Category Archives: TES Lore

TES Lore, TES: Skyrim

Dwemeris Translation Part Something!

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So after like, a million years, or just one, I’m getting back into fully figuring out what the Dwemeris means in the only translated passage we find in game.

th thuangz ahrk, th duum melz thuabtharng, th kanthaln duabcharn mzin thuastur,

ye sou liebali racurane, ye nu rautane sye, ye nu hautalle nou buroi

and your LIE-stones RACURANE, and you RAUTANE SYE, and you shall become our slaves,

Again, “th” appears where “and” is, and “thua” and again with the translation being “and your.” What in particular “ngz” means is unclear, but if the tradition is to combine “thua” with an object, “liebali” may be the translation for “ngz.” And actually, I think it may be “angz,” with a dropped vowel because it may not be needed with no meaning lost. Now, what if “liebali” meant “doom stone?” Clearly, “racu” is the same as in Ayleid which means “down” and I’m willing to bet that “racurane” is the Falmer version of “racuvar” in the past-tense.

“and your doom stones were cast down,”

Interestingly, “arhk” appears as it’s own word instead of a prefix and does not seem to mean”driven.” It could be a case for “arhk” to mean “your,” if it wasn’t for “thua” appearing in the next section of the sentence without “arhk,” and thua being in “thuastur” at the end.

Interestingly, “dua” shows again when “our” appears in the translation. Assuming that it is functioning a prefix possessive of the word to which it is attached, I can only assume (and hope) that bcharn is “slaves.” So “duabcharn” would literally mean “our slaves.” and that gives us some interesting grammar to work with as “thua” appears at the end of this section of the sentence prefixed to “stur.” That could mean “thuastur” = “you shall.”

Now this is sort of reminding me of the way Yoda speaks. “Through the Force, other things you will see.”

I’m beginning to think, at this point, that thua and dua both definitely are used as prefixes to nouns to mean a possessive.

btharumz thua mer zel.

GUNE your people’s GRAVULOI.

gune sou gravuloi

There’s not much here that we can do here, except GRAVULOI seems a little bit like an imperative version of a verb, If we take the Ayleid imperative suffix of “voy” and extrapolate that. Since we don’t have any actual Aldmeri to compare it with, Ayleid is the closest meric language that we have any sort of basis with.

Interestingly, “zel” may be the same word that appears in “Nchuand-Zel” and “Kagrenzel.” “Tel” in Dunmeri means “Tower.” “Fell” is a similar word meaning “City” that also appears in Dwemeris and may have a similar connection.

Also, “Gravia” in Ayleid means “ugly,” so I’m wondering if this sentence is giving an imperative to become “ugly” or a similar vein. Still, that doesn’t make much  sense at all. Then, there are also instances of “-voy” in this passage, and while many languages in real life have different forms of imperative, I think this may possibly be a different form of modifier or just an entirely different noun/verb.

I find it interesting that “thua” and “mer” appears in the Dwemeri version, but only “sou” in the Falmeri.

Dwemer: Abakch duumarkng tuathumz amakai, th abakch avatheled kagr tuamkingth mzan.

Falmer: sa metane sye garlis frey, as gondra doemera tarcel lane sou agea silya.

Translation: METANE SYE GARLIS FREY, by GONDRA DOEMERA TARCEL LANE your wisdom SILYA.

This sentence has less translation than any, but one thing is clear, “your wisdom.” Considering that “tua” is prefixed to “mkingth,” I’m willing to believe that “mkingth,” at least as a compound particle, means “wisdom.” Although, I’m wondering if this passage wasn’t at least partially misspelled or mistranslated, because I see “tua” appear twice, but only one version of it is translated. “Tye” in Ayleid means “you” so I’m conjecturing that “SYE” is the Falmer version and “tua” is the same. Now, in Ayleid, “TYE” may be the object form of “you.” I’m not too sure of this as “SYE” appears above and not in the same context, and doesn’t seem likely.

So that would make the translation “METANE you GARLIS FREY.” “Garlas” in Ayleid is the closest to “Garlis,” however that means “cavern” and I’m not so sure that’s what they mean.

Again, “Th” appears, but this time the translation appears to be “by.” This shows another similarity between Dwemeri and Ayleid in that one particle has several different meanings. If the Dwemer were interested in efficiency in their language, it’s quite possible that one particle started to take on several different meanings separately, as well, the meaning being clear in the context. (This is somewhat how Japanese works.)

