It was funnier in my head shshsb

Cyrodiil and The Tornado Issue

I'm sure we're all properly familiar with Cyrodiil at this point. Head of the Empire. Home to the Fantasy Italians. Had that one pretty insignificant game about it but I'm sure that's too niche for Tumblr. [/s] I was watching a documentary on tornadoes the other night to cope with the horrors of life and the thought hit me: Cyrodiil must be a FUCKING NIGHTMARE TO DEAL WITH FAM. Say what you will about the politics, idgaf. I'm here for the freak weather. To preface, I need to let you know if you ain't in the know how tornadoes form: Hot air rises, whilst cold air descends. When an updraft of hot air meets a downdraft of cold air inside of a thunderstorm, a spinning vortex is created. With enough pressure from the downdraft of cold air, the vortex will turn vertically and make contact with the ground. If you're a nerd like me, this explanation from Britannica and this video from NatGeo explain and showcase the formation. Tornadoes can form anywhere where hot and cold air can meet inside of a storm, but certain climates become a breeding ground for tornadoes to form more regularly - more powerful tornadoes, too. And this is where Cyrodiil comes in.

Cyrodiil is flanked in the North by cold winds coming from Skyrim and parts of Morrowind, and flanked in the South by both Hot, Dry air and Hot, Humid air. It is quite literally the meeting point of all of these different climates. In the most well known appearances of Cyrodiil, we can see it has a pretty fair climate. It's not as extreme as the countries surrounding it. No harsh blizzards aside from Bruma, no extreme heatwaves, and torrential downpours aren't all that common. Another key point is that the region experiences thunderstorms. All thunderstorms have the capability to produce a tornado, but the one that carries the highest risk of becoming tornadic is a supercell. Is it probable that Cyrodiil experiences supercells? Absolutely. I'd even argue that Cyrodiil, High Rock and the Summerset Isles have the highest probability of experiencing supercells, but that's for another post.

When we look at the real life example of Tornado Alley, we get a clear picture of how, Cold, Warm Dry and Warm Moist air meet to create this breeding ground. Obviously, I'm not a meteorologist. I'm just autistic. So take this with a grain of salt. But here is my rough estimate on the Cyrodiil hotspot for tornadoes.

Red is the highest likelihood for tornado forming there. Green is least likely - but not impossible. The Gold Coast easily brings in the most thunderstorms, but the Coast proper is too far out (IMO) to really experience the mixing of temperatures. And thunderstorms travel. Same goes for Bruma and the most southerly parts of Cyrodiil - they're just too far out to experience the full brunt of the mixing. Central Cyrodiil has the most moderate climate, and it's less likely to be decidedly hot or decidedly cold. "BUT WHAT ABOUT THE MOUNTAINS ON THE BORDERS!?!?" The myth that tornadoes are somehow negated by mountains or can't form on/around them has been debunked. Given the mixing of what is essentially 6 different climates around Cyrodiil, I don't think the mountains are going to help that much. "COULDN'T THEY JUST MAGIC AWAY THE TORNADOES!?!?!?" I mean, they could? But where's the fun in that? Tell me what's cooler: using magic to dispel a tornado, or using magic to protect from a tornado? Personally, I'm going with the latter.

But yeah. Do with this what you will. Feel free to add on or disprove any of this. This was just a product of my extreme boredom.

Long awaited, here is the soil map of Skyrim using the Canadian System of Soil classification. Brief description of my conclusions under the cut:

Chernozem: Whiterun Hold is likely home to the majority of Skyrim’s Chernozems. The majority of biological carbon sequestering in grassland environments are below ground, within the root systems. Organic material- humus, builds up, causing the upper layers of the soil to take on a dark colour. Additionally, Solonetzic soils could be present, peppered throughout the hold if the parent material to the soil is salty enough.

Cryosols are formed in Skyrim’s far North and high alpine regions. The mean annual soil temperature being 0 degrees C, with permafrost conditions. Freeze-thaw cycles lead to permafrost at the soils surface, but also cryoturbation: soil movement arising from frost action.

