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⚠️ WARNING: Maasverse Spoilers—Proceed with Caution ⚠️

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Part 1: Characters and Courts
Part 2: World Map, Items, Terms & Other - YOU ARE HERE
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If this is the first post you've landed on, see Part 1 above for an introductory explanation to this two part post.

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UK + IRELAND

PRYTHIAN

A combination of Prydain, the old Welsh name for Britain, and Brython, which translates to “Ancient Britons” from Welsh.

HYBERN

A riff of Hibernia, the Classical Latin name for Ireland.

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Artist of Prythian map: P-dulcis on redbubble

ADDITIONAL EUROPEAN-PARALLEL LOCATIONS

ILLYRIA

The Ancient Greeks used the term Illyria to define a region in the western part of the Balkan Peninsula. The numerous peoples who populated those areas were known collectively as the Illyrians. The region itself is quite mountainous.

THE MIDDLE

May refer to the Midlands, the central part of England, though geographically the Prythian map places the Middle central to Prythian, not central to England; with the Prythian inclusion of Scotland, the Middle on Prythian maps is located further north than the actual Midlands of England.

UNDER THE MOUNTAIN

A potential nod to the Schiehallion, a cone-shaped mountain often referred to as the center of Scotland. It's name comes from the Gaelic Sìth Chailleann, meaning "fairy hill of the Caledonians." On the southwestern side of the mountain is said to lie the well-concealed Uamh Tom a' Mhòr-fhir, a cave serving as an entrance to the underworld.
Note: As the Schiehallion lies in the middle of Scotland (the Night Court) and not the middle of mainland UK (Prythian), the Sciehallion could instead be representative of Ramiel.

THE WESTERN ISLES

May refer to the Outer Hebrides, also known as the Western Isles, which is an island chain off the west coast of mainland Scotland. They are also sometimes known as Innse Gall, a Gaelic term meaning "islands of the foreigners/strangers" which was originally used by mainland Highlanders when the islands were ruled by the Norse.
ACOTAR role: The Prison is located in the Western Isles.

THE PRISON

Though located in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland rather than the Outer, the Prison may be a nod to Beinn Shiantaidh, which is Scottish Gaelic for "holy mountain." It is located on the western side of the Island of Jura and is the second highest peak of the Paps of Jura.
Fun fact: Pap is of Old Norse origin and means breast.

VALLAHAN

Valhalla is the hall of slain warriors in Norse mythology, located in Asgard, where those who die in combat live in peace under the leadership of the god, Odin. They are said to dwell in Valhalla until the events of Ragnarök, where they will then march out to fight in aid of Odin against the jötnar, a type of being in Germanic mythology.
ACOTAR role: A faerie territory located in the northwest portion of the Continent.

ADRIATA

The Adriatic Sea is located in Southern Europe and separates the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan Peninsula. It contains more than 1,300 islands.

BOG OF OORID

The Oorid Lough is a freshwater lake in the west of Ireland.

CRETEA

Crete is the largest and southernmost island in Greece.
ACOTAR role: Where Miryam and Drakon's people lived following the War.

LAPPLUND

Lapland is a geographic region in Northern Fennoscandia which covers much of the Nordic countries. It is also a province of Sweden and the largest region of Finland.
ACOTAR role: Where the Cauldron was hidden.

ITICA

Ithaca is an island featured in the Odyssey and was the island home of Odysseus. It is also a real island in Greece. The Kathara Monastery is located in Ithaca.
ACOTAR role: Itica is one of three temples where the feet of the Cauldron were hidden.

MONTESERE

Montserrat is a mountain range near Barcelona.
ACOTAR role: Montesere is a fae territory located in the Continent's NW and is considered generally wealthy. They allied with the loyalists in the War.

RAVENNIA

Ravenna is located in Northern Italy and was the capital of the Western Roman Empire.
ACOTAR role: Ravenna is a fae territory on the Continent and allied with the Loyalists during the War.

DUNMERE

Dunmere is a hamlet in Cornwall, England.
ACOTAR role: Dunmere is a town located within the Night Court, between Velaris and the sea.

NEVA

The Neva is the fourth-largest river in Europe and is located in northwestern Russia.
ACOTAR role: One of the largest human cities on the Continent and is where the Archeron sisters' father travels to trade.

SCYTHIA

The Scythians were an ancient Eastern Iranic equestrian nomadic people who migrated from Central Asia to the steppes of modern-day Ukraine and Southern Russia.
ACOTAR role: One of the territories of the human lands on the Continent, ruled by Queen Vassa. They are said to be a horse loving people.

ROSEHALL

Rosehall is the name of a remote hamlet in the Scottish Highlands.
Fun fact: The 2nd Duke of Westminster acquired the Rosehall estate and his mistress at the time, Coco Chanel, redecorated the interior to her own liking. Winston Churchill, a close friend of the Duke, also visited the estate.
ACOTAR role: Mentioned in ACOFAS and is theorized to be the place where Azriel's mother resides.

AFRICA-PARALLEL LOCATIONS

THE BLACK LAND

Black Land translates from Kemet, a popular ancient name for Egypt, which is derived from the color of the fertile black soil along the cultivated area of the Nile valley.
ACOTAR role: A region of the continent where human slaves were ruled over by a High Fae queen. Miryam and Drakon joined the mortals in the War and freed Miryam's people by crossing the desert and eventually the sea.

THE ERYTHRIAN SEA

The Erythraean Sea, originally an Ancient Greek geographical designation, has been used as a name for the Red Sea which lies between Africa and Asia.
ACOTAR role: Drakon used his magic to split the Erythian Sea.

ASIA-PARALLEL LOCATIONS

XIAN

Xi'an is the the most populous city in Northwest China snd the second most popular tourist destination in China.
ACOTAR role: A Fae territory on the Continent that allied with the Loyalists during the War. A large majority of the Dawn Court is made of Fae from Xian, including Thesan's mother. Feyre remarks that Amren may have molded her mortal body after their peoples.

BHARAT

Bhārat is one of the two principal official short names for the Republic of India.
ACOTAR role: The Archerons lost their fortune when their father's ships sank on the way to Bharat.

RASK

May refer to Rask, a city in Iran, that serves as both capital of its county and district.
ACOTAR role: A Fae territory on the Continent and allied with the Loyalists during the War.

ADDITIONAL LOCATIONS

VELARIS

Possibly derived from the Latin vēlo, meaning "to veil, cover, wrap" along with "to hide, conceal" and "to clothe in." Could also derive from the Latin vēlum, meaning "to veil, curtain" and also indicates a tarpaulin acting as cover for outdoor spaces.

THE WALL

No singular reference, but the presence of a wall separating one race from another, often humans from mythical beings, is rife throughout history, mythology, and fantasy.
One from each category that has loose ties to ACOTAR: (1) Hadrian's Wall, ie the Roman Wall, a defensive fortification of the Roman province of Britannia. It spanned from coast to coast, cutting across the entire width of Northern England. (2) In Norse mythology, the Master Builder asking for the hand of the goddess Freyja as payment for constructing a wall around Asgard to defend the gods. (3) The English village of Wall in Neil Gaiman's Stardust, named after the wall separating the land of Faerie from the mortal realm, highly guarded and cautioned against for mortals seeking to pass through.

THE MOONSTONE PALACE

Romans linked moonstone to the moon goddess Diana (goddess of wild animals and the hunt) and Ancient Greeks linked it to their lunar deities Artemis, Hecate, and Selene.

SIDRA RIVER

Sidra is a name of Latin origin and means "Goddess of the stars" or "like a star."

RAMIEL

Ramiel is a fallen Watcher, a type of Biblical angel, one of the 20 Watchers that rebelled against God by mating with mortal women, therefore creating the Nephilim (Shadowhunters, anyone?). Ramiel means "God has thundered." Ramiel is sometimes conflated with Remiel, also known as Jeremiel, meaning "God shall have mercy," as is listed as one of the seven Holy Angels. He is the archangel of hope and is responsible for divine visions and guiding the souls of the faithful into Heaven.

POOL OF STARLIGHT

No plausible connection found, though there is a famous pool in Greek mythology—a pool Mnemosyne presided over in Hades, counterpart to the river Lethe. Dead souls would drink from Lethe to wipe their past lives from remembrance when reincarnated. Those who drank from Mnemosyne's pool remembered and halted their transmigration of the soul.

ATHELWOOD

Ethel (also aethel) is an Old English word meaning "noble." Athelwood can mean "noblewood."
ACOTAR role: Morrigan's estate located in the Night Court.

GOLLIAN MOUNTAINS

Göll is one of the named Valkyries from Norse mythology. Her name means "tumult," or "noise, battle."
ACOTAR role: Where the Valkyries were slain during the War.

MYRMIDONS

In Ancient Greek mythology, the Myrmidons were an Ancient Greek tribe. In the Iliad, they are the soldiers commanded by Achilles. Myrmidon has also come to mean "a follower or subordinate of a powerful person, typically one who is unscrupulous or carries out orders unquestioningly."
ACOTAR role: A set of mountains serving as the border between the Day Court and the Night Court from which the Illyrians migrated.

CESERA

No direct reference found, but may allude to Caesarea, the name of numerous cities and locations throughout the Roman Empire.
ACOTAR role: One of three temples where the feet of the Cauldron were hidden.

SANGRAVAH

No direct reference found (and I lost my mind searching for one). Closest I came to was the similarly sounding Angharad, a feminine Welsh name, long associated with Welsh royalty, history, and myth, including Arthurian legend.
ACOTAR role: One of three temples where the feet of the Cauldron were hidden.

GREENFIELD VILLAGE

No direct connection found, though Greenfield is the name of several villages of England.
ACOTAR role: A neighboring village to where Feyre grew up and where Isaac Hale's wife is from.

WINDHAVEN CAMP

No connection found, though a separate Windhaven also appears in Tower of Dawn in the TOG series. Altun—Windhaven being the rough translation—is located in a three-peaked mountain range and is the home of Sartaq's hearth-mother and family.
Fun fact: Windhaven is the name of a science-fiction novel by George R. R. Martin and Lisa Tuttle following a group of humans who crash-landed on a foreign planet and learned to craft their own wings out of the spaceship wreckage.

THE WOLF'S DEN

No connection found, BUT fun fact: there is a named Wolf's Den castle in George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series (aka Game of Thrones) that now serves as a prison. "All the days were much the same inside the Wolf's Den, and any change was usually for the worse." A Dance with Dragons, Ch 29
ACOTAR role: The name of the worst tavern in Velaris that Nesta is known to frequent.

SILVERSPRING CREEK

No plausible connection found, BUT fun fact: "Silver Springs" is a song written by Stevie Nicks, performed by Fleetwood Mac, and is so strongly ACOTAR-coded even my non-loving playlist-to-book self can't deny it. If you want more bread crumbles that SJM is a Stevie Nicks fan, "Rhiannon" and it's lyric origins have potential ties to the Rhiannon of TOG.
You could be my silver spring
Blue-green colors flashin'
I would be your only dream
Your shinin' autumn ocean crashin'
Time cas t a spell on you,
but you won't forget me
I know I could have loved you
But you would not let me
ACOTAR role: Silverspring Creek is a stream running through Feyre's human village, near where she hunted rabbits.

STRYGA'S CASTLE

No direct reference found, but due to Stryga/the Weaver resembling a female demon akin to a vampire in Slavic mythology (see the Monster section above), it is possible Stryga's former home, before she was confined to her cottage, is reminiscent of Bram Stoker's 1897 Dracula and the Transylvanian Castle complete with three vampiric sister brides who entice men with their beauty and charm before proceeding to feed upon them.

The Night Sky

ARKTOS

Arktos, also written Arctus, means "bear" in Ancient Greek. Arktos was a centaur who fought against the Lapith spearmen. The Arktos Megale (aka Ursa Major, the Great Bear) is one of the original 48 constellations listed by Ptolemy who drew on earlier works by Greek, Egyptian, Babylonian, and Assyrian astronomers.
ACOTAR role: One of the three regarded holy stars (the furthest left star) of the Illyrians and serves as part of the symbol for the Night Court. The echelon of Arktosian is reserved for Illyrians who survive the Blood Right but fail to reach Ramiel.

CARYNTH

May refer to Corinth, an ancient city that was one of the largest and most important of Greece, or Carinthia, the southernmost Austrian state in the Eastern Alps, noted for its mountains and lakes.
ACOTAR role: One of the three regarded holy stars (the middle star) of the Illyrians and serves as part of the symbol for the Night Court. The echelon of Carynthian is reserved for Illyrians who scale the summit of Ramiel during the Blood Rite and are considered elite warriors.

ORISTES

Orestes (also spelled Orestes) means "stands on a mountain" and he is the subject of several Ancient Greek plays and myths concerning his madness and purification.
ACOTAR role: One of the three regarded holy stars (the furthest right star) of the Illyrians and serves as part of the symbol for the Night Court. The echelon of Oristian is reserved for Illyrians who make it to the Ramiel during the Blood Rite but don't reach the top.

Locations not listed: A slew of various more minor locations have not been listed, including the Four Market Squares of Velaris, certain cottages and houses, and even the Ironcrest Illyrian war-camp.
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THE CAULDRON

There are many magical cauldrons present in various mythologies, one being the Pair Dadeni in Welsh mythology, a magical cauldron able to resurrect the dead, and the coire ansic of Irish mythology, the cauldron of the chief god of the Tuatha Dé Danann, which never ran empty.

