Septimus Signus's spirit slowly opened his eyes. He floated in a void of wondrous realms, surrounded by darkness, from which the gurgling sound of water flowed.
A spirit does not need to breathe; without the complex emotions and desires of a physical body, this is a very comfortable state for an old man. Many senses are lost; there is no taste, no smell, and vision becomes narrow, without color, only the linear outlines of forms, a luminous blue spirit. Touch—there should be some; Septimus Signus gently caressed himself, feeling a solid sensation.
He slowly recalled here that he had once glimpsed a Dragon Break in the elder scrolls, and his soul was shattered by the overwhelming amount of information. Logically, this was no different from death. So what was the situation now? Had he been resurrected?
Septimus Signus took off his own head and held it in his hands. His thoughts were too complex; he needed to sort them out.
His left hand cradled his skull, and his right hand reached into his neck, fingers immersing into a thick, icy pulp. There were many large chunks of ice within. Septimus Signus slowly collected them, clenching them in his palm, molding them into a ball.
The object in his brain began to glow, a greenish-blue, with faint blue halos at the ends of the light, exquisitely beautiful. Septimus Signus placed his glowing head back on his shoulders.
His thoughts were much clearer... He continued to ponder here, in a place of absolute spatio-temporal balance. He realized he was at the nexus of the Ouroboros, on the fulcrum of the Dragon and the Snake.
Therefore, his existence must have meaning—provided he could confirm that he truly existed.
Septimus Signus mocked himself for having such presumptuous thoughts: beings like Anu and Padomay needed self-observation; for him, a mere mortal, to be able to think was enough. If 'I think, therefore I am,' then he didn't need to go to the trouble of splitting off a new personality.
After confirming his true existence, the ball of light in Septimus Signus's cranial cavity suddenly receded its brilliance, transforming into a rectangular, cyan-colored small crystal block, floating erratically in his mind.
Septimus Signus saw a long river emerge from the darkness before him. That was the splendid history of Nirn, recorded in the elder scrolls. He was now, in a way, a living scroll: no matter what, he couldn't be called a person.
The world in his eyes was a Waterfall, flowing from the top of dissolving glaciers, only to refreeze at the foot of the mountains, an endless cycle.
They say that worldly affairs are like tides. Septimus Signus, lonely his entire life, still didn't understand life until he was in the far north of Skyrim, riding a small boat, watching the thick ice sheet on the distant horizon, like an iron wall. Its bottom was eroded by waves, causing the top to suddenly crumble, flowing ceaselessly and splashing water everywhere.
The wise delight in water. Septimus Signus looked at the long river of history before him, and a surge of joy spontaneously filled him. The surrounding space-time here was his realm of Oblivion. Although he was not an Aedra, he was a true observer, recording everything—from the very first cycle of this universe to its end, and the countless cycles in between, all recorded by the elder scrolls, and he was precisely the wise man—the memory core—who controlled the elder scrolls.
As long as space-time exists, so does history, but the divine conjunction and the Dragon Break were beyond Septimus Signus's reach. He dared not hope to know the cycles of Anu and Padomay; he only wished to explore the grand events of this cosmic end era.
Of course, it was the Dragon Break caused by Simon.
Septimus Signus knew what an ideal cosmic cycle looked like.
Aka, the Dragon God, and Lorkhan, the Snake God, would decide the victor to define the spatio-temporal main body of the upcoming cosmic era. Either Aka would tear out Lorkhan's heart, or Lorkhan would tear out Aka's heart; they were old rivals. For instance, if the Dragon won this era, the ideal state should be: Head—Time begins to exist linearly, i.e., the Adamantine Tower is established, and Aka at this time is Auriel. Then comes the Body—a long, stable transitional period, where Aka is Akatosh. Finally, the Tail—Time ends, and Aka transforms into Alduin.
Just like the three Norns in Norse mythology, who were said to be the three daughters of the wise giant Mimir, or alternatively, the daughters of the giant Norvi (Time). The eldest daughter, Urd, governed 'the past'; the second daughter, Verthandi, governed 'the present'; and the youngest daughter, Skuld, governed 'the future'. The relationship between Aka and Auriel, Akatosh, and Alduin can be understood similarly.
The trinity of divinity, divine nature, and divine realm shapes a complete higher existence.
Anu is the divinity of Yuan Stream, Padomay is the divinity of Yuan Zhu, Aka is the divinity of Time, and Lorkhan is the divinity of Space, the human embodiment of objective concepts.
The Dragon Break is a violent path to ascend to heaven, transcending the mortal world by shattering time. The chaotic space-time exposes the second layer, allowing those with strong will to perceive profound cosmic truths. It can be called a feast, but also a BUG, an error of the world, akin to exposing the game code. Game characters would then have a console to modify data themselves, which is highly illogical.
When a Dragon Break occurs, the cosmic cycle is imperfect, and the things that trigger the Dragon Break are those that disrupt balance.
Especially numidium, the Brass God, which is the most illogical and most harmful source of Dragon Breaks.
Septimus Signus now possesses complete understanding and keenly perceives the root cause of numidium's appearance.
As a philosophical paradox, the Brass God represents neither Yuan Stream nor Yuan Zhu, but rather the antithesis of superior affinity—precisely, paradox and ill affinity.
superior affinity is the collection of all concepts, and a comprehensive collective cannot be without errors; ill affinity is the fallacy of superior affinity.
xiang shu is the ill affinity in the scroll of taiwu, and numidium is the ill affinity in the elder scrolls.
xiang shu is the War God Shu, corrupted by an otherworldly visitor, whose mission transformed from guardian of the Scroll world to devourer, with love and hate for the mortal realm intertwined, twisting his divinity.
numidium is a collection of order and disorder, a contradiction of logic and illogic.
The rigid rationality of Dwemer philosophy denies all vague, irrational, and romanticized logic. The arrogance of their race is lofty, denying other races, using various arguments to prove their superiority, with an almost pathological collective pursuit of self-worth. They detest the mortal world—Mundus—believing it to be a prison for souls.
numidium is the product of Dwemer's absolute logicalization, hard, cold, severing all 'love' and 'beauty.' It was originally used to shatter the present world, but in reality, it denies the world's origin—a materialist's disdainful mockery of an idealist world.
The Dwemer themselves are beings of an idealist world, yet the things they create are materialistic. This is also the root of their self-destruction.
numidium is the biggest BUG in the elder scrolls, and its tragedy lies in the fact that its will to deny everything was born within the logic of its creators, a clash of order and disorder, making its soul incredibly painful and furious.
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