Dagoth Ur

*For other uses, see Dagoth Ur (Disambiguation).*

*"What a fool you are. I'm a god, how can you kill a god? What a grand and intoxicating innocence. How could you be so naive? There is no escape. No recall or intervention can work in this place. Come, lay down your weapons, it is not too late for my mercy."*
―Dagoth Ur[src]
**Dagoth Ur**, known as **Voryn Dagoth** in life, **Awakened Lord of the Sixth House**, **Lord Dagoth**, and **Father of the Mountain** to his followers, and whom Vivec would later come to call **The Sharmat**, was a powerful Chimer lord and Lord High Councillor to House Dagoth, and is the main antagonist of *The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind*. He is also called **Devil Dagoth Ur** or **Devil of Dagoth**.

## By game

* Dagoth Ur (Morrowind Character)
* Dagoth Ur (Legends)

## History

### Early life and Councilorship

Voryn Dagoth was born into the Great House Dagoth. Accounts of his early life are few, but it is known that he did later in life become the Lord High Councillor of the house and a retainer to Indoril Nerevar. After the defeat of the Nords at the Battle of Red Mountain, the Chimer and Dwemer created an alliance known as the First Council formed by Nerevar and Dumac, the king of the Dwemer in Morrowind. The First Council lasted for centuries until Voryn, through unknown means, claimed to have discovered that the Tonal Architect, Kagrenac had found the Heart of Lorkhan, and that the Dwemer would use the power of the Heart to create a giant machine known as the Numidium to use against the Chimer. Voryn, along with Nerevar, Vivec, Nerevar's wife Almalexia, and Sotha Sil were the only ones before Kagrenac to learn about the Heart. The Daedric Prince Azura later confirmed Voryn's claims and Nerevar declared war on the Dwemer, culminating in the race's disappearance at Red Mountain.

### Nerevar's death

After the defeat of the Dwemer, the artifacts Sunder, Keening, and Wraithguard fell into the hands of Nerevar, who had to decide what to do with the tools. Voryn urged the destruction of the tools while Nerevar convened with the Tribunal and Azura. When Nerevar and the Tribunal returned to lock away the tools, Voryn refused to give them up saying that he was entrusted with keeping them safe. Unknown to Nerevar and the Tribunal, Voryn had experimented on the tools and the Heart and had managed to steal its divine energy. Voryn now called himself Dagoth Ur from that point on, though other sources claim that Nerevar coined the name. Nerevar and the Tribunal's guards fought and drove off Dagoth Ur, who was thought to have died. Nerevar was said to have died from his injuries fighting Dagoth Ur, though the cause of Nerevar's death is often disputed. Other accounts suggest it was the Tribunal who killed Nerevar, but only after he had vowed along with the Tribunal to never use the tools.

The Tribunal took possession of the tools, and after some time, Sotha Sil managed to find a way to become gods by using the tools. The Tribunal traveled to Red Mountain and used Kagrenac's tools on the Heart of Lorkhan, using its power to attain immortality. For breaking their promise to never use the tools, Azura appeared in anger, turning the Chimer into the Dunmer and prophesying that Nerevar would be incarnated and curse them for their deeds. Dagoth Ur, however, managed to maintain a connection to the Heart through unknown means and managed to stay alive and immortal, although temporarily non-corporeal and presumed to be dead by most.

### The Birth of Dagoth Ur

In 2E 882, the Tribunal journeyed to Red Mountain to renew their god-like powers. However, by that time, Dagoth Ur and his House had been reborn in new bodies that more than matched the Tribunal's power. Unable to enter the Red Mountain to renew their powers, the Tribunal grew weaker while Dagoth Ur grew more powerful as a result of being exposed to the Heart for so long. During this time, Almalexia and Sotha Sil, in a vain attempt to regain their powers, lost Keening and Sunder to Dagoth Odros and Dagoth Vemyn, only surviving after Vivec saved them. Dagoth Ur began to spread the Blight and Corprus diseases by powerful and unnatural ash storms from Red Mountain, beginning a complex plan to conquer Morrowind and all of Tamriel with the second Numidium, Akulakhan.

Dagoth Ur's main goals were to established a theocracy in Morrowind based on the new-born god Akulakhan as the ancient heirs and well making House Dagoth as the dominant political power in Morrowind. He also claim to unite the Dunmer under Dagoth Ur's guidance to battle against foreign races. Exposed the Tribunal's false worship and destroy the ecclesiastical authority and political power of the Temple. Eliminating all remaining individuals of "inferior" and "mongrel" races and drive the Empire out from Morrowind. He also claimed to reclaim ancient territories stolen by Skyrim and Argonia and extend the worship of Akulakhan to all nations of Tamriel through subversion and conquest.

