Outlanders (Morrowind Crossover) Options

[Renee]

Link: I remember that name, but not what he did in Outlanders. I remember saying he reminded me of the protagonist of Zelda! Wait, he was the guy who Daria spent time with when she went into Telvanni territory, right?

Yikes, this is creepy. Her face is covered by a black mask. Whoa, he's imprisoned by Aldmeri! Yet he's like one of those working prisoners who have privileges.

Yeah, Johanna. She's the one who lived in that giant lichen. 🍄 So yeah, they were in Telvanni territory, and Link and Daria fought side-by-side if I'm not mistaken.

Wow, that's neat. He can write documents which magically change! And he knows it's only a matter of time before they catch him. You have a way of portraying this in Outlanders, Clav, telling just enough about a person's current situation, which alludes to their coming fate. Maybe sometimes I should use this technique, me and my wordy, wordy stories!

Whoa, Trent's still around. These folks live long lives. Oh wow, he's become an archivist. It's like so many musicians as they grow older and don't "make it big", they start teaching, maybe become writers instead of performers. Or in this case, somehow keep themselves within the musical industry.

Half ash/half snow. Quite dismal, if my Joanie ever makes it to Solsteheim.


------


Comments:

Yeah, it's like books versus movies. In a book, you can really get into a character's head, hear their thoughts and so on. This can be done sometimes in movies as well, but the process becomes more tedious in the minds of some viewers, who'd rather watch movement and action than hear thoughts. Or... perhaps it's because with visual media there are people to pay: actors and crew and extras and writers and directors, producers, and there's only so much of a budget, so they can't do everything that's done in the book.

Which is why so many times we've heard "the book was great, the movie sucked!" Or "They didn't follow the plot in the movie." There are only a handful of films or shows or movies which (in my opinion) have captured the book: The Shining is one. The His Darkest Materials series on HBO is another example. I've never read the book (books?) but a friend told me the TV version remains truthful to the written words.
\
Ah, so they're not slaves, I see. That's good. Jeval would never become a slaver, how silly of me to assume that.

No, pre-destruction Kvatch is not portrayed, but later versions are.

Everyone uses Kvatch Rebuilt, I am one of the few who have Kvatch Rising. Yes, KRising includes different stages: there's a vanilla stage (fires still burn) a vanilla stage without the fires, a stage when Kvatch gets taken by outlaws (I use this stage if my game is supposed to be 4th Era / Year 5 or so), a "rebuilding" stage, and finally a stage which includes the finished product. 🏰



Still, I like the Kvatch Rising, it's really well-done. Haven't tried Rebuilt yet, probably never will.

This post has been edited by Renee: Sep 30 2023, 03:45 PM

[Renee]

Whoops I missed the second (Thursday) addition! I'll catch up later man, gotta go now!

[WellTemperedClavier]

@Acadian - Thanks. I wanted to explore some of the ramifications of a long lifespan in this chapter. While it has obvious benefits, it also comes with a lot of pain, especially for someone like Jane who's mostly lived among humans.

@SubRosa - Yup, second-to-last! Katariah Square is something I made up. Empress Katariah was actually the Dunmer wife of Emperor Pelagius III (the Mad), and she took over as he lost his mind. Katariah's historically regarded as one of the Third Empire's better rulers. The reason I put this in was to show how the more humancentric Mede Dynasty was slowly chipping away at signs of Mer influence. Hence, Katariah Square becoming Titus Square.

Tomal's doing well. I actually did consider having Jane and Tomal married, but I decided that'd be a little too on the nose. Both of Jane's marriages were happy ones, so she has that. They just didn't last that long, either due to humans being short-lived or because of the war.

Perennia will be in for interesting times if she sticks around in Skyrim. Hopefully she keeps her wits about her. Interesting observation on Tacita; she could well be. I don't know enough about ASD to say for sure.

Yes, that conversation will be the subject of today's episode.

@Renee - Yeah, that's Link. He hasn't done as well for himself as some of the others, but he'll at least have the satisfaction of screwing over the Aldmeri Dominion.

