elderscrollsocdump

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Drip drip drip drip. The sounds of water falling to the ground echoed in the small chamber called Beggar's Row. A thin, nervous woman known as Rot sat on her dirty bedroll, playing with her Doll she had lovingly named Fungus. The dolls hair was matted and stained,it's dress nothing but a red scrap of cloth. 

The sound of the door to Beggar's Row opened with a creek,Snilf and Edda having returned from a day of begging in the market.

Snilf:“Managed to get enough for supper tonight,Rot.”he said,a smile on his tired face. “The meat vendor even gave me some of her Horker meat that's only a couple days away from going bad.”

Rot: Looking up from her doll,she smiled up at the elderly beggar. “We have potatoes and cabbage too,and I still have that fat from the bacon the temple gave us a few months back,we could chop the meat and make a hash.”she said,setting her dolly down and crawling to the fire. 

Pulling out a small jar full of bacon drippings from the small alcove Snilf had made into the wall,and grabbing the small knife that was next to the pan,Rot began to chop up a cabbage while Edda peeled a couple of potatoes. Snilf made sure to cut the meat into equal cubes as well. Once everything was cut and diced,the pan was hot enough to cook on. The bit of bacon drippings that Rot had put in the pan sizzled loudly as she put the meat, potatoes and chopped cabbage into it.

While the food cooked,Snilf began to speak,his voice gentle and steady.

Snilf: “Rot,how would you feel about helping out at the temple? I spoke to Maramal today and he mentioned he needed someone to help him clean the temple grounds after the last wedding that happened. He said he'd be willing to pay in gold and in food.” 

Rot looked up at him with wide doe-like eyes. Helping at the temple,food,coin. She could be helpful. She could be good. She could bring food back to the others,maybe even get them some new clothes,or maybe get a night at the Inn.

Rot: “Rot will do it! Rot will help at the temple!”she said excitedly. Her eyes sparkling like lightning bugs as she spoke.

Snilf just smiled and nodded his head. His hand going to ruffle her hair. 

Snilf: “We will have to get you a bath at the inn, after supper tonight then.”he said gently. Rots face was covered in dirt,her hair was wild,tangled,and full of bits. Baths, especially ones with soap,were a bit hard to come by for Beggar's. However today had been a good day, 50 gold coins were in Snilf’s pocket. Enough to pay for a bath,soap,and for a knit comb. 

A few hours passed and Rot and Snilf have just returned from the Inn. Rot was clean,smelling softly of lavender flowers,and her once wild and matted hair was clean and in two neat braids. While they were away,Edda had cleaned up the cooking supplies and had even put down some fresh bedding for Rot down. Unknown to Snilf and Rot,Edda had gone out and stolen a bit of fresh straw,a sheet that had been left on someone's clothes line,and a blanket and pillow from a hunter's camp site. Rot would be comfortable and clean for her big day tomorrow.

Rot: “Rot thinks Snilf and Edda should sleep in clean bed. They help Rot out so much and must be sore.”she said softly. Rot had grown close to the two beggars that had taken care of her,and she wanted them to be comfortable too.

Both only shook their heads.

Snilf: “You have a big day tomorrow,you must be well rested for it. We'll be comfortable in our bedrolls”Snilf said,his town tired and gentle.

After getting into bed,they all said good night and went to sleep. Rot having been tucked in by Snilf and going right to sleep with her dolly in her arms.

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Drip drip drip drip. The sounds of water falling to the ground echoed in the small chamber called Beggar's Row. A thin, nervous woman known as Rot sat on her dirty bedroll, playing with her Doll she had lovingly named Fungus. The dolls hair was matted and stained,it's dress nothing but a red scrap of cloth. 

The sound of the door to Beggar's Row opened with a creek,Snilf and Edda having returned from a day of begging in the market.

Snilf:“Managed to get enough for supper tonight,Rot.”he said,a smile on his tired face. “The meat vendor even gave me some of her Horker meat that's only a couple days away from going bad.”

Rot: Looking up from her doll,she smiled up at the elderly beggar. “We have potatoes and cabbage too,and I still have that fat from the bacon the temple gave us a few months back,we could chop the meat and make a hash.”she said,setting her dolly down and crawling to the fire. 

