Im struggling to get it but is it saying that Molag Bal deceived Marukh into creating the second empire that creates the genocides/domination of millions of souls and thats what happened in mainline history
I find it compelling but also believe perhaps Vaermina was also involved as she is involved with the creation of vampires to begin with and would also parrallel the corruption of lorkhan even prior to that and stuff

basically my question/want to discuss is what exactly can be seen as true for Vigilant Mod

So I came across this lovely post from five years ago via Google and one of the comments got me wondering. What kinda of cheeses could theoretically exist in the Shivering Isles? There is the Shivering Cheese, which glows for some reason. I'd love to hear people's thoughts on the matter. It's a fun subject to think about.

So I was wondering what others think happens when a dreamer wakes up, and what happens when the first godhead awakens. Do the other godheads just disappear, or do they stay in some way?

So, I have been thinking lately why Aedra almost exclusively represent positive constructive concepts while Daedra almost exclusively represemt negative destructive ones. And then I realised something.

The reason why the concepts that represent Aedra are considered to be good is because they were the ones involved in the creation of Mundus and are the ancestors of most races on Nirn.

If, for example, Molag Bal for some reason was one of the et'Ada and put a part of himself in the creation of Mundus and subsequently the nature of mortals, then dominating others and slavery would be considered as much of a virtue as Mara's maternity and love.

It's interesting then to consider that every single concept represented by Daedra is something that is basically unnatural to mortal nature and a sign of corruption.

What do you think?

Tosh Raka is the only "Akaviri" character (I mean by this that he’s known from Akavir, and not from a invasion of Tamriel), does that mean Akavir rulers or scholars are largely unknown from Tamriel perspective ?

This was originally intended for submission to The Tel Mora Independent Press, but they shut down before it was published. I've been hanging onto it for years at this point, but I want to put it somewhere for posterity. Some of it may be a little dated; it's been written for 5 years at this point, c0da.es is down, several of the forums I originally asked for comment from have shut down, and some of the events described seem like a distant memory even to me, but I hope it's still informative for folks who want to know more about the Elder Scrolls lore community and its history.

...good grief, that makes me feel old. Anyway, I hope y'all enjoy it, and I'd love to hear your perspectives on it all!

----

The Elder Scrolls currently casts one of the biggest shadows in the gaming world, with a history that goes back to 1994. Ever since it started, it has had passionate fans who have engaged with the games, the lore, and the developers in a variety of ways since the series’ inception. That is and has changed over time, although this is mostly thanks to shifts in the nature of communication and Bethesda’s actions rather than any fundamental change in the nature of the community itself, although that has shifted too.

So, to the fundamental question: where are we going as a fandom? To understand that, I think we need to look at where we’ve been. I’ll be taking a stroll through TES fandom history, and picking up perspectives on the way.

As part of this, I’ve been asking the community what their experiences have been. In particular, I want to thank the Elder Scrolls communities on Facebook, Reddit, TamrielVault, the Elder Scrolls Online official forums, the UESP, TESWiki, and the Skyforge for putting up with my spamming about this topic. I’d also like to thank LadyNerevar and Syfri for their personal comments that helped me write this article, and the folks at the New Companions podcast for their takes on this.

It should also be noted that this article is also coloured by my own perspectives, which supplement a lot of the information that I did not have direct references for in my conversations with the community. I have tried to keep any and all judgement out of this, but I apologise if some has crept in, or if my own perspectives have misrepresented things in any way.

They Walked Among Us: The Early Years

Bethesda was a tiny studio who happened to luck into a big hit and then get sorta in over their heads trying to follow it up. - LadyNerevar

Michael Kirkbride, Kurt Kuhlmann, Ken Rolston and other developers used to hold in-character RPs on the forums: they would argue about lore, or elucidate some principle or just have fun. - Scourgicus

Arena was the first Elder Scrolls game, but Daggerfall was the first time an online community around The Elder Scrolls started to form, mostly because the Internet was in its infancy at the time of Arena’s release. The community at this point was small, so many of the developers monitored the official forums in the absence of dedicated community staff for the place. This led to the fans and developers sharing their ideas, and allowed fan texts to make their way into the games. In fact, the names of many of the Divines are attributed to Daggerfall playtesters known as the “Council of Wisdom”, some of whom contributed texts that came to be part of the game. This was the beginning of a trend of sharing texts with fans that would carry on for several years.

This also saw the beginning of several fansites, such as The Essential Site, the Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages, and The Imperial Library. The latter of these was started to collate all lore information in one place, with the primary motivator being that the information on the series should be preserved in the event of the series ending, according to the Librarian known as B. As with much of the early web in the 1990s, this information was scattered, and communities typically existed in dedicated forums maintained by fans. This began to die out in the years after Daggerfall, as no new releases encouraged community hubs to emerge, and fans became less engaged. These communities didn’t usually revolve around lore, but had it as one element among many. Other elements that seem to have started in this time that resonated with fans included artworks and “fashion” from the games, as well as some early modding communities and fanfiction hubs.

Then came The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard, which gave us the Pocket Guide to the Empire and all the lore that came with that. Despite this, the game didn’t seem to have registered much with fans, since it didn’t bring in a large raft of new players as has typically been the case for most main title Elder Scrolls games. It was, however, the birth of most “modern lore” and everything that comes with that, although the majority of fans today see Morrowind as the start of the modern franchise. The same could be said for the launch of An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire; it ran on the same engine as Daggerfall and didn’t have a substantial effect on the size or composition of the fanbase.

During the run-up to Morrowind, the direct, large-scale communication between Bethesda and fans drew to a close. Several texts that would appear in the games were posted to online forums ahead of Morrowind’s release (The Essential Site being the most common for this, although Bethesda also shared some things with The Imperial Library before release), although they are rarely acknowledged as such now. During this era, the now-common question was raised as to whether Michael Kirkbride’s in-universe submissions were lore or not, although this contention did not reach the levels that they would at the height of the “canon wars”.

Morrowind: The New Dawn, and the First Cycle

This wasn't Daggerfall, this was some cut down Hexen clone with pretty graphics - Lachdonin

Bethesda's forums were a hornet's nest of hate. It seemed to me that nobody liked Morrowind.  Morrowind was nothing but a shallow action game with shiny graphics designed to appeal to casual console and first-person shooter gamers. It could not even be considered a roleplaying game, they said. - PseronWyrd

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind marked the first time that there was a notable “old guard” to the fanbase. As such, it was the first game to witness one of the recurring features of the community: criticism of the games, rather than the gameplay.

The biggest of these criticisms was that the game was being “dumbed down” for the sake of being popular or for having shiny graphics, or some other similar complaint. This also led to many fans leaving the community, either because they disliked the direction of the franchise or the community’s reaction to it. That being said, many of these fans would return later, typically when new entries in the series came out and memories of the older titles were not quite so vibrant and contentious. This paragraph is confusing.

As the first “big hit” from the studio, Morrowind saw an upswing in traffic to Bethesda’s official forums, which began to be the de facto place to discuss the franchise. Many users who stuck around came to the forums for technical support and staying for the community.

Despite the series having an official outlet, several smaller sites still hung on, and some even sprang up around this time. Most particularly, Morrowind saw the beginning of “scholarly” consideration of The Elder Scrolls lore. The Imperial Library started a Forum Scholars Guild for essays on lore topics, both in-universe and out, and other sites like Temple Zero and The Whirling School were created and dedicated to the study of particular texts, with the aim of analysing texts in ways that approached academic rigour. This was the heyday of those types of discussions, with a strong crowd forming around detailed discussion of the lore. Over time, these sites have wound down their activities as users either left the franchise or gravitated towards more general Elder Scrolls lore channels.

This is possibly when the persistent charges of elitism within the lore community began. These claims have never really gone away, and likely happened because some users would be present in multiple forums, which led to them developing reputations that persisted across the community. Before Google became quite so prevalent, these communities were hard to find, and this contributed to the “ivory tower” status that these communities earned outside of the central hubs of lore discussion like UESP and the Bethesda forums.

Oblivion - Here We Go Again, But Moreso

the games change, the complaints do not - LadySelene

The release of Oblivion revived the community that had been gradually flagging since Morrowind’s release, and inflated the number of users on Bethesda’s official forums and on the independent sites. While Oblivion brought in new players into the franchise, it caught a similar level of vitriol about the game “dumbing down” as had Morrowind: as before, fans complained of fewer skills, simpler quests, and so on. In addition to this, though, the old guard criticized how the game didn’t match previous expectations set by the series’ lore: Cyrodiil was not a jungle, in particular. This particular criticism has festered in the community ever since, though did not seem to drive people out of the community in the same way that the “it’s not Morrowind” complaints did. 

