Drem yol ok.

Lets get right into it, shall we?

#1: Is Nirn flat or round? As we know planets do not technically exist in Mundus, but planes of existence. The celestial bodies we see in the sky at night are planes, and the shape we percieve is simply our hadrimsejoor attempting to make sense of it. Or, is Nirn formless; its boundaries indistinct, undiscernable?

#2: What causes Magnus (Nirn's "Sun") to travel throughout the sky? The stars in Nirn's sky are not actually stars, but holes in the fabric of Oblivion leading to Aetherius. A hole in the sky cannot have a gravitational pull, (unless there is Magick behind it, but I doubt it) so it is unlikely that Nirn orbits Magnus, or anything for that matter, as it is not a planet. What then, causes Magnus to rise in the morning and set in the evening?

This thread is purely conjecture, so feel free to share your ideas.

Aal hei yah mindah eyvir.

Interesting questions... you say that holes cannot have gravitational pulls, but what about black holes?

Aaliizah

Interesting questions... you say that holes cannot have gravitational pulls, but what about black holes?

Well from what I understand black holes are the products of particularly massive stars collapsing on themselves into extremely small volumes, thus the immense gravity wells they create. It seems to me that the holes in Oblivion are simply two-dimensional, like holes in a piece of paper.

Who says Skyrim can't be educational?

THIS is the kind of thinking that BREAKS my BRAIN. lmao.

In writing Skyrim Fanfiction I wrap my head around TONS of stuff like this. It's horribly aggrevating, because Bethesda usually (deliberately or otherwise) leaves holes in their lore or storylines for the player to fill in (like post Civil War stuff, etc). 

So many interesting concepts to think about.

Gravity. Sun and moon movement across the sky. Lack of seasons, but that is mainly a game mechanic (or deliberate lack of one). 

So, the sun and stars are all holes in the canopy of Nirn which is Oblivion, and the holes let the light of Aetherius seep down into Mundus and, I'm guessing, Oblivion as well. This is why magic exists in Oblivion and Mundus, as magic comes from Aetherius. From Nirn we can't actually see the other planes (the Aedra, which could be thought of as other 'planets'). We can see the moons, so what exactly are the moons? Lorkhan's "bones"? Maybe.

Sometimes I like to think that Nirn really is a planet and that all of the lore that the mortals believe is just another Creation Story. The only difference between the creation myths on Earth and on Nirn are that Nirn has god-like beings that actually appear (Daedra Lords and Akatosh), the "dimension" called Oblivion which has various characteristics suggesting it is more than one dimension and possibly all of them are collectively considered Oblivion, a heaven (at least one, Sovngarde), and magic. But does that mean that Magnus really is a big gaping hole in the canopy of Nirn?...

I haven't played the other ES games before Oblivion so I don't remember if other Aedra ever actually appear. I consider most of the Divines to be alotted to different "energies" much like any polytheistic religion (god of this, god of that), but then there is Akatosh who is, kind of, like "God", the all-encompasing thing, Time. But then there's "stasis" (Anu) and "chaos" (Padomay) which is nothing more than an explanation of actual creation, similar to Gaea/Chaos/Erebus (whichever version of the Greek creation story you wanna take as an example). 

From Chaos came forth Erebus and black Night; but of Night were born Aether and Day, whom she conceived and bore from union in love with Erebus." Hesiod, Theogony (120–125)

Basically, from Chaos/Padomay came Earth/Nirn either by itself or from a union of whatever kind with the first children of Chaos (or siblings since Anu is Padomay's sibling). Because Chaos REALLY means "endless possibilities" (just another way to think of "disorder") one could argue that from Padomay came Anu, and thus life itself afterwards. Basically there is no difference between this creation story and any other.

And the Padomay/Anu idea isn't the same across cultures.

In the Khajiiti creation myth, Fadomai is the female littermate to Ahnurr, and it was she who suffered from Ahnurr's aggression. The two wed and gave birth to two litters, the Aedra and Daedra. Fadomai then gave birth to a new litter, notably the Mundus, in secret, as Ahnurr did not wish for any more children. When Ahnurr found out, he reacted violently, and Fadomai died after passing various gifts to her children.

This version has direct parallels to Chaos/Padomay "begetting" Gaia/Lorkhan all by it/herself. But in this version, Chaos dies, which is just.... well, weird and would create a major imbalance in the existence of everything. Essentually The Creator died and all of Creation's Children were left to fend for themselves with whatever attributes The Creator gave them (which sucks, but is similar to a normal mortal existence where some may not even believe there really is a Sovngarde, etc).

