1. I don't really understand the Aedra and how they function. I know they're just as "real" as the Daedra, but they seem to operate using a different set of rules. Can anyone point me to any good sources or summarize them for me?

2. I'm all sorts of confused regarding Lorkhan. From what I understand, he either betrayed something or was betrayed and killed and is now some sort of guardian of man?

3. What's a Shezzarine? I think it has something to do with Lorkhan and fighting elves but that's about it.

I know the lore basics regarding the empire(s), and important figures, and the histories of the races and all, but the deities other than the Daedra are very confusing to me so any help would be appreciated. The Daedra seem a bit more simplistic and a much easier concept to grasp.

From what I understand Lorkhan tricked the gods into creating Nirn. He was created by Sithis, the void. He was punished for his wrong doings and had his heart taken out and thrown to Nirn, it landed and created Red Mountain.

Check out the Imperial Library website for all the sources you could ask for. Just type in the search bar whatever your looking for and it'll give you plenty of results.

1. The Aedra gave up / lost a lot of themselves to the creation of the world as we know it. Because of this, they tend to be less active, but play a more integral part in the basic functioning of the world.

2. Somehow, he got the Aedra to create the world as we know it. This may have been a trick, or it may have been simple persuasion. After that, his heart was torn out, and his body split in half, forming the moons. Since Lorkhan really liked the world as we know it, he supports those who agree with him. Men agree with him.

3. Shezzar is just another name for / aspect of Lorkhan. Shezzarines are people who absorb Lorkhan's power / "fuse" with Lorkhan in a process called mantling.

Once there was possibility.
This shifted into is and is not
Anu and Padomay.

The interplay between the is and is not created pockets of possiblility or impossibility. These are their children.

Akatosh chief and first.
Lorkhan the second born more curious explored where his brethren would not and saw the tower.
The tower is the secret of creatia/ life/ plus, none of these words will do. A circle turned sideways is an I.

Lorkhan tricked or convinced or threatened many Et'Ada to join his project.
"With this we will rise above ourselves" "Do as I say, rude spirit. "
The project was the Mundus, something greater than any one Et'Ada could achieve, but whose purpose is obscured to mortals.

Many of the pre dawn spirits dissolved wholly into the project and became the Earthbones. (The laws of nature)
Many others dissolved but partially into ever fracturing pieces of themselves called the Ehlnofey and Hist.
The strongest that regained their selves are the Aedra.

When Magnus, who was the architect but he did not know of what, realised the scope of the Mundus he withdrew.
His leaving to the is is the whole in the sky that is the sun and through which creatia, magicka, life, enters the Aurbis.

Some Et'Ada chose not not participate but not to leave either. They are the Daedra.

So would the Nerevarine, Champion of Cyrodiil, and heroes of Daggerfall, Skyrim, and Arena be Shezzarines? Or what about the Tribunal and Dagoth Ur since their powers came from the heart.

I think Vivec implies in one of his Lessons, that Lorkhan's fate was intentional, as a way to show mortals a way of attaining the eternal.

I forget the specifics. I haven't read anything TES related for a while.

I see it that the Tribunal took this completly literally, and then used his Heart to attain their own godhood, but then taught a different way to everyone else.

Also, are the Aedra really planets in the literal sense or is it metaphor? Are the moons actually Lorkhan?

Literal sense, and yes they are.

Shezzar isn't the only being who can be mantled, and not all heroes mantle someone. As far as I can tell, here's basically the way it goes down:

The Eternal Champion was his own man.
The Imperial Agent was his own man
Cyrus (from TESA Redguard) mantled to HoonDing
The Nerevarine mantled an ancient hero who had become powerful through the culture of the Dunmer. That hero's name was Nerevar. He was also an agent of Azura.
The CoC mantled Sheogorath, and had some times to Shezzar via Peleial.
The Dovakhiin basically just remembered his own inner power / divinity, and had the soul of a dragon.

The Tribunal are really weird. Their story involves time-travel paradoxes.

Pelenial, Tiber Septim, and Reman Cyrodiil were all historical Shezzarines.



Those things in the sky are literally the Aedra, but they're only metaphorically planets. Nirn (the world of TES) is the only place in the Arubis (the universe of TES) where space really makes sense. Beyond that, everything is incomprehensible to mortals, and they just mentally "simplify" things into the night sky you see in-game.

