This week on Written in Uncertainty, I’m discussing one of the most loved and oppressive figures in Tamriel’s history, a self-proclaimed god who has been the face and protector of Morrowind for millennia, before finally cracking as she lost her divinity. Today we’re asking, who is Almalexia?
Almalexia in Brief
Almalexia, or Ayem, is one of the Tribunal of Morrowind, the mortals-who-became-gods by tapping into the heart of Lorkhan. We know very little of her before that. There is no rise from poverty as there was with Vivec, and there is no escape from death like there is with Sotha Sil. Almalexia is just there as Nerevar’s advisor and wife. I think it’s a fair assumption to say that she was a high-born Indoril noble, but that is a supposition.
We also know relatively little about her marriage to Nerevar, although I’d guess it was possibly political in nature. There are no accounts out there of the great love between the great general Nerevar and his beloved wife, and she was Vivec’s lover according to most accounts of her. So it’s possible that we’re looking at a loveless marriage here, one that was done for political gain. There’s an interesting take on Almalexia and Nerevar that says the opposite, but it’s all supposition at this point.
Which makes this as good a point as any to note that we don’t actually have a whole lot of information on Almalexia from sources directly. A lot of this cast is going to be supposition and connecting rather sporadic dots, as well as pulling in some fan theory that I find interesting. Unlike Sotha Sil and Vivec, Almalexia doesn’t have that many scholars arguing what she’s up to, presumably because it’s taken as written that she’s a very public figure. But that also means that we only have glimpses of what she’s like, and what she does. Even when we meet her in The Elder Scrolls: Online, that political facade is still very present.
The Fans’ Reaction
There’s also not a whole lot of fan speculation to go on, because Almalexia seems to be one of the more genuinely hated characters in the Elder Scrolls franchise, from a few corners. This is a little odd, as she’s not just an egotistical monster, and TES has several fleshed out egotistical monsters to go around. As for why, I feel I have to agree with one of u/Mdnthryst’s remarks here. To quote:
She committed the cardinal sin of being egotistical and ambitious while also being a woman. Thus the fandom reviles Almalexia personally in a way that they don’t for Talos, Dagoth Ur, Molag Bal, or Vivec, where it’s more the case that people just acknowledge they did bad stuff without emotionally finding them revolting.
In addition to this, the games give us relatively little to go on in terms of ways to redeem her character. In TES3’s Tribunal expansion especially, Almalexia feels a little like “bitches be crazy, amirite?” as a plot device. Which is a shame, because the re should be a lot more development there. Hell, even some of the stuff we see from ESO Morrowind in Sotha Sil’s dialogue seems to treat her that way. She gets framed as someone who lies to others habitually, and to herself. Does that make her deluded? I hope to show that it can be more than that, but it certainly feels like that sort of undercurrent is there.
Almalexia & Godhood
Almalexia & Boethiah
That she’s strong and fairly duplicitous is entirely appropriate, given that her Anticipation in Tribunal theology is Boethiah, whose title is Prince of Plots, as well as being credited with more direct forms of cruelty and violence as well. Just to go on a slight tangent, if Boethiah and Mephala’s spheres seem to overlap a lot, you’d be right to think so. However, Boethiah’s attitude is more direct, and encompasses more than Mephala’s secret murder. If Mephala’s deceit and plotting is like that of a spy who operates in the shadows, Boethiah’s is James Bond.
Like Boethiah, Almalexia has taken on the attributes that are represented by several gods in other pantheons. Boethiah is associated with all sorts of Dunmeri/Chimeri cultural developments in Varieties of Faith, and it specifically calls out Akatosh as one who Almalexia has subsumed. There’s no single female archteype that fits Almalexia; she’s an atypical mother, a spellcaster and a lover all in one. She contains all three traditional female roles and more.
Almalexia & the Tribunal
Within the Tribunal, Almalexia is also the personification of Mercy, to Vivec’s Mastery and Sotha Sil’s Mystery. At first glance, this feels a little odd, given Boethiah’s vicious nature and Almalexia’s place as what seems to be the de facto warrior of the Tribunal, as Sotha Sil is the Mage and Vivec is the Thief. However, it should be pointed out that, in order to give mercy to something, you have to have power over it. You do not offer mercy to things that are stronger than you. That makes Almalexia someone who must operate from a position of strength.
