I imagine Alduin as a giant, golden dragon. Why golden? Because the Avatar of Akatosh was golden in Oblivion, and because it looks cool.

Hey, we're in the land of the nords! Shor is pretty much the main deity of the area, so learning about him should be almost second nature.

Alduin = Bigger and More Badass Deathwing?
http://www.otakia.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/aile_de_mort.jpg

Alduin = Bigger and More Badass Deathwing?
http://www.otakia.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/aile_de_mort.jpg

http://www.prominentmovies.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/How_to_train_your_Dragon_by_Hobsyllwin1812.jpg

Eh, most likely Shor will make an appearance to stop Alduin again, or we're trying to prevent him from awakening. Fighting a world sized dragon just doesn't seem possible...

The Anuad

The first ones were brothers: Anu and Padomay. They came into the Void, and Time began.

As Anu and Padomay wandered the Void, the interplay of Light and Darkness created Nir. Both Anu and Padomay were amazed and delighted with her appearance, but she loved Anu, and Padomay retreated from them in bitterness.

(So Nir fell in love with Lorkhan and well Akatosh didn't like that too much. Jealous much? lol)

Nir became pregnant, but before she gave birth, Padomay returned, professing his love for Nir. She told him that she loved only Anu, and Padomay beat her in rage. Anu returned, fought Padomay, and cast him outside Time. Nir gave birth to Creation, but died from her injuries soon after. Anu, grieving, hid himself in the sun and slept.

(Lorkhan in other creation myths inside TES lore has always been the one to push or foster the creation. Lorkhan approached his peers with a plan to create a new plane of existence, and to create and populate it with lesser beings of their own design, which he described as being the "soul of the universe". Lorkhan tricked the other Aedra into doing so as the Mer believe. (See Spoiler Below)

Meanwhile, life sprang up on the twelve worlds of creation and flourished. After many ages, Padomay was able to return to Time. He saw Creation and hated it. He swung his sword, shattering the twelve worlds in their alignment.

Badda bing badda boom! This as I see it directly links Alduin to Akatosh to Padomay. Or maybe just Alduin to Padomay. "Alduin's sobriquet, 'The World Eater', comes from myths that depict him as the horrible, rauaging firestorm that destroyed the last world to begin this one."

Anu awoke, and fought Padomay again. The long and furious battle ended with Anu the victor.

"Shor's own ghost then fought the Time-Eater on the spirit plane, as he did at the beginning of time, and he won." So Shor or Lorkhan is Anu and Padomay is Alduin and Akatosh.

He cast aside the body of his brother, who he believed was dead, and attempted to save Creation by forming the remnants of the 12 worlds into one -- Nirn, the world of Tamriel. As he was doing so, Padomay struck him through the chest with one last blow. Anu grappled with his brother and pulled them both outside of Time forever.

Now the Mer's creation myth claims Lorkhan (Anu in this case) tricked the other Aedra including Akatosh (Padomay) into using their own divine energy to create Nirn and in the process trapped them to the world. (See Spoiler)

Spoiler

Altmer creation myth: The creation of the Aedra, and thus Nirn, progresses as follows:

Before the universe existed there was Anu, the unchanging stasis. Into this stasis came Padomay, the agent of change, and thus the universe was created. (See the article on Sithis (god), an alternate name for Padomay, for details.) From the chaos of creation came the et'Ada, formless spiritual beings, to populate the universe.

All creation myths across Tamriel include the Aedra Akatosh in some form, as the first of the et'Ada to form an identity, bringing with him the concept of Time. The existence of time aided other et'Ada in forming their own identities, and soon there were hundreds of separate, individual beings. The other common element in all creation myths is the presence of the "trickster", usually called Lorkhan. After some indeterminate amount of time, Lorkhan approached his peers with a plan to create a new plane of existence, and to create and populate it with lesser beings of their own design, which he described as being the "soul of the universe". He was able to convince a group of his fellow spirits to help with his plan, while others suspected a trick or were simply uninterested and were kept out. Lorkhan's plan was executed, resulting in the creation of the mortal plane/planet of Nirn. During this process, it became clear to the Aedra that their own divine energy was being drained to help infuse life into the world. Some of the Aedra managed to escape the mortal world, most notably Magnus, who was initially the chief architect of Lorkhan's plan, but quickly became disgusted with his creation and fled. Since Magnus is not bound by the rules of Nirn, neither is the magic which flows from him, allowing it to violate the natural laws and reach across the planes of existence. Other Aedra drew back from creation in time to maintain some degree of their divinity, leaving them bound to Nirn but still powerful relative to the mortals. A few Aedra continued to sacrifice their divinity to finish the creation of the planet, leaving them weakened and unable to interact directly with the world. The last of these was Lorkhan himself, who is usually said to have died, with his body becoming the physical mass of Nirn. This also explains how Lorkhan's Heart was able to survive on Tamriel for so long, since it literally part of Nirn itself.

