State of Morrowind during 4E 201/return of ash-blight?

[Scuttlefish]

Hello! I made an account here specifically to ask some of you lore-masters a few questions. Hope you can help me out!!

I'm currently in the process of creating a Morrowind RP set during 4E 201. My knowledge on what in the actual heck is going on in Morrowind during the events of ESV is a bit unclear. So I'm to believe Vvardenfell is completely buried in ash and uninhabitable, so no more Vivec, Balmora, etc. but the mainland was able to recover to a certain extent? And I guess House Redoran are top dog now, understandably so since House Hlaalu are a bunch of traitorous s'wits and Indoril lost their influence with the fall of the Tribunal temple.
But what happened to the rest of the Sixth House cultists that the Nerevarine didn't eliminate? They don't really talk much about the Blight or the aftermath of Dagoth Ur's defeat, but I find it hard to believe that killing the leader would silence all of his followers. I know that the reason why Dagoth Ur was able to cause the blight and wreak mayhem across Vvardenfell was because he had the Heart of Lorkhan, but the plot I have in mind rests on the Blight returning to Morrowind and a reawakening of House Dagoth with a new leader who aims to finish what Dagoth Ur had started.

So... I guess I'm trying to ask is how that might be possible. I'm going to take quite a bit of free reign with the plot because they don't elaborate very much at all on Morrowind's state during the fourth era, but would it be completely lore-breaking for a descendant of Dagoth Ur to have his powers (perhaps if he had mated while he had godlike powers he could have created a child with latent abilities)?

Also other things that I might have to remember, like what the geography would be like. I guess I can use my imagination for a lot of things and make it up as I go along, but how hard is daily life in Morrowind now? I assume that since the Red Mountain is constantly spewing out hot ash it's necessary to always wear some kind of protection for breathing. What about the major cities? I know that the Argonians sacked Mournhold but they quickly got it back. What do you think the big cities like Mournhold, Blacklight, etc would look now in the aftermath of the eruption? Do you think they've mostly recovered after 200 years, or are they still suffering pretty badly?

[Br3admax]

Mixed opinions on Morrowind. Hlaalu is done for, yes. While the areas around Blacklight are called glorious, a lot of it is inhospitable, places like Mournhold and Vivec, Mournhold was destroyed by the Argonians and has never been the same. No, Dagoth Ur would not be able to have a godlike child, even if there was a slim chance that someone was able to even survive long enough to get into the bowels of the Red Mountain, the powers Ur had were not even permanent for him. Dagoth Ur also used the plague to control his followers, iirc, so that probably wouldn't work lorewise, and the disease was stopped when the HoL was set free, though the people with it were hunted down, aside from the Nerevarine. A lot of the Great Houses also aren't doing that well, aside from Redoran, who are also struggling.

[Scuttlefish]

Yes, but the only people I've heard say that Blacklight is glorious have been dark elves so I'm not sure what to think about that ahaha.
Were ALL of his followers mind-controlled slaves though? Certainly the Sleepers and Dreamers were under his influence, but I'm pretty sure that all the named Dagoths that you fight were full-fledged members of the Sixth House, as far as I remember. I could be wrong though.

[Br3admax]

Indeed, I believe they were; still, they all died when the Heart the was set free even if not killed before.

[Pilaf The Defiler]

House Dagoth is utterly defunct. It was dead for over a thousand years before the Sixth House Cult rose. The only people left with the surname Dagoth were the Ash Vampires. The other monsters you destroyed in Morrowind were adopted into the House from other Houses. The working theory is that when House Dagoth was dissolved after the War of the First Council, the surviving members who were too young to be executed or who were deemed innocent in their machinations were simply adopted/absorbed into other Houses. Late in the Third Era when Dagoth started sending out his Ash Dreams, people with Dagoth blood still in their veins were susceptible to it, and they morphed into new forms - like Ash Ghouls or Ascended Sleepers. Since they were all destroyed with Dagoth's connection to the Heart disappeared, it can safely be assumed the last traces of House Dagoth are gone. The Blight can never return because it was tied strongly to the enchantments on the Heart. Since Dagoth Ur is no longer the Sharmat, there's just no chance of there being another resurgence.*

The Ash Spawn on Solstheim are something different. They're tied to Heart Stones and their magic. These Stones are currently an enigma. They don't only come from Red Mountain. There was one in ESO from nearby Ash Mountain, and it could be used to peer back into the past to view a battle between Chimer and Nedes. It can be assumed that they contain godsblood, like Ebony, and thus have some degree of Lorkhan's divine spark, but in a different way from the Heart. Far less potent.

*Even if you didn't personally hunt them down and destroy them, they would have eventually died, and probably rapidly. Much like the Tribunal, their life force was tied in with the Heart. Since they had assumed monstrous forms that probably needed to be sustained by magic, when that connection was cut off their time was limited.

