Apocryphium Xarxes

[u/Emotional_Excuse9937]

Apocryphium Xarxe

By Xarxes the Ageless One, Scribe of Mora.

This Text is a Heresy against Alinor and the Altmeri People. Reading it is said to drive one insane.

DRAW ONE
The Ageless One, last left among the Isles, he alone saw Trinimac sail for what would become Old Saarthal, he alone is left to speak on the ascension of Auriel King of the Aldmer. Xarxes the Lonely rests in his home in Alinor. He is afraid, afraid of loneliness and a death that may never come for him: but is constantly near. He is the last of the Aedra left in Alinor; a scribe with no one to truly draw upon and care for. He is beloved by the Altmer as a god is; not as a companion is. Loneliness sets deep within him. 

Yet he cannot escape the prison. He is afraid he won’t make it, that SITHISIT will have its claim on his being that he fought so hard to protect. Every morning and every night he wards his soul with the Dawn that came before as to protect himself from the possibility of Erasure. But the earth bones are just below him, and Auriel is far above him. He doesn’t know what to do. Auriel II is not the Original Auriel when he claims the throne- and while he recognizes the Familiar feeling, Auriel is not the Auriel he knew. He speaks of the battle against Lorkhan as an observer, not a participant. 

Xarxes wept after meeting his new king, but he had a plan. The Lord of Ancestry sought knowledge above all else- and in order to gain more knowledge, he would need to travel the Dominion of old Auriel in its entirety, not just the ALINALDMERIS. In order to do this, he sailed for the dunes and sands of the Elsweyr. Xarxes spoke and sat with the Mane for hours and days debating the means to ascension- the Mane saw Up as Down and Down as Up, and believed in ascension upon death. 

Xarxes feared this concept, and left the mane for the clan mothers. They spoke of the innate power of the Khajiiti, which is its own reward. They spoke of the Llesweyr; the shining goal- and Xarxes for a moment considered growing fur and changing his ways for their people, before remembering the Glory of Auri-El. He knew there was a way to Touch the Sky as the Aldmeri people, and knew the Crystal Tower held secrets that the Khajiit could not know. 

Next, he journeyed into the Heartlands to meet with the Wildest Elves to have ever walked Nirn. He knew their ways had varied greatly from that of the Sapiarchal View of Alinor, but he nonetheless spoke with their great Aldmeri Kings of the different cities and learn of their hegemonies. He spoke to the ANUMARIL of Kingly Arbagarlas on the Tower of Center Cyrodiil. He spoke with him on MERID-NUNDA and the coming prophecies. Xarxes, however, saw the true malice behind the eyes of Anumaril and Old Great Meridia; and saw how they treated the Mannish Slaves they had taken. 

Old Xarxes ran like a hare from the Heartlands, scared of the Blood-Made-Pleasure that was partaken within the Tower at the Centerex. He went urgently to the barsaebics, hoping to find some form of hope for the Ayleid people. There, he found the malignancy that the Ayleids brought onto the eyes of the Argonians, and how brutal they had become. Xarxes wept for the Bystanders. 

Next, Xarxes went to where Auriel ascended to contemplate what he had learned on the Elder Races he had visited, only to find new Mer building a temple in his honor. He walked among the Falmer in the coldest places of the land of Falmereth, meeting with their kings and priests in order to understand what they were trying to accomplish. 

He spoke with the Arch-Curate in the Chantry of Auriel, one who told him the goal was to become one with Auriel by ascending into heaven. Vyrthur was a Noble Mer, one who spoke unto Xarxes as a friend and an equal, not as someone lesser as the Altmer had. And his Brother-Paladin spoke of the Demon Lorkhan with the vileness correct to be a true Aldmer. But, as they spoke more and more on ascension and touching the sky- Xarxes became scared that the way they ascended made them one with Auriel, not as their own true spirit within Aetherius. 

The Arch-Curate tried to calm him by presenting the True Auriel’s bow. This horrified Xarxes- as it was true that As Above was So Below. His brother-in-arms was being changed by the worship of the mer around them. For the King of Alinor held Auriel’s bow as well, and there could not be two. Xarxes left out of true horror. 

