Many people think M'aiq is actually a different person in each game, but we find this unlikely. After watching the video, which theory do you find most convincing? Also what if you've been wrong about Skyrim's main story this entire time? Find out here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/kNKRraSj1dPXaZc.html

Once, in Skyrim, I ran into M'aiq twice on the same road with 30 seconds between encounters. I stopped to talk to him both times. I know it was probably a spawn bug, but I like to think that it was M'aiq exercising his godly power

Y'all are so fortunate to know so many M'aiq quotes. Every Time I pass him by in Skyrim he usually just, "Wishes me well" coming from a liar this is not so comforting.

I'm absolutely convinced that somewhere, a Bethesda dev is cackling as we watch this, trying to figure it out.

I like how M'aiq said "Dragons were never gone, they were just invisible" then a dragon just flew past him, while he was, "Yep, Invisible."

I still think Maiq is just a devout and spiritual consumer of psychedelic skooma that gives him a chim like immortality and meta perceptiveness through harnessing the lorkhanic power of the moons. TES has always embraced characters that can achieve greatness from all walks of life, like wheedle the beggar king, Rahjin and manimarco. Maybe Maiq is like the saint of skooma addicts.

M'aiq's immortality could work similarly to Demon King Piccolo's own, where he is able to create a "son" that is essentially a total copy of himself, complete with all the same knowledge and memory. Either this or he hit so much skooma that he gained enough speed to exist across an infinite number of worlds and times simultaneously, just like Mario.

M'aiq knows much, tells some. M'aiq knows many things others do not.

I played Skyrim anniversary and I was talking to M'aiq and he has a new line of dialogue and it says that M'aiq wants to go see other places to rest perhaps hammerfell or daggerfall or perhaps both I think Bethesda is trying to tell us something

If I remember right, there was originally a plan to include dragons in one of the older games (morrowind, maybe?) But due to restraints, they scrapped that. As a result, M'aiq mentions in Morrowind that dragons are there, they just fly very high above the clouds. Unrelated fun fact: Cliff Racers are the reason dragons never invaded Morrowind. If you ask me, it's hilarious to imagine random dragons getting annoyed at sudden clouds of Cliff Racers materializing any time they get too close to Morrowind.

The big question is: does M'aiq truly wishes you well?

I didn't think I would cause so much with my Maiq theory

My theory is that he is actual what restocks all the chests through out the game and repopulates characters as needed.

Alternate theory: The big lie of Maiq is that everything he tells is the truth.

so my idea on M'aiq is that he achieved Chim and just kept on existing so he could interact with whatever player character shows up. He really only shows up where you play the game. He stays around to interact with the only truly foreign person in the world every time they show up. IE he's a dev insert eater egg lol. But what I'm really getting at is he exists to give the player some fun. He put his flute there not as an offering but specifically to give you a thread to follow and theorize on. He also could be linked to time wounds since player characters exist exclusively where time wounds exist for story reasons and all that

For quite a while now I've gotten the idea that M'aiq somehow is able to get replacements to mantle him, much like Sheogorath did. Also, I believe that he's only a liar in the same way that Obi-Wan is with his half truths, from certain perspectives. Like with the dragons, the dead and buried are indeed quiet and invisible, but you'd never normally describe them that way.

The real M’aiq is the friends we made along the way

Being an aspect of a Khajiiti deity honestly makes the most sense, especially seeing the examples we see in ESO

I’m so happy to see content creators like you guys still upload Skyrim stuff. It pleases me to see that an old game such as Skyrim/whole TES serie still has a pretty big community and that’s what I love about it. This legendary masterpiece will never die. (:

My issue with these theories is that they always make a decent lick of sense, I just doubt Bethesda would put that much effort into it.

You guys always do a great job with visuals in your videos, but this one seems especially well done on that front

Skooma trips have allowed M’aiq to travel different realms. He travels there spiritually and can imagine things into existence. This realm hopping has allowed him to learn the secrets of immortality.

This is my favorite side character in Elder Scrolls games. His comments are always interesting. You guys need to do a video about his ancestors.