TRUTH-TELLER

Possibly inspired by Fragarach, an Irish mythological sword known as "The Whisperer" or "The Answerer." It was the sword of Nuada, the first high king; it was said that no one could tell a lie with Fragarach at their throat and that the sword inflicting wounds from which no one could recover.

THE HARP

May refer to the uaithne, the magical harp of the Dagda, the chief god of the Tuatha Dé Danann in Irish mythology. It could control men's emotions and change the seasons.

THE MASK

In Egyptian culture, death masks were designed to guide the spirits of those mummified into the next world.

THE UNKNOWN 4th TROVE ITEM

Seen in a vision by Nesta via Lathys, which we now know to be the Horn, and may refer to the Gjallarhorn of Norse mythology, the sound of which is said to herald the beginning of Ragnarok.

ATARAXIA

Ataraxia, in Ancient Greek philosophy, was a state of calmness untroubled by mental or emotional disquiet, ie tranquility of the mind. It was considered the ideal mental state for soldiers entering battle.
ACOTAR Role: Nesta's Made sword.

GWYDION

Gwydion is a name meaning "born of the trees" and is the given name of Gwydion fab Dôn, a magician, hero, and trickster of Welsh mythology. Caer Wydion, the castle of Gwydion, was the traditional Welsh name for the Milky Way.
ACOTAR role: The Starsword and twin to Truth-Teller.

NARBEN

No direct reference found, though narben in German means "scar."
ACOTAR role: A lost sword from the Dread Trove.

OUROBOROS MIRROR

The ouroboros is an ancient symbol of a serpent or a dragon eating its own tale, first present in ancient Egyptian iconography and the Greek magical tradition, the term itself deriving from Ancient Greek. It has been used frequently and extensively throughout fantasy literature. It often symbolizes the cycle of life, death, and rebirth.

BOOK OF BREATHINGS

The Books of Breathing are a set of ancient Egyptian funerary texts that are intended to enable those deceased to continue their existence in the afterlife. It is a simplified form of the Book of the Dead.

VERITAS ORB

Veritas is of Latin origin meaning "truth." It is the name for the Roman virtue of truthfulness and in Roman mythology, Veritas is the Goddess of Truth. Universities and colleges such as Harvard use the term veritas as their motto.

SYMPHONIA

Symphonia is Greek in origin and was used to denote a variety of musical instruments.

AMARANTHA'S NECKLACE AND RING (JURIAN'S FINGER AND EYE)

Jurian's finger bone and eye, kept by Amarantha, are reminiscent of relics and reliquaries, often religious in nature. Relics typically consist of the physical remains or personal affects of a saint and the reliquary is the container that holds them.

FAEBANE

Possibly inspired by wolfsbane (aka aconite or monkshood), a poisonous flower ancient Greeks would poison arrows and bait with to hunt wolves. It is lethal and often fatal and is an oft-used plant and poison within the fantasy genre.
Fun fact: In Shakespeare's Hamlet, Hamlet himself was killed with an aconite-laced blade.

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DAEMATI

Potentially a combination of the Greek word dae (to give) and the concept of mati, labeled as "the evil eye" in Greek classical antiquity. Daemati may effectively mean "to give the evil eye."

THE WEAVER'S SONG

The Weaver's song, sung when Feyre was stealing Rhysand's ring from her cottage, is similar to "The Twa Sisters," a traditional murder ballad dating back to mid 17th century England. It tells of two sisters who travel down to a body of water where the older one pushes the younger one in. A harp or a fiddle is then made out of the murdered sister's body, which plays itself and sings about her murder.

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To revisit Part 1: Characters & Courts, click HERE

Big question is IF VinFast ever build factory in North Carolina, USA. I think they not ever build due lack of funds to build and slowest progress with no building and many design changes. But if VinFast do build factory can they find people to work it?
I think they have big challenge with Toyota building seven factory on one site in Liberty, North Carolina. It a $13.9 investment, bigger then all VinFast combined. And it suppose to employ 5,000 people at Toyota with production start in early 2025. Toyota and VinFast only 39 minute apart, which is small drive in America standards. Can VinFast fill 7,500 job even if they moonshot happen?
Toyota already hiring now. If person apply, they take tests and find out in half day if they get hired. They already get best talents in area.
If you looking for manufacture job, you choose Toyota or you choosing VinFast??? Here an article in Automotive News with background on Toyota plans. What you think?

Toyota's massive $13.9B battery complex prepping to start production next year to power hybrids, EVs

When the complex is finished in 2028, it will employ 5,100 people and produce 30 GWh of batteries each year. The first EV batteries are due in 2025.
Automotive News. 12. May 2024
LIBERTY, N.C. — Some of Toyota's sharpest environmental critics attack the world's largest automaker for not having done enough to enable a transition to electric vehicles.
A huge hole here — and the bustle of activity taking place within and around it — is the Japanese automaker's $13.9 billion argument otherwise.
Here in this hamlet of about 2,100 residents, just over 20 miles from downtown Greensboro, N.C., thousands of construction workers from around the country are building a vast, self-contained industrial park dedicated to the single mission of building batteries for the automaker's future EVs, plug-in hybrids and traditional hybrids.
It's a massive undertaking, Toyota's largest investment in one location, with multiple buildings in various stages of completion — most of which will eventually boast a half-million or a million square feet under its roof.
Seven buildings in all are dedicated to making batteries, with two production lines planned for each: 10 lines will build battery packs for future EVs and plug-in hybrids; four will build battery packs for hybrids.
An on-site supplier building, Fuji Springs, will make the "cans" of each battery cell and other components. A full-time fire department with three drive-thru bays and other ancillary support structures are also being built.
The phased project, which began removing more than 25 million cubic yards of earth in late 2022, is scheduled to begin producing its first salable batteries in the first quarter of 2025 for a three-row EV that will be assembled in Georgetown, Ky. It will remain under construction until at least late 2027 or early 2028, said Sean Suggs, president of the Toyota Battery Manufacturing North Carolina complex.
"Things are progressing really, really nicely," Suggs said. "We're in the heat of trial activity as we speak, doing trial activity in our first building. We've got about 300 team members that are on-site each day; the rest of them [around 500] are in our headquarters location in Greensboro." There are 1,000 in the queue waiting on a start date, he added.
At full capacity, the completed complex will be able to produce up to 30 gigawatt-hours of batteries per year and will employ about 5,100 people.
Power intensive
On an exclusive tour of the facility last week with Automotive News, Suggs — a veteran Toyota and Nissan manufacturing executive whose last post was heading Toyota's Mississippi plant, where the Corolla is made — talked about the intensity of manufacturing batteries compared with vehicles. The facility "will use six times the electricity of a normal manufacturing plant, because of what we have to do to produce the batteries," Suggs said.
Unlike traditional auto manufacturing, which relies on moving assembly lines to piece together larger components from smaller parts, the process for building batteries and battery packs means the complex will operate much more like a specialty supplier.
Raw materials — lithium, cobalt, magnesium and other vital minerals — will arrive by truck after being shipped from mines around the world and delivered to east coast ports about three hours away. The bulk minerals will be stored outside each battery manufacturing building and piped inside to be mixed into a purple-grayish proprietary slurry.
The slurry gets spread across an ultrathin ribbon of copper, dried, rolled and folded along with an equally thin plastic film separator into a cellphone-sized rectangle, crushed together and placed in a thin metal can along with electrolyte, then welded shut with exposed poles, forming each individual prismatic cell. The entirety of the cell production is done primarily by machine in clean rooms, with workers monitoring and directing the process in protective clothing from head to toe and subjected to air showers upon entering to remove any potential outside contaminants that could bespoil the battery.
The sealed lithium ion battery cells are then assembled into battery packs of various sizes based on the need of the product being produced. Once assembled, they are charged, tested and then allowed to "rest" for a period before being tested again, to make sure that each battery is both fully functional and able to hold and maintain a charge. Only then will the finished battery pack be shipped to one of Toyota's manufacturing plants, Suggs said.
Energy challenges
In the construction process, Toyota has been able to improve how each successive piece of the complex is built, Suggs said, allowing later buildings to be put up faster than earlier ones. Toyota also found other ways to save, including building its own on-site cement plant using limestone extracted as part of the initial earthworks process as source material for the concrete.
Roughly 1,000 of the 1,800 acres on the megasite is being developed, while about 300 acres is taken up by Dodsons Lake and nearby shoreland. Suggs said the lake area, named after the land's previous owner, will be developed into an environmental education center for primary and secondary students that is being designed by college students from North Carolina A&T, a historically black land grant research university in Greensboro.
Yet while construction crews and Toyota have been able to "kaizen" their process, the site's eventual operation looks destined to be less than optimally efficient, at least from an environmental standpoint. For example, even though there's a rail line adjacent to the site, and its existence was touted by Toyota in its initial announcement, neither the raw materials coming in from ocean ports or finished battery packs heading for assembly plants will be delivered via rail, Suggs said. Instead, both will be delivered to and from the rural site by truck, which is much less efficient than rail.
Another example is that at least a portion of the electricity powering the complex comes from Duke Energy's four-unit, 2,462-megawatt coal-fired Roxboro Plant about 60 miles northeast on the North Carolina-Virginia border, a Toyota spokesperson said. The utility would not provide a breakdown of the sourcing of the electricity being used for Toyota's development, pointing only to its owned-generation mix from 2023 across its six-state service area: 55 percent nuclear, 32 percent natural gas, 11 percent coal, and the remaining a mix of solar and hydro.
The Roxboro plant — which opened in 1966 and is one of the largest remaining coal-fired power plants in the nation according to Duke Energy — isn't scheduled to be retired until 2035, when it is to be replaced by a pair of power plants burning somewhat cleaner natural gas, the utility said.
On the Toyota Battery Manufacturing North Carolina website, the company says it is "committed to using 100% renewable energy at this new facility to produce its batteries" as part of the automaker's pledge to be carbon neutral for its vehicles and operations by 2050. A spokesperson said Toyota "is buying energy credits from a wind farm, so we will operate at 100 percent renewable energy when we start production next year."
Hiring underway
Toyota opened a hiring and training center in Greensboro where prospective applicants can come in, be tested and find out within about half a day whether or not they'll be offered a job. Once they get an offer and a start date, they'll go through about 10 weeks of training before beginning work in one of the buildings, said April Mason, plant services general manager at the complex. For Suggs, the steady stream of applicants has been a welcome surprise.
"I've been doing this a long time and a lot of different sites, and I'll tell you that for the first time in my career, I'm not losing my mind or hair over hiring," he said. "It's a weird feeling."
Toyota's $13.9 billion N.C. battery complex juiced for production Automotive News (autonews.com)

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I've made a chronological list of all the settlements mentioned on Nirn if you're interested in having a look.
Some notes:

• I've used the modern name and where each settlement is situated within modern borders
• I've noted the earliest attested date of the settlement
• I've noted the race who founded it (as per the earliest date known)
• I've noted dates where known, or inferred estimates (some very approximate)
• I've typically only included forts and strongholds where there is a signicant accompanying civilian population (Orc Strongholds are an exception because they're a way of life, not solely military in nature)
• Most ruins I've only included if they were known to have had a civilian population, with the exception of Dwemer and Ayleid ruins which are all included
• I've taken the information from The Unofficial Elder Scrolls Wiki.

