#bosmer lore

[playthenpaint]

And she’s done!

Bosmer clans partake in Mourning Wars - when a clan member is slain, they raid the clan responsible and kidnap one or several Bosmer (depending on the rank of the elf that was slain) and then torture them to see if they’re worthy. If they prove worthy, they are accepted in to the clan and given the slain’s possessions.

Man, TES lore is crazy when you get to digging through it 😁

Hope you’re all well!

(A close up texture shot of the skin if you’re interested in seeing how I get skin texture.)

[unironicallytes]

A little update about Gilvar Bosmeris ...

... because I rarely share what's going on in the doc here unless it makes it into the fic proper! Mostly it's just fellow ESO roleplayers who've seen a lot of what I'm doing in there lol.

In the doc, I currently organize my words based on how I created them, that way I can track where canon fictional languages and irl languages begin and end. So I have a mix of 1) canon Ayleidoon, 2) extrapolated Ayleidoon (existing canon word adjusted for tense, form, etc), 3) original Ayleidoon (imitation of canon style but new word entirely), 4) Gaelic words without change, 5) combinations of Gaelic and Ayleidoon (often transliterated from the irl word's sound, then adjusted for Ayleidic vibes), and 6) Actual Fucking Canon Bosmeris Of Which We Literally Only Have 11 Words, Thus The Reason For My Insanity In The First Place.

So, all that being said, I've assembled enough stuff to be able to write sentences. I still don't actually know shit about conlanging and I'm just winging it here based off of languages I've learned in the past, but regardless, here are some example sentences and their breakdowns. Not all the numbers above are represented here because I'm just pulling from sentences in my roleplay notes lol.

Do you see those people in the river? = Ni ain’alasenu yan cheis va’an nenwend?

Ni - you (informal) (#1 & #2) Ain'alasenu - [interrogative qualifier] + to see (second person conjugation) (#5 & #2) Yan - That, those; used to identify a specific person or thing observed or heard by the speaker; often becomes "yon" when speaking Tamrielic/Cyrodilic (#3) Cheis - A people; can be used as singular to describe a type/role of person and a culture, or can be plural to describe individuals (see #2) Va'an - In + the (smushed together due to the same two vowels being that close together) (#1) Nenwend - River; lit. “water journey” (#2)

You lead my blade to blessed blood. = So emerenu angua clayabh vey sunna ful.

So - you (formal) (#1 & #2) Emerenu - To guide, to show the way (second person conjugation) (#2) Angua - My (#1) Clayabh - Sword, blade (note that bh sounds like v and is used in the middle/end of a word) (#5) Vey - To, unto (v is used when the sound occurs at the start of a word) (#1) Sunna - Blessed (#1) Ful - Blood (#5)

I saw him once, and then no more! = A'alasen sanu aone, ye san aebhe vasha!

A'alasen - I + to see (first person conjugation) (#1 & #2) (currently I'm on the fence about past tense for Bosmeri cultural reasons, so this remains in present) Sanu - Him (#2) Aone - Once (#3) Ye - And (#1) San - He (#1 & #2) Aebhe - To be (third person conjugation) (#1, #2, & #5) Vasha - Gone (#1)

[sotgofficial]

having a lively debate about wood elves. would there be a debate on eating mushrooms? you know a lot about bosmer lore, and we want your input. thank you! :3

I'm honored to be asked for input! 🥰 This is one of those things that really does seem to depend on interpretation. The Green Pact states: harm no plantlife, and mushrooms aren't plants, so technically it should be fine? Then again, the Meat Mandate, which is part of the Green Pact, specifically states eat only meat, which seems to clarify that. Then again, Bosmer happily drink milk, which is not meat. Can they only drink it? Does milk magically become forbidden when it's turned into cheese? What about salt, insects, honey, all which are a staple of Bosmeri cuisine? Some even claim that fallen fruit is fine. In short, yes, there'd definitely be a debate. Some think mushrooms are fine, but the most fanatic probably avoid them.

[sotgofficial]

Do you know if there is any kind of repentance for breaking the green pact or is it straight to the ooze pit?

It's hard to say. There's a quest in Elder Scrolls Online that involves freeing condemned Bosmer souls, but the spirits in that particular quest had declined Y'ffre's deal to begin with, instead of breaking it after agreeing. As far as I know, the lore hasn't gotten into whether apostates can redeem themselves or not.

[unironicallytes]

Btw because I'm insane, Gilvar (Galthili) Bosmeris does actually have a dictionary which I'm updating as I go.

Basically, I chose to make my version of Bosmeris a specific archaic dialect, that way it leaves room for others to make Bosmeris words when roleplaying. The dialect Zath speaks is a bit out-of-date with the rest of Valenwood, because his clan remains cut-off from others and doesn't have that evolving exchange of language, but some words may still overlap. Aka, I want any of my roleplay buds to still be valid in their Bosmeris language-building cause I like sharing the creative space.

