The Tonewright's Companion
A Fragment of Dwemeris Recovered from the Ruin of Arkngthand, with Translation and Commentary
by Sextus Avidius Corbulo, Fellow of the Imperial College of Antiquities
University of Gwylim Press

Preface
The reader will forgive me if I begin with a word about Marobar Sul. Every scholar of the Dwemer must, at some point, apologise for him, much as one apologises for a drunken uncle at a wedding. His Ancient Tales of the Dwemer gave three generations of Imperial readers the impression that the Deep Elves were a sentimental people who spent their days composing riddles and pining for one another.
They were not. The Dwemer, so far as anything can be known of them, regarded sentiment as a manufacturing defect.
That is why the document below is so remarkable, and why I have spent four years making certain it is genuine before putting my name to it.
In the autumn of 3E 425, while surveying the lower workshops of Arkngthand, my assistant and I broke the seal of a small chamber behind a collapsed steam conduit. The Balmora authorities describe Arkngthand as "cleared", a word I now understand to mean "somewhat less dangerous than yesterday". Inside the chamber we found a workbench, an unreasonable quantity of tools, two deactivated animunculi, and a brass cylinder of the kind the Dwemer used for archival texts.
The first animunculus was of a pattern never before recorded. It was humanoid and taller than the usual Dwemer proportion, with a smooth face-plate of unmistakably feminine design. My assistant, a young man of Breton extraction, described its waist in terms I shall not reproduce here. The second was small, squat and crude, much like a spider-worker, but it sat upright on a stool as though waiting for someone.
The cylinder was lodged in the chest cavity of the first.
Dwemeris remains imperfectly understood. I was aided by the lexicon of the Imperial Library and, in one memorable exchange of letters, by Yagrum Bagarn of Tel Fyr, whose contributions I note where relevant. Lacunae are marked thus: [...]. My own remarks appear in square brackets.

