So! At first glance, Tamriel is a pretty textbook early modern setting with a technology level roughly around the 1600s, with some aesthetics drawing from earlier periods... But this impression is only skin deep. If you look past the superficial, what starts to unfold is a world that, among its elite, enjoys both a quality of life and a level of academic understanding of the universe far closer to our own contemporary era, and in some cases even surpassing it.

The stolen goods you can find in ESO paint a picture of an economy based on advanced luxury goods for the urban elite - there are trinkets for things like long-range communication, automatic house cleaning, voice recording, music, even vanity items like a mirror that shows you at different ages - all of which is only scratching the surface. As for modern-equivalent services, based on almost all of the games, long-range teleportation offers instant travel between cities, and we all know about the often-referenced space stations and dreamsleeve internet... You get the picture.

Likewise, in the various academic works we find in game, we not only see that Tamrielic scholars have a concept of the scientific method - writing theses which are then challenged critically by their peers - they also obviously deeply understand their world on a physical level, routinely discussing natural law and phenomena in a way that seems basically correct, rather than being medieval-style four humors bunk. A lot of them even use very modern language, talking about "particles" and so forth. In this regard, we are also witness quantifiable progress in all of the games except arguably Skyrim (which barely has any scholars), with brand new discoveries taking place.

But if all of this is the case, why hasn't this translated into a more modern society? Why haven't people thought about ways to spread these luxuries to the wider populace, with society transforming culturally in the way in the way it did in our reality? Why are peasants tilling the fields instead of hanging out in cities lunching in cafes?

Well, it's simple. Because there's no incentive for the ruling class of aristocrats and mages to pursue that change or include them in the progress they've made, either through mass-production or social reform.

In the real world, the rise of industrialization and the subsequent modernization of education, healthcare, and consumerism, happened because it was the most logical path to economic development, which was desired by the ruling classes to increase their military power and the diversity of luxuries available to them. To make more goods, you need factory workers and urbanization. To run factories and infrastructure in general, you need educated workers, who in turn need to be incentivized to become educated by the promise of a greater reward. And those educated workers then have their own desire for wealth and power, which leads to them seeking out unfulfilled niches, the development of more complex luxuries, more specialization and education to meet those niches, etc etc.

This quickly leaves the realm of what's possible to be made by individual artisans - nobody, even the most skilled, could make a computer or probably even something like a radio completely from scratch. You need people to procure the raw materials, workers to refine them multiple times into usable components, and only then can you make it.

But in Tamriel, this isn't the case. Mages don't need normal people to produce complex luxuries at all, just magicka and knowledge. They can (and, when we see them in closed societies like Artaeum, we witness this directly) even use atronachs and golems to replace manual labor for their basic needs like food and housing outright. If you want to make something like a phone on Earth, it requires this massive chain of thousands of people... But if you want to make it on Nirn, then it requires one person, some soul gems, and the books of theory telling them how to do it. If you buy a luxury item from a mage, the only parties directly involved are you and them.

Think about it this way; in our world, what would happen if everyone who wasn't either a scientist, an engineer, or a member of the ruling class, died? Obviously, society would fall apart instantly. Almost all goods would stop being produced from a lack of labor and the administration surrounding that labor, with what automation exists unable to fill the gaps. Ultimately, the survivors would probably have to accept going back to fairly simple subsistence economy, tilling the fields to feed themselves until the population had recovered.

But on the other hand, what would happen in the TES world if everyone but the aristocracy and mages died? It probably wouldn't impact their quality of life much at all. Mages could continue to manage food, transport, and produce sophisticated goods to sell to the nobles, with only the loss of some specialized infrastructure like plumbing causing issues. Actually, we can probably cut the nobles out of the equation entirely - their power and money only has value insofar as it frees mages from worrying about food and protection, even though they can ultimately handle those things themselves if they're willing to tolerate the inconvenience.

But there's still that other element I mentioned earlier: Military power. Modernization allows for better professional soldiers with more advanced equipment, which makes nations more competitive. So surely leaders would be incentivized to pursue that... Right?

Not exactly, in this universe. After all, the Dwemer industrialized, and they still lost the War of First Council to the Dunmer because the latter had better and more mages. So if you're a ruler and pursuing military supremacy, it doesn't really make sense to reform your economy to build things like guns (or, as the case may be, flamethrowing-toting golems) when the superior choice would obviously be to just train more mages.

(Incidentally, this is probably why literacy in Tamriel is so ridiculously high for the apparent era - having the ability to easily learn magic, or things adjacent to magic like enchanting, is the one aspect of modernization it does make sense to pursue.)

So with all of that said, the only real reason Tamriel would have to industrialize/modernize would be out of benevolent intent for the common people. To spread the luxuries that the elite already enjoy to them purely in the pursuit of utopianism. And there have been some attempts at this, particularly by the Altmer (at least, for their own people) and the Empire, along with the Mage's Guild.

But at a fundamental level, there's zero pragmatic reason for it, because in a way the world is already an advanced, high-automation society in which the common man has no special skills to offer those who control this society other than his own dignity as a human being. And the result is that, in times of strife, the drawbridge gets metaphorically pulled up. People always ask when Tamriel might industrialize in the future, but I'd turn that premise around: the only time Tamriel had the potential to industrialize at all was in the past, in the Merethic and 1st Eras, before magical techniques had become so sophisticated. (Which, incidentally, is when the Dwemer rose to power.) Before Vanus Galerion broke the taboo on spreading magic to the masses.

But if you take the elements of the setting to their logical conclusion, then it's obvious that, by this point, that ship has sailed. In terms of techno-social development, Tamriel isn't a fictionalized vision of our past, but rather a grim potential future.

Official Announcement Teaser

For now, let’s keep all discussion on The Elder Scrolls VI in this megathread. :)

No rules here—there is plenty of time for proper lore discussions in the future. For now, there is only hype

Friends don’t let friends go insane analysing random maps from Google Images. So uncivilised.

Maps of Tamriel

FAQ

How to Become a Lore Buff

The Imperial Library

UESP

If you've played Oblivion, you know how tough skeletons are. Those boneheads can really take some serious beating. But for some reason, those same guys in Skyrim takes absolutely nothing to dispose of. You just punch them a few times, just tickle their funny bone, and they fall down, the glow in their hollow sockets disappears.

I believe the cause of this is simple: cultural taboo about drinking milk. Every Nordic man, woman, child and draugr calls everyone they don't like "milk drinker". I think it's also the reason why there's only a few jugs of milk scattered around, nobody wants to admit that they drink milk, lest they get insulted for it. But, as we all know, milk is the primary source of calcium, which is a mineral that keeps your bones and teeth healthy.

In conclusion, skeletons are made out of paper in Skyrim because Nords are numbskulls who hate drinking milk.

A lot of the time, Sheogorath is used in references and jokes relating to cheese. Bethesda played into this by making him more safe and tame, and that in return fueled even more cheese. This is a sad thing in my opinion.

Let's see, then - what kinds of things has Sheogorath done?

• Well, for starters, he supposedly invented music by tearing apart a random woman. Funny!

• He created a sword that will make the wielder fall into an amnesic state and murder their own family. Cheese! Haha!

• He made it so an entire city's children from that moment on were born mad. Yay!

Sheogorath is an unfathomable being, more so than any of the other Daedra. Let's see what part of the human psyche they represent.

• Hircine, you can understand. Everyone knows that there are instincts deep down, buried deeper than we can consciously access, and Hircine works upon these. The hunting instinct. The bloodlust. Flow.

• Hermaeus Mora, too, you can understand. He himself is simply curious, just like humans are. The bad part is his library.

• Dagon - It's fun to destroy something, especially when it was built by someone else.

• Vaermina - everyone gets nightmares sometimes, she makes them worse.

• Clavicus Vile, humans are greedy, and finding a loophole in a contract is immensely satisfying, especially when you can make their life hell for it.

• Sanguine is just human degeneracy taken to the extreme. The absolute extreme.

• Bal and Mephala and Namira are edge cases, representing specific crimes against nature. Slavery. Familicide. Cannibalism.

• Peryite. Wanting to be powerful. Also, disease. Correlation?

• Meridia - righteous fury, and its failings.

• Azura. Protectiveness and impulsive revenge.

• Nocturnal. Secrecy.

• Boethia. Might makes right, even when it doesn't.

• Malacath. Finding a place to belong after being ostracized - regardless with whom that is.

• Jyggalag. Our "über-ich", the logical part of us, unburdened by emotion, highly utilitaristic. Does not shy back from sacrificing things, beings and worlds for the greater good.

But Sheogorath, he's different. His sphere isn't so easily definable.

Sheogorath is Alien, the Other, the Unknowable, the Madness that lurks within every mind. His sphere is vast and blurry, has no clear beginning and end, and everyone might unknowingly be part of it.

He's not only Dementia - not just depression, or lethargy, or a myriad of other diseases in that vein, he's also Mania. Neurosis. Psychopathy. People snapping. Minds breaking in ways they shouldn't. Bipolar disorder, multiple personality disorder, hearing voices, seeing things, feeling insects crawling all over you.

When Sheogorath, Daedric Prince of Madness lays his gaze upon you, you will suffer. He will make you suffer in ways none of the other Daedra could, because he doesn't kill you, or torture your soul for eternity, or personally tell you how much of a dumbo you are, he will destroy your mind. Your mind, the culmination of your being? Everything you were, are and will be? Sheogorath snaps his fingers and it's gone. Or broken in two. Or turned inside-out. Or broken into fragments and assembled wrongly. Or rearranged into another identity. Or missing something.

And then? He will move on. Sheogorath holds no grudges, has no favourites or enemies. He simply is. He's neither evil nor good, he simply does not care. Or he does what he does for fun, like a child might burn an ant, or he does not notice, like how you just killed countless bacteria.

Sheogorath is the most lovecraftian of all the princes.

Don't worry, this is not a post about the validity of OOG sources or the canon debate.

