The Hist (and Argonians) have always intrigued me as well, though I'd rather go to the Summerset Isles for TES:V. I'd be happy with Black Marsh, though, too. So much mystery...I wonder how it would work, though, because unless you're Argonian, you can't survive the poisonous ground/air/water in the center of the province.

My personal feel is that the Hist are Argonians and are the oldest Argonians (Argonian Elders), though we have no real idea how long Hist actually live we do know their presence has been around for a LONG time, I just wish I knew if they were different Hist or if there is a select few that have been alive for such an extended period. All the more reason I would love to see TES:V go to Black Marsh, thats at the top of my list of mysteries I want to see solved!

My personal feel is that the Hist are Argonians and are the oldest Argonians (Argonian Elders),

Interesting ideas - but it appears that Hist are in fact Trees - of the vegetable variety and that Argonians are reptiles of the reptilian/animal variety.

Also the Hist (and their civilisation) predate most other stuff around - many believe they are the oldest inhabitants of Nirn - their civilisation flourished and was mostly destroyed when the Elnofey were having their little war etc.

Hist are trees - and trees can live for hundreds and even thousands of years.

There is some fascinating stuff in there waiting to be revealed alright - I would prefer to be certain that all the Lore-destructive stuff is past and any overly-restrictive aspects of dealing with the consoles' requirements has been worked around rather than rushed and then caved into ...

Are you really that naive? Thinking they are just trees? Shutting out everything that is not normal? This is fantasy you know, And on top of that this is the Elder Scrolls, ANDDDD on top of that, that stuff is in Argonia. They got some pretty [censored] up stuff down there...

I dont really know if their trees or not just wanted to argue....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The hist are a portion of the original Elfenholy[sp?? I have no idea].
They were

That is an excellent idea, Mortazo.

Are you really that naive? Thinking they are just trees? Shutting out everything that is not normal? This is fantasy you know, And on top of that this is the Elder Scrolls, ANDDDD on top of that, that stuff is in Argonia. They got some pretty [censored] up stuff down there...

I dont really know if their trees or not just wanted to argue....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The hist are a portion of the original Elfenholy[sp?? I have no idea].
They had no part in the war, yet their lands were ravaged as a consequence. Just as the others separated and eventually the races started forming etc. so did the Hist. Yet I think they split up into two seperate groups and one became the argonians and one became the hist. alot of this I jsut made up in my head so dont criticize, I get bored quite easily and thats when i come here.

Interesting ideas - but it appears that Hist are in fact Trees - of the vegetable variety and that Argonians are reptiles of the reptilian/animal variety.

Are you really that naive? Thinking they are just trees? Shutting out everything that is not normal? This is fantasy you know, And on top of that this is the Elder Scrolls, ANDDDD on top of that, that stuff is in Argonia. They got some pretty [censored] up stuff down there...
I dont really know if their trees or not just wanted to argue....

Also the Hist (and their civilisation) predate most other stuff around - many believe they are the oldest inhabitants of Nirn - their civilisation flourished and was mostly destroyed when the Elnofey were having their little war etc.

The hist are a portion of the original Elfenholy[sp?? I have no idea].

"their civilisation flourished and was mostly destroyed when the Elnohfey were having their little war etc."

"Yet I think they split up into two seperate groups and one became the argonians and one became the hist. alot of this I jsut made up in my head so dont criticize, I get bored quite easily and thats when i come here."

Interesting ideas - but it appears that Hist are in fact Trees - of the vegetable variety and that Argonians are reptiles of the reptilian/animal variety.

Looks like Oblivionisbetter's got every thing wrong down to his name ^^ (sorry couldn't resist call me an ass if you like)


(from Gez)

At first I would agree with you there, Hist does sound like a vegetable variety, but I know I read something somewhere (I'm being pretty vague here) that their was a sort of connection Argonian-Hist; it stated something that sounded like Hists were part of the Ancient Argonians or.. wait no it said that Hist were the original habitants of Argonia (if not of the hole Easten part of Tamriel). If it so, then wouldn't that give the Status of Vegetable-Spirit? What I am getting at here with this silly idea, it to point out that they are more than just a mere vegetable, but a culture with some sort of organisation to it. Question here would then, from whence does this information provide by Gez come from?

Just a thought though, probably will know in the TESX...

