numb3r_5ev3n (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
numb3r_5ev3n) wrote2018-06-29 12:21 am
numb3r_5ev3n) wrote2018-06-29 12:21 am
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Skyrim post: Analysis of the Reachmen
So, I am playing Skyrim Special Edition, and I basically recreated my Forsworn build from Oldrim - a Breton mage more or less raised in "civilized" society by a single mother, who finds out that her mother had a fling with a "wild Reachman" during the short time they controlled the Reach before the Markarth Incident, and who fled with her daughter over the border to Cyrodiil when the Markarth Incident was going down.
She learns about her heritage, crosses the border into Skyrim, and goes through the Forsworn Conspiracy/No One Escapes Cidnha Mine quest chain, while trying to find out who these people are, and by extension, who she is.
Except, who are the Reachmen? Skyrim and ESO are actually pretty vague on the subject, except for a few points: they are of Breton stock (a nation of Elf-Human hybrids who occupy the fantasy niche of classical medieval English/medieval French in the Elder Scrolls games) but are suspected of having a more pronounced strain of Elven blood, enough so that they are significantly culturally and ethnically removed from "civilized" Bretons. They are indigenous to the area of Skyrim known as The Reach (hence the name.)
By the 4th Era they are an oppressed people, who have been more or less enslaved by the Nords and have been banned from practicing their religion or their culture. Yes, their religion involves worship of Daedra (demons/Great Old Ones) alongside Aedra (the official pantheon of deities) elevates Hagravens (witches who undergo a magical metamorphosis into Harpies, basically) to the role of spiritual leaders, and they practice human sacrifice. They use stone-age weaponry and dress in fur and animal hides and teeth and bones and skulls.
It's basically the very stereotype of the primitive "barbarian" that indigenous peoples often have had forced upon them from colonial times - "they do human sacrifice and practice black magic, make goblets out of their enemies' skulls, and perform weird rituals to demonic heathen gods!"
But when you consider the fact that one of the main factions of the entire Elder Scrolls series is an Empire very much based on the Roman Empire, the basis for the Reachmen becomes clear: we're looking at the Fantasy Role Playing Pop Culture interpretation of the Romans vs the Picts and the Gauls from before there was serious archaeological study of the latter peoples, when all we knew of the Celts basically came from Caesar's memoirs.
Do you remember That Scene from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves? "Celts! God help us!" Yeah. Or a variant that might have survived to the current day: "Sumer Is A-Cumen In!"
In the 19th and the 20th century, attitudes started to change, and writers began to romanticize and exoticize the Celts as noble "men of the Earth" and "wise women" living "closer to nature" who endured Roman, than Christian, occupation. This vision of the Britons was present in the 1980s BBC production of Robin Hood, Robin Of Sherwood - one of many of instances of its type in pop culture during the peak of what I have heard one friend accurately describe as the "Baby Boomer Wicca" subculture. (See also: The Mists Of Avalon.)
The heroes of Robin of Sherwood are pagan insurgent freedom fighters who are fighting a guerrilla war against their corrupt Christian Norman occupiers. This narrative does not reflect what actually went on in history - the idea that there was a heathen insurgency in England in 11th-12th century is inaccurate at best. But it's a great jumping-off point for my Forsworn character (the Forsworn are the Reach Folk's guerrilla insurgents) and the atmosphere and ambiance of the show are exactly what I am going for when I play this character. But there are "evil" pagans too. This fucking guy, right here:
The show's depiction of the Marcher Lords (and their sorcerer, Gulnar, played by Richard O'Brien) is more in line with the official narrative in Skyrim of the Reachmen as primitive, debased heathens, the eldritch "Witch Men of the Reach."
She learns about her heritage, crosses the border into Skyrim, and goes through the Forsworn Conspiracy/No One Escapes Cidnha Mine quest chain, while trying to find out who these people are, and by extension, who she is.
Except, who are the Reachmen? Skyrim and ESO are actually pretty vague on the subject, except for a few points: they are of Breton stock (a nation of Elf-Human hybrids who occupy the fantasy niche of classical medieval English/medieval French in the Elder Scrolls games) but are suspected of having a more pronounced strain of Elven blood, enough so that they are significantly culturally and ethnically removed from "civilized" Bretons. They are indigenous to the area of Skyrim known as The Reach (hence the name.)
By the 4th Era they are an oppressed people, who have been more or less enslaved by the Nords and have been banned from practicing their religion or their culture. Yes, their religion involves worship of Daedra (demons/Great Old Ones) alongside Aedra (the official pantheon of deities) elevates Hagravens (witches who undergo a magical metamorphosis into Harpies, basically) to the role of spiritual leaders, and they practice human sacrifice. They use stone-age weaponry and dress in fur and animal hides and teeth and bones and skulls.
It's basically the very stereotype of the primitive "barbarian" that indigenous peoples often have had forced upon them from colonial times - "they do human sacrifice and practice black magic, make goblets out of their enemies' skulls, and perform weird rituals to demonic heathen gods!"
But when you consider the fact that one of the main factions of the entire Elder Scrolls series is an Empire very much based on the Roman Empire, the basis for the Reachmen becomes clear: we're looking at the Fantasy Role Playing Pop Culture interpretation of the Romans vs the Picts and the Gauls from before there was serious archaeological study of the latter peoples, when all we knew of the Celts basically came from Caesar's memoirs.
Do you remember That Scene from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves? "Celts! God help us!" Yeah. Or a variant that might have survived to the current day: "Sumer Is A-Cumen In!"
In the 19th and the 20th century, attitudes started to change, and writers began to romanticize and exoticize the Celts as noble "men of the Earth" and "wise women" living "closer to nature" who endured Roman, than Christian, occupation. This vision of the Britons was present in the 1980s BBC production of Robin Hood, Robin Of Sherwood - one of many of instances of its type in pop culture during the peak of what I have heard one friend accurately describe as the "Baby Boomer Wicca" subculture. (See also: The Mists Of Avalon.)
The heroes of Robin of Sherwood are pagan insurgent freedom fighters who are fighting a guerrilla war against their corrupt Christian Norman occupiers. This narrative does not reflect what actually went on in history - the idea that there was a heathen insurgency in England in 11th-12th century is inaccurate at best. But it's a great jumping-off point for my Forsworn character (the Forsworn are the Reach Folk's guerrilla insurgents) and the atmosphere and ambiance of the show are exactly what I am going for when I play this character. But there are "evil" pagans too. This fucking guy, right here:
The show's depiction of the Marcher Lords (and their sorcerer, Gulnar, played by Richard O'Brien) is more in line with the official narrative in Skyrim of the Reachmen as primitive, debased heathens, the eldritch "Witch Men of the Reach."
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Wow, I never knew he was in anything besides Rocky Horror! Ha, go figure!
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