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Are you still active here?
Define active? I'm here, and looking at other people's stuff, but I haven't been posting. Being visible on the internet seems to cause me anxiety. Sometimes I can handle it, sometimes not. Recently not. I've also been more into other franchises recently too. I am still here though. You can talk to me if you want.
Hi, I've been following your blog for a while and I really like the clothes Ma'zurah and her companions wear in some of the pictures. Do you remember where you can download them?
Most of the non-vanilla clothes in the screenshots were added by Westly's Fine Clothiers of Tamriel or Hilgya the Seamstress. They're both on Nexus.
My part of the art trade with @mazurah <3
This is so gorgeous! Thank you!
@katastronoot's Bosmer pirate blacksmith, Gildna, (aka Gilly.)
Tagged by @katastronoot. Thanks, I need to be more social anyway.
Last song: does it count if I was the person performing the song? I was practicing The Bluebird of Misfortune from the Deltarune soundtrack on piano.
Currently watching: Doctor Who (the 2005 series).
Currently reading: a bunch of Doctor Who fanfics. Also, very slowly reading The Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson with my roommate.
Current obsession: Actively engaging with Doctor Who, but still also currently obsessed with TES, Undertale, and Final Fantasy 7.
Tagging: whoever wants to answer, idk.
Fayrl Indoril, for @talldarkandroguesome
Made with Artbreeder and a whole lot of Photoshop.
Discovered a new neural network art program.
Julan is @fallingawkwardly's character.
ESO released new body markings, so I remade Ma'zurah as an Ohmes Khajiit instead of a Cathay Khajiit (ESO's default Khajiit model.)
Go follow my friend’s Elder Scrolls writing journal, @talldarkandroguesome!
Fayrl Indoril is a gray-moral pansexual Mephala-worshipping Dunmer bard exploring the best and worst of Tamriel in the second era. Feel free to jump into the middle of the story and send an ask with any questions you have!
Riften Guard: “Hold there. Before I let you into Riften, you need to pay the visitor’s tax.”
Dragonborn: “What’s the tax for?”
Riften Guard: “For the privilege of entering the city. What does it matter?”
“Whaddyou want, then?” It took a moment for [Lydia] to recognize his growl as speech. How can a guard be so lax? Then, to her mounting horror, she noted the sergeant’s patch on his shoulder. He has authority?
The other guard gave a hacking cough, and Lydia’s eyes flicked over and down to him. Then, they flicked down some more, until she beheld him in all his repulsive splendor.
He was most likely human, if only because even Riften probably didn’t let goblins join the town watch. She quickly looked away, though. Learning anything more would require studying him, and she wasn’t in the mood to punish herself that way.
With some relief, she wrenched herself away from the oddly compelling horror of the smaller guard, and faced the obese Dark Elf. “I need to get into the city. Is this gate usable?”
He nodded, leaning on his spear. “Aye. Gate works.” He smiled at her. “It’s ten gold to use.”
“Ten septims!” She saw red, and had to restrain herself. “Is this—is this a bribe?”
In Whiterun, we’d have them flogged for even suggesting such a thing!
The scrawny guard coughed, and when he started talking she realized it had been to get her attention. “Aye, for upkeep, innit?”
“Upkeep?”
The Dark Elf nodded in what he was clearly intending to be a sage manner. “Aye. Wear and tear, and the like.”
The little one jumped in then. “Every day, the gate goes up and down, up and down. ‘Snot good for the chains and, y'know, the like. So we needs you to contribute towards this public service.”
Lydia knew a scam when she saw one. “Any why, pray tell, is the gate down at all?”
The Dark Elf puffed out his chest indignantly. “Why, leaving the gate open would be to invite all sorts of miscreants into our city! Perish the thought! Have you ever heard such a thing, Nobby?”
The little one—Nobby—shook his head. “Perish the thought indeed, Sarge! We’d be overrun with bandits and riffraff! This 'ere gate is key to the defense of our fair—” he devolved into a fit of coughing that may or may not have been divine retribution for calling Riften fair “—home!”
She looked them both up and down, wincing when her eye fell on Nobby’s face. “Could I have your names, so I can report such… dedication…to your superiors?”
The Dark Elf laughed. “Won’t be anyone to care, I can tell you that. Unappreciated, the two of us!” He scratched his nose. “But, if you’re wondering, I’m the honor of being Sergeant Fedril Kolyn. And this here is the right honorable Corporal Mordistair Nobbs, what we call Nobby for short.”
Mordistair Nobbs is it? It was unwieldy and completely unfitting, and might almost have been Breton. However, she had a hard time seeing any Breton she’d met sharing much with this… nodded absently as she thought, almost forgetting their attempt to shake her down. “And, ah, Nobby, if you don’t mind me asking…”
“Human!” He grinned hugely, and produced a greasy sheet of paper from under his breastplate. “Got a paper right here from one of those fellows at the College, saying I am,” he read aloud from the paper, marking each word with his finger, “in the absence of ev'dence to the contrary, almost certainly 'uman!” His grin showed off his teeth, of which most were yellow and several were gold. “'Not many folks can say they got a wizard’s affa-davit on that!”
