Morrowind Doesn't Have Any Rivers

[@any_austin]

GET A BUDGET. It’s me Austin. Check out Rocket Money for free: RocketMoney.com/anyaustin #rocketmoney #personalfinance Sponsored by Rocket Money. Hit up the description for a donation link for that ocean cleaning charity. Love you guys. edit- ok damn literally all of you need me to personally encourage you to start budgeting it’s gonna take me a while to respond to everyone

[@Cranberrie123]

Have you considered looking into the game The Long Dark? It has an extensive in game map with railroads highways rivers etc, and it really feels like they tried to lay it out in a believable way.

[@ichorholic]

I speak for at least some people who’ve ever played Morrowind when I say, I do need a little encouragement to start budgeting.

[@john_blues]

Rocket Money is good, their 'lower your bill' service is a scam. Google the complaints on it. Happy budgeting everybody!

[@dcred123]

​@@Cranberrie123"The Long Dark doesn't have any lakes"

[@X862go]

Thanks God 👐

[@sonicSnap]

the slough fern got me, i'm totally convinced they're sloughs now

[@MentalAsEver]

It was a beautiful moment, for sure

[@RobuttRandy]

i was screaming knowing about the slough ferns going in

[@Maziko_Lee]

OHHHHH!!!

[@falseprofit9801]

Or at least that one is the devs was cooking :)

[@abeldigiorno4836]

holy....

[@manguy01]

Man presents amazing theory. Plot twist: "I'm wrong." Plot twist 2: "I'm right."

[@Albanus35]

"Or am I?" hahahah

[@chrisbaker8535]

Call an ambulance but not for me

[@rmpgdemon1871]

*enter vsauce intro theme*

[@duckheadbob]

His original counter arguement doesn't even really make sense either. Unless he is saying that the volcanic event was so massive that it couldn't create slouphs (which doesn't make sense to me) - otherwise his point makes total sense. These geological events take 1000s if not millions of years to fully settle. The eruption happened and then the water bodies began to settle and within the 1000s of years after it was then that the dark elves came and colonize the area. Hence why they've built their cities on the slouphs as they are now.

[@jamessucker3690]

He's like the M. Night Sloughmalan of Morrowind youtube XD

[@PaperyPip]

I was thinking about commenting "hey, there's a slough near my house!" and then you literally started talking about the slough near my house so now I'm spooked and this counts as an early Halloween video

[@CErra310]

someone will use comments like this to dox you one day. be careful

[@SirReginaldBumquistIII]

R u HELLA crazy spooked ong forfr real

[@venusishigh]

He started talking abt a slough near my house too and I was like.. woah!

[@seanherron3423]

next line have 'em like woah, i know about the slough that's outside of your home

[@Generalized615]

You are the main character

[@jsnmdn2738]

The whole volcanic thing isn't headcannon, though. Red Mountain has erupted at least twice by the time Morrowind starts, and the main point of it in Skyrim is that the mountain blew up again.

[@AltairCreedZ]

Man, the dunmer cannot get a break, huh

[@OsnosisBones]

@@AltairCreedZ It's probably karma considering all the slavery and other past misdeeds. Angering some of their own gods too probably didn't help. Tribunal trickery I could see also inciting divine wrath too.

[@matiasvonbischhoffshausen1307]

​@@OsnosisBonesthe meteor that was floating above Vivec City was apparently placed there by Sheogorath out of boredom, and was being kept suspended by Vivec, until the Living God's disappearance

[@GlidusFlowers]

@matiasvonbischhoffshausen1307just to clarify, it wasn’t placed there by sheogorath, it was *thrown* at the city by him, vivec stopped it and then kept it there for millennia or more, mostly as a threat “if you ever stop loving me, I’ll drop this boulder”

[@matiasvonbischhoffshausen1307]

@GlidusFlowers that is what I meant by placed there, but thank you for your explanation anyway

[@VPCh.]

Geologist here. One possibility for the ones in the mountainous regions are fjords. Narrow passages of ocean water the reach deep inland due to glaciers carving steep channels in the rock. This fits the geology well. And while the climate seems warm, Morrowind is actually set at the same latitude as Northern Skyrim, past glacial events would be very plausible, perhaps gone now due to the volcanic activity and weather changes from the red mountain. Tidal canals wouldn't have the energy to carve through bedrock. As for the shoreline swampy marshes, they would be tidal marshes, areas of salty water with many small islands of sediment and many non-flowing canals.

[@stuckupcurlyguy]

That would explain why all they grow is saltrice

[@vezokpiraka]

Yeah, I'm kinda baffled there was no discussion regarding fjords. It could explain the geologic features present pretty well. Also he kinda stuck with the extreme volcanic eruption, but even a smaller one could have shifted enough of the lands scape to completely separate the island if it was already not perfectly connected. And also if the connection to the mainland was near the ocean, the thawing of the glaciers after the volcano emerged, might have just raised the water level enough to overflow what was previously an inland lake and connect it to the ocean. I feel like there way too many possibilities for this area to form to just call it video game design.

[@BlinddragonsLair]

I was thinking of fjords too, as soon as he pointed hout how straight that river is, but I am not so sure that one works since it is on the south side of the vulcano and there a no similar features further south of it on maps and neither are there any on the north side of the island

[@Infernal_Elf]

As a Norwegian i was bloody shure that is what he would go with before slough. Only problem is that fjords are usually quite wide and deep. And very often also have mountains both sides.x

[@nicolasduhaut4771]

Yes, fjords filled with a lot of sediments due to the volcanic activity. It would be interesting to compare with regions of the world that have both fjords from ice age glaciers and volcanic activity, like Iceland.

[@sunflowerhandler]

thanks for adding the diagram even though it was admittedly pointless, it's important to the austin video energy

[@JFGraham26]

that was one of the most electric parts of the video. completely necessary

[@skyhonni]

I misread Austin as autism and it still made sense (in the very best way. I am autistic)

[@MoogieSRO]

@@skyhonni I'm so glad I'm not the only one

[@sunflowerhandler]

@@skyhonni hell yeah me too, peace & lovee on planet earth

[@ankoku37]

@@skyhonni oh good, same

[@AmazingMrMe123]

To me the Slough Fern appear next to all these supposed and named rivers is evidence of how videogames are collaborative projects. The person designing the water features probably thought of them as flowing rivers, but the technology didn't exist for that so they were all flat and just kinda figured players wouldn't notice. And most of us didn't. The dev making plants, tasked with making unique plants for specific areas probably looked around at all that stagnant water and said "looks like a slough, let's have a slough fern here." Multiple interpretations of something can wind up in the final release because of the collaborative nature of making a game.

[@UndeadKIRA]

Truly inspiring

[@Mecceldorf]

And of course the geology doesn't have to be wrong on both accounts, I mean Vvardenfell should be a far larger region if this were Arena/Daggerfall scale, and the moment you consider the map as a sort of theme park, a lot of these dissections start to break down conceptually. It's like looking for Garvey park in a Manhattan snow globe. If it were to scale, who says this peculiar region doesn't support both rivers and sloughs on account of these interpretations?

