Elder Scrolls Lore » Discussions


Tosh Raka'd

  • Member
    April 13, 2016

    Ka Po' Tun is the "Tiger-Dragon's Empire"... The cat-folk here are ruled by the divine Tosh Raka, the Tiger-Dragon...A great war was raged, which left both the cats and the snakes weak, and the Dragons all dead. Since that time the cat-folk have tried to become the Dragons. Tosh Raka is the first to succeed. He is the largest Dragon in the world, orange and black, and he has very many new ideas. "First," Tosh Raka says, "is that we kill all the vampire snakes." Then the Tiger-Dragon Emperor wants to invade Tamriel.(Mysterious Akavir)

    This about sums up the extent of our knowledge from official sources but even that little quote is enough to open a rabbit hole of lore. The text implies a mortal who has become a dragon and as such parallels with other figures abound. Ysmir who "many Nords could not look on him without seeing a dragon" (Varieties of Faith) and Ysgramor whom we discussed here, not to mention our very own Dovahkiin who by the end of the game can shout the Aspect of a Dragon on himself.

    Let's look at Douglas Goodall's words in an oog post:

    Arkay and the King of Worms were once mortal... And what about Tosh Raka?

    Followed by Michael Kirkbride's oog post:

    Don't forget that gods can be shaped by the mythopoeic forces of the mantlers-- so Tosh Raka could be an Akaviri avatar of Akatosh with a grudge against his mirror-brother in Cyrodiil.

    Just like Akatosh-as-we-usually-know-him could time-scheme against his mirror-brother of the Nords, Alduin, to keep the present kalpa-- perhaps his favorite-- from being eaten.

    Notice all the coulds.

    Dracochrysalis, the transformation into a dragon. Auriel is thought to have done this before he "ascended in full view of his followers." (Varieties of Faith). This is backed by another oog text, Nu-Mantia Intercept:

    White-Gold Tower was made by the Ayleids, the Heartland High Elves that would have none to do with their isle-kind. Where the Altmer sought to focus on dracochrysalis, or keeping elder magic bound before it could change into something lesser (and act which ironically required aetherial surplus), the Ayleids harvested castaway creatia from Oblivion by entering a pact with the masters of the Void, the Princes of Misrule.

    So that about wraps it for Tosh Raka. Man-Cat or Dragon? Man-Cat who became Dragon? An aspect of Akatosh shaped by cultural belief into a deity who hates the Dragon God of Time as we know him? Or something else?

    You decide.

  • Member
    April 13, 2016

    Love it. For me, the Ka Po' Tun are the most interesting of the 4 races reported to live on Akavir. Sure, wild monkey men and snow demons and vampire snake men sound cool, but fierce tigers who may have the ability to turn into dragons sounds amazing.

  • Member
    April 13, 2016

    I always thought they were a cat like race, much like the Khajiit

  • Member
    April 13, 2016

    The cat-folk here are ruled by the divine Tosh Raka, the Tiger-Dragon...

    You are not wrong, Chris.

  • April 14, 2016

    Akaviri Alkosh, huh?

    Well, I suspectthis dude has something to do with Aur-El in one way or another. By the way, can't he be a Dragonborn?

    On the other hand, there were folks whose creation myth kinda implies they used to be dragon-like before shifting and evolving into "Tsaescence" (and they sound as if they're a dragon version of Thalmor). And here are folks who want to shift and evolve into dragons... An Akaviri version of Dragon cult? 

  • Member
    April 14, 2016

    Kinda makes sense on a Akaviri version of Akatosh/Auri-El.

    It does make me wonder if Tosh Raka existed even before Mysterious Akaviri mentioned his name.

    BTW, I just love the Ka Po Tun. One, because their tigers and two, their dragons.

  • Member
    April 14, 2016

    You are listening to a variation on a theme Thuri :)

  • Member
    April 14, 2016

    If he became a part of the time Dragon, then yeah :) 

  • April 14, 2016

    Eh? What do you mean?

  • Member
    April 14, 2016

    I think you just need to spot the parallels across cultures. How there are thematic similarities.