#dunmer slavery is very bad

[trickstarbrave]

something of note as far as i can see: house hlaalu, prior to the war of the first council, appears to have been record keepers and librarians.

they had a huge fucking library that i assume was massively purged to scrub every instance of house dagoth from resdayn/morrowind's history, as well as rewriting many historical events and validating the tribunal's rule.

it's probably safe to assume much of great house hlaalu was sacked. most of their records destroyed, a wealth of information purged from the world and chimer/dunmer people because it happened to mention house dagoth.

and the only thing left for them really, probably from encouragement of of the tribunal, was to pick a different path. the only ones who survived the purge of both councilmen and documents are those who could be bought off. so corruption spread.

a lot of the morrowind fandom likes to treat house dres as corrupt bad guys (i mean. many are corrupt and most are very pro-slavery so thats why and these are valid reasons) but as a house they often, in the long history of morrowind, flipped between being staunchly anti-slavery and pro-slavery, but more importantly believed in the unity of great houses more than any other house did. in terms of corruption and being willing to do anything for a profit, that is house hlaalu.

and it's kinda sad to think they weren't always like this. they didn't spring forth as a vessel of corruption and remained that way like an infection that won't go away (unlike what MK would say in c0da). they were probably somewhat honorable, uptight record keepers who loved information and were willing to adapt, but who still valued the truth. they were always merchants but i think it is uhhhh very interesting that after the war of the first council most of their warriors happened to perish with nerevar on red mountain, their ancestral tombs and great library vanished, and they basically lost interest in record keeping despite helping found one of the first velothi settlements.

but maybe im reading too much into it and eso actually reveals they were always scummy money hungry corrupt assholes and their tombs and library going missing are in fact complete coincidence. to which i have to say: thats a boring as fuck angle to take

[venacoeurva]

IRT the slavery jokes, and the tag about how bad it must have been years ago: I’ve been in the fandom for almost twenty years, and it honestly wasn’t too bad until Oblivion came out? The fandom shifted from quiet nerds to mainstream very quickly. Could be that I was insulated to some specific forums where the biggest drama was “stop asking us where the puzzle cube is” and one of the mods wanted to make dremoras and atronachs kiss, but I don’t remember much in the way of slavery jokes and offensive bullshit until Oblivion happened and attracted a bunch of randos, a lot of whom were edgy teens who started the whole thing. Worryingly, a lot of people also came in and played Morrowind out of curiosity, then walked away thinking the whole Dunmer xenophobia thing was “cool.”

HOMOPHOBIA, on the other hand, was a big deal even before Oblivion. Lots of people gnashing their teeth over Vivec being canonically bi and AlienSlof making mods that had assless chaps for men. It’s kind of funny that Voryn/Nerevar is the big ship nowadays because I can still remember all the dudes who felt personally threatened by mesh shirts for elves, and screaming “IM NOT GAY” while staring at the Nude Better Bodies option on GameSpy.

Yeah, I can see that happening (keep in mind I was like 6 when mw came out and I wasn't exactly Online), Oblivion promo was everywhere around when it came out and permeated everything for YEARS (at least around here, everyone had it, everyone was playing it, same with Skyrim, but I feel like Oblivion was a BIG big thing because the high fantasy sort of appeal, the lore wasn't prohibitive for new players, and it looked graphically ambitious for the time). I think the aughts were around when being a Gamer started being seen as a semi-cool/acceptable subculture, too, so I'm sure that emboldened a lot of those dickweeds because they felt like revolutionaries or something and circlejerked, including their shared bigotry (and then the skyrim nazi problem happened). Biiig gateways to get people into the older games.

But yeah, I remember constant homophobia and every other [minority]phobia was just a Fandom Problem in general regardless of series... at least the fragility of homophobic dudebros toward even the most basic shit like a male character being shirtless or had tight pants, or having long hair (or a female character having short hair, because they're afraid that's too gay for them) was funny and pathetic as hell when they weren't expressing a wish that people like me die or something. The fact that people still act like this makes me wonder how they survive.

I saw it in multiple places. I think it helps along with general social progress that social media is more than mostly just forums, old style blogs, webcomics, and dA so more lgbtq+ people can just be out there and not get flamed and harassed to the point of just leaving all available mainstream platforms for fans of something and sites are (usually) more proactive about preventing as much hate speech and the average person will shut down or ignore and simply report/block anyone trying to be bold with it.

Also yeah it's kind of funny it's so big suddenly? I think people just really like running with subtexts with fanbases in general these days instead of just sticking to staunch, outright and stated canon that's put directly in your face (which is kind of moot with dying on that latter hill for this series lmao) because people used to just fight you on that shit back in the day for any series, and going nuts and finally have the freedom to do so. New people coming in with their pre-established behavior and accepted norms from other fandoms helps as well I'm guessing. And judging by tags on my art, gay dudes just really like Voryn and see him as a projection character/he was a gay awakening for some of them? I think being on the gay trans website in an era that shipping is its own subculture within fandoms helps

[boethiah]

Sotha sil for the character ask thing to complete the trio (Also your mortal!ayem fic sounds so cool! And would you mind sharing some of those Almalexia themed writing prompts? I love the way you characterise her and the whole tribunal)

plugging this first bc i'm planning to post the first new chapter in several years this week: gratuitous almalexia backstory fanfic. almalexia-themed writing prompts will be at the end but first let's discuss sotha sil

First impression

he was actually my favorite tribunal member at first when i was 18 and new to the fandom :')

Impression now

eso sotha sil isn't real. eso sotha sil isn't canon and eso sotha sil can[t hurt me

Favorite moment

the only canonical eso sotha sil moment i'll acknowledge which is the one where he got kicked out of almalexia's basement and had to move into a nearby cave

Idea for a story

if i ever finish rolecall (a fic about the tribunal post-nerevar's death and pre-ascension) i plan to write out the conversation sotha sil had with almalexia and vivec when he returned and revealed he'd learned how to use kagrenac's tools. which-- hang on this is actually an unpopular opinion let me move onto the next question

Unpopular opinion

most of the fandom seems to have this idea that sotha sil is somehow less guilty than almalexia and vivec in the betrayal of nerevar, when in reality i actually see him as MORE guilty. sotha sil was the only one who knew how to use the tools of kagrenac. almalexia and vivec may have murdered nerevar or agreed to break their oath but they never could have achieved godhood without sotha sil. so it seems like there's this weird belief that sotha sil is the only remorseful tribune or the only one not to blame, but-- he is the ONLY one of them who actually knew how to use the tools. he had the EXCLUSIVE power to make that happen. including almalexia and vivec was mere kindness on his part. the only canonical part of the betrayal we're certain of, the breaking of the oath, is entirely on him.

Favorite relationship

once again it has got to be the tribunal here. but specifically i'm obsessed with his relationship with almalexia-- the fact that they were apparently childhood friends, the fact that he was apparently scared of her, the fact that he remained so close to her throughout his entire life and godhood. i think they were very codependent; they both went through so much shit as mortals i think they just latched onto each other in a bad way, and sotha sil at least knew it would end with one of them dead at the other's hands.

also, fa-nuit-hen seems to have a crush on him? good for sotha sil with whatever hijinks precipitated THAT

Favorite headcanon

that he was disabled and had prosthetic legs as a mortal. in my mind his being disabled influenced both his interest in technology and his extreme desire to make things better for people. related; that his chief character flaw is that he cares too much about people and is driven by empathy to the point where it can overwhelm him and shut him down, hence his repeated chronic retreating from the world

free almalexia story ideas under the cut:

okay so here's just a random list of stuff i've been meaning to write about almalexia that i'll probably never get around to so consider it free game. in no particular order:

the story of almalexia's involvement in resurrecting wulfharth during the akaviri war, and whatever the hell her involvement was there

a conversation between almalexia and heita-meen negotiating the end to argonian slavery, and almalexia's subsequent personal involvement in making that happen

just. almalexia being a war-leader. almalexia showing up in battles to just destroy things. almalexia planning out wars. almalexia scaring the shit out of people who might cause trouble for the dunmer.

relatedly-- mortal almalexia serving as nerevar's general, offering her expertise on the nords to plan battles

the world could always use more nerevar/almalexia stuff ngl. big fan of fics where almalexia gets to scold nerevar for being stupid about something.

a fic about almalexia and nerevar just being like, way too comptitive over a chess game or something. to the point of probable violence

a fic about almalexia talking to nerevar's shrine/grave during the time of the nerevarine prophecy, while getting ready to try and murder his supposed reincarnation

and of course

the conversation in which almalexia kicked sotha sil out of her basement, forcing him to relocate to a nearby cave

[potatolordofficial]

kicks in door

hi i want some facts about laria pls and thank you

Hello yes

So Laria is like my second oldest oc, she’s from the elder scrolls and recently I revamped her

Cw for child neglect, abuse, slavery, unethical experiments, cannibalism

She’s a dark elf that is disconnected from her culture, so she prefers that term over dunmer. She’s a feral researcher, mage, and academic that just runs around outside the mages guild’s rules bc she thinks they hinder her research.

