The Missing God of The Elder Scrolls

Summary

Highlights

• The player's role might reflect a deeper connection to Lorkhan, enriching their game experience. 🔮
• Prophecies in the series suggest a complex intertwining of lore and narrative design. 📚
• Lorkhan's presence is pervasive, yet indirect, tying back to significant game events. 🔄
• Each entry in the series seems to narrate a fragment of Lorkhan's story through prophecy. 📖
• This theory enriches players’ perspectives on the Elder Scrolls' intricate world-building. 🏰

Key Takeaways

• The player may embody the missing god Lorkhan, adding depth and lore connection beyond character control. 🌌
• Elder Scrolls lore involves complex myths, prophecies, and gods interwoven into gameplay. 📜
• Lorkhan’s influence is subtly present, linking various game narratives and character motivations. 🔗
• Prophecies play an essential role, hinting at deeper connections and storytelling within the Elder Scrolls universe. 🌀
• The theory integrates game mechanics and narrative, enhancing players' understanding of the Elder Scrolls world. 🕹️

Overview

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:00: Introduction to the Theory This chapter introduces a fascinating theory about the player's role in Elder Scrolls games. It is proposed that the player embodies the role of a dead God, distinct from the player character. The concept diverges from traditional video game roles like those found in Sims or RTS.
• 01:00 - 03:00: Role of Prophecy in Elder Scrolls This chapter explores the role of prophecy in the Elder Scrolls series, emphasizing how prophecy is embedded within the narrative. It discusses how the titular Elder Scrolls and other prophetic elements portray a world humming with prophecy, where fates are often predetermined. The notion of 'chosen ones' prevalent in the series is viewed with a sense of irony amidst the numerous foretold destinies.
• 03:00 - 05:00: Introduction of Lore Books and Theology The chapter introduces the role of prophecies in the Lore Books and Theology of a fictional universe. It highlights how world events, more so than individual actions, are central to prophecies. The chapter references how past events, such as those in Oblivion and Skyrim, were foretold through these prophecies, underscoring their importance in the narrative of the series. The mention of the 'split off' implies diverse interpretations of these prophecies, suggesting that different perspectives can lead to varied understandings of events.
• 05:00 - 07:00: The Missing God Lorkhan The chapter titled 'The Missing God Lorkhan' examines how the Elder Scrolls series developed its iconic design and world-building elements, particularly with the release of Morrowind. The chapter argues that while prophecy is a significant element in the series, it does not play a major role in the main plot of Daggerfall, serving instead as a backdrop for certain incidents, such as a war over an island called Betony. It also notes that the Elder Scrolls themselves were not originally objects of prophecy and only gained significant meaning and importance in later entries of the series. Additionally, the chapter mentions that Arena, an early game in the series, exists primarily to be retroactively changed or dismissed in light of newer developments.
• 07:00 - 09:00: Lorkhan's Influence on Mortals and Gods The chapter delves into the substantial influence of Lorkhan on both mortals and gods within the Elder Scrolls universe. It emphasizes the role of lore books in expanding the in-game world, providing a deeper context through theory, myth, history, and theology. Key theological concepts such as the Monomyth, Atata, Mantling, the concept of the 8 in 1, and incarnates are highlighted. The chapter suggests these elements are crucial for understanding the Elder Scrolls' mythology and theology, ultimately serving as a critical component of effective world-building.
• 09:00 - 12:00: Player's Role and Assumptions In 'Player's Role and Assumptions,' the chapter delves into the significance of understanding the world within the game, particularly in the context of the Elder Scrolls series. The speaker discusses how familiarizing oneself with the game's lore, such as the mystery of the missing God, can significantly enhance the player's connection to the game world. It emphasizes that while the in-game books and stories are not essential for gameplay, they are intentionally placed in the game for players to explore. The chapter highlights how these elements allow players to develop their own perspectives by engaging with the rich histories and viewpoints provided by the game's universe.
• 12:00 - 17:00: Heart of Lorkhan and Morrowind's Prophecy The chapter discusses the complexities of understanding the lore within the games, particularly focusing on 'Heart of Lorkhan and Morrowind's Prophecy.' It emphasizes that players often have to choose which histories, stories, and in-game theories to follow, which can be overwhelming. The Monomyth, a book within the game, serves as a condensed version of the lore. The chapter highlights that the gods in this game's world are known as 'the Aedra,' a term typically not encountered just through gameplay but found in the game's literature.
