Treatise on the Sharmat

After recently being inspired by Selectives Lorecast #20, reviewing some old dank lore and hitting the books again, I have come to a series of conclusions as to the underlying nature of the Sharmat as he appears in the narrative of the Aurbis.

Who is the Sharmat?

The concept of the Sharmat was first introduced in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, where the name was used by god Vivec in the 36 Lessons of Vivec as a title for Dagoth Ur, the longtime enemy of the Tribunal who attained divinity of his own by manipulating the Heart of Lorkhan with the instruments of the Dwemer Chief Tonal Architect Kagrenac. Dagoth Ur is a driving force throughout the narrative of Morrowind from inside Red Mountain, spreading the ‘divine disease’ of Corprus across Vvardenfell on ashstorms and through the bodies (etymology: corprus = corpus, Latin word for substance or body) of his Sixth House Cultists.

Theories persist in the Elder Scrolls lore community on another ‘Sharmat’ being present in the form of Miraak, the First Dragonborn from the Dragonborn expansion of the later title The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. In the content storyline, Miraak is a champion of the Daedric Prince Hermaeus Mora who antagonizes the Last Dragonborn from afar via his cultists and various Daedric agents of Mora. His presence on the island of Solstheim at first becomes problematic when he corrupts the All-Maker Stones of the native Skaal tribe and uses them as a focus for subverting the will and memories of the island’s inhabitants.

I shall assume for the sake of argument that both of these characters were instances of the Sharmat.

What is a Sharmat?

At first glance, the Sharmat seems to be a reincarnating/recurring figure in the mythic narrative of Nirn. Before I make any definitive statements confirming or denying that, let’s take a look at the botnet-node model of reincarnation as explained by /u/MareloRyan and /u/TheGhostOfDRMURDER .

To summarize, a botnet is a network of programs that accomplish tasks by interfacing with other, similar programs. The botner is used to represent the shared oversoul of archetypal figures such as Shezzarines, the Nerevarine, Ysmir, Dragonborn and so on.

The “bot” part of a botnet is the set of characteristics that connect all the individual nodes in the network together. It’s the qualifiers a person needs to ascend to the status of a component-echo of a greater figure in the mythic. By following all the steps needed to get all the necessary qualifying attributes of that mythic oversoul, you allow the bot to install a new node in yourself and incorporate it into your AE, the identity and history of your soul, which retroactively redefines you as having always been a part of that botnet.

There is a different yet similar concept elaborated on by /u/RideTheLine , which is the Proctor theory. It’s a complex one, so I’ll break it down to barebones. The Aurbis is composed of music, a form of sound. The most basic building blocks of composition are Tones, soundwaves that can be manipulated for an amazingly potent range of effects (examples include Yokudan Sword-Singing, the Thu’um, Tonal Architecture and so on).

However, another important element in this equation is the existence of the Godhead, which once was (and perhaps still is) the mind of an individual that was stripped apart into the various conceptual units of information to compose a new narrative within a stable system of thought-memory-data within the Dreamsleeve. Ask someone else for the specifics; I’ll take forever to explain this in detail.

Among the Godhead’s narratives exist a number of archetypal figures distinct from the reincarnating oversoul botnets previously discussed. Rather, these figures are a series of waveforms that exist among the essential Tones of the Godhead’s dream and represent important aspects of the Godhead’s own psyche. They exist as three wave types (Anuic, Padomaic and Aurbic) and two forms of wave-to-wave interaction (constructive and destructive). These waveforms are also called Proctors, but for the sake of psychological discussion, I will call them Urges.

Here are their respective natures and examples thereof, as proposed by RideTheLine:

*Anuic Constructive Urge, represented by M’aiq the Liar

*Anuic Destructive Urge, represented by KINMUNE

*Padomaic Constructive Urge, represented by Heimskr

*Padomaic Destructive Urge, represented by Pelinal Whitestrake

Note that there is a tendency for these individual manifestations of the Urges to be archetypes unto themselves, not unlike the oversoul botnets. There multiple Khajiit named M’aiq and numerous figures called Heimskr that appear throughout history. The Destructive Urges are a bit harder to pin down due to a lack of examples for cases similar to KINMUNE coming to mind (please leave a comment if an idea for that one pops in your head). The Padomaic Destructive Urge at first glance is manifested through cases similar to Pelinal in the form of Reman Cyrodiil and Tiber Septim, but there a multitude of variables interacting in those cases that muddy the waters a bit.

