How Did the Dwarves Go Extinct?

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AFAIK, there are no Dwemer anywhere in the game, and the only thing that survived from their race was their knowledge of Smithing. During the "Discerning the Transmundane" Quest, you find out that the Dwemer have all gone extinct, although I do not recall them telling you exactly HOW they went extinct. So what up with that? Is there a Dwemer impact crater somewhere?

Also, I haven't played any of the previous Elder Scrolls games. I know that the current game is set about 200 years after ESIV. So were there any Dwemer in the first 4 games of the series?

 

Dwemer ruins featured quite heavily in Morrowind and there was quite some lore lying around about them, but I can't quite remember what it was all about. Dwemer didn't feature in Oblivion at all.

Reading up a bit on the wiki, I'm recalling a bit more. Apparently they dissapeared at some point during some of the historic events leading up to the main story of Morrowind, leaving behind a lot of dust piles, automatons and ghosts. Apparently no-one knows what happened exactly. As I recall there was even a Dwemer somewhere in Morrowind that you could talk to, but even he didn't know what actually happened.

 

Didn't I read something in game about the Falmer taking them out? Or something?

 

No, the Falmer rose up in rebellion against the Dwemer but do not think they took them out. Pretty sure the entire story is to be found in the three latest ES games. You can meet the very last Dwemer in Morrowind, a half automaton in that corprus hospital.

From what I understand they tried to create their own god and something went horribly wrong. There are lots of interesting titbits spread around Skyrim.

There used to be six kinds of mer Altmer, Bosmer, Dunmer, Orsimer (orcs), Dwemer and Falmer (snow elves) but in the time of Skyrim the Dwemer has disappeared and the Falmer has degenerated into what is essentially monsters. If I have understood things correctly humans came from the mythical eastern continent sometime in the far past.

 

I did a bit more reading myself. Evidently, even though Dwemer are commonly referred to as "Dwarves", they are unlike the race of dwarves as they are typically portrayed in fantasy. They aren't the short, stocky, bearded warriors to you typically see, although they do seem to possess the same level of architecture ability. Evidently, the Dwemer were similar in size and stature to all the other Mer races, and they were only called Dwarves by the Giants, the other race that was around before the 1st Era. (You can read more about it here.)

Anyway, the last account of the Dwemer is the Battle of Red Mountain, where the Dwemer were defeated by the Chimer, the elves that were later transformed by Azura into the Dunmer. But even that account is sketchy. While the link states that the Chimer executed all of the Dwemer leaders, they didn't exterminate the entire race in a genocidal frenzy. Instead, it just states that the Dwemer mysteriously disappeared.

A more thorough account can be read in a book that is actually present in the ES series, titled - appropriately enough - "The Battle of Red Mountain". (The book transcript is contained in the link.) Evidently the Dwemer were working on an object known as the Heart that was supposed to grant them immortality. When the Heart was destroyed during the battle, all of the Dwemer everywhere instantly vanished without a trace.

 

LOL you picked the most obscure and lore-heavy part of the TES -verse with asking the question!!


Lemme enlighten you with my lore

In the depths beneath Red Mountain, the Dwemer discovered what was the heart of Lorkhan ( a God, who was punished -by tearing him to pieces- by the other divine for tricking them into creating the Mundane World)

Anyway, the Dwemer, being atheists had no scruples experimenting on the heart with the tools devised by Kagrenac the Foremost Tonal-architect.

Basically they tortured the Heart with the tools and used them to shape its cries into desired effects.

Who also had the idea -since they were great builders- to build a Golem of sorts and use the heart to power it. Thus creating a God Exclusively for the Dwemer to control. And making themselves divine in the process was another part of the plan.
A plan (or rather an idea) even some of the Dwemer were not comfortable with.

The Dunmer who were allied with the Dwemer at the time -in defeating the Nord-invasion- were quite religious, and marched against the Dwarves the moment they found out about the heart.

Anyway, long story short, at the zenith of the battle; the Dwemer on the loosing side, Kragenac apparently tried to magic the Dwemer into god-hood, in an desperate attempt not to loose.
And the Dwemer went poof.

Whether they went poof because he succeed, or failed or they all became the skin of the Golem or part of the heart remains unknowable.

But the lore alone surrounding it is awesome.

PS. Masser And Secuna ( the two Moons in TES ) are also part of Lorkhan's Body.
They're not real astral bodies. If one looks closely, one can notice that they are transparent to a degree.

 

Blummin' eck, there's an awful lot of lore in the ES games when you look at it. I don't think I've ever bothered reading any of the books in game, maybe I should. Looks as though it could be interesting.

 

The Lore is probably the best part of TES.
Game:mechanics change with every title, but the lore remains deep.
Some of the metaphysics of the Lore is Mind-bending.

 

The Lore is pretty damn extensive in The elder Scrolls games. You can spend hours and hours just readin in-game books.