• 17:00 - 26:00: Connections to Other Games In this chapter, the story expands by exploring lesser-known gods who are more conceptual than tangible figural deities. Unlike the traditional gods worshipped for their personalities and traits, these abstract deities, Anu and Padame, represent broader concepts such as light and dark, everything and nothing, and constancy and change. This comparison offers a nuanced understanding, portraying them not as oppositional forces like good versus bad, but rather as complementary aspects.
• 26:00 - 31:00: Player Character's Special Nature The chapter explores the special nature of the Player Character, drawing connections to Padame, also known as Cus, familiar from Dark Brotherhood plots. The narrative discusses the misconception of Cus as merely a nihilistic murder God rather than representing the void, despite frequent mentions. A comparison is made to Anu worship, which is more directly evidenced through the all-maker of the skull people. The chapter highlights that these figures, despite their significant roles, appear distant and are not easily associated with day-to-day world events. It also touches upon the alignment of the Adra with Anu, as well as their historical and mythological implications.
• 31:00 - 35:00: Conclusive Thoughts on Lorkhan's Role Before the mortal world existed, there was a serene nothingness populated only by the gods. Lorkhan, known as the missing god, suggested change by creating the mortal world in order to experience the beauty of growth and parenthood. This idea convinced the Aedra to assume a parental role, leading to the creation of the mortal world. However, this resulted in the Aedra losing much of themselves. Angered by these consequences, some gods lashed out at Lorkhan, resulting in his death. His body was said to become the moons, while his heart was cast into the sea, creating a significant element in the world's mythology.
• 35:00 - 37:30: Final Thoughts and Acknowledgments The chapter titled 'Final Thoughts and Acknowledgments' delves into the lore and mythos surrounding a place called Red Mountain, including spoilers about a narrative involving something referred to as 'moral wind'. A central element discussed is a physical heart that plays a pivotal role in creating three or four gods, contingent upon perspective. The narrative also touches on elements from the universe like 'luron' and the dra gods. These dra gods are distinct for not having sacrificed a part of themselves to create the mortal world, thus enjoying greater power within their own dimensions, known as Realms of Oblivion, despite their limited influence in the mortal realm. Furthermore, elves are portrayed as descendants of lesser entities, suggesting a rich tapestry of divine and mortal intersections. The chapter closes tying these mythological elements into broader thematic acknowledgments.

The Missing God of The Elder Scrolls Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 I have a theory that the player of Elder Scrolls games inhabits the role of a dead God and yes I do mean the player not the player character that's an important distinction further I'm not assigning player God status in a typical video game fashion a Sims or RTS like
• 00:30 - 01:00 role of controlling the world and its outcomes I'm saying the narrative within the Elder Scrolls series implies all this elder scrs Game Center prophecy in a few different forms none more obvious and yet less clear or present than the titular Elder Scrolls themselves The Elder Scrolls World hums with the background frequency of Prophecy it is a world of chosen ones this is partly ironic to have so many Fates foretold in a series most known for is if anything
• 01:00 - 01:30 character freedom but often it is world events just as much as individuals that lay at the center of Prophecy in fact the events of Oblivion were teased by a prophet in morind morind opens with a prophecy about our character but Oblivion opens with a prophecy about the fall of another Skyrim winds into a wall that had foretold the events of the series mentioning the core plots of each Mainline game and then there's the split off anything prorn can be taken in a different light in my view and more than
• 01:30 - 02:00 a few ways but it's clear that the coalesence of design elements and World building choices really firmed up with morrowwind prophecy does not shine onto the main plot of Daggerfall and only really holds a background place in some inciting incidents around a war over an island called betany but uh suffice to say we are going to stay away from Daggerfall for the most part and Arena at this point exists to be retconned the Elder Scrolls themselves only became objects of Prophecy with later entries not having a grounded meaning until after Daggerfall dagger fall did however
• 02:00 - 02:30 introduce the concept of lore books and with it a world beyond what we see in game a world of theory and myth and history and Theology and you do know the Theology of the Elder Scrolls world right like the monomyth the atata and mantling and the 8 in1 and incarnates and let's back up a bit as an exercise in World building because that's the real Point let's look at the mythology or more so Theology of the Elder Scrolls