Can you see any see any major omissions or errors that I've made (assume any errors are mine alone, and not the wiki's)?
It's after midnight in my timezone, so if I don't reply to comments (assuming there are any!) it's because I've gone to sleep and I'll check back when I'm awake. :)
(Also, I'm making adjustments as people make good points)
MERETHIC ERA

• Halls of Colossus [Ehlnofey?], Elsweyr, ME? (u/DrkvnKavod pointed out that dating of settlements prior to Adamantium Tower is problematic, so moving it from "Dawn Era?")
• Alabaster [Khajiit], Elsweyr, ME
• Bruk'ra [Khajiit], Elsweyr, ME
• Corinthe [Khajiit], Elsweyr, ME
• Dune [Khajiit], Elsweyr, ME
• Helkarn [Khajiit], Elsweyr, ME
• Orcrest [Khajiit], Elsweyr, ME
• Rawl'kha [Khajiit], Elsweyr, ME
• Rimmen [Khajiit], Elsweyr, ME
• Senchal [Khajiit], Elsweyr, ME
• Torval [Khajiit], Elsweyr, ME
• Verkarth [Khajiit], Elsweyr, ME
• Firsthold [Aldmer], Summerset Isles, mid-early ME
• Bal Fell [Aldmer], Morrowind, ME
• Imperial City [Aldmer], Cyrodiil, mid-ME
• Alinor [Altmer], Summerset Isles, ME
• Cloudrest [Altmer], Summerset Isles, ME
• Shimmerene [Altmer], Summerset Isles, ME
• Sunhold [Altmer], Summerset Isles, ME
• Karndar Watch [Altmer], Summerset Isles, ME (before ME 1100)
• Abagarlas [Ayleid], Cyrodiil, ME
• Anga [Ayleid], Cyrodiil, ME
• Arpenia [Ayleid], Cyrodiil, ME
• Atatar [Ayleid], Cyrodiil, ME
• Ceyatatar [Ayleid], Cyrodiil, ME
• Fanacasecul [Ayleid], Cyrodiil, ME
• Belarata [Ayleid], Valenwood, ME
• Ilayas [Ayleid], Valenwood, ME
• Salas En [Ayleid], Hammerfell, ME
• Falinesti [Bosmer], Valenwood, ME
• Haven [Bosmer], Valenwood, ME
• Laidal [Falmer], Skyrim, ME
• Nchuand-Zel [Dwemer], Skyrim, ME
• Reinhold's Retreat [Nede], Hammerfell, ME
• Chorrol [Nede], Cyrodiil, ME
• Jylkurfyk [Atmoran], Atmora, ME
• Skywatch [Altmer], Summerset Isles, mid-ME
• Saarthal [Atmoran], Skyrim, mid-ME
• Tel Aruhn [Aldmer], Morrowind, mid-ME
• Ald Redaynia [Adlmer], Morrowind, mid-ME
• Narsis [Chimer], Morrowind, late-middle ME
• Heimlyn Keep [Chimer], Morrowind, late-middle ME or early 1E
• Narfinsel [Ayleid], Cyrodiil, before late ME
• Sercen [Ayleid], Cyrodiil, before late ME
• Riverhold [Khajiit], Elsweyr, late ME
• Ninendava [Ayleid], Cyrodiil, late ME
• Vilverin [Ayleid], Cyrodiil, late ME
• Cormount [Bosmer], Valenwood, late ME
• Gnisis [Chimer], Morrowind, late ME
• Necrom [Chimer], Morrowind, late ME
• Windhelm [Atmoran], Skyrim, late ME
• Bromjunaar [Atmoran], Skyrim, ME
• Granitehall [Atmoran], Skyrim, ME
• Whiterun [Atmoran], Skyrim, late ME

FIRST ERA

• Elden Root [Bosmer], Valenwood, before 1E 0
• Gil-Var-Delle [Bosmer], Valenwood, after 1E 0
• Delodiil [Ayleid], Cyrodiil, before early 1E
• Winterhold [Atomran], Skyrim, before early 1E
• Fort Sungard [Atmoran], Skyrim, before early 1E
• Ald Sotha [Chimer], Morrowind, before early 1E
• Old Hroldan [Reachmen], Skyrim, before early 1E
• Phaer [Altmer], Skyrim, early 1E
• Vulkhel Guard [Altmer], Summerset Isles, early 1E
• Ald'ruhn [Chimer], Morrowind, early 1E (centuries before 1E 700)
• Senie [Chimer], Morrowind, early 1E
• Blacklight [Chimer], Morrowind, early 1E
• Kragenmoor [Chimer], Morrowind, early 1E
• Davon's Watch [Chimer], Morrowind, early 1E
• Hatching Pools [Saxhleel], Black Marsh, early 1E?
• Blackrose [Lilmothiit], Black Marsh, early E1?
• Hissmir [Saxhleel], Black Marsh, early 1E?
• Glenbridge [Saxhleel], Black Marsh, early 1E?
• Ixtaxh-Thitithil-Meht [Saxhleel], Black Marsh, early 1E?
• Rockgrove [Saxhleel], Black Marsh, early 1E?
• Xinchei-Konu [Saxhleel], Black Marsh, early 1E?
• Bogmother [Saxhleel], Black Marsh, early 1E?
• Stillrise Village [Kothringi], Black Marsh, early 1E?
• Greenheart [Bosmer], Valenwood, early 1E
• Cragwallow [Atmoran], Skyrim, early 1E
• Volunruud [Atmoran], Skyrim, early 1E
• Korvanjund [Atmoran], Skyrim, early 1E
• Anvil [Cyrodiil], Cyrodiil, early 1E
• Vundeheim [Atmoran], Skyrim, after 1E 140?
• Solitude [Atmoran], Sykrim, before 1E 143
• Bright-Throat Tribe Village [Saxhleel], Black Marsh, before 1E 198
• Twyllbek [Ayleid], Black Marsh, after 1E 198
• Silyanorn [Ayleid], Black Marsh, after 1E 198
• Gandranen [Ayleid], Black Marsh, after 1E 198
• Fanacas [Nede], Cyrodiil, before 1E 200
• Raldbthar [Dwemer], Skyrim, before 1E 240
• Ebonheart [Chimer], Morrowind, before 1E 240
• Mournhold [Chimer], Morrowind, before 1E 240
• Garlas Malatar [Ayleid], Cyrodiil, before 1E 242
• Lindai [Ayleid], Cyrodiil, before 1E 242
• Lipsand Tarn [Ayleid], Cyrodiil, before 1E 242
• Mackamentain [Ayleid], Cyrodiil, before 1E 242
• Malada [Ayleid], Cyrodiil, before 1E 242
• Miscarcand [Ayleid], Cyrodiil, before 1E 242
• Morahame [Ayleid], Cyrodiil, before 1E 242
• Nenalata [Ayleid], Cyrodiil, before 1E 242
• Nenyond Twyll [Ayleid], Cyrodiil, before 1E 242
• Nonungalo [Ayleid], Cyrodiil, before 1E 242
• Sardavar Leed [Ayleid], Cyrodiil, before 1E 242
• Sedor [Ayleid], Cyrodiil, before 1E 242
• Silorn [Ayleid], Cyrodiil, before 1E 242
• Vahtacen [Ayleid], Cyrodiil, before 1E 242
• Vanua [Ayleid], Cyrodiil, before 1E 242
• Varlaisvea [Ayleid], Hammerfell, before 1E 242
• Varondo [Ayleid], Cyrodiil, before 1E 242
• Varsa Baalim [Ayleid], Cyrodiil, before 1E 242
• Vindasel [Ayleid], Cyrodiil, before 1E 242
• Welke [Ayleid], Cyrodiil, before 1E 242
• Wendir [Ayleid], Cyrodiil, before 1E 242
• Nornalhorst [Ayleid], Cyrodiil, before 1E 242
• Kagrenzel [Dwemer], Skyrim, before 1E 243 (u/Minor_Edits pointed out that this settlement existed earlier than my "before 1E 700" date)
• Mzulft [Dwemer], Skyrim, before 1E 243 (u/Minor_Edits pointed out that I'd missed this settlement)
• Culotte [Ayleid], Cyrodiil, before 1E 243
• Elenglynn [Ayleid], Cyrodiil, before 1E 243
• Thormar [Ayleid], Valenwood, before 1E 243
• Leyawiin [Nibenese], Cyrodiil, before 1E 243
• Anutwyll [Ayleid], Cyrodiil, before 1E 243
• Talwinque [Ayleid], Cyrodiil, before 1E 243
• Telepe [Ayleid], Cyrodiil, before 1E 243
• Rulanyil's Fall [Ayleid], Valenwood, before 1E 243
• Abamath [Orsimer], Valenwood, 1E 243
• Hectahame [Ayleid], Valenwood, after 1E 243
• Marbruk [Ayleid], Valenwood, after 1E 243
• Erokii [Ayleid], High Rock, after 1E 243 (u/Atharaon pointed out the the founding after the Alessian Rebellion, so my previous date of ME is incorrect)
• Daggerfall [proto-Breton], High Rock, 1E 246
• Gladesong Arboretum [proto-Breton], The Systres, circa 1E 330
• Glimmertarn [proto-Breton], The Systres, after 1E 330
• Tuinh [proto-Breton], The Systres, after 1E 330
• Kemen [Ayleid], Cyrodiil, before 1E 361
• Sariellen's Sword [Ayleid], Black Marsh, before 1E 361
• Kvatch [Nede], Cyrodiil, before 1E 361
• Silaseli [Ayleid], High Rock, after 1E 361
• Eyearata [Ayleid], High Rock, after 1E 361?
• Moriseli [Ayleid], High Rock, after 1E 361?
• Anticlere [Nord], High Rock, before 1E 369 (formerly known as Reich Gradkeep)
• Arenthia [Bosmer], Valenwood, before 1E 400
• Kemel-Ze [Dwemer], Morrowind, before 1E 416
• Bisnensel [Ayleid], High Rock, between 1E 375 and 1E 452
• Coral Cliffs [proto-Breton], The Systres, between 1E 330 and 1E 660
• Skingrad [Colovian], Cyrodiil, before 1E 468
• Lillandril [Altmer], Summerset Isles, before 1E 470
• Volenfell [Dwemer], Hammerfell, between 1E 240 and 1E 700
• Shornhelm [proto-Breton], High Rock, before 1E 480
• Jehanna [proto-Breton], High Rock, by 1E 498
• Arkngthamz [Dwemer], Skyrim, after 1E 420
• Arkngthamz-Pghng [Dwemer], Hammerfell, after 1E 420
• Nchardak [Dwemer], Morrowind, before 1E 668
• Alftand [Dwemer], Skyrim, before 1E 700
• Avanchnzel [Dwemer], Skyrim, before 1E 700
• Darkhollow [Dwemer], Skyrim, before 1E 700
• Bthuand [Dwemer], Morrowind, before 1E 700
• Bthzark [Dwemer], Hammerfell, before 1E 700
• Ragnthar [Dwemer], Hammerfell, before 1E 700
• Santaki [Dwemer], Hammerfell, before 1E 700
• Deeping Drome [Dwemer], High Rock, before E1 700
• Infernium Forge [Dwemer], Tamriel, before 1E 700
• Irkngthand [Dwemer], Skyrim, before 1E 700
• Mudan [Dwemer], Morrowind, before 1E 700
• Mzahnch [Dwemer], Morrowind, before 1E 700
• Mzund [Dwemer], Tamriel, before 1E 700
• Nchuleft [Dwemer], Morrowind, before 1E 700
• Bamz-Amschend [Dwemer], Morrowind, before 1E 700
• Rkugamz [Dwemer], Morrowind, before 1E 700
• Nchuleftingth [Dwemer], Morrowind, before 1E 700
• Vardnknd [Dwemer], Skyrim, before 1E 700
• Reich Parkeep [Chimer], Morrowind, before 1E 700
• Bthardamz [Dwemer], Skyrim, before 1E 700
• Bthar-Zel [Dwemer], Skyrim, before 1E 700
• Vos [Chimer], before 1E 700
• Raven Spring [Breton], High Rock, before 1E 700
• Elinhir [Nede], Hammerfell, before 1E 800
• Wayrest [Breton], High Rock, 1E 800
• Hegathe [Yokudan], Hammerfell, 1E 808
• Abah's Landing [Yokudan], Hammerfell, circa 1E 808
• Lainlyn [Yokudan], Hammerfell, before 1E 808 (formerly known as Tava's Blessing)
• Old Totambu [Yokudan], Yokuda, before 1E 808
• Rihad [Yokudan], Hammerfell, circa 1E 808
• Sentinel [Yokudan], Hammerfell, circa 1E 808
• Taneth [Yokudan], Hammerfell, circa 1E 808
• Bergama [Yokudan], Hammerfell, 1E 800s after 1E 808
• Northpoint [Breton], High Rock, 1E 800s
• Aswala Stables [Yokudan], Hammerfell, after 1E 808
• Belkarth [Yokudan], Hammerfell, after 1E 808
• Gilane [Yokudan], Hammerfell, after 1E 808
• Totambu [Yokudan], Hammerfell, after 1E 808
• Markarth [Reachmen], Skyrim, before 1E 930
• Orsinium [Orsimer], Tamriel, before 1E 900s
• Kynesgrove [Nord], Skyrim, before 1E 970
• Evermore [Breton], High Rock, 1E 983
• Soulrest [Saxhleel], Black Marsh, 1E 1033
• Stormhold [Saxhleel], Black Marsh, after 1E 1033
• Suran [Dunmer], Morrowind, before 1E 1056
• Bravil [Cyrodiil], Cyrodiil, 1E 1152
• Ivarstead [Nord], Skyrim, early to mid 1E
• Bruma [Nord], Cyrodiil, 1E 1167
• Tear [Dunmer], Morrowind, before mid-1E
• Thorn [Saxhleel], Black Marsh, before mid-1E
• Skaven [Yokudan], Hammerfell, early-mid 1E
• Hallin's Stand [Yokudan], Hammerfell, mid-1E (formerly called Ojwambu)
• Thorstad Place [Yokudan], Hammerfell, mid-1E
• Jode's Light [Khajiit], Elsweyr, mid-1E
• Mathiisen [Altmer], Summerset Isles, 1E
• Alcaire [Breton], High Rock, 1E
• Labyrinthian [Nord], Skyrim, 1E
• Sutch [Cyrodiil], Cyrodiil, 1E
• Mir Corrup [Nibenese], Cyrodiil, before late 1E
• Tel Aruhn [Dunmer], Morrowind, circa 1E 1600
• Wind Keep [Breton], High Rock, mid-late 1E
• The Stitches [Khajitt], Elsweyr, after 1E 2200
• Corgrad [Altmer], Summerset Isles, 1E 2200s
• Alten Corimont [Saxhleel], Black Marsh, before 1E 2260
• Vastyr [Breton], The Systres, before 1E 2260
• Cheydinhal [Nede], Cyrodiil, 1E 2300s
• Dwynnen [Breton], High Rock, late 1E
• Gideon [Cyrodiil], Black Marsh, late 1E
• Southpoint [Cyrodiil], Valenwood, 1E 2729
• Sundercliff [Cyrodiil], Cyrodiil, between 1E2703 and 1E 2920
• Woodhearth [Cyrodiil], Valenwood, between 1E 2703 and 1E 2920
• Helstrom [Saxhleel], Black Marsh, by 1E 2811
• Archon [Saxhleel], Black Marsh, by 1E 2811
• Guis [Cyrodiil], Cyrodiil?, before 1E 2820
• Elinhir [Nede], Hammerfell, before 1E 2820
• Lilmoth [Lilmothiit], Black Marsh, before 1E 2833
• White Rose [Saxhleel], Black Marsh, before 1E 2877
• Silvenar [Bosmer], Valenwood, before 1E 2920
• Dawnstar [Nord], Skyrim, before 1E 2920
• Farrun [Breton], High Rock, before 1E 2920
• Sancre Tor [Cyrodiil], Cyrodiil, before 1E 2920
• Caer Suvio [Cyrodiil], Cyrodiil, before 1E 2920
• Zuuk [Kothringi], Black Marsh, circa 1E 2920

