The Expository Ehlnofeid

Editor’s Note: This document was gifted to the Imperial Library by the Lorekeepers Union of the Ynesleaic Archipelago, and has since been described as the Echmeri (sometimes even Dwemeri, by the reckoning of amateur Tamrielic Dwemerologists) Creation Myth. Interesting the second part of this work focuses much more on expanding the mythohistory behind the mysterious Ehlnofey, the ancestors to all mortals, rather than the blasphemous dissecting of the gods for which the Echmer are known.

The Aurbis that we live in today exists of several cycles not recorded; said cycles stretch backwards into times immemorial that have yet ceased to exist. Our Aurbis, the current one, is nothing but the machinations of an even greater Aurbis that no longer exists but we are still a subgradient of it. Even my people do not truly understand what this means, but we do know of it and teach it our young ones.

The Greater Aurbis and Our Aurbis is separated by the nothingness which is the VOID which in itself is nothing. VOID is VOID unto itself and it will continue to always be so. In this VOID a world ¬– like but unlike ours – arose and life flourished. Eventually two beings on this world came to become concepts and recognized themselves as part of the VOID, and renamed themselves IS (Anu) and IS NOT (Padomay) as they ventured into it. Once again the VOID was filled and in their wanderings IS and IS NOT discovered another: MAYBE (Nir). As common of beings of their sort both IS and IS NOT were intrigued by MAYBE. Eventually IS and MAYBE joined and IS NOT was forced to redraw to the furthest reaches of the VOID. But IS NOT soon returned and destroyed MAYBE after she birthed twelve new concepts that became separate worlds of their own. IS soon arrived and expelled IS NOT from the VOID before drawing into himself in sorrow, becoming his own world.

For many years the Twelve Worlds flourished until IS NOT found a way to reenter the VOID, where he smashed the Twelve Worlds into almost nonexistence. In retaliation IS unmade himself as a world and fought IS NOT until both of them were permanently expelled from the VOID for all time. IS then created of himself a new broken world. Two of the surviving Twelve Worlds, HST (the Hist) and EHNFY (the Ehlnofey), were drawn into this broken world. Our Aurbis, the Current One, begins life in the broken world.

OUR IS (PSJJJJ, pronounceable only as Sithis) and OUR IS NOT (HHMMM, pronounceable only as Anuiel) – subsets of the original IS and IS NOT – become the Outer Realms known as OUR VOID and AETHERIUS. From these Realms the ATEDA (our word for et’Ada, which means ‘First Immortals’ or ‘First Spirits’) are born. Those that sing the kinesis of PSJJJJ and find themselves residing within it become the DRA (Daedra) and those that sing the stasis of HHMMM and find themselves residing within it become the AEDR (Aedra); these are roles that are interchangeable, for these beings are imperfect beings and do not know their own minds.

One ATEDA – ALORKH (the Space God, Lorkhan) – learns of the Greater Aurbis (but specifically of MAYBE) in his wanderings when he looks upon Our Aurbis from the Side, learning the true nature MAYBE and becoming consumed by it. Thus he decides to rebuild MAYBE, for every Aurbis that has, is, and will exist must have MAYBE within it. He asks his fellow ATEDA to aid him and it is no secret that some do and some don’t, for ATEDA are fickle beings and do not know their own hearts as they weren’t made for self-reflection.

GANUS (which Tamrielics name Magnus, the Magic God) and his GE begins construction of OUR MAYBE (the Mundus) as envisioned by ALORKH and TOSH (Aka the Time God) presides over the endeavor. The DRA do not to help and create the SECOND VOID, but some of their current number – which always counts seventeen – become enraptured by and consequently tied to OUR MAYBE when it is completed. The AEDR are left to build OUR MAYBE by themselves, which they do. Some of them become the framework of the HEART OF OUR MAYBE, which is then settled by the HST and EHNFY. The AEDR are tied to OUR MAYBE and the HEART OF OUR MAYBE forevermore, which is not always so.

NRN – Nirn – is the HEART OF MAYBE and those that know the true meaning of this, which is Three, can be truly gone from this world. This is how it all things come to be. And it repeats. MAYBE.

