Hi Folks, I've noticed discussion about the towers as some sort of prized weapon/building. What are the towers (White-Gold, Snow, etc.) and what purpose and power do they have? Thanks.

They keep reality from falling apart.

It's said they stabilize Mundus in Oblivion so it doesn't dissolve. Essentially, they act as a firewall to control interactions with Oblivion.

Ada-Mantia = The Direnni Tower, built around the spaceship where Akatosh landed and started time
Red Tower = Red Mountain, where Dagoth Ur dwelled in Morrowind, and where the Heart of Lorkhan landed
White Gold = White Gold Tower, where the Imperial Palace is located
Crystal-like-Law = The Crystal Tower of Summerset Isles; destroyed during the Oblivion Crisis
Orichalc = I have no idea where this is....
Green-Sap = Some claim it is Falinesti, the walking tree city of Valenwood
Walk-Brass = The Numidium, which Tiber Septim used to **** up the original Aldmeri Dominion, and later caused the Warp in the West
Snow Throat = High Hrothgar, where the Greybeards meditate in their ancient monastery to contemplate the Thu'um

I think other Planes of Oblivion have their own towers/earthbones;; for example, the Root Tunnel System & Fount of Madness in the Shivering Isles.

Just for your info in the future

Orcichalc was on Yokuda until the redguards blew it up.

In Yokuda, built by the Left-Handed Elves.

So, it's long gone.

Were the left-handed elves the orcs? (orichalcum is an important material in Orcish smithing)

No. Nice try, but no. Orichalc is only related to orichalcum by it's RL anologue.

Ur-Tower/Ada-Mantia/Direnni Tower/Adamantine Tower was Akatosh's spaceship that he planted into Nirn to create Time in Mundus.

Red-Tower/Red Mountain was the second Tower that was created when Auri-el and Trinimac killed Lorkhan and shot his Heart into Resdayn. The mountain would grow around the Heart. With two Towers in place Time was stable, so Auri-el turned into a dragon and flew into Aetherius because his job was done, and he didn't need to be on Nirn to keep Time stable. The Aldmer liked Auri-el's dragon light show and wanted to reenact it, so they built a few more Towers. It was destroyed when the Nerevarine destroyed the Heart

Crystal Tower in Alinor was built by the Aldmer which they wanted to use to become dragons themselves. I'm not sure if any of them ever succeeded. The Thalmor svcked all the power from it, so it's inactive.

Then there's Orichalcum Tower which was on Yokuda. I'm not sure why it was built, but Yokuda's gone, and Orichalcum Tower is too.

White-Gold Tower was built by the Ayleids, and is a weapon aimed at existence. There's an idea called The Wheel, that's a more truthful explanation of the universe as opposed to the Aurbis Myth, and White-Gold Tower is a wheel inside The Wheel. When you attempt to create a universe inside The Universe, bad things can happen. White-Gold Tower's Stone is the Chim-el Adabal, later the Amulet of Kings. This Tower was also destroyed when Martin Septim destroyed the Amulet.

Green-Sap is a giant walking tree in Valenwood. Beyond that I don't know anything about it or it's current status.

Snow-Throat is the mountain High Hrothgar in Skyrim. I think Shor built it, but I'm not sure what its purpose is or what its Stone is either. The Dragonborn Prophesy states that it is broken though. A Dragon Break occurred there however when the ancient Nords used an Elder Scroll to banish Alduin, and the scar in Time is still there.

Walk-Brass Tower is Numidium, created by the Dwemer because they finally got tired of being atheists and decided to make their own god. After the Battle of Red Mountain, the entire race transmuted itself to become Numidium's brass plating, with the Stone intending to be Lorkhan's Heart. It sat dormant until it was traded to Tiber Septim by the Tribunal for autonomy from Cyrodiil. It was assembled at Rimmen, and a Dragon Break occurred. Then it was used to assault the first Aldmeri Dominion, and it was blown apart by Ysmir, the Underking. It was used again in the Illiac Bay, which resulted in the Warp in the West or the Miracle of Peace, and then it blinked out of existence. It's Stone was the Mantella, a soul gem that contained the oversoul of Talos/Zurin Arctus/Ysmir.

The only other time I've seen the word Orichalc used is when referring to the Yokudan god Diagna, the "Orichalc God of the Sideways Blade".

"Hoary thuggish cult of the Redguards who originated in Yokuda during the Twenty Seven Snake Folk Slaughter. Diagna was an avatar of the HoonDing (the Yokudan God of Make Way) that achieved permanence. He was instrumental to the defeat of the Lefthanded Elves, as he brought orichalc weapons to the Yokudan people to win the fight. In Tamriel, he led a very tight knit group of followers against the Orcs of Orsinium during the height of their ancient power, but then faded into obscurity. He is now little more than a local power spirit of the Dragontail Mountains."

Orichalc Tower does interest me though. Part of me wonders if the Yokudans themselves built it, since their views of Mundus are more in line with Mer. Though then that begs the question why they went and blew it up. Who knows, maybe the Lefthanded Elves saw Mundus as good and Lorkhan their buddy?

Since we know little to nothing on it, I'll just go ahead and guess that the purpose of Orichalc Tower had something to do the Walkabout.

Tall Papa figured out how to escape the Hunger of Satakal and survive into the next kalpa. He taught the others gods this "Walkabout" and then set the stars in the sky to show others spirits how to do it too. When there were too many spirits to keep track of, Tall Papa created Sep out of the dead skin of past worlds/kalpas, so he could help out.

Then Satakal's hunger made Sep go bat[censored] and he tricked the gods into creating the Mundus, saying it would make the Walkabout easier. Instead it just trapped/bound the gods to the mortal plane, making it harder to survive Satakal. They got peeved and ripped his heart out. Or so I assume. Does Yokudan mythology have the heart removal bit? I'm not sure.

