(SPOILERS) Necrom Lore Tidbits
Necrom is filled with interesting new lore even outside the events of the main storyline, some of the intriguing parts from the chapter's sidequests.
Some sidequest spoilers beyond this point.
**A Memory of Mystery**
The Dwemeri ruins of Kemel-Ze or "*Cliff City"*, the same ones from the eponymous book, are considered a holy site of the Tribunal and under watch by Temple clergy.
The reason for this is that Kemel-Ze is where Sotha Sil himself once studied among the Dwemer and the site still holds his old underground laboratory.
Sotha Sil returned to Kemel-Ze after the Battle of Red Mountain and attaining godhood, and there he carried out a series of experiments that would serve as the basis for his future projects including: The Factotums and synthetic recreation of life, the Mnemonic Planisphere and his research on soul and memory, and the Clockwork City and Throne Aligned themselves.
Some of the insights are the following:
1. Sotha Sil discovered that no matter what creations would have certain *"mandatory flaws"* and only certain qualities of theirs could actually be altered or *"improved upon"*, to be able to create his ideal vision he first needed to *"master the art of irregularities",* to learn to recognize these mandatory traits. 2. Sil found that *"in desperation all things consume one another"* and that decay/consumption are to some extent inevitable. Even with his divine power and even when it came to creations he believed *had* achieved their "ideal" form, they'd only remain so briefly before starting to decay, the only method he ever found to somewhat mitigate that being to instill (imperfect) self-repair functions. 3. Nirn is governed by *"intrinsic forces"* or *"rules",* primary laws of existence, some like gravity are constant and can be measured, others are not and can't be.
Within Kemel-Ze, Sil created a powerful world-shaping device called *"The Clockwork Propabilis"* which is capable of controlling and altering said forces. The Propabilis is the prototype for the Clockwork City/Throne Aligned (it looks akin to the Throne Aligned but set deep underwater at a section of Kemel-Ze that extends there) but, because it is a prototype, it's alterations are volatile and imperfect.
Activating it for anything but a momentary span can lead to *"the destabilization of Nirn"* and consequently to massive loss of life across the world, if allowed to remain active it can make *"lasting changes"* to natural law and if attempts are made to change or use it beyond set parameters there could be *"untold consequences".*
Even it's momentary activation during the quest (the work of the rogue Clockwork Apostle Nilphas Drethan who believed he could use it to alter the laws of Nirn and "fix" the world where Sotha Sil refused to) still causes earthquakes and flashes of lightning in the area.
The whole thing also affirms why Divayth Fyr called the Clockwork City an "incomprehensibly powerful world-shaping device" and why the Triad wanted it as one of the places that could "change the rules of reality and remake the world" per Leythen, it' the City/Throne's very function to do so.
4)Sotha Sil created Mnemonic Fragments, pieces of inscribed metal pulsing with energy that store the memories of living beings, a prototype of the Memory Stars used in the Mnemonic Planishphere which are purely energy.
The fragments have additional functions, they can be used to connect machinery to one another or serve as the key to their operation/function (used as such in the facility overseer Protus who uses fragments to control the facility machines and in the Propabilis itself respectively) but, most intriguing, tie into Sil's research on souls.
Sil believed that by combining Mnemonic Fragments one could form an artificial copy of the soul the memories came from, something he attempted to do with his own memories (Factotums like Protus also have an artificial soul of sorts created using similar methods).
The result was an artificial soul copy of Sotha Sil containing all his personality/knowledge/memories at the moment of it's creation (the Fragment of this same copy is what serves as key to operating the Propabilis).
However, Sil ultimately considered the work incomplete. Though it *can* legitimately think and react to events, the new soul is static, it can't grow or adapt new experiences and so it only puts on a convincing "appearance" of a real living being, there's still *"something missing".*
5) It's reinforced that Sil's foresight of events is near immaculate, he knew since before the moment his artificial soul copy was made that Nilphas Drethan would one day attempt to activate the Propabilis centuries later, he knew that the Vestige would stop him, that this would be the same champion who would save his Clockwork City and stop the Triad at Summerset, and even the exact manner their conversations would unfold (whether the Vestige would be curious, what they'd ask).
Sil knew, so the copy knows.
However, SIl's copy points out there's a difference between *"knowledge*" and *"true understanding".*
From the moment he gained his godhood Sil knew exactly how events would unfold even eons later, exactly what he needed to build and exactly how to build it (*"down to the last bolt and wire"*). But to truly understand it and create it in reality he still needed to tinker, to *"work backwards"* (he had the script and schematics but no real experience basically").
6)Despite his seemigly complete knowledge, Sil actually still harbours doubts about his deeds, in memories he wonders to himself whether he doesn't truly trust what he knows somewhere deep inside and so still *"fears failure".*
During the conversation with the copy you can ask why he allowed the possibly apocalyptically dangerous Propabilis to remain functional when he left, to which he'll answer that he foresaw Drethan would activate it, so it needed to remain functional to *be* activated.
If you choose to criticise him for his circular reasoning he appears to get defensive, answering that you can think what you will because it isn't *your* choice, it's *his*.
Perhaps the most unexpected part for me personally, for all his talk that there is no choice left undetermined in advance by the chains of causality, when confronted Sil seemingly/indirectly acknowledges personal choice does exist and further rebuffs the Vestige by saying it's *his* choice that matters here.
The laboratory and all of Sil's creations (Propabilis and copy Sil included) remain within by the end of the quest but Protus seals the doors to mortals after the event.
