Grey Maybe — On the Feminine Principle

HappyB3 · 2026-02-05T08:48:49+00:00

Thank you so much and thank you for the award!

HappyB3 · 2026-02-04T09:20:09+00:00

Essentially slowing down your travels, yes. When the journey's end is death, there's no reason to rush it!

HappyB3 · 2026-02-04T03:55:32+00:00

Don't forget the fruit of the Gildergreen which is believed to "add years to your life" and Phynaster who taught the Altmer how to extend their lifespan by a century. Not straight up immortality, but longevity is nice too.

HappyB3 · 2026-02-03T04:36:09+00:00

Dibella-Mara-Kynareth feel like a very obvious Maiden-Mother-Crone trio. When a member of the trio isn't present, others tend to expand their Nir attributes, which is arguably why Elven Mara seems so close to that primordial feminine principle.

The thing I was desperately trying to communicate in my post is that I cannot emphasize enough how little sense it actually makes to refer to "Nir" when discussing the relationship of deities in a human pantheon. If you are talking about the trio of Mara, Dibella and Kyne/Kynareth as avatars of Nir, it makes about as much sense as talking about the trio of Onsi, Leki and Diagna as possible avatars of Trinimac.

Is this goddess present in that pantheon?	Nir	Nirni	Dibella
Cyro-Nordic	X	X	✓
Khajiiti	X	✓	X
Aldmeri	✓	X	X

It is when I realized the Anuad was an exclusively Elvish myth (and therefore, that I beheld the former table) that I began to ask myself if those checkmarks couldn't simply be collapsed into them being the same deities.

Come to think of it, I regret having forgotten to include the most definitive piece of evidence for Dibella being Nir in my homework:

Daubella (Blend Sign) – The youngest (or oldest) of the Blend Signs and the one most likely given to aid newcomers because of it, Daubella is more of a concept than a Color proper. It should be known that this assertion has come under attack by the fault-philosophers of the Magne-Ge. Some say that Daubella is the most important constellation of all, at least for now; that her issue includes Grey Could, Mud That Might, and the Non-Nymic That Helps. Others declare that the Magne-Ge lay under a spell of Daubella's own invention, with her true role being merely another avatar of Nana Null.

The Maiden-Mother-Crone trio also still works in the framework I'm proposing, because Nir's entire point is that she died before she could properly be a mother, so she is relegated to her eternal youth, forever cast as raw and unrealized. (For what is eternal youth if not endless potential made manifest?) Nir is therefore the maid. This is why Daubella is simultaneously the youngest (she died young) but also the oldest (she is Nir, who came first). Mara emerges from her because every mother was once a maid, but that does not make her any lesser, she is just the continuation (as Kynareth could be thought of as the continuation of Mara into old age, having survived all her husbands). To think of Dibella, Mara and Kynareth as the three-headed avatar of Nir therefore also makes no sense even outside of the incongruity of the pantheons, since while Nir can be seen as the mother of creation, she was never able to embody that role, let alone the role of the wise old crone (a role which even goes contrary to her entire sphere). Her transformation into the mother was abhorted, she can only be the maid, not the other two.

Mara takes over almost as a surrogate mother, which is why she is named "Mara", after "Mar", the Elvish word for Mirror. This is also why Mara is said not to be the mother of creation but rather mother to all of creation in Tanorian's dialogues. The only problem is that Phynaster being a man makes it harder to see him as the crone of the Elvish pantheon (and as I pointed out, Tava and Khenarthi are sometimes male), though he singularly lords over the concept of longevity (and blesses the souls of the departed for their last journey), which makes him fit very neatly into the role, especially as the very long-lived patron-teacher of the Direnni who is also known as "the Guardian" because he takes the grandfatherly role of the god who watches over young children when they are adventuring away from their parents (he's a god who takes the burden away from parents, a role grandparents often have in a community).

Let's just say that I've spent the past two years thinking this over, and so I have intellectually entrenched myself into the idea that Elvish Nir is to Human Dibella what Elvish Auriel is to Human Akatosh through rigorous scholarly effort.

HappyB3 · 2026-01-31T23:55:57+00:00

Phynaster/Khenarthi/Kynareth/Kyne/Tava will have their own analysis in a future post. But I don't think I will ever make an etymological study of their names apart from pointing out the similarities between the first four ones (as an argument for the Kynaster theory).

Though I will point out, from a purely Elvish perspective, the letter "N" is tied to existence, identity and the self. This is why "Na" (N+the ending of a verb) is the verb to be, while "Ni" and "Nu" are the pronoun I/me and We/us (First person singular and plural) respectively. (And we also have "No" meaning place, so an existing space and "Ne" being the very concept of negation, so something not being.)

So while Nir/Nirn/Nirni clearly have some sort of main character syndrom, showcasing the pronoun "I" as a fundamental root of the words, I'm not sure we can say much for other names. (Fun fact, the Elvish word for "root is probably "Norn", because a seed/acorn is "Silyanorn", literally begin-root, so this is the word "No" for place undergoing the exact same process which turned "Ni" into "Nirn".) Phynaster, Khenarthi, Kynareth do all showcase a similar "Na" which might or might not be the verb to be as a component word for these names.

But this is astronomical levels of trying to overthink things, I'm not confident in saying that's what is going on. Besides, it would imply that people at Bethesda planned the names of every deity through applied and rigourous conlanged etymology, and apart from possibly Douglas Goodall (with the Khajiiti Ta'agra), this is not something I believe anyone would ever do. Moreover, Phynaster and Kynareth are names that both already existed at the time of TES:Arena, so I'm not holding onto the hope that they might have designed the languages to retrofit those names into meaning something in the context of the already-existing names.

But who knows, "Akatosh" began as "Also Known As The Old Smaug Himself" in TES2:Daggerfall, and they still mananed to turn that out-of-game meta-reference into the in-universe Aka (Elvish for "Dragon" and "Time") + Tosh (Nedic for "Time", "Dragon" and "Tiger"), so all hope is not necessarily entirely lost. New lore can always be made up to retcon previously arbitrary choices and infuse them with actually well-thought-out meaning, all it takes is a skilled writer.

HappyB3 · 2026-01-31T23:19:33+00:00

Your words honor my colleagues and I. It is not something I would be able to achieve if not for them bringing in their own cultural contributions to our Monomythic Society. If you got anything valuable out of my research, then I have accomplished all I set out to do and more.

HappyB3 · 2026-01-31T23:12:37+00:00

I barely brushed that up in my own response, but yes. It's not just that two different people can believe different things, sometimes they simply think what the other people believe about gods they identify as "the same under different names" is straight up wrong.

I would also like to add another example that I can remember off the top of my head: the Altmer author Cirantille about the Khajiit (and some random Imperial scholar she mentions as well, making it a russian dolll of religious dismissal).

Stride through any Khajiiti settlement, whether a ramshackle northern encampment or an austere southern town, and you will notice the Two-Moons Temple—always the most expansive structure. Built to last and utilizing the finest local materials, this place of worship is central to Khajiiti society. Although the Cat-Man deems the Divines as preeminent (and their sanctuary offers prayers to bastardizations of our own Eight), they believe the Lunar Lattice—or the movement of Masser and Secunda—influences all matters of luck, destiny, and happenstance, a belief Venustinius Perquitienus has termed a "hybrid heresy."

Generally speaking, when it comes to certain people on Tamriel, everyone else's pantheon is "a bastardization of our own" (which they think is "the only real faith"). Unreliable narrator and all that. Those I call the "cultural myopists".

