Lorkhan Is A Sea God and A Snake God: Part I, Snake God

TL;DR: Primarily because of clues from Yokudan myth we know Lorkhan is a snake that eats himself. I propose that this is a cycle of realities, one after another, but that none of them have actual 'time. Therefore, they all sort of coexist. Mundus was created when Lorkhan tried to jam together as many of the timelines into one epic thing as possible. As a result, Auriel - an eagle god - killed him and tore out his hunger. Part I of my theory is that this event made the Marukhati Selectives somehow inevitable, and therefore Akatosh is the jamming together of Auriel and Lorkhan - a winged serpent. Akatosh's creation ended the Kalpic cycle, started linear time, resulted in Talos, Alduin's defeat, etc. Auri-El and Shor/Shezzar are just avatars of their respective gods.

Lorkhan is literally a giant serpent.

Sorry to take something trivial too far, but the Maormer in ESO are depicted with a prominent Serpent emblem, use serpent posts for magic, have snake pets - including ginormous snakes - and are worshippers of Lorkhan.

That's not evidence in itself, but it makes me think. Lorkhan is supposed to be a snake god, though I've never thought of him as a sea god.

But now that I have that context, it changes a lot.

Lorkhan is not well understood. Check out the lore - almost all of it indicates a great debate between all races that goes to the beginning of time over what and who exactly Lorkhan is. Tangibly, there is the relic called his heart - but it's not literally understood to necessarily be a heart of an anthropomorphic god - though some understand it to be that way.

I have to say that in presenting this theory I cannot hope to answer the question of what Lorkhan and by extension mortality's purpose is.

What we know is that Lorkhan was an advocate for creation, and he was helped then opposed by the greater spirits of Aetherius, and that the "Daedra" did not participate.

Also keep in mind that what you think you know about this - you don't know. The whole concept of Anu and Padomay are speculative. When discussing Sithis "The Monomyth" says: "..even the Hist acknowledge this." as in it's not necessarily a given known reality. Still, the general understanding is probably largely true.

Read how "The Monomyth" puts it: "The strongest of the recognizable spirits crystallize: Mephala, Arkay, Y'ffre, Magnus, Rupgta [sic], etc., etc. Others remain as concepts, ideas, or emotions. One of the strongest of these, a barely formed urge that the others call Lorkhan, details a plan to create Mundus, the Mortal Plane."

I propose that none of these gods 'existed' in any tangible sense that we are familiar with, prior to the binding of Mundus. The spirit world is an infinite realm of all possibility and no definition. It is like a comma that comes before a sentence. All of the gods that we're familiar with crystalized as Mundus took form. As such, there are common elements to mortality that circumscribe common definitions of gods. That's why the monomyth puts it that way.

Keep in mind also that we've learned since C0DA, before even, that reality is undefined. Every person who 'plays' an Elder Scrolls game is living a different reality. And there are realities just as valid, but far more bizarre, which would be completely unfamiliar to us as well. The gods as we know them are much more the product of our mortal realm than not. They are funnels, prisms, made of the stuff of Mundic normalcy through which shines the unbounded light of Aetherius.

Now the Monomyth goes on to describe the 'Aurbis' as Psijic propaganda. What I take this to probably mean is that there is no 'realm' of 'gray matter' in between realms of light and dark, but that life itself and its events are the gray matter. In other words - imagine that all of Aetherius and all of Oblivion are bound up in every moment and every inch of time and space in Mundus. Can you imagine it? Now, this means that the physical realms associated with 'Oblivion' or 'Aetherius' are really part of the Mundic experience, and wouldn't/couldn't exist without Mundus. The difference is that while 1,000 Munduses can be torn asunder, Oblivion can watch and laugh. So while the realms of Oblivion that we know are tied to the phenomenon of Mundus, they are not conditioned on the state of Mundus itself.

But then, the fact that Mundus has a 'state' is part of the problem. It's highly irregular, within the universe, for Mundus to have a consistent reality and timeline. This is apparently what bugs the Altmer so much. And yet, if it weren't for that, everything else you know or see would not be that way. So, it's all sort of interconnect.

Hence the creation myths are relevant heavy metaphors.

Yet, that doesn't mean they are inaccurate. They just aren't as firm or necessary as imagined.

Anyway, ready to have your mind blown, here's the Yokudan creation account and it explains EVERYTHING: (from Monomyth) *"Satak was First Serpent, the Snake who came Before, and all the worlds to come rested in the glimmer of its scales. But it was so big there was nothing but, and thus it was coiled around and around itself, and the worlds to come slid across each other but none had room to breathe or even be. And so the worlds called to something to save them, to let them out, but of course there was nothing outside the First Serpent, so aid had to come from inside it; this was Akel, the Hungry Stomach. Akel made itself known, and Satak could only think about what it was, and it was the best hunger, so it ate and ate. Soon there was enough room to live in the worlds and things began. These things were new and they often made mistakes, for there was hardly time to practice being things before. So most things ended quickly or were not good or gave up on themselves. Some things were about to start, but they were eaten up as Satak got to that part of its body. This was a violent time.