My first encounter with M'aiq was in oblivion. I've loved this caliper loving kitty ever since. LOVE this theory.

Idk if this has any meaning or not but in Skyrim, I once randomly encountered Vampires and M'aiq was next to them chilling and throwing in some of his lines. Don't like the vampires usually attack any and all npc's?

You also have to remember if you come upon him in skyrim and put a sword through him through him, he just sits down and looks at you.

How does anyone know there was a city of winterhold? M'aiq did not see it with his eyes. Did you?

I like the idea of M’aiq being a shard of Rajin. Even better - imagine it being passed down the male line, leading to young Khajit toms in that line being named M’aiq when they demonstrate the ability or power to channel Rajin’s aspect.

I think it's hilarious how Elder Scrolls lore is a never-ending rabbit hole of theories basically as a result of bad and lazy writing.

When I was younger, I never thought of M'aiq as a long lived individual, I always thought he somehow managed to travel through time in one way or another. I wonder if there's any credence to that?

Man, I hope that The Elder Scrolls 6 has just as good lore building as Skyrim. 🤞🤞

We all know Drew is sat at home raging at this whole video

I really hope that in ES6 we get a quest where, rather than becoming a prince's champion, we steal a daedric artifact with the help of Rajhin.

For all we know Maiq The Liar might just be reborn every now and then with the memory of his past life, adding on each and every time thus leaving little to no memory of any potential childhood

Thought Maiq is just a running joke, or just a way for the developers to voice their opinion to us, especially when reluctant to making changes due to the communitys demand.

Throughout the games ive always had sense of idea that he was the khajiti god, but then the more i played and understood the lore i kinda changed mind believing that perhaps he is a single being like a hidden deadra that looks similiar to a khajit or perhaps he could be the last aedra bound by a duty to observe and ensure the existance of the mortal plain like a watcher or guardian when needed.

Wait M’aiq always calls himself by his own name.. Do other khajiit do this? I thought rather than 3rd person, they always refer to themselves with khajiit. “If khajiit calls himself his name, and not khajiit, then who is his name? and who is khajiit?” -M’aiq, probably

I like his role as a source of misinformation that obscures the occasional hints and revelations of future games/events he utters amidst all the nonsense. I’d love for them to solidify him as more than merely an Easter egg dispenser.

What if the player is Maiq's extension of himself in a way? He's always where you are, almost checking on you to make sure you're doing what you're "supposed to." It could be Lorkhaj making sure the Daedric gods get their revenge for casting him aside in some way.

M'aiq the Liar might be just like the Dread Pirate Roberts, where it's not a name passed down by father to son, but, a title passed from person to person. But hey, that's just a theory. A Game Theor- wait, wrong channel.

Maiq doesn’t run, he slightly levitates and somehow the world moves, maiq doesn’t move, how do you think he’s so fast? And timeless, because just as he doesn’t move through the world he doesn’t move through time, time moves around him - just something I came up with now

The visuals on this video are awesome, you can tell that it was made after the script, I love all the little details you can see when the guy is talking

I am just awed, the cinematography is excellent! The scenes are perfect, high quality, it greatly enhances the experience! Well done!

I feel like Lorkhan is a metaphor for the creators of the game. They gave up so much time and effort to create this world we essentially live in. All the people who came to work with the them either stayed or left over time, but all have an influence on how we perceive the series, which would be Aedra and Daedra...

I've actually always thought that M'aiq was actually an aspect of the godhead, it explains why u can't truly "kill" him he'll always come back and the fact he references dreams etc. and obviously the one that dreams this world will also be the one that would love to travel it all the time too

The Elyswere DLC music from ESO is so good. Love it

Babe wake up, new M’aiq lore just dropped 😩

Theory: M’aiq is Michael Kirkbride. Argumentation: the character was created by Bethesda writers to troll Kirkbride for his more outlandish writings (and, after Morrowind, for c0da), calling M’aiq (a linguistic transformation of “Mike”) a Liar. Yet!!! Through tricksterish pataphysical shenanigans M’aiq became an actual avatar of irl Mike! Kirkbride is the true False Dreamer, projecting himself in a blasphemous pataphysical way into the universe he was ousted from! Hail the True Sharmat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I just finished writing my doctoral thesis on metaphysical epistemology while on a bucket of Ritalin, I think it is starting to show)

I tend to believe M'aiq is a parody of Michael Kirkbride. M'aiq the Liar "Mike" the Writer

I honestly think Bethesda are setting M'aiq up for a future Elder Scrolls game as the villain. It would be amazing to find out that M'aiq was pulling the strings behind the scenes all along and following the player character around to observe how they react.

