u/CocayneWayne

Hey all. I am deeply ashamed to be writing this post. But it’s just the title. I find I need another person to bounce my thoughts off, especially when I’m developing essay premises. I have so many ideas and things I want to discuss but lack the focus to synthesize them all or cut what’s unnecessary sometimes. In high school i had my awesome teachers and that was enough. But now that im doing uni remotely with lecturers who are borderline useless I don’t know what else to do. No one else that I live with has enough context to discuss things with me.

I can think of several ruts I don’t know how I would have pulled myself out of without chat gpt. I never ask it to write stuff for me. I always clarify that i do not want it to do the work for me. My questions are always to help clarify my lecturers super vague instructions or along the lines of “what are my blind spots in arguing this perspective for my essay” or things like that.

This is becoming a political point of contention within myself. Any input is appreciated.

I am new to the lore so forgive my ignorance or if these are repeat questions!

1. If Alessia’s pantheon of the Divines is a diplomatic merger of elven and human deities, are the divines actually real? (In universe obvi). Like Kynareth is Kyne with a new name so thats makes sense but what about Akatosh? Like if he’s a merger of Auriel and Lorkhan and all the other names they go by, who hears your prayers when you pray to Akatosh? I have read the theories and come to believe that Lorkhan acts through the guise of Auriel/Akatosh but does that mean that Akatosh is just made up? Is the time dragon made up? Does Auriel also pretend to be Akatosh? Who is the deity of time?

2. If Akatosh is a merger of Auriel and Lorkhan why would the Altmer or whichever elves Alessia was trying to appeal to accept him as the head of the pantheon? Isn’t Lorkhan like the Altmer equivalent of satan? Was it a secret? Im thinking about that excerpt from one of the books in Skyrim that says something about how the Nords would withdraw their support from Alessia if she didn’t somehow include Shor in the pantheon or something so why were the Nords satisfied with Akatosh?

3. If Auriel and Lorkhan are rivals and enemies how does merging them even make sense? Is it to each their own? When the elves worship Akatosh are they secretly in their minds just worshipping Auriel and the Nords, Shor/Lorkhan?

4. Who is Alduin, aside from the world eater? The Nordic equivalent of Auriel? Akatosh? Do the dragons have an origin? Are the dragons time? Again, who is the actual deity of time?

Apologies if these questions are a hot mess, but i have never been this enraptured by a world before and im trying to learn lots!! Any input is welcome