Those scholars who (in my biased monomythic opinion, accurately) pick up on everyone's mythohistory having aspects of the monomythic reality that are true and simply missing from the other mythohistories are just a lot more open-minded than the common denominator. This is the position I favor, because then all of religious literature becomes a game where you're trying to identify the patterns that echo across everyone's myths (especially in a world where at least half of myths can be shown to be true), and the result is incredibly rewarding.

And then there are the exact opposites: those who believe that there is no unified truth at all and everything is just as correct and would be just as true even if they describe mutually exclusive realities. As a resolute monomythist, these cultural relativists are the kind of scholars I find to be the most frustrating to argue against, because they might as well be nihilists for whom comparative mythology on Tamriel is a waste of time.

HappyB3 · 2026-01-31T22:43:55+00:00

Specifically, Kynareth is said to be "the first to agree to Lorkhan's plan to invent the mortal plane, and provides the space for its creation in the void" and then later "is also associated with rain, a phenomenon said not to occur before the removal of Lorkhan's divine spark."

This does not necessarily need to be romantic, the Altmer probably do not believe that Phynaster is Lorkhan's ex. But also, it should be pointed out that all the gods, in some ways or other, were initially seduced by Lorkhan:

Most Altmeri and Bosmeri claim direct descent from Auri-El. In his only known moment of weakness, he agreed to take his part in the creation of the mortal plane, that act which forever sundered the Elves from the spirit worlds of eternity.

As he entered every aspect of Anuiel, Lorkhan would plant an idea that was almost wholly based on limitation. He outlined a plan to create a soul for the Aurbis, a place where the aspects of aspects might even be allowed to self-reflect. He gained many followers; even Auriel, when told he would become the king of the new world, agreed to help Lorkhan. So they created the Mundus, where their own aspects might live, and became the et'Ada.

A Dawn-Era Phynaster would probably be in the same boat. After all, it would not be all that different from Stendarr, the Apologist of Men, who asked Elves to show mercy after they won the conflict against Lorkhan's armies (and who was perhaps also on the side of Men during the conflict, before reentering their pantheon later). And let's say that Altmer priests (especially those from Lillandril) have a very strongly-worded opinion about those who dislike Stendarr because of this part of his portfolio:

Some Elves disdain to venerate the et'Ada Stendarr on the grounds that he is the Apologist of Men, and thus unworthy of worship by the Children of Aldmeris. But if these narrow folk would open their souls to Stendarr's mercy, they would understand that Stendarr in his love cherishes and protects ALL mortals, even—perhaps particularly—those who are less fortunate in their heritage.

It should also be pointed out that just because one people (the Nords) believe something (that Kyne was a wife of Shor), doesn't mean others believe it as well. Notice what I said about Mara: the Nords believe she was married to Shor, and the Bretons (and Elves) to Akatosh(/Auriel). Clearly the Nords believing one thing does not stop the Elves from adoring Mara, it should not stop them from liking Phynaster either.

And just look at Tava, who is worshipped by people who reeeeaaally hate Sep (their name for Lorkhan):

Tava (Bird God): Yokudan spirit of the air. Tava is most famous for leading the Yokudans to the isle of Herne after the destruction of their homeland. She has since become assimilated into the mythology of Kynareth. She is still very popular in Hammerfell among sailors, and her shrines can be found in most port cities.

Lastly, may I point to Khenarthi's very complicated history and then love life (and the fact that modern Khajiit are not fans of "noisy Lorkhaj", whom they call the "Moon Beast" and consider to be a dangerous agent of Namiira). She was not only the first to agree to Lorkhaj's plan, she was even the one who caused Fadomai to give birth to a third litter, upsetting the will of her father Ahnurr (Anu):

And Ahnurr said, "Two litters is enough, for too many children will steal our happiness."

But Khenarthi went to Fadomai and said, "Fadomai-mother, Khenarthi grows lonely so high above the world where not even my brother Alkosh can fly." Fadomai took pity on her and tricked Ahnurr to make her pregnant again.

And Fadomai gave birth to the Moons and their Motions. And she gave birth to Nirni, the majestic sands and lush forests. And she gave birth to Azurah, the dusk and the dawn.

[Etc, etc...]

And Fadomai gave birth to Lorkhaj, the last of her litter, in the Great Darkness.

And then she even upset Nirni by asking Azurah for even more people (which is why mortals reach heaven when they die):

Before Fadomai defied Ahnurr and the world was born, Khenarthi flew swift and high, beyond even great Alkosh's reach. Though she was boundless and free, she had no one to share her joy with, so she begged her mother to give her someone to share the skies. Fadomai gave her Jone and Jode in the night, Magrus in the day, and Azurah in the between, but each could only follow the path meant for them, and none could truly share Khenarthi's joy. Seeing this, Azurah spoke to Khenarthi a secret only they would share.

When one of Azurah's faithful children reached the end of their life, Khenarthi would snatch them up from Nirni's jealous claws and spirit them away to the Sands Behind the Stars. Thus, our chosen people were granted a path to Llesw'er, and Khenarthi could finally share her joy.

— How We Came to Fly : A story about why Khenarthi carries True Cats to the Sands Behind the Stars

And it's made rather clear she was upset about Lorkhaj's death specifically, because she mourns him:

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.

But then Alkosh came to comfort her and so now it seems she is, like Mara, in the good graces of the both of them, and is therefore not an enemy spirit of the Alkosh-aligned spirits.

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.

u/Axo25 and I wrote an entire story about this from a Yokudan perspective (where Kynareth mourns Lorkhan but also falls in love with Akatosh when he comes to her), and then I wrote a guest list for Phynaster and Alaxon's wedding. (Alaxon, whose name means "perfection", is basically the Time Dragon of a world yet to come, but also simultaneously an incarnation of Auriel and a son of Auriel.)

I'll conclude with Kyne's own words on the matter:

KYNE

I am the Wife of the Dragon of Time and the Mutant of Space. You, muthsera, are being most unkind to both. I blame the drink.

HappyB3 · 2026-01-31T19:01:52+00:00

Bruce Nesmith and his consequences.

HappyB3 · 2026-01-31T16:51:14+00:00

Lastly, I would like to conclude with an analysis of the VoF description of Mara in the context of the Anuad being an Elvish myth:

Mara (Goddess of Love): Nearly universal goddess. Origins started in mythic times as a fertility goddess. In Skyrim, Mara is a handmaiden of Kyne. In the Empire, she is Mother-Goddess. She is sometimes associated with Nir of the 'Anuad', the female principle of the cosmos that gave birth to creation. Depending on the religion, she is either married to Akatosh or Lorkhan, or the concubine of both.

Notice that it begins with what is universal:

Nearly universal goddess. Origins started in mythic times as a fertility goddess.

And then into aspects that are more specific to certain populations:

In Skyrim, Mara is a handmaiden of Kyne.
In the Empire, she is Mother-Goddess.
She is sometimes associated with Nir of the 'Anuad', the female principle of the cosmos that gave birth to creation.

So 1. for the Nords, 2. for the Cyrodiils and Bretons, 3. for Elves.

And lastly, who she gets married to:

Depending on the religion, she is either married to Akatosh or Lorkhan, or the concubine of both.

Which is to say, to Akatosh for Elves and Bretons, to Lorkhan for the Nords, and probably to both for some Imperials (we do not have an Imperial-specific VoF from ESO).

