opaj wrote: »

Oh man you guys. If I got myself all twisted up about lore breaks, I wouldn't be able to play any Elder Scrolls game, because they all contradict each other in major ways.

And I'm saying this as someone who plays Elder Scrolls primarily for the lore. My main character engages in the esoteric metaphysics of Mysticism and morphotypical dynamics for breakfast. I have invoked the enantiomorph more than once in my dealings with other players. I do care about the lore.

But I've found that I have a much better time if I stop saying "It isn't supposed to be that way!" and instead saying "What interesting things must have happened for it to be this way?" Otherwise, I'd still twisting myself up over the Imperialization of the Nords in Skyrim or the de-jungled Cyrodiil in Oblivion (and obviously ESO). And, compared to the singleplayer games, I actually do think that ZOS has done a pretty dang good job of honoring the preexisting lore in their new content. I don't agree with all of their decisions, obviously, but it's still pretty dang good.

So, going back to the OP, let's look at the flashy costumes, insane mounts, and out-of-this-world skins. Taken individually, these aren't really lore problems. Every single one of these items are theoretically plausible within the framework of the Aurbis. There's nothing lore-breaking about a mortal whose skin is imbued with the power of Meridia or an imp that's been trained to create dragon illusions or a magical wolf construct made of pure light. An Elf who's transformed their skin into Argonian scales is unusual, certainly, but not impossible. And there's certainly nothing farfetched about a brawny Orcish man in a pink wedding dress, even if it would be considered odd by most Tamrielic societies.

The problem, then, is the fact that whenever you go to town you're liable to see dozens of players each wearing a gaudy mishmash of these outlandish traits. This is hard to square with a vision of Tamriel as a living, breathing, self-consistent world. Unfortunately, that cat is too far out of its bag to ever stuff it back in. For my own sanity, I've come up with a solution, but I understand that most people won't see it this way:

With the shattering of the veil between worlds, Tamriel has been plunged into a state of heightened merethicality (pardon the strange turn of phrase) that it hasn't seen since the Middle Dawn. I don't want to say Dragon Break--I am not a fan of the mechanic--but the bleeding energies between Mundus, Oblivion, and the rest of the Grey Maybe has opened up a universe of possibilities for anyone with the will and potential to seize it. ESO is the Aldudagga reincarnated as a video game. The player-character heroes of the Second Era are half-baked thoughtforms plucked from a Kirkbridian fever dream. The marketplaces are crowded with burly half-naked barbarians, strange factotums and machinists from far realms and deepest Dwemer dungeons, conjurers clad in the garments of a million million planes, and yes, adherents of Sheogorath draped in pastel jester's rags. Roving bands of these Heroes with a capital H, some of them godly powerful, some of them simply unhinged, fight for dominance in Cyrodiil, and every week a new warlord with a chip on their shoulder crowns themselves the new emperor or empress, only to be dethroned a few days later.

Like I said, this won't work for everyone. I was inspired to this view by the webcomic Kill Six Billion Demons (which was itself inspired by Morrowind, particularly the metaphysical elements penned by Michael Kirkbride). Since adopting this philosophy, however, my enjoyment of the ESO game world has improved immeasurably.