Redguard Seers?

Hello! I've been lurking for some time, but I've only created this account recently.

I have this idea for a Redguard healer. At first I was going to make him a rebel that decided to turn his back to his people's traditions to study Nudri-hi... but that sounds kinda boring! Instead, I've decided to try and give him more ties to his Redguard culture, but I'm having a few problems.

Going by the book Redguard, History and Heroes we can see that they have Sword-singers, some kind of enchantment ("The people of the blade kept their poetry and artisanship in building beautiful swords woven with magic and powers from the unknown gods.") and the shehai, which reminds me a lot of a bound weapon.

In The Elder Scrolls Wiki there's this: Redguards hail from the province of Hammerfell. They are descended from a long line of warriors and mystic seers.

To wrap it up, my question would be: do we know anything else about Yokudan magic and how it works? Especially these so-called Seers?

Please forgive my faulty english! Any answer is deeply appreciated.

Sounds over powered.

The seers? Or the characters? I don't want to make him a seer, exactly (the title is actually wrong, but I forgot to change it before I created the thread :P), but I was hoping that learning more about them would give me a greater insight of the magic used in Hammerfell.

Having 2 spellcasting races in one faction would be tipping the balance. Pax only have Dumner, Dom has Altmer. Oh dears...

Oh? Did I miss anything? I wasn't aware that the devs said that only one race per faction can use magic! If so, I'll have to rethink my character >_< Do you have a link I can use, please?

Preposterous to think that races fit neatly into such niches as spellcasters, warriors, et cetera. The majority of races (perhaps all) can fill any role well, at least in terms of lore. In the interests of openness and freedom, the gameplay will likely reflect this. To an outsider, in the days when Nord Tongues were more widespread in Skyrim, the Thu'um would appear a sort of magic specific to Nordic culture. Just so with Redguards and the sword-singing, and in general the Yoku honing of sword-art to a point beyond the comprehension of other peoples. Some lore points to Redguards being distrustful of spells, but this is not true to the same extent as, say, Orcs, or 4th Era Nords. And any warring group of people needs healers.

I don't know about Seers: generally such people claim to either be gifted by the gods or attuned to other planes of existence. Considering Redguard history and their vast and largely unexplored pantheon, I'd guess that a seer character would have a few interesting Yoku deities whispering to them.

Note that your source for the seers thing is wikia. While it is important to keep an open mind, that particular wiki is rather sloppy with its sources and biased opinions. I would take a pinch of salt with anything provided without citation. I haven't heard mention of a Redguard history of seers before.

(November 29th 2012, 06:29 PM)umpteen Wrote: Preposterous to think that races fit neatly into such niches as spellcasters, warriors, et cetera. The majority of races (perhaps all) can fill any role well, at least in terms of lore. In the interests of openness and freedom, the gameplay will likely reflect this. To an outsider, in the days when Nord Tongues were more widespread in Skyrim, the Thu'um would appear a sort of magic specific to Nordic culture. Just so with Redguards and the sword-singing, and in general the Yoku honing of sword-art to a point beyond the comprehension of other peoples. Some lore points to Redguards being distrustful of spells, but this is not true to the same extent as, say, Orcs, or 4th Era Nords. And any warring group of people needs healers.

I don't know about Seers: generally such people claim to either be gifted by the gods or attuned to other planes of existence. Considering Redguard history and their vast and largely unexplored pantheon, I'd guess that a seer character would have a few interesting Yoku deities whispering to them.

Note that your source for the seers thing is wikia. While it is important to keep an open mind, that particular wiki is rather sloppy with its sources and biased opinions. I would take a pinch of salt with anything provided without citation. I haven't heard mention of a Redguard history of seers before.

sure...just don't expect an orc mage to be on par with an Altmer or Breton...

(November 29th 2012, 06:29 PM)umpteen Wrote: Preposterous to think that races fit neatly into such niches as spellcasters, warriors, et cetera. The majority of races (perhaps all) can fill any role well, at least in terms of lore. In the interests of openness and freedom, the gameplay will likely reflect this. To an outsider, in the days when Nord Tongues were more widespread in Skyrim, the Thu'um would appear a sort of magic specific to Nordic culture. Just so with Redguards and the sword-singing, and in general the Yoku honing of sword-art to a point beyond the comprehension of other peoples. Some lore points to Redguards being distrustful of spells, but this is not true to the same extent as, say, Orcs, or 4th Era Nords. And any warring group of people needs healers.

I don't know about Seers: generally such people claim to either be gifted by the gods or attuned to other planes of existence. Considering Redguard history and their vast and largely unexplored pantheon, I'd guess that a seer character would have a few interesting Yoku deities whispering to them.

Note that your source for the seers thing is wikia. While it is important to keep an open mind, that particular wiki is rather sloppy with its sources and biased opinions. I would take a pinch of salt with anything provided without citation. I haven't heard mention of a Redguard history of seers before.

That's a good point. I actually thought this wiki was trustworthy, but I will keep my eyes open from now on! I really should have named the thread "Redguard mystics", but since the damage is done...

We'll probably only we able to use the schools of magicka in game, of course, but maybe through roleplay it would be possible to add some Redguard flavor to them? Blade-singers can enchant swords, but do they use souls for it?

I wish we had more lore on this subject, or maybe I'm simply looking for it in the wrong place ^^"

For sources on Redguard history, you can't go wrong with the game itself (TESA: Redguard) but it's rather difficult to get hold of...

If you're willing to invite out-of-game sources (importantly by the guy who wrote all this stuff) then Lord Vivec's Sword-Meeting With Cyrus the Restless is excellent since it is set on a remnant of Yokuda and deals with Cyrus and his role in Yokudan myth.

That's very helpful. Thank you!!

i agree with umpteen here, i would be very suprised to see sword singers beeing mages.
The comparison with the Thuuhm is probably even better as you might intend it, but we dont know as of yet how this power actually originated and it was not seen in any of the games yet, it kind of does make sense of course since they are very rare and i doubt seeing anyone outside of hammerfell, let alone playing one.

probably in a tes game set there? that would be an interresting concept.

Oh, I didn't mean that sword-singers are mages. More like, "they seem to use something that look like magic and I think that learning more about this would help me creating my mage character". Of course, maybe the the game itself will have more lore that I can use to create my character! That would be neat :>

hardly. since redguards tend to look down at magic, a redguard would take calling sword singers, mages as an insult to his culture.
as it defies what makes them and forces a term that they dont like at all on it.

you can compare it to the lore snippet from the club in arieles tradehouse where they question the thuuhm, calling it some kind of "telekinesis magic" wich highly upsets the nord in question.

(December 2nd 2012, 03:49 AM)Sordak Wrote: hardly. since redguards tend to look down at magic, a redguard would take calling sword singers, mages as an insult to his culture.
as it defies what makes them and forces a term that they dont like at all on it.

you can compare it to the lore snippet from the club in arieles tradehouse where they question the thuuhm, calling it some kind of "telekinesis magic" wich highly upsets the nord in question.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Sword-singer

The Swordsingers are like psychic Jedi or even better yet, the Cyber-Knights of the Rifts pnp game (without the tech part). They use psychic made swords.

The Redguard do not look down on magic they look down on eastern magic- the magic of the Tamrielians.

the practices of the ansu go beyond that i can assure you.
They can cut atoms.