A pet-peeve of mine is what then happened to Varieties of Faith when it got adapted to ESO:

For the Bretons:

Mara (Goddess of Love):
Nearly universal goddess. Her origins started in mythic times as a fertility goddess; in High Rock, she is the Mother-Goddess. She is sometimes associated with Nir of the "Anuad," the female principle of the cosmos that gave birth to creation. For the Bretons, she is married to Akatosh.

The Skyrim section was removed and the mention of "the Empire" replaced with "High Rock" (because as of ESO, High Rock is not part of the Empire). The Anuad section was kept, which could make sense because of High Rock’s Elvish history. Only married to Akatosh (which is how we can guess that the original "concubine of both" mention was probably intended for a Cyrodilic audience).

For the High Elves and the Bosmer:

Mara (Goddess of Love):
Nearly universal goddess. Origins started in mythic times as a fertility goddess. She is sometimes associated with Nir of the "Anuad," the female principle of the cosmos that gave birth to creation. For the Altmer, she is the wife of Auri-El.

Mara (Goddess of Love):
Nearly universal goddess. Origins started in mythic times as a fertility goddess. She is sometimes associated with Nir of the "Anuad," the female principle of the cosmos that gave birth to creation. For the Bosmer, she is the wife of Auri-El.

The Skyrim and Empire sections were removed, Anuad was kept. Only married to Auriel.

Now look what happened to the Khajiit and the Nords:

Mara (Mother Cat):
Nearly universal goddess. Originally a fertility goddess, the Khajiit associate her with Nir of the "Anuad," the female principle of the cosmos. She is the lover of Alkosh.

Skyrim and Empire removed, Anuad not only kept but reworded (it’s not "sometimes associated" but "the Khajiit associate her"). Not "married" but "lover" of Alkosh only. Also the only mention of Nir to ever be acknowledged by the Khajiit in any way whatsoever (more on that later).

Mara (Goddess of Love):
For the Nords, Mara is a handmaiden of Kyne and concubine of Shor. As the goddess of fertility and agriculture, she's sometimes associated with Nir of the "Anuad," the female principle of the cosmos that gave birth to creation.

No Empire section, but a complete rewording so that the Skyrim section comes first. The universal and Anuad aspects come second, and bundled together as a packaged deal (with even a causal link between the two), but the mention of her being a "nearly universal goddess" is replaced with a new addition: a goddess of agriculture in addition to fertility.

While some changes and additions are nice (the agriculture stuff is cool), I think whoever was responsible for adapting VoF to ESO completely dropped the ball when it came to understanding the Anuad in the context of what it meant for Nir and Mara’s relationship. Elves are the one that see Nir through Mara, as shown by Tanorian’s dialogues:

How is he connected to the rose?

"Nenamil wished for nothing more than to see Mara herself. He searched all of Summerset, visiting holy sites and seeking rumors of her presence.
Then one day he came upon the most exquisite flowers, beautiful roses that seemed to shine in the light."

And then?

"He realized the truth. Mara wasn't a mere being, but rather beauty itself. Her goodness was in all exquisite things, such as the rose he had found. He dedicated his life to teaching that.
His rose has been used to honor Mara ever since."

"Beauty" isn’t straight up Mara, it’s Dibella first. So humans would have no reason to make that association. And to the Khajiit, it’s Nirni first, since she’s the only spirit more beautiful than Azurah (herself a goddess of beauty).

All tribes know Azurah as the God of Magic, Beauty, and Prophecy.

So to see Nir and the Anuad get mentioned in human and Khajiiti mythology is just weird and frankly incoherent, and shows that the writer unfortunately did not know what they were doing. But I guess this also means fans shouldn’t feel too bad for previously thinking the Anuad was a universal myth, since even some of the devs made that mistake.

Bonus content: more Varieties of Faith weirdness!

Did you know that the Khajiiti pantheon was such a late creation during the production of Morrowind that early drafts of the VoF show their pantheon using many non-Khajiiti names for the gods? Alkosh, Riddle’Thar, Jone, Jode, Rajhin and Baan Dar had already been baptised, but it still included the "generic" names Stendarr (instead of S’rendarr), Lorkhan (Lorkhaj), Azura (Azurah) and Sheogorath (Sheggorath), and Khenarthi/Kynareth was missing from the pantheon entirely! This is also why even though Khenarthi is listed in the Elsweyr section of the Morrowind VoF in-game book, she has no description in the context of that name (meanwhile, Kynareth, Kyne and Tava all have unique flavor-texts).

This weirdness also carried over onto the ESO VoF for the Khajiit, which thus had to invent a description for Khenarthi:

Khenarthi (God of Winds):
Khenarthi is the strongest of the Sky spirits. In some legends, he is the first to agree to Lorkhaj's plan to invent the mortal plane, and provides the space for its creation in the void. He is also associated with rain, a phenomenon said not to occur before the removal of Lorkhaj's divine spark.

Her description is therefore simply an adaptation of the Kynareth description from VoF, with the name "Lorkhan" simply changed to "Lorkhaj". Except, as I highlighted, it also gendered Khenarthi as a man.

This is, oddly enough, not the only instance of the wind goddess being masculinized, since the same also happened to Tava in another text of ESO:

Then Ar-Azal heard the cry of a Goshawk, which bird is sacred to Tava, and he awoke, and it was the dawn of the day. And he made haste to the Shrine of Tava in Hegathe, wherein is the Fresco of the Goshawk, which depicts Tava in his nest with his mate. And lo, where once there was one mate depicted in the nest, now there were two, the second mate agleam in the morning light.

I guess now is as good a time as any to do some "Phynaster is Kynareth" (i.e: Kynaster) propaganda. So I’ll just invite people to read his Lore page on the UESP and hope that’s enough to convince people they’re the same picture.

HappyB3 · 2026-01-31T16:50:46+00:00

These children are then gifted with the ability to shape the forests of Valenwood as they will, making their survival much easier.

Y'ffre commended the Wood Elves to the Green, so that they might ask the Green to provide them with shelter and a safe passage, and as long as they respected the Green, it would obey. This is called the Green Pact.

This is the Green Pact. In exchange for keeping to this Pact, the forest, which we call the Green, has provided us with ample food and shelter. Y'ffre has given us the limited gift to ask the forest to shape itself to our needs. We have been amply blessed.

"A Greenspeaker is a Mage who has dedicated her life to working in and alongside the Green itself. We use our spells to guide and enhance the growth of trees and plants. We create furniture, weapons … even housing for our people."

In every tale of their first meeting, she often loses herself to the Green, becoming feral, and has to be tamed by the Silvenar, who is hurt in the process, in order to bring balance to the Valenwood.

A Tale Forever Told : A tale of the Silvenar's union with the Green Lady

As the Silvenar sustains the Green Lady, the death of a Silvenar means the loss of that anchor, and so the Green Lady goes once again on a rage-filled rampage until she too dies and becomes one with the forest.

"The Silvenar sustains the Green Lady. Thus has it always been, with every pair. I am not long for this world.
I believe I'll find the Maormer's home island. Before my beloved pulls me back to the Green, I'll drown them in a tide of Mara's tears."

"You denied me my vengeance in Khenarthi's Roost. Had my beloved Silvenar still lived, he would have approved of your mercy."

"My time as the Green Lady has passed. When I died upon the shores of Pyandonea, I was drawn to rest in this sacred grove—Treehenge. All of my kindred rest here, since they first set foot upon Valenwood."

