Turns Out This Skyrim Mystery Was Bigger Than We Thought

"they weren't nearly as ugly; they used to be tall, less slimy, had a full head of hair" Hey now, I didn't expect to be attacked like this!

Maybe the dwarves did blind them so as to enhance the falmer’s hearing. Then they could be more responsive tonal manipulation.

I think you've missed something important: the player gets to observe a lot of dwemer ruins in skyrim, and as Karliah observes, the dwemer were cruel and violent. There are torture chambers, slave markets, and in at least two instances seating arrangements set around platforms with rotating murder-blades built into them, so dwemer can sit around and watch as someone gets hacked into pieces. So while it's entirely possible that the dwemer did do some tonal magic stuff to the falmer, it's more like a forced experiment on slaves than a peer-assisting-peer relationship.

The mystery began for me back in the Blood moon DLC for Morrowind. There was a quest to discover evidence of the existence of the falmer. It had my interest from then on in. I scoured solthsteim looking for more snow elf stuff. Meeting a snow elf in Skyrim was a bit of a mind blower for me.

"This was Epic Nate and thanks for coming to my TES talk."

Falmer are terrifying when you don't have sound on and turn around to see one right behind you

I've always found it interesting that the College of Winterhold has a very similar architectural style to the Snow Elf temple ruins you see in the Dawnguard DLC. It looks as though the same materials were used and everything.

I'm pretty sure the Dwemer were using the Falmer to test their theories on how to ascend beyond their metaphysical limitations. The Falmer could not hear the tones as the Dwemer could, so the Dwemer blinded them. This act enhanced their hearing to such a degree that they could hear the tones and become viable test subjects. However, the Falmer were not accustomed to the tones and their souls shriveled in fear of this unknown, leaving their minds and bodies warped and monstrous. Eventually the Dwemer figured it out, and signaled a masse tone which "ascended" all Dwemer. They only saw the Falmer as a means to an end, and that is why the Falmer are still around, albeit much lesser than they once were. But this is just my hypothesis.

Dwemer: perform a possibly deadly experiment on an entire race, sacrificing them as test subjects because they feared the outcome. Nate: They didn't have bad intentions after all!

Nate: wisp mothers are lost falmer souls, you can tell by the tones. Me, an intellectual: the Dwemer turned into nirnroots.

The reason markarth even exists is to take it the snow elves from the surface. It's like a big grand entrance from the surface to the undergrounds of the dwarves. It was so well fortified to protect against atmorans and give it the appearance of total safety. It's the only place the dwermer built above ground in a big way within Skyrim.

I always felt that because of the thieves guild quest where you go into a dwarven ruin to find the eyes of the falmer that it was more they fully tricked them. I don’t think they said hey you have to eat this fungus and that’s the only stipulation. I felt that they asked for the eyes of your people, the snow elves believing they meant their treasure, they were then made to slave away building the snow elven statue to hold the eyes, however while they built the statue, the only food they would give those elves and their families was the fungus. The snow elves being none the wiser that they’re families and they were slowly being poisoned and experimented on to further the dwarven understanding of tonal manipulation to the point where they could control creatures and mer to a full extent. That’s why the writing of the dwemer say the snow elves new lives began at the fifteen and one tones. Their experiment with tonal manipulation is truly what changed them into what they are, where as the fungus only blinded them taking their eyes.

“*Boys, girls, dogs, elders: there’s nobody I won’t fight!*” -Y̶s̶g̶r̶a̶m̶o̶r̶ Braith

M’aiq once met a snow elf, very polite people. A long time later M’aiq met some weird blind folk, M’aiq got scared and ran away.

When you fight Wisp Mothers whenever they're low on health they make these things called Shades which look exactly like them. Which might relate to what happened to that one Winterhold mage, who also turned into a shade after messing with Dwemer magic....

I've always had a soft spot for the Falmer. Such a tragic history.

"2 and 2 cant equal fish". sheogorath would disagree.

I'm amazed that you're still making skyrim content and even more amazed that it's still entertaining

The programmer who gave lower leveled falmer lesser souls for gameplay reasons: nervous sweating

I like to imagine that there was one snow elf or a small group of them being the voice of reason when the others were talking about attacking Saarthal: "Shouldn't we at the very least talk to them and ask them what they know? Even if there was an artifact buried there, we don't even have evidence that the humans use magic the same way we do, let alone them knowing what it is."