Religion (Nords)

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Compared with the centralized doctrine of the Tribunal Temple and the great civic edifices of Cyrodiilic worship, the religion of the Nords is as diffuse and individualistic as the people themselves. Their gods live through the songs and stories that are sung about them, leading to diverging and sometimes contradictory beliefs, but there is a generally-recognized order to the pantheon.

  • The Hearth Gods are Kyne, Mara, and Dibella, and are the central objects of worship in the present day.
  • The Dead Gods are Shor and Tsun, who feature in many tales but receive no worship (because they are dead).
  • The Missing Gods are Stuhn and Jhunal, who are not dead but whose worship has waned and are considered to have left the pantheon.
  • The Testing Gods are the "elf-demons" who oppose and obstruct the Nords since time immemorial, mostly interpretations of Daedric Princes (with some Aedric influence as well).
  • The Twilight Gods are Alduin and the recent Talos, gods of the end-times who portend and bring about the destruction of this world.

Character

Nordic religion has its origins in the totemic religion of the Atmorans, with tribes following a tutelary animal spirit such as the Fox or Bear. The shift in view of the gods from spirits to individuals occurred very early on, seemingly an import from Tamriel and contact with the Aldmer there, although the animal associations have lingered across the millennia. The merging and mingling of tribes in the migration to Skyrim led to the creation of a shared pantheon, sometimes known collectively as the Hirser or "World-Beam Clan" since it was they who built (and maintain) the world.

Compared to the dogma and prescriptive teachings of other Tamrielic religions, the Nords view worship as an individual and mostly private affair; Nordic religious fanatics are very rare and unlikely to be respected by the wider community. As the living gods are deities of the hearth, worship is mostly conducted within the home and focused on small wooden representations (called murte) placed before the fire. Small fireside offerings may be made, and petitions to the gods are as common as oaths of emulation or simple meditative breathing.

As the hearth gods are women, so are their priests all women as well (in the sense of a social role; it is not entirely unusual to see men performing this role). Kyne's priestesses are the most important Sisters in the monastic orders of her Sanctuaries; Mara's priestesses are the most important Witches that tend to the Nordic communities; Dibella's priestesses are the most important Wives of a given town or city. All of them will be found not in temples but in their homes – temples are not a feature of Nordic religion, outside of the very specific case of the Dragon Cult.

Since there is a core belief in the coming destruction of the kalpa and the end of this world, Nords can tend to be philosophically pessimistic. However, from the old world a new one will be reborn, and so they also see events as cyclical but finite – a common expression is "the Dragon does not eat His tail" to convey this sense (an anti-ouroboros, essentially). The religion has historically had a strongly anti-elven sentiment, introduced around the Night of Tears and the Return, although this has strongly mellowed since the time of the Second Era and may be a source of discomfort to more cosmopolitan Nords in the present day.

Beliefs

In the time of Atmora and the settlement of Skyrim, tribes followed their totems. As stated above, these became personified and merged into a pantheon, with the exception of Alduin who remained a dragon (Alduin and his Dragon Cult are often unique in this fashion). The leader of this new pantheon was Shor, the Fox, with Kyne, Mara, and Dibella as his wives, Tsun and Stuhn as his vassals, and Jhunal as his clever-man. They created the "Children" (Nords) to populate the great "World-Hall" they had built in defiance of the sleeping dragon Alduin. Elements are quickly added to this simple story. The idea of a kalpic cycle, with worlds successively destroyed and rebuilt, is one, and the idea of Sovngarde as a sanctuary that survives this destruction soon joins it. Kyne becomes the creator goddess who breathed the world and particularly Skyrim as a Nordic homeland, and as the early Nords war with the Falmer the ideas of elf-demons, testing gods, and the death of Shor in battle come to fruition. Although this cosmology remains mostly an oral tradition, there is one attempt by the early High King Harald Hand-Free to record an authoritative version of events, known as the High King's Vedda. The Vedda is the most popular framework for understanding the Nordic pantheon up to the Third Era (though it is not an orthodoxy, and many tellings diverge from it significantly).

