I was reading "Ar'Kay, God of Birth and Death", and I stumbled across some interesting implications.

This piece of lore raises some big questions in my mind.

Why Mara? He's about to die, and he wants more time to study. Why is he not praying to Akatosh anon Time? Why does he pray to the god of Love?

The first question I don't know about. The second question has me thinking CHIM.

CHIM requires a strong love of one's self. Looking at Ar'Kay the shopkeeper, he has an extremely selfish love. He lets his business, his town, and even his family fall by the wayside just so he could keep studying. It doesn't explicitly say he acquired CHIM, but this mindset reminds me of guys like Tiber Septim and Vivec-just a little bit less dikeishness.

The guy was also studying life and death. This type of study inevitably brings up questions like the meaning of life, what is the world about, and the most important: What if this is all just a dream?

Ar'Kay the shopkeeper did not literally pray to Mara. He was trying to achieve CHIM. He prayed to Love, the Love of one's self so much that you can stare in the face of the question of birth and death- the question of "Do I really exist?". Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Arkay was able to say "Yes, I do exist."

Someone might counterargue that he did not love himself, he loved his study of life and death. I say that by the time he tried to achieve CHIM he identified birth and death with himself. By loving those things so much, he was really loving himself. This gave him the ammunition against the Godhead's truth when the time came.

What Mara anon Love said about "And, in spite of what you believe you understand, you will always agonize over whether your decisions are truly correct. How do you decide?" meshes with the idea that CHIM is a constant battle over whether you truly exist. Is your decision real, or is it not?

We can compare Ar'Kay's account with Talos. Tiber Septim was a CHIM user, and when he became a god his sphere was with what he was most well known for in life: The human endeavor, prevailing against all foes. There is a precedent for CHIM users becoming gods.

Conclusion:

Ar'Kay the shopkeeper did not pray to Mara. He discovered CHIM moments before his death, and used this to become Arkay.

That's not what Love is. Love, the kind Vivec speaks of, has very little to do with the emotion. Love is the merging of two opposing powers to create something new, destroying/transforming the original aspects in the process.

(I AM) + (I AM NOT) = I AM AND I ARE ALL WE. That is Love.

Regardless of that, no. Arkay is an Aedra, as are his mirror-brothers Tu'whacca and Orkey/Malacath/Trinimac.

I once made this connection in an attempt to argue that Arkay was the Amaranth, what with him moving beyond mortal death through love and his connection to the Dreamsleeve and bears and whatnot. I agree, though. There is definitely something to this story.