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Kagrenac is a major character and historical figure in the Elder Scrolls franchise.
He's at the center of one of, if not the biggest mortal mystery of the franchise. He was a member of the Dwemer (Dwarven) race - a race known for their phenomenal engineering feats, yet even among the Dwarves, Kagrenac was beyond extraordinary when it came to feats of science, engineering and alchemy. His greatest contributions to Dwemeri society would be its undoing; these contributions were the ability to harvest the Heart of Lorkhan's power and the conception of Anumidium.
Background[]
To understand Kagrenac, and the Dwemer in general there are two major spots in series lore one must understand - one religious/mythological, one historic - Lorkhan and The Chimer Immigration.
Lorkhan[]
Lorkhan is a primordial deity, one alternatively addressed with prestige and infamy. Lorkhan was one of the first entities to later be re-titled as primeval gods. The gods created many great works, most notable among these gods, was Magnus, god of magic, who created the world, but Magnus left, for he had created the world within the concept of time and as such, knew it would not last, being a god, he had no desire to see such creation destroyed. Lorkhan went to the entities that had accompanied Magnus to create the world, and told them if they gave of-themselves they could maintain creation, the gods, not wanting to see the universe fade away, channeled their spirits into creation, not wishing to simply accept entropy as Magnus had. But, teach the Altmer (high-elves), this was a trick. The mad-god Akatosh - god of time, had already seen existence's end, as he sees all, past, present and future at once, and thus the concept of an end was an inevitability. All the gods had done by channeling themselves into creation was delay that end, and cripple their own power doing it. Lorkhan had extended creation, by tricking many of the gods into sacrificing the eternal selves to invest in a flawed concept like creation. Though Magnus had been wise enough to accept entropy as an inevitability, Lorkhan had preyed on the nobility of the other gods. Some of Magnus's children the Magna-Ge, refused to leave but would not be weighed down either, and maintain a perch in-between Aetherius (A cross between Heaven and The-Astral-Plane), and Mundus (creation), as such the Magna Ge are similar to the concept of watchful guardian angels.
The exact story of how the current status quo of the cosmos came about, changes in each culture, Lorkhan for example is considered a heroic god to the races of men for speaking up for creation to the other gods. The general consensus is that the current Divines are now bound to creation due to Lorkhan tricking them into supporting it without pointing out that once bound to it, they were bound to eventually fade-away too. But whatever the case, creation soon stabilized... as much as a flawed and mortal universe could ever possibly stabilize. The Eight Divines figuratively carried creation on their backs, The Magna Ge watched from afar, and the Daedra (those who did not consider investing in creation) made merry sport of the flawed mortal world they had not bothered to get invested in, though they would hold back on directly interfering in mortal affairs due to a pact with the Divines later. Many of the other gods became weaker, and weaker, aging, needing to take mortal-form to sustain themselves, and though long-lived eventually dying. The Altmer believe these are their race, that the Elves (particularly the high-elves), are malnourished gods shackled to mortality by Lorkhan to maintain creation. This belief system would see the creation of an Altmer supremacy group, known as the Thalmor, dedicated to returning Altmer to their "rightful place" as gods, by sabotaging the cosmic order to untether their race from the scam that is creation. As for Lorkhan, he was slaughtered, some say by the enraged Altmer, some say by the Divines, some say he mutilated himself as a form of sacrifice to maintain creation, but Lorkhan is no-more. It is said the moons are his physical corpse, split in two and frozen in stasis without his spirit to inhabit it. Much myth surrounds these events and while there is a general agreement between cultures, the details change in each. It is agreed upon that Lorkhan's heart fell to Nirn (the planet), but with no body, and a mind shattered upon impact, the Heart of Lorkhan is naught but a repository for his impotent unfocused spirit.
This was for years thought a creation myth, particularly by the Dwarves - who were agnostic... until their head scientist - Kagrenac, excavated the still beating Heart of Lorkhan!
