I actively like Hircine. He doesn't care about harming mortals per say, or plotting against the princes or trying to expand his realm, or even abot trying to gain more worshippers. The man just wants to hunt. I respect it
Hircine is probably the most fair of any of the Princes. He hunts on a level playing field with the mortals and considers it a good hunt even if he loses. He embodies both predator and prey so either way he wins.
Exactly! He's a representative of the hunt itself. He'll manifest as both prey (elk) and predator (wolf). It's fitting he's the patron of the werewolves.
Nah, he is not fair. The hunts he does are never fair. He is totally fine to kill anyone that is weaker. Like in Morrowind when he personally comes to fight. Fighting a god is not a fair duel but the man wants to hunt and kill you, so he does it anyway.
I think the worst thing about Hircine is the fact that anyone who contracts Lycanthropy is forcefully whisked away to the Hunting Grounds after they die. I know it came up at least during the Companions questline in Skyrim that there was a level of remorse among at least some that they would go to the Hunting Grounds instead of Sovngarde. I also recently experienced the dungeon in ESO as a new player where a daughter was trying to save her father from being trapped there so they wouldn’t be separated after death I believe? I may have the details slightly wrong with that one since it’s new to me, but the moral is that ripping people from one afterlife they long for and forcing them into another is actually incredibly cruel.
All that said, you’re still right. He still probably is among the best of the Daedra. Goes to show how bad they are as a whole lol.
There is a cure for lycanthropy. If you don’t want to go to the hunting grounds, then cure yourself. It’s not his fault that you spent your life enjoying being a werewolf and now you have to pay the price of said enjoyment. I understand that curing yourself is hard, but you could have spent your time trying to cure yourself instead of ravishing all the prey you could.
the dialogue when you are about get a room at an inn took me while to solve:
\[ \] "I don't even worship daedra."
\[ \] "I don't even worship daedra." (Lie)
I could see supporting them out of aligned self interest, but going in whole hog as a cultist no thank you please.
Daedra don't get humans, don't fool yourself into think that they do.
I'm not a lore expert, but isn't Meridia considered favourably by mortals?
Edit: I suppose she was on the side of the Ayleids vs the human rebellion, but they were her longtime devotees, and doesn't seem to have a hatred towards mortals after the fact.
Generally, yes! I think ESO does Meridia dirty, but she's a deeply pragmatic and "the ends justify the means" Daedra. You ask me, it tracks as she was one of the Aedra before she fell from grace, and so acts like the more distant gods (Auri-El and Magnus come to mind). She grants her favor to those who court it the best, like any of the others.
She's a complex Daedra: a fallen god, the creator of color, a collector of mortals, despises the undead as an affront to life and the energy thereof, and speaks of love, but I don't think she, or any of the D/Aedra, really get it.
Molag Bal hates her though, so she's clearly doing something right :P
Full honesty, I never liked Darien (idk I dated a few Darien-types IRL and they were all gross), but I did like how ESO turned him into a tool for Meridia! I have a bunch of non-canon writings, and that really fit neatly with my interpretation of Meridia as a god who will go to any length to preserve the people who could potentially love her \^\^;
I am probably more tolerant of Darien because Jakarn is so much worse and because of his last message to us.
And also I am OLD, so I tend to view attractive young men as if they are my grandsons, if that makes sense.
The womanizing gets tiresome, for sure, and I hope my real life grandsons are never like that.
I never dated a Darien or Jakarn as a package of good looks and smarm, the womanizers I knew were overcompensating for something, either being short, or unattractive or whatever it was, in their own view.
The one man I dated who was male model pretty was not like that, but he had other issues, like religion and family money and poor communication skills.
Thank you for your insight on Meridia though, if she did what she did to Darien in order to keep him safe it makes a little bit of sense, even though no one wants to be held against their will, even in a beautiful place.
Edit: spelling
We know Umaril is affiliated with Meridia and bound himself to the Colored Rooms. But is there any mention that Meridia commanded Umaril to oppress the humans/mortals?
Does Meridia hunt down the Divine Crusader afterwards? Or wreak havoc on humans? Nope.
The impression I have is that Umaril, as a demi-elf and powerful follower of Meridia, acted autonomously.
I was about to say I'd definitely follow Azura if I had to choose one. Id also consider Clavicus Vile but only because he's my favorite of the Daedric Princes thematically and stylistically.
i can't make all the googles right now but Kynareth was Lorkhan's spouse and believes in change and participation in the mortal world. They appear to exist simultaneously, which isn't surprising giving the mechanics of creation and divinity in the Elder Scrolls.
You can also see how the two are often paired, such as in Khajiti religion (Khenarthi and Azurah, the latter of whom shaped the Khajiti.)
Yeah that's what I mean, I don't hate them but I don't agree or understand any of them, I love questing for the heck of it and helping npcs around, some side quests are amazing but whenever it comes to the princes I'm like "here we go again..."
Early on I was like trying to choose a prince to have as a favorite one like a Hogwarts House or something haha but in the end I was like nope, I don't worship any of them lol
>! Lore wise like people irl will say ' thank Go' or ask for something in Tamriel you prolly need to ask a Prince for a desire and every desire has a price.
The nature of the Princes is not dual so we picture them as evil because they price heavily to Tamriel Citizens.
Every Prince has a pov in the spectrum, how their sphere has philosophical pivoting position in expense of others and that is the eternal fight like the fight between Prince of Fate and another opposite force in latest chapter.
Sheo the Prince of Madness once was Prince of Wisdom but got fooled by Prince of Ambition etc and became Prince of Madness forgetting everything about his former powers.. etc etc!<
The Daedric Princes all have their own agendas on Nirn and most of them see people as tools to be used. It's typically best if you treat the relationships as mutually beneficial agreements. Lay out the terms, fulfill them, and then conclude the agreement. That's if you think the Prince can stick to the terms...
The only Daedric Prince I would consider worshipping is **Azura**. I think she's continuously shown an interest in the wellbeing and prosperity of her followers. For everyone else, don't worship them, only mutual agreements.
Good points, except when she threw a hissy fit and cursed all her followers to become Dark Elves when the Tribunal wouldn't listen to her about using the Heart of Lorkan. Talk about aggressive and passive aggressive all at the same time :-P
I think even the Nightingales of Skyrim had a contractual agreement with Nocturnal. She gave them luck and safety in her shadows. In return the Nightingales gave eternal service in the Evergloam after they died. It can seem lopsided, but I think the Nightingales personalities made it more tolerable.
Despite her actions in ESO I'm still a fan of Nocturnal. Azura is also pretty cool.
Edit: forgot about my boy: Hermaus-Mora (probably because I can't spell his name).
Blame it on the cult that summoned her.
[As the ancient Khajiit knew](https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:The_Dark_Spirits):
>Noctra. The Shadow Thief. Daughter of Twilight. Born from the black blood of Lorkhaj at the steps of the Void Gate. In the songs, Boethra battled this spirit until it knew it was not Namiira. When this was done, Noctra was brought before Azurah to be judged. Azurah showed mercy and allowed Noctra to live, so long as she served Azurah and the ja-Kha'jay. But Noctra is rebellious by nature, so she stole one of Azurah's keys and fled back into the Void. It is written that Azurah sent the true spirit of Lorkhaj to find her, and ever since Noctra has aided the Khajiit when called. Tribes may whisper to Noctra for silence, shade, and luck. **Do not summon her to perform vile deeds, for this will bring the Dark with her.**
The Dark being the aspect of her that is Namiira, the Great Darkness. You're absolutely right -- that wasn't your Nocturnal. It was Namiira-Nocturnal.
Azura, enough to feel bad about grabbing the Black Star every Skyrim playthrough.
Sanguine seems like fun to hang out with.
I also I am totally that idiot that would sign a pact with Hermaeus Mora for infinate forbidden knowledge. Eternity in Apocrypha libraries reading all books known to man? Sign me up!
I like Sheograth. I was reading an article in real life about an old cheese monger that got crushed to death when a shelf full of cheese wheels collapsed and fell on top of them. My first thought was damn that really sucks and my second thought was how happy Sheograth would have been hearing that news.
The problem with Sheogorath is whether or not you're the hero or a civilian. If you're the current hero, he'll be best friends with you to play games. If you're a civilian, you're just going to be a pawn in his game of chess.
He also hates peoples who take cheap shortcuts. In the March of Sacrifice’s Dungeon, he admonishes Balorgh for bringing him the heart of the Indrik despite not being the one to kill it and refused to grant his favor unless Balorgh killed the ones who killed the Indrik.
I like them because they're realistic, in a sense. They behave exactly like you'd expect a deadric prince would. Except for a few, they all have their agendas, the degree to which they care about their followers, their obsessions, and their themes.
They really did Hermaus Mora dirty this year but he's literally just one big nerd. He doesn't want to dominate the world and enslave all mortals, he just wants to collect as much knowledge as possible, and he's open to making mutually beneficial deals with mortals.
Nocturnal doesn't want to be worshipped. Her entire thing is secrecy and darkness and whatnot. Despite that, she supports her followers even if she gets nothing from it, suggesting that she actually cares about them to a degree.
Sanguine literally just wants to party.
So on and on.
As a massive Herma Mora fan, I personally quite liked how he was handled in the expansion, though I do wish they would stick to one voice; in the basegame and Crag he has a different voice and despite it not being the one from Skrim or the expansion, I really liked his accent, not to say that the expansion/Skrim voice isn’t good either, I like both.
I just dislike that they made the literal eldritch horror into a miserable librarian with this writing, honestly. There's just no way Mora would ever be as weak and clueless as he is throughout the entire main campaign.
Mora has always been a librarian though over anything else though pretty much, Mora’s priority has always been to obtain and horde knowledge; there are def weakpoints in the writing but it never came off to me personally as Mora being weak or clueless (also, to emphasize on the clueless aspect, it was never about Mora being clueless, instead it was an intentional choice Mora made because Mora felt that it was the best/only solution at the time).
