ESO quests inspired by already existing stories from other media

Syldras · July 2023

I noticed one thing about Necrom's quest design that made me wonder... I mean, ESO always had "easter eggs", small references to pop culture and such, when it came to dialogues, npc names, and so on. What I didn't notice so far (to that extent) were quests that are very heavily influenced by already existing stories (be it other Bethesda games or other media than videogames).

An example for a small reference would be the title of the current story arc, "Shadow over Morrowind", which clearly alludes to the H. P. Lovecraft story "Shadow over Innsmouth". H. P. Lovecraft's works can mostly be described as "cosmic horror" and exactly that was announced as the new theme. Fine with me (although I never really got a "cosmic horror" feeling when playing Necrom, which is a bit of a pity, as Hermaeus Mora would have been perfect for that - but just randomly naming things "eldritch" and throwing in a few scholars and libraries doesn't make a story "cosmic horror").

So... Another thing I've noticed is that some Necrom quests reminded me very much of other stories I've already read or seen:
- The quest in the "Rectory Corporea" with npcs' bodies being in a comatose state while their mind is trapped in a simulation reminds very much of the "Tranquility Lane" quest in Fallout 3.
- Azandar's quest seems to be influenced by all those Hollywood movies about parallel dimensions that came up within the last few years.
- The Tel Dreloth quest is basically the gothic novel "Rappaccini's Daughter" by Nathanael Hawthorne with swapped genders.
- And I'm very, very sure, that the quest in Fathoms Drift where an old mariner seals a supernatural pact to save the life of his drowning son is also based on a 19th century gothic novel I once read (the name escapes me, I'm sorry; 10 to 15 years ago I had a lot of spare time and read 1 or 2 books each day, so I've read a few thousands in total; I can remember a lot of them, but not each single title).

Btw, I do enjoy gothic novels, but they're not cosmic horror either

It hasn't been like this in the past chapters, has it? Or are there more examples of quests basically just recreating an already existing story from somewhere else?

I'm a bit torn about the whole thing, to be honest. The quests were entertaining, yes, but generally, I prefer content to be original and new, creative, not just always the same old stuff. And when it comes to that, I noticed that the forementioned quests were basically the best ones of this chapter, which sadly also means that completely original content felt less well-written.

Dr_Con · July 2023

There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations. We keep on turning and making new combinations indefinitely; but they are the same old pieces of colored glass that have been in use through all the ages.

(mark twain btw)

Syldras · July 2023

Dr_Con wrote: »

There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible.

There are actually people who develop new concepts, ideas and inventions, so I have to disagree (of course I never said it was easy). Yeah, maybe Copernicus was influenced by Aristarchus who was himself influenced by what he read from Philolaos and Seleucus, but still, their concepts of heliocentrism were more than just randomly rearranging old pre-existing ideas

Dr_Con wrote: »

We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations. We keep on turning and making new combinations indefinitely; but they are the same old pieces of colored glass that have been in use through all the ages.

What I'm missing in this case is the "spin of the kaleidoscope". Just replicating the same story doesn't create anything new. Even if you swap genders or make the humans in the original stories mer.

katanagirl1 · July 2023

I see a lot of similarities in early base game, High Isle and Galen and also Necrom to a game that was PS Plus a while back and I started playing recently - Kingdoms of Amalur - ReReckoning, a PS3 game remastered for PS5. It has Preposterous gear that gets you more gold, a housing system (though primitive compared to ESO), and uses tree trunks for bridges and is based on Fateweavers and such. I keep seeing Fateweaver mentioned multiple times in Azandar’s quest line.

TaSheen · July 2023

katanagirl1 wrote: »

I see a lot of similarities in early base game, High Isle and Galen and also Necrom to a game that was PS Plus a while back and I started playing recently - Kingdoms of Amalur - ReReckoning, a PS3 game remastered for PS5. It has Preposterous gear that gets you more gold, a housing system (though primitive compared to ESO), and uses tree trunks for bridges and is based on Fateweavers and such. I keep seeing Fateweaver mentioned multiple times in Azandar’s quest line.

I wish I could get Kingdoms of Amalur to run on my machine. It just refuses - it installs, and then when attempting to run, it drops to desktop (this is on PC). No error message, nothing. Annoying.... my sister played it and recommended it, so I bought it, and then can't play it - I tried contacting support, never got a response. *sigh*

Vhozek · July 2023

Can't expect every single member of society to come up with new ideas, that's just unrealistic and it would slow things down a lot.
I rather see old ideas being used with some changes, either from perspective or just a replacement of the assets in the idea than to wait a long time for a new idea that people will have something to complain about anyways.

