Is there any setting with more philosophical, high-concept lore than Kirkbride's Elder Scrolls...

UESP has always been more interesting than the games. Skyrim is good for mods though, and Morrowind was great for its time

Kult has Gnosticism wacky reality prisons if that's your bag.
Also I heard 13th Tribe had some neat stuff too, haven't had a chance to read it.

If I had rank the lores of the major fantasy settings according to philosophical weight and how evocative and resonant their worlds are, it'd go:

Elder Scrolls (Thelemic philosophy and initiation, problem of evil, transcendence, nature of mortality)
Prince of Nothing a hair behind (neurophilosophy, thinly-veiled Gnosticism, dangers of transhumanism, also best magic system around)
Lord of the Rings (beautifully evocative of the richness, history, and depth of its world, almost like a contemporary mythological setting)

--- break

Magic (only because the art sometimes hits that level of realism and believability that the flavor text is always too soy to ever capture)
Warhammer 40K (art's a little dinky to do justice to the themes of the evil in men's hearts and all that but still a great setting)

--- break

Warcraft (generic as it gets, still hasn't outgrown that fucking corny ass [adjective][noun] fantasy naming convention)

Considering Warcraft is Warhammer but more over-the-top I wouldn't say it's not at the very bottom

Maybe it's the epic scale and Warhammer's unflinching depiction of evil (the Warp is genuinely nightmarish in a lot of the books) that gives the setting a bit of much-needed heft

>Prince of Nothing
Great fucking taste

Philosophy is nothing but psuedo-intellectualism. Healthy people are grounded in reality. People who study philosophy can't separate abstraction from reality.

genius the transgression

sites.google.com/site/moochava/genius

But then what the hell do I know?
No body cares for my opinion or wants to hear me opine on the subject.
Maybe the truth needs a bit of sugar to go down.

>Philosophy is nothing but psuedo-intellectualism. Healthy people are grounded in reality. People who study philosophy can't separate abstraction from reality.

How to critique pseudo-intellectualism while sounding more pretentious than the actual pseudo-intellectuals.

Opalescent Emanations

Kirkbride's Elder Scrolls lore is probably the biggest mind-wank ever done just to explain "it's a vidya"

CHIM is real m8. The self integralized by its very exposure to the nothingness that it is. The poison becomes the wine. This is the alchemic nigredo, for one, as well as Buddhist praxis, which is the progressive dis-identification with the nullity of phenomena.

>Gnosticism - the thread

Is there a more kino belief system?

Ego death doesn't result in a poof.

Does Planescape count?

It can, in some systems. New age systems want nothing more than you to melt back into le Source.

Hermeticism. Neoplatonism. Thelema. Zen Buddhism. Taoism.

I absolutely love planescape for its settings - the idea of infinite planes of water, earth, etc. is just so surreal and dream-like for me - but it doesn't have the punch I wished it did.

Found brainlet.

To answer, yes it is, but it really depends. Do not try to forcibly go 2deep4u areas just because it sounds good and intellectual way to go. But do not fear to go that way if it seems really itneresting&comes natural to you. Just remember not everything has to have such a feature.

I presonally really like it.

But your response embodies some type of philosophy.

Why do people who say "pseudo-intellectualism" always out themselves as people who obviously have no idea what intellectualism even looks like?

Because nowadays society went so downhill that you have really hard time finding true, decent intellectuals out there.

There's gnosis in a saran wrap on the side of the road if you know how to look. The world's as full and profound as you are. Not saying culture right now is at an all-time scintillating high but the light is always burning.

>Retards screaming 'degenerates' while pretending things used to be better and right.

>Elder Scrolls & Prince of Nothing
Patrician taste in this thread.

>soyboy with no frame reference for how life on this planet was like has things to say about the hundreds of generations that toiled and bled on this earth before him

>tfw it's finally over and you still don't know what Kellhus' endgame was

D-does that make me patrician?

It was 24-Dimensional backwards Benjuka played against 4 opponents at once with the Gnosis.

