The reasons I’ll NEVER — I mean N E V E R — side against the Forsworn!
The Forsworn and the lore of the Reachmen is barely brushed upon in Skyrim and TES save for them being ‘old inhabitants of the Reach who were vicious savages’.
Wait. That sounds awfully familiar to me, a Welshman.
A Bit of Hanes Cymraeg (Welsh History) For You:
We were the first people to be colonised by England, and our tribe of the ‘Silures’ was known for being so vicious that we scared the Romans off and fought them back for a considerable length of time before they successfully invaded - considerable enough that the Romans saw it as something worth mentioning. We also scared the Vikings back into the sea.
Now, when England took over, all of our princes were killed. Our language was outlawed and made forbidden. We were annexed to the larger country. Our Druidic beliefs were demonised as backwards and savage, despite our practices being nature-based and rooted in animism. Our Druids were executed.
Witchcraft, however, was rampant. We have always been a witchy country - so much so that when witch trials came to the UK, hardly anybody was executed or tried in Wales because it was seen as something to be revered; we didn’t have ‘witches’; we had ‘wise folk’ who were important and cherished members of our communities.
Another thing to note is that a lot of our history, stories and mythology was erased, and it’s thanks to those who fought for it that we know what we do today (even if it’s meagre).
Cymrophobia and racism towards the people of Cymru is still prevalent in England. It isn’t so bad today, but in the late 90’s, one heinous piece of shit named A.A. Gill described the Welsh as thus:
“Loquacious, dissemblers, immoral liars, stunted, bigoted, dark, ugly, pugnacious little trolls.”
All words you’d likely see the Nords using to describe the Forsworn after ripping their home out from under them.
The Markarth Rising sounds a lot like the Merthyr Rising, too.
Not to mention that the Forsworn, like Duach and Madanach, have distinctly Celtic names. Now, before you start saying “but those names sound Irish/Scottish!” consider the Welsh name ‘Afallach’ - the King of Afallon (Avalon). Now consider that unlike Gaelic, Welsh (alongside it’s little sister, Kernewek (Cornish)) is the closest to Brezhoneg - Breton.
Yes, literally; Breton.
So if Bretons are from High Rock and are Brezhoneg / Gaulish coded, and the offshoot are the Forsworn, that would make the Forsworn Cymraeg.
And it makes sense, too, looking at what information we have about the Forsworn in the game; they were the original, ready to fight ‘savages’ who had their homes taken from them / were forced into poverty by the rich Nords (the same happened in Wales and is still happening with rich English people buying second homes, causing economic catastrophe where none of us can afford houses even though we are native), they were put to work IN THE MINES (literally textbook Cymraeg history), etc.
To Conclude:
I will never fucking side with the Nords. The Reach is for the Forsworn. You can get fucked if you disagree.
“The Reach Will be Ours Again!”
“Ry’n ni Yma O Hyd!”
🏴