This is probably a thing noticed plenty of times, but just wanted to point out, the first bosmer you ever meet in skyrim chops wood for a living😂

Bosmer in books: Dangerous cannibals that can turn into beasts Bosmer in games: Me hunter, me likes woods and hate Thalmor

Altmer: "Bosmer are Altmers with Manish wives." Khajiit: "Bosmer are Y'ffre's jealous imitations of Azurah's creation of the Khajiit." Bosmer: "We were Ouze."

Bosmer are definitely my favorite race with Khajiit being a crazy close second. I just adore the reversal of the classic wood elf archetype. Instead of being veggie-eating hippies, they're carnivores and ritualistic cannibals. Never harming the forest itself. I saw someone phrase it as "don't touch my forest or i'll eat you" and I just love that so much. Absolutely fantastic video Drew as always! Thank you for providing more amazing content :)

Y'ffre really saw the shifting elements of the Old Ehlnofey and said "ya know what, its not a bug, it's a feature". It's cool how Y'ffre used some of the Old Ehlnofey to be his own little part of the Aldmeri stock

From a realworld perspective, a direct connection between Azura and the Khajiit is more on point than a lot of people would realize. Cats are not really nocturnal as commonly thought. More precisely they can be described as crepuscular. Crepuscular means something associated with twilight. Or in other words, dusk and dawn.

Its Sunday. You know what that means, gather round and let us lend our ears to Prophet Dreloth.

The Druids of High Isles and the Bosmer of Valenwood both worship _The Green,_ but in different ways. I wonder what created this contrast from the followers of Y'ffre.

If I recall from his Fudgemuppet days, Bosmer are one of Drew's favorite races, if not most favorite. So you know he took great joy putting this one together. Great work as always, Drew. Thank you for keeping interest in Tamriel alive with your content.

I miss Bosmer having horns. I guess you could still find them, deeper inside Valenwood, far from the Imperial border. My love for the little green elves just grew a bit. Amazing work as always, Drewmora, you are a gentleman and a scholar.

My favorite fun fact to share is the khajiit creation myth and the fact that canonically khajiit and woodelves can breed

The mini story Drew wrote at the start of the video is amazing

My personal theory is that Y'ffre taking the Ooze and giving it form and Y'ffre becoming first of the Earthbones is one and the same thing. So in truth, by becoming an Earthbone, a law of nature, Y'ffre gave the lesser et'Ada that could still not hold identity and form in the lawless Mundus the ability to do so and become mortals. The only difference between the Bosmer and the other elves is that as time passed on, the other elves forgot the teachings and the sacrifice of Y'ffre, as worship of other powerful Aedra such as Auri-El that still walked Mundus became more popular. So in a way, the Bosmer are more primordial and closer to Aldmer or Ehlnofey than the Altmer, and it could be said that the Altmer are an offshoot of Bosmer rather than the other way around.

Hey Drew, this is gonna be a weirdly specific compliment but I edit video scripts for a living and I want to say that I long for writers who make scripts flow so seamlessly. Even though I could see this video was divided into chapters, the transitions between them were nearly invisible and carried me along the whole way. I know how hard that is to do so I just want to say: someone noticed. :)

It would be interesting continuing this series with the origins of snow elves and dwemer. It doesn't seem they come from summerset, maybe they were there from the beginning like other beast folk

3:00 I’d have said, “Tossed their sweet rolls,” but you masterfully painted a scene in my mind with your words. That’s what keeps me coming back 😀

What is it with Azura and changing the appearance of the elven people. If it is true that the khajiit are mer, then they are the first out of the two elven people to have their appearance changed by her, the second being the dunmer. The difference really is that for the dunmer, it was a curse, and for the khajiit, it was a blessing

ironically enough, but from an in-universe PoV - seeing how they're widely regarded as thieves and liars - i'm generally inclined to believe more in a khajiit lore or history explanation of a topic than an altmer or imperial one. from their own nature, origins and purpose, to that of their most encountered neighbors/cousins, to the fckin' dragon breaks themselves. don't know why but i get the feeling like they would grasp more of the "truth" down through the centuries and millenia than either elven or imperial official propagandas, kind of like how through oral histories and collective retelling of tales you can often preserve more original intent than through official, censored and managed "written word". oh and great work once again :) you honor the sixth house and the tribe unmourned, sweet loremaster

Drew I loved listening to the podcast every Sunday. The conversational format works really well for a subject like Elder Scrolls. Hope you would consider doing something like that again in the future :)

"Hey, you. You're finally awake. *New Drewmora video."*

A Jiub-free Morrowind? Do not speak of such horrors

I can Imagine that one of the undocumented hunts could have been against tiber septim and the Numideum... If the cost of initiating the hunt; is a community of bosmer sacrificing themselves, and the systematic destruction by the giant metal man which was immune to the biological threats of the great hunt resulted in more than one reason why the bosmer forgot about it...

