The Many Paths are what binds the many branching alternate realities across the Aurbis, which Ithelia has access to, allowing her to see the different realities and alter Fate itself (though she cannot control the Many Paths).
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Vestige: Can I ask you about the Many Paths?
Ithelia: How strange. A mortal who walks the Many Paths without understanding them. Between that, keeping company with my reflection, and bearing the Lamp of Clarity, you intrigue me.
Very well. Ask your questions.
Vestige: Can you describe the Many Paths?
Ithelia: Not in any way your mortal mind would understand. I do not wish to drive you mad.
An analogy, perhaps. Picture a diamond that somehow formed around a spiderweb. Interweaving lines within a grander, fixed shape. That is the Many Paths.
Vestige: Fine, but how do they work?
Ithelia: Possibilities scatter across the Aurbis, each defined by distinct choices with unique outcomes that lead to new realities.
The Many Paths are the web that binds them. Some can traverse these connections, as you have done here.
Vestige: And you control the Many Paths?
Ithelia: Control? No. But I have the power to see them, to follow their threads and alter their fates. It is one of the things that Hermaeus Mora respects about me. And the one thing he fears the most.
The Many Paths also include possibilities not yet realized, and realities close & distant.
Vestige: Anything else I should know about the Many Paths?
Ithelia: I wish to know more myself, but the storm fills my mind. The knowledge of the Many Paths comes to me in bursts, as intuitions. They are possibilities not yet realized. Realities close and distant.
If I calm my mind, maybe I'll understand.
The Many Paths lead not only to realities where a different possible outcome happened, but some lead elsewhere entirely (possibly outside the Aurbis itself, as we will get to).
Vestige: You mentioned the Many Paths. What are those?
Ithelia: Possibilities, probabilities, places where fate takes a different course. Some lead to here, others to there. And a few, they lead to … elsewhere.
But this place. It has something I need.
The Many Paths are said to be created by Akha/Aka, the oversoul of the Dragon God of Time (of whom Akatosh, Auri-El, Alkosh, Alduin & Tosh Raka are merely aspects). Alkosh (the Khajiiti aspect of the Time Dragon, and thus possibly representing the other aspects) safeguard the Many Paths 'from the wayward children of Akha' (along with Khenarthi/Kynareth/Kyne, the Sky Goddess).
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Akha. The First Cat, whom we know as the Pathfinder and the One Unmourned. In the earliest days, when Ahnurr and Fadomai were still in love, he explored the heavens and his trails became the Many Paths. He was Ahnurr's Favored Son, and his father told him to find love like Ahnurr found with Fadomai. Akha mated with the Winged Serpent of the East, the Dune Queen of the West, and the Mother Mammoth of the North. He then went to the South and never returned. Instead, Alkosh appeared speaking warnings of the things Akha had made along the Many Paths. Since then, Alkosh and his faithful watch over the many children of Akha, for they are both terrible and kind.
Alkosh. The Dragon King. The Highmane. He was granted rule over the myriad kingdoms of Akha along the Many Paths. In time, the children of Akha overthrew him and scattered his body on the West Wind. It is said that when Khenarthi learned this, she flew across the Many Paths and put Alkosh back together. In doing so, she saw all the things Akha had wrought, including those that should not be. Now, Alkosh and Khenarthi safeguard the Many Paths from the wayward children of Akha. Pray to Alkosh not for his strength or his mighty roar, but for his sense of duty and purpose.
Alkhan (Khajiiti Alduin) was said to be exiled to the Many Paths, though he may eventually return.
Alkhan. The Scaled Prince. Firstborn of Akha, who bred with a demon of fire and shadow. He can devour the souls of those he kills to grow to an immense size. The songs tell us Alkhan was slain by Lorkhaj and his companions, but as an immortal Son of Akha he will return from the Many Paths in time. He is the enemy of Alkosh, Khenarthi, and Lorkhaj, and ever hungers for his crown.
Boethra (Khajiiti Boethiah) walked the Many Paths in exile and returned. Mafala (Mephala) watches over eight of the Many Paths.
Boethra. The Warrior of the East and West. She is the mate of Mafala, who did not forget her love for Boethra after Ahnurr sent her into exile for her rebellious nature. Boethra walked the Many Paths in exile, and she returned. It was she who pried the eye from Magrus, and this is why Khajiit value swords as well as claws. There is no need for a True Cat to pray to Boethra, as you honor this spirit merely by walking the Path, and only hiding in order to pounce. It is forbidden to say her name on nights of the Ghost Moon, as during these phases Boethra dons the death-shroud of Lorkhaj and wages war beyond the Lattice.
