Lorkhan

Lorkhan, the Missing God, is the Creator-Trickster-Tester deity present in every Tamrielic mythic tradition. He is known as the Spirit of Nirn, the god of all mortals. His most popular name is the Elven variant Lorkhan, or Doom Drum, which sometimes appears as Lkhan. Names for versions or aspects of Lorkhan include Lorkhaj (the Moon Beast) in Elsweyr, Sep in Hammerfell, Sheor in High Rock, Shor in Skyrim, and Shezarr in Cyrodiil.

According to legend, Lorkhan died long ago, giving his life to create Nirn. As such, he has not had much direct influence over events of the Third Era, though he was indirectly responsible for at least three major near-disasters in the last decades of the Third Era, and his remains are connected to the disappearance of the Dwemer. It is also believed that the Moons are the remains of Lorkhan's physical form, cleaved in two.

He convinced or contrived the Original Spirits (et'Ada) to bring about the creation of the Mundus, upsetting the status quo—much like his (figurative) father Padomay is usually credited for introducing instability, and hence possibility for creation, into the undivided universe (or the Beginning Place).



After the world materialized, myths hold that Lorkhan was killed, mutilated, or at least separated from his divine center, the Heart of Lorkhan (known as Sep's "hunger" to the Redguards and Shor's Heart to the Nords), in an event sometimes called the shattering of Lorkhan. This separation, which purportedly took place in Tamriel, is typically called a punishment, but stories often suggest Lorkhan submitted to it voluntarily.

Whatever remained of Lorkhan afterward was exiled to wander through creation. As the impetus for creating the Mundus, Lorkhan is at the center of the great ideological schism between the Elven and human perspectives on the event, which is known as the Sundering to Elves, and thus opinions of him vary dramatically in Tamriel.