Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-11276487-20130724230617/@comment-5569775-20130726231518

Devouring the world, throughout most ancient cultures, meant that the one that was to devour the world would send it into/shroud it in darkness. Afterall, there's no light in ones stomach, or that was the train of thought. For other cultuters, instead of darknes, the world would be ingulfed in flames(which devour's most forms of life), apocalyptic style. One such case for this was with Ragnarok. For Alduin, it's likely ingulfing the world in flames, but that really lies with Bethesda and how they wish for the fate of nirn to play out.

And the Devines at least according to the wikia, noticed their energy was being sapped but did not stop/run with the rest. The wikia makes it seem they had a choice, but kept going, not knowing how much it would cost them in the end. Or maybe that's just how I interpeted it, we all see things differently.