I just realized something: all those books that we know and love, the ones that have been carried over between games, they are gone now. At least for the most part: 200 years has past, so that means that 200 years of literature has past as well.

So what books do you think would have survived? What subjects do you think should be covered by books in Skyrim?

I hope they have loads of new literature.

Well, I wouldn't say they're GONE.
Most of them were hundreds of years old anyways; many of them will have surely survived the next 200 years.
Civilization in TES takes place on a pretty vast timescale and tends to be fairly good at keeping historical continuity; barring something like time breaking for a thousand and eight years, of course.

True, but the freakin' empire is dead. Gone. Kaput. I think it stands to bet that a lot of literature preservation has gone too.

Not dead so much as collapsing. Think the fall of Rome, it was gradual eventually leading to the Byzantines.

Exactly.
It's not like the society, culture, and civilization have been destroyed or even damaged; The collapse of the Empire is mostly political and very gradual.
Also, the Empire has died before, and they're far from the only advanced civilization on Tamriel. There are libraries and the like all throughout High Rock and Skyrim, with at least two Universities in Skyrim.

I doubt we have to worry about too much loss of literature.

I AM very excited to see what literature we'll gain, however.
200 years IS a pretty long time, and extremely exciting things have been occurring in the that time. The destruction of Vvardenfell alone is interesting enough to write a full length book about; not to mention the rise of the Medean dynasty and its fortunes, the Infernal City, and heavens only knows what else has been going on.

Don't lie you guys. You're all just hoping for Part 2 of The Lusty Argonian Maid.

The Imperial Empire is still active in Skyrim, it's not completely dead, after all I am fairly sure there was mention of some Imperial Guards between Skyrim/Marrowind. That said, it is very much a Rome situation, where countries slowly break off or revolt off due to lowering military and economic power, but then with the Roman Empire not being able to fight off the Goths effectively that was what was always going to happen. Tho in this case I think the breaking up of the Empire is due to the fact that no Dragon Born has taken the throne in over 200 years, so... with your character the only remaining one and being in Skyrim, that sounds unlikely to be resolved, since I don't think they will be letting us wonder back down to the White Gold tower to become the new Emperor/Empress.

Dragonborn is almost certainly an earned position as much as it is an inherited one. Otherwise, how would the Septim Dynasty have ever been legitimate?
It's arguable about whether Titus Mede has earned the distinction, or if he's just a petty warlord who's usurped the throne temporarily.
We'll see, I hope.
I'll have a hard time forgiving Bethesda if we don't!

Pretty sure it's based off a genetic ability which can be inherited or recieved by chance / the will of the gods.

You know what'd be great? A big, giant library filled with ancient books. It should be hidden in a faraway place somewhere in the mountains, perhaps, and dozens of undead soldiers should be guarding it, and they'd all go hostile if you steal a book.

I am fairly sure the Dragonborn are the descendent's of Saint Alessia, who's blood was imbued/mixed with the Blood of Akatosh. Thus Dragonborn, they were born of the dragon's (Akatosh's) blood. So when I say the last of the Dragonborn, I mean that they are a descendant of Saint Alessia, else it'd make no sense starting the game off as the last of the Dragonborn... while in Prison!

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Tiber Septim had no heritage linking him to Alessia, though. Before he became emperor, he was just some random guy. (But the nature of Tiber Septim is a mess, more than I can get into here.)
Dragonbone has it right I believe; it can be conferred by the will of the gods.

LOL, you caught me!



This is how I understand it at the moment too.

Yes, I'm really looking forward to reading all the new literature. So much has happened!

Here's the way I think of it: Suddenly, the value of a pulp novel like The Lusty Argonian Maid has gone from being worth only a few gold to being worth more than the finest Mortar and Pestle.

you got me

Yeah, but I think it's more of a 'blessed by a god/goddess' than 'earned it'. Tiber Septim's a headache wrapped in confusion, I don't even think we should talk about him as an example.

Based on what we know though, I'd say it's usually passed through genetics, with very rare divine intervention.

I'm sure that we'll still see some books we remember from past games. Certainly, some may have vanished over the course of two centuries, but that doesn't mean all books we remember will be gone. I'm expecting a mix of both old and new books myself, I'm sure some new books would have been written in the 200 years between Oblivion and Skyrim, even with the Empire collapsing, that doesn't mean everyone will just suddenly stop reading or writing entirely, if nothing else, I'd expect to see some books recording history between the games.

Though I wouldn't be surprised if books are less common in Skyrim, because when I think of Nords, I don't really imagine a culture that's big on reading as a whole. And with the more rugged, lower tech feel Bethesda seems to be going for in Skyrim, it seems to me that having most of the population be illiterate would fit in pretty nicely. That doesn't necessarily mean the number of individual books in the game (As in, the number of unique ones, not the amount of copies of the same book.) will be smaller, just that it will be harder to get them, which might mean the value of books will increase.

I would be perfectly fine with that.
The more "collectible" books are, the better.

I spent weeks getting the full set of Vivec's Sermons, and those were some of the best weeks in Morrowind for me.

I'd like new books and the old ones as well. But I'd also like a better way of putting the books on shelves to decorate my house. Not sure how they could do it, but trying to put books on the shelves in Oblivion was so hard. I kept on knocking over other books and dropping the one I had.