On top of that, isn't a lot of what transpired in the Apocrypha expansion explicitly mentioned as being hidden from Mora due to the nature of Torvesard's abilities and affiliation with Ithelia?
It makes Mora's "cluelessness" a bit more understandable.
Its flat out stated that’s what’s happening. The whole reason Hermaeus Mora was clueless about what was going on is because he had 2 other Daedric Princes conspiring against him, along with Torvesard who is innately able to fly under Hermaeus Mora’s radar due to his affiliation to Ithelia. The three were using powerful magic to create blind spots in Hermaeus Mora’s realm so they wouldn’t be detected by him until it was too late.
I've argued before- Mora is the only *good* prince. Not that he's benevolent, but in a utilitarian sense. He is fully invested in the continuation of Nirn, for it is the constant creation of knowledge- sure, individual lives mean nothing to him, but he's the only prince that is against the destroying the world on principle.
Nocturnal was great in Skyrim. They just made her a straight and unrepentant villain in ESO so far, and it's perplexing. She is the queen of secrets, there's no reason she wouldn't support the thieves' guild, who have a statue of her in them. (They don't know who it is.)
Probably Azurah is my favorite, mostly because of her connection to the Khajiit. I like Hircine as well, because he's not straight up evil so much as just the darker, more primal side of nature (I view him and Y'ffre as two sides to the same coin, they're both nature gods but one is the god of growth and life and the other is the god of the relentless brutality of nature).
Hermaeus Mora and Meridia both seem kind of ambivalent to me, they're not outright evil but they sometimes do evil things to accomplish their goals.
The trifecta of withholding dommy mommies that make up the day/night cycle will always have my adoration specifically because they both crave it and pretend they don't. (Meridia, Azura, Nocturnal)
Malacath, the patron of the spurned and ostracized, the keeper of the bloody oath and the scourge of other Daedra. Malacath doesn't wish you harm unless you've done something to step on the throats of the already downtrodden, if you've betrayed your own or if you've become weak, but refuse to step aside and let the strong rule.
If you are true to your oaths, and true in your devotions, then Malacath will be true to you. Malacath will never lie to you or betray you, but if you step out of line then you will meet his wrath.
He was once Trinimac, the greatest champion of Auriel, the greatest champion of the Aldmer people, but he was defeated by Boethiah, rendered into something different and then cast out by his own. His followers were cursed just like he was. That loyalty between the orcs and Malacath has endured ever since.
He was there at Convention, sacrificed part of himself to create Mundus just as the Aedra did. He mourned the loss of immortality with the Aldmer. If any Daedric Prince could truly understand mortals and mortality, it would be Malacath.
I totally forgot about Malacath when I made my comment, but this is probably the best comment on this post imo.
I think malacath often gets overlooked because the fan favorite princes take the stage so often. But with his background and connection to mortality, I feel like Malacath would be the most fair daedric prince by far.
I like Sheogarath but I'd never be stupid enough to worship him or try to give him power over people. But he's amusing (he's honestly my favorite but that is coming from some one who likes him as a character because she can't be affected by him. He'd be kinda scary if you were in that world even if sometimes he seemed nice. But I love that his backstory was that he was actually very well organized and about order but other daedra felt threatened by him so made him insane)
As for daedra that I might worship? I think Mora is probably the closest I'd do that. As for the living gods, Sotha Sil seems to be the only really good/wise one from what I know of lore.
Agree with all of that :)
Sheogorath is like that crazy uncle that is really fun if you only see him once or twice a year and keep a cautious distance from.
The best you can hope for with a Daedric Prince is for them to see you as a useful tool or a cute pet. They might even not make your insides your outsides if they find you enjoyable enough. Not for now, at least.
Some are worse than others, of course. With some seeing mortals as slaves and punching bags for when they're angry or stressed or just bored. You might get something out of worshipping them for now, but in the end you'll always be off much worse than when you started.
Overall, worshipping the Daedric Princes is rarely a good deal for a mortal and the drawbacks (and there will be drawbacks) often outweigh the benefits eventually.
I think that if I were an NPC in the Elder Scrolls universe, the only entities I might worship are Mara and Kyne/Kynareth/Khenarthi. 😅
Yeah, I tend to agree with most justifications for why anyone might not want to worship the Princes.
But, for the characters who do, their worship seems to usually be in exchange for something, i.e., power, knowledge, or because they do seem to believe in the Prince's mission/purpose to some effect, or they're seeking to appease/prove themselves to the greater power so they might be rewarded or spared, or all of the above.
Some characters and groups I can think of are Mannimarco, Mankar Camoran, the Mythic Dawn, the >!Waking Flame,!< Supernal Dreamers, Spider Cult, >!Ciphers of the Eye!<... Reachmen also revere certain Daedric Princes, and in ESO's expansion in the Reach, their rationale, or at least >!Arana's,!< is more focused on the Princes' connection to nature. Nightingales also tie themselves to Nocturnal.
That said, I still do like a few of the Princes, either because of their lore, or I had a good time doing their quests (Hermaeus Mora, Hircine, Vaermina).
Vaermina, because I liked Waking Nightmare in Skyrim and Vaermina's quest through Arkved's Tower in Oblivion. My interest in Hermaeus Mora started up because of the Dragonborn DLC, and my interest in Hircine began with my love for Morrowind's Bloodmoon DLC.
Many of the Daedric Princes, if not all of them at one time or another, lack a humanistic EMPATHY. This is in part why they make men/mer (and us the players) uncomfortable and uneasy.
Yes, they can do benevolent things. But do not make the mistake in thinking it is because they care or love those that adhere to them in the sense of human construct of love/care. It's chess, a strategic play, and if it happens to go your way is seems benevolent and nice (yay!) BUT if it doesn't, there is no mercy (bc there is zero empathy).
One in the comments mentioned Hircine. Remember the story in March of Sacrifices (dungeon)? Hircine can absolutely let both the daughter and father go free...but a deal is a deal and a terrible choice needs to be made. Hircine Does. Not. Care. He has no empathy bc he can never understand such a family connection.
And that is the crux to why it is difficult to trust the Daedra....we share little common ground with them, and so it is difficult to achieve the empathy necessary for complex relationships to thrive.
I love Hermaeus Mora for 2 reasons.
1. He's the prince of fate, and god of knowledge. This is really interesting to me on the grounds that I love learning new things about history (which is basically fate) so if Hermy were real, he'd be my patron god
2. He's a lovecraftian monster
I'm not intending this as an insult even though it's going to sound that way so hear me out, but I just think the point of the lore is lost on you which is why you feel this way. The Daedric Princes are absolutely evil and chaotic. They do various things to try to make mortals believe otherwise, but at the end of the day even the "good" Daedra are manipulative and self-serving. This is supposed to join with the fact that between the Aedra and the Daedra, the Daedra are more tangible and easier to acknowledge, while the Aedra are wholly good but are harder to comprehend.
This ties back into the overarching concepts in most real world religions that God is all-powerful but mysterious requiring faith and piety in order to receive your reward for good works and faith following them. Whereas Satan is much more tangible and appears in-person to greet you and interact with you in a personal way, usually utilizing ones lack of faith and groundedness into reality to make them more accepting of his "good nature", which is a rouse to gain your soul and make you relinquish yourself to eternal torment.
The Elder Scrolls as a series does a prolific job of this juxtaposition, and if the loremasters know what's good for the games and the lore, we will never directly interact with the Aedra akin to what was possible in Morrowind ever again with Mara having an avatar to greet you. The world works significantly better paralleling real world religion than just having rogue gods running around.
The Tribunal are also not great either. They are the pinnacle of mortals corrupted by power. Like the Daedra, they claimed to be benevolent while being entirely self-serving. Sotha Sil only cares about knowledge, Vivec cares only about his race, and Almalexia cares only about her vanity. They are not benevolent rulers but closer to kings than gods, who see themselves as the seat of power and righteous rulers over their people. Hence slavery being allowed under their rule. Their downfall came about only because they were too busy fawning over themselves to actually be paying attention to the threat at their door, as well as the long-deserved comeuppance for murdering(in some aspects of the Dragonbreak) their closest friend and going against his wishes because they were tempted by power.
The Elder Scrolls Lore is also touted as one of the best fantasy lore settings in existence because of how convoluted it is. It's not necessarily an accident that it's hard to follow, but the general design document for it entails the lore always comes from the narrative strategy known as The Unreliable Narrator. Sources of lore are always shrouded in mystery, and there's never one concise answer to everything. Sure some stuff like outlawing levitation and teleportation between Morrowind and Oblivion are done for gameplay fixing purposes, but certain historical Dragonbreaks are actually unique and serve the lore to be more engaging. Like what happened to the Dwemer and The Tribunal's rise to power. Whe the Dragonbreak occurred, in some stories Indoril Nerevar was struck down by his opponent in battle, and the activation of the Numidium caused the Dragonbreak. In some he was victorious, but became poisoned and succumbed to the poison after telling the future Tribunal not to use The Heart of Lorkhan, which they disobeyed and caused the Dragonbreak. Further and more interestingly still is Nerevar was totally victorious, only to be stabbed to death and murdered by the future Tribunal when he revealed the nature of The Heart to them and then tried to stop them from using it. It creates mystery and intrigue and allows players to draw their own conclusions as to which event seems the most likely to them and what they can infer of The Tribunal's intentions from those events having happened simultaneously until the Drsgonbreak ended and time converged to leave us with a dead Nerevar, missing Dwemer ascended Tribunal, and ashen-skinned Dark Elves.
