During the quest "Blessings of Nature," the pilgrim who prays for a sapling points out that "the true blessings of nature lie in renewal, not slavish maintainance." So doesn't that make stopping Alduin (and preventing the next world) no different than svcking the sap out of the Eldergleam, or sacrificing innocents to gain immortal vampirism from Molag Bal - sustaining the current kalpa with slavish maintenance?

There will be some consequence most likely, but it's best that it happens.

Was it Alduin's intention to end the kalpa, or was he continuing his plan to rule over the world instead of ending it? If he was intending to fulfill his purpose, why would he be resurrecting the other dragons?

This here Kalpa is 'special'.

The game points to Alduin wanting to rule rather than eat it. However I think he probably would have gone on to eat it. Maybe after the LDB defeats him on the Throat of the World like some here have hypothesized.

Annnd that's why the Dragon Cult became cruel. Alduin usurped the Aka-Tusk in the pantheon and it's why Miraak was Dragonborn.

If I understand kalpa to mean both aeon and ritual passage, it seems to me this Alduin in the series betrayed the Time-rite to consume himself. The usurper part of him was an apparent corruption, but it enjoyed life beyond usefulness (immortality), and to preserve itself from Bormahu hides in Sovngarde.

Maybe Landfall is what happens when a kalpa keeps running too long?? It sure sounds like it

You misunderstand. How many times do you think the world has been born, bled dry and eaten by Alduin?

Alduin defeated and banished? This is new. The cycle has been broken. Something fresh, something uncertain, something different will rise from the ashes of the kalpic system: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coda_(music).

Or the time and space will unravel and everything will be destroyed without the possibility of renewal.

You say that as if it's a bad thing.

Well, if you are wanting something different to rise up, I would say it is, since it would mean the destruction of everything without the possibility of anything new coming from that destruction. It's just a dead end.

If it does happen, the story ends. No Nirn, no Mundus, no C0DA, no Amaranth; nothing but Aetherius and Oblivion and the ada floating around contemplating their own existences.

Sounds utterly [censored] boring to me.

Are you hoping that the game series ends, or something? Are you that horrified with the direction it's taken so far? Without Mundus, obviously there are no further games. I think we need to keep the possibility of existence alive for that reason alone.

Would you prefer a TES6 that's even more dumbed down than Skyrim? They keep cutting the soul out of the series step by step until it reaches the Gradient Z of mainstream appeal.

Guys, please. The Thalmor will win, and the Mundus will be undone. We know this. But that is not the end of TES. Have you guys forgotten about the Amaranth? Again, read up on C0DA, and coda, and its definition.

Besides, this series we've got here? It's all happened in 200 years. There's thousands upon thousands of blank years to be filled, and that's just this kalpa.

They sure did a fine job with Skyrim's plot. Why can't they just get Obsidian Entertainment to write for them since they keep screwing up?

...what are you even on about? Go mope someplace else.

Seconded. This is the LORE forum, guys. And while yes, no more Mundus would mean no more games (although there are thousands of years of existing history that could be experienced first-hand, as ESO is doing), I was referring more to the fact that divine navel-gazing doesn't sound that interesting as a continuing story.

Again, no more Mundus = no more TES is wrong. If Bethesda are willing to go through with it, the current iteration will end, but the story will continue in someone else's Dream. Landfall, Amaranth, C0DA.

And if they aren't gonna do that (but they sure are setting it up all nice and ready), well, then there's no trouble.