[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Practically, for practical reasons, not for this sort of, I don't really think it's like an idealistic attempt, cause you don't really see the idealistic, like, oh, we wanna like, introduce it, like, they go to other country, uhm, other nations and so on, and then they just conquer them and then colonize these areas, they're not, and they take the good parts, like the flavor and stuff, but they're not really interested in like, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Individual sort of sovereignty of areas, I guess, and then...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They don't want them to keep more culture than they have to, you know, because you see increased imperialization in Morrowind, in Skyrim, um, you know, obviously if you play Redguard Adventures, it's not fun being taken over by the Empire, but, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, they, I see them as a really practical, it's even, it's weird to say race because really the imperial race and the culture that it is, the empire is kind of indistinguishable. Um, but they are really practical in terms of, you know, the trade and the, and the stuff that you can gain.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, uh, arguably though, in terms of like, about it being a race, I would say that like, in our real, uhm, in our real world, for example, uhm, maybe ethnicities, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Rather a more accurate sort of term, but you could say, for example, like people like English people today.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Ah, you know, the creation of like, you know, Celts and Saxons of different things. If you were to imagine just for sake of like, you know, analogy, like putting instead of Nibbanese, you've got Celts and then Saxons take place, Clovians, but that combination creates a unique mix of genetics, which exists for thousands of years, which then becomes the, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Becomes the, the modern thing. So you could go like the Imperials or the English, like it's.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I guess the Bretons too are a creation of a race creation from an intermixture, you know what I mean? They then become isolated themselves.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I'm not so much arguing for like, necessarily their powers, cause all powers and stuff in the games too can be. Or the bonuses, they can be like, you know, red guards shouldn't have a plus five to alteration in my opinion. But, I was just, um, okay, no, you go where I forgot what I was saying.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But arguably, if we throw that again, couldn't you actually say that that's kind of what's happened, that Clovian culture is the dominant and has kind of wiped out all of the unique sort of old Nibbanese or Celtic in this analogy kind of things, and then the Clovians have kind of become the dominant culture.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But yeaah, also the other thing to throw in there too, with the Clovians sort of saying becoming dominant thing, also the increasing, um, each empire progressively, you could argue became more Nordic, really with Tiber Septons a big part of it too, um, but, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That Nordic influence, and part of the reasons I guess they called like, Syro Nords and stuff a lot of the time now, you would argue there's a lot more Nordic intermixture as well. At the end of the day, gameplay buffs and bonuses, like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We've, we've talked about this before, but things with races are never going to be properly reflected in gameplay terms. Cause you can't be, because you can't really like math out like, oh, I'm like, you know,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] AncestryDNA, 17% Nord, 10% Breton, 5% Dunmer. Like you can't really like mix that all in. It's gotta be like pick one binary sort of race. And I know there's-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Do you know, this isn't an ES, this isn't an ES6ID episode, but it would, I would, you know how they're really against, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Make some minor changes to some of the abilities and stats and stuff like that that you get. But you know, they could even do that, expand that kind of cool idea to a few of the other kind of races. Like even if it was things like, you know,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Nord, or it's like, eastern or western Skyrim, or like, or, or Dunmer even if there was like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the, the changes wouldn't be as large as they, the changes between the races are, but just a variation on, on, you know, the Imperial or the whatever. It could just be a cool, fun, extra role playing, role playing and also gameplay kind of things to help you sort of.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Navigate, like what, like, you know, more, make a more specific build. If you want to be an Imperial Battle Mage, then maybe Imperial Nibbanese or something is better to go.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I think, like, you could argue some of it actually came from the Akav- because the Akaviri, you know, pretty- seemed pretty successful, like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They fail both times, but they are, they are a formidable army. They've been a threat. It was ambitious. Ambitious, but uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because the idea is that the Imperial Legion that you know today started around the kind of Reamon times and it really came about from, um, a lot of Akaviri tactics and practices and so on. And obviously you have the, the Dragon Guard and then later Blades and that Akaviri influence, which is far more specific, but even for the Legion as a whole, a lot of the formalization of the sort of Ruby ranks.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or whatever came about. Like, Reamon really is one of the, and he's also worshipped someone as a, as a culture hero god kind of thing. But he really is, I guess I would say, the birth of the modern empire in the way that we understand it now. Because even things like the whole, like, the rights of the dragonfires and stuff like that are making that a formal sort of process.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And stuff like, uh, and you know, obviously the Cray formation of the legions are sort of as they are, uhm, today and so on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Absolutely. But yeah, so I guess that's how we can understand. It's like I said, it's not as fun as Nivenese, Clovian being heaps diverse and so on, but it does make sense when you consider that even Riemann, um, came about, um, you know, a couple hundred years before the end of the first era. And then, so you're looking at like, you know,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A nearly, no, over a thousand, maybe nearly two thousand years, up to now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'll see if I can find it again, but so I've talked about before this Tamriel Rebuild, which is really the projects talking about rebuilding Morrowind and so on, but more broadly, they've kind of, they're kind of grouped and shared resources and stuff. And, um, but there's a project called project.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you know, plantations and stuff, because it's like this giant expanding metropolis. It's the Imperial city. It's supposed to be the, you know, what you would imagine is the most populous, most central place in all of Tamriel.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's kind of crazy to imagine that it's just like a little ring. Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, it's, uh, is unfortunate, but there's been some cool two, uh, ESOs credit. So if we get over the whole jungle thing, the jungles, it's just not happening. It's gone. But, um, they, they do have some cool, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sort of exploration of the, um, imperial legions and imperial culture and stuff, like even in the Blackwood DLC at the moment, like, cause they're basically like, Leowen is sort of


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because of the, you know, you've got the fall part of the Roman Empire and you've got the three banners war. So you've got the Ebonhart pact and the Aldmeri dominion. They're all fighting over the Imperial city and that's like a battleground almost, but you've got certain areas of former Cyrodiil, uh, that are.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, alright, and you've got, um, the Countess of Leyawin and so on. She's sort of harboring the, uh, Elder Council, the remaining members of the Elder Council and stuff. And, and you, even in their clothing and stuff, there is some, there is a,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Increased sort of, I would say like more, it looks more exotic and I guess it's kind of probably just more Byzantine or something, but compared to like Oblivion, which is really fairly run-of-the-mill sort of medieval kind of look for the most part. Uhm, yeaah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah. Yeah. Oblivion as a whole, I'd say even in execution feels very, uhm, lack.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One size fits all, like kind of like there's a major's guild and a fighter's guild in every single city. The city changes in terms of like quests and like what it looks like, but a lot of the people


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Act, you know what I mean? There's no large cultural differences and stuff. And, but you get, obviously they threw in like the racial differences. Like there is the idea that with the Nibenees naturally you would imagine because they are a more diverse sort of culture, even in terms of like cults and practices and stuff like that. Um, that they adopt a lot of the, um, uh, Eastern influences and stuff, even things that come.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or I went to Black Marsh or, or other sort of things like that. Um, but yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All the cool like tattoos, you go back and look at the concept art and stuff. And there's like a Michael Kirkbride stuff in this one of, um, I'll probably put it up, but it's like a.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's like a Clovian king or something with a bodyguard from Rehard and it's like this sort of like really bloatmax sort of redguard muscled guy who's like a fat guy in the back with like a big mace and so on and it just looks so cool and he's got like that, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The clothing king's got that like gladiatorial kind of style helmet. And then you see like a Nibbanese one, it's a guy with a staff and sort of got like these tattoos and so on. Actually, you know what? I will say in, in Dragon, in Skyrim, some of the war paints.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Even in old, old ebonheart, just like walking to the imperial, uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cold area and you are sorry the temple and you go in and there's a woman and she's kind of got like this she's bald but she's got like this kind of imperial kind of dragon kind of tattoo and stuff and it's cool it's what you imagine it's also one of the things to that in terms of the history of the games dragons.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In Elder Scrolls, history have generally been really highly associated with an empire thing. Like there's even mention that like the Rust Dragons, which can also be interpreted as...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Lizards, but there was even, I'm pretty sure even those dragon riders and stuff in some of the older lore or the set about, but you know, in their symbol is a dragon and you know, Akatosh and all of that, the dragon sort of thing has really been an Imperial. Um, you know, there was a dragon with, um, Tiber Septim when he took over, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So what's it call it? Skyrim introduced the whole dragon wars thing and all the dragons are gone and now they're coming back and stuff like that, you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's cool, like that's one thing I really love about uh, like Morrowind and even it's dynamics of, of,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, cause it's a really, but to be fair too, we should actually looking at Morrowind as an example, because out of the mainline games, not really talking about Daggerfall era and prior, but out of the more modern, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 21st century Elder Scrolls games. Uhm, the, uh, out of those, every single area that we've been to, so Skyrim and Cyrodiil have been like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The Empire's attack on Hammerfell and so on, that really wasn't pleasant. And they even got favorable terms because they had this big sort of crown rebellion, like, led by the Osiris and so on. But like, you don't know how necessarily


