On 29 January 1753, eighteen-year-old Elizabeth Canning staggered into her mother’s home in London. She was emaciated, weak, wearing only a shift, a dirty petticoat and a bedgown. She had been bleeding from a cut on her ear. Her face and hands were black. She had been missing for almost a month.
The question of where she had been would spark a media sensation, multiple trials, and a furious split in public opinion.
On New Year’s Day of 1753, Elizabeth was an ordinary maidservant from a respectable working-class family. She was short, plump, average-looking, and until that day had apparently never done anything noteworthy except suffer from occasional ‘fits’ that could last for hours. She spent most of the day with her aunt and uncle. Around nine in the evening Elizabeth headed for her employer’s house, half a mile away, but she never got there. The family searched, her mother consulted an astrologer, congregations said prayers, her family put advertisements in newspapers and offered a reward – but the only clue was a witness who reported hearing a woman’s shriek coming from a hackney coach in the area that night.
When Elizabeth stumbled home, half the neighbours came pouring in to see what was going on. Elizabeth’s story, when they coaxed it out of her, was a wild one. She said that, after leaving her aunt and uncle, she was attacked by two men. They took her money, her hat and her dress (this didn’t necessarily imply sexual assault – stealing clothes wasn’t an uncommon crime , and she was wearing her good going-out clothes, which could have been worth a little money), and knocked her out. When she came to, she was being dragged along a country road. She was brought to a house where an old woman tried to convince her to become a prostitute. When Elizabeth said no, the old woman slapped her, cut off her corset stays and locked her in a room. And left her there for four weeks.
Elizabeth described the room as containing only a couple of chairs, an old table, a picture, some bread, a pitcher of water, and the clothes she wore when she got home. During that month, no one came into the room. The windows were boarded up, but she peered through the cracks and saw a coach being driven by a man she recognised as a coachman who went to Hertfordshire regularly, so she reckoned the house was on the Hertford Road. Finally she got up the courage to pull the boards off a window and climb out, cutting her ear on the way down.
At this point in Elizabeth’s story one of the neighbours, Robert Scarratt, said, basically, ‘I bet that was Mother Wells’s house.’ (Susannah Wells’s deal is slightly vague. She was a widow with a complicated and mildly shady past. She took in lodgers, but she also may or may not have been running an informal brothel.) At that, Elizabeth remembered that she had heard the name ‘Mother Wells’ while she was in the house. This was enough to get an alderman to issue a warrant, and a few days later absolutely everybody – Elizabeth, family, neighbours, officials, randomers – headed off to Susannah Wells’s house, in Enfield Wash, about ten miles from Elizabeth’s home.
None of the rooms in the house matched Elizabeth’s description. The closest was a loft full of hay and random junk. When Elizabeth was taken to the room, though, she identified it as the room where she had been held. She was able to describe the view from the windows. There were boards over the windows, but it looked like they’d only recently been nailed there (one nail had cracked the wood, and the crack looked fresh), which matched her story that she had pulled away the old boards. She didn’t recognise Susannah Wells – but she did recognise another woman who was lodging in the house, an old gypsy woman called Mary Squires. Elizabeth said Mary was the woman who had cut off her stays and locked her in the loft.
Mary absolutely denied ever having seen Elizabeth before. That made no difference: she and Susannah Wells were arrested, Mary for stealing Elizabeth’s stays, Susannah for being an accomplice and ‘keeping a disorderly house’ (which could mean a brothel, but could also mean any house where what goes on in there creates a public nuisance). Warrants were also issued for several of Mary’s family, but they had – wisely – done a runner. Mary and Susannah weren’t arrested for assault because that was a civil action at the time, not a breach of the peace: it would have been up to Elizabeth to investigate it herself and take legal action. It was easier for the authorities to just go after Mary for the theft. The stays were valued at ten shillings, which made it a hanging crime.
The examining magistrate – Henry Fielding, the author of Tom Jones and founder of the Bow Street Runners – believed Elizabeth passionately, and was outraged at her story, but it wasn’t exactly an open-and-shut case. There were a few witnesses who said that they’d seen Mary Squires in Dorset, far from Enfield Wash, during the relevant time frame. Fortune and Judith Natus, a married couple who lodged at Mrs Wells’s house, told Fielding that they had slept in the loft all through January, and had never seen or heard of Elizabeth Canning during that time.
Most of these people weren’t able to testify at the actual trial, though. Public sentiment was high: crowds cheered Elizabeth into the courtroom and attacked defence witnesses, preventing them from getting in.
On the prosecution side, there was a witness who said Mary Squires had in fact been in Enfield Wash at the time, and there was another of Mrs Wells’s lodgers, a young woman called Virtue Hall. Virtue’s statement had originally matched the Natuses’, but after Fielding threatened to throw her in jail if she kept lying, she changed her testimony and confirmed Elizabeth Canning’s story.
And, of course, there was Elizabeth Canning. Elizabeth came across really, really well on the stand. She answered questions ‘without hesitation, confusion, trembling, change of countenance, or other apparent emotion’ and with the ‘decency, modesty, and simplicity’ that everyone wanted to see from a girl of her social class, and she stood up well under cross-questioning. Her frailty and suffering would have melted anyone’s heart – they certainly melted Henry Fielding’s; he called her ‘a poor, honest, innocent, simple girl, and the most unhappy and most injured of all human beings’. At the time, that was the general public opinion.
Susannah Wells and Mary Squires were found guilty. Susannah was branded on the thumb and given six months in jail. Mary was sentenced to hang.
Elizabeth had become a national media darling. It made a great story: the young maidservant defending her virtue, her heartrending suffering, the salacious hints of sex trafficking, the hideous ‘swarthy’ villainess who fit right into every stereotype about evil kidnapping gypsies. Elizabeth was all over the newspapers; multiple people issued pamphlets about her story; everyone, rich and poor, was talking about her. The eighteenth-century equivalent of GoFundMes for her raised almost three hundred pounds – a huge sum.
Except then it turned out not to be that simple.
The trial judge, who had the most excellent name of Sir Crisp Gascoyne, was uneasy about the verdict, and about the fact that some of the defence witnesses hadn’t been able to testify. He started a private investigation of his own.
There was some discussion of whether Elizabeth’s story was even possible. Could she have survived for a month on a loaf of bread, a pitcher of water, and a mince pie that she said she’d been taking home to her brother? Someone did complicated maths and concluded that she could, although she would have lost about twenty pounds; other people were less convinced. (The part I wonder about is the water. You can go a long time without food, but you can only survive a few days without water. Not only would it have to be a really big pitcher, but Elizabeth would have had to know in advance how long she would be there, in order to ration out the water so it lasted the full four weeks.) Doctors stated that starvation could account for the blackening of her hands and face.
But more and more little things didn’t add up. When she came home, Elizabeth was wearing a bedgown, which she claimed she had found in the fireplace grate of the room where she was locked up – but the loft in Susannah Wells’s house didn’t have a grate. Elizabeth hadn’t mentioned the hole for a jackline and pulley which led straight from the loft to the kitchen, and through which she would have heard everything that went on in there. One witness, who had gone to the house with Elizabeth when she was brought there to identify her attackers, said that the loft’s door didn’t have a keyhole, and there was no sign of a bolt or bar ever having been on it. Several witnesses said that they had been up to the loft on various dates during January, getting pollard for the pigs or collecting an old inn sign, and there hadn’t been any imprisoned girl there. And there was Elizabeth’s shift. After she got back, her mother, worried that Elizabeth had been raped, took the shift to a family friend who was a midwife. The midwife said there was no evidence of sex on the shift – but she also pointed out that it was way too clean for something that had supposedly been worn for a month.
And there was the question of motive. Why on earth would half a dozen people conspire to kidnap a woman and just leave her in a room for a month? Ransom clearly wasn’t the motive – no one would have mistaken Elizabeth for a woman rich enough to attract any worthwhile ransom, plus no demands were made. Sex trafficking is a possibility – Elizabeth said no one came near her all month, but she might not have wanted to acknowledge sexual assault. But this theory has the same problems as it does today, when a middle-class businesswoman or housewife disappears and people jump to sex trafficking: in eighteenth-century London, there was no shortage of destitute young girls who had basically no option but to go into sex work, and friendless orphans who wouldn’t be missed. Why kidnap an unwilling girl from a solid family who had the means to advertise for information and offer rewards? And why starve her? It’s also unclear whether there was even sex work going on in Mother Wells’s house or not.
There was also the question of why Elizabeth took four weeks to make a run for it. She said, basically, that she thought they’d let her out, and escaping didn’t occur to her till the 29th. That’s possible, given that she would have been traumatised, and taking into account the possibility that she wasn’t very bright. But it brings back the question of the water. If she thought she’d be let out any day, why would she ration out her water so carefully that one pitcher kept her going for four weeks?
Mary Squires and Susannah Wells both claimed that Mary and her family had only arrived at Susannah’s house on 24 January. Sir Crisp tracked down the witnesses who had seen them elsewhere at the beginning of January, and found a couple of dozen more: solid citizens with no dog in the fight, who testified that Mary Squires and her family had been in Dorset, nowhere near Enfield Wash. The leader of Elizabeth’s supporters, though, found other witnesses who claimed that the Squireses had been in Enfield Wash much earlier than the 24th. It could have been a case of mistaken identity, one way or the other, except for one thing: Mary Squires was really, really hard to mistake. She was, by all accounts, outstandingly ugly, with her lower lip hugely swollen by scrofula. From a letter written at the time: ‘The Convict is so very remarkable, ’tis as impossible that any of the Witnesses can be mistaken in her Person, as that their different Accounts can be true. She is at least 70, tall, and stoops; her face is long and meagre, her Nose very large, her Eyes very full and dark, her Complexion remarkably swarthy, and her under Lip of prodigious size.’
And then Virtue Hall recanted her testimony. She said that she’d never seen Elizabeth during January. She had only backed up Elizabeth’s story because Fielding, the magistrate, had threatened to throw her in prison if she didn’t.
Gascoyne wrote to King George II asking him to pardon Mary Squires. Mary was pardoned and released – for unclear reasons, Susannah Wells had to serve out her sentence. And Elizabeth Canning was arrested and tried for ‘wilful and corrupt perjury’. (In a separate, conflicting trial, so were three of the men who claimed to have seen Mary Squires in Dorset. They were found not guilty, and released – but the trial killed one of them anyway: he caught smallpox in the court, and died of it.)
By the time Elizabeth was tried, in spring of 1754, the nation was split between people who believed her and people who didn’t. Everyone had an opinion, and was probably putting out a pamphlet about it. ‘Canningites’ – Elizabeth’s supporters – were infuriated by the way she was being treated; they rioted outside the court, broke windows, threw stones, and attacked Gascoyne to the point where he and the jury had to be given a guard, and the Riot Act was read. ‘Egyptianites’ – people who thought Mary Squires was innocent – were putting out pamphlets mocking Elizabeth and her supporters.
The trial was messy. It lasted a week; the prosecution alone brought about sixty witnesses. Some of the witnesses seem to have had nothing solid to say – ‘Well this one night in January I was out walking in Enfield Wash and I heard a woman crying and a man calling her a bitch’ type of stuff. Mary Squires’s family said they had been travelling through December and January but were vague about their itinerary, which was really frustrating for the prosecutor. (There’s a theory that they were involved with a smuggling ring, which is why they weren’t keen on getting too specific.) The whole thing was complicated by the fact that England had just switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian one, and a lot of witnesses were completely confused by the 11-day gap – they weren’t sure whether they had seen Mary Squires on x date by the old calendar or the new one.
In the end, the jury came back with a verdict of ‘Guilty of perjury, but not wilful and corrupt’. The recorder told them it didn’t work that way; they retired again and came back with a verdict of ‘guilty of wilful and corrupt perjury, but with a recommendation to mercy’.
Elizabeth was sentenced to a month’s imprisonment, followed by seven years’ transportation. She went to Connecticut, where her GoFundMe money and some church connections among her supporters helped her to start a new life. She got married, had children, and died suddenly in 1773.
It’s possible that Elizabeth was telling the truth, but I seriously doubt it. There are way too many inconsistencies in her story, way too many witnesses who saw Mary Squires and her family elsewhere, and way too many witnesses who went into that loft in January. There are also some patterns to her story that feel dodgy. For example, she initially said that the room where she was held had nothing in it except the few objects she listed, and she slept on the bare floor. When she was brought to Susannah Wells’s house, her supporters went into the loft first, saw the hay in it, and thought ‘Huh, weird, she never mentioned hay,’ so they sent someone back out to ask Elizabeth if by any chance there had been hay in the room. She instantly went, ‘Oh yeah there was totally hay.’ That has the ring of someone modifying her story on the fly, to fit in new facts. Same for the way she didn’t mention hearing the name ‘Wells’ until someone else suggested it, when all of a sudden she had totally heard that name during her imprisonment.
But no one ever found any evidence to show that Elizabeth had been anywhere else. So where was she for that missing month?
One possibility is that she voluntarily went off with a lover, and then things went wrong. (Josephine Tey’s The Franchise Affair, based on the Elizabeth Canning case, goes for this explanation: Betty Kane makes up the kidnapping story to cover for the fact that she was snuggled up in a love nest with a married man, until his wife found her and kicked her out.) She would have had every motive to conceal that: sexual purity was an essential part of respectability for women then, and if a story like that came out, it could well have ruined Elizabeth’s life. If her lover turned out to be abusive, it could explain the cut on her ear, and maybe even the starvation, if she wanted to leave and the lover kept her captive.
Another possibility is that she was kidnapped, held captive and raped – not by sex traffickers, but by a lone attacker. Not wanting to acknowledge the sexual assault – which, again, could have wrecked her life – she made up a story that focused on a woman assailant and specifically excluded rape.
Another possibility is that she was pregnant. Elizabeth hadn’t had her period for several months before she went missing – she put it down to having caught a cold one night while she was doing the washing. (This came out because people asked what she had done about her period while she was imprisoned, and why there was no evidence of it on her clothes – which is also a question I’ve seen internet posters ask about Sherri Papini.) It’s unlikely that she had a full-term child, as her periods had only stopped three to five months earlier, and no one mentioned her having put on weight. But an abortion that went badly and led to infection could explain her long absence and her physical condition. And it’s definitely something she would have had very good reason to cover up.
Some people think she really was in Enfield Wash, although not at Susannah Wells’s house. A few witnesses said they saw a distressed young woman near Enfield Wash on the 29th of January. William Davy, Elizabeth’s defence counsel at her trial, seemed to be suggesting that Robert Scarratt – the neighbour who went ‘I bet that was Mother Wells’s house’ when Elizabeth told her story, setting the entire train of events in motion – was behind the whole thing. The theory is that Scarratt had either taken Elizabeth for sexual purposes, or else got her pregnant and arranged for her to go to Enfield Wash for an abortion, and his mention of Mother Wells’s house was him prompting Elizabeth to go for that as a cover story. This seems fairly farfetched to me; the only evidence is that Scarratt had lived in Enfield Wash and had the reputation of being a bit wild. Plus, if he wanted to lead people away from the truth, and Elizabeth was telling a story that didn’t get any more specific than ‘somewhere on the Hertford Road’, why would he deliberately nail it down to the right neighbourhood? I think it’s more likely that Scarratt, who had visited Mother Wells’s house before, suggested it because it genuinely came into his head, and Elizabeth jumped on the suggestion.
Another possibility is that Elizabeth’s memory was flawed, maybe because of her ‘fits’: she was missing some or most memories of those four weeks, and semi-subconsciously came up with a story that filled the gaps. This seems to be what at least some of her jury thought – she wasn’t telling the truth, but she wasn’t wilfully lying. Lilian de la Torre, in her 1945 book Elizabeth is Missing, decides that Elizabeth was a ‘hysterical amnesiac’: ‘Elizabeth Canning was a hysterical subject, and this period of amnesia was but one, and by no means the first, of many neurotic manifestations.’ I’m dubious about this one – it seems to me to be interesting mainly in what it says about 1940s attitudes towards women (the focus on hysteria and neurosis, rather than any form of agency, as the most probable explanation for a woman’s actions).
This case fascinates me, not only because there’s no way to know what really happened, but also because of how many striking similarities – and how many striking differences – there are between it and our causes célèbres today. The difference that really gets me is how informal, chaotic and participatory the whole law-and-order process was. Half of London appears to have headed to Mother Wells’s house with Elizabeth and the officials, to see what would happen. Mobs of supporters decided who got into the courtroom to testify – there wasn’t really an organised police force, so it wasn’t like the police were going to hold them back. Various people did their own private investigations after the initial trial, and the evidence they collected was used to overturn the convictions and trigger the perjury trials. Law enforcement as we know it was only just starting to take shape; the rules and procedures that we take for granted just didn’t exist. Henry Fielding – the magistrate who was so smitten by Elizabeth Canning – had only just set up the Bow Street Runners, the first group in England officially employed to apprehend offenders and bring them in for questioning, the forerunners of the modern police force.
But then there are the similarities. The parallels to the Sherri Papini case are obvious, but there are much deeper and broader ones that take in the whole society. The extent to which the public got emotionally invested in the case, to the point of rioting – the equivalent of furious internet wars over whether the Ramsey family killed JonBenet, or what happened to Madeleine McCann. The media fanning the flames and shaping the narrative. The ‘other’ as villain – Elizabeth’s identification of a gypsy, like Sherri Papini’s description of two Latina kidnappers, was a dog whistle that played into a lot of stereotypes and brought out a lot of bigotry. And, of course, there’s the intense emphasis on what a victim ‘should’ be, with that ‘should’ shaped rigidly by gender and class – and the implication that, if Elizabeth was what a victim should be (modest, well-behaved, respectful, humble, sexually pure), then she was clearly telling the truth.
Our definition of the ‘perfect’ victim has changed since then, and the differences tell us a lot about both Elizabeth’s society and our own, and what we value. Elizabeth’s supporters focused on her simplicity, her modesty, her retiring nature: Fielding praised her as ‘a virtuous, modest, sober, well-disposed girl’, and a previous employer who ran a pub mentioned in her favour the fact that she wouldn’t come out of the back room to talk to customers. With Sherri Papini, the focus was on her fitness, her prettiness, her ‘supermom’-hood, her ‘fairytale’ marriage. But it comes down to the same thing: we assess people’s victimhood based on how closely they conform to our society’s criteria for what they ‘should’ be.
And, both in our time and in Elizabeth’s, that approach leads to black-and-white thinking. Either Elizabeth was a saintly innocent, martyred for defending her virtue against the evil gypsies – or she was a cunning manipulative slut who was happy to exploit the justice system and good people’s sympathy, and to get Mary Squires hanged, in order to cover up her own sexual wantonness and make a few quid along the way. There was nothing in between.
Elizabeth spoke at her sentencing. She said that ‘she hoped they would be favourable to her; that she had no intent of swearing the gypsey's life away; and that what had been done, was only defending herself; and desired to be considered unfortunate’.
From what little I know of her, I don’t like Elizabeth Canning. I don’t think she spent that month in Mother Wells’s house, which means she was perfectly willing to lie Mary Squires’s life away – and by all accounts, she did it calmly and composedly, with barely a trace of emotion at any point. But I do think she was telling the truth, in one way or another, when she said that she ‘was only defending herself’.
The Malefactor’s Register of 1774 finishes its account of the Elizabeth Canning case with the words: ‘Upon the whole, we must end as we began: this story is enveloped in mystery; and the truth of it must be left to the discoveries of that important day, when all mists shall be wiped from our eyes, and the most hidden things shall be made plain.’
https://www.historicmysteries.com/elizabeth-canning/
https://strandmag.com/the-mystery-of-elizabeth-canning/
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Clear_State_of_the_Case_of_Elizabeth_Canning
Edit: My first ever gold!! Thank you so much for the awards!
And a note about 'gypsy'. I went back and forth about using the term, because it's not really in use any more - nowadays it's considered pejorative. I couldn't work out what else to use, though. At the time, 'gypsy' would have taken in both Romani and Travellers - but they're not the same thing, and I don't know which community Mary Squires and her family belonged to. They may not have belonged to either one: there's some suggestion that the Squireses just travelled around a lot, and 'gypsy' was used as a lifestyle descriptor rather than an ethnic one, possibly in order to trigger prejudice against Mary Squires. Then, as now, there was plenty of prejudice against both Romani and Travellers, and the identification of Mary as a 'gypsy' - in whichever meaning of the term - played a big role in shaping the public narrative of the case, and probably in determining her treatment. So, since any other term had a good chance of being factually wrong, I stuck with the one that was used at the time.