Lately she’s been part of an rp my partner @goldandgunmetal and I are doing of our ocs so I’m going off of that. Her best friend is his character Ice Breath, a big nord himbo.

She was born to a mage and a merchant who were only really focused on making an heir. She was neglected and later ran away from home. She ended up an indentured servant to a wealthy family, and this is where she became devoted to Namira, the daedric prince of decay. She later becomes the champion of Namira and starts eating people.

As a young adult (read: barely out of teenage years), she made a name for herself as the ‘shadow witch’, a necromancer and very dangerous mage that lived in the woods and experimented on people. In reality she was mostly focused on plants, but did dig up corpses to take them apart since kidnapping left too large a trail. At some point she became a vampire to research that, and picked up an apprentice, Saval.

When the Oblivion Crisis happened she saw what was happening, figured out where the resistance to the crisis was located (by torturing some Mythic Dawn cultists), and both she and Saval showed up at Cloudruler Temple like ‘hello you have a problem, I can help’. This worked. She ended up helping through to the end and saw the Heroes of Kvatch Ice Breath and Riniel(another oc of mine), Martin, and the others there as her family since she’d never had a healthy one. Then Martin ascended, Ice was killed by vampire hunters, Rin became Sheogorath, and everything fell apart for the group.

She began studying Ayleid ruins in the aftermath as a way of going back to her normal, which consisted of spending months in ruins and tombs transcribing pages upon pages of carvings and artifacts. (Saval ended up in the Shivering Isles to keep Rin company and also study that plane.) When the Thalmor arrived and began destroying Ayleid ruins to hide historical events, she was forced north into Skyrim, where she avoided the Great War by studying the Nords’ barrows.

That’s where a reincarnated Ice Breath finds her, in Bleak Falls Barrow next to a chanting dragon wall they both can hear. She’s been ignoring it, instead translating the carvings and mapping the rooms. It turns out they’re both Dragonborn, which is probably because Martin knew they’d be fit to save the world, and told this to Akatosh.

She’s loud and deeply traumatized, had to be taught that random murder is wrong, and good from bad as an adult, (Ice taught her this) and is very autistic and her special interests are plants and magic. She loves creating illusions, like perfect recreations of bugs and flowers, she loves to sketch anatomically accurate drawings of whatever she’s studying, and she’ll infodump at any opportunity. She’s often sarcastic and cranky during the dragon crisis, because the Oblivion crisis was so awful for her she retreated into a shell to protect herself. Despite this, she’s stubborn and courageous when she has to be, and once she figures out that making people feel good is something she likes, tries to do that even if it’s clumsy.

[ayemsehtvehk]

The Thistle Flower Facts

Okay so now that I'm playing her and reconnecting with her and seeing that she's always been inside my heart all this time: here are some Thistle Flower Facts

Major Skills: Alchemy, Spear, Mysticism, Unarmored, Illusion. Minor Skills: Destruction, Alteration, Marksman, Athletics, Sneak.

Born under the Serpent, despite that being suboptimal for a magic-based character. Idk I just like her being cursed and blessed in equal, extreme quantities, and always feeling like an interloper, for better or worse.

Morag Tong, Mages Guild, lil bit of Thieves Guild. Most of her free time is consumed by being The Nerevarine so she didn't have much time to get involved with many more factions.

She never joined a Great House because she wanted to be able to remain neutral for Morag Tong purposes. Also, all of them are complicit in slavery, and she wasn’t interested in playing political games to get 1/5th of Dunmer at absolute most to realize that maybe that’s bad?

That's something she does by blackmailing and threatening King Helseth. No one knows how important it is to get in good with the local assassin's guild than him, and having her as not so much of an ally as someone who’s not going to cause trouble is worth pissing off a lot of people who'd be mad at him cozying up to the violent abolitionist.

She loves to cook. It's basically alchemy, which is her most powerful skill, but the result is delicious food. She likes to bake cakes and meals that have beneficial alchemical properties. Just don't ask if there's raw glass in there. Don't worry about it!

On the spectrum of how much she’s Nerevar reborn, errs strongly towards the “this is a role I’m playing and not something I literally am” end of things. It was something she did for the Ashlanders, since she loved them very much and wanted to live up to their expectations. Secretly thinks that maybe Peakstar was the real Nerevarine, and that if she was as good at violence as Thistle Flower, she would’ve been a better Nerevarine.

Needing magical assistance to interact with people and convince them that she's not off-putting and rude is something that she shared with Nerevar. Just also for like. Normal everyday social interactions. Charm spells and fortify personality potions go a long way to making her seem normal, and not like she's going to kill you if you don't listen to her tell you all about her favorite mushrooms.

(Her very favorite's Bungler's Bane, btw.)

[sociallyawkwardmer]

I gotta say that playing Skyrim after spending far too many hours on ESO causes major whiplash. You go from the nords who just want to get drunk, party, and are pretty okay/indifferent for the most part with interracial romances (the stable girl and the argonian in windhelm as well as Holgunn and Walks-in-ash) to a bunch of racists. Like damn, Holgunn One-Eye and Rigurt the Brash did not walk for the nords to run into the racism ball pit. Do I gotta call Mera Stormcloak on you Ulfric? Do I?

[evfryder]

quirezia's psa abt anti romanism w/ the khajiit

so, as we all know, the elder scrolls is a pretty racist game series. this is a well known and pretty indisputable fact, demonstrated by things like the heavy anti indigenous racism, the orientalism with the dunmer and other stuff, but something i personally haven't really seen talked about is the incredible amount of anti romanism w/ the khajiit. which, yknow, i'm not exactly upset over as the vast majority of tes fans aren't romani, but! it's still bad and it makes me so goddamn uncomfortable at the best of times! i don't deserve to have panic attacks over the amount of racism that is subjected to my eyes over cat people! so here is my public service announcement

note: i'm not like, 100% sure the writers of the elder scrolls were intending any of this or meaning to code the khajiit as romani, and i'm not going to claim that, but that doesn't change that i have seen people use real life nazi propaganda to justify why the nords are right to hate the khajiit or that most people who notice these things read the khajiit as romani lmfao so! and i'm also not an authority on this and i don't want to be treated like one. this is just my romani opinion, other romani people might have differing opinions and that's alright. gadje don't get to argue w/ me abt any of this tho ❤

note part two : gypsy is a slur. this is not debatable, do not try to debate it with me, and do not use it. remove it from your vocabulary. any uncensored use of it within this post is because i'm romani and allowed to use it lmfao

so anyways, most of the romani coding comes from skyrim, by way of introducing the khajiit caravans, full of people hailing from a south asian coded country with a history of slavery, that travel from city to city, relying on nomadicism, due to being barred from the cities because of stereotypes that paint the khajiit as thieves and drug addicts who face racism as a result of things like that.

if you know anything about the romani, this probably sounds familiar! as we're also a south asian diaspora who are traditionally nomadic and have been enslaved, who face severe racism and are heavily stereotyped to be thieves and drug addicts. i've even personally been told that i'm dirty trash who shouldn't be allowed in a city! fun.

this alone isn't a problem. i would love to have some representation, even in the form of cat people, and if this was all there was with the khajiit and romani coding i would honestly be overjoyed! but alas.

the problem is that the khajiit are actually portrayed as thieves and drug users within the games. in ESO, the baandari clan honor the bandit god and follow a code that allows thievery, and practice fucking fortune telling. in skyrim, in skyrim, ri'saad is a fence for the thieves guild who accepts the offer after being given moon sugar and ahkari is hinted to be involved with to the skooma trade. the khajiit overall are cultural drug users, and while there is absolutely nothing wrong with cultural drug use and drug use in general i hope you can see why its bad in this context.

and even with all of this, if this was where it began and end, it wouldn't be that bad. as far as i know, this is all accidental, and none of this is what keeps me up at night. what bothers me is how fans react to the romani elements of the khajiit.

i've had to see the use of the g word, something that is personally very triggering to me, almost everywhere, both casually and in a demeaning manner. i've seen the khajiit described as the scum of tamriel that live in scum infested sewers hooked on skooma and live off of imperial assistance (which is another thing that i've been told in regards to my people, that we're scum who live off of government assistance). i've seen khajiit called useless drug addicts who have no home. i've seen people say they see khajiit as dirty, filthy gypsies and tend to imagine skinning them for wall hangers.

it's tiring. it fucking hurts on a whole different level to see a slur utilized against your people and against you everywhere, hurts to know that people still view you and your people as a dirty and subhuman, and i'm honestly pretty done if we're being honest. tes has been ruined for me because of this stuff. and i'm not even asking for y'all to pay for me Ethnic Therapy Tm lol all i'm asking is that gadje learn about anti romanism and what that means, learn how they can support romani people, that they stop using the g word and perpetuating anti romani things, and that y'all don't let others get away with racism against romani people anymore

[emrysthegoodwitch]

Ezra Ri-Thaern's Vvardenfell Adventures

Ezra Ri-Thaern was a simple Khajiit. She may have stopped the Planemeld, and fought Molag Bal; however most people did not realize it was her who did so. She often used that to her advantage, people underestimating you often helped in fights and covert operations.

However, getting sent to Vvardenfell by Azura herself was not something Ezra thought would ever happen. She did not trust godly beings, whether they were Deadric, Aedric, or Living for that matter.

Most Khajiit tried to avoid Morrowind, and especially Vvardenfell altogether. House Telvani had a nasty habit of enslaving her people. So she was wary about it in general. However, not wanting to be on the bad side of another Deadric Prince, Ezra agreed.

Seyda Neen was a nice port town. The people were polite, and the atmosphere was actually quite calm. That was until Ezra found evidence of a slave ring and had to help the town guard dismantle it. Well, she hadn't been forced too; she more or less offered to help. She despised slavers even more than Worm Cultists.

Reaching Vivec City was a marvel, she may be wary of the Dunmeri Houses; but their architecture was something else. Canon Llevule had wanted her to meet him in Vivec's Palace. He needed help informing the Living God of what happened. Ezra wasn't sure how she felt helping one of the Living Gods of the people who enslaved half of her family. She often had to remind herself that with the Ebonhart Pact formed, slavery was off the table. House Telvani were really the only ones she had to worry about. Ezra ignored the guilt and dread twisting in her gut.

Actually meeting the Living God, Lord Vivec was another experience entirely. His energy was abundant. Not exactly omnipotent like Molag Bal's had been, but still very strong and oddly calming. It put her on edge, which he seemed to notice quickly.

"Archcanon Tarvus does not seem to want this one's help." Ezra's voice rang out as the older mer walked out of the room.

"Archcanon Tarvus can be extremely helpful, though he is narrow-minded at times. He rejects all that did not originate within the Tribunal Temple. That is why a fresh set of eyes would be helpful, eyes which even would look at myself with suspicion. You're not likely to miss the smaller details." Lord Vivec's voice seemed to echo throughout the room and her mind. It was slightly off-putting.

"Ah, this one did not mean offense Lord Vivec."

"It is alright, I do not take offense. It is perfectly natural for you to be wary of anyone here. The Dunmer do not have the best history with the Khajiit." The one topic Ezra had been trying to avoid greatly.

"Yes, this one was not sure she should come at all. However being on Azura's bad side had not been preferable." Vivec cocked his head slightly to the side.

"Azura sent you? Though that does make sense, what is happening on Vvardenfell would most likely interest the Deadric Prince as well. Though you do not seem like the religious type, why would you agree to come at all?"

"This one does not have the best experience with Deadric Princes. Sheogorath constantly put me through trials to get Shalidor's Island back. And, Molag Bal was not fun to face off with. Bad memories, and an even worse relapse with those memories with the thought of Azura trying to attack this one as well." Ezra had to force herself to keep her voice level. Those memories were not ones she liked to dwell on. Vivec considered her for a moment before responding.

"It would seem I slightly misjudged you Ezra, please forgive me. I thought you were perhaps new to this business, but I have more faith in you now as well. If you were able to stop the Planemeld and fight off a Deadric Prince, you are definitely more capable than either myself or the Archcanon thought originally."

"No forgiveness necessary. Most people underestimate this one at first, its quite helpful actually." Ezra let a faint smirk form across her face. Vivec almost seemed amused.

"Ah yes, truer words have not been spoken." Vivec's voice still put Ezra on edge. Though she was more relaxed around the Living God than before hand.

She should have known something like this was going to happen, Ezra had willingly entered Telvanni territory because she had heard about a job. Simple really, she had not thought anyone would cause her problems seeing as to how she was always armed to the teeth. She should had known to expect the worse, it seemed to always happen.

She had been on her way to deliver some ingredients to Tel Fyr for Divayth Fyr. She knew of the older mer, and had read all of his books. Not something she openly admitted to much, only because people always questioned why she would. Apparently academic curiosity was not something 'normal' for a 'hero' like her. Then everything went down hill from there.

"What is something like you doing here?" An older Dunmer woman, sneered at her as she walked out of a mushroom tower. After delivering what she had too. Ezra was already done with this place, slavery twisted her stomach everytime she saw it. Made her want to burn down all their 'lovely' mushroom towers. Yet again she needed to remind herself that most of the Dunmer she had met were agreeable and actually were against the practice of slavery. Then, people like this elderly woman always popped up. Ruining her perfectly good mood.

"This one was delivering ingredients for Divayth Fyr, not that its any of your business. Ezra will be on her way now." The sneer in her voice was palpable. The Telvanni woman seemed to not be used to being talked back too, the surprise on her face was amusing.

"Please, someone like you; delivering anything for a dunmer as well known as Lord Fyr is preposterous. Now, cat. I will only ask one more time, why are you here?" The woman would not let up, and she was dragging attention to themselves. Ezra knew that attacking a Telvanni Mage would not be the best idea. Not because she wouldn't be able to handle them, quite the contrary, it was because of the headache it would cause. If this woman did not believe she was delivering ingredients, then she would definitely not believe that she was working for one of their Living Gods either.

"This one is leaving, she did her job and now she is going to continue with the other job she has. Please have a good day." Ezra tried to force a smile on her face and attempted to walk away.

"Guards stop the cat." And like good, mindless, servents they moved in front of her. Ezra took a deep breathe to stop her magic from reacting. She always had the problem of having too much magic, Vanus had to train her to keep it under control. Though the mage obviously felt it before she concealed it. "You have a powerful aura, what is your name?" Ezra decided, fuck it.

"This one's name is Ezra Ri-Thaern. Senior member of the Mage's Guild and Conquerer of Coldharbour. I will be leaving." Ezra made sure to keep eye contact with the woman, eyes of steel. The two guards seemed nervous.

"Interesting. I heard the hero of Tamriel was a khajiit, however I never assumed you would willingly come to Telvanni lands. I will not do anything, in fact if you're up for it I have a job for you. You would be paid handsomely of course."

And so Ezra ended up running multiple errands for different members of House Telvanni, it was Tiring and she was usually three seconds away from lighting them in fire. However she also tried to remind herself that they knew she was part of the Mage's Guild, and she did not want to cause Vanus any problems if she could help it.

Eventually, she made her way to Tel Fyr proper. It was a large Mushroom tower, and seemed to loom overhead. She heard the Undaunted had attempted to help the old mage, but had major complications. So Ezra decided she should check it out, if the Undaunted were having problems than there were not many other people who could help.

Walking through the door let a cool breeze through. Though not many even turned their heads. There were many injured laying about being tended to by healers. And many who looker as if they weren't going to make it. Ezra felt pity for them, but it flew away quickly when one of the older Dunmer once again decided to cause her problems.

"I told the Undaunted I did not want Lizards or Cats to assist." It was an old mer, definitely not Divayth Fyr. Though he had the air of a Telvanni about him.

"I am not with the Undaunted, let me guess your a member of House Telvanni?" It was said like a statement and not really a question. Unbeknownst to Ezra the owner of the tower's attention had been drawn to the two.

