NPCpedia: M'aiq the Liar

mike wishes you well i have always felt that the elder scrolls series  at its core is character driven sure there are   huge prophecies and set pieces that kind of frame  the action but for us players it's all about who   we are interacting with close allies great  villains memorable quests both big and small   pretty much everything we're doing is propelled by  the people that we meet degoth er mankar cameron   martin septim and then even smaller characters  like nazeem fargoth desargo the adoring fan   i think you get my point it's all of those npcs  together that make the world so rich and give the   fandom all of this kind of extra entertainment  and while all those characters are very cool   none of them can rival the unique quality of  today's npc a simple khajiit who wanders the   landscape in humble attire some would  call him a legendary drifter others   a poet scholar historian comedian enigma  liar maik the liar has been one of the most   commonly requested videos from me for a very  long time so it feels so awesome to finally   tackle this one and if this is your first  time finding my channel and you like video   game lore character analysis game reviews and  other stuff like that you my friend are in the   right place i'm ghost your host and without  further ado let's just go ahead and dive in   mike is as i stated extremely unique a wandering  npc that is a beacon of humor misinformation   and profound commentary he almost seems to exist  outside the boundaries the rest of the characters   in tamriel are within some have even called him  a god a daedra a being who has already achieved   kim but hold up now slow down baby regardless  of what you think he is he is certainly one   thing a fan favorite character so a question  for you viewers what do you think it takes for   a character in a video game or really a video game  series to become a kind of cult fan favorite it of   course can be many different things but i would  boil it down to a few possibilities number one   the character is funny sure humor is a welcome  sight in any kind of grim fantasy game like this   where the world is often ending and thousands  are dying every day to some sort of calamity mike knows many things number two the character  is interesting or mysterious if something is   mysterious you want to circle back a few times  get a second or third look and try to decipher   a little bit more maybe even hop online  watch some poopy videos like this one   and number three the character is a recurring  presence across an entire series we've gotten to   know a few characters like that on my channel and  this definitely helps with that cult status i mean   the guy just keeps popping up what are you gonna  do well my friends if i do say so myself and i do   my eek is all three and so so much more because  he's simultaneously the most useless npc in the   whole series while also being probably the most  entertaining the silliest and the most intriguing   you see maek is not really much of an npc at  all he's kind of an anti-npc he doesn't give   you quests items or advance the story in any way  he is much more of a rule breaker a character that   is here largely for shits and giggles maiq  is in essence a representation of bethesda   themselves you can think of him as a direct line  of communication between the developers and us   an all-knowing wisecracking character provides  commentary on the very design of the game   and beyond leaning directly on the fourth wall  he makes witty comments about cut features story   concepts creatures locations and even talks  about us the fans some would say he's an   immersion breaking easter egg but i say he's also  a compelling character within the game world and   that is key to me because regardless of his design  intention of being very meta here he is in tamriel   right we have to justify that somehow he's a  citizen of the world so what kind of character   is he then who is he does he really lie every  time he speaks if so is his name even really   maek it's a long video man we're to get to  all the theories much later on don't worry   but maek has had a tendency to pop up across  the great arrows of tamriel he is not bound by   time nor space he has appeared in morrowind  oblivion skyrim and the elder scrolls online   that is a great span of many years we're talking  about and he has far outlived the average lifespan   of your average khajiit so i want to go ahead and  do something kind of insane with this video i want   to start at the beginning of his appearances  and literally analyze everything he says are you serious and that ain't no lie baby every  single thing in the mainline games anyway because   his appearance in eso is a little bit different  for me and i will cover it but we'll get to that   later i want to find out what every single quote  is a reference to or what he is making fun of   and then afterward we'll talk about lore theories  and stuff so if you want to skip to that go ahead   use the chapters feature i won't be offended  i could care less because this is going to be   a very very long video and keep in mind all of  these breakdowns are simply my interpretation   don't take anything i say as law and feel free  to share what you think about each of these   quotes as well so let's do this man let's waste  some time together talking about maique the liar   in morrowind the interaction takes place in the  year 427 of the third era and the original maek   the liar was quite stationary later on he is  known to wander around the world and be a chance   encounter kind of thing but here he can simply  be located on a small island just off dagon fell   and god damn let's take a second to appreciate how  absolutely swagged the hell out this man is the   colovian fur helm is looking real minty with that  expensive shirt the rest of his regalia just an   absolute g unit right off the bat sadly morrowind  does not have full-on voice acting yet so   in its place this this is me attempting to do  mike's voice it sucks maek immediately strikes   the player as something different from the typical  interaction to this point so begins the legend   and let's just well start at the top with his  greeting because it is already a treat greetings   maiq knows many things what is your interest  you seek knowledge maiq has much some of it   verified by actual facts the simple fact that his  name is maiq the liar and cites actual facts to   come is definitely enough to want to hear more and  just like that you find all of these topics that   you can ask mike about now a few of these things  are obviously features that did not make the final   release of the game or something and some of them  are a little more interesting like nudity and the   dwemer so okay just really quick can we get a  live look at the average elder scrolls lorehead okay and one more time yeah it's no secret that this series has some of  the most hardcore lore beard fans out there and   for very very good reason i mean the lore here is  amazing and deep with so many gaps and mysterious   things to kind of theorize about so i also totally  see my eek as a legit troll an npc that at first   glance might have some seriously intriguing lore  to share but just says some total [ __ ] to make   people read into it before realizing it is a  gag when you ask him about becoming a lich he   replies with you wish to become a leech it is very  easy my friend simply find the heart of a lich   combine it with the tongue of a  dragon and cook it with the flesh   of a well-ridden horse this combination is certain  to make you right off the bat this one is a bunch   of huey you cannot become a lich and you cannot  even get any of these materials but this was   maybe a foreshadowing to the tribunal expansion  to come where liches were added as enemies next up   dragons dragons oh they are everywhere you  must fly very high to see most of them though   the ones near the ground are very hard to see  being invisible from being honest this one has   always kind of puzzled me it's definitely somewhat  nonsensical but maybe he's referring to dragon   burial mounds or the sort of spirit of dragons  that dragonborn can absorb meaning that when they   physically die they're still here but invisible  oh [ __ ] look at that i'm getting lost in his   lies already man all right i'm a fool moving  on the next topic for my eek is emperor crabs   maik sees lots of them in the ocean mike knows  you'll see one too if you swim far enough   now emperor crabs are actually very much a real  thing in tamriel or rather they were this is an   extinct species of big ass crabs that left behind  shells that were used in vardenfell to construct   various buildings maike is suggesting that they  still live somewhere far far out there but of   course cats don't like water so this has to be  [ __ ] you don't swim mike next is horses horses   oh maik loves horses especially with good cream  sauce you would wish to ride upon a beast there   is a way go to one of the many siltstrider port  and pay your fee you wish one for personal use   walk if you must run if you are chased this to  me is a just about the lack of rideable horses in   morrowind something that seems like it would very  much be present in the region especially with