#anti thalmor

[kyliafanfiction]

Oh, I'm so sorry Altmer. Did Tiber Septim force you to be less isolationist and Xenophobic?

[setarmare]

in love with the idea of the db's followers being as remembered in history as the db themself. imagine:

engineers, for generations, mumbling the formula called 'Remiel's Constant' under their breaths as they develop machinery, because it's such a foundational discovery on Remiel's part for a new age of engineering

in contrast, future alchemists agonizing over Xelzaz' thousands of alchemical discoveries a night before their finals, bemoaning why he was so diligent in cranking out formula after formula because now they have so much to memorize

historians and casual history buffs alike locked in discourse on whether or not the last prince of the Thalmor actually colluded with the Dragonborn in the Second Great War to help bring down the Dominion, with vaguely-worded correspondence for evidence

adaptations of the tale where every single follower is at least someone's 'blorbo'

the ballad of Inigo the Brave being a cultural touchstone for Khajiit rep and spawning Tamriel's version of the rogue, underdog hero archetype. even when it's a totally fictional work, if the protagonist (or charming side character) is weirdly charismatic, roguishly handsome, and with a heart of gold, chances are the creator was inspired by Inigo's legacy.

the massive misunderstandings of the dragonborn's original history. Thanks to anti-Thalmor sentiments long after the Second Great War, Nebarra was deemed as a traitor figure to the Dragonborn, but this sentiment was overturned centuries after uncovering contemporaries' journal entries on their friendship

when you ask someone who they think Sir Kaidan was to the dragonborn, there's an equal chance of them firmly believing he was their lover, platonic best friend, or loyal but professional lieutenant. they will have reams of evidence to back it up, no matter which stance they take.

many who have felt that they never perfectly fit into the demands of their faith or community, not just bosmer, resonating with Auri's story. realizing that while they may be an outlier in their own eyes, they can still do a lot of good in the world, and that has to count for something.

common sayings based on (real or not) stories of the followers. if a place is crowded, it's common to joke, "guess the dragonborn's in town."

just. yeah.

[elderscrollsconceptart]

How does Ulfric expect to "take the fight to the Thalmor" when he basically needs the Dragonborn to win his war against a *single* legion of Imperial auxiliaries?

Even High Rock is leaving Ulfric on read. I assume most other nations would be similarly disinterested. Presumably Ulfrics greatest hope is to lead an alliance of nations (along with The Empire?) against the Thalmor.

IMO the free nations of Tamriel are waaaayyy too divided and mutually hostile to somehow unite with enough force to defeat the Aldmeri Dominion.

Cyrodiil: hates Ulfric (duh). High Rock: aloof and loyal to Cyrodil. Morrowind: hates and distrusts all outsiders and foreign powers, especially post-Oblivion. Black Marsh: pretty much the same as Morrowind and possibly even worse. All that leaves is Hammerfell and even they have lingering issues with internal political stability. The others could perhaps be convinced, but I'm not sure how or why they would risk joining Ulfrics alliance unless the Thalmor were actively attempting to invade those nations.

IMO the best best beeesst hope Ulfric has is a potential alliance with Hammerfell against the Thalmor.

"That alliance could win since Hammerfell alone fought the Thalmor to a standstill!" Yes maybe! But Ulfrics war would have to be an offensive war. Hammerfell fought defensively in friendly territory. Offensive wars are by nature far more costly for the attacking force and the alliance would have to remove the Thalmor from any territory on mainland Tamriel *at minimum* for a meaningful victory.

"Kill elves in big heroric battles" isn't a plan. Removing Thalmor puppet governments and liberating occupied territory is. The hypothetical alliance would have to enter hostile territory and attempt to liberate Valenwood and Elsweyr. I'm sure there's anti-Thalmor factions in those places that would help as best they can, but the victory would have to be won via outright military means.

All in all, even a revived and unified Mede empire would have rough odds against the Thalmor. Im not sure what Ulfric expects his path to victory to be.

Perhaps he's more inspired than i give him credit for, or perhaps his confidence is all a naïve delusion on his part. I'm biased but I suspect it's the latter.

[lord-of-hollows]

The Ongoing Hostilty of the Stormcloak Debate

If you're the kind of person who has their politics dictated to them by social media algorithms, it's easy to write off the Stormcloaks. After all, you were told they were Fascist badmen by a reddit user so clearly this must be correct. However, with things coming to light, I have to say that if you're the kind of person who is Anti-Stormcloak but also supports a free Palestine? You're clearly not putting any thought into your own beliefs and I'm not interested in having conversations with people who don't put thought into their own beliefs.