"Well of course, and we don't need help from the likes of you." The sneer was palpable, and all Ezra would do was openly laugh at the mer.

"Sure you don't, you have your own people and members of the Undaunted laying about, looking as if they are about to die; but you don't need help." Ezra took a deep breathe and continued before the old mer could respond. "Before you come at this one with your racist beliefs, know that Ezra does not care for them. Plus, this one does not believe Divayth Fyr himself puts any stock into racist beliefs. He was born a Chimer and eventually became a Dunmer. Therefore there is no reason for him to think with that ignorant ideology. Now, where is Divayth Fyr? He has a job that needs to be done and this one is in need of the coin." Around her people openly stared, some were quite shocked and the old Mer she had been talking too looked as if he had been slapped. Ezra found it amusing but kept those thoughts to herself. She was glad some of the Khajiit and Argonians in slave rags were laughing a little, anything to brighten their day.

Before the mer could respond, another voice cut in. Smooth, and calm, with a dangerous lilt to it.

"She is correct in her assumption. I had not known you had made such a request when hiring the Undauted. Its a shame, we could have had more helping hands. Now run along and help the healers, perhaps the air you have been wasting will be repaid somehow." The Dunmer was old, but still extremely good-looking. Also almost a whole head taller than her. Ezra liked his magic signature, it was nice. She also wasn't naive enough to believe he was not concealing most of it like her. Most experienced mages did. "Now, let me restart your introduction to this tower. I am Divayth Fyr, I am assuming you're here because you saw the job posting?" He stood less than a foot away from Ezra, staying professional and quiet compared to the rude mer from earlier.

"Ah yes, this one is Ezra Ri-Thaern. She heard you were having trouble and thought to lend a hand. Ezra has to say it is an honor to meet you Divayth Fyr, she has read your books." This seemed to put a small smile on his face.

"You have? I am glad. The Hero of Tamriel has read my books," Ezra felt like the spotlight had been pointed at her, she never liked attention much. It made her nervous.

"You've heard about me?" The confusion in her face was clear as day to anyone paying attention. Divayth seemed surprised for a moment.

"Yes I have. You gathered an army and stormed Coldharbour, and managed to succeed in stopping the Planemeld. Nor did you stop there, you attacked Molag Bal in his own realm and not only survived but won as well. It is not only astonishing, but something you should be proud of as well." Ezra's mind stopped functioning for a moment, Divayth Fyr was complmenting her. She had never done well with compliments.

"I- uh- Thank You Lord Fyr." She usually switched back to formal when she wasn't sure how to respond. "Though you are well known for traversing realms of Oblivion."

"That is true yes, perhaps I will give you a private reading sometime. But, you're here to help and I have every confidence in your abilities. So let us begin shall we?" An animalistic smile moved across Ezra's face as she replied.

"Yes, let's begin."

The fabricants from Clockwork City had been some of the most interesting things Ezra had seen in her life. They were amazing.

Divayth Fyr seemed to like them, but have an extreme dislike at the same time. Most likely because they were invading his tower. Ezra would be irritated if something was invading her home as well, if she had one.

Soon enough Ezra had found what was happening, a false Nerevarine was seeping away Vivec's Divine Energy. Ezra did not care much for ensuring the Living Gods survival, but she also knew the political repercussions for one of them dying right now, with the war and all. She also knew that a giant asteroid would fall into Vivec City and kill hundreds of innocent people.

So she set out to stop it.

She should had expected this, a Deadric Prince being behind it all. The Princes seemed to always cause issues for Ezra, or perhaps it was the other way around. No matter, they seemed to be at every turn since she had escaped Coldharbour the first time around. Ezra often wondered why.

Fighting off Barbus, with the help of Balthazar; a Clockwork mage, was tiring. Buy she managed, it was nowhere near as difficult as the assault on Coldharbour. Ezra was eternally grateful for that.

Vivec had congratulated her, bringing together those she helped along the way. Naryu, Renvus, and a few others. It was nice, though Ezra was not sure why they did it. She was simply doing what any sane being would do, make sure no one died.

I am not happy with this, plus it's more of a rough outline for an OC of mine exploring Vvardenfell. Nothing special really.

[caithyra]

Don’t think about it...

...Because when you do, the Thieves’ Guild/Nightingale questline just becomes more and more disturbing, and you might just end up feeling sympathy for the guy you have no choice but to kill.

Basically, I am trying to create an abbreviated timeline of Skyrim’s characters’ history just in case I get off my butt and write fanfic, and I ran into this:

Mercer Frey is at most, around 50 years old in 4E 201. I guess this because he lives in the sewers (illnesses flow down with the dung and trash+no sunlight is aging and bad for the health, so if he was older he would probably be sick) and crouches (ages the joints) all his life, yet was spry enough to climb a giant statue and pry jewels that had been in the rock for millennia loose. If he was in his 60s with his lifestyle he likely couldn’t have done that, Skeleton Key or no Skeleton Key (also, not a single gray hair that I could see, so...).

Subtracting 25 years after Gallus’ death, gives us around 25 years old. subtracting at least 3 years of Karliah being a regular Nightingale not on the lamb, because she seems pretty comfortable with the role and the Skyrim locations (and was also the lover of an adult, we get perilously close to underage the further back we push this, and she’d been his “little nightingale” for so long she was obsessed with killing Mercer 25 years later), he would be around 22 years old when she was inducted.

And he was a senior Nightingale, I would guess at least 5 years her senior as a Nightingale.

So when Gallus and Karliah’s mother sold his soul to Nocturnal, he would have been around 17 years old at the oldest. And given how small a margin I’ve given these years, I would guess the more likely age for Mercer’s selling of soul would have been 15 years old.

The thing is, he and Karliah would have been about the same age (as an elf, she looks younger, heck, her grandmother, Barenziah, was pretty spry and popping out her mother at the age of 379, and if Karliah is only as young as Mercer, then Karliah’s mother popped Karliah out when she was around 170+ years old) and as a Breton, he probably matures slower than a regular mannish race without half-elven ancestry (a half-elven Emperor, Cassynder, is remarked upon to have aged “like a Breton” suggesting slower maturity, as he died of ill health and so certainly did not have the lifespan of a Breton).

And on top of it all, the way Karliah’s life plays out in Gallus’ book (Nightingales Vol.2), it seems like her lover and her mother waited until she was an adult before inducting her to give her a better choice, unlike Mercer (who was likely inducted because Karliah’s grandfather died, or because Lorthus, who may or may not have been Karliah’s father, died in Whiterun’s dungeons, and because it needs to be a Trinity and they didn’t think Karliah would have been ready), who was put in the position of selling his soul as a child while pressured by authority figures that it was a great honor.

Not only that, but Frey is not a Breton name. In fact, as a surname, it seems very Nordic, and given that there is no trace of Mercer’s background or parentage and that the highest population of Bretons and Reachmen lives under the thumb of Nords as serfs (and children take the race of the mother) in the Reach and that he picks a second-in-command with a Reach accent...

Yeah, so it seems more like Mercer’s conception may or may not have been consensual. That he somehow ended up in Gallus’ path when he was a very young child (at best, his mother died when he was very young and his father either also died or there was no relationship so he didn’t recognize Mercer, or Gallus kidnapped him), and Mercer grows into his midteens in the guild when the guildmaster and a legendary figure (Nightingale, Karliah’s mother) either convinces him to sell his soul to Nocturnal, or tricks him like Karliah tricked the Dragonborn and Brynjolf.

And then he grows into adulthood and realizes what they’ve done to him (eternal slavery even beyond death, even worse than the Reachmen in the Reach).

Is it really any wonder he “desecrates” Nocturnal’s shrine to live large while he can? Why he kills Gallus when Gallus starts trying to be all moral about it? (Oh, and given the sticky timeline, if Karliah is any younger than Mercer and not the same age or older, her and Gallus’ relationship likely started when she was barely legal after he watched her from her mid-teenage years as her guildmaster and superior; isn’t Gallus a swell, moral guy? Totally a honorable thief!) because he now hates Gallus? Is it any wonder that Karliah is framed when Mercer’s entire life and death has revolved around her and her family/lover?

Notice that for 25 years, he was content taking care of the Thieves’ Guild and only skimming the top of the (dwindling) profits and practically did everything to keep it running (again, I do not believe the Guild fell on hard times because of Mercer, given that their luck is sooo bad that they randomly recruit the Last Dragonborn when it is at its worse. Given how little the other leaders seems to do, it seems more self-inflicted, also given that the Last Dragonborn can fix it all up by doing a bunch of regular quests any thief in the guild, but most especially senior members like Brynjolf, Vex and Delvin, could have done).