A huge portion of TES lore is basically the reuse of existing religious ideas just scrambled around and re-skinned and it presents itself very nicely.

Supreme_Atromancer · July 2023

One of the strongest impressions I got this year was the consistency of the tone.

I remember when ZOS said that Summerset was meant to be High Fantasy. Well, I never got that feel.

With Apocrypha, ZOS was obviously going for the Cosmic Horror tones of 20th Century pulpy horror fiction, and they really did nail it. I felt like my character was an antagonist in all those old stories before fantasy had many of its elements codified.

There are tonnes of homages throughout, lots of nods to really cool stuff, and if you pay attention each one feels like its got its own spin on things. It feels far more (to me) like an expression of love to one of the deeper roots of both fantasy in general, and Elder Scrolls specifically.

I think interpreting that as plagiarism would be doing them dirty. One of the things I love about fantasy is the thread of dialogue that happens throughout the genre, as new ideas become adopted, codified, definitive, then challenged or outright subverted.

I don't know how early Bethesda ever got away with "Jehanna", "Silvenar" and "Morrowind" amongst many others. But stuff like Sheogorath, demon of insanity always had its roots in cosmic horror ideas, and personally I'm thrilled that these deep roots have been tapped.

katanagirl1 · July 2023

TaSheen wrote: »

katanagirl1 wrote: »

I see a lot of similarities in early base game, High Isle and Galen and also Necrom to a game that was PS Plus a while back and I started playing recently - Kingdoms of Amalur - ReReckoning, a PS3 game remastered for PS5. It has Preposterous gear that gets you more gold, a housing system (though primitive compared to ESO), and uses tree trunks for bridges and is based on Fateweavers and such. I keep seeing Fateweaver mentioned multiple times in Azandar’s quest line.

I wish I could get Kingdoms of Amalur to run on my machine. It just refuses - it installs, and then when attempting to run, it drops to desktop (this is on PC). No error message, nothing. Annoying.... my sister played it and recommended it, so I bought it, and then can't play it - I tried contacting support, never got a response. *sigh*

It’s fun to play but very dated. The graphics are pretty bad and the hack and slash is the same in every area, not much variety. I wish I could find time to just go back and finish it, though. I didn’t get done with the story, which was interesting.

Also, I was slightly tipsy from a glass of wine and typed “Preposterous” instead of “Prosperous” because I was thinking of a funny post where someone mistakenly called it that here on the forums quite some time ago. Lol.

Elrender · July 2023

Argonean companion quest line = fenris from dragon age 2

Vevvev · July 2023

The Key Tarn Keep quest in Summerset gave off Stranger Things vibe with the monster in the pocket realm coming out to attack people on Nirn.

Honestly, this revelation doesn't surprise me in the slightest, especially considering just how big ESO is. There's going to be other story examples bleeding in as the artists and writers try to come up with something.

All I care about is whether the storytelling is good and my character actually plays a role instead of being an unintelligent kid on a theme park ride. Been getting way too many stories lately that's the latter, and it's been making it harder to do PvE in this game for me.

ZOS_Icy · July 2023

Greetings,

This thread has been moved to the Quests and Exploration section, as it is better suited there.

Thank you for your understanding.

Syldras · July 2023

Vhozek wrote: »

Can't expect every single member of society to come up with new ideas, that's just unrealistic and it would slow things down a lot.

There are actually people who invent stories as their profession, you know - authors, playwrights, screenwriters and such

And I'd personally think that someone who writes stories for video games should also fit into this category.

Of course our ideas are influenced by experiences (from the real world and, for example, from fiction we've read or seen), but there's a difference between being inspired by an occurrence, story or thought or just retelling the same story with mer instead of humans or with a few changed protagonist names.

Vhozek wrote: »

A huge portion of TES lore is basically the reuse of existing religious ideas just scrambled around and re-skinned and it presents itself very nicely.

I know, not only religions even, and it's basically influencing the whole world of TES. Look at the clothing, the furniture, you can easily assign one or more real-world cultures to every TES race. Still, the whole weird mixture that is TES lore is something creative, unique and a thing of its own in the end. That's a big difference to one single quest where almost nothing from the original inspiration was changed.

Supreme_Atromancer wrote: »

I think interpreting that as plagiarism would be doing them dirty.

Legally, they were free to do it, btw, when it comes to 19th century stories, which are mostly released into public domain since long. I don't care for legal aspects anyway, I don't even want to judge if this whole thing was "right" or "wrong". To me, it's a matter of personal taste, and personal expectations when it comes to media, art and storywriting. I'd, personally, be more approving of more creative, original content.