“If these Nords had a bit of red in their blood, this “war” would have been over long ago.”
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“If these Nords had a bit of red in their blood, this “war” would have been over long ago.”
Speedpaint + bnw version beloww

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me words no work gud. was brainstorming how Akavir can be alternate kalpa, future tamriel, and a physical place all at once, had a thought: what if they weren't, at least not in the way typically understood by the community
What if time-space in Tamriel, or rather the metaphysical Nirn, worked by different ideas of what are translated to us as cardinal directions? What if, instead of travelling to the future or past by going in a certain physical direction, there were different metaphysical "directions" one could travel on to reach different temporal and physical locations? I drew up some charts, thought myself real clever, and everything was good. Then I huffed a little too much skooma and started wondering if the different time models (kalpas, amaranth, etc) and accompanying philosophical / religious differences of different Tamriellic cultures could also be related to their respective “locations” on these "philosophaxes." (Confirmation bias? Never heard of her) These charts are the result:
Lyg as inverse of the center? As “Not Here” / “Not Now” / “Not Our Place”? The only adjacent-place truly inaccessible and all the more eldritch / strange for it?
Morrowind as Loveborne-Potential-Transcendence as described in C0DA? Alinor as antithesis Hateborne-Denial-Imprisonment where Walk-Brass would call home?
Akha in Khajiit myths going "South" to never return, Alduin the "World-Eater"
Northwesterly High Rock as Loveborne Determinism, (likely unintentional) parallels with Christianity and thus west-european tropes by association? (as opposed to Gnostic Morrowind & Nihilist Alinor?)
Cyrodiil as True Center of Each Axis, thus its metaphysical dominance over all of Tamriel / Talos as the "King of the Gods"?
I’m overthinkin shit
Hi so what did the Bethesda lore people mean by the Yokudan elves.
i'm still GENUINELY flabbergasted by what bethesda meant by this. Why would you name a group of elves the "left handed elves" when left handed people used to be ostracized, abused, and forced to learn how to write right-handed and even killed by particularly extreme people and then kill them off screen. What. And we don't even know if they were actually elves or if it was just mistranslated and their enemies were just straight up left handed humans?? Were the Yokudans basically the Catholic church because WHAT???? We know so little about them! They could have been such a badass concept but they're just yet another Elven race that Men genocided!! Why even write them into the lore?!
This isn't even in a "cancel them on twitter dot com immediately" mentality it's just. What was GENUINELY going through their head when they wrote that lore
I personally view the lore/writing of the left handed elves akin to the "sea peoples" in real life ancient Egyptian history.
If you dont know who the Sea Peoples were, lemme give a brief rundown. At a point in ancient Egyptian history a bunch of mysterious tribes invaded Egypt and other nearby cultures. They nearly destroyed the Egyptians and did destroy several other cultures. Eventually the Egyptians beat/absorbed these mysteries Sea Peoples and history moved on.
Despite what was a series of massive wars and vast cultural destruction, we know virtually nothing about these "sea peoples". Basically everything we know about them was written by their enemies (the Egyptians). We only have a fragmented and intensely biased account of this major culture that otherwise is lost to history.
To bring it back to the "Left handed elves" and the Yokudans, I view their (fictional) history in a similar manner. These mysterious "elves" lived in this land (tamriel) across the sea from Yokuda. Thru unknown events the "left handed elves" and Yokudans become locked in a prolonged war to try to genocide each other. Millenia go by and the Yokudans and "elves" kept warring with each other. Two cultures a sea apart, and locked in an ages long war. Eventually the Yokudans finally won and beat the "elves" (likely destroying most of the elves recorded history along with them).
The comparison is broad but I hope you can see why I make the analogy between ancient Egypt and the sea peoples and the Yokudans and the "Left handed elves"
Now all we have left of these "elves" is incredibly biased histories written by the same society that wiped them out.
History is written by the victor etc. etc.
‐---------------‐‐------
I also think the vague and confusing lore around the naming of the "left handed elves" (and their scant lore) is extremely intentional.
Also its worth mentioning that *most* lore we have on them isnt actually from Bethesda proper but instead comes from [non canon] Michael Kirkbride writings and ESO lore which is written by Zenimax people (AFAIK)
Like of all things why specially call these elves "left handed"? Its obviously meant to be an archaic and demeaning term. As you know, in many ancient societies IRL, left handed meant unclean or even evil.
Michael Kirkbride draws from all sorts of esoteric cultural, historical, and religious influences (just look at Morrowind) so him naming the elves "left handed" was definitely meant to evoke both the fact that these "elves" existed LOOOONG ago and that the Yokudans mixed their genocide/victory over the elves into a religiohistorical context. To the ancient Yokudans. It wasnt just a victory it was a *righteous* victory over *evil* enemies.
As a student of religious history, Michael was doubtlessly well aware that the "left handed" moniker would exemplify how an ancient self righteous (literally self righteous) culture would describe their ages long enemy.
