Skip navigation
Library

Help with C0DA

9 replies [Last post]
Offline
Joined: 09/06/2015

I recently got interested in C0DA but need some help deciphering it. Does anyone have a deciphered version or a set of notes or something? At least let me know what types of writing styles and the like that MK uses in it. It's simply difficult, and not very possible, to understand C0DA without one of these. Thanks and are there any suggestions? 

Proweler's picture
Offline
Joined: 06/14/2010

I don't think there is. Anything you're stuck on in particular?

cpt.Od's picture
Offline
Joined: 07/02/2010

Kirkbride's c0da takes place after Landfall, a Fourth Era event anticipated in the Love Letter From the Fifth Era. Its a different canon all together, where Man is eradicated, the Nerevarine returns to save the Aldmer, and Akavir is their lunar future.

I'm not as familiar with the minutia as others here. I was gone for c0da's expository years.

Offline
Joined: 09/06/2015

Proweler wrote:

I don't think there is. Anything you're stuck on in particular?

Not particularly. I just have problems understanding some his words and things such as when he says "Memory". Other than that I think I understand the setting. From my understanding it's well within the 5th Era and theirs a new community on one of the moons and from what I gather it's predominantly Dunmeri culture being used. 

Fiore1300's picture
Offline
Joined: 07/24/2011

Bamitzcayden wrote:

Not particularly. I just have problems understanding some his words and things such as when he says "Memory". 

Memory, as a proper noun, refers to Nirn the planet (or rather what it used to be), who symbolizes everything that has come before. Her "leaving" ties into the birth of the Amaranth - a new dreamer. I expect you're familiar with the Amaranth idea and of the Aurbis as a dream?

Offline
Joined: 09/06/2015

Fiore1300 wrote:

Bamitzcayden wrote:

Not particularly. I just have problems understanding some his words and things such as when he says "Memory". 

Memory, as a proper noun, refers to Nirn the planet (or rather what it used to be), who symbolizes everything that has come before. Her "leaving" ties into the birth of the Amaranth - a new dreamer. I expect you're familiar with the Amaranth idea and of the Aurbis as a dream?

I'm not very familiar with the concept of the Amaranth or of the Aurbis although I've heard them enough. I just haven't gotten to looking into them. 

Fiore1300's picture
Offline
Joined: 07/24/2011

Bamitzcayden wrote:

I'm not very familiar with the concept of the Amaranth or of the Aurbis although I've heard them enough. I just haven't gotten to looking into them. 

Well, C0DA ends in the birth of the new Amaranth (Jubal's son), so becoming familiar with the terms is a pretty important prerequisite to reading the C0DA.

Its already pretty late here but I can give you a quick rundown.

The Aurbis is simply everything that exists within the Elder Scrolls universe. It is the intermingling of everything that IS and IS NOT. If you can imagine a Venn diagram, where one circle stands for IS and one for IS NOT, the Aurbis is where the circles overlap. Everything in the Elder Scrolls universe lies within that intersection (Aetherius, Oblivion, Mundus, Nirn), and everything without is the Void (literally nothing).

The Aurbis is in fact the elaborate dream of a mysterious, sleeping figure known as the Godhead. The Godhead is sensory deprived and in deep slumber, and thus shouldn't be understood as an active creator deity. Instead, his dreams have taken on something of an existence all their own and are (perhaps blissfully) unaware they are the figments of someone's imagination. Now we think we know something of who the Godhead was and what inspired him to dream (you should read A Children's Anuad), but that's not really important for our purposes here.

That's all well and good, but sometimes the inhabitants of this dream world figure out that they are just members of a collective conscious of some otherworldly entity. The most frequent result of this frightful revelation is Zero-Summing, where the unfortunate enlightened effectively evaporate because they stop believing in their own existence. The second, much less common reaction is known as CHIM. CHIM is a state when the individual becomes aware that they're just a member of a dream, and hence very much all part of the same single thought; but CHIMers carry that logic further by asserting that everything is in fact part of them. This true but very self-centered revelation prevents them from zero-summing and gives them something akin to hacker-powers within the Dream. In the end, however, all this does is give them immense power within the Dream, but not an escape from it. This is where the Amaranth comes in.

The Amaranth is someone who has escaped the Dream entirely by becoming a dreamer themselves; ergo become a new godhead. Note this is very different than what the inhabitants of Tamriel experience every night when they sleep. In the Elder Scrolls universe, mortals aren't experiencing the sensory-deprived hallucinating that results in dreams that we experience. Instead, they are actually visiting the realm of Vaermina, Quagmire, within Oblivion, during the small hours of the night. To become a godhead is a different experience entirely. In reaching Amaranth, you become a truly creative entity who escapes the Dream because it no longer has any power over you. 

