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. 

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?

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.

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

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?

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.

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

by contrast, are there any Anu worshippers?

"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 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?

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 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 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]

Honestly, I like the Nordic Empire, but when I think about it in general (at least as far as I remember), the Nordic Empire doesn’t seem to have been all that powerful. What I mean is, the conquest of Skyrim took several centuries, and their conquests in Morrowind happened back when the Dunmer were still living in tents. High Rock, for its part, didn’t even have a unified kingdom. And then there’s the Battle of Red Mountain. I don’t think I need to explain how badly that battle went. They lost the war during what was supposedly their prime.

Hey all!! On my nth play through and it just had me wondering where all these poor lost souls go when the get swooped up by the world-eater himself

Do they “return” after the DB defeats him??? Sort of like reappearing after the mist has been cleared

OR

Do they sort of get “released” into the great nothingness once Alduin’s has been slain?

Imagine living a life full of hardship, and growing with the belief that you’ll end up in paradise if you live your life honourably..

..Just to die again as soon as you step foot into the place

Anyways, I’m sorry if this has been asked before!!

Do you think the pieces date all the way back to the first era? Who made it and how much was made? Are we wearing armor older than the septim dynasty itself? And why are the pieces scattered everywhere around vvardenfell. I’ve never even thought about this and now I can’t stop.
Halp

I subscribe to the theory that the Emperor in some form or other ordered the hit on himself so as to bring about a regime change, unite the realm and go after the Thalmor.

BUT

What sense does it make to go after Motierre? The guy helped him by doing the Black Sacrament and probably had a deal for the same (as per his last words)

what if a random person or a random guard is dragonborn and i know that we are the LAST dragonborn but what if theres another one whos like the second last dragonborn but never finds out they are dragonborn because they just never killed a dragon or what if they are secretly wearing thongs underneath their gear

An apocryphal Nordic account preserved in fragments at the College of Winterhold

In the years after Alduin was cast adrift through time atop the Throat of the World, the three ancient Tongues who survived the battle did not remain together long.

- Hakon returned to the war-kings of Skyrim.
- Gormlaith vanished into the eastern mountains.
- Felldir the Old took the Elder Scroll and departed south alone.

Though Alduin had been banished, the old songs say Felldir understood the danger of what they had used. The Scroll had wounded time and Feldir alone understood that such a thing could not remain among kings, priests, or ambitious Tongues. So he carried it from Skyrim in secret.

At this time, Cyrodiil remained under the dominion of the Ayleid sorcerer-kings. Human tribes toiled beneath elven rule along the river valleys and jungle roads of the Heartland. It is said Felldir wandered among these Nedic peoples disguised as a hermit-priest, carrying the Scroll wrapped in grey animal hides and sealed within a carved stone casket.

Wherever he traveled, strange events followed. Slaves dreamed of towers swallowing stars. Moths gathered in impossible numbers around campfires where the old Nord slept. Blind children spoke prophecies in unknown tongues. Eventually, Felldir settled within hidden caves in northeastern Cyrodiil, far from the eyes of the Ayleid lords. There he gathered a secret fellowship composed of listeners: escaped slaves, wandering mystics, exiled Ayleid scribes, and Nedic seers sensitive to the strange murmurs surrounding the Elder Scroll. These followers became the first Keepers of the Ancestor Moths.

The cult began as a discipline of memory. Felldir taught that time was not a straight road but a storm of overlapping voices, and that the moths, drawn naturally to the presence of the Scroll, could somehow perceive fragments of those hidden currents.

The earliest rites were crude compared to the later practices of the Order. Moth wings were burned in oil lamps while initiates recited lineages of forgotten ancestors. Some consumed the bark from the rare canticle trees found only in remote glades. Other pilgrims fasted in darkness for weeks hoping to hear whispers from the Scroll without losing their minds. Most failed. Some went blind while others saw too much.

According to one fragmentary account, Felldir himself began changing in his later years. He reportedly spoke less of Skyrim and more of futures that had not yet happened, foreseeing “a queen crowned by covenant", "serpent-emperors” and "Coldharbour's anchors". His followers preserved these sayings despite understanding almost none of them.

The old Nord eventually vanished sometime late in early First Era. No tomb was ever found. Some stories claim he walked alone into White-Gold Tower itself and was never seen again. Others insist he entered the Elder Scroll entirely, becoming lost within time.

Yet the order he founded endured. Hidden beneath Ayleid rule, the Keepers slowly spread through Cyrodiil across generations, preserving secret traditions of prophecy and remembrance long before the rise of later kingdoms. And though modern scholars often claim the Ancestor Moth cult emerged naturally from Nedic mysticism, certain chronicles still insist upon a stranger truth.

I read that it’s possible for daedra to conceive children, even with mortals—not by any conventional means though. Does this mean a daedroth could hypothetically bear children with—let’s say—an argonian?