all   these imperial dudes around but instead you stick  to loading screen transportation via siltstrider   or teleporting something like that alright  maiq how about moving corpses moving corpses   this sounds frightening to my eek the undead  are nothing to be toyed with now if this comment   were in the later games i would think it's a  reference to how players can drag corpses ragdoll   them around and how many of us probably end up  having a bit of fun with it but here honestly i   think mike is just talking about the undead very  interestingly next you can ask about multiplayer   maique does not know this word you wish others to  help you in your quest coward if you must search   for the argonian i'm leet or perhaps the big nord  rolf the uber they will certainly wish to join   you this one is so on the nose you can't help  but give a little chuckle or at the very least   exhale sharply from your nose and amusement  apparently early on in development multiplayer   was something that was legitimately thrown around  the room over at bethesda possibly even as like   an optional plug-in for an expansion down the  road but obviously this was never meant to be   then you got i'm leet and rolf the uber these are  very like 2002 gamer jokes so i am shocked that   they still make me chuckle today it's good stuff  and right here us loreheads are salivating a hot   button lore topic there is no mystery maik knows  all the dwarves were here and now they are not   they were very short folks or perhaps they were  not it all depends on your perspective i'm sure   they thought they were about the right height now  that is one beautiful political answer from my eek   god damn technically true everything he said the  second half of this one is a lot of fun though   because some theorize that giants gave dwemer the  name dwarves simply because from their perspective   they were super short but as always who knows and  from the dwemer ghosts we see in game and stuff   i mean they're like all right they're not little  guys well damn how you gonna follow that up mike   how about by talking about naked liches and nudity  in general a horrible thing indeed if you see one   let maik know my eek wants to make sure to look  in the other direction ah the beauty of the naked   form these dharma are rather prudish are they not  of course there is an island you can reach filled   with wonderful naked glistening bodies it only  appears when the moons are full the rain falls the   seas run red and it's mike's birthday a naked lich  would well be all bones and i guess he said he was   scared of undead earlier so no bones for mike but  the second quote i think is poking fun at the fact   that the first two elder scrolls games featured  plenty of just straight up naked folks i'm talking   weenies titties flying around with ferocity it's  very understandable that this feature didn't make   the leap to the 3d games because well i think a  low poly dunmer dick just kind of hits different   and the industry was changing a lot but at least  it sounds like maek usually has a very happy   birthday the daggerfall commentary kind of  continues when he talks about climbing here   climbing the ropes that hang is too difficult  maek prefers to climb the ones that are tied   horizontally climbing was one of the skills that  was removed totally with the release of morrowind   to some purists dismay and many other skills  also were either outright cut or combined into   other things this trend would continue with the  following games as the series became more and more   streamlined to reach a larger audience but are  you sitting down whoever's watching this video   sit down because you are about to be shocked my  eek is about to tell a complete truth rooted in   reality not only that but it kick-starts the  player on a daedric quest when he tips you off   to the location of the shrine of boethiah  you seek the shrine that is no longer there   an interesting concept look to the seas to  the west there lies what was once the shrine   take a deep breath and begin your search this is  actually a sort of second secret way to find the   location of the shrine but it's odd that he just  tells you this i mean maybe it's meant to be a   trick like the player is having this conversation  with this funky cat and assumes everything he's   saying is just hogwash at this point so let's  just toss like a real thing in there to mess   with them and then once they find the shrine  question everything that they just experienced   it's possible next is what mud crab merchants  the hell are you talking about my maik has heard   of this they've got all their money mud crabs  taking over everything they already run pelagia   this one also not a total lie or fabrication  there is indeed a friendly mud crab who   acts as a merchant and he is known to be  the richest merchant in the entire game   so yes they've got all the money this dude holds  10 000 big ones so you can go to him to sell all   your rare stuff and this mud crab merchant is  also a bit of an easter egg type character so   it's really fitting that maek mentions him to us  and again another thing to throw in there and make   us be like what are you talking about mike you're  crazy and then you find this merchant and you're   like dude can i become a litch bro what the hell  and finally our last quote within morrowind is on   the topic of were sharks i have only met one but  he was afraid of the water i think here my eek   is simply calling attention to the fact that in  daggerfall where creatures were extremely common   all kinds but looking a bit further the book in  game known as on lycanthropy by varnard caressen   mentioned where sharks and it states the seventh  lycanthrope which i have never seen but my trusted   peers have assured me exists is a were shark that  roams the oceans around tamriel now could it be   could it be that the author had spoken with none  other than maek on this topic just something to   think about so this is the original maiq a smaller  pool of lies for sure but all very interesting and   funny quotes no doubt what you may not know is  that in the code he is classified as a rogue   one of the starting classes here in morrowind the  description of the class states that rogues have a   gift for getting in and out of trouble so i think  it probably suits him he also appears more dashing   here i mean he got the drip this is way before  he dons his iconic robes and then race change   from suthairat khajiit to first stock khajiit  because yes they're different okay he also has   a unique ability known as maek's water walking  this of course allows him to walk on water without   falling in i think he probably has this ability  because he's on a little island and the developers   just didn't want him to bug out or get stuck in  the water or drown and also he's a cat you know he   doesn't want to get wet so overall a very solid  introduction with any recurring character it's   always fun to look at that first iteration like  did the developers even know that they would stick   him in the next game or all of the games from  here on out maybe he was just a last minute joke   throw in but either way who would have thought  what he would become all these years later man oblivion maek is encountered not very long after  in the lore in the year 433 of the third era   and the oblivion crisis is surely a hectic time  for everyone right where all that's left do you   understand me everyone else is dead so where can  you find my eek during this catastrophe of course   running around in a scuma induced fervor searching  high and low for calipers no i'm not kidding at   all he begins his appearance just outside of anvil  and henceforth will eternally run on this road   but every day at exactly 12 o'clock noon he stops  running and begins to hunt for calipers this takes   him far and wide because it seems that calipers  are all over the world caves towns camps whatever   i mean what the hell is this thing with the  calipers it's a measurement device or kind of   like tongs maybe it's a reference to him measuring  out how much [ __ ] he can get away with telling   people i honestly have no clue i think it's funny  and random and if you see him you can actually   drop calipers on the ground and it might lure  him over to you which i just really like for some   reason and to make him even stranger he is by far  the fastest entity in the entire game of oblivion   there is almost no chance of catching up  to him naturally if he runs away from you   the man is usain bolt with level 100 speed and  athletics in the game files he will even take off   and run away into other provinces you obviously  can't do anything except watch him go unable to   follow but if you can finally slow his ass down  and get your hands on him we see that my geek has   gone through a bit of a facelift mike knows much  tell some mike knows many things others do not   he is now wearing those robes has voice acting  different anatomy and many many more things to   say but i think this kind of wardrobe change leans  into what they were deciding the character was   gonna be into the future which is kind of like a  wandering prophet and i don't know many wandering   prophets that are dripped out in the supreme like  in morrowind