On Talos, Divine Influence, and the Protection of Mundus

Mako

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Abstract

This thesis examines the possibility that Talos provides divine protection to Mundus, and whether the suppression of his worship may therefore have consequences beyond theology and politics.

The question is complicated by the nature of the Aldmeri objection to Talos. The Aedra, in the oldest Aldmeri understanding, are not simply gods. The word itself carries the meaning of ancestors, reflecting the belief that the Elves descend from the beings who participated in the creation of Mundus. Those beings surrendered a substantial portion of their own power in that creation. This thesis does not attempt to resolve the ancient questions surrounding the creation of Mundus, nor does it seek to determine whether the Aldmeri understanding of their ancestry is literally correct.

Talos presents a different problem. He was a mortal man who lived after the creation of Mundus and therefore could not have contributed his power to its creation. To the Aldmeri who preserve the older meaning of Aedra, calling such a being an Aedra is consequently more than theological disagreement. It contradicts the very definition of the word and places a human among the ancestral beings to whom the Elves trace their divine heritage.

Yet Talos is recognised by the Imperial faith as one of the Divines, and the evidence surrounding his worship, the Septim dynasty, and the events of the late Third Era raises questions that cannot be answered solely by examining the origins of the word Aedra.

The thesis therefore asks whether Talos may possess genuine divine power despite not being an Aedra in the original Aldmeri sense, whether that power may have a protective effect upon Mundus, and whether the suppression of his worship could diminish such protection.

It further considers whether the Dominion itself may possess knowledge of such a possibility, whether the prohibition of Talos worship could consequently have a purpose beyond theology, and whether the increasing appearance of Daedric threats may indicate a broader danger to Mundus.

These questions remain unproven. Their significance lies in whether the available evidence warrants investigation before another great crisis forces the question upon us.

1. Talos and the Meaning of Aedra

Any examination of Talos must begin with a distinction that is too often lost in Imperial discussions of the subject.

To the Imperial, the word Divine generally describes a god worthy of worship. The traditional Nine Divines therefore include gods of very different origins and natures. Talos, despite having once been a mortal man, is understood within the Imperial tradition as having ascended to divine status.

The Aldmeri understanding is considerably different.

The word Aedra is commonly translated as "our ancestors." It describes those beings whom the Elves believe to be their divine forebears, the beings associated with the creation of Mundus. According to the traditions surrounding creation, the Aedra surrendered a significant portion of their own power in bringing the mortal realm into existence.

This distinction matters.

The Aedra existed, in their divine capacity, before or during the creation of Mundus. Talos lived as a mortal man long after that creation. Whatever his eventual nature, he did not contribute his power to the creation of Mundus.

By the older definition, therefore, Talos cannot be an Aedra.

This is not merely a technical objection. To an Elf who regards the Aedra as literal divine ancestors, the elevation of a human emperor to a position among those beings is profoundly offensive. Talos is not simply another god competing for worship. He represents a human being being placed among the ancestral powers from which the Elves believe themselves descended.

It is therefore necessary to understand why Talos is such a contentious subject to the Dominion before examining the political events that led to the prohibition of his worship.

This thesis will not attempt to determine whether the Aldmeri account of creation is correct, whether the Aedra are truly the ancestors of the Elves, or precisely how much power each gave in the creation of Mundus. Those questions deserve examination of their own.

The narrower question here is what follows if Talos is genuinely divine despite not being an Aedra.

If the answer is that he possesses real divine power, then the distinction between Aedra and Divine becomes essential. A being need not have participated in the creation of Mundus to possess divine power afterward.

If Talos is such a being, then his existence represents something more significant than an insult to Aldmeri theology.

It represents the possibility that a mortal being can become a divine power after the creation of Mundus.

2. Mundus and the Threat from Oblivion

The mortal realm has never been entirely isolated from the powers beyond it.

Mundus exists between forces that are poorly understood even by those who have devoted their lives to their study. Oblivion surrounds the mortal realm, and the beings who inhabit it are capable of influencing Nirn through worship, bargains, possession, conjuration, and direct intrusion.

The danger posed by such beings is not theoretical.

The Oblivion Crisis demonstrated that the boundary between the mortal world and Oblivion could be breached on a scale previously considered almost unimaginable. Gates appeared throughout Tamriel, allowing the servants of Mehrunes Dagon to enter the mortal realm.

The crisis was ultimately ended through the actions of Martin Septim and the sacrifice of the Septim line. Whatever theological interpretation one places upon those events, the historical conclusion is unavoidable: forces beyond Mundus can threaten the mortal realm, and divine power can play a decisive role in resisting them.

This raises a question.

If the Divines are capable of protecting the mortal realm, are all forms of divine influence equally important?

