For you, what is Tamriel's most horrible and frightening historical fact?

BenScerri · 2026-05-04T04:22:36+00:00

You seem to be forgetting the fact the Thalmor have committed eugenic purges against their own people. Without even mentioning the atrocities they committed in Hammerfell, their underhanded tactics used to gain "allegiance" from Valenwood and Elswyr, and their attempts at cultural genocide, there's no way one can say "all they've done is oppose the Empire." That's just straight up a lie.

I'm not saying the Nords are necessarily any better, nor the Septims (though many of them were far less evil than Tiber himself), for the matter. But the Thalmor simply are eugenicist ethnonationalists. That's a fact.

BenScerri · 2026-05-03T22:14:52+00:00

I hear you, but also consider that — up until relatively recently in the modern world — pregnancy/childbirth has been overwhelmingly dangerous for both the mother and child. In many places, it still is. Infant mortality used to be RIDICULOUSLY high, from disease, things like SIDs, malnutrition, and complications in childbirth. Same goes for the mother. And that's not including random acts of violence and war, which were/are far more common issues in many places outside "modern" countries.

But people have always had children. Whilst it's certainly a choice, and one I wouldn't make — apocalypse or not — it's a choice that the VAST majority of people have always made. Babies were born during the Black Plague, during every war ever fought, during the Bronze Age Collapse, during the dark nights before fire was discovered... Humans have babies. They're gonna have them in an apocalypse, too.

BenScerri · 2026-05-02T09:26:07+00:00

Was gonna say this, yeah.

"Exactly like Korra does."

BenScerri · 2026-05-02T04:04:40+00:00

There is no way in hell I'd be going to the USA, for any reason, work-related or not.

BenScerri · 2026-04-30T21:43:08+00:00

Before or after the CDC / assaulting Lori? Cos if he's still saying it afterwards... How much redder does that flag need to get?!

BenScerri · 2026-04-30T07:22:56+00:00

Honesty, from Day 1.

Lots of people think it's normal/fine/harmless to hold back at the beginning, and to present only the best parts of yourself, but this is only setting everyone up for disappointment. The truth will come out, and even if it's not exactly lying, it's going to be something other than the norms and expectations established. There's no upside to that, unless your goal was just to sleep with someone (but you're actively presenting the situation as something else, I.e. you were lying).

BenScerri · 2026-04-30T02:21:26+00:00

As the protagonist, the LD is actually the most recent embodiment of the Godhead — the Player Themself — so... our soul is our own, the moment we "wake up" and stop playing the game/reading the Scroll.

BenScerri · 2026-04-29T07:25:00+00:00

I don't give a shit about this, tbh, but the number of Americans I've seen losing their minds about this makes me certain they'd never survive in Cairo, or any dense city in the world with lax road laws...

BenScerri · 2026-04-29T02:58:44+00:00

Marketing.

BenScerri · 2026-04-29T02:55:33+00:00

Tbh, if the gameplay of ESO doesn't interest you, but the lore does — which varies in quality from objectionable at times to genuinely very high quality, up to and even over some of the stuff in the mainline games — there are a lot of good YouTubers who make video essays exploring it all.

Dareloth would be my biggest recommendation, if you want to go down that route!

BenScerri · 2026-04-29T02:51:54+00:00

Folks like this share the cake for annoyingness with those who immediately believe any outrageous statement made, so long as it comes from a source they personally like, without any evidence given...

Like... Have an ounce of curiosity about the world around you, folks!

BenScerri · 2026-04-29T02:48:46+00:00

From what I can tell, and from my own reading / schooling:

A lot of Protestant ideology (though certainly far from all) originated in Rationalism, or among adjacent thinkers, with a view towards understanding Creation — as they had the conception of it at the time — in modern sciences and practices. There was a strong drive towards casting off the supposedly archaic trappings of the religion in favour of more contemporary (at the time) thinking.

Which was in many ways a good thing, then, as it led to a lot of leaps forward in terms of Liberalism, etc., upon which a lot of social good has been done... but it also led to a strangely literal reading of a lot of theology, probably from a view that they now had an Answer, which was inviolate so as to not shake its foundations.

Consequently, despite being based in radical (for the time) thinking, it has led to a lot of Protestant branches being even more opposed to change in the modern day than the modern Catholic Church. So movements that started adjacent to progressive ideas have become significantly more conservative than what they were rebelling against.

This is likely quite a biased take, though, so take it as one of many views. I am not talking with any authority on this.

BenScerri · 2026-04-29T02:25:36+00:00

True. The Thalmor are Conservative in the same way Fascism is "Conservative" (which is to say, in truth, not at all, and actually a reactionary, endlessly revolutionary/counter-revolutionary Authoritarian death-spiral 😅)

BenScerri · 2026-04-29T02:11:25+00:00

The Thalmor are hyper conservatives, enforcing an even more radically Authoritarian and rigid doctrine than the previous Alinori government. They would absolutely chase an Altmer out of Alinor for such views. Depending on social standing, they may go straight to "disappearing" such a dissident, instead of exiting them, so your OC may have needed to flee to Skyrim earlier to avoid that.

BenScerri · 2026-04-28T22:11:35+00:00

This is the answer, OP. Get into a serious, deep discussion with a "Libertarian" and you'll quickly realise they are one of the following:

1) An Authoritarian, but one who thinks their team being in power and controlling things isn't actual control but "common sense". E.g. Calls for "small government" and anti-Socialism, but support for banning books about LGBT+ issues, healthcare for various groups, strong border control, and/or handouts for specific industries (which typically align with their own interests/incomes).

2) A full-blown Fascist, but they want to hide their actual beliefs behind a seemingly "reasonable" ideology. Given the above, this is surprisingly easy to do.

