A Study on Memory and its Affect on Reproduction

Author - Sothas

Preface

I found it troubling that there has yet to be an answer to the most basic question. How exactly is it that parents have children? We, of course, understand the act of copulation. We know the basic mechanism of child creation and growth, but we have yet to fully grasp why offspring takes on traits of its progenitors. It should be noted that some study into this has been done prior to my own experiments. The Notes on Racial Phylogeny has provided some direction on this topic and routes to further investigate. It was the final point made by the notes that peaked my interest the most.

“One might further wonder whether the proper classification of these same 'races,' to use the imprecise but useful term, should be made from the assumption of a common heritage and the differences between them have arisen from magickal experimentation, the manipulations of the so-called 'Earth Bones,' or from gradual changes from one generation to the next.”

I knew the experiment I desired to perform would not be taken well by the agents of Queen Ayrenn, Eight bless her immortal soul, so I set out to conduct this test in secret.

I spent some time in search of my specimen. She had to be a perfect human, untouched by the pure blood of kin. I needed a Nord. I made my way to Winterhold. It took several months of searching, but I found her. I will refer to her as Specimen 1A, or 1A for short. I was able to successfully acquire her without incident from her home and bring her to my lab in Alinor to begin the study. Specimen 1A was a perfect example of Man. I managed to trace her lineage back thirteen (13) generations and not a single Mer existed in her bloodline. She followed the doctrine of the Nordic Eight, and even revered the barbarian, Reman, as did many of her familial unit.

The experiment began in 2E583 and ran for 758 years.

Parameters

For this experiment I needed six offspring from 1A. Three with Mer seed and three with Man seed. During the time I spent searching for 1A, I also acquired a counterpart. He was similar to 1A, with a family of pure Manish lineage and had a religious and ideological outlook stereotypical to Nords. I called him Specimen 1B. He took offense to the designation, but experimentation is not interested in such trifles as names. Upon arrival to my lab, I put the two in a room together and convinced them copulate until they produced three females, discarding all male get. They were 2A, 2B, and 2C. All three had customary traits of Nords. From this, I proceded with my plan: These first offspring would only copulate with other Men. They would remain as such for the entirety of the experiment.

After the get were born, I discarded 1B, and allowed 1A to assist in raising a few of them as described below.

2A was taught only about Manish customs and ideologies by 1A. Her line would be the control. It will be referred to as Line A. Upon coming of age 2A was provided a male to mate with and produced a single female offspring. It was at this time I removed 1A. This would become the normal operation of all further generations.

2B was taught Manish customs and ideologies by 1A as well, but she was also taught the more pure ideologies of the Altmer and did not spend all of her time with 1A. She was a combination of Mer and Man in thought. As with 2A, I provided a male with whom to mate, and she produced a single male and single female offspring. The male was discarded.

2C would be different. She and her line would be taught only Merish ideologies and beliefs. She and her offspring would never remain in proximity of any who learned of Manish belief systems. As before, I provided a male, and then he was discarded after the birth of a female. However, this one took two attempts. The first offspring was a male, who was discarded. The second was a female, who continued the line. This line will be referred to as Line C.

For Line D, E, and F I needed pure Altmer noble seed. I introduced myself and my own seed to the experiment, which would remain the norm for the duration there of.

As with the pure Manish seed, I separated these offspring into separate groups. Line D would be taught only Manish beliefs, Line E would be taught both Man and Mer beliefs, and Line F would be taught only Merish beliefs.

It is at this point that I must add that during the time of this experiment, I was forced to find a new male every 15 years in order to produce a new generation. This was done so with the dedication as was done with 1A and 1B. Only the most pure Manish lineage was used. If there was even a hint of a single Mer in their family line, they would not be used for the experiment.

Results

The results were astonishing. I will provide the results of each line individually and I will begin with the less intriguing. The experiment produced 47 generations.

Line A produced results as would be expected. Line A remained completely dedicated to Manish ideologies and never once showed signs of Merish beliefs, nor physical traits. This remained true for all 47 generations. Specimen 47A showed no definable Merish traits.

