Black Marsh

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The Black Marsh is also a fictional region in the action-RPG Diablo II.

Black Marsh is a region of the fictional continent of Tamriel featured in the Elder Scrolls series of RPGs. The Elder Scrolls: Arena's maps of the continent place it in the southeastern part of the continent of Tamriel, bordering Morrowind to the north, and Cyrodiil to the west,^[1] a location it has kept in later games in the series.^[2] It is presented as the homeland of the reptilian humanoid race of Argonians,^[3] and a race of sentient trees known as the Hist.^[4] Black Marsh appeared in Arena, the first ES series game, but has been absent in every game following. Nonetheless, despite the region's absence from the games following Arena, regional lore continued to be developed in game dialogue and in in-game literature. A game titled "The Eye of Argonia", which would have involved the province, progressed through some early planning stages at Bethesda in the wake of Redguard, but was ultimately cancelled to make way for the more ambitious Morrowind.^[5][6]

A map of Black Marsh.

[edit] History

Within the Elder Scrolls legendarium, the earliest inhabitants of the Black Marsh and environs are believed to have been the Hist, great life-giving trees of unknown capacities. According to the Morrowind game book, The Annotated Anuad, a Bosmeri creation myth, the region presently known as the Black Marsh was once part of a much greater landmass within the domain of the Hist, but the greater part of the region was flooded during the wanderings of the humanoid Mer races. "The Hist were bystanders in the Ehlnofey war, but most of their realm was destroyed as the war passed over it. A small corner of it survived to become Black Marsh in Tamriel, but most of their realm was sunk beneath the sea."^[4] According to The Imperial Library's History of Tamriel, Argonians came to inhabit Tamriel in small, preliterate communities by the Early Merethic Era.^[7]

Canonical information for the period in-between the mythic origins of Black Marsh and the latter part of the Third Era is sparse. Most in-game fragments occur in various parts of the extensive literary corpus of the series. Ted Peterson's^[8] lengthy Morrowind novellas, 2920, The Last Year of the First Era and The Wolf Queen respectively state that the major Black Marsh city of Soulrest had an Argonian battlechief by 1E 2920,^[9] and that Lilmoth had an Argonian priest-king by the first century of the Third Era.^[10] The Third Edition of Pocket Guide to the Empire, shipping with the collector's edition of Oblivion,^[11] gives the only example of Argonian territorial expansionism within the series. Argonian armies from Black Marsh are described therein as having come into conflict with the neighboring Cyrodiilic Imperials. The last of these Argonian armies was defeated by a Cyrodiilic force in 1E 2811.^[12] A possible contradiction ensues with an earlier account from Morrowind, which states that "No army of Morrowind or Black Marsh has ever threatened the security of any other Imperial province, let alone the security of Cyrodiil itself,"^[13] but this particular passage could be explained in any number of ways, particularly given that the book in question is generally polemical. Morrowind developer Gary Noonan cautions against using any source too exclusively, and emphasizes the dynamic nature of the series' lore. "Remember! The PGE was written in a 'tourists' view. Much like reading a diary. You cannot expect the 'fictional' author of the writing to be right about everything. By putting something in concrete, you limit yourself downplay suspense and originality for further developments and such. Not everything we say is always true. Sometimes, even we developers speak out of personal beliefs and idealisms about certain aspects of TES. And it is NOT always correct.... many times, it is INcorrect purposely...Not to be cruel, but its keeps everything very dynamic and ever evolving. Just because we tell you a red stick is white, it doesn't mean it isn't really green."^[A][5]

