Orgnum and the Key to the Mer

#Preamble

Let me start off by saying that I have spent a great many of hours studying and researching TES lore. An afternoon reading through a wikia is a good day for me. So if my thoughts are a little.. Scattered, and my reasoning not sufficient for you, I can explain at the best of my ability at any intersection.

This is a pet theory I came up with for the popular mod ELDER KINGS for Crusader Kings 2, which explains Pyandonea's violent and rather confusing manner of which it operates. This explanation, will not only unlock the mystery of Orgnum, and his Archipelago, but will also draw credence to the actions of the Mer and their intentions.

To understand the present, you must look towards the past.

#*The Dawn Era, Ancient Aldmeris, and the War of Old and New

My first attempt at this grand mystery, traveled back towards the Dawn Era, when the world was new. I believe Orgnum's Rebellion was one of the first events after The Convention. Orgnum was at the convention, I am all but certain, for he was banished from Aldmeris long before the Chimer or Dunmner or Summerset were even concepts.

Orgnum was mentioned as a wealthy noble, in Aldmeris.. And while it was a 'kingdom', this makes no sense. Why would an Et'Ada have any wealth, when his brethren, and himself, have all lost much of their divinity? Was he selling something, what, how could someone possibly be a notable wealthy noble in a time where the laws of time didn't even exist yet. No, no, I think Wealthy is a synonym for those who have not the perception to understand. Wealth, in the mortal plane, goes hand in hand with Power. I believe Orgnum was ostensibly powerful individual, and created a concept within Nirn that would exist for the rest of its time: War.

It was not the Wanderers, the Men, who stroke first. It was their own Aedra. The Elves have denounced this information and convoluted it, and to be true, there are almost no references to this significant event. Orgnum's attempt failed, he was banished towards the islands of Pyandonea... But, wait, that doesn't make sense. The sundering had not happened yet, and all landmassses in Nirn were one. What are these random islands doing here?

#Godhood, the nature of it

We all know that one can access CHIM to reach godhood, but in the Dawn Era, this was not necessary, for they were all gods, and all knew their places in the greater struggle. A god, however, as time moves on, associates with something. Even those with Pandemic nature, have a nature even if one's nature is to be absolutely mad, Sheo lookin' at you

and so Orgnum fashioned his realm with one of snakes. He had personal snake bodyguards, and, his islands were a lush swampy jungle, perfect for his new servants' to thrive. With this connection established, and no other snake-lords around, we can safely assume that Orgnum is the 'lord of the snakes' as Akatosh is to Dragons or as Hircine is to Werewolves.

I have more theories on what exactly his followers are, but I shall get back to that later, when we shift out of the Dawn and Merethic eras, for you must understand exactly what I mean.

#Sakatal

Now that we have addressed his connections towards snakes, and cultivating his realm with them, we will move on towards the elephant in the room and the true key to Orgnum. You see, should you read the Monomyth(http://uesp.net/wiki/Lore:The_Monomyth)the yokuda beliefs are the most VIVID in the world. We shall refer to them, because, they were a primordial people.

Primordials are generally more instinctive, they have legends and myths that are very powerful. They can tell when one's power is real. In Skyrim, we have many references to the Atmorans, and what they perceived to be their own history, which has led us to many revelations on their surroundings. The yokudan history has been carried over to Hammerfell, and so its origins can be disputed, and I will look for greater meaning within them because of this.

During the Dawn era, the yokudans were likely off shoots from the original wanderers, and settled in Yokuda, looking for a place to call home. The blackskin of Redgaurds developed from their Desert Surroundings, so we can tell this was many thousands of years. We are told that the Sinistral Elves(Or the Lefthanded ones), and ruled over an Empire Four times as large as that of the Septim Dynasty. Ruled from the Orichalc Tower, this would make them an especially dangerous enemy for their foes later down the line, but this was the Merethic Era, where the gods were still quite strong.

