Elf Reincarnation?

[CosmicFish]

I was reading a discussion page on here recently that brought up the afterlife as understood by Redguards, i.e. the Far Shore, in it someone said that the Redguards are similar to the Altmer in religion (which is true... to... a small extent) because they believe in Reincarnation.

I can't find anything about the Altmer, the Bosmer, the Dunmer or any other Mer believing in Reincarnation, and considering they're the ones with the "Paradise Lost" creation story, a belief in Reincarnation would be pretty... ironic.

Has anyone heard of this or was this person misunderstanding something?

[BetaB17]

It's not reincarnation as your trying to paint it.. what you talking about precisely is how the masses of souls that are recycled in Aetherius that have not found an afterlife.. be it Daedric or any other

Some souls do not stay in Aetherius, but enter the so-called Dreamsleeve to be recycled.

Not much info really exists to give greater detail, but it answers the question none the less

[CosmicFish]

It's not reincarnation as your trying to paint it.. what you talking about precisely is how the masses of souls that are recycled in Aetherius that have not found an afterlife.. be it Daedric or any other

Some souls do not stay in Aetherius, but enter the so-called Dreamsleeve to be recycled.

Not much info really exists to give greater detail, but it answers the question none the less

Yes, I'm familiar with the great paper-shredder in the sky, this person though was speaking as though it were reincarnation of the Nerevar variety.
That it was specifically some sort of process all elves go through, and that being the case he must have been confused, because if he was only misunderstanding the Dreamsleeve then it really explains the problem

I was just making sure.

[Minor Edits]

The primary similarity between the Redguard and Altmeri belief system is that they both have sandy vaginas over the mortal plane.

As for reincarnation, I don't recall at the moment ever seeing anything about that in either religion.

[Leckan]

This is an interesting contradiction. The elves believe themselves to be the decendents of the original spirits that were trapped on nirn (though there are some inconsistenciess even with that, as other lesser spirits became animals and trees as well), yet the existence of reincarnation suggests that they are only half right. Humans may have been created by lorkhan, but their souls and elven souls are likely interchangeable from life to life.

This is an interesting topic.

[Woodhouse]

The dunmer souls definitely go somewhere and remain somewhat intact right? Thats what allowed the ghost fence to operate and for their ancient methods of ancestor communication to work if I remember correctly

[Pilaf The Defiler]

The whole idea of ancestral ghost fences predates the Ghostfence. It was probably an early religious institution of the Chimer dating back to the early settlement of Resdayn. According to Dunmeri beliefs, there is a spirit world that the mortal eye can't usually perceive. Dunmer Spirits persist on Nirn, but in another dimension or phase of existence called the Spirit World. Dunmer are able to summon these Ancestor Spirits at times of great need for protection. This ability is manifested in different ways in different editions of the series, but it's rooted in lore. The commonality between the different effects is that they're each defensive actions brought about by a Dunmer Ancestor Spirit, who resides not far away in Aetherius but in the Spirit World on Mundus.

[Woodhouse]

Thanks Pilaf, thats the book I was thinking of.
I guess the question is, do only the dunmer go to this spirit world?

[Pilaf The Defiler]

They're the only culture I'm aware of with a belief in it. Both the settled House Dunmer and the Ashlanders and their offshoots like the Mabigrash believe in the Spirit World. They go there because they believe in it. That's how religion generally works in TES. Dunmer in other places in the Empire who follow other religions may not, but the ones who follow the Temple do.