Hard Drive Hero
When Lorkhan tricked those that would become the Aedra into creating Nirn he gave his life to Nirn in the process. Unfortunately several Aedra escaped the creation of Nirn or fought against the draining energies, keeping their divinity but forever tied to Nirn and it's existence.
Lorkhan's corpse is believed to have become the mass of Nirn. This along with the damaged design of Nirn left artifacts of it's creation and allowed the occasional gap in which Daedra and other beings can slip into Nirn. Due to this Lorkhan's Heart is literally the heart of the world, when the Nevarine destroyed it in Morrowind it was not truly destroyed.
However 'destroying' the current heart damaged Nirn's stability in Mundus and allowed a greater influence by the Daedra on Nirn. This led directly to the Oblivion Crisis as Mehrunes Dagon attempted to wipe out the Septim line and with it The Amulet of Kings another anchor of Nirn's existence.
While this plan eventually failed the Amulet of Kings survived and was lost in the mists of time. However Akatosh after ensuring the Amulet was lost to time decided to fix the problem of Nirn's Stability even though increased influence of Daedra would not be solved so easily. Akatosh used his governance over Time with the aid of the Daedric Prince Meridia to allow Lorkhan's Heart to reform somewhere on Nirn. Neither Akatosh or Meridia would know where the Heart would reform as both agreed that knowledge was to great a temptation.
Unfortunately this project proved to be a distraction that had disastrous effects on the fate of Nirn.
The Last Dragonborn destined to defeat Alduin and thus hold off the end of Nirn, grew deathly ill after being crippled in the wild with arrows destroying both kneecaps. He died quietly in obscurity.
As Akatosh had given the last Dragon Soul he had to create the last Dragonborn there was no easy replacement. He attempted to catch the last Dragon Soul before it was lost to Aetherius and was only partially successful. A tattered bundle of energy that lacked the necessary qualities to breathe life into a body.
Meridia also suffered a blow when her distraction left one of her temples open to attack, the temple holding several of her beacons and her artifact the Dawnbreaker had fallen under the control of the Necromancer Malkoran who was experimenting on said items. His goal was to drain Meridia's energies to himself or failing that divert the flow of energy gathered by her relics at the least.
Akatosh in a rare moment of desperation offered a solution to Meridia, as the Aedra were tied to Nirn and unable to reach beyond it, he suggested the Daedric Princes provide a suitable champion, it would need to be someone who could incorporate the soul of a dragon and could play the needed role of Dragonborn, in return he would ensure that her temple was found by the champion at the 'right time'.
Meridia quickly agreed. Akatosh left Meridia to sell the idea to the daedra as he scoured Nirn for other damages to it's fate and preparing everything it could to prevent the death of the next Dragonborn.
Unfortunately as is the way of things, Meridia's offer to gain a favor from Akatosh and influence the Last Dragonborn proved to be a far more difficult task than repairing the fabric of space-time.
In the formless between in the Realms of Oblivion a rare gathering of all the major Daedric Princes was proving to be a great deal of fun to Sheogorath, the chaos and bickering went quiet well with his mozzarella.
"Enough! I will choose the Champion! I am the Prince of Revolution, Ambition and Change, my Champion would do what is needed for Victory!" Mehrunes Dagon bellowed, slamming his lower fists on a long slab of obsidian the Princes used as a table for such meetings.
"Ha! Like Akatosh would pick your champion, he kicked your ass last time, my champion would hunt down every last dragon before a year has passed, Alduin wouldn't stand a chance!" Hircine mocked, while sharpening his hunting spear in mock nonchalance.
While none of the Daedra normally needed to take mortal form, the meeting place was bound by some order in ages past and one of those limitations was a distinct form. Even Hermaeus Mora was not immune to such rules. Although, a mass of tentacles spotted with eyes surrounding a large central eye, with four spindly limbs capped with over-sized crustacean pincers was pushing the limits of a 'distinct' form.
"Must you use my home for such arguments?" whinged Jyggalag, whose crystal form was currently done up in a comically exaggerated maids outfit.
"SHUT UP JYGGALAG!", chorused the Daedric Princes in a rare show of unity. Despite being freed of his curse as the original Sheogorath, he had little power in the Realms of Oblivion and was only a Daedric Prince in name. Thus his regular humiliation as the other Daedric Princes regularly invaded his domain as a neutral meeting ground.
As the discussion returned to bickering Meridia held her head in her hands, it was times like these she her straightforward nature worked against her, 'I should have proposed this to them separately and picked the best champion of the lot to send to Akatosh. Damn Lorkhan every time I get involved with him it causes me problems, even when he's dead!'
Time has far less meaning in the realms of Oblivion than it would in Mundus but, even there nothing appears to make time come to a crawl than business meetings. Even when that business is concerning Deities and Demons determining the fate of the world. As the meeting carried on Sheogorath grew bored as he often does and offered an alternative.
"Why don't we just send them all?", Sheogorath's simple question left the conference in silence.
After several moments during which Sheogorath ate yet more congealed dairy product, Nocturnals sultry voice broke the silence, "Perhaps you could clarify, what you mean? If we are to send a champion to be the dragonborn wouldn't that limit us to just one champion?"
"Well Akatosh only has a partial Dragon Soul left yeah?", At Meridia's nod he grinned and continued, "Well even though we can't make soul or copy an entire soul doesn't mean we can't copy part of one. We do the same thing for our artifacts, anyway. So with Meridia providing the energy needed, Akatosh providing us a partial Dragon Soul to copy and Azure can make sure we bind the partial souls to our chosen champions."
"But the Last Dragonborn has to defeat Alduin and he's going to need all the power he can get to pull that off." Azura objected.
"But Dragon Souls can absorb their fallen enemies yes? A Competition then! A Grand Hunt where all the Champions must fight to the last! Then Akatosh can't complain as whichever Champion is capable of defeating all his fellows will easily stand against Alduin.", Hircine barked in excitement his enthusiasm for the idea growing rapidly. Several of the others were nodding as the idea gained ground. Each Daedric Prince convinced that their Champion would be the best choice and would best the others.
"If we are to do this we must have rules. I suggest we rule that we can only aid our champion and not directly hinder the others, If our champion falls we may throw our support behind another champion should they prove worthy. Furthermore we cannot contact our champions directly unless they manage to reach one of our shrines or relics. It would not due for some of us to warn their champions with constant information." Peryite growled glaring at Hermaeus Mora and Mephala.
"And no dreams either!" Added Malacath, earning a glare of his own from Vaermina.
"Agreed.", Grumbled out the remaining members. Mephala continued sporting her signature smirk as if the limitations meant nothing to her.
Meridia sighed and stood, "I will speak to Akatosh and gather my champion, I suggest you do the same, when the time comes we will implant the Dragon Souls and hand them over to Akatosh and Kynareth to enter Nirn.
The meeting broke up and each Prince couldn't help but wonder what kind of Champion the others would choose.