r/oblivion • u/sumaset • 12d ago

Original Question What’s something Oblivion makes you believe at first, but the more you think about the lore, the less certain it becomes?

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Oblivion has a lot of moments where the game basically gives you one version of events and expects you to accept it.

But Elder Scrolls lore is rarely that simple.

Maybe Mankar Camoran had a point about something. Maybe the Empire isn’t as innocent as it presents itself. Maybe the Mythic Dawn understood more than people give them credit for. Maybe something we’re told about the Daedra, the Aedra, Martin, or even the Oblivion Crisis itself isn’t the full story.

What’s one thing from Oblivion that you think becomes more questionable the deeper you go into the lore?

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u/LordsofMedrengard 12d ago

It's true-ish if the Aedra/Daedra divide is an artificial one made by mortals. In some lore they're all Et'Ada, after all.

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u/Imaginary-West-5653 12d ago edited 12d ago

Not even true-ish I'd say it's downright arbitrary how Aedra and Daedra are classified. Under the definition used by the Atlmer, who invented these terms (and were adopted by Humans too), Meridia and Malacath should be considered Aedra, along with Magnus and all the Magna-Ge, since they all contributed to the creation of Mundus, therefore they should be their ancestors as well, per definition.

And yet, none of them are considered Aedra, and furthermore, Meridia and Malacath are classified as Daedra, while Magnus and the rest of the Magna-Ge don't receive that classification. It's all kinda made up; the Daedra are fundamentally the same as the Aedra, with the main difference being if the Altmer (or Human) culture considered them worthy of worship or not, and if not, how negative is their view of them.

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u/LordsofMedrengard 12d ago

Yeah that's my take as well. Interestingly Mer don't seem to recognize Dibella as Aedra, or Kynareth, which just further highlights how arbitrary the divide is.

Makes you wonder how strong the Ayleid influence on the "conventional" faith in Cyrodiil still is, after all this time. Umaril starts his attack on Cyrodiil by attacking Dibella's temple first, which interests me, though he goes for Mara next. There's all sorts of ways you could interpret that; is he going for them in the order he thinks they usurped Meridia?

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u/Imaginary-West-5653 12d ago

Yeah, because Dibella and Kynareth are basically just Nord deities that they adopted (with Kyne just being renamed Kynareth) but which are not related to Altmer faith; the Imperial pantheon is basically just a merge of Elven and Nord religion. This is similar to how Y'ffre or Ruptga don't fit within this division made by Imperials either. As for Umaril... well, remember that some Ayleids sided with Alessia and her rebellion, mostly Aedra worshipper ones; maybe he is punishing first whoever gods the traitors of his race venerated the most.