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, it's most popular in culture. It's very easy to look at and like understand it. They should actually, they could absolutely lean into it and look at like, um, the Roman conquests of the, you know, the middle East and all into Egypt and stuff and have a lot of that kind of vibe. It'd be interesting. Like, I mean, funnily enough.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The armor that they're wearing in Skyrim probably fits like some desert campaign, some sort of like, like leathery sort of like light cool kind of stuff. They should have had some sort of rugged up kind of like Romans in, in, you know, England kind of vibe instead of the other way around. But yeah, so the armor fits a lighter.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But the thing is too, the reason I would, I would actually be like, there, there could be, there's a good chance they even might from a design perspective, like go in just like, let's make Hammerfell Hammerfell just because remember that this is what would be really cool is,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, for a 21st century Elder Scrolls game, first time that you were in a province that is not ruled by the Empire.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The empire are not the rulers of this place. So the, you're dealing with purely just the, the native, the crowns and forebears there, um, and their sort of political situation. And, you know, that could be cool stuff with, you know, you'll have like Imperial sympathizers who want to come, you know,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The heart of the empire again and stuff like that and the crowns who are really happy you don't, you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But why my biggest thing to them to say to that too is just like, you don't need safe. You are like the biggest open world RPG ever. Everyone's got to buy Skyrim 2 set in Hammerfell. Like no one's not just, you could do whatever you want. You could set it wherever you like and they will, you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It is a cool idea too, but like one thing I sort of changed my mind in recent months on that, that I would rather them do


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I just like, I feel like you could, every second you put high rock in, you could just punch the, the, the like, punch the, um, the, the scale, like ridiculously, like go bigger and bigger, make it feel big, like every city, like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, but dude, even Hammerfell, the other thing too, Hammerfell has crowns and forebears. You can have any sort of Imperial extra sort of storyline stuff there, but the other thing is Orsinium as well, um, because that's in Hammerfell now. So you'd have.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, they have so much, so much potential. I think Hammerfell's an awesome setting for it. Plus it's, it's the best chance we've got for something a little bit more interesting. Um, rather than like Hyrox sounds so plain and now they've got ESO that have like doubled down. I'm like, yeah, Hyrox, the plain medieval place. It's going to look plain and medieval, you know what I mean?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like, so much, so much growth of, uhm, technology has happened in that time. Like it's, it's just crazy even having to...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, so back to, back, back to the Imperials. Uhm, I reckon we can kind of move forward and kind of


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The kind of culture that you understand Imperials today, I would say that the Elysian Empire would probably feel like Nidic far more than anything else and far more traditional, like even, you know, their religion was almost completely different, like the divine sort of


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Those eight divines that Elysia made exist underneath this sort of the one in their Elysian order for so long and had lots of different weird cults of like vegetarianism and all kinds of stuff that went on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, apparently that was actually a big thing. There'd be a lot of the vegetarian sort of cults and stuff, um, drove the need for trade and so on to import different foods and stuff. Like they had all these requirements with husbandry and stuff, the cult. Yeah. It's in the first pocket guide thing, but anyway, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So you come to Ream and Ream sort of creates the empire that you have today and then you have the...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, he gets assassinated by the Morak Tong, the Elysian Order, uh, not the Elysian Order, sorry, the Akaviri potentates, uh, run the whole show for a little bit longer. And then even then, funnily enough, like the Akaviri potentate run empire lasts longer than the Riemann run Riemann Empire did.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, so they also introduce things like, um, the, the guild charter acts and so on. So, you know, major's guild, fighter's guild, all of these things, you know, fighter's guild, even the is, was called the SFIM. I think it was, um, it was an Akaviri.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Everything to like, you know, from like prostitution to lawyers to obviously the fighter skill and stuff that we know, but it covers a lot of things.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then you get that whole fall, there's the whole fall and you have the events of ESO and so on and, and you see fragments of the Imperial like culture and Empire still like lives on and so on, like in Leyland and you have the Elder Counts living there, but then there's like, you know, certain.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What functionally become kings of their own areas of like anvil and so on, like whatever, and the rest is kind of like fought over and there's all the more like battle stuff and so on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But then we get to, past the interregnum, and you get to the type of septum.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The conventional story is that, you know, Typerseptum is a great Nordic hero. Well, he was called Typerseptum and then there's Talos and so on. Um, supporting general Kulakeen.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, uh, who was a Clovian king of Falkreath who was unifying the Clovian estates and wanting to unify Skyrim and so on. And he sort of had the ambition to rebuild the empire. And that's why he kind of gets called Emperor Zero, but he was assassinated by a High Rock Nightblade, um, and then Tiber Septim.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes, exactly. Oh, and that also slit his, uh, type of seven's throat so he couldn't use the, the thumb anymore.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and then it goes over to, uh, Kintyra, who's actually, uh, Tiber Septum's niece. So the rest of the entire Septum line does not directly descend from Tiber Septum. They directly descend from Agnarrith, who is Tiber Septum's brother.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] None of you spawned from his balls. None of you. Like, literally none of the set vampires. And there's a lot of, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Controversy and stuff you, you have with, you know, latest accession wars and the war of the red diamond. Third era ebbs and flows in terms of like turbulent periods. But just when Uriel Septim gets in, it's actually one of the more peaceful periods that you ever get. So most of the games arena through, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, though there are big upsets. He gets handed a Peaceful Empire, but then obviously he, you know, gets replaced by Jaygar Tharn and then you've got, uhm, the Oblivion Crisis and all of those things going on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But that's really is the third, the third era culture of Morrowind. It's a, it's probably, third empire is probably a really way to, good way to look at the empire as it's known by the rest of the world. Cause it's what we have the most like sample of like, you know, Morrowind is set in, in Imperial controlled. Um, it's Imperial controlled and it has been for, you know, the 400 and whatever years it is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, you know, four centuries of imperial rule. Skyrim's been imperial ruled for what, 600? Well, yeah, 600 years since that point, but it has been previously as well. But, uh, yeah, so Imperials.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, it's, it's interesting too, cause like this is the first time the empire has no holy prestige. So with Elysia, you've got like, you know, that's the whole Saint Elysia, Slave Queen, all of that kind of stuff. The Divine Gods chose her, helped her, starts the Covenant, Amulet of Kings, all that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When Reamon has his whole story of that he was literally born because a king.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Made love with Cyrodiil, like Alicia manifest as Cyrodiil, and then basically, sort of, he's born from a hill.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, that's at least the story that's sort of told in his kind of, you know, um, origin story. And then he, so then he becomes, you know, he's a dragonborn king and there's this sort of divine kind of reman kings and stuff, uh, emperors, sorry. Then you have Tiber Septim and so on, and then it's another dragon blood sort of story.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But then you come across to, uh, the mead and it's literally, it just, it's very much like, I'm Titus Mead and I took advantage and I, I, you know. To be fair to the mead.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah. Well, I mean, that's the thing too. It's like the Aldmeri Dominion weren't even a thing at the exact time. They were kind of created just after. So what is it? So Aldmeri Dominion is recreated after Alinor and Vaelor would become Union in the year 29 and Titus Mead became fresh emperor year 17.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, you know, he's got a, he's had a bit of time, like 12 or something years. Um, but then all of a sudden the album, you know, kicks them out and then they're.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To throw them a bone, the one thing I could say with the, there's the night of green fire, year 42, which is like the ultimate dissidents like fled from sent- sentinel from the Thalmor and so on, uhm, into sentinel and then they, they all like get killed by Thalmor chasing them or something like that, right? That whole sort of,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That thing there kind of implies that there's probably a big transition period in, even after the establishment of the Aldmeri Dominion, lots of dissidents and probably rebellion. It probably takes a bit of time for the Somerset, the Aldmeri Dominion to truly get control of its territory.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He probably has similar kind of rebellious kind of things going on that might not be written about because


