Reference Title: Shor

Videogame: The Elder Scroll V: Skyrim

Developer: Bethesda Game Studios

Tags: Deity

Description:

Shor is the chief god of the Nordic pantheon which prevails in Skyrim. He rules over the realm Sovngard, an afterlife for mortals who die in battle to live and feast among other mortal champions in the Hall of Valor.

Shor seems to be a combination of elements of the Norse gods Óðinn and Loki, and the jötunn (often misconstrued as "giant") Ymir (LINKS). He resembles Óðinn as the ruler of an afterlife for those who die bravely in combat, as Óðinn receives half of all warriors slain in battle (Freyja receives the other half, see Vafþrúðnismál), the Einherjar, and rules over them in Valhöll ("hall of the slain") in Ásgarðr (LINK), feasting a fighting until they ride out to face the sons of Múspell (LINK) at Ragnarök (LINK).

Shor resembles Loki because both are the main trickster figures of their mythological pantheons, as Shor is said to have tricked or persuaded the other deities, the Aedra, into sacrificing a portion of their power into the creation of the mortal plane, Mundus. For this he was punished and his heart was torn out of his body and cast down to Nirn, the planet where the Elder Scrolls games take place. In Norse mythology, while not associated with creation like Shor, Loki's chaotic behavior and trickery is a consistent driving force of many myths, where his actions result in tough scenarios for the Æsir gods, who then threaten him until he can get them out of the jam. His most heinous deed is contriving the death of Baldr (LINK), a son of Óðinn who was beloved by all the other gods, for which he is bound and sealed in a cavern where the poison of a serpent drips down onto him, causing him pain and convulsions.

Shor's punishment and death also bears resemblance to Ymir, the first living being in the cosmogony of Norse mythology. After Shor's heart is removed, it is also said that his body is cleaved in two, which somehow form Nirn's two moons, Masser and Secunda.¹ In Norse mythology, particularly in the Prose Edda and Poetic Edda, Ymir is formed when heat from Múspell melts the frozen, poisonous ice that flowed out from Niflheimr (LINK) ("mist-world"), and the resulting rime dripping formed a humanoid being which was Ymir. After begetting the lineage of hrímþursar ("frost giants"), Ymir is killed by the sons of Borr, Óðinn, Vili, and Vé, and his body is used to make the world: 'From Ymir's flesh was earth created, and from blood, sea; rocks of bones, trees of hair, and from his skull, the sky. And from his eyelashes the joyous gods made Midgard for men's sons, and from his brains were those cruel clouds all created' (Gylfaginning, transl. Faulkes, p. 13).

Keep in mind that all the Aedra and Daedra of the Elder Scrolls universe are given different names by different cultures and in different time periods, so that Shor among the Nords is called Lorkhan among the elves and Shezarr in Cyrodiil. His 'trickery' that led to the creation of Mundus also led to him being viewed very differently by Elves and Men, with the former reviling him as the one who tricked the Elven gods out of their higher divinity and the latter seeing him as the god of humanity and the creator of the world. Lastly, Shor's name is clearly based on Thor (Þórr in Old Norse-Icelandic), which essentially makes him an amalgam of the three most well-known Norse gods, Óðinn, Loki, and Þórr, with the additional relation to Ymir.

1. In-game book in Skyrim, The Lunar Lorkhan. Lorkhan is an elven name for Shor.