The Great War of Tamriel - Why Mer Deserve The Worst
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- Опубліковано 15 чер 2024
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/ @pancreasnowork9939
I hate the Thalmor I hate the Thalmor I hate the Mer I hate Mer total Mer death eliminate every single last Elf on Nirn.
0:00 - Intro
1:02 - Leadup to War
6:28 - War is On
15:26 - Aftermath
19:09 - Conclusion
19:48 - Dagothborn
Music:
The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim - From Past to Present, Silent Footsteps, Dragonsreach, Under an Ancient Sun, Masser, Ancient Stones - Ігри
Tamriel is truly cursed, they have the worst elves and even their dwarves are elves, a nightmare made true
Well, y'know, the dwemer are actually chads. They said "fuck gods" and ascended to another plane with magic-tech.
"Even their dwarves are elves"
This one hurt me to the core.
@@theinquisitor8112 being the chadest elf doesnt mean much compared to the average dwarf, luckly the Argonians exist and balance the universe with their awesomeness
The lizard people are a weird plant hive mind and the beast men are cr*ck addicts. Tamriel is definitely the darkest timeline.
@@theinquisitor8112 I always thought that the Dwemer came to the realization that they were all minor background characters from the lore of a video game about a world that doesn't exist. And by discovering that they weren't real, ceased to exist within the fiction,
I like how in other series Elves are just uptight beings 99% of the time, but in Elder Scrolls lore they are just... Incredibly racist, including having their own slurs.
Forgotten Realms elves have a lot of slurs themselves. Just a fun reminder.
Issue is that ES elves have no redeeming qualities
Even in Tolkien, they're not so often uptight as they are super depressed with how the world ages, and also the very soil is tainted with the essence of Satan (Morgoth), causing them to be slowly poisoned to death by his lingering hatred for them unless they sail off to pseudo-Heaven (Valinor).
@@stephenjenkins7971 Yes they do? You must be new to Elder Scrolls lore if you think they do not.
@@CoffeeSuccubushonestly he's kinda right.
Altmer and Dunmer at least openly like slavery, pull the "outlander" card, act like uptight asses (still luv me Dunmer though), and try to opress other races religions.
Tamriel: "Remember the oblivion crisis? That was horrible."
Oblivion: _"... You mean the Argonian Crisis?"_
Can you imagine a billion argonian, high on hyst sap, zerging and speeding all over the place.
I can imagine, i would fuckin love to see it.
@@Impericalevidence They move exclusively via jumping and randomly eat 9-12 entire cheese wheels
@@ColonelBragg aaah cheeeese, the nectar of the gods!
@@BringDHouseDown His VA sounds super off in the latest dub, Got me wondering if they brought a new guy on or something.
Most of Tamriel: “We’re being invaded by demons!”
Said demons: “We’re being invaded by velociraptors!”
to bad the dunmer were too racist, they reanimate a fucking city sized crab(with a city still built into it) to fight the daedra, do you know how fucked Mehrunes Dagon would be if the Argonians and Dunmer were a combined front? you think the Lizards invading you are bad imagine if they were marching on you with mobile fortress crab-mechs
@@seelcudoom1 So like when Zoidberg's people built a crab fortress on Earth? Yeah. real scary.
@@MikeSchinlaub ya but imagine if instead of zoidburgs people its was a mix of nibblonians, every mad scientist in the series, and the globetrotters
@@seelcudoom1 stg if only we had seen an Ebonheart Pact reborn under the oblivion crisis. A combined army of Argonians, Nords and Dunmer? Disgusting levels of badassery
@@seelcudoom1 the harlem globetrotters are in elder scrolls??
Everytime an Altmer in Summerset decides to not be racist, a Dragon Break erases that Altmer from history because Akatosh is well aware that Nirn could not continue existing after an event this world shattering.
Altmer: looks at a human for more than 5 seconds withoutinsulting them.
**The thread of prophecy is severed**
That sounds like Thalmor propaganda actually.
"That mer who was talking about man-mer equality? Oh yeah, a dragon break happened and erased him from existence."
What about, you know, everyone else? How are nords, dunmer or redguards any less racist?
"You know? Those nord women certainly have a wild beauty to them"
*gets erased*
@@Auriel_Direnni They're racist against Altmer, which redeems them of all their sins. Anti-Altmer racism, after all, is extremely based.
You know a race of elves *has* to suck if *this guy* hates them.
These guys make me wish the concept of elves didn't exist
@@captaintitus4637 If genociding elves is wrong, I don't want to be right.
Well he's an elf simp we know but ALL elf races suck.
Also your comments give me hope for humanity
@@libertyprime3827 BASED AS FUK
People give Nords shit for being racist but either ignore or are unaware that they were the victims and are justified.
"Pelinal, no! Those Altmer have families. Think of the Children!!"
"They're next..."
Not to be the nerd emoji but he would’ve been killing Aelyids(?) right?
@acet1920 He hates ALL elves. When he encountered Khajiit they said they were not mer. Which I guess he heard as Notmer. Like Altmer or Dunmer. So he started killing for a bit until he realized they weren't actually elves.
@@acet1920pelinal murdered cat people because he heard they are elf he did not fact check he saw pointy ears and went doom slayer
Cyrodil: Gets beaten up by daedra - left in a weakened state that causes them to almost lose the war
Altmer: Gets beaten up by daedra almost to the point of extinction - somehow recuperates strong enough to invade multiple nations at once, after major internal purges.
It helps if you don't think about it too much
@@ahappylictor3214that could apply to 95% of Elder Scrolls lore.
The Empire had been in civil war for about 100 years and was only united just before the great war started
@@whee38 The only thing I could find on a civil war in Cyrodiil just before the great war was on a Fanon website, you got a reliable source for this? Ive not heard of it before.
Something the don’t say is that the Great War was 170 years after the oblivion war because by the time of the game the Great War is already 30 years old
The Argonians counter invading Oblivion is honestly the most Warhammer shit in Elder Scrolls and I love it.
It's not for their sake.
The thing you have to understand is that.... The real master of the black marsh are the hist trees. They are sentient, and magical. They created the Argonians to be their servants.
It's an actual thing.
Reason the dunmer could just raid them for thousands of years with no risk is because they never bothered the trees, so the trees didn't care.
Reason the Daedra got their shit kicked in is because they bothered the trees. The trees promptly turbo charged their lizard pets and sent them on a rampage.
Of course, The Argonians got ahead of themselves. They decided to avenge themselves on the Dunmer- and had a bit of success (Dunmer having been hit with three apocalyptic events almost back to back. The falling of the false moon, the red year when red mountain blew up choking the land in toxic ash for a full year, then the oblivion crisis.)
They still got kicked out when the Dunmer finally mobilized their army.
"SLAAAAYYYYY THE MORTALS! - OH FUCK, LIZARD MORTALS! BACK! RETREAT! CLOSE THE GATE BEFORE THEY KILL US ALL!"
@@AsaelTheBeast
Argonians: "We speak for the trees. And the trees say *Hakai!"*
Deadra: "Ah sh-" *Kaboom!*
As much as I love argonians (who are a much more maturely and complex designed beast race, relative to khajit), the daedra counter invasion isn't a very reliable narrative
Argonians have their own crazies that claimed credit for that (like the thalmor claimed credit for oblivion), the An Xiheel. There are two books between oblivion/skyrim that talk about how the An Xiheel idiotically summon a flying doomsday city called Umbriel that nearly destroys the world. The An Xiheel aren't quite as hateful and barbaric as the Thalmor, but their stupidity puts the world at risk nonetheless
why you dont piss off Argonians, a thread
Some people playing Oblivion will say Pelninal Whitestrake went too far in his extermination of the elves. Every person who plays Skyrim realizes he didn't go far enough.
And those who know the full lore will say he did not go far enough
I play skyrim and I'm a dunmer, fuck n'wahs yall are propety.
What was going on in Resdayn at this time? Conflicts between Dunmer and Dwemer? How did they react to the fall of the Ayleids?
I hope the Thalmor win because that would be more interesting
I wonder what real life counterpart this could be an allegory for? 🤔
>lockpick the thalmor embassy room in markarth
>"caught" trespassing by the thalmor, attacked on sight
>several Wuuthrad decapitation animations later
>pay 40 gold bounty for trespassing
Always enter the thalmor embassy with wultrad and storm call and no sneak bs
@@ioanniskonovesis3438remember, no Thalmor
@@ioanniskonovesis3438its considered stealth if nobody is left to see it
Beautiful work
@@Illitha my second favourite is to "accidentally" turn werewolf
As a Dunmer main, I love putting Altmer to the sword. There's a reason the Chimer left the Summerset Isles.
This comment goes hard. Well said, brother.
Degoth Er gives his respects.
Dagoth Ur did nothing wrong. Fuck the tribunal, the false gods.
Trinamac/Malacath:Hey dont you give those uptight basterds any credit!
Well, actually, that reason was because they wanted to worship Daedra... I mean, the Altmer are still shitheads, but that doesn't change the fact that they departed because they found devil-worship more appealing.
Elder scrolls lore is genuinely so fascinating and often so arcane and cool that it’s depressing how Bethesda doesn’t seem to understand how to actually write good quests to go along with it.
Wait until you find out about Dagoth Ur. The elf who discovered he was a dream within the mind of a sleeping god, and was so arrogant that he believed himself to be that sleeping god. And then his ego was so great that it then became true.
