The Creation of Cyrodil, Daidra, and Man
In the start there was nothing but the Great Father, and he existed in his heavens alone for thousands of years. Every day the Great Father would weep of his misfortune to be alone in such a void; over the thousands of years the tears gathered in a sphere under where the Great Father sat in his heaven. One day he heard one of his tears hit water and looked down to see a gigantic orb of water with a beast swimming through it, a beast called Kimhurn who was created from the Great Father’s wish for companionship.
The Great Father was pleased and exclaimed, “At long last, there will be one to share my joys and ease my pains!” So he attempted to converse with the great beast Kimhurn, but the great beast did not have the tongue of man nor the ears, so he remained silent. The Great Father found a large stone in his heaven and threw it at Kimhurn to play, but the Great Father’s aim was poor and strength was great, so he struck Kimhurn in the head and killed the beast.
From Kimhurn’s corpse came Cyrodil; his back became the land and the ridges became mountains; Kimhurn’s insides became the mines and caves from which metals would be harvested. The Great Father wept over the corpse of his companion, and as his tears hit Kimhurn’s back, green grass sprouted all over the newly formed Cyrodil, followed by beasts of the earth that sprang from the ground that the tears had hit. These beasts feasted on the grass, and the Great Father created beasts that feasted upon those who ate the grass off his dead companion.
The Great Father watched over the land of Cyrodil for many years before growing bored with the beasts as they could not talk nor could they hear the Great Father. So he took a blade and drew it across his right index finger and squeezed seven drops of blood from it onto the ground below, from this blood came seven beings of outstanding beauty that spoke in the tongue of man and could use the magical arts of the Great Father. The Great Father called them Daidra and declared them to be his children, he exclaimed, “At long last, my children will be there to share my joys and ease my pains!”
He named each as they came from the blood; the first and oldest was the radiant son Ko-dagon who was followed by his brother Durhamane and sister, the greatest beauty of the Daidra, Mai. Kipurn rose from the blood and was followed by his twin, the mighty brother So-kol. Uhr, youngest of the Daidra, rose from the blood after Sirus, seer of the stars. The Great Father took great joy in conversing with his children and watching them go about their activities.
For many years the Daidra worked the ground of Cyrodil and hunted from the forests that had grown until one day Ko-dagon, the master of speech, approached the Great Father.“Oh Great Father, may we, your children, forge races to keep us company in the hours of the days so they can share in our joys and ease our pains. We have worked the lands of Cyrodil for many years, and we wish to have companions to work with us and ease our burdens on the land,” he implored of his father
The Great Father’s eyes gleamed at the prospect of more companions to share joys with, and thus he exclaimed to his son, “Go forth Ko-dagon, my wisest and most cherished of sons, and tell your siblings to each create a race from the materials that you find on Cyrodil, and to thank my fallen companion,Kimhurn, for what you take from his body to form your races. Tell your siblings to use their blood to give life to your new companions as I gave life to you”
Ko-dagon bowed in honor of his father before setting off to tell his brothers and sisters of their father’s decision. Before he got to his siblings, he passed a mine filled with gold, and he stopped there to create his race before his siblings, so he could get all of the best materials before his siblings could get to them. He formed his people from the gold metal to give them a beauty beyond compare and wove their hair from the finest strands of golden thread. He gave them tongues made of gold so they could persuade the races that would come after them that Ko-dagon had deemed would be lesser beings as he was sure none of his siblings could match his achievement, thus he named his race Atmer.
Durhamane was the first to learn from his brother that the Great Father had given them permission to create races, so he set off to the volcanoes and gathered ashes to create his own race of people. He made their bodies of ash and dark rocks; he gave them gleaming stones for eyes and sharp stones for their tongues so they would speak what they thought, unafraid of any other race. He imbued his people with a cynicism and named them Dunmer. He sent the Dunmer off to the wastelands to take it for themselves.
Sirus went into the forests of Cyrodil and took the lizards off the forest floor where he taught them to walk upright and speak in the tongues of man. Sirus put a magical light behind their eyes so they could see far into the night sky and navigate no matter where they were. He lauded his race as the greatest among them for he improved upon life rather than created it from scratch and named his race Arg-ell. Mai, the most beautiful and vain of the Daidra, heard of her younger brother’s boast, so she set off into the forest to create a race that was better than Sirus’. She found the tigers and wild cats of Cyrodil’s forests, and she taught them to walk and talk like men. She gave them the gift to talk with beasts to undermine those who would stand against them and would see their lands conquered. Mai named her race Kahatin and proclaimed that they were the greatest of all races.
Kipurn, the cunning hunter of the Daidra, created his race from the red wood of the trees and gave them hair of leaves so they would feel the slightest breeze of the winds. He forged his race with long ears so they could hear their prey for miles and eyes from the hawk so they could see their prey from the same distance. He taught his people to use the bow and arrow before naming them Bowmer and setting them out to hunt the Kahatin. So-kol, the mighty warrior, ventured off to the northern wastes where he created a race packed from ice and wove their locks from the golden weave that he brought with him. He gave his race of warriors the strength to lift gigantic machines of battle while giving them tongues sharp enough to cut men down in pubs; he named his race of warriors Skyrim. So-kol bragged that his race was the mightiest of all and they could not be matched on the field of battle.
The youngest of all Daidra, Uhr, woke up from his seven month sleep, and began work upon his race when he heard of So-kol’s claim. He gathered together the strongest materials, making his race out of rocks that were covered with moss and tore the horns off of the strongest hogs which he stuck onto his race’s mouth. He put in pieces of coal into their eyes and named them Ukul. He presented them to So-kol as mightier than his race to which So-kol declared, “They may be stronger, but your beasts can not but see a foot out and in the battle of words, their tongues of stone would weigh down in their mouths while my warriors prevail through superior sight and intellect!”
Enraged by his older brother’s taunt, Uhr grabbed a large stone in one hand and struck So-kol down with it; killing the warrior with one swift blow to the head. The Great Father looked upon this scene with horror and exclaimed, “Oh what has my youngest son done? Surely he wouldn’t have devised such treachery of his own accord!” He looked with sudden suspicion and fear towards his oldest son, Ko-dagon who always had the golden tongue “That’s it! Ko-dagon must have told his youngest brother to kill, and he will kill me to get my throne!” The Great Father grew wracked with worry and paranoia about his children, which ones worked with Ko-dagon. He decided to open up a different world to cast the traitorous Daidra into, but he thought that they would conspire against him if they were allowed to, so he created a separate world for each of his children and cast them each into the worlds, starting with Ko-dagon and then each one who objected or he suspected of plotting against him to their own worlds. He named the prisons of the Daidra “Oblivion”. His features which were eternally young before were now marred by such darkness and anxiety as his threw death at those he suspected of going against him or would go against him; thus he brought death to the land of Cyrodil for every living creature.
Over the years in Oblivion, hatred and darkness warped and corroded the memory and minds of each Daidra, warping them into a frightful appearance from their original beauty; they each created races of demons that were to attack those they once created and vowed to look after. Thus each Daidra took up a new title, and they taught the races of the vices of the world from their prisons in Oblivion by way of prophets and oracles.
