Sovngarde, Skyrim's equivalent of Valhalla
And so we come to the release this past month of Skyrim available for the XBox, PS3 and PC. Since this game is the fifth iteration of single-player CRPG’s in the same setting, the details of the religion of the world of The Elder Scrolls have become fairly thoroughly fleshed out. Furthermore, they are documented within the myriad of books within the game which some studious collectors have collated and published as free Kindle, Nook and iOS files.
A statue to Azura, Goddess of Twilight
The Aedra are worshipped openly in the world of the Elder Scrolls, but the worship of the Daedra tends to be a bit more clandestine. At one point there were nine Aedra, but one of the Aedra, the trickster, Lorkhan, was apparently destroyed at the creation of the world. In addition, worship of an additional god, Talos, is being suppressed for political reasons. He was a general who established an empire and is now worshiped by humans as a god. Thus, there is a belief in the possibility of apotheosis at least among the humans who are but one of multiple sentient species in the game. The myth of Talos, as far as I can tell, does not include a resurrection story, but you will encounter at least one street preacher in the game working a corner and evangelizing for Talos.
The pantheon at the capital with niches for the shrines of the nine Aedra.
You cannot become a priest or priestess in this game, however, there does seem to be a quest associated with each of the Daedra. Oddly, while there are some minor things you can do to serve the Aedra, the quests for the Daedra are far more intricate and interesting. In fact, it appears that you can influence the Daedra and their subsequent actions within the world by how you chose to complete their quests.
Skyrim is a huge game, and so it is difficult to be comprehensive in any sense after even a month of play, and the available resources. Here’s an overview of what I’ve encountered so far.
The first temple your character is likely to encounter is that of Kynareth in Whiterun. Kynareth is a goddess of nature and living things. The temple at Whiterun features a barren tree out front which had been a popular pilgrimage site. Your character may do a couple of quests for the priestess to restore the tree. Strangely, unless your character is very adept at stealth play, you will probably have to kill a few witches and nature spirits as well as stab the roots of a sacred tree to accomplish that goal.
The goddess of love and marriage is Mara. Skyrim features probably the least romantic approach to relationships that we’ve seen in an AAA game for years. To get married, you put on an amulet of Mara (conveniently available for purchase from the priest of Mara in Riften), and, if you’ve completed a quest for an NPC, a dialogue option may appear in which you may ask if that NPC is interested in you. As far I can tell, no NPC will reject a same-sex relationship. If you confirm that you are interested in them too, you may then visit the priest of Mara to arrange a wedding for the next day. There are some small benefits to being married, and so you will probably want to do so fairly early in your play-through. However, it appears that NPC’s that you’ve completed quests for will come to the wedding, and so if you want a well-attended wedding, you will want to wait until later in the game.
Skyrim has a separate goddess of beauty and lust, and, in yet another positive aspect of its thealogy, Dibella is an Aedra rather than a Daedra (and a goddess of healthy, active sexuality – how cool is that?). Her temple is in Markarth, and, if you are nosy enough, you can be sent to find the a new sibyl for the temple. The naked statues of Dibella remind me to mention that Skyrim thoroughly avoids the trope of chainmail bikini’s for female player characters. Better armor covers more skin for both male and female characters. The downside of that fact is that while it is quite tempting to spend an hour getting the face of your character just right in the character creator, if you decide to then have that character wear armor in the game, you will rarely the character’s face again unless you make an effort to do so.
The god of death, Arkay, is also an Aedra. Most towns have a shrine and priest of Arkay in their burial grounds. The Nords of Skyrim seem to favor mummification and the placement of the mummies within catacombs. Your character will be encountering unrestful examples of the mummies throughout the game.
Akatosh is the dragon god of time. There are really two main quest lines in this game. On the one hand, Skyrim is in the midst of civil war, and on the other dragons have reappeared and your character is destined as a “dragonborn” to find out why. There is little reason to like either side of the civil war. The Imperials begin the game by trying to behead your character explicitly without any form of due process, and your escape takes you through one of their torture rooms. On the other hand, the rebel Stormcloaks are equally explicitly a bunch of racists. So pick your poison. My character has chosen not to chose a side. I have progressed fairly far in the dragon-related quests, but I have yet had no direct encounter with Akatosh or His priesthood.
I’ve similarly not found a temple or a priest for the remaining Aedra Julianos, Stendarr or Zenithar nor is there a quick summary of their character in the books. On the other hand, the Daedra are summarized thoroughly in “The Book of Daedra”. I’ve completed about half of the Daedra quests which generally have you serving the particular deity and receiving an item as a reward.
