09-08-2006, 11:02 AM
Also, after some experience from trying to set lore earlier on, I am now working more independently, cos it is too hard to try to come up with ideas that everybody is happy with or wants and still maintain coherency. In my priority list, coherency takes precedence (over the need to place cool stuff all over the place :p ). So although I don't mind extra ideas (in fact, the more the merrier), please do not feel offended if I don't agree or do not want to incorporate them without modifications (though sometimes, it's just that I haven't found a sweet spot to put in that idea). For those who insists, you can try to see it this way, what I'm writing is more like my personal project. If you don't like some parts of it and want to adapt that for the mod, you're welcome to do so (would be nice if you can notify me b4 hand so that I don't get a shock though) 
For those people who reads the stuff I've written so far, here's a "pre-warning"/report on something that I've been thinking about for a long time.
language/names revamp. The language/names used by the official lore is .... let's just say it could be better. I'm planning on the following revamps:
1) Treat all names/terms introduced by "official lore" as suspect. After all, they come from 2nd or 3rd hand accounts from the words of a Tsaesci whom we don't even know what's the literacy level. Thus, I'm going to asume that Tsaesci terms and names are more or less accurate. Other names are less so (may be corrupted by pronounciations). Other terms may be in Tsaesci tongue which may be different from the native tongue in the terms context.
e.g. Have you wondered why "Tosh Raka" is the "Tiger Dragon" and yet the "Tiger Dragon Empire" is called Ka`Po-Tun? To resolve this, I may take "Tosh Raka" as the native Tiger-folk tongue (names are usually unchanged in translation), while "Ka po-tun" is the Tsaesci's naming of the Tiger Dragon Empire. This example is not exact, just an example to illustrate things.
2) Tsaesci is what the serpent people refers to themselves, or sort of their race (their biological race is "Naga", but was changed by the dragon-gods' curse, which also made them "vampiric"). Tsaesci can also optionally refers to the whole Empire.
3) Tang Mo is the name of the islands the monkey-folk resides in. Their civilization is also often refered to as Tang Mo (though they may call themselves something entirely different). Tang Mo also refers to the peopleS of the islands but it is NOT a race. Unlike Tsaesci which is one race, the Tang Mo people is made up many races, though mainly Monkey-folk. Other peoples will include some of the beast folks which left the anti-Tsaesci alliance after the death of the last of the elder dragon-gods, which I'm thinking of including some tribes of people like the bovine folks (minotaur-like), cat-folks (more khajit like than Tiger-folk). Some tribes of elves can also be found here (though a minority unlike in Tamriel). Basically, Tang Mo people are those from the former alliance that wanted peace rather than revenge, thus most of the member races are of the more peaceful sort (being peaceful does not mean that they are weak though.... to achieve peace, they are not adversed to using force)
4) Ka po'tun is the name of the empire. It optionally refers to the peoples of the empire. Again, it is NOT a race. Ka po-tun people consists of roughly the majority of the anti-Tsaesci alliance races, of which the Tang Mo people were once part of. Many of the minority races in Tang Mo can also be found in Ka Po-tun (who says that it must be One-race-wholely-in-one-nation?). The most influential people in KPT are the Tiger-folk, which is mainly due to the fact that Tosh Raka was the first to become the new dragon-gods. They consist of mainly the races of the anti-Tsaesci alliance who wanted revenge.
5) The new dragon-gods. This refers to the dragon-gods that arises after the Tsaesci Betrayal. Usually, dragon-gods takes a long time to emerge and over time, the extremely old ones will seem to disappear to god-knows-where. But before the Black Dragon, the last of the elder dragon-god "died", he planted seeds of his essence into some of the chosen leaders of the Alliance at that time. This increased the speed and frequency of the rise of Dragon-gods (around 3 in 4000 years. A record-breaking speed!) in the post-betrayal era. First among this is Tosh Raka of the KPT. Although the 3 known dragon-gods are all from the Tiger-folk, there are rumors that certain members of other dragon-gods from other races who had received the seeds of power. Either they lay hidden as a secret force or they didn't like working with the overly pridely tiger-folks, nobody has found evidence of their existence... yet.