### The Tribunal's decline

Thoughout the birth of Dagoth Ur, the Tribunal begin to decline. The Tribunal became strained with the war with Dagoth Ur, focused on protecting their people, but many thought that as gods they had become almost like Western gods: absent and silent, no longer among the public with a personal presence. Dissident Priests uncovered that the ultimate source of the Tribunal's divinity was likely the same as the source of Dagoth Ur's evil power, and Dagoth Ur's power seemed to wax as the Tribunal's power waned and was weakened by the time during the Third Era. While the Tribunal could never defeat or "kill" Dagoth Ur is due by whenever the Tribunal gods attempts to invade Red Mountain, the power of the Heart of Lorkhan always revive him, and the Tribunal had to maintain the Ghostfence to keep Dagoth Ur's minions from invading Morrowind.

### The Nerevarine Prophecy

*"This is the end. The bitter, bitter end."*
―Dagoth Ur[src]
In 3E 427 a prisoner matching the description of the Nerevarine was sent to the island of Vvardenfell by Uriel Septim VII to investigate complaints of disturbances in the region. After it was revealed in the Cavern of the Incarnate that this person was Nerevar reincarnated, they obtained Wraithguard, recovered the other tools of Kagrenac and met with Dagoth Ur in Red Mountain. There, they severed the Heart of Lorkhan from the mortal plane by using the tools, and without the Heart to sustain them, Dagoth Ur and his Ash Vampire brothers perished, and Akulakhan was destroyed. By doing this, the Nerevarine ended the Blight and Corprus diseases, along with the threat of House Dagoth. This action also caused the Tribunal to become mortal.

### Legacy and Influence

After Dagoth Ur's demised after being killed by the Nerevarine, Red Mountain erupted and result to the Red Year in 4E 5 due to fulfillment of the Nerevarine Prophecy and the disappearance of Vivec in the late Third Era. The widespread worship of the Tribunal ended as the New Temple guided the Dunmer people back to their worship of the three Reclamations. Cults of Tribunal worshippers continued to exist well into both the Fourth although these individuals were persecuted by the New Temple as heretics. In the Fifth Era, Dagoth Ur's continued influence one such cult of Almalexia worshippers constructed a hidden temple in a cave on Solstheim known as Ashfall's Tear, just north of Raven Rock. This group dedicated themselves to preserving the relics of the Tribunal Temple, including the Mask of Dagoth Ur. Prior to the temple's construction, the mask had been passed to Matriarch Drevlan by her predecessor, who warned her never to open the chest it was stored in. The Matriarch duly locked the chest in the temple armory, behind a portcullis which could only be raised in the presence of the masks of the three Tribunes.

However the Mask itself also absorbed Dagoth Ur's influence which a few of the temple priests were corrupted by the Sharmat's voice, which pounded in their heads like a stone heart. In 5E 1017, the Diviner Erden Relvel eventually possessed the mask, however Dagoth Ur managed to reach the mask and used his power to raise the portcullis, allowing Erden to escape with the artifact without alerting the Matriarch. From listening to his master's words, Erden became a priest of Dagoth Ur and learned how to spawn Corprus. He used this knowledge to create Ash Zombies, transforming his fellow Temple priest Arthamis and others into unthinking minions of Dagoth Ur. He then sent these creatures to attack the temple at Ashfall's Tear. Ultimately, he hoped to spread his master's "cure" across the entire world.

Knowing that the Tribunal cult would eventually discover that the mask had been taken, Erden left a note in its place, summoning whoever possessed the three masks of the Tribunal to face him in combat, which he believed that needed to face the Tribunal's champion similar to how Dagoth Ur faced the Nerevarine. Erden, now full controlled by Dagoth Ur himself, awaited the arrival of this fated champion at the graveyard near Tel Mithryn, surrounded by his Ash Zombie minions. Nelilia Sedaleth, a Dunmer mercenary, subsequently answered Erden's summons, defeating him in combat. Erden's defeat by Nelilia, putting the end of Dagoth Ur's influence.