Line B remained Manish in appearance just as much as Line A. However, their belief system morphed to produce a strange mesh of Man and Mer beliefs. To them, Shor was no longer the hero-god of Man, but was instead akin to a trickster deity. He wasn’t purely evil, as we know the Doom Drum to be, neither was he their divine hero, as many Nords consider him.

Line D, much like lines A and B, remained physically Manish. Their ideologies also mirrored Line A's almost perfectly. I say "almost," because something strange happened after 23 generations. They began speaking of Ald  instead of Alduin, Akatosh, or Aka-Tusk, who are more typical Manish Dragons. Moreover, Ald became a more favored deity in their belief system than the Dragon ever could be within Nordic society. It is as if their line remembered the stories of our own Ancestors.

Line E was quite interesting. The physical features of 47E, as well as several generations prior, looked quite similar to those of a Breton. Indeed, their belief system and ideologies, while not exact, struck a similar tune to Breton beliefs. Shor became Shorkan and was believed to be the Mad Man who did with mortals whatever he believed he could. This lead me to ponder on the experimentation of Clan Direnni. Did this experiment follow similar guidelines as their own? Perhaps, but I hold to the fact that their experiment was not properly conducted and they lost control. Line E’s belief in the Dragon was favorable, much like our own. Line E was the truest of mongrels.

Line C showed even more interesting results. While their physical features remained quite Nordic, their ideology changed completely. If one did not know any better, it would be difficult to tell they were not Altmer. They did not, of course, possess our poise nor our grace, and there is no possible way they could even hope to achieve Praxis. However, it is worth noting that, when interviewed by unaware 3rd parties, they were unable to distinguish between an Altmer and Line C without visual confirmation.

Line F is the the most astonishing result. Not only did line F produce a belief system identical to our own, but by the end of the experiment the mannerisms and physical characteristics of this line were indistinguishable from an Alinor raised Altmer. This is true to such a degree that I released 47F into Alinor and indeed, she joined the Thalmor and is currently working under a prominent Justiciar. I will not release her name yet, because as of the writing of this report, no one has been able to determine that she was of Manish lineage. She is, for all intents and purposes, a true Altmer. I will make one request of the council, that they do what they can and attempt to discern her identity. If you believe you know, let me know and I will gather the results of your guesses and present them in two months at the quarterly council meeting.

Interpretation

It is obvious that, through generations, not only do physical traits differ and change based on not just the mother, but also, over time, the father as well. What is most important is the strange shift in ideology of Line D. They came to remember some aspects of their Merish lineage. I believe the transference of Memory via the seed of Aldmeris provided insight into these beliefs.

Lines A, B, and C showed no signs of the memory of Aldmeris. Line C may sound Altmer, but this was in mimicry only.

Line F was the most favorable. In addition to the teachings of our kin, the memory of Aldmeris physically manifested in them and they became exactly as all Altmer are.

Addendum

Now I address you directly, my fellow council. From this we can see that it is possible to alter both the physical state and belief system of future generations through the memory of Aldmeris. I believe that this is easily obtainable with our mongrel cousins, but we will have to eradicate the barbaric practices of the Green Pact. We can begin immediately to integrate them back into Aldmeri society via a new Dominion. Now that we have control of the Isles after the Great Anguish, we can begin expanding as we have always dreamed and remove the taint of Talos from the land.

There may be additional studying that we can benefit from. As some of you are aware, there are stories from the Khajiit Clan Mothers that indicate ancient Bosmer and Khajiit may have originated from the same Ehlnofey. If this is the case, then perhaps we can conduct an additional experiment on their kind. Perhaps we can return them to an Ehlnofeic state. Perhaps, somewhere deep within, they too remember Aldmeris. I propose an interruption of the Lunar Lattice and subsequent monitoring their offspring for results.

The ultimate gain from this experiment is the knowledge that Man can indeed be lost. With the correct application of memory and force, we can remove Mankind from memory altogether. We start by destroying the Upstart Talos. He must be forgotten; With this done, we can return to our truest state.

We will be limitless
-S