Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-62.31.43.199-20131118141224/@comment-13446185-20140315170555

Smoking.Chimp wrote: "A is superior to B" is absolutely not synonymous with "A's power is superior to B's power" and the distinguishing context has to carried by the text - which it isn't unless the author makes the effort to ensure that it is communicated.

However, my main point is that in the absence of actual verifiable facts, "it ain't necessarily so".

Let's say "God1" was fighting "God2", and during the fight "God1" says "I am superior to you". The word may not necessarily mean more powerful but in the correct context it can mean this.

My point when I say "I don't get your point" is being directed towards this; More powerful - not superior, I don't understand why you brought it up in the first place.

This is very much about the key difference between facts and opinions. This is aside from the fact that TES is a very detailed and intricate collection of worldspaces which include in-game mythology, in-game interpretations, in-game propaganda in addition to in-game academic misconduct and in-game documentation of academic pursuits all for the player to explore and unravel in the context of the TES universe. Often the line between reality and mythology is blurred - especially by things like opinion and interpretation which I think I have already explained - but I'll see if I can't make it clearer with a flip-side example:

C'mon man, you think that Bethesda hid all this information from us just so that it wouldn't be taken legitimately. There are answers in TES, you just gotta look hard from them.

Sure you could have a theory that the Dwemer live on another plane or something, but where the f*ck is the evidence. I have given you many different sources that all point to the same answer.

Interpretation is generally an arbitrary opinion which is distorted - usually by culturally acquired preconceptions. There was a time, for example, when sailing to the other side of the world was viewed in some cultures as a departure from existence (i.e. once you sailed off the edge of the world). To us, it's just the other side of the world but, to the superstitious of days gone by, such places would have been regarded as outside our existence at the very least and, certainly, those words of the Loveletter would have been more meaningful regarding a person shipwrecked on the other side of the world, to some of these historical people, than invoking the idea of "the other side of the world" which may have been inconceivable to some of those historical people.

Interpretation is generally an arbitrary opinion which is distorted - usually by culturally acquired preconceptions.

So it just so happens that the "culturally biased" views of a Human Marukhati, a renowned Telvanni wizard, A person who escaped the Landfall, and a Dwemer himself all point to one answer...

those words of the Loveletter would have been more meaningful regarding a person shipwrecked on the other side of the world,

Rather than a person who comes from a time possibly more than 1000 years in the future and has escaped AE himself?

In the case of Xal, he's expressing an interpretation imposing his own cultural mythology in a statement that lacks any probative facts which can be verified by the player through actual gameplay involving the articles in question. While it is a fact that there is a record of Xal making his statement, his statement is, itself, not a statement of fact unless it can be independently verified (or refuted) by direct observation or experiment. So what he is saying is certainly relevant to TES lore but, until the overall technological progress of Tamriel surpasses that of the Dwemer, the idea that the remaining Tamrielic people would understand the Dwemer strikes me as somewhat paradoxical.

facts which can be verified by the player through actual gameplay involving the articles in question...

...his statement is, itself, not a statement of fact unless it can be independently verified (or refuted) by direct observation or experiment.

Here you are..

Arniel's Endeavor

A quest in TES V that has the Dovahkiin find Keening, which Arniel uses upon a warped soul gem (to simulate the Heart of Lorkhan, and what happened to the Dwemer). Arniel disappears out of thin air... but not completely, he can be summoned as a ghost by the Dovahkiin, and why? Because his little experiment bounded him to the Dovahkiin just as the Dwemer bounded themselves to the Numidium (this is also possible evidence that the Dovahkiin is a Shezarrine).

but, until the overall technological progress of Tamriel surpasses that of the Dwemer,

Loveletter comes from an era where the technology of the Dwemer has been surpassed.