As the champion of Azura, the goddess of twilight, you can track down Azura’s Star which is a reusable soul gem which is helpful in the game’s enchanting system. The smith at Falkreath can get you looking for a very bad dog indeed who serves Clavicus Vile. If you help that god of “power and wishes,” you can get a nice horned helmet (though as my son pointed out, the face on the mask has a mustache which made it a bit odd for my female character who wore it for quite a while before finding something better). If you pursue the dragon quest-line, you will encounter Hermaeus Mora who as a god of hidden knowledge will give you book which will upon reading raise six of your skills (which is significantly better than the occasional book you will find which will raise but one of your skills). I also completed a quest of service to Molag Bal mostly to get it off my quest list. He’s a god of “enslavement and domination,” and so I’m not proud of that fact. I kept hoping that there’d be a better optional resolution to the quest as there were in other Daedra quests. He does leave you with a nifty mace though. I also got a nice sword by completing the quest for Meridia who remains fairly mysterious even after completing her line.
The halls of feasting in Sovngarde - the racist Stormcloaks will be happy: no non-Nords are present in the hall.
Hey Scott- I thought this was really interesting; they have been working the Skyrim roll-out with giant posters on the sides of the buses (if you want to know what is happening pop-culture-wise in NYC, keep your eye out for street-level advertising); initially I thought Skyrim was a movie of some sort (which I guess it is in its way): anyhow, since I’m not so into such games myself, I was impressed by- to judge from your article) how involved and Pagan it is. I wonder if, for some players, the Deities presented will start to seem as “real” as you know, Real Deities.
I actually thought the Molag Bal quest was very well done, and appropriate for a Daedra who is called “King of Rape” in addition to the other titles you mentioned. Hircine’s was probably my favourite though (I’m actually surprised you didn’t mention the Huntsman, his servants are even called “hernes”, how Pagan is that?), his quest also has two different paths you can take. In fact, Hircine helped me relate to hunting deities, who aren’t generally cute and fluffy!
Oh, and if you ask the priestess about the empty shrine she says it was for Talos (as his worship is banned by the Empire), Lorkhan isn’t really worshiped anymore on account of being dead.
Oh, and there’s also a Daedric equivalent of Dibella in Sanguine, who is the Daedric Prince of debauchery and revelry and all that fun stuff. I highly recommend his quest as it’s a lot of fun. (It begins with a drinking contest and goes from there.)
It is, indeed, a testament to the size of the game that I have not yet run into Hircine’s quest (is that the companion quest line? I rushed right through it with an earlier character and missed the herne reference if it was there) or the well-loved “Hangover” quest (which, I believe, is the latter one you mentioned). But if I kept waiting to encounter them all (even with the help of the wiki), this article was never going to get out.
I thought that the empty niche might be Talos’, but I talked to the Highpriest and not to her. Ah, well. I figured there was still a bit of ambiguity about Lorkhan, but even though I’ve played every Elder Scroll except for Arena, Shyrim is the first I’ve played through an entire main quest line, and so I’ve not encountered the entire lore. I killed Alduin yesterday completing the dragon quest line, and it’s not clear that he still wont return in the End Times. Thus, I was a little unsure about Lorkhan despite various references to his death in the collected books.
Do feel free to report and comment on the remaining Daedra quests (there are at least 15 required for the achievement, but I suspect that all the Daedra have one). And where the heck are the Vigilents (who hunt down daedra) located?
http://thepaperwitch.blogspot.com/2010/10/azura-video-games-and-paganism.html
I wrote about small bit about Azure and Paganism about a year ago about how it appealed to me. I’m an immense fan of The Elder Scrolls as well as a Pagan so I have definitely found the games involving and reflective over the past 10+ years. Interesting that this post has developed as this game has the least to do with Gods, Goddesses, and Deadra involvement. There’s not much to them in Skyrim, which makes sense as the Nords of Skyrim don’t really follow the Deadra as closely as the Dark Elves of Morrowind do/did. And there are way more than the Eight/Nine Divines and the Daedra!
In addition to the Nine Divines and Daedra, there are other Gods that the different races follow that sometimes overlap with the official Imperial Gods of the Nine. For example, Khajiit’s have Mara, Stendarr, Azura, and Sheogorath, but they also have Lorkhan, Baan Dar, Rajhin, Jode, Jone, Riddle’Thar, and Alkosh (the Dragon King of Cats, interestingly enough). There are also other creation deities such as Magnus and Lorkhan (he’s not a member of the Nine Divines, just to politely correct) that fall under the titles of Anu or Padomay. The Aedra are the creators of the world (Nirn) on the plane of mortals (Mundus). The word, as you stated, means “ancestor” in the elven language but is mostly related to the Dunmer, or Dark Elves. The important thing to remember about them is that they represent stasis (developed from Anu), while the Daedra represent change (developed from Padomay). That’s the biggest reason why you are able to interact with the Daedra and not the Aedra. The Deadra interact from their different planes or realms in Oblivion in order to cause changes (be it moral or immoral, good or bad).
