Ancestor Moths and the Old Ehlnofey

I recently started a new play through of Skyrim, and decided to take a closer look at those murals you see in the Hall of Stories.

Assuming that these are in a somewhat chronological order, they depict the shift in religious focus from Kyne to generic nature/animal worship to the rise of the Dragon Priests.

I was reading through the various stories of Creation, trying to pin down the fundamental differences and similarities between Men and Mer, and where they split (this is a post for another day). After going through a glossary of terms on UESP, I began to look at the et’Ada and the Ehlnofey.

As you all know, the et’Ada existed in Aetherius before Time could figure out what direction it wanted to travel in, seeing as Time as we know it seemed constrained to areas under the Aka-Tusk’s influence.

Then comes Lorkhan who convinces/tricks various et’Ada (both Padomaic and Anuic it seems; no distinction is made from what I can tell) into creating Mundus. Those who gave themselves fully to the process lost not just their permanence (Aedra can be killed, Daedra, who, by definition did not contribute any of their divinity to the project are immortal, killing them just results in them respawning in their own plane) but lost their very essence, becoming the Earthbones, aka Ehlnofey.

The Ehlnofey were also referred to as the laws of nature, from this I can surmise that, for example, there was an Aedra whose sphere was Gravity, and he gave himself in his entirety the Mundus Project and therefore lost his essence, ceasing to exist except as an aspect of the mortal realm. A few Ehlnofey determined that they could survive, not as individuals, but by reproducing, although it seems that each generation would be further removed from their divine origins.

I suspect that the Ancestor Moths are in fact Old Ehlnofey. They have an innate connection to the Elder Scrolls, perhaps this allows them to have maintained this form in the intervening eras. Also, they’re called ancestor moths. The Old Ehlnofey are literally the ancestors of Man and Mer. We know that they had babies, but what happened to the still (by comparison) divine generation? Sure, their kids were a shade less divine than they, but the First were no doubt powerful aedric ancestor spirits.

As a side note, I also believe that the Hall of Stories may confirm the existence of the Middle Dawn, refuting “The Dragon Break Re-Examined”:

Eight stars fell on Tamriel, one for each iniquity that Lorkhan made clear to the world

And in Mural 3 there are indeed 8 Stars flanking Lorkhan.

If you could please look at the gallery (first link), It may help to see what I’m referring to in terms of the Moths.