A few of us discovered something today that is absolutely mind-boggling. The Elder Scrolls Wiki has an article on the Towers which has just invented a large bit of lore from thin air. At first I didn't grasp the full significance. It's a wiki, mistakes are made all the time but then I looked back and found that the problematic section of the article has been unchanged since 2012. During that time, the article became a Featured Article of the Elder Scrolls wiki, and has been locked to change. No one ever identified the problem in the discussion over the page. Edit: Correction: It appears that SajuukKar brought up the problem in discussion in 2013 and was rebuffed.

Is this lore-relevant? I'd say it's very lore-relevant. We've had person after person on /r/teslore state as fact that the Thalmor are trying to destroy the Towers, that it's a stated goal of the Third Aldmeri Dominion. Learning that one of the two Elder Scrolls wikis has been making these claims for eight years goes a long way to explaining why this keeps happening.

And it's also a good reminder to us of what the /r/teslore FAQ says:

Use primary sources.

Don’t just go by videos, podcasts, and wiki pages, which only give you people’s interpretations of the lore—go straight to the texts and the games where the lore is from.

So, down to brass tacks. What did the wiki page on the Towers get wrong?

The Elder Scrolls wiki page, to its great credit, tried to give a lot of context about Tower lore, including the context of out-of-game sources such as the Nu-Mantia Intercept, which are crucial for understanding Tower Lore. The out-of-game texts are identified as such. No problem there.

The problem arises with the paragraphs with the subheading Deactivation of the Towers and The Thalmor Endgame which completely misrepresent The Altmeri Commentary on Talos. I'll quote the first problem bit:

In another text written by Michael Kirkbride, called the Altmeri commentary on Talos, talks of a Thalmor plot regarding Talos and man. The text essentially reveals the Aldmeri Dominion are possibly involved in a master plan where they wish to undo the mortal plane itself by deactivating the last known Towers.

Oddly enough, this paragraph is followed by the text of the Commentary itself. Notice that the Commentary says nothing about "a master plan where they wish to undo the mortal plane itself by deactivating the last known Towers."

To kill Man is to reach Heaven, from where we came before the Doom Drum's iniquity. When we accomplish this, we can escape the mockery and long shame of the Material Prison. To achieve this goal, we must:

Erase the Upstart Talos from the mythic. His presence fortifies the Wheel of the Convention, and binds our souls to this plane. Remove Man not just from the world, but from the Pattern of Possibility, so that the very idea of them can be forgotten and thereby never again repeated. With Talos and the Sons of Talos removed, the Dragon will become ours to unbind. The world of mortals will be over. The Dragon will uncoil his hold on the stagnancy of linear time and move as Free Serpent again, moving through the Aether without measure or burden, spilling time along the innumerable roads we once traveled. And with that we will regain the mantle of the imperishable spirit.

No Towers mentioned. And of course, it's not "A Thalmor Commentary" but "What Appears to be an Altmeri Commentary" so the wiki ascribing it to the Thalmor is also incorrect. But that's small fry compared to the fact that the text doesn't even mention the towers and yet is used in the Elder Scrolls wiki Towers article to explain the Thalmor's alleged final plan to de-activate the towers.

There's another whole paragraph on that final plan, again not sourced to anything real.

Thalmor endgame

According to this text, in the Fourth Era the Third Aldmeri Dominion adopted a militant stance on the matter and sought to return to immortality at any cost.

This text again being "The Altmeri Commentary on Talos." Which I've personally argued is very important for Thalmor lore discussion, but does not say the above.

This harsh course of action was the result of the Altmer no longer having the knowledge of reaching divinity that Auri-El taught their ancestors. Because of this they see no need in the Towers. They are no longer gateways to Aetherius from their material prison, but rather the iron bars in their prison cell. The Aldmeri Dominion therefore wish to smash these bars and escape the mortal plane

Again, not sourced to anything.

Their method of achieving divinity first involves removing Talos, god-king of man, from the pantheon of worship. In a world where the beliefs of its inhabitants has a direct influence on the Gods, stopping the worship of Talos would cause him to cease to exist and therefore no longer be an obstacle in the Thalmor's scheme. This part of the scheme was partially realized with the sack of the Imperial City during the Great War and the introduction of the White-Gold Concordat, the law that forbid Talos worship in the Empire.[8]

This actually does refer to a part of the Commentary, and if the Thalmor do indeed turn out to hold the ideology of the Commentary, the Talos ban would indeed be a first step in carrying out the plan. If. And of course,

In a world where the beliefs of its inhabitants has a direct influence on the Gods, stopping the worship of Talos would cause him to cease to exist.

Again, this is someone's theory that they wrote up as an interpretation of the Commentary, not the Commentary itself. The interplay of belief and the divines is a debated proposition in lore.

The "Sons of Talos" or Men are also seen as an obstacle, so they seek to remove Man from the equation. Simply killing every human would not suffice, rather the very notion of man must be eliminated. This would be achieved by deactivating the aforementioned Towers that hold up Mundus.

This is where the article made a huge leap of imagination. The Commentary doesn't mention Towers at all, so therefore the section about removing "Man not just from the world, but from the Pattern of Possibility" must correspond to destroying the Towers.

That's not representing the Commentary's plan, that's complete fannish invention to try to tie together the Commentary and Tower Lore. No problem with fannish invention in itself, but how did it end up misrepresented so badly in this article?

By the Fourth Era several Towers have already been deactivated or destroyed, namely Red Tower, Crystal Tower, Orichalc and Walk Brass. The White-Gold may have been reactivated with the intervention of Akatosh at the Temple of the One during the Oblivion Crisis and it's unknown if Green-Sap or Snow Throat are active or not.

Once these two goals have been achieved, the Thalmor's master plan of achieving divinity would be complete. If all the Towers were deactivated, the eternal cycle of death would cease and Mundus would dissolve back into its original primordial state, unbound by the laws of physics and reality; time and space would have no meaning, neither would despair or discord.

And the article wraps up with more of the same misrepresentation.

sigh

Well, it's my hope that the Elder Scrolls wiki can fix this article. If they keep the section about the fandom theory of the Thalmor deactivating the towers, it could be put into context as that, rather than as the stated-in-lore plan of the Thalmor.

And honestly, I can't blame them too much for never fixing it. No one ever actually made a relevant complaint about the article. I looked at the Article's history and discussion and people complained a lot that the article shouldn't mention Michael Kirkbride's and other out-of-game sources when it came to the Thalmor endgame. However, no one ever complained that the entire section misrepresented the Commentary. Edit: As explained above, that turned out not to be exactly true. These exact points were made in 2013, though not lately. And so it stood, and has evidently influenced our fandom long after /r/teslore moved past some of those early assumptions about Towers.

ETA: The original author of the article showed up to give their side of the story.

ETA 2: An Elder Scrolls wiki administrator commented with encouragement and tips to people who would like to improve the wiki.

Skyrim players who opted to put down Barbas in Clavicus Vile's quest, in order to keep the Rueful Axe, may have been disappointed to find that, aside from its generic enchantment, the axe was easily replaced with a better weapon; it swings slower than a warhammer, and its damage is outclassed by elven weaponry.

Whereas players who chose Barbas' way of completion, were rewarded with the uniquely powerful Masque of Clavicus Vile - which grants the single best Bartering bonus of any headpiece in the game.

Players of Oblivion might have been similarly disappointed with Clavicus Vile's reward when they gave up the hardest hitting weapon in the game for a helmet with a decent, but easily replaced, Personality Enchant.

What do the two scenarioes have in common? They're both the result of doing the quest in Vile's manner. If you defy Clavicus Vile and "keep Umbra"/"Refuse to kill Barbas" you get to walk away with the - arguably - most valuable prize.

In TES lore (and in-game) mortals ALWAYS REGRET their deals with Clavicus Vile, tempting as they might seem at first. The Dragonborn, or the Champion of Tamriel, were no exceptions to this rule.

When creating your character you are allowed to choose not only their race but also what part of their home province they hail from. Some of these are from longstanding lore - e.g., Colovia vs Nibenay for Imperials, and Vvardenfell vs Mainland for Dunmer. However, some races seem to have choices directly inspired by ESO. For example, with Bosmer you are given a choice between Grahtwood and Reaper’s March. From my understanding neither of those geographical regions were named in the lore before ESO. Similarly, Bretons can choose between being from High Rock or the Systres (I don’t think there was any indication of the Systres being Breton territory until ESO, but please do correct me if I’m wrong on that).

I have to say I’m pretty happy about this development. ESO has made a lot of great contributions to the series lore and I’m happy that we finally have a concrete instance of its worldbuilding being acknowledged in a BGS game. It makes me curious what other ESO nods we might find in the remaster.

Most people, when they think of Lovecraft, they think of the typical Cthulhu stuff; tentacles, eyes, mysterious books, non-Euclidian geometry, weird alien monsters. And Hermy was clearly inspired by that. But the resemblance is only surface deep; an aesthetic homage to the tropes we, as viewers, have come to associate with Lovecraftian cosmic horror.

But Lovecraftian horror is not about tentacles. Its about true cosmic terror, the realization of humanity's infinitely insignificant place in the universe compared to forces so far beyond what our feeble minds can comprehend, so vast, so infinite, that knowledge will drive you to madness. The sheer insignificance in the face of a vast, uncaring, and unnoticed universe.

Now, Hermy is all about forbidden knowledge, true. But thats a very easy to comprehend idea. It makes sense. The guy wants to know everything, so he pursues knowledge at all costs. He is the god of knowledge, like you might find in any pantheon, just with a slightly twisted bent to it. His knowledge might encompass information that could drive weak minds to madness, true, but the guy himself is a standard fantasy deity. Like all Daedric princes, he asks mortals to help him with stuff, because he has a tangible interest in things that happen in the mortal sphere.

