I always wondered on how the "concept" behind each deadra is tied to existence of the concept itself and the deadra prince. What I mean is this.. if destruction as a concept didn't exist, or by some oddity stopped to be, would Dagon just un-exist himself? What came first the concepts or the princes? I'd bet it was the concepts. As soon as destruction mixed itself out of IS and ISNOT, a dagon was born (note: not "The" Dagon).

Which brings me to.. madness.

If you recall, Lorkhan and Akatosh are the same thing, from 2 sides and they are mad. Note also that madness was born with creation of the mortal plane (as far as I remember.. it's been some time.. was something to the point of "sithis shaped hole" I think).

So is Sheogorath the madness of Lorkhan perhaps? Or to rephrase that, is Lorhkan's madness sheogorath's concept, and by extension the basis of all madness?

Hmm...

All Aedra and Daedra were et'Ada, "original spirits", before they were anything else. Before their "sphere" "existed", as in before there were any (for example) destruction in Dagons case, they still existed, but had no purpose. Like Arkay, if I remember correctly, had no purpose before Nirn was created, because there were no mortal life untill then.

And no, a Deadra would not be sieze to exist if their sphere/s suddenly was no more. They are not their spheres. In that way.

EDIT: Though I realise now I read the OP too quickly and this was not the topic of discussion, and my post is (once more) utterly useless. :foodndrink:

Arkay's story is considered false by most lore guys here AFAIK.

Your answer wasn't so bad basically. It raises more questions tho about what the original et'ada ARE in essence? Are they like Aurbis? A mix of IS and IS-NOT?

The explanation of Arkay having no purpose is taken to be the allegorical meaning for what is written in 'The God Ar'Kay' and it has some support. It's the literal interpretation where Arkay once was a mortal that is considered to be false. Lies from a previous Era.

It does however imply the opposite. That Arkay didn't have a purpose suggest that he was the god of the Cycle of Life and death before there was even a cycle of Life and Death - there was but Akatosh stopped it. Hence Tu'whacca, the Yokudan version of Arkay is called the god of "Nobody really cares".

So your answer to "what came first, the egg or the chicken" is that the purpose is predefined and the "spirit" will find it? Doesn't that somewhat imply fate? I tought fate was a mortal-ism and very un-mad like.

I'm not sure actually. Patern before et'Ada comes from the Light and Dark.

However the idea that the et'Ada are concepts comes from the Altmeri version of the Monomyth in which Anu has some tendencies of being like a mind. When you look at how people think they don't start out with a concept of destruction, it's a pattern they realize and formalize and eventually give a name.

I'd imagine the et'Ada went through this process as well. There is a pattern and something grows on it and it grows a bit encompassing more and similair patterns and eventually it becomes formalized and gets a name.

I can't think of a definite answer.