This is a page for listing tropes related to the Daedric Princes in the The Elder Scrolls. For the Daedra index see here, and for other Divine Beings, see here.
For other characters, see the character index.
Note: Elder Scrolls lore is generally not clear-cut. Reasons for this range from biased in-universe sources intentionally only giving you only one side of a story, to sources lacking critical information or working from false information, to the implication that All Myths Are True, despite the contradictions, or that at least all myths are Metaphorically True. Out-of-game developer supplemental texts (frequently referred to as "Obscure Texts" by the lore community) are more trustworthy, but are frequently left unofficial and sometimes later contradicted. Because of this, it is entirely possible for two contradictory statements in the below examples to both be true. (And due to frequent events in-universe that alter the timeline, both may literally be true in-universe.)
The Daedric Princes
The most powerful and important of the Daedra are the Daedric Princes. There are 17 known Daedric Princes following the events of Shivering Isles (before which, there were 16). Each has a particular sphere, which they are said to govern from their planes of Oblivion which they inhabit and rule. Though most tend to appear consistently in a particular masculine or feminine form, they can change that form however they please and thus, have no inherent gender. They are always referred to as "Princes" regardless of the form the take. Mortals who gain their favor are often gifted with abilities and artifacts of great power, though may be required to pledge their soul to serve their Daedric patron after death.
In General
General Tropes Applicable to the Daedric Princes:
- Above Good and Evil: Though most are considered "evil" by the general populace of Tamriel, scholars argue that their actions are in line with their "spheres" and above what mortal minds can understand, with none wholly good or evil. The "Good" ones only seem that way because what they seek to accomplish is generally beneficial or benevolent toward mortals, while the "Evil" ones are more likely to harm mortals with their actions. For instance, Mehrunes Dagon is the Daedric Prince of Destruction, but can be considered no more "evil" than a tidal wave or an earthquake, while Meridia is generally considered "good" because she wants the undead to be destroyed, which is a stance most mortals agree on, but can be rude, narcissistic, and petty.
- Alternative Character Interpretation: In-Universe. Further complicating the Blue-and-Orange Morality issue is that many of the Princes are seen differently through different cultural lenses. For example, Boethiah is considered a "good" Daedra by the Dunmer. Meanwhile, Malacath is explicitly considered a "bad" Daedra by the Dunmer (and the majority of Tamriel as well), but the Orsimer consider him their patron deity and divine ancestor.
- Angels, Devils and Squid:
- As a group, they are (loosely) the "devils" to the Aedric and Magna-ge "angels" and Sithis "squid."
- The Princes themselves range from the angel-like, generally "good" (if not always nice) ones like Azura and Meridia to the very devil-like ones like Mehrunes Dagon and Molag Bal. And then there's Hermaeus Mora, who doesn't even bother to appear in a form mortals can understand and goes with the whole mishmash of tentacles and eyes look.
- Animal Motif: Zigzagged; some Daedric Princes have strong associations with particular animals (like Nocturnal with crows, Mephala with spiders, Vaermina with snakes, Hermaeus Mora with squid and crabs, etc.), others... do not.
- Anthropomorphic Personification: Of the spheres over which they govern. A Daedric Prince isn't so much a person, a creature, or an entity in and off themselves, as they are a manifestation of a concept or (usually darker) aspect of the common subconscious of the people of Nirn.
- Arbitrary Headcount Limit:
- They are limited in number due to the structure of the Aurbis (loosely, the universe or "totality"). Any other powerful Daedra are considered "lords" but not true Princes. However, there have been instances of "new" Princes coming into being, though each instance to date seems to be a case of Loophole Abuse, with a sphere being "split" or something similar. Examples including Alduin "cursing" Mehrunes Dagon to his role, Boethiah "eating" and corrupting Trinimac into Malacath, Meridia being cast out from Aetherius and shaping her own plane of Oblivion, and Sheogorath passing that mantle onto a mortal to become Jyggalag full-time.
- Online also alludes to a couple of Princes who've been banished or destroyed, with Deadlands having the players travel to Deadlight, the shattered realm of an unnamed Prince that Mehrunes Dagon destroyed, and Necrom confirming that Hermaeus Mora erased Ithelia, Daedric Prince of Paths, from existence and memory.
