The Story of Atmora, The Frozen Birthplace of Nord Culture - The Elder Scrolls Lore 

Keep up the amazings vids :)

this is a wonderful video, did you make one about the lore of the Nords before the TES;V retcon? back when the thu'um was the power of Kyne and almost everyone was a warrior poet.

He lives!

Keep up the good work cant wait

Just good to some more quality lore

Beyond skyrim: atmora is a thing, when will it be released however is yet to be seem. check out the beyond skyrim project if you didnt know about it.

I imagine its something too big to be just a DLC, I think either its gonna be its own game or stay as another mystery alike the fate of the Dwemer

​@@TheZomboy11 yeah that's the one I'm really most excited for from the various Beyond Skyrim teams. Watch the trailers for it if you haven't yet!!!

Mods mods mods mods baby

​@@Darkness-qp8bc we probably wouldn't have that for a long time, Skyrim was already a icy environment

I have hear that it where the giants that called the dwarfs dwarfs. But ive never heard that giants and the nords originate from the same

@@Graf-Fischgen-von-Fischgesicht oh its true... the old leader of the skaal was a giant ... Frea even tells us this, because she knew him.. and the beliefs of the skaal bears strong influence from atmora... even if it might not be the original form...the symbols of the giants are atmoran.. and specifically the frost /ice giants has a particularly nasty history with the atmorans and the nords of skyrim ;)

That axplains the values held by Nords, the Sea Giants look Nordier than Nords. Also the theory explains the reason why no one builds at the edge of the map in Skyrim beyond the Jerall Mountains. (unless i missed something because i remember i was specifically looking for it more than a decade ago when i played it) I remember a troll and maybe the last buildings somewhere around a pass, no buildings beyond that. It also makes me wonder if Skyrim Giants weren't hunted to extinction (despite their often harmful nature)specifically so that it would remain as a constant reminder for the Nords about their old legends. It would be a pretty cheesy plot twist but imagine what sort of game could be made next if it turned out the Dwemers didn't disappear but were teleported to Atmora and are currently fighting for survival against the biggest Giants? That would be too much like AoT though, it would also break the mythical aspect of the game which is what makes it interesting. On a second thought the three big cities to the North close to the sea could definitely be raided (really forgot about that map), i'm talking about smaller ones-maybe the big ones feel too safe? There would be notes and books writing about it if this happened in Winterhold, Dawnstar or Solitude which i don't remember so that sort of lore don't yet exist unless someone like the Thalmor wanted to cover it up to make the next attack more unexpected and thus hurt more which is too far-fetched even for the ES world. Not to mention the Thalmor influence in Skyrim was way too recent and there would be some scholars still remembering the content of these books though maybe not ones you ever meet in the game. Or these ones just weren't weren't attacked for some reason, on one hand they are prime targets on the other the Sea Giants might play it sneaky to avoid raising attention to themselves. For Sea Giants it would make the most sense to raid for items like scrolls to obtain magical power, it wouldn't feel like an ES explanation to say they raided for ordinary things like food just like vikings irl.. (also Nords would just get bored and start buildings elsewhere if their cities were destroyed over and over which would render the limited Sea Giants entirely impotent) The Elder Scrolls world is more...grandiose?...fantasy? than that and i think the Sea Giants would fit a sort of legendary warrior-demigodlike archetype in this world. One explanation could be that they raid trying to find the Oghma Infinium which as i remember was at the Northern side of the map? Some island or somewhere near the shore in a shipwreck iirc..

I believe that the Ehlnofey were more flexible in their forms during the Dawn Era. Just look at the creation myths of the Khajiit and Bosmer to see how they were shaped from the ooze. While the Wandering Ehlnofey forms were still flexible before the Earthbones created the rules of nature, the proto-men likely split into Atmorans, Giants, Nedes, etc. The Animal Totems of the Atmoran pantheon could be left over from when the Ehlnofey could choose their forms like the Daedric Princes. The greatest spirits choose certain animal forms until all men took humanoid forms.

That’s a really good theory

True. And the Nords were a race made by Kyne to fight alongside the Wandering Ehlnofey, which it why they reside in Atmora

If OP is right, Aldmeris could be a misremembering of an old ehlnofey dominated Atmora prior to this early war.

What about the molag bal

Well, the Nords know that Shor "granted" (conquered it from the Elves) in the Dawn Era. That's where they settled in large numbers

Yeah, but building such big boats to sail across the sea of ghosts, forging weapons like the axe/shield of Ysgramor and building a huge underground city at saarthal suggests a level of societal progress that's extremely unlikely to have happened without agriculture. There's a reason why Gobekli Tepe is (afaik) the only megalithic structure we know to have been built by hunter gatherers.

We must not forget that the Nordics wielded powerful runic magic in those times, which would have helped them in their social development.

I was actually working on that a while ago, but I havent really found enough for it to be a proper lore video rather than just a summary of the ones that we know of. But i'll prob pick up the topic again at some point.

eehm i don't see where you got that from, they were not created in skyrim? you go back to the time of their golden era to get the mask Konahrik in skyrim... its name it means Warlord and was never given to anyone ;) but the masks themselves were made in the era of the mer... aka the MERITHIC era probably in the land of the dragon cults origin... long before what happened in skyrim ;)

dragons are “the children of Akatosh ” and “were indigenous to the continent of Akavir” but fled to Tamriel after running into trouble with the serpentine race Tsaesci.