Trent never had the work ethic (and probably never had the skill) to really make it as a musician. But this kind of music-adjacent field is good for him, and he's mature enough in his middle age to actually apply himself.

You know, one thing I sometimes like is when the movie takes a radically different approach from the book and almost seems to be arguing with it. The classic example for me is Starship Troopers. I enjoy both the book and the movie, even though they're taking opposite stances on the issues involved.

Blade Runner/Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is another example of this.

It is tough to make a good adaptation though. Books are more personal, since it's all imagined, and it's not easy for a film to surpass that.

So Kvatch Rising lets you rebuild Kvatch? That's very cool! Sad to hear about Giskard. You do see some pretty extreme personalities appear in modding (and creative work in general), and it's always unfortunate to see someone burn out for whatever reason.

Episode 32: A c0da to Live By

Chapter 18

3rd of Midyear, 4E 15 – Anvil, Cyrodiil Province, claimed by Titus Mede I in opposition to the Thules Regime


Daria sometimes found it funny that she’d crossed an entire continent in her adolescence only to cross it again in her adulthood and end up not that far from the little island where she’d been born.

Anvil certainly had more to offer than Stirk, its gleaming sun-kissed plazas home to bustling markets and a clamoring intellectual life that, on occasion, Daria found tolerable enough to engage in. But like before, she usually found herself to be the best company. The city's airy white streets and swaying palms, bathed in what felt like the light of an eternal summer afternoon, suited her solitary life surprisingly well.

Seated at a small dockside café in view of the harbor's turquoise-blue waters, Daria sipped her muddy black coffee and leaned back in her chair. Her work in the College of Whispers kept her in touch with most of the interesting arcane and Dwemer research (what little that hadn’t been completely derailed by the war, at least) and was prestigious enough that no one seriously pestered her about being a comfortably childless spinster at age 41.

She glanced back down at her papers, another dense dissertation on alteration magic written for the sake of being written and of no real use to anyone. A pretty typical student thesis, in other words. For all its talk of streamlining the half of the Mages Guild it had inherited, the College of Whispers was actually more cumbersome when it came to paperwork, an aspect not helped by the pompous secrecy embraced by so many of the highest-ranking members.

Daria read through a few more pages as a salt-tinged breeze ruffled her hair, her coffee slowly cooling in its little porcelain cup. She occasionally dipped her quill into the inkwell she’d brought with her to cross out a word or write a note in the margin. Age had not made her any more merciful to errors.

The hour grew late. The sun still glowed bright above the western horizon, but its light bore a ruddy tinge that told her sunset was not far off. Finishing her now-cold coffee, Daria waited a bit for the ink on her notes to dry, and then put her writing implements and the deadly-dull thesis in her pack, grabbed her cane, and began the walk home.

She stopped and grimaced at the sudden surge of pain in her right leg. It was a memento of the venomous skyrender sting she'd suffered in the Deshaan salt flats almost twenty years ago. She was lucky to still have her limb after such a wound. It didn’t hurt most days but sometimes flared back up if she’d been sitting still for too long, and lengthy bouts of sitting tended to come with working in the College of Whispers.

Daria ignored the pain and hobbled back to her home, a bright and breezy second-floor apartment that she’d turned into a sanctuary for herself and the tiny handful of people she invited inside.

Judging by the rugged wooden carriage, complete with a driver, two horses, and a lightly armored footman, one of those people had arrived.

The door to the carriage opened and Jane—Baroness Jane Quastius, now—stepped out, resplendent in a moth-silk gown of red and black, her hair in its usual functional bob. It didn’t bother Daria that Jane, the same age as her, still looked like a girl of 25, but it drove Quinn batty, which Daria did appreciate.

“What’s this?” Daria said, raising her eyebrows. “Judging by the apparent age of the person standing outside my door, I’m guessing she's some bratty college kid here to complain about her marks.”

Jane sauntered ahead, hands on her hips. “The kind of bratty college kid with aristocratic connections.”

“Please. I chew up and spit out the spoiled scions of minor aristocracy on a daily basis, and only get mildly reprimanded by my superiors who’ll then apologize and undo everything I did.”