and now when you talk to him he is   not just a catalog of madness to flip through like  he was previously all you can ask him about is   rumors and you get a random my quote before he  sprints away into the distance like a deranged   toddler many many many if not all of these  things are references to cut features or fan   controversy in some way on the forums there  is a lot of sass in this mic that is for sure   so let's see what he has to say mike longs  for a colovian fur helm practical yet stylish   mike is very sad he does not have one of course  this poor man misses his hat i mean i feel it   maybe when they redid his anatomy and stuff they  had to leave the hat out but this is also a joke   about how there is no collovian for helm or  gear in the entire game whatsoever even though   it's very likely you're talking to maik somewhere  near the region of kolovia what the hell bethesda   mike believes the children are our future but  he doesn't want them ruining all of our fun   all right this one is pretty weird long ago  before the game came out for whatever reason   adding children to it or not was a hotly contested  topic on those official forums one can't believe   that if the game was truly going to innovate the  genre children had to be added to create a more   realistic world but another camp argued that  having children present in the game would be   morally wrong because you could theoretically  turn it into a child murderer sim chamber the   pro-children camp responded that you could just  make them invincible which pretty much undermined   their initial campaign for realism as mike  alludes to there ain't no kids in this game at all   this next quote is notoriously bugged and for the  life of me i cannot get the audio clip to play   so i'm just gonna do it with my morrowind mic  voice and i apologize this is the last time   you'll have to hear it maik wishes he had  a stick made out of fishies to give to you   sadly he does not maik has officially tapped  into some ancient lore also relating to the   old official bethesda forums so before morrowind  even came out way back in the stone ages for some   reason a jack daniels advertisement was converted  into the guy holding a big ass fish stick with   the added text have a fishy stick it was then  used as like a badge of honor given out to those   deemed worthy on the forums this evolved over the  years to be a welcoming message to new people and   bethesda for whatever reason really loved it there  are a couple references to it across the games and   maike of course is in on the joke but he doesn't  have the authority to give out the fishy stick   so begins a slew of quotes that are directed  right at the fans and listening to some of that   criticism of how the series was changing  over time thinks his people are beautiful   the orgonian people are beautiful as well they  look better than ever before i mean a lot of   people were really pissed about the way the beast  races were looking in oblivion before it came out   that they were kind of just the men and myrrh  with a beast head slopped on top that they had   lost their unique charm and identity but maek  isn't gonna stand for that slander he thinks   they look good and i for one think they look  just fine i mean you're mostly just seeing the   character head anyway right some people wish to  throw their weapons that seems foolish to mike   if you hold your weapon you only need  one another thing cut from oblivion no   thrown weapons oh still bums me out to this day  dude i would love to be able to toss a reign   of throwing stars at mankar cameron's big ass  forehead that would be objectively a good feature   some people want special bows that take too long  to load and need special arrows called bolts   mike thinks they are idiots crossbows too or  something that were announced to not be in the   game and while this would be a cool addition i  mean it ain't the biggest deal in the world man   throwing weapons are way more unique to me but  this is a hot spicy meatball right here i mean   it's crazy that he just says they're idiots  whoever wrote that dialogue was definitely   reading way too many forum posts feet are for  walking hands are for hitting or shaking or waving   sometimes for clapping a direct call of attention  to the loud demands and full-on campaign for   bethesda to add a kicking feature to oblivion now  this one i gotta admit would be pretty damn good   have you ever played a dark messiah man you can  straight kick your way through the entire game i   would go so far as to say that's the main feature  of dark messiah and it would be awesome it would   fit so well into oblivion so maiq i gotta disagree  with you buddy mike prefers to adventure alone   others just get in the way and they talk  talk talk while this is obviously another   comment on the lack of multiplayer i also  consider this a little bit of a joke about   the adoring fan and his entire character is  kind of a commentary on this that you think   you want to play with other people until they're  there and they just won't shut the hell up oh gee   you sure yeah people always enjoy a good fable  maek has yet to find one though perhaps one day   oh man this one hurt me personally dude lionhead  studios fable came out just two years before   oblivion and it was legendary for the amount  of unhealthy hype leading up to its release   believe it or not the first youtube video i ever  made was actually all about this so go watch that   if you dare it's very it's not great but needless  to say as much as i adore that game the hype was   not met there was disappointment well during  the dev cycle of oblivion given the setting in   the recent climate of rpgs it was often compared  with fable which is totally dumb and unfair and   unrelated but bethesda decided to take the gloves  off and poke a little fun at lionhead come on man   so much easier to get around these days  not like the old days too much walking   of course nothing stops my eek from walking when  he wants forget donald trump and joe bide this   thanksgiving bring up fast travel in the elder  scrolls and watch your aunts uncles cousins dogs   everybody just rip each other apart this is one  of those things that truly separates the fan base   and the older games from the new it's convenient  for sure but many people were worried about losing   the cool transit systems of morrowind like silt  striders teleporters and so on plus just wandering   the open world people didn't want that aspect of  the game to go away but maik ain't worried about   that he likes this new system it helps that he  had the running speed of a formula one car though   maek is glad he has a compass makes it easy to  find things much better than wandering around like   a fool in morrowind as you probably know there  are no quest markers you know you gotta read   diagram your path consult the stars sacrifice  a goat pray to the divines whatever it takes to   find your destination some people love it  and some people hate it but it seems like   maek is a bloomer he's changing with the times  embracing the new tracking system why would one   want to swing his staff a mace hurts more or a  sword can't shoot a fireball from a sword though   ah staves staves were once considered blunt  weapons things that you could swing like a   bat and whack the [ __ ] out of people with but  in oblivion and later skyrim they turned them   into just spell flingers which pissed a lot of  people off but honestly to me i think it's better   this way however the second half of the quote is  referencing how swords could only be now enchanted   with on-hit effects you couldn't like eat spells  with them anymore and that is a damn shame   i do not wish to fight on horseback it is  a good way to ruin a perfectly good horse   which is to say a perfectly good dinner believe it  or not horseback combat was long rumored to be in   the game once people saw that horses were going  to be in there well when bethesda announced that   this would not be possible given the framework of  the animations and system load of course people   flipped out absolutely lost it to the tune of a  petition signed by like over 750 people demanding   bethesda reconsider but alas nothing could be done  and let's be really honest with ourselves guys if   it had been added it would have been buggy as  all [ __ ] probably best that they knew their   limits here then that last part of the quote about  the horse being a good dinner is a reference to   his line you might remember from marwyn where  he said he likes the horse with a cream sauce   you're a freak bro levitation is for fools why  would we want to levitate once you are up high   there is nowhere to go but down there is one thing  that morrowind gets an a plus plus in it is being   able to [ __ ] fly dude you can absolutely break  the game with potions scrolls spells whatever and   literally just yeet across all of vardenfell the  systems that allowed this led to the game being   a wonderful sandbox of insanity you could become  an absolute god and of course people liked that   empower the players man levitation though was not  in the cards for oblivion and they even put a cap   on jump height which is a major bummer across the  board there is no other opinion to be had on this   