**what are Tones?**

Tones are the most primal and fundamental composition of the Aurbis in its entirety. The “Music” which gives shape to all of existence, as a whole

Intrinsically related to the concept of Amaranth, the Aurbis is comprised of Music and Tones due to Anu’s memories of the Primal Wail, the scream of Nir that occurred when she gave birth to all of Creation and Possibility, hence it exists as an Echo of Nir, as the Grey Sphere of Possibility between the IS and IS-NOT of Anu and Padhome

>That all the Interplay is one flea of assertion on a wolf of naught, **and that every experience (that is, everything) born from that primal wail would cascade unto the echo-need of hologram, each slice the same except for scale**, and all the magic that would need to spring forth just to hold it together at living, divine cross-purpose, support struts made from the need to exist (axial, along its two-headed fighting rays, each refusing their origin point, that is, Tower), terrestons versus chronocules, and in the end (an end that ever refuses to hold) it all becomes a lobotomized (for what is not lobal if not the dracochoreography made flesh?), reptilian (coiled), and massive map-god (holding a compass, holding a timepiece), drooling (the water from which we dragged ourselves out of to say, mirror-like, autochthonic, automatic, "WE ARE, TOO") on his countless knees, dementia given dimension, dimension dementia…

>~Etada, Eight Aedra, Eat the Dreamer

>**What's with all the musical connotations behind Elder Scrolls? You said that tonal architecture is similar to synaesthesia, but there's obviously something greater at play here.**

>Tamriel. Starry Heart. That whole fucking thing is a song. It was made either out of 12 planets, or from two brothers that split in the womb. Either way, it's the primal wail and those that grew up on it - they can't help but hear it, and add to it, or try to control it, or run from it. The reason there IS music on Tamriel at ALL is because it exists. It was and is and it will not stop.

>There are repeats in it; plays on a tune. Variations. And most likely Magnus? (He's the one that made the fucker, and now that's why he looks back on it, every single day, that's his promise.

>"When you wake up, I will still listen. I'm sorry I left, but hey, I'm still right up here. And my mnemoli? They show up every now and then, and collect all the songs you've made since the last time around. The last real moment."

>The Mnemoli? They're the keepers of the Elder Scrolls. They cannot be fixed until seen. And they cannot be seen until a moment. And you, your hero, makes that moment.

>~Michael Kirkbride IRC Q&A Session

So in essence, the Tones are what comprises the very basis of the Aurbis on a fundamental level. In truth, the Aurbis as a whole is nothing but unstructured Tones and Music floating in the Dream of Anu, between the intersecting IS-IS NOT of his Dream Self and that of his brother, Padhome – This notion is hugely supported by Michael Kirkbride statement, comparing Tonal Architecture to Synæsthesia

**Tonal Architecture can do anything synæsthesia can do. Unless you're a dumb deaf dreamer.**

For those who don’t know, Synæsthesia is a sensory impulse where your body interprets the information received by a corporal sense in an unusual way, causing you to experience certain things through sensorial representations

A simpler way of understanding this would be imagining that you are listening to a Sound, or a Music with your eyes closed, and your brain reproduces this song in the form of a visual image in your vision.

This would be an accurate way of describing the way the Aurbis works, it is a formless and unstructured mass of Music and Tones jumbled together, but when “heard” by living beings, their Minds sensorially reproduce these Tones in the form of the World you observe from their point of view in the Games, as perceived by their very senses

This is even further supported by *The Myth of the Aurbis*, which establishes that there are Realms beyond Aetherius and Oblivion, but that they are far less structured than the two, and by Michael Kirkbride himself in an Altmeri in-character snipped

>Mythic Aurbis exists, and has existed from time without measure, as a fanciful Unnatural Realm.

>'Aurbis' is used to connote the imperceptible Penumbra, the Gray Center between the IS/IS NOT of Anu and Padomay. It contains the multitude realms of Aetherius and Oblivion, as well as other, less structured forms.

>~Monomyth: The Myth of the Aurbis

>A single Wheel? More like a Telescope that stretches all the way back to the Eye of the Anui-El, with Padomaics innumerable along its infinite walls.

>~Michael Kirkbride

>The Realms above Aetherius are unstructured due to there being no Observer to witness them, no Synæstesia to reproduce it into something palpable to senses. Hence the sentence “Padomaics innumerable along its infinite walls” would mean that as the Aurbis ascends infinitely, all starts to break down more and more due to the lack of an Observer, returning to being a formless and messed up mass of unformed Tones, unable to collapse into a single state from the infinite possibilities they incarnate

>Then, beyond the Aurbis itself, is the Original Void of PSJJJJ, Sithis, if you will. It is described as not being pure Silence, rather representing “deafness” and sensory deprivation itself. It is important to note the difference here, representing “Deafness” doesn’t mean PSJJJJ is silence without Tones. Tones do exist in its infinite vastness, but they are unable to be heard due to the sheer sensory unravelment individuals undergo there

>No Synæsthesia to be made, with your Mind being completely incapable of possibly reproducing anything into anything due to the lack of senses, PSJJJJ is simply perceived as pure untethered Nothingness, devoid of Will and Conceptualization itself