Nord: ''Do you live here in skyrim?'' Kahjit: ''No, i'm just trading here. My home is Elsweyr'' Nord: ''Oh, Where is it?'' Kahjit: ''Elsweyr'' Nord: ''Yeah, i heard it the first time, but where exactly?'' Kahjit: ''In the City of Dune'' Nord: ''Dune? Never heard of it. Where does it lie?'' Kahjit: ''Elsweyr...'' Nord: ''I have enough of your games, cat! Meet your gods!'' **Oblivion Battle Music Plays**
@@vitriolicAmaranth Well that's technically true, but also incorrect there was MANY more kingdoms and other political entities BUT the two kingdoms, Anequina and Pellentine would come to be the two domineering powers in the region and both would in time come together to form the bases for the Eylswer we see today, atleast culturally and even then that's oversimplifying things. There's still a number of distinct cultures and tribes that don't identify with the current political entity of the former province, even before the Aldmeri dominion Eylswer was a land rife with tensions between tribes and cultures that felt marginalized by the dominant political and ethnic groups or the ones that were given over lordship by the Septim empire who created the contemporary borders we are familiar with today to suit their desires and goals not something so natural or locally arose. Just look at the disenfranchised "Reachmen" of Markarth an ethnic group that for centuries has had the Tamrielic Empire backing the Nords as overlords to the region with attempts to marginalize and wipe away the Reachmen's culture and identity, ethnic tensions are high in that area with many Reachmen dreaming of an independent country and since the old Septim empire will not recognize them and continue to side with their Nord allies they likely want to be completely free from the Empire's political influences and sphere of interests. But anyway just wanted to say that there's definitely more going on in each *"province's" corner of the world (which by the way, more than half of the so called provinces aren't even provinces anymore)* and their regional politics and often overlooked internal divisions, *the only reason one province is known for a particular race or culture is only because they are either the dominant group within their respective regions or were the groups that had the Empire's backing and allowance as rulers in previous centuries before the break up of the old boundaries, they were and still are NOT the only groups within these places. (again remember the unrecognized or disenfranchised Reachmen)*
A big reason why Anequina and Pelletine hold together would be that, well, they are inhabited by Khajiit. Northern nomads and southern traders obviously have some beef with each other, but from both east and west they are surrounded by historic Khajiit unfrendlies (Bosmer and Argonians), and their cultures are quite dissimilar. And, a Mane said to hold together once, and established a system where both sides get equal time ruling whole country. Thalmor disrupted this pact because it was done with some Imperial support, but Khajiit-land is still Khajiit-land, as it was in times of many kingdoms, two or one.
Dear imperials, if you love to enforce property rights as much as you claim, why are you trying to take my farming equipment? -Ormin Dres, Grandmaster Turning Point Dres
@@averakair9831 where on earth did you get that from? The accepted account from the Imperial record details that argonians are a race of beastfolk that inhabited Tamriel before the races of men and mer. They survived the invasions because the black marsh was impenetrable to non-argonian groups. They gain their magic and abilities from the hist trees who show no evidence of being Daedric in origin.
Serious underestimate of river defenses, handwaved with "they need to be heavily fortified to be useful". Unless you have a shit ton of boats, you can't just cross a major river from any part of the river, but you have to use a ford, which tend to be something like 50 kilometers apart, therefore there are only a few spots you have to defend. Moving a large army across a ford is tedious and the bottleneck has allowed many defenders to repel greater numbers.
The downside of the rivers is that they may freeze if the winter is cold enough, change its course over time, and may get shallow with a lot of unexpected crossing points if the summer is hot enough or winter at the riverhead is dry enough. So they are better then swaths of forest or, Daedra forbid, large plain. But not as reliable as mountain range.
@@090giver090 Historically, there is no war in winter. It is suizide to start wage a campaign. You may cross the river, but what next? Have fun with scorched earth tactics and constant raids you can't outlast. And for ducks sake, IF the winter is cold enough to freeze the river over, how do you expect your army fair against the weather? How do you manage the already hard logistics of war with the cold on top of that? Limited forraging and supply possibilities on top. There can be skirmishes, but a campaign is stupid. We have historic victories and defeats in winters because such campaigns were extremely rare and essentially big fat gambles of the invaders. To the other points. Same goes the other way around. If you can just cross now because the river is shallow enough, welcome to your death trap. Forget reinforcement, supplies and a possible retreat as options. And your opponent knows you are stuck.
@@iwankazlow2268 There are few historical accounts of Germanic raids when they bypassed roman limes crossing the frozen Rhine. Also in 1237/1238 mongols conquered north-eastern Russia IN WINTER using frozen rivers as roads. Oh, and remember a country called Ottoman Empire? It started when in 1302 Sakarya river became shallow due to drought making Byzantine fortresses useless and allowing Osman Gazi to expand his small Beylik westward.
@@iwankazlow2268 In Scandinavia War was mainly done in the winter for larger armies. You can easily transport very heavy good anywhere with a sled on snow. It is also easier to dicover ambushes and such without leaf coverage.
Not to mention that real marshes are natural structures formed by natural processes and not magical havens constructed with intention by magical sapient trees in order to keep out invaders. I have a feeling that this might change things just a teensy bit regardless.
@@norrinradd6746 Well as long as were using *"cause magic"* which in no way feels like a cheap hand wave or like saying *"I couldn't be bothered to come with a detailed magic system with clear limitations or metaphysical principles it might work on but have given very vague and nonsensical 'laws' (laws with no context) or implied limits but nothing precise because that'd get in the way of my creativity."* Note: I'm not saying I hate having magical reasons for why things exist in a setting infact I love settings that embrace a sort of lore of nature instead of just our real world physics but with (usually) sloppily slapped on magic system(s) just that far too often it seems *many writers think having a detailed mythology and metaphysical framework is the same as saying "cause magic, duh" it's not* but I also think you don't have to front load those details at the start as that would be too daunting and frankly tedious. That's not to say a detailed magic system can't feel like magic but only such information should come organically in a story or gaming experience, letting the lore of the world and the magical underpinnings of it's nature seamlessly resonate with a player that gives the whole a mystical feeling without compare.
