» Sat Sep 19, 2015 3:16 am Much in the style of a real member of the Psijic order, I delved in deeper into the mechanics of the Elder Scrolls and the techniques used by Moth priests to derive prophecy from these scrolls. It is part TES lore, part speculation and part 'science', but much in style of how research is performed in the Elder Scrolls games.
I tried to make myself and hopefully others understand how the practice of elder scroll prophesying would seem plausible.
This research is based on what I read in lorebooks like "Effects of the Elder Scrolls" by Justinius Poluhnius and "Ruminations on the Elders Scrolls" by Septimus Signus as well as Paarthurnax quotes & Dawnguard questline and... well some quick wikipedia research on concepts such as spacetime and fourth-dimension theories.
Space & time
We know the world around us consists of three dimensions: length, width and height, simply spoken. That is what gives everything a location in space. Time however, is one-dimensional. Now spacetime is a way of mathematic modelling that tries to put the three spacedimensions and the one timedimension into one model. Thus time (a constant rate of passage that is independant of the state of motion of the observer) is to be considered as the fourth dimension. This is about as deep as we need to go into this theory. In the science of physics, these models are used to simplify a number of theories, but that's irrelevant in this topic.
Time is what makes the universe more than static objects. Time+ space, in physics, is related to velocity and is what causes any 'event'.
time + space = objects & events.
All events are defined by the objects and all objects are in turn defined by events. Everything that happens around us as human beings and all relationships we have with one another is through events (family, friendship,...). On a sidenote, this is why time is always our best friend and never our enemy, because it defines who we are, so don't have it stolen away.
However, we cannot "see" the fourth dimension. As I said the timedimension is defined as a constant rate of passage independant of the motion of the observer, much like being a static observer to water flowing away in a river.
The Elder Scroll as a window from the mind to the universe
The previous insights on the universe around us are important to the understanding of the elder scrolls, as defined by Paarthurnax:
"fragments of creation from outside time itself, and their use in divining prophecies is but a small part of their power. They simultaneously do not exist, yet always have existed."
So like everything else around us, elder scrolls are fragments of creation, yet what sets them apart is that they are outside time itself. So they are not subjective to the constant passage of time.
What are they then and how do people see things through them? Elder scrolls speak directly to the mind of the person who interacts with it. I'll use a simply anology to make it easier to understand how the very basics of the elder scrolls work:
Imagine a transparent cube. It consists of three dimensions obviously, it has a length, a width and a height. Now Imagine that inside of that cube, you can see a miniature version of your house. Now move the cube to the right and you see your neighbor's house. Move it up and you see a cloud above your house inside the cube. You can move it to anywhere you fancy in order to see any place in the entire universe through the little cube.
This is how the elder scroll speaks to the mind of its reader. It creates that little transparent cube inside your head and you can move it freely with your mind.
This however, only covers the spacedimensions of the universe. You can visit any place you want... but how do you see through time in order to pick up on a prophecy, much like the moth priests are capable of?
The role of ancestor moths & the timedimension
Not much is explained on the mechanic of using ancestor moths in order to receive prophecy through an elder scroll. Or any other reading technique for that matter. The following theory is based upon the idea that reading elder scrolls too hastily causes loss of sight.
Losing eyesight a physical symptom. This would mean that the subject was exposed to something that made him lose eyesight. In a little thinking exercise I decided to use this fact as the missing link to decypher breaking through the timedimension by using the elder scrolls.
People can only see three dimensions. So in order to see a fourth, it might be a plausible line of thought to assume that the spacedimensions are sacrificed and replaced with the timedimension, thus creating a static space context that has to be locked in on before one can move forward or backward in time. More specifically, you move the little cube in your head to a specific location in space and lock it on there. Then you replace the spacedimensions around the cube with the timedimension. So now you can only move the cube backward and forward, which means you will go forward or backward in time, while staying in the same location.
But that's not ideal, because the fact that you're locked in on a specific location would severely limit the potential of prophecy using the elder scrolls. You simply need to be able to move around in the spacedimensions to unlock the full prophecying potential of the elder scroll.
So here's how we can link it to the blindness aspect.
You cannot simply decide to let the elder scroll replace the spacecontext around the little cube in your mind with a timecontext. Instead a different mechanic is present to see through time.
Remember how, when you read the elder scroll called 'Dragon' to learn the dragonrend shout, the world looked reddish? As if you were looking through sunglasses with red lenses? I believe this is because we were looking back to the past. I'll try to explain.
It could be that the elder scroll shows our minds the timedimension by using the electromagnetic spectrum. The 'now' would be smack in the middle of the visible spectrum: a bit green-ish. If we decided to go forward in time with the looking-cube in our minds, we would have to move forward in the electromagnetic spectrum: to the blue end. If we were to move to the past, we would have to move to the red end of the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum.
This is where the ancestor moths play their role: They emit the specific light that we need to read the elder scroll. If we read the scroll in a certain light, our little cube in our heads will move to the position in time that this light dictates. Being able to manipulate this light is being able to manipulate the position in time that you can look at.
Now I believe this is part of that long training that moth priests undergo. They have to learn how to precisely manipulate this light. But there is more: The visible spectrum of light is but a small part of the full electromagnetic spectrum. When you are not in total control of what you're doing, you can move away from the visible spectrum into wavelengths that will damage our eyes.
This can be very very difficult to master. Going back or forward in time has to be done in little steps, so the light has time to adjust and we do not cross the visible spectrum and thus damage our eyes. Shortly beyond the blue part of the visible spectrum lies mid -far infrared wavelengths which are known to cause damage to eyesight when overexposed.
So I assume this is the main part of the training for moth priests: being able to master the steady, step-by-step studying of the elder scroll in order to give your mind time to adjust so you won't damage your eyesight. But master it, and you are blessed with the ability to look into the future (or the past). Dexion Evicus, the moth priest in the Dawnguard storyline, was not careful enough and damaged his eyesight due to his haste to read the first scroll.
The specialization aspect of the scrolls
Another aspect of elder scrolls is that they all seem to be specialized in a specific field... "blood", "sun", "dragon",... So different scrolls may be required to look into different aspects of the future/past. I assume these specialized elder scrolls are "pre-programmed" to focus on a particular event/topic.
This helps the user not to have to "browse" through the entire spacetime continuum to find what he needs. So I think this is merely a matter of saving time. How they were pre-programmed and by whom... I have no clue. But it suggest that an elder scroll can be edited to some extent.
Further potential of the elder scrolls
When reading the elder scroll called "Dragon", the dragonborn witnesses that Alduin gets sent forward in time by using an elder scroll. This means that an elder scroll cannot only provide insights to its reader... It can also be used to manipulate that which is in the universe as well. Alduin was taken from a point in time and put down in a different time in the future.
So a skillful user of an elder scroll can use it to manipulate the universe itself. Paarthurnax said that prophecy is but a small part of their power. This leaves some food for thought of where the limits of its possibilities are.
Elder scrolls are a blueprint of the universe, it's proven that one object can be moved from one point in time to another... so what if one could manipulate the blueprint of that elder scroll in order to change creation itself, and make additions? I think it may well be suggested that the elder scrolls hold some sort of creational power. If someone were to figure out how to make changes to the blueprints of the universe through changing the elder scrolls, then that one person has limitless power in Tamriel.
