[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They sniff, it's, it's really, it's really gross, but you go down there as they start to detect you, you just hear all this like, like stuff and they have these huge eyes and they kind of like a, some kind of vampiric.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They're just a really unfriendly, unsettling bunch, and if you go into the church there, you find the Bible to this deity that they worship, known as the Deep One or Deep Ones, and there's all this Daedric text in it in the chapel.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Maybe it's one of the, maybe it's one of the residents who doesn't look like, you know, like that and they, they do some, they're scripted to do some creepy things and I don't know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's been creepy moments where I don't know if it's a glitch or not, or real. Like, uhm...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Some of them kind of like keep an eye on you, like they walk around looking at you. You know, I know they're scripted to kind of like follow you, keep an eye on you, but I had this really weird, I think his name's Nach, had this really weird glitch where I'd walk into any room and he would just be in it looking at me, like full on in my face, just staring at the camera.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, I didn't even have to talk to him to get the classic oblivion zoom in, he was just there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And he was just incredibly, incredibly creepy. And the deep ones obviously are creepy cause they're a mystery, but you know, they demand blood.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and there's also this creepy spiteful element because hackdirt was burned down. And so they want to return to the good old days, but there's these kind of demonic entities there who they're kind of ancestors found who are going to help them and they demand sacrifice.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A lot of people have theories as well about who the deep ones are.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, but, but nobody like really knows for sure. Like you can go down there and use the TFC console command and fly down to where the sound's coming from. And obviously there's nothing down there. The Daedric texts, um, I think in the Bible of the deep ones is a translation of, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or part of that text, slow text, Nagasta, Kavada, Kavarkas, but that I think is just gibberish or it was, it was pulled, what was pulled from.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Heaps random thing when it was originally made, like it doesn't mean anything. And then other people say it's more like bow. Um, and there is, uh, one of the, uh, could be a Tira Moslin, I forget, but if you're a vampire, her disposition is like a hundred, whereas normally everyone there hates you. So anyway, hackdirt, creepy place.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In Windhelm, right? That's a very creepy thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, but let's, let's actually talk about, uhm, there's this nice text, I mean, I like it, in the Elder Scrolls Online, called Civility and Etiquette, Etiquette. And it's, uhm, for dealing with the undead, for an Altmer, and talks about how, like, you should deal with them, things like that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, it talks about, like, liches and wraiths, and what I find interesting is that, uhm, it's kind of known by people that wraiths, specifically, they don't really, like, talk.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and talks about basically how you should treat these undead like a, like an easily angered elder.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, and that they can actually help you if you treat them respect, like, you know, with respect and correctly and no though.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Undead want things. They're, they're not the kind of people who just help you for no reason. Like if they're helping you, they want something and so you need to be on guard, uhm, at all time. And, disguise is another creepy, interesting thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Things may not be as they appear. I mean, look at Jaegar Tharn. Uhm, that was actually a Twitter comment talking about how he disguised himself as, you know, the Emperor. Uhm, that magic in general is scary because of its capacity. Uhm, you know, it can go as far as your imagination can take it. The things you could do with that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, he makes, he makes reference to kind of like, aelid magics and stuff, and when you find the altar in his house, it's a very creepy scene with blood and bones all over the floor, the cheese as I said.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And flesh atronachs in general, uh, are pretty creepy. They're Halloween, they're Halloween worthy for sure. I mean, Elder Scrolls Online even added in mummies if you want to get really traditional Halloween, like bandaged, you know? Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you don't even know why they're doing it, it's even scarier. Even if it's the same result.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Really? Which one? Cause there's a few.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But if you think about Halloween, Halloween's not horror, horror all the time too. Like most people go around dressed, well, most people go around dressed as all kinds of things, but you know what I mean? Cat ears and stuff like that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We also have zombies and skeletons and draugr and- Spooky skeletons. All kinds of, all kinds of things.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, but the draugr aren't, you know, really scary, they're kinda just imprisoned eternally to power the dragon priests with their soul line. And dragon priests, if you think about it, they're kinda like a lich, right? Like Skyrim's lich, floating thing with a staff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, even the Draga, there's a text about Bernadette from the College of Winterhold who went and kind of like, like lived amongst them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And was saying like uhm, once- Yeah, like kinda realized like once they realized I was peaceful and didn't mean them harm, that I could kind of like observe them, but it was really like spooky still for me to be there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This kind of story. One thing I just wanted to ask quickly. Cringe counter, is it what? Just wanted to ask. It, uh, she says,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's just strange, right, because a lot of people use, I know this may not be exactly what it means, but a lot of people just be like, oh, not monotheistic, like you believe in lots of gods, you know, that's a pagan thing. But that would make, that would make every culture in Elder Scrolls, you know, quote, pagan, but I don't think that's what it means.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Shades as well, which are interesting, corrupted kind of, you know, classical thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Depends on who you are. Depends what your addiction is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And scariest of all, jiggle lag. Did you say jiggle lag? I did say jiggle lag. That's the scariest. Complete order.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like, per-perfect auto, from Jiggalag's perspective, is, is kind of hard to- Well, I mean, you could predict total domination and-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Only small things, you can always think of small things, like, you know, um, things involved with necromancy, there's lots of little things.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Perfect timing. Well, thank you everyone for tuning in. Follow us on social media, Twitter links down in the description as well as a link to our merch if you want to get a fresh tea and support the channel. It's been Michael Scott and Drew and we look forward to nerding out with you again very soon.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, the Red Guards, similar to the Nords, but also quite different, are known as kind of the warrior race among the playable races on Tamriel. They have a very long history involving being a warrior and mastering the sword.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they are naturally gifted when it comes to strength and endurance. Um, and which we don't really see in Skyrim to the same degree, but I think it's really cool. They're also considered quite a hardy people.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, in the sense of having more endurance, you know, more HP. And they also have this, uh, resist poison and resist disease in previous games of 75% in Skyrim. Uh, they got rid of that or they, they nerfed it massively. I believe it was just resist poison 50% in Skyrim.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think so, yeaah. But yeaah, they missed the 75% on both, but it's meant to represent that the red guards are very tough.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What is interesting just quickly, and this isn't lore at all, this is just my own food for thought, but it is funny to contemplate whether or not they're so gifted at being warriors because of all the warrior waves that escape from Yakuta to Hammerfell. So if you actually think about like, you know, the genetic pool of the best fighters and best warriors.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Who then all left Yakuda in these warrior waves and set up shop. Uhm, which is a nice way of putting it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And their best teachings as well, which is a big thing to consider. The Red Guards, they're not just naturally gifted, they don't just rely upon that. They're also extremely disciplined when it comes to learning martial warfare.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And different techniques, obviously there's the book of circles. If, if anything, they take a lot of inspiration from, uhm, Japanese stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And kind of like samurai things, and uhm, I think it's almost- Is it Masashi's Book of Five Rings? Uhm, Book of- Five Rings or something? Yes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Another interesting thing actually about the name Red Guards is, uhm, apparently Red Guard myth holds that it was kind of a name taken in honour, uhm, of their kind of final battle.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, basically like that they're the guard covered in red blood or something along those lines.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It says Redguard Myth considers it a legacy of the War of the Singers. Seven battles that happened before the continent was destroyed. Uhm, obviously they were all outnumbered by the army of Emperor Hera.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and then, uh, they use the hammer and anvil strategy, which apparently kills 300,000 people or something. So in the eyes of the citizens, their guardians were red with blood.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then they went off and became the Red Guards. But uhm, I wouldn't be surprised if it was just the Regatta corruption, but there's just a little story to look into for anyone who's curious.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I just wanted to interject there and say I actually read the book of five rings. It was a bit of a meme. It's kind of, it's kind of, yeah, it's kind of like the, um.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The art of war where people like to extrapolate more than the book actually means. It's like, dude, it's about killing people with swords. It's not about a whole lot else. And there's heaps of vague stuff in there too. Like, oh, I have this really super secret technique that kills anyone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You've got to figure it out if you want to be a good sword master. It's like...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they basically, uh, in short, kind of started exterminating everything in Hammerfell, um, as many races throughout Elder Scrolls history do. Uh, there were Needs in Hammerfell, um, there were Orcs around the place, um, there were even Elves supposedly along the coast. And you have to remember too that in Yakuta,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, the ancient Red Guards or the Yakudans were often fighting, uhm, with a group called the Left-Handed Elves, who caused them, you know, a lot of strife throughout history, and so, kind of similar to the Nords, they weren't fond of Elves.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, and so they wiped elves out when they landed in Hammerfell, um, and even, uh, goblins. There were big goblin groups and goblin invasions going on, but essentially they, um, wipe it all out and set up camp.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, because Hammerfell is covered in Dwemer Ruins, which the Red Gods could, I guess, benefit from. Uhm, they wanted to.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's funny, so speaking of the goblins, I just found the ghost of Flint Tooth Warchief you meet. And he really does look like a, like a goblin, but kinda like you were saying, Scott, more like an orc in the sense that he has this