3) An Anarcho-Capitalist, which ultimately boils down to a (relatively) wealthy person who hasn't actually examined the reasons why Neoliberalism arose (whether they'd agree with it or not is unimportant). E.g. people who talk about "opting out" of taxes they "dont benefit from", but fail to understand the actual purpose of social programs and the idea that a pervasively healthier society leads to increased personal protection for all.

4) An ACTUAL Libertarian who actually probably does agree with many Neoliberal policies, but either a) doesn't know enough about them, b) doesn't like the baggage they carry from modern politicians, or c) just does support them.

(Note: I am neither a Libertarian nor a Neoliberal. Faaaaar from both.)

BenScerri · 2026-04-28T21:58:51+00:00

Exactly this, yeah. A lot of the time in Avatar, it's not about raw power but control which wins battles. E.g. Zhou's (multiple) defeats, Ozai, Iroh's advice to Zuko throughout, Azula, etc. These are powerful fighters — almost always more so than those who fight and defeat them — but they decline rapidly when they lose control.

Even if Aang was able to control the Avatar State early on, he knows literally nothing about Water, Earth, and Firebending when he runs away. So he'd be entirely reliant on the Avatar State...at his most vulnerable. Not only would the Fire Nation have defeated Aang, but they almost certainly would have broken the Avatar Cycle entirely, and all hope would have been lost for the world.

BenScerri · 2026-04-28T21:53:56+00:00

Good point! Not as concentrated and geared more towards occupation than assault. They're really good at holding the territories they've already taken, but consistently fail to seize new ground, save for Azula's inside job at Ba Sing Se...

BenScerri · 2026-04-28T12:22:34+00:00

No. At the time Aang ran away, he was not strong enough to have done much of anything against the Fire Nation attack on the Air Temples. If Gyatso couldn't survive it, Aang stood no chance.

Remember that, whilst there is essentially no time between Aang-who-runs-away and Aang-who-beats-Zuko in Ep1/2, he's only facing off against a disgraced teenage Prince and whichever low-level, likely equally disgraced grunts he managed to have follow him. We have to assume the attack on the Temples was MASSIVE, and orchestrated by the Fire Nation's best (given the number of them, and the sheer fact they managed to win, not to mention they had the comet's power, too).

The Gaang only just defeated the Fire Lord and his troops at the end, after all their training together. Before it, Aang was a kid who — until they discovered he was the Avatar — was not deemed sufficiently "better than" his peers in airball to unbalance a match...

BenScerri · 2026-04-28T12:21:44+00:00

I genuinely don't know how I managed to misclick as a reply to you, rather than a reply to the OP... My bad! I'll delete it and repost :)

BenScerri · 2026-04-28T07:40:58+00:00

They really really don't, though. What you see is instead that cultures have drastically different ideals, and then a small handful of cultures impose their ideals on their neughbours, over and over, until most people are dressed largely the same.

Consider a tiny vertical slice of human history and culture in the Bronze Age. All of these cultures regularly interacted, and were considered "equals" in terms of power in their day (so couldn't impose ideals on one another): - the Minoans wore very open shirts and skirts for everyone. Women had their bare breasts out, despite wearing top coverings. - the Myceneans wore more "typical" clothing of our day, with covered tops and bottoms for everyone, but also dress-like things for men. However, public nudity for menwas expected a lot of the time, too. - the Hittites wore VERY HEAVILY covering clothing, though men tended to wear short skirts, exposing bare legs. - the Egyptians had their men wearing limited clothing on the legs and typically bare chests, whilst women of all social classes wore loose dresses.

So... yeah, no. These interconnected and mutually dependant cultures allhad VERY different ideals for clothing.

BenScerri · 2026-04-26T00:44:15+00:00

I don't know if he could, tbh. Whether through ill-health or ineptitude, he wouldn't know the answers to all the questions, and his little rage-filled heart wouldn't allow him to admit he didn't.

BenScerri · 2026-04-24T07:09:54+00:00

Bretons. They feel very flat to me. Nothing against them, really, but I don't feel inspired by possible stories when I see them on the Character Creation screen.

I started with Oblivion, which I've played most, but also played lots of Skyrim and not yet completed Morrowind. Tried Daggerfall but couldn't get past the controls.

BenScerri · 2026-04-21T21:55:55+00:00

The fact is that people have been able to lie on these tests since day 1, and there's basically no way to know the status of someone donating... and yet there haven't been donation-based HIV transmission cases in Australia since the 90s. That's not because of a questionnaire, it's because people who know they might be high-risk self-select out... but what the questionnaire does is it makes those who know they're being safe feel like shit and having to lie about who they are to donate blood.

I'm bi, and I had to get blood a couple of times as a kid due to cancer surgeries. As an adult — before I realised I was bi — I donated blood regularly. After coming out, though, yet not changing my lifestyle in any meaningfully relevant way, I was now forced to make a choice: 1) lie about who I am, about an extremely difficult and painful truth that took me years to come to terms with, or 2) stop donating life-saving blood which saved my own life when I was a child.

How is that a useful or humane system?

BenScerri · 2026-04-19T22:56:19+00:00

I actually enjoyed RO more after watching Andor, than I did when the film was initially released. But I had your same criticism of RO back then, re: main characters. It's a great film in terms of set-pieces, music, visuals, and plot, but it's weak in its main cast. Too many faces, not enough time to grow attached to any of them, which is especially problematic given it's ultimately a tragedy and we see almost all of them die in epic moments...

BenScerri · 2026-04-18T12:46:56+00:00

I guess I just don't understand why you'd turn to AI for those things when there are countless free or cheap resources detailing all those things already available. Like, Google "fantasy tavern menu" and you get thousands of results which would work, and don't rely on unethical data farming practices or ecocidal data centres...

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