So I have been reading through many of the Shannara book series by Terry Brooks and I am now up to "The Elf Queen of Shannara". My discovery came as soon as I opened the book and saw the illustrated map on the first page. In the corner was an island named "Morrowindl", with a volcano in its center. Yes that's "Morrowind" with an "L". I thought that was pretty cool. And as I read part way into the book I found that Morrowindl was home to a very unusual and unique rage of flora and fauna, much like Morrowind. And to top it off, it is also the home of the Elves.

I just checked over the net a bit and couldn't find much material concerning this so i don't know how many people actually know about it. Maybe everyone knows and it's old news, I don't know but I wanted to let everyone know anyway!

Also, I checked dates and the book, "The Elf Queen of Shannara" was published in 1992, TES 1: Arena was released in 1994. Was it a coincidence? Maybe not...

Inspiration at its best ?

Morrowind came out in 2002. But ya, I'm pretty darn sure there was some inspirato from that book. I read that when it came out back then and it was pretty awesome.

cough

I think he means Arena was released in 1994 and it was the first game to feature Morrowind.

Woops, ya I meant Arena was '94, and Morrowind was featured in it.

And fortunatlely for the Shannara characters, cliff racers did not exist in their time!

Lucky bastards.

Apparently, whoever made the tapestry mod for Morrowind made that connection. I'll gie it a read when I'm done with Flamesong.

Morrowindl? That sounds...stupid. Did it not occur to the author that removing the "l" would make it sound awesome?

I loved the Shannara books, I can't believe I never noticed that. Well done.

That L at the end is weird really. Point for Morrowind.

You know, that is interesting. Especially since I've noticed several other cities whose names are English words either missing or adding an 'L' to them.
Bruma = brumal, which refers to conditions that are cold and icy. Balmora = balmoral, which I don't think actually has any relevance, I forget the dictionary definition.

So did they just get the idea to do that from the original Morrowindl? Or does Todd Howard have an 'L' fetish in general?

the fact that bruma means cold isn't a suprise.... many names of Bloodmoon also had a meaning in a scandinavian language....

The Eder Scros: Obivion just isn't the same.

"Bruma" doesn't mean anything. It's gibberish. 'Brumal' refers to the cold. But why just remove the 'L?' Why not add an 'A,' for Brumala. Or 'R' for Brumar?

You think nords are known for their linguistic skills? Brumala would be too complicated for many of them to pronounce.

Balmoral:

For the same reason they took the L off Morrowindl. Sounds... offputing.

I wouldn't doubt if they got inspiration from it. I've found many links between the real world and Elder scrolls. For instance, in this one song (I don't know the name) I heard on the radio, it sounds like the singer is nameing daedric princes. Also, Tamriel can be rearranged to form Tramiel, the name of Ataris CEO.

That's...really strange. Is that even legal? I mean, can I start building Wal-Martl stores?

Probably if you aren't in direct competition with Wal-Mart.

Alot of times this kind of thing only becomes an issue if the original party is somehow losing money because of it, otherwise most of the time it's ignored.

No, "bruma" is not meaningless or gibberish. It is the day of the winter solstice, in Latin, and it also means winter, the season of the winter solstice. (This depends on your source. Some sources claim "bruma" was celebrated on November 24, without discarding the widely attested translation of "winter".) It also means mist, haze, or fog in some modern languages.

http://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/?p=3191

haha alright lets make a starbuckl and instead of coffie we sell movies!!

exactly...glad somebody beat me to it for once...


all the crazy names for things aren't just pulled from the writers'/developers' backsides... most of them are subtle etymological clues.

just google the word "Nordic" and see how few TES pages pop up...or be amazed at how many Imperials have Roman names.....

Those "gibberish" Daedric shrine names in MW almost all reflect a Babylonian or Assyrian origin. Naming elements like "-ibbi", "Asshur-", and "-baal" are all perfectly valid ancient Mesopotamian word fragments, of whose meanings I have not a clue (not being anything more than a gawking tourist in the field of Assyriology).

There are many scattered historical references and parallels throughout the game, and many of them are "deep" enough that someone on the development team had to have more than a passing interest in ancient history.