- "Anu encompassed, and encompasses, all things." —The Monomyth
Anu, or Anu the Everything, is thought to be the quintessential form of Stasis, the anthropomorphization of one of the two primal forces (the other being Padomay, Change).[1] 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.[2][3] He is known as Satak to the Redguards.[2] He is known as the Light to the Bretons.[4] He also shares similarities to the Argonian figure Atak.[5]
As the story goes, Time began when the two forces entered the Void; the interplay between them led to all of Creation, starting with Nir. Anu is typically described in masculine terms, and Nir in feminine terms, and theirs is the first love story. Padomay took exception to Nir's love of Anu, and so the first love story ends in violence. Nir, wounded, gave birth to the twelve worlds of Creation before dying. When Padomay attacked and shattered these worlds, Anu fought him off and salvaged Creation by combining the remnants into one world, Nirn.[1]
When Padomay returned to once again try to destroy Creation, Anu pulled them both outside of Time itself, ending their conflict's threat to Creation, though Creation remained abundant with many Anuic and Padomaic spirits. Anu's blood, spilt during the battle with his brother, became the stars, and the mingled blood of the two brothers became the Aedra.[1] In the Altmer tradition, Anu personified his own soul into Anuiel "so that he might know himself", and Anuiel's soul was in turn personified in Auri-El.[6][7][8] There is a shrine to Anu in the Altmeri site of Torinaan.[9][10] Holy Waters are considered especially useful when used to honor Anu, who shaped the cosmos in the Dawn Era, and Y'ffre, the Earth Bones.[11][12]
Gods with an Anuic basis, those "bound to Anu's light",[2] include almost all Aedra and most deities associated with the creation of Mundus and Nirn.
NotesEdit
- The Skaal also only believe in a single deity, the All-Maker,[13] though they also recognize the Adversary, a malevolent and multifaceted tester who works to corrupt the All-Maker's dominion.[14] The perpetual struggle between the two bears some resemblance to the one between Anu and Padomay.
- 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.[15]
- Sermon 35 of Vivec's Lessons briefly mentioned Anu, though the meaning is characteristically unclear.
- 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".
ReferencesEdit
- ^ a b c The Annotated Anuad
- ^ a b c The Monomyth
- ^ Words of Clan Mother Ahnissi — Clan Mother Ahnissi
- ^ The Light and the Dark — Irek Unterge
- ^ Children of the Root — Solis Aduro
- ^ Varieties of Faith... — Brother Mikhael Karkuxor of the Imperial College
- ^ The Alduin/Akatosh Dichotomy — Alexandre Simon, High Priest of the Akatosh Chantry, Wayrest
- ^ Coils of the Father
- ^ Torinaan in ESO
- ^ Events of Blessings of the Eight in ESO
- ^ Brief Letter to an Aldarch — Kinlord Astanamo
- ^ Chalice of Holy Waters item description in ESO
- ^ Children of the All-Maker — Tharstan of Solitude
- ^ Aevar Stone-Singer
- ^ Before the Ages of Man — Aicantar of Shimerene