Pretty soon Akel caused Satak to bite its own heart and that was the end. The hunger, though, refused to stop, even in death, and so the First Serpent shed its skin to begin anew. As the old world died, Satakal began, and when things realized this pattern so did they realize what their part in it was. They began to take names, like Ruptga or Tuwhacca, and they strode about looking for their kin. As Satakal ate itself over and over, the strongest spirits learned to bypass the cycle by moving at strange angles. They called this process the Walkabout, a way of striding between the worldskins. Ruptga was so big that he was able to place the stars in the sky so that weaker spirits might find their way easier. This practice became so easy for the spirits that it became a place, called the Far Shores, a time of waiting until the next skin.

Ruptga was able to sire many children through the cycles and so he became known as the Tall Papa. He continued to place stars to map out the void for others, but after so many cycles there were almost too many spirits to help out. He made himself a helper from the detritus of past skins and this was Sep, or Second Serpent. Sep had much of the Hungry Stomach still left in him, multiple hungers from multiple skins. He was so hungry he could not think straight. Sometimes he would just eat the spirits he was supposed to help, but Tall Papa would always reach in and take them back out. Finally, tired of helping Tall Papa, Sep went and gathered the rest of the old skins and balled them up, tricking spirits to help him, promising them this was how you reached the new world, by making one out of the old. These spirits loved this way of living, as it was easier. No more jumping from place to place. Many spirits joined in, believing this was good thinking. Tall Papa just shook his head."*

Okay, I won't overanalyze this and try to pin down all the details. We must assume there was an original version (probably left-hand elves) which has been corrupted. But here are some gems:

-The first serpent's scales represent all possible realities: this is the basis of the universe.

-The hungry stomach is probably Sithis to the serpent's Padomay, but the point is that the stomach is the serpent's desire to know itself and find meaning from itself.

-The eating represents the beginning of the Kalpic cycle, where bits and pieces of IS would bind together with each other and form reality, only to be later eaten. What's important to remember is - compared to other myths and 'what we know' - there's no time yet, so these 'kalpas' are as much timelines 'before' our timeline as they are prismatic essences that coexisted with our timeline back when things were more weird.

-The concept of Walkabout is VERY important. It means that spiritual existence transcends the Kalpas even though everything is 'made' of Kalpas. I can't conceive the details here - is it Aetherius, is Tall Papa Auriel, where does Magnus fit in, etc. The point is, Kalpas are an intrinsic part of the universe, and yet spiritual being persist because they transcend them.

-Sep, obviously Lorkhan, deciding to create a Mundus ENDED the Kalpic cycle. Let me reiterate that ALL of the pieces of reality, or as many as possible were gathered up to create Mundus. This means past and future timelines. Up to this point, there's still no time. Recall that I said that there aren't really 'before' timelines, that they all sort of coexist. That is, until they are gathered up and jammed together. But that means nowhere else to go. No other creations to create, just one vast creation to watch over. The death of the gods. Sure, they can intervene, sure reality isn't totally the same everywhere (dragon breaks, and head canon), but it's one Nirn, one Tamriel if you will.

-Finally, Auriel/Ruptga punishes Sep by ripping his 'hunger', his heart out. This event is not common to the Kalpas, it is unique to the 'one' kalpa that is Mundus.

I want to propose that the event of Lorkhan getting his heart torn out is unique to the Kalpa. That in other Kalpas there was no 'time', and no Akatosh. That Mundus is the jamming together of as many 'past' (but in reality, 'other') kalpas as possible.

This means Akatosh is a being unique and essential to Mundus.

I propose that the Marukhati Selectives didn't so much create Akatosh as the creation of Mundus, convention, the Adamantine tower, and Lorkhan's heart compelled the selectives to do so.

This was Lorkhan's coup. And yet, I don't even think he 'meant' it. It was an byproduct of his hunger.

Lorkhan, the snake, Auriel, the eagle. Both still known by these symbols and yet Akatosh, the winged serpent is the father of all gods of Mundus.

I'm not sure of how it all fits together, but I see the zero stone, the binding of the dragon, the beginning of time, the dance on the tower, and Lorkhan's heart including Numidium's antics, the blessing of the dragonborn, Talos and so forth as all one event if you will. All unique and necessary to Mundus and 'this' timeline.

The prototypical man - Shezzar/Shor and mer - Auri-El I see as avatars, aspects of their greater essences. Anthropomorphic representations of such. As in, if spiritual will was to be manifest on Nirn, it would take anthropomorphic form (sometimes as beast men). Man is descended of Shor, mer of Auri-El, who are both avatars of and 'closest things to' the gods they represent as humanoid forms

Their 'fight' was the last battle which had been preceded by aeons of much more mythical battles. In fact, the battle may have began as between mythic beasts and towards the very end these crystalized into humanoid forms.

Akatosh was the victory, and why Auriel peaced out. Lorkhan had jammed all reality together so hard that even he and Auriel became one.

How and when did this happen. The Marukhati may have danced it, but where in creation pure Akatosh? That's the coup!!!!

I'll explain in part II where I'll show how Lorkhan is necessarily a sea god.