You've experienced the Elder Scrolls series in your own way, but want to learn more about
its story. Well to get to the heart of the story, you have to go back to the beginning.
There once lived an artist by the name of Darius Shano, who had used his vivid dreams
to inspire others for years through song and spoken word. This Breton had garnered much
fame due to his use of beautiful imagery and elegant language. The Daedric Prince Vaermina
was very proud of her artist, seeing as she commanded the Breton s dreams, and thus served
as his inspiration. While Vaermina held great affection for him, the attentions of a Daedric
Prince often leads to mischief, and this tale is no different.
Vaermina, and the Daedric Prince Sheogorath, looked down upon the Breton as he slept. The
Madgod said that it was not people s love that made Vaermina s artist great& but their
hatred. If great men are usually hated as much as they are loved, then could Vaermina
conjure hatred in the artist as well?
Vaernima conceded that mortals were indeed foolish and petty insects, given to despising
those among them who have great vision. She also believed that she could sow such seeds
of hatred in the heart of the artist and those around him.
To prove her point Vaermina accepted a wager offered by Lord Sheogorath. She would enter
the mind of Darius Shano, and poison his thoughts with horrific nightmares. Then, in ten years
time, she would allow Sheogorath to do the same, and they would see whose talents were
the greater. Vaermina was supremely confident, for she knew the Madgod could never be as
suited to the task of crafting nightmare visions as the Dreamweaver herself.
Darius had always been afraid of the night, but now the terror of darkness was overpowering,
absolute. No peace was to be had in his slumber, only horror and an empty, unnamable dread.
He would scream at the top of his lungs, only to find his shrieks had been smothered by
the cold and eternal dark. When Darius clawed his way to wakefulness the fear would be gone,
for his faith in Vaermina was steadfast and resolute. In time Vaermina visited him directly,
and whispered softly in his ear.
Watch carefully, my beloved.
Vaermina tore away the veil she had mercifully put up and revealed to her disciple visions
of death and anguish so profound it made Darius former night terrors seem pale and small by
comparison. The Daedric Prince showed him visions of murder, torture and creatures so
intensely horrific their anguished screams would fill his mind each time he closed his
eyes. These agonizing nightmare images tore at his soul, and soon revealed themselves
in his compositions. The grotesque images filled his work, and the horrors they held
transfixed his audience with the ghastliness of their impressions. The public was disgusted
by his words even as they were undeniably compelled and fascinated by them. They trembled
in delicious indignation, fretting over every detail even as they condemned the imagery
itself. Some gloried in the lurid spectacle, and Darius Shano found his popularity surging
even as it fed the flames of righteous outrage in others. This continued for ten years while
Darius grew increasingly infamous and then, as suddenly as his nightmares had begun, all
at once& they stopped& Vaermina s time was up you see, it was now Sheogorath s turn to
play with poor Darius.
Darius was relieved that his night terrors had finally ceased, but he was confused as
well. He wondered what had changed to make his mistress Vaermina forsake him. He made
heartfelt prayers to her, pleading for just a sliver of the inspiration she had once bestowed
upon him. No answer ever came, and Darius devastating nightly horrors faded away into
long, empty periods of deep, dreamless sleep.
In time, the ever-present self-doubt every artist feels, no matter how inspired their
work, surfaced in Darius pieces. With it came bitterness and cynicism as his goddess continued
to ignore his supplications.
As the prose and imagery in his work grew stale, interest, however contentious, in Darius
Shano s work began to decline. His abandonment by Vaermina had led him to a place where he
could no longer provoke the outrage and indignation he once had. As his notoriety began to fade,
his resentment increased, directed at the muse who had forsaken him. Sacrilege was close
behind, and in short order hatred followed. This manifested as sarcastic ridicule then
finally disbelief, as Darius came to believe his mistress Vaermina had never truly spoken
to him at all. It had been in his mind all along, the ravings of a lonely, maladjusted
man. His shame and anger and guilt were overwhelming. The man who had once touched the heart of
a deity slowly drifted away into irreverent disrespect and even heresy.
As Darius desperation grew, so did the intentionally outrageous behavior in his subsequent work.
He became purposely offensive, trying in vain to approach his former infamy. He focused
on the gods, challenging their might and mocking them obscenely. He dared them to strike him
down for his blasphemy and insulted them all the more when no such punishment appeared.
