On Cyrodilic Religion, Part the First: The Eight Divines

The history of the Nibenay Valley is the history of Cyrodiil itself.

The vast grassland at the center of the Imperial Province, broken up by dozens of rivers that flow from Lake Rumare and connect the Imperial City to every corner of Tamriel, is welcoming and accepting of all people, regardless of race or religion. Its natives, the Nibenese, are a tolerant and curious people, who delight in the novelties delivered by tourists from their native culture into the Valley – it is not uncommon to see a Nibenese man decorate his household with dizzying Altmeri tapestries, drink only the finest of sujamma delivered by Dunmeri traders, and dress only in the finest fashions of Daggerfall and Wayrest – but what they appreciate most is the multitude of gods, pantheons, cults, and faiths that the tourists introduce to Nibenay.

Nibenese culture emerged following the Alessian Slave Rebellion, which began in the Two Hundred Forty-Second Year of the First Era with the establishment of the Free City of Sancre Tor, and concluded with the capture of the White-Gold Tower by the freed Nedic slaves scantly a year later. Under the oppressive rule of the Ayleids, the Nedes had not known culture, for their masters forbid them from expressing themselves artistically or experimentally, and in some cases, from worship, or even having names. However, following their liberation, the Nedes who had once known only a life of bleak servitude began to embrace as much pleasure and vibrancy in their lives as possible, for they had yet to truly experience life. The Nibenese became famous throughout Tamriel for their flamboyancy, delighting in bright, almost dizzyingly colorful costumes, beautiful body modifications including piercings, brandings, and complex tattoos, and, most important of all, their religion.

It was Saint Alessia, following her rebellion, had established the pantheon of the Eight Divines in order to maintain her alliances with the freed Nedes who stilled worshiped the elven gods of their former masters, rebel Ayleids who had freed their slaves and remained loyal to Alessia following the Rebellion, Nordic mercenaries and armies who had assisted her in conquering Cyrodiil and were still strict adherents of the Nordic pantheon, and Akatosh himself, who Alessia had promised to serve faithfully in exchange for his divine intervention in liberating the Cyrodilic men from the Ayleids. The Eight Divines were a well-researched and well-analyzed synthesis of Nordic and Aldmeri gods that combined the pantheons of the Nords and the Aldmer in such a way that appealed to the Nedes, the Nords, the remaining Ayleids, and Akatosh – a pantheon so perfect that it continues to be the most popular religion on Tamriel today.

Akatosh was a mannish reinterpretation of Auri-El, changing the King of the Elves into the recognizable Dragon, and transforming what was once the staunchest enemy of mankind into its most mighty protector, patron of the Empire, father of the Dragonborn, and creator of the Amulet of Kings. Many of the Nords loyal to Alessia were alienated by her veneration of what they perceived as a foreign elven god, and many of them left the Nibenay Valley to return home to Skyrim following the Rebellion, or to join the Nedes on the western frontier to begin conquering the jungles of Colovia, simply due to this one perceived act of heresy. Not only did they perceive Akatosh as an elven god, they saw him as the Dragon and to the Nords, the Dragon is Alduin, the World-Eater, who heralds the end of days; this made the Eight Divines simply incompatible with the entirety of the Nords, forcing Alessia to consider more Nordic gods when creating her pantheon.

Some of the other Nordic deities, like Jhunal, Kyne, and Dibella, were adopted into the Eight Divines to satisfy the unruly Nords living in Cyrodiil, though some of their spheres and personality had to be altered in order to be compatible with the more elven-influenced Nedes. Jhunal, the Nordic God of Language and Mathematics, was reinterpreted as Julianos, the Cyrodilic god of literature, law, history, and magic, becoming more complex and arcane to satisfy the needs of the Nedes for magnanimity; he still retained his sphere of Wisdom and Logic, though he had changed from being brutally practical and logical into something more esoteric and thoughtful, as he is perceived today in Cyrodiil. Kyne was the Nordic Goddess of the Storm, which fit the Nords, seeing as the bitter winds of Skyrim could tear the roofs off of lesser castles and the blizzards could decimate entire kingdoms. However, in the Nibenay Valley, where the sun beamed down the Nibenese year-round, the Goddess of the Storm and Warrior-Widow of Shor was transformed into Kynareth, a sky spirit whose domain was the air and the elements as a whole, though she was much more tempered than Kyne. It was the Nordic goddess Dibella of love and beauty who had taught the Nords the arts and athletics in order to occupy themselves when it was too cold or dangerous to leave their homes, giving them divine inspiration. She retained her name as a Cyrodilic god, though the Cyrodiils, having grown with the sensual and erotic Ayleids, began to worship the more sexual undertones of Dibella, as they were much more sexually free than the Nords (as it is difficult to be so when it is freezing cold). This is why Dibella today has dozens of cults in the Imperial City, devoted to Dibella the Artist, Dibella the Feminist, and Dibella the Lovemaker. Finally, the last Nordic god to be adopted was Tsun, another warrior, and the Nordic God of Trials and Sentinel of Sovngarde; though it sounds unbelievable, modern scholars believe that Zenithar, God of Labor and Commerce, was actually a Cyrodilic interpretation of Tsun, though this remains to be proven objectively, as the differences between Tsun and Zenithar are immense; Tsun is a warrior, like most of his Nordic brethren, but Zenithar preaches that violence is not the answer, and that trade and cooperation are. Whether or not Zenithar was derived from some other god or from Tsun remains a subject of scholarly debate, and one that will not be explored here.

