Numerology in The Elder Scrolls
First, I know it’s a long read. If you want to know wheter you’ll be interested in, you might want to skip the presentation. I thought it would be useful, but if you already know a bit of this, you might say it’s boring.
In the Elder Scrolls, numbers have a meaning. Numbers are symbols, but have also influence on the world, and describe how events and things are related. And, it seems, not really throught equations, but through weird numerology. 2, and its relation to the enantiomorphe, is probably obvious for most of the person here, and you may have heard of 11 “1+(-1) = 11, that’s CHIM lol”.
But, there is more. A lot more, and a lot more interesting. We truly dicovered this in the Hunt for the Amaranth, when MK threw
29. 2. 9. 11. 7. 18.
Then it gets all messed up with 4.5.
We have been a lot to share ideas about this, and I must admit I am unable to remember who has done what – just note that a lot of things I will comment now have been discovered by other persons.
However, even if there is repercussions on most of the lore, numbers with a true signification are not used a lot- but there is usually links. And most of what we learn about these numbers come, in fact, from the 36 Sermons. Not really surprising, when we know that Chimer despised their old Gods, who where “only numbers now”, and insult stranger when saying they are “devoid of maths”.
Because of this, however, I won’t give the source for most of my quotes – It comes from the Sermons if I didn’t bother giving a link. In fact, this thread could nearly be seen as an analysis of Sermon 29 (which is seen as a synthetis of the 35 others, and some other texts). In a first time, the known meaning of the numbers will be presented, then how we find these meanings, and relations.
For those who are asking the second number present in the “list” of this Sermon, like the 283 of 17. The Hurling Disk. 283 : it is a key to a secret message. When taking the word corresponding to the second number, in the Sermon of the first number, you find the overdiscussed testimony : “He was not born a god. His destiny did not lead him to this crime. He chose this path of his own free will. He stole the godhood and murdered the Hortator. Vivec wrote this” I have heard of no other thought about these numbers, so I won’t give any other interpretation that they lead to this message?
Is your math athlete ready, Redguards, Altmer and Tsaesci friends?
1. The Dragon Break, or the Tower. : “I”, 1 (in TES, 1 should always be seen only as a line). It is what leads to “I AM”. And to “I AM NOT”. the realization of being Anu, or rather his dream, or the ability to distinguish from him. Tower, “I”, is also compared to what is seen when a wheel (the Aurbis) is seen from sideway
Look at the majesty sideways and all you see is the Tower, which our ancestors made idols from.
The secret Tower within the Tower is the shape of the only name of God, I.
Towers are used on Nirn, to gather creatia/magicka, and this way stabilize the world, but also to change things, and maybe even are used to have a way to “godhood”: Dracochysalid, Destruction of the Aurbis… Finally, these towers are there to trigger Dragon Breaks – Something which seems to be strongly tied to Walking Ways, as when one is attempting a Way, a Dragon Break occures.
2. The Enantiomorph. : 1 + 1. The Enantiomorph, two people who are one, A King, A Rebel, indistinguishable except for the Witness. They can switch places, and they create something new, often at a gradient lower. There is too much examples, so I wont give all of them.
3. The Invisible Gate, ALMSIVI. 112 : For Now, we will only say that this number, the Tribunal, is important, but most of what we know about it is how it is related to the others. ALMSIVI seems to be only one of the Tribunals ; Talos Tribunal, made of Talos, Talos, and Talos, is mentionned in TC:I
4. The Corners of House of Troubles. 242 : Bal, Sheo Malac and Dagon for Almsivi, they may change for Talos. They seems to be a danger, which appears in the creation of the Gate.
5. The Corners of the World. 100 : The best interpretation for this one is probably the comparison between the world, Nirn, and a person. The five corners would therefore be the arms, the legs, and the head.
6. The Walking Ways. 266 : The Ways to Heaven; their true meaning is creating a lot of discussion. Some talk of these as ways to Amaranth, some as Ways to CHIM, some as ways to godhood. Whatever, we seem to know the steps on these ways: Egg, image, Man, God, City, State and some attempts (the last might be the good one): The Numidium. The Endeavor. The Prolix Tower. CHIM. The Enantiomorph. The Scarab that Transforms into the New Man.
7. The Sword at the Center. 39
The magical cross is an integration of the worth of mortals at the expense of their spirits. Surround it with the triangle and you begin to see the Triune house. It becomes divided into corners, which are ruled by our brethren, the Four Corners: BAL DAGON MALAC SHEOG. Rotate the triangle and you pierce the heart of the Beginning Place, the foul lie, the testament of the irrefutable-for-a-span
You have a I, which become a master 11, and makes a Cross, +. Or 7. It seems to be the “OS” of Mundus (like Tal[OS]) You surround it with Triangles (Almsivi or TALOS Tribunal) and have a square divided in four. If you rotate the triangle, the corner of the house of trouble pierce the master at the center. The 8 Spokes prevent the triangles of rotating. All of this is makig a Wheel (with two acceptable blashem between each spoke): sideway, it is a I, and you can see at the center of the side the secret gate. Do you want a (shitty) picture?