Additionally in mountainous regions, you would find Regosols. Soils which develop on unstable landforms and have had little time to develop, such as mountain slopes, or river floodplains.

Gleysols occur across the landscape of Skyrim, but primarily in Hjaalmarch. Gleysols are commonly found in depressions or low-lying areas where water saturates the soil continuously, leading to a molted characteristic to the soil.

Organic soils would primarily be found in the water saturated soils of Hjaalmarch. These are wetland soils found in forested areas and are commonly known as peat, muck, bogs or fens.

Borrowing from the USDA soil taxonomy, Inceptisols are light colored soils with moderate alteration, occurring under cool and cold climates. These soils would be found in the Eastmarch caldera.

Luvisols are associated with forested landscapes overlying loamy glacial till, or on clayey lacustrine deposits. Lake Honrich dominates a large portion of the Rift, according to UESP, seemingly draining from the lake. I believe this to be the site of a melted glacier, the lake being meltwater. Clay sediments are associated with lakes because of their deposition, coarser sediments bordering the lake near the shore, and finer particles at the deepest reaches. Additionally, at the end of the Karth river, where sandy deposits would be deposited at Solitude, before the stream looses power further down the river, leaving only clay to be deposited.

Podzols are associated with igneous parent materials, coniferous vegetation and high acidity. Primarily they are found in Falkreath Hold and Southern Eastmarch.

Brunisols are an intermediate stage between Regosols (undeveloped soils), and Podzol or Luvisols. I believe with the unstable, mountainous landscape of the Reach, soils would remain still rather undeveloped. Brunisols would also be interspersed among the Luvisols.

Congratulations!

You reached the bedrock after u scrolled ur feed so deep.

doctors will be like. yeah. there’s something so so so so wrong with you. idk what and I don’t really care

sore throats might be the stupidest response to illness i've ever experienced. oh you want to eat? drink?? breathe air??? TEN THOUSAND KNIVES ATTACK

Camilla and Palamedes are just... everything to me. God. I don't read them as romantic or platonic or QPR, though I can totally see all of those readings. To me, they are the perfect embodiment of the necromancer/cavalier ideal. They did it. They got it right.

Think about it. Think about all the duos we see throughout the series. The Second House feels more like coworkers than anything. They work together very well, but there's not enough devotion. The Third House is a mess. Coronabeth and Ianthe have got one flesh down, but not one end. They care about each other like hell, but they don't agree with each other. And let's be real here, neither of them care about Babs. The Fourth House are just siblings, the Fifth House are married, the Seventh House... well, we all know what happened to the Seventh House, and the Eight House necromancer is eating his cavalier alive. Gideon and Harrow get the closest at the end of Gideon the Ninth, but their also very traumatized teenagers, and more codependent than anything else.

But Camilla and Palamedes? They did it! They got it right! They understood that the cavalier can't be the only one to sacrifice, that the necromancer must be willing to do anything for their cavalier too. They'd kill and die for each other, they'd do whatever necessary to keep the other one safe and happy. They're so in sync and so in love. They ate each other like binary stars to keep their love intact even if they as individuals couldn't be.

I just. I love them so much. I would actually die for them.

blah blah Bethesda bad anyway

my favorite thing about Elder Scrolls is how goddamn fuckin weird it is

like on surface it's just some dnd game but like even a cursory glance shows tis fucking insane like:

The moons is the corpse of a god

the stars are actually holes in reality when alot of primordial spirits hates that mortals were a thing and fucked off

The demon lord of forbidden knowledge/resident Cthulhu stand-in might also be the beta version of the whole fucking universe made sentient when it wasnt chosen to be the used reality

theyre are cat ppl that take the form of furrys, lions ,and regular cats, so you can have a cursing Pirate legend whose an alcoholic and wanted in 5 countries but is also a like basic tabby cat

the wood elves are so pro-nature they're canniabls and also they.murder vegetarians for blasphemy

Vampires came from the Lord of Rape doing well ya know..

