The Heart of Lorkhan, Midnight Armory, Eljunbryo, and a Heapin' Helpin' of Elder Scrolls Lore · 9:46am Dec 4th, 2012
Hold onto yer butts, theres gonna be a lot of bullshit, speculation, Elder Scrolls lore fanwank, and general ass-pulling in this thread.
So those of you following Imploding Colon's epic journey of epicness, you noticed there is a whole fuckton of backstory flyin' around. One of the conclusion I drew is that the whole "Midnight Armory" dealy is kinda similar to the Heart of Lorkhan in The Elder Scrolls, of which I am a fan.
Now I'm gonna go into a little more depth on WHY that is, because how exactly shit works in the Elder Scrolls gets debated back and forth.
First of all, what the shit is the Heart of Lorkhan? Well, first you need to know what exactly the TES Universe works. The entire series takes place in various provinces of the continent Tamriel, on the "planet" Nirn, which together with the "moons" Masser and Secunda, form the area known as Mundus. Everything that exists but isn't Mundus, is known as Oblivion (the non-existent belongs to Sithis, and is known as the Void, but that's not important.)
Now here is where things get sketchy and off the wall. The stars in space are not actually stars. They are the various planes of the Oblivion. One of the stars is the area that encompasses the Shivering Isles, home of our beloved Shoegorath. Another is the Mehrunes Dagon's Deadlands, better known as Oblivion. Masser and Secunda are actually dead planes of Oblivion, or dead gods, which is why they don't have the etheral magicka leaking off them that gives them the appreance of stars. The sun, known as Magnus, is the only exception. Magnus is basically a whole in existence into the realm of magicka, known as Aetherius, named after the architect of Nirn, the great wizard Magnus. Notably, all dead guys, minus those killed for Sithis, the various Daedric princes, or soul-trapped get sent there. Sovngarde, for example, exists in Aetherius.
Nirn was created by the Aedra (there is one distinct difference between Aedra and Daedra: Aedra created Mundus, Daedrea didn't.) Lorkhan, the trickster-creator god, created himself from Padomay, the god of chaos. Now to spite the Daedra, the Aedra created Nirn, with the various Aedra contributing different parts. Lorkhan himself contributed the Spirit of Nirn, allowing life to flourish. As punishment, the Daedra ripped him limb from limb and cursed him to walk Nirn, while his various body parts used to create the Mundus. The heart, most prominently, became a huge source of power in Nirn. The dwemer found it within Red Mountain, and tried to use it to ascend to godhood. The key was to use the heart to transfer the entire collective conciousness of the dwemer into Numidium, a gigantic brass golem, and become gods. The caused the dwemer to just up and vanish, but they didn't become gods, speculated to be in part because one (ONE) dwarf was not actually in Mundus at the time, but trapped in a plane of Oblivion, thus could join in his conciousness to become a god, and such.
The key part, and how I really rope this into Eljunbryo, is the whole creation myths, Heart of Lorkhan, and the Midnight Armory match up. The world (Earth, Nirn) was created as a bastion against evil (Daedra, chaos), while still leaving the evil parts (dark side of the world, Oblivion), and creating a heart of power (Heart of Lorkhan, Harmonic Prism) from which the various creatures of the world (ponies, the various races of Mer, Man, and Beast) use to live in peace, barring intrusions from the armpit of existence (Discord coming from chaos, the various Daedra trying to violate Nirn metaphorically and literally). The heart of the world (Heart of Lorkhan, Harmonic Prism) when used with the right tools (Wraithguard, Sunder and Keening for the Heart, the Elements for the Prism), can be used to cause miraculous events (cure Dash of Discord's bad stuff, for the Heart, making a god mortal, making an entire race disappear, power the world's most kickass action figure to conquer all of time, and a whole lotta other things).
And there we go. And that's barely scratching the surface. If anyone has any questions on TES Lore, I can probably give you a good answer, if not, look it up on r/teslore via the link up there. If I made any mistakes that offend any fellow TES scholars, please direct hate-mail below.
I love you.
Woah, that's pretty awesome though I think I can feel my brain leaking out of my ears.
-Minty
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This isn't even the weird shit in the Elder Scrolls universe.
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Somehow, I don't think I can doubt that.
-Minty
Bit late to be pointing this out, but your cosmology is wrong. The stars are not the planes of Oblivion, but holes torn by Magnus and the Magne-Ge when they fled to Aetherius. (Magnus tore the sun, the rest tore the lesser stars) The stars allow creatia to flow into Oblivion and Mundus. Mundus also includes the eight Aedric Planets, which orbit Nirn. (TES is a geocentric universe)
Padomay isn't really a god of chaos, but the "is not" to Anu's "Is," or the change to Anu's stasis, or the limitation to Anu's potential. Padomay is the force most responsible for the subgradience of the godhead. It is the godhead's grand delusion that something exists which is not the Godhead.
It should also be noted that what the Dark Brotherhood refers to as Sithis is likely Lorkhan himself, and not the Sithis that is the Soul of Padomay. This can be seen in the Vile lair DLC for Oblivion, wherein Sithis is represented as a cloaked figure who is missing his heart (Clear lorkhan imagery). It also explains why the Dark Brotherhood associates Sithis with death so much, as Lorkhan, by orchestrating the creation of Mundus, essentially created mortal death. (Whereas his opposite, Akatosh, birthed permanence for the et'ada by introducing linear time)
Furthermore, the Aedra did not create Mundus to spite the Daedra, and the Daedra were not responsible for the removal of Lorkhan's heart. The Aedra created Mundus at Lorkhan's behest, for he convinced, cajoled, pressured, and threatened them into the act. How Lorkhan's heart was removed depends on who you believe. The Altmer say that Triminac and Auri-el eventually felled Lorkhan in battle, and went to tear out his heart, only for the heart to laugh at them, as Lorkhan could not truly be destroyed. Auri-el then attached the heart to an arrow and fired it from his bow, creating the Red Mountain. The formation of Red Mountain (Red Tower) allowed Nirn to exist without the full presence of the Divine, and helped complete the acquisition of Nirn's special divinity. The Nords say in Shor, Son of Shor that Lorkhan sacrificed his own heart for creation. Both the Altmer and Nords would agree though, that there was a war between the Gods, with Auri-el on one side and Lorkhan on the other, after the Aedra discovered the true nature of creation. Mankar Camoran, on the other hand, would say that Lorkhan is really the Daedric Prince of the mortal realm, who was betrayed by his lieutenants, the aedra, who made themselves into false gods for Lorkhan's people.