What is Snow-Throat's stone, and how did we deactivate it?

These are some thoughts I had on Snow-Throat's cave that I've managed to put together in the small amount of free time I've had since starting classes. These thoughts run on the two following assumptions:

1. The Cave is from Plato's Allegory of the Cave (for real, it's not the Time Wound. Get over it.)

2. Snow-Throat is deactivated at the end of Skyrim as a result of the player's actions, following the trend of previous games

#What is the Cave?

To briefly summarize Plato's Allegory of the Cave, several prisoners are chained inside a cave their entire lives and see nothing but shadow puppets created by their captors. One of these prisoners escapes and experiences the real world outside the cave. However, when this prisoner tries to get other prisoners to do the same, they kill him. To the other prisoners, there is nothing outside the "reality" of the cave's shadows, because that is all they have ever known. Any talk of this so called "outside world" is insanity to them.

During the Dawn Era, Lorkhan travels outside the "disk" of the Aurbis and sees something. Whatever it was he saw, it inspired him to set in motion the plan to create Mundus and mortality so other Et'Ada can see the same thing he did. However, Lorkhan was killed for this. In this scenario, the idea of the "timeless Dawn" is the cave and the Et'Ada (and their descendants, the elves) are the prisoners.

However, this can also be applied to the opposite perspective. Mortality is the illusion and only the Aldmer appreciate the true nature of reality that is the Dawn Era, yet they are conquered and ostracized by mankind.

So which scenario is the Cave of Snow-Throat? The answer, I believe, is both.

#What are previous Kalpas?

Long story short, they're timelines erased by dragon breaks. A dragon break occurs when someone travels through time and changes history, creating a new timeline and erasing the old one.

Vivec explains this process here (click the very bottom line).

The end of every Kalpa becomes the Dawn Era of the next, as explained by World Eating 101. The Battle of Red Mountain was one such Dawn Era. Wulfarth seems to realize this in his Five Songs.

#What is Alduin?

Alduin is said to be a dragon that literally eats the whole world at the end of each Kalpa, stuffing the entire thing into his gullet. However, World Eating 101 and Shor Son of Shor seems to imply the World-Eating is also metaphorical. Notice there is no mention of Alduin anywhere in the thread that is supposed to teach us how the World-Eating process works.

This is consistent with legends of the Dawn Era, where metaphors and figures of speech are said to come to life and manifest themselves as real things. In other words, the metaphorical process of the World-Eating/Kalpa-turning manifested itself as a giant maw engulfing the entire universe. They're both the same thing. In fact, there are actual teeth at the edges of the world, which is consistent with the legend of Alduin spreading across the cardinal directions like a "carpet flame."

The World-Eating is metaphorical to the Ehlnofey War between the Wanderers and the Aldmer. They're the same thing. As we see in Shor Son of Shor, the battle between Shor's Nords and the tribes of Elves becomes the Dawn Era of the next universe, where the same process repeats. This is the World-Eater. There will always be that Lorkhanic urge to create the mortal world, and it is this "possibility of mankind" that ultimately ends the universe and begins a new one.

For example, the world ended in a previous universe around 1E 700 when a war broke out at Red Mountain around the same time the Tribunal gained their godhood. The Tribunal mantled the three Good Daedra and altered history so they were always gods and never mortals, and the combatants of the war consequently became the Old Ehlnofey and Wandering Ehlnofey as part of the mantling process. The war then led to the creation of a new Mundus, where the Tribunal were always the Good Daedra (or, the Good Daedra are now their anticipations), and the old Mundus where the Tribunal were mortals was erased.

#What is Alduin in Skyrim?

That being said, the Alduin in Skyrim represents something different. He appears after most of the Towers have fallen (or have begun to fall), and he's trying to reestablish his rule over the world, not trying to end it like all the legends say he is. Paarthurnax tells us at the end "His doom was written when he claimed for himself the lordship that properly belongs to Bormahu - our father Akatosh. ... Alduin had flown far from the path of right action in his pahlok - the arrogance of his power," and at several moments Alduin threatens to devour those who don't obey him - which is rather odd considering it's his job to devour everything.

Alduin in Skyrim represents a change occurring in the cycle. The first change is the decreasing number of Towers, and the second change is the Thalmor's plan to remove the possibility of Mankind. Both have the potential to drastically change the cycle of Kalpas.

The "possibility of Mankind" is Sovngarde. This is where Shor builds his army out of those that die believing in his ideals, awaiting the time of the next clash with the Elves in the Dawn Era. The Thalmor wish to remove this possibility of Mankind so when the Dawn returns, there will be no Lorkhanic army to fight them and lead to the creation of another Mundus. In other words, destroy Sovngarde, and the next Dawn Era will continue on for an eternity.