Following Oblivion’s release, various fruits of Morrowind examination began to become commonplace within the community, with ideas such as the godhead beginning to permeate from the scholars who discussed them in specific places like The Whirling School into the general fandom.

This was accompanied by an ever-increasing distance between fans and developers, with very few remaining developers who directly engaged with fans on a regular basis. One of those that did, Michael Kirkbride, had frequently been in the habit of posting content that either was later deemed official or explained and expanded official ideas. The reaction to this was generally positive, although mixed. Questions around the canonicity of such content were raised in this era, although these questions were quite low-level. The majority of questions remained focused on the content of the games, and most frequently on politics and day-to-day existence in Tamriel, with occasional questions about the metaphysics of the series’ universe.

The lore from Oblivion, aside from the issue of Cyrodiil as a jungle or forest, seems to have created less debate and interest among the fans than Morrowind, with independent sites from this era diversifying into builds and narrative fan-fiction, rather than the discursive environments that were spurred by its predecessor. While Pelinal and the Commentaries were held in relatively high regard by the lore community, they were seldom discussed with the same rigor as texts from Morrowind.

Skyrim - The Civil War(s) & A Change in the Game

It was at this point that the canon debate stopped being a hushed Loremaster affair and the canon wars became 'mainstream', because suddenly lore itself was mainstream - Why we DIDNT need C0da and how the Canon wars actually 'Ended', rylasasin

It is how horribly mean and out of control the arguments would get. The personal attacks, the insults, the condescension. I had never seen anything like it - Laurelanthalasa

Skyrim’s release in 2011 brought an even larger wave of fans to the franchise, and the game continued to draw in more people as it launched on different platforms. A fresh spate of new independent platforms began to emerge, such as The Skyrim Blog. As with most other waves, though, community forming around tech support was the order of the day, with fans essentially discovering the other elements of the community accidentally. In particular, character builds seem to have become a larger driver of the community at this point. Though discussion around builds had existed beforehand, they were mostly incidental posts on forums focused on other things; Skyrim brought a critical mass that allowed the formation of communities that were exclusively focused on character builds or other more niche aspects of the franchise.

For 6 years after Skyrim’s release, Bethesda’s forums continued to exist, but they began to hollow out around 2013, at least from a lore perspective. This is possibly because of a plethora of platforms supported what was the same pattern of discovery – fans would look for support or information on a particular issue and connect with other fans who were also looking at those issues. This led to a drift towards more specialised communities and away from Bethesda’s official forums.

One of the main things driving this from a lore perspective was what has come to be called “The Canon Wars”, where fans would argue about the canonicity of particular events in the series. This became an unavoidable argument for many lore fans, because of how it interacted with Skyrim’s gameplay. To quote rylasasin:

Back in the days of Morrowind and Oblivion*, the canon wars were more or less a non-object in the public eye. True, there was some debate over whether things like* Hogithium Hall or the Intercept were canon, but these were always very hushed very exclusive debates among 'Loremasters' or 'nerds with too much time on their hands', most of these arguments never saw any real public discourse. Lore was always this sort of "background object" that 'nobody' really cared about since it wasn't really part of the game. It was possible to play the game without even reading one iota of background lore and you wouldn't be confused as to what was going on. Then came Skyrim*, and its Civil War and its Dominion vs Imperial vs Stormcloak debates and arguments. One particular argument always found its way into these debates: Thalmor wanting to destroy the world by destroying the towers. The evidence? Kirkbride's OOG Lore. It was at this point that the canon debate stopped being a hushed Loremaster affair and the canon wars became 'mainstream', because suddenly lore itself was mainstream, no longer was it simply some 'background object that didn't affect anything and only the dorks cared about'. Now it was actually a thing that had tangible effects.*

This produced a lot of vitriol from both sides of the canon debate, with insults being flung and several fans leaving the fandom, some temporarily and some permanently, because of the toxicity of the debates from this period.

This inevitably caused rifts within the community. Mods on the Bethesda forums simply began locking canon debates when they got personal, without taking a stance. Then, particular communities on Reddit and other sites began to coalesce where the forum staff began enforcing particular policies around canon (such as whether it could be discussed or what people could say about it). In the years prior to around 2014, this was regularly decried by whichever side was the “other”, but after that point the lines had been roughly drawn.

C0DA - The Final & First Shot

Part of the problem with TES fans who argue for canon is that they often insist on it.  Part of the problem with TES fans who argue for C0DA is that they often insist on it. - Rottendeadite

And then, on Valentine’s Day in 2014, C0DA happened.

C0DA, which was written by Michael Kirkbride, an ex-Bethesda developer, polarised the community again with its meta message that canon didn’t really matter. Some said this was how the series was intended to be interpreted, while others disregarded it as unlicensed and not relevant to the series. C0DA was written with the explicit intent of “ending the canon wars”, but instead introduced another front; those that accepted its perspective used it as an argument for why canon should not exist, while those that did not accept it claimed that its unofficial status invalidated its arguments.

There were very messy rows between fans on the precise place C0DA has in The Elder Scrolls lore, and threads about it became very personal very quickly, partly because the debates about the text were about fans’ outlook rather than anything else. These debates were inevitably accompanied by discussions about its place within the lore, which often overshadowed everything else. This eventually settled along similar lines to the original canon war, with some communities accepting C0DA and the community writing, or “apocrypha”, it encourages (such as those presented in this very publication), while others having a more explicit “canon-only” stance.

As newer fans have come to the franchise, C0DA has effectively become a meme, particularly in those places that do not accept its message. “C0DA makes it canon” is used in some places as a statement intended to either claim immunity from criticism of an idea or to highlight that the user thinks the point being made is ridiculous. 

C0DA has come to be seen by some fans as emblematic of the science-fantasy elements within The Elder Scrolls. Mothships, memospores, moon colonies, KINMUNE, and the like all tend to be lumped into a “that’s C0DA” mindset, along with much of Kirkbride’s other writings. Newer fans, particularly those more interested non-metaphysical lore, are often quick to write off any of Kirkbride’s writing as linked to C0DA and therefore not worth discussing.

Those who accept C0DA as a legitimate piece of lore for The Elder Scrolls typically discussed  its themes extensively in the months following its release, but now there is little discussion around it. Many of the finer points it makes about the lore, are brought in to support other viewpoints, but the interest it generated as a text dissipated fairly rapidly after its release.

The Interregnum - A Broadening, and a Narrowing?

Back in the day, people would create theories, or accept theories of others, but wouldn't use said theories as cold hard evidence. That is what's changed. - Bruccius

The rise of YouTubers and Streamers have likely made info more accessible, and the lore that once was connected to ego is now disseminated and accessible to everyone. - Paws

Our relationship to the lore has also changed - we know more, examine less, and expect it all to yield results in the game post haste. - LadyNerevar

In the years that followed Skyrim, the Elder Scrolls lore community changed in ways that hadn’t really been seen before. The primary effect was generational; the time between Arena and Oblivion was 11 years, and 14 years passed between Oblivion’s release and the writing of this article. That in itself had an effect on the community. Most obviously, the majority of fans who are active today had Skyrim as their first point of reference for the franchise, and this is reflected across virtually every platform where The Elder Scrolls is discussed. There are communities where the older games are the primary point of reference, but these have typically become self-selected. Older fans do still interact with these community platforms, but are very much in the minority at this point in time.

That admixture of what came before and those with little to no experience of the community created another unique dynamic: the prevalence of theorycrafting that is often taken as fact within the community. This dynamic arose because of the different types of experiential history that the two groups seemed to have. The “old guard”, who have typically aged past the point where they could spend much of their time in online communities, had already had many of the discussions that the fans who were introduced to the community through Skyrim were still having. This led many of these “old guard” to disengage from day-to-day interactions, because of what they saw as the same conversations taking place over and over and over. Because of this, they developed shorthand answers, which they presented as precise explanations to summarise debates that happened several times over the course of years or decades. The new fans picked these answers up without having seen where they have come from. In many communities, most notably here at r/teslore, the points of debate have become not the lore of the universe itself, but users’ preferences for what sort of theories they accept. These discussions tend to get personal quickly, as oftentimes the debaters do not precisely understand how their preferred perspective has developed, and so the discussions have little place to go beyond simple “I’m right, you’re wrong” statements. This has continued the process that began during the “Canon Wars”, where communities splintered into ideological camps where certain perspectives were tacitly accepted as the “rules of engagement” and not questioned until newcomers started to dig at those unspoken assumptions.

