Tribunal - Tumblr Posts

Vivec, trying to read over Sotha Sil's shoulder: Ah numbers, the letters of math.

I dunno what I can write when I publish some of the art. Well... I love crossovers. And also draw fanarts... Well, yes.

Vivec in yellow 🧀

lmaoo, I just saw what Vivec looks like in the game files. I'm dying 🤣

a watchmen reference? in my sermons? it's more likely than you think!

easy there divayth

vivec & sotha sil should thank the gods that almalexia writes stories for children and not diss tracks, because their personalities in the homilies/fables are so on point

so we all know that the 36 Lessons of Vivec is considered Vivec's confession- and apology. But what I think yall are sleeping on is the Fables of Almalexia, both the Homilies and the Fables for morning, afternoon, and evening.

Each story in the four books written by Almalexia ends with a moral or lesson, and it is not uncommon for one of the Tribunal to feature in the stories as well. While a few lessons are based on real world fables (such as the Boiled Kagouti or the Gifted Guar), many of the others had lessons that directly related to the flaws and stories of the Tribunal. I think these fables that likely every dunmer child who went to temple heard, were all confessions of their own, and warnings just the same as the 36 Lessons.

Obviously, I don't care about all of these, you can read them yourself and come to your own conclusions, (hell, even synthesize them with some of the 36 Lessons, that would be fascinating for me to read) but I do want to talk about a few of them.

"Sotha Sil and the Scribs" has the moral "And so Sotha Sil discovered that the idle amusements of one may be the solemn tortures of another.", and looking on Sil's character in The Elder Scrolls: Online it is obvious that he sees mortals- even his own disciples- as somewhat lesser than him. And as a god, this belief is not wholly undeserved. Sotha Sil is significantly more powerful, older, and in many quantifiable ways *better* than the mortals he rules, that's just in the territory of being a god. But when the mortals- the scribs, in the fable- suffer, Sil is at best distant and apathetic, seeing suffering as not only not his responsibility, but also inevitable. Luciana Pullo's diary shows us a lot of what this looks like from the perspective of a mortal, even a powerful, interesting mortal that Sil obviously respects.

in "The Tallest Shroom Beetle", a beetle ""ascends"" by climbing, and is killed by a cliff racer. The moral here is stated to be "forsaking one's nature brings nothing but ruin." which would read as terribly hypocritical if taken at face value. The Tribunal, who were once mortals, warning others not to forsake their natures, to me more likely shows regret than hypocrisy.

In "The Friendly Alit" the lesson we are to learn is that "that which we hate in ourselves is often our greatest gift". Sotha Sil is the easiest to compare this to when we see his relationship with time- more on that later. I have thoughts on Almalexia that cannot be summed in a tumblr post about childrens fables, but believe me when I say I've been thinking about her. Despite this, I don't have an answer for what Almalexia might hate most about herself- she is the member of the Tribunal that we know basically nothing about before she becomes a god, her backstory being swallowed by her marriage to Nerevar. She is basically shown as having no weaknesses, and her actions are difficult to interpret even at face value.

Certainly related is the idea of Almalexia or one of the other Tribunal admitting their flaws (it is worth noting that in the Homilies, Almalexia is directly cited as the author, whereas in the Fables for Morning, Afternoon, and Evening, there is no author given. We have *assumed* that these were written by Almalexia, I mean, her name is on the cover, but it is only listed as a group of fables.)

in "The Crow and the Netch" the moral is "none can change their own weakness". Once again I think this is related to the hindsight we see in "The Friendly Alit", which seems to suggest that, if we are to seriously consider these fables, they might show the regret of the Tribunal. Each sees themself as weak in their own way, and even after sacrificing everything to destroy that weakness, they are still the same.

Related, in "The Child of the Councilor", the lesson learned is "We often forget to be thankful for what we have, when thinking only of what we want."

Many of the Homilies can be seen as confessions of regret, hindsight regarding limitations, and most importantly, flaws. I will probably end up writing an essay on this when i get around to it because I'm really normal

Almalexia in google Translate. Or is it one of Vivec's early writings on her?

LSS Almalexia is the Almond god of Viral Anemia that causes hair loss.

