toshisweird

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Working on skirt rigging! I’m not able to achieve quite as many front gathers as the original due to how much mail I was able to source but it’s still going to look pretty!

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All of the wallpaper from Windows XP

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Thoughts on The Similarities Between Morrowind and Dune

(and a personal analysis foreword)

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I've been struggling lately with the idea of wanting to create things, but having a complete lack of aptitude for most forms of art. Within the last few years, I have noticed a huge decrease in my typing ability, reading comprehension, and overall articulation that concerns me, and I think depression is a huge factor that I try to work on as often as I can. I don't get any fulfillment or sense of creation from my work and life has felt so overwhelming and dull lately, but I guess I would consider writing as one of my better talents overall. Seeing something completed feels nice, and once I start on a project, I will usually see it through. Even if it is something that has probably been hashed out a million times, but I love analyzing my little blorbos sometimes and Tumblr is THE place to spout into the void. Already I've written a paragraph and only had to correct about 200 mistakes so here we go... (Spoilers for both Dune and Morrowind of course).

In this analysis, I will provide a little history of both works for people who are unfamiliar with one or the other, and compare similarities and differences. I want to make it very clear from the beginning that Dune was published many, many years before Morrowind, and that I believe that many aspects of Dune helped shape the concept of Morrowind's lore, but I do not believe that this was extensive to the point of plagiarism or intellectual property theft.

Dune was published by Frank Herbert in 1965, which was the first of 6 novels in the original series. The series was later expanded upon by Frank's son Brian Hebert and currently includes 30+ novels set in the Dune universe. The series is set in our universe approximately 20,000 years in the future, and take place mostly on the planet of Arrakis, or Dune, as it is called by the native people. The story follows the members of House Atreides and their contested lordship of Arrakis. The young Atreides heir, Paul, is the culmination of a millennia-long eugenics experiment by the Bene Gesserit, an organization of women with mystical abilities and training. Paul is believed to be the Kwisatz Haderach, one who is able to see all potential futures. Following the decimation of the Atreides-held city on Arrakis by a feuding house, Paul seeks asylum with the native Fremen population. Their belief in the Lisan Al-Gaib leads them to believe that Paul is their messiah, and they later overthrow the invading House Harkonnen and restore Paul Muad'Dib as the emperor of Dune.

Morrowind is the third installment in the Elder Scrolls video game series, and was released by Bethesda in 2002. The game is set in Morrowind, one of 9 provinces of Tamriel. The story follows a slave, released without explanation by the Emperor, to the remote island district of Vvardenfell. The former slave/adventurer is given the task of working with an operative of the Blades, the Emperor's guard and spy network. The spymaster Caius has the adventurer obtain various accounts of the native prophecy of the Nerevarine, a reincarnation of a legendary hero that will unite and save the people of Morrowind from an ancient evil, the Sixth House. As the questline progresses through many trials, it becomes clear that the adventurer appears to fulfill the prophecies, and culminates with the adventurer defeating the lord of the Sixth House, Dagoth Ur, and freeing the people of Morrowind from the blight.

Both Morrowind and Dune rely heavily on storytelling from the perspective of an outsider to learn the ways of the native culture. Paul learns the way of the Fremen as he traverses Arrakis as a means of separating himself from his previous way of life and understanding the prescience that he will one day lead the Fremen in a galactic Jihad; the Adventurer learns the ways of both the Great Houses of Morrowind and the Ashlander tribes in order to lead them in fighting the Sixth House and Dagoth Ur. Both native populations have a far-reaching history of nomadic, tribal origins. Both view their respective empires as invading forces to be repelled.

Both stories use lost and forbidden knowledge as a key plot point, with the Adventurer retrieving the Lost Prophecies of the Seven Visions and Seven Trials, Knowledge forbidden by the Tribunal Temple; and with Paul ingesting the Water of Life to obtain memories of the lives of past Reverend Mothers of the Fremen, forbidden to any male.

This ties in with the use of religion as a means of control in both stories. In Dune, the Bene Gesserit are said to "seed" planets with a doctrine that they believe will advance their goals in the future, which ultimately leads to the Fremen belief in the Lisan Al-Gaib and the rise of the Atreides Empire. In Morrowind, the Tribunal have persecuted the Dissident Priests for their teachings that the Tribunal only attained godhood through deception, and maintain strict control over what the Temple preaches. Both Vivec and Paul Atreides later regret the ritualistic practices of their following, and both admit that they allowed ritual and habit to corrupt the practice of their worship.

The province of Morrowind and the planet Arrakis are both viewed by the outside world as savage, inhospitable, and mostly uninhabited land. In Morrowind, the Empire has fairly recently come to the island of Vvardenfell, and most Imperial forces consider the island to be a wild, rural backwater of the world. Tension is high between the native Great Houses of Morrowind and the Empire, with very little or no contact between the Ashlander Tribes and the Empire. In Dune, the native population initially remains hidden from the Imperial forces that seek to harvest the planet's resources, and the few that have contact with House Atreides are seen as dangerous and alien in their practices.

There are other similarities that I can't articulate very well because it is getting late... Alia's possession by Baron Harkonnen in Children of Dune mirrors Dagoth Ur's seeming possession by the proximity to the Heart of Lorkhan, Paul's reliance on Spice as a means of prescience mirrors the Tribunal's reliance on the heart for their godhood and so on.

I am by no means a professor of literature. This is not meant to be a definitive list of similarities. I just had some thoughts on the similarities for a while and it's been tickling me to write them down. I apologize if I've transposed some words or missed the right verb form, my brain just does that now :/

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Derpy pigeon does an approach.

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Pigeon in la Bathroom

Pigeon in le Sink

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I see why people wanna work with animals...

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Ah yes the three classics

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Get out my head get out my head Get out my head get out my head Get out my head get out my head Get out my head get out my headGet out my head get out my head Get out my head get out my head Get out my head get out my head Get out my head get out my head Get out my head get out my head Get out my head get out my head Get out my head get out my head GET OUT MY HEAD GET OUT MY HEAD GET OUT MY HEAD GET OUT MY HEAD GET OUT MY HEAD GET OUT MY HEAD GET OUT MY HEADGET OUT MY HEAD GET OUT MY HEAD GET OUT MY HEAD GET OUT MY HEAD GET OUT MY HEAD GET OUT MY HEAD GET OUT MY HEAD GET OUT MY HEAD GET OUT MY HEAD GET OUT MY HEAD GET OUT MY HEAD GET OUT MY HEAD GET OUT MY HEAD GET OUT MY HEAD GET OUT MY HEAD GET OUT MY HEAD GET OUT MY HEAD GET OUT MY HEAD GET OUT MY HEAD GET OUT MY HEAD GET OUT MY HEAD GET OUT MY HEAD GET OUT MY HEAD

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That one quest item in games

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In Vino Veritas

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Lonely places from the suburbs of Tijuana, México (2020)

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