Further Inquiries into the Skaal Faith: A Letter

3E 432

20th Rain's Hand

To the Most-Esteemed Elder Council,

With the invaluable support of the Imperial Geographic Society and the College of Winterhold, we present to you the results of our investigation into the faith of the Skaal. After last year's expedition to the north of Solstheim and the discovery of the ice-cave in question, we have made our first tentative translation of the best preserved etchings, from what has been designated Codex 2. While largely incomplete due to what appears to be vandalism, these texts paint a new picture of the ancient progenitor of the spiritual practices of the native Skaal.

The Skaal themselves were most unhelpful when it came to the writings. On the whole they seem to amount to a sort of heresy for them, and they attributed their creation to "The Adversary". Despite our best guesses, the nature of this "Adversary" is still mostly unknown to us. Certain grammatical formations of the etchings suggest that it is itself a translation from an earlier text, most probably of Old Aldmeric origin, which could reflect Merological mythic inclinations within the work itself.

Our translation is as follows:

"This ignorance of the All-Maker brought about terror and fear. And terror became dense like a fog, so no one was able to see. Because of this, error became strong. But she worked on her material substance vainly, because she did not know the truth. She assumed a fashioned figure while she was preparing, in power and in beauty, the substitute for truth. This, then, was not a humiliation for the illimitable, inconceivable Father. For they were as nothing, this terror and this forgetfulness and this figure of falsehood, whereas established truth is unchanging, unperturbed, and completely beautiful.

For this reason, do not take error too seriously.

Since error had no root, she was in a fog regarding the All-Maker. She was preparing works and forgetfulnesses and fears in order, by these means, to beguile those of the middle and to make them captive. The forgetfulness of error was not revealed. It did not become light beside the father. Forgetfulness did not exist with the All-Maker, although it existed because of him. What exists in him is knowledge, which was revealed so that forgetfulness might be destroyed and that the All-Father might be known. Since forgetfulness existed because the All-Maker was not known, if the All-Maker comes to be known, from that moment on forgetfulness will cease to exist."

Obvious issues for the Skaal must include this female divinity participating in, or possible acting as the sole agent in creation, which is reserved exclusively for their All-Maker. Considering a merethic origin of the text, these acts could possibly be attributed to some forgotten female aspect of their trickster, Lorkhan; this is gross speculation until some instance of femininity in Lorkhan's portrayal can be found.

It is on this note that our research team humbly requests one more year's worth of funding, if the esteemed Councillors find our work satisfactory.

Marcus Bantius of the 2nd Skaal Expedition, Provisional Solstheim Company, Fourth Legion