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He had to fight a whole Stormcrown into Regnum thing to get it in the first place. Then he needs everyone to accept him truly and not just him in him in Cyrodiil. They've got, he's got to get Skyrim and High Rock and all of the territory sort of on board.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, so, he could have a similar situation, but yeaah, still, there's like, an extra 100 years after that. It's a long, it's a long arse time. Like, yeaah, I feel like they should have done a little better. But, yeaah. I don't think they're, uhm, I like the sort of empire-crumbling arc. I think it's more interesting for the series.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, look, it would force people into like, obviously against the Thalmor kind of thing. It'd be cool if you could probably help the Thalmor even from a roleplaying perspective. I agree.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, but, but what's more likely to happen there is it could be cool is if we're between the crowns and the forebears, there are really, um, like tough decisions you have to make to get an Alliance and so on. And things that you have to do because the Alliance is so important to fight the Almeria Dominion or something like that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To pull this back on course, we should start talking about Imperials more, but there is, there's a lot of, this empire is huge. You've got the Legion, you've got all of this trade and, and economy and, you know, colonies everywhere, all that kind of stuff going on. And what naturally comes with such a high civilization point is a lot of institutions. We kind of like talked about the guilds and so on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, we should also talk, just briefly mention at the very least that, that,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There is quite a bureaucracy to it and that's why arguably like a lot of them are involved in this and diplomacy and so on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, with the Elder Council, and there's been arguments that, uh, if you look throughout the third era.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For example, the elder council holds a lot of power, uhm, and a lot of the time the empire just becomes a little bit, the emperor is sometimes a bit of a puppet, but then certain, uhm, you know, enterprising emperors have wrestled more control from them using the blades and stuff like that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, well, in addition to, um, obviously there's like the Arcane University and their sort of big spread, there's a lot of like academic or sort of studied magical institutions and we have like the Battle Spire, which is essentially like a satellite spaceship out in the void of Oblivion where they train Imperial battle majors and so on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and I like the Imperial Battlemage thing because that's kind of a tradition that started from like the Nibbanese ages ago and it's kind of continued on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, but they do integrate and use, uh, magic in their armies and so on. It's interesting if you wanted like a good, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, book to read about the application of that is the, uh, Disaster at Ironith, the, basically the tale of Uriel the Fifth's failed Akaviri invasion.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But you know, you, you hear at the battle majors like communing between ships and stuff and then they like change, you know, fighting weather and stuff like that. Uhm, they're, they're an important part of, uhm, the Legion's military and especially when you have to consider your fighting other magical


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think it was the time of Rhaemon. Yeaah, during the Rhaemon, uhm, dynasty. There's the imperial amount of north.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And there's a lot, there's a lot of outside stuff, but they are mentioned in the canon in that they basically, they traveled to aetherius and they could get like raw kind of material and so on. But outside of that is hardly any mention, but there is the whole like, um, it's probably, I'm sure it's Michael Kirk, right? It's something better.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, colonizing it. Some of them are interesting. I like it. I think it's a cool kind of thing. But, but it's a cool expansion on it. It's not that out of...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] character, especially like going off like the battle spy, which is a very canon kind of thing, which, you know,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's also a mention of the, the university, um, of the, of Gwilym, Gwilym, whatever one.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, anyway, that uhm, basically it's just the source for a lot of books. Uhm, there's a lot of, I'm pretty sure it's a lot of different universal, like, you know, like any university, there's lots of different topics and stuff to go to.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I guess the point there to talk about is that, to, to, to hone in on is that the Empire has brought a very high civilisation state, so there's lots of, uh, surplus income, lots of education and stuff that can be spent, lots of luxuries and so on. Uhm, and that's one of the...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Big benefits that I'm sure everyone enjoys for it and like they, you know, how Slarlough as the, as a chief example that we've seen in game very much enjoy the luxuries and benefits that come with


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, sacrificing your integrity for, for some coin and some sweeps.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We've kind of talked about that. Actually, one thing I do want to mention. We've talked about the Imperial Divines and I think people understand them quite well. It's not too hard to understand. It's the integration of Nord and Eldmeri made by Elysia put into one. And the Imperial Cult worships them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Adding in, uh, the whole Talos Tiber Septum thing. It's funny with like, that...


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[Assistant] The Skyrim Nords of the fourth era have become so imperialized that their whole civil war is based around an imperial god, like their concept, and if you've got like, yes, they had their like Talos they worshiped, he's Izmir and so on, kind of, but it's not, it's not the same like Talos.


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[Assistant] I'm pretty sure Talos even is a thing from Greek mythology. I'm pretty sure it is the automaton.


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[Assistant] Uhm, Talos mythology, sorry, I'm pretty sure it's the-


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[Assistant] Yeah, built by Hephaestus, a Greek god and so on. And it, yeah, goes around the island of Crete, protecting from invaders. So you got Talos, you know, who used the Numidium, a giant bronze golem, to level Somerset Isle. But yeah, uhm.


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[Assistant] But yea, anyway, uh, it's just interesting that it's just a very imperial issue and thing, you know what I mean? Like it's not, uh,


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[Assistant] It's kind of like, you're going actually, funnily enough, it's a bit hypocritical from the high elves because so many of their elves were like,


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[Assistant] Or like, send it back to Ethereus and then you've got like, Finaster and Syravine and all of that kind of stuff. It's kind of like, oh, elves can become gods, but not men. That's, that's crazy. No way. Which to be fair, Talos, like the whole like, you know, many had a Talos thing and the Arcturian heresy, like.


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[Assistant] You know, he's kind of illegitimate, but I mean, he's a real force. Talos is a real force, so a real god. They just don't like him, which is fine.


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[Assistant] Uhm, but yeaah, I guess, uh, that's kind of, so the only other, this is one little random anecdote that I do like, but the Tharn family, the whole like, ESO added with the whole Abna Tharn thing, I like the idea of him being like,


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[Assistant] I'm sure it probably is supposed to be, but also he had like an ancestor, some Tharn ancestor from Aelid times who was like a scribe to an Aelid king or something.


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[Assistant] More friendly conquer other places, like, well, once they rule over their people, like, you know, you've got the Daedric worship amongst the Dunmer and so on. But even if you look, it's kind of retroactively now, but like we know that Khajiit have had like Daedric sort of stuff, um, worship and so on in there. But another thing to consider too is look at, um,


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[Assistant] The Malacath, for example, worship among orcs and so on, and it's been said before, I guess we could call it the tiniest


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[Assistant] Allowing them and not like, oh, condemning them straight away because they worship Malacath or something like that, you know what I mean?


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[Assistant] I think a lot of the time it's probably the more like extreme virtues or, or, or like cultural kind of things on either side that are really going to rub against. Like even if you look at like from, from a, how slalu is like, um,


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[Assistant] Uh, there's lots of corruption and like backhanding stuff, but outside of that, just in sort of principle, working with the empire or something like that isn't necessarily like a bad thing. It's like brings time, peace and prosperity. And you speak to Duke Vadim Jem. It's a very forward looking thing. Or if you look to a lot of the other, there's a lot of benefits for, for your everyday average citizen in under the empire.


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[Assistant] Yeah, well the whole Sijic Endeavor stuff doesn't really come into play of like the mind of the Dunmer at large under the tribunal. Like really, cause they're so discount, they're all about just their tribunal gods. They've kind of done away with the.


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[Assistant] Look, I mean, arguably, it's hard, look, as much as it's like, yeah, you know, the Dunmer need to learn, you know, uh, you know,


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[Assistant] I know it says exceptional blasphemy, it's a different time, but remember even during the Richmond, um, rule, the long house emperors, when they tried to introduce, um, the idea of having danger worship legalized and across all of the empire, that was a big no-no. And that was like the last straw, which turned them all against the last one, Morica. Um, but Morica or Leovik?


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[Assistant] That's one of them. Whatever. Which one of them came first? Smarokara or Lievik? I think it might even mean Lievik. But uhm, another thing too, just to throw there about, like, even your experience in Oblivion, but like, Azura for example, you hear, buy Azura, Azura, like reference to Azura a lot more, like from just any elf really, like it's not necessarily,


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[Assistant] You know what I mean? So it's like, if you're so casually referencing some Daedra, like obviously some Daedra honors.


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[Assistant] Problematic for them or something like that, or it's a rev- it's acceptable to say it in your everyday conversation, so it's not like a-


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[Assistant] But there are some that obviously are. I would almost say that from a gameplay perspective, the reason there's that acceptable blasphemies or something like that, but I feel like some of them would be unacceptable. Like Mo, like Baal, Mephala, like Meirin's Daegon, you know, some of these things. But, you know.


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[Assistant] It's more so attacking the, yeaah. It's more so the crime, not the...


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[Assistant] You don't get indicted for your belief necessarily. Like it's not until that belief turns into an action.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I would say if we want to talk about the empire now in the fourth era, I'd say, yeah, especially with the vigilance of Stendhal going around because yeah, um, very oblivion crisis changed that forever for sure.