The Imperial argument has been debunked as far back as 2011. They've changed and modified it how they say it but the core pillars have not changed in the past years.

1. The Empire brings peace and stability to Tamriel.

This one's just untrue. Even at the height of Imperial power there were rebellions, succession crises, wars and large stretches of land in "uncivilised" nations that were just ungoverned. Not to mention, it was under Imperial governance that the Aldmeris Dominion rose. The Empire never brought any kind of stability that lasted more than like, a decade.

2. "The Empire is the best chance for victory against the Thalmor."

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Imperial supporters seem wonderfully willing to assert this and then immediately launch into a non-sequiter and act as if this proves the Empire has a chance.

The last Imperial victory against the Thalmor lead to Hammerfell being abandoned, religious reform being enforced by their enemy, and Thalmor Gestapo being allowed to roam the Empire wantonly executing Imperial citizens with no due process. If that's a victory you better hope you don't find out what defeat looks like.

3. "Stormcloaks are racist."

I don't believe they're extraordinarily racist for Tamriel, but let's assume they are. However I invite Imperial supporters to also look at the Empire.

"Without us to keep order, the provinces would fall to lawlessness and barbarism."

The Empire at the outset feels that a dominant culture is needed for others to function. More than that, they feel that their culture is justifiably supreme to enforce their will on others. If they didn't feel this was true, they wouldn't be an Empire.

You cannot argue that the Stormcloaks are racist and then handwave the racism of the Empire. You have to pick one. Either it's a negative or isn't. Then we have to identify which of these is more racist.

Imperialists like to point out that the Stormcloaks don't like to let Argonians into the city. This isn't true, my Argonian walked into Windhelm just fine.

"But thats just a game mechanic." - Yeah and the Orc strongholds only let a non-Orc in if you impress Orcs. So you're telling me that Bethesda went out of the way to care about the player characters race in the Strongholds but just kinda stopped caring when it came to the major city of one of the two factions in the war?

I mean, they're lazy, but come on. You can't tell me they're not putting in the effort when you can point at a spot they're putting in that self-same effort for content less players will see.

And even if it were true, under the empire Argonians and Khajiit were enslaved in Morrowind because the Dunmer had a superweapon to trade. So the Empire just turned a blind eye to slavery because "Fuck you, got mine."

But again why would they care about the enslavement of what to their eyes were barbaric races of inferior culture. The use of the word Empire isn't an accident.

And this is why it's so frustrating to talk to Imperial supporters. They easily cast aspersions on the Stormcloaks but when you turn a mirror on them suddenly they stop wanting to discuss.

If you want to call the Stormcloaks racist, you can. They are certainly at least as racist as the norm for Tamriel. If you want to argue it as a reason for siding with the Empire then either you don't know about the Empire or you're being disingenuous.

4. "The Empire keeps the Thalmor out of Skyrim."

This one is asserted by many characters ingame. It's a lie.

In Imperial controlled holds Thalmor Gestapo wander around and can attempt to execute you on the spot if they decide to. No trial. Imperial guards do not rush to help you fight them off. They just stand and stare. In a Stormcloak victory these random encounters stop happening in all holds. I'm not sure about the one where they send Assassins as this encounter generally happens before a Stormcloak victory, but it happens.

As Thalmor only show up in Imperial controlled holds, the only reasonable conclusion to draw is the Empire is what keeps the Thalmor in Skyrim.

5. The Thalmor want Ulfric to win.

No they don't. They said that they didn't. Read their dossier.

6. Ulfric is a Thalmor asset.

An uncooperative asset. The Empire is a cooperative asset.

It's been made clear to me over the years that supporting the Imperial argument is unjustifiable on a moral level and irresponsible on the level of governance.

7. Ulfric as a character is power hungry and only in it for himself.

Assuming this is true...

So?

The Empire is power hungry, as evidenced by the fact that they are an Empire. Are they in it for themselves? Well, if they arent then who do you think they're doing it for?

You're not making an argument against the Stormcloaks.

However I argue that the cause is more than its leader. The Stormcloaks are in it for their own reasons and as a ruler Ulfric must satisfy them. Why wouldn't he? They're one of the pillars to his power, if he can't make them happy he loses any status they give him.

Power is not a permanent thing, you gain it, you lose it.

Now on a meta level I take role-playing rules, the true faction you should support is the faction that's right for your character. I have played characters that supported the Imperial cause. My Orc warrior always wanted to be a legionnaire. My Redoran Dunmer felt resentment toward Ulfric so begrudgingly sided with the Empire out of feeling a mutual enemy. My Breton Knight felt loyalty to the Old Empire.

