The Definitive Dwarf-Orc Theory, Part II: Two Creations and the Dragon God
The Forbidden Theory: The Definitive Dwarf-Orc Argument
Part II Part I can be found here.
The central thesis of the Dwarf-Orc Theory is that the story of Boethiah eating Trinimac - the Orcish origin story - is in fact the story of Red Mountain. Boethiah represents the Chimer, and Trinimac the Dwemer. Whatever happened to the Dwemer is multi-fold, that is it includes multiple outcomes as befitting a dragon break. Malacath, also known as Mauloch, is Dumac Dwarf-King transformed along with some portion of his people. Any other details are irrelevant to the thesis. For example, some Dwarves might not have become Orcs. Also, just because this event was the focus of the dragon break doesn’t mean that there weren’t Orcs prior to the event according to some calendars.
This theory is not simply a reaction to the phrase “Dumalacath Dwarf-Orc” with some intent to craft an outlandish idea for the sake of weirdness. The exegesis of the theory lies in a critical examination of the overall meaning of the Trinimac transformation myth according to various clear textual hints left in plain sight in the Red Mountain accounts.
Part II: Two Creations and the Dragon God
In Part 2 I will draw primarily from the Monomyth to describe how Nirn came to be, and specifically the nature of existence prior to its creation. Understanding the nature of the beings that created Nirn, and understanding how time, reality, and mortality coalesced out of that creation will help provide an explanation of what exactly is occurring during events like a dragon break. It will explain what Nirn’s “Gods” really are.
An important question to answer is what were the Gods like before they ‘died’. Prior to mortal existence, would these entities be properly described as Gods? In truth, they are described as stories, eventually story tellers. They are forms resolved out of other forms.
>The magical beings of Mythic Aurbis live for a long time and have complex narrative lives, creating the patterns of myth. These are spirits made from bits of the immortal polarity. The first of these was Akatosh the Time Dragon, whose formation made it easier for other spirits to structure themselves. Gods and demons form and reform and procreate. Finally, the magical beings of Mythic Aurbis told the ultimate story -- that of their own death. For some this was an artistic transfiguration into the concrete, non-magical substance of the world. For others, this was a war in which all were slain, their bodies becoming the substance of the world. For yet others, this was a romantic marriage and parenthood, with the parent spirits naturally having to die and give way to the succeeding mortal races. Here the beings that existed prior to Mundus are described as exactly that: stories, and story tellers. They exist as elements of narratives. As themes, emotions, pure forms. It is the creation of Mundus that transformed these stories and storytellers into concrete forms. It was the transfiguration of myth into divinity, where divinity is in some sense a lesser state than what came before.
>The Gray Maybe is still the playground of the Original Spirits. Some are more bound to Anu's light, others to the unknowable void. Their constant flux and interplay increase their number, and their personalities take long to congeal. When Akatosh forms, Time begins, and it becomes easier for some spirits to realize themselves as beings with a past and a future. 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.
All the evidence of the stories of Mundus points to this nature of divinity: thematic, multi-formed (the world multi-fold is favored by those familiar with the Mereth description of things). What does this suggest? Let’s consider Lorkhan.
We have a narrative of a great battle between Shor and Auri-El. I am suggesting that there was never one single concrete event to match this description. This event is mythic, in that it is a common narrative that permeates time. Almost every province of Tamriel has a story of elf and man conflicting. These are all echoes, subgradients, of the great narrative. The progress of time itself, the cycle of Kalpas, the struggle between good and evil, decay and progress, are all echoes of this narrative and are actually part of it.
There may have been specific events that included a battle between titans, or perhaps between great dragons. But there are multiple versions, multiple Conventions, multiple outcomes. All of these are One in the grand narrative. They proceed not out from the beginning, but rather represent interpretations of a mythic non-concrete beginning that trickle back from moments in the future which concretize reality. Consider that.
Nevertheless, now that the nature of Mythic existence has been considered, let’s review the events of creation.
>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.
This passage from an account of the Yokudan creation myth perfectly demonstrates the nature of the first creation, and then the consequences of the second. Here Padomay and Anu simply are, they are axiomatic - they don’t need to exist or be created, together they are the question and the answer. It is their interplay that makes forms and substance. When Akel (Akatosh, better yet Alduin in early form) bites his heart (later Lorkhan’s divine center), everything ends. This is because the serpent tried to see itself, and saw that it IS NOT. But the hunger continued past death and the story references “things realized this pattern”. That is, the world that came forth out of the first creation developed the cycle of Kalpas. That cycle made form possible, and entities such as Ruptga, by sidestepping the cycle, managed to grow in power and knowledge (Tuwhacca specifically growing in knowledge).