Also... some Kung fu panda conspiracy theory hiding in there....?

I have finished this series of arts

If you were to rank the daedric princes in terms of power, who would fall where?

This is a tricky question, because we have one clear objective answer, and according to Google, 355,687,428,096,000 subjective lists. That’s a fairly big number, but it gets worse because we don’t necessarily know how many Daedric Princes exist. 

The objective answer is “it depends on the writer”. As a few examples of this, sometimes Clavicus Vile is so weak that he can hardly interact with the world around him, other times he’s casually eradicating villages for fun. We’ve seen Hircine casually hijack reality for his own amusement multiple times, but he can also be beaten in a standup fight at the same time, and we’ve been told that he was originally the “weakest” of the bunch. Peryite is sometimes depicted as being the “weakest” Prince, other times he’s treated as the archdemon of Tamriel. Molag Bal is somehow able to go toe to toe with the power of the combined Aedra, and at other points has trouble doing much more than pranking some priest with a haunted house. They are going to be as strong or weak as the story requires, basically.

So instead of trying to open that can of worms today, we’re going to open an entirely different can of worms, and judge them based on their fashion sense.

#17 -- Azura (DISQUALIFIED)

Azura is immediately disqualified from this contest for cheating, because of COURSE she would. Her fashion sense is essentially just the Dunmer fashion sense. This is mostly because she expresses her will through possession often enough, so her “chosen” outfit is usually just whatever that person chose to wear that day. Honestly this might be the worst thing she has ever done, and she cursed the entire population of Morrowind to die because of the actions of three people.

#16 -- Hermaeus Mora

You have to play the game if you want points, and Mora doesn’t play the game. Hermaeus Mora, a terrifying monstrosity from beyond the void, doesn’t play dress up. His commitment to himself is respectable, but this contest is about their fashion sense.

#15 -- Jyggalag

Jyggalag is the kind of person we could have told about this contest in advance, given him plenty of time to prepare, only to have him show up wearing the same armor as always. It’s not that he doesn’t care, he cares FAR too much, but he has about the same imagination capacity as the rest of this metaphor when we compare him to “someone without much imagination at all”.

#14 -- Molag Bal 

Molag Bal’s relationship with clothing can be best described as “generally opposed”, and his fashion sense suffers from that. He is much more interested in tearing clothing off over finding something that matches his complexion. Molag Bal is an awful person.

#13 -- Meridia

Meridia is powerful enough to hijack the sun for her own purposes, and she still dresses like she shoplifts from Goodwill. Meridia, you’re supposed to oppose the undead, stop dressing like you are one.

#12 -- Malacath

Malacath was never going to win this contest, something he’s very fine with. Malacath may not even make it to the top half of the list, but he earns a small amount of personal respect for literally not caring about that fact at all.

#11 -- Namira

What the hell Namira? Sincerely, you may be in the back half of the contest but only SLIGHTLY. Of all the Princes who would have taken a dive to lose this thing, it really should have been you. Namira places on our eleventh spot, but she SHOULD have been at last place. She dresses adequately. Nothing overly fancy, but nothing truly ragged as expected from NAMIRA. I can’t believe you let Azura take last place from you.

#10 -- Peryite

Peryite has a small collection of forms. His favorite outfit is his dragon appearance, but he has also been known to use various foul creatures to appear. He understands his gimmicks well, throws some variety in there, and even has “formal wear”. A generally competent performance, and all we can expect from the only Prince with a real job. Bravo!

#9 -- Mehrunes Dagon

Mehrunes Dagon breaks through the pack of back half thanks to one thing and one thing only... he works it. He knows the poses, how to make an entrance, how to hold himself. It really is unfortunate he is in the triumvirate of Princes who only really wear loincloths if anything at all, alongside Molag Bal and Malacath. If he worked in some capes, some armor, he could have been a fierce contender for a top spot.

#8 -- Clavicus Vile

As we head into the top half of our list we start running into difficulties. Everyone after this point REALLY does try. At least usually. Which takes us to Clavicus Vile, and we really need to ask, what’s going on? Clavicus has a degree of style to him, but it’s just missing... je ne sais quoi. It’s hard to put your finger on it exactly. So really, this spot is going to Barbas, because he’s a good boy!

