The TRUE Nature of the Daedric Prince Mephala 🕷 The Complex Webspinner - Elder Scrolls Lore

according to the codes of mephala there is no difference between the theorist and the terrorist even the most cherished desire disappears in their hands this is why mephala has black hands bring both of yours to every argument the one-handed king finds no remedy when you approach god however cut both of them off god has no need of theory and he is armored head to toe in terror this has to be one of my favorite quotes about mephala it's from sermon 11 of the 36 lessons of vivec it begins to unravel the intricate web that is her sphere but this daedric prince of secret arts possesses infinitely more complexity than what can be summed up in a single picturesque quote even one written by the warrior poet himself it's very easy to read western perceptions of the web spinner and arrive at the rather simplistic conclusion that she's just a patron of sexed up assassins as she is described as the demon prince of murder sex and secrets while true this is far too literal minded and there is a philosophical weight beneath the surface that reveals her to be or rather her sphere to be far more essential and pervasive than one might first think welcome to fudge muppet ladies and gentlemen my name is scott and if you watched our podcast where we ranked the daedric princes you may remember that mephala is my favorite like i mentioned a surface level reading may leave you perplexed as to why but trust me there is far more to this daedric prince than first meets the eye it's a case similar to mayron's dagon for example on the surface he's just a destruction god who wants to stomp on things but when exposed to his origins and to the deeper philosophical purposes of his nature than another view of the prince is seen so in order to understand the complexities of mephala we must first understand the simplicities let's begin with the fundamentals of the web spinner she is the androgyne the teacher of the secret arts the anticipation of avec and the queen of the eight shadows of murder mephala manifests herself as male or female to the mortal eye depending on which individual she seeks to ensnare usually she chooses the feminine form however it is important to make note of the intrinsic duality contained within it's easy to see why she of the three good daedra was chosen as the anticipation of avec another individual who could often be seen as duality incarnate both of these beings represent the intrinsic need for contradiction within civilization as well as within the self for clarification about the anticipations if you were unaware the ancient kyma worshipped what they considered the good daedra mafala boethya and and when the tribunal came about instead of decrying the daedra trio as false or unworthy they fashioned them as a sort of primal necessarily cruel forms of themselves the new doctrine called them the anticipations of the tribunal who embodied a more refined and civilized version of the same spiritual functions within morrowind society mephala specifically was considered the anticipation of avec hence why they are connected the book vivec and mephala may provide a little more clarification for you listen to this as known in the west mephala is the demon of murder sex and secrets all of these themes contain subtle aspects and violent ones assassination genocide courtship orgy tact poetic truths mephila is understood paradoxically to contain and integrate these contradictory themes and all these subtle undercurrents and contradictions are present in the dunmer concepts of vek even if they are not explicitly described and explained in temple doctrine the dunmer do not envision lord vivec as a creature of murder sex and secrets rather they conceive of lord vivec as benevolent king guardian warrior poet artist but at the same time unconsciously they accept the notion of darker hidden currents beneath vivec's benevolent aspects i'll leave it there with vivec for the moment but it's important to understand mephala's place in dunla theology now to attack the rest of the surface level stuff people may most commonly associate mephala with the infamous dunmeri cult of assassins called the morag tong the morag tong while they celebrate murder and kill to honour the web spinner they also do serve a particular purpose within dunmeri society a core function of the morag tong is to provide an impartial service for the great houses they murder approved targets via a legal writ which served as a safer more subtle way for nobles and house members to settle their grievances without starting an all-out war house wars were no longer large-scale battlefields with thousands of losses and destructions of cities instead grievances can be alleviated with some coin and some words with the morag tong it turns the once full-scale house wars into what amounts to a sort of cold war which is far less destructive now this has been a function of the morag tong for thousands of years and it has been what prevented family feuds erupting into unbridled bloodshed and hence the tong have actually played a very large part in the stability of morrowind civilization which will be relevant for later conversation but for now just know that mephala founded the morag tong what is also interesting here is that the dark brotherhood is most commonly understood to be a splinter faction of the morak tong that arose after the controversial assassinations of riemann iii as well as the potentiate