I have printed some TES postcards! Go check them out :)
Red Mountain
In both the Thoth and Rider-Waite decks, The Tower is the symbol of destruction of things that are false and need to be dismantled.
The Red Mountain is the lair of Dagoth Ur - The Devil. In the heart of the Mountain lies his stronghold, and it is there that he builds Akulakhan, which is powered by the Heart of Lorkhan.. The Heart is the source of Dagoth Ur’s power. From this Mountain he spreads the disease across the island.
The Red Mountain is the place of Dagoth Ur’s defeat. In order to restore Morrowind from crisis, Dagoth Ur and the Heart must be destroyed. The Nerevarine walks into this keep, gets to the Heart, cuts connection between the Heart and Dagoth Ur, The Devil loses his power, his golem Akulakhan crumbles, and his followers fall. After The Tower shatters, the world may begin to heal.
The Red Mountain was formed when the Lorkhan, creator of the world of mortals, died (he created the mortal plane by sacrificing his life) and his Heart fell in the centre of Vvardenfell. In the place where his Heart hit the ground, the volcano appeared. The Red Mountain is a source of many troubles for Dunmer, but it is also the thing that defines their way of life, their environment, and shapes their surrounding. Through destruction, Red Mountain gives life to the Dunmer, even though it has no desire to help anybody. As the Tower of the Thoth and Rider-Waite decks, this mountain of doom is the brute force that destroys and gives birth.
The Red Mountain is the place where things took place that led to the events of Morrowind. Nerevar, the king of the Dunmer (at this time, they were the golden skinned Chimer) wanted to prevent House Dwemer from using the Heart of Lorkhan, he gathered his councilors--Vivec, Almalexia, Sotha Sil and Dagoth Ur--and went with them to Red Mountain to confront the Dwemer. The Dwemer used the Heart before Nerevar could stop them and were wiped out from the world. Nerevar did not know what to do with the Heart and left Dagoth Ur to guard it. He then set up a ritual to consult with his patron goddess Azura. The Tribunal conspired among themselves to seize the power of Heart and killed Nerevarine while he was summoning Azura. Enraged, the goddess cursed the Chimer, their golden skin turned the colour of ash, their eyes became red like embers and from this moment they became Dunmer - the Dark Elves. Vivec, Almalexia and Sotha Sil were able to draw power from the Heart and they became divine rulers of Morrowind. Dagoth Ur was left under the mountain, his life sustained by the Heart. Eventually he grew stronger and started developing his conquest plans.
In Morrowind, the Nerevarine destroys the Heart of Lorkhan instead of claiming it. Dagoth Ur was connected to the Heart and it should have been destroyed in order to kill him. If the Nerevarine claimed it for themselves, that would be the path of Dagoth Ur or The Tribunal. They would become like Dagoth Ur or Tribunal and we have seen where such paths lead. It is also said that the nature of the Heart is evil. The Nerevarine claiming the Heart would be an interesting option though it is not an available option in the game. But the Nerevarine is an incarnation of Nerevar, the hero who didn’t intend to use the Heart, anyway.
Decades after the Heart of Lorkhan was destroyed by the Nerevarine, Red Mountain erupted as never before, and the island of Vvardenfel was nearly destroyed by the cataclysm. Many people died, and most of the settlements were reduced to ash.
Psychological meaning of The Tower is shattering of the ego’s boundaries. The structure of The Tower symbolises the ego. The whole cosmology of the Elder Scrolls universe uses a mix of mystical and psychoanalytical models of the psyche. It so happens that the concept that is very reminiscent of the ego is called the Tower there.