- Artifact of Doom: Many of the artifacts associated with the Daedric Princes qualify. Most don't have an 'air' of "doom" on their own, but the means to acquire them often gives them one. For example, a person carrying Mehrunes' Razor or the Mace of Molag Bal had to do something for the Daedric Prince of Destruction or the Daedric Prince of Domination and Corruption to make that person worthy of receiving the artifact.
- As Long as There Is Evil:
- Most are treated as "evil" and nothing has ever been able to truly destroy a Prince. Since they are manifestations of the primal forces of reality, they will always exist for as long as existence itself. Even when they take an avatar form and that avatar is vanquished, they are simply banished back to Oblivion.
- Sotha Sil believed that the Daedra could be "destroyed", but that doing so would require a complete restructuring of the Aurbis from the ground up. His theory was that the Daedra were "gaps" in how the Aurbis was constructed due to errors made by the Aedra when they built the world, and that by constructing his Clockwork City and using that as a basis to rebuild the Aurbis, he could eliminate the "gaps" in the cosmic machinery that allowed the Daedric Princes to exist as self-aware entities.
- Benevolent Boss: Even some of the more 'evil' Princes tend to truly value their followers, with the major exceptions being Meridia, Molag Bal, Mehrunes Dagon, and Boethiah. Daedric quests that aren't messing with someone in a thematic way usually involve a Prince asking you to save/avenge their worshipers.
- Big Bad: Most of the primary antagonists for the games and expansions have come from the ranks of the Daedric Princes:
- Mehrunes Dagon for Battlespire, Oblivion and the Gates of Oblivion story arc of Online (and being The Man Behind the Man for Arena)
- Hircine for Bloodmoon
- Meridia as the Greater-Scope Villain for Knights of the Nine
- Jyggalag for Shivering Isles
- Molag Bal for Online (and Greater-Scope Villain for Dawnguard)
- Hermaeus Mora as the Greater-Scope Villain for Dragonborn.
- Clavicus Vile is also the Greater-Scope Villain of The Infernal City and Lord of Souls since the Big Bad of those two novels — Umbra — is basically a Demiprince of his.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality:
- Mortals tend to see them as mostly evil, but scholars and the Princes themselves insist they are far beyond these limits. Even the "good" Daedra would point out that applying human morality to beings like the Daedra operates on certain flawed assumptions.
- Point in case is the Dunmer, who worship Boethiah and Mephala, two Daedric Princes who are considered evil by most of the rest of Tamriel, because of their tendencies toward scheming, treachery, and brutal violence. The Dunmer, however, view the treacherous and violent natures of these Princes as blessings and tests that keep them strong. Malacath is viewed as a brutal and ruthless god, but the Orsimer hold that his brutality is necessary and that he blesses the outcast and downtrodden with strength and endurance. Even Mehrunes Dagon can be viewed in a somewhat positive light, as part of his sphere is change and revolution, something necessary for progress and growth. The only Prince universally regarded as pure evil devoid of any redeeming qualities is Molag Bal.
- Keep in mind, however, that while they are not necessarily "evil", Daedric Princes are still incredibly dangerous, even the seemingly benevolent ones. Most of them won't hesitate to take steps to advance their power and strengthen their spheres, and with few exceptions they rarely care about individual mortals beyond their immediate utility or threat to a Prince's plans. The Daedric Princes, in a sense, should be viewed less like actual intelligent entities and more like violent forces of nature: Beautiful but deadly when one gets too close.
- Bystander Syndrome: The Daedric Princes have an odd case that overlaps with both Pride and A Million Is a Statistic despite meddling in the affairs of Mundus as much as they can manage. For all of their occasional moments of either cruelty or kindness to the mortal races, virtually all of the Daedric Princes don't seem to see mortals as ultimately anything above "points" in their various games against each other and other powerful entities (i.e., the Aedra and et'Ada). This is implied to be a product of them not participating in the creation of the Mundus Plane, unlike the Aedra; while the Aedra might not be able to always act on behalf of mortals due to sacrificing the majority of their divine power to create the mortal world in the first place, they all fundamentally love mortals and will act on their behalf In Mysterious Ways. In sharp contrast, the Daedric Princes didn't actually aid in the creation of the mortal plane of existence, and so while they can occasionally show at least some caring/cruelty towards specific mortals (most are genuinely protective of their followers and quite cordial to those who earn their respect), they can't fully appreciate the mortal races as a whole one way or the other since they didn't directly help aid in their creation (with a select few exceptions, most notably Azura and Malacath).
