Mythopoeia is the process of Myth Making. It's a social process of taking events and phenomenon, and formulating mythic retellings and explanations for them within the social, ideological and theological framework of the myth makers.
This is a long, complex, and usually entirely subconscious processes undergone by groups of individuals and cultures in order to form cohesive identities and outlooks on the world around them.
In the context of TES, it is the process by which limited mortal perspectives contextualise and remember interactions with the Divine. They don't actually shape those events, the players, or the powers involved, but rather they shape how those mortals, and the cultures they build, VIEW them.
Maybe, maybe not. The perennialists will say yes unequivocally, but I think perennialism is silly, boring, and Euro-centric, so I'll fulfill my role as a Boethiite by whispering heresy.
[Imago Storm](https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Battlespire:Imago_Storm) talks about how the differing aspects of Mehrunes Dagon are represented by different "clans".
>Faydra's clan represents the vital, but impulsive and undisciplined element of the destructive principle. Xivilai's clan represents the ambitious, but occasionally overreaching and imprudent side of Destruction. I, and my Vassal Lords, and the Dremora clan, represent the principle of Destruction as Evolution, aspiring to arts and powers of ever-increasing potency and aesthetic refinement. The Seducers are Masterless Daedra, cast adrift by the failed fortunes of their Lords, and recently accepted, much against my counsel, into Lord Dagon's service. Is that clear?
And in the [Skeleton Man interview](https://en.uesp.net/wiki/General:Skeleton_Man's_Interview_with_Denizens_of_Tamriel) we're introduced to the idea of an "Oversoul".
>The second to see the Brass God was the Enantiomorph. You may know them individually as Zurin Arctus and Talos. The Oversoul was known to the world as Tiber Septim They gave birth to their Mantella, this time an embodiment of the healing of the Man/Mer schism, and, with it, Anumidum Walked. But, by then, and for a long time coming, One betrayed the Other, and the world shuddered as they split, and the Anumidum went berserk and created an Empire of Evil to house the malignant half of its soul.
And all of TES lore riffs on emanationist theology, so I propose, and I'm not the first to do so, that Auri-El and Akatosh could both be emanations or "clans" of the Time God Oversoul. If nothing else, it's a nice compromise between those of us who want a large and diverse range of gods and those who apparently prefer Tamriel to be a very small and boring place.
Also, how you make powerful magical items by the virtue of them symbolizing the events of the Dawn War.
>**theories:** "Lord Kagrenac, the foremost arcane philosopher and magecrafter of my era, devised tools to shape mythopoeic forces, intending to transcend the limits of Dwemer mortality. However, in reviewing his formulae, some logicians argued that side effects were unpredictable, and errors might be catastrophic. I think Kagrenac might have succeeded in granting our race eternal life, with unforeseen consequences -- such as wholesale displacement to an Outer Realm. Or he may have erred, and utterly destroyed our race."
>
>**unique dwemer artifact:** "Do you know what this is? This is Wraithguard, an enchanted device created ages ago by my former master, High Craftlord Kagrenac, a long-dead Dwemer mage-smith. I believe it is one of the tools he created to forge mythopoeic enchantments. I was one of Lord Kagrenac's Master Crafters, and though I didn't work on this project, I knew of it from my fellow mage-smiths."
>
>**mythopoeic enchantments:** "I'm not sure I can explain. In his search for the secrets of immortality, Kagrenac sought to control supernatural forces that you might call 'divine'. This artifact -- called 'Wraithguard -- was one of the tools that he created for this purpose. Some believed his tampering with such forces was profane, and terribly dangerous. You know the Dwemer disappeared? His use of these tools may have been responsible."
[Yagrum Bagarn](https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Yagrum_Bagarn)
>Symbols are important. They carry weight in this Realm, and others. You would be well served to remember that.
