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"They slaughtered the sons of Skyrim, but not before King Wulfharth killed King Dumalacath the Dwarf-Orc, and doomed his people."

1) Orkey is considered the old foe of the Nords. Orkey's people are too. Going back all the way to Atmora. Clearly, the orcs were an early foe of the Nords when they first settled Skyrim, since the orcs originally seemed to settle near Saarthal. Then again, it was the Falmer who challenged Nords. Then again, maybe the Nords battled Orcs as they expanded West under the post-Alessian kings. Perhaps the orcs were conflated with the old myths of the Falmer, and the two became considered one and the same. That is, after the dragons and falmer were defeated, orcs were the big bad and so the Nords just assumed that all their legends of bad elves applied to this type.

2)Trinimac and Malacath led the racial foes of the Nords. Same god. Tradition puts Trinimac's transformation during the Velothi heresy/exodus. Thus, well into the mythic era. How then could 'Orkey' be the god that vexed old Atmora? Well, Trinimac was the enemy of Lorkhan and man. He was the biggest, loudest opponent of Lorkhanic ideals. This was specifically what Boethiah challenged him over. He also is said to have been the one to cut Shor's heart out.

3)The Wulfharth saga is suspect. You have him repeating the exact old myth of Nords having their lifespan cut short. You also have what appears to be a repeat of Shor having his heart cut out. The secret song of Wulfharth says Shor's ghost got his heart back from Dagoth, in a conspiracy with the Tribunal to oppose the Dwarves. Dumac(Dumalacath) had to strike Shor's heart so it could be cut out. This parallels with the original myth as well. Here you have mythic tales mirrored in the tales of Wulfharth. If the battle at Red Mountain, then is a mirror for the battle at convention, what conclusions can be drawn?

4)Consider that the Chimer had as their chief god Boethiah. Yes, Trinimac was supposedly transformed before the exodus. Yes, orcs were summoned to fight with the Nords at Red Mountain. But if the Tribunal conspiracy led to Dumac-who-helped-sunder-Shor-from-his-heart, then there are parallels between the Battle at Red Mountain, convention, and the Trinimac transformation saga.

5)Malacath is associated with Volundrung.

6)Vivec's account doesn't even mention Wulfharth or Shor being present. In fact the controversy over Nerevar's death doesn't even involve the Nords.

While I agree that the events of red mountain mirror convention, I don't think there is any reason to believe that the orcs are the dwemer, considering that the last living dwarf looked nothing like an orc and the differences in their culture/technology. Also, there is that one quest in skyrim where you have to get all the different kinds of elf blood to make a dwemer blood mimicry.

However, there is the odd statement by Wulfharth stating: “Don't you see where you really are? Don't you know who Shor really is? Don't you know what this war is?” And they looked from the King to the God to the Devils and Orcs, and some knew, really knew, and they are the ones that stayed"
So that line makes me think that there is a lot more going on here than there seems. I just don't think that something is that the dwarves=orcs.

It's more likely they're supposed to represent the same things in Dunmer mythology - heathen enemies. Pariahs who reject the glory of the Velothi culture. The Dwemer departed the world to become Numidium's golden skin but the Orsimer remain, sent by Malacath to test and harry the faithful. Are the Orcs the same as the Dwemer? Yes. Only in Morrowind, symbolically. They test the Dunmer for weakness the same way the Dwemer tested their faith and resolve.

The parameters of the Red Moment are ill-defined. A Dragon Break makes a lot of things possible, though Orcs=Dwemer would require one serious tangle in time.

Some sources, like The Real Nerevar, paint Orcs as having been allies of the Dwemer. It's possible Orc mercenaries fought on both sides.

Dumac's monikers indicate an apparent association with Orcs and Malacath, but this association is not necessarily mystical. He may have been known for hiring them. After all, the greatest Dwemeri factories could apparently only produce about one automaton a day. They needed footsoldiers. Things like "Dwarf-Orc" may have simply been derogatory names attached after-the-fact.

