Alright. I've studied and read numerous things on the Ansei, as it is one of my favorite TES lore subjects.

From what my imagination points to me, it was a sword of magical or spiritual energy, which would look a bit like pure magicka or something along those lines. I was looking at the Memory Stone once more, and I found this:

"I am Makela Leki a warrior, a sword-singer, a second level Ansei. In my cradle I could form the Shehai, the spirit sword - The mystical blade, mine formed of pure thought serpents intertwined with vines of roses to form the blade, as beautiful as ... "

Did you read this?: http://www.imperial-library.info/dfbooks/b105_alt_redguard.shtml
I'm not sure what your question is.

The Shehai looks to be a metaphor - a metaphor which can actually be summoned and wielded - of the sword-singer's destiny.

I just want to see your opinion on how they used their weapon, whether it was magic or not.

Also, how powerful do you think the Ansei were?

It's a thought-derived lightsaber...

It's similar to a bound sword...except the magic is very different. It's not a physical representation of a Daedra or anything. It's formed by the mental energy of the swordsman. And it is much, much more powerful than any corporeal weapon. A lightsaber, like Luagar said, except even worse. It can split the atoms in the air and cause a massive fission if a certain technique is used. It's heavily implied that Yokuda sank because of similar techniques.

While some practitionner are able to push it that far, not all of them do. As an emanation of the mind, it's power depends heavily on the focus and mastery of it's wielder.

It looks to me like Redguards tend to exaggerate their stories. Their stories also say that they used the Shehai to destroy Yokuda, which they say dwarfed Tamriel in size, yet there is no such historical evidence of such incredible power of the Shehai in Tamrielic history, nor that Yokuda was as big as they claim. It looks to me like as stories get passed down, the past warriors and their power become the things of legend. I do not deny that there is a Shehai power, but it looks to me like the stories are just the result of legends becoming even more legendary as time goes on. Because Redguards are humans, such legends tend to become distorted relatively quickly. The same seemed to happen with Pelinal Whitestrake, except there are other stories (http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:The_Song_of_Pelinal was from various sources) detailing his much more mundane and "human" capture and death.

i dont know if this is from my own interpretation of some of the thigns I?ve read, or if I actually read it somewehere but...

The sword acts as a bridge beetween the warrior?s will to wound his enemy and the wound itself. Swordsingers can bypass that bridge and go from thought to wound.

Could it instead be the soul of the wielder made manifest, as opposed to the bound soul of a lesser daedra?

"Why do you think that Sword-singers and Ansei are the same things? Yes it is true that most Ansei are sword-singers, out of necessity, but it is also not true that sword-singers can always become Ansei."





The Hiradirge as "villians" is why oral history is a tricky track to run. As always, the stars are overlooked to their grand scheme of everything.

Edit: quotation marks

I don't. I think they are different things.

That's how I always thought of it. Raw magic in the shape of a sword.

I take offense to this statement, Paladin. What part of 'giant Goblins from another dimension' sounds like an exaggeration to you?

What is the Shehai, you ask? You betray the ignorance of your people, nudriman. Every raga learns of the Shehai as they nurse on their mother's teat -- to ask us "what is the Shehai?" is to ask "what is the sky?" and "what is the sea?" -- but few may wield it. Those who can know better than to try and explain it to those unversed in sword-singing, the brutes who dare call their artless, spasmodic floundering with an iron blade "fighting." The Ansei refines his technique to an art: he knows that the Sword is a principle, not an object, and thus eschews its crude, physical imitations in favor of the Shehai. His battles are won before the making of the first cut.

But perhaps I should be more specific:

It is a metaphor made manifest, a razor hewn from that which separates the figurative and the literal.

It is the weapon of the HoonDing, the catalyst of all great action, the harbinger of Make-Way.

It is Love, a double-edged sword whose blades cut deep into the opponent and deeper into the wielder.

A very interesting quote, the Ansei are just one more reason I love the Elder Scrolls :wub:

That really doesn't explain how it is actually manifested, it seems that the key is understanding the metaphoric use of the sword as a concept and not a physical object. Using magicka as a catalyst seems too simple, otherwise any old mage could do it. The spirit theory sounds convincing, manifesting their own soul through mysticism into a corpereal object. They condense it so much it becomes real? Any way you can give us a source so I can dig a bit further?

I haven't studied up on my Yokudan culture in a while, but this is probably a good place ot start. I think one key to understanding it in the metaphysical sense is this "HoonDing, catalyst of action, harbringer of the Make-Way". Sounds kind of Sep-ish, very Padomay

The reference to love is interesting, could this have some Vehk in it? Perhaps a lesser form of CHIM? Agh, now that I've dragged that into this I have to spend hours trying to figure it out

That's what I meant to imply...it's a "summoning" of the user's will made manifest, rather than some external entity such as a Daedra.

None of it, compared to "super-powered unstoppable spirit sword that destroyed a continent much bigger than Tamriel".

How about a giant robot god messing up time?

Though what I don't get is why people always mentions these fairly Mundane things. Are we that used to World Eating Serpents? Do we see schizophrenic gods every day at work? Or is that what we don't encounter everyday is so much less jarring as an idea?

I think Crimson Paladin (Crimsonpaladin>Redpaladin>Redguard) is ashamed of his heritage, which is why he left Hegathe for Cyrodiil.