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| “ | AHHH, THE REALM IS DEAD. SHEOGORATH, IS DEAD ! ALL … SHALL … CRUMBLE BEFORE … JYGGALAG! |
„ |
| ~ Sheogorath/Jyggalag |
Sheogorath, formerly known as Jyggalag, is a major character in The Elder Scrolls franchise.
Jyggalag was the Daedric Prince representing order, law, and deductive reasoning. Once he was the most powerful of his kind, holding knowledge on everything from the past, present, and future that would ever happen or had ever happened in the mortal plane of Mundus.
Biography[]
In days of old, Jyggalag and his Knights of Order ruled over an ever-expanding empire of “perfect” order across the realms of Oblivion. With Jyggalag progressively taking more and more of Oblivion for his perfect sterilized realm of order, the other Daedric Princes became fearful of him. Jyggalag was such a threat, that the other Princes did something never before, and never again done - they joined forces. The otherwise bitter rival Princes, some complete opposites to each-other, banded together against him. A Prince is normally beyond reproach even from other Princes, but with all the other Princes working together they were able to curse Jyggalag to live as the very opposite of what he stood for, and cursing him to become a mad-god, this new identity was that of Sheogorath, Daedric Prince of Madness. Yet still the Princes were not done with him.
Once an era, at the end of every era, Jyggalag would be restored to his original mental faculties to become sane again, at which point the Princes knew, by his very nature he would try to conquer the Shivering Isles in an event known as the "Greymarch", which was always successful. However, the curse was set so that once the Greymarch had passed, Jyggalag would once again go insane and become Sheogorath, who would rebuild his realm, only for the process to start again as the new era came to an end; Thus Jyggalag would be forever punished by his own compulsive need to bring order to chaos, and Sheograth would be forever tormented unable to maintain his beloved realm, Jyggalag, left just enough awareness beneath the surface to mourn the loss of his sanity.
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - The Shivering Isles[]
During the events of the game - Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion The Shivering Isles, Sheogorath invites the Hero of Kvatch into his realm to be his champion and stop the upcoming Greymarch. Sheogorath is coy at-first, only giving bits and pieces of what the Greymarch is and what the Hero of Kvatch is expected to do, but informs him another Daedric Prince - Jyggalag will be there soon to conquer it. Later still Sheogorath admits he disappears when Jyggalag arrives meaning he can not stop it, and must set traps for him - previous traps have not worked so he needs a representative to fight him head on.
Shortly before Sheograth disappears he admits that he will become Jyggalag, thus accounting for his absence and dependence on the Hero of Kvatch to do it, as the only mortal so far to pass all the prerequisites Shegorath has needed to arrange for the Hero to wield his power. Though Sheogorath transforms before he can pass the final symbol of his power - The Staff of Sheogorath onto the Hero, his Chamberlain Haskil knows someone who will know how to craft such an item and wield Sheogorath's power - they must seek out the Library of Order - Jyggalag's former nigh-omniscient collection of formulas and knowledge. The library was all but destroyed by Sheogorath except for the master record- the librarian Dyus - chamberlain to Jyggalag just as Haskill was to Sheogorath.
Dyus is certain that the Hero of Kvatch can not win, so sees no danger in following his primary purpose - imparting knowledge to those looking to understand something, Dyus tells the Hero of Kvatch the dangerous tasks he will need to do in order to forge his own Staff of Sheogorath - one being fighting a shadow clone of himself to get the wood from a magical tree, and one being slaying a mad oracle and taking her eye to adorn the staff as a focal point.
Upon completing the tasks, Dyus is for the first time in his existence shocked that someone had actually managed to defy Jyggalag's formula of fate, but chalks it up to a simple miscalculation on his part, regardless the Hero of Kvatch will have the staff and with it be able to wield power on par with Sheogorath. When the Greymarch reaches it's appex the Hero of Kvatch ultimately fights and defeats Jyggalag. Jyggalag’s spirit then appears and tells the Hero of his curse and how he and Sheogorath came to be, revealing to the Hero of Kvatch that Jyggalag is actually his true state, Jyggalag points out that by defeating him, he has broken the cycle of the Greymarch and he can now wander Oblivion once again.
As Jyggalag departs he bids the Hero of Kvatch farewell and declares him to be the new Sheogorath, for his must be a Daedric Prince of Madness, and with him no longer bound to the persona and the Hero of Kvatch now wielding his power, he will grow into the role and not merely wields a staff but has mantled the title of Sheogorath the Mad-God.
