What is Alduin in fact

[Lachdonin]

If we take that direction, Alduin would be more like an ancient meteor that fell from Akatosh and became part of Nirn. He isn't separate from the world, but rather part of it.

[sralkyrv]

As far as I'm concerned, Akatosh is just a very old and very powerful dragon who has certain unique abilities and priviliges due to his status as World Eater and essentially being the king of dragons. He does seem to have a different type of soul compared to other dragons, but I wouldn't go as far as call him a god as they are typically regarded in this setting. In fact, I'd say he appears to be considerably lower on the totem pole than the Daedric Princes. (Seeing as it's actually possible to, you know, fight him.) At best he's some kind of demigod.

 

On the subject of in-game books, I would like to once more point out that they were written by in-game people. They are basically folklore, various myths and legends regarding things the various people of Tamriel believe in which may or may not correspond to the actual reality they inhabit. I do not think these texts were put in the game to give us a way to figure out how the exact metaphysics of the ES universe really works. I think they were put in the game to make the world feel more realistic, and were made vague and occasionally contradicting because that's how myths and legends work in real life.

 

It's like how there may have been a real King Arthur, kinda sorta, but we can't use Arthurian lore to figure out who he was because it's mostly fiction based on fiction written by someone who heard a story from someone who heard a story about this one guy who used to be king and had a fancy sword.

 

Basically, the books about Alduin just details what people in Tamriel think he is, and non of those people have actually met and spoken with him nor anyone who knows him, and many of them possibly didn't even believe he was a real creature. The same thing goes for the Daedra, the Divines, Lorkhan, etc.

 

The only legitimate way to form an opinion on Alduin's true nature is going by A) what we learn from interacting with him personally and B) the accounts of his contemporaries, which is mostly just Paarthurnax, I guess. Beyond that, I think we just have to accept that Bethesda intended him to be a bit of a mystery.

I agree, i believe Bethesda left a lot of loose ends on purpose so the player can make his/her own interpretation of the story, where Bethesda only left a few pieces of information behind as some sort of a guideline to work with.