Infobox
Book Information
Type Name Writer Melchior Dahrk ID az_bk_secretofthedreugh
by Yue Athmaua
Introduction by Mespis Ferro, Imperial Archivist
The entirety of this account is based on the research of Yue Athmaua a Dunmer Mage from Port Telvannis. As can be seen from the text he claims to have socialized with a group of dreugh. The manuscript was written as a type of informational autobiography and interview. The reader must judge the veracity of this report.
Thyadveel cyaokui lkunzoewtna vae Sdirgeaumgyhk? I have. I breathed with the spawn of Nmiolliahgl for thirty months. At least that is how long I measured it. First, let me answer the question many have: They did not attack you? Becoming something else is only a matter of mimicking it closely enough that observers cannot tell the difference. I will only say that upon my return I was forced into a hermetic lifestyle to avoid judging eyes for what I had to become.
But I dwell too long on the ending. Let me start just after the beginning: I stepped into the briny sea just north of Telvannis, my cheek still stinging from a stone which had struck its mark. Who were they to ridicule me! As the wintry water began to fill my lungs I prayed to Lord Bal that the weeks poured into my metamorphosis and the lifetime discerning the method would not be wasted. I had tested it so many times, yet this shock of cold! Everything went just as I knew it would, my lamellae flared as they grew accustomed to their aquatic environment. I was virginal to the ocean but I felt it becoming a part of me.
I had made sure to carry plenty of netch ink and kreshpaper so that I would be able to clearly record my findings under the water. I brought little else, save a few small tokens to bribe my new hosts with. Tbolkueed Cavern was my destination and from where I had departed it wasn’t long before I recognized it from the phosphorescent coral spire formations which guarded the entrance. Being a Telvanni kinsman, I instantly noted the similarities between the formations and Telvanni fungitecture: matre-spore at the base and the penumbrous terminations… My inspection was swiftly interrupted when two thick-shelled dreugh emerged from the aperture and headed towards me. I quickly remembered my blubbered sack and retrieved my first gift from it: a soulgem filled to capacity with the soul of a wayward river strider. Clutching the glowing stone in my palm I spoke the friend-phrase I had discovered in a soggy tome: Rhaiq! Confused, the dreugh slowed and pushed towards me cautiously. In our era, not all dreugh can speak but they can all understand their own tongue; composed of tangled, consonantal word convolutes.
Clattering something with his chelipeds, the larger dreugh approached while the smaller and presumably younger retreated back into the grotto. What passed after that is not important. Suffice to say I was brought into the presence of their Warlord, an enormous crustacean who nearly filled the chamber from which he presided. What follows is my interview with this surprisingly eloquent dreugh. Some portions were difficult to translate into the common tongue, but the words are priceless pearls regardless.
Yue: Greetings, I am Yue Athmaua, kinsman to House Telvanni, of the tribes of Veloth.
Neolldr: Greetings, I am Qlaotridh’Neolldr, Elder Lord of Tbolkueed. Gnaasbe informed me that you wished to ‘interview’ me. I do not recall a single landling ever entering a hall of the dreugh in such a manner. How wouldst you qualify yourself?
Yue: Qlaotridh’Neolldr. My qualities are few, and my qualifications fewer. I only wish to learn more of your elder race, that I may impart the ignorant folk of my world with the hidden knowledge of your race.
Neolldr: You show discernment in the cavern you chose to enter first. Had you chanced into any other dreugh hole, you would have been torn to shreds without so much as a chortle. Very well, what is it you would ask of me?
Yue: How old are you?
Neolldr: A simple question to begin. Your modesty does not go unrecognized, though it is unappreciated. We do not keep time the same way as fleshells. Though we know your terms, they bear little meaning to us. We do not have the sun, moon, stars, or planes to watch from our deep dwellings. Within dreugh communities whom still care what era they subsist in, time is kept by the Conchfish. Our ancestors long ago discovered that these fish, when fastened down, no matter their orientation, become despondent and cry to their kin for aid at exact intervals. These intervals, we called chords. However, although we take care to nourish them, the captured fish generally die after only thirty to fifty chords. Our sages believe the cause simply to be depression driven by isolation from their own kind. Therefore multiple Conchfish may be kept at a time and when one perishes it is replaced. This has always been our way. But, to answer your question: I am far too many chords to count. That is why the composition of one hundred chords is designated as an ambit. Therefore I have heard nine thousand two hundred and thirty ambits. Seems a hefty amount to you, no? If I were to put that in your own “years” it would be approximately 900 years. We dreugh are only short-lived when idiocy is involved.
