Anyone know where I can learn more about the back story of Tamriel and Elder Scrolls universe?

Zeroswitch · July 2015

Hello, I was wondering if anyone had any good reference links to learn more about the Elder Scrolls universe. It's history, back story, major events, major characters, etc. I played Morrowind and Oblivion a long time ago but don't really recall the major plot points. And I never picked up Skyrim.

Just looking for some reference to put things into perspective.

Thanks!

leeux · July 2015

Take a look at the UESP wiki, and the Imperial Library sites. Also, the youtube series by ShoddyCast is a good introductory source (but take it with a grain of salt, not everything they said is true.)

UESP => http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Main_Page
Imperial Library => http://imperial-library.info/
ShoddyCast =>

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-chDClmdos&list=PL7pGJQV-jlzCPBUy9uAXQUXZ4UBaDLKS5

Robo_Hobo · July 2015

I like how some of the books summarize previous games - although in ESO, the events of TES 1-5 haven't taken place yet and won't for a long time. Still, if you don't remember much about the games you have played, they're a nice read.

here's the book for Oblivion, found in Skyrim. Kinda funny how a scholar's perspective of the events of the main quest are.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:The_Oblivion_Crisis
The player character is 'the prisoner' and any titles mentioned henceforth in that book.

Here's the book that explains the significance of the canonical ending of Daggerfall (TES:2)

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:The_Warp_in_the_West
The player character is the 'blades agent' that they lost contact with.

I think there's some for the others as well, I know the Biography of Barenziah kind of summarizes TES1: Arena, not sure what the one/if there's one for Morrowind as an overall summary, and well Skyrim's the last game in the timeline so naturally there's not one for that yet.

FilthyMudcrabs · July 2015

Well ESO takes place 1000 years before Skyrim - so no worries there.

As for back story, the wiki works pretty well. I personally like going to elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Timeline to get a better idea of what happened when.

Zeroswitch · July 2015

Thanks! The UESP link is great! Ton's of great information. Just what I was looking for.

NDwarf · July 2015

Elder Scrolls has some of the most confusing, bizarre fantasy lore ever.

Warhammer Fantasy = Tolkien but dark grim bad. WoW = Tolkien but Saturday Morning Cartoon.

Eso = Starts off as Tolkien but then someone must of fired up a joint and threw in some far east Buddhism, Hinduism, and steam punk beard elves, wtf am I reading lore.

BBSooner · July 2015

NDwarf wrote: »

Eso = Starts off as Tolkien but then someone must of fired up a joint and threw in some far east Buddhism, Hinduism, and steam punk beard elves, wtf am I reading lore.

It gets especially weird if you view Kirkbride's FF as canon. Time travelling divine cyborg that commits genocide against High Elves? High Elven Queen is a time travelling sentient shape changing space mining vehicle? I think Kirkbride just likes time travel.

starkerealm · July 2015

NDwarf wrote: »

Elder Scrolls has some of the most confusing, bizarre fantasy lore ever.

Warhammer Fantasy = Tolkien but dark grim bad. WoW = Tolkien but Saturday Morning Cartoon.

Eso = Starts off as Tolkien but then someone must of fired up a joint and threw in some far east Buddhism, Hinduism, and steam punk beard elves, wtf am I reading lore.

Kirkbride... at least I think it was Kirkbride, started injecting a lot of the Eastern elements into the series with Morrowind. The idea was to sell a kind of India under British Colonial Rule feel, where the British were the Roman Empire... and the weirdness took off from there.

Most modern fantasy (Elder Scrolls included) draws very heavily from Tolkien. When you step back from that your other options are basically Robert E. Howard and Michael Moorcock. Elder Scrolls has some pulp elements buried in there, but it's certainly starting from the Tolkien mold.

Warhammer is Tolkien filtered through Medieval and Early Modern Europe with a massive pile of Heavy Metal back issues.

Warcraft is Warhammer (as a game, rather than a setting) with the serial numbers filed off, and over time, made more family friendly.

The other major influence on Elder Scrolls is D&D. Which, no surprise, but that's a distinct flavor from Tolkien. Gygax had a serious fondness for Greek mythology which filtered into his settings. It's significant because Tolkien was more interested in Germanic myth.