@@Never_heartmorrowind is the second best written TES game due to it being a hell Mary by Bethesda when they were going bankrupt making morrowind. Also the best written game was redguard the games shit but it's story is actually good.
@@Never_heart to be fair morrowind is the only Bethesda game that can be said to have actually good writing
Let's say modern Bethesda. But yeah, whoever writes their new worlds and quests wants them to be "relatable". A complex world full of politic and mystic struggles isn't, the usual family or goofy side quest story is. NPC's and the PCs lines as well are usually either stupid, naive or badass without any reasoning behind them. And they have to be, since the general lack of choice means they can never have any actual meaning.
Morrowind Story is just Jerusalem 33AD to 70AD.
One story regarding the Thalmor that always sticks with me is the one the High Elf Legion Captain tells the player near Riften, about how the Thalmor set fire to refugees indiscrimently during the Night of Green Fires. All because those refugees commited the crime of not wanting to live under the Thalmor's rule
The Captain's tone makes it clear just what a horrific sight it was and cemented a hatred for the Thalmor in every legionnare present
That guy is one of my favourite characters in Skyrim just by virtue of being an Altmer Centurion who very much hates the Thalmor. There's this idea in universe and out, no doubt propagated by the Thalmor IC, that all Altmer are or support the Thalmor; here we have this guy who is very much ready and willing to kick their asses for their horrible crimes. He is also the only local commander with actual unique dialogue iirc!
Easy to forget, the first province the Thalmor invaded, was Alinor...
That guy was a baller and easily my favorite imperial officer. it’s partially because all of the others are generic dudes and dudetts and he’s an altmer but mainly for his conviction that he can both be loyal to the empire and hate the thalmor at the same time. Great character and a very nice touch to the games world.
@@vicentetemes5793 especially since he was personally affected (His relatives as assumed dead because of it).
@@vicentetemes5793Actually he is a Legate so he is something of a Colonel. Also if we did a quest for Malborn we can learn that Cats aren't all fond of Thalmor as well
What I love about this video is that it doesn't even begin to scratch the SURFACE of why Tamriel elves are just the worst. It's telling that Bosmer/Woodelves being *just* murderous cannibals who sometimes turn into an all-consuming menagerie of horrifying bestial monstrosities that devours everything it can find, and then devours itself, makes them the least bad of all the Mer in the setting by far.
At least the wood elves got better over time do to the green pact quite literally forcing them to calm the fuck down or die. Even with that being said they can still be overly horrible
We got to remember after all that if you actually look at the history of the world the Fuckn orcs and kajite end up looking the best. The orcs because after a while they just wanted to be left alone (mostly) and the kajite were strong enough to keep the elves and humans out so their society form mostly singular to everyone else
Every race in elder scrolls is pretty messed up thats why we lov them 😂
The Osimer are the least bad. They're just a warrior culture in search of a homeland that make great mercenaries. They live to adventure, fight, and win glory. No racism, anyone can be a worthy opponent. No great ego, they know they're only as good as they prove themselves, no monstrous secret, the orcs are the best elves in Elder Scrolls.
@@djerk2138
The reason why everyone hates the Thalmor isn't because they're racist assholes, but because they're the most racist assholes in this land where everyone is a racist asshole. And it's so beautiful.
@@djerk2138 Except for the Nords.
If Shor didn't want me to kill elves then why does he keep putting my axe in their skulls?
Certified Turning Point: Tamriel Moment.
Nice profile pick.
Keep in mind, in lore. The Altmer needed a deadric artifact known as The Orb of Vermina, which basically lets you spy on anyone and anything. The reason why they even won most of their battles, is because they had the equivalent of a modern day satellite and recon drone network that would make any modern military cream its pants to have.
Titus Mead 2nd had every disadvantage possible going into the war, yet he was able to find skilled individuals to murder the seer and take the orb. With that done he planned his counter attack and pulled it off.
Basically fighting battles like a total war player lol
imagine having that and not predicting that someone is gonna kill you and take it. legit skill issue
@@VioletMilks Yep. Knife ears in the Elder Scrolls universe, truly don't live up to their counterparts in any other universe.
Card game bs can be casually dismissed as non-canon.
@@Mare_Man No, because it makes sense that the high elves would seek out such an advantage, then get absolutely bodied once they lose it.
It actually makes a lot of sense for PancreasNoWork to hate the Thalmor. 90% of people who have "hate elves" as a personality trait do so because of the Thalmor. He is essentially defending the honor of all other elf races in fiction by bashing these assholes.
I'd imagine that's the duty of all elf defenders when these scumwads come up. Point at these Thalmor and say "Not them, fuck those guys".
At least for my part I am just intensly racist against all elves simply for them being elves.
Orcs and Dwarves are cool though.
@@lightbower5826 Both are elves,so this makes no sense its like saying that. Your racist against black people but Nigerians and Sudanese people are ok...
@@LanMandragon1720 that line of thinking is incredibly common
@@launcherx2044 And yet entierly illogical and stupid my point stands
I always play as an elf, and in Elder Scrolls games, I always play as an Altmer. I particularly enjoyed rpg-ing as an Altmer in Skyrim. The irony of an Altmer Dragonborn, slaughtering every Thalmor agent I encountered… good times.
Last playthrough I was an Altmer with an odd fondness for heavy weapons
And not lore breaking. Because the Thalmor have been noted for murdering any Altmer who isn't a card-carrying elf Nazi who thinks the Thalmor TOTALLY stopped the Oblivion Crisis with... um... ways.
Also, they deposed the High King of Alinor and probably exiled/murdered his family. So... maybe the Altmer Dragonborn is the last of the royal line?
I wouldn't say ironic; I would say fitting. Fitting that an Altmer would grab hold and strangle the fascist fuckers who have taken hold of their ancestral homeland dishonouring the people in it.
Bro grew a conscience because a god had to make it and realized that he must exterminate his own kin because of how racist and despicable they are It would be even better if you joined the empire
@@theenderdestruction2362 I did join the empire! Lol
I’m always polite to Thalmor at court, but if I catch them in the wild… death.
1:19 My favorite part of it is when the argonian tribes of -florida- Blackmarsh united their scaled forces in a time of crysis, and were so terrifyingly effective at thwarting the invasion that they faught the daedra forces back to their portals, and proceeded to march onward and COUNTER-INVADE HELL ITSELF.
I want that as a game
They went from Lizard people to Dragon people for a time
Reminder that the Argonian counter-invasion is literal propaganda from the book series no one read. The reason the Oblivion gates closed in Black Marsh (and the rest of Tamriel) was because Martin Septim beat Mehrunes Dagon in a kaiju fight.
This is not an argonian w it's a Hist tree w. The only reason it worked was because they were given powers and direction by the Hist trees. If the argonians were really this cool, then the dunmer wouldn't have had such an easy time enslaving them all the damn time.
all of tamerial: "oh no we're dying!"
argonians: "RIP AND TEAR"
If you told me a Space Marine Chapter defeated a Craftworld, I'd call bullshit.
If you told me Pelinal soloed all of Comorragh with nothing but a Lasgun and a Power Sword, I'd ask, "How many Khornes popped up just from him existing near an elf?"
Skaarbrand would be considered calm and collected in comparison to Pelinal's hatred for elves
@@dinodude6992 "you look like a calm and reasonable person?"
This low key sounds like a kick ass story.
@@zackanderson7440 AllinAll made a great animated opera of Pelinal's story with an original song. It's pretty faithful to the actual events
Just a million off from doom guy’s record. Wich seys a lot as doom guy got mad each time a new demon popped up. Plus he was already raving mad when he got here. Atleast with doom guy he had fun in the slaughter. Pelinel just hatred and a refusal to not kill elves or follow Korn as he already has a god
Off of the joke thou this is actually kinda ironic as both are Demi gods (risen to true) of hatred and revenge that would never fallow or fall to korn. Thou korn would definitely try to trick them into the void for slaughter. Not of them of course but his own army
A comforting fact: It is believed that Pelinal's name became the mer word for "invader".
it's funnier knowing that pelinal got his name from the elven word "pelin-el" which means "star-made knight". pelin-el had the same conotation as the word primarch directly after the heresy.
@@hynb117 I think you mean Warmaster not Primarch
People still play worship Primarchs in the Imperium but now Crusade Leaders are called Lord Solar
That or DANGER.
I also love how when he felt Akatosh look down on him he simply stared back. Absolute gigachad.
Pelinal at Gates. ***caugh caugh***
One thing everyone misses - there weren't plenty of Elves left in the Summerset Isles. They were all dead from the Daedric Invasion.
Hammerfell was right. The White-Gold Concordat was based on a bluff, the Thalmor had no forces left.
Hammerfell are chads
The war was 170 years after the oblivion crisis, mer reach human adult level maturity by age 20 and live 200-300 years.
