The Proctor

This is, obviously, a theory, and I’m probably reaching pretty far for it, but I could be on to something.

First off, an integral part of this theory is the purpose of Mundus. I am of the camp that Lorkhan was aware of the dream, and created Mundus so Amaranth may be achieved by someone, since the et’Ada, as immortals, were incapable of knowing an end and thus were unable to embrace infinity in CHIM. Mundus, and mortal life, exists so someone may travel down the sub-gradients to move up, and begin a new dream.

Postulates:

• Anu is the dreamer
• When dreaming, the dreamer is aware of himself. Even if one is not dreaming lucidly, he or she is aware of his or her own presence and can conciously control his or her self
• Therefore, I believe Anu is personified somewhere as an individual

Now, you could argue that Anu is personified as Anu, the primordial force of stasis. I agree in a way. I think that primordial force represents the unconscious part of his mind that constructed the dream. Anu as a person would be the conscious that is aware of itself, and would take the form of an organism, like we do in our very own dreams. Anu-as-Stasis could possibly be Anu-as-Dreamer’s Super-Ego at work, attempting to stabilize Padomay as the Id. I could go on from here, but that probably warrants a separate post.

Now, if Anu has an avatar in the shape of a man or woman, what would he or she be like? Remember, “I AM AND I ARE ALL WE”, which I interpret to as an “As Above, So Below” sort of idea in that we are all Anu and Anu is all of us, for he is everything, and that includes Lorkhan, the author of The Test that is mortal life. This figure, who I dub The Proctor, oversees The Test and guides us along. The Test exists so someone may succeed, so it is logical to think Anu would want us to pass.

The Proctor would appear in the guise of an average person, if he was to float around as some incomprehensible godform, he’d remove any aspect of challenge from The Test as his divinity would be obvious. He comes to us nothing special. Now, on to the topic of knowledge, the most important in identifying The Proctor.

Let’s get hypothetical. Let’s say you dream up a dream, nothing much special, just an average dream, but for some reason, your brain skipped over horses when constructing the dream. In this dream, horses do not exist, and have never existed. However, you have knowledge of horses from outside the dream, from your reality. You can try and try to explain horses to the denizens of the dream, but they would not and could not understand. The possibility for horses wouldn’t exist if your brain skipped it, it’s not just that they don’t exist, it’s that they can’t exist. Now, take that concept, but go wider. Maybe your brain skipped gravity, or the color blue, or the ability to comprehend possessive pronouns, it could be anything, literally anything. The dream denizens would not be able to comprehend these things, since those possibilities do not exist.

That is precisely what The Proctor experiences. This is his dream, and we are the dream denizens. He tries to explain these fantastical concepts to us, but we brush them off as nonsense. He has knowledge and experience from beyond possibility, which is why nobody ever listens. Those are the people that fail The Test. To “wake up”, to realize you do and do not exist, to step outside the borders of the dream, to achieve CHIM, is to comprehend The Proctor and perceive The Test. To pass The Test is to achieve Amaranth, which has obviously not happened yet, and that is why The Proctor continues his journey.

The Proctor would be an immortal and beyond omniscient being that nobody believes. Now, what with the age of existence, wouldn’t people have taken notice of a man who spouts bizarre things and has lived forever? I think of The Proctor as another step down the chain of beings from Anu. Anu begat Anui-El as his soul, who begat Auri-El as his realization, who begat Anui-Ma as his avatar. Stasis-Things-Time-Knowledge, Infinity-God-Father-Child, and such. The Proctor is a force of nature personified, we notice him in the same way we notice gravity, we just kinda do. He is, in a way, always there, even for us as players of the games.

I believe we have met The Proctor multiple times. We have indeed met a seemingly immortal figure who describes impossible things. He has presented himself to The Nerevarine, The Champion of Cyrodiil, and even The Last Dragonborn, and every time we have met him, we have dismissed him as nothing special. We have made a grave mistake in doing so. The Proctor is trying to communicate with us.

He knows much, tells some, he knows many things others do not.

M’aiq describes to us simple things that just cannot be done.

Don’t try blocking if you have two weapons. You will only get confused.

Well, why the hell is that? It sounds entirely possible to deflect an attack while holding two weapons, right? Well, this is all his dream, and in his his dream, the ability to block with two weapons does not eixst, just like how your dream did not include horses.

M’aiq has been discussed here before, with people wondering why he is immortal, isn’t he just some weird Khajiit with good taste in fur helms? Most answer this with his statement that “M’aiq’s father was also called M’aiq. As was M’aiq’s father’s father. At least, that’s what his father said.” Most conclude that “M’aiq” is just a name passed down from generation to generation. I propose a different solution.

Think of Inception where dreams can exist within dreams. Mundus is all part of a dream. Well, what if that dream is part of another dream with its very own Anu? In this aspect, you have a possibly infinite chain of Anus creating dreams within other dreams. In this way, M’aiq (Anu), was indeed birthed from another M’aiq (Anu).

I apologize for the wall of text, but I have put way too much thought into this. If anyone really, actually cares, I do have more information and ideas such as why he chose to manifest as a Khajiit, why he chose the name “M’aiq”, and an analysis of many of his quotes (I’m currently deciphering his statement in Morrowind about dragons) that I can post in the comments. Any feedback is welcome and encouraged, if you have questions or criticisms I’d love to hear them.

TL;DR: M’aiq the Liar=Anu the Dreamer