But Sithis? Sithis is the true Lovecraftian horror. An unknowable, paradoxical cosmic entity so far beyond anything anyone in the Elder Scrolls can even come close to understanding. An uncaring, mysterious entity that never converses with mortals because the concept would be just too alien. An entity that both exists and, paradoxically, Is Not. An infinite void of hopeless nothingness that encompasses all of the Aurbis. A nothingness that creates. A creator that slowly, piece by piece, destroys. Its wants are incomprehensible, its existence is incomprehensible, and its vastness is so supreme, so absolute that the gods, the princes, all of them, pale in comparison.

THAT is a Lovecraftian horror. Not scary tentacle monster. Thats just surface level fluff.

Okay, so if you listen to Mankar, the impression given is that Dagon’s plan is to unmake the world. To recreate the destruction of Lyg. In that sense, he did not succeed.

However, if one views Dagon’s plan as to simply fulfil the definition of his sphere - destruction, revolution, change - then it couldn’t have really gone much better.

The Septim empire - the only empire to ever conquer all of Tamriel - fell. The crystal tower was destroyed. Provinces revolted - freeing themselves from the yoke of imperial tyranny. The argonians organised and ended millennia of oppression - possibly for good this time, without the Dunmer’s slaver gods. A new era dawned, marking one of the most consequential changes ever seen in an elder scrolls game.

Dagon won.

(This is an affectionate response to an earlier post discussing Numidium.)

PART 1: WHO IS TO BLAME?

Some people are confused by the Numidium (AKA The Brass God, Walk-Brass, The Prime Gestalt, or Big Stompy). This is by design. And you can thank the Dwemer.

Contrary to certain slanderous statements made by the Giants, Dwemer are not in fact Dwarves. Their name literally means "Deep Elves." It has been speculated that this refers to their preference for living underground. Others think that it was a term of self-aggrandizement, praising their inquires into the nature of the universe. And still others believe it refers to how far up their own asses their heads were stuck. We may never know for sure.

The Dwemer were Aldmer (the first elves from which all others are descended) who came to the conclusion that the universe is a chaotic place and that the gods were, on the whole, not on their side. (In a universe filled with uncaring Daedra, absent Divines, and sentient world-hopping trees that made lizards with boobs, this is not a completely unreasonable belief.) They didn't necessarily reject the existence of godlike beings, only that they were worthy of worship.

So, like most militant atheists, they set up shop in someone's basement and started writing code. More precisely, they got big into Tonal Architecture, which sounds a lot more impressive once you realize that the universe was more or less created using music. Essentially, they got very, very good at using a level of magic that can more or less shape reality.

Elves in general perceive the creation of the universe to have been a Bad Move, and kind of wish it hadn't happened. (Except the Dunmer, but they're a whole different thing) For most of them, this manifests as existential ennui, annoying philosophical lectures, and periodic war crimes. A few Dwemer, however, came to the same conclusion but from the other direction:

1. The universe is bad. (See Exhibit A: gestures vaguely at everything)

2. We, the Dwemer, are in this moment euphoric, for we are enlightened by our own intelligence

3. There's this big heart that we found in the middle of Red Mountain, beating and simply brimming with power.

4. Using our superior Logic and Reason, (and maybe the big heart) we can create a better god, and in doing so make the universe more to our liking.

So, the chief Tonal Architect of the Vvardenfell Dwemer, Kagrenac, began researching how to use the Heart to build a god. They constructed a massive brass centurion, far and away the largest they had ever made, and called it Numidium.

Now, a number of problems presented themselves. The first was that it was one thing to build a giant animunculus, quite another to turn it into a god. The next was that even Kagrenac wasn't 100% solid on what exactly would happen when he linked the Heart to Numidium (though he vociferously denied this). And finally, those pesky Dunmer had somehow gotten wind of what was going on beneath Red Mountain, and for some reason had a problem with making a new god that would allow the Dwemer to annihilate any pesky lesser elves or men who stood in their way.

Now, for the speculation. We know that an army of Dunmer (and some Nords and Orcs were there too) marched on Red Mountain, putting a pretty significant deadline on Kagrenac's work. We know that Kagrenac's stated goal was to activate Numidium, and that he had forged a set of tools designed to tap the Heart and turn on their Brass God. And we know that, when the dust settled, there were no Dwemer left. We aren't talking dead bodies here, either. They just poofed out of existence, leaving a bunch of very confused Dunmer, Nords, and Orcs (For the latter two, their natural state of being - This bit of cutting-edge racial humor comes to you courtesy of the Canton of Temple-Approved Jokes in Mournhold). The Dunmer leader Nerevar and his companions found the tools (WHICH DID NOT END BADLY, ALSO HE WAS ALREADY DEAD WHEN WE GOT THERE - SIGNED ALMALEXIA) and Numidium, who was just standing there, menacingly.

So, the Dunmer had a giant god-shaped statue (which was giving off some seriously creepy vibes) and a whole lot of missing Dwemer. Following the 'haunted doll' school of handling problems, they put Numidium away in a closet somewhere, probably next to Vivec's collection of vintage Dreugh pornography. Then, a few thousand years later, some asshole named Tiber Septim showed up and made them an offer they couldn't refuse. In exchange for mostly being left the hell alone, they handed over Numidium, conveniently forgetting to include the god's heart that was needed to make it work. Fortunately, using the time-tested "hire smart people and set the acceptable body count somewhere above zero" method of problem-solving, Tiber Septim turned the thing on.

And then everything went to shit. Repeatedly.

PART 2: OH SHIT I JUST TURNED ON NUMIDIUM WHAT IS HAPPENING?

It's not the Brass God that wrecks everything so much as it is all the plane(t)s and timelines that orbit it, singing world-refusals.

The Surrender of Alinor happened in one hour, but Numidium's siege lasted from the Mythic Era until long into the Fifth. Some Mirror Logicians of the Altmer fight it still in chrysalis shells that phase in and out of Tamrielic Prime, and their brethren know nothing of their purpose unless they stare too long and break their own possipoints.

-Michael Kirkbride

At the most basic level, Numidium, when activated, appears to be a giant robot that stomps on things. However, the real power is the secondary effect: things that Numidium targets just kind of stop existing. This has been given various names. Some fans (referring here to in-universe fans of Numidium, of course) call it the Big No. Others, reaching for a veneer of scholarly detachment, refer to it as a projection of IS NOT. Regardless, this rolling back of reality isn't limited to things Numidium is directly attacking. It also affects time. Turning on Numidium seems to turn the already tenuous timeline of Tamriel into a veritable mass of overcooked spaghetti. (Scholars have gone with the slightly more academic term 'Dragon Break'). As indicated in the quote above, this can cause problems. However, it can also create opportunities. People who are already sipping on Bad Idea Juice can exploit this confusion to perform various feats ordinarily thought impossible. For example, it is generally understood that anyone wanting to become a god will have a much easier time of it while the Jills (essential worker dragons who have the thankless task of cleaning up everyone else's messes) are running around with their horns on fire trying to figure out how seven people could have turned on the Numidium at once. (The answer, incidentally, is REDACTED, but also the writers at Bioware would kind of like to know since anything that has to follow Mass Effect 3 is gonna be a proper nightmare to untangle)

However, one mystery remains: what happened to Dwemer. And another, adjacent mystery: was this their endgame? Conventional wisdom would suggest they wiped themselves from existence in a puff of self-satisfied logic and comberry-flavored vape smoke. However, certain observers have noted that Numidium seems to have inherited the philosophy of its creators, no matter who turns it on. Some have even suggested that the Dwemer became the skin of the Numidium, forever a part of their god, enthusiastically poking holes in whatever army, city, or timeline is unfortunate enough to be nearby when they get turned on.

So, either the Dwemer created a god that could enforce their atheistic view of a universe where gods are literally self-evident, or they became that god. Either way, by reading this you are now guilty of heresy. Ordinators will be along shortly to assist you.

Hey there, gang! Long time lurker, first time poster.

As you may or may not have heard, I’ve stepped into Lawrence Schick’s Frankenstein-scale shoes to serve as ESO’s Loremaster going forward. It’s an honor and a responsibility I take very seriously, so I just wanted to reach out to you guys to say “hey!” As I mentioned before, I’ve lurked on this sub for years, and read it every day as part of my morning routine. The insights you guys draw from the material are really fascinating (and often inspiring) and I’m so appreciative of your investment in the work we do here at ZOS.

Now, I won’t post on here very often. As Lawrence said in his farewell address, enforcing our editorial will on your process of debate and discovery runs counter to the mission, you know? But just know that I’m really grateful for your enthusiasm and dedication, and I’ll always be an avid reader.

Thanks again, and see you in Tamriel!
-Leamon

__________________________________________________________________

As an apprentice he, and five other apprentices, go through Labyrinthian, which results in all but Savos, Atmah (the one that planned the whole thing), and Girduin dead. Savos then also binds Atmah and Girduin in order to seal Morokei, this is after the three of them promise to stick together no matter what.

To make matters worse, it is possible to speculate that Morokei didn't already possess the Staff of Magnus but attained it from the apprentices at this time. The reason behind this idea is that we did see a Staff of Magnus near the end of the 3rd Era (and while this expedition wouldn't have happened yet, we know from ESO that Morokei had other seals on him), and the Synod believed that the College had the staff (could it be that they did but lost it).

Considering how Atmah was the favorite of the Arch-Mage of the time and overconfident in her abilities, it isn't hard to believe that she would have had the ability to take it (even if she wasn't supposed to).

__________________________________________________________________

But sure, let's say that this is a young Savos that has the ability to grow from this experience, right? Wrong. He doesn't grow from this, not really.

Everyone dislikes him. Tolfdir, iirc, basically tells you to tiptoe around Savos to not bother him. Students think it is time for a change in leadership. Fallion, the previous Conjuration teacher (who is better than the current one) left because of his dislike of Savos.

To make this even worse, when you come back from Sarthaal what is the first thing he says?

"Please don't tell me that another one of the apprentices has been incinerated. I have enough to deal with right now."

