[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And there was need fights with, um, Kaima, I'm pretty sure. Yeah. In there as well. But, but like overall, like needs most places, except maybe the Duraki needs, um, were pretty much under the thumb of some kind of elf, or they were just,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's interesting too, like even the whole reason for the Kymer and Dwemer, um, teaming up is only to fight off the Nordic oppression that like, you know, that had taken over their, um, taken over Rezdain. So it's like if the Nords were never there for that to happen, like I doubt the Dwemer or Kymer would have ever


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Got along, because they're so like, you know, absolutely opposed on either ends of their philosophy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I think people definitely overstate the power of the Dwemer. Like they, the Dwemer and the Kymer together got stomped over all over by the Nords. Like some barbarians come up, just start shouting and stuff and throwing axes and they, you know, take over your whole land.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I definitely think it's a Dwemer overstated thing. I think with the Dwemer. Yeah, just because people like go like they make out that the Dwemer are like, you know, can just fix everything and they're like time traveling everything and just doing like basically kind of the way they talk about them is like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cause the one thing to remember for the Dwemer and so on is like, people like these, all the tonal architecture was done with all of like, you know, big machines and engineering and all this kind of stuff. It's not just like magical powers click, because if that were the case, then they could just do everything and just take over everywhere and have no problems. It's that thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, but armies aren't more so much about martial, like, like necessarily the individual is way, like there's so many variables.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, yeah, alright, but I think, look, it's just that it's in the lore that the Dwemer get stomped all over. Yeah, yeah. And that they have to, so I'm sort of like, they were very clearly powerful, it's just that you've gotta like, reign it in. That's why I think the lore is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But then they got their, um, and allied with the Elysians and so on and sort of, that's why I guess why they didn't, they liberated the Elysian, helped liberate them, not conquer them. Yeah. You know what I mean?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But yeaah, I think, I definitely think, but, but still nords are also, I guess, underrated in times, like especially, I can, I can,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We talk all the time about it, but in the 36 Lessons of Vivek, some of the descriptions of the, what they call the Demon Chieftains, uhm, in there are really, really cool and mythological, and it makes the Thuums sound so much more otherworldly and dangerous, like they're not just running around going Fus Ro Dah, it's like there's


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, there's Ho'aga who's like eating mouthfuls of mud and then churning it into like these like thrall kind of armies and so on or there's like, you know, talking about them, how they're just uplifting height and you know, blowing entire villages into the sea and stuff and like, it just sounds really otherworldly and epic rather than, you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But let's, uh, bring it back to the noise. Like, I feel like we can...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, so we can walk it forward a little bit, and it's hard to, like later descendants of Ysgramor, they're at the first, like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But uhm, I think it's King Harald, I think it is, who wipes out the last of the dragon cult and so on, and I think that's uhm, I might actually have to pull up the timeline. Uhm, but it's pretty early.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, pretty early on. Yeah, the attack for us. So 140 and that's even before like the Elysian. So the dragon cult is basically eliminated or very fringe before.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Even the Elysian Slave Rebellion. So in terms of like your, like, understanding the timeline, Dragon Cult stuff is like Murethic era and early, early first era, like, like first hundred years, if not before, you know? So it's kind of like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, at that time, at this time, they're very much, I guess, the ancient Nordic pantheon is what you could expect as they go on. And obviously they go, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Time goes on a bit, they help the Elysian rebellion and I'm pretty sure this happens underneath.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, the Skyrim Conquest, so Vraga the Gifted. He is the Nord who basically, uhm, you know, he's the High King, he's one of the descendants of Isgrimor. He basically, uh, conquers all of Resdain and High Rock and northern parts of Cyril and everything. He spreads his domain massively.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, so it's one of the hence why it's called the gifted.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, uh, then he helps the Elysian rebellion get started. Um, well, not get started, but be successful. And, uh, yeah, so then then we end up with, you know, what they call the Nordic Empire, but it is kind of still like a kingdom. Like they didn't have an emperor. They just had their like king.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But, uh, yeah, so that was, uh, quite big, but then we keep going a little bit more.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And we get to the Elysian order and the rise of the Elysian order in the Elysian Empire, which is that zealous, crazy,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hold there. Anyway, we've talked about them before, so you understand it, but they basically take over the empire. They, they start enforcing a lot of these Elysian doctrines. They're really strict. I'm very anti-elven, but this actually proves to be


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, kind of a fun, uh, not a fun idea, but a well-liked idea amongst a lot of Nords with all the Anti-Elven sentiment, and particularly King Borgus, the 13th in the line of his Cremor decides that he wants to adopt the Elysian faith.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, and he breathes, so obviously he induces the Elysian faith to, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That is has been reduced with the war of succession in between the end of the reign of King Borgas who died in the wild hunt.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I should have said that before, but yeaah. Sorry, let's, let's just walk it back a little bit. But so he was siding with the Elysians and he went down to Cyrodiil and he's like, yeah, let's take over Valenwood with them. But preemptively it seems that the Bosmer used the wild hunt to eliminate King Borgas.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And this left a power vacuum because they couldn't properly elect.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So then there was the Skyrim War of Succession and because of this civil war that was happening,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That is what allowed, uhm, some of, that allowed, what's what allowed the First Council, the Chimer and the Dwemer to team up and actually push them out because they were dealing with Strife already, uhm, the Nords were.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, then basically you get the crumbling of the, of the Nordic Empire throughout the Skyrim, uh, War of Succession, and then you're left with roughly, more or less, what Skyrim is today, and that's kinda how it remains for, you know, more, pretty much the rest of...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Until till now, like they never really get that big empire back. Uhm, maybe it was just in his grimoire's blood, you know, like it was only those kings could do it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I, I, if I'm, hope I'm not wrong, I'm pretty sure Juergen Windcaller, uh, uh, unless I'm wrong, I just, I'm pretty sure he is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh no, no, sorry, it is in the pocket guide of the first edition. My bad.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, Skyrim edition, but it's interesting that he doesn't really have, uh, like any specific date of when he was around. Because he would have-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, so it's when it would have been like proper round 700 then, like the actual battle of Red Mountain when the Norns supposedly, you know, you have like Dagoth and depending on the Wolfarth stories, they say like, you know, Dagoth came and convinced them to come and try and take, take back Shor's heart.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One addition though, it's in the first pocket guide to the Empire edition. It says, basically, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, maybe it's not, I don't know. Maybe the Greybeards are just powerful sort of things. But what I'm saying is it sort of seems like the voice could have been around in the third era and so on at that time, but I feel like it's kind of retconned.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, but like, I mean, I wouldn't mind it. Like I would, I would think it's a little bit, uh, cooler because remember also pre pre.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Skyrim, the actual game, there was no lore about Dragonborn being like sucking up dragon souls and using the voice super well and so on. It was always this sort of like meditative, like learn it, like this power within kind of thing. Uhm, so it would have been a whole different skillset. Uhm, it could have been cool, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, where did we leave off? So yeaah, so the Nords are driven out of Morrowind. They're back, they're tiny little...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Empire, and then they have, you know, they sort of join various empires at different times. I know they come under Riemann, uhm, they then later come under Tiber Septim.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's not a lot- I guess one thing we should actually bring up culturally maybe, perhaps. The various times.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, that Eastern Skyrim is generally more conservative and, you know, stay true


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I think a lot of this, to be honest, is just geography. You've got Solitude, which is a massive port for the, for the North. They're right next to High Rock. They're also like, you know, places like Folk Wreath and Whiterun. They're all, um, you know, important trading posts and like connected sort of by land and trade routes to, to Collovia.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So you can imagine a lot more of a sort of cosmopolitan influence, whereas if you look at places like Winterhold, Windhelm, Dawnstar, a lot more secluded, a lot more harsh land.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The other thing about the East too is that the East is basically the bulwark against the Dunmer and have been, and so they've been fighting. So there's this constant tension and conflict there, which can keep them, you know, very traditional, very screw the elves kind of attitude, um, as well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, but that, that's, that's sort of like, we see that kind of dynamic reflected all the way up until now when we have the Stormcloaks and the, um, Imperial-backed. Yarls.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, well we could talk about like, so in terms of just general culture, we can start talking about just like, obviously their aesthetic is very like, uh, Viking, you know, Scandinavian Viking kind of things or, you know, little bits of, uh, what do they call like the, the kingdoms of,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, Rus, Rus, R-U-S, you know, I'm talking about Russia basically, ancient Russia when you had that. Um, but those kinds of parts of it have sort of been, um, removed over time and they're just more straightforward Scandinavian kind of Vikings. They even, but even the older lore, so I had a little bit of like, you know,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Kinda like, uh, Celtic elements and so on in there as well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is something that, you know, they say that uh, nords in their culture have been


