I'm sure this has already been discussed to death in the more than 8 years since Morrowind's release, but I only recently discovered http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Senilius%27_Report for myself while playing. What caught my eye was the occurrence with the Centurion Spider being shipped off to Cyrodiil. If this is more than a one-off occurence, and this would happen with any centurion leaving Vvardenfell, why would this be happening? If it was intentionally "programmed" into the centurions, why would they do that? What motive would the Dwemer have for stopping any centurion from leaving Vvardenfell "alive?" And if it wasn't intentional, why would this be happening then? Is there something on Vvardenfell that they need to stay near to function?

The Dwemer constucts are (usually) powered by steam. They are cojurations tied to a specific site like a Daedra guarding a tomb, or they depend on a temperature difference supplied by being near a Dwemer ruin for power. The Dwemer did this to attept to prevent thier own costructs from being used against them by invaders, and for ease of transport when they migrated wesward along the nothern coasts of Tamriel. Edit I made up the "ease of transport" The Dwemer never really had a large population and used the Centurions primarily for defence of thier cities from invaders and each other. They probably stopped thier internal fightring around the same time the Velothi peoples arrived in Vvardenfall and focused on allowing thier constructs to be used anywhere on the island to kill off the Chimer invaders and thier foul Daedra worshipping ways.

I heard tell of Centurions in Skyrim, not to mention the ones in Hammerfell as seen in the game Redguard.

So... there's probably something in the Dwemer ruins that powers their robots.

Let's just say "magic" and call it a day.

Their enchanters' motive was prevention of further corruption of the Heart. Every centurion, as every life, is a song in the chorus of God. If a foreigner captured a centurion, the enchantments the dwemer formulated, to tap into that chorus, might be reverse engineered; or a spirit, which hadn't witnessed the Heart, may accidentally interface with the centurion's song (i.e., bunny rabbits and monkeys awaken and corrupt Being to lower gradients). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y15NnGZIBuM

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