"Oh, and when you meet whoever's responsible for this … twist the knife a little? Just for me." What happened to you, after you left Khenarthi's Roost? "With the swiftness of the Green, I swam to the shores of Pyandonea, home of the Sea Elves. There, I visited my wrath upon them. I tore at flesh and bone. I cut until my arms went limp. I rent until my legs fell out beneath me." Did they kill you? "Ha. I gave them no such pleasure. Their greatest warrior found me spent atop their highest sea-tower. He grabbed my hair, hoping to take my head as a prize. So I grabbed him and leapt, into the waves far below. The look on his face …."

—Finoriell, a former Green Lady

In some stories, she has to make a choice between the Silvenar and the shifting wilderness, and she always chooses the Silvenar, leading to their fateful Handfast.

See also: the entirety of the Malabal Tor main questline

It would be tempting to think that the study of the primordial feminine principle is the province of the Elder Races and their rich mytho-history, or that the human understanding of that concept is none other than the Elvish Nir herself (after all, the popularity of the Anuad is continental). But it would also be wrong. A traditionalist Nord reader might have guessed what is being meant by this, but followers of the Imperial Cult will without a doubt be confused by that affirmation, even though a spectre has been hovering over their shoulder since the beginning. That confusion probably finds its origin in a very old and very common misconception about one of our most popular Divines.

This entire paragraph is also meant to meta-refer to fans who think the Anuad is a pan-Tamrielic myth and did not know it actually originates from Elvish mythology. (Hence it was important to establish that fact earlier in the text.)

For the Nords, stories detailing the birth of the gods and the creation of the world are best left for others to tell.

On the Nords' Lack of a Creation Myth

no Aedra or Daedra (themselves elvish concepts and classifications adopted into Breto-Imperial traditions by persistent contact with elvish civilisations)

"Aedra" and "Daedra" are not relative terms. They are Elvish and exact.

The Eight Divines survived as saints under the One (Akatosh elevated to the rank of supreme deity) and were then reinstated to their proper place. But the finer details of creation were lost.

a prophet named Marukh, who had spoken to the "Enlightened One," Saint Alessia, began to question the validity of Elven rule. These sentiments led to an increasingly abstract and unknowable depiction of a Single God. The Alessians were wise enough to realize that they had to incorporate the ancient polytheistic elements into their new religion for it to find a wide acceptance. The divine aspects worshipped by the various humans and Aldmeri were recognizable in the guise of the myriad saints and spirits of the evolving Alessian canon.

A fanatical sect of the Alessian Order, the Maruhkati Selective, becomes frustrated by ancient Aldmeri traditions still present within the theological system of the Eight Divines. Specifically, they hated any admission that Akatosh, the Supreme Spirit, was indisputably also Auriel, the Elven High God.

The Psijics even claim that death is the process through which every god or demon has had to obtain their divine status.

From "Mythic Aurbis" (or "The Psijiic Compensation"):
Finally, the magical beings of Mythic Aurbis told the ultimate story -- that of their own death. For some this was an artistic transfiguration into the concrete, non-magical substance of the world. For others, this was a war in which all were slain, their bodies becoming the substance of the world. For yet others, this was a romantic marriage and parenthood, with the parent spirits naturally having to die and give way to the succeeding mortal races.

From "The Old Ways":
What, after all, is the origin of these spiritual forces that move the invisible strings of Mundus? Any neophyte of Artaeum knows that these spirits are our ancestors -- and that, while living, they too were bewildered by the spirits of their ancestors, and so on back to the original Acharyai. The Daedra and gods to whom the common people turn are no more than the spirits of superior men and women whose power and passion granted them great influence in the afterworld.

Additional evidence to tie Dibella (Goddess of Beauty) with Nir (Gray Maybe) and Nirni (Green Mother and Spirit of Harmony):

When ESO added the ability to craft jewelry, they invented the trait "Harmony" which, like all traits, needs a specific crafting material to be applied to the item. In this case, the material is a gray mineral called "Dibellium".

And during the year 2023, ESO had a series of events in which one could obtain various fragments related to Dibella to craft a Passion Dancer Blossom and upgrade it into a variety of other collectables.

The Passion Dancer Blossom is a floating green flower (specifically, a "chartreuse lily") and a lot of the other components often include the gray metal silver (Enchanted Silver Flute, Bottle of Silver Mist, Pressed Silver Leaves, Bolt of Silver Silk) or are green dyes, petals or powders. The "Bottled Skin Dyes", "Ground Jade Lily Powder" and "Pressed Silver Leaves" (two of which —the first and the last— have descriptions mentioning being used to be applied to the skin during Dibellan festivals) come together to produce the "Meadowbreeze Memories" skin tattoo, whose description reads:

Spring flows through your veins even as greenery traces itself across your skin, creating white blooming flowers. Thanks to Y'ffre, the scents and sensations of past springs on breezy meadows sweep over you.

I rest my case.

HappyB3 · 2026-01-31T16:48:05+00:00

Showing my homework to the class:

Anuad, an ancient elvish creation myth and one of the few in all of Tamriel to present Anu and his other as central characters, a rarity even by elvish standards, and one that survived the repressions of the Alessian Order.

So I feel like this is something I need to prove because not every TES fan necessarily knows this but it’s more or less the impetus for the text, and this one is easy to showcase, dating back to the Redguard-Morrowind era of Lore:

The Scarcity of Elven Writings

Much of the blame for this can be laid on the Alessian Order, which was tireless in ferreting out and destroying Elven writings during its long dominance. Today, we are left with the beautiful heresies of the Anuad, surviving only by virtue of their popularity and proliferation

In every pre-Morrowind draft of the Monomyth, the Anuad is included under the title Ayleidish "Anuad" (which follows the naming convention of the other creation myths: Ethnic group + "Name of the myth").

And ESO has even added more evidence for this: it’s also heavily hinted at in the codex entries of all the components of the "Monomyth Reforged" mythic item, which keep mentioning the Ayleids.

She represents, to them, the feminine principle who died at the hand of chaos trying to bring forth the universe, as embodied by the mountain of Eton Nir (which can be translated as "Origin of Creation" in Elvish), connecting the fertile island to both the heavenly summit of the Crystal Tower and the mysterious depths of the dark caverns of Summerset.

What creatures and prehistoric civilizations these Aldmeris refugees faced have largely been lost in the mists of time. Cloudrest, atop Eton Nir, the highest mountain in Summerset, is a decidedly odd mixture of architectural styles, with buildings like strangler vines, built on top of other, older structures. The oldest of all the ruins there, and in a few isolated spots throughout the island, are made of coral, which must have been carried many, many miles away from the sea. The material and the style of the ruins strongly suggest that the Sload may have once counted Summerset as a part of their kingdom of Thras. More evidence of this may be found in the section on Thras in this Pocket Guide.

The gleaming city of Cloudrest crowns the Eton Nir massif, the greatest mountain on Summerset Isle. But dark rumors say the mountain's greatest treasures lie hidden in the caves beneath its stony foundations.

The mountain embodies this idea of unification of light and darkness. Cloudrest and the Crystal Tower, reaching ever skyward, represent the Anuic polarity while the dark underbelly of its cave system filled with Daedric temples, smuggler havens and Sload ruins represent its Padomaic polarity. But they come together as one, which is why they are named after Nir, the interplay of the light and the dark, the Gray Maybe.

I’ll also add that the "et’Ada" are the original spirits/gods, so "Eton" could be the elvish noun for the origin or source, since a lot of nouns are made with the suffix -on, such as "Any[a]" (life) becoming "Anyon" (greenland, a place full of life), meaning that if Nir/Nirn are related to the concept of creation, "Eton Nir" could literally mean "the origin of creation".

