Hermaeus mora
Daedric prince of knowledge and memory.
Of the Daedric princes almost all of them tend to appear in a humanoid form
perhaps to appear relatable to the inhabitants of Tamriel except for a couple notable exceptions
One of these is hermaeus mora the keeper of knowledge and Scryer of the tides of fate
Hermaeus mora is highly reminiscent to the outer god Yog-Sothoth
From H P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos and that they are both omniscient beings that are often besieged by mortals for
esoteric knowledge
Hermaeus mora most commonly appears before mortals is an amorphous mass of darkness, tentacles and eyes.
He was also known by the name "the woodland man" to the ancient atmorans, and supposedly attempted to lure the atmorans
into becoming altmer.
Hermaeus mora is mostly ambivalent towards mortals
But will occasionally use them to complete tasks on the mortal plane for him, or kill them in order to take their knowledge
Hermaeus is also capable of passing on some of his infinite knowledge to mortals mostly through various tomes, known as black books
Although most who seek this knowledge are driven insane by it.
Hermaeus mora's realm of oblivion is known as Apocrypha and appears as an endless library with no clear organization
Whatsoever but containing all of hermaeus mora's accumulated knowledge
Wandering through the countless halls or the ghosts of those forever searching for specific pieces of knowledge and
Beyond the bookshelves are seas of ink and tentacles
Daedric servants of hermaeus guard forbid knowledge from those not welcome and most mortals that end up in Apocrypha end up mad or
dead.
Those that are successful however are capable of discovering powerful knowledge hidden away in the endless shelves
Hermaeus mora's Daedric artifacts are all tomes of varying appearance
Most of them are known as black books due to them being found(bound?) with black covers with a symbol representing hermaeus on the front.
Hermaeus mora spread these tomes across Tamriel placing most of them in the depths of ancient ruins and dungeons
each black book contains only a few sentences, but then transports the readers consciousness to Apocrypha if
they die here, they are simply returned to the mortal plane allowing them to reread the book and attempt again
The real danger is avoiding going mad, but the lure of infinite knowledge is a powerful one
the most notable tome created by hermaeus mora is the Oghma Infinium
The text inside of the tome was actually written by an Adria named as Xerxes who has provided the knowledge by hermaeus mora
Xerxes named the tome after his wife, Oghma
the book contains ancient knowledge on a vast amount of subjects
But one could potentially learn more from utilizing the black books to go to Apocrypha
Hermaeus mora generally takes a personal interest in the Oghma Infinium, giving it to heroes who perform tasks for him
Between hermaeus mora's similar appearance to yog-Sothoth
the tomes of eldritch knowledge similar to the Necronomicon and
The esoteric insight causing insanity and those foolish enough to stumble upon such knowledge
hermaeus mora's inspiration clearly comes from Lovecraft, and the Cthulhu Mythos
Hermaeus mora's certainly an interesting and inscrutable figure a being of limitless knowledge and unknown motives
between past, present and future
Hermaeus mora supposedly knows all and sees all and as they say knowledge is power