Because I was completely lost in the writing sauce these past few days (awesome feeling) and didn't have enough to show for it on Wednesday lmao.
Tagged by the wonderful @chiqita, thank you for keeping me in the loop <3
Today on the docket: I have finally decided to bite the bullet and compile all of my funky little ideas and concepts about Sovngarde into a single doc that I could easily share and reference. Five hours later, I had a two thousand word worldbuilding document that only covered the introduction and the first region, and then I realized I am in trouble.
With that in mind, today I will be sharing the preface to this document, dragging TES IV afterlive retcons through the dirt where they belong addressing the discrepancies between afterlife in TES as it is presented in older and newer lore, and setting the baseline for the cosmology and mechanics that will be further discussed in later parts of the document.
Fragment word count: 1261 words.
With that preamble out of the way...
Foreword: On Afterlife
Despite its lack of foundation in the overwhelming majority of oral and written Tamrielic traditions, the cultural dominance of the Cyrodiilic Empire and its militant cosmopolitanism has given rise to the cosmologically baseless, yet astonishingly well-entrenched theological paradigm best described as “aetheric defaultism”. The cornerstone of this framework lies in its notion of “heaven”, which postulates that all mortal souls, regardless of their spiritual dogma or cultural context antemortem, are fundamentally and inalienably ordained to reside in the myriad realms of Aetherius, the primordial spirit plane of light and magic believed to be the birthplace of all souls.
As befits the philosophy of a polycultural hegemon, these heavenly realms are at once infinitely diverse yet palatably generic, lacking any substantial description that might otherwise encroach on the dogma of local belief systems, instead opting to incorporate select elements of provincial traditions into the broader body of Imperial theosophy, re-contextualizing all but the most divergent of beliefs as merely permutations on the same core cosmological structure, wherein Aetherius is “heaven”, Oblivion is “hell”, and all but the most unfortunate and wayward souls that fall prey to daedric corruption through personal ignorance or fundamental flaw of character are destined for eternal and blissful existence at the exalted throne of the immortal Divines.
Although the current incarnation of this framework is most strongly associated with the now-extant Septim regime, which placed heavy emphasis on interpretatio pantamrielica as a tool of populist statecraft in order to foster a politically advantageous cultural climate in context of polyethnic relations on an unprecedented scale, academics trace its true origins - as is the case with many things Imperial - to the monomythic doctrine of the Alessian Order. As attested by a multitude of sources, the Alessian Rebellion owed much of its success to a timely religious schism between the aedra- and daedraphilic sects of the Ayleid Imperium, allowing the Nedic rebels to garner favor with the aedra-worshipping majority and harness that momentum to implement political and religious reform that would grant shared prominence and legal recognition to both human and elven populations, as well as their newly-syncretized doctrines.
At this time, the use of daedric cults as a mutual enemy made it theosophically inconvenient to acknowledge the extensive role of Oblivion in the cosmic order, while the mere suggestion that the overwhelming majority of mortal souls are doomed to reside within the same realm as the beloathed “daemon lords of misrule” - in spite of the central position occupied by Alessia’s Covenant with the Dragon God in contemporary doctrine - bordered on outright heresy. This led the newly-reformed temple to borrow extensively from pre-existing elvish traditions, which focused heavily on the role of Aetherius as the ancestral seat of all benevolent divinities and characterized the pursuit of the spirit realm as the existential goal of all ensouled beings displaced from it at the beginning of time. These teachings were further refined over the course of centuries, sanding down potential dissonances and eventually calcifying into the doctrine of “default heaven” that we are familiar with today, while discourse upon Oblivion and its manifold dimensions had been relegated to the realm of heretics, esotericists, and iconoclastic academia.
Naturally, outside of religious dogma, these assertions are partially correct at best, or intentionally misinformed at worst.