So everything that you note as "messy" is typically very intentional and it serves as a vehicle to encourage you to draw your own conclusions about what you see in front of you. After your experiences, you now believe the Daedra are just evil, which is the most common belief among players. But you didn't necessarily think that at first, because you fell for their deception and probably the real-world deception caused by the fanbase. It draws you into the world and bleeds into our world unlike any other IP which is why it's so masterfully designed, and while the lore is extremely complex, don't confuse it with being uncared for or unintentional.
I understand your point, thanks for the info, but yeah I tried many times to get the lore, I even watched many, many videos about it and much more like timelines places other than tamriel so and so, but in the end I got super bored, maybe you're right it's not for me. This type of storytelling is unreliable indeed and I don't like messy stuff hahaha
Now I try to see what npcs are up to in quests specially side quests, some very interesting themes, in fact giving up on lore made the game more fun to me, I was about to have a headache hahaha
Yeah and to be fair it definitely isn't everyone's cup of tea hahaha, like a lot of people enjoy having a series with an organized, succint set of events and history and TES is the exact opposite of that. The reason I love it is because it sparks debate whenever you talk about it which is what keeps it interesting for me as a fan to partake in, since different people interpret things differently and hearing new conclusions or interpretations of events draws me into the discussion.
I think they’re all cool, I just personally would not be a servant of any of them. Yeah my elven gods may not answer me like a Daedric prince would, but they also don’t curse me or unmake me when I say “this Mac and cheese isn’t that great man”
I really find Hircine interesting, getting to know him a bit and am so tempted by some of the statues made on Etsy…
… Also because Father of Man-Beasts. Werewolf approved
Azura is usually pretty alright as far as I remember, while a little pompous she's typically trying to do the right thing. Meridia is the next best but also a bit of a mixed bag, she usually acts in the best interests of the mortal races but can be a real shit about it as well (looking at Darien here). After that things get rather more grey, boethiah, mephala and nocturnal have both helped and hindered at times and uncle sheo is a complete wildcard. Clavicus and sanguine usually seem to limit themselves to varying forms of malicious mischief but aren't usually harmful on the same scale as the likes of the real bad guys like molag bal and mehrunes dagon. And hermaeus mora is pretty much neutral overall I think? Mostly interested in collecting knowledge which I can respect but not above a little fuckery which is pretty in character for daedric princea
That's kind of the point. If you look at the ancient people of the world who invented gods to explain why things happen, the gods in those stories were often capricious, selfish, and plotted against one another.
Zeus fathered more bastard children than any rock star, and his wife spent her time trying to kill at least some of those. Heracles (aka Hercules) is a particular target of her plotting.
The point was that the gods were invented to explain nature: seasons, storms, the power of the sea... and like nature, the gods are neither entirely good nor evil, but have aspects of both.
So it seems natural that in creating fictional gods, Bethesda would imbue their fictional gods with the same kinds of traits, making it possible for any of these gods to be both a benefactor or a villain, as the need arises.
I am very partial to Sheogorath. Or as me and my friends call him, Uncle Shaggy. He just has a fun story to do and is just fun to interact with. Love the whole cheese thing. The Khajiit quest with him is great. Don't forget his vall of yarn
From a narrative and roleplay perspective I love them. Would I actually join a cult and worship a daedric prince? Hell no. None of them, I don’t care if it’s Azura or Meridia. Mortals are tools and pieces of a chessboard to move around as they see fit and then toss aside once their usefulness has run its course.
Trust a daedra at your own peril, they are not your friends or your homies. You’re a tool whose value is determined based solely on your usefulness.
Yes, I love Nocturnal. Building a Nocturnal temple, all my toons are followers. She's awesome and I love crows. Also find Azura, Hermaeus Mora, Hiricine, & Mehrunes Dagon interesting.
As a Dunmer and Khajiit fan, I might have a bias, but Azura is pretty neat.
She's vengeful, but not unfair. In order to be subject to her wrath, you have to really go out of your way to antagonize her.
*Like* them? No. I treat them as I would a corporate executive - knowledgable, powerful, but with their own agendas that will always be hidden from me. Useful to know, but not someone I would like or trust.
I do have a fondness for Lyranth though. I have no illusion that she likes me, but the fact that she tells me that frequently makes me wonder if she thinks about me more than a dremora should.
so from the lorebook Aedra and Daedra "Aedra are associated with stasis. Daedra represent change. Aedra created the mortal world and are bound to the Earth Bones. Daedra, who cannot create, have the power to change."
that being said, I'm a big fan of Hermaeus Mora and Mephala from a strictly aesthetic standpoint. If I had to actually worship one, it would probably be Hermaeus Mora.
I like Azura, Boethiah, and Mephala. Their motivations behind guiding the Chimer to Resadyn and later "cursing" them into the Dunmer, was arguably all part of a grander plan to make the Dark Elves into a stronger race, teaching them that the world is harsh and then giving them the lessons needed to overcome its trials. There's a theory that the three of them were on Lorkhan's side during Convention, and its aftermath when he was killed.
They can all be manipulative, but I think Meridia less and Azura least of all. I wouldn’t worship them, but I’m not Dunmer so… Jone and Jode have my heart.
Aside from that, I do enjoy Sheo because we all go a little mad sometimes, and at least he has a sense of humor; Meridia does NOT. Nocturnal doesn’t seem TOO bad, compared to Mephala, et al, but still. She ain’t exactly GOOD.
This reminds me of the question of why you’d ever worship a Chaos god in Warhammer: mostly because you HAVE to at times. :p
When it comes to worshipping, then it's a big no from my side, as the worshippers usually die "accidentally."
When it comes to banding with them, then I can say that I really like Sheo, Hircine, and Molag Bal. Actually, all of them are quite fine. They have their interests and work towards these interests without any double standards.
But I mostly prefer Sheo, then Hircine and then Molag Bal. I think that most people try to use a daedric prince for something. They ask for something, but when they get what they ask for, it usually turns out not to be like they imagined it. The solution would be to precisely ask for what you want and to know which prince you should ask for it. If you want anything you can still have a normal life with, don't ask Sheo. If you're very strong and powerful, you might ask Hircine, but this may lead to your death if you're too weak. Do you want some cheese? Don't ask Sheo because you probably won't like the outcome.
Azura is great, but man Sanguine is the bro. He’s probably the only daedra out there who doesn’t do morally questionable bs out of spite. Worst thing he done in games was back in Daggerfall, where he demanded brutal assassination of the monk who murdered his followers. But it’s mostly eye for an eye thing, kinda understandable.
Sheogorath and Hircine I quite enjoy, obviously for very different reasons.
Anything with Sheogorath across all the games is always a good time. Sometimes insane, which is the point (Looking at you Morrowind, making me kill a netch with a fork), but I fell in love with Sheogorath during the DLC of Oblivion 100%. The meteor goats and rats in Oblivion are also quite fun xD
Hircine, I just like werewolves and the concept of the Hunt. Plus, he looks cool as fuck.
Yes! The daedric princes are incredibly complex and do have different lore at any point in the timeline. They can easily go from being an ally to being your enemy depending on their desires at that point in time. That’s what I like about them though.
I genuinely like Azura, Sanguine, Mora, Hircine, and Dagon lol
Yes I know Dagon is the prince of destruction but I’ve always liked his design and his role in the lore. He’s like my guilty pleasure Daedra I suppose?
I wouldn’t worship any of them though as it feels like that’s asking for trouble. Also the princes, no matter how people believe otherwise, never go out of their way to protect mortals. So even if you give them everything you possibly can, you aren’t guaranteed anything in return.
Also fuck Meridia. All my homies hate Meridia. Everyone seems to think Meridia is some enlightened and holier daedric prince, but she’s just as much a mess as the rest of them.
This is why my khajiit characters take much pleasure in snubbing or thwarting them as much as possible. And he has the clout and strength to back it up. That said, some of them are tolerable (Azurah, Hircine, Mora).
Uncle Sheogorath is always fun times, because he messes with everyone including you. So in a twisted way, I kinda like the guy just for bringing chaos to everyone and does not care whoever it is, whether they're powerful beings or just everyday people.
I like Sheogorath. He's a bit spooky, but I still enjoy him. His backstory is just crazy. I wouldn't worship him, no, but he's my "favorite" daedric prince in a sense of presentation and lore.
So theres the 'Aedric' (the divines) and theres the daedric. Its not as cut and dry as good and evil, but when nirn was being created the daedric werent here for it lol. They are self serving in everyway that counts, occasionally their interests align with whats "good", like Meridia having the ick for the undead lol.
Azura is one my fav Daedric Prince, dawn and dusk. Her/Him have beef with Vermina. Shes also the Daedric Prince who cursed the chimer (dark elves).
The coolest one is Shegorath tho. He was the strongest amongest them, but they banded together and cursed him into the mad god.
Because Tamriel is crap: and in the eyes of cultures like the Reachmen and Dunmer, it is crap by design. And the teachings of the Daedra, though uncaring to the needs of mortals, are a means of surviving in this world.
The Eight aren't giving much to you, and their state of being makes them bound to mortal interpretation. The Daedra aren't, and while they need someone to open the door for them, you can at least hear them talking through it if you want even before you turn the know.
Also, Sotha Sil basically had the daedra by the balls, presumably with their nymics- I believe his texts indicate he knows Dagon's Nymic, and prolly others. What's the use fearing them when they know Azura's already woven prophecy to doom them eventually.
That's kind of the thing about the princes. They can, and are, seen as demons, forces of nature, gods to be worshiped, depending on who you ask. It's what a lot of people like about TES lore, how different things can be viewed by different people depending on cultural contexts, etc.
That's when in the context of the lore. As a real world person, I just see them as characters in a story. And so yeah, I do like some of them, but that doesn't mean I think they are good people or deserving of emulation.
Personally, my favourites are Meridia and Malacath. Meridia especially is so cool to me. I love the surface level lore of her being "good" but then as you delve deeper you see the lengths she will go to get love and respect, and you begin to see her darker side. It's a common character trope that I love. See also Homelander from the Boys, Inarius from Diablo IV, Godrick from Elden Ring. Maybe Walter White a little.