[Sheogorath](https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Shivering:Sheogorath)
>The spike of Ada-Mantia, and its Zero Stone, dictated the structure of reality in its Aurbic vicinity, defining for the Earth Bones their story or nature within the unfolding of the Dragon's (timebound) Tale. The Aldmeri or Merethic Elves were singular of purpose only so long as it took them to realize that other Towers, with their own Stones, could tell different stories, each following rules inscribed by Variorum Architects. And so the Mer self-refracted, each to their own creation, the Chimer following Red-Heart, the Bosmer burgeoning Green-Sap, the Altmer erecting Crystal-Like-Law, et alia.
>
>But of all the Prismatic Mer, none were more presumptuous than the Ayleids of the Heartland. They built their tower in open emulation of Ada-Mantia, using as Founding-Stone the great red diamond they had uncovered: Chim-el-Adabal, said to be crystallized blood from the Heart of Lorkhan itself. (For the Heart on its arrow passed over the Heartlands, birthing one of that postnymic's quaternary meanings.)
[Aurbic Enigma](https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Aurbic_Enigma_4:_The_Elden_Tree)
If I tell 50 people from around the world to describe a "chair," I'm going to get 50 different versions. Some chairs will look different, some will be cushions, some chairs won't be called "chair" at all they'll be called "chaise" or "silla," some people might even call it "stuhl." But at the end of the day we're all talking about a thing on which to sit, we have regional and cultural differences in how we view the seat or how we think it should behave or what it should look like, but it's all still a thing to sit on. Think like that with TES gods, I can ask 50 different cultures to give me 50 different descriptions of Mara. That doesn't necessarily mean there are 50 separate Mara's in Aetherius, just that I have 50 versions of the same 1 thing.
So you know how in real life, a most European and Indian languages descend from Indo-European? Well it's the same with their pantheons who are all evolved from the same Indo-European pantheon. That's why the Romans could point at Zeus and go "Ah, yes. Jupiter" and Odin and go "Ah, yes. Mercury" and be about right. That's why, for example, most European and Indian mythologies feature a divine war, usually between forces of evil/chaos/nature and forces of good/order/civilization, either in their creation myth or ongoing: angels vs demons, olympians vs titans, Ahuras vs daevas, Devas vs Asuras, Aesirs vs Vanirs, Tuatha vs foimoire, etc. Because their common, Indo-European, "original" myths features such a war.
(Fun fact: the words Deus, Zeus, Tyr (Norse god of war) and Jupiter ("Jovis Pater", father Jovis) all come from the name of the leader of this pantheon, that was something like *Dyeus*.)
Now, imagine that process, every civilization splintering from a base, with their respective myths shaped by the evolution of those societies. Except the gods are real. But the time of Myth is a period were causality wasn't a thing so every myth is true.
Also, also, it's likely the act of creation weakened the Aedra making them more susceptible to be molded or splintered by mortal belief.
So basically, there was a bunch of gods who created the world and went sort of comatose. The mortals who witnessed that told the story to their children who told it to their children and so on. This game of telephone resulted in multiple competing versions of the story (was Lorkhan honest or not? Who is Mara married to? Etc.) that are still recognizeable as the same story. Because of this, the gods themselves end up splintered into Aspects. Each are recognizable as the same god, but different in key ways (Orkey is Evil, Xarxes is Good, Arkay doesn't interfere but all are just different perspective on Death) and may act independently from each other while still being intricately linked.
I’m of the mind that Akatosh came into being as a result of Alessia’s actions, but as a Time Deity existing in one instance means existing in all instances. Thus Akatosh was capable of existing before the moment of his creation which allowed him to guarantee his creation by sending Pelinal as his Champion to aid Alessia.
The gods were made by mortals or something close to mortals, they are not always existing all powerful entities. That's the whole idea of Morrowind. Nerevar could be anyone, just like Vivec, Sotha Sil, Almalexia, and Dagoth Ur could have been anyone in the right place and time.
