The Serpent and His Many Aspects

Excluding the Aldmeri, all extant Tamrielic cultures include a myth or legend of a world-ending catastrophe, caused by a great figure of destruction, with the present inhabitants of Tamriel descended from its survivors.

For the Nedes, this figure is identified with the Serpent. For the ancient Nords, the totem of this figure was also a serpent, representing Orkey and his summoning of Alduin. For the Khajiit, the destroyer's name is Lorkhaj, which perhaps may parallel the Skaal's Greedy Man.

Indeed, one could easily imagine the potential the relatively recent confrontations with Mehrunes Dagon in Cyrodiil and the Sharmat in Vvardenfell to have become the basis of similar legends had the Tamrielic forces noted prevailed in their struggles, with only survivors in some otherworldly refuge left to relate what happened. Some scholars have suggested that the Clockwork City may even have been designed as such a refuge.

While the broad outlines agree in these different accounts, the details do not. While it may be easy to dismiss these discrepancies as arising from the passage of time, there is an alternative explanation - which is that perhaps each culture is a survivor of different catastrophes. The idea that one doom-bringer wearing many identities and bringing different catastrophes is perhaps best attested in Skaal legends, from one of which I will quote a passage:

" The Adversary has many aspects. He appears in the unholy beasts and the incurable plague. At the End of Seasons, we will know him as Thartaag the World-Devourer. But in these ages he came to be known as the Greedy Man."

Will a similar catastrophe end our world? And if so, who will be the author of our doom? If the stories are to be believes, only time - and the survivors - will tell.

-Savos Arren, Arch-Mage of the College of Winterhold