The answer is obvious: Vivec lied about the Dwemer.

If god-Vivec has nightmares in his dream-world (and I reckon he has little but), the Dwemer must feature prominently.

I wonder what Yagrum could have told us about the Tribunal, were he more lucid.

Don't be dense. Read Vivec's dialogue again, it is a blatant admission that he is not omniscient.

"I have no idea what happened to the Dwemer. I have no sense of them in the timeless divine world outside of mortal time. And, in fact, if I did believe they existed, I would be in no hurry to make contact with them. They may, with some justice, hold the Dunmer race responsible for their fate. My intuition is that they are gone forever -- and that is perfectly fine with me."--Vivec

The first sentence is "I have no idea what happened to the Dwemer." How is this omniscience? Vivec doesn't know what exactly happened to them or where they went, he just knows that he cannot sense them anywhere, despite having senses that reach everywhere.

Though I will agree that this shouldn't be taken as strict evidence that the Dwemer are nonexistent - afterall, if the Dwemer did succeed at attaining some sort of deity, it's arguable that they could make themselves undetectable. But, that's a rabbit trail, and one with no evidence for or against. This sort of argument is along the same lines the idea that maybe Yagrum did find some Dwemer, and they're the ones who wiped his memory.

Also, in the context of these statements, and given that he knows you've already met Yagrum, there is no need for him to point out to you that there is one left - you already know that, he knows you already know that.


And still, nobody is asking the right questions: How/why was the Numidium meant to be used more than once, was it a mold or a literal vehicle of transcendence (that is, how literal was it meant to be), what was the extent of the Dwemer's immortality before their disappearance, were their souls in the Dwemer's bodies during the Battle of Red Mountain (that is, was it their souls being bound that caused them to disappear, or were their souls already bound prior to disappearance), was it Kagranac striking the Heart that made the Dwemer disappear, or was it Vivec removing their immortality that made their shells of a body turn to dust? These are the questions to ask.

Well, when Arniel stabs at a soul gem with a weakened Keening, he gets svcked into it. So I'd assume that something similar happened with the Dwemer, just on a larger scale, using the Heart, a fully-working Keening, and an entire race.

I confess I haven't read the dialogue and was gleaning what I could from the words of others. Now I feel foolish.

Oh come off it, we all know the Dwemer will come back, some people may not want them too but the day Beth start running out of ideas they will return. It may even be as early as the next game or maybe their return may cause men and the Thalmor to join forces because they will be pissed.

Imagine, the high elves siding with the people they want to destroy to survive. It would also be the perfect time for the Thalmor leaders who have lived far too long for their own good and remember far too much to be gotten rid of by either their fellow Altmer, maybe even the Dwemer themselves. Also, a fundamental change in the political structure in Cyrodil could also be addressed.

A Dwemer return would be a hell of alot better and interesting then a dragon break thats for sure.

The return of the Dwemer would destroy the Dwemer, and it would destroy them retroactively.
No matter how well written they would turn out to be, by the very nature of their presence their mystery would shatter.
Thus the thing that makes them the most interesting would be no more, and Bethesda loses a very good ingredient.

In my opinion bringing the Dwemer back would just be stupid.

I have to admit, I'm conflicted about this. Part of me agrees with you, and a couple of quotes from Tolkien kind of sums it up. It applies to a lot things in the TES universe.

But the same idea applies to a lot of unexplored lore in TES. On topic, this applies to the dwemer, but it also applies to Akavir, Alinor, Valenwood, Black Marsh, Aetherius, the Snow Prince, the Hist, the Landfall, etc.

People need to decide for themselves which of these things are okay to explore and which are not. If done properly, they can be touched upon without the mystery being broken. What makes the dwemer sacred and not Alinor or the Snow Prince? It's a matter of opinion, I think.

Again, I think they can come back without ruining the mystery of where they (or their kin) had been.

I don't think the Dwemer returning would ruin it for fans, except the lore buffs. Beth would write them back in well, whether they would be friendly or the enemy is up in the air.

I honestly don't think that they're that incompetent to pull the ol' "The extinct guyz are back" after they did the same thing with Dragons. I really think it would take too much time and effort to do it justice without coming off looking like TES:O.

Dwemer belong in the past. I don't want to see them up close. A single amnesiac is enough, in my opinion.

I wrote a http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1328475-return-of-the-dwemer-bad-idea/ a while back that I think makes a good argument for why the Dwemer should never return.