Tamriel Rebuilt

Just a question? What exactly did you change? I haven't really found any changes to my version up till now, but I only glanced over it quickly.

Inanity, you have my official blessing :-) I must admit that I simply cannot find the time to complete this project, although I do not like to let something unfinished. If you have a question, do not hesitate to ask me. Best is to write me an Email. I can also send you the beginning of the further p...

It could also go the other way: Rejection creates further rejection. Since the mer view themselves as superior to men (understandable, since they already were in possession of a highly advanced culture), men could react similary to mer and view themselves as "the chosen race" or something ...

You mean the Imperials would have a kind of philosophy similar to the Roman "virtus et honoris" and the Nords would rather have a culture, where the "virtue of the sword" is held high, like in the Anglo-Saxon or Celtic cultures?

And he does show. Sorry that I wasn't around, but I didn't have much time for educational reasons (and other reasons). I was stuck with the First Era, I remember, since I just couldn't think of anything humans would philosophize about in the first era. Elves, Orcs, Dwemers all have quite clearly def...

The only good Total Conversions for any game I know of are not for Morrowind, but for Dungeon Siege: "MageWorld" and "Lands of Hyperborea", both created by Jim Farris, alias Xaa. But those are rare exceptions and Farris is a professional writer which gives the stories of those ga...

Yes, quite right. But how many of us usually stops to think about what lines to choose? A heretic!!! Burn him!!! :lol: No, serious, the story and the dialogues are the most important parts in a game, at least for me. I always think about what to say, because I want to know everything that goes on. ...

So that's Arcanum, Fallout and Torment. I have finished all of these. Darnoc, are there any other games similar to these? Fallout also? *makes personal note: Buy Fallout ASAP!!!* Sorry, I don't know any other game like this. And I don't think we will see a lot more. Today it is mostly about technol...

yeah, you're right. but that is in the end, right? Not only in the end. In Planescape you can solve most things by talking the right way with high enough intelligence, wisdom or charisma. This is the reason, why intelligenc and wisdom are far more important in Planescape than strength, dexterity or...

Everyone here wants to develop computer games, or to be a proffesional writer or an artist. I fully understand that, after all people here are supposed to have some creative ambitions, but my expactations are more realistic. Yes, I fully agree. There is a huge difference between dream and reality. ...

I was a student at the Gymnasium, but right now I'm unemployed, so I made myself independent and now I give private English lessons. But I'm also trying to publish my novel. It is my main goal to become an independent writer of Fantasy and Sciencefiction.

Definitly Nords. They just rule. They were the first humans to take over Tamriel, fighting against the super-powerful (but really damn arrogant and stupid) Altmers and beat them. Well, the lost their empire again later on. Probably were too drunk. But hell, that's the great thing about them. They ar...

well if you have a ps2 console

I don't and I probably will never have. I just can't get used to the controls of the console. I just need a mouse and a keyboard, my hands can't adjust to those damn console-controls.

1: Planescape: Torment and Arcanum 2: Thief - Series 3: Baldur's Gate - Series 4: Morrowind 5: Gothic - Series 6: MageWorld and Lands of Hyperborea (absolutely genious Total Conversions of Dungeon Siege which acctually make this crappy game worth playing) 7: Battlezone 8: Half Life and Addons 9: Mys...

HAVE YOU NEVER TRIED FINAL FANTASY!!?????

Oh, sorry, forgot those. I never tried them personally, but I heard they were rather good. But they are also exceptions. And Eastern is just not my style, from what I saw until now. I like the Western RPGs better, for being more sinister.

Personally, I think Arcanum is one of the best games ever, because of its story. Look, most games have crappy stories which, if they were books, wouldn't be read by anyone. But Arcanum acctually has a deep, philosophical and interesting story and that is why it is one of the best games ever, like Pl...

I saw "Der Untergang" already in Autumn (living in Switzerland sometimes has its advantages ). It is a great film, especially Bruno Ganz as Adolf Hitler. From what I heard he was nominated for best actor.

