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TES lore resources -- or, where to start learning the lore
casparian
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A shiny new forum! For any of you who want to learn more about the lore of ESO and the TES series in general, I thought it might be useful to compile a few links. There are terrific lore resources out there of all kinds.
Primary Sources
The wiki -- UESP
The Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages is the best and most comprehensive TES wiki on the internet. (Don't bother with the Elder Scrolls wikia; it's inferior in several ways, including straightforward inaccuracy in too many cases.) UESP has a page on virtually everything in all TES games (even Redguard!), including every single book in every TES game. One of my favorite features for beginners is the History page, which branches off into timelines of each era and articles for each major, era-defining event. @Enodoc can tell you more!
The Imperial Library
TIL stores the text of every piece of written material in the TES games, from Arena to TESO:Morrowind. What distinguishes this from UESP's collection of in-game books, however, is its compilation of a great deal of in-game information that isn't in book form (for example, an article on the Akaviri alphabet as observed in-game), as well as an archive of out-of-game writings by TES writers and developers (including the text of Naryu's journal!). This archive is particularly interesting, as it includes everything from transcripts of in-character roleplay events some of the devs carried out with forum users a decade ago, to some of the original lorebooks that inspired the developers of TESV:Skyrim (but for whatever reason didn't get placed in game). Lots of good stuff can be found here.
C0DA
Did you find the 37th Lesson of Vivec in ESO's Morrowind expansion? Did you catch the line "Go here: world without wheel, charting zero deaths, and echoes singing"? That's an acronym, by the way -- "Go here: www c0da es". Do as Vivec says and go there. C0DA is a story set in one possible future of the TES timeline, and was written by one of the TES' series most influential writers as a way of denying that TES lore consists of a static "canon". It also includes interesting developments of many of the themes from the 36 Lessons of Vivec. It's a fairly common reference point in many discussions of "deep" TES lore.
Lore guides
Lady Nerevar's How to Become a Lore Buff
Lady N's guide breaks the lore down into general categories and links to a few important lorebooks for each category, plus includes some general advice on how to think about TES lore. It's my go-to recommendation for people who want to get started with the primary sources but don't want to open the full firehose of UESP or TIL without a guide.
Elder Lore
This podcast took one lorebook or topic per episode and explained its story and themes, sometimes with a dramatic reading to accompany the breakdown. Sadly discontinued, but what's there is quite good. You can download the episodes here or through your iPhone's Podcasts app.
r/teslore
Reddit's long-running TES lore discussion community. There's a lot of insight to be found in their archives, including some interaction with one or two of the writers.
The Selectives Lorecast
A youtube series discussing various lore issues.
Let me know if there are any valuable resources I've left out!
Edited by casparian on 14 July 2017 21:14 Primary Sources
The wiki -- UESP
The Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages is the best and most comprehensive TES wiki on the internet. (Don't bother with the Elder Scrolls wikia; it's inferior in several ways, including straightforward inaccuracy in too many cases.) UESP has a page on virtually everything in all TES games (even Redguard!), including every single book in every TES game. One of my favorite features for beginners is the History page, which branches off into timelines of each era and articles for each major, era-defining event. @Enodoc can tell you more!
The Imperial Library
TIL stores the text of every piece of written material in the TES games, from Arena to TESO:Morrowind. What distinguishes this from UESP's collection of in-game books, however, is its compilation of a great deal of in-game information that isn't in book form (for example, an article on the Akaviri alphabet as observed in-game), as well as an archive of out-of-game writings by TES writers and developers (including the text of Naryu's journal!). This archive is particularly interesting, as it includes everything from transcripts of in-character roleplay events some of the devs carried out with forum users a decade ago, to some of the original lorebooks that inspired the developers of TESV:Skyrim (but for whatever reason didn't get placed in game). Lots of good stuff can be found here.
C0DA
Did you find the 37th Lesson of Vivec in ESO's Morrowind expansion? Did you catch the line "Go here: world without wheel, charting zero deaths, and echoes singing"? That's an acronym, by the way -- "Go here: www c0da es". Do as Vivec says and go there. C0DA is a story set in one possible future of the TES timeline, and was written by one of the TES' series most influential writers as a way of denying that TES lore consists of a static "canon". It also includes interesting developments of many of the themes from the 36 Lessons of Vivec. It's a fairly common reference point in many discussions of "deep" TES lore.
Lore guides
Lady Nerevar's How to Become a Lore Buff
Lady N's guide breaks the lore down into general categories and links to a few important lorebooks for each category, plus includes some general advice on how to think about TES lore. It's my go-to recommendation for people who want to get started with the primary sources but don't want to open the full firehose of UESP or TIL without a guide.
Elder Lore
This podcast took one lorebook or topic per episode and explained its story and themes, sometimes with a dramatic reading to accompany the breakdown. Sadly discontinued, but what's there is quite good. You can download the episodes here or through your iPhone's Podcasts app.
r/teslore
Reddit's long-running TES lore discussion community. There's a lot of insight to be found in their archives, including some interaction with one or two of the writers.
The Selectives Lorecast
A youtube series discussing various lore issues.
Let me know if there are any valuable resources I've left out!
7-day PVP campaign regular 2016-2019, Flawless Conqueror. MagDK/stamplar/stamwarden/mageblade. Requiem, Legend, Knights of Daggerfall. Currently retired from the wars; waiting on performance improvements.
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Faewyna✭✭Definetly covered everything I would have suggested! It would be awesome if this or something similar could be stickied.1