What timeline does Morrowind Expac take place in?

1mirg

Recently Zone Chat in vvardenfell was having a argument about which timeline this expac takes place in. Whether it's own timeline or the same timeline as the other Elderscrolls games. So, I decided to make a thread about it because it intrigued my interests as a person who likes the lore in this mmo.

The only question I'll add to this question is this:
If this takes place in the same timeline as the morrowind, oblivion, and skyrim games. Then why aren't we players mentioned in any books, scrawling's, parchments, or even sung about? is there some lore I'm forgetting which would explain that?

Sigtric

ESO as a whole takes place 300ish years before the events of TES3 Morrowind.

ESO players aren't mentioned in various books because ESO wasn't around when Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim were created.

ESO Morrowind content takes place directly before the events that caused the planemeld, if you are on a new character.

On existing characters it's just a concurrent different story.

Fleshreaper

For one, the games take place in reverse order. Morrowind was in the 3rd era, ESO takes place in the 1st era. So, we are several 1000 years before the events of Morrowind.

grizzledcroc

Its kinda left in the air. Its mostly after the events since the deadric war plot was teased in Orsinium which is 100% after the planemeld .Morrowind continues with that plot unfolding . But it depends if your a new player like the guy above me says.

Fleshreaper

Check out the TESlore group on facebook for some really good lore related questions and answers.

Korah_Eaglecry

1mirg wrote: »

Recently Zone Chat in vvardenfell was having a argument about which timeline this expac takes place in. Whether it's own timeline or the same timeline as the other Elderscrolls games. So, I decided to make a thread about it because it intrigued my interests as a person who likes the lore in this mmo.

The only question I'll add to this question is this:
If this takes place in the same timeline as the morrowind, oblivion, and skyrim games. Then why aren't we players mentioned in any books, scrawling's, parchments, or even sung about? is there some lore I'm forgetting which would explain that?

We arent mentioned because

1.) Lore isnt written out years ahead of a franchise. Its mostly added to with each iteration of the franchise. Take Skyrim for example. There was no The Last Dragonborn Prophecy before Skyrim. It was something completely made up and presented as if it had always existed.

2.) The Interregnum has been known of but very little was written about it because of it being an interregnum. Its basically a time period rife with fighting and destruction. Essentially this time period erased itself from existence or at least the history books with the constant wars and destruction of historical objects, artifacts and writings. It would be like the US and Russia launching their nukes all at once. Quite a bit about our culture would be lost and forgotten about to any future civilizations that would try to study us.

3.) Molag Bal. If youve fought any of the Dolmens through out Tamriel you will know of the constant **** talking Molag Bal throws your way. And at one point he claims he will do everything he can to erase knowledge of you and your feats from history. In short, he succeeded. He not only made it so future generations would not know of the Vestige, the Hero of Tamriel. But he also made it so knowledge of his epic failure was erased.

jircris11

It's 2nd era so waaay before any tes game

Pendrillion

Some hard data... ESOs original start date was 2E 582... All previous TES games are playing in 3E (Third Era) TES III - Morrowind for example is set in 3E 427 while Oblivion plays at the end of the third era, in 3E 433/4E 01 Skyrim plays in 4E 200

Now the expac plays for some characters im 2E 582 but it was said at the end of the Wrothgar Storyline, that it was 2E 584. We get the first hint for Morrowind there in the grander scheme of things...

So if you roll a new Char and go to the mainland, you get introduced to the game as if it was 2E 582 while Morrowind plays in 2E 584 or later... it wasn't really pinned to a specific date... I hope that helps...

Danikat

ESO is set during a period known as the Interregnum: http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Interregnum which was basically 500 years of continent-wide war and chaos. As often happens during massive, destructive conflicts not a whole lot of people were keeping detailed records and a lot of what was recorded was subsequently destroyed.

Then there's another 700 years (approximately) before the time of Arena, the first TES game. Morrowind is set 30 years after that, Oblivion 6 years after that and Skyrim 200 years after that.

