1) Tamriel is a continent on a sphere, just as Masser and Secunda are spheres. The fact that Masser and Secunda show crescent forms in various phases demonstrates they are spheres.

2) View the ocean from any edge of the continent of Tamriel, and you will note a horizon clear of any distant land masses, even on the clearest days. This also indicates that Nirn is a sphere.

3) Assuming sunlight on Nirn behaves the same as sunlight on Earth, you could repeat Eratosthenes' experiment that (a) proved the Earth is a sphere and (b) measured Earth's diameter to a very close degree. You could erect sundials in a player house in Summerset and another in Eastmarch and measure the variance in shadow lengths to approximate Erathosthenes' process.

4) There are fences without livestock across Tamriel because much of the livestock has been (a) sent to Cyrodiil as war supplies and (b) eradicated by players for the achievements.

I hope this assists your discussion.

Edit: As Illuvatarr, you should already know this and the answer to many other questions as well

Illuvatarr wrote: »

I already have an answer to this question:) I/we were curious what the community at large would say:)

And yes as Eru Ilúvatar, all of this is by design. I do like the fact you pointed out a fellow Greek to support your statements:)

I have long been impressed by Eratosthenes. The man determined the circumference of Earth to a degree not exceeded until the invention of artificial satellites, and all he needed to do so was a couple of sticks and Greek mathematics. My geometry teacher kept a bust of him in the classroom.

More of a plane then a planet... the original lore said it was pieces of many shattered worlds put into one... everyone basically migrated to tamerial. It could be thus endlessly sustained by the Aedra divines.

Then there is space, many lore books point out that what our characters see is what only what there minds can comprehend from up above because there is more to the night sky then stars and the moons. Stars are meant be spirits that ascended to aetherias and the moon the shattered body of the dead god lorkan.

All too deep for me...

Oh great, are we gonna get Flat Nirners now?

Androconium wrote: »

Yes, but the Tamriel planet mass is not solid.
Its a hollow spherical crust only.

So, inebriated amateur geophysicists, we need to understand

A) how thick the crust is
when it will implode

Thanks so much.

Assuming the interior of Nirn is hollow, we can estimate the minimum thickness of the crust necessary to support the weight of the oceans and mountains on the crust's surface.

Mountains in Tamriel are of prodigious height and quite steep when compared to all but the youngest mountain ranges on Earth (Andes). Two deductions may be made from this observation:

1) There must be active plate tectonics on Nirn, or the catastrophic effects of Dragonbreaks must produce a side effect closely resembling the action of plate tectonics but in a greatly compressed time frame.

2) Whether the process of mountain building is due to plate tectonics or due to Dragonbreaks, there must be a substantial amount of water distributed through the crust in order to make rock pliable and elastic enough to form mountainous structures rather than shattering into rubble.

We can assume, then, that the density of the crust of Nirn is similar to the density of the crust of Earth. However, in order to support the overlying mountains and oceans over a hollow interior, the crust of Nirn must be much thicker than the crust of Earth, which overlies a much denser mantle. Furthermore, the crust of Nirn is subject to compression, tensile, and shearing forces due to the gravitation effects of closely-orbiting Masser and Secunda, and also by whatever body serves as a source of heat and light like our Sun (I believe Nirn's sun is not a star but rather a magical effect).

The crust of Earth varies between 7 and 10 kilometers in the ocean floors (continents are much thicker). I'm not a geologist nor a materials scientist, but my wag ( wild-ass guess) suggests a thickness of 150% to 200% of the Earth's crustal thickness would be required for the crust of Nirn to support itself over a hollow interior, keeping in mind the crust is subject to aforementioned competing stresses, not to mention being riven with delves, dungeons, dwemer excavations, daedric intrusions, and other, unknown burrowings.

So, at minimum, I'd say the crust on Nirn runs between 15km thick under the oceans to at minimum, 60km thick under the continents.

This still leaves a vast interior volume, as the radius of Nirn appears to be between the radius of Mars and Venus, which is about 2,100km and 6,000km respectively.


Regarding your concern about the implosion of Nirn, it is at least a millenium in the future since TES 4 and 5 are set in that future, so there is no immediate cause for concern.

Androconium wrote: »

The Dwemer now reside on the inner crust and grow dragons for fun or profit.

Along with the Underpants Gnomes

Nirn is most likely round. If you look at the horizon, then the first thing you will see of an approaching ship should be its sails appearing from behind the horizon. Anything else would be unnecessarily weird and often carry more implications that send you spiraling down towards more paradoxes.

Tamriel is an atlas and whether or not it is round is arbitrary. Our world or the world or Earth is round because of an agreement between inverted sphere worlds and induction. The premise might be a series of shadows or a satellite image taken at multiple points or a series of moments of a ship dropping below the horizon.

Ratzkifal wrote: »

Nirn is most likely round. If you look at the horizon, then the first thing you will see of an approaching ship should be its sails appearing from behind the horizon. Anything else would be unnecessarily weird and often carry more implications that send you spiraling down towards more paradoxes.

Yes and this is why people in ancient / medieval times knew earth was round.
Exceptions was some non seafaring people like the ancient Egyptians.

However I doubt the zones in ESO has this effect even if view distance was long enough. It was very visible in Spore because of the tiny planets.

Stuff like the planetariums strongly indicate its an planet not an flat world.

I think no one really knows and everyone on nirn lives in some sort of simulation controlled by other beings....