Mannn I love Drewmora. This is what I go straight for every time I’m on KZfaq.

Your eloquent writing style and narration make every subject a pleasure to listen to, even when it involves cannibalism which kind of makes my stomach turn, LOL. Yours are my favorite Elder Scrolls lore videos!

Primordial bosmer ooze doesn’t sound deeply different from hist sap, or chaotic creatia. I am curious if the force is fundamentally Padomeic though, since it’s so chaotic. (Are Valenwood and Black Marsh so different?) And also curious if the wild hunt is an afront to any time gods, or what Hircine would think. Cool vid. Elder Scrolls doesn’t usually get so close to lawful vs chaotic notions.

Mr. Drew, my favorite "teller" of great stories! Another one to make me think hard on what I thought I knew. Good job, Sir. Thank you for the great "telling".

your prose is so, sooooo good. The pictures you painted of the wild hunt are just so visceral and tactile

I love this take on Bosmer origins. Thanks for another awesome video Drew!

Another wonderfully interesting video! Great work Drew!

Just started a Bosmer playthrough, so this video is a very welcomed surprise. Thanks Drew!

Man, I gotta rewatch this just for the soothing visuals! :)

The Bosmer having an actual "back before we were elves" story at all always kind of makes me think the Bosmer are the origin of elves, actually. The Wood Elves wandered off to a pleasant, unchallenging series of islands and became the Aldmer after a time, giving them stories of an idyllic homeland they could never return to, giving them the first inclinations of being trapped on Mundus and a sense of loss of their godhood. Or something like that. It's not perfect, but it's always been an idea kicking around in the back of my head that the High Elves aren't all they talk themselves up to be, and there the Bosmer are right there, just casually being better...

I love all the bosmer using wooden bows in this video.

Given the connection to Y'ffre, the world bones and the primordial Ouze, as well as their shapeshifting abilities, I'm beginning to wonder whether the Bosmer are actually the closest thing to the original Aldmer and the Altmer are just imbred perversions of this originally perfect form :P

You need to write a book! Your story telling is next level.

Thalmor - "Bosmer of Valenwood you will surrender or be wiped out!" Bosmer- ". . .time for a history lesson."

