For the OC ask game, I'm going with the 22nd question. I already know Josh studies the Dwemer, but I'm curious as to what exactly drew him to research the Deep Folk (I think I remember reading that his father played a part in encouraging this interest, are there any other factors?).
Also, if you have any Dwemer headcanons, I definitely want to hear them.
Hiii! Thank you for the ask, this one should be fun!
More TES OC asks -> here
22. Is your OC passionate about an area of study? What got them into the topic?
So I've mentioned a few times before that Josh is a massive dork when it comes to the Dwemer. Particularly the later stages of their Empire, how they interacted with the Chimer, their language and their machines.
Josh recalls his ata showing him pictures of their ruins and contraptions in a book when he was small. Maybe Yani had drawn some from memory, Joshi isn't sure. A lot of the memories he has of his dad are muddled, with more feelings than concrete imagery.
He knows he's always thought that the robots were cool, though.
Josh had access to a decent education, and he often read books that speculated on everything from their society to their technology and so on. No one actually knows what they're looking at. Just inferring from speculation about what was left behind. 3rd era Dwemeri scholarship has an Egyptology pre-Rosetta Stone vibe to it that I wanna emphasise a bit though Joshi's story.
Josh ends up leaving the interest on the back burner during his adolescence in favour of being a societal menace, and later ends up with an extended visit to the naughty corner. When he's released from prison, he does a job for the Blades that ignites his interest once again.
He ends up making a contact out of Hasphat Antabolis, who recommends him for an expedition that's being run out of the Ald’ruhn mages guild at the ruin of Nchuleftingth. Josh happily takes on the opportunity and is rewarded with a very important stele and a position as a researcher in the Ald’ruhn Mages Guild's Dwemeri studies department.
Josh spends the next decade deciphering the stele, using what he already knows about Aldmeris and comparing it to his Dwemeris examples. He creates a key for the Vvardenfell dialect and writes a thesis, which he publishes under the name Talerion of Sunhold. The eventual publication of this work leads to a boom in the field that you see by 4E 201.
Josh believes that there's distinctive language differences between provinces. So what you find on Vvardenfell is not going to reflect what you might find in Skyrim. Kinda like Classical Babylonian and Hurrian. Both use the same writing system but for different languages. I'm working on a Middle Bronze Age Super Powers Club (Legit this is the technical term in Assyriology, you should hear about McDonald's Pottery) for how at least First Era Resdaynia functions. Each stronghold is its own City State with some City States thinking they have more influence than others, creating small Empires. Each State clashes with its neighbour until they either crumble under their own weight or make alliances with those of similar influence. It seems to be the case for how the Dwemer and Chimer interact in the lore.
Josh also thinks that there's a lot of influence of Vvardenfell Dwemeri technology on the Chimer and vice versa during the First Council Era. He believes the ruins on Solstheim are mixtures of both cultures which is why you run into shit like Propylon Crystals being used as control keys. He also connects the influences to a pre Blight House Dagoth. Which he has connections to outside of the whole Corprus thing (If you've read Erra's You chapter, then you know).
He's figuring out those Propylons.
Josh does start taking official academic positions after the Dragon Crisis, and holds the position of Chair of Dwemeri Studies in Resdayn and is head of the Department of Dwemeri Studies in Skyrim's Collage of Winterhold.
He's managed to get a spider working too. He likes having his own robot guy.
Josh doing himself a Dwemeri Language crack.
He also really likes swords!
