UESPWiki:Podcast/2 13

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Prev: Episode 12 Season 2, Episode 13.
2020/08/03		 Next: Episode 14

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Lore - A is for Altmer

Welcome to the UESPodcast! Join your host Pylawn with guests Alarra and Avron as we discuss the latest news and start a new segment where we dig deep into the lore of the Elder Scrolls, starting with the Altmer.

Twitch: VOD • Youtube: VOD • Anchor: Audio

Show Notes

Roster[edit]

Host:

Guests:

News[edit]

UESP:[edit]

    • Making changes!
      • New Format
      • New Schedule
      • New Lore!
        • It’s actually really old Lore

ESO:[edit]

  • The Summerset Celebration continues until Tuesday, August 4, at 10:00AM EDT. (Tomorrow morning.)  You’ll receive extra loot from all daily quest rewards, resource nodes, world, trial, delve bosses, and Psijic Portals. The first time you complete an Abyssal Geyser, delve, world boss daily quest, or the Cloudrest Trial weekly quest each day, you’ll earn a Glorious Summerset Coffer in addition to your regular rewards.
    • These reward boxes can contain all kinds of valuable items, including set items, crafting materials, furnishing recipes, and pages of the brand-new Snowhawk Mage outfit style!
    • You’ll get a regular Summerset Coffer if you continue doing those events. https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/58487
  • Note that in the build of ESO currently on the Public Test Server, Leads for Antiquity Motifs have been “adjusted” so that only one will drop from any particular source. Currently, two motif Leads drop together.
    • Players who are interested in such things might want to consider farming the currently-available Antiquity Motifs.
  • GUYS THE INDRIKS ARE FINALLY ENDING DOES THIS COUNT! From the PTS patch notes and the Witches Festival: “Lastly, we introduce our final indrik morph for 2020 (and perhaps for all time), the Crimson Indrik. The first two berries are available on the Impresario for 10 Event Tickets each. What new morphing treasures are coming in 2021? You'll have to wait and see!” FINALLY.
  • Crown Store
  • QuakeCon At Home - August 7-9 (this weekend).  Various streams for ESO, including one with voice actors Jennifer Hale (Lyris Titanborn) and Robbie Daymond (Fennorian).  Full list can be found here: https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/58551   Watch any of the streams to get a QuakeCon Twitch Drop, which includes the Flame Atronach Pony pet and an Ouroboros Crown Crate.

Legends:[edit]

Blades:[edit]

Call to Arms:[edit]

Other:[edit]

Supporters[edit]

Patreon:[edit]

  • Katiuskas

Twitch Subs:

  • Damnerd5
  • JoeBranz
  • DaveGhoul

iTunes:

Wiki:

Scholarly Pursuits[edit]

I will ask our guests what they have been working on in the world of TES! This can be game play, wiki work, discord things, anything relevant to UESP/TES that you’ve been working on the past couple weeks / when you were last on the show.

  • Pylawn
    • Changing up of some of the Format!
      • More Lore
      • Less people per episode
      • Give us your feedback!
    • I’ve become too addicted to Morrowind again.
      • I’ve made an Argonian who is 37th descendant of Rumpelguarskin
      • So far he has arrived in Seyda Neen and began exploring around.
      • He met a shady character named Fargoth and helped a Nord get some money owed to him.
      • He then left to go to Balmora by order of the Emperor, but on the way he pillaged a bandit hideout, An ancestral tomb, and ran into a bandit who he was forced to kill and take his armor.
  • Alarra
    • Enjoying the Summerset event
  • Avron
    • I GOT FLAWLESS CONQUEROR, AWWWYEAH!
    • Also I started replaying Skyrim. Go me.

Topic: An Altmer Primer[edit]

Brief Description

  • https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Altmer
  • The Altmer, are a tall, golden-skinned race, hailing from Summerset Isle. They are also known as High Elves by the denizens of Tamriel. In the Empire, "High" is often understood to mean proud or snobbish, and as the Altmer generally personify these characteristics, the "lesser races" generally resent them. Altmer live two to three times as long as humans; with a 200-year-old Altmer being old and a 300-year-old Altmer being very, very old. Altmer consider themselves to be the most civilized culture of Tamriel; the common tongue of the continent is based on Altmer speech and writing, and most of the Empire's arts, crafts, laws, and sciences are derived from Altmer traditions.
  • Gameplay wise they’re the most strongly gifted in the arcane arts of all the races, and they are very resistant to diseases. However, they are also somewhat vulnerable to magicka, fire, frost, and shock, which makes them very weak against their strongest point - magic. They are among the longest living and most intelligent races of Tamriel, and they often become powerful magic users due to both their magical affinity and the many years they may devote to their studies.

Creation - Q: So where do the High Elves come from?

