Elder Scrolls Lore » Discussions
The Ancient Nordic Pantheon
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I'm starting to stick my toes in the Lore waters :)
It's tough, because as far as I can tell, the gods of the TES universe do exist, but the idea of the Eight were created from elements of Nordic and Elven gods. So I find myself wondering if the Eight actually exist, or if they're just Imperial placeholders. From the UESP on the Eight:
the primary view of the Divines is as impersonal, generally benevolent spirits, worthy of propitiation but without any strong direct relationship
This and the stories surrounding the Eight suggests to me that at least the lore writers want the Eight to exist. So I find it just as difficult to think of Kynareth as being equal to Kyne as I do to think of Kynareth as being equal to Y'ffre. If Kynareth contains elements of both, yet is neither, then she is her own distinct entity. So it makes me wonder if, by worshiping any of the Eight, people are actually worshiping two gods, Nordic and Elven, at the same time.
Unless I missed a crucial detail about how Alessia's declaration of this new pantheon actually created these gods?
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Have you looked into The Wheel structure of Aurbis at all, Liege? I found it quite useful and it serves as a "standard model" for me in the same way that our own standard model of the universe does. It may not be the answers to all things but it does help when making sense of all the racial myths and gods.
I don't think you have missed anything about the Alessian Eight and you are right to think of it as an elegant and simple synthesis of Elven and Manish gods. Yet there may be issues with the idea that when worshipping one of the Divines you are actually worshipping two deities although far be it for me to dismiss your interpretation which does have merit in it's own right.
My personal view is that there are Eight spokes in the wheel. These Eight are the gift-limbs, the Aedra, the gods who sacrificed their agency for creation. Of course these are all Arda, just the greater ones, but many smaller spirits also put themselves into Mundus. These smaller spirits are also important as the Ehlnofey. As a whole, the greater and lesser spirits are the progenitors of all life so Aedra meaning ancestors is still valid.
So now we have these eight, each race has a name for each spoke. There are overlaps, contradictions and even brain-warping paradoxes as you attempt to juxtapose one pantheon on top of another - Xarxes to Arkay being an example.
But if you strip it all back, there still remain eight spokes. So this is where the books Gods and Worship, The Light and the Dark and The Old Ways come into play as well as concepts like The Towers and Mythopoeia. We know Kyne exists, we can see her plane which looks like a sphere in the night sky and we can see the other planets too. Yet we can't change the number of those planets there are eight. These are the corpses of the gods. So if that is one is Kyne and that one is Arkay, where is Kynareth, Tava and Xarxes?
Those corpses are like clay and the belief of mortals are the hands of a potter, shaping and moulding the gods into different forms. There are still eight but each one now looks different depending on where you stand when you view them. In a way this is like our own quantum physics and I believe that is the intent. So if you stand in Skyrim and look at Kyne through the cultural lens of the Nordic telescope you can see a fierce warrior goddess angry over the death of her husband, forever associated with storms, winds, snow and winter.
Yet if you head further south and see her from the Imperial City, she looks less fierce and less associated with the more destructive elements or seasons, which makes sense when considering the fertile lands of the Nibenay. She is less warrior and more peaceful, encompassing nature in all its forms. This is reflective of the people.
Both versions are valid and true, Kyne and Kynareth will answer prayers and bless their faithful, may even appear if the need is great enough. Yet there still remains one Kyne planet, not two.
However, all that is my interpretations - or rather a quick version of them. If yours differs that is perfectly fine
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That book is the very rub, isn't it? I mean, all we are really doing here is trying to find a moment in time where the Imperial Eight became popular enough to have shrines built for them in Skyrim. Even though VoF says Stuhn is venerated you'll be hard pressed to find a shrine to him. The halls of the dead are all dedicated to Arkay and Orkey, Herma Mora and Maloch are never mentioned.
We aren't talking about cathedrals or grand temples. These shrines are small statues out in the wilderness, or tossed into people's homes, or set inside older ruins and catacombs. These aren't elaborate buildings. Most aren't even in buildings, they're under open sky.
Like how the old pantheon was worshipped. Battlefields, groves, mountains, people's homes. These are the places the old ways where practiced and these are the places we find these shrines to newer deities.
The Nords haven't built great temples since the days of the Dragon Cult. The largest shrine in Skyrim is dedicated to Kynareth and it's built of wood with a thatch roof. (I don't count the chapel in Solitude considering it's basically an Imperial city.
Everything shrine I've found in Skyrim looks like someone went a dropped one down at an old place of worship. "Oh we used to worship Stuhn here, now it's for Stendarr." The most dedicated shrines are for Talos with grand statues. Or they're in people's homes. Hearthfire lets you build your own shrines in your basement.
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This all tells me that we still don't see the full picture. If in Skyrim we see Kyne nd in Cyrodiil Kynareth, what about Alinor, Morrowind, Valenwood, Black Marsh? Elven pentheons don't have an anlogue of Kyne, they only have Jephre, who is by no means an aspect of Kyne/Kynareth, he is totally something else. Dunmer don't worhip the Eight as well as Argonians... I suspect that beside the whole mythopoeia deal, there are still things that aren't influenced by mortals.
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Have you seen former Lore Host Kynareth's thoughts on this? Here's the link
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Pick on Phil like a pack of jackals or a Tribe of Bosmer? 
