Thoughts on Meridia the Glister Witch

Meridia has been widely regarded as obscure, little known beyond her connection to hope, life energies, and hatred of the undead. Yet recently little bits of lore candy keep popping out at me to say she has a more broad connection than that, and with it I can hopefully shed more light on how this strange Prince works, maybe even showing her as a more vital role in the history of Nirn.

First off, let’s take a look at her very name: Meridia. It’s made up, sure, yet it can be surmised to derive from the word “meridian”, which refers to lines of longitude that connect the north and south poles of a sphere. This would seem meaningless if not for this little snippet from The Exegesis of Merid-Nunda:

>"… thus does Merid-Nunda [ride? slide?] across the rainbow road from end to end, at one end stretching the dragon, at the other end compressing him …."

>A curious passage indeed. The "dragon," of course, traditionally refers to the Divine we know as Akatosh, the God of Time. This seems to suggest that by traveling the "rainbow road" (a reference to the prismatic refraction of light?), Meridia can in some sense alter the rate at which time flows forward.

Meridia clearly shows an affinity for time, speeding it up or slowing it, depending on the end. Where in TES do we have poles where time runs differently? Atmora to the North is stretched in time, frozen on a single moment that extends indefinitely, so things never end, and Aldmeris to the south is compressed in time, so energetic and everywhere to the point where it’s moments happen all at once, and thus things end when they begin.

Meridia could thus be seen as a kind of connector between them, or at least the concepts, a being that joins opposites, “knowing no change save for change itself”. She has no real set station outside of her origins, hell, she goes from being a renowned anuic to chilling with all the padomaics, she “rides the rainbow road” in that she will take whatever option there is to win, and in suiting her needs will change to any color that fits the situation, this will be explained further below. In this she is like her daddy, who is the king of neutral, as he is widely regarded as static-change, bouncing instead of truly taking a side during the Ehlnofey wars, a pattern Merid seems to repeat with her own spin in the Magne-Ge Pantheon.

>“It was Merid that foretold the Breaking and attempted to prevent it; who tried to stymie the War of C and M; who desperately fashioned warriors to stand against the Y Blur.”

It’s been theorized that the C and M wars are the Ehlnofey wars, both between deities, and both happened during the Dawn, as that is when Merid was cast out, the war clearly former to this. Regardless, it is certain that she never wanted war, forcing herself between C and M and exhausting every resource to keep them in harmony, connected. Again we see her as a sort of buffer between opposites, the cautious C and the whimsical M, and she would fashion servants and barriers and call upon others for help (maybe even some certain no-no spirits who would get her in trouble later on). Her followers even built the White-Gold Tower, which becomes a kind of center point for Nirn itself, trying to emanate unity as the midpoint between the surrounding Towers for a chance to round it all together. They enslave the nedes and call upon every deity (especially Daedra) they could to help fashion the first empire, though their overzealous nature would cause them to fail like she had.

Whether or not she has direct relation to the north and south continents is a mystery. Her “altering the rate of time” from the Exegesis applies to her making of the Colored Rooms, though it's theme seems consistent with her concept and could just as well have been an echo of the past like most mythic beings and events. The fact that she was present for Nirn’s creation and her attempts to keep inversions from duking it out lends some credence to a potential hand in trying to stop the War of Manifest Metaphors.

It is for certain, though, that Merid thrives in harmony, trying to find middle ground in hopes to join it all together and keep it there, though usually the result is not as sweet as the sentiment. When Bal invaded the Hollow City she sent the whole thing through a portal to infiltrate Coldharbor while wasting the lives of her followers and even losing the Lights that protected it. When her Aylieds marched to take Tamriel, they tried too hard too fast and it bit them back to the point of near-extinction. I think that’s what MK meant when he said “Can’t hear right? Eyes will for you.” She makes rash decisions but she refuses to care, and no matter what you say to dissuade her or drudge up her wrongs, like fire her gaze will still be locked on that goal, and if you try to MAKE her go backwards, you will know her fury. That's why she's the Glister Witch, joyous and selfish. In the end, my full views on Meridia are thus:

Meridia is hope, and hope is a funny emotion, because while it holds on to something dear it can be unrealistic. When something is gone and the future uncertain, hope tries to make it certain, and it will adapt to persist, holding onto the ideal that it can all be whole again. But it can make you blind to reality, it takes a side where the truth is unknown or even contradictory. “I WILL stop this war”, but it takes over, “I WILL leave with my sisters”, but you are cast out, “things WILL get better”, and you will desperately cling to anything that will reaffirm that. “That is life energy, the will and fire to try and spite your obstacles by every means, even if you are dust against a vacuum, and you will laugh in every second of it. If shit happens, it does, but keep linear, don’t revive dead grievances, it only makes for pain and doubt. Time and life move forward, not back.” Meridia is about keeping that moment of joy eternally stretched within while desperately changing outwardly to keep it afloat. One light, many colors.