Lore:Almalexia

, also known as Almalexia the Lover , Almalexia the Warden,  and Ayem,  was one of the three God-Kings who constituted the Tribunal, or Almsivi, along with   and  . She was very popular among the  , who called her "Healing Mother", "Lady of Mercy", and "Mother Morrowind" . They knew her as the source of compassion, sympathy, and forgiveness, the protector of the poor and weak, and the patron of teachers and healers . She resided in the temple city of   within the city of  , the capital of Morrowind, and was closely associated with  . She was also the most personable of the Tribunal and was well-known for walking among her people. As a mortal, she was the wife of Lord Indoril Nerevar,  or of  . As a living god, she became the consort of Vivec,  who associated her with the stars. 

Originally the counselors to Nerevar, the Tribunal came to power among the Dunmer following her husband's death at the   circa  . Before his death, they swore oaths to Nerevar upon   that they would never use the   on the   in order to steal its divine essence for themselves. A few years later, Almalexia and her fellow Tribunes broke that oath to become living gods. This led to the transformation of the   into the Dunmer, and the Tribunal became their immortal protectors, leaders, and gods.   The truth of how they gained their divinity was covered up; according to the Heirographa, the orthodox public teachings of the  , their divinity was a more spontaneous result of their supernatural virtue, discipline, wisdom, and insight.     The power of Almalexia and the other Tribunes declined during their struggle with   throughout the  , and Almalexia eventually lost her mind along with her power. During the time of the   in  , she killed Sotha Sil and then died in a failed attempt to kill the  . 

History
thumb|right|The murder of Nerevar, with Almalexia on the far right
Little is known of Almalexia before she became Nerevar's wife. Temple myth holds that on  ,   oversaw the ninety-nine lovers of   who gave birth to her.  She hailed from one of the  .  Vivec's prose suggests she was already a ruler when she met Nerevar, who was working as a guard for a merchant caravan at the time.  Though Nerevar was a generation older than her,  they eventually got married. The   king  , who had become Nerevar's close friend, presented them with twin blades of the highest Dwemeri craftsmanship. Almalexia's was known as  .  Sources conflict on how her husband met his demise. Most attribute it to wounds he received during the Battle of  . The  , who rejected Tribunal worship, believe that Almalexia and her fellow Tribunes murdered her husband so he would not interfere with their plan to take divine power.   

As soon as the Tribunal stole power from the Heart, Azura appeared and cursed them. The Daedric Prince issued the prophecy that the   would return to punish them for breaking their oaths. When Sotha Sil waved off her omens, the Dunmer were created, and Azura gave a final prophecy: that the Dunmer would share the Tribunal's fate until the end of time. Though confused at first, the Dunmer (with the exception of Ashlanders) did come to accept the Tribunal as their new gods.  Theological concerns gave rise to the idea of the "Anticipations", the "Good  " the Chimer had worshipped before the Tribunal's apotheosis (so while the Tribunal had once been mortal, and non-existent before that, their Anticipations were said to have guided the Chimer in their stead). The Good Daedra are those Princes of Oblivion who apparently acknowledged the Tribunal's authority over the Dunmer (as opposed to the Bad Daedra, spirits who did not accept the Tribunal). The Anticipation of Almalexia was  , Prince of Plots.    

The Lady of Mercy
thumb|left|The Tribunal
Almalexia wielded her divine power for the protection and benefit of the Dunmer for thousands of years. Sotha Sil largely remained aloof and mysterious, but Almalexia and Vivec both took very active roles in leading their people throughout the   and   eras. Her acts of amazing power and kindness are countless. Her blessing was said to do extraordinary things, like protect a person infected with   from suffering the disease's effects.    is said to have been inspired by the voice of Almalexia in his head.  The   were her personal guard, and were often called the greatest warriors in all of  .  Like Vivec, she wrote extensively, though she focused on children's fables and similar works meant to nurture the morality of her people rather than Vivec's more cerebral, spiritual guidance.    

In  , Mehrunes Dagon destroyed the city of Mournhold. After an epic battle, he was defeated by Almalexia and Sotha Sil. This was portrayed in the historical fiction  , which also suggested Almalexia foresaw in her dreams the end of the  , as well as the end of the Reman Dynasty.
thumb|right|Almalexia, circa  
In  , Almalexia fought alongside  , also known as the  , against Ada'Soom Dir-Kamal during an  i invasion of northern Tamriel.   Sources seem to disagree on certain aspects of this conflict.   treats Morrowind as the target of the Akaviri invasion, though Skyrim was apparently the Akaviri's initial target.   claims Almalexia was the one who summoned the Underking to fight alongside the Tribunal (even though in life, he had been one of their greatest enemies).   contradicts this, crediting the   with summoning the Ash-King. The book also claims that Dir-Kamal's army was crushed by several Tamrielic military forces, not just the Dunmer army under Almalexia's command, and that this occurred at a place called  . The other sources do not mention the  ic or   forces which played roles, and Mysterious Akavir says Dir-Kamal was defeated at Red Mountain.

Following the Akaviri invasion, Almalexia was a strong supporter of the formation of the  . It was she who convinced the Great Houses (sans  ) to join the Pact. During the   of  ,   was threatened by a cult known as the  , who sought to topple the Tribunal and return the Dunmer to Daedra worship. They were led by  , once a handmaiden of Almalexia who turned against her following her son's execution. The insurgents were ultimately put down. 

