Lore:Ithelia

Ithelia

"There was another Daedric Prince! My Prince! A Prince that saved me and preserved just enough of my memory so that I could one day save them in return. A Prince whose jealous and craven siblings cast down and wiped from the annals of history."
—Torvesard

Ithelia, known as the Prince of Paths, the Mistress of the Untraveled Road, the Unseen, the Fate-Changer, the Dark Reflection, the Last Tomorrow, and She Who Saw and Wept is the Daedric Prince of Paths. Some believe unbound Prisoners to exist by her will. She supposedly had the ability to shape destiny, alter fate and rearrange its strands according to her whim. Considering this power a threat to the order of the universe, Hermaeus Mora erased all traces of her memory from existence in order to preserve reality. Ithelia left behind her loyal servant, Torvesard, as a contingency plan in her absence. As of 2E 582, she was unknown to the academic community, though some scholars had uncovered evidence of forgotten Ayleid deities.

Ithelia's realm of Oblivion is Mirrormoor.

HistoryEdit

Star OrphanEdit

Hermaeus Mora discussing the threat of Ithelia

Originally the eldest member of the Star-Orphans, Magna Ge that followed the parabolas that led away from Magnus, Ithelia was known as the White Star, the Prime Archon and the Queen of Fates Unwritten. She was responsible for deciding that fate had a chance to be born. At some point, she was shown the Infinite Abyss and the Indeterminate Sea (Mora Obscura), which revealed the Indefinite Limits of creation, probably by the Missing God, who was the first to realize that Nothing does not exist, and that where there is nothing there is possibility.

She realized not only the harmony within duality that exists beyond the simple dichotomy of Anui-El and Sithis, but that this unity of opposites contained starlight and endless possibility beyond cosmic interplay. For this, she was named the Colors of Light. Ithelia thus came to the conclusion that the Time God, Aka, was mad for wanting to layer this endless potential with Linear Time, dooming those endless possibilities in nothingness that his shadow, the Missing God Lorkhan, saw first. To achieve this, Aka erected Ada-Mantia and its Zero Stone to transform endless potential (chaos) into nothing-possible (stability). However, Ithelia soon learned why his insanity was all that was and could be. From this lesson, the Prime Archon endeavored to cleave a path through the everything to reach Numancia. The goal of her followers was to use violence against Man to bring forth a Numinous Paravant, whose metaphysical nature as a Prisoner would give them unbound hands and the ability to achieve Ithelia's goal.

Ithelia found worshippers in the Mythic Era. Her Ayleid followers prayed and offered sacrifices to her before embarking on a journey. She had a significant amount of ties to the region known today as the West Weald.

ImprisonmentEdit

Ithelia's Prison

When Ithelia first emerged, Hermaeus Mora foresaw her unraveling reality. Her ability to shape destiny as she saw fit had already damaged the threads of fate, so in an effort to prevent further harm, he gathered the other Daedric Princes in a moot where he proposed they remove her from existence. Part of his solution involved erasing Ithelia from their memory entirely. Seeing the damage she had already caused to the fabric of fate, many of the Princes agreed to assist him in the matter: however, Peryite and Vaermina objected to the idea. Against their wishes, he cast a spell that wiped all memory of Ithelia's existence from the minds of his fellow Princes: records of Ithelia's existence and knowledge of her location was all forgotten by Daedra and mortal alike. This would end up becoming Mora's most closely guarded secret.

WorshipEdit

AyleidsEdit

The Ayleids of Essondul worshipped Ithelia as the Prince of Paths. The Temple of Julianos in Skingrad was built atop the ruins of an ancient Ayleid temple, which was originally dedicated to another divinity. Scholars have speculated that the divinity in question might have been an unknown Daedric Prince, as the symbols and iconography found at the site did not match any of the known Daedric Princes.

Some Bosmeri scholars of the Second Era speculated that the Ayleids, may have worshipped another deity forgotten to the history. Vague and frantic inscriptions and imagery, are associated with her, conveying a sense of urgency and confusion. They suggested that the Ayleids were grappling to remember a forgotten deity or perhaps an individual central to their worship. One inscription alluded to the idea of setting someone free—possibly a slave or the deity themselves—but the details remain unclear. Some theorize that this figure was once venerated by the Ayleids before being taken away, lost to both time and the world.

BosmerEdit

The Recollection was a Bosmer cult dedicated to Ithelia. They felt a certain emptiness plaguing Nirn, an "aching hole" where something should be, but nothing is. They sought to fix it by recovering "what was forgotten" and restoring Ithelia.

ArtifactsEdit

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Loom of the Untraveled RoadEdit

Loom of the Untraveled Road

The Loom of the Untraveled Road is a Daedric apparatus of unimaginable power created by Ithelia. It is said to be what Hermaeus Mora feared, leading to him taking action against Ithelia. Described as a series of portals within portals leading to the Many Paths, it is more of a place than an engine, residing within a pocket dimension within Fargrave. With the Loom Ithelia is said to be able to reshape the fates, accessing alternate fates and histories from the Many Paths and weaving them into reality, or even granting each being their own desired history to break fate's shackles. Places that were part of Mirrormoor are said to be fundamentally connected to the Loom, and artifacts used in such locations will have their power drained by the Loom as it gains power. Through the Loom Ithelia can also draw immense amounts of power from the Many Paths, though the untold amounts of energy ultimately overwhelm her, transforming her into the Last Tomorrow, the threat Hermaeus Mora foresaw. Even after being destroyed through the use of Boethiah's Blade, Abolisher, the Loom still radiates power, preventing approach through portal magic and making the area around the Loom itself unstable, threatening anyone lingering there with the possibility of becoming lost in the Many Paths.

