Traveling through The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim

To prevent Helgi from further embarrassment, I stood up, turned my back to the girl, and brewed a pot of pine needle tea. I also found two cups and rinsed them with the water used to wash the tea.

"My guess is that he is deliberately keeping his distance from us. Mr. Lott, as a member of the Imperial Legion, traveled with us only to see his daughter. Even after you rescued Madeline, he still maintained his political stance, hoping that we could negotiate with General Tullius. It is conceivable which side he would stand on if we had attacked the defenders of Snake Cliff Ridge at that time."

I pointed to the mask that Helgi had thrown aside.

"Fighting with old Lot might offend Madeline and her comrades. Wouldn't it be a waste of our efforts to come to Hafingar to get it? It will also prevent us from getting the Axe of Regret, and we will lose the trust of the vampire families of Barbas and Seamar's Shame. If they use this as an excuse to ask us to return Howling Bastion, the entire reconstruction plan of Falkreath will be affected. A small move can affect the whole body."

Helgi's complexion returned to normal, and he was writing in a small notebook with a quill.

"Brother, can you think of so much at once?"

"Not really. I just felt that Mr. Lotte was very distant towards us. But in this way, he became a variable in the team. Our number was too small, and we had no plan in advance. In addition, people were not united, and the risk of acting hastily was too great. So from our own perspective, it was a better choice to stay put. If we consider the opponent's performance, you just said that the defenders were very calm and must have been prepared. And there is another thing that can prove it, that is, the garrison in Loristed Town came to reinforce. The distance between the two places takes at least a whole day, so Ms. Moira's attack plan must have been leaked. Her every move is under the control of the opponent. How can we not be defeated?"

Helgi's hand trembled, she held the quill, dipped it in the ink bottle, and continued writing.

"You just said that we can attack from both sides with Ms. Moira, but isn't she also under attack from both the defenders and the reinforcements? Of course, we didn't know this when we were at Snake Cliff Ridge, so I can only say that I was lucky to guess right."

"Brother, according to what you said, is it possible for us to retake Snake Cliff Ridge?"

I sighed and gently stirred the pine needles in the pot.

"Where there is a will there is a way. We can always find a way. But Lord Danger once taught us not to pin our hopes of victory on our allies."

"Shouldn't allies help each other?"

I turned to look at Helgi, who was huddled in her chair, her hands around her knees.

"I thought so at first. But now, I think it is necessary to revise my view. Alliance is only a temporary or long-term cooperation based on some common interests. Allies will only provide help when it is in their own interests. We cannot expect them to cooperate with our actions unconditionally. For example, the Falkreath tribe and the Snake Cliff Mountain Tribe will work together to resist the attack of the Empire, but it is unlikely that they will send troops to help the tribe seize their homeland. Mr. Lotte is willing to take us through the Empire's defense zone, but it is basically impossible for him to help us attack the Empire's army."

The little girl hid her face in her knees and casually changed the subject.

"Speaking of Mr. Lotte, do you still remember the story he told about the emperor?"

I certainly remember that Sebastian told the story of Tiber's massacre of the Reachmen in Old Haldane, and Helgi was so angry that he cried.

"I have three questions about this matter. You can think about them first. First, Helgi, do you think that people of the same race or ethnicity are natural allies?"

"Is not it?"

"Then do you think that I, a Nord, would team up with Lord Ulfric, who is also a Nord, to harm you, a Reachman?"

Helgi was stunned, then slowly shook his head.

"Moreover, what I'm talking about is by no means an isolated case. For example, Lady Rikke, whom we met in Solitude, is a Nord, but she followed General Tullius of the Empire to fight against Lord Ulfric of the Nord. Another example is Steward Nanya and Mr. Runel of Falkreath, both of whom are high elves, but they did not follow the footsteps of the Thalmor. And the various tribes of the Reachmen, all of whom stood idly by when Lord Ulfric attacked King Mednatch of Markarth. How do you explain all these things?"

"I have no idea."

I poured two cups of tea and sat back in my chair.