versus duchet many years later these events brought a new level of infamy to the morag tong which caused nobles and lords of all provinces to engage in vicious witch hunts rooting out the cult for fear of their lives the tong had no choice but to retreat to the protection of morrowind and it is at this time it is believed that the dark brotherhood split from the tongue choosing to continue operating everywhere not cowing to the protection of the tribunal now you are of course familiar with the night mother the spiritual head of the dark brotherhood the supposed wife of sithus who relays the wishes of the dreadfather to the listener the head of the faction well there is a lot of speculation that the night mother is in fact just another aspect of mafaala herself i quote from the book fire and darkness the night mother my dear friend is mephala the dark brotherhood of the west unfettered by the orders of the tribunal continue to worship mafaala they may not call her by name but the daedra of murder sex and secrets is their leader still and they did not and still do not to this day forgive their brethren for casting her aside now personally i find this to be the most compelling theory for the night mother's origins we go more into this topic on the recent dark brotherhood podcast so you can check out that for a rich discussion on that particular topic however the reason this is relevant is that this kind of arrangement would befit mcfarland's fear perfectly remember after all she is a daedric prince of secrets and lies it does not matter what name she is worshiped with whether the western night mother dunma mafala or the kajiti mafala she still has her will enacted unto the world despite the complexity of her sphere and the obscurities hidden within one thing is known for certain and that is that she loves to meddle in the affairs of mortals her entire sphere is contingent on mortal interactions though it is not a trivial meddling diveth fear the powerful telvani wizard over four thousand years in age has this to say about her some of them do perceive mortals as mere playthings but i do not suspect this of mafala she does nothing without purpose perceives all of orbus as an interconnected system of action and consequence and employs herself in spinning new threads to influence outcomes to what end that you must work out for yourself as i have do you think me full enough to reveal the secrets of the prince of secrets she is the spider who manages intricate threads of a great web that represents all mortal connections and she plucks and pulls the strings unravelling plots lives and in many ways she is connected to fate on a symbolic level females weaving and threading is associated with mortal lives and is a common theme in real world religions there are the morai of greek mythology otherwise known as the three fates or in norse mythology there are the narnia three women who spun threads of fate at the foot of yggdrasil the world tree in similar way one can imagine mephala as a spider manipulating a giant web of life that connects all mortals its threads representative of lives which would give one the impression that she has some form of prophetic insight this may seem like a leap at first but let's first consider that she in the book varieties of faith is described as the sibling of hermaeus mora it says also called the demon of knowledge he is vaguely related to the cult origins of the morag tong forrest is guilt if only by association with his brother's sister mafala himayas mora is the master of tides and fate the daedric prince of knowledge and lord of secrets secrets is clearly something that mephala and hermaeus mora embody as siblings but in different ways i would say that while homeos mora enjoys the hoarding and uncovering of secrets mathala's fear is more so about the creation of secrets lies murder sex as a distraction all arts used to deceive and submerge a truth hence a secret however it is also worth mentioning that like her brother she could be seen as a being of knowledge as she is credited with teaching the kaima how to evade their enemies and kill them with secret murder or with the khajiit she is known to have shown them eight paths and aided the clan mothers in the keeping of cultural secrets to me their relation is clear and i suspect there is a fair amount of crossover within the realms of fate now everything gets infinitely more complicated when you start discussing fate and prophecy within the elder scrolls the literal physical elder scrolls archive future and past events yet strangely due to the absurd metaphysical laws of mundus these can change the past and future are not always strictly defined and subject to alteration think about things like dragon breaks or kim and calpers this isn't the time to dive into those but the important takeaway is that time is complicated which by nature makes the elder scrolls attempts to document it difficult this all brings into conversation the idea of destiny and fate versus free will in the universe i think it is a case of both yet destiny or fate only describes the current trajectory hence why homeos mora is known to be constantly scrying the tides of fate because fate like the tides change and flow i think it's more useful to use diveth fears phrasing rather than fate because the terms destiny or fate give the impression of something that is fixed instead it's better to view mcphala's understanding of the world as perceiving all of the orbis as an