Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-82.209.153.208-20140328221319/@comment-25047024-20140328222556

Amaranth is a somewhat complex topic. I'll try to explain it as good as I can, although you can also inform yourself about complex lore topics in the Imperial Library.

So, Amaranth is basicly a person becoming a new Godhead and dreaming his own dream. If you don't know yet, the TES Universe is basicly a "dream" (it's a very realistical dream, though, not just a "normal" dream) of an unconscious entity called the "Godhead", which is sleeping.

The first step to Amaranth is to achieve CHIM. Achieving CHIM requires that a person understands that the World is just a "dream" and that individuality doesn't exist, but that person still has to maintain a personality and has to be able to say "I". Remember, this is a very rough explanation.

So, if a person succeeds in both things, then that person achieves CHIM. A "CHIMster" is basicly like a lucid dreamer inside a dream: he can actively alter the dream through his will. However, most CHIMsters don't do that since altering too much would make the Godhead wake up, which would totally destroy the TES Universe.

Achieving CHIM is the first step to Amaranth. However, CHIM is about selfishness. A CHIMster only does something when he really wants it out of personal gain (such as Tiber Septim removing Cyrodiil's Jungle to make his Army more efficient). But Amaranth is about selflessness. An Amaranth sacrifices himself to dream a new dream, and looses all power he had before. The Godhead of a dream doesn't have any power about his own dream.

So, we know that selflessness is the key to Amaranth. The first known Amaranth is Anu.

Again, remember that this was just a really, really rough explanation. You should research this topic yourself, since it's a quite deep and complex concept. I hope I could help.