There is a fair bit out on E3 interviews now - just wondering how folks are responding here - do you think we can treat it as part of mainstream elderscrolls or is it being seen as something totally separate?

I have seen loads of ES races and more stuff like that ...

Interviews suggest it is from a far past (way before Arena I would think) and yet I have not seen anything yet that connects up with what I know generally from reading in-game books

in fact I am wondering if there are any in-game books in ESO?

Plus ESO is in a separate forum ...

is it simply a lighthearted take off? or is there something more serious going on?

your thoughts ladies and gentlemen?

Well, we don't know too much about all the lore stuff yet. Some of it seems like it has potential and other things (like the age of elves and the depiction of Altmer) should just be completely discarded.

Its less than impressive...

They have butchered the Altmer's lore, and I am dread to see what some of the other people are like

well that's two who are seeing it as I am

thinking I really have to see it as a totally separate game

or start searching my scalp for some hair to tear out ^^

it a bit sad for me as I see it as not necessary to mess about with everything that has gone before in order to create a 3 way alliance structure

Nothing is really lore breaking, just disappointing.

At least, to some. But still, not much in the lore department was released yet so you'll have to wait to play the game before judging. And yes, there are in-game books. We have two transcribed in the forum. One is called http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1455331-the-worthy-ar-azal-his-deeds/ and the other is http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1459910-cheeses-of-tamriel/.

You mean to tell me pcvorholzer, that you do not like Tolkeinized (is this even a word?) 18 year old Altmeri queens?

An impression I get that arouses some anxiety over ESO is the idea that Skyrim was "good enough" and that ESO will be a good game if it is like it.

Even if you've gone and made a [insert masterpiece of the genre here ideally Morrowind], then it isn't wise to believe your efforts before were "good enough". But if the previous game was as broadly appealing yet generally dissatisfying as - some would claim - the most recent TES game(s) has/have been, and you're trying to make a game that really occupies an entirely different genre and philosophy, then there's really no artistic merit in grasping at all the points that market statistics and focus testing suggest will sell. And lore is artfulness, not just a load of facts that we claim occupy the Series Bible.

Rant over. Commence apologetics:

Elder Scrolls Online will contain "lore"*. ZOS have been clear on that. Some of it - sheer probability suggests - will actually be good. The rest of it will be more flesh on Tamriel's bones, to be trimmed off at your leisure if it is unsavoury and left on for ballast if it doesn't disagree too violently. And that in my view is as much "fitting into the lore" as I can expect.

*specifics of this, unsourced because I'm lazy: there will be books, and a good deal of new ones - I think the figures they gave roughly resembled the amount of texts in the most recent few games (around 300). I don't know if this is just new books or total books present in game. We know some of them, through leaks linked above or releases on the ESO official site, and The Worthy Ar-Azal is pretty good imo. They aren't inventory items as far as I know - once you've read a book the text is permanently available in your "journal" or something. A gameplay note of little consequence.

The one thing that irks me(besides the whole soulless one thingy) is the fact that there has been zero precedence of Molag Bal trying to merge Nirn and Coldharbor. You'd think someone would have recorded it, especially since it wasn't that long ago compared to the merethic era Dragon War.

That I can forgive. Their constant bull[SEHT] about the interregnum being a "blank period" in Tamrielic history is actually sadly true. And Septim's rise explains a lot of this.

To pose it a different way: there was a Daedric invasion during the Last Year of the First Era: it is only mentioned in-game as part of a historically accurate work of fiction. There was also a (very similar to the planemeld) event prior to the rise of Reman I. This is only mentioned in sideways reference in the Remanada. So, this stuff happens but there are far less books in the game than there would be in "real Tamriel".

Basically, there might be precedent, but we haven't seen it. I wouldn't expect it in TES VI, though, since bad book-keeping and all that.

You would think someone would mention the Dragon War or Allessian Rebeliions too...but they didn't until the games came out. Same principle. They are filling in a gap. Given the limitations of our character and their ability to interact with the world, we could easily have missed something like that which was irrelevant to anything for us in those future games.