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[Assistant] Yeaah, but uhm, I feel like in reality or what they could do is the empire is far more complex and varied than we see, than we do see or whatever. I feel like Oblivion kind of did really.


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[Assistant] Dukes and kings that are imperial, like, you know, even the king of Morrowind and the dukes of Morrowind and so on are imperial titles applied to other places, but also, you know, uh, there's the counts of each different city in Oblivion, but historically there's been like a duke of Coral or this or like the roles have varied and so on. Just like, I guess like real life, you know, that's how her works too, but, um,


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[Assistant] I would just, I would just keep in your head in terms of the lore, the empire is far more expansive, diverse and complicated than, than you will ever see in the, in the game itself.


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[Assistant] There's one more thing that reminds me one more thing I guess that we can talk about too is that obviously the Empire like they like


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[Assistant] Ownership it of all, same thing with the Elder Scrolls, that they've been collecting a library full of Elder Scrolls and they try and consolidate and collect all powerful artifacts and things and, and they do really try and, you know, regulate their, uh,


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[Assistant] What is up ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to Fudge Muppet, I'm Scott here with Michael and Drew. As always, this is the Otter Scrolls Podcast, and today we are talking all about the Reach Folk.


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[Assistant] The native men inhabitants of the Reach, and you've probably had some exposure to them by at the very least playing Skyrim in the form of the Forsworn, but we're going to get into them more broadly.


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[Assistant] In ways I feel like it would be compatible to sort of, uhm, in terms of describing their culture, kind of.


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[Assistant] Going like, I mentioned like, in the way that outsiders will go like, ooh, Native American cultures of like the United States, uhm, all the indigenous peoples there, they would go like, oh, you know, Native Americans, but that doesn't actually tell you a lot of how like diverse and different all of the individual cultures are. There are some, of course, similarities by virtue of being in the same geography, but there is,


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[Assistant] Well, even then there's different parts of geography, but you know what I'm getting at. Um, that overall they've got quite a different sort of, um,


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[Assistant] It's like the, it's like kind of an ancient sort of way of looking at things. You know how you would have like ancient city-states and so on and they have like patron gods. Like, like for example, like the ancient Greeks would see themselves as, as very different from, you know, Athens versus Sparta or, or, um, Corinth or whatnot, but they sort of all share a same, similar,


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[Assistant] Cultural elements or stories or gods and stuff.


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[Assistant] Uhm, the further you go along in any sort of timeline, like on Earth or even the Elder Scrolls, generally, uhm, monoliths form and you get a big culture that sort of ends up dominating everything else and erasing the smaller ones. So the way you do get those small ones like the Reachmen that sort of are preserved, there's less, uhm, homogenous components of their, of their religion. I think it's impressive.


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[Assistant] A lot of it is, you know, I'm a huge Regimen fan, but I feel like a big reason why they endure is geography. They just win because of that.


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[Assistant] Anyway, mountainous areas are notoriously hard to subdue, you know, they can duck away into caves and tunnels and, and survive like, you know, I mean, even recently like understanding, but it's like why part of the reason like Afghanistan was such a big ordeal is because you can't


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[Assistant] Really control all of that area effectively. It's just too, um, and especially for these tribes and so on that live there for so long, similar kind of deal with the Reachmen. It's just like, even, even if you do have Empress Hesteroleon and say they are successful and they take the Reach, so many Reachmen and their little tribes and so on can stay isolated and survive in their lifestyles.


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[Assistant] Everywhere and all around, um, it's just, you know, exactly how they're dealing with the Forsworn Uprising in the sort of fourth era kind of times. The Forsworn, they just go to the hills, they know the hills, they live there, they've been living there for thousands of years. It's very hard to kind of root them all out and.


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[Assistant] And effectively destroy forever, although it's not the most enjoyable experience for the Reachmen because then they're also just living as like guerrilla fighters in the, in the Hills for their, you know, existence.


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[Assistant] Well like that, that's actually, maybe it's a good segue to go straight into the origin story, but the Briarheart ritual in itself is a very, beyond just the sort of physical things that it gives, is actually a very, um, symbolic and like religiously significant group.


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[Assistant] To clarify, uh, say broadly about all of the Reachmen, there are what they consider great spirits, which are generally Daedric, um, you know, Daedric Princes, but theoretically there's others, like, like Lorcan is another great spirit, but he's kind of...


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[Assistant] What is he or whatever, it doesn't necessarily fit neatly into that picture, but they'll also have a situation where they have like veneration and worship of ancestors, or it could be like certain sort of more niche things, like it could even theoretically be like


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[Assistant] Ghost of a river spirit type kind of vibe thing, like it depends on individual cultures, but there's some great spirits that are generally recognized and this sort of, I guess if we were to start with their creation story.


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[Assistant] It's basically this, there's the void and there's all of these danger- there's all of the spirits within it and so on, but Lorc, okay, Lorcan, comes to Nymera, who is the crea- queen of this spirit realm. The cream. The queen.


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[Assistant] But she, uhm, and then basically pleads that, well basically says, I want to create this sort of world, uhm, somewhere for wayward spirits, a sort of separate realm. Uhm, and then part of this though is he had to like sacrifice his own heart in its creation and so on. And then, you know, the world's created but Lorkhan's dead in it.


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[Assistant] Uhm, and this is where her scene takes over as the, as the lord of the realm of flesh, the lord of the arena, like harkening back to the idea that, you know, arena, the game, it's called, cause Tamriel's an arena or whatnot.


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[Assistant] But uhm, so then basically you have the dichotomy of the realm of spirit realm, basically, which is, you know, the void and Dimir is the queen of that. And then you've got the realm of flesh where Hircine is the king.


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[Assistant] of this sort of dichotomy and the fundamental sort of idea is that this is a realm of like suffering and a way of learning like pain is wisdom and that's how they sort of embrace the pain rather than cow away from it as


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[Assistant] As the other cultures of Tamriel do. And so in that, uhm, that's why Hercene's, like, they regard the Great Spirits as lessons and Hercene's lessons in how to, to live and thrive in this sort of society. And the idea is that through life,


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[Assistant] They, when you finally die in Namira, you go back to Namira and then Namira is more or less going to like see what you've learned through this experience and then like kind of send you back. It's like your lives are a process of like learning and like harsh, you know what I mean? Yeah.


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[Assistant] I'm pretty sure there are, it might, might have changed. I think that was the assumption in Skyrim, but maybe it's, there's expanded in, I guess I actually can't remember.


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[Assistant] Yeah, and I, and two, like in that, that the significance of that sort of ceremony, I guess we could say broadly that the Reachmen are quite a ceremonial and sort of


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[Assistant] Religious, religious gives a different kind of impression. It makes you think sort of like, you know, priests in a temple kind of thing. But I guess spirituality is important in their everyday, uhm, in their everyday lives because they're embodied as lessons, all of these.


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[Assistant] In saying that too, there is also the, uhm, I think the Vatrons they're called, which are basically your law keepers or history takers, uhm, make it, you know, they record all the histories and so on, but they don't record with writing. This is basically largely an illiterate


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[Assistant] The written word lends itself to, you know, a Bible or a book or some sort of uniform kind of teaching about things. Whereas, um, if they're all relying on oral stories and so on, little tweaks and you know, game of Chinese whispers and so on lasting forever, that can also change the way their cultures work. And that's how you get so much diversity within.


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[Assistant] Here's a really cool, uh, little tidbit I found, uhm, there was this, there's an item called, uhm, the, uh, Witchwise Headdress, right, and it's kinda like a skull and rams, I'll, I'll put it up, but, uhm,


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[Assistant] It says, this is it's description, it's from the ESO, but it says,


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[Assistant] Uhm, witch character, which I just thought was cool. So it's like the rea- like an ancient witch made the Umbra Sword. Uhm, which is kinda cool.


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[Assistant] Just as a little tidbit or on the side there.


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[Assistant] Yeah, so I, I guess we could go like way, if we wanted to start with like the biggest origins or at least how they believe of where they are. The Reachmen believe that they were there forever. Ever since when, when Lorkhan created the world, they went into the caves and so on and.


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[Assistant] I guess functionally lived as caveman or whatnot in, in the, in the reach. Um, and then it wasn't until, so even then.


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[Assistant] It kind of depends on like whether you take the mythology or what kind of view of history you take or whether the elves came first or all of that kind of stuff. There's a cool video coming out soon about where I claim that the humans, needed humans were indigenous to Tamriel or at least they're far before the elves.


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[Assistant] Yeah, exactly. But they, uhm, the reason for this, it makes a lot more sense. And then, then you'll have the Nordic and Elven peoples, you know, the Doreni and High Rock and so on, coming forth, expanding their thing. You've got the Nords coming from, uhm, the East.