I’m positive I’ve seen the term “doemera” before though, and preeeetty sure that the “mer” refers to “mer” as in “people.” If “doe” is another version of “dua” that might make “doemera” “our people.” However, the Dwemer version doesn’t show any hint that this may be the case.

Silya may be a version of “Sila” in Ayleid, meaning “shines” or “to shine.” If it is a past tense, it could mean “shone.” “your wisdom shines.” Sort of makes sense…

 Du chal fahlngark, che du fahl bthun ur.

nu hecta sou arcten, rias nu nemalanta ge.

You HECTA your ARCTEN, RIAS you NEMALANTA GE.

Now this is interesting. “Du” appears where “you” does, possibly indicating another state of “you.” “Thua/tua” seems to be predominantly a prefix, so this may be the non-possessive, second-person pronoun. It’s also similar to the Falmer/Ayleid “nu/ni” and one of the similarities Dwemeri still has with its cousins. “Duu” also appears aproximately where “SYE” does in the previous section.

Che is likewise interesting, appearing in the Dwemer script, as it is a Valenwood-Ayleid variant of “mer.”

ARCTEN could be a version of “Arcta” as in “Acknowledge” and may be more akin to “acknowledgement.” It likewise may be a version of “Arpen” which means “noble”

Looking over similar words to “rias,” I can’t wrap my head around anything but “ry” as the cousin to this. A thin limb, indeed, but if “rias” means “ry” and in English equals “as,” that would make it “You remember your acknowledgement, as you- SOMETHING.”

Breaking NEMALANTA down, it could be ne mala-nta, which is roughly equal to “never high” with some sort of modifier. It could be a compound of “mala”/”high” and “anda”/”long.”

I’m… sort of getting the impression it means “You remember your acknowledgements, and never rise again” or something along those lines.

 

Whew! That was a lot of work, but it’s been fun and interesting digging into made up languages like this. Someday, I really hope Bethesda fills out the languages of Tamriel and publishes a book or something on it. As of right now I do not know the existence of such a book, though I am aware of the places where you can learn the dragon language, which is kind of cool. There really should be something on the elven languages, though. The Elder Scrolls could be really great if Bethesda opened up the world like, say, Dungeons and Dragons did.

Games, TES Lore

The Races of Daedra; Deaths, Rebirths, and Love?

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Today’s topic is the Daedra. Not the monsters like the Clannfear or the Scamp, but the humanoid daedra like Dremora, Mazken and Aureals. There’s other daedric races out there, but few that we’ve seen so much of in the series. Therefore, races like the Aurorans, Spider Daedra and Winged Twilights are out of the scope of this post.

In Tamrielic lore, little is actually known about these  races and not much on the way their daily lives operate. We do known the Dremora call themselves the “Kyn” and have a strong hierarchical structure, as well have several clans. In addition, not all dremora clans appear to be in service to Mehrunes Dagon, or rather I should say individual dremora whose presence implies that there may be clans that operate outside of the Deadlands and in service to other Princes. Skyrim and Dragonborn strongly suggests there is some in service to Hermaeus Mora and Sanguine, for instance. In fact, Sanguine’s artifact, the Sanguine Rose, summons a dremora fighter.

From what I remember of Shivering Isles, and I admit, it’s been a while… The Mazken and Aureals of the Shivering Isles seem to have a similar structure to the Dremora as far as hierarchy goes, but we get more personal with them and as a result, it’s not quite as obvious. They are not enemies with varying levels of difficulty as evidenced in the generic names, like the majority of the Dremora we see in Oblivion.

Both races are female-oriented as opposed to the Dremora male oriented focus, though males of both species are more evident than dremora females, there being only one dremora female encountered in the entire series. The males of both Mazkens and Aureals are considered inferior to the females, even by the males themselves. Last time I played Shivering Isles, I seem to remember at least one male commenting somewhat unhappily about that. The similarities suggest that the Mazken and Aureals could be considered in the same “family” as each other, though they view each other with suspicion and more than a little rivalry.

The differences between the two races are in their physical forms and attitudes. The description from Shivering Isles of the Mazken implied they were more amiable to the mortal races, either being more drawn to them, or more tolerate and understanding of them, while the Aureals were more arrogant and looked down on mortals as a superior race.

Now, keep these things in mind, because I’m going to get into theories about their reproductive capability. This might be “who cares” to more casual players, but it’s somewhat important to people interested in the lore of the series, and the birth of certain individuals in the wider universe has been in debate in the fandom.

