Totem of Tiber Septim The Totem of Tiber Septim , also known simply as Totem , was an item heavily sought after during the events of and acquiring it is one of the main objectives in the game . The device itself was required in order to control a great construct , the golem Numidium . Due to the immense power of Tiber Septim ' s golem , many believed that whoever controlled the device controlled the fate of Tamriel . In " Daggerfall " , the Totem can be given to either Queen Akorithi , King Eadwyre , King Gothryd , Gortwog gro - Nagorm , the King of Worms , Lady Brisienna , or the Underking , for varying rewards . Associated quests . Who Gets The Totem . Acquire the Totem of Tiber Septim from the Castle Daggerfall Treasury , then decide who to award it to . History . Origins . The Totem of Tiber Septim was originally created by the Imperial Battlemage , Zurin Arctus , under orders of Tiber Septim as a means in which the Numidium could be controlled . In order to ensure that the Totem would never fall into the wrong hands , Zurin put a seal on it so that only a person of the Septim Bloodline , or someone with a supernatural existence like Zurin himself , could wield its power ; anyone who attempted to use it without meeting its requirements would die instantly . However , in later years , the witch Nulfaga would discover a loophole in this seal , that being that a person of royal blood could also utilize the Totem . When Tiber Septim betrayed Zurin , causing the death of the battlemage , Tiber Septim began using the Numidium to crush the neutral royal families of Tamriel and replace them with more loyal subjects . The Underking heavily disapproved of this use of Numidium and decided to destroy the Dwemer golem . In the ensuing fight , the Numidium was destroyed and all its pieces were lost , including the its power source , Mantella , and the Totem of Tiber Septim . Without the Mantella , The Underking was forced to enter a long hibernation period as he used up all his energy in his fight with Numidium . Since that day , the Blades endeavored to recover all the pieces of Numidium . Events of Daggerfall . By the year 3E 401 , the Blades had recovered all the pieces of Numidium , save for one , the Mantella . The Numidium had been reassembled and the Totem was in their hands but without the power source the Numidium was useless . In her astral travels the mother of King Lysandus , Nulfaga , discovered the whereabouts of the Mantella and promised to disclose its location to Uriel Septim VII as long as he agreed to never use the Numidium to attack Lysandus ' Kingdom . However , Uriel disagrees with Nulfaga ' s request . At some point , the Blades inexplicably lost possession of the Totem of Tiber Septim and had no choice but to search for the device again . The Blades would later discover that by unknown means , Lord Woodborne gained possession of the Totem . In order to retrieve it , the Blades sacked Woodborne Hall but to the astonishment of the Blades , the Totem was nowhere to be found . An undercover Blades agent known as Lady Brisienna had reason to believe that Gothryd , the then current king of Daggerfall , had stolen the device . Brisienna sent the Agent of Daggerfall to recover the artifact which was located within the Daggerfall treasury . After the Agent acquired the Totem , multiple individuals seeking the device sent him letters promising great rewards in return for gifting them the Totem . While the Agent did choose to give the Totem to one of its seekers , the subsequent activation of the Numidium created a Dragon Break in which several timelines were created each centering around the goals of the Totem ' s claimants ; these timelines were then reconciled in such a way as to cause each potential claimant to gain at least some of what they wanted . For example , the major rulers who each wanted the entirety of the Iliac Bay each received large tracts of the surrounding lands rather than any of them receiving all of it . This event was known as the Warp in the West .