A Model of the Godhead and its Contents - Addendum II: Aetherius as the Afterlife
Once again, this is a minor addendum to my model, only intended to briefly explore some interesting ideas in its context.
In Part III and Addendum I, I discussed the Dreamsleeve and the senses in which it might "recycle" AE, but I did so without special regard to the existence of afterlives like Sovngarde and the Far Shores. /u/Nigh-thawks has recently brought to my attention the firm positioning by ESO of afterlives within Aetherius, and I think there's potential here for yet more symbolism shenanigans.
From Addendum I:
> The oceans are still the oceans, but, through their symbolic nature, they can serve as gateways to higher-order concepts, such as the Dreamsleeve, Oblivion in general, or Mora in particular. It all depends on how you interpret them, and whether you have the mastery or inherent nature required to feel the connections.
Further, we also know that Aetherius is outside Oblivion, at the edge of the Aurbis, forming the rim of the Wheel.
So if the AE of the departed pass through the oceans to be incorporated into Memory and meet up with the Dreamsleeve, perhaps they don't just stop in the Dreamsleeve and get torn apart into their component information-parts. Instead, consider the dead AE as a memospore. It gets launched out into the Dreamsleeve, and if there's a portion of the Aurbis that will receive them, it homes in on it, gets pulled back out of the Dreamsleeve. Such portions could be either the realms of the Princes or the realms of Aetherius, of which I believe only the Far Shores and Sovngarde have been explicitly named thus far. (If there is no such receiving portion, well... back to the ol' white noise for you, little AE. Hope you mastered Will, because that's the only way you'll survive out there.)
So there are the bare mechanics laid out, but what about the symbolism? How does it fit in with the structure of the greater Godhead?
As quoted before:
> What's across the Godhead from Anu? Other Amaranths. What's across Oblivion from Mundus? Other realms, the Princes. What's across the oceans from Tamriel? Other continents.
The Princes can be taken as symbols of other Amaranths, and so, too, can the realms of Aetherius. The passage of the AE through the oceans, through the Dreamsleeve, to end up at new, symbolically aligned realms? Sounds familiar!
> Imagine yourself as a Trans-Amaranth traveler, and the continental symbols as giant I/O ports, matched up by their symbolic similarity. You're sailing for a distant port, more distant than anyone who doesn't understand the Godhead could realize. But what does the ocean symbolize? The Void between Amaranths, the Dreamsleeve. Crossing the ocean is integral to the process of Trans-Amaranth travel, because it symbolizes crossing the Dreamsleeve, just as the points of departure and arrival, the continents, symbolize the Amaranths.
Seems to me, then, that the passage of the mortal AE into the various realms of Aetherius and Oblivion is a symbol of Trans-Amaranth travel.
Which raises a question: Why are there realms which receive mortals in Aetherius to begin with? They can't be the plane(t)s of the Aedra, not really. Those are dead, and inextricably tied to Mundus. They're not in Aetherius. But we do know about some beings that are. So here's what I suggest: Magnus and the Magna-Ge have constructed these realms within Aetherius. Their motivations could be one, or both, of two options: 1. They regret and mourn the fates of mortal AE without such destinations, the AE-without-Will torn apart by the noise; 2. They want to complete the symbolism of the Aurbis as much as they can, because they have come to believe in Lorkhan's project after the events of the Dawn.
This is bolstered, I think, by the presence of both strange and (relatively) familiar spirits within Aetherius. On the one hand, who the hell is Thermallélé? On the other, Merid and Daubella seem pretty obvious. But they're also different. (In the case of Merid, who was cast out of Aetherius into Oblivion, her role was different even though she remains the same spirit; consider her a blurry reflection of Kynareth, perhaps.) This is because Amaranths who depart the Aurbis, too, will be at once strange and familiar, new interpretations of Memory. (And I think it's pretty obvious, too, that the Magna-Ge fled from the "trap" of mortality, just as Amaranths conquer death and depart from Ald-Anu.) As for the motivations, well:
> I'm sorry I left, but hey, I'm still right up here.
So why the difference between the Magna-Ge and the Princes? If the Magna-Ge are symbols of Amaranths originating from Ald-Anu, then the Princes would be symbols of Amaranths who did not originate from Ald-Anu. Predecessors, or parallel-but-independent. Beings who insist that, no, really, Mundus isn't all that, they have other concerns, just as some Amaranths, if given voices, might insist that Ald-Anu isn't all that, but merely part of a larger tapestry. Yet the Princes, for all their protestation, still meddle in Mundus' affairs, which makes me wonder whether other Amaranths have likewise brushed up against Ald-Anu, which fall outside of its progenitor(s) and progeny. It seems possible, to me. Symbolism can happen by accident, after all, and those connections can still be taken seriously.
I will further suggest that Sovngarde's presence indicates that Lorkhan, as the Void Ghost, also has access to Aetherius, slinking in by taking the form of the unstar Serpent constellation. Note the following description of the Serpent from Sermon 33, emphasis mine:
> '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.
Perhaps Aetherius is where all botnets are, held up against the Void that is the Dreamsleeve, intercepting suitable newcomer AE before Daubella or some other Ge has a chance to usher them through an appropriate sign down to Mundus.
That's all for now, I think. Thanks for reading.