Also I would like to point out that Karliah lies or is paranoid when she says that she’s been hunted for 25 years by Mercer’s contacts, given that there is only evidence of him having 3 contacts who would do such a thing, and the Black-Briars knew nothing, the Dark Brotherhood certainly wasn’t wasting their dwindling resources (they were hunted to near extinction 13 years ago and were losing Sanctuaries even before that) on her and the Thieves’ Guild were all surprised she still existed.

Given that Karliah constantly lies about things like this (even Gallus, in his book, contradicts her attributing everything to him, by pointing out that her mother and Mercer were there in the same capacity), she’s likely lying. But then again, Gallus had the gall to lie to my face as a ghost (stating he wasn’t in the Sepulcher when the sealing happened and then stating with certainty what happened during the sealing, even though only Daedric Princes would know enough to make an accurate guess, and even then might be wrong unless they’re Nocturnal herself), so maybe he lied in his book?

But anyway, back to Mercer. So for 25 years he’s been content being guildmaster.

And it is only when Karliah shows up again and escapes his attempt at killing her that he empties the vault and leaves (and again, Karliah was trying to destroy the guild in a more permanent way by angering Maven Black-Briar. At least you can refill an empty vault, you cannot refill the ranks of killed master thieves so easily. Then, when the Dragonborn gives Karliah the option of an in with the guild, she just skates right on in and no one points this out. Either that or her plan was so stupid, she planned, as the known killer of the previous guildmaster, to walk into the guild with the current guildmaster paralyzed over her shoulder waving her boyfriend’s supposed diary in an unreadable language and claim innocence? Also, a thief’s diary that only mentions what she needs us to know but not his great love for his “little nightingale”? Or even just “we danced the horizontal tango yesterday, her mother is angry because she thinks I’m too old for her, fortunately she was killed by mercenaries finding our super secret hideout that only I and Mercer knew about~Time to turn little Karliah into my little nightingale~”).

Like imagine if Karliah moved on from her (creepy) boyfriend and made a life for herself outside Skyrim? The only thing the guild to complain about when it comes to Mercer would be his admin fees (skimming) because no one else have done the accounting for 25 years (looking at you, Bryn and Del, oh and notice how long it took for Gallus to notice? He was guildmaster but did he foist the admin work on Mercer too? On top of selling Mercer’s soul?) and doesn’t want to step up in any capacity to do any of his work (See Guildmaster Dragonborn despite there being three senior leaders left in the Thieves Guild; at the least Companions killed off Kodlak [who dreamed about you] and Skjor and caused a schism on the lycanthropy topic between Aela and the twins before you became the Harbinger who is just a mediator and advisor, and you just arbitrarily becomes the Listener because “Sweet Mother” is a fucking troll who played deadbeat to her “children” for 13 years, and I cannot really justify the Archmage thing, but I can do it much better than the Guildmaster thing).

And there wouldn’t have been any selling of souls to a demonic goddess Karliah calls a “scolding mother” who is more deadbeat than the Night Mother and who, like the Night Mother, keeps you in servitude beyond your death.

But like I said, don’t think about it.

Oh and I’m not the only one who is kind of put off by Karliah’s “specialness” what with being the secret granddaughter of THE Nightingale and Queen Barenziah, and the only Dunmer I can think of without ash-red eyes (even Vivec’s Dunmer half had a red eye, and he was considered as powerful as a god, just to show how all-encompassing Azura’s curse was) and instead have violet eyes, and how everyone praises how smart and skilled she is while everything she does is stupid and failing?

Oh right. I need to stop thinking about this quest-line and the fact that my only choice was killing the child victim of a demonic cult after he grew up and tried to escape for the crime of taking some going-away-money I could replace in five minutes, just to avenge some dude who sells children’s soul into slavery after his girlfriend tricks me into selling mine and... Okay, not thinking about it!

[chameleonspell]

some random iriel words i found

[I just found this in my drafts, must have been there a few years, as I don’t remember anything about it. From context, I gather it’s answers I wrote to some sort of horror-themed OC question meme. I used to do a lot of these for character development when I was writing HTDC, but rarely posted them in case I ended up wanting to use the content in the fic. Might as well post it now? I have no idea if anyone else likes reading this stuff, but lmk if you do, I no doubt have a ton more somewhere...]

They have a premonition that something terrible will happen to them. How do they handle the situation?

Iriel would carry on as normal, because he has anxiety, so that's a normal Loredas, tbh. Perhaps some breathing exercises, or carefully modulated Calm spells. If, however, the premonition is specific and prophetic-sounding enough to convince him it results from an external source and not his own brain, then that's a whole different nest of scribs. Because that means that someone is fucking with him, probably a Daedra, and Iriel has well-documented reservations about the trustworthiness of such things. What situation are they REALLY trying to engineer, and why?

Do they have a fear of the unknown and things they can’t explain?

Not nearly as much as some people. Iriel has enough known-fears to contend with that something being unknown gives it rather an advantage, at times. Besides, he's a scholar. Unknown things are inherently interesting, because then you can research them, and test hypotheses! Sometimes to the point of almost contracting vampirism, because you can't resist touching weird-looking corpses.

What is the most disturbing thing they’ve ever seen?

I had to think about this one, because pitching Iriel through Morrowind involved subjecting him to a lot of disturbing things. Sixth House stuff is obviously designed to be body-horror nightmarish, and Ire's particular terror of skeletons meant that ancestral tombs were always going to be a trial. In terms of character turning points, though, I'm gonna say Rotheran was the worst thing he'd ever seen, the most upsetting. Because it wasn't just the slavery, or the sadistic games, or the Daedra worship, or the illusion-magic mind control (though that was all bad enough!). It was the dark things about himself, about his psychology and attitude to other people, that he believed he saw magnified and reflected there, triggering a spiral into self-loathing and despair, and the events of the next several chapters! Which... sounds really depressing, but was ultimately useful, in a gotta-lance-the-poison-filled-abscess-before-you-can-clean-and-heal-it kind of way.

What would they do if they witnessed an alien ship crash landing?

I like how this sort of question highlights the differences of the TES setting. Cosmology, f'rinstance, is rather a different affair. Space travel is occasionally a thing in the lore, but their "space" isn't the same as ours. The appearance of strange crafts from out of the air filled with unidentifiable creatures wouldn't imply "aliens!!!" to someone from Tamriel, but probably something more like: "oh shit what have the Telvanni made NOW?" or "please no more portals spewing horrors from another Daedric realm-o'-the-week, i am so very tired."

If they were a ghost, what methods would they use to haunt someone?

"If". lol. Iriel spends a fair amount of HTDC baaaaasically turning into a ghost, yeah? Insubstantial, invisible, losing all grasp on the material realm. And yet, he utterly fails to use his powers to prank people! Shani and Bodu agree that this is a tragic waste of ghostly powers.

Actually, this is another one where TES sensibilities might differ from ours. In Tamriel, ghosts are a well-documented spiritual phenomenon - the result of a lapse in burial rites, or, in the case of Dunmer, the successful product of them. Haunted houses tend to be places full of actual screaming spectres, rather than strange, poltergeist activity. Floating objects and suchlike would be more readily explained by a mage's mischievous telekinesis than the restless dead.

Anyway, to return to your question, a house haunted by Iriel is largely identical to one in which he is actually living. Either way, you may see little hard evidence of his presence, yet sometimes experience odd, herbal smells; indistinct, yet melancholic apparitions in the corner of your eye, and soft sighs just on the edge of hearing. You may also find your books mysteriously disappearing, and reappearing with the pages tea-stained and dog-eared.

How much would they have to be offered to live in a haunted house for a month?

"Let me get this straight. You're offering me an empty house... yes, fine, there are ghosts, but no real people... an empty house that everyone else is frightened to go near, so I'd have complete peace and quiet-- yes, yes, apart from the ghosts, I mean-- ...and I can do whatever I like there, and... let me be absolutely clear about this... YOU want to pay ME?"