The Pocket Guide to the Empire remains a key in-game source for the descriptions of the various regions of Tamriel left undeveloped within the games themselves, and the lynchpin which holds most narrative schemes together. Though, in the words of Gary Noonan, it is "not a TES Bible"^[5], the guide was part of an extensive expansion of the series lore that took place during the development of Redguard, the game with which it was eventually shipped.^[14] Morrowind Project Leader Todd Howard describes it as "a point in time when we said ... 'we need a guide for all the new stuff..make it more unique', and the PGE was born..."^[15] Within the game world, the Pocket Guide was commissioned by the Emperor Tiber Septim for the purposes of promoting Imperial interests across Tamriel, a potentially uniting piece of propaganda providing Tamriel with an oficially acceptable Imperial-driven history.^[16][17] On the subject of Black Marsh, the authors write, "these vast swamplands were once part of the Second Empire, which, in 1E 2837, had seized a large portion of it to create the Imperial Province of Black Marsh,"^[18] The guide further states that "many humans still refer to the region by that name, but the Elves call it Argonia, after some ancient battlefield where many of their ancestors fell." The Guide traces the origin of the racial name Argonian with this rather contentious etymology. Though it is not directly indicated in any in-game lore, a passage in the Morrowind book A Short History of Morrowind implies that Black Marsh was incorporated into the Empire by treaty or pact rather than by military dominion. "Resdayn was the last of the provinces to submit to Tiber Septim; like Black Marsh, it was never successfully invaded, and was peacefully incorporated by treaty into the Empire as the Province of Morrowind."^[19]

Though the enslavement of Argonians did not appear in the TES series until Morrowind, it was a known issue at Bethesda since the development of Daggerfall.^[5] Savant's Note On Vvardenfell states that Dunmer from neighbouring Morrowind have raided the Black Marsh for slaves "for ages." Morrowind's plantations are in many places entirely dependent on the enslavement of Khajiit or Argonians labour. The Dunmer Great House Dres is particularly noted for its militant support of the institution, and hostile to the emancipatory Cyrodiilic Empire.^[20] During the later years of the Third Era, Black Marsh came into conflict with its Dunmer neighbours to the north in the bloody Arnesian War. The Black Marsh's armies were destroyed, but an Argonian was able to capture and murder an influential Dunmer merchant called Roris^[21] who was later made a saint by the Dunmeri Temple.^[22] Interestingly enough, the documents prepared for Lord Vivec by the Temple imply that Black Marsh retains control of some historically Dunmer provinces, despite their loss in the Arnesian War. In their detailing of Dagoth Ur's plans, they state that he wishes to "Recover ancient territories stolen by Skyrim and Argonia."^[23] The Dunmer and the Argonian races, perhaps unsurprisingly, have a "long standing and bitter hatred for one another".^[20] PC Gamer reviewer Steve Klett reacted fondly to the inclusion of racial tensions in Morrowind, writing that "Robert Jordan would be proud of the complexities here".^[24]

A screenshot of the southern Nibenay region, north of Leyawiin. Decumus Scotti's account suggests that the region shares many of its geographic features and wildlife with Black Marsh.

[edit] Geography

Within the Elder Scrolls universe, Black Marsh is located in the southeastern part of Tamriel. "Most of the Argonians reside in the inland waterways and swamps of the southern interior. There are few roads, and the principal method of travel is by boat," according to both Morrowind's in-game dialogue and the book Provinces of Tamriel.^[2][25] Fictional novelist Waughin Jarth's description of the region in The Argonian Account confirms this characterization. The Argonian Account concerns the trials and tribulations of a one Decumus Scotti, a moderately influential Imperial bureaucrat who finds himself in exotic locations at exciting times. Jarth, in an in-character interview by developer Ted Peterson, attested that Decumus Scotti is, within the context of the series, a real person, though "Decumus Scotti" is just a convenient pseudonym.^[26] Jarth's original Morrowind novella, Dance In Fire found Scotti caught in the recurring conflict between the Khajiit of Elsweyr and the Bosmer of Valenwood, to which he responded with the characteristic quick thought of a management type and brought himself some authority within his organization. The Imperial Library preserves an email in an appendix to their edition of Dance In Fire, where Ted Peterson implies that Scotti's next adventures would find him in Black Marsh.^[27] The reliability of the Account is uncertain, with the Imperial Library characterizing his previous work as "a mixture of fact and fiction",^[28] but the book manages to fill many holes left by other lore, and complement the statements of others in a convincing way. Jarth, though he has himself never "been anywhere in Black Marsh but Gideon", claims to have interviewed Imperial travellers to the province, and attests to having the descriptions right.^[26]