That feeling, that she must be strong, I think drives a lot of Almalexia’s perception of her own godhood. Sotha Sil notes that both the other Tribunes, quote, “see their divinity as essential. Godhood brings them joy and purpose. They find meaning in the theatrical.” Almalexia is performing a role for herself and her people, one that involves her being indomitable. I also think, though, that there’s the impression that she is also aiming to make herself and her aims a “background hum” to the Dunmer people, something that’s constantly there and influencing things, but never noticed.
I think this is why all of the writings attributed to Almalexia are storybooks, fables, collections of aphorisms and the like. She wants her principles to be digested frequently and by everyone, not just by scholars and priests. In this way, she’s trying to get her practices and doctrines enshrined as a form of common or customary law for the Dunmer, to have the virtues she promotes undergird Dunmeri society and practice. I’m reminded of the Brothers Grimm a little here; they were lawyers, and collected German folktales in order to get an idea of the common cultural practices and makeup of the people, from which to derive common law. I think Almalexia is trying to do a similar thing but in reverse; instead of deriving law and practice principles by gathering stories, she is imposing implicit law and practice by creating stories. Which is perhaps why Sotha Sil calls her “the greater storyteller” when compared to Vivec. Vivec tells stories to confuse, inspire and teach. Almalexia teaches stories to subtly influence without people thinking. Which fits Boethiah’s sphere very well.
Boethiah is also about “making a mark on the world”, in some ways. To quote Boethiah’s Proving:
Finally she [Boethiah] came to me, eyes aglow with anger, tongue wet with hate, and said:”Of all my believers, but two remain. Tell me, second-to-last, with what shall you prove your existence?”Without hesitation I drew forth my blade and buried it in the chest of the other who stood beside me, and without fear replied:”Ask him whose blood now sprouts from my blade if I exist.”She smiled. And the gates of Oblivion opened between her teeth. Then she said:”Tell me, now-last of my followers, wherefore do you remain where the others do not?”I retrieved my blade, and offered it up saying: “I am alive because that one is dead. I exist because I have the will to do so. And I shall remain as long as there are signs of my handwork, such as the blood dripping from this blade.”Accepting my gift, she nodded and said:”Indeed.”
I think Almalexia is trying something similar, in that she is aiming to make a mark on the world, although not necessarily a legacy, which is how we normally think about it. She wants her influence to be felt and reacted to, in a way that the other Tribunes do not really need. Which is why she’s so focused on Morrowind, as her audience.
Almalexia & Morrowind
Almalexia is called Mother Morrowind, and functions as a protector of the land, more a mother bear than anything else. This makes the land of Morrowind her symbolic child, as she’s had none of her own that we know of She’s been a general and is a ruthless queen for her people, in addition to having a benevolent and caring side, I think the “mother bear” analogy fits Almalexia very well.
One brief aside, It’s also possible that, in caring for her country, she takes in its orphans. There is mention of “the orphan legion of Ayem” in Sermon Thirty of the 36 Lessons. We don’t know for sure, but it’s possible that this, if it’s a thing in the politics of Morrowind, is where she draws the ranks of her Hands bodyguards from.
I also think that Almalexia isn’t just violent towards the foes of Morrowind. In trying to reshape Morrowind, and telling the fables to make them love her, Almalexia is also constantly fighting the people of Morrowind itself. As Sotha Sil says, she makes everyone believe her tales, which takes a lot of effort. I was reminded a little bit of the “rebounding violence” theory from William Bloch, whereby rituals are used to assert the control of the transcendental over the vital. In other words, the imposition of the sacred and religious subjugating everyday secular life is an ongoing process that generates rebounding violence. It feels like that’s what Almalexia is doing, inflicting herself and her agenda on Morrowind to make it into a shape she wants. Bloch also uses terms that become similar to consumption and eating later in his main work on this, which interesting. Boethiah consumed Trinimac and made him Malacath. In transforming the Chimer to the Dunmer, and worship of the Daedra to that of the Tribunal, Almalexia is one of the instigators in the ongoing consumption and transformation of Chimer culture.
