I remember him joining the Psijic Order for a time... Generally speaking, he was the most worldly and caring of the God-Kings of the Tribunal to the plight of mortals, Mundus, and Nirn itself. No grandious pomp or wrathful smiting, just building and toiling away at giving hope to a future without the waters of Oblivion drowning everyone or power-hungry zealots and orders trying to undo the Towers and creation itself. Tragically, he cared...and then eventually died. The nature of his death being quite ironic since his divinity began in a similar fashion as to how it ended: with blood staining the hands of Almalexia and him remaining silent.
The one thing i'll always be grateful to ESO for is actually Sotha Sil, i didn't care too much about him before but ESO got him pretty high on my list of favorites
I was always intrigued with Sotha Sil, but he was mostly overshadowed by Vivec. Untill ESO came around and he just hit me with a single line that instantly made him my favorite character. _"Look around you. All of this exists because it must exist. I stand here, in this place, in this moment, not because I wish to, but because I have to. A result of action and consequence."_ This is what I have always liked about Elder Scrolls idea of the way of the gods/existence beyond the mortal, beyond Nirn's rules. Being able to exist everywhere and nowhere at the same time, knowing every event that has happened in every moment in time, while being able to be anywhere you wish, be all you wish. Yet we are confined to a body of flesh and blood, fragile and frail. Trapped here in this moment, in this location. And we cannot choose to simply be somewhere else, we most go there first, and always be where we are supposed to be, rather then where and when we wish to be.
*"Ah, Sotha Sil, the only Tribunal member with a heart, very much a scholar. It's truly a shame we Thalmor couldn't have met such an esteemed Mer. He seems to have also regretted Nerevar's murder, such guilt for an old friend."*
@@badluck5647 It's the fact we know he's the most empathetic and caring of the bunch. After the murder, he seems to be the only one who truly regretted it for much of his life, knowing he betrayed his old friend, and the guilt essentially weighs down on his conscious Especially since he was the one who technically attuned the Heart in the first place
Mark Nelson, Lead Designer of The Elder Scrolls III: Tribunal: *On Sotha Sil being alive (11/10/03)* I feel like I should reply to this thread, as I wrote that part of Tribunal, but I'm not sure where to start. I designed the end scene to promote some discussion, but I didn't expect it to (a) last this long, or (b ) head in such odd directions. There are a few things that are certainly open for interpretation in the Clockwork City. Why is the second Imperfect not active? Why is Sotha Sil rigged into machinery? Why is he missing limbs? What are the Fabricants? This is all intentionally vague. I've not yet read an explanation that has hit on exactly what it is I had in mind. I'm okay with that. Here's what I'll say about Sotha Sil, his life, and his death: 1. Sotha Sil was very aware that the end was coming for the Tribunal. 2. He had a fascination with both machinery and magic. 3. The Fabricants were an early attempt of his at a synthesis between the machine and the organic. Dwemer constructs may have been an inspiration. 4. The Imperfects were an attempt at a different project; it failed. Hence, "Imperfect." 5. Sotha Sil is dead. Almalexia killed him. 6. If I really, really needed to, I could devise a story loophole to bring him back. Such is the way of fantasy worlds. 7. I do not forsee this ever, ever happening, because it is both cheesy and unnecessary. 8. I reserve the right to be cheesy, should it become necessary. wink.gif
He's been alive so long his physical brain can't hold all his memories. In clockwork city he has literal memory bank. So I wouldn't doubt he's capable of doing something like that. But I guess the question becomes why didn't he
I think we should be able to pray at a shrine to the tribunal in elder scrolls 6. It’s probably not going to happen since it looks to be in either hammerfell or high rock but it would be cool to see their shrines and what blessings they could give.
I mean, Online supposedly introduces the plothole that Sotha Sil's machines only work while he's around; this is funny because Almalexia has them work by dumping them into Mournhold, after he's dead. It also raises the issue of the Clockwork City still being around at the time of Legends; it was supposedly inactive until the Mechanical Heart was turned on, or something like that, but that leads to the question of how the machines building the Heart will still running.
From the book "2920, the Last Year of the First Era": 12 Sun's Dusk, 2920 Mournhold, Morrowind A gout of ever-erupting flame was all that remained of the central courtyard of Castle Mournhold, blasting skyward into the boiling clouds. A thick, tarry smoke rolled through the streets, igniting everything that was wood or paper on fire. Winged bat-like creatures harried the citizens from their hiding places out into the open, where they were met by the real army. The only thing that kept all of Mournhold from burning to the ground was the wet, sputtering blood of its people. Mehrunes Dagon smiled as he surveyed the castle crumbling. "To think I nearly didn't come," he said aloud, his voice booming over the chaos. "Imagine missing all this fun." His attention was arrested by a needle-thin shaft of light piercing through his black and red shadowed sky. He followed it to its source, two figures, a man and a woman standing on the hill above town. The man in the white robe he recognized immediately as Sotha Sil, the sorcerer who had talked all the Princes of Oblivion into that meaningless truce. "If you've come for the Duke of Mournhold, he isn't here," laughed Mehrunes Dagon. "But you might find pieces of him the next time it rains." "Daedra, we cannot kill you," said Almalexia, her face hard and resolute. "But that you will soon regret." With that, two living gods and a prince of Oblivion engaged in battle on the ruins of Mournhold. 18 Sun's Dusk, 2920 Balmora, Morrowind Sotha Sil, face solemn and unreadable, greeted Vivec at the grand plaza in front of his palace. Vivec had ridden day and night after hearing about the battle in his tent in Bodrum, crossing mile after mile, cutting through the dangerous ground at Dagoth-Ur at blinding speed. To the south, during all the course of the voyage, he could see the whirling red clouds and knew that the battle was continuing, day after day. In Gnisis, he met a messenger from Sotha Sil, asking him to meet at Balmora. "Where is Almalexia?" "Inside," said Sotha Sil wearily. There was a long, ugly gash running across his jaw. "She's gravely injured, but Mehrunes Dagon will not return from Oblivion for many a moon." Almalexia lay on a bed of silk, tended to by Vivec's own healers. Her face, even her lips, was gray as stone, and blood stained through the gauze of her bandages. Vivec took her cold hand. Almalexia's mouth moved wordlessly. She was dreaming. She was battling Mehrunes Dagon again amid a firestorm. All around her, the blackened husk of a castle crumbled, splashing sparks into the night sky. The Daedra's claws dug into her belly, spreading poison through her veins while Almalexia throttled him. As she sank to the ground beside her defeated foe, she saw that the castle consumed by fire was not Castle Mournhold. It was the Imperial Palace.
