Hi all,

Please note that this post is based entirely upon the most popular creation theory of TES, it is entirely possible that every word of it is wrong and that everything was created by a giant, bright purple elephant.

I'm relatively new to the forums but have been playing the TES series for four years, beginning with Oblivion when it came out. I am relatively knowledgeable on the topic of TES lore with my peers (and anyone I know personally) but I've been doing some more in depth research lately and have been questioning the sense of some of the in-game religions. We know that most mortals worship either a Daedra or the nine Aedra (well, if Talos counts). Then there are the DB who worship Sithis and consider the Night Mother a deity as well. There is one major problem with this, the Daedra and Aedra aren't the most powerful beings in existence, so why would people worship them as so. I speak, of course, of Anu and Padomay, the two primal forces. However, these simply being forces and not sapient beings it is understandable that people wouldn't worship them, so next in line is Sithis and Anuiel.

Why is it that so many people worship Daedra and Aedra and so few people actually worship the most powerful beings in the TES universe? Hell, the Champion of Cyrodiil defeats Jyggalag, a Daedra.

Because, like Anu/Padomay, Anuiel and Sithis are not beings, they're forces. You have to get down to Akatosh & Lorkhan before you get to beings.

People don't worship those forces because those forces can't do anything for them - the Aedra and Daedra on the other hand can do things for you. Then there's the idea of worship for a reason other than power, such as worship out of love, reverence, tribute, devotion, and just all around worshiping something because it deserves to be worshiped.

One might also point to the Greek/Roman pantheons, and note how just because Hermes or Dionysus weren't the most powerful of the gods, doesn't mean there wasn't a reason to worship them.

Daedra aren't weaklings. They have extraordinary power. And why worship the Nine? A historian will tell you about what they did for Nirn. Besides, everyone has to have faith.

For one, Sithis, Anuiel, Anu, and Padomay are forces. To give a basic example, it would be like worshiping gravity. You can drop all the fruits, people, and stuff off a cliff as a sacrifice to gravity, but it's not going to notice nor care, and it'll still drop you at an acceleration of 9.80 m/s^2.

Also, the Champion of Cyrodiil was Sheogorath in that duel, which is why the CoC was able to defeat Jyggy.

When Sithis created the universe and made Lorkhan was he(it?) just following an inbuilt set of 'if's and 'then's? Because it is quite clear that when Anuiel created the Aedra Sithis made Lorkhan with the purpose of getting at their weakness.

Also, I understand that Daedra aren't weaklings, they are indeed incredibly powerful, but in comparison to Anu, Anuiel, Padomay and Sithis they are powerless.

Actually, a thought just occurred to me. If Anuiel and Sithis are purely reactionary then perhaps Daedra and Aedra would be even more powerful than the forces. This is because Anuiel and Sithis are polar opposites they nullify eachother and then the most powerful beings become the Aedra/Daedra. Of course, if a group of Aedra/Daedra were to overthrow the balance of power then the forces would become the most powerful beings again.

People worship them for the same reason that a child worships its parents, weak though they may be.

Wait wait wait... since when did "Sithis" become an actual god/force along with Anu and Padomay? I thought that was just Black Hand mumbo jumbo they spouted.

To my knowledge Sithis is the 'soul' of Padomay, just like Anuiel is to Anu. Padomay is the force but Sithis is what drives the force and decides where it should be used.

The Black Hand worship gravity, basically... They believe Sithis is actually some evil demon guy, though... Mephala's at work!

They are not polar opposites in the sense of nullifying each other. The Aurbis is the place where they touch, if they nullified each other then the universe wouldn't exist. Rather, instead of nullifying each other, they leave the world in their wake. More specifically, they leave individuality in their wake.

IS and IS NOT are opposites, but not in terms of 'existence' and 'nonexistence' or 'thing' and 'nothing.' Rather in terms of 'limitless' and 'limited' - Sithis is the thing that limits. This is why in the Altmeri myth prior to the coming of Sithis there is no such thing as differentiation; without Sithis everything is one, everything is 'I', Sithis in turn allows for a 'we' because Sithis breaks up the unity (hence why individual personalities start to develop after Sithis comes onto the scene).