Brynjar's Compendium of the Six Walking Ways, part I: Introduction
Heyo scholars of /r/teslore! I have noticed a while ago that there is not a comprehensive collection or "guide" of sorts for the Six Walking Ways, nothing comprehending all of them and trying to give an explanation (even if basic) or gathering what we know and what we theorise upon each one (and the only ones I believe we had before have been deleted), I'm not trying to bring a 100% certain list or guide or definitive interpretation of any of the Ways, this is merely me gathering all the quotes, information and threads we have (read it as: "that I could find") on each one and trying to come up with a comprehensive explanation of each, but it is all up to questioning, debating, plain denying and refusing, for I may indeed be way off and completely wrong about any and all of them (as well as most probably biased in all of them), so any discussion, additions and corrections are more than welcome!
> Six are the formulas to heaven by violence
Six Ways to Walk and reach the final subgradient of all AE, the ultimate state of a being, a spirit written in the fabric of the Aurbis, immortal, permanent, above happenstance.
The Six Walking Ways are as follows (italics are for names I came up with):
The Prolix Tower or Euhemerism
The Psijic Endeavour or The Path of Veloth
Tonal Manipulation or Story Rewriting
The Steps of the Dead or The Fission of Souls
The Love or The Royalty
The Fusion of Souls or Soul Stacking
An Introduction
Before I start discussing each of the Walking Ways, I believe I must first address my own vision of what is a god in the Aurbis, not because I want everyone to accept it, but because it becomes important to proper comprehend what I will be talking about when I speak of my own explanations for each of the Ways, and, again, this is not me trying to impose an absolute on what is or not a god, just my own view relevant only to my own view of the Walking Ways, and it will by no means impact the explanations when using someone else's vision, so this Introduction is perfectly skippable if you want!
Now, when we discuss gods in Elder Scrolls, I believe we end up mixing up terms because of semantics. One of the terms used to refer to gods in Ehlnofex is Ada, and it's usually translated directly as "god", but Et'Ada is translated as "original spirits", instead of "original gods", so, maybe what we're talking about in these cases are not gods per se, instead, we're talking about special spirits, eternal ones, in my interpretation.
To me, the concept of Ada is that of an eternal spirit, one that, no matter what, will stay part of the narrative of the Aurbis, in one way or another, they cannot be permanently killed, and if they are, they come back in some way later on (I'm looking at you Lorkhan). If the Aurbis is a big narrative, each of the Ada, of these eternal spirits, are major characters, in which absence the Narrative doesn't make sense anymore, essential parts of said Narrative. And I believe this is the goal of each of the six Walking Ways, to be made eternal, an inseparable part of the Aurbis, and this is what I believe is a god and what people refer to as gods in most discussions around here.
To better exemplify it, gods as we call them can be divided into three categories in this setting:
Gods in eternality, the Ada, beings that are or became an intrinsic part of the Aurbis, who may not be worshipped by any cult as gods or have no power to speak of and yet are what they are, eternal. Examples being: the Aedra, the Daedra, the Earth-Bones and (according to me) all who Walked any of the Ways and individuals like Pelinal or Morihaus.
Gods of worship, in other words, a being that is worshipped as a god, for whatever reason there might be for such worship, but this does not make the god any more powerful or eternal. Examples being: Cuhlecain, the Emperor Zero, worshipped by the Cult of Emperor Zero, or one of the aspects of ALMSIVI's godhood, as well as the Daedric Princes and the Aedra.
Gods in power, which isn't a form of godhood per se, but rather a confusion between what would be a god in the Aurbis (eternal spirit) with what gods are considered to be in the real world: beings with exceptional power. In the Aurbis, power is unrelated to godhood, you can be a weak god or a very powerful mortal, and there are many cases in which a mortal's power was able to surpass a god's power. Power, according to my interpretation of /u/MareloRyan's musings here, is that the power of a being is the size of their Animus, of their inner star (and, then, the divinity he mentions there would fall under this third case), and it can be increased by various means. Examples being: (maybe) Dyvaith Fyr, who, despite not being a god in anyone's religion (except maybe some very loving fanbase), is extremely powerful, to the point he could probably face a Daedric Prince, a god by #1 and #2 and come out victorious. Again, more than a form of godhood, I believe this is merely a misconception that godhood equals to power in the Aurbis. I believe these are two completely separate concepts that, in some cases, may come together, but are not intermingled or connected.
As it wouldn't fit in a single post, and to divide it in two would make each of the two parts excruciatingly long, I have divided it in four parts, including this Introduction.
Part II: Prolix Tower and the Psijic Endeavour