@@sirreginaldfishingtonxvii6149 Nazeem would be a hopeless nervous wreck if he achieved Chim. He’d suddenly be like “Oh my god what have I done?!!!! I’m the most obnoxious character in this game!!!” His dialogue would be more like “Do you get to the Cloud District very often? We could use more of your kind there.”
I recall them saying the Sermons would be almost a magnum opus, considering their depth. It wouldn't surprise me if we only get one or two lessons a Podcast, and Vivec at the end, or a big milestone video, like 2M.
So my first ES experience was skyrim, and I had to go back in time in its universe to learn it's lore. I played from 5 to 1, then from 1 to 5 again, and I swear, if it wasn't for you guys I never would have known the absolute wonder Nirn is, cause I never would have bothered. Now im a walking, talking encyclopedia of the elder scrolls that my friends even get to name their characters based on the playthrough they want before they even start. You guys are the tribunal of living elder scrolls nerd gods, blessed be your holy names. Hahah thanks you bloody legends. Maybe one day I'll know as much as yous do 😂😂😂
I know this video is almost a year old, but I really do hope you guys see this: My take on the interaction that we have with sotha sil in the clockwork city DLC, is that he's very keenly aware that he is also just an NPC. Personally, when he told the vestige, they was compelled to build The clockwork City, and that he essentially has to sit in that one place at that one time, where we were talking to him, is because again he was programmed to. He doesn't have a choice. So his determinism, isn't entirely incorrect. I'm not sure how exactly meta zenimax online studios wanted him to be, but for my interpretation, it didn't really feel like he was necessarily talking to the vestige, but more so he was talking to us, the player. I hope what I'm saying makes sense, it gets very meta when discussing the tribunal and how they interact with the world.
23:19 it's the compassionate nature clashing with the analytical attempt at perfection. He probably deep down knew there was no way to perfect the mortals around him but he loved them to much to create a world without them because they were who he was building the world for
Not going to lie, Sotha Sil is my favourite from the Tribunal and the Clockwork City DLC has cemented my admiration of him. I would be a apostle in the gardens if they would let me
...until it didn't work and Dagoth Ur returned, Sotha Sil was murdered, Aim was defeated by her reincarnated husband and Vivec disappeared and let the asteroid impact Morrowind and left the Dwemmer in ruins. MAYBE Vivec is still alive, but doubtful.
He could see the tower but he chooses not to, he chooses to invest so deeply in Lorkhan’s creation. And chooses to present what the people need, he is the embodiment of the psjic endeavour.
Which is ironic since, as they mentioned, he does take it from a more Anuic perspective, while still sticking to Mundus instead of heading beyond, cause he cares for his people
Which is ironic since, as they mentioned, he does take it from a more Anuic perspective, while still sticking to Mundus instead of heading beyond, cause he cares for his people
Kind of a tragic turn of events that Sotha Sil betrayed his friend to use the Heart because he believed the sacrifice would ultimately make the world a better place, but only after that was he granted the knowledge to see that it would never actually work out the way he had hoped
Perhaps Sotha Sil knew that a world heart requires specific conditions, mainly, to create a world than be murdered, that your heart becomes that core. He was looking for a core, perhaps letting Alma kill him was the last step in making his clockwork world heart.
I feel like vivec would have the biggest ego seeing how he was trying to achieve CHIM. But I don't think he ever actually got there, he understood the basic concept but was never able to "witness" the godhead to achieve CHIM. If he had achieved CHIM the loss of the heart wouldn't have mattered to him since he would be able to freely shape reality.
Heh.... Talking about Sotha Sil doing a cloud backup upon death had me thinking this... Imagine the clockwork city slowly churning back to life with factotum's sitting upright with with Magicka leaking out of their eye sockets....and a low rumble shakes the city as a voice sings "I got no strings on me..."
Morrowind remains one of my top games. The writing is just so superb. It was also not a standard fantasy game, due to how weird and foreign it was to traverse the island.
Isn't the story of Jyggalag going crazy from knowledge alone a lie spread by the Daedra after they themselves were the ones that cursed him with insanity?
I vaguely recall the other princes being fucking terrified of how powerful Jyggalag was, thus they cursed him and turned him into everyone's favorite crazy bastard.
I truly enjoy this channel. I loved visiting clockwork city in Morrowind. Truth: I might love the lore of elder scroll's more then the games themselves.. and that IS saying something. Fudgemuppet is my go to for my lore fix.
I miss the guy who used to tell us to go to bed with lore references intertwined in the comments. Still here O' Muppets of fudge, up and waiting like I said I would two years ago. Blessed be the sacred Tribunal.
Everything he says is a poem. Vivec might fancy himself a poet but Sotha Sil is the true intellectual. ESO did such a great job on Sotha Sil that whenever i am tired of my responsibilities. I watch his ESO dialogue. He fulfills his duties so efficiently and humbly. "I am only what time and circumstance made me, son of a lost house, friend to a fallen king". ESO really killed it with this one. So many people are accomplished because they wanted to be special and were born or put in bad circumstances resulting them to work inhumanely hard. It is so well put into words. I feel poet's jealousy. That i did not write these beautiful lines myself. When he describes himself further, he really defines an optimum ruler. That he is kind and cruel both according to needs of people. His people can dream on his expense and blame him for their miseries. He is a vessel, a role-model or an anti-role model. A mirror- nothing more. When people look at him they will see what they themselves are. A good king will see a just god, a bad king will se his cruelty. A murderer will see the that he killed Nerevar and so on. Even, i see only things that i am in him. A mirror indeed.