Or might individual gods provide forms of protection that are specific to them?

3. Talos and the Oblivion Crisis

The events surrounding the end of the Oblivion Crisis deserve particular attention when considering Talos.

Talos worship was not being suppressed at the time, however the events circulated around the end of the Septim dynasty. The dynasty that started with Tiber Septim also known as Talos.

Martin Septim required the blood of a Divine in order to perform the ritual necessary to confront Mankar Camoran. The Armor of Tiber Septim provided the blood required for that purpose.

This fact does not prove that Talos personally intervened to save Mundus.

Nor does it establish that the later worship of Talos was responsible for the defeat of Mehrunes Dagon.

It does, however, establish an important connection between Tiber Septim and the Divine blood required to complete Martin's final act.

This creates a particularly uncomfortable historical question.

Had Talos worship already been suppressed at the time of the Oblivion Crisis, would the same knowledge of Tiber Septim's divine status have survived? Would the significance of his armour have been understood? Would Martin have possessed the means required to complete the ritual?

There is no way to repeat the event and obtain an answer.

What can be established is that the legacy of Tiber Septim played a material role in the final defence of Mundus.

That fact should not be discarded merely because the theological status of Talos remains disputed.

4. The White-Gold Concordat

The White-Gold Concordat and the subsequent prohibition of Talos worship therefore deserve examination from more than one perspective.

The Dominion's objection to Talos is not difficult to understand within Aldmeri theology.

The Aedra are the ancestors of the Elves. They are associated with the creation of Mundus and the sacrifice of divine power required to bring that creation into being. Talos, by contrast, was a human mortal who appeared long afterward.

To accept Talos as an Aedra would therefore require accepting that a human who did not participate in creation could nevertheless be placed among the ancestral gods of the Elves.

For those who preserve the original meaning of Aedra, this is not a minor theological disagreement.

Yet the White-Gold Concordat did more than establish a theological position. It restricted the worship of Talos throughout the Empire.

The distinction between these two matters is important.

The Dominion may genuinely believe Talos is not divine.

The Dominion may genuinely consider his worship an affront to Aldmeri religion.

It is also possible that the political prohibition of his worship serves purposes that its public theological justification does not reveal.

If Talos possesses genuine divine power, then removing his worship from the Empire could have consequences that neither the Empire nor the Dominion fully understands.

And if the Dominion knows of such consequences, the meaning of the prohibition changes considerably.

5. The Dragon Crisis

Two centuries after the Oblivion Crisis, another existential threat emerged.

The Dragon Crisis must not be confused with the Oblivion Crisis. Alduin was not Mehrunes Dagon, nor was the crisis an invasion from Oblivion. It was a different threat, involving the return of Alduin and the destruction he sought to bring upon the mortal world.

At the centre of that crisis was the Dragonborn.

The Dragonborn defeated Alduin and subsequently disappeared from reliable history.

The temporal proximity of these events to the prohibition of Talos worship is noteworthy, but proximity is not proof of causation.

The return of Alduin could have entirely independent explanations. His nature and relationship with time are unlike those of ordinary mortal beings, and his return may have been governed by circumstances unrelated to Talos or the worship of the Divines.

Nevertheless, the sequence raises a question worth preserving:

If Talos provides some form of protection to Mundus, and suppressing worship weakens that protection. Could that suppression have led to the events which allowed Alduin to return to the world. What would happen if that protection were diminished?

The Alduin Crisis cannot answer that question by itself.

It can, however, become part of a larger historical pattern.

6. The Problem of the Dragonborn

The greatest difficulty in studying the Dragon Crisis may not be determining what the Dragonborn accomplished.

It is determining who the Dragonborn was.

Only twenty-five years have passed since the defeat of Alduin, yet accounts concerning the Dragonborn's identity are already deeply contradictory.

Some accounts give one name, others another. Some describe the Dragonborn as a man, others as a woman. Accounts disagree even about race.

Such disagreement is remarkable.

The Dragonborn was not an obscure traveller whose existence was known only to a handful of witnesses. The individual became one of the most consequential figures in recent history. The defeat of Alduin should have produced an unusually strong historical record.

Instead, the record appears to be becoming less certain.

The simplest explanation is that history has merely become distorted.

The more troubling possibility is that the loss of knowledge itself has been influenced by something beyond ordinary forgetfulness.

This possibility becomes more significant when considered alongside the rumours surrounding the Dragonborn's later travels.

7. The Dragonborn and the Return of Daedric Threats

Accounts circulated after the Dragonborn's travels speak of encounters with remnants of the Mythic Dawn and of a successful attempt to restore a gateway associated with Mehrunes Dagon's realm of oblivion, the Deadlands.