The astute among you may already notice the cracks: Wherefore, for example, does the Imperial paradigm not address the nigh-omnipresent belief in reincarnation found in the majority of Tamrielic traditions? Why is it, if the spirit realm is so easy to reach, that so many cultures speak of the mortal realm as a prison for all ensouled beings, and exalt those who escape beyond the stars as heroes and paragons of the highest order? Why, for what purpose, does this all-reaching doctrine decry Oblivion as a maligned and hellish domain, home to naught but demons and suffering, yet make no mention at all of their own revered Divines, whose planetary realms shine down upon Tamriel from their orbits in the night sky, as portrayed time and time again in the Empire’s own orreries?
It is with these questions in mind that this treatise moves forward with a different paradigm: the “Aurbic Spokes” model of afterlife. Under this view, the planetary realms of Oblivion are treated not as isolated pockets of space, but as true multidimensional structures acting as holdfasts for divine presence in the Aurbis, through which deities of all measures and dispositions enforce their conceptual authority and anchor their own connections to the spirit realm, upon which they draw for the raw energy and matter required for continued exertion of godhood. In this framework, the afterlife realms all act as “spokes” within the overarching Aurbic Wheel, existing at once within the material reality of the mortal Aurbis and the intangible spirit world of Aetherius, and offering planar refuge to all souls that manage to make their way out of the mortal realm, exposing them to the full breadth of cosmic violence that they have been hitherto guarded against.
However, regrettable as it may be, such protections are neither perfect nor without cost. As it is implied by the name, all mortal souls that find their rest in Oblivion are observed to succumb to spiritual bleed, which some scholars term “cosmic amnesia”. For some, this process may take weeks or months, for others it may be millennia, insofar as such terms hold any meaning outside of the strictures of adamantine linearity imposed upon the mortal realm; in the end, the inevitable result is the complete cessation of the spirit’s individual existence as their animus surrenders its hold on the transient memories accumulated during its mortal lifespan, ultimately dispersing into yet more aetherial residue to be harnessed by the divine lord under whose protectorate they reside.
The nature of this patronage, then, lies solely with the whim of the presiding lord. The more malevolent deities are known to treat the souls in their care as less than expendable, torturing them for their own amusement or exploiting them for slave labor within their realms, with some accounts of the more cynically-inclined souls even earning the favor of their demonic overlords and rising in station to occupy ranks normally reserved for daedric servants. Other, more benevolent deities might instead present their afterlives as reward for loyal service, offering a content and indefinite existence to their followers as they enjoy the boons of their divine sphere at its purest. Finally, some deities may go as far as to allow their mortal charges to benefit from the god’s own maintained connection to Aetherius, granting them what is essentially a limited view into the spirit realm under their patronage, thereby lending some credence to the erroneous claims made by ghosts and contacted spirits of the departed that they are “in Aetherius”. In truth, such a perspective ultimately amounts to little more than a window-view into the sea from a submarine vessel of their patron, a comforting lie to mask their spirit’s inability to traverse the vast oceans of immortal polarity on its own - a feat only achieved by a small fraction of exceptional individuals throughout mortal history, whose extraordinary accomplishments in life have earned them mythic prominence and immortalized them as heroes, saints, and even gods and demons of their respective cultures.
With all of the above in mind, this treatise aims to explore one of the most prominent and well-researched afterlife realms, operating in equal measure on secular studies and preserved oral tradition of the source culture, rather than the filtered reinterpretations of Imperial theologians that have grown to usurp these traditions in common parlance.
