The Corruption of Time


He was the lord of time, and chief of the Nine Divines. The Imperial Cult claimed he was the ‘protector of the Tamrielic Empire’, how he would always safeguard their society. He was Akatosh, the Dragon god of time.

It was a fool-hearty mortal concept; that the gods they worshipped would always protect them in their hour of need. The Tribunal Temple placed their faith in their ‘Tribunal’; Vivec, Almalexia, and Sotha Sil. Although, in truth, they were mortal-gods who lost their power when the heart of Lorkhan was destroyed by the Nerevarine.

And then? Almalexia turned on her fellow allies, killed Sotha Sil then eventually killed by the reincarnate of Nerevar. Vivec disappeared, along with his holy city in a blaze of destruction. In less than four mortal life spans, the Tribunal Temple lost their gods and the Nerevar disappeared in Morrowind’s greatest hour.

It was absorbed by the now independent Kingdom of Argonia, with it’s own gods, faiths, and power structure. Time dictated that all that remained of Morrowind’s kingdom was to relocate on the island of Solsthetim. Now only the House of Redoran remained to guide the people of Dunmer, along the pro-Nerevar faction of the Tribunal Temple with other small pieces of factions.


The Imperial Cult fell in a similar way to the Tribunal Temple; as the Imperial city was ransacked with civil war after the fall of the Imperial dominance within the region. Some mortals wanted a strict, authoritarian Imperial regime and others wanted all to remain independent of each other. Yet the new regimes they thought up would be ‘connected through unity’ since they were all republics of Tamriel.

Both sides failed, in a complete state of irony. Though the Imperial Cult took both sides, an opportunistic move on its part to consolidate power if either won. Sadly, for its’ administration, neither won. With this, what was left of the Elder Council decreed that the Imperial cult was to be abolished.

The Imperial primate, Augustus Ultimatum, had refused to abolish the religion of the now broken up Empire. He had boasted; “We will never let down our hopes with the Nine Divines! Talos Septim and Akatosh shall guide us through these troubled times, into a glory that we can not even comprehend currently. This is the power of the Divines!”.

What did he have a grand dark emotion directed at the mortal words? The hatred lied in the mortal’s arrogance to say that the Divines would help him without any hesitation or motive. That we, that he, was the main force behind the Empire’s soon return to ‘glory’. His ignorance and self-dependence on the god’s he so dearly needed brought about his and the cult’s doom.

The golden dragon let out a hefty sigh of anguish, watching as the Daedra did their deeds throughout the world of Nirn. Mehrunes Dagon, causing destruction throughout the world with volcanoes, earthquakes and wars.

Mephala spinning webs of deceit to cause discord and chaos within the world, making internal wars and petty feuds. Malacath having his hordes of Orcs and Ogres attack countless villages and counties. The Madness of Sheogorath spreading far and wide, bringing understanding and fear in a confusing jumbled mess…and finally;

Molag Bal and Peryite causing their own mischief within what was Morrowind.  Both had slightly intrigued the mighty Lord Akatosh in different ways…Peryite was the only other Dragon he had known, and shared some interests with him.

Both had generally wanted life, wanted everything to be in a nice tidy order. It would happen in a said way and a said way only…though they had rarely talked. At the few times they did, it was when Akatosh was on a small mission with a talk with the more ‘prominent’ Daedra Lords.

It was, more or less, a guide of direction. The thin green dragon had a certain ‘smooth move’ to the Golden Dragon, although this would pass he predicted. He was wrong, as was his view on Molag Bal.

“Molag Bal…”, Akatosh spoke with corresponding curses following his name. He was the corrupter, the slaver, the rapist, and so much more. Akatosh despised him, gradually wanting to eradicate him from existence. Although…Sheogorath mocked him on this subject. He stated; “Aye, Aye Goldy. But understand that, in a sense of metaphorical or otherwise, you two complete each other. You order time, you have the directive of having things to go in a specific direction. He corrupts it, he makes sure it goes in a direction that is harmful to your directive. He makes sure that mortal races are damned and prepared for other events that will come later, like war. You help time go accordingly, and give them ’hope’ for a better tomorrow. Opposites Goldy…Opposites attract, a main rule of life you must recognize.”

The Mad-God’s speech still clawed at Akatosh’s mind and well being. But it was a mere ruse to anger him, to have a session of thinking for what a daedra, let alone the god of madness, would have to say on his views of certain other daedra lord.

How could Molag Bal even ‘aid’ the mortal races? All he did, his soul sphere of influence, was that of corruption of the mortal races. Their destruction, pain, and misery would be his play-day. Bal was nothing more than the devil of Nirn itself, the worst daedra of all of them!


A growl arose from the Aedra, all this thinking over nothing. There was to be no gain from this, no benefit for the development of the aedra or the mortals. Though he continued to stare at the daedra, watching as he smirked with another ‘successful task’ complete for the cause of corruption.

It disgusted Akatosh, how Molag Bal simply was amused at his own work. How could he even be happy as countless more were to suffer in this time of chaos and destruction? If he had any sense of duty in him, he’d have some empathy towards the mortals…but no he has the basic view of victory or defeat.

Now? He has victory, and so hubris consumes him for the moment. Then Molag Bal shall corrupt more of the world, as he competes with the other daedra lords to ’control the mortals’. It was their game plan, since Akatosh and the other aedra had influence over the mortal races prior to this moment. The daedra wanted it now, but none of them were intent on sharing the rewards.

 So the daedra lords scrambled to find the best worshipers, then create an army to combat the other daedric lords. And the winner would be able to control Tamerial, with all the mortals that come with it.

In comparison it could be a grand play of Chess, in mortal retrospect that is. Although the more complicated parts were, of course, how territory was to be won by the daedric lords. The worshippers would occupy temples, and amass troops in a professional fighting style which was common to their terrain.

For example most Dunmer would train with long sword, heavy or medium armor with some blunt weapons if possible. This was the old Redoran way of fighting, removing their pretensions of ‘honor, family and Temple’ which was their political line.

Then after amassing their armies, the daedric lords would send their worshippers to strike at various cities or settlements across Tamriel. This caused many border wars between the daedra, creating a bit of a problem for their means to ‘control the mortals’.

But they have managed to have some territory in a unified fashion…Sheogorath currently holds half of Argonia and parts of Eastern Cyrodiil; along the Blackwood forest.

Molag Bal and Peryite had the Morrowind area and some southern parts of Skyrim. Typically Peryite remained at small locations of the mainland, especially in Mournhold. Molag Bal’s territory…he had all of Vvardenfell, and about 60% of the mainland.

He held Vvardenfell mostly for his aspect of corruption, and bringing misery to all mortal races. He, most likely, re-installed the domestic laws of slavery of beast races. Mer in most cases, especially Argonians since the Argonian invasion of Morrowind many years prior.

His devil form was one of masculinity and ‘evil incarnate’ with Akatosh’s mind. His dragon-like face, dremora like horns, claws sharper than daedric metals, his vast large muscles…

Though Akatosh shook that thought very quickly when he realized what it meant, that he was seeing some positive aspects of Molag Bal in physical form.