Mafala. The Teaching Mother. Elder Spirit and the Keeper of the Ancient Secrets of Fadomai. These were the secrets her children only needed in the beginning, and it was Mafala that carried them down. She watches over Eight of the Many Paths, each of which a Khajiit must walk in time. Mafala aids the Clan Mothers in guiding the Khajiiti people along the Path and protecting our secrets from Others. She is an ally of Azurah, Boethra, and Lorkhaj. Her numbers are Eight and Sixteen, and these are two of her keys.
On this note, Mephala's Spiral Skein consists of eight regions with its own space.
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Mephala! Webspinner! Teacher of the Secret Arts! Queen of the Eight Shadows of Murder! Though others may reign over us, deep in the night we still hear your whisper!
And we do not forget.
In Oblivion you keep your secrets, and the secrets of all those entangled in your webs of subterfuge and semblance. The Spiral Skein is your realm, and like Nirn, in its center is a Tower: the Pillar Palace of Mephala, whose true name is too awful to be uttered.
Spun 'round this pillar, like spokes, are the Eight Strands of the Skein. To each its own space, and to each space its sin.
First is a cavern of plinths and pedestals. Each is a lie, for they pretend to hold up the sky—and the sky is the greatest lie of all.
Second are the chambers of envy, for compared to the cavern above they are cramped and confined, and therefore they hate the cavern.
Third are grottoes alluring and seductive, for their walls and ceilings glow like a million stars that sing a song of love. But the glowing lights are maggots, and the song they sing is decay.
Fourth are the tunnels of fear, for they are eternally dark, and where there is darkness, there is dread.
Fifth are the halls where fair is foul and foul is fair, and every belief is a betrayal.
Sixth is the arena of murder, for ever shall betrayal be followed by murder.
Seventh are the arcades of avarice and appetite, for contained therein are all things mortals would kill or die for.
Eighth is the flaming skein of fury, for as death comes to all mortals, therefore all treasures are lies.
This is the Spiral Skein. The tower is One. The strands are Eight. The lessons are Forever.
Ithelia accidently drags in echos from other realities.
Ithelia: We did, didn't we? Then you know my name is … Ithelia. I am what mortals call a … Daedric Prince. These echoes. I summoned them. By accident. I am losing control.
The inn … it drew me here. Called to me. I need something it can provide.
Vestige: These echoes. Can you tell me about them?
Ithelia: Echoes from other realities. My power drew them here, trapped them between this path and their own. They are confused, suffering.
Until I gain control of myself, I cannot set them free.
Vestige: What about the echoes and other strange things around the inn?
Ithelia: I shall set things right. The echoes I dragged from disparate paths are free to return to their own realms. And allow me to untangle the threads of fate and restore balance to this reality.
I thank you, pathwalker. And I am jealous of you.
The Many Paths cannot be comprehended, as the mortal mind is intentionally limited; this is because mortals are servants designed to maintain reality by performing tasks, and thus keep the Aurbis stable.
Vestige: What's strange about a mortal entering the Many Paths?
Ithelia: The mortal mind is limited. Intentionally so. Comprehending the Many Paths should overwhelm you, and actually traversing them should be impossible. I can barely do that.
You are unique among your kind. Thus the title I give you—pathwalker.
Vestige: What do you mean intentionally so?
Ithelia: Mortals are servants performing tasks to maintain reality. Every field plowed, child born, or war fought keeps the Aurbis stable by design.
This fact is kept from them. The slave should not understand the master's plan, lest they seek to undo them.
This might be connected to how all actions are either Padomaic\Darkness or Anuic\Light, going back to some very old lore in Daggerfall.
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"No, magic power comes directly from the energies swirling about both entities. These energies are impersonal and all mixed up. Black magic is more a matter of intent than effect. The Mages' Guild holds that a fireball, say, directed against a creature intent on causing harm, is not black magic; but the same spell directed at one seeking peace is. In this, they are right. Destruction of a fire daedra strengthens the Light and weakens the Dark just a little. In the same manner, destruction of a unicorn strengthens the Dark."
There are even alternate versions of Ithelia in the Many Paths (I'm not sure if this applies to all Princes or just Ithelia), all of whom originated from an original seed; the different Ithelia's are the same, but distorted like an image in a cracked mirror.
