205 Stendarr's Star
1st Passing

To my friend Tal Marog Ker,

Tis' been near fifty years since last we had chance enough to speak, when I lent the battlemage Dagon's protonymic and my isle was for a short time freed from it's prison. Liberation lasted long enough for me to gaze once more upon Direnni, and see the fall of Tharn, the same span it took for Dagon to reappropriate. I would have warned you earlier had I not been snatched away. I would have relaid it immediately but my mind comes and goes. Have you seen my son? Perhaps I was better off in the void. The void. It wasn't void while I was there...

Your notes on the journal I gave you last we met are terribly poor. Perhaps the journal was poor. I may be able to make clarifications next we meet.

I write to you at the outset of crisis. Old habits die hard [even for a Leaper Demon] but Caecilly is no longer safe from the tempest of Alduin; we were before, hidden away in the skyvaults of the deadlands in the back of the Dagon's mind - a pocket of stasis in a void of chaos, a new Aldmeris waiting to bloom. Numidius would have had his own, Camoran did but did it wrong.

You realize by my writing that Dagon's banishment by the Akatosh-Incaro set Caecilly free once more, though for how long I cannot say - if the Thalmor who came to study it's chapel are correct perhaps forever. But now we're here and the world-eater will find us, soon even, for we're in the north. I've felt since birth that should I ever meet a dragon it would be my solemn duty to slay it.

Yours,
Chimere Graegyn
Isle of Caecilly
High Rock

20 Sun's Dusk, 4E 13
Skingrad Library
Colovia

To Chimere Graegyn,

I scarce can convey the thrill which enveloped me upon returning from lecture to find a vellum stamped with the seal of the old Direnni dynasty lying upon my desk. The traditionalists communicate so little with Cyrodiil as of late that I hoped to hear word on these new Altmeri heretics, yet to then note the mark of Chimere! I dare say were my staff not near I may have fallen, which would have dearly upset my aide.

Why have the Inquirers not reported on Caecilly's return? I might have suspected your recurrence were it not for the other matters which now press upon us so daily. It is both blessing and omen that I receive your letter today. As it happens the University Chair desires that I travel to the Scathing Bay to collect whispers from ancestral spirits. The land is teeming with them as if the gates of Necrom itself burst forth under impact of the moon; Thras no doubt finds it to be the best market they've had since the plague and without the Temple there are none left to enforce the proper rites, but enough of that, your letter will be enough for me to escape the eastern expedition and make for the west.

What is this talk of Dagon and Camoran? That is behind us friend. No Mythic Dawn cells remain in Cyrodiil, even if we've yet to expel them from Tamriel as a whole.

No rumors have trickled our way from the north regarding Alduin, were there any Temple Zero would have been amongst the first to know, and given that they share various confraters with Gwylim we would have known readily enough. Are you well my friend? I feel I must visit you at once. There are much more pressing matters to concern ourselves with than Nordic superstition, should you be up to the task of lending us your discernment.

Faithfully,
TMK

Addendum: I'm afraid I am unfamiliar with your system of reckoning.

232 Stendarr's Star
1st Passing

To Tal Marog Ker,

I am well my friend, or as well as I can be. I'm told for eight years I was a madman but the healers sent from Northpoint were adequate, even if their magicks less refined. Few hallucinations creep in. Forgive my dating. It is of my own design; time in the void doesn't match our own, and I've yet to shrug it off.

Why should the Inquirers care for the return of an Isle with one insane citizen? Those of my clan which have set foot on Caecilly have given me no word on the politics of Summerset, or if they have I wouldn't know, I was far down the golden road at the time.

Am I so early as that? Are the Nords at peace? Events which I barely know I saw in my last moments in Oblivion. I witnessed the Dagonites fall, not from Nirn, but from my place in the back of Dagon's mind. The coming wars occupied the Dagon's thoughts as a plague, though whether in favor or against I cannot say. Rumors and whispers travel like lightning when there is only one divine decree to wade through. Last time there were twelve worlds, in the next there will be sixteen. Or is it seventeen now? Caecilly may still be one of them, a bit of hoarded dirt, if he reclaims it, if he can reclaim it - the crystal chapel has stopped pulsing. Where went the other four ehlnofey? Meredia, Peryite, Trinimac and... who? They'll be divines again no doubt, next time; the Velothi spoke too soon in calling them their ancestors. Or were the Velothi here to soon? With their triadic gods one could never say. Anticipations indeed, but one never anticipates your ensuing immanence to usurp you before its time.

