Elder Scrolls Lore » Discussions


Lore: Argonians and Grummites

  • June 14, 2016

    What a fascinating article, Karves. You make some pretty bold connections and that's great. I'm thinking about the tree sap too. 

  • June 14, 2016

    Yeah? What exactly are you thinking about regarding the tree sap?

  • June 14, 2016

    That it's mind-altering and somehow connected to madness and that it's pink and purple, colors associated with Sheogorath. 

  • Member
    June 14, 2016

    So did Sheo directly intervene to create Argonians then? Or, does he have any connection to the Hist and its (their?) sap? 

  • Member
    June 15, 2016
    I always think that uncle Sheo made them after a dare by the Hist or something. I mean he did challenge Hircine with a bird and the Dreamweaver with silence.
  • Member
    June 15, 2016

    On the world of Nirn, all was chaos. The only survivors of the twelve worlds of Creation were the Ehlnofey and the Hist. The Ehlnofey are the ancestors of Mer and Men. The Hist are the trees of Argonia. Nirn originally was all land, with interspersed seas, but no oceans. Anuad.

    I was thinking it was no accident, if anything Lorkhan does can be considered one, that when his Divine Spark impregnated Nirn is the time when madness seeped into the roots of the Hist. They sucked up this madness.

    Bear with me...

    When we compare that with the Gnarls of the Shivering Isles and the Amber they collect: Check this:

    Amber is a colorful resin formed from hardened sap. Much like skin bleeds and scabs over to protect a wound, the Root System tunnels "bleed" a sap that congeals and hardens into Amber deposits. Even still, the walls of the roots are very resilient; swinging a sword at the wall is not enough to puncture it. The large fissures that cause the appearance of Amber are the result of the massive pressures and frictional forces encountered by the giant roots as they push through tons of rock and dirt.

    Compare with Lorkan's blood, Ebony.

    Then:

    The common belief is that our Lord Sheogorath has blessed our land with two temperaments, Mania and Dementia. However, after much study and reasoning, I believe that it is the very realm itself that imposes upon us these two spheres of polar extremes!

    I have devised a clever experiment, whereby I seek to prove this theory. If you take a flower from a common plant, cut it and place its stem in water with dye in it, you will notice that the petals will slowly take on the color of the dye. Clearly, the veins of the plant transport the color to the leaves.

    Now, when we look at the Dementia side of the land, colors are muted and dark, and in the Mania side bright and colorful. I believe the Root System, and the Gnarl that serve it, are draining the color from the land of Dementia and giving it to the land of Mania!

    For what purpose, it isn't clear, but my experiment shows how color is transported through plant veins, and what bigger system of plant veins is there than the giant Root System tunnel network? Is it not then obvious that this System is the conduit of the forces of Mania and Dementia?

    And do we not eat the plants and the fruit of the trees that connect to the Root System and the beasts that feed on them, and drink the waters that fall from their leaves? Do we not breathe the air that carries their spores and seeds? Do we not throw our own waste onto the ground to be absorbed into the soil? Thus, are we not intimately connected to the giant Root System under our feet? Surely, we are one with it!

    Clearly, the Root System is feeding those of us in the Mania brilliant color, giving us our mood swings, filling our hearts with passions and sensations, and giving us powerful urges by stealing these things from our fellows in Dementia, leaving them dark, desperate, angry, violent, and disturbed!

    Now, we know the Gnarls are important form one of the very last quests of the dlc in which you have to cleanse the fountainhead which has been "poisoned by Order." It's like, the source of power for the Isles and Sheo himself is the Tree and the Pools of Mania and Dementia below it.

    When we think of that symbiosis and compare that with the Hist and the Argonians, it is almost tempting to say that old Anne Marie took inspiration from that and created his realm on a corruption of it.

  • June 15, 2016
    Damn! You dig deep, mate. Much deeper than I did. What is that third quote, btw? Sounds like one of the denizens of Isles but I've never read it. Also, there is that quest when Thadon, Duke of Mania sends you for Brush of something, to one of these roots dungeons. There are some... sacks that emit gas that is poisonous. Also, from what ESO showed us, Hist Sap is basicaly some kind of fruit or something, gold and liquid at the same time. Almost like Amber.
  • Member
    June 15, 2016

    Hehe, is it just me or are the Isles calling you too? This really is a great piece of lore Karves, be proud.

    One of the things I have always found interesting is the Staff of Sheogorath. Like, it stops time. Time. Akataosh. Lorkhan's twin... The mind simply boggles

    The third quote is a paraphrase. Haskill actually says, "the taint of order." Either way, as it was Legion I was talking to I thought he would find it funny.

  • June 15, 2016

    How would you guys add in the ancient Argonian cave art that shows Argonian like beings but that are part tree?

  • June 15, 2016

    Do you have picture of it? I would love to see it!