I like the idea that Miaq is the dreamer, or a part of the dreamers mind. He's everywhere and witnesses everything, even things the players and writers don't. It would explain his changing and absurd abilities. As he can do whatever he wants but doesn't need to do everything at the same time. If he wants to travel between realms, he can. If he doesn't want to do caught, nothing can. It also explains his lack of ego. He roams the world and timelines looking at all this wonderful stuff and just takes it in. He only interacts when he finds it amusing. It might also explain his lies. When he tells a story he gives a second option. Because if he says something happened then it happened. While if he says it may have happened this way or this other way, then he hasn't decided yet. Kinda like lucid dreaming, you can change not only how the dreams going, but also how the dream already happened. I don't think he is the godhead but rather the way the godhead experiences the dream. Of that's just a theory... a BAD theory! So who knows

I mean, if Rajhin possibly has more than seven shadows, I think it'd be plausible for each version of M'aiq to be a different shadow.

Admittedly, it would be hilarious if M'aiq was the original godhead that the nine kicked out, just wandering about and seeing how things are working out for the thieves...

In some of my playthroughs, where I'm RP as a shezzarine, I like to think that my toon is the power of Lorkhan w/o the knowledge and m'aiq is the knowledge w/o the power. Two halves of the same thing that can no longer be joined, and why he's 4th wall breaking with some comments. "Mad elf bound him to a stone".. Lorkhan's 'heart' (elder god soul gem?) and Aureil.. think about it 🤔

I like to think he was a normal khajiit at one point, but then upset some kind of god or daedric prince, and is now cursed to walk Tamriel forever, lying to everyone against his will. Maybe he told a lie to the one who cursed him?

Maiq is a byproduct of my adventures in Morrowind. I messed around with reality so much I accidentally made an npc sentient

I still maintain that maiq is a disciple of sheogorath. I mean you find him in the sheogorad region of Morrowind. And on the other side of that region is where you have to fight the bull netch with the fork of horripilation. Also when I looked it up. That region is obviously named after sheogorath. Plus the daedric prince of madness is a very important figure in Elswyer

What if the "Liar" part of the name is a lie itself, and this is a misunderstood Kajiit that just wants to go by his life??

*9 minutes into the video* "Let's get right into it."

“You don’t have to be on skooma to see the similarities” But it helps!

My two favorite theories as to who Maiq is, which you kind of touched on, are that either Maiq is part of the Amoranth, or God-head, or that Maiq is what Sotha Sil would call a prisoner. I like the Amoranth option because even in a dream, you don’t know everything that goes on, so the Amoranth created Maiq to wander Tamriel, to see that which the Amoranth is unaware of. I like the prisoner option because, as Sotha Sil puts it, you have to be able to see the bars in which you are trapped within, and walk through the door to freedom. Maiq, as we all know, is meant to be a mouthpiece for Bethesda to vent through, to tell jokes about the Elder Scrolls universe as a whole. Maiq sees the bars, which is the game, and he has passed through the door, which is our world, or, in his case, some sarcastic Bethesda programmers. Or, you know, he could just be Todd Howard himself, the king of liars.

Could a mortal that has traveled through the sun to reach atherius meet the real forms of the daedric lords, not inside them in their oblivion reals which all are part of the lords forms, could they see the real daedric prices form and talk to them in there? Could that actually truly surprise a daedric lord, to see a mortal not through their realm appearance or their appearance in nirn, but through atherius, where they truly reside? Or is oblivion the plane in which the daedra inhabit and have their inner oblivion realm a separate realm to atherius? Could a mortal ever be able to confront a daedra face to face. Could that potentially scare a deadric lord to see how far a mere mortal could reach through, power, knowledge and ambition?

