A Very Critical Rebuttal to Professor Gloria's so-called Rebuttal

by

Professor Giovanni Closcius, Assistant Researcher

Council of Healers

So like Professor Gloria to have produced a work decrying the product of far more meaningful research. This "critical analysis" pales in the face of a substantive analysis of fact, discredits on the basis of personal feeling, and wanders, mumbling into the abyss of non-talk. In the best traditions upon which our preservation of White-Gold was made, it comes to me to defend and yes, dismiss. Professor Gloria bravely stands against tradition and insults the word of long-dead men, while I prefer to address him, living, and say, "Naught." That is what Professor Gloria's crusade has to do with scholarly pursuits. Let me address his meandering "Rebuttal" in its every facet and feature.

With a single remarkable tale, Professor Gloria has already lost his keel and twirls in circles, rocking on his own wakes. He discusses vampirism as if it were involved in the topic of racial phylogeny at all, and mentions not for the reader to surmise, that even the author, Lovidicus, who later becomes mad, regards the birth of Agronak gro-Malog as a miraculous event. Knowledge from the mouths of vampires is not commonly had, but perhaps we should surmise that the vampires of Cyrodiil who live amongst mortals would know the most about the possibility for interbreeding. Not that any of this is on the topic of racial phylogeny, again, but Professor Gloria insists on building his house on sloped sand, and I insist on giving it the push that lets everyone see its lack of foundation. The topic of Agronak gro-Malog's parentage is only something a scholar might note, not base anything on, and as for racial phylogeny, that the father was a vampire is peripheral.

If Professor Gloria weren't writhing to make a broad point on as little research as he can possibly do, he might note that in fact, everything about the Grey Prince follows from the summary the ages have passed down to us by the Council of Healers. Agronak gro-Malog was an Orc, and while Professor Gloria insists on the tendency for children of a heterogenous pairing to take on traits of the father as a rule, this is only a trend, and those traits are, indeed, only traces. So what have we in Agronak gro-Malog? Eyewitness accounts are easy to find about the ken. He was paler than an Orc, which we can surmise from Racial Phylogeny to be by virtue of his father's Imperial race. He was also stronger than an Orc, and while Professor Gloria insists now not on "menial, undefined traits" (does Professor Gloria mean to criticize the methods of reproduction gifted to mortals by the Divines?) but that if Racial Phylogeny is to be true, then Agronak gro-Malog should have substantial and well-defined traits? Nonsense from top to bottom. Agronak gro-Malog was stronger than the average Orc and had paler skin. These are faint traces of his father's parentage, and in every way validates the findings of the Council of Healers. Let's let Professor Gloria sit with his pointless postulations on this; he won't drown, because they hold no water.

Professor Gloria then goes on to discuss how Racial Phylogeny does not adequately address the issues of Khajiiti reproduction, which we now know are magically influenced by the moons and perhaps the Daedric Prince Azura. Racial Phylogeny addresses this lack of knowledge and makes no major supposition. But I will. Professor Gloria, all Khajiit are of the same species regardless of phenotype and they are capable of reproduction (despite size challenges, studies should be done using assisted reproduction to prove this as certain) with only one another as far as we know. The magical nature of their reproduction is perhaps a limit to this if the intercultural monomyth and the Khajiiti perspective are correct. They contain a common ancestor with man and mer. Yet, what exactly were you trying to say, Professor Gloria, pointing out an exception that Racial Phylogeny does not even deign to make a firm statement on? Unless there are half-Khajiit, then all your prattle is just that.

