Go Either Way
Prologue - Dwemer History
This is the story of Brokk the Brave and his many adventures of his, exciting, incredible life. Brokk was a dwemer, known as a Dwarf to you Imperial Folk.
The Dwemer were a race of architectural geniuses, and their ruins can still be found all throughout the vast expanses of Tamriel. The Dwemer created mass underground cites, usually in the sides of mountains. They appear to have been a highly technologically advanced, and their mastery of steam power, and tapping into natural resources allowed them to create airships, sentient machines, mechanical observatories, and lighting systems that continue to work for centuries without maintenance.
The Dwemer were, in a way, comforted by their ability to empower lifeless fabrics into active beings, denying the organic power of the gods. This culture is often seen as very arrogant by the other people of Tamriel. They allowed their technological capabilities to accelerate well ahead of any other race. Their previous settlements are inhabited by Animunculi(which are their incredibly engineered enchanted guardians) better known as "Centurions." They still roam the halls of the dwarven ruins as if their masters still looked over them, which makes some believe that they had dabbled extensively and somewhat successfully in some of the more divine arts and attempted to use the supernatural powers to their advantage.
Contrary to many legends, evidence of known Dwemer ruins leads one to believe that the Dwarves were about the same size as the typical human or elf, evidenced by the fact that all existing Dwarven armor is average sized. This is likely to be because many of the Dwemer resided near the Giants of the Velothi Mountains, who had never encountered any races of Men before and saw them as being much smaller, and thus deemed them to be "Dwarves."
The Falmer, were the Dwemer's slaves. They had been cast down many generations ago for attempting to conquer the Nords(which indefinitely failed.) The Dwarfs had since then tormented them into making them only reliable upon the Dwemer, therefore making them into their personal slaves. They would feed the Falmer poisonous substances that would impair their vision, eventually making them totally blind, and would continue this horrendous act until all generations of the Falmer were totally blind.
About 1E 700, the Dwemer mysteriously vanished during the Battle of Red Mountain. However, not much was known of the Dwemer, since they were a very secretive race, and never ventured out of their ruins. It is now known what occurred and caused this mass genocide of the Dwarven race. The Dwemer were not a religious people, so to speak, nor did they believe in fancy folklore or extravagant tales, however, the Dwarfs had began construction on a massive machine god, that they would all praise and would be known all across Tamriel. However, this "god" would be the end of them, for when finishing the final piece of their god, the same machines that guarded them from any creature dumb enough to venture into the mountain, turned on them and exterminated the Dwarfs. This downfall of the Dwemer caused the raising of the Falmer, whom can still be found roaming the depths of Tamriel.