interconnected system of action and consequence so by perceiving this realm of causality she can make accurate predictions but they are not infallible and subject to change it gets all the more complicated when you throw in the notion that gods experience time as a constant flow of all events happening at once as evidenced by the words of avec and the words of azura who says for the lives of gods are not what mortals think and matters that way only years to mortals weigh on god's forever now why bring all this up the reason is that understanding how gods perceive things and how malleable time can be gives us clarity and insight into the limitations of the gods they are powerful yet not omnipotent this is why the skull could hide secrets from hermeasmura it is how azura could be betrayed by the tribunal it is how the thief regine could steal a ring from mafala's arm these beings do possess blind spots and incomplete understandings even though these incomplete understandings far exceed what a mere mortal could conceive of so far we have spoken about how mephala is related to the tribunal god vivec how she founded the morag tong and is potentially the night mother as well as her connection to her sibling hermaeus mora which indirectly ties her to the sphere of fate as well as symbolism of weaving threads of life which she manipulates as a spider and yet there is more to her we must speak of her perception through the eyes of the khajiit but just before that i want to bring up that she is stated as having some very interesting enemies and allies molag bal is stated as an enemy of mephala and understandably so molag bal is one of the four corners of the house of troubles in dunmer theology known for his penchant to try and corrupt the dunmary purity from mcfarland's perspective she was clearly invested in the founding of chimeri culture and would like to see it thrive through the clan systems she created with boethiah and on top of that molag bell's fear is domination through power and corruption a method distasteful to mephala who taught the kaima the arts of deception for the very purpose of eluding powerful foes such as him another example would be the powerful aldema god trinimac it makes sense but curiously another of her enemies is stated to be peryite the daedric lord of pestilence and natural order neither of these spheres seem at first to come into conflict with those of mephala that is until you choose to see mephala as i do which is that as a god of civilization i know it's not the first thing you think of when you hear about a prince of lies sex and murder but when you look at everything her sphere encapsulates she is revealed to be a god invested in and dependent on the flourishing of civilizations and civilizations only truly finds their wealth through enacting her sphere perhaps if you were to envision lies instead as myths then you can see how lies as myths are the cornerstones of cultural and spiritual unity and organization which together make up a society murder and manipulation often seem the necessary tools to maintain unity between peoples of differing power and wealth erase the upstart rebel or perhaps instead direct them toward a racial or cultural enemy which is held responsible for all their plights and woes it is through an intricate weave of lies and contradictions that societies are held together if only the peasant knew what placed him in the fields of wheat and his noble lord in the mansion of lavishness was a story a myth a lie weaved by their forefathers we'll touch on this idea of mephala as a god of civilization as we keep moving forward but now with that additional context one could see how perite as a lord of natural order runs against the pursuits of a civilization or higher order where periodite would like to see a society run its course and collapse i imagine my father would string more and more threads more stories and lies to fill her web and keep the civilization lasting and evolving adapting so back to her enemies and allies another enemy is eben but he's a foe of most daedra what is a far more interesting point of discussion is a daedric prince that she is allied with malacath daedric prince of the scorned malakath's origins are well known the talk of the town in fact trinimac the god didn't like that the prophet veloth took a group of heretic aldmer away from somerset and so he took chase boethia stood in the way in order to let his new karma people follow veloth to rezdane and so a battle between them ensued trinimac was about to strike a mighty blow when mafala appeared and stabbed him in the back as trinimac kneeled wounded by mafaala's treachery boethiah gloated and cast a terrible ritual to scar and twist his appearance then cast him to a place of choking air and ash trinimac enraged by his failure was reborn in blood as he sliced open his own chest tearing the shame from his spirit morlock the god of curses rose from the ash and cursed boethia for his malice so why could it be that malacath is allied with mafala the very being that helped destroy trinimac and rebirth him as malacath in dunmer theology malacath is one of the four corners of the house of troubles a daedra to be avoided or placated so why would one of the good daedra ally themselves with him now a likely answer is that this is outdated law from the daggerfall era however let's assume that this is not the case let's assume they are allies what could we see here could it be the two daedric princes thrive off one