[@AmazingMrMe123]

@@Mecceldorf yeah it's like how when Austin did all those Skyrim employment surveys the populations are waaaaay too small and the ratio of adults to children is crazy off. Morrowind doesn't even have children as I recall, but one would assume canonically they exist even though they don't appear in game. Canonically I imagine Vvardanfall would be home to all kinds of rivers, sloughs, lakes, and marshes with the rainfall it gets. But in practice and with tech limitations we only see a narrow subset of the canonical environment just like we only see a narrow subset of the population. I would personally enjoy a daggerfall scale game again but that would lead to lots of other concessions and probably more procedural generation.

[@expendableindigo9639]

For a more random example of this, I recommend Hard Drive Mags’ video on whether Rare’s design of Donkey Kong is Donkey Kong’s son, Donkey Kong Junior, or Donkey Kong’s grandson. The amount of contradictory answers Nintendo employees have given is pretty funny.

[@popeofsimps2924]

oh yeah thats how we got the Fallout 1 colt 10mm thats basically an alt history landstad

[@roblanco]

I was not prepared for that 8 year difference between Morrowing and Skyrim. It made me pause the video and took me on an introspective realization of ageing and finality.

[@mebrithiel]

i was lucky enough to be at age and in groups of computer students back then! the speed of computer game development and computing in general was insane!

[@goose93]

You think thats crazy? There was only 2 years of time between the release of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask and The Legend of Zelda: Windwaker.

[@chrism45]

Oblivion came out 4 years after Morrowind and Skyrim 5 years after. Oblivion was a huge step in technology, but a rather similarly empty overworld like morrowind

[@peensteen]

@@goose93 To some people, that was a step backwards visually. Quite a few people hated the Disney's Hercules-esque look.

[@-Comet.]

So a guy named David wrote a paper that discovered that a random river in California was actually a slough, which was used for a video about a 20 year old game, which links David's charity in the description, meaning that David's paper led to donations for saving the planet. Nice. Edit: People in the comments hate turning simple events into a story ig

[@davidstrife165]

Organic advertising, though unusually deep rooted before bearing fruit

[@101fng]

Way to go, David!

[@jakem4648]

​@Machoman50ta You're here too, and so am I. When the bots take over at least we'll all have something in common.

[@boopedsnoot]

I donated and told them about the vid. Hopefully they get to see it

[@EnbyOccultist]

@Machoman50ta You hate fun, huh? You despise whimsy and fantasy? You have no imagination or wonder? You're some kind of grim, gangling gloomer? A dreary doomer of sorts? Some fashion of diabolical debby downer? The Patroclus of Party Pooping?

[@GrubbHubbClips]

Im a hydrogeologist / fluvial geomorphologist ((its what Randy does in south park, study flow and rates of rivers and groundwater), and this is amazing. You are doing field geology on a video game map and I am here for it. somthing worth noting is that a locations surface geology is key in guiding where water diverts, following the weakest, most easily eroded rock. Many of the features can be explained easily with dipping rock units of varying compedancy. This explanation is hydrogoelogically simpler, as it does not require your assumed volcano story. without a medieaval drill rig we cant be sure why those slew structures are there though. I never knew i cared so much about geologically consitent landscapes until now. thanks for video xoxoxo

[@Dimitrishuter]

Heck yes!

[@James11111]

What Randy did* in South Park. He runs a weed farm now.

[@GrubbHubbClips]

@@James11111 we miss you randy where ya been?

[@Wing_cap]

Ah the promised experts in the comments, you're here!

[@Missingn0mast3r]

There could well be something akin to a medieval drill rig here, as Alteration magic is used by npc characters to move earth and stone, very notably for mining, as an NPC in skyrim is employed to redirect stresses and geothermal steam vents in the Kynesgrove mine using her magic

[@kbelflower]

"I'm standing up to my thighs in digital water and I'm a little confused" is going to play on repeat in my drowning nightmares

[@griffinhunter3206]

"I'm standing up to my thighs in digital water from the hit 2003 game morrowind and I'm a little confused"

[@gmiill]

@griffinhunter3206 *im standing _here_ up to my thighs

[@NottSaying]

@@gmiill I realize that this might seem odd, but you are just like me, trying to make history.

[@R.Daneel]

In your drowning nightmare, the water will be up to your thighs - but you won't be standing. You'll be doing a handstand.

[@Otterdisappointment]

“Tom, I’m standing here up to my thighs in digital water so that the Zoomers can hear me talk about rivers”

[@LexNoxus]

11:38 I would like to say, Lake Toba and the volcano being talked about is in Indonesia. Singapore is NOT in Indonesia, but is instead a separate Island east of that part of Indonesia. It is located just off the southern part of Malaysia.

[@ImperfectVoid8479]

He says Indonesia at 11:17 referring to where the volcano erupted. Later he points at the same map and says Singapore. It seems he mixed up the names, not that he thought Singapore is part of Indonesia.

[@danielbarry1431]

I study environmental engineering, and this video is an excellent introduction to hydrology concepts! It could be argued that the flat geography may be a result of a volcanic plateau. These flat areas form from very large lava flows and can lead to subsidence of the earths crust. A good example of this feature is the Columbia plateau, which traces the northern border of the state of Oregon. Just north of Portland there exists the Columbia slough, which formed in part due to the columbia plateau and related volcanic activity. Neat!

[@nefariousyawn]

An expert in the comments!

[@Realturboterrapin]

Do you think the heart of Lorkan was used to make the Colombia plateau? That could explain the similarities

[@KennethJammin]

We love to learn!

[@sarurunkamui]

I was hoping for a Columbia Slough mention! Thank you!

[@CanisMythson]

The lore of the game matches this, as technically speaking, the volcano is actually frozen in time, in the middle of erupting on a cataclysmic scale; enough to have created Vvardenfell as a monstrously sized volcanic plateau (its actual size is somewhere close to 200km across), but it was stopped before the actual explosion that would have caused the destruction of the original geology actually occurred. It happened in conjunction with a moon roughly 30km across falling to the area, stopped via stolen divine magic-- the details of which are unimportant. What is important is, this makes perfect sense for the theory, and had its penultimate conclusion 50 years or so before the events of Skyrim take place, when the eruption was unfrozen, resulting in the destruction of the entire island and ecological damage across much of that half of the continent and beyond. Skyrim was mostly safeguarded by barrier mountains along that border.

[@erinmatthys7056]

Hi, I'm a Geologist! One thing you could consider is sea level rise. The river valleys were cut or incised during a time of low sea level in the past and in the current time sea level has risen (we call this transgression) and created what are called drowned river valleys. I found this wiki article that calls them Rias. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ria Examples look very similar to the Morrowind map.

[@sagetmaster4]

Or maybe lots of thermal deflation because the magma bodies underneath cooled and or erupted/migrated to the near subsurface. Let's table the discussion about the pluton space issue and how stoping isn't that effective for pluton movement for the time being

[@AnoNymous-mv4mj]

Maybe it's not the sea that rises but Morrowind that's sinking. In the distant past a great dragon dug a huge lair below, which has then been filled by lava/pumice during an eruption, and is now slowly getting compressed.

[@neoqwerty]

@@AnoNymous-mv4mj You forgot the part where they kinda had an epidemic of dwarves tunnelling all over under them and Vvardenfell used to be the mainland before someone rang the atheist anti-god bell and broke a little spacetime and then what wasn't originally a sea turned into a whole inner sea. If the thing went from mainland to having a whole ass inner sea, it probably cracked at a lot more places roughly... /checks my timeline calculations of eras 3200+ years prior to Morrowind.