The Founding of Morrowind[]
Trinimac, one of the last divine beings to exist in mortal form, lived for many-years among his increasingly mortal cousins - The Altmer. One day Trinimac sensed the elves had lost their way and went on a pilgrimage with those who would follow him - this sect of elves called themselves the Chimer - physically identical to Altmer, but wishing to break-away for religious enlightenment. On his way, Trinimac retaught the Chimer the lessons of creation and how the wicked god Lorkhan had reduced them to winding mortality, that his was the way of change, of "progress", of destruction. It was on this journey Trinimac was privately ambushed by the Daedric Prince, Boethiah. Boethiah was an advocate of Lorkhan he/she had admired the creation god, and agreed with Trinimac on one thing, that creation was inherently chaotic and destructive, thus to truly honor Lorkhan's sacrifice, one had to constantly be willing to fight, destroy and upset the status-quo, that peace equates to subjugation, but in Boethiah's mind, these were virtues. Trinimac halted the pilgrimage momentarily to confront Boethiah, but then returned and moved on. After the encounter with Boethiah, Trinimac and Chimer journeyed across the world until they found what would be called "Morrowind". When they arrived "Trinimac" declared the land the Chimer's, but then, in the same breath told the Chimer they were weak and foolish, that they had given themselves to blind faith and followed a false god. "Trinimac" said that they had left to find enlightenment away from the Altmer, and they had found the world is a cold-cruel place and that blind-faith is the construct of beings like Trinimac to subjugate the gullible. "Trinimac" then revealed he was in-fact Boethiah, that he/she had beaten Trinimac, eaten his spirit inhabited his corpse and then "passed" the true Trinimac as excrement there in-front of them. Boethiah told the Chimer to build their new society with this lesson in-mind. Some of the Chimer refused to steer away from their original shepherd and bathed in the waste of Boethiah that was the remains of Trinimac, that they might grow closer to the last mortal divine being - these elves would forever be changed and live on as Orsimer (Orcs), their god, the now Daedric Prince being known as Malacath - the mutilated belligerent remains of Trinimac's spirit.
The Chimer founded their new country, building settlements, and eventually cities. But Boethiah had done what she/he always does, sewn conflict in his/her gift, for Morrowind was already inhabited, but the Chimer would not realize this until many years after they had settled. Another Elven race, The Dwemer, had settled in Morrowind long ago - their off-shoot seeking solitude away from the Altmer to pursue the ways of science. The Dwemer lived underground, and so it was many years before the Chimer and Dwemer realized their territory overlapped. The Chimer lord- Indoril Nerevar, and the Dwemer King- Dumac, met, became friends and brokered a peace, the Chimer would live on the surface, they Dwemer would live below ground, and each would do their best not to interfere in the other's existence. But with the Chimer religious zealots, and the Dwemer firmly agnostic bordering on atheist, the two had a shaky relationship, made worse every-time a basement or dungeon encroached on Dwemer near-surface cities, or when Dwemer experiments shook the foundations of the surface with quakes. The breaking point came with Dumac's Chief Tonal Architect - Kagrenac.
The Heart of Lorkhan[]
Neravar received a vision from the Daedra - Azura - Daedra of dusk and dawn, and one of "The Three "Good" Daedra", along with Boethiah and Mephala. Neravar saw the Dwemer uncovering the Heart of Lorkhan, and experimenting on it in his dreams. At-first he thought it but a dream, Azura herself appeared before Neravar as a fleeting after-dream image to assure him it was very true. Neravar sought council with his wife, Almalexia - his friend - Vivec and his chief adviser - Sotha Sel. All agreed a proclamation from a Daedra was not to be ignored, yet the teaching of Boethiah had showed the Chimer, they must doubt all, even the gods until their faith was no longer blind. Neravar made a journey with his chief general Dagoth, to meet King Dumac and confront him on the implied blasphemy of his people. Dumac originally denied Azura's vision was true, and called in Kagrenac to confirm to Neravar and Dagoth that the Dwarves had no heart of a semi-dead-god. When Kagrenac arrived, he plainly confessed to the accusations. King Dumac was surprised, for Kagrenac had not told him of the find yet. Kagrenac wondered how Neravar had known, for he had not told anyone but his inner most researchers yet, and he refused to acknowledge the importance of gods, much less Daedra. Regardless of how Neravar knew of his find, Kagrenac said scientific study was at the heart of Dwemer culture, that he was ethically, morally and culturally guaranteed the right to pursue any experiment even ones seen as "blasphemous" by other cultures. King Dumac, though just as off-put by the prospect of tinkering with the heart of a being that could well and truly be called a god, had to adhere to his people's culture - that Kagrenac was right and he had the innate right to pick-apart the bones of the cosmos if he wished, as long as doing so would assure the betterment of knowledge. Neravar pleaded with King Dumac to stop the unholy work, but received only mockery from Kagrenac. Neravar called for Dagoth to leave with him and told King Dumac that such a meeting would tragically be the last time the two met as friends.
