This morning, whilst discussing my latest read (or rather re-read) in our Community Discussion forum, I closed by mentioning that I sometimes consider my Cyrodiil avatar an incarnation of Moorcock's "Eternal Champions". Now, I realize not all here are familiar with Moorcock's writing, and that many regulars do not revel in the more heroic quest lines (principally the MQ and KotN). All the same, once thought of I find comparisons fascinating and unavoidable. As a refresher, Moorcock wrote a great many novels centered on the Eternal Champion in his or her many guises, tied together by such concepts as the Multiverse, the Conjunction of the Million Spheres, the Lords of Law and Chaos, the Balance, the Runestaff and other objects of power such as Elric's sword Stormbringer, Tanelorn, and so on. Individual books are not overly sophisticated, though some are quite fine. It is the novels as a totality that make Moorcock's premise so thought provoking.

An obvious tie-in is the Champion of Cyrodiil, more so when that champion happens to be Divine Crusader. This makes him almost a shoe-in for an Eternal Champion in the service of the Lords of Law. (Moorcock's champions can serve either Law or Chaos, and occasionally the Balance itself. They almost always indirectly support the balance, often unknowingly, at least at times.) Daedric princes can be seen as Lords of Chaos. The Nine as Lords of Law.

I'm stretching things here, but our individual play-throughs can be seen as the embodiment of Moorcock's "Multiverse", parallel dimensions in which like worlds and/or universes (in this case Nirn/Mundus) co-exist, with differences both subtle and not so subtle. One could stretch things further yet and compare the Conjunction of the Million Sphere's to those times our avatar's are made aware of each other.

As to objects of power, the Amulet of Kings might well fit the bill. Moorcock's Champion does not always possess the object him or herself, but sometimes instead merely serves it, as our avatars do the Amulet.

Unrelated to TES IV, Arena's hero in actually called "Eternal Champion". Whether this was a bow or Moorcock or sheer coincidence I know not.

What think ye? Be there something to this? Can ye come up with other similarities?

-Decrepit-