The Netherlands, the Fontanel (probably spelled it wrong, it's in Brazil) and Ruthenia (modern day Ukraine, it used to be a massive marsh) Edit: England used to be a giant marsh too
It could be. Mirvale in ESO is stated to once have been a prosperous city, but slowly declined to become The Scar in part to environmental degredation.
@@tricklewickle If they hadn’t been looking for you, I could’ve stolen that horse and been half way to Hammerfell. You there. You and me - we should be here. It’s these Stormcloaks the Empire wants.
"I don't think it has much to worry about from Skyrim." Too late, Nords already invaded over two centuries ago. They crossed through a mountain pass near near Elinhir and captured the city and half of the city of Dragonstar. Though Elinhir was seemingly retaken, they still held eastern Dragonstar decades later, so it could very well be some kind of hermit kingdom. And with the Orcs having set up shop in those mountains, Craglorn is look to stay an "oft-disputed border kingdom".
I think that's his whole point with the modern Skyrim region as being a power base for a mighty empire or kingdoms. A would be expansionist king might find it relatively easy to unify all or much of skyrim today into one country or kingdom but trying to project power beyond the mountains that make up most of the region's natural boundaries is while not impossible and a would be conqueror could certainly try to expand beyond the mountains it will at best be VERY difficult to conquer outside territory because of the bottlenecks in the very mountain passes or gaps that give the conqueror such security also makes it easy for even relatively weak or smaller kingdoms to defend against a much larger force uf they happened to exist along such openings and can set serviceable defenses. *At worst it's likely such an ambitious state won't last for very long as it would become exponentially more expensive and costly to maintain control of such places, spreading your already precious resources to the breaking point in costly foriegn wars.*
@@navilluscire2567 I don't think skyrim could become a power anytime soon in lore, it would need a competent leader to unify all of skyrim which would be difficult because of the reach man while they may not seem powerful if the tribes in the mountain borders decided to also come down it could be a problem especially with their unknown magic (such as the briar hearts) you would perhaps need to grant them some levels of sovereignty (ie petty kingdom type deal). Now onto the fact that Skyrim needs some serious rebuilding done during the time of the game skyrim is run down all the forts are ancient and hardly fitted for war same as a lot of the cities such as winterhold, Windhelm and falkreath far from their prime, you would also need to find a way to reintegrate the college of winterhold into society as well as build up dawstar as a naval port to defend the North, only then do I believe it could be possible for skyrim to be self sustaining. (not mentioning the dragons as I personally belive there was like a nerevar situation where the DB like went north to atmora with the remaining dragons and paarthanax dunno why I just feel like it should happen). All in all I reckon Skyrim at most could become a sort of blackmarsh type thing as the mountain ranges are easily defended with the pale pass being the only reliable and safe way to come in from the south, I feel if there was a leader able to do that then skyrim could be very powerful, but at the time with the two options Ulfric nor elisif could do that as Ulfric is too focused on outside of skyrim and elisif is just too weak and not decisive, I think a leader like Jarl balgruuf could be great high king as whiterun is arguably the most functioning city (falkreath a shadow of its former self, dawnstar and mortal are run down and have little in defense, riften and markath run by corrupt officials, winterhold is well winterhold, windhelms racial policy is just a mess, and solitude lacks any strong and effective leadership if tullius wasn't there it'd be fucked.
red mountain along with vvardenfell came about when auri-el tore out lorkhans heart and shot it into the ocean with his bow im pretty sure anyway, that might be like an in-universe tale about how it happened rather than actual lore
Vivec's 36th Sermon says the Inner Sea was created by the first Numidium; but the Sermons are a series of elaborate lies used to tell truths, so that must be taken with a grain of salt.
@Minwon Jang CHIM in a sense can be explained as an in universe explanation for saving the game and stuff if I remember and amaranth is creating their own game/mod in universe if I remember
17:00 actually, if you want to use historcial basis a larger fleet of small skirmish/hit-and-run ships are effective against the kind of large ship needed for an invasion, see the Spanish Armada
@Dan Taylor -What you rebel’s like to forget is that the empire is what’s keeping the dominion out of Skyrim. You may be thinking that’s not true because you see Thalmor agents all over Skyrim but if the empire ( aka the Dominions only serious opposition) falls at this point then that would leave a power vacuum open for the Altmer to fill that would allow the Dominion to completely conquer Skyrim .
that and admitted that whoever controls the center controls skyrim witch is true for both sides plus if we dunmer get are homeland fix Eastern skyrim got there Dunmer friend to back them up
when looking at just the 4E map, you miss a lot of the nuance of the 2E and 3E where independent duchies and kingdoms sort of united using the same exact focuses and territories you had pointed out
Could an Orsimer kingdom form in the North-East of Hammerfell, in the area around Craglorn? If it’s more or less geographically and culturally isolated from the surrounding areas, then perhaps it would be easy for a huge Orcish horde to seize and settle those lands, or am I wrong?
Maybe, but the Craglorn region (around Dragonstar which is considered a part of the western reach) has a large Reachmen population, and I don't think they would allow the Orcs to establish themselves there without a fight.
@@happychest239 well, a fight is expected anywhere the Orsimer attempt to settle. However the Reachmen, if they are anything like the forsworn, might be just the right enemy, being disorganised and relying primarily on guerrilla tactics.
@@kingofdragonsgameplay1369 @KingOfDragons Gameplay I wouldn't underestimate them, for centuries they resisted the Nordic attempts to pacify them and the Breton Kingdoms of Evermore, Wayrest, and Daggerfall. It was only when Talos conquered the Reach near the end of the second era that they were mostly pacified and firmly under Imperial rule. However, Hammerfell is not under imperial rule, and it's still recovering from it's war with the Aldmeri dominion, I am willing to bet the Reachmen in Dragonstar would be a lot more formidable and organized than their brethren across the border with High Rock and Skyrim.
You know, it's actually pretty cool that the geographical aspect of the Civil War is actually fully acknowledged in Skyrim, and that Whiterun is the first major siege of the Civil War questline. I like that. Too bad the rest of the questline was a snoozefest and held together with silly putty and dreams.