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[Assistant] Perhaps needic, there's probably some isolate, it's kind of hard, I guess over thousands and thousands of years it's kind of hard to uhm, probably like find any cultures that are like just like pure blooded needs or whatever, like need reach or what not, but uhm.


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[Assistant] But yeah, so that's where, that's where all things are started along. So at the very least you're looking at the Merethic era, but beyond that, um, you know, there's, you know, four and a half thousand years of recorded history, which they've always been a part of. Um, so I've been around for a long time.


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[Assistant] Another thing I guess is a bit of my speculation, but the way that col- the way that, uhm,


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[Assistant] Traditionally, I like a lot of like dynasties and lineages and stuff like that. There's a very like a big cultural emphasis on


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[Assistant] Blood and like blood relation, like, you know, father to son and so on. Whereas if you kind of come from amongst the Richmond, they're people who are in your clan, um, often, you know, they're usually parts of your family, but there's people that can become adopted into clans and so on. And if you have different cultural conceptions of, of the importance of blood relation versus


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[Assistant] So you can imagine, potentially, this could be a similar thing with the Reachmen, given that they're already very...


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[Assistant] Open to, uhm, to adopting other members of the clan, and especially if you have like, you know, there would be people like, someone's a child of a Reachman and a Nord, and then that person is more Nordic or whatnot, but they get


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[Assistant] Just to, and just to clarify there, that was my like additional speculation or something. The actual ceremony. Yeah, they can do that instead. We're brothers now. Yeah, come brothers. Anyway, uhm.


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[Assistant] Uh, yeaah, so, you can, it's hard to like, talk about the Reach folks' culture in their totality, but at the core, they really appreciate hardship, and you could also see that


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[Assistant] Even up until the modern day that their rejection of, uh, modern equipment, they still use their traditional sort of hides and, and, and stone weapons and stuff like that. And if you see that more as a cultural rejection of being able to like kind of live off the land as you have forever and so on and as like a sort of.


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[Assistant] You know, that's how they distinguish themselves against the Nord invaders or the elven invaders and so on. Perhaps that explains a little bit more about their desire to live a hard life, kind of might inform their sort of dress and so on.


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[Assistant] Yeaah. But uhm, also I guess, so I guess we can start moving from the history, like the point is that these guys have been in the reach for basically as long as history on Tamriel has been recorded. They've been there. But uhm, like you sort of mentioned earlier Drew, the significance, the first big significant thing I'm pretty sure would be uhm,


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[Assistant] The, uh, Phalan and his uprising against, um, the Empress Hestra. Cause this is the first time you've got the Elysian Empire from Cyrodiil and so on is actually actively kind of expanding and they're going into high rock and stuff like that. Nothing compared to the later Rhaemon and Tiber Septim empires, but they are, they are.


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[Assistant] Trying, and this is where you get the whole story of Red Eagle, uhm, which Phalan just means Red Eagle in their, uhm,


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[Assistant] Language. And uh, he kind of fails in the end anyway, but it was kind of- It was written in the name.


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[Assistant] Yeah, but he kind of becomes a sort of like a bit of a, almost like an Arthurian figure and stuff for the Reachmen and so on, like this kind of he'll return one day kind of, kind of vibe and he's, you know, a symbolic hero of their people. But funnily enough, as you move,


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[Assistant] Uh, further on, uh, like you're mentioning the big, big one that a lot of their law came in with, um, with ESO, but it is the rise of, um, Durkharak, the, the black Drake who, who never called himself King because among the reach people, you don't call you,


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[Assistant] People don't- they culturally view people who kneel and follow a king as different. Instead, it's kind of like...


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[Assistant] He was a very charismatic and great individual, also made some, like, pacts with, like, Merenz Dagon and stuff in the background, but to, and uhm, with the, I forgot the name, the...


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[Assistant] It's like Toriel Arc or something like that. It's like the, uh, these wizard group basically that helped Dirk Arc. Uhm, this Richmond wizard group that helped Dirk Arc. Uhm, you might find that there in a bit.


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[Assistant] Anyway, Dirk Rucker basically convinces all of the Reachmen to follow him and they go on this, he becomes a functional, like, war leader and then goes on, uhm.


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[Assistant] Uh, and conquers, uh, Cyrodiil. He gets killed by King Emeric, um, when he tries to take High Rock, but regardless, his son Morokar and his grandson Leovik rule the empire for, for a decent period of time as what are called the Longhouse dynasty.


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[Assistant] Uhm, and it all goes south for them when, uh, Emperor Leovik, uhm, so Dirkraag's grandson, he legalizes Daedra worship, and that was a step too far for people, and the duke Varin Aquilarios, uhm,


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[Assistant] Yeah, I think it's 60 or something years. It's three generations, but Dirk Ruck sort of had to do a lot of the conquering and establishment. So. Cause Dirk Ruck was born in.


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[Assistant] A bit of a stretch. Well, it all ties in with the uhm, which I haven't fully explored. The uhm, their four ambitions and so on in the Blackwood expansion and so on really explain like how they got


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[Assistant] And it's funny that at that point, they would have by far accepted just that dragon blood's not really a big deal or thing because no one with dragon blood, like the potentate run Riemann empire runs for longer than the Riemann run Riemann empire did. So it's kind of like for four or 500 years or whatever. So they're, you know.


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[Assistant] It's uhm, I guess they wouldn't be as opposed necessarily to a, a rule. I mean, they definitely were by the time Daedra worship starts getting like legalized and so on. But uhm, I guess that's the Richmond's biggest impact politically on the, on the realm of Tamriel itself. Usually it's them getting impacted.


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[Assistant] It's that real ancient, ancient sort of mindset where the existence of other cultures gods or other gods doesn't nullify the existence of your own. It's like, oh, that's your god or your spirit that you revere or whatnot, rather than sort of, no, this is the true way. It's not Akatosh, it's Oriel or whatnot. So that changes.


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[Assistant] I think that's always such a cool aesthetic, the idea that if they allied themselves with Minotaurs or, or I know there's some monsters going that adds like Centaurs there or so on, like I feel like they could be much more in touch with the, you know. Well they are meant to be like.


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[Assistant] I wonder how early some of those ties could have happened too, because uhm, the idea if you buy into the theory, which I do personally that, you know, all of the Minotaurs are a product of uhm,


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[Assistant] Uh, you know, Morrow House and, um, and Elysia getting it on and so on. And so they, they're very attached to the empire and they were guardians of the empire and it's very first, uh, days. But then obviously the Elysian order came about and they become quite zealous and anti anything that's not human.


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[Assistant] Uhm, when, at that time, if they were pushed to the boundaries, it's kinda like maybe they linked up with other needed groups around the place at that time. Who, who themselves, to be honest, might have been pushed to the, to the, to the bari- you know, because of the expansion of things like, you know, the Dwemer or Falmer or so on, they might have been.


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[Assistant] You mentioned, you mentioned, uh, interesting alliances, but them being allied, allied with the, uh, Second Eldmeri Dominion in that battle as, as part of it, is kind of interesting there. Yeah. But, yeah.


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[Assistant] Interestingly enough, if you see, King Kulkain, it does sound like a more Richmond-ish sounding name, like it doesn't necessarily sound like a Nordic name to me, or rather even a Clovian name, it doesn't really sound like, cause the Clovian names generally like the types usually go for more like


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, and that does, and potentially it is a sort of scenario where maybe he was a half-breed or like something like that. That's another thing I guess too, uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, he's the emperor that never became emperor, but it was his intention to become emperor, and then Typer Septim, his general, became emperor, uhm, in his stead, and continued to lead this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, yeaah, I mean, I sort of buy into yeaah. Hazy, hazy days.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, so I guess in the next part in the history or so on, it's kind of quiet throughout the third era, just getting subdued constantly by, by everyone around them. And propaganda too.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, but yeah, so for when you end bringing that up to the modern era, I think it's when you've got the great war happening, you know, around the sort of 174 kind of period.


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[Assistant] Uhm, basically, uh, Madinah calls himself king, unites a bunch of the Reachmen, and then takes over Markarth and declares it an independent Reachman kingdom for the Reachmen. And things kinda last for, I think it's like two years, it sort of runs.


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[Assistant] Well, you see lots of reachmen in, uhm, like reachmen, like biologically, like culturally, uhm, people in, uh, in Markarth and so on, you know, with the face tattoos and so on, like a lot of these people have just sort of accepted


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[Assistant] You know, Nord occupation and so on and they, they just want to live like a normal life. Like they don't want to be in, they don't want to become, you know, functionally become what the Nords would brand as terrorists just rag running. Although they don't want to fight an unwinnable war functionally.


