Why should Nirn's "ambient" gravitational constant be the same as Earth's when it can be varied through magic and willpower? For all we know, Nirn's gravity doesn't even behave as inverse r squared.

It does. That's what Feather spells do.

Please stay on topic

Theres really nothing left of the topic, if there was any topic to begin with. We have one of these discussions every month in lore and every week in Elder Scrolls general. By now (4+ years since the release of Oblivion) all the bases have been covered ad infinitum. http://imperial-library.info/forum_archive/AmuletofKings.htm - it goes beyond just Oblivion's inconsistencies and provides a frame of mind where inconsistencies don't matter. Its also pretty funny.

My mistake, sorry.

I had the exact same thought just now. Although I really like thinking about TES in nitpicking, science-y way.

Yes, but objects would also proportionally weigh less, so in theory, the amount people can carry would be almost identical to that of humans on Earth B)
The reason that people can carry so much weight is obviously for gameplay reasons though, it's nothing to do with the theoretical physics of Nirn...


I don't see why the devs would want to alter physical laws from those on Earth. Changing universal gravity doesn't add anything meaningful to the game, gameworld, or lore, nor does it improve immersion in any way.

I'd think Feather alters mass while Slowfall alters gravity.


That's a good point, but too much familiarity stifles creativity. The interaction between physics and magic in a fictional world is a topic for "nonsense academics", so there's no need to be closed-minded about things until we have in-lore evidence to prove one thing over another.

Specifically, it seems to alter the terminal velocity. Hence why you can't jump higher with it.

Please, this thread is about how Bethesda messed up lore... not about gravity....

I'm sure the lore went in the exact direction they intended it to.

Read the book "The Provinces of Tamriel" then come back....

Maybe the direction Ken Rolston wanted it to go. Yuk.

Changing lore is nothing new. The lore went in the direction they intended it to because they made it. You can't accidentally change the landscape of a whole province.

http://www.strangehorizons.com/2010/20100823/cristofari-a.shtml. More interesting.

Doesn't make it a good decision. Do you know how many cliché Middle Earth style gameworlds there are? TES was great for not just being another one of those RPG's. Even in the earlier games. I can forgive the likes of Morrowind, since, who would like walking around one big hellish landscape for hours on end? But Cyrodiil was perfectly fine the way it was in lore. The change was completely uncalled for, and we got something we've seen a million times over.

Where do I say its a good decision? I think it was a bloody terrible decision. However, it was their decision to make, and they made it.

At least for me and my Radeon HD 5770, Gothic 3 looked like a giant road texturing machine had passed over the whole world. But it had topographical (not geological as I said before; at the time I couldn't think of the correct term) features, like cliff faces and crags, the layout of the land was much more interesting. Oblivion and Morrowind both lacked decent topography, the layout of the land was just bumps and smooth hills with rocks to make it look more rough. I recall not being very impressed with the mountains in either game.


Geographically, though, it makes no sense to put a jungle next to a polar climate. You'd need a sizeable temperate zone in between.

I think the biggest thing that would have improved Cyrodiil, in my opinion, is more interesting topography, something that would also serve as an improvement from Morrowind.

Geography was not a concern, however. Cultural or otherwise.

Which brings me to this: Cyrodiil Lore? Really?

Of course it's not a concern if what they have in mind already makes some geographical sense.

And that sizeable temperate zone WAS Cyrodiil. Cyrodiil is huge. Just because it wasn't portrayed well, doen't make it any less enormous. Southern Cyrodiil was supposed to be swamp-ey. Mid Cyrodiil was supposed to be jungle-ey. Northern cyrodiil was supposed to be getting cold. West Cyrodiil was supposed to be the only cliché region.

Also, Skyrim isn't a "polar climate". The only reason it's cold is due to the high peaks of the mountains. Northern Skyrim is atually quite warm (about Britain warm, not actually a hot place). The polar climate is Atmora.


Ah. Fair enough.

No, Hircine. West Cyrodiil was jungled as well. Marukh the Prophet hailed from those western, coastal jungles.

CP, I salute you and debark.

Some people think Tamriel is the size of Mauritania and therefore cannot have extreme differences in topography. I mentioned Mount Kenya, and someone rebuffed it. Let me just put it this way: Mount Kenya is located in Central Kenya and smaller than the whole country of Kenya, and Kenya is smaller than Mauritania.

Simple equation:
Mount Kenya << Kenya << Mauritania.

I still believe it is feasible. It's just the matter of effort and decision-makings on Bethesda part as developer.

Hmm.. I always thought that being so close to Hammerfell, it would have been more cliché. Just prooves my point further, though! ^_^

You missed the boat on that one.

Figuring out the size of Tamriel based on the lore was a complaint that it turns out tiny, and I don't care about differences in topography. I assume the wizard did it, and in fact, the wizard was named Tiber Septim in this case. The other day I was saying your kenya example didn't seem like it proved your point. Nobody wants an insanely tiny Tamriel, we're just working with the lore they have. Like how there's three moons and the tide isn't messed up...

Though if that 250 miles were 1000 miles, Tamriel would be the size of Africa.