From Calinor to the Thalmor: a Socio-Animical History of Early 4E Summerset Literature (4E 1 – 4E 22) Vol.1

By Marcienne Blosh

Introduction

Before beginning with the proper analysis I would like to make a couple of methodological clarifications. First, the study of anything related to 4E Summerset Isles is bound to be incomplete. The border closing enforced by the Thalmor has made nearly impossible the obtainment of information (literary or otherwise) about the Isles beyond 4E 22. Although we know more about the situation of the Isles before the Thalmor takeover, the information about their literature we get on the continent is still incomplete. Given that only 22 years passed from the Oblivion Crisis to the Thalmor usurpation, most of the books written in that period didn’t manage to get published or distributed in the continent before the Thalmor severing all contact with the outside, and the only ones that did arrive to our shores were the ones that could have been thought to sell well outside the Isles. Thus, here we can only analyse fragmentary evidence composed of the books that did manage to get distributed outside Summerset Isle.

Secondly, this analysis will be built upon the foundation laid down by the polemical and currently disappeared professor of the College of Bards in Solitude Yldred Black-Ink in her book The four components of art. In this seminal work of art criticism she pinpoints the four influences that the artist imbues in the work of art. First there is the “individual mind”, which has to do with the ideas and intentionality of the author. Then there is the “individual animus” which is the intrinsic and oftentimes hidden nature of the author (think of phobias, irrational passions, a priori ideas, etc.). Interestingly not only the author has a say in their work, the third component is the “collective mind”, that is the political and social processes in which the author is immersed and under whose framework they work. But the fourth component is the most interesting one, the “collective animus”, the shared soul of a collective. A generation that lives in a similar social environment, has an identity in common and lives through similar events in their lifetime develops a “collective animus”, a series of shared passions, phobias and obsessions.

I disagree with Dark-Ink’s final conclusion that artists ought to amputate from their work any component coming from mind or collective and focus exclusively in the “individual animus”. I find interesting that the hidden ideas and repressed emotions behind a group of people can be expressed through a work of fiction. I think the “collective animus” of Summerset’s Altmer is something to which the Thalmor are in profound connection with and understand very well, and thus are capable to exploit it to further their interests. The objective of this essay will be, through fictional literature, to explore the “collective animus” of Summerset Island’s Altmer between the Oblivion Crisis and the Thalmor uprising to learn how this “collective animus” emerged from the Crisis could lead a sizeable proportion of Altmer citizenship, at the very least, to give support to the Thalmor.

Calinor’s tower (4E 3)

Calinor’s Tower published in 4E 3 by Rondoril Thromaire, represents the first major commercial success of Summerset’s Altmer literature after the Oblivion Crisis. The plot is as follows: a noble Altmer, Fladineth, is concerned by recent mysterious murders without solving carried out by the same individual. Her investigation eventually leads her to witness the murder of her husband at the hand of the fiend, and after a persecution she discovers the murderer, Saesarel, to be a brainwashed madman following orders for a certain Calinor. When she goes to demand assistance of the guard at their “most ancient vigil tower, reconstituted as their headquarters”, she makes an astonishing discovery, Calinor is no other than the Captain of the Guard. Calinor arrests Fladineth and, manipulating evidence and sweet-talking the authorities, manages to get her accused of the murders and thrown in prison.

The most shocking aspect of this novel is its use of description. Calinor’s Tower portrays a chaotic scenario to its events and characters, breaking completely from the haughty and harmonious style that is typical of Altmer novelists. Observe with how little realism Thromaire’s book describes the fictional city it takes place in:

The two walked down the narrow street paved with dusty stones and shards of broken glass. The scarred facades of the buildings leaned on them and pulled back from them, twisting and squirming under the light of rotten lamps. The balconies were torn inside, wanting to perk up in order to relieve themselves of the weighty burden of their duty and at the same time wanting to fall down tiresome of their mere existence. Not a window was not crooked, and their glasses cried tears of humidity.

The descriptions present in the novel inspire an all-pervasive atmosphere of chaos and sadness, a sensation that the residents of the Summerset Isles knew very well. These types of descriptions really show how they viewed and perceived their surroundings after the Oblivion Crisis. In this sad and chaotic context occurs a plot based on fear, helplessness and, ultimately, betrayal.

