July 26, 2014 11:54 AM EDT
So.. I've been wondering about Dragon Cult... More specifically about Dragon Priest. We truly don't know how the society worked, especially we don't know how the Dragon Priests ruled. Yes, we've been told that they were ruthless and cruel in the eyes of Nords. But most of the stories have become legends. I've noted that no manuscripts or scrolls of those era has survived . Which is weird and suspicious, because even today we find texts which are thousand years old.
There are two possibilities. Either most of stories were passed down as songs or poems and written language existed but was of less importance or the Nords who rebelled agains Dragon Cult destroyed every scroll in existance to erase the shameful history of their people. To me the second option is very likely since ancient Nords are known from destroying dragon worship related shrines and temples. I'm sure you've noticed empty bookshelves or bookshelves full of destroyed books in ancient ruins. The books looks like they were burnt down. Since the temples were made of stone it's highly unlikely it was accidental.
It's clear that ancient Nords hated dragon cultists and thieir old masters. When you want to blackmail someone you coloraise the story and the effect is that that person appears to be some kind of monster and without any scroll of the era to confirm the story grands told youngsters it was assumed they stated truth. In the eyes of ancient Nords it shurley seemed true, but life is in shades of gray not black and white.
Now to the Priests themselves. Yes, we meet nine in Skyrim but from the rare dialogue ( mostly Morokei since his somehow talkative) they seem more to be arrogant and narcisstic . As for Skyrim priests, you too would be p i s s e d off after awaking from millenias old slumber and would like to take revenge upon descendants of traitors. Obviously they abused their power in some way, cause all legends grow around some fact or facts, but I don't think they were some kind of bloodthirsty psychopaths. Why? Because then the Cult wouldn't last fror that long ( e.g Communist tyranny in Poland lasted for just 37 years comparing to the " tyranny of Dragon Priests" it was really short lived).Sure they feard and respected ( in some way) them. What's more important it worked like the case of kings in medieval Europe. Just as real life kings they were thought to be given power by the choice of gods and since they were chosen gods themselves they rule was thought to be sacred. A naturall turn of things. So to trigger a revolution you need a leader ( or leaders) who'd give people hope it has a chance to succeed. Plus there must be a change in the way a part of society thinks. Besides history shows us tyranny is short lived. And we have to keep in mind that priests were elected and there was more than one Morokei or Hevnoraak. So the stories of cruelty can be mix of actions of a bunch of diffrent Priests who shared the title.
Now to the society. We know from the bits of information how WOULD the society structure looked like. We know that there were Priests who acted as leaders ( obviously more that nine since those were High Priests and were more important than others. It also seems like only High Priests were given masks) wariorrs ( who most likely would be something between nobility and warriorhood in today Skyrim) ... and that's it. That's all we know. But that's enough to assume the rest of society was divided into craftsmen, merchants, peasants and poverity ( naturally). And my believe is that it was poverity and peasants who were abused, since they weren't give a damn about their fate. And not by priests themselves ( Honestly ,why a poverful being like him could give a damn about abusing the lowest social class? Unless he was oftimes bored) So the society was of the feudal kind, just like medieval European kingdoms. Perhaps for peasants it worked just like in real life, they were owned by the landowner and had no rights. This mistreat could lead to uprise which always ended up as bloody sloughter which in turn could be partly a cause of the legends of abuse and cruelty.
That's all folks :) So what are your ideas? :D