#uesp my beloved

[haphazardbastard]

More Khajiit lore [x]

Missing "daughter" quest [x]

Most Alfiq (housecat-sized Khajiit) tend to stay in Elsweyr (Khajiit province) because they're mistaken for housecats and some Alfiq pretend to be simple housecats to spy on people or rob them

Alfiq lore [x]

looks stupit I want ten

[choilacanth]

Happy TES 30th! I will share a drawing soon but for now, I have questions.

One day, while bothering mudcrabs for alchemy writs in ESO I thought "wait I had this guy with chili garlic sauce what's he doing in Skyrim" and have not looked back since.

I'm sure someone has already explored crab biology in TES but I constantly wonder why the dominant crab of Skyrim and the whole of Tamriel is the humble mudcrab, beloved Southeast Asian food mascot, alimango of mangroves in warm Indo-Pacific waters. In general, these are crabs belonging to the Scylla genus, with Scylla serrata in the picture beside an ESO mudcrab.

(Picture: Pincer, Old Salty, and the Mudcrab guardian spirit, some of Skyrim's named mudcrabs. Images from UESP)

I don't know what's going on with Old Salty's shell, but there was a still a deliberate choice to include a mudcrab with big claws, small legs, and a wide, domed shell in both Skyrim and ESO. I suspect the mudcrab holds some semi-terrestrial charm along with the impressive claws that leggy crabs don’t really have, and I am tickled at the abundant SEasian representation in TES. I am also delighted that, like my family members around a crab, the citizens of Skyrim are able to devour abundant mouthfuls of meat from mudcrab claws.

Do you see your local crab in Tamriel? Feel free to share crab and mudcrab thoughts! Happy TES day!

...

Addendum: I am not a crab expert and do not know what Oblivion's and Morrowind's mudcrabs are. These are entirely different genera of crab. I suspect Oblivion's is some pelagic crab and Morrowind's is some box crab (Calappa) with the claws oriented strangely.

(id: Oblivion mudcrab, Morrowind mudcrab)

Crabs also get very diverse with the special crabs, including Clatterclaw, Titanclaw, and other named crab bosses. Also, there can be no discussion of crabs without Skar. RIP Skar, you are an icon and I have no idea what you are supposed to be.

(id: Skar in ESO, Skar in Morrowind)

[the-elder-polls]

salem pls pls pls go on the rant about Neverar's death I NEED it

oh how thou enable mine soul. i apologize in advance because i am scatter brained and bad at formulating my thoughts (doesn't help that this topic is so weird) but here we go.

OKAY. so. i'm gonna start with foundations that i'll reference throughout this. starting with seht, specifically, seht's eso dialogue. i will link the uesp page HERE (ref point 1) to keep from having to copy-paste big swaths of text. i'll also link ayem (ref point 2) and vehk's (ref point 3), PLUS ayem (ref point 4) and vehk's (ref point 5) morrowind pages. if anyone wants me to snip the exact dialogue i'm referencing, please just lemme know.

SO. some main principles i want to draw from all of those are:

seht is upset about but accepts his place as a npc. he knows he is a npc, he knows he cannot change this, he just seeks to try to affect what he can. (ref point 1)

vehk knows he is a NPC and wants to be the Prisoner, aka the player character, because the Prisoner can be anyone, whereas he can only be vehk. (ref point 1)

almalexia seems to share the same knowledge as the other two, but denies it in favor of attempting to create her own narrative. (ref point 1, 4, and 5)

next, we'll talk about our beloved lorkahn, freak extraordinaire, god of mortals, spirit of nirn. his uesp page will be ref point 6.

obviously, lorkhan's heart is tied to nerevar's fate. it's tied to SO many fates--the tribunal, the nerevarine, dagoth ur, nerevar, the dwemer, etc which is rather fitting for the god of mortals i think. (i also won't go into my ramble about nerevar's parallels with lorkhan because that's a whole other ordeal)

vehk claims that nerevar and dumac fought and fell from the wounds inflicted upon each other. simultaneously, vehk straight up admits to killing nerevar (ref point 5), then just as easily says no, they didn't, actually (ref point 5) and says that that's just a lie spread by alandro sul. vehk is an infamously unreliable source. he lies as easy as he breathes, if not easier.

the battle of red mountain is an entire fucking thing. i really cannot even try to explain what happened during it because of the conflicting sources (see: the previous paragraph where vehk vehks ominously) but we DO at the very least know that the heart was struck, the dwemer disappeared, and nerevar died. whether or not he died DURING the battle or AFTER isn't entirely clear; again, conflicting sources.