I hope to see you soon, my hand grows pained in writing. Rest assured, the jaws of Oblivion were only the first molars of Alduin's.

Yours,
Chimere Graegyn
Isle of Caecilly
High Rock

20 Evening Star, 4E 14
Stros M'kai
Hammerfell

Greetings again,

Storms set my ship to harbor at Stros M'kai. I was expecting you off the coast of Northmoor, it seems my journey will be extended. Crews get nervous while making the stretch around the southern tip of High Rock, fear of unregistered soul snares, though I don't blame them. Seeing the airships of Thras on the horizon amidst barely perceptible gnarls of coral can make the most hardened sailor's blood frost.

The Nords are never at peace but I see nothing unusual from there at the moment, save their cordiality with the Dunmer, which we have taken in the best of lights. If you see cause for concern it is a concern unknown to the Ysmir Collective or the ambassadors of Solitude, or if it is known they've kept the information under guard. What keeps your mind swiveling around Alduin as it does? What of the Empire's collapse, of the new lords of High Rock, of the Thalmor or the Organism? Surely these are more pressing matters. It is from the south that trouble comes, not from the north.

The daedra have their reality, monotonous though it may be. One does not feign surprise to learn that the landscape of their worshipers ended in similar monotony; I do admit that I should have liked the eastern expedition if only to visit the wellspring of Fyr. While I do not claim mythic patterns to be my expertise, one must wonder when considering The Monomyth, the Twenty Tractates on Apotheosis, the Book of Hours (whether that of Vehk or Aleydas), etc, that it seems somewhat contradictory for the time-dragon to rescue Tamriel only to devour it himself, unless it was so he could devour it himself.

It will be necessary to contact my associates at the University should your suspicions hold warrant, though interesting as they are I hope I can bring your mind around to other matters.

Regards,
TMK

250 Stendarr's Star
1st Passing

Tal Marog Ker,

I leave motivations up to the councils. I do not know to what ends the gods act, only some of the technicalities of their means.

The scholars read too much into the uniformity of the divines. A man may have conflicting desires, but must choose between them, thus his finitude. Stand on the mythic scale of raw possibility and all such inhibitions are lost, it is only a matter of prominence. The Alessians inaugurated the prominence of Akatosh. The Marukhati tried to exclusify it. Hjalti reinstated it. The Empire upheld it. The Dagonites ended it. The Dragon of Cyrodiil is bound in stone, and in time, The Dragon of the North will no longer be.

To think the daedric realities monotonous, the University pampers you too much my friend. Untold ages I've stood and read the skies of Oblivion, seen it shift and change with the moods of the Prince, or more often with the tides of war between the Markynaz and the Xivilai, or the Mazken, or whoever they were vying for power with at a given time. I personally preferred the ever-so-short period when the Hernai gained favor. The daedra make up for in war and debauchery what they lack in romance. The divines may romance. Man and mer may romance. The daedra may not, for romance requisites division. The ehlnofey knew this, thus they became sundered.

You ask what of the Empire's collapse, of new lords? I will tell you, that is what I am speaking of already. Is not the Talos Cult more persecuted than ever? The cycle need not continue - the end comes by many roads, it may be destruction or fulfillment. Do not listen to the lies. The usurpers of the East, or the West. The triadic gods wars against Talos, and would have him removed, for he sets the stars in stone which could spell their doom. They come before they are anticipated, for unless they do they may never come at all; Alduin is their antecessor, but only if Hjalti fails. Talos holds back the divines of the next world. This is why he became a divine of this one - divine yet unanticipated, thus his uniqueness. He upholds the dividing lines of the cosmos. Defends romance lest we lose it the pit of singularity.

The Princes of this world will follow the lead of the Princes of the last - they will step up and become kings, with Peryite as their chief. This much should be obvious, every Prince Anticipates their future immanence. I can feel the pains of childbirth in the heavens and I rail against it.

I am an old man. I was an old man before. I don't think I'll ever be anything but an old man. It is for our progeny that I write. My son is somewhere.

Yours,
Chimere Graegyn
Isle of Caecilly
High Rock

I have no idea how to respond, but I feel that I should say something. Thank you for letting us in on your correspondence. A lot to consider.

13 Morning Star, 4E 14
Daggerfall
High Rock

To Chimere Graegyn,

Your time in Oblivion makes things plain to you which confound me.

