lorkhan

by Amun-dro, the Silent Priest

Akha. The First Cat, whom we know as the Pathfinder and the One Unmourned. In the earliest days, when Ahnurr and Fadomai were still in love, he explored the heavens and his trails became the Many Paths. He was Ahnurr's Favored Son, and his father told him to find love like Ahnurr found with Fadomai. Akha mated with the Winged Serpent of the East, the Dune Queen of the West, and the Mother Mammoth of the North. He then went to the South and never returned. Instead, Alkosh appeared speaking warnings of the things Akha had made along the Many Paths. Since then, Alkosh and his faithful watch over the many children of Akha, for they are both terrible and kind.

Alkosh. The Dragon King. The Highmane. He was granted rule over the myriad kingdoms of Akha along the Many Paths. In time, the children of Akha overthrew him and scattered his body on the West Wind. It is said that when Khenarthi learned this, she flew across the Many Paths and put Alkosh back together. In doing so, she saw all the things Akha had wrought, including those that should not be. Now, Alkosh and Khenarthi safeguard the Many Paths from the wayward children of Akha. Pray to Alkosh not for his strength or his mighty roar, but for his sense of duty and purpose.

Alkhan. The Scaled Prince. Firstborn of Akha, who bred with a demon of fire and shadow. He can devour the souls of those he kills to grow to an immense size. The songs tell us Alkhan was slain by Lorkhaj and his companions, but as an immortal Son of Akha he will return from the Many Paths in time. He is the enemy of Alkosh, Khenarthi, and Lorkhaj, and ever hungers for his crown.

Boethra. The Warrior of the East and West. She is the mate of Mafala, who did not forget her love for Boethra after Ahnurr sent her into exile for her rebellious nature. Boethra walked the Many Paths in exile, and she returned. It was she who pried the eye from Magrus, and this is why Khajiit value swords as well as claws. There is no need for a True Cat to pray to Boethra, as you honor this spirit merely by walking the Path, and only hiding in order to pounce. It is forbidden to say her name on nights of the Ghost Moon, as during these phases Boethra dons the death-shroud of Lorkhaj and wages war beyond the Lattice.

Mafala. The Teaching Mother. Elder Spirit and the Keeper of the Ancient Secrets of Fadomai. These were the secrets her children only needed in the beginning, and it was Mafala that carried them down. She watches over Eight of the Many Paths, each of which a Khajiit must walk in time. Mafala aids the Clan Mothers in guiding the Khajiiti people along the Path and protecting our secrets from Others. She is an ally of Azurah, Boethra, and Lorkhaj. Her numbers are Eight and Sixteen, and these are two of her keys.

by Amun-dro, the Silent Priest

Lorkhaj. The Moon Beast. Born of the dark heart of Lorkhaj, which overcame him after he suffered a great betrayal. In his wisdom, Lorkhaj sought his sister Azurah, who tore the darkness from him before it consumed him and cast it into the Void. We know this shade of Lorkhaj as the first of the Dro-m'Athra, who serve the Ur-Dra Namiira, our enemy. The Moon Beast prowls the edges of the Lattice and pounces on Khajiit who stray too far off the Path. Know that on nights of the Ghost Moon, Azurah has opened the Void Gate and the Moon Beast will challenge mortals until banished. We accept this burden as part of the Path, and for the sake of our Lost Kin.

Namiira. The Eldest Spirit. The Great Darkness. The Void. All creatures who feed on rotten flesh are her spies and the prey of Cats. The Lunar Lattice protects us from her hunger, but not our own. Know that to name her aloud is to invite the Dark, so you must never do so, as Namiira is the sound of her true name. She is a spirit of infinite realms, of which only Azurah knows all. Mortals who become ensnared by this spirit are tortured until they forget who they were and know only Namiira. This is eternal suffering for all souls but the ja-Kha'jay, whom Azurah will not abandon to the Dark.