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, more humanoid player character appearance, but the face is just a little bit more shriveled with a, like a pointier nose. Kind of like one of the presets you can actually pick in Skyrim for orcs if you wanted to try and make a goblin, like put the weight down real low and make the facial features pointier.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What's quite interesting actually is that, uhm, what's confusing to be honest, uhm, is that in the third era, there was this group that came, uh, called the Lutonics, uhm, and they were trying to basically find a middle ground between the four bears and the crowns, uhm, but what I don't understand is,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It said that they kind of, you know, they were kind of for the progressive and cosmopolitan ideas that the forebears had, while retaining the kind of strong respect for their past that they had. Which makes me just think, are the forebears really Yakuta light? Or have they fallen so much further than that?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Depending on your perspective of fallen or changed so much that the Lutonics really are like an in-between, if you know what I mean. Because if they were really just like, oh, we, we still respect the Yakudan way. We're just a little bit different. Um, I wouldn't see the need or for someone to create such a movement.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I feel like the idea is as time goes by, the divide would only grow. I mean, if you just think about it logically, because inherently progressive


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just how different the two groups have actually become over time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, it is interesting to think, because you do see it, uhm, in our own history, where kind of different cultures or groups will go and kind of conquer or invade another territory, only to find that their own culture becomes affected by the one that they, you know, tried to invade a lot more than they probably expected.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, and you know, with the forebears being the descendants of the warriors and going on and conquering more, it's only natural that that happens.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they see it as a trick, which, which is quite interesting because they're, I suppose, you know, you consider them a race of men, despite them not coming from Atmora, they came from Yakuda. Um, and they have the kind of Elvish kind of, uh, flavor. Yeah, the Inuit flavor when it comes to their belief.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At strange angles to like, escape the cycle and then you end up in a place eventually created, which is the Far Shores.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So he goes and gathers up a bunch of old skins of like dead worlds and puts them into a big skin ball basically and says, let's, let's live here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was just gonna say, I think it's good to kind of, uh, conclude it by actually reading from the monomyth.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, which is basically says, so he tricked the spirits, told them that they could reach the new world by making one out of the old.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] These spirits loved this way of thinking as it was easier, no more jumping from place to-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So basically they end up saying, please take us back. Um, Torpapa says, no, you have to learn a new way to follow the stars to the far shores now. And that is essentially how they become trapped. But Sep.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Apparently, needed more punishment, and so Tall Papa squashed this snake with a big stick, and uh, the hunger fell out of Sep's dead mouth, and was the only thing left of the second serpent.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, called Zeki, or it's spelled with Qs, so it could be Zekui. Uh, the Madonna of Tears, water goddess, and daughter of Zet. Uhm, and apparently Zet kind of, uhm, left Huesbane, or has forsaken it, and she takes pity on them, and uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that's why he made it apparently hard for Hughes Bain, uh, to grow food as well. And then the daughter decides to go against her kind of creator and take pity on them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes. She's actually- She doesn't look submissive. She's lustier than Mara. But, um, less so than Dibella. According to a source. Which makes sense.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, maybe if, let's decriminalize Dibella, but maybe if the elves had Dibella in their aedric pantheon, they wouldn't have fallen to the temptations of the Daedra in the first place. They'd have some, something to kind of placate them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Perhaps. There's also Tarva, the, uh, bird god, Yakudian spirit of the air, and you may be thinking, why is the air so important?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that basically, in a way, you could say traces back to the fact that they were sailors.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, and still are great sailors and you need, you know, favorable winds to, uh, travel in a ship and make sure everything's okay. Uh, people also kind of see her, well, not the, not the crowns, but, uh, the forebears and others often basically relate her to Kinnareth.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We've kind of done Hoonding, um, but there's Maluk, uh, Horde King, also known as, uh, which is basically an enemy god. It's basically Malacath. This is a god of orcs and- Which makes sense with their history of fighting goblins.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One thing we should mention as well, cause it's related to spiritual matters, is that the Red Guards, uhm, they definitely worship their ancestors quite a bit, not in the same way that other races do, but uhm, you know,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, they wanna make sure that they go to the far shores, they don't wanna- they wanna make sure necromancers don't mess with them. And this has actually been, I suppose, somewhat of a hole in the defense of the Red Guards because they are distrustful, similarly to Nords, of magic.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, you know, to a significant extent. And so much so that even a group known as the Ashbar who basically exists to hunt the undead are frowned upon.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, because, you know, they're killing the honored, you know, the intern, the dead.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And uhm, people want nothing to do with them. It's kinda like disgusting but they're tolerated because they're like a force of good that's needed in the world but still disrespected.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Did you say the cringe in Elder Scrolls Online with the, the singing, the actual like singing?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think it would be a lot cooler if they were gonna go with like literal singing to summon it or involved in the process if it was some kind of, um, unique Mongolian throat singing or something instead of like singing a little bardic song.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's funny, it's funny as well because similarly to the Nords who don't like magic, but then of course the Nords did have kind of magical stuff and these, uhm, for some reason I was gonna say, uh, clever men, right? Yea. Yea, I was about to say wise men. I'm like, nooo, they're not the wise men.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, the ancient alakir had, uhm, powerful wizards as well, but they were very rare. Yakudian war wizards, uhm, were part of armies, but they were like a rare.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So it's interesting to think, and like, you know, like we just talked about, summoning a sword sounds pretty magical. But it's all about perspective, I guess. In the same way Dark Elves don't consider them communing, or even bringing back the ghost of their ancestors as necromancy, like Dark Elves are very against necromancy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But other racers look at that and go, that's necromancy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I actually tweeted that not long ago saying we need some better designs for bound weapons because


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, they, it just, I find it silly that they look just like the Daedric that you forge in that style in game. It'd be cool, even if they, obviously, you know, it's from Oblivion, you can make it Daedric in appearance, but stylistically different to the Daedric you forge would be pretty cool.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That reminds me, yeaah, that reminds me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] People, actual little fun fact, the Yakudans that, you know, the warrior wave apparently are not the first, uh, to, to arrive in Hammerfell, or to arrive on Tamriel. There's this group of horsemen in, in High Rock, I believe, who were there a bit earlier.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, lemme find what their name is. Source bro. Nah, nah, I'm gonna, this is not a source, trust me bro.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Are you ready to get redfield on Hornet? Curved swords! So, so, so, we know that the, the whole warrior wave, uhm, the sinking of the homeland happened around year 792 of the first era. Uhm, the waves to Hammerfell were continuing, uhm, in 808 of the first era.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then there is this text from The Elder Scrolls Online, our favorite place for lore, uh, called The Horse Folk of Silverhoof.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And basically it's saying, you know, that, uhm, it sounds unbelievable, but there's this lost colony of Red Guards on the northern coast of High Rock, uhm, that, that are these horsemen that, and they originally came from Yakuta, uhm, although they have unavoidably been Bretonized over the centuries by contact with the Nidic folk who surround them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, but they have, they still have some like Yakutian speech and things like that, like they have words still. Uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] However, the elders of the tribe maintain detailed oral accounts of their genealogy, and from the number of generations they record, it is possible to date their arrival on the shores of Tamriel to the early 6th century AD.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] of the first era. So, you know, in the five hundreds, um, this was a period of upheaval in High Rock when the Doreni hegemony was in its final death throes and the Breton kingdoms were just establishing themselves a time when a colony of determined settlers could find a niche and establish itself before it would be driven out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There you go. There you go. So I guess it's not like 100% confirmed, but there's my source. It's like one of those unreliable narrator, like, sounds interesting, could be things.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They have a nice combination of both. Like there's ornate when you need ornate and then there's very smart designs, you know, made on purpose to withstand, um, the deserts and...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you like this podcast at all, then you will love that video. Yeah. So do give that a check. Yeah. All right. Well, thank you everyone for tuning in to the Elder Scrolls podcast. It's been Michael Scott and Drew, and we look forward to nerding out with you again very soon.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, do we think that it's definitely, there were 500 in total, or do you think, like, their crew, would they have counted every member of their crews, for example, on their ship?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hmm, especially when you consider the fact that they split up to take over Skyrim 2, so 500 isn't many when you're all together, let alone when you spread out to go and conquer every corner of the province.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's equally crazy how they, how they managed to get it there. Really.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, cause like, you know, you, there, there were, there's been strategies in, you know, in real history of portaging ships where you kind of like, you can roll it on logs or whatever, but this is quite a, quite a large