Despite this, as a human looking at a fantasy world, I cannot look at the Imperial argument with any seriousness.

However since 2011 here are some assumptions made about me by Imperialists.

1. I'm racist.

Probably, I hear nobody is completely free of racist thought. I like to think that I'm less racist than most, though I'm open to the idea that I may be more racist than I assume.

2. I like Trump.

I don't. I think he's a wonderful caricature of what an idiot thinks a high power businessman acts like. I find him funny, but I would never want him in charge of my country and I'm thankful to not be American. I think his presidency is a wonderful argument people like me who live in countries with mandatory voting can point at and say "This is why you don't want 100% voter turnout."

3. I was involved in GamerGate

Insofar as paying attention to it and not believing they're 100% wrong. Yes. I've had no faith in journalism since I myself was a child. To know that a journalist was sleeping with the subject of his articles was unsurprising, even expected. You might say its just fucking video games, and you'd be right. I would ask if you can not trust journalists with just fucking video games, what can you trust them with?

And that was my answer to the whole GamerGate thing. Journalism has never been a profession a person with any expectation of realism should respect. The amount of times I've been reading an article and it turned out the writer knew nothing is staggering.

The answer of course, is don't give journalists money. And that's as far as I ever took it.

However participating in a harassment campaign? No. I've never sent a message to any game developer or journalist I didn't like. I have, as a young man, sent cringe fan mail to Hideki Kamiya telling him I'm a fan of all his work. The same goes for Kojima and Yoko Taro.

My disappointment in GamerGate was that it's supporters never made that step into ignoring journalists and refusing them money. They continued sharing their articles.

4. I'm a fascist.

I think in order to make this argument you have to ignore a lot about the Empire. Like, a lot. They rely on exploitation of the provinces, rule by might as evidenced by the Legion being the only thing keeping Skyrim from a full succession, benefited from slavery and were built on the back of a war of conquest. When their power was broken just about the only thing keeping them together was wealth. I do not have it in me to respect power built like that.

They're a mirror of Rome, certainly. I put it to you that Rome was an exploitative Empire that irreparably damaged every culture it touched.

It's for these reasons I've now decided that in order for me to engage with an Imperial supporters arguments, they have to first prove to me they put enough thought into their beliefs to justify them. They also have to prove they play the game enough to know things about it. For instance most imperial supporters act like they don't know the Thalmor want to avoid a victory for either side.

That's kind of why I'm thankful the Stormcloak debate got so hostile. It provided a wonderful litmus test on who actually thinks about what they believe. I saw an account posting Anti-Stormcloak arguments, then I clicked on it to see what theyre like and saw that they had Free Palestine posts and I just had to stop and think for a moment. I've been treating Imperials as if they understand their own beliefs. Then I realised they're probably just very young and don't spend a lot of time thinking about it. I can't do that anymore.

And that's really what the Imperial Stormcloak debate taught me about politics. Well, about social media politics. You cannot enter these arguments assuming that the people you're speaking to understand their own beliefs. You have to assume that anyone who wants to talk politics with you online doesn't understand politics. Because most of them don't. You see, I don't listen to people who were right wing up until 2016 and then made the switch as Trump was being elected. They call it a deradicalization, I call it your politics being dictated you by social media. If YouTube algorithm changed the way you view the world, I don't want to hear from you. Your principles are fragile. If your recommended videos can twist your beliefs in such a way, I believe you're not going to say anything I haven't heard before. Go regurgitate Contrapoints to someone else. And it's these same people who will tell you the Empire is the only morally acceptable choice.

I know based on what I've said you've made assumptions about my politics, I'm not going to elaborate on them. Suffice it to say if you're basing your assumptions of other peoples political beliefs based on a choice they believe is right in a fictional fantasy role playing video game, you are probably not really equipped to be having conversations about politics. It also displays a concerning level of assumption.

[dez78]

Anti-Hero

----------------

Fandom: Skyrim

Pairings: Taliesin x Reader

Warnings: Angst, Hurt to comfort

Summary: You have conflicting feelings and confide in your traveling partner, Taliesin.

---------------

Taliesin was worried sick about you, he woke up and you were gone. You'd be traveling together for months now and you two had grown close.

Taliesin searched restlessly on the Lakeview Manor property. You were nowhere to be found. He hurried down to the lake, he knew that was one of your favorite places to be alone.

