Meridia

(a.k.a. Merid-Nunda)

Prince of Light

Once a Magna-ge, a divine who followed the god Magnus away from the nascent mortal realm. Merid-Nunda is said to have been cast out of Aetherius for consorting with illicit spectra. As She fell, the spirit stole a piece of Magnus' light, bending it around Herself to create the Colored Rooms, her realm within Oblivion. The fallen Goddess came to be known as Meridia and is counted among the Daedric Princes. She is a champion of life and morality, a fanatical enemy of the undead and those who betray their oaths.

The Orphaned Glimmer

According to ancient myths of pre-Riddle'thar Khajiiti religion, Merid-Nunda was a child of the cowardly Magrus, forged out of the cold Aether. A vast intellect untempered by wisdom, She participated in the war against Lorkhaj and His Lunar Lattice, but was defeated by Azurah and sealed for a time in the Void in a cage of mirrors. Eventually, She escaped, and returend to the world of cats with a vengeful desire to unbind Azurah's children from the moons.
After the reformation of the Riddle'thar Epiphany, Khajiiti myth has become far more syncretic with Imperial and Aldmeri faiths, relegating Merid-Nunda to the ranks of a minor foreign god, antagonistic to the Khajiit. The old myths associated with Her are considered herasies today.

The Bright One

Although largely considered the only "good" Daedra by the majority of human and elven peoples of Tamriel, her role in the Ayleid Pantheon marks her as a bitter enemy of mankind according to the Imperial Cult.
The Ayleid elves worshipped a variety of gods, both Aedric and Daedric, having little qualms over the distinction. Their civilization flourished by utilizing collected starlight, or Varliance, as a mystic power-source for their cities. They worshipped Meridia as the personification of light itself. City-states which followed Meridia were bound by Her strict laws, and violators were offered to Her light for purification.
In the age of the Alessian Slave Rebellion, Meridia empowered Her demigod servant Umaril the Unfeathered to help repress the uprising, who brought terror to the rebel slaves for years before his eventual defeat.

Umaril the Unfeathered

by Nature San

On the first day of the first year of the First Era, it is said that a woman of noble Ayleid blood gave birth to the son of an unknown god from the world before our own. This half-elf child is remembered as Umaril. Mired in myth and propaganda, the true story of Umaril's life is difficult to put together. Surviving Ayleid tablets boast of a charmed life. A child prodigy who excelled at every task put to him. Whose destiny of greatness was apparent from moment he took breath.
One summer solstice, when Umaril was only twenty years old, still a fledgeling by elven standards, he made pilgrimage to the Temple of the Ancestors, today known as the White-Gold Tower, which was the spiritual heart of the Ayleid civilization. When the boy prayed before the tower, he sprouted wings made of golden light, which carried him into the sky above the crowd. The pilgrims looked up at the frightened young mer in awe, and as the sun reached its zenith above the tower, the voice of Meridia spoke:
"BEHOLD, DESCENDENTS OF TOPAL! THE CHAMPION OF MERIDIA TAKES FLIGHT! LET NONE DOUBT HIS RADIANCE! I NAME HIM THE CYRODIIL! LORD OF THE EMPIRE OF LIGHT! IMPERATUM SALIACHE! GO FORTH, UMARIL THE FEATHERED! BRING HOLY ORDER TO THIS WRETCHED WORLD IN MY NAME!"
The Ayleid Confederation had already been suffering under the Narfinsel Schism, a cultural division between Ayleids who wished to outlaw worship of the Daedric Princes, and those who sought the power of the daedra to preserve elven status in the heartland. When the voice of a daedric prince proclaimed a half-elf of a minor house to be "The Cyrodiil" a mythic title for one strong enough to unite the city-states under one kingdom, these cultural divisions turned quickly into battle lines. Young Umaril took to the greatness thrust upon him with natural skill and enthusiasm. 
Records of the ensuing civil war are lost. What is known is over the next two centuries, the city-states were systematically conquered under the banner of the "Imperatum Saliache", the Ayleid Empire, with the last Aedra-worshipping holdouts ousted in 1E 198 in the Scouring of Wendelbek. The survivors fled into Black Marsh, forming the Barsaebic Colonies.
Daedric Scholars often speculate on Meridia's motivation for making Umaril Her champion. Her Aurorans are ruthless, but ostensibly live by a strict code. By all accounts, Umaril lived by no code at all. His reign as Leige-Lord of the Sorcerer-Kings was brutal and cruel even by the standards of his people. His battle tactics were cowardly, sending waves of soldiers to their deaths to weaken an enemy before entering the fray himself. Although he favored city-states which dedicated themselves to Meridia worship over other Princes, he had little use for Meridian Law, allowing his vassals to rule as they saw fit so long as taxes, food, and slaves continued to flow into the Temple, which he had blasphemously made into his own palace.
Perhaps this is why he appeared to have lost the favor of his patron in 1E 242, when the slave-breeding city of Sard fell to a revolt led by a human priestess. The woman had somehow acquired the Chim El Adabal, the most important tool of Ayleid control. Acquired in battle against the indigeonous Bird People of the region, the Ayleids used this gemstone to protect their city-states from invadors. The priestess somehow used it to cut off her Ayleid master's ability to summon daedric minions to defend themselves. The victorious slaves fled the burning city with the crystal before the neighboring states could come to its aid, fleeing into the Colovian Highlands. Word of their victory inspired further revolts across the Empire, with human and beastfolk slaves escaping into the mountians to join the new rebellion.
Umaril soon faced an ally of the priestess in the skies at the Battle of Gnoll Mountain. This foe was a fellow demigod, with divine wings of his own. Morihaus Breath-of-Kyne was a fierce and unyielding opponent, but he was ultimately no match for Umaril's prowas. In a fateful move, Morihaus was wounded and cast down from the sky into the side of the mountain. 
In the throws of his glory, Umaril proclaimed his greatness above all gods, Aedra and Daedra alike. In that moment, Meridia forsook him a second time. His golden wings of light left him, and he fell from the sky into the battle below. Though he survived his hubris and led his warriors in retreat, his hubris earned him the epithed Umaril the Unfeathered. 
His show of weakness and disfavor of his patron rallied the rebels. The priestess, Alessia, convinced several Ayleid kings to turn against Umaril's empire and join her cause instead. The alliance grew to include numerous races who had suffered under Ayleid rule. Goblins. Orcs. Imga. Nords. Kothringi. Saxhleel. Finally, it earned the attention of Pelinal Whitestrake, a legendary knight who led the siege on the Temple of the Ancestors, and finally defeated Umaril in a duel. 
Legend says that Umaril fled to Meridia's realm before the final blow and will return to restore his Empire of Light. Some speculate that it was Meridia who could not bear to see Umaril slain and interceded. Many wonder if She may be the god who sired the tyrant only to lose control of him.

