Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-24.119.198.177-20130930002431/@comment-26007282-20150205225400

Personally, I agree with the theory that the HoK eventually grew into their role as Mad God, but I've come up with an in-the-raw idea vaguely similar to that one, and so for the sake of saying something different than the many-repeated theories above, here it is:

What if, after the events of The Shivering Isles, the mantle of Mad God became similar to that of the Gray Fox? That is, every few decades or so the title gets passed on to someone new, and due to the nature of the curse (Or, some may say, "blessing") of the Madgod/Gray Cowl, they have to play by the rules of whatever figure they have taken the place of.

Again, I'm not really convinced that this theory --even if it is my own-- is correct, as it doesn't really have much evidence in support of it. Aside from, perhaps, Sheogorath's comment in Skyrim about the title of Mad God being a family title, and is passed down "from me to myself" every few thousand years. But of course, that's subjective. Then again, most things Sheo-related are.