The Six Truths of Shadow

Listen well, for the light has eyes everywhere you look. The light is a beacon of misfortune that guides the blind peasants and fools to their miserable deaths. If your wish is to be as a sputtering candle, radiating your will on those who resist your dominance, judging those who seek comfort in the natural state, and bathing in the lustrous veil of darkness, then put down this book. 
You are a simple puppet of those who weep fake tears in the bright, oppressive sun. If, however, you seek to understand yourself, and the refractions and reflections therein, then perhaps you are one who may cast off the fetters of blindness for good.

There are but six truths of Shadow.


The Truth of Sight.

The eyes are themselves blinders to your full vision. Nourished as they are by the fruit of the eternal oppressive sun, you must forsake their knowledge and see not with these faulty tools, but instead with those corners of your mind least observed. This truth I pass on to you.

The Truth of Warmth.

Heat, warmth, fire; these are all meaningless. You need no more rely on these than you do the disappointment of Jode and Jone as they rest after a night of splendor and beauty. This truth I pass on to you.

The Truth of Life.

Life is a shackle by which knowledge is strangled with not so much as a whimper, by bored villains and the common clergy of dead gods. This is something the blasted Mannimarco could not see, as he fell for the lie of Sight at birth. Under the teachings of the so-called "King", the only way to forgo the shackle is to trick the Enemy, but this is a falsehood as false as the dragon Grammirlo ("The Deceitful Loyalist in Clouds" in the grating tongue of Men). 
There is no need to trick the Enemy when you can but retreat within the veil of shade, for within Shadow Arkay cannot see you, nor can he fathom your existence. Azra knew this, but his cowardice was too great to maintain eternal solitude. This truth I pass on to you.

The Truth of the Serpent.

They claim the Serpent has no month, charge, or creed. While the Imperial scholars and Altmeri star-gazers are correct to maintain that the Serpent is not charged with a single month, they are incorrect in saying that it is a void. 
The Serpent is the True Shadow, the shadow of the Shadow sign itself. This shade of a thousand mirrors dances through the sky unrestrained by the chains that bind lesser signs to the aetherial glow of rigid Magnus. 
For this reason, the Serpent is the true sign of Shadow Magic; Azra himself was born under this sign and studied its ways to learn the truth. 
The Shadow is not the sign of shadow, but the shadow of the Serpent. The Bird - the emissary of the True Light - wishes to cage the Serpent and bind it into slavery, as do the living to those who hold these truths. This truth I pass on to you.

The Truth of the Veil.

The veil is the ideal robe: the void of the in-between, which is the frame upon which the Plain of Shadows is arranged. It is this frame that you must first see, as upon this first sight, your second sight will creep through the gates of Shadow. 
Upon walking through that frame, which is itself the gates, you will at least encounter your shadow selves. When they are consumed, so you shall be made whole. This truth I pass on to you.

The Truth of Shadow and Light.

"A light strikes a rock, and the shadow records their clash, past, present and future," my teacher, Azra, was fond of saying. However, the Shadow is not only the record, but the natural order. This darkness that came before the light, and exists beyond it, is the shadow, the eternal Shadow. 
Some gods - Nocturnal, Namira, and Shagrath - understand this beauty, while others - Magnus, Riana, Ephen, and Meridia - despise this natural stasis, the empty bliss of despair and the nature of the True Shadow. 
The spark of the Light unseen to most is the True Light, whose agents, like the Bird, screech and pillage and sully this eternal bliss. This truth I pass on to you.


When you, reader, gain the understanding herein, you may do some truly wondrous things with your shadow - and the shadows of your shadow. Azra may have been the first to gain this knowledge, but not even I have fully refined it even after the centuries. 
Just as our persecution and destruction strengthens the oppressive regime of the Eternal Light, your growing understanding - and your actions that result - will strengthen not only yourself but the Eternal Shadow as well. Use your shadows to mend your wounds, slither out of Arkay's grasp, and in turn fasten your own grip around the throats of the Enemy. 
Command your shades and bind your runes to the Serpent's path. And may my shades guide thee to the Eternal Shadow.