Traveling through The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim

While Aguilera was telling the story, I kept observing Annis. After I scolded her, Auntie became much more patient. Although her furrowed brows clearly showed her displeasure, she did not interrupt the little cat's long narration again.

I'm not so worried about her continuing to cause trouble, but rather because I see the shadow of the Snake Cliff Ridge tribe in the story of the Ruichi people's uprising.

Whether it was Zoltan and Stella, or Moira, they, like Mednatch, all succeeded by chance. Therefore, they lacked both long-term strategic planning and psychological preparation for the immediate difficulties; they were unwilling to condescend to understand the social organization of the Nords, nor were they capable of proposing new systems that suited the customs of the Rich people.

To be fair, this phenomenon is not surprising. After all, in our great China, with its 5,000-year history, only the Heavenly Khan and the Wild Boar Skin dynasties could truly understand both the Central Plains and the grasslands. Let alone those ignorant bumpkins from Ruichi.

Nomadic life, hunting and fishing, and agriculture are completely different modes of production, which have shaped different cultures and social structures. We cannot simply and crudely summarize the differences between the three with terms such as "advanced," "primitive," "civilized," or "barbaric," because the differences in modes of production often depend on objective natural conditions rather than subjective factors.

In reality, when the Nords first migrated to Skyrim, they were undoubtedly nomadic, a lifestyle likely inherited from their ancestors on the continent of Atmora. Nomadic life is characterized by moving with the seasons, often involving large-scale migrations. This necessitates a certain level of organization within tribes, even leading to a system of integrated military and civilian populations. This, in turn, forged the Nords' fierce, warlike, and honor-conscious character.

Furthermore, nomadic peoples obtain food and resources through livestock breeding, thus relying heavily on the regenerative capacity of ecosystems. The ancient Nords' worship of animal spirits was based on this simple belief. At the same time, due to their limited ability to cope with disasters, they held a deep reverence for the forces of nature, and Alduin, the world-destroying dragon god, is a manifestation of this sentiment.

The quasi-military management style, coupled with highly mobile and periodic migrations, meant that nomadic tribes frequently resorted to raiding when facing difficulties. Often, several tribes would unite, elect a leader, and then begin to expand and wreak havoc. Generally, this was temporary; once the attack failed or the weather improved, the alliance would automatically disintegrate.

I strongly suspect that the story of Isgramer is actually an epic from the nomadic era of the ancient Nords.

It is highly likely that during the period of the Byron Church, the Nords transitioned from a nomadic lifestyle to settled agriculture. However, their attitude towards history was extremely careless and perfunctory; not only were there no systematic records, but there were also numerous instances of falsification and concealment. Therefore, I currently have no way of knowing the specifics of the Byron Church.

One possibility is that the Dragon Worship Cult and Isgramer belonged to the same period. That is, some Nords worshipped dragons as gods, while others still maintained the animal god worship of the continent of Atmora. Alternatively, the two may have been related, with Isgramer leading the Nords to Skyrim, and only after several years did they gradually convert to the Dragon Worship Cult.

Regardless, existing ruins and legends prove that the Nords began to settle down under the rule of the Balrog religion and devoted a great deal of manpower and resources to building religious sites. This is a very clear characteristic of an agricultural culture.

Agriculture provides a stable food supply, which has three main effects. First, humans shift from migration to settlement, forming villages and cities. Second, the population grows until groups emerge who are no longer involved in food production, such as workers, merchants, actors, and priests. Third, private ownership emerges, and resources are no longer collectively owned by tribes but are instead possessed by individuals or families.

Changes in production and lifestyle inevitably have cultural impacts. The qualities valued by the most agriculturally developed nations can all be found in the land itself.

The land is honest; it rewards diligent cultivation with bountiful harvests, punishes laziness with famine, rewards for foresight with miraculous recovery, and condemns recklessness with death. The land is steadfast; it praises honesty and hard work, and despises opportunism. The land is the foundation of our livelihood; to protect their home, even the gentlest farmer can transform into the most resilient warrior.