("Hmm? Oh yes, it's been fine. Honestly, the dead are far less trouble than people think, especially the non-embodied kind. Simple wards and charms will do adequately if you want to keep them contained, but really, a little attention is all most of them want. They like it when I sing to them, actually. I did get one dreadful screamer, and had to spend a night traipsing around the cellar, scrabbling in the dirt until I found where the poor thing had been buried, but ever since I got the gravedigger to move him somewhere more comfortable, he's been a total sweetheart. Which is more than you can say for dogs or babies or Bosmer housemates, honestly.")

Could they stay calm lost in the woods all night by themselves?

It's funny... I'm sure Iriel's pa used to take him camping in the woods as a kid, and I'm sure Ire spent the entire time freaking out about weird noises, and generally having an unhappy, stressful time. And yet, upon being released from prison as an adult, he immediately vanished into the woods, and voluntarily spent multiple days and nights alone out there. (Three reasons: fear of civilisation, dissociation and drugs.)

After that, even once the drugs wore off, he'd become accustomed to wild places, and grown to feel safer there than in cities, where the dangers around him were harder to predict and quantify. Iriel is, in some ways, very unimaginative. His mind will create possible scenarios based on his experiences, but it won't invent implausible monsters from nothing, and he finds darkness comforting, rather than a source of horror. The woods at night are a good deal more peaceful and friendly than many other places he's spent time.

[electronicdelusionstarlight]

We need to talk about Project AHO

Project AHO is a DLC sized quest mod for Skyrim. It has 6500+ endorsement, and almost 118K unique downloads, and promises to add a hidden Telvanni settlement, 40+ new locations, 20+ fully voiced NPCs, new perks, new weapons, a new house, all dwemer or telvanni themed, and a non linear main quest with more than 12 side quests added in.

It's also, to use a particularly abused word as of late, fucking problematic.

The Mod Page doesn't mention many details about the mod, but it sure loves to point out how complex and varied the NPCs AI is, almost like real people with real moralities and real routines.

Anyway, Due to probably a bug (Mod is not supposed to not start till level 15) and the fact the abandoned prison is close to the place where you can trigger the mod, I barelly started a new Skyrim game and gotten Kaidan as we got out of prison together, before I was REMINDED FORCIBLY just why I couldn't stand this mod in the first place back in 2018.

So, small nitpick first: the game (should) suggest you at level 15 to free your followers before going to Mixwater Mill since they may cause bugs if they are mixed in the mod. This is bad for roleplaying reason since why would you logically decide to go there alone (want to buy some wood for your new house and you want to surprise them, so they wait you home?), but I would get beyond it if the rest of the Mod hadn't been... about that.

That being said, here's the meat of the issue:

If you reach the Mill after level 15, possibly with no follower, a Orc will approach you. Exiting his dialogue will only trigger the end of the scene early, he's essential, and whatever you do, whatever happens, whatever you say to him about his quest, what happens next is unavoidable.

He starts to hype you up with Trinimac and Daggerfall lore, which got me pretty excited at first when I played the mod for the first time, since, again, they only mentioned this being about a Hidden Telvanni settlement built over a Dwemer Ruin in the rift, so I thought the mod was going to be about the Boethia - Triminac Vore and Scat party that gave us the Dunmer and the Orcs, at least tangentially, so I go for the excited, eager to help dialogue route with him as he talks about epic quests and shit, except after we reach the last line, he goes something like "actually, this was all a diversion for having my mates sneak behind you and knock you out."

You are knocked out. No one can help you, you can do nothing to stop it, you can't even fight or talk or teleport your way out of it. It's scripted and it's unavoidable.

Next thing you know, you wake up in a cramped cell in prisoners rags, a mind control amulet at your neck, and 4 other prisoners.

Which is when the slave auction starts.

Project AHO is a mod about slavery. Is a mod about the Last Dragonborn, away from their loved ones, is tricked, ambushed and captured by a secret settlement of Telvanni wizards, before getting sold at a fucking slave auction.

And then, after all is said and done, after you’ve literally getting enslaved by Neloth 2.0, forced to fulfill tasks for him as the game, very pointedly, tries to make you empathize with this FUCKING SLAVERS via side quests (Oh, the daughter of the local hunter wants to travel the world and have adventures, and you can have a nice and friendly pint of beer with the fucking SLAVE CATCHER that captured you, and you meet another slave who didn’t get his tongue cut out, unlike most of the other ones in the bloody place, how nice, how fucking human of them), the game has the fucking AUDACITY to have the fucking leader of the settlement free you (not out of anything, but because your master is doing shady shit on the side and has kicked you out of his mansion after the last task), and then go, after you understandably ask why the FUCK shouldn’t you burn the place to the ground: “Oh, but slavery is such an important and integral part of our culture and economy, we dunmer will never change and will always have slaves so why should you bother, you are free now!”

This mod. In a escapist fucking game such as Skyrim. Is bad. Is REALLY bad.

Even putting aside the obvious lore reasons (Morrowind abolished slavery 200+ years ago under House Hlaalu, and even if they lynched them for it they are STILL not having slavery today), or the whole “Ah, the empire and the thalmor and the stormcloak know about this and they support us behind the scenes, in fact some of them partecipated at the auction you were on, there is a prosperous slave trade all over Tamriel!” bullshit, the whole thing is:

1) IN POOR FUCKING TASTE.

2) SERIOUSLY, WHO THE FUCK WANTS TO PLAY THIS? SLAVE SIMULATOR FOR HALF THE QUEST MOD, GO DO MINDLESS FETCH QUESTS FOR YOU MASTER, YOU’RE NOT ALLOWED TO DO ANYTHING BY YOURSELF, YOU HAVE TO CLEAN THE CELL OF ANOTHER SLAVE THAT COULDN’T SURVIVE HIS EXPERIMENTS, THIS IS FUCKING BAD.

3) THE FUCKING... MIND CONTROL AMULET ROBBING YOU OF ANY AGENCY? YOU CANNOT KILL NOR ATTACK NOR DO ANYTHING TILL YOU REMOVE IT AND YOU CAN’T REMOVE IT TILL HALF THE GAME SO WHAT WAS PRESENTED AS A “NON LINEAR MAIN QUEST” IS ACTUALLY A RAILROADED BULLSHIT TOWARD A MAJOR CHOICE BETWEEN RAZING THE SETTLEMENT TO THE GROUND WITH A SPACESHIP OR LETTING THE SETTLEMENT BE (YOU KNOW, CLASSIC BETHESDA MORAL DILEMMA, EXCEPT THE SETTLEMENT IS FILLED WITH SLAVERS AND SLAVES)

Which is sad because the aesthetic and some of the shit added to this are pretty cool overall, there is a “Dwemer Chess Board” thing that is missing some pieces that you can collect through the settlement and after you get them all and place them on the board you get a perk on team fighting, which would be a nice thing to have in a mod if it wasn’t for, again, the FUCKING SLAVERY!

Like, fuck, just imagine the slave auction:

Scripted scene, you can’t do anything, you are marched with the other slaves to a stage, the orc guy is the auction master, he sells:

1) The first slave, a vampire, to your future master.

2) Then an argonian young woman (”Plucked fresh from the windhelm docks” they say, and they sell her to some noble dude as his “new handmaiden,” which is SO FUCKING CREEPY ON SO MANY LEVELS LIKE... Even if you put aside the prospect of knowing her from the docks both in and out of universe (There is a potential Argonian spouse at the windhelm docks after all), this is bad? SO SO FUCKING BAD? BY ALL POSSIBLE ANGLES?)

3) Then they can’t sell a 50 year old argonian dude so they go “remove lot number 3 from the auction blog) and they gut him right in front of me??? By then going “he’ll make a good purse” because HOLY FUCK?????

4) Then you get sold in a auction battle between Neloth 2.0 but shittier and the local blacksmith, both locals (this, again, after mentioning that if you get sold to a local they’ll cut your tongue out), and you then get sold to Neloth 2.0 but shittier...

You can’t fucking stop any of this. You can’t do a “destroy the dark brotherhood” questline, you can’t prevent the kidnapping, even if you go out the city, some dumb magic will stop you from revealing its location to the competent authorities, who, again, are actually in cahoots with the slavers, so it’s not like they’d help!

And the mod clearly tries to make you, again, empathize and understand the fucking SLAVERS and their fucking position as SLAVERS like some BULLSHIT because fucking CENTRISM or some shit and REALLY?