Recently, as in the past few months, I was going through some lore discussion forums and I noticed someone made a comment in response to someone else that the daedra absolutely do not reproduce and absolutely do not have gender and only appear as what they wish.

Poppycock.

This may be true of the Daedric Princes, and I’m not even sure about that, but this doesn’t appear true for the male Mazken and Aureals. If they could take any form they wished, why even have males of the species, unless it was out of some honor-bound sense of duty? It may be true of the Dremora, since we see only one female, and that might even have been an inadvertent error on part of the game devs, but then we need to think about Velehk Sain and the book about him, where one verse could be interpreted as that Velehk Sain was a murderous, rapacious pirate.

And as for the Princes, sure, they can take their own forms, but again, that style of thinking is completely disregarding the Tamrielic legend of the first Vampire who had been a Nedic Virgin and was raped by Molag Bal. Serana from Dawnguard won’t even speak of her initiation into Vampirehood and becoming a Daughter of Coldharbour other than it was “degrading.”

While there certainly are neuter species of daedra out there, at least these three daedric races appear to function more like mortals do. I mean, what reason do Velehk Sain and the Dremora Merchant have for acquiring wealth? Sure, you may argue that it’s out of boredom from an unimaginably old lifespan, but at Velehk Sain seemed attached to his treasure, and the Merchant seemed more interested in haggling. During the main quest line of Shivering Isles, the Mazken and Aureals are even able to die like mortals as their physical respawning thingamajigs were taken over by the forces of Order, preventing them from being recreated.

In Tamrielic lore, there’s a book called Racial Phylogeny or Notes on Racial Phylogeny depending on which game you are playing. The entire thing is about the reproductive compatibility of the different races, and specifically mentions daedra. The book offers no proof one way or the other that they are able to reproduce, but does imply that there have been stories of mortal races and daedra couples. This, combined with the fact that there are actual genders among the races of daedra suggests that they may, in fact, be capable of it. Dremora tend to be male, with only one known example of a female dremora appearing in Oblivion. The Mazken or Seducers and Aureals or Golden Saints tend toward the female side, with males appearing rarely and implied to be inferior to the females (what a refreshing change.) Now, while they don’t need to because they are able, through Oblivion’s power itself or through the Princes they serve, to be recreated or reborn or however you wish to put it, that does not necessarily follow they are incapable of it, just like they are aren’t necessarily incapable of dying.

Even more interesting evidence rests in Batltespire, where part of the story is that Mehrunes Dagon himself took a Dark Seducer as a lover. As a lover. Who then in turn betrayed him and was killed, et ctr et ctr. But it is quite interesting that there are examples of liaisons amongst the daedra themselves.

There is more than enough wiggle room here for this to be possible, but as it stands there is just not enough evidence to claim one way or the other that they can’t function. There is evidence, however, that they can die under certain circumstances and do have souls, and that’s enough for me that they can do the rest.

Games, TES Lore

Lovecraft and the Elder Scrolls: The Gods of Tamriel

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Lovecraft and all the stories that came after his death has had a profound effect on modern pop and non-pop culture. You can’t swing your arm without hitting something that has been influenced by Lovecraft at least on some level. But let’s be honest here, I was really surprised the other day (well, a few weeks ago) when I stumbled on a forum post (link and names withheld for privacy’s sake) where someone mentioned that Hermaeus Mora in Dragonborn seemed very influenced by Lovecraft. I think my jaw hit the ground right around that point in an “Are you flipping kidding me?!”

For a series called The Elder Scrolls.

The. Elder. Scrolls. Uh, right.

Fact is, the entire damn series screams out to be considered an extension of the greater Lovecraftian works based in, if not another universe, then at least another part of the same universe. We have no idea what the “Outer Realms” in Tamriel mean, after all.

Now, from anyone who has actually read Lovecraft, this might be “Yeah, big deal. I see it too/agree blah blah blah.” Actually, I have never read Lovecraft and I don’t think I’d be a big fan if I did, but I have read up on it. I find the concepts behind the stories fascinating, but also rather frightening. I’ve mostly pursued TV Tropes in the middle of research for my own stories, just so I could get the general gist of what people were talking about when they mentioned Eldritch Abominations. If I, a complete layman save for meta-info and definitions, when it comes to anything Lovecraft, can see all of the connections in TES, there’s got to be something to it. Let’s explore.