Pulling out a small jar full of bacon drippings from the small alcove Snilf had made into the wall,and grabbing the small knife that was next to the pan,Rot began to chop up a cabbage while Edda peeled a couple of potatoes. Snilf made sure to cut the meat into equal cubes as well. Once everything was cut and diced,the pan was hot enough to cook on. The bit of bacon drippings that Rot had put in the pan sizzled loudly as she put the meat, potatoes and chopped cabbage into it.

While the food cooked,Snilf began to speak,his voice gentle and steady.

Snilf: “Rot,how would you feel about helping out at the temple? I spoke to Maramal today and he mentioned he needed someone to help him clean the temple grounds after the last wedding that happened. He said he'd be willing to pay in gold and in food.” 

Rot looked up at him with wide doe-like eyes. Helping at the temple,food,coin. She could be helpful. She could be good. She could bring food back to the others,maybe even get them some new clothes,or maybe get a night at the Inn.

Rot: “Rot will do it! Rot will help at the temple!”she said excitedly. Her eyes sparkling like lightning bugs as she spoke.

Snilf just smiled and nodded his head. His hand going to ruffle her hair. 

Snilf: “We will have to get you a bath at the inn, after supper tonight then.”he said gently. Rots face was covered in dirt,her hair was wild,tangled,and full of bits. Baths, especially ones with soap,were a bit hard to come by for Beggar's. However today had been a good day, 50 gold coins were in Snilf’s pocket. Enough to pay for a bath,soap,and for a knit comb. 

A few hours passed and Rot and Snilf have just returned from the Inn. Rot was clean,smelling softly of lavender flowers,and her once wild and matted hair was clean and in two neat braids. While they were away,Edda had cleaned up the cooking supplies and had even put down some fresh bedding for Rot down. Unknown to Snilf and Rot,Edda had gone out and stolen a bit of fresh straw,a sheet that had been left on someone's clothes line,and a blanket and pillow from a hunter's camp site. Rot would be comfortable and clean for her big day tomorrow.

Rot: “Rot thinks Snilf and Edda should sleep in clean bed. They help Rot out so much and must be sore.”she said softly. Rot had grown close to the two beggars that had taken care of her,and she wanted them to be comfortable too.

Both only shook their heads.

Snilf: “You have a big day tomorrow,you must be well rested for it. We'll be comfortable in our bedrolls”Snilf said,his town tired and gentle.

After getting into bed,they all said good night and went to sleep. Rot having been tucked in by Snilf and going right to sleep with her dolly in her arms.

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Aurorwren: *sitting bare assed in the snow, sweating profusely and struggling for breath*

Taliesin: are you? Okay?

Aurorwren: laid, egg, huge, egg.

Taliesin: you can lay eggs?!

Aurorwren: *fluffs up his feathers as he croaks out his response* changed, body, internally- prepared for- my mate- prepared to lay, was not- *wheezes* expecting- so- big- hnnngghh…

Taliesin: I just- you look more elf than bird I- thought- you’d give birth- wait how did you even give birth you said you were biologically a- you know what I don’t want to know. *walks inside and just stares at the sight before him*

Nayir: *proudly warming a huge egg by the fire* Taliesin look! My child will soon hatch!

Taliesin: I- th- But- That is half Wrens body weight?! How did he get that out?!

Inigo: why else do you think he is perched in the snow?

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Thinking a lot recently about the constant comparison of Oblivion to Skyrim, particularly claims that Oblivion is superior in every way strictly by virtue of quest length and the greater grandiosity of the organizations in Oblivion, and I think there's been a fundamental misunderstanding of what's actually going on with Tamriel during the time period of Skyrim. Even though it's like...one of the core concepts of the main storyline.

Putting most of this under a cut for length, but I just...I think people misunderstand what's going on here. This is not a "One Game Good Other Game Bad" post, it's an analysis of a major, key difference in story basis between the two that I think gets lost in the (frankly asinine) argument about which is superior.

See, everything in Skyrim sucks. Every organization you can align yourself with is falling apart. Literally every single one.

That's the point.

To summarize:

The Companions (equivalent to the Fighters' Guild) are about a dozen strong, literally cursed, and their most beloved leader gets murdered very early in the storyline.

The College of Winterhold (equivalent to the Mages' Guild, not to the Arcane University) has seemingly only been saved from collapsing into the sea because a master of Restoration fused himself with the structure itself when the Sea of Ghosts tried to tear it down a little under a century ago and his presence is constantly physically "healing" the foundation.