“Good old Tamriel,” Jane remarked.

A moment later they embraced. Daria wasn’t big on hugs, still, but she didn’t mind for Jane. With the moment of contact came a sudden sense of lightness and relief. For the next week or so, things would be fine.

Jane’s footman, an agreeable Breton, carried the noblewoman’s things up to Daria’s apartment, while Daria took her guest to the small balcony that let her glimpse over the bright red-shingle roofs to the tranquil seas beyond.

“Oh, got something for you,” Jane said. She hurried over to one of the bags the footman had brought, reached in, and took out a big clay jug.

Daria’s heart almost stopped, barely daring to hope what it might be. Then Jane smiled and shook the jug a bit. Liquid sloshed inside.

“It’s mazte!” Jane said.

“How in the world did you get that?” Anything from Morrowind was in short supply these days, and probably would be for the rest of Daria’s life.

Jane took on a conspiratorial expression. “Still had some connections in the Thieves Guild. Just had to drop the right word to the right people…”

Daria watched and waited.

“Nah, kidding. I asked my husband, and he bought it from some traders. But the Thieves Guild sounds so much cooler.”

A few minutes later and they both sat at the small balcony table, Jane filling a pair of porcelain cups with the foamy bittersweet drink Daria never thought she’d taste again. Once it was ready, Daria raised the cup to her lips and closed her eyes, drinking deep. The mazte’s flavor and texture, so steeped in the ash-strewn fields and mountains of a land lost to her, brought back all the memories of youth.

But reminiscing never truly made things better, so she didn’t dwell on it. Instead, she and Jane jumped right back into the conversation that had started back in Ondryn’s classroom, one rainy day in Balmora decades ago, and had paused a few times but never truly ended.

“You know, I never thought I’d want kids,” Jane said.

It was evening, the stars jewel-bright in a velvet sky. They’d finished a simple dinner of roasted mackerel, grilled leeks, and thick bread that Jane’s footman had purchased and brought up to them. Not wanting to blow through all the mazte at once, they’d switched to some red grape wine produced on the Quastius estate. The wine was a touch too sweet for Daria’s liking, but she didn’t make an issue of it.

“I gotta say,” Jane continued, “being around Terato changed my mind on that.”

“I’m sure the pressure of a noble line to produce an heir had nothing to do with it,” Daria said.

Jane shrugged. “Hey, Terato said we could adopt if I wanted to. But I think I’m okay with having one of my own.”

“Given that your child would be raised by the most grounded and sane parents in the entire Cyrodiilic aristocracy, I’d say that’s probably a good move.”

Daria wasn’t exactly crazy about Terato Quastius, same as she hadn’t been crazy about any of Jane’s boyfriends over the years. But, like most of those boyfriends, Terato was basically a good guy, though not someone Daria would personally want to spend much time with.

“I am a little worried about the war,” Jane admitted. “Terato could be called up to serve if things bog down in the east.”

“The odds strongly favor Titus Mede. The Elder Council likes Emperor Thules, but nobody else does, which shows how badly out-of-touch the council’s become.”

“How’s the College of Whispers handling all this?” Jane asked.

Daria rolled her eyes. “With their usual obscurantism and obfuscation. The local chapters kept feeding Titus some nonsense about ‘the vagaries of the arcane’ being a reason they can't get involved. Titus finally said he’d leave us alone as long as we don’t help Thules, which we didn’t want to do anyway. Of course, we could have told him that in the first place”

“Sounds awkward,” Jane said.

“Amelia was telling me the Synod had to go through the same rigmarole. I was sent to Stros M’kai this spring to do some work on the Dwemer ruins there, and stayed with her family.”

“Don’t the Synod and the College of Whispers hate each other?” Jane asked.

“Officially, yes. Unofficially, most of us old-timers think the division is stupid and still stay in touch. But the newer members are keen on the division, so the two factions might genuinely hate each other in a generation’s time.”

“Right, I guess the new guys weren’t around for the Mages Guild. How’s Amelia doing?”

