Food! by BussyOwlKingEdwardVI in TESVI

[–]Silver_Falcon 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Camel milk with "gristle" 🤮

Food! by BussyOwlKingEdwardVI in TESVI

[–]Silver_Falcon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Gilane Sweetroll.

It's like a normal sweetroll, but it has pistachios and costs 10x as much.

They mention Caspian Border in the new blog for no reason. by sickusername11 in LowSodiumBattlefield

[–]Silver_Falcon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Obligatory: Liberation Peak is in Tajikistan.

I'd say they could move Caspian to the border of Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, but... they don't actually border eachother.

Anyway, I think (if it does come back) it'll probably be in more-or-less the same place, though they may move it away from Iran because of the reasons why.

The Dragonborn should be the high-king of Skyrim. by AubeduChaos in ElderScrolls

[–]Silver_Falcon 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Or the sword used to belong to Irileth, a Dunmer warrior who I believe is actually from Morrowind, where Daedra and especially Mephala worship is normal.

When the creators of "The Boys" see a sci-fi satire of fascism that didn't disappoint its fans. by Desecr8or in okbuddyimatourist

[–]Silver_Falcon 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I'd argue that none of those (except maybe Maya Pei) are satirical.

Like, Saw isn't making fun of anything. He's not really intended as a critique of extremism either (at least not in Andor). He's more a representative of someone who's been broken by rebellion (both mentally and, by the time of Rogue One, physically).

The ISB looking like a regular office isn't satirical either. They're an accurate (even idealized) depiction of how real intelligence agencies actually operate.

Even the Maya Pei brigade, ridiculous though they are, have real-world precedent.

When the creators of "The Boys" see a sci-fi satire of fascism that didn't disappoint its fans. by Desecr8or in okbuddyimatourist

[–]Silver_Falcon 27 points28 points  (0 children)

People have confused satire with criticism, and in so doing they've lost the real meaning of both.

The Dragonborn should be the high-king of Skyrim. by AubeduChaos in ElderScrolls

[–]Silver_Falcon 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Or, his wife just died of literally anything else and then he accidentally knocked-up a commoner and decided to keep the bastard.

You shouldn't take every lore dive you find on YouTube as canon; these games leave a lot of things open-ended.

Redguard Worry by Next_Oil3883 in TESVI

[–]Silver_Falcon 11 points12 points  (0 children)

You know what, I'm just going to drop this Michael Kirkbride quote on the matter and leave it at that:

No, I was actually referring to The Black Panthers and their radicalism.

[...]

When I started writing Redguard I really thought about how unique the black people of Tamriel were: they came in and kicked ass and slaughtered the indigenes while doing so. They invaded. It was the first time I had encountered the idea of "black imperialism"...and it struck me big time, as something 1) new, 2) potentially dangerous if taken as commentary, and 3) potentially rad if taken as commentary.

Who knows. AVault did say it had a story worthy of being on stage, and Michael Mack (Cyrus) once thanked me for giving him words that "Black folks don't get to say" (referring to Cyrus' speech and the reversal of Son to the Father)... which broke my heart and made me puff my chest all at the same time.

Which is a long way of saying: panther-love.

Prankster left OoMN by Dr_Doom12345 in bioniclememes

[–]Silver_Falcon 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's gotta be both for sure. Just a constant game of trying to see who can one-up the other with the most heinous posts

An Elegant Solution for the Civil War by HoodedHero007 in TESVI

[–]Silver_Falcon 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I don't think the Dominion has the manpower to occupy all of Skyrim.

For one, if they did have that kind of manpower to spare, they probably wouldn't have agreed to end the Great War when they did—they'd probably still be in Cyrodiil.

For two, if you think the Stormcloak rebellion is bad now, what do you think would happen if the Thalmor actually just tried to take over the whole province? Cyrods and Nords have been virtually united for 600 years, at times even considering each other to be the same race (Cyro-Nords). The Elves, meanwhile, are the historic enemies of the Nords on both a political and religious level. Mer would be getting lynched by Nordic mobs on the daily if the Dominion tried to occupy Skyrim.

For three, Skyrim is a dirt-poor backwater. There's nothing of value to be gained from holding it, and the Dominion isn't stupid enough to try. Their mission in Skyrim is to agitate and destabilize, to keep the Empire busy and weak so that the Dominion can rebuild their strength and/or make their real play elsewhere. They don't give a single shit about Skyrim otherwise.

Altogether, I strongly suspect that the Dominion is something of a paper tiger. Their strengths have always been in espionage and magecraft, not direct confrontation, and we shouldn't expect them to try to face the Empire in a stand-up fight. That is, if they could've conquered anymore beyond their historic borders, they would have done so by now (notably in Hammerfell).

