The elder Scrolls: what is Vivec's Sermons ?

[DREW]

As I've come to understand, MK's writing style is meant to be highly lucid/subjective/vague/whatever. Any of my attempts to study TES lore is just a machete-hacking battle through confusion script to try and form some kind of general idea of what the mythology's trying to portray. Are any of the sermons meant to be taken literally, as a stylized version of what happened, or are they completely fictitious and religious parables designed to teach a moral lesson? Or are they simply just a medium to give that secret message that the Tribunal are guilty of murdering the Hortator?

[Isabella]

Well, as I see it, MK's in-character metaphysical belles letters exist to give us insight into character especially the madmen-on-the-cusp-of-godhood guys who factor into a lot of TES plots. The sermons do not relate the truth, but Vivec's personal truth, thus revealing his character. Really, if in-game texts were food, MK's stuff would be tuna-fish tacos, delicious and nutritious, which is to say that they provide interesting flavor while supporting the narrative.

[Anthony12]

The Sermons contain a great many things. I'm sure all of the items mentioned in previous posts are represented in it in some form. With regard to style and lexicon it is certainly the most baroque of MK's works, but that doesn't mean it's all smoke and mirrors. All of it carries meaning i.e. it is not just meant to sound impressive, with perhaps some details being personal additions of the author.

[Bricklayer]

If you want an answer to the question "how should I read all this", you'll get a complex answer. It's not a historical narrative. It's also not complete fabrication. Some things are as they happened, some things are as Vivec would have liked them to happen, some things are as Vivec made them happen, some things didn't happen. What's important to remember, though, is that it's all meaningful. If Vivec gives a certain version of history, if he fabricates something, if he twists history, it's because it is meant to show something. Basically, whatever the text says is the result of Vivec exercising his prerogative as a writer.

[Defender14]

That's not what I mean. The actual text itself, not including the hidden message, indicates that Vivec got his power from the Heart. It also indicates the Tribunal murdered the Tribunal. Granted, it doesn't say any of that explicitly, but it's all there. In the first 7 or so Sermons, Vivec is an egg, and for most of those the egg is inside a Dwemer Simulacrum. So what was connected with a Dwemer Simulacrum? And while in egg-form, Vivec even says he "crushed a world in his left hand," and meets a spirit which will "bring about the end of the world.

[Messenger]

I will leave it to others to find where I have written all this before. But when Vehk the mortal reached into the Heart, he ceased to be anything except for what he wished to be. The axis erupted. There was an exact cracking, an instant of pure Aurbis, his hands burnt black by that ever-nil of static change, and Vivec the god who had never been had always been. A whole universe swelled up to legitimize his throne... as the old universe, where Vehk the mortal still lapped up God’s blood, warped itself to accept its new equivalent. And like all things magical it simply could not happen, could not be Red Mountain was the intersection of the Is-Is Not as it was of old, its center point, and it did not hold. And so the Dragon, having broken, saw fit to heal, turning into the world you know.

[Gajendra1]

I will stick to the more plausible theory that the Heart granted Vivec the power of a god, and he and the other two of the Tribunal deceived the people into thinking that that they achieved their godhood through their deeds, but predictably, the truth of what really happened got out, despite the Temple's attempts to silence it. On that note, Almalexia gave the people the impression that she was the literal offspring of Boethiah. That'd fly with the Dunmer, who not only have great respect for her word but also believe that the Daedra are their ancestors, but it doesn't stand up as well when examined.