36 thoughts on “Skyrim – The Wood Elves Are Not What They Seem… – Bosmer Hidden Power – Elder Scrolls Lore”
Gotta say love dropping a tab putting on my insanely modded Skyrim and putting on your hardcore deep dives into the lore shit man. Really puts me in that realm. Keep going I think you got something good going on here. Honestly I would LOVE a narrated TES Books by you too. But don’t like break character bc that kills my trip like no one’s business when I would listen to others and they’d start talking about random stuff or reacting too much. Love the channel been listening to it all day!!
Are the knark (tree like creatures) from oblivion changed bosmer? I heard it referenced years ago that they were so I'll just want to know if that was true or not
I’ve held the Bosmer as my favorite race for years ever since I first played Oblivion back in the day, and for about a year now I’ve been slowly forming a theory that I’m eager to share. I apologize if this is a long comment.
My initial goals were to connect the Bosmer to the Khajiit and Argonians to dispute the idea that they’re related to elves while also linking the three races based on the inclusion of “Shapeshifting” (In regards to the taboo towards shapeshifting with the Green Pact, the variation in Khajiit forms based on the Lunar Cycle, and the Argonians being altered by the Hist) alongside the significance of either consuming or avoiding the consumption of religiously important plants.
The current theory begins with the idea that Y’ffre, as a Nature deity, inherently exists within Nature as a part of her domain. Early on in the existence of the world, Y’ffre was charged with establishing and sustaining Nature. She began by taking the form of a massive migratory tree that would allow for the growth of plant life in its presence. However, as Y’ffre traveled, the plant life left behind quickly withered and died.
To solve this issue, Y’ffre created the first of her children. Acorns released and planted in the wake of the goddess Y’ffre would soon grow to become the Tree Children; a race of sentient trees capable of holding their own domains on behalf of their mother and sustaining plant life within these domains.
However, the plant life would soon flourish and threaten to overwhelm the fragile energies of the Land. Thus, Y’ffre would again create, this time taking from her sap to form life as beasts who would feed upon the lesser plants. When these herbivores began to overwhelm the plants she again drew from her sap and formed beasts that would feed upon the herbivores. When the carnivores inevitably began to threaten the extinction of the herbivores she drew from her sap one final time to create the Forest Folk; a race of shapeshifters who would act as Shepards of the beasts and would feed not on the animals or lesser plants but on the sap of Y’ffre and her Tree Children. Doing so would sustain them, and form a connection between them and the Sentient trees.
Unfortunately, formless creatures are inherently more susceptible to corruption by external forces. The Daedric Prince Azura recognized this flaw, and understood that were she to corrupt a handful of Y’ffre’s Tree Children then the Forest Folk linked to them would be hers to shape as she pleased.
Thus did Azura claim the Tree Children found in what is now known as Elswyr and warped them into sugarcanes that channeled the light of the moons. The Forest Folk that consumed the Moon Sugar were then warped into the Khajiit, and their forms were bound to the cycles of the moon through the Moon Sugar. More importantly though, in the absence of the Tree Children plant life quickly began to perish and Elswyr was stricken with desertification.
Mortified by this, Y’ffre altered the Forest Folk in her proximity to solidify their forms as the Bosmer and keep them from suffering a similar fate to the Khajiit. They would be quick to evolve naturally, with their appearance matching that of elves soon after they first appeared on Tamriel, though they would relatively safe from Daedric Corruption so long as they didn’t feed on the Sap of Y’ffre and her Tree Children. To ensure this was avoided, Y’ffre banned the harming of plant life in general so as to prevent the consumption of sap while also hiding the importance of the sap so that her people would hopefully forget the means of returning to their true forms. Furthermore, Y’ffre would sacrifice much of her divine energy to create a system in which the lesser plant life would be capable of sustaining itself without her children. As of the modern age, Y’ffre remains on Nirn as the Green Sap Tower.
