Brynjar's Compendium of the Six Walking Ways, part II: Prolix Tower and the Psijic Endeavour
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The Prolix Tower
This is a very difficult Way to talk about, because all we have on it is either very vague, vague to the extreme or speculation, but from what I have seen, many see the First Walking Way as the use of the Towers as mystical gadgets to shoot oneself into heaven, becoming a god, as many say Auriel did with Crystal-Like-Law or Adamantia (depending on who's telling the story), or that one "climbs" the Tower and becomes a god by doing so. But, given that lore directs us to understand that all Towers are much more manifest stories, physical representations of a culture, of this culture's collective story, this view of the Prolix Tower seems either to be wrong or to be lacking something, depending on presentation.
What follows (the first section of this first section) is based on personal interpretation and a gathering of various threads and theories of personal preference, so, mind you, this may be very biased, but I will address other people's views later on as well. So, if not shooting oneself into heaven with the Towers, what is it to Prolix Tower?
After a recent discussion I had with /u/Atharaon, and I must give a lot of credit to him, I was introduced to the concept of Euhemerism, and, well, I could end my explanation here and now, because that is basically the summing up of all my thoughts. Euhemerism is an approach to mythology that sees all mythological tales, of gods, demigods and super-humans, as fabrications born out of exaggeration in later retellings of the original tale, elevating certain historical figures, such as kings and warriors, to the ranks of gods. I've seen the Prolix Tower be described as "speaking your way into Heaven", in the sense that you fabricate a story around yourself so that you become a god. Do you see the similarities? I believe that, through the actions of one throughout this one's life, people start, either out of the blue or through careful "manipulation", to believe that this one is a god, until the point where you actually become a god. Your actions and your story become the stuff of legends, and, with some iterations of the telling of your story, some exaggerations start popping up, and at one point, those exaggerated feats start to be seen as only accomplishable by a god, and thus, you surely must be one. I believe most of the cultural gods we know of, but can't really place as any of the Aedra, have Walked this Way, some examples being:
Rajhin, the Khajiit thief god, seems to be one of the finest examples, a thief so good at what he did that he actually was credited as a god by the Khajiit.
Diagna, who is said to be an avatar of the HoonDing […] that achieved permanence, an avatar of the god that became its own entity, a god by itself, so revered among the Redguards by his feats that he became a completely separate thing from the original HoonDing.
Phynaster, a Hero-God of the Altmer, worshiped because he taught the Elves how to live longer, longevity being one of the defining attributes on what is it that makes an Elf, and stasis on one of its most basic facets, and to teach Mer how to live yet a little longer is "whoa, so awesome, and only a god can teach us how to live longer, right?", and so, Phynaster became a god. Syrabane falls along the same line of thought here.
Some other examples: Baan Dar, Ebonarm, Morihaus, Reman (through Dracochrysalis, more on that in a moment), Talos, and even ALMSIVI seem to have Walked this Way.
And how do the Towers relate to this? While I disagree that Towers can "shoot you into godhood", I am of the thinking that they may aid you, after this whole process of being talked by everyone, the Towers may play a key part into the ascension proper, especially when you see that the most "active" or "powerful" cultural deities, the ones with more importance, such as Reman, Phynaster, ALMSIVI, all hail from a culture related to one of the Towers, so, while not necessarily necessary (good wording there, Bryn), the Towers may play a part in how "strong" one deity is, how solid belief in this deity and this deity's presence are.
Okay, now to the matter of Reman and Dracochrysalis. Some say that this is an entirely different thing from the Prolix Tower, while some, like /u/Mdnthrvst discusses here, say that these are but different names for the same thing. Although I (and now that's just personal preference) believe Dracochrysalis is but a form of Prolix Towering, a way to walk this specific Way.
Either way, Dracochrysalis, as /u/IceFireWarden discussed in his essay, is derived from the words Draco and Chrysalis, which combine to mean that the one undertaking the process is undergoing a preparatory state to become a time spirit (dragon), eternal by all means, linked in its essence to time, and, as the Nu-Mantia Intercept states, "keeping elder magic bound before it could change into something lesser", seems to also confirm this, to become eternal as you are in life, before you fall for mortality and become something lesser, stained by Lorkhan's trickery.