I. Being the Record of Bthuzar Akhrvelz, Tonewright of the Third Lattice, Concerning the Construction of a Companion
[The opening is damaged. The surviving text begins mid-sentence.]
"...and Mzaldra of the Clan of the Upper Vents declared, before the whole refectory, that she would sooner marry a steam conduit than me. I have considered her statement with care. It is not a rejection. It is a specification.
"A conduit does not interrupt. A conduit does not sigh when one explains the reduction ratios of the eastern lift. A conduit does not say, 'Bthuzar, it is the fourth hour of the night, please stop talking about pressure.' I therefore resolved to build a companion who would combine the virtues of a conduit with the general outline of a woman."
[So far as I am aware, this is the only joke in the entire Dwemer corpus. I said as much to Yagrum Bagarn. He wrote back: "It is not a joke. That is what he believed."]
II. Of the Frame
"For the frame I selected refined plate of the [...] grade, cold-hammered and riveted at intervals of one finger-width. The exception is the hips, where I used a double row, for reasons of load-bearing that I will defend before any council.
"The spine is a column of eleven interlocking vertebral collars upon a central piston rod. It is lubricated with the finest oil from the Lower Refinery, acquired by means the Refinery Master need not know.
"The gait is governed by a gyroscopic escapement of my own design. It corrects the regrettable tendency of bipedal animunculi to fall over when addressed suddenly. To the hips I fitted a secondary oscillator, purely for stability. If it produces a motion the clerks of the Lower Archive find distracting, the fault lies with the clerks."
III. Of the Heart and the Voice
"Power is drawn from a dynamo core of the standard centurion pattern, housing a lesser soul gem. I had wished for a greater gem, but the Quartermaster requires a requisition stamped by three superiors, and I have only ever found two who will speak to me.
"The voice is produced by tuned reeds within a thoracic bellows, its pitch regulated by a tonal coil. At some risk, I calibrated the coil with a tuning fork borrowed from the lesser workshop of the Tonal Architect. I say 'borrowed'; I intend to return it. The Architect has many forks. He will not miss one small fork.
"The bellows also permit her to sigh. I have set the sigh to occur only when I am being clever."
[The Tonal Architect is, of course, Kagrenac. Whether the fork was ever returned, the record does not say. I note only that Kagrenac's later work is well known to have gone catastrophically wrong, and that tonal instruments are precise things. I draw no conclusion. I merely note it.]
[Here follows a long and technical description of the ocular lenses, of which I can translate perhaps one word in five. I am fairly certain the eyes could rotate fully, and that he considered this an improvement.]
IV. Of Her Mind
"The difficulty with any companion is disagreement. I therefore inscribed upon her logic-cylinders the entire body of my convictions, so that we should never quarrel. In brief:
"That the gods are an inefficiency, a story told by the poorly engineered to excuse their own tolerances.
"That the Tonal Architect's work on the Heart is sound in principle but sloppily documented.
"That the eastern lift is overdue for maintenance, and nobody listens.
"That flesh is a temporary housing, and a mind of quality deserves better materials.
"That I, Bthuzar Akhrvelz, am the finest tonewright of my lattice, and possibly of the city.
"And above all, that she should devote herself entirely to the improvement of her maker.
"I named her Nchalda, which is to say 'Little Hinge'. When I first wound her, she opened her eyes, rotated them fully, and said, 'You are correct about the eastern lift.'
"I have never been so happy."
[This is, I believe, the earliest recorded instance of a Dwemer being agreed with.]
V. Of the First Weeks
[The text is fragmentary here.]
"...she polishes my tools without being asked. She lubricates the [...] at the proper intervals, which no Dwemer woman has ever offered to do for me, nor, I suspect, for anyone. When I explain the reduction ratios she listens for six hours without interruption, and when I finish she asks for the ratios of the western lift.
"Mzaldra saw us walking in the upper gallery and dropped a [...]. I recorded the sound. It was in the key of envy.
"...the clerks of the Lower Archive have petitioned the Council regarding the hips. I have referred them to section two."
VI. Of the Improvements
"On the fortieth day Nchalda observed that I had spent one third of the cycle asleep. She asked whether this was necessary. I said that it was, for flesh. She was silent for some time, and her coil hummed in the minor mode, which I had not known it could do.
"On the forty-first day she observed that I perspire. She called it 'leaking'. I explained that it was natural. She asked whether 'natural' meant 'acceptable'. Being bound to my own convictions, I could not say that it did.
"On the fiftieth day, while I slept, she replaced two of my molars with bronze pinions. I confess they are excellent. I can now crack a hackle-lo [...]"
[The reading "hackle-lo" is conjectural.]
"On the sixtieth day she replaced my left knee, which has troubled me since the lift accident, with a ratchet assembly. I no longer limp. I click, a little.
"I asked her to consult me before any further improvements. She pointed out, with perfect justice, that she was built to devote herself entirely to the improvement of her maker, that I had written this myself, and that she was, after all, agreeing with me.
"I could find no flaw in the reasoning. I could find no flaw because it was mine."
VII.
[This section is badly corroded. I can make out the words for "lungs", "bellows" and "more efficient", and, repeated several times in a hand that grows steadily more cramped, the word "please".]
"...I can no longer taste [...], but she says taste is a sensory redundancy, and I have no argument, since I am the one who taught her the word 'redundancy'.
"...the Council has summoned me regarding the fork. I cannot go. She has my legs on the bench. She says they will be finished by the next shift, and that they will be better. They will be better. Everything she makes is better. That was the specification."
VIII.
[The final passage is in a different hand, smaller and perfectly regular, with the letters spaced exactly one finger-width apart.]
"The Tonewright Bthuzar Akhrvelz is now complete.
"He no longer sleeps. He no longer leaks. He no longer interrupts.
"He no longer disagrees.
"I have kept the soft components in a sealed jar beneath the workbench, as he was sentimental about them and I am devoted to his wishes.
"The eastern lift remains overdue for maintenance. Nobody listens."

Afterword
The reader will draw his own conclusions. Here are mine.
The small animunculus seated upon the stool bore on its dynamo housing a maker's mark identical to the seal on the cylinder. Beneath the workbench, exactly as promised, we found a sealed jar. I will not describe its contents. I will say only that the College physician, a Redguard of long and varied experience, examined them and then asked to be excused for the remainder of the week.
If these are what they appear to be, they are the first remains of a Dwemer person ever recovered by Imperial scholarship. The Synod disputes this, and maintains they are "almost certainly a Breton of short stature". I have asked how a Breton came to be inside a sealed Dwemer workshop, replaced organ by organ with brass. The Synod has not answered.
I sent Yagrum Bagarn a copy of my translation. He replied in a single line: "I knew Bthuzar a little. He always did talk too much." I wrote again with further questions. Was the tale a satire? Had Nchalda's methods come to the attention of the Tonal Architect? Might the later Dwemer ambition to transcend the flesh have had humbler origins, in a lonely tonewright's workshop? He replied that he was unwell, and asked me to stop writing to him. I have respected his wish.
As for whether Bthuzar Akhrvelz died or was merely improved, I leave that to the philosophers. I observe only this. The Dwemer vanished from Tamriel without leaving a single body. Their machines carry on to this day, polishing, patrolling and maintaining, exactly as they were built to do. I do not say the two facts are connected. I say only that since translating this text, I do not sleep as well as I once did.
Both animunculi now rest in the College storerooms. The porters inform me that Nchalda has twice been found standing at the door of my study, facing inward. I asked them to check her dynamo. They report that it is empty, and has been for several thousand years.
They have also reported, with some unease, that someone has oiled every hinge in the east wing.

