The Time Gods of Imperial Faith

Akatosh is the God of Time. Despite that, it is not the prayers to the Dragon that contain the Cyrodils’ thanks for each moment or the passage of time or the seasons. The Dragon God is invoked by both Nibenese and Colovians as “Father Akatosh”, “whose Perch from Eternity allowed the Day”, the Fountain of the World, the Father of Men, the Giver of Time, Turner of the Wheel, King of the Sun, Lord at the Center, and King of Heaven, Lord Aetherius, King of the Mundus and King of Kings. His aspect of Everlasting Legitimacy, granting the Ruby Throne and the Mandate of the Sun to worthy rulers, is more important than his wider sphere of Time.

Arkay, on the other hand, is worshipped as the God of the Cycle of Life and Death, Ruler of the Seasons, and Lord of all other natural cycles, which I will not list here. He is thanked for not only the turn of the seasons, but also for every moment and, more importantly, every moment’s contents. As the Mortal’s God, he is prayed to for purpose and fulfillment and is said to be the driving force behind mortals’ enjoyment of each moment and the "Giver of all Happy Hours”. Arkay is the God of Birth, without whom there is “neither breath nor beginning, nor can any man live, love, or learn without the spark of [his] spirit”.

As my fellow sholars will no doubt have noticed, Arkay as envisioned in Cyrodiil resembles the “Spirit of the Now”, Y’ffre of Valenwood, as well as Shezzar in his mantle of “Spirit of Men”. He has also taken up many aspects of his Father’s sphere of time. Perhaps the Spirit who takes up the Eye of the Thief would like to possess these mantles in addition to his own?