They probably had a baby boom after the oblivion crisis too, so there could be a ridiculously high number of them.
the mer live considerably longer than the average man and they do become adults around the same time but the key difference is that they live longer and that affects how many kids they can have, when they have them and why they have them but also because they live longer they will likely see less purpose in having children because they live pretty long lives and aren't in any immediate danger of dying of old age so tend to not have them.
they might have had a baby boom after the oblivion crisis but I would argue that is a pretty rare event, especially among elves. but it is also more limited than what the race of men could do during a baby boom. (I mean the population tripled across the planet and increased a lot more in certain places after a few generations after world war 2) the mer had to have went INSANE over producing kids right after that crisis to rebuild their population.
but again, their longer lives prove to be hinderance once again as 170 years pass and most of those elves that witnessed the oblivion crisis are probably still alive when the great war starts, but a lot of them are probably not in fighting condition anymore but elf lovers have no need to worry as there are plenty of younger elves to take their place by this time. but it was absolutely imperative to start a war with the empire when they did because they have the decisive upper hand at that point in time and if they wait they slowly lose their advantage to the faster reproducing humans which could eventually overwhelm them with sheer numbers, even if mannish technology isn't quite as advanced as elven technology (or in this case magic) but a fully rebuilt and repopulated mede empire with cyrodiil, hammerfell, skyrim and high rock would be extremely dangerous and threatening to the dominion, so they struck first while they still were weak.
I mean, the humans outpopulating the elves eventually was a real and scary factor to the snow elves back in the merethic era when the atmorans landed in skyrim and set up a settlement on skyrim, even if it isn't the biggest factor, it is still an important factor nonetheless. so the snow elves made the gamble to kill the entire settlement before it got out of their control, but it ultimately failed in the end as the atmorans just wanted revenge.
even the events that happened, the dominion still struggled even though they won the war and there is always the debate of whether or not the empire should or should not have signed the white-gold concordat due to how the dominion suffered with the battle of red ring or whatever happened in hammerfell right after the war, but there was a reason why they gave up southern hammerfell five years after taking it from the empire. the empire weakened them just enough to the point where holding onto southern hammerfell would be much more detrimental than just giving it back to the redguards, and if they kept it then the redguards would hate the empire less and the dominion more and the dominion wanted the redguards to hate the empire so just gave them the land after a five year war that went nowhere really but the dominion focused much more heavily on the empire its self after the fact and making sure they sow the seeds of any rebellions that may happen to weaken the empire further.
but then again, my information isn't perfect so what do I know?
@CursedAnqxl You know enough to make a video. I'll give you that.
My main point was they'd have enough elves for continuing the great not to be a bluff, and I feel your point about ceding Hammerfell to the RedGuards as a tactical decision highlights that well.
As for the likelihood of a baby boom, the Dominion took over shortly their homeland after the Oblivion crisis. This is speculation, but perhaps they encouraged the breeding through reforms and propaganda. Since they were already planning on sacrificing every living being, and they have those long life spans, I could see them playing the long game
@@CursedAnqxl Thalmor should enforce pro-natalism. Wait
Okay so one of my favorite fan theories is that the Dragonborn is an avatar of Shor/Lorkan/Shezar. There’s a few pieces of evidence for this. First, when you go to Sovenguard and enter shor’s hall, he’s not there. Second, while in his hall the Dragonborn can sit in his throne without being smited.
You think Bethesda would have a lost god just come back to smite a random dude sitting in a chair?
Wow this fanbase is dumb.
Apparently shor wasn’t depicted in game because Bethesda was uncomfortable depicting a God sitting on a throne, or something. Dev oversight
@@jonahszaro3545I doubt that. We can meet multiple gods face to face in the game, notably Herma Mora (a whole DLC for himself), Nocturnal, and Sanguine. Hell, Tsun, the guy guarding the bridge, is also a god himself. What's another god merely sitting on his own throne?
@@LeadMetal82if we count the daedric princes as gods (they essentially are), Sheogorath in the Shivering Isles DLC does sit on his throne. So does the statue of Mehrunes Dagon in skyrim. Whatever the reason us, i doubt its cos they didnt want to depict a god on a throne.
The stated reason by Ysgamor is that a living man seeing an Adera in his full glory would burn your eyrs out.
"YOU HAVE THE HONOR OF ADDRESSING A MEMBER OF THE THALMOR. BASK IN IT!"
"BEHOLD THE FUTURE! BEHOLD THE THALMOR!"
"FOOLISH HUMAN! YOUR TIME IS AT AN END!"
"DON'T YOU SEE? ELVEN SUPREMACY IS THE ONLY TRUTH!"
Ah, it's so refreshing to have a villain so arrogant that pounding them in the face feels like therapy. I can't count how many times I massacred everyone in that damn embassy of theirs..........
Embassy...more like a staging ground
And now? A graveyard
@@talonthief1494 More like hunting grounds.
Wait, that _isn't_ a cemetery? Because every time I've gone there I ended up surrounded by dead people. (If you can call Thalmor people.)
Speak quickly Dunmer or I'll have you shipped back to Vyardenfell in a crate!
Next thing you know three piles of ash lay on the tavern floor, filthy n'wahs don't they know that the dark elves are the one true master race?
I hope you had a large supply of Black soul gems. There is no afterlife more horrifically _boring_ than the Soul Cairn and every last one of them deserves it.
It seems to me that TES elves have a tendency to fuck around and find out. The snow elves did the Night of Tears and were subsequently eradicated by the Atmorans, the Ayleids committed dark eldar-tier atrocities and were then assaulted by a minotaur demigod and the doomslayer but for anything with pointy ears and the Dunmer enslaved the Argonians for thousands of years only for the lizards to take a good chunk of southern morrowind and commit a lot of fucking war crimes in the process. The Thalmor are in the fuck around phase and I have a feeling they’re about to find out.
Ironically, the Thalmor are the result of Man fucking around. It turns out that using a time-wrecking god robot to traumatize an entire race wasn't really a good idea for future peaceful overtures.
The Bosmer are the only elves that just don’t fuck around. Leave our trees alone we leave you alone, simple as. They are the coolest elf race in the lore anyways, A Dance In Fire series rules. Except maybe the Dunmer, but they mostly get their points from Michael Kirkbride’s amazing concept artistry and lore building, and how good of a game Morrowind is in general. And if we’re not counting evil elves, then the Bosmer and the Orsimer are the only ones left. Your theory does also hold up for the Dwemer too, they fucked around with the forces of existence and found…. Out.
The Falmer sacked one city and got genocided, and Alessia's rebellion would've had a much harder time if there weren't Ayleid Lords allied to her cause. The Argonians did a good job of tearing through unarmed peasants and farmers reeling from two back to back apocalypses, but got kicked back to their swamp the moment an actual army was raised against them.
The Dominion took half of the Empire's provinces without a fight, eradicated the Empire's spy network, then broke the Legion before deciding to accept a treaty that set half of what was left of the Empire against it. I'd say it's the *humans* finally getting a long deserved round of _finding out._
@@Mare_Man it's all fun in game till the dragon born becomes emperor/empress
@@pinkfloydguy7781 man without Kirkbride’s writing the Elder Scrolls would be way too generic. I think he occasionally goes too far in some areas but by keeping all of his lore ambiguously true helps a lot.
'if nothing else, the oculatus never tried to get me to kill Parthuunax.'
Huh. Never thought of it that way. Good point well made.
Really should have mentioned how the sole reason the Khajit sided with the Dominion was that the moons straight up vanished for two years (which are culturally and religiously significant to the cats) and when they returned the Thalmor, in typical fahsion, claimed responsibility for returning them
The fact that this literal astronomical event is never mentioned in TES V is fucking baffling, but not surprising considering the absolute state of Bethesda's current writing
Why the fuck would they be mentioned? Skyrim is the heartland of man, not mer
@mistersandman3446
And? Don't see how that means it wouldn't be mentioned. I'm fairly certain everyone on the planet would notice the moons disappearing, including the Nords
@@TheNotoriousLARGE it's inconsequential for man
@@mistersandman3446
That doesn't mean they wouldn't notice it. Even if they're not significant to the culture, I imagine anyone would be even a little concerned if the moons just vanished for no reason
@@TheNotoriousLARGE it's actually ridiculous because I don't remember anyone except the Khajiit being worried about it like, the moon's just up and dipped once and no one is still like, "What the fuck actually happened???"
"Nobody tell the Nords he was probably a Breton"
Well considering Talos was like 7 dudes fused into one, he's at least 40% Nord.
33%, probably.
Talos of Atmora is 3 in 1. Hjalti early beard (The conquer or tamriel), Zurin Arctus (the performer of miricals and feats of magic) and the Underking (the atmoran warrior)
He's 100% nord, while also being 100% Breton and probably any other ethnicity you could name because all conflicting possibilites are real and canonically happened at the same time
Personal opinion? He was the Orsimer version of Uncle Ruckus
@@VicDScott "Uncle Orkus, no relations."
A PancreasNoWork video about The Elderscrolls lore!
Talos has heard my prayers.
You are an open heretic. I am afraid I will need to apprehend you and drag you away for reeducation for breaching the terms set by the White-Gold Concordat.
That's a heresy I'm calling the thalmor
@@techecoyote21 A challenger is near! Call them! More heads to wet our blades.
I agree
May talos guide you
I really, REALLY want to play a Pelinal Whitestrake type of character if Elder Scrolls 6 comes out before I die. Like, in the actual lore of the game, you play what amounts to a reincarnation of Pelinal to halt the advance of the Thalmor and bring the second Great War to a close.
Hell yeah it'd be badass to play a game from Pelinal's POV in the style of DOOM
@@grizzlygamer171wouldn't be the first ES game to play a reincarnation.
One of the greatest, most unique characters in fiction and they squander him on shitty oblivion dlc and set all the games hundreds of years after he was last seen.
