Enderal | Pride and Downfall

The probability of you knowing about Enderal is slim, but if that’s incorrect, feel free to skip this paragraph. Enderal is a total conversion mod made for Skyrim. For those unfamiliar with that, a TCM is a mod where the final product is a different game from the original one that was modded. A very popular example of this is the original Counter-Strike, which was a mod for Half-Life that was later acquired by Valve. So, Enderal is kind of a game that was made in Skyrim’s engine. It was made by a group of German devs called SureAI, and this is actually their fourth project. The first two were TCMs for Morrowind, and the third – called Nehrim – was a mod for Oblivion. Both Nehrim and Enderal are available on Steam with their own storefronts, and available for free given as long as you own a legal copy of the original game.

In this piece, I want to talk about the core theme of the game. Suffice to say, I intend to spoil everything I can, so if you haven’t finished or even played the game, stop reading here. Even if you’re one of those who don’t care about that kinda stuff, Enderal’s a brilliantly written masterpiece and should be experienced without being spoiled.

With that out of the way, what stood out to me as the core theme is Pride and Downfall. This is revealed in a quite unsubtle manner during the Word of the Dead, when the player has to solve a puzzle, the answer to which is “Pride was my downfall.”

The first case I want to look at is Tealor Arantheal, the Emperor. Tealor is a man who thinks he returned from the brink of death and was given a second chance, and soon afterwards he begins to have visions. His pride is birthed when given a new purpose, and only keeps growing when he takes charge of the leadership of Enderal. The downfall of that can be seen at the very end of Enderal, when Tealor repeats the same mistake the preceding Emperors have done. In the end, Tealor dies thinking he alone saved everyone, when in reality he activated the mechanism that causes the annihilation of their race.

For the second case, I’ll talk of the Black Warden, or at least the guy who claims to be. While his predicament isn’t necessarily one that I view as the natural consequence of his actions, the story is written in a certain way to support the argument that his pride (transferring himself into a mechanical body to escape and combat the High Ones) lead to his downfall (trapped in that state underneath Ark). The pride of the Black Warden is unquestionable. His self-importance is evident in his attempt to take over the Prophet’s body, because in the end he still believes that he is the one who can save everyone, or at the very least stop the High Ones.

The last case is the Prophet themselves, aka the player character. It begins after the shipwreck, after the miraculous survival. The Prophet begins to have visions of the future and discovers not only an affinity to magic, but many abilities. Soon in their journey, they encounter Tealor Arantheal, the man who informs them of their status of The Prophet. While the Prophet being a playable character in an RPG makes it difficult to say that this holds for every single versions of this character, power and pride go hand in hand. Considering the Prophet’s acceptance of the role to save everyone, this assumption isn’t too presumptuous.

In the end, the Prophet is faced with two choices – one where they sacrifice their life to give the rest of the world a fighting chance, or to escape to a place that guarantees survival but also cataclysm for the rest of the world. The first choice ensures that the rest of the world will know what happened in Enderal, and armed with the knowledge they will have a fighting chance. The second choice relies on the Prophet’s knowledge alone in fighting the High Ones during the next cycle.

While they both might seem to be viable options, to me it seems clear that in lines with the core theme, the second choice is the one that leads to a repeat of the cycle. To rely on one person’s ability to convince a world full of people of an intangible and unbelievable threat is a stretch, and in line with the prideful thinking of “I alone saved them.” The story shows, again and again, how the cataclysm is unstoppable by the actions of individuals.

During the events of Word of the Dead, where the core theme is spelt out, the Prophet has a conversation with the Aged Man. The latter berates the former for their self-important line of thinking, and for thinking that they can make a difference. It’s clear that he is immensely power, yet he too has regrets of a failure. Before that encounter, however, the Prophet meets a woman floating in water, in the fantasy-equivalent of suspended animation. From the conversation, it’s clear that she was the lover of the Aged Man, and she’s not all there anymore.

From these two instances, it seems pretty clear that the Aged Man is another Prophet of a previous cycle, one who survived the cataclysm with their lover. Being one of the Fleshless, the Aged Man outlived his lover and although she is alive in a certain state, he is all alone. Given that the cataclysmic cycle is ongoing, he must have failed. And this might be my personal interpretation, but it seemed to me that he once thought he was capable of changing fate with his powers and abilities, and found himself on the losing side against the world.

From all the instances of Enderal, we can see that the cycle repeats every single time, and at the ones driving the machinery of this destruction are the ones who believe themselves to be important to saving the world. The High Ones selectively choose people like that to become Fleshless, so that their pride can lead to the downfall of the world.

In conclusion, I think Enderal’s story is one that’s a very accurate representation of human nature and the world we live in. Individual actions are both impactful and meaningful in their own rights, but for changes of the large scale, unity is required. To actually have a fighting chance, we need an ocean, not single droplets.