I was reading some books in Oblivion, and found one I have neglected to read, Mysterious Akavir.

In it, it mentions a dragon named Tosh Raka, which could translate into Akatosh, in the book it says that he/it resides in Akavir, and read this quote from the book:



Could that mean (Considering Tosh Raka is Akatosh) Akatosh is really an enemy, and plans to invade Tamriel?

Why believe the author? How would he know their motivations?

Keep in mind that if that book is old enough it may be propaganda from the Empire's foray into Akavir.

Tosh Raka is not Akatosh in the same way that Obama is not Osama.

Their names are similar because of the common language used to name them.

Their names are similar because of the recurring theme of mortals with godly attributes, either stolen through ritual and mysticism, or born demi-god incarnations. Or, hello Pelinal the shezzarine, Tiber the dragon, Ysmir Shor's Tongue, etc, etc.

You make it sound like it's a result of uninspired naming, when it's clearly a clue.

To answer the original question; no. Demi-god upstarts taking on the characteristics of the gods are not the timeless and infinite gods themselves. And even the gods themselves are not the gods themselves, considering each has a different cultural interpretation. Look up Alduin, for example, who really is going to destroy the world, perhaps subce Nords have more fear for time than do others, like the elves.

So a dragon is going to try and destroy tamriel

Probably not.

I doubt it. Martin destroyed a piece of the dragon god with the destruction of the Amulet of Kings. I'm sure Akatosh would be vulnerable. Remember, the aedra can be killed-- hence: Lorkhan.

@freedomphantom: You'd be surprised at just how powerful a 'dragon' is. Lest we forget this dragon is a divine deity, and master of the aedra of Imperial religious tradition. Like the triune. I didn't think they were gods, just extremely powerful wizards. But this along with the daedra is prety confusing. Consult the Imperial Library if you want more info on Akatosh.

How did you draw that conclusion?


What's the difference?

'gods,' that is the Aedra of whom Akatosh is one, make up part of the world. they are concepts such as justice, beauty, and time without which tamriel would not exist. the Tibuanl on the other hand are not connected to the world at all, and gain all their power solely from the heart. once it was taken away the ceased to be gods in a real sense. i dont really see what this has to do with the topic at hand though, since i dont remember anything about akatosh wanting to kill tamriel (which is himself in a way)

Well, you might want to read some more because 'On Aedra and Daedra' doesn't really cover it all. Specifically the Monomyth, as it shows that the et'Ada were mortal until Akatosh | Auri-El| Tall Papa invented the walkabout, a way to life structured and not die by mistake.

With Nirn Lorkhan recreated the situation before this happened and thus rendering the et'Ada involved mortal again. So while in some Myths the Aedra died but in others they ascended to Aetherius and yet they are still present. Quite a mysterious situation.

Now Lorkhan is a special case, he was slain but his Heart, his divine spark could not be destroyed and thus Lorkhan was variously imprisoned, exiled or maroond on Mudnus. Though in yet others he gave his heart willingly. Some like Mankar Camoran even consider this proof that he was not an Aedra in the first place.

What is a god? Anything that someone claims to be a god. Jupiter is a god. I don't believe in him and I think the only real Jupiter in the cosmos is that big gaseous planet that is some distance from us. That doesn't prevent me from acknowledging Jupiter is a god. He is one, even if he doesn't exist and even if nobody believes in him anymore.

The Tribunal was made of three gods, because that's the status they held in Dunmer myths.

Really, that's all there is to it. If M'aiq starts worshiping the Soul Tomato, then the Soul Tomato is a god. This doesn't imply any special status for the Soul Tomato, nor does it grant it any power.

The whole "divine" thing is a lie. The elves think they were gods in the paste, but have fallen from this lofty state; while the humans believe in a clear distinction between mortals and gods. But the truth is, everyone is just a spirit. A spirit that is itself a shard of another spirit, itself a fragment of a larger one, and so on, until you go back to the original unfragmented consciousness. Each subpart is weaker than its "parent" so it's easy to think the parent is a god for you. Because what's the point of a god if it isn't more powerful than you? But in reality, it isn't powerful any longer because it is fragmented in sub-entities. That's why the Aedra sacrificed themselves to create the world, they split into the next subgradient.

Dwarves thought that this was undesirable and tried to merge all of themselves into one single being so as to undo subgradience and become a supergradient entity. It seems it didn't work very well for them, though.

If it looks like an elaphant, and smells like an elephant, and walks like an elephant, it is an elephant.

Or it's an antelope and you need to start being more serious during your zoology classes.

Akatosh plotting against the empire? Come on now, that's preposterous.

Didn't Akatosh destroy most of the Temple of the One? Most people would blame Dagon, but he only broke one section of its wall. Didn't Akatosh brutally murder Martin Septim, Heir to the Septim throne, thus descending the Empire into chaos? And wouldn't that chaos make it easier for him to...

INVADE TAMRIEL?

I mean, even if Akatosh isn't Tosh Raka, all the evidence, guys...

^^^ /joke theory

Well you know that he is also Auri-El, High King of the Altmer? That didn't help those High Elves in Cyrodiils Heartland.

He's also the world eater.

Yes, but were they faithful to the nine? And when do the gods help anyways? If the Champion of Cyrodiil help didn't defeat Dagon, he'd end up destroying Tamriel while people would be saying: "Why have the Gods forsaken us?".-Just my opinion of course
I know that the Ayleids are also reffered to as "The Heartland High Elves", but does that really make them Altmer? I thought they were both a different race.
And who did the Ayleids worship?

The names of mer deal as much with their 'heritage' as it does with their culture. That the Ayleid were called the Heart Land High Elves makes them Altmer.

They worshipped the same gods as the Altmer and roughly the same gods as the Imperials because the Altmeri influence on their human slaves is what promoted the formation of the Eight Divines rather then falling back to the Nordic variation. See http://www.imperial-library.info/obbooks/shezzardivines.shtml.

I'm not strong on Elder Scrolls metaphysics - is that how it works?
Looks like someone had a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoplatonism there.

That seems like a good summary, Gez; better than anything I could have articulated. I hope Bethesda notices posts such as that one.

Varana, as far as I know, MK is familiar with Neoplatonism, Gnosticism, and various Eastern religions.

Ya

nice summary Gez

*darts back out*

Thats pretty damn good right there. Gez, you are my god.

I'd give you a cookie if I had one, Gez. And if I wasn't so busy with crap in college.