The Staff of Many PathsEdit

The Staff of Many Paths with fate threads swirling around the top

The Staff of Many Paths a powerful artifact named for the Many Paths, associated with the Daedric Prince Ithelia and filled with her power, which had the ability to drain, hold, and imbue beings and objects with energy. The Staff was long guarded by the Oathsworn, followers of Malacath within their training ground of the Oathsworn Pit, until it was stolen by the Recollection, a Bosmeri cult that revered Ithelia. It is said that around the Staff strange things would often happen, weapons going missing, or initiates somehow thrashing a veteran trainer during their first lessons, causing the relic to be locked away. The Recollection would use the Staff to imbue the Greensprig Seeds which Greenspeakers normally use to grow new sections of forest with Daedric energies that strengthened and corrupted the magic, creating Wildburn Seeds which they used to cause a thick jungle to cover much of the West Weald overnight, and to create the Wildburn, a magical corruption of the land that mutated living beings. The leader of the Recollection, King Nantharion, attempted to use the Staff to create a new Wildburn Seed, but the interruption of the ritual by the Vestige caused the Seed's energies to be released prematurely, destroying the Recollection's living fortress of Hoperoot. At Miscarcand Nantharion attempted to use the Staff to drain the energies of the great Ayleid Well in order to restore Ithelia to her ancient power and create a Wildburn that'd cover all of the West Weald. Though Nantharion was slain, the servants of Ithelia retrieved the Staff and channeled the Well's power into her, restoring her ancient might. The Staff was last seen during Ithelia's attempted takeover of Apocrypha, wielded by Torvesard, who used the artifact to drain the power of Hermaeus Mora and imbue Ithelia with it. After Ithelia was granted clarity by the Mirror of Truth and decided to put an end to her plans, a desperate Torvesard turned the Staff on his Prince, absorbing the combined power of both Ithelia and Hermaeus Mora into himself and imprisoning both. Torvesard used the Staff to channel his power in battle. After Torvesard's defeat the Staff vanished in a flash of light and the stolen powers were returned to their respective Princes, the artifact's fate is not known.

The Arcane KnotEdit

The Arcane Knot

The Arcane Knot is a dangerous and deeply unstable mystical object of incredible power. It is said that if reality can be thought of as a great glass mirror than, when that mirror breaks, the result is many mirrors, many realities. The Arcane Knot is said to possess the power to treat the mirror as if it never broke, to connect the different realities and even allow one to cross over from one to the next. The Knot's influence can have various effects such as granting the one holding it incredible power, causing the size of their physical form to increase, or spawning Glass Atronachs, but it is deeply volatile and will eventually consume the holder and everyone around them, infusing them with Temporal Splinters that build up into a destructive Arcane Fracture, and draining and eating away at them until they disappear into the Knot itself. It is said that even momentary exposure to the Knot can cause one's very animus to shatter and thus surviving in its presence for any period of time is impressive. For a long time the Arcane Knot was held deep within the Lucent Citadel in Fargrave, its origin and intended function were completely unkown and even among Fargrave's Daedra there were only a select few that could remember the citadel. In 2E 582 an expedition of Mirrormoor Daedra attempted to retrieve the Arcane Knot, as their leader believed it belonged to them. A group of adventurers defeated the Daedra and retrieved the Arcane Knot, surviving its influence long enough to contain its chaotic power within the Null Arca, a Daedric device created to supress dangerous magical objects. With the potential calamity the Mirrormoor Daedra could've caused with the Knot prevented, the contained object was taken away for study by Scribes of Hermaeus Mora.

ServantsEdit

A Crystal Atronach

The Shardborn are the Dremora servants of Ithelia. For milennia, the Dremora Torvesard was Ithelia's last remaining servant, having had just enough of his memory preserved to come and save her. Ithelia has many glass-like crystalline servants in her service, they often took more familiar forms such as dragons, mantikoras, mind terrors, and hollow sentinels. Among her more unique servants are crystal atronachs, crystaljacks, fractured remnants, mirrorplasms, and shattered shards. Tho'at Replicanum is a Daedra Lord composed of living glass like these servants, who was responsible for invading the Infinite Archive. The Blind was a glass-like large Dremora servant of Ithelia who invaded the Bedlam Veil.

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  Various Mirrormoor Daedra

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  Tho'at Replicanum in the form of a Glass dragon

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  Mirrorplasm

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  Stri the Fate-Eater

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  A Primordial Shattered Titan, one of Ithelia's first creations

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  Dexxiuk the Glass Mantikora

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  Darkshard

GalleryEdit

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  Ithelia (ESO Cinematic)

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  Another shot of Ithelia (ESO Cinematic)

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  Ithelia reemerging (ESO Cinematic)

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  Statue of the Forgotten Prince

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  Depiction of Ithelia

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  Prince Ithelia

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  Concept art

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  Torvesard, servant of Ithelia (ESO)

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  High resolution art of Ithelia from the official Elder Scrolls Online site

NotesEdit

• The imprisonment of Ithelia must have occurred in the Merethic Era, given that she was defeated in a settled Resdayn.

ReferencesEdit

Note: The following references are considered to be unofficial sources. They are included to round off this article and may not be authoritative or conclusive.