How much detail do we know about the Earth 700-1000 years ago? Do you know the names of all the people who were involved in major events? Not the kings and queens and generals but the people assisting them, passing messages, actually going out on the battlefield etc. How often do you encounter books about that time?

If you're unsure, or think it's just that you don't know a whole lot about history here's Wikipedia's list of everything we know happened in the year 1317 (exactly 700 years ago): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1317

And that 700 years wasn't exactly peaceful. It started with the great unification of Tamriel by Tiber Septim - aka the Imperials roaming around killing everyone who opposed them and subjugating everyone else which almost certainly involved quite a bit of destruction of records, and re-writing of the records which did survive to support the new pro-Imperial view.

So in other words it's not surprising that people later on didn't know much about what was going on during present day in ESO. Hell, by the time of Oblivion most people didn't even remember that the Dragonfires stopped daedra invading and that's a fairly important bit of history to hang onto.

Acrolas

Schick and company *** up the timeline so much that now even the dragon breaks have dragon breaks.

Loralai_907

Didn't they say it was like 40 years after the original ESO story line? I think it was in an ESO Live, but I am not 100% on that.

ShedsHisTail

ESO takes place in a sort of "dark ages" known as the Interegnum.
Very poor record keeping during this time.

Korah_Eaglecry

Pendrillion wrote: »

Some hard data... ESOs original start date was 2E 582... All previous TES games are playing in 3E (Third Era) TES III - Morrowind for example is set in 3E 427 while Oblivion plays at the end of the third era, in 3E 433/4E 01 Skyrim plays in 4E 200

Now the expac plays for some characters im 2E 582 but it was said at the end of the Wrothgar Storyline, that it was 2E 584. We get the first hint for Morrowind there in the grander scheme of things...

So if you roll a new Char and go to the mainland, you get introduced to the game as if it was 2E 582 while Morrowind plays in 2E 584 or later... it wasn't really pinned to a specific date... I hope that helps...

2E 583. But yeah. Wrothgar/TG/DB take place a little while after the Planemeld and Morrowind after that.

ArchMikem

Fleshreaper wrote: »

For one, the games take place in reverse order. Morrowind was in the 3rd era, ESO takes place in the 1st era. So, we are several 1000 years before the events of Morrowind.

ESO's in the 2nd Era. 2E 5XX. I forget the actual year, but it's in the 5th century of the 2nd Era.

Disregarding new players, the events of ESO: Morrowind are supposed to take place after the Questline of Orsinium, which takes place after the Main Story Questline. So it goes, (Planemeld Quest > Defeat Molag Bal > Orsinium Quest > Morrowind Quest)

starkerealm

Sigtric wrote: »

ESO as a whole takes place 300ish years before the events of TES3 Morrowind.

800, not 300.

ArchMikem wrote: »

Fleshreaper wrote: »

For one, the games take place in reverse order. Morrowind was in the 3rd era, ESO takes place in the 1st era. So, we are several 1000 years before the events of Morrowind.

ESO's in the 2nd Era. 2E 5XX. I forget the actual year, but it's in the 5th century of the 2nd Era.

It's 2e582. Arguably, 2e583 or '84 now.

Pops_ND_Irish

Does it matter ?

ArchMikem

MoTeets wrote: »

Does it matter ?

To some, yes, it does.

lavosslayer

Danikat wrote: »

ESO is set during a period known as the Interregnum: http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Interregnum which was basically 500 years of continent-wide war and chaos. As often happens during massive, destructive conflicts not a whole lot of people were keeping detailed records and a lot of what was recorded was subsequently destroyed.

Then there's another 700 years (approximately) before the time of Arena, the first TES game. Morrowind is set 30 years after that, Oblivion 6 years after that and Skyrim 200 years after that.

How much detail do we know about the Earth 700-1000 years ago? Do you know the names of all the people who were involved in major events? Not the kings and queens and generals but the people assisting them, passing messages, actually going out on the battlefield etc. How often do you encounter books about that time?