So... to end this shit: Project AHO? Is some sort of weird, borderline feticistic mod about dunmers still being slavers and fucking rolling with it. It breaks canon and lore (after presenting itself as a mod that explores and faithfully depicts the lore), has a very railroady main quest after, again, mentioning its non linear path, and, agAIN, TRIES REALLY HARD TO MAKE YOU EMPATHIZE WITH THOSE BASTARDS.

So, I give it a 2 BB8s out of 10 for the dumb star wars reference companion, if you want to play it be fucking warned by its content.

[dross-the-fish]

Stormcloak or Imperial?

This is a difficult ask, if any of my followers or mutuals wanna address this, please give your input because I’ll freely admit that I am not the most versed in TES lore and I might have missed some key points. 

But here goes my best shot... I usually avoid the Civil War questline. I’ll be honest I don’t really like Ulfric Stormcloak one bit, but as an entity I think the Empire is actually worse....

Also I assassinated the emperor...so...yeah.....

Bear in mind that I’m approching this topic from the perspective of someone who loves Morrowind and I remember the Empire from that game. If you have the Bloodmoon expansion you can actually help the Empire colonize Solthsheim and maybe I’m just reading too much into it but I feel like wherever the Empire takes root, native culture and tradition ends up dying.

Now, I’m not going to deny for a single minute that Ulfric is racist, but I have a real problem with anyone who thinks the Empire somehow isn’t. The empire might not be selling slaves, or calling people slurs, but they are erasing their identities and assuming control of their lands and governments. They have NO respect for other cultures and it shows. Erase and replace, that’s their tactic of choice. 

It should also be pointed out, the Empire didn’t really do anything to stop slavery in Morrowind. They just kind of assumed that it would eventually die out as Imperial culture became the norm.The real abolitionists in Morrowind were an organization called the Twin Lamps. The Empire has often proven that it has no problem trying to enforce Imperial law, sometimes very harshly, but they will not, themselves be a vehicle for human rights or progress where it doesn’t suit their immediate interest.  

That brings me to my next point. If positive change or progress is to happen within a nation, it needs to come from within that nation. Not from an outside force and most definitely not from an Empire looking to take over. Nord cultural attitudes towards other races are no better or worse than other nations in Tamriel (arguably, as a whole the people of Skyrim are actually less hostile to outsiders than the Dunmer of Morrowind were). Regardless, no matter how problematic Nord culture is it is NOT The Empire’s place to change them. 

I also feel like the Empire has done a lot more damage than people realize, they go into Skyrim and see the Stormcloaks being terrible to the Dunmer and Argonians and presume that this means Stormcloaks are bad, therefore the Empire must be good. I feel more like the current state of Skyrim is largely the fault of the Empire and this mess wouldn’t even be what it is if the Empire wasn’t, well, an Empire. The Imperials have been trying to take over Tamriel for a long time and they have struggled to retain control over some of their holds, which left areas like Markarth suceptible to being taken by other factions.  A lot of people like to bring up the Markarth Incident as evidence that Ulfric is #theworst but that possibly wouldn’t even have happened if the Empire hadn’t occupied that area in the first place, giving it to Nord rule, then abandoning it, making it susceptible to be reclaimed by the native Reachmen, and then it was taken back again by Ulfric (who was promised by the Jarl of Markarth and his Imperial allies that, if he recaptured the Reach, Skyrim would have religious freedom). Furthermore, a major reason why the Reachmen were so vilified in Skyrim is due to the years of Imperial propaganda painting them as lawless and amoral. While I fully do not support Ulfric Stormcloak as a leader or as a person, I’m of the mind that Ulfric is less the problem and more a symptom of the Empire’s presence in Skyrim. 

I fully believe Skyrim is an unstable and culturally confused mess because of the Empire. The unfortunate downside of this may be that even if we were to side with the Stormcloaks, it would be too little too late. The Empire has become so ingrained in Skyrim that trying to extract it now would do more harm than good, and we haven’t even factored in the role the Aldmeri Dominion plays in all this. 

So if people are going to participate in the Civil War, I would say just pick a side. You can’t really be in the wrong here because Skyrim is probably doomed, either to fall to the Dominion (because Skyrim WILL be weaker without the Empire) or to lose its identity to the Empire.

Idk, I’m not going to say either side is objectively right or wrong because I don’t see either leading to an ultimately good outcome for Skyrim. 

[druidx]

Broken Promises Masterpost

As mentioned in this whine, I haven't seen many TESFics about Modryn Oreyn (there aren't too many about most of the "minor" characters at all TBH, but that's another project for another day). He's such an interesting character to me: Bold, proud, ferocious. Intimidating until he likes you. He has a lot of unexplored depth, I feel. I also like that he's one of the few mentors in the game that doesn't die, or otherwise become inaccessible, at the end of their quest arc. Such that I feel he makes an excellent surrogate parental figure to the disaster-case of a Hero (and yes, I may be projecting slightly, apologies). So, in the vein of "this character needs more love; I'd better write it myself" I went ahead and did so.

Prompts: X, X, X. Each of these gave me ideas and helped direct the story, so thanks to their authors. I forgot to copy the links down at first, so I'm still missing the one about magical healing :(

Notes: I remembered halfway through that Dunmer don't worship the Nine, which is why Modryn switches at some point to thanking Azura. This is really bad consistency on my part, and I'm very sorry I forgot to do my research before hand. On a similar point, I have take extreme creative liberties with Morrowind's slave bracers - in game they drain magicka only. Hopefully the scheme Armand and Azzan employ doesn’t seem too out of character for them (please let me know if you disagree! Constructive criticism is how we grow).

Premise: Set some when after one has "finished" the game and the HoK/CC runs every main guild in Cyrodiil, Modryn Oreyn has been kidnapped by the remnants of the Blackwood Company. A ransom note is sent to the HoK/CC, and they set out to rescue their friend and Second-in-Command. All does not go smoothly.

Warnings: Torture, slavery mentions, grief, self-hate, moderate swearing (cannon curses; no f-bombs), disassociation, general fantasy violence, magical bindings, general injuries.

Post List: (This fic did get way out of hand. I was aiming for ~5k. It's 14,700. I cannot write short to save a life apparently) Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Coda

[littlegalerion]

I couldn’t just reply directly to one because then it wouldn’t make sense, as the other two halves of the Asks would be missing. 

I want to start by saying if you enjoy Almalexia, be it in a simple way or in a thirst way, good for you. You enjoy the game how you want to enjoy it, because that’s what a game is for.

Now, that being said, I see absolutely no case for trying to “reclaim” Almalexia. Mainly because these “years of injustice” towards gay or female villains have long since passed. Yes, it was a thing, and yes it was horrible. But we’ve since moved on. I mean, as a woman, I’m proud to say that I could be flicking through TV channels or various options on any streaming app and find a series featuring a strong, independent woman- or involving a complex female villain who isn’t just “ugly”, but just enjoys being evil OR has a complicated and sympathetic background that forced her to become the villain.

Off the top of my head:

Hunger Games Parks and Rec The Office She-Ra  Steven Universe Owl House Rick Riordan collections Moana The Polar Express Song of the Sea

Wonder Woman

All these either feature one or both a strong female hero or a complex female villain, and they’re just the icing on the very real and very stable female empowerment cake.  

Will we still see ugly women portrayed in some fiction as villains? Yes, but we will also see ugly men portrayed as the villains. Usually for a purely comedic effect. If it’s bad taste, it’s easily seen as bad taste and therefore not well received, especially online. As for the gay aspect, that too has been changing- and funny enough some of the examples listed above are testimony to that!

Now to Almalexia herself:

I have to disagree, and argue that stating she is a “poorly written female” is a total injustice. Almalexia is an insanely good female villain. Why? Because when you face her, you feel fear. You know you are faced with an actual threat, a real challenge of a boss fight. She’s clever, resourceful, and you know she’s powerful enough to do as she pleases. After all, earlier in game she asks you to go force some dunmer to start worshiping her again or she’ll send an actual fatal storm to wipe them out. 

Please understand: the dunmer have a backwards and suffocating culture. They shove tradition down your throat, and even then will still hate you and say you aren’t good enough to polish their boots. It’s been like this for centuries, and why? Because the Tribunal never changed. Unlike other pantheons in Tamriel which adapted with time naturally, the Tribunal never shifted. Did you see Vivec and Almalexia ever lift a finger to stop the slavery in their lands? To stop the random wars between Ashlanders and the Houses? Did Sotha Sil even bother to change anything from the outside world in his Clockwork City for the better?