But outside of the Bosmer there were countless other Forest Folk bound to their respective Tree Children. To the east of Elswyr, the Tree Children who directly witnessed the horrific warping of their siblings became disillusioned with the Will of their mother, and cut themselves off from her and the rest of their siblings. These would become what we know as the Hist Trees, who would elect to rely not on the Forest Folk for protection, but on the lesser beasts who could be altered by their Sap and shaped into obedient slaves.
Lastly, and most recently added to the theory is the consideration of the remaining Forest Folk. Within this week I’ve started to consider that they may have evolved naturally on their own to become Spriggans. They’re said to be servants of Kyne formed by “The breath of Kyne through the branches of trees” and I’ve also started to consider that Y’ffre’s association with Songs may be meant to hint at a connection with Kynareth. (Kyne’s affiliation with Breath was enough to warrant her having the ability to involve herself in mortals obtaining the Thuum. It doesn’t seem like a far leap from Thuum to Song if Breath is the starting point)
I can Imagine that one of the undocumented hunts could have been against tiber septim and the Numideum… If the cost of initiating the hunt; is a community of bosmer sacrificing themselves, and the systematic destruction by the giant metal man which was immune to the biological threats of the great hunt resulted in more than one reason why the bosmer forgot about it…
My personal theory is that Y'ffre taking the Ooze and giving it form and Y'ffre becoming first of the Earthbones is one and the same thing. So in truth, by becoming an Earthbone, a law of nature, Y'ffre gave the lesser et'Ada that could still not hold identity and form in the lawless Mundus the ability to do so and become mortals. The only difference between the Bosmer and the other elves is that as time passed on, the other elves forgot the teachings and the sacrifice of Y'ffre, as worship of other powerful Aedra such as Auri-El that still walked Mundus became more popular. So in a way, the Bosmer are more primordial and closer to Aldmer or Ehlnofey than the Altmer, and it could be said that the Altmer are an offshoot of Bosmer rather than the other way around.
What is it with Azura and changing the appearance of the elven people. If it is true that the khajiit are mer, then they are the first out of the two elven people to have their appearance changed by her, the second being the dunmer. The difference really is that for the dunmer, it was a curse, and for the khajiit, it was a blessing
So the Ooze is basically one of the aliens from The Thing and he infected all of the Bosmer and now all of Valenwood is just one giant experiment like in the movie. OH MY GOD. I always knew you coudn't trust the damn Bosmer. Summerset is for the High Elves! Keep those Bosmer off our isles lest we all turn into squirmy, root-tentacled, meat pulsing monstrosities! That said, it actually would be cool if maybe ESO could expand on this sort of thing if there is ever a Bosmer expansion somehow…Not sure if there is any space in ESO to do such a thing as most of Valenwood has been turned into gamespace already but…I think it might work somehow seeing as they could literally just create some "hidden forest valley that is so dense that almost no one knows it exists" and then you just step through this wall of vines and trees to find some mysterious, ancient forest river valley and learn more about how the Bosmer came to be and the Green and so on. We haven't gotten to see much of the creepy, bestial side of the Bosmer in any game yet.
Sidenote: towards the end of the vid I fired up ESO and happened to be in Greenshade and of course…the same song started playing as in the end of the vid but the songs were overlapping each other xD I was so confused at first
Something to think about: Valenwood and Elsewyr share a border. Borders are social constructs, sometimes solidified into walls, sometimes having a natural feature such as a river or cliffs overlooking a ravine. When the border concept is removed, the two provinces blend together.
Bosmer and Khajiit have competed with each other for space and resources since the beginning. They have similar practices for everyday living and survival, and they have had uncounted border wars and skirmishes. Their cultures are different, but they live next to each other and have their similarities as well.
The part of the green pact saying that a Bosmer must eat another Bosmer he has struck? The way it’s worded sounds more like Y’ffre is trying to prevent them from killing each other in the first place.