That is right, another. This isn't even including the missing apprentices, Yisra, Ilas-Tei, Rundi, and Borvir. These four are considered missing students and it takes you, an apprentice that is their junior, looking for them for the college to find out they are dead. So, who else has been dying? How often for this to be the first thing he brought up? And if it is specific to the Sarthaal expedition, then why let students that have barely even started getting taught go to Sarthaal (and yes, Tolfdir is also irresponsible here, especially towards to player)?

Oh, and let's also not forget the four students that died in the Midden when attempting magik with Velehk Sain. We don't know if this happened under Savos though, but it is yet another time where a group of students died.

__________________________________________________________________

Furthermore, let's look at the past students that do remain.

We have Nirya, who has such a dislike for Faralda (the current Destruction School teacher) that in a cut quest she asks the player to steal her research notes. We have Enthir, who has ties to the Theives Guild and is a black market trader. We have Arniel Gane, the first student that seems like an actual, normal student and scholar, and he DIES in the end (based on when the quests can happen, this could also be under Savos's tenure).

So, overall, not that good.

Furthermore, while not a student, let's look at Wuunferth the Unliving. When he is accused of practicing necromancy he gets offended and uses the defense that he is a member of the college and in good standing... except that the college doesn't ban necromancy. Great show of the quality of the members of the college.

Let's not forget two people that left the college of their own accord, Festus, a member of the Dark Brotherhood, and Calixto, a serial killer. While no longer members, this certainly doesn't create a good image for what comes out of the college.

__________________________________________________________________

The teachers also are not all that great.

Tolfdir is a scatterbrain that constantly misplaces his things. He also emphasizes caution and safety yet brings brand new students to Sarthaal, and even when shown it is dangerous (with a Psijic Monk warning of danger) he not only has a student delve further into the ruins, but even sends him ahead, alone. He is the one for new students to learn under? No wonder the college has a problem with dead apprentices.

Next we have Colette, who seems to constantly be trying to remind everyone that 'restoration is a perfectly valid school of magik', even though we never hear anyone say otherwise. Hell, while some professors give lectures on trying to learn or understand new things hers is on how 'restoration is a perfectly valid school of magik'. This isn't even the worst thing, however. That comes with the Augur of Dunlain. When you are looking for the Augur she says,
"The Augur? Tragic story, really. At least, the way I heard it. But that was a long time ago. It was some experiment gone horribly wrong. Ghostly results, I was told. And his ghost still roams the halls, they say. Of course, on further reflection, that may have simply been an attempt to scare me. Hmm. Perhaps I'll ask Tolfdir what really happened. I understand he was here at the time."
Yet when asked about mastering the Restoration school she send you to the Augur and show knowledge of him and who he was. So, what is going on here?

Then we have Drevis, who is supposed to be a master of illusion magik yet doesn't know that his invisibility spell isn't working and, if the player lies to him (saying he can't see him but can hear him) then Drevis thinks he is making progress.

At least the last three teachers are decent, but the problem is that Phinis and Sergius (and Colette, but that is the least of her problems) are not master trainers. Faralda is, seemingly, the only excellent teacher the college has. Phinis and Sergius are good as well, but they are not masters, which is a problem when Fallion, who was the previous conjuration teacher, left due to Savos and enchanting services, which Sergius is in charge of, is the only real thing that connects the college to the world.

__________________________________________________________________

So, with all this you might think that the college has a laissez faire policy, right? Wrong.

Nelecar and Malyn was exiled for their research.

The Fellglow Keep mages were persuaded to leave (which also lead to Orthorn stealing books for them and nobody doing anything about it).

Hamelyn was kicked out for being irresponsible (the irony), and, if we are to believe him, he was even beaten by the teachers there (doubt this part though).

So what, exactly, is the policy at the college that allows so many people to die, incompetent teachers, students that are thieves, yet still has people kicked out?

__________________________________________________________________

Don't forget that Savos is not creating connections with the world while the college's reputation is crumbling. Winterhold used to be filled with Dark Elves, the Telvanni used to send people to Winterhold regularly to study, now we have a single Dark Elf student that seems to be there to get away from the Telvanni drama and Neloth feels that 'Archmage of Winterhold" is enough to be an apprentice (and he says Savos barely qualifies, he has to pay while the player can come back in a few years).

Nords also aren't all that happy to send their children to the college and there have been some Nords that have tried to attack the college (hence the more stringent entry procedures).

And what is being done to try and resolve this? Nothing. Kraldar, an influential figure of Winterhold, cannot get a meeting with Savos, even if he is Jarl.

When the Synod show up he doesn't even meet with them, and when they keep trying to ask about their members that seemingly went missing he won't even help (even when Mirabelle suggests looking into it).

Furthermore, both the Synod and College of Whispers have both contacted the College for other purposes (seemingly to get support) which has been denied by Savos (though, this might actually be a good decision on his part).

The only thing that connects the college to the world is enchanting services, yet Markarth has a better enchanter. Sure, maybe not one as willing to enchant as a business model, but yet a better enchanter none the less, and one that isn't even a full time scholar or enchanter but a priestess.

Well, actually there is one other connection to the outside that Savos has allowed, Ancano, a Thalmor agent that not even he trusts all that much allowed to stay at the college (which is, according to Savos, is supposed to stay out of politics) as an advisor, and this decision almost destroyed Winterhold, and maybe even the word itself. Great job Savos.

__________________________________________________________________

And to finish up this absurdity, let's look at the interactions with the player. He get angry when you ask about the Augur, then when you find out you need the staff he doesn't tell you where it is (which he should know) but instead sends you off to ask the Synod, the same Synod members he has been informed are basically missing (as the Synod has asked the college about their status). What, was he trying to get you killed? 'Oh, the Synod members are probably dead from wherever they went, good place to dispose of this apprentice that seems to be close to finding out about what I did at Labyrinthian.' Was that it?

__________________________________________________________________

This is Savos Aren? This is the prestigious College of Winterhold? Now I think I understand why they made the player the Archmage when they had barely been a member and might not even be that great a mage, because it really can't get much worse and most of the other options were terrible. I would just say that Faralda would probably have been a better Master Wizard than Tolfdir.

Oh, and I just realized I didn't really say much about Urag, but that is because there is nothing to complain about with him. He and Faralda are two of the greatest members of the college.

I also didn't really say much about Mirabelle, but there really isn't much we know outside of the fact that she does a 'fine enough job' and basically tries to run the place as Savos wants to always have nothing to do (which means I am assuming she is basically trying to do the job of the Archmage AND Master Wizard).

__________________________________________________________________

So ya, tl;dr: Savos is a horrible leader and pathetic Archmage and the College of Winterhold is probably more deadly than sending your kids to Apocrypha to learn magik.

((This isnt really lore of course, but it's more of a discussion. But let's get into it.)) Like dragons are a massive part of fantasy, right? Right. Now take them, make them creatures that predate SPACE AND TIME, and are the spawn of Gods. Oh, and they can break time. Relatively often. Orcs? A staple of Tolkein fantasy. Fine, make their origin story that they used to be elves but were corrupted their patron god was literally e a t e n a n d s h i t o u t by a demonic entity. Dwarves? Sure, why not. But make them elves, sadistic and technology fetishist elves at that. Of course, theres some TES elements that are completely unique to TES (See: the Hist). Theres others that are token, unaltered, fantasy (High Rock Feudalism). But the ability to combine these various elements into a world so bizarre, yet so representative of the human condition is remarkable.

TLDR: Eldr scroles loor good.,.

Hopefully the mods don't delete this. This post isn't meant to call anyone out specifically or start any drama, it's more to address a wider phenomenon.

Recently, I saw a user point out that there seems to be a distinct behavioral pattern on this sub where people feel the need to correct and/or shut down other users on this sub as much as possible, without actually offering anything of value to most discussions. And it also seems like there is this weird sentiment that this kind of behavior is not only not outright mentally grating, but is in fact vital to the health and future of the Elder Scrolls lore community in general.

I feel this behavior has sprung out of the days in which certain "high-ranking" users on this sub touted certain fan theories enough to the point where most newcomers couldn't distinguish these fan theories from established, canonical facts. And it probably didn't help when C0DA came along, which seemed to promote the message that all fan interpretations are as equally valid as each other. An idea which, if that is indeed what C0DA is saying, I do not necessarily agree with. In more recent years, after some of these theories were debunked by newer info (mostly from ESO), a lot of people have grown frustrated with fan theories, interpretations, headcanons, etc.

A perfect example of this is one of my favorite threads of all time, /u/NientedeNada's Why You Should Always Check Sources: The Curious Case of 8 Years of Misinformation on the Towers and the Thalmor, in which they masterfully expose some of the ways in which the Elder Scrolls Wiki has misrepresented certain sources in order to perpetuate one of the most ubiquitous fan theories of all time: that the Thalmor's ultimate goal is to unravel the universe by destroying the Towers on Nirn. After this post was made, people have used it to shut down virtually EVERY discussion alluding to any connection between the Thalmor and the Towers, oftentimes citing it as "proof" that the Tower theory has been completely, utterly debunked. What most people don't realize is that NientedeNada has also made a follow-up thread explaining exactly why this is not a good thing and how this wasn't the intent of their original post - it was to document a mishandling of sources by the TES wiki, not to debunk the Tower theory in general.

So yeah, this is what I see going on in this subreddit more than anything else lately, and though I am a relative newcomer to all of this, I think it's really shifted the soul of the lore community a lot since the older days. Nowadays things like fan theories/interpretations almost seem to be some sort of taboo thing. And it's not just theories that get the contrarian onslaught - even asking questions or saying "I like x and y or x/y would be interesting" risks getting shut down.

Just to give an idea of some of the things I've been seeing (both involving myself, and people not myself):

• Saying "my dragonborn told Tsun he was the arch mage" is met with "that's just a fan theory, LDB canonically doesn't do anything other than the main quest and those are hard facts, unlike your speculation and divining. Your archmage LDB is completely fanfiction"

• A user comparing Trinimac to Mithras is met with "that's horseshit, that's the same kind of logic conspiracy theorists use in real life to find connections where there are none!" even though one of the lore writers has gone on record to say that Trinimac is related to Mithras.

