I've been a fan of the Elder Scrolls for years. I've been a fan of Paradox Games. Naturally, the chance to play spess argonians is an opportunity I could not pass. Fortunately, Elder Scrolls lore is vague (read
oor) enough that I can interpret (make up) a way for Argonians to be a space faring civilization. I'm being rather informal throughout this opening sequence because otherwise i'd probably ram my head into the nearest computer screen and I'm fabulously tired. I'll have a more narrative/gameplay style during the actual story. Without further ado...
To understand how and why, it's good to go over the creation of the Elder Scrolls universe. It's important to know that there are many accounts, and I will only be giving the bare bones, relatively generic version. There are multiple tellings of the story from multiple perspectives, and several parts of this story take place before such mundane things as time,space,reality, and all of those things that are rather important nowadays.
The Beginning
In the beginning, there was nothing. There was no time, no order. There was only Chaos, and this chaos was called Sithis. Eventually, nothing became tired of being nothing and became something. Things are a little confusing on how this happened, and some people regard the whole thing as a rather bad move.
There were now in existence many different very powerful beings. One of them, Lorkhan decided that all of this nonexistence and wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff was all well and good, but maybe it was time for some fun.
Most accounts say that Lorkhan tricked many of the spirits into helping create Mundus. Either that, or he sacrificed himself out of genuine love for Mundus, or some variation or combination of the above.
Mundus was made, which was Nirn (the planet the Elder scrolls games take place in), as well as the celestial bodies of Masser and Secunda. This was done at the expense of the spirits who made it becoming immeasurably weaker, and Lorkhan's body possibly becoming said Masser and Secunda.
This is the distinction between the Aedra and Daedra Princes. The Aedra translating to Father, or Ancestor, while Daedra translates to Not Father, or Not Ancestor.
After Mundus was made, it was not totally distinct from the other realms. Deadric princes each had their own realms, as well as any other beings of sufficient power. Eventually, however, there was a firm line that made protected Mundus from being invaded by hordes of terrible monsters from particularly nasty Daedra such as Molag Bal (God of enslavement, King of Rape), or Mehrunes Dagon (God of Bloodshed and Betrayal). It is important to note that there are at least 17 daedric princes, all of which are less than admirable.
Actual History?
After the creation of Nirn, life as we know it began now that there was an actual planet with magical beings deciding to actually live on it. This led to a race called the Ehlnofey. They had a massive war between themselves as ancient progenitor races are wont to do. After a very long time, the Ehlnofey split up into the races that we know today, as well as several other varieties who died various mysterious and tragic fates.
Argonians live in the Black Marsh(Brown) to the SouthEast. The Dunmer live in Morrowind(Purple) to the NorthEast.
Remember way back, when I said that there were other magical beings with their own realms alongside those of Daedric Princes and Mundus? One such collection of beings was the Hist. The Hist were a collection of sentient trees who had their own realm, and were possibly one of the first beings to actually inhabit Nirn. They ended up having much of their homeland sunk under the sea because of the war between the Ehlnofey, and what remained was Black Marsh. Black Marsh could be the manifestation of the Hist's realm on Nirn, or it could just be a swamp. Elder Scrolls lore has that habit of being vague and contradictory, like many folk tales and their creation myths.
Wait, Argonians weren't in here already?
This is where Argonians come in. Argonians are vaguely human at first glance as they appear in Elder Scrolls games, but there are many things that make an Argonian very, very distinct from the other races.
Most importantly, Argonians are covered in scales and have tails. This makes them very recognizable in a lineup, when contrasted with Orcs, and Dunmer (dark elves).
However, Argonians have many features that are not necessarily reptilian, such as breathing underwater through gills behind their ears, or growing feathers.
The humanoid races you find are descended from the Ehlnofey. The Argonians say that their souls come from the Hist. They have a symbiotic relationship with the Hist, and can feel its presence in their mind based on their proximity to the Hist. After recently hatching, at a certain age, they will drink the Hist sap, and based on how many licks they give, determines how reptilian or humanoid they look. This potentially also changes their sex, or makes them more warlike. The Hist does what the Hist wants, and the Argonians are just happy to have souls.