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[Assistant] He's, sorry, I was just looking for a quote, I wasn't sure, but there's one here, uhm, the Reach folk have a saying, anyone can be a king in the Reach, but no one is king of the Reach. And that's kind of one part, because like often, like lots of them, there are some chiefs that will call themselves king at times, but they always end up failing, like there's never really a, you know, uh, kind of thing. But yeah, that's just a cool, uh,


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[Assistant] They seem to have more of a, like a, yeah, like an individual sovereignty kind of thing, more so, you know what I mean? Like in terms of, uh, freedoms, I guess, really. That's an easier word to say.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Get back to some mythology stuff, but also one thing defining


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was just thinking too, you know how there was the Glenmoral Coven Witches that were in Solstheim? Uhm, I think it was like Isabelle, something else and something else, like Frenchish sort of sounding names, right? Uhm, but they too become Hagravens by the time of the Dragonborn DLC for Solstheim.


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[Assistant] Uhm, interestingly, I wonder how much that sort of, cause I, cause I mentioned like, you know, their Covens and the Reachmen sometimes interact and sort of crossover, but even the sort of practice of becoming Hag Ravens and so on, perhaps like some Covens like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Those three witches and so on adopt it for more practical purposes than the religious significance or whatnot, but-


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[Assistant] What do you think, uhm, it's interesting to kind of think how Markarth kind of started and


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[Assistant] Fading dreams, yada yada. But basically, if you start buying the idea that it's interesting that they were in caves,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, and there are a few, quite a few, like, barrows and sort of subterranean kind of, uh, reachmen sort of areas and stuff. For example, with Lost Valley Redoubt, there is a subterranean sort of, um, reach folk barrow and stuff that has Nordic


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That might actually be a problem that they might, because the reach for it might be more subterranean in some areas than you think. And also,


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[Assistant] Needs, more broadly, actually had a decent amount of subterr- subterranean sort of structures, as you've seen with like the Deathlands with the Duraki Needs and so on, like building underground. And I wonder if that is if you can kind of like symbolically see like as your steps from like cavemen kind of vibe stuff along to, oh well now we're building underground, but then it starts building out into the world. Maybe that's a bit of a whack.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Theory, but like, do you know what I mean? Like symbolically, but yeah, I don't know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I mean, it could be, if you look at like the loading screens or the, or some of the different screens and stuff for that place, it's like, it's pretty deep looking. Like it's kind of, I guess, like in barrows, as in not like a one little barrow, as in like Nordic barrows and the way that they go forever. Now you could interpret this as like, you know,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's just for gameplay reasons. So you know, you need a big dungeon. You can't have like, what a real.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, barrows or catacombs aren't as big as these, you know, uhm, things.


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[Assistant] Uhm, but let's, we can talk, there's, there's so many tiny little details all around the place, so it's kinda hard, we might miss some inevitably and it might come in like maybe there could be a new reach folk video or something, but,


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[Assistant] Talking broadly about the Great Spirits of the Reach, we kind of, more or less, have talked to Death, or established about, like, her scene's place as the Lord of the Mortal Realm.


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[Assistant] Even the kings or something, if a king establishes himself, they will fall. It's just natural. Like it's kind of like revert to the mean, like, you know, a bush fire will come and cleanse a forest or this will happen, you know what I mean?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It says, but unlike other people, reach folk see no malevolence in illness. Quite the contrary. Lives extinguished by disease make room for healthier, more vibrant reach folk to take their place. Like wildfires, diseases serve as a revitalizing force of nature, a necessary check on the hazards of abundance.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So yea, I can't really like saying like, it's just letting it play out rather than I guess you could say like a long house dynasty or something like that. Like that's too far, you know what I mean? Like out of.


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[Assistant] But, you know how I think of the theories episode, uhm, the podcast last, we were kind of...


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[Assistant] Brought out to him about like Akatosh, uh, sorry, Peria being like a younger brother of Akatosh or something who got shafted and got a poorer role and had to like deal with diseases and stuff. Or everyone was rather coveting it or maybe not, or rather they're in connected in some way, like they're kind of different forms of order or so on. But it's interesting that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then again, the Reachmen don't really acknowledge Akatosh, they just have Perriot sort of fulfills that role for them, I guess, the pitiless march of time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cause you get, you get, there's a lot of variation in terms of cultural attitudes towards outsiders and some of them are really quite brutal. I think was it like the-


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[Assistant] Yeah, and, and you know, they all have different variations. One interesting thing when you're bringing up, this is from like a developer interview kind of stuff about the New Life Festival or so on, but it's brought up that, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That they actually, when the winter solstice ends and, you know, the days, uh, the, the, the days start to lengthen and so on.


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[Assistant] Uhm, they believe that there is one of the aspects of her scene, uhm...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which, the man-beast one, hold on, just trying to find the name. Again, the... ...Storobag, the man-beast. He's a hungry werewolf and pursues the sun in an attempt to eat it. But then, Roquebeg, the mighty bear, like, tries to stop him and so on, and that's sort of like successful at stopping him.


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[Assistant] I guess, ehm, more or less, that's, that's the other thing too, which is just, I think we kinda touched on it somewhat, but it is strange that they're functionally a Stone Age civilization living amongst all others. Like they've got magic to help them and so on, but all of their, their gear is basically made from animals, trees, or rocks.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And stuff, or they have sometimes there's additional things that, but it feels like, um, they might kind of get a lot of the metallurgy kind of stuff from.


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[Assistant] Yeah, it's interesting. I think it's in here. There is like using like repurposed like metals from like Dwemer pieces and stuff like that into their gear and stuff, which you can imagine it's like kind of cool, but that also again implies it's more of a scavenger kind of thing, not, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But, uh, yeah, they also have their own language, um, the Richmond language and so on, which is isolated from the others. Um, and you know, it's easier to have a isolated sort of language when you can live in the mountains doing your thing without nodes and stuff coming. But, um, I don't know what else we want to talk about.


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[Assistant] The, uhm, another little part that I just wanted to, uhm, bring up too, which is interesting is,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's, you know, they, they value hard work and everything and that's a big part of their life. Like an easy life is not a, a one to, to look for and so on. But they are really, at least the ones in the Markarth region are really against theft.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like, theft is a massive no-no amongst the reach folks, and like, you know, such punishments of like, having your hand amputated and so on. But uhm,


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[Assistant] Yeah, they're quite, uh, it's, it's just interesting that in some sort of society like that, that they have different sort of, you know, it kind of almost seems like murder or like, well not murder, but like they're around so much violence. It almost sounds funny that like theft is a big deal or something like that. You know what I mean? Like, but yeah.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I, I, I, I've mentioned this before, but uhm, I, I think it's kinda likely that a lot of the, uhm, Dejah worship stuff was the, uh, natural state of things that a lot more humans would have this sort of...


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[Assistant] Like in net- native needs even, so on. Like I'm talking like pre, like their needed civilizations. But if you think about it, like, even all- all concepts of the elven gods wi- that come with the elves, and the rest come with the nords, and the imperial divines are all combinations of that.


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[Assistant] It's like what kind of religions would have existed there beforehand and if you had needs and stuff there and if you look at, if you look at the reach focus and isolate and a lot of their religion centers around different great spirits and Daedra and so on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's like maybe pre-colonization of all of these other races.


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[Assistant] That, uh, Daedra worship was much more widespread amongst early need people. Especially when you consider things like her scene.


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[Assistant] Uhm, does anyone else have things to like, reach folk areas to talk to? Like, there's lots of little details, like a saying, but some of them it's just like, oh, this clan does this this way, and it's kind of like...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's the one sa- for me, the one saving- cause I am so pro Elder Scrolls 6 in Hammerfell, but the one saving grace for Elder Scrolls 6 Hierarch for me would be a good exploration of the Reachmen, like from the- on the western Reachmen.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It doesn't, and we're talking spelled N-E-D-E-S, not needs as in wants and needs. Or I need this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But they need an infusion of Elder Scrolls lore straight into their veins.


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[Assistant] So, the Needs are basically a very, very ancient, uh, primitive human race. And they're the, they're the predecessor to Imperials, but potentially other races as we'll talk about.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And there's a lot of theories about them, some say that they were always in Tamriel, and then you have the theory that they came to Tamriel from Atmora.


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[Assistant] They're kind of like indigenous, well, if they were always in Tamriel, but that energy is kind of like indigenous groups all over Tamriel that all have different subcultures.


