This is my first post on these forums, so please forgive me if this is the wrong forum for an Elder Scrolls lore question.

So, I was playing Oblivion on my stealth character, stealing some books, nothing out of the ordinary. Before I made off with the book Mysterious Akavir, I decided to read it. Part of it said something along the lines of "All Men and Mer know Tamriel as the nexus of creation, where the Last War will happen...etc, etc.

So, that brings me to my question. What is the Last War? I can't seem to find any other mention of it. I'm really curious, could anyone help?

Quite possibly when Marukh gets bored of Nirn and tries to destroy it.

I have no idea but welcome to the fourms, I never got a fishey stick, but Ill give you what I got a http://www.uesp.net/oblivion/map/obmap.shtml?centeron=Aleswell

Who's Marukh? I thought the Nine Divines created Nirn?

Marukh is Lorkhan, the Missing God.

He tricked Magnus and other powerful beings to create the Mortal Plane, then Magnus realized what he did and fled the Aurbis. You can see that he created a large rip in Oblivion (the Sun) as a gateway to Magic.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Tamriel:Marukh#Marukh

Oh, I see. So, the Last War could possibly be Lorkhan returning, and the Nine Divines/mortal races fighting a war with him to protect Nirn. That makes sense.

Ask Slaod at Tamriel Rebuilt forums and he will tell you Marukh is Lorkhan.

How is he a credible source? Both UESP and The Imperial Library say that Marukh was a 1st Era prophet who wrote the Alessian Doctrines.

Exactly. Lorkhan is more powerful than any of the Divines/Daedric Princes.

I was just doing a little research on an Elder Scrolls Wiki page, it says that Akatosh ripped out Lorkhan's heart. Does that make him dead or does he just lack a physical form or something?

Lorkhan's heart is ripped out from his body, but it still beats. He is in no way dead.

The MQ is sort of an opening skirmish in the last war, seems to me. Listen to Mankar Cameron's speech during the MQ.

Looks like a Elder Scroll Game's plot is always revealed in preceeding title. In Morrowind,

I really hate to ask another question. What's MQ stand for?

Main Quest.

Oh. Duh. I'm a moron.

Wulfheart was a Nordic King, a general, a Storm Voice, but also an avatar of Lorkhan (thus Lorkhan). So simply asserting that Marukh was a first Era prophet doesn't counter this. In addition Sload is knowledgeable, more then most even, so it's atleast worth a short consideration.

Though Whitestreak really should do more then simply referring to Sload. At best reproduce the argument, or at worst quote Sload.

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Anyway, I've asked Sload. His reply:

"While marukh is definitely a first era prophet, Sload of TR believes that he became lorkhan during the dragon break as explained in http://www.imperial-library.info/fsg/azurastararticle1.shtml"

He also linked to this: http://www.tamriel-rebuilt.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=20460.

Seeing there was nothing there about Marukh becomming an Aedra I pointed out that Selectives came a long while after Marukh was dead, he replied:

"He [Whitestreak] doesn't know the difference"

So I assume that Whitestreak is has mistaken the Marakuthi Selective for Lorkhan.

I'm a bit puzzled here because I expected some argument along the lines of identification by incarnation, but instead Sload seems to assume Whitestreak is mistaken.

This puts everything back to the point where we ask Whitestreak to clarify his argument.

I think he perhaps misunderstood something Sload said. Possibly about the Marukhati.

The Last War is only ever mentioned in Mysterious Akavir, seeming to be some sort of vague Ragnarok scenario. It might have been dumped or it might be something special planned. Considering we have a loveletter from the 5th era, any last war is probably a long way off.

Or it may not even be official lore, something they just threw into Mysterious Akavir to sound better.

I doubt that.

It is indeed official lore. Why else would it be in the games then?

He means incorrect, which is a different thing entirely.

And no, the chance of it being added "for flavour" without the remotest possibility of being true, well, doesn't have the remoteset possibility of being true.

You mean that it may not be used? There is stuff in Morrowind about the Imperial City being in an uproar and the Emperors sons being doppelgangers, it's official but never used afterwards.

It is quite likely this is the case. Although what is told in MA sounds allot like the events from the Monomyth, specifically the wars between Man and Mer, though in reverse, so the final War can be a reference to the end of the World myths from the Nords where everything gets eaten again by Alduin.

That's loosely abstracted though, not gonna bother to explain that in detail.

True, but that seems unlikely. Lorkhan created Nirn, not Alduin. Does Alduin even exist or is he just Nordic mythology?