#7 -- Vaermina

Vaermina’s appearance does get the notion of “Dream Demon” across, so she scores highly with consistency and just a degree of variety. I feel like she could have won this, but she just doesn’t get the limelight enough for the Daedra who literally interacts with every person on an almost nightly basis. Vaermina loses, but from no fault of her own.

#6 -- Sanguine

Sanguine gets points for variety, which is exactly what he’s about. There’s a lot of forms of pleasure out there, and Sanguine definitely experiments with his wardrobe. I’m going with the Skyrim appearance, but that’s due to the platform. Sanguine would prefer to be strutting with his golden staff of a naked lady, but Tumblr has a problem with that apparently.

#5 -- Sheogorath

Sheogorath, smart dresser, true to himself... and barely lost this. Sheogorath seemed to forget something very important about himself, and that is that he dresses smart to lead people down the Golden Path. Instead, he’s been mostly lounging in some variety of his robes from the Shivering Isles for the last thirteen years, with very few exceptions. Sheogorath may have thrown this contest away, but he still gets the fifth spot.

#4 -- Mephala

This is a painful one, which is appropriate considering we’re dealing with Mephala. Mephala has some fantastic appearances that have been just absolutely impressive, she knows who she is and how to present herself. She even had her own fashion line. She did not podium, though. Mephala ranks at #4 instead of higher for two reasons. She keeps forgetting to do stuff, for one. Mephala is “around”, but just not enough. It feels like her best showing is still to come. Secondly, there have been some “off” appearances where it really just seems like she wasn’t into it. A bit more flair, and she would have been competing for a top spot.

#3 -- Nocturnal

Nocturnal gets the bronze because she basically hits every point we can ask her too. She is consistent but still a degree of variety, she has a fairly strong presence in the series, and she knows how to steal a scene. Nocturnal is coming into her own, but she just didn’t have enough of a presence in the earlier installments of the series to win outright.

#2 -- Boethiah

Boethiah earned a top spot just for the wardrobe. Just an absolute ton of variety, Boethiah has fun appearing in new and interesting ways. Really knows how to make an appearance too, usually extremely memorable and just all around fun. Boethiah just barely lost outright to our number one spot, because of a lack of lengthier appearances. A one scene wonder, but a great one.

#1 -- Hircine

Hircine is the winner for most stylish Daedric Prince, and with a safe margin! Hircine uses different appearances to make each scene memorable, and adjusts it to match the occasion. He even usually morphs reality to better fit the tone he’s going for. He really knows how to hold himself, he steals each scene with the atmosphere he oozes. And most of all, he is OUR PRINCE. Hircine has made time for us again and again, he’s even fought us before and made it a fair fight to keep things interesting! He praises us when we ignore his orders, but respects our cooperation when we provide it. Hircine is a class act of a Prince, and one stylish fellow.

One cool person told me this would make a good meme template :)

(Here's the original idea)

POV: Your lifelong fantasy: spend all of your days on building your own robots to produce incomparably that will fight against each other on your own robot arena!!! OwO

You work day and night on your ambitious project.

Here comes the day where everything seems to be finished. Then... DAMN! Unfortunately, your robots don't feel like attacking each other. They stand motionless right where they were. Hmmm... maybe their sensors weren't wired properly? Or you set some weird condition to be satisfied first?

Wait... there's this switch you forgot to turn on. Yes! The whole robot-robot aggression mechanism is finally activated!

But - you've seated yourself between two robots, idiot!

___________

I've met some cool people that are into robots recently (:

(recollecting my own memories of playing with robots, too)

Why is ESO Vivec so shiny...

he physically hurts to look at.

"It will fall apart like a stone that recalls that it is really water." --36 Sermons of Vivec, Sermon 11

aughhhhhh its done. there were so many versions of the picture and i changed a lotta stuff on the fly, but this is what i got

vivec is usually depicted as a god with fire hair, but i suppose what is the difference between fire and water? fire consumes. water remembers. i dont know okay dont listen to me