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's like a, it's a religious divergence at the end of the day, and I almost, I wouldn't even say the silver hand are any better, because they're trying to purge certain elements from the companions while like, as you said,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They're not exactly following in his grimoire's footsteps either. I mean, I'd argue that the closest to the companions are the Stormcloaks.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, uhm, like, I think the companions got obsessed with, if they're, if they're reading the songs of the return, they're like, oh wow, Isremora's this incredible warrior, we wanna be the strongest we can possibly be at any, by any means necessary, which kind of goes against...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that's why the anti-elven sentiment comes into it, and really none of that exists anymore short of just obsessing over a guy who they consider to be a good warrior. Really. And there's many warriors to pick from.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, Coldlight might be one of the few who kind of is, you know, has started to see that, oh wait, yeah, it's more about Isgrimor's teachings as opposed to just him being a warrior. Like, I mean, Isgrimor was the first to record history, the first human to record history, right? It's like, he's more than just a killer as much as he killed a lot.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But then again, like, I mean, you know, looking at it from just a definition perspective of the harbinger, kinda like, you know, guiding them, or like, as you said, like setting them on the right path or whatnot. If a, if the harbinger kind of sets them on the wrong path and they're going really far away from what matters,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So the monk analogy, I was actually going to say something very similar, because that almost seems like it would be a good direction for them to go, perhaps with if Ulfric and the Stormcloaks were to win.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To kind of reinstate the Companions as being more like what they initially were. Because obviously, like, the jump between Isgramor and the 500 Companions and the Companions, as we kind of touched on, is that several hundred years later, they just decide to make a mercenary group.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The, the term harbinger, like Isgrimor is the harbinger of us all. When you think about it like that, there can't be any other harbingers. He's the harbinger. So it's, it's kind of like having like, say you have like a, you know, use a biblical figure like Jesus, if he were like a Jesus who like led the Nords to their homeland, uhm, you can't just then have a bunch of


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] new ones popping up in his place to kind of- it- if anything they almost need to be monks following his rules and not deciding upon new rules to-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Excuse me, add into the fold, if you know what I mean. It's like, it's almost maybe needs to be a bit more dogmatic and religious.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Whereas if they got money from the state, for example, if Ulfric won and decided to have them be a religion.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When you walk in for the first time and they're just having a punch up, you know, like that kind of sets the tone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's essentially what they did, isn't it? They kinda just took the fighters guild and were like, oh, let's put a Skyrim spin on this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean that would, that would help to explain some of the weird stuff about, I mean there's a lot of weird stuff, but like even just the logistics of carrying, I mean the fact they're using ships goes against the idea they're dragons, but you know, cause you know, the songs of the return will say something like, they sailed across the land with waves of stone and trees flowing under their hulls.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They streamlined it. It's inherently extremely experimental in the early days. You know, the idea that now you can pick a spell and you know what school it belongs to and you know what to read so you can learn it and you know how to use it safely. You know, like, we think about the fact that your character may cast a fireball.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just casting a fireball that's not going to explode and kill you and everyone around you and things like that wasn't, it's not an easy thing that we've just all, like, human mortals have always known. It took a lot of experimentation and that's why you had these specific groups who


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Trying to define and categorize magic is, is kind of fruitless at the end of the day, because when the mortal realm is created, you've got these gods that devote their power to creating the earth bones, to creating laws of physics and nature, to make things make sense. But when you have the, uhm, when you have Magnus,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the Magnege fleeing from this world and tearing rifts in the sky. That allows the magic to seep through from Ethereus completely.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's a completely uncontrollable substance that really you can use in any way if you're willing to experiment with it. So, when you have the Mages Guild come along, try to make it accessible to everyone, try to make it safe for as many people as possible. You kinda have to try and enforce boundaries that don't really exist, and I think it's one of the reasons why