Masser and Secunda lit his way through the thick trees. He pushed branches out of the way, no sounds, but his ragged breathing and fast paced heartbeat.

He finally made it down to the lake, the moons reflected off the still water. Making it shine. The water made soft reverberations as light waves brushed the shore. Taliesin walked along the water, searching for any sign of you.

Finally, Taliesin spotted you, he sighed a breath of relief. You were sitting out of sight under the Lady Stone. He made his way across the makeshift bridge; you had made months ago.

The Altmer sat with you in the tall, lush grass. You picked at the vibrant flowers. Seemingly, not noticing his presence. He was quiet for a while, just watching you.

The air around you felt off, he felt a wave of something unfamiliar looming off your person.

"I'm no hero." You finally spoke to him. He cocked his brow perplexed.

"What do you mean?" He questioned, clearly caught off guard.

"Of course, you are, you've helped countless people. You've done things no one else would have done." Taliesin explained calmly. You shook your head.

"It's exhausting Tally. I'm an anti-hero. I'm struggling with my own problems. I only help people because it benefits me. I know it's a terrible way to feel, but it's who I am." You replied with a dry mouth.

"How long until you abandon me because you're tired of my shit?" You asked, looking at Taliesin, really looking at him. Searching his face for a response.

"Never, I'm with you always. We may not have seen eye to eye when we met, but I've definitely come to care about you. I would never abandon you. I promise you that." Taliesin answered, honestly.

"I fear that you'll leave me one day. I'll have no control over it as you walk away from me because you're exhausted." You tried defending your reasons and consulted.

"I can't be left alone." You were starting to get hysterical now. Tears started to rush from your beautiful eyes. Taliesin inhaled sharply.

"Honestly, I have a fear of abandonment too. Growing up, I always feared my father would toss me in the streets and leave me behind. In a way, the Thalmor abandon me too. Even though I left, they wanted me to die for their bidding." Taliesin started. You only listened to him.

"When we first started traveling together, I thought you'd leave me behind after a week, but you surprised me. Now we've known each other for four months and I like to think we're friends. Nothing scares me more now than to lose you." Taliesin finally poured his feelings out to you.

Hearing his fears, made you realize, you had more in common than you thought.

"If you don't believe me, then believe me when I say. I care about you, Y/N, I have for months now. I promise, no matter what happens, you're stuck with me. I will never abandon you. You're not a bad person and even if you don't think you are a hero, you are to me and a lot of the people of Skyrim." Taliesin explained. He rested his hand on your leg.

You looked up at him, he was smiling softly at you. That genuine, kind smile, that he only wore for you. You felt your cheeks heat up and your heart raced.

Suddenly, you felt a pull. You let it happen and realized, Taliesin was pulling you into a hug. You melted into his arms and let it happen naturally. You smiled widely and nuzzled into his clothes. His scent brought you comfort.

The grip of his arms was just right, it wasn't making you feel suffocated, but safe. It was comfortable and it felt so good. You never got hugs and now that you have them, you never want to go without them ever again, so long as Taliesin was the one providing them.

You completely relaxed in his arms and let yourself go. You ended up falling asleep across Taliesin's lap and he let you. Brushing your hair from your face and watching your chest rise and fall softly.

When it was time, Taliesin carried you back to Lakeview Manor and laid you in bed, cuddling you for the rest of the night.

[dynamite124]

I have questions!!! Or just one to be exact.

I've a character who's not necessarily the dragonborn, but I do play her in Skyrim- she's a Redguard who's parents died in a Dominion attack since yanno, they're probably real pissed that Hammerfell is one of the only places to successfully fight back Dominion and Thalmor influence and invasion-

Anyway what would be his reaction to her being just so fucking anti-Dominion and traumatised by the events that she gives a whole (very tearful) rant about how 'your kind' ruined her life and how she's 'all too happy to show you the same pain you did to my parents' when she meets Tally. Like how would he convince her to spare him?

Also bonus question. If they did somehow end up travelling together, how would he feel about her joining the Stormcloaks purely out of her hatred for the Dominion, which now extends to the Empire for allying with them?

Sorry if these questions are too heavy! I'm just curious how he would resolve the situation of their initial meeting and all that.

This is a tricky one.

When the player meets Taliesin, he's not expecting to be met with friendly arms. He's hostile to the player at the start because he's literally backed into a corner, he's expecting to be put down. That's why when the player decides to help him, he's caught off guard. He expected that moment to be his last because everyone he's met that wasn't in the Thalmor has been hostile to him.

He's use to hostility. Being patient and caring is new.