Btw, wasn't there some text or something that did in fact reference something that could be refered to as the Planemeld? I swear we had some text we found from somewhere.

One reply is that this book isn't as old as all that and is mixing up important events. I think that's boring and prefer to think that people just don't learn.

Ahh there it is. Not to surprising then. I would bet the Altmer histories have records of these events but well...we have never been there. Same with White-Gold Tower's more interesting bits and places.

But at least we have something.

Hmmm....a mod exploring what could be considered a similar event for Oblivion with this planemeld could be interesting. Break into the White Gold Tower and search for hidden histories to aid in the fight against the mythic Dawn and Dagon's forces.

With all the faults of ESO's lore, this is one I have to say "just roll with it". The lore of TES is continually evolving. Things will be added that weren't previously thought up, and since we don't have time travel there's no way they can go back and edit their previous ideas before first publishing them, so you just have to roll with it -- act as if it was there all along and you just didn't happen to run into a mention of it, or if you'd prefer, come up with a reason why something would stop being discussed.

I mean, it's not like we've seen every book ever published in Tamriel. Or that we've talked about every possible topic that one could possibly talk about in Tamriel. We're presented with what's relevant at a given time, so as we go between games, we're presented with different stuff that has become relevant, or different views on stuff we've seen before.

There is precedence with Bal trying to merge Coldharbour with Nirn, by the way. There's a book, added in Oblivion I believe, that mentions him trying to enter Tamriel in the first interregnum before Reman. Guess he's up to his old tricks again in the second interregnum.

I'd say yes, easily. First, I feel there is a lot of silly overreacting, as if it's somehow dismantling something that's already heavily in place. It's not, this was a relatively blank period of history. Second, after seeing the things that happen in Tamriel, especially MK's stuff, I can safely say that nothing TESO has presented has come close to fazing me or breaking whatever passes for my suspension of disbelief.

MK's stuff is actually good, though.

Well if there one thing I can say with certainty, it's that TESO is going to expand our knowledge on the foods of Tamriel far beyond what we could have imagined.

Ah, well in that case, good. As long as there is some mention of it, that's cool. It definitely fits in with Molag's nature.

There is one thing I want to bring is the rumors that Indoril architecture will be the default "dunmer building style" because of two screenshots. One being in Indoril territory, nothing out of the ordinary but the second is of a Dres town and in said Dres town there is Indoril architecture. This will have a major impact on lore seeing as doing this would be incredibly incorrect seeing as Dunmeri culture has no true building style, Dunmeri culture is a melting pot of house and tribunal temple cultures so have say Indoril buildings in Redoran territory would be breaking lore.

As far as TESO's believability is concerned, if you can believe that three alliances can all come into being at about the same time, two of which are made up of races that have hated each other since forever, you can probably accept the rest of it without much trouble--including, yes, infantile Ayrenn and her really-truly-the-first Aldmeri Dominion. (As an aside, I just reread her proclamation of war on the official "Alliances" page for the AD, and couldn't help but snicker at the point where she says, "I would sooner place an Altmer infant on the Ruby Throne..." That phrase was present back when her age was over 100, before they went and changed it for her origin book, so the irony is completely accidental.)

Yeah that part was great. She is 26 btw, not 18. Just an FYI for whoever mentioned the age of 18.

However as one alliance rises it causes others to form as well in response. Hardly far fetched at all Pelop. I think the factions have been handled pretty well considering the more recent information. Telvanni and many others refuse to be a part of the Ebonheart Pact. Certain parts of Skyrim as well and the Reach isn't even a part of Skyrim iirc at this time. There are a lot of suggestions that tere will be visible strain betweenthe races of each faction. Which makes perfect sense.

I don't have an issue with the lore they have, I just have issues with the presentations. They are often boring, generic and ij some cases just childish. Anyone see that Skull Castle [censored] in the nee vids? ...Gag...talk about evil wizard generic....