6) Kamal is the name of the frozen lands beyond the icy north channel. It is until the emergent of the "snow devils" that it later becomes the name of a people. So like the Tsaesci BUT unlike the TM and KPT, Kamal can be considered the name of a race. Kamal themselves may not refer to themselves as "Kamal" though. (I'm thinking of creating something that is less dependent on language and more on instinctive understanding and subtle non-verbal signs)
7) Event/Incident: The Great Cleansing. The pre-Tsaesci culture, predominantly the ancient Human-Naga Shinryuu Empire was now known only in lore scraps or ancient tales, though a lot of their systems (like time/calendar etc) are still in use of present day nations. Following the Rise of the Tsaesci and the extermination/enslavery of many races, there was a period of turbulence where the slaves, under the lead of the survivors of the Shinryuu Empire, staged massive uprisings. The uprising ultimately failed, and was put down by the Tsaesci with steel and blood. To prevent similar incidents, the Tsaesci began a massive "cleansing" where they try to eradicate the Shinryuu culture by destroying writen records and executing those educated in history/culture. After centuries (which is but a passing moment to the long-lived Tsaesci), they have achieved moderate success. the remaining human who were enslaved became livestock like, backward creatures known as "blood slaves", whose only purpose in existence is to provide sustenance in blood to their Tsaesci masters. Scraps of text and knowledge of the ancient Shinryuu empire only survived in the most remote areas which managed to escape the eyes and ears of the Tsaesci.
8) Tsaesci and Vampirism.
Tsaesci were Dark Naga who both stole their gods' powers and were cursed at the same time, forever changing their racial traits. First of all, they gained remarkable inherent powers which actually varies from tribe to tribe. They still retain some of their shape-changing abilities, though other than the Lords and their more powerful servants, most are limited (e.g. usually tribes will have two forms, a more humanoid form and a more serpentine form). Naga have natural aptitude and power over water. The Tsaesci lost this power after the curse and in-fact, became slightly weak towards water (may be just psychological, when it was just the loss of their powers over water). (This may be part of the reason why the dragon-gods tried to defeat the Tsaesci by causing a Great Flood in the Central Plains. Unfortunately, Tsaesci suffered the setback better than expected.)
The most pronounced aspect of the curse of the gods was the Tsaesci will find no sustenance in anything other than "the blood of their blood". Presumeable, the gods wanted the Tsaesci to defeat themselves since they can only survive on their own blood, but they forgot that there are still the Naga, and the Shinryuu human who were reputed to be descended/related to the Naga (In their lore, the Shinryuu human believed that they were created partially from the blood of a Naga Goddess... and it seems to have some element of truth). The curse upon the Tsaesci turns out to be a greater curse upon the remaining Naga and Shinryuu human, as they were enslaved as a source of blood for the Tsaesci. They were termed "blood slaves" to distinguish them from the slaves of other races which were kept for labour. They are nothing but livestocks to the Tsaesci.
Tsaesci's "vampirism" is very different from the "usual" vampirism.
a) they don't crave for blood like the vampires. It is just a kind of "hunger". They usually "eat" as often as the usual folks too (they sort of belong to the "semi-immortal" level on the Wheel).
b) they don't suffer from mutation when they go hungry.
c) they have no problem with sunlight (the closest they have is a little water-phobia, which is arguably more psychological than physiological)
In short, they are sort of a "normal" but long-lived race who just so happen to feed on blood.
Tsaesci as possible source of Porphyric Hemophilia (common vampirism)
Two of the Tsaesci Lords, the Evil and the Warlock, were well known for the "bio-experiments". One of which, the "blood-legion" project, invovles experiments to try to convert a slave (non Tsaesci) into a creature of great stregth and speed, but yet retain intrinsic loyalty to the Tsaesci. Whatever the process, it involved Tsaesci blood which the legion is bound to submit too. The experiment failed, but somehow, the substance used in the conversion was leaked out and carried to Tamriel during the Sword-master's first "probe" into Tamriel. It was also the time where the Thrassian plague was ravaging the lands. It is speculated that somehow some of those who contracted the plague was also given the "blood-legion", which "cured" the plague but evolved the beings into something... unexpected : the vampires. Interesting to note is that the original "blood-link" used to enforce loyalty of the blood-slaves to their Tsaesci masters became the means for elder vampires to enforce their will over their children/slaves. Also, the need to take in lots of blood could either be a side-effect of Tsaesci's blood used, or it could be that the change caused by the "blood-legion" damaged the subject permanently that it could no longer produce something by its body to survive, and has to continuous replendish this through blood of other living beings.