The Hist were originally the trees of Argonia, though the term has mistakenly been used for the Argonians.[1][2] During the great war between the Ehlnofey, the Hist were bystanders, but most of their realm was destroyed as the war passed over it. A small corner of it survived to become the Black Marsh province in Tamriel, but most of their realm was sunk beneath the sea.[3] According to the Monomyth, the Hist acknowledge Sithis in his role as the original creator.[4] The Hist have been tossed around quite frequently on The Elder Scrolls Official Forums, all due to one dangerously mislaid sentence. In the PGE, Argonians are said to never have left their homeland "except for a relatively intelligent strain called the hist.[sic]"[1] This statement, implying that the Argonians are a type of Hist, left quite a bit of fallout, but was resolved by a clear statement by Mark Nelson that the whole thing resulted from ignorance on the part of the editors of the Guide. Hist are, in fact, great sentient trees worshiping the eternal, immutable, god of chaos, Sithis. Unfortunately, it is difficult to find many canonical statements about the Hist in game lore. The Annotated Anuad gives us the some information, telling us that the Hist are one of two races to survive the "twelve worlds of Creation," along with the Ehlnofey, and that the Hist had a great homeland sunk beneath the sea by the wars of the Ehlnofey. It is never certain how much credence one should give to a creation myth. Any statements regarding the Hist's survival of the twelve worlds of a Creation should be treated with due suspicion.[3]
Argonians are known to have deep connections with the Hist, calling themselves "people of the root,"[5] and licking the leaking sap of their trunks in religious rites. The Argonian Traveling-New-Woman leaves an intriguing story regarding her Naming Ceremony and its involvement with the Hist.
"My parents told me not to lick the Hist tree until my Naming Day, so I did. My parents caught me and a boy from my nest in a soft-leaf patch right before the naming ceremony. I feared I'd get more of a licking from my parents than I gave the tree... So I ran as fast as I could through the swamp and into the rest of the kids waiting for their naming ceremony. Everyone had a good laugh and the name stuck."[2]
? Traveling-New-Woman, Morrowind Dialogue
The Argonian Compendium states this to be one of the most famous pieces of Morrowind era Argonian lore, and begins furiously interpreting the passage, declaring in favor of the rite as a sixual initiation into advlthood, the usage of nests, and various other minor things.[2] Marobar Sul's Ancient Tales of the Dwemer also contains a story relating the importance of the Hist, taken from the Argonian slaves of southern Morrowind.
The tale concerns a settlement of Argonians wiped out by "Dwemeri"[A] imperialism. Dwemer come to an isolated Argonian settlement, and begin to fell the local trees without much ado. The Argonians remain unfazed. "[We] allowed them to use the plants as they needed them, provided they never touched the Hist, which are sacred to us and to the land...For many years, we lived peaceably. No one wanted for anything." The Dwemer showed signs of dissatisfaction with their arrangement, as it became clear that the sap of the Hist could be made into resilient armor called resin. The Dwemer sent out a woodsman named Juhnin to fell the Hist for profit. "Of course, we Argonians cried out against it. It was our home, and the Hist, once gone, would never return. The merchants reconsidered, but Juhnin took it on his own to break our spirit. He proved one terrible, bloody day that his prodigious skill with the axe could be used against people as well as trees. Any Argonian who stood in his way was hewn asunder, children as well. The Dwemer people of Lorikh closed their doors and their ears to the cries of murder...It is difficult to explain...But the deaths of our living ones was not nearly as horrible to us as the death of our trees. You must understand that to my people, the Hist are where we come from and where we are going. To destroy our bodies is nothing; to destroy our trees is to annihilate us utterly. When Juhnin then turned his axe on the Hist, he killed the land. The water disappeared, the animals died, and all the other life that the trees nourished crumbled and dried to dust." The story proper begins some time later as the Dwemer daughter of Juhnin speaks to an old Argonian woman working in the now destroyed region, and begins to relate the tale. The child learns that the all the Argonians are soon to die from the Hist's absence, and begins to tear up. The Argonian woman gives the child a small seed, saying 'We Argonians have an expression...That the best soil for a seed is found in your heart." The child leaves to plant it in front of her house. The following day, Juhnin comes across a giant Hist tree at his doorstep, and draws his axe to fell it. Successive blows make no change to the tree, and the tree regenerates to match the wood chopped off. Some time passes, and a local notices Juhnin's emaciated body lying on the ground, axe in hands, with no tree in sight. "Shortly thereafter, small desert flowers began pushing through the dry dirt in the town. Trees and plants newly sown began to live tolerably well, if not luxuriantly. The Hist did not return, but Kamdida and the people of Lorikh noticed that at a certain time around twilight, long, wide shadows of great, bygone trees would fill the streets and hills."[6]
