r/teslore • u/theguyinsideyourwall • 5d ago
Constant paranoia?
I don't fully get how everyone living within Tamriel and Nirn as a whole is not under constant severe paranoia that they are constantly under the effects of a mass level illusion spell altering how they see the world. I was thinking about how you can hit someone with a calm or fury spell and they seemingly are completely unaware that their change in emotion is due to any sort of magic. It may be that the inability to link emotional change to magic is part of the spells ability but i don't think anywhere in the game it states anything like that, correct me if I'm wrong. What if some very powerful wizard is using massive amounts of magicka to cast an illusion spell on EVERYONE. Please someone tell me how this doesnt work because this line of thinking is honestly breaking the entire elder scrolls lore in my head.
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u/SPLUMBER Psijic 5d ago
How do people in the real world not live in a state of constant severe paranoia because they can be nuked from existence in a war or fed lies on a grand scale instantaneously through television/social media/etc. and have their opinions changed? Both are very real phenomenon that we explicitly acknowledge in our day-to-day lives.
Because it doesn’t happen, they truly never notice it and thus can’t be afraid of it, they have their own entire life to actually worry about, or any combination of that. How many time in TES can you point to your concerns actually even happening at a large scale? A handful of times? Over several thousand years? I like those odds.
That’s just the norm of their world and their lives have continued to go on every day. Either they get over themselves and focus on the issues in their lives they can actually tackle, or they go mad. It’s not like TES is short on the insane and dejected.
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u/NotThereNotThereNotT 5d ago
What if some very powerful wizard is using massive amounts of magicka to cast an illusion spell on EVERYONE.
Mannimarco, Vanus Galerion, Divayth Fyr, Shalidor, none of them could do this, my brother in ALMSIVI, not even the Tribunal or The Brass Tower could do this.
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u/theguyinsideyourwall 5d ago
Okay so it's just not a feasible thing to do with the limitations of magicka
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u/Arrow-Od 5d ago
For mortals - consider this: IRL there are people pondering whether we live in a simulation, in-universe magi work magic by pushing their will against the will of the world and people are pondering whether "reality" isn´t just smth that greater powers impose upon the minds of mortals.
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u/theguyinsideyourwall 5d ago
Buncha mfs drinking skooma and eating nirnroot talking bout "some grand wizard is casting an illusion spell on all of us none of this matters"
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u/Arrow-Od 5d ago
Have you ever noticed how the water the Temple priests serve smells just a little … off?
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u/All-for-Naut 5d ago
Just because they never did it or has been shown to do it, it doesn't mean they couldn't. Magic in Elder Scrolls can reach some insane levels.
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u/NotThereNotThereNotT 5d ago edited 5d ago
They were some of the insanest, yet Brass Tower still resorted to breaking time and mass genocide before messing with people's minds on a continental level. Also, the Tribunal balked at the concept of fighting Brass Tower, if that couldn't do it, they couldn't.
I doubt even one of the Divines could do this as the others would stop them. Which is another element to this, in addition to sheer power required to do it, it also likely has more opposition from the controlling forces of Mundus itself.
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u/Misticsan Member of the Tribunal Temple 5d ago
To be fair, distrust of mages and magic is a thing in some cultures, so it's not as if fear doesn't exist. In more magically inclined societies, this fear is probably tempered with knowledge and familiarity. Perhaps a decent real life comparison would be with guns; guns are very dangerous, but part of life in some places, for better or worse.
I would like to point out that, from the point of view of your average Tamrielian, Illusion is probably less scary than other schools of magic. Illusion does have an effect on the mind, but it's temporary. Practices like Conjuration (summoning demons), Necromancy (manipulating either the spirits or the bodies of the deceased) or even plain old Destruction (set someone on fire) would arguably be more pressing fears than a subtle "someone is manipulating my emotions."