Nerevarine Portrait of Nerevarine based on both The Fool and The Universe Cards. The Fool is the first trump of Major Arcana. In fact it is considered a zero trump because it represents not the beginning of the journey but the moment before the birth where everything is possible. Formless possibility of everything is the essence of The Fool. The Fool has yet no restrictions set by society and circumstance, and The Fool has no fear. The Fool is nothing that may become anything. There is persistent archetype of The Fool in fairy tales. It’s the main hero who is often youngest son in the family and therefore not burdened much by societal expectations. This hero is considered simple, but ultimately he outwits the evil because of his relative disinterest in temporary material concerns. For example Ivan the Fool is the main hero of many Russian folk tales. He does not pursue material benefit but goes on the adventure for the sake of it. The quality of the Fool is the thirst for the unknown. Another type of the Fool is the court Jester. The court jester is the only person who dares saying whatever he wants to the king. There is truth hidden in the jester’s play. The Universe or The World is the last card of the Major Arcana. It symbolises completion of the journey and incorporation of all of the Major Arcana’s lessons. The World is the mastery of physical and spiritual worlds. Some decks show Dancer of the World as hermaphrodite because this card represents unity of the opposites. Most of the time people tend to see the world around us as dualistic: good and evil, light and darkness, plus and minus, order and chaos, male and female, et cetera. Most of the cards of Major Arcana have certain aspects of dualistic interplay in them. Both The Fool and The Universe however are beyond and above the duality. The Fool is beyond duality as the fool is, in a sense, nothing. The Universe is unity of everything. “The Fool is a perfect state before duality, and the World giving us a glimpse of the exhilarating sense of freedom possible if only we can reconcile the opposites buried in our psyches.” My illustration shows the Nerevarine both as the Fool and the Universe. This is the Nerevarine not fixed in time, both before the beginning and at the end of their journey. This picture represents the potential of the Nerevarine: not a particular Nerevarine, but the idea of Nerevarine. In the beginning of their journey, when the protagonist steps out of the prison ship to the shores of a new alien land they are The Fool. This land holds multitude of trials and opportunities for our hero. In the very beginning the hero has no name and no face. In the beginning the hero may become anyone. This is an instance of The Fool: nothing in the beginning that is capable of becoming everything. The face of the Nerevarine is hidden behind the golden mask with face of Nerevar. The Nerevarine’s body is both male and female. It’s not specified in the prophesy whether Nerevar should incarnate into male or female and player can choose the gender of their hero. The archetype of The Fool, though often depicted as male, is actually not feminine or masculine in its nature because the instance of the Fool is before the concept of duality is introduced. As the Fool, the Nerevarine has no definite gender and as the Universe they incorporate both. The body of the Nerevarine belongs to every race simultaneously. It is human in its overall shape, its skin has no definite colour that could characterise its race; it has scales and a reptilian belly like humanoid lizard-like Argonias have, and it has a feline tail like the Khajiit, the cat people, have. When Tribunal killed Nerevar, they removed his feet from the body, Nerevar’s feet then became a holy relic. In broad sense feet symbolise power and movement. Removing feet means nullifying energy of the body. They probably made all the ritualistic dismemberment of Nerevar’s body to prevent his spirit from coming back, though that obviously did not work. The fact that Nerevar’s feet were separated from the body foreshadow that Nerevarine will be an outlander, or someone not native to Morrowind. The Sea below the Nerevarine shows that they came to Morrowind from another land behind the sea. The sea in The Elder Scrolls lore is also a symbol for all the memory of the world. It is endless and timeless. It resonates with The Fool as formless endless potential and the Universe as containing and incorporating everything that there is in the world. In most Tarot decks, The World card depicts the floating dancer in skies or in boundless space. There is a lightness about the figure that shows that it overcame all boundaries. It floats because the restrictions of physical world do not burden the blissful enlightened dancer. The Nerevarine floats and dances like dancer of the Universe. The usual rules do not apply to them not only because they passed all the trials and achieved great power, but also because they are playable character in a video game. If the player wants, he or she may save and load game, pause it, use console commands, and make or install user modifications that change any aspect of world of game. The Nerevarine is shown dancing atop the Red Mountain, the centre point of the world of Morrowind. This is the place where Nerevar had died. The source of divine power, Heart of Lorkhan, is beating under that mountain. At the Red Mountain, the Nerevarine faced and defeated Dagoth Ur. In their left hand Nerevarine holds the Heart of Lorkhan, the heart of the whole land of Morrowind. The blade Keening gives Nerevarine power over the Heart, and the Nerevarine holds it playfully at the tip of their finger, this careless and lighthearted gesture referring to The Fool. In the Rider-Waite deck, the Fool is shown carrying a wand, a symbol of great magical power carelessly on his shoulder and using it as a stick for his bag. In the case of The Fool the wand does not damage him because he is innocent and does not use it for own profit. The Nerevarine’s hand is protected by the glove Wraithguard, Keening is a powerful and dangerous tool that kills anyone who touches it with bare hands. Even though the Nerevarine is playing with this object of great power, they are aware of its dangers and equipped to handle it playfully. That refers to the mastery and knowledge of the Universe. The Nerevarine is able to handle the most severe aspects of their world with humour because in some sense it is all only a game and must not be taken too seriously.
Dagoth Ur
Based on The Devil card of Tarot.