The Anuad cites other an account that give more colorful details about the end of the first creation.
>As Anu and Padomay wandered the Void, the interplay of Light and Darkness created Nir. Both Anu and Padomay were amazed and delighted with her appearance, but she loved Anu, and Padomay retreated from them in bitterness. Nir became pregnant, but before she gave birth, Padomay returned, professing his love for Nir. She told him that she loved only Anu, and Padomay beat her in rage. Anu returned, fought Padomay, and cast him outside Time. Nir gave birth to Creation, but died from her injuries soon after. Anu, grieving, hid himself in the sun and slept.
Khajiiti tales also reference this event:
>And Fadomai gave birth to the Moons and their Motions. And she gave birth to Nirni, the majestic sands and lush forests. And she gave birth to Azurah, the dusk and the dawn. And from the beginning, Nirni and Azurah fought for their mother's favor. Ahnurr caught Fadomai while she was still birthing, and he was angry. Ahnurr struck Fadomai and she fled to birth the last of her litter far away in the Great Darkness. Fadomai's children heard what had happened, and they all came to be with her and protect her from Ahnurr's anger. And Fadomai gave birth to Lorkhaj, the last of her litter, in the Great Darkness. And the Heart of Lorkhaj was filled with the Great Darkness. And when he was born, the Great Darkness knew its name and it was Namiira.
The Khajiiti version discusses Daedra in much greater detail, and we might forget their place in the story without it. That’s a discussion for Parts III and IV however. Suffice it to say that while there are important differences in details, the Khajiit nevertheless discuss Anu and Padomay’s struggle over Nir. Michael Kirkbride has suggested that Nir is actually “Memory”. One of the more mysterious aspects of TES lore involves the world outside of the Godhead’s dream. This is a world of star beings, Mnemoli, and memory is very important in this scheme. In C0DA, Nirn (perhaps a spiritual successor to Nir) is represented as clockwork, and this is called memory very explicitly as Jubal-lun-Sul talks with it. Later, with the advent of Sotha Sil, we’ll see why this is significant (in what it implies about the Tribunal’s advent).
It is interesting that the insatiable hunger that survived past the end of existence in the Yokudan version is named Namira by the Khajiiti version. The significance of this is the presence yet again of general themes that seem to drive the universe. Also, Anu sleeping in the sun is a reference to both Aetherius and the notion of Anu-as-Amaranth. That’s a discussion for another day, I only want all this to be in its proper context.
Further on in the Anuad, the aftermath of the end of the first creation is discussed:
>Meanwhile, life sprang up on the twelve worlds of creation and flourished. After many ages, Padomay was able to return to Time. He saw Creation and hated it. He swung his sword, shattering the twelve worlds in their alignment. Anu awoke, and fought Padomay again. The long and furious battle ended with Anu the victor. He cast aside the body of his brother, who he believed was dead, and attempted to save Creation by forming the remnants of the 12 worlds into one -- Nirn, the world of Tamriel. As he was doing so, Padomay struck him through the chest with one last blow. Anu grappled with his brother and pulled them both outside of Time forever.
So, the first creation involved Satak eating its own heart, in other stories Anu and Padomay fighting over Nir, but nevertheless it ended with: 12 worlds and a cycle of Kalpas in which powerful beings-as-narratives have a grand interplay. This ended with the creation of Nirn, the “second creation”. Anu and Padomay were pulled out of time forever.
This leads us to Dragon God. We know that the first creation resulted in a pattern of Kalpas. Why? It’s simple. The one thing to survive the first creation was Akel’s hunger. Satak ended because he ate himself, something he inevitably had to do. How could existence thus continue?
The Kalpic pattern was born of the fundamental interplay of Anu and Padomay. This interplay is the Dragon God, the being now called Akatosh.
Consider stasis. If it took hold over everything, everything one take one form that would exist purely, and then in an instant everything would end forever because there would be nothing new. Consider change. If anything tried to have form, it would dissolve into infinite unforms, nothing could ever have place and all would cease to be. Thus neither Anu nor Padomay can prevail, and as the stories say, the universe exists as their struggle.
Consider static change. Each moment is frozen, its form forever fixed in that moment, but each moment is followed by a new moment where change alters the forms ever so slightly. This coexistence of the two forces is obviously what we call time. Not history so much, as history involves memory. Instead pure time is simply the slow evolution of the fixed. Better put, it is Anu chasing after elusive Padomay. It is Auri-El chasing after Lorkhan, stopping him before he reclaims his heart.
