I'm usually pretty good at hunting up answers to my lore questions, but there are a couple things regarding Alduin which I can't seem to track down. First of all, I've heard mention of his motivations for essentially devouring everything as freedom from the Mundus. I'm not sure what that means. I realize he's bound to it, but all the Aedra are, aren't they?

Secondly, is there any reason to believe that all of the stuff about Alduin devouring pretty much all of reality is literal? The things I've read about him eating kalpas, and all of that lead me to believe that perhaps it isn't quite so literal. After all, he's not that big, and he doesn't seem capable of devouring a world.

He becomes unbound to Mundus, and begins to eat the world

Yes, myths in TES tend to be, more or less, literal.

The issue I'm having with grasping that is, a kalpa is essentially a unit of time, yes? I realize he's the time god and all of that, but the image of a big dragon systematically eating all of reality is baffling. I almost want him to win, just to see what that's like. XD

He erases the current universe, and a new one pops up, because some spirits [censored] around with him. The current Mundus stalled him badly.

To see the universe erased, you wouldn't be there to see it as you've been wiped out.

Are we really certain that he literally eats all of creation, or just the essential, tower-shaped bits that keep it from sinking into Oblivion?

So yeah, I'm thinking that the reason why Aldy always hits Skyrim first is Snow-Throat. It's the most Mannish of the Towers, in direct mythic opposition to Crystal. If it gets gobbled up, I don't think Orichalc or the Khajiit collectively are going to offer any greater resistance to the end-Kalpa.

Alduin consuming the world, I have down pat; It's the implications that make my head spin, but they may be based off of a faulty interpretation.

Alduin consumes the Kalpa; as I understand it, this necessarily includes Mundus proper, but this is where things get hairy for me: Is Mundus a structure which confines the Aedra (a prison) or is it comprised of the (remnants of?) the Aedra (the gods as impressions in the skin-ball) or is it both? Or am I completely missing the mark, because if the world being consumed is equivalent to the other Aedra/pieces of the Aedra, then Alduin/Auri el is devouring his kin?

The dragon god of Time -literally- devouring Love, Mercy, and Mortality (among others) just drives the horror home for me.

Hey, time devours all. Only it's more literal.

Right, so the way I think of it is that the Mundus is an external prison-construct when viewed by each individual Aedra-residue, but viewed from the outside is all bits of Aedra. And other spirits. In other words, the Aedra are bound by each other's bones.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouroboros

/Sheogorath Voice

"Ye Shouldn't. It's the death of all things."

/End Sheogorath Voice

Or, in this instance, the cycling of all things ad infinitum.

In Fight One, High Hrothgar is the last bit he eats, IIRC.

He's literally Time Uncoiled, so I imagine chronology gets rather zany when he comes around.

It's unclear if it's just Mundus or all of the others Planes of Oblivion.