Late, but I'm going to call a prediction for Skyrim's ending. Do you remember the story of Daggerfall? It was the first game to have multiple endings. Rather than simply make one ending canon like sane developers do, pre-Todd Bethesda decided to make them all canon and introduced Dragon Breaks. Now, a Dragon Break is when time itself splits off into several timelines and then converges back together again. This is usually caused by fuckery in Aetherius, as happened in Daggerfall, and it's caused by Akatosh. Now, in the course of Skyrim's story, you actually do enter Aetherius by going to Sovngarde to fight Alduin. Because of this, I'm going to say a Dragon Break happens and the civil war either ends with Skyrim splitting into two nations or something weird happens like Ulfric becomes High King and Skyrim remains in the Empire anyways. Things might also get weird if the other DLC are affected in the same way, since Dawnguard and Dragonborn have different endings of their own.
The provinces only exist in the way they do because of the empire if I remember my lore correctly. The uniting force keeping the lands under these borders for the ease of the government. Just check out the second age lore and honestly a lot of what you talked about rings true in terms of where major powers rise from etc.
when i first played skyrim i always sided with the stormcloaks they were the underdogs fighting an occupying force, but ive come to realise that the empire is the only chance to stave of the desires and aspirations of those twice damned high elves
A chance is meaningless, if no one takes it. Given that plenty of Imperials seem quite satisfied getting fat off of Thalmor coin, I can see plenty of anti-war sentiments there. Meanwhile, _all_ the Stormcloaks seem quite eager to spill Thalmor blood.
@@squiggles5640 Hammerfell be like. Also, as I mentioned before, treating Hlaalu dark elves poorly actually would not make alliances with dark elves of other houses harder. If anything, it would make things easier. No one likes the Hlaalu anymore.
8:27 I mean… sure. But the Amharic highlands famously stopped the Ethiopians from setting up a more centralized medieval state, as the Egyptians and Arab Muslims did on their borders.
Something interesting to consider is who made this map. Not literally who made it irl, but who makes maps that look like this in the Elder Scrolls universe. Ever notice how this places are called "Provinces" and not "countries" or "nations"? That's because maps like these are showing the Provinces of the Empire, basically the administrative zones that the Emperors would use to run their realm. The provinces aren't really natural borders, they're more like lines drawn to group the races together so they can administer them individually. A lot of the people that live in these areas wouldn't draw their borders like this. If left to their own devices a lot of these regions would be broken up and shifted around. There would likely be two Skyrims; High Rock isn't really an entity, it's more like the HRE, just a concept; the Reach used to be part of a High Rock kingdom, not Skyrim, Black Marsh (which isn't it's name by the way, the Argonians call it Argonia and call themselves the Saxhleel) is more like a confederation of individual tribes and city-states, seen in the fact that they don't have a capital. There are a lot more examples, but overall maps that look like this are a political tool by the Empire to make people feel united, it's propaganda, not necessarily the truth. You can tell by how these maps interestingly ignore the fact that like 3/4's of Black Marsh were never under Imperial rule.
I like to think our Dragonborn got sick of all factions so gained control of all dragons after defeating Alduin and conquered Tamriel to forge a new Empire that they control with the dragons as their eyes, ears, and enforcers of their will.
I'm hoping that the 6th game will have 2 or 3 provinces for us to play in. So if it is Hammerfell then I hope they include High Rock and at least half of Skyrim too.
>if the continent on the other side of it decides to invade You mean like that one time when Ada'Soom Dir-Kamal led his snow demons over to ocean and kicked the asses of 3 separate armies + the Tribunal?
1:15 I do think it's fairly funny (and just, uh, sad? On a few levels, RIP Shoddycast) that you put Shoddycast as a recommendation, considering the channel has been dead for years, even when you uploaded this, and you gotta go back to like 2013 or so, which is years before ~2015-2016 when Austin bought it from the other two guys since they wanted out, for there to be any TES coverage. Austin got an offer to do his SCIENCE! stuff on Game Theory, so that's where he is now. He's made a few videos since, why he killed it and if he might do something with the channel, but no lore. To be fair, the checkmark and the 1.31M subscribers, I can't blame you for not looking closer, even though I am right now. Here's a few good recommendations, both for Stoneworks if you need them in the future and anyone looking: _LeftoverPat_ _Zaric Zhakaron_ LeftoverPat does some interesting "leftover lore" kinda like this video, but more on like, geology of TES, weather, constellations, Argonians boobs, Khajiit dong spikes, etc. Zaric Zhakaron can go deeper than Queen Barenziah's Khajiit lover with his spikes, but with lore. Somewhat of an acquired taste, mostly Daggerfall/Morrowind focus with a very deep knowledge of the lore. A few I don't watch but that have significant lore content: _Lady of Scrolls_ _Double Negative_ A channel I hate that puts out "top X things you probably didn't know about Y" or "The thing about X you didn't know that the Y did." format videos, that are, in my opinion, low quality, high quantity, often incorrect, they also cover Fallout as well, but regardless of my personal feelings of them that I've just made well known, I assume he's popular with a younger audience, it'd be just improper not to mention them: _TheEpicNate315_ There's probably more, smaller channels, but those are the active ones, along with _FudgeMuppet_ and _Imperial Knowledge_ that were mentioned in the video.
I've a question, if a Race were to conquer all of Tamriel, who would be more likely to do it? For example Hammerfell. Allies with Bretons and Orcs, Gain power by waging war on Elswere. Defending land from Summerset with the combined strength of Daggerfall n Hammerfell. Once Elswere is consumed launch an assault on the Aurufin Island. Ect.
I'd be totally thrilled to see Black Marsh expand into an Argonian Empire. Maybe the Hist decide enough is enough and 3rd parties the Thalmor + Empire in the next Great War. I'd want to see what Argonian/Hist rule would be like.
Rember the fox people and silver skined humans native to black mash? Well they mysteriously died off in an a unexplained plauge leaving it empty and free for the hist and argonians to dominate without compation id wager that fate would happen to everyone in hist controlled territory
I feel like the map needs rotating or slight morphing. The alik’r desert gold coast and elsweyr would make more sense if they weren’t going in the wrong direction
"These areas are unrealistic!" Unrealism in a fantasy series, you say? Hm, that is a puzzle. How does wacky geology and geography occur in a setting where *gods* shaped the world, and where celestial bodies aren't bodies, but holes torn through a surrounding plane of existence?
