Something I've always been curious about, but I've never seen addressed in-game.

Lorkhan left behind his actual heart, so what of the Earthbones? Is there some graveyard out there somewhere filled with the coffins of dead gods?

I can see some kind of connection to the dragons, who did leave behind their bones- are they Earthbones? They're clearly divine, but otherwise there doesn't seem to be any kind of counterpart in Tamriel's other mythologies.

Thoughts? Theories?

I could be mistaken but I always thought of the Earthbones as creatia. Basically everything on Nirn is made up of the Earthbones. Rocks, Glass, Ebony, Iron, etc etc.

The Earthbones are the laws of nature: thus, if such a thing as the strong nuclear and electromagnetic forces were to exist on Tamriel, they'd be Earthbones. So everything material is indirectly or directly preordained by the forms of dead gods. I like to think that everything, down to the very laws of mathematics, are formed from the Earthbones, and as such, can be tampered with by magic and mythic forces.

Also I guess it's possible that the very land and sea is obsolete flesh-divinity. Other versions have Nirn being formed from 12 worlds of the previous kalpa.

But the Earthbones are also a whole host of minor spirits and earthly deities that have small influences. Generally, when they are forgotten, they are gone. We are told that traditional religion among Cyrodiils and possibly residents of High Rock venerates a vast pantheon of "god-animals". I tend to think this means not just animal worship, but of gods that are bound to animal forms.

Also, the Earthbones are the form from which humans, elves and a bunch of other sentient mortal races arise in the Dawn. Wait, according to UESP that's a different group of Ehlnofey. Well, they're all the same anyway.

Perhaps the Earthbones are the spokes of the Wheel? (I have no idea how to expand upon this further)

Umpteen: Oh, I know how the Earthbones work, that they're the laws of nature and so on... but I just mean, since at least one god left behind a physical body part, why not the others?

Oh. Sorry for immediately leaping at an opportunity to state the obvious, then. As for the possibility of a physical embodiment of a dead god... I do not know. If there are other Earthbones that have as much influence as the "dead" Lorkhan, then their influence is so ubiquitous as to be invisible. Lorkhan seems to be a force acting with a definite "plan", or at least, intentions. So Lorkhan would seem to be quite different. Probably, if the Earthbones do manifest in a similar way to Lorkhan, he is/was much stronger than them and thus is more apparent now. Alternatively, they could manifest as extremely powerful magical artifacts with the aim of controlling things relating to their sphere. Our ability to distinguish these "Nirnic" magics would be dependent on how similar they are to standard, Aetherial/Magna-Ge magic.