Lore talk:Xylo River

Xylo RiverEdit

Because I saw Enodoc editing the article, I thought it's the time to spill some of my thoughts about this river.

The two main sources on the Xylo River, PGE and ESO, seems to contradict each other. PGE places the river more or less along the Valenwood-Elsweyr border. In ESO there even is a river which would roughly fit that description (in Reaper's March). However, there's a Xylo River Basin Dolmen in Malabal Tor. The question is, which source we should believe: PGE or ESO? -Vordur Steel-Hammer (talk) 13:34, 30 October 2014 (GMT)

Well it is supposed to be a rather large river, since Decumus Scotti apparently sails down it for a solid week. It could be the same river winding through both of those areas. Although in ESO's Malabal Tor map, the river doesn't seem to actually be connected to any other body of water directly. Also from Dance in Fire, the city of Silvenar can be seen from the river, which would also support it being the one in Malabal Tor. But everything about the Five Year war makes it very clear that the Xylo must be the border between the provinces. So my personal opinion would be that the Xylo originates in the Xylo River Basin area, then flows eastwards where it traces the border down south to the sea. ESO's map designers just neglected to fully connect the two segments of the same river for gameplay reasons or whatever. -- Hargrimm^(T) 16:05, 30 October 2014 (GMT)

Quite a good explanation. -Vordur Steel-Hammer (talk) 16:12, 30 October 2014 (GMT)

I was looking at the article trying to figure out that specific thing when I saw that the detail was a bit out. I agree that there's quite a discrepancy there, and Hargrimm's solution is also one of the ones I thought of. A reason for it being the one in Reaper's March, in addition to that being bang on the border line between Elsweyr and Valenwood, is the location of Falinesti Autumn Site. Dance in Fire says that Falinesti spans the Xylo, and that's in Frost Fall (Autumn), and Falinesti Autumn Site is right next to that river. An odd point regarding Silvenar is that, if the Five Year War put the west bank of the Xylo into Elsweyr, then Silvenar would also be in Elsweyr.

Once I've got all the evidence needed (by running around Malabal Tor and Reaper's March to see where those rivers go), I'll start a thread on the ESO forums to see what other people think. --Enodoc (talk) 16:39, 30 October 2014 (GMT)

The rivers in ESO are sometimes weird, for example some flow in one way in one place and backwards in another. There's a waterfall where the water falls in the wrong way on the Strid in Reaper's March, near the border of Malabal Tor. You may find similar artifacts on these potential Xylo rivers. -Vordur Steel-Hammer (talk) 17:15, 30 October 2014 (GMT)

So the river in Malabal Tor flows entirely north to south, with a source just above Treehenge, and a sink into the hills on the Grahtwood border. Another waterfall flows down just to the east of the sinkhole, so this river exits MAlabal Tor pointing westwards. The river in Reaper's March flows entirely south to north, with a source just above Moonmont and a confluence with the Strid at Arenthia. This one perfectly divides Valenwood (west) with Elsweyr (east) if you look at the architecture and flora on each side. (Put Arenthia aside, which is on the east side of the river but in Valenwood.) I've posted on the ESO forums if you want to see the thread. --Enodoc (talk) 23:42, 30 October 2014 (GMT)

Yes, that's consistent with a little ingame research of my own. Thus the river in Reaper's March fits more to the description from PGE. My bet is that Xylo's design (the one in Malabal Tor) was loosely based on A Dance in Fire, and the PGE info has been neglected, whereas the river in Reaper's March, along with the location of Falinesti Autumn, fits so well to the PGE description only by accident. However, that does not answer the general question which river is which, and perhaps only a developer could answer that. --Vordur Steel-Hammer (talk) 02:20, 31 October 2014 (GMT)

8 years late to this party, but wanted to point out that Dance in Fire not only seems to support ESO's position, but just like PGE, seems to contradict it, by describing it as a route to a town affected by the war with the Khajiit. I actually have to empathise with ESO on this one- its just a mess.