I really wish we could have a Chosen of Anu staff. I'm not a fan of weapon styles being split up like that. Or missing, like with the Apocryphabound set.

Excited for my 40th cat pet

Been waiting a while to see these come out, highlight of the year for me.

I am required to get that costume for my khajiit she's very celestial heavinly themed

Of course, when we finally get some nice heavily armoured mounts, there are few options, and none is a horse, or any more common mount animal. I strongly dislike how apex is getting filled out with badly designed costume, flashy recalls, and obnoxious polymorphs instead of more mount variety.

More flashy recalls that will assault my eyeballs. The Anu one would've been nice without the big bright symbol.

A single new hairstyle (Not recolour) which is again feminine, and also changes the haircolour slightly.

WoW-esque weapons. Why are they so large and thick?

At least some of the lesser tier cosmetics are nice. I quite like the headresses and masks, they look quite religious/cultist, which has been a bit lacking. Can maybe make some neat looking Divines priests outfits with those.

Genuine question as a harpist myself... Have any designers at ZOS ever seen a harp being played? Why is every single harp in this game facing the wrong way?

Please stop making Argonian hairstyles jokes. Everyone else gets a head full of hair and argonians get... a small tuft with a random long feather? What?

Aside from that and the gaping issue on one of the costumes (omg stop doing that too), this is probably my favorite crate of all time.

Thank you for the Daggerfall Side tress braid. It looks lovely on my Imperial who can now finally let down her braid crown and not be confused with Isobel anymore. 🙂

Soarora wrote: »

Please stop making Argonian hairstyles jokes. Everyone else gets a head full of hair and argonians get... a small tuft with a random long feather? What?

Aside from that and the gaping issue on one of the costumes (omg stop doing that too), this is probably my favorite crate of all time.

It's so tiresome, but complaining or giving critique about it does nothing. Argonians always draw the short straw

I'm not sure who writes the lore entries for these items, but the continued association of Anu with "order" and Padomay with "chaos" is just... eugh. It's like ESO devs are divided between those who understand what those terms actually mean when it comes to cosmogonies and those that do not.

Order, when it comes to cosmogonies, refers to the ordered universe, the cosmos. Chaos refers to the state of affairs before the creation of the ordered universe, when things were all jumbled into a primordial ocean, egg, or some form of totality where everything is fused together.

"Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart" entry on Chaos:

Man kann deshalb im Alten Orient zwei parallele Vor- stellungen vom Ur-Ch. unterscheiden: Die erste stellt den Urzustand dar als Urflut und Urdunkelheit, woraus sich dann ein Ei oder ein Meerungeheuer entwickelte, die zweite als eine absolute Ganzheit, in welcher Himmel und Erde miteinander verschmolzen waren. Im ersten Fall vollzieht sich die Schöpfung durch Teilung des Eies oder Zerstückelung des Meerungeheuers, im zweiten durch die Scheidung des Himmels von der Erde. Alle diese mythischen Bilder veranschaulichen den Gedanken der ungeordneten und amorphen Totalität, der Finster- nis und der Nichtexistenz. Ähnliche Bilder (Urmeer, Himmel und Erde als Einheit, Weltei, Urwesen usw) sind in Indien, China, Japan, Indonesien, Polynesien und Afrika bezeugt. Wahrscheinlich hat sich eine Reihe die- ser kosmogonischen Motive vom Alten Orient aus ver- breitet.

Translation:

One may therefore distinguish, in the Ancient Near East, between two parallel conceptions of primordial chaos. The first presents the primordial state as a primeval flood and primordial darkness, from which there then developed either an egg or a sea monster; the second presents it as an absolute totality in which heaven and earth were fused together. In the first case, creation takes place through the splitting of the egg or the dismemberment of the sea monster; in the second, through the separation of heaven from earth. All these mythical images illustrate the idea of an unordered and amorphous totality, of darkness and nonexistence. Similar images (the primeval sea, heaven and earth as a unity, the cosmic egg, primordial beings, etc.) are attested in India, China, Japan, Indonesia, Polynesia, and Africa. It is probable that a number of these cosmogonic motifs spread outward from the Ancient Near East.

The main problem here is the erroneous identification of Anu with "order" and Padomay with "chaos", as both "order" and "chaos" have very specific meanings when we're dealing with cosmologies and cosmogonies.

Order is NOT stasis, and neither is chaos the same as change.

Chaos, when spoken of in reference to creation mythologies, refers to "a primordial state as a primeval flood and primordial darkness, from which there then developed either an egg or a sea monster", or as "an absolute totality in which heaven and earth were fused together".

In contrast, the Aurbis, the created universe, is order. The cosmos. Because that's what the word "cosmos" means - order. Specifically, the post-creation universe.