SECOND ERA

• Vivec City [Dunmer], Morrowind, before 2E 100
• Amenos Station [Breton], The Systres, early 2E
• Westtry [Breton], High Rock, before 2E 220
• Azra's Crossing [Redguard], Hammerfell, after 2E 230
• Moonguard [Breton], High Rock, after 2E 230?
• Raven Spring, Tamriel, before 2E 243
• Bardmont [Nord], Skyrim, before 2E 283
• Root Sunder [Altmer], Valenwood, 2E 291
• Jallenheim [Nord], Skyrim, before 2E 358
• Rorikstead [Nord], Sykrim, before 2E 373
• Velyn Harbor [Altmer], Valenwood, before 2E 382
• Mazzatun [Saxhleel], Black Marsh, before 2E 382
• Gnaar Mok [Dunmer], Morrowind, between 2E 582 and 3E 410
• Brackenleaf [Bosmer], Valenwood, between 1E 2714 and 2E 430
• Firewatch [Dunmer], Morrowind, before 2E 430
• Hakoshae [Tsaesci], Elsweyr, between 2E 430 and 2E 533 (also known as Valley Guard)
• Balmora [Dunmer], Morrowind, between 2E 430 and 2E 582
• Deepwoods [Bosmer], Valenwood, before mid-2E
• Sadrith Mora [Dunmer], Morrowind, before mid-2E
• Alten Meerhleel [Saxhleel], Black Marsh, mid-2E
• Dagon Fel [Dunmer], Morrowind, mid-2E
• Oleer Mar [Dunmer], Morrowind, 2E
• Riften [Nord], Skyrim, 2E
• Olenveld [Nord], Skyrim, 2E
• Dushnikh Yal [Orsimer], Skyrim, 2E
• Murcien's Hamlet [Reachmen], High Rock, before 2E 541
• South Guard [Khajiit], Elsweyr, before 2E 560
• Trumbe [Ayleid], Cyrodiil, before 2E 576
• Morthal [Nord], Skyrim, before 2E 577
• Darkwater Crossing [Saxhleel], Skyrim, 2E 572
• Dhalmora [Saxhleel], Morrowind, between 2E 572-582
• Karthwatch [Nord], Skyrim, after 2E 577
• Vulkwasten [Bosmer], Valenwood, before 2E 578
• Seyda Neen [Dunmer], Morrowind, before 2E 580
• Brindle Home [Cyrodiil], Cyrodiil, before 2E 580
• Whisper Grove [Bosmer], Valenwood, after 2E 579
• Tanzelwil [Altmer], Summerset Isles, before 2E 582
• Dawnbreak [Altmer], Summerset Isles, before 2E 582
• Shattered Grove [Altmer], Summerset Isles, before 2E 582
• Weye [Altmer], Cyrodiil, before 2E 582
• Silsailen [Altmer], Summerset Isles, before 2E 582
• Rellenthil [Altmer], Summerset Isles, before 2E 582
• Alavelis [Dunmer], Morrowind, before 2E 582
• Ald Velothi [Dunmer], Morrowind, before 2E 582
• Serkamora [Dunmer], Morrowind, before 2E 582
• Silent Mire [Dunmer], Morrowind, before 2E 582
• Tel Fyr [Dunmer], Morrowind, before 2E 582
• Tel Mora [Dunmer], Morrowind, before 2E 582
• Applewatch [Cyrodiil], Cyrodiil, before 2E 582
• Borderwatch [Cyrodiil], Cyrodiil, before 2E 582
• Cropsford [Cyrodiil], Cyrodiil, before 2E 582
• Vlastarus [Cyrodiil], Cyrodiil, before 2E 582
• Drakelowe [Cyrodiil], Cyrodiil, before 2E 582
• Harlun's Watch [Cyrodiil], Cyrodiil, before 2E 582
• Greenhill [Cyrodiil], Valenwood, before 2E 582 (formerly called Thibault's Rest)
• Hackdirt [Cyrodiil], Cyrodiil, before 2E 582
• Pell's Gate [Cyrodiil], Cyrodiil, before 2E 582
• Black Heights [Khajiit], Elsweyr, before 2E 582
• Mistral [Khajiit], Elsweyr, before 2E 582
• Bleaker's Way [Nord], Cyrodiil, before 2E 582
• Dragon Bridge [Nord], Skyrim, before 2E 582
• Falkreath [Nord], Skyrim, before 2E 582
• Riverwood [Nord], Skyrim, before 2E 582
• Dragonstar [Nord], Hammerfell, before 2E 582
• Shor's Stone [Nord], Skyrim, before 2E 582
• Nimalten [Nord], Skyrim, before 2E 582
• Fort Amol [Nord], Skyrim, before 2E 582
• Bleakrock Village [Nord], Skyrim, before 2E 582
• Vullain [Bosmer], Valenwood, before 2E 582
• Ebon Ro [Bosmer], Valenwood, before 2E 582
• Longhaven [Bosmer], Valenwood, before 2E 582
• Eagle's Brook [Breton], High Rock, before 2E 582
• Aldcroft [Breton], High Rock, before 2E 582
• Grezogbur [Orsimer], Skyrim, before 2E 582
• Karthwasten [Reachmen], Skyrim, before 2E 582
• Kozanset [Redguard], Hammerfell, before 2E 582
• Port Hunding [Redguard], Hammerfell, before 2E 582
• Saintsport [Redguard], Hammerfell, before 2E 582
• Satakalaam [Redguard], Hammerfell, before 2E 582
• Stonewastes [Saxhleel], Black Marsh, before 2E 582
• Dusktown [Nord], Skyrim, 2E 582
• Belport Run [Altmer], Summerset Isles, between 2E 582 and 2E 864
• Ylliolos [Cyrodiil], Cyrodiil?, before 2E 835
• Silgrad Tower [Dunmer], Morrowind, before 2E 854
• Tagon [Yokudan], Yokuda, before late 2E
• Taleskan [Yokudan], Yokuda, before late 2E
• Yul [Yokudan], Yokuda, before late 2E
• Lumut [Yokudan], Yokuda, before late 2E
• Makan [Yokudan], Yokuda, before late 2E
• Diss [Bosmer], Valenwood, before late 2E
• Helland [Redguard], Hammerfell, before 2E 862
• Riverpoint [Redguard], Hammerfell, before 2E 862
• Stonemoor [Redguard], Hammerfell, before 2E 862
• Cliff Keep [Redguard], Hammerfell, before 2E 862
• Chaseguard [Redguard], Hammerfell, 2E 862
• Ebon Wastes [Breton], High Rock, before 2E 864
• Noota Nara [Saxhleel], Black Marsh, before 2E 864
• Cormaris View [Dunmer], Morrowind, before 2E 896
• Roseguard [Redguard], Hammerfell, before 2E 896
• Shady Grove [Redguard], Hammerfell, before 2E 896

THIRD ERA

• Glenpoint [Breton], High Rock, before 3E 120
• Rockpark [Saxhleel], Black March, before 3E 145
• Skaal Village [Nord], Morrowind, before 3E 200
• Black Harbour, Esroniet, before 3E 282
• Dunbarrow [Nord], Skyrim, before 3E 286
• Septimia [Tsaesci], Akavir, before 3E 288
• Ionith [Tsaesci], Akavir, before 3E 288
• Water's Edge [Breton], Cyrodiil, before 3E 333
• Ein Meirvale [Khajitt], Elsweyr, before 3E 389
• Rockguard [Saxhleel], Black Marsh, before 3E 389
• Lynpar March [Bosmer], Valenwood, before 3E 389
• Wasten Brukbrook [Bosmer], Valenwood, before 3E 389
• Corkarth Run [Dunmer], Morrowind, before 3E 389
• Helnim Wall [Dunmer], Morrowind, before 3E 389
• Karththor Dale [Dunmer], Morrowind, before 3E 389
• Maar Gan [Dunmer], Morrowind, before 3E 389
• Old Run [Dunmer], Morrowind, before 3E 389
• Riverbridge [Dunmer], Morrowind, before 3E 389
• Sailen Vulgate [Dunmer], Morrowind, before 3E 389
• Silnim Dale [Dunmer], Morrowind, before 3E 389
• Velothis Haven [Dunmer], Morrowind, before 3E 389
• Dunstad Grove [Nord], Skyrim, before 3E 389
• Heljarchen [Nord], Skyrim, before 3E 389
• Laintar Dale [Nord], Skyrim, before 3E 389
• Neugrad Watch [Nord], Skyrim, 3E 389
• North Keep [Nord], Skyrim, before 3E 389
• Snowhawk [Nord], Skyrim, before 3E 389
• Stonehills [Nord], Skyrim, before 3E 389
• Dunlain Falls [Breton], High Rock, before 3E 389
• Meir Darguard [Breton], High Rock, before 3E 389
• Normar Heights [Breton], High Rock, before 3E 389
• Norvulk Hills [Breton], High Rock, before 3E 389
• Portdun Creek [Breton], High Rock, before 3E 389 (formerly known as Portdun Watch)
• Tethis [Breton], High Rock?, before 3E 389
• Dusk [Altmer], Summerset Isles, before 3E 389
• Snowline [Redguard], Hammerfell, before 3E 397
• Alik'ra [Redguard], Hammerfell, before 3E 405
• Antyphyllos [Redguard], Hammerfell, before 3E 405
• Daenia [Breton], High Rock, before 3E 405
• Greenheights [Dunmer], Morrowind, before 3E 417
• Dragon Glade [Dunmer], Morrowind, before 3E 417
• Abibon-gora [Redguard], Hammerfell, before 3E 417
• Tigonus [Redguard], Hammerfell, before 3E 417
• Mournoth [Redguard], Hammerfell, before 3E 417
• Santaki [Redguard], Hammerfell, before 3E 417
• Pothago [Redguard], Hammerfell, before 3E 417
• Kairou [Redguard], Hammerfell, before 3E 417
• Tulune [Breton], High Rock, before 3E 417
• Bhoriane [Breton], High Rock, before 3E 417
• Glenumbra [Breton], High Rock, before 3E 417
• Mara [Breton], High Rock, before 3E 417
• Glenumbra [Breton], High Rock, before 3E 417
• Mara [Breton], High Rock, before 3E 417
• Ilessan Hills [Breton], High Rock, before 3E 417
• Shalgora [Breton], High Rock, before 3E 417
• Phrygias [Breton], High Rock, before 3E 417
• Urvaius [Breton], High Rock, before 3E 417
• Ykalon [Breton], High Rock, before 3E 417
• Wrothgaria [Breton], High Rock, before 3E 417
• Betony [Breton], High Rock, before 3E 417
• Chestercester [Breton], High Rock, before 3E 417
• Warborne [Breton], High Rock, before 3E 417
• Westbury [Breton], High Rock, before 3E 417
• Westtale [Breton], High Rock, before 3E 417
• Tel Vos [Dunmer], Morrowind, between 3E 414 and 3E 427
• Pelagiad [Imperial], Morrowind, between 3E 414 and 3E 427
• Hla Oad [Dunmer], Morrowind, before 3E 427
• Khuul [Dunmer], Morrowind, before 3E 427
• Port Telvannis [Dunmer], Morrowind, before 3E 427
• Tel Branora [Dunmer], Morrowind, before 3E 427
• Caldera [Imperial], Morrowind, before 3E 427
• Raven Rock [Imperial], Morrowind, 3E 427
• Ione [Cyrodiil], Cyrodiil, 3E 433
• Aleswell [Cyrodiil], Cyrodiil, before 3E 433

FOURTH ERA

• Tel Mithryn [Dunmer], Morrowind, before 4E 5
• Blackridge [Orsimer], Cyrodiil, early 4E (130?)
• Helgen [Nord], Skyrim, before 4E 180
• Mor Khazgur [Orsimer], Skyrim, before 4E 201