The most beautiful children of Y'ffre, created to be the best form out of an otherwise formless entity. Yet, they're the most bestial of Y'ffre's flock, to suit their environment and to respect the laws of nature. It's this dichotomy that makes the Bosmer by far my favourite race. To be so beautiful and fair and kind and helpful and to also be a literal force of nature, unbound by laws, morals and order. To be so in tune with nature, yet also to be so animalistic in its behavior. To worship song and forest and to worship hunt and cannibalism. To outsiders, it may seem as though these two natures of beauty and beast are opposed, but to the Bosmer, they're one and the same.
I always have weird experiences with them, one guy tried to lure me onto a dark corner behind a temple in skingrad only to request that I murder all of his acquaintances because he suspected them of all conspiring against them. As I slit each of their throats, they didn’t exhale that last breath like someone who was a conspirator but as an innocent unsure why their life ended so abruptly. On another occasion I was accosted outside the coliseum by one of them, who at first seemed to be a normal fan (I have many), but as I traveled I noticed him following me everywhere! He begged and pleaded to do anything to serve me, and I found this obsessive and overzealous nature to be rather socially inept so I kicked him off a Cliff. My astute observations about my 2 interactions with these species leads me to hypothesize that they are highly susceptible to mental illness.
Gotta say love dropping a tab putting on my insanely modded Skyrim and putting on your hardcore deep dives into the lore shit man. Really puts me in that realm. Keep going I think you got something good going on here. Honestly I would LOVE a narrated TES Books by you too. But don’t like break character bc that kills my trip like no one’s business when I would listen to others and they’d start talking about random stuff or reacting too much. Love the channel been listening to it all day!!
Mannn I love Drewmora. This is what I go straight for every time I’m on YouTube.
Drew please do more of the 36 lessons of vivec ❤️
Alright wtf. What did Azurah do to Nirni?
Are the knark (tree like creatures) from oblivion changed bosmer? I heard it referenced years ago that they were so I'll just want to know if that was true or not
Bosmer in books: Dangerous cannibals that can turn into beasts
Bosmer in games: Me hunter, me likes woods and hate Thalmor
You need to write a book! Your story telling is next level.
I almost exclusively play Bosmer or Dunmer, so this video is certainly welcome 😀
I’ve held the Bosmer as my favorite race for years ever since I first played Oblivion back in the day, and for about a year now I’ve been slowly forming a theory that I’m eager to share. I apologize if this is a long comment.
My initial goals were to connect the Bosmer to the Khajiit and Argonians to dispute the idea that they’re related to elves while also linking the three races based on the inclusion of “Shapeshifting” (In regards to the taboo towards shapeshifting with the Green Pact, the variation in Khajiit forms based on the Lunar Cycle, and the Argonians being altered by the Hist) alongside the significance of either consuming or avoiding the consumption of religiously important plants.
The current theory begins with the idea that Y’ffre, as a Nature deity, inherently exists within Nature as a part of her domain. Early on in the existence of the world, Y’ffre was charged with establishing and sustaining Nature. She began by taking the form of a massive migratory tree that would allow for the growth of plant life in its presence. However, as Y’ffre traveled, the plant life left behind quickly withered and died.
To solve this issue, Y’ffre created the first of her children. Acorns released and planted in the wake of the goddess Y’ffre would soon grow to become the Tree Children; a race of sentient trees capable of holding their own domains on behalf of their mother and sustaining plant life within these domains.
However, the plant life would soon flourish and threaten to overwhelm the fragile energies of the Land. Thus, Y’ffre would again create, this time taking from her sap to form life as beasts who would feed upon the lesser plants. When these herbivores began to overwhelm the plants she again drew from her sap and formed beasts that would feed upon the herbivores. When the carnivores inevitably began to threaten the extinction of the herbivores she drew from her sap one final time to create the Forest Folk; a race of shapeshifters who would act as Shepards of the beasts and would feed not on the animals or lesser plants but on the sap of Y’ffre and her Tree Children. Doing so would sustain them, and form a connection between them and the Sentient trees.
Unfortunately, formless creatures are inherently more susceptible to corruption by external forces. The Daedric Prince Azura recognized this flaw, and understood that were she to corrupt a handful of Y’ffre’s Tree Children then the Forest Folk linked to them would be hers to shape as she pleased.