I still like to think that just because there are anthropomorphised divine beings, imps and demons and dragons and "fallen stars" (Meridia) doesn't mean that Nirn isn't a spherical planet like Earth and that there is not actually balls of gas in space that form constellations.

It's just another non-scientific view of the universe like any other, except in this reality there really ARE deities and monsters and other dimensions and stuff. 

Enter brain aneurism.

Happy New Year. lol.

I think we can safely assume that the story of creation in the TES Universe is fact, for this particular universe. Let me explain. First, lets go over the mythology.

Anu and Padomay (or Sithis) are opposite forces, and their conflict spawned the et'Ada. The first et'Ada to form its own identity and become permanent was Akatosh. With Akatosh came time and with time other et'Ada formed their own identities. The Aedra are of the mingled blood of Anu and Sithis while the Daedra are of Sithis only, hence their innate desire for change.

Lorkhan proposed to create his own plane and populate it. The Aedra discovered that they would lose their power, and many fled. Their exodus caused the holes to be torn in Oblivion and become stars. Auriel and other Aedra then killed Lorkhan and cast his heart to Tamriel for his treachery.

Why then, should we believe such nonsense to be true?

The Heart of Lorkhan: The Heart was discovered under Red Mountain and caused the Dwemer's sudden dissappearence. It is also the artifact from which Vivec, Almalexia, Sotha Sil, and Dagoth-Ur drew their god-like powers. It is also theorised to be the source of the "heartstones" found on Solstheim in the 4E, giving rise to many supernatural beings, like Ash Spawn.

Oblivion Crisis: We have seen first hand the planes of Oblivion, and the god-like being Mehrunes Dagon. Also, at the climax of the Oblivion Crisis, the Avatar of Akatosh appeared and defeated Mehrunes Dagon. From this we can clearly see that the gods from Nirn's mythology indeed exist.

Dragon Crisis: The Dragonborn travels to Sovngarde, a plane of Aetherius, to battle Alduin. From this we see that Aetherius does exist, and the Nord's stories of Sovngarde and the Hall of Valor are actually true. Paarthurnax also claims to be born of Akatosh and to have conspired with Kyne during the events of the Dragon War. He is wither lying, deluded, or speaking the truth.

Since the true forms of the Aedra, Daedra, and realms of Aetherius/Oblivion line up with what is written in the mythology, can't we say that their creation story is true, and the stars/planets don't actually exist as we know them?

Just my thoughts, as I assumed that their stories were true before writing this, lol.

I found an interesting image: http://teslore.weebly.com/uploads/1/4/8/7/14872802/9923694_orig.jpg

I don't know if it's cannon, but still.

From what I've seen, Nirn appears to be spherical. It has a north, at least. It's moons orbit Nirn like any other moons would, except for the absence of tides. Maby the multiple moons balance out? Its been said that there used to be many worlds that were smashed together to create Nirn; the moons might be leftover debris.

If the sun and stars are rips in space, then I would assume that Nirn just spins in place, creating a day/night cycle without seasons.

If Oblivion is between Nirn and Aetherius, then the sun and stars would have to be rips in Oblivion, which is why magic other than that of the Daedric Lords' still works. This model also explains why it's relativly easy to travel to Oblivion and difficult to travel to Aetherius; Oblivion is both closer to Nirn and acts as a buffer. The Aedra can pull souls through the gaps into a respective "heaven" as they see fit.

Another thing to note is the exsistance of the Elder Scrolls. One explanation is that they written by Mundus, and are a four-dimentional blueprint of the universe that only a god could read, depicting every possible future.

I think i'd prefer to live in Mundus.

I think Mundus draws off of the pre-scientific era ideas, and what I mean by that is the Celestial Spheres. What that basically says is that the planet (Earth/Nirn) is at the center of the Solar System, and that each heavenly body appears on a sphere that rotates around it (one for the Sun, each of the planets, and then one for the stars). Which is what people used to explain stellar motion until they found out that it was the Earth that revolved, but it could work in TES. That is about the only way I can see Mundus's creation without it hurting my puny joor mind.

It is also Possible that maybe Mundus is a orb or ball like a planet but only rotates, not orbiting anything. This however does not explain why the Constellations have a time they are seen in the sky, as refrenced in books in the games. there might be a separate reason for this. Also the planets we see might be like the spheres of influence of but with the gods not deadra.

I just realized this, but the Throat of the World was possibly named after Kyne, as Monahven can be broken into "Monah Ven", or "Mother Wind".