So I have a question just something that came to me while I was surfing these forums.
The imperial pantheon features the eight and one, only one of these seems to be heavily involved in the story line of Skyrim, so what are the others going to do stand by or is the eating of the world something they accept that just has to happen. Also what about the other pantheons and creation myths and the Deadra what will they do about it.
Posted this in lore because it seems to fit here it's not a question about the game but more a question about the relationships between the gods.
Thanks lore buffs.

May I point you to http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1160383-shor-son-of-shor/ and http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1164564-the-five-hundred-mighty-companions-or-thereabouts-of-ysgramor-the-returned/?

Talos will likely play a part(As he is also Shor). Kyne(Kynerath) is highly revered by the Nords and is said to be the originator of the Dragon Shouts. If you know enough about Nordic gods and such you'll find many similarities between their names in those two stories I linked to.

It's not fully accurate to say Alduin is one of the Nine Divines. He is, and he isn't. He occupies a similar space in the Nordic pantheon that Akatosh does in the Imperial pantheon but he's a different deity, while at the same time being the same essential being. Akatosh was a being specifically created by the Marahkuti Selectives by dancing on a Tower to remove the Altmer influences from Imperial religion. He's basically Alduin without Auriel. Such an event that these fanatical priests caused is often referred to as a "Dragon Break" in the TES mythos. More than one has happened in this Kalpa alone.

A Kalpa is basically the span of time between when Alduin finishes eating a world and begins again, meaning that everything reboots and starts over. Apparently it's happened more than once before. Possibly dozens, hundreds, thousands or millions of times. Who knows? Supposedly there's a way to break the Dragon once and for all and break the cycle. It involves Love.

Pantheons are funny things in Tamriel..many of them contain both Aedra and Daedra. Some contain spirits or culture heroes that aren't necessarily in either category. In a nutshell the Aedra are the beings who contributed to Lorkhan's plan to create Mundus, and the Daedra chose to sit out so they didn't lose their immortality or their power over their own realms. To classes of spirit helped create Mundus - some became Earth Bones because they gave so very much of themselves that nothing living remained at all. They literally became the world. Others gave up so much of their physical form and spiritual power that they cannot bodily walk on the world any more, and many require worship and shrines - they can only interact through their priests and during special occasions. These are the Aedra, called Divines by some but not by all.


In a sense the Daedra were selfish and prideful. They've sat by and watched Alduin devour Mundus many times before, from what I can understand. It doesn't effect them in the least, because they exist outside of Mundus, and it doesn't remove their favorite playthings either because mortals always survive this transition period - although they forget and begin again. Some of the Daedra used to be Aedra, or sons and daughters of Aedra. Mehrunes Dagon was probably Magnus. Meridia was his daughter. Malacath was Trinimac, a strong god of the early Aldmer. They changed into Daedra when they became corrupted in various ways.


Lorkhan is the missing or dead God. He occupies a Trickster role in Aldmer worship - he's the rude spirit who was the offspring of Sithis who tricked the gods into killing or weakening themselves to create Mundus. Men consider him Shor or Shezzar and see him in a more positive light - as the spirit behind all human endeavors. They see his actions as a great gift and sacrifice, not a burden. Unlike the Aldmer who lament they've fallen so far from divinity, human religions consider mortality and Nirn to be a great gift. There are some exceptions of course. The Dunmer god Vivec was a known supporter of Lorkhan.

Thanks folks. You guys are useful as always.
And I'm not surprised that Vivec was a supporter of Lorkhan he did use his heart to steal divinity and all that.

There's another reason Vivec in particular is an advocate of Lorkhan. It may be something that eluded Dagoth Ur and his brothers. Almalexia and Sotha Sil either didn't know about it or didn't try for it. It's called CHIM. It's what Lorkhan was trying for when he created Mundus in the first place, but he failed. But let's not get off on that tangent again. Let's just not. There are plenty of threads about that you can search for, or even scroll down a page or two and there's bound to be one.

Another theory, for the OP's benefit, is that fully all of the Aedra died and became Earth Bones, but the memory of those beings were empowered to become Gods by the belief of mortals, because in Mundus, belief can shape reality.

I thought I'd gotten most agreed-upon concepts of the lore down by now, but I have to say I somehow haven't heard this one. Care to enlighten me a little, Hairdo?

@Athell -- It is in fact possible that Akatosh would conspire against himself. Though they are the same being, they are different aspects. Michael Kirkbride, who was once a writer for Bethesda, and is responsible for a great deal of the lore as we see it today, once said:


Hope that goes some way to answer your question.

After lots of reading, people formed a concluded from The Seven Fights of Alduggaga that Magnus was known as the Leeper Demon King, or something like that. But that source alone will not be sufficient, as what Mankar said, wrote, along with other myths allow one to formulate that conclusion.

"What if the sun is the mouth of Alduin," was the thought, and, "who's this guy helping the Greedy Man?" I extrapolated, from the Mythic Dawn's solar symbolism, Varieties of Faith, the primacy of Dagon, and the transformation of other et'Ada, the Aldudaggavelashadingas implied the Leaper King was Magnus. Some day, I'll write an article... but there's little to work with, for the time being. The hypothesis is spread through an active topic, from last Spring. I believe Subadim the Sorcerer suggested the relation.

Important to note that he still is.

Yeah he wrote lots of the stuff in Oblivion and its expansions.

Oh yes, I know. I suppose I was trying to be brief for the sake of clarity. My mistake.