Why were the Lefthanded elves picked upon, for from the myth, the Redgaurds only ever had the ability to strike at them once their 'gods' helped them, and, only ever had the desire. Redgaurds do not like speaking of this(althought I doubt anyone has ever asked a Sakatal fanatic) but I don't believe this is because the Sinistral elves' cruelty. For this we go towards the real life definition of Orichalcum (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orichalcum), Plato and Critias claim that Orichalcum is the ore found largely in Atlantis, made famous from it, and is second only to gold. And in truth, Yokuda had also quite literally sunk into the sea.

I believe the Sinistral elves were the second most powerful power on Nirn after the Dawn Era, second only to the Gold, the Altmer(the further this, you could say Bronze, the Dwemer were third in strength, but thats where the connections towards metals end for the rest of them are too confusing to piece together. Ash vs snow?). The Yokudan struggle was said to last a thousand years, however, even though their time on the First era is not even Eight-Hundred. This was a struggle basically since the start of when time started moving linearly, but who would wish to take out one of the Altmer's greatest allies, and bring devastation towards a continent at least twice the size of Tamriel?

The god of destruction, of change, Sakatal. You see in the myth Satak is the ever lasting, he is Anu, he is barely referenced because of how dominate he is, everything stems from the First Snake. But the Hunger is Akel, it is Pandomey, it is Sithis. By the time of the Second Snake, although he is made of Anu, his purpose is only one of everlasting chaos, of Pandomic nature. The pantheon of Redgaurd gods form from surviving this. Not from beating it. Surviving. The Tall Papa, their personification of Akatosh, created a follower named Sep, but he was formed from the dead carcasses of Sakatal's past versions, so he still had the hunger within him... But his inclination is to form a new world, from the material of old, and stop the cycle. Where the spirits could live in peace. He is chatised for this and is forsaken, and while the new world is allowed to ascend, he is left alone and dark.

We will come back to this, I suggest you read the full story to get all the details, but this is a primordial myth, so it's left untouched from Lorkhan being reborn from Shor or Talos. This is when the Yokudans believe that Sep was a mere shadow of the true horror. Sakatal. I believe their gods, are a mere personification to drive to give credence towards the VIVID horrors they saw(which they do not speak of in a historical sense, only in a mythic sense). Sakatal(orgnum) approached them, and gave them weapons through his proxies to wage war against the lefthanded elves. He tricked them, perhaps made them afraid. When they did his bidding, the Sinistral(lefthanded) elves were entirely destroyed, and their original continent sank.

#Objectivity

After destroying his most sacred enemy's strongest ally, Orgnum and his allies further divided the elves into many sects. The Altmer were the only ones who could truly stand against him, and in the first and second eras were full of war, the Maormer came out from their islands, which they did not do during the Merethic Era, and raided the Summerset Isles. Alinor was under siege constantly, ever year, it was constant war, we have never seen anything like this in TES lore and it went on for centuries..

Until one day, it stopped. Every raid was led by Orgnum himself, until, suddenly, the Alinor joined forces with him to for the 2nd Adlmeri Dominion. How is this possible, when Orgnum slayed countless Altmer and Bosmer(at this time, being thousands of years old but growing younger each year ) I'll tell you what changed: The Thalmor.

The Thalmor are very important for this understanding. Because they are not what you may think of them. The Thalmor claim to represent the elves of old, and, are a distinctive order within Tamriel's history because they precisely DON'T do what their ancestors would have wanted. They do the opposite. The original Adlmer wished to tie the world down. Create an 'Everlasting Perfection', for, while Lorkhan(and in some instances credence goes towards Sithis) created Nirn in the first place and disturbed everything, time has passed so much now, that things are growing routine. Heck, even look at the elder scroll games. Huge cataclysmic events are threatening the world, and always, a lone her steps up and stops it all..