With this in mind, consider the following descriptions of the Anuic force in myths:

Anu encompassed, and encompasses, all things. - The Heart of the World

Satak was First Serpent, the Snake who came Before, and all the worlds to come rested in the glimmer of its scales. But it was so big there was nothing but, and thus it was coiled around and around itself, and the worlds to come slid across each other but none had room to breathe or even be. - Satakal the Worldskin

There was first only Atak, the Great Root. It knew of nothing but itself, so it decided to be everything. - Children of the Root

Our lessers know the Source as two forms: Anu and Padomay, but this binary is without merit. One of the Lorkhan's Great Lies, meant to sunder us from the truth of Anuic unity. Our father, Sotha Sil, would have us know the truth: there is no Padomay. Padomay is the absence of value. The lack. A ghost that vanishes at first light. A Nothing. There is only Anu, sundered and known by many names, possessing many faces. The one. - Truth in Sequence

And in contrast, see how the Padomaic force is introduced and what happens because of its introduction:

So that he might know himself he created Anuiel, his soul and the soul of all things. Anuiel, as all souls, was given to self-reflection, and for this he needed to differentiate between his forms, attributes, and intellects. Thus was born Sithis, who was the sum of all the limitations Anuiel would utilize to ponder himself. Anuiel, who was the soul of all things, therefore became many things, and this interplay was and is the Aurbis. - Heart of the World

And so the worlds called to something to save them, to let them out, but of course there was nothing outside the First Serpent, so aid had to come from inside it; this was Akel, the Hungry Stomach. Akel made itself known, and Satak could only think about what it was, and it was the best hunger, so it ate and ate. Soon there was enough room to live in the worlds and things began. These things were new and they often made mistakes, for there was hardly time to practice being things before. So most things ended quickly or were not good or gave up on themselves. Some things were about to start, but they were eaten up as Satak got to that part of its body. This was a violent time. Pretty soon Akel caused Satak to bite its own heart and that was the end. The hunger, though, refused to stop, even in death, and so the First Serpent shed its skin to begin anew. As the old world died, Satakal began, and when things realized this pattern so did they realize what their part in it was. - Satakal the Worldskin

Atak continued to grow until something came back from the nothing. It was like a root but had scales and eyes and a mouth. It told Atak that it was called Kota, and it had been growing, too. Now that it had a mouth, it was hungry. Atak named Kota for what it was: serpent! It put roots through the serpent's eyes. But Kota was old and strong like the root, and had grown fangs while it was away. It bit Atak. They coiled around each other. From their struggle, new things came to be. Atak learned things Kota had learned, including hunger, and so it bit Kota back. They ate and roiled for so long they became one and forgot their conflict. They shed their skin and severed their roots and called themselves Atakota, who said "Maybe." - Children of the Root

Remember that bit above about the primordial chaos sometimes being interpreted as an egg and how sometimes "creation takes place through the splitting of the egg"? Well, in a draft version of the Monomyth, the Hist referred to Sithis as Ixtaxh-thtithil-meht, meaning "Exact Egg-Cracker":

"In most cultures, Anuiel is honored for his part of the interplay that creates the world, but Sithis is held in highest esteem because he's the one that causes the reaction. Sithis is thus the Original Creator, an entity who intrinsically causes change without design. Even the alien hist acknowledge this being, whom they call Ixtaxh-thtithil-meht, or "Exact Egg-Cracker"."

And ESO even canonised this name and its meaning in the Murkmire DLC:

"The local Argonians call it Ixtaxh-Thitithil-Meht—literally the exact egg-cracker." - Famia Mercius

Anu and its cultural variants (such as Satak), by definition, are NOT order. The damn thing is a textbook example of a primordial chaos which is transformed by the introduction of an ordering force, that being Padomay/Sithis/Akel, thus giving birth to the ordered universe, the Aurbis/Satakal.

...

Phew. Rant is over.

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

Soarora wrote: »

Please stop making Argonian hairstyles jokes. Everyone else gets a head full of hair and argonians get... a small tuft with a random long feather? What?

By the Divines, it's even worse than I dreaded. WTF is this.

Right? How hard would it have been to make a braided or even a “half shave” look? Surely you can braid feathers?

The crates are pretty good!

My main complaint is the Apex Manifestation of chaos steed’s front feet appear to behave like paws not cloven hooves, which looks really weird to me. It doesn’t land on its hooves at a run… maybe it would have turned out better to do a hybrid creature.

there’s also some gaping in the finery of elegant chaos outfit..
And I wish the new hairstyle colour could be changed,

Also, the elemental storm chaos vortex seems like it’s missing a sound effect or something?