Chapter 735: The Painful Life of a Daedric Prince
A/n: Hey, guys. I'm back. Glad to say that I've finally got my Master's Degree with an excellent grade and moving on to PhD, it kept me occupied for the past month for sure! Happy to be back.
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What would be expected of you when an enemy kicks your door like a maniac, killing your servants and pillaging your valuables?
The answer is always self-defense.
Hermaeus Mora was well known to be a hoarder, a collector, and a vicious taskmaster. His collections of knowledge were the most prized of his possessions which he would use to lure many puny mortals, ensnare them to his realm, and make them submit their knowledge for his endless hoard.
In terms of being a Daedric Prince, Hermaeus Mora sought no domination, sowed no destruction, released no plagues, caused no disaster, told no lie, claimed no righteousness, and did no misdeeds. In terms of being fair and sporty, Hermaeus Mora was a top-tier fair guy. He gives knowledge and takes away knowledge in return all through simple rules of contracting and transactions.
Just why do mortals expect to get something for nothing, especially from a guy known as a hoarder? This may be one of the existential questions Hermaeus Mora gave up figuring out a long time ago.
But out of all these mortals, Heroes and Dragonborns were the most troublesome. Those self-centered bastards were always the kind of people who would seek knowledge without even attempting to pay anything in return. Hermaeus Mora figured out that if he made a trial for those heroes, he would get to experience their powers and abilities and note something from them while in return, he'd give them the illusion of choice between three powers and they would simply fuck off after that.
It was a simple and straight idea that would always bear fruits for all sides and everyone would win and benefit.
But just why in the world wouldn't humans understand even this most basic principle?!
Hermaeus Mora was plucking his own tentacles from madness across all the ages and kalpas just from that. Even Sheogorath, who is officially crazy, understands that. Why can't mortals just get it?!
It started a long time ago when Xarxes, an elven deity, was a mortal elf and turned to Hermaeus Mora for knowledge. While the rules back in these ancient eras were simple such as "Aedra were the ancestors of people" and "Daedra were the guys who wanted no such a thing with Lorkhan and his open-world-survival-craft shenanigans", mortals always found faults with the Daedra and dragged them to all sorts of dramas. On the other hand, Xarxes was a lovely guy who wanted to make the most of history and create an account for the ages of his favorite records.
The story of "Oghma" is known for the most part but Xarxes and Hermaeus Mora were co-authors and at some point, they were always arguing over some details. Xarxes wanted to polish out history and turn it into a romance that shows off the glory of his ancestral Aedra such as Auri-El and Trinimac, while Mora wanted to focus on practical records without straying off to the vain glorification of the fantastical fetishes of Elves.
This argument turned into a feud, which resulted in Xarxes taking whatever he wanted from Hermaeus Mora's hoard of knowledge and turning it into his Historical Romance. Naturally, Hermaeus Mora was displeased and did all that he could to get the Oghma of Xarxes into his hands, and with anger at the inaccuracy of such a record, Hermaeus Mora tore it apart and put it back many many times until it started to fit together and became what it is today. A trove of actual knowledge that no mortal mind can simply fathom.
All of what happened, of course, happened during the Merethic Eras, in which no chronological order was established and the events were fumbled into the glooms of Oblivion. To the mortals, however, especially the Altmer of Alinor, the truth turned into another romance and it lived on in their hearts such as all the history they claimed. Hermaeus Mora turned into an evil figure in the story and Xarxes, who ripped him of his hoarded knowledge, was a good guy.
Eventually, this happened with all the Daedra so Hermaeus Mora wasn't particularly left out.
But then the Humans of Atmora came along and they were the worst. No matter how many times Hermaeus Mora came to them with offers, they were always stoning him with skepticism and accusing him of malice.
They didn't even have that much knowledge, to begin with! That's what maddened Hermaeus Mora to no end. He was willing to give and take with those illiterate dying fools to make them stronger and enable them to survive the death of Atmora.
In the end, he was branded as the old trickster of the forest and the Atmorans left their homeland and traveled far south. As tragic as it was for him, Hermaeus Mora was still failing to enter any Pantheon and remained one of the outcast Daedra, sharing the same category with the likes of Molag Bal and Mehrunes Dagon.
By that time, Azura, Boethiah, and Mephala established their own exclusive Pantheon with the Chimer. Meredia had her own cult which was widely popular and lawfully accepted. Malacath had his own race that exclusively worshiped him. Even Sheogorath was popular with the Khajiit for some furry reason.
But he, who is a patron of knowledge, the most valuable thing people could ever possess was unjustifiably cast out.
Well, at least he managed to get some Karstaag-men to follow him at some point and there was also the Kamal of Akavir but he can't be proud of the Kamal, nobody can be. He'd trade them with the Sload if he could but he knew he always wished for the Tang Mo. Not that Azura or Hircine would allow it anyway.
