Let's Explore One of Skyrim's Unsolved Mysteries

long ago in skyrim the men and elves of the merethic era lived in peace that was until the snow elves or falmer as they are known decided to slaughter the nordic people destroying their city of southall and sending iskramor and his two sons fleeing to admora the reason for the elves attack is still debated to this day some believe that the elves feared the nord's culture was surpassing their own and decided to put an end to it while others theorized that the nords stumbled across something so powerful undisciple that the elves had to claim it for themselves much later in the fourth era the college of winterhold would discover the eye of magnus under southall which aligns with the latter theory and could be the reason behind the falmer's attack regardless of the reason isgramor returned from atmora with his 500 companions seeking vengeance these warriors dedicated their every breath to the extermination of the elves and eventually after much fighting they succeeded in driving the elves out of skyrim and solstheim many snow elves that were not slaughtered in battle actually survived by fleeing underground it was another race of elves the highly advanced deep elves or dwemer who took them in the dwemer let the snow elves seek refuge with them under skyrim's surface but their safety came at a cost they were forced to consume a toxic fungus that gradually turned them blind and ultimately the falmer were enslaved by the dwemer who used them to further their own aims it is ironic that a race of elves who may have been obsessed with the eye of magnus and attacked the nords because of it would eventually lose their sight and in today's video we head to a cave not far from sarful down to the south east known as the sightless pit perhaps this is one of the first places where fleeing snow elves sought their safety but what i can tell you for sure is that this is one of the most mysterious locations in all of skyrim what's going on ladies and gentlemen my name is michael and today we have a very speculative topic to discuss a location which may seem like an ordinary dwemer ruin now infested with the corrupted and vile falmer as we know them from skyrim but may actually be so much more in this video we're going to enter the temple of skrib and explore some theories on who this mysterious scrib is and what this location may have been used for as always i would love to hear your thoughts about it in the comments below especially because it involves so many theories and be sure to tell us what elder scrolls theories you want explored on fudge muppet next so heading to the sightless pit you'll quickly notice that the name seems quite literal in the sense that there's a large hole in the ground that you can't really see into let's say goodbye to the statue of azura and hop inside on my first time here i didn't even notice that there's a big pool of water behind where your adventure begins using the path ahead we make our way through an icy cavern area and you'll notice there were clearly some explorers or bandits who tried to delve into this pit but didn't get too far from their camp maybe they drunk too much of their wine before the danger ahead all in all some falmouth arrows are not the kind of sight that would deter a dragonborn are they so we can keep moving and sometimes there's a falmer here who likely killed these bandits but in most of my playthroughs it's actually empty and then it's not long before things start appearing very dwarven the passage down is unusual and it looks as though it must have been quite hard to navigate long ago before the dwemer vanished perhaps they used tonal architecture that changed the way physics work allowing something akin to the levitation scene in nelot's televani mushroom tower or perhaps there were some sort of stairs that have since been destroyed as we travel down into the next area we'll come across the residents of this ruin the falmer and of course their favorite insect or arachnid companions as you follow the path down and further through the ruin you'll notice some of these interesting red dwemer banners as we'll soon discuss these banners become quite important in relation to some of the theories about the significance of the temple ahead after mowing down some more falmer enemies we arrive at this sensational looking temple entrance this is the door to the temple of skrib and the whole scene particularly with the fallen dwemer centurion looks very cool for anyone already beginning to spin theories in their head i will say that the centurion cannot be looted and therefore it must have been placed there purely for decorative reasons perhaps to tell a story moving through the temple doors you'll notice more of the red dwemer banners we saw earlier as well as plenty of tattered red and gold patterned cloth that probably looked a lot nicer back when the dwemer walked through these rooms the red banners and red floor material can be found in many other dwemer ruins though most of the time not in this quantity making me think the temple of scrib was an important area for the dwemer but why would the dwemer have a temple and why would they worship skrib who or whatever that is and that's if worship was even the purpose of this place going further through the ruin we moved through a beautiful circular tube-shaped pathway and then through some more icy falmer camp territory home to their eerie trademark totems assembled from bone and insect parts at last we enter a massive chamber similar to the environment of blackreach dwemer machinery connected to the ceiling continues to pump away as the falmer and their minions patrol the walkways and main elevated area the thelma are well entrenched in this fascinating place and if we take some longer shot camera angles we can see that there are these oddly placed arches positioned around the cavern as well as many pillars surrounding what looks like some kind of important centerpiece area we can see a falmer and their minions