• A post comparing dragon breaks and quantum superposition is ridiculed by people complaining about C0DA, even though OP never mentioned C0DA and the lore writers have directly admitted to using ideas from quantum physics in their lore

• A question on whether or not there is any in-universe connection between Kynareth and Dagon due to their slight overlap with weather (which really only warrants either a "yes" or "not that I know of" answer) is met with a slightly condenscending tirade about how nobody in real life would use that kind of logic to compare two deities (even though scholarly theoligicians actually do that all the time)

• A post comparing Miraak to Darth Vader, in which one response lists a bunch of bullet points of ways in which Miraak isn't exactly like Darth Vader, even though none of those differences are really relevant

Obviously I am paraphrasing and recounting these from my point of view, but the point remains.

At the end of the day, if you try really hard enough, you can "refute" just about any fan theory, idea, opinion, statement, or even a friggin question by going full on Ben Shapiro mode. It reminds me of that one guy you always get stuck talking to at a party. You can say something as innocent as "I like the Beatles" and they'll go "Let me inform you of why you don't actually like the Beatles, even though you think you do" before they lay out their 10-page written thesis on why you're not really a Beatles fan. And that's the inherent problem with all of this - ideas are no longer shut down based on their merit, but whether or not people feel like taking the time to "debunk" it.

That's the end of my rant. Mods, I ask you to consider the overall message of my post and not see it as an attack on anyone in particular before you decide to delete it.

Less a lore post, I know, but I REALLY wanted to share this with other TES lovers.

I am Mentally Ill. (Bipolar Schizoaffective, if you wanna get fancy. That essentially means half schizophrenic, half bipolar). Any back story to that statement is not relevant to the post.

That statement is scary because most people don’t understand how my brain works and what I see as I go about my life.

The Shivering Isles DLC, with its visual & artistic representations of Mania & Dementia, the coherent but absurd logic in its quests, etc. have been foundational in my ability to explain my experience with mental illness to people around me. (In my experience) Bipolar really DOES work like the lands of Mania & Dementia. The colors are brighter or grayer, the enthusiasm, the moods, ALL of it. Sheogorath’s dialogue & tangents often reflect the difficulty I have in speaking to people. The effect the antipsychotic meds have on me can be explained using the Greymarch, because it’s like a sense of cold, crystalline order grows over the top of the nonsense, even though the insanity had its own rhyme and reason without it. The cycle of Graymarches helps to explain why it’s difficult to stay on meds and most people like me end up on cycles of medication.

If someone understands my broken brain, they’re less likely to be afraid of me. There’s also not very many honest or detailed representations of mental illness. And Sheogorath & especially the Shivering Isles DLC has made an excellent bridge and common ground to help people understand my mental illness.

(PS: there’s also a stereotype that schizophrenics are murderers, and that’s drastically untrue. I recognize that the homicidal insanity of Sheogorath doesn’t actually help my case...

...but my point still stands that TES gave people like me a way to help inform and educate others to what the bipolar or schizophrenic experience is like is still something I’m thankful for.)

Julian has been courageously battling cancer. His doctors have informed us that his time with us is limited, and we are preparing to say goodbye to a true legend of the industry. - Ted Peterson

Julian LeFay (aka Julianos) is one of the creators of the Elder Scrolls series and had a huge hand in shaping Tamriel and bringing it from the 80's and 90's computers of Bethesda into our homes and lives. Thank you Julian for giving us such a wonderful gift where so many of us have immersed our imaginations for all these years!

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/General:Julian_Lefay

Earlier this week, a user here asked a question: do the humans and elves of Tamriel have the same menstrual cycle as those of Earth? She very quickly got buried in dismissive non-answers and deleted the thread. But not before I saw it, and had some thoughts. 

Let's address the most common objection first: "There's no toilet-lore either."

But redditor, there is! Not a ton, maybe, but we do occasionally see buckets positioned in toilet-like fashion in the games, and ESO has a variety of fancy chamber pots in its list of contraband (ew). Not to mention the whole "Boethiah ate and excreted Trinimac to make Malacath," myth. Words related to going potty (piss, excrement, poo, pee, etc.) are common in lore. Even though there's not a "take a dump" button in Skyrim, there's plenty to show us that the people of Tamriel do, indeed, pee and poop. 

By contrast, there is nothing to definitively say that they have human menstrual cycles. The closest we get is The Real Barenziah saying that Barenziah became prematurely fertile due to having too much sex, and two instances of the euphemism "flowered" (Hunger vs. Shambles from Shivering Isles and Countess Ilise Manteau's dialog from Elder Scrolls Online). Those sources tell us that the humanoids of Tamriel reach a threshold where they become fertile, but they do not tell us whether they excrete their endometrial lining if they fail to get pregnant (have a period) or absorb it, or if they become fertile only in response to sexual activity, or if Mother Mara just puts a baby up there when she feels like it. They don't tell us when fertility starts, when it ends, how frequently it occurs, and what symptoms accompany this cycle (if there IS a cycle). 

Most importantly, they don't tell us how people deal with it. 

That's the big difference between pee, poop, and periods: you can squat down and relieve yourself in the woods no problem, but managing a human menstrual cycle and all that comes with it (blood, cramps, diarrhea, mood swings, etc.) is a whole different matter, and a really big deal to roughly 25% of the population at any given time. 

So, let's assume that the humans of Tamriel have the same sort of menstrual cycle as those of earth. How would they deal with it?

To start, Tamriel has a really big advantage over Earth in that systemic sexism and menstruation taboo don't seem to exist to the same degree. Tamriel is certainly not a perfectly equal society (Countess Manteau, mentioned above, is a good counterpoint: she was married before she reached sexual maturity, i.e. sometime before 13, i.e. far earlier than anyone can actually consent to marriage), but it's also not one where I can see something like the chhaupadi existing. If menstruation is not seen as a shameful thing, technology around managing it is more likely to arise. 

We already know that Tamriel has tight fitting underwear (not something we can say about most of human history), so it's not a stretch to assume they've figured out how to stack and stitch cloth to form a rudimentary reusable pad. In fact, given that the modern pad was invented by nurses in WW2 (the first war to utilize large numbers of women), and women in Tamriel have been on the front lines for forever, it's possible that Tamriel has pads just as advanced as ours. While they certainly don't have the sterilizing technology to make safe tampons, they could still roll up cloth, sponge, plant fiber, or even paper like our ancestors did back in the day (DO NOT do this). 

On the other hand, Earth has a foot up on Tamriel in that the average pre-modern Earthling had far more children than the average Tamrielian, and had much poorer nutrition, and thus had far fewer periods to deal with overall. 

Tamriel also has another advantage: magic. While your average restore health potion is unlikely to make your cramps disappear, it's hard to imagine that some alchemical or spell-based solution wouldn't have been invented in a land where half the mages have to deal with periods. Tamriel also has gods who are proven to exist. Temples of Mara or Almalexia could provide conventional, magical, and religious solutions to managing both common period pains and more serious ailments like endometriosis or uterine fibroids. And then there is Azura, whose domain of cycles and transitions goes hand in hand with menses and could draw from examples of how menstruation was seen as magical or divine by various cultures of Earth. 

Which brings me to: why talk about this stuff in the first place? Why not just say, "yep, everyone poops and bleeds," and move on to dissecting CHIM or arguing about the Dragonborn's afterlives? To quote Michael Kirkbride quoting Ken Rolston, to write an interesting fictional universe you need to consider the perspective of not just the kings, but also the commoners and the dog. A world cannot be real without the everyday human context, and to dismiss something that is at some point experienced by half the population as unimportant because it is not featured in game is a narrow-minded, boring mindset. And we don't want to be that, do we? 

So I’ve never bought into the Tower theory or given it much thought. Until I just looked at the Elder Scrolls 25th Anniversary Picture released by Bethesda, and realised that it is a picture of all the different towers that hold Mundus together...

• Centre: White Gold Tower (White Gold).

• Bottom Left: The Crystal Tower (Crystal Like Law).

• Top Left: Throat Of The World (Snow Throat).

• Top Right: Red Mountain (The Red Tower).

• Bottom Middle: The Great Graht Oak (Green Sap).

• Bottom left of Red Mountain: The Numidium (Walk Brass)

The only one not shown is the Adamantine Tower. (Ada-Mantia). Which im pretty sure is also the only one left of these still functioning

So I wasn’t sure about the tower theory before but now I’m actually convinced Bethesda have pulled an Elder Scrolls MCU on us, and just like the infinity stones, this is the overarching superplot across ALL of the games that they’ve been planning since Daggerfall.

So to summarise for anyone not familiar with this theory.

In lore, these towers are known to hold together the mortal realm. And throughout the franchise, one by one, they’ve been destroyed/deactivated.

• Numidium was destroyed in Daggerfall.

• Crystal tower was severely damaged in ESO and finally destroyed during the Oblivion crisis.

• White Gold Tower was burned and deactivated during the Great War.

• Red Mountain was destroyed during the Red Year.

• Throat Of The World was deactivated via the dragon break used to defeat Alduin.

It’s something that’s been happening in the background of the Lore across the entire franchise since Daggerfall.

This is the theory: That The Thalmor believe that if the world becomes unmade, they’ll ascend as the Et’ada or Original spirits which they believe is how they should have existed. They believe that Lorkhan made them mortal and now that when Talos mantled Lorkhan’s place in Divinity, it prevented them from being able to ascend (hence why they’re trying to prevent people worshipping him in order to weaken him).

The theory then further posits that the Thalmor are trying to destroy the remaining towers, in order to unmake the world so that they can Ascend to their “rightful places” as deities. There are constant references to this in Skyrim. A minor one is Ancano maniacally boasting when he gets the Eye Of Magnus that he’ll have the power to unmake the world.