• 02:30 - 03:00 World cating ultimately in my theory about the missing God I wholeheartedly think learning about these things can deepen your sense of connection to the game World more than your average immersive jiggle physics mod naturally the books and their stories are not necessary to play but they're in the world for a reason more so than most any other RPG series I've played the Elder Scrolls games dedicate plenty of energy to the offscreen minor histories and worldly perspectives this gives us a lot to play with when it comes to ourselves forming a perspective on this world and
• 03:00 - 03:30 choosing what histories and stories and in-game theorists to listen to but it can also be a lot so even if you're a complete nerd Loree head this part might be good as a refresher because frankly playing the games doesn't passively instill much of this lore a tldr of sorts exists in the games in the form of a book called The monomyth the gods of this world we play are known collectively as the at a which is not a term you'll hear while just playing the game it's saved for the Game books in
• 03:30 - 04:00 said books the story deepens with explanations of other gods that aren't the subject of much worship and are more conceptual than figural by which I mean that the gods people worship are understood as beings that exist within time if not space and with personalities and traits and depictions where the parent generation is two Gods Anu and padame who represent the loose concepts of light and dark everything and nothing constancy and change not in a good verse bad way but there are moments those
• 04:00 - 04:30 things line up padame is also known as cus which you'll recognize from Dark Brotherhood plots though that name carries with it connotations of just being some nihilistic murder God rather than the void no matter how much they say it the closest we see to direct Anu worship is the all-maker of the skull people point being these figures are distant and not as present in the world in ways that are easy to ascribe the Adra are associated with Anu the dra with p
• 04:30 - 05:00 before the mortal world existed things were just kind of a Serene nothingness of only the gods loron the missing God was the one who presented the idea that this should be changed citing the beauty of things like growth and Parenthood which swaye the Adra to take on a parental role of sorts and create the mortal world in doing so however they lost much of themselves and in Anger some lashed out at luron for the consequences killing him his body is said to have become the moons and his heart was shot into the sea creating a
• 05:00 - 05:30 place called Red Mountain spoilers for moral wind I guess but you do see this physical heart which does functionally create three or four Gods depending on how you look at it there are pieces of luron within this universe the dra are the gods who did not give of themselves to create the mortal world which is why they have less power in the mortal world but have more power in their own pocket Dimensions Realms of Oblivion elves see themselves as descendants of the lesser
• 05:30 - 06:00 Immortals who were cast down from the invention of the mortal world and so to them luron is a foul trickster who gave them mortal lives humans by contrast see luron in a positive light some of the draas sided with luron and in both positive and negative depictions luron is described as being more padic than anuic but true to many Elder Scrolls things this is a conflicted view in the ingame literature and so luron is a God in the eldr Scrolls world that is neither an Adra nor a dra
• 06:00 - 06:30 I won't use much real world literary comparison here but comparisons to Greek myth abound luron is a Prometheus figure the Primal gods are closer to the Titan generation and so on think of the Adra and dra as being Zeus's generation and ano and padame as being what came before with a hint of being more like chaos you know a nebulous Primal force and again if you don't open the books none of this comes up instead from playing the gods are the nine divines and the dra with unclear respective power levels and some
• 06:30 - 07:00 other Pantheon specific characters thrown in like Shore or demigod figures like certain Emperors which are not the same tier of God the pantheons have certain alternative shapes and localizations K is kenath Shore is chesar is loron heras MOA is herma Mora and so on in this world there are a finite number of major gods and they all exist and they are worshiped throughout the world in differing forms but are understood to be the same gods the dunmer worship dra and the tribunal and
• 07:00 - 07:30 don't care for the divines the Imperials worship the divines and don't care for the dra but neither would deny the existence of the other figures many pantheons have a bit of a mix going on the kajit worshiped divines but also Aura and recognize luron as well the bosmer have their own added God who gave of itself to create the beings that eventually became The Mortals point being there are a lot of smaller moving parts to all this but now you have a grasp on the important structural
• 07:30 - 08:00 elements of godhood in the Elder Scrolls world and lon's respective place in it now as for the actual game plots and how this connects to the player the plot of morind is about the prophecy of a Reincarnation of a dead hero named narvar thus called the Narine returning to the world under the opes of a Godlike figure to in some way change the fate of morind and their living Gods called the tribunal oblivion's protagonist is more like the supporting role to a Chosen One narrative rather than being the chosen
