Shezarrines and Nerevarines: Viruses of AE
Botnets and AE
Let's start with the words of Talos:
> I WAS THE MASTER OF THE LAST EMPIRE OF ALL MEN! I WAS THE RED JEWEL OF CONQUEST THAT MADE ALL THINGS RIGHT! WHY DID YOU CALL ME A VIRUS?
Yes, why did Jubal call him a virus?
It's a vulgar name for how Talos/Lorkhan operates, but it's not incorrect. We're talkin' computer viruses here. Specifically, I'd like to bring up botnets.
If -ines are members of a botnet, then the bots are portions of their nature that connect with each other. I propose specifically that the AE of a given mortal can be infected by certain features (the bot) which allow for connection with an oversoul of those who have those features (the net, possibly actuated through the Dreamsleeve). Note that AE is, as always in my writing, defined as "Identity, self, selfhood, consciousness, ghost (when disembodied), story-shape, narrative-and-plot-and-narrator in one," which, in mortals, is only part of the soul (the other part being the animus).
Vectors
How do some mortals get infected and others not? In conversation with /u/TheGhostOfDRMURDER, I think we've hammered out at least two methods:
Direct summoning.
Prophetic summoning.
Direct summoning would be something like what the Greybeards do several times in history, "summoning" the Ghost of Shor back into the world to complete some task. In the conversation I linked, /u/TheGhostOfDRMURDER puts forth the idea that they're bequeathing the status of Ghost of Shor on someone who wasn't before, such as by naming the Last Dragonborn Ysmir. In terms of the Shezarrine botnet, this would be like intentionally installing a fully realized bot, which may even reach back and affect the individual's AE "before" it happens. Remember that AE is, in part, the history of an individual. This may allow someone to be recognized as a Shezarrine/avatar of Lorkhan before the events which make it so. Timey-wimey, in other words. This particular vector would require some kind of divine intervention, I think; the source of the bot being installed has to consent to the installation for it to take effect. Shor, for example, would have to agree that, yes, this person is also connected to me, now. This would be a kind of mantling, if you squint at it. But not the full-blown kind, not the "walk like them until they walk like you" kind. More like an incomplete version: The mantling of the Ghost of Shor, rather than the mantling of Shor himself. (In the same way, a botnet consists of many computers acting in tandem, but that's not the whole of what each individual computer does. There are other programs running, other tasks.) Struck section rendered obsolete by my thoughts in this thread.
Prophetic summoning, in contrast, would be a more subtle vector, and possibly the vector through which traditional "-ines" emerge. This is incarnation, in other words, which is "built from the cobbles of drawn-bone destiny." The bot consists of certain AE features, remember? Features in things like personality, history, etc. Prophecy concerns the fulfilling of certain conditions, both of personal history and of willful deeds. A prophecy is made specifically involving incarnation, and by successfully following its steps and matching its initial conditions, a mortal invites the botnet into their AE. The botnet builds a new node of itself from the seeds of chance-history and the choices made with those seeds. Examples include the Champion of Cyrodiil and the Nerevarine, both preceded by prophecies depicted in Morrowind.
Pelinal
The Star-Made Knight is a unique case. As a time-traveling artificial being, I suspect he was created in the future with the botnet node pre-installed (along with a lot of other programming, possibly including a separate botnet node connected with Aka, with whom he shared his "madness"), and then summoned by Alessia.
Nerevarines
Here the importance of successfully fulfilling the deeds of prophecy (as well as the history specifications) is made clear. In Morrowind, we meet failed incarnations, those who had the chance-history seeds, but didn't manage to coax their growth into the full node, and thus didn't fulfill the prophecy. They had legitimate claim to potential, but failed.
Dragonborn (Last, and Previous)
I currently believe the Dragonborn (all of them, emperors and otherwise) consist of mortals (perhaps better to call them nascent immortals) with the AE of a dragon, spirits of Time, granted or transformed by Aka, but remaining separate from Aka. No virus shenanigans here; almost purely mythopoeia. And dragonhood itself is a vague, porous thing. But the AE certainly can be infected with dragon status in parallel to Shezarrine status, in theory. This is how someone like the Last Dragonborn can be blessed by both Akatosh and Lorkhan: Just as multiple programs can be installed on your computer, an AE is not barred from possessing multiple divine qualities.
Whether the Last Dragonborn was infected by direct summoning or prophetic summoning is an interesting question. On the one hand, there is a prophecy about them, but it never says anything about incarnation. I think that prophecy was the mythopoeic means by which they gained their dragonhood, yes, but I also think /u/TheGhostOfDRMURDER is correct in saying that the Shezarrine botnet gained a foothold in the Last Dragonborn through direct summoning rather than incarnation.
Heroes in General
And here we come to the biggest What If of this post: What if becoming a node in an oversoul botnet makes someone a Hero in the process? What if that's what gives some Heroes the divine strength of Story to choose their own fates? And what if feeling those botnet connections makes such Heroes uniquely suited to certain forms of apotheosis, such as CHIM and the steps of the dead and soul fusion?
And the tantalizing possibility here: What about mortals who don't have that botnet advantage? How can they find that Heroic freedom, how can they start to feel the connections and liberty of the divine?
I think that question is precisely why, when Jubal apologized to Talos for calling him a virus, he called him a preacher instead:
> I'm sorry I called you a virus. You're not. You're a preacher.
Lorkhan wants mythic freedom for everyone. Nu-mantia! Liberty! All of ald-Anu's facets deserve it, he preaches. It's there, waiting for you. Reach out and take it for yourself, using the map Lorkhan drew for you. Even if you don't have the aid of drawn-bone destiny, like the Nerevarine, or the favor of some extant divinity, like Hjalti and the other aspects of Talos, there are other ways to forge mythic significance.
Steal the secret of the Tower. Ascend.
After the fact edit:
The last section is rendered somewhat obsolete by my more recent ideas about Heroes. I no longer think that being a Shezarrine or a Nerevarine "makes" someone a Hero; confronting important prophetic Events is the one and only way that someone becomes a Hero. But I do still believe that being a node in a divine botnet would prepare someone for apotheosis, and it's pretty unlikely that someone would be able to join up with a divine botnet without also being a Hero (because such happenings usually have something to do with Events).