Which game(s) expanded the lore the most from the previous installment?

I think by default it can't be Arena, seeing as how there was no previous installment to expand on lore from.

Tough choice, but I'd say Daggerfall. It was the beginning of actual incorporation of lore into the setting. We got actual lore books, information about the history of some provinces (particularly High Rock and Hammerfell, obviously), the beginnings of some long-standing concepts of the lore. Morrowind probably solidified the direction of the lore, so there is definitely an argument for that game. Skyrim had quite a lot of new stuff as well, especially with subjects like the Dragon Cult. Oblivion, while it added more lore than it gets credit for, didn't quite bring as much new new info to the table as some of the other games. I don't think the scope of Redguard and Battlespire allowed for them to expand lore the most.

Online could very well have expanded the lore the most too, but since I have not explored a whole lot of it I don't know how much new info has been added with it.

Valid points!

I think most of the lore comes from Daggerfall and Redguard, or maybe it was Battlespire... Morrowind expanded on it nicely, but those games built most of the lore. Not certain enough about which game to cast a vote, though.

From what I've seen (not having played Redguard or Battlespire), it seems to have been a process starting with Daggerfall and finally crystallizing in Morrowind, at the latest. Arena was mostly a bog-standard fantasy world, and really didn't do much beyond to establish the broad strokes lore of Tamriel itself, and Oblivion and Skyrim had largely just been building and expanding on the foundations established by that time period since then. I suspect we won't see another huge addition to lore before we hit... well, by the next game I suspect we will. We've already visited all the more-or-less "high fantasy" locations now, and have the more exotic-ish areas of Summerset Isle, Valenwood, Elsweyr, and Black Marsh yet to see. Of those four, Black Marsh and Summerset Isle are the ones most likely to take a completely different tone to the setting than what we saw in Daggerfall, Oblivion, and Skyrim, and as a result, will neccesitate a surge in new lore.

Since it was my first game in the series, I picked Morrowind. Morrowind had a lot of great lore that hasn't been seen since. Everything from the 36 Sermons of Vivec to the Battle of Red Mountain, was nicely done. Skyrim added some new bits of lore but weren't fleshed out like the Dragon Cult for example, we know almost nothing about them. Yet in Morrowind we knew a lot about the Sixth House. I never played Arena, Daggerfall, or Redguard. But I heard Redguard added a lot of lore also.

especially in terms of the Dwemer

Redguard did add quite a lot: the Dwemer, the schism between the Crowns and Forebears, our first look at the 2nd Era, a different perspective on Tiber Septim, a few more lore books, Stros M'kai and some info on Hammerfell in general, how Hammerfell came to be part of the Empire through the First Treaty of Stros M'kai, the first instance of Imperials as an actual race, a look at how the Imperial Legion was structured then, the first time we see a dragon (Nafaalilargus), and probably a couple of other things I can't think of at the moment.

Daggerfall. It added the concepts of Daedra, Oblivion, the Divines, Aetherius &c.; it expanded on the politics of Tamriel; to say nothing of the lore-books. Yum yum. Arena started the series, but had little depth. I loved Battlespire's look into Daedric politics &c, but it did little else. Redguard, I never played, alas. Morrowind had some of my favourite lore, and only added slightly less than Daggerfall. Oblivion contributed little (should've had even more Daedric politicking, IMO), as did Skyrim (heck, I think Morrowind gave us as much Nord-lore as Skyrim).

I'd say either Redguard, or ESO.


While Daggerfall introduced some new concepts, like the Daedra (instead of them just being Demons) it was during the rewrite heading into Daggerfall that these names became more expansive concepts, and the majority of the more modern world building seems to have taken place. Some stuff didn't make it in-game until Morrowind, Oblivion or even Skyrim, but a lot of it was first put down in developing Redguard. So, while Morrowjnd may have been the first real taste of the new lore, I think Resguard deserves its place as the point that lore was introducted into the franchise.


ESO is probably the single biggest addition to that base of lore since, and it may actually exceed it. It's expanded racial lore, cultural backdrops and historical events on almost every front, and has offered more development of TES's setting than Skyrim and Oblivion combined, and maybe even mire than Morrowind thrown into the same pot.

ESO for these reasons, we're just finding out so much about the cultures, and even learning more stuff about the universe in game. I love it. It also has a lot of day to day lore, which we really didn't have before too.

Yeah, ESO is a good source for lore.

Perhaps it is "cheating," but I'm going to change my answer to "More than 1."