Oblivion’s Shivering Isles splits madness into Mania and Dementia. Kierkegaard’s The Sickness unto Death names those poles as despair of infinitude and despair of finitude, then diagnoses Sheogorath’s defiance as the self that will not be itself.

In this Elder Scrolls & Philosophy talk, Dr. Andrew Snyder reads Bliss and Crucible, Thadon and Syl, Jyggalag and Sheogorath through Christian existential psychology: why unchecked possibility and hyper-limitation both destroy the self, and how the Champion of Cyrodiil integrates finitude and infinitude in a leap of faith toward an authentic whole. Along the way: Chesterton on sane insanity, Nietzsche’s madman, Augustine on the tyrant as slave, and a closing line from Fear and Trembling.