Many cursory remarks give the impression that the relationship between the Argonians and the Hist as nearing the level of symbiosis. From the keyboard of Mark Nelson: "I will tell you that there's more to the Hist than has been told, and they and the Argonians have a much deeper relationship than previously thought...Black Marsh is, sadly, far too unexplored, leaving the enigmatic Argonians shrouded in a bit too much mystery for my liking." Gary Noonan provides a description of the Argonians as being similar to the Khajiit, and varying from a nearly human to a completely lizardlike race much like the Khajiit vary from a nearly human to an entirely catlike race, depending on how many times "they decide to lick the tree". In further posts by Mark Nelson he commented that he was not willing to speak of the relationship between the Hist. "As for the relationship, I'm not talking yet." "There has been talk about how the Hist (and Hist sap) are related to Argonian sixuality. This hasn't changed...it's still related. And, it's not a taboo topic; I just don't think it's the most interesting one out there." The issue has not since been delved into with any more depth or clarity.[2]
A. ^ A running joke within the series is that Marobar Sul's Ancient Tales of the Dwemer are almost entirely not about the Dwemer. Each book in the series is provided with an appendix denying Dwemeri heritage to the tale it comes paired with. The appendix for this particular tale runs as follows: "'The Seed' is one of Marobar Sul's tales whose origins are well known. This tale originated from the Argonian slaves of southern Morrowind. "Marobar Sul" merely replaced the Dunmer with Dwemer and claimed he found it in a Dwemer ruin. Furthermore, he later claimed that the Argonian version of the tale was merely a retelling of his 'original!'"[6] An essay by the Morrowind character Hasphat Antabolis, who, incidentally, provides the player with a Dwemer related quest in Morrowind,[8][9] is included in Oblivion, attempting to construct a possible reason for the public's great love for them. Antabolis concludes that "Marobar Sul's Dwemer are so much more comfortable, so much friendlier, so much more familiar, than the real Dwemer, whose truly mysterious nature we are only beginning to understand." Antabolis is forgiving of Sul's faults. "I have some sympathy for that preference. As the following essays will show, the Dwemer were, to our modern eyes, a remarkably unlikeable people in many ways."[10]
1. ^ a b Imperial Geographical Society. Pocket Guide to The Empire: The Wild Regions. Retrieved on September 4, 2006.
2. ^ a b c d Brendan. Argonian Compendium. Retrieved on September 5, 2006.
3. ^ a b The Anuad Paraphrased. Retrieved on September 4, 2006.
4. ^ The Monomyth: Introduction. Retrieved on September 5, 2006.
5. ^ Zeph. The Elder Scrolls Treasury III: TES3 Encyclopaedia: Argonians. Retrieved on August 3, 2006.
6. ^ a b Marobar Sul. Ancient Tales of the Dwemer: The Seed. Retrieved on August 29, 2006.
7. ^ UESPWiki: Oblivion - Fighter's Guild Quests: The Hist. Retrieved on September 5, 2006.
8. ^ Faern Sargtlin. The Story of Morrowind: Arkngthand, Dwemer Ruins. Retrieved on August 29, 2006.
9. ^ UESPWiki - Morrowind: Antabolis Informant. Retrieved on August 29, 2006.
10. ^ Hasphat Antabolis. Collected Essays on Dwemer History and Culture, Chapter 1: Marobar Sul and the Trivialization of the Dwemer in Popular Culture. Retrieved on August 29, 2006.

Lol - Oborrowind, Gez copied the idea of using the word 'context' like that

:huh: :huh: :huh: :huh:

So much mystery...I wonder how it would work, though, because unless you're Argonian, you can't survive the poisonous ground/air/water in the center of the province.

I'd be happy with Black Marsh, though, too. So much mystery...I wonder how it would work, though, because unless you're Argonian, you can't survive the poisonous ground/air/water in the center of the province.

There is actually alot of http://www.imperial-library.info/fsg/brendanarticle1.shtml that http://www.imperial-library.info/mwbooks/marobar02.shtml describes them as 'trees'.

IMMORTAL-FEATHERED-TREE-GODS!

It's not like the Tseasci are the only ones you know.