- Characterization Marches On: Combined with Early-Installment Weirdness, the personalities of many of the Princes are very different in Daggerfall than they would go on to be depicted in later games. Azura is something of a valley girl, Sanguine asks you to kill someone instead of playing pranks, Meridia acts motherly if passive-aggressive, Mehrunes Dagon has an odd speech pattern he'd never use again, and so on.
- Complete Immortality:
- Princes can be battered, beaten, defeated and even fundamentally changed, but nothing in the setting has ever been able to actually kill one. This includes Princes that ascended to their position, like Mehrunes Dagon, Malacath, and the new Sheogorath. This immortality of Daedric Princes is implied to be tied to fact that they embody fixed concepts in reality and thus can't be undone. Meaning the only permanent way a Prince can be done away with is to be "replaced" by another being. But at that point, how different the replacement is from the original is very unclear. The new Sheogorath who appears in Skyrim being indistinguishable from the old is an example of this.
- Taken a step further in the Necrom chapter of Online; Hermaeus Mora successfully "destroyed" Ithelia, the Daedric Prince of Paths, by erasing her from the memory of every being in existance except for himself in a Cosmic Retcon (hence why we've never heard of her before), an action that even Mora saw as a Godzilla Threshold. Even then, Ithelia had a contingency plan that may well end up bringing her back.
- Creative Sterility: The main thing that distinguishes the Daedric Princes from the Aedra is that they did not help to create the world, and therefore, they can't actually create anything new in Mundus. They can only change, distort, and copy.
- A Day in the Limelight: Usually their presence revolves around a quest, where you get one of their artifacts. But there are games and DLC's where they get more of a presence. This also often culminates in a visit to their realm. To note:
- Azura has Morrowind, while Hircine gets the Bloodmoon DLC for himself.
- Mehrunes Dagon has Oblivion and Battlespire, and Sheogorath has the Shivering Isles DLC.
- In Skyrim, the entire Thieves' Guild questline is one for Nocturnal, and the Dragonborn DLC is one for Hermaeus Mora.
- Online is this for Molag Bal and Meridia. As for the expansions, Morrowind serves as one for Clavicus Vile and Barbas, Clockwork City for Nocturnal, and Summerset Isles for Mephala and Nocturnal again. Vaermina and Sheogorath also serve as major antagonists in the Stormhaven and Mage's Guild questlines, respectively.
- Blackwood and Deadlands are a major return for Mehrunes Dagon as the primary antagonist.
- After making a few sporadic appearances throughout the base game of Online, Necrom is one for Hermaeus Mora, with him serving as the Big Good maybe. Vaermina also returns as one of the primary antagonists, with Peryite also making a cameo.
- Deal with the Devil: While Clavicus Vile specializes in these, any deal made with a Daedric Prince can be considered a Downplayed version of this. While you may be rewarded quite well for serving the Prince, you will often be required to perform some rather morally questionable (or worse) tasks to obtain the Prince's favor, up to and including outright murder and betrayal. In some cases, a pledge to serve the Prince in life and in death is required, though depending on the Prince and the individual, this may be an upside. Nocturnal appears to be the only exception to this, as she generally lays out the expectations — and consequences — of her deals upfront.
- Demon Lords and Archdevils: Subverted. Many of them reign over concepts traditionally regarded as evil (destruction, rape, betrayal, etc.), but since they are Above Good and Evil, there is virtually no distinction in thinking of them as either gods or demons.
- Demoted to Extra: Related to A Day in the Limelight above, if a Deadric Prince gets more spotlight in a game or a DLC, in the next game they will only show up in their respective quests.
- Devil, but No God: How some in Tamriel view the situation. Most of the Princes are near-universally reviled as "evil", and their worshipers are considered misguided at best and dangerous lunatics at worst. They are, however, very much present in the world. They speak directly to their worshipers, sometimes even appearing in a physical form, and are perfectly willing to offer immediate, tangible rewards for those that choose to do their work. This is in contrast to the Aedra, who prefer a much lighter touch in dealing with mortal affairs.
