It was late in the last era when I boarded a ship moored in Anvil headed to the Summerset Isles when they still bore that name, for I had matters of continuing my sabbatical in the field of ancient Alinor paleography for the University at that time. We were set upon by a great storm on our third day, and in my youthful foolishness I sprang from the cover of my quarters below deck only to be struck down to the flush by a massive gust which among knocking myself and many others down, snapped the main mast. In the next minute a number of flin barrels were thrown from their netted fetters by a great wave which nearly capsized the vessel. It was one of those barrels that struck me, broke the deck railing, and me into the pitiless and angry sea. Perhaps the other sailors missed my flight or otherwise thought little of me as a blubbering scholar from the Capital, but they tossed me no line, and with only the flin barrel to cling to I watched as the ship disappeared into the storm and fury. I propped myself on my belly upon the barrel, discarding my bulky robe and partly against my will, fell into a deep fatigued slumber as soon as the storm died, awaking in the shallows of an island that morning. As I pondered my predicament thinking first of food, fire, and shelter I was startled and wholly terrified as watery-figures emerged from the rolling waves behind me. When I say watery, I mean not wet nor water-borne, but instead they looked as if they were truly made of-the-water, for their skin was clear as a rippling pond, light shewing through from the sun. They were similarly unclothed, so it appeared at first as though the sea itself was taking form. A man of fewer letters than myself may have lost his mind and at the very least his good senses at such a sight, but after the initial shock, I remembered my early studies on the Dominion and identified them rightly as Maomer of the southerly Pyandonea. Gathering myself I greeted them in the tongue of Altmeris, to which a thin but strongly-built man of which I could now see faint light blue spiral tattoos upon his face, addressed me in strongly-accented but still quite understandable Cyrodiilic.

“Oh hello. Hi!” He said with a broad, translucent grin.

“You brought us flin? That’s nice. I like you!” He continued, noticing the large painted logo on the side of my barrel which featured a bushel of grain and three smiling faces. He motioned for his companions to take the barrel as he helped me ashore.

“Come! Come!” He intoned leading me inland to a small village of buildings made from the hollowed-out chitinous shells of great insects, and as I walked over the dune which overlooked the village I noticed the buildings were arranged in a similar spiraled fashion, with what appeared to be an obelisk of bone at its center. As we walked into town he could see me studying the statue and said,

“Father O-Kalu Hiit. When he half-died, he gifted us with his fifth tooth, so we could carve good things on it.”

This of course sent me quite aback, as the tooth was nearly fifteen feet high and six feet wide, and as I now noticed, was covered in every known point in curls and spirals of varying sizes. I had little time to contemplate this though as my guide, who would later introduce himself as O-Kalu Fo-Hay led me directly to what appeared to be a longhouse made from the same insect husks but shaped and stretched through some curious fashion as if melted and reformed in places as to allow for more space inside.

“Good, yes?” O-Kalu Fo-Hay said to me. “This is the gift quarters, where our gifts and gift-gifts stay while visiting our O.” With “O” being a small village in their tongue, as I would later learn.

“You are our gift, and you may sleep, eat, sleep-sleep, and make woman-fun in this hall, and we will enjoy your gift-gift of flin here as well. Until tonight, please sleep, and eat. Do not worry about paying with gold or silver-thought, as the amount of flin you brought is quite large. You may also make self-fun here as well, but we ask that you do not get your not-water on the ancestor swirls,” To which he motioned toward the wall which like the tooth was covered in spirals and curls but painted in vibrant pigments of blue, pink, and green, each color existing in twenty-plus hues and shades. And so I walked outside and was offered various tough-skinned fruits and assorted forms of strange shellfish which looked like spider-legged shrimp, and finding the food strange but far from bad, I sought to dry myself beside a fire in the center of the longhouse, drifting to sleep in little time at all.

When I finally woke, the day had long ended, and only the fire by which I had laid illuminated the longhouse. Outside, through the round windows in the chitin walls, the stars were shining. Encircling the fire were many Maomer. As I sat up and crossed my legs, I noticed that I too was part of this fire circle.

