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And I am asking as in all 5 senses; the sights, sounds, smells, taste, and touch of Akavir.

Whenever I listen to this particular track from the Tenchi soundtrack it makes me think Akaviri for some reason


YouTube Link

Now above video aside I do not expect Akavir to take a lot or any influence from anime (except maybe for oriental-inspired music), however I do expect them to take quite a bit of influence from Japanese and Chinese culture, probably most of Asia will be represented somehow in Akavir. As for tastes, well aside from supposed snake men devouring humans I wonder if they eat TES-equivalent of ramen or teriyaki? The villages or townships might smell like saffron or green tea. The sights well architecture obviously reminiscent or similar to the ones seen at the Thalmor Embassy and in Cloud Ruler Temple.

Temples arcaded with pools of emerald waters. Cliffside cities where the misty dawn shines down the canyons to rouse morning into homes with foundations of cloud and birdsong.

And perhaps the torturers there will actually have some measure of skill. Nobody in Tamriel ever begins with the eyes, you know.

Honestly, I'd prefer it never get elaborated on more or depicted in any way, shape or form. Same goes for its races. It works best as a mystery to keep players imagining. Same with the Dwemer. I see lots of fans eager for their return, without understanding the world-building value of their absence. They're better gone. Nothing Bethesda would present is as interesting as their absence.

One of the absolute best parts of the ES setting is the ambiguity and vagueness of much of the detail in the background. We should get fed tiny details about these mysteries, but they should only serve to add to the overall mystery.

Japan

This is unfortunately true.

the monkey city will have buildings fused with trees and a lot of banana trees. also there will be a monkey king called kong wu song and he wield a giant axe and it is said he can split his enemy skulls to create copies of himself.

the snow demons will probably have ice palaces and abodes like the one that korstag (the snow demon boss in soltsteim)

I know. That I'm often right is a tragedy.

I'm often wrong. Since I'm also a pessimist, things tend to turn out okay.

All the more reason to get them over and done with as quickly as possible. The longer they take to do things, the more jaded the fans will get.

Need I remind you that Disney had to deactivate the Star Wars expanded universe so that the Sequel Trilogy would be possible, upsetting a lot of fans in the process? They probably wouldn't have had to do that if Lucasfilm hadn't taken so long to greenlight those movies, and allowed the EU stuff to weave itself in and around the movies so thoroughly.

Besides, there's plenty of reasons why we should at least see the Tsaesci in person, seeing as some of them invaded and actually ruled Tamriel for a few hundred years. And then there's the Kamal, who sacked Skyrim and Morrowind. These events were all documented and happened over a large span of time, making any attempt to be "mysterious" about them completely laughable.

Only Tsaesci would be like that. There's still the other regions that could represent the regions of the Far East.

Ka 'Po Tun=China

Tang Mo=Malaysia/Philippines

Kamal=Russia/Mongolia

I picture most of it looking like downtown Pittsburgh during the furry convention.

I know from multiple personal experiences that the mystery can be more fun than the truth. Sometimes too, the reveal just doesn't live up to expectations.

When you're dealing with horror or the eldritch - which are both represented by the Akaviri sea raiders from foreign shores - the less you see the better it is. It's like reading the H.P. Lovecraft mythos about Cthulhu or the ancient mountains of madness. What you don't see is where the horror and interest lie. These things are supposed to be snake demons, snow demons, monkey demons and tiger-dragon demons who pull up on shores, raid tiny fishing villages and take slaves back across the oceans to work their fields and feed to their dragons. They come at night. They're just glowing eyes in the dark of children's fairy tales. Showing them destroys that.

For most, perhaps. To me, an unseen thing is an invitation. I desire to see it, to learn about it, so that I might understand why I should be terrified of it. I find this especially compelling in video games which are a visual art. Otherwise, to me, it just seems like lazy game making. If they want to keep selling this world as a product, they may eventually have to show us what's behind the fog.

Disappointing.

Lorevir and gamevir will be very different and Bethesda kinda built it too much. I hope to be proven very wrong when they do reach Akavir and be pleasently surprised but erm... they kinda drop the ball on certain parts of the lore and the game. *looks at Alduin*

Or they could get a bit lazy and retcon it to get away with showing Akavir that conviently looks like a well, basically, Cyrodiil again. Granted, it kinda made sense but many did suspect it was out of convience that Talos transformed Cyrodiil with his voice from a jungle(Which would have been awesome to fight Daedra in and maybe, give us a bit of a Predator vibe) to what we got in Oblivion.

I kinda hope we never see it, since the whole 'mystery to the allusion' kind of thing. I'd be fine with seeing parts of it - maybe related to a quest that temporarily sends the PC there - but I wouldn't want a full game on it.

If we were to see parts of it, I'd love to see some Indian themes though. While I like Chinese/Japanese culture, I feel like a lot of games that pull too much from East Asian themes tend to have a difficulty standing out and being memorable. I think Jade Empire is one of the few I can think off of the top of my head, to be honest, that did a good job (despite being such a short game, rip the no sequel though)... But part of that might be the whole 'generic MMORPG from China/Korea' making me feel that way, lol.

While Bethesda does generally do a good job keeping things relatively fresh (like all of the combined influences and the heavy fantasy spins on Morrowind), I'd really hope they would look at a wider range of Asia than just East Asia if they were to do something heavily involving the Akaviri. Asians as a whole are like 60% of the human race, so there is a lot of diversity that could be included with such a thematic to keep things spiced up. I also really want pet elephants to ride around on really bad okay

Well aside from never seeing Akavir, should the Tsaesci ever try to invade Tamriel again?

I wouldn't want to. The military build up in Tamriel would see an Akaviri invasion go poorly, surely, or just make the whole thing into some chaotic nonsense with three factions. We don't need a sequel to ESO.

Why would it result in three factions? "Invaders from across the sea" isn't much different from "demons from the void" or "dragons from the past"...

Because of Bethesda story writing tropes, probably.

I think it will be a dangerous, untamed, and mysterious place to see. All of this is obvious, but the excerpts I've read in books makes me think that any mystery we see in Akavir, and get a potential answer for, will only add more mystery as to how these things came to be. Akavir really does strike ME, as being that strange.

To capture the danger of Akavir, I think Bethesda will have to revamp how the player can explore the island/world. As has been mentioned before, all other invasions have failed, thanks to overconfidence, the supernatural nature of the island, and the lack of information the past Emperor's have had to work with.

When it comes to the island, exploring it makes you ripe for ambush. I think a controlled area system could help highlight this risk, outside of Tamriel controlled areas, you are more likely to run into enemy forces that could overwhelm you. This will mean that you might not be as free to explore as you have been in the past, but this is Akavir; it can't be that simple.

Just some quick thoughts, if and when they do decide to go to Akavir, I will be excited to see how they do it.