Vestige: Why did you call the Ithelia from my path a reflection?
Ithelia: Each reality bound by the Many Paths contains a version of an entity, mortal or Daedra. They each differ in some way, but each springs from the same seed.
I am no different. She and I are the same, but distorted, like an image in a cracked mirror.
Curiously, the countless domains of the Princes have also been said to form from 'an initial seed' ages ago.
For many Daedric beings, creating a realm is an enormous undertaking, and while there are thousands and thousands of planes and pocket realms, most are quite small. This isn’t the case with the Daedric Realms of the mighty Princes. The enormous amount of power wielded by these beings in dim mists of the past formed vast and nearly limitless domains around an initial seed.
The Daedra have also been noted as having many aspects which may overpower another, which may or may not refer to different reflections of a Prince in different paths.
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The Clockwork God pursed his lips, then spoke. "Beware the leap to certainty. The Named
Daedra have many aspects. Many faces. Do not let one aspect overpower another, for they are agents of chaos. To let their nature calcify will lead to complacency and ruin. This era of strife cannot end until you scatter the lie of their simplicity."
The Lamp of Clarity is a Daedric artifact created by Azura to help Mora defeat Ithelia, who's purpose it to locate Ithelia on a Path, and reveal doorways to the Many Paths; this artifact may even posses a will of its own (similar to the Sword of Umbra).
Vestige: Help me understand the Lamp of Clarity's purpose.
Ithelia: Once Hermaeus Mora chose my fate, he recruited other Daedric Princes to aid in my capture. Azura answered his call by creating the Lamp of Clarity.
Its light exposes my location on a path. Or, as you have seen, reveals doorways to the Many Paths.
Vestige: Why would it aid me now?
Ithelia: I am as curious as you. Perhaps it does not aid you, but only appears to. Azura's essence may have a purpose of its own and you are only along to see that purpose fulfilled.
I hope you find your answer as you continue your journey.
The Many Paths connect all Ithelia's across all realities, and when an Ithelia looses connection to the Many Paths, she must drink the Sage's Dream, which takes the form of a drink (though is an illusion), made from ingredients grown in the shadows if different Ithelias, allowing an Ithelia to take in the power of her reflections.
Vestige: Can you explain more about the Sage's Dream?
Ithelia: The Many Paths connects all Ithelias across all realities. This bond can weaken over time, causing distress to an Ithelia. We developed a means to reintegrate called Sage's Dream.
It manifests as a drink to consume, but this is only an illusion.
Vestige: What do you mean?
Ithelia: The ingredients grow in an Ithelia's shadow. They form from our essence. We each produce only one ingredient.
Mixing these ingredients melds the essences from many Ithelias. When imbibed, we take in the power of our reflections.
In all Fates/Paths, Hermaeus Mora defeats and traps Ithelia.
Vestige: What's going on here, Ithelia?
Ithelia: This is my end, pathwalker. Hermaeus Mora has decreed me a threat to reality and comes to imprison me. I am tired of fighting. It is the same on every path I have examined. If this is my fate, so be it.
Take my tirum weed and go with my blessing.
Hermaeus Mora: Why continue this futile struggle, Ithelia? Every fate before me says you cannot win.
Ithelia: But you do not see everything, Mora. In the Many Paths, all things are possible. I will write my own fate!
Torvesard curiously refers to Hermaeus Mora (rather than Ithelia or even Nocturnal) as the Ur-Daedra).
Torvesard: Why do you trouble my Prince, Ur-Daedra?
Hermaeus Mora: The Many Paths splinter. You manipulate fate in ways that were not meant to be!
A reflection of Ithelia destroys an alternate reality.
Ithelia: Mora dares? Damn his eyes, every one of them!
He wanted a monster? Behold the Last Tomorrow! Behold the Destroyer of Reality!
Ithelia: We must leave this path before my reflection destroys it.
Ithelia: This Ithelia chose uncontrolled rage. It will consume every piece of this reality.
The Loom of the Untraveled Road can be used to alter history.
Ithelia: My Loom of the Untraveled Road fills this place. From its core, I can break the shackles of fate. Undo mistakes. Unlock possibilities. Create new histories.
Leramil the Wise: Ithelia can use the Loom to change history? That is how she will restore what was lost!
Shardmarshall Vargas: It's magnificent! But won't some Princes see it as a threat?
Ithelia: A threat? This is a gift. The gift of unconstrained choice.
Ithelia: The Loom will weave a new story for every being, what they choose to be true. All shall benefit!
