I use an idea quite similar to the OP in my head canon. I assume that the vestige is created as an empty vessel and that all sorts of interested parties then fill the vestige up with their desires. That includes Daedric princes, but also Aedra, Tribunes, and ordinary mortals. Chief amongst these interested parties is Akatosh. In my head cannon I assume the vestige is connected to Akatosh through Sky Shards and through the power-up received from the Amulet of Kings at the end of the main quest. Being an agent of Akatosh means that time is somewhat optional for the vestige, and that the vestige doesn't have the forward-only, unilinear view of time that ordinary people do.

I also believe that if you want a story to be coherent and intuitively satisfying it's best to start reading it at the beginning of chapter 1.

Geekgirl wrote: »

A simple fix would be along side "Do you want to play the Tutorial?" there should be "Would you like to experience the newest release first?"

Then we can choose "Yes, I'd like to play the Tutorial" and "No, I would like to experience the game from the beginning."

Or vice-versa.

That's brilliant idea. I think, you should consider to open a thread about this suggestion to draw more attention to it.

Time travels differently in Coldharbour. Coldharbour anchors are opening up all over Tamriel. Time in Tamriel is getting messed up. That's all the explanation we really need.

Interestingly, I just completed the main quest this week and was running around Deshaan. I forget exactly where, but in one of the delves I noticed what appeared to be the corpse of [person from main quest that I chose] and some journals that noted details of that character's experience. There were blue-light candles, making them stand out among the ruins, and I don't know if they're there because I've finished the main quest or I just never noticed them. Had me thinking about time already, lol

These sort of discussions give me headaches — oh, but wonderful, thought-provoking quantum state headaches!

logarifmik wrote: »

Geekgirl wrote: »

A simple fix would be along side "Do you want to play the Tutorial?" there should be "Would you like to experience the newest release first?"

Then we can choose "Yes, I'd like to play the Tutorial" and "No, I would like to experience the game from the beginning."

Or vice-versa.

That's brilliant idea. I think, you should consider to open a thread about this suggestion to draw more attention to it.

It's been suggested a million times here and on Reddit. ZOS doesn't want to hear it, despite there being daily posts from new players confused about the order of the story.

I'm not extremely knowledgeable on TES lore or 'dragonbreaks' and all that fluff but I always figured 'inconsistencies' in the story were due to the fact that it's a game (specifically MMO) where they just simply want to allow players to do whichever content they want in whatever order. I don't think there's a time line conspiracy.. The actual timeline may go: Coldharbour, Orsinium, Morrowind and so forth, but because players can do that however they choose, Zenimax simply adds in " Ohh, it was uh, magic" so it can make sense to newer players. I don't think there are 'alternative' timelines, just Zenimax not thinking ahead.. maybe they never planned for the Vestige to be able to visit all the Alliance zones and now they just have to make sense of it. They would have to re-do the entire PvP Imperial City zone after you completed the White Gold Tower dungeon to show that the deadra have left, or the planemeld is over or whatever. They wanted White Gold Tower to be a fun dungeon, and it is, and that's all it is I think. I know it may not be as fun or interesting, but I do think all the inconsistencies are really due to the fact that ESO is an MMO and they have to entertain so many different people at different stages of the game.. It would to wayy too much work to change large parts of the game for players who have completed certain content. However, I could be looking at this all wrong- who knows!

Plus it's too confusing to think my character exists in many different places at once so I prefer the more simple, "it's just game mechanics" excuse

Butterbeans wrote: »

I'm not extremely knowledgeable on TES lore or 'dragonbreaks' and all that fluff but I always figured 'inconsistencies' in the story were due to the fact that it's a game (specifically MMO) where they just simply want to allow players to do whichever content they want in whatever order.

That's the thing: Dragonbreaks were only invented to explain the gameplay inconsistencies in TES2:Daggerfall, to make all possible endings canon. Finding or creating in-world lore explanations for gameplay issues is not odd for TES, it's the norm (another example is the levitation ban from TES4 onward).
So formulating a hypothesis that explains our ability to do content in any order we like with Daedric-vestige-time-shenanigans seems perfectly fine.

Faulgor wrote: »

Butterbeans wrote: »

I'm not extremely knowledgeable on TES lore or 'dragonbreaks' and all that fluff but I always figured 'inconsistencies' in the story were due to the fact that it's a game (specifically MMO) where they just simply want to allow players to do whichever content they want in whatever order.

That's the thing: Dragonbreaks were only invented to explain the gameplay inconsistencies in TES2:Daggerfall, to make all possible endings canon. Finding or creating in-world lore explanations for gameplay issues is not odd for TES, it's the norm (another example is the levitation ban from TES4 onward).
So formulating a hypothesis that explains our ability to do content in any order we like with Daedric-vestige-time-shenanigans seems perfectly fine.

By that logic, we also have to assume that the player characters are unconscious vessels controlled via an electronic UI by intelligent beings sitting behind virtual screens. We also have to assume that the population of Tamriel is just a few hundred mindless drones who can only repeat a few lines. The largest city in the world has only 20 buildings. Waves don't occur over water. Mounts can be summoned/unsummoned like Pokemon. The canon gods of Tamriel aren't the Aedra/Daedra, but omnipotent computer programmers from another world. And so on.

As you can see, fitting gameplay mechanics into the lore is extremely problematic because this is a video game. It's fiction conveyed through a medium. The medium doesn't factor into the story.

Faulgor wrote: »

Butterbeans wrote: »

I'm not extremely knowledgeable on TES lore or 'dragonbreaks' and all that fluff but I always figured 'inconsistencies' in the story were due to the fact that it's a game (specifically MMO) where they just simply want to allow players to do whichever content they want in whatever order.

That's the thing: Dragonbreaks were only invented to explain the gameplay inconsistencies in TES2:Daggerfall, to make all possible endings canon. Finding or creating in-world lore explanations for gameplay issues is not odd for TES, it's the norm (another example is the levitation ban from TES4 onward).
So formulating a hypothesis that explains our ability to do content in any order we like with Daedric-vestige-time-shenanigans seems perfectly fine.

Apologies, that's very interesting and I never knew that! I wonder if that means they also apply that to the TES Skyrim game so that everything is canon as well.. I always thought it was silly that my Dragonborn would be a vampire Woodelf, and just assumed that in the official lore the Dragonborn was probably a man Nord or something and they just let you play whatever race you wanted for the fun of it. I will have to start reading more about TES' lore I 'spose- Thanks for the explanation