Akatosh = Alduin?

It's very late, so I'll make this short. Actually this is just an excuse I make, since there is not a lot to say on this topic. I am just filling out.

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Anyway, to business! It seems to me as if a lot of people are having trouble understanding the relationship between Akatosh and Alduin, so I'll try to explain.

Lets start out with Akatosh.
Akatosh is the chief deity of the nine divines, mainly worshipped in Cyrodiil. He embodies the qualities of Invincibility, endurance and everlasting legitimacy. Just so I am sure that everybody is up to speed, his avatar is a dragon.



Now to Alduin, the counterpart of Akatosh, or the Nordic variation of him, if you prefer. He is depicted as "The World Eater," a dragon god, functioning as brutal, ravaging firestorm that destroyed the world that existed prior to this one, in order for this one to rise. The Nords see him as a god of time and not only as the destroyer, but also creater of worlds.

Now how does this fit in with Akatosh. Instead of making a long explanation, I thought I'd just give an example that people can relate to. I assume most people know about old Greek mythology, yes? Well, they all have Roman counterparts! Like Hades had Pluto. Athena had Minerva. Are had Mars. Zeus had Jupiter, or Tinia, if you prefer the Etruscan counterpart.

So you see, it is kinda the same deal with Akatosh and Alduin. They are counterparts, from different cultures. They have some similarities and they also differ in some ways. I hope I have made clear for everyone to understand.

Dragons!

There are tons of things about Skyrim that excites us, but I'll bet that the only thing that can freak us out, like hearing an ostrich talk or losing our virginities by accident, is the dragons! In this here post I'll be explaining what kind of part they take in the Skyrim game experience.

Do Battle!

As you all know, we'll be playing as the last dragonborn, which basically means that we are born with the soul of a dragon. That is also the reason the Alduin, the game antagonist, don't like us. We have a fair chance at fighting back.

So we know that dragons play a very important part of the main quest. They have recently returned and they are scaring the crap out of people. Alduin leads his own pack of dragons, called Jills, which are black dragons.

That is not the only type of dragon, though. With the magic of sight, my eyes spotted both a red dragon and a blue, frost dragon in the gameplay demo from E3 (Watch at page bottom.) Pictures also reveal brown dragons.

This guy will be waiting for you at Bleak Falls Barrow!

When will we encounter these magnificent creatures? Well, not from the initial get-go, but not soon after. The main quest will of course cause some obligatory dragon encounters. In general, dragons will show up at random. In the demo, Howard is fighting a giant and then suddenly, without warning, it swoops down, grabs the giant and before we've actually gathered ourselves to absorb what just happened, it has tossed away the giant, off into the distance, and goes straight for our dragonborn hero.

Dragons are infinite, meaning that you can't kill every dragon. Even after the main quest is over, you'll be able to get your blood pumping, battling one of these bad boys. Combat with them is deemed to be quite exciting. They aren't scripted, so as mentioned before, they can pop up at random, but even more so, the ways they fight can vary greatly. They all have tons of patterns to choose from. They can do bombing runs, they can land and bite the crap out of you, smack you around with its tail, and even bite down on the aiding guard, smacking him around a bit and then throw him out like yesterdays garbage.

The feel of the combat is bound to be epic, and every dragon battle will be unique. Should you manage to overcome your fear and not run away, you'll probably die. Still, should you even manage to bring down one of these bastards, you'll get to absorb its soul, given you points to spend on your dragon shouts.

So what have we learned? Dragons are unscripted, have several entries and strategies, they use at random, creating epic and unpredictable battle scenarios. They can and will attack others than the dragonborn, they can even attack cities. The player can absorb their souls, which will be converted into a sort of currency, used to gain dragon shout abilities. There will be a variety of Dragons, including Alduins black dragon pack, called "Jills."

A dragon sitting atop a temple. Lets hope it doesn't spot us!

This is definitely the most wanted, requested and exciting feature of Skyrim and even though we won't be allowed to ride them, we will definitely all leave our families and friends for months in order to battle these magnificent fiends.

Alduins Wall

So we've all heard of the antagonist of Skyrim: Alduin! The badass eater of worlds. Hungry bastard.
Well, he is kinda cool already, but let me ask you, what is the most awesome thing that you can have in this world? Eh? Can you guess it?

If you guessed a loyal, pet squirrel, then you are pretty close!
But if you guessed having a wall named after you, then you are right on the money! And that is what I will tell you about. We've all seen the first teaser-trailer they threw at us, I think in December or January, and in that trailer, whilst Max von Sydow makes an awesome narration.

But what is the wall about? You see, like some of the Elder Scrolls, this wall holds the prophecy of Alduins return. If you look closely in the video, you can see that the close-ups of the wall actually shows carvings, symbolizing the events of the 4 previous games. Events, that all lead up to this one. The return of The Bane of Kings! The World Eater! The Nordic counterpart to Akatosh! And then how the last dragonborn will fight him. Some have interpreted the prophecy as the dragonborn actually "stops" him, but it says so nowhere, and it would kinda ruin the excitement if he was already destined to win, so I'm kinda guessing that "battle him" is enough. For now.

But where is this wall, you now ask! The wall is located in a place called Sky Haven Temple, which is the last hidden, secret refuge of The Blades. Ergo, this means that you will actually be able to see the wall ingame, and it is quite possible that this is where Esbern learns of the prophecy, which causes him to save the dragonborn from his execution.

Biggest time-skip, ever! (The Septim Empire crumbles)

If you played Oblivion, you definitely remember the death of Uriel Septim VII, given that it were inevitable and the very first thing that happened in the game.

Maybe you are not aware of this, but Uriel Septim was actually with us since the very first game, were the imperial battlemage Jagar Tharn used the staff of chaos to imprison him in a dimension of his own creation. Tharn the disguised himself has Uriel Septim and ruled for 10 years until the player character freed the real Uriel Septim and defeated Tharn.

Given that he is alive until Oblivion, I can easily convince you that the time that passed between Arena and Oblivion is less than a hundred years. In fact it is only 34 years.

With Skyrim coming up, we are facing the the biggest time-skip so far, with 200 years having passed since Oblivion. I thought that we should have a look at something crucial, which shocked me to my inner core!

Those of you who played Oblivion, are aware that the last of the royal Septim bloodline, which are also dragonborn BTW, died. I am of course talking about Martin Septim, son of Uriel Septim VII. He forfeits his body in order to summon the avatar of Akatosh, whom the Nords call Alduin (the antagonist of Skyrim.) Akatosh then defeated Mehrunes Dagon and forced him back into Oblivion forever.


After this event, Chancellor Ocato takes over the emperors duty until a new emperor can be chosen. Unfortunately, this never happens and somewhere between The Oblivion crisis  and Skyrim, an altmer named Titus Mede takes over the Empire and thus makes the Altmer race the ruling race, stealing the power from the Imperials. Whether he, or his son Prince Attrebus Mede, will have a role to play in Skyrim, remains to be seen.