Inspirational texts

Discussion of Elder Scrolls lore and how it will be used in Province: Cyrodiil
Post Reply
User avatar
Infragris
Project Administrator
Posts: 1396
Joined: Fri Jan 02, 2015 7:51 pm

Inspirational texts

Post by Infragris »

Generic thread for third-party texts and fanworks.
There are two types of people who are called heroes - one is called so justly, the other falsely. The word “hero” comes originally from the Aldmeri “ല്ലാത” whose meaning means most closely “son of god” or “godlike” [note: “first irreversible degradation past all natural perfection” is slightly more accurate]. From this means the true meaning of “hero” - one who is divinity made flesh. The famous 1st era Pelinal is perhaps the best example, being an avatar of Talos. The second, false, “hero” is a mere mortal whose deeds place him above his ilk. Although these often represent favorable qualities, they are by no means divine and should not be worshiped as such. Deifying morals dilutes our knowledge of our true gods.

It is dangerous, also, because these “heroes” are often nothing more than insertionist fantasies. Consider for a second all the “saints” that arose immediately following the Alessian Rebelion. Agdistra, Losha, Niisa, al-Khered, Andrea, an-Tasha, and countless others: each tribe has its own savior figure, often little more than a recontextualization of the Slave Queen. Each tribe wanted its own claim to fame, its own patron saint. The rise of human nobility only made the phenomena worse: now each family needed to have a demigod hero to be the source of their divine blood and their divine right to rule. From these needs arose a great many culture heroes, some of which remain little more than hearth-side stories. The others however have risen from obscurity to worship or outright divinity, and have been sloppily grafted onto the true histories of the Divines. Sed-Yenna is an excellent example of such a “hero,” a woman who likely never existed but who has been raised up in connection to Reman and is now worshiped in the north as a deity of women, children, and fate.

Source Although folk tales of silver-skinned Kothringi had been prevalent since the late 1st era, the modern notion arises primarily out of an archeological discovery in 2E865 by Augustus Plongian, who has since been discredited and largely forgotten. Plongian had been excavating Ìitsha, a Kothri village just north of modern-day Soulrest, when he discovered a mass grave, remarkably preserved in the bog. Like all mummies, the bodies were a dark gray color. The high mineral content of the slick, watery ground gave the bodies a glister. Plongian used this as ‘evidence’ of the Kothringi being silver-skinned in an attempt to preserve the near-mythical significance he had attributed to the tribe. His books, which are now rightly seen as fiction rather than science, painted the Kothringi as a peaceful and educated people, obsessed with astronomy and theology, who brought civilization to the previously savage marsh.

The source of the original myths which fueled Plongian’s obsessions have proven harder to track down. Excavations around the Topal Bay have uncovered a remarkable number of silver artifacts attributed to the Kothri, and they are known to be one of the first makers of scale mail (likely inspired by their Argonian neighbors). Of particular interest are the intricate silver masks found in upper class burials - contemporary accounts describe Kothringi nobility as clad in head-to-toe in fine cloth, with only their face showing. It could be that the silver of the mask or the scale armor was mistaken for skin by the historians.

"Silver" could also simply be a mistranslation of the Mesonedic (c. 1E 800-1500) iisirbró, which was used to describe the luster of the moon and carried a distinctive connotation of holiness. Since many Kothringi embraced the Alessian Doctrines, it could be that their whole race was called moon-like and holy in praise.

Source

Tyermali
Forumite
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Jan 28, 2018 7:06 pm

Post by Tyermali »

So I guess this is the right place for textracts from the archives. I found those lesser-known cyrodiilic snippets by Haute Quêteure among my saves and could not suffer them to be lost in the realms of dust. As you probably know, he wrote a lot more delightful stuff about Another Cyrod, so this are just three particular obscure bits:



Deeds of King Szorr
Spoiler
Hrmph hmm…

I reckon that the yarn yer wanting is one of the munera, those peculiar, poorly plotted bouts of sword-theater so popular in Western Cyrodiil, the only such fine art that C'lover honor allows. The title of the munera we want is, in the Ald Ge-ish, Canhtur ovn Korrolv 'Deeds of the King'. She relates the many grand voyages and guignol battles of Szorr, the Colovian's bloody god-king that they revere as their maker, plucking diamant from the hot bosom of -

Eh, nevermind that. Prologue, y'see. Act 1. What you want is the rising action of act 2, Szorr's first scrape against The Hairy-Elf. See, Szorr must learn the Truth of Flesh (which I will not spoil here) in order to save Creation from The Old-One. To do this he must submerse his head in the Bitter Well and learn it from the hermit Mehkyanz who dwells at the bottom. The problem is that the waters of the Bitter Well are colder than witch's colic. All who have attempted have been frozen stiff and shall remain until some time after time ends. All except the Hairy Elf, who does so only to drink, as he is too stupid to understand The Truth.

