#tes meta

As soon as he refused his task in order to feed his arrogance and greed for power over creatures, the fate of Nirn was stripped from him, and the prophecy that the Dragonborn fulfills was set in motion.

Alduin gets trapped in time, stalled for a while, until the fates converge to bring a certain prisoner to Skyrim.

Then, Skyrim’s fate is in the Dragonborn’s hands.

Alduin forfeited all say in the fate of the place he felt he had the right to meddle with.

That’s why Akatosh orchestrated or allowed or whatever, the Dragonborn to smack down his son.

But honestly, I believe we can put on our Queer Theory goggles to read these sermons as just an extraordinarily convoluted coming-out story.

I believe I've stated a few times that I'm not a big fan of mantling on Shivering Isles theory, but I feel like I need elaborate and write my thoughts down on the theme

The narrative of reoccuring mantling was brought up by ESO, known for it's lore butchering and overall timeline fuckery. And in this case it's the same old "we know there's a Big Theme so we'll roll with it without unique and complex understanding of it" case

For me it's a cheap writing. The whole plot of Shivering Isles is that Sheogorath creates a new way to defeat his sworn enemy - so fresh, in fact, that he doesn't have time to think it through, Haskill has to follow it and deal with it instead.

Sheogorath's new brilliant idea is to give away power [to a mere mortal!] - a pretty big move for a daedric prince, don't you think? Daedric creatures are prideful and will never do such thing. But he's not bound by any universal, daedric rules, even if it's the rule of pride. He has a free will, free even from the limitations of mind and temper.

That what defeats Jyggalag. Sheo's been right all along - free will is stronger than any predetermined fate.

A beautiful leitmotif, the universal wisdom that it's only you to decide your fate, you can do whatever you want and create yourself a version of life you desire...

Yeah, all of that is thrown straight to the trash by ESO writers.

Turns out, Sheogorath is just as stupid as Jyggalag is, trying the same method again and again in hopes that maybe one day it will work (It's a flag that Jyggalag may be insane himself and very important to his character, please for the love of god don't rob him of it like that)

One day it works because of ??? reasons and that's it. New amazing Shivering Isles interpretation.

Yes, Sheogorath can replicate Jyggalag's methods and try the same old thing forever (he's Mad God, after all), but why is our Champion so different from previous "mantlers"? Ocs' stories can weave into this narrative but there must be divine intervention to pick them as The Chosen One to solve little mad prince's affairs etc etc. Why would they do that... I can't believe I'm actually writing this.

This writing decision does both of daedric princes dirty imo. It's a story we've seen in some other media and it's easier to understand, but it sands down the tragedy of this plotline and important lore occurence.

Sheo knows that the story repeats itself and it will happen again and again, and the pain of his loss is real. It's not about being doomed, or weaker than opponent, it's about things he's used to and grew fond of, being taken away from him in a tactical defeat.

Throughout the whole SI plotline Sheogorath sends us on a different missions - mostly to fix some stuff, build barriers and unite his soldiers. It's not pointless tasks to game with the hero - it's what Sheogorath usually does to defend his realm. That's why it doesn't work. You cant defeat someone with outer forces when they're literally in your head.

So no, nobody mantled Sheogorath before his Champion/HoK. Not in the original Oblivion narrative.

Haskill did not Mantle™ Sheo, but I do believe he did something of sorts. Not the thing the hero does in the SI, but there's enough freedom to make something up.

So, post-canon.

People often forget that Jyggalag is not just part of the Madgod, he is him. Sheogorath is him, transformed and corrupted. Jyggalag is the host, as some may say.

After events of SI Jyggalag is gone. His fate is of no matter, what we have left is the soul of madness, the essence of it. The realm is a part of the prince and it was left relatively unharmed, so while all of their skirmish happened something new and standalone had managed to form.

It has never been independent without a person-host (Uncle Sheo), so it'll take time to take over the hero. They will become the Madgod - the title, the role, but not the person.

Having Jyggalag as a part of himself was essential to Oblivion!Sheogorath as a person. You can even interpret his Three Heads symbol as Jyggalag - Madgod - Sheogorath (mania - something in-between - dementia, mind - soul - heart etc.)

Something something a fair share of mental problems come from fear of death and Sheogorath can basically understand how it feels like, he can feel it through himself, while other daedric princes are not affected by it.

TLDR he's an absurd caricature of mental health and he's unforgivably *zany*

In case it wasn't obvious, I've been hyperfixating on The Elder Scrolls lately. Block #tesblr if you're not interested in that. One of the great things about Tumblr is that it's a space to express things you don't have anywhere else to - I've wanted to express this for years and I don't really mind if nobody reads it.

When I refer to Sheogorath, I'm drawing on my observations from Skyrim, Oblivion, and TESLegends. I don't recall his appearances in Daggerfall or Morrowind and I haven't played ESO (yet.)

Sheogorath is the Daedric Prince (DP henceforth) of Madness. Fandom discussion has touched upon the issue of representation a lot, and folks are right when they say Sheo is an inaccurate and borderline offensive example. I won't touch on that bc I don't have anything to say that hasn't already been said.

My view is that he doesn't deserve to be The DPOM, because an all-powerful, mean-spirited, fickle, zany figure for neurotypicals to giggle at (when he talks endlessly about cheese or narwhals or whatever) is weak characterisation. Especially compared to the deep lore and character of every other TES deity, he just doesn't cut it. It might not make sense if you haven't played TESLegends, but he gets OLD when he's overused.

He's also associated with drug addiction and needless cruelty. He's having a great time, though. Obviously they can't walk it back now, but I think he'd work better as A Trickster God figure. (Well they could, but they won't. Bethesda is too high on their own farts.) Lorkhan already occupies/ed that spot, but it's explicitly stated that Sheogorath was 'born' when Lorkhan 'died.' It doesn't mean they're one and the same (TES doesn't work that way) but the two are definitely linked. So what gives? The trickster deity who 'created' the world vs a zany dipshit who'd be executed after a week as a medieval jester.

He's in opposition to Jyggalygg, the DP of Order. Madness isn't the opposite of order, though. It's disorder, chaos. If I were writing him, I'd change him to a Loki-type figure - and make him a patron of 'madness' or mental health - just one aspect of his realm. So instead of being a fickle dickhead who exists to torment mortals, he'd have the ND under his protection. This gives him some pathos, and as a well-rounded trickster he could actually pose a credible threat to everyone while opening up a lot more narrative space for him.