Visually, these videos have gone next level! Really amazing video footage

Your videos are so nostalgic for me, every time I watch them it brings me to a better place.

What an intriguing theory! I really love this video, so much detail went to this. Thank you very much for doing it.

And here it is, the one we've all been waiting for.

One more detail about that shadow of Rahjiin, although minor, is how he has the same moustache as M'aiq

If you toggle tcl in command and move into M'aiq you will notice that he is in fact missing his heart. No heart to be found.

Drew needs to make a counter video 😂

The book "Doors of Oblivion" was the best short book I've ever read in game.

I always assumed M'aiq was referencing Dragonflys when he was talking about dragons and was just being cheeky.

Drew is gonna be pissed lol

M'aiq don't care much for KZfaq videos, M'aiq thinks they're all equally silly.

M’aiq thanks you for making people understand M’aiq.

Can you PLEASE do a video on Calcemo, the ruins of Nchuad-Zel and the fate of the lost expedition? It's such an interesting and often overlooked questline and I'd LOVE to get a video going over it!

Maiq is just Todd Howard in disguise.

“In terms of power does achieving CHIM put you on the same level as the Daedra or Aedra? Also is it possible to inflict someone with zero summing by blowing their mind?”

I wonder if Bethesda has bigger plans for Ma'iq in the future of the franchise. Imagine him in a position of power or esteem in TES6, or even as a direct ally or antagonist. I would love it.

I've always thought that M'aiq was a genius possibly a scholar but he went too far and at some point sought out the forbidden knowledge of Herma-Mora (yes, I go with the name given to her by the Skall, I think it and the reasoning they give is more appropriate). I think that somehow M'aiq was then able to escape from Herma-Mora's realm of the Apocrypha and back into Tamriel. There are others in The Elder Scrolls who also sought out knowledge and ended up going insane. The 2 most commonly known are probably Septimus Signus and Lord Harkon for the Dawnguard dlc. Septimus Signus was obsessed with learning about the extend of knowledge and power granted by the Elder Scrolls during his time in the College of Winterhold and at some point left the college in search of some Dwemer stuff, an artifact or something (I don't exactly remember, I've only ever finished the main questline once and that was years back. Ever since I've been doing stupid stuff like trying to get 1 million stolen Sweet Rolls and stuff). During the main questline you'll be told to go to the College of Winterhold and talk the their librarian about the Elder Scrolls. He'll tell you about Septimus and give you a book that doesn't make much sense (according to the librarian, I think I understand what Septimus was trying to get at). The other example, Lord Harkon from the Dawnguard dlc was once a might ruler who had all the wealth and power anyone could ever ask for yet with all this he still had one major fear: mortality. He was so very obsessed with finding a way to conquer mortality that he made a deal with the Daedric Lord, Molag Bal. Molag Bal said that if Harkon were to sacrifice a thousand souls of the innocent in his name then Harkon and his family would be granted immortality as a Pure-Blood vampires. Harkon accepted the proposal and went through. Some many centuries later Harkon had discovered a prophecy called the Tyranny of the Sun or something along those lines that stated were it to be enacted, the sun would be covered or "blotted out" I think is the term used- for all eternity hence then allowing him and his kin to rule and roam freely across all the continents of Nirn during both day and night. Harkon became so immensely obsessed with bringing about this prophecy to a reality that he pushed away his family and absolutely everything that he loved. He became completely insane and was cruel to all those around him. Anyways back to my original theory, I think this is pretty much what happened to M'aiq but not to as severe as an extent. I don't know how he escaped the Apocrypha but that is my theory. Please FudgeMuppet, if you see this make a video and cover my theory. My birthday is coming up at the end of the month on the 28th and if you could make a video on this theory before then it would be an amazing present. Especially if it was on my birthday. Even if you do make a video on this after my birthday has passed I'll be very happy and consider it a late birthday gift. Thank you for all that you do. You've really helped me get through these hard times of uncertainty and I hope you and all your loved ones have been able to stay safe during these times.

