Boethiah
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Boethiah, is one of the seventeen Daedric Princes, the most powerful of the daedric beings. He is known as the Prince of Plots, and associated with conspiracies and deceit.
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[edit] Description
Like all Daedra, Boethiah does not have a gender in the traditional, human sense. In traditional depictions of the Daedric Lord, he appears as a strong, caped warrior wielding a giant golden Katana. However, he is also depicted occasionally as a woman. His followers claim he is the most overtly acting of all Daedric Princes. He appears to enjoy battle and conflict, and his cults often stage huge tournaments to the death to win his favor.
Even among scholars, who reject the common notion that Daedra are all "demons", Boethiah is one of the Daedric Princes consistently viewed as "evil" in the traditional sense (but see below for the Dunmeri view). He uses his mortal followers for sport, caring more about spilling their blood than anything else. Like Molag Bal or Mehrunes Dagon, Boethiah takes actual delight in the death and destruction he is causing mortals, and actively strives to torment mortals.
[edit] Boethiah and the Dunmer
Boethiah is one of the three Daedric Princes (along with Azura and Mephala) directly responsible for the existence of the Dunmer as a distinct race. During the Mythical Era, the Aldmer worshipped the Aedra Trinimac as their chief god. These early mer generally lamented their mortal existence as being caused by the trickery of Lorkhan, who manipulated the gods into giving up their immortality to create Nirn. Boethiah approached a group of Trinimac's followers and began preaching to them an alternative viewpoint: that the Aldmer were weak and unworthy of their immortality, and that their mortal existence was a trial which all mer had to endure. (The Dunmer often refer to their mortal lifetime as The Testing.)
To accomplish his goal, Boethiah took on the form of Trinimac himself, and spoke with Trinimac's own voice. Thus, he was able to convince a group of mer, who took the name Chimer (Changed Ones) and followed their leader Veloth to their new home in Morrowind. Boethiah taught the Chimer many ways to be different from the Aldmer, including their current clan-based political system and their style of architecture. In most versions of the legend, Boethiah was the source of these ideas, while Azura and Mephala aided the Chimer in implementing them.
Boethiah continued to play a key role in the religious practices of the Chimer even after they became the Dunmer. Along with Azura and Mephala, Boethiah is worshipped as one of the three "good" Daedra, in opposition to the four "bad" Daedra of the House of Troubles. According to Tribunal dogma, Boethiah is the Anticipation of Almalexia, and submitted to Tribunal rule. Given Azura's attitudes towards the Tribunal, who make the same claim about him, this is most likely more propaganda than history.
[edit] Note on the Name
Like many of the Daedra, Boethiah's name appears in numerous variations across many eras and cultures. His Cyrodiilic shrine, in the Valus Mountains near the Morrowind border, is called the Boethia's Shrine, and the spelling Boethia occasionally appears in writings. This spelling appears most often associated with his feminine form, though the shrine in Cyrodiil speaks with a male voice. Most scholarly texts, such as On Oblivion or The Book of Daedra, use the form Boethiah. The name may also be a reference to Boethius, a late-Roman-era philosopher.¹
[edit] Daedric Artifact
Boethiah's artifact is the Goldbrand, the golden katana that he carries according to daedric lore. To acquire it you must complete the Shrine of Boethia quest.
[edit] Notes
1. Boethius Retrieved 5-20-09