So your character giving him a rant and being "You did this, you deserve this, how dare you kill my family" would just be met with the rolling of eyes. They wouldn't be the first to say this to him and probably not the last.

He's not there to change minds. So their insults and backlash towards him wouldn't be heard. He'd respond with:

"So is this how you're going to kill me? By talking my ear off? If that's your tactic than I'm afraid Elenwen is far more talented at that this this pitiful attempt."

[spooky-donut-ghost-house]

Made a faction for Skyrim based on the witch hunters from The Witcher and real witch hunters from the 1600s

So they are called The Witch Hunters of Skyrim aka The Witch Hunters (tho unlike Vigilants of Stendarr witch hunters that only hunt witches these witch hunters believe all magic users are witches) and they are made up of mostly Nords but there are other non Nordic humans in The Witch Hunters except for Bretons

The Witch Hunters were formed not too long after The Great Collapse of Winterhold they are a bunch of anti magic religious fanatics who worship Talos not only do they hunt mages but they also hunt any non human races as they believe them to be an abomination to Talos they also hunt Bretons due to them being half elf

They are obviously Stormcloak aligned and primarily operate in Stormcloak territory however they have been found in Imperial territory however they stay out of the cities

In Stormcloak territory they have free reign to detain any citizen they deem to be a magic user and publicly execute them in ways similar to the witch hunting methods of the 1600s

They however will not detain a jarl's court wizard without permission of said jarl but they do have schemes on attacking The College of Winterhold

Jarl Korir has given them full permission to take on The College however they have yet to do that as they know the gate will not open to them

The reason they have yet to detain Nelacar is because they think he is a Thalmor spy due to him being a high elf so they don't wanna take him out of the picture until Ulfric becomes High King so they don't tip off the Thalmor about him going missing they do not however know about Ancano

They also don't believe that Vaermina is the source of Dawnstar's nightmares and instead choose to believe that Erandur is using magic to plague Dawnstar with nightmares

Many NPCs in the base game are apart of The Witch Hunters such as Heimskr and some of the citizens (minus Benor as my HC of Benor is like how he is in Denizens of Morthal) of Morthal that don't trust the jarl or Falion and they believe Idgrod and her son to be practising dark arts but they know they can't attack them because they are in Imperial territory

They also forbid the use of any magical or enchanted items believing them to be evil

And they also believe any claims of Tiber Septim being a Breton is lies made up by The Aldmeri Dominion

[kyliafanfiction]

Hot take: I actually think the argument in “The Talos Mistake” is a good one, and I kind of wish that it could be true.

The shrines to Talos work, so it’s probably not true, Talos really is a god, but I kind of hate that it happened.

[moodcrab]

Fixing Skyrim's Main Quest

Part One, Setting

Obviously it's set in Skyrim, but let's tweak it a bit.

Time

First of all, if there's one thing we can all agree on from Skyrim and Fallout 4 it's that Bethesda doesn't know how long 200 years is.

It's a very long time.

For reference, two hundred years back from the time of writing this Mad King George was king of England, it wasn't even the Victorian Era yet. The American Civil War was decades away from starting. The entire industrial AND technological revolutions as well as BOTH World Wars and the collapse of the British AND Ottoman Empires happened in that time, with plenty of room to spare.

It's a VERY long time!

Placing a two hundred year gap between Oblivion and Skyrim was a bad decision considering how very little actually happened. Tamriel should be drastically different, like they should have cars by now.

The major events that did happen, the Rise of the Medes, the Rise of the Thalmor, The Red Year, The Infernal City, The Void Nights, The Great War and White Gold Concordat could easily happen within one lifetime, so we're going to say the events of Skyrim take place in 4E64.

From a writing point of view, this small change makes it a lot easier to keep track of things that were a bit of a mess in vanilla, like the life of Ulfric, or the backstory of Gaius, Karliah and Mercer, which were all over the place if you were actually paying attention. It also means you can talk to people who actually remember these things happening, who were children during the Oblivion Crisis. You could even change Esbern's name to one of the younger Blades members you meet in Oblivion seeing as Esbern has the role of lore depository.

Religion and Culture

The next setting change is to remember this is Skyrim, not Cyrodiil. The Nords don't worship the Nine/Eight. In fact, the only reason the Nine/Eight exists as a pantheon at all because of the Nords stubbornness around the worship of foreign gods.