Thus did Azura claim the Tree Children found in what is now known as Elswyr and warped them into sugarcanes that channeled the light of the moons. The Forest Folk that consumed the Moon Sugar were then warped into the Khajiit, and their forms were bound to the cycles of the moon through the Moon Sugar. More importantly though, in the absence of the Tree Children plant life quickly began to perish and Elswyr was stricken with desertification.
Mortified by this, Y’ffre altered the Forest Folk in her proximity to solidify their forms as the Bosmer and keep them from suffering a similar fate to the Khajiit. They would be quick to evolve naturally, with their appearance matching that of elves soon after they first appeared on Tamriel, though they would relatively safe from Daedric Corruption so long as they didn’t feed on the Sap of Y’ffre and her Tree Children. To ensure this was avoided, Y’ffre banned the harming of plant life in general so as to prevent the consumption of sap while also hiding the importance of the sap so that her people would hopefully forget the means of returning to their true forms. Furthermore, Y’ffre would sacrifice much of her divine energy to create a system in which the lesser plant life would be capable of sustaining itself without her children. As of the modern age, Y’ffre remains on Nirn as the Green Sap Tower.
But outside of the Bosmer there were countless other Forest Folk bound to their respective Tree Children. To the east of Elswyr, the Tree Children who directly witnessed the horrific warping of their siblings became disillusioned with the Will of their mother, and cut themselves off from her and the rest of their siblings. These would become what we know as the Hist Trees, who would elect to rely not on the Forest Folk for protection, but on the lesser beasts who could be altered by their Sap and shaped into obedient slaves.
Lastly, and most recently added to the theory is the consideration of the remaining Forest Folk. Within this week I’ve started to consider that they may have evolved naturally on their own to become Spriggans. They’re said to be servants of Kyne formed by “The breath of Kyne through the branches of trees” and I’ve also started to consider that Y’ffre’s association with Songs may be meant to hint at a connection with Kynareth. (Kyne’s affiliation with Breath was enough to warrant her having the ability to involve herself in mortals obtaining the Thuum. It doesn’t seem like a far leap from Thuum to Song if Breath is the starting point)
Heinrich Oaken-Hull has a Wood Elf for a wife.
I'd rather sleep with my horse.
Please hit us with some Morrowind/Tribunal content! Thank you Drewwwww
Man, I gotta rewatch this just for the soothing visuals! 🙂
Smh. the algorithm serves your videos while at the same time rescinding my subscription.
I can Imagine that one of the undocumented hunts could have been against tiber septim and the Numideum…
If the cost of initiating the hunt; is a community of bosmer sacrificing themselves, and the systematic destruction by the giant metal man which was immune to the biological threats of the great hunt resulted in more than one reason why the bosmer forgot about it…
My personal theory is that Y'ffre taking the Ooze and giving it form and Y'ffre becoming first of the Earthbones is one and the same thing. So in truth, by becoming an Earthbone, a law of nature, Y'ffre gave the lesser et'Ada that could still not hold identity and form in the lawless Mundus the ability to do so and become mortals. The only difference between the Bosmer and the other elves is that as time passed on, the other elves forgot the teachings and the sacrifice of Y'ffre, as worship of other powerful Aedra such as Auri-El that still walked Mundus became more popular. So in a way, the Bosmer are more primordial and closer to Aldmer or Ehlnofey than the Altmer, and it could be said that the Altmer are an offshoot of Bosmer rather than the other way around.
I love all the bosmer using wooden bows in this video.
What is it with Azura and changing the appearance of the elven people. If it is true that the khajiit are mer, then they are the first out of the two elven people to have their appearance changed by her, the second being the dunmer. The difference really is that for the dunmer, it was a curse, and for the khajiit, it was a blessing
Are you going to continue making Elden Ring lore videos? They were really awesome!
