#there's a lot more that i didn't include because i thought 1500 words was enough for a tumblr essay

[tes-trash-blog]

Mycosis, Or A Slightly More Scientific Take On How The Falmer Came To Be

(Alt title: I’m Never Eating Mushrooms Again)

Yep. This is happening.

Preface: This essay/rant/overanalysis is focusing only on the theoretical physical and biological aspects Falmer devolution. Expect a shorter rant on the spiritual aspect on a later date, thanks to oyarsas.

Part 1. Just Who Were The Falmer Anyway? A Brief Primer

According to the one surviving Snow Elf in Skyrim, the ancient Falmer were a wealthy and advanced race of Elves that occupied a portion of Skyrim during the Merethic Era. A few shenanigans, some unspeakable war crimes, and a genocide later, the remnants of this race fled underground into the waiting arms of the Dwemer. They laid it down in simple terms:

“Many of your people had perished under the roaring, snow-throated kings of Mora, and your wills were broken, and we heard you, and sent our machines against your enemies, to thereby take you under. Only by the grace of the Dwemer did your culture survive, and only by the fifteen-and-one tones did your new lives begin.”

(Fun fact: If you translate the Stone using Ayleid words, it’s actually a lot more sinister!)

This wasn’t out of the goodness of their hearts, as the Dwarves were, in objective terms, dicks. While they didn’t want tearful songs of gratitude or boot-licking, they weren’t about to let a bunch of homeless and traumatized Elves, y’know, recover. No, they wanted something.

“We only request you partake of the symbol of our bond, the fruit of the stones around us. And as your vision clouds, as the darkness sets in, fear not.”

That something was their sight, and their obedience. Given what very little we know about Snow Elven culture, this looked to have been a bit of a big deal. After all, all the Prelates at Auri-El’s wayshrines implement light and sight in their blessings, much of the surviving iconography depicts the sun and its radiance, and what few surviving accounts remain mention the “dread of night” and “blessed sun”.

This wasn’t a decision made lightly, is what I’m getting at. The fact they agreed at all surely meant the Dwarves could do what they wished. Seeing some of the more elaborate torture chambers and traps, we can safely assume they did.

The Blinding happened in the Late Merethic Era, some hundreds of years before the Dragon War and the beginning of the First Era. Now comes the fun part.

And by fun part, I mean gross part.

Part 2. Can’t We Just Wrap This Up And Blame The Dwarves?

It wouldn’t be an overanalysis if I did, now would it?

There are theories abound as to how the Dwarves corrupted them, or they were part of a failed experiment (Underkiing, Lord_Hoot). This essay is going to ignore these theories, and focus on the more biological aspects of the Falmer transformation. Starting with a quote from the last surviving Snow Elf:

“The blinding of my race was supposedly accomplished with a toxin. Certainly not enough to devolve them into the sad and twisted beings they've become.”

This is further supported with the poem The Betrayed:

“Thrown into the pitch black dread of night.

Living in fear as their minds become lost.

As their eyes began dimming the light.”

This lost book also points to the slow creeping of insanity among the Snow Elves, no doubt from the unspeakable horrors seen above ground and the fancy word that made me write this whole damn essay in the first place: Mycotoxin!

Mycotoxins are a broad name for the various types of poisons produced by the Fungi kingdom, specifically those that affect animals, humans, and in this case, Elves. From NCBI’s extensive article on Mycotoxins:

“The majority of mycotoxicoses, on the other hand, result from eating contaminated foods. Skin contact with mold-infested substrates and inhalation of spore-borne toxins are also important sources of exposure. Except for supportive therapy (e.g., diet, hydration), there are almost no treatments for mycotoxin exposure”

“[...] Acute toxicity generally has a rapid onset and an obvious toxic response, while chronic toxicity is characterized by low-dose exposure over a long time period, resulting in cancers and other generally irreversible effects.”

That sounds… bad.

So, there are few if any treatments for mycotoxin exposure, and the Dwarves were not ones to use magic, so the only feasible treatment for the mass-poisoning would have been a good diet and hydration, but something tells me the Dwarves were not keen on giving their slaves either of those. From the Diary of Faire Agarwen, we can reasonably deduce that conditions were cramped, dark, and damp even among those who had political clout:

“Seventh Marking, Tenth Kulniir

[...] Often the surroundings make it impossible to dwell on any happiness. We have been locked together in such close quarters for so long.”

Keep in mind here that a kulniir was a notched basin that functioned as a simple time keeper, using drops of water. The diary also mentions there’s no real natural light, so we see the combination of dark, damp, and cramped. This was from a woman who held some social capital. We can assume that conditions for your average Joe and Sally were much worse.