Mara, Goddess of Love, Compassion, and Sacred Marriage, is a near-universal deity who was included in both the Aldmeri and Nordic pantheons. Including her in the Eight Divines was a given, as she was one of the only deities that the Nords, Ayleids, and Nedes could agree was worthy of worship, though the Nords had demoted her slightly as the handmaiden of Kyne and not a goddess on her own. Alessia placed her as having equal importance as Kynareth, which, while eyebrow-raising to some Nords, offended very few of them. Other Aedra worshiped by both the Aldmer and the Nords included Stendarr and Stuhn, both of which referred to the same basic deity of mercy and justice. Stuhn was, like most Nordic gods, a warrior, but it was he who taught the Nords the benefits of ransom - that is, of taking hostages instead of killing indiscriminately. While this was still merciful, the Nedes were distinctly not a warrior-race, and as such, Stuhn needed to change. The Aldmeri Stendarr was closer to a god of mercy, justice, and righteous law, who had been the apologist of man during the Dawn Era; Alessia, through her wisdom, adopted the elements of Stuhn into Stendarr, creating a new Stendarr who was still the God of Mercy and Justice, and was primarily the Aldmeri deity he had always been, but who had a new warrior flavor to him, which is why he is today a patron deity of the Imperial Legions. Arkay's origins are shrouded in much more mystery, but one prevailing theory believes him to be a synthesis of the Aldmeri God of Achievements and Knowledge, and the death-god Orkey of the Nordic pantheon. While Orkey was an antagonist to the Nords (likely due to originally being an Aldmeri god who was borrowed by the Nords during their conquest of Atmora), Xarxes was the Divine Scribe of the Aldmer, who recorded their accomplishments, great and small. Alessia found a way to combine the benevolence of Xarxes with the death-sphere of Orkey in order to create a kind deity of Life and Death, which, some say, even bears resemblance to the Redguard deity Tu'whacca, but that is a story for another time.

What was perhaps one of the most controversial ideas Alessia introduced to her people was Shezarr, the Cyrodilic transformation of Shor. Shor was the king of the Nordic Gods and of the underworld, ruling from his high throne in Sovngarde, the Nordic paradise-after-life where they could sing, drink, and playfully fight with the heroes of legend until the end of time. Shor was the most important of the Nordic gods, for he was the Nordic interpretation of Lorkhan, God of Mankind, who had first dreamed the Mundus that men and mer alike now inhabit. To Nords, even Kyne did not compare to Shor, who had come many times in human form to assist the Nords in their conquests. However, the Ayleids and Nedes who had worshiped the Aldmeri pantheon understood Shor as Lorkhan, Doom Drum, who had cursed the spirits of the Aurbis into becoming wretched mortals, bound to the world, a prison in their eyes; worshiping Lorkhan, the Devil of the elves, would be impossible, and Alessia understood this. Shezarr was no god; instead, he was the "spirit of all human undertaking", a driving force that, while never forming as a distinct deity, was always present, everywhere, and was possibly even more pervasive than the Divines themselves, for Shezarr lent his strength to every human in accomplishing their goals. This decision alienated some Ayleids and Nedes alike, who would refuse to even acknowledge Lorkhan as a benevolent spirit, much less a deity, and even some Nords, who would never accept that Shor was not the king of the gods. Alessia understood this, but she stood steadfast as she introduced Shezarr her Empire, and he was, more or less, accepted by the majority, though in the early years of her reign, Shezarr worship was highly controversial in all circles.

Through careful research and introspection, Alessia had discovered how to take the most popular Aedra of both the Aldmer and the Nords in order to create the Eight Divines, which remains the most popular religion in Tamriel today. The Divines are timeless, for they appeal to both man and elf, and all manner of civilized people, notwithstanding the Daedraphile Dunmer and Orcs, who are less likely to be accepting of the Empire anyways. Though worship differs in some regions of Tamriel, the Eight Divines remain a constant, as they have for nearly three thousand years. Besides the Divines themselves, many traditional Aedraphile Cyrodiils still include Saint Alessia and her consort Morihaus in their prayers, and the even more traditional include Saint Pelinal Whitestrake of the elven pogrom, though his worship is typically not tolerated in most circles. Akatosh, the bridge between Elf and Man, appeals to all loyal citizens of the Empire, and though Shezarr is no longer a god, his sphere has expanded to mankind itself, and every action that every man takes. Alessia, with the assistance of the wisest Nedes, Ayleids, and Nords, and Akatosh himself, proved herself with this new pantheon of Aedra as the rightful Empress of Cyrodiil, for she knew how to compromise between all of her peoples.

The Eight Divines would remain the dominant religion in Cyrodiil for another century, becoming more developed following the death of Empress, now Saint, Alessia, though a mysterious new religion was growing in the newly-settled jungles of Colovia. This faith would later grow to replace the Eight Divines in Nibenay as the dominant faith, though it would never achieve dominance in Colovia, and it would become so powerful that it would seize control of the Empire itself, create the Nibenese culture that remains to this day as dominant in the Heartland, cause the total extinction of the Ayleid race, and even break time itself in order to achieve their goals of purging the elves from Cyrodiil. They would define the First Era in its entirety, and their name would be taken from the Saint who had first proved that humanity was a truly force to be reckoned with on Tamriel.

Antonius of Niben, Imperial Historians Guild, 4E 205. *