Irish Gaelic is the second national language of Ireland, altough it is the indegenous language for only about 20% of the population. But it is learned in school, being the second national language, and the Irish make quite a fuss about it. This is because they want to seperate themselves from the En...

@Graff the Nord: Just added something about the origin of Indo-Europeans too. Actually, an interesting thing is that of the five Celtic language that are still in existence, only one or two are in common use. Welsh, and possibly Cornish. Irish and Scottish Gaelic are spoken by a select few, and I've...

Interesting that someone brought that up. Luckily, I have written an essay once about the origins of European languages. Almost all europeans languages and some asian languages are indo-european languages. The following languages are included in this group of languages; I order them in the correct s...

Varieties of Thought

This foreword I write in order to explain and defend the writings which can be found in this book. I am fully aware that it will be criticized, even heavily criticized. Perhaps my work will even be censored or banned.

I do not mend objective and constructive criticism and will accept anyone who can bring any reasonable arguments against what I have written. But I will and I do strongly object to any subjective or unreasonable criticism. Of course I strongly suspect the priests to slander my work with unreasonable arguments and their religious propaganda. One should not believe their lies, but rather try to form one’s own opinion about what I have written. This is of course best accomplished by reading what I have written. I beg my readers to have an open mind when reading these words and not let their judgment be clouded by religious fundamentalism or propaganda.

The only defense I can bring forth is reason itself. And as long my critics can only slander, the light of reason will be still on me and not on them. If one is reading is reading my words in this attitude, one will clearly see that my words are reasonable and therefore truer than what the priests will say about my writings.


Part One: On Science

A lot don’t consider science an important subject; some even say that it is unnecessary. Of course nobody says something against mathematics, since this is important in every day’s life. Also alchemy is commonly accepted, even when I do not consider alchemy to be pure scientific. The reasons for this I will state later on. But as soon as you begin to talk about techniques and mechanics, people are no longer interested or even afraid. The Dwemer seemed to be the only people who understood the usefulness of those two things. I talked to a lot of people I consider to be intelligent and wise, but most of them gave me the following answer: “Why do we need technology, when we have magic?â€Â￾ This question I will answer in this part and it is my goal to prove that science is not only useful but that we need it.

What is science? There are different sections of this subject, which I mention quickly, so that there are no confusions. There are certain sorcerers who consider their “artâ€Â￾ to be scientific and sadly some people believe in such lies. So, here are the different sections of science:

First I will distinguish between different groups of science. There are sciences which concern themselves with the intelligent beings of Tamriel, like men and mer. These sciences are history, rhetoric, archeology (this could also be described as “practical historyâ€Â￾), art, music and lingual sciences (which concern themselves with analysis of literature, grammar, spelling and pronunciation). Then there are the sciences which do concern themselves with nature in some way. These are medicine, alchemy (there you have to be careful, what actually is science and what is magic), mechanics and biology (the science which concerns itself with living beings).

The first group is somehow accepted by most people or should I rather say by the nobles and intellectuals; the answer is of course that they do not touch the domination of magic. But natural science is concurrence to magic and therefore it is not spoken of or even banned. Of course the wise do sometimes practice medicine and alchemy, even biology and of course simple people from the countryside have sometimes a great knowledge about medicine. But mechanics are especially not common in our world, the only people which practiced this were the Dwemer. I want to show now that mechanics are also useful and necessary.

Most people consider magic to be sufficient in every part of life. This might be true: magic can solve a lot of problems. But magic stays the same, it doesn’t change, there is no development at all. Not only this, magic is illogical and not bound by any laws of nature; it even acts against those laws.