aaaaaaaand then, there's dagoth ur. he loves nerevar, he hates nerevar. nerevar betrayed him, he betrayed nerevar. again. conflicting fucking sources. yet another "entire fucking thing" that i can't really go into detail on because i would derail myself so fast.

whatever happened at the battle of red mountain, at least two things are certain: nerevar died and the dwemer disappeared. we genuinely do not know what happened. is it likely the tribunal killed nerevar? yes, it's incredibly likely. but we do not have a 110% concrete answer of "yes, the tribunal absolutely killed nerevar" because even the tribunal don't seem to genuinely know. i think it's part of what is driving them out of their minds. even they don't know. because, like seht mentions/implies, they are bound to the will of the writers and the writers have not given any concrete answers.

i am personally a fan of the idea that it was a dragon break kind of situation, where all realities are simultaneously true and false, because it just feels the most...right, to me.

i had to significantly trim this because oh my god i rambled so much but. tldr we don't know and probably never will. also please nobody yell at me it's 4 am here and i'm just doing this

[trickstarbrave]

hey so i was rereading some chapters of moon and star and i got reminded of vehk referring to nerevar as a "canvasari". when I read these chapters the first time the term just struck me as a normal word but i've since looked it up and can't actually find any definition. did you come up with it or have i just missed it in my uesp trawls?

Canvasari means caravan guard. Or caravan leader. I think.

I thiiiiiiiink it’s mentioned in “what my beloved taught me” at the very least. So I didn’t make it up. But it’s mentioned and I’ve just been rolling with it and I might be stupid

[armisteadrevellion]

SOOOOOOO HYPED I was one of the winners of UESP’s merch giveaway this has absolutely made my week

Absolutely loving the portraits (sotha sil my beloved…) and I’m so excited to use the Oblivion stickers

[bam-monsterhospital]

spore savant face markings, not meant for dunmer...

I have been OBSESSED with the spore savant face markings for months now, trying to get all components of the antiquity to finally unlock them, and after realizing (almost too late) that the infinite archive has the piece i'd been missing, i finally got ahold of my beloved mushroom makeup.

However,

I wanted this mushroom makeup for my dunmer... This is what she normally looks like (in this with the 'eyes of the scamp' contacts).

As you can see, she has dark dunmeri skin in warm medium greys. The spore savant face markings, which in lore are dunmer markings made for dunmer mushroom-mages, are NOT designed for characters with dark skin.

OBSERVE:

"What's the problem" You may be thinking. Well let's just spell it out for you, rather than getting a close look there at the weird light outlines, by showing how these markings look on my altmer:

looks fine.

ALSO, all the people who were putting up previews of what the spore savant head markings looked like only showed them on white humans and altmer (whose darkest skin tones are still unfortunately extremely light like my boy up there). For example, uesp shows a beautiful image of these markings having gorgeous orange and deep browns in them on their character. Am I blaming any of these preview people for only showing the markings on one single skintone? NO. Besides, 'eso.mmo-fashion' was the only place I could find that used to show these things on multiple species but that site no longer updates.

So why do these markings look like nice face art on light skin, but festering open sores on my dark-skinned dunmer? Because of transparency! Zos has been making a lot of body art items transparent, which looks nice on light skin, but horrendous (if it shows up at all) on dark skin. For this one in particular, as my sister pointed out "It's like they did the opposite of what you're supposed to do and made the lighter orange solid and the brown transparent".

It really feels as though zos went out of their way to make these markings look ugly on dark skin.

which is eXTRA wild considering they're markings BY elves with darker skin, FOR elves with darker skin.

[altfire]

Fic asks: 1, 25, 50 :3

1. What fic of yours would you recommend to someone who had never read any of your work? (In other words, what do you think is the best introduction to your fics?)

best introduction,,, i feel like if i wanna put my best foot forward i'd say Behind Enemy Lines (a widowmaker overwatch character study, said by some 2 be my magnum opus) but i personally feel like the horror and the wild (tes oc fic) is more representative of my Current Style And Ability lol

the rest under the cut bc this got long lol

25. What other websites or resources do you use most often when you write?

i write in google docs, but i do a lot of like Scrap Writing and keep a lot of references on google keep. as far as resources, i have a bookmarks folder of articles i reference often. here's some prominent ones:

7 point outline (i use this to lay out the general shape of an outline before fleshing it out in this next point)

my proprietary short story/novella outline (which i made myself and have used for multiple projects. it's flexible and can be stretched out as needed. here's an explanation/example)

STC scene outline (if a scene is giving me trouble i consult this to see if anything is missing)

STC full outline (i mostly use this for vibes and not like Fully Use It but it helps me idk)

OH AND OF COURSE the UESP my beloved ♥ with how much tes fic i write i practically live on the uesp, it's ridiculous

50. Answer any question of your choice, or talk about anything you want to talk about! 49. What are you currently working on? Share a few lines if you’re up for it!

i have So Many Projects right now but to talk about something other than thatw for a second, here's some of the tun-tei thing i've been working on (~460 words):

It was barely dawn when he finally caught sight of Winterhold, and by the time the sun's first wan rays of light peeked up over the Sea of Ghosts, he was silently picking open the Hall of the Elements. The silence was comforting, and the warmth inside even moreso - thankfully it was early spring, and the cold in the southern holds wasn't so bad, but this far north it was as if seasons didn't exist. Between the perpetual winter weather and the frigid ocean air, Tun-Tei was sure his beloved couldn't have picked a more miserable place to settle down.

 Safely inside the college, Tun-Tei relaxed and opened the door on the left side of the foyer without care for being heard and took the stairs two at a time, despite the weariness of traveling all night. He was revitalized, as always, by what waited for him.

He pushed open the door to the Arch-Mage's quarters much more slowly, quietly, and kept his footfalls soft as he crept inside. He tossed his traveling cloak over a chair and noted the magelights that kept the alchemical garden illuminated were still out for the night - a good sign that his target wasn't yet awake.

A soft sound drew Tun's attention, then, and- and he strained to see, in the darkness, but a familiar motion conjured a healing light in hand and he gestured, curious, toward the stone floor. There - a piece of parchment, blown off the table and to the floor by his cloak. He picked it up, turning it over on reflex.

It was a map, which in itself wasn't particularly interesting, but it wasn't of Skyrim - rather, it was a map of all of Tamriel, and a recent one if the uncertain border between Morrowind and Black Marsh was any sign. Tun was used to maps being dated to the end of the third era, or at the least being admittedly based on older maps. An accurate, up-to-date map wasn't common, and his thieves' sense for loot lit up. To the right buyer, a merchant or adventurer, this could be worth almost a thousand septims. What use had the Arch-Mage for such a thing?

He looked it over for any further clues - anything written in his lover's steep hand, inked into margins - but only found one. One city was circled in noticeably darker, newer ink than the map had been scribed with: Stormhold, right on that uncertain border, placed as the last bastion between the volcanic wastes of Morrowind and the swamp.

Unbidden, Tun's stomach turned over, anxious, as it always did when he was made to think of Black Marsh. He set the map back on the table and put it out of his mind. He could ask in the morning.

[wispstalk]

Hey there! I’m thinking of coming up with a Khajiiti noodle dish or two inspired by the Hearty Noodles from ESO I found on UESP. I’m gonna be using the moon sugar glaze from the baby carrot recipe in the TES cookbook as my moon sugar base - haven’t tried it yet but people say it’s sweet… any tips on balancing flavors? For one I’ll use chili sauce and fried garlic bits, for the other, curry powder and saffron. I’m guessing the vegetables in the model are probably celery or onion.

Ooooo sweet/savory/spicy combos my beloved. Got to this kinda late so have you tried it already? The chili sauce and fried garlic combo seems solid as-is to me and I'm intrigued by the curry and saffron idea 👀 possibly a dash of some kinda concentrated umami to balance the flavors? soy sauce or something that you could add at the end if it needs a little extra something.

Also I have this huge jar of palm sugar and I'm tempted to try this noodle experiment along with you. I've gotta investigate the ESO foods a little more, opens up a lot of possibilities

[mysticorbcollector]

My lifeblood… my second half… my silly rabbit… UESP my beloved.

