The Light of Man: a treatise on the Worldly God and His role in certain Mythic events.

Reman Cyrodiil I has always fascinated me. My first Elder Scrolls game was TES:Oblivion, and the Remanada became my most treasured lorebook, sparking a fascination with the mysterious Wordly God and his relation to, well, the world. However, I was always disappointed with the lack written lore surrounding such a mythic figure. I’ve spent many nights deliriously pondering the Remanada, the fragments of the Shonni-Etta we’ve seen, and various other pieces of lore, and using them to look at the ending of TES:Oblivion a little differently. The following is my reevaluation of that ending, and other mythic events, through the eyes of a fervent Reman believer. Conjecture and headcanon of the highest order await you.

#Part 1: I AM CYRODIIL COME

Reman comes onto the scene over a thousand years after the last known Alessian Empress, Hestra, who vanishes from record like almost all Alessian rulers. The Empire has been officially dissolved for almost 500 years, and the Ruby of Kings has been lost for far longer. The oft-disputed Remanada states that Reman was born from the Nirnada spirit of Saint Alessia, who took the form of a hillock, the Land itself, and King Hrol, from the Western lands of Twyll.
King Hrol is the more mysterious of the two; MK has stated in interviews that “Space gods begat Reman”, but otherwise hasn’t clarified much. Seeing as the Remanada is overflowing with symbolic imagery, I like to interpret that as implying Hrol to be a Shezzarine, an aspect of the Space god Lorkhan, known to wander the world from time to time. Though that’s debatable, the imagery of the enantiomorph that occurs between Alessia the rebel, King Hrol, and his Shield-Thane who died from his role as Witness adds another layer of mythic imagery to his birth.
Before we get into Alessia, let’s get really META here for a moment and discuss, lightly, the nature of our beloved Dream. The Dream is the Dream of ANU, who lived in a Dream of his (?) own. He loved a person named Nir, but she did not love him; she rejected his offered Heart, and, in despair and rage, he slew her. This led to ANU embracing the coma-like sleep that led to the creation of the Amaranth, our Dream. In ANU’s Dream, Anu and Padomay surface as reflections of the tortured mind of ANU. Anu, the Stasis, is the guilt of murder, all-encompassing; Padomay, the Change, is the force of self-preservation that struggles to escape the guilt. All lower subgradients would contain echoes of both these primordial themes.
Magnus and Lorkhan, subgradients of Anu and Padomay, designed the plane(t) of Nirn together. Lorkhan had devised a plan for an escape, an end to the guilt of ANU’s dream by creating a new dream, through Love. So great was Lorkhan’s will for change that many subgradient spirits joined him, including the Firstborn of Time, Akatosh. So great was Lorkhan’s will to change that he gave his very Heart unto Nirn, as ANU once had. But some Anuic beings couldn’t wholly commit. Magnus fled entirely, and Akatosh rebelled against the irreversible change, rejecting Nirn and hugging his grief close, turning many others against Lorkhan with him.
We all know what followed.
Thousands of years passed, and merish culture thrived. In the heartland of Cyrodiil, a woman who would one day be called Alessia was born a slave under the tyrannical rule of the children of Akatosh, or Auri-El as some now preferred. Many centuries ago, an Aldmeri king named Auriel was said to have ascended to the heavens to mantle the Time God and become Auri-El, perhaps becoming the first corruption of the Time Dragon. (Think about this in relation to Marukh, who claimed the spirit of Alessia whispered to him of cleansing the elven taint). Alessia offered her heart to the gods in desperate prayer, and, reminded of their beloved Nir through myth-echo, both Auri-El and Lorkhan fell in love with her. Alessia became the catalyst of the reconciliation between the Time Dragon and the Space Mutant, who up to this point have been in constant conflict (“...is it any wonder that the Time God would hate the same-twin on the other end of the aurbrilical cord, the Space God?”). The essential merish aspects of Auri-El resisted this, and thus was born Akatosh, a separate Time Dragon, hence the moniker Mother of Dragons.
Alessia embodied Nirn through her mythic relation to Nir, and thus already possessed the Heart of Lorkhan. In the Amulet of Kings, bestowed upon her at different times and by a different mythic entity in every tale, Alessia claimed a fragment of the Heart of Akatosh. Thus is born Covenant, the magical barrier born of a bond between heaven and the mundane.
It’s worth noting that Alessia lives just over 20 years after the taking of White-Gold. I speculate that being the beacon of Covenant quite literally burned away her life-force. Remember, there are no physical Dragonfires to sustain Covenant; there is only Alessia. After many generations, the Alessian Emperors vanish altogether from recorded history. A few hundred years later the Empire collapses, and falls into chaos and misrule for over 2,000 years. That’s a long, long time for the spirit of Alessia to sustain the barrier (which I have reason to believe she did; more on that further down).
So, back to the spirit of Alessia, who has been dead for some 2500ish years. The image of Alessia is overflowing with symbolism ripe for misinterpretation. In her left hand, the hand which receives, she holds the Dragonfires. In her right hand, the hand which gives, she holds the Amulet of Kings. In her chest, a wound that splits down to her mangled feet. Her gaping chest represents the wound of Lorkhan and also the divide of Cyrodiil itself, the sickened Heartland, and her mangled feet betray the thousands of years she has walked the world and sustained the Covenant. The Covenant between Alessia and Akatosh (and Lorkhan as well, some say) is something that I think gets fundamentally misinterpreted, especially in-game. It’s often portrayed as a contract, more (or less) rigid in its rules and requirements, but I don’t think that’s the case. The barrier protecting Nirn isn’t some magical construct that gets turned on and off like a lightbulb; it’s a fundamental property of Nirn, a new Earthbone, the “child” of Akatosh and Alessia, either nurtured or allowed to wither by mortals. The Amulet of Kings is simply an anchor for this Covenant and the souls that sustain it, whether it sits on Reman’s neck or Mankar Camoran’s, or no one’s at all. Clearly, the Covenant is stronger when a Dragonborn emperor wears the Amulet, and far weaker when they do not, but I don’t think it ever entirely fades. I liken the Amulet to an Aedric plane(t) in that it serves a physical vessel for the essence of a divine AE.
It’s interesting that none of Alessia’s direct heirs were handed the Dragonfires; it leads me to believe that, prior to the Dragonfires of Reman, the magical barrier provided by the sacred Covenant was sustained by Alessia and her alone. This may be because Alessia’s direct heirs were fathered by Morihaus the winged bull, son of Kyne. Pelinal warns Morihaus against his love of Alessia, saying: >“We are ada, Mor, and change things through love. We must take care lest we beget more monsters on this earth. If you do not desist, she will take to you, and you will transform all Cyrod if you do this.”

