The Dawn Era - The Monomyth

The first era and beginning of existence is called the Dawn Era.

This is a time before time and any explanation of time is simply a fabricated measure taken to set order to events for mortals to comprehend. The events of this era are only known by mortals through myth and through the form of religious teachings and details vary from culture to culture. The one thing that all agree upon is that the era represents the genesis of time, life and recorded history.

In the beginning all there was, was the Void. The Void(also known as Sithis) is a vast state of nothingness and constant mutation. Anu and Padomay(Is and Is Not) were part of the Void and the first things to come into existence from it. In certain texts, they were brothers and came with the Void into existence. Anu and Padomay created the Aurbis, which is the Gray Center between Is and Is Not. It contains the realms of Aetherius and Oblivion, as well as other, less structured, planes.

* The Aldmer have varied versions of a few of the above details. They believe the Void itself is Anu and refer to the Aurbis as Anuiel, the Soul of Anu.

The Aurbis, at this time, was unstable and turbulent. It is said that this was because Aurbis(as Anu) was using the Void to ponder himself in every instance. Despite this, from the Aurbis and the Void sprang the et'Ada, or "the Original Spirits". The et'Ada did not align to anything as of yet and some gravitated to either the light or dark and then returned back from whence they came without their notice, dissolving when they hit perfect gray again. The first et'Ada were unlearned in many areas as existence itself was a new creation and there wasn't much time for practice beforehand. Due to this fact, most things ended quickly, were not good or were given up on quickly - it was a violent place.

Akatosh was one the first et'Ada to be given superior knowledge by Aurbis, and this knownledge was Time, and thus Time was created. Soon thereafter, the et'Ada filled the Aurbis until all was full and separated into two groups: those that aligned with Anu, residing in Aetherius and those that aligned with Padomay, who dwelt in Oblivion.

Lorkhan was one who aligned to Padomay, but instead of residing in Oblivion chose to remain in the state of Aurbis. It was he who brought the concept of a world, of sacrifice and responsibility with no guaranteed success(on the part of the et'Ada). Again, the et'Ada were split into two factions: One was eager to begin this new world and started immediately in it's construction. Magnus(also known simply as Magic) was the chief architect on the world's creation. Kynareth, the et'Ada of Air, provided space for this world within the Void. This new faction of et'Ada would be known as the Aedra. The other faction was those who did not want to participate on the project, and they were to be known as the Daedra.

Then Mundus(or the Mortal Realm, Nirn) was created. The process of its creation was painful and left most Aedra crippled and drained, no longer strong and powerful as they had once been. This caused many Aedra to disappear completely forever. It was then that the remaining Aedra realized they had been tricked into this endeavor, but by then the damage had been done. Magnus was the first to abandon the project and many left with him to return to Artherius. The rest of the remaining Aedra conviened at the Adamantine Tower to hold council. At this meeting they did little but to finalize the separation of the last faithful Aedra. After that the last of the retreating Aedra left and the last determined ones decided to stay in order to preserve what they had built. This group transformed themselves into the Ehlnofey(or Earthbones) and susequentially the laws of nature were established. These last eight Aedra(Akatosh, Arkay, Dibella, Mara, Kynareth, Julianos, Stendarr and Zenithar) remained and would go on to become the realm's gods.

It was written that as punishment for Lorkhan's disception of the Aedra, those who met at the Adamantine Tower determined that Lorkhan's heart would be ripped from his chest and the cast from the tower. It was their original intention to destroy it but it spoke and said, "This Heart is the heart of the world, for one was made to satisfy the other." And so it was tied to an arrow and loosed, where it landed was the eastern part of Tamriel and from it's landing a massive volcano formed. This volcano is now known as Vvardenfell.

Before these final events that comprise the story of Nirn's creation took place, the world was unstable and dangerous. When Magnus and the retreating Aedra left to return to Aetheius, a hole was ripped in the sky and thus magic was allowed to flow into this new world. After the final Eight settled into their godhood and the Ehlnofey became mortals into order live and populate these new lands, Mundus/Nirn stablized and became habitable. This marks the end of what would be known as the Dawn Era and the beginning of the Merethic Era.