First

1. I reserve the right to be wrong.
2. Warning. This is long.
3. I know I’ve probably either missed elements that support my theory and that I’ve likely overreached on others.

What comes next are my observations concerning the game’s story and how it aligns to Ernest Hemingway’s novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls. I believe the references and symbols embedded in CP77 are more than just Easter Eggs. The general plot, themes and symbols present in Hemingway’s novel find themselves acted out in the story of CP’77 and its characters. I believe CP77 to be a retelling, at least in part, of For Whom the Bell Tolls.
Also note that much of what I’ve observed is from playing the part of V as a heterosexual with Panam as his romantic partner. Other story paths could change some of what follows.
It helps to have at least some familiarity with the story and characters of For Whom the Bell Tolls.
The Title of the Book:
• The book’s title is a reference to John Donne’s poem about an individual’s connection to the broader community (“mankind”). The phrase, For Whom the Bells Tolls, references the practice of a church bell being rung upon a person’s death.
• The book is found in Jackie’s garage and was a favorite of Jackie’s. If V chooses to leave the book as a gift at Jackie’s memorial, it symbolizes the ringing of the bell in remembrance of Jackie’s death.
• After the heist, Takemura calls V from the café and tells V that it is time he stepped back into the ring, that the bell has tolled. Takemura specifically uses the word “tolls”, not rung. This is symbolic of V’s death at the hands of Dex and is a foreshadowing of his own eventual second death.
The Quests and the Story:
• In the novel, Robert Jordan is an outsider who must seek help from a community of guerilla rebels to complete his mission to destroy a bridge. Like the protagonist Robert Jordan, V finds himself accepted amongst a community of nomads who help him as he completes his mission to destroy his bridge (the implant) to Johnny.
• The story has a main story quest titled, For Whom the Bell Tolls. And again, we see V relying upon a person by the name of Rogue to accomplish his mission. In the novel, the guerillas were rebels, a band of people who had “gone rogue” against the established fascist government. They were, in a fashion, rogues.
• V’s story sits in parallel in many respects to the story of Robert Jordan. Both have an extremely dangerous mission they must accomplish, and they need the help of community of others. In the course of the stories, both men find romantic love, and both accomplish their missions but must ultimately make a choice at the end of the story concerning how they will die (not whether they will die).
The Characters:
• V is Hemingway’s Robert Jordan. An outsider to the nomads who he must gain help from in his mission to destroy his bridge to Johnny.
• Panam is Maria from the novel. Maria is a member of the guerillas and becomes Robert Jordan’s romantic partner. Similarly, Panam is a member of the nomads and becomes V’s romantic partner.
• Misty plays the role of Pilar, in part. In the novel, Pilar is the spiritual leader of the guerillas. She is something of a gypsy and a mystic. She reads palms and interprets dreams. Similarly, Misty services as V’s spiritual guide or connection. She reads his fate in the tarot just as Pilar reads Jordan’s fate in his palm.
• Saul. This one may be an overreach. He plays the part of Pablo, from the novel. Pablo is the leader of the guerilla band. He is a difficult and uncooperative leader who opposes Robert Jordan and is more concerned with protecting the family than completing the mission. He is ultimately opposed and deposed from his position. In the same way, Saul is uncooperative and opposes any action that he believes is too dangerous or risky. Like Pablo, he too ultimately loses his role in the band and is replaced by a stronger, more passionate leader.
o Note: Pablo’s name in English is Paul.
o The Apostle Paul, from the New Testament biblical texts, was previously named Saul.
o Saul = Paul = Pablo
• Is Johnny…Hemingway?
The Themes and Symbols:
• Community and family. The protagonist, Robert Jordan, is an outsider (American) tasked with a military mission and relying on the help of a community of Spanish guerilla soldiers in Spain during the Spanish Civil War. Community and family are themes explored by Hemingway in the novel. This is often one of the strongest themes in the game and finds itself played out across interactions with Jackie, the nomads, River Ward and other positive examples. You also see the theme in a negative light in the actions of the Arasaka family and the NCP.
• Absinthe. This alcoholic drink is in the game and has a description in it that reads, “Be Bohemian”. In For Whom the Bell Tolls, Absinthe is a symbol for a lifestyle dedicated to pleasure and is Robert Jordan’s drink of choice. The book in fact includes dialogue referencing the bohemian lifestyle. Hemingway was considered a Bohemian in his lifestyle and wrote an article for the Toronto Daily Star called "American Bohemians in Paris."
• War. This is a central theme in the novel. It explores the it’s affects and the disillusionment of those who fight and the horrible outcomes of war on people. You see in Robert Jordan how his perspective changes over the course of the story. In CP77, war and its affects are frequently referenced through many of the quests. Both Mitch and Scorpion are veterans and the game’s narrative describes how war has affected them. You also see this in the cyberpsycho quest line with some of the victims of the affliction. Interestingly, the name Arasaka is similar to the name of the Japanese rifle, the Arisaka, used in many wars in the early to mid 20th century.
• Night. In the novel, one of the primary conflicts for Robert Jordan is that he cannot complete his mission at night. It is a daytime mission. Night and darkness are key symbols in Hemingway novels in general and Jordan’s inability to perform his mission at night is key. There is a certain irony in that V’s mission can only be completed in Night City.
It concerns me that the depth and breadth of the of story of CP77 will not be fully appreciated. I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface on all of the various themes and symbols woven into the world’s broader narrative. The idea of V as the archetype Hemingway Hero is something I might explore further.
This was a long summary of my observations and I hope someone finds some value in it. CDPR tells great stories. I’ve found in the Witcher and CP77 stories of greater complexity, depth and seriousness that is unmatched in PC gaming (just my opinion). I’m looking forward to more.