More, he targeted public figures, officials, and even his adoring public, skewering them
with venomous caricatures, sparing none and attacking all. His audience for their part
hated him all the more, meeting his attacks with ever more indignation, for while he had
once assaulted their sensibilities, he now struck directly at their hearts, and insulted
their very spirit.
Before long he had committed his final offense by scorning the Emperor God Tiber Septim in
the piece he called The Noblest Fool . He mocked the Divine Emperor for his integration
into the cult of the Nine Divines. After twenty years, Darius fate was sealed. The king of
the High Rock sept Daenia who had been sullied by this insignificant worm on more than one
occasion, seized this opportunity. For the offense of sacrilege against the Empire, Darius
throat was slit with a ceremonial knife, and his final, gurgling words spewed forth on
a torrent of black blood. The crowds cheered his demise, for they hated him.
Twenty years after their initial wager, Vaermina and Sheogorath met again over the headless,
bloodstained corpse of the artist, Darius Shano. The Dreamweaver was livid, for in the
name of their wager she had tormented the mortal endlessly for 10 years, yet Sheogorath
on the other hand, had spoken to him, not once.
Nonsense, croaked the Gentleman with a Cane. For Sheogorath had been by his side all along.
He had replaced Vaermina s subtle whispers with absolute, deafening silence. Darius Shano
had been cut off completely from that which gave him comfort and meaning. For 10 long
years Sheogorath denied the artist the attention he had craved so desperately, the attention
of a god. Without Vaermina s dreams to guide him, Shano had been cast adrift, and his rage
had ripened under the withering heat of hate and resentment. Before his death, Darius was
a madman. This artist, who was once Vaermina s most prized mortal, now served Sheogorath
as his servant, bound forever to the Shivering Isles.
And thus did Sheogorath teach Vaernima that without madness, there are no dreams, and
no creation.
& It is said, Vaernima has never forgotten this lesson&
Vaermina is the Daedric Prince of dreams and nightmares and it is she from whom evil omens
issue forth. Referred to as Vaermina the Gifter , and the Dreamweaver , she is seen as one
of the most demonic of Daedric Lords. Scholars have claimed that her sphere of influence
is connected to psychological torture. She has been historically associated with Molag
Bal in regards to a cure for the curse of vampirism, though the details of the connection
is as of yet unknown.
Vaermina s plane of Oblivion is known as Quagmire. It is a realm of nightmares made flesh where
reality shifts regularly, and each random incarnation is more horrifying than the last.
It is the realm most easily accessible by mortals, who enter by way of their dreams
but usually forget the experience upon waking. From her citadel in the center of Quagmire,
Vaermina touches sleeping mortal minds, collecting memories and leaving foreboding impressions
of despair and horror in her wake. It has been said that after a truly memorable encounter
with Vaermina in the realm of Quagmire, nothing on Nirn can ever frighten a mortal again,
for nothing could be as horrific as being in the presence of the Dreamweaver. It is
conceivably possible to enter Quagmire while awake by means of magical teleportation, but
the dangers associated with it make it an impractical avenue for most mortals to pursue.
There have been times when Quagmire and Mundus have appeared to merge, during times when
Vaermina s influence has been particularly strong or where her artifacts have been in
close proximity.
The Skull of Corruption is Vaermina s primary artifact. Appearing to be a staff, the Skull
of Corruption creates a duplicate of whomever or whatever it is cast upon. This copy then
attacks the original for the sake of the wielder. It is rumored that the staff can feed on the
memories of those around it, and sometimes will act of its own accord.
Vaermina presides over the world of dreams and speaks to all mortals at some point in
their lives. For some she provides inspiration while others cringe in horror at the merest
mention of her name. Her night terrors lay bare the darkest aspects of the mortal mind,
leaving even the bravest among man and mer to tremble at the revelations revealed. Those
who follow Vaermina know that the mortal mind is like clay, and very easily molded. Many
are eternally changed after the Dreamweaver touches them, released from the grip of fear
forevermore. But while Vaermina controls the insubstantial world of dreams, there are others
who control the darkness of the true and waking world. He is the Daedric Prince of hedonism,
and is allied with Vaermina as the depths of the mortal soul reveals themselves in the
dark desires of the mortal heart. This Daedric Prince gives voice to the deep and hidden
impulses some mortals will only acknowledge in their dreams.
But that- is a story for another day...