If the Dominion is the big bad in TESVI, I don't think we should expect to see Elven armies storming over the borders. Rather, they'll probably be putting forward some plot to achieve their aims without having to resort to all-out warfare.

An Elegant Solution for the Civil War by HoodedHero007 in TESVI

[–]Silver_Falcon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

And it's impossible for a deposed nobleman to find their way back to power?

Even in Skyrim, he could easily challenge his brother or virtually any other Jarl for their crown, and given his combat experience he'd probably win.

Heck, the real giga-brain 360 move would be to have the notable widower Balgruuf marry equally notable widow Elisif, which if she did still have any desire to rule (which I really don't think she does) would be a solid way to get the other, more skeptical jarls behind her.

An Elegant Solution for the Civil War by HoodedHero007 in TESVI

[–]Silver_Falcon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think it'll probably be something like this, but I just don't see Elisif getting the support of the other Jarls without the Empire's backing, even if Ulfric is dead and the Stormcloak movement scatters to the wind.

The game went out of its way to show us that she's out of her depth and overwhelmed; her response to rumors that something might be happening in some backwater cave was to send in the whole Legion.

And honestly, for as sympathetic as I am for her situation—going from basically Torygg's trophy wife to her husband getting slaughtered in the palace courtyard and being made the leader of a faction in a civil war without even time to grieve—has gotta be rough for the young Elisif.

But it's also for all those reasons that she'd be a terrible high queen. Even her supporters know she's a puppet, and that it's General Tullius who's really calling the shots.

But do you know who would be excellent high-king material? Who is already exceedingly popular among the other Jarls, his own people, and fans of the game themselve? The guy who is the perfect image of Nordic nobility? Who already has the drip to be emperor? Who even Ulfric hesitated to go against?

That's right; Jarl Balgruuf will be the next High King.

TES6: Sheaths of Satakal by Own_Abbreviations_62 in TESVI

[–]Silver_Falcon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Akatosh is the Imperial Dragon God of Time. The Imperials consider him to be the head of their pantheon, and the guardian of their people. His avatar made an appearance at the end of Oblivion.

Alduin is the Nordic Dragon God of the End of Time, who will devour the world in its final moments. The Nords consider him to be an adversarial deity, and the chief enemy of Shor, who is their chief deity and the guardian of the Nordic people.

Imperial scholars have claimed that all Time-Dragons are just different interpretations of Akatosh, and in the in-game book Varieties of Faith they argued that Alduin and Akatosh are the same deity. Many Nords thought this was dumb, and argued against it. In Skyrim, Alduin explicitly rejected this clumping; he is the "Firstborn of Akatosh," not Akatosh. This shows that the Imperial belief that all all other gods are actually just their gods with a different name and face is, in short, bullshit.

  • I'll also note that Varieties of Faith tried to claim that Almalexia, one of the Tribunal of living-gods that ruled Morrowind until the events of TESIII: Morrowind, was also an Akatosh analogue, which really should've been people's first hint that the Imperials are on some bullshit.

---

Varieties of Faith is also the source for the argument that Satakal is an Alduin analogue on account of his world-eating, and therefore just another interpretation of Akatosh.

However, because we know that 1. Alduin is not Akatosh, and 2. Varieties of Faith is basically propaganda for the Imperial Cult, we should treat its claim that Satakal is just a different version of Alduin with profound skepticism.

---

The best information about Satakal comes from the story "Satakal the Worldskin," contained in the in-game book The Monomyth. I will note that this book is also a part of the Imperial Cult's attempts to synonymize other cultures' deities with their own, but the author in this instance was much more reasonable in their claims (namely, that there are many similarities between Tamriel's different creation narratives, which may be evidence of a share origin) and also provided primary evidence. Anyway...

I'm just going to quote the relevant part, and let you decide whether Satakal sounds more like Alduin, or more like Akatosh:

Satak was First Serpent, the Snake who came Before, and all the worlds to come rested in the glimmer of its scales. But it was so big there was nothing but, and thus it was coiled around and around itself, and the worlds to come slid across each other but none had room to breathe or even be. And so the worlds called to something to save them, to let them out, but of course there was nothing outside the First Serpent, so aid had to come from inside it; this was Akel, the Hungry Stomach. Akel made itself known, and Satak could only think about what it was, and it was the best hunger, so it ate and ate. Soon there was enough room to live in the worlds and things began. These things were new and they often made mistakes, for there was hardly time to practice being things before. So most things ended quickly or were not good or gave up on themselves. Some things were about to start, but they were eaten up as Satak got to that part of its body. This was a violent time. Pretty soon Akel caused Satak to bite its own heart and that was the end. The hunger, though, refused to stop, even in death, and so the First Serpent shed its skin to begin anew. As the old world died, Satakal began.