A few years ago my brother approached me at the family funeral saying that "we would never fight over inheritance". Soon after I found out that my parents signed the flat that my grandparent left behind exclusively over to him. The reason for this decision was that I was "not living in my country", so I was not being considered. This fell on my like a ton of bricks. I did not realise where I lived was a factor in anything. I did not think they were being serious. I was reassured that my parents are planning to level things out in 10-12 years time and tried to give me an equivalent of £200. I did not challenge it straightaway, even though I was very hurt. The whole family gathered to remember my grandparent. But I hoped that we will be able to go over this in some time. Which we did a couple of times since then. It seems like my parents eventually understood where I'm coming from, but the decision cannot be reversed.
What pains me is that at that time I had big plans, which my parents knew about. I did lead a gypsy lifestyle for a year to save up for them, sleeping on the floor of my friends living room for a couple of months, eventually renting a small cheap room at another friends flat, etc. It was a an exiting time and I knew I was going to go through my plan, assuming from the start I'll need to manage on my own - quit my job, get a loan, move to another city, enter a training course.
Fast forward to now, my career change has worked out (woo!), but my mental health is worse than ever. Up till the pandemic, I had a busy life, always on the move, which helped to distract me from thinking. Now during the pandemic all the hurt is catching up with me and I keep asking myself the same Qs over and over again: is it something I did? Is it something I didn't do? Do they care? Next time I visit, should I go to see my sibling in his new, beautiful flat or should I wriggle out of it? I get better and worse days, today is a worse one.
Thanks for reading

Pinterest to flag searches like “Day of the Dead costume,” “gypsy costume,” or “geisha costume" with cultural appropriation reminders
While Halloween is a time for self expression, Pinterest is making sure that people remain culturally appropriate while doing so.
This year, the image-sharing social network will step up its policing enforcements in reminding Pinners that some costumes are not culture. The company announced that it will take additional steps to prohibit the advertising of culturally inappropriate costumes and to allow Pinners to report those that are deemed insensitive.
Each year, millions of people come to Pinterest for Halloween inspiration,” a Pinterest spokesperson told FOX Business. “Pinterest is a place for positivity, and so we want to make it easy to find Halloween ideas that are fun as well as culturally-sensitive, along with information from experts.”
When Pinners search for a Halloween costume, the top of the feed results will feature a prominent educational Pin on how to celebrate the holiday thoughtfully and respectfully. The page of tips and advice, compiled from experts and Pinterest employee groups, provides insight into how to steer away from turning a person’s identity into a stereotyped image.
For example, Native author Adrienne Keene writes that “despite the decades of work by Native activists,” Indigenous cultures and peoples are not costumes and that “stereotypes represented through Halloween are harmful.” Keene debunks the argument for wearing a stereotypical Indian costume as means to honor to Indigenous peoples and that dressing in a “cheap, knock-off costume” does not gesture honor in the way that recognizing their treaty rights and sovereignty and supporting Indigenous cultural revitalization.”
In addition to flagging search terms like “Indian costume,” Pinterest will also signal any other searches that might adopt cultural aspects for Halloween, including “Day of the Dead costume,” “gypsy costume,” or “geisha costume.”
Even though the online pinboard will not remove culturally inappropriate Halloween content unless it violets existing policies around hateful activities, it is limiting these types of ideas as proactive suggestions in channels like email and notification and making it easier for Pinners to report culturally inappropriate content.
“We’ve taken these steps because Halloween is one of the most popular times of year on Pinterest, and want to make Pinterest an inspiring and positive place for everyone,” the Pinterest spokesperson said.
Pinterest will continue to work with experts and employee resource groups to identify what is considered culturally inappropriate and where to place the information.
https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/pinterest-halloween-social-media-costume-cultural-appropriation-education
The left really sucks the fun out of everything.

You've seen a post like this a million times. A good one was made just the other week. But the information on these posts always feels a little lackluster to me, so I wanted to try and do a proper research project to help consolidate the information that's out there.
Youtube pickings on this topic also felt lackluster, so I've put together a video with most of this information for those who prefer a more visual format. If that method of learning appeals to you, I would love your feedback on how I did.
Most of us have probably made some correlation between the Elder Scrolls races and IRL historical cultures. After all, most fantasy worlds draw direct inspiration from historical civilizations. Ultimately, no TES culture completely mirrors one IRL culture, but I thought it would be fun to come up with civilizations as close as possible, and why (as much as possible). To make my judgements, I'll be comparing using a combination of:

• Traditions & Stories
• Dress
• Language
• Architecture

Some races will get more love than others, but that's usually because there was less need to prove a point, or there wasn't anything else interesting for me to add. Because of my affinity for Argonians, I will start with Black Marsh and go in a counter-clockwiseish movement. Enjoy the fruits of some months of research!

Argonians - Mesoamericans

Equal parts Aztec + Mayan. At first glance, this is given away aesthetically by their feathery dress, swampland, icons, stone pyramids, culture revolving around impermanence, etc. But their names and language tell a deeper story. After some study, I've decided that Uto-Aztecan Nahuatl most reflects the Argonian Jel language.

• Jel names are made of up consonant sounds most common in Nahuatl, including Nahuatl's famous "tl" sound
• Both languages use similar consonant glottal stops - while Mayan includes ejective stops
• Jel lacks plurality. Aztec & Mayan have plurality rules, but Nahuatl allows for limited plurality.
• Jel word order is OSV or OVS (depending on whether subject is a pronoun). Aztec & Mayan are VSO, but Nahuatl has some fluidity to allow for VOS; a rare subject-third movement, like Jel. We like adaptability when we talk about Argonians.

Inca Quechua is on another level, and morphs words depending on tense. Too complicated and time-sensitive for Jel.
So why the silly Imperial names like Lifts-Her-Tail and Murky-Waters? Well, consider American Indian names you might be familiar with. Crazy Horse = Tȟašúŋke Witkó; Great Jaguar Paw = Chak Tok Ick'aak. All badass names which when translated to English, might sound silly to us, but names which can hold great respect in their respective societies. Like Argonians and their translated names.
Anyway, to wrap up the Argonians, I'd like to lastly point to the Xanmeer pyramids. It's prevalent in dialogue in ESO to explain a return to a simpler time. But similar to the Mayan pyramid city disappearances, these Argonian pyramid builders mysteriously disappeared, and became less technologically advanced centuries later.
Oh yeah, and if you thought you knew about the horrors of slavery/plantations from the African-American Slave Trade, just take a look at the Spanish Encomienda colonial system of the 1500-1600s.

Dark Elves - Assyrians

(but tbh a huge Eurasian Synthesis mixed w/ Star Wars)
So one of my favorite pieces of Dunmer trivia is that many caves and names of Daedric ruins have names similar to Assyrian kings. Furthermore, looking at a map of Ziggurats/Pyramids of ancient Mesopotamia, we can see the prefix Tell- and Ur all over the place. Yeah, Dagoth-Ur was named before Morrowind, and Ur is also German. But I decided to go with this b/c it's reasonable to assume the devs adapted it to be Middle Eastern, if it wasn't already. Not to mention "cantons" is used by Middle Eastern countries for sections of a state. Also Vivec's cantons always remind me of depictions of Babylon's Hanging Gardens.
Also, don't forget those Dwemer beards, representing a people (the DwemeMesopotamians) who lived in this land before (the DunmeAssyrians).
Speaking of Middle Eastern, most Hlaalu Houses have some incredible Middle Eastern influences. We also have confirmed Star Wars influences on MW's development, explaining Tatooine-esque towers, houses, and old Velothi strongholds, and general Sci-Fi/Fantasy aesthetic of the province. All of those Tatooine influences in turn come from the Middle East.
Ashlanders. This is where it can get very Mongolian/Indigenous. I would agree with the Mongolian comparison for the most part, but if you wanted to extend the Middle Eastern thing, you could also attribute Middle Eastern Turkic Tribes to Ashlanders... who also have yurt-culture, colorful dress, and acknowledge themselves to live outside a modern civ.
Religion*.* Vivec is Shiva, no doubt about it. Vivec is a confirmed hermaphrodite, who often takes his male form. Shiva's half-blue depictions are actually a combination-being with his wife Parvati, called Ardhanarishvara. Maybe Almalexia is comparable to Adi Parashakti, the other form of Parvati.
But MK actually gave us his main inspiration for the Tribunal - Aleister Crowley's Thelema cult religion - concerned with living magic. Thelema basically worships 3 main gods: Nuit, Hadit, and Ra-Hoor-Khuit (2 gods, 1 goddess). Did I mention these were ancient Egyptian gods, likely known by the ancient Assyrians?
Indoril architecture, especially in Mournhold, is also pretty Japanese. Don't forget the cool Japanese-looking ships in Mournhold. Lastly, the Middle East has a huge history of slavery, so no need to compare it to other famous slave states.

Nords - Vikings

If it wasn't obvious. You might also say the various holds represent varying degrees of different Norse peoples. And the Skaal are easily comparable to the Sami people of Finland with their lifestyle, unique nature god/spirit worship, removed from mainstream Norse, etc.
Dovahzuul was inspired by ancient cuneiform, but with the ability to be written by a dragon's claw. Interestingly enough, the language of Dovahzuul is most certainly inspired by Old English word form & naming conventions.
Names like Beowulf (Bee Wolf) or Odahviing (Snow Hunter Wing) don't make literal sense when translated, but convey elements of the character. See thuum.org for an amazing study on this.

Bretons - Bretons

(Bretons = Frankish Kingdoms; Reachmen = Gallic Celts)
In the video essay, I decided to first blanket both Bretons and Reachmen as Bretons - the ones from France's Brittany, that is. For those who don't know, Bretons in TES have some elf blood. Reachmen are considered "indigenous" to the region, and thus treated as their own race by many accounts.
Then, we can make a Bretonic split with the more "civilized" Bretons representing the more "Frenchified" side of HIgh Rock - especially with names like Renoit, and Maucroix. Reachmen represent the Celtic side of the region - especially with names like Madanach, and Scraeg.
I've recently seen the Forsworn compared to the IRA, both technically famous for being known as a terrorist faction, after centuries of fighting for dreams of independence, but unrecognizable by skin color alone to their oppressors.
Like Medieval France, frenchy Bretons have mixed blood royalties constantly fighting with each other, cross-regional warring with a desert faction down south, and a common place to live out stereotypical, Arthurian medieval times, being probably one of the most Western Europe influenced of the provinces.