Yue: You talk about dreugh who “don’t care” anymore. What happened to cause that?
Neolldr: To explain that to you, I must tell you of our history. No doubt if you are here then you’ve heard the tales that we dreugh are the cursed descendants of an ancient race. As legends generally go, that is nearly entirely correct; though some dreugh such as the ancestors of my kith did not succumb so readily to mindless bestiality as others. In the dusk of the previous world, things were much alike to the Dawn Era of this world. The shape of things and people fluctuated. It was difficult for most until the spirits of convention drove a spike into the world to stabilize it. The decline of the dreugh happened before that crystallization, but that was a final stake to our hearts. We had thrived in that un-time.
Yue: How were you able to thrive when others were confused?
Neolldr: Good question, but you interrupted me. Let me remember. Ah yes, we thrived. In that messy transition between the old and the new worlds, some of the greater spirits were able to visit the Mundex Arena in its incomplete state. Among them was the Fire-stone; though he was different in those times… He found us, the dreugh race, splashing in the ocean; some perishing when they attempted to breathe its marine substance. The Fire-stone took pity on our confused appearance and mannerisms. Therefore when the other great spirits who were busy with the rest of the world weren’t looking, he taught us how to climb into shells and breathe water. With our new shells and loving master we were able to maintain a static manifestation. Fire-stone stayed with use for a time; setting his newly transformed people on a path to spread our gift to the world. I now believe that we in turn transformed him as well. His compassion and love slowly transitioned into a desire for domination and enslavement. Before his departure, he explained how we now wielded a profound power in the world. He seeded us with the desire for conquest and enslavement. Our race was as varied as a coral reef, so many functions, one great purpose.
Islands and then the continent fell to the invincible dreugh legions. Countless races, beasts, and spirits fell before us and were brought captive to our oceans. Fire-stone was our banner and our inspiration. We became rulers of that world. Many great things were accomplished during that time; such as the construction of the Thras archipelago to serve as holding pens for landlings which hadn’t undergone the transformations necessary to serve the trenchant cities of the dreugh.
Yue: What happened to bring about the end of the dreugh empire?
Neolldr: It was not some grand scheme or dramatic dissidence; simply a shifting of power. With the shattering of the old world and the awakening of the new, the alignment of power shifted among the great spirits. Fire-stone forsook us and abandoned the new world; and dreugh empire did not fit within the vision the new pantheon had for the world. The convention was the spear to our carapace. Our power had been the inability of other beings to adapt to the ever-changing state of the old and young worlds. When all the races of Tamriel were no longer of confused forms, the time of the dreugh was ended. Most of us devolved into mindless creatures, while a few of us worked to maintain our ancient knowledge and culture. So much is lost and we are fading, I haven’t contacted another kith in nearly four-thousand ambits.
Yue: What future do you foresee for the dreugh race?
Neolldr: As a species, we flourish. Broods of dreugh fill the oceans. But they are little more than rude beasts now. I rarely converse with Fire-stone anymore, I fear he has forgotten us. He has even changed his shape, no longer associating himself with his Children of the Sea.
Yue: I am sorry. Yet, you say that Fire-stone - whom I know as Molag Bal - changed his shape; how then did he appear before? And do your people still worship him?
Neolldr: We do our lord as much honor as he has earned. He is still the progenitor of our race; we owe him our existence. Else we may have completely dwindled away like so many other races then. But we worship how he was, not what he is today. In that time he took a shape similar to our own, spiny and thickly armored. But things are different now; no spark of the compassionate spirit of Fire-stone remains in the cold visage of Molag Bal. I believe that whom we call Fire-stone is known as “Ruddy Man” in your legends.
Yue: Molag Bal changed his shape; did the dreugh change as well?