[legoless]

*Even if you didn't personally hunt them down and destroy them, they would have eventually died, and probably rapidly. Much like the Tribunal, their life force was tied in with the Heart. Since they had assumed monstrous forms that probably needed to be sustained by magic, when that connection was cut off their time was limited.

This. The Ash Vampires all die when you kill Dagoth Ur, and I can't imagine the Ascended Sleepers surviving by themselves.

No doubt Corprus is still around, and Blight diseases continue to crop up in the games, so maybe it would be better to focus on the diseases rather than the cultists.

[Br3admax]

It still crops up where exactly? I haven't heard it anywhere.

[Pilaf The Defiler]

I actually think I remember reading a reference somewhere. If the Blight is still around it's a remnant - and certainly doesn't serve a higher power or purpose any more.

Also, according to one OOG source, Yagrum's symptoms began to lessen after the disenchantment of Lorkhan's Heart, which implies that all of the people who currently have corprus will eventually lose most or all of their symptoms, or that the symptoms will become much less severe as their mental connection to Dagoth Ur diminishes to the point of nonexistence. I realize the UESP stance on OOG, but this came from a current developer (at the time) and realistically reflects what would happen to someone's mind after a connection to dark magic is severed, so I'd say it's plausible that if the Blight is still out there, it's a far lesser disease than it once was.

[Minor Edits]

Vvardenfell wasn't rendered completely uninhabitable. The Red Year says Balmora, at least, was rebuilt in the months following the eruption.

[legoless]

Black-Heart Blight and Chanthrax Blight both show up in Oblivion, although they're contracted from boars and zombies and don't need special magic to cure. The Blight definitely seems diluted (if not entirely accidental in its inclusion). Actual Blight storms obviously stopped.

[Minor Edits]

Neloth suggests the Blight is gone. I don't recall ever seeing it mentioned that the Blight was still around past Morrowind. People refer to lowercase blights in various contexts, but not the Blight Curse.

[Br3admax]

Yeah everyone in Morrowind and Dragonborn says the Blight ends with Ur. At least the spread of it and the negative effects.

[legoless]

See this page and this page. There's a difference between the Blight (i.e. the red ash storms) and Blight diseases. The former ended after Dagoth Ur's defeat, while the latter are still encountered six years later in Oblivion. Chantrax and Black-Heart are Blight diseases found in Morrowind and spread by the ash. Dagoth's death only stopped the storms, it didn't hinder the diseases' ability to spread.

[Br3admax]

See this page and this page. There's a difference between the Blight (i.e. the red ash storms) and Blight diseases. The former ended after Dagoth Ur's defeat, while the latter are still encountered six years later in Oblivion. Chantrax and Black-Heart are Blight diseases found in Morrowind and spread by the ash. Dagoth's death only stopped the storms, it didn't hinder the diseases' ability to spread.

None of those diseases spreaded Ur's influence, so I assumed we weren't talking about them.They would have no bearing on an RP about spreading Ur's teachings. As those with Corpus were actively hunted down, and those symptoms stopped, no one is following Ur, which is what we're trying to say.

[legoless]

My point is that the diseases are Dagoth's influence. If the monstrous Blight diseases he created can survive without ash storms, it's one of the Sixth House's most long-lasting influences on Tamriel. Remember that these are the same diseases that drove the Ahemmusa almost to the point of extinction. Likewise, there are dozens of corprus beasts under the protection of an immortal wizard-lord, so I can't see them going anywhere. If someone wanted to take up the mantle of Sharmat, they still have plenty of potential minions even if nothing remains of the original cult.

[Br3admax]

Corpus no longer spreads, at least no in the capacity that it did before, which was Ur's main goal and influence, spreading the Divine Disease. No one has dreams of Ur to feel a need to serve him. The state of Fyr is unknown, and the Corprusarium is full of people that are deranged from the ill effects of Corpus, and none of them wanted to follow Ur on their own. There's no way to control these creatures, and no way to spread the disease further with the intent Ur had for it. No one can do what Ur wanted because what Ur wanted is no longer possible.

[legoless]

There was no way to control them before either. That's kind of the point of a horde of mindless monsters.

[Br3admax]

Ur was able to influence plenty of them and allowed them to live near him. I doubt they were actively trying to eat him when he did that.

[legoless]

Dagoth was a god hiding inside a volcano. He wasn't hanging out with the diseased cliff racers.

[Pilaf The Defiler]

Presumably, in order to become one of the Ascended Sleepers you had to have some spark of sentience in the first place. A creature like a Cliff Racer or Nix Hound would simply devolve into a tumor-ridden, insane monster that attacks everyone and everything on sight.