Cities in many early cultures were considered to be divine beings, or to be inhabited by, or represented by a divine being of some kind. When pre-Christian Romans sieged a city they would first surround the city and pray to its guardian god to come over to their side. This is why the name of the city of Rome's guardian deity was a carefully hidden secret.
Finally we're seeing Vivec in the form Ze took before merging with hir mother's Dwemer simulacrum. And apparently it's somewhat bird-like, with feathered serpents wrapped around hir arms. I suppose we could think of this as Vivec's "true" form, but in truth I think Vivec's truth is whatever form ze currently displays.
As far back as Arena (I believe), caves were suggested to be the blood vessels of the world, an idea we see mirrored here by Vivec's tunnel-vessels.
Well, this is largely what this sermon is about, to me, so buckle up: this is gonna be a long one.
This description of the "promise" of the PSJJJJ, Padomay's original form as perceived by the Psijic Order, is that it involves several steps that each seem to indicate a progression of existence.
My original thinking was that this promise was related to the Six Transformations as explored in the Bhagavad Gita:
- asti (coming into existence)
- jāyate (birth)
- vardhate (growth)
- viparinamate (reproduction)
- apakṣhīyate (withering with age)
- vinaśhyati (death)
And honestly, that's a really solid way to interpret them. But it's very hard to ignore that these six steps also align with the evolution of Vivec in the 36 Lessons. After all, ze began in Sermon 1 as an Image first, according to Almalexia, and then an Egg second, as described by Sotha Sil.
Vivec then evolves to a "Man" by absorbing the simulacrum of hir mother, and then ascends to Godhood after (arguably) reaching the Provisional House.
Also: a city contains Gods, as we discussed was the case with Rome and other ancient civilizations, therefore it is greater than a single God. A state contains cities, and is therefore greater than a single City. It doesn't have to be much more complicated than that. But I think we can reinterpret "State" in two additional ways.
Our first explanation is the "State" of CHIM. The Promise of the PSJJJJ may be related to the Psijic Endeavor (not the Psijic Order, that's different), which is often thought to be the attainment of the state of CHIM. Therefore this could be the last step of the Promise - "State," as in the state of CHIM.
Placing it last in the six steps implies that this "State" is something that is only obtained after becoming a God. Indeed, it also requires becoming a City. So can we infer that all references to what is clearly the CHIM state in previous Sermons is therefore impossible? Are we wrong about our interpretation of the Provisional House?
I think it makes more sense to consider this final "State" in the Promise of the PSJJJJ as a more perfect state of CHIM, one where the practitioner completely understands, and is comfortable with, the knowledge that they have achieved.
It's not hard to understand how this might be possible - we all operate and utilize things that we don't fully comprehend. The internet, for example, brings us nearly unlimited knowledge, but its use does not require one to be able to understand the entire TCP/IP stack, or how DNS servers work.
So perhaps we can consider the confusion Vivec experiences when ze is greeted by the poem at the end of Sermon 19 as a sign that, while Vivec has achieved CHIM, ze has not fully embraced the state, and perhaps as a result, cannot achieve the Amaranth state.
Which brings us to the second explanation, the "State" of Amaranth. While related to the previous explanation, it's possible that the state of dreaming, the Amaranth state, might be the last stage of the Psijic Endeavor. After all, Vivec describes the Endeavor as:
The Endeavor is a method of achieving the Tower and then what to do after.
Achieving "The Tower" has already been explained to us in Sermon 21, where we discover that The Tower is a metaphor for envisioning the Aurbic wheel on its side, the first step in attaining CHIM, the state in which we can understand the true nature of reality.
The "what to do after" might well be the Amaranth state, since we know that Amaranth cannot happen without a full comprehension of CHIM. How can one Become the Dreamer if one does not first fully Understand the Dreamer?
Therefore the "Promise" of the PSJJJJ might well be the promise of the Amaranth state, the promise made by Lorkhan when he observed the Wheel, learned the truth about the Aurbis, and conceived of the only possible escape. And if this is the case, then the association with the act of divine creation creates a clear line between the dream of Anu, PSJJJJ, and Lorkhan, which again suggests that Lorkhan's "wish" for mortals in Nirn went beyond just the state of CHIM, but may have also included Amaranth.
This sermon, and the idea of the Promise of the PSJJJJ, is a key point in understanding Lorkhan and his intent in the creation of Mundus. By introducing an environment where souls can improve themselves through trials and suffering, a kind of mastery can exist unlike anything that could be obtained by Gods. And by reaching the same understanding that Lorkhan glimpsed, while in possession of that mastery that can only be created through many lifetimes of incalculable effort, a new universe may be created from Love and not violence.
This is the Image of Veloth. The new Amaranth's escape from the Aurbis is the image of Veloth's escape from the Altmer and the Summerset Isles - in short, it's the desire for freedom.
Lesson Twenty-five
Synopsis | Narration
The Scripture of the City:
'All cities are born of solid light. Such is my city, his city.
'But then the light subsides, revealing the bright and terrible angel of Veloth. He is in his pre-chimerical form, demonic VEHK, gaunt and pale and beautiful, skin stretched painfully thin on bird's bones, feathered serpents encircling his arms. His wings are spread out behind him, their red and yellow ends like razors in the sun. The wispy mass of his fire hair floats as if underwater, milky in the nimbus of light that crowns his head. His presence is undeniable, the awe too much to bear.
'This is God's city, different from others. Cities from foreign countries put their denizens to sleep and walk to the star-wounded East to pay homage to me. The capital of the northern men, crusty with eon's ice, bows before Vivec the city, me it together.
'Self-thought streets rush through tunnel blood. I have rebuilt myself. Hyper eyed signposts along my traffic arm, soon to be an inner sea. My body is crawling with all gathered to see me rising up like a monolithic instrument of pleasure. My spine is the main road to the city that I am. Countless transactions are taking place in veins and catwalks and the roaming, roaming, roaming, as they roam over and through and add to me. There are temples erected along the hollow of my skull and I will ever wear them as a crown. Walk across the lips of God.
'They add new doors to me and I become effortlessly trans-immortal with the comings and goings and the stride-heat of the market where I am traded for, yell of the children hear them play, scoffed at, amused, desired, paid for in native coin, new minted with my face on one side and my city-body on the other. I stare with each new window. Soon I am a million-eyed insect dreaming.
'Red-sparking war trumpets sound like cattle in the ribcage of shuffling transit. The heretics are destroyed on the plaza knees. I flood over into the hills, houses rising like a rash, and I never scratch. Cities are the antidotes to hunting.
'I raise lanterns to light my hollows, lend wax to the thousands the candlesticks that bear my name again and again, the name innumerable, shutting in, mantra and priest, god-city, filling every corner with the naming name, wheeled, circling, running river language giggling with footfalls mating, selling, stealing, searching, and worry not ye who walk with me. This is the flowering scheme of the Aurbis. This is the promise of the PSJJJ: egg, image, man, god, city, state. I serve and am served. I am made of wire and string and mortar and I accede my own precedent, world without am.'
The ending of the words is ALMSIVI.
As referenced in at least Sermon 13, concerning the "Promise of the Wise," this is where we're going to talk a great deal about the promise of the PSJJJJ, and the connections between Lorkhan and the conceptualization of the end of the Kalpic cycle.
In Morrowind, Sermon 25 grants a bonus to the Armorer skill. It is worth 200 Septims and weighs 3 units. A copy can be found in Morvayn Manor in Ald'ruhn, the Forge of Hilbongard in the Forgotten Vaults of Anudnabia, and in Kunirai.
Sermon 29 names this Sermon "The Emperor." Its number is 239, which references the word "will."