Lore:Ritual of the Ancestor Moth

"Deciphering one of the Elder Scrolls is nothing like reading a simple book. There's quite a bit of ritual and concentration required. It can take months or even years to complete a single scroll and even then, months to recover."
—Dexion Evicus

The Ritual of the Ancestor Moth is a ritual performed by Moth Priests in order to read an Elder Scroll. The reading of these ancient scrolls of prophecy allow the priests to divine the future and aid the Empire.

Performing the RitualEdit

The ritual takes place within one of the many secluded Ancestor Glades scattered across Tamriel. It involves carefully removing the bark of a canticle tree with a traditional draw knife, which in turn attracts the Ancestor Moths who inhabit the glade. Once enough moths are in the vicinity of the Moth Priest, they grant them the second sight needed to decipher the scroll.

Moth Priests maintain that the voice of the Ancestor Moth has always been an integral part of reading an Elder Scroll. The moths maintain a connection to the ancient magic that allows the Moth Priest to decipher them. Moths emanate a soft harmonious trilling that, when amplified, taps into a form of primal augur. This allows the moths themselves to become a conduit for deciphering the scrolls. By having the moths close to the Moth Priest, they can utilize the conduit and share the moth's augury. Every Moth Priest is taught this ritual, but only the most resilient can read the scrolls in this manner as it takes years of practice to interpret the harmony. As such, few ever get the chance to perform it.

The Ritual of the Ancestor Moth functions by connecting the Moth Priest to the knowledge of the ancestors using the Ancestor Moths as a conduit. According to the Cult of the Ancestor Moth, mortal souls are the Aedric essence at the core of every mortal's existence. They can be likened to the wings of a butterfly, scaled and full of vessels which become filled with the experiences of mortal existence. It is said that upon death a process of dissipation whereby some of these accumulated contents disperse. These essences, the Fjyrons or "will to peace", are believed to retain a connection to both the grand fabric of creation and to all aspects of the soul in all their destinations. Thus because, all aspects of a soul remain connected, tapping into the Fjyrons allows one who knows how to receive the erudition of the ancestors. Knowledge and guidance from beyond mortality, from the existence beyond the present and the past and the known world, where time is irrelevant, thus allowing one to glimpse the cosmic tapestry and its threads. The Ancestor Moths of the Order are said to imbibe the Fjyrons, described by some as the memories of the dead, becoming animated by the Fjyrons of the ancestor spirits, shepherding that wisdom and passing it through the generations. Thus the moths represent a connection to the Aedra and the "endless Aedric coil of mortal souls" through the experiences of every mortal who has ever lived, and their trilling forms a sort of primal augur which allows the Order to read and interpret the contents of the Elder Scrolls which contain knowledge said to exceed even the gods.

The monks use special cleansing bowls to remove impurities from their fingers before, during, and after they read the Elder Scrolls. This leaves a residue in the bowls that has been suggested to be aetherial residue that could deaden their fingers like the scrolls deaden the eyes.

HistoryEdit

Some Nedic texts suggest the methods used by the Cult of the Ancestor Moth to read the Scrolls might've originated from the Ayleids. The Nedic slaves were tasked to tend to the reading rooms within the White Gold-Tower, where the elves made use of the Ancestor Moths and Canticle Trees to learn how to master the world from the Elder Scrolls in their possession. When the Ayleids realized their slaves could also hear the song of the moths, they decided to teach them the secrets of how to read the Scrolls, so as to have them perform the readings and bear the burden in their stead. In secret these Nedic moth tenders spirited away the components of the reading ritual and established their own sacred glades, beginning the tradition that gave rise to the Cult of the Ancestor Moth. There are those within the Cult that believe the secrets of reading the Scrolls were taught by Akatosh, or that the moths were first stolen from the Hunting Grounds.The Tradition of naming the Elder Scrolls is said to have also started with the Ayleids, though some within the Cult of the Ancestor Moth are skeptical of this claim.

In 4E 201, the Last Dragonborn performed the ritual with three Elder Scrolls to reveal the location of Auriel's Bow in an effort to stop the fulfillment of the Tyranny of the Sun prophecy.

GalleryEdit

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  An Ancestor Moth

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  An Ancestor Glade in Skyrim

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  A traditional draw knife

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  A canticle tree

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  Reading an Elder Scroll

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  The visions during a reading

See AlsoEdit

BooksEdit

• Effects of the Elder Scrolls by Justinius Poluhnius — A thesis on the four different types of readers of the Elder Scrolls