What I am going to propose is the existence of an additional codifier for Urges alongside the construction and destruction wave interaction models: harmonization.

A constructive Urge is generally positive and promotes growth, while the destructive Urges, well, destroy. One is decidedly pacifistic, the other violent. Both axes of Urge classification demonstrate a pattern of opposites, chiral reflection akin to that of the Enantiomorph conflict that is the most basic phenomenon in the Godhead’s narrative. However, a harmonizing Urge is an interaction that generates the intent to resolve or reconcile that division of the Enantiomorph.

The Enantiomorph was first created (allegedly prior to the Godhead’s achievement of their current state) when Anu (used as a placeholder name for the pre-Godhead) and Padomay (another pre-Godhead individual, distinct from Anu) caused the death of Nir (a third party). Interpretations of this encounter vary. Some accounts hold to the stance that Anu and Padomay both held romantic affection for Nir, but Nir only loved Anu, which spurred Padomay into a murderous rage that killed Nir and incited Anu to enter his dreaming Godhead state (described as “sleeping inside the sun,” but it may be more accurate to apply Plato’s Analogy of the Sun and his Form of the Good to describe the sun instead of the Tamrielic model of the Sun being a hole to Aetherius created by Magnus - this is a sun that exists on a different level of reality from the one the people of Tamriel know).

A different interpretation posits that Anu may have been the spurned (or abusive?) lover of Nir who was responsible for her death. To cope with the trauma of this event, Anu constructed an imaginary culprit for the murder in his mind whom he could displace the blame onto as an indistinct, featureless ‘Other’ whose lack of definition made it possible for him to demonize without guilt.

In the Godhead’s structure, Anu manifested a mental representation of his Self under his own name, while the concept of Other manifested as Padomay. The cosmic phrase ‘I AM’ is used to denote an assertion of identity and existence within the Anu’s dream, while ‘I AM NOT’ is the implied truth of Padomay, that all things are the result of a mental schism born of Anu’s desire to escape the traumatic guilt of killing Nir. When a notion of ‘I AM NOT’ collides with the assertion of ‘I AM’ inherent to all creatures in the dream, the individual undergoes the event of zero-sum, wherein they realize they are just an extension of Anu-As-Dreamer and dissipate into the vast background fabric of the dream. Anu realizes he is Anu and a little bit of him wakes up to the truth, only for Anu to quash that revelation desperately and go back to dreaming as usual.

As stated earlier, the Harmonizing Urge is a tonal waveform in the dream that tries to reconcile Enantiomorphic division, more specifically the schism between Self and Other.

The Sharmat is the Anuic Harmonizing Urge. It is an attempt to reconcile Self with Other by forcing the Other to become like the Self, forcing other people to think like you so they won’t be strangers anymore. It’s the violent guy shouting at you to shut the hell up and toe the line (Lorkhan: “Do as I say, rude spirit!”). The Sharmat tries to erase the Other from existence by making everything the Self (“I AM AND ALL ARE ME”).

The Unifier (toss me a better name for this if you can think of one) is the Padomaic Harmonizing Urge. It is the attempt to reconcile Self with Other by forcing the Self to become more like the Other, expanding your own worldview to understand other people so they won’t be strangers. It’s the guy who takes his time to learn about others cultures so he can grok with that weird foreign neighbor of his and chat while enjoying a dinner of weird but cool exotic food (Lorkhan: “We are of two minds and so we should make a perfect gem of compromise.”). It’s the guy who spends too much time reading up on obscure lore and talking to people online so he can figure out what all the weird shit going on in his buddy’s c0da means. The Unifier tries to expand the Self until it interacts with conflicting Other waves in such a way that they are properly harmonized, but all still existing as individuals as part of a group (“I AM AND ALL ARE WE”).