Also, the empty notch in Solitude is from the removal of Talos. He does not have a resurrection story, as you had mentioned you were not sure about, but in the Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, you have the opportunity to meet him in disguise as an old man named Wulf and gives you his lucky coin right before you enter to finish the main quest. (That game is one to play if you are interested in reincarnation and a “false Gods” or “self created Gods” or just a much more immense concept of created culture, Gods, faction riffs, history, and all around depth–especially compared to Skyrim and Oblivion). I’m a little surprised you mention Akatosh (of the Nine) and the dragon main quest but not Alduin (of the Nords) haha! Nice post
The hangover quest is the one I mentioned, yes. It’s so crazy it has to be played through to be believed. You get Hircine’s quest in Falkreath (people will be talking about a guy they’ve imprisoned). As for the daedra hunters, I’m not sure if they’re in the game or if they were just mentioned. I think I read something to the effect that after the Oblivion Crisis there have been far less daedra around (for obvious reasons if you complete the main quest).
I also like how the gods are seen differently by other races. It’s not just “god A is god A”, Mara, for instance, is the handmaiden of Kynareth and a goddess of love in Skyrim, but in Oblivion she’s more of a “mother goddess” figure. There’s even a miscellaneous quest where you can evangelize folk in Riften (it’s funny to hear the reactions of the NPCs you give pamphlets to). It made me think of how awkward it would be if Pagans started evangelizing (but it seems to work on the folk of Riften). Just ask the priestess in the temple of Mara if you can do anything more to help and she’ll suggest you hand out literature. Oh, and let’s not forget that some of the Daedric Princes can appear as male or female (Boethiah and Mephala are two) but others seem to prefer one gender (ie. Meridia is always female).
Another thing I like about Skyrim’s Daedric Princes is that they actually seem like they’re meddling in human affairs. In Oblivion, it was always: Go to shrine, give appropriate offerings, get quest, complete quest, return to shrine, and now I could be walking around and suddenly come across someone who just happened to mess with the wrong being, but I guess that’s more Bethesda trying to make quests more varied and interesting. I’ve played through Morrowind and Oblivion, and the Daedric shrine quests are still my favourites apart from the Dark Brotherhood faction in Oblivion, haven’t played through that faction in Skyrim yet but I hear it’s awesome).
My son liked the Dark Brotherhood line, but I was role-playing chaotic stupid with this last character. After you do what you need to kick off that line you wake up in a distant shack and a mysterious stranger asks you to choose one of three hostages and kill them. So, of course, I killed the mysterious stranger because no one’s going to force my character to kill an innocent. My son was like, “You can kill the head of the Dark Brotherhood right then?” Yep-doing so launches the “Destroy the Dark Brotherhood” quest line which is not nearly as interesting or rewarding. Completely cool that it exists, though.
I’ve run into the Vigilents on the road a couple of times and they essentially tell you seek out their headquarters, if you’re interested, but they don’t say what town. My son’s found them, but he can’t remember where. So yeah they’re around even though daedra are less prevalent.
If your interested Paganism in games (which I think the Juggler could do with more of) the check out “King Arthur – The Role-playing Wargame” in which you choose to be either Christian or “Old Faith” (read “Pagan”); there’s even an expansion in which you play as a Welsh Pagan king and your goal is to restore Britannia to the Old Faith. Another game is the upcoming mmo “The Secret World”. It’s set in our modern world (the main city hubs are New York, Seoul, and London) with the fantastical twist that all the myths, legends, folklore and conspiracy theories are real e.g. the Illuminati exist and want to control the world (they’re one playable faction along with the Dragon and the Templars). The Screenshot of “The Horned God” in London suggests a strong Pagan influence in the game: http://www.thesecretworld.com/world/locations/london
Thanks for the suggestions, Garreth. I try to cover recent things as much as possible, and so I probably won’t investigate King Arthur (otherwise, I might as well dive into the even older Titan’s Quest where I just topped 500 hours on my second copy of the game). However, I will now keep my eye out for The Secret World particularly if it goes ftp. Prying my fingers off DIII will probably be hard for a while after its probable release next quarter, though.
Lorkhan isn’t dead btw he was the Aedra of order, and he cracked and became sheogorath. But he comes back from shegoraths subconscious every so often to wage war on sheogoraths realm of dual insanity….
play the shivering isles
If you have the dawngaurd dlc the hall of the viggilents is destroyed by vampires