The Guardian Theory

by Nalion Leoriane

- The true purpose of the Mythic Towers and an alternative theory on the upkeep of the Oblivion Barriers throughout the ages -

One of the greatest discussions among the scholars of Tamriel and which has experienced increased attention during the Oblivion Crisis was the discussion about what force or power has kept the barriers against Oblivion up during the Millenia. This discussion received additional fuel by the conversations of Moth Priest Nu-Hatta of the Sphinxmoth Inquiry Tree with the Elder council (aka the "Nu-Mantia Intercept").
The most common theory among scholars is the theory that the power of the Dawn-Towers, like Adamantine, Red Tower, Walk-Brass, Crystal-like-Law, Green-Sap etc. maintained the barriers of Oblivion (in this text referred to as "Tower-Theory"). The Nu-Mantia Intercept is often taken as proof for this theory.

Through study of sources pertaining to these Towers, as well as considering other texts like Vehk's teachings, "Where were you when the Dragon Broke", "The Song of Pelinal" and the words of the Prophet of Anvil, I have come to heavily doubt the truth of this theory and with the text at hand, want to establish another theory on how the Barriers were kept up during the ages.

The "Guardian Theory" is based on the idea that not the Towers or their Stones are the real essential part of keeping the Barriers against Oblivion strong, but their respective human or merish "Guardians". The most prominent and important guardian and at the same time the last line of defense against the Princes of Misrule was the Emperor of the Cyrodiilic Empire. Additional Guardians would have been the Dunmer Tribunal Vivec, Almalexia and Sotha Sil. The mythic Towers, while powerful in their own rights, are nothing but tools - powerful tools, seats of power - but in essence, share all the disadvantages of a tool. When nobody is there to wield and use the tool, the tool will do nothing. Here is where the Guardians come into play, their position and mythic stature allow them to take up the task of defending Mundus from the Princes of Misrule. If they fail - and they have failed, Mundus falls prey to the dark hordes of Oblivion.

Before I go into the detail of backing up my claims, let me recap the Nu-Mantia Intercept a bit to show my point. The key information is marked in bold.

"What are the Towers?

They are magical and physical echoes of the Ur-Tower, Ada-mantia. Ada-mantia was the first spike of unassailable reality in the Dawn, otherwise called the Zero Stone. The powers at Ada-mantia were able to determine through this Stone the spread of creation and their parts in it.
The powers also created Red Tower and the First Stone. This allowed the Mundus to exist without the full presence of the divine. In this way, the powers of Ada-mantia granted the Mundus a special kind of divinity, which is called NIRN, the consequence of variable fate.

After these two acts, which is commonly called the Convention, the gods left the earth.
As they were the most powerful of lesser spirits in the ages after the Convention and eager to emulate what they saw, the Aldmer began construction of their own towers. That they built more than one shows you that they were not of one mind.

The Aldmer began to split along cultural lines, on how best to spread creation and their parts in it. Each Tower that was built exemplified a separate accordance.

This sundering of purpose is the myth of the "destruction of Aldmeris." Outside of the Dawn, and even then only in the dreamtime of its landscape, there was never a terrestrial homeland of the Elves. "Old Ehlnofey" is a magical ideal of mixed memories of the Dawn.

Let me elaborate on the text above:
First of all, all towers are copies - or, as Nu-Hatta says: echoes - of the original tower: Ada-Mantia. Nu-Hatta clearly states the purpose of this tower: The cornerstone of reality, the Monomyth would call that "time as a guideline for spirits to orientate on". Then, Nu-Hatta explicitly states the purpose of Ada-Mantia: controlling and determining the spread of creation (life). In refutation of the Tower-Theory: Nothing said of holding Oblivion at bay.

Next: Red Tower appears. The gods left, but left a divinity of its own on Mundus: Nirn. I said before that all other towers are copies of the original tower, even including Red Tower. Please note that this story is similar to the Anuad: Anu and Nir, the appearance of Padomay, the twelve worlds of creation, another battle between Anu and Padomay and afterwards the creation of Nirn from the remnants of the twelve worlds. The creation myths (Monomyth, Anuad, Words of Clan Mother Ahnissi) are consistent between themselves. Nu-Hatta reinforces his point: The Aldmer had different notions of how to spread creation and so they split ("along cultural lines") and built their own towers according to their beliefs.
There still is no mention of the Towers holding Oblivion at bay.

Please direct your attention to Letter Seven:

"What are the Stones?

The Stones are magical and physical echoes of the Zero Stone, by which a Tower might focus its energy to mold creation.
Oftentimes, the Stones borrowed surplus creation from Oblivion, grafting it to the terrestrial domain of its anointed Tower.
It was and is difficult to bypass Oblivion to go directly to creation's source, the Aetherius. It has been done, but not without great expenditure, mundane and otherwise. However, access to Oblivion, the Void that surrounds Mundex Arena, which we might touch every night, was child's play in comparison.