“Quite well. She recently gave birth to a third kid, a daughter this time. My ship also stopped at Rihad on the way back, so I got to say hi to Jolda. Political life agrees with her, though I don’t think King Doondana listens to her as much as he should.”

“Since when do kings listen to good advisors, right?” Jane remarked. “Any idea what happened to Maiko?”

Daria shook her head. “Afraid not. Jolda told me that they broke up not long after I left for mainland Morrowind, and that he got transferred to Cyrodiil soon after."

Jane looked disappointed. “Guess I’m not surprised. Too bad, I always thought they made a cute couple.”

“Jolda’s husband seems tolerable.”

Jane snapped her fingers. “Oh, yeah, speaking of old times: did they get your book ready?”

“Uh, yeah. Right over there. That copy is yours, by the way,” Daria said, pointing to a small green book on her desk. She moved to get it, but Jane motioned for her to stay seated, and walked over to save her friend the trip. Coming back to the table, her eyes alight, she sat down.

“All the embarrassments and mishaps of our teenage years saved for posterity,” Jane said, adopting a solemn voice.

“I did change the names, and you said you were okay with what I wrote.” Jane, of course, had read the manuscript before Daria had made any attempt at publication.

“Hey, saving that embarrassment is a good thing! Nobles get too full of themselves. Now, I just have to crack this open and be reminded that I’m not all that great.”

“You come off looking better than I do,” Daria said.

Jane flipped through the book, absolutely pleased with it, and Daria felt a smile come to her lips. She didn’t let it linger long.

“So, how are you spreading the word?” Jane asked.

“I’m not,” Daria said. “You know how much I hate advertising myself. I’m hoping it’ll spread through word-of-mouth.”

“What if it doesn’t?” Jane asked.

“Then so be it. Obscurity suits me pretty well.”

Jane put the book down and thought it over. “I can see the logic in that. I bet people will like it, though.”

“Please don’t give me some spiel about me being more likable than I think of myself as being.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to puncture your illusions. But I mean, what the book’s about. There’s a lot of longing for the old days out there. Back when all of Tamriel was under one empire and it didn’t seem like anything that bad could happen.”

The Septims still haunted the world. Most didn’t say it aloud, but nearly everyone Daria knew hoped, on some level, that Titus Mede would set things back the way they were. Quinn certainly hoped so, and was raring to help him out.

“I’m a little surprised to hear you say that,” Daria said. “You didn’t exactly have an easy life back then.”

“Oh, sure. But it’d probably be harder for people in that position now. And with Morrowind ruined…”

Most times, Daria could think about Red Year without feeling much. This wasn’t one of those times. She felt it all at once: the deaths of her parents—the deaths of so many—and the world she’d lived in now buried under ash and molten rock.

She took a big enough gulp of wine to make her dizzy, put down the cup, and took a few breaths before speaking. “Granted. But I’m not certain that the Empire being great is necessarily the lesson we should be taking from all this.”

“Oh?”

“What people need to realize is that a lot of the problems we face today are outgrowths of the problems we had back then: the corruption on all levels, the deepening inequity, the racism and xenophobia we glossed over and pretended didn’t exist. In fact, one of the reasons I wrote Outlanders was to show it wasn’t all that great.”

“Yeah, you didn’t skimp on all the crap we had to put up with. Still, it’s hard to say that things weren’t better.”

“They absolutely were,” Daria agreed. “But no one tried to solve the problems that were there. The Empire never addressed corruption. It never figured out a good succession system, which is a big part of what made the Oblivion Crisis so awful.”

A younger her would have then blamed the Tribunal Temple for Red Year, because it had completely been their fault. They’d let that rock float above Vivec City for centuries as a sign of the city’s namesake god. If they’d chipped it to rubble or used magic to sink it beneath the sea, it’d have never fallen and triggered Red Mountain's eruption. Tens of thousands—including mom and dad—would still be alive.

But she didn’t say anything. Red Year had hurt Jane in more ways than it could have ever hurt Daria. She didn’t want to reawaken that. Pain could be useful if it fixed something, but with the Tribunal long-gone and Morrowind devastated, mentioning the temple’s complicity would be pain for the sake of pain at this point.

