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The Monster children of Vivec and Molag Bal are a race of beings said to have been born from the union of the two deities, known as the "Pomegranite Banquet". They were said to have originally numbered in the thousands. They are mostly written of in the 36 Lessons of Vivec, though there is other evidence for at least some of them actually existings. These creatures are present in many pieces of Dunmeri folklore. Despite all of them having been supposedly slain, members of the race spawned were rumored to exist in the Molag Amur region of Vvardenfell.

Origins

Birth

From Vivec's union with Molag Bal, it is said that their children numbers in the thousands. Of these many monsters Eight particular ones were more mighty and powerful than the rest, managing to have escaped from Vivec's Muatra when the God tried to destroy his progeny.

The Eight Monster Children

Moon Axle

Moon Axle was one of the eight monster children from the unholy union of Molag Bal and Vivec, who initially escaped being slain. Moon Axle was made of many straight lines, though none would last too long. While Moon Axle was not the mightiest of Vivec's children, he was the most worrisome according to Vivec. He was immune to spears, so Vivec had to use the sword not held instead of Muatra. Vivec wounded Moon Axle heavily with the sword, and in order to finish the monster, switched to his giant form and reached into the west to pull out a canyon. Vivec held the canyon like a horn, reached east to grab a handful of Nix-Hounds, and then blew the souls of the Nix-Hounds through the canyon, making a terrible noise that weakened Moon Axle to the point where Vivec could finally kill it with Muatra.

Treasure Wood Sword

The Treasure Wood Sword was one of the eight monster children from the unholy union of Molag Bal and Vivec, who initially escaped being slain. The Treasure Wood Sword found itself in the possession of the Clan Ra'athim of the Chimer House Mora. Vivec demanded that the house return the Treasure Wood Sword to him lest they face his wrath, to which a Bonewalker of House Mora stated they would not return the sword, in part due to a bargain with the Daedric Prince Mephala. Vivec, unpleased with this, employed the services of the Morag Tong. They proceeded to, per the Sermons, destroy the House and Clan in its entirety. The King of Assassins of the Morag Tong reported the assassination of the Prince of House Mora himself to Vivec and presented the Warrior-Poet with the Treasure Wood Sword.

Horde Mountain

Vivec City, the remains of Horde Mountain

Horde Mountain was one of the eight monster children from the unholy union of Molag Bal and Vivec, who initially escaped being slain. Three former minor Chimer Houses helped subdue Horde Mountain for Vivec. The Warrior-Poet was overjoyed by this and consolidated these three houses into a new order, his personal guard, the Buoyant Armigers. Vivec then pierced Horde Mountain with Muatra, killing it. The Living God then dispersed the bones to form a new city for him and his Armigers, Vivec City, City of Swords. Almalexia blessed the city with her Ordinators to serve as its honor guard, and Sotha Sil blessed the holy city with a protective spell.

Pocket Cabal

The Pocket Cabal was one of the eight monster children from the unholy union of Molag Bal and Vivec, who initially escaped being slain. It is said to have hidden itself in the spell-lists of the great Chimeri wizards of the extreme east, which later became the House Telvanni. Vivec ventured to slay the monster, but the tenuous sense-fabric he wore drew out a giant bug. Inside the insect was the most powerful eastern wizard, who scolded Vivec for creating the monster. In retaliation, Vivec stabbed the wizard through his soul. The monster was eventually destroyed by Vivec, who contained it in a dome-head demon. Sotha Sil was fascinated by the creature and asked Vivec if he may treasure it. Vivec gifted them it but warned Seht never to release it into the middle world.

Ruddy Man

The Ruddy Man in battle with Vivec

The Ruddy Man was one of the eight monster children from the unholy union of Molag Bal and Vivec, who initially escaped being slain. They are said to have battled Vivec twice according to the teachings of the Tribunal Temple. He is a carapace who gives power to those who wear him, although he is sometimes considered a dreugh, or an aspect of Molag Bal worshipped by the dreughs. The Ruddy Man endures as a symbol of fear in Dunmer culture.