Orcs - Mongols (w/o horses)

(but really represent all "fringe people")
Mongols is the clear aesthetic choice. But Orcs honestly just represent every fringe culture who's had to assimilate in some way to a disagreeable, prevailing society. Ostrogoths/Bulgars to Rome. Mongolians/Manchurians to China. Scots to Britain. American Indian Reservations to Americans.
In almost every fantasy setting after Lord of the Rings, Orcs were made as an allegory for barbarians. They're often given a hunger for conquest and battle. Some of you may know that the Romans frequently referred to the Gothic fringe-folk as barbarians, but also frequently included them in their legions. Just like the Empire in Tamriel does with the Orcs.
I make the connection with American Indians mostly because of the modern reservation system. If you commit a crime in one of Skyrim's Orc strongholds, for example, the Nordic holds do not hold the authority for that crime. Similarly, American reservations are mooostly (not really) treated like sovereign nations. If you commit a crime, you are subject to their laws.
Recently, ESO has upped the Northeastern Asian influences on Orcs. Check out these Manchurian Tengzhuan jackets in the Crown store.
Yeah, their MW armor looks kinda Japanese/Chinese, but that still doesn't exclude them from being fringe folk there. Orcs were once from Asian-influenced Alinor, after all. Makes sense their armor looks like something Asian, but favors functionality over style.

Redguards - Saracens

(Yokudans = Japanese)
Curved swords. Corsairs. Turbans. Camels. Arabian nights vibe is clear. I'm going with Saracens, but you could really think of Carthaginians, Berbers, or Ottomans to add to their cultural influences. I always think of classic Medieval Islam vs Christians when I look @ DF's map, especially when compared to a Mediterranean map. Reinforced by the fact that these Illiac Bay states have a huge history of warring with each other.
Recently I've seen the Forebears being compared to the more N African parts of the Saracen realm, and Crowns compared to the more Arabic bits (reinforced by monarch tendencies), but I'm not sure how deep that theory can really hold up.
Yokuda's Japanese influences have been explored really well in a Fudgemuppet video. Already the "lost continent" of Yokuda reminds me of Atlantis or Mu, but Yokuda is unquestionably Japanese in its influences.

• Yokudan Ansei "Saints of the Sword" => Japanese Kensei "Sword Saints".
• Elden Yokuda Randic Torn, succeeded an assassinated dictator, and took swords from all non Sword Singers => Shogun Oda Nobunaga, succeeded a seppuku'd dictator, and took swords from all non Samurai
• Both Yokuda & Japan diminished Emperor power in favor of local rulers, until a military dictator (Elden Yokuda / Shogun) ruled all.
• Undefeated Duelists in 100s of duels: Yokuda's Frandar Hunding, Japan's Miyamoto Misashi. Hunding wrote "Book of Circles". Miyamoto wrote "Book of Five Rings".

Religion. Not much to say, but Redguard religion, when not comparable to the 9 Divines, always gave me a Voodoo vibe. Not really backed up except by the Redguard pantheon names, like Tall Papa, comparable with Voodoo's Papa Legba. Might just be making these conclusions because of TESA: Redguard's pirate aesthetic.
Also the Dwemer existed in the Hammerfell-before-time. Dwemer:Redguards :: Mesopotamians:Saracens??

Imperials - Roman Italians

Not much else to say here. Ken Rolston very intentionally made Imps an allegory for Romans by the time Oblivion came around. You have legates, emperors, legionaries, world conquest, Vicis, Ciceros, uncivilized fringe cultures over their borders and in their armies, imperialization of other lands, Bruma is latin for winter solstice, etc. etc. etc.
Colovians = more East European medieval with city names like Kvatch & Skingrad. Also Cyrodilic and Cyrillic sound ridiculously similar, but that's just speculation now.
Nibenese = represent a little more West Europe, Mediterranean Romans, especially with their rice growing. In fact, 80% of Europe's rice comes from Italy and Spain.

Khajiit - Indians / Romani (Gypsy)

This can get complicated, because we have Persian/Romani in the Ta'agra language, Indonesian/Burmese in some architecture, and misc culture & geography with India.
"Indians" is a convenient blanket-term for each, since all of these cultures' influences can be connected to India, as well. This includes the common Gypsy comparison. The Romani (Gypsy) have linguistic roots in India's Rajasthan. They are a people who gradually came West. So the Gypsy thing doesn't exclude them from being Indian, either.
I've seen some epic Ta'agra studies by u/Geckat and u/pHScale, as well as the Ta'agra Project. I really like the Persian comparison to the language. I wouldn't say Ta'agra is Arabic; Arabic is a rare Verb-1st language VSO, and has grammatical gender. Persian, Hindi, Romani, and Ta'agra all lack grammatical gender.
Ta'agra is often seen using SVO, like Romani. Also imo hearing Romani spoken just sounds more like the Khajiit accent than all the others. Romani is a language full of loan-cognates, too. Like Ta'agra. Just check out these cognates in S'rathra's dialogue in Redguard.

• Shijoh = sit
• In'tenurr = in the night
• Pofamer = poor farmer

India's geography, like Elsweyr's, features tropical beaches, rainforests, and deserts. India's biggest desert, in Rajasthan, is literally called the Thar Desert like the Khajiiti Riddle'Thar, god of Cosmic Order. India also has a god of cosmic order, uniquely enough. I'm also convinced S'ratha is named after Siddhartha).
Architecture in ESO is extremely Indonesian, and has those Bhuddist/Burmese temples, similar to Angkor Wat. Keep in mind, these Bhuddist temples were frequently seen in Indonesia too. And keep even in more in mind, both these Bhuddist and Hindi temples have their roots in India. So we're right back to where we started, in India. The Malay/Indonesians were also influenced by the Arabs, which we connect to Romani, which we connect to India, so it's still India-influenced.
Like the Romani, the Khajiit come from that part of the world we call elsewhere/Elsweyr.

Wood Elves - Iroquois

(with some Tolkien/Celtic influence)
A few things sold me on this. First, the "Mourning War" is 100% ripped off from the Mourning War policy of the Iroquois Confederacy. Basically, when a tribe member died in war, the tribe would be compensated by the other side - by way of having their village looted and members kidnapped, essentially brainwashed, and initiated as a tribesman of the other side to restore balance. Sounds weird, but it's a spiritual, nature-balance thing, very fitting of the Bosmer.
Wood Elves in every Tolkien-esque fantasy are basically always about being in touch with nature, and an allegory for primitivism as a result. Bosmer have this with the Wild Hunt, cannibalism, and the Green Pact - a conscious rejection of "modern", Imperial ways. All these things remind me of American Indians during colonial times, ancient Celts. Not to mention Tolkien - who based his elves off of Celts (Sindarin is super Welsh-influenced).

High Elves - Imperial China * *

\*(with heavy Tolkien influence, and some discernible European themes)*
So there's this map ZOS recently came out with depicting an obvious Greek aesthetic to the Altmer. And the Aldmeris (Altmer) really did form the basis of modern civilization on Tamriel. Greeks had a superiority complex, were conquerors, were manipulators. So, it's fair to say Greeks, I think, but personally the similarities end there.
To me, Imperial China has all of these things and more. They too were stupid influential to their surrounding area, soon-to-be-subjects. Ridiculously advanced technologically for their time, probably more so than the greeks, and founded philosophies that are either practiced today or influenced modern schools of thought. Let's not forget to mention the amount of flute licking European nations often did to get on the Chinese Emperor's good side in the Medieval era.
What's more, Altmer domestic culture have a high emphasis on honorable actions, improving yourself, and doing your part for your nation and kin. Like China & E Asia, High Elves also honor their ancestors, and make the law very personal. Criminals, like Mother of Rats, are completely ostracized from society for even seemingly small crimes. Also, let's not forget to mention Auridon's awesomely Asian motifs all throughout its architecture.
On the other hand, Alinor represents almost everything architecturally Gothic and extravagant about Europe's Renaissance, so go figure.
On religion, they do have a god called Xarxes. But my favorite religious find comes from u/Guinefort1, who linked the Altmer religion to Gnosticism. Both embrace a world-as-a-prison mentality created by a hostile trickster god, like Lorkhan. Both had gods ascended in front of their followers, like Auri-El. Both emphasize the spirit being superior to the material - something High Elves are very well known for.
Unfortunately that carries over to the Nazi-like Thalmor. But genocide for the sake of pureblood, superiority, is not historically exclusive to the Nazis. China and the East are no strangers to this either in their own history.
END
I wanted to focus on the playable races, as the other races have kind of been done before, and imo not enough information on them that would make me contribute much more information on them. Maomer are probably Maori though.

NIBEN IMPERIALS: This one is pretty obvious. Niben Imperials are based off of Romans/early Italic cultures. Their appearance is also closely related to that of today's Italians. Their culture is also early Italic as well as some Japanese mixed in from years of Akaviri rule.
COLOVIAN IMPERIALS: Colovian Imperials are slightly more atmoran in origin than their Niben siblings. Their appearance is close to that of modern day Slavic (in their naming of cities, or "language"), although their culture appears to be a mix of old Slavic as well as Iberian (especially Iberian when it comes to building styles).
NORDS: This one is the easiest ones. Nords are easily based off of old Scandinavian cultures, as well as some old Slavic and Germanic. In my observations, it appears to me that "Eastern" Nords are more Scandinavian in their culture than "Western Nords" which are more Imperialized/Romanized. The whole drinking thing in their culture easily comes from Germanic culture.
BRETONS: Bretons are a tricky one. Although Bretons are a real life culture and subgroup from France, Bretons in the elder scrolls resemble the English in appearance (except for some elvish features), but overall resemble a wide variety of Franco-Brittonic cultures.
REDGUARDS: There are two main types of Redguards. Crowns, and Forebears. While they aren't as distinct as Niben are to Colovian, they still have some noticeable differences. Crown Redguards resemble Sub-Saharan Africans in appearance, while having Arab influence on their culture. Forbear Redguards resemble BerbeMoors in their culture and appearance. It is also important to add that in the elder scrolls universe, Crown Redguards came in a different wave of migration from Yokuda than Forbears.
SUMMERSET ALTMER: Altmer are a very tricky one. Although Altmer can refer to the Direnni and Ayelid elves as well, we are talking about Summerset Elves. Summerset Altmer resemble a strange mix between Colonial British, Imperial Japan, and Nazi Germany when it comes to their culture and philosophy. The rest is purely fictional.
BOSMER: The Elves of Valenwood have a very strange culture that is mostly fictional. The "green pact" resembles the lifestyle and philosophy of various Native American cultures found on the east coast of what is now the United States. Many Wood Elves have migrated to other locations in Tamriel (mostly Cyrodiil) and have swiftly assimilated to their culture.
DUNMER: One may take a swift look at Dunmer culture and compare it to that of Arab culture, but it's way more complex than that. In my research, I have found that Dunmer Culture most resembles Central Asian Turkic culture. Ashlander culture in particular resembles nomadic Turkic/Mongol tribes. Strangely enough, much of Dunmer culture also resembles Persian and Indian culture, Ancient Hebrew culture (The plot of Morrowind has many Biblical themes and aspects to it), as well as even early American culture (think the South and house Dres). Their religion is heavily influenced by Hindu and Buddhism. Each house has it's own culture, so to make things simple: Redoran- Turkic, Telvanni- Ancient Hebrew/Confederacy, Hlaalu- Colonial India, Dres- Confederacy, Indoril- Persian/Indian. There are also hints of Ancient Egyptian Architecture. Their language and names also resemble Mesopotamian culture.
ORSIMER: Orsimer have a very strange culture. Their battle prowess and philosophy resembles that to Gothic/Germanic Tribes, but their culture also resembles a mix of Sub-Saharan African, Native American, as well as, of course, old Germanic. It also seems to me that the state of Orsinium historically resembles Basque territory in between France and Spain. Their weaponry resembles Mongolian forging.
KHAJIIT: Khajiit culture is heavily influenced by Romani, Indian, and Arab cultures. I would say Elsweyr is like India, and the Khajiit that migrated to other parts of Tamriel would resemble Romani/Gypsy culture, since they originated from India. Khajiit's rejection from cities in Skyrim also resembles Europe's treatment of the Romani.
ARGONIANS: If it weren't for ESO, I would be lost when it comes to Argonians. Argonian Architecture heavily resembles that of Aztec culture, and their culture is a mix of mesoamerican cultures. Their role in Tamriel unfortunately resembles that of Sub-Saharan Africans, as they were a major victim of the Dunmer Slave Trade.
REACHMEN: The reachemen are genetically distinct from Bretons, as they have far more Atmoran admixture in their blood and little to no Elven ancestry. Their culture easily reflects ancient Celtic culture, and the Forsworn are practically the IRA if you think about it.
CHIMER: The Chimer, before they turned into the Dunmer, still had similar cultures to modern Dunmer but with more Ancient Egyptian/Hebrew influence. High Velothi culture also resembles Old Abrahamic culture.
AKAVIRI: There are two main types of Akaviri that came to Tamriel- The Tsaesci, and the Humans. The Akaviri humans resembled East Asians, and both Tsaesci and Human culture resembles feudal Japanese culture. The Kamal (snow demons), however, I have no clue since we have so little information on them.
AYELIDS: The Ayelids easily resemble Ancient Greek culture in their architecture and scientific/philosophical advancements. Not much else to be said really.
DWEMER: The Dwemer are a mix of Babylonian (and ancient Sumerian in general) and Ancient Greek, with a tad of Ancient Mayan when it comes to their scientific advancements. One may also argue that they resemble Ancient Egyptians, to which I would agree to an extent.
FALMER (pre-corruption): We don't know much about Snow Elven culture, but it seems to me like they resemble the pre-indo-european inhabitants of Europe, but most of their society is purely fictional.
REIKLINGS: Reikling culture revolves around tribalism, collecting, and hoarding. This resembles the real life "cargo cults" of melanesia/papua new guinea.
SKAAL: The Skaal, although genetically nordic, resemble the Sami people of northern Scandinavia when it comes to their culture.
MAORMER: Little is known about the Sea Elves, but my closest guess would be the ancient Minoans.
LEFT HANDED ELVES: No clue, too little information.
SLOADS: I honestly don't even know, plus comparing these "things" to any real life culture would be an insult to that culture lmao.
KOTHRINGI: Ah yes, the humans of black marsh that were all wiped out by disease. Not much is known about them, but if anything, they resemble Indonesian Tribes.
LILMOTHIIT: No clue, too little information.
ATMORAN: Historically, I would say the original Indo-Europeans, but in TES, they resemble ancient Scandinavians.
​
GODS AND RELIGIONS
IMPERIAL PANTHEON: Akatosh- Abrahamic God/JupiteZeus/Aeternitas. Talos- Mars/Ares. Dibella- Venus/Aphrodite. Mara- Virgin Mary/Hera/DemeteCeres/Vesta. Zenithar- Hephaestus/Hermes/Tyche. Kynareth- Athena/Poseidon. Stendarr- Janus/Juno/JupiteClementia. Julianos- Hecate/Trivia. Arkay- Dea Tacita/Viduus.
NORDIC PANTHEON: Shor- Loki. Akatosh- Odin. Alduin- Ragnar. Stuhn- Tyr. Tsun- Heimdall. Kyne- Freya/Frigga. Mara- Freya/Frigg. Dibella- BaldeBragi. Orkey- Idun/Tuisto. Ysmir (Talos)- Thor. Pelinal- Hercules.
REDGUARD PANTHEON: Diagna- Gurzil. HoonDing- Sinifere. Leki- Afri. Morwha- Shaheded. Ruptga (Tall Papa)- Yakush. Satakal- Porrima/Letum. Sep- Loki. Tava- Lilu. Tu'whacca- Ammon. Zeht- Anzar.
ALTMER PANTHEON: Auriel- Porrima/Sol Invictus. Magnus- Trivia. Trinimac- Ares. Syrabane: ? Xarxes-Hermes? Jephre- ?
DAEDRA:
-Clavicus Vile: Loki/LucifeDolos
-Mephala: Kali/Invidia/Anansi
-Boethiah: Discordia/Kartikeya
-Azura: Aurora/Parvati
-Malacath: Nemesis/Orcus
-Hermaeus Mora: Ogma/Shukra/Gamayun
-Hircine: Artemis/Woden/Diana/Herne
-Meridia: Themis
-Jyggalag: ?
-Sheogorath: Maniae
-Mehrunes Dagon: Hades/Set
-Molag Bal: Satan/(Moloch/Baal)
-Namira: Hel
-Nocturnal: Nox
-Peryite: Robigo/Nergal
-Sanguine: Dionysus/Hedone/Hermes
-Vaermina: Hypnos/Omina
​
OTHER: NerevaShezzaDragonborne: Vishnu. Vivec: Ardhanārīshvara. Almalexia: Mariamman/Durga. Sotha Sil: Ganesha.
​
I know I didn't include all pantheons, but many are just repetitions of each other.
​
Thoughts?
​
EDIT: Yo thanks for the gold.

