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] One of many creation myths paint Padomay as Anu's brother, and the interplay between them created Nir, a personification of the Aurbis. Padomay was embittered by the love between Anu and Nir, and sought to destroy their love child, Creation. He 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.[7]
Gods with a "Padomaic" basis include most Daedric princes, who, as the Blood of Padomay, represent the forces of change,[7] as does his "son" Lorkhan.[2] His blood and Anu's mingled to create the Aedra, giving them the capacity for both good and evil.[7]
Alternatively, Khajiit mythos does not make these distinctions and has Daedra, Aedra, and Magna Ge entities alike composed of the blood of both Ahnurr and Fadomai.
MythologyEdit
In The Annotated Anuad, a 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. Both wound up dying to each other, and 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.[8]
In Khajiiti creation stories, Fadomai and Ahnurr were mates and gave birth to the litters of the Aedra and then the Daedra. Though Ahnurr was content with this, Fadomai secretly tricked Ahnurr into helping create one last litter, angering him. Interestingly, the roles of creator and aggressor are flipped in this particular story, with Ahnurr attacking Fadomai during the birth of Nirni and the Moons. Following his attack, Fadomai flees to the Void to birth her final member of the litter, Lorkhaj, who creates the Mundus for Nirni to exist within and tricks the rest of the gods to become trapped in it.[9] According to Khajiiti sources preceding the Riddle'Thar Epiphany, before dying Fadomai gifted the names of all the spirits, of all gates and thresholds, and of all the Khajiit that would ever live, to her favored daughter, Azurah.[10][11]
One pre-ri'Datta Khajiit account describes how, during the Middle-Dawn, Boethra was called from her battle with Orkha by the Blue Star and transported atop the Adamantine Tower by Khenarthi. There Boethra saw the Selectives speaking lies in a way that made them true, drawing runes that were attempting to make it so that neither Akha, nor Alkosh, nor Alkhan, nor any Child of Akha, nor any of the myriad kingdoms Akha had created along the Many Paths, any of the lands he'd seeded and brought into his kingdom, had ever existed. Seeing the lie the Selectives were attempting to make real, Boethra, who had once been exiled to the Many Paths by Akha, started to wander if she had ever been the Daughter of Blades at all, or if it had all been a dream of someone who'd never existed, and felt something akin to fear for the first time. Knowing the Selectives must not succeed, Boethra calculated and enacted the cuts needed to destroy both them and the lies they'd attempted to make real. Than, sensing an opportunity created by their actions, she found a tunnel to the fate they'd sought. Boethra opened her eyes to twelve spinning wheels surrounded by fire revolving beneath two warring serpents, one a serpent of flaming feathers and crystal scales with a head like a hunting bird, and another a crimson eyed serpent of blackest scales and a white mane followed by all the Void, the truth within the lies the Selectives had sought. The flame-feathered serpent emanated rejection of all "Mannish impurity in all the known worlds", the dark serpent though surrounded by chaos emanated gentleness and love for the spirits of the worlds, and in it Boethra saw a fleeting chance for peace along the wheels. As the feathered serpent's beak found purchase beneath the scales of the white maned serpent Boethra, dodging through the wheels to reach, summoned all her blades and struck at it's eye, repelling it. Landing on the head of the dark serpent she drew upon it's black flames, forming a blade and armor as her mind was scorched with things that were and have yet to be. She named the hawk-serpent for what it was and, reciting the Will Against Rule, dashed forward, 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.[12]
Yokudans see Padomay and Anu as a single being known as 'Satakal', a giant serpent on the glimmer of whose scales all worlds rest, constantly eating its own tail in an endless cycle. To avoid being eaten by Satakal, Spirits learned to evade consumption by "moving at strange angles to "stride between the Worldskins" a process that became known as 'the Walkabout', and through repetition gave rise to a sanctuary from the cycle known as the Far Shores. The Second Serpent, Sep, claimed to have an idea for a way to avoid Satakal and the need for the Walkabout by creating a new world. Once again, this creation traps the other spirits within and they begin to die, unable to leave the new world,as it is too far separated from the real world of Satakal for them to survive in or jump to the Far Shores from. [2][13]
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]
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 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.[14]
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]
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.[15]
The Skaal believe in a single deity, the All-Maker,[16] though they also recognize the Adversary, a malevolent and multifaceted tester who works to corrupt the All-Maker's dominion.[17] 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]
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.[18][19][9]
NotesEdit
- In the Khajiiti creation myth, Fadomai is the female littermate to Ahnurr, and it was she who suffered from Ahnurr's aggression. The two wed and gave birth to two litters, the Aedra and Daedra. Fadomai then gave birth to a new litter, notably the Mundus, in secret, as Ahnurr did not wish for any more children. When Ahnurr found out, he reacted violently, and Fadomai died after passing various gifts to her children.[5]
- The phrases Padhome and Padomaic are often used to refer to Oblivion and Daedra, respectively. Two notable examples include Mankar Camoran referring to Oblivion Gates as the 'eyes of Padhome'[20] and Boethiah being referred to as the 'one of the strongest Padomaics'.[21]
ReferencesEdit
- ^ Enigma of the Runestones — Telenger the Artificer
- ^ a b c d e The Monomyth
- ^ The Light and the Dark — Irek Unterge
- ^ a b c Children of the Root — Solis Aduro
- ^ a b Words of Clan Mother Ahnissi — Clan Mother Ahnissi
- ^ a b 36 Lessons of Vivec, Sermon 35 — Vivec
- ^ a b c The Annotated Anuad
- ^ The Annotated Anuad
- ^ a b Words of Clan Mother Ahnissi — Clan Mother Ahnissi
- ^ The Favored Daughter of Fadomai — Amun-dro, the Silent Priest
- ^ Spirits of Amun-dro — Amun-dro, the Silent Priest
- ^ 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.