Hey everybody, welcome back to the Elder Lore podcast. If you've been checking the blog, you may already know that as a matter of organization and keeping things easy to navigate, I've decided to separate this podcast into seasons, just like a TV show. So today is our 10th episode, which marks the end of our first season. I just kind of arbitrarily decided that there were going to be 10 episodes in a season.
So if you're looking for a reason, you're not going to find one. But so I decided to end our first season with a little bit of a special discussion, which is equal parts of philosophy and nonsense. So I'm calling this episode, let's get metaphysical, little play on words there. But really what we're going to be talking about today might be a little confusing, but stick with me.
And if you do understand it, and if you do understand it in its context, then it might just blow your mind. Well, anyway, I might be hyping it up too much, and then you're just going to be disappointed, so I'm just going to stop talking. Or rather, I'm just going to start talking. But by way of beginning, what I would like to do is I'm going to open with a quote from the third volume of Manger Cameron's mythic dawn commentaries, which you can't come across in Skyrim, but you do come across during oblivion.
And the quote goes, quote, Kim, for those who know it can reshape the land, witness the home of the Red King once jumbled. This is not the first or even the only time we hear about Kim in the lore of the Elder Scrolls, but it's not really a topic that is touched on in any of the games. This is kind of one of those meta discussions that takes place in forums and cryptic messages from Michael Kirkbride, but kind of occurs outside of the experience of most of the Elder Scrolls games. Relatively speaking, there are, in the case of the mythic dawn commentaries and the 36 lessons of Vivek, there are canon references to Kim, but for the most part it's a pretty good vague and obscure topic.
So what is Manger Cameron talking about? What is Kim? Who is the Red King? Where was his home?
If it was once jumbled, what is it now? But before we get to those questions, we have to answer the most broader question, which is of course, what is Kim? And you may have seen discussions about it around the internet, but if you haven't, it might be pronounced Kim, it might be pronounced Kim, might be Jim Kaim, I'm not really sure, but at any rate, it is, as far as I'm concerned, it's not an acronym, it's just CHIM, all in cathels. So what is it?
What is Kim? Well, that's a much more complicated question than it sounds like, but basically, Kim is a kind of enlightenment. There are a few examples of people in Tamriel knowing Kim, the most important for our purposes being Tiber Septim and Lord Vivek, the warrior poet. The achievement of Kim is the realization that all of reality is merely a kind of waking dream in the imagination of a figure known as the Godhead, and after having that realization, being able to retain your individuality.
I'm going to explain this as much to my abilities as we continue, so if it doesn't make any sense at this point, do not worry. But when I say everything, I mean really everything is a part of this over imagination. I mean the Nine Divines, I mean the Daedric Lords, all of Tamriel, even the existence of Anu and Padame are really just characters in this kind of grand majestic play. And as a result, those who know Kim, or I should say those who know Kim and retain their individuality gain tremendous abilities to alter the reality around them at will, which brings us back to our original questions.
That passage in the commentary, Simonythic Dawn, refers to the Red King, who is Talos or Tiber Septim. There are a number of explanations as to why he is referred to as the Red King, but as far as I'm concerned, the most obvious connection is the Red Diamond, which of course is the gem that sits within the Amulet of Kings, which is worn by Tiber Septim, of course, as a symbol of his station. So when Tiber Septim mantled Larkin, also known as Shazar or Shor, in some cases, and attained divinity, he achieved Kim. The only real evidence of Talos knowing Kim that I've been able to find at least is this passage in the commentaries, which talks about how, after achieving Kim, Talos changes the entire landscape of Cyrodiil from what used to be dense jungles into the kind of fertile farmland that you experience when you play through a blivvy.
He did this, of course, in order to make the land more habitable to his people. Quote, Kim, those who know it can reshape the land, witness the home of the Red King once jumbled. End quote. It's also, it's also believed that Manker Cameron claimed to have known Kim, but this is not actually true.
In addition to Talos, the other character we're going to talk about, Lord Bybeck, is one of the other characters in Tamriel who has known Kim. Bybeck, if we remember correctly, is a member of the Tribunal in Morrowind before the Khimer became the Dunmer. The Tribunal supposedly mancled three-day-dric princes, the three-day-dric princes that they believe were quote-unquote good, giving them their original place as the protectors of the Khimer, which as a result, they came to be known as the Anticipations. So Bybeck mancled Mafala, so Bybeck was the Anticipation of Mafala, so the Sil-Mantel Azura and Olmalexia-Mantled Boethia.
This angered some of the other Daedric Lords, specifically Moleg Ball, Shail Gorath, Malekath, and Mayron's Dagon, and you might recognize those four Daedric princes because they're the ones who become the pillars of the Four Corners of the House of Troubles. So this is just the reason as to why they are seen that way because of the manteling of those three Daedric princes by the Tribunal. This is of course before the Tribunal conspires to murder Indooral Narrow and Steel Godhood using your heart of working. Bybeck is the author of the 36 Lessons of Bybeck, which are incredibly interesting and also incredibly esoteric.
