#Cryptoanthropology

[tastesoftamriel]

Sorry if you’ve answered this before, but what do you think forsworn cuisine is like?

You are surprisingly the first person to ask about the food of the Reachfolk! Most people view them as wild barbarians, but they have a rich history and culture just as much as any other Tamrielic race. And like the other races, Reach cuisine is individual and full of surprises. Bear in mind that this evidence is presented from my own and other adventurers' accounts of discoveries at Reachfolk camps in Skyrim, and does not account for those on the other side of the Druadach Mountains.

Firstly, Reachfolk are subsistence hunters rather than farmers, so their food is consistently fresh and based on what is in season, unless it has been seized in raids on Nords and other travellers. You will therefore find that Reach cuisine depends on a few trusty ingredients.

Venison is the primary source of protein by Reachfolk, followed by fish from the Karth River, and wild pheasant or other birds. However, this does not deter them from eating animals like skeever in leaner times.

They season these liberally with Reach peppercorns, a tingly hot pepper, as well as frost mirriam, rock salt, honey, and juniper paste. Meat is generally roasted on a spit directly over the fire, or is shaped into patties or meatballs and cooked on a large hot stone or iron pan.

Vegetables in their diet are unlike what most other races eat. Wild flora, like nettles and dandelion greens, wild garlic and carrots, berries, and much more are just some of what traditional indigenous knowledge has passed down through generations of oral history. Nettle soup with stir-fried dandelion greens and juniper is a traditional hot soup which is enjoyed at any time of day in horn mugs.

Dessert isn't a thing per se, but Reachfolk seem to eat wild honey over sour berries, but I have not been able to glean which meal, if any, this custom is from.

Hopefully this has been somewhat enlightening, and thank you for asking about one of the most fascinating indigenous groups in Tamriel! ~Talviel

[bleachbleachbleach]

My Question: lol why does Shinji have such a modern-looking speaker when it's supposed to be the fin de siecle in the human world?? (and omg, look at all the jazz records he brought back! look at his little face creams on the shelf! what! adorable)

What I've Decided Is My Answer: Speakers didn't look like that in the human world at the time, but electrodynamic loudspeakers were in the works. The tech, or the beginnings of it, existed--but there were limitations to the idea, and to the sound quality, that human science hadn't yet figured out. However, Shinji clearly has a fascination with records, with jazz, with burgeoning human cultures in general. Maybe he saw where it could go. Maybe he brought his records and the idea of a speaker back to Soul Society, and commissioned someone to bridge the gap between turn of the century human tech and its aspiration--but bridged with spirit particles, not electricity, since 1) that's what everything is powered by and made of in Soul Society, and 2) it's not burgeoning tech; it's well understood and can be expertly manipulated. This speaker exists as an expansion/translation of a human idea, to suit Soul Society's needs. But cultural flows like this are piecemeal, highly individualized, and there's not really a culture of adopting/adapting human ideas into shinigami life, excepting in the cases of your resident iconoclasts. Shinigami live long lives and change is slow. So you end up with pockets of weirdness where even in 2000 all official records are handwritten but one division has mainframes and PCs with GUIs; and one guy has an old-timey camera but others have modern 35mm. There's cotton candy and shave ice but no one's ever had cake. Juiceboxes are a foreign concept but cellphones have served as blueprints for shinigami denreishinki. The entire society has somehow never shifted from an Edo-style model and they're still in the process of bringing over human New Year's traditions, but half the divisions have like, IKEA furniture. GAH. IT'S ALL SO WEIRD AND DELIGHTFUL. Cryptoanthro(?)pology is my favorite anthropology.

[hangdogbanner]

fandom: didney

send me a fandom and i’ll give you five headcanons of my muse in that universe.

gravity falls. broos ban the cryptid man

verse tag: au: bigfoot or bust

this exists. mabel and dipper meet hulk first and are STOKED

in this au, bruce still has multiple phds, but his focuses are in cryptozoology and cryptoanthropology

he spends his time trying to understand and explain his own condition. he tries to explain a lot of things he can’t

he feels a massive amount of protectiveness and affection for the kids in gravity falls, especially the ones heavily involved in… all this general weirdness. and wow does hulk ever love waddles the pig

despite being surrounded by weirdness literally all the time, he still has some kind of crazy weakness for b movies and creepypasta and urban legends. does he go tracking the origins of all those latter things down? yes. yes he does

[jtem]

Ed Conrad is a nut.  Seriously, a complete screw ball.  But, please, don't anyone take my word on it, visit his website and read for yourself.