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's what a lot of people, a lot of critiques of Skyrim is, is that a lot of the nords act, it's just kind of like, you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hollywood Vikings, but they're just kind of like us. They make Stan Slay, but it's like where are all the...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But it's a fantasy world, like, it's like, why not have it in the fantasy world that talks about it, like, let's have the mythology, you know, the actual, you know, cool stuff actually be there rather than it being watered down, because then it's like, oh, realism within it, because it's like, oh, of course he didn't actually do X, Y, Z. Is that actually a comment?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A lot of mythological texts, um, you know, I know 36 Lessons of Verk has other like shade on it, but you know, plenty of these mythical sort of things described in the books and the law. I said like, of course that's not the real way it went down because you know, it has to be like our real world where people's ancient ideas of myths or the world was


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, the reason Mount Olympus, all this kind of whatever stuff, like any other mythology, we go like, oh yeah, it's not real because you know, science XYZ practical, like we can't replicate it, see it, but applying that kind of.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But that's what I'm sort of saying is like reducing things to, to this, like to, you know, the simplest kind of courses or so on and like, you know, debunking superstition and all that kind of stuff is something that's very practical in our.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Exactly, they're applying like the, and I think that's what sucks, even a lot of fantasy stuff can do it, is they apply real world sensibilities, real world economics, and like, sorry, what I mean, real world, I mean like modern, now contemporary stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What, by contemporary modern standards, they're distasteful, you know, uhm, attitudes, but they're really interesting because they're alien and different and unique and they come from such, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They, they come from a different context and a different time. Like how, if you go back in time in our own history, really early humans do some really whack shit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they think it's real, like they're not going, oh, I'm doing this funny stuff. It's like, no, they think if I eat these horses nuts, I'm going to get superpowers or something like that. And then everyone around them also believes that. And then, then, you know, placebo, placebo.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I can't remember, but it kind of been like crazy big. It was described as a settlement, but then it's also a decent looking city, but then they also had obviously had some clearly powerful kind of.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] By the way, which is another thing we can talk about their culture, but obviously a lot of their, uh, architecture is also made of, um, wood, but they're quite the good architects in the way that like Isgramor's palace, um, you know, stands for a long, long time. Although I'm pretty sure that might've been knocked and rebuilt. I'm not sure, but a lot of their wooden structures are really resilient and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Almost otherworldly, like look at Dragon's Reach, it's been around for, for ages and it's a lot of wood, uhm, using it's construction or you can look at the boats like, you know, Yorvaska, the Home of the Companions, you know, you could, this is the thing where it's like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's a, uh, that's supposedly the boat, the Yorvaska, that came over with the 500 companions, flipped upside down and turned into a longhouse. People can cast shade on that, because, pff, nah, that's just a lie, and so on and so forth, but in this world, they, they literally came, and with 500 companions,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Why genocide at an entire race? Like, is it really so unbelievable that their boat's really strong? Or durable?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, one thing we haven't covered, uhm, actually, and it's probably the place we really should talk about, but it is the Nordic pantheon. Like, we don't need to talk about the Imperial one that they worship today, we know that. But, uh, does anyone else want to talk about that?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I guess another important part of that dynamic just real quick is that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, he sure is known in their mythology as the dead chieftain of the gods. He died in their mythology and that's why he's in Sovngarde and he's gathering souls in his hall and Kine is known as the widow and that's of sure. And Kine actually becomes like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like she is basically the head of their pantheon, um, because Shor's, you know, God of the underworld has gone. Like the current one that they would, you know, pray to or they want for power or something is kind. And that's why her importance with the breath and storm and yada yada.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, and she quite literally created them in the amythology as well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well that's the thing too, what's cool is that a lot of the- and that's why he guards the whalebone bridge, uhm, because he's also dead. But uhm, you have a lot of these, uh, these gods are sort of evolutions of the old totemic religion. So, you know, you have Shor being the fox, Kain being the, uhm, the eagle.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was gonna say, oh, that's another interesting thing, just to throw out there. As you know about the imperialized defines, most of them are a mixture of


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, you know, there's Kai and Kina, both have Mara, etc. But, uh, Dibella is a human god, seemingly, or an Atmorin god. It seems to have come down with, uhm, the Nords.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which is just an interesting sort of, it's funny, but like the, I know when you think Nords, you think like, oh, big burly barbarians and so on, but a lot of their gods, their most important gods are female as well, like, and play a really important part.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And Mara is also known as the handmaiden of kine and concubine of shore, which is another, and that's the kind of thing where it's example, like those gods kind of imply that perhaps there is like a polyamory sort of situation for like powerful chieftains have multiple, like have a wife and like concubines and so on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Something you never really see in, in, they just kind of like act, the Yarls act exactly like the Counts of Oblivion.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So they're very imperial and they're sort of outside of just some trappings.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And if anything, as we talked about how like Shaw or Lorcan is the head of their pantheon, Alduin is how they understood Akatosh and he is the


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The antagonist of their entire pantheon, he's the, he's the world eater, he's going to come and bring essentially their equivalent of Ragnarok, this is what the


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But uhm, I kind of like his old interpretation of just the...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The harbinger of the end, but less like a, you know, I'm king of the dragons and I'm gonna dominate y'all.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then we also have, uh, Orky, which is a complicated one, like the most typical idea is you could go like- Malachath kind of. Yea, like- And RK. And RK. To an extent.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But there's Zenitha, um, I've seen that, but I think it's a bit of a weak comparison outside of that. Oh, well, what's the equivalent of that? Pretty much. And, but, but then Orky would fulfill like the sort of RK kind of part. Um.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, well he brought back the ghost of Alduin who then ate the children down, uh, ate the Nords down to children.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He is a lone god for the Nords. Does that mean like lone, like, you know how people have a, you know, like Romans had a lone god, like they would loan, like gods would be loaned from the Egyptians or someone. They would adopt new gods. Is that what it's saying or is it literally?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cause that would sh- you could interpret it two ways. You could be like, oh, he's a god of like, loans and debts and stuff like that. Or you could be, it's like a god that has been adopted from another culture.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I mean, I can't see any connection to- Oh sorry, it makes sense. Who seemed to have taken up his worship during Aldmeri rule of Atmora. So it seems like it's actually an Aldmeri god that has been introduced to them, which also explains why, you know, RK is part of their-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, pantheon. I think that only, to be honest, I wonder how much orc-y is connected to the orcs. Hmm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, cause I'm pretty sure Morlock, as in Malacath, is identified separately in their mythology too, in the Wulfarth story from Orky too. So I wonder why it combines aspects of both.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Maybe it's just the throwing the age onto the nearby orcs part. Complex stuff, eh?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I love the, uh, god of kno- him being god of knowledge and hermetic orders, which sort of implies like the more like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Philosophical kind of like, you know, actually like hermeticism. So it's like, it's interesting that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It makes the ancient clever man because it's usually like Junel fell out of favor, but you know, mages used to be respected by ancient, um, nords and the clever man, but it makes it seem a little bit more like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Philosophical and like, you know, enlightened state kind of magic related rather than just like, ACADEMIA! Nyeh!


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That was just ma- no, that was just majors in general. I think majors still were.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Smeared them a little bit, you know what I mean? Like, um, you know, cause, cause you have essentially what a powerful like mages, like each of the dragon priests and so on. And they could have had a negative association.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But to Thor, I guess they would distinguish it differently, you know what I mean? Like one of them they find like an innate, like sort of meditative power that...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know what I mean? It's given to them from a kind versus like this witchcraft. And I wish they played up that superstitious stuff more than, it's something like in Elder Scrolls 6, if it is in Hammerfell. Like I wanna see those superstitious like red guards and stuff that are really like anti-magic. I don't want to just see the College of Winterhold attitude towards magic. Just, just all, you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know what, they, and you know what, thanks to all this ESO lore too, like they might take it all into account and they might actually make a really sick Elder Scrolls 6, so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I wish, I wish they would kind of go back to about oblivion-ish, maybe even more than, like, I just-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know what I mean? Like I just want realistic sized non paddle sword, non sort of like giant war crafty looking things. I don't know. I always play with like real better shaped weapons or realistic sort of shaped, um, weapon mods and stuff. Here he is at the start of the video.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, cause, cause otherwise you can, you can also just like follow that all the way up to the sort of like, let's have Final Fantasy and World of Warcraft sort of designs, like big giant swords the size of your head and it's just kind of-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, Oblivion for the most part. Oh, like the designs and so on all looked, um, sweet like the signs. Oh, Oblivion had some fat designs. It did have some fat ones, but a lot of their weapons were better shaped and stuff like that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is all, uh, not Nord related, but you guys in the comments also say that you like when we go on tangents and stuff. So we can, we've held back a little bit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But, uh, to be honest, he's actually like, he's one thing, he's, if I could like retcon slash fix Orky, I would. Cause I don't know if he's like perfectly like, he's not like well executed, if you know what I mean? Like he kinda just muddles stuff up and it's like, ooh, mystery, but it's like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not in a good way, kinda like just confusing, if that makes sense? Yeah. I don't know if you guys agree or not.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, but what I'm saying is you could keep the stories and fix the God, like, is what I'm saying. Like everything confusing about him isn't the good bits. It's just the sort of shade thrown over him. But, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I think, uh, the problem with discussing Nords is it's like, I feel like we can kind of say a lot of things to you guys and it's just like, they have yarls and then it's like, you know, you've played Skyrim, like you've, you've kind of experienced it, uh, first hand.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, like, I mean, you can kind of have, you know, the whole worship of Talos anyway, I guess, if you want to get into complicated stuff where you have, like, Wolfarth is a component of Talos, so the old Izmir that they would, you know, revere so much, uhm, is the new Izmir to them, is Talos, and, but, you know, whatever.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's uh, yeaah. I mean Nords are definitely one of those, it's funny cause sometimes they can feel rather plain but then there's some really cool stuff in there but they can't, uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You can't have the Elder Scrolls without them because they are like the most, one of the