I’ve held the Bosmer as my favorite race for years ever since I first played Oblivion back in the day, and for about a year now I’ve been slowly forming a theory that I’m eager to share. I apologize if this is a long comment. My initial goals were to connect the Bosmer to the Khajiit and Argonians to dispute the idea that they’re related to elves while also linking the three races based on the inclusion of “Shapeshifting” (In regards to the taboo towards shapeshifting with the Green Pact, the variation in Khajiit forms based on the Lunar Cycle, and the Argonians being altered by the Hist) alongside the significance of either consuming or avoiding the consumption of religiously important plants. The current theory begins with the idea that Y’ffre, as a Nature deity, inherently exists within Nature as a part of her domain. Early on in the existence of the world, Y’ffre was charged with establishing and sustaining Nature. She began by taking the form of a massive migratory tree that would allow for the growth of plant life in its presence. However, as Y’ffre traveled, the plant life left behind quickly withered and died. To solve this issue, Y’ffre created the first of her children. Acorns released and planted in the wake of the goddess Y’ffre would soon grow to become the Tree Children; a race of sentient trees capable of holding their own domains on behalf of their mother and sustaining plant life within these domains. However, the plant life would soon flourish and threaten to overwhelm the fragile energies of the Land. Thus, Y’ffre would again create, this time taking from her sap to form life as beasts who would feed upon the lesser plants. When these herbivores began to overwhelm the plants she again drew from her sap and formed beasts that would feed upon the herbivores. When the carnivores inevitably began to threaten the extinction of the herbivores she drew from her sap one final time to create the Forest Folk; a race of shapeshifters who would act as Shepards of the beasts and would feed not on the animals or lesser plants but on the sap of Y’ffre and her Tree Children. Doing so would sustain them, and form a connection between them and the Sentient trees. Unfortunately, formless creatures are inherently more susceptible to corruption by external forces. The Daedric Prince Azura recognized this flaw, and understood that were she to corrupt a handful of Y’ffre’s Tree Children then the Forest Folk linked to them would be hers to shape as she pleased. Thus did Azura claim the Tree Children found in what is now known as Elswyr and warped them into sugarcanes that channeled the light of the moons. The Forest Folk that consumed the Moon Sugar were then warped into the Khajiit, and their forms were bound to the cycles of the moon through the Moon Sugar. More importantly though, in the absence of the Tree Children plant life quickly began to perish and Elswyr was stricken with desertification. Mortified by this, Y’ffre altered the Forest Folk in her proximity to solidify their forms as the Bosmer and keep them from suffering a similar fate to the Khajiit. They would be quick to evolve naturally, with their appearance matching that of elves soon after they first appeared on Tamriel, though they would relatively safe from Daedric Corruption so long as they didn’t feed on the Sap of Y’ffre and her Tree Children. To ensure this was avoided, Y’ffre banned the harming of plant life in general so as to prevent the consumption of sap while also hiding the importance of the sap so that her people would hopefully forget the means of returning to their true forms. Furthermore, Y’ffre would sacrifice much of her divine energy to create a system in which the lesser plant life would be capable of sustaining itself without her children. As of the modern age, Y’ffre remains on Nirn as the Green Sap Tower. But outside of the Bosmer there were countless other Forest Folk bound to their respective Tree Children. To the east of Elswyr, the Tree Children who directly witnessed the horrific warping of their siblings became disillusioned with the Will of their mother, and cut themselves off from her and the rest of their siblings. These would become what we know as the Hist Trees, who would elect to rely not on the Forest Folk for protection, but on the lesser beasts who could be altered by their Sap and shaped into obedient slaves. Lastly, and most recently added to the theory is the consideration of the remaining Forest Folk. Within this week I’ve started to consider that they may have evolved naturally on their own to become Spriggans. They’re said to be servants of Kyne formed by “The breath of Kyne through the branches of trees” and I’ve also started to consider that Y’ffre’s association with Songs may be meant to hint at a connection with Kynareth. (Kyne’s affiliation with Breath was enough to warrant her having the ability to involve herself in mortals obtaining the Thuum. It doesn’t seem like a far leap from Thuum to Song if Breath is the starting point)

I'm still going to pronounce Jephre as "Jeffrey" because it's much more funny that way

Still hanging out for that next episode on the 36 Lessons 🙂

Just as I'm about to go to sleep. Drewmora you legend 🙏

"a Juib free Morrowind" is a truly horrifying idea

About the Ooze. The version of the legend I know features a battle between four turtles, a human, a wolf, and a snapping turtle.

The part of the green pact saying that a Bosmer must eat another Bosmer he has struck? The way it’s worded sounds more like Y’ffre is trying to prevent them from killing each other in the first place.

I would've given every Thalmor agent inside the Skyrim embassy to have Malborn do a Wild Hunt on the assassins chasing him, preferably outside Windhelm, past the farms, and after the Khajiit caravan denounced the assassin near their usual post.

The best elder scrolls content

Gotta say love dropping a tab putting on my insanely modded Skyrim and putting on your hardcore deep dives into the lore shit man. Really puts me in that realm. Keep going I think you got something good going on here. Honestly I would LOVE a narrated TES Books by you too. But don’t like break character bc that kills my trip like no one’s business when I would listen to others and they’d start talking about random stuff or reacting too much. Love the channel been listening to it all day!!

I love role-playing a Bosmer who leaves Valenwood due to life being so strict in regards to the green pact. Bow Bosmer, Mage Bosmer, Axe and Shield Bosmer; good stuff.

Hey Drew! I really enjoy your channel. Do you have any plans to continue with the 36 lessons? I've seen other content creators give up on their exploration of the sermons, and hope that you'll see it through. Regardless, I'm going to keep enjoying whatever you make.

This videos are so well done. You’ve sent me into a deep dive into TES lore which has given me a new appreciation for a franchise I’ve loved for so long.

Imagine if one day we got to see the wild hunt in-game... Probably will never happen, but it'd be cool if it did.

