Azura’s Cradle

In the days before Dragon-born rule, a Nibenean scholar found the mystic Sotha Nammu meditating under an Emperor Parasol. The two talked for some time about Nammu’s teachings, before Nammu asked the scholar if he knew the difference between men and mer.

The scholar responded at once, saying “men worship the Aedra as gods, mer revere them as ancestors.”

Nammu smiled at this. “What, then, does that make the Dunmer?”

The scholar feared he had offended the mystic, and immediately began to apologize.

“There is no need for apology, your definition was correct, or at the very least, it was a useful lie. When our ancestors fled the Set, [Azura taught us the mysteries needed to be different from the Aldmer][0]. The foolish interpret this to mean ‘better.’ But as with all her lessons, what Azura taught us was balance. Her principle is thus: every action has an equal and opposite reaction. To think otherwise is to plunge the world into chaos. [She is order][1]. It is said that she is the dawn and dusk, but this is a falsehood; she is the mechanism that allows the changing of the two. Each morning, she lowers the moon and raises the sun. Each evening, she lowers the sun and raises the moon, an eternal dance, the balancing of two opposites. [She is wonder][2].

“Azura, then, is not the dawn and dusk, but the spectre of motion that guides them.”

[0]: https://www.vangoghgallery.com/catalog/image/1024/Girl-Kneeling-by-a-Cradle.jpg [1]: https://th00.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/i/2010/113/6/3/New_Newtons_Cradle_by_zortje.png [2]: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/A_Rose_Made_of_Galaxies_Highlights_Hubble%27s_21st_Anniversary_jpg.jpg