They are really the foremost source of information about Kim, but also of course they are one of the only sources, and they are separated into smaller sermons. In Sermon 12, Bybeck meets Moleg Ball, who explains to him that the word Kim is the secret to syllable of royalty. There is also evidence of this in a quote from Tybere Septim where he says, Iberia is now in royalty and reshaped the land which is mine. I do this for you, Red Legion's, for I love you." End quote.
So we see here he uses the word royalty referring to Kim, and he also says he will reshape this land which is mine referring to him changing the landscape of Cyrodiil from being the dense jungles that it was into that fertile workable farm land. It does seem a bit strange, however, that somebody who is so commonly believed to be a god, and I'm talking about Bybeck now, someone who intimately knows Kim possibly better than anybody else, could also be capable of murdering Lord Nervear in cold blood. It would be much easier for us to believe that the visit in priests were incorrect, that Bybeck and the Tribunal could not have been responsible for Nervear's death, but in fact, really both are true. Having the intimate knowledge of Kim as he does, Bybeck has gone back and has rewritten history, which includes his own story, really.
So it would seem that at the same time, Bybeck both killed and did not kill Nervear. So we'll talk a little bit more about Kim itself, now that we've got all of our characters into place. As I said earlier, our major source of information about Kim comes from the 36 lessons of Bybeck. We'll look at a number of the sermons in our quest for knowledge about Kim beginning with Sermon 21, which is also known as the scripture of the wheel.
This sermon describes reality as a wheel with eight spokes. Bybeck refers to the spokes as the gift limbs of the Adra, which when simplified kind of implies that each of the eight spokes represents one of the original eight divines. Bybeck also says that, quote, the spaces between the gift limbs number 16, the signal shapes of the demon princedoms, implying of course that the 16 spaces between those eight spokes represent the 16-daydric princes and their realms. He continues, I'm reading a lot of quotes here.
Look at the majesty sideways and all you see is the tower, which our ancestors made idols from. Look at its center and all you see is the begotten whole, second serpent, womb ready for the right reaching, exact and without enchantment. Later, he says, 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 seems to say that in a much more convoluted way that when the wheel is turned on its side, it takes the shape of the tower. To reside within the tower is to know Kim, meaning that that triangular gate is the method to which one becomes to know Kim. As I touched on earlier, the key to knowing Kim is to be able to retain your individuality after the achievement.
If you lose yourself in the quote unquote reality of Kim, you become nothing. Let's not forget that in the beginning there was a new and Padme and a new represented the is and Padme represented the is not. To know Kim is to know that you both are and are not. If you lose yourself in this, it is called zero summing as one plus negative one equals zero and you cease to be.
If you are able to know Kim and even in the face of logic say that one plus negative one still equals one, that's when you truly know Kim and become one with its reality. And this is what gives the knower all the power over the universe that this mysterious Godhead has. And so it is that we begin to see that the wheel is kind of symbolic of our abyss, this state of simultaneous existence and non-existence. If we go back to the Anuad and the is and is not of a new and Padme, all of existence springs from this contradiction within the void.
The wheel represents this idea and thus everything within it. To know Kim is to steal the secret of the tower, which is why Vivek is sometimes referred to as the tower's thief. There are other ways of describing Kim, which I have until this point neglected to bring up. This is because using them might lead you to believe that it's more of a gimmick on behalf of the developers than the kind of philosophical tool that it is.
I will use them now, now that I've described the basics of Kim without them, in order to help you understand. But know that I am kind of dramatically simplifying the concepts and insta doing, I'm not really doing the concept itself and the justice. That being said, some people equate the idea of Kim with in-game NPCs realizing that they are within a video game. This makes you, as a player, the godhead inside whose imagination all of this is taking place.
This effectively gives that NPC power over the in-game console, meaning that they can make or unmake anything. And basically the Elder Scrolls construction kit, which makes them able to alter whatever they want. But again, that kind of juvenile explanation doesn't really do the concept any justice. In closing, I want to quote Michael Kirkbride talking a little bit more about the structure of the universe in this wheel.
The quote goes, we are the hub, the Mundus that goes by many names. We are the heart of all creation. What does this mean? Why should we care?
Lorcan created it so that we could find what he did. In fact, and here's the secret, the hub is the reflection of its creators, the circle within the circle. Only the border to ours is so much easier to see. Stand in its flux and remain whole of mind.
Look at its sideways and see the eye. That's it. With that quote, I'm going to end this episode. This is definitely the most esoteric episode I've done yet.
But I figured it would be a kind of fun way to end our first season. But you should be looking forward to an episode where we're going to begin the second season with an episode about Akavir, the Dragon Land. So be sure to tune in for that episode. I'm sure it'll be coming your way in about a week.
I do want to say, I do want to give a special thanks to Prince of Plots who looked over my script for this episode and gave me a little bit of advice on how I can make it a little bit more understandable and a little bit more truthful. So thank you to him. I can find a link to his extended explanation of Kim on the blog. ElderLore.wordpress.com, send me suggestions, corrections, whatever you may.
Feel free to discuss this topic on the blog. I would be more than happy to participate in said discussion. It's a very interesting topic and there's much to be said about it. So I hope you enjoyed listening and I hope you continue to listen moving on into the future.
Thanks.