The universe requires a third element, however. That which is called “Maybe”. Stasis is singular, change is infinite. The union of the two requires a binding ritual, where a singular outcome out of the infinite is chosen, and time progresses. The being associate with this concept is Magnus. Thus, with Auri-El, Magnus, and Lorkhan, you have a set of actors which allow time to progress. These three together are what we call Akatosh. This sort of being which is one made of many is called Enantiomorph.
This pattern of three is essential to the universe. The creation myths talk of Akatosh forming as the beginning. In other words, everything proceeds from Akatosh, and is made of him and his form.
Akatosh, the Dragon God of time, is neither history, the future, nor the present. He is all of it. Thus: Auriel the story told, Lorkhan the story sought, and the observer, the potential, Magnus, the story unfolding. Each of these three is absent from Mundus, consider that. Auriel (the past) was here, but only in the past. Magnus, who escaped to reside in Aetherius, is present in the form of the light he left to shine and the magical force of potential that remains as well. Lorkhan is the missing God, whose warriors wait for his return in Sovngarde, for him to retrieve his heart and end the world. He is the future.
This is Akatosh, the King of Gods if there was one. This form is described in many parallel ways, itself multi-faceted. Auriel/Magnus/Lorkhan. Past/Present/Future. Stasis/Potential/Change. Definite/Maybe/Indefinite. Actor/Observer/Reactor. Warrior/Mage/Thief. Lord/Ritual/Tower. Being/Becoming/Dissolving.
And out of Akatosh come other forms. A good example of this is found in the star constellations. There are three for the three aspects of time State, Potential, Change, or, Warrior, Mage, Thief. Each of these titles describes a nature. These natures are given charge over three constellations each, representing states of becoming and mastery within. The Warrior is enticed to his role by the Lady (that which is beautiful in the world), empowered by his Steed, becoming the Lord. The Mage is enticed to his role out of curiosity, as an Apprentice, empowered by the Atronach (elemental will), to complete the Ritual that provokes the change first desired. The Thief is enticed by the Lover, the forbidden temptation, the Shadow is his power, and the Tower with its forbidden and inaccessible treasure is conquered (subverting the prevailing order). The Warrior preserves, fighting chaos. The Mage is driven by mystery, and the power to act to resolve mystery by will. The Thief pursues the dark unknown of the future, which is hidden from the present.
These were likely the 12 worlds of creation. They are fundamental themes, mortal character is built out of them utterly. Recall that Nirn is made of the 12 worlds, so they still exist, only intermingled. The constellations then, are more a reflection of these themes than drivers of them.
Now we understand how the simple narrative of Anu and Padomay’s struggle informs all of existence through subgradation.
The narrative of Auri-El and Lorkhan’s fight is foundational to the Kalpic cycle. It describes how it begins, and thus for the narrative to be complete, the Kalpa also must end. While the Seven Fights of the Aldudagga describes mythic Alduin’s role in the cycle, it is Shor Son of Shor that reveals the truth of it.
>Ever since the Moot at the House of We, where the chieftains of the other tribes had accused him of trespass and cattle-theft and foul-mouthery, he knew it would come to a war we could not win. Any of those words were enough for the treason-mark, and traitors were only met with banishment, disfigurement, or half-death. He had taken the first with pride, roaring a chieftain's gobletman into dust to underscore his willingness to leave, knowing we would follow. He had taken the second by drawing a circle on the House's adamantine floor with his tailmouth-tusk which broke with a keening sound, showing the other chieftains that it would all come around again. And he took the third by vomiting his own heart into the circle like a hammerclap, guarding his wraith in the manner of his father and roaring at the other tribes, "Again we fight for our petty placements in this House, in the Around Us, and all it will amount to is a helix of ghosts like mine now spit into the world below where we fight again! I can already feel the war below us starting, and yet you have not yet thrown your first spears even here!" We took our leave of the House and would never reconvene again in this age.
This event, told from a traditional Nordic perspective, recalls what might have been Convention - or one among many of them. Shor describes their fight as “over petty placements” and talks about a “helix of ghosts”. Using language that sounds an awful lot like how one would describe Kagrenac’s tools, Shor removes his own heart, sending it to the ‘below’.