Torvesard: A wonderful gift indeed, my Prince!
Leramil the Wise: Ithelia and Vargas have reached the loom's core. We must reach them before they destroy the reality we know.
Ithelia seeks a reality with the Loom which she can weave into her own reality, where she and the other Princes were never in conflict (thus, the Loom can be said to be a form of probability manipulation).
Ithelia: Now I can undo my long imprisonment. Make it so I was never forgotten.
Ithelia: I can find a path in which the Princes and I were never in conflict. And with the Loom I shall weave it into this reality!
Torvesard: The Loom awaits my Prince. Reshape the fates and restore the glory of Mirrormoor!
Shardmarshal Vargas: Mirrormoor stands ready, my Prince. Weave a better reality with your Loom!
Leramil the Wise: Ithelia has not yet activated the Loom. We can still intervene!
Abolisher is a powerful Daedric artifact created by Boethiah, which cuts a path through the Many Paths to wherever Ithelia may be. The Skein of Secrets, created by Mephala, reveals where Ithelia and her Unseen can be found.
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Vestige: These the same relics Torvesard hoped would help him find Ithelia, aren't they?
Leramil the Wise: Exactly. Abolisher, forged by Boethiah to cut a path to Ithelia wherever she walks. The Lamp of Clarity, created by Azura to illuminate the Many Paths. And the Skein of Secrets, woven by Mephala to show where Ithelia and the Unseen could be found.
Fargrave was once a part of Ithelia's realm.
Leramil the Wise: To think, Fargrave was once a part of Ithelia's realm.
Ithelia attacks Hermaeus Mora, and makes the realm of Apocrypha her own. It's also noted that all Oblivion realms are infinite (Which at minimum, would mean all major planes like Apocrypha, the Shivering Isles, Mirrormoor, the Deadlands, Evergloam, the Spiral Skein and so on), and the Skein of Secrets can be used to find Ithelia even across these infinite distances.
Leramil the Wise: Ithelia has become the threat that Hermaeus Mora foresaw, racing to Apocrypha to take the realm as her own. And with each passing moment, reality breaks down a little more.
Time grows ever shorter, proxy.
Vestige: Are we finally ready to face Ithelia?
Leramil the Wise: You restored the original relics used to capture and imprison Ithelia. And we created the Mirror of Truth to try to show her the monster she has become. All we need to do now is travel to Apocrypha and locate her.
Vestige: Are we finally ready to face Ithelia?
Leramil the Wise: Apocrypha, like all Oblivion realms, is infinite. But we have the Skein of Secrets. I shall open a portal. Use the Skein once we cross into the realm and see if it can pinpoint Ithelia's location.
Vestige: All right. I'll go with you to Apocrypha and use the Skein of Secrets.
Wielding the power of the Staff of the Many Paths, Torvesard siphons the power of both Hermaeus Mora and Ithelia, and summons alternate versions of himself. Wielding the Daedric artifacts originally created by the Good Daedra, Azura's Lamp of Clarity, Boethiah's Abolisher & Mephala's Skein of Secrets), as well as aid from Mora's allies & servants (Who both work to return Mora's power to him and aid you in your fight), you defeat Torvesard and the power of the two Princes are restored to them. As all this happens, Apocrypha is remade to look like Mirrormoor.
Ithelia banishes Torvesard to the Void (here though she says that Daedra never change, when Daedra are the very spirits of change).
Ithelia: I created my scions to save me from a fate I finally accepted, though I had forgotten until you reminded me.
Torvesard: No, my Prince! I am Dremora! I am eternal! I will reform and complete the task you set before me.
Ithelia: Such is the nature of Daedra. Never changing. Never growing. I return your power to you, Mora! And I disperse mine into the Void!
And Torvesard, my most faithful. I consign your essence to nothingness, never to return. Be at peace at last.
Poor Torvesard. Blinded by a compulsion I never should have bestowed.
Ithelia's powers, however, will return from the Void, and in that time Ithelia needs to be dealt with. The Many Paths lead everywhere, and as thus, they may even lead to a possible world where there is no magicka or Daedra, where her power can gain no foothold (this must be done while Ithelia is depowered).
Ithelia: My very nature makes returning me to prison a temporary reprieve at best. My power will always find a way back to me. And with it, the threat of the madness that overcomes me and can unravel reality.
Mortal, talk with me more about change.
Vestige: Mortals change all the time. And we saw different versions of you on the Many Paths.
