#atmoran

Echo is just there for scale

I headcanon Konahrik and Miraak to be the same dude. I also wanted to make Atmorans more giant-like in terms of proportions so he’s got lanky arms and big ass feet.

I was yearning for these two during my work trip so I doodled this before bed :]

The bear was the totem animal of Tsun, the nordic god of trials and adversity. We see him in Sovngarde guarding the Whalebone bridge. He died defending Shor from other gods, this was remembered as one of their "Dead Gods" like Shor. The sibling connection is his the fact that he and his brother Stuhn, the god of ransom fraternity and justice, were shield-thanes to Shor. To mourn his brother's death he adorned parts of the bear into his armor. Making the animal a symbol of mourning a sibling and or a sign of true strength.

No, the Falmer did not deserve to be blinded and enslaved for the Night of Tears. What they did there was messed up, but like in any other world, that wasn't every single breathing living Falmer who did it. That wasn't everyone of them going there to do it. In the same way innocent people died and suffered there, so they did later on:Atmoran and Snow Elf.

And thats ignoring the likely plausibility of the genocide done against them, but that ties to what I wrote above.

Saying that they deserved their fate in any way, would be like saying that the Altmer deserve horrific things, because of the shit the Thalmor does. Two fucked up things are two fucked up things, not justice for the first fucked up thing. Just because a part of a group of people did something unforgivable, doesn't mean the entire group deserves to have something unforgivable done to them.

Other examples of what I mean, just because the Dunmer practiced slavery, a big chunk of their society at that, doesn't mean they "deserved" to be slaughtered by the Argonians in the way they were. Especially when you remember that many of them did advocate against slavery. Or that they deserve to be refugees living in a ghetto.

What I'm essentially trying to say here is that, regardless who started what, the end result is always the same: innocent folk suffering and dying. A group may have started something, but it doesn't mean every single bloody member of it "deserves" a horrific fate. It's a very dumb thing to say and argue, because by that logic everyone deserves a horrific fate because someone of the same race did a bad thing. And it is too close to some things people have said in reality, to be used as an argument.

(no background ver + ramble under the cut, as per usual!)

There is little we know about Atmora, but from what we do know, I can make a few deductions about the Atmorans diet. Seafarers by trade, there is no indication that the Atmorans pursued any agricultural activity whatsoever, relying on hunting instead. As such, there wouldn't be anything in the way of milk products, so foods like cheese, skyr, and yoghurt would not be viable.

What food was available would therefore be based on the geography. The Atmoran Frostwood, which served as a bountiful hunting ground in the midst of the frozen island, would be where most of their food was gathered and hunted. Atmora also purportedly has marshes to the east, somewhat akin to the lands around Morthal. The running streams and rivers also give us a clue as to the sort of fish they ate.

Fish, fowl, and game of all sorts would have been consumed. Whether it was salmon from the rivers, venison or aurochs, mudcrab and slaughterfish, the food that the Atmorans ate would not necessarily be entirely dissimilar to ours. In terms of vegetables, they would have foraged wild greens of all sorts, peas, beans, mushrooms, and even wild garlic for flavouring. In terms of seasonings, you'd find salt from the Sea of Ghosts, various herbs, as well as the dried, pulverised kelp that's sprinkled into food in Winterhold to this day.

Mead was not a drink the ancient Atmorans would be familiar with, due to the need for beekeeping and the inhospitable climate that prevents it. Liqueur would instead come in the form of fermented snowberries or juniper berries, which grow in harsh climates like Atmora; I am personally trying to develop a brew based on ancient traditions.