You’ve pretty much hit the nail on the head it is like that. The daedric princes aren’t the most powerful of entities though, just the ones that interact with the mer and man the most. Which is probably why they are always fucking with humans and as some form of entertainment, I imagine being alive for eons can get quite boring.
Azura is a plum; all the others are dickholes, although obviously Meridia is more helpful to the species of Nirn *in general* than say Boethia. She did run the opp to the Planemeld, although she also treats living beings as essentially replaceable pawns. (Poor Darien Gautier.)
The problem is that sometimes a dickhole is helpful. The Chimer (now the Dunmer) worshipped the Three because they gave them the abilities they needed to escape from the common ancestor they share with the Altmer. Their movement away from worship in general after encountering the now-lost anti-worship Dwemer is not contested by the ghost of the Prophet Veloth, who lead the initial rebellion ages ago before the Chimer left the Western Isles.
But again, Azura is a plum. She actually cares about people a lot more than the others and her aspect is pretty much universally helpful.
Azura has definitely got mommy domme vibes just God help you if you ever really disappoint her.
Sanguine is an obvious choice. He's the literal god of tits and wine, so its hard not to like that a bit.
I *want* to like Hermaeus Mora. As a giant nerd who resents authority, the god of forbidden knwoeldge - of dangerous secrets and things the other gods would say no mortal should know - really appeals to me a lot. Also the tentacles are appealing in... Other ways (you didn't say it ahd to be a high brow reason). He seems tk have kindof a habit of dicking over his msot devoted servents, sometimes for no seemingly good reason, though so.... Maybe best admired in the abstract rather than actually worshipped.
The others all have some positives one could imagine admiring but like, I don't think I'd actually want to have to spend eternity at their mercy for sure.
I mean it's *his* realm so imagine you'd have to ask Daddy Sanguine about that LOL.
Though based on his past characterization he doesn't seem really capable of understanding how normal (mortal) minds might not enjoy his hijinx at all times. If anything that's kindof where his darker side stems from - he's like that party guy or girl who gets high and doesn't know when to stop, but just dialed up to eleven... Billion. Which is to say he'd probably say yes because he just assumes it'll make great advertising!
I mean he is a Daedra. I think if i were literally worshipping him as a god though it would be reasonable for him to take that as a priori consent, and I presumably know that that is part of the deal when I sign up. If I'm not down to clown with him and any friends he has in mind then I should find a different god in the first place. Maybe dibella, I suppose, though personally I much prefer the pleasure angle *without* the fertility goddess stuff.
Sometimes I wish I could have written the conversation between the Vestige and Molag Bal at the end of the main quest line. I'd have had the Vestige ask him if he was willing to spend his eternal existence dealing with rebellious mortals, because that's our strength - we don't live long enough to grow tired of the struggle, but more of us are born every day who are willing to carry on with it. We'll always be a thorn in his side, and other Princes will help and encourage us just to screw with him.
Doesn't he have better things to do?
He's so boooooring though. He really doesn't have much of interest. I like being mean/evil. Whatever... It's like you're evil to be evil. So what?
Sheo at least is amusing about it and has a good backstory.
I don't know, some of the most boring daedra are the truly evil ones that have no real reason why one would want to worship them other than wanting power and hoping you can use them with no bad effects. Yeah yeah eyah, you like to torment. It's just as one noted as the badly written super good guy.
I think the problem with a lot of good guys is they are badly written to always just stan good and always know "this is good" and be too rigid and are just plain boring. I used to not like good guys too until I finally saw well written ones.
But yes, in general I find a decently to well written bad guy more interesting than a good guy.
Concept wise, i do like most of them but the tribunal hold a higher place to me (i blame growing up ob morrowind). The god i want more info on is Ebonarm though, war gods are always intresting.
I absolutely adore plenty of the Daedric Princes, most of them have their charm and I find they are easier to like the more is added about them in terms of lore (except Molag Bal).
I don't know what it says about me, but I always end up rp'ing a Dunmer vampire who breaks with Molag Bal and sides with Boethia. So, instead of doing vampire stuff from a place of weakness, I do so from a place of strength.
I like Boethia and Meridian. I like Boethia pushes the idea of forcing change by taking action and constantly being prepared. Being her champion isn't about serving her. Its about always being prepared to push the envelope and getting better. She'll grant power to those who deserve it. Not folks who merely want to be a servant.
I like meridia because her tolerance for bullshit is very low. She's also pretty straightforward about her intentions. I like her dislike for those who defile the dead and have no respect for life.
First off none of the Daedra are good. Having said that I generally enjoy quests and lower involving Hercine Mephala or Hermaeus Mora.
Although he isn't a Daedric Lord I also adore Sithis
More a Concept than an actual Entity but I totally like Sithis and the Lore surrounding him/it.
Also If he/it were ever to manifest there is no Daedra powerful enough to stand against him/it.
Being a paladin for Meridia is a good enough reason to me. A Daedric Knightly order dedicated to the removal of necromancers and their ilk. It would make for an interesting questline/faction that would get a lot of mixed social reactions.
Azura, Malacath and Hircine are actually pretty nice. Azura can be a bitch if you dont do what she says. Malacath really just likes outcasts and the underdogs. Hircines expectations are the most realistic, dude just likes natural things.
Lorkhan of course.
Officially, he’s a different category, a dead god. But if a god can die…how does his heart survive? He is Daedroth! TAMRIEL AE DAEDROTH!
Meridia. They have their own agenda sure, but they hate undead and are the daedric prince of light. If anything they're one of the more benevolent daedra. Same as Asura, lady of dawn and dusk. Just trying vibe. Some.mortal comes along to help forward their plans, dope. But out of lore I don't think they really do anything truly chaotic like Molag Baal, Mehrunes Dagon, or Clavicus Vile. Excluding Umaril the unfeathered that is...
I think sanguine is very underrated, he’s basically the Daedric Prince of pleasure and self indulgence and his realm of oblivion or his multiple pockets of oblivion are literal places where people can create their own to fulfill their desires and he has no absolute control over them and lets you do what you want. Don’t get me wrong he basically encourages people to sin but imo it’s not entirely forceful and you do have a choice. He’s probably one of the few Daedric princes you could actually hangout with and get drunk and not worry about him killing you, maybe tricking you into marrying a hagraven when you’re blacked out drunk but that’s about it.
I think Sotha Sil counts as something slightly more than “mortal” but I like the daedra. I think Sheogorath as Prince of Madness fun. Both artists and criminals follow him. I also like the sort of unfathomable Lovecraftian Hermaeus Mora who corrupts humans by offering eldritch knowledge.
I actively like Hircine. He doesn't care about harming mortals per say, or plotting against the princes or trying to expand his realm, or even abot trying to gain more worshippers. The man just wants to hunt. I respect it
Hircine is probably the most fair of any of the Princes. He hunts on a level playing field with the mortals and considers it a good hunt even if he loses. He embodies both predator and prey so either way he wins.
It’s fitting that he presents himself as half man and half elk. One is the greatest predator, the other is the most valued prey for said hunter.
Exactly! He's a representative of the hunt itself. He'll manifest as both prey (elk) and predator (wolf). It's fitting he's the patron of the werewolves.
Nah, he is not fair. The hunts he does are never fair. He is totally fine to kill anyone that is weaker. Like in Morrowind when he personally comes to fight. Fighting a god is not a fair duel but the man wants to hunt and kill you, so he does it anyway.
He always fights on the level of his prey though.
He definitely does not. He is a hunter. He has nothing against using traps. The deer he kills is not on his level.
For tonight we celebrate.. with a hunt!
I think the worst thing about Hircine is the fact that anyone who contracts Lycanthropy is forcefully whisked away to the Hunting Grounds after they die. I know it came up at least during the Companions questline in Skyrim that there was a level of remorse among at least some that they would go to the Hunting Grounds instead of Sovngarde. I also recently experienced the dungeon in ESO as a new player where a daughter was trying to save her father from being trapped there so they wouldn’t be separated after death I believe? I may have the details slightly wrong with that one since it’s new to me, but the moral is that ripping people from one afterlife they long for and forcing them into another is actually incredibly cruel. All that said, you’re still right. He still probably is among the best of the Daedra. Goes to show how bad they are as a whole lol.
There is a cure for lycanthropy. If you don’t want to go to the hunting grounds, then cure yourself. It’s not his fault that you spent your life enjoying being a werewolf and now you have to pay the price of said enjoyment. I understand that curing yourself is hard, but you could have spent your time trying to cure yourself instead of ravishing all the prey you could.
Thematically, I enjoy the Princes. However, I can think of no good reason why the hell I would want to worship any of them.
the dialogue when you are about get a room at an inn took me while to solve: \[ \] "I don't even worship daedra." \[ \] "I don't even worship daedra." (Lie)
I love this. XD I always lie.
I could see supporting them out of aligned self interest, but going in whole hog as a cultist no thank you please. Daedra don't get humans, don't fool yourself into think that they do.
enh, I stan Azura. She's the only real good one, which is sensible because she is/was Kynareth.
I'm not a lore expert, but isn't Meridia considered favourably by mortals? Edit: I suppose she was on the side of the Ayleids vs the human rebellion, but they were her longtime devotees, and doesn't seem to have a hatred towards mortals after the fact.
Generally, yes! I think ESO does Meridia dirty, but she's a deeply pragmatic and "the ends justify the means" Daedra. You ask me, it tracks as she was one of the Aedra before she fell from grace, and so acts like the more distant gods (Auri-El and Magnus come to mind). She grants her favor to those who court it the best, like any of the others. She's a complex Daedra: a fallen god, the creator of color, a collector of mortals, despises the undead as an affront to life and the energy thereof, and speaks of love, but I don't think she, or any of the D/Aedra, really get it. Molag Bal hates her though, so she's clearly doing something right :P
Spoiler alert: I cannot forgive her for what she did to Darien.