With hammerfell not part of any allegiance and the uncertain balance of powers in Skyrim, it seems like another covenant is entirely possible. For all we know the Skyrim civil war could be a catalyst for discourse across the empire.
Nice video also challenge accepted we dont bend the knee to elves all hail the stormcloaks true sons and daughters of skyrim down with the faithless imperials and their elven masters
Since the last wo games began with a city being destroyed by the storyline. I'd like if the city attacked was random each save file. 50% of the town can be wiped out by the Dwemer construct invasion or whatever is used. Every so many months in game another city can be attacked and all non quest npcs die.
The Empire has done literally nothing wrong. It wants to preserve peace with the Elves but the Elves demanded Talos worship outlawed, yet you can find many Imperials still worshipping Talos themselves, including Elisif herself. If the Empire didn't do that, Skyrim would be the battleground of a deadly war between the Empire and Thalmor. Instead, the Empire did outlaw it, but now the Nords are angry and are trying to fight the Empire trying to keep their civilisation alive. Either: 1. Thalmor and Empire war over Skyrim. Thalmor wins. 2. Empire and Nords war over Skyrim. Whoever wins, the Thalmor beat them. Thalmor wins. 3. Nords accept Empire rule. Empire is allowed to build strength until they might actually win against the Thalmor in a war. No decisive winner, but Skyrim still has Nords, and Talos worship is hidden but alive. Cease your warring, Nord.
Skyrim was an empire once, ruled by the Nords, for the Nords. And it shall be an empire once again! Children of Ysgramor do not need any foreign masters, especially not those who turned their backs on Talos. And if the Elves want war, then war they shall have. They will be stopped in the mountain passes. They shall not pass.
@Marshall Kinnaird -Hammerfell is independence because they weren’t fighting against the entire Thalmor army . The Dominion only sent a force they THOUGHT was sufficient to win not their whole fighting force . The dominions army was a lot weaker because they had just finished fighting against the empire and were still badly damaged . All the Redguard legionaries who had fought for the empire went back to their homeland which increased the level of resistance against the Thalmor .
Nord: ''Do you live here in skyrim?''
Kahjit: ''No, i'm just trading here. My home is Elsweyr''
Nord: ''Oh, Where is it?''
Kahjit: ''Elsweyr''
Nord: ''Yeah, i heard it the first time, but where exactly?''
Kahjit: ''In the City of Dune''
Nord: ''Dune? Never heard of it. Where does it lie?''
Kahjit: ''Elsweyr...''
Nord: ''I have enough of your games, cat! Meet your gods!''
**Oblivion Battle Music Plays**
😆👍
Better writing than Oblivion
Could be worse he could have been from Noweyr
This is just an elder scrolls version of Who's On First lol
Whose on first
this would be a cool setting for a game
maybe 5 if we're being so bold
You bet your sweet bippy it would.
Maybe 5 games, an MMO, a card game, and a mobile game?
nah it’s too inconsistent
Yeah until you Start releasing a 5th one on Samsung fridge
iirc, Elsewyr was historically two kingdoms, one in the desert and one in the southern jungle.
Anequina and pelletine, yeah. As of Skyrim they are divided but both thalmor vassal states iirc.
@@vitriolicAmaranth
Well that's technically true, but also incorrect there was MANY more kingdoms and other political entities BUT the two kingdoms, Anequina and Pellentine would come to be the two domineering powers in the region and both would in time come together to form the bases for the Eylswer we see today, atleast culturally and even then that's oversimplifying things. There's still a number of distinct cultures and tribes that don't identify with the current political entity of the former province, even before the Aldmeri dominion Eylswer was a land rife with tensions between tribes and cultures that felt marginalized by the dominant political and ethnic groups or the ones that were given over lordship by the Septim empire who created the contemporary borders we are familiar with today to suit their desires and goals not something so natural or locally arose. Just look at the disenfranchised "Reachmen" of Markarth an ethnic group that for centuries has had the Tamrielic Empire backing the Nords as overlords to the region with attempts to marginalize and wipe away the Reachmen's culture and identity, ethnic tensions are high in that area with many Reachmen dreaming of an independent country and since the old Septim empire will not recognize them and continue to side with their Nord allies they likely want to be completely free from the Empire's political influences and sphere of interests. But anyway just wanted to say that there's definitely more going on in each *"province's" corner of the world (which by the way, more than half of the so called provinces aren't even provinces anymore)* and their regional politics and often overlooked internal divisions, *the only reason one province is known for a particular race or culture is only because they are either the dominant group within their respective regions or were the groups that had the Empire's backing and allowance as rulers in previous centuries before the break up of the old boundaries, they were and still are NOT the only groups within these places. (again remember the unrecognized or disenfranchised Reachmen)*
A big reason why Anequina and Pelletine hold together would be that, well, they are inhabited by Khajiit. Northern nomads and southern traders obviously have some beef with each other, but from both east and west they are surrounded by historic Khajiit unfrendlies (Bosmer and Argonians), and their cultures are quite dissimilar. And, a Mane said to hold together once, and established a system where both sides get equal time ruling whole country. Thalmor disrupted this pact because it was done with some Imperial support, but Khajiit-land is still Khajiit-land, as it was in times of many kingdoms, two or one.
@@TenositSergeich anequina's worrior culture clashes with Palletine's merchant clan culture pretty badly.
16
“Violence is never the answer, it’s a question and the answer is yes”
-Pelinal Whitestrake probably
Now *that* is how you comment on youtube.
"If they got pointy ears, they'll live no more years"
Also Pelinal Whitestrake probably
"UMARIL, YOU ARE HUGE, THAT MEANS YOU HAVE HUGE GUTS. RIP AND TEAR YOUR BIG GUTS!"
-Pelinal Whitestrake definitely
I guess you can concur anything If you have a massive robot god.
Violence is always the answer and the answer is indeed yes
Dear imperials, if you love to enforce property rights as much as you claim, why are you trying to take my farming equipment?