My 2 favorite playable races are Argonion & Bosmer! Therefore, a video posted about the Bosmer I of course click.

You post a video on my birthday, the day can’t get any better!! Thank you so much for your passion of video making and sharing it with everyone Edit: Bosmers are my favorite race💪

I started to love Bosmer after seeing them in Eso with horns! Easily my second favorite race behind the Dunmer. You have been killing it with these videos lately and your story telling is amazing!

“as abundant as cliff racers in a Jiub-free Morrowind”. lol.

I love the wood elf lore. Well done Drew!!!✨

quality writing and presentation - i feel like ive watched the coolest anthropology lecture ever

Something to think about: Valenwood and Elsewyr share a border. Borders are social constructs, sometimes solidified into walls, sometimes having a natural feature such as a river or cliffs overlooking a ravine. When the border concept is removed, the two provinces blend together. Bosmer and Khajiit have competed with each other for space and resources since the beginning. They have similar practices for everyday living and survival, and they have had uncounted border wars and skirmishes. Their cultures are different, but they live next to each other and have their similarities as well.

side note: I think I have an understanding of Namira/Sithis. Namira is the void known whereas Sithis is the void unknown. Which explains her sphere, which is of decay. What can be scary to mortals then death? Yet Sithis is a death god too, but he is silent. Preferring to "speak" through the night mother who could be Mephala one of his devoted dark children. Lorkhan's heart beating "created" Namira but having that part of the void, decay wretchness vileness and meaninglessness, become a concept. Yet Sithis was still there. Tl:dr - Namira is apart of Sithis that split off because of mortal existence aka Lorkhan's Creation. Both his creation and the act of creating him.

Fantastic video again Drew, I appreciate your work!

Bosmer bussy.

The way the hunt is described, I imagine it's like the part of Berserk when the band of the hawk first meets the godhead. The part when the apostles all transform. And then tear into the band. I think it's a worthy comparison

It seems that the Bosmer were not actually bound to all these laws but they were just grateful enough to Y'ffre's sacrifice that they cannot bring themselves to bring harm to his/her foremost creation which is the Green. The canibalism could also be said as their way of valuing all life that killing something must only be for the nourishment of another. They would not seek out wars but if such is inevitable, they would fast before joining the battle so that their kills will not be wasted.

Some say meat is for eating, others suggest meat is for beating, but Bosmer ask a simple question: why not both?

I dunno how many times I've had to correct this in other lore vids your group does, but the Khajiit as azuraspawn are literally an old merric piece of propaganda used in getting the ancient khajiit to be subservient/abate hostilities towards the colonizing elves. the khajiit *are* beastfolk. notes on racial phylogeny comments their anatomical structures being like that of men rather than mer, and theres ample evidence through all other lore sources to validate the existence of a strong and unified ancient khajiiti empire that once stretched over elswyr. the very same empire that the old mer had trouble with when trying to colonize tamriel and the very same one they broke via secretly unleashing a magical plague on the catfolk to cripple them. the mer later come in with a cure to endear themselves and fill their heads with honeyed lies; old khajiiti lore is scattered and marred by this interference by ancient elves. this drives me nuts, it really does. *not everything is elves and men*.

Congratulations on hitting 25k, Drew!

It makes sense for the Bosmer to have been created from Khajiit. Cats are almost entirely carnivorous.

Drew of Atmora brings us another piece of ancient lore. Talos be praised.

One of my favorites. Thank you so much, lord Drewmora. It’s like my prayers were answered. I offered a like to seek favor. My ardent wish is for more Breton videos.

*Looks at Faendel(Bosmer) from Riverwood* *Smiles as wide as Patches(Dark Souls) is treacherous* "Hey Faendel! I need your help in the creation of a new Conjuration spell. I just need you to come with me deep into the forest and look away from me."

Thinking about how history with confused different gods so easily, you ever noticed how most of the Nord stones have the snake the whale and the hawk. Why those three

I’ve been thinking that bosmer aren’t altmer who got into a really deep relationship with the forest god and developed some weird ideas. I think they are actually shape changing ooze whom the forest god told to stick to the “elf” form. And when the altmer showed up, the just assumed that these weird elves must be some kind of lost cousins.

What a lovely video, good work!