Noctra. The Shadow Thief. Daughter of Twilight. Born from the black blood of Lorkhaj at the steps of the Void Gate. In the songs, Boethra battled this spirit until it knew it was not Namiira. When this was done, Noctra was brought before Azurah to be judged. Azurah showed mercy and allowed Noctra to live, so long as she served Azurah and the ja-Kha'jay. But Noctra is rebellious by nature, so she stole one of Azurah's keys and fled back into the Void. It is written that Azurah sent the true spirit of Lorkhaj to find her, and ever since Noctra has aided the Khajiit when called. Tribes may whisper to Noctra for silence, shade, and luck. Do not summon her to perform vile deeds, for this will bring the Dark with her/

Varmiina. Queen of Nightmares. The Lost Daughter. This spirit was not of any litter, but was born from Fadomai's fear of losing her children. Azurah killed this dark spirit in the Underworld, and now Varmiina only haunts Khajiit when they dream. Know she will test you and make you want to turn from the Path in fear, but she cannot truly harm the ja-Kha'jay in dreams.

[?????] A spirit of vengeance. It has no will of its own, as it was born from Azurah's grief after the death of Fadomai and Lorkhaj. None can summon this spirit save Azurah, Boethra, and Mafala, for only they know its true name. It sometimes appears in songs as a black panther, a warrior in ebony armor, or as a hidden sword.

by Amun-dro, the Silent Priest

Azurah. The Mother of All Khajiit. Queen of the Night Sky, the Realms of Twilight, and the Dusk and Dawn. The Favored Daughter of Fadomai. Her spheres are many, for she carries the burdens of our ancestors. All tribes know Azurah as the God of Magic, Beauty, and Prophecy. She is also the keeper of all gates and keys, all rims and thresholds. Khajiit know it was Azurah that lifted us up and bound us to the Lunar Lattice, and thus broke us from the chains of fate so that we alone shape our own future. Hers is the gift of ja-Kha'jay and all our perfect forms. It is written that she knows the names of all the Khajiit that will ever live. You must come to know her yourself, for that is the first step on the Path.

Khenarthi. Elder Spirit of the Heavens, who sings her songs with the wind and rain when she passes close to Nirni. The most ancient sounds were gifted to the world by this spirit, and we honor her with music, song, and the speaking of myths. For some tribes she also serves as a spirit of mourning, as it is written that when Lorkhaj died she hid herself in a storm and wept until Alkosh came to comfort her. Khenarthi carries the souls of dead Khajiit to Azurah for judgment, and is also her messenger. At the end of time, it is her clarion call that will summon the eternal united spirit of all Khajiit to defend creation.

Jone and Jode. The Ever-Mourned. The spirits of the stillborn twins of Fadomai, who still dance in the Lunar Lattice. Khenarthi held them when they were born, and did not have the heart to tell her dying mother the truth. She lit two lanterns to make their eyes bright and rocked them in the sky until her mother passed. Azurah cares for them now and lights the lanterns again when they burn low. The love of Jone and Jode spreads to all Khajiit as moonlight and sugar. To give your praise to these spirits, you must sing Khenarthi's lullaby on nights of Bright Moons.

Lorkhaj. The Moon Prince. Fadomai's Favored Son. The White Lion. He was born in the Great Darkness and it followed him as his burden. Loved by many, he was considered a noble leader. Lorkhaj was the first spirit to make his own path with purpose, because he was in conflict with himself as soon as he was born. His courage inspired all those he encountered, so much that he united the spirits to make the World. He gave his life to do this. We honor his sacrifice by walking the Path with purpose and resisting the call of the Dark. Lorkhaj represents the duality of the Khajiiti soul and the hardships that all Khajiit must overcome. In her wisdom, Azurah lit her brother's pyre with the Twin Lanterns of Jone and Jode, and thus the true spirit of Lorkhaj will sometimes appear—but only when called by Azurah or Khenarthi, or by his oldest name.