“I guess you’re right,” Jane agreed. “Folks aren’t going to see that, though.”

“How do you mean?”

“They’re going to read it, follow the adventures of two smart young ladies in an interesting city and a more-or-less functioning Empire, and think of how great it used to be.”

“Probably,” Daria admitted. “In the end, none of us has much control over our stories. Maybe that’s a good thing. I can’t claim any immunity to nostalgia. Part of me does wish I could go back in time and take Tamriel, circa 3E 426, and keep it safe.”

“That might be an interesting project for the College of Whispers.”

“As if. You’d need...”

Daria had almost said CHIM, but stopped herself at the last moment. She didn’t want to explain that and wasn’t at all sure she believed it, anyway.

“...more powerful magic than they’ll ever have to do something like that. Writing Outlanders is probably the closest I can come to saving that world. But even then, I want to save it so that people today can learn from it. Looking backward can make things hurt less, but it doesn’t make things better. The only way to do that is to honestly assess the mistakes we made, and take measures to correct them.”

Jane nodded. “Well said, muthsera.” She smiled. “Think you could sign my copy?”

“I guess, but don’t tell anyone I signed it,” Daria said.

Jane got up and walked across the room to take a quill and inkwell from Daria’s desk. “Don’t worry, this one will be a Quastius heirloom,” she said, as she returned it to the balcony table.

Making a show of reluctance, Daria opened the book to the title page, dipped her quill, and then wrote:



To Baroness Jane Quastius (formerly Llayn) –

You made my teenage years intermittently tolerable. So yeah, thanks.

- Daria Morgendorffer



“How does this look?” Daria asked, as she passed the open book over to Jane.

Jane looked at it and smiled. “Perfect.”

Satisfied with her friend’s reaction, Daria drank some more wine and looked out to the stars, wondering how much and in what ways her book would really help.

The End

Many thanks to everyone who's read all this way! Writing this series was a challenge, but one I'm glad I undertook. I can only hope that you all got something from it.

Also, for those curious, this is the version of Anvil that I'm envisioning for Daria:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBw3sGsENJI


This post has been edited by WellTemperedClavier: Oct 1 2023, 06:31 PM

[Acadian]

I love how your epilogue episodes have not been afraid to drop in and out of differing times and eras. Having travelled from 3rd Era to 4th and then 2nd with Buffy, I’ve grown rather familiar with a fair span of Tamriel’s history and thoroughly enjoyed your wide-ranging perspective. History of the Mages Guild is just one example.

So we join a more mature Daria who has settled into a great spot (Anvil). Balmy, peaceful (mostly) and with the nearby ocean to inspire reflection. An academic with the College of Whispers and writer – it quite suits her.

A most welcome visit from Baroness Jane – dressed well enough to indeed drive Quinn batty.

So Daria has missed something from Morrowind. . . mazte.

I was pleased to see the passage of a couple of decades has caused notable growth in Daria’s judgement. You show this well as she chooses not to voice her reasoning that the Tribunal Temple caused the Red Mountain catastrophe. How long ago she learned the importance of the Tribunal to her friend Jane – a hard lesson back then.

*

Your story has been an absolute joy to read! The fact that it mostly took place during a game I did not play and is based on a television show I never saw simply showcases your skill as a storyteller. The bittersweet poignance I experienced during several of your epilogue episodes speaks to how attached I grew to your characters – Jane, Daria and Quinn in particular.

[SubRosa]

So Daria has come near full-circle. It is ironic that she is once again a Gold Coaster. An intellectual life that she sometimes finds barely tolerable? Saints preserve us, that is astounding praise indeed from the perspicacious lady of the green shell bug hat.

A childless spinster at the age of 41? Silverlight would like a chat, she's only a few years short of that, and her parents won't stop harping on her to get married and have kids as well.

So Daria is a Whisperer in Darkness then? Or at least one in airy streets and white-washed Italian Renaissance houses. It is interesting to see how she sort of stuck with the Mages Guild, well given that it no longer exists at least. As problematic as the Guild was, its successors seem even less impressive or useful. But it looks like Daria has found herself a niche suitably fitted to someone of her scrivenatory nature.