At the same time, information about The Elder Scrolls universe has never been more available. YouTube in particular has become one of the first places people go to find information on the series. The nature of video as a medium contributes to the trend of obscuring the origins of things; these videos are often simple narratives, with little in the way of references to the source materials. In this way, newcomers have many more places to discuss lore and find out information, but many of the sources that are available repeat commonly-held opinions rather than referring to any particular in-universe texts that they could use to learn about or demonstrate knowledge of the lore.

This has led to the latest incarnation of the elitist image that the lore community has very often had. Newer fans, who cut their teeth on YouTube lore videos and then move into Elder Scrolls communities, or who want to find YouTube lore channels as a source of information, often get looked down on by other lore fans.

ESO: The Great Divide, and a New Dawn?

Yet there seems to be a prevailing impression that ESO isn’t a “proper” TES game, despite the fact that in a few years all the stuff ESO has brought to the setting will inform the character people create for TES VI. - Paws

[ESO] wasn't what they knew Elder Scrolls to be, and I think a lot of people were afraid it would fundamentally alter how they viewed the series, the universe, and maybe not for the better. Today that broader ESO community is so vibrant and the game is really deeply loved by its player base. - Edana

The game that gets too much hate, as well as too much praise, is easily ESO. - ThatGuy642

The Elder Scrolls: Online was released in 2014, as an Elder Scrolls MMO. This was taken with a generally poor reaction at the time of release. Accusations of disregarding the lore of older games, increasingly common since Oblivion’s release, reached new heights on a variety of topics. Part of this also likely stemmed from the fact that the MMO format was a marked departure from previous Elder Scrolls titles, with existing series fans often being accused of disliking the game for it not being “Skyrim Online”, or similar. As with every release, fans drifted away, although some have noted that the shift away from the games and the studio has become more permanent than in previous games, given the lack of single-player content that has arrived since 2011.

This attitude has shifted over time, suggesting that the initial gameplay elements may have been the primary culprit for the game’s poor reception. Many players have returned to the game after a time away, and taken to it in a way that didn’t happen at the game’s release. The Elder Scrolls: Online has also brought in a raft of players from the MMO community, who generally interact on dedicated “gamer” channels, rather than specific Elder Scrolls sites. Dedicated platforms on Reddit, Discord, Facebook, and the like have appeared, alongside successful streaming communities on Twitch and Mixer. Meanwhile, the official forums and Bethesda-run sites are relatively empty. Some existing Elder Scrolls fans have adopted the game, and in this way some sites have adapted their content, but the continuing success of Skyrim, with multiple releases across different platforms meaning that much of the community remains engaged through Skyrim content.

The player base that The Elder Scrolls: Online brought into the franchise was initially relatively hostile and combative, particularly in the player vs player space. While this could be expected given the nature of the medium, several prominent community members noted that the attitude was not merely friendly competition, and was making the community unwelcoming to new players. Several streamers began to consciously work to counter this, sending positive news and shout-outs to the rest of the community on Twitch, Twitter and other general social media platforms through the #ESOFam hashtag. This appears to have rubbed off on the fandom as a whole, with The Elder Scrolls: Online gamers now having a reputation as some of the friendliest of any MMO. This is a marked change from the general attitude of much of the rest of the fandom, which typically swing between love and hate for any given game. The newer generation of fans brought in through The Elder Scrolls: Online seem more positive than many fans of the older games, and have remained so throughout the steady stream of game content released over the years. However, the game remains divisive among long-term fans of the franchise, with some seeing elements of the game as a breach of faith on the part of Bethesda and Zenimax. This initially focused on the introduction of monetised content into the game, but now tends to focus on performance issues and the need for ongoing maintenance.

With regards to the lore, the initial hate has not necessarily gone away in some corners, typically those introduced through the main series. Some inconsistencies in the MMO lore initially led to some fans declaring the game to not be canon, although this attitude has lessened over time, partially due to corrections made by Zenmiax, including the appointment of a full-time Loremaster to check for consistency and direct the overall lore content of the game. However, it still persists as a rumour that surfaces every so often across most Elder Scrolls social sites.

Existing in Twilight: The Others, and the Future

The latest Elder Scrolls releases, Blades and Legends have to a degree developed their own communities, and these games have typically tried to appeal to fans beyond the core Elder Scrolls fandom. The reception of these games by the traditional Elder Scrolls fandom has been lukewarm, although a small number of fans of the lore have taken to Legends particularly as a source of interesting new content. They do not take up much space on typical Elder Scrolls community sites, and have only succeeded in engaging a small number of fans around their content.

As with The Elder Scrolls: Online, some concerns remain around the canonicity of Legends. This means that any discussion of Legends lore relative to the other parts of the series, the Legends content tends to be discounted relatively rapidly upon realising where it comes from. This is not a uniform attitude by any means, however.

The canceling of new content for Legends is likely to lead to the remaining lore fans, outside of those archiving the content, to begin to wind down engagement with the game, in the same way that a lack of new content for other games has caused interest to dwindle in the past.

This winding down phase is now common across a variety of places, saving those that are engaged with The Elder Scrolls: Online. Social network sites feature either basic questions from new fans, or infrequent discussion pieces from longer term fans or third party media outlets. The pattern is repeating that, as fans newer to the franchise predominate, the same basic questions get asked in most places, and the same sorts of stories told.

That is, until the release of The Elder Scrolls VI, at which point the cycle will probably begin again.

As the title says. I was playing Skyrim as a Khajiit Vampire, and when using the Vampire Lord form, I started thinking about those hairless cats

On Nords and Siege Warfare

By Lennald the Tuned-Tongue, Famous Travelling Bard

Of all the races of Man, we Nords are the most warlike. We love our wars, and we love them long and bloody and filled with hard-fought battles. Even in times of peace, we seek only to relive the wars of the past through our songs and sagas.

In much of the rest of the world, especially in the west, warfare often revolves around the control of fortified castles and fortresses. Sieges- the act of an army surrounding and cutting off a stronghold's line of supply from the world beyond its walls until the defenders are compelled to surrender the structure- are far more common than pitched battles. Such a style of warfare is repulsive to the sons and daughters of Skyrim.

The Nords' loathing for siege warfare is fourfold.

First and foremost, it is a matter of pride and strength. When it comes to battle, the Nords of Skyrim prefer to meet their enemies on the open field- to rely upon stone walls and towers to keep an enemy at bay rather than one's own strength is regarded as weakness and an insult to a warrior's pride. To hide behind walls and gates and tremble as the enemy circles beyond them like wolves is to embrace cowardice and therefore dishonor. To wait and allow starvation to defeat an opponent rather than striking the killing blow with one's own axe is to forsake glory. A warrior should have the courage to confront his opponent face to face, axe to axe, the only measure of difference between them being the measure of the strength of their sword arms.

Secondly, it is a matter of patience. Sieges are often protracted affairs; it is not uncommon that a siege drag on for months without even a single drop of blood being spilled or a single axe being swung. As such, sieges require a great deal of patience. Regretfully and to our own detriment, the Nords are not a patient people.

Third, it is a matter of respect. When a visitor comes knocking upon your door, it is good manners to answer their call and welcome them into your home without delay. In our culture, it is a great sign of disrespect to keep one waiting, and this remains true even during times of war. To keep an enemy waiting on an open and unbloodied battlefield by hiding away in a castle is ill-mannered and discourteous, akin to keeping an empty-bellied guest waiting at the feasting table. Worse yet, to delay a decisive battle and keep Shor waiting for the souls of the slain to join him in Sovngarde's Hall of Valor is an insult to the honored dead.

Lastly, it is simply a matter of logistics. Skyrim is a harsh land. The crops that grow so abundantly down south do not thrive here in the desolate north. It is rare to produce a harvest plentiful enough to keep a village fed for a season, and it is an even rarer occurrence to produce enough excess food necessary to stockpile a fortress for a lengthy siege. Therefore, sieges are affairs generally avoided in favor of direct battle.

On the Role of Forts in Skyrim's Warfare

All of this is not to say that castles and forts do not hold any significance to warfare in Skyrim. Many such structures exist in Skyrim and their strategic value is not entirely lost upon Nordic military commanders, but they serve a very different purpose here.

The first step to take for a jarl or war chieftain with ambitions of conquest is often proving the strength of their army, and what better way to do so than to take possession, by force of arms, of one of Skyrim's many forts. Traditionally, such an enterprising conqueror will make their intentions of claiming said fort loud and clear, and the current occupant of said fort will shore up its defenses and garrison it with a warband prepared to defend its walls and gates to the death.

Rather than lay siege to the fort and starve its defenders into submission, as the armies of the west and the south would, a Nordic army will mount a mighty assault upon it. They will bring down the fort's gates with axes or rams or mammoths. They will scale its walls with ladders and send the blood of their enemies pouring down from the battlements. They will storm the inner keep and slay the defenders to the last man.

