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A Dreamer in a Dream Recap (chapters 1-20)
🕑 Added 2025-06-21 05:42:37 +0000 UTCI know some of the elements of the story haven't been the easiest to follow, my own additions to the already often contradictory mindfuck that is TES lore not making it any easier. And so, recap. One focusing on the more esoteric parts of the story...
The first chapter has the memetic opening without much explanation. The tower is first introduced at the very end of it.
The second chapter gives a peek behind the curtain. Some hints that this isn't your garden variety isekai.
The third introduces Oblivion and even more hints. And a name. Abomination.
The fourth-sixth doesn't have that much going on in the esoteric department, more just him coming to terms with what all the revelations.
The seventh is the first to hint at the lonely place. The tower has gotten mighty close to Aetherius.
The eighth is Skadi's first PoV chapter. Skadi has her suspicions, but when you're rarely ever surprised by anything, you become a sucker for a good mystery. And dragons are much like cats.
The ninth-eleventh also didn't have that much in the esoteric department. The biggest offender is me trying to portray the weirdness of Oblivion and nonlinear time.
The end of the twelfth chapter is when the curtain really peels away. He put himself here. The memetic opening wasn't just a funny coincidence. The him here is just a part of something bigger outside the dream. It's very lonely outside the dream. Would not recommend.
The thirteenth and fourteenth chapters are half him running away from that revelation and half him starting to internalize what it all means. Any Daedric Prince can just come over and knock his tower down. They just don't know that yet.
The fifteenth chapter is the first Thalmor PoV chapter, following Anime Girl. PTSD everywhere. The Thalmor have taken the very first steps to figuring him out, with some false positives. He's Daedra only in the literal sense of the word (i.e. he's not their ancestor).
The sixteenth is him still pretending everything is fine. (It's not.) Slowly convincing himself that he has to start taking risks. The College of Winterhold has a whole library for him to devour.
The seventh and eighteenth chapters are more Skadi-focused. He knows he can't stick around on High Hrothgar while twiddling his thumbs, but wants to make a statement anyway. Puts a ring on the girl.
The nineteenth features some not-so-subtle hints that things are starting to get very weird. The dream has always been about the interplay between Anu and Padomay. IS and IS NOT. Now there is Other. I and NOT I.
Also, Oblivion actually kinda sucks. Hard to feel like anything matters when you're just stuck in permanent flashback mode. He kinda gets why the Daedric Princes are so obsessed with Mundus now.
That leads us to the twentieth chapter. The College of Winterhold is here, and how dare it not immediately progress the questline! But that's fine, because would you look at that, he's finally stopped running away. And now he's connected with the him beyond the dream without being immediately subsumed. Which, you know, is what the tower was always supposed to do.
That's right. It's a big ol' radio tower. That's why he kept hearing static.