[@snobfog]

Hi, I'm a geomorphologist! And the geologist is most likely right

[@Duca767]

Drowned river valley sounds metal af

[@its_uh_bella]

Your in game cinematogrphy is one of my favorite parts about this channel. Everything is edited and composited simply but so effectively and impressively

[@Irisverse]

I like to imagine that he spent hours levelling up his in-game character just to get good enough at levitation magic to pull off those aerial shots.

[@Pingviinimursu]

The top-down shots gliding along the not-rivers were really impressive

[@crunglemcbungley]

I think it's because he films it like a really standard documentary crew would use for B-roll

[@GlawiousAldredMarci]

2 things: 1. It's a swamp with stagnant water 2. You did not want moving water back in the day, your computer would have burned down :D

[@helios1087]

And since Morrowind was already burning computers back in the ye olde, it's definitely the latter

[@DarkLinkAD]

@@helios1087 It definetly wasnt, I played morrowind on a pentium II 450

[@LFGerm]

@@DarkLinkAD maybe you did - good for you - others might not have had the hardware and still tried to play it. Gaming back then was optimized. Name a game from 2002 with such a massive world and moving water graphics in full 3d.

[@matiasvonbischhoffshausen1307]

The second thing is why I find it does not make sense to compare Morrowind to newer games. Technology advanced a lot over that decade, and Skyrim was capable of many more things Morrowind wasn't(realistic gravity for example, instead of objects and characters staying static when presented with a force that should make them move, the presence of flamable gas in certain dungeons, water heating visual effects, wind causing plants to move, and many other small details such as ants)

[@JustBackgroundNoise]

There _was_ an event in TES lore that reshaped the geography of Morrowind. in 668 of the first era, Red Mountain erupted, darkening the skies of much of Tamriel and, potentially, was the inciting incident for the War of the First Council. This is the war that ended with the Battle of Red Mountain. The Dwemer vanished, the Tribunal became gods, Chimer became Dunmer. Foul Murder, etc. The question is: how brackish are those rivers?

[@lotoreo]

hey there!

[@kilo1265]

This made me think of slaughterfish for a minute, but considering that they can be found in fresh water in Daggerfall, those fish must be euryhaline.

[@JustBackgroundNoise]

@@kilo1265 Perhaps they're the monsters that Salmon would become if they didn't die after mating.

[@Kaij-]

I knew you'd be somewhere in these comments, i am not disappointed!

[@syndean]

@@kilo1265 are they really slaughterfish, or sloughterfish?

[@Real_Eggman]

Quoting from UESP: "Coinciding with the war, Red Mountain erupted in 1E 668, reshaping the island of Vvardenfell and blotting out the sun for a full year" So I think your headcannon is just canon and what Bethesda intended.

[@BierBart12]

Haven't seen enough actual lore discussion about this. I wouldn't be surprised if there's some obscure lore that adds even more detail to it and fully confirms his theory

[@NATIK001]

That eruption didn't make the changes he mentioned though, it wasn't powerful enough. The event which made Vvardenfell an island is almost certainly the Heart of Lorkhan crashing into the area, which is confirmed to be the reason the Red Mountain exists in the first place. It was the first and largest geological event in the area, even the eruptions which saw the Dunmer evacuate the island in the early 4th era weren't as powerful as that, and the 1st era eruption only blotted out the sun for a year, it didn't cause the Dunmer to completely evacuate the area for over a century.

[@woahdudeitsme9742]

Nice!

[@Lascax]

@@NATIK001 If we want to get extra lore geeky here, we can assume that Vivec did the same as Tiber Septim did with Cyrodill's jungles, and made a Dragon Break to rescale the consequences of Lorkhan's Heart fall allowing Dunmers to not evacuate the area. It could be justified by the Treaty between the Tribunal and the Empire ( both existences are based on mutual acceptance of Dragon Breaks: one of the mysteries of the setting is why the Empire allows the Tribunal governance ) and by the 4th Era enormous consequences with an event that is most probably smaller than Lorkhan's Heart fall ( Meteor's fall and the 2nd Red Mountain explosion ). Most people assume that Vivec did a Dragon Break to allow the Treaty, but maybe the real Dragon Break was to protect the land itself.

[@MrGhosta5]

VVardenfell was created in the dawn era when the heat of Lorkhan was cast into Nirn. The impact cause Red Mountain to erupt and create Vvardenfell. The island and and sea where created in that eruption. The later eruption just changed the geography of the island and than later the island and much of the surrounding mainland.

[@feelindusty]

Something important to note about Vvardenfell is that it is said to have been created when the Heart of Lorkhan was thrown into the sea and Red Mountain, the volcano, formed around it. So maybe instead of a large eruption causing the seperation and the sloughs it was actually the island popping up in the middle of the ocean.

[@SylviaRustyFae]

And given hearts have veins runnin thru them, i cud see the heart of lorkhan impact creatin the brks in the land that wud become those sloughs

[@SOOKIE42069]

I personally kind of wondered if he was leading up to it being fjords, given that like vvardenfel, much of scandinavia was formed by volcanism and glaciation.

[@logicblock8783]

Additionally, this incident occurred when time wasn't linear, which I imagine has a significant impact on the hydrological effects of other geological events.

[@VonGeggry]

The heart created an impact crater when it was thrown down (which would look very similar to an exploded volcano just less tall) then the volcano started growing.

[@VonGeggry]

@@logicblock8783 lol that might be an important detail

[@AlephTroll]

“That small 8 years” between 2003 and 2011 was the greatest era of gaming.

[@MrNoobed]

Any Austin in 6 years> I AM a hydrological engineer

[@lentlemenproductions770]

“With my 3 years of experience as a census-taker, I had a lot of fun; and time to ask my boss weird questions, so I actually know the answer to this one.”

[@ADHDqueenB]

That would rock. Then he could explain hydrological phenomenon while using video games.

[@NiCoNiCoNiCola]

More like "This obscure Nintendo Wii Shooter game doesn't have proper rivers on it's 6th level"

[@DarthWall275]

Nice joke, but he's already 30, his life is already set for him.

[@lentlemenproductions770]

@@DarthWall275 Nah man check out a community college. There’s people from high school. People in their 20s and 30s, some have kids. A lot of classes have at least one person with grey hair. It is possible to turn around your life.

[@bridgetteryan5876]

Morrowind nerd here... Boethia's lost shrine (off the bitter coast region) shows that indeed, the geography has massively changed. Boethia's shrine was, at some point early in the Tribunal times, on solid land. iirc, it was a fight between Mehrunnes Dagon and Almalexia that caused an eruption of Red Mountain... which sunk part of Morrowind, along with old Mournhold, of which the new Mournhold was built. These sleughs may have just been the topology of that land that all of a sudden became very much under sea level. Add to that, Mehrunnes did also throw a literal part of Nirn into his own realms, so that could have contributed to it too.

[@fanamatakecick97]

Yea, not enough thinking about the present gods to cause these sort of events to occur

[@niono1587]

@@fanamatakecick97 Just like real life, God did it so don't worry your little head

[@Goonjutsu]

@@niono1587 except you can't do cool shit like magic

[@DragonGrafx-16]

There's also the fact that Morrowind had rivers in Deshaan in which Mournhold is located in the 2nd Era. A river which flows into Shadowfen in Black Marsh. Though I believe this river's origin in in Skyrim or possiby Cyrodiil.