The two are like maestros who bring a great big noisy dischord together into a coherent song. The Sharmat does it by making everyone play the same set of notes on the same instrument. The Unifier does it by making everyone play their own thing but in a way structured to fit everyone else’s instruments, an orchestra of compromise (Vivec: “How very beautiful you are that you do not join us.”).

On a side note, the Unifier and Sharmat often overlap a lot with the Prisoner/Hero and Serpent/Villain archetypes, respectively. The Prisoner, the Hero, they’re the ones you see who appear from nowhere with no identity, can do anything they want and almost always end up uniting a ton of different people together to tackle a big problem, then the Hero’s work is done and he vanishes into thin air (this trait is highly indicative of Shezzarines as well; notice how Lorkhan is plastered all over this essay and ultimately tied to everything I mention here in one way or another). The Serpent is the Bad Guy. He stirs shit up, overshadows the Hero by being the big danger everyone and their mother is panicking over, which makes them too distracted to stop the Hero from doing what he’s gonna do.

Whether the Sharmat is an Urge, a Proctor, a reincarnating botnet, all or none of the above is up to you. Interpret as you will.

What Does the Sharmat Do? Why Does He Do It?

Aleister’s Crowley’s philosophy of Thelema is a frequent topic that comes up in the lore, especially in the 36 Lessons of Vivec. Love comes in many different forms depending on the individual, but it generally is the act of undertaking whatever actions are most in line with the truest desires of your spirit.

Love has a lot of rape connotations in the context of the Sermons. Molag Bal and Vivec, both important to the discussion of the concept, are extremely violent and extremely sexual entities. Vivec is aping what amounts to a god of sex and is a warrior who often strikes down his opponents with an incredibly phallic weapon that represents his genitals. Molag Bal is a walking embodiment of domination, so his Love is the act of forcing himself on others against their will. Much like these Bal, the Sharmat is all about forcing his 'Love' on others, whether they want it or not.

The Sharmat is not just a rapist; he’s also a liar, a biter and a proselytizer.

In all the cases where we’ve seen him, the Sharmat is the Villain with a capital V. He’s evil, he knows what he does is evil, but he has to bury that niggling bit of truth deep down inside himself so he can live with what he does. He has to lie. Much of the Sharmat’s behavior is governed by a powerful victim complex. He basks in his own notions of divinity, power and fated victory, but the moment something goes wrong, it’s all somebody else’s fault. Whenever he resorts to evil, that part of him that knows what’s really up deep down inside his mind speaks up so he has to justify himself.

“You made me do this.” Dagoth Ur implies to Nerevar in their final meeting, distorting the events of Red Mountain to make Voryn Dagoth the tragic hero and Nerevar the traitor. “You made me like this.”

Think back to this quote from MK about the Sharmat’s voice being Ben Linus from LOST. They’re both men who have a goal they’ll stop at nothing to accomplish. There's another guy inside, the real guy that slips between the cracks when the Sharmat’s calm, confident and controlling facade starts to break down. When you first meet Dagoth Ur in person in Morrowind, he presents himself with aplomb. You meet him and he’s showing off his powerful, ripped physique, he talks from a position of control, his posture is dominant and confident to the point of condescension, standing tall with his chest spread out and his head thrown back in laughter. The Sharmat wants to intimidate you, want you to know he’s in control, wants you to give up and let him assert his power over you.

The moment you break into the Heart Chamber and start smacking the core of his divine power with Kagrenac’s tools, Dagoth Ur yells at you to stop and makes a beeline for the Heart. The Sharmat drops his earlier mask of civility and domination and desperately rushes in to destroy you at any cost because he realizes he’s lost control of the situation and panic is setting in.

Moral of the story: he’s a liar. Why did I call him a biter and a proselytizer, though? Take a look at this except from the 36 Lessons of Vivec

>Circles are confused serpents, striking and striking and never given leave to bite. The Aedra would have you believe different, but they were givers before liars. Lies have turned them into biters. Their teeth are the proselytizers; to convert is to place oneself in the mouth of falsehood; even to propitiate is to be swallowed.

The Sharmat is a mirror of this. Dagoth Ur and Miraak were once givers; Voryn Dagoth was a comrade of Indoril Nerevar and Miraak served the Dragon Cult as a devoted priest. Both these figures betrayed their former allies and became biters.