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The sigic who are very secretive about what they do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They're very much, uhm, in line with mysticism, and mysticism is kind of, kind of gets forgotten about a bit. But it's like, using magic to kind of understand and change magic. So it's, it's a, it's a form of magic that kind of inherently goes against what the Mage's Guild is all about.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Vanus Galerion is that there's kind of two reasons why he wanted to establish the Major's Guild, because him and Mannimarco were both like, excellent students in the Sigic Order.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the Sigix are generally speaking more than happy to allow any kind of study if you're kind of furthering magic and you're not being too irresponsible. So they weren't really cracking down on Mannimarco for what he was getting up to.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, Vanus Galerion then decides, you know, because he knows someone who's being extremely irresponsible with magic,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The, what Van- you know, mostly Manamaco, but also Vanus did in deciding to kind of take their knowledge and spread it to the rest of Tamriel, how that might have made the menace of Necromancy way worse. Because, you know, while the Sijics, you know, I'm fairly sure they've said that they're not really for it,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The idea that they could experiment with necromancy in the solitude of the Isle of Artaeum, keep it there and just kind of understand it as a form of mysticism better.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It is kind of safe practice, because the Sijic have this idea that they don't really want to intervene with the goings-on of Tamriel. They have this, this word called Eggnophere, which means bad change. They don't want bad change to happen, so when they get involved, it's only when it's necessary.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Whereas the Magus Guild and, you know, obviously the Black Worm Cult are much more ingrained in Tamrielic society, and the Magus Guild go as far as to get involved with counter invasions of Daedric realms and things like that. It's very political, and so political in fact that Vanus Galerion would come to resent it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But it's interesting to think that necromancy might not have been such a big deal if they'd kept it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Inside their, their secluded institution.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But you know what I mean, that theoretically, if it's not outlawed and made this taboo thing, then yeah, then maybe it could have been done responsibly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, I mean, almost all the major things that go wrong on Tamriel can be tied to magic in some way. Obviously, you know, you've got the, the kind of, uh, Daedric invasions, which will get to the ramifications of the Oblivion Crisis, but even things like the Thrashen Plague, which wipes out half the population.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, the idea is that the Sloed were working with necromantic rituals to create, to conjure this unnatural disease. So really, you know, it makes sense for people to be very skeptical, especially those who don't understand it themselves.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What is interesting about them is that it seems to be a recurring theme when it comes to studying magic, but the significant difference between the two is their opinions on necromancy. Because you've got the synod who are like very staunchly anti-necromancy, and the College of Whispers are more willing to study it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When you've got people like Lord Narathin who are kind of, um, working alongside Daedra at the same time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you're just a common man or woman working the fields and all you understand is, you know, kind of whack and smash and things, uh, you're not really going to appreciate magic, especially when there's gates opening up on your land.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's why the Sijics were so staunch about keeping to themselves and only intervening when it felt like they really had to. You know? Yeah. Whereas nowadays that's not really gonna be a thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's kind of like, you know, it's like the benefits and problems of anything democratic where a lot of people can be involved. It's like if you have a select few, it's much easier to kind of choose the results of like how things happen. But if everybody's involved and you can't really regulate it no matter how much you try.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's an exact parallel to a certain thing that's in America. You know, like there's, there's, there are certain things where it's like, you can either have, only a couple of people can access this thing, or everyone can access it and you get the benefits and negatives associated with that. That's how it feels.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which does exist in Ellen here, I think. That's the city of mages in Hammerfell.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think you just, I think you got it. Yeah? I don't know, I mean, you're making me doubt myself. Yeah, hold on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, you do, you do, actually I was just playing through, um, you get a little bit of that vibe in, you get a little bit of that vibe in Fargrave, the, the new place in ESO. It's very like kind of Twilight desert with kind of all of that aesthetic there, but they, it could be done really well for Hammerfill, for sure.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, I guess you could briefly mention that they kinda have their militant sect as well in the, in the Order of the Lamp. Oh yea. The Lamp Knights in the, like when you've got, uh, groups like the Sigix because you can't really...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Artaeum exists, but it also kinda doesn't exist at the same time. They can move the entire island, they can all just go incorporeal. Whereas the Mages Guild is much more, as we kind of hit on before, it's accessible and it's easy to attack if you're an enemy of the Mages Guild. So they kind of need their militant group.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, he, he trapped his soul in the soul gem so that you could use it to protect against Manamaka's power.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What is up ladies and gentlemen? Welcome back to Fudge Muppet. This is the Elder Scrolls Podcast. I'm Scott here with Michael and Drew as always and for today we've got a fun one. We are ranking your spicy Elder Scrolls takes. We made a post on YouTube and I also tweeted it out. So we're gathering response for both YouTube.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think that's a relatively hot take for, cause a lot of people would really disagree with that I think, cause it gets a lot of flame. But I actually personally agree with that take.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I guess that's what he's saying the principle is, is that like, they actually keep, you know, being too tied down or too restricted by it's own rules.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, I guess in the assumption it's good to be saying the system in itself isn't bad. Like for example, if everyone all of a sudden retconned to, you know, all the first pocket guides of the Empire, Cyrodiil jungle, all that kind of stuff that you like, you wouldn't be a bad thing. So basically I'm like, I tend to agree as long as it doesn't like, remove the core.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I think, but one thing I do like is that it does, it factors in and helps the unreliable narrator kind of scenario. You know what I mean? It actually...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I reckon it assists it, honestly, for the most part. I guess it does.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well he does, well kind of and not really because technically you can go like, oh, unreliable narrator, first pocket guide to the empire. That's why it's gone. It is a retcon, but they've sort of explained it away. It's like all these different theories as to why in universe, as to why they referred to it as a jungle. So it's what he said, like the laws built in retcon systems, dragon breaks, et cetera, like other things.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I, um, like I also kinda like, um, it's the same thing as some of the best parts, like the 36 lessons of, um, Vivec and Red Mountain and all that kind of stuff is a very convoluted event with lots of different versions and inbuilt. You could almost say that unreliable narrator really is a sort of built-in retcon system to a degree.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, some people don't, like some people lack like, for example, there's not really any debate about Mass Effect lore. It's like straight up, here's a codex that tells you from an, um, you know, authorial sort of position, like it just, that's it. That's what it is. But yeah, I don't, I don't know it, like it's a, it's a, I think it's a closer to hot take. Um, cause I think a lot of people don't like it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Here's what's cool, do you know what, hopefully and ideally, and I sort of do believe this would happen, say there's an Elder Scrolls 6 Hammerfell.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The aesthetic and the look of all the towns and the cities and probably the scale and stuff will be retconned and there'll be little bits of it and stuff, but they'll take what they want and leave out what they don't. But that's kind of soft retconning something out of relevancy and stuff. You know what I mean?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In the same way that they can just leave out plenty of things about like Nordic lore and stuff and don't. Because if it's- But that's a bad thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sometimes, too, it's also the execution of the changes. So for example, if you were to go, like, look at Oblivion as it is, like, obviously people were expecting a jungle Cyrodiil and all that kind of different stuff. Whereas if you look at, uhm, the Sky Oblivion mod project where they're putting a, a, a, it's ultimately a,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I guess that's what I'm sort of getting at. Like it's sort of, I don't know, I, I do agree to some, to some degree it's good to have flexibility with unreliable narrator and stuff to allow you to do it because strictly adhering to just this sort of codified, I think codified law can create, um, problems and boredom and stuff within the setting, but,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, at the same time, it's about, it ultimately comes down to taste and execution.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But yeaah, I agree with the premise that I think the systems are actually good, perhaps how they're used a lot of the time aren't fantastic, but the actual concept of having inbuilt sort of retconning type of things isn't a bad concept.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, especially because they leave it up in the air. They don't like go, well, this is the, well, they tend to not like, this is the new definitive Elder Scrolls. Like they don't go like, this is the new version of, this is the definitive canon, exactly what it's like. They just kind of go, yeah, all the stuff we've made is canon. We don't, they didn't really say much on it. Do you know what I mean? But yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I wanna throw out some extra credit there for it. A, this is a spicy take, I would say. Like most people would just disagree with it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, but, the problem is, from my opinion, ESO goes from the amount of lore. Just an amount of lore isn't the thing, it's also the quality of lore. However, I will say,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Elder Scrolls Online is generally hit or miss. Like when it's good, it's actually really good. When it's bad, it's really bad.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's kind of, there's a lot of mix of that, and I would say a lot of the later stuff, and the stuff that came in the later chapters of the DLCs and so on, uhm, tends to be much better than the earlier stuff, a lot of the earlier stuff, foundational stuff's pretty, uh, but,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cause I would also say, like, about the actual best game, like it's not, like in terms of my, just a personal opinion of me, like playing the game, like my personal just enjoyability of picking up a controller and playing it, it's nowhere near, I just don't like the MMO sort of.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Style and so on, but I guess to be fair, and this is sometimes it is overlooked, but you can go like, oh, well, oblivion kind of butchered Cyrodiil and look at that and so on. And it's like, oh, look at, um, you know, Skyrim to a degree, they butchered elements of the lore. Whereas if you looked at, for example, elsewhere, I think they did a


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Fairly damn good execution of what, um, elsewhere should be. And, you know, arguably some are, you know, some are set not because of the crystals and.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so on, but there are basically areas where they have taken culture and they have executed quite well. And you know, I would even say the Reachmen are executed quite well, even though I'm not a big fan of like the bone sort of stuff too much. I'd rather it scaled back a bit, a little bit more of the Celtic, but they're only working off what Skyrim already established. So I think a lot of the time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They do a decent job and it's just easy to, you know what I mean? Like, look at, forgive Bethesda's sort of butchering of the law.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sometimes, sometimes they do, like, to be fair, sometimes, because I've been playing more recently, maybe it's more recent stuff, that I would say if you actually go back, they're kind of on par, but I would say what's different a lot of the time, not all the time,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because it's built to like accommodate so much space as well, it doesn't have that sort of, like, you know, saying with the big streets and so on, but there's no like little nooks and crannies and stuff out there. And the same as like, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was playing the Blackwood stuff and like the Ayla Ruin doors are huge and the arena, the place is sort of scaled to this sort of feeling of like, oh, there could be like, you know, 10 people in here at one time. We need to make it feel like that and not claustrophobic, which I understand that's a game design thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But it does kind of like, at least my enjoyment of it, it does like sort of cut the execution a bit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, though then again, I guess, uh, like, yeah, like there's some cool design things in ESO and stuff like the visuals and stuff, but then it's sort of conformed to that MMO sort of world space, which just doesn't.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Boom, boom, boom, boom in your head, so then because if everything's boom, boom, boom, boom, it's, you cease to appreciate the scale, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, everything becomes, it's like if you're doing something that's not like, you know, a billion like light effects and like huge things everywhere, it's, do you know what I mean? Like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Casting a Master Spell is like, in Skyrim it's like, oh woah, big deal, but like, that's everything in...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And all your, like, ridiculous, like, you know, pets and all of that kind of stuff, even trying to, like, ooh, in the lore, like, this Empress Hestra wrote a Fire Storm Atronach, and I'm like, uh, really? I don't, oh, like, Fire Storm Atronach Bear, sorry, I think it was, and it just kind of, like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeaah, I don't know, that's just not my, um, not my thing. In that regard. Yeaah. But, uh.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know if this one's hot, I'll read it. So Skydog, the series and the Elder Scrolls 6 in particular desperately need someone like Kirkbride to do the writing slash world building. Skyrim and Oblivion definitely added some interesting lore, but they don't hold a candle to Morrowind's contributions in my opinion. If Bethesda doesn't find someone with the same eclectic style to spice things up, I'm afraid the series will eventually lose most of its soul.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, it's kind of like, I feel like it's like most people who kind of like them older, sort of a little bit me to law. That's a pretty like cool tag, like, uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I do agree, but one thing too, I guess, like, just thinking about ESO just before, but it's just like, in a way, if you think about the contributions of Oblivion and Skyrim, Elder Scrolls Online has added a lot more spice in a lot of, um, areas than, and gone a little bit


