What is the Mantella really, and how did it cause a dragon break?

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Timestamps, click to skip ahead!
Introduction 0:00
The Mantella 2:00
The Man-God 9:44
The Warp in the West 14:53
Retcons 18:10
Outro 21:51

Talos, The Mantella & the Warp in the West - The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall Analysis | Part 7 in-text form:
It’s common for people to ignore Daggerfall’s importance to the lore of the Elder Scrolls, while Kirkbride’s Morrowind contribution to the series should not be understated, it seems many attributes a lot of the Elder Scrolls world-building to his style of writing when he was often just following the form of the previous lore in the series.

When you look into just how much of the lore was first introduced not in that third instalment, but instead 6 years earlier… Undoubtedly, Daggerfall lore needs more love. There are so many things we owe to The Elder Scrolls II...

The Eight Divines. The 16 Daedric Princes. Jyggalag. Baan Dar. The history of the Yokuda. Sword-singing. The history of the Septim Empire. The Skyrim Conquests and the War of Succession. The Direnni clan. Prophet Marukh and the Alessian Order. The battle of Glenumbria Moors. The Siege of Orsinium. The Dark Brotherhood. Every single guild. The Psijics Order and last but most certainly not least - The Numidium.

While this video won’t focus on every aspect of the lore introduced in Daggerfall, because as that list shows, along with the vast number of books on screen right now, is that there is far more than people may realise when they discuss the Big 3, as they seem to have become known.

Instead, this video will take a deep dive into the aspects that affect Daggerfall’s main story the most, and the effects that leave the largest lasting impact on the series as a whole.
This boils down to two features in particular, the Mantella that powers the mighty Numidium, and the Warp in the West, the first documented case of a Dragon Break.

As a quick disclaimer, to help explain some of the more complicated aspects, I will be pulling from lore that was written after Daggerfall. This intro may have had a snarky undertone against those that dismiss Daggerfall’s lore, but the new lore added by Kirkbride as well as Peterson in Morrowind and later still helps to improve the stories within said lore.

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fkcogus333
Egnirc
Alex Tarakanov

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