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What if, what if, basically I guess you'd go like, what if Isgrimorr never came? Like what if they just stayed in Atmorr and so they're basically the, you know, the Nords never come afterwards and, um.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because it would be an interesting thing because you'd only have needs and I guess, you know, you would still work that theoretical on with the, let's just say the inevitability of Yakuda sinking and the Red Guards coming still. So it would just be a different, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I feel like with all like, you know, with the Morrow House and the Pact of Akatosh and Pelinal White Strike, I feel like it's feasible. You could still have the Elysian Rebellion be successful, but you could do to like a differing degree and then maybe, or maybe instead the war isn't some like, you know, over in a year or two or whatever it was. Instead, it's like a prolonged thing, you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's interesting things, but would Perlinal have been there without the Nords? And this is an interesting thing because there's


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Did he come over with them perhaps even because you know how is this the whole thing with Pellan and Whitestrake being other characters like Hans the Fox and Harold Harry Breaks or whatever it was and like he's got different, you know, identities as previous kings and he would just make kingdoms and then leave and so on. But like was this all happening?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As him being like, do you know what I mean, like, is his essence or him, and especially since he's connected to like, you know, as like a Shezzerine or like related to Shaw slash Lorkhan, which is a very like, add moron thing, like maybe he did come over with, not, at first, like he could have been the Harold Harry Breaks in which, by the way, I just want to find that out, uhm, hold on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The one reason I bring that up and him being a thing that sort of came over with Yetmorens is, so, two of his, uh, oh shit, I just lost. Uh, yeaah, so uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's claimed he had other names as an immortal sorcerer king, such as Izmir, which is a very a Nordic at morning sounding thing. Harold Hairy Briggs, which I, which is very clearly a nod to, you know, the stories at Ragnar, Lothbrok, Lothbrok being like shaggy breeches or something, basically like hairy pants or whatever.


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[Assistant] Um, and then also Hans the Fox, but like these are all sort of, you know, like they would sound like names of nords and stuff that you meet, um, and so on. And, you know, between when he shows up as Pellan or Whitestrake and when Isgrimor first arrived, it's like minimum 700 years.


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[Assistant] You know, so it could have been more and that's plenty of time for him to come over, raise kingdoms and fall and so on.


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[Assistant] Yeah, but like that's what makes me think is, is like, well, if Isgrimmar never came and sort of that, you know, energy never showed up. I'll say this if Shazam.


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[Assistant] I was gonna say, like, even the Reachmen and so on, I wonder how they're, if they would even...


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[Assistant] I guess they call him Lork. But yea, the dominant also, you would, I guess you would never have Shizar. No, not without a north. Because, because Shizar was just a compromise, so. At least you would have just.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeaah, but like, Lore can't, sorry, Shor never really comes into their, they never really know who he is. Yeaah. Right? Because then they're just worshipping the elven gods like they worship. So then it's just men for, like, worshipping elven gods, and it'd be interesting, you'd never have Akatosh because, unless they got strong, you could still maybe, but.


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[Assistant] But if you make the argument, if there is no Pelinal, like no Pelinal figure there, and if it is just a Morrow House job, I don't know how far it's gonna get.


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[Assistant] Nice. I think, unless you guys have got anything extra to add, we already talked about the dragon cult a fair bit in the dragons podcast, so hence why we didn't dwell on that part too much, but I feel like we can come back with some more focused conversations on certain things.


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[Assistant] What is up, ladies and gentlemen? Welcome back to Fudge Mop. This is the Elder Scrolls Podcast. I'm Scott, here with Michael and Drew, as always, and today, we are talking about the Lord of Revelry, the Daedric Prince of Lust Perversity.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And unnatural sexual relations. We are talking about sanguine. So which one of you guys would like to start us off with this fellow?


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[Assistant] I think, too, it's kind of part that, that, uh, Bethesda's, well, in the mo- two recent main Elder Scrolls entries.


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[Assistant] His quests have been rather like light-hearted and whimsical, like the whole basically hangover quest of Skyrim, and the oh I'm gonna go to a party and make everyone nude, ooh how scandalous kind of thing, and it's very like light in tone.


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[Assistant] Whereas a lot of the darker natures have been seen in ESO and then also just written into the lore. But obviously some of the darker natures that are implied can't be shown in a lot of these video games. As I talked about, they're pretty like, you know, so it just gets broadly called darker natures, but you know, everything like, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hedonism, debauchery, wild orgies, everything like that, but you can imagine taken to the extreme. I mean, I don't know if you guys are familiar with, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Warhammer 40k, but there's the Slaanesh, the big god demon of pleasure and similar kind of things. You can imagine Slaanesh somewhat as like the actual extreme of what Sanguine is capable of. Like some of the really crazy sort of


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Exactly. Something else- And he doesn't understand moderation. Well, something else that's quite interesting, if people wanted an insight into- uh, for starters, we're gonna start, this is part- he's often referred to as a- in, um, by the Khajiit as a- as a blood god, and we'll get to that in a second, I'll read his description, but even the word sanguine is like a color of blood red. Uhm, and even those like little like kind of-


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[Assistant] Um, symbolic kind of things, but I'll just read this from the Worldly Spirits, but it's like Sangun.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But to give into the flesh. He tries to tempt Khajiit into making their flesh immortal, and this is a prison to all spirits of the Ja Khajiit.


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[Assistant] He, it's more overt, this idea that he's associated with, with, um, blood. And even if you look at the varieties of faith book about, um, the Khajiit specifically, he's called the blood cat, god of death and secret murder. Sanguine's worship is hidden from the cat's eye for, for who can control the urges of blood. But it's kind of, I like, it's almost like, uh,


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[Assistant] And typically, like we sort of said, you'll often just find a lot of it is just like, maybe it's having affairs and drinking and orgies and sort of relatively tame things in the grand scheme of things. But when you read some of the ESO like item descriptions, there's like.


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[Assistant] Potentially be, like, it's there for it. And I think, I sort of imagine Sanguine is constantly excited by the what's next, what are these mortals going to do next to the mortals. Like, he's constantly encouraging you, he's like, yeah, do more, more, more, you know what I mean?


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[Assistant] Um, by the way, just to add, just what I was talking about when I was basically alluding to, uh, bestiality as a, as a potential thing is that there is, in Daggerfall, it's referred to as the Daedric Prince of perversity and unnatural sexual relations directly. And I feel like that is probably what most people think.


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[Assistant] When there is an unnatural kind of thing, I'm sure there's outdated ideas about other kinds of relationships that are normalized now.


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[Assistant] There is, this darker nature isn't just conjecture on our part, it is hinted to constantly, uhm, throughout the, throughout the lore. Even though what you see Sanguinus presented as is rather...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Tame by comparison. It's like, yeah, let's party, you know.


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[Assistant] I also think too, like I can imagine that sacrifice is, is a part of a thing and sort of ritualistic death and getting some sick pleasure out of it. Just the whole blood thing and the whole, even the reference to the Khajiit and so on about like who can, you know,


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[Assistant] Withstands the bloodlust and stuff like that. I just feel like saying what's constant like mention and connection with blood that sacrifices might be a, uhm, important role, uhm, in those kinds of weird perverted sort of rituals.