[@Raptorworld22]

Something that my bf reminded me of is that there's an easy to miss lore tidbit in Morrowind that talks about how Red Mountain's magma is more liquid that normal magma and routinely carves channels all the way down the mountain, and that that might be relevant to how the "rivers" were originally formed.

[@dinoflame9696]

I believe an estuary is an area where fresh/salt water meet, it doesn't technically have to be a river (although it usually is). I'd suggest these water bodies in Morrowind are inlets - or "ria coasts" as they're more specifically known, it's a form of elongated inlet formed in glacial canals where sea water meets fresh, but the inflow of fresh water is relatively low (so the water level remains relatively steady due to low inflow of sediment). Also what a great video!

[@ThreadBomb]

Yes, the word "inlet" occurred to me a couple of seconds into the video, and it's frustrating to me that no one else seems to know the term. EDIT: It seems that "slough" is a particularly North American term. Not used in other English-speaking countries.

[@zapbas]

"Just because we're making a video essay on youtube doesn't mean we can ignore valid information that contradicts our original thesis" loll'd at the casual shade throw

[@enigmaticcube8143]

Who is the shade being thrown at, if I may inquire?

[@NickJerrison]

@@enigmaticcube8143 Most video essays of the hypothesizing kind on this website really.

[@ians7184]

@@enigmaticcube8143 Anyone who has made a video essay on youtube and ignored valid information that contradicted their original thesis.

[@matthewcarroll2533]

@@ians7184 which are many, unfortunately. Really have to sift for the truth when you're on the internet.

[@nuclearicebreaker]

@@enigmaticcube8143 Average video essayists I think, some are known for being quite averse to criticism If I had a nickel for every time a video essayist got mad at someone who reads too much into video game environments, i'd probably have like a couple bucks

[@MultiChrisDA]

The rivers do actually move in Morrowind. If you swim in the Nabia River and stop moving your character will move slowly South in the direction of current flow.

[@any_austin]

oh fuck

[@iplyrunescape305]

@@any_austin do a follow up video with covering that and Solstheim too

[@Yominokun1]

@@any_austin Was going to mention the same. Think the elevation and looking like they don't flow has more to do with limitations at the time and a bit of lazyness with the source.

[@haydenaustin-eames8084]

@@Yominokun1 It's entirely a tech limitation. Morrowind can't do different water heights, so all of the water in the overworld is set at sea level. Oblivion can (on a per cell basis, iirc) but there's no directional water. Skyrim is where the engine can finally do proper directional water at many different heights.

[@yakovgolyadkin]

@10:00 that thesis that figured out the Elkhorn geology looks like it wasn't even for a doctorate , it was a masters thesis! A masters isn't normally expected to generate entirely new knowledge like that, dude went way above and beyond!

[@TechnicolorMammoth]

By the fact that he has a charity to clean the worlds ocean, I think this guys normal operation is “above and beyond”.

[@TapOnX]

As a matter of fact, a master's thesis is supposed to generate new knowledge. A good masters program will expect you to contribute to scientific articles. Granted, the standards in academia aren't what they used to be, but if you feel like your thesis is not going to have that component of novelty, it is a good idea to talk to your professor. Even if you do not intend to pursue an academic career, you should not be deprived of a chance to co-author a research paper. Your contribution does not need to be as monumental as discovering that a river is not a river, but it is still nice to leave a mark in the scholarly world.

[@lukeholladay9596]

Happy holidays Austin! Really appreciate the way you think about things and the earnest communication style you've developed. Your recent content is unique and deeply enjoyable, and Eggbusters is still the best video game glitch show on the internet. Your videos have been solace during rough times. Excited for more. 💜

[@KellyBergamini]

The guy at Bethesda watching you hyper-analyze the map he traced out of a coffee stain one day: 👁👄👁

[@wargames43]

This is legit a way on how i make maps for our serious games but i use beans lmao

[@gweltazlemartret6760]

I hope TES6 map designer still has original cofee stain lying around as source material.

[@xlicer]

I think the Tamriel was based out of (a really old model from the the 90s) of Pangea Ultima/Proxima. Look at google image and see the similarities

[@tomgee8211]

It all started when Tolkien made a literal square of mountains around Mordor. Threw realistic Geo-morphology *right* out the window!!

[@garymcjerry]

⁠@@tomgee8211tbf, middle earth was literally created by God. I mean, the ‘planet’ wasn’t even a globe for a while… it started as a flat earth ffs. Within context of the setting, it’s as grounded as anything else lol.

[@xbox]

How do we tell our boss that we just watched a whole video on Morrowind hydrogeology?

[@any_austin]

tell you boss to make sure the rivers in es6 aren’t too realistic so my video about them can still be interesting

[@Ganara426]

This is hilarious

[@soj56]

You should plant a bomb in their office

[@Aaadapro]

lmao Xbox is here

[@adamrebika5128]

my boss would actually laugh it off (I spend a lot of time on tedious tasks so he lets me just listen to random stuff while working)

[@muttonchops3802]

"Why are there so many sloughs on this volcanic island?" Because the wizards dug them out, silly billy

[@alext9320]

As much as "a wizard did it" is a joke explanation, given the fact that the island has been populated for thousands of years by a very magically inclined race of elves (who count amongst themselves 3 living Gods), it wouldn't at all be a crazy thing to suggest that they are manmade (or elfmade ig) sloughs that serve or served some sort of economic function. Given that Balmora is a trade hub, there's definitely a case to be made that the Odai River specifically is artificial. It could even have been a genuine river in the past but as the Tribunal's power has faded, so too has the flow of water.

[@ManCheat2]

@@alext9320 Mermade* or slave made by argonians/khajiits lol.

[@alext9320]

@@ManCheat2 Also quite likely. As they say in Morrowind; "If it has a tail, it's for sale."

[@stygian6642]

I was about to comment--couldn't these be canals manually created for transport purposes? If you need a boat to cross over to the island anyway, surely you'd want to steer that boat right into a populated area? I feel like traders over the years may have personally made these sloughs

[@davidepastore5600]

​@@stygian6642Odai River extends a bit too much north of Balmora for that to make sense, I think. Why dig the canal up so much northwards, past the city you want to connect to?

[@davidcarter7880]

Ya'll forgetting the most likely culprit. Some skooma addled wizard trying to turn his crack den into a well fortified castle island, so he started to carve a moat, finished it, realized the newly made island had become populated during his work, and died. That is the most realistic explanation a bethesda game could give.

[@ThaneBishop]

I want to take a moment to address how solid the actual research in this video is; not just presenting your own information, and linking and directing your audience to the sources of your information, but to actively work against your position for the sake of integrity, only to hold on to, and present, what is effectively a silver-bullet argument in the slough fern right at the end.

[@LordBeef]

Hi Thane. Any Austin is a pretty cool guy. He does research and doesn’t afraid of anything.

[@RossLlewallyn]

I enjoy explorations of minutiae more when they have rigor like this, so I very much appreciate it!

[@cloudkitt]

@@LordBeef it's an older meme, sir, but it checks out

[@Riskystache]

He did what a good thesis should in presenting the counter argument while still in the end supporting his thesis with evidence. A masterclass of a video

[@Geometric3163]

@@LordBeef Eh* does research.

