Umbreon's Lair
The 36 Lessons of Vivec
Sermons 1-3
I thought it might be fun to eventually create a bound tome of the 36 Lessons of Vivec entirely in Daedric. Considering the proliferation of Daedric script throughout Morrowind (or at least Vvardenfell), I imagine it was probably released in Daedric at some point. I'm publishing the sermons in these pages to see what the Daedric script would look like (and to test my reading skills, as I imagine, if you're here, you may like to do yourself).
Reminder: Daedric does not technically include the characters x or y. Because of this, they have been removed from the Daedric version of this text, and bracketed in the translation.
36 Lessons of Vivec
Sermon 1
He was born in the ash among the Velothi, anon Chimer, before the war with the northern men. Aem came first to the village of the netchimen, and her shadow was that of Boethiah, who was the Prince of Plots, and things unknown and known would fold themselves around her until the were like stars or the messages of stars. Aem took a netchiman’s wife and said:
‘I am the Face-Snaked Queen of the Three in One. In ou is an image and a seven-sllable spell, AEM AE SEHTI AE VEHK, which ou will repeat to it until mster comes.’
Then Aem threw the netchiman’s wife into the ocean water where dreughs took her into castles of glass and coral. The gifted the netchiman’s wife with gills and milk fingers, changing her se so that she might give birth to the image as an egg. There she staed for seven or eight months.
Then Seht came to the netchiman’s wife and said:
‘I am the Clockwork King of the Three in One. In ou is an egg of m brother-sister, who possesses invisible knowledge of words and swords, which ou shall nurture until the Hortator comes.’
And Seht then etended his hands and multitudes of homunculi came forth, each like a glimmering rope through the water, and the raised the netchiman’s wife back to the surface world and set her down on the shoals of Azura’s coast. There she la for seven or eight more months, caring for the egg-knowledge b whispering to it the Codes of Mephala and the prophecies of Veloth and even the forbidden teachings of Trinimac.
Seven Daedra came to her one night and each one gave to the egg new motions that could be achieved b certain movements of the bones. These are called the Barons of Move Like This. Then an eighth Daedroth came, and he was a Demiprince, called Fa-Nuit-Hen, or the Multiplier of Motions Known. And Fa-Nuit-Hen said:
‘Whom do ou wait for?’
To which the netchiman’s wife said the Hortator.
‘Go to the land of the Indoril in three months’ time, for that is when war comes. I return now to haunt the warriors who fell and still wonder wh. But first I show ou this.’
Then the Barons and the Demiprince joined together into a pillar of fighting stles terrible to behold and the danced before the egg and its learning image.
‘Look, little Vehk, and find the face behind the splendor of m bladed carriage, for in it is delivered the unmied conflict path, perfect in ever wa. What is its number?’
It is said the number is the number of birds that can nest in an ancient tibrol tree, less three grams of honest work, but Vivec in his later ears found a better one and so gave this secret to his people.
‘For I have crushed a world with m left hand,’ he will sa, ‘but in m right hand is how it could have won against me. Love is under m will onl.’
The ending of the words is ALMSIVI.
36 Lessons of Vivec
Sermon 2
The netchiman’s wife who carried the egg of Vivec within her went looking for the lands of the Indoril. Along the journe man spirits came to see her and offer instructions to her son-daughter, the future glorious invisible warrior-poet of Vvardenfell, Vivec.
The first spirit threw his arms about her and hugged his knowledge in tight. The netchiman’s wife became soaked in the Incalculable Effort. The egg was delighted and did somersaults inside her, bowing to the five corners of the world and saing:
‘Thus whoever performs this hol act shall be proud and might among the rest!’
The second spirit was too aloof and acted above his station so much that he was driven off b a headache spell. The third spirit, At-Hatoor, came down to the netchiman’s wife while she relaed for a while under an Emperor Parasol. His garments were made from implications of meaning, and the egg looked at them three times. The first time Vivec said:
‘Ha, it means nothing!’