Most people simply interpret this as referring to the birth of the minotaur, but I see something more. You will transform all Cyrod if you do this. Ominous words. I believe Morihaus corrupted the blood of Alessia’s heirs, making them not quite “Men” and thereby preventing the fulfillment of Covenant through them. We know that a campaign was waged in the later years of the Alessian Emperors to erase all depictions of Belharza as a man-bull, so that’s telling.
Back to King Hrol and his knights. Led by visions unrecorded, he and his knights part ways to seek out a way to restore and reunify the Empire. Only King Hrol and his Shield-Thane succeed, encountering the spirit of Alessia herself. At first she runs from him, runs from the sons of those who have sickened the Heartland. They eventually find the spirit again, who takes the form of the land itself to couple (fornicate) with Hrol, who dies along with his shieldthane from such a sacred encounter.
From this newly-impregnated hillock was born the infant Reman, born of the earth that is Al-Esh and the Heart of Men, born with Amulet of Kings as a metaphysical, literal third eye upon his brow. Both Cyrodiil and the Covenant are intrinsic to his being. Reman is the fulfilment of Covenant and a myth-echo of all that could have sprung from the love between ANU and Nir. He is the God of the World, and he knows it. When the shepherdess Sed-Yenna placed the babe upon the Ruby Throne, he spoke as an adult, saying “I AM CYRODIIL COME.”

