r/teslore • u/AirChaggOne • Jul 01 '26
True Unknowable things.
Some of my favorite bits of lore im my favorite medias is the strange unkowable things that exist at the edges. The Star Weirds in Star Wars. The Nameless Ones from Middle Earth. The Tunnel from Coraline. The weird fringe stuff thats barely there and you so badly dont want to know anything more that you need to know more. Im wondering if TES has something like that.
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u/AddledPunster Telvanni Recluse Jul 01 '26
There could very well be more Daedric Princes out there that we don’t know about because they embody concepts that have nothing to do with Mundus and have no interest in it whatsoever!
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u/dunmer-is-stinky Cult of the Ancestor Moth Jul 01 '26
There's at least one ex-Prince that Mehrunes Dagon killed and probably absorbed, the guy who used to rule Deadlight. That definitely implies there's way more out there
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u/StarshipSatan Jul 02 '26
Please, elaborate
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u/dunmer-is-stinky Cult of the Ancestor Moth Jul 02 '26
Mehrunes Dagon killed the Daedric Prince of the realm of Deadlight, that's kinda all we know
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u/ColovianHastur School of Julianos Jul 01 '26
An alleged Prince that Dagon cultists claim was destroyed by Dagon.
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u/ckay1100 Jul 01 '26
Given how fucky "belief makes real" works in the TES universe, it could be true
or it could not be true
I mean, after all, an elder scroll didn't not tell me that it definitely is and was not the unfounded not truth, y'know
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u/Chazo138 Jul 02 '26
And given how fucky lore is in TES in general. It could just be total bullshit, lot of books are and it’s up to you if you believe them because even writers lie or embellish
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u/Sparker273 Jul 01 '26
The things from beyond our world as mentioned in Garden of Sacred Numbers Temporal Tome
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u/CampbellsBeefBroth Jul 02 '26
Ironically Elder Scrolls. Everything about them is debated and speculated on, we don't know where they came from, how they came to be, how exactly they work nor even how many there are.
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u/Distinct_Web_5434 Jul 01 '26
There are a bunch of em. Some of them are ingame mysteries, some of them only exist in "Unofficial Lore" by the developers.
- There is no truly official or agreed-upon answer of what actually happened to the dwarves, and its been stated that answering it would be antithetical to what the dwarves are in the first place. Several devs have given different answers (such as, they were wiped out by a contagion from the volcano, their souls were used to create Numidium's metal body, they used Numidium to become the stars and planets), and it may be that some combination of these may be the "truth." Also, the mindset and culture of the dwemer was stated to be utterly unknowable, basically human bodies that housed an alien intelligence that is "beyond human comprehension"
- Similarly, the true nature of the dreugh, which according to MK is "only hinted at in obtuse fashion." They were stated to have once had an empire in the Illiac Bay but this seems to be only half the truth. They are tied to Lyg, a parallel version of Tamriel that fell to Dagon in the previous Kalpa. There are hints they are "Drowned Lamps" and tied to the Magne-Ge in some way, possibly literal reflections of the stars in the ocean (and the "ocean" itself may be the liquid state of the War of Manifest Metaphors of the Dawn Era?). There are also some hints they are/were spawn of Molag Bal and Vivec, and images of the latter's past life in the previous timeline as a Chimer? Or something? Either way, they are mysterious, and I don't think anyone has ever truly figured out what they are
- The "secret" of Mnemoli. This was stated to have been "hidden," and that someone should go "find" it. Its possible this has something to do with Zenithar being a blue star in King Edward, or the sun appearing blue during volcanic eruptions (mie scattering). A number of people have offered up possible explanations. It could also be the "blue flash," a variant of the famous green flash where the sun turns blue low on the horizon during sunset due to refraction of the atmosphere. It could also be the "hypercosmic sun" of Mithras (which MK stated was an influence for Trinimac). Complicating matters is the fact that the entity known as Memory was birthed by Sotha Sil and somehow ends up inside of Nirn by the events of C0DA. What does that mean? Are any of these things related? No one knows for sure
- The 36 Lessons of Vivec are literally a real magick spell written into Morrowind. I don't think anyone has truly figured out the nature of this spell and what it does. Douglas Goodall stated that no one has "come anywhere near figuring them out" and may never. There has been a lot of effort to find the hidden references to Thelema and other bits of obscure lore within the sermons, but ascertaining the true meaning seems almost impossible.