This is what Alduin almost ends up doing in Skyrim. After being wounded by the Dragonborn, he sets his soul snare in Sovngarde. Ironically, despite his intentions of ruling Mundus instead of eating it, he ends up fulfilling the prophecy by devouring part of the world in Sovngarde. And yet, had he succeeded, the world would have never ended. It would have stayed in the Dawn forever. This is where another Paarthurnax line becomes especially relevant:

Those who try to hasten the end, may delay it. Those who work to delay the end, may bring it closer.

Those who hasten the end, as Alduin did when he began eating Sovngarde, really would have delayed it, by preventing Shor from building an army and fighting the war that would lead to a new Mundus, and the end of this one. Those who work to delay the end, as we did when we stopped Alduin, really prevented him from prolonging this Mundus forever.

Alduin, as he appears in Skyrim, is perhaps a manifestation of the Thalmor's goals, possibly created out of fear for the Thalmor.

#What happens when all the Towers fall?

This is a subject of debate, but some in-universe characters like Attrebus Mede speculate they keep Mundus from fading back into Oblivion.

Well, some think that the White-Gold Tower—and some other towers around Tamriel—help, well, hold the world up, or something like that. Others believe that before the Dragon broke, the tower helped protect us from invasion from Oblivion [...] They help keep Mundus—the World—from dissolving back into Oblivion.

And this is true, in a way. There are many sources that describe Towers as a method of establishing the laws of nature in Mundus. Presumably, if these laws were to be removed, there would be nothing distinguishing Mundus from the rest of Aurbis. Time would cease to flow linearly, and mortality would no longer exist. Mortals might possibly reform into Et'Ada like how the Dwemer became the skin of the Numidium by moving to a higher gradient.

During dragon breaks such as the Battle of Red Mountain, history becomes subject to the whims of those who gain godhood, and only those who gain godhood. Only the Tribunal (and possibly Wulfharth) were allowed to rewrite history. The canon-fodder soldiers of the opposing armies were not.

However, if the laws of nature were removed from all of Mundus, then it's possible every being, no matter how insignificant, would gain the ability to rewrite history. If such a thing were to happen, Tamriel would become utterly unrecognizable. Perhaps this is why Yokuda in a previous Kalpa became Tamriel in the following Kalpa after the Pankratosword was used to kill the laws of nature. Perhaps this is also why Tamriel becomes Akavir in C0DA after all of Nirn (including the Towers) is destroyed.

If removing the Towers could lead to such situations, then more and more Towers deactivating as each Kalpa goes by could be slowly leading to another Dawn where Tamriel changes drastically, beyond recognition. Perhaps Alduin in Skyrim is also a manifestation of this, which is why he appears after so many of them have fallen.

#How did we deactivate the Cave in Skyrim?

Skyrim's ending is purposefully vague. We're not definitively told if we truly defeated Alduin for good, or if he'll simply return sometime later.

Now, everything I've said so far is based on MK's version of the Elder Scrolls. And as we all know, MK's version of TES takes a different turn from Bethesda's after the events of Skyrim. The Thalmor win, Numidium destroys Nirn, and Akavir becomes the new Amaranth, as we see in C0DA. C0DA takes place in an alternate universe, this is part of the story's message.

The Cave can apply to both "futures" of the Elder Scrolls, depending on which perspective is used.

If we consider the Cave to be The Dawn Era, then we deactivated the Cave by preventing Alduin from destroying Sonvgarde, and ensuring Mankind will be there at the next Dawn Era to create a new Mundus, ending the "Cave" in the process. The Towers are still gradually falling, leaving the future uncertain, but the fall of Snow-Throat is something that happens every Kalpa as part of the natural process. This is likely the "future" Bethesda has in store for TES, and one that still fits under MK's OOG texts.

If we consider the Cave to be the Mundus, then we deactivated the Cave by destroying Alduin. Period. He will never come back, and the Kalpa will never turn, meaning a new Mundus will never be born. The Towers have all fallen, including Snow-Throat, and the world returns to the Dawn as a result. Unfortunately, there is nothing stopping the Numidium from showing up and smashing everything, including the Altmer. A new Amaranth is born from Jubal and Vivec as a result.

So did we destroy Alduin or simply delay Alduin? We simply don't know. That's for you to decide.

#Conclusion

The Cave is is both the illusion of Mundus and the Dawn Era, depending on the perspective. Alduin, as he appears in Skyrim, is a manifestation of the fall of Towers and the Thalmor's goals. It's uncertain whether we destroyed or merely postponed Alduin, but in either scenario a Cave is being broken. The ending of Skyrim is vague enough to lead to the events of C0DA, or the events of future TES installments.