#Part 2: On His Continued Apotheosis

Now that we’ve covered Reman’s bloody, enantiomorphic birth in mud, let’s discuss his continued apotheosis. What little information we have on Reman’s life comes from the snippets of the Shonni-Etta that we have; they’re fragments with no distinguishable linearity, so it’s difficult to place events in order.
When Reman is born, he is watched over by two Dibellan priestesses, Shonni-Et and Sed-Yenna, who carry the babe to his throne. There, at Lake Rumare, the goddess releases them from their duties to Her temple, and charges them with a new, more sacred task. To quote the Shonni-Etta: >[By their train was the babe Reman carried into White-Gold Tower, and at Rumare the Goddess of Beauty herself appeared, releasing the sisters of all their other functions to her temple. “But for this,” the Goddess said, “When he has reached manhood, teach him all that you know of the flesh, and then save within yourselves his seed, and let it not take purchase within either of you, store it all, whichsoever body-cup he spills into, and in secret make of it bread for him to eat. And keep this new edict of the Convention quiet from all others, even from him, and know by this mention that it is my lord Aka the King of Heaven who commands it.”]

Reman’s seed features prominently in the Shonni-Etta. MK took a more comical approach to explaining the semen references in his interview, so interpreting this bit has been tricky, but I’ve come up with a theory. Alessia died barely 20 years after taking the Throne. Reman, by contrast, lived many decades longer. I believe that the act of consuming his own seed was a kind of soul-stacking, a way of continually fueling the Dragonfires within and strengthening his own AE before death. This is why it’s so important.
Further, he goes on to achieve (or rather be granted) dracochrysalis by Akatosh, with very specific wording: > "This I do command, for Reman was conceived of the imperial earth, and by his sacred measure he shall be as it should be: of an immortal fire that binds heaven to the mundane, Light made Man, and Order, fed ever by the seed of first stasis, anon Anu. And his wives will share forever in the blessing of Beauty if this should be so, their fair aspect frozen eternal, youth-radiant unto the ending of days. Aad semblio aurbex, aad semblio ae ehlnokhan, ae na-sen-ae-mantella, dracochrysalisanu”.

Akatosh doesn’t give Reman the Dragonfires; he transforms Reman into the Dragonfires, eternal and unchanging, as well as deifies his wives as demi-aspects of Dibella. The Ehlnofex confounded me for a while, especially the bit about the mantella. But what is the mantella? A replica of the Heart of Lorkhan as well as a massive soul gem. Assuming “AE” can be translated as “I”, “you”, “is”, or a person’s being, I believe the Ehlnofex can be translated as: >”In the image of the Grey Maybe, in the image of the First Drum’s being, you shall become a Mantella, transform into an eternal dragon.”

Akatosh literally turns Reman into a dragon, a timeless guardian of the sacred fires of his being. Before I’d thoroughly read all of the available Shonni-Etta fragments, I believed Reman’s dracochrysalis occurred after his reunification and healing of Cyrodiil. Now I’m not so sure, but I think that would be the most fitting sequence of events. In any case, Reman succeeds in uniting Cyrodiil, and then almost all of Tamriel, healing the Heartland and defending the world from the Akaviri invasion. With his establishment of the Dragonfires, his heirs now have their own means of strengthening and maintaining Covenant. As Covenant defends Nirn from otherworldly forces, so did Reman defend Tamriel from otherworldly (or at least alien) forces, in a way mantling Covenant itself. When Reman’s mortal form died, his divine soul lived on, the AE to the Animus that is the Chim-El Adabal and the Covenant he embodies.
Reman’s Empire should have spanned the stars (and indeed was the Empire of “space travel”). His was the chosen Empire, born of the Earth and blessed by the Dragon. However, Reman’s Empire was ended by the Morag Tong, in a plot that was possibly orchestrated by the Akaviri Potentate. If this is the case, we could say that it took a force from outside this world to topple his Gods-blessed Empire of Man.

#Part 3: Divine Intervention

(Spoilers for Elder Scrolls: Online and TES:Oblivion)