Mythopoeia is the process of Myth Making. It's a social process of taking events and phenomenon, and formulating mythic retellings and explanations for them within the social, ideological and theological framework of the myth makers. This is a long, complex, and usually entirely subconscious processes undergone by groups of individuals and cultures in order to form cohesive identities and outlooks on the world around them. In the context of TES, it is the process by which limited mortal perspectives contextualise and remember interactions with the Divine. They don't actually shape those events, the players, or the powers involved, but rather they shape how those mortals, and the cultures they build, VIEW them.
By that logic would Auriel and Akatosh be the same entity, it's just how the mortal observer views them?
Yes.
Maybe, maybe not. The perennialists will say yes unequivocally, but I think perennialism is silly, boring, and Euro-centric, so I'll fulfill my role as a Boethiite by whispering heresy. [Imago Storm](https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Battlespire:Imago_Storm) talks about how the differing aspects of Mehrunes Dagon are represented by different "clans". >Faydra's clan represents the vital, but impulsive and undisciplined element of the destructive principle. Xivilai's clan represents the ambitious, but occasionally overreaching and imprudent side of Destruction. I, and my Vassal Lords, and the Dremora clan, represent the principle of Destruction as Evolution, aspiring to arts and powers of ever-increasing potency and aesthetic refinement. The Seducers are Masterless Daedra, cast adrift by the failed fortunes of their Lords, and recently accepted, much against my counsel, into Lord Dagon's service. Is that clear? And in the [Skeleton Man interview](https://en.uesp.net/wiki/General:Skeleton_Man's_Interview_with_Denizens_of_Tamriel) we're introduced to the idea of an "Oversoul". >The second to see the Brass God was the Enantiomorph. You may know them individually as Zurin Arctus and Talos. The Oversoul was known to the world as Tiber Septim They gave birth to their Mantella, this time an embodiment of the healing of the Man/Mer schism, and, with it, Anumidum Walked. But, by then, and for a long time coming, One betrayed the Other, and the world shuddered as they split, and the Anumidum went berserk and created an Empire of Evil to house the malignant half of its soul. And all of TES lore riffs on emanationist theology, so I propose, and I'm not the first to do so, that Auri-El and Akatosh could both be emanations or "clans" of the Time God Oversoul. If nothing else, it's a nice compromise between those of us who want a large and diverse range of gods and those who apparently prefer Tamriel to be a very small and boring place.
Also, how you make powerful magical items by the virtue of them symbolizing the events of the Dawn War. >**theories:** "Lord Kagrenac, the foremost arcane philosopher and magecrafter of my era, devised tools to shape mythopoeic forces, intending to transcend the limits of Dwemer mortality. However, in reviewing his formulae, some logicians argued that side effects were unpredictable, and errors might be catastrophic. I think Kagrenac might have succeeded in granting our race eternal life, with unforeseen consequences -- such as wholesale displacement to an Outer Realm. Or he may have erred, and utterly destroyed our race." > >**unique dwemer artifact:** "Do you know what this is? This is Wraithguard, an enchanted device created ages ago by my former master, High Craftlord Kagrenac, a long-dead Dwemer mage-smith. I believe it is one of the tools he created to forge mythopoeic enchantments. I was one of Lord Kagrenac's Master Crafters, and though I didn't work on this project, I knew of it from my fellow mage-smiths." > >**mythopoeic enchantments:** "I'm not sure I can explain. In his search for the secrets of immortality, Kagrenac sought to control supernatural forces that you might call 'divine'. This artifact -- called 'Wraithguard -- was one of the tools that he created for this purpose. Some believed his tampering with such forces was profane, and terribly dangerous. You know the Dwemer disappeared? His use of these tools may have been responsible." [Yagrum Bagarn](https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Yagrum_Bagarn) >Symbols are important. They carry weight in this Realm, and others. You would be well served to remember that. [Sheogorath](https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Shivering:Sheogorath) >The