Observations on the Shamed Indoril

[Adanorcil]

The title is a placeholder and I'll write the remainder soon. Also going to do some rephrasing here and there.

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In the summer of 422, a number of unidentified persons stole into the offices of the Imperial Consulate in Narsis and made off with a large quantity of confiscated mail destined for Cyrodiil. For reasons entirely unknown to the authors of this preface, these unconscientious individuals saw fit to leave a portion of their spoils at the doorstep of the Hlaren Association, based in that same city.

Among a large amount of correspondence of little interest was found this insightful letter, which appears to be of considerable antiquity and the author and addressee of which have been erased by some overzealous postmaster.

In keeping with its mission of fostering an atmosphere of respectful understanding between the people of Morrowind and their Imperial sovereigns, the Association decided to propagate the text and extends gratitude to its original and perhaps long deceased writer. Finally, the Association also wishes to offer condolences to our cousins of the House Indoril, many of who still mourn the tragedy that forms the subject matter of this document.



[Recipient obscured]

I hope this letter finds you in good health. The amount of work involved in compiling a reference work is trying for the strongest among us, and – true to your nature – you have pledged your skills to the most taxing among them. So noble the goal, so petty the ones who will eventually take their blunt axes to it. I urge you to continue, though. I have read enough of your work and that of your colleagues to know you will include much that your crude editors – shall I say censors? – will overlook entirely.

Yes, I have heard of this trope of the 'Shamed Indoril' and I understand it has grown quite popular back there in the Province. It has, I suppose, all the elements that playwrights and assorted hacks would look for: a whiff of the exotic East to draw an audience, some vapid romanticism, and above all the convenient idea that the Empire has gone unquestioned among the Dunmer ever since.

At your request, I add some of my own observations on the matter, which, as you probably suspected when you asked, tell quite a different story. It is far from a popular topic here in Almalexia, which is not surprising given that there are still inhabitants of the city who remember the Armistice and even a few who are direct relatives of the men and women who took their own lives in those days.

When the occasion permitted, I discussed the topic with friends and acquaintances, and I have developed a distinct feeling that the interpretation so favored elsewhere in the Empire is considered particularly insensitive here. The Indoril do not talk of martyrs, only of mourned-for deaths, remembered with quiet anxiety.

You have to understand that the Indoril have a strong notion of a canonical state of affairs, in particular with regard to their own country and their role in it. To their people, the idea that Morrowind is an imperishable realm in which each of the Great Houses has its role* is equally unquestionable as the knowledge that night follows day. Both are part of the nature of the world and in no way does the former strike them as less constant than the latter; indeed the very idea would seem absurd to them. It may be easy to mock the rigidity of the Indoril, but it was this same unwavering faith that allowed their civilization to persist for millennia while empires came and went in other parts of Tamriel.


[to be continued]


* this needs to be stated better

[gro-Dhal]

Well the framing device is good. Moar plz

[arvisrend]

This is great! Why did noone tell me about this?

Adanorcil, are you planning to finish it?

The amount of work involved in compiling a reference work

I'd remove the second "work".

is trying for the strongest among us, and – true to your nature – you have pledged your skills to the most taxing among them. So noble the goal, so petty the ones who will eventually take their blunt axes to it. I urge you to continue, though. I have read enough of your work and that of your colleagues to know you will include much that your crude editors – shall I say censors? – will overlook entirely.

- should be --. What do you mean by "most taxing among them"? Who are "them"?