The TRUTHKEEPERS - The Ashlanders - Elder Scrolls Lore

[Music] rise from darkness red mountain spread your dark clouds and green vapors birth earthquakes shatter stones feed the winds with fire Flay the tents of the tribes from the land feed the burned earth with our souls yet never shall you have your rule over me never shall I tremble or flinch from your power never shall I yield my home in my hearth and from my tears shall spring forth the flowers of grassland Springs the dunmer people and their chimera ancestors became the mortal embodiments of Boethius sphere they lived by the Gospels of resilience and triumph over adversity and with the help of Azura boethiah and mephala this once small congregation of our merry dissidents became a glorious race in their own right it would be a great injustice to the race name the dunmer to suggest that they have strayed completely away from their founding principles for the most part the teachings of these free Daedra are ingrained in every facet of Dunmurry life but there is one faction among the Dark Elves one group of nomads who were true to their traditions even when the rest of the province became infatuated by false idols these nomads are one with the land of res Dane and can endure the harshest tests of the elements and these nomads were not deterred by the wrath of red mountain when it spewed its noxious fumes and ash rain upon the land for the most part these nomads avoid the trouble of great house politics and frivolous intellectual pursuits adopting the simple pleasures of a natural lifestyle instead yet despite this these nomads were the only ones wise enough to see through the lies of the tribunal and have thus been dubbed the keepers of the old ways and our law did for their true vision by the dunmer people these nomads are the Ash Landers hey guys it's drew here and welcome back to fudge Muppet the dunmer are a race we like to talk about on the channel and even now there are areas of their law yet to be explored Lauren well buildings seem to be dirty words to profess to these days but that wasn't always the case and the dunmer were given plenty of tender love and care we've mentioned the Ashland as a few times in our other videos and we even have a Skyrim build named the Ashland er but we have yet to go into detail about what makes this group of tribal Wayfarers so unique and interesting in this video I plan to do exactly that exploring their distinct traditions their way of life their cultural and religious values but also why they command so much respect from the other inhabitants of Morrowind may I shrink to dust in your cold wild wastes and may my tongue speak its last him to your winds I pray for the herder that whistles to his guar at play I pray for the hunter that stalks the White Walkers I pray for the wise one that seeks under-the-hill and the wife who wishes for one last touch of her dead child's hand I will not pray for that which I've lost when my heart Springs for from your soil like a seed and blossoms anew beneath tomorrow's Sun the choice for a society to live off the land migrating freely in pursuit of fertile soil grazing land for the livestock and resources to forage is a choice that is often looked down upon by those who live in populated cities and they're generally seen as primitive or even feral yet were you to frost a city dweller into the wilderness chances are they'd flounder about hopelessly unable to build shelter or determine what's edible as you can gather from the hymns I recited at the top of the video and just now collected from the wise women the Ash lenders are not dim and they contribute significantly to the Arts verses like the one I recited are composed by the Ashland er warriors champions and ash cons committed to memory by the wise women and transmitted down the generations may I shrink to dust from the beginning of the video is attributed to the long dead poet and warrior Zoe she Moosman all with that in mind we can preface this by saying the Ash lenders are not your run-of-the-mill tribals alpha blood and loot without rule of law so who are the Ash Landers the Ashland is have the same origins as all Dharma tracing their lineage back to Saint velov and his climber followers in fact the Ashland is often referred to as the velour for their ancient prophets while most of the reside in their cities under the Dominion of one of the five Great Houses of morrowind the ash landers have no mortal rulers and dwell in the most inhospitable regions of the province they're most commonly found on the island of Arden fel where the ecosystem has gradually become barren and desolate constantly under threat from Red Mountain at its heart they keep the old ways and that means their society has changed little since the days of Saint fell off their nomadic lifestyle and ancestor worship is the most pure form of boethiah Azura and my father's teachings you're going to find in morrowind hassles i ensue barney a former ash lander who gave up his former life to seek wealth as a merchant and fief in the Thieves Guild has this to say about the Ash Landers in his notes the Ash lenders despised the soft lives and decadent worships of the settled great house dunmer cultures the wastes are harsh and unforgiving and we are a hard people but there is a beauty and honor in our simple lives and the snobs of the temple and Great Houses are fools to dismiss us as crude savages the Ash lenders are arranged in two tribes which are primarily nomadic however they are known for establishing