Argonians were living in their swamp, happy and covered in mud, living a tribal lifestyle based off of subsistence farming and drinking potentially hallucinogenic God-sap. That is, until the Chimer began to enslave Argonians to work on the fertile plains north of the Black Marsh. After awhile they stopped, but then became corrupted with dark skin, and became the Dunmer we know of today. After this transformation, the Dunmer picked up after a couple centuries and began enslaving massive amounts of Argonians for work on plantations. Dunmer society itself was based off of several houses that had their own attitudes and styles. House Dres was one of the five major houses, and their entire way of life was plantation slavery of Argonians and Khajiit.
Finding slaves wasn't difficult, as there were many tribes in the Black Marsh, who would have slaves among themselves which they could sell off for a huge profit, or some tribes that smelt money on the wind and dedicated themselves to finding and capturing slaves.
Walk like an Argonian
The Argonians language involves a large amount of hissing and body language unique to the Argonians physiology. It is notoriously hard to learn from outsiders, and other races have found it impossible to learn more than a basic understanding of it. From what little is known about their language, we can tell that is has no real past or future tense, focusing more on the present. It has been described as some as being "closer to thought than any other language".
Their tribal society has more than cultural differences. There are different species that are all equally Argonian. The ones you can play as in the game are the more tame variety compared to what you find deep in the murderswamp full of fleshflies (guess what they eat).
Some are 7 feet tall, 8 when they're mad. Some are winged. Some have massive fanged teeth that eat anything they come across that's not the size of a small building.
There have been several crisis in Tamriel, one which was the invasion of Mehrunes Dagon. Effectively, giant hell portals opened up and giant armored OP pls nerf broadsword wielding daedra came to turn the land into a desolate hellscape of torture and lava.
This event was devastating for every race, except for the Argonians. The Hist had foreseen this event, and had called all of the Argonians back into the Black Marsh, and beefed them up on Hist sap. When the gates opened, and all of reality was caught with its pants down, Argonians rushed into the gates in such numbers and with such ferocity, that the daedra were forced to close the Oblivion Gates to another dimension for fear of being overrun. This is totally not mentioned enough and is potentially one of the coolest things in Elder Scrolls lore, but I digress...
Now, about that Stellaris game.
Ethos
Potentially the most important thing about your empire, and I'm still not entirely sure it's the best choice.
I would like to have spiritualist, but Argonians state that their rituals with the Hist aren't necessarily religious, but done out of reverence and honor for the Hist. The Hist themselves may or may not worship Sithis, the God of Chaos and the Void, or not a God and the personification of the Unknowable and Death. Nevertheless, Argonians themselves say they don't really worship semi-divine trees, and I'm not one to argue with them.
Collectivist seemed like a definite choice, because Argonian society is built around communion with the Hist and its place within it. The whole species could be seen as a hive-mind built around the Hist, but there is definitely individuality among Argonians, and some are distanced enough, and assimilated enough that they even worship the Nine Divines, the religion of the Imperials.
Xenophobe isn't a trait I particularly like from a gameplay perspective, but it was necessary, with the Argonians understandable reticence after every race they've met has either actively enslaved them, or taken away their subsistence farms and transformed them into terrible cash-crop plantations. Efforts to civilize the Argonians and Black Marsh was utterly futile, it being a massive waste of resources and manpower to only make the situation worse and worse. After centuries of slavery and ineffective colonialism, any Argonian civilization would be very wary of anything different.
Militarist makes sense for Argonians. Argonian society is tribal, and has many many tribal skirmishes. On an even larger scale, Argonians have to defend themselves from invading slavers or against Imperial forces trying to subdue them. They are also rather aggressive. After Morrowind was hurt by a major natural disaster, The Black Marsh invaded as retribution for centuries of brutal slavery.
Government
I picked Despotic empire because any leader of Black Marsh would either be a Tribal Chief or a High Priest. Spiritual branches of government were locked out by my Ethos, but Military Dictator seemed far too organized for a Tribal Chief. There would not be a defined Military Branch of the government ruling, but a single powerful individual with undefined power, who would have military input as well as spiritual guidance from a collection of local Hist priests.
Traits
Conformist made sense, because almost all Argonians have a natural connection to the Hist, which does admittedly fade away the further they move from the Hist. However, there is still that connection which binds all Argonians.
Resilient has to be picked, even if think it's a pretty useless trait. I have not written enough about how terrible living in the Black Marsh is. Literally everything and anything is massive, has massive teeth, is probably venemous, and really wants to eat at least a little bit of you. It's like fantasy Australia with extra swamp.