Sotha Sil's endeavor was doomed to fail. He had stolen his divinity from the heart of Lorkhan, who was the soul of Padomay. And he, now a creature that is inherently Padomaic and chaotic considering the source of his divinity, presumed to be able to rid Mundus of its Aedric (and thus Anuic, i.e., static) "imperfections" while at the same time ridding it of the chaotic, Padomaic influence of the Daedra? Again, doomed to fail. And not a little insane. Almalexia, though obviously conditioning the Nerevarine to act to her own benefit, was correct about Sotha Sil and his having slipped into Sheogorath's domain.
Sotha Sil's tale reminds me of the Greek story of Icarus, because Sotha's ego made him grab too much power because he thought he could surpass the gods in their creation.
@@badluck5647 True, but it seems actually bearing the weight of responsibility of godhood got to him a bit, and maybe it gave him a new (if guarded) appreciation for the True Tribunal he thought he, Vivec, and Almalexia could replace. The contrast of the arrogant, brash, and quick-tempered Sotha Sil after the Tribunal acquired their newly stolen divinity with the calm, rational, and resigned Sotha Sil nearer the end is striking and funny. He went from, "You suck, Azura! We're the new gang in town and we're gonna be the bestest gods ever," to, "I don't call myself a god, I just am what people need me to be." Quite the contrast.
Gods and their directions, mortals and their actions, which are disguised by and as directions . The gods are just bigger mortals in the sense of perspective and the things they/we do are only different in name alone
My favourite Elder Scrolls character.] Plagued by guilt for what he did to Nerevar, an act inspired by his restless curiosity, his coping mechanism to embrace that he in fact had no true impact in his actions, a belief that has him accept his own murder at the hands of a supposed friend.
If you pause it at 0:41 their faces look like Michael and Drew are coming to terms with the embarassment that their dad Scott will put on them as he's about to get his boogie on at their birthday party.
Sotha Sil has these grand Anuic goals and is smart enough to make them a reality, but in the end it is doomed to fail, because he is powered by the Padomaic and the Padomaic cannot create the Anuic. Chaos cannot create Order. Change cannot create Stasis.
Hmm, this Video makes me wonder what's going on in the Clockwork City during 4E 201 while you are busy being the Dragonborn -- and what may come of the completed artifact?
Remarking on your musings near the start, Sil has probably achieved Chim, and thusly is aware that they are characters in a video game. He knows Almalexia can’t be anything but the villain because she was written to be the villain of Morrowind’s expansion. She’s just playing out her role. In their case they really aren’t the product of their choices, but rather, someone else’s.
I have a question for y'all: When Auriel and trinnamac tried to destroy the heart it laughed and said one was made to satisfy the other that would mean mundus is dependent on the heart but don't you destroy it in Morrowind?? I really would love to have that answered and I can't find anything anywhere about
My personal interpretation is that it's one part bluff, one part threat. Lorkhan doesn't know what will happen to the world or him, of the Heart is destroyed. Neither does Auriel. So what if they destroy the world/Heart, and throw away all the sacrifice and shadowy remnants of the Aedra just to bring justice to Lorkhan? None of them had the courage to throw away something to massive, young and fragile as Mundus was at Convention. Now, thousands of years later, is the world strong enough to persist without the Heart? Is its destruction causing a slow rot, rather than a snap of the fingers erasure? Was the words of the Trickster God just another lie to stay his own execution?
@@Wulgreath I interpreted it quite literal and in my head cannon I figure the destruction of the heart was just the destruction of it's physical form left over from when shor still had his physical form. And if you think about it, it makes sense shor is suppose to b dead but sovangaurd still exist
@@destrava1175 The Heart we see merely being a physical aspect, and implements made by mortal hands being unable to truly destroy it is a fair possibility. Maybe when Nerevarine struck it, it went to wherever the Dwarves went to, or since Numidium was destroyed and shattered at the time, it was too in sympathy. I go with my interpretation because Mundus was something new that not even the gods had tried yet, assuming that this configuration is unique across the kalpas. So the gods don't know EXACTLY what's gonna happen this time around, and are unwilling to throw away all their efforts.
Was it destroyed? To me it just vanished, so I just assumed it just went somewhere else in Nirn. Septimus Signus is ES: Skyrim thought the Heart went to Skyrim, but instead he found the Oghma Infinium.
I feel like you can tell the difference in writers between ESO and Morrowind/concept Sotha Sil: the latter is very much more alike his anticipation and believes in his/their own grand idea, but in ESO and Legends he's more... how to put it... he's closer to Vivec, as Vivec described himself in Morrowind: "I have always worn my divinity lightly -- fundamentally, I am not at all a serious person -- and I will not miss it. I have tried to do what was necessary. I am afraid I have done some harm. I assure you -- I will be quite content to be a mere mortal again, dedicated to my own amusements." In these, he had his own distinct personality, but in the former his personality and characteristics is whatever people apply to him.
Sil's mysterious and enigmatic making him one of and if not my favorite character. I'm solely referring to Morrowind-Skyrim lore. I haven't played ESO therefore I don't know his involvement.
What if Sotha Sil did store his memories away, but that something was missing, and he returns as a sort of Dagoth Ur type individual: a self-aware dream, the antithesis of achieving divinity, a thing that thinks it is real but isn't?
I could see a Clockwork Appostles using Sotha Sil's memories to make a Factotum that has memories and personality. However, he would be different from the original, because he lacks his soul and divine power.