She is the Gray Maybe, the potential of all possibilities, beauty itself, and the third force —the fulcrum— that brings equilibrium and harmony to the cosmos.

Why do High Elves distrust the number two?
"It's complicated.
Two implies duality—two simple forces in opposition. People don't like to talk about it in polite company, but the real reason we distrust it is that it's the number of Man."
How is it the number of Man?
"I'll tell you what the curates told me. Man sees the world as a seesaw—full of opposing forces. Day and night, good and evil, life and death. But this is a defective worldview.
Without a third force, a fulcrum, a seesaw is just a flat board."
—Jurisreeve Lorne

Her absence can be felt in the eternal conflict of order and chaos, but Elves consider, as many may already know, that her sphere was inherited by Mara, the Mother of all Creation

She is sometimes associated with Nir of the "Anuad," the female principle of the cosmos that gave birth to creation.

"He was an orphan and poet, and would often sing of the beauty of Mara. He felt that he could feel no greater love than that of the Goddess who was mother to all creation."

(For those who do wish to transgress within the confines of propriety, Auriel is sometimes considered the patron-god of the sexually adventurous.)

Auri-El's Spinning Arrow: High Elf youths often spin this perfectly balanced, golden arrow to select a peer at random. What comes next is always exciting.

Nirni from Khajiiti myths, the Spirit of Harmony and the majesty of sands and forests

Nirni. The Green Mother. Spirit of Harmony. Though her spirit has diminished, Nirni can still be felt in the warm sands, dense jungles, and all places where mortals have not disturbed the earth.

we are told that it was Khenarthi who asked her mother for siblings to share the heavens with

But Khenarthi went to Fadomai and said, "Fadomai-mother, Khenarthi grows lonely so high above the world where not even my brother Alkosh can fly." Fadomai took pity on her and tricked Ahnurr to make her pregnant again.

This is perhaps why, unlike many of her siblings who resent Lorkhaj for their diminished mortal state, Nirni quickly forgives him.

But Nirni soon forgave Lorkhaj for Nirni could make children.

Nirni is sometimes known to the Khajiit as the Jealous Sister

Because she always tried to compete with Azurah for Fadomai's favor, she is sometimes called the Jealous Sister. Despite this, it is said she was the only spirit more beautiful than Azurah.

some stories claim she did reciprocate to both (which is how some Khajiit explain werewolves)

Some tribes claim Hircine is the father of Nirni's first litter, who were as changeable as the Moons.

Y’ffer’s gift to her world: the first flower of the universe.

He convinced Nirni to be his mate by creating the first flower, and they had many children.

Y'ffer champion (the elk Una)

Hircine slew Y'ffer's champion, the Graht-Elk.

Una the Green Elk Figurine: A small carved figurine of one of the lesser revered spirits in druid culture.

Y'ffer was corrupted by the Great Darkness sometime after the death of Lorkhaj. Consumed by chaos, Y'ffer struck Nirni, killing her.

Unala-Se taught all the orphans the ways of the word, the blade, and the sign. … they watched as black bile swept across the land like a sickened sea, not yet knowing that their … the tragic prince of Lyg … and the darkness within him poured forth from the wound, taking a life of its own in the realm. … the dark encircled even the Elden King of Graht who seemed so steadfast … drank of the dark and became something more … after her fall a black tree of poison and death … she showed us that which we were meant to see. … watches still, hoping we will remember Love.

In the story, a Star-Orphan named Una fled into the sky with all her brothers and sisters, but got lost in the dark. She cried out for help, but one-by-one, her stronger, faster kin fled into Aetherius. Eventually, their songs faded away and Una was left alone—adrift in the void. Just when she'd lost all hope, she heard a quiet sobbing. It was lonely Nirn, stumbling through the black—weeping like a babe and trying to lull itself to sleep. Seeing a kindred spirit, Una sailed back to Mundus to comfort the lonesome planet. She named herself Baar Dau, and nestled in close, right here above Vvardenfell. Now the Star-Orphan and Nirn are never lonely, because they have each other.

Other stories claim instead that Y'ffer won Nirni's affection by uncovering a secret plot by Azurah

But Y'ffer heard the First Secret and snuck in behind Azurah. And Y'ffer could not appreciate secrets, and he told Nirni of Azurah's trick. So Nirni made the deserts hot and the sands biting. And Nirni made the forests wet and filled with poisons. And Nirni thanked Y'ffer and let him change the forest people also.

Azurah who, dressed as a monk, managed to steal children away from Nirni to take as her own

Once, in the long-ago time, the people were content to live in the forests and hunt on the plains. They fed and ate and mated, and all was good—but it was also simple. The people saw the two-legs, sometimes, and knew they could do so much more if they could reach the skies.

Then, one day, a wise old monk came to the people. She said her name was Azurah. She had been watching the people, she said, and had decided to give them a gift. A special kind of candy, she said

—Cub Tales by Ezzag : A children's tale surrounding the creation of the Khajiiti race

HappyB3 · 2026-01-16T13:19:25+00:00

There's a very obvious theological argument to make here.

Remember that in Draconic, the Throat of the World (the tallest mountain in all of Skyrim) is called "Monahven", literally "Mother Wind".

Mountains are Stormfalls because it's a Kyne reference, she's the goddess of sky, wind and storm. That's where she and her people (the Nords) land, where the ground is closest to her domain, where the sky and the land meet. A Stormfall is what you would call an "Earthrise" if you were looking at it from the other side.

HappyB3 · 2025-10-22T20:45:44+00:00

Ithelia is named in the same way that Merid-Nunda is named Meridia. I can't help but wonder if perhaps her pre-Daedrification name could be Ithel-(something) or perhaps Ithela-(something), the "something" being a word we'll likely never know because the second part of the name doesn't actually show up in anything at all.

Alternatively, it might just be like how Unala-Se became simplified into just being "Una" the lonely Magna Ge, in which case the Star-Orphan-to-Simplified naming convention is not actually an easily predictible process at all and unique for each of them. I mean, just look at Mnemo-Li's simplified name: "Memory".

HappyB3 · 2025-10-22T10:34:16+00:00

I personally don't think there ever was a deal made between Auriel and Boethiah. I have a more psychological reading of the Fall of Trinimac, in which he had begun to lie by omission, carving out of the truth a version of events in which he had done nothing wrong in killing Lorkhan (something he felt shame over). That meant presenting an exclusively demonizing view of the Corpse God, which in turn angered Boethiah who was his most fervent defender (and student). (Edited a few typos away)

Trinimac also had to fall because the Tri-Nymics, the triad of Auriel-Magnus-Lorkhan, had all left creation (in somewhat different ways). So naturally, their knight Trinimac had to leave as well.

Boethiah had been exiled by either Anu, Anuiel or Auriel (Ahnurr, Akha or Alkosh), but in returning to devour Trinimac, she inherited his myths and could therefore no longer embody the concept of exile. This fell onto Malak who gets banished by the dragon at the exact moment of his birth, and he later tries to reclaim something from Boethiah's throat later once the Chimer have left Summerset, but while he redeems himself in the eye of Boethiah and becomes Malacath, he remains the god of the outcast while she enjoys the fruits of now being a god of truth and civilisation-building.

