Masser

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Masser ("Jade" in the Ehlnofex), along with Secunda is one of the moons of the fictional planet Nirn, and is the attendant spirit of the mortal plane. It is like the mortal plane in that it is temporal and subject to the bounds of mortality; in fact the moon is dead and died long ago. The moon used to be pure white and featureless, but today its "skin" is decaying and withering away. Its plane is likewise dying. Mortals perceive this as the moon being spherical with patches of its "surface" completely eaten away; as the moon spins it seems to become a ragged crescent or sliver. This is not caused by shadow, as you can see the stars through the black patches of the lunar sphere.

From the Morrowind ingame book, The Lunar Lorkhan

In short, the Moons were and are the two halves of Lorkhan's 'flesh-divinity'. Like the rest of the Gods, Lorkhan was a plane(t) that participated in the Great Construction... except where the Eight lent portions of their heavenly bodies to create the mortal plane(t), Lorkhan's was cracked asunder and his divine spark fell to Nirn as a shooting star "to impregnate it with the measure of its existence and a reasonable amount of selfishness."

Masser and Secunda therefore are the personifications of the dichotomy-- the "Cloven Duality," according to Artaeum-- that Lorkhan legends often rail against: ideas of the anima/animus, good/evil, being/nothingness, the poetry of the body, throat, and moan/silence-as-the-abortive, and so on -- set in the night sky as Lorkhan's constant reminder to his mortal issue of their duty.

Image:masser_secunda.jpg

Masser and Secunda on a cloudy night.


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The Elder Scrolls lore
ArtifactsBattle of Red MountainCorprusDaedric ArtifactsLorkhanMajor regionsNirn
Pantheons of TamrielSeptim bloodlineTamrielThe Third EraWar of the First Council