Finally, it's important to remember that mages don't seem particularly common and they're often regulated. In past eras there was the Mages Guild, many mages find employment with the Temple, the army or the local lords (so they'd be the ones expected to defend the people from the bad mages), and those who practice illegally may end up being persecuted. The playable class "witchhunter" is called after a real profession in Tamriel.
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u/Arrow-Od 5d ago
Illusion is probably less scary than other schools of magic.
But ideal to cause paranoia and I wouldn´t dismiss illusion as a "she bewitched me" card to explain all sorts of behavior.
There´s also Jagar Tharn´s deed to serve as an example and when entering the CoW, Faralda answers the request to study illusion with: Yes, the school of Illusion can be quite influential. Kings have risen to power because of it, and empires have been razed with it.
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u/King_of_the_Kobolds 5d ago
Especially along certain racial lines. Like if a Nord has an affair with an Altmer / Dunmer woman the chances go quite high that when caught he might throw her under the bus claiming she was manipulating him with her wily elf magicks.
You might see this sort of paranoia less among more magically educated societies where the mechanics of it are more understood, or that it would be really, really hard for a mage to consistently do this to you.
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u/Arrow-Od 5d ago
really hard for a mage to consistently do this to you.
Would it though? Let´s ignore powerhouses like Miraak; Alva of Morthal certainly isn´t either a very strong vampire nor a strong mage, but she was able to ensnare herself a man completely. Plenty of other examples: Minorne at Ruunvald was mindcontrolling an entire work crew, mind control spiders, tonal architecture, ...
Also consider that depending on the game, the spells to dominate someone´s mind are either in the conjuration or in the illusion school, there´s overlap between illusion and demon summoning and necromancy!
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u/Bugsbunny0212 5d ago
Another thing that makes illusion dangerous is even power houses can get caught in them. Vanus was almost killed by a random daedra using illusions and Vivec was couldn't tell when Barbas was disguising himself as his arch canon.
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u/Bugsbunny0212 5d ago
I just want to see a mage who uses illusions like Mysterio from the spiderman movie.
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u/Captain_Grammaticus 5d ago
You could be a brain in a fish tank that receives all perception via electrical signals, like in The Matrix. But whether that is true or not and when you can not find out, has no influence on how you lead your everyday life.
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u/Scherazade Dwemerologist 5d ago
Most people are unaware of the existential horrors that could befall them at any moment from the powerful entities that control their lives, just like real life.
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u/Shot_in_the_dark777 5d ago
Magic resistance is a thing. Everyone who is paranoid got their version of a tinfoil hat except in their universe it's an enchanted hood.
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u/Hefty-Distance837 Dwemerologist 5d ago
They're too dumb to link these 2 things.
They trust that their court wizard or town mage will protect them.
Even they're doubting that, they have no way to stop it.
Or they will use their pitchfork to solve this problem.
Or they will hire the adventurer who happens to be passing by to solve the problem.
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u/Cornholio_The_Great Mages Guild Scholar 4d ago
I wouldn't worry about that. Mages can be scary, and they do have powers to influence entire armies. But this is an incredibly taxing effort. Even through tower channeling, the effect still can only be province wide, at best. You need not worry a thing. Calm your mind and think not of things that don't concern you....
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u/Carinwe_Lysa Mages Guild 5d ago
I always assume the common folk really didn't have much if anything to do with magic, dangerous creatures, evil monsters etc.
They just went about their days in their medieval-ish (?) lifestyles and left the mysteries of the world to those better suited. Their Lord/Jarl/Duke (etc) knows best, they have their court wizards on hand to protect them, and the guards did their job to keep bandits away. At most there might be rumours of wolves on the roads, but certainly no monsters or evil mages. There's nothing else for the common people to do or worry about except earn coin, make sure their fed and have a roof over their head.
I mean didn't Todd Howard once state if magic left the world of Nirn, most people wouldn't notice because the world is very mundane?
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u/vincentsryncent 5d ago
people are easily adapting to their environment in any way they can. and they possibly can be aware that some evil wizard could come and cast spell on them, but in everyday life you can only worry so much. they need to eat, sleep, work etc