Once a great city of the north, Solitude is now a shadow of itself. The harbor rarely sees a trading ship, and even then its most often a smaller shallow-keeled boat from Blacklight or Windhelm, or even Jehanna. The royal palace doesn't get many visitors either - for all the pretense of the royal family to greatness and the legacy of the great Kings, Queens and Emperors of the mankind, they are largely irrelevant even in their own kingdom. Only the Divines' Temple is always busy, and in the last decades had spread out to occupy the whole Castle Dour. It now houses the biggest Seminary of the kingdom, where the wandering priests of the northern version of the creed are taught.
There is one day each year, however, when the city becomes the capital it once was. On 16th of Sun's Dawn the Unified Kingdom of Haafingar, Rivenspire, Karthald, Wrothgar, Falkreath and Hjaalmarch, or 'Greater Wrothgar and Karth' in common parlance, celebrates the anniversary of its founding. Serious historians may argue about the importance of other events - the delegation of power to the thane-barons, the formal appointment of a single Heir, the signing of the Act of the Union - but for the common folk, it all began with the marriage of Queen Elisif of Solitude and Queen Gwynienne of Northpoint. That the date coincides with the traditional holiday of the Heart's Day doesn't hurt either.
^{Editorial Note:
The marriage itself should be put into the proper historical perspective to understand its importance. While permitted religiously under Mara's laws, and grudgingly accepted among the commoners, the marriages of such sort were looked down upon by the lineage-obsessed nobility of the fading Empire. And for all their claims to the opposite, the Nord nobility had taken up the Imperial ways. If not for the chaos of the subsequent events, the Queens' Heirs would have hard time defending their claim at Jarls' Moot.}
The commoners from the most remote villages and mountain hamlets come in what can only be describes as a pilgrimage, and the festival celebration includes one of the biggest fairs of the year. The itinerant priests of the Eight Divines flock back to the great cathedral. By the evening, with its stained windows illuminated from inside and singing voices raised in chorus, it makes one feel as if transported back in time to the height of the Septim Empire.
The parade of the thane-barons in the archaic armors of their Legionnaire ancestors tries to reinforce that impression, although everyone is aware it is mere costumery. The traditions of the Legions have died out more than century ago. The small leaders who were nothing but tax-gatherers appointed from the Legion veterans by the start of the Fourth Era - thanes, barons, chieftains - were granted the ultimate power over their small domains in the times of the Plague. Their descendants now are the actual rulers of the kingdom, each one of them holding his tiny court in his restored hilltop fort.
The policies they support serve to keep the Kingdom hamstrung, with its glory returning back only during the yearly festival - the disconnected self-sufficient thane-baronies have little interest in trade. The lack of communication and organization between their tiny domains, the complicated structure of obligations and vassalage, makes the Western Kingdom even more fragmented and disorganized than rule-by-mob of the Eastern 'Commonwealth'. The predominantly agrarian population is largely uneducated, and lives from harvest to harvest, and thanes are glad to keep it so.
YgM: For all I dislike that 'rulership by the virtue of owning the only sword in the village' stuff, you can't deny that their isolationism works for Wrothgarians. One of my drinking buddies from the Cheydinhal Academy had a whole set of numbers about the Plague, its strains, mortality, all that. GW&K got through it with the least loss of population, it seems.

MONTAG. I never thought…
BEATTY. Don’t even try. Let me think for you. If you have only a few people in the world, books can afford to be individual, different, eh? But cram your world with overpopulations, and how can you possibly write individual books for each, eh? No, no. Can’t be. So you write a few books for all, eh? That’s what you do. On top of which you leave the cart and horse of the 19th century and jump pell-mell into and out of elevators, airships, trains, cars, jets, eh? Jump, push, run, shove. “I’m late, I’m late, for a most important date!” you cry, White Rabbiting along, eh, eh?
MONTAG. I’m a bit foggy on history…
BEATTY. Let me cut the fog. Jump! Push! Run, jump, no time, rush hour all day, rush dreams by night. No time to read, no time to even live. Run, run, what happens next, Montag?
MONTAG (guessing). Books become… shorter?
BEATTY. Bullseye! Bravo. Condense everything, cut everything, make midgets of giants, make pismire ants of midgets, make mountains into molehills! (Pacing.) Condensations, digests, tabloids, everything boiled down to the gag, the snap ending. Classics cut to fifteen minute radio explosions, cut again to fit a two minute book column. Speed up the film, shorten the news. Give us magazines like: CLICK, PIC, LOOK, EYE. NOW, FLICK, SWIFT, PACE, UP, DOWN. IN, OUT, BANG! SMACK! WALLOP! BOOM! Politics? one sentence. Hell, no, a headline. Never mind the story, give us the POW! Spin the centrifuge, fling off the thought. And in mid—air, mankind's thought vanishes up his own backside. Shorten school. Drop discipline. Kill Latin. Poison English. Give hemlock to philosophy. Damn grammar. Forget spelling. Destroy all buttons. Replace with zippers. You don't want a man standing around at dawn, buttoning himself, with time to think, do you?
MONTAG. No.
BEATTY (circling). No! So...Empty the theatres. Shut the cinemas. Why? Don't want folks talking to each other on the way out of plays, films, do you? Do you?! No! No! So glass wall the homes. TV the walls. Dolby Sound the ceilings. Keep folks apart. Kill Hamlet! What next?
__________________________________________________
NOW ME (OP):
So what comes next? Well, if you know the story, the next step is censorship and then the outright burning of the books. It's not fantasy, it is a warning every bit as relevant today as on the day it was written.
When it comes to an important work like this, you can read an excerpt of the story to pass the quiz. BUT if you read the ENTIRE story, you'll walk away with a firmer understanding of the fascist playbook. In addition to that, you'll also begin to conceptualize what's at stake when we outsource decisions regarding our very ability to think.

Brief note: I will be linking to relevant articles and sources throughout this *long* effort post, some of which will take you to McCarthy’s own webpage, some of which might be behind paywalls - depending on how interesting you find all this, you might like to follow these links to get a glimpse of the ‘primary texts’ themselves!
Sooo: take a seat - get some snacks - and get ready. This is the story of one man’s obsessive 20-year quest to convince the world that the ‘real genius’ behind Shakespeare’s plays was an Elizabethan translator called Sir Thomas North.
First things first! I studied literature for my undergraduate degree, and I have a master’s degree in the history and philosophy of science: basically, my interests intersect perfectly with the ‘Shakespeare Authorship Question’, given that it is a) all about *probably* the greatest literary figure in English, maybe western, art, and b) it is of course a realm full of spurious thinking, logical fallacies and grasping at radical conclusions without any evidence.
I’ve been interested in the topic since before my undergrad degree over a decade ago, and have read all the arguments about all the usual suspects: from Edward de Vere (he of little poetic talent), to Christopher Marlowe (he at least could write well); all the way to Sir Francis Bacon, Queen Elizabeth and Sir Walter Raleigh. Honestly, it sometimes seems like everybody in 16th century England has been put forward as the playwright by someone at some point.
But the subject of this post is one Dennis McCarthy, an American independent researcher who has previously published papers on biology, and since the late 00s, almost exclusively (when journals will accept his papers that is…) on Shakespeare. In some ways McCarthy is clearly a tier above the usual conspiracy theorist/anti-Stratfordian (don't bother clicking this link - it's just an example of craziness). He’s not just looking at a random line in a sonnet, and extrapolating that into a huge, elaborate story about how ‘Shax-pere’ (as these sorts love to pointedly call Will) was actually a front for the Earl of Oxford’s plays, and he does do some research that takes him out of his house and off the internet; but he still ends up falling prey to the same old problems all anti-Stratfordians fall into, which I will get to below.
Now, if anti-Stratfordians were capable of thinking critically, the failure of McCarthy to convince anyone should really be the end of their mind-numbing nonsense - but of course it won’t be. My point being, that even the best intentioned, and most ingenious anti-Stratfordians eventually have to contend with reality: and it is at that point they fall flat on their face.
So, what makes this story any different? And why should anyone be interested in another pretender to the throne? Honestly, it’s mostly because my aunt bought me his book (Thomas North: The Original Author of Shakespeare's Plays) for Christmas, knowing my interest in the topic. Since I’ve recently finished it, I thought you should all go through what I went through 🙂
But McCarthy’s story is also interesting in and of itself. As far as I see it, it is an almost Shakespearean (or should that be ‘Northern’...?) tale of hubris. Full of intellectual arrogance, confirmation bias on a grand scale, and (independent) scholarly folly of grand proportions.
I think it’s also just genuinely interesting to see Thomas North of all people put forward as ‘the real Shakespeare’, because he is not at all a mainstream contender - whatever one might like to say about McCarthy, he certainly hasn’t made this easy on himself. And given the short shrift he’s been getting on the fringes of social media that pay attention to him, it’s fair to say he’s not a people pleaser. I almost admire his tenacity chasing this lost cause.
You see, Thomas North is seemingly the last literate male in Elizabethan England to be put forward as the ‘real’ playwright. Even some Italian and French writers were suggested decades before poor Thomas North was. Given that this translator, soldier, lawyer and son-of-Henry-VIII’s-main-man-when-it-came-to-the-dissolution-of-the-monasteries did actually have a real link with Shakespeare’s plays, it’s genuinely amazing that he’s only just now been put forwards: you see, it was his translation of Plutarch’s Lives (1590) that Shakespeare used as the source for his 3 Roman Plays. Those are Corialanus, Antony and Cleopatra, and Julius Caesar.
Now, anyone who knows anything about Shakespeare’s sources will know what I’m about to say, and it has been known by critics since at least the late 18th century. North’s Plutarch is not only one of Shakespeare’s most important sources, up there with Holinshed’s Chronicles and Ovid, it is the only one of Shakespeare’s sources that the Bard seemed to think didn’t need that much work to get good enough for the Elizabethan stage. You can check out Dennis’ webpage to see the common language between, say, Antony and Cleopatra, and North’s translation.
Worth pointing out here that McCarthy’s actually completely right on this point, but it’s a rather trivial point that everyone already agrees with: it’s with his novel arguments where he falters.
So with that, let’s get back to Dennis, and his story. His first venture into the world of literature was nearly 20 years ago - and here comes the hubris bit: like all STEM-lords he wanted to apply ideas and methodologies from the sciences to the arts. And, as he writes in the opening chapter to his self-published book, he started this part of his journey by asking himself: ‘what’s the single greatest, most important literary work in the western canon?’. This led him to think about Hamlet as not just a work of imagination and creativity, but as something that evolved into its final state that we all know today.
This is not, of course, completely insane - in fact, this is precisely what academics have done already. We know that the ultimate source of Hamlet is a Danish myth, that - over the course of a few hundred years - migrated to Elizabethan England via a French translation. McCarthy, undaunted by the fact that better minds have already worked out all there is to know about this, set himself the task of answering it his own way.
So he started by looking at contemporary references to Hamlet and Shakespeare. As any student of Elizabethan literature is likely to already know, the earliest reference to Hamlet can be found in Thomas Nashe’s preface to Greene’s translation of Menaphon, 13 years before the earliest publication of Shakespeare’s play. Nashe writes of someone who, ‘if you entreat him fair in a frosty morning, he will afford you whole Hamlets, I should say handfuls, of tragical speeches’. Given that Nashe then says that his followers are like the ‘Kid’ in Aesop, it is often assumed that Nashe is implying Thomas Kyd wrote this early Hamlet.
But we don’t really know who wrote this early Hamlet, often known as the 'ur-Hamlet': some suggest it may have simply been Shakespeare himself rather than Kyd, and it was merely an early iteration of the play he went on to perfect over the coming decade. McCarthy, always dissenting, reckons Nashe was referring to Thomas North as the author (of course!).
Now, to be fair to McCarthy - and this is as fair to him as I will ever be - this bit isn’t the whacky part, at least prima facie. After all, given that we don’t really know who Nashe was obliquely implying was the author, and the scant details in the text could be interpreted any number of different ways, McCarthy’s suggestion that it might have been North is in and of itself OK.
It’s more the fact that this one little inference became the basis of his multi-decade obsession with his North-Shakespeare hypothesis.
You see, what followed that first supposition was a classic case of confirmation bias. I say a classic case, but actually it is of course a rather extreme case. McCarthy has since published articles on:
Thomas North and Titus Andronicus
Ben Jonson’s Satires (and how they supposedly point to North as the writer of Shakespeare’s plays)
The claimed linguistic parallels between Hamlet’s ‘To be or not to be’ soliloquy and North’s first translation, the Diall of Princes
He’s also managed to unearth, and sometimes successfully publish books and/or articles on: Thomas’ handwritten marginalia in his personal books, that he thinks are connected to Shakespeare’s works; an unpublished travel journal, again by Thomas North, again thought by McCarthy to be connected to the plays; a copy of a book on politics, by George North, presumed to be Thomas’ cousin and yet again argued be the basis of certain scenes and phrases in the plays; payments that are assumed to be for putting on plays or revels, in the North family accounts; and finally, numerous (but of course coincidental) biographical connections between Thomas and Shakespeare’s plays (you'd have to read his book for those details).
Anyway, some of McCarthy’s discoveries are genuinely interesting in and of themselves, and certainly of historical interest to anyone who is a nerd for Elizabethan stuff, but where McCarthy sees endless corroboration and proof for his conclusions, I see confirmation biases on a scale rarely seen outside of QANON forums.
After all, where Dennis is likely to ask ‘what are the chances that everything Thomas North is known to have written and done can be directly linked to the Bard’s plays?’, I am inclined to answer ‘very likely, if that is what you’re looking for’. It’s just typical conspiracy thinking, isn’t it?
Let’s look at some specific examples of his arguments and so-called ‘evidence’, if you’re not too queasy-stomached with this journey so far.
At some point over the last decade, McCarthy has managed to get journalist Michael Blanding, and (presumably formerly) respected Shakespearean June Schlueter on board with his silliness, and together they’ve unearthed books from the North family library, some of which has marginalia in what they reckon is Thomas North’s handwriting (mentioned above).
You can click here to read a bit about it if you like (honestly, don’t bother), but the gist is simple: McCarthy thinks that North’s marginalia shows North’s process of writing some of the plays, and points in particular to his underlining of supposed ‘key plot points’ in Cymbeline, such as giving tribute to Rome, the slaying of a certain king, and the Roman invasion of Britain. He also loves to bang on about the fact that Shakespeare and North seemingly misspell a character’s name the same way, which he repeatedly asserts in his book is ‘highly unlikely’.
The main problem here is that we already know that Shakespeare used Fabyan’s chronicles as a source, so it’s hard to work out what these marginalia are meant to prove: the connection is already known. The fact that Shakespeare and North misspell ‘Cassibellan’ in the same way (‘Cassibulan’) means little when you remember that publishers would have the final say in how word were spelled, rather than working precisely to what was written in the manuscript: why assume it was Shakespeare who was misspelling the Roman name the same way as North? Clearly another reach by McCarthy, but of course he sees nothing but further confirmation of his theory.
And the fact that North underlined many of the ‘salient’ plot points and bits of phrasing that appear in Cymbeline needn’t suggest anything more than the translator saw Shakespeare’s play (or had a physical copy) and underlined those passages based on that. And that’s only one of any number of possible alternatives!
Anyway, in the early 2010s, he got his hands on some plagiarism software - WCopyfind - and of course applied his newest toy to his singular obsession. His findings from using the tool comprise the bulk of his book’s argument. It will surprise none of you, I’m sure, to hear that - shock, horror - he found exactly what he was looking for. I’m not going to go into detail here about all of the collocations he thinks he’s found, just check out his website for a run down, if you’re really that much of a masochist. (There are times looking into all of this that I’ve had to question both his and my soundness of mind…)
So, I’ll just stick to one example, possibly the single biggest reach I think I found in all his work:the claimed commonalities between Shakespeare’s writing, North, and North’s sources, and the argument that these are evidence for North’s authorship of the plays. For example, he reckons bits of King Lear are taken from one of Thom’s translations. I can happily accept that these connections might be real, to be fair, and that Shakespeare may have read North more widely than Plutarch’s Lives, but McCarthy of course has to go one step further: he asserts that the playwright must also have read North’s non-English source (one Simon Goulart), because EdgaPoor Tom uses the word ‘esperance’, which appears in Goulart’s French text in the same passage McCarthy thinks King Lear is borrowing from, via North.
Exhausting isn’t it?
His argument isn’t just that Shakespeare is borrowing from both North’s translation, and Goulart’s original, of course, but that North wrote King Lear and at some point sold the play to Shakespeare, and so he would have had access to his own translation and the original already when he was writing the play. Just read his webpage for a full breakdown of his warped thought process. As far as I’m concerned, this actually proves nothing. After all, 'esperance' was already an extant word in English by the late 16th century, being first recorded in 1430, so there’s no reason to assume Shakespeare got it from Goulart. And after all, coincidences do happen, but try convincing a conspiracy theorist of that.
It’s also not impossible - if we want to give McCarthy some leeway with his ideas - to believe that Shakespeare may have read both Goulart and North in parallel while writing King Lear. There’s good reason to believe he spoke French quite well, and it’s certainly not unheard of to work this way, even today. But McCarthy of course sees literally everything as confirmation of his theories.
Ultimately, it’s a shame that he had to wrap his research and discoveries up in this anti-Stratfordian nonsense. Had he simply stuck to the more reasonable and conventional view, that mainstream academia has accepted for hundreds of year - i.e. that actually, yes, the Man from Stratford wrote the plays we think he wrote - he could have contributed something useful to the field of Shakespeare’s sources or Elizabethan literature and history more broadly.
By all accounts, this Thomas North chap clearly led an interesting life. He certainly had some influence on Shakespeare’s writing, at least when it came to the three Roman Plays. And you know what, he may even have been used as a source for more of the canon than we had previously thought, if the collocations McCarthy talks about are anything to go by! But because McCarthy is far too fast to assume that nothing could be coincidental, or trivial - when in fact, actually, many things are - he’s put himself in a position where his work will forever be relegated to the fringes of academic study.
Elizabethan manuscript culture is well attested to and well discussed in the literature, and there’s no reason to think that Shakespeare couldn’t have read North’s unpublished journal, probably McCarthy’s favourite widdlle discoveries that he’s endlessly blathering about. Why should we assume that every single verbal parallel found between Shakespeare’s plays and North’s translations means Shakespeare must have been using the older writer as a direct source? And Just because Thomas North was Alice Arden’s half-sister (something else he goes on about a lot!), doesn’t mean he must have written Arden of Feversham, part of the ‘Shakespeare Apocrypha’. After all, we know that William himself had a distant relative on his mother’s side called ‘Thomas Arden’: does that not also, taking this line of argument, corroborate the Shakespeare-as-author case?
Well, there’s good reason to believe that Shakespeare did co-write at least some of Arden, based on robust stylometric analyses, so that is something of a rhetorical question. The point is, again, that McCarthy unfortunately sees everything as evidence for North’s authorship of the canon, and seems to think that because he can link every known biographical tidbit about Thomas North with Shakespeare’s plays, and because he squints his eyes and sees verbal parallels everywhere, and because North’s marginalia happens to misspell something the same way as Cymbeline - and honestly, this is just the tip of the iceberg… well, this is the very definition of delusional monomania, right?
I hope you’ve enjoyed this little portrait of a man besotted by his own theories, and you’ve not simply spent the time reading it groaning in agony and despair over the fact that it’s 2024, and these baseless ideas keep popping up. I find something fascinating in all this, even if I also find it all a bit crazy.
Citations - I've tried to link to anything I really need to cite, but I also read/consulted
Shapiro, James - Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare?, 2011
Blanding, Michael - In Shakespeare's Shadow: A Rogue Scholar's Quest to Reveal the True Source Behind the World's Greatest Plays, 2022
My go to version of Shakespeare's works is The Arden Shakespeare, which also includes lots of notes on specific plays, and their sources, dates etc. I also use The RSC Shakespeare: The Complete Works