"Well, let's put this aside for now, and you can answer my second question: How do you determine a person's ethnicity?"

"That depends on the person's ancestry, right? If both his parents are Reachmen, then he must be Reachmen too."

"Then here comes the question. If I, a Nord, marry a Reachwoman, will our children be Nords or Reachwolves?"

The little girl took a sip from the cup, but unexpectedly choked and started coughing. She patted her chest, tried to adjust her breathing, put the cup away solemnly, and sat up straight.

"Brother, will you really marry a Richman?"

This time it was my turn to choke on the tea.

"I'm just making an analogy."

"Oh……"

Helgi held the cup and stared blankly at the pale yellow tea.

"I...According to our Rich people's tradition, children should follow their mothers."

"Okay, let's follow this tradition, but make it a little more complicated. For example, a child's grandfather and grandfather are both Nords, and his grandmother is Cyrodiil, and his grandmother is Reach. In this way, his father should be considered Cyrodiil, his mother is Reach, and he himself should also be considered Reach. Is that right?"

"probably……"

"But this child is half Nord, one-quarter Cyrodiil, and one-quarter Reachman."

"Then... it should be from... my father? No... In that case, if my grandmother and my grandmother-in-law are both Nords, but my grandfather and my grandfather-in-law are not of the same race, it doesn't make sense..."

I held back my laughter. This girl's brain must be about to burn. Finally, she gave up her efforts to find the answer, took a big sip of tea, grabbed the quill pen, and dipped it in the ink bottle.

"I don't know! Brother, please tell me the answer."

"The answer is - I don't know either."

Helgi was so angry that he laughed.

"I have a third question. If a person's parents are both Reachmen, but he was adopted by a Nord since he was a child, speaks the Nord language, and believes in the Nord gods. Then, should this person be considered a Reachmen or a Nord?"

Helgi frowned and tapped the small notebook with the quill in his hand, but did not write a single word.

"Helgi, ethnicity is a very complex concept. It is definitely not determined by blood alone, but also by the region where a person lives, language, culture, history, customs, etc. Moreover, different ethnic groups are by no means simply mutually exclusive. Instead, they may be inextricably linked. Therefore, I personally believe that although there is some truth in classifying people by ethnicity, it is not completely accurate. People of the same ethnicity may not always hold the same stance. The civil war we are experiencing is an example of this."

"Brother, are you saying that those the emperor slaughtered in Old Haldane were not necessarily the Reachmen?"

"That depends on how you define the Reachmen. What I want to say is that the emperor's massacre was not because of the enemy's ethnicity. The legendary Tiber was not only cruel to his enemies, but also deceived his allies. It can be said that he would do anything to win. What he wanted to do was to crush all the forces that dared to resist him, not to kill all the aliens. Such a cruel warlord cannot represent all Nords. At least I will not do the same as him. As a human being, you still have to have a bottom line."

In fact, there is more complicated information about Tiber Septim. Not to mention the illusory thing of his deification, his own situation alone cannot be explained in a few words. This man is from High Rock Province. If we judge by stereotypes, he is likely a Breton. However, he should have come to Skyrim at a very young age and served a warlord named Guri-Cain from Cyrodiil Province. The area he controlled is exactly where we are now in Falkreath. After Guri-Cain died, Tiber took over his power and started a series of military operations called "Tiber's Conquests" with the Battle of Old Haldane as the starting point, and finally unified the continent of Tamriel and established the Septim Dynasty.

Both Cyrodiil and Nords regarded this emperor who seemed to be a Breton as their own. In fact, in order to cater to the habits of Cyrodiil, he deliberately gave up his real name Yardi and changed his name to Tiber Septim. And he won another Nordic title in Old Haldane: Talos, which means Storm Crown. And his former boss Guri Cain, strictly speaking, belonged to the Colovians. The indigenous people near the Niben River in Cyrodiil are called Niben, while the residents in the west of the province, who are deeply influenced by Nord culture, are called Colovians. So, if you have to be serious, "Cyrodiil" or the so-called "Imperial" in the game is also a concept that mixes at least two ethnic groups.

