Spirit Tracks: The Elder Scrolls Chapter II
It is with great pleasure that I am joined again by Ben Knaak for the second part of our examination of The Elder Scrolls series of video games. You may want to check out part 1 first, if you haven’t already heard it. In that podcast, we did a brief (ish) rundown of the history of the franchise from our own personal perspectives. But tonight, we’re diving headfirst into the infamous Elder Scrolls lore, for some arguably the series’ signature standout component.
The Elder Scrolls has a collection of in-game (and frequently out-of-game) lore and worldbuilding that is unparalleled in video games. The scope and detail of its worldbuilding, in particular the heavy emphasis on metaphysics, cosmology and spirituality, is without compare anywhere else in the medium and raises unbelievably provocative implications. Comparisons can be drawn with Eastern mysticism, Blakean mythology, Gnostic heresy and ancient oral traditions and myth systems from all over the world. In fact, The Elder Scrolls has itself been influenced by all of these perspectives and more, and syncretizes them into an utterly unique high fantasy setting. It has the shape of magick, and is a metaphor for ourselves. And yet while The Elder Scrolls uses this to create something no other video game ever has, ironically it does so in such a way that only a video game ever could.
The Elder Scrolls, in particular its lore, has had an immense impact on the lives of Ben and I both. It’s caused us to see ourselves and the world around us in an entirely new light time and time again. While this is not something we can share with you directly, we can at least try to explain a little bit about how The Elder Scrolls has managed to do this. To that end, we look in depth at three influential in-game texts (two of which aren’t technically even in-game texts, because that’s just how The Elder Scrolls works) as case study examples of what makes The Elder Scrolls’ approach to worldbuilding, and its idea of narrative fiction itself, so unique. Check it out here, over at the Pex Lives Libsyn site.
And now, the liner notes…
- The Imperial Library is the best source (outside of the games, of course) for The Elder Scrolls’ in-game texts and associated lore fragments. Every single fragment of text that has ever appeared in one of the games, or was written in association with them, is archived here. Here are the links to the Imperial Library versions of the three texts discussed in our show, for those who might like to follow along:
- As Ben points out, the 36 Lessons are brilliantly summarised and annotated by Rotten Deadite over at the site The New Whirling School, which also contains a compelling new theory about the Dunmer’s relationship to the Daedra.
- The Metaphysics of Morrowind
- On the Hortator and the Sharmat
- Speaking of unorthodox readings, here’s my text on the Secret Song of the Underqueen again.
Just in time to see out the year, it’s the debut of Yet Another Eruditorum Press Podcast! A show I have tentatively decided to entitle Spirit Tracks, because reasons. I’m really excited to be able to share this new series with all of you: It’s a project I’ve been working on for a great deal of time and it’s gone through a number of different conceptual phases and incarnations. In its current form, I expect to be mainly doing commentary tracks on assorted bits of visual media, but I also hope to build a stable of regular guests and topics as the show evolves. I’ve already got a great series of co-hosts lined up for the first block of episodes, and I can’t wait to introduce you to each of them.