"Happy night-morning." A larger Maomer said. Across his body were the light blue spiral tattoos which seemed to dance midair on his clear skin in the fire light.

"Now please sit and listen, O-Cyrod Ka. We have many stories to tell you."

To be continued when I get some more food and time in me.

Hmm. This looks interesting so far. By the names you've given them, seems you're going for a Hawaiian sort of feel?

One minor nitpick though, it's Maormer, IIRC. With that R there.

Polynesian I guess. But I'll be doing a sort of Tamriel creation myth variation on Maori legend. Thanks for the heads-up on that typo.

Darn. Can't change the title ><

Not-water. Hur hur.

I feel like this would benefit from a different tone in the narrative. Like, read Gulliver's Travels and then revise this. (And yeah, I realize there is some similarity between the Travels and this little piece so far, but I'm only suggesting it as a stylistic guide to help you get your voice down.)

Most of the sentences in the long paragraphs drag on rather dully. You're going for the rambling scholar, yeah? Revise it, cause it ain't convincing.

I really like the phrase, 'netted fetters'.

The weird terms are pretty cool if not quite as nice as they could be. lol'd at the not-water and woman-fun.

The bone spire should definitely have been the baculum of a sea serpent.

Umm, this isn't the fanfiction forum (where stuff like this should be, IMO. Even yours, Haute, however much I enjoyed it.) so I won't dissect your sentences to be specific about some of the criticisms I made. Unless you ask for it. My general impression of this is that it could be very cool, but is currently only half-baked. Give it a little more deliberation, pull a Boethiah on Jonathan Swift, develop some of your funky terms and your ideas about the maormer a bit, and then come back with a revised version. Have fun!

I've read Gulliver's Travels and am a fan of Swift, but his work is a satire. Mine is not, so I don't really want to go for Swift's tone. It's more fun to make my own voice than hijack another's anyway.

The tooth is a whale's.

Dull, you say? Noted. Although I still feel the need for some minor exposition. I'll look for ways to shorten it. The only long paragraph is at the beginning, and it will be the only one of its kind. The rest of the story will be Maormer myths.

The weird terms aren't as good as they could be? I'm going for a simple, straightforward way of explaining things. There will be more names and descriptions, but I don't want to over complicate things with new terminology especially not for the laid back serene motif I'm going for with the Maormer.

Do what works. All I'm saying is that your voice, as it stands, does not get engage me with your story.


I was making a suggestion.


It's not the exposition itself; it's its execution.

Just looked up baculum... hmm... interesting.

Oh well. I can't imagine on how to change my voice, seeing as how it's well mine, but I was going for an anolytical if not boring scholar. The last thing I want is for the narrative to be boring though. On the whole I'm not sure how to remedy this. In this case I do believe it's the exposition, as I don't want to betray my character by having him speak any different than someone like he would. My only thought is to shorten the exposition and get to the myth sooner.

Not that I'm complaining, but isn't this fan fiction, for which there is a separate board?

I've seen others post fan fiction on here, so I thought it was okay.

It was late in the last era when I boarded a ship moored in Anvil headed to the Summerset Isles when they still bore that name, for I had matters of continuing my sabbatical in the field of ancient Alinor paleography for the University at that time. ====> It was in the closing days of the last era that I boarded a sloop in Anvil bound for its home in the Summerset Isles, as they were still then called. I was at that time on sabbatical from my studies at the University, and in pursuit of my own, private intellectual endeavors, specifically regarding my interest in the paleography of Alinor.

(I know the example revision doesn't fit exactly with your ideas for your character, but I couldn't understand what you meant by the second part. Sabbatical = break from research/teaching at a university)

As for changing your voice... its easy enough. Just read something, and your voice will change. Just try to think the way another person would think, and put the thoughts on paper. And I don't mean what another person would say, necessarily, but how they would say it.


As far as I can tell, MK and others who have done this http://www.monkeytruth.net/main/aboutus.shtml and thus suited to the lore section. In other words, this board is where the fanfiction of the Shadowy Forum Clique gets posted. (This is my impression of the situation, anyway. Could be wrong.)