One of the examples that often pops up when talking about Dracocrhysalis is Auriel. /u/MareloRyan has his own view of what happened, in his post on this subject (which actually fits in the perspective that the people are one of the key elements to the ascension, instead of the sheer force of will of the individual to climb the Tower), but I usually subscribe to the theory that Auriel was a king of the Aldmer, not the mortal aspect of Auri-El, degraded from his initial godly state, but a mortal king who ascended to be part of the immortal King of Aldmer. According to this, Auriel was the king of Aldmer during the conflicts with men and Lorkhan during the Dawn, and he led his armies to victory, being celebrated as the greatest among them, and just as many couldn't see Talos without seeing a Dragon during his conquests in the Second Era, so couldn't the Aldmer see Auriel as not being Auri-El, their mythical King. And so, through the process I have been describing, Auriel ascended as an eternal spirit through the Prolix Tower, eternally remembered as the leader of Mer, and the first who took the path of becoming immortal through the Way the Altmer become obsessed with later on. I can extend this thought to Trinimac, Xarxes and all those other Altmeri gods, being the mortal generals of Auriel, who later ascend to godhood, and Xarxes' case could be a mirror to the Imperial tale of Arkay's ascension as well. And, as an alternate view, maybe at first there was no Auri-El, just Akatosh/Aka-Tusk, but, when Auriel the mortal king ascended, he merged with the Aka Oversoul and became the Al(d/t)meri aspect of the Time God.
Many of you may be relating this to the concept of mythopoeia, which many think means that widespread belief are capable of changing reality and making themselves true, but, as many others will correct them, mythopoeia is specific to the condition of the Aedra, and, as MareloRyan would surely say, a common mortal, such as Mannimarco, couldn't ascend and become a god through just mythopoeia, so the Prolix Tower seems to be something unrelated (at first) to this concept, but, seeing as some spirits [may] have ascended to already existing Aedric bodies (such as Auriel and Reman, who ascended to Aka, or Xarxes and Arkay, who became part of the Life-Cycle Aedric spirit, from where Orkey and Thu'wacca also derive), it seems to me that we can trace two or three different ways to Walk this Way:
One that does not involve any previous existing deity or Aedric spirit, in which the Walkers imprint their own self and individuality on the fabric of the Aurbis itself, much like CHIM, becoming spirits forever present in the tale of the Aurbis.
A second where the Walkers join with an existing Aedroth, and then, even though they become gods, eternal spirits, their individuality and self is impaired, now becoming subject to the whims of mythopoeia.
And a third, which is pretty much a part of the second, where the Walker ascends to the Aka Oversoul, which is Dracochrysalis, becoming Dragons and agents of time.
Well, at least that's how I came to classify them, and maybe I'm completely wrong, so don't take my word for truth! Make up your own interpretation! And for this I would strongly suggest you read the threads I linked over the course of this section, and do some digging by yourselves to see what you may find about this obscure Walking Way!
The Psijic Endeavour
>I give you an ancient road tempered by the second walking way. Your hands must be huge to wield any sword the size of an ancient road, and yet he who is of right stature may irritate the sun with only a stick.
>The long road that the enemy always puts before you but you walk it anyway.
>The basis for the teachings of the Prophet Veloth, founder of present day Morrowind and father of Dunmeri culture. Veloth describes the Psijic Endeavor as a process of glorious apotheosis, where time itself is bent inward and outward into 'a shape that is always new'. Those who can attain this state, called chim, experience an ineffable sense of the godhead, and escape the strictures of the world-egg.
>What is the purpose of the Psijic Endeavor? To transcend mortal boundaries set in place by immortal rulers.
To MareloRyan, this is being a badass to the point where you transcend mortal limits. I see it otherwise. And I, at least, couldn't find any other reliable source or even interpretations of what exactly is the Endeavour (if any of you have some or know anything and could give me links, I'd love to read them), so most of this is personal interpretation (a.k.a.: possibly the most unreliable section of this article).
Most of the sources we have for the Psijic Endeavour come from the mouth of Chimer, and they learned it from the Daedra, mind that, it's important later on. I think I'll do a sentence by sentence interpretation of Vivec's definition. Yeah, I'll do it, here we go:
> I give you an ancient road tempered by the second walking way
I don't believe the "road" is anything other than a cool metaphor for what you walk on, and the obvious relation to the Walking Ways, but the ancient part may be of interest, something that was first determined or first happened in ancient times, dating back to PSJJJ or one of his soul-children?^like ^Lorkhan ^^maybe?
