Quenanya's connection to Mephala
@runesea helloooooo, thank you for asking :)
So, People don’t usually seek out the spider cult by choice (though I’m sure that does happen too), it finds them due to the nature of their lives. This is what I imagine happened to Quenanya, because most of her life falls under Mephala’s sphere of influence.
Quenanya’s leading a double life, pretending to be a loyal Justiciar whilst involved in a with the Beautiful, who are, of course, plotting to overthrow the very government whose laws and values she’s taken oaths to uphold.
She has lied, bribed, murdered and kept secrets, all in service to the Beautiful. All of this, ultimately feeding into Mephala’s domain whether Quenanya intendeds for it to or not. It was only a matter of time before she drew the Webspinners attention.
What finally did, was when Quenanya blackmailed her grandparents. This was in an attempt to get out of an arranged marriage to an altmer nobleman called Ondanil Rilaenor (who absolutely did not want to get married to her either. Ondanil just wanted to go back to Morrowind where he can continue his dwemer research with his dunmer boyfriend research partner, Athis Nerandus. the only reason he came back to Summerset at all was because his mother was sick).
The blackmail material being that Quenanya's own birth records/ancestry records were forged in order to cover up the fact that her father was Cyrodiilic (this would obviously backfire on Quenanya, but it would be mutually assured destruction, as I image in Alinor, tampering with ancestry records would probably be highly illegal). That Amalor is a follower of Mephala (either this, or that Amalor has a Maomer ancestor, but I'm not sure if I want to make that canon or not. The hypocrisy is juicy though). and that Tamyon - Quenanya's uncle - is not actually Amalor's (the scandal).
Quenanya wouldn't actually make a move to reveal any of this, but it would be a "I have all of your dirty laundry sitting right here, and if you don't leave me and Ondanil alone to get on with our respective lives, I'll hang it out for all of your thalmor friends to see" situation.
I don't even think Amalor would be that angry tbh, he'd be more impressed (it's the type of thing he would probably have done in her situation). Eranwe is seething though.
This was sometime during 4E 180, not long before the end of the war between the Dominion and Hammerfel - which Caliathmo was away fighting in at the time - and after a decade of working for the Beautiful.
Caliathmo being in Hammerfel during this would be another reason why Quenanya would be so desperate to end the engagement. Before he was sent away, they'd only just admitted their feelings for each other and had only been in a relationship for like a year. And now she's pretending to go along with a marriage to someone else (just whilst she and Ondanil gather dirt on their respective families) and she doesn't even know if Caliathmo is still alive.
(I kind of went off topic, but I have so many ideas for scenes revolving around this situation that it could be its own fic haha.)
I haven’t actually got a concrete idea about what Mephala's first appearance to Quenanya was like, but I image it left Quenanya (who up to then was feeling pretty pleased with herself for managing to outmanoeuvre Amalor and Eranwe at their own game) feeling pretty horrified at herself and who she was becoming.
Quenanya’s grandfather, Amalor, on the other hand is a willing champion of Mephala (this being the reason why Mephala is so interested in Quenanya in the first place) and she enjoys pitting the two against each other as they are both ultimately working towards conflicting goals.
I imagine Mephala enjoys watching how the lives of mortals play out, kind of like watching a soap opera lmao (the Adallaireon's are certainly filled with enough drama to qualify).
Mephala, from this point onwards, periodically whispers to Quenanya (I headcannon that, to do this, Mephala manifests either herself,or sends a messenger, in the form of a seemingly innocuous common spider). Mephala's goal is to try and get her to agree to deals that would aid in Quenanya bringing down the Thalmor (or whatever other goal/thing Quenanya is trying to attain).
Quenanya’s yet to accept one of these deals - though she was tempted on more than one occasion – as she’s sure that accepting any such deal would come with consequences that far outweigh whatever she would gain from making a deal.
Although I do have an idea for a fic where Quenanya does accept a deal, resulting in Caliathmo having to rescue her from the Spiral Skein in an Orpheus and Eurydice esc situation, which I talked about in this post if you’re interested.
Also, tangentially related, I imagine that Quenanya comes into possession of the ebony blade at some point during her time in Skyrim. It’s the daedric quest where Balgruuf’s son, Nelkir, is being whispered to by Mephala from behind the door in the basement of Dragonsreach.
I feel like Quenanya would instantly know what’s going on - or at the very least, have strong suspicions - as soon as she hears the rumours whilst in Whiterun. she’d try to get Mephala to leave Nelkir alone and, when offered, would probably take the sword if Mephala agreed to do so. Quenanya'd only take the sword because she would think it better to have it in her possession rather than that of Nelkir or someone less willing to resist Mephala than herself. (Now that I think about it, this is Quenanya accepting a deal. This situation probably won’t end well in the long run, even if Quenanya refuses to use the sword).