Even among the best of conditions, the Snow Elves were kept in were prime real estate for molds and fungi to thrive. There is (thankfully) no evidence to support my next claim, but it’s also not exactly a stretch of the imagination.

The Falmer: A Study makes clear that the blinding was a multi-generational effort. Within perhaps two or three generations, the Snow Elves were eternally blind. Adding to the permanent blindness, there very well could have been the more unpleasant, unwanted, and unplanned changes.

I’m talking about mutagens.

To pull a real life example, Fumonisin B1 can cause neural tube defects in utero, which means that the toxin affects the development of the brain and spinal cord, as well as the central nervous system. In extreme, chronic cases of fumonisin poisoning, it can keep the brain from forming into a viable state, causing stillbirths. In a universe where dragons fly around and singing plants can make poisons, it’s not too much of a stretch to say that there is something equally terrifying growing in Blackreach. Already blinded, chronically ill, and hopeless, the next generation of Snow Elves were doomed to an ever lower standard of living without even the knowledge that things could be better. Combine that with whatever mold infected whatever flora that grew underground, similar to how say, fumonisin blights grains and how black mold is generally Really Bad For You.. Well, we can assume that there was a more subtle force that guided them to their ferality than whatever the Dwarves did to them.

In the same way the lead pipes of Rome contributed to developmental problems among their populace, I can imagine the toxic spores creating more violent, more feral Falmer, until finally their very sentience was taken from them. Seeing as all of this culminated into a war that spanned decades, something tells me the Dwarves didn’t see that coming.

Part 3: So… CAN They Be Cured?

The short answer is no. From the words of the Knight Paladin himself:

“I'm afraid that they're well beyond a cure at this point. The twisted forms you've seen didn't occur overnight. It isn't a plague or a disease that ravaged our species. The dwarves may have stolen their sight, but it took many generations for them to become what they are today.”

And as found earlier, there are no effective cures for mycotoxin exposure, and I imagine even less for chronic, multi-generational poisonings like what happened to the Snow Elves of old. I’m assuming, but I really don’t want to ever see that tested in the field.

But not all is lost. Gelebor also notes that the modern Falmer have started to re-develop their intellect. This grabbed me, as the Forgotten Vale is vastly different than the caves and ruins you normally find Falmer in. There’s fresh air and cool breezes, and open spaces for those sad little gremlins to lurk about. In short, they’re away from the poisonous influences of those dark caves and toxic spores.

It’s entirely possible that the Falmer of the Vale are developing, and it’s in part because they’re no longer confined to the dark and damp that was their prison. It’s entirely possible that with enough time, and enough patience, the Falmer could slowly undo the effects of their chronic poisoning. Not enough to become the Snow Elves of legend, those days are long since past, but perhaps enough to break their chains, and finally put a voice to thousands of years of suffering.

Sources, inspirations, and tangentially related articles:

Mycotoxins, from the National Center for Biotechnology Information. A recommended primer on the nature of mycotoxins and their effects on more complex organisms.

Toxic effects of mycotoxins in humans, from the World Health Organization, another excellent starting point if you like reading about poisonous fungi.

Repeating Mistakes of the Past: Another Mycoherbicide Research Bill, a condemnation of using mycotoxins in of all things, drug control. This article also calls the use of mycotoxins against humans for what it is: Biowarfare. An interesting, insightful, and very depressing read.

A review of the toxic effects and mechanisms of action of fumonisin B1, from the journal Human and Experimental Toxicology. Behind a paywall, but the abstract sums it all up quite nicely.

A Wikipedia article on the Mexican Tetra, because I think they’re cute.

UESP, without which I would be even more of a babbling trash gremlin.

#lore overanalysis #with a bit of science and biology #nature is scary #The Elder Scrolls #falmer #snow elf #as you know #i'm always on my snow elf bullshit #the dwarves were not as smart as they thought they were #they're very much STEM school fuckboys #i'm not a biologist soooo #and mycology is SURPRISINGLY INTERESTING! #there's a lot more that i didn't include because i thought 1500 words was enough for a tumblr essay

[automatismoateo]

My theology teacher failed me because she didn't like my truthful answers on the semester exam via /r/atheism

Submitted May 23, 2019 at 11:00PM by -SENDHELP- (Via reddit http://bit.ly/2WmPacH) My theology teacher failed me because she didn't like my truthful answers on the semester exam

This is going to be a LONG post, guys. It's pretty juicy tho. Names and stuff replaced with [REMOVED] for privacy.