Routine is not chaos. Mortals, for while they have independent thoughts, are easily controlled and grow into stasis eventually for if dominated by one diety they would become like the lesser Daedra, boring playthings, of no use because they are just mindless servants. The reason why the Daedra are so interested in Nirn is not because of its inhabitants, it's because it's a small case battle of the Great Game. The forces of Chaos and Order constantly fighting. If one Daedric Prince were to conquer Nirn, and enter it into their plane, no others would be interested in it because it wouldn't be a game. A distraction any longer.

Anyways, basically tamriel is special because of Lorkhan, who allowed the mortals to reach godhood themselves. Self-reflection, CHIM, whatever you want to call it. He basically made a warrior-making factory for the Everlasting War... (Or perhaps he had other ideas, we'll return to this later). Since new gods are being created, like Talos and Vivec, this is greatly disturbing Pandomic entities. But this isn't a threat they did not underestimate.

so if the original Adlmer wished to create more towards every where they went, to tie the world down, and create its laws, why do the Thalmor wish to destroy this?

Orgnum ceased his raids. He was calling the shots within the Second Dominion, and it likely would have succeeded right there. He had shattered the elves, so he could infiltrate them, and he just had to battle the Wanderer races of Man, which the Elves had already done, to bring the destruction of Nirn as his incarnation Sakatal foretold to the Yokudans.

But a huge statue stepped in their way. and on them. Literally. This ended the Thalmor, but Orgnum was not gone. He wasn't done. I am 100% that Pyandonea looked for by Tiber. The Numidium could travel through water, so Orgnum was not safe... Unless his realm... Was not on nirn. That's right, as I said before, Orgnum is a clear ethereal being, and has a strange connection towards Nirn that allows him and his followers to warp into Nirn to attempt its destruction. Pyandonea doesn't exist. At least, not as we imagine. Its not a landmass. Its a plane of oblivion.

#*Change of Tactics

Following the humiliating defeat of the Second Dominion, Orgnum rallied his servants, and attempted a sort of Oblivion Crisis himself, a full-on invasion of Tamriel. This was not the small patrols and outposts he sent before during the 2nd Dominion, this was a force large enough to conquer all of Tamriel, and the Numidium could not stop him now..

But one Order could. This is perhaps what draws this entire theory, this entire conspiracy together. The Psijic Order. During this war, called the War of the Isle, it was not the Imperial Fleet's majesty that defeated Orgnum, it was this mysterious order... Why did they interlude into this conflict? This is remarked as very mysterious in its recount, The Psijic Order barely involves itself in anything except Alinor, and at this time, barely even that. Why would they stop a mere invasion, when they didn't help during the Akavir wars?

Because the Psijic Order ties back to Aldmeris... If you'll recall, they specifically left them when the Altmer reorganized their religion. They stopped Ancestor worship and began to worship specific deities. I believe this was more a mere theological debate. The Psijic Order was perhaps the congregation of the most powerful beings since The Convention, at least at this time, why would they separate over this? Because Orgnum was an Aldmeri Ancestor. One of the most powerful, and given his brief habits, we know he enjoyed a luxurious lifestyle and was very virile(having mated with Potema of Solititude even though he was thousands of years old). He was, after all this time, ancestor to many Altmer. Similar to Charlemange, eventually all ties would go back to him, Trinimac, or Auri-el, and so the Altmer wished to erase this part of their history, after all, they have a knack for erasing things.

Psijic Order saw the foolishness in this. If you forget your history, you forget your own enemies. And the Altmer did exactly that, they forgot the dangers, and eventually fell towards Orgnum's persuasions. because the forces of padomay are not always destructive. Orgnum was the great betrayer, he was a traitor, and the Altmer wished to disbelieve he existed. If he was a God like Auri-el, perhaps he could have been dismissed when no one thought of him(and almost no one thought of him. He isn't even mentioned by the Daedra, or hardly the Altmer)

So they established their own island away from the others, and you know what, now that I think about it, Artaeum, their island, is actually a spaceship(something that travels between planes), and could potentially fight the forces of Oblivion from even encroaching or reaching Nirn. If possible, they know first hand what Orgnum truly is, and so helped during the War of the Isle.