Divine Domains

• Radiant Light
• Unseen Colors
• Righteous Morality
• Greed

Artifacts

Dawnbreaker

A sword made of golden ebony, with a glimmering crystal core in its hilt like a minitature sun. Dawnbreaker has been passed to Meridia's most worthy followers over the millennia with the express purpose of slaying undead. The sword is swathed in the unfiltered radiance of the sun itself, and thus burns through dead flesh and ectoplasm with ease.

The Opal Charm

An opal pendant which glows with the lights of the Colored Rooms. It can illuminate any enclosed space, even cutting through the most potent magical darkness. It is also known to pull the lifeforce of those within its radience into its wearer, enhancing the wearer's vitality. Those who are bound to the weilder in this way may not die unless the wearer is slain.

Meridia's Beacon

A large, roughly carved geode of meteoric glass. Meridia's Beacon was once a part of the Great Lighthouse of Garlas Malatar, illuminating the sea for miles. The beacon generates and focuses Varlance for all sorts of applications, and allows direct communication with the Prince of Light.

Holy Books & Codes

Meridian Law

A draconian book on morality written during the early Ayleid civilization in direct communion with Meridia Herself. These precepts were used to argue the benevolence of the Ayleid's enslavement of human and beast races, and continues to inspire fanatics to pass absolute judgement against sinners.

Holidays

Summoning Day - 13th Morning Star

On this day, colors seem brighter, fell creatures seem to take refuge in the shadows, and there is a flickering in the air at the edge of vision, as if something just beyond our perception is trying to force its way into the world.

• Lady of Infinite Energies
• The Bright Lady
• The Strict but Fair Arbiter of Inner Luminance
• The Sunfire
• The Radiant One
• The Keeper
• The Lady of Light
• The Prince of Life
• The Glister Witch
• The Lady of Greed

Divine Classification

Daedric Prince, Magna-Ge (Formerly)

Realm

The Colored Rooms

Presentation

A woman in a blue dress, sometimes with angelic wings - A sundog - A star, somehow both distant and within reach - A geode of meteoric glass

Ruled Locations

• The Colored Rooms