Padomay, also called Padu,[1] Sithis, Akel, El,[2] The Dark, Serpent, Evil,[3] Kota,[4] and Fadomai,[5] is the quintessential form of change. One of the two primal forces, the other being Anu, Padomay is the personification of the primordial force of Chaos and Change who dwells in the Void.
In relation to Anu, Padomay is also known as His Other[2] and his double.[6]
MythologyEdit
AnuadEdit
In the Anuad, an Ayleid creation myth from the Mythic Era, Anu and Padomay were brothers that fought over the personification of reality, Nir. Anu and Nir created Creation, angering Padomay and causing him to attack. Padomay killed Nir and sundered Creation, but Anu salvaged the remnants, then saved them from further harm by pulling his brother and himself outside of Time forever. Their blood led to the creation of the gods. The Daedra came from Padomay's blood exclusively, detaching them from Creation, the stars arose solely from the blood of Anu, and the Aedra were spawned from the mixing of the blood of both Padomay and Anu, allowing the Aedra to be 'capable of both good and evil' and tying them to Creation.[7]
KhajiitiEdit
In the Khajiiti creation myth, the equivalent of Anu and Padomay are Ahnurr and Fadomai. The pair were mates who had two litters of children, the first being the Aedra and the second Daedra. Though Ahnurr was content with this, Fadomai secretly tricked Ahnurr into helping create one last litter.[8] In contrast to the stories about the Stasis-Change conflict in other cultures, the roles of creator and aggressor are reversed, with Ahnurr attacking Fadomai during the birth of Nirni, Azurah and the twin moons. Following his attack, Fadomai fled to the Void to birth the final member of the litter, Lorkhaj. This would eventually lead to Lorkhaj creating Mundus for Nirni to exist within, and tricking the rest of the gods to become trapped in it.[8]
When Fadomai's children heard what Anhurr had done to her, they all went to Fadomai to protect from their father's anger. On her deathbed, Fadomai is said to have given her last children gifts, the twins moons were given the Lunar Lattice, she foretold Nirni would have as many children as Fadomai. As for Azurah who was the last to remain by her side, she told her daughter her secrets and told Azurah to create the Khajiit.[8] Amun-dro's telling of this last meeting expands on this, saying that Fadomai told Azurah the names of all the spirits, of all gates and thresholds, and of all the Khajiit that would ever live. Lastly, Fadomai spoke about all her children and what she loved best about them.[9]
In earlier stories about the Khajiiti pantheon, there are a few known mentions of Fadomai's relationship with her children. While Azurah is known in the stories as "Favored Daughter of Fadomai", Lorkhaj in his aspect as the Moon Prince, is known as "Fadomai's Favored Son".[10] Meanwhile, Nirni always tried to compete with Azurah for her mother's favor.[11] Mafala is known as the keeper of Fadomai's secrets, "[they] were the secrets her children only needed in the beginning, and it was Mafala that carried them down."[12] In another tradition, it is because Fadomai pitied her daughter Khenarthi's loneliness, that she went ahead to get pregnant with her third litter.[8]
A work from prior to the Riddle-Thar Epiphany, describes Boethra's involvement with the Middle Dawn and the dance of the Marukhati Selective. Fighting against the speakers of the Monkey Truth changing reality, Boethra realized there was an opportunity in what they wanted to do and "found a tunnel that led to the fate they sought". Here the story describes Boethra encountering twelve spinning wheels surrounded by fire, while beyond that two great serpents fought and upon seeing them, Boethra recognizes the grain of truth in the Selectives dance. These two serpents can be considered a representation of the conflict between Anu and Padomay, with the following quote providing a literary description of the two forces.[13]
"There to meet it was a serpent of the blackest scales, and all the Void seemed to come with it, so much that one would think the feathered could never stand against it, and yet it did. And this serpent's eyes burned red as blood, and its scales moved and shifted with new ideas that were born and died as soon as they appeared. Despite this chaos, its mane was white and gentle, and in it Boethra saw a fleeting chance for peace along the Wheels."