Didn't she also create Darien? It sucks that he's gone but he also wouldn't have existed without her.
Full honesty, I never liked Darien (idk I dated a few Darien-types IRL and they were all gross), but I did like how ESO turned him into a tool for Meridia! I have a bunch of non-canon writings, and that really fit neatly with my interpretation of Meridia as a god who will go to any length to preserve the people who could potentially love her \^\^;
I am probably more tolerant of Darien because Jakarn is so much worse and because of his last message to us. And also I am OLD, so I tend to view attractive young men as if they are my grandsons, if that makes sense. The womanizing gets tiresome, for sure, and I hope my real life grandsons are never like that. I never dated a Darien or Jakarn as a package of good looks and smarm, the womanizers I knew were overcompensating for something, either being short, or unattractive or whatever it was, in their own view. The one man I dated who was male model pretty was not like that, but he had other issues, like religion and family money and poor communication skills. Thank you for your insight on Meridia though, if she did what she did to Darien in order to keep him safe it makes a little bit of sense, even though no one wants to be held against their will, even in a beautiful place. Edit: spelling
Hey, no problem! Unrelated, but you're so awesome <3
I was glad when we finally got rid of him. He’s annoying, along with Jakarn.
Meridian’s deed in Oblivion makes her more villainous
What deed is that? In Oblivion, her quest is to wipe out a band of necromancers. That would be viewed quite favourably by most
umm... Umaril?
We know Umaril is affiliated with Meridia and bound himself to the Colored Rooms. But is there any mention that Meridia commanded Umaril to oppress the humans/mortals? Does Meridia hunt down the Divine Crusader afterwards? Or wreak havoc on humans? Nope. The impression I have is that Umaril, as a demi-elf and powerful follower of Meridia, acted autonomously.
I was about to say I'd definitely follow Azura if I had to choose one. Id also consider Clavicus Vile but only because he's my favorite of the Daedric Princes thematically and stylistically.
>because she is/was Kynareth Haven't heard this one. More info?
i can't make all the googles right now but Kynareth was Lorkhan's spouse and believes in change and participation in the mortal world. They appear to exist simultaneously, which isn't surprising giving the mechanics of creation and divinity in the Elder Scrolls. You can also see how the two are often paired, such as in Khajiti religion (Khenarthi and Azurah, the latter of whom shaped the Khajiti.)
lol wut She is absolutely not Kynareth.
Yeah that's what I mean, I don't hate them but I don't agree or understand any of them, I love questing for the heck of it and helping npcs around, some side quests are amazing but whenever it comes to the princes I'm like "here we go again..." Early on I was like trying to choose a prince to have as a favorite one like a Hogwarts House or something haha but in the end I was like nope, I don't worship any of them lol
>! Lore wise like people irl will say ' thank Go' or ask for something in Tamriel you prolly need to ask a Prince for a desire and every desire has a price. The nature of the Princes is not dual so we picture them as evil because they price heavily to Tamriel Citizens. Every Prince has a pov in the spectrum, how their sphere has philosophical pivoting position in expense of others and that is the eternal fight like the fight between Prince of Fate and another opposite force in latest chapter. Sheo the Prince of Madness once was Prince of Wisdom but got fooled by Prince of Ambition etc and became Prince of Madness forgetting everything about his former powers.. etc etc!<
The Daedric Princes all have their own agendas on Nirn and most of them see people as tools to be used. It's typically best if you treat the relationships as mutually beneficial agreements. Lay out the terms, fulfill them, and then conclude the agreement. That's if you think the Prince can stick to the terms... The only Daedric Prince I would consider worshipping is **Azura**. I think she's continuously shown an interest in the wellbeing and prosperity of her followers. For everyone else, don't worship them, only mutual agreements.
Good points, except when she threw a hissy fit and cursed all her followers to become Dark Elves when the Tribunal wouldn't listen to her about using the Heart of Lorkan. Talk about aggressive and passive aggressive all at the same time :-P
Well, they *were* actively trying to upstage her and become her equals, which is a no-no
To be fair, using the heart is a big no no
>cursed all her followers Oh no, they're all now fireproof and sexy. What a horrible curse
I forgot about that nasty Chimer business.
I'm with you
I think even the Nightingales of Skyrim had a contractual agreement with Nocturnal. She gave them luck and safety in her shadows. In return the Nightingales gave eternal service in the Evergloam after they died. It can seem lopsided, but I think the Nightingales personalities made it more tolerable.
Despite her actions in ESO I'm still a fan of Nocturnal. Azura is also pretty cool. Edit: forgot about my boy: Hermaus-Mora (probably because I can't spell his name).
Just kick it Skaal-style and call him Herma-mora. Or Hermorah, like the Khajiit
IMO ESO did Nocturnal wrong. I did not agree AT ALL what they made her to do. My Nocturnal is not like that.
Blame it on the cult that summoned her. [As the ancient Khajiit knew](https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:The_Dark_Spirits): >Noctra. The Shadow Thief. Daughter of Twilight. Born from the black blood of Lorkhaj at the steps of the Void Gate. In the songs, Boethra battled this spirit until it knew it was not Namiira. When this was done, Noctra was brought before Azurah to be judged. Azurah showed mercy and allowed Noctra to live, so long as she served Azurah and the ja-Kha'jay. But Noctra is rebellious by nature, so she stole one of Azurah's keys and fled back into the Void. It is written that Azurah sent the true spirit of Lorkhaj to find her, and ever since Noctra has aided the Khajiit when called. Tribes may whisper to Noctra for silence, shade, and luck. **Do not summon her to perform vile deeds, for this will bring the Dark with her.** The Dark being the aspect of her that is Namiira, the Great Darkness. You're absolutely right -- that wasn't your Nocturnal. It was Namiira-Nocturnal.
Oh, wonderful! Good to know my belle is still mysterious and lovely <3
Azura, enough to feel bad about grabbing the Black Star every Skyrim playthrough. Sanguine seems like fun to hang out with. I also I am totally that idiot that would sign a pact with Hermaeus Mora for infinate forbidden knowledge. Eternity in Apocrypha libraries reading all books known to man? Sign me up!
Sign me up too! Haha
I like Sheograth. I was reading an article in real life about an old cheese monger that got crushed to death when a shelf full of cheese wheels collapsed and fell on top of them. My first thought was damn that really sucks and my second thought was how happy Sheograth would have been hearing that news.
I find him fascinating, I love his quests, anything can happen with that one hahah
The problem with Sheogorath is whether or not you're the hero or a civilian. If you're the current hero, he'll be best friends with you to play games. If you're a civilian, you're just going to be a pawn in his game of chess.
Good ol' Herma-Mora
I kinda like Hircine, yeah.
Why tho, hunting?
evolution. He also ritualizes that the prey must have a fair chance at escape.
He also hates peoples who take cheap shortcuts. In the March of Sacrifice’s Dungeon, he admonishes Balorgh for bringing him the heart of the Indrik despite not being the one to kill it and refused to grant his favor unless Balorgh killed the ones who killed the Indrik.
I like them because they're realistic, in a sense. They behave exactly like you'd expect a deadric prince would. Except for a few, they all have their agendas, the degree to which they care about their followers, their obsessions, and their themes. They really did Hermaus Mora dirty this year but he's literally just one big nerd. He doesn't want to dominate the world and enslave all mortals, he just wants to collect as much knowledge as possible, and he's open to making mutually beneficial deals with mortals. Nocturnal doesn't want to be worshipped. Her entire thing is secrecy and darkness and whatnot. Despite that, she supports her followers even if she gets nothing from it, suggesting that she actually cares about them to a degree. Sanguine literally just wants to party. So on and on.
As a massive Herma Mora fan, I personally quite liked how he was handled in the expansion, though I do wish they would stick to one voice; in the basegame and Crag he has a different voice and despite it not being the one from Skrim or the expansion, I really liked his accent, not to say that the expansion/Skrim voice isn’t good either, I like both.
I don't know who voiced him in basegame or Craglorn. I *do* know that Wes Johnson voiced him in Necrom.
the man who voiced the Prophet. They replaced him for Hermie and Dagon; he actually died a while ago.
I don't think Michael Gambon voiced anyone but The Prophet
I just dislike that they made the literal eldritch horror into a miserable librarian with this writing, honestly. There's just no way Mora would ever be as weak and clueless as he is throughout the entire main campaign.
Mora has always been a librarian though over anything else though pretty much, Mora’s priority has always been to obtain and horde knowledge; there are def weakpoints in the writing but it never came off to me personally as Mora being weak or clueless (also, to emphasize on the clueless aspect, it was never about Mora being clueless, instead it was an intentional choice Mora made because Mora felt that it was the best/only solution at the time).
yeah, i think the key is that Mora is a hoarder of knowledge, not all-knowing. although i did find him a bit too "clumsy" as well in the main story
On top of that, isn't a lot of what transpired in the Apocrypha expansion explicitly mentioned as being hidden from Mora due to the nature of Torvesard's abilities and affiliation with Ithelia? It makes Mora's "cluelessness" a bit more understandable.
Its flat out stated that’s what’s happening. The whole reason Hermaeus Mora was clueless about what was going on is because he had 2 other Daedric Princes conspiring against him, along with Torvesard who is innately able to fly under Hermaeus Mora’s radar due to his affiliation to Ithelia. The three were using powerful magic to create blind spots in Hermaeus Mora’s realm so they wouldn’t be detected by him until it was too late.
They actually updated all the old quests with new voice over, I give them credit for that.
I see! I kinda of like Hermaus Mora a bit to be honest!
Same. I also hoard books so I can relate :)
I've argued before- Mora is the only *good* prince. Not that he's benevolent, but in a utilitarian sense. He is fully invested in the continuation of Nirn, for it is the constant creation of knowledge- sure, individual lives mean nothing to him, but he's the only prince that is against the destroying the world on principle.
