So I'm still putting together the obviously-puss-in-boots-inspired moment where the dragonborn talks to Lorkhan's pieces/past lives/shezarrines/what have you (because an Avatar-like situation could go wrong in its own way, hmm), but she'd need to have an item representing each one to do it
so far what I have is
any random dragon priest mask for alduin
wabbajack for sheogorath
jyggalag's sword
Pelinal's helmet for Pelinal (if you hear news I was smothered by moths this is why)
the mask of Dagoth Ur
the moon-and-star for Nerevar (how many potential fucking lorkhan related people WERE AT RED MOUNTAIN)
the heart of lorkhan
something for tiber septim
I don't want to default to an amulet of Talos for Talos/Tiber Septim, anyone got any thoughts on this?
eta before I even posted this: i'ma be all symbolic and shit and have dragonborn stand in the middle of all this when the realization about the heart comes to be
So I stumbled upon this video and while some of the earlier entries were things I already had knowledge of, the later ones certainly made me question more than a few things.
The second to last one is of particular importance and interest here...
This video posits that M’aiq is immortal, hence his appearance in all games from Morrowind onward - from ESO set in 2E 582 all the way to Skyrim set in 4E 201. This is a span of almost 1000 years. The prevailing theory is that the M’aiq’s we see in each game are actually different individuals belonging to the same family line, supported by one of his most well-known lines in-game, from Skyrim:
“M'aiq's father was also called M'aiq. As was M'aiq's father's father. At least, that's what his father said.”
However, some of his other lines hint that he has been wandering across Tamriel for far longer than he seems to have.
"I have seen dragons. Perhaps you will see a dragon. I won't say where I saw one. Perhaps I did not."
Now guess which game’s version of him says this line? No, it’s not Skyrim’s - it’s Oblivion’s. Two hundred years before the dragon crisis we all know. There have been no records of dovah sightings in the four hundred or so years of Third Era, though they did make major appearances during the Merethic, First, and Second Eras (ESO Elsweyr). Also, his Skyrim incarnation has this to add:
"Dragons were never gone. They were just invisible, and very very quiet."
We know that not all dragons we see in Skyrim were originally dead and resurrected by Alduin. Aside from the obvious example of Paarthurnax who went into hiding sometime in the First Era, we also have Mirmulnir who was stated to have been alive for the whole time since he was last sighted in 2E 212 somewhere in the Reach, according to the in-game book Atlas of Dragons. This was centuries before the events of ESO, and likely not part of common knowledge in-universe.
Now onto something more mundane, but only at a glance:
"M'aiq does not remember his childhood, perhaps he never had one."
UESP states that this could be a meta reference to the lack of Khajiiti children, as well as those of all other nonhuman races, in Skyrim (at least, without mods), or how children regardless of race were entirely absent from prior games. But what if we look at this from an in-universe context? The first part could imply that he has been around for so long he has forgotten what his childhood was like, whenever that was... but the second will raise some questions.
The races of man and mer say that their gods, the Et’Ada, simply came into existence during the Dawn Era during periods when the conflicting forces of Anu and Padomay were not as turbulent. However, the Khajiit explicitly state that they were born through the coupling of Ahnurr and Fadomai, in a way very reminiscent to mortals - however at the same time they are capable of speech and usage of their powers shortly after their birth, unlike mortal children who take many years to develop these skills as they grow. Therefore it would be difficult to define what childhood is for a god.
More on Khajiiti mythology, specifically on its most controversial figure: Lorkhaj. His corruption by Namiira led to him tricking and trapping his kin there, which is why they cursed him “to walk Nirni for many phases.” This is consistent with the lore of Shezarrines. Another thing of note is that Lorkhaj’s “deceptions lie even in plain view, and are common enough to be accepted as truths” according to his UESP page. In other words, he is a liar who does not look it.
And who is the most famous “liar” in the history of the Elder Scrolls, who despite his epithet says things that we don’t seem to disagree with?
It is not all bad, though. Once upon a time, Lorkhaj was seen as a noble being for blazing his own path, and uniting his divine siblings to create a world for his sister Nirni’s children, “the fastest, cleverest, most beautiful people” we know as the Khajiit.
"M'aiq thinks his people are beautiful. [...] They look better than ever before."
Perhaps my ramblings are unhinged, but the thought clicked in my head after watching the video. The person who made it knows much, and only tells some. They know things others do not.
One must always listen longer and gaze deeper. Do not yield at your first thought. Inquire. Lift stones both great and small. - Rid-Thar-ri’Datta, Prophet and First Mane.
hm.......i’ve been thinking about pelinal, and one of his many sobriquets, “pelinal the third.” some say it’s either bc he’s a “god guiser,” a.k.a. a shezarrine, the third to be exact, or bc he was the third of alessia’s visions. i wanted to examine that first theory a bit closer.
so......we really know precious little about the timeline here, of the late merethic and early first era. i was thinking, “oh, maybe the first two ‘shezarrines’ were the historical shor and then wulfharth.” which could work....and maybe if hans the fox/harrald hairy breeks weren’t just early names for wulfharth or pelinal, you could not have to kinda awkwardly include shor as a shezarrine.
but then i remembered about wulfharth’s deaths. he’s by far the shezarrine we know most about, and we know he’s died three times:
1) during his fight with orkey, ending wulfharth the first,
2) at the battle of red mountain, ending wulfharth the second, and
3) hjalti’s betrayal, presumably ending wulfharth the third when his soul is freed from the mantella
the point i’m building up to is that maybe shezarrines are inherently resistant to death, like lorkhan was. and with each death, they become stronger and more divine, and perhaps on their third life they become truly godlike.
wulfharth became the grey wind, storm of kyne in his third life, and later the underking as well before his capture in the mantella. pelinal “the third” was exceptionally powerful and brutal, and was called whitestrake bc of his left hand, which was “made of a killing light,” and of course somehow presumably survived having his head removed, demonstrating a resistance to death.
i don’t think we know enough about other canon npc shezarrines, like zurin or hjalti, or the other one-off merethic shezarrines. although i think a case could be made that hjalti and zurin also fulfill this idea. zurin died bc of the mantella and was resistant to death, becoming the new underking, wulfharth presumably died upon having his soul captured, and hjalti/tiber died presumably of natural causes in 3e38. what if, along with the interference of the numidium during the warp in the west, those three deaths added up to the divine shezarrine incarnation of an amalgamation of those three - what we know as talos?
i’m probably a ways off with all of this, but i think it’s interesting.
