The Dragons Are Back (Miraculous Ladybug X The Elder Scrolls Crossover)

Chapter 46: The Power in Words

Marinette sat sprawled on her bed. Her homework was finished, she'd gotten just a little closer to decoding the Guardian grimoire with Alya and Paarthurnax's help, and another patrol had been completed.

As she lay there, thinking, her mind eventually turned to the Dwemer, the deep elves, or dwarves, as man had once mistakenly called them.

They were once a great civilization, highly industrious, extremely technologically advanced, and with truly alien belief systems unlike anything on earth. Paarthurnax had once told her that their inventions outclassed even the technology of modern times. They created robotic guards called animunculi, programmed with rudimentary A.I. and even a fantastic version of the Internet.

They didn't believe in any gods and refused to be constrained by Aedric law and the rules of magic and reality. Paarthurnax also mentioned that they refused to believe anything they didn't like, no matter how true it was, and would reject and try to find a way around it, even the very laws of the universe.

Using a form of tonal magic called tonal architecture, they bent the Earthbones to their will to create both mechanical wonders and abominations, effectively hijacking the fundamental laws of reality for their own ends. They even summoned Daedric Princes in order to test their divinity, despite the massive risk of pissing one off and the inevitable destruction that would follow. It was said that even the dullest of their kind was still a genius by human standards, and that even a Dwemer child could construct a mechanical golem. They also invented a method of reading an Elder Scroll without any of the negative side effects.

They were also haughty and cruel, twisting the Snow Elves, or Falmer, to the point where it changed their very souls from black, like all non-dragon (or Dragonborn) sapient races, to white, the same as literal animals. However, according to Paarthurnax, their blue-and-orange morality could have also made them believe that they were helping the Falmer, by some insane stretch of the imagination.

Eventually they stumbled across the Heart of Lorkhan, the heart or "divine center", as Paarthurnax called it, of the ambiguously "dead" sort-of creator god Lorkhan. They tried to tap into its power and attempted to create a new god out of a robot called the Anumidium while ascending their entire race to a higher plane of existence. This resulted in the Dwemer mysteriously disappearing off the face of Nirn. No one, not even the dragons, had any idea of whether they succeeded or not, or even what really happened to them.

Their use of Tonal architecture got Marinette thinking about tonal magic as a whole, especially the Thu'um. The Thu'um, like tonal architecture, was a form of magic that didn't fall into the category of "normal magic" and revolved around words and sound.

Three Words of Power. That was all it took to make and unmake Nirn. If only three Words could destroy and create the universe, then what kind of power would a full sentence hold? What about a whole speech or song? If the words of any Shout, no matter how small, was changing and adding to the song of creation, then how much power, really, was at the fingertips of a Thu'um master?

Marinette shuddered at the thought of what could happen if Hawk Moth, or even worse, Molag Bal, ever got his hands on the secrets of the Voice. Alix had told her about her battle with Miraak, and how it had felt like fighting a demigod. The Thu'um could very well give nigh-unlimited power due to its nature.

Marinette turned onto her side, checking her phone. It was very late, well past her bedtime. She pulled the blankets over herself and shut her eyes, hoping to get some actual sleep for once.

"The universe is a song," Strunsahtiid said, his Thu'um leaking slightly into his normal voice, "and the greatest and mightiest of all are those who listen and sing to its tune."