The Temple of Kynareth is now The Temple of Kyn, and Gildergleam Sanctuary is the home of Kyn's Holy Order. The College of Winterhold is no longer Hogwarts but the Chantry of Jhunal (a 'college' is a place of study, research and academia, not just a school). You might meet The Vigilant of Stuhn on the road, who don't live in a hut but a temple. Instead of a priest of Arkay in the Halls of the Dead we have priests of Orkey. Tsun, a god we actually meet in vanilla but has no shrines or altars, will replace Zenithar. And, most interesting to our story, a cult of both Alduin and Herma Mora - our two villains - gods to be placated rather than worshipped.

This said, the Imperial Cult will definitely have a strong presence in Skyrim and Talos, being an Ysmir, is particularly venerated (as is Ysgramor and Wulfharth). Yes, over the centuries the Imperial Cult and will obviously have spread into Skyrim, we can lean into this with the Civil War, putting a much bigger emphasis on the more "Imperialised" Holds siding with the Empire and the old school Atmoran Holds siding with the Stormcloaks. It never made much sense to me that the "true Nords" were more upset than the Imperials over the whole Talos situation, this change makes it so that while both sides are pissed off, one reacts with frustrating diplomacy and patience while the over reacts with stubborn honour and impulse, a more cultural divide rather than a pro/anti Talos one.

The Imperial position would be to play along with the Thalmor in the open, but to secretly fund and organise cults to other men-turned-gods and Imperial/Nordic hero gods such as Pelinal, Wulfharth, Ysgramor, Reman, Alessia and Martin, as well as the concept of Ysmir (which would actually include Tiber Septim and The Last Dragonborn). They would not openly support nor allow any arrests or persecutions of these cults by Justiciars. The Stormcloak position will remain "Fuck that bitch this is Skyrim."

Geography

This might sound crazy, but Skyrim was too hot.

No I'm kidding, I'm not so in love with the lore that I think a game of endless snow would be anything but boring. But there are some things that were cut out of the land that left Skyrim wanting. For instance there are hardly any settlements. Amber Guard, Granitehall, Nimalten City, Reich Corigate, Lainalten, Oakwood, Pargran Village, Laintar Dale, Dunpar Wall, Dragon Wood, and North Keep are all Skyrim cities that are missing from the game. Like not even abandoned ruins, they're just not there.

I totally understand there are size limitations but this is meant to be a country. It has five town sized cities and three village sized cities. And some villages. And they mostly look like Riverwood. Seriously, what exactly is the difference between Karthwasten, Falkreath, Shor's Stone, Winterhold and Riverwood, all towns from different Holds? It's like if shopping malls were made of wood.

The other thing about the vanilla settlements I didn't like was Bethesda seems to be stuck in Fallout style post apocalyptic design. Solitude has been there for thousands of years but no one has ever thought to shift these boulders from out of the middle of the street? There are ruins in better shape than Windhelm and Markarth? You can sum it up with Whiterun's Western Watchtower, which looks exactly the same after a dragon destroys it. Surely the ravages of civil war and the dragon crisis would have a bigger impact if things weren't already destroyed.

In fact, let's address the Imperial Fort situation. At the start of the game only 3 forts were occupied by actual soldiers, two of which were destroyed in the early game (Helgan and the Western Watchtower). Literally ALL other forts are in ruins and occupied by bandits or other undesirables. Consider that Skyrim is a country that recently took part in the Great War, but is currently dealing with a Civil War. Forts are not easy to build, and are insanely useful for medieval warfare. It truly beggars belief that practically none of them are maintained and fortified until the Player Character decides to get involved. To strain credulity further, many of the war camps you encounter in the wilds are literally in the shadows of major fortifications that have been left to rot. There is even a side quest to reclaim a Nord's fort from bandits, which is also a ruin. Is the implication that the man lives in a ruin? Or is it that in the short time the bandits have been there they've done a century or two of damage? Why would they do that?

Skyrim has a lot of dungeons, and a lot of quests that are basically "clear dungeon", we can't sacrifice some of this boring content for some more towns or forts, with characters, and things to do?

[spinchboli]

🫀⚔️Age of the dragons: blood upon the snow⚔️🫀

"A woman leaving a path of vengeance in her wake, surviving in a war-torn land baptized in fire and blood. She cannot run from the past that haunts her, her path takes a jarring turn when an ancient and unholy evil rouses from its eternal slumber within the crypts of Solstheim and shrouds the land in shadow. When an old shadow of her past comes back to haunt her and when the black wings of death take flight when brother has turned against brother as he threatens to destroy the world with his ravenous maw, will she and Miraak put their differences aside? Or with they destroy eachother tooth and claw?"