And while the time of the Daedric Princes is rather irrelative to their twisted concept of reality, Hermaeus Mora was happy that for once, a Nord came to his doorstep desperate for knowledge and willing to accept any trade. Curious about this particular case, Hermaeus Mora accepted the Nord and asked for servitude in return since that Nord was a cult leader. It seemed like a good investment back then and it was high time for Hermaeus Mora to get some action with the Nords.
This cult leader had a strange revelation from the Dragon God of Time that he was to become the enemy of all Dragons and would be the one to stop the tyranny of Alduin. The Cult Leader was indeed not popular with the Dragons and had his own animosities with other Dragon Priests, so when he got that weird blessing of being a Dragonborn, Hermaeus Mora seemed like the best candidate to tell him what it meant.
Of course the matter of eternal servitude meant that this Cult Leader will now be subject to a different patron than the Dragon God or any Dragon, which for some reason, he didn't seem to protest against. It all piqued Mora's curiosity even more.
A long time later, it appeared that this Cult Leader, namely Miraak, was aware of many things himself. Things that include that if the Dragon King Alduin was to be taken down, the Kalpa would come to an end and the end of a Champion's mission is to be discarded by the world. This made Miraak much warrier and more scared than any mortal of demise and death. Hermaeus Mora was happy to provide him with the alternative by tethering his soul to Apocrypha through a contract, meaning that he can't be killed in the Mortal World and shall be always immortal so long that the World of Apocrypha stands.
It was immortality in a sort of way.
However, Miraak took that immortality and wreaked havoc in his own name as Lord Miraak, the one that dominates both Mortals and Dragons. Armed with the Soul of a Dragon and now the Immortality that rivals theirs, Miraak sought to be a god while giving no credit to his current patron, Hermaeus Mora.
This was not a breach of contract but it was obvious that Mora wasn't happy with that. He wanted to be the god and now this puny Nord is taking that away.
Moreover, Miraak even took control of the Summit of Apocrypha and commanded the Seekers and the Lurkers under Hermaeus Mora to serve him. What's next? Mantel Hermaeus Mora or some shit?
If not for Vahlok the Jailor, Miraak would have gotten away with his schemes long ago but Hermaeus Mora was careful. Once the soul was tethered to Apocrypha, it wasn't easy to return it to Mundus without a lot of power and energy.
This made Miraak the prisoner of his own greed to Hermaeus Mora and put the two face to face for eternity against one another. In his realm, Hermaeus Mora had a tumor-like servant that sucked his power to do everything he could to return to Nirn. Many Dragonborns appeared after that but none of them were felt by Miraak and so he couldn't find a replacement until the Fourth Era.
And Jon Dare appeared.
To Hermaeus Mora, the fight between the two Dragonborns was something he wished for and if it meant that Miraak was going to be replaced with anything even if it was a pair of smelly socks, Hermaeus Mora would be pleased. "Good riddance!" he thought.
The contract bound him and Miraak for eternity together and Miraak was powerful enough to keep Hermaeus Mora from killing him since his soul was Divine and that of a Dragon. It would cost Hermaeus Mora a few arms and legs if he was to forcefully take out a full-fledged Dragonborn in a contract with him.
The two of them wanted this hatchling Dragonborn to come and made sure to not give him power. As soon as his Dragonborn Soul was awakened and his identity was revealed, it seemed that he was already in the game of power and had Winterhold under his control. Moreover, he was the one to initiate the attack by capturing many Black Books and most importantly, the "Oghma Infinium" herself.
Hermaeus Mora and Miraak were fully aggroed by that insolent Dragonborn and Hermaeus Mora allowed Miraak to form a cult on Solstheim to capture the new Dragonborn. It didn't end well and it seemed that Jon Dare had his own alliances with the Princes of Oblivion. Moreover, he invaded the place Miraak was attempting to capture on Nirn and freed it from his hold.
Humans! They are such messy creatures. Hermaeus Mora had many projects failing just because of Human Interventions and how they love to keep their secrets and knowledge from him. It was the straw that broke the camel's back as they say in Hammerfell and he was already so upset and annoyed with all humans.
Miraak, Jon Dare, Ysgramor, the Atmorans, the Skaal, and even the Daedric Princes that take on human forms, Sheogorath most of all.
But just as he was plucking his own tentacles from rage, the first chapter of the Secret Twilight was accessed and the smell that came from that direction was oddly familiar. It was that human that came here four years ago and kidnapped four Black Books. That human that kept messing with Hermaeus Mora. That human that he was gnashing his entire being because of.
He kicked a Lurker in the balls and stood over a pile of Seeker corpses while armlocking one of them from the head. His red hair was flowing behind him and his eyes were glowing and radiating with power and madness.
His muscles were oddly bulging from his mage robes and all his veins were pumping with vigor.
"Konnichiwa, Hemaiosu-kun. Watashi wa Jon desu."
He then tightened his arm muscles and the Seeker he was holding exploded from the head.
"YOROSHIKU ONEGAI SHIMASU!"
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