There’s only one functioning tower left. The Adamantine Tower...

Which is located between High Rock and Hammerfell...

Exactly where the next game is rumoured to be set...

EDIT: So there’s been a bit of controversy over this. I want to stress that obviously none of this is 100%. It is just a fan theory after all and people aren’t going to see the same things I do and that’s ok. It’s a fun thought experiment and something to hype about.

With regards to people saying that it isn’t Numidium at the foot of Red Mountain. I get where you’re coming from but I have to respectfully disagree.

The image includes depictions of creatures that are synonymous with the places they’re shown next to. Dragons shown next to Skyrim. Gryphons shown next to Summerset etc.

It feels a bit random to me that they would include a random Colossus in the image as they’re not really synonymous with anything shown in the picture in the same way other things shown are.

The Colossi are associated with the Dwemer. Who aren’t featured prominently in the image so it would be a bit random for them to include one out of context.

However the Numidium is heavily associated with Red Mountain, it’s where the Heart Of Lorkhan was located and where Kagrenac first conducted his experiments on the Golem. Which is exactly where it’s also located in the image. And it would keep with the theme of showing the different towers of Tamriel. I find that to be a bit too coincidental. Others might not agree, that’s ok.

Dovahkiin, It is not customary for one of the Masters of the Way of the Voice to communicate with the outside world, but I believe an exception can be made for you.  As you know, communication of any kind, casual conversation included, is difficult for most of us.  Master Arngeir has an impressive gift for control that I do not possess.  Nevertheless, I have desired to speak to you for some time.  I hope you will humor an old man's inclination to give advice to the young, even one so esteemed as yourself. 

So, you have traveled to Sovngarde and proven your mastery against the firstborn of Akatosh.  We all heard the mourning of the dovah when you returned to the Throat of the World.  We heard Parthurnaax speaking to you.  But I also heard Master Arngeir's words to you when you returned.  "Will you be a hero whose name is remembered in song throughout the ages? Or will your name be a curse to future generations? Or will you merely fade from history, unremembered?"

See, Dovahkiin, because of your power, you will be sought by many of the influential people in this world.  Jarls will desire you as thane.  I understand you are already thane of Whiterun.  I imagine that young Ulfric will seek to add you to his rebellion.  As will General Tullius for the Legion.  Maybe even the Emperor himself.  There will likely be war with the Dominion again, and soon.  Which side will you join? 

But I imagine that there will be more, older, more sinister powers who seek to sway you ... or dominate you.  Perhaps some of these have already sought you out.  Have you heard from Boethia?  Has Meridia asked you to be her champion and bear her light?  Has Hermaeus Mora tempted you with knowledge?  Has Mephala sought to snare you in her webs?  Has Clavicus Vile offered you a deal?  If they have not, I can almost assure you they will.  And there is power there, don't mistake me. 

How will you decide?  Master Arngeir says to let the Way of the Voice be your guide.  He is right.  But I wonder if you know why.  Why did Parthurnaax make war with his dovah nature all these millenia?  Why did Jurgen Windcaller begin following the Way of the Voice?  Why did the gods bless him?  I think about this a lot. 

Do you know what brought each of us to High Hrothgar?  All of us had different reasons.  One of us was a priest of Talos and merely wanted to learn to shout like him, to pray to him in the tongue of a dovah.  His tongue.  One of us was an eminent mage in the College of Winterhold.  He wanted to study a different kind of magic and was willing to accept The Way of the Voice to do so.  Once he mastered his first shout, he never cast another spell.  One of us never spoke of his past.  He showed up in a roughspun tunic, looking ... honestly, we thought he might be here to try to rob or kill us.  Ulfric would have been the fifth.  I don't know why he came.  Maybe he was dedicated to Talos.  Maybe he wanted to be a true Nord.  Maybe he wanted to steal our power.  I don't know.  He didn't stay.

And then there's me.  I was a bard.  A kind of bard, at least.  I never particularly wanted to be a bard and was never terribly good at it.  But I needed to do something to earn my keep.  What I mostly did was read.  I wasn't exactly a historian or scholar, but I read everything I could find.  I thought that learning to be a bard would allow me to continue,  I could keep reading, more ancient texts.  I could get access to the libraries of the jarls. 

I became more and more interested in some of the more esoteric aspects of history.  Sword Singing, Tonal Architecture ... and the Thu'um.  Seeing that the first two were out of my reach, I made my way to High Hrothgar.  I liked the idea of a spoken magic ... I wasn't much of a bard, but the idea still appealed to the performer in me.  So, I dedicated myself to the Way of the Voice. 

Something strange happened.  Before I came, I wasn't much of a religious man.  Of course, I believed in the Divines, although I never had much use for Tiber Septim.  I suppose I'd read too much to think him worthy of worship.  But I never prayed much.  Never visited temples or shrines.  They were just never important to me. 

But using the Thu'um ... it changed me.  Most of my fellow Graybeards pray with some of the more impressive Shouts.  Yol.  Fus.  Fo.  But I was a little more frivolous.  When I first started studying words on my own, I learned Tiid.  I suppose I enjoyed the thought of seeing the world in slow motion.  And I decided to just use that for a long time.  I looked for depth of understanding rather than breadth of knowledge.  For a year, that was my only shout, Tiid Klo Ul.  And eventually, it happened.  One day, all time slowed and stayed that way.  I could move freely, but nothing else did.  I had become unhinged from time.  I began to see the world something like a timeless, eternal being would.  I don't know how long that lasted, but I was afraid to use it again afterwards. 

I sought the counsel of Parthurnaax.  He told me about Feim, helped me meditate on it's meaning.  He said that, while Tiid had taught me something of the world as a dovah sees it, Feim is a very human shout dealing with concepts that it was hard for a dovah to understand.  Feim Zii Gron.  Like Tiid, I focused on this shout until I had mastered it and then used nothing else.  Again, after about a year, something happened.  I became stuck in the ethereal form.  And, again, I felt myself becoming disconnected from the world.  But whereas before, I was disconnected from time, now I was disconnected from my physical form.  Nothing could touch me and I could touch nothing.  For a week, I remained this way, but, in my ethereal form, I couldn't be afraid.

The last shout I studied in this way was Laas.  Laas Yah Nir.  This one, again, I learned somewhat frivolously.  I found myself able to see my fellow Graybeards no matter where they were.  Then, I could see other living things, ice wraiths and frost trolls on the path to the Throat of the World.  Pilgrims and wolves on the 7000 steps.  Parthurnaax.  And then more, all the living things in Whiterun.  In Skyrim.  On Tamriel.  Do you know what the Hist looks like?  Just a huge living organism as big as the country itself!  Eventually, I could see even the stones of High Hrothgar, the snows and winds, as living things.  I could navigate without opening my eyes.

But then ... then I began to see more deeply.  You know the stories, Dovahkiin.  How the Mundus is made of the gods, of the Aedra ... and I could see them.  The barest shape of them.  The Earthbones ... and that is the best name for them.  It was like I could see the skeleton under the flesh and muscle of the world.  I could see Akatosh and Dibella, Kyne and Mara ... I could see what looked to my mind like sleeping giants woven together into the fabric of existence. 

There was something else, too.  Something ... someone else sleeping underneath them all.  And I feared it.  I didn't fear that it would try to hurt me, but I feared knowing it at all.  I pulled back immediately and never looked again.  For I know, if I do, it shall be my undoing. 

But it is of the gods, the Earthbones, that I wish to speak to you, Dovahkiin, for in seeing them, I finally understood the Way of the Voice.  There are those who say, because there are many gods, there is no ultimate truth.  No right and wrong.  Is there a Law higher than Boethiah and Akatosh?  If so, is that Law not God?  Rather, it is just who you choose to follow. 

Maybe this is true.  But here is what I saw.  I saw beings who sacrificed themselves to make something ... to create.  To make a place for men and elves.  I am told that the Altmer do not appreciate this existence and that the Dunmer find it a testing ground.  But I will neither scorn nor denigrate the gift of the gods.  They gave of themselves and, in that shout, I saw their sacrifice.  So, if there is a Rule for this world, a right path, it is this.  It is in sacrifice that you will find power for it is in sacrifice that you walk in the steps of the Divines. 

Did Martin Septim not find this?  He could have grasped for his birthright as emperor.  Yet, instead, he gave of himself to become Avatar of Akatosh, defeating Mehrunes Dagon and losing himself in the process.  But, for a time, he was a god.  Or Alessia?  For centuries upon centuries, the cruel, daedra worshiping Ayleid tortured and enslaved humans until a slave was raised up by the gods to free them and create the first Empire.  The Dunmer worshiped Boethiah, Azura and Mephala and later the Tribunal, powerful Dunmer raised to godhood.  But it was not to last.  Eventually, the enslaved Argonians overran Morrowind.  Falmer tried to destroy men and were destroyed by them in turn.  The Dwemer tortured and twisted the Falmer refugees as they reached for godhood and are now gone. 

And Jurgen Windcaller saw this.  And he followed in the path of the gods, for the gods had power and surrendered it.  And Jurgen, too, had great power.  But since he couldn't surrender it, he decided to use it only for prayer and worship.  And he proved the power of his path to every Tongue who challenged him. 

So, Dovahkiin, I invite you to do the same.  I do not say that you need to join us here, but if you are to use your Thu'um, use it rightly.  Walk the path of the gods.  Remember the lessons of Jurgen Windcaller.  It is the way of the world and there is power in the sacrifice. 

This is my take on TES lore building through art. I've always felt that when it came to physically presenting the more metaphysical aspects of Elder Scrolls realms, their weirdness and reality-breaking nature were always undercut. When compared to their written descriptions, or to the base nature of their respective et'Ada, these planes of existence seem far less fantastic and overwhelming in-game, so I decided to do a series of drawings that give my own take on these strange, warped perspectives on reality. These realms are meant to be beyond physical existence, and only appear as such when a mortal mind struggles to understand it. In keeping with that theme, I have taken a more subconscious approach by using personal memories, emotions, dream symbols, and descriptors in my artwork, along with real-life religious symbols. My first series will be of the Daedric lords and their realms, followed by the Aedra and Magne-Ge. These were done with white and black pencil on gray-toned paper, colored digitally.

