Is that the true god of Madness? What is the exact relationship between the tree and Sheogorath?

Sheo is the Shivering Isles. Think of it like the realm is the real god of madness, and Sheogorath is his avatar.

Thats what I figured that the Deadric gods are avatars of formless ideas, or beyond the human scope of understanding?

Yeah, pretty much.

The Tree is the closest thing you get to the Heart of his world, so it's more Sheogorath than the little bearded man with a cane we associate the concept of Sheogorath with. If the Tree and the Symbols of Office remain intact, so does Sheogorath and so do the Isles.

But when Sheogorath shapeshifts to Jyggalag, the realm changes only slightly. When Jyggalag leaves for good, the realm reverts to how it was pre-Greymarch. And the Tree was there the whole time.

The Tree is also the entity which makes the PC the new Sheogorath.

Edit: And I suspect it is the entity that turned Jyggalag back into Sheogorath after each successful Greymarch.

Isn't Jyggalag made sheogorath by like a curse/punishment by the other Princes because he was so powerful. So is it possible that the tree is the anchor to the eternal punishment that condemns "sheogorath" to madness.

The Order obelisks seem to have no end to how deeply they reach, so I suspect that the Tree was the curse, and that it wasn't always there. It's also powerful enough that it makes sense that it was the work of multiple Daedra Princes.

As for it cursing him, I suspect that at the end of the Greymarch, Jyggalag tries to destroy it and it turns him back into Sheogorath.

The tree is the Font of Madness, so in a way it's what sustains Sheogorath. It's why Jygallag tries to poison the Font with Order Crystals to end each Greymarch.

It's also why, when another living being - the Champion - sits on the throne and uses the power of the Font with Jygallag's soul separated from it, that the Prince of Order is able to break the cycle once and for all and depart the realm.

It's similar to what will happen once Alduin and Lorkhan finally manage to become separated from one another on Nirn. It's strongly hinted that Jygallag is supposed to be similar to Shor in some ways. Lorkhan was even referred to as Lyg before his fall, and the Daedra Lords still know him by that name.

I think the font is the essence of 'the curse'. However it is not the Daedric Prince.

The truest representation of the Prince is his avatar. The bearded man.

The avatar is the only way the will of the entity is actively expressed in the world.

If someone were to destroy the avatar another will show up promptly.

if someone poisons the font, that poison will express itself in the avatar

Let us not under estimate the significance of that single individual.


When the Greymarch starts the realm changes to reflect what is happening to it's Prince.

Time after time, cycle after cycle the realm changes depending or the state of it's Prince.

When the curse is lifted and Jyglagg starts to depart...he specifically mentions to the PC that he will 'grow' into his godhood.

Thus as the PC grows in godhood he and his realm will become more connected, The realm will begin to transform and conform more to the nature and will of the PC.

When you use the word separate when referring to Lorkhan and Alduin, do you mean it synonymous to how Jygallag and Sheogorath were basically the same entity? I thought Lorkhan and Alduin were always separate beings.

Jyggalag was trapped within Sheogorath just as Shor is trapped within the constraints of time and space, the domain of the Aedra/Earth Bones. And who is chief among these?

Ah yes I see what you mean now. What you say falls in line with the Dovahkiin in Skyrim being an avatar of Shor, or which I believe anyways. Kind of like Lorkhan getting square with Akatosh.