The Return of Dagoth Ur
In  , Dagoth Ur awoke beneath Red Mountain. The former Lord High Councilor of   had been thought dead, but through unknown means, he had actually forged his own connection to the Heart of Lorkhan, drawing divine power from it just like the Tribunal did, and was merely sleeping. When the Tribunal arrived at the mountain for their annual ritual bath to replenish their power, Dagoth Ur and his minions attacked them and drove them away, decisively cutting them off from access to the Heart.  The Tribunal would spend almost four hundred fifty years, virtually all of the Third Era, slowly losing ground to him. Their preoccupation with what had become the Devil Incarnate for the Dunmer people is perhaps one reason why Vivec avoided war with   and signed the  , making Morrowind an autonomous province of the  . 

With the advent of Imperial rule in Morrowind, Mournhold became a town of two minds: there was the monarchy led by the Imperial-appointed king, and the Temple led by Almalexia. While there has been no open hostility between the two, there were always undercurrents of tension.  The power mainly stayed with the Temple, and the monarchy seemed to acquiesce to this reality (the king was, after all, the vassal ruler of the Empire, and Morrowind had retained its autonomy under the terms of the Armistice).   However, many feared the violence that would ensue should the king ever attempt to challenge Almalexia's authority. 

The Tribunal made seasonal campaigns to Red Mountain, and slew Dagoth Ur and his kin, the  , though the Heart always revived them in time. Almalexia had always had a tendency to brood, and without access to the Heart of Lorkhan, her divinity ebbed.  This weighed heavily on her,  and she became a harsher, more unsympathetic patron.  She stopped walking among her people around  . 
right|thumb|Lady Almalexia, circa  
When the Tribunal realized they could not defeat Dagoth Ur, they built the   to contain him around  .   This seemed to work, until Almalexia and Sotha Sil were attacked during a campaign and lost two of the Tools of Kagrenac,   and  .  Though Vivec rescued his fellow Tribunes, the Tools were lost, and both the real impact of their loss and what it signified proved crippling.  Almalexia and Vivec stopped communicating. Vivec grew concerned that she would pose a danger to herself and others, and might even try to harm him.  Almalexia ceased appearing in public altogether,  and the incident was the last known time Sotha Sil was seen alive. Vivec was left to spearhead the fight against Dagoth Ur alone.   The Tribunal was undone.
left|thumb|Almalexia in her War Headdress

The Death of Almalexia
:"She believes her tales implicitly. As does everyone else. Her capacity for deception appears limitless. She sows lies like a master gardener sows seeds, and the harvest of trust and adulation is breathtaking in scope. ... Almalexia does what she does because she cannot do otherwise. It will not end well. But then, even the best endings rarely bring joy."—  
Almalexia had changed. Those few who still saw her noticed that she had begun to act more like a warrior queen than the Lady of Mercy.  Those closest to her knew that she had turned into a wholly different person, one who was obsessed with maintaining her image at the expense of everything else.  In lieu of divine power, Almalexia exploited her knowledge of ancient and powerful relics to inflict terrible punishments on her people for what she perceived as their lack of faith, such as by using Dwemeri machinery to cover her capital city in ash storms. But in her madness, she concocted a new goal: to become the one true god of the Dunmer, uniting all of her people under one faith and authority - and destroying any who interfered.  When the Nerevarine came to Mournhold after Dagoth Ur's fall in  , Almalexia sought to trick, entrap, and destroy him as part of this plot. She first turned on Sotha Sil and slew him in his Clockwork City, then unleashed its mechanical inhabitants into her own city in order to frame her old friend. Her ruse lured the Nerevarine to Sotha Sil's legendary home, where she hoped that the reincarnation of her husband would be killed by the inhabitants. When the Nerevarine persevered, Almalexia tried to finish the job herself. But her powers failed her, and she died at the Nerevarine's hand in the Clockwork City.  Though Almalexia would call Vivec a fool in her final hours,  Vivec, the last remaining Tribune,  only expressed pity for his fallen, deranged lover. 

According to Azura, the death of Almalexia was a boon for all of Morrowind, even if the people did not understand it at the time. The Daedric Prince professed that the Lady of Mercy would have betrayed the Dunmer as surely as she had betrayed all those she loved, for this was her true curse. 
A Lore:Fourth Era|Fourth Era statue of the Goddess Almalexia, erected in secret on Solstheim|thumb|right
Continued Worship
By  , the last vestiges of Almalexia's marks were gone from Mournhold.  The Dunmer returned to the veneration of Boethiah, now called one of the "Reclamations", and managed to make their way without their Healing Mother watching over them. Almalexia is still remembered and honored as one of the greater saints of the Dunmeri faith,  but not one who was ever supposed to be one of the cornerstones of the religion. 

Despite the majority of the Dunmer people turning away from Almalexia worship, the Goddess was still revered by certain sects. These devotees were regarded as heretics by the New Temple and were persecuted for their beliefs.  One cult of Almalexia worshippers constructed a hidden temple in a cave on Solstheim known as Ashfall's Tear, just north of Raven Rock. The cultists raised a giant statue to the Goddess and planned to use old propaganda to restore widespread Tribunal worship.   These devotees counted several Hands of Almalexia among their ranks, a tradition which survived the Goddess's death.  Circa  , the Last Dragonborn was alerted to the cult's existence, although it is unknown if the Dragonborn aided the cult or destroyed it. 
 

Artifacts
thumb|right|150px|Hopesfire, Almalexia's blade
Hopesfire
 
 
thumb|right|150px|Mask of Almalexia
Mask of Almalexia
 
 

Gallery
 

See Also
For game-specific information, see the Tribunal, ESO, and   articles.

Books
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

References