i think they did this though because many areas of  the game like cities are in their own individual   cells not actually all in the overworld at the  same time so jumping too high or falling into   a town area would likely cause problems but  you know who would want to levitate mike me   man me it is good the people wear clothing my  equals clothing who would want to see mike naked   sick sick people very sad the scantily clad heroes  of the 2d era were now cemented in the past and   maek is also poking fun i think at those who mod  the game heavily to feature more unsavory things   you are all sick bastards a lot of you i don't  know why one would want to destroy a building   it takes time to make it much time for some  reason the fans of 2005 were expecting some   sort of destructible environments from bethesda  here another instance though of the team hearing   that and realizing like yeah the game we  already have is pretty buggy and this simply   is not going to work even remotely no chance  werewolves where wolves men that are wolves   many wolves everywhere many men that is enough for  mike shockingly while making this video i came to   this realization that there are no werewolves in  oblivion none who knows why but mike is happy he   doesn't have to deal with them but my friends  for oblivion mike i saved the best for last   i have seen dragons perhaps you will see a dragon  i won't say where i saw one perhaps i did not many   people myself included believe this is the first  hint at the next game in the series taking place   in skyrim and involving ancient dragons but  it also could just be a foreshadowing to the   climax of the game when martin's septum does his  thing thing but this quote is maek at his best   cryptic yet close to a truth or two and making us  turn our wheels a bit if i'm being honest fellas   oblivion maek is probably my least favorite one  he's just kind of boring to me and compared to   the novelty of the morrowind mike and the expanded  role of the skyrim mike he just i don't know the   overwhelming majority of the stuff he says  is just like veiled jabs at the players or   quasi-defensive toned comments not that that's  a bad thing i mean it's funny and that's the   role that he has but in skyrim it just gets much  stranger some extra tidbits about this mic though   is he is given the honor of being an essential npc  meaning no matter how hard you try you cannot kill   him this was kind of the true beginning of the  theories as far as him being some sort of god or   something because essential status is usually only  given to those that need to be alive for a quest   but it's probably also just another joke  altogether he has also class changed from rogue to   savant and i think this is perhaps more fitting  of an all-knowing nonsense machine like him so   a little lore break here is this and this the  same maek well physically speaking absolutely not   the dude has different legs but given the overall  changes between games if we just accept that he   looks different this could feasibly be the same  khajiit morrowind and oblivion take place only   a few years apart and if marwind maek is as rich  as he looks he could have easily found passage out   of vardenfell before things go a little crazy  there but one thing is for certain the skyrim   version of my eek simply cannot be the same guy  because the events of skyrim take place around   200 years later that is a large leap of time for a  khajiit now if he's immortal or a god or something   that's a different story but we'll get to that  later on to the frozen northern lands of skyrim so the clock has been pumped forward as i  mentioned quite a bit to the fourth era the year   201 now i say this is possibly the most popular  version of the character because this is by far   the most popular game in the series it shattered  sales records for the company and brought elder   scrolls to every average boob gamer's living room  but with that streamlining and boom of popularity   in the mainstream audience came more things being  removed that people enjoyed from the previous   games some of the weirder mechanics that hardcore  fans had grown to love maybe bethesda anticipated   some kickback so they loaded up my eek with  plenty of ammunition a lot of snarky things to say   in anticipation but i also believe this is the  best maek because they expanded his repertoire to   include a few more oddities you know light-hearted  things when compared to oblivion also his voice   acting now is literally perfect mike knows  much and tells some my ignores many things   others do not the ease and the sleaze of a  wandering liar it's just it's so good this   is by far the most difficult maek to find as he  just randomly roams around the world no plans no   schedules no calipers to hunt down and a fun fact  here if you use the console to teleport to him   you will find yourself in a walled off cell deep  under the ground this is a place where the game   keeps mike until he is set loose in the world the  cell in the files is known as elsewhere which is   pretty funny and i can't believe i almost didn't  mention this he has three bottles of scuma in his   pocket this being the first time maek is actually  linked to heavy heavy drug use so if you are lucky   enough to find him he will this time share three  things with you and then tell you to piss off   my ex-father was also called mike as was my  ex-father's father at least that is what his   father said this quote became an instant classic  and while it's an obvious nod to the two previous   maeks it has always caused a little bit of a stir  lore wise surrounding him what if there's like a   little secret khajiit clan all named maique what  if my eek is the spirit of a lost divine stuck   in the lineage of some cat people everything is on  the table with this quote and that's all by design   don't try blocking if you have two weapons you  will only get confused much better to hit twice   anyway dual wielding is something brand new  with skyrim and just as he says attempting   to block will only lead to a second swing there  are some clever mods out there though that add   like this cross block thing that i usually use  so i'm going around you this time mike sorry   how does anyone know there was a city of  winterhold mike did not see it with his eyes   did you winterhold is of course where the college  is in skyrim in place of the usual mages guild but   long long ago it was a massive city the capital of  the entirety of skyrim however what we see in game   if i'm being honest is a little pathetic a little  smattering of buildings with like some rubble   down on the cliff below they say the city fell  into the sea of ghosts but there isn't much ruin   here or proof that any bustling metropolis once  existed even with what is left but i also think   that this quote is a reference to the first game  in the series arena this would be the last time   chronologically in-game that winterhold was still  poppin and my eek had not been invented yet so   we never saw it the people of skyrim are more  open-minded about certain things than people in   other places gotta love those progressive nords  man in skyrim you can do things that previously   were not possible you can summon the dead in  a town square obviously that would have been   a crime in the past and you'd get chased out of  town but you can also do things like participate   in same-sex marriage and drug use without any  repercussions skyrim is just a little bit ahead of   the curve i think mike knows why farmer are blind  it has nothing to do with the dwemer disappearing   really the elder scrolls 5 added a large chapter  of lore to the mysterious story of the dwemer   people it was the dwemer who corrupted the once  handsome as [ __ ] snow elves and turned them   into the blind monstrous creatures we find now  the falmer then waged war with the dwemer up   until they disappeared from existence with the  activation of the numidium back in morrowind   so this quote i mean i honestly agree no  one knows for sure why the dwemer vamoost   but i don't feel like the falmer have a darn  thing to do with it but of course this is my   eek so maybe this is his way of telling us the  falmer's blindness has everything to do with it   mike has heard it is dangerous to be a friend  there are many characters in skyrim that you can   recruit as followers to help you on your journey  and as you can imagine this is dangerous work   the dragonborn is literally cheating death all the  time while committing mass murder going to saving   guard killing god dragons ancient vampires i mean  i wouldn't sign up to do that [ __ ] would you   this is probably also a reference to the ability  for the player to kill followers or sacrifice   them in various ways myiq is spitting straight  facts right here man no one is safe near me   no lie detected at all my ear can travel fast  across the land some lazy types take carriages it   is all the same to remember how maik had those  wheels in oblivion well he doesn't have that   insane ability anymore but what he's also talking  about is the introduction of the carriage system   this is kind of like silt striders in morrowind  honestly a way to pay and fast travel city to   city but originally it was intended to be