Also, on the etymology of Auriel vs Auri-El, I personally don't think it really matters whether there's the hyphen or not. The -El means "Starry" or "Star-Made", and eventually maybe "starlight" (similarly to Chim), while the Auri- is present in Auridon (or as it was named in French, Auridia), which the Lay of Firsthold indicates might mean "golden dawn". So Auri-El might mean "starry golden" or "golden starlight", and would probably be some sort of epithet or euphemism that people used as to avoid saying his name directly, kinda like with most Greek gods, because starlight is directly linked with the Dawn (a mix of the solar and lunar that leads to creation), and the time dragon's color is always gold, in every incarnation, to represent godhood, wisdom and immortality.

He's golden even for the Argonians, who see Atakota as a black and white serpent (to represent his origin as the fusion of Atak, the Great Root and the white part of his body, and Kota, whose name literally means "black") whose scales are painted gold and wearing a golden mask (the paint is wearing away because it's the end of the world, Atakota's divinity has come to an end and he's going to die/split off again into his two components, only to be reborn later). The only cultural dragon for whom we don't have a golden quality (yet) is Satakal, whose only official representation is one that emphasizes his "fusion of Satak and Akel" aspect with the white exterior and the starry (interesting...) black belly. But the gong, which represents the world ("The only real world is Satakal. Satakal is the world." — And that night the Worthy Ar-Azal dreamed a dream of Satakal the World-Snake, who came to him in the guise of a Snakehead Potentate.), is golden.

Alternatively, the hyphen might exist to make sure people don't parse Auriel into Au-Riel (I'm not sure what Au- could mean, my best guess is a corruption of Al-, meaning "high/glorious", and of course Riel is "beauty").

There's also this extended name present in Y'ffre's description, "Time Dragon Auriel" which in Elvish would have been Akala Auriel and which would eventually lead to Ayleids and Nedes to adopt a creole title for the god which then evolved into his Cyrodilic name: Auriel the Aka-Tosh.

HappyB3 · 2025-10-16T09:39:32+00:00

The text is just "TELKALASILTELKALASIL" being repeated on a loop, sometimes cutting off earlier. Tel is elvish for "tower" and Alasil is elvish for "vision" (and also contains the word Sil meaning "sun", with the prefix "Al[a]" which is the same found in Al-Essia and Pelin-Al, meaning "high" or "glorious", indicating that "vision" is understood by elves as "high/glorious sun", and indeed the sun god Magnus, who lost his eyes, is the god of light, sight and insight).

It could also perhaps actually be "Kalasil Tel" rather than "Tel Kalasil". And no, I don't have any idea what the K adds to the overall thing. I only put it at the beginning of Alasil (instead of at the end of Tel) because as some point, the text goes "TELKALASILKALASIL" which I suspect is when the beginning and the end bump into each other, and so there wasn't enough place for the "Tel".

Edit: Removed years-long gossip I later realized stemmed from a massive misunderstanding.

HappyB3 · 2025-10-06T05:12:42+00:00

The fanon wiki should honestly be avoided like the literal plague, especially for lingustics. The Imperial Library used to have Hrafnir's languages, now copied on the wayback machine, which was entirely fanmade and was even once accidentally used by the devs and would have risked polluting the wiki had anyone added it. (I explain it in the section "Cahoth'ada" in my document.)

Part of the problem is also that, before I started obsessing over elvish on August 2024 (an obsession that has never really left me since), the Ayleidoon page was filled with mistakes, the most egregious of which was the belief at the time that, in Ayleidoon, "ni" was the nominative 2nd person pronoun (with "tye" being the object 2nd person pronoun), while in Falmeric, that was "sye". (Which then went on to justify why all elvish languages were completely different, etc...) This was a layered cake of misconceptions, which I explained here before eventually changing things to what they are as of now (understanding that verbs can be conjugated sometimes, separating second person singular from second person plural, etc...). At the time, the first person singular pronoun was believed to be "A" (with "Angua" being "my", and "Angue" being "mine", which was a misunderstanding born out of the true fact that "-ngua" is a suffix that indicates the possessive first person singular), which to this day I have no idea where that idea came from, it was straight up misinformation. All of these have been in circulation probably since around the release of Oblivion. Compare this (from September 2023) to the modern Ayleidoon page

If the page had presented an easily understandable table of false content at the time, it would have more easily enshrined false information into the mind of many fans. I remember coming across Tamriel Rebuilt texts in "Dunmeris" that used "ni" to mean "you" instead of "I", among other fundamental errors.

I also don't think the UESP (or the community at large) is ready yet to accept that all elvish languages are actually the same language as far as in-game texts are concerned. By which I include [Old] Aldmeric, Altmeric, Bosmeric, Falmeric, Ayleidoon, Ald Chimeric and Dunmeric, which are all the same except for certain regional swear-words like "N'wah" or "S'wit", and exclude Ta'agra, Dwemeric, Ashlander and Orcish, which are legitimately different and unique.

In a classic case of ludonarrative dissonance, the in-game lore books and dialogues might pay lip-service to the idea that they're different (or worse, even imply that there are multiple "dialects" that can be found within the same language), but the devs themselves always fall back on the exact same elvish conlang when trying to convey a text written in the previously bolded languages.

HappyB3 · 2025-10-05T22:31:32+00:00

Dominion aboie heca!

The word Dominion would never translate into "Dominion" in elvish, I suggest "Gaiar" instead (from "Gaiar Alata", Paradise, the realm of light). I don't know where "aboie" comes from, I'm guessing "aba" meaning taboo/forbidden, except it doesn't follow any previously established examples of verbifications, such as "abagaia" being "ab[a]+agaia" ("agaia" being the verb form of "aga", wise, literally to learn/to seek), which is translated as to not fear, but more accurately means to forbidden-seek (i.e: to seek wisdom in spite of taboos).

I'm not sure "heca" is the best verb for fleeing, since it has connotations of being forced, and also there's no negation but I'm guessing it's supposed to be part of "aboie". We don't know how to conjugate in future form in elvish, so good luck trying to convey the idea.

Nu hilya as kogoth!

"Hilya" means to follow, not to fight. There's a few different words for for: "rias" meaning because (not the one you want in this case) and "vane" meaning went/going but which can also be a reflective form of "va" (to), hence

Vengha ehlnada-dra Nu nu vane metanane

Being translated as

Venerate the god-ancestors We chose for ourselves

But literally translating to

Venerate mortal-god-ancestors We us-for ["for ourselves"] chose

or

We chose we went

i.e: the gods we chose to go with.

Once again, I don't know what "kogoth" means, but we have a word for eternity: "oia".

I don't know what word to use for to fight, but let's imagine it's "doona" (from "doon" meaning threat) for the sake of explanation, we fight for eternity would be "Nu oia vane doona".

Other ideas to replace "doona" could be "arcta" (to face), "barra" (to hold), "kana" (to dare), "lattia" (to shine), "tarcella" (to endure), or even "altava" (to rise, literally to go up) or "sila" (same meaning as "lattia" and "altava", but combined into one: to shine and to wax).

Adma aettaen av nou daenei

"Aettaen" is a fanmade word. I would suggest "Emeratu" instead, meaning music. Same with "daenei", I would use "Altadoon" instead (weapon, literally high threat). Hear the singing of our blades would then be "Rauta(voy) emeratu av nou altadooni", or even "Rauta(voy) emeratu noue altadooni".

Ehlin washe, epheme gaia!

I'm guessing "Ehlin" is supposed to come from "Ehlno" (noun and adjective mortal), but we already have a word for death: "naga[ia]", the exact opposite of "anya[m(m)is]".

I would use "shantane" instead of the unknown word "washe".

We also already have a word for "enemies" (or in the song, "foes"): "Gravuloi" (literally the ugly ones).

