Mankar Camoran says that Nirn is a Daedric Realm, right?
Well it's not a Daedric Realm, because a Daedric Realm is mostly the physical manifestation of its Prince. It's a big ball of divine matter, like the moons, like the Ministry of Truth maybe.

But Nirn isn't just one big god. It's a collaboration. One of those gods is dead (Lorkhan) the Earthbones were absorbed, and the Aedra aren't really all there. And Nirn is surrounded by the void of Oblivion. A plane like this is an impossible place. It should just slough off its skeleton and be consumed by the Sea that surrounds it. Why doesn't it?

It doesn't because the gods and their mortal descendants fortified it. The Khajiit call the barrier the Lunar Lattice, and believe that the holy moons keep them safe. Nirn is in large part Lorkhan, so he keeps it discrete from its surroundings. Akatosh came to Nirn and created the first Tower, Adamantia. If you read the Nu-Mantia Intercept you see that Towers fortify reality, they make it so Nirn remains as an independent plane with its own rules and space and divinities. Then the elves made tons of Towers, Lorkhan's Heart landed in the ocean and made another one, Red Mountain. Well, you destroyed that Tower is ES III, you destroyed Numidium in Daggerfall, and when Uriel Septim died, White Gold Tower failed.

Might you call the edge of a bubble of air in a glass of water a barrier? Sure, it is a border, but not a wall. It is the mass and density of the air that keeps the water out. With all these towers failing, there was less to keep Nirn discrete from oblivion. When it got to be like this, opening gates between worlds was child's play. And then the Oblivion Crisis.

Awesome. :goodjob: Okay, so where do the Dragon Fires come into play? Is that part of White-Gold Tower? But if the Ayleids built White Gold, why would Akatosh need to make that amulet?.... Is it because the Ayleids kept the tower "running" (so to speak), and with them defeated by Alessia's rebellion and Pelinel's attack on Umaril, the tower would stop working to fortify reality? So, Akatosh then creates the Fires as a way to keep White Gold tower working?

Yet Sheogorath was free to put up a portal where mortals could enter and exit Oblivion it as they wished because it didn't break any pact, even when the portals are closed forever. And it's always possible that the Nedes powered up White Gold Tower with their Amulet; there's no evidence that it was the original stone.

We have to assume that Chim-el Adabal, to use its Ayleid name, was the Stone of White Gold from the start. In which case Akatosh/Lorkhan was just passing the torch. The Tower probably didn't stop working in the way a motor would. It was built to enforce the Ayleid view of reality upon Mundus. Cyrodiil co-opted it, probably by means of Alessia's Covenant with Akatosh. It was sort of like adding an obligation to being guardians of the Stone and Tower. Dragon Blood, be faithful to me and your heirs, blah, blah. Reman instituted the Dragonfires as a symbol of this Covenant, making it a symbolic spectacle and tying it to the Imperial line. (It's easier to reaffirm the Covenant with candle. King Hrol had to chase Alessia's ghost and jack off on a pile of mud). When Uriel Septim died, there was no one who gave a [censored] about the Covenant or history. Even Jauffre didn't know what the hell was going on. So the Covenant failed, and it fell to Martin to reaffirm it, even though he could already wear the Amulet. Then some Deus ex Machina I don't entirely understand happened, and the statue became the new Stone.

I have no idea what you guys are talking about