The biggest thing about The Elder Scrolls is, it's not a unified setting. All of the cultures are set up with distinct identities that draw from different literary and historical inspirations, and there's no attempt (at a world building level) to sync these up. So when you find books that are trying to codify all of these cultures together, it's not (really) the writers sanding everything down and keeping it homogenous, so much as characters living in the world trying to make sense of all these conflicting ideas on how the world works.

Honestly, you can learn a lot from picking over The Elder Scrolls.

Zeroswitch · July 2015

NDwarf wrote: »

Elder Scrolls has some of the most confusing, bizarre fantasy lore ever.

Eso = Starts off as Tolkien but then someone must of fired up a joint and threw in some far east Buddhism, Hinduism, and steam punk beard elves, wtf am I reading lore.

Ha! Yea, I am getting that impression after reading a bit on the history and timeline from uesp.net. It jumps all around.

Zeroswitch · July 2015

And after a bit of searching on the lore and history of TES, this came up:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Elder-Scrolls-Online-Tamriel/dp/1783293187/ref=pd_bxgy_14_text_z

Looks like Bethesda is planning to release a book...

Sausage · July 2015

This was quite interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUpWWKDsuPk

UrQuan · July 2015

Zeroswitch wrote: »

And after a bit of searching on the lore and history of TES, this came up:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Elder-Scrolls-Online-Tamriel/dp/1783293187/ref=pd_bxgy_14_text_z

Looks like Bethesda is planning to release a book...

It's the second in that series (and there's another series based on Skyrim). I've got the first one, and it's pretty cool. The text is all taken from in-game sources, and it's presented in an interesting way with lots of art.

Nivinfarr · July 2015

If you're looking for a lot of detail, the ShoddyCast series of videos on YouTube is well done.

UTG_Zilla · July 2015

UrQuan wrote: »

Zeroswitch wrote: »

And after a bit of searching on the lore and history of TES, this came up:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Elder-Scrolls-Online-Tamriel/dp/1783293187/ref=pd_bxgy_14_text_z

Looks like Bethesda is planning to release a book...

It's the second in that series (and there's another series based on Skyrim). I've got the first one, and it's pretty cool. The text is all taken from in-game sources, and it's presented in an interesting way with lots of art.

Is that the book that game with collectors/imperial edition of eso?

UrQuan · July 2015

UTG_Zilla wrote: »

UrQuan wrote: »

Zeroswitch wrote: »

And after a bit of searching on the lore and history of TES, this came up:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Elder-Scrolls-Online-Tamriel/dp/1783293187/ref=pd_bxgy_14_text_z

Looks like Bethesda is planning to release a book...

It's the second in that series (and there's another series based on Skyrim). I've got the first one, and it's pretty cool. The text is all taken from in-game sources, and it's presented in an interesting way with lots of art.

Is that the book that game with collectors/imperial edition of eso?

No (although I've got that too), it's a book that came out a few months ago. It's available on amazon for sure, because that's where I got mine from.

Faulgor · July 2015

I know it might seem daunting, but you can check out https://reddit.com/r/teslore

The topics are quite advanced, but they are great to point you to things you might want to learn more about. Then you can look them up in the Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages or The Imperial Library.

starkerealm · July 2015

Zeroswitch wrote: »

And after a bit of searching on the lore and history of TES, this came up:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Elder-Scrolls-Online-Tamriel/dp/1783293187/ref=pd_bxgy_14_text_z

Looks like Bethesda is planning to release a book...

I believe those are hard copies of the in game lore books. I'm not sure if it's also all the other ancillary text you can find in game. ESO has roughly 2300 readable items (IIRC).

There's at least three ESO ones, Land, Lore, and Arcane. And there's a Land volume for Skyrim... though I don't know what is available right now.

Zeroswitch · July 2015

UrQuan wrote: »

It's the second in that series (and there's another series based on Skyrim). I've got the first one, and it's pretty cool. The text is all taken from in-game sources, and it's presented in an interesting way with lots of art.

Oh excellent! They sound interesting. I'll have to check them out. Thanks!

Zeroswitch · August 2015

My copy of the Elder Scrolls Tales of Tamriel Vol 1 came the other day. It's actually a very well done book! Nice content, and much easier to read the book then in the game

Looking forward to the second volume!

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Anyone know where I can learn more about the back story of Tamriel and Elder Scrolls universe?

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