  • Altmer typically consider themselves to be the “closest” to their ancestors, the Aldmer, who came from the mythical land of Aldmeris. (Super original, yes?) It’s believed they usually prefer these physical similarities in themselves, hence the ideas/rumors of “selective breeding.” (This might check out for the Fourth Era Aldmeri Dominion and its Thalmor. Finding Altmer with non-blonde hair in Skyrim is pretty rare.)
  • The Anuad claims that the lost homeland “Aldmeris” was in fact just Tamriel. A war between the two main factions of Ehlnofey, the common ancestors of Man and Mer, destroyed the Old Ehlnofey realm, with the ruins becoming the Tamriel we are familiar with. https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:The_Annotated_Anuad
  • The other elves, which also come from the Aldmer, pretty much left Summerset due to some differences in social ideas. So, the Altmer are the result of stickin’ to their guns. (See ya later, Velothi!)
  • The origin myths of all Elves except for the Chimer and Ayleids draw the Aldmer idea into question. The Bosmer believe they were formed from primordial ooze in their current form. There are multiple records of Orcs already inhabiting Tamriel before expeditions from Summerset began. The Dwemer and Falmer have no clear confirmed connection to the Aldmer.
    • The Psijic Order, while culturally opposed to mainstream Altmeri society, still mainly draws members from the Altmer population. This is a minor detail however, at only 47 members initiates were accepted over the course of ~1,000 years prior to Fourth Era.

Culture - Q: What is High Elf Society Like?

  • Historically pretty isolated from Tamriel, given that they live on a chain of islands. This also leads to some wild ideas about what they’re like. Bug towers, anyone?
  • Fairly Xenophobic for the majority of their existence
    • Only opened to outsiders briefly in the 2nd Era as far as we know. During the Third Era the Island was open to all outsiders.
    • (Although this is debatable. There’s a lot of xenophobic Altmer factions even in 2E, and Summerset dialogue suggests a lot of opposition to Ayrenn’s order.)
  • Very strict and rule-based. They literally have a book about how to eat dinner. It’s pretty intense.   All Altmer get a “calian” sphere at eighteen years of age which is a representation of their honor and standing in Altmer society; if they commit a grave offense it’s shattered and they’re referred to as “apraxic” and they have to work hard to regain their status.
  • Obsessed with perfection. Those born with physical deformities are referred to as “hulkynd”, or “broken child”, and are socially expected to be abandoned by their parents.
    • The Empire claimed in the Pocket Guide to the Empire, 1st Edition that nine out of ten Altmer babies are killed due to perceived imperfections. They also claim that exile from Summerset to the mainland was equivalent to a death sentence in their eyes.
    • An Altmer exile called “The Mother of Rats” claimed that a single forged patent of lineage caused a violent conflict that claimed the lives of 43 Altmeri nobles before it was traced back to her, resulting in her exile.
  • Very family and ancestor-oriented. Altmer names are pretty much a laundry list of who they’re related to and what their family clan is.
  • Their society is controlled by a rigid caste system. “At the top are the Wise, teachers and priests, followed by Artists, Princes, Warriors, Landowners, Merchants, and Workers.”
  • Slaves, like the goblin populations they forced into bondage, form the very lowest ranks of their caste system.
  • Following the conquest of the Summerset Isles, the Altmer people spent much of the Third Era adrift, culturally. Traditionally Altmer dissidents would migrate to the mainland, but the newly emboldened youth strove for genuine social reform, a first in Altmeri history.
  • The Thalmor are a prominent organization throughout the recorded history of the Altmer. Starting as an obscure council focused on preserving Altmeri heritage, Queen Ayrenn would turn them into the executive arm of the newly formed Aldmeri Dominion. While Ayrenn’s Dominion would not last long, the Thalmor would endure. The Second Dominion would see the Altmer invade and occupy Valenwood, and install the Thalmor as the provisional government in 2E 830. The Second Dominion would fall to conquest during the Tiber Wars. The Thalmor would reemerge as a political faction towards the end of the Third Era. They would overthrow the Altmeri Monarchy in 4E 22, and in 4E 29 declared a Third Dominion after conquering Valenwood once more.

Religion - Q: Who do the Altmer Worship?

Interesting Tidbits - Q: Favourite lore of the Altmer

  • There are exactly 223 disciplines within the Sapiarchs, with only one Sapiarch dedicated to each field. Some examples: Professor of Applied Phrenology (this one cracks me up), Sapiarch of Current Chronologies, Sapiarch of Foreign Observations, Master of Psychocartography, Sapiarch of Arcanology, Sapiarch of Artifice, Sapiarch of Aquatic Malevolence, Assistant Sapiarch of Altmeri Heritage, Sapiarch of Apparel Analysis, Sapiarch of Zoological Studies, Sapiarch of Oceanic Occurrences, Sapiarch of Oblivion Studies… You get the idea.
    • It’s implied the Altmer of the Summerset Isle consider Altmer of the other 13 islands in the province to be a little “backwater.”
  • Originally we were going to start the AD on the Summerset Isle, and there were some great ideas there lore-wise! For example, the quest notes there indicated that the Altmer possess a type of noise-related magical system that is used to keep the Maormer at bay, as they’re pretty big enemies. Not quite tonal magic a la the Dwemer, but still pretty cool. (Also, does this mean the Maormer are SUPER fishy?)
  • Altmer have perfect memory, according to the lorebook “The Price of Praxis”
  • Lots of fun contraband items in ESO, like gold leaf bandages and “Guide to Approved Methods of Procreation”
  • The Altmer consider the number 8 to be auspicious
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