In the reveal the devs said these particular High Elves were fugitives from Altmer lands. So, they don't conform to the stereotype in some way. Maybe the Solstice Altmer are tolerant of other races, and not supremacists.

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

I found altmer an odd choice out of all the races to settle right outside Black Marsh's coast, and not a race that lives closer.

It'd have made more sense for the secondary people to be Khajiit simply by proximity.

Additionally if these altmer are a group that seperated from the Summerset isles a long time ago, it's weird they have the same style on buildings and the like and look so Summerset altmer.

[snip]

ZOS claims they're fugitives from Summerset. (an entire people of fugitives?) Closest real world parallel i can think of is what the British did to Australia, and even then we know what happened to the Aboriginals.

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kaushad wrote: »

For those still interested in this topic who haven't yet visited the island, the history of the High Elven colonisation of Solstice features in History of Clan Corelanya, especially in Parts 2 and 4. In summary, a (exiled) clan of daedra worshiping Altmer tried to take over the island, but they were unable to overcome the Argonians of the eastern side, who had numbers, stone cities and assassination skills, so one of their kinladies made peace with the chieftains.

I appreciate the Lorebook!

I guess a tenuous Peace built off 600 years of bloodshed can be explanation enough. The Altmer House is there with nowhere real else to go, best case was to just cut the island in two, even if there were already the Tide-Born living in the west, they seemed to have gotten a raw deal in the end.

ArchMikem wrote: »

It'd have made more sense for the secondary people to be Khajiit simply by proximity.

[...]

Closest real world parallel i can think of is what the British did to Australia, and even then we know what happened to the Aboriginals.

Well maybe proximity is not all. Will to go elsewhere ( or imperative to do so ), interest in exploring / trading / colonising other lands, seafaring traditions, etc, would also play a role, and maybe a more proeminent one.

On the topic of 'cohabitation', well, if you can't get rid of each other... either you continue to bleed, or somehow you seek some kind of peace ? I guess we won't know if it's a lasting peace !

I read all the lorebooks in the new chapter from the internet. There is a like 6 book series in game that explains the corelanya and their inhabitantion on solstice.

To summarize. Summerset -hammerfell - summerset again - solstice. Its a long drawn out affair but shortened. The corelanya are Mer with Holdings outside the isles i.e. hammerfell. Who fell in with daedric worship and necromancy. Which got them kocked out by the king of alinor.

They choose solstice because it was a far flung holding they could escape the high elf crown and live in seclusion.

TheNuminous1 wrote: »

Also, its kinda stated they just dont care about the argonians there. Which is like. Standard altmer. And they are very Altmeri in culture and dont see beasts as people. Its like to them its uninhabited basically.

Also nords live there that i didn't understand well lol

That's one more thing I've noticed ESO do with locations. They turned Tamriel into one massive melting pot. Sure specific locations have a majority of the Race that inhabit those lands, but they've always made sure you could run across people of every single other Race out there. It's a bit "too" inclusive for the type of time period Tamriel exists in.

Almost every city being cosmopolitan on the mainland was strange but ultimately I was like "ok why not."

But in the case of Solstice is just feel totally stupid as it's supposed to be an island almost everyone never heard off. But yet almost every merchants/basic npc is of another race than Altmer/Argonian and act like they were here from generations and generations. Everyone has already travelled here ...

For a "never seen/heard before" place, it just looks like any other in the end.

They should've gone full Altmer/Argonians with a little bit of Nords (the "tropical nords village" idea is actually kinda nice and refreshing in my opinion)

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

Not all Altmer are bad Altmer.

This lot are explicitly Daedra worshippers with a background in necromancy though, and split off around the same time as the Dunmer, who are much less polite to their neighbors. Having them behave mostly like the mainland mer is…odd. They feel kind of shoehorned into the preexisting Altmer mold. Even with the lorebooks that spell out the history it’s hard to see how they got from where they started to where they are. 😕

I don't know, I think in prior games it felt a bit more rare to be seeing some of the races.

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/General:Demographics

Now that I've finished Solstice, I'm pretty convinced that the combination of cultures makes a lot of sense and is very well thought-out.