Cultivating creatia that washed into the Void from Aetherius became the rule among Stones.

The Daedric Realms were formed on much the same principle: padomaic powers using aetherial refuse to build their void-territories. The Towers built on the Mundus, since the lands around them congealed in the absence of the gods, were unable to match the capriciousness of the Lords of Misrule."

Again, Nu-Hatta stresses the tower's purpose to mold and spread creation and that all towers including their stones serve this purpose. Now, though, we have the first mention of Oblivion: the towers borrow surplus creation from the voids of Oblivion. The next paragraph explains why: The idea was to get creatia (creation) from its source: Aetherius. However, there was something between the towers and Aetherius that made that difficult: Oblivion. So, Oblivion is a barrier keeping the towers from reaching Aetherius directly! To complete this, Nu-Hatta even claims that harvesting surplus magicka from Oblivion is childs play! In a literal meaning, the towers reach into Oblivion to steal or to borrow creatia.
Completing this almost heretical, though nontheless extremely interesting point, Nu-Hatta goes one step further. He claims that the daedric realms base themselves on the same principle: harvesting creatia and building their realms with it (a similarity again to the Monomyth: "Now when the Daedra Lords heard Shezarr, they mocked him, and the other Aedra. 'Cut parts of ourselves off? And lose them? Forever? That's stupid! You'll be sorry! We are far smarter than you, for we will create a new world out of ourselves, but we will not cut it off, or let it mock us, but we will make this world within ourselves, forever ours, and under our complete control.'")
No word again about the towers keeping Oblivion at bay. Moreso, the towers reach into Oblivion to harvest creatia.

To quote Letter Eight of the Nu-Mantia Intercept now:

"Like all of the polydox constructs of the earliest Aldmer-- whatever their abnegaurbic creed-- White-Gold Tower is a conduit of creatia, aad sembia sembio, built to bring about a reversal of the congealing spiritual bleed caused by the Convention. In other words, it was a focus point for (re-)reaching the divine.
White-Gold Tower was made by the Ayleids, the Heartland High Elves that would have none to do with their isle-kind. Where the Altmer sought to focus on dracochrysalis, or keeping elder magic bound before it could change into something lesser (and act which ironically required aetherial surplus), the Ayleids harvested castaway creatia from Oblivion by entering a pact with the masters of the Void, the Princes of Misrule."

White-Gold, as any other of its sister-towers, conducts creatia to Nirn. Moreso, the purpose was to keep divinity from dissolving further (dracochrysalis, reversal of the congealing spiritual bleed, re-reach the divine). As Nu-Hatta ironically notes, this required using aetherial surplus - thus, using up divine matter to keep the status quo and go back to the divine. The Ayleids had a different approach and, using their pact with the Daedric Princes (Princes of Misrule), were able to harvest cast-away creatia from Oblivion, apparently with the consent of the Princes.
And... still no barrier mentioned.

Last:

"Though the Ayleids gave theirs a central Spire as the imago of Ada-mantia, the whole of the polydox resembled the Wheel, with eight lesser towers forming a ring around their primus. To dismiss this mythitecture as being a mockery of the Aurbis is to ignore an important point: this same "jest" gave White-Gold Tower a power over creatia unalike any on this plane(t). It was a triumph of sympathetic megafetish, and the Start of the [Threat! To! Empire!] that brings me to this Council.

If the Ayleids made their own Wheel within the Wheel, were-web aad semblio, what would happen if they plucked its strings?"

There is one important difference that sets White-Gold apart from the other towers. I also resembles a wheel, the model of creation. As Nu-Hatta states, we must not dismiss this as unimportant, being a myth-echo, a copy of mythical events gives power.

Symbols are power.

"If the Ayleids made their own Wheel within the Wheel, were-web aad semblio, what would happen if they plucked its strings?"

This sentence is worth repeating.Imagine a boy building a sand castle looking exactly like the Imperial City (Echo-of-Echo-of-Echo). Now imagine the boy angry at something, smashing the sand castle and after a moment you hear rumbling and earthquakes and the real Imperial City is gone. Scale that unto the power of White-Gold and you can imagine what the Ayleids could do with the Wheel if they got angry. Scale that to the ambition of someone like Mankar and you can see the threat he poses. Even without the towers holding Oblivion at bay. And, by the way, still no mention of Towers holding Oblivion at bay.