I’d agree that Vivec has the least ego, and Sotha has the most. Either a person just vibing and doing what they want and admitting that yeah they sick sometimes or a guy who thinks “wow, the gods didnt really do a good job of this. Guess I gotta do it better”
Or it is the other way around. A person mostly caring for his own needs, saying "I'm sometimes fucked up, so what?" Or a person realizing "the gods did truly not made a good job with the world, because instead of perfecting it they tried to flee this world to not become a part of it" and tries to take the responsibility to at least try to better the world. Who has now more ego?
What do you guys think happened to the souls of Sotha Sil and Amolexia? In shadows of the Tribunal some Dunmer think they are slowly regaining strength. What if they ended up in the realms of their Anticipations?
Js but another good comparison if we go on how sotha sil is basically the elder scrolls version of thoth the Egyptian God of knowledge but I also wanna state when I think of sotha sil whose to say the God of order at one point before his internment to the mad God sheogorath didn't have a Hand in sils thinking? I mean think about both were very knowledgeable and even more they strove for order ASWELL as perfection which if one thinks about it is its own form of madness I mean even the factor they both while to varying degrees understood their role in existence strove for different things yet did it in almost similar ways if I'm to be fair here.
So, after listening to this & some other podcasts, listening to y’all talk about how the timeline of TES is a bit bloated (30 year siege of Orsinium, 200 years between Oblivion & Skyrim, thousands of years where not much happens) and about how some of the metaphysics surrounding time & it’s nonlinearity to the gods, PLUS some of the more batshit & meta theories that exist in universe that some people (& gods) are at least dimly aware they’re in a game, I have a theory I’d like to share: What if the in-game (standard) timescale, where a day is like 30 minutes or so, is *not* an abstraction for the sake of gameplay mechanics, but an accurate representation of how long the days on Nirn are. What if the universe just moves at a pace that is inherently foreign to us. This could explain why in certain situations (like the Dunmer refugees in Windhelm) seem to not behave in a way that makes logical sense to our Earthly sense of time. This is obviously bananas and wrong and not intended, but I wanted to share it to see if you guys, probable some of the preeminent TES Scholars alive not constrained by an NDA, knew of any additional lore or sources around this. I’m assuming not (because it is obviously just for gameplay reasons) but who cares it’s fun to think about.
Sotha Sil is just trying to make a version of morrowind without bugs and is doomed to fail as he is in a Bethesda game.
At least he isn't asking the godhead to grant him loot boxes
Oh shit
What if thats The Wheel?
Lol
Good thing he never reached Chim to realise that. I do wonder if Vivec just sat there laughing at him.
Todd is Almalexia
I remember him joining the Psijic Order for a time...
Generally speaking, he was the most worldly and caring of the God-Kings of the Tribunal to the plight of mortals, Mundus, and Nirn itself.
No grandious pomp or wrathful smiting, just building and toiling away at giving hope to a future without the waters of Oblivion drowning everyone or power-hungry zealots and orders trying to undo the Towers and creation itself.
Tragically, he cared...and then eventually died. The nature of his death being quite ironic since his divinity began in a similar fashion as to how it ended: with blood staining the hands of Almalexia and him remaining silent.
*grandiose
Can we just start referring to Scott, Drew and Michael as “The Tribunal”?
yes. Michaelexia, Scottha Sil, and Drewvec, the TRUE tribunal
I need a method of adding more than 1 like to both @Mesa Ktet and @BaalFridge 's comments
@@Medc- yeah, we gotta raise it to the top
@@BaalFridge and Camelworks is Dagoth Ur, and don't forget TheEpicNateverine
oohoohoohoohooh! If they were ever to have a Discord we could have ranks include Clockwork Apostles, Buoyant Armigers, and the Hands of Almalexia.
Sotha Sil was easily my favorite thing from ESO, talking to him in his memorabilia garden in clockwork.
The one thing i'll always be grateful to ESO for is actually Sotha Sil, i didn't care too much about him before but ESO got him pretty high on my list of favorites
"Let's not forget they murdered their king, their friend"
-Scott
I was always intrigued with Sotha Sil, but he was mostly overshadowed by Vivec.
Untill ESO came around and he just hit me with a single line that instantly made him my favorite character.
_"Look around you. All of this exists because it must exist. I stand here, in this place, in this moment, not because I wish to, but because I have to. A result of action and consequence."_
This is what I have always liked about Elder Scrolls idea of the way of the gods/existence beyond the mortal, beyond Nirn's rules.
Being able to exist everywhere and nowhere at the same time, knowing every event that has happened in every moment in time, while being able to be anywhere you wish, be all you wish.
Yet we are confined to a body of flesh and blood, fragile and frail.
Trapped here in this moment, in this location.
And we cannot choose to simply be somewhere else, we most go there first, and always be where we are supposed to be, rather then where and when we wish to be.
*"Ah, Sotha Sil, the only Tribunal member with a heart, very much a scholar. It's truly a shame we Thalmor couldn't have met such an esteemed Mer. He seems to have also regretted Nerevar's murder, such guilt for an old friend."*
It's tragic, really
Easily my favorite member of the Tribunal and arguably the most tragic figure in the Elder Scrolls.
@@ClvrBstrd
Yep, killed his homie and regretted it, his conscious and empathy really was something 😓
Most characters who murder their friends for power are villains, so it seems odd that he is treated as a tragic hero.
@@badluck5647
It's the fact we know he's the most empathetic and caring of the bunch.
After the murder, he seems to be the only one who truly regretted it for much of his life, knowing he betrayed his old friend, and the guilt essentially weighs down on his conscious
Especially since he was the one who technically attuned the Heart in the first place
Mark Nelson, Lead Designer of The Elder Scrolls III: Tribunal:
*On Sotha Sil being alive (11/10/03)*
I feel like I should reply to this thread, as I wrote that part of Tribunal, but I'm not sure where to start.