I wouldn't mind playing an evil character that just ends everyone or betrays them to become a god,
@@doibantikov2486he was a time traveler, so even setting the next game forward could still result in a dlc about traveling to the past cyrodil as the main characters conclusion like they did with sheogorath in oblivion
Few people remember the "Dancing Aldmeris" that were seen filming and celebrating the opening of Oblivion Gates in the Imperial City.
Underrated
"Uh why would take out invasion insurance after the imperial simulacrum, sounds like they did it 🤡"
Hahahahhaha now that's a genius comment bless you
@mogscugg2639 lol are you literally using a meme to try to argue why our greatest ally is innocent because of in lore reasons? Lol least mentally ill thalmor
I think a good reason why the elves in elder scrolls are so hatable compared to others is that in most fiction elves are rare, wise, mystical creatures that while some are smug you could tell it comes from having a long life and they probably do know better from experience.
Elder scrolls the elves are as prevalent as the humans and just as colonialist, if not more so, and their smugness comes from just straight up racism.
I don't know about non dunmer but in the boethiah books infertility was talked about as an issue and not for not trying, so I think elves are supposed to be less common. In games 4-5 elves are pretty rare besides a couple high elves
@@Chocolate83Bunny Well, Wood Elves are known for having really big families (they are kinda like rabbits if you know what I mean), and Dunmer, like you said, have no problem with having quite a number of children. The Altmer are the ones who are few, and that's because they take extreme precaution with whom they have children with due to, quite literally, eugenics.
@@RyoKasai25 It's a ceremoniarchy through and through. Every life decision, every single one, falls victim to the thought "is this proper praxis of our norms?"
That's the one. They have long lives but none of the wisdom, patience, or compassion you'd think a long life would instill in someone. Greco-Roman styled arrogant bastards. Which is also weird. The Cyrodilian empire which has loads of terminology borrowed from Roman armies and what not but whose architecture is more medieval looking is the least racist group but the much more classically greco-roman styled elves are super duper racist bastards. It's like the empire is based on the early Roman empire back when it was borrowing ideas from all over the Mediterranean to grow and win wars whilst the Aldmeri dominion is the late roman empire where they disdained all foreigners and made starving refugees sell their children for dog meat to keep from dying.
@@RyoKasai25 yeah they're really gross and creepy with their bloodlines obsession.
You can never escape the Skaven
They've gnawed their way into Mundus and built Skaven, sight of new-great Under Empire, yes-yes!
imagine you have to fight a sudden ratkin invasion in elder scrolls... even the daedra princes would shit bricks if they would attack tamriel,YES-YES!
@@Spartan135 Knowing how powerful the dragonborn is in lore yeah the rations are gonna die because I can imagine everyone else going "GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE" also for me personally I like to headcannon that the hero of kvatch is just playing the part of sheogorath and isn't really him he's just playing the part so the entire part of oblivion he lives in doesn't go fucking everywhere like a pinata that was hit by a fantasy dragon so to me if the ratkin try to even touch the stone statue of martin he will come out of oblivion and kick their races ass on purpose this time
kill cat-thing yes yes. a war between khajiits and skavens.
In my mind the skaven would be thought away by Sheogorath he gives cheese to everyone...but man sized rats.
Skaven vs Falmer!
The Altmer were never as numerous as the humans of Cyrodil and Skyrim. Nor did they have high birthrates and they matured very slowly in relation to humans. The losses of their armies in the field combined with the losses they suffered during the Oblivion Crisis were a much bigger loss than many people seem to consider. Emperor Mede was very brave and capable, but he was ultimately foolish and gave the game away at the end. Makes me think that Mede had very bad advisors who were either paid to urge capitulation or else were spineless but nonetheless persuasive with respect to the emperor. He succeeded in order to fail.
Also, Hammerfell and Skyrim could still fight, if the emperor continued the war the Thalmor would be dead
First point is that the altmer weren't alone, they had the bosmer who are practically superhuman. Is also safe to say the Thalmor pull a CCP and hid while the iles were invaded and only showed up after the fighting was done to claim the victory.
Second point the empire's dwindling armies after their civil war for the throne were scattered throughout the entire continent. Meanwhile the thalmor focus all of their forces into a rapid asault at the heart of the empire and also a splinter force at hammerfell that was in the middle of a civil war when the war started.
Third point magik is OP as fuck in elder scrolls, Thalmor can summon daedra and revive the dead since Thalmor allow necromancy as long as its used on a human. Thalmor don't need to outnumber their enemies to deal a fuckton of damage. Humans only beat mer because of vastly superior numbers causing them to ran out of magika. If the empire wanted to win, they had to be willing to keep tossing more humans into the meat grinder, and the empire lacked manpower even before the war started, due to the crisis and the civil war that followed.
@@JoacoG11no he made the best choice he could’ve by brokering peace in Skyrim it’s been 30 years since the war that’s 30 years to train up new legions of humans in their prime while the elves are sending out the equivalents to 10 year olds and what’s left of the thalmor in addition you have hammerfell who would likely also fight the thalmor, if Skyrim remains as apart of the empire you have the nords and High rock isn’t in massive turmoil so there’s even more humans.
Combine that with the return of the Dragonborn who would have a solid claim to the ruby throne being chosen by akatosh the same way all the descendants of Alessia and septim were being dragonblood emperors
I personally would’ve loved if one of the DLCs ended with your character on the ruby throne would’ve fed in to the power fantasy even more
@@darkdog42I doubt that any player character in any of the elder scrolls game (with the exception of Cyrus) will have a chance to exist outside the bounds of their game.
Of course throughout the Third Era the Summerset Isles were relatively more stable compared to the rest of Tamriel.
My favorite theory is the Thalmor's obsession with becoming gods "again" leading them to war only for control over The Towers of Nirn (the white-gold tower being one of them, and another existing in High Rock)
From what I recall, they don't just want control of them, they want to destroy or transform them, as the towers are what more or less keeps reality fixed in its current form. To go back to their "spiritual existance" as "gods" would require them to basically destroy the world and all men with it.
Huh kinda like the thought elevators in Code Geass
I adore the stories of Hammerfell's resistance after the treaty.
"The emperor signed WHAT? No. SEND THEM ALL TO ARKAY! I'VE ALREADY SCHEDULED THE APPOINTMENT!"
After hearing that the Altmer cut off the heads of all Blades in the Sumerset and then sent those heads in a wagon to the Capital I have wonder what the Altmer would do if Titus Mede had just said yes to their demands, like how would they try to explain the wagon in that scenario?
Probably some BS like "if you do not keep to the rules of the compact, remember this..." (Spills heads). "No one can keep you safe from us."
"It is good that you have officially renounced the spies and saboteurs that claimed to be acting in your name as they undermined our sovereignty. Let us celebrate your declaration that they are no agents of yours with a public show of what happened to these terrorists. I look forwards to your public declaration of how glad you are that these wicked people were caught."
I think that the demands were intentionally outrageous so as to provoke a war. Not starting one was probably not on their mind
I'd imagine that the purpose of the wagon full of heads was to outrage the empire and force Titus to say no. It's very clear they were never really interested peaceful appeasement and wanted a war. The farce of listing their demands was just meant to be an insult to the empire and a pr stunt for the people back home "look, we tried to talk to address our grievances peacefully and it didn't work"
You don't need to justify killing foreign spies from hostile countries.
Didn't the Great War also involve some wacky Daedric shenanigans, with the Thalmor basically cheating with a clear fog of war hax by allying with the Daedric prince Vaermina to get an orb that let them basically spy on anything and everything from afar until it got smashed up? Wonder how well they woulda done without some Daedric help. In other words: Shall we go a few rounds without the power armor?
everyone is trying to use magic or technology to get an edge;
IIRC the Imperials also use a Daedric artefact in the war: Goldbrand.
@@Tlevids that was like, a single Sword. With how numerous daedric artifacts in Skyrim. I'm surprised it was not used more often.
“You see my lord, these lizards got hands.”
-Some Dremora after watching Argonians walk into Oblivion gates like they were public parks
5:04 Argonians are what happens when you have supportive parents.
Parents who happen to be magic trees.
*saltrice plantation workers
@@YouHaveAnIronDeficiency Laugh while you can dunmer
Hist trees: I CAN SEE THE FUTUREEEE
@@darkjackl999 No ones goes to Freeza Planet 419.
They weren't very supportive when the argonians were being enslaved by the dunmer. But when Dagon posed a threat to the Hist, they suddenly started caring about their lizard folk. Argonians deserve better than that.
I wish this vid had brought up an extremly important detail about why the Thalmor were achiving so many great victoies throughout most of the war. You see the thalmor leader in cyrodill, lord Naarifin had a deadric artifact, The Orb of Vearmina that he used to spy on the imperials and basically knew their every move. This gave the Thalmor a massive, unfair advantage as they were basically cheating to win and generally, their forces werne't superior to the Imperial Legions. As evidenced by, once the Orb was no longer a factor, the Thalmor lost pracically every battle againt the Empire.
The orb is an extremly important factor in the war and I wish it had been brought up here as the Thalmor never would of achived most of what they did without it.
In other words. The Thalmor only accomplished most of what they did cause they were cheating and when they LOST that cheat code they got their asses kicked.
That's a fascinating point, though I might counter that there's no real "cheating" in war; there's only using the tools and resources at your disposal. Using the Orb of Vearmina makes them clever rather than dishonorable-it shows they understand the importance of intelligence, and more importantly how to use that intelligence to their advantage. A single Daedric artefact isn't an auto-win factor; it needs to be used properly.
