Read on Twitter
I will die on this hill, fight me.
For what? Bringing the Chimer out of the dark ages for 4k years? Largely abolishing slavery? Presiding over the absolute zenith of their culture? Keeping Morrowind independent while nevertheless brokering peace with the Empire?
For what? Bringing the Chimer out of the dark ages for 4k years? Largely abolishing slavery? Presiding over the absolute zenith of their culture? Keeping Morrowind independent while nevertheless brokering peace with the Empire?
Or was it successfully keeping the Daedric Princes off of Tamriel so they& #39;d stop destroying cities that ticks people off so badly?
Or perhaps it& #39;s being very flawed and making serious mistakes while never actually becoming corrupted and turning on the people of Nirn? Aha.
Or perhaps it& #39;s being very flawed and making serious mistakes while never actually becoming corrupted and turning on the people of Nirn? Aha.
This is why I feel the Tribunal to my soul. Why they mean more to me than real religions. There is no real world analog for them, not really. But good people with flaws who do exceptional things are usually vilified specifically because they are also lionized.
You can& #39;t say the Tribunal did nothing wrong, they obviously did. You can& #39;t say they fixed everything, they obviously didn& #39;t. But they speak to me, deeply, about how successful leadership stutters and struggles against their own humanity...
...and the fools who hold up their every mistake with myopic venom and declare that their errors render them failures or villains when, in fact, they& #39;re holding a pebble and declaring it greater than the mountain beside it.
The Tribunal, and their controversy, cuts to the core of my political and religious philosophy.
If there are no gods to save us, then we have to do it ourselves, and we are not perfect. If we do not accept that, we are dooming ourselves to an eternity in unenlightened darkness.
If there are no gods to save us, then we have to do it ourselves, and we are not perfect. If we do not accept that, we are dooming ourselves to an eternity in unenlightened darkness.
What& #39;s incredible about the Dunmer is that they rolled with it. They accepted this wholly and left those who didn& #39;t in peace. Vivec went so far as to say he loved the Ashlanders for preserving the old ways & returned the Temple to those ways when he saw the writing on the wall.
And yet we look at these characters and many love to call them flawed and evil and villains. As if humans have ever or will ever do anything with that kind of peaceable, logical, successful unity.
That we could look at that and call it bad speaks to what is wrong with us.
That we could look at that and call it bad speaks to what is wrong with us.
Which is why the Tribunal represents such a wistful hope for me. And why their fall feels so, so sad, and strangely real. When Vivec finds out what happened to Sotha Sil and Almalexia, reading his sadness, which is so much more than personal, just shatters me.
"Even the best endings rarely bring joy." Their ending has the weight of realism. Gradual decline, grasping at straws, turning on one another. And yet even then, even at their worst and most vulnerable, they wind up being relatively quiet and going away softly.
When has that ever happened in the real world? When has a god-king ever gently turned his power over to those who can take it and quietly walked away, knowing that his time has come to an end?
By god, if only humanity& #39;s real villains were as good as these supposed villains.
By god, if only humanity& #39;s real villains were as good as these supposed villains.