I designed the end scene to promote some discussion, but I didn't expect it to (a) last this long, or (b ) head in such odd directions.
There are a few things that are certainly open for interpretation in the Clockwork City. Why is the second Imperfect not active? Why is Sotha Sil rigged into machinery? Why is he missing limbs? What are the Fabricants? This is all intentionally vague. I've not yet read an explanation that has hit on exactly what it is I had in mind. I'm okay with that.
Here's what I'll say about Sotha Sil, his life, and his death:
1. Sotha Sil was very aware that the end was coming for the Tribunal.
2. He had a fascination with both machinery and magic.
3. The Fabricants were an early attempt of his at a synthesis between the machine and the organic. Dwemer constructs may have been an inspiration.
4. The Imperfects were an attempt at a different project; it failed. Hence, "Imperfect."
5. Sotha Sil is dead. Almalexia killed him.
6. If I really, really needed to, I could devise a story loophole to bring him back. Such is the way of fantasy worlds.
7. I do not forsee this ever, ever happening, because it is both cheesy and unnecessary.
8. I reserve the right to be cheesy, should it become necessary. wink.gif
This oddly reminds me of the William Shatner museum hologram
He's been alive so long his physical brain can't hold all his memories. In clockwork city he has literal memory bank. So I wouldn't doubt he's capable of doing something like that. But I guess the question becomes why didn't he
Factoder.
I think we should be able to pray at a shrine to the tribunal in elder scrolls 6. It’s probably not going to happen since it looks to be in either hammerfell or high rock but it would be cool to see their shrines and what blessings they could give.
I mean, Online supposedly introduces the plothole that Sotha Sil's machines only work while he's around; this is funny because Almalexia has them work by dumping them into Mournhold, after he's dead. It also raises the issue of the Clockwork City still being around at the time of Legends; it was supposedly inactive until the Mechanical Heart was turned on, or something like that, but that leads to the question of how the machines building the Heart will still running.
Sotha Sil sees only unsteady walls because he's in a Bethesda game.
“They’re not bugs, they’re actually features.” I guess they meant that for real
From the book "2920, the Last Year of the First Era":
12 Sun's Dusk, 2920
Mournhold, Morrowind
A gout of ever-erupting flame was all that remained of the central courtyard of Castle Mournhold, blasting skyward into the boiling clouds. A thick, tarry smoke rolled through the streets, igniting everything that was wood or paper on fire. Winged bat-like creatures harried the citizens from their hiding places out into the open, where they were met by the real army. The only thing that kept all of Mournhold from burning to the ground was the wet, sputtering blood of its people.
Mehrunes Dagon smiled as he surveyed the castle crumbling.
"To think I nearly didn't come," he said aloud, his voice booming over the chaos. "Imagine missing all this fun."
His attention was arrested by a needle-thin shaft of light piercing through his black and red shadowed sky. He followed it to its source, two figures, a man and a woman standing on the hill above town. The man in the white robe he recognized immediately as Sotha Sil, the sorcerer who had talked all the Princes of Oblivion into that meaningless truce.
"If you've come for the Duke of Mournhold, he isn't here," laughed Mehrunes Dagon. "But you might find pieces of him the next time it rains."
"Daedra, we cannot kill you," said Almalexia, her face hard and resolute. "But that you will soon regret."
With that, two living gods and a prince of Oblivion engaged in battle on the ruins of Mournhold.
18 Sun's Dusk, 2920
Balmora, Morrowind
Sotha Sil, face solemn and unreadable, greeted Vivec at the grand plaza in front of his palace. Vivec had ridden day and night after hearing about the battle in his tent in Bodrum, crossing mile after mile, cutting through the dangerous ground at Dagoth-Ur at blinding speed. To the south, during all the course of the voyage, he could see the whirling red clouds and knew that the battle was continuing, day after day. In Gnisis, he met a messenger from Sotha Sil, asking him to meet at Balmora.
"Where is Almalexia?"
"Inside," said Sotha Sil wearily. There was a long, ugly gash running across his jaw. "She's gravely injured, but Mehrunes Dagon will not return from Oblivion for many a moon."
Almalexia lay on a bed of silk, tended to by Vivec's own healers. Her face, even her lips, was gray as stone, and blood stained through the gauze of her bandages. Vivec took her cold hand. Almalexia's mouth moved wordlessly. She was dreaming.
She was battling Mehrunes Dagon again amid a firestorm. All around her, the blackened husk of a castle crumbled, splashing sparks into the night sky. The Daedra's claws dug into her belly, spreading poison through her veins while Almalexia throttled him. As she sank to the ground beside her defeated foe, she saw that the castle consumed by fire was not Castle Mournhold. It was the Imperial Palace.
Woah, Almalexia foresaw the Oblivion Crisis? Is that why she did all that stuff in Tribunal?
Imagine Jyggalag, Sotha Sil, and Kagrenak meeting together somehow. If they became a new Tribunal how terrifying that would be.
Dayvith Fyr, Neloth and Nazeem. The cockiest Tribunal ever
@@buuuuuuurn-the-heretic Nazeem certainly has the ego to achieve Chim, at least.
@@sirreginaldfishingtonxvii6149 Nazeem would be a hopeless nervous wreck if he achieved Chim.
He’d suddenly be like “Oh my god what have I done?!!!! I’m the most obnoxious character in this game!!!”
His dialogue would be more like “Do you get to the Cloud District very often? We could use more of your kind there.”
@@sirreginaldfishingtonxvii6149 "This world is a fabrication, but I exist in it. How great am I, huh?"
@@sirreginaldfishingtonxvii6149 Nazeem’s cocky enough to become a Sharmat.
"spare us your chiding, inconstant spirit." Damn, no wonder azura wanted the dunmer to look charred after that sick burn
I love the concept that Sotha Sil made a back up to the cloud before Almalexia update came and gliched him out of existence 😅
I can’t wait for the 3 hour podcast on Vivec and his lessons.
