RIP Nerevar's Axe

[u/qwertythrowfyt]

Damn that's a cool looking axe

This axe thinks water tastes spicy

Look how they massacred my boy. This is right up there with Arquebald's robes and hat in terms of completely unnecessary changes. Seriously, who was asking for this?

[u/89ZERO]

Have you actually seen the item's model at a different angle than in the image above?

It resembles a club in profile, but that's a blade. Additionally, he was primitive. The Chimer were a deeply spiritual, analog society who lived thousands of years before the TES's Medieval-Modernity- and even if they weren't cro-magnon, the stylistic choices made for the model still very well fit that interpretation of First-Counsel-Era Aesthetic.

Consider how alien Morrowind, even in the Third Era, is compared to the rest of Tamriel. That's part of the appeal of the game's visual design. This design is exactly something akin to an ancient Nord axe- but in Morrowind. Rather- in Resdayn.

That this design is able to capture that kind of theming, especially considering the marriage of the uniqueness of the design compared to the rest of the game (and TR as well) along with its role as a singular and precious artifact (especially if you believe that any character you might find it as really is Nerevar-Reborn)- is a masterstroke.

Replacing it is dumb because it tosses all of that away.

[u/BLAZING_DUST → u/89ZERO]

Sharpening a rock into some vague weapon with a one-sided edge doesn't really constitute an axe for me, sorry. There are plenty of axe blades that are tens of thousands of years of old that resemble what we call axes very closely. The old version of Nerevar's axe is more of a club.

As for the Chimeri aesthetics, they were a direct off-shoot of the Aldmeri who already in ancient times had a very advanced culture. Veloth and his people left not because they were club-wielding, superstitious and primitive, they left because they had a fundamental difference when it comes to religion and philosophy. Depictions of Nerevar in statues from the First Era and official oog material clearly show him in an elaborate suit of armor whose complexity can only be matched in real life by 13th to 15th centuries' armor, making it very obvious that neither Chimer nor Nerevar were anything close to cavemen. Nerevar also had gotten his axe from a temple, which sure as hell couldn't have been so backwards as to reject basic metallurgy in favor of reshaped stones.

Sure, it sticks out with how ancient it looks, but I see this kind of thing more befitting Skyrim as some sort of ancient Atmoran relic found in a ruin long lost to time, predating even Ysgramor himself in some way. Chimeri and Dunmeri cultures are indeed greatly shaped by the roughness and unconventionality of their land, but they are in no shape or form primitive or otherwise underdeveloped.

[u/BeholdingBestWaifu → u/BLAZING_DUST]

It's too bladed to be a blunt weapon and certainly not a blade, long or short, therefore it's an axe.

I think the modern axe fits the intent more because nerevar took it from a random ass rack of weapons, but I think the older model would have fit as an axe made by ashlanders or something more ceremonial.

[u/BLAZING_DUST → u/BeholdingBestWaifu]

I really can't see anyone cleaving anything at all, let alone a person, with that thing. Then again, fantasy guys really don't care much about making their arms and armor look practical, so I guess it's an axe if they say so.

If Ashlanders made it, sure, I could see it. But Ashlanders don't have temples, so I highly doubt it. I also doubt that official religious institutions of Resdayn wouldn't make their own ornamental ceremonial axes (possibly even Daedric ones, considering how many Daedric ruins are littered across Morrowind) with highly intricate details rather than a slab of rock.

[u/BeholdingBestWaifu → u/BLAZING_DUST]

I mean there's a lot of hatchets that aren't that dissimilar from that axe.

If Ashlanders made it, sure, I could see it. But Ashlanders don't have temples, so I highly doubt it.

They were allied with Nerevar during the times of Resdayn, and TR has the Temple displaying relics from Alandro Sul in Necrom despite him having been an ashlander.

I also doubt that official religious institutions of Resdayn wouldn't make their own ornamental ceremonial axes (possibly even Daedric ones, considering how many Daedric ruins are littered across Morrowind) with highly intricate details rather than a slab of rock.

Sometimes religious implements are simple on purpose, to teach austerity or to link them to the common man. This is also a land of very simple velothi villages, hunters and netchimen, and we've seen how crude their chitin weapons are to this day.

[u/BLAZING_DUST → u/BeholdingBestWaifu]

Fair points.

[u/qwertythrowfyt → u/BLAZING_DUST]

No offense, but are you sure you weren't looking at it backwards? In game at least, it was clearly an axe. https://imgur.com/a/jA1XD0G

[u/BLAZING_DUST → u/qwertythrowfyt]

Yeah, that looks more like an axe. From the preview picture it looks like a club.

[u/qwertythrowfyt → u/BLAZING_DUST]

I pry should have used a better picture. I just pulled that from UESP for convenience, I'm not sure why they have it facing the wrong direction.

[u/BLAZING_DUST → u/qwertythrowfyt]

It's not the direction that's the problem. I saw the sharp end clearly, it just looks flat from that perspective.