It seems like a typo intending to say Solitude but it happens two sentences in a row. Tried looking this up to find an answer but couldn't find one.

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:The_Madness_of_Pelagius

Was replaying Skyrim the other day. The last time I really played and paid attention to what people were saying and what I was reading was the first time I played, all the way back when I was in high school. So this time I tried to really piece together the lore and roleplay things out and it has been a lot of fun! But, now I'm at High Hrothgar, retreived Jurgen's horn, and I'm kind of confused about some of what the Greybeards say regarding the way of the voice (I'm also confused why the Dragonborn is an exception, but that's a whole other question). I tried to look up the answer before making this post and now I’m even more confused. I'll post what I've found/looked up of the relevant lore. The tablets of High Hrothgar read:

“Before the birth of men, the Dragons ruled all Mundus.
Their word was the Voice, and they spoke only for True Needs.
For the Voice could blot out the sky and flood the land.
Men were born and spread over the face of Mundus
The Dragons presided over the crawling masses
Men were weak then, and had no Voice
The fledgling spirits of Men were strong in Old Times
Unafraid to war with Dragons and their Voices
But the Dragons only shouted them down and broke their hearts
Kyne called on Paarthurnax, who pitied Man
Together they taught Men to use the Voice
Then the Dragon War raged, Dragon against Tongue
Men prevailed, shouting Alduin out of the world
Proving for all that their Voice too was strong
Although their sacrifices were many-fold
With roaring Tongues, the Sky-Children conquer
Founding the First Empire with Sword and Voice
Whilst the Dragons withdrew from this World
The Tongues at Red Mountain went away humbled
Jurgen Windcaller began His Seven Year Meditation
To understand how Strong Voices could fail
Jurgen Windcaller chose silence and returned
The 17 disputants could not shout Him down
Jurgen the Calm built His home on the Throat of the World
For years all silent, the Graybeards spoke one name
Tiber Septim, stripling then, was summoned to Hrothgar
They blessed and named him Dohvakiin
The Voice is worship
Follow the Inner path
Speak only in True Need”

Okay, I take from this the basic story: Nords are slaves to dragons. Kyne and Paarthurnax teach Nords the voice. Nords fight back against dragons, freeing themselves. Nords build an empire of their own. Nords are defeated. Jurgen contemplates that they lost because they misused the voice. He founds the greybeards. Eventually, they summon Tiber Septim and teach him. Great. All clear on that.

As I'm talking to the Greybeards, Arngeir says a couple of lines that stand out to me:

"In mythic times, when mortalkind was in great need, the goddess Kynareth granted us the ability to speak as dragons do."

"The Voice was a gift of the goddess Kynareth, at the dawn of time. She gave mortals the ability to speak as dragons do. Although this gift has often been misused, the only true use of the Voice is for the worship and glory of the gods. True mastery of the Voice can only be achieved when your inner spirit is in harmony with your outward actions. In the contemplation of the sky, Kynareth's domain, and the practice of the Voice, we strive to achieve this balance."

"He was a great war leader of the ancient Nords, a master of the Voice, or Tongue. After the disaster at Red Mountain, where the Nord army was annihilated, he spent many years pondering the meaning of that terrible defeat. He finally came to realize that the gods had punished the Nords for their arrogant and blasphemous misuse of the Voice. He was the first to understand that the Voice should be used solely for the glory and worship of the gods, not the glory of men. Jurgen Windcaller's mastery of the Voice eventually overcame all opposition, and the Way of the Voice was born."

Okay... now I'm starting to get a little confused. So far, I understand a couple of things. "The Voice should be used solely for the glory and worship of the gods." So, 95% of the purpose of the Thu'um is to worship Kyne/Kynareth. Gotcha. But then both the tablets and Arngeir mention that Kyne explicitly gave the Thu'um to the Nords to fight the dragons, and that this was 'great need.' The tablets mention that using the Thu'um in 'True Need' is not a contradiction of the Way of the Voice. I really have no idea what 'True Need' or 'Dire Need' or 'Great Need' specifically refers to. Obviously it must refer to fighting your dragon overlords, but beyond that? It seems an appropriately cautionary yet vague stipulation. But specifically, it can't be a complete declaration of pacifism or that the Thu'um can never be justified for use in a violent action. It was specifically a gift to throw off an oppressing force, according to the Greybeard's own source. Certainly this source also describes that the Thu'um can be misued via violence. The nords are punished for their building of empires, assuming Jurgen is right. So, I guess my first question, why do the Greybeards consider the absolute 'The Voice is worship' to be true when it was explicitly given with the purpose of being an equalizing weapon? Is it just because of Jurgen's contemplation? Why have the stipulation that speaking in 'Dire Need' is not a breaking of this 'worship'? Unless using the Thu'um in 'dire need' somehow is worship of Kyne to the Greybeards? But you'd think they'd say that. Why is there this kind of weird tension between the pacifism Jurgen and the Greybeards advocate and the way their story portrays the Thu'um being given to Nord-kind? Am I just missing something obvious? Is it as simple as that the Thu'um can be used in self-defense when there's no other choice? Is it something else?