Dumac was furious at the position he had been put in, but had to abide. He told Kagrenac to lock-himself in his laboratory and not come out until he had finished his accursed experiment, something Kagrenac happily agreed to, but went with renewed vigor, now certain if his experiments did not meet with any success he would be executed. Neravar and Dagoth returned to tell the Chimer of what the Dwarves were doing, and immediately the dogmatic Chimer pledged themselves to the extermination of the Dwemer civilization, if not race. Dumac knew a war was coming and was prepping his people for Neravar's invasion of their underground cities. A war did indeed unfold, but while it was progressing, Kagrenac remained locked in his lab, day-and-night trying to harnass the potential of an actual dead-god's heart. Kagrenac ultimately crafted three tools for his experiments, ones unlike any other seen even among his own race - Sunder, Keening and Wraithguard. Keening was fashioned to cut anything, or at-least something as dense as the heart of a god. Sunder was crafted to apply the necessary pressure to force Keening into an object, it is a type of hammer/mallet, and can allow a mere mortal to apply the pressure needed to finely hone Keening into an object. Wraithguard is an armlet that will allow a mere mortal to safely use Keening and Sunder without say - shattering their hands, or melting their flesh. After a long time of honing these creation and running tests, Kagrenac was certain he had the tools needed to literally take a god, and thus the Heart of Lorkhan, apart. However by the time he had completed his tools Neravar and Dagoth had slain Dumac, though Neravar was fatally injured, but refused to die until Kagrenac was stopped - both headed straight for Kagrenac's lab. With the enemy almost literally at his gate, Kagrenac decided to pursue science at any cost and detailed his experiment moments before engaging in his most dangerous theory - as he struck the Heart of Lorkhan with Wraithguard holding Sunder and Keening...
he vanished;
Kagrenac disappeared, the Dwemer armies disappeared, the Dwemer citizens disappeared, every living Dwemer on Nirn disappeared all at once. The only Dwemer to remain in existence was one on another plain at the time - Yagrum Bagarn, one of Kagrenac's researchers. Yagrum would return mutated some-time later, mostly mad, but eventually recovering his senses, and he is just as perplexed as the Chimer as to what happened while he was away.
Kagrenac's Tools... Kagrenac's Madness[]
Upon breaking down Kagrenac's door, Dagoth and the bleeding Neravar found it empty of any life, only machines, notes, and the Heart itself. Neravar assigned Dagoth to guard the Heart and tools used on it, while he went to meet with Vivec, Soatha Sel and his beloved Almalexia one last time. The four concluded the Dwarves had done what Dumac unwittingly condoned them to do, and had upset the very balance of the cosmos in striking the Heart of Lorkhan, that the removal of the entire race was either divine punishment or just poetic justice of mortals tampering with cosmic forces. Though Dagoth had originally been set on destroying the Heart, Neravar had stopped him and told them not to, to preserve the Heart for the sake of their faith, and the tools for posterity's sake, but made them swear to him and Azura herself, never to make the same mistake as the arrogant Kagrenac and actually try to use the tools on The Heart. The three swore to their dying paragon and accompanied him back into Kagrenac's chamber to die at the feet of the last flesh of a primordial god, as a sign of honorable death. As Neravar stumbled back into the chamber he saw Dagoth, who had been reading Kagrenac's notes during the meeting. Dagoth was speaking feverishly, speaking of how Kagrenac was so close, and that with his first test confirmed as a failure, his second test would have surely granted him god-hood! Dagoth was about to strike the Heart himself, with the last of his fleeting strength, Neravar tossed Dagoth down a shaft in the lab, to his assured death. With this final act, Neravar fell to his knees, and in his final words told his wife and advisers that to pursue Kagrenac's research would lead one to madness as it had the blasphemous dwarf and now their previously loyal general.