The Thieves' Guild has lost the favor of every possible patron deity, having been outright cursed by Nocturnal after one of her Nightingales murdered another and stole the gift she offers her champion, while the boon that the organization's founder claimed from her in ages past (the cowl) is missing.

The Dark Brotherhood has been all but completely dismantled, the Night Mother's tomb in Bravil having been raided and struggling to persist without a Listener for over a decade; the bodies of the Night Mother's children have been lost and she's essentially being smuggled from region to region in an attempt to find a safe place to continue operations.

The Empire itself has been kneecapped, forced into a traumatic treaty by a fascist regime determined to strike the beliefs and culture of anyone not Altmer off the face of the planet; the Thalmor have gone so far as to torture and radicalize the figurehead leader of the Nords in order to use their own nationalism and superiority against the Empire, sparking a civil war that will further weaken the Empire and allow the Aldmerri Dominion to destroy it wholecloth.

This extends out into the rest of the world, too! We have confirmed existence of Hist-deaf Argonians. The Dunmer are floundering to recover after the quadruple-whammy that is the fall of the Triumverate, the destruction of Vivec City when Baar Dau finally made impact, the Red Year, and the Argonian uprising. The Bosmer are literally endangered due to habitat loss following a super-isolationist cultural shift due to wars with the Khajiit and Altmer. The Void Nights were devastating to Khajiit culture and population in ways that have yet to be fully explained.

The world is falling apart. Everything is dying.

And then Alduin shows up.

We all kind of talk about Alduin carrying on as World-Eater through the course of the Skyrim storyline like it's him being a piece of shit, since he'd started it ages ago and was just displaced in time to land on the Last Dragonborn's head in the Fourth Era, but I don't think that's the case.

Based on the state of things, I think Alduin arrived right on time. I think it's the end of the world. The only reason he "should" be stopped is because the Last Dragonborn has the capacity to stop the world from ending in a more down-to-earth sense than just defeating Alduin: they can't save everyone, but they can "fix" every single organization that's holding "the world" together.

They can align with the Imperials and keep the civil war from further crippling them, keeping the Empire from being too weak to push back against the Aldmerri Dominion.

They can save the College of Winterhold, the only group in the right place at the right time to stop the Eye of Magnus from opening, and in doing so make sure that the Psijics are able to put it somewhere nobody else can find it.

They can lead the Companions, cure the curse for those members who don't want to run with Hircine after death, which bolsters their spirits enough to keep doing what they can even when everyone else is trying to kill each other. A single neutral martial force in the middle of a civil war.

They can regain Nocturnal's trust for the Thieves' Guild, restore the Nightingales, and in doing so they can return the luck that was stolen from them as punishment for Mercer Frey's transgression. They can even reclaim the Crown of Barenziah and award the guild with a paragon to increase their newly-regained luck.

They can hear the Night Mother, becoming Listener for the Dark Brotherhood to restore the balancing force of Sithis in the world, purify the most broken Sanctuary the Brotherhood has ever had, and finish a story set into motion way back in the Third Era—Emperor Titus Mede II is murdered under the order of a Motierre, a descendant of a mark the Brotherhood specifically kept from dying during the Oblivion Crisis.

The Last Dragonborn can't do anything outside Skyrim—there's nothing they can do for the Argonians or the Bosmer or the Khajiit, and they can only do very little for the Dunmer via work in Solstheim—but they can work with every single guild or guild-adjacent group, strengthening the Empire to stand against the biggest threat to Tamrielic culture since the First Era, and in doing so they can make it so the world isn't ready for Alduin to eat it.

The Hero of Kvatch exists when Tamriel, and presumably Nirn as a whole is in the prime of its life, that's what makes the Oblivion Crisis such a big deal. This is a world that isn't ready to give up, it still has the strength to fight, it just needs someone standing at the head to direct it. The Last Dragonborn comes into the story when everything is falling apart and nothing really feels worthwhile, when it's hard to see why the world is worth saving. They have the chance to prove that there's still some life left here, that the world isn't too far gone to save—Alduin arrived right on time, it's the Last Dragonborn's job to change that.

I can see how coming from Oblivion to Skyrim would feel disappointing and hollow, but I'm pretty sure that's literally the point of the story.

Oblivion tells you the world is worth saving because it's got so much left to live for, even with the odds stacked so high against it. Skyrim asks you whether a world that's dying is still a world worth saving, and it's up to you to prove that it is.

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Taliesin! Stop staring, it's rude!

And Nayir returns the stare! Why my followers be starin' all the time?