-

Salmon sharks

Rats

Salmon

Bait ball

Blue shark

Orca

Mudcrab

Tiger keelback snake

Seeker

Horker

Blood dragon

Glenumbrian blue cat

Felsaad tern

Dwarven ballista

Velvet bellied lantern shark

Themes of anti war and found family, this is a long fic that is more slower paced and focuses on building into the world building around the elder scrolls. This fic itself deals with the themes of characters witnessing the worst monstrosities of humanity in a land ravaged by war and themes of religious trauma and corruption, heavy themes of monsters having more humanity then most humans. The thalmor recently being introduced in the background pulling the strings of everything that happens, everything comes full circle and falls into the thalmor in some way- they are the main antagonists of the story.

The main character is supposed to be a similar character as Miraak, the parallel eachother immensely and has been a repeating theme in recent chapters- she's an asshole and not supposed to be likeable, very morally dubious but follow on their journey of the worst people in tamriel relearning what humanity truly is.

Animal and plant symbolism, some stands for subtle foreshadowing. It's up to the reader to figure out what they mean.

[mist-the-wannabe-linguist]

Listening to anti-regime songs from the communist era rn and i think it's so fucking lame that Skyrim doesn't have more protest songs against the Empire, Thalmor and the Stormcloaks

The Age of Oppression/Aggression is interesting to think about as originally a Stormcloak song that the Empire took and adjusted to fit the imperial narrative and use it as counter-propaganda but I want more

I want subtle lyrics and allusions and people singing with all the sadness and rage that war and oppression brings, I want the Bards' College secretly hiding banned songs criticizing the Thalmor, I want anti-Stormcloak songs hummed quietly by the Dunmer and Argonians right under the guards' noses

[unusualindigo]

My Elder Scrolls AU Notes

Tiber Septim is a lie.

Pelinal wasn’t a cyborg, he just gay and the worst war criminal until Hjalti.

CHIM/Anti-Chim doesn’t exist.

The Godhead doesn’t exist.

Kalpas don’t exist.

The Tribunal die/get dispersed from reality at the end of Morrowind.

Skyrim is incredibly different (credit to Zaric Zhakaron).

Oh, and the Thalmor aren’t trying to unmake reality. They’re just assholes.

Thank you for your time.

[tastesoftamriel]

You once mentioned that Talviel has a girlfriend, Luscious Vellalinwe. Can you tell us more about her?

Oh CAN I *rubs hands together*

This is Luscious Vellalinwe, aka Vella. She was stripped of her family's titles and holdings and declared an aprax for spreading anti-colonial, anti-Thalmor propaganda in Summerset during the war. Her mischief-making never being enough, she decided that mercenary work, especially as a decoy or spy, was the way forward for her.

Vella is a classically trained dancer, but became known for her... lustier performances as a burlesque star after leaving Summerset. Seriously, who is going to suspect a burlesque star of killing the party host AND absconding with enough gold and jewelry to start a new life? Again, and again, and again...

Talviel met Vellalinwe in Riften, as she was trying out for Brynjolf's old job at the marketplace, which means standing there duping people into buying whatever mysterious concoction is available. The thing is, Vella is also a talented alchemist, so she isn't just selling crap; why not actually make a love potion and take advantage of the chaos in town once everyone is distracted?

Talviel and Vella instantly became smitten with each other after Vella got the job. They started hanging out while Talviel cooked, and soon ended up quite literally tangled up in each other's company. Brynjolf doesn't mind their little polycule, because why would he? He's a reasonable man. With reasonable desires. Like Vellalinwe, who also has a thing for redheads, so everyone wins. (AU themesong would be My Girlfriend's Girlfriend by Type O Negative.)

To wrap this up, Vellalinwe and Talviel are each other's dream girls. They go shopping (the Thieves Guild way) together, spend their time cooking and drawing together, and are very, very excited about each other's bodies to put it simply. When Talviel goes travelling for work, sometimes Vella tags along too, because she's a big sooky lala who misses her girlfriend if she's gone for too long. They're cute together and I love them so much. ~Tal

[nientedenada]

*Of course* the Thalmor hate Tiber Septim for what he did to Summerset

Originally posted on r/teslore. I dunno how relevant this post is on tumblr, since I’ve never seen anyone on tumblr arguing that the Thalmor don’t mind Tiber Septim, and I’m sure most of you are already going “WHAT?” But it was, oddly enough, an argument in certain Lore debate circles, because Elenwen calls Tiber Septim a great man but not a god and people took that very seriously. So for completeness, here we are.