I use Ayleidoon, both extrapolated and canon, mixed with irl Scottish Gaelic and a few other languages (because there's so little canon Ayleidoon). For example, there's a bit of French patterning in this conjugation table, purely because the canon Ayleidoon word for "our" is "nou", and that reminded me of "nous" being "we". So I just changed it lol.

And here are some personal pronouns and possessives, extrapolated from canon Ayleidoon. The highlights are a bit hard to see, but they indicate a canon word/root.

To negate a word, one adds ney- to the beginning, but this is often just shortened to n' . So for an example of a verb Zath uses in some of the stuff I've posted, "a ney-arken" means "I do not understand/know" but he shortens it to "n'arken". When he asks it of the player character in the animation, he fuses it with Tamrielic, resulting in "d'ye ken it?" -> which is an equivalence I wanted to land with actual Scottish slang and not at all learned initially from The Dark Tower.

Scottish Gaelic and Scots are not languages/dialects I naturally know, so I use a lot of dictionary sources and sift through subreddits to find context on word usage from its native speakers. If it's a language you speak, I'm extremely open to feedback on my usage. I chose it to supplement Ayleidoon because of the elves all having vaguely English accents in the games, and I felt like we could expand to more of the languages present in the British Isles.

[sotgofficial]

Hiyaaa this just crossed my mind.. but like.. how would Auri react if she had to consume the flesh of an enemy who brought great harm to her loved ones? I know it's part of a practice she religiously maintains but I often wonder if feelings of disgust and spite may have a chance of surfacing whenever she had to do it 😳🤷🙈

Hii Kitty! Disgust, not so much. The ritual is so ingrained in her that it doesn't phase her anymore, but spite? For sure. While devouring the remains of someone who hurt her loved ones, she might be more disrespectful, tearing and ripping and using her bare hands to sort of "defeat" that enemy a second time. From my understanding, the Bosmer rite of devouring of enemies isn't meant as a respectful thing in the first place (they bury their own dead, after all) so it might be a way to further degrade a defeated opponent by refusing them the chance for a funeral.

[unironicallytes]

Mor'iargalthil: Some Garb & Lore

Mor'iargalthil is an imagined place in the northwest Grahtwood region during the Third Era, based off of ESO's established lore (which I have not played because I'm not super interested in playing a TES MMO, no shade tho).

The "av Mor'iargalthil" of Zath's name means "of/from an inhospitable grove" in Bosmeris (non-canon extension of canon language). Here he is in traditional Galthili garb, though he would have been much younger the last time he was there. He doesn't have antlers of his own like some Bosmer do btw, those are just sewn into his hood.

To make a long story shorter, Mor'iargalthil is a small clan of descendants from Gil-Var-Dell survivors who retreated to more isolated places. They're generally a dour and wary group. Galthili Bosmer observe the Green Pact, but are more entwined with neighboring Wood Orcs than other Valenwood Bosmer. This cultural exchange unexpectedly resulted in Galthili Bosmer incorporating Mauloch/Malacath into their pantheon alongside Y'ffre. Their traumatic history with Daedric Princes instilled a complicated mix of reverence and hatred, but Mauloch resides in a grey area and is an exception. His fables speak to them as people who feel they too were "consumed and twisted" by another force.

Here's some extra doodles and more clothing details under the cut.

Those aren't permanent tattoos, they're more akin to henna. Zath was born under the Serpent and it affects many aspects of his life, so he often adorns himself with the inauspicious sign.

Zath's hood is separate from the rest of the bow sleeve and can be attached to the beaded leather mantle instead.

Speaking of the hood, it has openings for the ears to keep that super cool merrish hearing unobstructed.

His thumb guard is made of mammal leather - I imagine most Bosmer use thumb-draw instead of finger-draw so that they can move around while keeping an arrow nocked.

These Bosmer use a lot of reptile parts for their leather and shells. Gators, turtles, etc., perhaps even the occasional Daedroth since regions of Tarlain Heights likely still have remnants of that influence.

The front half of the foot is exposed for tree-climbing, but the heel remains cushioned in soft leather. Bosmer unfortunately refuse to put those dogs away cause they gotta grip that tree bark.

As for the horn bow, I'm pretending Bosmer do some Special Stuff to make the horn more flexible, or it's just Magical Creature Materials(tm).

[sotgofficial]

Do you think that Brelyna’s quest from the college of winterhold where she turns you into an animal multiple times would count as breaking the Green Pact?

Personally I think so, yes!

Obviously different Bosmer will have different opinions on the matter (and many of them don't even bother following the pact at all anymore) but Auri would definitely decline being polymorphed.