Notes from Huleeya Content . [ The following are Huleeya ' s notes for Caius Cosades . ] The History of the Ashlanders and the Nerevarine Cult . In First Era barbaric Dunmer culture , settled Dunmer clans ( the Great Houses ) and nomadic Dunmer tribes ( like the Ashlanders ) were roughly equal in numbers and wealth . Under the civilized peace of the Grand Council , and with the strong central authority of the Temple , the economic and military power of the settled Dunmer quickly outstripped that of the nomadic Dunmer . The nomadic Dunmer were marginalized into the poorest , most hostile land , in particular , into the Vvardenfell wastes . For the Ashlanders , the return of a reincarnated Nerevar represents a longed for and largely romanticized Golden Age of Nerevar ' s Peace , when the nomadic tribes enjoyed equality with the settled Dunmer , and before the Dunmer people had for the most part abandoned traditional ancestor worship for the autocratic theocracy of the Tribunal Temple . The Nerevar of the Ashlanders . This is the story of Nerevar as an Ashlander might tell it . In ancient days , the Deep Elves and a great host of outlanders from the West came to steal the land of the Dunmer . In that time , Nerevar was the great khan and warleader of the House People , but he honored the Ancient Spirits and the Tribal law , and became as one of us . So , when Nerevar pledged upon his great Ring of the Ancestors , One - Clan - Under - Moon - and - Star , to honor the ways of the Spirits and rights of the Land , all the Tribes joined the House People to fight a great battle at Red Mountain . Though many Dunmer , Tribesman and Houseman , died at Red Mountain , the Dwemer were defeated and their evil magicks destroyed , and the outlanders driven from the land . But after this great victory , the power - hungry khans of the Great Houses slew Nerevar in secret , and , setting themselves up as gods , neglected Nerevar ' s promises to the Tribes . But it is said that Nerevar will come again with his ring , and cast down the false gods , and by the power of his ring will make good his promises to the Tribes , to honor the Spirits and drive the outsiders from the land . Persecution of the Nerevarine Cult . The Tribunal Temple regards the mysticism and prophecy of the Nerevarine cult as primitive superstition . The Ashlander Ancestor cults and the Nerevarines in particular have always decried the worship of living Dunmer as abominations , suspecting the unnatural lifetimes of the Tribunal to be signs of profane sorcery or necromancy . Though the authoritarian and intolerant Temple priesthood has always been inclined to tolerate Ashlander ancestor cult practices , they have always threatened Nerevarine claimants with death or imprisonment . And while generally tolerant of various cult worships , the Imperial Commission of the Occupation outlaws cults hostile to the Emperor and the Empire , and threatens members of such cults with imprisonment or death . The Ordinators are allowed a free hand when dealing with outlawed cults like the Nerevarines . Peakstar and other Incarnates in the Past . In the past , others have claimed to be the reincarnated Nerevar of prophecy . The most recent is known as Peakstar , a mysterious figure who has reportedly appeared and disappeared among the Wastes tribes over the last 30 years . The Temple notes that these False Incarnates discredit the Nerevarine prophecies . Singularly , and illogically , the Ashlanders acknowledge a history of false claimants , calling them " Failed Incarnates , " but they regard them as proof of the validity of the prophecies , rather than contradiction . Among the Nerevarines there is a fable of a Cavern of the Incarnate s , where the spirits of the Failed Incarnates dwell . The Nerevarine cult is a mystical cult , and it glorifies , rather than shrinks from , contradictions .