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They've, and I think it's also the format of it. They're allowed to do like chapter styles and all that, like, you know, chapters and they're constantly working on it, but they're, they've been allowed to, to move the lore in, in, um, and work on it and make it a little bit weirder and more focused on rather than toned down, I think.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I guess they say they wouldn't have worked on it anyway, cause it's Bethesda game studios and stuff, but they also franchise health. They're like, oh, yeah. So he's got it covered. Exactly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Absolutely. Uh, this is pretty valid. I don't know if they're hot though, but here we go. Bad company signs. The actual Elder Scrolls themselves are kind of worthless. They seem to just have vague prophecies which may or may not come true. Plus they can teleport dragons forward in time as an odd side effect. Really niche uses for items which are seen as super important.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, but I guess that's a lot that's kind of is just like, you could pick up Sanguine's Rose or Mason Merlin Bell and use it as it is like intended to be used. Or it's like purpose or whatever, like anyone could do with the Elder Scroll. You're probably going to go blind. And if you do don't go blind, you've got to get some vague prophecy that you're like kind of like, how do I, you know what I mean?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Disgust. It's definitely a hot take, I think, cause people would be like...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, I think overall the big thing in the toy, and this is what people who are really big in the arena dagger for kind of thing, it is the change from like a really true sandbox feeling to a little bit more of a focused sound. It's more about the immersive world plus sandbox. It's, it's a bit different.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If anything I reckon though, they have actually kind of gone back, like AES, you know, Skyrim, which is like years ago now, in terms of multiple outcomes, and then you've got also Fallout 4, in terms of multiple outcomes. They do actually have different choices, like Stormcloaks or Imperials, or you've got like, you know, Brotherhood Railroad, so on. So I think Bethesda's game design,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is actually in on that and I won't be surprised if Starfield has the same thing like you would change the end state of the world or probably same thing with Elder Scrolls 6. I don't, I don't think


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I don't know, I don't think it actually was the worst thing to happen because...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's just a design philosophy to come down to. It's kind of like, if you're going like, you can have like a linear, you can have a mix of these, but there's on both extremes, there's sort of choice. You can go,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Linear path and then it goes branches and then it branches again three ways and branches that way. And there's all these branches. You create like a family tree looking thing of choices.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or, which is kinda like what you kinda got with Skyrim. It's like, oh, you put in the middle, you're on a turntable, and it's just...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A million different directions you can go. That's your choice, your choice of what to do. So, oh, I'm a character, I wanna go be a thief and an assassin and that. Or I wanna go and be a mage and collect powerful artifacts. So the game isn't going like, oh, here is your, like, point of making a choice, which is then gonna further take you down a linear path.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, well one of two linear paths and then turn into, you know what I mean? So it's kind of like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You have two ways of doing choice and it's just different kinds of games. Like one is like an immersive sort of sandbox RPG, like living in the Elder Scrolls world sim versus something that's like a more tailored kind of story.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I just think it's also in the design. It's like the, I mean, I don't really agree. I just think overall it's better that the main, like the, not everything has to revolve around the main story. And I know Daggerfall didn't entirely, but like the outcome of the main story is a big deal. Like it changes the fate of the Iliac Bay and so on. Uh, whereas really, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Alduin or the Oblivion Crisis is sort of like threats outside of like the politics of the world, they're not like shaping the everyday man's life, they just get rid of the big bad evil thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'll take a handcrafted land map any day over Daggerfall's generated stuff. I though, also I appreciate the sort of sandbox-ish sort of, like if you were to go, like for example, like Kenshi is probably closer in game design philosophy to Daggerfall in that way that you go and you just sort of exist and do what you want in the world, but you're not


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're not an important character, but you do become in Daggerfall. But you know what I mean in terms of just, it's not like structured.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I mean, this is one thing, like, a lot of roleplaying, and all roleplaying, I guess, is like, you know, it's in your head, right? You know, you've got a lot of stuff. But guess what, where roleplaying comes from, like, you know, sitting around on the table with pen and paper, it's like, yeah, a lot of that's in your head too, like, a lot of it. If anything, the game is like, well, yeah, all of it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The, so, you know, you're always going to have to like, you know, do things in your head or make decisions, like enforce your own decisions. Like a lot of role playing is...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Imparting your own decisions on the character that don't exist within game constraints.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Alright, let's, uh, quickly... Give us a new take. Oh no, no, just guys, just steal that, just steal that everyone, that's what we find in you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, I do really- like, some of my most spent time characters outside of Dark Elf wasn't Orc in Skyrim and I've really liked Orcs since Oblivion, it was like my first character and I really like Orcs, but I do, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, it's definitely underrated. I think so for sure. Like, unnoticed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I mean, I agree. I, I definitely, I will agree that they're not my, like, favorite race, but they definitely are underrated. Sort of good one.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To it and so on and it kind of looks a little bit more. I think Sky, like arguably, uh, Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim I think all went for a more realistic style depending on their time, constraints of the graphics.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think Morrowind kinda had a happenstance. It did look like that. And Skyrim was trying to be a grittier.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sort of like more realistic look, but obviously you can have like fantastical design without, without a graphical look. Like for example, like the high elves and their like face structure and something is a design choice to make it look interesting and fantasy, but you don't have to have like a graphical sort of, this is a comic style or a sort of like more like Pixar polished, you know what I mean?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] See, funnily enough, you look at ESO, it's like ESO, like elves look closer to humans in ESO than they do in Skyrim, for example.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And also the other reason I would like them to sort of continue a Skyrim sort of aesthetic look and go forward is, um, and go for a, um, realistic is like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's been like 15, it's going to be like 15 years since. It's like games are actually at a point now where realistic graphics look really good and really close to real life. Like, dude, don't deny me this and give me some like portal hands looking or ears looking.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Between like your art style of like what applies to everything, like everything in Borderlands 2 adheres to a sort of self shaded kind of look as opposed to just


