If this is a dream, where is its dreamer?

Post » Sat May 23, 2015 8:59 pm

As always, I apologize ahead of time for my lack of knowledge of TES lore.

In the concept of CHIM, it essentially implies that to reach CHIM, you have to realize that the Aurbis, and everything that happens within it, are just a giant dream. If that's the case, then who is/are the dreamer(s), and where are they right now according to TES lore? Are these dreamers just every single player of the series? Are the dreamers maybe supposed to be the lore-friendly name for Bethesda and its developers? Is the Aurbis perhaps a fantasy realm within a fantasy realm in which the dreamers are located? Am I completely misunderstanding this concept?

Anyways, that's all I was wondering, it just had me a bit curious the other day so I thought I'd stop by and see the general opinion on the forum. :)

User avatar
Vahpie
 
Posts: 3447
Joined: Sat Aug 26, 2006 5:07 pm

Post » Sat May 23, 2015 9:12 am

The "dreamer" is the character occasionally and obscurely mentioned in lore known as the "Godhead." He/she/it exists outside the reality that is the Elder Scrolls universe, as the entire universe is merely the sum of the unconscious Godhead's dreams. So asking "where" can't really be answered anymore then an artist could answer if I asked them where they were in a two-dimensional painting.

Ex-dev Michael Kirkbride shed some light on the subject by identifying the Godhead as Anu. And not the in-universe state that is Anu; that Anu is merely the image Anu conjures of himself in the dream. Nevertheless, the series of events that lead the Godhead to slumber and dream is more or less recounted in the legend of Anu and Padomay in the Children's Anuad. Of course Anu may himself be an unreliable narrator: to what extent he is demarcating Padomay from himself is open for question, as it has been suggested that the dream itself a re-imagining of what happened to the Godhead to absolve himself of his own crimes.

Edit: Never apologize for lack of knowledge. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

User avatar
Jonathan Windmon
 
Posts: 3410
Joined: Wed Oct 10, 2007 12:23 pm


Return to The Elder Scrolls Series Discussion