Tes - Blog Posts

Evander Jourdain - The Gray Fox

These two will always be my OTP 😤💖💖💖

I love this Barbie meme template 😆

Evander Jourdain - The Gray Fox

Ohhhhh my goodness. I started playing Skyrim again and it’s about time I brought my little thief man back from the depths of my mind lmao. Anyways here’s Evander during Skyrim. He was originally my character from Oblivion but with a little vampirism this guy lives forever wooooo! 💖

I believe that Kirkbride’s original idea for the Bosmer (as he outlined in the concept art you’re referencing (no, I don’t know why it’s a nexus link, that’s the only place I could find the version with his notes))

https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/105701/105701-1606858796-124772823.png

was the male and female bosmer represented two different sides of our fairy myths. The women are the ethereally beautiful, good (or at least noble), fae (descended from the gods of Celtic myth); Titania, the Tuatha de Danann, the Leannán Sídhe (Tolkien’s elves also are a deliberate reference to these fae) - while the men are the little, sometimes evil, or at least trickster, fairies that we find more in medieval stories; Puck, the Fomorians, coblynau, pixies, boggarts, kobolds, etc.

to put it another way: the women are goddesscore and the men are rodentpilled

Also, for what it’s worth, Kirkbride wrote that the men have “lost their power of glamour”, so it could be that women are also ugly, they just use magic to conceal their appearance. Which is also very fae.

You know what bugs me? Bosmer males. Look, idk how ESO does things, but from Morrowind to Oblivion they seem to be the butt of a joke that just says, aren't short men with squeaky voices funny and juvenile and stupid and ripe for mockery? (Fargoth, Gaenir, Glarthir, The Adoring Fan. I don't remember any Bosmer in Skyrim, but then I haven't played Skyrim since like 2015.) Plus there's that old lore about how the Bosmeri women are hot and the men are not, and frankly, fuck that. Where the short king Bosmer at? (Please share any cool Bosmeri male OCs with me.)

I think you’re misunderstanding - mantling is not the end-point of the Six Walking Ways. It *is* one of the Six Walking Ways -

1. Anumidium

2. The Psyjic Endeavour

3. The Prolix Tower

4. CHIM

5. The Enantiomorph, or Mantling

6. The Scarab that transforms into the New Man

All of them lead to apotheosis in their own different way.

Anumidium is what both Voryn Dagoth and Mannimarco used to become gods - the influence of the Numidium and the Heart (or the Mantella, a convincing facsimile) can raise a mortal to godhood.

The Endeavour is the Walking Way that Boethiah taught Veloth. It is centred around the journey and trials of a Hero (as in, a player character). This was the way that Nerevar attained. I think Sermon 16 illustrated it best - Vivec tells Nerevar to “Reach Heaven by Violence,” or, CHIM - but Nerevar is a Hero, so instead he goes to Masser and kills “parliament of craters” there, and tries to break into Magnus’ library behind the sun. He literally turns it into a quest to commit violence in the heavens.

The Prolix Tower requires the bending of the Earthbones via Tones - shouting, tonal architecture, etc. As the Earthbones dictate the laws of the universe, you’re literally rewriting those laws to make yourself a god. This is *probably* what happened to the Dwemer.

CHIM is “reaching heaven by violence”, which I translate as “becoming a god by loving the violent” - that’s what the Pomegranate Banquet is about, Vivec loving the god of rape and destruction. The end goal of CHIM is simultaneously comprehending the full scope of existence and your insignificant place in it, and yet continuing to protest your own significance. Looking the godhead in the eye and saying “yes, I am real.” Obviously this is what Vivec did, and personally I believe that Reman Cyrodiil also achieved CHIM, but that’s a personal theory.

The Enantiomorph - and I’m just going to copy the UESP for this one - is “an existence wherein two individuals, due to a catalyst coveted by both, become parts of a merged dichotomy, and thus are metaphysically interchangeable.” Translated into English, that means the creation of two beings who are so similar that the universe has no choice but to consider them the same - which is exactly what the HoK did to take the role of Sheogorath. *Walk like them until they must walk like you*.

As far as I can tell we know next to nothing about the Scarab. If we dig into Kirkbride’s extracanonical stuff, we can find “The Nu-Mantia Intercept.” Nu-Mantia… New Man… it don’t think it’s a stretch. From there, we can assume that things like Nu-Hatta and Nu-Cyrod are also related to the Scarab - and if that’s true, from what we see of Nu-Cyrod in PGE3, the Scarab might have apocalyptic connotations.

Anyway. I got a *bit* carried away there, but to summarize - the Six Walking Ways, of which mantling is *one*, all lead to apotheosis, or godhood.