done in  real time with your character sitting on the back   chatting up the driver maybe even fending off some  bandit attacks that would have been really cool   maek loves the people of skyrim many  interesting things they say to each other   it's no secret that adding full voice acting to  oblivion resulted in uh a mixed bag let's say what's the latest it was a hugely ambitious thing  to attempt and the radiant dialogue just ended up   being hilarious i personally would not change this  at all oblivion believe it or not is my favorite   elder scrolls game and a large part of that is the  jank it has you know it's charming to me i like it   and as maek says it is much much improved  in skyrim as far as variety and flavor   and you just don't hear the same  three things repeated and repeated   nords are so serious about beards so many beards  maik thinks they wish they had glorious manes   like khajiit now this one's the kind of thing you  don't even realize until you compare it but beards   do not exist in oblivion at all not for player  characters or any npcs except one sheogorath   it's funny when you kind of take a step back and  look at cyrodiil it was this land of childless   hairless adults of middle to old age that spoke to  walls and all had strikingly similar voices what a   masterpiece but with the next adventure being in  skyrim home of the nords of course beards had to   make a big debut here in 3d and he has to flex  his khajiit follicle fountain nords don't have   that mike was so trapped once not very pleasant  you should think about that once in a while   when you think about it the player is capable  of some seriously messed up stuff in these games   maybe we need a little reality check every once in  a while to remember that you are quite literally   trapping someone's soul eternally in this gem  until spent that's one hell of a punishment   for just being like a bandit the player's ability  to do bad so willy-nilly is definitely something   that my eek has a few words about over the years  and as far as him having his soul trapped i have   my doubts it does not matter to mike how strong  or smart one is it only matters what one can do   for literally decades and decades the elder  scrolls series was built on the classic backbone   of having attributes strength speed endurance  intelligence those kind of things to track the   type of build you're going for well of course  in skyrim they did away with the whole system   streamlining it to allow you to just pick  up whatever you wanted whatever weapon or   activity and gain skills in that thing  my eek i guess is all about that action   some like taking friends on adventures  may thinks being alone is better   less arguing about splitting treasure well at  this point it wouldn't be my eek without some   comments on multiplayer functionality and yep  as you all know skyrim remained a rigorously   single player experience although now today  i wonder what my eek would make of the many   mod projects that have attempted to add lag-free  shared world co-op maybe he would change his mind   some say alduin is akatorsh some say mike is a  liar don't you believe either of those things   this is a heavy lore sack right here so if you  are further interested in alduin check out my   villainpedia on him where we dive into all the  theories and whatnot surrounding the character   but prior to skyrim existing alduin was indeed the  nordic pantheon's version of akatosh the dragon   god of time but with him being the main villain  here the world eater gone wrong attempting to   rule mortals and yadda yadda it seems that the two  were actually very different beings from the start   it's a confusing topic and there are lots of  in-game books and commentary from other characters   regarding the whole mess but regardless this is  one of the most incredible mic lines of all time   because of the contradictory nature of it it  is simple and beautiful how much this twisted   the minds of people when they first heard it  also his acknowledgment that people regard him   as a liar is interesting and fun nord's armor  has lots of fur this sometimes makes maek nervous   a very understandable worry and a pretty funny  thing to bring attention to scale armors and   armors with all sorts of furs and hides have been  commonplace in all of the games i mean there's a   chance i'm just saying that some of those might  be made from the beast race's fallen comrades   i'm sure it's happened somewhere in the  lore and it would be odd for us today   to know cat people who wore skin clothing and  greeted us with smiles maike does a wonderful job   of making us question the things that were always  there right in front of us under our noses and we   just accept make is very practical he has no need  for mysticism on the surface this seems like my   eek is simply getting comfortable with you and  sharing something about himself he's a meat and   potatoes kind of khajiit no nonsense just give me  my robes and some sandals and all walk thousands   of miles over the course of 250 years no problem  but this is actually a reference to the mysticism   school of magic being removed from the series  this was the tree that was home to like spells   that reflected absorbed or dispelled magic as well  as moving objects with your mind and sensing life   and stuff like that it was definitely a more minor  tree but i kind of like that it was separate it   had more of an identity all those spells were  eventually well absorbed into the other schools   mike does not remember his childhood perhaps he  never had one to this day believe it or not no   beast race children have been seen in the mainline  games it would seem that they don't exist at all   aside from lauren books and whatnot and assuming  that these beings had to have been birthed at some   point but i mean it took until the fifth game to  have children at all so i would not be surprised   if in elder scrolls six there are some little  lizards and kittens running around that you can   talk to or even adopt maek once walked to high  hrothgar so many steps he lost count yeah of   course you did my but the legendary 7 000 steps  up to hyhrothgar is a pillar of nordic culture   and myth those lucky enough to take the pilgrimage  and meet with the grey beards sing songs of the   experience for the rest of their lives but this  is a joke all about that actual step count because   in reality i counted there are around 730 steps  from top to bottom nowhere near even one thousand   dragons were never gone they were just invisible  and very very quiet this one is a tough nut to   crack on one hand it's definitely a callback to  his comment on the invisible dragons in morrowind   but it could also be something else maybe  it's that they were all buried out of sight   and quiet because they were dead maybe it's  that they're just kind of disabled in the game   until you trigger events in the story and then  they come alive and start flying around i'm   honestly not so sure let me know what you  think about this one i'm curious something   strange happens to khajiit when they arrive in  skyrim this is for sure a comment just about the   beast races being redesigned yet again in skyrim  these poor bastards just cannot get any continuity   where bears where bears men are bears the lore  of the realm of skyrim was pretty insane before   we actually went there and amongst the cool kind  of druidic stuff that was talked about were ware   bears many fans anticipated being able to become  a werewolf and assumed that ware bear would be   an option for nord characters or there would  be some sort of path to becoming one or maybe   you could meet one but none of that was the case  and players would actually have to wait until the   final dlc to travel to solsteim and just see where  bears as common enemies why do soldiers bother   with target practice one learns best by hitting  real people in skyrim you only gain experience   and skills when you actually hit what is called  a valid target that can be an enemy or an ally   it doesn't really matter but it has to be like a  living creature and there are so many guards and   soldiers throughout the region that spend their  entire coded lives shooting arrows or training   with dummies for absolutely no technical reason  it's also kind of funny that maek is again an   essential npc but hitting him causes no bounty to  be put on your head so a lot of people have used   him as an invincible valid target punching bag to  pump their skills up but don't worry i would never   dream of hitting my mans that's my sweet baby boy  mike does not understand what is so impressive   about shouting mike can shout whenever he wants i  mean it is kind of funny that the dragon language   and the powers are referred to as just shouts it's  kind of simple isn't it they could have used like   the dragon tongue word for power word or tongue  lash or something a little more mysterious and   nordic soy mud crab the other day horrible  creatures you remember when we were talking   about how stiff the radiant dialogue in oblivion  was well one of the most common things you would   hear would be this drab one-sided conversation  about seeing a mud crab what's going on with you   i ran into a couple of mud crabs not long ago  annoying