Repugnant is a bit iffy, but I wanted conformist and resilient, so sacrifices had to be made. Argonian language is practically impossible, and their body language is subtle, relying less on facial movement (because they're lizards) and more on tail motions and general body posture. That and their unvarying devotion to sentient trees that could worship Death and Chaos incarnate (or not) may drive off anyone seeking peace and puppies in the Galaxy. In their defense, while befriending an Argonian is rather difficult, they are remarkably loyal, and willing to defend their friends, which is more than could be said for any Dunmer in the history of ever. Sure, Dunmer and Argonians are hard to befriend, but only a Dunmer would hire an assassin afterwards.
FTL Travel
I chose hyperlane. That's because roads as we know them don't work very wel in a swamp with rivers that flood their banks by potentially a mile, and grass taller than a Bosmer which grows up overnight. Argonians instead have found alternative means of travel. Many will use rivers, while others instead have found blobs that tavel among trees roots, with surprisingly slow digestion and easily penetrable membranes. While the second is certainly more disconcerting than the first at a glance, it should be noted that riding inside a living gas sac is rather cozy, and less dangerous in the short term, if you don't mind the digestion too much.
With all that, it makes sense that while other races would create an artificial wormhole, or generate for themselves a subspace pocket to warp through, Argonians found naturally occurring rivers that they could travel along the entire galaxy.
Everything Else
I picked that portrait because while there are others that are more humanoid, and the Chameleon one has he strongest resemblance to the Argonian picture you saw above, the one I picked is what I imagine you would find in the depths of the Black Marsh. Their close connection to the hist makes them more reptillian than humanoid. A tribe that conquers the Black Marsh and enforces the will of the Hist on the Galaxy would certainly be from one of the big scary races, not some race that can wear *gasp* actual boots.
I picked the fungus style cities because teh Hist is da greatest.
I picked the Arthropod ship because I think they look the coolest and have that organic style look I imagine an Argonian ship would look like.
The Argonians are Jungle dwelling, because they live in a swamp.
I think the flag does a good job of showing the land and mire of the Black Marsh, and the icon in the middle showing their system of rivers that have a basin in the south of Black Marsh, and I like to consider them the roots of the hist as well, or perhaps the hist falling from the sky, or it just looks cool. Who can tell? I made and I certainly can't.
oor) enough that I can interpret (make up) a way for Argonians to be a space faring civilization. I'm being rather informal throughout this opening sequence because otherwise i'd probably ram my head into the nearest computer screen and I'm fabulously tired. I'll have a more narrative/gameplay style during the actual story. Without further ado...THE AARGONIAN ACCOUNT
To understand how and why, it's good to go over the creation of the Elder Scrolls universe. It's important to know that there are many accounts, and I will only be giving the bare bones, relatively generic version. There are multiple tellings of the story from multiple perspectives, and several parts of this story take place before such mundane things as time,space,reality, and all of those things that are rather important nowadays.
The Beginning
In the beginning, there was nothing. There was no time, no order. There was only Chaos, and this chaos was called Sithis. Eventually, nothing became tired of being nothing and became something. Things are a little confusing on how this happened, and some people regard the whole thing as a rather bad move.
There were now in existence many different very powerful beings. One of them, Lorkhan decided that all of this nonexistence and wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff was all well and good, but maybe it was time for some fun.
Most accounts say that Lorkhan tricked many of the spirits into helping create Mundus. Either that, or he sacrificed himself out of genuine love for Mundus, or some variation or combination of the above.
Mundus was made, which was Nirn (the planet the Elder scrolls games take place in), as well as the celestial bodies of Masser and Secunda. This was done at the expense of the spirits who made it becoming immeasurably weaker, and Lorkhan's body possibly becoming said Masser and Secunda.
This is the distinction between the Aedra and Daedra Princes. The Aedra translating to Father, or Ancestor, while Daedra translates to Not Father, or Not Ancestor.
After Mundus was made, it was not totally distinct from the other realms. Deadric princes each had their own realms, as well as any other beings of sufficient power. Eventually, however, there was a firm line that made protected Mundus from being invaded by hordes of terrible monsters from particularly nasty Daedra such as Molag Bal (God of enslavement, King of Rape), or Mehrunes Dagon (God of Bloodshed and Betrayal). It is important to note that there are at least 17 daedric princes, all of which are less than admirable.
Actual History?