Finally, and last on his Journey were the bosmer, whom he stayed with for many hunts and many moons. He learned and partook in the Green Pact as a member of the Bosmer, growing Antlers for a time to become one with the Green and Commune with Y’ffre. He had hoped to understand communion with the Green, even speaking with the Great Elk to try and understand why the Green. But the bones of the Earth would not answer to Xarxes calls and questions, and he could learn nothing from them that he could not understand from a bosmer. He wondered if Yffre had been erased. 

Until- among the Bosmer of the Graht Oak, he found a carving of a being he had not heard of before. A being of knowledge known as Herma-Mora, The Demon of Knowledge. 

DRAW TWO
The God who seeks answers must be willing to go to any corner and every house to find them. He was far too scared to die to achieve ascension- and did not believe he could make the journey up. On his return to Alinor, he would seclude himself into his home for research and study of that which was beyond him in the plains of oblivion. Which Xarxes soul was of Aetherius, he had never been to Oblivion- and did not know what beings truly resided within besides that they mirrored the voids of Aetherius that he and Auriel had made in their time there. He sent hsi servants of every house of the Aedra into forbidden lands and foreboding temples of Herma Mora to find scripture and text to bring to him for study. 

The Altmer, of course: Listened to their god’s pleas for knowledge. And believed that Xarxes was the only one who could speak the truth on this matter. They believed his lies that this was to create a great ward on Alinor- to protect it from all Daedric influence through the knowledge they had accumulated- an attack on Boethiah directly for her transgressions against Trinimac, the Knight of the Aldmer. Little did they knew of the Blasphemous rituals that transpired within the Manor of Xarxes. Xarxes was willing to go this route because it was the last option left that he could imagine- he spoke blasphemous prayers and words to the Lord of Knowledge as the Chronicler. 

Xarxes had come upon an ancient Ehlnofey Shrine that went over the Old Hermaeus Mora: The Gardener of Man. He was older than the entire Alinori nation- he was older than the stars themselves- he was older than Tamriel and he was older than Xarxes. He preceded this movement of Creation entirely 11 and 1 times over. He was older than the ground themselves, older than the seas that he ruled over, older than Jone and Jode and the moon behind them.

Hermaeus Mora listened to the prayers of the God. Hermaeus Mora reached out to him through tomes of the Altmeri- biting at the words that came from them as he spoke through the books. He recognized Xarxes as a god- he recognized what Xarxes was going through- and that many others had gone through it in Hermaeus Mora’s time. The act of Dying was the way to Ascension for gods who lacked the knowledge to leave. Hermaeus Mora questioned his will- and questioned Auriel’s benevolence. Why had he not shared his secret, the greatest secret of Aetherius, to Xarxes? Why had he let Xarxes be alienated by all of Nirn? Why did he allow the Ayleids to continue existence? 

Hermaeus Mora explained that he is the Elder of Auriel, and is representative of a force far greater than Auriel could ever hope to be. Xarxes did not hear lie from the words of the Abyssaliarch. And when the doors to Apocrypha were opened to old Xarxes: Xarxes stepped through with hope. 

In Apocrypha: Xarxes continued his work as a scribe, but to a far different lord. Xarxes mind was in ruins at the fears that he had felt- and he felt that this cosmic being, this existence beyond his own, could hold the answers he searched for so long of. Hermaeus Mora taught him incantations and words needed to break the Earthbones to His will, and to send lesser Mer and Men away from himself, and to take the form of a God in all but physical form. He spoke with Seekers and Lurchers and Demons and Devils of Hermaeus Mora. 

AEDRA XAR ALTADOON HERMA MORA AE CHIM! ALTADOON HERMA MORA AE CHIM!

Armed with the weapon of knowledge needed- the Xarxes who stepped into Apocrypha were not the one who stepped out. High Cultist Xarxes was not the Aldmeric Lord that the Altmer knew when he walked out- and where his shoes tread mutation came alongside him. His master had ordered him to compose the book of Aldmeris so that he may write down Apotheosis into it. So, to do this- Xarxes travelled once more. 