After funeral rites for their revered lord, Almalexia, Vivec and Soatha Sel divided up the tools that they three might never be used in each-other's company again - thus making them useless. Sotha Sel was a necromancer and alchemist and so was intrigued by "forbidden" research, he rounded up Kagrenac's notes. Though Vivec and Almalexia thought Soatha Sel had rounded them up either to destroy them, or at the very worst preserve them under-lock-and-key, he had in-fact been studying them. Soatha Sel was gripped by Kagrenac's madness, by the madness which had claimed Dagoth. He went to his co-rulers and told them he saw Dagoth was right, it was a figurative flip of a coin that Kagrenac's experiment had back-fired, that since he had detailed exactly the way he struck The Heart before his final test, they knew exactly what not to do. Soatha Sel said that if they performed a second strike of the heart, simply striking it in a different way, the heart would bleed out divine power, infusing those who struck it. Almalexia and Vivec were at first appalled, but as they reviewed the notes, and Soatha Sel helped them through some of the more abstract concepts, the two became enticed. The three struck the heart again and were infused with divine power.
Azura appeared before them, for they had broken an oath to her, one made in the dying presence of their hero, king and her chosen messenger. Almalexia fell silent with shame, Vivec fell to his knees in repentance, but Soatha Sel pointed out they were infused with the power of Lorkhan, a being of more primordial power than a Daedra like her. That she could do nothing to them. Azura grew silent with rage, she told them they had spoken for their race to her and that they had sealed their own fates. That night the Dwemer corpses vanished, they turned to dust and flew into the Chimer. When the Chimer awoke their skin was ashened, infused with the dust of the slain Dwemer. Divination confirmed Azura had marked them on behalf of some great crime, but none could say what, save the three members of The Tribunal - Almalexia, Vivic and Soatha Sel, but they simply proclaimed to their people the time of the old gods was gone, and in this new era, the Tribunal would be the only patrons they would need. As of that moment they were no longer the "Chimer" but the "Dunmer" (Dark Elves). Vivic would imply to the Neravarine (the reincarnated spirit of Neravar, unable to find peace due to the breaking of the Tribunal's oath) that the madness that gripped Kagrenac was contagious, that Dagoth was infected by it, that Almalexia, Soatha Sel and he had been infected by it, and that he was the only one of the three to hone his semi-divine status towards recognizing and overcoming it. This is furthered by the fact that Dagoth had survived his fall, stolen Sunder and Keening and was using them to siphon the divine essence out of Soatha Sel and Almalexia using the Heart of Lorkhan as a type of relay. Vivec warns the Neravarine that Kagrenac's madness lives on in the newly invigorated Dagoth Ur, but even if by some miracle the reincarnation of Neravar could retake the Tools of Kagrenac from Dagoth Ur, his spirit lives on in the warped psyche's of Almalexia and Soatha Sel, and returning them to power, would earn the Neravarine naught but their fear they would be next... as it turned out, Vivec was right.
Legacy[]
Kagrenac is spoken of by the Dwarves as a great Tonal Architect. The Dwemer were engineers, working with steam-powered machines at the time of their disappearance. Kagrenac was working on a massive mechanical man called the "Numidium" - The Brass God. The device had taken a back-seat to the Heart of Lorkhan but was nearly complete, save it needed a power-source. Tiber Septim - the King of Cyrodiil would find the excavated monstrosity and powered it (how is the stuff of much debate). He marched with the giant metal construct into the Summerset Isles - land of the Altmer, to make a demonstration to the Elves that the races of men did not exist to serve them. He seized the Isles in a single day, but turned around upon their surrender, showing he did not wish them death, only that they were not to trifle with him. The details of the use of the Numidium are sketchy based on source, but it said to be a thing of horrific destructive power. To all races not Dwarves, Kagrenac is the primary figure to demonstrate the folly of hubris. Kagrenac is a fabled figured through-out history that the cosmos is not a toy, that research must be tempered with caution, and that gods are not meant to be crossed. Azura, Boethaih and Mephala all despise Kagrenac, Azura for passing his madness on after death, Boethiah for defiling his/her beloved Lorkhan's remains, and Mephala for his open arrogance at crossing the barriers between god and mortal; Because of this, Kagrenac is remembered among the Dunmer as the single biggest. wickedest fool in the history of their great country.