Is "Dagoth" a pure Elder Scrolls creation?

[scribbane]

Good fans of the Elder Scrolls that a lot of naming conventions in the games come from real world inspirations. A quick trip to the Morrowind Easter Eggs page shows that Assyrian names are hugely influential in the names of the Ashlanders and Daedric shrines found within that game. So I ask, does the word Dagoth have any real world roots or influences. I suppose we could break it down to mean "of the Goths" or "from the Goths" but that doesn't seem to make sense.

Dagoth also feels a bit like the Star Wars Darth. I know that Dagoth was originally the "surname" of Voryn Dagoth, of House Dagoth and that later he took his family name to be akin to a title, as many of his followers take on the title. So in this case I understand that Dagoth is not exactly a 1:1 adaptation of the "Darth" concept. In this case it feels a bit like the Chinese custom of stating surnames before a given name, which I guess helps abbreviate the title. Instead of "Vemyn of House Dagoth", you just say Dagoth Vemyn and the idea is made clear.

That was a bit of an aside, from my point about does the word Dagoth have any real world influences. I know that Ur does, being both an ancient city and a German prefix for, among other things original. So being the "original" Dagoth makes sense. But why did Bethesda use the word Dagoth? And while we're on the subject, do any of those other councilors names (Almalexia, Sotha Sil, and even Nerevar) have basis in real world linguistics?

[Imbalance]

Hai Resdaynia!

Sorry, all I have is this guess that coming off of Daggerfall, Beth's writers had part of the word stuck in their mouth, like they relish how it rolls of the tongue. Consider how 'dag's casually if not commonly appear in TES jargon, supplanting for the connotations given by 'dark' in some cases (The Dag Brotherhood even seems natural to say after a while).

The one that's been baking my noodle for years is from an obscure side quest in Daggerfall, where a merchant uses a word that I swear I thought was common, real world vernacular for fool's gold. Yet, the word exists in only one place on the entire Internet, from what I can tell: the UESP article about the quest. So, did this quest add the made-up word to my lexicon all those years ago; is it that the only people on the planet who have ever used the term the dialogue author, myself, and other locals who've never touched a computer; or is there a wide conspiracy to erase this specific etym from existence? I've lost sleep pondering it.

[scribbane]

Interesting, I haven't really heard "dag" outside of the words "Dagger/Daggerfall", "Mehrunes Dagon", and "Dagoth". I've never heard of it taking on the meaning of "dark", do you have a source for that usage?

I've done a bit more looking, and "dag" could take on the meaning of "day" or maybe to "burn", and "oth" could stand for an archaic form of "oath". It may be a case of false equivalency, but Dagoth could mean Burning Oath or Oath of the Day. Several of the origins of "dag" specifically mentioned the daytime between dawn and dusk, and because of the tight link with Azura, something could be made there. House Dagoth could have taken the name as a sign of deference to Azura.

[legoless]

The one that's been baking my noodle for years is from an obscure side quest in Daggerfall, where a merchant uses a word that I swear I thought was common, real world vernacular for fool's gold. Yet, the word exists in only one place on the entire Internet, from what I can tell: the UESP article about the quest. So, did this quest add the made-up word to my lexicon all those years ago; is it that the only people on the planet who have ever used the term the dialogue author, myself, and other locals who've never touched a computer; or is there a wide conspiracy to erase this specific etym from existence? I've lost sleep pondering it.

Mandela effect.

[Secret Magic User]

The one that's been baking my noodle for years is from an obscure side quest in Daggerfall, where a merchant uses a word that I swear I thought was common, real world vernacular for fool's gold. Yet, the word exists in only one place on the entire Internet, from what I can tell: the UESP article about the quest.

So what's the word?

[legoless]

The one that's been baking my noodle for years is from an obscure side quest in Daggerfall, where a merchant uses a word that I swear I thought was common, real world vernacular for fool's gold. Yet, the word exists in only one place on the entire Internet, from what I can tell: the UESP article about the quest.

So what's the word?

"Foscarium".

[Crawldragon]

The name "Dagoth" actually predates The Elder Scrolls by some years. There's a Marvel character who bears the name, but it more likely comes from the elder god seen briefly in the Conan series. It could be a Conan reference, but both the god Dagoth and Dagoth Ur himself are more likely attempting to invoke Lovecraft's elder god Dagon.

My hypothesis on this comes from the fact that in earlier games, before the pantheon was really defined, you did see occasional references to things like elder gods and mysterious dark powers (try chatting up the NPCs in Arena, they say some funny things). My guess is that, just like the Daedra are the modern series' answer to daemons, Dagoth was Morrowind's amswer to the earlier games' "dark ones." And when you're invoking elder gods in your series, you could do a lot worse than a reference, or at least a tip o' the hat, to Lovecraft.

[Imbalance]

The one that's been baking my noodle for years is from an obscure side quest in Daggerfall, where a merchant uses a word that I swear I thought was common, real world vernacular for fool's gold. Yet, the word exists in only one place on the entire Internet, from what I can tell: the UESP article about the quest.

So what's the word?

"Foscarium".

Make that two places. I've taken to finding ways to make use of the term in person (usually in regard to the contents of my wallet or bank account), but have avoided typing it on the Internet so as not to expand the search results unnecessarily. Werner Heisenberg's principle and all that.

Crawldragon may be on to something, naturally with Mehrunes Dagon being most prominent among the many 'dag's the games bear. Marvel's Dagoth making sacrifices to Shuma-Gorath may have been an obscure hint, but Lovecraft lore is just about everywhere these days.

[Serine]

I did some digging, by the way, and foscarium may mean "Sinister Ditch Metal." Obviously (and very disappointingly) the word was made up by a developer, but it clearly had at least SOME thought put into it. "Fosse" means "ditch", "car" can mean "sinister" or "left-handed" (i.e., "trick" gold), and "-ium" is a latin suffix for "metal." Also, "Foscar" in Foscarium sounds vaguely like the word "fake" or "fool's" making it literally "Fake Gold." Put that in your headcanon!