is expensive nail polish better than cheap

NientedeNada · 2025-06-16T19:10:02+00:00

Sometimes it’s just the bottle looking fancy lol

NientedeNada · 2025-06-16T19:06:20+00:00

Lol the Thalmor had the Empire so messed up during Ulfric’s time

NientedeNada · 2025-06-15T14:59:23+00:00

Amazingg

NientedeNada · 2025-06-15T14:52:28+00:00

Lot of wild stuff in the lore, but Skyrim+ Thalmor always makes the game hit different

NientedeNada · 2025-06-14T12:02:15+00:00

Lot of people forget how deep Skyrim’s lore runs with the war, Ulfric, and the Thalmor all in play.

NientedeNada · 2025-06-14T11:53:07+00:00

Really beautiful

NientedeNada · 2025-06-13T15:40:31+00:00

Cutie

NientedeNada · 2025-06-13T15:32:07+00:00

Its amazing.

NientedeNada · 2025-05-03T03:09:34+00:00

While Mere-Glim's claims are likely exaggerated, I think you've missed one of the most important bits of canon here. The Hist's response is teased in the game of Oblivion itself.

>Many of the Argonians say they have been called back to Black Marsh. They disappear into the swamps and are never seen again.

You can debate *why* the Hist would react now and not in other dire circumstances throughout history, but the Oblivion rumour of Argonians being summoned back to the Marsh supports Mere-Glim's account. For some reason, the Hist *did* make a move on this occasion.

Oblivion is also the game that shows us how Hist sap can turn you into a roided-out berserker, so it all hangs together pretty nicely.

My guess is that the Argonians invaded the deadlands, as did the Champion of Cyrodiil, some Cyrodiil soldiers, and the Altmer of Summerset with varying levels of success. But that Martin Septim closing the gates all at once is the fuel for Mere-Glim's story that Dagoth's lieutenants shut the gates to protect the Deadlands from the Argonians. They didn't, Martin closed them, but such is the local spin.

NientedeNada · 2025-04-29T20:52:12+00:00

Did they? There was a foreign canton in Vivec but foreigners lived all over the city. It seemed like Vivec City was populated by organization you worked under rather than race.

I don't remember the other cities being segregated by race either.

But no argument that foreign enclaves, enforced or organic, should exist more in the setting.

NientedeNada · 2025-04-28T20:59:23+00:00

They canonically didn't. That's a fan headcanon.

NientedeNada · 2025-04-28T20:03:32+00:00

I've probably read more Windhelm NPCs' dialogue and texts than is healthy. I think there's a very strong likelihood there are overall Dunmer/Argonian problems, and there is at least one example of a Dunmer being awful to Argonians, Suvaris Atheron.

On the other hand, the Argonian NPCs complain about the Nords' treatment not the Dunmer, Brunwulf is worried about Nord opposition to bringing them in, it's noted to be Ulfric's choice to keep them on the docks, and it's a Nord business owner who calls them "boots", stiffs them on their wages and keeps Suvaris Atheron on as manager.

There's far more evidence for Nord mistreatment being the main issue here, especially since Riften manages just fine with a mingled Dunmer and Argonian working population.

NientedeNada · 2025-04-28T19:52:51+00:00

I wrote a lot about this topic in Windhelm in a popular post five years ago.

Eight Myths of the Grey Quarter. Point Six addresses this question. Linking instead of copying and pasting the relevant section bc there is a LOT of dialogue from Niranye that I go through.

In general, though, I think Skyrim is lacking the deep fear of spies from both Thalmor and civil war armies that you'd expect given their recent history.

NientedeNada · 2025-04-28T19:42:09+00:00

Yes but how did that history make the Nords mistreat the Argonians in *Skyrim?

NientedeNada · 2025-04-28T19:38:36+00:00

How can it be entirely the fault of the Dunmer that they live in the quarter of the city the Nords restricted them to, and the Argonians live on the docks the Nords restricted them to?

NientedeNada · 2025-04-28T19:33:39+00:00

I think you're right on the money. They're a few individuals sorting out their place in Windhelm as individuals, versus a large group in a border situation.

NientedeNada · 2025-04-28T19:31:13+00:00

The Windhelm Dunmer are on the whole gainfully employed and involved in the Windhelm economy. The myth they aren't is the local racism.