None of that lore actually makes it into the game, or really influences it.
You are praising something that should have been a book. If a GM came up with all of this shit, you would decry him for wasting his time.

>Anasûrimbor Kellhus
Reading this guy's tvtropes page makes him sound like a massive Mary Sue. Please tell me there's depth and nuance to this series.

>None of that lore actually makes it into the game, or really influences it.
>Actually thinks this
Want me to tell you exactly how I know you're just full of shit?

That's the point of his character.

His whole point is he is an edgy OC Donut steal. Most of the first two books is based around him being too over powered. It gets better later when it turns out he is actually just an absolute psychopath manipulating everyone for vague goals that most likely will not pan out. He may or may not be also dammed to Hell.

Oh my goodness thank you so much. I've have been hoping to witness someone use "soyboy" for real for ages. You are like a unicorn, a precious precious Unicorn. Keep on going kiddo, you live your dream.

You're one of those people who skips dialogue and cutscenes then complains that the game didn't tell you what to do next, aren't you?

Nice response. Showed him.

Have you met my friend Talos? You know, an essential and divisive religious figure?

This sounds like some faux deep bullshit to me.

>If a GM came up with all of this shit, you would decry him for wasting his time.
Don't lump me in with your stupid ass. I would explore the shit out of his world the way I hope I could explore the world of the Elder Scrolls.

Who or what, if anyone or anything, is that snake supposed to symbolize?
I never really understood why Talos is depicted killing a snake.

Thats actually a really good question. I think it might be a dragon? Like, wasn't a dragon-born a natural dragon killer? We should ask the lore friends this weekend.

Only low T people type like this

Maybe, but I thought Tiber Septim came after the Blades of Reman Cyrodiil's dynasty killed all the dragons

This is like a two'fer! I cant believe this is a real thing! Like, I mean I've heard about people calling other people "low-T" but I've never actually seen it until now. This thread is the best.

I think I remember something about him having a red dragon as a Not!Slave. Maybe the snake is a filthy elf?

>le soyman flabbergasted by them crazy alt right antics in 2018 schtick

Don't you have some a comment board on msn to shit up?

Talos took Lorkhan's place in the pantheon by mantling him. Lorkhan's Nordic manifestation, Shor, is depicted as a snake. Talos is also the result of an enantiomorphic event (an event in which a rebel figure overthrows a king figure whilst maiming an observer figure). Hjalti Earlybeard was the rebel, Ysmir Wulfharth the king, and, if I remember correctly, Zurin Arctus the observer. The connection to the statue is that the original enantiomorph occurred with Akatosh as the king and Lorkhan as the king. It is my conclusion that the statue represents one or both of these events.

Makes sense to me

Shit, meant Akatosh as the king and Lorkhan as the observer

I'll accept it. it Seems legit.

Yeah, I assumed that's what you meant, since Akatosh seems to be an observer for basically everything

god fucking dammit I didn't mean to say that either
>Akatosh: Rebel
>Lorkhan: King
it's too late for this shit

Are you kidding? This is so cool! Its like witnessing a modern interpretation of Jewish purity codes. Like soy = sinful and sinful = punishment IE things like Low-T. We're witnessing a cultural return to pre-enlightenment thinking!

I would think Akatosh would be the observer, since his maiming could be represented by a dragon break

The enantiomorph I'm talking about is Akatosh ripping out Lorkhan's heart. Perhaps Magnus is the observer?

Least intelligent post I have read this week, congratulations, I'm genuinely impressed.

What about Trinimac?

Tell me about the Godhead, why does he wear the Aurbis?

>enantiomorph
Is this specific to TES or is this a general mythological thing?

One could say so. Like most enantiomorphs there's no real right answer, just a matter of interpretation

I thought Trinimac was the one who tore Lorkhan's heart out in the first place

Not him, but I don't think Trinimac existed yet at that point.

Trinimac was a divine just like the rest of them, and he fought as Akatosh's champion in the war between him and Lorkhan if I recall correctly. Perhaps you're thinking of Malacath.

