User:SemblioSanctii/SemblioSandbox

To some, High Rock is the butthole of Tamriel. It is a boring land of transparently faux-medieval castles, feudal lords, and knights errant. In this schema, the Bretons are a joke race at best and noxiously dull at worst.

To which we say: phooy.

This document stands as a testament against the popular idea that High Rock is Tamriel’s most generic, high fantasy region. Apocrypha, speculation, and potentially unreasonable assumptions reside within alongside more ‘official’ works, but they’re cool, and that’s what counts.

Pocket Guide to the Empire, 1st Edition

 * http://www.imperial-library.info/sites/default/files/pge01_highrock_pic_01.jpg
 * http://www.imperial-library.info/sites/default/files/pge01_highrock_pic_02.jpg
 * http://www.imperial-library.info/sites/default/files/pge01_highrock_pic_03.jpg
 * http://www.imperial-library.info/sites/default/files/pge01_highrock_pic_04.jpg
 * http://www.imperial-library.info/sites/default/files/pge01_highrock_pic_05.jpg
 * http://www.imperial-library.info/sites/default/files/pge01_highrock_pic_06.jpg

Lutemoth

 * http://www.majhost.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=3274991
 * http://www.majhost.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=3273601
 * http://www.majhost.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=3276093
 * http://www.majhost.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=3274236

Lebiro

 * http://lebiro.deviantart.com/art/Dragonstar-Irregulars-424321856
 * http://lebiro.deviantart.com/art/Breton-Mages-424406566
 * http://lebiro.deviantart.com/art/Breton-Knight-425619825
 * http://www.reddit.com/r/teslore/comments/1ufgek/the_weekly_community_thread_2812_41/cei27ay
 * http://lebiro.deviantart.com/art/Bjoulsae-Witch-424918972
 * http://lebiro.deviantart.com/art/Bjoulsae-Chieftain-424919731

Darya Makarava & Michael Kirkbride

 * http://www.majhost.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=2741453
 * http://www.majhost.com/gallery/ladynerevar/t0/highrock_08_20_2010.jpg
 * http://michaelkirkbride.tumblr.com/image/68271653659

Skyrim: Home of the Nords' Direnni ruins

 * http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mXcvIydfWuQ/UapLBBip7PI/AAAAAAAAAvA/gSnpiEyrtvY/s1600/Scampshot037.jpg
 * http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F9P80izacmw/UmafYlHhKaI/AAAAAAAABAo/HS3cbpCKyBo/s1600/Scampshot025.jpg
 * http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2345o0c5nSQ/Umae6cwjjPI/AAAAAAAABAA/1MYDLYnS8BE/s1600/Scampshot022.jpg
 * http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ksTJodkitqs/Umae9-mpALI/AAAAAAAABAM/PCZiPVc7pXo/s1600/Scampshot023.jpg

Miscellaneous

 * http://skaramanger.deviantart.com/art/Forsworn-362352380 (nsfw)

In-game texts

 * The Warp in the West
 * The Bretons: Mongrels or Paragons?
 * The Knightly Orders of High Rock
 * The Glenmoril Wyrd

Out-of-game texts

 * PGE 1 Entry

Apocrypha

 * Altbalsoft
 * Ancient Magics of the Direnni
 * Bryren Federation of the Sixth Era (Contingency Timeline)
 * Dissertation in Emergent Semionauts in Financial Accounting
 * Reymon Ebonarm: The Once and Future King
 * Sheor the King and the Birth of Thagore
 * The Warped West: Hiaûŗoche
 * Witchcraft, Hagravens, Covens http://tamriel.b1.jcink.com/index.php?showtopic=5481

In-game texts

 * Once

Out-of-game texts

 * The Republic of Hahd

In-game texts

 * The Mirror

Apocrypha

 * Baptism http://www.reddit.com/r/teslore/comments/1v386k/baptism/

In-game texts

 * Witch Cults of Northern High Rock
 * Wyresses: The Name-Daughters
 * A Light on the Moors