According to the Temple, the Ruddy Man was created when a Velothi child from Gnisis found a dead carapace, supposedly Molag Bal's old image from long ago when he ruled Mundus as chief of the dreugh-kings. Wanting to scare his village, the child wore the carapace, and the Ruddy Man was formed. Vivec did battle with the monster at the Koal Cave site near Gnisis, creating the West Gash region of Vvardenfell; it is said that the sounds of battle still echo in the region. Vivec was victorious, and went to give the carapace to the dreughs who had once modified his mother. However their leader, the Queen of Dreughs (whose name is not easy to spell), was in a period of self-incubation. Her wardens took the carapace from Vivec in her stead and promised to safeguard it, but this is the first recorded account of the dreughs being liars. Instead, the dreugh imbued the living armor with mythic inflexibility. The Ruddy Man appeared again ten years later at Tear, this time worn by a wayward shaman of the House of Troubles. After defeating him a second time, Vivec gave the carapace to the devout and loyal mystics of the Number Room, who made it into "a philosopher's armor".

The Shrine of Valor was set up in the Koal Cave by the Temple and served as part of the Pilgrimage of the Seven Graces. Pilgrims were told that the Ruddy Man was the father of all dreughs, and that Vivec spared his life if he and his children agreed to give up their tough hides as armor for the Dunmer.

Circa 2E 582, a dreugh known as the Ruddy Broodmother began terrorizing the roads around Molag Mar, killing pilgrim and Buoyant Armiger alike. The Ruddy Broodmother made its lair within the Dreudurai Glass Mine, which the Erabenimsun knew as ancient dreugh spawning grounds. The Vestige, with the help of a group of Ashlanders, drew it out of hiding and slew it. A pilgrim who survived the incident and fled into an ancestral tomb believed the creature to be the mythical Ruddy Man, though Ashlanders denied its existence, claiming that the Broodmother was simply a powerful and cunning dreugh. The Buoyant Armigers considered the thought of the beast being the Ruddy Man borderline heresy. The captain of the Buoyant Armigers at the time suggested that if the Ruddy Broodmother truly was related to the creature of legend, that it might be a lesser creature "cut from the same cloth" as the Ruddy Man.

City-Face

Vivec in battle with City-Face

City-Face, originally known as Ha-Note, was one of the eight monster children born from the unholy union of Molag Bal and Vivec, who initially escaped being slain. The Grabbers, the mysterious beings of the Adjacent Place who had never built a city of their own, grew jealous of Vivec's marvelous city, and therefore transformed Ha-Note into the being known as City-Face. Vivec, in an act of subterfuge, corrected the error in the monstrous city of the Grabbers, but then stabbed City-Face with the Ethos Knife, killing him. The act of Vivec killing City-Face with the Ethos Knife inspired the creation of the Buoyant Armigers' daggers. City-Face was described as similar to the Numidium of the Dwemer.

Lie Rock

Depiction of Vivec and Lie Rock (ESO)

Lie Rock was born of Vivec's second aperture, that is to say, Lie Rock was essentially dung excreted from Vivec. Lie Rock was removed from the Pomegranate Banquet from a forgotten guild known as the Sweeps. Lie Rock escaped the clutches of the Sweeps and ascended to the heavens claiming his divine parentage made him invited into the Hidden Heaven. This Hidden Heaven realm was known as the Scaled Blanket, and housed the Void Ghost. Vivec sent Nerevar to the heavens with the named axe to shave Lie Rock asunder but the Hortator only encountered the Void Ghost, and the two masters engaged in conversation. Lie Rock used this distraction to launch an attack on the city-god Vivec. The inhabitants of Vivec City screamed in terror as they saw the shooting star hurling towards the city out of the sky, but Vivec merely raised his hand and froze Muatra right above the city and pierced it with Muatra killing it.

Nerevar returned from the heavens and saw the frozen comet looming above the city and asked Vivec if it should be removed, to which Vivec responded 'I would have done so myself if I wanted, silly Hortator. I shall keep it there with its last intention intact, so that if the love of the people of this city for me ever disappear, so shall the power that holds back their destruction.' Nerevar said "Love is under your will only" which pleased Vivec, and he informed Nerevar that he had become a Minister of Truth.