- Dimension Lord: Each rules over one or more planes of Oblivion, inside of which they possess almost absolute power. In some interpretations, a Prince's Realm is considered an extension of that Prince themselves, as their "body". Furthering the "body" analogy is that while a Prince has absolute power in their realm, it doesn't translate into omniscience within that Realm. The player's invasion of Coldharbour in Online is compared to a virus covertly infecting a body, for example.
- Divine Date:
- Some Daedric Princes (and even lesser Daedra) have copulated with mortals to bear children. These most commonly take the form of Demiprinces. Other examples include Fa-Nuit-Hen, the offspring of Boethiah and a mortal, and Malacath has "blessed" Orc women with children in some of his myths.
- Of particular note is Molag Bal, who is most infamous for having performed the first rape in the history of Mundus (creating the first race of vampires in the process). Additionally, some in-universe texts describe Bal as once having had sweaty gay sex with Vivec, going so far as to describe "the biting of spears" and "the piercing of the second aperture" being involved.
- Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: Generally speaking, any mortals who try to screw with any of the Daedric Princes without the backing of the Aedra or any of the other Daedric Princes themselves tend to end up regretting it. And even those who are protected can still find themselves (or their descendants) on the receiving end of the offended Prince's ire in some form or another. A Prince is immortal, after all, and they have long memories. A Prince has often responded to slights by targeting the families of those that wronged them, as well as towns, cities, and even entire races in the case of Azura and the Chimer being changed into the Dunmer as retaliation for the actions of the Tribunal.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The Princes' designs and characterization are very different in their initial appearance in Daggerfall; Clavicus Vile and Molag Bal's spheres are never mentioned (though Clavicus Vile is said to be a "politician of Oblivion" and Molag Bal is called "the most power-mad of all Daedra"), Malacath is introduced as prince of lies and hypocrisy (he'd later cover Pariahs, Oaths, and Curses), Vaermina is prince of Corruption and Decay (in later appearances she's Nightmares, Fear, and Omens), Sheogorath is a redhead who wears green, Azura is a topless, brown-skinned human with blue hair, Nocturnal's is also associated with mystery and appears with a pair of ravens, Clavicus Vile is bald, Boethiah is also associated with cruelty and torture, etc.
- Eldritch Abomination: The Daedric Princes are alien beyond human understanding, though they can take any form they like, and so will often take a humanoid form to deal with mortals. They operate on Blue-and-Orange Morality above mortal understanding. How they feel about the mortal races varies from Prince to Prince; many enjoy being worshiped, some just enjoy toying with mortals' lives for their own amusement, but all of them have demonstrated a willingness to reward mortals they find particularly helpful, loyal, or amusing.
- Eldritch Location: Their planes of Oblivion. These are spaces within the infinite Oblivion surrounding the mortal realm where the Princes have total reign, and are essentially the "bodies" of these Daedric Princes. They can vary from beautiful places, like Azura's Moonshadow (which is so beautiful that it is said to "half blind" mortals who lay eyes up on it), to miserable Fire and Brimstone Hell places like Mehrunes Dagon's Deadlands. And then there are the places that Cthulhu himself would find cozy, like Hermaeus Mora's Apocrypha.
- Enemy Mine: While most of the Princes famously do not get along with one another, they all came together at some point in the early world to curse Jyggalag into becoming Sheogorath when they feared his growing power.
- Equal-Opportunity Evil: While there are a few exceptions where a particular Daedric Prince seems to favor a specific race (Malacath toward the Orcs or Azura toward the Dunmer, for example) they all accept worship from any mortal race or gender willing to give it to them.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Even by the unconventional moral standards of most Daedric Princes, Molag Bal is considered the lowest of them by all the others.
- Evil Counterpart: Subverted. Though they're usually seen as this to the Divines, most of them actually benefit from having Mundus and mortals exist. In fact, there was no distinction between the Divines and Princes before Mundus.
- Evil Is One Big, Happy Family: Completely averted. Most of the Princes mortals would call "evil" can't stand each other. Molag Bal and Boethiah have a particularly heated rivalry, and the former doesn't get along with Mehrunes Dagon, either. According to Sheogorath, they do sometimes throw parties (at which Malacath and Jyggalag are not popular), though this is the Prince of Madness saying this.