Such a daring assault is often a costly one for the attackers, but in victory their strength cannot be disputed and becomes known and feared all throughout the Nine Holds of Skyrim.

On the Instruments of Siege Warfare

Because we Nords have historically refrained from participating in sieges, our knowledge and skill with the tools and techniques necessary to conduct siege warfare is severely lacking. We have little experience in the construction of siege engines such as towers, ramps, and stone-throwing devices such as trebuchets- though we have adopted the use of the more mobile catapults thanks to our long service in the Imperial Legion, which we utilize often in the assaults described in the section above.

The only exception to this fact is the tried and true battering ram. As opposed to the time-consuming siege towers or ballistae, any old tree can be chopped down and swiftly put to work as a battering ram- though the thick-trunked oaks of the Falkreath forest make particularly sturdy rams.

As reliable as the battering ram has been at cracking open fortress gates, we Nords have found other methods of brute forcing our way through enemy gates.

The War Mammoth- A vast population of mammoths roams the expansive plains of central Skyrim. For centuries we Nords have tamed these gargantuan creatures and herded them across the plains. In times of war, we use them as beasts of war; nothing can shatter a shield wall and the morale of the warriors within it like a stampeding horde of mammoths.

The Gatebiter- Similar to the infamous Nordic berserker, the Gatebiter is traditionally equipped with an intimidating two-handed battle axe, but unlike their bare chested counterpart, these men enter the fray heavily armored from head to toe. While the berserker unleashes all of his rage on the battlefield in an uncontrollable battle crazed frenzy, discerning neither friend nor foe as he carves a path through the battle, the Gatebiter channels and focuses his fury solely on the gates of the enemy stronghold, hacking it to splinters so that his shield-brothers might drive their assault to the enemy's very hearth.

For example, let's invent a scenario in which the Bosmer create an empire that controls Tamriel, the question is, does the pact affect only Valenwood or all of Tamriel?

Greetings, loremasters.
The title is basically my question -

why does the number of Star Orphans match that of Divines, Talos included? Can't be a neat coincidence, never is with these things. I thought about the repetition of mythological patterns (what was the term for it again?), but what little we know of Merid-Nunda, Mnemo-Li and Ithelia doesn't seem to line up with anything Nine Divines whatsoever. Am I missing something here?

edit: for that matter, is Merid-Nunda even the same entity as Meridia? What about the Prime Archon and Ithelia?

I'm curious about if there is any reason (IRL or lore) why Azura 's name and asuras, Indian demons, sound similar. I think there must be seeing how Azura is just one letter off of assurance. Surely there's a reason right?

Just as the title I'm just confused on if their actually insane or not. They are in the shivering isles but most interactions I see of them as guards and will even rebuke and tell people like the beggar dude and the pants-less man that they cant converse or they need to get back to their post. The act seriously and such except for a few occasions and will attack people who commit crimes, even if their dumb crimes. But I'm not entirely sure if they count as insane? Anyone able to explain it to me because I think I might be confused?

Blood and Silk

by Asuut-Ghajje

Vermillion are the petals, wind-wound and crimson swirling, in the dappled glades of the sun-shone valleys of the Niben. Counselled since birth in the red stance of diamond-chasing, sun-frenzied youths bay for blood in the sacred courts.

O Dibella, Dabala, Adabal, who gleams red-promise inaccessible, the forbidding of the touch, the trembling of flesh, the softness of silk, the shrieking of moths. Four razor-points hidden from the last memory around a jewel of red.

Red Dibella! Blood-queen of the Niben! Drown the lovers who chased you! May they choke on want! On the nesting-beds of the great river, the sunlight opaque in the red, we subsume ours as you did yours. O Red Dibella, the taste commands us to want more.

Dress us in silk, Red Dibella, queen of the crossroads, and smother us with taunting. A swarm of moths to stifle thoughts and wounds. Swords and hammers to be daubed in blood-made-welcoming, whirling hips, thunderous blows, wraith-bells at mind's edge, unreachable in every aspect.

The Foe Admires The Tapestry Of Wounds You Leave On Him

It Distracts Him Even As You Paint

Too fast to grasp, too small in the river-eddies, as fine as the point of a razor.

Red Dibella! Your ribboned faithful dancing sacred sword-logic, all shapes are edges, all edges are endings, all endings reflected in a sea of blades.

Bury us in silk, and drown us in wings. After the thirteenth prayer, show the golden memory of freedom, when want gave way to love.

1. The fact that they are known as Graybeards already indicates that members of the order are usually very old. An order that wasn’t long-lived would need to recruit new members continuously, and the title 'Graybeards' would make no sense
2. If they lived like normal humans, considering their age, they would have at most 10 to 15 years left, and they would be desperate to gain new apprentices. However, they don’t seem to be in a hurry to take on new apprentices.
3. Ulfric was the last apprentice who almost joined the order. And that was over 20 years ago.
4. Arngeir is the only one who can speak with us because the others have spent more time training their Voice and could literally kill us just by speaking. If Arngeir, being an elder, is 'the young one' of the group... how old are the rest?
5. (EDIT 1) CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE: It is said that Arngeir strongly opposed Ulfric leaving for the Great War. This could indicate that even 20 YEARS AGO, Arngeir already was the only one who could speak without killing others.

(EDIT 2) UPDATE: Some people have pointed out in the comments, and they are probably right, that point 4 is incorrect since Arngeir would be the eldest. So I’m mentioning it here for everyone to see.

Even so, four men who appear old regardless of the time they’ve spent in the order might suggest that within that group, they remain elderly without dying for many years, more than a normal human live

In Oblivion, using the Amulet of Kings Martin became an Avatar of Akatosh to defeat Mehrunes Dagon. My question is did the Amulet of Kings allow Martin to channel Akatosh's power from Akatosh himself or did the power come from the Amulet itself?

We know that the Amulet of Kings is a soul gem and that it contains an oversoul of previous emperors, since the emperors were Dragonborn and Dragonborn souls are shards of Akatosh, the Amulet contains/combines shards of Akatosh.

So it seems to me to be possible that it was the oversoul of emperors that empowered both Martin and in ESO the Vestige.

Martin seems to be saying that the power being used is the power contained within the Amulet:

Wait. Yes. The Amulet was given to mortals by Akatosh... it contains His divine power... But how to use this power against Dagon? The Amulet was not intended as a weapon... ... I have an idea. One last hope. I must reach the Dragonfires in the Temple of the One.

Abnur Tharn says with its power:

Only if we use it here on Nirn. But if we were to travel to Coldharbour, we might be able to harness its power. Imbue you with divine agency enough to challenge the Daedric Prince.

And in Chronicles of the Five Companions 8 Abnur Tharn writes with the power of the Amulet:

We must dislodge Molag Bal's teeth, as it were, through application of incredible force. Of course, we cannot use the Amulet a second time in the same fashion as we did at the Soulburst, but if I am correct—and I always am—a modification of the spell will allow a mortal to become a vessel of the Divines, an imbue him with the power of the Amulet.

So did the Amulet actually contain enough of Akatosh's power to fight Daedric Princes? Or am I misinterpreting something here? Is there anything I missed that supports/disproves this? And if it is true that the power came from the Amulet, what happened to it after the events of Oblivion when the Amulet was destroyed? Did the dragon souls go back to Akatosh?

The ending of Oblivion would make sense as it is the end of the Septim bloodline and the Oblivion crisis both being significant events enough to change the empire and the rest of Tamriel forever but who exactly decides or what is the criteria for an era ending event?

Hi.
I am drawing a set of sprites for different characters, enemies and creatures for Elder scrolls.
I sort of want to draw a Tsaesci, but I am not sure whether they are Nagas or just men with scales?

I think I´ve found both examples in the lore... but I might be wrong. Do you guys know?

Tamriel's sky isn’t something mortals can really understand or fully grasp. But if you had to describe it, what would it actually look like? (Wheels, gears, and the divine influence of each god?)

Ok so Wuunferth is the court mage in Windhelm and he claims he is appalled by necromancy. He states he's a member of the College of Winterhold and they haven’t allowed necromancy for hundreds of years. However some things are off. He knows exactly what the Necromancer's amulet is and does. He can recognize that Calixto's killings are necromantic in nature and can deduce a pattern from it in like an instant. He claims the college doesn’t allow necromancy and yet Phinis Gestor (professor of conjuration at the college) says necromancy is totally allowed in the college. Also, his name. His name is Wuunferth the Unliving............ Unliving!!??!?!?! Why is he named that if he didn't have some sort of relation to the practice of necromancy? Is Wuunferth actually undead? What is this guy's deal? Is there any book or snippet of lore anywhere that explains anything about this guy?