@@Marvinuser First of all, it's never explicitly stated whether or not Konahrik was worn. There isn't enough context at its shrine - which is located in the city of Bromjunaar, Skyrim - to know its owner or purpose. The migration from Atmora happened primarily in the Merethic Era and so did the entirety of the Dragon Cult's rule in Skyrim. I never went beyond that era in my comment, whenever I refernced Skyrim I meant Skyrim the location, not Skyrim the game, as I assume that's what confused you about my comment. It's never stated how the masks came to be either, but there's a design shift in them, mainly evident through cosmetic items in ESO: The Frostbane Dragon Priest costume, visible in this video at 6:00 is strongly implied to have been the Dragon Priest attire used in Atmora, and it's distinctly different than the usual Dragon Priest clothing as seen in TESV and ESO. So the style of their clothing seems to have changed over the course of the migration - it could have been due to a change within the cult itself, as suggested by me above, or it could have been simply caused by Skyrim's warmer climate making the thick fur coat an overkill. Either way, the clothing style has changed, which would mean that the new uniforms were created in Skyrim. In ESO, there's also the Archaic Dragon Priest Mask, a cosmetic drop from the Scalecaller Crates, which could be (and that's purely my speculation based on its description and design) a transistory style, used in between the Atmoran and Tamriellic styles. And, I repeat, all of that did happen during the Merethic Era, and I've never stated that it didn't.

@@Marvinuser The lore regarding dragons in Akavir is fairly vague (as anything related to Akavir, really), and there are conflicting accounts of them originating in either Atmora or Akavir. That doesn't seem to matter as far as the Atmora-Skyrim Cult is concerned, as there isn't any record of a dragon-worshipping culture in Akavir

I've had this idea as well, tbh. I hope it's some we could find to be true. I doubt it but, I'd love to see it. Maybe use this as an idea for why the last Atmoran ship that arrived in Skyrim came with such despair. The Snow Elves maybe decided they had the defenses and numbers to kick off the few remaining Nords from their new home The Snow Elves take Atmora, and rename it Altmora, it's original name before Lorkhan and humans took it

To me, it makes more sense to think the proto-nords fled to Atmora from Skyrim after they lost the Ehlnofey War. The winning Old Ehlnofey in Skyrim became the Falmer. Tales of defeating the elves on Atmora was likely bluster after the Wandering Ehlnofey lost to the Old Ehlnofey.

We already know where the Falmer fled though. They fled underground with the Dwarves and to the Forgotten Vale

That could be interesting if their someway alive in Atmora especially since we now there's hidden bastion of snow elf around northern tamriel then the possibility of them fleeing towards Atmora and roscrea There's a high chance which also they might have evolved a lot as a race so their current appearance is a lot different

We’ve had 11-12 years of snowy nord nonsense

@@damientorres8988 going on 13 strong and battle hardened Valholl awaits

Which book??

@@ImperialKnowledge The Ship of Ice part of the Scholarium Scribblings collection.

@@neasper cool ill check it out thank you!

@@neasper just read it, its super interesting. Especially the last part where they kind of sow doubt about it being the snow elves, but still, this is a very interesting suggestion and I may make a short video on it soon. Thanks for bringing it to my attention 😄

@@ImperialKnowledge no problem

Because I speculate that the Kothringi humans (which are wildly different, just like the redguards) are likely the native humans to Tamriel. But I could be wrong ofc

@@ImperialKnowledgethanks for the answer I see your arguments and they can be pretty compelling and well exposed Yet I cannot overcome the evidence in front of my eyes about early nedes Just look at the reachmen and their wild difference with the nords and Bretons Or look at games set in early ages or with a lot of reference to times where the nedes where still a distinct people names of people, gods cultural institutions That by the way are also wildly different from redguards I think that the more reasonable answer is that the nedes are the original human of Tamriel the kotringi could be a divergent cousin race from ancient common ancestors with the nedes in Tamriel Like Homo sapiens and Neanderthals Or they could be a subgroup that for whatever reason including magical tinkering or the will of a god(chimer/dumner like) diverged wildly from the original nedes tree Saying that all humans come from atmora is misleading Saarthaal can simply be the first stone city of men while at the time the nedes where still at a reachmen level of civilization with small villages of wood and archaic weaponry That can easily be the case Add the fact that history as you said is written by Victors and voila Saarthal and ysgramor become over the ages myth and legend about the first city and the first men on Tamriel while the nedes are relegated to obscurity even if there were surely around Tamriel large settlement of nedes of a similar size But that just my opinion Good work You have gained a subscription pal Excellent video and material

The Beyond Skyrim project is working on that!

@@arthurburmann theyve been working on that for years 😭

@@Thunderous333 that is the price of main game quality, i just hope it doesnt get cencelled.

Do you guys know if Skyblivion is still a thing? I've been waiting for it for ages.

@@mrsauceman5721 yep, they announced a release date for 2025.

I put the name + origin of each musical piece on the screen! At the start of each track.

​@@ImperialKnowledge Ah, lol. Thank you.

The Nedes were the early human ancestors that make up the modern human races (nord, breton, imperial, redguard, etc). Some sources say the Nedes originated from Tamriel, and some sources say they originated from Atmora instead :)