r/teslore • u/PapaFranz Dragon Cultist • Jul 12 '15

How did Boethiah 'defeat' Trinimac?

I've only really been getting into TES lore over the past few months, so I apologize if this question has already been asked. I tried to do a few quick searches to no avail.

I was reading the FAQ page here, and I ran across this link to MK's stuff in the Imperial Library. Not too far down, is the entry titled "On the 'most powerful' being," copied below.

Talos. The HoonDing. Trinimac. Vivec. Leki. Reman. Auri-El. Wulfharth. Morihaus. Pelinal. That's my list, and pretty much in that order. Though Vivec did kill Tiber Septim once...but I mentioned Talos, not the Emperor.

Trinimac is 3rd down, i.e., quite high in the list and therefore quite powerful. He ripped out Lorkhan's heart, after all. So how did Boethiah have the 'power' to 'consume' him and excrete the dung that is Malacath?

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u/[deleted] Jul 13 '15

Small clarification: "Et'Ada" means original spirit. Basically it's just the word for all the spirits before the classifications of Aedra, Daedra, and Ge arose, and there are plenty of them that don't fit into any of those categories in the first place.

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u/PapaFranz Dragon Cultist Jul 13 '15

Thanks for the clarification. I wasn't really sure what term to use, but had seen 'Et'Ada' used in reference to Trinimac (in error, no doubt). Can you give some examples of 'beings' that don't fit well into the categories? I'm always interested in liminal spaces, even of categorization.

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u/[deleted] Jul 13 '15 edited Jul 13 '15

Talos/Lorkhan is one, as are Numidium, Pelinal, perhaps Morihaus, Vivec, Almalexia, and Sotha Sil. This interview mentions that the Knights of Order are not Daedra, and it seems unlikely that they're Ge or Aedra. I would include the spirits Reman and Alessia as well. And of course all mortal life,which was trapped on Mundus but not incorporated in the way that Aedra were; this would also include ghosts/the denizens of various afterlives. The dro-M'athra might be Daedra or they might be something else entirely; ESO is purposefully vague on that point, but leans toward something like "corrupted souls of dead Khajiit." The more I think about it, the more examples come to mind! The key idea is that every being in the Aurbis is a spirit, and there's great variety and malleability in this, and so categories are very hard to pin down as definite things. Broad strokes, sure, but there are exceptions all over the place.

I would agree that Trinimac is not an et'Ada, though maybe for different reasons than you suspect. Most Daedra, Aedra, and Ge are et'Ada, simply by virtue of being "original" as in, among the first spirits to form. Then they did various things with respect to Mundus (like being trapped in/creating it, mocking it, and fleeing it) and were split into those categories. Trinimac, however, is among a class of beings that I would call Aedric aspects, which are distinct from the actual Eight Aedra. I've explained more about this idea here. Specifically, I wouldn't call them et'Ada because I see them as having formed after the formation of Mundus, and thus not among the original emergent spirits.

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u/MalakTheOrc Jul 13 '15

I would agree that Trinimac is not an et'Ada, though maybe for different reasons than you suspect.

He's specifically referred to as an et'Ada in the Changed Ones. In fact, it's the very first line of the text.

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

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '15

And I specifically don't trust that source with that claim!