The Elder Scrolls Online

February 2, 2017

Spirit Tracks: The Elder Scrolls Chapter II

Forest of Illusions Spirit Tracks, The Elder Scrolls, The Elder Scrolls Adventures Redguard, The Elder Scrolls I Arena, The Elder Scrolls II Daggerfall, The Elder Scrolls III Morrowind, The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion, The Elder Scrolls Online, The Elder Scrolls Online Morrowind, The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim, The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim Special Edition 6

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.

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December 29, 2016

Spirit Tracks: The Elder Scrolls Chapter I

Forest of Illusions Spirit Tracks, The Elder Scrolls, The Elder Scrolls Adventures Redguard, The Elder Scrolls I Arena, The Elder Scrolls II Daggerfall, The Elder Scrolls III Morrowind, The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion, The Elder Scrolls Online, The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim, The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim Special Edition 8

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.

Tonight, for our first regular broadcast, I’m joined by friend of the blog, and my own personal friend, Ben Knaak, to talk about something that has been almost indescribably important and formative to both of our lives: The Elder Scrolls series. Because this is such a broad (and rather inaccessible) topic and Ben and I can (and have, as you are welcome to see) talk about it for hours on end, this particular episode is going to be Part 1 of at least two shows, looking at The Elder Scrolls from two different angles. In this part we take a more straightforward games journalism/video game historian approach to the series: We examine each major series entry to date in chronological order, talking about what made them historically important, what these games meant for us personally and what they contributed to the unfolding lore that makes The Elder Scrolls so utterly unique among large-scale video game franchises. Next time, we’ll go into more detail about precisely what that lore is, what ramifications it has for the act of reading narrative fiction and perhaps, expose a little of the lineage-magicka that is The Elder Scrolls’ biggest open secret.

Check out the episode here, over at the Pex Lives Libsyn site. The show clocks in at just over three and a half hours, average length for a standard radio talk show, but there are plenty of places to pause, take a break and come back to should you feel the need to do so. Also, do please note we had some issues first recording and then editing the myriad of audio files we generated: In particular, I ran into a series of rather gnarly audio sync problems. I did my best to get everything flowing together properly and, while it’s not perfect, I remain quite proud of my first official podcast editing job. Thanks in advance for listening, and hope you enjoy!

A few liner notes to keep in mind as you go through the show-Just some things I neglected to mention during the recording, or slightly misquoted to the point it made me feel like a bit of an idiot when I went back and edited it…

It was Ken Rolston, lead designer on The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, who stated that he started The Elder Scrolls I: Arena “at least 20 times”, and only managed to get out of the first dungeon *once*.

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November 2, 2016

The Secret Song of Ayarynne Underqueen

Forest of Illusions The Elder Scrolls, The Elder Scrolls Online, The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim, The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim Special Edition 1

The Foreseen One

The first song tells of her birth. But this song comes from the Southern Lands, so it isn’t really a song. It tells of how the Underqueen was born in 2E 555 to the Devils of the Isles, but fled to travel Nirn instead. She was not the Underqueen at this time, and to the Devils she was their pre-ordained queen and saviour. She knew Mundus needed rulers (though she didn’t yet know what that word really means, because it is a Secret Word) and this is why she chose to Wander. It was said she spent lifetimes or ages wandering Nirn before returning to the Isles to claim her queendom, by which point many in the Isles had talked themselves into forgetting her as a Historical error. But some knew and remembered, mainly the very old and the very young.

But some other in the Isles remembered the Wanderers from the Before Time, and they were afraid of her return. The Devils feared her dangerous trickery would cause the Isles themselves to Wander, such that they could never again be charted on a map. And because the Devils of the Isles value Order and Mapmaking and above all else need to Be Seen, they cast her out and called her Unforeseen (because the Devils cannot hear the Wind-Whisper of Blessed Kyne) and would not honour her.

On Her Name and Deeds

Ayarynne (for this is what she was called at that time) was to become Queen of the Isles, but because she had sought the counsel of those outside the Isles and wished to reinstate the old mythogeneaolosophy of the giants before they had been elves, she was branded a heretic and a blasphemer and this is why she was then called the Witch-Queen. Queen Ayarynne knew that she was destined to rule, but that she would have to once again travel outside the Isles to do so. With her eyes set on the Imperial City’s Ruby Throne, she first journeyed east to seek allies among the forest dwellers and cat people of the wild kingdoms.

The Empire was in ruins, and pretenders to its name and corpse vied for the throne. Each wielded an army of necromancers who fought tooth and claw in service of Memory such that the Imperial Province of Cyrodiil would not be drowned and sunk under the rainstorms of Kyne. The Shaman-Queen of the Isles made her way across Tamriel to Cyrodiil herself, but she did not seek the crown for the same reasons the others did or that they might believe she would: She was guided by the Hawk, whose voice was hers, and she rallied her troops of elves and cats and men under her banner of wings. Under her own auspices, Queen Ayarynne found and wielded the Staff of the Sun’s Missing Eye, which remembered the Truth-That-Was-Not in Ald Mora and pointed her North. It was said by some that she knew in that moment where her destiny called her, but she spoke on none of it.

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