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[Assistant] To sort of like, you know, basically snuff, you know, like you can kind of imagine that being part of the, part of the thing. And I just think it's important to reiterate so it's not.


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[Assistant] Because I feel like you can get, it's the same thing we sort of said about Sheogorath, is Sheogorath can often get the whimsical cheese kind of treatment, but what's-


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[Assistant] Actually interesting is the contrast of that versus what his potential of an absolutely absolute insanity that they're capable of. Same with sanguine. It's not just, haha, let's have a drink. It's like, it's not beers with the boys. It can go as far as what we talked about.


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[Assistant] Not even the sacrifice of people and stuff wasn't some strange idea, like you can- Look at the Britons, the druids just- Yea, exactly, it's not some insane-


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[Assistant] You know what I mean? It's like outside of a modern context like idea, like we live in a very certain modern society, it's very easy to conceive of how people came about these ideas and so on.


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[Assistant] Well yeaah, he does, he does say he used to worship the Daedra, I don't even know if-


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[Assistant] Yeah, there was an allusion to him being previously like almost like a Daedric cultist at one point because that's how he knows a lot of the Daedric sort of language and stuff and how he can read the Mysterium Xarxes and sort of do all that kind of, that jam. It was just a phase. Yeah, just a phase someone basically, but uhm, yeah.


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[Assistant] It's an interesting connection there to see it as a metaphor for like the kind of, you know, how like all hedonistic kind of things can potentially lead to sort of diminishing returns. Cause you need to keep going higher and higher and higher and higher to get the same kind of high, but you just wilt away and you're mortal.


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[Assistant] body and maybe until you kill yourself in the search of pleasure, you know what I mean?


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[Assistant] There is a little interesting piece from the Imperial Census of Daedra Lords, which is on the Imperial Library, it's written by Michael Kirkbride, so it's technically out of law, but once again, we can talk about it. It says, Sanguine Prince of Hedonism lords over no less than ten times ten thousand pleasure pockets of the Void.


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[Assistant] As revelry and drunken stupor fall under this prince's influence, he has been a favorite of many emperors since the- since the first foundation.


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[Assistant] Records even indicate that he resided in White Gold Tower during the reign of Ream and Cyrodiil and helped in some- in the somewhat dubious craftsmanship of the Crendali festivals, whose vulgarities did little to help the Imperial expansion into Alinor and to the other Somersets. And it's just- it's just kinda interesting, I like-


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[Assistant] Cause you know, like, there's, there's, uh, plenty of times when, um, there were real life Roman emperors and so on that just


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, complete hedonist and completely irresponsible and they just got sucked up in a luxury of it all.


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[Assistant] Uhm, that he kind of like, you know, doing that for the emperors in this and so on. And, and, and the other part to point out there is obviously the 10 times 10,000 pleasure pockets of the void, which is referring to the myriad realms of revelry, which are his Daedric realms, which are just basically these little lots and lots of mini realms, little pockets of


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Certain kinds of pleasures or things or themes, you know, that could be changed at a whim pretty much to suit whoever.


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[Assistant] Yeaah, even uhm, yeaah, it's interesting that it sort of plays on the same.


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[Assistant] Uhm, you're saying like, obviously you're saying customizable, but they, uhm, it's really from the mortal's perspective of kind of what they want to see. And it was saying there's even a, a, a source where it's talking about that Sanguine himself has very little control over them because it's kind of.


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[Assistant] I love some little details too, and this is more so in reference to the Khajiit


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[Assistant] I guess so, it's that kind of thing where it's like, I feel like maybe we have to use the kind of artifact as in like, ultimately comes to down to a, a...


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[Assistant] Uhm, I think, also, it's, we, we've talked before about how, like, obviously, Merlok Bell is the most associated with vampires and then,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's even little bits with Vamina, because she provided the cure. And Clavicus Vile a little bit as well. Yeah, exactly. He also has something. So, just referring back to the Worldly Spirits book about Sengen. So, there are urges of the blood without player input. Teforta Sengen is, uh, sorry, hold on. Where was it? It was...


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[Assistant] Khajiit vampires who, you know, swear by Sangun, um, and so on and sort of functionally worship him and they use blood magic and stuff like that.


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[Assistant] But uhm, perhaps you could kind of, uh, imply from that, that Sanguine might even somehow gift it to them, gift it to them, uhm, or, or, or give some sort of, uh,


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[Assistant] I don't know, do you know what I mean? Like, just saying that they gave them immortality and that's what keeps them trapped.


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[Assistant] And stop them from dying, but I don't know how that ties in with my legbound necessarily, but.


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[Assistant] It's a pretty cool, like, it's a pretty metal kind of thing. Vampires, like, it's so ambitious to try and drink a dragon's blood to get more power.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hmm. You can, um, also, another culture that has, uh, just an interesting, another blood reference too is the alyds, um, refer to sanguine as blood-made pleasure. And you can imagine.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I mean I just mean blood and pleasure are like the two other like noted sort of words.


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[Assistant] And also, look, and also you can assume that uhm, that's the...


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[Assistant] Alad's worship of Daedra and so on and some of the crazy stuff they did like creating all the flesh gardens and, and, um, and whaling wheels have been days or stuff like that. Um, that kind of sick sadistic, you know, getting taught, you know, torturing kids and getting stuff like that. You could imagine sanguine.


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[Assistant] It's, it's, another thing, it's also an interesting distinction to be that Sanguine isn't


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He's not orchestrating it, he's inspiring it, kind of encouraging the letting loose of all inhibitions and just doing what just feels good and so on. So it's kind of like, it's like a...


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[Assistant] It's, it's different to a few of the other Daedric Princes because it's less, it's less directed, but that has the capability to be absolutely cruel.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's a predictable process, he just wants to scale the pleasure and see where people go. He's got like a sort of internal interest or rules almost. Not rules in the most strict sense, I just mean that there's sort of a concrete personality. It's not wild, it's not just literally broken mind.


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[Assistant] Eyes wide shut kind of like secret sort of cult kind of thing under that do or, you know, maybe it's all orgies or whatever. Like they obviously can't show that. They can all be implied and they can have like, you know, all kinds of skimmer and everything around.


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[Assistant] You know, that's obviously the darker sort of hidden thing, this little cult that the nobles partake in, and this big debauchress.


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[Assistant] Um, fantasy of theirs that's aside from, you know, their public display, which is like, oh, we're the noble, you know, noble crowns and we're really pious and they like outlaw drinking for everyone else or something like that. You know what I mean? It would just be one of those cool kind of.


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[Assistant] I don't know, there's, I mean, there's also the, uh, this isn't really, I don't think it's that crazy interesting, but the threads of the web spinner are 27 pieces of enchanted extravagant clothing and jewelry associated with Mephala, but apparently it was, she went to Sanguine, uhm, to create them.


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[Assistant] And you can imagine that like some of them have like speech craft buffs and stuff like that, but I don't think there's anything particularly interesting.


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[Assistant] The only extra thing, it's just one extra little connection between Mephala and Sangun, which is just interesting that, that to the Khajiit, he is associated with like, um, death and murder and stuff and the sort of secret, you know, assassination as opposed to Mephala, which takes a little bit of an altered role.


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[Assistant] Yeah, it's kinda like an imp crossed with a scamp type thing, you know?


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[Assistant] If you look at, I'm actually, I'm personally fond of him being like a little rotund dude, like his shrine in Oblivion, and if you look in Daggerfall, that shows, you can see way more, it looks way more sinister, like this sort of red muscled, stocky fat kind of demon holding a naked woman like this, and he's standing on a skull that


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[Assistant] In modern terms, you could look at it and go like, is that more like Belle's skull? Like it kinda, you know what I mean, like the side horns, but it's probably just some kind of beast or.


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[Assistant] But yea, so I think that's about it. In summary, he can go from like the, you know, I'm just drinking with my buddies kind of thing and like, oh, let's have a wild night.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All the way up to some sort of Warhammer 40k Slaanesh level stuff where there's lots of psychotic perversions going on.


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[Assistant] Depends on the Scovilles. We want, we want proper, we want people to be a little bit upset with your opinion. That's a spicy taste.


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[Assistant] That is a lukewarm take. That's spot on, basically. That is...


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[Assistant] That is exactly why it is the way it is.


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[Assistant] But, but also the more you retcon lore, the more you can't really properly trust any lore from then on. Cause it's like, well, this could just be retconned next. And I dunno, I feel like there's gotta be some consistency.


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[Assistant] I feel like most of them could be chalked up to, ESO as a game only works if we retcon this thing.


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[Assistant] Well if a retcon maybe is just like another historian saying he disagrees with this perception of history, then that's not such a bad thing, but...