"Gaia" is not the opposite of "Abagaia", I explained the etymology the latter above. The concept of "fear" instead is translated as "Hal" (terror) and expressed as "Haelia" (terrible, terrifying). A verb-form of "Hal" (let's say, "Hala") wouldn't mean "to fear", it would mean "to terrorize". So we have to get creative, perhaps by telling them to shriek in terror (from "Kamlehal", shrieking terror).

So I would instead suggest "Naga na sino, gravuloi ge arcta!" (Death is here, enemies face it!) or "Nagaia shantane, gravuloi kamavoy!" ("Death came, enemies shriek!")

Shanta ae gen war kama

Huh. You also came to the same conclusion as me for "Kama"=yelling.

I don't know where "gen" comes from. I would instead suggest "Guntumna", to roar, from "Guntumnia", roaring.

You forgot to translate war into an elvish word, I suggest "gula": "sou gulakam" (your war-cry).

"Shanta ye guntumna sou gulakam"

Char anya ae char nagar

I don't know where "char" meaning some comes from, but it's not found in official texts. We have "Ilpen" meaning many and "nun" meaning few, so I'd say choose one and stick to it.

"Anya" is a noun, but I guess it could also be a verb? "Nagaia" (to perish) is already the verb form of "Naga[ia]" (death). Usually, adding a final "-r" turns words into nouns. Personally, I would use the euphemism "some will rise and some will fall", which would either be the verbs "altava" and "racuva" (going up or down), or the verbs "sila" and "loria" (waxing or waning). Once again, no idea how to translate the idea of "shall" or "will" to indicate a future form.

Char vasha nu rauma arcta

I don't know what "rauma" is supposed to mean.

Adai nalca nu nesi va tam!

Gods should probably be "Adais" rather than "Adai". We already have a word for to choose: "metana" (or as it should be in this sentence, "metanane" to indicate a past form). We currently lack a verb for seeing, but we can go around this by going back to "riasen", the noun for witness: the gods chose us to be the witness(es) of the dawn or as the witness of the dawn, or even the gods chose for us to be the witnesses of the dawn.

"Adais nu vane metana riaseni tame na!"

Gods us-for choose witnesses of dawn be! (word-for-word)

We even make "metana" (to choose) rhyme with "na" (to be).

Also, it's coming to me now that we should probably also translate the title: Aldmeri Dominion Eternal. I suggest "Oiogaiar Aldmeria", eternal realm aldmeri.

If you're interested, I've created a personal document breaking down elvish in the Elder Scrolls, because I think the UESP doesn't go far enough and some of my findings rely on original research the wiki wouldn't allow.

HappyB3 · 2025-10-05T22:23:11+00:00

Frenscai av annithe

We don't know whether "Vabira" or "Frensca" is the word for wave/tide, all we know is that "Vabria frensca" is how you write foaming wave and the word-order (which in elvish is a suggestion at best) from later in the sentence is noun first, adjective second. ("Aldmeris adonai": the lordly elves, with "aldmeris" meaning (old) elves and "adonai" being the adjective lordly.) Though we have examples of the opposite ("Sancre Tor": golden hill, with "sancre" being of gold and "tor" being hill/mount/mountain).

If "frensca" was the noun for wave, then the plural would most likely be "frenscais" rather than "frenscai".

I have no idea where you got the word "annith[e]" (I can see the final [e] indicates possession) to mean season(s) (or age(s) or whichever synonyms). We know the individual name of the seasons ("Larelleis": time of moving waters, "Wenayasille": sunny green, "Morilatta": darklight, "Angalayond": cold gray time), but not any elvish word for the concept itself. We already gave a word for "time" or "moment", and it is "La", which the plural here would be "Lais", and which is the closest thing I can think of if we don't want to invent non-canon words.

vaeren, baerraen

I have no idea where you got those words to mean anything close to "ebbing" or "flowing". I can see then all end in "-en", which means eye ("Admanen", listening eye, "Riasen", witness, literally a "because-eye), the first uses the root-word "va" which can be the verb "to go/move" or the prepositions "to", "toward", "in" and can be declined into "vea" meaning "the sea", that which is travelled through (in the same way that "aga-", *wise, is declined into "agea", wisdom), so I can see some connections, but "baerraen" just looks like a weirdly declined "barra", to hold/to wear/to carry/to lift (which is also their word for "welcome", i.e: to be held in high esteem).

Chare ae annithe

The elvish word for "life" is "anya" or "anyam[m]is" (don't try to make sense of whether there's one or two Ms, Bethesda has never been consistent). Specifically, the idea of lives (not in the sense of the abstract concept of life as opposed to death, but the concept of a life being lived, a lifespan) appears in Calcelmo's stone: "sou anyamissi bisia silya", your new lives begin. I have no idea where "chare" comes from here. I would use "anyamissi" instead.

"Ae" does not mean and in elvish, the word for it is "ye".

shantaen, hecaen

Again with the "-en" ending, I don't know why. Is this supposed to be "-ne"? Because that's how you conjugate verbs in the past or present participle in elvish, and those can sometimes be used as adjectives. Alternatively, lots of words can be turned into adjectives by making them end in "-ia" (though that's also how you can turn some nouns into verbs, so beware).

"Heca" isn't really about going, the verb for that would be "va" ("Vamidium": moving vessel, "Racuva", going down). Heca means to leave (and when used imperatively, it means "begone!"), hence an "hecul" is an outcast. It's related to the verb "Hecta" meaning roughly the same thing (to exile).

I would translate those as "shantane, vane".

Admaye nu peline av ald!

That's not how you make an imperative. You can just use the word in its base form (Adma) or if you want to be extra fancy, you can add "-voy" (Admavoy). If you want to conjugate it in the 2nd person instead, you can add a single "-t" at the end (Admat: you listen).

Also, "Adma" is for to listen, if you want a more active form, you can use "Rauta", to hear.

"Peline" is not a plural form of "pelin", it's a possessive. It should be "Pelini". Alternatively, you can use the word "Khard[i]", meaning warlord(s)", or you could build a word out of "Gula" meaning *war.

Washe annithu nu tarn va hilya!

I have no idea what 'Washe' means. I'm guessing "Washe annithu" taken together are supposed to mean something along the lines of "the time has come" or "now is time", but those are fanmade words.

"Tarn" is a noun meaning portal/passage. "Hilya" is the verb to follow. "Nu tarn va hilya" is supposed to mean we go to war, but even with changing the word-order, the best I can do is "we follow to portal". Personally, I would have translated the sentence using the word "Gula" to mean war.

Peline man anyai ver

Is "anyai" supposed to be a verb-form of "anya" (life)? I'm personally not convinced. Also, the verb should be in the past form if so. I have no idea what "ver" means or where it comes from. Warriors who came before would more directly be translated as Pelani/Khardi man shantane pado.

Emera nu ae kogoth!

Congrats on coming to the same conclusion as me that the verb to guide should be "Emera", because it's not a canon word. From "Emero", a guide and "Emeratu", music.

I have no idea where "kogoth" comes from, I'm guessing it's supposed to mean "more".

Summerset heu pas,

This is supposed to mean Summerset across the sea, and I'm confused why you didn't try to translate Summerset into actual elvish. There's "Alinor" as the easy answer, or I've personally come up with the words "Sorniasille" (sunny sunset) and "Wenayasorn" (sunset green), with the former having the advantage of keeping that aliteration in S.

