Seducer: Phrastus? You're there? Is this Phrastus?
Phrastus: What is this place, young lady? And how did I get here? What is this...is it some sort of Oblivion realm? And what are you? Some kind of seducer?
Seducer: We just wanted to ask you some questions, you Scholarness, if you don’t mind?
Phrastus: Well, whatever went rough, I assure you I had nothing to do with it!
Seducer: Not those kind of question Phrastus, don’t worry about it, it’s just the usual type of questions for a sage like yourself.
Phrastus: And send me back to Nirn? ...all right… let’s start, the sooner the better.
Seeker 1: Certainly, certainly.
Phrastus: All right... hum well... and who are you ?
Seeker 1: Oh, who am I ? Well, I go by many names, and, you see, our sphere of influences is obscured from mortals… but, think of someone like a quester, a question asker.
Phrastus: Is it why you have two mouths in your chin ? And where did you get that extra eye ? This is creepy…
Seeker 1: It’s all part of the theme. Like, you know, the mountains, the sky, the things that come on the ground, don’t look bottom by the way.
Phrastus: Let’s get started ! The sooner we get started, the sooner we can finish and I can go back to my nap time.
Seeker 1: All right, who’d like to begin?
Seeker 2: That will be yo, double-mouth.
Seeker 1: Fine, just fine. You think that because I have two mouths I have to do all the talking. Companions, I mean honestly!
Seeker 1: There was an elf, a Bosmer I talked to recently, and he had a ??? question, I had no idea why he didn't know this. For you see, I like to ask about Bosmer and antlers. You see, last time this has been asked, as far as I understand, I had heard that Bosmer have a lot of cosmetic or prosthetic I expose antlers on their brows, as if you had them magically grown from their skulls. My question is : I’ve about three stages of antlers growths, when observing things. It makes far more sense - to me at least that they relate to the chaos times, to some god like Hircine or Y’ffre. Where do these things come from?
Phrastus: Well, I’ve never been to Valenwood, but I would caution you against assuming any single or simple answer about any matter involved with those retrogrades Wood Elves. Though I dare say most antlers worn by bosmers are cosmetic and removable. But I myself have met a tree thane who had a magnificent six foot rack right out of his cranium, and it was no prosthetic! Now he told me that he had it magically grown upon assuming his title as a symbol of his authority. The spells was sang, yes SANG, by a particular kind of Y'ffre priest called a name-spinner. She was able to perceive the tree thane’s protonimic, chanting new things into it, thus actually changing the tree thane’s physical form. So it told me. Well... if you trust the word of a Bosmer.
Seeker 2: I am playing an Ashlander who eventually wants to break away from his group and form his own tribe. How are the Ashkhan and wisewoman selected in an Ashlander tribe ? Is there a particular ritual or challenge they have to go through to earn these titles, and when a previous Ashkhan is replaced, must he be killed in the process, or can he just lose his title and continue living with the tribe ?
Phrastus: Well, as most things, it’s not a simple thing. It’s an easy mistake to look at the gatherings of Ashlanders, and assume that because they look all very much alike to our eyes, in their dusky skinned robes, that they all have the same habits and practices. However, I assure you that variation among the Ashlander tribes can be quite significant, especially when comparing tribes geographically distant from each other. Now one of the ways in which the tribes vary from is in the way they select their Elders. In some tribes the Ashkhan must prove his strength and courage by undertaking a dangerous hunting quest, when female Ashlander can only become wisewoman in those tribes only by fasting long dreamquests alone in the wilderness. However, in other tribes, typically those which are less dogmatic and live closer to the Greathouse Dunmer, they do chose elders by vote or acclamation upon the death of the old ones, and you must decide which type of tribe is good for you.
Seeker 2: Majorn the Ancient from Eastmarch is from what we’ve been told a very old vampire. In his questline, Majorn can under specific circumstances be seen transforming into a big gargoyle model, but with strange red stripes covering his body. Is Majorn the Ancient here using that infamous vampire lord form, or is this a new type of ability, a stone gargoyle transformation ? If Majorn the Ancient is in fact using a vampire lord form here, we vampire lore fans would love to know which of the following theories are right when it comes to the vampire lord transformation.
Phrastus: Well, it’s a long question and deserves a thorough answer. Every theory and study knows that there are many different vampire bloodlines in Tamriel, scores of them in fact. Their forms are many and varied. They’re found in every corner of the continent. Most people think of vampirism as a curse and disease, but what few know is that there is not one disease, but at least six and possibly more, that the different kinds of vampires all tend to resemble each other in the early stages, but they become more differentiated as they grow more powerful. I suspect the late stage form that you call the “vampire lord” may vary quite a bit from one curse form to another, perhaps one bloodline as well. Now, in our time, the dominant form of the disease is what we sages call “noxiphylic sanguivoria”. The late stage form of noxiphylic sanguivoria may very well vary significantly from those of the other forms which go by other names. Furthermore, they may vary by bloodline. Considering all the things that a vampires boosts through to become a so-called “vampire lord”, they may even vary from individual to individual… So I don’t think that in the case of vampires, which are inherently shape-changers, that one could rely on them looking, that on any one late stage vampire looking like any other late stage vampire. It’s just not in their nature to be orthodox there. Ah! Phratus of Elinhir does not fall so easily to the questions of (nom de l’interviewer).
Seeker 1:
