I am quite confused. If anyone could help, it would be a relief.

Maybe because he thought you could not get to him in Sovangarde but in fact that's where you kill him.

I believe there is something in the Lore regarding Akatosh having "shed" different bits or aspects of himself off into separate entities, some or all of which became Alduin and the other dragons that inhabit the Mundus; this is why they are the children of Akatosh, they are his "offspring" in the sense that they originated with him and are lesser/limited aspects of his limitless being. Alduin was the "firstborn" and most powerful, that's why he was at the top of the dragon hierarchy.

Being dragonborn, having the soul of a dragon, being "of the dragon's blood" - these are blessings bestowed on a selected mortal by Akatosh and could also be seen as the great Dragon God shedding off a bit of himself which then becomes (part of) another separate entity.

IIRC, according to some sources Alduin has self-identifed with his father, forgetting or denying that he is but an aspect and offspring and wishing to take for himself the role of the Divine Akatosh with regard to Nirn and its inhabitants. I think there are indications as well that the Alduin of the Nordic pantheon is sometimes seen as "their version" of Akatosh proper, the way that Mercury was the Romans' "version" of the Greek god Hermes. There seem to be dissenting opinions on this, but perhaps during the time of his rule he did convince the ancient Nords that he was Akatosh and that's why the notion persisted. But Alduin is not every aspect of the Dragon God of Time, he's simply the one aspect responsible for bringing time to an end (destroying the current world and thus ending the kalpa) so that it can reboot itself. His "crime" in the game is not that he's there to destroy the world, it's that he chose to rule it instead of destroy it and if he destroys it at all it will be in revenge for his overthrow and not because he's fulfilling his proper role at the proper time.

I can't remember where or when Alduin says this in the game? But maybe in his identification of himself with his "father" Akatosh, he sees other aspects of "dragonness" - including the Dragonborn - as bits that were shed off of himself, not off of some other separate and greater being of which he is also just one limited aspect.

When does he say it in the game?

Anyway, it's a quote from "The Seven Fights of The Aldudagga". Fight Four, http://www.imperial-library.info/content/fight-four-tenpenny-winteragain%E2%80%9D

And the third, who looked akin to a Karstaag-man, [gigantic], and adorned in storm cloud and endless, endless yellowtooth… [he] was Alduin the World-Eater, and he only said, "Ho ha ho."
“You will eat nothing here, aspect Ald,” said the Aka-Tusk, sensing trouble. “Do not forget that it was Heaven itself that shed you from me.”

Akatosh says it to Alduin. And Lyn explained the aspect thing very well.

Thanks, and that's where I remember it from as well, Akatosh saying it to Alduin. If Alduin does indeed say it in the game I would love to know when and to whom.

Never mind. Too much complaining.

(Sorry about double posting)


Eh, not really. Akatosh is by definition limited due to being an Aedra. He is mortal (in that he can die/is already dead). They are the children of Akatosh because et'ada did not exist before Akatosh formed. This is when dragons formed, too, and the dremora note that dragons have always been there and simply "are." They are not born, but like every other et'ada simply spawned into existence.

Why does Dragonrend cause them to utterly lose their [censored]? Because they are infinite, immortal, and everlasting. Akatosh is none of those things.

Alduin was probably torn from Akatosh before the creation of Mundus... but he came "before all others" according to Paarthurnax. The concept of ending time and the concept of time were separated. But like all et'ada, this caused Alduin to be regulated to a "lesser being" at least until Akatosh got himself killed during creation.

This is all speculation, of course.

The problem with that theory is that Akatosh (as we know him) wasn't created until Alessia's rebellion in the first era, when she created the Imperial pantheon as a compromise between the Elves' and Nords' pantheons, whom already held Alduin as a god. How could Alduin convince Nords he was the god Akatosh, when Akatosh wasn't known to people yet?

My theory is that Alduin very much is a god/The World Eater. Notice that even among dragons, he's special. Dragons can be killed without Dragonrend, but Alduin can't even be injured without it. And even when you wear him down, he doesn't die, he just goes off to eat souls and get strength back. It's only when you wear him down in Sovngarde that something strips off his divine shell and takes his soul.

Alduin is the end and beginning of time. He was there at the beginning, and even at the end of the MQ, Angier and Paarthurnax say he'll most likely be back when it's his time to be. But early on in the Dawn and Merithic era, before time fully stablized, he 'lost his way' and tried to take more power for himself, aspiring to also be the preserver and stabilizer, whom he wasn't. This is what got him kicked in the tail in the early First Era by Akatosh, who rightly belongs in that role.

I'm not really sure of the timing of that, though, when Alessia created Akatosh and how that coincides with the Dragon War. But it at least fits the timeline better than "Alduin is just a normal dragon who pretended to be the Time God Akatosh to the ancient Nords" since the only other Time God back then was Auri-el, an Elvish god whom the Nords would reject on principle of being Elvish.

so far as i know, the game only ever says it was created by a mortal mind, with concepts of death and finallity that dragons couldnt possibly understand due to their immortal souls. your basically shattering their entire existance with that shout.

Yes, exactly. They don't understand the concepts of things like death and limitation. But Akatosh is an Aedra, he is dead and limited by definition. I was just saying that not all dragons were "shed" from Akatosh. Instead, they were et'ada who were "born" the same way the Dremora were born.