Magrus. The Sun God. Commonly known as the Cat's Eye or the Third Eye of Azurah, He serves as a daily reminder of her wrath. It is written that when Magrus fled from Boethra and Lorkhaj, he could only see out of one eye and fell into the Moonshadow. There Azurah judged him as too full of fear to rule a sphere, and she tore out his other eye. Magrus left to the heavens blinded, but Azurah made of his eye a stone to reflect the Varliance Gate. This is the Aether Prism, which opens at Dawn and closes at Dusk. Some sorcerers hold that Magrus left the eye willingly as an offering to Azurah and her children, and these magi still utter prayers to his name.

Thava-ko sings now a song of Riddle'Thar. Let its sweetest truth rest upon Thava-ko's tongue.

Hear Thava-ko's voice, children of the Two-Moons Dance. Word reaches us in the Torval Curiata that an ancient book—a pre-ri'Datta catalog of spirits, assembled by an ancient priest named Amun-dro—has captured the imaginations of Khajiit throughout Pellitine. Our people seem taken with its colorful and otherworldly descriptions of powerful spirits, both good and evil. Adepts from far and wide have come to Thava-ko with curious hearts and twitching tails, asking why they were not taught these old scriptures. We Khajiit are a curious and playful people, but some subjects carry great risk. We cannot, in good conscience, allow this heretical document to fester in the minds of light-minded ja'Khajiit. For that reason, Thava-ko and her fellow priests publish this refutation. Spread this far and wide, faithful litter of Rid-Thar-ri'Datta.

In the dark times before the First Mane's revelation, our forebears held scattered beliefs—sixteen faiths that tumbled and scratched their way through history, competing for the souls of all Khajiit. This spiritual chaos led us down many paths, all of which carried great risk. You need only look upon our bent kin, the dro-m'Athra, to find the proof of these perils. This book of profanities is the product of those dark times. Shall we return to the era of sixteen wars, and hunter-fiefs, and pitiless famine? No, and no, and no again! In the truth of Riddle'Thar, we find more than spiritual fulfillment. We find a rock to build upon—an end to the shifting sands of old. We find a better path through peace and order.

This old text carries greater danger because it hides its blasphemies under a shroud of truth. Many of its attestations walk paw-in-paw with Riddle'Thar, such as its praise for the Moons, and its deference to the blessed spirits: Khenarthi, S'rendarr, and others. But its darker fables lay hidden like snares. Take, for instance, its account of the Moon Beast, Lorkhaj.

Who knows noisy Lorkhaj's darkness better than the Khajiit? We all suffer the call to the Dark at some point in our lives. Who among us has not heard the beating drum of the Dark Heart in our moments of deepest sorrow or most anguished regret? To lift up the first dro-m'Athra as a hero of our people defies both faith and reason. How many adepts shall fall to Namiira on account of this document? How many ja'khajiit will call on the Moon Beast, intent on reviving his true spirit, only to be swallowed by his eternal curse? Any thief can tell you that the surest path to a victim's purse starts with a smile. A smiling Lorkhaj is too dangerous to contemplate.

by Amun-dro, the Silent Priest

In the Great Darkness, all of Fadomai's children had left her. All save Azurah.

Azurah held her mother and did not ask for a gift. Instead she wept, the light of the Lattice was reflected in her tears.

Fadomai whispered to Azurah three secrets and more. She told her daughter many things, stories of love and war and dreams undreamt. And Azurah wept more to hear these things, so much that moonlight shined in the darkness.

And Fadomai told Azurah the names of all gates and thresholds, and the names of all the spirits, and the names of all the Khajiit that would ever live. And Azurah wept more to hear how difficult their paths would be, so much that the light of her tears became one with the Lattice.

And Fadomai told stories of her children and her favorite aspects of each of them. When she reached Azurah, she smiled and told her favored daughter she could not decide. And Fadomai died.