​

My theology teacher emailed my parents and principal (sadly, I go to a private, Catholic school) and these are the contents of the email. I was pretty blunt, to be fair, but she wanted honesty and to be fair, the 9th commandment is to not lie, so what does she want me to do, bReAk tHe NiNtH cOmMaNdMeNt?

​

Mr. and Mrs. [REMOVED], I am writing you let you know that [REMOVED] made a 62.5 out of a 100 on his Theology exam, however, he could have passed had he answered his essay questions appropriately.  I know you would want to know that on the exam, students were asked to write three 500 word essays about different aspects of faith and Scripture based on concepts taught in this class.  Instead, [REMOVED] chose to write a 1500 word essay stating his opinions against every aspect of faith and Scripture that I have taught, including comparing the Bible to a book about "Mr. Rainbow Fish."  While I believe students are entitled to an opinion, I feel he has taken this too far and in a manner that is disrespectful and somewhat defiant.  I have made [REMOVED] aware, and I hope this will allow an opportunity for discussion at home.  I appreciate you support and encouragement.  Please let me know if you would like to discuss this further.   Here is the first essay that he wrote: The following should include a well-formed essay which includes at least 500 words about God's love for us as told through Scripture.  Answer all of the below questions in your essay.  The Bible is often referred to as "a love story from God."        (a)  What do we learn about real love, sacrificial love from Scripture.  Use specific examples.         (b)  How do we know we can trust the words in Scripture?  Weren't these men just fishermen?       (c)  Retell the story of Salvation History in your own words.  Your Answer:"Before writing this, I would like to make it clear that I am going to answer this question from an atheist's point of view. It is the last day in your class, and I figured at this point I might as well be completely honest about what I think about Christianity and the Bible etcetera. You probably want a certain answer, but I am going to answer honestly and with my own opinions.

A: Reading through the Bible, I do not see very many examples of true love. God apparently loves all of his creations equally, but he is perfectly fine kicking regular people out of their homes to make room for someone that he "equally" loves to move in. By this I am talking about when the Jews finished wandering in the desert for 40 years and God kicked the people living in the promised land already out. Also, let's talk about God making his people that he loves (more, apparently) walk in the desert for 40 years. In class, I've heard it explained that he did this in order to remove their egyptian ideals and gods and stuff from them so that they would trust him. He's omnipotent and omniscient, yes? He can always create the best situation possible with the least amount of harm to his creations that he loves, yes? Then why did force his people to wander in a desert for 40 years and basically just kill off (with old age) all of the ones that remembered things about egypt and still thought that thosegods might be real? Why couldn't he just wipe their memories, or something? He's God. He can do it. I've heard the excuse that it removes their free will, too. I don't believe that. If that's removing their free will, then forcing them to wander in the desert instead of letting them make their own decisions and forcing them to live in the "promised land" instead of letting them make their own decisions is removal of free will, too- much more so, in fact. There are endless situations just like this one in the Bible that make me doubt that God knows much about real love.

B: That's the thing actually. You can't trust the word in scripture. "well that's stupid, of course we can! It was written by God!" is probably what your immediate response to that statement was. That's the thing though: how do you know that it was God/ the holy spirit that inspired it? "Because it says so in the Bible" Is probably your answer for that one. Basically, this means that you read a book, the book says that it was written by God, therefore God wrote it and everything in it is undeniably true. Let's try a hypothetical situation, shall we? An archaeologist 2000 years in the future finds a book inside of a house that he dug up. He sees that it is titles "Mr. Rainbow Fish's Undeniable Guide to Get to the True Fish Tank" and opens it up to read it. He reads everything in it, the story of Mr. Rainbow Fish, what he did for his people, and what the archaeologist himselfhas to to in order to get to the True Fish Tank. The book also states that it was written by Mr. Rainbow Fish. The archaeologist sees this and thinks "everything in there must be true! Fish really must be intelligent and created people to be like guinea pigs in an experiment on earth! We have to worship the fish otherwise we won't find our way to the True Fish Tank!" He goes back home and tells all of his friends. Every single time he gets told that he can't trust what's written in it and it doesn't make sense anyways. His response is usually something like "Of course I can! It was written by Mr. Rainbow Fish!" His friends always ask him, "how do you know that Mr. rainbow Fish actually wrote it though?" and the response is always "because it says so right there in the book!" Do you see the similarities between the Bible and "Mr. Rainbow Fish's Undeniable Guide to Get to the True Fish Tank?" They're scarily similar. Moral of the story? Don't believe everything that you read. Things that affect your entire life and that you base your whole existence off of actually need proof. 