## Personality

Dagoth Ur maintained the honorable ceremonies notable to his house as he allowed the Nerevarine to deliver the first hit when they battled. When asked by the Nerevarine on how he justified his crimes he replied that he accepted the responsibility of leadership and that Morrowind could not be liberated from the Empire without bloodshed and that he viewed his actions as just and noble. It was said that Dagoth Ur had adopted the views and motivations of the Tonal Architect Kagrenac.

### Powers

Dagoth Ur could send messages in dreams and was able to make people serve him. It was also said that he could speak through the mouths of his minions. He was a powerful mage, with long lethal claws. Only by destroying the Heart of Lorkhan was the Nerevarine able to defeat him.

## Trivia

* Both versions of Dagoth Ur must be defeated to complete "The Citadels of the Sixth House," the last main quest.
* Dagoth Ur's plan to use Akulakhan to conquer Tamriel for his own is strikingly similar to Tiber Septim using the Numidium to conquer Tamriel and establish the Third Empire. This is ironic, as Dagoth Ur despised the Empire and wished to eradicate them completely, often calling them "mongrel dogs."
* Dagoth Ur was voiced by Jeff Baker, who also voiced several other characters in *Morrowind*, such as Jiub, Sheogorath, and Mehrunes Dagon, among others.
* Dagoth Ur's title "Sharmat" is derived from the Arabic word "Shaitan," meaning "Devil."

## Notes

1. ↑ The exact race of Dagoth Ur is unclear. Visibly, he has a dark gray humanoid body with sharp fingers and long black hair, suggesting that he is a Dunmer or an Ash Creature, most closely resembling Ash Vampires. According to in-game data from *Morrowind*, he is not categorized as either but is technically his own special type of creature. According to his creature type card in Legends, he is a God, with little elaboration.
2. ↑ In his life as Voryn Dagoth, he is the Lord High Councillor in the First Council.

### Name usage

In *The Elder Scrolls: Arena*, a simple map of the continent of Tamriel is shown, including the island of Vvardenfell. The center of this island is a volcano which is referred to only as **Dagoth-Ur**. However, in *The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind*, the volcano is referred to by its inhabitants almost exclusively as **Red Mountain**. This discrepancy is explained by the fact that Dagoth Ur resides inside of Red Mountain for most of his life. Thus, in local legend, the mountain is sometimes referred to by this name.

*Note:* It is commonly accepted that the name **Dagoth Ur** should properly be used to refer to the character, and the volcano should be referred to as **Red Mountain**. However, if the name has the hyphen, **Dagoth-Ur**, it is referring to the volcano.
## Gallery

Dagoth Ur concept art.Dagoth Ur in the Facility Cavern.Dagoth Ur in Akulakhan's chamber.Dagoth Ur in *The Elder Scrolls: Legends*.Card art of Dagoth Ur in *The Elder Scrolls: Legends*.Dagoth Ur card from *The Elder Scrolls: Legends*.
## Appearances

* *The Elder Scrolls: Arena*
* *The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind*
* *The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion* (mentioned only)
* *The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim* (mentioned only)
	+ *The Elder Scrolls V: Dragonborn* (mentioned only)
* *The Elder Scrolls Online* (mentioned only)
	+ Template:ESO Morrowind (mentioned only)
	+ Template:Clockwork City (mentioned only)
* *The Elder Scrolls: Legends* Template:HoM Template:RtCC

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 *Message from Dagoth Ur*
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Dagoth Ur dialogue topic in Morrowind
3. ↑ *Sithis*
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 *Five Songs of King Wulfharth*
5. ↑ Dialogue with Divayth Fyr
6. ↑ *Pocket Guide to the Empire, Third Edition: Eras*
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 *Nerevar at Red Mountain*
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 *The Battle of Red Mountain*
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 9.6 9.7 9.8 *Plan to Defeat Dagoth Ur*
10. ↑ Dialogue with Vivec
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Events of *The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind*
12. ↑ *The Reclamations*
13. ↑ *Heretic Dossier: Blacksmith's Confessional*
14. ↑ *Matriarch Drevlan's Note*
15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 *Priest Arthamis' Note*
16. ↑ *Erden Relvel's Note*
17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Events during "Ghosts of the Tribunal"
18. ↑ Events during "Ashen Heart"
19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Dialogue with Dagoth Ur
20. ↑ Gameplay in *The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind*

**Notice**: The following are unlicensed references. They are not copyrighted by a ZeniMax Media company, but can still be considered part of *The Elder Scrolls* lore and are included for completeness.
1. ↑ Reddit comment by Michael Kirkbride: "What does the word 'Sharmat' mean anyway?"