So, this is the quality of the Riften guard. She’d never been one for prejudice based on appearances, but only an organization desperate for warm bodies would take Nobby. And as for Sergeant Kolyn…
She waved at the gate. “It’s been a pleasure. Now, let me through.”
Kolyn stood up as straight as he could. “Like I said—”
She glared at him. “You’re trying to bribe me. Either you open this gate now, or I report you for corruption.”
The two shared a long look, and then dissolved into peals of laughter.
Lydia waited until they’d regained some control of themselves. It would have been the easiest thing to go and find another gate, but now she was well and truly annoyed. I’m going to go through this gate, and I’ll not give them so much as a halved drake to do it!
Sergeant Kolyn finally stopped laughing long enough to point at the gate. “You must be new around here, miss. Nobody’s going to care if we’re collecting some extra repair fees. Plus, we’re guarding the gate. Right hazardous duty, it is!”
Corporal Nobbs nodded vehemently, and his ill-fitting helmet almost fell off his head. “What the big man said.”
Sergeant Kolyn gave Corporal Nobbs a little nudge with the butt of his spear. “You’d best show me the respect of my rank, Nobby.”
“Beggin’ your pardon, Sarge, but I shows you a lot more respect than most what 'ave your rank. If'n you was one of those officers like I had in the Stormcloaks, then we’d 'ave a real problem.”
Apparently they’d forgotten that Lydia existed, but she couldn’t let that last bit slide. “You were a Stormcloak?”
Nobby grinned. “For all of a day, I was! Offered a signing bonus and it weren’t half bad money, but then they wanted I should go to war. So, I slipped out of my tent with some of the captain’s silverware and came back.” He winked at her. “Lucky I wrote the wrong name on the papers, and nobody never seems to draw my face right for the wanted poster.” He shrugged. “Don’t think war’s quite to my liking, any'ow.
"Right you are, Nobby.” Kolyn was nodding again. “War’s a fool’s game, and no mistake.”
Lydia had had enough. “Very enlightening. Now open the damn gate.”
Sergeant Kolyn blinked. “There’s no call to be rude, miss.”
She sighed and hefted her shield from her back. “Open the gate, or I will.”
She could see the calculations happening in their heads. Their eyes went up and down the length of her body, and she obligingly loosened her sword and settled into an easy stance.
Sergeant Kolyn nodded, as though something had been agreed upon. “I think, for rare cases of clear civic virtue such as yourself, the ordinary upkeep fee can be waived.” He slammed a fist on the gate. “Open up, you lot! Got a visitor!”
A muffled voice came back through. “Whatever you bilked her for, I get half!”
Corporal Nobbs put his mouth so close to the door that he was practically kissing the wood. “Listen to me, you skeever-sucking stout! We’ve an important guest out 'ere! Open this door, or the captain’ll 'ear about it!”
There was bit of muffled cursing while the gate creaked open, and Kolyn nodded to her again. “May I be the first to welcome you to Riften, my lady. Enjoy your stay, and don’t drink the canal water.”
Nobby leaned in too, and Lydia resisted the urge to lean away. “Also, I’d recommend 'gainst the antagonization of any others what are wearing the jarl’s colors. Me and Fedril 'ere are fair-minded types, but some of the other fellows would throw you in the canal for nothing at all.” He bowed, and stuck out a hand, palm up.
As if he’d get a coin!
She glared at them both. “You have to be the worst guards I’ve ever seen.”
Corporal Nobbs snorted. “That'nd a drake’ll get me a cup o’ piss-ale at the Shackle, so'n I’ll lose no sleep.”
Ignoring the urge to grab them both and smack them around until they were less, well, them, she grabbed the reins of her horse and passed beneath the gate.
Welcome to Riften, I guess.
—
Excerpt from chapter 20 of Dragon from Ash by Mortigaunt on Archive of our Own, featuring a very minor crossover from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels.
(Sorry, Tumblr decided to treat me like a spammer when I tried to include a direct link, but please go read the fic! It’s one of my favorites!)
omfg
this is INCREDIBLE
I don’t even know the context but this is too cursed not to reblog 😂
ive always figured alteration to be the “first,” primordial school of magic, that ultimately all the rest derive from in one way or another
Well yes, Alteration is defined by changing reality, and the same could be said for all magic, but Alteration seems to focus on physics, and while you can certainly come up with a justification for all of the schools of magic through the lens of physics, it’s easier to find other vehicles of change for some of them.
For example, Illusion is all about the mind, so while you could frame it that you’re changing the mind by directly altering the physics of the brain, you could also frame it that you’re employing psychological magic. Or take Mysticism. It’s hard to quantify Mysticism, but what we do see of it seems to deal with souls, the spiritual realm, or directly with the medium of magic itself. Also, the practice of Enchanting involves the use of souls and soul gems. There’s no good way for us to conceptualize practices like those through the lens of physics as we understand it, because our concept of physics doesn’t include magic or a spiritual realm. (Which is not to say that the people of Nirn couldn’t potentially do it, but since we’re not privy to their understanding of physics, it doesn’t help us here.)