Before I really start here, let’s define a few terms.

Lovecraft/Lovecraftian: I use this term to encompass the entire works spawned by H. P. Lovecraft’s original mythos.

Derleth Mythos: specific to works that came after Lovecraft’s death, notably August Derleth’s stories.

Tamrielic Lore: the mythos spawned by The Elder Scrolls video game series and now includes a variety of works. Not the in-game book of that name.

The Gods of Tamriel

There have been attempts at categorizing this fictional group of beings, and Phillip A. Schreffler argues that by carefully scrutinizing Lovecraft’s writings a workable framework emerges that outlines the entire “pantheon” – from the unreachable “Outer Ones” (e.g. Azathoth, who apparently occupies the centre of the universe) and “Great Old Ones” (e.g. Cthulhu, imprisoned on Earth in the sunken city of R’lyeh) to the lesser castes (the lowly slave shoggoths and the Mi-go).
— Wikipedia

Let’s talk about the Aedra for a moment. Unreachable, unknowable, unable to actually walk the world of Tamriel. Sleepers of supposedly benevolent disposition and divine power who went into retirement after creating the world. It sounds a lot like the Elder Gods in the latter Derleth mythos, who act as opposing and balancing force to the Great Old Ones of the same era, considered to be the “Good” forces in the universe and rarely, if ever, stir to interfere in the struggles between men and the Great Old ones.

The Aedra in Tamrielic lore are considered “ancestor spirits” by the mer and “creators” by the humans. The legends have it that the Aedra gave up parts of their essence to form the “Earthbones” of Nirn, and can actually be killed as a consequence of creation. They are unable to actively interfere in Nirn or do more than bless those mortals who follow and worship them. They are very susceptible to the mortal perception of them and have even been changed due to it.

Interestingly, another book you can find in-game tells a different story of the Creation myth of Nirn as Anu and Padomay creating Nir, and Nir preferring Anu, created many different worlds with him, and in jealousy, Padomay destroying Nir (Creation), leading Anu to fight with his brother Padomay and then attempt to salvage Creation by merging all the different worlds into one. Supposedly, the blood from that battle became the Spirits, both Aedric due to the mixing of Anu and Padomay’s blood, and Daedric, who sprung only from Padomay’s.

What is compelling to me is that there are actually planets in Mundus named the same as the eight Aedra. While the mortals living on Nirn, particularly the Dwemer, who advanced the science of astronomy considerably, could have named them thus, it poses an interesting theory of what if it was meant literally, and all the Creation myths are true? That the Aedric spirits in physical form were other planets, and literally gave up parts of themselves to form the planet Nirn. The reference to the Aedra being from a mix of Anu and Padomay’s blood could be a reference to Nir herself, possibly being made from both Anu and Padomay. Of course, the Creation myths in The Elder Scrolls are extremely confusing, but I could see this. In a world where you are granted blessings from constellations where stars are supposedly created by lesser spirits breaking from Mundus into Atherius, why not get blessings from planet-divines? Other evidence supports this, if you read through the lore on the UESP wiki, and some in-game books make allusions that this is technically the case, but then again, there’s about a dozen different creation myths in Tamrielic Lore.

Personally, I think they’re all true. Even the ones that are not. Especially the ones that are not.

Anyway, digressing is getting off track, and I hadn’t meant to start out on my own theories, but there is plenty of evidence so far to support the connection to Lovecraftian lore with just the Aedra. Aetherius, the plane in which the Aedra dwell after the creation of Nirn, also has a connection to Lovecraftian lore where some authors, wishing to apply elemental connections, coined the term aethyr to distinguish from mundane every day elements. It’s not that strong of a connection, and Aether is more likely to be the contributing factor here, but still, thought I should mention it.

Stay tuned for Part 2.

Maybe one of these days I’ll write up a series on all my lore theories.
Games, TES Lore

Lovecraft and the Elder Scrolls: The Daedric Princes

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 The Daedra, Daemons or Oblivion-spawned

As Lovecraft conceived the deities or forces of his mythos, there were, initially, the Elder Gods… [T]hese Elder Gods were benign deities, representing the forces of good, and existed peacefully…very rarely stirring forth to intervene in the unceasing struggle between the powers of evil and the races of Earth. These powers of evil were variously known as the Great Old Ones or the Ancient Ones…
—August Derleth, “The Cthulhu Mythos”

The Daedric Princes; powerful gods or abominations, depending on the local view in Tamriel. Each has a separate sphere of influence, and whose interference in the affairs of mortal men almost always leads to mortals suffering for it. TES Lore and meta-lore refer to the Daedric Princes with that definition. What people who are not familiar with Lovecraft’s work, that is also the definition of the Great Old Ones in Lovecraftian mythos, originally started by Derleth.