In Jarth's novella, it is found that the poor condition of the roads prevents food from arriving fresh at any destination.^[29] The main character, Decumus Scotti describing the goods, "grain, meat, and vegetation," of his caravan as being "in various stages of corruption." Lord Vanech, principal administrator at the Imperial Building Commission, says in the novella that "despite staggering investments of time and money, the trade along those routes only gets slower and slower."^[30]

Impediments to road travel are seen to abound; fast growing grasses that cover important trade routes as quickly as they are cut down; insects, affectionately known as fleshflies, that feast on the soft skin of non-natives; rivers that seasonally flood several feet;^[30] and roving bands of beastly Nagas, raiders of caravans.^[29] One of Jarth's Argonians speaks of land transportation with subdued irony. "We don't have the broken wagons and dying horses of our brothers on the outside," rolling his tiny eyes. "We don't know better."^[31] Jarth's novel finds it a solely Imperial desire to make trade land-based, and encourage large scale plantation complexes, and a desire that has done little good for Black Marsh itself. The novella finishes by having Scotti clear up most issues relating to Imperial interests in Black Marsh, returning travel to its historical form, by boat and Underground Express, and by ceasing Imperial efforts to change Black Marsh's economy from one oriented on subsistence agriculture into one oriented on export crops. As Jarth writes, the situation is that "Black Marsh simply was, is, and always shall be unable to sustain a large-scale, cash-crop plantation economy." "Black Marsh," in Jarth's summation of Scotti's accomplishments, "[is] better off than it [has] been in forty years."^[31]

A screenshot of the Blackwood region, east of Leyawiin. As with the southern Nibenay, Scotti's account suggests that Blackwood is in many ways similar to the land across the border.

Little of Black Marsh's urban culture is to be found in the game lore, though we are fortunate enough to have some sparse fragments. A traveler recounts in the Daggerfall book, The Alik'r that Lilmoth possesses "mold encrusted villas" and that Helstrom possesses "wonderful, dangerous alleys."^[32] The cities of Black Marsh are also described in another piece of material, the semi-canonical city descriptions from the early development of Arena, while it was being planned as a fighting game.^[33] Each city is given a short monograph describing the player character's entry to the city and first impressions. Lilmoth is described as "the home of the Dark Tide," "gloomy and foreboding," pervaded by an "unnatural fear," holding "much underneath its streets." Gideon is described as the "black city of the followers of Seth." Blackrose is located "near the legendary forest of Murkwood." Stormhold is apparently given over to tension, understandably, because of its "proximity to the Dark Elven lands." Thorn is described as the "Jewel of the East," and as "deadly as it is beautiful," where "vagabonds eye your purse strings and guards seem to turn lazy eyes elsewhere." Much of the other information is given in the same style, leading the reader to wonder if all cities in Tamriel are dangerous and deadly, or just the ones the player character visits. Not so much of the rest is useful, however, focusing the warrior teams present in each city rather than the cities themselves.^[34] Brendan of the Argonian Compendium postulates that the description of Gideon's reference to "followers of Seth" may be a reference to the chaos god Sithis, or an Argonian corruption thereof.^[5]

