Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-24135617-20131105231826/@comment-71.61.177.24-20140327152329

Ikabite wrote: Alduin is the counterpart of Akatosh in a way. Anu-Pandu Theorem. Duality.

Akatosh is time, Alduin is end of it.

I don't think Dragons really served Thalmor purpose. Thalmor dream of a never-ending Dawn Era. If Alduin was to succeed, there would be a new Dawn Era at one point, but Thalmor themselves would be no more. (Unless they found a way to survive the Kalpic cycle, like Hist are believed to have done.)

Dragons were "permadead" untill Alduin somehow (and this is really unexplained) revived them. They were actually driven to extinction long ago.

My personal headcanon is that Alduin actually split parts of himself off to recreate dragons, and that's the reason he was so weak in the fight with the Last Dragonborn.

Correction: Alduin went rogue and wanted to enslave mortals, he wouldn't have ended the time. If he was to succeed, he'd also enslave Mer, not allowing the to ascend, or rather - regress into their immortal state. ...Nothing in this is correct.

Nobody said that the dragons served the purpouse of the Thalmor. We said that they were related to the Altmer. And to mer in general. Thalmor =/= Altmer. Not all Thalmor are Altmer, and not all Altmer are Thalmor. You get Khajiit and Bosmer Thalmor, and you get Talos-worshipping Altmer war vets, and I am really sick of people conflating the Altmer with the Thalmor when really the other one is being referred to. We were talking about the species, not the faction. Well, we did discuss how the Thalmor might see themselves in relation to the dragons. But still.

Furthermore, it is canonically stated that the dragons Alduin resurrected were NOT perma-dead. They were killed by ordinary mortals, not by Dovahkinne (if you correct my spelling, I will invoke the wrath of Meridia. That is how you create a plural in the dragon language. It means "Dragonborns". Thank you, this has been your regularly scheduled Dovahzul lesson.), therefore their souls remained intact and they could be resurrected. If they were perma-dead, they wouldn't have been able to be brought back at all. Alduin certainly cannot "split off" entities from himself. He is not a god. He is a very, very powerful dragon, and all dragons are the children of a god. He is immensely powerful and has abilities that no other dragons possess. This does not prove that he is a god. It just proves that he is incredibly and so far inexplicably powerful.

Alduin did not "go rogue". That was how all dragons were. You can't go rogue from your own empire, and Alduin was ruler of the Dragon...Empire, let's call it. Whatever you want to call Skyrim while it was ruled by dragons and their Cult. He wanted to enslave mortals back then because he was a dragon, and dragons have dominion in their blood. That is stated (in more words than I have used, but that's the gist) by Paarthurnax, in-game. However, he is destined to devour the world - a phrase I interpret as devouring all souls ever to exist on Nirn, allowing life on it to be created anew, but that is my personal interpretation and has no bearing on this discussion and ''why did I even say that? I am going to start a forum fight''.

Anyways, yes, he would eat the world. He would definitely eat the world. You cannot simply refute the entire premise behind Skyrim with poor logic and willpower. (And pixie dust. -is smacked-)

I don't even understand what you're saying with the Dawn Era. The Thalmor want to become Et'Ada like their ancestors. (The ancestors of all mer are the Aldmer, and their ancestors are the Ehlnofey who were Et'Ada, but we have no evidence that humans came from the Ehlnofey, and the only evidence we have the the Khajiit came from the Ehlnofey is an origin myth high on metaphor, so that can't be proven. Nobody knows where the hey the Argonians came from, but I think we can agree it was not the Ehlnofey. So basically, no, the dragons are not related to the mer the same way they are to men.) it has been theorized that in order to achieve this goal, they wish to destroy the Towers of Nirn and thereby destroy the mortal plane. Alduin's "devouring of the world" could also be interpreted as destroying the mortal plane. Therefore...well. Look at that.

They could serve each others' purpouses. How odd.

However, I do agree with that Alduin-Akatosh opposites theory. In myths all over you'll see the "child overthrows/opposes his father" story. Heck, Star Wars. (I am just going to leave that sentence fragment all by itself, because I am sure you know what it means.) That's very interesting.

Regarding Kestrel's post,

Yeah, I think the Altmer - or at the very least the Aldmeri Dominion - see themselves as just as impressive and, well, godly as the Dov. The main difference being that the dov are pre-tty chill as they are, being bad*ss destroyers and conquerors, ruling joore and generally being dragons. The Thalmor, besides not actually being as powerful as the dragons (heh), want more. The dragons believe they have more - that they are all the gods they need to be. The Thalmor believe that they deserve more.

Beyond that, dragon reproduction. Yes, they are nearly well going extinct. However, with the number of them that keep turning up like rabbits around Skyrim, they seem to be greater in numbers than initially thought. And certainly we have the Dragonlings, which...may or may not be actual dragons. And the fact that Akatosh...theoretically could create more. The power of the Aedra is finite, and weak due to their participation in Creation. Akatosh, especially, is probably quite worn out - for instance, why create a Dragonborn rather than intervene in person? This is far more important than the Oblivion Crisis - that was conquering, this is destroying the mortal plane. I posit that he's tired. (Also, Akatosh is the God of Time. This means that prophecies mean nothing to him. Actually, given the magnitude of the prophetic work that is Alduin's Wall, I would bet good money that the prophecy came from an Elder Scroll, and that therefore it could have been inserted into the timeline after the Last Dragonborn actually came into being. (Such words as "after" and "before" are completely meaningless in TES, aren't they? Augh, my aching head.)

- WorshipsMeridia