After the creation of Nirn, life as we know it began now that there was an actual planet with magical beings deciding to actually live on it. This led to a race called the Ehlnofey. They had a massive war between themselves as ancient progenitor races are wont to do. After a very long time, the Ehlnofey split up into the races that we know today, as well as several other varieties who died various mysterious and tragic fates.
Argonians live in the Black Marsh(Brown) to the SouthEast. The Dunmer live in Morrowind(Purple) to the NorthEast.
Remember way back, when I said that there were other magical beings with their own realms alongside those of Daedric Princes and Mundus? One such collection of beings was the Hist. The Hist were a collection of sentient trees who had their own realm, and were possibly one of the first beings to actually inhabit Nirn. They ended up having much of their homeland sunk under the sea because of the war between the Ehlnofey, and what remained was Black Marsh. Black Marsh could be the manifestation of the Hist's realm on Nirn, or it could just be a swamp. Elder Scrolls lore has that habit of being vague and contradictory, like many folk tales and their creation myths.
Wait, Argonians weren't in here already?
This is where Argonians come in. Argonians are vaguely human at first glance as they appear in Elder Scrolls games, but there are many things that make an Argonian very, very distinct from the other races.
Most importantly, Argonians are covered in scales and have tails. This makes them very recognizable in a lineup, when contrasted with Orcs, and Dunmer (dark elves).
However, Argonians have many features that are not necessarily reptilian, such as breathing underwater through gills behind their ears, or growing feathers.
The humanoid races you find are descended from the Ehlnofey. The Argonians say that their souls come from the Hist. They have a symbiotic relationship with the Hist, and can feel its presence in their mind based on their proximity to the Hist. After recently hatching, at a certain age, they will drink the Hist sap, and based on how many licks they give, determines how reptilian or humanoid they look. This potentially also changes their sex, or makes them more warlike. The Hist does what the Hist wants, and the Argonians are just happy to have souls.
Argonians were living in their swamp, happy and covered in mud, living a tribal lifestyle based off of subsistence farming and drinking potentially hallucinogenic God-sap. That is, until the Chimer began to enslave Argonians to work on the fertile plains north of the Black Marsh. After awhile they stopped, but then became corrupted with dark skin, and became the Dunmer we know of today. After this transformation, the Dunmer picked up after a couple centuries and began enslaving massive amounts of Argonians for work on plantations. Dunmer society itself was based off of several houses that had their own attitudes and styles. House Dres was one of the five major houses, and their entire way of life was plantation slavery of Argonians and Khajiit.
Finding slaves wasn't difficult, as there were many tribes in the Black Marsh, who would have slaves among themselves which they could sell off for a huge profit, or some tribes that smelt money on the wind and dedicated themselves to finding and capturing slaves.
Walk like an Argonian
The Argonians language involves a large amount of hissing and body language unique to the Argonians physiology. It is notoriously hard to learn from outsiders, and other races have found it impossible to learn more than a basic understanding of it. From what little is known about their language, we can tell that is has no real past or future tense, focusing more on the present. It has been described as some as being "closer to thought than any other language".
Their tribal society has more than cultural differences. There are different species that are all equally Argonian. The ones you can play as in the game are the more tame variety compared to what you find deep in the murderswamp full of fleshflies (guess what they eat).
Some are 7 feet tall, 8 when they're mad. Some are winged. Some have massive fanged teeth that eat anything they come across that's not the size of a small building.
There have been several crisis in Tamriel, one which was the invasion of Mehrunes Dagon. Effectively, giant hell portals opened up and giant armored OP pls nerf broadsword wielding daedra came to turn the land into a desolate hellscape of torture and lava.
This event was devastating for every race, except for the Argonians. The Hist had foreseen this event, and had called all of the Argonians back into the Black Marsh, and beefed them up on Hist sap. When the gates opened, and all of reality was caught with its pants down, Argonians rushed into the gates in such numbers and with such ferocity, that the daedra were forced to close the Oblivion Gates to another dimension for fear of being overrun. This is totally not mentioned enough and is potentially one of the coolest things in Elder Scrolls lore, but I digress...
Now, about that Stellaris game.
Ethos
Potentially the most important thing about your empire, and I'm still not entirely sure it's the best choice.