There are many parallels between the Daedra and the beings depicted in Lovecraft, from the ancient, unreachable tentacle monsters so terrible that even a vague concept of them drives men mad. Azathoth in particular is viewed this way in several of the stories put out in the original Lovecraftian lore, being the unreachable one at the center of the universe whose name instills a feeling of dread in mortal men. Hermaeus Mora, the Daedric Prince of Knowledge and Fate, is often depicted much like Azathoth. In Dragonborn, and you’re going to be seeing some spoilers here if you don’t stop reading right now,

 

you see the affect that the Black Books of Hermaeus Mora have on mortals unable to understand or not powerful enough to withstand the onslaught of the “slimy black finger’s secrets.”

In another way, you could classify the Daedric Princes as eldritch abominations, unknowable and incomprehensible to mortals. They certainly have a complete disregard for the natural laws of Tamriel’s universe. They are often introduced in the games with unexpected twists to their story, particularly the more interesting ones like Sheogorath, whose back story lead to the entire storyline of The Shivering Isles expansion for Oblivion, and in which he enlists a mortal to take his place as the MadGod. I suppose, looking back at the creation myths documented in Tamriel itself, you could argue that because of the Daedra’s refusal to participate in creation, they exist outside the natural laws of Mundus as well.

The Daedra also have a sort of fascination for the mortals, though exactly why is up for debate, but they thoroughly enjoy meddling in Tamriel. Some are more diabolical than others, and some, like Azura, even actually seem concerned for those who worship them. The story of Morrowind is a good example for this, starting with the discovery of Lorkhan’s heart and the subsequent abuse of it by the Dwemer and the Tribunal. Azura was ultimately responsible for predicting the return of Nerevar, who was a favored of Azura, and setting in motion the events that led to the correction of the abominations of Dagoth Ur and the Tribunal. And also as an side effect, probably led to the destruction of most of Vvardenfel when Baor Dau was released from Vivec’s influence and finished its descent, causing the eruptions when it smashed into the face of the planet with all the power it had before Vivec stopped it. As a result, the Dunmer people suffered, even when the meddling was meant to be beneficial. As a last point, not many mortals on Tamriel know much about the Aedra, the sleeping “Elder Gods,” yet know quite a bit of the Daedra, or at least have more access to knowledge of the Daedra, which also seems to parallel Lovecraft.

This has been rather shorter than I expected, but the parallels are so blatant here.

For cripessake, Mehrunes Dagon and Dagon the Lovecraftian God share a name.

Games, TES Lore

Dwemeris Translation: And I Thought Japanese Was Hard

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Starting from where I left off, we now head into the sticky situation of the second sentence.

If you need to refer back to the previous post, click here.

Dwemer: Amz thuamer ahrkanch kemelmzulchond aka Mora,

Falmer: ilpen av sou meldi nagaiale as guntumnia spantelepelaelia arani morae

Translation: ILPEN of yours driven NAGAIALE by GUNTUMNIA SPANTELEPELAELIA kings of the wood,

 

There is no translation as of yet for “ilpen” and likely we won’t discover what “Amz” means, although, if we think about it a bit, it may mean “many” if we take into account the rest of the translation. As I have no other ideas at this time,

Supposition: “amz” = “ilpen” = “many”

“Mer” of course, means people in most Elven languages and all chances are that it means the same in Dwemeri, though may have evolved to extend to a broader sense, or a more general sense.

“thuamer arkngd” and “thuamer ahrkanch” both appear where “your” and “driven” appears. I’m fairly sure at this point that “thuamer” and “thua” means “you” and “your” and the second words with “ark” and “ahrk” are both compound words and the “ark/ahrk” prefix refers to “driven” with either modifiers or merged with another word to form a compound. “arkngd” may mean “driven forcefully/exiled” and “ahrkanch” may mean “driven by death” or “death driven” if we take a look at the root of the next word, but I think that in this case, “ahrkanch” and “arkngd” are different forms, possibly of the tenses, of the same word, and both loosely translates into “exiled/driven.”

