The Most Beautiful of Princes

##The Most Beautiful of Princes## #By Magician Barbie of the Imperial Arcane University# #12th Morningstar 2E 109

Much can be said on the nature of beauty. It is a physical thing, but it is so much more; it is a spiritual thing, a transcendent, divine force that can connect us across borders of culture and ethnicity. An exquisite body movement; a magnificent castle; a perfectly proportioned forest; a masterfully executed piece of music; these things can move us to extreme feelings, but why? How? Our great philosophers and sages have debated it for centuries beyond count: its essence, its origins, and its implications. Many have attempted to define it. The House of Dibella teaches that beauty is a thing which moves you, any part of you, be it body, mind, or spirit. The Genengineers of the Immaterial Harmonics Institute maintain that beauty is numerical, born of “the ratio of creation”, a quantitative relation that exists throughout nature (which they supposedly incorporate in their Mothship designs to increase manafficiency). Argonian shamans teach that beauty lies in the transient and impermanent nature of the ever-flowing world-river, yet Dunmeri mysticism teaches that beauty lies in that spirit which strives for permanence, to resist the corruptive nature of time. Most poignant, and perhaps most relevant to my thesis, is the definition given by a little-known Breton scholar of the University of Gwylim, which is “that which reminds us of ourselves”.

With this definition in mind, I draw your attention to the Aedra, those bastions of creation from which all things (including beauty) are commonly believed to have originated. From our earliest collective legends we have anthropomorphized them, shaped concept-beings into men or elves or some contrived fusion of the two. Why? To humanize them, that their beauty would better remind us of ourselves. This is in stark contrast to the Daedric Princes, who are most often only vaguely anthropomorphized. Only the Khajiit, who see little distinction between the two entities, retain a view of the Aedra as more eldritch concepts, which is perhaps, in its own way, a wisdom.

The Daedric Princes each have a beauty of their own, but it is always foreign and savage, seldom reminding you of yourself. Azura is perhaps most widely accepted as the most beautiful Prince, and the one most often wholly anthropomorphized as a caring Mother figure. Records of Her visions or of the scant excursions into Her realm reveal dazzling scenes of colorful plants and cities of majestic silver, all veiled in twilight gleam. But Her light is pale and distant, and Her motives often hidden, for Azura is obscure and capricious by Her nature. She is Daedroth in the truest sense, having played no part in creation. There is another Prince, however, more radiant, more worthy, and far more obscure.

Information regarding the Daedric Prince Meridia is exceedingly hard to acquire. Most of the knowledge we have of her is from the ancient records of conjurers and the study of Her shrines, though a few fragmentary passages of ancient Ayleid scriptures have been known to surface. All known shrines to her represent the Prince as a simple mortal female, be she man or mer. A noted exception is an ancient temple in Skyrim, where her shrine statue sports a pair of massive feathered wings, symbols often reserved for the highest of gods. This is the only known location of Meridia worship in Skyrim, and we know little about what went on their.

Even the Ayleids, most intimately aware of Her Aetherial connections, anthropomorphized her, to allow Her beauty to remind them of themselves. This is a sign that Merid was counted among the ranks of the gods at least in relation to mortals and the Mortal Condition, if not in relation to Nirn itself.

The most ancient Ayleid fragment is the Tract of Merid-Nunda, recently fully translated and available for study here in the Archives. It tells the story of the Magne-Ge, those “children” of Magnus which aided Him in creation, and fled with Him when he chose exile over oblation. Magnus decreed that all Ge would remain forever apart within the Aether, as things Once Were. Merid, however, still saw the beauty in creation, and could not turn herself away from it, choosing instead to accept banishment from home and clan rather than submission and denial. For she had helped set the foundation of creation as the right hand of Her Father, and had put some small part of Her Will into creation which would not be denied. By manipulating the light of Magnus, Merid carved a swath of chaotic creatia very close to Nirn into a simulacrum of the Aether, much to the ire of the ruling Principalities, that she may watch over Nirn daily. That she still remains is testament to Her might, for she has many enemies in the Void.

The metaphysical implications of this are staggering. Merid is the only prime example of the state of the Aedra before the creation of Mundus; a being not man or mer, not dragon or beast, but of light. Even the ruling Princes are a corruption of their original selves, having formed their Planes and Spheres in pastiche of the Mundus rather than of the Once Was. Merid is highly obscured to mortals, in keeping with her lofty Aetheric origins, and many have tried to describe the nature of her Sphere. It has been described as Purity and Hope, Righteous Anger, and even Despair. But I believe she represents something even more primal: beauty, the beauty of an uncorrupted spiritual past. This is why so many Ayleids revered her above all others, even while acting so contrary to her conviction in the sanctity of life; she represented the glorious past they longed for.

We academics enjoy our strict definitions. By strict definition, as an entity which did not join itself with the Mundus and does not dwell in Aetherius, Merid is Daedroth. However, to ignore her significantly unique position within the Aurbis would be the height of scholastic folly! In light of this, and in the name of scholastic progression, I recommend the establishment of a new term, the Daedric Princess, to differentiate Meridia the once Magne-Ge from those more vulgar Princes of Misrule.

What could we learn about the nature of pre-Nirnian existence by studying Her? Could this be where the Ayleids learned some of their mastery? There are far too many questions, and far too many potential answers, to not pursue this research solely due to the subject’s residence in Oblivion. Julianos, patron of our great University, says :”When in doubt, seek wisdom from the wise.” But when there are none that are wise in what you seek, you must seek wisdom itself. That is my aim, and it is my sincere hope that this discourse will persuade the University to provide further funding to the Ayleid Exploration Branch, that we may continue making discoveries that redefine our history.