>*

In the beginning the world bore no rivers, no seas, and no oceans – it was a completely barren landscape in all directions, just recently created from the combined efforts of the ATEDA during Creation. Eventually through the sacrifice of FRE (Y’ffre) and – perhaps – other likeminded spirits the world became lush with greenery as they transformed into the first Earthbones, the Laws of Nature. This vegetation appeared to grow – presumably because of its direct connection with immortal beings – without the need for moisture, as Nirn continued to remain as dry as it had been before.

During these untimes one major group existed on the dry surface of Nirn and fought for its survival in interesting and dangerous ways: the EHNFY. The HST of Argonia also existed during the untimes of course, but were largely unconcerned with the welfare of their brethren and are therefore not the primary focus of this section. The EHNFY were brought to Nirn broken in the mind, confused of their surroundings, and with their forms fluctuating from solids to elements to concepts without pattern. Without the guidance of their tree-siblings they did not know what to do. But when the surviving AEDR (with the majority of their immortality stripped away in their combined effort of creating Nirn) began their descent from Aurbis to Nirn in droves like a legion of loosened stars the Ehlnofey looked to the sky. And as they saw the AEDR auras sparkling as they fell they were overcame with a sense to do only one thing: follow and find them.

The first and smallest group to begin the long walk were the beings that we call the Old Ehlnofey, whose intelligence was slightly greater than the rest of their brethren they left behind to follow the largest AEDR that had fallen – the TOSH avatar that called itself Auri-El. Their journey sent them southward across vast jungles, desert prairies, untamed forests, and gigantic gorges filled with Primal Ehlnofey – cousins that had gone completely mad and had taken on vicious forms to adjust to nature better, becoming the ancestors of all modern animals. The Old Ehlnofey however had come across the broken carcasses of AEDR that did not survive the fall and had equipped themselves with their clothing, weapons, and armor, making it naught but child’s play for them to defeat the primals. Wondrous of all, the Old Ehlnofey had learned how to manipulate magicka stolen from the immortal corpses and even in those early non-days were developing castes of sorcerers to protect their young and elders. With the tools of the AEDR helping them stabilize their forms, the Old Ehlnofey continued their march until they came to a beautiful realm unlike any other they had passed through. Its trees and wildlife were beautiful and exquisite, and standing in the middle of it all were Auri-El and the AEDR that followed him. It is believed (humorously) that the AEDR mistook the Old Ehlnofey clad in their armor as immortals themselves before they saw through the disguise and asked them what they were. If the legends written in the eldest records can be held accountable, the Old Ehlnofey in their fright attempted to speak in the AEDR dialect but the only thing they said pronounceable was ‘Ald-mer’ (‘First Ones’). And from that day forth they were known as the Aldmer, ‘First to Approach the Gods’, and the land they settled in became to be called Aldmeris, the ancestral birthplace of all elves (excluding my race of course, who are not true mer).

The second and largest group was actually composed of many groups that came to be called the Wandering Ehlnofey, because while they traveled forth to find the fallen AEDR they never could find any in their wanderings. Instead they came to drift from place to place, living more barbarous lifestyles as they hunted primals and fought one another over common grievances. Because their lives were more harsher than the lives of their Old Ehlnofey cousins the Wanderers found themselves reproducing at a much faster rate, and soon their numbers rose from the hundreds to the thousands. Although a select few of them used raw magicka to help their fledgling tribes, the Wanderers soon developed their own type of magic – the arts of smithing and weaving their own rather crude clothing, weapons, and armor. They also came to domesticate wild beasts for food and battle, which allowed them to begin constructing semi-permanent settlements across the surface of Nirn. It was only until Lorkhan, the AEDR that is an avatar of ALORKH, and the beings that followed him discovered the Wandering Ehlnofey that the Wanderers finally came into contact with the beings they had sought for so long. Whereas the Old Ehlnofey had traveled to the AEDR, the AEDR had traveled to the Wandering Ehlnofey, who would go on to become the ancestors of all the races of men.

The third (technically the fourth due to the existence of the Primal Ehlnofey, but most academic circles don’t count them as ‘true’ members of the race) and final group of Ehlnofey are known as the Forgotten, because they disappeared from the surface of Nirn and consequently the pages of time without much explanation. Many believe that the Forgotten were simply Wanderers and Old Ehlnofey that broke off from their respected groups and began to mate with the Primal Ehlnofey, resulting in the creation of some of the Betmeri (Beastfolk) races like centaurs, satyrs, trolls, lamias, and harpies. Others believe that they were wiped out by fallen AEDR they came into contact with, mistaken for enemies or causing conflict. And there are those that state that the Forgotten merely redrew into the more hidden parts of the world and still exist in these small pockets to this very day (Giants are sometimes considered to be Forgotten; Frost Giants are much harder to classify, as studies into their physiology suggests that they are the result of early matings between Trolls and Giants).