Jarth's novella provides some further information on Gideon. Though never arriving there himself, Scotti describes Gideon as "a large settlement more or less laid out like a Imperial city, with more or less Imperial style architecture, and all the Imperial comforts and traditions, more or less,"^[29] "a thoroughly Imperialized city," with "gates."^[35] Another fragment, a series of RP posts made in a TES forum by a former dev describing Stormhold in the north, is more in-depth, but perhaps less reliable. The author of the Argonian Compendium describes the source thusly. "RPing is first and foremost an exercise in fiction and so even though this comes from an ex-dev with a continuing involvement in the Elder Scrolls games, it must be approached with caution. This may or may not be drawn from lore known to Tedders that's part of the ES canon; it may be all his own imagining."^[5] Nonetheless, it provides some tantalizing detail, if not entirely canonical detail. Using the Compendium again, to summarize:

"The description of Stormhold is of a city suspended above a vast swamp and under constant rainstorms. Bridges are slung like spider webs between huge trees and stone buildings on stilts (presumably not wooden stilts-- such couldn't support the weight and also sit rotting in a bog). Noteworthy is the mention of three Hist trees in Stormhold alone, countering speculation by some fans that only one Hist still lives."^[5]

—Ted Peterson, Argonian Compendium

Also interesting is the suggestion that the swamp underneath the city filters southward, which suggests a common drainage basin for the Black Marsh extending all the way up to the border with Morrowind. Locals seem to believe something along the same lines. We read the Argonian Shehs say in Waughin Jarth's Argonian Account: "Everything in Tamriel flows down to Black Marsh."^[31]

[edit] Native life

[edit] Argonians

Argonians as they appear on the Elder Scrolls website

The Black Marsh generally has a southerly marsh-like climate, and the florae and faunae that would be associated with such an environment. Jarth's Account suggests a climate similar to that of neighboring Blackwood, the swampy region east of Leyawiin, though with denser vegetation and less hospitable wildlife.^[30] The most prominent residents of Black Marsh are the Argonians and the Hist.

Argonians are a cold-blooded beast race of reptilian humanoids, consistently portrayed throughout the Elder Scrolls series of games as intelligent, quick and agile, tending towards the in-game character classes of the mage and the thief. The appearance of the race has been progressively developed over the series as minor refinements in their design were made for each game, developing from a near-Dunmer variety of humanoid in Arena to a lizardlike variety of amphibian with digitigrade legs in Morrowind.^[5]

Argonians were characterized by game developer Michael Kirkbride in a post on The Elder Scrolls Official Forums alongside the Khajiit as the Other.^[36] Various racial categorization schema within the series find them as "beasts", or "Betmeri", in opposition to the developed humanoid races of Elves, Imperials, and other Mer.^[37] Argonians are often given descriptors telling of their alien nature. The Daggerfall manual describes Argonians as "strange", the Morrowind website describes Argonians as "expressionless," "reserved" peoples, "slow to trust and hard to know",^[3] and manuals as far back as Daggerfall show signs of a similar viewpoint.^[5]

While keeping their general character as an 'alien' race, Argonians have been given certain new personality traits during the development of the series, specifically, an added emphasis on Argonian clan loyalty and a strong personal sense of kin. Dreekius, the sole Argonian in Redguard, an Argonian so particularly acclimatized to the customs of Hammerfell that he speaks without a hiss, describes his role outside Black Marsh in terms of his clan. "'How ... does an Argonian manage to leave his tribe to wander Tamriel?' 'You refer to me? I do not wander, Redguard; this is a settled study for me, from which I'll add to the wealth of wisdoms when I return to my clan.'" Dreekius further mentions his respect for "clannish drives," "which any Argonian might admire, being used ... to honor the clan's interests above our own private affairs."^[38] Morrowind's in-game dialogue describes Argonians as "cautious and secretive" because of their history of "persecution and enslavement" by other races.^[39] Dreekius speaks of Black Marsh in anticipation of trials to come. "'How have the denizens of Black Marsh resisted the Empire so long?' 'A thousand miles of swamp, bog and stink aren't attractive to most humans, and terror of the Knahaten Flu still holds most at bay. But our days of testing will come.'"^[38]