Some background. I have an MA in Medieval Archaeology, but I'm not a practicing archaeologist and I haven't engaged with any literature on the topic since my program (sadly since I ended up working in marketing 😩).
One of the things I've loved about Manor Lords is that for the first time, I can build a medieval town that is consistent with my (probably dated) understanding of the medieval urban fabric.
But I wanted to introduce some of what I learned in my program to help folks in this game both role play and build sustainable communities that are in accordance with what we know of actual historic medieval settlements.
Again I am not a practicing scholar and can no longer cite sources, but I will recommend the book "Life in a Medieval Village" By Frances Gies as a very approachable primer.
Colonizing the Land
Some recent inventions, especially the heavy plow, allowed people to settle and colonize otherwise unfarmable land. A population boom in the 12th century started pushing people out of overpopulated villages and deeper into what had been the margins of settlement.
Medieval lords naturally saw this as a lucrative opportunity, and with the backing of the Church, who saw this as an opportunity to Christianize untamed and therefore sinful land, new towns and villages were chartered and settled by peasants seeking new opportunity (and tax breaks) in these new towns. This is why so many towns across Europe are literally named "Newtown" (ie "Newton", "Novograd", "Neuville").
Land would be cleared, trees cut, houses built, commerce established, and demons driven out and blessed by priests. This game is literally about this process. Or at least the economics of it.
Settlement Patterns
If you're familiar with the Manorial system, then you're familiar with how a king delegates to Barons who delegate to landed gentry who delegate to peasantry.
Settlements follow this hierarchy. A city, which in Western Europe at least is defined only as a town with a Cathedral that is to say has a Bishop, is at the top of the hierarchy. It's in turn supported by large villages, which are supported by very specialized smaller communities and camps, like mines, quarries, foresters, and charcoal burners.
The distinction of cities in the Middle Ages is clear if kinda weird, but Towns/Cities vs Villages is murkier, and is the subject of a lot of spilled in. When does a village become a town? Most distinctions are either too broad, too narrow, or too academic, but I think a useful one is that Towns/Cities support intellectual labor and the new Middle Class. Law firms, guild halls, bankers, money changers, professors. Villages primarily support agricultural and extractive labor like mines and farms. I don't see any indication in this game that there will be any mechanics built around the Middle Class
By an accident of landscape, economics, and human inclinations, these hierarchies tend to be pretty evenly spread out across the landscape. You can read more about what is called Central Placement Theory.
This game does tend to reflect that. Limited upgrades to a town means it's better to specialize a settlement to focus on whatever resource is abundant, and importing the rest.

• Create farming hamlets that send grain to the main settlement, and export/barter the excess
• Workers camps near the rich resource
• barter and trade networks that plug the the main settlement into the broader commercial network.
• Invest your tech tree's few points into 1 branch that matches your rich resource to ensure the highest degree of productivity.
• One farmhouse takes a lot of support, so I would spread two hamlets of 4-5 houses and place one farmhouse equidistant to ensure that the hamlets don't get too dense and become villages themselves.

Vernacular Architecture and Land Use
In archaeology, there are essentially two kinds of buildings vernacular and monumental architecture. Broadly speaking, monumentality is loosely defined as a building which has a symbolic purpose as a major part of its function, Churches, Temples, Palaces and so on.
Vernacular architecture is everything else. Their function is largely practical (which does include a lot of symbolism) and includes houses, barns, granaries, and warehouses. The game actually lacks a lot of monumentality at this stage beyond a couple churches, your castle, and the road shrines. I wouldn't mind seeing more guild halls, market halls (maybe fewer merchants but higher capacity? Or as the only place to buy level 3 goods?).

• Churches tend to be oriented to the East, and they tend to be situated close to marketplaces and commerce, but rarely are they center stage. They will also be established at the road near the entrance to the town, so that more remote peasants have access as well as demarcating the entrance from wilder-land to civilization.
  
• Manor Lords does a great job of presenting Medieval Lots and Long Houses. Stone footing, large timbers and mortise and tenon joinery with the spaces filled in with wattle and daub. The lots are long and narrow, and most of the time as much of the land was put to economic use as possible. This is by far my favorite feature of the game. It eschews the modern paradigm of a separation between industry and housing, which we have inherited from our familiarity with 20th century zoning laws.
  
• Stone houses are missing, but if we can ever upgrade townhomes to Level 4, I would like to see some of them be entirely stone. Timber framed buildings with cantilevered 2nd stories that extend beyond the entrance are also missing, but maybe that wasn't a characteristic of townhomes in this region at the time.
  
• Industry was largely divided into smelly and not smelly. Bad odors, or miasma was thought to be a major vector of disease and misfortune so Tanners, Potters, Blacksmiths would generally not be allowed to do their work in town, but most other types of industry was allowed to take place on your property as space allowed. There is an "odor" map overlay feature in this game that isn't implemented so I do expect it to matter more in later updates.
  
• In Europe, winds prevail from west to east, and so industry tends to be on the east side of town, and elites homes and town administration trend towards the western side. This is true today as well. Look at your town map and often you will see the factories and poorer communities located to the east and more affluent neighborhoods to the west. Unless there's a coast that rich people want to get a view of, modern communities still favor putting industry downwind.
  
• I hope to see market upgrades at some point. Open air markets are good, but that's only one type of market. Markets could be both covered (increase storage capacity), and independently owned shops of course for those level 3 artisan houses would be incredibly welcome.
  
• Buildings missing from the urban fabric: Hospitals, monasteries, convents, chapels, bath/whore houses, butter crosses (ecclesiastic markers of markets). Of these monasteries would be very welcome and could fit the rural character of the game.
  
• There are lots of monasteries in medieval towns, but certain orders built in the countryside, so it would be interesting to establish a monastery in one of the "counties" and had to follow a different path to upgrade the monastery to support an Abbot or Prior with imports, wine and candles, foodstuffs, and export books, rabbit meat (suckled rabbit was used during Lent since the unborn wasn't considered "meat" having only existed in the water of the womb).
  