That's the problem then. I haven't read anything in the colonial fiction period in awhile. Robinson Crusoe will work I suppose. I never did get around to finishing it. But I completely understand what you're saying in terms of changing voice. Whenever I read something, everything I write for the next day or so inevitably sounds similar. I thought it was just my mind being fickle, but it helps with things.

*sigh* I know all about T0 and everything. I was hoping that I'd eventually be able write something good enough.

Shadowy Forum Clique? Holy [censored], I'd joked about that with Lady N a few weeks back. You're telling me it's real? Say it ain't so.

This recent rash of 'Truthers is going to make my Falmer story look like I'm bandwagon jumping. I swear I had it written before you guys posted! I'm just editing and fine-tuning it.

It's "real". It's the term we use to make fun of the sometimes mercurial way we judge new ideas. Makes us look like an impenetrable group of like-minded people to outsiders, hence the name. Actually, we're all pretty divided. There's those on TIL, then there's the T0 folks making their own truth, the UESP contributors, and then you get people like me who can best be described as "forum regulars."

Not far from the truth. The idea is that we're adding new ideas in narrative form. Mostly because we've anolyzed everything to death and T0 came along and pretty much said "you're missing the elegant monkey-point." So it's got to build on existing lore. Right now, Chaplain, I'd say you're in a grey area. Take http://www.imperial-library.info/content/pocket-guide-empire-first-edition-wild-regions we already http://www.imperial-library.info/content/pocket-guide-empire-third-edition-pyandonea and build on it. You can dismiss what their skin looks like, but make sure that you include a reason (unless the watery bit is a poetic riff). You don't need it to be on a mythic scale for it to be Monkey-truth, but the story and narrative should take a back seat to the flavor, setting, or the point(s) about the Maormer you're trying to make. Otherwise, it's plain-old fanfiction, which isn't a bad thing, but doesn't belong here.

I like the cannibalism hint, but you're making them too Polynesian expys. You can riff off of their snake-magic and put in some Voodoo and African flavor, but I'd add in some of Indian, Mung, or Mongolian flavor to truly make them "strange and terrifying others."

I disagree and may nitpick with how you're painting them, but in terms of consistency and stuff, your narrative is solid and engaging. This may seem like a weak compliment, but your words are easy to read.

I know this isn't a question about the post (which I quite enjoyed; look forward to hearing more), but I've seen T0 pop up alot recently and although I've never had an explanation, I can infer what it (they?) is (are?). I'd just like to be pointed in the right direction if no one minds? Google search produced negligible results. Thanks.

http://www.monkeytruth.net/ is an online community of TES lore enthusiasts and writers who classify their fan fiction as "Monkey Truth" or fan fiction approved by Temple Zero. They aim to write in the style of the official TES texts and also participate in some forum RP's. This is all to blur the line between canon and fanon, a proud tradition among the TES lore crowd.

Thank you sir. So, the poster here on THIS forum whose name is Temple Zero.......must have a connection right?

Just because of their name? That'd be preposterous. It's not like Spartan123, and MastaChief are in anyway related to the original.

Right, I was just basing my assumption on the context of Temple Zero's posts here. It seemed very logical to me (and still does despite your wonderful Halo reference) that the person behind Temple Zero's posts on this forum probably also has his/her writing up on the actual Temple Zero Society website. Preposterous, I know.

I think the user named "Temple Zero" does in fact represent the site.

That's an awfully broad view of the Clique

The whole idea of the clique is that its a singleminded group, a.k.a. The Man, keeping down other posters, man. The people who are usually described as being part of the clique are almost (?) exclusively those who hang out around the Storyboard and are contributing members to Temple Zero. Is the Shadowy Forum Clique a real, organized group of people who make it their point to "judge new ideas?" No. There's definitely groups of people who think in similar ways, but that doesn't make it a conspiracy.