• 08:00 - 08:30 one themselves at least for the base game you are predicted in the dreams of the emperor but you're not the guy who like becomes the Avatar of a God and actually Saves the Day the most so much as you are instrumental to that guy's success but it's the expansions that interest me for the sake of theory you see one of them has the player character become the Divine Crusader the original of which being a guy named penol who in non-canon paratext is uh a time traveling iorg sort of don't worry about
• 08:30 - 09:00 that rather the important thing to note with him is that he's the Incarnation of the god of Man shezar known as the shazar this is compared to Morin's Narine a lot less Central to any plot and less explored and then Skyrim of course has the last dragon born who is by nature connected to several Gods including shazzar who is known to the Nords as Shore who is the god of men and as said before luron himself each of these protagonists are ultimately connected both to the Future through
• 09:00 - 09:30 prophecy and indirectly to the beginning of the world through luron many things lead back to luron but the threads are too interesting not to follow and the conclusion in my view is that each game tells the story of an avatar of lorcan's will performing actions at the ultimate behest of luron and thus if the player character is an agent of a missing God we as player controlling them fill that missing role now before the more detailed explan ation let me present some necessary
• 09:30 - 10:00 assumptions from my theory feel free to disagree with these as with anything here of course but I'd say hear me out on them first take them as true and looking through the theory proper and then come back after it's all laid out the first assumption is that while what we know of luron is indeed a series of conflicting reports and mythologies certain consistencies can be relied upon the missing God has a place in several if not all according to the monomyth major pantheons of Tamriel to that end there's bount be conflict especially on
• 10:00 - 10:30 his nature as a good or bad figure in a given Mythos remember also that no Pantheon is all the Adra all the folk gods and the dra and Anu and padame at once there is no comprehensive everything Church pantheism if you would thus his consistent presence itself is anomalous his present condition differs partly between tellings but at the core is a consistency that luron has become a Wanderer or was in some sense doomed to
• 10:30 - 11:00 wander his creation for eternity this is the most relevant consistent detail consistency does not deny multiple interpretations but my assumption here is that this detail means more than just the moons the second assumption is that ordinary Mortals may only die in service to and indeed only be accepted into the service of one at a be them adric dric or primordial like cus this comes from several in-game sources involving the packs made with dra and their claims such as that with nocturnal to the soul of The Pact maker upon death or the
• 11:00 - 11:30 promise of existence within some sacred realm like that of sovengard or Cameron's Paradise there is another assumption built into this though I find it to be a relatively reliable one that ordinary Mortals by the rules of their souls being claimed would not be allowed into the service of multiple dra at the least while reasonable that something seen as beneficial like access to sovengard may be blocked by cavorting with dra it also follows that owing one's soul to several dra is not supposed to be possible lest some manner
• 11:30 - 12:00 of agreement or partitioning is possible this assumption will become most relevant later the third assumption is that the player character is indeed meant to complete more than one plotline per game not necessarily all or every one of them in one character but more than one main SL Guild quest line personally I bristl at the idea of a character who is the head of every single guild at once but in general there have been very few mutually exclusive paths in these games this reaches into the territory of trusting
• 12:00 - 12:30 the games as Cannon which sounds like an obvious thing to do but there's a lot of things a given character can do in these games with very little confirmed as historical in future games nobody in Oblivion says H did you hear the Narine who is also the head of the Mages Guild of venell and also in the legion and found Umbra has set sail for akavir it is rare to have an explicit confirmation of a previous Guild quest line occurring in future titles let alone multiple
• 12:30 - 13:00 except for in one admittedly questionable instance I could rely on the words of shaag gorath who references more than one plot line from Oblivion and implies being the hero of kavach ostensibly making Canon that things like the dark brotherhood plot line did happen but he is a Mad God after all and there are those pesky Dragon breaks I've avoided talking about Dragon breaks are in simplest terms magical timeline deviations akatosh is the dragon god of time so the Dragon breaks is where time