- Fate Worse than Death: The fate of those mortals whose souls end up in the crueler Princes' realms. Mortal souls pledged to one of the Daedric Princes are believed to be claimed by that Prince upon the mortal's death. While many of these souls are voluntary servants, there are instances of souls being taken by the Princes against their will. For example, anyone killed by Mehrunes' Razor may have their soul sent to Dagon's Deadlands realm. Likewise, the souls of lycanthropes are believed to be claimed by Hircine, even if the mortal in question did not choose to become one of these creatures.
- Fisher King: The Daedric Planes are tied to (and may even be) the Daedric Princes themselves. Anything that causes the Princes to change also affects their realm. For example, there are instances in which a Prince is cut from some of their power. In these instances, the Prince's plane will literally shrink. Dramatic changes in the personality of the Prince will also change the realms, such as during the Greymarch when Sheogorath temporarily reverts to become Jyggalag. Furthermore, separating part of a Prince's realm, as what happened with Clavicus Vile and Umbriel, will weaken that Prince, and the separated part will have an entity akin to the Prince it was separated from.
- A Form You Are Comfortable With: The vast majority of the Princes will take more humanoid forms when dealing with mortals, with Hermaeus Mora as the main exception. In all cases, it is speculated that mortals Cannot Grasp Their True Forms, similar to the Alien Sky example of Lorkhan and the Aedra.
- Genius Loci: One interpretation of the Princes is that their home realm or realms are the Princes, with the forms they take when dealing with mortals being the personification of that realm of Oblivion. This is backed up by the events of Online's main quest, where the Vestige and their allies can invade Coldharbour, while Meridia works to keep Molag Bal from becoming aware of this in the same way a disease infiltrates and incubates inside of a living body.
- God of Chaos: Generally perceived as forces of chaos to the order-based Aedra, though Jyggalag is a big exception. Mehrunes Dagon, Sheogorath, and Boethiah are especially considered gods of chaos.
- God Was My Copilot: They are known to take seemingly inconspicuous mortal forms from time to time, to personally guide mortals to ends they desire. Specific examples can be found under the relevant Prince's entry below.
- Hijacking Cthulhu: Like the Aedra, it is possible for this to happen to the Daedric Princes. Unlike the Aedra, who sacrificed much of their divine power during creation, it usually takes another divine entity (like another Daedric Prince) to cause this. Specific examples are found in their entries below.
- Human Sacrifice: Several Daedric Princes enjoy the sacrificing of mortals to them. The Reachmen, for example, have been known to sacrifice children to Namira, and Molag Bal regularly accepts sacrifices of mortals in his name, enslaving their souls to work for him in Coldharbour.
- Iconic Sequel Character: It's pretty easy to forget that, despite being an iconic part of the series, they were first (Boethiah excepted) introduced in Daggerfall, the second game in the franchise. And even then, there was plenty of Early-Installment Weirdness with many of their appearances and personalities.
- I Know Your True Name: All Daedra have both a neonymic and a protonymic. The neonymic is their name that they can change. It holds a certain amount of power, but is hard to use against them because they can change it at any time. However, the protonymic is their true name that they cannot change. It is heavily implied that through use of the protonymic, mortals can do horrible things to even the most powerful of Daedric Princes. The player character in Battlespire managed to banish Mehrunes Dagon by using them both.
- Incredibly Inconvenient Deity: Given their frequent meddling in the mortal world and the generally unsavory effects it has, they can very easily come off this way. The quests they give to their mortal follows are frequently either incredibly arduous or incredibly silly, with the Princes giving flimsy or no justification as to why they want the task accomplished. The tangible rewards they offer of legendary artifacts and greater power can still make these tasks worthwhile, however.
- Jerkass Gods: A large part of the reason that the majority of Princes are considered "evil" throughout Tamriel. Most have no compunction against toying with mortals, right up to ruining their lives, outright killing them, and/or damning their souls to an eternity of service. Even the more benevolent Princes have a major case of Good Is Not Nice, not caring if a few mortals die to accomplish greater things.
- Karma Houdini: Don't expect any of them to ever get proper payback for the atrocities they unleash upon Mundus. As Daedra, they technically can't die, any defeats they suffer will only ever be temporary setbacks at best, and any mortal who incurs a Prince's wrath will have vengeance wreaked upon them eventually.
- Kick the Dog: Due to their Blue-and-Orange Morality, they can do either this or Pet the Dog, and probably don't see much difference between the two. Specific examples can be found in under the entry for the relevant Prince below.