It sounds like Daria's adventures were not limited to her youthful exuberances in Morrowind. Too bad about the leg.

Yay, Jane is back, again! Daria is always at her best when Jane is around (and sometimes at her worst...)

The Thieves Guild does sound cooler. So stick with that explanation Jane.

It is nice to see that Daria and Amelia are keeping in touch, in spite of their factional divisions. I also keenly chuckled to myself when I noted that both the Not-Mages-Guilds are finding excuses to not pick a side in the civil war.

Corruption, deepening inequality, deep-seated bigotries threatening to tear the world apart? Good thing that only happens in fiction!

And Daria has learned to hold her razor sharp tongue in order to spare Jane's feelings? It is nice to see that she actually has grown.

Like Acadian, this is a really poignant, bittersweet moment, as it always is when you come to the end of the line of any cherished book or film series. We get to know and love the characters so well, that we want to continue spending time with them. But sooner or later we all have to go.

This really has been an excellent series of yours. A really oddball one too, combining Daria with Morrowind. But it wound up working really well. As a fan of both, I loved it so much.

[Renee]

Alright, let me catch up. I'm at my new job right now. In the bookstore. I'm already off for the day, but it's so cozy here, sitting with my laptop and some after-work coffee.

Yikes, it's Jane!!! - 4th Era, year 200, so this is the time of Skyrim as portrayed by the series.

Yeah, I'd have mixed feelings about living that long. Just because, like Jane's thinking, you see so much change. Sounds great on paper. Just imagine though, all the memories which can sometimes plague the mind. People you once knew (elves even, who died early). I'd imagine it'd be pretty lonely.

Jane doesn't rely on bodyguards, interesting. Hey, what about her artwork though? 🖌

Whoa, Daria wrote a book!

Lady Jane, eh? Did you know that's a Rolling Stones song?

“My lady!” he said, hurrying to genuflect. “It’s not often that a member of the nobility graces my store!”

I just laughed out loud at this for some reason! - Things certainly have changed for the starving artist.

It bothered Jane how much she struggled to recollect most of those descendants. Lives, even the ones near and dear to her, had a way of blurring together over the years.

Yup.

I want to read Princess of Shalawyn when Tacita's done with it! Okay kiddding. Maybe my teenage self would've, though.

Whoa, so wait. So Outlanders, this entire story here at Chorrol.com, is what Daria wrote??? Whoa, dude. I'm actually gonna dwell on that thought for the next few before moving on to the weekend story. Just 'cause that's sort of heavy. And I need to edit Joan for the weekend.

But Overall, it seems as though Jane gave up her painting, right?

See, that's another part of living so long, especially for artists. So many artists get involved with painting, but then they contract a disease (Claude Manet, one of the first Impressionists, died from a freaking STD he probably caught from one of the prostitutes he painted, for instance) or they go crazy (Van Gogh), or *insert cause of career-ending here*. And then they leave behind a litany of unfinished works. But with JANE, she's lived long enough to have gotten really passionate about what she did. Maybe she got to the point at which she was making really good money from it. But then she moved on. Maybe due to marriage, maybe due to gaining a noble's tite. And unless I'm missing something, she then outlived her artistic side. Grew bored of it, perhaps. Maybe became a teacher in one of her grand estates, until even that became old.

I'm not seeing anything about her artwork, right?

Anyway. Ciao! 🍷

This post has been edited by Renee: Oct 4 2023, 07:41 PM

[WellTemperedClavier]

@Acadian - Thanks. Part of me thinks the epilogue is a little too bloated (and might have worked better with just Jane and Daria). But I did want to show just how much the world had changed, partly to reflect my own experiences growing up. I could not have predicted 2023 in my teenage years.

Daria's decision to not mention the Tribunal's complicity was very deliberate on my part. The Tribunal's long-gone, and she knows it won't help anyone at this point.

It means a lot to me that you enjoyed it so much! I must be doing something right if folks unfamiliar with Daria (and not directly familiar with Morrowind) can still enjoy.