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[Assistant] I guess the thing as well that makes it feel extra irrelevant is that they're not really around anymore. Like in the sense that they were, it probably mattered a lot back-


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[Assistant] And then the Dorenni elves came to High Rock, found the needs, and then enslaved them, versus the Dorenni being established in High Rock, and then the needs coming there, and the elves are kinda like, okay, you can settle in our lands, but we're basically gonna like, make you these low-class citizens, and you'll do what we say.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That creates two massively different stories, but like you said, either way, at the end of the day, what happened? We got Bretons, so.


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[Assistant] Hey, hey, uhm, as Mike the Liar says,


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[Assistant] Wood elves aren't made of wood. Sea elves aren't made of water. Maek still wonders about high elves. Perhaps they are not so high in Maethi after all. Perhaps their narrative should be challenged. I will say- They're all just high, so they're making it all up.


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[Assistant] That's, that's kind of what the, uh, if you go read about his quote specifically, I kind of disagree sometimes with what, um, it's said to be a reference to, like that is said to be a reference to being high.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But for me it sounds much deeper and more interesting if he's kind of making a little note like.


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[Assistant] Oh, what if they're not as, like, high and mighty as they make out? Also, did anyone else see the shadow behind, uhm, Scott? It kinda looked like an elven helmet when he was... It just kinda went past in the window. To, uhm...


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[Assistant] Do you think that it- there could be a bit of, um, confusion where kind of two- the two sides of this theory could be true partially each? Because if we are to say that the needs are kind of all grouped together for almost convenience. Because let's be real, the Kothringi are like a silver skinned-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Race, right? Like they don't look like how you'd imagine other needs look.


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[Assistant] And so it could be that they were there.


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[Assistant] The ones up in Skyrim weren't. And that would kind of be like, okay, they could have come from Atmora and different needs could have also been in Tamriel.


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[Assistant] Especially in the kind of numbers it would require to make a society like, you know, like a big one. Like, you can imagine that if they were, you know, being taken and forced into slavery, in Cyrodiil for example, by the Ayleids, why would more just keep coming to actually give them this big, you know,


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[Assistant] There's, I think one example from your video, Scott, was, uh, a pair of Nidic dueling swords that were found in the possession of, like, a basically, like, a Draga Lord character, who, you know, is from ancient times.


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[Assistant] I mean, even, even look at the Duraki Nades and all the Nidic kind of structures in Hammerfell, they, they're quite tall and rather advanced, you know, it's not all, uh, foresworn feeling, it's not just tents and totems and things like that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's also interesting too, when, when you're talking about there being different, um, kind of like better records kept because of more recent needs and then the older ones are kind of like more lost to time, it is interesting that when you look at the totems of her scene, that they are said to


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Pre-date men's ability to write, speak, and properly think. So they're these super ancient kind of artifacts. And then you look at the fact that in kind of Nidic derived cultures like the Reachmen, they worship Hircine. And then you actually do see kind of, uhm, Nidic symbology with like, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So cloudy because they're- they couldn't write speak.


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[Assistant] And like we said, it's not far-fetched considering that they did forge things and build impressive structures in various places. It's not like they couldn't have built, you know, uh, that forge.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Even, even the, uhm, alyds descent into Daedric culture just sounds like another, like, Nidic-inspired thing. You know? Like, you look at that, it's like, oh, the, the alyds who went to Sir- well, the elves who went to Cyrodiil and became the alyds, you know, oh, they got interested in stars and light.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And Daedra and everything very different to like, you know, the Altmer or the Altmer of the Isles.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So would you say that they wouldn't have gotten any Daedric inspiration from the needs then, in Cyrodiil specifically?


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[Assistant] That's the thing, one mage gets into it and then later he becomes high ranking and spreads it. Who knows? Who knows?


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[Assistant] I mean, like we've said before too, there could be more than 17 Daedric Princes as well. Like, there's the possibility of extras, like, who knows what deities are being worshipped on Akavir or, you know, places we don't know.


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[Assistant] Yeah. Speaking of navigations as well, Topol the pilot. Perfect segue. Did, yeah, did, did zoom around Tamriel.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And uhm, he did say a lot of interesting things which also question the kind of idea that the elves were there first. I mean, his whole thing, he's, oh, I'm going around and there's these bird people in Cyrodiil and you know, there's like kind of Khajiit sounding, uhm, beings running around. So, you know.


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[Assistant] If we take that as canon and the alyds did wipe out the bird people or the bird men and then that's potentially how they developed their kind of like bird-like or feather iconography in their armors and different things like that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's just a lot of like examples of, you know, elves and any culture gets developed, uh, or influenced by where they go, whether they're the, on the offense or the defense, you know, like no matter what happens. So I wouldn't be surprised if.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, I just think they definitely, they, they copied the needs, man.


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[Assistant] You know what you need to make? You need to just make a- a video called Skyrim Dash National Geographic. And just go with- no no, go with the whole thing you did for the prehistoric Skyrim theory video. The music, the animals, everything. But just do the animals of like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know, Tamriel and just the whole documentary. I would watch that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Nah, just make it like an encyclopedia and all.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When you look at imperial culture specifically and you have this whole idea of like, Coluvian and Nibbanese.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You, you could say that Nibbanese has the most Nidic derived influence despite it still being quite different to like, you know, obviously. Um, but they, they probably would have much more in common. Like the Colovians feel more just like the, the Nordic influenced Imperials, right?


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[Assistant] Hey, and here's a super take, and then they evolve into the Empire, which becomes Cosmopolitan, which is basically, you know, accepting of all different cultures. I think that's a fast stretch, but I was just rolling, I was just rolling with it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hey, imagine if the elves were actually right all along. It'd be so annoying for them, wouldn't it?


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[Assistant] I mean, most believe their story, but it's just funny if like all this like conspiracy and challenging it and it's like all wrong. Yeah. Well, I believe I honestly lean much more towards the idea that at least some needs were definitely there before elves.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Even the, even the fact that they have this kind of like, uhm, supremacy idea very much sounds like a, we go here, oh we're better than the needs, so we're allowed to do X, Y, Z.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It sounds like it could be like more that version of events than, oh, we've been settled here for ages and here come this like needed group of people, uh, we're superior to them. They're like, you like, if that makes sense in terms of like the whole, um, cultural.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I, but I suppose you can't change, like, the species too drastically, right? Like, I mean, you look at Cyrodiil, they are not jungle trees, they are like very... Yeah, yeah. At the end of the day, this is all real.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's obviously like the kind of stuff that we haven't really gone into depth with yet, is stuff we've covered in other episodes, like about the alyds for example, and everything with that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And uhm, you know, the Bretons and stuff. So if you want like a huge dive into those specific cultures, check out our podcasts on those or our, or our just normal YouTube videos, which we also make.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's Elder Scrolls Online added lore, kind of like what White Gold Tower's made from, but some kind of like, magical stone that's imbued with like the power of creation itself or something like that. It gets all very, uhm, mysterious and what not.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But they are said to hold, you know, this vast, vast magical power inside of them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, you know, the Daedra were trying to chip away and remove the stones for whatever reason, probably for fetch quest reasons. But, uh, yeah, it is interesting that that's what that tower's built of and you have adamantine tower, which in, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Elder Scrolls Online just looks the same, right? It's just like a big white gold tower looking thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It just looks very similar, that's all. I mean, maybe the elves did build it. It's just like, you know, it was designed. It's a giant spire up into the sky. If you look in Daggerfall, uh, it's just like, like, stone boxy building, but in the Elder Scrolls Online, the Drenie Tower definitely looks much, much closer to White Gold Tower.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's battle of the copes. And the harder you cope, the stronger you shape reality.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, exactly. The, the, I think we've covered all of the most interesting ones. Yeah. Ones without eyes, ones with silver skin, the ones that were involved with all the different elven, uh, you know, cultures and obviously the reachmen who are believed to be, you know,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Descended from needs but, you know, mixed with all kinds of other races like Bretons and stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I tell you what, if The Oldest Scrolls 6 is set in Hammerfell, we better be able to go in some ancient Nidic ruins.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But yeaah, I think that brings us to the end of, uh, the Nidic episode of the Elder Scrolls podcast. Thank you everyone for watching. If you want to support the channel, we've got links to get our merch and support us on Patreon in the description. Social media links are there too and we look forward to nerding out with you again very soon.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hello and welcome back to the Triforce Podcast, Episode 6, I think. Yep. How are you guys doing, P-Flex and Sips?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's exactly what happened. And in fact, I greatly enjoyed it. Thank you to everyone who supported us after that thread and conversation. Oh shit. Let's just start again. This is a mess. Jesus.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Shit, we're already rolling. Normally one of the things that happens in my recordings is, if we ever do re-record stuff, it's usually the start, right? The start of the stuff always goes wrong and we're like, ugh. And then we do it again and then it's like much, much peppier. Okay, so if you want to do another intro.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So let's have a little catch up on what you guys have been doing this week. What have you guys been doing?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's the thing though, I think that would be really funny though. That's the thing. That's the way that I've seen you and your son interact is that you have all this kind of false anger all the time and that's, that's very, very funny. So now what he's seeing is real anger, but he can't tell the difference.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah. I remember one of the things that you said to me on Jersey was, this car's a shit heap, I hate it, but I'm just gonna use it until it breaks. Yeah. And I guess literally about a week later. It broke, yeah. It broke horribly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Duncan, oh man, that reminds me of a story. This is one of Duncan's stories, but I can, I can tell it. He will never tell it. So Duncan always goes to Glastonbury, right? One of the things that you see in Glastonbury is you go to the toilets and you're like, oh my God, how is there, how is this so bad? How did someone manage to shit on the ceiling? It's so sad.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think they've changed it a little bit now and they've, they've, because the toilets have had such a bad rap for so long class and we, I think they've, they've