—The Bladesongs of Boethra, Volume V
Afterward, Boethra sided with the black serpent against the flame-feathered serpent, drawing upon its black flames and forming a blade and armor. It was is then written that she recognized the hawk-serpent for what it was, recited the Will Against Rule and struck, "cutting concepts at strange angles" and ending the Dragon Break. This event would later come to be known as the Division of Heaven by mortals who remembered the Middle-Dawn.[13]
YokudanEdit
Yokudans see Padomay as Akel, the Hungry Stomach. When Satak the First Serpent came into being, it carried all the worlds to come within the glimmer of its scales. Those worlds were trapped by the all encompassing size of Satak, his coiling allowing no room to breath, and so called out for help. As nothing existed outside Satak, aid had to come from within, so the empty stomach of Satak, Akel, answered the call. Akel drove Satak into a craze of Hunger, and it began to devour itself, creating more empty space so that things could begin. However there was no time to truly be within this flux, and things were devoured as soon as they were born. Eventually Akel drove Satak to bite its own Heart, and that was the end. Akel however, refused to stop, even in death, and caused Satak to shed its skin to begin anew. From this Satakal, was born. With the reborn First Serpent came the cycle of Worldskins, and spirits began to form. [2][14]
ArgonianEdit
Though Argonian society as a whole doesn't have an established singular creation story, the Adzi-Kostleel tribe claims that two beings, Atak and Kota, fought until they joined together as a singular being known as Atakota. When they did this, they shed their skin and created a Shadow. This Shadow, though initially intending to devour everything, soon came to see the creations of Atakota as its own children, and instead gave them the gift of change, which would later come to be known as Death.[4]
BretonEdit
A simplified and secular interpretation of The Monomyth can be found within the Bretonic tale The Light and the Dark. In it, two immortal entities representing Chaos and Order chose Tamriel to be their eternal battleground. This everlasting battle would create energies so powerful it distorted the world and created both the "people of et'Ada", who would in turn give rise to the gods, by believing in their myths for so long and so strongly, it caused the energies unleashed by the conflict of the Light and the Dark to bring them into being. According to the grandfather, all of creation exists to echo the battle between the Dark and the Light.[15]
DunmeriEdit
The Dunmer god Vivec teaches that Anu and Padomay were responsible for the creation of the universe, the Aurbis. From here, Vivec teaches that Anu and Padomay gave birth to their souls Anuiel and Sithis and from there, to their firstborns, the deities Akatosh and Lorkhan respectively.[UOL 1] According to Vivec, Stasis and Change, Anu and Padomay, are infinite forces and realms residing in the infinite Void, the latter infinity paradoxically enclosing the others in a manner akin to an encircling sphere. At the intersection of the two forces, where they touch, lies a "perfect circle of pattern and possibility", the Wheel, and inside that Wheel lies the Aurbis which is its foundation. Vivec claims that outside the Wheel exists the Void, which cannot truly be named and is bereft of anything. The Void is said to have more aspects than just Stasis and Change, but they cannot be named as they are outside of true language. Vivec claims Anu and Padomay "awakened" during the process of sub-creation caused by their intersection as "to see your antithesis is to finally awaken". It is said that in reaction to this "each gave birth to their souls", Auri-El and Sithis. Each of these souls regarded the Aurbis in their own part, and from that came the et'Ada, the "original patterns.[UOL 2] Some sources claim that, rather than being a single wheel, the Aurbis, the intersection of Anu and Padomay, is instead more akin to "a telescope that stretches all the way back to the eye of Anui-El, with Padomaics innumerable along its infinite walls".[UOL 3] Vivec cites mythology of Anu and Padomay to support his interpretation of the concept of love.[6]
Clockwork ApostlesEdit
The Clockwork Apostles of Sotha Sil claim that Padomay and the padomaic Daedra are illusions who only have influence due to a flawed design of Nirn, the result of the Void taking root within the cracks of the Aedra's work.[16]
SkaalEdit
The Skaal believe in a single deity, the All-Maker,[17] though they also recognize the Adversary, a malevolent and multifaceted tester who works to corrupt the All-Maker's dominion.[18] The perpetual struggle between the two bears some resemblance to the one between Anu and Padomay. Similar to Dunmeri interpretations of Padomay and Sithis, the Skaal seemingly view their benevolent primordial force as Padomay, as opposed to Anu.[UOL 4]
Recurring ThemesEdit
Many of these stories end with the creator sacrificing themselves or being killed, as is the case with Sep, Lorkhan, and the shadow of Atakota.[2][4] The Reachfolk and Khajiit have their Lorkhan stand-ins undergo similar sacrifices, but with the key difference of them surviving the removal of their Heart long enough for Namira to replace it with darkness.[19][20][8]
NotesEdit
ReferencesEdit
- ^ Enigma of the Runestones — Telenger the Artificer
- ^ a b c d The Monomyth
- ^ The Light and the Dark — Irek Unterge
- ^ a b c Children of the Root — Solis Aduro
- ^ Words of Clan Mother Ahnissi — Clan Mother Ahnissi
- ^ a b 36 Lessons of Vivec, Sermon 35 — Vivec
- ^ The Annotated Anuad
- ^ a b c d e Words of Clan Mother Ahnissi — Clan Mother Ahnissi
- ^ The Favored Daughter of Fadomai — Amun-dro, the Silent Priest
- ^ The Sky Spirits — Amun-dro, the Silent Priest
- ^ The Worldly Spirits — Amun-dro, the Silent Priest
- ^ The Wandering Spirits — Amun-dro, the Silent Priest
- ^ a b The Bladesongs of Boethra, Volume V — Modun-Ra, the Hidden Voice
- ^ Varieties of Faith... — Brother Mikhael Karkuxor of the Imperial College
- ^ the Light and the Dark — Irek Unterge
- ^ The Truth in Sequence — Deldrise Morvayn, Fourth Tourbillon to the Mainspring Ever-Wound
- ^ Children of the All-Maker — Tharstan of Solitude
- ^ Aevar Stone-Singer
- ^ Ardanir's dialogue in ESO
- ^ Great Spirits of the Reach: Volume 3 — Vashu gra-Morga, Chief Daedrotheologist at the University of Gwylim
- ^ Mythic Dawn Commentaries 1 — Mankar Camoran
- ^ Five Songs of King Wulfharth
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.