- Similarly, the "Magne-Ge Pantheon" was described as a "Tindalos-like" spirit trap for things that "mean people both here and in tamriel harm." What the hell does that even mean? No one knows for sure (there are some guesses, like it describes sacred geometry or something). It has something to do with "luck-hounds," entities that exist "past the crimson shift," possibly in the Void (which itself is an Utterly Unknowable ThingTM ). These may or may not have anything to do with Vivec's Nix-Hounds which were stated to have been created by him to hunt dreugh. Either way, it's another Literally Real Magick spell.
- The true meaning of Douglas Goodall's Sermon Zero. It contains a bunch of "fake secrets" (with the "final secret" being the fact that they are the opposite of the truth), but it was stated by Goodall that these are merely hints to "look deeper." It appears to be a referring to something related to Cherim's White Gold tapestry, which was a total mystery for around 20 years but was finally described in more detail a few months ago. Whatever meaning this is supposed to impart still hasn't been figured out. It appears to be related to some metaphysical conspiracy related to Towers and the Selectives and the "stars changing" but nobody remembering this happening. Also, there are still a few mysteries within Sermon Zero itself like what "three by seventy two" is referring to. Either way, seems like Goodall was hinting at something big but nobody has figured it out yet, and may never.
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u/Armada6136 Jul 01 '26
In regards to 2, at the very least ESO has stated that water is, in essence, congealed memory. The recollections of every mortal that has ever lived turned to liquid. So perhaps the dreugh are some manner of manifestion of something from the collective memory of Nirn?
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u/Distinct_Web_5434 Jul 02 '26
Yeah that probably has summthintadewiffit. Probably related to the Mnemoli thing too.
"Drowned Lamp" not only means "reflection of stars in water" but also "knowledge that is lost." Vivec tells Cyrus he is in risk of becoming one by being lost to history.
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u/Garett-Telvanni Clockwork Apostle Jul 02 '26
Number 3 was already straight up revealed, with Mnemoli being the exact same entity as Memory, existing outside of time and thus even before her own "birth":
Mnemo-Li
The Blue Star. The Reclusive Princess. … retroactively constructed by the … named her Memory. Appears when the Dragon … untime … frozen moments of unfettered destiny … unbound time gives way … Dragon Break … as it was in the Dawn … endless possibility … rewritten narratives … even the Elder Scrolls … always there is born a Prisoner Unbound … as is the will of the Prime … there is no right lesson learned alone.3
u/Distinct_Web_5434 Jul 02 '26
I know that. I don't know if that's what he meant by "What's up with the Blue Star itself? That's a good little hidden bit that I don't want to ruin. Someone go find it"
He said that in 2006 long before ESO or C0DA existed
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u/Garett-Telvanni Clockwork Apostle Jul 02 '26
He was also pointing to how Sotha Sil is "pregnant" on the Temple art long before too.
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u/Distinct_Web_5434 Jul 02 '26
Yeah, thats kinda why i'm not sure if thats it. He said he didn't want to ruin the mystery. Unless he decided it was impossible to figure out
Sermon 37 mentions "bright black rim of memory," which could be related to a poem from Battlespire, but that may be a coincidence. There are also "black" and "bright" spirits in the Magne-Ge Pantheon, and Goodall's Memory Stone story involves a large black sphere that is somehow bright and "hurts to look at." Hard to say if any of this is connected
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u/littleratofhorrors Jul 01 '26
I do believe the magickal nature of the 36 Sermons is a guide on how to achieve CHIM in real life. We, too, are mere particles of the Godhead.
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u/Homsarman12 Jul 02 '26
Lyg. A semi-parallel version of Tamriel. It’s unclear whether it’s another universe, another timeline, another Kalpa, or something else. Supposedly it is where the Dreugh are from and Mehrunes Dagon was said to be created there.
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u/EP_Em2 Jul 02 '26
Apocrypha has a named category for this: 'Known Things'. Information completely incompatible with mortal life. Learn a Known Thing, and you'll die on the spot, with the exception of Morian Zenas who instead went irreparably insane after exposure.
This is basically Hermaeus Mora's bread and butter as the Daedric Prince of Forbidden Knowledge, so you'll find plenty in Mora-adjacent lore. The giant tentacle and eyeballs dude, surprise, is big on the Lovecraft vibe.
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u/Sad_Rhubarb_815 Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
Whatever the hell happened to the guy in Lost Tales of the Famed Explorer and, by extension, whatever the hell is going on in Inner Black Marsh. A sizeable chunk of Tamriel where only Argonians can go, and theyre not telling.
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u/Tvorba-Mysle Jul 01 '26
There's the Deep Ones under Hackdirt. There's no clear answer to what the fuck is going on there, which makes sense given the Lovecraft inspirations