Consider the tale of Prince Five-Weapons and the Ogre Sticky-Hair (cf. http://www.buddhanet.net/bt_5.htm)

Long story short, an intrepid prince is accosted by a ravenous, destructive giant impervious to all weapons. Hope seems lost, but then the prince reveals his ultimate weapon - the vajra, the diamond (or thunderbolt, or diamond thunder bolt...it depends who you ask) weapon that the prince bears in his belly. If the ogre should try to eat him, he will surely die, his innards torn asunder by the power and sharpness of the gem.

I don't know about you, but this seems oddly similar to confrontation between Martin and Dagon.

But then there's a reason for that: The Monomyth.

As described by everybody's favorite mythologist, fightin' Joe Campbell, the monomyth is the story of man, of his trials and tribulations, the achieving of his destiny - which necessitates him dying to as childhood ego and descending into a psycho-spiritual wellspring where he acquires the boon (Campbell calls this the thunderbolt, but it's typically realized as either a weapon or trinket/amulet; the point is that it represents wisdom, the power to destroy ignorance and realize that no obstacle is insurmountable) then return to the world, reborn a man and capable of defeating the big bad guy.

Obviously, it's not a perfect fit, as it's the CoC who does the descending and retrieving of the boon while Martin executes the jesus-maneuver only after Dagon pulls the dome off the Temple of the One, but I'm sure we'll eventually see an MK-text that claims that Martin and CoC where both just particular facets of the same oversoul :tongue:

^they are parts of the same soul, but Dagon is too.

Martin already descended into the darkness. He was a daedra worshiper in his youth.

Also, when someone goes insane, isn't a phrase "descended into madness?"

The whole point of the monomyth and archetypes is that it fits all stories. So yea, it applies to Marin and Dagon and the CoC as well. There are some points in Tamrielic canon that would be quite interesting investigated though the mirror of Campbell, imo.