So what were they and what happened? Kind've like the inca, maya, aztec civilinations?

Really smart then dissapeared? And are the daedra/aedra just aliens? What if the teleportation to other daedric planes is actually another planet?

Anyone know this stuff?

The Dwemer are pretty much the Numidiums shiny skin now. And the Daedra are...gods, not aliens.

http://www.imperial-library.info/content/definitive-guide-dwemer

What happened is still a source of debate.

The Daedra are, essentially, aliens, since they are not from Mundus, and Oblivion is technically outer space and what mortals see when they look at the sky. The realms of Oblivion aren't exactly other planets, they are infinite dimensions.

More on http://www.imperial-library.info/content/cosmology.

Here's the official word on what happened to the dwemer

Even then, it was revealed before this. This is just the only earliest surviving quote around.

He is quoting a passage from the Skeleton Man interview, but that is the first time he explicitly said that that's what happened.

Oh, didn't know that. Wasn't there when it happened.

The Dwemer (Dwarves) were a race of elves with a penchant for big Sumerian beards and steam-powered technology. They disappeared when one of their number used the heart of the god Lorkhan to turn the souls of the entire race into the skin of a Big Stompy Robot in a botched attempt at gestalt godhood.

That 'bout sums it up.

Also, said Big Stompy Robot was then rediscovered, refurbished with a mysterious Mantella in the place of Lorkhan's heart, and used to conquer Tamriel by Tiber Septim. It was also at the center of his (confusing) transformation into Talos and his legendary feud with his Battlemage, Zurin Arctus. Furthermore, it is a Tower. Finally, its reawakening was the dramatic climix of a major international incident in the Illiac Bay and caused a minor Dragon Break, after which its function as a Tower is believed to have ceased.

Not to be confused with Dagoth Ur's Big Stompy Robot, the god Akulakhan, which was powered by the recently excavated Heart of Lorkhan (confused yet?) and with which he planned to establish a theocracy in Morrowind under the Blight. He was stopped by the Nerevarine, of whom there are many fables and legends dating back to the late Third Era.

SIDE-NOTE: All that's from the top of my head, and my memory's a bit flaky. Feel free to correct me if I've spouted heresies.

Deep Elves, not Dwarves.

Just sayin'.

Intellectually Deep Elves.

Speaking of the Numidium, someone does that to himself at the College of Winterhold.

Well, he tries to. He forgot to make a miniature giant stompy robot, and I assume that's why he failed.

Kept slashing at the wall when he did it. It has to be a bug or something. Why else would he need all those cogs, and the warped soulstone, when he was just going to attack a freaking wall?

Then again we really have no idea what happened to him. I was just sad nothing happened to me when I struck the stone.
We didn't get to see what he used the cogs form though he said/implied that they were used to build those heaters.

Check your spellist. He becomes a summon. Probably bound himself to the nearest object with divine potential (ie you)

I find this race very interesting. In Skyrim I have been reading any and all books with relevance to Dwemer. It's very interesting even though it isn't real. Those Dwemer ruins are amazing and I strive to find out more.

Is that golden skin thing a certainty? I read the wizard researcher's books in Markath and he didn't mention it but just concluded that no one knows what happened to them.

I also wonder whether Yagrum got pwned in the Morrowind disaster.


Yeah the Dwemer greatly tickled me ever since Morrowind. Their armor is coolest in Skyrim as well.

I'm glad they are dead though, if they were alive they would have just steamrolled over everyone with their superior tech and we would have had Elder Scrolls 3, 4, 5: Dwemer.

Do dev posts count, or does it have to be in-game? If you think the former works, then it has been clarified and the question is dead.

Because it is a Dwarf thread and I love the Dwarves of Tamriel, along with the Alyieds, The big ass underground cavern (my memory is fuzzled right now, too little sleep, must play more Skyrim!!!) with the red nirnroots, is my favorite Dwarf ruin to date in the entire TES series. Place is just pure epic.

As far as the OP goes for additional Lore reading: Google "The Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages" or "UESP"

Best Elder Scrolls Universe Wiki ever, not to mention been around forever.

I really wish they would make a Dwemer DLC. The DLC just being a note in your inventory you must read saying "The Dwemer ARE NOT DWARVES."

No, the Dwemer did not start dying from plagues before being killed by fanatically religious invaders from across the sea and then get enslaved like what happened to the Aztecs, Maya, and Inca.

The Dwemer were the deep elves.

They had completely different ideas of how to deal with the existence of divinity than their Altmer cousins and left them a long time ago.
Their high priests and tonal architects were looking for a way for their entire race to return to pre-dawn times, so that they could be one with the divine.
For this purpose they built Numidium, a giant metal robot that was to become a god that walked through time itself.
Numidium was to be powered by the Heart of Lorkhan, the heart of a dead god.

Because of a war with the Chimer, who were the ancestors of the Dunmer, they were forced to execute their plans early.
Kagrenac, chief among tonal architects, had devised the Sunder and Keening and the Wraithguard in order to manipulate the Heart.
What exactly went wrong is unknown, but when Kagrenac struck the heart with the tools, all Dwemer vanished.
They were absorbed into the Numidium but it did not come to life.

http://www.imperial-library.info/content/final-report-trebonius

The Aedra and Daedra and Magna-Ge are all Et'Ada. Children of Anu and Padomay who are stasis and change.

The difference is that the Aedra sacrificed much of themselves to create the world, the Daedra refused to participate but like to hang around and watch and meddle, and the Magna-Ge withdrew from the world alltogether to Aetherius.

http://www.imperial-library.info/content/morrowind-annotated-anuad

For in-game sources for the whole golden skin thing, the one I recall that best covers it was something a Telvanni that lived in Gnisis (I think it was Gnisis; the city in the northwest of Vvardenfell?) said about the Dwemer; something along the lines of how they believed mortals to be several subgradients below the divine. Essentially, this meant that, to "survive", some of the Et Ada of the Dawn Era reproduced, so that their essence would survive through successive generations, although be increasingly diluted through each generation. The Dwemer wanted to reverse that, essentially causing many mortals to become a single god.

There was also a quote that popped up on the Imperial Library that I'm fairly sure was from an in-game source "a Dwemer of eight can build a golem, but an eight of Dwemer can become one".

Interestingly, now that i read further, the "Godlike" state which the Dwemer tried to acvieve, reminds me of the state of an ego death which you can experience on some psychedelics, especially with large doses. Basically you will forget your own existence and instead of merely observing the reality, you will feel as if you actually are a part of everything and that everything is a part of you. It is an extremely beautiful state. I wonder if the devs, or the Dwemer, had taken shrooms


There was an ingame book that said: " A Dwemer child of eight can create a golem, but only a truly great warrior and armorer can pretend to be one".

Numidium was never intended to use the Heart, it was always supposed to be powered by Mantella. It was Akhulakhan who was supposed to be powered by the Heart.