Azurah sat in the Great Darkness for timeless ages, musing on what she had learned and mourning the loss of her mother. Still she wept, and now the darkness fled from her tears and from the Lunar Lattice. She wept for so long that soon she was no longer in the Great Darkness, but in a place of moonlight and shadow.

And Azurah tried to return to Fadomai-Mother, but her tears had formed a great sea. Beyond it was a black gate that opened into a hungering dark.

Lorkhaj stood in the doorway. He was broken and bleeding, and there was a hole in his chest. But the Great Darkness was still in his blood, and it filled the hole where his heart had been. The dark mass beat like a heart, and black blood spilled out onto the threshold. Azurah heard each beat of the heart like the beating of a drum, and each drop of blood tapped to form a rhythm she felt in her tail.

But Fadomai had taught Azurah the names of all of the spirits, so she recognized the Great Darkness for what it was, and she roared in time with the song:

UR DRA NA MII RA UR DRA NA MII RA UR DRA AZU RA

And Azurah tore out the dark heart of Lorkhaj, and all of the darkness in him came with it, and she cast it beyond the sea.

From the Dark Heart of Lorkhaj was born the Moon Beast, the first of the dro-m'Athra, who lurks at the edge of the Lattice and knows nothing but hunger.

And with the darkness bled from him, Azurah could see her mother in Lorkhaj, and she held him until he died.

Azurah burned what remained of his body before the gate, lighting the fire with lanterns of love and mercy. She wept for her brother Lorkhaj, and her tears fell upon the pyre.

As the ashes of Lorkhaj scattered across the Lattice, even the Moon Beast became silent for a time.

Then Azurah dried her eyes at last and went unto the World. Her time of grieving was over, and Fadomai had given her so much to do.

In a time before our people's first memory, but long after Azurah's pyre claimed the flesh of the proud lion, Lorkhaj, our great mother wept and sighed–haunted by the fate of her brother's dark heart. As she prowled the hills and valleys of her wide domain, she could not escape the pounding–the faint, but constant drumbeat from across the churning seas. Somewhere in the Great Darkness, the fell rhythm of the Moon Beast quickened and grew stronger.

Knowing that her children of many shapes would fall to the Moon Beast's profanity, she purred across the stars, coaxing the lanterns of Jone and Jode to make way for a sky-guardian. This third moon and shield of the Lattice shone its light down upon Azurah's litter of purest heart and most fervent obedience. She called these cats the Litter of the Hidden Moon, and taught them the lunar byways, and secrets of the merciful blade. From that time on, they loved her as no other Khajiit could love her, and in that love, found sympathy for all cats bent by the beating of the Heart.

Beloved adepts, take these words into your heart and know that we keep Azurah's commandments still. For we are all children of the Hidden Moon. 

• The Fox - Shor
• The Bear - Tsun

• The Hawk, Kyne
• The Wolf, Mara
• The Moth, Dibella

• The Snake, Orkey
• The Woodland Man, Herma Mora

• The Dragon, Alduin - Alduin is venerated on the winter solstice by ceremonies at ancient Dragon Cult temples, where offerings are made to keep him asleep for one more year. Alduin is also the source of many common superstitious practices before any event of significance.

• The Dragonborn God, Talos - Talos’ totem is the newest, but is everywhere – he is the Dragonborn Conquering Son, the first new god of this cycle, whose power is consequently unknown, so the Nords bless nearly everything with his totem, since he might very well be the god of it now, too. Yes, as first of the Twilight Gods, this practice might seem contradictory, but that’s only because, of all the gods, he will be the one that survives in whole into the next cycle.

Shezarr and the Divines

by
Faustillus Junius
Subcurator of Ancient Theology and Paleonumerology
Imperial Library

The position Shezarr enjoys in Cyrodilic worship if often misconstrued. He, and a thousand other deities, have sizeable cults in the Imperial City. Shezarr is especially venerated in the Colovian West, though he is called Shor there, as the West Kings are resolutely, and religiously, Nordic.

