Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-24.44.141.89-20131113224543/@comment-160529-20131230183752

Octo8 wrote: http://www.imperial-library.info/content/tsaesci-creation-myth-and-we-ate-it-become-it

"We ate it and become it."

I think we can say the Tsaesci absorbed the Men of Akavir. Maybe the Tsaesci are not even a biological race as such, but a cultural unit. It is worth mentioning how many concepts the (admittedly very confusing) Tsaesci creation myth shares with Sermon 21 of the 36 Lessons of Vivec: The coiling and biting and circles... I think the sermon might describe a "reptilian" view of the world, and maybe the Tsaesci are just people (of different biological races) defined by that teaching. This is hardly unpredecented in TES: *All* Elven peoples are defined by their metaphysical view on the world as well, after all. And it does not mean that the Tsaesci did not literally eat the Men of Akavir: In TES, the metaphorical and the literal are often one and the same, after all.

Biting, Striking and coiling are concepts that seem to be generally associated with Reptilian/serpentine folk. The Yokudan myth of Satakal the world snake men mentions those as well, and the "et'ada, Eight Aedra, Eat the dreamer" (http://www.imperial-library.info/content/etada-eight-aedra-eat-dreamer) even explicity equals "coiled" with "reptilian". Given that, that there seems to be an overarching Reptilian metaphysical/mythological worldview, I do not think it farfetched that the original Tsaesci and the Argonians may have been related - the same way that most mer sher a metaphysical/mythological worldview and the same way most men do.

In any case, there has to have been some human Tsaesci as well. According to the Pocket Guide to the Empire, First Edition, Rimmen is populated by descendants of Akaviri refugees - and in the context of Tamriel, "Akaviri" means the Tsaesci Reman had allowed to settle on the continent. Yet, the people of Rimmen appear to be human - the name literally is derived from "Rim Men", the men (humans) at the Rim of Elseweyr.

So in conclusion, I think the Tsaesci are defined by metaphysics, not biology, though the two can become one and the same in TES, and that there must have been human Tsaesci.

I am pretty sure whenever it is akaviri humans being talked about they are never called tsaesci... I have never seen the word "tsaesci" applying to anything but vampiric snakemen.

I think that all of the humans that have been encountered and shown to have been part of tsaesci forces have merely been part of the Tsaesci armed forces...

I sincerely doubt they are defined by metaphysics (you dont know what this word means) and culture. Its made very clear in mysterious akavir (and we ate it and become it, which is psuedo canon at best) that the Tsaesci assimilate traits from what they consume.

Thus explaining any tsaesci that happens to look human... I would guess that the ones that settled in tamriel eventually lost their snake traits over time.