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[Assistant] You can almost see the games, it's kind of like when you have a book that's adapted to a TV show, that's adapted to a film series, it's like, well, they're nothing alike, but they kind of all take inspiration from the source material. And you could maybe say that for the games, like Oblivion being so drastically different to Morrowind, Skyrim being different, ESO being its completely own thing.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I guess you just gotta be respectful of the source material, cause it's always gonna evolve, but if you just kind of like spit on the prior lore and completely go another direction, it leaves a sour taste in the mouth of like, older fans.


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[Assistant] I wish you could do what you can do on Reddit where like someone posts a question that's controversial but nobody answers with a controversial take because everybody likes it so it goes to the top so you have to set it by controversial and that's when you get the real


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] ESO can be considered good because it has no competition. It is, for the last ten years, or sorry, last seven years, it's the only Elder Scrolls game.


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[Assistant] I think uhm, most of the criticisms I'd have of ESO isn't even personal towards ESO, it is a criticism I'd levy at just about any MMO. An MMO is such a different style of game that everything that I'd say the three of us and a lot of people who are into The Elder Scrolls, a lot of what draws you in,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Does not work in an MMO nearly as well. You'll never be nearly as immersed in ESO as you will in the other games. And let's be real, I don't think I've done a single quest in ESO.


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[Assistant] Like a slight aside, but I remember I wanted to get footage of...


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[Assistant] Uhm, Azura's statue in ESO, because it's re- it looks really nice. Design-wise, it looks amazing. Uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I went into that cave to try and get footage of it. I should maybe download the PTS or something, but it took me about 45 minutes to get 10 seconds alone with a statue. It's just people running in, not standing in like an immersive, like, oh, you know, in front of the statue, they're like standing on the statue. They've got like,


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[Assistant] So I think, as I said, it's not really necessarily a criticism of ESO as a game, it's kind of a criticism of the MMO format on the Elder Scrolls. That's generally where our problems come from, but it doesn't make it any less of a good game, it's just so vastly different to the initial draw of the Elder Scrolls universe.


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[Assistant] Exactly, yeah. Because, yeah, even with a different team, if ESO wasn't there as a cash cow, you can see there being much more pressure on, hey guys at BGS, we really want another Elder Scrolls game. You know, it's exactly the same situation with GTA as far as I'm concerned.


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[Assistant] There's a reason why there's no GTA 6, it's because GTA Online is a money printer. You know, uhm, even if it's the same developers, you can, you can, yeah, you know, it's a similar situation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I think it's just good lore in general, cause it is a theme of the Elder Scrolls, that there's lots of...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Things from Aetherius and the Orbis and beyond that do kind of seep into the mortal realm. You know, you've got people who are able to ascend or achieve Kim or something like that. You've got figures who may or may not be


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, the games were always going to evolve drastically over time.


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[Assistant] Also, while it's an interesting hypothetical, you have to construct such an elaborate alternative reality that you almost can't possibly compare the way the Elder Scrolls did go with how it could have gone in this guy's kind of like, view of how he wanted it to go. It's like, you know, the games could have been


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think the cool take you can take out of that is that


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[Assistant] Some of the questlines, most specifically the main questline, do a really good job of forcing you into one role. I'd say if you had to distill a popular take out of that, it would be that. But generally speaking, so long as you're capable of suspending your disbelief of ignoring a main quest, which a lot of times roleplaying does involve doing that, then it's not ter- I don't think it's terribly hard.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like, almost all the races, you could say all the races, have really interesting lore, history, background, et cetera, et cetera, but there is something about playing an orc that fits really well to a player character, you know, because they are inherently somewhat outcasts and they have an interesting role in society. They're almost like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They are kind of like the player characters, in a sense, because they don't really fit in meshing well as NPCs.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just like, if you had to think of say an armorer in a city, it's like, you know that orcish armorer is going to have an interesting story because he's kind of had to find a way to fit into the empire and et cetera.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't think, yeaah, I don't think going for a completely different, a completely different art style to what we're used to is, is a good idea. But yeaah, simply playing into differences, like you don't want every elven race to essentially look like a, I don't know, like they all start to look the same as, as the graphics have improved.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think that's a fair way to look at it, like you don't need to implement a drastically different art style, but don't let the fact that you can make photorealistic things that look like


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which, to be fair, I don't think any of the Elder Scrolls games have really done. Like, Oblivion was goofy looking, but it's not like they were trying some bizarre art style, it's just how it kinda came out. Anyway.


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[Assistant] I think 99% of people who take the piss out of Skyrim, which to be fair we do plenty of as well,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, the lore, extract the lore and the setting from Morrowind and give it all of Skyrim's, like, physical mechanics. Not necessarily talking about stats and all of that stuff, but just physical gameplay. That, that's the ideal combination probably. But I have physically played Morrowind.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So this is the monkeys on the typewriter, right? Eventually they'll write Shakespeare.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Plus like having NPCs react negatively to you depending on what you do, there's a lot of work that goes into making NPCs really interactive in that sense. Like it's hard to account for all the potential things that you could do to mess with an NPC or their loved ones or whatever that is hard to execute in terms of development.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I mean, there are elements of it that do make sense because you've got the idea that they've been imperialised over time and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If, if you're kind of going with the idea that the Nords, a lot of the time they, kind of like, you know, um, Norse cultures and Saxon cultures in the real world, you've got a lot of, a lot of their architecture was built out of wood.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It disappears over time, like the ancient stuff, so the ancient Nordic stuff, it does make sense for a lot of it to be hidden away if they've become imperialised. But the idea that they've been kind of holistically imperialised across the whole province doesn't really make sense.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But at the same time, it does, it does tend to transform depending on where they've gone, uhm. But a lot of it not- Because you get variation, yeaah, not totally, you get variations. I mean, this is a really simplistic view, but a bit, if we're specifically talking about the Saxons, as I mentioned before, a big part of what endures is literally just who decides to build out of stone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They are there forever, you don't forget about them, they remain there. I feel like the nords, there should be a lot more surface level accessible to everyone, places of worship to the old gods, rather than them inherently being underground and forgotten about.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh for sure, for sure. There are so many factors about an Elder Scrolls universe compared to a real universe that will drastically change the way cultures evolve and everything, you know, having gods and having magic is gonna make it so vastly different to the real world anyway.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think you should scale your points of interest. Every 30 seconds you shouldn't be coming across a major ruin or something with a huge, you know, like say a Dwemer ruin right next to a Nordic ruin that you can see one from the other. I understand that idea.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But, but you can have environmental storytelling in very simple ways. A point of interest can be finding a couple of dead bodies, a note on the body, and then a, a werewolf nearby that killed them. Exactly. That's about all.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If it's referring to major landmarks, I understand the idea that say you've got a drastically bigger world map.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When you're adventuring for a little while, and then when you finally stumble across a major landmark, like a ruin of an old civilization, that feels like you've had to search for it, as opposed to just going two meters off the road and there it is, but at the same time it's like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Add at least, at least add plenty of other things to do. Don't just have like ten landmarks on the whole map purely because you want scarcity to make those things more interesting because you're kind of shooting yourself in the foot there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I can't remember off the top of my head, but I did look into all of the lore of the characters involved and the leader of the Argonian Shellback group that is essential in the coming together, and then the discussions with Almalexia and whatnot.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The worst things ever happened from that kind of mindset. Obviously you can't take away the fact that he was crucial in turning the tides of that war. Without Parfenax's involvement you wouldn't have won the war, period, and you wouldn't be solving this problem.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean yeaah, that is something to think about. I guess being like, essentially being the right hand man of each god, Oriel versus Lorcan. And then obviously we've had the theory that a lot of what Boethiah does is kind of a love letter to sure Lorcan.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It could be something to think about, but there's not much to go on.


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[Assistant] I mean, when he was initially around, the Daedric Princes came together and cursed him. He could be stopped again. I guess the idea that you've unleashed it maybe is a problem?


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[Assistant] Which, obviously, they're unrelated, but, I mean.


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[Assistant] I think it's important that Daedric Princes are never pro- too well defined. Sorry, I just read something.


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[Assistant] Okay. I think, you know, we've talked about it before, that a lot of what we like about Shagorath is how unpredictable and how he can theoretically be the scariest Daedric Prince when he wants to be.


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[Assistant] But the, the emphasis on his whimsical side, uhm, makes it hard to see him as much more than a happy-go-lucky, kind of skipping-his-fate type of character.


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[Assistant] So to an extent I agree that, like, that is definitely a side of him, but I don't want him to just be that, you know. Like I think-


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[Assistant] Shayegorov is, it's like the Joker, it's like saying, oh, I love, I love Jared Leto. As like, well, Jared Leto is just one way you've seen the Joker.