Sounds like part 1
I recall them saying the Sermons would be almost a magnum opus, considering their depth. It wouldn't surprise me if we only get one or two lessons a Podcast, and Vivec at the end, or a big milestone video, like 2M.
😋😋😋
So my first ES experience was skyrim, and I had to go back in time in its universe to learn it's lore. I played from 5 to 1, then from 1 to 5 again, and I swear, if it wasn't for you guys I never would have known the absolute wonder Nirn is, cause I never would have bothered.
Now im a walking, talking encyclopedia of the elder scrolls that my friends even get to name their characters based on the playthrough they want before they even start. You guys are the tribunal of living elder scrolls nerd gods, blessed be your holy names.
Hahah thanks you bloody legends. Maybe one day I'll know as much as yous do 😂😂😂
I started doing that but then randomly Morrowind just stopped working, watching this now that I've finally figured out what was wrong years later
I know this video is almost a year old, but I really do hope you guys see this:
My take on the interaction that we have with sotha sil in the clockwork city DLC, is that he's very keenly aware that he is also just an NPC. Personally, when he told the vestige, they was compelled to build The clockwork City, and that he essentially has to sit in that one place at that one time, where we were talking to him, is because again he was programmed to. He doesn't have a choice. So his determinism, isn't entirely incorrect. I'm not sure how exactly meta zenimax online studios wanted him to be, but for my interpretation, it didn't really feel like he was necessarily talking to the vestige, but more so he was talking to us, the player.
I hope what I'm saying makes sense, it gets very meta when discussing the tribunal and how they interact with the world.
23:19 it's the compassionate nature clashing with the analytical attempt at perfection. He probably deep down knew there was no way to perfect the mortals around him but he loved them to much to create a world without them because they were who he was building the world for
Not going to lie, Sotha Sil is my favourite from the Tribunal and the Clockwork City DLC has cemented my admiration of him. I would be a apostle in the gardens if they would let me
Sotha Sil: "Collaborations are bad. They don't work."
Also Sotha Sil: _Collaborates with Vivek and Almalexia to become a God, and it worked_
...until it didn't work and Dagoth Ur returned, Sotha Sil was murdered, Aim was defeated by her reincarnated husband and Vivec disappeared and let the asteroid impact Morrowind and left the Dwemmer in ruins. MAYBE Vivec is still alive, but doubtful.
@@iRacingFry Well, it _did_ work. You can't expect everything to last forever, eh?
He could see the tower but he chooses not to, he chooses to invest so deeply in Lorkhan’s creation. And chooses to present what the people need, he is the embodiment of the psjic endeavour.
Which is ironic since, as they mentioned, he does take it from a more Anuic perspective, while still sticking to Mundus instead of heading beyond, cause he cares for his people
Which is ironic since, as they mentioned, he does take it from a more Anuic perspective, while still sticking to Mundus instead of heading beyond, cause he cares for his people
Did he choose to invest in Lorkhan's creation?
Clockwork City sounds like his attempt to make an improved version of Lorkhan's creation.
Love this podcast. I've been binge-watching/listening to all of it this past week. Keep doing what you do, guys!
Sotha Sil is the best part about Elder Scrolls Online
No, Nazeem is
Kind of a tragic turn of events that Sotha Sil betrayed his friend to use the Heart because he believed the sacrifice would ultimately make the world a better place, but only after that was he granted the knowledge to see that it would never actually work out the way he had hoped
When is Bethesda hiring these guys as Elder Scrolls Historians? 🤣
I love listening to this stuff!
I love listening to Fudgecasts as I mod Skyrim. It makes my crashes less painful.
The irony of the player, a being of free will, always being a Prisoner, someone who is deprived of it.
Perhaps Sotha Sil knew that a world heart requires specific conditions, mainly, to create a world than be murdered, that your heart becomes that core.
He was looking for a core, perhaps letting Alma kill him was the last step in making his clockwork world heart.
I feel like vivec would have the biggest ego seeing how he was trying to achieve CHIM. But I don't think he ever actually got there, he understood the basic concept but was never able to "witness" the godhead to achieve CHIM. If he had achieved CHIM the loss of the heart wouldn't have mattered to him since he would be able to freely shape reality.
Heh.... Talking about Sotha Sil doing a cloud backup upon death had me thinking this... Imagine the clockwork city slowly churning back to life with factotum's sitting upright with with Magicka leaking out of their eye sockets....and a low rumble shakes the city as a voice sings "I got no strings on me..."
Morrowind remains one of my top games. The writing is just so superb. It was also not a standard fantasy game, due to how weird and foreign it was to traverse the island.
Isn't the story of Jyggalag going crazy from knowledge alone a lie spread by the Daedra after they themselves were the ones that cursed him with insanity?
I vaguely recall the other princes being fucking terrified of how powerful Jyggalag was, thus they cursed him and turned him into everyone's favorite crazy bastard.
I truly enjoy this channel. I loved visiting clockwork city in Morrowind. Truth: I might love the lore of elder scroll's more then the games themselves.. and that IS saying something. Fudgemuppet is my go to for my lore fix.
I miss the guy who used to tell us to go to bed with lore references intertwined in the comments. Still here O' Muppets of fudge, up and waiting like I said I would two years ago. Blessed be the sacred Tribunal.
What a beautifully written character.
Everything he says is a poem. Vivec might fancy himself a poet but Sotha Sil is the true intellectual.
ESO did such a great job on Sotha Sil that whenever i am tired of my responsibilities. I watch his ESO dialogue. He fulfills his duties so efficiently and humbly.
"I am only what time and circumstance made me, son of a lost house, friend to a fallen king". ESO really killed it with this one. So many people are accomplished because they wanted to be special and were born or put in bad circumstances resulting them to work inhumanely hard. It is so well put into words. I feel poet's jealousy. That i did not write these beautiful lines myself.