The sword is the cross and ALMSIVI is the Triune house around it. If there is to be an end I must be removed.
Yes. Soon or late, the sword must be removed.
8. The Wheel, or the Eight Givers. 484 : The Spokes. But, first of all, givers. Divines gave their support to Talos ; For Vivec, it seems it is the Barons of Move Like This, and Fa-Nuit-Hen who gave him what let him become a Master.
9. The Missing. 11 : Usually seen as Lorkhan, the Missing God. But also the eight, who is adding to the 8 but cannot be seen (the divines are planets, Talos isn’t) Its interaction with the enantiomorph sees to be very important. 9 + 2 = 11, The Master, who usually reached CHIM. 9-2 = 7, the Sword at the Center. And, yes, Talos or Vivec seems to be privated from their enantiomorphic part. 2 × 9 = 18, The Egg, which is thought to be linked to the (Nu) Amaranth. The worst is 9 ➗ 2 = 4.5, which probably represent the weakening of Talos and of the 9 by the Thalmor. Which would lead to the 9 breaking in 2, and leaving the integers… might be bad for the Aurbis.
10. The Tribes of the Altmer. 140 : Well, there isn’t much on them, aside from counting the number of tribes the Altmer divided into.
11. The Number of the Master. 102 : Masters are those on the Walking Ways. Vivec, Lorkhan, Talos, Nerevar. Most of them reached CHIM, but some may have taken other Ways. The example of CHIM is when you manage to have 1 + (-1) = 11. It is also 9 + 2, as seen earlier.
12. The Heavens. 379 : First, as /u/Dreadnautilus reminded, it is the 12 constellations – completed by 13, the Serpent. Reach Heaven by Violence. 9 + 3, The Sword at the center helped by a Tribunal is creating a way for Heavens.
13. The Serpent. 36
’I am born of golden wisdom and powers that should have forever been unalike! With this nature I am invited into the Hidden Heaven!’
By which he meant the Scaled Blanket, made of not-stars, whose number is thirteen. Lie Rock became full of foolishness, haggling with the Void Ghost who hides in the religions of all men.
The Second Serpent is where the secret door is hidden. The first is Lorkhan (or Satak, if you dare venture in the confusing Yoku pantheon), the Second Serpent, THE Serpent, is the scaled Blancket, the constellation. Linked to SITHISIT, it is made of no-stars, unstars, and might be in fact the hole Pasomay made when entering into Anu’s Dream. In this case, it could also be seen as the secret door to the Void, to Liberty.
However, note that Void Ghost is also more or less a reference to Lorkhan. While still being more or less Sep, and therefore the Serpent constellation.
14. The King’s Cough. 32 : Some say it is CHIM, some Thu’Um (what, it would be linked?° . Think of the “breathing of Royalty” of talos, whose throat were cut. And, even if it is dubious, Mankar Camoran Speaking Fire.
15. The Redeeming Force. 110 : Absolutely nothing on this one…
16. The Acceptable Blasphemes. 12 : From the Pocket Guide to the Empire 1st Edition. It’s the Daedra, the 16 Voids between the 8 Gift Limbs of the Divines. Their exact nulerologic role is, however, unknown.
17. The Hurling Disk. 283 : 18 - 1 = 17 : The Hurling Disk, the Middle Dawn happens during the Dragon Break, when Mundus is freed from all boundaries. Mundus is hurled to reach heaven by violence. If our understanding is correct, it is at one step of the Amaranth – step that may be walked throught the Secret door, that could be opened by the Sword (or the Master) during the Middle Dawn.
18. The Egg, or Six Times the Wise. : Probably the “New Amaranth”, or one of the Steps. It is the end of the numbers 29, 2, 9, 11, 7, 18 and 4.5 messing up. Even if Vivec was an egg, it is probably someone different, as Vehk is part of 3, the Tribunal, and becomes 7, the Sword at the center (Sermons), and a 11, a Master. Because, the egg is (also?) a part of the Walking Ways.
19. The Provisional House. 258
Vivec then built the Provisional House at the Center of the Secret Door.
This house is linked to the vision: Vivec then saw the moths that would come from the starry heart, bringing with them dust more horrible than the ash of Red Mountain. He saw the twin head of a ruling king who had no equivalent. And eight imperfections rubbed into precious stones, set into a crown that looked like shackles, which he understood to be the twin crowns of the two-headed king. And a river that fed into the mouth of the two-headed king, because he contained multitudes.
