Lore:Ghost People Tribe

One of the Veeskhleel

The Ghost People Tribe (called the Veeskhleel in Jel) is an Argonian tribe that lives in Deepmire, in the northern reaches of Murkmire. They have an eerie and horrid reputation, and are feared by the other tribes. There are many rumors surrounding the Veeskhleel, including tales of stalking, abduction, and grave robbing. Rumors say they only leave their lands to steal the bodies of the dead during the night.

Culture

The Hist tree of the Ghost People Tribe believed that the other tribes were wasteful and selfish. While the other tribes and their Hist trees led carefree lives in sun-kissed lands, the Veeskhleel and their Hist faced many troubles in the harsh wilds of the Deepmire. Even their eggs were in excess: while the Ghost People lost entire clutches of eggs to swamp leviathans, other tribes could afford to cast away their numerous infertile eggs, allowing them to sink into the roots and fade away. As the Veeskhleel can't bear clutches of their own (and have difficulty ensuring what eggs they do acquire aren't destroyed or otherwise swept away by the uncaring swamps), their Hist sends them to steal fertilized eggs from the nests of other tribes to hatch them in their own uxith.

The Ghost People attained a reputation for snatching the bodies of deceased Argonians from other tribes, bringing the corpses to their own lands to be buried at the roots of their own Hist. The Veeskhleel are also reputed to profane corpses in rituals that keep their souls from the Hist. For some of the other tribes, this was enough reason to avoid Veeskhleel territory altogether.

The Veeskhleel are the only Argonian tribe known to commune with the dead and openly practice necromancy. They perform rituals that allow them to steal the souls of the deceased in order to offer them to their own Hist tree. Such acts are considered taboo by other Argonians. Some of the dead they raise are employed as watchmen. They craft arcane ritual fetishes from Argonian sinew to charm the vengeful dead.

Significant Interactions

One of Ree-Nakal's later experiments

In 2E 582, a Veeskhleel tribeswoman known as Ree-Nakal approached an egg-tender from the Bright-Throat Tribe in the dead of night, seeking to acquire their infertile eggs. She found the egg-tender mulling about in the Bright-Throats' dragonthorn glade at night, and struck up a conversation. Her name was Haxara, a tender, childless soul who desperately wished to have hatchlings of her own, and couldn't bear to see her tribe's unseeded eggs fade away. Ree-Nakal convinced the egg-tender that just because the Hist deemed some eggs unfit to hatch didn't necessarily mean they couldn't. They met for several nights, and eventually came to an arrangement: Haxara agreed to bring the Veeskhleel the Bright-Throats' infertile eggs. The Veeskhleel would find a way to make them hatch, replenishing their numbers and allowing Haxara the chance to be a mother.

Haxara rubbed dragonthorn on the unseeded eggs' shells in a misguided attempt to strengthen them, and Ree-Nakal began to experiment alchemically on the eggs. Using Black-Tongue egg elixirs, she got to work attempting to find out if she could breathe true life into infertile eggs. Her very first experiments were primordial lumps of tumorous flesh. She applied her Hist's sap to serve as a guide for the aimlessly synthesizing flesh, and received the beginnings of what could have been an Argonian: formless masses with the occasional, tooth or scale. The sap was working, but her elixir needed fine tuning.

Baxilt-Gah, a Veeskhleel Necromancer

After many failed attempts, Ree-Nakal created pale, malformed Saxhleel that hardly survived a few hours after their creation, which she dubbed the Hollow. She found that advancing their growth (leading to physically fully-grown individuals hatching from the eggs) gave them the strength to endure, and eventually cut down on the sheer amount of physical deformities her short-lived creations displayed. Despite the progress, they were Saxhleel only in form, and their bodies would rapidly break down. Further testing produced hostile creatures that possessed instinct, but lacked intellect. Eventually, Ree-Nakal attempted to combine Veeskhleel soul-binding rituals with her alchemy, and this endeavor produced a healthy Saxhleel. Though docile, her creation seemed unaware of the world around it. It had a soul, but it was unclear whether its body was unfit for habitation, or the possession was flawed. This was the first of her experiments to maintain a stable form that could sustain life.

In further experiments, Ree-Nakal upped the ante on her use of alchemy, eventually creating two individuals whose bodies were stable, and unlike their predecessors, had vibrantly colored scales. One was orange, exuding the noxious properties of the xochipalli extract (likely derived from the Veeskhleel Hist's sap) used in his creation. The other was green, a brilliant hue reminiscent of the xoxoctic extract expended during his conception. Her final experiment caused an egg to grow astoundingly large, hatching a musclebound titan from the previously unseeded egg.

This situation ultimately led to the Bright-Throat Tribe's Hist warning their tree-minder that the eggs were hurting. After enlisting the aid of the Rootmender, the Bright-Throat Tribe learned what was happening to their infertile eggs and discovered their egg-tender's involvement in the situation. Ree-Nakal and her experiments were destroyed, save for one; Haxara took the first docile, truly stable hatchling back to the village, where the egg-tender would face judgement for her involvement in harming the eggs.

Concurrently, a Veeskhleel necromancer named Baxilt-Gah was causing trouble for the rest of Murkmire, particularly the Naga-Kur. He uprooted grave-stakes, using their potent lingering life energy to fuel his rituals. Baxilt-Gah also turned harmless plants into carnivorous monsters, and staved off all attempts by local tribes to destroy him. He was defeated by mercenaries several times, and came back just as often as he was slain. As a necromancer, death was merely a hindrance.

See Also

• For game-specific information, see the Elder Scrolls Online article.