#tes lore

[strix-returns]

Six are the lessons of Kilo Nueve

Six are the formulas to heaven through violence

[babyblueetbaemonster]

Wip Wednesday

and actually on a wednesday? yay!

Tagged by @wispstalk 🖤 and @hannah-heartstrings 🩷Thank you <3 Tagging @devilrose, @throwusaboner, @apollinariafh, @tobianidiot, @ego-osbourne. If you want to ofc :3

Anyway I was going to draw some big thing for the gala, but too busy. So have a ballroom with no one in it ^^'

After this and I still get confused of drawing interior and perspective.

And I also I made charts again. For uh, research reason. This time I bring you, the Racial Abilities and Starsign Abilities through different games.

Racial Abilities

Most racial abilities are quite consistent through out the games, especially the big three. Like Argonian's Waterbreathing, Breton's Resist Magicka, Nord's Resist Frost, Dunmer's Resist Fire.

Unfortunately most of them got nerfed in later games. Like High Elf have 150% more magicka in Morrowind, then 100 pts in Oblivion, them 50 pts in Skyrim. And Nord used to be able to achieve 100% Frost resistance in Morrowind! Cold never bother them fr.

Some fun thing like how Redguard can resist disease but not in skyrim. Maybe the place is too cold they keep catching a cold XD

Dunmer's Ancestor Guardian is low hit rate, summon ghost, and fire wall. Everyone has a different ancestor guardian :D

Brithsigns

I think we could over look eso, bc magic works different there.

Skyirm has a lot of level up faster things bc they don't have attribute.

I like Shadow being invisible for every game. And Steed is I gonna go fast. Tower is open says me, for some reason.

But my favorite is Lover. I give you a kiss and you can stay down for a few seconds and watch me kill you 😘

The thing that bother me is Ritual. It went from say no to undead, to say yes to undead in skyrim. That's the opposite of what it used to be. So strange.

[i-love-books-because-reasons]

The Obscure Guilds of Tamriel - The Elder Scrolls Lore

[i-love-books-because-reasons]

A Full TES: Shadowkey Lore & Story Recap and Analysis - The Elder Scrolls Lore

[sigma-freud-loves-primates]

Elder Scrolls Deep-Dive #1: Religion

This is just an intro post :)

This intro will help to set the stage for the collection of essays that I will be posting sometime after this one. I will define the criteria I will look for and explain why I have set them. I want to stress that this is more or less a fun project for me, and I want to share it with other people who would like to read more about the Elder Scrolls universe. Unlike other lore blogs on here, I will not take on the role of a character that exists in-universe. Instead, I will take on the role of an outsider looking into the universe of the Elder Scrolls, so be prepared for some meta-ness as I step in and out of fantasy and reality.

Throughout this collection, I will be referring to all things spiritual as ‘religion’. However, this makes it difficult for me to determine whether something should be filed under religious or under something else. Because of this, I will use the definition of religion that the early-twentieth-century sociologist Emile Durkheim used. Durkheim defines religion as a set of beliefs, practices, and institutions within a society that are used to unite members of that culture (Perspectives: An Open Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, pg.288). This definition will broaden the scope of these essays to not only include the Divines and the Deadra, but also other forms of worship that might not include god(s), such as ancestor worship.

I would like to note that this broad definition that I am using could potentially make magic usage count as religion, but I will not be including them, as, unlike our world, magic on Nirn is very evident and tangible (i.e., levitation). This tangibility would make the relationship differ in comparison to our Earthly relationship with magic. Continuing with the levitation mention, the Levitation Act of 3E 421 restricted the usage of levitation magic (Levitation Act, UESP). As far as I am aware, here on Earth, our current governments do not have any anti-levitation legislation, as we humans have never had the ability to levitate. Also, talking about magicka in any capacity means I would have to address the cosmology of the Elder Scrolls, which would be too lengthy to include for context without leaving out critical information. Maybe another time, I will dedicate a whole topic to the magika system. I should note that I will be mentioning cosmology somewhat, but nothing too crazy.

So, with that out of the way, back into religion!

Because religion is influenced by the culture in which it exists, and how the culture is influenced by its religion, I will be going through each religion through the culture(s) to which it is connected. In the case of pantheons that are spread to multiple diverse cultures (i.e, the Nine Divines), I will make an effort to showcase how these cultures that adopted the new belief practices were influenced by this adoption, and how their culture shaped the practice. Throughout these essays, I will be pulling from real-world parallels in order to better support my writing.

I should note (and I will constantly be reiterating this) that what I write is my own writing, so I will be implementing my opinions and biases consciously or subconsciously. If you read my writing and disagree with a point I make, comment about it, but please be respectful! 

Now, if I break down each religion to the culture that practices it, I should also look into how the differing species that inhabit Nirn are involved with religion. I will be using the word ‘species’ rather than ‘race’ or ‘races’, as it does not accurately reflect the necessary information. It is also a bit outdated and, in the fantasy sense, has ties to real-world ‘race theory’ and white supremacy.

If you want to look into this further, I recommend you learn a bit about Gary Gygax and how his biological determinism and racism influenced D&D, along with this link here to a thesis that covers this more in-depth than just a paragraph.

From a species, I will narrow the scope even more to each ethnic group and its twists on religious practices. Basically, this means a lot of work and research for me, but in a fun way, because it is the Elder Scrolls!

I will be leaving the Nine Divines and the Deadra for last, as they are the most well-known and the most prominent within the games and in the fandom, but currently, I do not know exactly what religion I should start with first. If anyone knows of any niche cult/religion within the Elder Scrolls, lemme know!

Anyways, hope this is just as exciting to everyone else as it is to me :) Please let me hear feedback! It will help my writing much more.

[vexwerewolf]

[her-butchship-holly]

The Seven Graces and the Seven Gods of the Dunmer People

I was writing a fic last night and came up with what I think is a pretty neat theory connecting each of the Seven Graces of the Tribunal temple to a God. if I didn’t come up with this and it just exists in lore but I forgot I read it then. sorry. memory bad.

The Grace of Pride - Azura. Azura’s main trait is being extremely prideful (I would say narcissistic). The whole Nerevarine prophesy is a result of Azura having a hissy fit over not being worshipped anymore.

The Grace of Valor - Boethiah. S/he is a war god/dess, and Valor a military virtue. (I’m honestly surprised there isn’t a Boethiah cult in the ranks of the Imperial Legion, mirroring the IRL cults of Mithras or Sol Invictus among late Roman soldiers.)

The Grace of Justice - Mephala. Murder is very much a form of justice in Dunmeri society; she is recorded as having taught the Chimer the way of secret murder to be used against their enemies.

The Grace of Generosity - Almalexia. Ayem is Mother Morrowind, giving alms to the poor, healing the sick, etc. She’s the most kind and public-facing Tribune.

The Grace of Humility - Sotha Sil. Seht never wanted to be a God and doesn’t even consider himself one.

The Grace of Courtesy - Vivec. Courtesy here is the courtesy of the honourable duel; in the Pilgrimage of Courtesy you give a sword to an enemy that has none so you might have a fair fight, which is based on something Vehk did himself. Vivec presents herself as very courteous and honourable in battle.

The Grace of Daring - Lorkhan. I would argue the act of creating the world itself is one of extreme daring.

[her-butchship-holly]

I was rereading PGE2 today and wowwww I’d forgotten how much I fucking loved the Cyrodiil chapter. There’s something so compelling about the concept of a dying world calmly explaining to the monarch who rules it how they are all doomed. Poetry.