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The Daedra whose name translates to Not Our Ancestors in Elvish, are some of the main antagonists of Bethesda's hit action RPG franchise The Elder Scrolls. They are a race of supernatural beings hailing from the twisted realm of Oblivion, often viewed as gods or demons by the mortals of Nirn. They come in many shapes and sizes with varying degrees of power and influence of which the most powerful of their kin being the Daedric Princes to which they are all subservient to.
Biology[]
Daedra come in many shapes and sizes, many of them monstrous and terrifying in appearance, thou this isn't always the case. Some types of daedra are humanoid in appearance resembling that of the typical horned devils of Abrahamic religions such as the dremora, the xivilai as well as the winged and grievous twilights. Other types of daedra resemble animals but more monsterous such Daedroths, Clanfears, spider daedra, daedrats among other types, Daedra can even appear as lovecraftian horrors as the case with the hungers, watchers, and seekers. There are also daedra that look beautiful and even angelic such as the aurorans, and the golden saints.
Unlike the flesh and blood creatures of Nirn, daedra are purely magical and immortal beings, there appearances are merely a physical form that they chose to manifest in. As such when they are seemingly killed in the physical plane, there body is destroyed but their spiritual essence remains intact and would simply return back to Oblivion from which spawned. Oddly enough, despite being purely magical beings, many daedra seem to possess hearts when examined, these daedra hearts are known to have incredible properties such as restoring magic and vitality when mixed with other ingredients, and can even be used to forge powerful armor using ebony ore as the basis. Many scholars believe that the hearts contain the lingering essence of the daedra that was slain, and so tempering it with metal and alchemy could cause the daedra great pain.
The exact method on how daedra reproduce is unknown. As daedra are magical beings, it is very unlikely that daedra reproduce by mating. despite this there are few accounts of daedra or daedric princes mating with mortals to produce a hybrid offspring called a demiprince, so it is possible that daedra are capable of mating to some capacity. The most plausible theory attributed to scholarly study is that daedra are simply spawned from oblivion itself. Another method of daedric reproduction if for daedric princes create them in their own image, thou the exact method of he the process works is unknown, many of these daedric prince created daedra are modeled after creatures from Nirn, such as the daedric titans which resemble dragons, or the ogrims which resemble ogres, usually as a form of mockery or tribute to the creatures the physical plane.
Behavior[]
The intelligence and behavior of the daedra depends on what species it is. the more monstrous and animalistic daedra are usually mindless monsters that only seek to cause as much destruction and misery as possible. On the other hand the more humanoid daedra have varying degrees of intelligence and motivation. for the example, the dremora have a darwinistic warrior culture that value strength and combat above all else and will wipeout any form of weakness they sense with extreme prejudice, they generally live in clans and have a strict cast system for weakest to strongest. Xivilai on the other hand, act as spies, assassins, slavers, and torturers rather than warriors, delighting in inflicting as much suffering to their victims for as long as possible. Alternatively, the skaafin are more mischievous in nature than most humanoid daedra, acting as pranksters, thieves, and overall mischief makers.
Most daedra view mortals as inferior (playthings even) to them, and will not serve any mortal unless they garner respect or admiration towards them or whatever daedric prince they are in service to, while the less intelligent and more animalistic daedra such as the scamps, clannfears, and atronachs are more eager to serve whichever mortal mages summons them. Daedra don't fear death since they are not mortal and know that if they perish in the mortal world they'll simply return to their world, but are still capable of feeling fear, failure, pain, and loss in varying degrees depending on species. What ties most if not all daedra together are their extreme loyalty to whichever daedric prince they are aligned with, this loyalty comes from either from admiration, a sense of duty or anything in-between. Daedra will often handpick which prince they deem the strongest to serve and some are known to be rather picky or have faltering loyalties. there are even certain times that daedra have no allegiances to which ever daedric prince and would rather simple do whatever please. However the most extreme example of daedric loyalty comes with the knights of order created by Jyggalag which have no emotion or freewill whatsoever and act only on whatever their prince commands them to do.
