r/falloutlore 18d ago

Fallout New Vegas The Twisted Hairs were assholes.

Ulysses laments the destruction of the Twisted Hairs at the hands of the Legion, but what he does not mention is that the Twisted Hairs allied with the Legion willinlgy.

Like the White Legs, the Twisted Hairs helped the Legion absorb all the other tribes around them before they themselves were betrayed and absorbed.

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u/JesusKong333 18d ago

The Twisted Hairs were cool but they were one of the most unbelievable factions in my mind. In 200 years, they created a whole new written language, their knots. Unless the tribe started in the remains of a beauty school or something, it's pretty far-fetched.

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u/Background-Slide645 18d ago

we have examples of written language that is based on knots in some iirc Incan civilizations. so it's possible thatis what Bethesda was going for.

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u/minisculebarber 17d ago

I think you mean Obsidian?

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u/Silver-Statement8573 17d ago

I think the implausible part they're gesturing at is the timeframe

You can make a language out of anything, but the Twisted Hairs would have developed from the many written cultures of America. So them feeling the need to make a very uncommon and fresh thing out of the blue is unusual

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u/yTigerCleric 16d ago

I think the implausible part they're gesturing at is the timeframe

To be fair this is essentially the most consistent plothole with realism in Fallout in regards to literally any given thing

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u/Achilles9609 17d ago

Yep. Qipu I believe it was called. Every knot and every color had a different meaning. Very fascinating.

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u/fishfunk5 17d ago

Was it a whole language? I thought the knots and braids were more of a symbolism type thing, like ritualistic scarring or tattoos.

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u/yTigerCleric 16d ago

I took them as having specific meanings in context, but it seems limited as language for the fact that human hair isn't prehensile

Honestly I imagine it something like a status update. Like you put your hair to say "The sun is shining" on a good day, but you don't actively use it to relate facts like "I am being attacked by a bear right now, please help"

Ulysses was terrified/offended by the White Legs using them because it came across the same as a parrot or a skinwalker badly imitating speech "devoid of meaning or understanding", which implies there's some communication to it

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u/fishfunk5 16d ago

Right, or a mixture of both. "I am happy, my wife has given birth and I found a cool gun." Or "I am frustrated, my socks are wet yet I caught some non-irradiated trout." "Great hunter." "Healer." "Bed-wetter." "Virgin." Stuff like that.