If Tamriel can develop into something similar to 20th century Earth with magic, how would that be like?

Would it be like the world of Fallout, but with magic mixed in?

Do you think a game yet in this hypothetical world can be made?

Hi everyone, it’s that time again!

The Weekly Free-Talk Thread is an opportunity to forget the rules and chat about anything you like—whether it's The Elder Scrolls, other games, or even real life. This is also the place to promote your projects or other communities. Anything goes!

I’m wondering If direct pact with daedric princes Would take greater precedence than curses like hircines or molag bal

This mod is made by an extremely important lore expert in modding community; Vicn.

I just want to know what people from this community think of his new mod: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/134405

So not too long ago I went on a journey to finally understand Giant Goblin/Ra Gada Lore. And I managed to finally put it all together back then, but realized I should probably share here.

You can find most of it now in the First Era section on the Goblin page on UESP. https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Goblin#First_Era

The biggest confusion was the fact that SO much of the context was in a text file included in Daggerfall's demo. Now you might hear this and think its abandoned Lore. But no, both Daggerfall and ESO heavily reference some of the contents of that file, including mentioning the text known as the "Song of Divad" by name in ESO, and referencing his diminishing of the Goblins size (also only mentioned in that text file) as the "Curse of Divad". So... no wonder this was confusing!

So while you can read it all on the page with all the sources, here's a brief summary

After the Dwemer arrived in Hammerfell and before their disappearance, the Dwarves were suddenly over whelmed by an extra planar attack from Giant Goblins through a Goblin Gate that opened in the sky, yes really. These Giant Goblins actually succeeded in pushing them out of Hammerfell.

Years later, the first warrior wave of the Ra Gada arrive with Frandar Hunding and his son Divad. This was before Yokuda sank mind you. And Frandar gets pissed about the Giant Goblins and other beastfolk being there. It's possible he first dealt with the Goblins on Stros Mkai, but while that's a legend, I can't figure out if he ever actually set foot on Stros Mkai. Anyways he goes to war with the Giant Goblins, led by their God Malooc, and has some great success, pushing them back, but he dies during a battle. His son Divad picks up his war and finishes by creating 5 special swords mixed with shehai magic. He closes the Goblin Gate to prevent more coming, and somehow Curses the giant goblins who got left behind to shrink. However one somehow escapes this curse, and he comes back much later.

Many years pass, and eventually yokuda sinks and the rest of the Ra Gada arrive, they end up killing all kinds of natives and Goblins aswel. Many more years pass, and the Goblin Gate reopens, allowing more Giant goblins to come through. A lot of the Redguards Ansei culture has been forgotten by this point. A hero called Hallin gathered the five swords divad makes, and manages to close the Goblin Gate for good. We know he eventually returns ansei traditions, but the two stories about him contradict in how he does this. Though we know for a fact theres truth to both due to other sources.

When Hallin is an older man, the Giant Goblin who escaped Divad Hundings curse like, maybe over a century ago is still around. He becomes a great warlord over Goblins or Orcs and invades a city. Hallin, already a respected hero, gets asked to help. He does a big crazy scheme with the ghosts of Ansei and ends up sacrificing himself, the last ansei takes out the last Giant goblin. (I've seen some people argue that this story is meant to be a different telling of his first tale with the swords, but this isn't true, Hallin's ghost even mentions searching for the swords to stop the giant goblins, and as mentioned Hallin was a known figure before the warlord showed up)

So that's basically it, it's very weird. Interestingly, we know Goblins existed on Tamriel long before the opening of the first Goblin Gate, so it's still anyone's guess if they ALL originate from some other plane.

I was playing a Vampire in Skyrim, and killed the blacksmiths wife in Dawnstar, who was pregnant, and I immediately started thinking about the Marvel series Blade, where blade was a half-vampire born to a turned mom. Is there any lore about if I had kept her alive, her child would have been a half-breed? I know half-vampires can be born, like the Grey Prince, but I don't know if biting counts as something else

The subject of kalpas form an interesting part of the lore within the Elder Scrolls universe. However, there seems to be a lot of confusion surrounding the subject. We might have a rough idea as to what they are, but then confusion ensues, in my experience at least, when trying to understand kalpas and their relation to other subjects, such as the Dawn Era and Adjacent Places. In this post, I hope to analyze the existing official and unofficial sources on kalpas to get a (hopefully) thorough understanding of them, and their relations to other subjects.

Where "Kalpa" Comes From

One thing you will inevitably learn in your studies of the kalpas is that the term stems comes from Hinduism, which Michael Kirkbride pulled from. (It also stems from Buddhism, but they mean essentially the same thing in both religions.) The term itself literally means 'a formation or creation.' It is a period of life within the lifetime of creation.

According to the Vishnu Purana, a kalpa is the length of one of Brahma's days. (Brahma is the Creator in Hinduism.) We read,

In each of Brahmā’s days, brahmin, fourteen Manus reign. Now you’ll hear about the length of each of these. 16

In the reign of every Manu, seven seers, deities, their king, a Manu himself and the sovereigns who are his progeny are created and absorbed again. 17

Each period is somewhat longer than seventy-one times the total years in each cycle of four ages. Called a Manvantara, it lasts for the duration of the Manu, gods and others, best of sages. 18

It’s thought to be as long as eight hundred and fifty-two thousand divine years. 19

This, brahmin, is a total of three hundred and sixty-seven million and twenty thousand years for mortals, best of sages. 20

That’s exactly the length of time, brahmin, for which each Manvantara endures. 21

Fourteen Manvantaras are thought to be the length of one of Brahmā’s days, from which its name, one brahma, is derived. At the conclusion of each day, the universe is destroyed. 22

At that time, the threefold worlds—earth, space and all the rest—are consumed by fire. The inhabitants of the realm of
Maharloka, oppressed by heat, retreat to Janaloka. 23

When all three worlds have been reduced to a single ocean, Brahmā, none other than Nārāyaṇa himself, reclines upon his serpent-couch, having grown in strength by consuming the universe. 24

Ascetics who dwell in Janaloka meditate on Brahmā all through the night, which lasts as long as a brahma day. When the night is done, he creates the world again. 25
- Vishnu Parana, 1.3.16-25

Put more simply, 1 Brahma Day/Kalpa = 14 Manvantara; 1 Manvantara = 852,000 Divine Years = 367,020,000 Mortal Years. 14 x 367,020,000 = 5,138,280,000 Mortal Years. Some other translations, however, say that 1 Manvantara = 306,720,000 Mortal Years. Thus making 1 kalpa = 4,294,080,000 Mortal Years. Which translation is correct, I am not the one to say. Regardless, though, it is a really long time detailing the birth, preservation, and dissolution of the world. The same basic idea can be found in TES.

In-Game Uses of the Word

In terms of in-game uses of the word, and references to it that aren't explicitly using the term, there are very few. Here is a complete list (pulled from UESP's references and TIL. If I miss any, that is my fault.):

• Paarthurnax's dialogue in Skyrim
• Varieties of Faith in Tamriel
• Children of the Root
• Plea for Open Eyes
• Litter-Mates of Darkness
• The Nine Coruscations
• The Songs of Pelinal, Volume 7
• Commentaries on the Mysterium Xarxes
• The Monomyth

Of these in-game references, only three actually use the term. That is, Paarthurnax, The Nine Coruscations, and The Songs of Pelinal, Vol. 7. Of these three, Paarthurnax probably has the most insightful words to say (that's quite characteristic of him):

I like this world. I don't want it to end.

"Pruzah. As good a reason as any. There are many who feel as you do, although not all. Some would say that all things must end, so that the next can come to pass. Perhaps this world is simply the Egg of the next kalpa? Lein vokiin? Would you stop the next world from being born?"
The next world will have to take care of itself.
"Paaz. A fair answer. Ro fus... maybe you only balance the forces that work to quicken the end of this world. Even we who ride the currents of Time cannot see past Time's end... Wuldsetiid los tahrodiis. Those who try to hasten the end, may delay it. Those who work to delay the end, may bring it closer."

Paarthurnax hints at the idea that the previous kalpa is the "egg" of the next kalpa. Within the previous kalpa lies the seeds of the next kalpa. That is to say, the potentiality of the next kalpa lies within the previous kalpa, which begets the next kalpa through its ending.