@SubRosa - I'll admit that the main reason I had her settle in Anvil was because that was the only major Cyrodiilic city that Project Tamriel had developed (the current version looks quite similar to what you see in the trailer--sadly, they had to put the outdoor market indoors, since it was causing too much slowdown).

I know they've done some preliminary work on Kvatch, as well, but that's pretty recent.

My impression was that Bethesda wanted us to think that the Mages Guild split was a bad idea, but I'm not completely sure. It seems like a bad idea to me, at any rate, since instead of one (somewhat) consistent organization, you have two competing groups with overlapping responsibilities. For the purposes of this story, the Synod and College of Whispers only become more competitive over the centuries, which causes more problems for the Empire.

So at the risk of being a really obsessive nerd, the salt desert of Deshaan is part of Morrowind. It's the homeland of Great House Dres, and there's very little reason for outsiders to go there unless they're working with Dres, enslaved by Dres, or are an abolitionist. You can probably figure out which category Daria was in. But she did have some adventures outside of Morrowind as well, so your statement still stands.

Thank you. I'm glad to hear I successfully combined such disparate properties.

@Renee - Gratz on the new job!

Living that long--especially surrounded by shorter-lived people--would definitely have downsides. I'm close to 40 and it's already pretty hard for me to keep up with all the changes that have transpired. Forty more years sounds daunting enough. A hundred-and-forty? I think I'll pass. Which isn't to say that all the changes have been bad; some were quite good and should have happened long ago. But I am starting to feel the pressure of history's tide.

The story does actually mention Jane's art career:

Jane passed by a few of her paintings as she walked to the stairs. She only painted for herself and a few close friends (which included Tomal). Proper Cyrodiilic nobles didn't pursue careers. More to the point, Jane didn't want to take work away from commoner artists. Having been one herself, she knew how much she'd have hated aristocratic competition.

Basically, she only does art when she feels like it. I figure that upon reaching Cyrodiil (and once the Oblivion Crisis settled) she got in with the Anvil Painters Guild and made a good name for herself. But then she married Terato and largely retired from the professional circuit. Which maybe is a bit disappointing, but I think given Jane's background she was more interested in making a secure life for herself than in becoming a famous artist.

Didn't know about that Rolling Stones song. Thanks! I know that the Velvet Underground did a song called Sweet Jane.

Daria's Outlanders probably isn't exactly the same as what you read. But it covers a lot of the same ground. The final chapter goes into a little more detail. Look forward to your feedback on that.

This post has been edited by WellTemperedClavier: Oct 5 2023, 08:21 PM

[Renee]

I see there's a new book up on the forum (yah!) but for now let me finish Outlanders, and then catch up with January Ward & Friends. Is this the final chapter of Outlanders?

I could see living a really long life if we all lived in cultures which supported this, and with medical assistance far beyond what we've got now. Would living such a long life mean dealing with disorders and diseases far beyond dementia and cancer and diabetes, for instance? We have to remember: back before the Age of Medicine most people did not even make it to 40, were lucky if they aged beyond adolescence. Therefore, such issues as cancer and Alzheimer's were likely not as common as they are now. And if someone did contract such ailments everyone threw up their hands. "'Tis the devil's work."

Anyway, let me not get too OT once again! Alright, I missed that. Dang. It certainly was mentioned why she gave up her artistic side, at least so far as making a living at it. Dang, sorry.

Okay, so Outlanders (written by Well-Tempered Clavier) is not the same Outlanders which Daria wrote, I get it. And Daria's back in Anvil. Looks like she DID follow a more studious pursuit in life. That's good. Was all kinds of worried whether she'd get sucked back to a more dangerous line of work, so it's good to see this was not the case.

Whoa, she's got a cane.

and hobbled back to her home, a bright and breezy second-floor apartment that she’d turned into a sanctuary for herself and the tiny handful of people she invited inside

Emphasis on the word "tiny". I can't imagine her circle of friends ever getting too broad, not like Quinn's!

