General:The Monomyth (2001 draft)
| Book Information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Source: | Xanathar's Library | ||
| Writer(s): | Michael Kirkbride | ||
| Publication Date: | circa 2001 | ||
| Prev. | None | Next | The Monomyth (2002 draft) |
This is a longer version of The Monomyth, a book that featured in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind.
Recorded circa 2001 by Xanathar of Xanathar's Library, originally posted by Michael Kirkbride on The Essential Site forums on an unknown date. A longer version of this book with notable differences was hosted by Xanathar's Library the year after.
"In Mundus, conflict and disparity are what bring change, and change is the most sacred of the Eleven Forces. Change is the force without focus or origin." -Oegnithr¸ Taheritae, Order of PSJJJJ
Simply put, the schism in the Human/Aldmeri worldview is the mortal’s relationship to the divine. Humans take the humble path that they were "created" by the immortal forces, while the Aldmer claim "descent from them". It doesn’t seem like much, but it is a distinction that colors the rest of their diverging mythologies.
All Tamrielic religions begin the same. Man or mer, things begin with the dualism of Anu and His Other. These twin forces go by many names: "Anu-Padomay", "Anuiel-Sithis", "Ak-El", "Satak-Akel", "Is-Is Not". Anuiel is the Everlasting Ineffable Light, Sithis is the Corrupting Inexpressible Action. In the middle is the Gray Maybe ("Nirn" in the Ehlnofex).
In most cultures, Anuiel is honored for his part of the interplay that creates the world, but Sithis is held in highest esteem because he's the one that causes the reaction. Sithis is thus the Original Creator, an entity who intrinsically causes change without design. Even the alien hist acknowledge this being, whom they call Ixtaxh-thtithil-meht, or "Exact Egg-Cracker".
Anuiel is also perceived of as Order, opposed to the Sithis-Chaos. Perhaps it is easier for mortals to envision change than perfect stasis, for often Anuiel is relegated to the mythic background of Sithis’ fancies. In Yokudan folk-tales, which are among the most vivid in the world, Satak is only referred to a handful of times, as "the Hum"; he is a force so prevalent as to be not really there at all.
In any case, from these two beings spring the et’Ada, or Original Spirits. To humans these et’Ada are the "Gods and Demons"; to the Aldmer, the "Aedra and Daedra", or the "Ancestors". All of the Tamrielic pantheons fill their rosters from these et’Ada, though divine membership often differs from culture to culture. Like Anu and Padomay, though, every one of these pantheons contains the archetypes of the Dragon God and the Missing God.
The Dragon God and the Missing God
The Dragon God is always related to Time, and is universally revered as the "First God". He is often called Akatosh, "whose perch from Eternity allowed the day." He is the central (though not chief!) God of the Cyrodilic Empire.
The Missing God is always related to the Mortal Plane, and is a key figure in the Human/Aldmeri schism. The "missing" refers to either his palpable absence from the pantheon (another mental distress that is interpreted a variety of ways), or the removal of his "divine spark" by the other immortals. He is often called Lorkhan, and his epitaphs are many, equally damnable and devout.
Note that Tamriel and the Mortal Plane do not exist yet. The Gray Maybe is still the playground of the Original Spirits. Some are more bound to Anu’s light, others to the unknowable void. Their constant flux and interplay increase their number, and their personalities are long to congeal. When Akatosh forms, Time begins, and it becomes easier for some spirits to realize themselves as beings with a past and a future. The strongest of the recognizable spirits crystallize: Mephala, Arkay, Yaff’r, Magnus, Rupgta, etc. Others remain as concepts, ideas, or emotions. One of the strongest of these, a barely formed urge that the others call Lorkhan, details a plan to create Mundus, the Mortal Plane.
Humans, with the exception of the Redguards, see this act as a divine mercy, an enlightenment whereby lesser creatures can reach immortality. Aldmer, with the exception of the Dark Elves, see this act as a cruel deception, a trick that sundered their connection to the spirit plane.
The Myth of Aurbis
Subtitled "The Psijiic Compensation", "Mythic Aurbis" was an attempt by Artaeum apologists to explain the basics of Aldmeri religion to Uriel V in the early, glorious part of his reign. It quietly avoided any blame or bias against the Lorkhan-concept, which was still held in esteem by the Cyrodilics as "Shezarr", the missing sibling of the Eight Divines. Despite this, the Psijiici still give a nice summary of the Elder view, and it will serve our purposes here. This version comes from the archives of the Imperial Seminary, and those bits in [] are from the handwritten notes of an unknown scribe.
Mythic Aurbis exists, and has existed from time without measure, as a fanciful Unnatural Realm.
["Aurbis" is used to connote the imperceptible Penumbra, the Gray Center between the IS/IS NOT of Anu and Padomay. It contains the multitude realms of Aetherius and Oblivion, as well as other, less structured forms.]
The magical beings of Mythic Aurbis live for a long time and have complex narrative lives, creating the patterns of myth.
[These are spirits made from bits of the immortal polarity. The first of these was Akatosh the Time Dragon, whose formation made it easier for other spirits to structure themselves. Gods and demons form and reform and procreate.]
Finally, the magical beings of Mythic Aurbis told the ultimate story – that of their own death. For some this was an artistic transfiguration into the concrete, non-magical substance of the world. For others, this was a war in which all were slain, their bodies becoming the substance of the world. For yet others, this was a romantic marriage and parenthood, with the parent spirits naturally having to die and give way to the succeeding mortal races.
[The agent of this communal decision was Lorkhan, whom most early myths vilify as a trickster or deceiver. More sympathetic versions of this story point out Lorkhan as being the reason the mortal plane exists at all.]
The magical beings created the races of the mortal Aurbis in their own image, either consciously as artists and craftsmen, or as the fecund rotting matter out of which the mortals sprung forth, or in a variety of other analogical senses.
The magical beings, then, having died, became the et’Ada. The et’Ada are the things perceived and revered by the mortals as gods, spirits, or geniuses of Aurbis. Through their deaths, these magical beings separated themselves in nature from the other magical beings of the Unnatural realms.
[This act is the dawn of the Mythic (Merethic) Era. It has been perceived by the earliest mortals many different ways, either as a joyous "second creation", or (especially by the Elves) as a painful fracturing from the divine. The originator of the event is always Lorkhan.]
Lorkhan
This Creator-Trickster-Tester deity is in every Tamrielic mythic tradition. His most popular name is the Aldemeri "Lorkhan", or Doom Drum. He convinced or contrived the Original Spirits to bring about the creation of the Mortal Plane, upsetting the status quo much like his father Padomay had introduced instability into the universe in the Beginning Place. After the world is materialized, Lorkhan is separated from his divine center, sometimes involuntarily, and wanders the creation of the et’Ada. Interpretations of these events differ widely by culture.
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