Werewolves came to exist bc the lord of hunt got bored and is a fueey

sex is treated like a fucking ip copyright contract on what aspect of sex is happening and what god it's under. There's had been many religious wars about this

The lizard ppl are part tree

the dwarves all fucked off somewhere and disappearwd from the universe bc they were so atheist they did math to break relatity and literally no one has any idea where they went God or mortal (except maybe Cthulhu and hes not telling)

Said Cthulhu treats hiding your grandmas secret cookie recipe & hiding a spell that will end the universe and can kill a god the exact same and will murder you for either

Everyone wants to fuck the Orc but will never admit it and they got so bent out of shape that a demon god killed the og orc god and ate him bc she couldn't deal with everyone completing them all the time so now all Orcs are cursed to be hated but they're all still sexy & so is their god

And all this isnt even the tip of the iceberg

Me: wandering in apocrapha

"Oh no im lost in a dark scary daedric realm. It would be a shame if a big scary man in a gold mask came and degraded me. That would be so terrible.

Or if a scary daedric lord came and grabbed me with his tentacles. That would be so scary and bad."

And I know that you all think of me as your irresponsible little brother.

patron request bc i can never get enough soyjak pointing

For the Dragonborn dlc I Fr don’t think it makes totally sense that the player can only learn bend will from Hermaeus Mora especially since the only about dragons don’t know is dragonrend.

[More under the cut]

Shouts are literally how the dov communicate and I think it’s a bit silly it’s considered “forbidden” or implied that it’s relatively unknown.

It would make a lot more sense if the player were able to learn it from one of the dragons they’ve allied themselves with such as Paarthurnax or better yet from Sahrotaar!

I think there was a chance to add more to Sahrotaar’s character. He’s got nothing but we know he was forced to serve Miraak. I think it would be very cool if you refused Hermaeus Mora you instead had to learn the shout from Sahrotaar and actually bond with him. I think it would be very powerful to show how the Last Dragonborn truly has such a powerful thu’um if they used their shouts to battle with Sahrotaar and slowly gain his alliance like you do with Odahviing and Durnehviir.

It would give players another option and also allow us to build some lore for Sahrotaar.

Because it would make more sense that he ultimately betrays Miraak if the player slowly broke his alliance to Miraak before using bend will on him. Especially since Miraak comments on how Sahrotaar was “so easily swayed” which kind of implies that using bend will isn’t always so easy, that it can possibly take more than one try to break someone’s will.

Which is most likely the case, because during the battle against Alduin it took multiple tries to push back his mist on sovngarde even with four fucking people. If someone’s thu’um is stronger than yours then it takes more tries to be able to defeat their shouts.

It genuinely would’ve made me sense to me if you actually had to work for Sahrotaar’s alliance.

In my mind I’d like to think the player goes either Neloth or the Skaal for a second opinion on where they can get knowledge of bend will and they suggest trying another ally of Miraak.

I would also just have Sahrotaar play a bigger part in the DLC regardless bc in the other big questlines there’s a dragon that plays an important role (Paarthurnax and Odahviing for the main quest line, Durnehviir in the dawnguard questline).

(Also slightly unrelated but is it possible that Alduin was using bend will on the other dragons? Considering only like… two dragons betrayed him. Or three if you count Durnehviir but he’s kind of doing his own thing)

And let’s say the option of learning it from Sahrotaar isn’t viable or the player doesn’t choice it. I’d still have Sahrotaar play a bigger role by frequently trying to attack the player after a major discovery in Miraak’s bs or during the quest where you cleanse the stones. Because you’d again, have the chance to slowly break Miraak’s power over him.

Like Miraak is able to send dragons in and out of Apocrypha clearly so it’s viable.

I’d also add in the option to save Sahrotaar and learn his shout so he can also be summoned into battle, and add dialogue options each time you defeated him as he tries to stall you. As well as the option to ask him his history with Miraak, his opinions on Hermaeus Mora, the Skaal, ect once you save him from apocrypha to really build some lore for him