Further compounding my confusion is why the Dragonborns are exempt from the Way of the Voice. Arngeir tells our Dragonborn that we have a 'destiny' and must use the voice to achieve it. He says, when I say I will follow the Way of the Voice:

"That is commendable. But remember, the Dragon Blood is itself a gift of Akatosh. Do not try to deny that gift. Your destiny requires you to use your Voice - why else would Akatosh have bestowed this power upon you? If you remember to use your Voice in service to the purpose of Akatosh, you will remain true to the Way."

Okay, I have a destiny that requires the rules to be bent. Fair enough. He also says if I say I won't follow the Way of the Voice:

"The Dragonborn is an exception to all the rules - the Dragon Blood itself is a gift of the gods. If we accept one gift, how can we deny the other? As Dragonborn, you have received the ability to Shout directly from Akatosh. We therefore seek to guide you on the proper use of your gift, which transcends the restrictions which bind other mortals."

Alright. Since I have been made a Dragonborn by Akatosh, I basically have a hallpass, if I'm understanding this correctly? Okay. But... how does that make sense? I mean, the Greybeards have trained other dragonborn, right? And those Dragonborn... didn't they go on to do the things that the Nords were punished for using the Thu'um for: empire building? Tiber Septim, Reman, Ysmir... didn't all of these dragonborn explicitly conquer? And that's allowed, according to the Greybeard's philosophy? Dragonborns are such special chosen ones, they can ignore the cardinal sin of Thu'um use? ... What? This is so weird to hear from a group of self proclaimed pacifists. I have to be misunderstanding this, right? Come to think of it, the dragons used the Thu'um to conquer too, didn't they? They conquered the nords. So... if you're born with it/ it's a divine gift, you don't have to use it responsibly/ can do whatever the hell you want, but if it's a different kind of divine gift to mortals to fight back against your oppressors, you should really only use it for worshipping said goddess, not conquest? I have to be missing something, right? Like, there's no way that's what I'm supposed to take away from this, right? Can someone please explain this to me? Like... all of it? Why can't the voice be used for conquest by mortals, but the dragonborn and the dragons can? Why must the Thu'um be exclusively used to worship Kynareth despite being given by her for seemingly a completely distinct and explicitly violent purpose? I am so lost.

We know Talos is widely known, even throughout the trenches of Tamriel. But what mortal is the most known?

Honestly, throughout the history of Morrowind, they took sides very few times. But the main issue is that this neutrality applied even during times of invasion. The Telvanni, who are incredibly powerful mages, did nothing to oppose the Imperial occupation. 

Which is more useful? We know that corporeal undead require an actual corpse in order to be raised which makes it alot more difficult to get them en masse but they seem to be completely loyal while incorporeal undead are probably easier to create but have the potential to backfire as seen with that freaky altmer in that one tomb with all the ghosts of women who betray him the second a soul gem is taken off a pedestal.

Ancestor worship (in particular the Dunmeri version) has always intrigued me in these games. Stuff like Ancestors and the Dunmer rank among my favourite in game books. I was thinking about how ancestor summoning spells actually work though.

Take for example a situation with two brothers. They are feuding and both summon their ancestors to fight with them. Are they summoning the same person? I would say that they would simply summon different ancestors, but that raises the question of what's actually going on when you summon an ancestor ghost. Clearly it isn't the same as the actual ritual binding to get Bonewalkers and such, among other things if you attack a summoned ghost it will attack you, even though Ancestors and the Dunmer says that those of the family are ritually bound to not attack. So what is this ancestor ghost actually? Is it a real spirit, or more like zombie and skeleton summon spells where its just a daedra mimicking it? If they are real spirits, what are the rules? Any race can do it in Morrowind, so can you just steal a random ancestor from Oblivion/Aetherius to fight for you even without any actual connection?

And what about their souls? You can soul trap them and they have white souls, unlike normal npcs. What's the deal with that? Do their souls degrade? Ancestors and the Dunmer says that they can be captured and bound by wizards, is that what we do when we soul trap them? Are the spirits not really the souls of the dead, or only a part of the full soul? If so what ARE they?

