Online talk:Whalefall

Whale fall

"Whale fall is a phenomenon where the carcass of a whale has fallen onto the ocean floor and create complex localized ecosystems that supply sustenance to deep-sea organisms for decades."

Think its ok to put this in the notes? Additionally, Louna Jolvanne says "Those bones! Now we know why they call it Whalefall." when seeing a whale skeleton, which is what the phenomenon of whale fall is all about, confirming its also the in-universe reason behind the name. I can't think of what else whalefall could be referring to, I thought it quite informative. The Rim of the Sky (talk) 18:19, 25 July 2022 (UTC)

We generally don't include trivia of this sort on pages, and the only times we did, it was from many many years ago. In this instance specifically, I feel the name is fairly self explanatory, in that they named it Whalefall because of the whale bones. I'm not denying it is a reference, it's just not the sort of information we use. In addition, the island has whale bones, but very much ISN'T an actual whalefall as described, so it's less informative than just unrelated trivia on the probable source of the name. I just don't see it being useful enough to override our longstanding "no trivia" policy. Something like this is pure trivia, and a site wide change on our stance from the past 15 years seems... excessive for something of this sort. Jeancey (talk) 18:34, 25 July 2022 (UTC)

Generally this sort of trivia is added on a case-by-case basis, based on talk page consensus. See Skyrim talk:Farkas, Bloodmoon talk:Benkongerike, Online talk:Nunatak for some examples when it comes to deciding to add etymological trivia. In this case I think the definition of 'whale fall' is worth noting. —⁠Legoless (talk) 19:39, 25 July 2022 (UTC)

In the case of whether it's relevant, it's specifically NOT a whalefall, based on the definition provided. There are just whale bones on a normal tropical island. It's not like even Shipwreck Shoals which has a decent amount of coral and could have been on the ocean floor at some point, this is just a normal island with some whale bones. It doesn't seem to actually be related to the term Whale fall.... and the comment from Louna is basically "oh there are whale bones that's why the name is WHALEfall..." Like they could have easily named it without knowing that Whale Fall is a specific thing. Jeancey (talk) 20:48, 25 July 2022 (UTC)

Jeancey I really hate to break it to you but its impossible to go to the ocean floor in the game since swimming is only doable at the surface of the water. Whale bones on an island are about the closest the game can get to it, and a whale skeleton is the entire basis of stages 3 and 4 of a whale fall. A character straight up points it out as the reason behind the name. Where else would the "fall" part come in if not to refer to a whale fall? Chalking it all up to sheer coincidence is a pretty crazy conclusion. There's way too much evidence to dismiss it The Rim of the Sky (talk) 22:33, 25 July 2022 (UTC)

I think this is more likely to be a coincidence than a reference to that specific phenomenon. It's called Whalefall because a whale fell (i.e. died) here. Anything beyond noting what the in-game NPC says is not really relevant. --Enodoc (talk) 07:08, 26 July 2022 (UTC)

"It's called Whalefall because a whale fell (i.e. died) here." is also, y'know, the definition of a whale fall, so we circle back to square one. If that was the sole reason I find it much more likely they'd name it "Whaleyard", "Whale mounds", "Whale barrows", "Whalefield", "Whale Necropolis", but Whalefall specifically... just cannot be coincidental, its far too specific. The Rim of the Sky (talk) 08:03, 26 July 2022 (UTC)

It really doesn't seem THAT specific to me.... we have plenty of examples of this sort of naming in TES, and it doesn't seem entirely unreasonable that they came up with the name without knowing the real world phenomenon, especially since this island doesn't bear any of the characteristics of an actual whale fall. If there was a giant whale skeleton that dominated the island with lots of the plants growing out of it, that would at least be similar to the phenomenon... but we don't see that. In fact, most of the areas with the whale bones are noticeably devoid of life cause they are on the shore, not the interior, or in the water-y areas. It just doesn't seem like enough for me to justify adding trivia to a page. It's a very very high bar for trivia to be useful in my opinion. Jeancey (talk) 22:15, 26 July 2022 (UTC)