[@brawss]

That last plant's name is the climax. All been leading to that plant, showing us that it's indeed a slough.

[@cherno8119]

Actually, it's called the Slough Fern

[@tylerprock6981]

*splash *splash @0:11 was an artistic achievement

[@gabi-sw8zw]

the budget must be astronomical

[@CathrineMacNiel]

@@gabi-sw8zw good thing that he uses RocketMoney!

[@zelky1394]

25$ over budget, were gonna go bankrupt

[@xxBrokenDreams666xx]

a beautiful moment in this masterpiece

[@mime_exe]

I come here often to just look at this part, and your comment has been a blessing because of that king

[@docrockland9464]

4:20 "blurry - puddle of mudd"... great song...

[@curelessorc7044]

This is real outlander behavior.

[@Anon_Spartan]

N'wah's really be out here standing up to their thighs in digital water

[@rkeykey]

Resdayn did fine untill mongrel dogs of the empire came with their concepts of flowing water and river sources

[@johnracine4589]

Careful with the hard N on that.

[@incog.nyto.]

this is some imperial propaganda shit

[@icyjiub2228]

Morrowind doesn't need naturally occurring currents, it has racism and forced labor. Fucking woke imperialists importing their culture.

[@gribberoni]

It's as they say: you snooze, you sloughs.

[@audoldends6799]

😂😂😂😂😂

[@fissionphoenix4995]

Take it sleazy! -Michael Realman

[@DarkAuraLord]

You slumber, cucumber

[@syndean]

I wish I could give you something for the early morning laugh fit at this dad joke. But alas, all I have is this digital banana 🍌

[@ReikoFrostwolf]

I was looking for a "You sloughs, you lose" comment, but that works too!

[@ScyrousFX]

I really appreciate how you dismantle your own hypothesis at the end. Most KZbinrs would've just presented their initial findings as fact and ended the video then and there, without looking for counter arguments or doing research that disproves their claims. It really sets your channel apart - in a good way, of course. Keep it up my man.

[@gvardota6909]

It only disproves his hypothesis if one assumes there has only been a single eruption ever. Things change if we assume there were two. The first one was a cataclysmic eruption that erected the Red Mountain and created a surrounding sea, resulting in a climate suitable for rivers to form. The second one was a smaller eruption that reshaped the land and disrupted the climate by creating ashen storms and blocking riverbeds, so the sea was able to push inland.

[@mintmeal]

love your content, it's simultaneously a really interesting way to examine video game locations but also low-stakes enough that i don't cry and piss and throw up if i zone out and miss part of what you're saying :)

[@patrickmorrey8722]

I still love the way these videos are structured like a random obsession that just popped up while playing the game. These are such fun questions and showcase a lot of hidden effort that goes into the design of the games.

[@whitemakesright2177]

Except that the video shows he hasn't played the game much, if at all. No mention of foyadas, the Heart, or magic in general.

[@illuin__]

Bro idk but putting where the dude does charity work and asking for donations because you used his work he probably never thought would be of any use anywhere put such a big smile on my face, kudos that was beautiful

[@AmeliaLabbeChi]

He was laughing, saying "who knew?!" that his research would end up somewhere like KZbin and also helping the non-profit he works for! He wrote that WAY before KZbin was a thing. Very cool turn of events!

[@SylviaRustyFae]

@@AmeliaLabbeChi +

[@saffral]

One of the interesting aspects of Vvardenfell and a more fantastical geological element is the way that Red Mountain created "foyadas", or valleys that the lava would flow down as rivers. Most rivers of Vvardenfell have similar orientations to the foyadas (outwards from the centre), so perhaps the "rivers" are foyadas with low enough elevations that the seawater could flow up them and create "rivers".

[@TotallyRossome]

Yeah there's even a foyada running almost parallel just northeast of the Odai river, the one he's checking out.

[@CommanderM117]

@@TotallyRossome and their Caldera Mining town it sit next to a dead volcano name caldera as it was filled with water so maybe that where the river stem from it just north of Balmora anyway.

[@christianpetersen163]

This needs to get upvoted :) Perhaps these sleughs are ancient sunken foyadas.

[@whitemakesright2177]

Yeah, the fact that he didn't even mention this tells me that he has probably never even played the game, or if he has, he's played it very, very little. Also no mention of the Dwemer, the Tribunal, the Heart, or magic in general.

[@BakerPeter]

I came here for the foyada comment, thank you for this.

[@cedaremberr]

My dad got bit by an otter while kayaking on the Elkhorn Slough.

[@Eontologist]

This video brings me an unreasonable amount of joy. I’m a geology, hydrology, history and video game nerd in my free time so this was totally up my alley. Your research is very well done - now I must add David’s paper to my long list of scientific articles I must read… Plus I have kayaked in Elkhorn Slough and grew up sailing in sloughs in the SF peninsula so this is just a trip down nostalgia lane for me. Thank you for this gem and throwing some subtle shade at video essay theses!

[@RealmsOfThePossible]

Or up your slough.

[@Lucky11843]

14:26 im pretty sure that volacano has a gods heart in it im willing to suspend my disbelief a little further to have sloughs on a volcanic island

[@xelkthaan3486]

Dont forget that, that gods heart being shot across the sky with a bow, landing in the ocean, was how morrowind was formed. The heat currently sits inside a giant metal robot at the core of the mountain, where a deranged reverse god is "dreaming", trying to lure his old boyfriends spirit back to the mountain where his boyfriend was murder by the then chimer, now new gods, that chopped off his face and feet, and ran him through with a spear thats another much older gods penis.

[@Yarxing]

What if they're fjords like in Norway? They don't always have much current, but they are directly connected to the ocean. The banks in the video look way too steep to be a slough. Fjords have way steeper banks, often cliffs. I hope this makes sense, I've got a bit of trouble making myself clear in English today.

[@RealGestumblindi]

I totally agree with you. As I commented myself, fjord seems to be fitting for these Morrowind bodies of water with steep banks.

[@AlphaSutoraiku]

Was about to write that myself, yes i agree with you. Could be Fjords, or Rias

[@Calvin_OBlenis]

Your English was perfectly fine. You even used the right 'you're'!

[@nw4042]

Same. I'm leaning towards fjord, though they'd be mighty small glaciers making them. But it's a game from 2003. Damn thing was on the cutting edge of games having water, for goodness sake. Cut the devs some slack, they were pushing processor boundaries already.

[@Tensen01]

I was honestly amazed he didn't mention Fjords, it was my initial idea.

[@bloocifer]

Hey man ive been loving your videos. Youre very unique and a cool dude. Keep putting your picture in the thumbnails becsuse it reminds people that its YOU at a glance. It works. Dont change. Just keep being you and doing what you enjoy. The genuine interest really comes thru in the videos and makes them fun to watch. Keep up the good work man.

[@sgshost8105]

12:15 That event would probably be when Auriel shot Lorkhan's heart from the convention.

[@crumblingmasonry8961]

Thing is, that apparently is what created the island of Vvardenfell as well.

[@archaonzero7401]

The first recorded eruption of that volcano is called "The year of sun's death" because the ash lingered for a whole year, hiding the sun. That was the event that separated Vvardenfell from the mainland. There is also at least one submerged shrine off the island's west coast, so it seems the earthquakes caused the surrounding land to collapse, allowing the sea to rush in.