Hi! I’m going to make a promposal poster to ask my friend to prom. We both love Shakespeare and specifically Hamlet. I’d love some help or ideas for the poster. I’m thinking something like “To be (my prom date), or not to be (my prom date), that is the question.” or maybe something more refined. We acted out Hamlet in our AP Literature class (I was Hamlet, she was Ophelia), so maybe a reference to Hammy and Ophelia?
Thanks for any help, A very stressed student

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Memory Transcription Subject: Taylor Trench, Human Colonist
Date [standardized human time]: June 25, 2160
The next generation of humans were a third of the way through development in ectogenesis. Soon, there wouldn’t be only thousands left of my kind. When I remembered what I was fighting for, it gave me the willpower to push through the hell General Radai was throwing at us. Ever since our engagement with the Sivkits, the Resket seemed hellbent on trying to break us, more than he had before. He’d made us run laps for hours, having some surprise when that didn’t crack us—well, it dropped Quana and other non-humans, but not the Tellus recruits. His next resort was extreme weather conditions, depriving us of the cooling systems of our helmets; sweating proved a handy adaptation.
I’d grown accustomed to aching all over at the end of each day, collapsing in my bunk with little energy to expend. Sleep was no guarantee, since Radai loved to burst in at the late hours of the night, forcing us to get up and hustle to a “mission.” The Resket definitely had it out for us, and the way he’d spoken to Tellus’ soldiers as of late resembled Mafani’s vitriol. At least boot camp was almost over, though I was seething at the lack of activity on the warfront. Why hadn’t the Consortium sent out the cavalry? They’d had a hundred years to plan for this eventuality; there was no reason progress should be so slow!
“Back up, Cherise,” Gress was saying, as I returned to the dorm from a half-assed shower. “You’re telling me that you wear these ‘high heels’ to look taller, balancing on that tiny stilt? Why does everything you do have to be so cute?!”
She rolled her eyes at the Krev. “Maybe in another life, back on Earth, I’d be a fashionista. It’s interesting to think of all the trends we had, the styles that gained popularity. I’ve never been a girly girl, but still…I want the experience of just wandering one of those retro malls, and shopping for the hell of it. Carefree like we were before aliens.”
“Then we should set up one of these ‘malls.’ I mean, I myself prefer online shopping, but—”
“What do you shop for, Gress?” I interjected. “Obor combs?”
“I only asked to brush your hair once! You’re the one who grew it out and tempted me.”
Quana’s head snapped toward us. “Gress forgets you’re a sapient being yet again. He treats you like some ‘cute thing’ without your own wants and desires.”
“All I did was ask, Quana. Taylor turned me down, so I dropped it. I can’t help that his face screams adorable; that doesn’t mean I don’t know he’s sapient.”
“Where did your daughter get the idea to beg to ‘keep him?’”
“I should’ve never told you about that,” I scoffed. “Lecca is a child. It was unbelievable, but a little humorous.”
Gress slumped his shoulders. “I was horrified when she said that. She doesn’t understand what she’s asking.”
“Taylor wouldn’t make a good pet. He’s too temperamental,” Cherise commented.
“Exactly!” I declared, grinning. “See, everyone knows that.”
“You weren’t supposed to agree with that.”
“Well, I did. And Quana, you can fuck back off to whatever you were doing before you butted into our conversation.”
The Jaslip pinned her ears back and bared her teeth. “You already make a great pet, and you don’t even see it.”
“Yeah, yeah. Heard. So Gress, back to your shopping habits. What do you even do for fun, other than raising obors or Lecca?”
Quana angled an ear toward the conversation. “He watches Jaslip kids die.”
Gress drew a shuddering breath, but ignored her. “Well, I used to do improv classes before I got married. That was how I met my wife, Nevi. I always had a knack for getting into character on the spot. Knowing what I know now, maybe I’d have gone into theater. I got a lead role in most school plays I auditioned for.”
“You were a theater kid? You know what: I can see that,” Cherise commented.
“I’m picturing you doing a really dramatic reading of Hamlet right about now,” I offered.
Gress leapt toward me, jabbing a claw in my face. “Get thee to a nunnery!”
I snickered. Someone’s been reading The Bard’s works in his spare time. “How about no?”
“That’s not your line, Ophelia. Try again!”
“I think that Hamlet had more to say before Ophelia talked, Gressy boy. Go brush up your reading.”
“The only thing I intend to brush up is you! Get over here.”
The Krev pulled an obor comb out of his bag without looking back, and extended it toward me. I leapt away, holding out a hand to swat it away. The brush clattered to the ground, but that didn’t stop Gress. I yelped as the comms initiate chased after me, and grabbed at the underside of my upper arm with his claws. The green-scaled mammal’s machinations proved devious, lightly prodding and scratching the ticklish area. Involuntary laughter took over, as I jerked my arm away from the persistent fiend; it was difficult to breathe through the hysterics. Unrelenting, he tried to poke at my sides next, but I managed to fend off his plans.
“What are you doing?” I protested.
Gress paused for a moment. “Primates play through tickling. Your laughing fit betrayed that humans do as well.”
“You can’t just do that.”
“I can, and I did. What are you going to do about it?”
I lunged toward the floor, swiping the obor comb. Rather than resisting, Gress issued a happy sigh as I scratched his spine; his dark blue tongue flitted out of his mouth with contentment. That move hadn’t produced the intended results. What an irritating creature he was—he’d probably ask for me to do this again. I was glad I’d gotten to club him over the head once, that day on the landing pad, and I was thinking of braining him a second time right now. What had I been reduced to, all for some exchange program nonsense? To increase my humiliation, General Radai walked in as the Krev was leaning into the comb I grudgingly kept moving. I leapt to my feet in a hurry, trying to straighten up.
“Trench, with me. You’re meeting with Mayor Hathaway and myself in the command center,” the Resket squawked.
I tried to smooth over my still-damp hair. “Yes, sir. I’m right behind you.”
What is this about? If Hathaway wants me back in his office…first off, I thought that he hadn’t forgiven me for the drill fuck-up, and secondly, I wouldn’t take it. I don’t want to be a “pet” anymore; because I was his pet much more than I ever have been with Gress.
The training camp had become a permanent base, with its advantageous location on the Tellus hillside. Ever since the Federation incursion, the Trombil had diverted their resources away from building up our colony; everything that they had went to generating more ships and weapons, as many as they could possibly crank out. The metropolis was all but complete, yet most humans weren’t enjoying the new amenities—word of our system’s invasion caused almost every settler to volunteer for some wartime role. The abandonment of our build-up, after all, meant that there would be no cage around Tellus to safeguard our home.
“Sir, if this planet falls, the only humans left are the ones still growing in artificial wombs right now. I hope we’re doing something about the threat,” I ventured. “If I may, you seemed a bit hesitant when the Sivkits arrived. Almost as if you didn’t want to attack them.”
Radai’s steps became more forceful and pronounced, his lanky legs shoving down into the dirt. “I would’ve preferred to gather information and weigh possible attempts of other methods, because now, we’re locked on the path of all-out war. I don’t take that lightly.”
“Neither do I. My entire species got wiped out, sir, in our last bout. I sure as shit want my revenge. What made you decide to attack the Sivkits, if you preferred to sit on your wings?”
“I recognized that the crew would not heed my commands if I didn’t order you to annihilate them. You, and the majority of the human forces at my command, displayed gross insubordination. You panicked at the mere sight of them. I hope that I have not made a dreadful mistake. Either way, I’ve cemented a ghastly place in the history books, and I have blood on my wingtips.”
“We…we couldn’t let them bomb our home. We couldn’t let them find us. Not again.”
“I know you humans feel that way. However, you’ve proven that you’re not reliable assets in the field. Too obstinate, too headstrong. While your close-quarters combat skills are excellent, I can’t justify trusting you to the command of any non-human officer. This is why I’ve been testing you by the elements, because the only way you’ll see direct action is if electronics go down.”
“But sir—”
“Silence. Humans being briefed on our plans is a courtesy; you’re only here because you’re the liaison from Avor. You wanted this war, Trench, so let me fucking win it. Drones are more efficient than you could ever dream of being.”
I held my tongue as Radai stormed into his command center; I had to jog to keep up with the nine-foot-tall avian’s lengthy strides. A holographic starmap was projected from a large display, not dissimilar from those Terrans once had at the center of our bridges. It seemed to be a full display of the thousand-light-year bubble composing Federation space, with all known systems highlighted. Mayor Hathaway, riding a resurgence in popularity with the drastic improvements Tellus had seen, barely acknowledged me. He’d rebranded himself under the motto of a new era of workers’ rights, though he didn’t deserve the credit he’d received from that. I resented having been his fall guy and kissing the ring for so long.
The mayor stroked his graying beard in thought. “We need to reassure the populace of Tellus that they are safe, and that we have everything under control. The last thing we need is unrest; the citizenry is all too fickle. How do you suggest we go about this, General?”
“Management of the colonists here is in your domain. I’m here to relay the Consortium’s plans for the initial phase of the war, since you are a member state,” Radai responded. “Our plan is to utilize a decapitation strike. We’re sending an overwhelming drone force against the homeworld of each of the enemy’s founders: the Farsul and the Kolshians. We take down the peak of the Federation’s power.”
“Only two targets? What about the other 300 worlds?” I blurted.
Irritation flashed in the Resket’s eyes. “Three targets, swarmed by a hundred-fifty thousand ships each. We do want to leave a significant bulk of our force here, to protect Consortium worlds in case they come looking for us. Aren’t you the one who was so focused on protecting Tellus?”
“Yes, sir. That is sensible. Who is the third target you mentioned?”
“Nishtal, the Krakotl world.” Radai’s words brought gleefulness to my brain, at the thought of the birds who’d eliminated us getting their just desserts. “An old, powerful member that spearheaded the extermination fleet. As one of the most anti-predator factions, they must be crushed to break the Federation’s will.”
“I love your plan. It’s great.”
Mayor Hathaway heaved a sigh. “Let the grown-ups speak, Taylor. General, I’m certain that last target will buy us some political leeway. But how will we maintain contact with the vessels, so that we can know the results? Or touch base in case they need an update to their directives.”
“Our drones will be out of range of our FTL comms network,” the Resket replied. “We’ll try to drop buoys discreetly behind us, though each departure from subspace risks detection…and leaves traces of our tech that they could find. It’s also just flat-out a soft target that could be neutralized. In range of their primary systems, we’re better off tapping into their infrastructure.”
“Then it’s possible that we’ll lose contact with the drones for large chunks of time?”
“That’s correct. If they can’t uplink with us after the battle, they’re slated to make several attempts by doubling back. The footage of their battle and any intelligence gained is invaluable. Regardless, barring an immediate surrender, the secondary targets will be powerful and loyal Federation members, such as the Malti, the Drezjin, and most certainly the Duerten. The last one is extremely influential and well-connected.”
I cleared my throat. “Okay. And what about the Arxur?”
“The Arxur, while monstrous, can be left until after the Federation’s fall. They’re on the opposite side of Fed space, so they don’t directly threaten us. We can worry about them after what we hope will be a quick, utter collapse of our dear neighbors. They might surrender after decisive wins in the places I mentioned, preventing the need for further loss of civilian lives.”
Hathaway pursed his lips. “In the event we did need to go further, I must ask about our allies, the Venlil. For all of their flaws, we remember that they tried to help us, and planned to fight with us at Earth. I doubt public opinion is in favor of killing them.”
“Venlil Prime is designated friendly, and will be avoided unless we are given no choice. We listened to your story; we heard that they aren’t like the rest.”
“Thank you. We greatly appreciate being filled in and having our concerns met, as part of your organization. It’s delightful to be included.”
Radai dipped his head. “You’ll also be apprised of the war’s developments as they happen. We’re in this together, Mayor. Let’s just make sure your people don’t forget that.”
“I’ll do what I can to keep them in line. You’ll find me to be a dependable advocate for the Consortium; it’s the least I can do in exchange for your bountiful aid.”
“We did gift you many things to get you off the ground. All we ask in return is respect and support. You’re dismissed, Trench. As Mayor Hathaway said, the adults have things we need to discuss on our own.”
“I’ll see myself out, sir,” I retorted.
My mind was whirling as I strolled out of the command center. I was the first person on this base to know that we were taking the fight to the “prey” xenos, and it’d brought my enthusiasm through the roof! Humanity wouldn’t have to fear the Federation coming after us if we ended their threat; we’d bury them in their crib the way they’d done to us, over two decades ago. It was a shame that Radai ruled out future action in person, though I grasped that drones had higher efficacy. It was a glorious view when I’d watched the Sivkits blink out of existence live, as particle beams lit them up like a firecracker. A goofy smile lingered on my face, imagining the first images of a dead Krakotl homeworld.
An eye for an eye. I wonder what Gress would think of that saying. I can’t tell whether he’d say it exemplified a primate’s violent tendencies, or straight up agree. Cherise, and probably Quana, want those blue birds flayed as much as I do.
In my distracted stupor, I didn’t notice a blur of pink out of my periphery. A Resket bowled his head into my side, flinging me backward several feet. Pain signals shot through various parts of my body like a pinball machine; I struggled to pick myself up, and look at my assailant. Trainer Mafani had ambushed me when I turned back toward the dorms. He must’ve seen me tailing after Radai earlier, and despite the general’s warnings to stay away, he seized his long-awaited opportunity when I exited alone. Wasn’t it dishonorable on Tanet to utilize the element of surprise on an unsuspecting victim?
“You! You terrorist-loving, chatterbox snitch! You sicced General Radai on me, and now, I might never train recruits again.” Venom dripped from Mafani’s voice, as he stamped a foot onto my spine: pushing me back to the dirt. “I was humiliated because of some lesser cloacasucker who tried to govern my speech. You’ll pay for everything, Taylor!”
I struggled to breathe with the weight pressing down on me. “It’s over. I don’t want…to quarrel with you.”
“It’s not about what you want, primate. I want you dead for what you’ve done to me—and I have no moral qualms about fighting dirty with anyone who sides with terrorists!”
“That someone isn’t me! Stop please…you’ve made your point. I’m a refugee from a dead world; you don’t want to k-kill anyone from an endangered species. You can’t! What happens if Radai finds out about this?”
“Radai is preoccupied. He’s not here to save you this time. I’m going to tie you up, leave you out in the desert that I hear you wanted to explore, to bake in the sun I hear you craved on your face so badly. I’ll put a beacon on you so that you are found in a few days, and they see the pitiful way you died. They’ll find you bound like an animal, having soiled yourself and struggled against the restraints until your fingers bled. When you hallucinate for a drop of water, I hope you think of me.”
“That’s sadistic! You…I don’t want to die. Please, I’ll do whatever you want.”
“I’m going to inject you with a paralytic, so you won’t be able to struggle—or talk—until it’s too late. Enjoy being locked in your own mind, Taylor Trench.”
Mafani jabbed a needle into my neck, while I tried to scream for help; unfortunately, I couldn’t generate much noise with his weight pressing into my lungs. As my mind remained conscious, my body refused to obey my commands within minutes. I found myself wishing that Gress was here to save me, to play the role of hostage negotiator as he’d done in the past. However, as the twisted Resket trainer began carting me off toward a tucked-away vehicle, there was no one around to save me. I’d made plenty of mistakes over my lifetime, but I didn’t deserve to die like this!
Terror plagued my mind as I was hurled in the back of a truck, and rope was coiled tightly around my limbs.
---
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Conclusion
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Shout out to SpacePaladin15 for the original universe and credit to Soggy_Helicopter8589 for the AU lore, check out his story The New Age of Wolves.
She almost has it
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Memory Transcription Subject: Woef, Diplomat, Warrior in Training, Project Manager
Date [Post Cataclysm]: March 1, 1291
I stood to the side as my people entered into Agni Vila, peaking every so often at the Gojid on the wall. Toji was watching me more than the rescues, almost as if he considered me a threat. It made my tail wag. That dumb exterminator had no clue what had been happening behind his back, he was far too focused outward to even notice the building tension.
Kulola had done a stupendous job on her assignment, almost everyone inside the village was ready to give the humans another chance at least or were fully supportive of them at most. And being Toji’s right-hand woman, Kulola would be the last person he would expect to instill such feelings even if he was suspecting something.
All there was left to do was create an opportunity to swoop in and take power, proving that strength was the correct path to take, but I couldn’t force it, ironiclly. If they knew I masterminded an attack or somehow coordinated this entire thing, they would lose all faith in me and by extension the humans. Thankfully, not even my soldiers knew my plan, the only one with an idea was Stephanium and he was in full support of me.
Once I became the leader, I would gain independence from him and become my own faction, yet still remain close to the Blade Watch as an ally. They weren’t a resource I could waste, even if they were associated with the grays.
I blinked out of my thoughts as Kort passed by, bringing up the rear as they entered the village. He had become very close to me with our walk around the fortress and had proven to be a talented fighter. He had taken to the human-style armor and weapons quickly, even quicker than I had when introduced. If not for Cocus, he would have become my personal bodyguard.
But there was someone more important than Kort, and she was riding right on his shoulders. Fosralosula was most likely the only Dossur on the entire planet, and she was loyal to me. It didn’t take much thought to realize that she’d make a perfect spy, doubly so on this planet. Dossurs already resemble the rodents of this planet, but Fosralosula’s fur color made her resemble them that much more. She had a very special place in my plan, but her time wouldn’t come just yet. She still had some training to do, learning how to read a language and sneak around settlements took time.
I could hear the bar slot into place as the gate shut, ensuring that the imaginary danger of the humans couldn’t get inside. I turned and looked up to Toji, waving a paw as I did. “That’s everyone, get them settled into their homes and keep them safe, you hear?”
“They’re already better off just by being away from those humans. Now that the extension has been built, there’s no need for you to stick around with the predators anymore. You can leave. No, you should leave.”
“You are always so rude, you know that? At least say goodbye.”
“I don’t think I will. You’re not worth it anymore. You’ve spent far too long with the humans and it has changed you. You are no longer prey, but you’re not cruel like a predator. At least, you aren’t showing it. But one day it will show, proving me correct.”
“So I’m not worth a goodbye, but I’m worth all those other words.”
Toji moved to respond, but caught himself and turned away. I chucked at the old fool as I began heading back to the fortress, already trying to figure out a way to shake things up enough for me to take power.
I already had the support, but I couldn’t just walk in and become the leader, that would be a quick way to lose the support I worked so hard to get. I couldn’t hold a vote either, even if Toji was needlessly scared of humans, he was still an authority figure that people trusted. Even if they disagreed on one thing, Toji had been in power for a long time, he was familiar. I needed some way to prove that I was more competent than him, but it wouldn’t just fall into my lap.
Briefly, I thought about asking Stephanium for help, but he already had enough influence over me already. I wanted to do things on my own this time, even if I was borrowing some of his tactics to do it. Next, for some unknown reason, I toyed with the idea of faking an Arxur attack. I knew where they were, I knew I could talk to them without getting mauled, but would I really stoop so low? I’ll keep it in my back pocket, just in case.
As we passed the forest perimeter and the Blade Watch fortress registered in my vision, I came up with another idea. A Viking or Samurai attack repelled by my rescues with the help of the knights would make the perfect opportunity for me. It would show off our strength, my leadership capabilities, and how we could trust the Knights. However, there was little chance that was going to happen. I couldn’t just summon a raid, and going out to cause one would get me killed, so all I could do was wait. I’ve waited for this long, I can wait a little longer.
I didn’t have much more on my schedule today, only a talk with Stephanium and some more training, but I wasn’t sure what to do with my free time. Usually, I’d use it to talk to the rescues, but now that they are getting settled into Agni Vila I would have to find a new time sink to use. Maybe I could finally go back to learning how to write in human.
I’d have to figure that out later, as I found myself standing outside of the planning room once again. I had come here so many times that I didn’t even need to think about the path needed to get here. Cocus followed me through the door as I passed through, but stayed by the entrance as I made my way to the large circular table at the center.
Stephanium wasn’t at the center, however, making me wonder where the aging Knight could be. With nothing better to do, I began studying the map that Stephanium was so fond of pouring himself over in thought. I had never taken the time to truly absorb what the map had on it, and I doubted this time would be any different, but it was something that would let me pass the time.
It was divided into three sections by a large set of rivers that cut through the land. To the east was the Myre, a swampy land that served as the native home of the Samurai. To the north was the frigid land known as Valkenhiem, a near never-ending winterland that the Vikings called home. And finally to the west was Ashfeld, a more temperate land with an active volcano in the center that the Knights claimed as their own.
Deep in Ashfeld, Stephanium had circled several small towns that connected in a line heading towards the Myre. They might have been supply lines, but there were no markings I could’ve used to understand them.
Fortunately, the sound of the heavy door opening marked the arrival of Stephanium. He gave a small wave to Cocus before making his way over to me, crossing over to the opposite side of the table. “How’d it go? Well, I’m assuming.”
“It went well. Toji was his usual self, Kort acted brave like usual, Fanla was the first to get inside the walls. Can’t complain too much.”
“Well that’s good. It’s always nice to see a plan come to fruition.”
“Well it’s not done yet, I still actually have to take power and make it look like I didn’t force my way in. What are these circles, by the way.”
Stephanium walked off to pull up a seat. “Towns. Or what’s left of them more specifically. Viking raids have been happening right under our noses for a while now, only going after forgotten hamlets or unimportant villages so no one has bothered to check up on them. Odd thing is they are burning everything to a crisp, even the few valuables in those towns.”
I shrugged. “I couldn’t tell you if it was odd or not. I’m still not informed on most of the happenings of the world.”
The chair scraped to a stop and Stephanium planted himself down. “While Vikings are known for their… liberal use of fire, they wouldn’t use it this much. They wouldn’t even have the resources to make the amount needed to do this. At least, they shouldn’t. Assuming they snuck into Ashfeld, they would have needed to take supplies with them. If they carried that much oil with them there would have been no way to miss them. You don’t need to stand, you know. There are plenty of chairs.”
I waved his suggestion away. “Could it be an inside job? Maybe some lord or leader is using them. Let them in with all their supplies, send them to wreak havoc for a little while, reap some power or wealth from it?”
“It’s possible, but not likely. Multiple lords would have had to make the deal for the Vikings to get where they started from, some of which hate the Vikings for historical reasons.”
We paused for a moment, letting each of us organize our thoughts. With a flick of my ears, I started a new line of conversation. “Why does this concern you? I mean, even if it looks like they are heading for you, it sounds like they have been found out and by looking at this map there are several other factions to fight through. Looks to me like this problem is going to be handled before it becomes anything more than a distant concern.”
Stephanium chuckled. “While I agree, I can't ignore it for other reasons. The Lord Warden herself is calling me among others to deal with this problem. Ignoring something like that is a quick way to tell others that I’m weak and open for raiding, so I’m heading away here soon and taking a decent number of troops with me. No one knows the exact numbers, so I can’t be too careful.”
“Ah, it’s going to be lonely without my favorite trickster here to keep me company. Who else am I going to talk to about conniving and scheming?”
“Yeah, yeah. Takes one to know one. I do have a request for you before I go, however.”
“Better be simple. Simple things are harder to hide ulterior motives behind.”
“It’s pretty simple, in concept. Cairo’s still alive, in the possession of Anneli, and I intend to get him out. Anneli’s getting called back to deal with the Vikings as well, and she has to pull a large number of troops with her as well. Chances are she’s going to leave Cairo at her camp in the Myre, a perfect opportunity for escape.”
“So, where do I come in in all this? I’m not exactly sneaky or strong, sounds like you just want me to get killed.”
“That’s not the favor. The Dossur, what was her name?”
“Don’t worry, I forget it sometimes as well. Such a big name for such a small person. Fosralosula’s her name.”
“Right, Fosralosula. I need her to deliver a message to Cairo. Now before you rebuttal, I’m not saying that she travels all the way to the Myre by herself. She would get snatched by a snake as soon as she got there. I would have some soldiers escort her to Anneli’s camp so you don’t need to worry about her safety. That’s where I need the favor.”
“So you want me to convince a traumatized rescue to become a spy, escorted by the people that remind her of her trauma, to deliver a message to a man who we don’t know is alive or not in another faction's territory? Man, try something a little harder next time. Maybe, you can ask me to try to convince Toji not to have a stick up his ass.”
“I know, it’s a big favor, but big favors earn big favors.”
I bobbed my head from side to side. “That is true, but I don’t entirely trust you. You’re still a trickster at the end of the day. I need some kind of insurance.”
“Hey, the behind-the-scenes stuff is done with you. I only did that because you were new and unknown. It’s only natural to take the safest approach, and knowledge is control, and control is safety. If that’s not enough, I’m sure there is something I could give you as insurance. How about… the Order of the Comet?”
“Wwwhat do you mean?”
“Well, I give you full control over the very few remaining members. They will be bound by oath to you, binding them to your will. An oath is worth more than one's life so they won’t be breaking it anytime soon.”
“Hmm, I guess I could try. Don’t expect a miracle though, I can only do so much. At the end of the day, Fosralosula is the one who decides if she’s going or not.”
“Hey, as long as you try, I’ll consider your oath honored and your favor valid.”
“Then it’s a deal. Take care on your trip, you old trickster.”