The Old Ehlnofey and the Wanderers would continue to remain separate until the latter discovered the entryway to Aldmeris, and made contact with their cousins within the grand city of Old Ehlnofey, which they named after themselves. By this point of un-history both groups appeared and acted quite different from one another – the Old more elegant and haughty, the Wanderers more rugged and pragmatic – and so when the latter attempted to live amongst their cousins they were rebuked due to their allegiance with Lorkhan and simple intellect. When the visitors refused to leave the Aldmer used their magicks to slaughter them, which began the first stages of what the modern races remember as the Ehlnofey Wars.

The Wanderers were out outraged at the lost of their brothers and sisters, and at the behest of Lorkhan were brought together from all the corners of the world they had traveled to in order to build a grand army. The large Aldmer kingdom of Altmora, the Elder Wood, to the south of Aldmeris (remember: because water did not exist yet upon the surface of Nirn one could walk from the North to the South without any signs of transition besides from the vegetation) was the first land Men planned to conquer (for it is at this point of time that it is believed the Wanderers came to be called Men, an insult in the tongue of the Aldmer whose true translation is lost but is thought to mean something along the lines of ‘lowborn’ or ‘the scourge’) from their brethren-turned-enemies. In one decisive attack the Men poured into the Elder Wood and began to slaughter their more intelligent brethren. And as they fought the first waters erupted from the earth in torrents and the wind transformed into the first hurricanes, memories of the dead to run like blood and souls released. The Aldmer eventually realized that they could not best their brothers, and abandoned Altmora to the Wanderers as they retreated with much haste to Old Ehlnofey. Altmora became Atmora that unday, and Men claimed it as their own before making march for the last bastion of the First Elves and their AEDR guardians, Auri-El and his brood with Lorkhan spearheading them.

It was then that Auri-El and TRINAK (Trinimac), who he trained from mere Aldmer to Grand Knight amongst the ATEDA, went out to fight against ALORKH by themselves. Their uneven duel broke not only Old Ehlnofey, but also Aldmeris itself, apart (and those pieces became the landmasses –Thras, Yokuda, Yneslea, etc.) into many. Although Lorkhan is believed to have held his ground, ultimately he succumbed to the combined power of AKA and TRINAK, and the latter tore through his Dawn-Made-Flesh and ripped out his divine spark, the HEART OF MAYBE. Trinimac tossed the god’s corpse into the sea, and it was only after the Chaos Numen (Royalty of the SECOND VOID Even Then) paid their gloat-mourns did the Men arrived and dragged the water-logged carcass away to suspend in the closest upper airs of the Mundus, cursing revenge on the Old Ehlnofey and their ancestors for all time. It was here that the infinite space of the world turned finite, and distance was born.

Magnus, who had been watching this entire affair from afar, despaired at what he believed to be the death of his sibling and feared revenge exacted upon him by AKA for helping Lorkhan. So GANUS and his GE leaped upwards from the ‘tallest’ of the northern mountains of the largest broken piece of Aldmeris, in an effort to return to Aetherius. But space was condensing as he did so, and several parts of him and his followers were ripped away as they tore holes into Oblivion that led back to the former Realm of the ATEDA. Although painful, the majority of Magnus and the Magne Ge made it to their destination, and the creation of the sun and the stars led to magicka flowing into the world.

AKA then grabbed the Heart and went to make council with it at the place where he first fell from the Aurbis to Nirn and mourned, for ALORKH had still been his sibling despite his transgressions, before requesting that Trinimac and the rest of the Aldmer to come with him. TRINAK and AKA tried to destroy the HEART OF MAYBE at this point, but found at that to do so would prove an incapable and disastrous feat. So Trinimac handed the still bleeding and beating heart to Auri-El, who fired it from his bow to the farthest edge of the world so that his mortal children could never find it. Thus time began as that arrow sailed across the sea, for as time stretches space so must space stretch time.

The last part all children should know. The AEDR redrew from the world, and the Old and the Wanderers found their way to new homes. And the awful fighting ended.