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is just how I remember it. And, uh, basically he ended up getting really, really bad, um, tummy ache from the mushrooms and feeling very sick. And he was both sort of.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He thinks he's like, you know, I don't know, like on a flying dragon, you know, flying over anime land of wonderful body pillows and stuff, you know, you know what it's like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, the thing is like, car dealers and car salesmen and car, even car mechanics kind of have this sort of, I don't know, like the aura around that they're just trying to scam you and get one over on you in a way, right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of course you're driving the gear, you know, which is a different version from the TI.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's a manly job, okay, being a mechanic, you know, makes you feel like a man. You're covered in grease, you're fixing stuff, you're mending stuff, you're hammering things, you're turning, turning a wrench on stuff, you're...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] People who, uh, have a manly job, it kind of automatically makes the subject a manly subject, right? And you don't wanna, cause you're always gonna pretend, right? Like PFAC said, you know, even if they say like, they could just be saying absolute nonsense to you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Me too. It's funny, like, I'm ultimately super paranoid about


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For example, at my old house, I wanted to get some, uhm, solar panels on the roof.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Anyway, I was, we were like fully up for it, you know, and if it was all like an online thing, you know, and it was like, okay, pay four grand online or whatever, you know, all the soda panels, some guy will come around and fix my job done. You know, if that was the process, like ordering your broadband, we probably would have done it. But what they did was they sent around a salesman.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Who was like, okay, so we're going to install the solar panels on this facing roof. And we were like, that totally put us off, right? As soon as there was a salesman involved, I was like, why do you need a


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, this week, I've not really been doing- Oh sorry, yeah. Lewis, what have you been up to this week? Oh shit, yeah, Lewis, what did you- I have tried to avoid- I've managed to not play any Dota, I've managed to avoid playing too much Rust.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I've got some, uh, audio books to listen to and I'll be, I've been, I've been reading and listening to those and I've got.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I've got a book on Zen. Okay. I've been studying Zen. Just to add to the whole anime.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, this made her parents angry. Impure. She would not confess who the man was, but after much harassment, at last, named Hakuin.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The poor Zen master. In great anger, the parents went to the master. Is that so? Was all he would say.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] After the child was born, it was brought to Hakuin. By this time, he had lost his reputation, which did not trouble him, but he took very good care of the child. He obtained milk from his neighbors and everything else the little one needed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A year later, the girl's mother could stand it no longer. She told her parents the truth that the real father of the child was a young man who worked in the fish market. The mother and father of the girl at once went to Hakuin


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So Zen is, um, very sort of strange and really hard to kind of describe and explain. I can't really do it. A lot of these Zen things like the one hand clapping thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's not, well okay, that's, that's, well look, maybe we'll do one of these a week and you guys can think about it, but I don't think there's an ar- there shouldn't be an answer, there shouldn't be something to take away from it straight away.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But you forgot on your iPhone and you, you just want just nothing. Okay. Try and let your mind, we don't have these moments. Okay. These days, right? Because we're always inundated with noise. Like when was the last time you were bored? Two minutes ago. Okay. There's always shut up. I mean the Zen thing really fucking set me off.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With nothing to do and it's, it's peaceful to have that stuff and it's, it's mindful to have that stuff and, and sometimes just turn your phone off one day this week and just take half an hour.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Think about that story and see, just see if you could think about it, think around it, think about what it means to you and come back to me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It means void. Yeah. So does a dog have Buddha nature or not? The master answered void. Right.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well here's the thing Ray, you're not, it's difficult for me to kind of explain this to you because there shouldn't be and isn't a straight answer. The answer is different for everyone. You're supposed to go into your own mind. You're supposed to like think about it. You're supposed to spend time thinking about it as well because the longer you spend thinking about this question, the more questions it brings up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So the way Zen works is that the students are given a question like that. They expect, they're supposed to spend a day studying it and then come back and tell their answer to the master. And if their master thinks the answer is reasonable, they'll give them another question. But if not, then they'll go and spend another day thinking about it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I've just entered the monastery, please teach me. So Joshua asked, have you eaten your rice porridge? The monk replied, I have eaten. Joshua said, then you better wash your bowl. And at that moment, the monk was enlightened.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Take from that what you will. That, I think you're closer than you realise when you give that kind of answer. Uh, okay, Gudo was the Emperor's Zen teacher of his time. Nevertheless, he used to travel alone as a wandering mendicant. I don't know what that is. Okay. Once- Wait, let me-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Takenaka, it was evening and the heavy rain was falling. Gudo was thoroughly wet. His straw sandals were in pieces. At a farmhouse near the village, he noticed four or five pairs of sandals in the window and decided to buy some dry ones. The woman who offered him the sandals, seeing how wet he was, invited him to remain for the night in her house. Gudo accepted, thanking her.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When he happens to win he drinks and becomes abusive. When he loses he borrows money from others. Sometimes he becomes thoroughly drunk. He does not come home at all.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When the man of the house returned about midnight, quite drunk.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He bellowed, Hey wife, I am home. Have you something for me to eat? I have something for you, said Gudo.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I happened to be caught in the rain and your wife kindly asked me to remain here for the night. In return I have brought some wine and fish so you might as well have them. The man was delighted. He drank the wine and laid himself down on the floor.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Gudo sat in meditation beside him, and in the morning, when the husband awoke, he had forgotten about the previous night entirely. Who are you? What are you doing in my house? He asked Gudo, who was still meditating.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I am Gudo of Kyoto and I am going on to Edo, replied the Zen Master. The man was utterly ashamed. He apologized profusely for he had heard of the great Zen teacher of his emperor. Gudo smiled. Everything in this life is impermanent, he explained. Life is very brief.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] After they had gone three miles, Gudo told him to return. Just another five miles, he begged Gudo. They carried on. After five miles, Gudo said, you may return now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] After another 10 miles, the man replied. Return now, said Gudo when 10 miles had been passed. And the man was silent, and then said, I am going to follow you all the rest of my life. Modern Zen teachers in Japan spring from the lineage of a famous master who was the successor of Gudo.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] His name was Munan, the man who never turned back.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't think that's necessarily the case, because Zen Masters are notoriously, um, like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He's a mendicant. He's a wandering beggar. You know, his life was very basic and kind of simple. He didn't have any luxury. Zen people don't necessarily value physical things like that. They're ascetic. No. Ascetic. Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well there you go. Oh my god, that was great. Uhm, thank you for listening to that. I, I will, I will probably see if I can find some more wisdom to share with you in the future.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think some of them definitely are sort of parables or kind of moralistic stories based on how to.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Stories, we have so many stories inundating us all the time. There's always stories and I think that sometimes some of these things don't necessarily age well. Do you know what, I don't think they necessarily have translated too well either in some cases from the original language.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's so many points here. Okay, first of all, Star Wars, if you love Star Wars, you know, who are you to say that if someone didn't just, you know, like Doug couldn't love Pokemon, grew up with Pokemon, collected the cards, played the games. I saw him yesterday. He wasn't playing the Hearthstone expansion. He was playing Pokemon online trading game. Unbelievable.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, first of all, she's not a real judge. You know that, right? What? She's not a real judge. She's not qualified as a judge. She's not a judge in any kind of way. And the way, the way the show is made is they actually find people from across the country.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She's an American lawyer, former judge. She quit to do the TV show, so she's not an actual judge. She was an ex, ex-judge. She does have...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But the way they do the series is they, it's this Hollywood bullshit. They pay everyone, like, whether they win or lose, and they pay for them to fly out and stay in a hotel.