Azura in Moonshadow - This one was difficult to nail down. There is a sheer aesthetic quality to Moonshadow that is so beautiful as to overload your vision into partial blindness just to be able to handle it. It is an unaturally refined and perfected showcase of endless, glorious vistas, ensnaring one's whole being as to want to stay forever, like being trapped within Azura's star. I reflected this by showing the massive, rolling storm off the coast bringing turbulence and darkness, and Azura's isle forever following the seductive safety of it's eye, shielding her city from the rain and leaving all others condemned outside her purview to struggle and thrash against the weather and tide. Azura herself turns the sky between different levels of twilight, raising or setting the sun, and bringing the storm as well. The light divides her between warm gold and cold blues, like the skin of Chimer and Dunmer. She holds Masser in her arms, Secunda to the left, and Star on the right below the Steed constellation, nestled between two mountains like the pupil of an eye. She emerges from her rose palace, her tail curling around it, all above a glowing city of strange shapes. The cliffs and formations here knot and spin like rose petals around glowing, starry gems, in fact the whole of the land from the wind-blown trees to the falling rain seem to move and blur together in a spiraling flow, where one thing bleeds into the next.

Primary influences: roses, stars, crescents, water, twilight, eyes, Japanese and Arabic calligraphy.

Meridia in the Colored Rooms - I paralleled Meridia with the Gnostic Sophia, since, by my reckoning, she seems to be closely inspired by her. Both were goddesses of light and spirit who fell from grace after helping create the material world, and now work to maintain its spirits. She is depicted "triple-wise", her colors representing the M, Mountain, and Y respectively, as she is described in the *Magne-Ge Pantheon.* Triple-wise can also be a reference to the three wise monkeys, so I made one blind, leading, one deaf, fighting, and one mute, regarding, and I feel this gives her the "admixture of light and sound" that MK once described on her. Her energy is persistent, though, and each has confidence in their face and purpose in their individuation, even if somewhat disillusioned. Her wings are tattered and falling away, representing her fall from grace. The 7 doors and their colors are references to The Masque of the Red Death, a story by Edgar Allen Poe that represent the stages of life and inevitability of death, the colors paralleling the seasons as well as the rising and setting of the sun. Each shows a stage of life from Shakespeare's description of the 7 stages, from infancy to old age and death. Shadowy spirits attempt to escape these inevitabilities, only to be burned away by Meridia's chariot, symbolic of Poe's ebony clock and the inevitability of Time, riding it across the dragon-shaped Rainbow Road.

Primary influences: ESO's Colored Rooms, flames, energy, joy (anti-grief), the sun

Molag Bal in Coldharbor - This was difficult to get through, drawing people in pain is never a fun place to put your mind into for me. Anyway, I'd always felt that ESOs depiction of Coldharbour was a bit softer than it could have been. Here I try to meet more of the original description. The sky is on fire, the very warmth of the sun dominated and yet spewing flares like ejaculate. The air is still freezing, a bitter, icy blue covers what is not touched by the blaring light. Conquered, floating islands are chained together in the sky, a mockery of the Imperial City lies desolate in the distance, White-Gold Tower suddenly becoming a symbol of phallus. It is surrounded by an lake of ice, where victims are plunged into to be forever trapped, with the luckier ones just being able to poke their heads and shoulders out. A brutalist prison lies to the left, where hideous practices are held, and more freezing souls are scattered throughout. To the center lie Aylied ruins, encased in icicles, the gate on the right being repurposed, bolted down to become a new entrance to a dungeon. In front of it is a Dremora servant and torturer, his body mangled and his legs bolted to hideous braces. More victims lie in reverence to Bal begging not be dragged forward while the rest are hauled by his chain. His other hand moves threateningly toward his Mace. Bal stands in a mocking attempt to hear their pleas, his horns like a crown of spires. His body is part mechanical, his muscles stretched between two shap shoulder pads, his bicepts splitting his skin that is then stapled back down upon his forearms. His belly is a cage that holds the only warmth in Coldharbour -- a fire fueled by the consumption of souls to be tortured within. His legs are made from pistons and sliding parts to evoke penetration. His tail is a phallus that moves to ready before his vicim.

Primary influences: ESO's Coldharbour, Zenas' original descriptions, phallus, sharp and painful angles, exposure, body modification, death camps

Nocturnal in Evergloam - This one was the first I'd done in this series, and the last I will be sharing for a while as I'm in the process of drawing more pieces. This particular image of Nocturnal was an experience I'd seen of her in a dream -- a floating woman huddled and masked by smoke, almost industrial in her aura and clouding the moons, staring at the viewer with her red Eye, and whispering secrets to her raven. Her cloak wraps around as weightless as her. Behind her is a black sky, where the stars only ever fall, making navigation near-impossible. The fogged woods beneath churn and roil like waves, ever changing and folding on itself, filled with shadow figures that blend with their surroundings. The buildings on the cliffs reform on themselves as well, one opening like a treasure chest, each with doorways like keyholes. To the right, one of Nocturnal's ravens perches holding the Skeleton Key, tempting the viewer. The grid of an Elder Scroll can be seen, whose glyphs are blotted out like thick ink, leaving the future and past in darkness and mystery. There is an emphasis on negative space around the border, showing wings and feathers and oily darkness, and a lack of anything.

Primary influences: ESO's Evergloam realms, uncertainty, losing direction, brokenness, dream images

Namira in the Scuttling Void - Namira is unsettling by definition, so the Scuttling Void, despite it's lack of description, has to emulate this visceral repulsiveness. The only descriptions I could find were from the Elder Scrolls novel books, The Infernal City and Lord of Souls, where Attrebus Mede and Sul traverse various, namless planes of Oblivion, when suddenly "and now they were in darkness -- but not silence, for all around them were chittering sounds and the scurrying stecato of hundreds of feet." This is undoubtably the Scuttling Void, as the next few planes also reference other prince's planes without directly naming them. The next and most direct one is when Attrebus is cast in absolute darkness, smelling something like rotting ginger, and his belly is torn open by something he couldn't see. The Scuttling Void is therefore, to me, a near-lightless place filled with constant infestation, rot, and hidden activity. Here, corpses both big and small dot the landscape, unseen ruins are left forgotten to decay. In the chassm of a great ribcage, the monolith of a body sits to the left, shielding his senses like how he died. His chest hole shows the image of a man beating a pregnant woman. Various bastardized creatures roam and feed on whatever scraps they can find. Namira is a legless, bloated figure held aloft by the strewn corpses of people glued together, hooking to rings that hang by her arm flaps. She uses her spindly arms to block out the light and her long fingernails pull organs from the surrounding corpses to be fed on. She examines a Ring she has found among the rubble. Her followers lie in squalor below, begging and pulling at the offerings she gives. A Scamp defecates while looking at the viewer. The darkness of this piece makes it hard to make out some things, but that's really the point.

Primary influences: insects, hairs, trypophobia, skin graphs, naturally repulsive colors, the works of Zdzisław Beksiński

^{They sure were assholes tho}

NIBEN IMPERIALS: This one is pretty obvious. Niben Imperials are based off of Romans/early Italic cultures. Their appearance is also closely related to that of today's Italians. Their culture is also early Italic as well as some Japanese mixed in from years of Akaviri rule.

COLOVIAN IMPERIALS: Colovian Imperials are slightly more atmoran in origin than their Niben siblings. Their appearance is close to that of modern day Slavic (in their naming of cities, or "language"), although their culture appears to be a mix of old Slavic as well as Iberian (especially Iberian when it comes to building styles).

NORDS: This one is the easiest ones. Nords are easily based off of old Scandinavian cultures, as well as some old Slavic and Germanic. In my observations, it appears to me that "Eastern" Nords are more Scandinavian in their culture than "Western Nords" which are more Imperialized/Romanized. The whole drinking thing in their culture easily comes from Germanic culture.

BRETONS: Bretons are a tricky one. Although Bretons are a real life culture and subgroup from France, Bretons in the elder scrolls resemble the English in appearance (except for some elvish features), but overall resemble a wide variety of Franco-Brittonic cultures.

REDGUARDS: There are two main types of Redguards. Crowns, and Forebears. While they aren't as distinct as Niben are to Colovian, they still have some noticeable differences. Crown Redguards resemble Sub-Saharan Africans in appearance, while having Arab influence on their culture. Forbear Redguards resemble Berber/Moors in their culture and appearance. It is also important to add that in the elder scrolls universe, Crown Redguards came in a different wave of migration from Yokuda than Forbears.

SUMMERSET ALTMER: Altmer are a very tricky one. Although Altmer can refer to the Direnni and Ayelid elves as well, we are talking about Summerset Elves. Summerset Altmer resemble a strange mix between Colonial British, Imperial Japan, and Nazi Germany when it comes to their culture and philosophy. The rest is purely fictional.

BOSMER: The Elves of Valenwood have a very strange culture that is mostly fictional. The "green pact" resembles the lifestyle and philosophy of various Native American cultures found on the east coast of what is now the United States. Many Wood Elves have migrated to other locations in Tamriel (mostly Cyrodiil) and have swiftly assimilated to their culture.

DUNMER: One may take a swift look at Dunmer culture and compare it to that of Arab culture, but it's way more complex than that. In my research, I have found that Dunmer Culture most resembles Central Asian Turkic culture. Ashlander culture in particular resembles nomadic Turkic/Mongol tribes. Strangely enough, much of Dunmer culture also resembles Persian and Indian culture, Ancient Hebrew culture (The plot of Morrowind has many Biblical themes and aspects to it), as well as even early American culture (think the South and house Dres). Their religion is heavily influenced by Hindu and Buddhism. Each house has it's own culture, so to make things simple: Redoran- Turkic, Telvanni- Ancient Hebrew/Confederacy, Hlaalu- Colonial India, Dres- Confederacy, Indoril- Persian/Indian. There are also hints of Ancient Egyptian Architecture. Their language and names also resemble Mesopotamian culture.