[edit] Hist

The Hist have been tossed around quite frequently on The Elder Scrolls Official Forums, all due to one dangerously mislaid sentence. In the PGE, Argonians are said to never have left their homeland "except for a relatively intelligent strain called the hist. [sic]"^[18] This statement, implying that the Argonians are a type of Hist, left quite a bit of fallout, but was resolved by a clear statement by Mark Nelson that the whole thing resulted from ignorance on the part of the editors of the Guide. Hist are, in fact, great sentient trees worshipping the eternal, immutable, god of chaos, Sithis. Unfortunately, it is difficult to find many canonical statements about the Hist in game lore. The Annotated Anuad gives us the some information, telling us that the Hist are one of two races to survive the "twelve worlds of Creation," along with the Ehlnofey, and that the Hist had a great homeland sunk beneath the sea by the wars of the Ehlnofey. It is never certain how much credence one should give to a creation myth. Any statements regarding the Hist's survival of the twelve worlds of a Creation should be treated with due suspicion.^[4]

Many cursory remarks give the impression that the relationship between the Argonians and the Hist as nearing the level of symbiosis. From the keyboard of Mark Nelson: "I will tell you that there's more to the Hist than has been told, and they and the Argonians have a much deeper relationship than previously thought...Black Marsh is, sadly, far too unexplored, leaving the enigmatic Argonians shrouded in a bit too much mystery for my liking." Gary Noonan provides a description of the Argonians as being similar to the Khajiit, and varying from a nearly human to a completely lizardlike race much like the Khajiit vary from a nearly human to an entirely catlike race, depending on how many times "they decide to lick the tree". In further posts by Mark Nelson he commented that he was not willing to speak of the relationship between the Hist. "As for the relationship, I'm not talking yet." "There has been talk about how the Hist (and Hist sap) are related to Argonian sexuality. This hasn't changed...it's still related. And, it's not a taboo topic; I just don't think it's the most interesting one out there." The issue has not since been delved into with any more depth or clarity.^[5]

[edit] Other

The only Cyrodiilic humans said to have ever lived in Black Marsh for any length of time were the Kothringi tribesmen, who were wiped out by Knahaten Flu. The flu persisted for 41 years, from 2E560 to 2E601. The native Argonians proved immune to the effects of this plague, leading others to suggest that they and the Hist had created it.^[17][18] The last recorded case of the flu was in 2E603, after the aforementioned Kothringi tribesmen had fled the Black Marsh by boat and disappeared.

Black Marsh was once inhabited by another species known as the Orma, a race predisposed to blindness, during the First Era, but they, too, succumbed to the Knahaten Flu and died out.^[5] Wamasus or Wamasii, dragonlike creatures, were also once to be found in Black Marsh, though there are no recent reports of their existence.^[40] Werelions, which Black Marsh shares with Cyrodiil and Elsweyr, werecrocodiles, which Black Marsh shares with southern Morrowind,^[41] tree-dwelling lizards,^[37] and dangerous feather serpents^[42] are other curious purported forms of indigenous life.

Jarth records Scotti seeing what are called Hackwings in Black Marsh, "giant birds with long, saw-like beaks nearly the size of the rest of their bodies." A fellow traveler is written speaking of them. "like everything else in this damnable place, they'll eat you if you don't keep moving. Beggars pounce down and give you a nasty chop, and then fly off and come back when you're mostly dead from blood loss."^[29] Jarth's recounting of Scotti's voyages also finds in Black Marsh several other varieties of exotic life. Fleshflies, "blood-colored, sand-grain-sized insects," which feast on human flesh, are found by Scotti to inhabit Black Marsh and southeastern Cyrodiil, where they deform the faces of those unlucky enough to be caught by their swarms.^[30] Further into Black Marsh, Scotti encounters Nagas, much to his displeasure. Argonian caravan trains are frequently ravaged by the beasts, big, black, covered with scales, and possessing small black eyes and huge mouths dripping with needle-like fangs.^[29] Black Marsh is also home to rootworms, which a smuggler casually introduces to Scotti as a type of 'Underground Express.' The rootworms are useful to travelers, swallowing them whole and taking them on with the current. Their digestive systems are apparently quite slow, and travelers "could live in a rootworm's belly for months."^[35]