The Nerevarine is the change Morrowind needed. They’re this one outsider who doesn’t care about what anyone wants to try to force on them, and despite all the hardships, they ascend to power above any of these garbage people. They bring down the Tribunal, and Morrowind is able too breathe. 

This is why Alamlexia is such a good villain. Because she doesn’t want this change. Male or female, any gender is capable to be corrupted by greed and power. That was her from the get go. Both Vivec and Sotha Sil expressed regret at killing Nerevar. They didn’t change their ways, but they expressed regret. Almalexia never looked back. She knew what she was doing and never regretted it. Now suddenly the temple is finally falling, and she’s loosing her power. Yeah, she isn’t going to let that happen. 

So it’s you, the Nerevarine, who is responsible for a possible change for the better in the atmosphere of Morrowind, verses Almalexia, the last of the Tribunal who will keep things structured in tradition out of sheer greed. She literally worked out every movement you took from the beginning of that DLC up to point you see Sil’s corpse and she confronts you. This badass had a perfect plan devised, and I quote from her directly,

 "Nerevarine. Here it ends. This Clockwork City was to be your death. You were to be my greatest martyr! The heroic Nerevarine, sacrificing all to protect Morrowind from the mad Sotha Sil. But you live! You live! Fear not. I will tell the tale myself when this is done. I will tell my people how with your dying breath you proclaimed your devotion to me, the one true god. Your death will end this prophecy and unite my people again under one god, one faith, one rule by my divine law. The puppet king will lay down his arms and bow to my will. Those who do not yield will be destroyed. The Mazed Band has allowed me to travel to this place. Here, I slew Sotha Sil. Here, I summoned the Fabricants to attack Mournhold. I will be the savior of my people! I alone will be their salvation! None may stand in my way. Not you, and certainly not Vivec. He is a poet, a fool. I will deal with him when I have finished with you. And Sotha Sil...he always thought himself our better, shunning us, locking himself in this hole. He spoke not a word as he died. Not a whisper. Even in death, he mocked me with his silence! But I think you will scream, mortal. For now, you face the one true god."

What a set up for a boss battle!  

That’s insanely engaging! 

Honestly, she reminds me of Mother Gothel from Tangled. Always gaslighting her people, always making them believe she does everything out of love for them, when in reality she does it all only for her own benefit. 

Don’t get me wrong, Vivec and Sotha Sil aren’t saints. Even though they admitted regret, they didn’t do anything about that. They didn’t speak up, step down, or give the power back they stole. Instead, they tried to go under the excuse “we must continue on like this, the people can’t handle the truth.” Yeah, very convenient guys. 

But Almalexia outshines them both as one of the greatest villains in TES history. 

To Sum Up

There are things that need to be changed in Morrowind. The cringe, edgelord writing about Divayth and his daughters for instance. But the struggle between Tradition vs Progression, and the majesty of Almalexia’s final encounter do not need to be changed.  

If you want female empowerment in TES, then please look to the real icons.  Khamira, the young queen who faced an impossible rebellion. 

Lyris, who doesn’t know how to express nor deal with her emotions, and who gets weird looks for her sheer size by everyone else but her fellow Nords, but she keeps swinging that axe regardless! 

Valsirenn, who, despite having to revisit the painful reality of losing her daughter, still sought after her ex if only to find closure, and though Iachesis’ death weighed on her heart, she bit the bullet and saw things through to the end. 

And those are only three jewels of a treasure chest full of gems, let me assure you. if I had any real criticism, I’d like for female heroes to have more flaws. Nobody is born perfect, and half of what makes the hero is their struggle but final victory in overcoming their flaws or complications. 

This is the last time I’m reacting to Almalexia material on my blog. 

I don’t want my blog filled with fandom discourse. Yes, I’ve blogged before about Greymoor disappointments, but to be fair I was reviewing a product I paid $50 bucks for, and some people paid even more for it! I’ve received hate anon due to the Almalexia topic already, and had my words taken out of context due to someone not reblogging my actual argument but screenshotting the tags and only posting those. People ramble in their tags on tumblr. That’s a common thing. And funny enough, the tags are meant to go along with the actual blog itself. 

Any Asks sent regarding Almalexia will be ignored. If you have an excessive problem with my opinion on her, just block me. 

Again, I want to state: If you love Almalexia, just love Almalexia. More power to you. 

Just don’t attack people with long essays about how your opinion is correct and they are sexist for not agreeing with you! 

[gortash]

please tell me about your eso oc. class? favourite weapon types? what’s her opinion of mannimarco? is she very loyal to her alliance?

omg i have too many eso characters but my Main Bitch™️ right now is local dunmeri asshole Meralyn Alor (aka Merry except never call her that. she will kill u only to bring u back to life to kill u again), she’s a necromancer who likes inferno staves. she also loves pretty, ornate staves with loads of decorations, no boring wooden sticks here thank u!

manninarco...... it’s complicated because they’re both necromancers, so she doesn’t necessarily see anything wrong with his necromancy (always fun when every character in the main storyline are all Necromancy Bad! like buddy i’m right here. u’ve seen my skeleton friends), but she does know better than to swear allegiance to a daedra (she’s a dunmer so of course the tribunal are the only gods who matter), plus since molag bal is one of the corners of the house of troubles, she’s probably extra wary of that.

now i haven’t decided if she’s gonna be my canon vestige yet, but she’d obviously be angry and bitter at him for the whole soul-stealing thing, especially considering he’s a fellow nedromancer. like mate, u could’ve picked literally anyone else smh

as for the ebonheart pact, i wouldn’t say she’s 100% loyal because she hates the idea of taking orders from anyone who isn’t a dunmer, plus having been raised with the whole Slavery Is Ok mindset of the dunmer, she Definitely doesn’t love being ordered around by argonians, but she does see the importance in the alliance. when the war ends, though, she’s not going to fight to keep the alliance together. she’ll always side with the dunmer.

i guess she’s also kind of an oddity, because she’s a telvanni, and they’re the one house that didn’t join the pact, but like i said, meralyn understands that it’s necessary and so she joins, though she’s gotta keep that necromancy hidden :-}

[twitchesandstitches]

Do you have any headcanons when it comes to Skyrim and its characters?

a few, yeah!

1. the stormcloaks are full of it; they’re a bunch of isolationist racists who act smug about their ancestors forcing out the indigenous population of Snow Elves and get pissy when someone does it to them. I get that it starts as a political thing via religious rights and the supremacism of the Aldmeri Dominion being a VERY SERIOUS THREAT but institutionalized oppression of dunmer, khajitt and argonians is fucking stupid. they’re assholes, and fuck ‘em.

2. on that note: the stormcloaks rebellion is a reasonable one, given the circumtances, but with the political situation the way it is and the empire biding its time to fight the Thalmor again, its just a really, really bad idea to go full seperatist. Skyrim provides valuable military recruits to the Empire, but it cannot defend itself against the full might of the Thalmor, and leaving puts the other nations of the empire at grave risk. be SENSIBLE about this, guys

3. despite the history of argonian/dunmer hostility (the slavery by dunmer towards argonians, and the violence of the retribution during the Red Mountain disaster), there seems to be a lot of argonians adopting dunmer! i feel its historically a lot more common, particularly for ashlanders who leave near Argonia, and will become a bit more frequent in coming years. its not so much a case in morrowind or argonia itself, thoguh, due to long memories and bitter wounds. there is too much pain there for it to be too easy to just forget.

4. the ‘canon’ Dragonborn is a Dunmer or Argonian. this is largely for the sake of irony; i just love the Nords’ mighty hero being a member of the species they despise so much, and the hero still rising up to save them all from the dragons despite the constant abuse they suffer from the Nords. the irony is STRONG here and narratively, its a LOT more compelling than the default male nord.

5. the dragonborn is in a position to become High King themself, and given the Talos implications, this may be their destiny!

6. all potential romances are canon. dragonborn is married to Everyone. EVERYONE, I TELL YOU. their love knows no boundaries or limits.

7. all playthroughs dependant on any given mod are also canon in varying timelines, owing to the screwy nature of the setting. it is unwise for the Dovahkiin to gaze too intently into the elder scrolls or else they get a lot of really weird visions.

8. ideal dragonborn is basically a feral lady who lives in the woods, periodically emerging to sell furs and meats and then returns to her studies. getting caught in an ambush was a huge accident and she’s baffled by having to get Involved in things. its weird, she hates it.