Alright to start off I'm aware Irish travellers are sometimes also called "gypsies" and they're white as the driven snow, but they're a separate group and when somebody refers to "gypsies" they're almost always talking about Romani gypsies. So when I say the word that's what I mean.
I'm also aware the word gypsy is considered kind of backwards and outdated now, but that's the term that is most readily recognizable to refer to them whereas if I wrote "Roma" I think I'd have a lot of people thinking I meant Romanians.
Now that I've caught your attention, Romanians, I know what you're thinking. I'm yet another clueless American who feels bad for the poor gypsies because I've never had to deal with them and I don't know how scummy they are and how they steal asphalt off highways / steal shit from children's pockets / marry their sisters / scam tourists / throw rocks at windows. And you're right, I've never had to deal with them. I believe the stories. Maybe most of them are in fact really like that.
But it's statistically impossible that every fucking one of them is a criminal, and I know for a fact some of them aren't. I see people say being Roma is a lifestyle and it's not, it's an ethnicity, their genetic roots are traced to India. You can usually easily tell them apart from other Europeans.
But let's pretend for the sake of argument that it's somehow proven, your prejudice is right, 100% of them are petty thieves who only look out for themselves. Does that make it okay to say

• they should have their kids confiscated and given to white families who will forcibly reeducate and "civilize" them?
  
• that they should all be deported?
  
• that they deserve to have their ears cut off?
  
• that they're subhuman?
  
• that Hitler was right about the gypsies?
  

No, it's not, but I've read these gems and more from both Eastern and Western Europeans regarding them just this past week, including those who consider themselves to be holier-than-thou left-wingers. This isn't hypothetical shit you're suggesting, it actually happened. Over half of the gypsies died during the Holocaust. Half! You can't with a straight face condemn American racism and in the same breath say things about a certain ethnicity that would make Don Black say "whoa slow down" if you replaced "gypsy" with "black." We could never get away with this. Never. Even racists around here at least bother to couch their hatred of black people or Jews in less offensive language.
The next time I see somebody do this and then turn around and say that racism is this American thing and the rest of the world has somehow evolved beyond it I'm going to go brick my computer.

