#padomay

[stonetablet]

I designed a look for an Altmer personification of Sithis (appearing in @aladaylessecondblog's fic Faal Hah Wuld), thank you for the commission! Click for details.

The notes of my thought process behind the aesthetic choices included below v

[ark-ay]

Hey uh. So. What/who is Anu (I’ve heard at least one divine say oh my anu)

Because uh. My given name is Anu.

YOU'RE NAMED AFTER THE PRIMORDIAL CONCEPT OF LIGHT AND STASIS???

[wrong-mother]

One art I'll always be proud of is this one, drawn far back in 2021. I just LOVE it. This is the Night Mother back when she still was mortal. And yes, she is Chimer here, not Dunmer, and OHHH BOY there are more of my headcanons to unpack :'D

So I have a headcanon that long before becoming a deity, Night Mother was a Morag Tong priestess and assassin who served both Mephala and Padomay/Sithis (there are hints in canon that before turning to serve only Mephala, MT also worshiped Sithis). After the War of the First Council, however, when Azura cursed the Chimer, Morag Tong decided to turn away from Sithis, wrongfully thinking he didn't protect them from the wrath of his child, and started to worship only Mephala. A woman, who later became the Night Mother, was angry because of this, so she left Morag Tong; after that she had children from Sithis and became a deity as in canonic events.

Fun fact: Night Mother is actually a character from whom Indoril Irna Mora developed into a different (and mortal :D) character. Irna also left Morag Tong; however, she did it much earlier because there were fluctuations in faith and customs long before the War of the First Council would even happen. Still, both Irna and Night Mother share same personality traits, such as fierce loyalty, motherly love, wisdom and femme fatale-like sexuality. And a lust for blood, too - they are both Velothi :D

[iosaturnalia]

On Anu/Padomay, Time, and Dragon Breaks

In addition to my “Dagoth is Lorkhan” theory, I have a theory that a Dragon Break happens, as it theoretically did during the battle of Red Mountain, when Lorkhan “wins” in his eternal cosmic battle with Akatosh. In other words, when he is able to take a mortal soul and put it through apotheosis, he is able to take a physical form, overwhelming the power of his rival Akatosh, and breaking him - breaking time itself.

But then it makes me wonder: is Time itself an Anuic or a Padomaic entity?

One would assume it’s Anuic, as Anuiel is the entity which created time, and this is understood as falling under the realm of order and stability - but time, as it works within the usual laws of physics, is also a limiting factor within the universe. Limits are Lorkhan’s, and therefore Padomay’s, sphere. A timeless, ageless world is what the Anuic religions of Nirn long for.

But maybe this is the point of Anu/Padomay forming the most basic enantiomorph - they are at odds with one another, but sometimes indistinguishable from one another, constantly in orbit and held in connection by opposite energies.

[horseboned]

padomay (the final form of the last dragonborn) and anu scroll. they band together to defeat alduin as the only two beings superior over akatosh...

anu manifests on nirn as a sentient elder scroll to guide hrokr through climbing the prolix tower to be able to mantle padomay. after padomay-hrokr kills alduin and prevents the heat-death of the kalpa under anu's supervision, anu has to kill padomay again to exert control over them and re-coalesce aurbis.

[fictional-gods-tournament]

Prelims

Fandom: The Elder Scrolls Part 2/2

The two with the most votes will move to the next round

Padomay

Sheogorath

Sithis

Talos

The Godhead / The Amaranth

Vivec

Voting ended onDec 21, 2024

Part 1/2

Characters' info under the cut

Padomay (wiki1, wiki2)

Domains: Primordial God of Change, Chaos, and the Void

Propaganda:

He is a product of the Godhead's dream that clashes with his mirror opposite Anu to create the TES cosmos. He is the supreme force of the evil side of things.

Sheogorath (wiki1, wiki2)

Domains: Madness and creativity (among other cultural associations and derivatives)

Propaganda:

[Contains spoilers for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: Shivering Isles] The Elder Scrolls handles its deities with varying degrees of success, but I'd argue that Sheogorath (specifically his Oblivion incarnation, the others are meh) is one of the best depictions of a god as a fictional character. He is a member of the Daedric pantheon (ie the ones that did not contribute to the making of the mortal world) but he differs from the other members in that he was 'created' out of the former god of order to prevent a hostile takeover. He is considered a trickster god in general, frequently outsmarting other gods, but plays a variety of roles to the different cultures in Tamriel, ranging from vision-giver, tester of psychological weakness, and bringer of art, music, and feeling. Even his own followers hold a variety of views on him. But what really makes him stand out to me is his role in the Oblivion DLC Shivering Isles. The DLC takes place in his realm, which is under threat from a cyclical reappearance of the god of order, who destroys everything imperfect, that being the entire realm. Sheogorath asks the player to help by completing a variety of tasks to preserve his realm, its inhabitants, and their traditions. In doing so, the player learns to become like Sheogorath, and eventually becomes him to fight his previous incarnation when he turns into the god of order. It's a bit complicated and convoluted--TES players please don't get mad if I got anything wrong, it's been years since I've played--but essentially, the player comes out of the whole ordeal with Sheogorath's power and identity. Fandom has debated on what this means for a long time. I played Shivering Isles while at a tumultuous time in my life, struggling with my own neurodivergence. While the game doesn't portray everything perfectly, it still speaks to an appreciation of 'mad' people, and the variety of interpretations of Sheogorath's role and goals just adds to that. Heck, when you begin Shivering Isles, if you ask how the people of Sheogorath's realm can be 'cured', you are immediately told that they are not diseased, they just 'live in another state of being' and 'perhaps you need a cure'. The themes of this story helped me accept who I was. Also, look up some of this guy's dialogue, you will not regret it.

Sithis (wiki)

Domains: Emptyness, The Void, Misanthropy

Talos (wiki)

Domains: Skyrim, Mankind, War

The Godhead / The Amaranth (wiki)

Domains: Existence, the all-encompassing "I"

Propaganda:

The Elder Scrolls is in-universe a dream dreamed up by the Godhead/Amaranth, the Amaranth is also an all-transcending state of being that if one were to achieve in the dream would escape the dream and become another dreamer as well, like escaping the Godhead's skull

Vivec (wiki)

Domains: Poetry, Lies and Falsehoods, Duality, Truth, War, Mastery

[alandrosul]

okay so here's a question re: 36 lessons. i'm compiling some quotes and notes for the thing i've been thinking about, and i came across something i'm not actually sure of: does vivec recommend veneration of padhome? or just sithis?

there are seven instances of "padhome" being used in the lessons, three referring to the "altar of padhome," the other four as part of variations of the "GHARTOK PADHOME" incantation.

i had assumed vivec venerated or at least recommended veneration of padhome, but in sermon 16 he refers to "the altar of Padhome in the house of False Thinking," which seems to indicate a connection to the house of troubles. would vivec recommend venerating padhome if padhome was connected to the house of troubles?

but now that i'm thinking of it, sithis himself is only referred to four times in the lessons himself, always called "SITHISIT," with three of those references in just one sermon, sermon 10. and these references all seem somewhat neutral? i think i had assumed he was venerated by the dunmer bc of the positive spin the book "sithis" puts on him, which i've always headcanoned as being a text written directly by vivec himself, if not at least one of his closest followers.

would love to hear what you guys think!

[letters-numbers-and-dashes-only2]

Last night's sketch. I think this was supposed to be anu and padomay