When he describes himself further, he really defines an optimum ruler. That he is kind and cruel both according to needs of people. His people can dream on his expense and blame him for their miseries. He is a vessel, a role-model or an anti-role model.
A mirror- nothing more. When people look at him they will see what they themselves are. A good king will see a just god, a bad king will se his cruelty. A murderer will see the that he killed Nerevar and so on. Even, i see only things that i am in him. A mirror indeed.
Sotha Sil will never recreate my heart. Only look upon it.
Come and look upon it
I loooooove Sotha Sil! Easily one of my favourite characters! I'm addicted to your podcasts, they help me to do the dishes 🤗
Sotha Sil spends so much time modding the game, he never plays.
I like how in necrom we learn that there is indeed an artificial version of sotha sil, so he does in some form probably exist in the 4th era.
Sotha Sil's endeavor was doomed to fail. He had stolen his divinity from the heart of Lorkhan, who was the soul of Padomay. And he, now a creature that is inherently Padomaic and chaotic considering the source of his divinity, presumed to be able to rid Mundus of its Aedric (and thus Anuic, i.e., static) "imperfections" while at the same time ridding it of the chaotic, Padomaic influence of the Daedra?
Again, doomed to fail. And not a little insane. Almalexia, though obviously conditioning the Nerevarine to act to her own benefit, was correct about Sotha Sil and his having slipped into Sheogorath's domain.
Sotha Sil's tale reminds me of the Greek story of Icarus, because Sotha's ego made him grab too much power because he thought he could surpass the gods in their creation.
@@badluck5647 True, but it seems actually bearing the weight of responsibility of godhood got to him a bit, and maybe it gave him a new (if guarded) appreciation for the True Tribunal he thought he, Vivec, and Almalexia could replace.
The contrast of the arrogant, brash, and quick-tempered Sotha Sil after the Tribunal acquired their newly stolen divinity with the calm, rational, and resigned Sotha Sil nearer the end is striking and funny.
He went from, "You suck, Azura! We're the new gang in town and we're gonna be the bestest gods ever," to, "I don't call myself a god, I just am what people need me to be." Quite the contrast.
They are by far my favorite of the Tribunal and I sometimes wish he didn't pass and we could've had the chance to meet him still.
44:13 Shot through the heart, and you're to blame.
Haha. Very much haha
A podcast about Sotha Sil?! Now I have something to listen to while doing work!
ITS TIME FOR MY MORNING FUDGE!!!!💜💜💜
Gods and their directions, mortals and their actions, which are disguised by and as directions . The gods are just bigger mortals in the sense of perspective and the things they/we do are only different in name alone
My favourite Elder Scrolls character.]
Plagued by guilt for what he did to Nerevar, an act inspired by his restless curiosity, his coping mechanism to embrace that he in fact had no true impact in his actions, a belief that has him accept his own murder at the hands of a supposed friend.
I just love the Sotha Sil character in the elder scrolls game.
Listening to you guys at work helps with the shifts
I’m always amazed by how Scot gets interrupted by Michael every 10 seconds and yet he doesn’t flip haha
Love your podcast guys!
You released this just as I finished Tribunal in Morrowind I love you guys
The best Sotha Sil quote is his last words to Almalexia
Daaaamn, Scott. That shirt is on fleek.
Ah, the Tribunal of our world discussing The Tribunal of the Elder Scrolls world. Interesting🤔😂
I clicked on this video faster than the Tribunal murdering Nevar.
Based beyond measure.
If you pause it at 0:41 their faces look like Michael and Drew are coming to terms with the embarassment that their dad Scott will put on them as he's about to get his boogie on at their birthday party.
Sotha sil is the definition of sigma. Glad you guys made a podcast about him
Sotha Sil has these grand Anuic goals and is smart enough to make them a reality, but in the end it is doomed to fail, because he is powered by the Padomaic and the Padomaic cannot create the Anuic. Chaos cannot create Order. Change cannot create Stasis.
If i can be a bit anoying, then in reality change is the only way to stasis, it just takes a long long time. E.g the heat death of the universe
Imo sotha sil is deffo the most interesting chars out of the tribunal
Scott is the God of perfect fucking hair. He never has a bad due. Has to be some kind of magic.
Hmm, this Video makes me wonder what's going on in the Clockwork City during 4E 201 while you are busy being the Dragonborn -- and what may come of the completed artifact?
The idea of the Tribunal lying on a therapy couch talking about their issues is hilarious.
Damn Scott, that Bon Jovi reference was super sneaky
Scott looks so adorable with his hair like that fr fr
I miss this show 😢
Remarking on your musings near the start, Sil has probably achieved Chim, and thusly is aware that they are characters in a video game. He knows Almalexia can’t be anything but the villain because she was written to be the villain of Morrowind’s expansion. She’s just playing out her role.
In their case they really aren’t the product of their choices, but rather, someone else’s.
I have a question for y'all: When Auriel and trinnamac tried to destroy the heart it laughed and said one was made to satisfy the other that would mean mundus is dependent on the heart but don't you destroy it in Morrowind?? I really would love to have that answered and I can't find anything anywhere about
My personal interpretation is that it's one part bluff, one part threat. Lorkhan doesn't know what will happen to the world or him, of the Heart is destroyed. Neither does Auriel. So what if they destroy the world/Heart, and throw away all the sacrifice and shadowy remnants of the Aedra just to bring justice to Lorkhan? None of them had the courage to throw away something to massive, young and fragile as Mundus was at Convention.
Now, thousands of years later, is the world strong enough to persist without the Heart? Is its destruction causing a slow rot, rather than a snap of the fingers erasure? Was the words of the Trickster God just another lie to stay his own execution?
