Ugh, I hate this place. Why did the Nords have to be so… creepy? Why not burn their
dead or bury them like normal people? To them, this was normal. The old Nords had
a cyclical view of the world. They thought that they’d all return back to life and
have to fight another war at the end of this Kalpa. You can’t very well destroy your
body if you’ll need it later, can you? End of the Kalpa? What’s that?
A Kalpa is a measure of time from the creation of the world to its eventual destruction and
re-creation. One Dawn Era to the next. As far as the Nords are concerned, the world
began with one big fight between each culture’s version of the gods, and after mortal life
is all done on Nirn, there will be another war just like it, with all the Nord dead serving
in their god’s armies. These gods, during mortal time, manifest themselves as totem
animals.
Let me show you something.
The totem gods of the ancient Nords might look foreign, even frightening, but take a
closer look and you'll discover the modern Eight Divines you worship today.
The moth, a symbol of beauty, represents Dibella. The bird is the symbol of Kyne - Kynareth,
as we call her - the goddess of sky and nature. The mother wolf is Mara's, and the owl, representing
wisdom, stands in for Julianos, or Jhunal as he was called by the Nords. The others
might be a bit more obscure: the whale corresponds to Stendarr, Stuhn in the Nordic tongue, and
the wolf for Tsun, now known as Zenithar, the god of commerce and negotiation. The lowly
snake is Orkey, for whom the Nords did not have the sort of reverence we hold for his
counterpart Arkay.
Unlike modern Tamriel, the Atmorans did not worship all these gods equally.
At the top of the pantheon were the Hearth Gods: Dibella, Mara, and Kyne. They were the
most alive, the ones most likely to grant boons or answer prayers. Kyne was perhaps
the most popular and important among them, and you can still find people worshiping her
traditional Nordic aspect.
Then there were the Testing Gods, Orkey, Mauloch, and Herma Mora, who were not worshiped as
much as they were appeased. These gods were there so that the Nords might prove their
strength and valor.
The Twilight Gods, Alduin and Ysmir, who herald the coming of the next age. You might be more
familiar with Ysmir as Talos, the now banned god of mankind.
And, finally, there were the Dead Gods, slain in the Dawn Era when immortals fought over
Nirn, but nonetheless powerful and worthy of worship. The Shield-thane Tsun and, of
course, Shor himself, the lord of Sovngarde. Some scholars regard Shor as the defacto head
of the Nordic Pantheon, despite his three wives being more important in day-to-day life.
Shor? Which one's he?
Shor is the fox, a trickster but ultimately a force for good. He's not worshiped as a
divine in Tamriel, though all people acknowledge that he is the one to bring about the creation
of the world. We just can’t agree on how he did it. In Cyrodiil, he is a hero who worked
together with the other gods to create the world. In Alinor, he is a liar who tricked
them and caused their deaths. You might have heard of him as Lorkhan, or Shezarr?
Huh, I guess all that makes sense. Maybe this place isn’t so bad after all. What about
the Dragon? He's Akatosh, isn't he?
To you and me, yes. To the ancient Nords, he was something different: Alduin, the World-Eater,
bringer of the end of days. A dragon so big that he would swallow up the world so that
time can start over again. The legend goes that when the end of the world is near a great
big bell tolls and Alduin awakens from his slumber to start eating Nirn one bite at a
time!
I did overhear a guard saying that a dragon was seen above Whiterun just this past week!
Could it be Alduin? Is the world ending!?
No, no. Alduin is no ordinary dragon.
But the legends *do* say that when he returns to eat the world, all other dragons will wake
from their tombs to join him in his apocalypse. To fully kill a dragon one must eat its soul,
and no normal warrior, no matter how strong, can do that.
Alduin and his dragon generals were at the center of the biggest and most important totem
cult in early Skyrim. Although the dragons had little interaction with their subjects,
their priests often ruled with an iron fist, lording above their subjects and the other
totem gods alike. This tomb here is one of theirs, and all these draugr are their most
loyal followers.
"Are"? You mean these things are still alive!?
When a Dragon Priest died, his followers were bound to his tomb to serve him in death as
they did in life. I have read that they rise daily to pray and donate what energy they
have left to their liege lord... and to take care of any trespassers who mean harm.
Maybe we should head back…
I don’t want to be around when any of them wake up...
What, would you rather sleep out in the rain?
Maybe you’re right. It’s better not to disrespect the dead.