The other two texts suggest something about a previous kalpa. The Nine Coruscations asserts that Mehrunes the Razor (Whether Dagon and Mehrunes the Razor are one and the same or not, I will leave up to your interpretation.) forcefully sent Molag Bal into "the next kalpa." This previous kalpa is thought to be known as Lyg. The Songs of Pelinal, Vol. 7 assert that Umaril the Unfeathered's father was "a god of the previous kalpa's World-River." Both of these in-game references are towards Lyg. What we know about Lyg mostly comes from Mankar Camoran's Commentaries on the Mysterium Xarxes and various statements by Kirkbride. The rest of the texts above simply assert a cyclical timeline, one akin to the Hindu conception of time and kalpas.

So far, the TES idea of kalpas is staying pretty consistent with its origins.

Out-of-Game Uses of the Word

In terms of out-of-game uses of the word, there are many more. All solely by Kirkbride. In fact, the only non-Kirkbride usage of the word is within The Nine Coruscations, which was authored in real-life by Andrew Young. Of the out-of-game sources, we have:

• Pocket Guide to the Empire, Second Edition
• The Seven Fights of The Aldudagga
• The Five Hundred Mighty Companions or Thereabouts of Ysgramor the Returned
• Michael Kirkbride's 2013 Reddit AMA, and Posts Between 2007-2011, and Undated Posts, and 2013 IRC Quotes
• World-Eating 101

First, let's look at Kirkbride's posts on social media. Most of these posts tell us nothing that we do not already know--the nature of Lyg, Alduin being the World Eater who ushers the end of the current kalpa and the beginning of the next, and how there are forces (namely, the Aedra) who have ensured there is a loophole in order to ensure the survival of the current kalpa from ending. In the IRC quotes, though, we learn that names endure through kalpas. So Molag Bal's name in the previous kalpa was still Molag Bal. We also learn that the dreamsleeve is connected to kalpas insofar as one can "perceive the “untimes” of “previous” kalpas" through it.

In The Seven Fights of The Aldudagga, kalpas are primarily mentioned in the first section. There may be some valuable insights there, but overall, this section is just depicting what reads like a fanfic depiction of Alduin literally eating the world during the end times. Similar to the previous text, The Fire Hundred Mighty Companions or Thereabouts of Ysgramor the Returned simply uses the term in such a way that reminds one of a fanfic. It does not provide any insights upon first appearances. However, these two texts may be complementary. By that I mean to say that reading them together will help understand one another.

In World-Eating 101, we learn one important and crucial fact. "The Dawn Era was the End of the Previous Kalpa. The new Kalpa begins with the first day of the Merethic Era." What is interesting about this statement is that the Dawn Era is "a period during which time followed an incomprehensible nonlinear path and the very laws of nature remained unset" (UESP). In other words, in order for the Dawn Era to have an ending, it needed to be linear. In order for it to be linear, it needed to have a beginning. However, the Dawn Era never began. It always was. It always is. It can't end if it never began. So, then, what the heck is history? What is the Convention? What is the War of Manifest Metaphors? I'll come back to this later. For now, let us proceed to the next and final text.

In the Pocket Guide to the Empire, Second Edition, there is an interesting section titled "Kalpa Akaishicorprus." It is described as "three to four pages that detail all the eras of the "Diseased Unto Immortal" Akatosh in brief. However, to satisfy the "request of the Empress that all in Her Subjects of Her Realms and Dominions be represented to their myriad satisfactions" every culture chimes in, resulting in a magnificent and heretical clusterfuck" (PGE2).

Clearly, the name is a play on the theosophic idea of the Akashic Records. Ironically, the term "akasha" is also a Sanskrit term, like kalpa. In Hinduism, akasha is one of the five panchamahabhuta, which is basically the Sanskrit term for the five classical elements (water, earth, fire, air, and, in this case, akasha). Akasha is usually translated as aether and is, in a way, identical to magicka within TES. In the structure of creation, akasha is the first element to appear, which acts as the root of the other elements. Following akasha, there is air, then fire, then water, then earth. (The basic idea is from least gross/most subtle to most gross/least subtle.) In other words, akasha is the "basis and essence of all things in the material world" (Wikipedia).

In Theosophy, the Akashic Records are thought to be a record of everything that ever happened, and it exists in a realm more subtle than the physical realm. Supposedly, it exists within the ontological realm of the mind. Think Neoplatonism and the realms of reality, the emanations from the One. It's a "World Memory" of sorts. (Think about this in terms of Mnemo-Li. I plan on making a post about this eventually.) According to Nevill Drury in his Stealing Fire from Heaven: The Rise of Modern Western Magic, "The concept of the Akashic Records derives from the teachings of Madame Helena Blavatsky (1831–1891) and the Theosophical Society (founded in New York in 1875). According to the Theosophists, the Akashic Records are an astral memory of all events, thoughts, and emotions since the world began. Psychics are said to be able to receive “impressions” from this astral realm, and some Theosophical descriptions of the legendary lost continent of Atlantis are based on this psychic approach. Akasha is a Sanskrit word meaning “luminous,” and Akasha is one of the five Hindu elements, or Tattvas, whose symbol is the “black egg” of Spirit" (p. 308).

The second half of the name is "corprus," referring to the incurable disease created by Dagoth Ur in Morrowind. The disease is believed by House Dagoth to bring unity and immortality to the Dunmeri race, hence they call it the "Divine Disease." This is why the chapter's description uses the phrase "Diseased Unto Immortal." So, could "Akaishicorprus" be referring to the diseased memory of Akatosh, the mad dragon? The text seems to suggest, though, that the King or Rebel is the one who is diseased, "doomed to live with this One Last Chance forever (hence, Corprus)." With that being said, let's actually look at the text in full:

To me, Tamrielic kalpas are Extinction Events caused by three people trying to catch one another (King/Rebel/Lover) and a witness that sees the resulting eschaton. These roles are always somehow re-enacted in a holographic fractal until SNAP the three do catch one another and things splode and another kalpa begins.

Because of the holographic nature of the process, the witness is always scattered into several, some of which actually • jump• kalpas. And then they start their fool talking, which wakes up the new King/Rebel/Lover.

(This is Mankar's talk about the fall of Lyg. Part last kalpa, part this kalpa, but something a hologram of the witness saw. This is all the other manifestations of Enantiomorph.)

Okay, so that's the Creation Myth of All Creation Myths and no one wants to read all that in spooky or vague terms. The Monomyth was successful (I think) because it spoke pretty straightforward. Only when it hit the "quantum variations" did it get to be the realm of study.

That's why I suggest being matter of fact and without flourish about this section.

1. Kalpas are This. We remember them like This.

2. The last kalpa was This Thing, where the King (Who?) caught the Rebel (Who?) with the Lover (Who?) and Extinction Event resulted (Which was?). The Witness(es) to all of this was (Who?)

3. The last kalpa is the easiest to remember because of events X, Y, Z, which are those re-enactments.

4. The current kalpa is the King or Rebel (Which is which?) trying to break the rules of the game, freezing time and space so that he can have the Lover (Who?) without the explodo. He is trying not to be seen with the Lover, trying to consummate it (Which will do what?). He has made several attempts at killing or erasing potential Witnesses so that he can get that freak on. But he's stuck in this process, immortal within its masks, and doomed to live with this One Last Chance forever (hence, Corprus).

5. The next kalpa is in question. It will be an echo either of another Extinction Event or the birth of the Amaranth. Certain forces are tired of waiting, hastening the explosion and making sure they're at ground zero to jump that shit. Other forces are fighting those to make sure Amaranth happens, at the beautiful sacrifice of their own lives, since the Amaranth is the new universe that will have no witness but itself and its parents (who will be forgotten as relics of the last of the old kind of kalpas).

---
I think it would be remiss not to present the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd eras in this section. I would do them only in single paragraph form, with a dawn/mythic just before.

But the bulk of the section would be about kalpas, with the abovementioned items only touched on as a small record of the current kalpa.

(And, yeah, each era should have some whacko-that-aint-right angle to it-- the Second Era being all snakes with Reman just another snake, but with a dude's head, for example-- and intoned in the same matter of fact style as the rest of it.)

This text isn't so cryptic in the way Kirkbride's other texts are as it is just written strangely. Nonetheless, though, we get a rough idea as to what a kalpa is fundamentally: the interplay between the King and Rebel, each pursuing the Lover, while all of this is being observed by the Witness. The Extinction Event happened whenever the King caught the Rebel with the Lover, when it was supposed to be the King with the Lover. The Rebel beat the King in the race, or perhaps the Rebel had more rizz.