So, what actually did hold Oblivion at bay?
Here, the core of my reasoning in the opening paragraphs of this text. Let us remember the pact Akatosh (or Lorkhan, whoever you prefer) made with Alessia.:

" "... and left you to gather sinew with my other half, who will bring light thereby to that mortal idea that brings [the Gods] great joy, that is, freedom, which even the Heavens do not truly know, [which is] why our Father, the... [Text lost]... in those first [days/spirits/swirls] before Convention... that which we echoed in our earthly madness. [Let us] now take you Up. We will [show] our true faces... [which eat] one another in amnesia each Age."
(Song of Pelinal)

"Akatosh made a covenant with Alessia in those days so long ago. He gathered the tangled skeins of Oblivion, and knit them fast with the bloody sinews of his Heart, and gave them to Alessia, saying, 'This shall be my token to you, that so long as your blood and oath hold true, yet so shall my blood and oath be true to you. This token shall be the Amulet of Kings, and the Covenant shall be made between us, for I am the King of Spirits, and you are the Queen of Mortals. As you shall stand witness for all Mortal Flesh, so shall I stand witness for all Immortal Spirits."
(Trials of Saint Alessia)

This Guardian Theory throws up one important question, though: If the Covenant between gods and mortals is the source of the power keeping Oblivion away, what or who held the Covenant before during and after Alessia and her successors? Also, what kept the Barrier up when no Emperor sat on the Throne, for example during the reign of the Akaviri Potentates?

I am the first to admit that sources on this issue are scarce but a few things still do come to mind. From the book Where were you when the Dragon Broke:

"No one understands what happened when the Selectives danced on that tower. It would be easy to dismiss the whole matter as nonsense were it not for the Amulet of Kings. Even the Elder Scrolls do not mention it -- let me correct myself, the Elder Scrolls cannot mention it. When the Moth priests attune the Scrolls to the timeless time their glyphs always disappear. The Amulet of Kings, however, with its oversoul of emperors, can speak of it at length."

"The Three Thieves of Morrowind could tell you where they were. So could the High King of Alinor, who was the one who broke it in the first place. There are others on this earth that could, too: Ysmir, Pelinal, Arnand the Fox or should I say Arctus?"

To further substantiate my claim, have a look at what happened around the assassination of Emperor Uriel Septim VII. While he lived, the barriers held. Only after his death and before an heir claimed the mythical position of the Emperor, the barriers weakened and eventually fell. If just a mythical Tower and its stone would hold up the Barrier, an assassination of the Emperor would have no effect on the Barrier. After all, White-Gold Tower still stood unmarred and the Amulet of Kings still existed, even in the hands of the later Champion of Cyrodiil for a brief time.

As an additional support to my theory, I repeat the words of the Prophet of Anvil who appeared to warn us of the threat Umaril posed:

"Are there no ears to hear the warnings? Are there no eyes to witness the Wheel's breaking? The Eight and One favor only the righteous! And too few of you remain! The Thief has found the lock that he cannot break! The Warrior, the foe that cannot fall! The Wizard, an incantation that takes not to his tongue!
Truly this is the Age of the Serpent and the Void that follows!
The Guardians have fallen and no one remains to watch their charges, and all the heavens are now banquet for the Princes of Misrule!"

The Thief the Prophet refers to is Vivec. Judging from the following excerpt,

"And it was of the Tower that my emperor wanted to hear. He was dying and I loved him yet. He, too, was a Master and so I knew that he realized just how big a realm that the Tower encompassed. I am sure that when I meet the Warrior and Arctus again, they will have brought similar burdens. My guesses are the Lord and Ritual, but I do not know and would be delighted to be wrong." Teachings

To emphasize the words of the Prophet, that "all the heavens are now banquet for the Princes of Misrule" is only true due to the fact that Mundus lacks its Guardians, Guardians in form of individuals to take up one of the heaviest burdens and tasks (charges) Nirn has to offer. The Prophet does not speak of objects. As in all, it is individuals who wield true power on Nirn. A Tower is nothing without control.

Another section of the Nu-Mantia Intercept also refers to Guardians of a Tower:
"The fall of Red Tower should not be seen as the suave conquest of Cyrodiil's agencies, for we have been tricked again by the Dagonites. Though through long eras the chimerical landgods have subverted Divine rule, their protection of the First Stone should have remained as it was: the ironic protection of our enemies to our Enemy."

Nu-Hatta admits that the Tribunal - the chimerical landgods - did in effect protect Red Tower. In Tribunal Temple doctrine, the three "Good Daedra" (Azura, Boethiah and Mephala) were the Anticipations of the Tribunal. Nu Hatta calls the protection of Red Mountain - Red Tower - and its Stone "ironic". That the Tribunal ursurped the places of the "Good Daedra" in order to protect it from them, then this could truly be called ironic. The "Enemy" (noting the capitalization), can be interpreted as a referral to said Daedra, or broader, Oblivion in general. The (lower-case) "enemy" could refer to the Tribunal and also the potential threat and competition they pose(d) to the Empire. After all even the six walking ways of Vivec lead "from enigma to enemy to teacher". From Nu-Hatta's quote, it can be assumed that he at least acknowledged the Tribunal's protection of Red Tower as well as that he wanted the protection of Red Tower to remain (as it was).