creatures well at least they're slow   and not too bright their pincers are sharp  though goodbye goodbye god damn i love that   game and i guess mike stopped to listen  while he was naruto running around cyrodiil   maek is always in search of calipers yet  he finds none where could they have gone   what a god damn good question mike this  poor bastard spent every waking hour of   his existence starting at noon in oblivion  searching for calipers collecting them all to   measure whatever he needed to measure and here in  skyrim there isn't a pair of calipers in sight not   in the game period who knows why this sort of junk  miscellaneous item was omitted from the loot table   but i would not be surprised if they took it  out purely to have maik say something about it   mike has heard the people of skyrim are  better looking than the ones in cyrodiil   he has no opinion on the matter all people  are beautiful to him so along with adding   beards to the equation skyrim definitely had  the best looking character models to date   as you would expect with the most recent release  however maique should really be mentioning how odd   the people in syria deal often look to him because  that character creator it allowed you to create   some absolutely incredible pieces of art man mike  hears many stories of war yet few of them are true   this one could definitely go a few different  ways some have said this is bethesda making   fun of themselves for having in-game quote epic  battles be extremely small in scale due to the   limitations of the game engine however it could  also be a reference to the many many wars that   are spoken about extensively in the lore a bit  of a joke about us who take all of the history   books written by the victors as law much snow  in skyrim enough snow mike does not want anymore   at first glance this is a cold kitty complaining  about the environment but it ends up being a   bit more skyrim was supposed to have dynamic  snow physics where it would build up on roofs   and window sills and then melt in the sunlight  this would have led to a more dynamic world of   course where the topography changed based on the  weather obviously this was just way too ambitious   and it's a small feature still where there's like  pre-scripted clumps of snow that grow and shrink   but it's a far cry from the initial vision with  so many of these things it feels like bethesda's   ideas are always incredible but they were all just  like spending too much time in the conference room   talking about it getting hella juice like yeah  yeah and then oh they all look at the clock at   the same time and they're like dude [ __ ] we  have to make the game now and they run to their   computers and they have to throw it together in a  crunch so things don't make it it's kind of tragic   snowfalls why worry where it goes mike thinks  the snowflakes are pretty this is the second snow   comment and i think this one could be connected  to the previous quote but also i interpret it   as a joke about snow falling into some interior  cells like tense buildings where of course that   shouldn't be happening and the roof should be  catching it but i guess mike doesn't mind much   skyrim was once the land of many butterflies now  not so much this one's very interesting and funny   and i'm honestly not sure how this information  originally surfaced or if it's ever even been   confirmed but legends tell of a massive bug early  on in skyrim's development that led to butterflies   never spawning and despawning correctly in the  world for it to feel organic this led to an   absolute metric fuckton of butterflies literally  blocking out the sun and bogging down performance   just a little bit you can imagine so this is some  deep insider lore that somehow got out if it is   true and all the quotes that are like this are  really interesting to me so if you know anything   about this one or where this information came from  please let me know my carries two weapons to be   safe what if one breaks that would be most unlucky  love it or hate it durability is a long-standing   pillar of old school rpgs and immersive video  games across the board well skyrim unsurprisingly   did away with the whole thing while many purists  of the old school stylings mourn the loss of tons   of things in the series i rarely hear a peep about  durability and repairing your gear being nixed   too much magic can be dangerous maek once had  two spells and burnt his sweet roll honestly   i'm shocked it took maek this long to make some  sort of mention of sweet rolls dude the dessert   treats have long been a running gag central in the  elder scrolls as well as fallout series and this   one is also speaking to the fact that you could  now kind of overcharge your spells by having one   in either hand dual casting it what does this mean  to combine magic magic plus magic is still magic   oh man combining magic this was one of the rumors  prior to release that really excited me back in   high school everyone knew about the dual casting  being present but it was heavily anticipated that   you would be able to kind of weave spells together  to create new ones on the fly in combat oh my god   that would have been badass bro especially given  that they removed crafting spells entirely which   is tragic it just would have been awesome to have  some creativity with the system but maique is not   impressed as usual he's not one for spells after  all as in every game he just kind of has a dagger   and some robes simple guy whoo so that is all the  unique quotes from skyrim and god damn there are a   lot more huh and i think this my eek is by far the  best one i know i said that already but i'm just   doubling down baby he has far more personality and  nuance he says things that are direct commentaries   as well as a few lower head scratchers and sort  of loose ends also turning him into a true random   encounter where you can't lure him with calipers  or go pull up on his location did wonders if you   have a character who is this odd mysterious and  kind of talked about creating scarcity for the   player i think is key it almost feels like he  finds you when he feels you are ready for his   thoughts it really adds to the flavor in a  big way and i can easily say that this mic   is the one that took the character to legendary  status but hold the phone there is one more maiq   a version that i admit i am not as well versed  in the one found in the elder scrolls online   eso is not a game that i have personally played a  ton of i think i got to like 30 or 35 and really   enjoyed some things and not so much others but  i just overall didn't stick around for the long   haul and end game content all that jazz so i hate  to do this but for this section i just can't be   pulling everything he says because frankly a lot  of his quotes are in relation to specific quests   and happenings of that game and of course i am  ignorant to those things so instead i have decided   to grab a fun little collection and highlight  them here do the same sort of thing i am sure that   somewhere on youtube someone else who has played  a ton of eso can do a better job beyond that   and to be honest i'm just not gonna sink that many  hours into an mmo for one video boys i apologize   i'm sure you understand but i do really really  like how they implemented him into eso exploration   is not only a key aspect to the elder scrolls  series but any mmo worth it's salt i mean i got to   be able to find a bunch of secrets and treasures  speckled throughout the land and my eek is one   of those open world secrets he has a very very  small chance to appear in several specific areas   within specific zones and has nearly 100 quotes i  mean damn that is a big time expansion pack from   what we had in the past and another reason i'm  not going to go through all of them speaking of   which i don't pay for the subscription plus thing  on eso so i straight up don't have access to the   full game and all of those zones thus i'm going  to be referencing another video by youtuber komodo   sarian and i will link it below they seem to have  compiled a lot of the interactions you can have   with my eek and if you want to see the whole thing  please go do so and give their channel some love   also important to note that this game takes  place many many centuries before the main   series so this is technically the very first maek  chronologically speaking so let's get to some of   these sometimes people disappear in front of  myiq are invisibility potions so affordable   as you guessed many of these are going to be  related to the fact that he is now stuck in a   massively multiplayer game opposed to a single  player one this quote is referring to players   logging out and vanishing before mike's eyes  entire living beings popping in and out of   existence it must be a traumatic and confusing  life for an npc stuck in an mmo don't you think   wood elves aren't made of wood seals aren't  made of water mike still wonders about high elf   oh yeah baby we have known for years that maek  loves his moon sugar his skuma and probably   other recreational drugs but now he is making  big weed jokes about altmer i quite like that this mayak overall is much more full of jokes  and quips than he is sassy critique of the