I'm sure this is a lot to absorb and I'm sure others here can explain it more succinctly, but there has also been plenty of more in-depth examination of this already. Just peruse this website or a number of any others (e.g. the official lore forums, the elder scrolls lore subreddit), and search for terms like "godhead", "amaranth", and "CHIM" for more in-depth explanation and analysis.

All of this has an important role to play in the meaning and significance of C0DA, and should at least have a tacit understanding of if you want to understand it and its take on lore and canon.

EDIT: I found this, written by our own Lady Nerevar, which might be helpful to understanding the intent behind C0DA.

cpt.Od's picture
Offline
Joined: 07/02/2010

Just to emphasize what Fiore's said, nobody on Nirn's really aware of all this - it's all very meta-esoteric. Except for the Elder Council and a few sorcerers, nobody's even aware of the dreamsleeve. These secrets are the occupation of a very select number of people, with the leisure and means to study them.

Offline
Joined: 09/06/2015

Fiore1300 wrote:

Bamitzcayden wrote:

I'm not very familiar with the concept of the Amaranth or of the Aurbis although I've heard them enough. I just haven't gotten to looking into them. 

Well, C0DA ends in the birth of the new Amaranth (Jubal's son), so becoming familiar with the terms is a pretty important prerequisite to reading the C0DA.

Its already pretty late here but I can give you a quick rundown.

The Aurbis is simply everything that exists within the Elder Scrolls universe. It is the intermingling of everything that IS and IS NOT. If you can imagine a Venn diagram, where one circle stands for IS and one for IS NOT, the Aurbis is where the circles overlap. Everything in the Elder Scrolls universe lies within that intersection (Aetherius, Oblivion, Mundus, Nirn), and everything without is the Void (literally nothing).

The Aurbis is in fact the elaborate dream of a mysterious, sleeping figure known as the Godhead. The Godhead is sensory deprived and in deep slumber, and thus shouldn't be understood as an active creator deity. Instead, his dreams have taken on something of an existence all their own and are (perhaps blissfully) unaware they are the figments of someone's imagination. Now we think we know something of who the Godhead was and what inspired him to dream (you should read A Children's Anuad), but that's not really important for our purposes here.

That's all well and good, but sometimes the inhabitants of this dream world figure out that they are just members of a collective conscious of some otherworldly entity. The most frequent result of this frightful revelation is Zero-Summing, where the unfortunate enlightened effectively evaporate because they stop believing in their own existence. The second, much less common reaction is known as CHIM. CHIM is a state when the individual becomes aware that they're just a member of a dream, and hence very much all part of the same single thought; but CHIMers carry that logic further by asserting that everything is in fact part of them. This true but very self-centered revelation prevents them from zero-summing and gives them something akin to hacker-powers within the Dream. In the end, however, all this does is give them immense power within the Dream, but not an escape from it. This is where the Amaranth comes in.

The Amaranth is someone who has escaped the Dream entirely by becoming a dreamer themselves; ergo become a new godhead. Note this is very different than what the inhabitants of Tamriel experience every night when they sleep. In the Elder Scrolls universe, mortals aren't experiencing the sensory-deprived hallucinating that results in dreams that we experience. Instead, they are actually visiting the realm of Vaermina, Quagmire, within Oblivion, during the small hours of the night. To become a godhead is a different experience entirely. In reaching Amaranth, you become a truly creative entity who escapes the Dream because it no longer has any power over you. 

I'm sure this is a lot to absorb and I'm sure others here can explain it more succinctly, but there has also been plenty of more in-depth examination of this already. Just peruse this website or a number of any others (e.g. the official lore forums, the elder scrolls lore subreddit), and search for terms like "godhead", "amaranth", and "CHIM" for more in-depth explanation and analysis.

All of this has an important role to play in the meaning and significance of C0DA, and should at least have a tacit understanding of if you want to understand it and its take on lore and canon.

EDIT: I found this, written by our own Lady Nerevar, which might be helpful to understanding the intent behind C0DA.

Thanks, Fiore, that helps actually. I somewhat new of CHIM already but not indepthly. I'll read the Child's Annuad again and your link to Lady Nerevar's text. Thanks, again!

Fiore1300's picture
Offline
Joined: 07/24/2011

Bamitzcayden wrote:

Thanks, Fiore, that helps actually. I somewhat new of CHIM already but not indepthly. I'll read the Child's Annuad again and your link to Lady Nerevar's text. Thanks, again!

You're most welcome. If you have any further questions about C0DA, just ask them here. Just try and be somewhat specific so we can help you. There are definitely notoriously strange and somewhat obtuse parts to the C0DA, like the notorious television series bit with the Tribunal and Molag Bal acting as super heroes that a lot of people tend to ask about. If not I, certainly someone here can help you better understand it.