Some notes on the Imga or Great Apes

Some notes on the Imga or Great Apes

To High-Scholar Awiael, College of the Study of Valenwood,

Please find attached my very brief notes on the Imga of Valenwood. The Imga bearer, Gopp, is a pleasant enough ape but must NOT in any circumstances be given any alcoholic intoxicants whatsoever.

I look forward to seeing you in Alinor next month,

Palindiil

Appearance

The appearance of the Imga is striking. Imagine a seven foot ape, hunched over with thickly muscled forearms, a high sagittal crest and a long baboon-like jaw, covered with dark fur, paling to a lovely golden yellow on the backs of the leaders of their ‘nogs’ or clans. They have two opposable digits on each limb to enable them to climb at amazing speeds and with an agility that belies their size (I should say that they are equally comfortable using their feet to manipulate objects). Their strength is immense and many Imga work as itinerant strong-men and porters, frequently the main draw at travelling shows and circuses in the Dominion.

Many people who have not met an Imga face-to-face imagine the beasts to have tails but this is a fallacy perpetuated by the Cyrodiilic fashion for keeping pet monkeys, colloquially known as ‘imga-kin’. In fact, one of the sure ways in which to identify fake Bosmer carving is to check any depictions of Imga for a tail.

Culture

Imga are unusual amongst the sentient creatures of Tamriel in their cultural homogeneity. This is the result, I believe, of their ability to project their howls and shrieks across vast distances from the top of the graht-oaks. Connections have thus been maintained between groups of Imga many miles apart and a single culture maintained. As any traveller in Valenwood knows, the nights are punctuated by initially terrifying roaring and screaming from far above, answered from across the forest by similar fainter cries. Traditionally, most Imga live in ‘nogs’ or clans, centred around clearings and with nests built into the trees surrounding a large fire pit and a mounted skull of some kind. They live in small groups, both sexes leaving at adolescence to form single-sex nogs for some time and then splintering either to return home or to enter other clans. The year is divided up into festivals, with one almost every week. The most remarked on is the month-long kollopi harvest, in which the children of the Imga compete to gather the most succulent rodents by jumping to collect them from the high branches where the adults would be too heavy to venture. An enormous feast is then prepared. A feast is one of the three main components of an Imga festival, the other two being loud and rhythmic drumming and the ingestion of an enormous quantity of alcohol (though interestingly, they find most Bosmer drinks disgusting).

The most notorious trait of the ape-men is their fanatical (some would say, justified) love of Altmeri culture and civilization. Most will dress in high Alinori couture (usually several years out of date) with a particular fondness for wearing silk capes, a most impractical garment for arboreal life. They also constantly practice the refinements of our glorious society such as duelling, poetry, dance, fine art and other such sophistications. Needless to say, they are not elegant creatures. Virtually every Imga with which I have talked has a title and a touching need to be addressed by it, though these are never based on holdings of lands or any quantifiable power as you or I would understand it. The more extreme sections of Imga society, usually those who have abandoned their traditional way of life, shave themselves entirely and dye and powder their dark skin, in a pathetic bid to resemble one of us. They also affect an unconvincing approximation of an Alinori drawl.

As to their religious beliefs, it is impossible to ascertain what they may have been before contact with the Altmer. There are trace elements of unsophisticated nature worship in their veneration of various animals in the Valenwood but this has been, for the most part, obliterated. Every village has its shrine to Auriel or Trinimac, garishly and vulgarly decorated. What is interesting is the garbled nature in which their religion has come down to them. They are passionately religious and frequently go to war amongst themselves (armoured and equipped in a parody of Altmeri style) over points of doctrine originating in complete and laughable misunderstandings resulting in many pointless deaths.