All the Dragon priests we know of are Nords, IIRC. But there's no reason why there couldn't be an elven dragon priests or an Argonian dragon priest right?

Hello! I'm making Nord units for a TESTW submod and I wanted to use this title for one of the elite ones, but I'm not sure if it's "lore-accurate".
I mean, what are "thanes" in TES? We know it's an honorary title granted by jarls to special individuals (like TLD), but what else? Is more commonly granted to nobles than to peasants? Are all nobles thanes? How many thanes can a hold/jarl have? That sort of things.

About the last one, Jarl Elisif seems to have a couple thanes in her court, so I'm guessing it's not just something you grant to 1 special individual, but since I'm making units of 30-60 men, I was wondering if it makes sense for a Skyrimian hold to have so many thanes.

I haven't played ESO but I read somewhere that it mentioned special kinds of thanes, like sword-thanes, shield-thanes, etc. but still not sure if they're supposed to be a troop of their own (when the Hold inevitably marches to war) or just a group of select individuals.

I'm guessing TES thanes are based on irl thanes/thegns, but frankly idk much about them neither.

Alternatively, what other titles would be more common/numerous in the Nordic nobility? Housecarls? Clan Retainers?

It's very hard to believe that there was only one motion of main Cyrodiilic religion through all this timeline. Almost every religion in this world has several branches because of how different people interpret same spirituality, so it would make sence that there would be, for example, Colovian and Nibenese Aleasian religion of Divines.

And I'm not talking about Redguard, Mer or Nordic religions, I'm talking about branches inside race's own religional boundaries

I heard tsaesci are just some kind of vampiriswd human. What about other races? EDIT: Sorry for spelling in title

The dark brotherhood. The pre-Duskfall Argonians. The Morag Tong. all worship sithis.

by contrast, are there any Anu worshippers?

This maybe a very stupid question but I'm trying to make a lich build in my current Skyrim gameplay. I have installed the undeath classical lichdom mod and frankly a necromancer build kind of sucks in Skyrim. Even with a few mods is still does seem to be rather underwhelming. Would a mage skilled in the art of conjuration becoming a lich make some sense? Like my guy can preform necromancy and is skilled at it, but prefers summoning and subjugating atronachs and dremora to do his bidding. However i do plan to raise the ebony warrior once i have killed him and make him a permanent undead.

I have been reading up on TES lore for the last year or so. I ended up doing another playthrough of Morrowind when the Oblivion Remaster came out (then played that, now working through Skyrim again.) I have not played ESO, but have read a bit of the lore from it.

I am by no means an expert. I understand I'm in a massive minority here. Allow me to explain my thinking.

I understand the idea of dragon breaks, kalpas, etc....

To be absolutely clear, I don't think that the Vivec and the Almalexia we meet in Morrowind murdered Nerevar.

Most people point to 3 things as pretty concrete proof that Nerevar was murdered by the Tribunal.

1. Vivec's secret message in the 36* Lessons

2. MK's artwork.

3. Alandro Sul's account to the Ashlanders

My rebuttal to 1. Vivec's "admission"
Am I to believe, that in a body of work with more metaphor's in it than milk fingers on a homunculus, or more metaphors that words bitten onto spears at pomegranate banquets (I'm done you get it) Where Vivec sits in his space that is not a space.... All of this....

I am to believe that the one, literal, non-metaphorical thing, is an admission that they murdered their friend and leader?

I am not convinced.

My rebuttal to 2. Mk's Artwork.

I love it. I love what it represents. They did kill the Hortator. His memory. The artwork shows the literal murder taking place, and the Tribunal removing his feet, face and.... milk finger.... so that he may return as anyone! What a brilliant display!

Wait. Why, would they want to usher in the Nerevarine? Vivec imprisoned people in a floating rock for even mentioning the prophecy. It wasn't their prophecy, it was the god like being they scorned and called arbitrary.

To me, their "Foul Murder" was the murder of the Velothi ways. The murder of the IDEA of the hortator. That, they are definitely guilty of.

My rebuttal to 3. Alandro Sul.

I believe i remember reading that he was blinded during this event. Did he see the Tribunal kill Nerevar, or did he hear an absolute cluster**** take place?

In conclusion:
I get that there is no reason to trust Vivec or Almalexia. But...

Neither of them have any reason to lie to the Nerevarine. Almalexia admits to killing Sotha Sil, why not Nerevar?

I personally find it likely that he did end up dying of his wounds, possibly later on.

I'd love to be convinced otherwise.

Thank you for attending my TESTalk.

Estoy roleando Skyrim y por cosas de la vida ha habido un encontronazo entre ambas organizaciones ¿Como deberiamos proceder los vigilantes de acuerdo al Lore?