There have been two cases of the Amulet of Kings being used as a means of divine intervention in-game, both with surprisingly similar processes. The first (chronologically) occurs in ESO. To make a long story short, the Vestige, a soul-less hero, is granted temporary empowerment by the Amulet of Kings; however, this power comes at the cost of a soul. I speculate (heavy emphasis on the speculate part) that the offering of a soul opens a two-way path for the powers of the Amulet, embodied by Reman, to materialize. In ESO we can sacrifice various people, none of them Dragonborn, and so the divine intervention is less in scale. The Vestige is empowered with a divine suit of armor (the helmet having a red diamond on the brow) and incredible fire powers, as well as general super-strength, defense and spellpower. The Vestige uses this power to defeat a Daedric Prince who threatens the entire world. Abnur Tharn claims this power comes directly from Akatosh, which is a very real possibility, but I’m not so sure.
The second time occurs in TES:Oblivion, and involves the sacrifice of Martin Septim, the last Dragonborn emperor. Martin’s fate is completely unknown. Some speculate that he became the Avatar of Akatosh; some speculate that he was simply absorbed into the gem like his predecessors in the act of summoning the Avatar of Akatosh. I believe the immediate assumption that it was an Avatar of Akatosh at all is flawed. The Nords believe it was Talos who incarnated through his last descendant, but I argue that it was Reman, the Worldly God turned dragon, the eternal fire, empowered by Martin’s unification of Cyrodiil, who returned to fulfill Covenant once more. In the role of restorer of Covenant and unifier of Cyrodiil, you could say that Martin mantled Reman, allowing him to incarnate.
Many believe that the oversoul of Dragonborn Emperors was destroyed with the physical Amulet, but I disagree, and so did Martin, as he claimed to join his father, and his father’s fathers, and I highly doubt he meant join them in the void. I believe that Martin’s sacrifice completed the bond between heaven and the mundane, further fusing the barrier to Nirn. I don’t believe that the dragon statue in the Imperial City has anything to do with Covenant becoming eternal; I believe that Covenant was intended to become eternal all along, perhaps always was, with Reman as its eternal, divine figurehead, empowered by the souls of the many dragonborn emperors of the past. I believe that Hjalti Early-Beard was chosen to restore Empire, and did so, but was discontent to assimilate into the Amulet of Kings upon death; perhaps this sparked his hunt for individual godhood and assumption of an even greater mantle than Dragonborn Emperor.
It’s telling that on MK’s list of most “powerful” beings (the seriousness of which is hotly debated), Reman ranks at number 6, above Auri-El. That makes him particularly powerful for how absent he is. Which leads me to my final thoughts, and some of my most groundless speculations of all.

#Part 4: C0DA and the Return of Man, or Equal Parts Groundless Conjecture and Wishful Thinking

The most disappointing part of C0DA for me was the disappearance of Man. I get that “the fall of Man” is MK’s theme for TES and hence C0DA, but that never fit with me. And so, following in the steps of many great thinkers, I rejected that idea and looked for other possibilities, like Covenant. At its heart, Covenant wasn’t about the land; it was about a united, protected Man. It isn’t made clear how Men are wiped out in C0DA; I don’t think it’s ever even openly stated, only implied, unlike the ancestroscythe we witness occur to the Altmer. However it was achieved, I believe it’s possible that, as Covenant weakened and the barrier fell from Nirn, that Reman the God could have rescued a select number of men (and women, duh) in order to protect the race from extermination. If any Aedric force is known for divine intervention, it’s the power of Covenant. Reman doesn’t have his own plane(t) to keep them on, but his was the Empire of Oblivion travel; it’s possible and indeed likely that he invaded and colonized any number of pocket realms that he would gain dominion over as an immortal being (an idea very recently confirmed in a Loremaster’s Archive). Perhaps his buddy Sanguine would allow for refugees to abide in one of his pleasure-pockets. A pact with the Ur-Dra, who seemed to favor Reman, is even possible. One things is certain: Reman was made an immortal, divine being, and if he had the power to do so, he would save Man from annihilation. He was born to save Man from annihilation.
You could interpret Reman’s absence in C0DA in any number of ways, most pessimistically, but I believe that he is busy elsewhere, defending the last tattered remnants of Man. Though many believe Nirn will be lost forever after Landfall, others believe that one will come to heal it, and when they do, Reman will aide Man in their return to reclaim the Heartland, and perhaps one day even to remake Empire.

Addendum: This work is an attempt to assimilate my own theories into a greater framework of lore; certain established ideas have to be rethought or completely rejected in order for it to work. It's no lore essay, and is intended to be viewed as complete conjecture. I welcome constructive criticism. Also, my link to A Khajiit C0DA is broken, but I can't find it hosted anywhere else, so hopefully that gets fixed soon. Cheers!