Neolldr: In appearance, no. Though I imagine the ancient dreugh looked far less time-worn than we do now.
Yue: I have only ever encountered two types of dreugh, ones such as I see here and the Land Dreugh which, to my knowledge, are one and the same. You had mentioned that there were many other varieties. Do they still exist?
Neolldr: Those which have not been hunted to extinction? Yes, they still exist. Though most keep to the deep waters and do not approach the surface near land. Have you heard of the Dreugh Leviathan? They were great siege beasts used in our early conquests. Standing the height of ten mer, he could crumble a gatehouse with his clawed limbs. There are so many others, such as the menial Cuttle Dreugh or the Dreugh Lampion. Even among the common dreugh such as myself there is variation. Our carapaces are soft after hatching and can be manipulated to form various appendages or armor plates. Most feral dreughs look similar because they never undergo this alteration.
Yue: Do you ever have disputes with the feral dreugh?
Neolldr: Yes, often. Although there are times when we can pass by them peaceably, more frequently they will mindlessly attack us for entering their domain. Simple territorialism. Perhaps one day Fire-stone will return to us and the dreugh will be a race reborn, but for now we will endeavor simply to survive; with our sapience.
Thus ended my interview with a Dreugh Warlord. May the reader learn, interpret and retell it.
Epilogue
I remained with the dreugh community for some time after my interview with Elder Neolldr, learning many other things of their culture. There is too much to mention even in this book. But perhaps of interest was my discovery of the Topielce (singular: Topielec) Dreugh; or more accurately, my discovery of a clarification on terms. I will discuss their origins here in detail.
During my brief interview with Neolldr, he had mentioned the existence of various strains of dreugh and how they were a multifaceted species. This fact was compounded in my mind when I began to notice various fish and strange creatures at times in Tbolkueed. I soon discovered that these were the Topielce: the Reborn, Deviants, or Deformants; depending on which dreugh I asked. For a definite answer I sought counsel again with Lord Qlaotridh’Neolldr. I will paraphrase what he told me here:
It has been said before that the Dawn Dreughs were practitioners of profane power. What exactly they had been capable of to warrant the term ‘profane’ had only been speculation to me before this conversation. Neolldr reiterated that the power of the dreugh had been the ready manipulation of the dynamic environment during the dusk of the old world and the dawn of the new. The time during which shapes and definitions were easily malleable. The dreughs’ profane power was how they were able to harness the chaotic energies and rework the elemental foundation of the beasts and spirits themselves*: combining, removing, altering, and infusing. Neolldr said that the primary goal of the dreugh had been to create supplementary monsters to aid in their conquests. In general these creatures were mainly a combination of the dreugh and other beasts so that a desirable trait could be obtained from both. This practice of tormenting the bodies and spirits of their own race credits the vilification of the dreugh in our legends. Nonetheless, the desired result was accomplished by the feared Dreugh Morphites: the Topielce were born.
The term Topielec does not refer to one specific creature but rather to the clade of beasts which now exist under that brand. Neolldr told me that the secrets of this art were lost with the beginning of the Merethic Era, but that the products of it live on in this age. Examples include the servile Topielce Redfish and the warlike Clawed Topielec. But I have encountered countless others. In the cavern where I lived they filled roles anywhere from pets, to workers, to guard-beasts, to mounts. Their intelligence was akin to what I have heard of the Alfiq of Elsweyr, able to comprehend language but unable to speak it. Nowadays, Topielce are rarely encountered far from a dreugh community such as Tbolkueed. Their company is not appreciated by the more feral dreugh most are familiar with.
*\ This process of tampering with the very fabric of spiritual beings was said to be the foundation for a type of Psijic Endeavor or Apotheosis unique to the dreugh race. I have very little information on its methods, only that it is called Climbing into the Next Shell by the Tbolkueed Dreugh. I have hypothesized that, aside from Molag Bal, the dreugh pantheon may be based on individuals who actually achieved the endeavor; as I can draw no lines between the dreugh gods and elvish or mannish divines. However, I am only aware of a few dreugh deities, most of which are portrayed as depraved and vengeful, since the inhabitants of Tbolkueed Cavern mainly worshipped a type of Restitution deity whose name is not easy to spell.