial" occurences, like the death of a clansman or spouse, or to spread teachings of the "hoar father". It would make little sense if the Nord weren't able to read that, and it's inconceivable that the dragons would write such things themselves.

I find it unlikely that morokei would only acquire the staff after mournhold is destroyed. as this is where a collector has the staff according to the wiki.

I would like to explain it like this. Magnus made many of his staff, and Alduin who can travel to sovngarde could have also travelled to the rest of aetherius (although I cannot back this up) where he retrieved another staff from Magnus, possibly through ill means.


Could the existence of 2 staff of Magnus at the same time be posble? I know the staff is meant to leave its owner after a while so to not make the owner too powerful, but morokei had a) been buried with it tapped by savos aren while he was in the possession of the staff

The Staff of Magnus was found in a cave in Mount Kand. The PC had the option of selling it to the museum in Mournhold.


...eh. I don't like the taste of it. Pretty sure that's impossible. I think you're better off assuming that the Staff walked off of its own accord and some foolhardy adventurer got it into Morokei's hands between 3E 427 and whenever Savos soul-slaved his buds to hold Morokei.

What about if, the staff originally came to morokei, and then when he died it up and left, only to be brought back to morokei by the foolhardy adventurer. Perhaps some other dunmer.

That timeline seems to make sense... i think

Dragon Cult doesn't strike me as a terribly literary religion.

That seems like it would work. I'm iffy on Alduin giving it to him, but that's up to you, of course.

What if it works like Mehrune's Razor in Oblivion? Varsa Baalim was built to hold the Razor way back in the 1st era, but it was found on Vvardenfell in the late 3rd Era. But eventually, it made its way back to the temple. Artifacts have minds of their own and tend to wander, but it seems to me some of them have places and people that they prefer to be with.

Let's say Morokei was in possession of the Staff, but he died, and it went wandering. Eventually, the Staff was found by the Nerevarine, and sold in Mournhold. A theif stole it, and perhaps subconsciously guided by the Staff, found his way in Skyrim right around the time Alduin ressurected Morokei. Morokei killed the thief (or perhaps one of his thralls did it), and took the staff back.

I think this will have to be the best explanation, apart from the timeline, where the staff would have to make it to Morokei before Savos Aren finds him.

in regards top Alduin giving it to Morokei, all I can say is that I think Alduin would have been the original entity to find the staff, or atleast one of his lesser dragon allies, and since the staff is almost useless to the dragons, as well as its powers being not well known to them, also considering that the dragons believed that they were the most powerful, and how could a simple staff contain more power than a dragon. etc. Arrogance from Alduins part mostly contributed to him imparting the staff to Morokei so that Morokei can use it to help control his human slaves... etc.

I think this would have to be one of the more convincing stories,
after the dragon war, and between Shalidor finding Labyrinthian and building stuff, I would say that the staff would have up and left to go to where ever it was found in daggerfall. which does make some sense

It's odd that they have books to begin with. The fact that ruined books exist in Nordic barrows proves that Nord culture had already advanced considerably by Ysgramor's time. I would have expected the Nords of that era to be illiterate, only passing on tales though oral tradition and the occasional rune stone.

This is a good idea OP< I may do something similar once Uni closes for Easter next month

I agree. I always pictured the original Nords as resembling humans around the time of the last ice age. Eh, I'd just call it a goof by the level designers.
Like how in Fallout 3 there was Jet lying around in 200-year old Vaults, despite it being a drug that was only invented 40 years earlier on the other side of the country.

hmm, well my story for the existence of the account of Morokei and the Staff of Magnus, will be put down onto a stone tablet that will have been found by Shalidor as he was exploring/building his Labyrinth

so it wont be found in a book by itself, but rather in a more contemporary summary by Shalidor, and other even more contemporary versions with additional notes on the translation and interpretation etc.

this in my eyes will be the most lore friendly, as well as the most realistic