From Lorkhan to Lenin. On the (im)possibility of secularizing the sacred (or sacralizing the secular)

Power of the Almsivi, official illustration of The Elder Scrolls: Legends (Bethesda Softworks, 2018). Шитое белыми нитками (Sewn with white thread), poster from the Soviet transition (ca. 1985-1991). In Russian, the phrase refers to something poorly made, crude, clumsy, fraudulent, fake. In the lore of The Elder Scrolls , “ mantling ” is the process by which someone takes on the role (or the…