Who Said What? (Part 1)

It’s no secret that there are races that are a part of Tamriel who we have less information on than the bigger, more exposed races; paling in comparison to the Dunmer, Nords and Imperials.

To make matters worse, the Khajiit are pretty much known for holding back information about Elsweyr and the majority of information we have on them doesn’t come from first-hand experience (such as through a game) or Khajiiti books, but through Imperial ones. We always have a go at the Imperials (mainly the IGS) for notably shoddy work (and I have a fair crack at Varieties of Faith whenever I can). But that’s not all, Words of Clan Mother Ahnissi states “The Khajiit must be the best deceivers, for they must always hide their nature from the children of Ahnurr.” so essentially even what we hear from Khajiit could be bullshit (though two things: 1. IMO this is Bethesda trying to protect themselves in the future and 2. this would be more focused on verbal deceit than what’s written in texts).

So this means we’re gonna have to have a look at every damn source we can to see what is and isn’t trustworthy.

What Did Topal the Pilot say?

This needs to be first due to what’s next.

Father of the Niben has a passage on Khajiit which states that

The cat demons of four legs and two ran the river’s
Length, always keeping the boat in their
Green-eyed sight, hissing, and spitting, and
Roaring with rage.
But the sailors never had to brave the shores, for
Fruit trees welcomed them, dropping their
Arms down to the river’s edge as if to
Embrace the mer, and the men took the
Fruit quickly before the cats could pounce.

Now, I have a lot of problems with this text, namely that Topal the Pilot is flaunted as being the first known Aldmeri explorer of Tamriel. As you can tell, this is bullshit; namely because it already states that there are mer on Tamriel (likely Bosmer) and there are references to the Ayleidoon and Orcs; and if there are Orcs, that means the Chimer/Velothi have already left the Isles. Not to mention a certain line which says

Topal who loved canoes too much

which comes from “The Five Hundred Mighty Companions or Thereabouts of Ysgramor the Returned”; which in that same verse states that accompanying him was

Hearken-Beak who spoke bird and Klopitu, and Perrif and Perrif and Perrif and Perrif and Perrif and Perrif and Perrif and Perrif and Perrif and Perrif and Periff and Perrif and Perrif and Perrif and Perrif and Perrif and Perrif and Perrif and Perrif and Perrif and Perrif and Perrif and Perrif and Perrif their wives and finally Kopro and his wife Perrif

At this point I don’t even want to ask what’s going on with this guy. All I can say is that, personally, I don’t fully trust anything when it comes to dates for him. Nothing unbelievable about the “walking on four legs and two” part (it all sounds like the Valenwood/Elsweyr border to me), just that don’t believe these were some kind of proto-Khajiit.

What did the IGS (3rd edition) say?

The first two paragraphs are some scholar bullshitting his way around not knowing what the origins of Khajiit are. At least he’s trying to be professional and stating what several theories are (though the most likely to be correct one is explained as “cause one type of Khajiit looks like an elf”). Then it talks about Topal the Pilot stating Khajiit were “far up the river Niben”; however not only did – according to Oblivion dialogue – Leyawiin formerly be an Elsweyr town, this guy mentions fleeing them and quickly reaching what sounds like the safety of Valenwood so chances are that line is bullshit.

There’s a line about Khajiiti kingdoms being peaceful and great in the early days (one of my favourite parts); but it also states that the 1^st edition stating there were tribal conflicts at the time were wrong, so we have to question the validity of the 1^st edition or the current scholar (who really didn’t start off well) is making something up.

It lends itself some credibility when making a reference to the Riddle T’har

The dominance of each region was checked by the moons. It was said that when both moons were full, Ne Quin-al was in dominance; when both moons were half, Torval; when both moons were new, Senchal. The other regions too had their days of power and influence.

Sounds somewhat believable (and somewhat impractical), but it fails to mention the other cities like Dune, Rimmen, Corinthe and Orcrest if they can be counted; though the old city of Ne’ Quin al was near where Dune is today and yet is now missing, so perhaps Dune isn’t as old as we think.

Next it states that the Thrassian Plague took out the balance Khajiit used to have and 2 kingdoms remained: Anequina (from Ne’ Quin al) and Pelletine (also called Pallatiin/Pa’allatiin).

Then we have

The two kingdoms, of course, represented the moons at their extremes

Which sounds like absolute bullshit to me, but it has some credibility in that it talks about

radically different interpretations of Khajiit culture

Which is, from what we can tell, true. Still there comes the question of which nation is which moon? Why? But of course, the IGS doesn’t have answers to these.

