Corpus Tamrielicum - The Imperial Library

[30.12] KING EDWARD XII
"I'm doomed to be R'Aathim, living and dead. It's godhood of a sort, but what a sort! Don't
begrudge me my long life span. Think of me doomed to eternity in the gloomy Ebonheart
council chamber listening to the eternal wrangles ... small wonder the dead R'Aathim pulled
the place down on the live ones twenty years ago, thus causing my brother and my mother to
join their number. The dead R'Aathim must have welcomed the century and a half of respite
while the Nords held Ebonheart."
"But your brother S'ephen was killed too, as well as your brother King Cruethys, and S'ephen
wasn't R'Aathim, being your mother's son and not your father's, if I have the story straight --
that's why he got his own temple," Edward said. "So why did they kill him, too? The story
sounds very daedric to me."
"You'd have me justify the ways of the gods to you, would you? I think they act for ends we
cannot see, and slay the just and the unjust together -- not that I'd label any of my Kin as
either -- not altogether. We see only the means -- how can we judge? Gods too face choices; I
do not think their power supreme. They can overrule nature on occasion, as can any Mage, yet
they, like Mages, are in the end bound by it -- and their overrule must answer other rules still -
- and in those rules, whate'er they be, I think lies the answer to your questions. I think it's not
something men and women may know while living."
Akatosh smiled and replied "It is not so easy to describe the gods, is it? This is true even
though, myself included, each of us thinks that we have a mental picture of what godliness
means. On the other hand, the gods and goddesses certainly do exist - and I also believe that
there is a connection of some sort between them and the Daedra, and another connection
between these entities and the power associated with performing magic."
"The priests of Julianos have been calling this power 'Magicka'" said a stranger who had
joined the group.
Akatosh replied "Greetings bard. Please allow me to introduce ... Geoffrey, a ... wandering
poet who has been visiting our village for these last few days." The Companions greeted the
wood elf newcomer, some rising to their feet to do so according to their individual customs,
and then all resumed sitting (actually sprawling about) and conversing.
"A number of priests are theorizing that the gods and goddesses live on another plane, as do
the Daedra - there is some debate amongst these priests as to whether they share the same
plane of existence, or whether each has their own. And some of the Alessian priests are
claiming that we can visit these alternate planes in our nightly dreams" added Beech.
Edward asked "Why doesn't someone just ask a goddess or a Daedra about this?"
Geoffrey chuckled and replied "Most of us are not able to be so thoughtful when confronted
by one of these beings, Edward. Also, there is a common belief that the gods and Daedra are
as reluctant to discuss their own natures as dragons are to reveal anyone's True Name."
Edward looked quizzically at Akatosh, but Beech stated to Geoffrey "Well said, Bard" ... and
that pair shared the slightest of smiles.
Beech then said, "Do you know what the Resolutions of Zenithar has been saying about the
gods and magic? This magic power, or Magicka, is just the power generated by the existence
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