playable Akiviri race : Lore friendly concept

O37GEKKO

so, ive seen a few posts about adding the akiviri race to teso,
however i haven't seen any lore friendly concepts of;

how an "extinct race" could actually be added to TESO's timeline.

i have something of a lore-friendly concept that could potentially work to bring the mythical asians into the timeline:

Psijic time fractures.... more specifically, a dragon break from the past.

during the psijic questline,
we're running around sealing "time breaches" so in theory, some of these breaches,
or rather one big one that we missed, or "hasnt happened yet"
or some arcane experiment involving a time breach;
could be tethered to back when the akiviri were still thriving...
maybe they had a bunch of nuts like the alesian order that cause a dragon break in their time...

now assuming some time travel madness...
maybe even an interdimensional conflux realm between mundus timelines in aetherius...
...maybe involving a certain dragon god of time...

some "akiviri time refugees" could potentially travel to the current space time of tamriel that teso is set in.

as long as those events happen before the events of the starting questine, that introduces molag bal...

boom, playable akiviri.

id love to hear everyone's opinions about this concept

Soarora

Akaviri isn’t a race, nor are any of the Akaviri races extinct. The reason they’re considered off-limits is because they’re from… Akavir. This is an entirely different continent. They are in a constant war with each other as far as I know. The only race from there that has gone to Tamriel is the Tsaesci, which you can already make by throwing a helmet on. We likely won’t ever know for sure what they look like.

Kadraeus

I say this quite a lot but the mystery surrounding the Akaviri has never really made much sense to me. We see their armor, their weapons, their architecture being adopted by so many people in Tamriel yet no one remembers what they even looked like? The Akaviri Potentate was only 152 years before ESO. People even claim to be descendants of them... I guess they have a rule where they never remove their helmets in front of people (This is the way).

Also, the Akaviri/Tsaesci aren't extinct. The Empire tries to invade Akavir in the 3rd Era but fails. So they're definitely still around in ESO's time and likely still exist in the 4th Era too. (And yet people still don't know what they looked like).

Soarora

Kadraeus wrote: »

I say this quite a lot but the mystery surrounding the Akaviri has never really made much sense to me. We see their armor, their weapons, their architecture being adopted by so many people in Tamriel yet no one remembers what they even looked like? The Akaviri Potentate was only 152 years before ESO. People even claim to be descendants of them... I guess they have a rule where they never remove their helmets in front of people (This is the way).

Also, the Akaviri/Tsaesci aren't extinct. The Empire tries to invade Akavir in the 3rd Era but fails. So they're definitely still around in ESO's time and likely still exist in the 4th Era too. (And yet people still don't know what they looked like).

I think the mystery makes the world feel bigger and makes it clear we’re seeing Nirn from the point of view of Tamriel. Personally, I don’t really mind getting more information about Akavir if it’s done right… but that’s also the problem. People like it a mystery because Bethesda tends to make the lore less interesting when it’s added to a game. And I say Bethesda because this kind of content feels like something ZOS wouldn’t be allowed to step into.

Edit: Also, we do know the Tsaesci have golden scales. So there are some things remembered.

Kadraeus

Soarora wrote: »

Kadraeus wrote: »

I say this quite a lot but the mystery surrounding the Akaviri has never really made much sense to me. We see their armor, their weapons, their architecture being adopted by so many people in Tamriel yet no one remembers what they even looked like? The Akaviri Potentate was only 152 years before ESO. People even claim to be descendants of them... I guess they have a rule where they never remove their helmets in front of people (This is the way).

Also, the Akaviri/Tsaesci aren't extinct. The Empire tries to invade Akavir in the 3rd Era but fails. So they're definitely still around in ESO's time and likely still exist in the 4th Era too. (And yet people still don't know what they looked like).

I think the mystery makes the world feel bigger and makes it clear we’re seeing Nirn from the point of view of Tamriel. Personally, I don’t really mind getting more information about Akavir if it’s done right… but that’s also the problem. People like it a mystery because Bethesda tends to make the lore less interesting when it’s added to a game. And I say Bethesda because this kind of content feels like something ZOS wouldn’t be allowed to step into.

Edit: Also, we do know the Tsaesci have golden scales. So there are some things remembered.

The mystery might make them seem cooler but, again, it makes zero sense. You can't really have them be as influential to the cultures of Tamriel while also making their physical appearance a mystery.