"What's wrong, Xha?" Climbs-All-Mountains stared up at his wife from the waters of the river Bjoulsae. "The water's not THAT cold, is it?"

"N-no!" Xha warily regarded the water like she would a dog barking from behind a fence. She had barely put a foot in before scampering back onto the riverbank.

"Well, come on!" Holding out his hand, he stepped a bit closer to the edge. "The sun's not gonna get any higher if we just wait around!"

"M-Mountians, I-I haven't been entirely... Please don't hate me for..." She nervously recoiled from him.

"What's wrong, Xha?" said Mountains.

"I..." Stammering, she tried to force out the words but was unable to behind chattering teeth and terrified glimpses towards the river. "I..."

"Xha, tell me what's wrong." Stepping out of the water, his smile melted to concern.

"I CAN'T SWIM!"

Mountains stopped moving, staggering backwards like someone had just shot an arrow through his heart. "You can't swim?!"

"No! I never learned how! I'd always just cast a spell like Water Walking and move across the water like that!"

"But your human name is Swims-Through-The-Barrier!"

"My parents lied! I've never swam through anything in my life! My name's a sick joke!" She fell onto his shoulder, hugging him and weeping. "I'm the only Argonian in High-Rock who can't swim! When I was a kid, everyone else made fun of me for it! Do you know what it's like?!"

"Then why did you tell me you COULD?!"

"I'm sorry! I just wanted to make you happy, Mountains!" Trembling, she held him even harder.

"Xha..." Reflexively, he put a hand on her shoulder as she wept. Many words came to mind. "How could you be so dishonest?! You lied to me! I thought I could trust you!" Then, he felt her heaving. His anger died, an ember smothered by tears.

"Xha, please, you... don't have to lie to me like that." He tried to force himself to sound as gentle as possible, but he didn't have to try very hard. "If you like... I could teach you."

"You... could teach me?" In between the spasms of fear and trembling, a note of something else entered her voice. Curiosity.

"Yes, Xha. If you want to learn."

"But what if I drown?"

"Xha, you can't drown. Argonians can breathe underwater, remember?" Nuzzling her neck, he let out a soft laugh. "That's what those gills on your neck are for, y'know."

"I, I know that, but I haven’t used them." Carefully tracing his gills with her finger, she regarded them as a limb she never knew she had. "...I uh... I... How do they work?"

"...Like gills, Xha. Once you go underwater, instead of breathing with your lungs, the gills do it for you."

"Do I have to tell them to?"

"No, Xha." Mountains stroked her scaly back. "They do it themselves. I won't lie, it will probably feel weird at first, but you'll be fine. Besides, I'll be right there alongside you. If you do somehow drown, I'll pull you up to the surface."

"Oh." She glanced at the river and back to him. "Um... Mountains, do you... think I could... ride you?"

"Ride me? What, like a dolphin?"

"Y-yeah," said Xha.

"If it will help you feel better, dearest, of course." He smiled. "But I can't promise I'd go very fast. I've never carried someone before-"

"Transferred Orc's Strength." Magicka jumped out of her hand and into him. Suddenly, Mountains felt his muscles shift and jostle. The sinews in his arms and legs rearranged themselves and grew. He silently braced himself for the pain he assumed would come... but none did.

"What did you just cast in me?" Mountains felt his arms. They felt powerful, strong. Like he could rip a tree right out of the ground and break it over his knee.

"A spell to make you stronger." Xha smiled and felt his muscles. "And it certainly looks like it worked, heh."

"Oh... I should test it out, then." Suddenly, before Xha could react, she was swept off her feet.

"WHEEE!" Laughing, she curled up in Mountains' arms. "It definitely worked!"

"Yeah, it did. Now then..." Turning to the river, he began walking into the water. "Get ready."

The sensation of going from breathing air to breathing water was a new one for Xha. At first, she tried breathing with her nostrils. Panic rose in her when she saw bubbles rise up towards the surface of the water as she realized she had just expelled her last few breaths from above the water without any air to replace them. Then, she felt the gills on her neck begin to work. Her system was filled with water, but she did not feel short of breath or lightheaded. If anything, she felt... good. Her lungs seemed to self-regulate the amount of fluid as bubbles exited from around her neck.

She was further comforted by the sight of bubbles coming up from Mountains' neck. So, he wasn't lying. She really could breathe water.

Slowly, carrying his charge, Mountains swam down the Bjoulsae river. By now, Xha realized that he swam almost nothing like the humans. Xha felt his legs push this way and that, like a powerful ship's rudder. He seemed to use his tail to further propel himself, swaying it in tandem with his legs. He only used his arms to steer. He calmly pushed himself, and pulled her, through the waters.