The way I view writing in the lore forum has nothing to do with whether its from the Temple. If something is concerned primarily with lore, it can go in the lore forum. If its not, off to Fan Fic with it. If the Temple's PGE2 was posted in fanfic, it'd get no comments, or if it did no one would understand the point of it. Posts that qualify as "obscure texts" are exempt, and the moderators have final say on everything.

This sounds like a good time to ask a question I've been wondering about for a while: why are the ultranerds of the Lore Forum so... stratified(?) segregated(?) cliquey(?). Why does TIL have it's own forum - which seems to serve as something like the girls bathroom to BSF's highschool? Why does TIL even exist anymore, since UESP seems to have all the same content, but with faster searches (I could also ask why UESP wiki exists)? Why did someone feel the need to start up an entire separate website for monkey-truth, instead of just shoving into a corner of one of the other dedicated archive sites? Also, is the news page misleading, or has T0 not been updated since it was launched?

Frankly, it all strikes me as a bit silly.

I can't really comment on your other questions, but I can say that TIL and UESP have completely different content. UESP is based exclusively around in-game content and gameplay, whereas TIL is based more around lore and in-game dialogue.

I'm not even sure how to begin to answer this.

I suppose I'll start with pointing out that you're strait up wrong. UESP and TIL do not have the same content. Not by a long shot. They both have books... but that's about it. Even how those books are presented is different. TIL doesn't have gameplay information, but UESP doesn't have any dev comments. UESP's search, while faster than TIL's, is less precise. I can go on listing. They're used for completely different purposes, and I would wager that their user bases (for lore) don't overlap much.

Why does TIL have its own forum? Because why not? The community that frequents the Storyboard tends to be more hardcoe and much smaller, so it's a much more personal atmosphere than here. It is also not moderated nearly as heavily. All this means that we can have discussions that we can't have here. People that are banned from these forums, or just don't like coming here, hang out there. I'm assuming that you mean the commentary thread when you say "girl's bathroom," but you'll notice that at least half of that thread isn't commentary at all.

Why Temple Zero? Because fan fiction, no matter how good or how lore-y, doesn't belong on either TIL nor UESP. Or, again, why not? Temple Zero is a group of people playing in the TES sandbox with a certain outlook. And yes, the website proper hasn't been updated since launch. There's new stuff on the forums, and I'm guessing the PGE2 will make it up there eventually. It's an archive, not a blog or something.

What I'm saying in those paragraphs is that, 1) redundancy is OK, and 2) none of the websites are redundant. You're saying that Victoria's Secret shouldn't exist because Walmart also sells underwear, and that Victoria's Secret should sell tampons because they're also things ladies buy. The whole line of thought seems 'silly,' to put it mildly.

To take the first part of your question last, the "ultranerds" aren't any more stratified than regular nerds anywhere else on the forums. Some of us know each other better, some of us have histories together, some of us share views, some of us hang out on different forums/sites/chatrooms. On the other hand, there are going to be people who just don't like each other or don't agree with each other's views, because we're all human and that's what humans do. None of that implies cliques or real segregation. This isn't a 80s highschool movie where Proweler, Luagar, and the Word Merchant are giving people wedgies after gym class while MK takes their lunch money. I'm going to interact differently with the aforementioned four because I talk to them often and know then rather well, which might make it seem that we're a clique, but we not a hivemind or set to keep people out. To end with a metaphor, we're as much of a clique as people who play female characters in Skyrim are, or as much as people of Russian descent are.

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http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/9045/shadowyforumclique.jpg

But there are a lot of Russians here aren't there?

But breaking through into T0 can't be a simple feat if most of the T0 guys are friends that go way back.

Yes, but we don't all have secret slavic tea parties where we talk about the evils of capitalism.

It's not a direct relationship. Plenty of people who are my friends and/or who would probably be classed as being in the SFC aren't Marukhati. Similarly, I'm not friends with every single Marukhati. Temple Zero is about a philosophy. If the admins think you've got it, they'll invite you to a project. Else, submit something yourself. Either way, the Temple isn't an arbiter of knowledge, we're just people who think its fun and want to have a place to put it all.