Therefore I propose to use mechanics instead of magic. It is logical, reasonable and can be controlled far better than magic. Mechanics bring order into the mess of magic. Perhaps even one day Mechanics will explain how magic works? But I do not see the purpose of Mechanics to be to explain magic. I see the purpose of mechanics to improve our way of life. To this conclusion I came through the study of Dwemer ruins. The Dwemer had some fascinating inventions which could really aid us. Power through steam is one example. I found such devices on the Dwemer ruins on Stros M’kai and experimented with them. After some time of research I was not only able to recreate the “steam engineâ€Â￾ (in lack of the original Dwemer name for this device, I titled it like this), but I found ways to power other devices, like a pump or an elevator.

These are the promises of Mechanics and the other sciences. Shouldn’t we begin to walk on this path towards glory? We stand at its beginning, I and some of my colleagues are researching in this matter and we have made some quite extraordinary findings. We have found new ways to cure illnesses, one colleague of mine, a Dunmer doctor, even found a natural cure for the blight disease! If House Indoril doesn’t babble something about “blasphemy against the tribunalâ€Â￾ I can promise to you that this medicine will be standard issue in every store on Vvardenfell in some years. Ah, but now comes the most extraordinary discovery we have made: As a colleague of mine, he is archeologist, researched in some Dwemer ruins; he found a construction plan for an extraordinary machine: the printing machine. With this machine we can produce books in very short time; we are even now trying to improve it in our laboratories in Cyrodiil. At that very moment we are trying to use the power of the steam engine to improve the printing machine.

I know, the magical purists, like House Telvanni from Morrowind or the mages guild will accuse me of blasphemy, since they consider their magic to be divine. I answer to them: The gods do exist, this I cannot disprove. But I do not believe that perfect beings could create something as illogical and chaotic as magic. And that is a reason why I believe that the beings we call “godsâ€Â￾ are not truly gods. Science is divine, not magic. Science represents the order of the universe, or if you wish to have it that way, the order of the gods or god. Science cannot come from the same gods which created magic, no; science must come from the being which is truly a god.


Part Two: On Religion


The Empire claims that all the different gods are the same. I of course do understand the need of religion and the reasons why the empire claims all the gods to be the same (eight divines, as they are called). But the question still stands: How do we know that the beings we call “godsâ€Â￾ are truly gods? I know that the Dunmer from Morrowind claim that their gods (the Tribunal) live and walk among them, but concerning these I would rather say that the Tribunal is three Dunmer magicians who somehow obtained immortality through profane methods, like the dissident priests claim. But aside from them how do we know that the other beings we call “godsâ€Â￾ are true gods at all? The priests tell us to believe, but this I cannot do, since I’m bound to use my reason and logic. So where is proof that the gods really are gods?

Some say that magic originates from the gods. But you could also say that magic is just a certain kind of energy and everything is just as logical and clear as the laws of nature, only that we until now cannot explain how magic functions from a scientific point of view. Perhaps that is the reason why we invented the definition “godsâ€Â￾: In order to explain things we do not understand, in order to look up to something greater than we are.

I knew very soon that I could not find the answer there. So I began to look elsewhere and my thoughts wandered. By doing this I began to think about the problem, why people do think that gods exist, and finally arrived at this question: How do we know anything? How do we gain knowledge? The wise (and most other people) would answer to this: “We look at an object, observe it etc. etc. and then come to a conclusion.â€Â￾ But as I began to think, I came to a different understanding.

So I claim that it is different, it is just the other way round. The first question is: How can we trust our own senses? Do they not trick us? How do we actually know that anything exists out there? Or do we live in a dream? The answer is quite simple: We do not know. We can not trust our senses; they are not fit to give us any true knowledge about anything. To give a commonly known example: magic. By using magic you can change the appearance of an object and hide its true nature. So how do we know that reality is not just a great spell of the gods to hide the truth from us?

But what of our mind? Well, there it is also quite simple. Every person has different opinions, different feelings and more: we are actually bound to think in certain patterns. Without these patterns of thinking we couldn’t gain any “knowledgeâ€Â￾ (of course we do not know yet if this knowledge is true at all).

