BM - Helstrom Re-examined

[Deeza]

An extended reply to Professor Nopia and Doctor Delirr, courtesy of Martina Leozorad, the 15th holder of the Gardiner Professorship of Aboriginal Studies, Horley College, City of Wayrest, High Rock.

As a scholar of local legends and lost civilisations, I was delighted to recieve an advance copy of a new book on the Lost City of Black Marsh, especially one from two authors as esteemed as Nopia and Delirr, whose previous work on ancient Aldmeri landing sites in southern Elseweyr was a refreshing and much-needed new perspective on that topic. I eagerly anticipated reading their new work, as I was already planning a new book on the topic myself.

Regrettably, I cannot extend my enthusiasm for their previous work to "The Lost City of Helstrom." It is without a doubt one of the worst pieces of scholarship I have ever had the misfortune to read. Its tone is unduly polemical, its arguments fallacious and the whole displaying what can only be interpreted as a profound ignorance of Black Marsh. I thus decided to revise the content of my new book, presenting it as a challenge to their thesis.

First of all, let me state that I in no way endorse the wilder claims made in popular tales of Helstrom. Clearly they have been much exaggerated, however, I remain convinced that they are based upon a core of truth. Furthermore, the reasons offered by Nopia and Delirr for discounting its existence are based on a poor knowledge of Argonian biology and history.

I would certainly never accuse a scholar as respected as Professor Nopia of deliberately misleading his readers, but I can only conclude that he is unaware that due to their slow, cold-blooded metabolism, a healthy adult Argonian can survive for weeks on a fraction of the food a human or mer would require. This why Argonian mercenaries and slaves have so often been highly valued throughout history.

Thus, when Nopia and Devirr state that inner Black Marsh could not support a city without extensive farmland, I counter that their estimates are based on what would be required to sustain a human population. Though much about the physiology of Argonians is still mysterious, their meagre food needs are one of the few things that is well established, and it is a mystery to me why Nopia and Devirr seem unaware of this.

Furthermore, I would like to point out that the region most commonly cited as the location of Helstrom, Inner Murkwood, is larger than the entire Daggerfall Peninsula in my home province of High Rock. Given the immense technical difficulties of charting the constantly shifting terrain of this region, not to mention the extreme dangers, it is absurd to discount the possibility that huge areas of Murkwood remain unexplored to this day. Large areas of agriculture, perhaps moving with the seasons, cannot be ruled out.

To add one final point, the authors also make the borderline absurd suggestion that every ruin in Black Marsh can be attributed to foreign cultures. I can assure readers that whilst Barsaebic Ayleid, Velothi, Kothringi and Lilmothliit structures are all quite distinctive, there is a substantial residue of ancient structures found throughout the Marshes which cannot be adequately attributed to any of these.

The authors furthermore seek to draw a tendentious link between these ruins and Elsweyr, on the basis of shared structural motifs. It is common knowledge, however, that a substantial degree of contact occurred between Elseweyr and Black Marsh as far back as the First Era, and possibly earlier. Topal the Pilot recorded Khajiit-like creatures on both sides of the bay that bears his name, and there is even a rare Dwemeri source "Antecedents of Dwemer Law" that refers in passing to an Argonian presence in the Tenmar Forest in the region of modern-day Torval in Elsweyr.

It would not be in the least surprising if these two cultures had exchanged architectural motifs and even language. Certainly they exchanged knowledge of the cultivation of rice and sugar, which are still farmed in both Black Marsh and Elsweyr to this day, and have been since before recorded time.

To conclude, Nopia and Delirr fail spectacularly in their quest to refute the existence of Helstrom. The search for the Lost City will go on, in the libraries of historians and even in the depths of Black Marsh.

[Catlemur]

I do not want to annoying but the province is called Elsweyr.

[Deeza]

Not annoying at all! I shall make the correction. Let me know if you find any more mistakes.