Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-178.84.10.91-20150827185509/@comment-9212235-20150828134851

Short answer: Yes he's Aedra, no he isn't the first.

That really doesn't explain it properly though. Let's address the idea of having a first Aedra. There is no such thing. During Convention all time occurs at the same time, or non-linearly. It is physically impossible to say what event happened before another, even if it's something that obviously has to take place first. I'm my own dad is something that is completely possible during the Dawn/Convention (if it was possible to reproduce). So with that said, there is no first or last. None are greater than another. There's just Aedra.

Auri-El is a piece of the Aka. He became mortal and Prolixed to show the Aldmer how to do it. While it is important to recognize that all of the Aka shards are their own beings, it is also important to recognize that they're all the same being as well. I bring this up because it is very important to understand what Aedra actually is. Within Mundus is the Plane(t) Akatosh. In reality, you should think of it as Aka-Tusk, but the Cyrodiilic pantheon has dominated Tamriel. The Plane(t) contains all shards warped by mythopoetic forces. This is true for the other Aedra as well, such as Stuhn/Stendarr, Kyne/Kynereth/Khenarthi, and so on.

But what is an Aedra?

It is one who dwells in Mundus. Nothing else. Nothing more. Many of the et'ada have shown us that the distinction between Aedra/Daedra/Magna Ge is only where they live. Meridia, Dagon, Malacath, Peryite, Arkay, Sheogorath, and others have proven that the only distinction between them is this.