This establish some ties between the Tamriel vampires (which has a history of around a thousand years arising from the times of the Thrassian Plague) and Akavir, though they are effectively an independent faction (they don't take orders from their "creators". in fact, most Tsaesci/vampire may not even know of their connection)
For those people who reads the stuff I've written so far, here's a "pre-warning"/report on something that I've been thinking about for a long time.
language/names revamp. The language/names used by the official lore is .... let's just say it could be better. I'm planning on the following revamps:
1) Treat all names/terms introduced by "official lore" as suspect. After all, they come from 2nd or 3rd hand accounts from the words of a Tsaesci whom we don't even know what's the literacy level. Thus, I'm going to asume that Tsaesci terms and names are more or less accurate. Other names are less so (may be corrupted by pronounciations). Other terms may be in Tsaesci tongue which may be different from the native tongue in the terms context.
e.g. Have you wondered why "Tosh Raka" is the "Tiger Dragon" and yet the "Tiger Dragon Empire" is called Ka`Po-Tun? To resolve this, I may take "Tosh Raka" as the native Tiger-folk tongue (names are usually unchanged in translation), while "Ka po-tun" is the Tsaesci's naming of the Tiger Dragon Empire. This example is not exact, just an example to illustrate things.
2) Tsaesci is what the serpent people refers to themselves, or sort of their race (their biological race is "Naga", but was changed by the dragon-gods' curse, which also made them "vampiric"). Tsaesci can also optionally refers to the whole Empire.
3) Tang Mo is the name of the islands the monkey-folk resides in. Their civilization is also often refered to as Tang Mo (though they may call themselves something entirely different). Tang Mo also refers to the peopleS of the islands but it is NOT a race. Unlike Tsaesci which is one race, the Tang Mo people is made up many races, though mainly Monkey-folk. Other peoples will include some of the beast folks which left the anti-Tsaesci alliance after the death of the last of the elder dragon-gods, which I'm thinking of including some tribes of people like the bovine folks (minotaur-like), cat-folks (more khajit like than Tiger-folk). Some tribes of elves can also be found here (though a minority unlike in Tamriel). Basically, Tang Mo people are those from the former alliance that wanted peace rather than revenge, thus most of the member races are of the more peaceful sort (being peaceful does not mean that they are weak though.... to achieve peace, they are not adversed to using force)
4) Ka po'tun is the name of the empire. It optionally refers to the peoples of the empire. Again, it is NOT a race. Ka po-tun people consists of roughly the majority of the anti-Tsaesci alliance races, of which the Tang Mo people were once part of. Many of the minority races in Tang Mo can also be found in Ka Po-tun (who says that it must be One-race-wholely-in-one-nation?). The most influential people in KPT are the Tiger-folk, which is mainly due to the fact that Tosh Raka was the first to become the new dragon-gods. They consist of mainly the races of the anti-Tsaesci alliance who wanted revenge.
5) The new dragon-gods. This refers to the dragon-gods that arises after the Tsaesci Betrayal. Usually, dragon-gods takes a long time to emerge and over time, the extremely old ones will seem to disappear to god-knows-where. But before the Black Dragon, the last of the elder dragon-god "died", he planted seeds of his essence into some of the chosen leaders of the Alliance at that time. This increased the speed and frequency of the rise of Dragon-gods (around 3 in 4000 years. A record-breaking speed!) in the post-betrayal era. First among this is Tosh Raka of the KPT. Although the 3 known dragon-gods are all from the Tiger-folk, there are rumors that certain members of other dragon-gods from other races who had received the seeds of power. Either they lay hidden as a secret force or they didn't like working with the overly pridely tiger-folks, nobody has found evidence of their existence... yet.
