"Syndicates of wizards have been boycotting Imperial goods!"
"the Altmer have powerful Wizards..."
Ring a bell?
It's a long quote, but very relevant.
In the last few years, Summerset Isle has been at peace with its neighbors. To all outward appearances, it has returned to its normal state of unchanging tranquility. In fact, the Altmer are perhaps the most bitterly divided society in the Empire. The war in the province today is a cultural one, which has its origins with the surrender to Tiber Septim four centuries ago which shook Altmer society to its foundation. While in Skyrim and Morrowind more blood has been shed in recent years, this struggle between the old and the new may have even more radical end results. The very future of the oldest province in the Empire of Tamriel is at stake.
For thousands of years, the Altmer have implicitly believed in their superiority to all other races and cultures in Tamriel. For much of this time, they may have been right. But after the incorporation of Summerset into the Empire, doubts began to creep in. With the insularity of the Summerset decisively broken, many Altmer, particularly the young (which among the High Elves is a fairly loose term), began to take a more critical view of the rigid hierarchy of Altmer society and its strict cultural xenophobia. While there had always been discontent on the fringes of Altmer society, which was traditionally resolved by exile of the malcontents, for the first time a significant element of Altmer began to agitate for social change.
This nascent revolution in the Summerset Isle has taken many forms. Most constructive, surely, is the acceptance of new cultures and races onto its shores, some occupying positions that would have been forbidden just a century ago. The Queen of Firsthold, for example, is the Dunmer Morgiah, daughter of Barenziah and sister of the King of Morrowind, Helseth. Her children, Goranthir and Rinnala, though half-Altmer, are fully Dunmer in appearance, and stand to inherit the throne.
A darker side of this movement, however, is exhibited by a shadowy group who call themselves the Beautiful. Originally a salon for artists with the reasonable philosophy that Summerset must let go of its past in order to move forward, the Beautiful became a revolutionary gang dedicated to the destruction of the greatest monuments of Altmer civilizations. The Crystal Tower was naturally an early target, and fortunately attempts against it have failed, but many other great, ancient sculptures and emblems of the past have been vandalized. Lately, the Beautiful have turned their attention to living symbols of the Isle, the royalty of Summerset. The particularly gruesome murder of the daughter of the King of Shimmerene has horrified and outraged the public.
The Altmer culture is crumbling, due to Imperial influence. It's changing. The traditional merish culture is giving away to mannish influence. At the same time, the Bosmer are retreating back into the woods, as Valenwood descends deeper into anarchy. The break away mer (the Dunmer and the Orsimer) are growing more powerful, with help of the Imperials. The mer refused to change from the beginning of time, retaining their culture as the men were reduced to savagery. Now the men are more powerful and more advanced, and the mer still refuse to change. They still hold on to their remnants of Et'Adaness, while men forge ahead. The towers are even starting to fall, further symobolizing the fall of elves. Walking Brass is destroyed, the stone of the Red Mountain has been removed, as has the stone of White Gold. There are four towers left, and the Beautiful are actively trying to destroy the crystal tower. The mer have to change.
» Wed Sep 01, 2010 4:17 pm 