The King and the Rebel form the Enantiomorph, a strange word which in this context means two things that are mirror images of each other. For example, our hands are an Enantiomorph. They mirror each other. The King and the Rebel mirror one another. They are identical polar opposites. Who's to say which is which, if they are identical? That is the role of the Witness, also known as the Observer. The Witness collapses the quantum superposition of the King and Rebel through their observation and decides who is who, and they also decide who wins based on who they decide is who. The King always dies and is replaced by the Rebel, who becomes the new King, and then the former King is "reborn" and enacts revenge on the new King. These three roles, the King, Rebel, and Witness form the Enantiomorph which forms the basic pattern of the Aurbis, reaching all the way back to the Enantiomorph of Anu-King, Padomay-Rebel, and Unknown-Witness. It has continued through Akatosh-King, Lorkhan-Rebel, and Magnus-Witness, and so on. This Enantiomorphic logical pattern of AE-Void provides the structure for creation.

If an Enantiomorph is made up of the King, Rebel, and Witness, then what the heck is the Lover? In one post by Kirkbride, we read,

Nirn (Female/Land/Freedom catalyst for birth-death of enantiomorph)/ Anu-Padomay (enantiomorph with requisite betrayal)/ ?* (Witnessing Shield-thane who goes blind or is maimed and thus solidifies the wave-form; blind/maimed = = final decision)

The Lover (here called Nir) is the catalyst for the birth and the death of the Enantiomorph. She is the catalyst of the birth because it is through consummation with her that the Enantiomorph is birthed. She is the catalyst of the death because she is the object of desire that the King and Rebel fight over, with the Rebel conquering the King and effectively switching places. The Rebel conquers the King by consummating with the Lover, thus birthing the new Enantiomorph where he is the new King and the old King is now the Rebel. This is the root of the kalpic cycle, the birth-death of the Enantiomorph. Each kalpa witnesses the birth of a new Enantiomorph from the previous kalpa. This is why Paarthurnax says that this world is the Egg of the next kalpa. The world, Nirn, is always the Lover in the kalpic cycle, though the ones who mantle the King, Rebel, and Witness might change per kalpa (think musical chairs).

Until the Lover births the Amaranth, the kalpic cycle will continue, producing more and more Enantiomorphs. These Enantiomorphs are replays of the trauma that Anu suffered in The Annotated Annuad when Padomay murdered Nir. (Of course, I believe this is all symbolic mythopoesis told differently within each cultural lens, so there is a deeper understanding to what is happening.) Anu's Dream constantly repeats this trauma, violence, and suffering ad infinitum. The kalpic cycle, then, is the cycle of suffering. This is very reminiscent of Hinduism and Buddhism. In these religions, the cycle of suffering is known as Saṃsāra. Suffering itself is known as Duḥkha. The two are inherently related. Duḥkha is the first of the Four Noble Truths within Buddhism. According to The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism,

In Sanskrit, “suffering” or “unsatisfactoriness”; the first of the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS (CATVĀRY ĀRYASATYĀNI) of Buddhism and a concept foundational to Buddhism’s worldview and religious practice. The emblematic description of duḥkha, as found in the first noble truth, is, “Birth is suffering, aging is suffering, sickness is suffering, death is suffering. To be conjoined with what one dislikes is suffering and to be separated from what one likes is suffering. Not to get what one wants is suffering. In short, grasping at the five aggregates (SKANDHA) is suffering.” Suffering thus not only includes the suffering that will invariably be associated with ordinary life, such as birth, aging, disease, and death, but also subsumes a full range of mental, emotional, and spiritual dissatisfactions, and ultimately is seen to be inherent to life itself. The teaching of suffering therefore seeks to change one’s ordinary perspectives on the things of this world as objects worthy of pursuit, so that instead one realizes their nature of impermanence (ANITYA), suffering, and nonself (ANĀTMAN), viz., the three marks of existence (TRILAKṢAṆA). Through this sort of systematic attention (YONIŚOMANASKĀRA), even the pleasures of life are ultimately realized to be “unsatisfactory,” because, like all compounded things, they are impermanent and thus inevitably destined to pass away. This awareness of suffering produces a sense of the “dangers” (ĀDĪNAVA) inherent in this world and prompts the practitioner to turn away from this world and toward the radical nonattachment that is NIRVĀṆA.

Arthur Schopenhauer, the philosopher who thinks thoughts that people suffering from edgy teen syndrome think Nietzsche thinks instead, took this Buddhist concept and ran with it. One characteristic aspect of his philosophy is that to live = to suffer. He explains it by essentially asserting that to live is to will, to will is to desire, to desire is to suffer. To desire is to suffer because your desires will never be satisfied due to the impermanence of life. (Within Duḥkha, there are speculated to be various kinds of suffering. Of the three most popular kinds, one is Saṅkhāradukkha, which is the dissatisfaction of impermanence. As one Sutta put it, "All conditioned things are subject to disintegration.") Nothing is so lasting that it will give you eternal happiness, for all things within Saṃsāra are transient.

Anu relives his trauma every kalpa, which, if we equate Anu and Brahma, would be every single day for him. The continuation of this kalpic cycle/Saṃsāra is Anu's Dream. Within each kalpa lies the seed for the next kalpa, only to retell Anu's trauma again and again. However, within the sifting sands of Anu's Dream lies the potential for awakening, what the Hindus and Buddhists call Moksha. It is known as Amaranth. I plan on going into more details regarding Amaranth, Anu, and the Dream in another post eventually, discussing their mythopoetic significance. I really want to dig into it deep, instead of just leaving us with the rather disappointing notion that all of reality is a dream. For now, I want to quickly discuss Amaranth.

As explained here, CHIM prepares one for Amaranth. CHIM is the union of Love and Will, I AM AND I ARE ALL WE, which is expressed as the Law of Thelema: Love is the law, Love under Will. The dharmic equivalent of CHIM would be Jīvanmukti. It is the state of being liberated while still living. The Advaita Vedanta philosophy of Hinduism asserts that Moksha is achieved through Jñāna-Knowledge. Basically, Knowledge removes avidya-ignorance regarding one's true nature, as being one with everything. (Advaita means non-duality. There is no multiplicity; all things are truly one.) A Jīvanmukta is someone who knows this while still living. They see the maya-illusion of dual perception, the sort of perception that breaks reality apart into categories in an attempt to understand them, and overcome it and experientially knows that the Atman (Self) is Brahman (God, Other). The four Mahāvākyas-Great Sayings are centered around this concept. Moksha, then, can be thought of as the union of Self and Other. This is Love. Amaranth is the whole reason Lorkhan sacrificed himself for the construction of Mundus. Nirn is the catalyst waiting to be impregnated so that Amaranth may be born. Now, what is Nirn? I'll leave that question for next time.

So far, we have this view of kalpas: Kalpas are the retellings of Anu's trauma through the Enantiomorph of King, Rebel, and Witness. Each kalpa is in some way an expression of this Enantiomorph. When the Rebel consummates with the Lover, a new Enantiomorph is born with the Rebel as King, and King as Rebel. When the King consummates with the Lover, the Amaranth is born. That last part is my own interpretation, rooted in the Secret Syllable of Royalty. The cycle continues until the King consummates with the Lover. If I continue we will only start talking about Amaranth again.

How Kalpas Relate to Adjacent Places

I have in mind for this section Lyg. Lyg is either a former kalpa, or an Adjacent Place. We have evidence for both. Instead of saying that this is just a Dev's error, I'd much rather create a logical connection between the two that will (at least for me) adequately reconcile the two ideas, effectively establishing Lyg as both a former kalpa and an Adjacent Place. First, though, let's talk about Hinduism again.

An interesting bit regarding kalpas in Hinduism is what the Bhagavata Purana says about the last kalpa. In this 1895 English translation, we read,

"O king, when at the end of the past Kalpa, Brahma disappeared in consequence of his sleep, the earth and all other regions were sunk in the ocean."

- p. 82

Now that is interesting, huh? You know what else is described to be submerged under oceans? Lyg. Perhaps Lyg is directly inspired by the last kalpa mentioned here. The origin story behind how the Devs came up with Lyg is a rather funny one, so I'm sure they had fun playing with the idea. You can read that story here. Anyways, now that I have that out of the way, how do kalpas relate to Adjacent Places?

I explained my view of Adjacent Places in my other post. To quickly summarize what they, Adjacent Places are alternate realities established when choices arise. One choice is made within this reality, and there exists another reality where the other choice is made. This remains true for every choice ever. Imagine a tree, perhaps we should call it the Tree of Choices, the Tree of This or That. When a choice is made, This is chosen, and there exists an alternate universe where That was actually chosen. With each choice made, a split happens in the branches of the Tree of This or That. As kalpas are replays of the Enantiomorph Drama, they are the stage upon which reality unfolds. Reality unfolding is composed of the plethora of choices made. What one does determines what will happen, what happens molds the way things are, and the way things are is our experience of reality. So, within each kalpic cycle there exists a plethora of Adjacent Places rooted within the Enantiomorphic Drama that acts as the structure upon which creation is founded. Perhaps the first choice was the choice of the Witness deciding who is the King and who is the Rebel? That's an interesting thought. None of the Adjacent Places are the "center," per se. None take precedence over another. We just so happen to live in this one where fate unwinds this way.