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim[]
In Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, the quest for Sheogorath sees the mad-god trying to cure the madness of the ghost of the deceased Emperor Pelagius Septim III. Curing a mad-man is something Sheogorath would otherwise never do, but he seeks the help of the Dragonborn who wanders into Pelagius's haunting area to find him in the mental grips of the mad-god as he is trying to help him work out his personal demons. Sheogorath refers to various events of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion from a first person perspective - a perspective only possessed by the Hero of Kvatch. The implication is that the Hero of Kvatch mantled the title of Sheogorath and became what Jyggalag was in his madness, though seemingly one with more compassion for the mad.
Jyggalag is still not heard of in the game, though Sheogorath references the events leading to confrontation with him in the Greymarch - indicating two hundred years after he is freed from his curse he is still reforming in Oblivion without a realm of his own to rule.
Personality[]
All Daedric Princes are stated by Lord Fyr of Morrowind to be flawed cosmic concepts incarnated from the forge of creation, which is why they are false gods instead of true gods, like the Divines, Hermaeus Mora is an attempt to grasp fate, which can not be done since it is fluid and why his quest of knowledge is endless, Meridia was a Star Orphan who wished to smite evil, but needed to become aggressive to do it, thus becoming her own anathema, Mehrunes Dagon seeks constant destruction and change but exists in a realm where everything remains the same and reforms after being destroyed; And Jyggalag may have faced a major existential crisis because of this.
It is said that Jyggalag in his quest to understand all knowledge and plan perfect order through it, comprehended himself - what he was, what he would become - Sheogorath and he went mad. According to a Q. & A. conducted with some of the lore-writers, used in-universe as cannon confirmation by having it be an interview with Haskill and Dyus - Jyggalag went mad upon comprehending his own flawed existence, that he believed in complete determinism, but that if that was true, he was flawed and thus his concept of determinism was flawed, but that he could not refute his own knowledge and therefore he had to exist, and yet his existence was faulty.
The logical paradox of his own existence drove him mad, but it is ambiguous if somehow this was how the other Daedric Princes drove him to the madness of Sheogorath or if he had come to this conclusion beforehand and his madness manifested in the form of a firm obsessive-compulsive-disorder - explaining his compulsive need for all to be perfect. Jyggalag is aware that reconquering the Shivering Isles with his Greymarch will trigger the curse to renew it-self, but he cannot bring himself to allow Sheogorath's chaos to exist and so is caught in a cycle by his own obsessive compulsion just as the other Daedric Princes planned, thus breaking the cycle can only be planned by Sheogorath.
Many things about Sheogorath do not make sense for a being acting out of random chaotic madness, as there are many things he does where though seeming random are actually bizarrely well planned - most notable how he plans around ending the Greymarch. Further examples of Sheogorath acting out of a master-agenda is that he sought out and had bets with every other Daedric Prince, and humiliated each by thinking outside the rules of what the bet called for while still adhering to the terms. Sheogorath also destroyed Jyggalag's library of Order but was unable to bring himself to destroy Dyus - the master-record/librarian who had served him loyally.
The implication is that beneath the surface of Sheogorath Jyggalag was constantly fighting to assert some form of control from the Mad-God's subconscious; This would mean that Sheogorath was less planning to beat his alter-ego than free it with his defeat at the hands of the Hero of Kvatch. As Daedric Princes reform in Oblivion even if a manifestation is "killed" they can never truly die, and as such, Jyggalag/Sheogorath knew he would reform as his true-self - breaking the cycle he was compulsively caught in. Though he hates the chaos of his cursed alter-ego, Jyggalag is genuinely grateful to the new Sheogorath for freeing him and gladly gives up the title to be himself again.
Being a deterministic Prince of Law and Order, Jyggalag is free to continue to seek out perfect order while now being free of his own paradox. If Jyggalag ever returns he would be the ultimate blight on the other Daedric Princes, ironically the only exception would be the new Sheogorath.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Jyggalag was actually set aside as an unseen Daedric Prince long before his appearance in Shivering Isles. The creators had wanted a Daedric Prince they could use to assert any new content future teams came up with, and used that fact he had never been seen as intentional lore ambiguity to be expanded at a later date. He is first mentioned in-universe in the book "On Oblivion", which was originally introduced in Daggerfall.
External Link[]
Jyggalag on the Elder Scrolls Wiki.