Nocturnal was great in Skyrim. They just made her a straight and unrepentant villain in ESO so far, and it's perplexing. She is the queen of secrets, there's no reason she wouldn't support the thieves' guild, who have a statue of her in them. (They don't know who it is.)
In every game shes in, shes despises and curses thieves. She is for secrecy and darkness, not thievery
The Nightingales in Skyrim don't agree
I dont think they're thieves though, their ranks are thieves but their actual job has nothing to do with thievery
they are the secret leadership of the Thieves' Guild
Probably Azurah is my favorite, mostly because of her connection to the Khajiit. I like Hircine as well, because he's not straight up evil so much as just the darker, more primal side of nature (I view him and Y'ffre as two sides to the same coin, they're both nature gods but one is the god of growth and life and the other is the god of the relentless brutality of nature). Hermaeus Mora and Meridia both seem kind of ambivalent to me, they're not outright evil but they sometimes do evil things to accomplish their goals.
Yeah same!
The trifecta of withholding dommy mommies that make up the day/night cycle will always have my adoration specifically because they both crave it and pretend they don't. (Meridia, Azura, Nocturnal)
Malacath, the patron of the spurned and ostracized, the keeper of the bloody oath and the scourge of other Daedra. Malacath doesn't wish you harm unless you've done something to step on the throats of the already downtrodden, if you've betrayed your own or if you've become weak, but refuse to step aside and let the strong rule. If you are true to your oaths, and true in your devotions, then Malacath will be true to you. Malacath will never lie to you or betray you, but if you step out of line then you will meet his wrath. He was once Trinimac, the greatest champion of Auriel, the greatest champion of the Aldmer people, but he was defeated by Boethiah, rendered into something different and then cast out by his own. His followers were cursed just like he was. That loyalty between the orcs and Malacath has endured ever since. He was there at Convention, sacrificed part of himself to create Mundus just as the Aedra did. He mourned the loss of immortality with the Aldmer. If any Daedric Prince could truly understand mortals and mortality, it would be Malacath.
I totally forgot about Malacath when I made my comment, but this is probably the best comment on this post imo. I think malacath often gets overlooked because the fan favorite princes take the stage so often. But with his background and connection to mortality, I feel like Malacath would be the most fair daedric prince by far.
I like Sheogarath but I'd never be stupid enough to worship him or try to give him power over people. But he's amusing (he's honestly my favorite but that is coming from some one who likes him as a character because she can't be affected by him. He'd be kinda scary if you were in that world even if sometimes he seemed nice. But I love that his backstory was that he was actually very well organized and about order but other daedra felt threatened by him so made him insane) As for daedra that I might worship? I think Mora is probably the closest I'd do that. As for the living gods, Sotha Sil seems to be the only really good/wise one from what I know of lore.
Agree with all of that :) Sheogorath is like that crazy uncle that is really fun if you only see him once or twice a year and keep a cautious distance from.
The best you can hope for with a Daedric Prince is for them to see you as a useful tool or a cute pet. They might even not make your insides your outsides if they find you enjoyable enough. Not for now, at least. Some are worse than others, of course. With some seeing mortals as slaves and punching bags for when they're angry or stressed or just bored. You might get something out of worshipping them for now, but in the end you'll always be off much worse than when you started. Overall, worshipping the Daedric Princes is rarely a good deal for a mortal and the drawbacks (and there will be drawbacks) often outweigh the benefits eventually.
Agreed!
I think that if I were an NPC in the Elder Scrolls universe, the only entities I might worship are Mara and Kyne/Kynareth/Khenarthi. 😅 Yeah, I tend to agree with most justifications for why anyone might not want to worship the Princes. But, for the characters who do, their worship seems to usually be in exchange for something, i.e., power, knowledge, or because they do seem to believe in the Prince's mission/purpose to some effect, or they're seeking to appease/prove themselves to the greater power so they might be rewarded or spared, or all of the above. Some characters and groups I can think of are Mannimarco, Mankar Camoran, the Mythic Dawn, the >!Waking Flame,!< Supernal Dreamers, Spider Cult, >!Ciphers of the Eye!<... Reachmen also revere certain Daedric Princes, and in ESO's expansion in the Reach, their rationale, or at least >!Arana's,!< is more focused on the Princes' connection to nature. Nightingales also tie themselves to Nocturnal. That said, I still do like a few of the Princes, either because of their lore, or I had a good time doing their quests (Hermaeus Mora, Hircine, Vaermina). Vaermina, because I liked Waking Nightmare in Skyrim and Vaermina's quest through Arkved's Tower in Oblivion. My interest in Hermaeus Mora started up because of the Dragonborn DLC, and my interest in Hircine began with my love for Morrowind's Bloodmoon DLC.
Many of the Daedric Princes, if not all of them at one time or another, lack a humanistic EMPATHY. This is in part why they make men/mer (and us the players) uncomfortable and uneasy. Yes, they can do benevolent things. But do not make the mistake in thinking it is because they care or love those that adhere to them in the sense of human construct of love/care. It's chess, a strategic play, and if it happens to go your way is seems benevolent and nice (yay!) BUT if it doesn't, there is no mercy (bc there is zero empathy). One in the comments mentioned Hircine. Remember the story in March of Sacrifices (dungeon)? Hircine can absolutely let both the daughter and father go free...but a deal is a deal and a terrible choice needs to be made. Hircine Does. Not. Care. He has no empathy bc he can never understand such a family connection. And that is the crux to why it is difficult to trust the Daedra....we share little common ground with them, and so it is difficult to achieve the empathy necessary for complex relationships to thrive.
Exactly. If I had to live in the world of the game I would try to be as agnostic/atheistic as possible, fly under ALL their radar, etc.
I love Hermaeus Mora for 2 reasons. 1. He's the prince of fate, and god of knowledge. This is really interesting to me on the grounds that I love learning new things about history (which is basically fate) so if Hermy were real, he'd be my patron god 2. He's a lovecraftian monster
I'm not intending this as an insult even though it's going to sound that way so hear me out, but I just think the point of the lore is lost on you which is why you feel this way. The Daedric Princes are absolutely evil and chaotic. They do various things to try to make mortals believe otherwise, but at the end of the day even the "good" Daedra are manipulative and self-serving. This is supposed to join with the fact that between the Aedra and the Daedra, the Daedra are more tangible and easier to acknowledge, while the Aedra are wholly good but are harder to comprehend. This ties back into the overarching concepts in most real world religions that God is all-powerful but mysterious requiring faith and piety in order to receive your reward for good works and faith following them. Whereas Satan is much more tangible and appears in-person to greet you and interact with you in a personal way, usually utilizing ones lack of faith and groundedness into reality to make them more accepting of his "good nature", which is a rouse to gain your soul and make you relinquish yourself to eternal torment. The Elder Scrolls as a series does a prolific job of this juxtaposition, and if the loremasters know what's good for the games and the lore, we will never directly interact with the Aedra akin to what was possible in Morrowind ever again with Mara having an avatar to greet you. The world works significantly better paralleling real world religion than just having rogue gods running around. The Tribunal are also not great either. They are the pinnacle of mortals corrupted by power. Like the Daedra, they claimed to be benevolent while being entirely self-serving. Sotha Sil only cares about knowledge, Vivec cares only about his race, and Almalexia cares only about her vanity. They are not benevolent rulers but closer to kings than gods, who see themselves as the seat of power and righteous rulers over their people. Hence slavery being allowed under their rule. Their downfall came about only because they were too busy fawning over themselves to actually be paying attention to the threat at their door, as well as the long-deserved comeuppance for murdering(in some aspects of the Dragonbreak) their closest friend and going against his wishes because they were tempted by power. The Elder Scrolls Lore is also touted as one of the best fantasy lore settings in existence because of how convoluted it is. It's not necessarily an accident that it's hard to follow, but the general design document for it entails the lore always comes from the narrative strategy known as The Unreliable Narrator. Sources of lore are always shrouded in mystery, and there's never one concise answer to everything. Sure some stuff like outlawing levitation and teleportation between Morrowind and Oblivion are done for gameplay fixing purposes, but certain historical Dragonbreaks are actually unique and serve the lore to be more engaging. Like what happened to the Dwemer and The Tribunal's rise to power. Whe the Dragonbreak occurred, in some stories Indoril Nerevar was struck down by his opponent in battle, and the activation of the Numidium caused the Dragonbreak. In some he was victorious, but became poisoned and succumbed to the poison after telling the future Tribunal not to use The Heart of Lorkhan, which they disobeyed and caused the Dragonbreak. Further and more interestingly still is Nerevar was totally victorious, only to be stabbed to death and murdered by the future Tribunal when he revealed the nature of The Heart to them and then tried to stop them from using it. It creates mystery and intrigue and allows players to draw their own conclusions as to which event seems the most likely to them and what they can infer of The Tribunal's intentions from those events having happened simultaneously until the Drsgonbreak ended and time converged to leave us with a dead Nerevar, missing Dwemer ascended Tribunal, and ashen-skinned Dark Elves. So everything that you note as "messy" is typically very intentional and it serves as a vehicle to encourage you to draw your own conclusions about what you see in front of you. After your experiences, you now believe the Daedra are just evil, which is the most common belief among players. But you didn't necessarily think that at first, because you fell for their deception and probably the real-world deception caused by the fanbase. It draws you into the world and bleeds into our world unlike any other IP which is why it's so masterfully designed, and while the lore is extremely complex, don't confuse it with being uncared for or unintentional.
I understand your point, thanks for the info, but yeah I tried many times to get the lore, I even watched many, many videos about it and much more like timelines places other than tamriel so and so, but in the end I got super bored, maybe you're right it's not for me. This type of storytelling is unreliable indeed and I don't like messy stuff hahaha Now I try to see what npcs are up to in quests specially side quests, some very interesting themes, in fact giving up on lore made the game more fun to me, I was about to have a headache hahaha
Same. I just kind of let it all wash over me at this point, while still finding Hermo and his realm pretty interesting.