We gain information from our senses. Our mind has to bring order into this. Because of that we think in patterns of space and time. But we do not know if those two things really exist, maybe the gods are playing some kind of trick on us. Then we also think in patterns of causality and identity. How do we know that a certain cause is followed by a certain effect? Or that a certain effect has a certain cause? How do we recognize something and know that it is the same? Both are inside our minds and we think in these patterns without knowing about their truth. We just accept that they are true.

It seems therefore that every person not only has an individual view of the world, but more, nobody knows if his view is correct or not. The conclusion is of course that we cannot gain any real knowledge of our own world of which we can be certain of. This means that the beings we call “godsâ€Â￾ might not be gods at all, it means that those beings might not even exist or that our reality is not true. We have to believe or not believe. We will never know.

The problem is, when we cannot be sure of our own reality, what should we believe then? I think it is not possible for us to think something else than our present reality, so we must stick with it. But we know now that we can question reality. And this leads to the conclusion that we can also question our gods.

As you might remember, dear reader, I first asked the question if the gods truly are gods. We know that those beings do exist (of course only when we assume our reality to be true) and that they live in Oblivion. But are they gods? What is a god anyway? How is a god defined? By immortality? By powers which are greater than ours?

I have a different approach to the problem. A god is a being which is absolutely perfect, a being not bound to anything at all. Now let us see if our “godsâ€Â￾ fit into this category. The gods live in Oblivion. This is a place in another dimension which we think to be divine. And here is the first flaw of our gods: They actually are bound to a place. By my definition, god cannot be bound to anything and certainly not to any location.

Now some would answer me that the gods have powers beyond our imagination. Yes, this might be true in our world. In our world the gods are powerful, but what is in their own world? And even in our world we can destroy the gods, or at least their bodies, when they take physical form. It is even possible to summon lesser divine spirits. When my definition of god is true then our gods cannot be gods at all, since they are not perfect (we can have a little amount of control over them and we can even destroy them when they enter our world).

This leads me to the conclusion that there must be something higher and more divine than our “godsâ€Â￾ (which are not gods at all, as we just noticed). Something which is even more powerful then themselves and which has also created them. This being alone deserves the title of god, even when we cannot experience it. It is probably to divine to meddle in the affairs of mortals like ourselves and has created the beings we call “godsâ€Â￾ in order to do that.

My conclusion may seem heretic to some, they will seem heretic to the priests, of that I am sure. But I can assure you that it is not my plan to destroy religion. The beings we call “godsâ€Â￾ are divine, because they were created by god. This of course leads us to the conclusion that we are also divine, at least to a part. That is the reason why I think magic exists, something divine came on us from god when we were created. Magic must be the divine energy which we cannot explain at the moment.

I also want to point out that I am not the first one having these thoughts. The Altmer philosopher Erundil and the Dwemer philosopher Barik would agree with me, if they were still living.


Part Three: On Philosophy


The last part of my book “Varieties of Thoughtâ€Â￾ will concern itself with the history of philosophy in Tamriel and what different philosophers have thought, said and written.

As with everything else, the Altmer were also the first philosophers. Meryaran is considered the father of philosophy throughout Tamriel. When he lived exactly is unknown, but it must have been around the early heights of Altmer culture during the middle Merethic Age. His teachings and speeches were written down and kept in the libraries of Summerset Island. I had the honor to personally read some of his writings.

Meryaran taught his disciples that the ultimate question is “the question, what the reason is for everythingâ€Â￾. He himself called this question often “The Great Whyâ€Â￾. He also taught that the state of enlightenment would come through reason and thought and not through belief. This was when he had the first conflicts with the priests. In a brilliant speech he defended himself in front of a religious tribunal of the priests and came free. But he was more careful afterwards and taught his disciples only about nature and her laws.

Some say that he visited several cities of the Dwemer and learned much from them concerning science. But while the Dwemer were more interested in the practical use of science, like mechanics, Meryaran was more interest in theoretical science. Therefore he concerned himself mostly with mathematic and its use in theoretical science. His disciples followed him and the school which he founded became one of great thinkers.