• 13:00 - 13:30 breaks down and in turn several things can simultaneously happen at once which is the end point of daggerfall's plot canonically yes the people of the Elder Scrolls Universe are aware that Dragon breaks exist no I don't know how they keep themselves from losing their minds with that knowledge but back to the Assumption ultimately I cannot be absolute in claiming that the player character does actually pledge themselves to multiple causes or forces so it must be an assumption the second and third assumption play into one another directly the dragon born hero of
• 13:30 - 14:00 kavach and to a lesser degree the Naro verine are taken to have communed with multiple dra in one instance becoming one while having signed a covenant with both cus and nocturnal through the paths of their respective guilds it leads me to believe that something keeps their soul not only in gridlock but allows them to be the champion of more than one at a at once to be pledged in contradicting ways that something is what I'd like to term the debt of luron this is the biggest leap of logic I find
• 14:00 - 14:30 myself taking in this Theory but it is necessary to flip one's perspective the ordinary rules of claiming a soul and the ownership of a soul from some bargainer paact with an immortal do not apply to the player character precisely because the rules cannot apply the debt is what keeps the dra from turning down their wouldbe Champion despite the Champion's already owed Soul the ET a recognize the player character's Spirit they see it and they cannot speak of it because doing so would recognize the truth of luron to a person who presumes
• 14:30 - 15:00 themselves at the least mortal and at the most favored by oora by akatosh and so on perhaps the player character is a diminished God a fragment of a dead God a vessel for the God but surely something of some relation and of particular significance thus either the atata feel a sense of debt to their former peer and lie about claiming their soul and allow them their blessing SL booon or they think that throwing their hat into the Ring of potentially owning
• 15:00 - 15:30 lon's living Soul or something like it is worth it even if other claims have been staked and so they allow for the exchange despite recognizing that other claims exist the debt also manifests for the Adra that no point can the player character ever fully burn a bridge with an Adra forgiveness is not a universal tenant for the Adra an expectation so this is in some way exceptional they never put the player character into a position of disfavor No Matter What actions they take now the Adra are less exclusive in their
• 15:30 - 16:00 worship and the presence of mixed pantheons implies that they aren't the jealous sort for lack of a better word but then there are also organizations dedicated in their name to the combat of certain dra worshippers but for the player there are no requirements not even expectations of penants for breaking any adric law or falling foul of their guidance star does not deny his Blessing because of dra worship or even being the vessel of the Mad God rkade does not reject you for being a
• 16:00 - 16:30 necromancer in so much as the player character can be one through the use of conjuration and black soul gems it's another question entirely how much we can be a necromancer or indeed be a danger worshipper in these games if you follow in the Elder Scrolls 4 the extent of their punishment is that their blessing may not be sought when holding a higher infamy than Fame contrast this to the existence of groups organized under the banner of an Adra given instructions to hunt and punish those who transgress such as the priests of AR and the vigil of sendar in a world with very real Gods who are in touch with the
• 16:30 - 17:00 mortal world where there are quests and stories of people who lost favor and now bear some curse or absence if the priests or vigil were acting against the wishes of the Adra there would be signs then again the vigil gets obliterated so maybe that's the sign the Adra are always aligned with the player character and the player character never has opportunities to act against them as a direct result or requirement of a main story defined as the main quests and the DLC quests in contrast player characters are sometimes put at odds with a dra if
• 17:00 - 17:30 not tasked with directly defeating one the Adra would be sorry for the condition luran finds himself in and feel the debt as well if not more so in an extremely rare Act of direct manifestation tyers septum appears before the player character at the end of morn's Baseline story disguised as a retired legionaire named wolf and hands them a coin this shows an alignment between tyers septum and the Narine that goes beyond the pragmatics of an EMP ire and into the Divine tyers septum as the
• 17:30 - 18:00 one who became a god from having been man is a new God of man and fills the place shazar once had it's small but I can't help reading that moment is very significant as for pledging to cus a normally very serious PCT well cus is best described as indecipherable and enigmatic so I feel there is little I can confidently say about his relation to the missing God beyond the implicit connection to chaos agency and change
• 18:00 - 18:30 giving cus any personhood or direct agenda is arguably an act of misinterpretation or projection but given lur con's occasional casting is a son of padame sithus more than a child of Anu and thus more padic perhaps there is no issue perhaps cus recognizes the player character perhaps it doesn't matter there could still be a typical contradiction in being both a dark brotherhood assassin and a nightingale but nothing cus does or says if we can count anything as being actually attributable to cist signals a direct