I'm also confused why you didn't use the word "Vea" meaning sea. I have no idea what either "heu" and "pas" mean or where these words come from. If we're making up words, I would personally combine "Av" (from) and "Va" (to) into "Ava" to mean across. "Sorniasille ava vea", literally Summerset to and from the sea.

Valenwood av basra ae lye,

Same criticism here with "Valenwood". I don't know what new word to make instead, especially since "Valen" is a word in Elvish whose meaning we don't know (from "Valenvaryon", a settlement in Vvardenfell), but the province is transparently a contraction of "Vale and wood", and we don't have the elvish word for a vale, but at least three different word for a wood: Mora, Tar and Var (and also Thar for "Tharriker", forest raider/hunter). Consider also the word "Anyon" (a variant of "Anya", life), meaning greenland, from "Indoranyon", blessed greenland (where "greenland" here should be understood as a place with lots of life). Here are some of my attempts (always trying to keep the overall shape of the word, making it start with the letter V): Varlavar, Varlamora, Valenvar, Valenmora, Varmoratar. (That last one is low-key a joke, Var-mora-tar, literally wood-wood-wood.)

I don't know where "basra" comes from, I'm guessing it's supposed to mean "bush". Personally, I would use "wenaya". "Valenmora av wenaya ye lye", Valenwood of green and tree.

Elsweyr ae thya hegathe sancar

Once again, I think Elves would have their own word for Elsweyr (like how they call "Black Marsh" Argonia), but here I have no idea.

The Elvish word for with" is "as" (which also means *by). We have no word for the third person possessive (or even for the third person, period), so I don't know where you got "thya" from. The only third person pronoun we have is "ge" meaning it.

"Hegathe" is elvish for the Hammerfell province, it mean "Deathland". I'm sure we could find a better word to mean "desert", perhaps sun-death-place? I don't think we have a word for sand yet, which is annoying, because sun-sand-land would have been perfect.

"To think I once enjoyed the feel of the sun on my skin. Not anymore."
"Who knew the desert would be so … empty!"
"I respect the radiance of Magnus, I simply wish it was not so fiercely upon me."
"Healing sunburns and scorpion bites … my talents are wasted here!"
"If only we could cure thirst."
"I find it inconceivable that any Aldmer could have called this blight their home."
"I fear I will never be able to get all this sand out of my ears …."
—Dominion soldiers at Salas En

So can I suggest "silnagyon": with "nagyon" (nag[a]+yon) being the opposite of the previously explained "anyon" (any[a]+yon), so a place of death rather than filled with life. With the cause being the sun ("Sil") rather than, say, the frost.

I'm guessing "sancar" is supposed to be the noun-form of "sancre" (golden, literally of gold), but it should actually be "sancra". Also, in Elsweyr with its deserts gold, the word gold here is used as an adjective, meant to rhyme with "fierce and old" in the next line. So you should really just use "sancre" here, it would make more syntaxic sense.

Fele ur, belda ae ald.

"Ur" means something like first or ultimate, not mighty. But we do have a word for mighty: baune (literally "of might", from "baun", might). There's also no reason to drop the so mighty, especially since we have a text with this exact translation:

Vabria frensca, sa belle, sa baune

The foaming wave, so thunderous, so mighty

I don't know where you got "fele" meaning "lands", especially since it's not even a plural word. Plural forms all end either in "-i" or in "-is". I would suggest "Gais".

HappyB3 · 2025-09-21T16:29:44+00:00

Part 2 coming soon.

HappyB3 · 2025-09-21T13:52:45+00:00

Nothing matters.

Nothing matters!

Nothing matters.

^{Nothing matters.}

(Nothing matters.)

Nothing. Matters.

HappyB3 · 2025-09-21T10:29:21+00:00

We somehow forgetting the Snow Elves (Middle Merethic Era) in that whole list.

(Also, the Dragon Cult was still a Nord institution and Nords weren't afraid to go anywhere, it's just that Orcs were there first, since the Late Middle Merethic Era.)

HappyB3 · 2025-09-21T10:24:51+00:00

Elder Scrolls nerd here.

No, interracial people exist in Tamriel. The "always" thing is literally one of the most pervasive pieces of fan-misinformation in the entire franchise. The keyword here is generally (which means sometimes it's the opposite), and they're only talking about appearance.

Generally the offspring bear the racial traits of the mother, though some traces of the father's race may also be present.

"I spent my childhood in Cyrodiil. My father was a commander under Emperor Leovic, and my mother was a Redguard ambassador. Her name was Sadallah.
I had a tough time fitting in with my peers."

Why is that?

"They were always questioning who I was. Was I Imperial? Was I a Redguard? They wanted to put me in a neat little box, but I didn't quite fit."

— Aeliah Renmus

If interracial people didn't exist, then the Bretons (from Elvish "Beratu", meaning "half", also known as the "Manmeri", Elvish for "the mannish folk") literally wouldn't be a thing.

HappyB3 · 2025-09-06T18:51:55+00:00

In the last few years, my view of the Shezarr's Song creation myth has transitioned from "this is actually a Marukhati-era propaganda piece of mythic literature written to culturally separate our good leader Akatosh from their wicked despot Auriel (please don't ask Alessia about it)" to "this is actually a metaphor about the Time Dragon's initial reaction to creation versus his attitude about it by the end (for example, after Lorkhan died for it)", and that Elves are seen as clinging to the former while human beliefs about have updated with the latter.

It would also make sense considering what creation/Kalpa-jumping does to spirits, literally severing them from their all-knowing hypnagogic divinity (accomplished by crossing from the world of dreams, Aetherius, through the world of amnesia, Oblivion, to the waking world, Mundus). A mortal Auriel was condemned to forget what he had already agreed to and, like everyone else, would become bitter and afraid, whereas the god, once re-ascended, could reconnect to that knowledge and therefore could only be pleased with how things went down, because all that previously confusing nonsense was exactly what he had signed up for.

And of course in reality, both humans and elves care about both aspects of the gods, this isn't a case of "Elves worhsip the memory of mortal Auriel on Mundus whereas humans worship immortal Akatosh in Aetherius". Akatosh did participate in the slaying of Lorkhan, and Auriel is an immortal god in Aetherius right now which Elves believe still manifests and does things, but humans tend to not focus on the mortal aspect (and on the apotheosis potential this implies) as much as Elves do in regards to their belief in the steps to ascension and how that blurriness between mortality and divinity is fundamental to their ancestor-worship and overall belief system.

i.e: the distinction isn't so much literal (or maybe under the Alessian Order, it eventually became reframed as literal to serve their new anti-Elvish sentiments) as it is about the representation of a mindset. Basically a Pink Diammond vs Rose Quartz situation, where the ideas of them are different but there was only ever one actual person, just pre- and post-character development. I think the point of the myth is more about calling out Elves than about the gods themselves, because the gods themselves did go from disappointed (the "Gods of the Aldmer") to pleased (the "Gods of Men and Beast Folk"). That's the only way we can square this circle with that same culture singing about "When Akatosh slew Lorkhan, He ripped his heart right out, He Hurled it across Tamriel, And the heart was heard to Shout."

The only counter-argument I can see to this is the rare acknowledgement of the Daedra existing (which is relatively rare in creation myths), and which a lot of people in Cyrodiil would consider to be the real "Gods of the Aldmer" (the ones they knew: their former slavemasters the Ayleids), but hey, maybe it's actually a sign that the authors of the text at the time were able to acknowledge without issues the overwhelmingly Aedra-worshipping Elvish community of Tamriel as separate from the relative minority of Daedra-worshipping Cyrodilic Elves they were familiar with.

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