Bear in mind, for elves and humans alike, a common religious and racial ethos is "we are holy and blessed by the gods but those other races are agents of enemy gods".
In "modern" TES most people/races (Thalmor aside) aren't THAT extreme per se, and can still get along with each other. But in ancient TES history? Yeah folks were **way** more serious about racial supremacy/genocide. The first time Nords encountered a group of Bretons they instantly went into battle mode because they just assumed they were elves and only stood down when a Breton started speaking Nord to them. Most races in modern TES are not *that* hostile to other races (by default).
All this to say i do appreciate when TES gets obscure in ways that IRL history can be. Its always interesting to think about real life ancient history and the thousands of cultures that we know virtually nothing about except for the scant records written about them from *other* ancient cultures.
P.S. I have a feeling were gonna get alot more lore about the "left handed elves in TES VI 🫣
Project Hammerfell concept art for the Abecean Red Armada - a state-sanctioned privateer militia chartered by the Crown to oversee his direct domains of Old Hegathe, Stros M'kai, and Gilane. They were founded during the Simulacrum in response to the decline of the Imperial West Navy and the increasing instability following the War of the Blue Divide. The coronation of Commodore Naffir as Constable of Stros M'kai has invariably given the outfit more power and tighter responsibilities, and the Constable still remains ever vigilant in his war on smuggling.
DrNightstone's blog on all things Elder Scrolls, Glorantha, worldbuilding, and more!
Aliara Mayaadi's Journal: The Yoku Language
I finally have my Yoku conlang at a place where I can make it public. Along with a small in-universe apocrypha, there be a spreadsheet with Yoku IPA, grammar and syntax, various writing scripts, as well as 600+ words and counting. With a potential Hammerfell game, I thought I would use this conlang to give my future Yoku apocryphas some spice. Should you also want to utilise it, go for it! And should there be any confusion, errors, or suggestions, do let me know.

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Breath
"I thought it would make for a good story!"
A son of Skyrim sits on a log far, far away from the snowy shores of his birth. Beside him sit two fellow warriors, one from this land of dragons in the East, and the other from a land of swords even further East than that. When Njorri bellows out his explanation, the Yokudan cracks a small smile, while the Tsaesci's eyes bore into him.
"It's a lovely fine country you have here. It's hot! But not as hot as Morrowind, so it suits me more! And I ain't got any ash in my beard, like my cousin Holf is always complaining about."
"That's why you're interfering with our sacred hunt?" Siek-Shirue asks, eyes sharp like her tongue.
Njorri laughs and waves a massive hand. "Oh, nooo, I wouldn't say 'interfere!' I'm fit to help you! My da use to hunt dragons all the time."
A laugh bubbles up from Ensaf, the third who has merely played the spectator up til now. "Quite the name to live up to."
"Ain't nothin' special. Not like traveling all this way out East-- across that cursed ocean no less!"
The armored Akaviri turns to Ensaf now. "And why are you here?"
The trained fighter can recognize an itchiness about her 'host's sword-arm, the way her hand sits on her opposite thigh, inches from her scabbard; she knows that, even without any apparent weapon, Ensaf could produce one out of thin-air with only a breath.
"Me? Well, I'm looking for a story of my own." She adjusts herself on the log, easing up on her posture to try and relax the other woman. "You see, in the land where I come from, just about every swordsman's done something incredible. There's nothing left to make a name for yourself. But here... I can do something no one else has. At least no one from Yokuda." Leaning back, she tears her eyes away from her host and looks up at the clear skies of the steppe where the day is giving way to nightfall. "I'd heard rumors from sailors about an island full of dragons to the West... wasn't sure they were true until today."
"You've got no dragons back home?" Njorri asks, leaning over Siek to do so.
Ensaf shakes her head. "Afraid not. Plenty of serpents, but none that fly through the air like that... I would've picked a better opening if I had realized how fast they move."
"No dragons??? Skyrim used to be lousy with dragons, and so did this place, I hear, before Sek here and her pals--"
At this junction, Siek shoves the tall Nord back with a sudden burst of force, barking out a single syllable as the thrust of her hand sends him spilling across the grass of the camp. "Siek." She affirms, curling her lip up at the boisterous foreigner. Her fellow blades look over at the commotion, hands at their swords before she waves them off, assuring them things hadn't broken down... at least not yet.
Stendarr, Aedric God of Mercy
When witnessing Nirn, Honourable Stendarr takes on a mortal form similar to his old form as Diagna of Yokuda Beware the judgment of Diagna Stendarrii
"Protect the weak, heal the sick, and give to the needy" - Nine Commands of the Eight Divines
While the outfit Diagna wears in this image could be described as 'casual', the Aedric God of Justice can never truly be described as 'relaxed'
"Tried to sail to Yokuda once. A slaughterfish the size of a leviathan swallowed my boat. Nearly starved before I founds a Sea Sload stuck in its guts. Ate like a king and had enough left to fashion a raft and sail out when the great fish … belched."
--Hroltar the Boaster