I would like to have spiritualist, but Argonians state that their rituals with the Hist aren't necessarily religious, but done out of reverence and honor for the Hist. The Hist themselves may or may not worship Sithis, the God of Chaos and the Void, or not a God and the personification of the Unknowable and Death. Nevertheless, Argonians themselves say they don't really worship semi-divine trees, and I'm not one to argue with them.
Collectivist seemed like a definite choice, because Argonian society is built around communion with the Hist and its place within it. The whole species could be seen as a hive-mind built around the Hist, but there is definitely individuality among Argonians, and some are distanced enough, and assimilated enough that they even worship the Nine Divines, the religion of the Imperials.
Xenophobe isn't a trait I particularly like from a gameplay perspective, but it was necessary, with the Argonians understandable reticence after every race they've met has either actively enslaved them, or taken away their subsistence farms and transformed them into terrible cash-crop plantations. Efforts to civilize the Argonians and Black Marsh was utterly futile, it being a massive waste of resources and manpower to only make the situation worse and worse. After centuries of slavery and ineffective colonialism, any Argonian civilization would be very wary of anything different.
Militarist makes sense for Argonians. Argonian society is tribal, and has many many tribal skirmishes. On an even larger scale, Argonians have to defend themselves from invading slavers or against Imperial forces trying to subdue them. They are also rather aggressive. After Morrowind was hurt by a major natural disaster, The Black Marsh invaded as retribution for centuries of brutal slavery.
Government
I picked Despotic empire because any leader of Black Marsh would either be a Tribal Chief or a High Priest. Spiritual branches of government were locked out by my Ethos, but Military Dictator seemed far too organized for a Tribal Chief. There would not be a defined Military Branch of the government ruling, but a single powerful individual with undefined power, who would have military input as well as spiritual guidance from a collection of local Hist priests.
Traits
Conformist made sense, because almost all Argonians have a natural connection to the Hist, which does admittedly fade away the further they move from the Hist. However, there is still that connection which binds all Argonians.
Resilient has to be picked, even if think it's a pretty useless trait. I have not written enough about how terrible living in the Black Marsh is. Literally everything and anything is massive, has massive teeth, is probably venemous, and really wants to eat at least a little bit of you. It's like fantasy Australia with extra swamp.
Repugnant is a bit iffy, but I wanted conformist and resilient, so sacrifices had to be made. Argonian language is practically impossible, and their body language is subtle, relying less on facial movement (because they're lizards) and more on tail motions and general body posture. That and their unvarying devotion to sentient trees that could worship Death and Chaos incarnate (or not) may drive off anyone seeking peace and puppies in the Galaxy. In their defense, while befriending an Argonian is rather difficult, they are remarkably loyal, and willing to defend their friends, which is more than could be said for any Dunmer in the history of ever. Sure, Dunmer and Argonians are hard to befriend, but only a Dunmer would hire an assassin afterwards.
FTL Travel
I chose hyperlane. That's because roads as we know them don't work very wel in a swamp with rivers that flood their banks by potentially a mile, and grass taller than a Bosmer which grows up overnight. Argonians instead have found alternative means of travel. Many will use rivers, while others instead have found blobs that tavel among trees roots, with surprisingly slow digestion and easily penetrable membranes. While the second is certainly more disconcerting than the first at a glance, it should be noted that riding inside a living gas sac is rather cozy, and less dangerous in the short term, if you don't mind the digestion too much.
With all that, it makes sense that while other races would create an artificial wormhole, or generate for themselves a subspace pocket to warp through, Argonians found naturally occurring rivers that they could travel along the entire galaxy.
Everything Else
I picked that portrait because while there are others that are more humanoid, and the Chameleon one has he strongest resemblance to the Argonian picture you saw above, the one I picked is what I imagine you would find in the depths of the Black Marsh. Their close connection to the hist makes them more reptillian than humanoid. A tribe that conquers the Black Marsh and enforces the will of the Hist on the Galaxy would certainly be from one of the big scary races, not some race that can wear *gasp* actual boots.
I picked the fungus style cities because teh Hist is da greatest.
I picked the Arthropod ship because I think they look the coolest and have that organic style look I imagine an Argonian ship would look like.
The Argonians are Jungle dwelling, because they live in a swamp.
I think the flag does a good job of showing the land and mire of the Black Marsh, and the icon in the middle showing their system of rivers that have a basin in the south of Black Marsh, and I like to consider them the roots of the hist as well, or perhaps the hist falling from the sky, or it just looks cool. Who can tell? I made and I certainly can't.
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