I just started watching the video but this is a completely random theory that just popped into my head: M'aiq is an avatar of The Godhead (the ambiguous Mana-Yood-Sushai or Azathoth inspired supreme dreaming god behind the Elder Scrolls universe) walking around within his own dream world. M'aiq knows incredible amounts of information about the world he is in, almost like he is an outside observer. This includes being able to perceive changes that occur within it and comment on them, for example ""M'aiq has heard that the people of Skyrim are better looking than the ones in Cyrodiill" in response to how everyone in TES V: Skyrim looks so different than their counterparts in Oblivion. However, he may or may not be aware that the ever-shifting world around him is just a product of his own imagination. We probably all have had vivid and truly strange dreams that seem so bizarre, but we don't realize that they are just that, dreams--not until we wake up anyways. When you consider that "M'aiq" in real life is a way for Bethesda, the Elder Scrolls' and developer, to joke around in a meta way about its own created world from within the games themselves, this feels like the most likely explanation for who or what he is. Edit: I feel like 19:16--19:51 goes along very well with this idea. I also really like your theory as well for who M'aiq could be.

Somewhere, someplace, Drew is rolling around sleepless knowing this video exists lol

i like to think that m'aiq achieved CHIM one day waaay in the past, went "dope" and just wandered around tamriel for a long while, and pulls an Icon whenever someone questions his appearance not changing for like, a decade

M'aiq knows many things, no?

The “Hype” you guys have caused around this 😂

What if Rajhin himself was originally a Shezarrine? I mean we know that despite being fragments of Shor these beings maintain their own personalities and wills. So M'aiq could be a fragment of a fragment.

Lorkaj’s curse to roam for many cycles is reincarnation as the player character.

-used Mod to make Mai’q my follower -used mod to worship the deity Rhajin -didn’t know that Mai’q is actually Rhajin -neglected and abused Mai’q/Rhajin -prayed to Rhajin while he is naked and locked in my player home dungeon He must be a very forgiving god

I’m gay

When reaching chim he lied to himself to keep his physical body “I am not a dream”. Becoming god like. But choosing to just be a common traveler.

23:46 - 23:54 ah, there we go, I thought his different appearances weren't going to be addressed, I'm more at peace with the hypothesis of a single M'aiq now

AYO, Fudge!!!!!!!!!!!! I just wanted to say I really enjoy your lore/theory vids.❤️

Could it be there has to be a Maiq at all times so when one maiq dies another takes his place mimicking the previous one perfectly......who knows

The cinematography for this video is amazing. Looks like this game came out yesterday.

That's really interesting, maybe he is a kind of reflection of Rajhin. I like that quote about knowing the future from his dreams. And also not being sure whether he is in a dream. He must be living a strange existence. If he has properties of Rajhin, and acquires Rajhin's knowledge without being Rajhin or knowing that Rajhin is the source, he might not know whether the things he knows are the truth or are lies. He might himself be living in a constant state of doubt about everything, yet going with the flow because how else can that state be lived with. I think therefore I am essentially suggests that the only thing one can be sure of is that the thinker exists in some form. Nothing else can be proven to be real beyond all doubt. Because of his long life span and seemingly unconscious knowing of things, M'aiq could live at that level of doubt. He doesn't truly believe anything other than that he exists in some form, so how could he be anything but a liar.

One of my absolute favorite theories, and about my favorite characters from the Elderscrolls universe. Mmmmh. Beautiful.

can confirm, found the giant emporor crabs

Maiq once spawned in riverwood when my character and Ralof entered Riverwood. I greeted Him and after I exited his dialogue he literally disappeared right in front of me. Thinking this was a simple bug. I ignored it. Went inside the sleeping giant inn. Exited the inn and guess who was standing on the stairs as I left the inn. You guessed it.

Michael practically dropping a drew diss track

I've still never encountered M'aiq naturally in Skyrim

Down in the depths, reality's a façade What we call death is just the sleep of the gods