Enantiomorph, noun -

1) A mirror image, a form related to another as an object is to its image in a mirror.
2) Either of a pair of crystals that are mirror images of each other, and are optically active.

As a mythological concept I think it's just an Elder Scrolls thing.

Enantiomorph is specifically Elder Scrolls, but the idea of two principles balanced/reconciled by a third is universal across esoteric tradition

Why does TES always take unrelated, random words and make them metaphysical concepts
>enantiomorph
>amaranth

Kalpa is straight up the same thing in Hinduism, and I think there's Vimana in TES as well
Mostly it's just that Kirkbride isn't good at linguistic

2/10, gave me a chance to reply with this

Bump

>bumping after 30 minutes
We're not on /v/ lad, Veeky Forums is a slow board

Well not comparatively. Have you been to /po/?

I forgot to add Mage: The Awakening and one of the Demon WOTD campaign settings that I forget the name of right under Prince of Nothing. Those 5 are the big ones. Does anyone have any others?

I think the Myst series fits the bill. The existential nightmare of creating worlds within worlds plays out well throughout the games.

This, but welcome to mankind, where people need cartoons and rituals to accept daily life or else they go nuts.

Also, they really love to argue. Those fucking humans.

The real question is: Elder Scrolls lore could endure against 40k lore in a cage fight?

I'd talk about my setting with pleasure but my wife is the one managing information release, and I've to be keep for now, until she says I can talk about.

-Life is suffering; suffering cannot be escaped
-But wait, you can escape suffering is you cease to exist
-You can never trully cease to exist, universe infinitely repeats itself

Is this high concept enough?

I can't tell if you're just a cuck or you have way too much faith in the quality of your setting and think this is a sound business decision

Obviously Rick and Morty.

To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Rick and Morty. The humour is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of theoretical physics most of the jokes will go over a typical viewers head. There's also Rick's nihilistic outlook, which is deftly woven into his characterisation- his personal philosophy draws heavily from Narodnaya Volya literature, for instance. The fans understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of these jokes, to realise that they're not just funny- they say something deep about LIFE. As a consequence people who dislike Rick & Morty truly ARE idiots- of course they wouldn't appreciate, for instance, the humour in Rick's existential catchphrase "Wubba Lubba Dub Dub," which itself is a cryptic reference to Turgenevs Russian epic Fathers and Sons. I'm smirking right now just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as Dan Harmon's genius wit unfolds itself on their television screens. What fools.. how I pity them.

And yes, by the way, i DO have a Rick & Morty tattoo. And no, you cannot see it. It's for the ladies' eyes only- and even then they have to demonstrate that they're within 5 IQ points of my own (preferably lower) beforehand. Nothin personnel kid

>they have to demonstrate that they're within 5 IQ points of my own (preferably lower)
Pretty sure bestiality's illegal most everywhere

Fuck man, I could read TES lore for hours and hours.

I dunno, I steer clear from world's like 'deep' because it gives a false impression of self importance, but in my experience, Mage the Awakening has introduced me to interesting subjects.

Like I've always been interested in Platonism as a concept, but Mage also deals with the idea of Phenomenology, how our minds don't just use symbols but are drawn by them.

It was either Husserl or Heidegger who suggested that we don't necessarily choose the subject of our interests but rather these symbols hold sway over us instead. Mage plays with this idea a little further. For example, the servants of the demiurge-like Exarchs justify the oppression of humanity by pointing out that Supernal symbols (which operate like phenomenological 'noema') manipulate non-mages without them necessarily even noticing it. Since only mages can enforce their will on the supernal, only they have free will. Sleepers, not having free will, are little more than cattle or pets.

Without contest.

>WAAAAH I WANNA PLAY AN ETHERITE IN NMAGE the game
Yeah nah m8

everywhere on earth, or everywhere in a specific country? Because it's not illegal in sweden or denmark last I checked, or like 1/3rd of the states in the US.

"High-concept" means simple and easy to summarize in a single sentence or phrase.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-concept

Didn't he get fired before Skyrim?

It may be illegal now, but it certainly wasn't when you were conceived.

I find Ascension actually trippier than Awakening.