Now Professor Gloria proceeds on in language abusive of technicality, challenging common knowledge with a lot of hollow humming and shadowed reference to the Breton race. Mention Bretons to anyone at all on Tamriel and they will immediately know of whom you speak. The Bretons are a Mannish race with some Merrish lineage. Not enough for Professor Gloria! While it is true that the Bretons descend from a social class of children of Coition'd Nedes, Professor Gloria makes the bold and nonsensical claim that the Bretons should consist of an entire sub-race of Merrish people! Now, without dismissing entirely the basis of this claim (but I can, and shall, for you, because I hide nothing, Professor Gloria: Why would a Direnni mother carry about the child of her recreation?) let's discuss this claim. An Altmer is born to a Direnni mother. This Altmer she either says is a child of an Altmer father, in which case the influence is then diminished over the ages being confined to the Altmer lineage, or in the other case, this child, whether female or male, will be limited to the beratu and Nedes, in which case they would then end up producing Nedes within a few short generations, almost undoubtedly. When we take the information presented in Racial Phylogeny and assume it is true, we should assume the outcome of the Breton race. What do we find here in Tamriel? The Breton race. Thank you for clarifying exactly why Racial Phylogeny is our best resource on the intricacies of inter-racial reproduction, Professor Gloria.

Professor Gloria, having embarrassed himself thoroughly with his previous non-points, finally stumbles onto something worthy of further inquiry, yet far beyond his own petty desires for baseless iconoclast. Pelagius III was certainly mannish in appearance, and yet sources, while not exactly informing directly, cast some doubt onto the racial identity of his mother. Waughin Jarth's account in Wolf Queen was supported by over a hundred contemporary narratives, and his works are a treasure to us all. Further, Jarth is from High Rock and Pelagius III was treasured in High Rock. Tsathenes is not nearly so regarded, and the claim of Pelagius' origin is not even so much as a statement on race. I believe that Professor Gloria has revealed that he has Speculation Syndrome. Open a window every once in a while, or look to common knowledge, Professor Gloria! This point is the strongest that the Professor has made thus far, and here it rests, snug in the middle of so many stacks of sticks.

The last series of claims that Professor Gloria makes are also the most destructive to the very nature of scholarly research. Out of apparent offense for the sake of Argonians, our own personal stone-thrower smears the Council of Healers for using the term "troglophile", never mind that we all know that by "troglophile" is meant "primitive". It very well may be a misnomer and an over-assumption, and perhaps even a poor perspective to look at Argonians as a primitive form of man and mer. But to say that the entire work is proven un-scholarly by making this single reference? Professor Gloria has missed the point. The Council of Healers puts their most stock behind the notion that the Argonians come from an entirely different lineage than man and mer, descending from certain tree-dwelling lizards. This Professor Gloria loses entirely in implication. Instead of discussing the many different sub-races of Argonians to be found in Argonia, he prefers to relate his discussions of Argonian breasts, nevermind that having breasts does not make one interfertile with man or mer. In the name of proper intellectual honesty, Professor Gloria wishes to discard the entire precepts of Racial Phylogeny which have stood the test of time and, as demonstrated, have virtually no evidence to the contrary, and he declares that this abhorred bias makes the work worthless. This notion is destructive to our institutions of learning and research.

The firmest reprimand possible for Professor Gloria's contribution will be that while the useful generalizations made in Racial Phylogeny will last for hundreds of years more, no one will at all remember Professor Gloria's careless disparage. If, perhaps, the Professor had instead opted to participate in the eighth edition of Racial Phylogeny, understanding that the piece is a general set of rules as supported by observation, then perhaps I would be more sympathetic. Alas, Professor Gloria has instead chosen to attack the work entirely and claim it is unscholarly from atop his half-there mole hill.

My conclusion is that while Professor Gloria can doubt dead people, he has no ability to challenge living thought, and that we at the Imperial University should guard our minds from rampant and feckless speculation the likes of which Professor Gloria wishes to persevere. If Professor Gloria wants the truth to be given its due, then perhaps he should actually make an attempt to illuminate it, for his "arguments" and "truths" are both better fit for Nocturnal than they are venerable Julianos.

This has been a tongue in cheek piece in the tradition of Lady Cinnabar of Taneth and Phrastus of Elinhir in response to this piece.