The argonians are near to where other argonians are, so that makes sense.

The altmer, nords, and maormer all have seafaring ancestors and a nuanced history on the island. The history was fleshed out and had nice payoff in the associated quests. I particularly like how the nords have crafted a new mythology around their arrival story, as well as a bit of the totemic pantheon.

The Corelanyas, though, are some of the most fascinating and well-crafted groups we've had in a long time. When I played through altmer settlements in Valenwood, high elf buildings sorta just felt randomly tacked-on. But Sunport, Corelanya Manor, and the various ruins all have a rich history that adds up with what we know about the rest of Tamriel history. I would like to know and see that much history from some of the older zones.

I particularly liked how the Corelanyas' story contributed to some bigger threads of Tamriel's story:

• the Alessian revolution and conversion of the Empire to Aedric worship
• the arrival of the redguards and their aversion to necromancy
• the strict hierarchy of Summerset altmer
• the ongoing tension between Meridia and Molag Bal

So anyway, being in Sunport now and seeing the combination of argonian and altmer architecture fondly reminds me of all this. Except it's far too inconvenient of a city (for me) to stay in for long.

tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »

I particularly liked how the Corelanyas' story contributed to some bigger threads of Tamriel's story:

• the Alessian revolution and conversion of the Empire to Aedric worship

If someone is kind enough to sum up this point, or direct me toward an online source, I'm quite interested.

Thanks for the links !

It's interesting to see some developments about ancient diplomatic ( and commercial ) relationship, as hinted by the ban of High King Tenalarion. I'm a bit skeptical that maintening good relations with the new Alessian Empire is a very strong reason for hardening home politic toward daedra worshiping, but I guess it might be more like a convenient time for Summerset power to definitively deal with Veloth remnants on the home islands.

It's weird, though, that when the book talk about the first trading partners of House Corelanya when they settle in Hammerfell, they don't mention at all Chimers. Yes, the will to 'remain friendly' with Summerset could explain that, but it sound more like a convenient narrative explaination for not developing this topic ( after all, chimers and House Corelanya were both openly worshiping daedra, so, why would the later get a pass from Summerset ? ).

Anyway, Summerset really feels to me more and more like a late addition to the Elder Scrolls world, one that don't entirely fit it ( Summerset is in many way painted like a powerful realm, and time and again prove to be capable of mustering great power, but at the same time Summerset is also often relegated to shadows, absence and a general lack of power projection / global vision about changes coming in Tamriel ).

Also, the second book mention that Kinlady Iniel dealing with darker daedric patrons; I wonder which ones, since Molag Bal as already cited as a long-standing, official patron of House Corelanya, and is once again cited as the one called upon for raising deads. I guess the darker patrons remains in the darkness !

The part about Summerset politics and intrigues is quite interesting, and I think give a more plausible explanation of the general impotence of the High Elves. I would like a return of political plots quests, even an entire chapter dedicated to that rather than another world ending threat - like we had in the firsts Aldmeri Dominion zones, or in Orsinium.

Aside from these consideration, I hope the members of House Corelanya were better merchants than politicians ! Maybe they should have also add Mephalas as their deadric patrons.

After reading all that, I feel like Solstice could be a region explored and developped for the next two or three years. There is a lot of interesting things developped in these books, and many connexion toward existing people, factions, that could set new quests, new situations, new stakes to consider : rekindling the relationship between Summerset and the actual House Corelanya, considering they mostly gave up on darker ( once again, I feel kinda obligated to point out that the only really dark daedric patron mentioned, Molag Bag, was worshiped since the beginning ) patrons and embraced a more balanced triad - I'm certainly not saying that an alliance would be obvious, not at all, but it could be considered; EP could try to leverage the existing argonian presence on Solstice to gain power over the island, or even try to play the 'we are both Velothi inheritors' line ( not a really strong one though, as the Tribunal have officialy banned daedric worshiping ); tensions with the Redguards could be reignited, and the DC seizing the opportunity to rally a strong redguard fleet and try invade the islance ( after all, they were quite eager to do similar things in Bleakrock and Stonfalls ! ).

It's just musing with ideas, though. We're gonna kill some worms and be happy with that !