A basic outline of the Nordic cosmology, as seen in the Vedda, runs like this:

  1. There is a blank interplay of creation, sometimes expressed as a shoreline between the ordered land of existence (Anu) and the roiling sea of the void (Padomay). Alduin sleeps here, happy and full from eating the previous kalpa.
  2. The gods arrive or awaken at this place, and Shor convinces them to build a new kalpa despite the threat of Alduin awaken and devouring it once again. Sometimes they are joined by denizens of the old world, the lucky few who survived with them in Sovngarde.
  3. The elf-demons and their elves seek to destroy this World-Hall built by the Hirser, or else want to claim it for themselves and push the Nords out. Shor and his clan meet them in battle and though they are ultimately victorious. Shor and Tsun are killed.
  4. The remaining gods and Nords inhabit the world and try to keep Alduin from waking. This is the world of Mundus as we know it.
  5. Ultimately, Alduin necessarily awakens and devours the world in spite of this. The gods return to Sovngarde and find Shor and Tsun there, already waiting out the end of this kalpa. Once Alduin is finished and asleep once again, the cycle begins anew.

Gods

Since the Nordic religion is so diverse and contradictory, these summaries are only the most common interpretations and divergent representations are welcome.

The Hearth Gods

A depiction of the Hearth Gods by earendil.lee

Kyne, the Hawk

War-Widow of Shor and Nordic goddess of the storm. Leader of the Nordic pantheon and people, Kyne is the savage defender of this world and her fury is felt in both thunder and lightning; Nords will generally seek shelter during a storm, as they know that her wrath is neither focused nor fair. Kyne is the centre of Nordic religious practice, revered as the mother of humanity and often as the Sky itself. Her temples are built of stone on the peaks of mountains, home to a sisterhood but open to all who would propitiate the Sky-Mother. Within the mythic cycle, Kyne is a war-leader who defends her home and children from the predations of elves and demons alike - often aiding heroic Nords in battle or turning nature’s fury against their enemies.

Mara, the Wolf

Brood-Widow of Shor and Nordic goddess of the family. Serves as Kyne’s handmaiden and a gentler authority for the Nords, though she sometimes weeps for the memory of dead Shor. Mostly Mara acts in the interest of harmony and cooperation, invoked by diplomats and the leaders of great enterprises, though in war she is a disciplined and skilled fighter. Her temples are the homes of important witches, who act as the advisors and conciliators of Nordic rulers, and trusted ears for the worries of the common folk.

Dibella, the Moth

Bed-Widow of Shor and Nordic goddess of love and beauty. Dibella was by far the youngest of Shor’s wives and the least enamoured of him; instead, she focused her affections upon the Nords themselves and taught them the arts of music, feasting and sexuality. Her temples are the homes of important wives, who act as her priestesses and who may choose to impart her teachings at their discretion. In the mythic cycle she is rarely an active participant, preferring to observe or direct her attention elsewhere.

The Dead Gods

Shor, the Fox

Killed by the elven gods who are gripped by an omnicidal desire to destroy the world forever (the circumstances of this murder vary from telling to telling). Rules over Sovngarde, the only part of the world that remains after Alduin’s feasting and thus the only hope of lasting immortality for mortals. It was Shor who drove the first post into Aurbis to build the great hall that became Mundus, and thus Nords honour him as their creator and their champion. However, since his death has severely curtailed his influence on events both metaphysical and mundane, he is not the head of the Nordic pantheon. From Sovngarde, he hoards “bits and bobs” of the world to remake it in the new cycle, as well as the souls of worthy Nords with which to repopulate it. His greater war, however, is with the Elven gods who killed him, and he is able to periodically send avatars to Nirn in order to counter their machinations (the extension of each kalpa is thus largely left to his still-living wives).

Tsun, the Bear

Shield-Thane of Shor, brother of Stuhn and Nordic god of worthy trials. Killed defending Shor from the elven gods at the beginning of time, and now holds the gate of Sovngarde. Tsun permits only those Nords who prove themselves worthy by bringing news from the front (in some tellings, he challenges them to a duel or wrestling-match) and eagerly awaits the next kalpa so that he may briefly remember life and lead the Nordic souls from Sovngarde into the new world. He is also a beserker, the patron of beserkers, and some stories state that he was punished with his eternal guard duty for the assault of Shor’s bed-wife, Dibella - he longs to join the Battle but can only escape his station when Stuhn turns up to take his place.