• 18:30 - 19:00 interest in the player character from here we are ready for the final touches let's connect everything together by centering the events of morind in particular and accounting for some potential contradictions that are enlightening before moving on to other games first the heart of luron and wandering the heart of luron as the source of The Godly energies of the tribunal and is clearly an object of extreme power the Temptation is to just accept that of course part of a God the heart no
• 19:00 - 19:30 less is powerful but why what is it what does it mean to be the heart of a God why does a God have a heart that can beat blood that could be spilled is the heart a soul a conduit of power it's the last living shred of loron identifiable as from him the one thing the Adra could not destroy of him or could not bring themselves to destroy is it Divine because it is a part of his body that remains would say an I be as potent if
• 19:30 - 20:00 it remained we cannot know but what we have before us is that this dead God the missing God still manifests its power in the world enough that merely tapping into it creates gods and if this portion of him can remain Beyond Death why not other fragments what if more of him survived in some form or returned incarnated in the midst the heart is ripped from him yet it is still made clear that he is doomed to some manner
• 20:00 - 20:30 of Exile one could take this to mean his heart's travel to the Sea as flung by Orel but we know that the heart stayed beneath Red Mountain after this that is hardly a Perpetual wandering so something else must be wandering perhaps it's his body that wanders without its heart his body is by some claims the moons according to the lunar luron they are set in perpetual motion wandering literally around the plane he created this has some poetic Merit and frankly would have fascinating implications for
• 20:30 - 21:00 the void Knights but that's a deep tangent ultimately this is one option of many and wandering can potentially take many forms second Azura the chimer dunmer and their Pantheon the chimer as a distinct people originate from the Almer who turned towards three specific dra as Patron Gods rather than the Adra as typical of the Almer said D are Azura mafala and boia each brought their own lesson that shaped chimer cult culture the chimer further distinguished
• 21:00 - 21:30 themselves via their Exile following a prophet to a promised land that became morind to Red Mountain these dra are in the time of the tribunal known as the anticipations and after as the reclamations but it is of significance that those three dra were the very same that stood with luron against trinimac in his death while luron himself is not often remarked on in chimer and later dunmer scripture he is omnipresent his heart forms Red Mountain which looms over the dunmer people figuratively and
• 21:30 - 22:00 literally his godhood is the tribunal's godhood his allies are the three good D the Schism between these dra and other atata is what forges the path for the dunmer to this end there is no conflict between being aura's champion in the Narine and being loran's Spirit further Aura is associated with Dawn and Dusk and nvar with moon and star these are not one and the same so much as interconnected and luron also shares a deep connection to the moons together these details Forge a link between luron
• 22:00 - 22:30 and every facet of dunmer Faith a notably Elven Faith bear that in mind for later his story has as much importance to the eventual creation of the dunmer as a zura has third the events of morrowwind though covered to some extent in the prior two points it Bears mentioning that the events of morrowwind focus primarily on the destruction of the heart as a means of ending dagur's rise while Guided by Azura why was this prophecy necessary to fill out in its entirety could VC in
• 22:30 - 23:00 theory if convinced have been capable of destroying the heart using konak tools he would fit many of the criteria that the Narine did the heart was said to have been indestructible even for Ariel perhaps it has to be the soul of luron who did it and the prophecy of narvar was just a means of validating such an important role the tribunal could not destroy it for reasons of moral failing greed weakness what have you but even if they overcame that would they be able to and that implies
• 23:00 - 23:30 that the heart even ends up destroyed the heart vanishes at the end but is not explicitly stated to have been destroyed perhaps it faded from existence perhaps it reunited with the soul of luron thus requiring the presence of the soul of the Narine either way whatever conclusion the events of morn show us the power of the heart to make living gods of Mortals what the weakened living core of a God can do and it saw those living Gods cast down by supposedly
• 23:30 - 24:00 mortal hands from here we leave morwin to look at what the other games have given us fourth connection to other gods in Oblivion and Skyrim oblivion's relation to luron is found in the Crusader menar Cameron's words and in the mantling of a god menar Cameron the antagonist of Oblivion has a theory that ner the mortal world the games are set on is actually lon's realm of Oblivion making him more of a missing dra and since Oblivion Realms are under the utter control of their gods having one be Godless would somewhat fit the theory