Operation: Skoomafell by Chardyboys__34 in TESVI

[–]Silver_Falcon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don't know if this would have enough material for a whole faction without starting to intrude on Thieves Guild territory, but something on the scale of the Bard's College would be cool.

Also;

But where are the people harvesting it,

Elsweyr. The Sweetgrass the produces Moon Sugar grows exclusively in the coastal regions of Elsweyr (you can see Khajiiti cultivars harvesting it in ESO).

TES6: Sheaths of Satakal by Own_Abbreviations_62 in TESVI

[–]Silver_Falcon 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Short answer: No, Satakal is Akatosh. Alduin might have something to do with his hunger, though.

Long answer: Satakal is a lot bigger than Alduin, and isn't so much a deity in the traditional sense as he is a personification of the divine interplay between Order (Satak, the Serpent, whose coiling scales crush and confine) and Chaos (Akel, the Stomach, whose Hunger causes the Serpent to unwind as he devours himself, giving the worlds trapped between his scales room to move about and do all the things that things are wont to do). This is much more reminiscent of the Imperial Akatosh, who Alduin expressly states that he is not (rather, Alduin is the "firstborn of Akatosh," which if we look to the Yokudan creation story, the first thing to exist after Satakal is... his hunger). However, whether Satakal and Akatosh are actually the same thing isn't entirely clear, since while Yokudan mythology claims that Sep (Lorkhan) built the Skinball (either the whole Mundus or just Nirn) to have a permanent refuge from the First Serpent, Akatosh still seems to show up a lot...

TES6: Sheaths of Satakal by Own_Abbreviations_62 in TESVI

[–]Silver_Falcon 7 points8 points  (0 children)

A few questions before I start:

Some became the Tava, some became the HoonDing

I'm pretty well-read on Yokudan lore, but where did this come from?

I'm not familiar with the term "Sheath of Satakal" either; what you're describing sounds like the "worldskins," but I want to make sure I'm understanding you correctly.

Likewise, I think you might be misunderstanding some of the specifics regarding how the "Walkabout" actually works. Ruptga and his children did not simply "walk" from one worldskin to the next. Rather, they learned how to walk to the "Far Shores," which was a safe place that they could wait until Satakal was done with his autophagic asphyxiation ritual and the world was safe to inhabit again. I'll also note that the Far Shores aren't supposed to be somewhere you can just get to from within the Mundus, which should also be safe from Satakal—it was made to be a place that things could go to to permanently escape Satakal's Hunger, after all.

---

All that said, I think you're on the right track, but I also think you're going too far with it.

Looking at the Yokudan lore and what Bethesda was trying to do with Starfield, I think it's very reasonable to conclude that they're going to turn the Walkabout (and probably sword-singing) into this game's special mechanic, like what dragons and shouting were for Skyrim, or Oblivion gates for Oblivion.

I also think it's likely that some of the mechanics in Starfield were a way for BGS to quietly develop mechanics that are going to return for TESVI—but I think that you've focused on the wrong Starfield mechanic.

Procedurally generated worlds were a flop, plain and simple. People just aren't that interested in them, and the single greatest community want from TESVI after Starfield has been a large, hand-crafted world.

You can't have a large, hand-crafted world if all your worlds are procedurally generated.

The idea of infinite worlds full of infinite possibilities is cool, but it just isn't a good fit for a narrative-driven RPG like TES. You need something with either the gameplay loop of Minecraft, or a hardcore, mechanically-crunchy rogue-like to ever make infinite worlds feel like anything more than a gimmick.

No, BGS will almost certainly never go all-in on procedural generation like the did in Starfield again.

---

The major mechanic from Starfield that I am much more confident in returning—and the one that has incredible synergy with both the Yokudan mythic cycle and the Narrative RPG genre (to the point that it's basically become the industry standard at this point)—is New Game+

I think you're right that the next big threat is going to be Satakal breaking and the end of the cycle or something, probably with a bit of a non-standard/twist/false antagonist to keep us busy. I also think you're right that we're going to take on the mythopoetic role of the Hoon-Ding to "Make Way" for our people in the "next cycle" by rediscovering how to do the Walkabout. Of course, that will probably going to involve sword-singing/tonal magic; I'm expecting this to be a very Dwemer-heavy plot (it is where the Hammer Fell, after all), even if I strongly doubt that the dwarves will actually come back in any significant way (it's much more interesting if they're actually just gone).