another malacath is the defender of the betrayed and patron of the orcs the pariah folk of tamriel the outcasts of all civilizations and if we envision mephala as a daedra of civilization would it be too much of a stretch to suggest that one sustains the other the orcs have a culture according to the codes of malacath that favor the strong and they have a survival of the fittest mindset and much of the adversity they face or have faced comes in the form of great civilizations whether that be the regatta of the first era kingdoms of high rock kingdoms of hammerfell nordic yarls or even the dunmer they fight their enemies and embrace themselves as outcasts of civilization this strengthens them but at the same time the presence of orcs strengthens the civilizations who could have a great common enemy to face and consider this enemy was created by lies and deception a combo of both mephala and boethius scheming it is a curious alliance one that may just be the result of outdated law from daggerfall times but still it's interesting to ponder so now we get to kijiti mythology and then we can start tying all the loose threads into one big picture one that paints mephala as a complex being that is both essential to civilization and enlightenment to the khajiit the web spinner is known as mephala that is m-a-f-a-l-a the teaching mother elder spirit and the keeper of ancient secrets of fatima these were the secrets her children only needed in the beginning and it was mafala that carried them down she watches over eight of the many paths each of which a khajiit must walk in time mafaala aids the clan mothers in guiding the khajiiti people along the path and protecting our secrets from others she is an ally of azura bowethra and lorkaj her numbers are 8 and 16 and these are two of her keys here is another example of how muffala is credited with a crucial part in the founding of a civilization as she was credited with the construction of the kaima houses and clans so too was she credited with the guidance of the kijiti clan mothers and in both cases she was crucial in both teaching the necessary secrets and aiding the people in protecting them she is also known as the recorder of hidden guilt and shame and the abode of ignominy in northern elsewhere was once her temple until the sinner suicides brought her cult into disfavor there is little more information on this ancient kijiti cult of mephala however one could assume that the sinner as in implied guilt suicides were a result of a great shame or hidden guilt as mephala is known to be the recorder of this shame or guilt could be related to the dark secrets the atrocities the lies murder the subjugation all possible moral transgressions that are often necessary in the flourishing and founding of a society one could draw connections to vivec who was associated with mephala in dunmer mythology if you believe the story of avec's collusion with the tribunal to murder nerevar in order to achieve power then you can see how a villainous crime could produce a golden age of civilization for morrowind which would last thousands of years however vivec is left with the shame and the hidden guilt which clearly affects him as he seems to use hidden messages hidden admissions of guilt within the 36 lessons of vivec as a type of catharsis rather than perhaps what the khajiit did with the sin of suicides actually within the 36 lessons there are more mentions of the codes of mafala that support the idea of her necessity in civilization here's an excerpt from sermon 11. according to the codes of mafala there can be no official art only fixation points of complexity that will erase from the ore of the people given enough time this is a secret that hides another and impersonal survival is not the way of the ruling king embrace the art of the people and marry it and by that i mean secretly have it murdered to break this down the line there can be no official art only fixation points of complexity that will erase from the aura of the people given enough time is poetically communicating that art or symbols are not permanent and hence there can be no official art because they will erase from the ore of the people given enough time put it this way what's the official fashion of the 20th century trick question there was none you could look at the distinct styles of the 20s 40s 60s 70s 80s 90s and all in between and see that fashion evolved and changed and the same would apply to art of other forms by following the codes of mafala and embracing or metaphorically marrying the current artistic fixation then one can have it secretly murdered which is to say bond it with yourself so that you may influence and change it hence control it it may seem a little wack to you right now but let me give you a simple example a celebrity embraces or metaphorically marries a fashion trend say sneakers that celebrity then becomes known for sneakers and in turn influences the original trend by designing or choosing certain brands of sneakers to wear by bonding himself with sneakers he has exerted a form of control over it this of course is reliant on a position of power to bring this back to the elder scrolls let's look at the tribunal we can take nerevar as the fixation point of complexity for the kaima people the hortator their champion in doral almalexia literally marries nerevar which gives him the name indorel nerevar this already is an example of cultural control exerted nerevar the symbol is now eternally connected to house