The Devil is a controversial figure. In its most traditional and basic sense, The Devil is all that is considered evil. Some interpret The Devil as a negative card, as a force of illusion and oppression, rule of desire over reason. For others, The Devil is a power to confront with courage and mirth, power to integrate those inevitable “darker,” animal aspects of human nature that society prefer to overlook or stigmatise. From the psychological point of view, The Devil is the darkest side of human nature. In Jungian psychology there is a concept of the Shadow. Shadow is the part of our psyche we are not consciously aware of. It contains things that one has decided to disregard about themselves, things that are too disturbing for us. Yet those things remain, but untouched by light of the consciousness they govern over it and cannot be controlled until faced. Many people are drawn to the Shadow because it contains a great power of all those hidden desires and dark impulses. In order to progress in the spiritual journey, one needs to claim this power, and to own the power of the Shadow, one must face and integrate the Shadow into one’s own conscious personality. “The Devil represents the universal principle of mirth combined with stability. This is the only card in the entire deck which has undergone transformation within itself. During Greek mythology, this symbol was Pan, half-man and half-goat, the God of Merriment and Sensuality. In Egyptian mythology, this symbol was Ra, the Sun Deity, a symbol of life force and energy. During the Middle Ages, there was a backlash to the panistic cults and the archetype of the Devil was created. The panistic goat was changed into the Devil.” In the Rider-Waite deck, The Devil depicted as more of an oppression figure that holds humans enslaved by their desires. But this is the most common and surface meaning of the card. In actuality, The Devil implies a great deal more than sexual rites and violent energy. In a wider sense, it symbolises the life energy locked up in the dark hidden areas of the self, which cannot be entered by ordinary means. It is called The Devil because for those who are not prepared to receive this energy, it can manifest itself as monsters, a sense of the universe as filled with evil, or the temptation to indulge in violence. In the Thoth Tarot, The Devil is creative energy in its most material form. The impulse to create takes no account of reason, custom, or foresight. All things are equally exalt to the pan. He represents the finding of ecstasy in every phenomenon, however naturally repugnant, and he transcends all limitations. Dagoth Ur is the main antagonist of Morrowind, and is The Devil of this world. Dagoth Ur creates, but his creations are perverse. Dagoth Ur enslaves the people of Morrowind through illusions - the dreams and nightmares he spreads. Dagoth Ur uses the Heart of Lorkhan as his source of power, and the ultimate goal of Dagoth Ur is to extend himself upon all the world through illusions, violence and disease. Like the Devil he creates without looking back. In Morrowind, we can’t say that The Devil really owns the power, but he definitely holds and uses it and needs to be confronted before power may be freed. Like the personal Shadow governs over a person’s life from the unconscious part of the psyche, Dagoth Ur governs the people of Morrowind through their dreams and makes them do things they would not consciously do. Dagoth Ur builds colossal mechanical golem powered with Heart of Lorkhan. Akulakhan is a manifestation of Dagoth Ur’s will. With Akulakhan, Dagoth Ur intends to conquer the world, make Akulakhan the new God and become his high priest. I depicted Dagoth Ur as a priest of Akulakhan. Dagoth Ur is sitting on a rectangular pedestal like the Devil from Rider-Waite deck. The pedestal reminds us of an altar and a throne simultaneously. The symbol of the scarab is the sigil of the Sixth House, the ancient House of Dagoth Ur. The motion Dagoth Ur makes with his hands is similar to the gesture of The Devil of the Rider-Waite deck. This sign with a gap between two double fingers, is the gesture made by the High Priest in Jerusalem to bring down the spirit force. Instead of a head, there is a brass vortex mounted on Dagoth Ur’s shoulders. It extends his throat and broadcasts his music, his terrible divine voice from his body directly into the world. Behind the figure of Dagoth Ur is his creation, Akulakhan, still in the process of being built but already working. At the brow of Akulakhan, on the place of third eye, the Head of Dagoth Ur is placed. Dagoth Ur wears this mask in the game. Akulakhan is the tool of Dagoth Ur and is directly controlled by him. In some sense Akulakhan is the second body of Dagoth Ur, bigger and more powerful. Separation of head from the body is traditional symbol of connection to the world of spirits. It means that head of person (in this case the priest) resides in another reality. Dagoth Ur is the entity that foremost manipulates others in the dimension of their dreams. He does this by tuning spirits of mortals with his music.
I’ve finally set up an online store for spreading my art around the world. Yay!
My Inquisitor Adaar Craves power above all. Dreams of Tevinter 2.0. Made an alliance with Qunari mostly because he could. I have enjoyed role playing that asshole, hope in the next chapter we will get a chance to give the Inquisitor dramatic and cruel death. Or let him finish his plan after all.
Character inspired by this ”heretic ending” art:
Attempted some sculpting for school in Blender recently, it was fun.
sketches of Ashu-Ahhe, ashlander intersex OC of @isugi
sketch for etching self portrait
Hey! I’ve put some linoprints for sale!
self portrait
etching