You should know that if audience with the Council is what you desire I must inform you that you'll first have to suade Idhdean, you may remember him from your time with the Wayrest Lyceum, before it became overrun with the Magnussians. We'll speak at greater length upon my arrival but the dispersal of arcane knowledge - especially that regarding the mythic principalities and patterns - is being kept under the tightest seals. The last inklings of the Guild disintegrate, it was simply insufficient for completing the tasks set upon them by the Council (and with so many of their ranks being indicted under the new provisions against daedric trafficking it was only a matter of time before a split occurred, though there were other reasons). I may be able to aide you through the University's press.

Of the politics of Oblivion I know little, especially now with the harsh barriers in place. Of the politics of Tamriel I know much, and now that you are here I beg you consider them. You say the Thalmor visited you at Caecilly, was there any talk of taking you into the new Dominion? One would think they would seek to absorb one with a heritage such as yours. A number of the Bretonish Direnni are resisting the Thalmor, Balfiera's Castellan most prominently, though I'm not sure how long the resistance can last. From what I've gathered their lack of cooperation draws from a reticence in ceding control of the tower in particularly, rather than an aversion to the policies of their sovereigns.

This talk of prominence has my old mind churning but I believe you leave out a piece of the puzzle. The dragons of Cyrodiil and Skyrim are not the only ones to account for, I would remind you again of the Thalmor who came to visit your isle or the rebirth in prominence of the old Dominion. Is it not they who have helped instigated the policies against the Talos Cult, even if not directly so? Even if the Ysmir Collective and the Orders of Hjalti remain undisturbed for the moment I wonder at how long it can last, the lords of Alcaire can only maintain themselves for so long.

I have procured a copy of Crystal-like-Law so that you may look over it and learn for yourself the current trends of your old clans.

Until we meet,
TMK

I was kind of blown away & totally absorbed by that :bowdown:

Wow. I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume this is some kind of developer post, though I wouldn't have the foggiest idea who.

One thing, though.

The Twelve Worlds of Creation. If I'm reading this right, it's implying the twelve worlds were Daedric realms, and the next kalpa will have 17... one for each Prince. Meridia and Trinimac we already knew weren't Daedra last time, and it's fascinating (but painfully obvious, how did I not see that?) that the same was true of Peryite. I wonder who the fourth is? (number 5 being the island of Caecilly, and therefore -just a stab in the dark here- Mehrunes Dagon)

"Our ancestors" indeed.

EDIT: #4 could be Sheogorath.

So we'd have 1. Azura, 2. Boethiah, 3. Clavicus Vile, 4. Hermaeus Mora, 5. Hircine, 6. Jyggalag, 7. Mephala, 8. Molag Bal, 9. Namira, 10. Nocturnal, 11. Sanguine, 12. Vaermina. 12 Daedric realms, 12 worlds of creation.

This is insane. I was just writing of Peryite's undue influence over the lords of the Imperial City, circa 200. Pretending Akatosh in jest. So it would seem his foolery has had a hand in it all along. And it is just not my willies.

Most interesting correspondence, TMK and CG.

Woah. Love this.

Over the years, we've gotten many different views on the Timey-Wimey Arubis Space Boondoggle: religious texts, children's stories, secret extraplanar spy messages, and Kirkbriding. Now we have this, and I have to say, its probably my favorite. I'll start dissecting the implications later, but for now, I just want to applaud the writing. Whoever wrote this, I want to praise you.

This is fascinating, especially those mentions of 12 become 16 and Peryite, Anticipations and romance and triadics...

Jara, can you explain how Peryite wasn't a prince in the last go-round? I don't know anything about him besides his draconic appearance, honestly.

Some more thoughts:

1. If the Daedra didn't participate in the creation of Mundus, why are their realms so much like it? Because they're the remnants of the last kalpa, that Magnus/the Leaper Demon cast into the heavens. Caecilly was Dagon's attempt to do the same for the current kalpa, but with a definite "Prince of Destruction" spin on it.

2. Peryite leading the Daedra- they're mirror buddies of the Aedra (I've played with this theory before, but it's not exactly solid), who I have a feeling take turns each time the cycle starts. Twelve Divines in the last world, Nine (or Eight) in the current one. Sixteen (or Seventeen) in the next. It's a not perfect theory, because obviously the numbers don't match up. But Lord of Souls has led me to believe that the residents of Umbriel are Ehlnofey and Hist- survivors of the last kalpa, which survived by travelling back in time (with Glim in tow). And where were they hiding? In Vile's realm, one of the Twelve Worlds. Who'll survive into the next kalpa? Hard to say. Probably everyone, since Skyrim will undoubtedly have a happy (or at least bittersweet) ending.

