The Sundering of the Elves refers to the long process by which the Aldmer ceased to exist as a single people and divided into the distinct Merish cultures known throughout the Merethic Era.
The separation was not caused by one event. It developed over centuries through migration, religious disagreement, political independence, adaptation to new environments, and conflict between communities that no longer shared the same understanding of Aldmeri tradition.
By the Middle and Late Merethic Era, the descendants of the Aldmer had become recognizably different peoples with separate languages, customs, governments, religions, and physical traits.
The Aldmer regarded themselves as descendants of the divine spirits who had participated in or survived the creation of Mundus. Their society placed great importance on ancestry, continuity, ritual, and the belief that mortality represented a diminished state.
This worldview remained strongest in Summerset, where later Altmeri culture developed from those who preserved the old traditions most closely.
Other Aldmeri communities rejected, reinterpreted, or abandoned parts of this inheritance.
The divisions that followed were therefore as much philosophical as geographic.
As Aldmeri populations left Summerset, distance weakened the authority of the old homeland.
Settlers in the Heartland, Valenwood, northern Tamriel, Resdayn, and Pyandonea faced very different environments and neighboring peoples. Local conditions shaped settlement patterns, warfare, religion, food, dress, and government.
Generations of isolation made these differences permanent.
A community that still considered itself Aldmeri when it first left Summerset might, centuries later, possess a language and culture that its ancestors would barely recognize.
The Altmer developed in Summerset as the principal heirs to conservative Aldmeri tradition.
Their culture placed particular emphasis on genealogy, social rank, magical scholarship, religious continuity, and the preservation of ancestral customs. Altmeri scholars often regarded other Merish peoples as examples of decline, corruption, or deviation from the original Aldmeri ideal.
This judgment was not accepted by the peoples who had left Summerset.
To the Chimer, Bosmer, Maormer, and others, divergence could represent adaptation, revelation, or liberation rather than degeneration.
The Ayleids, or Wild Elves, arose from Aldmeri settlers who established themselves in the Heartland.
Their civilization retained many Aldmeri religious and magical traditions while developing independently from Summerset. Ayleid city-states became especially associated with celestial magic, monumental architecture, and the political importance of White-Gold Tower.
Religious divisions eventually became significant within Ayleid society. Some communities remained more closely associated with Aedric worship, while others embraced Daedric patrons.
These differences contributed to political rivalry between Ayleid kingdoms.
The Bosmer developed in Valenwood and became closely associated with Y'ffre and the Green Pact.
Their culture differed sharply from the formal traditions of Summerset. The demands of the Green shaped settlement, hunting, food, ritual, and the relationship between Bosmeri communities and the forest itself.
Altmeri observers often interpreted Bosmeri practices as evidence of cultural decline. Bosmeri tradition instead presented their way of life as part of a sacred agreement defining their proper place in the world.
By the Late Merethic Era, Bosmeri identity was firmly established even though Valenwood remained politically divided.
The Falmer, or Snow Elves, became established throughout northern Tamriel.
They retained strong connections to older Aldmeri religion, particularly the worship of Auri-El, while developing a culture adapted to the mountains, glaciers, and valleys of the north.
Falmer civilization was mature by the Late Merethic Era. Their settlements, temples, and political authorities existed long before large-scale Atmoran settlement.
Their later destruction and transformation should not obscure the fact that, during this period, the Falmer were one of the major Merish peoples of Tamriel.
The separation of the Chimer was more openly religious than many earlier divisions.
The followers of Veloth rejected the authority of established Aldmeri religious society and followed teachings associated with Boethiah, Azura, and Mephala. Their departure from Summerset became the foundation of Chimeric identity.
The Chimer eventually settled in Resdayn, where ancestor worship, hardship, pilgrimage, clan organization, and Daedric religion became central to their society.
Their name, commonly interpreted as the Changed Ones, reflected a deliberate break from the assumptions of the old Aldmeri order.
The emergence of the Orsimer was closely connected to the Velothi departure.
According to the best-known tradition, Trinimac attempted to prevent Veloth and his followers from leaving. Boethiah defeated or consumed Trinimac, who emerged transformed as Malacath, while many of his followers were changed with him.
These followers became the Orsimer.
Accounts differ substantially in detail, but the transformation became central to Orcish identity. The Orsimer were separated from the wider Merish world both physically and socially, and many neighboring peoples treated them as cursed or corrupted.
During the Merethic Era, they remained dispersed and lacked a permanent unified homeland.
The Dwemer present a less clearly documented case.
They were Mer, but the circumstances surrounding their separation from other Aldmeri populations are uncertain. By the time they appear clearly in surviving histories, they already possess a distinct language, philosophy, architecture, and technological tradition.
Dwemer society differed from most other Merish cultures in its approach to religion. Rather than organizing civilization around reverence for ancestral gods, the Dwemer emphasized reason, tonal principles, engineering, and philosophical inquiry.
Their disagreement with neighboring peoples was therefore not merely political. It concerned the nature of divinity and the structure of reality itself.
The Maormer, or Sea Elves, developed in Pyandonea and became culturally separate from the Altmer of Summerset.
Their traditions centered on maritime power, naval warfare, sea magic, and the authority associated with King Orgnum. Their long isolation produced a distinct language and political identity.
Altmeri sources often describe the Maormer as exiles or degenerate relatives, but such descriptions reflect centuries of hostility between the two peoples.
Maormer tradition does not regard Summerset as the sole legitimate heir to Aldmeri civilization.
The Merish peoples became physically distinct over time.
Altmer, Chimer, Falmer, Bosmer, Orsimer, Maormer, and other groups developed recognizable differences in appearance associated with ancestry, environment, supernatural transformation, or combinations of these factors.
In some cases, the cause is clear. The Orsimer transformation is explicitly supernatural in most traditions.
In others, the change appears to have occurred gradually over generations.
The Elder Scrolls world does not draw a firm boundary between cultural change, magical influence, and physical transformation.
Religion was the strongest source of lasting separation among many Merish peoples.
The Altmer emphasized continuity with the divine ancestors.
The Chimer embraced Daedric teachers.
The Bosmer followed Y'ffre and the Green Pact.
The Falmer maintained traditions centered heavily on Auri-El.
Ayleid communities developed competing Aedric and Daedric loyalties.
The Dwemer challenged conventional religious assumptions altogether.
These differences shaped law, government, architecture, warfare, and relations between the Mer.
Despite their divisions, the Mer continued to recognize aspects of their common ancestry.
Related languages, religious concepts, genealogies, and myths survived across several cultures. This shared heritage did not produce unity. In many cases it intensified rivalry.
Disputes between related peoples were often framed as disagreements over which culture had preserved, betrayed, improved, or escaped the Aldmeri inheritance.
The Altmer might see the Chimer as apostates, while the Chimer viewed the old Aldmeri system as spiritually stagnant. The Maormer disputed Altmeri claims to legitimacy, and the Orsimer remembered rejection by peoples who had once been kin.
By the beginning of the campaign, the Sundering is largely complete. The Merish peoples no longer function as branches of one political culture, although their shared ancestry remains widely understood.
The Altmer, Ayleids, Bosmer, Chimer, Dwemer, Falmer, Orsimer, and Maormer possess independent identities and interests. Their conflicts are no longer disputes within a single Aldmeri society, but rivalries between established civilizations.
The Sundering therefore marks one of the central transformations of the Merethic Era: the replacement of a common ancestral identity with the diverse Merish world that defines early Tamriel.