His most famous disciple, Olquar, wrote a book about logic. Until today it is still the basis of logical thinking. Some of his disciples concerned themselves with natural sciences, like medicine or physics, like Rumare, who wrote a book about basic mechanics. Another one, Larindil, wrote four books concerning mathematics, especially geometry. In his fourth book he presented what should later be known as “Larindil’s theoremâ€Â￾. The theorem concern itself with the nature of right triangles. The Meryaranians, as they called themselves, existed long and out of their ranks came many of the famous Altmer thinkers and scientists.

Some centuries later the society of the Meryaranians had become an accepted part of Altmer society. They were often teachers and had schools and libraries. Also they were considered as wise and knowledgeable. Often they were quite arrogant.

In this time Erundil appeared. Erundil was the son of a merchant, but first he didn’t think about taking over his father’s business. Instead he first went to an academy of the Meryaranians. But soon he had enough of them and went his own way. He opened a little store near the market place of his home town Alinor on the Summerset Isle and began to talk to people. Not normal gossip, he began to ask people questions. Questions which made people think about their lives and their beliefs. He accused the Meryaranians of being arrogant and not true to the words of their founder. Soon he had a group of disciples around him and together they began to think about how people should live. Together they formed basic rules of ethics.

His teachings about ethics were accepted by most. But then he rejected the common version of the creation myth and proclaimed his own ideas. He told that the beginning was not Anu and Padomay, but that Anu and Padomay were actually creations themselves. They were the two sides of “The Great Oneâ€Â￾, but in a major catastrophe in the beginning the Great One was parted in two, so Anu and Padomay came into being. Since the great parting, everything began to fall apart and the world of the mortals is only the latest step in this process. But, so Erundil taught, in the end of all everything will again come together and all will be once again the Great One as it always should have been. He also taught that this is a cycle and that the Great One is parted and put together over and over again for all eternity.

Erundil was brought before a tribunal of the priests and the Meryaranians. There he was accused of blasphemy against the gods and should he be found guilty, the sentence would be his death. Erundil defended himself in proving logically that neither his belief nor the belief of the accepted religion could be proven. But, so his argument, his belief was more rational, since it does explain everything better than the common belief and therefore should be accepted and replace the old “theory of creationâ€Â￾. He was still sentenced to death tough and killed with a life-draining spell.

Erundil’s greatest student, Volanaro, continued the work of his master and of him we know more, since we do possess his writings. Erundil’s writings were all censored and burned. Volanaro wrote three books concerning ethics, but then moved on and wrote a book concerning the differences between the world of the mortals and the sphere of the gods, especially Oblivion of the Daedra. His greatest achievement was probably his book “On how to rule and governâ€Â￾. In the book he described a fictional realm which he describes as perfect. There all inhabitants are parted into different classes by their abilities. The highest class is the one of the Wise (the class of the rulers), the next one the class of the guardians, then follow the classes of the merchants, craftsmen, farmers. This perfect realm does no longer have any bureaucrats; everything is controlled by the Wise.

Volanaro also had students and he built a great academy in Alinor. Volanaro’s most famous student was Imare, the first female philosopher. She concerned herself more with earthly matters than Volanaro had. It was also she who took up again the idea of “The Great Oneâ€Â￾ which Elundil had invented. But she expanded it and called it “The Great Reasonâ€Â￾. For her, it was the answer to Meryaran’s question of “The Great Whyâ€Â￾. In her book “On the cycles of existenceâ€Â￾ she presented her theory that everything moves in huge cycles, parting, melting together, creating and destroying. Everything seeks balance and tries to go together again. But by the opposite force of unbalance, it is torn apart again.

Those were the three great Altmer philosophers of the Merethic Era. We move now on to the other philosophers of this era.

The Dwemer had several philosophers which aren’t widely known. They mostly described our world and the universe as something mechanical and mathematical, something to be understood. Also the gods themselves were part of this “Great Machineâ€Â￾, as they called it.

But one of them is worth mentioning, he is the only one we know more about and he is the only one which actually had some influence on our world. His name was Barik Nzalaf and we know of him through his books. Some also think that Barik had a great influence on Kagrenac, a theory I myself believe.

Barik Nzalaf was very typical for the Dwemer culture, but he actually went a step further and led the Dwemer on the way which would finally lead to their disappearance. We know that Barik was a normal Dwemer craftsman, living near Red Mountain. If he had remained a craftsman, we would probably not know anything about him.

Barik soon came to the conclusion that he was not a good craftsman, so he began to write books. First he wrote books about crafting, but soon his writings shifted more and more towards philosophy. And that is how he became known among the other Dwemer.

His main philosophy was one of questioning the gods themselves. Through their study of Nirn and the Outer Realms, the Dwemer more and more began to think that the beings normally titled with “godsâ€Â￾ had limits themselves. Barik was the first one to openly question the gods themselves. He asked, if the gods were really gods or just beings on a somewhat higher level of existence. The legends tell that the gods were created, so why do we call them gods? What is the definition of a god? His conclusion was that since the beings called “godsâ€Â￾ were bound to certain limits, they couldn’t be called gods. He redefined “godâ€Â￾ as an absolutely perfect being with no limitations which is the reason for itself (meaning, a true god is neither created nor bound to anything else in order to exist; the reason for the existence of a true god must be himself). By his definition, every being until this time titled “godâ€Â￾ was not a god at all. So, if those beings were not gods at all, perhaps mortal beings could reach this next level of existence. Or perhaps they could create a being of this higher level of existence.

And here it becomes clear why most historians, including myself, believe that Kagrenac was highly influenced by the writings of Barik. Barik was the one who formulated the idea of an artificial god; Kagrenac was the one who tried to create one.

During the Middle Merethic Era, the Orcs (or Orismeri) were transformed into what they are now. Their culture is and was very different from the ones of the other Mer. Orcs are adapted to war and fighting, so it their whole culture. Also their thinkers concerned themselves with such matters.

The most important of those thinkers is Lugrub gro Sharbag. Lugrub lived soon after the transformation of the Orismeri and he was troubled by this. He began to think about how the identity of his people had been changed by this transformation. Finally he concluded that the transformation was rather a blessing than a curse. In his opinion, the Orismeri were the race chosen to conquer or destroy all other races. To the Orismeri the “Gift of Warâ€Â￾ was given so that they could fulfill their “holy dutyâ€Â￾. He also added that the only way for mortals to reach immortality was to be remembered for ever. He introduced the principle of the immortal fighter, living for all times in songs and legends concerning his battles. The way of the warrior, so Lugrub taught, was the only way to achieve the status of a god. He also taught that the greatest warrior and conqueror would change Tamriel and that he would really reach immortality. Some think that this was a prophecy of Tiber Septim.

About mounts, I heard that the people from MiddleEarth-Mod wanted to include them, but I am not sure, I'll have to check that out. Since their mod was shut down (because of copyright problems) they could perhaps help you out, if they figured out how to do it (which I also have to check out, I only o...

They wouldn't probably touch one of a general, yes, since that would be theft. But horses aren't adapted to live in a region like Morrowind, especially not on the island of Vvardenfell with the ashstorms. But after the Nerevarine killed Dagoth Ur this could change of course.

In a way, even our own earth is finite and infinite at the same time. It is finite, because it has a finite mass, a finite time and you can walk around it and arrive at the same place. On the other hand it is infinite, because there is no real end or beginning (this is the nature of an orb) when you...

Hehe, that is the counterpart to my "Varieties of Though". We could connect both together, perhaps that your writing, Writing_Wraith, is meant as a counterwriting to my writing. You could also mention my "Varieties of Thought" as a book of heresy...

Good, then I need a lot of lore to read through. As you said, Balin, from the point of view of an Ashlander would be good. Are there any lore books anyone would recommend concerning Ashlander culture?