C: Salvation history. I'm guessing that you mean the whole Jesus thing, by this. Here's my retelling of it and (afterwards) an explanation about it: God saw Mary, a human, who was perfect because he made her this way (which apparently didn't affect her free will.) He sends an angel to approach her and tell her what is essentially, "My boss wants you to have his baby and there isn't really anything that you can do about it." (which apparently didn't affect her free will either) Mary basically has to agree to this happening, and gives birth to Jesus, who was father by Himself, who was ordered to Father Himself by the other Himself. I'm talking about the holy trinity, if it wasn't obvious. Jesus wanders around for a while, being human, growing up, and eventually gets older and starts a whole preaching thing. He gains a lot of followers, spreads a pretty decent message (even in my own opinion) and generally is a cool dude. Eventually though, because other people (the Jews of the time) were so wrapped up in their own religious values, they decided that it was perfectly morally right to murder someone because they said a few words that they didn't like ("I am God") or didn't relax on the sabbath. To me, neither of these things is worth murder, like, at all. But they did it anyway, and basically Jesus died for our sins, rose again, apostles spread the word, etcetera etcetera. Christians are all super thankful that he did that stuff for them, sacrificing his life and all. Except there are some serious issues with that. First of all, he didn't sacrifice his life. He was only planning on staying on Earth for a good 30 years or so anyways Even though he did die on the cross, he basically just took a 3 day long nap. Sure, it hurt being on the cross, but to him, a literal timelesscosmic being that created the universe, it was nothing and not even any real amount of time. It wasn't a sacrifice, it was just a show to make himself look good. There was no real need for Jesus to die on the cross anyways! God is all powerful, all knowing, and all other stuff etcetera. There was no actual reason for Jesus to have died on the cross when God was perfectly capable of essentially (for lack of a better metaphor) pulling a Thanos and snapping our sins away, then popping up in front of everyone globally at the same time and saying something along the lines of "Yo, dudes. I'm God, nice to meet you. I just saved your life because I removed your sins, and also you can stay with me in heaven forever and have fun and stuff. Cool, right?" It probably would have worked much better than trusting literally the most important message in the world to a few dudes who ran around the middle east trying to convince people that they weren't crazy. That leads me to my next can of worms. If the message was so important? Why just leave, like, literally every single thing that ever happened in the Bible in just the middle east? What about the other continents around the earth? What about even just the same continent but in other parts of it? According to the Bible (the church sort of says differently now, but the Bible also says you aren't allowed to give interpretive meaning- everything is literal and unchanging) those who don't worship God go to hell, even if they were unlucky enough to ever find out about him. What about the people below northern africa? What about Europe pre-Christianity-spreading-there? What about the aborigines? What about east Asian empires? What about native north americans? The list goes on and on and on. God condemned all of these people to suffer in hell for eternity just because he decided he didn't want to spread his message anywhere but the middle east.That's all for that one." *In his second essay, he refers to God as "selfish" and faith as being "all fake."  See below: The following should include a well-formed essay (which includes at least 500 words) about the early church comparing or contrasting it with your church today.  Answer all of the below questions in your essay.  (a) Why was the Temple important to the Jerusalem community after the exile? Give some of specific examples of how we know this. (b) What is the importance of worship spaces today?  Describe your church or a church where you have visited.  In what ways could you tell that this worship space is important to you or to the community.  (c) How might looking to "other gods" in our culture result in a spiritual exile from God?  How can our church building and church community help strengthen our spiritual identity?Your Answer:I've already written almost 1500 words and am tired of writing, so I'm just going to keep it simple here even if you take points off for it. Besides, these aren't as interesting to answer as the previous question anyways.

A: It was so important to them because it was a central unifying force for the Jewish people. They rebuilt it for the same reason that they stopped worshipping all of their other gods and limited it to just Yahweh (not even his wife!) You might not believe me, but look it up, it's a real thing. There is legitimate historical proof that "God" was only one of many ancient Jewish gods.

B: It's pretty much the same thing. It unifies people of said religion and is also basically a big advertisement for the religion. I don't go to church, but I've visited many and used to be forced to go to one. They all follow the same format- pews, altar, everything on it, etcetera. They were never important to me, but it was important to the people that went because it was pretty much their whole life. Even if (my personal opinion) they're wrong and it's all fake, it still matters to them.

C: God is selfish (aside from being perfect and all) and doesn't like when your life does anything but revolve completely around him (isn't that a pretty good example of limiting your free will? lol) so he will "exile" you. I can't answer that question as I don't believe in spirits, souls, etc. The answer you probably want is something like "come together, blah blah blah, etc etc"

Edit: parents are home, we haven't talked about it yet.

#reddit