[@ghostsuru8429]

I came into the comments to find this! Thank you. :)

[@OneTimeImp902]

The water physics in this real life/game shot of you in the "river" are amazing... The detail where your hand slightly goes under water and creates a ripple, amazing...

[@goblinbxtch7540]

omg I didn't even notice HAHA I love that sm

[@cicak2404]

Timestamp?

[@skunko1871]

​@@cicak2404 it's the first couple seconds where he greenscreens himself into the "river"

[@cicak2404]

@@skunko1871 Oh I've already finished the video, I thought it was somewhere at the middle

[@mojavecourier6987]

And its not even that difficult of an edit lol

[@Gwyrddu]

East River in New York is actually a tidal estuary, and estuaries can definitely be long and skinny. I'd say it's more that estuaries aren't really stagnant.

[@TBH_Inc]

I enjoy that KZbin now recommends me these videos as soon as they come out. It was on the top of my feed with 5 views lol.

[@sas.tronaut5055]

we love to see it!

[@FortressLordJP193]

Hour old video, first thing I saw when looking at YT today. We have been correctly identified as the Morrowind and quirky editing demographic.

[@manguy01]

I mean, you can just do what I did and subscribe. I watch them all anyways, so I figured why not?

[@lhh6627]

Just subscribe because the algorithm -will- eventually shift

[@MyScorpion42]

Like and subscribe and ring that bell

[@Dylawa]

That ending was so perfectly delivered. I'd completely forgotten about circling back around to that area of water in that one slough that when we did and the plant name came up, I actually laughed in disbelief.

[@themarshmallow514]

Well, one particular piece of lore that might reinform your hypothesis is that Vvardenfell was created and formed very rapidly. Red Mountain (the central megavolcano), was created by the Aedra Auriel shooting the Heart of the Trickster God Lorkhan across Tamriel's northern half from the Adamantine Tower (The Isle of Balfiera). This seemingly mythological event is supported by the minerology of Ebony -- which mythologically is the Blood of Lorkhan spilling across Tamriel as his heart flew -- being concentrated entirely in High Rock, Hammerfell, Skyrim, Morrowind, and most notably Vvardenfell (where Ebony is its chief exploitable resource).

[@jobtenbosch349]

It's awesome that a real geological research reaches the same point as in-game geologists.

[@CommanderM117]

the Mine of Caldera was formerly filled with water as it is a caldera of a volcano it self, so that probably how Odai river was Orginally.

[@LordBeef]

You mean when Shor was betrayed by Akatosh? This man is out here peddling elven propaganda against the great shor smh. Lol but actually I love that the lore has different interpretations of the same events. Was Lorkhan/Shor a trickster who tricked the Divines into creating the mortal realm and losing some of their power, or did the Divines know that was going to happen, but were upset and betrayed Lorkhan/Shor?

[@themarshmallow514]

@@LordBeef Betrayed ... Or outplayed? There's also the question of: Did Lorkhan an the Aedra MAKE Mundas, or did they steal it from Mehrunes Dagon?

[@LordBeef]

@@themarshmallow514 Confirmed Thalmor Daedra worshipper, wants to destroy Nirn. May Dagon reward you accordingly.

[@capt.peehype]

You make the perfect vids to just play on the background when I run out of podcasts to listen to

[@TSKyanite]

I 'met' David Schwartz, he did a digital talk for a geology class I was in. Nice guy, very smart

[@gibkl4837]

I'm a river! How can you call me a slough? What a grand and intoxicating innocence

[@Soren015]

I'm a High Ordinator in the Temple Canton, and while your theory is certainly interesting, I have to clear up a few points; 1. The Red Mountain rose in the Dawn Era, when the Heart of Lorkhan fell to Tamriel, after the Exodite Aedra slew him. 2. The Inner Sea was formed by the path of destruction wrought by the walking star, the Numidium, crafted below the earth by the foul Dwemer Kagrenac, and the whole world would have been swallowed by darkness if not for Tribunal defeating the numidium, and eating all the ash. 3. Filthy n'wah! That's all, praise Vivec and have a nice day.

[@dannybrase1253]

After the Exodite Aedra slew him, or after the Exodite Aedra *slough* him???

[@RedKnightCrusader]

While looking for something to watch, I stumbled upon this video. I'm not sure what I was expecting when I clicked it but 10 mins into it I realized, I'm watching this guy explain in much detail why a video game from 2002 doesn't have any rivers. I confront myself... wtf am I watching?? Why do I find this so interesting?? You got a laugh from me at the end. That was great. **Subscribed to channel

[@evieknievel]

thank you anyaustin for continuing to make videos on things ive never thought about but now care deeply for

[@marcodragon4995]

This is such a good video essay, it honestly could be shown in classrooms. You first present the topic, and your initial observations that lead to your hypothesis. You then present the information and evidence that supports your hypothesis, before then discussing the counterarguments and the evidence that contradicts it. Your conclusion is that the facts are murky, and you leave the discussion open. On a short scroll down I already spotted two different people bringing up information that could account for the contradictory data, one from a Morrowind lore standpoint and one from an actual hydrologist. It's the perfect blend of entertainment and actual data presentation

[@Riskystache]

For real

[@warrenstoddardii844]

I teach a college writing studies class. One like and I'll do it.

[@thedenseone6443]

This guy is awesome, I wouldn't be surprised if some teachers end up showing his videos in class as part of a lesson, or even just as informational entertainment during slow days

[@AKcosplay21]

@@thedenseone6443 I believe this is why he says "I shouldn't swear, I know you don't like it" haha, there are definitely people using his videos for educational purposes, if only to detail how to make a good argument

[@thedenseone6443]

@@AKcosplay21 If it’s a high school or even middle school setting it’s probably not a big issue, but if you’re an elementary school teacher that would definitely be a big no-no lol

[@TheMANGADUDE2]

So a little note about the pronunication of Slough at 6:40 ish. Sluff isn't the British pronunciation; it's the worldwide pronunciation for the verb - meaning to moult or shed skin. In terms of the noun, slew is the US pronunciation and Slau is the UK pronunciation. Source: I'm British

[@SineN0mine3]

Get sluffed

[@tdog4374]

We also have the big and well known town of Slough - which I feel Austin has made all the more interesting with this video! Cheers Austin 👍

[@NotYourNhaama]

English here, yeah we use Slau.

[@spookus5430]

i can understand sloo because it rhymes with through, and i kinda get sluff because its similar to trough (tho sloff would make more sense to me) but where does slau come from?

[@alphasword5541]

The best town in Britain

[@tommyhansen7600]

you've gotten absolute massive, i subbed pre 80k. What i like about you is that you put words onto untold feelings felt in videogames.

[@aussiediabolo]

Geologist here! This is actually pretty good for a tidal environment explanation and you are on to something at 8:05. Tidal influx and stream outflow (also groundwater influx/outflow) aren't mutually exclusive and can happen at the same time (and in fact are constanty doing just that). A great showcase of a tidal system! 🤌

[@Laundry_Hamper]

And are often vertically segregated because of the difference in density due to salinity. Just one of the many aspects of an estuary contributing to their treacherousness!

[@Juicedbelmont]

I love all the actual geologists and hydrolagists being like "holy crap your right"

[@dandyjordan]

Ahh yes, my 8:11PM River content

[@realdragon]

It's 4am for me. I woke up and can't fall asleep

[@vivianphillips1602]

Better than a nightcap!

[@lilyg47474]

It's honestly so incredible how great you have become at taking the viewer on a journey. I was enjoying the video all the way through. I appreciated how you challenged your own theory with contradictory evidence and had a big stupid smile on my face at the final reveal. Bravo Austin

[@ashegaming3530]

The mosquitoes must be horrendous in Morrowind

[@NecroBanana]

No mosquitoes, but during this time there were TONS of Cliff Racers. They all went extinct thanks to Jiub.

[@celarc99]

@@NecroBanana That's SAINT Jiub to you. Blessed be his great work in purging these awful creatures from existence.

[@NecroBanana]

@@celarc99 I am not a tribunal worshipper

[@9t9redballoons]

It's standing water but it's saltwater or at least brackish water since it's connected to the ocean

[@TheMetastasia]

They evolved into a more flying lizard-like form.

[@StoneHandInk]

It's so interesting seeing your videos for both games I have and haven't played. Like, when you did something similar for Skyrim, I recognized most of the locations and think "Oh yea I know where this river ends" etc etc But then coming to this video and feeling like I'm exploring and discovering new areas

[@333dae]

11:40 idk if anyone pointed this out yet but Lake Toba and its island Samosir isn't in Singapore, Singapore itself is close to the size of Samosir though, however it's in North Sumatra which is part of Indonesia

[@subcubwubwub8901]

This need to be up

[@verdrin7107]

I noticed that just because he said Indonesia the first time, then said Singapore right after

[@PlasmaSnake369]

Also Morrowind is from 2002 not 2003

[@verdrin7107]

@@PlasmaSnake369 he probably looked at the release date for the GotY edition, easy mistake to make

[@PlasmaSnake369]

@@verdrin7107 I mean if you Google Morrowind 2002 comes right up so actually seems kinda difficult to make that mistake

[@swagswap]

"Well, that video title looks great! How I have I not watched it yet?" released 6 minutes ago "Oh. I'm on it."

[@siofrain]

that sponsor segment had so much charm and the video has such a good tempo i didnt even skip, thats pretty awesome.

[@Nikatine]

I'm from Monterey, and I've been kayaking dozens of times in the Elkhorn Slough! There's an otter that lives there called "Crazy Joe" who will steal your lunch if you get too close to him. LOTS of baby otters too, the moms puff them up and let them float on the surface while they go down and get worms or clams or whatever. Sometimes they'll take glass beer bottles and leave them on the bottom of the slough and wait for worms to move into the bottles. then they bring them to the surface and drink the worms out of the bottles. It's terrible but also very cute. I love the Elkhorn Slough!

[@Neptunequeen42]

An important thing to remember is that Vvardenfell, the landmass you play on in Morrowind, is basically a giant volcano. Those channels that the seawater is flowing through were most likely carved during periods of lava flow. There's literally regions of the map where people will give you directions by referring to certain giant lava tubes you can travel along. Edit: god dammit you got me. I literally did comment about the volcano before you did that bit. I've finally become an Annoying Morrowind Nerd.

[@sana.0451]

they're called foyadas!

[@SylviaRustyFae]

+ He shud rly mention this in the vid : P

[@charleschilton3818]

Lava tends to build land up, not carve trenches

[@SylviaRustyFae]

@@charleschilton3818 Given the way Vvardenfell formed, not necessarily; also if ya look at maps before the brkaway - theres still rivers visible in many of the places; so its possible that all these things combined to create the terrain we see

[@theaprilcat]

And there was a catastrophic event that formed the Red Mountain - death of Lorkhan and the falling of his heart to Nirn.

[@Acdxls]

The elder scrolls online shows how the land looked 742 years before the events of Morrowind, and the land still contains rivers in some of the locations that go on to become sloughs

[@LeviathanLP]

So they actually flow? I was almost gonna log into ESO and hop over to Vvardenfell to check. Does make me wonder whether it's environmental storytelling or just early 00s tech limitations.

[@Acdxls]

@LeviathanLP yes, the areas north of vivec city actually have some flow to them as well as some small bits around the map

[@monicaw4349]

i went to balmora in ESO after watching this too and obviously saw the river flow as well, but i didn't check out the other parts of lower vvardenfell so i will when i log back in tomorrow!

[@jabcab4046]

15:22 this song captures the vibe of your videos for me, so I'm glad you decided to use it again for the outro of this one

[@harry_burnsworth]

I am surprised this is the only comment regarding the song. Are we the only ones? Are we the weird ones?

[@jabcab4046]

​@harry_burnsworth i haven't read all 450+ of them, but I didn't see anyone else saying it

[@anodyneinstitute]

@any_austin if you set up a Bandcamp for your tunes I will throw a lot of money at you to have today's outro in my collection, fwiw

[@BaddeGrasse]

I fkn love this song dude, i cry to it in the shower

[@codycherrington2314]

I really love how you leave your thoughts and decisions on what directions you’re gunna take the video in the actual video, makes it feel more like a conversation than you just telling us random stuff

[@LecherousLizard]

One important thing to note: Red Mountain is said to have been created when Auri-El "fastened Lorkhan's heart to an arrow and shot it long into the sea", meaning there was no land there before the island formed. The formation of Morrowind, having occurred during the Dawn Era, wouldn't otherwise necessarily follow real life logic, as in the Dawn Era the very laws of creation were still being formed, which you kind of have to take at a face value, because the entire continent (or at least a huge part of it) used to be a part of the the previous cycle's planet that the Hist lived on, i.e. Tamriel is one huge meteorite that somehow fell in such a way that complex life on its surface survived the landing.

[@edwardpalawan4750]

Super love these typs of content. Thank you for this! Also in 11:40, you mentioned Singapore instead of Indonesia.

[@koimananana]

And its also supposed to be danau toba,

[@Mr3cman]

the event that created vardenfel happened a very long time ago, at the time the world was created pretty much, the god lorkhan was killed and his heart was ripped out and thrown it landed where red mountain is in morrowind and the force of the throw is what created the volcano supposedly

[@doublebreakfast]

This is similar to how the province of Hammerfell got its name. Basically this dude threw a hammer from Morrowind and settled where it landed. Lots of throwing in The Elder Scrolls...

[@sindhurtej9638]

​@doublebreakfast I also wanna add that sometimes things can and can't be literal in the ES universe. It is equally likely that the hammer was actually flung, as it is that the hammer was just carried by the chieftain/ leader of the exodus and then placed down at Hammerfell to proclaim it as their new home and the accompanying poet/historian decided to brandish the entire thing. Or it was brandished when the story was passed orally down the generations. This is the kind of stuff we love TES for

[@miraak6587]

@@sindhurtej9638 It is also possible that both are true, elder scrolls lore often runs into having contradictory information to be true due to the fickle nature of the reality, with gods and non linear time throughout the lore.

[@MerkhVision]

​@miraak6587 the idea that contradictory things can be true is exemplified by the concept known as "dragon breaks!"

