Hi, It's been an incredible amount of time since I last posted here.

I recieved the Shivering Isles expansion today for OB, and I stumbled across a variet of statue in the island that pops up in vast abundance. It's a naked male torso and head, beardless and hairless, that appears in various "poses" around the game. It seems unlikely that this is sheogorath (beardless, and is not a likeness of him - it often appears right next to a bust of his head and you can see the difference), so I was wondering two things:

Firstly, who could it be?

Secondly, if it isn't Sheo, then why is it in such abundance to the extent of being seen more than Sheo's own bust? Sheogorath is portrayed as a highly egomaniacal character at times - why would he let it pass?

Thirdly, does anyone know their phone number?. Nah, I'm kidding.

Well, I theorize that they are just, well, art...They usualy seem to portray the dementia side, it seems.

Its the realm of insanity, the statues don't need to make sense.

I always felt http://www.uesp.net/w/images/Mount_Sheogorath_Summit.jpg had a striking resemblence to http://falca.kiev.ua/morrowind/shots/thief_and_vivec.jpg....


Just sans the pointy ears. (although that is a bad picture of everyone's favorite transgender word spinner.)

It's obviously http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f4/The_Scream.jpg. Duh.

Other than both being bald, I don't see the resemblance.

I'd guess if it's particular to mania, it's just a morose looking decoration suitable for those areas.

You'd need to have Mr Vivec looking down and to the left. Sadly, not many pictures of a 2/3 profile view of everyone's favorite genderbender out there for comparison.

But I have the ultimate answer!


It's.... (Drumroll)... Aruden Sul! (laughs-- I have no evidence to back such a claim, but it would make sense why his image is EVERYWHERE.)

The features are clearly those of a man. The face isn't as long, the cheekbones not as high and the ears not as pointy as those of an elf. That body also looks a little too thickset.

It's Jyggalag without the armor.

Okay I don't know, but I figured I'd just throw that possibility out there.

Arden-Sul would make the most sense.

I considered that possibilty, I do not know of any other person of enough importance to warrant having such a statue made for him and placed in so many places who we have not seen in the game. They could also not be statues of any particularly famous person and just be art. Not every statue needs to portray someone important.

Their name in the CS is simply "TorturedStatue". So they're probably not supposed to represent anyone specific.

Hmm.

In that case, regarding the various different poses that the statues have, I theorise that it might be a statue of someone simply going through various forms of madness.

The Arden-Sul theory is a good one, but it has one gaping hole - why would our favourite rampant egomaniac allow Sul to be paraded and flaunted around more than he is?

Why do you think no one knows how Arden-Sul died, or has any evidence to prove that he did die?

Ah, that's a good one.

Depending on who you ask, Sul was tortured for a good while before he got to where he was.

Interesting stuff. Could it be Sheogorath himself? Did he always have hair and beard? Perhaps after every Graymarch when Sheoth is moved and becomes New Sheoth, Sheogorath manifests in a different way?

Each Greymarch would have destroyed every trace of Sheogorath's rule, including his statues

Possibly true, but it is said that the Grummites were the original inhabitants of the Isles and their statues still stand and look pretty old. Plus there is a book to be found in the Isles detailing the age of many of the ruins between each Graymarch. Surely if the statues would be destroyed so would all the ruins become dust?

I don't think they're supposed to be anyone in particular. It's just some generic-looking male human in pain. Maybe it represents the sculptor himself? Some citizen of Mania who was skilled at and obessed with stonework?

That's the view I take. It looks like a guy in pain. Quite a few of the crazies in the Isles are as well. Connect the dots.

[But remember, it's the lore forum. It can't be simple. If something were as simple as yes or no, somebody might explode.]

Lol

Ok, perhaps it is just some random dude, but does anyone have any idea whether Sheogorath changes his appearence after every Graymarch?

Well, technically, he can change his appearance at any time, if he so chooses.

(Sorry to ressurrect an old thread, but I can't help myself.. found it when looking for some info)

Nope. As noted in the books, the ruins are older than 1000 years, some very much so (Cylarne). They survived the Greymarch. The Greymarch isn't as much a remaking of the realm as it is a trashing of it. Jygg pretty much ruins everything, but he doesn't "unmake" it. Source: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Shivering:The_Predecessors

I also think it's supposed to be Arden-Sul.

(Well, as long as we've got a zombie thread...)

I had always assumed the busts (and all the humanish statues in SI, really) were of Sheogorath. Yeah, they don't look like the busts of him, but the guy can change his shape, and the bearded busts themselves don't look like the Sheogorath you meet in person. They could be Arden-Sul or some random person, though, now that I think about it.