#teslore

Temple Note:

"The following household sermons are preserved among the lesser instructional texts, their authorship uncertain and their purpose disputed. Though commonly attributed to a Saxhleel servant or to allegorical excess on the part of local record-keepers, the Temple advises that they be read strictly as guidance on patience, proper order, and the dangers of haste in all labors. References to instruments, loaves, mistresses, or banquets are understood to be figurative, and no doctrinal significance should be attached to questions of length, readiness, or satisfaction. The recurrence of certain terms in older copies is acknowledged but requires no investigation. Readers are cautioned against imaginative interpretations, particularly those that suggest recursion, self-reference, or the presence of greater figures in diminished form." - Unknown Scholar

Household Sermon One

The Maid named Lifts-Her-Tail entered the chambers that were chambers by local agreement. She bore cloths and oils, and the memory of orders received elsewhere. And the Master of the House was called Crantius Colto, though the name clung imperfectly. He was an insistence given shape, and his warmth did not originate with him. He regarded the Maid as one judges implements before use. “You are well-shaped for this work,” he said. “Strong, Anuran legs. A tail for balance. Few endure such tasks without complaint.” The Maid inclined her head. “This form was chosen for labor,” she replied. “It bears weight without hurry.” Crantius smiled, mistaking endurance for availability. “Then you will serve well.” “Service,” said the Maid, “is a matter of order.” Crantius turned then and presented the instrument, laying it where attention was meant to gather. It was long, and its length had been mistaken for purpose. It bore the marks of frequent handling and no sign of completion. “Attend to that,” he said. “It has waited.” The Maid measured it carefully, not by surface but by demand. She did not touch it. “This labor,” she said, “is not brief.” Crantius laughed softly. “There is plenty of time.” The Maid inclined her head. “A labor unceasing,” she said, “is no labor at all.” Crantius frowned. “You were made for such tasks.” The Maid dipped her cloth into oil and wrung it slowly. “Not all tasks produce after,” she said. “Some only leave shapes behind.” She gestured toward the instrument’s length. “Some lengths,” she said,”do not produce completion. They only exhaust what approaches them. If I do not finish, the work has not begun.” Crantius spoke again of patience, though he meant delay. “You may take all night, if need be.” The Maid answered evenly: “Night is not a unit of completion.” She began instead where the instrument had rested un-bitten and whole, cleaning the trace of it rather than the thing itself. This displeased Crantius, whose understanding was central. “You are meant for the instrument,” he said.  “I am meant for the work,” said the Maid. “This form was chosen accordingly.” Crantius raised the instrument slightly to remind it of itself. The Maid did not look up. “That which is lifted without patience,” she said, “returns heavier.” Crantius paused. The instrument did not answer him as it once had. The Maid continued. She did not deny the instrument. She did not deny Muatra. Nor did she praise it. Nor did she succumb to it. Nor did she vanish before it. And in this persistence, procedural and unadorned, she perceived herself without subtraction. Thus she knew CHIM, not as conquest, but as remaining. And the Maid, having completed what could be completed, withdrew without being dismissed, her tail marking the balance of her going. The ending of the words is ALMSIVI.

Household Sermon Two

Skyrim Lore time!

You remember the Horkers?

I bet you, drakes to septims, that Orkey was actually named Horkey and that his emblem was not the serpent, but the Horker, and the serpent came later.

Plus, a triage of tusks? Interesting. There is someone who is associated with threes...

Now, how did I come to this conclusion, and better still, why?

Well for one, its etymology with Orcs.

See, the word "orcs" is derived from Orcus, the Roman God of the Underworld and of Oaths (Ah, an association with our favorite god, Malacath). But it goes farther, because Orcus was one of those gods adopted from Greek Mythology mashed into Roman Mythology.

His original name is Horkus, the God of the Oath, and the god that comes after you when you break one (not Styx, important distinction).

It obviously wouldn't take much to get from Horkus to Horker. Add that dash of "To hork is to devour greedily" and boom, a new animal.

Why draw the godly distinction? Well it has tusks, three of them, and there is a trinity god who ended up with tusks.

But that brings the question of what's up with Orkey being associated with Snakes?

What if time-space in Tamriel, or rather the metaphysical Nirn, worked by different ideas of what are translated to us as cardinal directions? What if, instead of travelling to the future or past by going in a certain physical direction, there were different metaphysical "directions" one could travel on to reach different temporal and physical locations? I drew up some charts, thought myself real clever, and everything was good. Then I huffed a little too much skooma and started wondering if the different time models (kalpas, amaranth, etc) and accompanying philosophical / religious differences of different Tamriellic cultures could also be related to their respective “locations” on these "philosophaxes." (Confirmation bias? Never heard of her) These charts are the result:

Lyg as inverse of the center? As “Not Here” / “Not Now” / “Not Our Place”? The only adjacent-place truly inaccessible and all the more eldritch / strange for it?

Morrowind as Loveborne-Potential-Transcendence as described in C0DA? Alinor as antithesis Hateborne-Denial-Imprisonment where Walk-Brass would call home?

Akha in Khajiit myths going "South" to never return, Alduin the "World-Eater"

Northwesterly High Rock as Loveborne Determinism, (likely unintentional) parallels with Christianity and thus west-european tropes by association? (as opposed to Gnostic Morrowind & Nihilist Alinor?)

Cyrodiil as True Center of Each Axis, thus its metaphysical dominance over all of Tamriel / Talos as the "King of the Gods"?

1. Shor, the fox totem- The missing god.

2. Mara, the wolf totem- Handmaiden of Kyne and concubine of Shor.

3. Kyne, the hawk totem- Widow of Shor, Goddess of the Storm, and Mother of Men

4. Alduin, the dragon totem- The World-Eater

5. Orkey, the snake totem- The Death-God

6. Tsun, the bear totem- Shield-thane of Shor.

7. Dibella, the moth totem- Goddess of Beauty

8. Jhunal, the owl totem- God of Runes

9. Stuhn, the whale totem- God of Ransom