Ithelia: Yes, my reflections. When we walked the Many Paths at the Outcast Inn, we visited realities where things had gone another way. I am different in those realities, but that is not choice. That is consequence. The aftermath of alternate events.
Vestige: Do the Many Paths only lead to alternate realities?
Ithelia: The Many Paths lead everywhere. Other places, other possibilities, parallel realities. You can go anywhere, if you can just find the path.
Vestige: If the threat to reality comes from your power, what about someplace where there is no power?
Ithelia: No power? A path where Daedra and magicka do not exist? Hmm. It would need to be a place where my Daedric power held no sway and could gain no foothold.
I feel the tendrils of my discarded power searching, reaching toward me. We must hurry, mortal.
Vestige: Is such a path possible? What would we need to do to make that happen?
Ithelia: Indeed. Hermaeus Mora can find an acceptable path and I can show him how to open the way. And then we would need you to use Abolisher. To destroy the path so that I could never return to this reality.
Ask Mora if this will suffice.
Even then, one final step must be made to prevent Ithelia from returning to her original reality, that being that Abolisher must be used to destroy the path connecting the two realities, stopping her from ever returning. Mora first needs to guarantee that this reality indeed exists before sending Ithelia there.
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Hermaeus Mora: Speak, fate's chosen. You were deep in conversation with the Prince of Paths. What do your mortal eyes see that elude my Daedric senses?
Vestige: Since prison is a temporary solution at best, why don't you send Ithelia down a different path?
Hermaeus Mora: A path that is better than the solution I devised so long ago? Inconceivable! Do not overstep your bounds, mortal.
Vestige: Isn't that why you chose a mortal to help you? Because we see things differently from you?
Hermaeus Mora: Do not use my own words against me! Still, you are correct in that regard. Very well, chosen of fate. What do you suggest we do with Ithelia to preserve our reality?
Vestige: Ithelia can find a distant reality without magicka. Where she would have no power and pose no harm.
Hermaeus Mora: Leave this reality for a realm where she would have no access to her Daedric power? I had not considered that.
I would need to confirm that the reality guarantees our safety, but how will we make certain that she would indeed be exiled forever?
Vestige: You find the path, Ithelia shows you how to open the way, then I destroy the path with Abolisher.
This reality without magicka or daedra may even be our world, which is something the 37th Lesson of Vivec implied long ago (which references both 'world without wheel' and C0DA).
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"Go here: world without wheel, charting zero deaths, and echoes singing," Seht said, until all of it was done, and in the center was anything whatever.
The Legends cinematic for Houses of Morrowind also features either an alternate modern day version of Morrowind or our own world.
Hermaeus Mora sees infinite possibilities, but not necessarily the final path that will come to be.
Vestige: Before I go, I have questions.
Hermaeus Mora: Despite our vast differences, we do share one trait—curiosity. Very well, ask your questions. And pray that my answers do not shatter your mortal mind.
Vestige: Are you confident that the threat of Ithelia is really over this time?
Hermaeus Mora: A hint of insolence lurks in that query. You convinced two Daedric Princes to change course. Do you doubt your own convictions?
No matter. Ithelia has gone to a reality where she has no power, and you destroyed the only path between here and there.
Vestige: You're all-knowing. Why did this outcome surprise you?
Hermaeus Mora: I am Ur-Daedra, the One Who Knows. I see infinite possibilities arrayed before me but not necessarily the final path.
In you I saw potential, but I could not determine how that potential would be realized. That is your power, mortal. Use it wisely.
Vestige: What will happen to Ithelia's minions now?
Hermaeus Mora: Mirrormoor and its denizens shall be known from this point forth, but who they were and who they served will remain a mystery. Now they are masterless, their plane a shattered ruin.
Any that remain in your world will be dealt with or depart in time.
Vestige: What about my allies. They helped stop Ithelia. Can't they remember what happened, too?
Hermaeus Mora: No. Even if you try to remind them, they will not remember Ithelia. They cannot remember.
You have proven yourself capable and worthy of my confidence. You, and you alone, shall remember.
Hermaeus More once again casts the spell of forgetting, and only Mora and Vestige remember the secret that is Ithelia, the forgotten Prince.
Hermaeus Mora: Let my word go forth. Purge Ithelia from every mind in our shared reality, now and for eternity.
No glyphics, no repressed memories. Just you and I as the last witnesses to the existence of the Prince of Paths. We were bound by this threat to reality. Now we share this final secret. Farewell, mortal.