indoril beyond this the tribunal of avec sothosil and almalexia secretly murder nerevar yet spin a different story about his death metaphorically they have married the symbol of nerevar a fixation point of the people they have co-opted it and used this to bring about their new golden age of civilization it could be easily concluded that marrying co-opting embracing the art symbol fixation point of the people allows the individual who did so to control and manipulate society often via a lie as is the case with the death of nerevar or instead think of an example of modern day politicians who will marry a cause of the people which already exists in order to further their position and control the symbol because they become the cultural representative of that which allows them to change it how they like kind of like how corporations marry social causes so they can continue to further their own profits while maintaining an image that champions morality i think you should get the idea but i can understand how this discussion can get a little space cakey as usually is the case when vivek's sermons show up however the point is that the codes of mephala dictate ways for a king or leader to essentially control and manipulate a society whether that be through lies or secret murder as in bloodshed or the metaphorical murdering or co-opting of ideas art or symbols the essentialism of mephala's fear to the flourishing of civilization should be pretty clear by now but now we can get into some of the other interesting symbolism and more metaphysical purposes of her domain let's talk about the symbolism of the number eight within some of the suggested metaphysics of the elder scrolls there is a particular use of the number eight in certain theories there are suggested to be eight towers which hold up reality and entrench the mortal realm these are adamantia aka the durani tower red tower aka red mountain white gold tower crystal lac law aka the crystal tower snow throat aka the throat of the world green sap oracalc and walk brass otherwise known as the numidium in a diagram one could visualize these eight towers as spokes that hold up mundus which can be visualized as a wheel interestingly miffalo copies the structure of mundus for her daedric realm called the spiral skein listen to this passage about the place in oblivion you keep your secrets and the secrets of all those entangled in your webs of subterfuge and semblance the spiral skein is your realm and like nirn in its center is a tower the pillar palace of mephala whose name is too awful to be uttered spun round to this pillar like spokes are the eight strands of the skein to each its own space and to each space its sin first is a cavern of plinths and pedestals each is a lie for they pretend to hold up the sky and the sky is the greatest lie of all second other chambers of envy for compared to the cavern above they are cramped and confined and therefore they hate the cavern third are grottos alluring and seductive for their walls and ceilings glow like a million stars that sing a song of love but the glowing lights are maggots and the song they sing is decay fourth are the tunnels of fear for they are eternally dark and where there is darkness there is dread fifth are the halls where fear is foul and fowl is fair and every belief is a betrayal sixth is the arena of murder forever shall betrayal be followed by murder seventh are the arcades of avarice and appetite for contained therein are all the things mortals would kill or die for eighth is the flaming skein of fury for as death comes to all mortals therefore all treasures are lies this is the spiral skein the tower is one the strands are eight the lessons are forever not only is the number eight representative of both the metaphysical design of mundus and the spiral skein and also the number of legs a spider has there is another mention of eight indirect reference to mafala that is from khajiit mythology quote from the book the wandering spirits she watches over the eight of the many paths each of which a khajiit must walk in time muffala aids the clan mothers in guiding the kajiti people along the path and protecting our secrets from others so khajiit have these paths of which mephala watches over eight of the many as well as aiding the clan mothers in guiding the people and protecting their secrets there is so little information on these eight paths but i'm curious if there is any connection to the six walking ways of dunmer theology the supposed six paths to enlightenment the numbers eight and its double 16 are described as mafala's numbers and also two of her keys and keys are referenced many times in khajiit mythology but usually in a very metaphorical or metaphysical sense i do however feel like with this kind of discussion where you can only get to a point of mostly conjecture but i'd love to hear any additional symbolic connections you can make however there is another major connection between mephala and enlightenment such as kim for example from the 36 lessons of vivec the heart of the second serpent holds the secret triangular gate look at the secret triangular gate sideways and you see the secret tower the secret tower within the tower is the shape of the only name of god i this quote here describes seeing the wheel aka mundus on its side which creates a singular line like the letter i that being the secret to kim in simple terms kim is a somewhat contradictory state which is the enlightened understanding of the