Who really knows with the Battle of Red Mountain. It's one of my favorite topics in the lore, but I don't care to speculate on it too much. The truth is so clouded, and so much is possible in the TES-verse, that the permutations of how it all could've gone down are nearly endless.

I tend to agree, Pilaf, but all too often, thematic and mythological connections in TES translate into more substantive connections, enough so that the possibility can't be ruled out. And, you know, pseudo-imagos, blah blah blah.

I think the biggest piece of evidence to the contrary is that Yagrum didn't soil his mechanical underside when he saw my Orc character in Morrowind. "Huzzah, I'm not the last of my kind!" None of that. An interesting theory, but ultimately, there's just too much to disprove such a theory.

I do hope Bethesda never fully defines or explains what exactly happened to the Dwemer or bring them back somehow. A complete and utter mystery is interesting in history, and it makes all of their technology and lore infinitely more valuable.

A great many things in TES really are just what they appear to be on the surface. People have a tendency to learn about some of the deeper, more obscure stuff and then start seeing patterns where there aren't any. That's pretty much what humanity is built to do -detect patterns. It's what makes our brains human. Sometimes an Orc is just an Orc though. Them having Volendrung isn't really evidence. The story gives it away. Rourken threw it to the deserts on the west of the continent and migrated there. Later, when his people vanished, the aboriginal tribes of beast people including the Orcs moved into their abandoned cities from the harsh wastelands of Hegathe, and one of their chiefs claimed Volendrung. Malacath probably thought it was a fitting tribute, for the Dwemer never believed in his power, so claiming their hammer as his own brings him delight.

That's what I have to keep telling myself when I want to ponder matters such as Morihaus being a dragon, or that Dovakiin caused a time loop in the Merethic era by taking all the masks back to Bromjunaar, or how weird it is that Jyggalag and Hircine are bound to the mortals' reckoning of an era, or that CHIM is the window through the fourth wall through which only the player can see. But it is fun to tool around with fictional lore concepts with zero concern for how "true" they may be.

Headcanon is fun. I live by the concept of Boring and Therefore Wrong, introduced to us by the wonderful Lady N. If something a fan comes up with is awesome and it matches the continuity well, to me it might as well be canon. But this Orcs/Dwemer thing I don't swallow. I've seen it three or four times over the years and nobody has ever packaged it to me in a way that I'll buy. It just doesn't seem cool or plausible to me. The Orcs were already a race by the battle of Red Mountain. Before the Dwemer even disappeared they were there, so if the tampering with the Heart caused a Dragon Break it retroactively created them through the same mechanics they were already created - by the corruption of Trinimac many years before.

The answer is: No

i think this example highlights what i loved about Morrowind lore - there was an intentional and sometimes contradictory vagueness to it which acknowledged that in RL accurate, objective "truth" is rarely encountered

It allowed the imagination free reign and treated us like grown ups big enough to make our own decisions

I think there was quite a bit of "objective" truth in Morrowind lore, but it didn't lead people around by their noses. It forced fans to figure it out for themselves. This makes it rewarding when you finally do so, but it also makes editing the wiki and factfinding a pain in the ass.

For example, before the Battle of Red Mountain, Nerevar sent Dagoth Ur to trick the Nords into attacking the Dumac's Citadel first, using them to soften up the Dwemer forces before the Chimer army arrived. I'm certain that this is factual, not mere "headcanon", but you have to really read between the lines in the texts to arrive at this conclusion.

I never got why the chimer would risk the nords getting Shor his heart back

They were losing the war pretty badly. The Chimer were a relatively small group of elves, and the Dwemer had a very powerful military. Further, the Chimer weren't united at the beginning of the war; it took a series of military defeats to convince them to unite under Nerevar again. Getting the Nords into the fray was a risk, but it was the only chance they had.

I can't really take credit for that idea. That was Sload, maybe? At least he's who I heard it from first.