Might be talos, the one able to hold the center that cannot hold.
Whatever, the provisional House seems to be the attempt of Vehk to reach the Amaranth. Another time, if this is 18, the House would be 19, just above it. And during a Dragon Break, Mundus would be at 17 ; so, Vehk woudl have to go between.
However, he final fled, afraid of the “catastrophes in between” – probably the things like the Godhead/Anu Awaking because of something going “out” of him. Or simply Landfall.
20. The Lunar Lattice. 425 : The Khajiit are based on Lunar lattice, but there may be a link with lunar currency, souls.
21. The Womb. 13 : Where the Egg, the first step, comes from.
22. Unknown. 453 : It is the same to me.
23. The Hollow Prophet. 54
24. The Star Wound. 44 : The “Star-wounded East” seems to be Morrowind. But it is also a reference to the Red Mountain, the Star Wound : the heart of Lorkhan is probably the Star, but it may also be The Blue Star going the Mountain during Dragon Breaks.
25. The Emperor. 239 : Uhh… It cannot be so obvious…
26. The Rogue Plane. 81 : The rogue plane is Baan Dar as per the cosmology article on TIL.
27. The Secret Fire. 120 : Gandalf? No:
First, read this analysis, by /u/rottendeadite – I am not able to resume this.
Then, this is mostly the links I see, but less thorough:
Mephala and Azura are the twin gates of tradition and Boethiah is the secret flame.
The fire is mine: let it consume thee,
And make a secret door
At the altar of Padhome,
In the House of Boet-hi-Ah
Where we become safe
And looked after.
It seems to be strongly linked to the Provisional House; Vivec fled because he couldn’t answer to “You House is safe now, So why is it—”. The catastrophes mentioned earlier, which prevent him from “commiting to that marriage”. The Altar of Padhome is safe. But, why…
28. The Drowned Lamp. 8
SITHSIT? He is strongly linked to Sithis, and PSJJJJ. Probably what stays from Padomay, from what came from outside. And, this way, is linked to the Secret door – throught the Serpent? Because unstars might be seen as a mirror of the Sky. He is just a step lower than the Captive Sage.
Now, with the MK AMAs (/u/mojonation1487 reminded me of this one)
Who or what is the Drowned Lamp?
Drowned Lamp: Knowledge that is lost.
If we keep the link with Sithis, via Sithisit :
What is Sithis?
My Sithis? At its basest, it would be complete and utter misanthropy
Who is also presented as the Void/leading to the Void (yes, secret Door)
In musical terms, would you say that the Void is subgradiated noise, pure silence, or something else entirely?
(Where the fuck are you taking requests from?)
I would say its deafness.
Here, we have a good thing that might say that the secret door is leading to Void, to Sensory Deprivation.
29. The Captive Sage. 217 : The sage in sensory Deprivation, maybe even Anu himself (29 2 9… begins à 29).
30. The Scarab. 10 : There’s a lot of thing about him.He is linked to HoonDing, the Make Way God (who is also linked to Nerevar). And he would also be the New Man of the Loveletter, maybe the New Amaranth. He is a step higher than the captive sage, whiche give the same impression as with 17 and 19 surrounding 18.
31. The Listening Frame. 473 : Probably what Vivec used on Ysmir
YSMIR, the Dragon of the North, who always appears as a great bearded king, had powers innumerable and echoing. He was grim and dark and the most silent of the invading chieftains, though when he spoke villages were uplifted and thrown into the sea. The Hortator fought him unarmed, grabbing the Dragon’s roars by hand until Ysmir’s power throat bled. These roars were given to Vivec to bind into an ebony listening frame, which the warrior-poet placed on Ysmir’s face and ears to drive him mad and drive him away.
However, Why 31? And what is the meaning behind this (when we know these one came “5, in unholy number”)
32. The False Call. 7 : The Calling is What the Dwemer have may used to communicate via telepathy/radio. It may be also the thing they used to melt into Numidium. False walking Way, if we heard Vivec, and so, a False Call.
33. The Anticipations. 234 : 3 (Tribunal) is said to follow 3 (the Anticipations). Some things let think that the Anticipation is a real thing, but more between kalpa – Almsivi came too early, because this kalpas risks to have no end. And, don’t talk about Reclamations, please.
The End of Days is “numbered 3333”. If it is truly Landfall, something with Anticipations, and/or different Tribunal might happen.
34. The Lawless Grammar. 2 : Sword and Word. And, word without grammar are like numbers without serious mathematical relation… what is done here…
35. The Prison-Shirt. 191 : Where the Velothi Mystic, a captive sage, is held? (in the philosopher’s armor, where we see him falling in partial sensory deprivation?)
36. The Hours. 364 : The 36 Sermons are a part of the Book of Hours. More extracts are in Vehk’s Teaching.