I guess it's obvious to everyone, and it was already pointed out above, but Orichal tower, orichalcum, is a reference to Atlantis. That and Yokuda both [exploding and] sinking into the ocean. Odd point that orichalc is used for Orcish gear, but I'll leave that to another topic.

So yea, the Redguards are Cimmerians. Grimfaced warriors, bronzed under the sun.

On point how the Redguard beliefs are somewhat merrish, I faintly recall someone writing-up a while back that the west of Tamriel is quite Aedric (take that term however way) slowing becoming more alien and Daedric as you head east. We have the Summurset elves, and then the Empire, and then the Velothi east. And Argonians, few references relating the Hist with Sithis. Aedric west, daedric east. Mannish center with the Dragon-Spacegod fusion.


I swear I've read this somewhere. Regurgitating the info.

Then, as you go farther in either direction, everything loops around again. The world warps in on itself.

Yokuda: Men become Merrish. Curiously Nordic mythos: a desire to see the Far Shores, a TimeSpace serpentdragonking, and more recent bit about Kalpas == Walkabout. But then the merrish sinks in; Sep's worldskin mundus didn't seem like such a good idea. Redguards seem neutral at best, thinking that the world-skin-mundus hurt like damn. No wonder that they love Arkay; they want nothing stopping their souls in the afterlife.

Then Akavir. We have "elves," or Not-Men as far as daedra-ancestor-wordplay go. Tsaesci eggmythos. We eat them so we are like them. Endearingly heavy with Lorkhan-Mundus. Go far enough to the east, and everyone acts like men; Mundus was a good idea bc we now exist.


I suppose this is me having fun with the word "plane(t)." Looking at Nirn as a flat plane of existence, and then simply thinking "Yes, aedric west, daedric east." Beliefs sliding across the anuadic gradient. Suddenly, red looks like violet, men pray like elves, elves (not-men) think like men, and the world is a round planet afterall.


So ... as to whether the Yokudans had a hand in building Orichalc Tower, maybe? Even if Towers are merrish, this a backwards land with Lefthanded Elves.
Maybe someone pointed that out already. Feel free to correct

A few questions for you:

1. Given the seemingly primitive and simple names of the Yokudan pantheon, what are the Cyrodiilic or Aldmeri equivalents of said gods?
-Ruptga would be Akatosh? Or would he be Lorkhan, who designed Nirn and allowed for stability?
-What does the Walkabout correspond to in Cyrodiilic and Aldmeri myth?
-Kalpas: I think Yokudan myth is the only cycle that actually mentions them. The only other thing I can think of is the constant warfare between the Nords and Al(t?(d?)mer (or Falmer?) as seen in Shor Son of Shor did that Ragnarok-like warfare happen in previous kalpas?
-Sep: Listed in Varieties of Faith in the Empire as the Yokudan Lorkhan, but where does that leave Satakal? Again, Varieties of Faith in the Empire lists his Western equivalent as Anu/Padomay, but it seems odd for the Yokudans to codify Anu/Padomay as a single entity when seemingly every other myth cycle starts the Universe off with that first ego split, thus creating two Forces instead of a single one. Going off of that, do the Yokudans actually have names for Anu/Padomay or do they just consider that duality as a single Force?
-Self-Eating Universe: Is this unique to Yokudan myth? In the only other case of kalpas being mentioned in racial myth, it's not the universe that destroys itself but a 3'rd party e.g. Alduin that does the deed. The Yokudans would say that Satakal has eaten himself innumerable times, and the cycle still continues. What are the other races thoughts on how many kalpas had existed before the current kalpa?

2. Your comment that the Redguard mythology is more in line with Mer than Men got me thinking.
-Suppose the Redguard built Orichalc Tower. If we assume that the Redguard share a Merish belief system, can we suppose the Lefthanded Elves shared a more Cyro-Nordic belief?


I like this idea, and I have a hypothesis: Is the term 'Lefthanded' literal or figurative? Could 'Lefthanded' refer not to hand orientation but instead belief orientation?
-Given that a lot of Yokudan terminology is very to-the-point, and they have a strong martial mindset, a person who is different or acts in an opposing manner to the norm could be referred to as Lefthanded; i.e. a swordsman who uses his left hand could be seen as an incredibly odd person in a culture where swordsmanship is a cultural imperative. Therefor any thought or belief that seems backwards could be labeled as 'Lefthanded'.
-Keeping with that theory that Yokudan terminology is straightforward but could still hide a few tricky metaphors especially concerning important cultural icons, could the term 'Sword-Singer' be a metaphor for a spell caster?
-This is based on the tendency for other culture to do the aforementioned term plug-ins. E.g. in Khajiiti culture, most of the deities are different kinds of cats (Alkosh-First Cat, Magrus-Cat's Eye, Mara-Mother Cat etc.). Could Yokudans do the same thing with the Swords?


This question is why I have reason to doubt that all the Yokudan gods neatly line up to Aldmeri and Cyro-Nordic gods. I can't remember the book (I read it ingame recently), but it states that Tall Papa tricked Satakal into biting his own heart and ending the eating, but Sep, the Hunger still remained even with Satakal dead. That book was confusing though, and I think I remember another bit later on saying that Satakal had bit his heart but was still alive too? That part doesn't make sense to me. Also if it hadn't mentioned the bit about Satakal eating his heart, I'd just explain it as a Sithis kind of thing, and the Yokudans interpreting Chaos as a never-ending hunger (makes sense in a way sans the heart bit).

Yokudan myth is intensely interesting but equally frustrating in my opinion. I once shot MK a similar list of questions about Yokudan myth, but never got a reply. He probably deleted it without looking at it while cleaning out his daily inbox of 99+ messages asking what CHIM is.