-Ormin Dres, Grandmaster
Turning Point Dres
You can't own someone unless they sell themself because everybody owns themselves
Of the Caribbean The Argonians, or “fetchers” as I like to call them, are not people, strictly speaking.
the layout of your text reminds me of how magic the gathering does their lore on playing cards. well done
@@2yoyoyo1Unplugged Your right they are genetically and magically modified mortals under rule from a daedric hivemind.
@@averakair9831 where on earth did you get that from? The accepted account from the Imperial record details that argonians are a race of beastfolk that inhabited Tamriel before the races of men and mer. They survived the invasions because the black marsh was impenetrable to non-argonian groups. They gain their magic and abilities from the hist trees who show no evidence of being Daedric in origin.
Serious underestimate of river defenses, handwaved with "they need to be heavily fortified to be useful". Unless you have a shit ton of boats, you can't just cross a major river from any part of the river, but you have to use a ford, which tend to be something like 50 kilometers apart, therefore there are only a few spots you have to defend. Moving a large army across a ford is tedious and the bottleneck has allowed many defenders to repel greater numbers.
The downside of the rivers is that they may freeze if the winter is cold enough, change its course over time, and may get shallow with a lot of unexpected crossing points if the summer is hot enough or winter at the riverhead is dry enough.
So they are better then swaths of forest or, Daedra forbid, large plain. But not as reliable as mountain range.
@@090giver090 Historically, there is no war in winter. It is suizide to start wage a campaign. You may cross the river, but what next? Have fun with scorched earth tactics and constant raids you can't outlast. And for ducks sake, IF the winter is cold enough to freeze the river over, how do you expect your army fair against the weather? How do you manage the already hard logistics of war with the cold on top of that? Limited forraging and supply possibilities on top.
There can be skirmishes, but a campaign is stupid. We have historic victories and defeats in winters because such campaigns were extremely rare and essentially big fat gambles of the invaders.
To the other points. Same goes the other way around. If you can just cross now because the river is shallow enough, welcome to your death trap. Forget reinforcement, supplies and a possible retreat as options. And your opponent knows you are stuck.
Fjord*
@@iwankazlow2268 There are few historical accounts of Germanic raids when they bypassed roman limes crossing the frozen Rhine. Also in 1237/1238 mongols conquered north-eastern Russia IN WINTER using frozen rivers as roads.
Oh, and remember a country called Ottoman Empire? It started when in 1302 Sakarya river became shallow due to drought making Byzantine fortresses useless and allowing Osman Gazi to expand his small Beylik westward.
@@iwankazlow2268 In Scandinavia War was mainly done in the winter for larger armies. You can easily transport very heavy good anywhere with a sled on snow. It is also easier to dicover ambushes and such without leaf coverage.
"A marsh like this could never exist"
Florida, Mississippi, & Louisiana: Are we a joke to you?
Not That big
Florida is a joke to everyone
Not to mention that real marshes are natural structures formed by natural processes and not magical havens constructed with intention by magical sapient trees in order to keep out invaders. I have a feeling that this might change things just a teensy bit regardless.
@@norrinradd6746
Well as long as were using *"cause magic"* which in no way feels like a cheap hand wave or like saying *"I couldn't be bothered to come with a detailed magic system with clear limitations or metaphysical principles it might work on but have given very vague and nonsensical 'laws' (laws with no context) or implied limits but nothing precise because that'd get in the way of my creativity."*
Note: I'm not saying I hate having magical reasons for why things exist in a setting infact I love settings that embrace a sort of lore of nature instead of just our real world physics but with (usually) sloppily slapped on magic system(s) just that far too often it seems *many writers think having a detailed mythology and metaphysical framework is the same as saying "cause magic, duh" it's not* but I also think you don't have to front load those details at the start as that would be too daunting and frankly tedious. That's not to say a detailed magic system can't feel like magic but only such information should come organically in a story or gaming experience, letting the lore of the world and the magical underpinnings of it's nature seamlessly resonate with a player that gives the whole a mystical feeling without compare.
The Netherlands, the Fontanel (probably spelled it wrong, it's in Brazil) and Ruthenia (modern day Ukraine, it used to be a massive marsh)
Edit: England used to be a giant marsh too
I get the feeling that if there's a desert in the middle of a giant forested region, the desert was likely created by deforestation.
It could be. Mirvale in ESO is stated to once have been a prosperous city, but slowly declined to become The Scar in part to environmental degredation.
Hey you, you're finally awake. You walked right into that Imperial ambush, same as us and that thief over there...
Damn you Stormcloaks! Skyrim was fine until you came along. Empire was nice and lazy.
@@tricklewickle If they hadn’t been looking for you, I could’ve stolen
that horse and been half way to Hammerfell. You there. You and me - we
should be here. It’s these Stormcloaks the Empire wants.
@@lucyditee Were all brothers and sisters in binds now, thief
@Jacob Wilson It was a month ago I didn’t remember what it was
"I don't think it has much to worry about from Skyrim." Too late, Nords already invaded over two centuries ago. They crossed through a mountain pass near near Elinhir and captured the city and half of the city of Dragonstar. Though Elinhir was seemingly retaken, they still held eastern Dragonstar decades later, so it could very well be some kind of hermit kingdom. And with the Orcs having set up shop in those mountains, Craglorn is look to stay an "oft-disputed border kingdom".