>Normally in the 36 Lessons the term "biting" is used to describe the act of taking a secret or power without the intention to give it back. You could think of it as devouring the flesh of an enemy in order to gain its power, if you like.

If we take a look at /u/RottenDeadite ‘s above explanation of the term ‘biter’ as it is used in the Lessons, we see they fit this definition too; the Sharmat(s) take and take and take without ever intending to give anything back as they continue to devour your mastery and your fire, ripping out all that makes you who you are so they can replace it with their own Love. Their teeth become proselytizers by converting their afflicted into fervent cultists to construct an illusion of false consent (to his rape) to better displace the responsibility for their rape onto the victim. A Sharmat constructs indirect vectors to spread their influence and blame the afflicted for being raped and assimilated (You were asking for it by wearing those clothes / you knew what was gonna happen when you walked out into that ashstorm / you’re the one who touched the All-Maker Stone, not me).

“To convert is to place oneself in the mouth of falsehood; even to propitiate is to be swallowed.” Think about how this line applies to the various Sharmat cultists, especially the Sixth House. Once infected by the Blight, they realize they will be stigmatized or possibly even subjected to a fate worse than death. So what do they do? They throw their lot in with the bad guy. The fanatic worshipers at first know on some level they are being raped and devoured by a malignant force, yet they have nowhere to go and nobody to turn to for help. These rape victims fall into a state of learned helplessness, unable to struggle against their rapist as he continues to violate them. And in time you graduate from learned helplessness to Stockholm Syndrome, where you propitiate your captor and rapist to gain his favor because now he’s the only emotional bond you have anymore, the only stable relationship in a prison of isolation. Before you know it he’s bitten off every last bit of you left to bite and now there’s nothing left of what you once were except for the Sharmat’s Love.

The Sharmat and the Ruling King

What we’ve established so far is the Sharmat has a lot of threads that interconnect to the rest of the web that is the mythic narrative of the Aurbis. It’s a Serpent with proselytizer fangs that keeps on greedily biting. It’s also often a traitor, or should I say a Rebel? Remember the end result of an Enantiomorph? A Rebel steals/usurps from a King and becomes a Ruling King. The Sharmat, however is one who fails to become a Ruling King and instead is transformed into a Helpless King. The very origin of the name Sharmat denotes a king who is helpless, be it his own purview of helplessness and blamelessness for his actions or his inability to ascend to the position of a Ruling King. Perhaps it is a sign of his location, for both Sharmats are always locked inside a prison (the Ghostfence for Dagoth Ur, Herma-Mora’s rule in Apocrypha for Miraak)?

The lifeblood of a ruler and all statesmanship is the principle of unity; one must be able to bring together a divided people to rule a nation. The Unifier is excellent at this, but the Sharmat is doomed to fail in his endeavors to become a Ruling King. He is unable to unite without biting and misinformed in the path to royalty. Dagoth Ur was fed secrets from the Heart of Lorkhan he was unprepared for and could not wholly comprehend, plus a bit of tonal architecture from Kagrenac’s tools could have altered his own nymic and tonal structure in the process to cause this result. Miraak bargained for knowledge from Hermaeus Mora, who no doubt sabotaged his rebellious servant, dragon-blooded and restlessly made for domination, with deliberate misinformation.

On the Sharmat’s Theoretical Awareness

As I’ve stated earlier, it’s quite possible the Sharmat archetype is aware of the inherent wrongness of their treacherous actions and it is this awareness that motivates them to adopt the “never my fault” mindset. Yet that awareness is present nonetheless, always niggling at the back of their minds. Another previous element to consider is the nature of the overlapping Serpent archetype; the Sharmat is the villain and they know it. The villain sets the long, winding snake-shaped road for the Hero to walk but the Hero walks it anyway. Is it possible the Sharmat (consciously or subconsciously) orchestrates his own destruction by setting down this long road to walk, so trapped in his own delusions of helplessness that he sees his own destruction as a key to freedom? Or is instead a masochistic urge to validate himself as a messianic figure by building up his own persecutors so he can endure their opposition? Food for thought.