• 24:00 - 24:30 and the Practical reality of the world but consider the source for a second he's likely just using luron to argue his case is morally grounded and that the dra are ODed dominion over ner at the least it's another example of that this world allows conflicting perspectives to Mill about and approach the player thing the rest of his monologues in his paradise deny the Divinity of the divines which uh let's just say even most D worshippers don't go that far because again this is a
• 24:30 - 25:00 fantasy setting where the gods are just like unnown fact the events of the Shivering aisle see the player character mantling shag gorath the Mad God becoming the Mad God is not enough to subsume the will and individuality of the hero of kach eventually they give way according to the events of Skyrim but the personality of the Mad God was enough to control jigal like for centuries so an ordinary mortal standing up to it for even a moment might be surprising and in no way did shag gorath ow it to you to Shield you from himself
• 25:00 - 25:30 this is further Evidence towards a certain exceptional nature within the player character that goes beyond just a typical protagonist Limitless potential and then as mentioned before we have the Divine Crusader with his connections to chesar the Knights of the nine expansion does not explicitly make the player character a shezzarine in name but we do become the new Crusader shazzar is the cilic name for the god of men AKA loron and considering we are in that DLC settling a very very very old Grudge
• 25:30 - 26:00 with an enemy of mankind in Cil that lived thousands of years ago it's a Sharin likee task I'd say divine presence or no amusingly this isn't at odds with the Mad God thing even as pretty major commitments in Skyrim the player goes to a Godly realm the in Universe equivalent of Valhalla and its Lord Shore is absent Shore's throne in senguard is empty Shore is luron this is a visual confirmation of his missing
• 26:00 - 26:30 status this could be because of loran's wandering state or because you are not seated in your throne and do not have the power to reclaim it it is proof that lorcan's absence exists if you follow and then there's the dealings with hermus MOA and dragon born with nothing left to offer to him hermus Mora lets the player character live but he has no issue ending the lives of others in his pursuit of knowledge we are in the service of mora not to the extent of Shag gorath an oblivion but unless something were keeping morah in check
• 26:30 - 27:00 perhaps the favor of the divines perhaps aatosan specific prophecy or latent godhood why would Mora let the player character live between these details we have some conclusions one is that the player character is special not just because of Prophecy or narrative demands but in ways that transcend that bear this in mind for the final Point another still is in the further possibility of incarnations as seen in the Crusader and dragon born roles before the conclusion I have one question I want to tackle and
• 27:00 - 27:30 failing that at least bring up whose God is luron aatos is depicted as being either antithetical to antagonistic to or at least ideologically opposed to loron in elmary myth yet these two are the most constant figures and arguably in their interplay create tyers septum perhaps his inability to destroy the heart was more of an unwillingness than a literal lack of ability if akatosh is Anu loron
• 27:30 - 28:00 is padame if akatosh is elves luron is man but elves became mortal that is their alleged plight but what is loran's status as Shore as shazar as a god of man I am willing to accept also that the shezzarine should not be taken as manifestations of luron merely as avatars who often established balance in some form for Mundus or whose acts like that of pelinal Whit strik set the stage for the actual Spirit or soul of luron
• 28:00 - 28:30 establishing luron as of man is discomforting because it firms up the idea of the Gods taking sides with Mortals based on race alone malath I suppose does this to a degree but it's more in reaction to events that formed the Orcs at all a very direct consequence of the creation of malath and in turn the Orcs worshiping him he is present in other pantheons not merely as the orc God to accept the racial alignment of gods as inherent we would have to Square the conflict of the three
• 28:30 - 29:00 good dra and their connection to loron of the dunmer owing their existence to him and in an indirect form through a series of events worshiping his godhood by proxy RK is described as the mortal's God because his domain is life and death his position in the pantheons is interesting the elves had no need of a god of death when they did not die but they had Zares who is conflated with ar in arguable ways again a matter of what book books one reads Zares deals with lineage and RK with birth so there are
• 29:00 - 29:30 certainly conflations to be had I bring up Ark to say that mortality already had a place in the pantheons to a degree perhaps it's better to think of lon's domain as mortality and AR as mortality in the way one looks at debella as love and Mara as love one romantic one familial thus in RK and luron respectively one a god of the experience of mortality of being born and dying the other a god of the disparity that is
