Introduction

I always was curious as to the bell hammer and it's connection to the bells which have their own sounds. As we have seen with the game morrowind only important people or events have voice and unique sound effects. The sound of a shield clash was the same in oblivion as it was in morrowind except for a slight change. So it is at the very least noteworthy and at the very most an intended and important game play mechanic.

Important: Posting in this thread should be intelligible and organized, do not post things like "yah I leik totallayl agre on dat on". Post things like "I think the idea behind somber bell tones fits in well with the "sleeper" theme of house dagoth."


Now that all that is out of the way feel free to post your input and ideas and if you personally have discovered any sort of correlations or symbolic references please post them. Also feel free to post images of the items relevent to this topic.

Possibly for ceremonial, or ritual, use
edit- Perhaps something to do with sleepers ascending?

Perfect example of a good post by the way.

Yes I think ritual is very strong in morrowind and not just with the cult however it can't be ignored that none of the other shrines have any sort of cerimonial and unique sound that comes with them. You can't sit and pray in the chaples and leaving offerings on the pads does nothing really. However ringing a bell makes a sound.

Notice the proboscus on the Ascended Sleepers? Flute-and-Pipe Ogres.

I AM OLDER THAN MUSIC.


So it shows up here and there.

The disharmonic tones are unnerving to say the least. The first time I tapped one of the bells, my skin crawled. :cold:

In the Sixth House mod by Endrek, striking the bells in a certain order has a special result.
Perhaps a similar use is to be found in the GOTY.

I definitely agree that it possibly has something to do with sleepers ascending. As Paw-Prints mentioned, I AM OLDER THAN MUSIC, music plays a very important role in the sixth house, mainly because of the tonal architecture that the Heart uses, so the sixth house has created a symbolism and ritual all all around this idea of tones. Notice that the Ascended Sleepers have flute-tentacles, which they occasionally play in their idle animation.

I'm most definitely say that they are used for a ritual in creating Ascended Sleepers.

See this is a good thread, it has a warm smell to it.

I would also like to point out that the ears of ash slaves are nowhere near as developed as the ears of ash gouls. The slave and lower classes all have less musically enclined structure. I do ownder is there a script to the bells do they actually do anything?

I don't think so.
Just a cool little extra they put in there.
They are fun to try to make a tune out of them though.

Not to mention tonal architecture, the doom drum, the fifteen-and-one golden tones, sunder and keening, and all the other music and sound related stuff the Dwemer were going on about. They seemed to think the world was a song.

Not to mention that first Era Allesians also gave one hell of a concert, took them 1008 years to clean up their Palace Hotel room.

I like the one person's idea(I can't think of who) who made it so that if you struck them in the correct order, you'd be transported to another 6th House base. Completely fan-made, but cool nonetheless.

Divinity is measured in tones. I'd say the Sixth House sleepers found pleasure in differing tones of sound as well.

I think it's a hammer that rings bells. Pretty solid connection right there. If you have bells, you need a way to ring them. You can't hit them with your weapons, that'd wreck tools you need for other things! And those caves aren't often located in places where a rope pulley system is likely to last long. Between flooded caves, magma streams, magic-dripping Cthulhu monsters, and rope-munching rats, the most effective way to ring a giant cast-iron bell is clearly to hit it with something that isn't likely to be stolen by anybody but the PC who has 8 strength-boosting items equipped and a case of sticky fingers.

I also think you're putting too much stock in the predictability of the "why" behind game mechanics.

I also ALSO think this question is phrased awkwardly.

The bells, clearly, are important. Considering they are a central feature of a 6th House base, obviously they are of importance to the Dreamers. A better question is "Why might the bells be important to the ceremonies performed at these alters and the people contributing to them?"

My knowledge of 6th House lore isn't terribly in-depth or I'd try for an answer. But I really think the hammer is nothing but a hammer until you want to have fun with making things up out of thin air about the hypothetical symbolic importance of its design and how the weilder uses it during ceremonies we never see.

First of all, to keep the post on-topic, I though I would mention the drums played in the Corprusarium. The one's there said it calmed the Corprus beasts. Simply put, I would say that the bells, along with the "Flute-and-Pipe Ogres", are just a way to control and command the ranks gifted with lower intelligence.



And I also thought I should say that, if you start threads in the Lore forum, there really isn't any need for "guidelines" such as those, even though I can understand your caution. Most people here (except for me, apparently) seem to know their grammar :angel:
If this tread was moved here from somewhere else, then I guess my words are meaningless.
:foodndrink:


Well, another thing in the TES universo totally un-Tolkienish.

The OP sounded like a high school essay prompt, no offense.

Carrickfergus hit it right on the head though, there really isn't much more to it than a hammer that rings bells. It has a unique sound effect because it was part of the Main Quest, which is where you find all the unique sound effects and voice acting in Morrowind.

That said, music as a whole is indeed very important in the Elder Scrolls universe. Proweler pointed out its importance to the Dwemer, but there are also other examples. The Nord's thu'um, though it's more of a yell than what we would call music, seems to work the same way as the Dwemer's tonal magic. From http://www.imperial-library.info/jobasha/lahs_03.shtml:

"Dhavin speculates that the thu'um may not be entirely natural. He lists several well-known accounts linking magic with music or song, and he suggests that when one learns the thu'um, one is actually learning a specialized kind of magic. Svontilda seems upset at this notion, and insists that the thu'um is entirely non-magical. However, when pressed, she cannot think of any reason why magic could not explain it."

I've always wondered what they were used for. When I first saw them in MW I picked one up, equipped it and swung it at one of the bells. Nothing happened, not even a sound. It seems as if the only way to make the bells ring is to activate them.

In my opinion this broke immersion as the bell-hammer didn't actually have do anything with the bells, physically at least by in game mechanics.

Never-the-less, I spent many an hour trying to find the right tones and pattern in order to try to make something happen. I thought that if I broke the code, something would happen.

Needless to say, my efforts were futile. it seems the bells did nothing after all. They are just there for ceremonial purposes.

Dagoth Ur makes his Dream come true with a Tower and Tonal architecture, his minions hum along in their own lesser way within the Dream.

Hum along like busy bees as they decorate their strongholds with interpretive chair stacking.

They sure can stack some chairs!

I also found it interesting that they spent more time arranging septims in ornate sixth-house patterns on the floor instead of spending them.

Both areproducts of a warped mind.

I guess they wouldn't look too out of place at your local mall...

I personally liken it more to "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Throat_singing" of tibet, and other such countries' monastic orders. The tonalities have metaphysical properties in these traditions, and the sounds are.... almost unnatural sounding (For a human voice.)

Given the subgradiency inherent in the construct, I could see how it could be manipulated for magickal effect in the TES universe.

I can make some such overtone "Wolf tone" sounds myself--- I could probably learn to do this, but I am strange enough allready.