Tamriel:Daedric Alphabet

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The daedric alphabet is a symbolic typeface used in replacement of the standard English alphabet. The alphabet was first used in Battlespire in the celestial academy and was called "daedric" because of the occupation of daedric forces. The release of Morrowind revealed that both the Dunmer and the Daedra use the daedric alphabet extensively. Most scholars agree that the Dunmeri use of the Daedric alphabet is a remnant of when they worshiped Daedra before the Battle of Red Mountain.

[edit] Daedric Alphabet

Ayem	Bedt	Cess	Doht	Ekem	Hefhed	Geth	Hekem	Iya	Jeb	Koht	Lyr	Meht
Neht	Oht	Payem	Quam	Roht	Seht	Tayem	Yoodt	Vehk	Web	Xayah	Yahkem	Zyr

[edit] Xayah and Yahkem

An example of a Dunmeri flag written with daedric font.

The daedric letters Xayah (X) and Yahkem (Y) are often omitted from the daedric alphabet in scrolls and books, but sometimes one of these letters make an appearance in signs and banners. The most well known appearance of one of these two letters is of the daedric letter Yahkem, which appears on the banner for Tel Fyr as seen in the picture on the right where the larger letter on the upper right is the letter Yahkem. The letter Xayah has yet to be spotted in any game, although it is believed to look like the letter shown in the above table.

The official line on Xayah and Yahkem, however, is rather different:

"Here’s an interesting tidbit: speaking with Todd [Howard - Executive Producer at Bethesda], he wanted to emphasize that officially there is no X or Y in the Daedric Alphabet, although a a few may have accidentally shown up in Morrowind." ^[1]

[edit] Other Examples

• A different version of the letter Yahkem can be found of the propylon for the Dunmer fortresses of Falasmaryon, Indoranyon, and Valenvaryon. →Image
• The blue daedric letters on the Gray Cowl spell out the phrase "Shadow Hide You", but the letter Yahkem is missing. →Image
• In Oblivion, the Mages Guild seal found on the floors of their guild halls includes the first three letters of five out of the six schools of magic, including the Yahkem in "MYS" for Mysticism. The School of Restoration was for some reason omitted from the seal. →Image
• Although the book the Mysterium Xarxes has two instances of the letter "X" in its title, the content of the book does not contain the letter Xayah and is missing the letter Yahkem in words where it should be used.

[edit] Alternate forms

Aside from the Yahkem, four other letters have alternate forms, as seen in the chart. The Doht (D) and Jeb (J) characters are often mirror-imaged from their default orientations, and the Hekem (H) and Yoodt (U) characters also have noticeably differing variants, Hekem's alternate form lacking a prominent vertical stroke, and Yoodt's being shown with a rounded bottom instead of flat.

[edit] Clustering

Another irregularity with daedric text is that it does not have to be written from left-to-right. For decorative purposes, each word in a phrase is often clustered together with the first letter being significantly larger and colored differently than the rest. The following is an example of a sign hanging over an archway in Gnisis, a city in Morrowind, as well as an annotated version of the banner with the words separated:

Notice how each of the major words in the phrase above has its first letter much larger than the rest and in a different color. It is common for the larger letter to be colored similarly to the backdrop, as with the two letter Sehts (S) in this example.

The clusters in the example above can be arranged in the left-to-right format as follows:

• The Thrice Sealed House Withstands the Storm

Thus, when the daedric letters are translated into English letters, the message reads:

• THE THRICE SEALED HOUSE WITHSTANDS THE STORM

[edit] Uses

Morrowind made the most extensive use of the Daedric alphabet. All magical scrolls have an inscription written in Daedric (Most often "Woe upon you", but some have more interesting messages). Also, the spell icons make use of the characters, though only as design elements, not readable text. To see examples of this, see Spell Icon Letters. Additionally, letters are used as textural elements of various items, such as Bonemold armor. Finally, the box art for Morrowind and both expansions has the names of the six Dunmer Great Houses inscribed around the sides.

Oblivion's use of the alphabet as a text is far less common than in Morrowind, but it does appear on textures, mostly in the realm of Oblivion itself or other locations associated with the Daedra. You can also find this text in some books. For example, the Bible of the Deep Ones (found in the Hackdirt chapel in Oblivion) contains almost all Daedric lettering. In addition, the border of the Oblivion box contains the phrase "FOR LORD DAGON FOREVER REBORN IN BLOOD AND FIRE FROM THE WATERS OF OBLIVION" repeated several times in Daedric text; a phrase that also appears in the Mysterium Xarxes. Similarly, the Shivering Isles box cover reads "THERE IS NO GENIUS WITHOUT A TOUCH OF MADNESS", a phrase taken from the Epistles of Seneca the Younger.

[edit] Gallery

These are examples of daedric font found on different items and surfaces.

The blue text on the Gray Cowl

Mages Guild Seal with an annotation.

The text written on Propylon chambers.

[edit] Resources

[edit] Daedric Font

This font set was created by Dongle, and includes the "official" X and Y. This is the font used by all articles using Daedric characters on this site, so you should install it in order to view these pages correctly.

• Obliviontt.zip 135 kb
• For Windows: Unzip and copy the Oblivion.ttf file into the WINDOWS\FONTS (95, 98/ME and XP) or WINNT\FONTS (NT, 2000) directory.
• For Mac: Unzip (Stuffit Expander should work), and copy the Oblivion.TTF file into your /Library/Fonts folder.

[edit] Daedric Translator

A Daedric Translator is available here: Daedric Translator

[edit] References

1. ↑ Bethesda Blog September 25th, 2007