Elder Scrolls Virgin

[duff]

Getting Skyrim but haven't played any of the others, does anyone know where I can get a little background knowledge on the lore of TES? I've poked around a bit on the wikia but its all a little obtuse and a bit too in-depth with little focus on the greater context. I'm a bit lost really, like I see there is a race called 'Imperials', does that mean the 'empire' only consists of that part of the continent, excluding Skyrim for example? Basically I need a TES lore for dummies article.

Also please no posts about how Bethesda are the source of all evil and it's not even an RPG anyway (Axman13 style). I have already made up my mind to get it.

[pakoito]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFtB-...5B010115C5202E

[SMiD]

This helps.

http://youtu.be/2fxVeAVl2I8

[Splynter]

I'd say your best bet for TES lore is the Imperial Library http://www.imperial-library.info/
It's pretty in-depth, possibly much more than you're looking for, but the Pocket Guides you can find in the left side-bar are as much of a TES for dummies that you will find on the site.

Edit: Those videos linked above are good too (see SMiD's for the most accurate information).

[Kelron]

There's a lot of backstory and I don't know enough of it to sum it up concisely, but the Imperials are heavily Roman Empire inspired. Cyrodiil, the setting of Oblivion is their homeland. Most of the rest of the continent, including Skyrim, has been conquered and occupied by the Imperials but allowed to keep practicing their own cultures for the most part. Skyrim is set I think 200 years after Oblivion, so I have no idea how the world might have changed, but you can probably expect Nordic towns and villages with scattered Imperial outposts.

[sinister agent]

There's a lot of backstory and I don't know enough of it to sum it up concisely, but the Imperials are heavily Roman Empire inspired. Cyrodiil, the setting of Oblivion is their homeland. Most of the rest of the continent, including Skyrim, has been conquered and occupied by the Imperials but allowed to keep practicing their own cultures for the most part. Skyrim is set I think 200 years after Oblivion, so I have no idea how the world might have changed, but you can probably expect Nordic towns and villages with scattered Imperial outposts.

That's pretty much all you need to know. The rest of the shit about the five million gods that do nothing will no doubt be spelled out for you in Skyrim if you need it to be.

Nords are vikings, redguards are basically the same but black, imperials are romans, wood elves and cat-men (khajit) are thieves, lizardmen are lizards, and bretons and elves are magical, snooty dicks. Oh, and orcs are orcs.

The Elder Scrolls are basically magical boring prophecy devices that tell of a series of CHOSEN ONES who will save the universe from plot device x, be it demons, evil gods, or in Skyrim's case, dragons.

The rest isn't relevant to gameplay, really, so will probably be more fun for you to find out by hearing or reading about it in game.

[acidtestportfolio]

Also please no posts about how Bethesda are the source of all evil and it's not even an RPG anyway (Axman13 style). I have already made up my mind to get it.

bethesda isn't evil, they are just incompetent

there's a difference

[gundrea]

That's pretty much all you need to know. The rest of the shit about the five million gods that do nothing will no doubt be spelled out for you in Skyrim if you need it to be.

Nords are vikings, redguards are basically the same but black, imperials are romans, wood elves and cat-men (khajit) are thieves, lizardmen are lizards, and bretons and elves are magical, snooty dicks. Oh, and orcs are orcs.

The Elder Scrolls are basically magical boring prophecy devices that tell of a series of CHOSEN ONES who will save the universe from plot device x, be it demons, evil gods, or in Skyrim's case, dragons.

The rest isn't relevant to gameplay, really, so will probably be more fun for you to find out by hearing or reading about it in game.

Sounds like someone was a False Incarnate.

The best way to absorb the lore is to just play the game. If you really want to you can read the books in the Imperial Library but they won't make much sense out of context(and some of them don't make sense in context)

[Jockie]

It's not the kind of game you really need to know about the lore. There's always been a tonne of optional fluff lore in TES games and chances are within 20 minutes of starting the game you'll have found volumes I to XVIII of Imperial History that can adequately explain everything you might possibly want to know. Except, you won't want to read any of it, because it's really not that interesting or well written being a Bethesda game.

What Beth do well (to my mind) is telling smaller stories within a game world visually, with their attention to detail and world building.

[Wizardry]

The principal lore writers left after Daggerfall was released. After Morrowind the lore sort of stagnated in terms of the amount of new books and stuff like that scattered throughout the game worlds. Therefore you can just read up about the lore in your own time without having to worry about Skyrim adding too much to it.

[duff]

Thank you gentle-mans, much appreciated. Those videos inparticular are just the kind of thing I wanted.

[Juan Carlo]

I've always found Elder Scrolls lore to be a bit generic and tedious. At anyrate, it's never seemed to be as involved with the plot as something like the lore in the Dragon Age series is. I don't think Dragon Age lore is all that great either, but you do kind of have to know a bit about the relationship between the various Dragon Age factions, for example, to understand what's going on in DA2. Elder Scrolls has never been like that, though. Their main plot threads tend to be pretty straight forward stuff that tell you everything you need to know up front.

So I wouldn't worry about it, personally. Just spend that time reading something interesting instead.

[duff]

Juan Carlo - Yeh that seems to be the consensus. I enjoyed reading the Dragon Age codex aswell, was pretty generic in places but I liked the relationship between mages / fade / demons / templars etc.

[lasikbear]

Nords are vikings, redguards are basically the same but black, imperials are romans, wood elves and cat-men (khajit) are thieves, lizardmen are lizards, and bretons and elves are magical, snooty dicks. Oh, and orcs are orcs.
.

Only thing I can remember off the top of my head: the orcs are orcs, but in this case they are also a type of elf called....something. Its the bosmer(wood), dunmer(dark), altmer(high), and... the orcs, which are probably something like the orcmer.

[Unaco]

Only thing I can remember off the top of my head: the orcs are orcs, but in this case they are also a type of elf called....something. Its the bosmer(wood), dunmer(dark), altmer(high), and... the orcs, which are probably something like the orcmer.

The Orsimer. They used to be more like the other Mer (Bosmer, Dunmer, Altmer), but were transformed along with their god/deity, Trinimac, when he became Malacath.

Nords are Scandinavian and Norse. Redguard are actually a mix of African and Asian, and Japanese cultures. Breton's have a feudal European culture thing going on.

[CuriousOrange]

I find the lore outside of their games horrifically dull. But when exploring one of their worlds I quite enjoy picking up a book and reading it.

[Daiv]

TES: Virgin should be their next title.

[Unaco]

TES: Virgin should be their next title.

The Elder Scrolls: VI(rgin).