'Course, none of this changes the fact that the Thalmor friggin' suck, even in my Imperial playthroughs I still blast every one I see.
@@vurrunna Reminder that Vaermina is a daedra, and not of the morally grey kind
Doing a pact with Satan is usually considered faux pas
@@cathulionetharn5139 Yup.
The Elves were winning by pondering their orb lmao.
@@cathulionetharn5139 ... Fair point. Though given how often main characters in Elder Scrolls games get their hands on daedric artefacts, I hope it's at least understandable why I may have overlooked that, haha. Either way, I still wouldn't call it cheating; immoral, sure, but not cheating. Again, no such thing in war.
The Ayleid elves of Tamriel were said to use humans in something they called "gut-gardens" which was a form of "art-torture"
That's all I have to know about the mer of the Elder Scrolls.
Kindly reminder that the Thalmor want to undo creation, they hate humans because they are Lorkhans creation and Nirn as well, they hate him because they got tricked by him along with the rest of the Aedra in giving up their powers for the creation of the world and thus becoming mortals (Elves). By outlawing Talos not only they do so as a revenge for Tiber Septim conquest of the summerset islands not too long ago, but also because they want to go back to the Dawn Era before the creation of the aurbis and the world when they were immortal spirits, they believe that by outlawing the worship of Talos they weaken the human god which as taken Lorkhan place as divine and thus weakening one important piece that holds creation together that they want to undo.
When PancreasNoWork has to make a video about how much he HATES a group of elves, you know these guys have fucked up.
If the Summerset Isles were truly that ravaged by the Oblivion Crisis, then the Thalmor must've hid like a bunch of damn rats. There's no way their population should've been high enough to cause a coup in Valenwood or even 'protect' Elswehyr
Or, the Thalmor seem to have a vested interest in Daedric magic, maybe the Thalmor had some kind of understanding with the Mythic Dawn?
To be honest, couping Valenwood sounds much harder than it probably was. For like 200 years prior to the coup they had been getting kicked around by basically everyone; first the Camoran Usurper happened, that started with conquering Valenwood using an army of Daedra and Undead and then near the end they had an internal civil war to overthrow the administration he had left behind, after which their entire society basically fell apart with cities being abandoned and having little enforceable authority beyond local tribal groups. Whatever administration the Empire managed to cobble together (that was probably largely symbolic) would have spent decades fruitlessly trying to convince people that they wouldn't screw up again, presumably while Khajiit, Maomeri, Colovian, and Altmeri bandits and raiders found the disconnected population easy pickings like a less scaly Black Marsh, and then the Imperial Simulacrum happened which saw them lose territory to both the Summerset Isles and Elsweyr. And then the Oblivion crisis happened which called a province wide Wild Hunt and caused Falinesti to plant for the first time in history.
Really, all the coup likely did was remove any semblance of centralized control from Valenwood. And its probably not surprising that they did basically nothing for 70 years afterword; they likely spent a lot of that time actually trying to get Valenwood to be truly under control instead of only nominally.
The answer to that question is yes in all forms. Theirs a reason why they lose the three banners war 3 times. Well everyone dos but for different reasons, theirs is just the more straight up their complete fault.
Like no joke once queen arynn dies the kingdom just cracks. This is why I’m desperately waiting for it to finally happen in eso. Not because I don’t like her but because her and wrynn death are the beginning of the end of the 1st and second war as shit really hits the fan then. they lose all control as those two were the only ones really keeping their factions stable simply because they weren’t dicks or stupid
Sounds about right.
If you read the Skyrim book 'The Great War', the author (an imperial who hates the Thalmor) admits that the Thalmor's actions were decisive in saving Summerset Isle from the daedra. So presumably they didn't hide. Direct quote: "Their efforts almost certainly saved Summerset Isle from being overrun."
The Argonians counter-invading Oblivion, kicking ass, then leaving is quite possibly the biggest power move I’ve seen from this franchise.
Scaly Supremacy
As a Dark Elf, the most hypocritical part about the Thalmor is that they claim to fight for Elven-kind, but in reality they hate us Dunmer, mainly because they’re still pissed of that Vivec, Sotha Sil and Almalexia gave Tiber Septim the Numidium to conquer their lands with.
They also genocided a lot of Bosmer
@@lefevrecorinne7608 Exactly! For being the ‘Aldmeri’ Dominion, they sure as hell seem more comfortable being the ‘Altmeri’ Dominion
Dark Elves sure do love their slavery. House Dres and House Telvanni say hello.
Why wouldn't they resent the Dunmer for giving their enemies a weapon of mass destruction? What's hypocritical about that? Hell the Dunmer themselves resent Vivec for giving it away and becoming a part of the empire.
@@mainspringeverwound It’s hypocritical because the Aldmeri Dominion has always claimed that it fights for all of Elven kind, not just High Elves. That’s why they call it the ’Aldmeri Dominion’ instead of the ’Altmeri Dominon’, because the Aldmer were the first race of Elves, which all of the Elven races are descended from.
You forgot to mention the Eye of Vameria a daedric artifact that basically let the Thalmor wall hack and see everything going on across the world at any time.
They were mainly able to put maneuver the empire because they always knew their strategies and where they were at any time
But the second that artifact was destroyed they lost handily (the battle of the red ring)
Meaning had they not literally made a deal with the devil it’s quiet possible the war would’ve gone vastly different
Which means that they will fucking crumble next time, in TESVI presumably
@@pinkfloydguy7781 I will dedicate every vocal cord and strand of muscle on my character to see the thalmor beaten and humbled
Judging from them mentioning how he’s disregarding elder scrolls legends saying Titus Mede didn’t lead the empire in the battle of the red ring, I’m guess he’s disregarding all lore from elder scrolls legends.
Which isn’t entirely accurate as the game is canon.
I also don't think many people are going to want to live under Thalmor rule. Especially the Wood Elves and Khajit who will likely face more backlash until they defect.
> Claims to be great superior society
> Makes deal with the devil to get a toy
> The moment they loose it they get fucked upside down by a decaying empire
“Elves are generally my favorite faction.”
Altmer: Exist
“They’re the exception that proves the rule.”
the entirety of the altmer aren't just the thalmor though. i think they're really interesting and wasted potential in general, which eso tried to fix to an extent. they're my favorite race cuz of that. its like saying the whole race of imperials is a bunch of genocidal pdfs just cuz tiber septim, a genocidal pdf, ruled them at 1 point
As another comment pointed out, one of the most well-loved characters in Skyrim was an Altmeri Centurian/Legate who hated how the Thalmor treated those who wanted basic freedom.
So don’t worry, you’re not alone here. 🙂
@@caramel7050 tiber septim was a genocidal pdf? what how
@@sukitron5415 he impregnated 16 yo barenziah and forced her to abort. also committed genocide upon the summerset isles (and im pretty sure other places but his use of numidium on the altmer is pretty infamous...its also like a good chunk of the reason why the thalmor came to be if not the main reason). he was terrible lol
@@caramel7050 barenziah was 16? Damn now I feel like there's better aedra to worship than talos
Ayrenn is turning in her grave at the thought of the modern Altmeri Dominion.
Ayren herself was an Altmer supremacist.
Personally, I like to believe whether you fight for the empire or stormcloaks in Skyrim, you end up asking Tulius/Ulfrick to remake the tongues in secret. Once the second war begins, they attack cyrodil until they hear their city’s got completely overrun by birds shouting their way in. Wuthrad once more sheds elf blood while another city is burned to ashes by a horde of dragons.
I think the significance of the blades being disbanded is because they are Tiber Septum’s lineage’s bodyguards.
And they also originated from the Akaviri invaders who surrendered to Reman Cyrodil (who was also worshipped as a God for some time) at pale pass after they realised he was dragonborn.
They’re a separate organization that doesn’t even abide by Imperial authority, only the dragonblooded emperors. So it’s actually not that much of a loss for the Empire, as stated by Master Jauffrey at the end of Oblivion’s main quest, the Blades are not an arm of the government.
Their work as Agents against the Thalmor also acted against their interests... The fact that they represented protectors of a God King they want to be stripped from the heavens only makes it worse.
Now explain the depravity of the elves pelinal was fighting and how they were somehow even worse than the thalmor.
The Ayleid daedra-worshipping Royalty, magocrats, and nobility rather. The Ayleid commonfolk and rebel Kings were snobby elitists but still had some morals, enough to go turncoat and side with Alessia and her slave rebellion. But in the eyes of Pelinal, all elves were the same.
@@xenomang3149Yeah pelinal is pretty fucked up. He committed wanton genocide to the point that even his fellow rebels were disgusted by him. I feel bad for the good daedra and aedra worshipping ayleids who got erased from existence by the cyrodiilics
@@xenomang3149
I have to side with Pelinal on this one
@@xenomang3149 It wouldn't explain why there are so many Altmer in Cyrodiil throughout the Eras, though.
The simplest way to explain the depravity of the Ayleids is to say that if they knew the Drukhari, they would have been kindred spirits.
Battle of Skaven.
Methinks some rodents of unusual size had a hand in keeping the high elves at bay here
yes-yes Man-thing got Help-Support by us with no Strings-Traps attached-
We are Friend-Allies against the Elf-things.