standing by what appears to be a much smaller pillar covered quite densely in glowing mushrooms with a chest directly in front of it atop the stone block sits a creation of dwemer design which you may have noticed in other ruins is usually flipped to face down and serve as a kind of dwarven chandelier lighting the area however there is only one of these devices in the temple of skrib and it is certainly not glowing with light at least by the time we're visiting and why is it upside down well an easy answer could be that it's used to light the ground area under this small shrine-like creation the light potentially emanating from this device in the past could also have some sort of religious themes which we'll get into later i also did some investigation looking for any of these devices switched upside down in other dwemer ruins and all i could find was this beautiful device in black reach the design is quite similar though this one was built slightly different to have a beam of hot blue fire emanating from the top like some kind of oversized candle to the left and right of this shrine-like creation there are these flags or banners appearing again but here's where things get very weird to the right there is the typical red dwemer banner but this one is ripped in half perhaps it was torn or sliced in half or someone set fire to it to the left however is something very special a typical dwemer banner design that has been made entirely green in fact i actually found a steam link to base game skyrim not even special edition so i could purchase it yet again to properly investigate the temple of scribd for this video i just didn't want to go messing with all of my mods but even if i turn them off completely the banner in the vanilla game just seems to be an extra vibrant green as you can see in the footage i'm using in parts of this video this green banner is clearly no accident and upon searching many dwemer ruins for anything similar all i could find were more red banners with the same design we see here while tattered this banner differs to the one on the other pillar as it's still at its full length and stands alone as what appears to be the only green dwemer banner in all of skyrim if anyone has found another i would love for them to tell me where because this seems to be a unique one this all leads us to the question what unknown is going on with this location and i think the main thing on everyone's mind is who or what is scrib is scribble word used by the falmer or is it related to the dwemer let's explore the idea of the dwemer first so the dwemer are not known to be a religious bunch elder scrolls fans will sometimes refer to them as atheists though i'd prefer to say that the dwemer simply do not care for the gods this is different to an atheist as we would define it which is someone who does not believe in the existence of gods at all the dwemer were surely aware of the aedra the daedra and the tangible impacts particularly of the latter that have made waves across tamriel's timeline what a god is can also depend on your viewpoint to one person they may be deserving of reverence for simply being immortal and powerful whereas to another such as a dwemer they could simply be considered as overblown spirits much larger and more powerful than mortals but perhaps not deserving of reverence simply due to this in the most general sense the dwemer want to become gods or achieve god-like prowess through an extreme understanding and implementation of powerful technology their use of tonal architecture which allowed them to bend space and time shape landscapes and defy the rules of nature proves that they were no doubt achieving their aims however it is widely assumed that they became too skilled for their own good flying way too close to the sun so to speak when their entire race disappeared when kakronak's legendary tools were supposedly used on the heart of lorcan it was none other than vivec who wrote in the battle of red mountain and the rise and fall of the tribunal that the dwemer scorned the daedra and mocked our foolish rituals and preferred instead their gods of reason and logic so why would the dwemer ever have a temple to this scrib character if in fact it even is a dwemer name well there's a few possibilities firstly we must remember that not every member of every race conducts themselves like the majority there are always cultural outliers who forge their own path look no further than the prophet veloth who took his followers out of the somerset isles and all the way to morrowind where they revered the daedra something that directly opposed old maculture and then they became the kaima pap's crib was some kind of dwemer deity worshipped by a separatist group who saw worth in worship and the rewards it can bring perhaps as the pragmatic elves they were a small group of them deemed it most efficient to harness not only powerful technology but also the gifts of a god scrib could be their version of hermaeus mora whose fear is forbidden knowledge who they may have followed with the idea that there's no point in leaving any power unutilized in order to achieve their goals this however would not explain the continuous use of the red banners throughout the rest of the ruin if one would assume that the green banner would have replaced them all if it were to represent a new group or a new way of thinking or maybe they were still very proud to be dwemer and associated with the other members of their race but they just added a green banner to represent their additional and different way of thinking the dwemer were known to fight amongst themselves at times and there were multiple different clans but i'm still not super confident that this dwemer-based theory is likely to be true we could speculate that skrib was actually a person an actual dwemer maybe skrib was such a powerful and talented tonal architect that he was able to gather a following and have them pledge their allegiance to furthering his aims with the temple currently in a dilapidated