Lore: Elder Scrolls Cosmology

The Mage Constellation as depicted on an Ayleid tile; ESO.

The Elder Scrolls game world has one of the most interesting, complicated, and rich metaphysics of any fictional world I know, but the universe is not shaped like ours and doesn’t follow the same rules, and understanding the form of it requires digging through a ton of in-game books and visual references. As players we are involved in plots spanning both the physical planet of Nirn and the celestial structures around it, but it can be difficult to understand where you are or why.

This post will be a primer – I may at some point come back and explore some aspect further, but for now I’d like to share a basic overview of Elder Scrolls cosmology.

If your eyes have already glazed over, this is probably not the post for you. For the rest – I’ll meet you after the cut. 🙂

Lore: Lorkhan’s Tears

In ESO’s Alchemy system, plants you harvest can be mixed with waters (“solvents”) to create potions. The kind of water determines the level of the potion: “Natural Water” makes lvl 3 pots, and the highest level of water for CP pots is called “Lorkhan’s Tears”.

A while back someone in guild chat asked: “Who is this Lorkhan dude, and why is he crying?” My first response was “The answer to that question is the plot of Morrowind” because for me all roads lead back to Morrowind. But there’s a longer, better answer, deeply rooted in Elder Scrolls mythology, and I’ve had requests for lore posts, so we’ll start here. Turns out Zellur’ra is a bit of a bard, and she’s going to tell us a story of Lorkhan.

Caveat: “A” story of Lorkhan, because each of the races has their own mythology and interpretation of cosmic events, and there is much contradiction in the lore. Lorkhan’s myths are particularly confusing to follow through in-game books, b/c depending on the race’s perspective, some see him as a savior/creator deity, yet some see him as an evil figure, the cause of mortality itself, and therefore, the instigator of all mortal suffering. To deepen the confusion, each race calls him by a different name – to the Khajiit he is Lorkhaj, (as in “the Maw of”), but the Nords call him Shor.  Zellur’ra is Khajiit, but this is not the Khajiit myth; this version most closely follows the Imperial tale, though the Imperials call him Shezzar.

And now that I’ve thoroughly confused everyone, Zellur’ra can take over…

Zellfire, to Divayth

Divayth,

I have received your messages.  Or rather, I received the first eleven of them, decided I had seen all I needed to see for a while and that eleven was a fortuitous number at which to stop.  I have instructed the Mage’s Guild to destroy any further communications from you until I give them different instructions.  They balked at first, but I told them they could charge your account three times the usual fee as compensation for the extra service and that resolved the matter quite nicely.

At this point you are already ranting aloud at me in your study, but honestly, if you wanted an obedient minion, you should not have crossed your own DNA with a fire atronach.  I have a difficult time feeling sorry for you regarding the “trials” I am putting on you – I mean that, as you should know, quite literally: sympathy is not an emotion that comes easily to me.  By your own design, as you might recall.

I am not normally inclined to justifying or defending my actions.  As you are not.  But out of respect and affection, I will address your concerns.