It’s my opinion that Ayem and Seht did not achieve any of the walking ways. Instead, they created a facsimile of godhood by stealing the power of the heart, a god. In much the same way, I believe, mages such as pre-Warp Mannimarco, Divyath Fyr, or Zurin Arctus can reach a godlike state by stealing the power of another god, this time Magnus. Vivec is the only one who actually went further and achieved proper godhood, which is why he/she is still alive in the Fifth Era to marry Jubal lun-Sul at the end of c0da.

The ending of the words is AlmSiVi

Mantling

My favorite concept in all of the Elder Scrolls' lore is Mantling.

Mantling, poetically described as "walk like them, until they must walk like you" is, in my opinion, the coolest method of achieving apotheosis I've ever seen in fiction.

The concept that acting like someone/something and BEING that someone or something is just so filed with irony and cool possibilities.

Did Martin embody Akatosh enough to summon him, or to BECOME him?

Does the HoK embody Sheogorath, or are they Sheogorath?

"My first question is: Are you really Nerevar reborn?"

Are you? Is the Nerevarine truly, really, the embodiment or reincarnation of Nerevar? I often RP as such, that my beastfolk, Imperial guild member, outlander N'wah truly is Nerevar. Serves the racist, xenophobic Dunmer right that their Messiah is all that they hate.

But on a more lore-brained, and less commonly discussed level, does it matter?

Prophecy is all about the will of mortals anyway. The failed incarnates claim that the fact that they failed means the prophecy is more believable, but it seems that prophecy is more often a mix of vague, mystical mumbo-jumbo with a helping of Determined mortal will. So being the prophesized savior or not is less important than having the capacity to fulfill the duties imposed on the savior.

So, what other examples of Mantling do I especially enjoy?

Well, surely the many Shezarrines are a fan favorite. Pelinal and Arctus or Talos or Ysimir or all three.

Micheal Kirkbride seems to favor Cyrus, who mantled the HoonDing, together with Crown Prince A'tor.

Then, if we bring in other, unconfirmed cases, the Ruddy Man seems to allow others who wear him to Mantle some form of Dreugh-based interpretation of Molag Bal.

And then, the most controversial of my takes: the Tribunal are mantling the Three Good Daedra.

Vivec claims to have achieved CHIM, but how this was done is shrouded in mystery. Certainly, the use of Kagrenac's tools on the Heart of Lorkhan seems to have been a factor. Understanding, however, that CHIM is merely one of the Six Walking Ways, all used to achieve Apotheosis, or Mantling, there must be a "them" to walk like.

So the Tribunal almost certainly mantle their own Anticipation, without fully attaining their powers, and thus replacing them, as the HoK does, nor disappearing in the process, as Martin did.

Their wish was to remain closer to mortality, and to their beloved people.

The ending of the words is ALMSIVI

Hey!! Your reply to my (dagoth ur propaganda) post interested me, i haven't seen in TES lore that Dagoth Ur would have returned many times (i tried searching for that info at one point, it would've been useful in a story i was writing at the time) so i'm curious if i overlooked some detail?? 👀👀

so most of that was “devout tribunal worshipper larp”

but there’s definitely evidence for OTHER members of House Dagoth returning after they were killed. If you manage to talk to Ascended Sleepers, you can ask them about “understand nothing” and they say:

“You think what you do has meaning? You slay me and I am dead? It is just dream and waking, over and over, one appearance after another, nothing real…”

which I’ve always taken to mean that you can kill them, but they are revived by the heart. we can also tie this to Lord Vivec’s dialogue when you ask him about “to be a god”. She replies:

“…It is a bit like being at once awake and asleep. Awake, I am here with you, thinking and talking. Asleep, I am very, very busy. Perhaps for other gods, the completely immortal ones, it is only like that being asleep. Out of time. Me, I exist at once inside of time and outside of it.

continue

It's nice never being dead, too. When I die in the world of time, then I'm completely asleep. I'm very much aware that all I have to do is choose to wake. And I'm alive again…”

So I take that to mean that those connected to the Heart of Lorkhan are functionally immortal, returning to life some time after their supposed death, just like the Ascended Sleeper said. The *dream* that the Sleeper mentions is death. *Waking* is being alive again. For what it’s worth, Vivec calls the followers of Dagoth Ur “heartwights,” meaning they definitely have some connection to the Heart, even if they aren’t on the same level as the Three.

There’s also Dagoth Ur’s famous line, “I’m a god! How can you kill a god?”, which comes right after you beat him in the outer chamber, then walk into the Heart Chamber and he’s right there again. I’ve always taken this as “we kill him in the outer chamber and then he revives inside.”