After looking a second time he said:
‘Hmm, there might be something there after all.’
Finall, giving At-Hatoor’s garments a sidelong glance, he said:
‘Amazing, the abilit to infer significance in something devoid of detail!’
‘There is a proverb,’ At-Hatoor said, and then he left.
The fourth spirit came with the fifth, for the were cousins. The could ghost touch and probed inside the egg to find its core. Some say Vivec at this point was shaped like a star with its penumbra broken off; others, that it looked like a revival of vanished forms.
‘From m side of the famil,’ the first cousin said, ‘I bring ou a series of calamities that will bring about the end of the universe.’
‘And from m side,’ the second cousin said, ‘I bring ou all the primordial marriages that must happen within them, each one.’
At this the egg laughed. ‘I am given too much to bear so oung. I must have been born before.’
And then the sith spirit appeared, the Black Hands Mephala, who taught the Velothi at the beginning of das all the arts of se and murder. Its burning heart melted the ees of the netchiman’s wife and took the egg from her bell with si cutting strokes. The egg-image, however, could see into what it had been before in ancient times, when the earth still cooled, and was not blinded. It joined with the Daedroth and took its former secrets, leaving a few behind to keep the web of the world from disentangling. Then the Black Hands Mephala put the egg back into the netchiman’s wife and blew on her with magic breath until the hole closed up. But the Daedroth did not give her back her ees, saing:
‘God hath three kes; of birth, of machines, and of the words between.’
Within this Sermon the wise ma find one half of these kes.
The ending of the words is ALMSIVI.
36 Lessons of Vivec
Sermon 3
Being blind the netchiman’s wife wandered into a cave on her wa to the domains of House Indoril. It so happened that this cave was a Dwemeri stronghold. The Dwemer spied the egg and captured the netchiman’s wife. The bound her head to foot and brought her deep within the earth.
She heard one sa, ‘Go and make a simulacrum of her and place it back on the surface, for she has something akin to what we have and so the Velothi will covet it and notice if she is too long awa.’
In the darkness, the netchiman’s wife felt great knives tr to cut her open. When the knives did not work, the Dwemer used solid sounds. When those did not work, great heat was brought to bear. Nothing was of an use, and the egg of Vivec remained safe within her.
A Dwemer said, ‘Nothing is of an use. We must go and misinterpret this.’
Vivec felt that his mother was afraid, and so consoled her.
‘The fire is mine: let it consume thee,
And make a secret door
At the altar of Padhome,
In the House of Boet-hi-Ah
Where we become safe
And looked after.’
This old praer made the netchiman’s wife smile and begin such a deep sleep that when Dwemeri atronachs returned with cornered spheres and cut her apart she did not awake and died peacefull. Vivec was removed from her womb and placed within a magical glass for further stud. To confound his captors, he channeled his essence into love, an emotion the Dwemer knew nothing about.
The egg said:
‘Love is used not onl as a constituent in moods and affairs, but also as the raw material from which relationships produce hour-later easperations, regrettabl fashioned restrictions, riddles laced with affections known onl to the loving couple, and looks that linger too long. Love is also an often-used ingredient in some transparent verbal and nonverbal transactions where, eventuall, it can sometimes be converted to a variet of true devotions, some of which ield tough, insoluble, and infusible unions. In its basic form, love supplies approimatel thirteen draughts of all energ that is derived from relationships. Its role and value in societ at large are controversial.’
The Dwemer were veed at these words and tried to hide behind their power smbols. The sent their atronachs to remove the egg-image from their cave and place it within the simulacrum the had made of Vivec’s mother.
A Dwemer said, ‘We Dwemer are onl aspirants to this that the Velothi have. The shall be our doom in this and the eight known worlds, NIRN, LHKAN, RKHET, THENDR, KNRT, AKHAT, MHARA, and JHUNAL.’
The secret to doom is within this Sermon.
The ending of the words is ALMSIVI.