But you can never stem chaos. It only recedes, and comes back with a vengeance.

#Daedric Forces

Let's rewind a bit. I have established that Sakatal is Orgnum, and that Orgnum is an agent of chaos. This means he had contact with Lorkhan, and the Daedric Princes, during the Dawn era, which makes everyone's actions a bit more clear... After it was revealed Lorkhan deceived everyone, most mortal races take this to mean that Lorkhan is the ultimate evil. but he is not. He is what I describe as Third Way. He deceived both the forces of Chaos and Order. For Orgnum, and other Pandomic gods were 100% on Nirn, and saw its creation, most of them likely having escaped with Magnus, but Orgnum was a creation of Sithis. and Sithis wanted revenge. You see what Lorkhan created was not a realm of pure chaos. He did not kill Aniuel, at best, he killed(or trapped) Auri-el, but as told it Altmer myth, Auri-el was replaced as soon as he left by Anu. Lorkhan failed in his purpose and only created a potential liability for Chaos.

And liability it was. Aurbis was a realm away from Chaos and Stasis. It allowed Time to exist. The Daedric princes formed their oblivion realms, their planes of existence, and grew to be their own forces. They were no longer beings of pure order or chaos, and they were deeply intrigued into Nirn itself, for it was the ultimate prize in their personification. Aurbis was a new realm, away from Stasis or Chaos, no matter how small it was.

Anuiel was deeply disturbed by all of this chaos, but so to was Sithis disturbed by all of this.. Structure. Order. This realm had laws, even when they were stretched to the extreme.. It had limitations. Lorkhan was the god of Limitations, and he limited his own creator's influence upon him. He created a new realm for the new races, the new gods. So I don't believe he is a force of Chaos. For the forces of Chaos were already at large. Somehow the Daedric Princes were well coordinated, wiping out Jyggalag, their main obstacle in their games within this new realm. They came together, and formed him into Sheograth.. Instead of killing him, they reverted Order, into Chaos. This was when most of the Order gods were on Nirn, so Jyggalag was alone and essentially killed, somehow the Daedric plotted their next move against the descendants of Order.

The mer. As I said before the Mer were originally the only thing keeping nirn together in the Merethic era(we really have no idea what the hist was doing), there's even clues they were fighting Oblivion forces across the planes. But susceptible to persuasion and manipulation, the forces of mortals are. We have two events where Daedric Princes directly interfered with the elves, Veloth the Prophet, and Trinnimac vs Boethiah, this is really interesting because we don't know why they interfered so much in Aldmeri splintering. They did not touch the Dwemer, Falmer, or Aylied? I believe this was a precognitive planned move.

You see, Sakatal's purpose is to consume the world. Some think that Yokuda is an echo of this, but in my belief, I think it has yet to happen. In the myth told, Sakatal was merely born from Satak, but it's not told how many cycles he's been through, and his purpose to consume Aurbis. His parallel is to Alduin, obviously, but I think Alduin operates on a strict-nirn basis, while Sakatal's mission is to destroy all of creation. So they can revert to their primordial states, and be brought into the fold of Chaos or Stasis.

#Parallels

The Elder Scrolls series is littered with parallels, but really, how is Lorkhan a parallel towards Akatosh? Lorkhan was created from Sithis, yes, but his purpose was to kill Anuiel, and yet he failed at this, and actually hid from the Daedra and found allies in the wanderers, the dwemer, and eventually, Akatosh himself. No, I don't think Lorkhan is our great evil.

