Dawn Era The Dawn Era is the period of pre - history that includes the creation of the universe , prior to the advent of mortals on Tamriel . The events that occurred during this era are known only through myth and religious teachings , and interpretations vary from culture to culture . During the Dawn Era , time did not originally exist , and even when it was created it followed an incomprehensible nonlinear path , such as what is seen in a Dragon Break . Most scholars , however , agree to a single common series of events that led up to the start of recorded history . Creation . < onlyinclude > The creation of the universe began with the Chaos of the pre - universe . From this primordial nothingness , the twin forces of order and chaos arose , in the form of Anu and Padomay . Anu and Padomay both birthed their own souls , Anui - El ( Anu ' s soul ) and Sithis ( Padomay ' s soul ) , and the interplay between these two opposite forces created what is known as the Aurbis . After this , other beings began to form from the Void . The First amongst these were Auri - El and Lorkhan who were both the birth souls of Anui - El and Sithis respectively . Auri - El brought the concept of time into existence . With the genesis of time , the turbulent Aurbis began to stabilize and other et ' Ada were able to form their own identities , distinct from each other , and hundreds of such divine beings were formed . < / onlyinclude > Lorkhan ' s plan . Anu and Padomay ' s constant struggle had created a number of planes for the et ' Ada to inhabit , but not all of them were content . One , called Lorkhan , who was created by Sithis , approached the others with a plan to create their own plane . He proposed the creation of the mortal plane , Mundus , and its population with beings of the et ' Ada ' s creation . Lorkhan managed to convince a number of his peers to aid him in his plan , including Auri - El . These divines are collectively referred to as the Aedra , while the rest of the et ' Ada are Daedra ( these terms have no meaning during the Dawn Era , as they are explicitly relative to the Mer and their ancestral beliefs ) . These Aedra began to form the mortal plane , but soon realized that they had been tricked . Although Anu and Padomay were infinite , the et ' Ada were not . They realized that they were giving up parts of themselves to form this new world , something Lorkhan ( according to Mer tradition ) was fully aware of . During this process , Lorkhan ' s heart was removed , and made into a magical stone . Departure of the gods . Many of the gods departed the mortal plane before it was complete . Chief among these was Magnus , the architect of Lorkhan ' s plan , who fled Mundus to return to Aetherius . His departure opened a hole in the barrier between planes , allowing magic to flood into Mundus . Not all of the gods chose to leave , however . Some , the Eight Divines , bound themselves to the new plane , but returned to their own planes in the end . These became the gods of many of the new inhabitants of the world , and were seen from Nirn as planets in the night sky . One group of these beings fully surrendered their divinity , and formed the Ehlnofey . This now mortal race began to procreate in the physical sense , and eventually diverged into the mortal races of the Mythic Era . The remaining divines , before leaving Nirn to the mortals , created the Adamantine Tower , and convened there to decide Lorkhan ' s fate . At the end of the Dawn Age , Lorkhan was permanently bound to his creation when his heart was ripped from his body and cast down to Tamriel . There it would form Vvardenfell , the Red Mountain volcano , and remain dormant for thousands of years . The remaining gods then left Nirn , allowing time to stabilize and flow linearly . This marked the start of recorded elven history , and the beginning of the Merethic Era . Other events . It has been claimed that during the Dawn Era , the Orsimer were created .