Mundus, Kalpas, and VHS Tapes
Time in the Elder Scrolls Universe is a strange thing. First, there was none of it, then Aka-Tusk made all of it happen at once, and not at once, at the same time, because the only time things make sense is when they don’t make sense.
In the Aurbis, only certain areas experience linear Time, Mundus, for example, which for the purposes of this post will include all of Nirn, and the plane(t)s orbiting it (the flesh-divinity planes of the Divines).
Oblivion has time, but since it lies outside the sphere of Mundus, like the second outer most Russian Nesting Doll, whether or not time is linear for its inhabitants at all times is up for debate, Akatosh didn’t land his vessel/spear, the Ur-Tower/Starship Direnniprise in Oblivion, he crashed the thing into Tamriel, with the express purpose of forcing the realm to experience linear time, so that actions can have consequences and therefore Lorkhan’s Trial will have meaning.
This implies that anything outside the sphere of Mundus is not always subject to the Laws of Time, the Daedra are effectively Doctor Manhattan, they experience the past, present, and future simultaneously, so long as they remain outside mundus. When they enter into Mundus, they are anchored by time, event A precedes B precedes C.
We also know that Mundus is occasionally reset. The World Ends, Alduin goes crazy at the Buffet, and then everything resets to Convention, like loading a save that you made just after character creation. Or rewinding a VHS tape. Here, Lorkhan is tried, and sentenced, his heart is shot to the East, to Morrowind, and he is sundered and becomes the moons. Or perhaps he doesn’t, at where, exactly during Convention the Kalpas reset to is unclear. It could be during roll call, or just as Lorkhan is betrayed.
For those of you old enough to remember VHS tapes, I’m sure that you’ve recorded over at least one. For those of you not old enough, count your blessings, DVD was a huge improvement. When you recorded over an old VHS tape, occasionally snippets of the original recording would survive, and bleed through into the new recording. So if I recorded Coming to America over Caddyshack, there is a chance at say, 20 minutes in, I would see whatever was happening 20 minutes into Caddyshack instead of Eddy Murphy looking for an American bride.
According to /u/Mdnthrvst’s comment on a thread from earlier today Molag Bal is in fact a survivor from a previous Kalpa who survived by achieving CHIM (thus why he was able to give this knowledge to Vehk in the Sermons).
Perhaps events from previous Kalpas bleed through into the current one, much like what happens on re-used VHS tapes. This could especially happen during Dragon Breaks, or perhaps the Wild Hunts of the Bosmer. Time becomes undone, left becomes right, up becomes down, cats and dogs sleeping together, mass hysteria. Dragon Breaks have been described as possible timelines occurring at once, this could easily include the events of previous kalpas.
If we look at the timeline as a strip of Videotape that’s been yanked out of the case by your little brother, with Convention at start and Alduin om-nomming Mundus into nothing at the end, this can make quite a bit of sense. We don’t get a "new timeline" like in Back to the Future 2, but instead we get the same timeline, just it’s been rewound, and it’s recording over a new show. We don’t necessarily know what will happen (or has happened, depending one where you are in the tape). The Elder Scrolls seem to have an idea, but they only become fixed after the event has occurred.
If an elder scroll was used in an attempt to see what happened on, say, the 29th of Last Seed, 3E 433, before that bit of the tape has been watched, it would tell you what could happen, but several different versions, because there have been several 29th of Last Seed, 3E 433’s. It looks forwards, and sideways, and up ways and downways. And all ways are correct.
What’s also interesting is what this means for those who manage to leave Mundus, either permanently, or temporarily.
Vehk is now in Aetherius, which means he has always been there, even before he arrived, and after he left. So should this Kalpa end, this Kalpa’s edition of Vehk/Vivec will have survived no matter what. He could easily meddle in future Kalpas, or past ones. He is outside Akatosh’s influence of Linear Time.
The same could be said of the Mantella, or at least the area holding the Mantella (I’ve occasionally thought of it as existing within a pocket of Mundus, thus allowing Time to move linearly for the Agent sent to retrieve it). This might be why the Numidium seems to act like a walking Dragon Break, its original Heart was Lorkhan’s, the anti-Akatosh, as illustrated wonderfully here in this post, and its replacement heart was both a soul gem containing the souls of two or three Shezzarrines, and it existed outside of space and linear time.