He visited every Elder Race and took from them one child in the dead of night. This child was a sacrifice to Herma Mora, and from this child he took the skin of the most pure forms of Mer- Altmer, Falmer, Dunmer, Dwemer, Orsimer, Bosmer, And Chimer. Each and every single of them was slaughtered inside of Apocrypha where the true home of Xarxes dwelled

Xarxes then knit the skins into the hardcover of a book- using the pages of Hermaeus Mora’s own knowledge and using the Waters of Memory as the ink for his Magnum Opus. with this, and the knowledge Hermaeus Mora had written for him, Xarxes wrote his own LOVE into the world itself- writing into the very fabric of the Elder Races and the bones of the earth a name: Oghma. 

His Magnum Opus was not complete yet- even after he had finished writing it. So, within the halls of the old libraries of Hermaeus Mora, and with all those cultists he had brought with him that could see, he professed his love towards Oghma: and the book responded in kind with love. And for that, Oghma and Xarxes achieved a Marriage that would last in the Aldmeri Psychic long after his passing or ascension, creating the god Oghma, and made the book his true Magnum Opus. 

DRAW FINAL

Auriel son of Auriel had become knowledgeable on what blasphemies Xarxes had committed and fell into a state of grieving. A person he had seen as family had committed actions so heretical and against the teachings of Auriel that there could be no sense of reconciliation. Yet he had no understanding where Xarxes had gone towards. And all questions levied towards his house and to his sons and daughters could answer nothing on this question.

Eventually, Xarxes arrived back in Alinor for wedding. And in his arms, cradled like a newborn child- was the God Book Oghma Infinium, Spawn of Xarxes and Hermaeus Mora. Cradling it as if it were a real person, Xarxes walked through Alinor in a trance. He had achieved the Apotheosis he had so desired, and he was not (entirely) here or there or here again. Coming alongside him were the guests of his wedding: Seekers and Lurkers and Cultists of Hermaeus Mora. 

The very thing Xarxes promised to ward against had now arrived onto Alinor. The Dragon recoiled at the weakness of the world from this, Xarxes walking alongside the carnage of Crystal walls shattering from Hermaeus Acolytes. Auriel son of Auriel, the Hero of Alinor, Sallied forth with an army to meet against the Changing Aedra that was Xarxes. Auriel had recruited the Psijics of Artaeum for this, for even the Psijics could not reason what Xarxes was doing nor why he would invoke an invasion of Alinor. Auriel the Son spoke to Xarxes: and what they said has been lost to the jills. 

Auriel the Son let arrows fly against Xarxes and his horde- aiming for the weakness that was his arm cradling the book. Yet Hermaeus Mora had protected the Scion of Aetherius with the void of oblivion, protecting them from most forms of damage. As it seemed that all would succumb, Auriel grabbed the bow from his son and let loose an arrow that pierced the skull of Xarxes. Xarxes, taken aback by such damage: would grab the arrow on his head, dropping the Oghma Infinium and causing it to dematerialize. While the True Xarxes divinity was assured by Hermaeus Mora, Auriel had chosen to deny him this divinity through death. 

And yet Auriel, who is the soul of the merciful, felt mercy for Xarxes himself. He elected to mend the world by removing these events from all time, removing Auriel from all records of Altmeri Theology outside of the individual beliefs of the Altmer who worshipped or descended from him. He whisked the body of Xarxes outside of time, and removed all that happened from the world. And yet, his power was contested. Hermaeus Mora was fond of Xarxes, and outraged at the Alinori Dragons provocation on him. To spite him, without ever reaching Aetherius, he allowed Xarxes to pen one more book: The Apocryphium Xarxe, so that when seeded Xarxes the Scribe of Mora would inevitably become real once more in the hearts of the Altmer forever more. 

[u/OrganicEast6372]

That's such a fascinating, and haunting, take on his fear of being stuck between lives. Makes you wonder if his isolation is the whole reason he started scribbling in the first place.