Lately, there's been a resurgence of this debate which strikes me as absolutely pointless. Do the Thalmor want to ban Talos as a god because it's a) politically convenient, b) matches their religious beliefs or c) they hate what he did to Summerset.

And I'd like to ask, why wouldn't it be all three? In fact, is it possible there's a universe in which it isn't all three?

Now, to be fair, I get where the objectors to c) are coming from. No one in canon wastes their time complaining about Tiber Septim's misdeeds as of the Fourth Era. And I think objectors also don't like the whiff of justification for war crimes and other humanitarian abuses if someone else did something bad to you first. Absolutely agreed there.

But, think about it. There is no way the Thalmor like Tiber Septim. They don't like the Empire having control over Summerset. They wanted to go back to the Dominion's independence and influence over Valenwood and Elsweyr. They don't approve of being invaded by humans, or of huge robots that cause dragon breaks/stomp Summerset to pieces. They rose to power fanning anti-Imperial feeling in Summerset. They're devoted to reversing Tiber Septim's takeover.

They don't like the Empire. They don't like what Tiber Septim did. Abroad, their diplomats will be polite about it, as is Elenwen re: Tiber Septim the man.

So what exactly is the debate here? Seriously.

Further comments:

spacest007 added a canon source, the Pocket Guide to the Empire, Third Edition, written circa the game Oblivion, a few years before the rise of the Third Dominion and the modern Thalmor:

"The conquest and assimilation of Summerset into the Empire is remembered by many a living Altmer with horror only partially diminished by time."

[crysdrawsthings]

So, this is my birthday and if anyone wants to make me a lil birthday gift, I would be most excited to answer any asks about my TES OCs!

List of them goes down below, have fun, I will also probably reblog a few ask games in a moment.

Elder Scrolls Online

- Lanaraume (Deer) - Altmer Dragonknight, Vestige. Big buff lady whose hobby is sticking her nose into every single life-threatening situation possible.

- Chemkhi-La and Chezarjo-Ma - Khajiit siblings from the family of traveling performers.

- Gives-Many-Hugs - the kindest and sweetest Argonian you can find in the Tamriel. Pacifist, healer, everyone's second best pen pal.

- Llaveyne Telvanni - Dunmer mushroom witch, old as dirt, staunchly against slavery, will rather eat glass then recognize Tribunal as anything else then annoying upstarts.

- Galla Illvia - Imperial Dragonknight and the moody teenager of the bunch.

- Philippe Roussel (and his of yet unnamed wife) - Breton-rised Orc working as an accountant and personal assistant to a passionate historian.

- Autaracu Alata - Meridian Purified Ayleid artist-turned-sorceress from the Galras Malatar. CEO of King Narilmor's secret fan club.

Oblivion + Morrowind

- Sheba - not the Hero Kvatch deserves or needs, but the one it will get. Altmer Mage with a penchant for unorthodox solutions to nonexistent problems. Anti-Talos before it was hip.

- Yeoba - Sheba's sister who might or might not have been Nerevarine. Ended up in prison because stealing everything not bolted down is generally frowned upon in society.

Skyrim

- Elanor - Altmer-shaped artificial vessel for the dragon soul, part-time natural disaster, full-time eldritch annoyance, officially employed as the Emissary in the Skyrim branch of Thalmor.

- Asgeld - ex-Stormcloak and genuinely a pretty good guy! Just a normal dude doing normal things and living through the drama caused by everyone around.

- Cassia Illvia (and Wraith) - Asgeld's half-sister (and her daedra), in the employment of Captain Valmir as his ambiguously evil henchman and loyal scribe.

- Unnamed Greybeard Acolyte - yet another generally good person, whose life was more or less indirectly ruined by Elanor existing. Very strongly opposed to her being trained and over the events of Dragon Crysis stood in opposition to the rise of the person, whom he saw only as the new Alduin. And was quite right.

[oxalisvtesblog]

I don't know if there will be a definite canon on how things went in Skyrim with the civil war (maybe there will be another dragon break to solve the problem) but I would have liked it if neither side really won.

They start fighting and then halt the civil war because of the dragon crisis and then... something happens. Maybe the Emperor gets assassinated by the dark brotherhood. Maybe something else. But like, imagine at that point when they are about to resume the war the entire board shifts because the empire implodes.

Imagine Tullius and Ulfric just getting drunk together and bonding over anti Thalmor jokes.

Like, Tullius wanted to send his head to Cyrodiil because he wanted to do a good job. If no one is there to receive it gladly and mount it on a wall he won't bother.

Might be harder to convince Ulfric.