The Elder Scrolls is a treasure trove of lore and mystery, with multiple races with differing pantheons they worship. From the Eight (or Nine, depending on what you believe) Divines to the Daedric Princes, the deities of Nirn are plenty.

However, there is one deity that is largely forgotten or disregarded by most cultures, most likely due to his association with death and one of the most notorious assassin orders in Tamriel. Sithis, a force that predates the Daedric Princes themselves, is an enigmatic figure among the gods of Nirn.

The Birth Of Sithis

The origin of Sithis, also known by the names Dread-Father, Psijii or Original Creator, could be pinpointed to the creation myth of Aurbis, or the entire universe. Before there was even Mundus or Aetherius, there were only the primordial gods Anu and Padomay.

Anu is perceived as the force that embodies the concept of everything, a force that is not receptive to change. On the other hand, Padomay is the personification of chaos, change and nothingness, and the complete opposite of Anu.

The two forces have been at a stalemate, unable to outdo the other due to them being equal. However, at some point, Anu birthed his own soul, known as Anui-El. Not to be outdone, Padomay did the same, and thus Sithis was born. Once again, Anui-El and Sithis are opposites to one another.

The births of Anui-El and Sithis eventually resulted in the creation of the universe, Aurbis. However, Aurbis was in a state of chaos itself and Anui-El believed it needed fixing. As a result, he did what Anu did before him, and birthed his own soul, which we know by the name of Auriel (or Akatosh).

And Auriel, being the god of time, introduced the concept to the universe, which culminated in the latter stabilising. It was alleged that it was because of Auriel that the et'Ada, or the Original Spirits, came into being.

According to lore, Sithis countered the birth of Auriel by birthing Lorkhan, known as the traitor god by the High Elves, or Shor by the Nords.

Lorkhan And The Fate Of The World

It is believed that since Sitihis is, like Padomay, an embodiment of chaos and change, then it is their ultimate goal to destroy the universe so that there will be nothing.

According to in-game lore, Sithis birthed Lorkhan for the sole purpose of destroying the world. However, Lorkhan seemed to have done the opposite, as based on the myths, Lorkhan approached the et'Ada with the idea of creating the mortal plane, Mundus.

Lorkhan deceived several of the et'Ada into doing so, without telling them that they would have to sacrifice a significant portion of their power in the process. When they discovered the deception, they allegedly built the Adamantine Tower to discuss Lorkhan's punishment. In the end, Lorkhan's heart is tossed into Mundus and is ensconced in the Red Mountain of Vvardenfell.

Worship Of Sithis

The Dark Brotherhood

The most prominent worshippers of Sithis are the Dark Brotherhood, a shadowy organisation of skilled assassins that had much declined by the time the Last Dragonborn encountered them.

According to legend, the Dark Brotherhood was formed by the Night Mother, a Dunmer woman who was said to have been approached by Sithis and had five children with him. Sithis then commands her to kill her five children, to have them join him in the Void. She did so, and despite being killed by her neighbours as punishment, she earned the title of Sithis' bride and became the leader of the Dark Brotherhood.

Based on Dark Brotherhood beliefs, the members of the Dark Brotherhood are deemed the children of Sithis and the Night Mother. Although most depictions of Sithis are either skulls or skeletal beings, Sithis has no form or gender, simply a boundless force of nothingness.

The Crimson Scars

The Crimson Scars were an off-shoot of the Dark Brotherhood, one composed entirely of vampires. Started by Greywyn Blenwyth in the Third Era, Blenwyth began the Crimson Scars after he started receiving a series of visions from Sithis. He initially thought that Sithis was telling him to usurp the Dark Brotherhood for the vampires only.

Although they planned to stage a coup, they were betrayed and the Brotherhood killed most of them while they slept. Blenwyth retreated to his hideout and continued killing members of the Brotherhood until he received another vision from Sithis that he interpreted to show disapproval of Blenwyth's actions.

As a result, Blenwyth and his fellow Scars begin to seek a cure for vampirism and the Crimson Scars disbanded.

The Argonian Religion

<ost cultures avoid the worship of Sithis due to the deity's connection to death and chaos. However, we do know that the Argonians acknowledge Sithis as a god and worship him.

Despite the Argonian religion centring on The Hist - a sentient tree found in the Argonians' native Black Marsh - they dub Sithis as an Original Creator who had a prominent role in the creation of the world.

Interestingly, the Argonians have a connection with the Dark Brotherhood, another faction that worships Sithis. Argonian children born under the sign of the Shadow are given to the Dark Brotherhood to be raised to be Shadowscales.

According to Dark Brotherhood member Veezara, the Shadowscales no longer exist by the time of Skyrim, suggesting that the practice had long died out in tandem with the Dark Brotherhood's decline.