Lore:Anu

A cosmic mass within or encompassing the Aurbis

The Aurbis as depicted on a map

"Anu encompassed, and encompasses, all things."
—The Monomyth

Anu, or Anu the Everything, is thought to be the quintessential form of Stasis and Order, the anthropomorphization of two primal forces (the other being Padomay, Change and Chaos). Anu or his equivalent under a different name is present in every culture's traditions; for instance, the Khajiit refer to him as Ahnurr, and he is a "littermate" to Fadomai. He is known as Satak to the Redguards. He is known as the Light to the Bretons. He also shares similarities to the Argonian figure Atak. Other names for Anu include Ak, Bird, and Good.

Mythology

Altmeri

The creation myth of the Altmer begins before the start of the Dawn Era and the beginning of time: the primordial force of Anu the Everything, who encompassed and encompasses all things, created Anuiel, the soul of all things, so it could know itself. Anuiel in turn created Sithis for the same purpose, as the sum up of all limitations which it would use to differentiate between it's attributes and ponder itself, and their interrelation created the Aurbis, where the Original Spirits, the Et'Ada, emerged before the creation of the Mundus as "aspects of Aurbis". The ancient Aldmer believed they are the relatively feeble descendants of the Aedra ("Aedra" roughly translates to "ancestor spirit"), distant offspring of those of the Aedra who populated the Mundus so that it might last despite Lorkhan's deception, diminished from the might of their progenitors over the generations. Per the creation myth of the Altmer, after their progenitors discovered the deception of Lorkhan, their leader Auri-El begged Anu to take them back, but Anu would not because he had already created something else to take their place, instead the more merciful Anui-El created a Bow and Shield For Auri-El to use in the war against Lorkhan.

A shrine to Anu exists in the Altmeri site of Torinaan, where Holy Waters are considered especially useful when used to honor Anu, who shaped the cosmos in the Dawn Era.

Dunmeri

Dunmeri belief regarding Anu is not uniform.

The Clockwork Apostles of Sotha Sil share the Altmeri belief that Anu is the primordial being of singularity. Anu sundered himself for wisdom's sake, seeking to better understand his nature, and all forces and entities that exist trace their roots to him as values that reside within his vastness. They believe Padomay and the Padomaic forces such as the Daedra are merely an illusion, the result of the Great Lie of Lorkhan who tricked the et'Ada and steered them away from the face of Anu, by making them view themselves as distinct and whole and give themselves names. The Clockwork Apostles believe Sotha Sil wishes to reverse this error, the Et'Ada's sin, through his work on the Clockwork City, by bringing Nirn to a state of Anuic unity, Anuvanna'si.

In contrast, 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. Vivec cites mythology of Anu and Padomay to support his interpretation of the concept of love. 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. 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".

Other Dunmeri sources maintain that the role of creator belongs to Sithis, who is the one truly responsible for setting the interplay of Aurbis in motion by creating new things out of the essence of the inert Anu, who is equated with the concepts of nothingness and stasis.

Anuad

Crest of Anu

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 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.

Khajiiti

In Khajiiti creation stories, Ahnurr and Fadomai 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. Interestingly, the roles of creator and aggressor are flipped in this version of events, 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 lead to Lorkhaj eventually creating Mundus for Nirni to exist within, and tricking the rest of the gods to become trapped in it.

In earlier stories about the Khajiiti pantheon, there are a few known mentions of Ahnurr and his relationships with his children. His firstborn, Akha was known as his favored son, whom Ahnurr encouraged to find love. Another spirit, Y'ffer—though never venerated by the Khajiit—was acknowledged as Ahnurr's bastard child and that their temperaments were unalike. On the other end of the spectrum, Anhurr banished both Merrunz and Boethra, the former for his destructive nature, and the latter for her rebelliousness.

A work from prior to the Riddle-Thar Epiphany, describes Boethra's involvement with the Middle Dawn and the dance of the Marukhati Selective. In this story, Boethra was called from her battle with Orkha by the Blue Star and brought to the Adamantine Tower by Khenarthi. There Boethra is described as witnessing the Selectives speaking in Monkey Truth, "[saying] lies in a way that made them true" and that it made her feel something akin to fear. As previously mentioned in other traditons, Anhurr was said to have exiled Boethra. However, in this particular story Boethra recalls that it was Akha that exiled her, but the Monkey Truth was claiming that Akha never existed, along with his children and the lands he seeded.

In the face of her self-doubt about her own existence, and knowing the Selectives must not succeed, Boethra rallied. She used what she learnt during her exile in the Many Paths to calculate and enact the cuts required to destroy them and the lies they were attempting to make real. However, she sensed an opportunity created by them 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 visual description of the serpents.

"One was a flame-feathered serpent, brilliant and pure, with crystal scales and a head like that of a hunting bird, its eyes sharp and clear, its mane an argument against all the Mannish impurity of all the known worlds."

"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

When the hawk-serpent attacked the dark serpent once more, Boethra summoned all her blades and struck at it's eye, repelling it. She then joined with the dark serpent, drawing upon it's black flames and forming a blade and armor. It is then said she observed the flame-hawk serpent, and recognized it for what is was and what it wanted. She then recited the Will Against Rule and struck, cutting concepts at strange angles and ending the Dragon Break. This event was later named the Division of Heaven by mortals who recalled the Middle Dawn.

Yokudan

Yokudans see Anu as Satak, the First Serpent. 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.

Argonian

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.

Breton

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 Order and Chaos 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 Light and the Dark.

Skaal

The Skaal believe in a single deity, the All-Maker, though they also recognize the Adversary, a malevolent and multifaceted tester who works to corrupt the All-Maker's dominion. 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.

Notes

• In real-world Mesopotamian mythology, Anu was the supreme god, and is one of the oldest recorded deities in the world.
• The timeline is slightly different in some versions, and some of Anu's actions are sometimes credited to specific Anuic spirits.
• The first of the Mythic Dawn Commentaries makes reference to the "tinder of Anu".
• The Truth in Sequence, written by one of Sotha Sil's Clockwork Apostles, describes the Numidium as "the welded knot at the center of Anu".
• The soul is the "Anuic animus" held by mortals, which differs from the Vestiges of Daedra.

References

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.