Tagging @kookaburra1701, @trickstarbrave, @skyrim-forever, @dirty-bosmer, @gilgamish, @theropoda, @viss-and-pinegar, @crynwr-drwg, @sulphuricgrin, @paraparadigm, @cookbookbutch, and @ego-osbourne (who has already seen some of this on discord c:<)
"The wolves strode upon great Jorrvaskr, to meet the sons of Ysgramor
They say what are you but a harbinger, to leave us hopeless and forlorn
The wolf bore its fangs and spread its claws, and tore at its own hide
Drink the blood become my sons, or by dawn you will not survive
And so the pack was born again, as the wolves of Jorrvaskr
To rule in life and serve in death, as the moonlight bound hunter"
- Wolves of Jorrvaskr song from the Interesting NPC's Skyrim mod
---
Another Hircine collab, a sort of sequel to my previous one, this time with some awesome Elder Scrolls werewolf OCs.
from left to right, these OC's belong to:
https://toyhou.se/Magnus_Moggy
https://toyhou.se/MadeByConfusion
https://toyhou.se/Lobo-Inu
https://toyhou.se/teethands
https://toyhou.se/baileybooradly
I ofc drew Hircine and the background
I think ao3 is literally the only site where no censorship means no censorship. you can post the most vile things on there — things that will get taken down on any other platforms — and ao3 will protect you, your works, and your rights to create whatever you want, however you want.
and no, this isn’t me saying “write that messed up, disgusting thing” because while, yes, write it if it’s what you want (I myself enjoy writing dark fics, something I believe would be considered “vile” to a lot of people), this is me saying in a world of censorship and capitalism, ao3 really is a treasure.
friend sent me an Instagram reel yesterday with 1000s of likes that was basically like "pride and prejudice is timeless actually because it's about an autism4autism romance 🥰" and then the creator proceeded to cite moments in the book and film where Lizzie and Darcy are "socially awkward" and....listen. I'm far from an Austen scholar, but I have taught Austen novels as an educator and this kind of psycho-pop analysis that views characters as individuals with autonomy over their actions, rather than tools in a story written at a particular time to say something about that time, pisses me off more than I can say without sounding like an asshole. I'm sorry but Darcy isn't rude and awkward and even cruel to Lizzie because he has autism, he says and does those things because he's a wealthy upper class land owning man raised to see a middle class woman from a large family with no male heirs like Elizabeth as inherently beneath him which he expresses to her multiple times because it is socially acceptable for him to do so in a society where someone like him is privileged above almost all others. He is "socially awkward" around her because of misogyny and classism (PREJUDICE) and she is "socially awkward" around him because a woman of her standing at that time simply wouldn't have had much to do with the gentry but to actually push back against the shit that Darcy says would be social suicide for her whole family so she protests the only way she can which is refusing his advances (PRIDE). not to be the "context collapse is the death of media literacy" guy. But this is the problem with the kind of head empty, let people enjoy things, if I can't relate to it what's the point type crowd. Youse think you're being so quirky justifying incoherent and anachronistic interpretations with your rampant individualism, ensuring that other people never confront anything that challenges them in these stories like patriarchal misogyny and classism. Pride and Prejudice becomes an "autism4autism romance", completely undermining the historical context of its status as one of the great social satires about the class and gender politics that Austen so expertly observed around her. This attitude is why we have nonsensical historical dramas that actively hate history like fucking edgy bdsm "Wuthering Heights", Bridgerton, The Buccaneers, and even a 2025 Frankenstein movie where the monster is just misunderstood and does no wrong uwu etc. because individual relatability and catharsis is king over anything actually saying anything about anything now. Everything is relatable and nothing is meaningful.
this trend of shitting on peer-reviewed academic studies in favor of tweeting “we already knew this was happening” is so soul-crushing. not to be an elitist cunt, but we have got to open the schools again. people genuinely seem to have forgotten that their personal lived experience isn’t indicative of the larger population, AND IF IT IS…… then you need researchers to support these assertions from a relevant data pool instead of a blog post from 2013 💀
sometimes i wonder if we have forgotten that sharing creative work is, fundamentally, a bid for human connection. like I'm not posting art or fic for 'engagement' i'm posting it looking for other sickos to play with! i'd be making it anyway for my own gratification because there's something wrong with me, i'm sharing it hoping we can have something wrong with us together <3
Something so funny about rereading one's own unfinished fics. Like wow this is pretty good! Almost as if was written exactly according to what I personally like in fact! Someone should finish it!