Almalexia & Nerevar
Speaking of the transformation into the Dunmer, Almalexia herself remains a golden Chimer. There’s been some speculation that this is a glamour hiding the ashen skin, but I think that’s unlikely. The Tribunal were gods, and so could probably make their skin into whatever they liked. I’ve seen it said in various places that the skin colours represent the level of guilt they had over Nerevar’s death. Sotha Sil accepts his guilt, Vivec claims that ze both did and did not kill Nerevar (remember the claim of “Vehk the mortal did kill Nerevar, and Vehk the god did not” from hir Trial). Almalexia denies wrongdoing. She believes that her elevation to godhood was necessary, and as a result that the murder of Nerevar was necessary. Therefore, she doesn’t feel guilty about it in the least, and her skin stays golden.
As I mentioned earlier, Amalexia’s marriage to Nerevar may have been one that was motivated by politics and alliances rather than love. There was a fascinating little snippet that u/CE-Nex posted here that points out that Almalexia gives the Nerevarine Trueflame with the explicit guideline that it “can kill a god if wielded with noble intent”. The wording is implied that it’ll be used to kill Sotha Sil, but Almalexia already did that herself. CE-Nex supposes that she did not want to kill Nerevar, and so wanted to bring Nerevar the warrior, Nerevar the general, back in that final fight. To quote a line about gods and their husbands:
Kyne cries for hers. Meridia waits for hers. Ayem said, “Fuck that, I’m gonna bring mine back if only for a moment.”
This is a particularly heart-wrenching kind of love. It’s the love that wants the object even if that means that the object kills the beholder. CE-Nex also points out that, for all that Almalexia is a master storyteller, she tells no stories of Nerevar. The implication being that there are some lies she’s not willing to tell.
I’m not entirely sure I believe that, although it is a beautiful image. Almalexia was willing to use the Nerevarine as a tool for her own political gain in the evens of the Tribunal expansion of Morrowind, and so allowing such sentimentality or feeling to influence her decisions feels a little out of character.
To me, Almalexia has, like the rest of the Tribunal, seemed driven by ambition and purpose more than by people. She wants Morrowind to love her and worship her as a god, but was willing to sacrifice her husband to do it, and maintains a constant presence that’s designed precisely to promote an image of her as the perfect queen as part of it. Unlike the rest of the Tribunal, we have no indication of her ends. With Vivec, ze maybe foresaw a future that ze was trying to avoid. For Sotha Sil, divinity was a tool to be used in the service of transforming the world. Amalexia is the only character where we don’t really have an inkling of what she would use godhood for. This says to me that she’s the one who is using godhood as an end in itself. That makes the love of the people incredibly artificial. It’s all about her. And that’s the root of the problem, I think. Almalexia is selfish, like the rest of the Tribunal, but she doesn’t have any obvious outlet or reason for that selfishness. That’s why she gets castigated as shallow, because she doesn’t have a use for the power that she has beyond getting more power. She, alone of the Tribunal, seems to be happy to perpetuate her godhood as the end goal. And that’s why she goes crazy at the end; she’s having everything she’s built taken away. Sotha Sil is done with his experimenting by the time of his end, and may even by uploaded into the Clockwork City at that point. Vivec has set everything in motion and knows his people are going to be safe. Almalexia is the only Tribune who has failed in their goals. Millennia-long goals that has absorbed her existence for all of that time. And I think that would drive anyone crazy.
I hope that you’ve enjoyed my ramble through Almalexia’s psyche. I feel like it’s wound up being something of an apologetic for her, but that’s because we have relatively little to go on. It’s been mildly frustrating to write, but also something that’s made me scratch my head a bit more than I normally do.
Next week, we’ll be taking a look at the Khajiiti creation myth, Words of Clan Mother Ahnissi, and the week after we’ll get back to some questions that I really should have addressed a while back, starting with one of the most basic, what are the Elder Scrolls?
Until then, this podcast remains a letter written in uncertainty.