The murders committed by Saesarel are perceived as a true calamity on the town. They are an unconscious stand-in for the horrors suffered under the Oblivion Crisis and the everlasting fear it inflicted on the survivors. The tragic ending and the permanent sensation of despair exuded throughout the narration reflect the vulnerability of the population. But the most interesting theme of the novel is the betrayal aspect. The ultimate evil of the novel, Calinor, does not resemble Mehrunes Dagon or the beasts that emerged from the Oblivion gates. It is a shadowy figure, in a position of power, who works from the inside of the city. The taste that the revelation of the identity of Calinor leaves in the reader’s mouth is not wrath but betrayal. I think it is not a coincidence that the headquarters of the City Guard are a tower, a symbol associated to power. Mehrunes Dagon has no tower in its iconography, both the Altmer royal family and the Empire do. Also the Crystal Tower was the last bastion of hope in the catastrophe and thought eternal and impossible to invade, when it fell down it must have felt like the source of utmost despair.

Without meaning to, Calinor’s Tower reveals that the “collective animus” of the Summerset Altmers, shaken and broken by death and destruction, pins down the responsibility of the Oblivion Crisis’ horrors on the power institutions and traditional orders that have appeared inefficient in the face of the catastrophe, a feeling that the Thalmor will be quick to exploit. But not only the Summerset monarchy and the Empire are represented by towers, in certain of the more learned circles of society it is often said that the whole world is sustained by them.

Ystalatu (4E 6)

Fredo Mirnil’s Ystalatu is a retelling of an ancient Altmer story told through different eras, with differing details and different names. The story of the outlander with a terrible secret identity coming to corrupt an innocent town. In this particular case the novel depicts a posh and indulgent noble installing himself in a humble little town. Soon enough said town is filled with catastrophes: the harvest rots, milk turns sour at the very moment of extraction, various illnesses plague the inhabitants and people start to die left and right. Various townsfolk start to suspect the involvement of the noble newcomer and break into his mansion to investigate. What they discover is that the noble is no more than a literal puppet, motionless when not used. The puppet is being controlled by Ystalatu, an ancient being lying at the basement of the mansion who feeds on misfortune and disgrace. The intruders at the mansion end up locating the casket where this fowl entity lies and put an end to its life by stabbing it.

To start off, let’s look at how Ystalatu depicts the noble newcomer:

His toasted skin and long brown hair exerted a striking contrast with his densely ornate and flamboyant costume. He had two rings per finger in his hand while his eyes felt empty and unfocused. He was an Altmer, but he spoke with a vocabulary, tone and cadence like he was from overseas.

While the appearance of the noble is only mildly unsettling, the depiction of Ystalatu borders the nightmarish:

The men could not believe what they were seeing. Ystalatu seemed like a cyrodilian man, but its body was completely disproportioned. Its hands were double the size of its shoulders, each of its eyes double than its tiny mouth. Except from body and limbs it was covered in scales and its finger nails reached its feet. Its hair was patched and irregular, its eyes red with blood.

Such grotesque imagery is unprecedented in Altmer literature. What was once a formulaic and harmonic literary universe has turned into a parade of monsters and chaos. Also it is notable the use of pronouns in the descriptions. While the Altmer decoy gets a treatment of “he”, the human-like character is dehumanized with the use of “it”, a notable implicit contempt for foreigners and human-kind is present throughout the novel.

Ystalatu brings calamities through a noble decoy. When the word “calamity” was uttered in Summerset in 4E 6 it not only evoked the Oblivion Crisis anymore. The eruption of Red Mountain in 4E 5, the struggles that the Empire was suffering in Black Marsh and Elseweyr and the Argonian invasions of Morrowind contributed to a general sensation of demise and end of times. The duality Ystalatu-noble is accused by the novel of bringing the calamities to the town. Ystalatu is an socio-animical expression of the inner essence of the Empire, whose sole existence is thought to lead irrevocably to calamity, while the noble is the material channel through which this perceived Imperial inner essence is expressed and channelled to create calamities: think of the Legion, the laws, the Elder Council, the Emperor, and especially of Potentate Ocato. The Thalmor will do whatever they can to make sure that anything related to the Empire, mankind or dissident Altmers reminds the population of Ystalatu.

To be continued in Volume 2