Apocrypha

 * An Ykaloni Pantheon

From the Forbidden Galonllyfr: On the Cycle of Death and Rebirth: http://www.reddit.com/r/teslore/comments/1y1g65/from_the_forbidden_galonllyfr_on_the_cycle_of/ The Horse-Folk of Silverhoof: http://esohead.com/books/36-the-horse-folk-of-silverhoof The Remnant of Light: http://esohead.com/books/35-the-remnant-of-light A Guide to Normar: http://www.reddit.com/r/teslore/comments/2346wf/a_guide_to_normar/ Wrothgar: PGE 1 Orsinium Entry: http://www.imperial-library.info/content/pocket-guide-empire-first-edition-wild-regions The History of Hygiene in Tamriel, vol. III: http://www.reddit.com/r/teslore/comments/1vbtq9/the_history_of_hygiene_in_tamriel_vol_iii/ An Orc’s Guide to Tamriel: http://esohead.com/books/2163-an-orcs-guide-to-tamriel Back Home in Orsinium: http://esohead.com/books/1230-back-home-in-orsinium Sacred Rites of the Stonechewers: http://esohead.com/books/26-sacred-rites-of-the-stonechewers Echkin of the Wrothgarian Mountains: http://www.reddit.com/r/teslore/comments/246kgd/echkin_of_the_wrothgarian_mountains/ Lesser Known Peoples of Tamriel II: The Beetle Folk of High Rock: http://www.reddit.com/r/teslore/comments/257r8y/lesserknown_peoples_of_tamriel_ii_the_beetle_folk/ The Reach: Clans of the Reach: A Guide: http://esohead.com/books/689-clans-of-the-reach-a-guide Schemes of the Reachmage: http://esohead.com/books/17-schemes-of-the-reachmage Hestra the Demon: http://pastebin.com/6yDSFhux thee HART o'thee WYDD: http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/1336264-thee-hart-othee-wydd/ Towards a Theory of Circaenieosis: http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/1451121-towards-a-theory-of-circaenieosis/ Hag Tales of Crag'Cwmlech: http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/1437246-spec-hag-tales-of-cragcwmlech/ Lessons From The Old Ways of The Reachmen: http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/1332672-lessons-from-the-old-ways-of-the-reachmen/ Reachwind Eyrie: http://www.imperial-library.info/content/reachwind-eyrie Reachspeech: http://www.imperial-library.info/content/hrafnirs-languages-nordic#Reachspeec Old Gods of the Reachmen - A Native Account: http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/1498974-old-gods-of-the-reachmen-a-native-act/ A Reach Divided http://www.reddit.com/r/teslore/comments/25qlil/a_reach_divided/ Dunlain/The Near Reach (Eastern Border): A Troll Creation Myth: http://www.reddit.com/r/teslore/comments/262a1w/a_troll_creation_myth/ On Trolls: The Pantheon of the Wagkuni: http://www.reddit.com/r/teslore/comments/261v2i/on_trolls_the_pantheon_of_the_wagkuni On Trolls: Nights of the Gathrahan: http://www.reddit.com/r/teslore/comments/264ulp/on_trolls_nights_of_the_gathrahan/

Miscellaneous:

Although we’re rolling with it, the term “Breton” is terrible, with all of its arbitrariness and non-TES implications. The best alternative is Altbalsoft’s “Albalics”/“Albaliche”, with the more common “Manmer” as a more casually identifiable option The mixed Mannish-Merrishness/Merrish-Mannishness of Bretons has a lot of relatively undeveloped potential, glimpsed in such things as Sheor The extreme coarse commonness of magic in High Rock, with children practicing illusion magicks in the streets, hedge wizards popping out from behind every tree, countless competing magical colleges, etc The strange Bretonnic relationship with nature, with witch trees and wyrd trees, Y’ffre worship, the nature-corruption in the Reach, animal-blending as seen in MK’s Breton mage drawing, exotic flora, at least one form of druidism, etc The wide variety of locales: The rugged woodlands and fetid moors of the Glenumbra region, the jagged crags of the Rivenspire/Normar region, the Reach which we know well from Skyrim, the Wrothgarian mountains, the Iliac bay, the Bjoulsae river, etc Orsinium, in most of its incarnations! Goblin-ken, shaggy centipedes, etc Adamantia and the Direnni King Dead Wolf-Deer resided somewhere in High Rock until he was slain to carry out the Trial of Vivec Dunlain Falls is an eastern High Rock settlement: Therefore, the Augur of Dunlain, interesting guy that he is, hailed from High Rock. This works especially well with the Reachish appreciation of (presumably still humanoid rather than manaform) augurs. Shadowkey’s stuff, like Shadow Magic and Wormmouths, totally counts, being just over/in the High Rock border The Mirror gets an honorable, redundant mention because it’s the only even slightly substantial in-gamel source on the Bjoulsae river tribes, and because it gives a very wild look of High Rock Do people really think that Hammerfell can be so interesting and High Rock can be so boring when they’re so involved in one another’s politics? Some of that has to bleed from one side to the other “...and of course no one in High Rock could have an even moderately intimate conversation with a favored guest without feeding the lucky blighter some delectable morsel with their own fingers (which explains, incidentally, the strange phenomenon of unequal weight distribution among the Bretons; the most popular and charismatic of that race tend towards a – usually – pleasing plumpness due simply to the frequency of their feeding and being fed by friends, whereas the shunned or outcast or simply asocial members of that people are pale and skinny simply by isolation from the culture of food).” - In Pedo Impedimenta There are totally Sload tradesworms in Daggerfall Civilized dreugh all up the Iliac and the Bjoulsae, noted in the Hahd text and the Warped West text, and self-justifyingly fitting anyway Huge associations with Daedric forces: Worship and communing amongst the witchfolk, Dremora butlers and so on in Greater Bretony, and hell, entire villages of Daedra out in the country High Rock is a massive cultural mixing pot: There is Ayleid and Altmeri influence via the Direnni, Direnni influence proper which is something entirely different, Bosmeri influence via Galen/Valen, Orcish influence, Reachish influence, Nedic influence, Nordic influence, Redguard influence, Daedric influence, Sload influence, Dreugh influence, Colovian influence by decent proximity and relatability, Nibenese influence by pockets of political sucking-up to various Empires, etc There are “Many High Rocks” - These are simultaneously different corners of High Rock and overlapping province-wide truths. High Rock - The more mundane High Rock that most people are familiar with. Hiaûŗoche - The Dragon Broken High Rock. The Jills have fixed it, but it lives on in obscure corners. You can catch glimpses of it in High Rock the same way that you can catch glimpses of the Mirror Logicians battling Numidium in Summerset. Altbal - The Direnni High Rock, a complex province-spanning subroutine. Heiröc - The wild High Rock of the obscure witch tribes and hedge wizards and bestial druids. Heir’ach - The enlightened perspective of High Rock as Tamriel’s single greatest pledge to Hierarchy, wherein if one serves as a good enough pawn for long enough they may become a knight, and if one serves as a good enough knight for long enough they may become a king, etc. Hahd Republic - The Dellesian Republic of Hahd. It doesn’t always really exist, but much of High Rock enjoys its hronir mnemolichite nonetheless. The Holy Reach - The Reach and all of its witchfolk. Extended Orsinium - Orsinium and all of its goblin-ken. The Bjoulsae - The Bjoulsae and all of its horse and river tribes. Hroc - The ancient, Nedic High Rock from before Direnni rule There are “Many Bretons” - While many like to quibble over which folk of High Rock are Bretons and which aren’t, the truth of the matter is that just about every group in High Rock insists that they themselves are Bretons, and that everybody else isn’t. The term “Breton” arose from the term “Reachmen” by way of the ugly word-twisting so popular in the Reach. The word was gradually clipped shorter, from Reachmen to Reach’ns to Rea’ns to Reat’ns to Ret’ns, and somewhere along the line, a B snuck in. The term “Breton” arose from a mixed Altbalic-Daedric assignment of the Bretons to Designate B, therefore placing them as the “BEDT Ones,” quickly working to BEDT’uns to BEDT’ns to Bretons. The term “Breton” arose from the very first town founded in High Rock, Bre-Town. Bre is an old word, mostly forgotten but still used in wilder locales, for hill. Therefore, Bre-Town was Hill-Town; the saying, “Find a new hill, become a king,” has been rooted in Bretonnic identity from the very start. The second part of the saying, “Hump a new hill, found a kingdom,” has more precedent in the questing King Hrol than anybody else. The term “Breton” arose from the word “Bjoulsae” amongst the Bjoulsae river tribes. Unfortunately for those outsiders who must interact with the Bjoulsaers, the Bjoulsaers have taken on parts of the Dreugh language from the civilised Dreugh up the Iliac and the Bjoulsae, and can therefore be even harder to understand than the Reachmen. The term “Breton” arose from the Orcish word “Betnikh,” the name for the island whose name has notably shifted to “Betony” over the years. Even the Orcs of High Rock, oppressed as they are, insist that they’re Bretons, too. The term “Breton” arose from the Ehlnofey “beratu,” or “half”.