#ashlanders

[mourningmoth]

talked about this in a server just now but i also wanna put it here

but theres something so jarring about fandoms in general and how white-dominated they are

i first played morrowind before i had internet access. i didnt know about fandoms, i didnt know fanfiction was a hobby other people actually did seriously, and i didnt know there were whole online communities of people who got together to discuss their fav games

when i played morrowind and saw the ashlander characters for the first time, i was instantly struck by how familiar they were to me. in my little kid brain i thought to myself "oh theyre just like my family! thats so neat :)"

it was the first time i ever felt that kind of familiarity in fiction. u could say this was the first time i ever felt actually represented in media (obviously other romani characters existed before, but they were largely VERY racist so.) TO ME, the ashlanders were my very first exposure to representation that was anything like me and my actual family (i clarified in another post BUT im a mixed irish-roma-mongolian which is why im addressing these specific cultures)

anyway. it was really cool to have this, it was awesome to feel represented in this way for the first time in media that i liked. i was so excited about this, i very soon after started using the internet so i could talk about my Favourite Game Morrowind and how awesome it was and how i wanted to talk about how cool it was to have the ashlanders be a group of character that felt so familiar to my culture

only to come online and get immediately BLASTED by elder scrolls fandom endlessly musing about how WEIRD and ALIEN and UNUSUAL and STRANGE the ashlanders were and how they could NEVER IMAGINE living anything like them or BEING anything like them

and it was just kind of a big smack in the face to my 12-year-old self bc i think that was also the first time i really realised i was Not the same as the white people around me. like obviously i was conscious of this previously, but SEEING the way people talked about ashlanders (in conjunction with how i saw them as a DIRECT allegory to my roma-mongolian family) really hit my child mind like a freight train

[pastwiska]

[seriousmistakesofsolstheim]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

It had been a long day— by Azura, it had been a long week! Erra sighed to himself as he weaved through the bustling streets of Maar Gan. The second Turdas of every month was always a little chaotic in the market square as vendors set up their stalls for the Monthly Night Markets. He did not mind; it is just that so many people in one spot still left him a little overwhelmed at times. Even after fifteen years of living with the settled Dunmer, the crowds were something he just could not get used to. Especially when he had been on the road for days. He supposed that was why he chose to settle in Maar Gan, rather than Ald’ruhn or Vivec City. The outpost, with its sizable Velothi population situated on the edge of the Redoran-Ashlands, made him feel less homesick. Yes, business in Ald’ruhn was more lucrative, and it would have been smarter to try to set up in the heart of Redoran lands. Those would have been smarter decisions, yes. But he would have been miserable.

Hey, I finally finished it!

[changelingsandothernonsense]

If Erra's talking about Ashlander things, I'd imagine he's going to be using a fair few Ashlander words when Redoran Dunmeris is insufficient. Especially since he's slowly teaching Josh Northern Ashland... So far I've noticed that object names and titles are Turkic in origin where as place names and personal names seem to have an East Semitic origin.

War Leaders are called Khans, and they refer to their living spaces as Yurts.

So since I'm playing this as "Ashlanders are influenced by nomadic steppe cultures" I've decided to use Turkic terms when I describe the divisions of camps since I don't think that "Urshilaku Tribe", "Urshilaku Camp" and "All the Tribes gathering in one location" suffice, especially when it's coming from the mouth of a guy who breathes the culture like its air (Erra).

So having said that, I'm arranging the tribal structure thusly:

Singular/Immediate family camps: Zhuz Clan Gathering/ Extended family camps: Orda Tribal Gathering/Tribal Camps (what you see in Morrowind): Ulus Gathering of two or more Tribes for political means: Kurultai Gathering of all four Tribes under one Great Ashkhan: Khanate

So if Erra's referencing the Urshilaku Camp as you see it in game he'll say Urshilaku Ulus.

Using Erra's family as an example, it should go:

Ilaba'andul Zhuz Ilaba'andul-Sul Orda Urshilaku Ulus Urshilaku-Ahemmusa Kurultai Urshilaku-Ahemmusa-Zainab Kurultai Kurultai of the Four Great Tribes Ashlander Khanate.

I'll get back to you on names for war bands and armies but there's some tribe structure as far as what I'm working with in Sleepers Awake anyway. Things change after Red Year...

[alandrosul]

a shot with zainab camp and ghostfence in the distance

[runathequiet]

Curious on people's take on Ashlanders when it comes to cultural norms, specifically language and reading. Obviously most the Ashlanders you meet in game speak a language the player understands (Cyrodiilic? Common?), or do you headcannon that some of them don't speak it at all, just Dunmeri? Would you say there's a difference between Ashlander and House Dunmeri? How common do you think it is that they learn to read, be it Daedric/Dunmeri or Cyrodiilic? I could well have missed some lore that discusses it, but also curious what others think.

[darkelfguy]

Morrowind - The Vale of the Zainab

[vidvana]

A new take on colors of this guar rider :3 Old version:

https://vidvana.tumblr.com/post/707162477046251520/this-journey-will-be-long-and-tedious