Dismantling: A New Theory in Divine Metaphysics

I've been thinking about a dream I had for the past few days, or rather thinking about a property common to a lot of dreams which I noticed in the dream I had the other night. In the dream, I was initially working on some unspecified project with a friend of a friend, a girl I used to know in college, for the first half of the dream; later, still working on the same "project" in the same laboratory, I was suddenly paired with an entirely different and largely dissimilar partner. However, in my dream, there was no awareness of the change and, in fact, I was distinctly aware that it was the same partner as before, despite it being a totally distinct individual. In other words, the second person took on the role of and entirely replaced the first without being or becoming like the first. I think this is a pretty common phenomenon in dreams, enough so that it's worth considering in relation to Anu's dream.

At the same time, I'd been thinking about the metaphysics of the Elder Scrolls universe from a deconstructionist perspective after using that as a lens in my PGE article on Argonians. Aside from a lot of scattered thoughts about logocentrism and tonal architecture, I thought about some reversals and ruptures of the ideas of the walking ways. One term that stuck, in particular, was the idea of dismantling. To dismantle something, in common use, is basically to take it apart. The connotations are, more specifically, of a methodical and purposeful deconstruction.

The former idea, at first, seems like a broader variation of the enantiomorph; rather than rebel-replacing-king, it's basically just one thing replacing another. I think that's a misreading, though, however tempting is; even removed of the social context, the term enantiomorph is based upon a very specific kind of asymmetry that isn't present in the phenomenon of dream replacement I was talking about. The replacement doesn't have to be, and often isn't, a mirror of the first. They are merely someone else who takes the place of the first without becoming them or, really, becoming like them. As such, it is distinct from both enantiomorphic relationships and mantling.

This is where the two lines of thought converge: Dismantling is the process of taking the place of something or someone without becoming them, but with similar effects on the perception of the universe. In essence, it's a lot like a retcon; those outside the dream know things weren't always this way, but for those within the dream, there was never any original to be replaced. If there are vestiges of the way things were, they are regarded as mysterious curiosities or explained away as the ravings of madmen.

From a perspective of integrating this into the lore, I think the obvious angle is the Dwemer. Firstly, their disappearance could be taken as intentionally dismantling themselves; in fact, this is basically exactly what Baladas Demnevari describes them doing. Secondly, if you want to get tinfoily with it, were the dwarves a distinct people the Dwemer dismantled and replaced? Insane ravings about the Dwemer aside, it could actually fit with a fair number of mysteries in the lore; the tsaesci "eating" the humans could be a reference to replacing them in the dream; there's obviously something to be made of the fact that Lorkhan is literally taken apart; and so on. Also, its similarity to the meta idea of a retcon lets it work to explain away some inconsistencies which go otherwise unexplained.