Although the Nords' agricultural level was extremely backward, far from making them comparable to the greatest civilizations in human history, it still managed to cultivate some excellent qualities. For example, they were fearless in the face of power, bravely resisted, and ultimately drove out the dragons and overthrew the tyrannical rule of the dragon priests. Their dragon worship was gradually replaced by a belief in the Holy Spirit.

Compared to the ravenous nomads and the steadfast farmers, fishing and hunting had a distinct style.

Unlike nomadic tribes that relied on a single type of livestock, hunting and fishing tribes had diverse sources of resources, thus rarely experiencing large-scale migrations due to natural disasters. However, this mode of production was inefficient, resulting in limited social scale and a loose structure, neither emphasizing cooperation like agricultural civilizations nor forming large herds like nomadic civilizations.

For example, the Raich people live in tribes scattered throughout the mountains of eastern Highrock and western Skyrim. These tribes are independent of each other and rarely form large-scale alliances. They value freedom and never submit to the enslavement of anyone, neither the Imperials nor the Nords have truly conquered them.

Like the Nords, the Rich also worship the strong. The difference lies in their approach: the Nords tend to follow powerful leaders, taking pride in fighting alongside heroes and becoming part of an epic saga; the Rich, while admiring heroes, aspire even more to defeat them and thus be recognized as stronger.

Many people at Ruichi believe that by eating the bodies of their enemies, they can inherit their will and experience. Helgi once said that Stella, while imprisoning her, made her eat those unfortunate people who were sacrificed, hoping that Helgi could feel the fear and despair these people felt in their dying moments.

On the other hand, the yields of fishing and hunting were extremely unstable; even the most experienced hunters sometimes came up empty-handed. Tribes often oscillated violently between feasting and starvation. Moreover, compared to grain, meat was more perishable and less resistant to storage, and most tribes lacked the awareness to stockpile resources to combat famine.

This leads many Ruichi employees to adopt a hedonistic lifestyle, lack the ability to plan for long-term goals, and are unwilling to give up immediate pleasure and comfort in exchange for stable future development. They may even prioritize short-sighted, exploitative methods.

Mednatch has conquered Markarth, but he doesn't know how to make the city function properly, and he lacks sufficient control over the other chieftains. They probably still think that gold, silver, jewels, fine wine, and delicacies will multiply and proliferate like fish in water and deer in the forest, inexhaustible and boundless.

As a result, they made a series of disastrous decisions. First, the alliance disintegrated due to the struggle for spoils. Then, their excessive exploitation and plundering forced the already surrendered Nords to rebel again. With internal conflicts rife and their base unstable, they even went so far as to declare that some of the Rijki people had questionable bloodlines in order to raise money.

My great-grandfather, Emperor Taizu, once taught: "Politics is about making our supporters as numerous as possible and our opponents as few as possible."

These are indeed true words! They have not deceived me.

Mednatch did the opposite; how could he not be defeated?

However, instead of reflecting on his mistakes in prison, this guy blamed the failure on the betrayal of his allies. Since the old buddies have proven unreliable, the only solution is to vigorously promote new faces.

Those around him could no longer be trusted, but fortunately, the Nords were sending prisoners in continuously in order to restart the Hidalas mine as soon as possible. Mednatch approached them cautiously, carefully screening new followers while trying his best not to let the old ones feel deliberately alienated.

The prisoners were a diverse group, including petty thieves, highway robbers, and innocent civilians framed by others. There were certainly some Ricci natives among them, but also many from other races, and even the orc guards were being reorganized in a respectable manner.

The prisoners, with relatively clean family backgrounds, maintained contact with their relatives. Through these intricate connections, Mednatch was finally able to extend his reach out from the deep mines and spy on the outside world. The once-mighty and spectacular uprising he led had now utterly failed. The invincible coalition had been defeated, and even more tragically, some who had once called him king were now the lackeys of the Nords.

Neposhri was one of them. He claimed that he was still loyal to the captured king. Under this banner, many of his unsuspecting followers gathered under his command. They used the name of the Forsaken to commit bloody massacres in cities and countryside. All these sins were recorded under the name of Mednatch.

In the final six months of the King of Fury's reign, Nepous was indeed quite favored, and his charlatanry deceived many. Some tribes that supported Mednatch, who had been hiding deep in the mountains, were discovered by following the trail. Mednatch believed that the group that attacked Cindy and Eorla's homeland must be connected to the Silverblood family.