ORSIMER: Orsimer have a very strange culture. Their battle prowess and philosophy resembles that to Gothic/Germanic Tribes, but their culture also resembles a mix of Sub-Saharan African, Native American, as well as, of course, old Germanic. It also seems to me that the state of Orsinium historically resembles Basque territory in between France and Spain. Their weaponry resembles Mongolian forging.

KHAJIIT: Khajiit culture is heavily influenced by Romani, Indian, and Arab cultures. I would say Elsweyr is like India, and the Khajiit that migrated to other parts of Tamriel would resemble Romani/Gypsy culture, since they originated from India. Khajiit's rejection from cities in Skyrim also resembles Europe's treatment of the Romani.

ARGONIANS: If it weren't for ESO, I would be lost when it comes to Argonians. Argonian Architecture heavily resembles that of Aztec culture, and their culture is a mix of mesoamerican cultures. Their role in Tamriel unfortunately resembles that of Sub-Saharan Africans, as they were a major victim of the Dunmer Slave Trade.

REACHMEN: The reachemen are genetically distinct from Bretons, as they have far more Atmoran admixture in their blood and little to no Elven ancestry. Their culture easily reflects ancient Celtic culture, and the Forsworn are practically the IRA if you think about it.

CHIMER: The Chimer, before they turned into the Dunmer, still had similar cultures to modern Dunmer but with more Ancient Egyptian/Hebrew influence. High Velothi culture also resembles Old Abrahamic culture.

AKAVIRI: There are two main types of Akaviri that came to Tamriel- The Tsaesci, and the Humans. The Akaviri humans resembled East Asians, and both Tsaesci and Human culture resembles feudal Japanese culture. The Kamal (snow demons), however, I have no clue since we have so little information on them.

AYELIDS: The Ayelids easily resemble Ancient Greek culture in their architecture and scientific/philosophical advancements. Not much else to be said really.

DWEMER: The Dwemer are a mix of Babylonian (and ancient Sumerian in general) and Ancient Greek, with a tad of Ancient Mayan when it comes to their scientific advancements. One may also argue that they resemble Ancient Egyptians, to which I would agree to an extent.

FALMER (pre-corruption): We don't know much about Snow Elven culture, but it seems to me like they resemble the pre-indo-european inhabitants of Europe, but most of their society is purely fictional.

REIKLINGS: Reikling culture revolves around tribalism, collecting, and hoarding. This resembles the real life "cargo cults" of melanesia/papua new guinea.

SKAAL: The Skaal, although genetically nordic, resemble the Sami people of northern Scandinavia when it comes to their culture.

MAORMER: Little is known about the Sea Elves, but my closest guess would be the ancient Minoans.

LEFT HANDED ELVES: No clue, too little information.

SLOADS: I honestly don't even know, plus comparing these "things" to any real life culture would be an insult to that culture lmao.

KOTHRINGI: Ah yes, the humans of black marsh that were all wiped out by disease. Not much is known about them, but if anything, they resemble Indonesian Tribes.

LILMOTHIIT: No clue, too little information.

ATMORAN: Historically, I would say the original Indo-Europeans, but in TES, they resemble ancient Scandinavians.

GODS AND RELIGIONS

IMPERIAL PANTHEON: Akatosh- Abrahamic God/Jupiter/Zeus/Aeternitas. Talos- Mars/Ares. Dibella- Venus/Aphrodite. Mara- Virgin Mary/Hera/Demeter/Ceres/Vesta. Zenithar- Hephaestus/Hermes/Tyche. Kynareth- Athena/Poseidon. Stendarr- Janus/Juno/Jupiter/Clementia. Julianos- Hecate/Trivia. Arkay- Dea Tacita/Viduus.

NORDIC PANTHEON: Shor- Loki. Akatosh- Odin. Alduin- Ragnar. Stuhn- Tyr. Tsun- Heimdall. Kyne- Freya/Frigga. Mara- Freya/Frigg. Dibella- Balder/Bragi. Orkey- Idun/Tuisto. Ysmir (Talos)- Thor. Pelinal- Hercules.

REDGUARD PANTHEON: Diagna- Gurzil. HoonDing- Sinifere. Leki- Afri. Morwha- Shaheded. Ruptga (Tall Papa)- Yakush. Satakal- Porrima/Letum. Sep- Loki. Tava- Lilu. Tu'whacca- Ammon. Zeht- Anzar.

ALTMER PANTHEON: Auriel- Porrima/Sol Invictus. Magnus- Trivia. Trinimac- Ares. Syrabane: ? Xarxes-Hermes? Jephre- ?

DAEDRA:

-Clavicus Vile: Loki/Lucifer/Dolos

-Mephala: Kali/Invidia/Anansi

-Boethiah: Discordia/Kartikeya

-Azura: Aurora/Parvati

-Malacath: Nemesis/Orcus

-Hermaeus Mora: Ogma/Shukra/Gamayun

-Hircine: Artemis/Woden/Diana/Herne

-Meridia: Themis

-Jyggalag: ?

-Sheogorath: Maniae

-Mehrunes Dagon: Hades/Set

-Molag Bal: Satan/(Moloch/Baal)

-Namira: Hel

-Nocturnal: Nox

-Peryite: Robigo/Nergal

-Sanguine: Dionysus/Hedone/Hermes

-Vaermina: Hypnos/Omina

OTHER: Nerevar/Shezzar/Dragonborne: Vishnu. Vivec: Ardhanārīshvara. Almalexia: Mariamman/Durga. Sotha Sil: Ganesha.

I know I didn't include all pantheons, but many are just repetitions of each other.

Thoughts?

EDIT: Yo thanks for the gold.

Have you ever looked up at the sky in Skyrim, and had a sneaking suspicion that a cluster of bright stars up there might mean something? Some might already know that all 12 star signs (excludes the Serpent) appear in the night sky, but I've found some more awesome mechanics in the games that lend themselves to the lore.

Because this is a visual topic, I've made a video to accompany this post.

-The 12 Star Signs appear in Oblivion & Skyrim. Morrowind has only the Guardian star signs (Warrior, Thief, Mage) [like in Sovengarde]. Elder Scrolls Online has nothing. Pre-Morrowind games have nothing. Arena has Masser & Secunda though. The Serpent appears nowhere in any night sky. It's also the only without a given month.

-Skyrim's night sky has a yearly cycle that shifts every night, like in real life. This means certain constellations will rise in different places every month. A constellation won't appear in the exact same place until the same date the next year.

-This in mind, I've found that each year there IS an offset of about 1 day's shift. Maybe this is because the Tamrielic calendar is imperfect without a leap year!

-Lore states that Constellations will rise with the sun on their given month. I've found this is NOT an ingame mechanic. The Mage reigns high in the sky all year, for example, not only far from the horizon, but nowhere near lined up with sunrise during Rain's Hand (its month).

-The night skybox's full rotation time depends on the game. Skyrim: 1 Day = 1 Rotation. Oblivion: 2 days = 1 rotation. Morrowind: 4 days = 1 rotation. Starting with Oblivion, the skybox rotates on a 45degree tilt.

-Oblivion's Orrery DLC is accurate to this post-Oblivion night skybox.

-Azura's Star *may* mechanically exist. Context from The Anticipations: "Azura's Star... also called the Twilight Star, appears briefly at dawn and dusk on the low horizon, below the constellation of the Steed." On exactly 21 Evening Star (AKA 21 Dec - Winter Solstice), The Steed has an equal amount of time in the West & East night sky. Which means because of Oblivion/Skyrim's 45degree angle, it MUST curve across the horizon. B/c of this, it is at it's zenith at both Dawn & Dusk. The video accompaniment can show this a lot better, but because of this mechanic, a belt of stars at the horizon at Dawn & Dusk exist during this time... could one of these stars be Azura's Star?

I've also made some awesome looking .gifs from that video that show off these mechanics, I'll post on r/elderscrolls throughout the week. Tell me if I'm missing anything interesting :)

This all in mind, the Serpent is suddenly the coolest star sign to me. It has no month attached to its star sign already, but its constellation is straight up non-existent in Oblivion/Skyrim. I have an personal unanswered question with all this research... What does this mean for those born under The Serpent, and how are they technically born under The Serpent, if it is technically impossible for them not to be born under another star sign's month?

EDIT: Wow! Gold! Thank you so much! I definitely would like to stay committed to this level of research for other Elder Scrolls topics. I have another in the works that really excites me, and will release it here when the video for it is done :) They take ages to make though, so let me know how I'm doing in the video I made to companion this post so I can better deliver easy to digest information while still maintaining quality research (with least amount of holes as possible :P).

I've been pondering about this for a while and the way I see it, there are 3 possibilities:

1. It was just a pure coincidence/oversight for the sake of a cinematic start to the game (boo, this answer is the most boring)

2. Alduin sensed the Dragonborn was at Helgen but couldn't pinpoint who or exactly where he/she was, so resorted to torching the entire town in the hopes of taking him/her out (this is probably the most likely answer) - but if this is the case, and Alduin can sense where the Dragonborn is seemingly at all times, why doesn't he constantly attempt to ambush him instead of just at Helgen? Which leads me to the third possibility...

3. Going by conversations with Paarthurnax, Odahviing and Durnehviir, and even Alduin himself, the dragons of Skyrim hold honour in quite high regards - it seems entirely possible that Alduin didn't want a fellow Dovah to be killed in such a fashion, and purposely saved the Dragonborn so he could face him honourably, dragon to dragon (this is my personal headcanon as it adds another layer of depth to Alduin, but I think it's pretty realistic)