Colonelkillabee's Essay on Shor, the Snake.
Reposting so this will show up in the tags:
http://mathieu-bellamont.tumblr.com/post/91178097514/colonelkillabees-essay-on-shor-the-snake
Hey again, I won’t start nagging you with lore junk and submissions, don’t worry, but I saw someone mention they weren’t sure about Shor being a snake, because the Nords didn’t see him in an unfavorable light like the elves do.
While that is true, they should also look at Alduin, a powerful yet cruel dragon who is considered an enemy god, and of course Orkey, who is a bear. They don’t favor these two, yet their animals aren’t lowly creatures like someone would sometimes consider a snake, slithering on its stomach. So that doesn’t seem to be a likely factor in why the animals were assigned what they were.
Another thing that should probably be mentioned is Shor’s aspects are occasionally referred to as a fox, like Hans the fox, which is Pelinal, or Arnand the Fox, which according to Mannimarco apparently is Zurin Arctus, who shares the oversoul of Talos with Tiber and Wulfharth. He was also depicted as a fox in ESO’s bit of lore with Ysgramor. Not a fan of ESO, but lore is lore.
Now, reasons why Shor would be depicted as a snake by Nords are as follows. First, even though Nords have always looked upon Shor favorably, it should be noted that Alduin eventually took the lead of their pantheon. Now, Shor as we all know was and again is the head of their pantheon. But what about when they were worshiping the dragons? They couldn’t have two heads of a pantheon. Or maybe they could. But if we consider that the dragons ruled over them, even limited what language they could use, the dragon language sort of being a holy language to them, like latin was in medieval Europe with Catholics, it is possible that they too influenced the religion of the Nords during the time of the Dragon Cult.
Alduin after all was an enemy god to Shor. Shor turning out as a snake even though Nords revered him seems fitting. Ever wonder what that random civil war was in Atmora that Ysgramor was said to have fled from? We don’t know the reason, but it’s certainly possible that they were fighting a religious war between the dragon cult and those who didn’t belong. Maybe those that still revered Shor over Alduin, but that is speculation. It would explain why the dragon priests suddenly got crueler in their rule, and the Nords eventually rebelled against them. They’d have no reason to be cruel if their subjects were all in line.
Besides the mural, Shor is referred to as a snake in Shor son of Shor, where he is said to have “taken his scaled mane” after he took the form of his totem to better show his displeasure of a recent lost battle, rather than making more storm deaths with his shout.
http://www.imperial-library.info/content/shor-son-shor-full
We can clearly see his “scaled mane” in the mural I showed earlier, which would be the hoods that cobras have. Except in the picture I gave, he has a literal hood of scales instead of a Cobra’s.
http://i.imgur.com/pclZTXU.jpg
One more small thing I’ll point out, which may get a little convoluted.
In Chinese culture, the snake and the dragon are closely related, but that’s also the case in Christian mythology. Lucifer, the devil, is referred to as a snake, serpent, and in revelations, a dragon some believe, which Archangel Michael battles.
In the elderscrolls, Lorkhan, Shor, whatever you wish to call him, is referred to as the missing god, and the space god. Even the void if you’re like me and believe that the Oblivion statue with the missing heart is actually Lorkhan, and not Sithis. Akatosh is the time dragon. Space and time are one in the same, and some even say Lorkhan and Akatosh are two sides of the same coin, which we can see in Michael Kirkbride’s C0da at the end.
Time is measured by distance, or space. If there is no time needed to get somewhere, is there really any distance between point a and point b? Perhaps this is why Shor is called a trickster. Well, besides the story we were told about the creation of Nirn in the eyes of the elves. If time is an illusion, then so too must distance and space be, because it is measured by time. Is it a coincidence that Alduin, an aspect of the time dragon, was a chieftain of the Nordic pantheon like Shor was? Is it a coincidence that Shor’s ghosts, his “Shezzarine” keep popping out with dragon souls, like Wulfharth who is dragonborn?
And if people doubt he’s dragonborn, read the Five Songs of Wulfharth, where he watches Shor battle Alduin in the heavens (like the last dragonborn battled alduin in Sovngarde) and instantly learned a shout “What happens when you shake the dragon just so”. Just like we, the Last Dragonborn, learned a shout instantly by watching the ancient Nord heroes of old battle Alduin with Dragonrend.
And by now, most of you have at least heard lore buffs saying that Talos mantled and became Shor, as shown in C0da, and also here:
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:A_Dream_of_Sovngarde
Where a man prayed to Talos for courage and strength, and he received a dream of Sovngarde, which is Shor’s domain. Well, next time you walk into Whiterun, take a look at Talos’ statue and ask yourself what is it that he has pinned beneath his feet. :)
There is no doubt in my mind that Shor, my lord Lorkhan, indeed is the Snake. And if you ask me, that is a compliment.