state it's hard to know with any certainty that said it is wise to remember that we do not know who decided to name this place a temple perhaps in the dwemertang the word for temple does not have the same religious connotations as it does in tamrielic after all other religious sounding words have been used for certain dwemer ruined zones take off turned cathedral for example which is a location you travel through on your search for the elder scroll needed in skyrim's main story there's also the fact that kagrenac has been referred to as high priest kagrenac though i can't help but notice that the temple of scrib does seem to have a somewhat religious feel to it the chest at the foot of this centerpiece device almost looks like it's there for offerings too but all of this does not explain something significant we haven't looked at yet if you head outside using the lift to the left of the center area you can travel further up the mountain and arrive at a sacrificial looking altar there's a skeleton laying upon it multiple skeletons laying lifelessly around it and a book the doors of oblivion the book talks about various daedric realms and if you touch anything on the altar multiple skeletons come to life and begin to fight you they're armed with ancient nordic bows and one could make the assumption that this altar no longer in the temple of scrib has nothing to do with it at all and i'd agree that some daedra worshipping necromancer could have just found some ancient altar and decided to practice necromancy there however this alter area is built in the same dwemer stone kind of design and if we look at the prima game guide for skyrim we can find something hidden from us in game it turns out that this is actually an unmarked location specifically called the altar of scrib to me this utterly defeats the notion that the word temple in temple of scrib might not have religious themes then again the dwemer might not have originally called it the altar of scrib in the same way that the temple of scrib could be a renamed location based on something involving the falmar overall this hidden name for the altar just adds a nice touch of mystery and proves that there's more to this location than one might first assume so it could involve a dwemer sub faction who turned kind of religious but i'm still not fully convinced but let's air out some final doubts i have about this dwemer worship theory firstly i found it very interesting that scribd starts with the letter x you may not think this is significant as the word scribd can appear as jumbled and hard to pronounce at first glance as many dwemer names words like mizinchaleft michuanzel betholft and kagenthems don't exactly roll off the tongue but upon a closer inspection you can find that out of over 80 listed dwemer locations found all over tamriel featuring in any game including the elder scrolls adventures red guard morrowind skyrim and the elder scrolls online not a single one has ever featured the letter x on top of this not a single dwemer character name and there's over 30 of them if you count reading in-game books about the dwemer has ever featured an x no matter how complex they are not even a dwemer word like this has an x even though it just looks like it should so i just don't think scrib is even a dwemer word to add to my investigation i found that the letter x is not even present on calcelmo stone in skyrim technically you can see a character for x listed online as part of the skyrim dwemer alphabet but this is actually extracted from skyrim's data folders where you can find a developer used font file that has a dwemer character for every letter of the alphabet but the letter x still doesn't seem to feature in the actual game the only example of a dwemer x even existing is in a concept art document created for the elder scrolls adventures red guard the same symbol on that document would later show up extremely rarely such as on the divine metaphysics document you can find in morrowind furthermore dwemer letter names were also written in that concept art document containing the glyphs and none of those actually have an x in them either as you can see by the extreme rarity of the glyph for x and it never being used in a location letter or character name scrib being a dwemer word just seems so unlikely also a big thanks to lady nareva for helping me to explore my questions surrounding the dwemer alphabet the one exception that people may think of is the sub location known as the arcanex however we can assume that this is tamrielic as it has its root in the word arcane similarly to how temple in temple of scribb is tamrielic seemingly translated for the player to understand where they are because if every word used to describe dwemer ruins was written in the dwemer language which the dwemer would have been speaking all the time things would no doubt be very confusing while playing skyrim so there's definitely a chance skrib is related to the dwemer but i'm more inclined to believe that it is actually a falmer word or perhaps even a god related to the falmer in the dawnguard dlc knight's paladin gulliburt tells us a bit about snow elf religion and says that they worshipped auriel trinimac cerebane finaster and jeffer this is very similar to the typical alt-mary pantheon only that it seems to have dropped a few and that's only if we believe that gallibor's list is all-inclusive and final it wouldn't be far-fetched to assume that many snow elves did worship other elven deities such as magnus for example but that it was not as mainstream compared to more popular gods magnus worship would make a lot of sense if the idea of the snow elves wanting the eye of magnus under southall is the true reason for the night of tears snow elves do focus on the concept of light and magnus is the sun god so it's quite fitting by the time of skyrim however the snow elves have fallen quite far from their glory days and while these falmouth have certainly degraded in many ways they have also developed a new culture