I think that's his whole point with the modern Skyrim region as being a power base for a mighty empire or kingdoms. A would be expansionist king might find it relatively easy to unify all or much of skyrim today into one country or kingdom but trying to project power beyond the mountains that make up most of the region's natural boundaries is while not impossible and a would be conqueror could certainly try to expand beyond the mountains it will at best be VERY difficult to conquer outside territory because of the bottlenecks in the very mountain passes or gaps that give the conqueror such security also makes it easy for even relatively weak or smaller kingdoms to defend against a much larger force uf they happened to exist along such openings and can set serviceable defenses. *At worst it's likely such an ambitious state won't last for very long as it would become exponentially more expensive and costly to maintain control of such places, spreading your already precious resources to the breaking point in costly foriegn wars.*
@@navilluscire2567 I don't think skyrim could become a power anytime soon in lore, it would need a competent leader to unify all of skyrim which would be difficult because of the reach man while they may not seem powerful if the tribes in the mountain borders decided to also come down it could be a problem especially with their unknown magic (such as the briar hearts) you would perhaps need to grant them some levels of sovereignty (ie petty kingdom type deal). Now onto the fact that Skyrim needs some serious rebuilding done during the time of the game skyrim is run down all the forts are ancient and hardly fitted for war same as a lot of the cities such as winterhold, Windhelm and falkreath far from their prime, you would also need to find a way to reintegrate the college of winterhold into society as well as build up dawstar as a naval port to defend the North, only then do I believe it could be possible for skyrim to be self sustaining. (not mentioning the dragons as I personally belive there was like a nerevar situation where the DB like went north to atmora with the remaining dragons and paarthanax dunno why I just feel like it should happen). All in all I reckon Skyrim at most could become a sort of blackmarsh type thing as the mountain ranges are easily defended with the pale pass being the only reliable and safe way to come in from the south, I feel if there was a leader able to do that then skyrim could be very powerful, but at the time with the two options Ulfric nor elisif could do that as Ulfric is too focused on outside of skyrim and elisif is just too weak and not decisive, I think a leader like Jarl balgruuf could be great high king as whiterun is arguably the most functioning city (falkreath a shadow of its former self, dawnstar and mortal are run down and have little in defense, riften and markath run by corrupt officials, winterhold is well winterhold, windhelms racial policy is just a mess, and solitude lacks any strong and effective leadership if tullius wasn't there it'd be fucked.
12:07 You mean it would take a time-travelling emperor using a reality-warping failed god-device?
Never should have come here!!
Skyrim belongs to the Nords!
You'll make a fine rug, cat!
LoNeWoLF DRaGoNSLaYeR the skaal can fight me
@Josephiroth -Long live the empire !
Stop! You violated the law. Pay the court a fine or serve your sentence. Your stolen goods are now forfeit.
"Conclusion: I delete Pro Stormcloak comments"
*lmao*
13:00 - explaining why there's a desert in elsewhere
Me - AMOGUS
confirmed
Yes yes yes, this is just what i needed after a long day at work
Same
F
0:58 Actually this island "Vvardenfell" is an artificial island and used to be a part of a continent.
Source?
red mountain along with vvardenfell came about when auri-el tore out lorkhans heart and shot it into the ocean with his bow
im pretty sure anyway, that might be like an in-universe tale about how it happened rather than actual lore
@@yourehereforthatarentyou lorkhan's heart is in that volcano though. Most lore in ES is probably true rather than probably false.
Vivec's 36th Sermon says the Inner Sea was created by the first Numidium; but the Sermons are a series of elaborate lies used to tell truths, so that must be taken with a grain of salt.
You should add "Ladyofscrolls" to the list of lore youtubers. Honestly, she might be the best of them when it comes to deep in-depth lore.
technically, modders are those who have reached AMARANTH rather than mere CHIM.
Explain?
@Minwon Jang thank you!
@Minwon Jang CHIM in a sense can be explained as an in universe explanation for saving the game and stuff if I remember and amaranth is creating their own game/mod in universe if I remember
19:52
"Those are some bold words for someone in shouting distance..."
17:00 actually, if you want to use historcial basis a larger fleet of small skirmish/hit-and-run ships are effective against the kind of large ship needed for an invasion, see the Spanish Armada
Unsubscribed as soon as you said you supported the imperials. My ancestors are smiling at me imperial, can you say the same?
Yes, this comment here officer.
Yes.
@Dan Taylor -What you rebel’s like to forget is that the empire is what’s keeping the dominion out of Skyrim.
You may be thinking that’s not true because you see Thalmor agents all over Skyrim but if the empire ( aka the Dominions only serious opposition) falls at this point then that would leave a power vacuum open for the Altmer to fill that would allow the Dominion to completely conquer Skyrim .
that and admitted that whoever controls the center controls skyrim witch is true for both sides
plus if we dunmer get are homeland fix Eastern skyrim got there Dunmer friend to back them up
Yes.
13:00 GET OUT OF MY HEAD GET OUT OF MY HEAD GET OUT OF MY HEAD GET OUT OF MY HEAD GET OUT OF MY HEAD GET OUT OF MY HEAD
Actually some of the best content on TH-cam, great job
13:08 I can’t escape this torture
Okay, i love this style of video
when looking at just the 4E map, you miss a lot of the nuance of the 2E and 3E where independent duchies and kingdoms sort of united using the same exact focuses and territories you had pointed out
Could an Orsimer kingdom form in the North-East of Hammerfell, in the area around Craglorn? If it’s more or less geographically and culturally isolated from the surrounding areas, then perhaps it would be easy for a huge Orcish horde to seize and settle those lands, or am I wrong?
Maybe, but the Craglorn region (around Dragonstar which is considered a part of the western reach) has a large Reachmen population, and I don't think they would allow the Orcs to establish themselves there without a fight.
@@happychest239 well, a fight is expected anywhere the Orsimer attempt to settle. However the Reachmen, if they are anything like the forsworn, might be just the right enemy, being disorganised and relying primarily on guerrilla tactics.
@@kingofdragonsgameplay1369 @KingOfDragons Gameplay I wouldn't underestimate them, for centuries they resisted the Nordic attempts to pacify them and the Breton Kingdoms of Evermore, Wayrest, and Daggerfall. It was only when Talos conquered the Reach near the end of the second era that they were mostly pacified and firmly under Imperial rule. However, Hammerfell is not under imperial rule, and it's still recovering from it's war with the Aldmeri dominion, I am willing to bet the Reachmen in Dragonstar would be a lot more formidable and organized than their brethren across the border with High Rock and Skyrim.
13:00 : Get out of my head, get out of my head.
The provinces are defined not by the plausibility and viability of local unifying powers, but by devolution from an external conquering power.
Yo that Redguard theme slaps
Love your energetic personality. Made the video more fun :)
As soon as I saw the title of this vid I knew the algorithm had struck gold.
You know, it's actually pretty cool that the geographical aspect of the Civil War is actually fully acknowledged in Skyrim, and that Whiterun is the first major siege of the Civil War questline. I like that. Too bad the rest of the questline was a snoozefest and held together with silly putty and dreams.