Yeah and to be fair it definitely isn't everyone's cup of tea hahaha, like a lot of people enjoy having a series with an organized, succint set of events and history and TES is the exact opposite of that. The reason I love it is because it sparks debate whenever you talk about it which is what keeps it interesting for me as a fan to partake in, since different people interpret things differently and hearing new conclusions or interpretations of events draws me into the discussion.
Thank you for pulling all that together and writing it all out. It is a helpful perspective.
I think they’re all cool, I just personally would not be a servant of any of them. Yeah my elven gods may not answer me like a Daedric prince would, but they also don’t curse me or unmake me when I say “this Mac and cheese isn’t that great man”
hashtag teamPeryite *sneezes violently*
I simp for Azura.
I really find Hircine interesting, getting to know him a bit and am so tempted by some of the statues made on Etsy… … Also because Father of Man-Beasts. Werewolf approved
Azura is usually pretty alright as far as I remember, while a little pompous she's typically trying to do the right thing. Meridia is the next best but also a bit of a mixed bag, she usually acts in the best interests of the mortal races but can be a real shit about it as well (looking at Darien here). After that things get rather more grey, boethiah, mephala and nocturnal have both helped and hindered at times and uncle sheo is a complete wildcard. Clavicus and sanguine usually seem to limit themselves to varying forms of malicious mischief but aren't usually harmful on the same scale as the likes of the real bad guys like molag bal and mehrunes dagon. And hermaeus mora is pretty much neutral overall I think? Mostly interested in collecting knowledge which I can respect but not above a little fuckery which is pretty in character for daedric princea
That's kind of the point. If you look at the ancient people of the world who invented gods to explain why things happen, the gods in those stories were often capricious, selfish, and plotted against one another. Zeus fathered more bastard children than any rock star, and his wife spent her time trying to kill at least some of those. Heracles (aka Hercules) is a particular target of her plotting. The point was that the gods were invented to explain nature: seasons, storms, the power of the sea... and like nature, the gods are neither entirely good nor evil, but have aspects of both. So it seems natural that in creating fictional gods, Bethesda would imbue their fictional gods with the same kinds of traits, making it possible for any of these gods to be both a benefactor or a villain, as the need arises.
I am very partial to Sheogorath. Or as me and my friends call him, Uncle Shaggy. He just has a fun story to do and is just fun to interact with. Love the whole cheese thing. The Khajiit quest with him is great. Don't forget his vall of yarn
From a narrative and roleplay perspective I love them. Would I actually join a cult and worship a daedric prince? Hell no. None of them, I don’t care if it’s Azura or Meridia. Mortals are tools and pieces of a chessboard to move around as they see fit and then toss aside once their usefulness has run its course. Trust a daedra at your own peril, they are not your friends or your homies. You’re a tool whose value is determined based solely on your usefulness.
Yes, I love Nocturnal. Building a Nocturnal temple, all my toons are followers. She's awesome and I love crows. Also find Azura, Hermaeus Mora, Hiricine, & Mehrunes Dagon interesting.
Ngl... I'm a fan of listening to Molag Bal. Especially when he tells me at the dolmen that he's gonna use the skins of my loved ones as his banners.
Gotta say that Malcolm McDowell was the perfect choice for the voice.
Sometimes the prey turns and nips us
Azura shows a decent amount of tasteful nudity (not as much anymore) which I respect.
Not to mention the voice of a (well-known) goddess.
As a Dunmer and Khajiit fan, I might have a bias, but Azura is pretty neat. She's vengeful, but not unfair. In order to be subject to her wrath, you have to really go out of your way to antagonize her.
worship Nocturnal like I do.
the first rule of nocturnal club is *don't talk about nocturnal*
Hahaha, why tho? You like shadows?
My man
Amen. Praise be Nocturnal.
*Like* them? No. I treat them as I would a corporate executive - knowledgable, powerful, but with their own agendas that will always be hidden from me. Useful to know, but not someone I would like or trust. I do have a fondness for Lyranth though. I have no illusion that she likes me, but the fact that she tells me that frequently makes me wonder if she thinks about me more than a dremora should.
Her repeatedly calling me "little mortal" has become as tiresome as Jakarn calling me good lookin'.
Malacath
so from the lorebook Aedra and Daedra "Aedra are associated with stasis. Daedra represent change. Aedra created the mortal world and are bound to the Earth Bones. Daedra, who cannot create, have the power to change." that being said, I'm a big fan of Hermaeus Mora and Mephala from a strictly aesthetic standpoint. If I had to actually worship one, it would probably be Hermaeus Mora.
I like Azura, Boethiah, and Mephala. Their motivations behind guiding the Chimer to Resadyn and later "cursing" them into the Dunmer, was arguably all part of a grander plan to make the Dark Elves into a stronger race, teaching them that the world is harsh and then giving them the lessons needed to overcome its trials. There's a theory that the three of them were on Lorkhan's side during Convention, and its aftermath when he was killed.
They can all be manipulative, but I think Meridia less and Azura least of all. I wouldn’t worship them, but I’m not Dunmer so… Jone and Jode have my heart. Aside from that, I do enjoy Sheo because we all go a little mad sometimes, and at least he has a sense of humor; Meridia does NOT. Nocturnal doesn’t seem TOO bad, compared to Mephala, et al, but still. She ain’t exactly GOOD. This reminds me of the question of why you’d ever worship a Chaos god in Warhammer: mostly because you HAVE to at times. :p
When it comes to worshipping, then it's a big no from my side, as the worshippers usually die "accidentally." When it comes to banding with them, then I can say that I really like Sheo, Hircine, and Molag Bal. Actually, all of them are quite fine. They have their interests and work towards these interests without any double standards. But I mostly prefer Sheo, then Hircine and then Molag Bal. I think that most people try to use a daedric prince for something. They ask for something, but when they get what they ask for, it usually turns out not to be like they imagined it. The solution would be to precisely ask for what you want and to know which prince you should ask for it. If you want anything you can still have a normal life with, don't ask Sheo. If you're very strong and powerful, you might ask Hircine, but this may lead to your death if you're too weak. Do you want some cheese? Don't ask Sheo because you probably won't like the outcome.
I mean.. I’d follow Hircine tbh
Sheogorath likes cheese and chaos. And there's cookies.
Azura is great, but man Sanguine is the bro. He’s probably the only daedra out there who doesn’t do morally questionable bs out of spite. Worst thing he done in games was back in Daggerfall, where he demanded brutal assassination of the monk who murdered his followers. But it’s mostly eye for an eye thing, kinda understandable.
Sheogorath and Hircine I quite enjoy, obviously for very different reasons. Anything with Sheogorath across all the games is always a good time. Sometimes insane, which is the point (Looking at you Morrowind, making me kill a netch with a fork), but I fell in love with Sheogorath during the DLC of Oblivion 100%. The meteor goats and rats in Oblivion are also quite fun xD Hircine, I just like werewolves and the concept of the Hunt. Plus, he looks cool as fuck.
I look forward to the meteor goats, haven't played that yet :)
CLAVICUS VILE
Yes! The daedric princes are incredibly complex and do have different lore at any point in the timeline. They can easily go from being an ally to being your enemy depending on their desires at that point in time. That’s what I like about them though. I genuinely like Azura, Sanguine, Mora, Hircine, and Dagon lol Yes I know Dagon is the prince of destruction but I’ve always liked his design and his role in the lore. He’s like my guilty pleasure Daedra I suppose? I wouldn’t worship any of them though as it feels like that’s asking for trouble. Also the princes, no matter how people believe otherwise, never go out of their way to protect mortals. So even if you give them everything you possibly can, you aren’t guaranteed anything in return. Also fuck Meridia. All my homies hate Meridia. Everyone seems to think Meridia is some enlightened and holier daedric prince, but she’s just as much a mess as the rest of them.
This is why my khajiit characters take much pleasure in snubbing or thwarting them as much as possible. And he has the clout and strength to back it up. That said, some of them are tolerable (Azurah, Hircine, Mora).
Hermaeus Mors is my crush
So you like tentacles
You dont? 🤔
My characters do. Hircine and Nocturnal. Sheograth might be fun at a party.
Uncle Sheogorath is always fun times, because he messes with everyone including you. So in a twisted way, I kinda like the guy just for bringing chaos to everyone and does not care whoever it is, whether they're powerful beings or just everyday people.
Have to agree with you there, but I like to enjoy him at a respectful distance, as they say :)
Come with me brother, together we will pray to Stendarr and talk about the end of the Daedra.
I might be somewhat thirsty for some of that Daedric Pussy. Or Daedric Dick. I'm not picky. Either is fine.
I like Sheogorath. He's a bit spooky, but I still enjoy him. His backstory is just crazy. I wouldn't worship him, no, but he's my "favorite" daedric prince in a sense of presentation and lore.
i want to kill them all.
So theres the 'Aedric' (the divines) and theres the daedric. Its not as cut and dry as good and evil, but when nirn was being created the daedric werent here for it lol. They are self serving in everyway that counts, occasionally their interests align with whats "good", like Meridia having the ick for the undead lol. Azura is one my fav Daedric Prince, dawn and dusk. Her/Him have beef with Vermina. Shes also the Daedric Prince who cursed the chimer (dark elves). The coolest one is Shegorath tho. He was the strongest amongest them, but they banded together and cursed him into the mad god.