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Kaidan: *staring down Rosalind, Eva standing beside him silently, looking eerily calm despite the circumstances* You keep your filthy hands off of her Rosalind. Your fight is with me.

Rosalind: oh no Kaidan. This goes far beyond you now, your betrayal will be paid in blood, and the debts you owe will be paid with the blood of the Dragonborn- *shuts up as the temple rumbles slightly and the windows begin to crack*

Evalien: *shifts her stance slightly and lets out a deep sigh* remember how I said I almost died on my way back to whiterun during our time apart?…

Kaidan: aye… why?

Evalien: well it turns out Dagon was more than willing to drop his resentments towards you after I dropped my knickers.

Kaidan: Wot?! *jumps as the windows smash open and the blinding red haze of the deadlands waft in as several dremora leap in and immediately swarm Rosalind, drawing and quartering her while she screams in horror*

Evalien: *whistles loud enough to make them halt* Wait… *walks around the pile of bodies, bowing her head to them in silent reverence for the pain caused, before walking to Rosalind as she’s frozen in a silent scream, a dremora holding her tongue ready to rip it out* You worshipped Dagon. Begged desperately for his attention. Wanted so badly to be noticed and adored by him for your fanaticism… But I… I made him, worship me. *steps back* continue. *turns and walks back to Kaidan as the dremora obey and rip her to pieces* lets go.

Kaidan: I…I have so many questions.

Evalien: I’m sure you do, she’s getting off easy with this. I could’ve given her to molag bal or Boethia instead.

Kaidan: We were apart for 3 weeks?! What were you doing?!

Evalien: Who dear not what.

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The (Ex) Thalmor of Faerūn - Taliesin and Indari, too fabulous to show how utterly befuddled they are.

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The fact is the mass consolidation of wikis and fan sites into single sites was basically a trap to force those communities to deal with the eventual enshittification of the platform that absorbed them. Some of us had the foresight and hands to see this coming and avoid this, but others are now trying to escape and stand on their own at last. The UESP isn't alone, Indie Wiki Buddy has a pretty good list (and extension to help you find them).

Are there any other independent wikis/fan communities that you care about still out there? We'd love to hear about them.

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Illia,my very emotionally unavailable autistic nerd:*is making soup*

Kaidan:"Illia it's 2 am,why on nirn are you making soup?"

Illia: "according to this friendship guide,whenever people are sad,sometimes food helps. That last dwemer ruin we went into,the oil spilled onto Tally and now his hair is blonde at the bottom and he is upset. I don't know how to make him feel better so....soup."

Kaidan:"I think he's asleep Illia."

Illia:"He's not, he's only had 2 bottles of alto wine,he is lightly dozing but in the next 15 minutes he's going to get up and try to rearrange his room....so....soup for Tally"

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At this point I love to imagine that my Dragonborn, an Imperial girl who has traveled most of the time exclusively in the company of Taliesin, a male Altmer (yes, from time to time others have joined the adventure, Serana, Jordis, Lydia, Marcurio, J'zargo and some more, but most of the time it's just the two of them and the dog Freki), is the perfect topic of gossip among the stormcloaks followers.

Rolff Stone-Fist in Windhelm 🤭

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🐺 Greetings from The Dumb of Ass, Pure of Heart - And Were Of Wolf ; Vilkas & Farkas!

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Discuss

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Octavius The Dragonborn

Race: Imperial

Age:23

Class:Hunter

Personality: Quiet,shy, curious.

Sexuality:Pan

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main/travel outfit | college robes | archmage robes

and just like that, after years of putting it off, she finally has something that looks like a proper reference sheet

lil fun fact: she embroidered those flowers herself 😌 (maybe i'll elaborate on that someday)

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After grabbing some supplies,luna snuck out of her house ,saddled her horse,and ran away. She left at 12 am. The land was dark and cold and on her way to the city of whiterun, it began to rain. She didnt dare stop no matter how cold she got. At 4 am she arrived to the city of whiterun,finally she was free from her father!

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Once in the city,she took up work at the Bannered Mare as a servant girl. She cleaned the floors,made the beds,cooked,chopped wood for the fires, and helped serve drinks to the patrons. She also used a fake name. The people of Whiterun knew her as Lilly the Maid. To them she was a simple minded,kind, and helpful lass. She helped with their kids from time to time and even helped Carlotta with her shipments and with her problem with mikael,the bard at her workplace.