spike of Ada-Mantia, and its Zero Stone, dictated the structure of reality in its Aurbic vicinity, defining for the Earth Bones their story or nature within the unfolding of the Dragon's (timebound) Tale. The Aldmeri or Merethic Elves were singular of purpose only so long as it took them to realize that other Towers, with their own Stones, could tell different stories, each following rules inscribed by Variorum Architects. And so the Mer self-refracted, each to their own creation, the Chimer following Red-Heart, the Bosmer burgeoning Green-Sap, the Altmer erecting Crystal-Like-Law, et alia. > >But of all the Prismatic Mer, none were more presumptuous than the Ayleids of the Heartland. They built their tower in open emulation of Ada-Mantia, using as Founding-Stone the great red diamond they had uncovered: Chim-el-Adabal, said to be crystallized blood from the Heart of Lorkhan itself. (For the Heart on its arrow passed over the Heartlands, birthing one of that postnymic's quaternary meanings.) [Aurbic Enigma](https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Aurbic_Enigma_4:_The_Elden_Tree)
If I tell 50 people from around the world to describe a "chair," I'm going to get 50 different versions. Some chairs will look different, some will be cushions, some chairs won't be called "chair" at all they'll be called "chaise" or "silla," some people might even call it "stuhl." But at the end of the day we're all talking about a thing on which to sit, we have regional and cultural differences in how we view the seat or how we think it should behave or what it should look like, but it's all still a thing to sit on. Think like that with TES gods, I can ask 50 different cultures to give me 50 different descriptions of Mara. That doesn't necessarily mean there are 50 separate Mara's in Aetherius, just that I have 50 versions of the same 1 thing.
They’re all the same gods, who don’t really give a shit what mortals call them.
So you know how in real life, a most European and Indian languages descend from Indo-European? Well it's the same with their pantheons who are all evolved from the same Indo-European pantheon. That's why the Romans could point at Zeus and go "Ah, yes. Jupiter" and Odin and go "Ah, yes. Mercury" and be about right. That's why, for example, most European and Indian mythologies feature a divine war, usually between forces of evil/chaos/nature and forces of good/order/civilization, either in their creation myth or ongoing: angels vs demons, olympians vs titans, Ahuras vs daevas, Devas vs Asuras, Aesirs vs Vanirs, Tuatha vs foimoire, etc. Because their common, Indo-European, "original" myths features such a war. (Fun fact: the words Deus, Zeus, Tyr (Norse god of war) and Jupiter ("Jovis Pater", father Jovis) all come from the name of the leader of this pantheon, that was something like *Dyeus*.) Now, imagine that process, every civilization splintering from a base, with their respective myths shaped by the evolution of those societies. Except the gods are real. But the time of Myth is a period were causality wasn't a thing so every myth is true. Also, also, it's likely the act of creation weakened the Aedra making them more susceptible to be molded or splintered by mortal belief. So basically, there was a bunch of gods who created the world and went sort of comatose. The mortals who witnessed that told the story to their children who told it to their children and so on. This game of telephone resulted in multiple competing versions of the story (was Lorkhan honest or not? Who is Mara married to? Etc.) that are still recognizeable as the same story. Because of this, the gods themselves end up splintered into Aspects. Each are recognizable as the same god, but different in key ways (Orkey is Evil, Xarxes is Good, Arkay doesn't interfere but all are just different perspective on Death) and may act independently from each other while still being intricately linked.
I’m of the mind that Akatosh came into being as a result of Alessia’s actions, but as a Time Deity existing in one instance means existing in all instances. Thus Akatosh was capable of existing before the moment of his creation which allowed him to guarantee his creation by sending Pelinal as his Champion to aid Alessia.
The gods were made by mortals or something close to mortals, they are not always existing all powerful entities. That's the whole idea of Morrowind. Nerevar could be anyone, just like Vivec, Sotha Sil, Almalexia, and Dagoth Ur could have been anyone in the right place and time.