I propose, then, that Lyg is one of the many Adjacent Places that were existent during the past kalpa. Within Kalpa Akaishicorprus, we read, "This is Mankar's talk about the fall of Lyg. Part last kalpa, part this kalpa, but something a hologram of the witness saw. This is all the other manifestations of Enantiomorph." Lyg is part last kalpa because the Enantiomorph of this kalpa was birthed from that kalpa, and Lyg is part this kalpa for the same reason. The Witness saw Lyg, and all the other manifestations of Enantiomorph within the last kalpa alongside Lyg as the Adjacent Places, and made the choice of who is King and Rebel for the current Enantiomorph, much to his detriment. In other words, every Adjacent Place ever of the last kalpa were synthesized within the one choice of the Witness to determine who mantles the King and Rebel, thus acting as the foundation of the current kalpa and its structural basis upon which the Tree of This and That may grow. The seed of the Tree of This and That is the last kalpa itself. The Witness simply waters it.

Is that interpretation a stretch? Perhaps, but until I'm given a better theory, that's how I understand Lyg. And that's how I understand kalpas to relate to Adjacent Places.

How Kalpas Relate to the Dawn Era

At the beginning of this post, I said I would return to this subject. So here we are. We had read where Kirkbride asserted the idea that "The Dawn Era was the End of the Previous Kalpa. The new Kalpa begins with the first day of the Merethic Era." We observed the fact that the Dawn Era is "a period during which time followed an incomprehensible nonlinear path and the very laws of nature remained unset" (UESP). A thing which has no beginning has no ending, it never was yet always is. We asked the questions, what is history, then, in face of this fact? What is the Convention? What is the War of Manifest Metaphors? I will now begin to digest this dilemma.

The first day of the Merethic Era would be the first moment of linear time, as opposed to nonlinear time. We would think this means that Akatosh gained some sensibility about himself and made things more organized and linear, however, I don't think that is necessarily the case. It is generally thought that Akatosh is insane. Like, actually. There are multiple texts alluding to this, even outright calling him mad and insane. Does that mean, then, that linear time is the product of Akatosh's insanity? So it would seem. What about linear time is insanity, though? Let's think about it. Linear time is the measurement of the motion of existence. When time is linear, existence moves in such a way to give the semblance of progression. Time moves forward, it progresses. This measurement allows for categorization. (Remember when we discussed avidya above?) There is past, present, and future. Things that move can be categorized as things, perhaps Thing One and Thing Two, things that move differently. This is exactly what Change-Padomay is. Motion is change over time. Instead of the Anuic stasis where there are no categorizations, there is the Padomaic change where things may be ripped asunder and divided. Things are now broken up into categories. The Witness decides who is the King and the Rebel, categorizing them.

If Anu is the natural order of things, then a motionless, timeless reality would be the natural state of things. The Dawn Era was the purest, i.e. most Anuic, era of them all. The Dawn Era was before the Tree of This and That began to sprout. However, as soon as Akatosh came about, born of both Anu and Padomay, the Tree of This and That blossomed. So, why is Akatosh mad again? He is mad because of who he is, Anu's perception of himself. (I explained this in my separate post on Adjacent Places.) This perception is the perception of differences, categorizations. Of I and Not-I. He splits the Anuic stasis, the natural state of things, and from there spawns linear time. With the advent of Akatosh, there begins the Enantiomorphic Drama played again and again within the kalpas. When a kalpa ends, the Rebel wars with the King and wins, consummating with the Lover and birthing the Enantiomorph. This world-ending war is the Last War mentioned in Mysterious Akavir. This Last War is the same war as the Dawn War during the Dawn Era, the conflict fought between the Enantiomorph of Anu and Padomay. It's not that nonlinear time returns during the ending of each of kalpa, it's that the ending of each kalpa concludes in the same Enantiomorphic Drama that it began with in the first place. In fact, I would go so far as to say that the Dawn Era is the Enantiomorphic Drama.

History, then, is the record of the Enantiomorphic Drama. (You know who keeps records? Mnemo-Li/Memory. That's an interesting connection.) The Convention was the establishment of rules for Mundus, hence the name. The War of Manifest Metaphors is the conflict between Lorkhan and the other spirits, ending in him being maimed. This war, perhaps, is the first instance within this kalpa of the Enantiomorphic Drama playing out.

Conclusion

With all that being said, I think I somewhat aptly have come to a rough idea of what kalpas are in the universe of the Elder Scrolls. What do y'all think? I hope you enjoyed the read.

Replaying Skyrim again for the 100th time, and I paused to ponder the meaning of this phrase in the Thalmor Dossier on Ulfric Stormcloak:

" As long as the civil war proceeds in its current indecisive fashion, we should remain hands-off. The incident at Helgen is an example where an exception had to be made - obviously Ulfric's death would have dramatically increased the chance of an Imperial victory and thus harmed our overall position in Skyrim. (NOTE: The coincidental intervention of the dragon at Helgen is still under scrutiny."

Were the Aldmeri at Helgen, and did they have a plan to free Ulfric prior to the dragon attack?

I was continuing an old playthrough with Xelzaz as one of my main followers, and one of his Jel greetings for me was something like "Vim reel-ka," but I searched Google for a translation and I haven't found anything, so I thought I would post the question here. Any help is appreciated.

I know the Dunmer that believe in Daedra usually believe in the "Good Daedra" but do any have any relationship with Mora?

I’m roleplaying as a Bosmer and aiming to be as lore-friendly as possible. Here’s the concept:

My Bosmer was born in Valenwood, but his family fled to Cyrodiil when he was very young to escape the Thalmor Purge. His parents opposed the Dominion, fearing its influence would trample on Bosmeri traditions and the Green Pact. In Cyrodiil, they lived a harsh and secluded life, hiding in the dense forests of the south to avoid detection.

During this time, his father taught him the ways of Bosmeri tradition—particularly the Green Pact—and trained him in archery and hunting. Despite their difficult circumstances, the young Bosmer developed a deep love of learning, especially about Valenwood’s history and culture. His mother, a scholar skilled in conjuration, nurtured his interest in magic and passed on her passion for arcane studies.

He dreamed of returning to Valenwood, imagining himself wandering through the ancestral forests of his homeland, but those dreams were cut short. After a brief period of peace, the family received word from a trusted friend in Valenwood: the Thalmor were hunting them. Someone had betrayed their location to Dominion agents.

One fateful night, as they prepared to flee once more, the Thalmor arrived. His parents hid him in the forest, and from his place of concealment, he witnessed their deaths at the hands of the agents.

Now orphaned, the young Bosmer was forced into a nomadic life, surviving by hunting, stealing, and even begging when necessary. Despite his hardships, he continued to honor the Green Pact and the Meat Mandate, as his father had taught him. His wandering eventually brought him to the border of Skyrim, where he was caught in an Imperial ambush. From this point, his story intertwines with the events of Skyrim.

Post-Helgen Path

•	Thieves Guild: Initially, he finds purpose in the Thieves Guild but is later betrayed by Mercer Frey. This betrayal stirs painful memories of his parent’s death and the betrayal that led to it.
•	The Namira Cult: In Markarth, he encounters the cult of Namira. Their practices remind him of the Green Pact’s carnivorous traditions, which many Bosmer have abandoned. So, he is tempted to reconnect with his ancestral customs and heritage, in a distorted way.
•	Dark Brotherhood: His path leads him to the Dark Brotherhood, where his skills in stealth, archery, and magic flourish in a more shadowy, ruthless context.
•	Thieves Guild Finale: Eventually, he returns to the Thieves Guild to take down Mercer and restore its honor.

Alongside these guild quests, he pursues the main quest. The idea of hunting dragons and absorbing their power fascinates him, as it offers a path to strength and a connection to ancient forces that resonate with his people’s reverence for nature and the wild.

I’m still deciding what direction to take his story after completing these arcs. Any input on how to expand or refine his backstory would be appreciated, particularly with geographical and historical details to make it more immersive. Also, I would very much need help with the reasons why Thalmor is hunting down the parents of my character and not just a generic “Thalmor Purge”. I was thinking of making the parents imperial spies.

GAMEPLAY My bosmer is an archer that uses conjuration(bound bows and atronach), illusion, sneaking, and archery. I’m thinking of adding alteration, restoration, enchantment, or Speechcraft as of right now.

(at this point in the game I’m thirty hours in and I just completed the quest where Mercer betrays me).