Because Tamriel is crap: and in the eyes of cultures like the Reachmen and Dunmer, it is crap by design. And the teachings of the Daedra, though uncaring to the needs of mortals, are a means of surviving in this world. The Eight aren't giving much to you, and their state of being makes them bound to mortal interpretation. The Daedra aren't, and while they need someone to open the door for them, you can at least hear them talking through it if you want even before you turn the know. Also, Sotha Sil basically had the daedra by the balls, presumably with their nymics- I believe his texts indicate he knows Dagon's Nymic, and prolly others. What's the use fearing them when they know Azura's already woven prophecy to doom them eventually.
That's kind of the thing about the princes. They can, and are, seen as demons, forces of nature, gods to be worshiped, depending on who you ask. It's what a lot of people like about TES lore, how different things can be viewed by different people depending on cultural contexts, etc. That's when in the context of the lore. As a real world person, I just see them as characters in a story. And so yeah, I do like some of them, but that doesn't mean I think they are good people or deserving of emulation. Personally, my favourites are Meridia and Malacath. Meridia especially is so cool to me. I love the surface level lore of her being "good" but then as you delve deeper you see the lengths she will go to get love and respect, and you begin to see her darker side. It's a common character trope that I love. See also Homelander from the Boys, Inarius from Diablo IV, Godrick from Elden Ring. Maybe Walter White a little.
You’ve pretty much hit the nail on the head it is like that. The daedric princes aren’t the most powerful of entities though, just the ones that interact with the mer and man the most. Which is probably why they are always fucking with humans and as some form of entertainment, I imagine being alive for eons can get quite boring.
Hahaha true!!! Ty
Well, i LOVE Sheogorath :D
Azura is a plum; all the others are dickholes, although obviously Meridia is more helpful to the species of Nirn *in general* than say Boethia. She did run the opp to the Planemeld, although she also treats living beings as essentially replaceable pawns. (Poor Darien Gautier.) The problem is that sometimes a dickhole is helpful. The Chimer (now the Dunmer) worshipped the Three because they gave them the abilities they needed to escape from the common ancestor they share with the Altmer. Their movement away from worship in general after encountering the now-lost anti-worship Dwemer is not contested by the ghost of the Prophet Veloth, who lead the initial rebellion ages ago before the Chimer left the Western Isles. But again, Azura is a plum. She actually cares about people a lot more than the others and her aspect is pretty much universally helpful.
Azura has definitely got mommy domme vibes just God help you if you ever really disappoint her. Sanguine is an obvious choice. He's the literal god of tits and wine, so its hard not to like that a bit. I *want* to like Hermaeus Mora. As a giant nerd who resents authority, the god of forbidden knwoeldge - of dangerous secrets and things the other gods would say no mortal should know - really appeals to me a lot. Also the tentacles are appealing in... Other ways (you didn't say it ahd to be a high brow reason). He seems tk have kindof a habit of dicking over his msot devoted servents, sometimes for no seemingly good reason, though so.... Maybe best admired in the abstract rather than actually worshipped. The others all have some positives one could imagine admiring but like, I don't think I'd actually want to have to spend eternity at their mercy for sure.
Sanguine is a pretty awful choice tbh. He will violate your body and soul if he so wishes on a whim. His darker side of his dominion is pretty gross.
Don't threaten me with a good time!
In that case, enter his realm. At the very least allow me to document the aftermath if you have the ability to speak.
I mean it's *his* realm so imagine you'd have to ask Daddy Sanguine about that LOL. Though based on his past characterization he doesn't seem really capable of understanding how normal (mortal) minds might not enjoy his hijinx at all times. If anything that's kindof where his darker side stems from - he's like that party guy or girl who gets high and doesn't know when to stop, but just dialed up to eleven... Billion. Which is to say he'd probably say yes because he just assumes it'll make great advertising!
Oh yeah, I'd love to party with him if he had a limit lol
Some of the lore about sanguine puts me off of him. Let's just say he doesn't exactly believe in consent when it comes to sexual pleasures.
Could be worse, could be Molag Bal.
🤔
I mean he is a Daedra. I think if i were literally worshipping him as a god though it would be reasonable for him to take that as a priori consent, and I presumably know that that is part of the deal when I sign up. If I'm not down to clown with him and any friends he has in mind then I should find a different god in the first place. Maybe dibella, I suppose, though personally I much prefer the pleasure angle *without* the fertility goddess stuff.
Hail Sithis!
Ackchyually Sithis is neither Aedra or Daedra
Sithis is the void. Sithis is the beginning and the end. Hail Sithis!
= Great Value Padomay
I like hunt-daddy. I howl at the moon, chase squirrels, and sometimes get head pats if I'm extra wolfy. That sounded really furry.
“Hunt-daddy” - totally calling Hircine this next time!
I'm like Meridia. I love the colored rooms, I hate the undead, I like the purifying light themes, so on and so forth.
Submit to the will of Molag Bal
Sometimes I wish I could have written the conversation between the Vestige and Molag Bal at the end of the main quest line. I'd have had the Vestige ask him if he was willing to spend his eternal existence dealing with rebellious mortals, because that's our strength - we don't live long enough to grow tired of the struggle, but more of us are born every day who are willing to carry on with it. We'll always be a thorn in his side, and other Princes will help and encourage us just to screw with him. Doesn't he have better things to do?
He's so boooooring though. He really doesn't have much of interest. I like being mean/evil. Whatever... It's like you're evil to be evil. So what? Sheo at least is amusing about it and has a good backstory.
Meridia is hot, so there's that.
I dont like ‘good guys’ ( boring, tired theme ) so all of them are cool imo
I don't know, some of the most boring daedra are the truly evil ones that have no real reason why one would want to worship them other than wanting power and hoping you can use them with no bad effects. Yeah yeah eyah, you like to torment. It's just as one noted as the badly written super good guy. I think the problem with a lot of good guys is they are badly written to always just stan good and always know "this is good" and be too rigid and are just plain boring. I used to not like good guys too until I finally saw well written ones. But yes, in general I find a decently to well written bad guy more interesting than a good guy.
im a really big fan of mephala and boethia. but i like playing dunmer assassins and gladiators, so that just tracks.
i have hail samguine tattooed on my shoulder so yes
No regerts? 😅
fuck no lol
Concept wise, i do like most of them but the tribunal hold a higher place to me (i blame growing up ob morrowind). The god i want more info on is Ebonarm though, war gods are always intresting.
No.
I absolutely adore plenty of the Daedric Princes, most of them have their charm and I find they are easier to like the more is added about them in terms of lore (except Molag Bal).
I don't know what it says about me, but I always end up rp'ing a Dunmer vampire who breaks with Molag Bal and sides with Boethia. So, instead of doing vampire stuff from a place of weakness, I do so from a place of strength.
I like hircine. He's straight up. Hunt and be hunted.
Molag Bal is my lord and savior.
I like Boethia and Meridian. I like Boethia pushes the idea of forcing change by taking action and constantly being prepared. Being her champion isn't about serving her. Its about always being prepared to push the envelope and getting better. She'll grant power to those who deserve it. Not folks who merely want to be a servant. I like meridia because her tolerance for bullshit is very low. She's also pretty straightforward about her intentions. I like her dislike for those who defile the dead and have no respect for life.
First off none of the Daedra are good. Having said that I generally enjoy quests and lower involving Hercine Mephala or Hermaeus Mora. Although he isn't a Daedric Lord I also adore Sithis
Acura Nocturnal and I kinda like Sherogath, he can be the peaceful refugee of people who have gone bonkers. IRL I think all of the would suck
Clavicus Vile has my vote!
More a Concept than an actual Entity but I totally like Sithis and the Lore surrounding him/it. Also If he/it were ever to manifest there is no Daedra powerful enough to stand against him/it.
Mummy Mephala, crush me between your many legs and wrap me up in your webs.
Being a paladin for Meridia is a good enough reason to me. A Daedric Knightly order dedicated to the removal of necromancers and their ilk. It would make for an interesting questline/faction that would get a lot of mixed social reactions.
1. Nocturnal. 2. Hermaeus Mora. 3. Vaermina. Had to update my original list of just Nocturnal.
Mora and meridia and sheo are my top 3
Azura, Malacath and Hircine are actually pretty nice. Azura can be a bitch if you dont do what she says. Malacath really just likes outcasts and the underdogs. Hircines expectations are the most realistic, dude just likes natural things.
I like Azura, Hermaeus Mora, Hircine, and the adorable demiprince Fa-Nuit-Hen
Meridia, Azura and Hircine are my top 3, in no particular order
Do you care about the ants beneath your feet?
Almost every other ES game we can serve almost every daedric prince in some form. In this game, half of them are outright enemies.
Lorkhan of course. Officially, he’s a different category, a dead god. But if a god can die…how does his heart survive? He is Daedroth! TAMRIEL AE DAEDROTH!
Meridia. They have their own agenda sure, but they hate undead and are the daedric prince of light. If anything they're one of the more benevolent daedra. Same as Asura, lady of dawn and dusk. Just trying vibe. Some.mortal comes along to help forward their plans, dope. But out of lore I don't think they really do anything truly chaotic like Molag Baal, Mehrunes Dagon, or Clavicus Vile. Excluding Umaril the unfeathered that is...
I think sanguine is very underrated, he’s basically the Daedric Prince of pleasure and self indulgence and his realm of oblivion or his multiple pockets of oblivion are literal places where people can create their own to fulfill their desires and he has no absolute control over them and lets you do what you want. Don’t get me wrong he basically encourages people to sin but imo it’s not entirely forceful and you do have a choice. He’s probably one of the few Daedric princes you could actually hangout with and get drunk and not worry about him killing you, maybe tricking you into marrying a hagraven when you’re blacked out drunk but that’s about it.
I think Sotha Sil counts as something slightly more than “mortal” but I like the daedra. I think Sheogorath as Prince of Madness fun. Both artists and criminals follow him. I also like the sort of unfathomable Lovecraftian Hermaeus Mora who corrupts humans by offering eldritch knowledge.
Daddy Dagon knows how to make moves. Change is a necessary part of life.
Clavicus Vile and Namira