I always wondered if the dragonborn themself was an aspect of Lorkhan, due to him being named Ysmir by the greybeards, Shor being absent from the endgame, and his connections to Talos
A possible explanation for Skaven, the city in Hammerfell named after ratmen :
Michael Kirkbride, the guy who wrote all the lore for Pelinal Whitestrake and came up with the Tribunal, and was also one of the main writers of Elder Scrolls Redguard and Elder Scrolls Morrowind, is a warhammer fan who paints 40K and AoS minis in his spare time.
It is entirely plausible, albeit unconfirmed, that he named one of the cities in Hammerfell after the ratmen.
I could be wrong though.
So, orcs went from being a low-tier monster (Arena, Daggerfall) to a playable race (Morrowind) under the pen of a Warhammer fanboy? That makes so much sense now
The names of the provinces of Hammerfell and Valenwood are lifted from Darkover and Dragonlance respectively. I should also point out that Skaven was renmaed to "Ska'vyn" in ESO, probably because Hammerfell is the setting of TES VI and they wanted to avoid copyright issues.
The sleeping god is NOT canon though, and so many people think it is cause kirkbride went off and did his own stuff.
Well Talos is basically Sigmar so I gues Skaven is an easter egg
@@seanjenkins6947 Kirkbride's later writings were weird as shit. I think the dude has an mpreg fetish too.
The reason the Thalmor are trying to get rid of White-Gold Tower and all other Towers like that has to do why I capitalize the word Tower as a proper noun. They are the echoes of the Doom Drum, the heart of Lorkhan which was torn out when he created Nirn. Lorkhan became Talos, which is why the Altmer are trying to get rid of his worship. But what's the deal with the Towers? Well, their creation made time, causality, action and reaction, into a thing. You know that slow drum sound in the Morrowind theme? That's Lorkhan's heartbeat, which started time. And since the Thalmor believe that linear time is cringe and they want to re-enact End of Evangelion they are trying to destroy the towers and get rid of Talos so that they can return to the primordial soup that existed before time. Note that few actual Thalmor know this, so they're unwitting pawns to a cosmic suicide pact just because a few dudes want to return to Tang, and they've been duped into joining up with snazzy black uniforms, military success and killing üntermensch.
I hate you for making me realize the Thalmor’s plot is just Evangelion. I can’t escape that blasted series no matter what I do
So who is Shinji and what is the ES equivalent to a hospital
Well, to be fair, Their Chief god Auri-el literally told them to escape from the cycles of reincarnation.
He meant achieve Chim. They heard it as "destroy mundus".
not really suicide pact. They are there to restore their godhood.
@@micha3l7 Prank em, Baurus!
It would be nice to go full circle in tes6 with us playing as what will become Pelinal since his armor looks futuristic (medival) and he went into ancian greek style empire past. That final Tower in Iliyak bay is most powerful one and its connected to past fiture and present. Pelinal had had deep hatred for the elves and came from future with a misslion, so it makes sense.
TeS: Cyber-Punk for that one imo
They should do that with a spin off game not a main line one , nobody wants a tes game where you don't make your own character
@@entropicflux8849 I don't think it would be cyberpunk, I think that time line was more fantasy post apocalypse, pelinal being a cyborg could have been magicaly induced like the dwemer automatons there powered by soul gems after all technically cyborgs like those people who hook up rat neurons to computers
Pelinal's crusade against the elves was so terrible that the Aedra became so disgusted with him. They were in fact so disgusted that they attempted erase themselves from existence. Alessia had to pray and petition the Gods not to unalive themselves.
Lesson duly learned: If you're going to crusade, crusade hard enough to make the paganistic gods minecraft themselves.
it was great, not terrible.
@@SomeUnsoberIdiot exactly true work of art we should do pogrom on some elves
We can only hope to live up to the example and actually make them fully commit to self retconning.
"Guys! I know he's a little *intense* but suicide isn't the answer!"
- Alessia, trying to gaslight and girlboss the 8 into not uninstalling Skyrim themselves
I gotta say, this video changed my opinion on Titus Mede II. He was a much better emperor than I thought. Your way of explaining stuff is so didactic and easy to understand. Please, give us more Elder Scrolls lore
Titus Mede was always based. He even ordered his own assassination (not canon) so that the citizens of the empire reinvigorates their hatred and vengeance.
Considering he was brought in while the empire was facing total collapse along with the Elves suddenly appearing. In any other situation, he might’ve brought the empire back and fought off the elves better
Something not mentioned here was that the Thalmor Justicars aren’t allowed to actually enforce the White-Gold Concorde until Ulfric Stormcloak (working with/for the Thalmor) Occupies Markath, massacres the Reachmen and refuses to stop until the empire “restores” Talos worship. The General in charge at the time agrees and that is used to force the Empire to allow the presence of the Thalmor Justicars.
And then rather than just wage a Guerrilla war against the Thalmor Agents Ulrik again shows his Genius by staging an insurrection against the Empire instead. 😂😅😢
@@shadowwalker3958that's exactly why I played as an altmer and wore thalmor garb and left an elven dagger in the room just to spice up the white gold concordat a lil hehe
@@shadowwalker3958well if he wanted that, he could've just fought and died defending the white-gold tower. Defending your home, not going down without a fight would've made him a martyr. Damn near legend actually....
The entire history of the Elder Scrolls seems to just be Mer and Men being shitty to each other (see also: the Ayleid enslavement of the human kingdoms and then their near annihilation by Pelinal Whitestrake, the Snow Elves being genocided by the Nords, the Left Handed Elves being genocided by the Yokudans, the wars between the Dunmer and the Nords, etc)
The nords had reason though, the snow elves had earlier destroyed the main nord settlement of refugees who were fleeing a civil war in their home land, is likely the elves did this for the eye of Magnus, wanting the power for themselves.
The Nordic history books claim that at one point an elvish general who we don't know the name of attacked one city for reasons we don't know about, and they were therefore justified in spending the next few centuries hunting down every man, woman and child who had the same phenotype as that general regardless of whether they had any connection to the attack at all.
@@ijtzoi7640 Yeah, that's the thing I always both like and dread about Elder Scrolls: the histories are obviously biased, and entire cultures take pains to justify and glorify what was essentially genocide. And unfortunately, it is a trend we tend to see a lot of, especially with Elven cultures: even if they are spiteful, enslaving dickheads like the Ayleids were, we the player find ourselves wondering if that really merited genocide.
@@kevlonk well something to note is that this conflict of genocide between men and mer is so old it literally broke the world. See both the Races of Men and Mer are the same Species but what difference them was how they ended up in the world and what they did almost immediately afterwards. The Mer huddled together and built a civilization trying to remain as unchanging in their diminished state while Men ended up in the wilds of the primordial world and basically wondered the world seeing all it had to offer (both of this reflect the Men and Mer races that came down the line) On meeting there was no welcoming with open arms but distrust and war. A war that utterly destroyed the world to how it is now.
@@Super50ldier The falmer were not genocided.
Really hopeful to see more Elder Scrolls lore on this channel - reading it on the wiki always ends up being an hour long deep dive. Learning about things more concisely through a video, especially one in your style, would be delightful
Don’t forget that the thalmor used the
Orb of Vaermina, a daedric artefact that the elves were using to spy on the imperials armies. This says something about them, even with the empire at its weakest point, the elves still need to cheat to make sure they win
I don't like the Thalmor but anyone would use a tool like that in a conflict, its war not a sporting match.
"Cheat", there is no cheating in a war. Espionage is a tool like any other
I saw a video some time ago that proposed the theory that the person who hired the hit that you can perform on Titus was actually the emperor himself because he knew that his reputation was too tarnished to effectively lead the empire and new blood needed to come in swiftly and without association to his own rule to keep the empire stable.
I’d believe it
Would he have any idea it was the Dragonborn who did it? he seemed pretty forward with the assassin and having someone that influential take power could very well be part of his plan.. although, I suppose it could very well be thrust upon someone completely unrelated to the events in Skyrim and ready to take control in Cyrodiil
@@oneplayer4805yeah but Uriel was the descendant of an ascendant god and a powerful Mystic besides. Mede was just an overglorifed warlord
One thing you missed is that in Elder scrolls legends (the card game) it’s revealed that the Thalmor were using a daedric artifact that allowed them to see and counter attack all imperial armies, also I believe they were gonna summon entire Daedric army to kill the imperial one so… one more reason to hate the Thalmor
Legends and Blades lore is dumb and shouldn't be considered canon, especially since it contradicts the Thalmor's ideology of dogmatic Aedra worship.
@@KawaiiCanadafreememes I don’t know about “should not be considered canon” because this is elder scrolls where cannon can be thrown out the window half the time because “it never really happened” so if don’t want it I get it, but it is something now so you can’t exactly simply say others should not especially because it’s not that bad.
Also the super Evil person morally corrupt Elf with the super Evil elf faction using a last ditch effort super Evil MacGuffin to win the now losing battle while being manipulated by a Super Evil Daedra is totally something that can happen in the Elder Scrolls cannon. Factions may say ideals but that doesn’t always translate to people who are desperate or morally corrupt. It’s like saying in Warhammer “the imperium would never use Chaos” like sure they say they would never but the inquisition totally uses it all the time not counting any time a space marine says “it’s to save this sector” and messes with Chaos.
Wait. Wasn't the whole point of the Battle of the Red Ring that one of the Imperial armies went undetected by the Thalmor? I read it in a Skyrim book just recently. I don't think this card game is canon. I sure hope it's not, because that bit of lore is simply no fun.