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[Assistant] You want to see various manifestations of him, not just the one. You don't want him to just be defined by the game.


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[Assistant] But I'm trying to figure out exactly what they mean by the Khajiit being cringe. I mean, there are so many ways you can take it. And I, yea, I don't know, I need to think about that more.


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[Assistant] Yeah, you can almost see Skyrim and, um, and ESO, Khajiit and Argonians as just being the, another mortal race, but with a skin put over it, you know? Like, it's basically identical.


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[Assistant] I held up by really good law. I think playing in any fantasy setting and sci-fi, playing more into, if you've got a beast race, playing into the


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[Assistant] Bestial elements of them is always going to be more interesting, uhm, across the board, you know, like any example I think of, like a book I absolutely adore.


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[Assistant] They're incredibly awkward on land and they're really, really gross to look at.


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[Assistant] And the same with like, you know, the, the Vodginoi, which is kind of like the frog-like creatures. They can kind of only really exist if they're sliding around in a pool of their own sludge. And things like, basically like, if you play into the animal, like you, you personify the animal elements of them, it's much more interesting than taking a human.


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[Assistant] So you work your way up from the beast, not down from the human.


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[Assistant] This is what I'm saying. I think the fun food for thought is how a creature, how a beast race would deal with sapiens. You give them sapiens, you give them that ability, like the idea that a rat, like a creature, like a race of rats, they're going to


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[Assistant] They're gonna conglomerate in massive packs and hygiene is not gonna be very important to them. Things like that. They would manifest rather than necessarily human-like traits on them.


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[Assistant] But obviously once you give them sapiens, the race is gonna change. It's like, Khajiit aren't gonna be doing very cat-like things all the time.


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[Assistant] I'm not a cat person. There are elements, it's like you do have to stretch it a bit, but the idea that during the twilight hours of dusk and dawn, cats for some reason tend to go batshit crazy.


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[Assistant] Since we're on this topic, I think I saw a comment from Swit saying Argonians shouldn't have tits.


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[Assistant] I agree, 100%. I mean, I don't think it's cut and dry. Alright, alright, here we go. So what's the main argument for not, I assume, is because obviously they're not, like, real life reptiles don't.


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[Assistant] Um, as far as I know, uh, you know, like their biology is very different, they lay eggs rather than getting pregnant. Yea, and they go off the saddle. But at the same time, like, the, the...


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[Assistant] There is a quote in the lore that says, it's not confirmed, but one of the theories for how Argonians were created was that they were raised up by the Hist from the Ancestor Lizards because they saw men and elves and wanted to mimic them, their clever hands and walking feet. So if Argonians were designed to mimic


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[Assistant] Humans and elves. Who used to say it wouldn't mimic their torso and their-


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[Assistant] Adapted a lot of human and mortal, like human and elven traits into Argonians. Especially if you use that as an example to give them the different legs and feet versus Morrowind. It's like, you can almost cope with that change by saying the Hiss just chose to adapt them to look like this.


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[Assistant] But yea, I was definitely playing Devil's Advocate with the, with the arcade. Because obviously I do prefer Beast Races to be much more bestial. And not just look mortal. I swear.


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[Assistant] Another fantastic Elder Scrolls game that evolves on previous games and is much more grand and immersive and all of that stuff. You're gonna get all of that no matter what.


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[Assistant] Agree. They're the most fleshed out race, which gives them an advantage.


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[Assistant] I feel like, I feel like I didn't have them low on my list, but I could be forgetting.


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[Assistant] Based on the, like the happenings of the last cycle.


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[Assistant] Yeah. So it's kind of like they're all fighting for, I mean, this is a really weird word to use, but like a market share in the minds of the citizens of Tamriel and all the beings on Nirn. And then at the end of the cycle, whoever's got the most gets more power going forward. Is that, is it kind of what you're saying?


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[Assistant] And they can fight it all out to see who wins in the next iteration.


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[Assistant] I suppose you could also think that some gods who you might think would be popular could get displaced. Like if we're looking at this whole idea of worship creating power, then perhaps in the case of a sea god, you have to think, well, who would worship a sea god? And I guess the first thing that comes to mind is sailors.


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[Assistant] But if another deity such as Kain or Kinnareth kind of, you know, wins in the relevancy battle, and basically because of wins and things like that and nature and such, and so the sea god isn't really needed to be worshipped.


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[Assistant] It's interesting speaking of Dibella that, um, potentially, and this isn't rock solid and I'm sure we'll talk more about the Reachmen later, but there is that Dibella shrine in Skyrim that the Reachmen have kind of


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[Assistant] Decorated slash desecrated, like it's hard, because Reachmen are known to do kind of, you know, by, um, normal standards, gross things. But to them it may not be gross, so there's this statue there and they've covered it in blood and there's like, you know,


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[Assistant] Would that be like Meridia's mom then? Meridia's mother.


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[Assistant] Do you think that it could be, uh, Namira somehow?


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[Assistant] It could be what I feel like, it's just, it's the... Like Namira being associated with, uhm, insects. Slugs. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but also...


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[Assistant] In the way, like, that the Reachmen see, um, Namira as this kind of like lady of life and death more. Um, you know, like think of like maggots eating a corpse and, and, and the cycle of life going on, um, in a different way to the, how other cultures just see Namira as this like god of gross stuff.


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[Assistant] Not having that same kind of like good evil kind of


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[Assistant] Like, uhm, duality, like it has to be this or it has to be this, which is largely something that elves-


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[Assistant] Introduced, you find that a lot of the ancient interpretations of Daedra, or not even necessarily ancient, but just interpretations where they don't have that strong sense of these are the good gods and these are the evil gods, the interpretations of them aren't that evil.


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[Assistant] And I wonder if, or not as evil, you could say. And I wonder if the kind of idea of like, uh, myth-making reality and worship almost shaping the way that a, um, god manifests on Tamriel has something to do with that. Almost like, once you decide, these are the evil gods.


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[Assistant] And then people go and worship them as these more evil and sinister beings. They kind of embrace this new identity and the worship almost empowers that. Whereas you look at cultures like the Khajiit, for example, where, you know, the Daedra they worship aren't as


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[Assistant] You know, sinister in the same ways, or even you go and look at, like we were talking about the Reachman where


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[Assistant] Uhm, Mehrunes Dagon arguably has a stronger focus on like ambition and even just like his kind of sphere of like, uhm, natural disasters and things like that. You can imagine the Reachman praying saying, you know, please don't have a landslide come down and kill us.


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[Assistant] I wouldn't be surprised if the needs were somewhat similar.


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[Assistant] Um, and did worship the Daedra and interpreted them in a similar way to the Reach in that more primal hunter gatherer kind of


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[Assistant] It's possible that the Dwemer, because obviously they love kind of astrology in the sense that they have all their star charts and aurories and, you know, the Dwemer studied planets and stars massively and we know that the Dwemer also had some sort of interaction with needs at some point.


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[Assistant] Do we think that the needs could have gathered any inspiration from finding kind of like lost Dwemer things or any interaction there? Or do you think the Dwemer would have just subjugated them completely and annihilated them as inferior beings?


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[Assistant] Perhaps, perhaps not. I mean, it is interesting too, speaking of kind of like, Nidic Reachman crossover, but even the Reachman actually have something to do, uhm, with constellations, uhm, and stars as well. In the Elder Scrolls Online, you can talk to, uh, a Reachman Arana.


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[Assistant] And she talks about, uhm, using the stars to see the future, basically. They call them SkyTales.


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[Assistant] But, you know, in terms of, there's some- Which Nida group was that? Um, Arana was formerly from the Ghostsong tribe, which has an intimate connection with Namira.


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[Assistant] It's entirely possible- I don't have- I'm not sure which-


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[Assistant] I don't have an item as source here. I've got, uhm, that book that's in Morrowind Oblivion, Skyrim, and Elder Scrolls Online Frontier Conquest and Accommod, uh, and Accommodation, A Social History of Cyrodiil.


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[Assistant] Uhm, yeaah, so that says these so-called Nidic peoples include the Proto-Cyridillians, the ancestors of the Bretons, the Aboriginals of Hammerfell, and perhaps a now-vanished human population of Morrowind. So that's one source.


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[Assistant] It's interesting that they're called house Dwemer too, if you wanted to like, put a little bit of, you know, sprinkle a little bit on that theory.