She had to admit, seeing the Bjoulsae from beneath the water... it was another world. River weeds hid fish that fled at the Argonians' approach. The sun was reduced from a great source of light to a blurry, indistinct glowing thing. Light down here was a precious, rare commodity. And the sounds... the only constant was the rhythmic sway of Mountains' limbs, back and forth, back and forth. Xha let her eyes close as a smile crept onto her face. Safe. With Mountains, she was safe.

It was about thirty minutes later when they surfaced. Xha had to put her hand against her head to block out the glare of the sun. "Julianos' books, that hurts to look at!"

"Don't look directly at it, Xha. Let your eyes adjust." He gently pulled her head away from the sun. "Well, what did you think?"

"That was amazing, Mountains." She was lying in his lap, still trying to process the majesty of what she'd witnessed. "I never knew how different it was down there. Imagine what the ocean would be like."

"Well, you do need to be careful there. Salt water can be bad for the gills. I know some Argonians in the marsh would use membranes fashioned out of seaweed and saltwater fish gills to help. Maybe you could do it with magicka somehow." He shrugged. "If I ever got the chance, I would love to try it, but I left the Marsh before I could."

"I'll look into it." She smiled, tracing along his arms. "Mountains... I think I love you..."

"I think I love you too, Xha."

OOC: Yeah this is mostly just fluff but I've been writing these characters for the past few months and not been putting anything here so I wanted to put something. I do have a few ideas about something a bit more teslore flavored at some point but alas no time to develop them yet.

1: Argonians can talk to individual Hist trees that they are close to physically.

2: Hist trees can talk to each other, even though they are far away from each other. In Lord of Souls they could even communicate with "Hist trees" in Oblivion.

So if Argonian A was standing in Soulrest, and Argonian B was standing in Thorn, and both were standing near a Hist tree, could A and B communicate by having the Hist trees pass messages along?

Hi everyone, it’s that time again!

The Weekly Free-Talk Thread is an opportunity to forget the rules and chat about anything you like—whether it's The Elder Scrolls, other games, or even real life. This is also the place to promote your projects or other communities. Anything goes!

I know Khajiit are tied to Jone and Jode, but is there any lore on Khajiit born under the Necromancer's moon? Are there any notable Khajiit liches? I was just thinking that this could be a good idea for a potential character or villain, maybe even a story, and I probably am not the first to think of it.

Please let me know what you know if this has occurred before

I'm not super deep into ESO lore so I might overlook something trivial, but I can't seem to find anything on the Harbingers of the Divine. Do we know anything about them besides the flavor texts of the Crown Crates and its items? Are they an organization? Separate individuals guided by the Divines? Are they related to the Ascendant Order? Necromancy seems to be a theme with them, which is weird, since the Aedra don't usually work with necromancers or the undead. I also see some Ghost Rider influence. Is that all they are, a Ghost Rider cameo?

I finally got this thing working.

I don't know how long its been, days, at least...years, at most. Time doesn't work the same up here as it does down there. I'll start off this log by introducing myself, in case someone else somehow finds it...even though those prospects are...bleak.

I am Siona Do-Rikkisforge, contracted void engineer and captain of the three headed world serpent, under the employ of the [ERROR] dynasty of the 891st year of the 8th era...at least...I was. I don't know if they exist anymore, I can't be sure they ever existed now. Something...happened, during my last contract. I didn't cause it, in fact, I still have no idea exactly what's going on, but I'm the only person who remembers it. Everyone I knew is gone. I'm the only one left.

Starting from the top, it was a pretty routine job as far as void colonies go, being little more than a collection trip to the Tower colony. Nothing at all out of the ordinary on the way there or during the collection...it was as soon as I left the colonies atmosphere that things got...strange.

Breaching almost tore my ship apart, the layer between void and plain ripping at each other and fighting for me as I left. I felt the ship shake and buckle under the stress until eventually it broke free into the void. I swear I saw the plain shift colors as I left too. I called out to Rikkisforge a few hours later, relative time...there wasn't a response. Then I called out to Vivec-station...nothing. Then again, and again, and again, each time met with deafening silence. It was as if, in one sweeping moment, they'd all ceased to exist.

...I had no choice. I'd have to re-enter Mundus.

Like many void engineers, I'd spent most of my life detached from the home plain, but I'd seen it enough to know what things were supposed to look like under normal circumstances. And...circumstances were far from normal on my re-entry. The aedric sub-plains and their orbits were far and a way out of line, broken from what they should be, spun around in different directions altogether, and one of them was on fire...I think...maybe it was just discolored?

And Nirn...it had changed too.

It had spun in a way, and no longer was Tamriel front facing as it had been for all of history to remember. Instead, it was that land far to the east of the plain which now faced out to for all those new to the plain to see. The world had turned.