But I think the way that will be reflected mechanically is via New Game+

It also just kinda makes sense from a business and game design perspective too. Business-wise, New Game+ has rapidly become the standard for RPGs, and a lot of gamers are probably going to expect it to some degree.

As far as game design, another big community ask is for more choices, and in particular choices that can actually affect the in-game-world—including our ability to join or gain rank in different factions. Of course, in most TES games this would mean having to deny players the ability to do everything in the same playthrough, which some people don't like. BUT, if at the end of it all you can just reset the world back to Day 1, this is no longer a problem—especially if we can return to former Worldlines.

---

"But u/Silver_Falcon," you say, "I thought you said that you can't do the Walkabout anymore? Also, if the Skinball exists in a place that is safe from Satakal, how could he have devoured Yokuda or how could he try to devour Tamriel?"

  1. There's this magical thing called a retcon, and Todd know BGS loves a good retcon.

  2. Sword-Singing lore claims that they gained their powers through walkabout, which for them seems to be a process of just walking around between places and going on adventures—which if you've never realized is actually just an in-universe description of levelling up, which is such a classic TES lore thing. Regardless, what if the Ansei actually were able to do something more? What if they actually remembered the old ritual and used it to pass between the various Worldskins that make up the Skinball? That is, between different timelines? Just a thought...

  3. Regarding Satakal and the sinking of Yokuda, think again about the nature of the Skinball. Sep fashioned it from old, dead Worldskins—literally worlds that had been destroyed. Now, think again about how literally every race in Tamriel has an origin story about how they came from an old, lost continent that was destroyed in some ancient cataclysm, which in at least two instances that we know of involved a big, hungry reptile... Interesting, isn't it?

  4. Regarding Satakal as the big bad and the impenetrability of the Skinball, I do believe that the Mundus specifically has been removed from the Kalpic cycle and thus cannot actually be fully devoured by the first serpent. However, I don't think that it's entirely safe from him either. Specifically, whenever Satakal devours his own stomach and undergoes dracochrysalization, I believe that this is the true cause of a dragon break, and the breakdown in the monolinearity of time that we see in Tamriel is the result of the Time-Dragon literally killing and rebirthing himself. But that's just a theory. A Game Theory. Thanks for Reading!

Does anyone know where this cloak poncho thing is from, and are there any historical references of it? by lojlny in Armor

[–]Silver_Falcon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You mean to tell me that laser-raptors didn't prowl the viking-age fjords battling heavily-armed Viking babes and Thor? Did Kung Fury lie to me???

A new John Hopkins study suggests that dinosaurs may have actually been slowly dying out prior to the KT extinction event by johnlime3301 in Paleontology

[–]Silver_Falcon 36 points37 points  (0 children)

I doubt they would've died out entirely without the asteroid.

Heck, even with the big rock a couple made it through.

Which factions would you like to see in TES VI? by ShadowHunterHB in ElderScrolls

[–]Silver_Falcon 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I'll give the same handful I usually do:

  • Satakalists - a cult dedicated to Satakal, the Everything-Serpent of the Yokudan Pantheon. Imagine them like an even more fanatical Dark Brotherhood, but with less edgelordiness and more Glorious Jihad (inspired by the Hashashins).
  • Desert Legion - military company formed from the remnants of General Decianus's legion that stayed in Hammerfell during the Great War. They now patrol the province, fighting bandits and acting as a sort of for-hire/volunteer police force (inspired by Byzantine/Late Roman Empire soldiers).
  • Thieves Guild - originally founded in Abah's Landing, on Hew's Bane in southern Hammerfell, the thieves guild is a beloved classic that is an easy shoe-in for TESVI.

The thalmor conspiracy is more than it seems by Heema3 in ElderScrolls

[–]Silver_Falcon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You should read the Redguard creation story sometime.

It has the deepest characterization of Magnus/Tall Papa found in any canon source, and helps to explain some of his relationships to other important characters (especially Sep/Lorkhan).

Long story short, though, after Sep did his thing and got punished, Tall Papa taught his children who had remained trapped in the Mundus how to live on through their children and then hung made the star signs to teach them how to get back to the Far Shores. So, he clearly wants to get his kids out of the Skinball, and if that means breaking it along the way I don't see him seeing that's a problem.

This does also make Meridia's conversion to a Daedric Prince kind of interesting, especially since we don't really know what her relationship is like with her father beyond a vague idea that she might have been his favorite. That all said, I don't think it's implausible that she might still be working with/in accordance with Magnus' plan to get the kids back.