Actually he could be Shezarrine:

The Nerevarine was the incarnation of Nerevar Indoril. Mantling and Incarnation are very different things.

Travel into the 'Outer Planes" seems possible, and it is not clear what is meant, though no-one ever speaks of going to an Aedric sphere.
Cyrus says the moons remind him of Vvardenfell.
There are Imperial Mananauts and Altmer sunbirds.

There is Yagrum.

The Nerevarine didn't mantle someone. Nerevar's soul was reincarnated, the reincarnated then followed a path quite clearly prescribed by Azura, and for Azura's personal gain.

Nerevar was a culture hero, and very important in Dunmeri history, but did nothing to change the world enough to allow a mantling.

The Aedric sphere is the world we see in the games.

Mananauts and sunbirds enter to realms there are no laws, only possiblity.

I think.

The collective that which they orbit and govern is the Mundus.

I meant I know of no account of anyone actually travelling and setting foot on Arkay (or Julianos etc.), as he circles around and is bound by the Mundus.
There are accounts of people travelling into the sphere of Meridia, Azura, Sheogorath.

Actually this isn't at all clear-cut and there's no official answer because you're supposed to draw your own conclusions.

Objectively viewed it is quite clear that the entire story of Morrowind is due to Azura's machinations, start to finish.
She began it, she ends it.

If I were a more modern person I would say the Nerevarine is Azura's female dog.

Huh. Interesting.






Really? I always thought that the reincarnation angle was complete bull, since the dreamsleeve scours your soul clean, and that you only became a real Nerevarine after walking like Nerevar. After all, if it came down to having his soul, then what's up with the spirits of past Nerevarines chillin' around as ghosts?

I'm curious. Is it safe to say that "only" anu-spirits became aedra/Mundus? And padh-spirits, the daedra? I know Lorkhan and Jyggalag show otherwise. Does that mean other padomaic spirits could have participated in Lorkhan's creation? (The Anuad makes note, but then again, the narrator's basically telling a bedtime story.)

Was it always in the anu-spirits natures to fall for Lorkhan's trick? To believe that sacrifice and responsibility and all that lovestuff were worthy ideas? Were all daedra opposed bc that's simply who they are? Cautious enough / disdainful enough / too lost in their extremes to care?

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or not yet convinced/bribed over with this kalpa's goods. Dunno. Lol boethiah's summoning day.

I think Boethiah's summoning Day effectively squashes the "Aedra = Anuic, Daedra = Padomic" theory.

Yeah ... it's weird (and it's also late and I'm incoherent haha). At first I thought Aedra==Anuic, etc. After all the forumming and reading tho, I wondered if that really mattered at all anymore. Just one big "Lorkhan, is this a good idea or not?" Not mattering at all whether Daedra bathed in sithis or not. Just depends on how good a pitch the Doom Drum's got when it's time to sell a new Mundus.

---edit
Been bothering me since, I suppose, the universe stopped focusing (or did it ever?) on aedric good, daedric evil, and all their little champions and villains. More on every spirit's ties to Mundus's creation. I think Kalpas and Dagon/Magnus were the final straw for me, on that part. All that leaping.

This makes me doubt whether TES lore is for you.

It never did. Meridia has been present since at least Daggerfall, and I doubt many would consider her to be "evil". I wouldn't doubt many like what Sanguine has to offer, too. Azura has done a number of good things (she helped create the Chimer and Khajiit, orchestrated the defeat of Dagoth Ur, and saved many Dunmer from Red Year), even if negative side-effects tend to occur afterward. Malacath is someone who'll stand up for the down-trodden.

Then we have Alduin who was first mentioned in Morrowind(?), which I doubt many would consider him to be "good". Depending on your profession, Arkay likes to get in your way. Dibella can probably get a little raunchy for some people's tastes.

Meridia could have been intended to be evil; as her realm was not expanded till the Oblivion era. Indeed, supporting and lending her Aurons to Umaril, both at White Gold and again during his resurrection could be considered evil (depending on your point of view, for the mer, it would have been a blessing) Evil is a perspective thing and the Daedric Lords have not really cared as to where their actions fall upon the minds of mortals. Even selfish, worshiper hungry Meridia.