If you're unsure, or think it's just that you don't know a whole lot about history here's Wikipedia's list of everything we know happened in the year 1317 (exactly 700 years ago): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1317

And that 700 years wasn't exactly peaceful. It started with the great unification of Tamriel by Tiber Septim - aka the Imperials roaming around killing everyone who opposed them and subjugating everyone else which almost certainly involved quite a bit of destruction of records, and re-writing of the records which did survive to support the new pro-Imperial view.

So in other words it's not surprising that people later on didn't know much about what was going on during present day in ESO. Hell, by the time of Oblivion most people didn't even remember that the Dragonfires stopped daedra invading and that's a fairly important bit of history to hang onto.

Besides all it takes is them throwing in some interaction with Hermaeus Mora in a future ES game and Molag Bal's failure against the vestige will be known again.

Pops_ND_Irish

ArchMikem wrote: »

MoTeets wrote: »

Does it matter ?

To some, yes, it does.

Why ? Its a game. Would it change how you play or if you enjoy playing ?

ShedsHisTail

MoTeets wrote: »

ArchMikem wrote: »

MoTeets wrote: »

Does it matter ?

To some, yes, it does.

Why ? Its a game. Would it change how you play or if you enjoy playing ?

Some folks like the story... It's the same as watching TV or reading a book. If the story doesn't make sense because events happen out of order, it makes the story harder to follow and less easy to enjoy.

Pops_ND_Irish

I see

Uncle_Sweetshare

ShoddyCast does a phenomenal job explaining it in this video.

He also has two Elder Scrolls Lore playlists which are done very well:
Season 1 TES Lore
Season 2 TES Lore

Enjoy, ya lore junkies.

wenchmore420b14_ESO

ESO= 2E582-583
TES1: Arena~ 3E399, 712 years after ESO
TES2: Daggerfall~ 3E405, 718 years after ESO
TESL: Redguard~ 2E827, 244 years after ESO
TES3: Morrowind 3E427, 740 years after ESO
TES4: Oblivion 3E438, 751 years after ESO
TES5: Skyrim 4E201, 948 years after ESO

LettuceMcGrims

ArchMikem wrote: »

Fleshreaper wrote: »

For one, the games take place in reverse order. Morrowind was in the 3rd era, ESO takes place in the 1st era. So, we are several 1000 years before the events of Morrowind.

ESO's in the 2nd Era. 2E 5XX. I forget the actual year, but it's in the 5th century of the 2nd Era.

Disregarding new players, the events of ESO: Morrowind are supposed to take place after the Questline of Orsinium, which takes place after the Main Story Questline. So it goes, (Planemeld Quest > Defeat Molag Bal > Orsinium Quest > Morrowind Quest)

TLDR: If that time line is correct. Then Why do we start with Morrowind if you start a new character?

I kinda got all the DLC and Morrowind at the same time but from what I know you didn't start in Orsinium you had to finish the main quest. So I don't get why We would start in Morrowind then.

Dark_Lord_Kuro

Before morrowinnd release we were starting on bleakrock/stross mkai/ kenarti roost wich we call the starting islands but for some reson they changet to vvardenfell with morrowind

SaintAemilian

Fleshreaper wrote: »

For one, the games take place in reverse order. Morrowind was in the 3rd era, ESO takes place in the 1st era. So, we are several 1000 years before the events of Morrowind.

Does it make anyone else feel a little odd/bittersweet to be interacting with characters and such who are *long* dead by the time Morrowind starts?

It is interesting, though, to see the origin stories, especially with the Aldmeri. The queen seemed to have such high hopes, but it appears they all turned to poop by the time Skyrim came out.

VaranisArano

Prior to this, the Canon knowledge of the era of ESO was that is was the Interregnum, a time of great strife and many civil wars in Cyrodiil without a single dynasty and not many records survived the chaos.

Now? It'll depend on whether the Bethesda Devs want to reference ESO at all in 4th or 5th era TES games after not referencing events in Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim. Even though it seems rather pertinent to point out that in hindsight the Oblivion Crisis became the Planemeld 2 Electric Boogaloo and Vivec really should have removed Baar Dau after the first time it nearly blew up Vvardenfell.

ZOS_Lunar

Greetings!

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