O37GEKKO

Soarora wrote: »

Akaviri isn’t a race, nor are any of the Akaviri races extinct. The reason they’re considered off-limits is because they’re from… Akavir. This is an entirely different continent. They are in a constant war with each other as far as I know. The only race from there that has gone to Tamriel is the Tsaesci, which you can already make by throwing a helmet on. We likely won’t ever know for sure what they look like.

from uesp: Akaviri is used to refer to any sentient creature that inhabits Akavir, such as the Kamal and Tang Mo. No mer have ever lived there; the men that did live in Akavir were all "eaten" long ago by the Vampiric Serpent Folk of Tsaesci.

either theyre all extinct, or theyre all undead.

thats what i meant by "akiviri race"

This_0ne

O37GEKKO wrote: »

Soarora wrote: »

Akaviri isn’t a race, nor are any of the Akaviri races extinct. The reason they’re considered off-limits is because they’re from… Akavir. This is an entirely different continent. They are in a constant war with each other as far as I know. The only race from there that has gone to Tamriel is the Tsaesci, which you can already make by throwing a helmet on. We likely won’t ever know for sure what they look like.

from uesp: Akaviri is used to refer to any sentient creature that inhabits Akavir, such as the Kamal and Tang Mo. No mer have ever lived there; the men that did live in Akavir were all "eaten" long ago by the Vampiric Serpent Folk of Tsaesci.

either theyre all extinct, or theyre all undead.

thats what i meant by "akiviri race"

you should think more and better about the sources of certain lore "facts"

DrNukenstein

There's a very strong case for Tsaesci just being Asian people but on Nirn.

I think the comparisons to snakes with golden scales is just good old fashioned Tamrielic racism.

One of my favorite qualities of this mystery is that historical encounters and "text books" describe them as men, but scary stories, fictions, and dramatized second hand accounts describe them as vampiric snakes.

Further pointing towards the idea that they are just run of the mill East Asians is that we saw their ghosts and skeletons in Oblivion. They're just people with Katanas and Lamellar armor.

And it is a fictional fantasy world so I suppose we could consider the possibility that all these vampire snakes ate all the Tsaesci 1 for 1 and assumed their identities, but Occams Razor applies to everything and it would just make a lot more sense for the Tsaesci to just be the Nirn equivalent to Asians and the small town people of Tamriel to make the observation that they have some "snakish" features

Tensar

The tsaecis ruled over Cyrodiil
The asians humans from akavir were killed/enslaved by the tsaescis and the other races from Akavir. We can think they were part of the akaviri cyrodilic empire

But because it's TESO ZOS are just hiding them in Rimmen or changing them into humans. ZOS prefere to use existing assets and not make a new race.

Kadraeus

Tensar wrote: »

The tsaecis ruled over Cyrodiil
The asians humans from akavir were killed/enslaved by the tsaescis and the other races from Akavir. We can think they were part of the akaviri cyrodilic empire

But because it's TESO ZOS are just hiding them in Rimmen or changing them into humans. ZOS prefere to use existing assets and not make a new race.

That isn't why they chose to cover their faces. They covered their faces more likely because Bethesda Game Studios doesn't want the mystery revealed, and they haven't decided what they look like either.

Ratzkifal

DrNukenstein wrote: »

There's a very strong case for Tsaesci just being Asian people but on Nirn.

I think the comparisons to snakes with golden scales is just good old fashioned Tamrielic racism.

One of my favorite qualities of this mystery is that historical encounters and "text books" describe them as men, but scary stories, fictions, and dramatized second hand accounts describe them as vampiric snakes.

Further pointing towards the idea that they are just run of the mill East Asians is that we saw their ghosts and skeletons in Oblivion. They're just people with Katanas and Lamellar armor.

And it is a fictional fantasy world so I suppose we could consider the possibility that all these vampire snakes ate all the Tsaesci 1 for 1 and assumed their identities, but Occams Razor applies to everything and it would just make a lot more sense for the Tsaesci to just be the Nirn equivalent to Asians and the small town people of Tamriel to make the observation that they have some "snakish" features

I like the interpretation the Elder Kings 2 mod for Crusader Kings 3 took with them. They look asian, but through a religious feature of theirs, they can increase their "Tsaescence" which extends their lifespan and makes them look more and more snake-like. How lore accurate that is I haven't bothered to check, since the mod had to fill in all sorts of gaps in the lore anyway. Here is what that looks like:

It's a pretty neat compromise between the most popular two running theories on their appearance if you ask me.

O37GEKKO

Ratzkifal wrote: »

DrNukenstein wrote: »

There's a very strong case for Tsaesci just being Asian people but on Nirn.

I think the comparisons to snakes with golden scales is just good old fashioned Tamrielic racism.

One of my favorite qualities of this mystery is that historical encounters and "text books" describe them as men, but scary stories, fictions, and dramatized second hand accounts describe them as vampiric snakes.

Further pointing towards the idea that they are just run of the mill East Asians is that we saw their ghosts and skeletons in Oblivion. They're just people with Katanas and Lamellar armor.