My ancestors are smiling upon me imperials. Can you say the same?
Sīc, possumus.
Skyrim belongs to the Nords!
They most likely can their ancestors have zero reason to hate them.
Flames Of Chaos except for the fact that they bent the knee to the Thalmor
What about dragon age, Thedas :D
13:11 harsh environments make strong people.
This should have been a collaboration with Caspian Report.
Skyrim belongs to the Nords
Now the Empire is going to put you down, and restore the peace!
Skyrim belongs to the Nords!
Long live the empire!! Long live the emperor!!
Can’t wait to kill another one of Ulfric’s boys .
Late, but I'm going to call a prediction for Skyrim's ending.
Do you remember the story of Daggerfall? It was the first game to have multiple endings. Rather than simply make one ending canon like sane developers do, pre-Todd Bethesda decided to make them all canon and introduced Dragon Breaks. Now, a Dragon Break is when time itself splits off into several timelines and then converges back together again. This is usually caused by fuckery in Aetherius, as happened in Daggerfall, and it's caused by Akatosh.
Now, in the course of Skyrim's story, you actually do enter Aetherius by going to Sovngarde to fight Alduin. Because of this, I'm going to say a Dragon Break happens and the civil war either ends with Skyrim splitting into two nations or something weird happens like Ulfric becomes High King and Skyrim remains in the Empire anyways. Things might also get weird if the other DLC are affected in the same way, since Dawnguard and Dragonborn have different endings of their own.
honestly I'm waiting so badly for a full Tamriel elder scrolls
The provinces only exist in the way they do because of the empire if I remember my lore correctly. The uniting force keeping the lands under these borders for the ease of the government. Just check out the second age lore and honestly a lot of what you talked about rings true in terms of where major powers rise from etc.
when i first played skyrim i always sided with the stormcloaks
they were the underdogs fighting an occupying force, but ive come to realise that the empire is the only chance to stave of the desires and aspirations of those twice damned high elves
A chance is meaningless, if no one takes it. Given that plenty of Imperials seem quite satisfied getting fat off of Thalmor coin, I can see plenty of anti-war sentiments there. Meanwhile, _all_ the Stormcloaks seem quite eager to spill Thalmor blood.
@@DarkAdonisVyers That is true, but no nation can face the high elves on their own. They have to stand united or die alone.
@@squiggles5640 Hammerfell be like. Also, as I mentioned before, treating Hlaalu dark elves poorly actually would not make alliances with dark elves of other houses harder. If anything, it would make things easier. No one likes the Hlaalu anymore.
Awesome video, you did it bro
8:27 I mean… sure. But the Amharic highlands famously stopped the Ethiopians from setting up a more centralized medieval state, as the Egyptians and Arab Muslims did on their borders.
I'm a simple man, i see geopolitics i click and when i see a geopolitical analysis of a video game i click again and again till my computer crashes
Lol
Invading Valenwood sounds fun until the trees start speaking Bosmer.
13:03
Southeastern Tamriel lookin kinda sus
Instructions unclear, accidently had activated Numidium and broke the Dragon
Something interesting to consider is who made this map. Not literally who made it irl, but who makes maps that look like this in the Elder Scrolls universe. Ever notice how this places are called "Provinces" and not "countries" or "nations"? That's because maps like these are showing the Provinces of the Empire, basically the administrative zones that the Emperors would use to run their realm. The provinces aren't really natural borders, they're more like lines drawn to group the races together so they can administer them individually. A lot of the people that live in these areas wouldn't draw their borders like this. If left to their own devices a lot of these regions would be broken up and shifted around. There would likely be two Skyrims; High Rock isn't really an entity, it's more like the HRE, just a concept; the Reach used to be part of a High Rock kingdom, not Skyrim, Black Marsh (which isn't it's name by the way, the Argonians call it Argonia and call themselves the Saxhleel) is more like a confederation of individual tribes and city-states, seen in the fact that they don't have a capital. There are a lot more examples, but overall maps that look like this are a political tool by the Empire to make people feel united, it's propaganda, not necessarily the truth. You can tell by how these maps interestingly ignore the fact that like 3/4's of Black Marsh were never under Imperial rule.
12:08 haha Numidium go crunch
God I really wish elder scrolls 6 would come out soon.
19:50 i love this conclusion
I like to think our Dragonborn got sick of all factions so gained control of all dragons after defeating Alduin and conquered Tamriel to forge a new Empire that they control with the dragons as their eyes, ears, and enforcers of their will.
I'm hoping that the 6th game will have 2 or 3 provinces for us to play in. So if it is Hammerfell then I hope they include High Rock and at least half of Skyrim too.
That sounds absolutely massive, and unfortunately unrealistic for that reason.
All I took from the Valenwood section was
Vietnam with cannibal elves
Bosmer bussy got me actin' strange
Ever checked out Runeterra's map?
>if the continent on the other side of it decides to invade
You mean like that one time when Ada'Soom Dir-Kamal led his snow demons over to ocean and kicked the asses of 3 separate armies + the Tribunal?
1:15 I do think it's fairly funny (and just, uh, sad? On a few levels, RIP Shoddycast) that you put Shoddycast as a recommendation, considering the channel has been dead for years, even when you uploaded this, and you gotta go back to like 2013 or so, which is years before ~2015-2016 when Austin bought it from the other two guys since they wanted out, for there to be any TES coverage. Austin got an offer to do his SCIENCE! stuff on Game Theory, so that's where he is now. He's made a few videos since, why he killed it and if he might do something with the channel, but no lore. To be fair, the checkmark and the 1.31M subscribers, I can't blame you for not looking closer, even though I am right now.
Here's a few good recommendations, both for Stoneworks if you need them in the future and anyone looking:
_LeftoverPat_
_Zaric Zhakaron_
LeftoverPat does some interesting "leftover lore" kinda like this video, but more on like, geology of TES, weather, constellations, Argonians boobs, Khajiit dong spikes, etc.
Zaric Zhakaron can go deeper than Queen Barenziah's Khajiit lover with his spikes, but with lore. Somewhat of an acquired taste, mostly Daggerfall/Morrowind focus with a very deep knowledge of the lore.