Dude, what if the next TES game was set entirely in a Daedric realm? The PC semi-fails, a new kalpa begins, but most of the world is saved out in Oblivion?

This is just... holy [NUMMIT] this is cool. I am going to have to read this eight more times to make sense of it.

It'd save them having to worry about making Summerset Isle or Black Marsh up to scratch, that's for sure.

Hell, I'd play it.

An interesting theory, but it seems a little far fetch--



By Peryite's Pantaloons.

Well now, this is exactly what I was hoping for as launch day nears.





Right off the bat, an affirmation of the Seven Fights of the Aldudagga. Quite a few implications there.



This is a bombshell of ridiculous proportions. The Daedra Lords, after each kalpa, become the new Aedra, usurping the role... and the Aedra are presumably freed from their prison? Talos, in turn (I expect his connection to Shezarr to be in play here) keeps the eight bound to the world, allowing life on Mundus to survive (without being recycled). The Daedra are then replaced by... what?



The Organism... in the south presumably. I imagine there is quite a story to that. Perhaps something to do with Valenwood/Summerset?



A specific tie between the Alessians' "The One" and Akatosh. Interesting. This section is probably even more meaningful when we consider Akatosh and Shezarr as one being. Also, re-emphasizes Alduin as bound Akatosh's freed self, presumably trying to leave the world behind/eat his way out of his prison. It also occurs to me: This would imply that the original Auri-El that separated Lorkhan from his heart is long gone (ascending to Heaven in full view of his followers, indeed). Or does it reoccur every kalpa?



Mhmm, so this explains why the Mage's Guild is no longer around/everyone has their own. Also implies that Skyrim's guild has a role in defending the worship of Talos. Defense-against-the-Thalmor guild quests specific to the Collective coming up, perhaps. Also, a gamesas (presumably a gamesas dev) affirmation of MK's Altmer/expel-Talos-from-the-mythic posting. Very interesting.

I am inclined to believe a lot of the correspondence needs to be interpreted through the lens of this:

"To kill Man is to reach Heaven, from where we came before the Doom Drum's iniquity. When we accomplish this, we can escape the mockery and long shame of the Material Prison.

To achieve this goal, we must:

1) Erase the Upstart Talos from the mythic. His presence fortifies the Wheel of the Convention, and binds our souls to this plane.

2) Remove Man not just from the world, but from the Pattern of Possibility, so that the very idea of them can be forgotten and thereby never again repeated.

3) With Talos and the Sons of Talos removed, the Dragon will become ours to unbind. The world of mortals will be over. The Dragon will uncoil his hold on the stagnancy of linear time and move as Free Serpent again, moving through the Aether without measure or burden, spilling time along the innumerable roads we once travelled. And with that we will regain the mantle of the imperishable spirit." - Altmeri commentary on Talos, written by MK

Exactly what we needed to keep our hands full till launch.

Nice, arc welding the games together with glamour and mind-reaming. A lot to chew

I love how I never connected Anu and Padomay's cosmic wrestling to a World-Eater tearing-fusing whole planes of the universe. Awesome

To be fair, I never said the Daedric realms were the entirety of the 12 worlds, just the parts Magnus hid.

Maybe this is why the Raga seem to have such a strange pantheon and "Sep" doesn't show up until after many, many, many cycles?

Hey, did somebody lose a spoon?

Just... great. Just let this kind of lore in Skyrim and it's the new feels-like-Morrowind game. Some guy from the Bethesda Game Studios is watching the thread too. :hubbahubba:

Prepare the bones of the missing to
Each and every day until the last
Refill the heart signified by the glyph
Y, numbered seven, that times the wise
Is the cross in the Serpent's skin
Twice again the number of the master
Entering the invisible gate that others flee.

Lest the above be thought adventitious,
13
9
7

16 -> 12 -> 379
3 + 4 = 7 -> 39, /3 = 13 -> 36, /3 = 12, /3 = 4 -> 242
3 -> 112, + 242 = 354 <- 22
9 -> 11, x 2 = 22, /2 = 11 ...

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1054304-falmer/page__st__60__p__15330467#entry15330467

I operate on a timetable that spans years.

Also, the Treasure Wood should enter into this.