These accounts cannot be treated as authoritative history. They have been repeated second hand, and the passage of time has already obscured the details.

Nevertheless, they are difficult to ignore.

The Mythic Dawn was responsible for the opening of the gates during the Oblivion Crisis. If remnants of that organisation were truly successful in their attempt to repeat such a feat, then the ambition to breach the boundary between Mundus and Oblivion did not die with the conclusion of the crisis.

There are also accounts of the Dragonborn becoming entangled with powers associated with Hermaeus Mora.

Again, these accounts are incomplete and cannot establish the extent of any Daedric influence.

But when the disappearance of knowledge concerning the Dragonborn is considered alongside stories of the Dragonborn encountering renewed attempts to reach Oblivion, the matter becomes more concerning.

There are now two forms of uncertainty.

The first concerns the physical boundary separating Mundus from Oblivion.

The second concerns the preservation of knowledge within Mundus itself.

Whether these are related cannot presently be established.

8. Hermaeus Mora and the Disappearance of Knowledge

Of all the Daedric Princes, Hermaeus Mora is particularly relevant to the second problem.

Mora's sphere concerns knowledge, secrets, and forbidden understanding. This does not prove that Mora has interfered with the historical record of the Dragonborn.

It does, however, provide a plausible subject for investigation.

If a Daedric power wished to conceal an individual, an event, or knowledge concerning a particular threat, the destruction or distortion of historical knowledge would be an effective means of doing so.

The apparent disappearance of reliable information concerning the Dragonborn therefore deserves examination alongside the rumours of renewed Daedric activity.

It is possible that these matters are unrelated.

It is also possible that they represent different manifestations of the same problem.

If so, the threat facing Mundus may not be limited to armies crossing a magical boundary.

It may also involve the corruption of the knowledge by which mortals understand that threat.

9. An Increasing Daedric Threat

Taken individually, none of these matters is sufficient to establish a growing Daedric threat.

The Oblivion Crisis is historical fact, but it occurred two centuries ago.

The Alduin Crisis was real, but Alduin was not a Daedric Prince.

The identity of the Dragonborn has become uncertain, but historical records are imperfect.

The accounts of renewed Mythic Dawn activity and attempts to breach the boundary between Mundus and Oblivion are second hand.

The stories concerning Hermaeus Mora are similarly difficult to verify in their entirety.

Yet the developments are difficult to dismiss when considered together.

The mortal realm has already experienced an invasion from Oblivion.

The means by which that invasion was defeated involved divine power and the legacy of Tiber Septim.

Talos worship has subsequently been suppressed.

Alduin has returned and been defeated.

The identity of the individual responsible for that victory is already becoming strangely uncertain.

And now there are renewed stories of attempts to reach beyond the boundary separating Mundus from Oblivion, accompanied by accounts of contact with one of the Princes whose sphere includes forbidden knowledge.

These may be separate events.

But they may also represent the beginnings of a pattern.

10. What If Talos Protects Mundus?

This brings the thesis to its central hypothesis.

Suppose Talos is genuinely divine.

Suppose further that his divinity is not merely a matter of granting blessings to individual worshippers, but includes some form of protection extending across Mundus.

Such protection need not resemble a visible shield or barrier. Divine influence may take forms that mortal scholars cannot directly observe.

If Talos protects Mundus, then worship of Talos could potentially maintain or strengthen that protection.

When the Septim dynasty ended, the direct mortal lineage of Talos, the barrier between Oblivion and Mundas became so weak that a Daedric lord was able to cross that barrier.

In the years since the ban on Talos worship, the world has seen yet another potentially world ending crisis. This suggests that the suppression of his worship could be weakening that protection.

This would provide a possible explanation for why the question of Talos has consequences extending beyond theology.

It would also make the Dominion's policy considerably more significant and dangerous.

If the Dominion does not know of such protection, then the prohibition of Talos worship may be an act whose consequences its architects have failed to anticipate.

If the Dominion does know, then an entirely different question arises.

Why would they seek to diminish a source of divine protection over the mortal realm?

11. The Dominion and the Possibility of Daedric Influence

One possibility deserves consideration, though it must remain precisely that: a possibility.

Could elements within the Dominion be influenced by Daedric powers?

There is no established evidence sufficient to declare that the Dominion serves a Daedric Prince.

The question nevertheless warrants investigation because the interests of a Daedric power and the interests of those seeking to weaken divine protection over Mundus could, under certain circumstances, overlap.

A Daedric Prince would have reason to benefit from a weakened mortal realm.

The Dominion may have entirely different reasons for opposing Talos.

The two motivations should not be conflated without evidence.

But neither should the possibility of their convergence be excluded merely because it is uncomfortable.

The proper response of a scholar is not to declare conspiracy where evidence is absent.