[@punlshedsnake8210]

​@@sindhurtej9638 This comment section as a whole is really interesting, as it has people stating, as facts, completely contradictory events. "Vivec did it" "Red mountain exploding did it" "Lorkhan's heart landing did it" "Dragonbreak!!!" The fact that TES lore has so few concrete answers is what "makes it" for me.

[@STR4nG3boy]

The song at the end is a gem! Thank you for sharing that!

[@Nazuiko]

You did NOT just drop that banger of a "blurry - Puddle of Mudd" pun in a video about Morrowind. Absolute mad lad you got a new subscriber

[@docrockland9464]

At exactly 4:20 too...

[@Birilling]

Remember that much of vvardebfell is covered in MASSIVE calderra, huge absolutely massive ones. This can do two things for this argument: 1. It can corroborate the theory of massive eruptions in the past. A calderra is formed when a large amount of magma is ejected very quickly, typically due to an eruption, leaving an empty chamber in the ground, which generally leads to the rock/soil/previous surface of the land collapsing into the hole left behind, which brings us to point number 2, these calderras could explain why vvardenfell is flat enough for sloughs to exist, and also explain why the sloughs are where they are. My supposition would be that these sloughs are filling old calderra that were close enough to the water.

[@fanamatakecick97]

Mehrunes Dagon vs Almalexia actually proves it, because the fight did result in a cataclysmic event, which erupted Red Mountain and caused the Sheogorath Region to separate from mainland Vvardenfell, among other geological changes

[@connorallen162]

I grew up not too far from the elk horn slough (the only slough I had been familiar with) and it was a super exciting ride to hear you describe all these things that made it sound like you were going to talk about it... and then you did!

[@Silent-Firefly]

I just ran into your channel out of the blue, and I really loved this video. I myself never played Morrowind, but learning on how the land of Morrowind exists, maybe, based off of real science was awesome! subscribed!

[@BujuArena]

I'm at 5:35 through the video right now, and just commenting now that I have been expecting you to say either "inlet" or "fjord", but it has not yet been said. I wonder if it will be said. I'll keep watching to find out.

[@sauronsmundwinkel]

My guess is that it's what we call a sea breast in my language

[@TM-yq4wk]

​@@sauronsmundwinkel Jadebusen bester Busen.😂

[@ReverendTed]

0:58 - Look at this EFFECT. LOOK AT IT. Beautiful.

[@Booksds]

I came here to comment on the same thing. The reflections!!!

[@zeriel9148]

I remember when the game came out, how pretty the water looked. I still think of that era, no other game quite had the rippling water reflections on the same level. A shout out to the worst Gothic game, Arcania (Gothic 4) on the same topic, for, despite being an awful game, having really cool wave/water effects where you could see the tide coming in, with differing water levels of the waves.

[@theonlycatonice]

Gorgeous

[@LibraritheWizardOfficial]

​@@zeriel9148 There are only three Gothic games. 👺 And yeah your comment is correct

[@Dr.MSC.W.Krueger]

Wow, 3 minutes in AE = apparently primetime Emmy award for outstanding special visual effects in a KZbin video 👏

[@aurochtamer]

So, the lore of Red Mountain is that it grew up around the place where Lorkhan's heart landed after being tied to an arrow and shot to the horizon by Auriel. This happened right after the world was first formed (kind of. time was weird). What if the massive seismic event that separated Vvardenfell from the mainland wasn't an eruption, but the formation of the volcano itself? In a way that doesn't follow normal patterns for volcanic islands because Red Mountain didn't form naturally?

[@CrimeEnjoyer]

Hell yeah, thanks for sneaking a From the River to the Sea in there.

[@hugoperhammer]

Fun thing - in swedish, Oxbow lake is"korvsjö", literally translated to sausage lake.

[@rateeightx]

In Australian, it's Billabong, and I don't know what that means but it's way more fun to say than Oxbow Lake.

[@diymicha2]

@@rateeightx I thought thats surfers fashion :D

[@sungvin]

In russian its common name is Старица (Staritsa), which basically can be translated as an “Oldie”

[@ForboJack]

In German they are called "Altwasser" which literally means old water.

[@hoathanatos6179]

@@rateeightx Billabong is a Wiradjuri word meaning dead river.

[@sintanan469]

"This big explosion." Like, say, the heart of a god whose body became the sun and moon falling to Nirn? A massive crater is left behind which damaged enough of the plates on a fault line to cause lava to boil forth until a mountain formed to entrap the heart and seal the wound?

[@mark.fedorov]

Well, ackchyually, only the two moons are believed to be Lorkhan's flesh. And the sun was created when Magnus escaped to Aethernium tearing a hole in space-time.

[@EpicPrawn]

The Sun and stars in The Elder Scrolls are holes in the sky created by Magnus and his followers, the Magna-ge. Lorkhan's body became the moons Masser and Secunda. But also yes, Auriel shooting Lorkhan's heart tied to an arrow into the sea created the Red Mountain. I wonder if the fiction's metaphysics and mythical events are sufficient enough to explain why Vvardenfell has this slough system.

[@daedalus6433]

This Heart is the Heart of the World, for one was made to satisfy the other.

[@CommanderM117]

@@EpicPrawn also people forgetting Caldera on Vvardenfell is also a volcano and it was filled with water before empired turned it into a mine, and it very close to the river.

[@pizza-for-mountains]

@@mark.fedorov man, what the flip

[@lucascampbell494]

In Portland, Oregon there is the Columbia Slough that really, really fits the bill here too. It is about 18 miles long and connects to the Columbia River that is the border of the city and state, which is why Hayden Island exists. For the most part of the year it stays the same level as the river but it has flooded before. In the late 90's the slough flooded a large section of southern Hayden Island. I only know this because I grew up just a few blocks away and worked for years near it. It's always been my favorite waterway in the city, so thank you for bringing attention to Sloughs!

[@ryanwright7827]

you doing a tongue in cheek bit about doing the ad break at the beginning of the video instantly made me subscribe

[@rdarkstorm8414]

5:21 I'm not positive it was intentional but "dam fool" cracked me up

[@SineN0mine3]

You can bank on it

[@dabrams84]

Omg you promoted his charity that's great. We should all leave comments with our donations that are Morrowind quotes.

[@madfox9862]

The fact that you are right that the volcano created the slough and the "inner-sea" is neat, it is indeed canon in the Elder Scrolls lore that an eruption created all that

[@CommanderM117]

red mountain gone boom at least 3 time now Merthic with the heart and then during the battle of red mountain, and then the Red Years

[@hetistijmen]

At the beginning of the video I was for sure thinking you were going to mention fjords. Not that these look all that similar, but still. Something I think would be good to mention is elevation/sea level change. A large (but less destructive) explosion followed by sea level rise (or the land being pressed down by glaciers - that could also form fjords) I believe could end up looking like the map of Morrowind. We know there's lots of volcanic ash around to be blown into any water by the wind and sink down, so the sloughs being shallow checks out as well. I have no idea how I ended up watching this by the way. But I love how you turn a 20 year old game not having flowing water effects into a 15 minute video with plot twists.

[@bloo.]

"You know what I also love... *what is it again* RocketMoney!" lmao best ad intro

[@nathan1507]

My family is actually from that island where the giant volcano blew up in Indonesia. It's called Samosir, and it's like Bali but cheaper and less crowded.

[@Flugmorph]

the whole first half of the video i was just going "just say fjord man just say fjord come one man say it" and then... oh...