I've deeply enjoyed this conversation! I actually stumbled upon this thread by accident, and saw that you guys were talking about some deep level stuff that overlapped with my research lately. I don't think it is a coincidence that the creators of TES have included these concepts. I started looking into Akatosh, and the origins of his name. Apparently it stands for 'Also known as the old Smaug himself.' Smaug of course being from JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit. Tolkien was very aware of all of this imagery and symbolism, as was CS Lewis his friend. The Lord of the Rings is another name for Saturn. The Eye of Sauron is very much like the All-Seeing Eye or Eye of Horus. Im sure those of you familiar with Crowly's Thelema understand another meaning. Those who use the power of the Dark Lord gain supernatural powers, but become visible to others who are aware of this power, like the ring wraiths or Nazghul. In CS Lewis' work, the White Witch comes from another world that was inhabited by giants, which was destroyed by using the forbidden word. There are also use of rings. Maybe Akatosh is representative of Tiamat or Apsu, in conflict with itself or it's alter Alduin. Much like how you guys were saying a being may zero-sum or ascend, Akatosh created this world, while Alduin destroys it and becomes the Akatosh of the new world.