The alchemical ingredients Dragon's Tongue and the Somnalius Fern are native to the Black Marsh.^[43] Dragon's Tongue is a fernlike herb lethal to the touch. It gains its name from the fire-red fronds that surround its golden efflorescence. The Somnalius Fern is light green and delicate, crumbling to the touch. It has the effect of fatiguing the creature that inhales it. Both plants are also found in Cyrodiil. The Dragon's Tongue is also found in Oblivion, along the Golden Road separating Skingrad from the Imperial City, and the Somnalius Fern along the Eastern vale of the Nibenay basin, and as far north as the Great Forest.^[44]

[edit] Role in The Elder Scrolls series

Black Marsh plays an admittedly small role in the Elder Scrolls series, outside the scope of every game following The Elder Scrolls: Arena. In Arena, the player's goal is to gather up the various shards of the Staff of Chaos, piece them together, and use the completed staff to defeat the usurper Jagar Tharn. One of the shards lies in the Black Marsh region of Murkwood.^[45] Arena, ironically, is not the main source of information about the region, lacking, as it were, the exhaustive literature and game dialogue of later games. Black Marsh may play a small role in Oblivion as a cultural influence on the Argonian populated^[46][47] towns of the southern Nibenay basin, Leyawiin and Bravil, who border the region, but such influences remain unmentioned both in in-game description and external commentary.

Arena found the region dotted with lakes and heavily forested, characterizations reinforced by later lore.^[18] Daggerfall provides an Argonian an accompanying role in the novella King Edward, giving insight on the character of the Argonian peoples;^[48] Redguard's companion Pocket Guide to the Empire gives a description and a brief Imperial history of the region;^[18] Morrowind completes various parts of previous lore, adding to the region's history, to Argonian physiology, and to the mythical origins of the land. Oblivion holds the greatest additional material, providing the four-part novella The Argonian Account, an eyewitness account affording the only contemporary description of the region in lore, and covering aspects of ecology, geography and the modern history of the region.^[30] For the most part, however, the land remains a mystery, with much information privy to the developers yet to be revealed.^[5]

Prior to the development of Morrowind, Bethesda began work on a direct sequel to Redguard in the Elder Scrolls Adventure series featuring Black Marsh, "The Eye of Argonia," but Redguard's lackluster sales caused them to drop the idea.^[5] In an interview Morrowind's project leader Todd Howard suggested that there was potential for the game to be developed on the Playstation, where action-adventure games are seen in a more favourable light, but this idea doesn't seem to have gone anywhere.^[49]

The game would presumably have had the same third-person action-adventure elements of the Redguard game, but would focus on the quest for the mythic jewel, the Eye of Argonia, which would lead the player to the Lost City of the Black Marsh. The jewel's location was known to the character Dreekius, who refers to it as "the priceless king's jewel of ancient Black Marsh" and to its seeker Tobias as "another softskin [...] all sword and swagger."^[50] The Eye is also mentioned in a retelling of an archaeologist's travels, where it caps off the tale as the subject of the archaeologist's next destination.^[51] The Eye was further referenced in an easter egg for the Morrowind expansion pack Tribunal, where a player who describes himself as "Looking for the Eye of Argonia" is congratulated for "providing an original and entertaining excuse."^[6] The Eye of Argonia remains an in-joke for the series, but hasn't been developed any further than the above mentioned fragments and remains extremely obscure.

Black Marsh's role is inextricably tied to that of the Argonian population of every game, who are generally characterized as "mysterious,"^[3] people about whom "little is known,"^[20] and who are not known to have written any in-game books, making the region perhaps even more alien than those other regions who are as well beyond the scope of the series.

[edit] Notes