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.