The Nature of Alduin

The Nature of Alduin

Alduin World Eater

Alduin, the main antagonist of TESV, Skyrim, is heralded as several things. World Eater, and first-born of Akatosh*. Throughout the course of the game it is revealed that the coming of Alduin represents the ending of the world. However, Alduin represents not so much the ending of the world as the rebirth of Nirn**, or rather, the re-setting of Nirn.

The Dragonborn confronts Alduin

To understand this we must first understand the nature of dragons and time. Time, in Aurbis***, is a metaphor, and as with all metaphors in the TES universe, is physically embodied. Before the creation of Mundus† time was non-linear, and was embodied in the being known as Aka-Tusk. Aka-Tusk was broken in a time before Convention†† and became several different entities, each embodying a different aspect of time. For the moment, we'll be focusing on two particular aspects.

This diagram probably merits an entire post all of its own

Akatosh, the concept of Linear time, and Alduin, the concept of the End of time. Essentially, how this works is that Alduin consumes the world, and in doing so ushers in the new one. Another way of looking at this is that Alduin represents a process whereby linear time is re-set, or brought back to a certain point to run again, either seeming much the same or radically different to the previous iteration. Crucial to understanding the nature of time in the ES universe is the Hindu concept of a Kalpa. A Kalpa is the period of time from creation to re-creation, and could be represented as a cycle or ouroboros (Which is typically depicted as a dragon or snake consuming its own tail) The Alduin event could be viewed as the mouth of the ouroboros, representing both destruction of the present and the ushering of the future. I've made a diagram to hopefully provide a handy point of reference:

This was a solid 2 or so minutes in paint

Which, hopefully, should be fairly easy to understand. I shall be expanding upon the nature of Aka Tusk and a more in-depth look at time in general in future posts.†††

Footnotes:

*The dragon god of linear time, one of the Nine Divines

**Nirn is the name of the plane(t) upon which the TES series is set

***Aurbis refers to the entirety of creation, the universe

†Mundus refers to the mundane, the section of creation in which life as we know it can exist.

††The end of the Dawn Era and the beginning of more conventional history.

†††Or, at least, I certainly intend to.