It must be more than 15 years have passed, since i once read these ancient words. Found in dark place i nolonger remember. Thanks for the reminder ✌️😎

"By the eight! A new drewmora video!!" Your awesome dude one of my mount Rushmore channels

So in order to conquer Valenwood, you bacically have to burn it all to the ground. Or have a giant robot.

Ty for another amazing video man, really appreciate your time n effort you put to it, love from Iraq!

I’ve been on a lore binge. These vids are so good!!

ive NEVER been this early for a youtube video without notifications. 😭 Drewmora youre a king!

Love the content you put out feels very high quality hope to see a Ysgramor video soon

Drew has a great audiobook voice

Holy sh*t i didn't know the Wood Elves could be so metal

i love how these lore books being written like King James Bible

The Kitty will always be Elf in my mind because it upsets the Elves.

Great topic, great storytelling, how nice a video to wake up to after a night shift

have you ever done the septimus cave quest? "Harvest bosmer blood for Septumis". Unless the Khajiit have ties to the dwarves

Bosmer's can secretly turn any faithful man corrupted and depraved. lmfao xD

Woodelves are easily my favorite ES race, tho I really wish they rocked the small antlers more often

Excellent video sir!

Hey Drew... You make fantastic content bud. Keep it up.

On Elder Scrolls Online, there's a farming spot for XP, where people farm feral Bosmers for XP LMFAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Drew please do more of the 36 lessons of vivec ❤️

Honestly, I like seeing the Evolution (or I guess Devolution and then Evolution) of the Aldmeri Stock. All of the Elven races share blood, as descendants of the Old Ehlnofey, and while most have evolved to best survive and match their surroundings on Nirn (cause their perfectionism extends down to their very cells), we have ones like the Bosmer, Orsimer and Chimer/Dunmer who all had actively been changed by the workings of various Et'Ada. Auriel's flock of Aldmeri peoples, whether Anuic or Padomaic now after all that's happened, are truly the most inspiring and intriguing of the mortal races

Seems kind of obvious to me that the Khajiit and Bosmer mythology mirror eachother. I think the whole point of the mythic era is that it is hazy and we don’t really know what happened. It seems like the intelligent races emerged from an ooze of mythology in itself…stories made real. I think I’m the Morrowind era, Bethesda got really into the idea of like…the code of the game and the game being a construct, that whole meta idea being the most “hidden secrets” of the mythology. I think they have stepped back from that slightly, or at least haven’t focused on it as much, but it seems obvious to me.

19:45 just thought it important to note that Decumus Scotti is an in-universe fictional character. It is said elsewhere that the author of the adventures of Decumus Scotti, Waughin Jarth, researches well his books. They are nonetheless fiction, and so Scotti's description of the Wild Hunt is yet another story as told by the unreliable narrator.

Bosmer always been my favorite race since i discovered them playing Oblivion.I like Bosmer's lore, polyphorme, to be or not to be close to Y'ffre, hedonist people able to summon The great Hunt, command to other creatures, Seem to be weak ( by people who really don't know them), but definitively benevolent to strangers and dangerous too

Please hit us with some Morrowind/Tribunal content! Thank you Drewwwww

Lovely. I've always wanted to hear a deep dive from you into why in Oblivion the calendar begins with the Camoran Dynasty. There are few events in TES which I think need explanation more than this? Why was this event chosen for the END of the MERethic of all eras? What really happened? I find it hard to believe it was simply unification of Valenwood, I think the Camorans may have created the real first Empire, holding hegemony over the Ayleids and other parts of Western Tamriel, albeit short lived. The subsequent collapse of such an Alexandrine Empire could easily be a reasonable explanation for the independence and rise of the Ayleids states.

I almost exclusively play Bosmer or Dunmer, so this video is certainly welcome :D

Anyone else find it an interesting decision to put a Bosmer woodcutter in the very first village you come to in Skyrim?

(It is honestly pretty sad that the histories take the Aldmer being the source of all elves on Tamriel during the Merethic Era for granted. The Direnni and the Ayleids are the only ones that there's any strength in arguing descent from them for, other than the Altmer, and even with the Ayleids, the argument isn't the strongest thing in the world. At the very least, Topal the Pilot's account of bird people being at the center of Cyrodiil casts slight doubt upon this, as that section can be construed as an account of contact between his expedition and that very group of shapeshifting elves who take up bird forms. At the very least, the location was the exact same as the Ayleids would eventually settle, and the symbolic connection their kind has to birds is somewhat suspicious in that light.)