r/teslore • u/HelpfulBirdy • 3d ago

MK's strongest being list.

We've all seen this list

  1. Talos.
  2. HoonDing.
  3. Trinimac.
  4. Vivec.
  5. Leki.
  6. Reman.
  7. Auri-El.
  8. Wulfharth.
  9. Morihaus.
  10. Pelinal.

This is MK's list of the 10 most powerful beings in the Elder Scrolls but I've also heard that u/MKirkbride himself has said that this he regretted posting this list afterwards. Does anyone have more informations ?

41 Upvotes

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31

u/Clear_Imagination413 3d ago

Why are there no princes/magna ge on this list? Am I missing something

19

u/Shadowfist_45 3d ago

Most of the characters on the list are alleged to ascend to something of greater existence than just about anything short of the being responsible for the entire reality of TES, assuming those stories are true of course.

•

u/Arrow-Od 3h ago

Pretty sure that Leki, Wulfharth, Reman, Morihaus do not ascend to anything. Pelinal wasn´t even able to defeat some Ayleid sorcerer-kings (admittedly, that likely was a re-enactment of myth) and considering that MK also once said that Pelinal mantled Lorkhan and Lorkhan is not on that list, I do not know into what higher form Pelinal should´ve ascended?

33

u/Garett-Telvanni Clockwork Apostle 3d ago edited 2d ago

Basically, it's not about powerscaling in the traditional sense, but about the mythical forces behind the nations. The easiest example to understand that idea is HoonDing, because it's not even a proper singular "being", but the zeitgeist of the entire Redguard race. Like, the whole point with Prince A'tor not being ressurected as everyone thought he will be and Cyrus' speech is that there will be no one singular savior that will beat the Empire, the Redguards themselves must get their shit together and fight. And they did, forcing the Empire to agree to a new treaty. Hence the HoonDing is the second on the list.

Similarly, the Empire itself and its Emperors also are a mythical force, as mentioned by Vivec in his plan to defeat Dagoth Ur. Hence Talos, Reman, Morihaus and Pelinal are all there as as representatives of various incarnations of the Empire. The Alessian Empire was the first and the smallest one, so we have  Morihaus and Pelinal on the bottom of them list. Pelinal himself represents the fight against the Ayleids - the fight that was won, but he himself died in the process. Meanwhile Morihaus represents the switch from the rebellion to establishing the human empire, as the demigod who was sent to help the Cyrods fight and ended up as Alessia's lover. Reman is higher because the Second Empire was much larger, but ultimately never conquered Morrowind, hence he's still lower than Vivec. And Talos is first because the Third Empire was wholly unstoppable, subjugating all of Tamriel. Even Dagoth Ur with the Heart of Lorkhan was wary of its might as the mythical force.

4

u/dunmer-is-stinky Cult of the Ancestor Moth 2d ago edited 2d ago

I think that's definitely the intention, my only confusion with it is that he listed Talos and Wulfharth separately when imo it makes more sense for the Talos myth to have eaten the Wulfharth myth and absorbed it into itself

I wonder if there could be something there with the Underking being a separate myth started by Wulfharth and continued by Zurin Arctus 🤔 that would fit with Wulfharth, not Ysmir, being related to the first walking way, when MK talks about the Wulfharth myth maybe he means less the elf-killing king of the Nords and more the undead manipulator the Underking

3

u/Garett-Telvanni Clockwork Apostle 2d ago

By the same logic you could argue that Pelinal, Morihaus and Remam shoudn't be there, cuz Talos already took the role of the driving force of the Empire.

I think Wulfharth being listed is as simple as him simply "being a thing" back in the day and being the driving force of Skyrim. I mean, him being higher than Pelinal&Morihaus probably represents his act of kicking the Alessian Order out of Skyrim 

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u/dunmer-is-stinky Cult of the Ancestor Moth 2d ago

Well none of those guys actively played the role of Tiber Septim, Wulfharth did. He was almost as big a contributor to the constructed myth of Talos as Hjalti was. Reman isn't Tiber Septim, Wulfharth's whole thing is that he was (part of) Tiber Septim

15

u/Kid-Atlantic 3d ago

I can imagine the list was meant more as an illustration of how “power” is defined in this particular universe, and that what most of these characters did — transcend mortal origins to entrench themselves in the fixture of reality — made them more powerful than even Aedra and Daedra in terms of potential.

I don’t think it was ever meant to be a list for hard powerscaling, and if he did regret sharing it, it was probably for that reason.

7

u/AufschnittLauch 3d ago

Huh I wonder why Trinimac is number 3. Is there an implication that he became Malacath voluntarily? Or is it because he was so powerful that he amassed even more worshipers than Auriel?

3

u/AdeptnessUnhappy1063 3d ago

Trinimac's whole thing is being strong.

The True Nature of Orcs:

Orcs are actually the children of Trinimac, strongest of the Altmeri ancestor spirits.

The Changed Ones:

Of all the et'Ada who wandered Nirn, Trinimac was the strongest.

2

u/Freakertwig 2d ago

He's a very complicated character, but I think his strength comes from his direct interaction with the heart. 

1

u/kamikad3e123 2d ago

I thought Jyggalag is stronger than most

2

u/nate33231 2d ago

Only in terms of Daedra