Here are my questions:

* I always thought that Oblivion was an entire different universe (which means that the only way to travel between Nirn and Oblivion is to use a portal of some sort), but according to a picture that described the TES astronomy, it was described as a planet. Is this really the case or is it a different universe?

* If it is a universe: are all planes of oblivion connected (either as different planets in the same universe or as parts of one gigantic "planet") or are each plane a separate universe?

* If each plane is a different universe, what is the true definition of "Oblivion"? What makes these planes more connected to each other (besides being ruled by Daedric princes) than they are to Nirn?

*Where do the divines "live"? Do they even exist in a more physical form or are they basically like the Force from Star Wars?

Oblivion is the vacuous void you see in the night sky. It is the space between the planets. The stars are holes in Oblivion. Starlight comes from a realm outside of Oblivion called Aetherius.

Each Daedric Prince has his own realm of Oblivion. In fact, each Daedric Prince is a realm of Oblivon. Just like the Aedra are the planets, the Princes are their planes.

http://www.imperial-library.info/content/cosmology.

The plane(t)s of the divines are presumably still alive (excepting Masser and Secunda), but the bits they left in the Mundus are dead. EDIT (again): Scratch it, Monomyth has the answer as usual. http://www.imperial-library.info/content/monomyth-myth-aurbis

"Finally, the magical beings of Mythic Aurbis told the ultimate story -- that of their own death. For some this was an artistic transfiguration into the concrete, non-magical substance of the world. For others, this was a war in which all were slain, their bodies becoming the substance of the world. For yet others, this was a romantic marriage and parenthood, with the parent spirits naturally having to die and give way to the succeeding mortal races."

I thought the Daedric Realms http://www.imperial-library.info/content/nu-mantia-intercept-letter-7. And the planets were in fact the http://www.imperial-library.info/content/nu-mantia-intercept-letter-4.

http://www.imperial-library.info/content/cosmology

And wasn't Umbra, a piece of Clavicus' realm, described as a piece of Clavicus himself? I'm not sure where else I read that, but I've always been under the impression that the plane of a Daedric Prince and the Daedric Prince were one and the same. Or at the very least, the plane was a piece of the Prince (though I thought it was more than that).

Infernal City:

"Umbra took us captive – he was powerful, almost as powerful as a daedra prince. In fact, it was the power of a daedra prince – he'd somehow managed to cut a piece from Clavicus Vile himself. ...
Not a physical piece... Daedra aren't physical beings like you and me. But the effect was similar – Vile was, in a sense, injured. Badly so. And Umbra became stronger, though still not so strong as Vile. Not strong enough to escape his realm once Vile had circumscribed it against him. ..."

"After Sul's escape, Vile tightened the walls of his circumscription so that Vuhon could not escape even if he “had the means. The only way to escape was to circumvent his restriction, to remain in his realm... I [Vuhon] built my ingenium, I powered by Umbra and the energies he had stolen from vile. I turned our city, wrapped those circumscribed walls around it.. twisted it until it broke loose, like a bubble. ...
... We've drifted though many realms and places beyond even Oblivion. We cannot leave the city – Vile's circumscription still surrounds it. ...”

Lord of Souls:

““Don’t think I’m weak,” Vile said. “Everyone who comes here now thinks I’m weak, just because a wee bit of my stuff has been stolen. The trick is, if you’ve got less to work with, you just don’t spread it so thin. My realm may be a little smaller than in happier times, but in it I’m just as strong as I ever was.””

According to Vile, “there is no Umbra. This—thing—that suffers from the delusion that it is its own—person—is actually nothing of the kind, do you understand? No more than a stone rolling down a hill is capable of real self-locomotion. Or an abacus of doing math by itself. What was in this sword was me, plain and simple. If someone cut your leg off and the leg starting calling itself ‘Umbra,’ it would still be your leg, wouldn’t it? You wouldn’t humor it, would you? Help it out with its delusions of grandeur?”"

From TIL's lore notes. I dunno that there's anything there that really connects the power Umbra stole to the separation of the realm. http://www.imperial-library.info/content/monomyth-cyrodiilic-shezarrs-song is pretty clear, though.

""Now when the Daedra Lords heard Shezarr, they mocked him, and the other Aedra. 'Cut parts of ourselves off? And lose them? Forever? That's stupid! You'll be sorry! We are far smarter than you, for we will create a new world out of ourselves, but we will not cut it off, or let it mock us, but we will make this world within ourselves, forever ours, and under our complete control.'"

I think I understood the big picture, but sadly, my mortal mind couldn't comprehend everything right now...

But I still have a few questions:

* If the stars are holes in oblivion, wouldn't it be possible to kill the Daedra by joining all stars and create one big hole? In theory...

* Where is Sovngarde?

* If one would leave Nirn's atmosphere, would one enter a plane of Oblivion, or would it require a gateway to do so?

* Is the Void of Oblivion the same thing as "The Void" of Sithis? What is Sithis exactly?

Well the sun is one huge hole created by Magnus. I'm actually not sure if the holes let creatia/light into Oblivion realms. I used to imagine the holes as 3 dimensional tunnels, rather than simple 2d holes. These tunnels burrow through Oblivion to reach Nirn. Maybe I'm wrong :dunno:

I think simply flying up, away from Nirn, you would reach an event horizon (infinity and all). So I think some sort of space-folding or gateway is needed.

The Oblivion we are familiar with is actually a copy of the "true" void outside of the Aurbis, IIRC. In one of the creation tales, the et'Ada were hanging out in the Aurbis (the gray between Anu and Padomay) and they looked "outside" and saw the void, which they tried to recreate for themselves in their own plane of existence. So there are two kinds of voids, the original/true void and the copied one that the Daedra are from.

It sounds to me like a Daedra Princes are able to extend or withdraw their influence to or from a realm. Like what Clavicus Vile said, about not spreading so thinly if you have less to work with. Or Jyggalag leaving the Shivering Isles.

I don't think so. They're just letting creatia from Aetherius flood through. Daedra actually use creatia to build their realms, as Crimson Paladin said (I don't think this and the realm == prince idea are mutually exclusive), so there's no reason I can see why the punctures should hurt them at all.


This is contested ground these days, but Sovngarde http://www.imperial-library.info/ForumArchives/Concerning_the_Dreamsleeve.html.


One would enter the void of Oblivion, not a plane. See http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1336585-tiber-septim%e2%80%99s-sword-meeting-with-cyrus-the-restless/page__view__findpost__p__20124928. It's outer space, man.


It's not the same thing, but an echo. From the http://www.imperial-library.info/content/loveletter-fifth-era-true-purpose-tamriel:

"The echo of the Void is Oblivion."

http://www.imperial-library.info/content/tower

A few more on Sithis:

http://www.imperial-library.info/content/sithis
http://www.imperial-library.info/content/night-mothers-truth
http://www.imperial-library.info/content/monomyth-altmeri-heart-world
http://www.imperial-library.info/content/source-chaos

People tend to argue a lot about this one.

Thanks for making this more clear, I really appreciate it!