> Your hands must be huge to wield any sword the size of an ancient road
Okay, I tried to research any meaning the hand might have, especially in Eastern cultures, but I came out short, usually symbolism comes with being the left or right hand, and, since there's no indication in the text, that yielded nothing, and, apart from being used as a symbol of protection (which I couldn't place in this context), the only other meaning I found was that of the tool with which humans communicate with the worlds, the "tool of tools" according to Aristotle (so, if any of you know of something I have not found, I would be glad to misinterpret anything you could point me towards!), and so I can see it more likely to be something relating to agency within the Mundus, how much influence you hold or how big of an impact your actions make, how much you can change with your own hands. Think Marukh and Veloth compared to, say, Hemskir and his speech no one truly listens to.
> and yet he who is of right stature may irritate the sun with only a stick.
He, who can fuck things up by the right amount, reaches into the sun, where ANU, stasis, nemesis to PSJJJ sleeps, sleeps and pokes him in the eye.
> The long road that the enemy always puts before you but you walk it anyway.
The enemy part is something important, I guess, because this is from the view point of Veloth, of followers of Boethiah, the one who taught the Chimer the Psijic Endeavour, and who is the enemy of them all? The Aldmer, the ones who preach ANU and stasis over all, who despise change and do all that is within their power to keep their society as close to the original as possible. The Chimer and Dunmer, on the other hand, are reinventing themselves all the time, or else they won't survive their harsh homeland and their culture as a whole.
Now I believe I put all the basic concepts for my interpretation on the table, and also, "a shape that is always new" is important as well, so I'll start with the theorizing proper. I personally believe the Psijic Endeavour is the Walking Way where you fuck the system just right, when you shake-the-glass-just-so, when you turn something so upside down that it changes all around it and you end up eternalized because of the huge change you brought up.
The first best example of that is Lorkhan. The first to Walk this Walking Way. Creation itself can be seen as a Psijic Endeavour. The act of introducing the wild card that is PSJJJ into the equation. Convincing everyone, who were perfectly fine and content with their somewhat static existence, into doing something completely new, weird and that always takes on a new shape depending on how you look at it. From then on, nothing was ever the same, and his brother on the other side of the Aurbical cord has been trying to make amends to that ever since, and Lorkhan or one of his "descendants" always shows up, just when everything starts to look calm and fine, to throw Auriel's efforts out of the window.
The second best example of that is Veloth. He led the biggest seceding movement from the Aldmeri culture, and after that, the Aldmer and their culture were never the same, it was also because of Veloth and his followers, the ones within his hands, that the Orsimer came into being, and the Aldmer lost what probably was their main military force and a huge chunk of their population, not to speak of the social and cultural instability it must have brought upon the Summerset Isles. And take a look at all the Chimer/Dunmer did ever since. They changed the whole structure of the west, they were the first to mess with the Argonians, and look at what this caused in later times, they were the unwelcome neighbours of the Dwemer, they were always at odds with the Nords, they were the most impacted with every Akaviri invasion ever since, they were the ones who didn't bow to the Emperors of Cyrodiil, and were only partially incorporated into the Empires, they were the ones who emerged victorious from every outcome of the War of the First Council and the Battle at Red Mountain, and it was from them, from Veloth's womb, that ALMSIVI came from, and Vivec more specifically, the one who fucked things up and introduced the means to fuck things up as routine.
The other example I can think of is Marukh, although it's never outright mentioned so, I think he did Walk the Second Walking Way. The interesting part is that he Walked it by poking something Anuic directly in the eye, changing ANU's offspring directly, playing with danger. And it's interesting that it became a fight between two Anuic entities, both Auriel and Akatosh can be seen as Anuic more or less on the same scale. And we know what kind of shit resulted in this Endeavour, as well as the change in both Akatosh and Tamriel in general. You may say that it was not actually Marukh that Tower Danced to change Akatosh, but it was based on Marukh's teachings and ideas that this happened, and the Empire itself was never the same after Marukh, so I think the theory still holds.
Other examples I can think of are Alessia, Tiber, Ysgramor and Mankar (maybe?), all of them are more or less eternally remembered, Lorkhan being forever the target of the Altmeri hate, Veloth being forever one of the Dunmeri greatest saints, almost as important as the Tribunal at the height of their powers, Alessia being forever the "matron" of the Cyrodiilic Empires, and I don't even need to start on Talos, do I? And all because they turned the table Anu (using this term lightly and broadly as a replacer for the "most active" Anuic agent during each period) so carefully organized, breaking and remodelling the pieces in a manner so that Anu will never be able to organize them in the same way twice, and leaving their fingerprint forever marked in the structure of the Aurbis.
Reiterating, this is mostly personal interpretation, so, if any of you find any flaws (blatant or minor) that I haven't noticed, please do tell me! And if you have any other explanation for this, I would love if you could share them!