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Different design decisions and stuff like that of like, you know, making the high elves look like this or that or whatever that are like fantastical, which I agree with that part, but I kind of want them to go for a more realistic, like just look in terms of like, I want it to look like a not art style sort of overlays or anything if that makes sense.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So here's one from, uh, Nicomodus Edwards. This is, it's part of a bigger thing I want to talk about, but Skyrim was my first Elder Scrolls game, but after going back to play Morrowind or Oblivion, the only way I find Skyrim enjoyable is modding the hell out of it, not even adding lore-breaking cool or funny mods, just like mods that make the gameplay more enjoyable.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I like being magic characters and Skyrim has all the complexity of an eight-year-old birthday party magician high on Oxycontin, but I ain't asking for some D&D level spell-providing complexity, I just want to like magic to feel special.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But anyway, it goes on a bit, but I, I think in general, I guess this is the, the, the hot,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I feel like this is, we could sum up a lot of people's hot takes when they're like, hot take, uh, Skyrim shit and all the old ones are better, right? I'm like, I'm sorry.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you've spent 300 hours playing a game, you lose the right to call that game shit. Unless your job is literally like, I need to sit here and play the worst games for fun or whatever. It's like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When you get that much enjoyment, it's so crazy when people are, oh, you know, even if they enjoyed, you know, 80 hours of a game, it's like, dude, that is more than your money's worth. That's, that's a very good game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I think honestly, my, I don't know if this is a hot take, Skyrim is my favorite game to play out of any of the Elder Scrolls. All of the rest of them have some level of clunkiness or some other inhibitions. They are better in other areas for sure, but Skyrim in terms of like picking up a controller, being in the world, moving around and stuff, I would always prefer playing Skyrim or modding it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, to, to make it like better and put in the options and stuff you want, but I think just, um, there are just some limitations that the old clunky games have that I think people, you know, I've done it. I, you go on, you play 10, 20 hours of Morrowind and you're like, oh yeah, you know, it's really fun. It's cool. It's like, oh, well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I just think uhm, yeaah, I, I, I just think it's a, people just, it's that thing where like people will hate on the most recent game. Elder Scrolls 6 will come out and everyone will talk about how Skyrim is the greatest thing of all time. Uh, which it, it is a very, very good game. But like all of a sudden Elder Scrolls 6 will be bad and the thing, because you don't look at it with the same level of uhm, like critique or something.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I just think, I think that people sort of hot take Skyrim sort of like, they'll, they'll approach the sort of Skyrim's the worst in the series. Uhm, and I just, in terms of gameplay, I kind of disagree. Like, obviously this- I think-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Me included, it's just like, I love Morrowind, but for different reasons, a lot of it is, it's carried by the lore and the setting and the design and going around and seeing the cool stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To be fair, everyone's like, oh, you have to play Skyrim modded. It's like, yeah, you kind of have to play Morrowind modded too, man. Like to look good or to be as well executed as, as you, you know, you want it to be.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's like, I get what they're trying to achieve with that, you know, they're trying to, but like, at that same time, it's like, there are better ways you can innovate to it and achieve the same thing. It's different, it's for its time, it's a game made in 2002, it's like nearly 20 years old, like, uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But yea, at the end of the day, I don't know, I just feel like people kinda kidding themselves with this stuff, and they're like, I don't know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I agree, it's the same thing, uhm, like, I'm sure, basically I think the same, uh, problems people have with, like, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With, uh, what to call it, uh, the lack of spellmaking can mostly, mostly be remedied by adding more spell variety and actually adding more spells. So for example, if Skyrim, when people are like, oh, the magic isn't as good, a lot of the time the real,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It doesn't, but I feel like it's adding a whole mechanic to do something. You can just go like, you know, bound armor, bound clan fear, whatever.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Out of all, out of all of the things, the reason I started Degree is like, out of all, all of the reasoning and stuff behind it, if there's no spellmaking in Old Scroll 6, I'm not really gonna care as long as there's like, you know, spell variety and there are so many other areas that I think that are way more important, like, you know, adding like, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Better perk trees and branches and more like gameplay dividing things and arguably like, you know, attributes or stuff like that. Like there are just so many other areas I think spells making such an, the advantages of spell making are smaller compared to if they just added a whole lot of spells. Like it's, it's,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, but like, sorry, they did, but like in terms of like the, I guess the visuals and the cool feel and which is part of it, but I do like that. Like, you know, there's no icy spear in, in, uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In what's her name or there's no way to have like a, like the lightning storm cells and big charge thing and shooting as this one leg stream of lightning.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But then that's the problem of the spellmaking kind of thing, that note the tomes stop being, the unique ones stop being useful. Cause the same problem we have for enchanting that they're sort of saying, right? That, that, that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, but that is that sort of like, I guess the sen- I don't know, like it's just, to me that's such a small, um, thing. I think the handcrafted spells, but lots of them are better. Like everyone kind of likes to go- I'm not arguing against that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's kinda like people, I just like, look, people kinda like to like, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Shit on casuals would be like, oh, any like, any element that makes sense, something more casual or accessible, like, oh, it has to be worse, it's worse. It's like, no, a lot of the time it's better, cause guess what?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Maths is boring. You're playing a video game. You want to get immersed in the world. I don't want to be sitting there going, oh, I'm going to tweak my magical cost for this damage, this, that. Yeah. It's fun to do it to some degree. If you're really into builds and stuff for most people, even myself, when I'm not thinking about builds, it's fun to just.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's either a thing you didn't touch or it added. Yeah, they weren't going to add icy spear kind of cool things in and like they weren't hand crafting the spells as much in Oblivion or something.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, a different time, but that's what I'm saying going forward. I kind of agree. Yeah, potentially. It doesn't need spellmaking.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and My Little Pony are technically canon and the Daedric Princes explain why concepts such as corruption, destruction and madness exist in all these universes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, you've heard that analogy. I haven't, but I can make sense of it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] People's own experiences in the things are valid and shouldn't be.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Allow for theoretically like different versions of each universe, like theoretically every mainline, the reason, it's the really like sort of meta, oh wow, the fourth wall breaking, this is a game, but like every single game is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, a dragon break. So like all of the things happen. So, so for example, champion of Cyrodiil, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, it becomes a hero, it becomes Shagorath kind of thing. And then there's the Dark Brotherhood listener. Um, and all of those things, all of those quest lines or the events that sort of happened from those quest lines happened at some point. And the only really way to explain that is either you can go like, oh, drag break, or you can go, oh, there were different people or whatnot, but that way it kind of everyone's experience is valid.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I generally kinda like, it's a spicy take cause a lot of people's minds hate it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which I kind of like the idea of finding more powerful items, but then you've also got to have some level of incentive to enchanting because it's like, Oh, you know, you can do all this enchanting and then you can like make like all this subpar stuff. Whereas any other character can just like pick up the cool weapons and stuff, which that are much stronger. And you know what I mean? It's got to be like some level, but I think they can go like laterally.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, but like most do, like most, like a lot of casuals, unless you're into builds, like I'm going to use bone-mold armor for this, this, a lot of people do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Mitchell Viola. Morrowind, mechanically, has the best combat and most tense fights in the series. Also, Alteration is by far the best skill in Morrowind. It was nerfed way too hard in later titles, but that is the hottest take in the red. Like, no one's gonna agree. I need to have a drink. Dude, no. Anything? Like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, he- he's a- this- I don't know if this is a hot take, it's more a critique. This is kinda blending it, there's not enough hot takes, we'll have to like-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We need to search for more hot takes in this list, but uhm, the Elder Scroll severely lacks emotion.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Define line, because the more, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, here we go, here's a new one, uhm, W. Gen. Paul.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think the Skyrim retcon of changing the Nordpantheon to be more traditionally, he put, by the way, he put retcon in parentheses, uh, in quotation marks and it's like, it technically isn't.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's not a retcon cause you're continuing forward and there's a theoretical way you do it, but it's just, you know what I mean?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, in the second era, they still did all like the genal and so on at the second era time. But you could arguably, ever since Tiber Septum, it could have, like it could make...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One thing I guess to say, even just talking, I guess, uhm, uh, saying that it fits, uhm, much better, that arguably to some degree,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That could make sense because when you have an empire that unifies everything and it's unified for 400 years, it's very strange that places stay so isolated and their beliefs don't change. Like, so for example, like, you know, you know, that happened.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Kind of everywhere, like the Saxons come and invade and then they end up being Christianized themselves or so on and that kind of happens like