I didn't shove all this complicated information into the head of the little girl sitting opposite me. In fact, what I had said was enough to give her little head a headache for a while.

"I... don't understand... let me think about it carefully..."

Helgi stared at the tea for a long time, then he took out another roughly bound booklet from his arms.

"This is a collection of stories about the Reachmen that I have collected, including those I read in the Companions. I was going to ask you for advice. But, brother, after hearing the three questions you asked, I..."

Helgi opened her collection of stories and pointed out the key passages to me. Most of them were fragments she had copied down, and only the Legend of the Red Eagle was a complete story.

"Look. Some people say they have lived in the tribe of the Reachmen and have seen with their own eyes the shamans of the tribe perform rituals with centipedes, maggots, spiders and cockroaches, and eat these disgusting things raw. Some people also say that the Reachmen will sacrifice children to evil gods. And there is this, saying that the Reachmen kill indiscriminately wherever they go and take pleasure in torturing others. It is also said that the female leader only rewards the obscene and cruel villains, and the kind-hearted people will be punished instead..."

She became more and more excited as she spoke, shouting at me word by word.

"we do not have!"

I remained silent. After all, I had dealt with the Snake Cliff Tribe many times before. The string of human heads and roasted human legs in the dungeon were not fake. You can't ask me to admit that the Rich people are civilized and kind, right? Helgi sensed the unusual atmosphere and seemed to guess what I was thinking, and he stammered to explain.

"The tribe does offer human sacrifices, but that is only done in very serious and important ceremonies, and the sacrifices must be carefully selected. No one would use insects as sacrifices to blaspheme the gods. The Crow God doesn't like weak people either. If you use children as sacrifices, you will be cursed! Normally, we use sheep or deer hunted as sacrifices, and we have to choose the strongest of these animals. After the ceremony, the female chief will distribute the sacrifices blessed by the Crow God to the tribe members to eat, so that everyone can receive the blessing of God."

The little girl's voice was trembling a little. She tried to raise her tearful eyes and stared at me.

"But, brother, since I met you, I have never eaten human flesh again! You said that eating it would make me crazy... However, I only know the situation of the Snake Cliff Tribe and several small tribes next to us. There are so many tribes in the Rich Territory, maybe... maybe there really is such a situation... So, I'm thinking..."

Helgi's voice trembled.

"There never were any Reachmen! You're the ones who call all the wild people living in the mountains Reachmen! Isn't that right?"

Helgi buried her face in my chest and sobbed. I couldn't refute her conclusion, so I just stroked her hair gently. In fact, when this girl said she wanted to ask me about the history of the Reach people, I vaguely guessed the answer.

In common perception, a nation is a community built by a group of people who share a common history and culture and identify with each other. But in real life, this situation actually only applies to the so-called civilized world. From the perspective of the "civilized world", everything outside of civilization is barbaric, and people in barbaric lands are barbarians. As for these "barbarians", what are their beliefs, culture, blood ties, social structure, etc.? "Civilized people" don't care.

If you are serious, the term "Nord" originally means "northerner", which is actually just a generalization of the foreign races from the north by people who think they are in the "center of civilization". The so-called "Reichman" is probably, as Helgi said, a general term for the barbarians living in the Reichland and West Reichland. This situation also has precedents in real history. Whether it is the three major barbarians in ancient Europe: Celts, Germans, and Slavs, or the Huns and Turks who once ravaged the north in Chinese history books, they all belong to this category.

This is also the source of Helgi's emotional breakdown: in the eyes of "civilized people", she and her people, as well as countless people she knows or doesn't know, are just uncivilized barbarians, cruel, evil, bloodthirsty thugs, and beasts in human form. But what if it is from her own perspective?

Who is she? Who are her people? What is the past of the millions of men and women who are grouped together with her tribe and called "Reachmen"? How will they cope with the current chaos?

and most importantly -

Do they still have a future?