@@danielbob2628 I got confused on the spying part that was another thing they used in a different book where imperial agents destroyed that artifact in a solo mission, but summoning the army though was the artifact in the battle though
@@KawaiiCanadafreememes A faction of fascist-coded extremists being hypocrites about their religion, you don't say?
I want to see something in the elder scrolls six where the empire is reunified with the storm cloaks and they kick the elves straight back to their island. Heck maybe after the events of the elder scrolls five the dragon born lead the now unified (storm cloak+imperial) imperial legions on this massive campaign.
I hope ES6 takes place during the Great War 2.0 in Cyrodiil so I can show those yellowback knife-ears how the glorious Pelinal Whitestrake would treat them
This perspective really changes my perception of Titus. My guy is a great leader. His assassination in the dark brotherhood is probably the worst decision that the player can make, next to siding with the Storm cloaks
Dark Brotherhood is my least favorite vanilla faction and I never finish the questline exactly coz of this. Wish there's a mod that offers alternate choice and just let the chad emperor lives on while I take the shitty brotherhood to a massive reformation
Hey that High Elf Centurion at the Riften Imperial Camp is a cool dude.
He can live. Him and Niranye in Windhelm because it’s really funny to me that she openly admits to war profiteering and smuggling if you so much as ask her about the weather. Very based.
@@pancreasnowork9939 I only did the quest once but isn't their one near Solitude that spreads the worship of Talos? She seemed cool.
@@pancreasnowork9939 and the priest of arkay in Falkreath
@@pancreasnowork9939 a ton of them deserve to live. Like you said so in the vid, many are too scared to speak out and in the case of Niranye decided to just fuck off and leave the Isles for greener (profitable) pastures. And then there’s the poor Bosmer that just wanted to eat meat in peace in their forest
@@pancreasnowork9939 Also members of the Psijic Order, those guys are actually big thorn in Thalmor's side in Summerset Isles.
I think the real beauty of elder scrolls is just how different it’s take on fantasy is, at first glance many things may seem very generic but once you start looking deeper you’ll find that it turns almost every trope on its head outside of maybe the whole “chosen one” thing that fantasy loves to use but I can forgive that since I get to play the chosen one.
I hate playing the Chosen One. It was done well in Morrowind because the entire process was cynical on behalf of the factional players involved, everyone who contributed to the Nerevarine fulfilling the prophecies had ulterior motives.
You almost always get to play the Chosen One in games like this.
@@dmin5782 I mean yeah, be a bit strange to play the second fiddle to the chosen one in a game
@@woodlefoof2 Tbh I prefer games where you're not really the Chosen One, even if you are an extremely influential person. Just pure hard work and perseverance.
@@dmin5782 I can get that. But if there is a chosen one type thing going, you will be the chosen one.
That has, without any doubt or damn competition, been the most enjoyable lore video I've ever experienced!
I knew all of this already because I have a bachelor's degree and am a full time professional nerd, but this presentation was truly *beautiful*! Thank you.❤️
18:27 Honestly, yes, the lack of payment was probably a big boon for the empire. That meant the thalmor had to remuster the resources to arm their forces, and gave the empire some gold to rebuild its own armies. It also meant that the empire had time to recover its population and better train its troops.
My favorite skyrim character I've ever played was an Altmer defector who joined the legion knowing that a unified empire was the best bet against the thalmor and would ambush and execute any and all thalmor agents they came across. By the end of my game, and with the use of some mods, not a single named thalmor character lived and I must have made at least 10k gold alone on pawned elven armor...
Reminds me of the Altmer Legate in the Imperial camp in the Rift. Pretty cool guy, actually has a bit of dialogue
Yeah my favourite was an Altmer mage who hated the Thalmor. I always kinda roleplayed that he was a relative of Chancellor Ocato.
At this point its an Obligation to turn every Thalmor patrol into Fertilizer whether you side with Imperial or Stormcloak
Yeah, my Altmer character was a renegade who sided with the Stormcloaks. Her reasoning was, the Stormcloaks might be Elf-hating assholes, but at least they were willing to do what the Empire couldn't and stand up to the Thalmor-- and having seen what the Thalmor did when they took control back in Summerset, she wanted to defeat them by any means necessary.
@kevlonk the Stormcloaks are completely, 100% utterly incapable of doing anything more to the Thalmor than driving them out of their main holdouts in Skyrim; which they wouldn't even _have_ if Ulfric hadn't practically welcomed them in with open arms
I mainly hate the Thalmor themselves, not the in-lore altmer under them. Its just that Bethesda never shows you any non-Thalmor that i can name off the top of my head besides Faralda and that one snob at the college of Winterhold who talks about how she will be the next archmage (i know im gonna get badgered for this but i forgot her name)
Fasendil, that one Imperial legate who hates the Thalmor.
Also some of the most decent Altmer NPCs actually live in Windhelm.
@@dmin5782 oh yeah, I remember now
Funnily enough, it’s the same with the khajiit. There isn’t a single cat man in Skyrim that isn’t involved with crime in some way
I love the idea that all Altmer put on airs, but for some of them it's just a haughty affect, and they are good people who act for the benefit of all. I'm sure many believe the Thalmor are fools. I'm also sure that there are some Altmer out there who think themself personally to be hot shit, but not racially superior, and that the idea of racial superiority undermines all the work they've done to be perfect.
I bet you can name more Altmer than Bosmer in Skyrim.
Man, seeing someone defend the empire with the facts presented in the game and then doubling down and calling people who don’t accept these facts idiots essentially warms my heart.
Even in game stormcloaks are idiots who can't see the big picture. They're not evil though, just misguided under Ulfric who only wants power for himself
2:43 The brass god "Numidium" isn't from Warhammer. it's clearly from greek mythology's brass giant "Talos" constructed by Hephaestus.
So glad to see Elder Scrolls lore hasn't been forgotten. It's such a huge, rich fantasy universe to anyone beyond casual.
A shame Bethesda keep ruining it.
@@SotiCotonot Bethesda, Zenimax. People need to realize that Zenimax decided what gets to be made and put in the games. Both kirkbride and howard have gone on record to say that they needed to tone shit down or else they literally won't get paid.
@@Strato_Casterrr9898nothing gets ruined and you people need to stop Kirkbride wank. He did pretty good things but rest of his stuff is bat shit insane and nonsensical. C0DA come to mind. You wanna see more Kirkbride check more ESO lore I believe he helped shaping some lore aspects. Pretty good job in that regard actually
@@berilsevvalbekret772 just pointing out the fact that TES lore since todd howard took over, and subsequently, kirkbride got hired as main writer, has been consistent and that it hasn't been ruined at all.
My comment would have not been necessary if people stop insisting that "todd howard ruined tes" when like 90% of tes is thanks to todd howard.
@@berilsevvalbekret772 tatava yapma haspa
To be honest this reminds me of the second Sino-Japanese war. Aggressors side sent an unreasonable demand to the war torned Defenders that obviously should be refused. Fatigued and understaffed armies were unmatched to the fresh and bloodthirsty Troops. Both the Japanese and Thalmore did war crimes before and throughout the war, even more so in the capital. War slows down a bit and the Defenders slowly start winning battles, until the Defenders start pushing the invaders out inch by inch.
Now, am i saying that the Japanese are Thalmors? No. Am I suggesting that the Summerset Isles should be nuked more than twice? Yes, yes I am
Pretty sure a pissed off dragonborn is worse than any amount of nukes.
Dovahkiin be calling ancient Nords and dragons to burn and maime knife ears...would be a great game or movie.
@@NordicTobz 100%
I don't agree.
The Summerset Isles were ALREADY nuked, that's why the Thalmor hate the Empire
@@Super50ldier
Yeah, the 3rd Dominion is far more aggressive and unforgiving than the last 2 due to the fact that the Empire had laid waste to their nation with a God-Weapon/Walking Tower of Nirn.
I mean, what race wouldn't hate that? Doesn't justify all the Thalmor atrocities but it makes the Dominion hatred of the Empire make much more sense
@@thalmoragent9344 They don't hate the Empire, they hate Tiber Septim. Them claiming that a human cannot become a god is ridiculous.
I NEED more ES content out of this man. Love this style of humor and explanation.
Please do more lore videos about The Elder Scrolls. I'd love your take on the creation myth of Nirn and on how (seemingly) the Skyrim Civil War was engineered by the Thalmor to further weaken the Empire.
FINALLY, WHAT I WANT OUT OF ELDER SCROLLS,
RACISM!!!
I mean, all the games prior to Skyrim had racial disposition modifiers, where Dunmer NPCs would automatically dislike, say, Khajiit PCs more than another Dunmer.
The Dragonborn is most likely an avatar of Lorkan as well. He/she can sit on Shor's throne in sovngarde.
Now we just need a Hoonding to get the rest of the Thalmor out of the way.
Not to mention they get mistaken for Hjalti Early-Beard (Tiber Septim) by the Ghost of Old Hroldan.
If the DB wasn't a blank slate character that will almost definitelly disappear from the lore following the events of Skyrim, they'd probably end up taking over the Empire, especially since they learned Bend Will.
@@RorikH TES VI protagonist will definitely have to be a Hoonding imo
@PFG A lot of people are also bringing up sword singing, but everything I've seen makes it seem like that's just a fancier bound sword, which is less broadly applicable than The Voice.
Every player character is technically a Shezzarine, as they are born from the player, as Lorkhan was born from Sithis, and the player is an aspect of Sithis, per the 36 sermons of Vivec.
