User blog:Madman97/The Peryite Theory

It's been a while since I have a done a theory bog. There was nothing more to diagree with people with, be it with Kirkbride's infamous C0da, or the origins of the Aedra and Daedra. Well, this time we're going back to the Aedra and Daedra, whom are generally believed to be either beings who took part in creation or not, or if you're like me, think they are seperate beings created by the spilt blood of the Primordial deities of Anu and Padomay. I have fiercely defended the latter of the two, as it made more sense to me and the first didn't really appeal. I have found that the two can be combined but it was met with opposition, like pretty much everything else I make out from the lore on the Elder Scrolls. The arguments I had with people were stuff of legend, with them providing detailed accounts of why they were right while I simply shrugged and said, "Could be true, but just because it's in a book doesn't mean it is." An unpopular notion it was. Some of the arguments were of contradictory nature within the pantheon of the Elder Scrolls, meaning that some things, though well detailed, still didn't add up in anyone's theories. There are some entities that completely contradicted their own race, the examples being Jyygalag, obviously, Lorkhan, and Peryite.

Wait a second, Peryite? That dragon Daedric Prince no one cares about or even pays attention to because Sheogorath is stealing the show? Yes, my theory today is that Peryite is one of these contradictory entities within their own society along the lines of the other examples given above, simply stating that Peryite is Anuic in nature. How did I come to this radical conclusion? Well, it's not so radical as it seems (I've proposed far more inconceivable theories). See here, there is not a whole lot of information on our dear Lord Peryite, and that may attribute to his generally low appeal within the Elder Scrolls world. His realm, The Pits, cannot be reached by mortals unless by the Daedric Prince's say-so, an example shown by the Oblivion Peryite quest that involved rescuing lost souls in Mehrune's plane rather than Peryite's, and in Skyrim, where the Prince tells you himself that the former servant of his you were inclined to kill for Peryite is now wandering in eternal punishment down in the Pits. There is no culture that directly states Peryite by name within their own pantheon and one of the few times he is mentioned in a book is The Book of Daedra, which guves brief information on all current Daedric Prince's except Jyggalag, which no one prior to The Greymarch in Oblivion knew existed except the Daedric Princes themselves. The book does tell you however that Peryite is charged with ordering the lowest of Oblivion's planes and is known as the Taskmaster.

It is later learned in Skyrim that he is also the Lord of Pestilence, quietly influencing every generation of mortals through disease and what he believes to be the "Natural Order." Take note of that for later. He is a constant unknown presence and is considered by Men and Mer to be one of the few Truly Evil Daedra in every sense of the word, along with Bal and Vaermina (I think it was those two). His followers, like Kesh the Clean, believe that only disease can truly cleanse the earth of any and all afflictions, ironically enough. This is where the interesting part kicks in that doesn't add up with the rest of the world's view on Peryite, who I imagine is an overworked office dragon with a nasty cough. While on the outside, Peryite's actions may appear manevolent, inside Peryite's circle there does seem to be some noble cause they are fighting for to return the world to its prior state of "Natural Order." Though they do use some unorthodox methods, they technically do so. The Natural Order phrase is not a bit of coincedental dialogue. I fact, an interesting piece of dialogue that shows up within the Skyrim quest is the phrase "Order," which is mentioned more than three times within four sentences. In fact, the last sentence he says when bidding you goodbye is "Embrace Order and the Hard Truth." Order. A funny choice of words from someone who is a part of a chaotic race. But we have seen something like this before.