Sakatal is the god of serpents, and Orgnum has a deep affiliation with them. One of his main allies is Boethiah for heaven's sake, snakes have a deep connection towards deceit and mistrust in human interpretation. I wish to look closer to this connection, for I am claiming Sakatal and orgnum are one in the same.. But am I?

http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Kyne%27s_Challenge:_A_Hunter%27s_Companion/The_Black_Marsh

This is a story from ESO, specifically in the snake passage, ("Ah, a minion of the serpent-god Satakal!" Namasur had recognized his prey and waded into the brown swamp by now, and was knee deep and closing in on the giant snake. ) and ("We call this kajthux, or 'ample serpent,' in my tongue." (I guessed at the spelling; the Argonian made a clicking rasp from the back of his throat, making the word unpronounceable to me.) Then he began to talk about the Maormer and their serpent magic, but I severed the conversation, as a theological debate about Sea Elves wasn't as entertaining as Roggvir's predicament.)

These are two perspectives from a Redgaurd and Argonian. The tales of Orgnum range wide at this point, he is basically a scourge. But is that all? Why do the Maormer have naturally attuned abilities towards Snakes...? I know Sakatal is their god/lord, but that shouldn't change them. There's something extra going on here, in the beginning, in the dawn era, there were Maormer and Aldmer. What caused this distinction? The Ayleid lived in lush jungles but didn't mutate hardly at all, and the Altmer themselves live in an island's climate. Could this just be after millennia apart, or do the Maormer themselves have a natural affinity towards serpents(sort of like Dragonborn with dragons).

This is something to be revealed later I am sure. But for those who say, 'if Orgnum is as powerful as Alduin, why is he such a pussy that he could never conquer Summerset, when many other much less powerful leaders were able to conquer large amounts of land?' Well for this I'd like to refer back to the description of Orgnum. "who it seems is not only immortal but grows more youthful by the century." The oldest documented mortal Divayth Fyr was 4,000(perhaps still running), but even these estimations for Orgnum could put him well beyond 10K. And he grows younger by the century, as well as being sighted at every single raid done on Summerset?

No, I don't think Sakatal is Orgnum. But Orgnum is Sakatal. I believe Orgnum is a title, created for what reason? I don't know, but a mortal is obviously trained from their culture, perhaps in Pyandonea they can more easily communicate with Sakatal, but nevertheless someone(s) is mantling Sakatal. It is for this reason, in combination with everything else I listed, that I believe this.

What does this lead, well. It draws out the Thalmor intentions a little, an entity originally created by Orgnum I suspect(which orgnum however?) that is made to undo creation, a spear for the Serpent God, in his destiny to consume Aurbis, kill Auri-El and the traitorous Lorkhan, and any new gods that are birthed through this traitorous ploy(tiber/vivec). He at one point communicated with the Daedric Princes, perhaps when Nirn was first created, and formulated a plan to kill several key figures of Order. Perhaps the original Orgnum was a mere peasant within Auri-El's kingdom, raised to greatness by Sakatal, and is the ultimate traitor and deceiver for trying to consume his own kind. Perhaps Sakatal has been plotting since creation to do all of this.

Mark my words, the Thalmor were not near powerful enough to remove the two moons. Akatosh was busy defending against Dagon's invasion(perhaps another ploy by Orgnum, but I don't think Dagon would work with him. Maybe he did it at this specific time because he knew Nirn would be destroyed soon), AND being Alduin, he had maybe 1/3 of his strength to personify Auri-el, who I don't think would take too kindly towards his descendants destroying all he had created for them. Remember as I said, the original elves were committed towards Nirn, the psijic order, which was banished by the Thalmor for unspecified reasons(and likely the empire as apart of the White-Gold), follow ancient Aldmeri traditions of protection this plane. Argonians, Khajiit, and Redgaurds all respect the mythology that the Maormer are connected towards Sakatal, the destroyer of worlds, and the Maormer have been mysteriously absent since they were 'defeated'.. Can I satisfy everything, no, but I'd like to do more introspective work on Lorkhan.. His mission... His reasons.. his 'third way' away from Chaos and Order. Tell me what you think and how crazy I am.