Difference between Syrabane and Magnus?

Athan1

I know the backstory of each god, what I'm asking is the difference in what they represent. Afaik, one is the god of sorcery while the other of magic? Sounds like potato-potahto to me.

Aigym_Hlervu

To me it is like.. well, "potato-potato extractor", if we use your association. "Magicka" is an Ayleid word for "magic" - "Av molag anyammis, av latta magicka" meaning "From fire, life; from light, magic". Magnus is said to be the reason for magicka itself to exist on Nirn, i.e. the energy, to be able to flow down into the Mundus, while sorcery is a magical power, a combination of skills, items and rituals to control that energy.

Xaramasa

Magnus is not the source of Magic himself since that ultimately comes from Aetherius, but his act of escaping Mundus and tearing a hole through Oblivion (creating the sun) means he, in essence, established magic in the world.

Syrabane is the Aldmeri god-ancestor of Magic. By magic, I think he's meant to represent the applications of magic such as in warfare.

Interestingly, Syrabane is referred to the "Youngest of the Eight", which means he ascended to divine status instead of being a god from the start. Perhaps his ascension as the god of magic is him mantling Magnus?

Ajaxandriel

Syrabane was a regular high elf who led the All Flags Navy (along with Bendu Olo) and got divinized. We can guess his feats saved Summerset from the sloads and their thrassian plague.
His holy artifact is a mage’s ring, IIRC.

Magnus is a far earlier ancestor, maybe at the time of Ehlnofey or even before - the Et’Ada to be precise - from a group that the myth called Magna-Ge. They were famous people/beings whose souls breached the sky while fleeing Mundus, according to the myth indeed, letting the light (thus magic) from Aetherius in.
One can interpret this (in a "grounded" interpretation of the lore) as a feat from Magnus and his apprentices to be the first beings to gather and use sun and star energy, so that these heavenly bodies were named after them when they died and became divinized.

So basically both Magnus and Syrabane are high elven ancestors divinized for their magical prowess - but from different ages.

Notice that both are altmer Ascendants (their own original « Eight ») but none are part of the imperial Divines that the human usurped from the Ayleids.

Athan1

Xaramasa wrote: »

Perhaps his ascension as the god of magic is him mantling Magnus?

I was also wondering about that, but they are clearly two separate gods - e.g. look at Torinaan. Though they are placed in the same room. Interestingly, other sources treat Syrabane as a female.

Athan1

I found it really interesting that essentially all Divines were Aldmer/Altmers... Which could or couldn't be the same as Altmer being Aedra. Even Auri-El seems to have been a normal ancestor. This could explain why we also got Anui-El, which is presumably a genuine Aedra spirit.

I like that TES doesn't have stereotypical gods like the "sun god" or the "sea god", but I find the distinction between Syrabane and Magnus quite thin.

Ajaxandriel

TES might have had such stereotypical gods back in Arena-Daggerfall but they evolved to have somehow their own backstory...
For example, some Daedra Princes have the same field of powers unlike well-dispatched gods.
I think the lore text from Celarus about psijic beliefs expains all this suite well. It is the theory of the cult of the ancestors (like Euhemerus’ IRL)