@uesp im ur biggest fan

[boethiah]

what is your interpretation of ‘what my beloved taught me’?

i think the encounter, if it did take place exactly as vivec described it, must've taken place in a previous kalpa. that said, i also think there are some glimpses of truth in it, both about vivec and about nord-occupied morrowind in general. i do think vivec was intersex, illiterate, impoverished, lice-infested and engaged in survival sex work when ze met nerevar-- ze had a hard life. it also confirms that almalexia was the ruler of mournhold when nerevar was still a simple caravan guard (fuck you 2019 uesp).

aside from some interesting historical facts i think the fic broadly traces the arc of nerevar and vivec's early relationship: that they met when vivec was an impoverished orphan, then vivec recognized the signs of destiny in nerevar and persuaded him to act upon a plan he was already forming to become a great hero. the piece bears much deeper analysis but for the sake of not going off on a tangent i'll leave it at that broad picture

on the other hand, someone once pointed out to me that the questions asked in wmbtm sound kinda like questions you might ask someone to ascertain whether they have a concussion. given the sorry state nerevar finds vivec in in the 36 lessons, that could be the real story behind them.

[tastesoftamriel]

Dear Talviel,

I have returned to Skyrim from High Rock with a cart and manservant laden with Breton gifts, including the softest cheeses and lace! Tell me, is there anything you'd like me to bring to the Winking Skeever to sell for your kitchen? Just say the word, and Dorian will scribble it down on the back of this note! I trust that you will ignore his shrugs of amusement and eye-rolling; I do not know why he does that. I certainly am not a fool to bring lightly salted food over the mountains as he says.

- Marcus

((I just made a new Skyrim file with our beloved Imperial merchant; any ideas for roleplaying? Or what lore to read to get a blog up and running?))

Dear Marcus,

Thank you for your generous offer, I'm touched! It would actually be an enormous help if you could bring just a simple box of Iliac Bay sea salt, my secret weapon for bringing dishes to life. It would also be wonderful if Dorian could sneak in one or two of those little chevre pyramids for me too...See you in Solitude soon, I shall set out immediately! ~Talviel

[UESP and The Imperial Library are my main references for all things TES, from lore to geography. I also have the three physical books from the Skyrim library which are a huge help for research! Good luck with the rp!]

[sleepymarmot]

Anyway, I caved in and made an alt, which is actually my beloved Inquisitor’s Dunmersona that I made up several days ago because I realized her kit is literally just the sorcerer class’s spells. I spent a lot of time on character creation (which went much easier than expected), spent almost an hour on UESP trying to generate a canon compliant ESO era name (end result: Giren Lloran. I literally stole that last name from an NPC), and then logged into the game and realized I forgot to pick a voice. Oh well. Anyway I hope she doesn’t mind holding onto my runestones and survey maps for a while

[boethiah]

Honest question here, but how have you amassed such a detailed knowledge of the Tribunal? Is it solely from playing the game a whole bunch and reading all the in-game texts? How much credence do you give to the lore contributions of Mike Lizardbride or whatever? And as an aside, does it run on this newfangled bullshit Windows 10 or whatever? Because after playing Vvardenfell I am finally ready to take the plunge. Oh god and do you have any character creation advice? I'm full of questions sorry!

i’ve read every lorebook that so much as mentions the tribunal and have spent a stupid amount of time on UESP. in-game texts are your best friend when it comes to lore especially if you have One Particular Interest cause then you remember things relating to that interest that everyone else overlooks and they’ll think you’re really smart when in reality you just spend too much time on almalexia’s UESP page

i tend to pick-and-choose which of michael kirkbride’s stuff i see as “canon”. if it appears in the games, it’s canon, but so much of it is up for interpretation that i won’t accept one interpretation over another without a p solid argument. i generally use his other stuff to support or confirm theories i derived from the in-game stuff but i won’t use it as its own lore source. like i use “what my beloved taught me” to support vivec being an orphan pre-nerevar and almalexia being mournhold’s ruler pre-nerevar, but i don’t believe mehrunes dagon comes from the previous kalpa bc i’ve yet to see anything within the games that supports that. his stuff is good as support but shouldn’t be used as an argument in and of itself. 

i’ve heard that windows 10 does not agree with morrowind At All but i’m sure there’s workarounds for it by now. @mistressdratha has experience with this

there are some morrowind Beginners Advice here but for character creation itself, decide right away what class you wanna be and what weapons you wanna use and build for that. warrior classes are imo the easiest to play bc stamina is the only thing that regenerates over time in morrowind, supplement with either sneak or magika (the only playthroughs ive ever been able to complete were sneaky warrior and battlemage/destruction magic warrior, heavy armor is a friend). quicksave constantly and dont be afraid to turn down the difficulty. its all about having fun and being a Real TES Fan per the criterion of that one greasy incel on r/teslore who yelled at me for using ze/hir pronouns for vivec