Warning - this thread is gonna be long. Real long.
Here's whatcha gonna get:
Background, list/ratings, stats, superlatives, recommendations, a playlist, buh-bye.
Sometime last year, I realized my strategy of finding one new artist a month, going on a discography binge, and starting over the next month wasn't holding up. I mean, it was great, but there's so much music out there for me to discover and my pace was too slow.
I decided to make a short list of 30 or so albums to check out, and then later in the year, I'd do one a day for a month and then dive into the discographies of the artists I liked most. Every time I found another album I'd like to listen to (from RateYourMusic, reddit threads, recommendations, Sputnikmusic, Progarchives, reviews of other albums, etc), I added it to the list. It grew and grew, and reached about a hundred by the time March rolled around.
You all know what happened in March. Something led to me having a ton of free time - not gonna say what. You can guess.
I started my list, and kept adding and adding to it as I went along. Long story short, I checked out 2-3 albums a day from mid-March every day through yesterday, when I concluded with Trout Mask Replica. It was really an amazing experience, and there's still so much music I didn't even get to!
Just to keep things organized, I "rated" every album I listened to from 0-10 after my first listen. Here's what the ratings mean - there was definitely some inflation involved:
10 - going to be one of my all time favorites, I know it
9 - I loved this album
8 - I really liked this album
7 - I enjoyed the album a little bit, but not my favorite
5 - indifferent toward the album
3 - didn't like but had redeemable qualities
1 - hated this album (sorry Velvets and Joy Division)
So now, by genre, here are my "ratings." Keep in mind that I've relistened to a few albums (HOMOGENIC!!!) about ten times, but most others I've only listened to once or twice. These have changed a lot after previous listens, so nothing's set in stone. It's not a "music review" style HERE IS MY SCORE like Pitchfork, just a marker so I know which albums I want to return to. I've divided it into "Prog," "Non-Prog," and "Other."
Format is artist - album - year - rating.
Start here means exactly what it sounds like - the album I think would be a great introduction to that genre.
Masterpiece is one song that exemplifies the genre and stood out among the entire list as a, you know, masterpiece.
Sorry for the formatting - I couldn't figure out anything better. Copying and pasting tables from a word document just doesn't work well.
PROG
Miscellaneous Modern Prog Rock (post-1981)
Fair to Midland Fables From A Mayfly… 2007 10
iamthemorning ~ 2012 10
Kevin Gilbert The Shaming of the True 2000 9.5
Agent Fresco Destrier 2015 9
Big Big Train English Electric Part 1 2012 9
The Reign of Kindo Rhythm, Chord, and Melody 2008 9
Circa Survive Blue Sky Noise 2010 9
Pure Reason Revolution The Dark Third 2006 8.5
Rishloo Feathergun 2009 8.5
Motorpsycho The Death Defying Unicorn 2012 8.5
The Gathering How to Measure a Planet? 1998 8.5
Arcane Known/Learned 2015 8.5
Gazpacho Night 2007 8
Cave In Jupiter 2000 8
All Traps On Earth A Drop of Light 2018 7
Closure in Moscow Pink Lemonade 2014 7
Birds and Buildings Bantam to Behemoth 2008 7
Anglagard Hybris 1992 7
Airbag All Rights Removed 2011 7
Phideaux Doomsday Afternoon 2007 6.5
Mike Oldfield Amarok 1990 6.5
The Pineapple Thief Your Wilderness 2016 6.5
Anekdoten Vemod 1993 6.5
Riverside Second Life Syndrome 2005 6
Sieges Even The Art of Navigating By The Stars 2005 6
Echolyn Mei 2002 5.5
Marillion Clutching at Straws 1987 4
Definitely the biggest category here, as it’s my comfort zone! Yes, I know my least favorite here is a classic—that’s gonna become a trend, as I’m a contrarian. I’ve found a ton of great modern prog albums and a few mediocre ones. I think everyone should hear the top three here!
Out of these albums:
Start here: Fair to Midland—Fables from a Mayfly
Masterpiece: Rishloo—Feathergun in the Garden of the Sun (goddamn I love this song)
Including albums I already know:
Start here: Porcupine Tree—In Absentia, The Mars Volta—Deloused in the Comatorium, Oceansize—Frames
Masterpiece: Cardiacs—Dirty Boy, Oceansize—Trail of Fire (my two favorite songs)
Miscellaneous Classic Prog Rock
Kansas Leftoverture 1976 9
Invisible El jardin de los presentes 1976 9
Frank Zappa One Size Fits All 1975 8.5
Steve Hackett Voyage of the Acolyte 1975 8.5
T2 It'll All Work Out In Boomland 1970 8
Goblin Suspiria 1977 7.5
Gentle Giant In A Glass House 1973 7
Nektar A Tab In The Ocean 1972 7
Focus Moving Waves 1971 7
Alan Parsons Project Tales of Mystery and Imagination 1976 5.5
Renaissance Scheherazade and Other Stories 1975 5
Eloy Ocean 1977 5
Suffered from the “I already knew the best albums of the genre” syndrome. Plus, some of the best classic prog albums I discovered have their own subgenres (cough… Magma), so they have their own categories here.
I really like The Power and the Glory by GG – it would probably get an 8.5 for now. Also, Hocus Pocus by Focus rules although the rest of the album is meh.
Out of these albums:
Start here: Kansas—Leftoverture
Masterpiece: Steve Hackett—Shadow of the Hierophant
Verdict: B+
Including albums I already know:
Yes—Close to the Edge (for both categories)
Verdict: A
Canterbury Scene
Hatfield and the North The Rotter's Club 1975 8.5
National Health Of Queues and Cures 1978 8.5
Robert Wyatt Rock Bottom 1974 8.5
Khan Space Shanty 1972 8
Really enjoyed this subgenre of classic prog, already knew Caravan.
Start here: Caravan—In the Land of Grey and Pink (or HatN of these)
Masterpiece: Robert Wyatt—Sea Song (this album is very cool)
Verdict: B+
Space Rock
94 Ozric Tentacles Erpland 1990 8
71 Gong You 1974 8
137 Hawkwind Warrior on the Edge of Time 1975 7.5
179 Kingston Wall Kingston Wall II 1993 6.5
These aren’t really my favorite. Like jazz fusion… but more boring and with annoying spoken word constantly. Still didn’t dislike any though.
Verdict: B-
Start here: Gong—You
Masterpiece: Gong—Master Builder
Avant-Garde
John Zorn Naked City 1990 8.5
Captain Beefheart Trout Mask Replica 1969 8
Univers Zero Heresie 1979 7.5
Henry Cow Western Culture 1979 7
Kayo Dot Choirs of the Eye 2003 6.5
Thinking Plague In Extremis 1998 5.5
The Residents Duck Stab/Buster and Glen 1978 5
Sleepytime Gorilla Museum Of Natural History 2004 4
Ahh, the REALLY weird stuff. Too weird to even be prog. Not the biggest fan of any of the Avant-Garde artists that “take themselves too seriously” – I need a sense of humor to enjoy this stuff. I classified Zappa as fusion (Hot Rats) or just plain prog (One Size Fits All), and Cardiacs surely transcend the avant-garde label (I knew and loved them before).
I’ll try Kayo Dot again when I’m in the mood… I hope I’m never in a mood to enjoy that.
Worth noting, I saved Trout Mask Replica for last—I’m listening as I type this up. It’s cool, and I enjoy it unironically.
Start here: Captain Beefheart—Trout Mask Replica
Masterpiece: Kayo Dot—The Manifold Curiosity (or all of Naked City)
Verdict: B-
Jazz Fusion
Mahavishnu Orchestra The Inner Mounting Flame 1971 9.5
Mahavishnu Orchestra Birds of Fire 1973 9
Snarky Puppy We Like It Here 2014 9
Frank Zappa Hot Rats 1969 9
Herbie Hancock Head Hunters 1974 9
Jean-Luc Ponty Enigmatic Ocean 1977 9
Fela Kuti Zombie 1988 9
Tigran Hamasyan Mockroot 2015 8.5
Jaga Jazzist What We Must 2005 8.5
Miles Davis Bitches Brew 1970 8.5
Hiromi Time Control 2007 8.5
Al di Meola Elegant Gypsy 1977 8.5
Bruford One of a Kind 1979 8
Return to Forever Romantic Warrior 1976 7.5
Billy Cobham Spectrum 1973 7.5
Nucleus We'll Talk About It Later 1971 7
Weather Report Heavy Weather 1976 7
Tony Williams Lifetime Emergency! 1969 5
Soft Machine Third 1970 2
Definitely my favorite subgenre of prog that I discovered while going through this list.
Start here: Mahavishnu Orchestra—The Inner Mounting Flame
Masterpiece: Mahavishnu Orchestra—Meeting of the Spirits (or Snarky Puppy’s Lingus if we’re going for variety)
Verdict: A
Krautrock
Amon Düül II Yeti 1970 9
Can Tago Mago 1971 8.5
Faust Faust IV 1973 8
Neu! Neu! 1972 7.5
Popol Vuh Hosianna Mantra 1972 7
Ash Ra Tempel Ash Ra Tempel 1971 5.5
With Tago Mago, Disc 1 gets a 9/10, and disc two was awful and would get a 0/10. Example of BAAAAAAD avant-garde. Krautrock albums are generally inconsistent but are worth trying for one or two great songs (like Neu!).
Start here: Amon Duul II—Yeti (or any of Can’s big three)
Masterpiece: Can—Halleluhwah
Verdict: B+
Zeuhl
Magma MDK 1973 9
Eskaton 4 Visions 1981 7
Dun Eros 1981 6.5
Although they took a while to grow on me, Magma is fantastic. The other two bands were just ok and lacked Magma’s soul and power. Still have a little more exploring to do here.
Start here: Magma—MDK
Masterpiece: Magma—MDK (or maybe KA, or ER, or de Futura)
Verdict: B+
Progressive Pop
Sheena Ringo Kalk Samen Kuri No Hana 2003 10
Jellyfish Spilt Milk 1993 9.5
Peter Gabriel Melt 1980 7.5
The Moody Blues Days of Future Passed 1967 7.5
Supertramp Crime of the Century 1974 6.5
Also, not really a genre—these have next to nothing in common.
Start here: Jellyfish—Spilt Milk
Masterpiece: Sheena Ringo—Kalk Samen… (literally pick any individual song!)
Verdict: A-
Progressive Metal
Mastodon Crack the Skye 2009 9.5
Caligula's Horse In Contact 2017 9
Cynic Traced in Air (Remix) 2008 8.5
Headspace I Am Anonymous 2012 6
Intronaut Valley of Smoke 2010 6
Soen Lotus 2019 6
Devin Townsend Terria 2001 5.5
VOLA Inmazes 2015 4
Pain of Salvation Remedy Lane 2002 4
Also knew the most popular bands in this genre beforehand, so that’s why a few of the best—Opeth, Tool, Haken, Leprous, etc—aren’t here. I’m really sick of the Dream Theater style of shreddy metal and always hated the djenty style, so that explains most of these low scores. Devin is cool, really cool, but it’s just too much for me. I’ll try another album of his though.
Out of these:
Start here: Mastodon—Crack the Skye
Masterpiece: Mastodon—The Last Baron
Including albums that I already knew:
Start here: Opeth—Blackwater Park or Tool—Lateralus
Masterpiece: Opeth—The Drapery Falls or Dream Theater—Octavarium
Post-Rock
Godspeed You! Black Emperor Lift Yr Skinny Fists… 2000 9.5
Yndi Halda Enjoy Eternal Bliss 2005 9
Godspeed You! Black Emperor Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada 1999 9
Sigur Ros Agætis Byrjun 1999 9
We Lost The Sea Departure Songs 2015 9
Jakob Solace 2006 8
65daysofstatic One Time For All Time 2005 8
Red Sparowes At the Soundless Dawn 2005 8
The Evpatoria Report Golevka 2005 7.5
Talk Talk Laughing Stock 1991 7.5
God Is An Astronaut All Is Violent, All Is Bright 2005 7.5
Audrey Fall Mitau 2014 7.5
Tangled Thoughts of Leaving Yield to Despair 2015 7.5
Dirty Three Horse Stories 1996 7.5
Mogwai Young Team 1997 7
Godspeed You! Black Emperor F# A# Infinity 1997 7
Caspian Dust and Disquiet 2015 7
Do Make Say Think Winter Hymn Secret Hymn… 2003 7
Explosions in the Sky The Earth Is Not A Cold… 2003 6
Crippled Black Phoenix I, Vigilante 2010 6
MONO/World's End Girlfriend Palmless Prayer… 2005 6
Tortoise Millions Now Living … 1996 5.5
Bark Psychosis Hex 1994 4
This Will Destroy You This Will Destroy You 2008 4
Coming in, I expected this genre to blow me away, and maybe even equal prog in greatness. It didn’t. I need to relisten to Tortoise and Bark Psychosis, because at the time I was listening for GYBE like crescendos that never came. This genre ended up being a big pile of meh, with a few gems at the top. Lots of the best albums in this genre (Slint especially) are better classified as another genre, too. Talk Talk’s Spirit of Eden blew me away (it would be a 9.5 or 10), so check that album out!
Verdict: B+
Start here: GYBE—LYSF
Masterpiece: GYBE—Static (or Storm, honestly)
Post-Metal
Agalloch The Mantle 2002 9.5
Russian Circles Enter 2006 8.5
Pelican The Fire In Our Throats… 2005 8.5
The Ocean Pelagial (Instrumental Version) 2013 8.5
ISIS Panopticon 2004 8
Kauan Sorni Nai 2015 7.5
Cult of Luna Somewhere Along the Highway 2006 5.5
Rosetta The Galilean Satellites 2005 2
Verdict: B
Whether I like an album in this genre entirely depends on whether I liked or couldn’t stand the vocals. Instrumental >>>>>>>> harsh vocals, always. If you can stand harsh vocals, you might like the bottom two here. Most of this is average like post-rock, except Agalloch.
Start here: The Ocean—Pelagial (progressive post-metal)
Masterpiece: Agalloch—The Hawthorne Passage
Math Rock/Mathcore
Hella Hold Your Horse Is 2002 9
Piglet Lava Land EP 2005 8.5
Tera Melos Untitled 2005 8.5
Giraffes? Giraffes! More Skin With Milk-Mouth 2007 8.5
Clever Girl No Drum and Bass in the Jazz Room EP 2010 8.5
Don Caballero What Burns Never Returns 1998 8.5
Toe The Book About My Idle Plot… 2005 8
And So I Watch You From… And So I Watch You From Afar 2009 8
Faraquet The View From This Tower 2000 8
Battles Mirrored 2007 7
Converge Jane Doe 2001 4
The Dillinger Escape Plan One of Us Is the Killer 2013 3
Math rock is definitely one of the best modern prog subgenres I’ve found from this list—everything got from a 7 to a 9. Mathcore, the combination of math rock with metalcore, is far too heavy for me to handle, so that explains the bottom two here.
Verdict: A
Start here: Don Caballero—What Burns Never Returns
Masterpiece: Hella—Hold Your Horse Is (especially if you like Death Grips – same drummer!)
Shred Guitar
Steve Vai Passion and Warfare 1990 8.5
Guthrie Govan Erotic Cakes 2006 7.5
I enjoy this for a couple songs at a time, but I’m always more impressed than actually into the music.
Start here: Steve Vai—Passion and Warfare
Masterpiece: Steve Vai—For the Love of God
Verdict: B
Progressive Folk
Harmonium Les Cinq Saisons 1975 9
Comus First Utterance 1971 8
Joanna Newsom Ys 2006 7.5
Exuma Exuma 1970 7
Love this subgenre of classic prog—wish there were more “classic” albums in it.
Start here: Jethro Tull—Thick as a Brick (or Harmonium out of these albums)
Masterpiece: Comus—First Utterance (the whole thing, ideally at night, or on Halloween, or at a pagan bonfire in the woods, or something like that)
Verdict: B+
RPI (Rock Progresivo Italiano)
Premiata Forneria Marconi Per un amico 1972 8.5
Banco del Mutuo Soccorso Darwin! 1972 8.5
Museo Rosenbach Zarathustra 1973 8.5
Area Arbeit Macht Frei 1973 8
Le Orme Felona e Sorona 1973 7
This is definitely not my favorite style of prog, but I did enjoy the albums, at least the ones with the least synthesizers and ELP influence. I guess this scene peaked over a short period of time!
Start here: PFM—Per un amico
Masterpiece: Banco del Mutuo Soccorso—something like 1000 años de amo (yes, I know that’s Spanish)
NON-PROG
Soul
Marvin Gaye What's Going On 1971 10
Stevie Wonder Songs in the Key of Life 1976 9.5
Stevie Wonder Innervisions 1973 9
Curtis Mayfield Superfly 1972 9
Sam Cooke Night Beat 1963 8.5
Lauryn Hill The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill 1998 8
Nina Simone Pastel Blues 1965 8
D'Angelo Voodoo 2000 7.5
Frank Ocean Blonde 2016 4
Amazing genre that fills my need for great melodies and vocal performances that prog doesn’t really satisfy. One of my go-to genres for a good mood. Definitely prefer the old stuff there.
Verdict: A
Start Here: Marvin Gaye—What’s Going On, Stevie Wonder—Songs in the Key of Life
Masterpiece: Stevie Wonder—Living for the City
Funk
James Brown The Payback 1973 8.5
Funkadelic Maggot Brain 1971 8
Sly and the Family Stone There's a Riot Goin' On 1971 8
I need more funk. Really got into other albums by P-Funk and Sly. Lots of stuff that could be considered funk, I listed under soul—they’re pretty close to each other.
Verdict: A (when you include Stevie Wonder for both)
Classic Heavy/Thrash Metal
Rainbow Rising 1976 8.5
Black Sabbath Paranoid 1970 8.5
Black Sabbath Heaven and Hell 1980 6.5
Iron Maiden Powerslave 1984 5
Judas Priest Sad Wings of Destiny 1976 5
Metallica Ride the Lightning 1984 4
I really don’t like this genre. The cheesiness and operatic vocals always turn me off.
Verdict: C+
Start here: Black Sabbath—Paranoid
Masterpiece: Rainbow—Stargazer
Classic Rock
Wishbone Ash Argus 1972 8
Electric Light Orchestra Eldorado 1974 7.5
Uriah Heep Demons and Wizards 1972 7
Steely Dan Aja 1977 6
Deep Purple Machine Head 1972 5
Verdict: N/A
Already knew pretty much every major classic rock band, so here are a few leftovers, the top three of which could also be called prog.
If you’re trying to get into classic rock, listen to Led Zeppelin IV, Paranoid, Abbey Road, Dark Side of the Moon, and A Night at the Opera. And Electric Ladyland and Who’s Next. Ok, there are a lot of great classic rock albums.
Alternative Rock (no clear subgenre)
Muse Origin of Symmetry 2001 9
dredg El Cielo 2002 8.5
Mansun Six 1998 8.5
Weezer Blue Album 1994 8.5
Ween The Mollusk 1997 8
Amplifier Amplifier 2004 8
Spiritualized Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space 1997 8
PJ Harvey To Bring You My Love 1995 8
Mr. Bungle California 1999 7.5
Blur 13 1997 7.5
Pulp Different Class 1995 6.5
Jane's Addiction Nothing's Shocking 1988 5.5
Verdict: B+ (but really these don’t have too much in common)
Lots of these are prog-adjacent by the way, especially dredg and Mr. Bungle. Another subgenre hit hard by the “I already knew most of them before this” scenario; Soundgarden, Radiohead, etc are the best and they aren’t here.
Start here: Muse—Origin of Symmetry (but if you include albums I had heard before doing this list, absolutely start with OK Computer by Radiohead, or maybe Superunknown by Soundgarden).
Masterpiece: Muse—Stockholm Syndrome (again, since I knew tons of alt rock before this, and lots of it ended up in other subgenres, this stuff isn’t the best of the genre)
Alternative Metal
Primus Frizzle Fry 1990 51 Alternative Metal 8.5
Rage Against The Machine Rage Against The Machine 1992 53 Alternative Metal 8
Faith No More Angel Dust 1992 58 Alternative Metal 6
System of a Down Toxicity 2001 44 Alternative Metal 5
Deftones White Pony 2000 48 Alternative Metal 4
Verdict: B-
Start here: Primus—Frizzle Fry (Lateralus by Tool is definitely the best in the subgenre, but I already knew it)
Masterpiece: Rage Against the Machine—Killing in the Name (same w/ Lateralus)
Indie Folk/Pop
Stereolab Dots and Loops 1997 9
Sufjan Stevens Illinois 2005 8.5
Elliott Smith EitheOr 1997 8
Sweet Trip Velocity : Design : Comfort 2003 8
LCD Soundsystem Sounds of Silver 2007 7
Arcade Fire Funeral 2004 6
The Smiths The Queen Is Dead 1986 3
Animal Collective Meriwether Post Pavillion 2009 3
Verdict: B-
Start here: Sufjan Stevens—Illinois (Stereolab is very atypical for the genre)
Masterpiece: honestly no songs in this category blew me away, but if you want an indie… prog epic, check out Sufjan’s Impossible Soul
Indie Rock
Mew Frengers 2003 9
The Dismemberment Plan Emergency and I 1999 9
St. Vincent Strange Mercy 2011 8.5
Brand New The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me 2006 8.5
American Football American Football 1999 8
TTNG Animals 2008 8
Sonic Youth Daydream Nation 1988 7.5
MeWithoutYou Brother, Sister 2006 7
Wilco Yankee Hotel Foxtrot 2002 7
The Strokes Is This It 2001 6.5
Sunny Day Real Estate Diary 1994 6.5
Pavement Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain 1994 6
Polvo Today's Active Lifestyles 1993 6
The Antlers Hospice 2009 5.5
The Stone Roses The Stone Roses 1989 5
Pixies Doolittle 1989 3
Verdict: B
I listened to a ton of these hoping to make some emotional connection with them, but it really didn’t happen in general, though some albums were very good. Pretty disappointing genre except the math rock/post-hardcore side of it.
Start here: The Dismemberment Plan—Emergency and I
Masterpiece: Brand New—Limousine or TDP—The City
Mew is prog-adjacent too.
That's the end of the first post - here's a link to part 2.