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[Assistant] Just quickly, to be fair, Topol the pilot didn't travel through Tamriel. Obviously. He traveled around the edges, around the coast. So, I mean, he traveled in to some bays and went to some places, like a bit, but


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[Assistant] Generally speaking, you're not going to be the best source on every race and civilization present at that time in Tamriel. Imagine just traveling around the coast of the world. Imagine traveling the coast of Europe and then trying to


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[Assistant] It makes sense too that when picking kind of what the cursed elf would look like, you know, with the whole Trinimac becoming Malacath thing.


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[Assistant] The Daedric Prince responsible has some kind of subject matter. Like, you know, oh, this is like this like kind of gross creature that we use as slaves on the island. You're gonna kinda look like them.


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[Assistant] Yeah, there's rea- there's a lot of conflicting sources on the snow elves, like I just think it's like, rioters not considering, like, the full depth of the lore. Like, I- I- I may be wrong, but doesn't Gelobor kind of say, like,


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[Assistant] Um, we've always been at war with the Nords or something like that, whereas the books kind of say, oh, they existed peacefully, everything was cool. And then there was, you know, the night of tears and the betrayal and, and, you know, they were mad at each other. Like I've just heard different things.


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[Assistant] No, no, no, I was just gonna, I was gonna try and get us on, on the topic of just talking about some gods and some more obscure ancient gods. I mean, we can, I mean, you can't, it's not, it's not particularly interesting, but the Skarl, obviously, with their worship of the Allmaker, uhm, that feels very ancient.


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[Assistant] The adversary can kind of have multiple, um, like aspects. Like there are things that are like Tharstag, uh, or Thartag, the world devourer, is an aspect of the adversary the Scar believe will come about. Essentially sounds like Alduin.


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[Assistant] The children smiled great smiles and asked the Abba for a big gob of honey from the fat mother.


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[Assistant] Well, speaking of the end of the world, there is one tale that we haven't mentioned and I really just have to mention it because we're talking about ancient gods and needs and things like that.


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[Assistant] But there is this whole thing about an event known as the Autumn of Snakes, which according to a bunch of Nidic texts was when hundreds of snakes the size of mammoths come out of the ground and just basically eat whole towns and


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[Assistant] Basically destroy everything until this Aeneidic hero, this spear maiden named Ranev the coal-eyed wonderer comes and, you know, basically stops it.


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[Assistant] Uhm, there's all these stories, they all describe it in the same kind of meticulous detail. In The Oldest Girls Online, there's scholars who obviously think that it's a rubbish story, uhm, and, and obviously point out that just because this story is widespread doesn't mean it's true, but


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[Assistant] Probably multiple connections too, but interestingly if Hircine was like a- I know it's female, but if Hircine was like a god of, um, needs as he was a god- a chief god of the Reachman pantheon,


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[Assistant] That was almost like a, either an incun- like an aspect of her scene or, or something like that. It's quite interesting.


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[Assistant] It's interesting, uh, Ranev, the hero of that story actually has more to her.


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[Assistant] And it says, uh, at the end of one of her tales, it says the virtues of the stars started singing inside her and she pledged to uphold these words until she died. After this time, she was called Ranev, the favorite of the stars. So there's even more ties to kind of like, celestial, uhm, type things.


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[Assistant] It's interesting when you read a book about Ranev called the Raneviad Volume 2.


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[Assistant] Uhm, there's a lot of kind of like strong warrior associations there, like singing a warrior hymn and meditating in front of this kind of shrine before going out on this pilgrimage where she has to seek six virtues of the stars, uhm, that are carved in stone.


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[Assistant] And basically at each site, and I mean, you could tie this to her scene, um, and, and the hunt and the hunter, but you could also tie it to.


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[Assistant] Uhm, older and more ancient interpretations of kine as we see in Skyrim where there's kine sacred trials and you have to go and slay these creatures to prove yourself.


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[Assistant] It's such an ancient thing. I mean, even, even you look at the centaurs who are considered to be true followers of the old ways. Weapon of choice? Spear.


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[Assistant] Like, as their main thing, but they still consider them, I suppose, gods. Although it is interesting, if you look at the old school-


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[Assistant] Uh, ancient Khajiit kind of stuff with Daedra, it kind of matches, uhm, a bit with the Reachmen and their religion in the sense that they don't venerate these Daedra in a traditional way, like I know Boethra is one that the Khajiit kind of, they just


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[Assistant] You do it. You don't worship it. You, you live that kind of, you live those values. Uh, you walk that path and that's kind of your way of venerating them. You don't grovel on your knees.


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[Assistant] There is, I feel like we could just speculate on, on gods all day long. But I suppose we will always have more podcast episodes to, to talk about the gods. So thank you everyone for, for tuning into this episode. I'm pretty sure it's time to wrap it up.


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[Assistant] Uh, we have social media links down in the description for anyone interested in following us on Twitter. Uh, you can get a awesome Fudge Muppet t-shirt by clicking our merch lin- uh, linch. How merch link, if you desire. And we look forward to nerding out with you again very soon.


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[Assistant] Even that is so controversial, just getting to the bottom of their true motives. The Dawn era. Mhm. Well, I- I- Where do you start? I guess you start with Mankar Cameron, right? Or do you start with Merian Stagon and what he's all about?


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[Assistant] I think that's actually an important distinction you can make early on, is that Meryn Stegons has no shortage of devout followers, and over the history of Tamriel, there are plenty of cultists who see revolution and ambition and the idea of overthrowing what the current hierarchy and wherever they happen to be as a very glamorous idea.


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[Assistant] It very much simplifies what Mehrunes Dagon's truly about, and I think Mankar Cameron is the first one to properly grasp that by reading the Mysterium's arxies.


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[Assistant] Well, without going too deep into Merrian's Dagon, that is one kind of important thing, is that you've got this kind of mythical story of how he was created, so that in an adjacent place, kind of a different version of a mortal realm, you have this land called Lig, where


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[Assistant] The Dread Kings were tyrants and they ruled the oceans and Molag Bal was one of the main chieftains, if not the foremost chieftain and you know, he's all about domination, enslavement and there's no room for


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[Assistant] There's no room for anything but his control. There's, you know, there's no balance of power. So the Magnege, who would have been involved in creating League, you know, to an extent the way they were with Tamriel,


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[Assistant] They thought we need to do something about this, so they created a god.


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[Assistant] You know, it's not just about taking over for the sake of getting a new person in power. It's, it's, it's, it's always there to act as a limitation on how much you can gain total control.


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[Assistant] One thing Mankar, um, commentated on about Meryn Stagon with League is that


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[Assistant] The, the hope and the overthrowing of the powerful, uhm, class, the Dread Kings.


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[Assistant] It went so far beyond that, because after that was done, the idea is that Merry and Stegon looked upon the gods and saw them as too powerful. So, what resulted was the slaves rising up and not just toppling the Dread Kings, but also undoing the world. It's like there's no way


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[Assistant] For there to not be tyranny in a land like this, so we might as well rip it to shreds and unmake it altogether.


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[Assistant] I don't know if this is a real cult, or if this was just in The Simpsons, but you know how there's the idea that there was this cult who they would get taken away in a spaceship at the end of the world? Or whatever, like it's a really old episode.


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[Assistant] I feel like, yeaah, cause I don't know if it's like Jones sells, I don't really know, but uhm, essentially it seems like Paradise is like, yeaah, we spark this invasion on Tamriel, Meryn's Dagon does what he does best, we kind of, him and his Daedra Horde unmake Tamriel or destroy Tamriel entirely, and they go to Paradise.


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[Assistant] Yeah, well it is kind of a fundamental difference is that a Daedra by, you know, mortal definitions


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[Assistant] ...can meddle with Nern and Tamriel without really having any skin in the game. Whereas, you know, the Aedra having the fact that the realm exists and the fact that it continues to exist is a direct result of their contributed power and they have a vested interest in maintaining its...


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[Assistant] You know, the status quo and keeping it, keeping it going or at least keeping the cycle going.


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[Assistant] For sure. I mean, the simple fact that a Daedric realm is an extension of the prince or the ruler of that realm


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[Assistant] Inherently makes it a bit more predictable and, and one, and yeah, one note, because it's like the fact that Mundus is a collaborative effort for starters means that despite Lorkhan being the kind of architect of this or, you know, the, the creator of this realm, uhm,


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[Assistant] It, it can continue to exist without his constant involvement. And then you obviously have factors like a direct connection to aetherius is something that no other Daedric realm can, can boast, you know, like having a son, a real, the real son.


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[Assistant] That's only, uh, Mundus that can have that, and there- there are so many things about it that, yeah, unlike a Daedric realm, which traditionally, it's just whatever the Daedric prince decides, it's so different on Mundus, so yeah, it is chaotic.


