Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-2165692-20140425203121/@comment-86.30.86.135-20190429164726

I have no idea why I'm necroing this, but just my thoughts - they may just use seismology based on a ridiculously acute sense of touch.

We have technology that allows us to detect tremors from hundreds of miles away, it's not unreasonable to expect that a falmer with an exceptionally keen sense of touch would be able to determine the vibrations from footsteps across a hall, simply through the nerves in their feet, giving a location based on vibration intensity and changes in direction of the source. Determining distance is difficult, but if we can emulate it with technology (which we can), no reason that biology with training can't do it. Overall this gives a fairly good live tracking of a target.

It would also explain how they know not to put their tent under that unstable bit of ceiling, which is slowly falling apart causing inherent vibrations in the surrounding rock. It would also explain the ability to make intricate items like locks - braille is a real-life application of a highly attuned sense of touch. I'm not blind, and there is no way in the universe I could ever be able to read braille other than looking at it - my sense of touch simply isn't good enough - yet we see visually impaired and blind humans reading text; simply by touching dots.

It's not inconceivable then that individual parts of a lock can be read in the same way. "That tiny cog with that exact number of teeth that needs to slot in next to that other cog with that other number of teeth, that you then need to slot into this part of the compartment." If you can touch and recognise it, you can fairly reliably place it, with some practice.

This also explains crafting their weapons - notice all of their weapons are built exactly the same (yay limited game art/models but eh). If they have learnt from each other how to dissect a chaurus by touch alone, and use the parts which are "more or less in the same places" and assemble them "this recognisable piece connects to that recognisable piece" then they'd have a very consistent armoury... though personally, I think it's more "ooh this bit is pointy, lets use it as a weapon!" or "this piece seems hard enough, I'll hold it up between me and the ugly nord/elf/cat".

Lastly, the description of "muffle" is that it makes your footsteps silent, not weightless, so again - seismology. Just because we didn't hear that tremor, doesn't mean we didn't feel it. If you don't move, you don't really make much in the way of vibrations, but if you jump up and down on a stone slab, or a pile of moss (muffle), you will make vibrations through the material regardless of how little sound comes from the moss in comparison to the slab.

Yes, I know that sound is vibrations in the air as well, but do we know exactly how muffle makes people unable to hear us? Do we make no sound (no vibrations), or do they lose their sense of hearing when near us?