Lore:Red Mountain

The UESPWiki – Your source for The Elder Scrolls since 1995
Jump to: navigation, search
This page is currently being redesigned for the Lore Places Project (LPP).
The page may need work to meet the standards outlined on the project page.
To meet our site's higher standard of quality, this article or section may require cleanup. The user who placed this here had the following concern:
Needs history, Battle of Red Mountain, post Dagoth Ur
To leave a message about the cleanup for this article, please add it to this article's talk page.
Red Mountain
Type Mountain
Continent Tamriel
Province Morrowind
Appears in Arena, Morrowind, ESO, Legends
Red Mountain circa 2E 583
"But when Trinimac and Auriel tried to destroy the Heart of Lorkhan it laughed at them. It said, "This Heart is the heart of the world, for one was made to satisfy the other." So Auriel fastened the thing to an arrow and let it fly long into the sea, where no aspect of the new world may ever find it." — The Monomyth
"Beneath Red Mountain, Dwemer miners discovered a great magical stone. By diverse methods, Lord Kagrenac, High Priest and Magecrafter of the ancient Dwemer, determined that this magical stone was the heart of the god Lorkhan, cast here in the Dawn Era as a punishment for his mischief in creating the mortal world. " — Kagrenac's Tools

Red Mountain was a vast volcano that dominated the island of Vvardenfell in Morrowind, and was once the highest mountain in Tamriel.[1] The island actually took its name from the volcano: the original name of Red Mountain was Vvardenfell, which translates to "City of the Strong Shield" in Dwemeris.[2] Red Mountain was also known as the Red Tower,[3] Dagoth-Ur, and Sahqo-Strunmah in the Dragon Language.[4] On a clear day, Red Mountain's peak could be seen from the city of Mournhold, some 250 miles to the south.[2] The mountain was generally considered the most dangerous region in all of Vvardenfell, and has erupted on at least three occasions: the Sun's Death event of 1E 668, during Clavicus Vile's plot to drain Vivec's power in 2E 583, and in the Red Year of 4E 5.[5][6][7] The latter eruption was so spectacular that Red Mountain's height was reduced, and the Throat of the World claimed the title of Tamriel's highest mountain from then on.[8]

Access to Red Mountain became restricted in the late Third Era: the Tribunal built the Ghostfence, a giant Spirit Wall, around the perimeter of the mountain. The only way inside without extended jump or levitation was through Ghostgate in the south. This region was marked by the steep climbs to the top of the mountain and by the Ash Storms that filled the air and limited visibility to a few feet. Red Mountain was almost entirely uncharted, and few have ventured far within the Ghostfence's confines since its construction. It was known, however, that four ancient Dwemer Citadels were hidden in the region, three of which were residences for Dagoth Ur's most trusted ash vampires; the fourth was the lair of Dagoth Ur himself. Even though this area was extremely dangerous, Glass and Ebony mines were set up inside the Ghostfence under Imperial guard.

Within the Ghostfence lay a wasteland of deep ravines, called Foyada, and lava pools. Blighted monsters ran free and the minions of Dagoth Ur, known as ash creatures, roamed the land. The Foyada Mamaea led from Ghostgate to the Moonmoth Legion Fort near Balmora, and an unnamed foyada followed the Ghostfence northwest to Ald'ruhn. Just north of the Ghostfence was the lost Dunmer fortress of the Sixth House, Kogoruhn. It was rumored that a secret entrance linked this structure with Red Mountain proper.

History[edit]

Map of Morrowind, showing Red Mountain and the Inner Sea

Red Mountain is said to have been formed at the time of the Convention, when Lorkhan's heart was removed and thrown into the sea; Red Mountain formed where the Heart of Lorkhan landed.[9] Long after, the Dwemer established themselves in Morrowind, and Red Mountain became a fortress at the heart of the Dwemer kingdom of Vvardenfell. The Dwemer eventually united with the Chimer to expel the Nords from Morrowind in 1E 416.[2][10] The two elven races coexisted peacefully under the banner of the kingdom of Resdayn for a time, until the Chimer general Indoril Nerevar learned that the Dwemer had found the Heart of Lorkhan and sought to use it to empower the Numidium. This led to the War of the First Council, which culminated in the Battle of Red Mountain.[11] Coinciding with the war, Red Mountain erupted in 1E 668, reshaping the island of Vvardenfell and blotting out the sun for a full year. This event became known as the Sun's Death.[5][2]

Long restive, Red Mountain awoke again briefly in 2E 583, an apparent consequence of Vivec's power being siphoned away. The culprit behind the Warrior-Poet's debilitating affliction was the Daedric Prince Clavicus Vile, who needed Tribunal power to find and enter Sotha Sil's Clockwork City. This resulted in Vivec being severely weakened, to the point that Baar Dau threatened to fall and Red Mountain erupted, endangering Vvardenfell. Fortunately, Vivec's powers were restored through the actions of an Outlander and disaster was averted.[6]

During the Imperial Simulacrum, Jagar Tharn used the Dwarven mines beneath the mountain as a hiding place for a piece of the shattered Staff of Chaos. The Eternal Champion discovered the entrance to the mines by striking the Hammer of Gharen against the Anvil of Mithas to produce a ringing which would reveal its location. The hero retrieved the piece, completing the Staff, only to discover that Tharn had drained its power into the Jewel of Fire.[12]

Between 3E 400 and 3E 417, the Tribunal erected the Ghostfence around Red Mountain to contain the spread of the Blight and the Corprus monsters.

In 4E 5, recorded by the Dunmer as the Red Year, Red Mountain erupted shortly after Baar Dau, since converted into the Ministry of Truth, completed its descent and impacted into Vivec City.[13] The eruption produced massive amounts of smoke and toxic ash that smothered much of Morrowind and left Vvardenfell almost entirely uninhabitable.[14] The portions of Morrowind that survived the initial calamity were not spared for long, as ash from the continually-erupting mountain poisoned the land and sea over the following decades.[14][15]

Gallery[edit]

Notes[edit]

See Also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ PGE — Imperial Geographical Society, 2E 864
  2. ^ a b c d PGE — Imperial Geographical Society, 2E 864
  3. ^ The Book of the Dragonborn — Prior Emelene Madrine
  4. ^ Word Wall in Skyrim
  5. ^ a b The Nirnoot MissiveSinderion
  6. ^ a b Events of ESO: Morrowind
  7. ^ History of Raven Rock, Vol. ILyrin Telleno
  8. ^ Loading screen in Skyrim
  9. ^ The Monomyth
  10. ^ Nerevar at Red Mountainthe Tribunal Temple
  11. ^ The War of the First CouncilAgrippa Fundilius
  12. ^ Events of Arena
  13. ^ The Red YearMelis Ravel
  14. ^ a b The ReclamationsThara of Rihad
  15. ^ Gjalund Salt-Sage's dialogue in Dragonborn
http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Red_Mountain
en.uesp.net
crawl=CC-MAIN-2018-17
49659
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:RNXXQRXVSHLZ6RV3PSWILNZR2DEKRJFI
<urn:uuid:b7c4f91c-f819-4f44-910d-d13a3e8661d9>
2018-04-22T08:22:42Z
174.142.163.108
text/html
sha1:TAFBQGJLAM4JJ4RGBTCRSREDNWMJ2WWM
<urn:uuid:45da87cd-c2ed-41c9-8b59-b16429e5c754>
http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Red_Mountain
response
<urn:uuid:1ff39ffd-af6f-4fb7-8f06-f361c8fad7eb>
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-168-23-116.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2018-17
operator: Common Crawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web for April 2018
publisher: Common Crawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf