Warning... MORROWIND PLOT SPOILERS INCOMING.

------ Spoilers below in case you missclicked or something----

Typically people talk about how Lorkhan's heart was being used, as on the surface that is how things appear, but what if Lorkhan is using those who thought they were using him- so for example, someone using the heart of Lorkhan might in a sense gain divine power, but in a sense over time they unwittingly become vessells of Lorkhan's will?

Imagine if you will a trickster of divine power, who tells someone, they will grant them the ability to live to be 1000, lift 5000 pounds, and run 200 miles an hour, say by allowing a piece of their heart to be removed and consumed by the tricksters target... And then, that person starts to over time, become possessed by the trickster, so they unwittingly paid the price, by setting themselves up. Now, heart eating wasn't involved with Lorkhan afaik but similar parallels of a trickster taking advantage of someone's hunger for power.

Obviously... Intentionally tapping it would cause madness for... Well the reasons for that seem fairly obvious. But why does the heart corrupt whatever is nearby it? Is Lorkhan perhaps, secretly, delibaretely trying to possess whatever is around him? Or perhaps Lorkhan has epic mind control/possession abilities, but ironically enough, cannot control these abilities himself, so he possessed whatever is near his heart just by existing, without wanting to, without trying to, without thinking about it.

Another theory: What if Lorkhan is secretly trying to rebuild himself? What if Lorkhan actually secretly wanted to use Voryn Dagoth who this WHOLE TIME he PLANNED on turning into Dagoth Ur to use as a puppet/his right hand servant to rebuild himself? What if Lorkhan actually wanting to use the Numidium as a prosthetic body to house his heart? What if that was the plan all along? What if Lorkhan's only reason for creating Mundus, was to have a place, he could rule over?

A possible overlapping theory: What if although it looked like on the surface, the Dwemer were trying to exploit the body of a dead god, Lorkhan instead was using the Dwemer as a tool to rebuild himself with? Perhaps Lorkhan is on another plane of existence, or multiple planes at once, and he used the whole Dwemer race to rebuild himself, and he isn't able to or isn't planning on bringing this recreated body back to Mundus yet?

Similarly what if the DWEMER although, commonly portrayed as exploiting Lorkhan's dead body, were actually, being exploited by Lorkhan- they got fooled into UNWITTINGLY essentially becoming on a massive scale, organ donors for Lorkhan, and he ENTIRELY INTENDED for them to ASSUME they were going to just, ascend to a higher state of being or whatever, and he took advantage of this?

Lastly an addendum to this specific set of theories, what if Lorkhan is actually plotting to use a lot of people scattered over Tamriel, trying to trick everyone he can into unwittingly becoming vessels of his will, and perhaps, bring him back?

A theory suggesting a somewhat less evil Lorkhan: What if Lorkhan wasn't TRYING to fool people into going near the heart, but INSTEAD he rightfully felt violated when people started doing things to his heart, and decided to retaliate by forcefully corrupting the minds of any mortals that approach the heart? What if this is a time consuming process that happens over long periods of time rather than instantly, and this is the main reason, Voryn Dagoth in particular gets driven to such an extreme state of madness?

Alternative theory: The madness manifested from the heart, is from Lorkhan attempting to defend himself, or something similar to an automatic defense mechanism- a defense mechanism of divine proportions?

Divine Radiation theory: None of the madness that happened as a result of Lorkhan's left behind heart, was Lorkhan's fault, those of mortal birth were simply not able to handle the heart of Lorkhan and it drove them mad, or perhaps for mortals being too close to Lorkhan- as in being right next to the heart can be like... Too much of a good thing.

But then it's also possible, that the divine radiation is again, something Lorkhan is intentionally using to control the people of Tamriel and rebuild himself.

Another thing that begs the question: If Lorkhan's left behind heart makes those around it evil, then doesn't it suggest the heart itself is evil? And if the heart of Lorkhan is evil, then wouldn't that suggest, Lorkhan doing somthing very subtle behind the scenes to the people of Tamriel- similar to the ways described, actually completely makes sense?