Forum Scholar’s Guild: Geo-Mythic Polarity

Tamriel is the most important point on [what we have seen of] Nirn. Nu-Hatta would have us believe it is the ancestral home of all mortals. Mysterious Akavir puts it well with: All Men and Mer know Tamriel is the nexus of creation, where the Last War will happen, where the Gods unmade Lorkhan and left their Adamantine Tower of secrets.

Then Tamriel is so as the Aurbis is between the Light and Dark of Anu and Padomay, the Grey between them. As The Myth of Aurbis puts it: " 'Aurbis' is used to connote the imperceptible Penumbra, the Gray Center between the IS/IS NOT of Anu and Padomay. It contains the multitude realms of Aetherius and Oblivion, as well as other, less structured forms." Interestingly enough, Nirn is polarized in nomenclatural means as well, when one notices the oceans. To the east of Tamriel are the waters named the Padomaic Ocean; how beautifully straight forward. To the west, past the Abecean Sea, the ocean is called The Eltheric Ocean. It may take a keen eye to note the similarities between Eltheric and Aetheric. Elther is but one letter from ether, which is almost a synonym for aether. It is therefore but a mild extrapolation associating the Eltheric Ocean with the Realm of Aetherius, home of the existing Anu-aligned spirits.

The similarities do not end there. To an extent, Tamriel is religiously polarized as well, with worship of Anuic deities being more prevalent in the west, and Padomaic worship being more prevalent in the east, and a partial mixture in the center.

The Altmer, Bosmer, Bretons, and Reguards all have regional pantheons comprised of Anuic Aedra, with their own aspects and demigods of course. All of these races live in the west of Tamriel. It should also be noted all of these races possess the viewpoint of The Space God Lorkhan as bad, evil, a demon; the Bretons even go so boldly as to call him "The Bad Man."

The Khajiit of Elsweyr, positioned in south-central Tamriel, following logic, have a pantheon Aedra and Daera. this is chronicled in Varieties of Faith in the Empire and verified by The Words of Clan Mother Ahnissi. The original inhabitants of Cyrodiil, the Ayleidoon, have but a few clues to their religious beliefs. Of note is: "Within the forest tangle I discovered an entrance leading down into the central dome of a great underground edifice once dedicated to Magnus, the God of Sight, Light, and Insight."-Glories and Laments. From Volume 3 of the Songs of Pelinal we learn the Ayleids had a pact with the Daedric Prince Meridia, though she is likely of Anuic origin. A subsection of the Ayleid ruin Atatar bears the name "Atatar Haelia Dagon," quite possibly named after the Prince of Destruction. Nonetheless, a dabbing in Aedra and Daedra can be devised. Even the imperials who today inhabit the Heartland know the "sixteen acceptable blasphemes."

The Nords of Skyrim, however, have an entirely Aedric pantheon and beliefs, despite the active presence of Deadra in their myths and stories.

Now we turn to the eastern stretch of Tamriel, Morrowind and Black Marsh.

"The Chimer clans followed the Prophet Veloth out of the ancestral Elven homelands in the southwest to settle in the lands now known as Morrowind. "-Before the Ages of Man

There in Morrowind, the Chimer, before their transition to worship of the Tribunal, of course worshiped what are now the Anticipations and the House of Troubles, Daedra, and thus Padomaic. The Monomyth states that "Even the hist acknowledge this being. [Sithis]" Some scholars take 'acknowledge' to literally mean worship.

The Light and The Dark explains how everything reflects the original beings; as one can see, for the sake of conformity I have called them here by the names Anu and Padomay. From the aforementioned text:

"Even the gods and their daedric enemies are pale reflections of the eternal conflict between them. It's as though their struggle creates energies that distort their surroundings, and those energies are so powerful that life can appear, like an eddy in a stream."

Yet another explanation for this proposed polarity may exist beyond a reflection of the First Beings: The Towers of Ur and Adamantine. From The Nu-Mantia Intercept:

"Auriel-that-is-Akatosh returned to Mundex Arena from his dominion planet, signalling all Aedra to convene at a static meeting that would last outside of aurbic time. His sleek and silver vessel became a spike into the changing earth and the glimmerwinds of its impact warned any spirit that entered aura with it would become recorded...Our forebears saw the erection of Ada-mantia, Ur-Tower, and the Zero Stone."

Thus, the Adamantine Tower is a construct of the Time God, first born of Anu. From later in Nu-Mantia:

"Mundus was given its second Tower, the Red, whose First Stone was the Heart of the World, 'as in the image.'...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."

The "Heart of the World" as described in Altmeri creation stories is the Heart of Lorkhan, who is the first born of Padomay.

"But when Trinimac and Auriel tried to destroy the Heart of Lorkhan it laughed at them. It said, 'This Heart is the heart of the world, for one was made to satisfy the other.' "

When it was flung to the earth it created the Red Mountain of Vvardenfell, in the star-wounded-east of Morrowind, almost on the same latitude to Adamantia as well. Like their ancestral spirits, the two stones 'distort their surroundings,' in this case the Tamrielic beliefs themselves. With the essence of the favorite child of Anu jammed in the west, and the divine spark of the first child of Padomay nestled in the east, is it any surprise they might pull their respective believers in this way?

Remember, I do this because I love you all.
-Brian. (Klo'rg Kjolrit)