[tastesoftamriel]

has any evidence of the snow elven diet survived? I wonder what they ate,,,

The Snow Elf diet as it was originally known (circa Merethic Era) is something I've only managed to cobble together with the aid of Knight-Paladin Gelebor, as almost all written records are gone. Thankfully, Gelebor was able to shed some insights into what the Snow Elves ate in their heyday, before the Dwemer and Atmorans arrived in what is now Skyrim.

Due to their natural magical talent, preparation of food was a trivial matter- simply wave a hand, and onions would dice themselves and a whole trout could be gutted and cleaned in one motion. As such, there was very little stopping the Snow Elves from eating whatever they wanted, provided that ingredients were available (not an easy task as they favoured cold and inhospitable areas to settle in).

Unlike Nord food, with its emphasis on salted and cured meats and a limited selection of vegetables, the Snow Elves took advantage of the ice caves they inhabited, using them as storage for ingredients they traded for to keep perishables longer. The wilds of Tamriel also looked much different at the time- sabre cats were hunted for sport and for meat, snowberries were barely edible and were used to brew liquor, and mead certainly was not a thing. What, then, did they eat?

Fish, mammoth and wild game supported the backbone of the Snow Elf diet, as they were never huge on farming despite their highly advanced civilisation. This meant that grain was also largely imported as opposed to grown in Skyrim at the time. Vegetables included hardy gourds which grew in the snow, which they used to make a nourishing soup with pheasant, as well as carrots, cabbage, peas, potatoes, and many different types of mushrooms.

Dishes included things like seared mammoth with pea mash, vegetable soups of all kinds, seafood au gratin with mammoth cheese, potato flatbread with tender game stew, and twice-cooked venison with mashed cauliflower and fried cauliflower florets stuffed with mammoth cheese. Sweets included frozen berries with beet sugar and cream, dense cakes made with potato flour, and creamy dessert soups with herbs, roots, and sugar ('not the tastiest, but good for the body and mind', to quote our Snow Elf friend).

Hopefully this scant account is helpful to you and sates your curiosity! And of course, my thanks once more to Knight-Paladin Gelebor for his help. ~Talviel

[tastesoftamriel]

I wonder if you perhaps could know some Ayleid-themed recipes if you've been lucky enough to stumble upon some notes in historical books or while traveling around Cyrodiil?

I have bumbled my way through a fair few Ayleid ruins in my time, especially in Cyrodiil, but I've found very little material evidence of their kitchens, and scholars don't seem to have taken a particular interest in the dietary habits of the Merethic Era (maybe it's time I enrol at the University of Gwylim?)

From what I've gathered, the Ayleids abhorred the food of Men, particularly during the Alessian Rebellion, although in terms of ingredients, there was a bit of difference in comparison to what we eat today. Since the Ayleids were originally from Summerset, their initial preferences were for a plant and seafood-based diet, which they found to be easily obtained in Cyrodiil. Keeping slaves for agricultural work was standard practice, and as a result, they reaped the rewards of the fertile lands of Cyrodiil with numerous farms and vineyards. Wine was definitely enjoyed, though I am unsure whether it was a common indulgence or reserved for special occasions. The Ayleids also did not seem to be particularly keen on most grains, dairy, or animal byproducts. However, they were certainly not vegetarians.

In particular, their penchant for magic was used in all things culinary, from the very fire used for cooking to the principles of utilising the elements of earth, air, light, and water. These were at the core of Ayleid culture, and therefore cuisine. Earth was represented by fruits, vegetables, and mushrooms, which were used in abundance. Air was often symbolised through the eating of birds like eagles and peacocks (what we consider staple poultry today, like chicken, was equated to slave food and unfit for Ayleid consumption). Water was also the preferred drink with every meal, and they had a truly spectacular system for purifying and chilling their water that is now lost to the ages. As for the element of light, I can only guess. I theorise that like the contemporary Altmer, they held a preference for light meals, but that's a pretty flimsy hypothesis.

Also, it's common knowledge that the Ayleids really, really liked the number eight. From what I have discovered, even daily meals consisted of eight small dishes rather than one or two main dishes. I was lucky enough to find an inscription which could have been an ancient menu, that mentions swordfish tartare with horseradish glaze, braised peacock stuffed with apricots, watercress salad with mixed nuts, black olive tapenade with vegetable crudités, sautéed chanterelle and truffles in white wine sauce, honey-roast falcon, chilled cucumber soup, and smoked trout with a lemon pepper crust. Bar the choice in poultry, these all sound pretty delicious to me!

While there are countless mysteries of Ayleid cooking lost to the ages, I certainly hope that what I've learned so far has sated your curiosity! ~Talviel

[journalgen]

Advances in Nucleohumor and Political Cryptoanthropology