This has been bugging me awhile, and I was hoping that a good explanation could be found for why the daedra do not see to have as strong a presence in Skyrim. I might just be looking at this wrong, but there are many summon spells missing, as well as numerous daedric artifacts that have been corrupted and possibly temporarily lost (Azura's Star, Oghma Infinium, Skeleton Key, Mace of Molag Bal, Mehrunes' Dagger, etc).

I understand that the towers kept the daedra out of Mundus, or at the very least, prevented them from entering forcefully. At no point were they unable to be invited in. Then boom, we have Red Tower down, White-Gold Tower, down, and then it gets a nice cosmic bandaid from Martin Septim's sacrifice to fix the problem. My personal misinterpretation of the dragon statue is that it functions as a replacement stone for the Amulet of Kings, which kind of makes sense considering that it is composed of the souls of those emperors and slathered with some of dat Aka action. If this is the case though, why does it appear harder than ever before for daedra to enter Mundus. How come we didn't just go back to the normal state of affairs.

Fellow lorebuffs, help a brotha out.

Maybe because groups like the Thalmor and the Vigilants of Stendarr actively persecute people who don't worship the proper gods, so perhaps knowledge of certain summon spells has been locked away or destroyed by good old fashioned book burnings. As for the artifacts being lost or corrupted, probably the same reason. Daedra worship is at an all time low popularity, so the people who guard the artifacts have a much more limited support network than they once did.

Perhaps are Draken stone sitting at the temple of the one is more powerful then White Gold was. It did take a chomp outta Dagon and reverse the Mundus from dissolving into Oblivion. Can't say for certain though. Sheogorath's presence was powerful enough to pull you into whatever whacky realm him and his insane emperor friend were having tea in. And even a nice wardrobe change to boot.

I'm thinking this is probably the case. I forgot about that whole thing with Sheogorath and all, so I'm sure the dragon statue is either a right awful stone, or it isn't a stone at all.

It was an invitation, just like the portal to the Shivering Isles. You'd have to embrace insanity to go into an abandoned, spider web ridden wing of an ancient palace just because some Bosmer begger asked you to. It's like following a stranger into a dark alley. You own that decision and the consequences that come with it.

But it really wasn't a invitation as much as it was a request, and unlike entrance to the Isles, Sheo wasn't probably expecting you, nor did he seem like he was going to leave any time soon till tea with Pelagius was all well and done. The believe the fact that Sheo was trotting outside the Isles has obvious effects on the area around him. Hell, the fact he can abandon them for lengthy periods of time is interesting enough. (Perk of being of CoC/Random PC from Oblivion perhaps?)