If we look at the previous sentence, where “meldi calne” appears, it’s a bit similar to “meldi nagaiale” in that “meldi” appears before both words and appears to modify them. Both words have an “e” at the end and may be a possessive, or past tense modifier.

“Naga” in Ayleid means “death” so “nagaiale” I suspect has a root meaning of “death” with a modifier attached. “Nagaia” is a word in Ayleid that means deathly, but the chances that it means the exact same in Falmer is a little vague. Assuming that “Naga” is the Aldmeri root word,-ia may be a plural of it, or a past tense. “Nagaia” itself could be the Falmer word for “death.” “Nagaiale” could also be a proper name in the possessive. I. E., Nagaial.  “IA” is often used as a past tense of a verb in Ayleid. Without more knowledge of the grammar of Falmeri, it’s difficult to say.

Since “Naga” and “Nagaia” both mean “death/deathly” it’s a good guess that it’s to do with death of some form, but as the grammar and language is not the exactly the same it’s good to keep an open mind to the other possibilities. Anyway, trying to look for the possible word in Dwemeri is proving a little more difficult. If Dwemer is based on the tendency to have more compound words than its cousins, which love compound words in the first place, the “anch” part of “ahrkanch” may refer to “death.” Heck, “nagaiale” may be part of the larger “kemelmzulchond” word, but without determining the meaning of “SPANTELEPELAELIA” this section may be impossible to pick apart.

Wow, this is confusing. ANYWAY. Let’s assume that “Nagaia” is “Deaths” and that “nagaiale” is “deaths” in past tense.

“Mora” and “Morae” is fairly obvious, being from the same root in Aldmer, and refer to “wood.”

SPANTELEPELAELIA is obviously a compound word. “Haelia” which means “terrible” in Ayleid, shares a similarity with end of the word “AELIA.” At the very least, these two words seem like some sort of descriptor of “Wood Kings.”

“Arani morae” does translate into “Kings of Wood” but I’m wondering who or what they are referring to.

Taking the history into account, when the Nords attempted to extinguish the Falmer, it could be referring to the scattered groups of disenfranchised elves who fled after the defeat of the Snow Prince- or, more likely, it may be an allusion to the Nords, though thinking back to snow-bound Saarthal, despite the implication that Skyrim and Atmora had at one point been warmer than it is now, doesn’t completely make sense. Who could be “kings of the wood,” if not the Nords though? The Dwemer certainly are not, but what if it referred to the Ayleids themselves? It may make a bit of sense if the Falmer sought shelter with the Ayleids first and were denied.

“Aka Mora” in Dwemeri has a high chance of meaning “Wood Kings” as well, but interestingly in the greater Elhnofex languages “aka” could also refer to the same root as “Aka”tosh. The root “aka” is said to mean Dragon, but the possibility exists that it also means “king” as Akatosh is considered the King of the Gods and the other form of Akatosh is Auri-El, the God-king of the Aldmer and their descendents.

Dwemer is definitely a more compact language compared to its cousins, if kemelmulzchond = guntumnia spantelepelaelia. I’m thinking that “spantelepelaelia” is actually two words, however, broken up to “spantele” and”pelaelia.” Which would seem to make sense, as “spania” is a word albeit an unknown one in Aylied, and “pelaelia” may be a Falmer variant of Ayleid’s “pellani” which means “outsiders.” And that sort of makes sense, if it reads-

…wait a second.

Wasn’t it about the same time that Nordic humans were migrating from Atmora? That would definitely explain it and fit. “Foreign Kings of the Wood.” Atmora had grown cold, the Atmorans were emigrating to Tamriel to become the Nords, where they built Saarthal, and the Falmer sacked Saarthal because of the Eye of Magnus, which sparked a war that lead to the eventual downfall of the Falmer leaders at Solstheim. The Falmer and the Dwemer had been living in Skyrim and Morrowind (though not so much the Falmer in Morrowind) for ages before the Atmorans-who-became-Nords came. Their view would be that the Atmorans were outsiders, foreign to the continent. Pelaelia may even mean “invading.”

Supposition: “spantele” = form of “spania”

Supposition: “pelaelia” = “pellani” = “foreign/outsiders”

Supposition: “aka” = “arani” = “kings”

This still leaves us with a large part of the Dwemer untranslated simply because the Falmer can’t be all translated, either. This is extremely frustrating especially since these words do not appear in other places.