The haziness of Shezarr's relationship to the Divines (he is often called their 'Missing Sibling') begins with St. Alessia, the so-called 'Slave Queen of Cyrodiil, the founder figure of the original Cyrodilic Empire. In the earliest Cyro-Nordic stories of the Heartland, Shezarr fought against the Ayleids (the 'Heartland Highelves') on mankind's behalf. Then, for some unknown reason, he vanishes from the stage (presumably to help other humans elsewhere), and, without his leadership, the Ayleids conquer the humans and enslave them.

This slavery lasts for generations. The isolated humans eventually begin to venerate the pantheon of their masters, or at least assimilate so much of High Elven religious practices into their native traditions that the two become indistinguishable.

In 1E242, under the leadership of Alessia, her demigod lover, Morihaus-Breath-of-Kyne, and the infamous Pelinal Whitestrake, the Cyrodilic humans revolt. When Skyrim lends its armies to the Slave-Queen of the South, the revolution succeeds. The Ayleid Hegemonies are quickly overthrown. Shortly thereafter, White Gold Tower is captured by Alessia's forces, and she promptly declares herself the first Empress of Cyrodiil. Part of the package meant that she had to become the High Priestess of Akatosh, as well.

Akatosh was an Aldmeri god, and Alessia's subjects were as-yet unwilling to renounce their worship of the Elven pantheon. She found herself in a very sensitive political situation. She needed to keep the Nords as her allies, but they were (at that time) fiercely opposed to any adoration of Elven deities. On the other hand, she could not force her subjects to revert back to the Nordic pantheon, for fear of another revolution. Therefore, concessions were made and Empress Alessia instituted a new religion: the Eight Divines, an elegant, well-researched synthesis of both pantheons, Nordic and Aldmeri.

Shezarr, as a result, had to change. He could no longer be the bloodthirsty anti-Aldmer warlord of old. He could not disappear altogether either, or the Nords would have withdrawn their support of her rule. In the end, he had become "the spirit behind all human undertaking." Even though this was merely a thinly-disguised, watered-down version of Shor, it was good enough for the Nords.

As for why Tiber Septim has not attempted to 'revitalize' Shezarr during his wars against the Aldmeri Dominion, we can only speculate that, at this time, memories of the Alessian Order's follies (the Dragon Break, the War of Righteousness, the defeat at Gelnumbria Moors) would only damage his campaign for the Imperial Crown.

Sithis is the start of the house. Before him was nothing, but the foolish Altmer have names for and revere this nothing. That is because they are lazy slaves. Indeed, from the Sermons, 'stasis asks merely for itself, which is nothing.'

Sithis sundered the nothing and mutated the parts, fashioning from them a myriad of possibilities. These ideas ebbed and flowed and faded away and this is how it should have been.

One idea, however, became jealous and did not want to die; like the stasis, he wanted to last. This was the demon Anui-El, who made friends, and they called themselves the Aedra. They enslaved everything that Sithis had made and created realms of everlasting imperfection. Thus are the Aedra the false gods, that is, illusion.

So Sithis begat Lorkhan and sent him to destroy the universe. Lorkhan! Unstable mutant!

Lorkhan had found the Aedric weakness. While each rebel was, by their nature, immeasurable, they were, through jealously and vanity, also separate from each other. They were also unwilling to go back to the nothing of before. So while they ruled their false dominions, Lorkhan filled the void with a myriad of new ideas. These ideas were legion. Soon it seemed that Lorkhan had a dominion of his own, with slaves and everlasting imperfections, and he seemed, for all the world, like an Aedra. Thus did he present himself as such to the demon Anui-El and the Eight Givers: as a friend.

Go unto the Sharmat Dagoth Ur as a friend.

AE HERMA MORA ALTADOON PADHOME LKHAN AE AI.