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, and you know, arguably it should, like, I think it just comes down to it, just like the ancient Nordic pantheon stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is just a lot cooler and gives them a lot stronger theme or identity, but I guess you could probably logically make the case as to why they're imperialized since the conqueror.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So the Saxons, no, but they got integrated by the dominant thing. Yeah, but what I'm saying is the dominant thing. Compare it to Christianity. Imperial Devine is your Christianity essentially. It came and it went everywhere and it ended up basically conquering everywhere that it was. Like it became the dominant faith popular religion.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just to establish, like, I 100% agree that, like, I think that it would be far more interesting even if you had, like, a conflict, which I sort of suggested in the Ideal Skyrim, it's that you have, like, the Eastern Nords being really traditional, like, you know, Old Nordic Pantheon and then the West accepting more imperialized ways, that would be a very interesting setting.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But uhm, I think the imperialization stuff can all make sense, it's just not as interesting.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's things too, and when any like Elder Scrolls lore or changes or future things that add, you can critique it from two angles, one being just taste, and what do you think is cooler, and the other is like does it actually make sense, like is there like a logical like line of, you know, conclusions, so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What I'm saying is, would you with Skyrim, I wouldn't critique Skyrim on its execution of its world map. For the most part. Like there's tiniest little things you can maybe make adjustments.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, if anything, if anything, if the scale problem is probably like, you know, more about the actual size of cities and stuff and not like just land.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, there's no way in hell I would, I would, I would fault them on. I think there's one thing, and maybe this is just me being a, I'll be like a, Bethesda simp here. And everyone will be like, oh, you're just a.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Bethesda's problems are no way, I think, like the world space design and areas. Even Fallout 76 you can give that props to, like there's plenty of interesting stuff around.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But, uhm, yeaah, yeaah. Uh, yeaah, not a, uhm. Oh, here we go. So someone, here we go. Okay.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now this is a, I can't actually really respond to this hot take too much, but like, uh, a lack pond says, uhm, the lore behind the Ebonheart pact isn't actually that bad, as there are many small details that make the story of its founding seem like a cover-up and an attempt to promote cooperation for an alliance that was made out of necessity. Now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, that's a spicy take, I'd say, and I would, I mean, I disagree from what I have read. If there is extra stuff that you can show that smooths it over, like, I would agree, but I think on its foundational points, you've just got the most,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like the most diametrically opposed races, like haha, team up to get a necessity. I think it is realistic generally.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] People aren't that, like, 4D chess smart, generally. Cooperation behind, like, there's probably a very rare few times in history where it's just so diametrically opposed people, just like, yeah, we've gotta team up to fight a common enemy, or something like that, and it's not even like, oh, a common enemy that's coming to invade Morrowind Skyrim, or they're fighting over Cyrodiil. You know? And like, who should be emperor? I just, I...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I... Look, it's a struggle for me, man.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, like, even Euron's Skald King, and it's like, he teams up and he gets, uh, summons, uh, Izmir Wolfarth, like, literally, the hate elf incarnate character.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then they go and like, yeah, let's help the elves from, uh, in, in Morrowind. I just, they're literally, I don't know, man. I don't, I don't, uh, buy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Doesn't matter man, you can't just go on these like eugenics crusades and kill people. It's about their actions. If they commit a crime then you react to it. You can't preemptively be like, I'm gonna execute him because...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, he might turn or do something like, I mean you can make that decision from a role playing angle or whatever, but you can't really morally justify it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For four and a half thousand years plus. Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You can judge them on actions they've done, like for example, if you wanted to go, if your argument was, oh, he did bad stuff in Dragon Wars, therefore I think it's a, uh, he should pay for his crimes. Like arguably that makes more sense, but you can't really predictively go, oh, they're more likely to, therefore the worst things ever happen from that kind of mindset.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. But yeah, I guess that that is a spicy take, but, uh, you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Alright, uh, devoted tales. Here's a more lore one. So, Boethiah is the line between Trinimac and Sun, and encouraged the rebellion against lawful authority on both sides. Sun died because Trinimac doubled down on siding with Oriel, but he'd been changed by the cognitive dissonance into Morlock.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, hold on, maybe we need, this wasn't, I don't think I should have even said that one. Just because I think that needs a little bit more of a discussion. I need a little bit more clarity on what he's trying to say.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know, okay. Well, uh, maybe we can approach that in a lore thing or something sometime. Just re-clarify, I guess.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, now I, now I just really, cause now that I talk about this, I really want to find it somewhere, but it's more, more or the less that, like, uhm, about Shayogorath being not that, oh, like. Oh, I think I saw this. Yeah, I'm trying to, now I, now I need to race and find it. Hold on, like. I think it was.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I would say generally, uhm, that people don't like, you know, if you dislike Sheogorath, the majority of the fandom would be against you on that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I agree. I, I just, I guess it's hot take. Shitting on Sugar Earth, I think, is relatively spicy, though I feel like it's a safe space set here, cause like, I kinda openly don't like... I'm over it. I don't like, hate it or anything. This is the thing, I like most things in Elder Scrolls. I'm not a hateful person, I just, just, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's just execution can be better, I just get over the memes and some people, someone's there, I think someone-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Alright, here's the next one. So from Riley on Twitter, Khajiit are cringe.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, there you go, there you go, it's another one. I don't like that, that's cringe. But it's a bit, yeah, it's a bit of the sort of like dividing line between like what's like fandom generated, like which argue a lot with Khajiit, same applies to Sheogorath, sort of, you know, influences that makes it cringe versus the...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is, this sounds like such a like, a low tier, uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like insult, but like the, the furry race and there's all these different varieties of like cats and then cats already have an element of like internet meme cringe that I think people like already add to it. They're like, you know, people take a picture of it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, cat and they'll be like, oh, it has wares or whatever and like attach it to the meme and stuff like that. And I think all of that kind of stuff helps people in their head implement like, oh, he's house cats in Skyrim or like, do you know what I mean? And they become to a degree somewhat. I sometimes find this with all like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's why, it's why a lot of the Alfik and the Dougie, right, the smaller ones that kinda look a bit different, I kinda treat them differently to the ones you meet in Skyrim that just look like a human, a furry human with like a cat head and a tail. It's a bit cosplay.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you could easily cosplay the- you know with the Khajiit, like you could kind of like do the makeup on the face and the rest of it you kind of do the makeup for and just stick a tail on. Like it's kind of why I prefer Khajiit, uh, Morrowind, Argonians and Khajiit with the bipedal stuff because they look more like beasts rather than just-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that's what makes, like, Argonians the more interesting, the fact that they're like the lizards with the hyssop and so on, and makes them these different kind of, you know, all of the different, like, biological functions that are exclusive to them. Any of the human parts aren't really interesting. Or the, the best, the best Khajiit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What about, for example, um, you know, another one you could do is like moon sugar seems pretty far removed, like sugar and cats. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. But I mean, yeah, absolutely all for that. Um, that's all. I mean, I think that's better. See, this is kind of tangential. Yeah, but better than what? Like, what were we suggesting that was not better?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I guess what we're arguing for really anyway is that biology has tangible restraints in any sort of culture. So if you're like, if all of a sudden you're a society, it's like don't have stairs in a society of snake-legged people that have just got snake tears because they won't use them. You would have like ramps and stuff, like those kinds of considerations.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, but then why not their lips and everything else? They just saw the advantage of the mummy milkers and they're like, yeah, we need them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think I saw a continuation of that thing that, uhm, Khajiit should have, uh, six, they should have six boobs.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because uhm, like Khajiit have like six nipples and stuff and you know what, do it bro. Like I always for the more, I would rather my beast or slash alien races or non-human races look more non-human and have more interesting features rather than being closer to human because it just looks comical. You can do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well arguably it does a better like Star Wars, there's a lot of better execution, but still like, you can look at some of those things and go like, haha, like you know, it's kind of an antiquated thing that you're attached to.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the same thing applies to Argonians, but if you were playing a new game and you're like, I suggested something and it's like, okay guys, like, let's do, like, let's do a bird race. It's a crow. It looks exactly like a human. It has tits, everything, human feet. It's just kind of covered in feathers and it's got a beak.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We should probably curate, so next time, cause like going through, uhm, we're just a bit lazy this time, so, uh, yeaah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Good one. Actually, I think it's the same guy that I said Ebonhart packed. This opened my eyes a little bit to this one. I thought this was good.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The all-maker is Shor, father of Shor, who's responsible for Mundus, i.e. the land, where live the water, tree, beast, sun, wind, and earth that the Skull love. The adversary is the Anu analog.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At the last, uh, uhm, at the last, he will come as the world devourer, Kay Alduin, and he seeks the ruin of the Skarl, a tribe of humans, by stealing the gift of Mundus. The adversary is...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, the time dragon who for the northman ends the world. But if you actually do match it up, like they're Nordic ancient, especially ancient overview of Akatosh Alduin is the dragon kind of being and Anu being the force behind it. Whereas, you know, all of the skull kind of stuff, the all maker.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So it's actually a pretty good insight. It's something that I think maybe we just haven't, uh, thought about it in that way before, but I feel like that's a very fair point that, that the Allmaker is a padelog, a padome analog as opposed to.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeaah, that's definitely a good take.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, if, if you're a, it's definitely, it's definitely fun, but it's a type of game. Like you gotta be, I like those kinds of like, management-y sort of things. It's, it's not, don't go in expecting Skyrim, but yeah, it's cool. It's cool with that stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Actually, there's another game take, uh, I think Elder Kings, and it's made me remind me of something, but I can't quite put my finger on what I meant to say. Uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, I will say this, some guys like, uh, the series is on borrowed time. If Elder Scrolls 6 does come out, it will decide the fate of the Elder Scrolls 6. It'll either blow us away, save it. And basically what I want to get across, there's heaps of like sentiment about the Elder Scrolls 6, um, being a flop and like, oh, it's gonna like kill the franchise when it comes out because it won't live up to expectations. It's just not, everyone's going to buy it. No one is-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Especially 15 years, there is a whole generation of people that have gone from age like 1 to 15 in the time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's been a gap between this and Elder Scrolls 6. They're gonna have their first Elder Scrolls game be that. They don't care about your Morrow Boomer stuff, your Oblivion Boomer stuff, or your Skyrim Boomer stuff, cause dude.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're a sky room- I'm a sky baby. No, no, no, no, no, no. Dude, you can't be a sky baby and 15 years old. You're like, you can't, you're, it's, it's-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Skyrim is an old game. It's vintage. If you gave it to a kid now, you cannot not call a ten year old game an old game. It's old, dude. Fallout 4 is old, man. It's like, it's like what, seven years old? Like...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But, uh, yeaah, I guess I was just adding to the point, yeaah, the way you talk about it, but it's just like, it's...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's hashtag, haha, XD, I'm quirky. Like, that's him as a danger.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah. There is, there is one more. One more. Um, but, uh, Gartakin says, dark elves are not the best race.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, it's also, I guess, I don't know, maybe it's a further thing than you think about, but there's actually division between like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Technically, like race and culture, like what's it, if you're like evaluating what a race is, like usually like if you look at the biological components, like all of like, you know, what like abilities or things that are unique to it. And therefore I guess the beast races have a big advantage in everything. I don't think you can separate.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But, but yeaah. They're, they're, uh.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, cause it's kind of just Lord of the Rings high elves, and if you don't have the interesting culture stuff, if you do just kind of adapt the Lord of the Rings high elf aesthetic, they do just become Lord of the Rings high elves.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, if you do have to give credit to the, the races or whatever, you know, before, you know what I mean? Like. Maybe if that were the case, then maybe that was, that would have been.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know what? No one does that really in real life either. Like no one's going like, oh, you know, um, you got to give the Yamnaya culture credit because, you know, they like end up spreading all across Western Europe. Like no one thinks about it. They don't care. It's about the later cultures like that come from it. The ones that are like identifiable as a individual kind of thing, you know?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There are a couple of things we can preface, and one is that this Calphex cycle of the Elder Scrolls has been going on for thousands of years.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Gods will come in and out of popular belief. Some will be forgotten entirely, others will just kinda fade away a little bit. Sometimes a culture will drift away from one, like the Nords drifting away from the animal totems towards the more imperialised version.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, the way I see it, which kind of plays into a similar idea, is that Tamriel is the arena, and essentially the gods are the wrestlers in the Royal Rumble.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This year, or this kalpa, this genitus version of Mundus, different gods play a more important role. If Molag Bal was involved in the creation of League, he was an aedra. He was a big part of it, and the reason it was set free was because