Before the development of the official schools of magic, it’s possible that every magic practitioner simply saw using magic as “changing reality”, but I think it’s more likely that the origins of magical practice are so diverse that many schools of thought developed concurrently, including ones that never got codified in the official schools of magic.
This is especially true when you consider that the schools of magic were popularized by the Mages Guild, which (despite the Altmeri influence of its origin) ended up being a primarily Imperial institution. The Imperials (and the Altmer a bit come to think of it) tend to be colonial, and try to impress their ways of doing things on everyone else. This likely ended up pushing magic practices with vastly different philosophies (such as Shadow Magic, or Dawn Magic like the Thu’um or the Sword-singers) out of the general consciousness of Tamrielic society.
The other thing you have to consider is that the first magic was done during (or potentially before) the Dawn Era, when magic may have worked differently, and its practitioners (the Et’Ada and/or early mortals) were likely vastly more powerful. So, y’know, that makes things even more difficult to pin down.
ah, yes, i misspoke here. i think what we think of as alteration is most closely associated with what you might call the “primordial school,” which of course isn’t really a codified practice. it’s more the basis of magic, represented as “change things.”
but yeah, like. as people used magic more and more, and especially as its practice was codified by various groups (most notably the mages guild but certainly not limited to that), more techniques were established to “change things” in new and different ways. so alteration retains some of the more basic elements of ancient magic, in the sense that it can cause simple changes to things, like making them heavier or lighter, moving them around etc.
but there are other schools, like illusion, which somehow tricks the mind into believing things were changed (somehow….i’m not really sure how tbh.) conjuration deals with transplanar contact and transference. mysticism (and thaumaturgy*) are usually more metaphysical in nature, often breaking the rules that alteration simply bends. restoration is…an interesting hodgepodge of all of the above.**
and yeah, the thing with magic in the dawn is that it both worked very differently and also works the same it always has. “magic” didn’t really exist back then - it was just how things worked. et’ada wanted things to happen, and they happened. the state of things was in such constant flux that basically any action back then would seem like magic to us now.
but within the trappings of mundus, things got much more constrained (by the aedra and earthbones) within the confines of “reality” and “physics,” meaning that a lot of things easily possible to the spirits before convention were difficult and fantastical to mortals. it required utilization of great willpower and plenty of the magicka seeping in through the sun and stars to perform feats much less impressive than dawn era magic.
* - thaumaturgy was…such a strange school. the variety of its effects was kinda stupid. the only reason i could possibly theorize to justify its existence is if the way it was practiced/taught/understood was distinct from the ways other schools (with similar abilities) are done. but it very much makes sense from both a game- and lore-perspective to dissolve it and give its powers to other schools with more similarities.
** - restoration, man…closing flesh and fixing bones (alteration)…soothing pain by numbing the mind to it (illusion)…protection from various types of magic (mysticism)…weakening and siphoning attributes, including life itself, from others (necromancy, which is commonly linked to conjuration)…it’s a hell of a school only loosely bound together mostly by religion.
I don’t know very much/don’t have very many headcanons regarding the Dawn Era, but I’m loving how you conceptualize Restoration here.
ive always figured alteration to be the “first,” primordial school of magic, that ultimately all the rest derive from in one way or another
Well yes, Alteration is defined by changing reality, and the same could be said for all magic, but Alteration seems to focus on physics, and while you can certainly come up with a justification for all of the schools of magic through the lens of physics, it’s easier to find other vehicles of change for some of them.
For example, Illusion is all about the mind, so while you could frame it that you’re changing the mind by directly altering the physics of the brain, you could also frame it that you’re employing psychological magic. Or take Mysticism. It’s hard to quantify Mysticism, but what we do see of it seems to deal with souls, the spiritual realm, or directly with the medium of magic itself. Also, the practice of Enchanting involves the use of souls and soul gems. There’s no good way for us to conceptualize practices like those through the lens of physics as we understand it, because our concept of physics doesn’t include magic or a spiritual realm. (Which is not to say that the people of Nirn couldn’t potentially do it, but since we’re not privy to their understanding of physics, it doesn’t help us here.)
Before the development of the official schools of magic, it’s possible that every magic practitioner simply saw using magic as “changing reality”, but I think it’s more likely that the origins of magical practice are so diverse that many schools of thought developed concurrently, including ones that never got codified in the official schools of magic.
This is especially true when you consider that the schools of magic were popularized by the Mages Guild, which (despite the Altmeri influence of its origin) ended up being a primarily Imperial institution. The Imperials (and the Altmer a bit come to think of it) tend to be colonial, and try to impress their ways of doing things on everyone else. This likely ended up pushing magic practices with vastly different philosophies (such as Shadow Magic, or Dawn Magic like the Thu’um or the Sword-singers) out of the general consciousness of Tamrielic society.
The other thing you have to consider is that the first magic was done during (or potentially before) the Dawn Era, when magic may have worked differently, and its practitioners (the Et’Ada and/or early mortals) were likely vastly more powerful. So, y’know, that makes things even more difficult to pin down.