metaphysics of mundus which is to say that all of the orbis is contained within the dream of an unknowable entity called the godhead now for most people they freak out and rationalize themselves out of existence or zero-sum i also suppose they could enter a state of denial and just fail enlightenment however if one is able to say i as in i exist maintain a sense of self and ego despite the confronting convincing information that you don't exist but are in fact part of a dream then they achieve a state known as kim which has been likened to the state of a lucid dreamer within a dream which if you have ever been able to do so is like being a god of your very own imaginative realm on a surface level you can introduce myphila's importance here by establishing that as a daedric prince of lies she is essential here when using such a great contradiction a contradiction by default is a kind of lie to be able to lie to yourself claiming your ego over the metaphysical truths of the universe while also understanding and accepting the nature of it is one hell of a contradiction but at the same time by lying to yourself it kind of becomes true because by achieving kim you become godlike so these contradictions and lies can be likened to your very own mythology that you have created a lot of elder scrolls metaphysics make a lot more sense if you conceive of them as a type of tapestry or scroll or rather an elder scroll filled with stories and metaphors rather than having a strictly scientific materialist view of it so that when someone puts themselves into a position of power to write the stories they can change the nature of the universe the laws and truths of mundus are in flux they evolve and change or rather all exist at once yet contradict we won't dive into this discussion much further but let's keep it on track with mephala we've already made connections with the daedric prince of lies to things such as the founding and continuation of civilizations involving the necessary lies and sins as well as the past to enlightenment through contradiction well let's dive a little bit more into the latter because there are some fascinating areas of interest with the three good daedra and their connections to this mysterious gate the heart of the second serpent holds the secret triangular gate look at the secret triangular gate sideways and you will see the secret tower this triangular gate is likely the three good daedra azura mafala and boethiah and there are additional references to the importance of these three daedra to the metaphysical process of mundus as well as a gate in both kijiti and dunmeri theology the lessons of avec further say mephala and azura are the twin gates of tradition and boethiah is the secret flame boethiah and azura are the principles of the universal plot which is begetting which is creation and mafala makes of it an art form it is also worth mentioning that bowethra that is the khajiiti version of mafala is considered the mate of mafala who did not forget her love phoboethera after a nurse sent her into exile for her rebellious nature and additionally mafala is described as an ally of azura bowethra and lorcaj so as you can see the good daedra of dunmer theology are also known to be united in kijiti mythology i won't be discussing this in depth today as there is so much to break down and truth be told i'm still organizing my thoughts on the potentially clearer connections between the three good daedra into their greater purposes and also i have a feeling i would have to do a separate video on the tribunal and good daedra together as reflections of one another to truly do the topic justice but for the moment take what i've said and ponder on it in the meantime clearly after listening to this video i think i have hopefully communicated how mafala is far more complicated than she seems and how her sphere of sex lies and murder affects far more than you would first think she is the darker undercurrents or rather the foundations of civilization having both been an original influence or rather architect of both kaimu dhanma and kijiti societies to varying degrees and even without direct credit the principles of her sphere apply to almost all civilizations think tiber septim and the controversial arcturian heresy the spinner is the dark secrets that allow these civilizations to flourish she is the lie the contradiction the myth that people tell themselves she is the benevolent kingdom built upon a foundation of crushed bones and agony she is necessary she is mephala thank you so much for watching ladies and gentlemen as you can clearly tell mafaala is my favorite daedric prince and her tribunal reflection vivec is my favorite god so naturally each enhances the enjoyment of the other for me hopefully after all of this many of you have at least bumped up my file and your favorite daedra lists please do give the video a like it really helps out the channel subscribe for more elder scrolls lore discussions such as this let me know down below in the comments what you thought about this one and do share your insights thanks again for watching my name is scott from fudge muppet and i'll be back to nerd out with you again next time you

Channel: FudgeMuppet

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Keywords: skyrim, elder scrolls, elder scrolls lore, skyrim lore, fudgemuppet, oblivion, oblivion lore, daedra

Id: f3mLRa3UWe4

Length: 32min 48sec (1968 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 02 2020