It is to determine what evidence would distinguish one explanation from another.

12. Questions for the College

Several questions follow from this examination.

If Talos is divine, what is the nature of his divinity?

Can a mortal who lived after the creation of Mundus become a Divine without becoming an Aedra?

If so, does this demonstrate that divine ascension is possible independently of the creation of Mundus?

Does Talos possess any demonstrable influence over the protection of Mundus?

Can such influence be detected through magical, historical, or theological means?

What effect, if any, does the suppression of Talos worship have upon that influence?

Does the Dominion know something about Talos that the Empire does not?

Is the prohibition of his worship purely theological and political, or could it also have a magical consequence?

Why has reliable knowledge concerning the Dragonborn deteriorated so rapidly?

Is this ordinary historical corruption, or could an external influence be responsible?

Could Hermaeus Mora or another Daedric power have an interest in concealing knowledge concerning the Dragonborn?

And finally, are the renewed rumours of attempts to breach the boundary between Mundus and Oblivion isolated incidents, or evidence of a danger that is becoming more active?

13. The Next Great Crisis

There is an unfortunate answer to the central problem of this thesis.

The theory could potentially be tested.

The next great war or the next great crisis may provide the evidence necessary to determine whether Talos offers meaningful protection to Mundus.

If Talos worship remains suppressed and a major supernatural threat emerges, scholars could compare the circumstances of that crisis with those of previous catastrophes.

We could examine the strength and nature of divine intervention.

We could examine whether magical boundaries are breached.

We could examine the frequency and character of Daedric incursions.

We could examine whether regions where Talos worship remains strong experience different manifestations of supernatural danger.

We could examine whether renewed worship is followed by measurable changes in divine intervention.

Such observations might provide evidence for or against the hypothesis.

There is, however, an obvious and terrible problem.

To obtain such evidence deliberately would require creating or encouraging another catastrophe.

No scholar should deliberately endanger Mundus merely to satisfy an academic question.

The experiment must therefore never be performed.

If another great crisis comes of its own accord, however, scholars must be prepared to observe it.

14. The Experiment That Must Not Be Performed

A responsible scholar cannot manufacture an existential crisis in order to test a theory concerning existential crises.

There is no acceptable experiment in which thousands, perhaps millions, of lives are placed at risk merely to determine whether a Divine is protecting them.

The only ethical opportunity for observation would come if another crisis occurred independently.

If that day comes, the College should record everything.

The strength and location of Talos worship should be documented.

Divine manifestations should be recorded.

Daedric activity should be catalogued.

Magical disturbances should be compared against historical accounts of the Oblivion Crisis.

Attempts to breach the boundary between Mundus and Oblivion should be examined with particular care.

And perhaps most importantly, records should be preserved in multiple locations and by multiple scholars.

If the disappearance of knowledge concerning the Dragonborn is the result of ordinary historical decay, such precautions may prove unnecessary.

If it is not, then preserving knowledge may itself become an act of defence.

15. Conclusion

The evidence assembled here does not prove that Talos protects Mundus.

It does not prove that the suppression of his worship has weakened that protection.

It does not prove that the Dominion understands any such protection.

It does not prove that the Dominion is influenced by a Daedric Prince.

Nor does it prove that the disappearance of reliable knowledge concerning the Dragonborn is the work of Hermaeus Mora or any other power.

What it does demonstrate is that these questions can no longer be dismissed individually without considering their relationship to one another.

The Oblivion Crisis established that Mundus can be threatened from beyond its boundaries and that divine power can be instrumental in its defence.

The Dragon Crisis demonstrated that the mortal realm remains vulnerable to forces capable of returning from the distant past.

The Dragonborn's identity is already becoming uncertain only twenty-five years after that individual's victory.

Rumours concerning the Dragonborn's later encounters suggest that remnants of the Mythic Dawn may have sought once again to reach beyond Mundus.

Accounts involving Hermaeus Mora raise the possibility that the disappearance of knowledge itself may deserve investigation.

Any one of these matters might have an ordinary explanation.

Taken together, they make the possibility of an increasing Daedric threat increasingly difficult to dismiss.

At the centre of the question stands Talos.

If he is merely a human emperor elevated by mortal worship, then the suppression of his worship is principally a matter of theology and politics.

If he is genuinely divine, and if his divinity provides protection to Mundus, then the consequences may be considerably greater.

And if that protection is being diminished at the same time that Daedric influence is increasing, then the next great crisis may not resemble the last.

It may be worse.

Indeed, if the protection of Talos is real and has already been weakened, the next great crisis could be the last.

For that reason, the question before the College is not simply whether Talos protects Mundus.

It is whether we can afford to remain ignorant of the answer.