And it is a fictional fantasy world so I suppose we could consider the possibility that all these vampire snakes ate all the Tsaesci 1 for 1 and assumed their identities, but Occams Razor applies to everything and it would just make a lot more sense for the Tsaesci to just be the Nirn equivalent to Asians and the small town people of Tamriel to make the observation that they have some "snakish" features

I like the interpretation the Elder Kings 2 mod for Crusader Kings 3 took with them. They look asian, but through a religious feature of theirs, they can increase their "Tsaescence" which extends their lifespan and makes them look more and more snake-like. How lore accurate that is I haven't bothered to check, since the mod had to fill in all sorts of gaps in the lore anyway. Here is what that looks like:

It's a pretty neat compromise between the most popular two running theories on their appearance if you ask me.

i havent seen that... but thats awesome... if we speculate that the extreme side effects were even more draconic, maybe tosh raka becoming a dragon was actually the tscaescent rise of "akatosh", the dragon god of time... we have gold scales of akatosh ingame... tosh-raka... aka-tosh... that does imply akatosh was once a tiger-khajiit though... o_o

Soarora

Ratzkifal wrote: »

DrNukenstein wrote: »

There's a very strong case for Tsaesci just being Asian people but on Nirn.

I think the comparisons to snakes with golden scales is just good old fashioned Tamrielic racism.

One of my favorite qualities of this mystery is that historical encounters and "text books" describe them as men, but scary stories, fictions, and dramatized second hand accounts describe them as vampiric snakes.

Further pointing towards the idea that they are just run of the mill East Asians is that we saw their ghosts and skeletons in Oblivion. They're just people with Katanas and Lamellar armor.

And it is a fictional fantasy world so I suppose we could consider the possibility that all these vampire snakes ate all the Tsaesci 1 for 1 and assumed their identities, but Occams Razor applies to everything and it would just make a lot more sense for the Tsaesci to just be the Nirn equivalent to Asians and the small town people of Tamriel to make the observation that they have some "snakish" features

I like the interpretation the Elder Kings 2 mod for Crusader Kings 3 took with them. They look asian, but through a religious feature of theirs, they can increase their "Tsaescence" which extends their lifespan and makes them look more and more snake-like. How lore accurate that is I haven't bothered to check, since the mod had to fill in all sorts of gaps in the lore anyway. Here is what that looks like:

It's a pretty neat compromise between the most popular two running theories on their appearance if you ask me.

This is super cool and would explain the men turning into vampire snake thing... totally adopting this into my headcanon, thanks for sharing!

Ratzkifal

Soarora wrote: »

Ratzkifal wrote: »

DrNukenstein wrote: »

There's a very strong case for Tsaesci just being Asian people but on Nirn.

I think the comparisons to snakes with golden scales is just good old fashioned Tamrielic racism.

One of my favorite qualities of this mystery is that historical encounters and "text books" describe them as men, but scary stories, fictions, and dramatized second hand accounts describe them as vampiric snakes.

Further pointing towards the idea that they are just run of the mill East Asians is that we saw their ghosts and skeletons in Oblivion. They're just people with Katanas and Lamellar armor.

And it is a fictional fantasy world so I suppose we could consider the possibility that all these vampire snakes ate all the Tsaesci 1 for 1 and assumed their identities, but Occams Razor applies to everything and it would just make a lot more sense for the Tsaesci to just be the Nirn equivalent to Asians and the small town people of Tamriel to make the observation that they have some "snakish" features

I like the interpretation the Elder Kings 2 mod for Crusader Kings 3 took with them. They look asian, but through a religious feature of theirs, they can increase their "Tsaescence" which extends their lifespan and makes them look more and more snake-like. How lore accurate that is I haven't bothered to check, since the mod had to fill in all sorts of gaps in the lore anyway. Here is what that looks like:

It's a pretty neat compromise between the most popular two running theories on their appearance if you ask me.

This is super cool and would explain the men turning into vampire snake thing... totally adopting this into my headcanon, thanks for sharing!

I know, right? It even elegantly resolves conflicting accounts, because of course the Tamrielics would not understand why Tsaesci sometimes look like this and sometimes look like that. They guard their secrets well after all.
You can already somewhat recreate that look in ESO if you have the right cosmetics for it, the golden scales and cat snake eyes specifically. The only thing that's missing is the asian human base, but I took a Redguard which I managed to get close enough.
Not sure how I would feel about adding actual Tsaesci as a playable race though. Considering ESO's time, it wouldn't be too unrealistic. But it would certainly demystify them and I'm not sure I'd want ESO to do that.
Rim-men as a separate race (that's retconned to look Asian) would be better perhaps, since that isn't really demystifying Akavir the way the Tsaesci would.