semi-permanent settlements usually in land of particular agricultural affluence in most cases ash Lander settlements are portable huts of hides stretched on chitin frames these huts can be quickly dismantled and packed atop aguar when moving to new grazing and hunting grounds the ash Khan's Hut is simply a larger more elaborate version of a family hut surprisingly the ash lenders are not strangers to permanent settlements the Dwemer historian and author Mara Bassel noted the following some Ashe Lander tribes lived in strongholds much like the ruined strongholds on Vardhan felt today there are even references to a stronghold of Ofra bar somewhere between Vardhan fel and Skyrim but few strongholds outside of sparsely settled Vardhan fel have survived to the present scholars do not agree on who built these strongholds or when but I believe it is clear from this story and a forever it's that the Ashland er tribes use these strongholds in the ancient past instead of making camps of Wick wheat huts as they do today this then provokes the question why would a culture voluntarily choose to abandon permanent settlements isn't that arguably a form of societal regression well it is likely that the Ashland has left their strongholds as a response to the growing softness in the dunmer people as reliance upon the Great Houses to provide shelter and sustenance increased among the populace the ash lenders might have felt a stronger urge to denounce that lifestyle and it's hard to insult the static lifestyle of the masses from the confines of a stronghold the Great Houses may never have come into fruition if it wasn't for their power-hungry Nordic neighbors initially there were countless Ashland er tribes but many of them consolidated into a few unified tribes to better defend against the human invaders these unified tribes were the precursors to Maroons Great Houses as a result the Ashland a population decreased significantly and that is why they are known for living in the most inhospitable regions of the province it is partially a result of their value systems you know Boethius get good policy but there's no doubt that the ash landers would exist everywhere if it wasn't for their inevitable clash with the territories of the Great Houses there are four known Ashland ax tribes in Vardhan fell as of the four hundred and twenty seventh year of the third era however there are others one during the less trodden paths of greater res Dayne including four as of the 580 second year of the second era the known tribes from the mainland include the Kadesh you laugh very ansu and the Maverick ash and then on Vardhan fell there's the I am yousa tribe the arab annum sun tribe the earth shall aku tribe and the zine ab tribe each of their camps can be found across the region ash landers a guar herd is first and foremost and gather the rest of their resources from foraging hunting and fishing they will interact with civilized dunmer occasionally usually in the interest of trading abundant goods like guar hides and shout resin for information on the wider world or items they cannot easily acquire in the wild you rarely find a horse rider among the Landers for they instead choose to rely on those bipedal reptilian creatures named guar guar czar more intelligent than horses they are expert trackers they can aid their masters in combat and they are omnivores making it incredibly efficient to keep them well-fed you'd sooner see a sandstorm in Skyrim than an Ashland are travelling without a trusty guar companion within the tribes the ash Landers have a hierarchy topped by the ashcan this is typically the strongest most capable warrior and they are aided by one or several gula cons unlike the ash composition gula cons can be determined both hereditarily or by merit and should an ash can fall in battle in poor health for an old age a new ash can is generally picked from within the ranks of the gula cons of course the ash Landers are more than just warriors and there are ranks too noting members who govern the spiritual and cultural well-being of the tribe these roles are usually filled by females and they are known as wise women aside from running religious services they provide healing and counsel to all members of the tribe the wise women also have another profound purpose to the ash Landers remember these tribes Harbor great reverence for the ancient velov customs of the Kaymer and the curse upon their race transforming them into the dunmer has not affected that reverence in the slightest this means they still staunchly worship their ancestors and for this to be done effectively they must have competent historians who can retain all of their tribes oral traditions so that they can be passed down from generation to generation the wise women also interpret dreams as prophecies one of these prophecies being the near 'var would return in the form of an outlander all of these things fall under the jurisdiction of the wise women the passing of a wise woman is arguably considered more of a loss than even an ashcan as it symbolizes the loss of valuable knowledge it is thanks to the wise women that we have so many collections of ash lander poetry memorized by the wise women and passed to traveling chroniclers these chroniclers were likely what the Ashe Lander tribes would call clan friends clan friend is the lowest rank among Ashe Landers but it is nevertheless a rank signifying that the individual has been accepted tribe if you see a foreign man or Myr associating with the notoriously xenophobic