Then talks about the marriage of Keirgo (of Anequina) and Eshita (of Pelletine), a very big and important event. A union between two culturally conflicting kingdoms; and the founding of Elsweyr as “a perfect society is always found elsewhere”.

But another line is this

Another is that it is a reference to Llesw’er, a paradise promised to the Khajiit by the Riddle’Thar.

Now, why would that be an odd thing? Possibly because it links up nicely with Varieties of Faith in the Empire, another Imperial text. But what’s odd about it? the Riddle T’har (yes I know that’s spelled differently from the text, there’s at least three ways it’s been spelled) is not actually a god outside of those Imperial texts. Words of Clan Mother Ahnissi states the gods (minus Rajhin, though he is more likely a saint like Nerevar was to the Dunmer) and the so-called “sugar god” is nowhere to be found. Now, Lleswer is also mentioned in the text “Tenders to the Mane: Lleswer”, better known as “Return False”; however it implies that the Riddle T’har is a political system first set in place by the first recorded Mane Rid-T’har-ri’Datta; so something’s clearly not right here and the writer is making another mess up (not his fault though, he does say it’s an alternative theory).

There’s a line about the Mane as “successive spiritual leaders” and from most other texts that appears correct.

Afterwards we see

Khajiit have found security in being absorbed into the Cyrodilic and then the Septim Empires

This line being a little odd, we know Elsweyr was a part of Septim’s empire (Evryweyr on Tamriel was); but the same text states that the Alessians kept away from the borders of Khajiiti kingdoms and I’m pretty sure that in the 2^nd Era, they were part of the Aldmeri Dominion and before that they were still under either the Mane’s Riddle T’har, then Eshita and Kiergo and then Anequina and Pelletine with different respective clans and so on; so I think it’s reasonable to doubt their involvement with the Reman Empire.

Here’s one of the most important lines in the whole book

They have sought solace in their rich literary tradition

This is important because: where are all these books? you can find so many books from the Imperials, Nords, Dunmer and even the Bosmer have a Dance in Fire; but the only text that I’ve seen that looks like it did come straight outta Elsweyr is “Words of Clan Mother Ahnissi to her Favored Daughter”. This isn’t something I would doubt as many claim that IGS is half-literature, half-propaganda that makes other races look inferior and thus “we must culture them”, but this is doing quite the opposite they wouldn’t do it without a reason; and the interview with Cherim seems to imply a similar thing in regards to tapestries so what we can gather from this is Khajiit don’t want outsiders knowing too much. Which is really shit for us, because I don’t see an Elsweyr game coming too soon.

Also

but they have stopped the flow of books into their land, for fear of Imperial propaganda.

So it appears that Khajiit don’t want things going out, they also don’t want them coming in; which is a little odd considering how many merchants and caravans there alledgedly are, perhaps it’s more a matter of there not being a good market for them in Elsweyr as there’s never been one single authority in Elsweyr (well, there was the Keirgo+Eshita marriage, but that didn’t last long).

They have tried to enrich their pockets with drug-trafficking, only to enslave their minds to moonsugar.

If this doesn’t stick out as clear bias to you, you don’t know Khajiit. With language such as “enslave their minds to moon sugar” and completely ignoring the cultural importance of it I can’t see how this part is worth believing at all. This doesn’t mean that Khajiit don’t have heaps of moon sugar or don’t trade it internationally, but it’s not as sinister or low-life as the author is trying to imply.

They have engaged in wars with Valenwood on grounds that have constantly shifted, like the sands of Elsweyr itself.

True, known as the Five Year War and is the setting of Mixed Unit Tactics.

In the east, the long disputed border with the Cyrodilic County Leyawiin was recently resolved in Cyrodiil’s favor, after an agreement between the current Mane and the Count of Leyawiin.

Now this is interesting, because in-game (Oblivion) it’s said that Khajiit are on edge because the land was “taken” from them whereas this text is stating that it was resolved in an agreement with the Mane and Count of Leyawiin (who was likely put there when Septim came to town). Now do we believe the book or the local? Well, sadly that’s up for you to decide because really we don’t have much proof that either side is more correct than the other.

This is just part 1, because this takes way fucking longer than I thought it would; I’ve still got several more texts to go through. If you’ve made it this far, congratulations, cause I know this isn’t particularly interesting unless you have some interest in sorting out the facts from the fancy (and Imperial propaganda) when it comes to Khajiit. It’s got to be done though, because until we get an Elsweyr game there’s too much doubt and misinformation spread.