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Khajiiti-Aldmer or Aldmeri-Khajiit?

  • Member
    July 2, 2014

    Disclaimer: This is an article of our former member, renown Loremaster Vix, acknowledged by Bethesda themselves. It ended up being deleted and I'm merely reposting it.

     

    During a rereading of some texts while researching the Khajiiti pantheon I came across an interesting note that had never stuck out until now. While proximity alone tends to pit the Bosmer against the Khajiit quite frequently perhaps there is a deeper more fundamental reason that keeps this peoples in a perpetual state of war. Could it be that they are far more connected to each other than they appear on first inspection?

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    While many say the Bosmer have no natural enemies there are several lines in the Khajiiti oral history from the Words of Clan Mother Ahnissi that seems to disagree. Without fully expanding on the Khajiiti creation myth, let us just say it is not so different from the popular Lorkhan dominated creation myths of the other Tamrielic races.

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    Khajiiti Creation

    There is one important difference, an additional character if you will, the deity Nirni is seen as the physical embodiment of Nirn separate from Lorkhaj (Lorkhan). Lorkhan created the material world of Nirn but Nirni herself was responsible for the rise of the various races as her children. She 'gave birth' to quite a large variety but her favored people were the 'forest people' who knew no certain shape and were in a constant state of metamorphosis, changing between states of man and beast.

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    Azurah (Azura) was given one gift and three secrets by the great mother Fadomai (Padomay). Azurah was to let Nirni give birth then take a race and shape them as was best. So Azurah did just that: she made them in many different forms though each was proper, certain, and distinct in order to take advantage of their surroundings; she set their forms to be dependent on the moons; and she set them in the nicest forests and deserts on Nirn. Then she called them the Khajiit.

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    Bosmer Creation

    One other spirit had overheard the conversation between Fadomai and Azurah, Y'ffer (Y'ffre) who was the spirit of the now. He decided to sneak into Nirn past the Lunar threshold which was supposed to separate the spirit of the Divines, the Daedra, and the other et'Ada and thus made his way to the material world. Long story short, Y'ffer can't keep a secret and can't fathom why they should be kept so he told Nirni that conspiracy between Fadomai and Azurah. Nirni was outraged, and she made the deserts hot and biting while the forests became swampy and poisonous for the Khajiit. In that way the Khajiit were destined always to be always at war with Nirni.

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    In return for his efforts Nirni allowed Y'ffer to change the forest people how he wanted. Instead of giving them a beast like form they were given the form of elves. He became the first Ehlnofey 'earth bones' which are the laws of nature and stopped the chaotic shifting between forms that afflicted the forest people who had previously been many strange beasts combined and constantly shifting. So Nirni allowed the these 'forest people' to become the Bosmer though Y'ffer allowed them the knowledge to revert back to their pre-elven forms if need be.

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    The Crux of the Problem

    This in itself gives rise to the first question, what forest people and when? The Words of the Clan Mother Ahnissi is quite specific in saying they were the shifting forest people and from then the Khajiit stock was drawn. What does seem at least correct in timeline is that Azura was one of the first to have figured out how to be summoned to Nirn, Y'ffre was the first Ehlnofey before the other spirits, but it's here before the others were said to have interfered that the Khajiit and Bosmer were made. The book Varieties of Faith claims the Khajiit were drawn from Altmeri stock (oddly not Aldmeri). The same source also claims that the Bosmer were taught the aspects of chaos by the god Y'ffre and in turn changed them both mentally and physically for the new world.

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    The problem is that the Khajiit are readily recognized as amongst the first races created on Tamriel. All the Eras of Men points this out quite explicitly saying they along with the Sload, the Hist, and the Dreugh lived on Tamriel far before the Aldmeri came from Aldmeris. The Father of the Niben says that Torpal the pilot saw the various forms of Khajiit when he traveled up the Niben river to lake Rumare. This sets the Khajiit domain as expanding far into Cyrodiil and Valenwood which was said to be too dangerous for the Aldmer to settle for quite some time. So then what about this pre-existing forest people that is said to be the root of the Khajiit and the Bosmer?

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    There's very little direct evidence to refute this from the Bosmer point of view. While the Orsimer, Ayleids, Falmer, and Chimer (by extension the Dunmer) have a great amount of material on their creation and separation from the Aldmer, the Bosmer, Maormer, and Dwemer do not. There's little direct evidence for any connection aside from scholastic articles saying the Aldmeri decedents are the Altmer, Bosmer, Chimer, and Dwemer with no more elaboration (though just as often as not the Orcs are left out where as other sources such as All the Eras of Men refers to them as a beast race). More over, the Ta'agra and oral traditions of the Khajiit are both intact and singular where as in many other areas knowledge was lost in the Alessian literary purges or the Altmeri times of strife.

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    Questions

    Could the solution be quite similar to the differences between the Redguard, Atmorans, and Kothringi in which similar evolutionary tracts occurred for the same fundamental race in different locations? Could the Psijic teaching that all life originated on Tamriel and spread out leaving others behind have some truth to it? Why is the relatively unchanged Ta'agra so close in pantheons to the Bosmer who are quite different from the Altmer? Why are the Khajiiti Ohmes said to be so similar in appearance to the Bosmer?

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    So our final question, are the felid race we know really just a form of elf? Or are the wood elves tangentially connected to the Khajiit and not the Aldmer?