Hey! Would you mind explaining what that Heart Thing is you mentioned a while ago with mantling and also like,,, what is UP with Arden-Sul. Like, I feel like he might have been a Vestige or something, and HE’S a saint/worshipped figure which is arguably above Sheogorath?? who seems to be treated more like a king than a god and both renegade groups of the Isles seem to revere him, ironically giving him more authority than Sheo in some respect?? I feel like I’m missing something here :’)
Of course!
“Our Lord, Sheogorath, is but a man. He is only flesh and blood, not a god, and certainly not a Daedric Prince…Sheogorath the False is a mad despot. Years of dabbling in foul magic and consorting with Daedra have driven him mad. He is not a fit ruler, let alone divine. He perverts the teachings of Arden-Sul, He Who Gave His Heart’s Blood.”
-Heretical Thoughts
So why do we have so many conflicting stories about Arden-Sul? Why is he so venerated by the people of the Isles regardless of alignment? Why would Sheogorath tolerate worship of someone who isn’t himself in his own realm? And while we’re at it WHY is Sheo letting a faction of his people run around and call him an usurper? In his own house, no less?
Because: all the stories are true simultaneously.
They believe Arden-Sul, Who Reads the Winds in Our Entrails, was the mortal aspect of Lord Sheogorath, and will come again to cleanse the Realm.
-Zealotry of Sheogorath
Arden-Sul is the story of the previous mantlers mythologized, the memories of these past champions mushed into one prophet figure over the course of ages.
OKAY moving onto the Heart Thing. In both legends of Arden Sul he dies by destroying his heart. Heart imagery is a big thing in TES lore and especially in the Isles. It means Lorkhan Shit is afoot. And I’m just going to link to this essay to explain what’s up there because I’m actually running out of energy as I type this and it’s kind of hard to explain.
(Though I don’t know if I agree with the conclusions she draws about the Greymarch cycle not actually ending. I think it’s extremely significant that the HoK mantles Sheo through his staff, shaking up how succession works. And if Jyggalag is really separated from Sheo now that has some extremely big and fucky implications cosmologically.)
(edit: it's been confirmed by word of god that the Greymarch is over!)
Now as to WHY Sheo lets groups like these preach that he’s full of shit. Short answer is that he’s also basically free will itself in opposition to Jyggalag but there’s more to it.
The Shivering Isles aren’t exactly Sheo’s house. They’re him! The world is him and I’d go as far as to say that the line between himself and his people is extremely fuzzy. It’s already fuzzy on Mundus with him being omnipresent in every mind but in New Sheoth we see citizens who seem to Know the Greymarch is approaching, and we have The Ravings of Fenroy where the HoK’s entire arc is basically laid out, complete with Jyggalag’s name hidden in the text. (Though I’m a big fan of @relmyna-verenim‘s theory that Fenroy was third era Sheo)Furthermore Dementia and Mania gain favor in accordance to wherever Sheo is on the spectrum at that point in time and fanatics and Heretics echo a kind of identity dissonance that’s to be expected from going to mortal to part of a massive all encompassing oversoul. In Skyrim we see that our Sheo has been having a 20 year long mental breakdown where he’s been hiding away from his realm while it descends into civil war in his absence. Like. The Isles are his inward struggles manifest.