>The Moot looked to the tribe of Ald son of Ald but he would break no oath of the Pact, saying "Shor has paid ransom now three times for the the sins we accused him of, and by that we will hold him as dead and shake not our spears against him or his kin. Of the below he speaks, he is confused by it, for under us is only a prologue, and under that still is only a scribe that hasn't written anything yet. Shor as always forgets the above, and condemns himself and any other who would believe him into this cycle." Ald's shield thane Trinimac shook his head at this, for he was akin to Tsun and did not care much for logic-talk as much as he did only for his own standing. He told his chieftain that these words had been said before and Ald only sighed and said, "Yes, and always they will be ignored. As for the war you crave, bold Trinimac, and all of you assembled, do not worry. A spear will be thrown into this soon, from Shor's own tribe, and the House of We will be allowed our vengeance. Shor found the alcove at the core of the world and spoke to his dead father. He said a prayer to remove any trickery of mirrors and the ghost of Shor father of Shor appeared, saying "Ald and the others have paid time and again for the the sins we accused them of, and by that you should hold them as dead and shake not the spears of your tribe against any of their kind again. Of the above he speaks, Ald is confused by it, for above us is only an ending, and above that still is only a scribe that hasn't written anything yet. Ald as always forgets the ground below him, and condemns himself and any other who would believe him into this cycle.”
In the characters of Ald and Shor you see the impulse behind the Kalpic cycle. But there’s more to their nature.
>He didn't need to explain what he had learned, for we had been there with him. Trinimac left Dibella in his tent as we assembled, and he had not touched her, frozen in the manner of the Nords when we are unsure of our true place, and asked his brother to rearm him. Stuhn was confused for a moment, thinking this an odd shift, but Mara was returned and had made great headway into treaty with the other tribes, telling him that such Totems here in the twilight could now be trusted. Our Queen merely nodded to her War-Husband and shouted us back to the fields of our enemies, towards a weakened spot among their spear-lines that Magnar our scout would light for us.
The Trinimac in this passage had been Tsun, hence Stuhn’s momentary confusion. Earlier in the text, Magnar’s head is described as sundered for betraying Shor’s lines to the enemy. Jhunal is ignored. By the end, Tsun is Trinimac, Jhunal is gone, Magnar is back and is now betraying someone else’s lines.
Magnar is the link that peers from one Kalpa into the next. Since we think of him as the Sun, one can imagine a series of Suns peering down a pipeline through each Kalpa, linking them ultimately to Aetherius. Could this be connected to the Impossipoint?
It’s clear what’s happening here. Akatosh is one being. Auriel and Lorkhan are two sides of the same coin (to paraphrase Michael Kirkbride). In some sense, they are the same being, schizophrenic. The hosts of Shor at the beginning of the story are clearly becoming the hosts of Ald as they transition into the next Kalpa. The below the below is subject to the pen of a “scribe”. It is Tsun/Trinimac that lusts for battle most.
If Auriel and Lorkhan are the same in Akatosh, the truth of the Kalpas is revealed. The progress of time, at any moment, is equivalent to the great battle of convention. There is no concern over which side ‘wins’ because reality is the unfolding of an endless battle. Even after a Kalpa mythically ends, it transitions into a new Kalpa. This is described as a helix.
The first creation is bookended by the emergence of a second creation. This implies a trend to the Kalpic cycle. Perhaps, only speculatively, each Kalpa results in a new timeline where form is better developed, where the worlds are more full. Perhaps this is why “Shezzarr” made a plan for creating Nirn, and mortality. Maybe this was only a next step in sub-gradation.
>This was a new thing that Shezarr described to the Gods, becoming mothers and fathers, being responsible, and making great sacrifices, with no guarantee of success, but Shezarr spoke beautifully to them, and moved them beyond mystery and tears.
-Monomyth
That’s only speculation. However, we are left with a clear concept of Kalpas and time. Time must progress, it is the foundation of existence. Time is built of three entities who play an important role in its progress. Time’s current terminus is on Nirn, whose story best begins at a place called Ada-Mantia, and ends at a place called Red Mountain - well, according to the old Kalpic pattern.
The story of Nirn and its history is the subject of Part III. Specifically, I will detail how the nature of the spiritual beings, et’Ada, who created Nirn, implies strange things about Nirn’s history. We’ll learn that ‘timey-wimey stuff’ is not Sheogoran speculation, but rather a mere reflection of the nature of the universe before Nirn’s creation. I’ll discuss what Aldmeris was really like, and how it eventually became the Tamriel we know today. Then, in Part IV, I’ll review the events of the Battle of Red Mountain, and explain its role in the genesis of the World-God concept. This concept describes how Tamriel came forth out of myth and into history. It explains what Talos is, what the Tribunal are, and finally, how the Orcs were borne of the Dwemer.