Various other tales for the celestial rock exists such as it being flung from the heavens by the Mad God Sheogorath who was bored and wished to destroy Vivec City as the Daedric Prince felt the city was built in mockery of the heavens. Citizens of Tamriel prayed unanswered prayers to the Divines and Daedric Princes alike to stop the rocks fall but only the prayers to the blessed Living Gods were heard. Vivec raised his hand and stopped the descent of the moonlet. Baar Dau itself pledged eternal servitude to the Tribunal thereafter and guarded over the palace of Vivec and served as a citadel for the Ordinators.

Another account claimed it was a Magna Ge named Una. Una became separated from her kin as they fled to Aetherius and so Una instead chose companionship with Nirn and thus chose to nestle in close in Vvardenfell right above Vivec City where neither Una nor Nirn would feel alone again.

One Orcish tale claims Baar Dau is not the dung of Vivec as the sermons claim, but rather the dung of Malacath who defecated on the city of the Living God for the disrespect to Malacath's beloved Ogre children, as Vivec had said something about the Goblin-ken that angered Malacath and also done battle with the Flute-and-Pipe Ogres of the West Gash.

Yet another scholarly account claimed that Baar Dau was not a rock, but rather an egg. Specifically the chrysalis from which would one day hatch the final monster of Vivec and Molag Bal's ill-fated union that Vivec would engage in glorious battle with.

Gulga Mor Jil

Beastly skull of Gulga Mor Jil (ESO)

Gulga Mor Jil (stylized GULGA MOR JIL HYAET AE HOOM) was one of the eight and most powerful of the monster children from the unholy union of Molag Bal and Vivec, who initially escaped being slain. He was said to be the mightiest, and his name is a string of power. Unlike the other children, Gulga Mor Jil showed no violent nature or intent to harm others, and accepted his death peacefully. His bones went on to lay the foundations of Necrom, and the runes on his tusks were transcribed onto the Fulcrum Obscura. Following their birth, Vivec would go on to neutralize his monster children, and after freezing his seventh child Lie Rock above his palace, he went to the Provisional House and looked into the middle world to find the eighth and final monster, Gulga Mor Jil. In the Provisional House, Nerevar saw a vision of Talos that Vivec told him about earlier; Nerevar asked Vivec why he was always so evasive, to which Vivec said "that to be otherwise was to betray his nature".

Together, Nerevar and Vivec went to a village near where Vivec had first been found by Ayem and Seht as an egg, where Gulga Mor Jil was located. Unlike the other children, he did not act much like a monster, sitting with his legs in the ocean and with a troubled look on his face. When he saw Vivec, he asked why he should have to die and return to oblivion. Vivec told Gulga "that to be otherwise was to betray his nature". This did not seem to satisfy the monster, so Vivec, channeling the mercy that Almalexia possessed, spoke a poem about how the all-consuming fire would make a secret door to the void of Padhome, where those who die would be safe and looked after in the house of Boethiah. This was the same poem Vivec had read to comfort his mother Berahzic.

With a peaceful look on his face, Gulga Mor Jil accepted his fate, and after being killed by Muatra his bones became the foundation for the City of the Dead, Necrom. Nerevar then asked Vivec why he asked him to come if he knew the eighth monster would give in so easily. Vivec looked at the him for a long time, and Nerevar understood, concluding "Do not betray your nature. Answer as you will." Vivec said he brought Nerevar because he knew the mightiest of his issue would succumb to Muatra without argument if given consolation beforehand. They looked at each other again for a long time and Nerevar now understood, telling Vivec he was now the "mightiest of his children". Vivec would then pen this account in a sermon, written as consolation to "those who read it that are destined to die", foreshadowing his betrayal and possible murder of Nerevar.

Gallery

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  Statue of Vivec standing over the remains of Gulga Mor Jil

References

Note: The following references are considered to be unofficial sources. They are included to round off this article and may not be authoritative or conclusive.