One last group of Aedra continued to weaken, even after they had determined what was happening. These beings realized that, in order to maintain their existence, it would be necessary to procreate and bring forth future generations. Each generation took more and more of the divinity of their ancestors, until finally they had weakened to the point of being mortal beings. These beings were called the Ehlnofey, the "bones of the earth", and were the first inhabitants of Nirn.

Eventually, the Ehlnofey would diverge into the various races of man and mer, who would evolve quite different interpretations of the creation myth.

The blood of Padomay became the Daedra. The blood of Anu became the stars.

Not too far fetched from the other stories of Lorkhan (Anu in this case) body being the moons or something like that. Stars, Moons, close enough.

The mingled blood of both became the Aedra (hence their capacity for good and evil, and their greater affinity for earthly affairs than the Daedra, who have no connection to Creation).

(All together that is whyI believe Anu is Lorkhan and Padomay is Akatosh.)

On the world of Nirn, all was chaos. The only survivors of the twelve worlds of Creation were the Ehlnofey and the Hist. The Ehlnofey are the ancestors of Mer and Men. The Hist are the trees of Argonia. Nirn originally was all land, with interspersed seas, but no oceans.

A large fragment of the Ehlnofey world landed on Nirn relatively intact, and the Ehlnofey living there were the ancestors of the Mer. These Ehlnofey fortified their borders from the chaos outside, hid their pocket of calm, and attempted to live on as before.

Other Ehlnofey arrived on Nirn scattered amid the confused jumble of the shattered worlds, wandering and finding each other over the years.

Eventually, the wandering Ehlnofey found the hidden land of Old Ehlnofey, and were amazed and joyful to find their kin living amid the splendor of ages past. The wandering Ehlnofey expected to be welcomed into the peaceful realm, but the Old Ehlnofey looked on them as degenerates, fallen from their former glory. For whatever reason, war broke out, and raged across the whole of Nirn. The Old Ehlnofey retained their ancient power and knowledge, but the Wanderers were more numerous, and toughened by their long struggle to survive on Nirn. This war reshaped the face of Nirn, sinking much of the land beneath new oceans, and leaving the lands as we know them (Tamriel, Akavir, Atmora, and Yokuda).

The Old Ehlnofey realm, although ruined, became Tamriel. The remnants of the Wanderers were left divided on the other 3 continents.

(Hence why the Mer were first on Tamriel and the Nedic people or the first of Mankind came from continent Atmora)

Over many years, the Ehlnofey of Tamriel became:
- the Mer (Elves),
- the Dwemer (the Deep Ones, sometimes called Dwarves),
- the Chimer (the Changed Ones, who later became the Dunmer),
- the Dunmer (the Dark or Cursed Ones, the Dark Elves),
- the Bosmer (the Green or Forest Ones, the Wood Elves), and
- the Altmer (The Elder or High Ones, the High Elves).

On the other continents, the Wandering Ehlnofey became the Men -- the Nords of Atmora, the Redguards of Yokuda, and the Tsaesci of Akavir.

The Hist were bystanders in the Ehlnofey war, but most of their realm was destroyed as the war passed over it. A small corner of it survived to become Black Marsh in Tamriel, but most of their realm was sunk beneath the sea.

Eventually, Men returned to Tamriel. The Nords were the first, colonizing the northern coast of Tamriel before recorded history, led by the legendary Ysgramor. The thirteenth of his line, King Harald, was the first to appear in written history. And so the Mythic Era ended.
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-http://www.imperial-library.info/content/morrowind-annotated-anuadLink to Article[/spoiler]

I imagine Alduin as a giant, golden dragon. Why golden? Because the Avatar of Akatosh was golden in Oblivion, and because it looks cool.

um..... The avatar of Akatosh wasn't gold...it was just completely wreathed in flame...

You know, it'd be more awesome if Alduin actually looked like a cosmic horror from Lovecraft or something. But, he's a dargon.

Eh, most likely Shor will make an appearance to stop Alduin again, or we're trying to prevent him from awakening. Fighting a world sized dragon just doesn't seem possible...