The Face-Snaked Mother and Her Flame, Symbolism of Almalexia's Visage

AYEM is the first character to appear in the Sermons, her visage self described in quite the memorable way…

> Ayem came first to the village of the netchimen, and her shadow was that of Boethiah, who was the Prince of Plots, and things unknown and known would fold themselves around her until they were like stars or the messages of stars. Ayem took a netchiman's wife and said:

>'I am the Face-Snaked Queen of the Three in One. In you is an image and a seven-syllable spell, AYEM AE SEHTI AE VEHK, which you will repeat to it until mystery comes.

I know it its been pointed out before the importance of the descriptor being “Face-Snaked” instead of “Snaked-Faced”, but once again I'd like to take a shot at the symbolism and try and bring out something I feel might have been missed. But first, let's ride off u/RottenDeadite's coattails once again…

>Notice that it's "Face-Snaked," not "Snake-Faced." Her face is not that of a snake, but rather it has taken on a snake-like quality. It has been "snaked."

>Again, the symbolism here is myth-inspired. The snake symbol has a wide range of interpretations depending on culture, from death & rebirth to spiritual cleansing and the connection to Mother Earth. And since Almalexia is the "mother" in the Tribunal, all these connections are pretty solid.

Absent is the obvious connection of the Bringer of Knowledge. Almalexia is Anticipated by Boethia, and Boethia after all was the guiding force behind and the communing giver of forbidden knowledge unto Veloth and his people.

>” a young prophet, Veloth. Boethiah had been speaking to Veloth in dreams and visions, guiding him to lead a new sect of Aldmeri with the belief that mortals could ascend to become gods.” The Fall of Trinimac

>” Boethiah told the mass before him the Tri-Angled Truth. He showed them, with Mephala, the rules of Psijic Endeavor. He taught them how to build Houses, and what items they needed to bury in the Corners. He demonstrated the right way to wear their skin. The Changed Ones.

>"the so-called Prophet Veloth communed with the Daedric Prince Boethiah and agreed to accept her gifts. He inscribed the Velothi Prophecies, which expounded the doctrine of worship of the "Good Daedra" (Boethiah, Azura, and Mephala), along with ways to propitiate and negotiate with the "Bad Daedra" (Molag Bal, Malacath, Sheogorath, and Mehrunes Dagon)." Daedra Worship: the Chimer

In the Abrahamic traditions, the Serpent maneuvers humanity into partaking the forbidden fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Through this, many Occultist sects, some influenced by Gnosticism, view Lucifer as a tragic and heroic Promethian figure, punished and reviled for enlightening mankind and who elevated them to a level closer to the god who kept knowledge away from them (a stance any Dunmer would sympathize with).

And that brings us to the other related symbol of Knowledge, the Forbidden Flame. The figure Prometheus in Greek tradition was the utmost benefactor of mankind who disobeyed Zeus, stole the Fire of Olympus, and gifted it man. He too was punished, yet is more fondly remembered.

But how is the Stolen Flame connected to the image of the “Face-Snaked”? For this you need to view the Lessons as a result of a self fulfilling time paradox, the beginning leading to the end, and the ending making the beginning possible. Odd that the text first disclosing the secret of the Wheel is a Tower, yet is too a Tower of text which is in essence itself a rolling Wheel of events.

The Stolen Flame came torn from Numidium… Sermon 36

>Each of the aspects of the ALMSIVI then rose up together, combining as one, and showed the world the sixth path. Ayem took from the star its fire, Seht took from it its mystery, and Vehk took from it its feet, which had been constructed before the gift of Molag Bal and destroyed in the manner of truth: by a great hammering. When the soul of the Dwemer could walk no more, they were removed from this world.

Imagine Almalexia, timespanned to legitimize the Tribunal Thrones, appearing to the netchmother holding the Usurped Sacred Fire of Numidium in front of her golden visage… A Flame dances, constantly fluctuating and distorting itself, always moving. Would not anyone who looked upon her through an intense and roaring godly flame, not see the image of her face do the same from behind it? Wouldn't it, to the observer, seem that her features and expressions writhe and distort themselves, perhaps akin to a rolling mass of serpents? Knowing of what she bore in hand, would not Almalexia proudly declare and draw attention to this image she was presenting, a reminder that it was granted only through her hands? Perhaps

Lorkhan himself is the Prometheus/Lucifer who was punished, but yet Boethia is the Serpent who prevailed. AYEM then emerged back from the Red Moment, shadowing Boethia's approachment of Veloth, to be peered through the Stolen Flame.

We then hear later that Vivec inherits this flame, this knowledge, something gained from the House of Boet-hi-ah (thus association to Ayem). Sermon 3

> Vivec felt that his mother was afraid, and so consoled her.

>'The fire is mine: let it consume thee,

>And make a secret door

>At the altar of Padhome

>In the House of Boet-hi-Ah

>Where we become safe

>And looked after.'

It can also be said that this is “The Mother's Prayer” due to this being utter by Vivec twice, once at the death of hir mother, and again for the most powerful and final child ze birthed from the Pomegranate Banquet. The prayer itself is a thing of mercy and...

> Vivec still had a touch of Ayem's mercy –Sermon 34

The Fire is held by and Inherited from the Mother, and we may never count a mother’s countless faces, wrapped together in one, that they must wear for us. After all, it is always the Mother who first cultures us and instills within us the knowledge of what we really are and can possibly be.

edit: spelling