I'm still going to pronounce Jephre as "Jeffrey" because it's much more funny that way
Just started a Bosmer playthrough, so this video is a very welcomed surprise. Thanks Drew!
Ty for another amazing video man, really appreciate your time n effort you put to it, love from Iraq!
Monotheism is toxic.
So the Ooze is basically one of the aliens from The Thing and he infected all of the Bosmer and now all of Valenwood is just one giant experiment like in the movie. OH MY GOD. I always knew you coudn't trust the damn Bosmer. Summerset is for the High Elves! Keep those Bosmer off our isles lest we all turn into squirmy, root-tentacled, meat pulsing monstrosities! That said, it actually would be cool if maybe ESO could expand on this sort of thing if there is ever a Bosmer expansion somehow…Not sure if there is any space in ESO to do such a thing as most of Valenwood has been turned into gamespace already but…I think it might work somehow seeing as they could literally just create some "hidden forest valley that is so dense that almost no one knows it exists" and then you just step through this wall of vines and trees to find some mysterious, ancient forest river valley and learn more about how the Bosmer came to be and the Green and so on. We haven't gotten to see much of the creepy, bestial side of the Bosmer in any game yet.
Sidenote: towards the end of the vid I fired up ESO and happened to be in Greenshade and of course…the same song started playing as in the end of the vid but the songs were overlapping each other xD I was so confused at first
Something to think about:
Valenwood and Elsewyr share a border. Borders are social constructs, sometimes solidified into walls, sometimes having a natural feature such as a river or cliffs overlooking a ravine.
When the border concept is removed, the two provinces blend together.
Bosmer and Khajiit have competed with each other for space and resources since the beginning. They have similar practices for everyday living and survival, and they have had uncounted border wars and skirmishes.
Their cultures are different, but they live next to each other and have their similarities as well.
have you ever done the septimus cave quest? "Harvest bosmer blood for Septumis". Unless the Khajiit have ties to the dwarves
The part of the green pact saying that a Bosmer must eat another Bosmer he has struck? The way it’s worded sounds more like Y’ffre is trying to prevent them from killing each other in the first place.
Still hanging out for that next episode on the 36 Lessons 🙂
3:00 I’d have said, “Tossed their sweet rolls,” but you masterfully painted a scene in my mind with your words. That’s what keeps me coming back 😀
The most beautiful children of Y'ffre, created to be the best form out of an otherwise formless entity. Yet, they're the most bestial of Y'ffre's flock, to suit their environment and to respect the laws of nature. It's this dichotomy that makes the Bosmer by far my favourite race. To be so beautiful and fair and kind and helpful and to also be a literal force of nature, unbound by laws, morals and order. To be so in tune with nature, yet also to be so animalistic in its behavior. To worship song and forest and to worship hunt and cannibalism. To outsiders, it may seem as though these two natures of beauty and beast are opposed, but to the Bosmer, they're one and the same.
I always have weird experiences with them, one guy tried to lure me onto a dark corner behind a temple in skingrad only to request that I murder all of his acquaintances because he suspected them of all conspiring against them. As I slit each of their throats, they didn’t exhale that last breath like someone who was a conspirator but as an innocent unsure why their life ended so abruptly. On another occasion I was accosted outside the coliseum by one of them, who at first seemed to be a normal fan (I have many), but as I traveled I noticed him following me everywhere! He begged and pleaded to do anything to serve me, and I found this obsessive and overzealous nature to be rather socially inept so I kicked him off a Cliff. My astute observations about my 2 interactions with these species leads me to hypothesize that they are highly susceptible to mental illness.
The Bosmer are the weakest playable race as a whole as of 4E 201 prove me wrong
Where are all the Nordic animal totems located in Skyrim?
Azura is the Goddess of the Khajiit, Kyne is the Goddess of the Nords and Boethiah is the Goddess of the Dark Elves.
The best elder scrolls content
17:37 Wood Elves commit cannibals? They eat their own kind? I'm speechless. They not only eat humans and beastfolk, even other elves.
Not really into this theory Drew but good video anyway.