Never forget the fact that due to uncut dialogue at the beginning of Skyrim that the Thalmor, in actuality seceretly supported the Stormcloak Rebellion and were at Helgen to prevent you and Ulfric from being executed. Because the Thalmor needed the rebellion to be as drawn out and prolonged as it can be to effectively drain the empire of vast man-power and resources. Remember that the next time you pick a side in the civil war
This is why I wanna play a Thalmor agent Altmer and join the Stormcloak: infiltrate the Stormcloak, make 'em win to bleed Skyrim from inside for easy picking
ALL HAIL THALMOR!
really I saw no reason to side with Stormcloak other than as a Thalmor spy or a butthurt ultranationalist Nord
I'm glad that you mentioned General Decianus leaving troops in Hammerfell and the circumstances to Titus Mede II's decision to the armistice. While I think he made difficult compromises that enraged lots of people, I am a firm believer that he made a rational decision.
It's so painful to have to admit that there weren't greater choices. As a child I saw the concordat and said "that's BULL! Everyone still wants to fight for what they believe in!". But growing up, seeing how war looks and how logistically tough it must be to defend a place as large as the empire on 0 resources, it's harder to come to that kind of conclusion.
The concordat is one of the worse treaties ever signed. First of all the elves had lost their magical artifact letting them see where the enemy was. I’ll admit I’m pretty sure the empire wasn’t aware of that, but what they where aware of is they just kicked the elf’s ass, retaken the capital, and destroyed one of the elf’s main armies. They also just got veteran legions from Skyrim which were the ones who retook the capital, and the emperors immediate response is to surrender and outlaw the worship of talos, giving up hammerfell(which hammerfell repelled by itself proving it was t needed), and disbanding blades(last one is mostly null as blades were mostly dead due to said orb revealing their locations. really are you a fucking moron you just banned worship from the people who retook your capital and saved the empire. Of course a rebellion was going to occur the empire won the war and the emperor negotiated it as a loss.
Further proof the war was winnable, the thalmor were one willing to accept peace, two failed to beat the red guards, and three have kept the peace because they know they have a good chance of losing.
The treaty and end of war is as bad as the soviets winning Stalingrad only to surrender to the German reich, in other words completely fucking nonsensical and cowardly. The empire is lucky it’s only Skyrim rebelling. Although I suppose hammerfell rebelled too though the empire just let them go free.
Also don’t give me the bullshit they couldn’t take the dominions homeland, simple put they didn’t have to winning the war only required the mainland retaken. Even just a white peace been acceptable compared to the outright surrender that the emperor signed, and make no doubt it was a surrender the only term that changed from the initial ultimatum the thalmor made was the tribute of gold the empire had to pay, oh but don’t worry they still had to pay a fucking tribute of gold to their own people to stop further rebellions, most of the jarls in Skyrim the empire bribed to try and keep them loyal.
-Altermer deepthroats multiple Redguard curved swords
-Altermer takes on entire Imperial Legion and cant handle it
-Altermer crushed under huge bear of a Nord and loves it
-Altermer is made a worthless slave to Inferior Breton master
*Altermer Gets Humaned*
Thalmor you dump shit altmer are not the thalmor
For the love of all stop signs in the galaxy
Cease
And
Desist
@@kieranwalsh2058 Nay, Human Power.
Only good Altmer is a [ ] Altmer. ♦️♦️♦️
@@hannibalburgers477 sexy
Stumbled across your channel just now and watched your video.... best stumble in years!
Sweet content and thank you so much.
You've EASILY got yourself a new subscriber with this freakin' gem of a video. I mean it was just laugh out loud funny the whole way through.
this video goes in my ammo belt for "Reasons why I evolve my Hate-Crimes to War-Crimes against any Elf colored Yellow in Skyrim" like a Charmeleon to Charizard
I bet sheogorath was having the best of times during all of this.
"Oh you insects are so quick to start, hurting eachother. Even your adoring fans! oh, HA! They say I'm mad."
As far as I'm aware all the Deadra except Mehrunes Dagon and Molag Baal hated this event. Mehrunes enjoyed it since that whole war is something he enjoys and Molag just didn't care.
Hero-Gorath, considering the present Sheogorath is also the Hero of Kvatch.
Understandable though, I imagine a lot of people would be down to become the Madgod after the entire shitstorm the Oblivion Crisis was.
@@borponoida9161 Everything that the Thalmor have accomplished plays into Dagon's interests of ambition, destruction, violent revolution, and deep personal hatred against the Empire
@@MarkD5678 But remember that Dagon is also a god of hope, liberty, and insurrection. He's no friend to empires of any sort - Hell, he was born from a revolution against Molag Bal back during a previous kalpa.
What really grinds my gears about games from Bethesda (even starfield) is that the game always takes place like soon after a really cool event, its like cool look at the dragons but hey do you remember that literal GREAT WAR a few years back?
Love how concise this video is since a lot of great war videos focus on the minutiae or skip some major details.
13:53 First off Elder Scrolls: Legends did it first
secondly, the dozen of us will remember this transgression!
The bewilderment as he reads the name of the city Skaven is hilarious. I had to do a double take on that too
Reminds me of a Turkish city literally named Batman
@@T-h-a-t_G-u-y
In the province of Nana nana nana?
Am I missing something, or does it make no sense that the High Elves would have anything left to achieve anything after they were reduced to 1 tower during the Oblivion crisis? Like it seems mental how all these other places were devastated by the Oblivion crisis, then the High Elves just make a super empire from nothing.
Keep in mind that just like their real world inspiration, the Thalmor are also huge on propaganda. Considering they wove the narrative that they stopped the daedric invasion in Summerset, it's completely possible that they overstated a lot of the damage in order to make their acts seem even more impressive.
@@PwnMissile If that's propaganda they are telling the rest of the world, sure. But if they are telling that to their own people, that would be a hard sell considering everyone would just be like "but there were no deadra in my town".
@@mandaloretheproud6622 There was Deadra only in Solitude. Skyrim was free apart from that location. There was a book about it.
I think the reason Skyrim did not suffer worse was because of a certain Dragon on a certain mountain, and Mehrunes Dagon did not want to tempt fate.
@@shauntempley9757 My comment was not about Skyrim at all.
@@shauntempley9757 Which book?
Also it said in Oblivion that the daedra attacked the "olds holds".
This was awesome to listen to. You are a true talent in storytelling, & narration!
You could say all the races of Tamriel are jerks at some point in their history. That said, the various elves tend to be the BIGGEST jerks. Historically, this goes back to when they were still the "Old Ehlnofey". I think the title of biggest jerk is a 4 way tie between the Dunmer, the Dwermer, the Falmer and the Altmer/Ayleid ( technically the same with certain ethnic differences ). If the tie was broken, I'd say the Altmer/Ayleids take the prize just because of how sadistic they were to the proto-imperials / Nedic tribes they kept enslaved ( seriously, look up what they called "tiger sport" ).
Come to think of it, doesn’t Talos ascending prove that Boethiah was right when she told the Dunmer to get good and shat out Malacath?
that avatar of lorkan that might appear.... i think we met him in skyrim.
its us, the player character.
and with parthunaax talking about how as a dragon you have this innert desire to rule, i think the outcome of the skyrim civil war is the dragonborn uniting the empire as the next emperor and defeating the thalmor.
It's conceivable as a Dragon Break. Personally I'd vote for Balfgruuf though, he's less likely to get abducted by Herma Mora.
Also, it's likely you'll be a/the Hoonding in VI.
Pretty sure he was trapped in Hera Mora’s realm at the end of the DLC. After absorbing all Miraak’s dragon souls he is pretty much unrivaled in raw power by any other mortal. He also has an army anywhere from Duhrneviir and can Bend anyone’s will.
@@sidecharacter7165 i dont see mora having the Power to abduct the last dragonborn.
Also he specifically says he doesnt want us to be in apocrypha but wants us to explore the World.
The Dragonborn is Dragonborn. They have nothing to do with the god Akatosh had torn apart.
@@Mare_Man i am not saying the dragon Born has to be a shezzarine. Just that i think he might be.
Human hero send to safe men of tamriel and kick some mer ass.
In Addition that shors Throne was empty in sovengarde and we can sit in it.
Its just a theory though.
But even if the dragonborn isnt a shezzarine, i think him uniting the races of men and fighting the thalmor with his godly Powers doing a Tiber Septim 2.0 isnt so far fetched imp
at this point, my theory for Elders Scrolls VI's setting is the Second War, probably set in Hammerfell/HighRock/Cyrodiil, the main character will be an Avatar of Lorkhan, and its going to feel GREAT killing Elves.
Yo actually your style rocks for Elder Scrolls lore, I want more of this.
hope you one day cover all the times oblivion attempted to invade the black marsh only for them to realize the lizard people dont fuck around
Black Marsh would be just as screwed as Cyrodiil if it weren't for the Hist recalling their pet lizards back to their swamps and turning them into an army of demigods
@@DarkEcho119 Yeah, it's really less that the Argonians don't fuck around and more than the Hist are fucking terrifiying.
Its not even that. Black Marsh is just inhospitable the deeper you go. Even Talos didnt venture very far into Black Marsh before he "conquered" it
Black Marsh = Vietnam
@@Drexus88 A Dremora Lord reporting back to Dagon: "The trees speak in lizard language!"