@@Wulgreath I interpreted it quite literal and in my head cannon I figure the destruction of the heart was just the destruction of it's physical form left over from when shor still had his physical form. And if you think about it, it makes sense shor is suppose to b dead but sovangaurd still exist
@@abyssprimus I forgot about the dwemer tying the heart to the Numidium guess makes some sense
@@destrava1175 The Heart we see merely being a physical aspect, and implements made by mortal hands being unable to truly destroy it is a fair possibility. Maybe when Nerevarine struck it, it went to wherever the Dwarves went to, or since Numidium was destroyed and shattered at the time, it was too in sympathy.
I go with my interpretation because Mundus was something new that not even the gods had tried yet, assuming that this configuration is unique across the kalpas. So the gods don't know EXACTLY what's gonna happen this time around, and are unwilling to throw away all their efforts.
Was it destroyed? To me it just vanished, so I just assumed it just went somewhere else in Nirn.
Septimus Signus is ES: Skyrim thought the Heart went to Skyrim, but instead he found the Oghma Infinium.
sotha sil did not die. almalexia found his discarded shell and it just looked at her with a blank expression as she "killed" it
The mirror image thing is called an Enantiomer in chemistry
I've been waiting for this video for a long time! Seht is by far my favourite TES character.
Thank you for my weekly dose of Fudgemuppet love! ❤️💜💙
I feel like you can tell the difference in writers between ESO and Morrowind/concept Sotha Sil: the latter is very much more alike his anticipation and believes in his/their own grand idea, but in ESO and Legends he's more... how to put it... he's closer to Vivec, as Vivec described himself in Morrowind: "I have always worn my divinity lightly -- fundamentally, I am not at all a serious person -- and I will not miss it. I have tried to do what was necessary. I am afraid I have done some harm. I assure you -- I will be quite content to be a mere mortal again, dedicated to my own amusements." In these, he had his own distinct personality, but in the former his personality and characteristics is whatever people apply to him.
Sil's mysterious and enigmatic making him one of and if not my favorite character. I'm solely referring to Morrowind-Skyrim lore. I haven't played ESO therefore I don't know his involvement.
Hail The Tribunal!!!!
Ahhh! Sotha Sil! Love that skinny emo genius. Very excited for this video!
30:12 your mum lives there
Sotha Sil *IS* the Clockwork City.
What if Sotha Sil did store his memories away, but that something was missing, and he returns as a sort of Dagoth Ur type individual: a self-aware dream, the antithesis of achieving divinity, a thing that thinks it is real but isn't?
I could see a Clockwork Appostles using Sotha Sil's memories to make a Factotum that has memories and personality. However, he would be different from the original, because he lacks his soul and divine power.
I love sotha sil
Oh shiiit, I asked for this exact video a month or two ago. Hell yeah, gonna enjoy this.
My favorite character honestly
I'm an elder scrolls fan and this is deep.
I always wanted to make a Sotha Sil based character, you could make him an apostle too!
I’d agree that Vivec has the least ego, and Sotha has the most. Either a person just vibing and doing what they want and admitting that yeah they sick sometimes or a guy who thinks “wow, the gods didnt really do a good job of this. Guess I gotta do it better”
Or it is the other way around. A person mostly caring for his own needs, saying "I'm sometimes fucked up, so what?" Or a person realizing "the gods did truly not made a good job with the world, because instead of perfecting it they tried to flee this world to not become a part of it" and tries to take the responsibility to at least try to better the world.
Who has now more ego?
One Godhead, Three Persons, One Tribunal... FudgeMuppet, or should I say, "Fud-ge Mupp'et".
I've been waiting for this one
Watching this podcast makes me wanna replay ESO's Clockwork City DLC all over again.
What do you guys think happened to the souls of Sotha Sil and Amolexia? In shadows of the Tribunal some Dunmer think they are slowly regaining strength. What if they ended up in the realms of their Anticipations?
Sotha sil should be glad then
Almalexia was in Azura's Star
So happy to have another podcast
Time to learn
damn Scott has some DRIP
We love you
Michael and Scott, especially Scott need to give Drew more air time IMO
All my homies hate Almalexia
It seems that sora sil has the mindset of a dwimer. Or something close to it.
Dwimer
@@rohhsand3044 quit being a troll dude.
@@rogertexter1910 sora sil
Js but another good comparison if we go on how sotha sil is basically the elder scrolls version of thoth the Egyptian God of knowledge but I also wanna state when I think of sotha sil whose to say the God of order at one point before his internment to the mad God sheogorath didn't have a Hand in sils thinking? I mean think about both were very knowledgeable and even more they strove for order ASWELL as perfection which if one thinks about it is its own form of madness I mean even the factor they both while to varying degrees understood their role in existence strove for different things yet did it in almost similar ways if I'm to be fair here.
Literally the tony stark of the tribunal such an insightful character
Crazy coincidence. Right before this podcast dropped I just started a save and named my character Sotha Sil.
So, after listening to this & some other podcasts, listening to y’all talk about how the timeline of TES is a bit bloated (30 year siege of Orsinium, 200 years between Oblivion & Skyrim, thousands of years where not much happens) and about how some of the metaphysics surrounding time & it’s nonlinearity to the gods, PLUS some of the more batshit & meta theories that exist in universe that some people (& gods) are at least dimly aware they’re in a game, I have a theory I’d like to share:
What if the in-game (standard) timescale, where a day is like 30 minutes or so, is *not* an abstraction for the sake of gameplay mechanics, but an accurate representation of how long the days on Nirn are. What if the universe just moves at a pace that is inherently foreign to us. This could explain why in certain situations (like the Dunmer refugees in Windhelm) seem to not behave in a way that makes logical sense to our Earthly sense of time.
This is obviously bananas and wrong and not intended, but I wanted to share it to see if you guys, probable some of the preeminent TES Scholars alive not constrained by an NDA, knew of any additional lore or sources around this. I’m assuming not (because it is obviously just for gameplay reasons) but who cares it’s fun to think about.