Talos and the Many-Headed Serpent

TRANSCRIPT OF AN INTERROGATION RECOVERED FROM A THALMOR PRISON IN VALENWOOD. SUBMITTED TO THE ARCHIVES OF SKY HAVEN TEMPLE AT THE REQUEST OF MASTER ESBERN

Subjects response when questioned whether he believes Talos is truly divine

Talos-that-is was the figment of the God that was, he who has gone missing. But he was not alone. Talos the god is not who men have long revered him to be, but he is nonetheless. He is also what men have always reverenced. The many headed Talos is that man that you call Stormcrown, and he is known by many other names, not all of which are evident to you now and so many more of which I am not certain. Yet he is not that man called Tiber Septim, even though he is.

But know the mystery: Talos that you call Stormcrown once ascended, and did so by walking the steps of the missing god, walked with his steps until their steps became as one. Talos that you call Stormcrown beat upon the Doom-Drum until the drum beat with his beat. But he was not the first to do so, but he was the first to do so. He was not either the last to do this, but none will follow after him.

But you do not properly misunderstand me, because my riddle is to clear.

The many-headed Talos, as he has at times been called, is one being, but he is not singular. He is many, but they are all one. They have many names, yet they are all known by one name. Do you not properly confuse my words to find their meaning?

You tell me that Talos the god is the man Tiber Septim. You are correct in this saying, but you could not be more wrong. I tell you that Talos the god is not, because what he is is not what you think. Do you not know that Aedra are not finite, that they themselves do not know where one of them ends and the other begins? So is Talos only a sliver of that many-headed beast, and you have created the limits where they are not.

Talos is indeed your far-famed emperor, but Tiber Septim is not Talos! No I tell you now that Septim arose to meet the many-headed serpent, and was consumed by it! What once was then became lost in the serpent's mind, but still it remembers what that part of it once was. And this part of the serpent that you call Talos is known by many other names that you may have forgotten. Study the things that were in order to understand that which is! Your stories are not misunderstood properly because you have not looked at them backwards.

But this I would have you remember: the wicked sects of mer have despised and deposed Talos because they fear what it is they think he is, or because they have misunderstood what he may be. But know that they fight against that thing against which they have always fought, because their understanding is dim.

Think cleverly on this thing, so that man and mer will know you as a proper fool: what is that serpent, and who is that which has eaten its heart?

But think carefully, all my words are not empty but bear meaning. That meaning is veiled and hidden, yet it is here in front of you if you dare to find it.

Interrogator's addendum: Subject continued on with such imaginative speech until we were forced to silence him, as his words generated great anxiety among the guards and interrogators. It is unclear whether the subjects views and beliefs are unique to himself, or the teachings of some roque sect or cult of the false-god Talos. It is my recommendation that agents be deployed immediately to track down and eradicate any possible cult the subject may represent.