fan   base which is refreshing but also kind of dulls  the edge of his presence a little bit for me   mike cares little for politics truly he thinks  everyone is his ally many mmos after world of   warcraft fell in line with tons of trends and  that includes player factions forces within the   lore that are opposed for whatever reason and  when you pick your race you are also signing up   for a particular force eso has three but over time  the restrictions of the faction borders have all   but melted away essentially making everyone  your ally for the majority of the game time   the arrows here have so many titles all of them  fancy maek prefers a simple one titles are another   mmo feature that have always been a huge draw  i know for me i am completely addicted to   collecting them it's like they're a merit badge  you know a way to show off some insane thing   you wasted time doing you want to flex on your  homies and people out in the world but my eek   definitely has the greatest title there is mahik  wants nothing to do with daedra he hears they   can make trees burn forever how can they do that  finally a reference to the older games here we go   in oblivion wherever an oblivion gate is trees  nearby will catch fire and burn literally forever   i'm honestly not sure if that was a bug or meant  to be an actual representation of the staying   power of mehrunes daegon's evil but either way  it freaks out the cat so let's knock that off   can vampires have families how perhaps mike does  not wish to know in the dawnguard expansion pack   for skyrim lord harkhaan and all of his  vampire lineage are central to the plot   but mike brings up a pretty damn good point would  two vampires have a kid and that kid is a vampire   or would it be a normal baby and they gotta  immediately bite and drink the blood of their baby   also if you want to become a vampire lord in  that game you have to partake in like this   family ritual thing mike was told to stay away  from old gate this confused him mike remembers   when it was called gate this is one of the few  quotes that calls direct attention to mike's   apparent age and or lineage old gate as well an  old-ass gate between stormhaven and rivenspire and   you could actually visit this in the first ever  game in the series this suggests of course that   my eek is extremely old who knows how long a gate  needs to be around before it's called old gate   but as always i don't totally believe you maik  i'm sorry i don't think you knew that guy when   his name was gate mike's father was kiyam from a  long line of kions but maik does not believe this   his father was a known liar khajiit lore is  extremely deep and honestly insane there are   dozens of different subspecies crazy racial  practices it just gets weirder and cooler   the deeper you go so when i first heard this  i might think oh damn like what is that some   sort of sage like all-knowing far-seeing  cat wizard no it's just my eek backwards   mike speaks with many in his travels after a  time they seem to repeat themselves strange   i think this is a quip about how he compares with  the other average npcs in the series those who   just kind of repeat the same rumors and dialogue  over and over again kind of like that other quote   earlier on it must be boring to be this kind  of woke self-aware video game character stuck   with all these zombies some like to buy the whole  meal others want to pay for what is on their plate   mike just prefers to eat monetization man this  is honestly one of the things that pushed me away   from the elder scrolls online over time  and it's sad because i really did enjoy   a lot of the gameplay the world housing and  stories all of it but here to me maik is saying   some people want to buy all the crown shop [ __ ]  mounts pets cosmetics entire houses and then there   are some who want to pay for eso plus to have full  access to all the game areas and dlcs but me maiq   i'm a free-to-play player listen i have no problem  with paying a sub fee okay it's the game stores   that bug me in mmos all the coolest cosmetics  and pets and mounts being store exclusives it   just pisses me off man and it makes me kind  of annoyed that they infected my eek with this   propaganda okay back on track a bartender told  mike he must wait outside until tavern was clean   it was only a short time so mike did not mind  this one i quite like scheduled maintenance   is part of every live service or server based  video game usually like once a week servers are   reset for progression reasons little bug fixes  and occasionally content updates and the fact   that he equates the game server to his tavern  is very appropriate mike just wants to chill   and talk to people mike would rather travel in  rain than fix holes in the roof after a storm   mike hates patching holes and this one i saved  for last for good reason elder scrolls games have   a bit of a reputation for being buggy and very  buggy when they first release from game breaking   to immersion breaking to just downright hilarious  to me this quote is my eek saying i'd rather just   keep going to the next game next dlc next content  update or whatever with the existing bugs than   to go back and fix the original framework of  the game that remains buggy it's legitimately   horrifying to me that a game company would have  this philosophy and inject it with some humor   onto my eek but this is exactly what bethesda has  done for literally decades it has always fallen   on the shoulders of fans and modders to fix these  games themselves with the unofficial patches being   more comprehensive and effective than anything  the actual company usually puts out to this day   vanilla oblivion has potentially game saved  destroying bugs i mean it's kind of insane   and there are many many more things eso maek has  to say but a good chunk of them are also believe   it or not behind a paywall he was a viable house  guest for some period of time essentially like a   piece of furniture that doubles as that famous  npc and the only way to hear many unique pieces   of dialogue was to take out your credit card i  wish that that was a lie so if you would like for   me to cover those lines please comment your bank  information down below and i'll deliver it to you   pronto i promise but let's end it on a positive  note there is a little bit of unique dialogue   unlocked when you complete the i like my eek  achievement which entails like tracking him down   at a long list of locations so it's pretty cool  that there is kind of a progression system to hear   more from him i think that's something that could  really be fun for the elder scrolls six to try   out when he inevitably returns to tamriel an hour  later right that was a lot of quick turn analysis   i know so now that you have a healthy amount  of maek under your belt from across the years   it's lore theory time and i have to say at the top  here all my eek theories begin with the acceptance   and the knowledge of his function as a character a  stand-in for the developers and all that but as i   said at the top it's still also up to the fan base  to frame this character somehow within the game   world and story you could almost and dare i say it  make theories about my eek purely for fun and with   that our first theory maiq has achieved kim and is  the most self-aware character in the entire series   to the point of entering godhood and understanding  the very design choices of his universe kim is   a hotly debated thing with the elder scrolls  fandom in some ways it's a fan-made explanation   of certain things that are in the lore but also  it's absolutely present in some form in the game   i mean look no further than vivec this is when you  have an existential breakthrough and come to the   realization that all of reality is but a dream  a dream of a sleeping god or godhead but see   coming to this conclusion can result in two very  very different things if you have a strong enough   conviction you can say i must still exist and  you can retain your sanity in physical form   essentially you are now lucid dreaming inside of  this god's dream of which you are dreamed up and   you yourself become a god you can alter reality  past present and future to your liking or the   much more likely outcome is you're like wait what  a second i don't even exist many theorize that   the latter is what happened to the entire dwemer  race hence their total disappearance so then maiq   i mean he certainly seems to be extremely aware  that the reality around him is nothing more than   a flexible ever-changing and evolving landscape  built for entertainment but his backstory is so   non-existent and mysterious there's no way of  really knowing or justifying how he could have   achieved this state whatsoever you could say  he was a wizard in ancient times dabbling in   the raw magic of the new world and cracked some  sort of code to the player and other inhabitants   he is just a madman talking nonsense out of his  ass about where sharks and cut content to a point   of notoriety where people call him the liar but  across a lot of human mythology and fantasy it is   the fool the old hermit the cast off scholar that  seems crazy and disconnected who is actually the   most lucid one in the land this is a fun theory  for sure i