Shadowscales discussion

[Deeza]

So let's get to it. Important points we need to sort out:

1. How many Shadowscales are there (roughly)? Bear in mind that the Shadow lasts for one month of the years, so that's a lot of Argonians (unless they normally breed seasonally, in which case they could be very rare).

2. Do they have a headquarters of some kind? Or do they hide in plain sight living ordinary lives until they are called to action?

3. How exactly does their relationship with the Royal Court work? Is it a straightforward master/servant thing, or are they granted favours in return?

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Originally posted by Deeza
1. How many Shadowscales are there (roughly)? Bear in mind that the Shadow lasts for one month of the years, so that's a lot of Argonians (unless they normally breed seasonally, in which case they could be very rare).

2. Do they have a headquarters of some kind? Or do they hide in plain sight living ordinary lives until they are called to action?

Given their distinctive character, I had been considering adding another race and such a quantity would appear to warrant it. It might use this mod: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.p...3452&tab=3 to make them distinct. Also, the armour they wear requires a mask that is not suited to the Argonian head given that there really is no snout. I had figured this could be explained as a common genetic feature of the breed but what do you think? I guess many of them could wear cowls instead. It's just that the mask looks particularly cool.

And yes, I think they should be fairly rare nonetheless. Furthermore, I would agree with them living a somewhat nomadic, even anti-social lifestyle yet nonetheless as honoured as the shaman.

Their headquarters is in Gideon in the second pic here: CLAIM: City Planning and AI . We still lack an interior model but I had considered retexturing a vanilla model.

Originally posted by Deeza
3. How exactly does their relationship with the Royal Court work? Is it a straightforward master/servant thing, or are they granted favours in return?

With Kings of old, they may have been seen as a kind of secret police but only insofar as they both served the Hist. I would cite the reason for their drifting apart as this: the Shadowscales operate according to a strict code, perhaps similar to that of the Samurai. It is not so much that the King becoming estranged from the Hist is the cause of the separation but rather the fact that BM has altered unrecognisably to the Hist since now there are many more non-indigenous species living there. And, although the Shadowscales are not seen as xenophobic as some of the tribes are, they are nonetheless seeking to expunge 'foreigners' since their code (and ability to operate in pureness of thought) depends upon the 'purity' of the swamp and any such 'contamination' makes their task much more difficult to define.

Imagine what was discussed earlier about 'pruning' and consider how the Hist might regard new species as flora that is unbeknown to them and as unpredictable as human nature. The Hist may know the properties of the many contents of the swamp but this is more difficult to discern the ramifications belonging to their life or death. So whereas the extremist tribes take an extremist view of this (and aim to 'prune' the 'foreign' elements that complicate their connection with the Hist), the more ancient and instinct-driven Shadowscales act according to no set manifesto but that which the sap urges at any one time.