a new language and based on their use of totems and what we see here today seemingly their own religion the falmer may come across as mindless savages but they are quite intelligent they do not wear the armor of their dwemer oppressors though it may have been easier to do so instead they make sturdy armor from the titanos materials of the chorus which they have domesticated and one can only imagine it serves as a quiet option as they skulk about the depths of skyrim the falmouth heavy armor even has an elegant cloth that adorns it dyed a beautiful deep purple colour this variant was only added in the dawnguard dlc but the standard fauma armor which was present in the base game before dlc always has a green dyed cloth hanging down from the waist while the color looks a bit worn from being used as clothing all the time it is similar to the intact uniquely green banner hanging on the left pillar in the temple of skrib perhaps the farmer of this location turned it into a place of worship and the green banner is almost like a flag they've made to represent themselves we do not know how long the dwemer have been missing from here and there's always a chance it was before the entire race actually disappeared what if the falmer slaves of the sightless pit and the temple of scrib rebelled against their overlords and in this specific instance actually won it would explain the fallen centurion at the entrance placed there purely for cosmetic reasons so who might scrib b well perhaps in the process of transforming into the downtrodden beings they are today the falmer could have turned to daedra worship namira daedric prince of ancient darkness would be a fitting pick this goddess of the dark is associated with insects spiders and other repulsive creatures that lead mortals to feel revulsion based on what we saw in her quest in skyrim she seems fond of sacrificial alters which could explain the altar of scrib outside it's worth noting that the falmer could definitely work with stone and may have built this altar in the first place while being slaves for the dwemer it could have had another use before it was repurposed and renamed to be the altar of scrib the falmouth could have even turned to hermaeus mora looking for a cure to their problems maybe a daedric prince actually gave them the upper hand to defeat the dwemer here azura also sits in view of the ultra of scrib so its purpose is really anyone's guess but i think there's a much more interesting potential answer to this mystery remember it's all very theoretical in this video but i personally suspect that skrib is actually one of the deities of the traditional elven pantheon given a new name and perhaps even slightly different themes as you may know there are many different versions of the same entities in the elder scrolls universe akatosh is the time god in the divine's imperial pantheon but to the high elves and the snow elves that time god is auriel metaphysics can get way deeper than we have time to dive into for this video but the gist of it is that there are many distinct entities that you could picture as all sharing a root entity think of auriel and akatosh as two sides of the same coin so to speak another way to look at it is like one god with multiple personalities or aspects that different cultures focus on and tap into through specific worship in the elder scrolls worship also gives power to the receiving entity and can literally shape how the entity interacts with the mortal world myth makes reality so i wonder if the falmar as they began to degrade into the corrupted beings they are today actually took on slightly different gods corrupted versions of their old pantheon one elven god we talked about already is magnus and that could make sense given that the centerpiece dwemer device seems to be designed to emit light of course light is also above ground and the sun is something that farmer would probably crave at least in the early stages of being trapped underground and being slaves to the dwemer but more interesting to me is actually xarxis to the ancient odma and the high elves today zarxes is considered especially important for his role of recording their history xarxis records not only their large and small achievements but also the life stories of individual elves with every connection of lineage and heritage that link them with their ancestors and bind them together you will see this god in many depictions holding a book be it in a painting or as a statue you may notice the book design on this statue depicts the symbol of auriel which is found all over the snow elf areas of the forgotten vale it is also like the symbol on the front of the ancient falmouth homes or agroshab has you tracked down which are later translated into readable falmer texts well what if the snow elves in the temple of scrib as they gradually shifted into their corrupted forms turned to xarxis in worship praying that as a god who records elven ancestry that he would forever remember who they were that the snow elves would not be forgotten that their ties to their former selves their true selves always remained and perhaps that they could even be helped after all xarxes is the scribe of auriel who is the most respected deity in snow of religion interestingly falmouth slaves did secretly build a massive statue themselves of an elf holding a very large book didn't they yes that's right i'm talking about the massive statue in irkingtan that you visit in order to stop mercer frey towards the end of skyrim's thieves guild storyline during that quest there is this note you find called thief's last words that talks about the statue and its twin eyes of the thalma jewels nobody thought they were real but i've seen them the eyes of the snow elves the dwarves thought they took them from the falmer but they themselves were fooled a statue built in secret by the slaves the eyes burn into you and i see them even now sarapha escaped through the collapsing tunnel but he'll never escape what we've seen men will never