mean vivec was aware he was in a dream   but maik being aware that he is in a video game  about being in a dream and communicating with his   gods the developers it all fits together rather  nicely but keeps enough mystery intact as well   that being said the second theory is  probably my favorite one that maek   is the dreamer and full credit goes to reddit  user ride the line over on teslor for this one   i'm gonna link the original post he made in the  description and please do read through it if you   find it at all compelling because he's going to do  a much better job explaining most of these things   he presents the idea that all of mundus and mortal  life is merely a test that all living beings are   being observed within the dream to assess if any  can transcend their status and reach a higher   plane of understanding in existence in essence if  any can achieve kim and take hold of the infinity   of their reality so if you accept the theory that  anu the everything the primordial concept that   predates even the aedra and daedra is indeed the  sleeping godhead and that when someone is sleeping   even you or i we are always aware of ourselves  even subconsciously it stands to reason that the   being who is dreaming is walking around somewhere  in tamriel you know experiencing their dream   firsthand this sort of avatar for the dreamer  would have unlimited wisdom of the universe and   all of its shortcomings but would have to appear  as humble and normal as possible you don't want   like biblically accurate angels walking around  scaring the [ __ ] out of people in your dream   so this theory presents this avatar as a sort of  proctor a guide to help along the inhabitants of   the dream in hopes that some of them if not just  one of them are able to ascend their understanding   to kim levels or what have you this is why my  often talks about things that are missing from   the game because when you and i are having a dream  about like say a kitchen and there's no blender in   the kitchen it's just because your brain skipped  over that part it doesn't exist this is why he   is able to so candidly say without hesitation  like blocking with two weapons what the hell are   you talking about why would you want to do that  because as the dreamer this is the reality that   he has created okay now take into account who the  player character is that interacts with maek in   each game the nerevarine the champion of cyrodiil  the last dragonborn and the vestige maik is not   coming and talking to any old bums but only those  of note in the fabric of history we are casting   him off as a meme or funny easter egg to our own  detriment for it could be the proctor himself   attempting to guide us to warmer sand in the way  of enlightenment the theory goes on and on a bit   and it is just so cool to me definitely the most  unique take on this character and honestly one   that makes the most sense when you're trying to  justify him lore wise really good stuff now to   the final theory we will look at today because  holy smokes i've been editing this video for 17   hours straight and my buns hurt and that theory  is maiq is a daedra this one is decidedly more   simplistic but still important to the maek theory  verse because this was probably the first theory   to ever arise about the character given his  knowledge of the daedric ruin in morrowind   and otherwise otherworldly level of information to  be shared overall the daedra are fascinating each   one is so unique from its peers the lines between  good and evil so blurred that it's hard to pass   proper judgment on any of them individually and  maik being a member of this exclusive crew has   two branching possibilities one is that he  is one of these existing daedra in disguise   or two is that he is an undiscovered daedra a  rogue deity that hides amongst the common folk   of tamriel so then which deities could make be in  secret well appropriately boethiah is the prince   of secrets and deceit amongst other things or what  about hermaeus mora prince of knowledge and memory   a being that desires to learn all of the forbidden  information it can get its hands on you also can't   overlook mephala prince of unknown plots and the  master manipulator or perhaps most of all shea   gorath daedric prince of madness whose motives  are completely unknown even to himself it's all   a matter of perspective but it is admittedly more  fun to imagine him as like a rogue daedra perhaps   the prince of observation whose sphere of power  is so singular and focused everything he says is   a bunch of hui to everyone else because they're  beneath him in skill i just think all of these   things are so fun to think about especially  because we know that it's none of these things   and it's all just a developer joke but that's  what's good about the elder scrolls dark souls   warcraft whatever fictional universe it is the  fans are going to talk circles around even the   most meaningless things simply because we want to  because it's damn fun overall the legacy of maek   the liar is amazing to me and if i could liken him  to another character in fantasy it would honestly   and don't shoot me be tom bombadil from the lord  of the rings now of course tom isn't commenting on   literary criticism of the hobbit or anything like  that but he is this mysterious presence that no   one within middle earth can fully understand or  explain what he says is simultaneously profound   and meaningless those who cross his path don't  really know what to make of him overall but they   do know that they are in the company of someone  far beyond the average mortal he has this air   about him of ancient power and mystery a character  that we all want to know more about but never   will maike carries that mantle here in the elder  scrolls i feel anyway though the characterization   is of course very different the effect is the  same but maek is also connected closely to another   eternal soul of love and life todd howard  director and game producer of the entire series   todd has long had a reputation of being the source  of all those promises of things that can't make it   into the final product a lovable guy who just gets  a little too excited and says oh yeah absolutely   you can build an entire city with social  hierarchy and train dragons and then go to space   and you can climb that mountain over there todd  has been publicly labeled a liar and it's fitting   that the developer stand-in who kind of defends  all of these omissions and design choices bears   the very same title if you have made it this far  into the video you are an absolute soldier and   you are here for the eternal question is my eek  really a liar and the answer honestly is no he is   not he shares his opinion or bethesda's opinion  and occasionally will fragment his statements   into a couple possible truths but it is overall  statistically rare that he says something that is   this way when we know it is that way but i think  also he makes us reevaluate what we even consider   lie take his quote and morrowind about becoming  a lich sure we can't do this ritual i don't even   know what classifies a horse as well written  but how do we know that if we had all of those   things and attempted such an unholy afternoon we  wouldn't become a lich instantly this is a fantasy   world dude of insane happenings magic necromancy  dragons time travel you name it it's in there so   maiq is careful to rarely contradict the lore just  give you tidbits that you kind of can't prove true   or false everything he says everything he calls  attention to is not only a peek behind the curtain   but also showing what feedback bethesda has heard  from the fans a way to catalogue all of those   things and all the generations of change that the  series has endured and likely will continue to   endure also to light our imagination ablaze with  stupid theories as we read far too much into his   dialogue and make our long videos about i think  of all the characters i've covered on my channel   the heroes the villains and the npcs my eek is the  most unique the strangest one by far and it will   be a bright beautiful day on november the 7th  3045 when the elder scrolls 6 finally releases   and my descendants can see what my eek is going  to say next so when you're out there exploring the   landscape of tamriel alone or with some buddies  always remember to keep some calipers in your bag   keep your ears open because there's no telling  when my eek is gonna pay you a little visit   thank you so much everyone for watching  and listening to the end this video as   i was writing it ended up turning into much  more of a beast than i anticipated but i had   an absolute blast making this and i'm excited to  hear your favorite my quotes down in the comments   a huge thank you to every new subscriber  that has joined the ghost guild recently   since 2022 started i have more than doubled the  subscriber count of this channel and i'm just so   glad you're all along for the ride thank you all  every single one of you so much until next time   peace mike is tired now go  bother somebody else you

Channel: Ghostcharm

Views: 1,145,750

Keywords: m'aiq, lore, liar

Id: HGEPZvO019U

Length: 73min 33sec (4413 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 15 2022