Welcome to the Ashlanders!

Don't worry, they will die eventually since the Heart of Lorkhan breaks at some point and they start destroying each other.

The Tribunal themselves are actually an interesting concept. They are very 'human' gods, and also extremely insecure. They possess incredible power, but know that their true influence (that of being seen as living gods worthy of following) is purely based on public opinion. In Deshaan you see that especially, with Almalexia. They, or at least she, is terrified of being seen for what she is, a mortal. A very long lived, very very powerful mortal, but certainly not a true divine being. She is fallible and not omnipotent.

And that is what actually makes them interesting. They aren't like the eight divines who are the traditional 'benevolent but generally absent' deities, and they aren't like the daedric princes who while multifaceted, are still generally regarded as antipathetic towards nirn and mortals. They are, in some ways, the best of both worlds. They are physically, tangibly active in the world, unlike the Divines (generally), but they aren't as single-minded and extreme as the daedric princes.

The Tribunal epitomize what it means to be dunmer, both the good and the bad. They are ruthless, ambitious, powerful, cunning and terribly ambitious, but they value compassion, wisdom and intelligence while being selfish, self-serving and pragmatic. And most importantly for the Dunmer, they are *there*, they are unquestionably powerful, and they represent what most dunmer aspire to be.

100% agree.

I wish there was some way in ESO I could troll them by sneaking around Mournhold and yelling "Look, it's the Nerevarine!"

billywink3b14_ESO wrote: »

They are false Gods, traitors, and hypocrites. I just want everyone to know I hate them. They were once Chimer who went to war with the Dwemer due to their fear the Dwemer would use a certain artifact to be like Gods. They won the war and their leader asked them NOT to use the item. He dies and they, as the traitors they are, use the item and become Gods and disregard the Daedra. Now the Dunmer are cursed and it's because of these selfish "gods". They are disgusting traitors and one day I'm going to kill them. They are WEAK and insecure and have no right being the spiritual leaders of ANYONE.

I JUST NEEDED TO VENT!

If Vox wasn't so blind I would have joined her.

1) The Chimer went to war (the final time) against the Dwemer because of the numidium (and thats a pretty darn good reason). After the Nord invasion they were allies, and between Dumac and Nerevar, it was a pretty solid alliance. Kagrenac's the one that screwed everything up. Even Dumac would've give reason to Nerevar if he would've known what Kagrenac was doing.

2) The betrayal is mired in controversy and no 'unique' version of what happened is clear. The only thing that is sure is that at one point they used Kagrenac's tools on the heart and gained crazy powers. They were cursed because they switched the worship of their people from the Daedric princes (Boethiah, Azura and Mephala) to themselves. Azura was pissed and cursed them.
- So in a way, they didn't respect Nerevar's wishes and used the tools, but it didn't really cause any ill effect and Nerevar's last moments are pretty unclear anyway. Calling them traitorous on that basis is a bit of a stretch but I do get it.
- A Daedric prince cursing a race isn't unheard of. (Trinimac/Malacath)

3) This 'Betrayal' strengthened the race. The Chimer were fading away, they had lost much of what made them the Velothi, and the wars against the Dwemer were wearing them down. They gained a lot of strength as a people under Nerevar and it could've gone differently but after his death, the Tribunal and the Curse actually made the Dunmer into a pretty strong race.

Now, your statement of the Tribunal being weak, I kinda of agree. Amalexia is a push over and a )@#(%*. Vivec is quite a decent leader, regardless of his powers, and seems to regret the actions that happened at the end of the first council war (which is what gives the whole 'betrayal' theory some weight). And we don't know much of Sotha Sil. Bottom line is, by Skyrim's timeline, they are all dead anyway, and the Dunmer begin fading out as the Chimer had.