So I definitely think Dagoth Ur *could* come back to life, if killed. Did he? Probably. We know that the Three made yearly pilgrimages to the Heart to replenish their power. We also know that Vivec defeated Dagoth Ur at least once in open battle. I think it’s likely that the Three would have fought and beaten him at least a few times.

does anyone else write really long class descriptions in Morrowind? because I’m so addicted to the custom class description box it’s not even funny. I’ll be like “hmm today I will make a new character” and then spend 45 minutes to an hour writing entire paragraphs of lore for my hyperspecific custom class (that could feasibly still apply to a group/type of people because otherwise it’s not a class is it?)

joyous, wonderful, serene, an incredible creature

strange, squiggity, too many legs, an awful beast

do you ever think about the guard on the docks of Seyda Neen? do you ever think about how tired he must be of his job by now?

I’m sure it was terrifying at first, watching the stranger get off the boat, come up him, and morph their race and body and gender as he watched. but then it happened again, and again, the same ship arriving over and over, the same stranger getting off, him telling them the same lie - “I’m sure you’ll fit right in.”

by now, he’s just tired. he’s been doing the same job for twenty years. watching the boats get fewer and fewer, the time spent waiting between strangers get longer and longer. now, he waits with bated breath for the day that the final boat comes in, the final stranger begins their journey, and he can go home.

I think that this statue of Morihaus represents the rot at the heart of TES IV.

Because this is fundamentally NOT Morihaus. It is, because the game says it is, but… you’re telling me THIS is Morihaus the man-bull? Morihaus breath-of-Kyne? The father of all Minotaurs?

Oblivion was obsessed with doing shit like this. Dumbing down and simplifying and normalifying good and interesting lore. They did the same thing with Cyrod itself, and with Pelinal (who was VERY CLEARLY written to be the setting’s version of Achilles, but instead was depicted as a High Medieval crusader.)

Was it really too hard to give us a game that wasn’t solely based on Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings, Todd?

Miraak throws the wii remote at the tv I don’t take criticism

Decided to finally post the second page of Tale of Two Dragonborn

I’ve had this for so long I should really work on the 3rd page—Keryth if you see this scold me to work on it.

Page 1

Spot the difference!

(Skyrim/Barbie Swan Lake edition)

The Idiot Adventures of The Boys

(Left to right; Inigo, Miraak, Lucien, Kaidan. Image taken by The Last Dragonborn)

NO. NO. NO. DO NOT DO THAT YOU WILL GO BLIND.

like if you want to eat the big glowing mushrooms in blackreach reblog if you would slice those bad boys up like a gigantic convex bioluminescent pizza and slam em back with without hesitation without remorse without dipping them in sauce

Is imperialism really bad if the emperor is cute

Some vegan: you’re so inhumane! I can’t believe you ONLY eat meat! It’s disgusting! You’re a murderer! I hope your happy killing animals! Would you kill and eat a person?

A bosmer: I don’t know how to tell you this, but—

The last of the Septim bloodline and his Bosmer lover I mean Hero of Kvatch

I hear they're reforming the Dawnguard. Vampire hunters, or something, in the old fort near Riften. Might consider joining up myself.

There’s a nip in the air. Cold won’t be good for my crops. Never is. 

My Bosmer Skyrim OC.

Whenever I play Skyrim, I always play the same character. A Dwemer-researcher who hordes every book he comes in contact with. He’s an archer and the only reason his stealth is so high is because he literally just robs everyone blind of their books. He doesn’t, however, touch Urag Gro-Shub’s library out of respect.

Why are Skyrim elves so funny?

Well, they’re mer, not men. Therefore, they aren’t hu-MAN they’re hu-MER

Miraak

Watch the skies, traveler… 🌌

My friend @cynical-bonehead’s Skyrim OC, Keryth! I had a lot of fun drawing the Snelf :) He’s a snow elven spellsword who has a love got alchemy, as well as a wielder of Sanguine’s rose.

cicero with no hat

Year 1-5 of Skyrim being out: WOOOOOOOOW!!! Look at this sick war hammer Malacath gave me! This is so awesome, I-- YOOOOOOOO!!!! THAT DRAGON IS FIGHTING A GIANT, LET'S GOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Year 5-10 of Skyrim being out: I am roleplaying a deeply religious Dunmer. I will ONLY use the Ebony Mail, the Ebony Blade, and Azura's Star. I will follow their teachings, and only their teachings. The only times I don't follow their teachings is if I am literally forced on another path. I will shun and destroy any deity that is not Maphala, Boethia, or Azura. The Good Three are my light and my way.

Year 10+ of Skyrim being out: Hello Generic NPC. I know things about you. So many things. All of the things. I know where you sleep. I know what factions you're a part of. I have the sound of your foot steps memorized, I speak your words before you do. I desire for you, Generic NPC. Oh, not for anything as complex or personal as lust, Generic NPC. Nor hate. Nor is there any judgment here, Generic NPC. My reasons are more ancient, more sinister and, yes, more benevolent than anything you know too. I will follow you home, Generic NPC. I will watch you sleep, Generic NPC. I will cook only the meals you consume, Generic NPC. I will become you, Generic NPC. I will--

And a windmill for the same map.