• 29:30 - 30:00 mortality an advocate of all those who are not gods in turn I do not much care for the depictions and concept of shore I feel if anything they are the product of a grand bias on the part of men Shore would imply that luron is on the side of man in particular unfortunate for me it is also one of those depictions more evidenced by the main plot in the existence of senguard which is a race-based heaven sh is is depicted as the trickster Patron God of mankind but
• 30:00 - 30:30 if anything I'd say that's viewing the situation from the exactly wrong angle there is no Shore only luron and luron is not a trickster god with any sense of alignment to man luron is a God who at times has favored men and at times has favored others to that end men saw the moments of favor as moments demonstrating an alignment where they simply wasn't one man in being more Mortal than myrr have a deeper innate connection to a God that died to what has become a god of Mortals and of
• 30:30 - 31:00 mortality but that doesn't make it a mutual bond to put it another way luron hasn't tricked anyone man tricked themselves into thinking they had a monopoly on his favor and they believed all evidence to the contrary to merely be a test of their will or some such thing all Races have a right to loron even if the Elven tradition vilifies him as a bringer of mortality we are handed many details throughout these games both as in-game
• 31:00 - 31:30 text and as practical gameplay realities I.E our character having near Limitless potential to succeed to read the latter as a sign of godhood alone would be shallow player characters in most games are superhuman relative to the world around them often for the sake of gameplay convenience perhaps part of what draws me to morrowwind as my primary lens for this theory is that the game hands you fewer superhuman gameplay conveniences you don't regenerate like Skyrim moving faster than walking speed tires you being tired drastically affects most skills and so on likewise
• 31:30 - 32:00 the ability to become head of a dozen different factions is also just video game stuff but just like video games this theory is for fun I had fun making it and I find thinking about this stuff to be part of the experience of the game of the world and the video gamey stuff admittedly well given the context I've laid out accidentally becomes supporting evidence so long as it isn't the core or sole argument that the case isn't just well the player character is obviously God because look how op they are there's
• 32:00 - 32:30 something interesting left to pick at and so it is that in my heart of hearts I believe that the world of the Elder Scrolls has left this theory on the table given us the possibility to see it through this lens by handing us a missing God and a series of plots that wind back to him his allies to figures of significant Association to him and to adventurers born under a certain sign every Mainline Elder Scrolls game has the player character take the role of an adventurer even when settled into the life of being a member of a guild owning a house in some place Etc the world
• 32:30 - 33:00 around the player character continues to recognize them as such You by definition wander You by definition are the one who Rises to meet something that threatens to end the world the World created by luron luron whose first major Act was creating said world and whose every subsequent act from handing himself over to punishment down to the chorines and to the actions of the player character have been geared towards the maintenance
• 33:00 - 33:30 of the new status quo established by the existence of well existence and so maybe it is that our character innately is like this God or of this God or that we who exist outside the game but are necessary to it are this God so what I'm saying is that loron was a gamer
• 33:30 - 34:00 thanks for watching this video is part of a larger project to explore the Elder Scholls series for its World building not in a hyper methodical or game by game way but by picking it some core elements that make the world what it is and why it feels richer than most in my view instead of one big video I decided to break this part off to throw it out there for now I actually based it on a Reddit post I made oh God 7 years ago my
• 34:00 - 34:30 thoughts on the matter have changed since then but I can link the original post below in case anyone's curious apparently loron player/ character theories are a semi- reccurring thing who knew last time I wasn't able to do Patron credits for reasons and hopefully that didn't feel like a ripoff I'm very grateful for the support I get and the consistency of it helps keep me afloat I do this full-time which is maybe weird at My Level but weird or no it wouldn't be near as sustainable without support
• 34:30 - 35:00 from viewers so thanks really particular thanks this time goes out to alesandro andreone John Ora chz Mika Dan C Fran johanes fer Galactic Beyond gilded Dragon horlet Isaac of Lia lising aame Mark SoDo M Michael Kelly Nick nir nitrogen sithus Riley long cipy third Zeno and vich I've got something coming out that's a more generalized approach to the World building and design ideas
• 35:00 - 35:30 of the series but I wanted to put out something of a sample for why I like this world and what the depth of it affords and hopefully it worked out uh bye