I'm sure this has been discussed before, but I wasn't able to find anything with the search function that answered my questions. So here they are.

Where exactly is Paradise supposed to be? We know that the Mysterium Xarxes contains instructions on how to open a portal there, but I haven't seen a concrete explanation as to where "there" is. Is it part of Mehrunes' plane of Oblivion? It certainly doesn't resemble the deadlands at all, from what we see of them in the rest of Oblivion. Is it Camoran's own personal Oblivion plane? He seems to have pretty much absolute power over the place, from it's very appearance to the fact that his committed followers return there indefinitely after death. I'm pretty skeptical that a mortal could gain their own private Oblivion plane even with the help of a Deadra Lord, but it makes sense based on what we see of it in the game.

Another thing that's been bugging me, as a sidenote: how exactly did Mankar get ahold of aedra blood to open Paradise in the first place? More of Tiber's blood laying around somewhere?

"I've learned that the Mysterium Xarxes is both the gate and the key to Camoran's Paradise. In some sense, the book IS Camoran's Paradise."--Martin]

Camoran's Paradise was a realm of/within the Mysterium Xarxes. Camoran bound himself to the Daedric text and used it as a realm that he could also bind his followers to. It is not part of Dagon's plane, but its arguable that Dagon made it possible.

"Mankar Camoran bound himself to the Xarxes when he created his Paradise, using dark rituals which I will not speak of further."--Martin

He does have near absolute power there, he is bound to the book and acts as it's sigil (that's why the realm collapses when you kill him, just as the Oblivion realms collapse when you take the sigil stones).

I'm not sure if your last question is addressed in the game and don't have the CS available to check...

From what I gathered while playing was,it is in Oblivion,it is a reward of type for him opening the way.Like an eternal heaven only we know how it turned out for his followers.I loved freeing the Deadra just so he could torture those Mythic Dawn fools.

He could make portals with the Xarxes alone, without the ingredients.

And why would Tiber Septim's armor be bloodstained?

Why indeed? When was he wounded? And why wouldn't he clean his armour?

And why would Tiber Septim's blood be used for the blood of an Aedra, as 1) Tiber Septim is not Talos in full and 2) Talos is not an Aedra.

And why would Tiber Septim's armour be at Sancre Tor? He didn't die there, nor was he buried there.

Thanks a bunch for these explanations, I haven't done the MQ in Oblivion for quite some time, and I had forgotten how Martin described the world actually being the book itself. It still puzzles me that an artifact like the Xarxes could have the power to contain an entire realm within itself, that seems kind of unprecedented in TES lore.


I figured there was probably no concrete answer for this, but I wondered if anyone had theories.

One thing people tend to ignore is that Realm <> Sphere.

A Prince's Sphere is himself. It's the essence (eg: Destruction or Darkness etc.) The Realm is "made" (not created) by changing cast-away creatia which falls to Oblivion via the stars.

I think that both the Paradise and every other physical "realm" we see from Oblivion is of same substance as Mundus, that is creatia, the substance of AE. The thing is that Paradise was "held together" by the Mankar himself, because he was the Paradise's "sphere" so to speak. At least that's how I see it.

Shivering Isles is no exception either, it's not indestructible as some people think. Daedric Realms can be destroyed, and even their Avatars can be destroyed but their Spheres, the essence of their being cannot be destroyed. Their essence is NOT touchable. It's not some hunk of rock. In fact most of the Daedric Princes are Padomaic which means they are insubstancial, should their realm be destroyed utterly, you wouldn't be able to walk there at all.

Where the Realm is is irrelevant. It's somewhere in Oblivion, which is a huge piece of almost-nothingness (think space). Same with SI and Dagon's little sigil-pockets (which IMHO are not part of his original Realm, but possibly "closer" to Nirn, but that's just a personal theory).

So in other words, first there's a Prince, he/she then catches some cast-away creatia and molds it into something substantial to reflect his essence. This is the Realm, and it is held together by whatever essence was behind molding it. Without the essence, there's nothing to keep it as it is (same for Mundus btw. I think).

How exactly was Paradise made is a different issue tho, I think that Dagon just showed/gave Mankar the means to mold creatia in Oblivion (IMHO he must've helped him in one way or another).

Correction, Talos is not Tiber Septim in full...

"The second to see the Brass God was the Enantiomorph. You may know them individually as Zurin Arctus and Talos. The Oversoul was known to the world as Tiber Septim"http://www.imperial-library.info/interviews/skelm.shtml

It's all very confusing. Who is Tiber Septim? Is he Ysmir as some think, who wore that armour, or is he a mix of Ysmir and Wulfarth, as others think? Some sources say Talos IS the Enatiomorph.

Anyway, the whole quest for Aedra's blood still doesn't work.

I can't answer your other questions, but I know this one. Jauffre says that, back when Sancre Tor was a Blades stronghold, Tiber Septim gave the Blades his armor to show his appreciation for their help in battle. The Blades enshrined the armor at Sancre Tor, which later fell to the Underking.