The Missing Gods

Stuhn, the Whale

Shield-Thane of Shor and brother of Tsun, who wandered out of the Nordic pantheon and became Stendarr. When Shor and Tsun were killed by the Elven gods, Stuhn was dogpiled and captured instead, and tortured and worked and ransomed and raped, and from this he learned the value of taking prisoners in war. He brought this knowledge back to the good gods and the Nords, but was met with with vehement ambivalence and so Stuhn walked away from the north and into the role of Stendarr, god of mercy. At other times, he wanders into Sovngarde and takes his brother’s place for a time, allowing Tsun to joyously join the Battle for a brief time. However, he always lets in any souls without testing them first, and swims away before Tsun can return and punish him.

Jhunal, the Owl

The Clever-Man of Shor’s tribe and Nordic god of language, mathematics and esoteric knowledge. The architect of Mundus, who hid many things within it for the Sky-Children to find, and who became obsessive and withdrawn after the death of Shor. Has now vanished from the Nordic pantheon, and his worship has faded now that people use language for communication rather than a deeper understanding of the world; there are, however, hermetic orders who continue to study and pursue these rune-truths. He engages in a clandestine war of occlusion with Herma-Mora, one perpetually hiding what the other seeks.

The Twilight Gods

Alduin, the Dragon

Alduin is venerated on the winter solstice by ceremonies at ancient Dragon Cult temples, where offerings are made to keep him asleep for one more year. Alduin is also the source of many common superstitious practices before any event of significance.

The World-Eater, the Nordic god of finitude, destruction and rebirth. Although there are many permutations of his nature in Nordic thought, Alduin is consistently portrayed as the most powerful and implacable god in existence - far more a force of nature than anthropomorphic being. It is Alduin who defines the length of the kalpa, and thus is universally revered by the Nords. He is rarely invoked, however, since mortals prefer not to disturb this sleeping destroyer god - indeed, much of the Nordic mythic cycle is concerned with the efforts of gods and mortals alike to prevent his awakening, and to extend this kalpa just a little bit longer.

Different places, cultures and periods of history have depicted Alduin in different ways; these include:

  • The most consistently popular is simply as the beginning and end of the world: an immutable cycle that is simply the way of things. In this way of thinking, Alduin is depicted as a broken circle - all that exists will vanish, and all that happens will cease. The dragon does not eat its tail.
  • Before the reign of King Harald Hand-Free, in the first century of the first era, the Dragon Cult came to prominence. Almost monotheistic in their veneration, they viewed Alduin as a moral force who would cleanse the world of impurity and suffering and usher in a pure, newborn kalpa. They rapidly fell from favour due to their enthusiasm for human sacrifice, and today mostly exist as small groups of ascetics who worship Alduin’s ability to destroy suffering and stagnation (both at the end of time and in the present day).
  • Several works personalise Alduin; mostly more lighthearted works that make him an irascible, sometimes-jovial spirit who does his duty at the appointed time and then returns to sleep.

Talos, the Dragonborn God

Talos' totem is the newest, but is everywhere -- he is the Dragonborn Conquering Son, the first new god of this cycle, whose power is consequently unknown, so the Nords bless nearly everything with his totem, since he might very well be the god of it now, too. Yes, as first of the Twilight Gods, this practice might seem contradictory, but that's only because, of all the gods, he will be the one that survives in whole into the next cycle.