A few I don't watch but that have significant lore content:
_Lady of Scrolls_
_Double Negative_
A channel I hate that puts out "top X things you probably didn't know about Y" or "The thing about X you didn't know that the Y did." format videos, that are, in my opinion, low quality, high quantity, often incorrect, they also cover Fallout as well, but regardless of my personal feelings of them that I've just made well known, I assume he's popular with a younger audience, it'd be just improper not to mention them: _TheEpicNate315_
There's probably more, smaller channels, but those are the active ones, along with _FudgeMuppet_ and _Imperial Knowledge_ that were mentioned in the video.
Todd Howard to Bethesda rn: write that down! Write that down!
Can you talk about the islands of the west?
I have never clicked a video harder
I've a question, if a Race were to conquer all of Tamriel, who would be more likely to do it? For example Hammerfell. Allies with Bretons and Orcs, Gain power by waging war on Elswere. Defending land from Summerset with the combined strength of Daggerfall n Hammerfell.
Once Elswere is consumed launch an assault on the Aurufin Island. Ect.
I'd be totally thrilled to see Black Marsh expand into an Argonian Empire. Maybe the Hist decide enough is enough and 3rd parties the Thalmor + Empire in the next Great War. I'd want to see what Argonian/Hist rule would be like.
Rember the fox people and silver skined humans native to black mash? Well they mysteriously died off in an a unexplained plauge leaving it empty and free for the hist and argonians to dominate without compation id wager that fate would happen to everyone in hist controlled territory
13:05 AMUGUS!!!!!!!!!!
I feel like the map needs rotating or slight morphing. The alik’r desert gold coast and elsweyr would make more sense if they weren’t going in the wrong direction
13:00 AMOGUS
With the LDB on Skyrim with all sorts of power up most certainly Skyrim gonna be a powerhouse.
"I delete pro-stormcloak comments"
Good man, take my sub already
HUGE Subcribe right here.
ride the storm, victory for all nords and mighty talos!
Imagine having rathnir as a new elder scrolls map
Great video!
Valenwood plus elsewhere equals among us
So... You're saying that the power in High Rock would all be in... just the tip?
"These areas are unrealistic!"
Unrealism in a fantasy series, you say? Hm, that is a puzzle. How does wacky geology and geography occur in a setting where *gods* shaped the world, and where celestial bodies aren't bodies, but holes torn through a surrounding plane of existence?
Stormcloaks are morally the correct victors, change my mind.
Exactly damn those faithless Imperials.
Simply due to the fact they promote thalmoristic ideals, and makes their goals of destroying nirn faster.
@@serjoerickii3262 Its impossible to reverse what has occured. Even those in Aethrius cant change it.
Averakair The hell you on about, Nirn hasn’t been destroyed yet.
15:52,thic trap.
my fellow imperial
Don’t forget about CamelWorks!
So what you're saying is expect another Daggerfall Covenant.
With hammerfell not part of any allegiance and the uncertain balance of powers in Skyrim, it seems like another covenant is entirely possible. For all we know the Skyrim civil war could be a catalyst for discourse across the empire.
19:48 "I delete pro-Stormcloak comments."
*SKYRIM BELONGS TO THE NORDS*
Long live the empire!
“The best way to fight big boats is to have more, bigger boats”
Nice video also challenge accepted
we dont bend the knee to elves all hail the stormcloaks true sons and daughters of skyrim down with the faithless imperials and their elven masters
Tell me about the Tarim Basin again
14:00 them khajiit are lookin kinda sus
The Skeever Empire shall rule all of Nirn
Please tell theres a map of Nirn over the ages that animates this stuff. MUST NERD
Cool and good
Since the last wo games began with a city being destroyed by the storyline. I'd like if the city attacked was random each save file. 50% of the town can be wiped out by the Dwemer construct invasion or whatever is used. Every so many months in game another city can be attacked and all non quest npcs die.
15:49
what is this
Still not gonna have my hopes too high for ES6
Why? Oblivion and Skyrim were great...
@@josephc.3192 skyrim is trash without mods
Long live the Emperor! Long live the Empire!
Long live Ulfric the true High King.
Hail Stormcloak.
13:13 sus
13:00 ahhhhhhhhhh get out of my head get out of my head get out
how to beat the argonians:
Dam off the swaps and turn them into farmlands
Thats how you get magical daedric plagues. Again.
Honestly, I just want to see black marsh.
I understand you delete pro-Stormcloak comments, but Skyrim belongs to the Nords.
It can belong to the Nords while accepting the rule of the Empire. What's so hard to understand?
The Empire has done literally nothing wrong. It wants to preserve peace with the Elves but the Elves demanded Talos worship outlawed, yet you can find many Imperials still worshipping Talos themselves, including Elisif herself.
If the Empire didn't do that, Skyrim would be the battleground of a deadly war between the Empire and Thalmor.
Instead, the Empire did outlaw it, but now the Nords are angry and are trying to fight the Empire trying to keep their civilisation alive.
Either:
1. Thalmor and Empire war over Skyrim. Thalmor wins.
2. Empire and Nords war over Skyrim. Whoever wins, the Thalmor beat them. Thalmor wins.
3. Nords accept Empire rule. Empire is allowed to build strength until they might actually win against the Thalmor in a war. No decisive winner, but Skyrim still has Nords, and Talos worship is hidden but alive.
Cease your warring, Nord.
Skyrim was an empire once, ruled by the Nords, for the Nords. And it shall be an empire once again! Children of Ysgramor do not need any foreign masters, especially not those who turned their backs on Talos. And if the Elves want war, then war they shall have. They will be stopped in the mountain passes. They shall not pass.
@Marshall Kinnaird -Hammerfell is independence because they weren’t fighting against the entire Thalmor army . The Dominion only sent a force they THOUGHT was sufficient to win not their whole fighting force .
The dominions army was a lot weaker because they had just finished fighting against the empire and were still badly damaged .
All the Redguard legionaries who had fought for the empire went back to their homeland which increased the level of resistance against the Thalmor .
@Marshall Kinnaird 1. Hammerfell is independent because of the Concordat.
2. They didn't kick out the elves.