Good gosh, Jane's already part of nobility. 👑 It's really great they've remained friends after all this time, and that Jane would travel so far to see her.

A younger her would have then blamed the Tribunal Temple for Red Year, because it had completely been their fault. They’d let that rock float above Vivec City for centuries as a sign of the city’s namesake god. If they’d chipped it to rubble or used magic to sink it beneath the sea, it’d have never fallen and triggered Red Mountain's eruption. Tens of thousands—including mom and dad—would still be alive.

Whoa, is that the truth? Wow, didn't know that!

Many thanks to everyone who's read all this way! Writing this series was a challenge, but one I'm glad I undertook. I can only hope that you all got something from it.

You're welcome, and of course we got plenty from it. Bittersweet ending. The interplay between these two is obviously long-tended through many years and decades. I find myself wanting to dig in to some of the happenings between Jane and Daria (not to mention all the other people in Outlanders). But, this is it! 🍷 Ciao, my friend.

I'll take a glimpse at the Anvil video later. Because now it's time for...

[WellTemperedClavier]

This is the final chapter!

It's interesting you bring that up. What I've been reading lately is that people didn't weren't that likely to die at age 40 in those days. The reason we get that impression is because we look at the average lifespan. But the average has to include all the infant mortality, which was staggeringly high. That said, my understanding is that if you reached adulthood in the Middle Ages, you had a decent shot of making it to old age. Granted, death by sickness or violence was considerably more likely than it would be for most people in the modern era, but not to the degree that's sometimes supposed.

Daria did take some more adventurous jaunts in her twenties (hence her cane). But she's kept things pretty quiet since moving to Anvil.

You could argue that Red Year is more the Tribunal's fault than the Temple's. There's a little-known Elder Scrolls novel called The Infernal City which apparently goes into more detail; I've not read it myself, but it seems like the Temple knew it was going to crash, but didn't do what they should've done to fix it.

Well, not quite it. There's still Breaking Balmora, which goes into more detail on Jeval and the rest of the Fashion Club.

[Renee]

That said, my understanding is that if you reached adulthood in the Middle Ages, you had a decent shot of making it to old age

Huh, that's interesting. Could be that those who'd made it to adulthood were able to develop tolerances to pox and such things as measles, and even the common flu. Still, though. Not like today, where health plans and a huge variety of guaranteed medicines are likely to keep a good number of the population from worrying about things which once daunted 'medicine men' and witch doctors of the past!

Gosh darn, I'm wanting to dig into more Outlanders! So many questions. And reading time which I keep expecting to peruse, but the story (Outlanders) is OVER! Well hopefully, some of these desires can be quelled with the new Balmora story.

I'm tempted to read what my first impressions of Outlander might've been. Because it was not at all what I expectted, I bet.

I know Daria! Pretty sure she is a Mike Judge creation, originally a side character on Beavis & Butthead, but she eventually got her own show. I always liked Daria, and how she was sort of haughty and totally different from B&B. They'd make fun of her and stuff. But nothing bothered her.

Is there a way you can make the picture smaller? Because what's happening on my screen is the entire page is stretched due to the size of it. And this makes it harder to read because I'm scrolling left and right, left and right, not sure if others are experiencing this. It's an imgur pic, so definitely possible. Up to you, of course.

Ha, nothing at all. I bet I was wondering "how in the heck could a Beavis & Butthead side-character wind up in Morrowind?"

Ah well, cheers. 🍷 Let's see what Balmora: Fashion Club's about.

[SubRosa]

Clav is right about average life expectancy in the past being really skewed so totally out of whack by infant mortality that the numbers they give are essentially useless. The vast majority of people died in infancy. If you made it to 3 years old you were lucky. That is why even as late as the 1800s and early 1900s people were having 12 or more kids. Only 3 were going to reach adulthood.

If you made it past 3 years old, you were probably going to get a 60 - 70 year lifespan. Assuming you did not have the bad luck of being caught up in a war, or a massive plague like the Black Death. Other 'regular' diseases still clipped people off, like typhus or dysentery. But that was at a low rate, compared to the population over all. You still had to roll a 1 on your d20 to go out that way.