Okay. So the compatibility of the concepts of Ancestor Worship, aligning with your AE (the afterlife), and the Dreamsleeve has been bearing down on me for a while now. So I'm going to bring this up here, even though I already guess the prevailing answer I will receive. Get ready for my vain attempt at reigning in my discordant thoughts.

Ancestor worship: I'm not talking about the Old Ways which seem to focus less on relatively close blood ancestors and more on mythic ancestors. I'm talking about good old fashioned Dunmeri ancestor worship. I can provide quotes, if wanted, but I think it's fairly common knowledge that Dunmer commune with dead ancestors. There is never any stated limit on how long dead an ancestor can be and still be available for summoning; though I can't recall any specific instances of a specific ancestor being summoned. These ancestors seem to live in the Dreamworld (an interesting tie with Dagoth Ur awaking from the dead Dreamworld of the Dunmer). Wise Women commune with their ancestors in dreams and the ancestors can affect the dreams of those who are near a beacon (waiting door, ghostfence, ancestral tomb). Regardless of there being references to this "Otherworld," I'm inclined to think that it's most likely the common Dunmer's impression of Oblivion. The Waiting Door is said to represent the "door to Oblivion" where the ancestors dwell. And we know that the Daedra can influence the dreams or mortals.

No questions yet.

Afterlife (AE): Based on what we know of the Dunmer, most religious individuals would likely end up in Moonshadow, Attribution's Share, or Mephala's Web (I argue that temple followers may as well, since the Tribunal call the Good Daedra their Anticipations - where else would they end up? unless we go with my underdeveloped theory that Necrom serves as an afterlife for the temple Dunmer). Okay, so they die and go to Oblivion - or maybe remain on Mundus indefinitely. As do other races. Take Pelagius the Mad for instance. He's been dead for about 500 years and he's still "alive" and kicking in the Shivering Isles (though, it's interesting that we don't meet him in the so-named expansion to Oblivion).

No questions yet.

Dreamsleeve: So here's where the questions come up. How does the Dreamsleeve fit in with an afterlife? If people die and go to Oblivion, or "Aetherius" (I don't think they actually go to Aetherius... if they're aligned with the Divines, they'd remain in the Mundus and go to one of the Plane(t) gods of the Divines), then when do they get recycled to be spit back out on Nirn to get another attempt at Amaranth like Lorkhan wanted?

What about all those people in the Shivering Isles? When THEY die again in Oblivion (assuming they didn't travel there like the COC), do they end up in the Dreamsleeve and find themselves emerging in blood and anguish on Nirn? Or do the streams of Oblivion carry them back to the AE they're aligned with? If people remain mortal in the Shivering Isles, wouldn't the inhabitants of Sovngarde be mortal as well? There may be a quote I'm not remembering about what happens to people who die in the Shivering Isles, help me out here.

I don't really know what else to ask. I just can't puzzle out how the Dunmer can commune with their dead for seemingly as long after death as they want, mortals who died and go to Oblivion or "Aetherius" can sit around in revelry (or torment) indefinitely, and then we've got the Dreamsleeve which claims to be the soul recycling system. Is the Afterlife a workaround? Can only non-religious types who don't align with a certain AE hope to get a second chance at Amaranth? Otherwise they'll get stuck in one of the Aedric or Daedric realms forever? Or is there some sort of back and forth where you die on Nirn, then go to Oblivion, then you die or time out there and get thrown into the Dreamsleeve, to get spit out on Nirn and repeat the cycle?

I'm so lost that my head hurts. Can someone please tie the dreamsleeve to the afterlife?