believe him and he'll be driven mad by the knowledge that he'll never see them again but i may yet see them again before i die the idea that the falmer actually built this statue in secret is truly fascinating and unlike the eye of magnus of which their obsession or interest is not fully confirmed this statue definitely shows the snow elves placing an emphasis on the concept of eyes we never get told who this statue is but simply based on other elven statue designs i'm going to guess that this elven statue holding a torch there's the light theme again and a book is xarxis xarxis is also known by the title the one who watches which arguably links him even more strongly to the theme of eyes and with the falmer losing their own sight it only adds to why he might have become a significant family deity furthermore if we theorize on the etymology of the word scrib you can easily see how it might actually be derived from a mix of xoxis and his role scribe scrib almost sounds like a falmer trying to spit out the word scribe in their wretched voice we only ever hear them grunt and screech in perhaps the falmer once worshipped xarxis at this altar of scrib before it was eventually left unattended and then seized by a necromancer on a side note remember back to the main area that has this dwemer device which normally functions like a light well while a strong association with light could point towards other elven gods it could also be tied to xarxis in the elder scrolls online there's an item called xarxis memory worship candle which is categorized as the treasure type lights ritual object in the item description it explains that this candle is big in fact it is a leg-sized tallow candle the kind used in the annual rites of xarxis memory at south point cathedral learning that xarxis has a massive candle associated with him is quite funny when you consider that i first described the only dwemer lighting device i've seen that reminds me of the upside down one in the temple of scrib as an oversized candle this was before i even knew of the xarxis memory worship candle item so if this dwemer device in the temple was used in any worship involving xarxis it turns out it wouldn't be the first time a large light was involved what's also interesting about this whole old falmer gods idea is taking another look at falma armor in particular the heavy armor variant it appears to mimic the armor on the statue of the snow elves favorite elven god so if we take a look at the statue of auriel and the elder scrolls online or much better the statue in the forgotten vale in skyrim you can see this almost kitenous look with two spikes down the bottom now i'm obviously not saying that this elven statue aesthetic is based on the chorus creature that the falmouth have domesticated but it could be that the now corrupted phalma have used the chorus body parts to emulate this appearance in their own armor to me this only further links to and strengthens any idea that the falmer might still respect and revere their old culture and in mysterious ways their old pantheon it's all very intriguing but i find the xarxis theory to be the most convincing answer to the mystery xe's mystery mysteriums oxies just kidding but trying to figure out stuff like this might land me a permanent stay in the shivering isles though i think by now you can see why xoxis or a partially corrupted falmer version of him perhaps is whose scrib could refer to the reason i say partially corrupted is because the falmer don't seem to have built any grand statues any time recently nor do they seem to be using the altar of scrib outside anymore perhaps after they defeated the dwemer they used this altar for prayer or even sacrifice i feel like a cool corrupted version of xarxis could be a kind of servant xarxis deity an amplified version of xaxi's supposed involvement with hermeasamora mora claims to have given xaxis special knowledge which was recorded in the ogmar infinium so it could also make him more relatable to the falmer who were also servants to powerful beings with far more knowledge than them the dwemer i'll also say that on my first investigation of the temple there was actually an amulet of rk in that tribute looking chest and rk actually seems to have ties to xarxis if you read twowaka rk zaksis by lady cinebar of tanith but at last it was not a set loot item so what do you think what is the temple of scrib was scrub a dwemer who lived in the flesh a dwemer deity worshipped by a clan who kind of diverged culturally from the rest it could be the case or do you think that scrib is a family deity worshipped to this day or perhaps only during their transitory downfall into a blind and aggressive race into the betrayed remember i'd love to hear what you think in the comments below so i can't encourage you enough to start brainstorming thank you so much for tuning in to fudge muppet as promised this was a very speculative theory based video but i had so much fun making it and doing heaps of investigations so i hope you really liked it please do let me know if you want me to cover any more elder scrolls theories on any topic you can come up with and maybe we'll make a video on it soon social media links are in the description please like the video if you think it deserves it subscribe for more elder scrolls fun my name is michael and i look forward to nerding out with you again very soon

Channel: FudgeMuppet

Views: 483,315

Rating: 4.9447174 out of 5

Keywords: skyrim, skyrim theory, skyrim lore, elder scrolls, elder scrolls lore, skyrim secrets, skyrim special edition, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, falmer, dwemer, dwemer disappearance, snow elves, dawnguard dlc, temple of xrib, xrib, sightless pit, skyrim xrib, altar of xrib, xarxes, hermaeus mora, namira, oghma infinium, elder scrolls gods, skyrim mods, skyrim theories, daedric prince, skyrim mystery, skyrim unsolved mysteries

Id: 00-7ZAkFQaQ

Length: 29min 15sec (1755 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 14 2021