ash lenders you can safely assume they have proven themselves to be a clan friend in the defense of the ash landers though while they are hesitant to trust Outlanders and are quick to avoid them it is considered dishonorable to kill unarmed strangers unless they are provoked or offended by said stranger ash lenders do not take kindly to criminals who violate their sacred way of life the culprit will be cast out and without the order of the clan they tend to resort to banditry what exactly in ashland are considers to be an insult versus what they consider to be honorable is incredibly hard to distinguish at times especially to foreigners Outlanders are a great risk of provoking the ire of a clan simply by speaking the wrong words Ash lenders often make challenges challenges for sport can be declined without shame but not challenges for honor honor challenges come from perceived offenses or arise from customary formal challenges of status or ritual ash lenders may challenge a stranger who enters a tent without invitation customs differ with different tribes but polite visitors who leave when requested may be forgiven in contrast to that intimidating custom gift-giving is particularly important in their culture among Ash Landers a gift is a token of courtesy among strangers and affection among friends a thoughtful gift signals the giver is cautious considerate and aware of the receivers wants and needs so if you're wandering the inhospitable regions of Morrowind and encounter an ash lander you may be challenged to fight to the death or you may just receive a kind gift with all this in mind you could quite rightly assume that the ash Landers are just another tribal society not unlike all the other tribal societies across Tamriel studious scholars could quite easily brush off the assertions of the wise women and label them savage charlatans who would stop them scholars have an education and a wealth of knowledge stored in the libraries and archives of the major cities the wise women on the other hand they have chants and incantations herbal remedies and snake oils however during the tumultuous times of the tribunal the ash lenders were proven to be far more intelligent and civilized folk may have given them credit for when vivec almalexia and sofa SIL achieved apotheosis becoming the tribunal of living demigods the impressionable Great Houses were quick to fall for their tricks the Ashland is however they have a nifty combination of spiritual resolve and an aversion to following the whims and trends of the Great House culture the Ashland has continued to worship the anticipation x' rather than the false idols they held true to bowie fear to Azura and to mephala as well as to their own ancestors the Ashland is staunchly believe that the tribunal betrayed Indian Iruvar murdering him for coming between them and the power of law Kahn's heart rather than buying the lives of the tribunal the wise women of the Ashland er tribes listen to their dreams and visions determining the will of their gods through mysticism not the words of some divine imposters this made a difference in religious beliefs between the great dunmer population in the Ashe Landers brought about what is known as the nura Vereen cult when Niro Valle was killed in the tribunal rose to prominence many Ashe Landers began preaching of a vision a prophecy from Azura she promised that nee revoir would return and drive out lenders from morrowind this was the highest heresy to the tribunal temple and blasphemers who associated with the newly established near riverine cult were threatened with death or imprisonment worshiping the anticipations was tolerable but attempts to delegitimize the tribunal would not go unpunished the Empire aligned with the tribunal temple on this matter as driving out Landis from the province was a direct threat to the Imperials the ordinator 's were soon granted complete authority to suppress the cult by any means as a result the nur of ring cult was forced underground even among Ash Landers and its true size was difficult to gauge despite such great hardship with what seemed like the entire weight of morrowind and the Empire against them the ash lenders did not falter in their beliefs and when the time came and the nura Vareen prophecy was realized the tribunal fell from grace typically when it was safe to do so many of the dunmer denounced the tribunal and led by the dissident priests the new temple devoted to the Reclamation's became the new recognised religion of morrowind the Reclamation's being the updated name given to boethiah szura and mephala once they reclaimed their status from the tribunal to the Ashland as though there was nothing to reclaim for their veneration of the good Daedra never wavered from then on the Ashland er reputation went from oppressed heretical heathens to the guardians of the true way where once ordinator 's and lawmen sort out the clans to hunt apostates now pilgrims venture across the merciless terrains of morrowind to seek out the guidance of the wise women and there you have it guys the Ashe Lander clans of morrowind I hope you enjoyed the video thanks so much for watching I've been drew and I'll see you next time

Channel: FudgeMuppet

Views: 193,990

Keywords: skyrim, elder scrolls, elder scrolls lore, fudgemuppet, skyrim lore, morrowind lore, morrowind, ashlanders, ashlander lore, great houses, dunmer, dunmer lore, nerevarine, tribunal

Id: 4olNrDotc6w

Length: 16min 17sec (977 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 22 2018