On the nature of Sithis
By Lily Surilie, a humble servant and a faithful daughter to our Dread Father and Unholy Matron

Everybody who has ever bothered to visit a library has surely noticed an outstanding number of researches dedicated to the Nine as well as to the Daedra, but hardly anyone has ever found a work uncovering the mystery of Sithis’s nature. This humble research was done to fill the regrettable gap in our theological knowledge. Some of my acquaintances were eager to prevent me from doing this research – part of them being convinced that the topic is of no interest, others believing the very idea would most surely rouse ire of our Dread Father. The former are very wrong for there is no such topic which is of no interest to a devout scholar, as for the latter… well, I shall be the first to know if Sithis is displeased with my work.

One of the first questions one faces when entering the Dark Brotherhood is: What is Sithis? The answers are numerous varying from “the cold dreadful Void, resembling of a starless night deep in Jerall mountains” to “a voice whispering in one’s ears when he (or she) fulfills the will of the Night Mother”. Both are true – in a way – and still are most probably not the whole truth. According to the scarce bits of information available, we may assert that Sithis is strongly associated with darkness, void and chaos; that he gets the souls of those killed in his name; that he is powerful enough to cast his Wrath upon infidels and traitors, but still needs a go-between to interact with the material plan of the Mundus, this intermediary being the Night Mother herself; that he belongs neither to the Aedra nor to the Daedra. The last statement seems to be of the particular interest, for it arouses another important questions: What are the origins of Sithis and How does he fit in the harmonious imperial theological system?

The history of Sithis’s worship is closely connected with the history of the Dark Brotherhood. Most scholars agree that originally the Dark Brotherhood was a small group that broke away from Morag Tong in the beginning of the Second Era. The following development of the Brotherhood is not to be discussed here, for it mainly concerns political strife throughout the history of Tamriel, but not the sources of Sithis’s cult. The most popular theory of the origin of Sithis is that He is an incarnation of one of the Daedric princes, presumably Methala. Indeed, this hypothesis has some convincing argument. First, Methala is a patron of secrets, sex, assassination and of art (apparently of sex and assassination). Her (though Methala is believed to be bisexual, this Daedrot is generally referred to as a she) sphere perfectly coincides with that of Sithis, except for sex. So it is quite intelligible why Sithis is sometimes supposed to be a personification of the masculine nature of Methala. Second, it is Methala who is also believed to be the Morag Tong’s patron. As the Dark Brotherhood has once been a sect within Morag Tong, it’s natural to presume that, again, Sithis is only some kind of Methala’s misinterpretation.

However, due to the evidence I managed to find in some rare sources, I am convinced that the “Methala avatar” version is not true. According to Tarnatos Manuscripts, recently discovered by Nohept dir’Camal, Sithis came to existence when a nihilist Kimer sect of Psjjjjic order united Daedric elements with Ineffable Action under the Methala’s supervision. Thus Sithis is somehow connected with Psjjjj, which is a special notation of unknowable and inexpressible notion of Primeval Chaos – or Padomai (generally it is said that Psjjjj is not Padomai, but some unintelligible action by Anu – still I am not going to discuss this most complicated topic here). This seems quite a convincing hypothesis, especially if you keep in mind that the most probable etymology of our Dread Father’s name, “Sithis”, also lies in originating from “psjjjj”.

Here comes the time for my guess-works. Common theory is that there are two initial essences, Anu, the Light and Order, and Padomai, the Darkness and Chaos. My idea is that Anu is the Light and Padomai is the Darkness all right, nevertheless, the chaos-order opposition is, so to say, square with light-darkness couple. Hence there is a “lawful darkness” as well as a “chaotic light”. To my mind, Sithis is a substance of chaotic darkness – or cold void, “willing to kill the Mundus” (Tarnatos Manuscript, 27:14), while Daedra are creatures of lawful darkness.
So, finally I have said it. I am quite prepared for the flow of criticism, which is likely to pour down on my head, but I am not going to change my mind in favor of more popular and widespread theories. Dixi.