As for their titles, such as the Frost Cloak or the Blizzard Underpants, the Lord of Fury said he had no idea and no interest in finding out.

Idne, Aiola's teacher, was also among those deceived. She came from a Reich landowning family, the kind of "Nordified" Reich natives who made their living by farming the land. In other words, in Mednatch's eyes, she was someone of questionable lineage.

As the third daughter in her family, Idne didn't need to assist her mother in managing the business like her two older sisters. Thanks to her family's wealth, she began traveling and studying at a young age, apprenticing under several renowned mentors. Unfortunately, she herself was of average talent and failed to achieve remarkable success.

When Mednatch raised his army, Idne was studying at the College of Winterhold. By the time she returned to Rijk, Ulfric's army was already at the gates of Markarth. It could be said that she was extremely unlucky and completely missed the best opportunity to make her mark. Of course, considering her personal abilities, she might also have been fortunate enough to escape death.

Such a person would normally not have caught His Majesty's eye, but Idne possessed an advantage that others did not have.

Firstly, she did not participate in the uprising, thus avoiding conflicts with various factions and witnessing firsthand the chaos and corruption at the end of Mednatch's reign. Her family should have been impacted by the bloodline census, but Idne's mother was a shrewd woman who skillfully orchestrated the crisis before it could materialize.

At the height of the King of Fury's power, Idne's brother, arranged by their mother, secretly married into the Durscula family of the Suchar clan. This was the eldest daughter of the then-patriarch, Karenne, a highly talented mage and the future leader of the family. The Suchar family was one of the most powerful tribes in Southrich, the closest to Markars City, and Mednatch had been vying for their support. His Majesty's tax collectors weren't foolish enough to go there and invite trouble.

Therefore, the King of Fury and the great uprising he led were, for Idne, shrouded in a romanticized veneer of fighting for freedom, filled with colorful bubbles. This young woman remained loyal to the King of the Ricci and the liberation cause he led. This was all the more precious in the disheartening circumstances of the time.

Secondly, although Idne's abilities were limited, she had traveled extensively, was knowledgeable, and skilled in social interaction. Besides her in-laws in the Suchar family, she was acquainted with many people in the Rijki territory, including Poseidon, who later ran a pharmacy in Markas and became a close friend. Poseidon's nephew, Odvan, was one of the subordinates Mednatch had recruited in prison.

With the new team in place, His Majesty the King's youngest daughter escaped the tragedy of premature death. The child, named Kai, was secretly released from prison and raised by Poseidon's relatives in the countryside. From the age of five, Kai studied under Idne, who was both a teacher and a mother figure to her, the most trusted person for the lonely young girl.

As a teacher, Idne was undoubtedly successful. She had a broad knowledge of magic from various races; while her expertise wasn't particularly profound, it was vast. Her two disciples, Aiola and Kai, were like blue and white stones, their skills surpassing their teacher's. It's a pity she dedicated the best years of her life to secret missions; otherwise, she could have undoubtedly nurtured many more outstanding young talents.

Idne's final advantage lay in her being a complete stranger. Although she had been bewitched by Nepos, the two had never met. Idne spent most of her time wandering the wilderness of the Rich territory, searching for tribespeople she could win over. Meanwhile, the guilty-looking Big Nose rarely met with strangers, leaving communication to his subordinates.

Now, with various factions vying for power, both the Silverblood family and the Nord lords have spies planted around them and have sent people to monitor Mednatch. Therefore, His Majesty the King decided to retaliate in kind and began to plant his own spies. He dared not trust anyone easily anymore, proceeding slowly and cautiously, rigorously vetting the identities and backgrounds of his infiltrators.

He had sent out more than just Idne; with their help, the Nords' informants in the prison were gradually eliminated. Mednatch believed the time was right and attempted a prison break. However, Tonal Silverblood received advance warning and easily cornered him deep within the mine. Mednatch realized that he definitely had spies from a third party within his ranks.

This last nest of rats had been hidden for several years, only being exposed a few days ago. Idne deserves immense credit for identifying the person responsible.