» Fri Jul 13, 2012 12:32 pm When I tried to explore this idea further my one big essay turned into two extremely short stories and a list, which I hope are comprehensible if not particularly well-crafted. They are not on a par with in-game text or with some of the other really beautiful work I have seen here, and they are not meant to be. This is just how it turned out.
---
Part One: NIR as harmony and Nirn as melody
In the beginning was all-sound-existence, and immediately there was all-silence-nonexistence as well, for sound cannot be perceived without silence to be its absence. The all-silence kissed the all-sound and merged with it, and the joining of these things that had been unalike made a noise http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZrH00YfiXU which was the sound of many tones breaking from the all-sound, all at once and unphased. The tones became quanta and no longer continuum (although they were innumerable and infinite), and they were called names to distinguish them from one another.
The one that was first-distinguished was called LRK and the others by other names: AKA AZR BAL BTH DBL DGN HRM JNL KYT MLC MHR RKH SHG TDR TRM ZNT and so on and on and on. And there was one-but-not-yet that was not a tone but a harmony, called NIR, and it was not born of the PSJJJJ but was instead an accord of tones, a construct built by LRK out of the resonance-bones of its brethren. Many tones gave up individuality to become part of the harmony, but others were afraid and fled to the inexpressible nowheres outside of the audible and inaudible PSJJJJ. Others still were proud and stood apart, but some of those chose to make their own versions of NIR, single tones ever-repeating, world without cess.
When the composition was done LRK laughed in delight at what he had made and the laughter was his own self, but mirrored imperfectly so that when he and his laughter met they disappeared into a dissonant triad. The root of LRK retained the name LRK, but the next two parts took the names MSR and SKD. The rest of LRK was annihilated, and its echo throughout forever is called EBN. The silence that LRK introduced with his self-annihilation broke the tones of NIR into notes, changing harmony into melody.
NIR was thus formed of the resonance-bones of one thousand and eight named individuals, whose freedom and will were taken from them to form creation. The last eight formed the Octave from which all other octaves are defined, as well as the deepest foundation of NIR. However, no one is quite sure what their names are and what frequencies they sing. This is because the last and last was the tonic note AKA, and until AKA there was no time and no causality and no concept of first or last or middle in newborn NIR.
And out of the newly arranged sounds-and-silence there came little patterns, and these were quasiperiodic and finite, coming and going like ripples in a pool, and this was the birth of mortals.
---
Part Two: Thu'um and tonal architecture as perturbation
In the beginning, mortals felt the resonance of the Bones-of-the-Earth and at first they did not understand it, for they were born of it. They called the harmony of the world the "laws of nature" for they knew no better. But the immortal Dovah innately understood and dwelt in this power, and with their voices they spoke pure tones and later triad-chords that resonated with the earthbones in such a way as to selectively nullify or amplify them in a small space, changing the laws of nature.
There was a triad that nullified the repulsion between each atomos, so that a Dov could pass through the world without touching it. And this triad was called in Dovah tongue FEIM ZII GRON.
There was a triad that changed the strength of bonds between atomoi, so that nirnicules were shaken apart and their energy relegated to flame. And this triad was called YOL TOOR SHUL.
There was a triad that set atomoi in compressed patterns and then released them as a spring so that all before them was shaken apart or flung away. And this triad was called FUS RO DAH.
And there were other triads and more, some subtle and some less subtle. The men of the frozen North secretly learned the art of tone-manipulation, and they called it thu'um, or Voice, and used it to vanquish the Dovah, using the Dov-Breaking triad JOOR ZAH FRUL to disturb their eternal periodicity. The Dovah learned what it was to end, and the men of the North rejoiced.
But the Deep Mer felt the vibrations of the Voice shaking through the bed rock of Nirn, and left their light-worshipping brethen to come and hear better. They traveled to a high northern mountain range and burrowed beneath it, and listened for long ages, in the profound quiet where there was nothing to hear but the resonance of the Bones. And the Deep Mer learned, and made of their learning a science, and became the keenest and subtlest and most secretive of musicians.
---
Part Three: Assorted incomplete thoughts
1. Nirnroot sings -- this is why it is called nirnroot.
2. Marukh-coded-MKH and his followers harnessed the savage power of compression-rhythm-resonance to dance at a resonance frequency of AKA, causing AKA to dissolve irreparably into noise.
3. I think we have previously encountered the idea that thu'um directly affects the earthbones, but I can't find a source. In any case I really like it because it nicely explains why it has the same reality-altering effects as in-game magic, but doesn't seem to have the same rules.
4. I think I could tie C0DA into this but the Loveletter is confusing to me
---
I really want to expand on my Part Three assorted thoughts but they aren't coming together in my head very well. I have something even vaguer than Part Three about how Kagrenac-coded-KGK struck the root note of LRK and caused the Dwemer to fall out of phase with the rest of the world, but it doesn't fit in with Numidium and its ability to cause Dragon Breaks.
If anyone wants to add something to this that would be awesome. Alternatively, if you find something that breaks my crazy-ass theory into tiny pieces, that would be pretty awesome too.