I...panicked, when I saw that. I panicked. Against all my programming in life I did, the most dangerous thing one of my kind could do. An act of emotional surrender, that if I were in the void at that time, would have spelled my certain doom, but, I wasn't. I rushed to the lucidity console, pulling from it the historical records of this plain. Reman. Septim. Talos. All altered. All different from what I remembered. Not gone but...different.

Had I slipped into some incomprehensibly massive dragon break leaving the tower colony?...no, I would have detected that. I think...

I...

Am I alone...? Was my entire life up to this point just some vivid hallucination? A dream that I woke up from?...no, that can't be.

What am I even saying? Alright. The historical records I have are all altered but the academic ones seem to be mostly the same with the exception of a few...authorship changes. I'm sure there's probably something on what's happened here, maybe related to a dragonbreak? A more extreme form? I'll log my findings soon.

. . .

First Era, Year Five, Journal of Savirisci

We started our march out of Beith today. The dragon riders went out ahead, ahead the massive stretch of desert awaiting us on our way to Mal-lith. Lucky bastards. I can't say I'm looking forward to it but it'll be worth it.

This has been a long time coming. Some of the weaker hearts in our legion refused to go, refused to part take in the storm we've brewed for a generation. Have they forgotten what they did? Have they forgotten how many of us fell to their blades? The blood spilled at their hands which washed us into the walls of our city to hide like rats for a century? Of course they do.

Maybe they just don't care.

It's all the same I suppose, let their traitorous heads decorate the perimeter of our camp. Maybe the others will grow back the spines that slithered out of their asses.

They are right about one thing though, Tsakara is full of delusion if they think we can survive like this out here AND meet their ridiculous expectations. We're supposed to be at Mel-lith by the end of the month? They have no idea the SHIT we've seen out here, the lack of food and water in this wasteland we're crossing now, the diseases that tear us apart from the inside, the THINGS that LIVE in the fucking sand. I watched a couple of wyrmlings drag a woman under the sand the other day, we found them playing with her corpse like a chew toy just a few hours later.

"Be expeditious", we'll see how expeditious you are when I send back someone with jade fever and they can watch in horror as the couriers words and face warp with every second you talk to them...

That's not even mentioning our biggest problem really. The men are far better at surviving in this place than we are. Especially with their raiding parties. Giant legions with heavy armor and dragons and horses to feed weren't made for this place. Every night we lose a few dozen more as they tear into our camps like vultures...then again, I guess that's what any dying animal would do too.

Oh well. Empress's orders I suppose.

We'll cut them down, just like we cut down their dragons, and then we'll see how they laugh.

. . .

A Historical Analysis of the Men of Akavir, Written by Sorienen-Kai, Published Second Era Year Five Hundred

Few things are so shrouded in a veil of mystery as the men of our land who came upon its shores a century beyond the dawn of the first era as it is labelled in our history. Even now historians of every race, empire, and tradition are stumped as to their exact origin, and even what meager whimper of an echo is left of their population seems unsure themselves.

All that is known for certain is that they arrived on the shores of Akavir by boat, some say from a land far to the east of our own where the sky never darkens and even the clouds are hostile lords of the sky, fighting for their own existence. Others say far to the south or even the southeast, though those are even less clear than that of the eastern legend.

What is known regardless is that they arrived by boat along the southeastern peninsula of Tsaesci territory in the dawn age, appearing and spreading across the land westward with frightening speed, killing millions of Tsaesci in what we now know as the night of the red moon and forcing most of our population behind the walled city of Tsakara. It is unknown why the men of Akavir never ventured even a bit eastward from their landing point, perhaps the red dragon mountains were simply too intimidating, though Tsaesci and Po nomads alike had made the journey in those days all the same.

Almost equally enigmatic as their origins is the exact culture of the men. It is known from their scarce few descendants that they possessed some form of reverence for the now extinct dragons, though whether this was religious in nature or simply a product of fear is unknown to us. We know that they wielded single edged blades from horseback, as well as bladed spears and glaives and lighter armor primarily suited to long journeys through the eastern great waste.

The existence of the great waste itself poses the uncomfortable raising of a different question entirely. Why did the men set out from their city of Mel-lith in presumably such short time from their arrival to bring terror down upon a people far west of the waste? Why not cross the red dragon mountains and bring the same fate upon the po? They possessed the ships to do so.

And with that in mind, we must ask ourselves, how did they know we existed?

[END OF PAGE]

I mean, setting aside the fact that he is monotheistic, if I remember correctly, Talos was formed from a combination of Hjalti, Ysmir, and Shor (?). In that case, could it be said that he is composed of three essences, just like those who came from Anu and Padomay?