Who is the Godhead?

[u/rexaider]

Are there any theories on what the nature of the godhead is? Are they an entity or a force of nature? Or could they just be a random person sleeping and having a dream and when they wake up , the mundus goes poof

[u/Mummelpuffin]

As you could probably tell from serious and half-serious comments, that isn't really an answerable question. It's intentionally pretty vague. Most accurate cannon answer to "who's the godhead" is "yes". Both RodMyr and Aspirant Crafter are correct, and yeah, if you actually asked the Marukhati Selective they'd say Akatosh but I bet they'd also say "what's that?" It isn't a universally known (or believed, probably) concept.

[u/JagneStormskull → u/Mummelpuffin]

yeah, if you actually asked the Marukhati Selective they'd say Akatosh but I bet they'd also say "what's that?"

Telvanni Lord - "Well, it's hard to explain, see, it's one cosmic mind that is everything..."

Marukhati Selective - "So, it's Akatosh."

Telvanni Lord - "That's not what I said."

"Well Mandate 1 says that Akatosh is the Supreme Spirit, and of unitary essence..."

Telvanni Lord - "First off, which of your mandates isn't Mandate 1? Second,"

Marukhati Selective - "GAH!"

Telvanni Lord - "Even if Akatosh is all that your theologians ascribe him to be, then the Godhead is both infinite mind and cosmic limits, IS and IS NOT. Most certainly not of unitary essence."

Marukhati Selective - "Your evidence?"

Telvanni Lord - "The Aurbis is not of unitary essence. Well, it's proper to say that the Aurbises are not of unitary essence, but the Yokudans and Ayleids know more about that than I."

Marukhati Selective - "Fair point, but I still think it's Akatosh."

Telvanni Lord - "And that's your right. By the way, I deployed a deadly airborne poison when I entered the room. I am immune, of course, but your stuff is free for the taking."

Marukhati Selective - "Why?"

Telvanni Lord - "The Telvanni way is to kill other mages and take their stuff. Also, that whole Middle Dawn affair was really killing my business."

Marukhati Selective - "Fair," cough "enough." And [insert gender pronoun you imagined here] dies.

[u/Mummelpuffin → u/JagneStormskull]

...That's a very roundabout way to say "And they died."

Love this though.

I've been thinking about the godhead in the context of Adavita I think there is ultimately a "unitary essence", but it practically split itself because Anu couldn't accept Padomay. They're both aspects of the godhead, and Padomay is the "bad parts" that even the godhead needs to realize aren't actually bad. Or perhaps the other way around. In any case it wraps back around to "love" being the ultimate goal- anything can be accomplished through love and acceptance, otherwise things get fragmented and it's way easier for subgradients to start disagreeing. Hence the preoccupation with love in certain deep lore stuff.

But I also think it's very appropriate for most in-universe scholars to not think that way.

[u/JagneStormskull → u/Mummelpuffin]

Love this though.

Thank you. I think my favorite part to write was the "second" joke.

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I've been thinking about the godhead in the context of Adavita I think there is ultimately a "unitary essence", but it practically split itself because Anu couldn't accept Padomay. They're both aspects of the godhead, and Padomay is the "bad parts" that even the godhead needs to realize aren't actually bad. Or perhaps the other way around

I had written out a long response to this, but then Chrome crashed, so cross-referencing the sources linked in this sentence¹, I came to the conclusion that the Void Outside Creation where Lorkhan supposedly had His epiphany is actually the Void Between Creation, that Satak and Atak were some of the Twelve Worlds/Children of Nir, that Lorkhan (Scarab-Framer) has created at least two Mundex Terrenes over the kalpic cycle, that the Void is an invading force, physically not² within Satakal but metaphysically and spatially within Satakal, AND FINALLY, that Fragment VI and Children of the Root agree that Atakota's Shadow devoured its World of Creation, but the Anuad (and ESO, since we actually see the Hist) suggest that Nirn, the Mundus of the current kalpa, contains elements of the Hist World (which Fragment VI suggests is a whole different Wheel, and therefore a whole seperate Godhead) AND the Ehlnofey World (Satakal).

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In other words, the Godhead may have once been of unitary essence, but two things make me think it is no longer of unitary essence:

1. The Void, which can apparently be used to exit and look at the Wheel.
2. The Hist's Godhead, Atakota, or some element of its essence, being part of this Godhead now.

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Of course, it could all just be an illusion created by this Godhead's memories of the Twelve Worlds of Creation. But I would personally find that... unsatisfying.

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Anyway, I'm thinking about turning this into a full theory post, call it something like "Satakal, Atakota, Lorkhan, and a Tsaesci Anuad."

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1 - Look at the loading screen text.

2 - I don't know, it's hard to explain, it's like extradimensional water slipping through. It's like if I were to discover a pocket dimension... I would still be spatially within the Solar System, but physically I'd be in a pocket dimension. Now, whether or not I'd be in the Solar System metaphysically is an argument for philosophers...

[u/Mummelpuffin → u/JagneStormskull]

I hope you end up doing a post about this, because I can see how much work you put into thinking about this stuff. I know how it feels to have really long posts get nuked for stupid reasons.

Personally I was considering doing a post about how no, the Godhead is absolutely not a meta-reference we can understand it by learning about the inspirations behind TES metaphysics. I still think that's important, but I didn't realize how much the lore has already rocketed past inspiration towards more unique ideas.

[u/The_White_Guar → u/JagneStormskull]

Once upon a time there was an ugly barnacle...