A short piece Options

[Aemos the Wise]

Well, I love writing non-fictional manuals, diagrams, and studies. I occasionally get into a story mood, but that's for a later time. Any critique on this work is welcome.

[quote]"A short study of Cliffracers during my stay in Vvardenfall"

or

"Cliffracers: Ponderings of Aemos"

By D'kota Aemos

"During my extended stay in Vvadenfall district, most notable as being the homeland of the Dunmer, I came across a peculiar flying creature which seemingly dominates the skies of Morrowind. The creature varies in size from two to five feet in length, although larger specimens are not completely uncommon, and has a wingspan of about the same. It has no noticable legs, although I admit freely now that I was much too frightened by it's fiersome appearance and never approach them from more than a tree's legth. They have cold, steely eyes, and a long whip-like tail. The locals call them cliffracers, and for good reason. These amazing creatures possess incedibly manueverable bodies. I have even been witness to several cliffracers seeming to simply hover in the air with only a few beats of the wings. Truly these are magnificent beasts. Several locals, however, despise the poor creatures. They say that they are only a nuisance, and that they serve only to pester travelers, many of whom they say have more important things to do than to bring down these seemingly endless cliffracers. A few travelers I spoke with in the city of Balmora (Balmora is a small city northwest of Vivec, and is also the hub of the "Hlaalu" House, on of the three great houses of Morrowind) had collected several slighty leathery wisps of material from these cliffracers. Called racer plumes, they seem to increase adrenaline ouutput of the body, giving a renewed sense of vigor and speed to their user, although they later feel drained. Although after this amazing discover, I had to leave Morrowind for the time being. I hope to one day return to study more these incredible creatures that rule the skies of Morrowind.

-D'Kota Aemos"[/quote]


Could use a little work methinks, but it's the kind of thing I do. Informative and fun.

[jonajosa]

Maybe make that one paragraph into two? That could make it more readable.

But otherwise its fine.

[Troika]

In pieces that are based on actual elements in previous TES games, lots of people tend to focus on the information we were given in those games.

I think your piece, and maybe others, would benefit from a little artistic license. We never saw cliffracers resting, nesting, mating, eating, bathing or any other 'mundane' things that creatures do, but that doesn't mean you can't write about them. Are the creatures a reptile, or simply a reptilian-like bird? Are they carnivores of herbivores? Do they have any mating rituals/particular mating season etc.

It's good to read about the things we already know, but when we read about a subject we know, with extra little bits of information that we didn't, it makes the experience that much better...

[Aemos the Wise]

I was trying to stick to what we knew absolutely about the racers, but I suppose I could add a little flair to it.

[jonajosa]

That would be a good idea. Alittle bit of "artists touch" might help it out.

[Aemos the Wise]

[quote]"A short study of Cliffracers during my stay in Vvardenfall"

or

"Cliffracers: Ponderings of Aemos"

By D'kota Aemos

"During my extended stay in Vvadenfall district, most notable as being the homeland of the Dunmer, I came across a peculiar flying creature which seemingly dominates the skies of Morrowind. The creature varies in size from two to five feet in length, although larger specimens are not completely uncommon, and has a wingspan of about the same. It has no noticable legs, although I admit freely now that I was much too frightened by it's fiersome appearance and never approach them from more than a tree's legth. They have cold, steely eyes, and a long whip-like tail. The locals call them cliffracers, and for good reason. These amazing creatures possess incedibly manueverable bodies.

I have even been witness to several cliffracers seeming to simply hover in the air with only a few beats of the wings. Truly these are magnificent beasts. Several locals, however, despise the poor creatures. They say that they are only a nuisance, and that they serve only to pester travelers, many of whom they say have more important things to do than to bring down these seemingly endless cliffracers. A few travelers I spoke with in the city of Balmora (Balmora is a small city northwest of Vivec, and is also the hub of the "Hlaalu" House, on of the three great houses of Morrowind) had collected several slighty leathery wisps of material from these cliffracers. Called racer plumes, they seem to increase adrenaline ouutput of the body, giving a renewed sense of vigor and speed to their user, although they later feel drained.

On the subject of plumes, the Cliffracer is odd in this respect as it resembles both a reptile and a bird. Several small tufts of down comer it's forwings and neck, while the rest of the creature has a leathery, highly durable skin that feels much like that of a Man. I found this peculiar, and so I set out to discover a nest in accordance with the laws of developmental stabilization [For an account of my studies into developmental stabilization, see my work: "Fish to Frog: The stabilization over time of species in multiple enviroments"].

In luck, I discovered a breeding pair of Cliffracers. The female seems to be the dominant one, constantly letting out a scream or hoot at the subordinate male. After mating, the male looks for a hollow in a tree, in which the female Cliffracer lays the eggs. Not wishing to risk life and limb charting the development of these creatures, I returned to my shack to more fully examine the egg which I had plundered while the female cliffracer went out. To my surprise, however, the egg developed surprisingly quick. Within two revolutions it had hatched into a small chick. It drug itsel around by its tail, and was covered in down. This was strange, and I could believe that the racer stars out wingless, and fluffy.

Of course, soon enough I discovered the oddities of the cliffracer diet. Or rather, the lack of cliffracer diet. For the three weeks until the cliffracer was able to become airborne [during which time I hired the Balmora fighters guild to put it down] I did not see it ingest a single particle of food. Yet the speed of which they developed lead me to question this. How could a fast-breeding, fast-growing animal survive without food? The answered shocked me, it was the reason why the Cliffracer could only survive on Vvardenfall and not anywhere else. The cliffracer absorbed the latent Blight in the air. This also explained why the congregated around red mountain and the ashlands so thouroughly. Normally the latent blight in tha air is not enough to affect your average Imperial, but it is still there, and these cliffracers feed upon it!

Several days after I made this discovery, the blight coming from Red Mountain ceased. A man known as "Nerevar" had gone up and defeated "Dagoth Ur", resident of the Red Mountain. This is of course complete sload soap, as any logically thinking man would tell you that the mountain had simply passed over its hotpoint and was simply going dormant. It's humerous what these locals will tell themselves in the name of tradition. But alas, my time in Vvardenfall was up, the Imperial Library has recalled me for other works. I hope to one day return to study more these incredible creatures that rule the skies of Morrowind.

-D'Kota Aemos"[/quote]

Better?

[jonajosa]

Alot better. You think you could write more stuff like this about other animals?

[Aemos the Wise]

They're in the works.

[jonajosa]

Good. Hopefully we'll end up with a whole bookshelf of nothing but examinations of animal behavior. Maybe even two shelfs when we see all the new creatures in Oblivion.