1) To Boethiah the Fount of Inspiration.
2) To Hircine who is Half the Conscience of Man.
3) To Malacath who speaks all Languages Sideways
4) To Mehrunes Dagon whose mistress is Blazing Sun.
5) To Sheogorath the Comforter of Men.
6) To Molag Bal whose Breath is Most Foul.
7) To Namira whose Works endure forever.
8) To Mephala who threads the Needle with the Hair of wives.
9) To Clavicus Vile who always answers.
10) To Nocturnal whose touch is Mink.
11) To Peryite whose Foundation is Falling Rock.
12) To Azura the Rim of all Holes.
13) To Meridia who contains the Plenum.
14) To Hermaeus Mora who holds the Paper to the Light.
15) To Sanguine who tastes the Shaven Fruit.
16) To Vaermina Weaver of the Panoply.
http://www.imperial-library.info/pge/ (numbering & reorganization mine)

Here we have the 16 Acceptable Blasphemes, presented backwards. Since I can't ever remember them being discussed and can find no discussion on them I decided its high time for one. :read:

So, esteemed colleagues, what do they mean? What do they tell us about the nature of or how do they relate to the nature of each Prince, or the Imperials' perceived nature of each Prince?

:foodndrink:

I always just found them to be the now-expected post-Redguard jumble of nonsensicals that where supposed to imply jocular yet flattering remarks concerning the Princes.

Yeah, it's the pocket guide. I wouldn't worry about it.

It's not nonsense. There's most certainly a certain level of "this sounds cool, we'll put it in" going on here, but it's not nonsense: each "blasphemy" says something about the Prince and its sphere.

From an out-of-game perspective, the original pocket guide was written by Kirkbride with input by Kuhlman, Rolston, et al. Seems like we should "worry about it" as much as anything else.

From an in-world perspective, one wonders what the significance is of the Imperial Geographic Society mentioning the 16 acceptable blasphemies at all.

Muse, I guess.

2) Half the conscience perhaps refers to the more primal nature of man, in regard to hunting
3) To me an obvious euphemism for Destruction.
6) Just seems like a great but generic insult
12) A reference to her sphere, beginning and ending.
13) Apparently a plenum is a space filled with matter. Seeing as she's associated with the energy of all things, I don't find that odd
16) I'm guessing the Panoply of dreamscapes is what they're referring to.
I just gave educated guesses. I'm pretty close to passing out into a glorious sleep. :snoring:

Fifteen definitely means a lady's hatchet wound.

Exactly, hence nonsense

Read that then lol'd at 12.

Yes, I'm 10 years old. I'm sorry.

:hubbahubba:

I did the same thing.

10) :confused: I thought Mink was an animal.
14) He brings illumination to knowledge


:turtle:

What, exactly, are you asking? Are you asking what each means and why the Imperials chose those exact terms? Or are you asking for why they are ordered the way they are?

Well, he did ask what do they mean....

How do you go from "such and such authors wrote it, intending it to tell us about the world of the game" to "nonsense"? That inference is missing a few important premises.

Or are you just a troll?

Bingo bango.

They all just seem to be fancy restatements of each Daedras sphere. I would say they are listed as acceptable because the author is acknowledging that while the Daedra are "bad" they do have their uses even in Imperial society.

1) To Boethiah the Fount of Inspiration.
either means his role & influence with the dunmer, or his role with conspiracy and treason/revolution

2) To Hircine who is Half the Conscience of Man.
probably meaning the animal side of man

3) To Malacath who speaks all Languages Sideways
speaking sideways is circumventing the truth

4) To Mehrunes Dagon whose mistress is Blazing Sun.
likes to see things burn

5) To Sheogorath the Comforter of Men.
delusions can be comforting, showing what they want to see

6) To Molag Bal whose Breath is Most Foul.
he speaks of defiling, corruption

7) To Namira whose Works endure forever.
not too sure. uglyness endures forever? essentially one with self and surroundings, forsaking material goods.

8) To Mephala who threads the Needle with the Hair of wives.
backstabbing metaphor, wives killing husbands considered the ultimate backstab.

9) To Clavicus Vile who always answers.
he's always willing to make a deal

10) To Nocutranol whose touch is Mink.
mink touch is soft, so is darkness. Nocutranol?

11) To Peryite whose Foundation is Falling Rock.
foundation is the erosion of the establishment, pestilience

12) To Azura the Rim of all Holes.
always on the edge of schemes

13) To Meridia who contains the Plenum.
either means contains all, or is the assembly of all, the law?