**Madness on the Wind**
There's a complex in Apocrypha called Quires Wind, a great "scriptorium" where Seekers in service to Mora "bind" knowledge and secrets to arcane tomes in his name, aided by Ciphers who provide them with the materials they use to create the secret's vessels (ink, paper, so on).
Places like this are where Apocrypha's tomes are made, including things like the Black Books, which are revealed to be created by the Seekers (Black Books specifically contain knowledge Mora wishes to have revealed to mortals, they're noted to be powerful secrets capable of great change for which mortals are the intended recipients). A chosen few Ciphers are also selected to receive a similar position and write new tomes themselves (copying and sometimes even embellishing).
This place has become the target of Miraak's plot to escape Apocrypha. In order:
1. Miraak is said to be the "First Servant" of Hermaeus Mora, a Dragon Priest who Mora opened Apocrypha to during the Dragon War and who has been there scheming and amassing power since, though known his existence is considered a myth among the Ciphers. 2. Miraak seeks to return to Nirn in order to take revenge on the descendants of the Atmorans who he believes betrayed him and brought about his fall. 3. Miraak convinces a scriptorium Cipher to his side and teaches him a certain spell, instructing him to cast/imbue said spell into four blank scrolls and place them around the Quires.
The scrolls once so enchanted (or cursed, more accurately) emit a mental field of sorts that envelops the Quires Wind (not unlike what's done in TESV with the All-Maker Stones).
The compulsion lures the facility's Daedra to the scrolls where they fall under Miraak's thrall, ordered to inscribe a specific spell into the Black Books which will than be used to command whoever reads the Black Book to cast said spell and summon Miraak to Nirn, as well as to attack anyone who attempts to enter Quires Wind and interfere.
4) The Quires Ciphers suffer a considerably worse fate, the magic in the cursed scrolls overwhelms their minds and subjects them to the Hush (the phenomenon/curse which occurs when the mortal mind is exposed to an arcane secret too great to hold and so has it's identity hollowed so their being can hold the secret, irreveresibly transforming their bodies and minds, their forms transform into gaunt cyclopean ghouls), and further controls the Hushed into attacking intruders ( to an extent unnatural for Hushed), which is more dangerous than it sounds given Hushed do retain their abilities from before (as seen with the Cipher alchemist in this very quest).
5) The transformation into a Hushed appears to make the transformed immortal in some manner. The Hushed alchemist boss is killed and his form collapses dead, however in another section of the scriptotium his shadowy essence manifests, trying desperately to recall his original name before exploding into another instance of his physical body and engaging in combat again.
6) The plot in Quires Wind is said to be the moment when Miraak and Mora's relationship breaks down. Prior to this Miraak wasn't considered a traitor but with his attack on such an important site that has changed, the Cipher in the quest thinks that there's no point in following up on this however, she says that now that his scheme has been exposed Miraak will either be destroyed if Mora has no use for him or remain as is and out of sight if Mora has future plans for him.
\-----------------------
This quest, I think might potentially help answer one of the not quite explained aspects of *Dragonborn*, how exactly Miraak's planned conquest would have been carried out, at least in part.
TESV itself didn't make clear the exact manner and limits of Bend Will's function, it enveloped Solstheim but through the All-Maker Stones and without it being made clear if the greater spell could be replicated without these unique relics.
But with this quest it appears Miraak can simply imbue the magic to enthrall minds across a considerable area (the Quires Wind is *large* , and it falls fully into his thrall in short order through four scrolls) into objects freely, even teach others how to expand his influence by casting the enchantment themselves. Further the magic can create and control Hushed (which appear immortal in some sense).
I don't know if/how Bend Will is involved in the cursed scrolls, but I think this might help illustrate some of Miraak's methods.
**Forgotten Glories**
One of the Daedric Clans aligned with Hermaeus Mora and Apocrypha are the Remnants, a clan of Dremora that serve as the "sword and shield" of Apocrypha, protecting the realm's knowledge from all who would seek access to it's secrets without permission.
Dreamcarvers of Vaermina have attacked their most important site, the Cenotaph and they want help with repelling them. In order:
1. The first members of the clan are said to have been drifting through the Void when they heard the call of a being who they somehow instinctively knew was the "Eye of All", Hermaeus Mora. Mora called them to the defense of Apocrypha and when they accepted transported them to Apocrypha. There they found two relics, a lantern and a key from which power surged, going from Apocrypha through the Void to some place unknown.
The Remnants joined their essence with the relics and a portal leading to a new realm opened, as they stepped through the portal the clan's minds joined together in a linked network, becoming "as one in body and mind" and in Mora's service.
In this secluded dimension the Crux, they also found a binding pact with Hermaeus Mora but from which their new unity flowed but, to their surprise, their names were somehow already signed, they'd been bound before they could even take the action needed to bind themselves. This made the Remnants realize that their fate had been to serve Mora from the start.
2) The Pact is said to "invest" the Remnant with a portion of "Mora's will", it gives them their unique hive mind and allows them to tap into it to cast and fuel/reactivate powerful magic such as wards that could eradicate the Dreamcarvers if activated. The more beings that join their mental network the more powerful the Remnants collectively grow in a very real arcane sense.
3) The Dreamcarvers of Vaermina seek to enter the Crux and claim the pact with Mora, they've cast a ritual that afflicts all Remnants, gradually draining their mental energy and erasing their minds to join it with the Dreamcarver leader's own Vestige (this will allow her to fool the otherwise unopenable portal to the Crux into opening by making her appear like a Remnant). Once there, the Dreamcarvers can steal the pact with Mora and in so doing take for themselves the power it grants the Remnants, enhancing themselves and unraveling their enemy clan permanently.
Except..