So Szorr corners the beast and wrestles him eight days and eight nights until it cannot continue and begs the Netherking release him from his unslippable grip. Szorr offers terms: his great shaggy locks for his freedom. The Elf refuses, so Szorr tells him then his only recourse is to call open his [censored] mother and wish bones into a bird so that he may fly away. Sure enough, Hairy Elf is duped and calls on his mother to make him a bird, which she grants, shedding off all those shaggy locks as he flutters off to harass worms and voles. Mighty Szorr collects them and fashions it into the first beard, which protects his face while he hears Mehkyanz's words.

Henceforth, All menfolk, wear beards to honor the strength and wisdom of King Szorr, while Elves would rather spurn his love and creation and eat worms.
Sundais Ut-Ulmscyrod
Spoiler
Happy Mother's Day, Alessia

Excerpt from the Heretical Evangle of Teo:

In those days of lotus and citrus, years after the storm that swept White-Gold and the Celestial Mandate into the hands of Men, all the diadochi of the Heartlands were recalled to Weye-on-Rumar to take special council around the chaise of the High-Highness.

Ostensibly, the cenacle was convened for the maintenance of our young Imperium, as ever, proceeding in byzantine intrications of well-spoken, stone-dense court volleys of policy and rhetoric, lobbed, quite under-the-hand, between well-silked nests of asps and vultures. But is was an open secret among the patricians that Her health, the breath especially, had not been the finest for some time - and after a quite terrible fall the previous summer (tripped by a wild caprice of her beloved whistlepig, Polchra), thick-bodied eunuchs were posted at Her side at all times, plus 2-score handmaids and a full complement of Legion healers kept on retainer just down the hall.

Gathering around Her, her withered fleshform small and untauted by the seasons of war and worry and spidered with shallow rivers of the most noble, yet unfirm purple, there could be no doubt amid the wetness of Her tussives that this was to be the last greeting with our Elder Mother. So all the good legates cast banner arguments and weapons into the steward's urn and we took turns, just holding her dainty brown finger-bones, stroking the thin, gray crown, and singing recounts of the era that had passed into mothtalk.
ILLI ORDRAGGRE-KOSMAS CYRODH-I-IIL
Spoiler
ILLI ORDRAGGRE-KOSMAS CYRODH-I-IIL (either "Celestial Bureaucracy" or "Anthill Realpolitick" depending on how one splits the compound nouns)

I. KOSMALESHUT ULMSCYROD-EL OVN TAM-RIEL
The Emperor of Tamriel. Legally entitled to absolute power, though in practice this actually varies from monarch to monarch.

II. URANII-IL
"The Arch-Kings". Supreme provincial powers, includes The High-Kings of Skyrim and Hammerfell, The King of Orsinium, The Mane of Elseweyr, The Tribunes of Morrowind, and The Valenwood Silvenar.

III. URANII
Kings. Includes the Jarls of Skyrim, the Duke of Mournhold, the Dukes of modern Nibenay and Colovia, and various regional Kings of Bretony, Old Colovia, and Valenwood.

IV. URPENII-IL
'Grand Nobility'. Includes The Counts of Cyrodiil, prominent Niben Battlemages, prominent Crowns and Forebears, The High Councilors of House-culture Morrowind, The more esteemed Hill-Mongers of Bretony, and the King of Alinor.

V. URPENII
'Minor Nobility'. Includes less prominent Niben Battlemages, Skyrimer Thanes, the less esteemed Hill-Mongers of Bretony, Morrowind Great-House petty councilors, and the lesser kings of Summurset.

VI. PELINII
"Cavaliers". The high warrior classes, such as Cyrodiilic Knights or Nord Huscarls.

VII. OLONES
"Oathmen". Upper class plebeians.

VIII. MIITHITES
"Yeomen". Middle class plebeians.

IX. DELLEVONES
"Freemen". Lower class plebeians.

X. VURONES
"Metics". The rightless; slaves, prisoners, and sloads.

Post Reply

Return to “P:C Lore”