14) To Hermaeus Mora who holds the Paper to the Light.
uses knowledge to block the light

15) To Sanguine who tastes the Shaven Fruit.
:lol: debauchery

16) To Vaermina Weaver of the Panoply.
dreamweaver...the array of dreams

3) How does that relate to his sphere of Ostracization?
14) I'm sure it's speaking of revelation rather than obsfucation.

3) liars are always ostracised, aren't they? at least when found out.

14) not so sure, it could just be blatently obvious that it means lighting the knowledge, or it could mean that the depths of forbidden knowledge available will keep you from your true answer.

Or the chief patron of rimjobs.

Vivicky is doing alright.

If you're holding paper to the light, you're probably trying to read it.

Azura, of Dawn and Dusk...the Tonguemaster.

though that title is in dispute with Sanguine. the competition is fierce!

My initial thoughts and ramblings, feel free to pick them apart, I know I'm no expert.

1) His sphere is revolution and change. Perhaps this also includes inspiration - for without inspiration, can there be change? In a positive light, Boethiah is the ultimate "shake-up" - he/she keeps things from getting stagnate and ossified.

2) Man - reason and hunter. Hircine is the primordial side of man... perhaps mer, too?

3) Sideways... that's curious. I can't think of anything, though perhaps it is a reference to Trinimac?

4) Blazing Sun -> Mythic Dawn?

5) Does madness comfort? When all within the Aubris is a lie, perhaps madness can keep one from zero-summing....

6) Well, there's no two-ways about Mister Stinky, then...

7) sphere is the Ancient Darkness... eh... I can't really think of why her "Works endure forever."

8) The webspinner... the "Hair of wives" immediately called to my mind the "wives" of Shor from that snippet MK posted. Mephala weaves plots from the hair of the Aedra - with mortals' lives.

9) If you are ready to sell your sell, be careful what you wish for... because he always answers...

10) Mink, the animal, the fur - soft? Soft as night?

11) The Falling Rock... reminds me of Lie Rock, that rogue moon above Vivec.

12) Oh, now this is interesting. The Rim of All Holes. The rim to the hole where Lorkhan's heart was torn? No wonder she's often associated with destiny, given the mythpoeic (spelling?) forces surrounding holes where hearts used to be.

13) http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/plenum. In the TES universe is this creatia?

14) Well, his sphere is knowledge... =/

15) Seems like an allusion to a Forbidden Fruit of sorts?

16) http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/panoply... how do bad dreams and evil omens protect? Are the bad dreams sent to mortals as 'correctional' - in other words, "you've been a bad Bosmer, and this is what will happen if you keep on being naughty!"

Vivic was also a living god. malacath's followers aren't, common liars aren't celebrated folk. this is just going by the description, as sideways talking means not telling the truth.

in the literal sense for hermaeus mora , sure, holding paper to light will either let you read it easy, or block out the light. it's probably more metaphor though, the paper being knowledge, the light either the enlightenment or goal. but what is the intention of hermaeus mora? those that enter his realm never leave due to the vast forbidden knowledge that entices them there.

And he was made of tossed out ideas, so..his knowledge may not even all that correct

13) I can see just about every definition of the word plenum being able to refer to Mundus, but why would Meridia 'contain' it?

-- A space that is completely filled with matter : As opposed to Oblivion and Aetherius
-- A legislative meeting in which all members are present : The Convention, all the Aedra coming to Mundus to meet
-- The space above a false ceiling : Subgradients or the prison, with Mundus being either closer to heaven/enlightenment or a sort of false illusion

16) So, the grandeur of dreams?

This one.

10) Fixed it, sorry about that. I was typing them as I was trying to read them backwards and didn't go back to actually spellcheck.
I was hoping there was some other meaning of 'mink', I can't seem to find one though.
12) Why would 'Holes' be 'Schemes'? But if you're correct then that does show the Imperials have a slightly more enlightened view than most give them credit for.

Vivicky?

5) I'd say madness can be a sort of comfort, if nothing else a comfort from the ails and realities of life. I think tying in zero-summing is a little bit of a stretch

Meridia is associated with light if I remember correctly, so maybe the Plenum in this case refers to the full spectrum of light.

"Holding the paper to the light" probably refers to reading the (hidden) message; like scientific discovery. Maybe we're making this too complicated.

i an really only see soft for this, other characteristics of minks don't really work well, except maybe territorial.


i think a 'hole' can mean a predicament, where azura would be on the edge of all predicaments.