Can you point me in the right direction about this? There are quite a few - if not all - of the Daedric Princes and Tribunal Demi-Gods that are an "Anticipation of" someone else. I was wondering what does this title refer to.

The text you've already found, http://www.imperial-library.info/mwbooks/anticipations.shtml is naturally a good source for info, your key lines being "The Good Daedra are known to the Temple as the Anticipations, since they are the early ancestral anticipations of the loving patronage of the Tribunal.The Anticipations are the Daedra Lords Boethiah, Mephala, and Azura."

Some other relevant texts include:

"Vivec is also known to the Dunmer as the transcendent evolution of the daedra that anticipated him... Each of the three Tribunes of the Temple were represented in the dawn of Chimeri culture by their Anticipations."http://www.imperial-library.info/mwbooks/vivec_mephala.shtml

The Tribunal gloriously usurped the worship of our Anticipations, as was foretold in the words of Veloth.http://www.imperial-library.info/characters/trial_vivec.shtml

Basically in Dunmer religion the Anticipations are those Daedra which 'anticipated' the Tribunal - that is to say that they served as the mythic precursors from which the Tribunal developed. They are seen as being their early representations paving the way for the Tribunal's advent upon which time they willfully assented to relinquishing the worship of the people. As 'Vivec and Mephala' also notes, the Tribunal share characteristics of the Daedra which preceded them according to the connection they share.

Both... obviously the Daedric Lords are eternal and could never truly serve as simple anticipations for beings such as the Tribunal.

But due to the advanced speech craft of Sotha Sil, the Dunmer people came to BELIEVE this was true - the Vivec, Almalexia and Sotha Sil were the true gods and that Mephala, Boethia and Azura had simply been placeholders heralding their glorious arrival. And on Tamriel, belief is a very real power.

I think it's more than just a matter of ubiquitous belief. My suspicion is that the Tribunal made it true that the good Daedra anticipated their arrival. When they tapped the power of the Heart of Lorkhan they made it so the prior mythos paved the way for their coming.

I think it's more than just a matter of ubiquitous belief. My suspicion is that the Tribunal made it true that the good Daedra anticipated their arrival. When they tapped the power of the Heart of Lorkhan they made it so the prior mythos paved the way for their coming.

Vivec and Mephala refers to it as 'transcendent evolution', implying that the Tribune is a fulfillment or progressive stage of the precursor Prince and that in being early representations of the Tribunes the Daedra were part of that eternalness created by the Heart.

Reality was changed so that Vivec had existed for all time - one might say his 'pre-birth' stage manifested in the form of Mephala. The eternal Vehk and Mephala cannot exist in unison; the images are blurred with the result of Mephala as Anticipation (representative image of the two) which would then 'anticipate' fulfillment/evolution/usurpation into Vehk upon Red Mountain. One could call it a mending by the Jills of Vehk as god and Mephala as Anticipation (the same holding true for the other Tribunes as well).

A popular book in Morrowind compares me to my Anticipation, Mephala, thusly:

"[The] explicit presentation of Vivec the Guardian God-King and Warrior-Poet is the one most accessible and familiar to Westerners. However, it is important to remember that Vivec is also known to the Dunmer as the transcendent evolution of the daedra that anticipated him, Black Hands Mephala, a foundation figure of the earliest Chimer. This darker side of Vivec does not appear in the popular literature and liturgy, but is instinctively understood and accepted by the Dunmer as an integral part of Vivec's divine aspect."

As part of the fraternity that you share with my fore-self Mephala, would you or would you not say that my replacement of Hir (in Veloth, at least) was hardly noticed by the common people?

Moreso, wouldn't you say that I did not replace Mephala so much as become Hir living celebrant?

From what I understand, seven Daedra Princes were worshipped in Morrowind prior to the Tribunal; Azura, Boethiah, Mephala, Malacath, Sheogorath, Molag Bal, and Mehrunes Dagon. When the Tribunal came around, Molag Bal, Malacath, Sheogorath, and Mehrunes Dagon rebelled and contended with the Tribunal for some time. The remaining three did not. It may be because they recognized that each had a counterpart in the Tribunal.