I've spent hours reading through UESPwiki trying to get a clear understanding of the order of worlds and dimensions in the elder scrolls, but I'm not sure whether or not I got it right, because the lore pages there seemed very confusing to me.
So far what I've managed to piece together from the stuff I've read is this:

"In the beginning" there was only...well...nothing/void/Sithis.
Then (somehow), two...entities? dimensions? forces? emerged, one was chaotic in nature (Padomay) and the other was orderly and stable (Anu).
The two forces (I'll just refer to anu and paodmay as forces for now, for easy reference, correct me if thats just plain wrong!) were connected through the realm from which magic originates: Aetherius.
From Anu, several spirits and entities of all sorts came into being, the same applied to padomay. The spirits that emerged from Anu would later (although time wasn't linear "back then") be responsible for the creation of the world of Mundus (the mortal, or mundane world in which all elder scrolls games take place) after being convinced to do so by a Padomaic being known as Lorkhan, but the Anu spirits decided to sacrifice vital parts of their power and being in order to make Mundus a more comprehensive and less singlethemed, stable place, as a result many of these spirits became greatly weakened, or died out entirely, but eight of them remained very powerful, the first of whom decided to lay the final touch of stability to Mundus and used his power to create the time-space continuum as we know it (time became linear, roughly the same laws of physics that apply to the real world, now applied to Mundus), this being is ofcourse known as Akatosh.
Ok I know I've left out LOADS of stuff, like where Oblivion fits into the picture: The plane of Mundus floats around in Oblivion or something? Does this mean that Oblivion is just another word for "Outer Space"?, and if so, how do the separate Daedric realms fit into the picture?

Anyway, if any of these questions can be answered or if my idea of the order of dimensions is flawed, please correct me, thats the whole point of this topic. http://static.zenimax.com/forums/images/public/style_emoticons/default/user.gif

I don't have time to explain this now, and they'll be to many typos.


Just read http://www.imperial-library.info/history/dawn.shtml and http://www.imperial-library.info/mwbooks/monomyth.shtml, http://www.imperial-library.info/mwbooks/anuad.shtml, and http://www.imperial-library.info/mwbooks/varietiesoffaith.shtml might be helpful for reference.

Sigh*

Number 1: The UESP is not exactly 100% lore friendly/cares about Lore
Number 2: This here http://www.imperial-library.info/ is much more "in the know"
Number 3: Redguards straight-up fought "Goblins from another dimension", extrapolate as you see fit, I take it to literally mean they came from another dimension/timeline...the tear in the sky though screams "other dimension/possibly different timeline {hence the Goblins size before being shrunk after their whooping}
Number 4: There are six seperate endings for Daggerfall which end up being in the "current" dimension, Satakali/Khajiit would call bull on this madness
Number 5: The Tribunals ascent to Godhood caused some unperceived side effects, and thus Akatosh is still trying to get things back on track. Despite his blatant abuse, which makes it a slow slow slow process
Number 6: Dummies that keep messing with time/space have splintered the universe/timeframe so much that repair is near impossible (Marukhti, Tiber, Tribunal, possibly Dagoth Ur, anyone who possesed the Mantella for more then 5 minutes

And damn, I've never 100% understood the Whirling School, but from what I can gather 16 spokes (Deadra Princes) make up the wheel, 8 of them being the Aedric gods, Spokes (...), Oblvion is apparently the space in between...I'm probably way off, but oh well.

Holy crap I forget Pelinal, if that don't scream "time-traveler, other-dimensional ass-whooper" nothing does

The plane of Mundus floats around in Oblivion or something?
No, Mundus is the dimension the planet housing Nirn and the other god-planes. http://www.imperial-library.info/obscure_text/cosmology.shtml

Does this mean that Oblivion is just another word for "Outer Space"?
Yeah, basically. Where there were no barriers between the two, the events at the Convention lead to one: oblivion. Oblivion filled the void left by Mundus' separation from the Aetherial.

[H]ow do the separate Daedric realms fit into the picture?
They're dimensions in oblivion. The Mundus is sort of a bubble between the Anuic and Padomaic, and in the bubble are many planes/dimensions of its own.