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[Assistant] It's no more a realm of oblivion than it is, uh, uh, as part of a furious. It is, it is a bit of a-


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[Assistant] And you could even make the argument that that was his intent all along, is that he had to die in order for this world to exist. You know, it was, it's kind of pivotal to the sphere for him not to be alive and influencing the realm. He's like doomed to fail every time. Yeah. If that makes sense.


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[Assistant] You've got a charismatic leader who, you know, he's basically the perfect cult leader, Mankar Cameron, you know, and he'll say a lot that sounds really, really intriguing and, and well, yeah, we want this, but you kind of have to really read between the lines to see what he's actually getting at and then, and then you're already too deep at that point.


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[Assistant] That's an interesting thing about if you- if we really tackle the commentaries and what he seems to be getting at with a lot of it, you know, like even just ignoring the-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, Tamriel being a Daedric realm of Lorcan, if we ignore that stuff.


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[Assistant] You know, there's a lot of talk of uhm, it's, it's something that is quite important in The Older Scrolls, but it doesn't get brought up much of the idea of Nymix. I think it was more important in the older games, but you have like,


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[Assistant] But it seems that Mankar Cameron, in reading the Mysterium Xarxes, gained access to the ability to kind of...


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[Assistant] Forget his protonymic and be reborn with his neonymic. So there's the idea that he wrote the commentaries during the time of Tiber Septim, so late second era. Uhm, but then there's also a story of him being born during the, the tyranny of, uhm, the Cameron usurper, which is further into the third era, so like 300 years apart.


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[Assistant] This mention of being reborn kind of works with that, but it's also unusual because if I can, if I can find what he says, uhm,


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[Assistant] Yeah, cause he says the secret of how mortals become makers and makers back to mortals. So it almost seems like in learning this he kind of


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Reading from the Mysterium's arxies and then, you know, traveling through the desert of rust and wounds and coming back being able to speak fire and obviously you can wear the amulet of kings and things like that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] His name is nowhere near as catchy as like, Maren Stagon though, his true name. Yeaah.


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[Assistant] I mean, in a way that is the manifestation of the kind of tyranny that Mankhal talks about in the commentaries when he talks about with Lig, you have, you know, uh, Meryn Stegon looked at the gods after he looked at the Dread Kings and said these gods are too powerful, and if you have


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[Assistant] Akatoshu, even though, you know, despite being committed to the realm and not, you know, not really hearing from him.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Akatosh directly thwarts, you know, at least two world-ending events.


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[Assistant] And maybe it's kind of the good guys who are like, well no, they're too powerful in being able to keep this going. The cycle is natural, we need it to happen. We need Meirin's Dagon right now, you know? Like the- the World Eater was supposed to eat the world back in the first era. That didn't happen. It's finally time for it to happen, but- Akatosh keeps getting in the way of it.


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[Assistant] When you subscribe to the idea that the Old Merry Dominion and the Falmore are secretly trying to destroy the world to return to Aetherius, if you buy into that, then indirect, or I guess you could say directly, but uhm, Meryn's Dagon with the Oblivion Crisis set that in motion.


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[Assistant] Um, so in a way he may end up doing what was initially planned and the mythic dawn would succeed.


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[Assistant] He's a bit petrified. Yeah, that's been, that's been happening to us a little bit. I think, uh, too much lore. Yeah, Mankal's trying to silence us from paradise.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In the aftermath of the Oblivion Crisis, you had vigilante groups spawn out of that to make sure the Mythic Dawn doesn't come back in any established capacity. One example being the Keepers of the Razor, who were the ones who split it up and kept it apart to make sure that no one would have that power again.


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[Assistant] Some people like to celebrate failure. I mean, you've got like, Guy Fawkes night, for example, the plot to blow up parliament, and it fails miserably, they get tortured and killed, and we celebrate it every year, at least in England.


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[Assistant] Yeah, because there are cults, you know, we talked about this ages ago, but there are cults that are similar to the Mythic Dawn, like in ESO, the Waking Flame cult, who were involved with his kind of, the more recent DLC of another Dagon invasion. But, uhm, beyond worshipping him and, you know, uhm, wanting him to


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[Assistant] Help them topple Tamriel's politics and just kind of essentially destroy the world. Aside from that there's not really many similarities.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So there's not a whole lot to say on them, honestly. It was kind of just an excuse to have Dagon back in the game. Daddy Dagon. Yeah, don't say that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think we can probably all agree that voice protagonist is at the top of the list, right?


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[Assistant] I think they have explicitly said they wouldn't, but you never know.


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[Assistant] The idea of voice protagonists, they're not gonna do it, but realistically, it's not completely out of the question because just comparing Dunmer voices from Morrowind to say, like, the progression of Dunmer voices but then the way you hear them in ESO,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They're essentially just, they turned to posh British, a lot of them did. So it's kind of like, uhm, if they can do that to a race with a really distinct voice, then it's feasible that every race could just have fairly bog-standing voices.


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[Assistant] Yeah, just have a slightly more bestial, a slightly deeper one for certain elves. You know, kinda have- they could do that, but they-


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[Assistant] I think RPG players do have the ability, like a strong ability to suspend their disbelief with certain things, like if you're playing ESO and you are the protagonist of this story and there's millions of people running, like literally sprinting past you faster than the speed of light because they've specked into it or whatever.


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[Assistant] It's easy to work around that, but working around a voice delivering all the thoughts you've had in a way that you didn't quite imagine it can really detract from that experience, and we know that.


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[Assistant] Somewhat from making Fallout builds as much as we loved making Fallout builds. It was really annoying coming up with a crazy character who, you know, who's completely insane but sounds just completely like, you know, who has this same voice.


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[Assistant] That's another thing about the way they decide to design the narrative because a big part of Elder Scrolls games, and you can argue the earlier Fallout games as well,


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[Assistant] Is that the story can be extremely well written, but your role in it plays such a big difference. Like if you're just a courier, you can really, you can get yourself into that situation, roleplay just about anything, and still be relevant to the plot. Whereas Fallout 4 being the perfect example.


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[Assistant] You are so intertwined in the narrative they've written that you really can't have much of an impact on that. You have to be the main antagonist's father. Uhm, and things like that, you kind of, it really does pigeonhole you, and it seemed like they were going for a story driven game, but not in the way that works with RPGs. Yeah. Especially their RPGs.


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[Assistant] That is the essential part of it. I think you can still have a very impactful storyline, but just-


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[Assistant] Learn to escalate the stakes at the appropriate time. The stakes are escalated right at the beginning of the Dragonborn storyline, and they stay escalated until the end.


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[Assistant] Whereas there are plenty of examples, you know, I'd even use The Witcher 3 as an example where the kind of catastrophic world-ending stuff is very much towards the end, so you've had a chance to explore the entire world and be who you want to be first, even though you're obviously Geralt.


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[Assistant] That's pretty much exactly what I was gonna say. The problem with being the chosen one is it's lose-lose because if you're a chosen one, it feels wrong if you go somewhere and people don't kind of acknowledge that this is the grand hero because you are.


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[Assistant] But then at the same time it detracts from your ability to properly immerse yourself in a guild or a certain questline or whatever because


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[Assistant] I feel like there's a perfect middle ground because my problem with the absence of map markers is that unless you're just constantly reciting the instructions in your head, you do just keep checking the map. Um, whereas it makes total sense if


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The, say the first time you are given directions to do something, if you open up your map and you identify the location, you see it, once you've identified it on the map, then the quest marker is there, then the map marker is there, you know, because it's like your character internally has discovered this location, you don't need to be checking the journal every two minutes.


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[Assistant] It's like the game series doesn't do itself justice, because...


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[Assistant] There is so much love and effort put into making all of these races so incredibly unique with their distinct cultures, distinct histories, distinct relationships. If we name any two races, we could go on for an hour about their relationship. Yet, in the games, or like more recently at least, it seems like


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[Assistant] It makes sense they kinda have to do that because everybody is playing a very similar role. Obviously I know there are like skill sets and things that are more racially focused, which is a good thing ESO does, but I mean in terms of like interactions in the world and all of that stuff, they could really go in on that with Elder Scrolls 6 and add replayability by doing so.


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[Assistant] That's the thing, it's almost like in Skyrim, uhm, they'd be a bit scared that if you chose to play a Khajiit or an Argonian, oh, we can't lock them off from having all of these, you know, all of this footwear that we've specially designed for your character to have, but it's a thing we talk about a lot, that it's just


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[Assistant] But there are so many things that you can leave out of one playthrough to have it another time. This might be a small thing but it would be nice.


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[Assistant] I feel like you almost want it so that in the BGS office they all just gather around, but instead of like lighting candles and starting a ritual they all gather around the computer and send off an email to Kirk Bryant and he can like