On the Tsaesci Species

My theory here is simply that the Tsaesci is fully humanoid.

The evidence for this is varying, and fairly large, but I’ll try to keep it brief, so I’ll put this in bullet format, with more information below. If you want a quicker read, skip to part 5, and that contains the most convincing evidence.

  1. There is little consistent information on the appearance of the species.
  2. Much of what can be said is likely mistranslations or propaganda.
  3. The genetics don’t add up.
  4. Developer commentary on this is still open to interpretation.
  5. Several key pieces of culture don’t fit quite right.

So there are the points, now I will go into further detail on each one in order.

Firstly: There is little consistent information on the appearance of the species. Some sources state them as being entirely snake like, some only snake on their bottom half, while their top is human. Most sources are consistent that they do have golden scales though, so they are snake-men in this way, keep this in mind as it is important in part 4.

Second: Much of what can be said is likely mistranslations or propaganda. While the race is likely vampiric, it is unlikely that they ate people, and this was rather a mistranslation and that they likely absorbed another culture of people. If you think of it, if a race was large enough to be established on Akaviri, where the Tsaesci already existed, it would be unlikely that they would be entirely destroyed. Furthermore, they were somewhat snake-like, but not entirely so. These two things allowed Tamriel’s writers to puff up the details, and purposefully “mistranslate” information, in order to make them seem scarier and gain support for the war. The fact that the book Pocket Guide to the Empire, 1st edition states nothing on the snake-body of these people, and is the only text I found written after the potentate (to remove a bit of bias), casts doubt on this as well.

Third, and this one is up for debate within other lore; the genetics don’t add up. Humans can not mate with another species, it wouldn’t create an offspring. We know that humans could mate with the elves fine, and the Aldmer might have mated with great cats and made Khajit (I don’t personally believe that theory), so it’s possible that there could be inter-species relations. However, if the Tsaesci are truly half-snake, or full snake, then there would be no… matching parts, so to speak. Regardless of that, snakes have eggs. If this understanding of genetics doesn’t really apply to TES, then cast this entire point away and leave it in the dirt, I’m confident in the rest of the evidence.

Part 4 speaks of the developer commentary on the subject. In Oblivion, there were ghosts who were simply Imperials. Michael Kirkbride said that this was nothing more than a limitation, and that they are “Immortal. Vampire. Snakemen.” Notice the last word. “Snakemen” This indicates that they are, at the very least, not full snake. As I said in part 1, they could just be men with snake-like scales. This still fits that description. This is also why they are vampiric. However, this is MK’s words, so it can be contradicted later.

Part five is where I draw the bulk of the evidence from. First, a bit of cultural evidence: the Blades, and for that matter much of Imperial culture, comes from Tseasci. Blades armor has leggings though. Why would a people with a large snake like lower body need leggings? Of course the option that the Blades simply added that part, and the original Tsaesci armor did not have this comes up, and therefore this bit of evidence is minimal at best. However, another cultural point comes up; the dragon symbol on Imperial armor. Where did this come from? Well the answer is that is not actually the Tsaesci, however their presence did reaffirm the symbols worth. This was because the Tsaesci’s chosen war mount was dragons. Think about this for a few minutes. Perhaps I should have put this first, as this is likely the best piece of evidence. Find out why yet? How does something with one long slithery lower body mount a dragon? It can not be done unless they physically tie themselves down, or hold on with their arms, either way making it an ineffective and ultimately useless mount. They would need legs to properly ride a dragon.

So there you have it. With all that written out, I have to say firstly; Thank you for reading. Second; I am a relatively new scholar, and especially new to the field of Akavir, but I cross-checked this information so it should be 99.99% accurate. However, there is of course the option that I missed information somewhere that could help or hurt my point. Please do post this, as I am interested in determining the true form of the Tsaesci.