» Sat Dec 10, 2011 12:57 pm A Treatise on the Lost Yokudan God of I Forget.
By: Riddle VIII of Rihad
Year of publish: 4E 206
I. Introduction
Scholars, professors, academics, students, and everyone else; I greet you. Today, I wish to bring forth an issue that may sound absurd at first, but I hope -- in due time -- that I will be able to convince you of the seriousness of this issue. Before you scorn me for wasting your time, allow me to introduce this issue via anecdote, describe the issue, then prescribe a fix that, in my professional opinion, will be the best fix to this problem that we face. The problem that faces us, the problem that we must address, is forgetfulness.
Yes, you did read that correctly. Is not our past as undetermined as our future, especially to the unlearned minds? Accounts get exaggerated, details are forgotten, and then to top it off, people lie. These lies often become truths -- false truths that obscure the real truth of an issue, be there any truth remaining. Indeed, my father told me at a young age, "My dear boy, you must take everything anybody says with a pinch of sand. No one will ever deliver the truth without expecting compensation, be that compensation money, favors, or love." I should mention that my father raised me without a wife, a tale that he would never tell to me. However, I am digressing.
Forgetfulness has plagued the mortal races ever since the days of Lorkhan, Shezzar, Shor, and Sep. That is to say that the ability to forget is innate within all of us, though some of us are more finely attuned to the innate feature. This attunement is oft seen in the common elderly or those who have suffered a head trauma, either physical or mental. In my search for many historical truths, I have often run into witnesses that say, "I forget." A frustrating turn of events that often ends many adventures into the sea of knowledge.
Nothing crossed my mind until a fateful night in Sentinel. I was with an acquaintance of mine at the time, enjoying a sweet perfume when I met an old and interesting Khajiit. He was mad (or at least more mad than your usual Khajiit) but what he said he said with a conviction that I've never seen. He was clearly under the spell of the sugar, but his fiery, passionate speech about the Lunar Lattices and our misconceptions of them was only interrupted when he forgot a detail and couldn't remember it. "Damned Yoku's, left one of their gods behind that has plagued [me] since [I] was a cub!" Upon asking for clarification, he immediately responded, "Don't you see? Hermorah may hold forbidden knowledge, and Vaermina may steal your memories, but you Yokudans left behind one of your gods on their journey to Tamriel. In this state of abandon he thrives! The sugar has shown [me] this!" At this point, he walked away in frustration. A racist old cat, likely, but I sensed more truth in his words than any I had found in my various researches. The next morning, I had discovered a new purpose for my life: to find this lost god. It was that day that my new voyage for knowledge began. It was a naive, if not outright stupid idea, but it yielded suprising results. This Khajiit spoke more truth than he had perhaps realized.
II. A Search to Forget.
I first began my journey in the Imperial Library. Unfortunately, I didn't yield as much knowledge as a I thought I would. Finding a god that causes people to forget would not be an easy venture, but it wasn't impossible. A dusty old tome mentioned a tale that some of the nomads of the Alik'r share, though very rarely. Occasionally, one of these nomads might mention how the god of I Forget will hold the truth deep down in their throat. A struggle between this nomad and the god will occur, often ending with either the god winning outright or the god ceding a bittersweet victory to the mortal. These victories are bittersweet in the sense that while the mortal might remember the big picture, he or she may forget some small, sometimes crucial details. I needed more information. and I soon booked a ship back to my native Rihad.
For the sake of concision, I will not describe my journey to and through the Alik'r desert. Needless to say, it was arduous and fraught with dangers. I've never liked that region of my homeland. Somewhere in my third week in the desert, I finally found a nomadic tribe that was not only willing to talk, but also had the information that I sought. I sat down with the chief named Kupka'a and asked what he knew on the lost god. Kupka'a had seen plenty of violence, but he had a refined wisdom. He confirmed the tale I had read back in the Imperial Library. He noted that this god -- or "the spirit" as he called it -- learned the walkabout, but was very reclusive and did not like being near the other spirits. When I asked for the name of this spirit, Kupka'a said that he did not know. Kupka'a also added that he could not give me all the answers that I sought. "Young Raga, when the seas swallowed Yokuda, many secrets were lost. Some of these secrets were meant to be left behind, perhaps mistakenly so," he told me. I left him my only grand soul gem before I left.
From my visit to Kupka'a I learned that I needed to look for the remains of Yokuda and try to gather what information I could from there. I cannot say that this was an inexpensive idea, for proposing searching for Yokuda yielded an immediate fit of laughter from some of my closest companions. I had to give up my friends and find a group of mercenaries. Much to my benefit, I found some Nord mercenaries in Anvil. These Nords had a hunger for exploring the seas west of Tamriel that was yet to be filled. This made their bargains only a little bit less expensive, but I was desperate to get out and see the what was left of Yokuda myself.
Of course, my aptitude with magicka is practically nil. I went to the Arcane University and hired a Breton mage and an Argonian spellsword. The Argonian was particularly expensive, but I needed someone that could search the ocean without a need for interruption. She turned out to be a valuable asset. While I was in the Imperial City, I did one last search for the location of Yokuda. I also bought a sixtant for, at the very least, my own use.
It was a week long journey until we finally came over what should have been the islands of Yokuda. The water was choppy, as though it were still being tormented from the cataclysmic events of 2700 years ago. Rocks jutted out like innocuous-looking bandits, waiting for you to fall into their trap and steal your riches. Anchoring proved to be difficult, but we were able to spend a good month out on the sea before supplies ran low. While I can not say that the journey yield as much information as I had hoped, I nevertheless came home with something to report. Unfortunately, the mercenaries demanded double their fees after we landed in Anvil, but that is a small detail.
III. The Results of my Field Research.
I must ask you to keep in mind the previous tale of Kupka'a's "spirit," for it is very much confirmed by what little I could salvage from the ruins of Yokuda.
The true name of this spirit has been lost. I will discuss the ramifications of this fact later, but for now we must settle with a name that the old Yokudans used. While there were many stipulated names for the god of I Forget, the most common one appears to be Esi'qial. There is a particular fable I found that discusses this spirit. Oddly enough, the tale was about Tall Papa trying to get the spirit to confess its name. I'm heavily paraphrasing, but it goes accordingly:
"In the time before Sep's trickery, there once existed a very reclusive spirit. Not much was known about this spirit, and all encounters with this spirit were largely forgettable. One day, this spirit was swallowed by Sep. Had Ruptga not been keeping an eye on Sep, he could very well have never noticed this spirit was missing. Ruptga reached inside Sep and pulled out this spirit. After Tall Papa admonished Sep,he sat down with the recently devoured spirit. Tall Papa knew nearly nothing of this spirit, and wanted to know why.
"'Speak your name,' demanded the Tall Papa.
"'I fear that speaking my name will prove useless, for you will forget it anyway. I'm never one for talking, and I will not change that, for I have nothing to talk about' [Esi'qial] replied.
"'Ah, but perhaps in learning your name, you will then become able to talk.'
"'It will do you no good, Tall Papa. As quickly as our encounter is over, you will promptly forget about me until you next see me.'
"As soon as [Esi'qial] said that, Tall Papa's attention was turned back to Sep. Sep had swallowed another spirit, and Tall Papa had to admonish Sep again. As soon as Tall Papa stepped up, [Esi'qial] went and hid, and was utterly forgotten by Tall Papa."
In my explorations, I also discovered various references to secrets that were deliberately left behind. Kupka'a was right, and it appears that Esi'qial was supposed to be one of these secrets. Note well: While Esi'qial was meant to be left behind, I am not doing you a disservice by informing you of Esi'qial. I will discuss more on this later. Keep in mind, though, that at least some of the tale of Esi'qial managed to make it across the Azurian Sea, thereby ruining whatever plans the old Yokudans had for Esi'qial.
Esi'qial has various memory-loss related events in his domain. He is the master of repression, amnesia, senility, and head trauma, among other things. While he has no control over life and death, Esi'qial thrives in wartime when the memories of the fallen soldiers are obliterated forever.
IV. Ramifications, prescription and some other questions.
For once, A Khajiit loaded on the sugar knew what he was talking about. When the Yokudans left for Tamriel, they had hoped that Esi'qial would have been forgotten, and that his domain over the I Forget would be undone. They were twice mistaken in their belief, because not only did the tale survive (albeit fragmented), but also Esi'qial thrives in being forgotten. Forgetting is his domain, after all, but in their shortsightedness they empowered Esi'qial enough that he stripped away most of the Ra Gada's ability to form the Shehai. Both the Khajiit and Kupk'a warned me of this, and I am led to believe that, while your typical gods are defined and empowered through belief, Esi'qial is empowered through lack of knowledge and belief. This is to say that worship hurts him, and that to know him is to beat him. However, we can never know the true name for Esi'qial, for his true name has been aptly forgotten. This is his trump card, and because we cannot truly know him, we will always be susceptible to his power of I Forget.
The best method of combatting Esi'qial is to spread the knowledge of him. The more people that know of him, the weaker he will become. Knowledge of him will, ultimately, loosen our ability to forget which, admittedly, is a bit of a double-edge sword. Various wiseman and philosophers can explain the importance to forgetting some things much better than I.
Now, I anticipate some questions regarding Esi'qial, and I hope that I can explain them to the best of my abilities.
What caused Esi'qial to follow Sep into the creation of Mundus? I cannot provide a clear answer for this, but my best guess is that, while sliding down Sep's throat, Sep spoke to him and implanted the idea of Mundus inside Esi'qial. Similarily, Esi'qial could have chosen not to follow Sep (more on this in a bit)
Does Esi'qial appear in other pantheons? Perhaps, because his domain is forgetting and repression. The Altmer, Nordic, Khajiit or Cyrodiilic aspects of Esi'qial could very well have been forgotten by these cultures. If that's the case, then we must be on the lookout for their presence in any of the old allegories. Equally likewise, Esi'qial could very well be a Daedric Prince, which might explain his presence in the Aurbis. This doesn't change the ability to defeat him, which is simply believing in him.
V. Conclusion
The old Yokudans once knew of the god of I Forget called Esi'qial, for his true name was never known. In their hopes of ridding the god, they left what they believed to be all knowledge of him on Yokuda when the Cataclysm hit. Unfortunately, this only served to strengthen the Esi'qial. Were it not for some old fables and tales passed around, I very well suspect that the populace of Mundus (beasts included) would very well have developed amnesia of the worst variety: an absolute blank slate, devoid of even primal instincts. However, we can protect ourselves from his presence by knowing of him to the best of our abilities. While we can never everything about Esi'qial, we can try our hardest to know as much as we can.