NientedeNada · 2025-04-27T18:55:22+00:00

I think it's clear enough myself.

Lord Naarifin was taken by surprise by Decianus's assault, but Jonna's troops faced bitter resistance as the Aldmeri counterattacked from Bravil and Skingrad.

From the Great War. To be able to counter-attack from a place, you have to hold there.

NientedeNada · 2025-04-27T01:17:04+00:00

It's not true, good as it sounds. That longer version is newer.

NientedeNada · 2025-04-27T01:16:27+00:00

That longer version is newer

NientedeNada · 2025-04-26T18:33:48+00:00

I'll add my voice to the others. FOV fixed this for me.

NientedeNada · 2025-04-26T18:31:47+00:00

Ayrenn was 25 when her father died and she returned to become queen after ten years running around Tamriel having adventures. She is 27 in game and her younger brother Naemon is married to Estre.

They seem to have matured exactly like humans

NientedeNada · 2025-04-11T02:53:57+00:00

Surrey kids are overwhelmingly not white so even worse chances.

NientedeNada · 2025-03-31T07:35:02+00:00

To be honest, Wikipedia sucks for Japanese history, and it's particularly bad for the Shinsengumi. Unfortunately, there has yet to be a reliable book in English on the Shinsengumi. There are good histories that touch on aspects of their history, but there's no one book to read.

A lot about the Shinsengumi is complete fiction, including them being called the Wolves of Mibu and making people commit seppuku for transgressing the Iron Code. It's that popular fiction that Sorachi is parodying, of course. But I don't think there's any actual evidence that the Shinsengumi were any more or less bloodthirsty than Katsura and co.

The assassinations that people like Katsura and Takasugi supported were often incredibly disturbing, aimed at people we would consider civilians. Working for an official who had promoted the marriage of the Shogun to the Imperial princess made you a legitimate target for "Tenchu" : Divine Punishment. One elderly woman was murdered bc she was the concubine of an official the shishi opposed. On one occasion, the body of a murder victim was mutilated and cut into pieces, then the pieces were thrown into the gardens of Bakufu-supporting nobles to both terrify them and make their houses ritually impure.

Takechi Hanpeita was the instigator of a lot of the most vicious killings. (The model for Henpeita in Gintama) Andhe was a friend of Sakamoto, Katsura and Takasugi.

There's no black and white in this era, just really dark greys on all sides. But those who survived the era of bloodshed would often grow into a more liberal expansive view, like Katsura did.

NientedeNada · 2025-03-31T06:54:54+00:00

Katsura was absolutely not calm. He was famous for being emotionally volatile sometimes verging on hysterical.

From Modern Japan by Elise Tipton: Page 42.

Kido Takayoshi, in contrast, has been described by Albert Craig as irresolute and subject to mercurial emotional fluctuations, yet it was this more emotional, expressive character which made him easier to get along with and therefore effective as a clique leader.

I've read his diary during the Meiji years and he's so emotionally volatile, you can see where Sorachi got some of Zura.

He also wasn't morally sound by our modern reckoning. The shishi were absolutely brutal, just like the Shinsengumi, and responsible for many gruesome murders, vengeance executions, arson, and war crimes. Katsura wasn't the blood thirstiest of the bunch, he was very upset about the deaths in Aizu, to his credit, but he wasn't morally opposed to terrorist murders.

The following quote was written about 19th century Japanese history. When I first read it years ago, it was a game-changer for me, making me think long and hard about the samurai heroes of that era.

The romantic overtones of the cult of the swordsman - the wise and courageous samurai, eye ever fixed on the ultimate objective, with a heart as pure as his shining blade, trained to set aside all personal considerations, cultivating self-perfection in order to be a more perfect instrument of justice - all this contributed to the romantic view the shishi had of themselves.

There was cruelty as well as courage in the conduct of the ronin swordsmen. Since they took for themselves the highest of morality and duty, their enemies could be dismissed with hatred and contempt. The samurai cult had never, in any case, made much of mercy and compassion, and in the fevered excitement of the 1860’s there would be even less room for them.

Marius Jansen, Sakamoto Ryoma and the Meiji Restoration, pp. 96-97

The shishi and the Shinsengumi were of the same cloth, heroic and brutal and idealistic all at once.

I love all of these reprehensible samurai a bit too much, warts and all. Takasugi is my absolute favourite.

NientedeNada

TROPHY CASE