Ruminations on the Mortal Pattern
The following is a work-in-progress treatise on what I call *the Mortal Pattern*, written in a style that might be appropriate for a mildly unhinged wandering scholar. The last two chapters are as yet unfinished, instead only consisting of bulletin points from my thesis skeleton - at this point I've spent so much time writing this without feedback that I'm not even sure if the underlying theories hold up in the first place.
It's also my first attempt at a proper *contribution* to Elder Scrolls Lore scholarship, and contains a number of novel interpretations of existing concepts. It is largely based on [two](https://www.reddit.com/r/teslore/comments/6ba9jx/what_force_created_anu_and_padomayhow_did_godhead/dhl7hhz/) [other](https://www.reddit.com/r/teslore/comments/2pkjux/gifting_thuum_knowledge/cmxn62c/) comments I've made in the past. Hopefully it makes some sort of sense, and I hope people will see fit to read through this nonsense and give me feedback so I might finish the damn thing at some point.
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## Introduction
Much has been made of the Dwemeri obsession with the field of tonal architecture, a discipline whose purported objective is the direct manipulation of underlying reality. Unlike magickal applications, which influence reality by way of harnessing energies said to flow into Aurbis from Aetherius, tonal architecture is meant to manipulate the elusive fabric directly; to borrow this Dwemeri representation, it is the difference between drowning out a sound by adding a deafening roar of your own, versus altering the instrument producing the tone itself.
Such practice is without doubt an incredibly dangerous enterprise, and should the rumours surrounding the disappearance of the entire Dwemeri civilization be true, they may themselves have discovered this immense risk in the infinitesmally short moment during the transition between the heartbeat of Aurbis that contained them, and the next that knew not a trace of their glorious society save for the scattered detritus of their hubris in forgotten caverns. Regardless, the study of the fundamental characteristics of the weave that underlies all of creation must be considered of great value.
However, I believe the Dwemer made a fundamental error in their formulation of tonal architecture: seeing the underlying reality as a symphony whose individual tones might be manipulated, their vaunted reason and wisdom remained rooted in the very temporal prison they sought to ascend. For a symphony is not merely a collection of tones, but a *sequence*, whose nature and harmonious execution is absolutely reliant on one tone taking place after another. However, time is but one of the many layers that make up Aurbis, and the first to evaporate when the fragile ordering comes undone. As a result, when Kagrenac struck the heart, hoping to shape and insert the tone produced by Sunder's impact into the symphony of the world he experienced not a conductor ecstacy subverting the sublime orchestra's efforts to his whims, but the deafening cacophony of all the notes of Aurbis screeching in the same instant, torn from their imagined place by the dissonance created by Keening's effecting of the fundamental divine order.
## The Mortal Pattern
Mortals, for all their peculiarities and varying differences, are alike in the nature of their reasoning and reaction to the world. All mortal minds are mired in cause and effect, temporal sequences, and reliance on vain interpretations of the stories told to their minds imprisoned in bone vaults by limited senses. Whether Man or Mer, the mortal mind is prone to bias beyond reason, a predilection towards believing whatever serves their ego, to predilections and blindnesses of curiously consistent natures.
The mortal mind is not singular, but fragmented in nature, more akin to committees of competing impulses, habits, and inclinations. At its core lie the two principal urges:
**Desire of Order** This is the conservative urge; the hope for retention of fortune, for stability and predictability in life. It is in ascendance when days are good, or when the possibility of ruin is great. Ultimately, it is fear of the *unknown*.
**Desire of Change** This is the transgressive urge; the hope for greater fortune, for novelty and growth. It is in ascendance when life is stagnant, when fetters are keenly felt, or when the possibility of gain is great. Ultimately, it is loathing of the *known*.
The two are always in competition, engaged in eternal tug-of-war, forever compelling the mortal mind towards either stasis or change. Their power at any given moment is determined by lesser urges derived from them; for example, the urge for Change is driven by the desire for novel experience, for relief from pain or labour, for glory and esteem of fellow men, and untold other desires that themselves are constituted of their own lesser drives.
This great ordering, common among all mortal beings despite each mind being so diverse and peculiar of each other, can be thought of as a *fractal pattern*: principally divided in those two halves, that of Order and of Change, with each half then being constituted of derivative patterns, themselves constituted of their *own* derivative patterns, this subgradience extending further than the scope of mortal comprehension, with each level greatly, but not *precisely*, resembling the one before it.
This I have chosen to call the *Mortal Pattern*.
## The Godhead
Once, there was naught but the Black Primordial, from which two entities came to be: Anu and Padomay - Stasis and Change. These two, utterly opposed in their nature yet equal in their measure, struggled in vain until each, in reaction to their opposite, impregnated the other. In Anu, Change catalyzed the inert to become Time - Akatosh - creating movement in order. With Akatosh came the twin, Anu-iel, the fixed pillar around which Akatosh might weave their dance. In Padomay, Stasis gave the gift of purpose, birthing the Creator - Lorkhan. With Lorkhan came the twin, Sithis, whose roiling chaos Lorkhan might employ to shape the Black Primordial.
From each set of twins, the cornerstones of the shrine to Creation that would become Nirn, the Aedra (from Anui-el and Akatosh) and Daedra (from Sithis and Lorkhan) gradually formed in the violence of their interactions.
I feel it important to note that each iteration was not merely a *part* of the parent, but inherited all their complexity while developing their own. For Lorkhan and Akatosh are not as limited in their nature as Anu and Padomay; Anu could not move, while Akatosh could, and Padomay could neither take nor give form, while Lorkhan could.
However, increased complexity carries the unfortunate effect of *diffusion*; as the pattern grows more complex, the overall strength of the entity is dispersed over a greater number of sub-patterns. Thus with every new iteration of the pattern, subsequent entities would become noticably less able to effect direct change upon Aurbis. The ultimate result was the emergence of uniquely versatile entities, capable of only feeble manipulations of Aurbis yet largely unfettered by the chains of power, lingering on the fringes of the Pattern with incomparable room for growth and change, their unparallelled freedom of thought and action a direct inversion of their diminished power over Creation. For power produces fetters, not freedoms, a harsh lesson learned late by many rulers who would then rebel against these chains by unleashing their decadence in full force by the power of their station.
Though these heirs of the Ehlnofey would oftentimes resent their diminished forms, both men and mer have proven themselves more creative than any Aedra, and more unpredictable than any Daedra, frequently pooling their efforts to effect changes on a scale normally the prerogative of gods.
## Enantiomorphosis
In the fractal and unbroken Pattern, function is determined by form. Meanwhile, it is possible for sapient entities to affect their own patterns by sheer will and effort, conditioning their thoughts and actions to mirror those of grander patterns. However, to produce this mirror image a precise knowledge of the desired pattern is needed, a knowledge normally denied to mortal minds in the same manner a tree cannot see the shape of the forest. Thus, a kind of elevation is required for observation, a process that offers severe existential dangers: for a mind that transcends its place to see more of the Pattern runs the risk of losing sight of their link to it, and severing it in the process. The result is an abrubt cessation of being, for the Pattern is the totality of creation and to exist outside of it is to not exist at all.
Such a feat is beyond the power of mortal minds - without help, that is. There is evidence to suggest that others have successfully threaded this dangerous path, either by theft of divine power (as has been suggested of Vivec), communal effort resulting in symbiosis as well as elevation (as has been suggested of the Ysmirs, and Tiber Septim, in their ascension to become Talos), or careful study and mastery (as has been suggested of the Psijic Endeavor).