The Septim Mystery

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Who is Tiber Septim really?

• Is he a hero from the continent of Altmora?
• Is he a hero from high rock?
• Is he Talos? Is he Ysmir, the Dragon?

And what of the underking, that other mysterious figure?

• Is he Zurin Arctus ? Is he Wulfgarth as clain the Arcturian Heresy?

To understand who Tiber Septim and the Underking are, two mysterious concepts must be understood, and, together, hold the answer

Tiber Septim, The Oversoul

Tiber Setim is the name of a triumvirate

• Hjalti, a hero born in the High Rock island kingdom of Alcaire, also known as Talos after his service under King Cuhelcain
• Zurin Arctus, imperial Battlemage, receptacle of the soul of Magnus, the god of Sorcery who can lend his power to extremely strong mages, when he is a Solar aspect (Ahnu)
• Wulfhart, the King of Skyrim, hero from Altmora, known as the (original) Underking, as Ysmir the Dragon, he is also am aspect of of Lorkhan (Lunar), could be tied to the red tower (Dagoth Ur)

The Entianomorph

Magnus can't be associated with Wulfhart the Underking, because Wulfhart is as far from Magnus as any entity can ever be.

Wulfhart is an aspect of Lorkhan, the Lunar God we can see at night who tricked the et'Ada into creating Mundus, and Magnus is the Solar God who flew the Creation and did everything he could to help other Aedra to travel back to Aetherium.

Here we see Talos considered as an individual : until he met Zurin Arctus, Hjalti was allied to Wulfhart only and they got known as one person. But Hjalti has no part in the Enantiomorph, who is the association of two opposite entities.

If the Mantella is to be an "embodiment of the healing of the Man/Mer schism", it has to be both solar and lunar. As you seem to know, it was created from the souls of the two men who died (<>) - and thus much, much more significant that it would have been if only the Lunar world had been represented in it.

Only with their souls merged could the Enantiomorph be both Underking and Arctus, associated with Lorkhan and Magnus at the same time - and thus is he both named Zurin Arctus in some sources, and said to be a "rotting undead wizard who controls the skies", just like Wulfhart, in the Arcturian heresy. Enantiomorph = Wulf + Zurin = Mantella + (new) Underking.

Note that before they were killed, Arctus and Wulfhart, though ennemies (the Battlemage was the one who suggested to trap Wulfhart, just as Lorkhan deceived Magnus and the other Aedra a few eons before), were both involved in the triumvirate - at least until Wulf quit, leaving Hjalti without his thu'um, thus the whole attempted assassination thingie.

The "Oversoul" Tiber Septim from the Skeleton Man interview may mean that the three of their souls were recorded in the Amulet of King as one entity - thus the real almost-godlike nature of Tiber Septim, whose soul was made from two incarnations and one prophesied hero. Doesn't make Hjalti anything more than a simple mortal, though.

What happened when the Triumvirate broke?

Meanwhile, Tiber Septim crowns himself the First Emperor of Tamriel. He lives until he is 108, the richest man in history

Hjalti keeps the name Tiber Septim for himself, and goes on with his reign and the rest of his life like a mere mortal which he was, without the Numidium - while the composite Underking, depicted here as a "rotting undead wizard" (and probably the only "living" being able to do such a thing as to stop the Numidium controlled by his own soul) loses his dear Mantella.

The events of Daggerfall happen 400 years later, under the reign of Uriel Septim VII, when the Numidium and Mantella are found again, and the Underking finally manages to get his rotting hands on the latter.

After the Daggerfall events, the soul of the underking is freed, and the triumvirate could, in theory, reincarnate.

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