- Legendary Weapon: Most Princes are associated with artifacts (often weapons) of great power, which they will give out as rewards to mortal agents. Many of these artifacts are also empathic, continuing to serve the will of the associated Prince, and will abandon the mortal agent if he becomes too reliant or no longer uses the artifact in a way deemed fit by the Prince.
- Mirroring Factions:
- In most tellings of the story of the creation of Mundus, there was originally no difference between the et'Ada who would go on to become the Aedra and those who would become the Daedra. Other versions of the story instead state that the et'Ada who would become the Aedra rose from the intermingled blood of Anu and Padomay while the et'Ada who would become the Daedra specifically came from the blood of Padomay (the beings who came exclusively from the blood of Anu were called the Magna-ge, but they up and left the world of Mundus soon after it was created). There is still generally no difference made between them in terms of power or ability until after the creation of Mundus.
- Further muddying the whole thing is that at least two of the Princes are beings more in line with Anuic et'Ada (Jyggalag and Peryite), and others were Aedric et'Ada turned into Daedric Princes by other forces: Meridia is a banished Magna-Ge who became a Daedric Prince through reshaping light from Magnus (the Sun) to make her own realm; Mehrunes Dagon was a once-benevolent spirit cursed by Alduin because he meddled in the kalpic cycles; and Malacath is what resulted when the Elven ancestor spirit Trinimac was eaten and excreted back out by Boethiah.
- Mission from God: Given the restrictions on the Princes which limit them from directly influencing mortal affairs on Mundus, they often hand out tasks to mortal agents. Even the most malevolent of the Princes still typically reward these agents with artifacts and abilities of great power.
- Morality Kitchen Sink: Even putting aside the fact that the Daedric Princes are all Eldritch Abominations who follow Blue-and-Orange Morality above all else, they can all vary wildly across the generally agreed-upon "moral spectrum" of both various Tamrielic societies and real-life human societies. It's also worth noting here that in terms of morality, what the people of Tamriel see as "good" more often than not overlaps with "not as actively dangerous as the other Princes".
- The only Daedric Princes generally seen to be "good" among most of Tamriel are Azura and Meridia. Meanwhile, the only Daedric Prince to be universally seen as evil and actively malevolent is Molag Bal.
- The Daedric Princes generally derided and viewed as "inherently malevolent" are Mehrunes Dagon, Vaermina, Mephala (aside from the Dunmer), Boethiah (again, aside from the Dunmer), and Malacath (aside from the Orcs and "Goblin-ken").
- The Daedric Princes still derided and hated/feared (but at least not viewed as always being actively and inherently evil) are Nocturnal, Namira, Sheogorath, Peryite, Sanguine, Hermaeus Mora, Clavicus Vile, Hircine, and Jyggalag.
- Order vs. Chaos: The Daedra generally represent the "Chaos" to the Aedra's "Order". They are Padomaic-aligned as opposed to Anuic-aligned. That said, there are "orderly" Princes who lean toward the Anuic side of things, such as Jyggalag and Peryite, though distinguished by the fact that their versions of order are too static and ordered for the world that the Aedra created.
- Otherworldly and Sexually Ambiguous: Being pure spirits, this applies to all of them, and several of them are known to appear as differing genders at certain times. Others will only present themselves (At least most of the time) as a single gender (Azura and Nocturnal as female, Mehrunes Dagon, Molag Bal[note]Save for Invocation of Azura referring to Molag Bal as a goddess[/note], and Sheogorath as male), and Hermaeus Mora forgoes even trying to resemble anything with a gender (although generally speaks with a male voice).
- Our Gods Are Different: The Daedric Princes are all pre-creation spirits who refused to take part in the creation of Mundus and are manifestations of the primal forces of reality. They are truly immortal, and even if their avatar is slain, their spirit simply returns to their plane of Oblivion to reform.
- Physical God: Whenever a Prince physically manifests as an avatar, they are effectively one of these. They can do this quite readily within their own Realms, but have a vastly harder time doing so on other Princes' Realms (as the Prince whose Realm has been invaded will be rather cross with the intrusion) and it's nearly impossible to do so on Nirn itself due to the presence of the Divines, though if they do manage it, they are virtually invincible beings who require the direct intervention of the Divines to stop. The few cases where a mortal directly contests a Daedric Prince's avatar in open battle requires that they first obtain the power of either a Divine or another Prince to stand toe-to-toe with them, otherwise they'll be crushed out of hand... unless it's Hircine, who just wants a fair fight.
