What About an Elder Scrolls Series of Books or YouTube Vids for Learning the Lore?

BleedMe_AnOcean

I really enjoy games like ESO, WoW, and FFXIV for their stories. The lore is well-written and interesting. For people like myself, though, who have only recently started playing, the lore is elusive, at best. I'd LOVE to see a YouTube series that focuses on lore for the n00bs out here who really want to understand it. I'd even settle for a series of novels.

It's possible that this has been done already, and I have found a couple of YouTubers who have done some lore videos, but there's nothing comprehensive or chronological. If y'all know of something that I'm missing, I'm up for suggestions!

Danikat

I'm pretty sure there are some real-life TES books which collect in-game lore books together. The Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages (UESP) is also a good resource for lore and information.

And yeah, TES lore is very confusing at first. My first TES game was Morrowind and I found some aspects overwhelming, especially the religions - people kept talking about the Nine, the Tribunal, Aedrea and Daedra, 'good' Daedra and 'bad' Daedra, the Temple and I had no idea what any of these things were. For a long time I thought the 'good Daedra' and the Nine Divines were the same thing just because of the way different people talked about them. There's still some things I can't quite get my head around, like the Dawn Era (not helped by the fact that time was non-linear then) and a lot of details I find hard to remember.

Although partially that's because TES makes a lot of use of the "unreliable narrator" concept - almost all of the lore is given by in-universe sources, mainly lore books written by scholars in Tamriel. So unlike a lot of games where it's a developer saying "this is how it is" and that's the absolute truth it's one person's perception and may be influenced by their opinions and experience or simply what they don't know. For example a book written by a high elf might dismiss Skyrim as a barren land full of ignorant, drunken barbarians barely capable of survival, while another one might talk about the excellent quality of nord weapons and armour and declare them some of the best craftsmen in the world. The two will appear to be totally contradictory at first, but neither is strictly wrong, they're just applying different standards. (Although there are other cases where a lore book actually is wrong, but we usually only know for sure when the thing they're talking about is in one of the games...or that one book which insists time is strictly linear and any change or break in that is utterly impossible which refers to events that happen decades after the book is written.)

BleedMe_AnOcean

Wow. That's an awesome explanation of things! I'll have to check it out for sure. A more linear "storytelling" approach would definitely make it easier to digest, and I think that's the problem a lot of us who were late to the game have.

max_only

There is.

wenchmore420b14_ESO

max_only wrote: »

There is.

These guys are really good!^^^ (Shoddycast). They are even mentioned in the book at Chalman Keep. (Battle of the Chalamo)!

For ALL canon lore as in "In-Game" books, check out https://www.imperial-library.info/. They have every book in all 10 games of TES.
Also, on YouTube, look at Camelworks & The Exploring Series videos. They have some great lore vids.

But, be warned. Shoddycast, as well as some others don't get the lore exactly right sometimes, so you may find some subtle differences.

As far as books, Ken Keyes has 2 TES novels available. Also Titan Press has "Sets" of books on the History and Lands of Tamriel also. Go to the Bethesda Store as I think they still have them available.

Hope this helps!
Huzzah good traveler!!

Stovahkiin

I’d suggest watching the series beginning with the video linked above. The UESP (Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages) Wiki has also been running for a long time and they have a ton of information on their site.

Here’s a link to their main Lore page:

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Main_Page

Kel

FudgeMuppet or ShoddyCast if you want to watch lore videos on YouTube

You're welcome

Zardayne

Before the game was released I really enjoyed Shoddycast's lore videos. Very informative.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=eIV-lz5SdbE

radiostar

Elder Lore podcast for the games before ESO is an interesting listen too.

BleedMe_AnOcean

This is the single most helpful thread I have ever seen here. Thanks to everyone who took time to reply and restore my faith in humanity.