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The power balance got a bit too out of control.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah. It's one of those questions you hear a lot is why is there no sea god? And it's like, well, chances are there is or was, but right now they're not powerful or they're not relevant. But yeah, the gods we know and have defined are very limited.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The current history of Tamriel. Which is nothing in the grand scheme.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And also the most intelligent life, being... dregs in a previous kalpa. Dregs have been kind of...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Really torn down and they've been fished almost, you know, not only did they fall from grace from the- from a different kalpa, but they were being fished by the dunmer until they were-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Essentially close to extinction and you don't hear much about them, so perhaps they have a god that we don't know about, but we're not really in contact with them anymore. At the end of the day, it's


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[Assistant] We- everything we know generally comes from the same kind of cult- cultures and their histories and, you know, so an imperial- the imperial library will be full of things from an imperial perspective.


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[Assistant] High Elves with their crystal-like lore, their tower, will be full of their versions of events, and if there's a sea god who's very relevant to say the Sloed or to the Dregs, how much do we really know about those races in this history we have? Not much, and we probably don't know a lot about their worship and things like that too, which could also explain an absence of a sea god.


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[Assistant] I think the idea, cause when we talk about the Elnife Wars, it very much does become a case of, is this what actually happened, or is this kind of a metaphor for what happened?


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[Assistant] So when you have the idea that the angry gods pull sections of the land under the sea, which is why we have the distinct islands that are all separated and the wandering Elnife spread,


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[Assistant] Uhm, the Old Elnife believe in their, their perfect homeland, their utopia of Old Elnife, when it seems, it seems suggested that Old Elnife is just Tamriel.


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[Assistant] I mean, that's almost kind of revenge as well, if you take it all the way back to Anu and Padmai, if you have kind of Anu becoming Anwiel, then Oriel, and Padmai becoming Sifis and Lorcan.


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[Assistant] Lorcan or Shor taking Oriel's wife as his concubine is kind of like revenge for Padme's rejection from Nerni when Anu loved, well sorry, when Nerni loved Anu, they created the world and Padme was sent away essentially and was rejected.


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[Assistant] I also find that she's, in terms of the war between elves and men, which you can then apply to the first era with the Ayleids and the Elysian Rebellion, is that when Elysia is creating this cosmopolitan crossover religion that would become the Eight Divines,


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[Assistant] Dibella is a perfect example of one of the Nordic gods that isn't extremely confrontational and wouldn't really evoke.


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[Assistant] Anger from the alien vessels that she's trying to appease as well. You know, say you were to bring in Sun or Stun or one of the warrior gods, like the people who carried a shield alongside Shor in the battle.


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[Assistant] Yeah, it's like sixteen and a half in a way. You have kind of one split down the middle. Yeah. But yeah, it all, it all kind of doesn't really make sense when you, when you think about it like that. But I mean, something about, this is just pure speculation, but you can also see why the Nords would associate Dabela perhaps with


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[Assistant] The kind of moths, the ancestor moths, the elder scrolls, the somewhat all tied to creation, is that humans very much see


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[Assistant] And it's a very human thing to see Tamriel as all of these things as opposed to a trap.


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[Assistant] Actually, the way it is phrased, the way it's phrased does, I think it specifically says it was the men of Ghee who were being sacrificed by him. Because- It's just a long list of, of Nidic tribes, but then when- Only reason- The men of Ghee are mentioned.


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[Assistant] In a way, it is kind of parallel to, you know, I'm not an expert on ancient history in our own universe by any means, but


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[Assistant] Prior to more, kind of civilized, documented religions, it was very much about stargazing. You know, but before we knew more, when technology was less advanced, it was gazing to the heavens and seeing symbols in the sky. And you could see that very much being the case for these early cultures, before the civilized elves


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[Assistant] And when it comes to Daedric Princes as well, prior to Elysia's covenant with Akatosh, and you can make an argument for the lunar lattice with Azura,


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[Assistant] You have examples, like one example being LeMay Baal and Molag Baal walking on Tamriel as a man.


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[Assistant] Where there wasn't quite so many boundaries stopping the Daedric Princes from coming along and having their impact on mortals. You've also got obviously Boethiah swallowing Trinimac, and it was much more of a free-for-all, and if you've got mainland Tamriel where all of these Nidic settlers have predated the elves coming along,


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[Assistant] And you've got Daedric Princes who can just walk around and influence people however they like, with the Aedra freshly having just committed all their power to creating this world, you can see how Daedra worship would pick up before Elven Aedric influence.


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[Assistant] And even with the aedra, seeing things through a much more cosmopolitan, imperial lens, with the Nordic totems,


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[Assistant] Oftentimes when we see one of these Nordic totem gods become a part of the mainstream eight divine religion, there's a lot of similarities, but it's more just kind of...


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[Assistant] The only difference being that it's been kind of imperialised, which a lot of history is.


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[Assistant] I think one thing that's interesting about that whole point you just brought up is kind of the idea that Daedra worship and the way Daedra manifest is kind of a two-way street. So for example, rather than


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[Assistant] Say in the Khajiit Pantheon, he's kind of just a troublemaker who wants to break through the lattice. But then with the Ayleids,


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[Assistant] There are certain groups who are like, oh, they're embracing, torturing these victims and they're taking a lot of pleasure from it. It's easy for them to palm it off on a god, but then say,


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[Assistant] And there's, there's lore precedent for, for the idea of the Ayleids kind of taking a lot of inspiration from the places they conquer, what with the bird people of, of Cyret, and there's no doubt that that culture would have had a lot of influence on their dress and things like that.


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[Assistant] And I mean the idea of kind of cosmology potentially being picked up by the needs from some Dwemer influence, I don't know if the Dwemer would ever, how much they would be willing to kind of share their secrets with just these savage men running around as well. Perhaps, perhaps not.


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[Assistant] I think the, uhm, I see Michael's checking, but I'm fairly sure the connection in the lore was fairly threadbare because it was a description for an item found in ESO. Is where it comes from, so.