Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-35782287-20190126232942/@comment-1255618-20190313095042

@CatholicPrincess15 Here's how I see it:

If the player completed the questline of the Shivering Isles, then there is a good chance that the Hero of Kvatch is Sheogorath. If the player chose not to enter into Sheogorath's service, then someone else did, and that person became the new Sheogorath. Sheogorath himself in the DLC says he was waiting for someone to be his champion, but that it wasn't necessarily the Hero of Kvatch.

So the Champion of Sheogorath most likely always becomes Sheogorath, but the Champion of Sheogorath may or may not be the same as person as the Hero of Kvatch. So there are two different destinies which may or may not have been fulfilled by the same person.

The only snag is what happens if the Hero of Kvatch starts the questline but doesn't complete it. It's strongly implied that the Sheogorath in Skyrim is an entirely new person, so my guess is that either the player abandons her or his duties during one of the early missions and someone else ends up doing the dirty work instead, or if the Greymarch is nearing its end the Hero of Kvatch is destined to defeat Jyggalag even if the player procrastinates. I wouldn't imagine that this is hard-and-fast, but rather that regardless of implications the outcome is meant to be left to your imagination.

I think the whole storyline of The Shivering Isles DLC was a reflection about the nature of free will versus determinism. The player defies Dyus's pessimistically deterministic predictions and is victorious over Jyggalag, but the path of becoming Sheogorath comes across as just as inevitable and unalterable as the path of the Greymarch seemed at first. Given the themes, the creators probably meant to challenge the player's preconceived notions but ultimately to let her or him decide for her or him -self whether destiny or will is stronger and how exactly the story resolves itself in the end.

If it makes you feel any better, if the Hero of Kvatch did indeed become Sheogorath he also seems to be relatively happy. It's a subtle difference given that both Sheogorath's have the same quirks, obsess over cheese, are pretty much identical personality-wise, etc., but the old Sheogorath seemed to have a bit of a self-pitying streak and had a reputation for torturing mortals for its own sake, even though he had clearly gained empathy for his followers over the milennia. He also seemed to struggle with doubts and Jyggalag-like thoughts of determinism. In contrast, the new Sheogorath, who again may be either just the Champion of Sheogorath or the Champion of Sheogorath and the Hero of Kvatch, seems to have more self-love and be much more comfortable with himself, and he demonstrates a higher degree of empathy (probably due to having been a mortal) for example towards Pelagius; Sheogorath strongly hints that the whole reason he was spending time with Pelagius (beyond having fun) was to try to bring him back to sanity (or at least keep him company), which is why he co-opts the Dragonborn's help and agrees to leave Pelagius's mind once he's become sane. And even if he hadn't made any such plans Sheogorath's willingness to give sanity rather than just madness seems very different from the old Sheogorath.

So it might be said that the new Sheogorath has maintained and progressed the character development of the old one towards finding meaning, and he probably also has an at minimum stronger if not absolute belief in the power of choice given his triumph over Jyggalag. In short, Sheogorath has evolved from a cursed being whoses primary purpose was harmful and self-destructive into a mindful god whose reason for being is expressive and self-creative.

I hope my comments were able to make you feel a little better. :)