- The Power of Creation:
- They are said to lack this power within Mundus due to refusing to take part in the creation of Mundus and, as a result, can only alter what already exists. The truth is ambiguous at best, with cited examples of Daedric beings involved in creation of all sorts throughout history.
- The definitely have it within their own planes of Oblivion, where they can and do create, change, and alter at will, one exception being Sanguine's Myriad Realms of Revelry, which change to accommodate his visiting worshipers.
- Put on a Bus: More than half their number do not appear in Morrowind: Clavicus Vile, Hermaeus Mora, Jyggalag, Meridia, Namira, Nocturnal, Peryite, Sanguine and Vaermina are all personally absent and do not give the hero a quest, although they are all mentioned (even if only through mentions in books) and several of their artifacts appear. This is because they are not a part of the official Dunmer religion, which consists of the "Anticipations"; Azura, Boethiah and Mephala, and the "House of Troubles"; Malacath, Mehrunes Dagon, Molag Bal and Sheogorath. Hircine is absent in the base game but appears as the Big Bad of the Bloodmoon expansion.
- Religion of Evil: Daedric worship is often hit with this in-universe, though given that most of the Daedric Princes are Jerkass Gods, this is pretty understandable. Boethiah, Mehrunes Dagon, and Molag Bal, being the most malevolent of the Princes, invoke this more than most, as their worship frequently involves Human Sacrifice. Taken to a new extreme following the events of the Oblivion Crisis, where worship of certain Princes such as Mehrunes Dagon and Molag Bal was outright banned, and groups like the Vigilants of Stendarr were formed to wipe out Daedric worshipers before they could cause another Oblivion Crisis like the Mythic Dawn. Crosses over with Scary Amoral Religion for some of the less outright malevolent Princes.
- Scary Amoral Religion: Not all Daedric Princes require evil acts as part of their worship, but you're still revering beings of Blue-and-Orange Morality who seek to propagate their own spheres above all else. You're being a good servant of Hermaeus Mora if you make a new discovery or unearth lost knowledge, no matter how you got it. Sanguine doesn't approve of sadism, but he also encourages his followers to do what they want regardless of others. Hircine will only complain about hunts if they're too one-sided, and so on.
- Sealed Evil in Another World: While virtually omnipotent within their own domains, barriers were put in place by the Aedra to keep the Princes out of the mortal realm.
- She Is the King: Even the female-identifying Daedra are still referred to as "Princes", though historically the term "prince" could be applied to rulers, regardless of sexContext.
- Time Abyss: Like the Aedra, they were pre-creation spirits who have existed since before time itself.
- Time Dissonance: They have odd perceptions of time, with it being said that they sometimes have difficulty telling "when from when". Likewise, time seems to flow strangely in their realms of Oblivion. Mortals trapped within don't seem to age a day despite years or even centuries passing on Mundus.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: They are not bound to any one physical form and can manifest in whatever form they wish.
- Weaker in the Real World: Because the Daedric Princes did not participate in the creation of Mundus, they have been left with their full divine powers intact, but are subject to metaphysical barriers which prevent them from manifesting at full power in the mortal world outside of some very specific circumstances. As such, the Princes prefer to work through mortal agents to accomplish their goals within Mundus.
- Worf Had the Flu: In the rare cases where a mortal directly contends with a Daedric Prince, said Prince is either weakened (such as manifesting on Mundus where metaphysical laws typically weaken their power), is Willfully Weak, or said mortal has been empowered by one of the Divines or another Prince.
- You Cannot Kill An Idea: Interestingly, they can collectively be considered a somewhat literal version of this. A Daedric Prince is a Anthropomorphic Personification of a common concept, and this also effectively makes them immortal. Even if you somehow manage to damage a Daedric Prince, or otherwise defeat them in combat, they can ultimately not be killed (at least not in any kind of conventional sense), since the concept they are based on will still continue to exist regardless. The best result a mortal can hope for at any rate for is to temporarily banish the targeted Prince from Mundus while they recover. It has, however, proven at least somewhat possible to radically change their personality or being by altering or even perverting the concept they are connected to, though this usually requires the direct intervention of another Daedric Prince or even one of the Divines, and it is essentially impossible for a mortal to do this alone.