Jyggalag, the Daedric Prince of Order, also a direct contradicition to everything his race represents, being more Anuic in nature according to Lord Sheogorath. A debate or two has played out with each side giving their own explanation as to why this contradiction exists, and why so prominently within the Daedric Heirarchy. It is suggested by Dyus, the servant of Jyggalag that Jyggalag uses algorithms to percieve all coming events and records them in his library, knowing everything that has happened, happening, and will happen by using logical deduction, thus giving him knowledge of all of Mundus. What is truly extraordinary is that Jyggalag forgoes all individualism and is a team player in terms of Perfect Order, something which his counterpart Sheogorath despises, as would any Daedric Prince, who are ultimately beings of change, and bad things tend to happen to the entitity who doesn't play along with the Daedric Princes established standard. Jyggalag was cursed to be the thing he hated most, a comedic favor for us, but not for Jyggalag. One could argue that since Jyggalag was noted by Dyus as the strongest of the Daedric Prince's at the time and the others grew to fear him and so cursed him, it had nothing to do with Jyggalag being different. It coould very well be the fact that, going back to the Aedra and Daedra debate of what exactly entails them as a race, since the only difference between Aedra and Daedra are that the Aedra are beings that took part in creation and the Daedra are not, technically making them the same race with behavioral differences, like mankind. You won't find exactly two of the same people. Even twins have some personality differences.

One who supports the Primordial Blood theory, in which the Aedra are born from the mixture of Anu's and Padomay's blood and thus are capable of good and evil and the Daedra are born purely from Padomay's blood, introduced in the book Sithis, can argue that there may not be equal mixtures of blood in their system. For example, Lorkhan is regarded as Anuic, who are beings of stasis, but he had done a very non-static thing by creating Nirn, possibly at Sithis's request according to some, and has an perfectly balanced mixture of the blood of both Order and Chaos, whereas Jyggalag may have more Anuic blood than Padomaic since he takes what is supposed to be a good thing, Order, and turns it into a tyranical dictatorship with absolute control and no personality, something that is pointed out by Sheogorath himself. Because Jyggalag has that Anuic blood he is a being of unchanging resolve, but because of that evil bit of Padomaic blood the good ideal is warped into something grey and lifeless. One could argue it is vice versa for Jyggalag as well, with more Padomaic blood than Anuic. But we're not here for Jyggalag, we're here for Peryite.

Going back to the notion that the majority of Daedric Princes tend to despise the ugly ducklings of their group, Jyggalag, Malacath, this could also be attributed to Peryite as well. Though Peryite's perception of Order is different to that of Jyggalag's, who supports absolute tyranny, Peryite's version of Order within Nirn is much more simplistic in its design, the "Natural Order" if you will. His figures it is his job to make sure Nature stays its course without Man or Mer hindering it, and though unorthodox in his methods, it's an unusaully noble cause for one that is considered to be completely evil. He is also charged with keeping Order within Oblivion's lowest ranks, and though knowledge of Oblivion's politics are unknowable as said by Molag Bal at the ending the Elder Scrolls Online quest, there must be some reason to have to keep order within the lower spheres? Is there fear of rebellion? Do armies simply need to be organized? Do the Daedric Princes NEED order to thrive in order (Pun not intended) to have a successful chaotic society? Are the Daedric Princes one big contradiction?

These are interesting questions. Throwing aside all notions of what exactly the Aedra and Daedra are made up of, be it blood or just different names, perhaps it is a fair consideration that these ugly ducklings are necessary within the Daedric heirarchy to bring variety to their race, which the Daedric Princes, though they hate outsiders, as demonstrated by their behavior to Malacath, they subconsioucly allow them to exist within their ranks to further elicit Change, which is what they are all about, because if they ALL represented change, nothing would be different, and they would vanish in a puff of logic. Peryite is considered the lowest and weakest of Daedric Princes. I think there is a reason for that. While subconsiouly letting these ulgy ducklings exist within their hellish society, the majority of Daedric Princes do despise them, and they often do bad things to them, like condemning Peryite to a lowly job for example?

The simple fact is that there is more to Peryite than any of us have ever thought possible, and even if my theory is wrong, that simply thought is true enough. What is Peryite's game, what are Bethesda's plans for him in the future? Who or what is Peryite? Food for thought, Stay Ranty.