The Day Gypsies Stole Me
Book-01: Gypsy Lifestyle
Book-02: Message Destroyed
Book-03: Pepper's Reality
The series is based upon my life, but it's in a fantasy setting. However, the reader doesn't make the connection until Book-03: Pepper's Reality.
Book-01: Gypsy Lifestyle - Introduces the new clan and different types of gypsies. Informs the reader of:
The benefits which help gypsies them to survive How the Michaelson Clan was thought of Who created the Michaelson Clan What the message is supposed to do Which goddess is creating it What the purpose of the message is
Book-02: Message Destroyed - The message is stolen from the gypsies delivering it. It gets altered, and is also bounced between several other clans who make their own alterations
Book-03: Pepper's Reality - The human, Shawna Inmann is my aunt; Pepper Inmann is Me; Darwin Inmann is my cousin Dale. The last novel tells the true story of my life.

First we must establish that sexuality is not a topic that is openly discussed not only in most Dom cultures, but also in the cultures of most of the regions where they reside. Consequently, most people don’t really have the notion of making “sexuality” a (public) facet of their identity.
Male friends may hold hands, hug or even kiss as a sign of affection in many Middle Eastern and South Asian cultures and this is not in any way considered “homosexual” behaviour. The phenomenon of same-sex attraction is recognised however, notably in some regions there are folk songs and other art which appears to have homoerotic themes, such as many Moghul and Ottoman works.
Orthodox people do not consider such relationships to be the norm, with the majority of religious scholars in the region opposing such unions, and in many Muslim and North Indian regions there is a strict concept of segregation between the genders. The exception to this are groups following an unorthodox lifestyle such as those who engage in prostitution or do not marry.
The stance of Islam and Islamic cultures on homosexuality has varied through history. Prior to the rise of Wahhabism, attitudes were generally much more lax and in some Sufi circles sexual behaviour was apparently tolerated. Many popular interpretations of Islam forbid cross dressing however others say there is no grounds for this.
In the general climate of the Islamic world, social status is often determined by how orthodox one is perceived to be. The Dom overall are not considered to be good Muslims by most and their faith is often questioned. However, there are also religious groups which function as a “priestly caste” for their host communities. The groups which are entertainers are usually at the very bottom.
Many young Gypsy men, some of whom are married, and boys in Pakistan and other regions who are not considered LGBTQ+ earn money by performing dances in what could be called “drag”. Many of the children who are victims of Bacha bazi in Afghanistan are also of Gypsy origin. The Köçeks in the Ottoman Empire was a similar concept. Boys would be “retired” when they were able to grow beards. Some in Afghanistan argue that this is the result of a “warrior” culture and has its origins with the ancient Greeks.
One of the literal translations for Ghuraba is “queers”, and it is known with a fair degree of certainty that there were LGBT+ people among the Banu Sassan. Some sections of the LGBT+ community in Turkey adopted Para-Romani language, and the Hijra Farsi of the Indian subcontinent has much in common with the secret languages of the Gypsies and other marginal groups in the region. It is not known whether the South Asian concept of a third gender was carried forward by the Dom after they migrated from their original region.
The Khwaja Sirah or Hijra (also known by many other names) have historically been called “Eunuchs”. Like some Gypsy groups as well as the Sheedis/Siddis and other Indo-Africans or Afro-Pakistanis, they had a high social status during the Moghul Empire but were discriminated against by the British. The Dom, Banjara, Kanjar as well as many other tribes, and the “Eunuchs” (many of whom identify as Transgender today) were declared Criminal Tribes and continue to suffer this legacy. The Eunuchs of the Ottoman Empire differed in that they were usually slaves and were drawn from various ethnic/racial backgrounds.

Intro Noname, born Fatimah Nyeema Warner, is from the Bronzeville neighborhood on the Southside of Chicago. The neighborhood was known as a ‘Black Metropolis’ due to its rich history that is intertwined with black culture. It was once home to journalist and social activist Ida B. Wells, jazz man Louis Armstrong, author Richard Wright, and poet Gwendolyn Brooks among others. Here she was raised by her parents who owned a bookstore. She mostly grew up listening to The Blues & writing poetry instead of writing bars.
She first broke through in the local scene when she was featured on Chance The Rapper’s now legendary mixtape, ‘Acid Rap’. Her soul barring, refreshingly honest verse on ‘Lost’ was a coming out party for the young MC. At the time she was known as Noname Gypsy. She later changed her stage name in 2016 to just Noname after she realized that gypsy was a derogatory word. This is just one example of many that spotlight her as one of the most thoughtful voices in Hip-Hop today.
While she is truly a unique one of a kind personality, there are a multitude of factors in her career that many can learn from to be better artists and leaders for their community. In these times of activism and civil unrest we all could learn something from her in terms of walking the walk for what we believe in. So let’s dive in to what makes her both an effective leader and artist:
1. Engage Your Fans Outside Of Music
Noname’s Book Club is an online community that brings people together regardless of whether they like her music or not. Although for the most part there is plenty of overlap between the type of people who listen to socially conscious music and the type of people who will read books that cover similar topics. Which is why a book club is such an intuitive value add to her business.
The books they choose aim to highlight work from writers of color and writers within the LGBTQ community. She also did it as a “fuck you” to Amazon’s monopoly on the book business and as an homage to all the independent black owned book stores that were once targeted by the FBI to combat communism & the Black Panther Party.
Regardless, through this club she can reach people and stay in their minds even when she is off her release cycle. Something that has become increasingly hard for music artists in the streaming era.
Think Critically:
What are your own value adds that you can use to you & your communities advantage? How can you implement them as you grow your own career?
2. Be A Leader In Your Community
Noname has never backed away from being a leader. Since she burst onto the scene she has been consistent in her tweets revolving around political discourse in the USA and her hometown of Chicago. She has supported numerous local political actions in Chicago and used her following to encourage donations to various mutual aid funds as well as make her own financial contributions.
She took her online book club and used it to help grow people’s awareness and political consciousness. By investing in the education of the people she is also investing in herself as a teacher and leader. Which is just the sort of push one needs to constantly grow and reach their potential.
How can you put yourself on the spot to constantly grow and learn new ways to connect with people in life? What will you do to unify others?
3. Utilize The Resources Available To You
Noname’s start with music came originally from a love for slam poetry and yearning to meet others with a similar passion. She looked up where she could work on her own poems in Chicago and came across the YOUmedia program. A local hotspot for young writers hosted in the Harold Washington Library in downtown Chicago. This is where she would end up meeting people like Chance and Mick Jenkins who would help usher her into the world of rap and the musical renaissance in Chicago that ensued.
“I researched youth poetry in Chicago and the program I used to be in, YOUmedia, that popped up. That’s how I ended up going there and meeting [Chance and] all those people — a Google search!”
Follow your passions and align yourself with related programs in your city/town. You might end up meeting your future business partner or frequent collaborator.
Think Critically:
What programs or organizations in your town/city can you get involved with? What are you passionate about? If your answer is nothing, do better.
4. Have A Clear North Star & Message
As an artist you are inherently a brand, whether you like it or not, so it’s important to be aware of what your brand’s ‘North Star’ is. What is a North Star in branding? It’s the promise you make to your consumers and supporters. It’s a promise or ideal that you will deliver on time and time again over the course of your career. Think Lizzo and body positivity for one.
For Noname this would be the fight for Black liberation. Plenty of artists say they are anti-capitalist but Noname unapologetically lives and breathes that lifestyle. She has lost show money from it, gotten attacked on social media for her outspokenness and even called out her own peers for it.
“n****s whole discographies be about black plight and they no where to be found." She said in a tweet back in May that many speculated was aimed at artists such as J. Cole & Kendrick Lamar.
So how can you think of and judge what your own North Star is? Try these questions:

1. Is your brand promise honest and transparent?
   
2. Is it inspirational?
   
3. Is it strategic and concise?
   

5. Be More Than A Musician Noname’s poetry leads into her music and overall art. It is part of her identity, it bleeds through into her delivery and songwriting style. Her prose as a writer help her elaborate and collect her thoughts as a leader. Why do we talk about her seemingly weekly now? Because she has gone from just another artist to someone who we look to for leadership on certain social issues.
She is an entrepreneur, activist, & poet as well as a rapper. But also keep in mind these things have a synergy with her music career, they aren’t just vanity labels or energy drains that distract from her brand messaging.
6. Create & Maintain Ownership For As Long As Possible
As an artist you’re inherently an entrepreneur. Work with what you know and create a business that you know can feed into your lifestyle as a music artist. Something that you can use to be part of certain communities and diversify your revenue stream. Use available communities and skills such as book clubs, Patreon pages, live/virtual shows, visual media, graphic design, writing, etc to make yourself more than a one dimensional musician. Base your business around other sorts of hustles that can grow together and integrate them. If you can do all this without involving outside companies you have ultimate autonomy.
“I just personally like the the role of an entrepreneur. I grew up in that framework because my mother owned her own bookstore, my grandparents own their own landscaping company.” She told NPR. “Even though it's a lot of work and I have a very very slow rising career, I'm grateful for it because I've learned so much about myself through owning my own business.”
7. Be Transparent With Fans & Supporters
Noname on twitter recently shared how she funded her albums. She is clear that she doesn’t take money from people who she knows will try to silence or censor her. Many people claim to have this type of integrity but she consistently is clear with her fans that she has nothing to hide.
“If I’m really being vulnerable then I need to tell my own story...." she said regarding controlling her own narrative.
8. Try To Sound Better Live Than You Do On Recordings
”It’s really important to make sure that your live show is better than what you even sound like on record, because ultimately that’s going to be your bread and butter. As an indie artist, you’re not going to be able to sustain yourself on streams alone, because most likely you’re unknown, so no one is streaming your music. I don’t do the kinds of streams that other artists who have bigger fan bases do, but I’m able to pack out rooms that other people are not able to sell out.” Noname, on her ability to entertain fans instead of relying on paltry streaming income.
Relying on streaming is a viscous cycle because while it has become the #1 income for artists it can and will fluctuate, but also it takes such a large amount of streams that sometimes the effort it takes to reach those targets can consume all your time, making your business model overly reliant on streaming. Being a bedroom artist is great but making some sort of meaningful connection in realtime with fans will ensure a positive association that leads to accelerating returns after that initial discovery point.
If someone discovers you live they are way more likely to remember and support you than if the first place they hear you is on a playlist. Live music is usually active listening, while playlists are usually passive listening. Even in the era of virtual shows a great live set is key to making casuals into believers.
If you want more case studies or similar content check out our insta & our blog

PART 2
PART 3
PART 4 (FINAL)
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Tortoises are remarkable creatures, they largely outlive most humans four times over, never get stressed and live their lives in a slow, methodical and chilled manner. I think a lot of us in today’s age aspire to be like that, even if it's not in our nature to be so.
But, with every species, there's an anomaly of sorts. One that breaks the mould and is able to do something nobody else can do.
For us, that's Malachi.
Malachi has been in our family since the late 1800’s, he was discovered by my great grandfather Dr. Archibald Williams, a noted herpetologist still scouting out the new world during the age of exploration. He was brought back home courtesy of the British East India Trading Company in 1892 and he’s been with us ever since, passed down through the family as a form of inheritance.
To be more specific, Malachi is a Seychelles Giant Tortoise, a species that until recently was thought to be extinct. Some of you may have even heard of Jonathan, currently the oldest tortoise at a staggering age of 188. Well, Malachi came from the same territory and time period, albeit with a far more unusual property about him.
When his egg was found, Archibald wrote in his journal “The damn thing was black from head to toe, a few white spots punctuating around the base and cracks forming around the top, indicating it was due to hatch.” He had several photos of him standing dignified and proud with the little hatchling, an unremarkable baby tortoise, save for some strange pigmentation on the shell and a propensity to bob his head when he saw Archibald.
It was a few months later that Archibald discovered the thing that made Malachi special and ultimately the focal point of my story.
Malachi would sometimes retract into his shell for several hours and come out producing something in his mouth. It was a small card, with remarkable detail on it, not unlike a tarot card.
“It’s remarkable, the first time I saw such a thing, I assumed my assistant was playing a practical joke at my expense.” Archibald wrote in his journal. “The juvenile had produced three cards over the course of several months, it would be some time until I knew this was to reflect my two young children at home, one of which was born while I was away. The first of these cards was not dissimilar to that of The Emperor, the latter two were similar to The Hanged Man and The Empress, so i'm told.. A colleague of mine whom was married to a gypsy provided excellent insight into the meanings of such things. I am a man of science, but I must admit that there is an alluring charm to the supernatural that every man is curious by. This…remarkable creature from a strange land producing such feats is but the tip of the iceberg.”
He would continue to write about Malachi and his exploits as he got older, observing his diet (he has a particular enjoyment of Sourdough bread and cinnamon buns), his docile behaviour and his breeding habits. When a new family member was born, a new card would pop up and he would catalog it, amassing a total of 15 by the time his journal concluded in his later years. Coincidentally, one for every member of his growing family.
“Every time we pop a new Williams out, he brings us a new card. It’s like clockwork! I’ve given up trying to understand what each one means, I’m sure it will become obvious to the bearer in due course. But it truly does feel like Malachi is a part of our family… A watcher for every successive generation.” He commented, it was obvious the admiration my great grandfather had for Malachi. After all, he’d put so much of his life’s work into finding him.
“I feel as if Malachi is merely doing what is in his understanding to be his nature as a terrestrial being who will outlive us all; he’s cataloguing us.” Archibald remarked on one of his final entries in 1943. “He seems to know when a new member of the Williams family is born and chooses our fates there and then. In a way, I’m humbled his card for me was Emperor; the one who was a master of his craft. To him, at such a juvenile age, I must have appeared to be the ruler. But as I reach the end, I think he senses he will outlive us all and is curious which of us will help him realise his potential.”
When Archibald passed, Malachi refused to eat for some time, pacing the grounds of our estate and looking up into the window that Archibald’s study resided. If I didn’t know any better, I’d have said he was heartbroken. He didn't seem to attach to anyone else that strongly until I came along.
My grandfather Percival inherited him and was represented by the card of “The Hanged Man”. He would try to follow in his father's footsteps, but the grief of world war two and the suffering he endured as an active serviceman would eventually lead to him taking his life at the relatively young age of 38 in 1965. Then Malachi was passed to his elder sister, my Auntie Minerva, who was represented by "The Tower." She was a kind woman who sought to ensure that Malachi was well looked after during her time overseeing him. She was sadly killed when Flight 548 crashed over a field in 1972.
And so it went over the decades, passed from member to member. There was a cousin who died during a parkour stunt, partially decapitating themselves in the process and having the apropos card "The Fool", an Auntie run down by an 18-wheeler who bore the card suggesting "The Wheel of Fortune" and even one of my only close Uncle's disappearing into thin air on his 44th birthday a few years ago, he possessed the card suggesting "The Magician."
You can see where this is going.
For every card from the Major Arcana produced, it had a profound effect on that owner's life and in a handful of cases, death. We kept it a secret and knew the outside world wouldn't understand. Great Grandfather Archibald's estate was inherited and my ancestors each had a lump sum to keep them going, so we were free to do as we pleased.
Years passed, Malachi grew older and reached maturity, eventually weighing a whopping 625 pounds as a fully grown adult, but remaining the gentlest giant you’ll ever meet. When I was born in 2002, he would not leave my side if he could help it, watching over me carefully and trying in his own way to soothe me when I cried at night. I have so many photos of him and I as I grew up; me feeding him his lunch, holding onto his shell for a hug and even once riding him as his neck was craned up to look at me. I guess in my own way; he was a best friend.
I didn’t realise that my family was dysfunctional until that realisation of a tortoise being my best friend truly kicked in. That, and my father's insistence that I never socialised with other kids, stayed on the estate grounds and never bothered him when he was working. Which was always. He was known for having a short fuse and if he saw red; it wasn’t pleasant. Appropriately, his card was The Devil. He used to be a happier man, pranking the elder residents of our family and gaining a reputation for being something of a hedonist as a youth. When he met my mother, and she fell pregnant on the first date, that lifestyle came to a screeching halt and he eternally resented it. He also made no secret that he wanted a son, saying “if your mother wasn’t an abject failure, you’d have gotten the successful chromosome. Instead, you’re just a whore in waiting.”
My mother drank heavily and spent her days reminiscing over how she was once a somebody and that, despite what people said, was most certainly not “over the hill”. When she married into the family, Malachi produced an upside down card for “The Star”. Mum had been nothing remarkably popular, but she was a respected opera singer during her time, before unexpectedly falling pregnant with me.
“You are the tumour that grew inside me, Elizabeth. You took so much from me and even now you eat away at my life.” She once slurred in a drunken tirade. I remember crying with Malachi that night, I was only 10 and I couldn’t for the life of me understand why my mother was so callous, or why she cried when she saw my Father out in the work shed until the late hours, always coming back in smelling of sulphur and with a malicious glint in his eye. I try not to think about those nights.
When my 18th birthday came along last week, there was no fanfare or party with friends. Just a paltry cake my mother ordered off of a website and a simple card, neither of my family bothering to attend. I’d say it surprised me, but that’d be a bold faced lie. My cousins were all married and living away from the family home, grandparents had of course passed on and as I mentioned previously, the one uncle I did have connections with disappeared 3 years ago. So it was just me.
In their absence, they left a note advising me Malachi was now under my care and that they were going off on a trip and that they didn’t know when they were returning. I’d had an accident where I fell down the stairs a couple of weeks prior and fractured my leg, so I wasn’t able to do too much. But thankfully, Malachi wasn’t hard to care for and he made the isolation that much easier.
It was around this time that Malachi was showing his age, he’d gone blind in one eye and was bumping into things as his depth perception began to fail him. I’d always make sure to stand in front and wear a perfume that he could easily detect. Tortoises have remarkable senses of smell and he would grow to associate that perfume with me, bobbing his head slowly when he knew I was near.
It was late, and I’d gone to go and feed him, I’d allocated his den to inside the house so I’d feel less alone and when I turned on the lights, I noticed him shaking. His great feet looked like they’d topple over at any moment and his head was inside his shell.
“Hey big guy, it’s okay… I’m here.” I sat next to him and rubbed his shell, soothing him until the shakes stopped.
When he popped his head out, a pair of cards were clutched in his jaw. Cards that were most certainly not a part of the Major Arcana or any Arcana set for that matter.
The first showed a large storm, thick black clouds punctuated by white flashes and a pair of furious eyes emblazoned in the background, as if surveying the ensuing chaos with absolute malice. Lightning bolts jutted out and small, sharp hands protruded from the clouds, spindly arms leering down to grab at anything they could find as buildings below caught on fire, people screaming as rain hit their skin and melted their bones, babies being carried into the sky as mothers wept.
“#72: Pestilence.” Was written across the bottom in the same font and style my family had come to know.
I looked it over; the detail making me feel uncomfortable and faint as Malachi lowered his head, seemingly exhausted. I placed it on the side and looked at the other one as I heard a rumbling overhead:
The second depicted the sun and the moon on either side of a red sky, both with realistic faces locked in an expression of absolute rage as their mouths opened wide to scream. From the Sun came a band of angels, trumpets attached to their mouths like proboscis and huge bulging eyes mapped all over their bodies. The Moon billowed forth, great creatures not dissimilar to spiders with wings, huge mouths on their underbellies as they bore fangs and raced towards their opponents.
Beneath this war were the onlookers, some with their arms raised to the sky in joy and others fleeing for their lives as a couple of stragglers were picked off by the creatures. One was pierced through the skull by an angel, their face ecstatic as their essence was mid-consumption. Another was being carried off and wrapped by the winged spiders. It was a scene of absolute carnage frozen in time, the title reading “#67: The Quell”.
“What in the…” I began, a flash of lightning and the thunder after jumping me out of my skin. I looked outside to see a storm from the distance, the sort where forked lighting was raging across the sky and rain was smashing the fields below. We lived on an estate that only had a few homes nearby, most of which were farmers. I could see the livestock and some of the field workers tending to the crops rushing for shelter as the storm inched closer, a stray bolt nearly hitting a worker as he ducked for cover.
What I saw next had me shut the curtains and curl up next to Malachi, thankful I’d deadlocked our main doors and that I wasn’t alone, but utterly afraid for what was going to happen next.
A bolt of lightning had lit up the sky as Malachi began to hide in his shell and for just a moment, I saw a pair of large eyes beam back at me, the size, structure and even the pupils absolutely inhuman in nature. The clouds undulating as they gained speed, small tendrils descending from the sky and rushing down to grab the livestock below, one of them even going into the windows of a neighbouring house and…pulling a screaming child out with great force, the mother Mrs. Carter screaming at the top of her lungs as this poor boy was dragged into the sky and past the clouds.
I swear to god for a moment when the lightning flashed once again I saw a smile ripple across the black sky. It crept closer, and I shut the curtains, nausea building in my stomach as I could do nothing. Our family was used to keeping secrets and I assume my family didn’t want to be around for when this one came to pass.
As I sat there, staring at the two tarot cards Malachi produced, his body retracted into his shell and the feeling of unease mounting, a horrific realisation came over me.
If the first came to pass, there was still another one to go.
And Malachi was producing more.