So last night in Skyrim, I met a painted cow (dried blue splotches which might have been runes of some kind) in a random encounter, which of course immediately reminded me of http://www.imperial-library.info/content/fight-six-911th-cow, from the Seven Fights. And, of course, the guild hall of The Companions, is, without a doubt, http://www.imperial-library.info/content/five-hundred-mighty-companions-or-thereabouts-ysgramor-returned

Anybody else notice any sweet, sweet lore goodies?

Excuse me, I'll be cackling quietly to myself. I don't even feel bad about not having the game yet.

I just got this. Companions no longer relegated to "that's a really lame name" status.

It's actually not Ysgramor's boat, per se. But you are close. You want to find the various volumes of "Songs of the Return."

:-D

Been trying to collect all books relating to Ysgramor and his companions, and so far the ones about his sons have been great. Then again, those are the only ones I found so far.

Fine, Ysgramor's best-buddy's boat Either way, incredibly cool way to tie lore into world design.

Would you perhaps be so kind as to reveal who wrote those? Finding out that the Song of Return has finally shown up after 13 years really made me happy.


That particular song, as well as a couple others, is now up on TIL. It's http://imperial-library.info/content/volume-7-tale-jorrvaskr. I also have shots of 56, but am missing any/all others. As always, screenshots appreciated, since I am too busy picking flowers and helping people with their relationships to bother with dragon slaying and world saving.

The Tamriel author or the real-world author?

RL would be wonderful

I was thinking real world, and assuming that in-universe the text is transcribed from oral tradition (ala Beowulf and the like). If I was wrong about that I'd love to hear that, too.

Another easteregg people might have missed: the prophet in Whiterun quotes from the Many-headed Talos. I love that guy.

I thought what he said seemed eerily familiar.

You're right about the in-world authorship.

In the real world, I'm the one to blame for that particular set of books.

Totally saw that coming.

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/648745380499986566/EF17D40C24A2C2656A8CF5AFA0CF1D8A648A04E0/

My life is now complete, and Skyrim is officially the best TES game ever.


Great job I really liked the tone and look of them, feels really Nordic. I also enjoy how the more we learn about early mannish cultures the more we realize that they were at least as bad as the elves they supplanted. It probably wasn't intentional, but they're happened to be a good companion piece to the unofficial http://imperial-library.info/content/five-hundred-mighty-companions-or-thereabouts-ysgramor-returned, too.

It's great to see this legendary text finally realized

It's a damn shame the Civil War mission to befriend a giant by bringing him a painted cow didn't survive... but at least the painted cow got into the game.

That *is* a shame. I'm looking forward to seeing if there are any non-hostile interactions with Giants still, both from how interestingnit would be and how sick I am of getting knocked literally thousands of feet in the air by them when we fight.

The fact that it was even on the table is really awesome. I continue to be amazed at the level of lore detail (both old, new, and obscure) that's in Skyrim. Even copying the books over to TIL has been a blast, every second one seems to contain some major revelation. I feel like I owe you guys cookies for caring about our tiny community of lore aficionados.

I'm a modder. I'm sure you'll see your civil war cow quest yet

Great Scott! This evening, while traveling along the road from Whiterun to Rorikstead, I met not only one painted cow, but two! First one was an encounter like that of Lady Nerevar, farther up. Then already I had to think of this thread again ...

... and then, quite a bit farther along the way, I saw another cow wandering towards me. Not with a giant, though - this time, a human walked next to it. Of course, I had to have a closer look at them, and the cow was painted as well - and the human, a farmer, had dialogue regarding exactly that!



What an evening. Definitely will store away the save games and screenshots that encounter resulted in!


Did anyone else encounter them?


Hand of Sotha, still a bit breathless from rushing over to the thread after that encounter

Yep, I got that encounter. I even tried watching the farmer for a while to see if he was actually taking that cow to the giants like he said, and he did walk towards a giant camp, but I was getting bored (he walks slow) and the giants were aggressive towards me, so I never saw if he actually presented the gift to them.

I've come across one farmer trying to take his cow to the giants. I followed him from a distance, the giant killed him. That made me mad so I killed the giant, the only giant I've bothered to kill so far - for some reason I always feel bad for attacking the giants, 'cept that one, he deserved it (then I saw his mammoth wandering around alone and was sad again - perhaps I could have adopted him but I don't think the guards would take kindly to me trying to bring a mammoth into the city).

I once was attacked by two bandit chiefs simultaneously at around level 5 (getting owned, obviously), when suddenly a mammoth comes running out of nowhere and beats them to death in an instant. Then he just wandered off. Mammoths seem like nice people.

I always feel bad about killing giants as well. That's why I backed off from following that farmer into the giant camp.

Damn. I haven't seen these yet, but damn.

I thought that was a boat...

Now obviously Ysgramor had step-brothers on a boat with nord women.

He's like a boss.

*has to smile* So I'm far from alone in not wanting to kill giants, good to know!

And of course I had to follow the picturesque pair on their way to the giants' camp, too. Heh, sure: "Help? No, thanks, got it all under control." Then why did I have to save you from two sabre cats, three wolves, a highwayman and a skeever on your journey? Nord pride, probably.

But after the long journey from the road near Gjukar's Monument, where I met them, back to the giants' camp near Whiterun, the whole thing ended sadly, like in your case, Luagar2. Three mammoths and two giants fell upon the poor farmer. Not sure whether that was a bug - from the farmer's dialogue, this endeavour was a tradition he apparently was not following for the very first time. I mean, he even said something in the vein of "A superstition? Maybe, but I never had my livestock stolen by a giant!"

(I even tried to defuse the situation, but the most powerful Calm spells failed against the giants and the mammoths. And setting their Aggression to 0 did not help, either. If I knew how to add the farmer to the giant faction, I would try that, too, but I don't ...)


Well, in the end I stood there, the painted cow standing next to me, http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y65/Hand_of_Sotha/The%20Attic/AQuestioningLook.jpg, and I was that close to adopting it. *wry smile*


Hand of Sotha