Nords are not entirely sure of what to make of Talos. As an incredibly recent addition to the Nordic mythic cycle, Talos has not yet settled into a common understanding and instead is held to many different interpretations by different religious traditions. These include, in roughly increasing order of complexity:

  • That he is nonsense
  • That he is Imperial nonsense
  • That he is an aspect of Shor
  • That Tiber Septim was an avatar of Shor, whom the Imperials (incorrectly, self-aggrandisingly) deified upon death
  • That Tiber Septim - as a Dragonborn - is an avatar of Alduin, and that Talos is not a distinct god but at most some new aspect of the Dragon. What exactly this means is unclear… did he conquer Tamriel in preparation for its consumption? Are his conquests what is meant by “World-Eater”? Does Talos herald the end of the kalpa? Perhaps Talos is the one to finally rouse Alduin - it would certainly explain the Imperial veneration of Akatosh.
  • That Tiber Septim was Shor fully reborn into this world, and that after his death he reclaimed his full godhood as Talos. The implications of this are similarly unclear… does Shor/Talos now have the power to defeat Alduin at the end of the kalpa and thus extend the life of this world? With Shor reborn, do true Nords owe unthinking loyalty to the Empire he founded? If Shor has taken his place as head (give or take) of the Nine Divines, does this mean that the Imperial Cult is actually on to something?
  • That Talos is the avatar of Tiber Septim - that his might was such that he forced himself into Aetherius and took the form of a god, rather than the much more common reverse. Similar to the Walking Ways, but simpler and more superstitious. Similar to the previous entries, what he chooses to do now is a subject for debate.
  • That Talos is, as Michael Kirkbride states, a new god - the first of the Twilight Gods, who heralds the end of the kalpa but will survive into the new one. Is this a natural part of the cosmic cycle, or a(n un)welcome change of events?
  • That one of the above is correct, and that the sacred mysteries of the Talos Cult are how he will maintain his Empire and the primacy of man over mer. Very popular in the military, as in other provinces.
  • That he was a Dragonborn human who, with assistance, was able to soul-trap an avatar of Shor and ultimately mantle the Dead God to become him again, old-but-new. Perhaps he can even realise Shor’s plan to defeat the World-Eater and extend this cycle (but probably not).

What is clear is that Talos means many things to many people, and thus it is easy to see why “the Nords bless nearly everything with his totem, since he might very well be the god of it now, too”. He does not, however, have an overabundance of stories and poetry written about him, being both a new god and an Imperial import (however appealing and worthy of worship he may be). Therefore, his appearances in Nordic mythology are limited and his impact upon the culture is mostly folkloric and speculative.

The Testing Gods

Orkey, the Snake

Herma-Mora, the Woodland Man

Dagon, the Leaper Demon King

Molag Bal, the Mighty Lion of Evening

The Dragon Cult

The Dragon Cult temple of Haalstagafn

The worshippers of Alduin (who do exist, all the way up to the present day) are so dissimilar to other religious Nords that they require special attention. Almost everything that is true for the worship of the hearth gods (private worship, lack of temples) is untrue for the Dragon Cult.

Alduin began as a dragon totem of destruction and rebirth, closely tied to the seasons and agriculture (and thus of most concern to farmers and other non-warriors so easily dismissed from history). As the Nordic cosmology took form, these agrarian worshippers of the Dragon believed that the other gods were preventing the necessary cycle from unfolding and attacked those they believed represented these gods (the noble and warrior classes, to whom these totems had originally belonged).

For the early First Era, the Nordic kings and lords of Skyrim were fighting these Dragon Cult uprisings as often as they were fighting the Falmer and each other. It was High King Harald Hand-Free who finally broke them and massacred the last resistance inside their fortress-temple – his High King's Vedda is essentially a rebuke of Dragon Cult theology. Harald did not disband the Cult entirely, but instead restored it to the agrarian observation it had started as, and it is in this form that exists in the present day.

The ancient temples of the Dragon Cult can still be found, mostly abandoned. Some may house one or two Cultists, often near rural villages where they assist with knowledge of effective farming practices (fire farming, for instance, where fields are burned annually to remove weeds and encourage rebirth in the new year). Rather than seeking to awaken Alduin, the Cult sing lullabies to keep him sleeping and are generally quite harmless.

In its heyday the Cult practiced communal worship within its temples, singing great songs to rouse sleeping Alduin and many of them, so convinced of the Dragon's imminent return, extended their lives through unnatural means in order to witness the kalpa's fiery end. Thus the Cult has a strong association with singing, and with these various life-extending practices that fill their temples today with shambling undead.