History Morrowind / TropesAToC

* CessationOfExistence: This is one theory about [[RiddleForTheAges what happened]] to the [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame Dwemer]]. They may have tried, through the power of the [[CosmicKeystone Heart of Lorkhan]], to break themselves down into their base elements and then reforge themselves into new [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence ascended]] beings. The theory goes that they got the [[GoneHorriblyWrong reforging process wrong]] and caused themselves to blink out of existence. If asked, the [[PhysicalGod Tribunal deity]] Vivec states that he cannot sense them on any known plane of existence. (Though at least one Dwemer is known to have survived by being in an "outer realm" when the calamity occurred.) Adding further ambiguity, the existence of Dwarven Specters suggest that at least some of the Dwemer have come back as ghosts. A prominent theory in the ''Elder Scrolls'' lore community suggests that these are the ghosts of Dwemer who died ''before'' the cataclysm that caused their race to vanish.

* CentralTheme: The game's overarching plot and lore explores the concept of divinity, particularly the questions of what makes a god, what comes with being one (religion, in particular), and how far mortals would go to achieve godhood. The entire island of Vvardenfell is so steeped in the Tribunal lore that you will find riffs on this theme pretty much everywhere you go.

** Every time the dwarves' artificial God-golem has been activated since the event, linear time has broken down in a "Dragon Break" and multiple mutually conflicting events have occurred. This might explain some of the stranger discrepancies in stories of what happened that day.]Some fans theorize that there may not even be a single correct answer to what happened to the dwarves. It's possible they disappeared in more than one, mutually contradictory ways.

** "The dreamer is awake," in reference to the reawakening of BigBad PhysicalGod, Dagoth Ur, a villainous KingInTheMountain. It's also a reference to one of the more esoteric aspects of the world, the fact that the entire ''Elder Scrolls'' universe is the “dream” (for a lack of a better word) of [[spoiler: an insane “godhead”]]. Dagoth Ur intends to spread himself into every corner of the dream, [[EldritchABomination turning the entire universe into nothing but him]], thereby “waking up” the dreamer.

* BonusBoss: The AnyoneCanDie nature of the games means you could naturally fight and kill anyone you wish. But a couple of special mentions:
** [[spoiler: Vivec]]. You are by no means required to fight him, and doing so before completing the main quest will make the normal method of beating the game impossible, but if you choose to do so, you'll have quite the fight on your hands. Bonus irony points if you [[spoiler: soul trap him in Azura's Star. This is actually recommended, since he has the second most powerful soul for enchanting in the game, after only Almalexia.]]
** The Ash Vampires. You are only required to fight one in order to get an item [[spoiler: (Sunder)]] off of him, but there are 6 others you can hunt down and kill. Killing them is supposed to weaken Dagoth Ur in the final confrontation, but due to a scripting glitch, this does not happen. Still, they each possess unique enchanted items that are {{permanently missable|Content}} if you don't fight them, and you should kill them if you're going for HundredPercentCompletion.

* ArmlessBiped: Alit and Kagouti, two of Morrowind's natural predators, both fit.

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: House Telvanni allows you to kill your way to the top if you desire, due to their near-total lack of rules. In particular, during your quest to become Telvanni Hortator, you can kill all the councilors (except one, whom you must keep around to officially name you Hortator and progress the quest) in lieu of winning their support. The one you must keep alive, wisely, gives you his vote with no strings attached. (If you're a member of the House, you can even kill him and declare ''yourself'' Hortator as the highest ranking Telvanni left alive.) It helps that one of their guiding principles is MightMakesRight (every House in the game has an 'in' that explains how you can rise so high despite being an outlander. The Telvanni's is the fact that they think might makes right, and you are very mighty indeed).

* AnAxeToGrind:
** Axes are one of the available weapon types in the game, including both one-handed "war axes" and two-handed "battle-axes". Naturally, [[HornyVikings Nords]] (+10) and [[OurOrcsAreDifferent Orcs]] (+5) both get racial bonuses to the Axe skill.
** Also notable is that the single most damaging (per strike) weapon the in game is a Daedric Battle Axe with a custom Damage Health on Strike enchantment, enchanted with [[spoiler:Almalexia's]] soul for the max number of blows before it runs out.

** Interestingly, the [[MurderInc Morag Tong]] ''inverts'' this trope. "Challenging the chief" is, per their rules, the standard way to become the leader. However, the current leader is perfectly fine stepping aside when it's time for you to take the reigns.

'''Note:''' ''Elder Scrolls'' lore is generally not clear-cut. Reasons for this range from [[UnreliableNarrator biased]] in-universe sources intentionally only giving you only one side of a story, to sources [[CriticalResearchFailure lacking critical information]] or working from [[BlatantLies false information]], to the implication that AllMythsAreTrue, despite the contradictions, or that at least all myths are MetaphoricallyTrue. [[WordOfGod Out-of-game developer supplemental texts]] (frequently referred to as "Obscure Texts" by the lore community) are more trustworthy, but are frequently left [[LooseCanon 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 [[TimeCrash alter the timeline]], both may ''literally'' be true in-universe.)

* CrackFic: ''Machinima/ReynaldoTheAssassin'' is a {{Machinima}} based on ''Morrowind'' in the loosest way possible.

* BareFistedMonk: The Unarmed fighting skill makes this an option for the player. Unarmed strikes damage an enemies fatigue instead of health until their fatigue reaches zero. "Monk" itself is a pre-made class which Unarmed and [[SimpleStaff Blunt Weapon]] as the primary offensive skills.

* AnnoyingArrows: Downplayed. Enemy ranged attackers, be they archers or users of thrown weapons, are typically only dangerous to the player in the early stages of the game as their attacks are particularly likely to "knock down" low Agility starting characters. Once you've gained some levels, it becomes easy to dodge enemy archers due to their PainfullySlowProjectiles and those that do hit you deal ScratchDamage at best since the vast majority of them use weak bows and arrows. Further, there is a chance for the projectiles to show up in the inventory of those hit, implying they are pulled out in CatchAndReturn fashion.