The Minds of Almantha

[Landis963]

It's alive. It's ALIVE!

So...where were we?

We WERE discussing the astronomy of Almantha, and you had some great ideas that I swear were implemented into that giant astronomy post that was lost, but I came to realize that it doesn't really work when the gods in question are physically interacting with their supplicants on a day-to-day basis. The artifact moon that broadcasts all the magic it can soak up is still there, as is the larger, natural moon it orbits around, and the Arch Star and the blue gas giant, and maybe a couple rocky planets between it and Therinos, but none of them has any real cultural significance beyond navigational aids.

I was on an Elder Scrolls kick at the time, and on Tamriel, the Nine Divines' home planes look like planets against the blackness of Oblivion and the starry holes punched to Aetherius. (Don't ask-long story involving Nirn's creation) Elder Scrolls astronomy is weird, and I made the mistake of thinking that they were the planes of the Daedra (rather than the Aedra, an elven name for the Divines), omnipotent but trickable beings who love using mortals for various things, from the benevolent to the destructive to the literally insane. All of whom are, IMO, much more interesting than the Aedra, who devote their entire existence to keeping Tamriel running and thus do not appear except as deus ex machinae. As a side note, I'm going to be writing the Minds as Daedra-in-character, if not in name. It makes them more interesting, I find, and more liable to affect the plot in the way that gods should (I mean, they have affected the plot of TES on numerous occasions, ranging from central figures in DLC storylines to fully-fledged antagonists and plot-instigators)

Going forward, I think the Minds need fleshing out. They're kind of one-note now, with the possible exception of Obsid, and even he needs some sort of face to present to the public when he can't be paranoid at them. As it is, Dekon is a carbon copy of the Great Deku Tree with a dark side, Obsid is a dragon-in-Mind's clothing whose children are hatching, and he's going insane trying to keep it a secret, Aqua is a giddy socialite in the form of a city, and Saala has an ivory tower complex, literally and figuratively.