As much as I love the world of Tamriel, I think the creators do the potential of it a strong injustice with the way they’ve handled it in the past several years. Badly written novels aside, I think the world should be expanded, and fans should have a direct bearing on the lore. I don’t mean just toss whatever crap people feel like tossing in, but I think certain extremely well made mods should be appointed canon, and also, fan art and fan stories. Hell, I know of half a dozen fans who are talented writers that would kill for a chance to write a novel that would get published.
It would solve a lot of problems. Such as irritating things that we never find out what exactly happened after certain big events- big point Morrowind, second point, what happened to all the people you meet in Oblivion, third point what exactly happened to Nerevar?
Multiple explanations for everything, if we get any at all.
Today’s topic is the frustration of the Tamrielic lore. As Elder Scrolls Online is still months away from release with its infusion of new lore to the already vast world, it could be a complete game changer for the series with its look into the history of Tamriel, so at this point in time, I’m only going to refer to the already released aspects of Tamriel.
It’s frustrating, I say, because of the complete lack of clarity on some subjects, and the tendency to rewrite already established lore just to fit something new in. When it isn’t even necessary. Karliah was a good example of a grand rewriting of Barenziah’s story just to fit her in. There had already been plot holes and openings to allow Karliah without also completely- and to put it bluntly- screwing up the Nightingale/Jagar Tharn and Barenziah’s relationship and the whole back story to Elder Scrolls: Arena. The sex of the child who is supposed to be Karliah’s parent, isn’t even the same from The Real Barenziah, which was originally male. We never did find out what happen to the child in any of Barenziah’s biographies originally, there was no reason at all to rewrite it so completely. The blanks were already there; they could have just filled it in.
In addition, between games you never really totally find out what happened to the characters you befriend or otherwise unless the game devs specifically put in references, and that’s what it tends to be; rather vague references if we get any at all. I absolutely loved having Sinderion and Neloth appear in Skyrim in their various forms, but Neloth doesn’t really speak specifically about the Nerevarine and Sinderion is dead so he can’t tell you anything about the Oblivion crisis. Instead, we get a few books about vague general things about what had happened (which we already knew) and some new things about how the other continents handled it, like the Argonians ejecting the Oblivion forces from Black Marsh by sheer numbers.
But you never hear anything about the Hero of Kvatch. Who got a freaking statue in Bruma for their efforts in the Crisis. In fact, you don’t even hear if they went to another country like the Nerevarine who supposedly went to Akavir. The whole deal with Sheogorath couldn’t have been permanent, and I’m not entirely convinced the Sheogorath you meet in Skyrim is the Hero of Kvatch as others say. It’s possible, but again! There’s that vagueness. I’d rather know if Jyggalag had been split into his two selves when the curse broke at the end of Shivering Isles or not! I mean, I love the open worlds to adventure in, but there comes a point where they’re sacrificing coherency for no good reason. Throw us a goddamn bone here. I’d happily create a mod about Jyggalag if they’d just give us the hooks we need to take off with it! BUT IT DOESN’T HAPPEN.
That reminds me. Oblivion and Morrowind had a period of about six years in game time between them, and the only mentions of the goings on in Morrowind is about “That whole Tribunal nightmare.” Come on! There needs to be more about that than a few random rumors. How about a few enclaves of religious fugitives? Fugitive priests? A better explanation of what’s going on? The Dunmer of Cheydinhal and their vague references are not enough! The whole damn province should be in an uproar and it should have a blatant effect on Cyrodiil. The re-establishment of the Good Daedra couldn’t have been easy or overnight.
And now, let’s talk about the Warp in the West a little bit. The gap between Daggerfall and Morrowind is a bit longer than Morrowind to Oblivion, but we get a whole book about it. At the end of Daggerfall, you have a choice of who to give the Mantella Crux to. There’s about seven or eight choices. You get to pick only one. The in-game book? Every single person who could get it, all got it at the same time. Okay, that’s pretty not-vague, but it’s also really strange without a decent explanation, like the intervention of an Elder Scroll that manipulated time for some reason, because I’m pretty sure the Mantella can’t do that kind of thing on its own, even as powerful as it is.
If you’ve noticed I haven’t mentioned the novels yet or that there may be some explanations in there, it’s because I don’t really consider them a reliable contribution to the lore and are… sort of poorly researched. And not very well written, may I add. I’ve read a countless number of books in my life and have written a few, and the novels… really didn’t do it for me. The characters were lack-luster, the plot confusing, the author had a poor grasp of the mechanics behind the lore- I don’t think he played any of the games and got to know the world like we do-, and the bad grammar and shoddy editing really took away. That’s another thing- a good book should at least attempt to explain enough of the world to the reader so that they shouldn’t have to know the other installments in the lore. Other major series does this in varying degrees in their novels, even ones that seem almost universal- from Star Trek, to DnD, to Xanth. I lent the book to my mother, who has a discerning taste in fantasy literature, and asked her what she thought of it. Her review was even less stellar than mine, citing almost the same problems I had and then came up with several more for someone who just happens to stumble across the book in a bookstore and didn’t know the lore like I do- and even knowing the lore, it was confusing..
What I think Bethesda should do is expand the novel lore, bring in more authors, open up the opportunity to the fan base to submit manuscripts, and set some damn standards. Ask what the fans want in the way of filling in the gaps in the games. I don’t know, maybe just more interaction with the community at large and let many more people into the world. Tamriel could really be a force to reckon with if they’d just open it up in the same manner as Dungeons and Dragons, who have thousands of books out. Well. Maybe not literally, but I haven’t counted recently. It’s been more than 10 years since I’ve looked at D&D.
And no, quest line mods don’t really count. For as awesome as they are, we know they aren’t really canon. That’s probably the most frustrating of all. Community mods can never be considered canon. Yeah, well, think what you like, I’ll always consider Ruin-Tail an essential part of Oblivion.
No, wait, I take that back. The most frustrating of all is when the undefined, vagueness of the lore sets the fans against each other over extremely wide interpretations. That’s probably the worst part of it. People I’d like to otherwise know better getting nasty because people see the other potentials. I realize this is endemic to the fantasy genre of games, for cripessake Final Fantasy VII still has that ridiculous triangle debate still going on. But it would be nice to be able to agree on something, like, say, the friggin’ height of the Dwemer. Which is regular elven height, by the way, and thank you very much. There’s two camps in that debate; the ones that have scoured the lore and the ones that only read the Elder Scrolls Wikia.
Anyway, I’m done. I had to share that because I’m getting brain-sore trying to think my way through this stuff for the Project, while plotting out something unique and interesting, and still trying to make it lore friendly.