Hogwarts Legacy might have great graphics, an awesome castle design and fun combat but that's where my praise for it ends.
When it comes to aspects that actually matter, while dated, I think some of the older HP games implemented a better gameplay loop and had a more immersive atmosphere. Sure, they are far from perfect, with clunky gameplay and all the limitations of the time, but for movie licensed games they had some features I was extremely disappointed weren't included in HL:
1 - NPC interaction (banter, dueling, throwing benches or rocks at them, jinxing them, trading cards)
2 - Quidditch
3 - House Points and sneaking at night (while flawed and annoying at least it added to the atmosphere and it's a feature I want in the future)
4 - Exploration: secrets and collectibles
5 - Minigames (more student interaction)
6 - Classes with challenges and grades
7 - Exams (More minigames or challenges)
8 - Better focus on Hogwarts rather than random hamlets/hills no one cares about
9 - Companions following you around
I still go back to replay these games from time to time but, in contrast, while enjoyable, HL feels like an empty, lonely and unfamiliar museum. I really tried to love the game and I was, for the first third of it, while exploring the castle, but then it just makes you leave and it doesn't feel like I'm playing a game in this franchise anymore. Also, everyone being so nice to you gets on my nerves. Sebastian and Ominis are the only saving grace when it comes to the story, though.
I'm not even criticizing the game based on unreasonable expectations - if PS2 games are able to do it so should HL, but they chose to focus on a boring Ubisoft-styled open world. Now, I don't hate the game by any means, but I struggle to see how so many people think it's so great. It is a great start, for sure and I have high hopes for the sequel - the older games did a lot better though, with what little resources/time they had. Objectively, it might be a better game, but not by a whole lot. Replaying it is a chore.