A question that arises is wether Red Tower could have fallen without the fall of its Guardians? Reconsidering the situation of Red Tower at the time of the Nerevarine, the Tribunal still held a weak grip on Red Tower, they still acted as Guardians, but Dagoth Ur was on the rise. Eventually he would have won. If Dagoth Ur had won, the Tribunal would have been gone, but it also would have created another Guardian, whether willingly or not, a Guardian named Dagoth Ur with a walking copy of Numidium. A copy of Walk-Brass - powered by the very heartstone of Red Tower, in the hands of Dagoth Ur who wasn't friends with the Daedra either. While knowing that interpreting a Daedric Prince's actions and motives is a risky business at best, in this case, one assumption can be made: If the Daedra wanted the barriers to fall, Red Tower would have to fall. To accomplish this, they would have needed to elimiate the protection of the Tribunal while at the same time stopping Dagoth Ur from fulfilling his goal and completing Akulakhan. At this stage, the Nerevarine entered the stage with the outcome we are familiar with. The Tribunal severed from the heart and broken, with Sotha Sil and Almalexia dead. Dagoth Ur was defeated. For the Daedra? The event killed two birds with one stone.

Also, Vivec knows his task and tells us about it in Sermon 13: "The sword is the cross and ALMSIVI is the Triune house around it. If there is to be an end I must be removed. The ruling king must know this, and I will test him. I will murder him time and again until he knows this. I am the defender of the last and the last. To remove me is to refill the heart that lay dormant at the center that cannot hold. I am the sword, Ayem the star, Seht the mechanism that allows the transformation of the world. Ours is the duty to keep the compromise from being filled with black sea."
The compromise is creation. The black sea is the Shadow of Oblivion.

To conclude and sum up my reasoning: the Arena ever was - and ever will be - a place for heroes. Individuals shaped events and events have always depended on individuals - as Zurin Arctus once said:
"Each event is preceded by prophecy, but without the hero, there is no event."

The mythical Towers are places of great importance and they give power to those who made them their seats. But this power is also a weakness. No matter how one individually thinks about the Emperor, the Tribunal or perhaps even the Ayleids or the High King of Alinor, as long as they held and guarded the Towers, the waters of Oblivion could not wash over Nirn.
Defenders they were all, holding true to their charges, ready to even face death. Until one came who holds my greatest respect: Martin Septim, rightful heir to the Seat of Sundered Kings, forger of the Eternal Covenant.

Nalion Leoriane
5th of Evening Star

Post Scriptum:
In the scholarly discussion following the initial introduction of this theory, questions were posted pertaining to some claims the theory makes. Some of them have been answered in the newest revision of above theory, the most recent ones will be answered in the following paragraphs:

One question challenged the assumption that Martin Septim reforged the barrier or at least changed the way the barriers work without guardians.
To answer this question, the author would like to emphasise that it is proven that the Barrier holding Oblivion at bay did indeed fully break, as is evident by the physical manifestation of Mehrunes Dagon in the Imperial City. Therefore, the events that led to said breaking of the barrier- most notably the death of Emperor Uriel Septim VII. and the failure to relight the Dragonfires (in time), had a direct relation to the fall of the barrier. Following that, since Mehrunes Dagon was defeated and the Oblivion Gates around Cyrodiil closed, it is safe to assume that the Barrier has been restored by the actions of Martin Septim.

Another question, relating to the first one, asked that if the Guardian Theory were true, who would be the Guardian(s) after the events of the Oblivion Crisis.
First, the author would like to bring up the following thought: The fall of the Barriers would require - if the Guardian theory is correct - the death/absence of all Guardians and replacement to take up their charges. It is therefore the author's argumentation that Martin Septim significantly changed the terms of the original covenant, so that
a ) no Guardians were needed anymore
b ) Martin Septim himself took up the task of Guardian forever, by what means though, is unknown or up to speculation, in which the statue of the Dragon on the former place of the Temple of the One might play a role, or
c ) by other means.
What can be observed is that it is evident that the actions of Martin Septim restored the Barriers, even though the actual terms of the New Covenant are unknown.

Author's remark: There is one additional story that tells about making a pact - this time with some Princes of Oblivion themselves - of which the terms are unknown as well: the pact that Sotha Sil struck with the Daedra Princes so they would not answer the summoning calls of the uninitiated. This is another act of protection and while we do not know what was offered in return to said deal, it speaks a lot about Sotha Sil that he was able to strike such a deal.

Nalion Leoriane
15th of Morning Star