6) Kamal is the name of the frozen lands beyond the icy north channel. It is until the emergent of the "snow devils" that it later becomes the name of a people. So like the Tsaesci BUT unlike the TM and KPT, Kamal can be considered the name of a race. Kamal themselves may not refer to themselves as "Kamal" though. (I'm thinking of creating something that is less dependent on language and more on instinctive understanding and subtle non-verbal signs)
7) Event/Incident: The Great Cleansing. The pre-Tsaesci culture, predominantly the ancient Human-Naga Shinryuu Empire was now known only in lore scraps or ancient tales, though a lot of their systems (like time/calendar etc) are still in use of present day nations. Following the Rise of the Tsaesci and the extermination/enslavery of many races, there was a period of turbulence where the slaves, under the lead of the survivors of the Shinryuu Empire, staged massive uprisings. The uprising ultimately failed, and was put down by the Tsaesci with steel and blood. To prevent similar incidents, the Tsaesci began a massive "cleansing" where they try to eradicate the Shinryuu culture by destroying writen records and executing those educated in history/culture. After centuries (which is but a passing moment to the long-lived Tsaesci), they have achieved moderate success. the remaining human who were enslaved became livestock like, backward creatures known as "blood slaves", whose only purpose in existence is to provide sustenance in blood to their Tsaesci masters. Scraps of text and knowledge of the ancient Shinryuu empire only survived in the most remote areas which managed to escape the eyes and ears of the Tsaesci.
8) Tsaesci and Vampirism.
Tsaesci were Dark Naga who both stole their gods' powers and were cursed at the same time, forever changing their racial traits. First of all, they gained remarkable inherent powers which actually varies from tribe to tribe. They still retain some of their shape-changing abilities, though other than the Lords and their more powerful servants, most are limited (e.g. usually tribes will have two forms, a more humanoid form and a more serpentine form). Naga have natural aptitude and power over water. The Tsaesci lost this power after the curse and in-fact, became slightly weak towards water (may be just psychological, when it was just the loss of their powers over water). (This may be part of the reason why the dragon-gods tried to defeat the Tsaesci by causing a Great Flood in the Central Plains. Unfortunately, Tsaesci suffered the setback better than expected.)
The most pronounced aspect of the curse of the gods was the Tsaesci will find no sustenance in anything other than "the blood of their blood". Presumeable, the gods wanted the Tsaesci to defeat themselves since they can only survive on their own blood, but they forgot that there are still the Naga, and the Shinryuu human who were reputed to be descended/related to the Naga (In their lore, the Shinryuu human believed that they were created partially from the blood of a Naga Goddess... and it seems to have some element of truth). The curse upon the Tsaesci turns out to be a greater curse upon the remaining Naga and Shinryuu human, as they were enslaved as a source of blood for the Tsaesci. They were termed "blood slaves" to distinguish them from the slaves of other races which were kept for labour. They are nothing but livestocks to the Tsaesci.
Tsaesci's "vampirism" is very different from the "usual" vampirism.
a) they don't crave for blood like the vampires. It is just a kind of "hunger". They usually "eat" as often as the usual folks too (they sort of belong to the "semi-immortal" level on the Wheel).
b) they don't suffer from mutation when they go hungry.
c) they have no problem with sunlight (the closest they have is a little water-phobia, which is arguably more psychological than physiological)
In short, they are sort of a "normal" but long-lived race who just so happen to feed on blood.
Tsaesci as possible source of Porphyric Hemophilia (common vampirism)
Two of the Tsaesci Lords, the Evil and the Warlock, were well known for the "bio-experiments". One of which, the "blood-legion" project, invovles experiments to try to convert a slave (non Tsaesci) into a creature of great stregth and speed, but yet retain intrinsic loyalty to the Tsaesci. Whatever the process, it involved Tsaesci blood which the legion is bound to submit too. The experiment failed, but somehow, the substance used in the conversion was leaked out and carried to Tamriel during the Sword-master's first "probe" into Tamriel. It was also the time where the Thrassian plague was ravaging the lands. It is speculated that somehow some of those who contracted the plague was also given the "blood-legion", which "cured" the plague but evolved the beings into something... unexpected : the vampires. Interesting to note is that the original "blood-link" used to enforce loyalty of the blood-slaves to their Tsaesci masters became the means for elder vampires to enforce their will over their children/slaves. Also, the need to take in lots of blood could either be a side-effect of Tsaesci's blood used, or it could be that the change caused by the "blood-legion" damaged the subject permanently that it could no longer produce something by its body to survive, and has to continuous replendish this through blood of other living beings.
This establish some ties between the Tamriel vampires (which has a history of around a thousand years arising from the times of the Thrassian Plague) and Akavir, though they are effectively an independent faction (they don't take orders from their "creators". in fact, most Tsaesci/vampire may not even know of their connection)
