Hi this is just a question for any lore-buffs willing to lend a hand, now i realize that the entire elder scrolls series is based loosely on the medieval era and thus many things can be based off it like castles, farms and weaponry. (Please don't leave spam saying TES isn't medieval, but fantasy and it can be what you want it to be because i've heard it enough) So this is the question, if TES V were to take place far enough in the future (you'll have to tell me how far) is it possible that the research and development would have gone so far in that time that the world would have drastically changed into the 'next era' e.g. new weapons, creatures/daedra undergoing evolution, the drastic cultural or physical change of a race, changes in transportation, etc.

This question also applies to the lateral that if it were to go far back enough could things devolve and degenreate to a 'previos era'

I got this idea from something Sheogorath said in SI .

So what do you guys think possible?

I think someone will discover a means of time travel, and change the past.

And there's gonna be a huge spaceship too.

It was awesome. I mean "will be." I mean...

Having said that, it occurs to me that rather than taking the original question in a purely historical way, we might take it in a mythical way. What I mean is, let a "new era" be a new interpretitation (or a restructuring) of the mythical structure of the Aurbis. Taking the question in this way, I would say the Aurbis is moving towards a state of meta-mythical singularity.

It's immpossible to say for certain as to what will happen because change, especially the kind of change you are talking about is very chaotic and unpredictable. Not to mention the fact that as the society of nirn develops, who's to say that magic will develop, or technology will, or things will just stay the same. It's hard to tell what the far far future will hold, which is why its also called speculative fiction.

ROFL, that was awesome. :rofl:

Personally, I find any meaningful advancement unlikely so long as Tamriellic society is held in the stranglehold of the Imperial power matrix. Any innovation that is likely to threaten guild or Imperial interests is likely to be opposed; thus, innovation does not happen. And given the absence of a non-state institution undergirding Tamrielic society, the collapse of the Empire is unlikely to open the way to even remotely peaceful progress. Possibly a brief spate of progress if one of the would-be hegemons frees up their populace enough to set free the engines of progress, leading to their own victory, followed by a new stifling as they consolidate their rule. It's a bit like Chinese history, only without the occasional barbarian invasion shaking things up.

Great ideas can manifest at the heart of civilization... but you need a frontier for them to take root and grow. Tamriel has no frontier, either in a literal sense, or, due to the control of industry by guilds, cartels, and chartered corporations, in any figurative sense.

But it isn't Medieval. Sorry to burst your bubble, but Tamriel tech and science is a mixed jumble from several eras in Earth civilization history, and mostly this isn't medieval tech. The only thing from the Middle Ages is full plate armor (14th century). Human civilizations built stone castles, cities, and fortifications since ancient times.

Filler tech is entirely absent from TESIV. At least in TES III there were glassworkers, tanners, dyers, and scribes and such to explain where every-day items (windows, cutlery, food dishes) came from. In Cyrodiil, clothing magically creates itself, cheese appears out of thin air, smiths use some of the most crude and rudimentary metal-working devices, windows just make themselves, books write themselves - it's horrible and really breaks the believability that I'm exploring a fantasy world with a human population competent enough to erect a house given the lack of saws and wood-carving tools.

Well, there could always be an Akaviri invasion

OK, i think you guys might have slightly misinterpreted, or in some cases expanded too far on my question, i'll change my question to a simpler one, we know that in-game events and elements are influenced by the TES lore, so how far forward and/or backwards would we be talking for major changes to occur, how far off does lore stretch?

AND PLEASE STOP MENTIONING THE ERA THING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :swear:

The recorded "history" of Nirn stretches back several thousands of years (about 3k?). There's nothing much in the lore that records technological advancements through-out this time period. Therefore, it's probably safe to assume that 3 thousand years from now, there won't be much advancement tech-wise. In this sense, Nirn is sort of static. I suppose the inhabitants are too busy to bother. Plus, they have magic to fall back on and use. :shrug:

That era thing is probably the best answer you're going to get, lore wise.

Well i think this sums it up pretty nicely, guess chances of new stuff are sadly low.

This I find also to have elements of truth and un-truth. The multiple different races and empires rising and falling, each possessing entirely different technology, notably the difference between dwemer/ayleid and human/elven. For some reason, they actually lose technological standing each time the whole of Cyrodiil/Tamriel goes through political upheaval such as the Alessian Rebellion. The ayleid used much more magic, but they definately had better living standards, despite the only housing we can find of theirs are ruins with no signs of a civilization. What I don't get is why the recent empires don't take some dwemer technology and duplicate it, Morrowind especially would have a lot to gain. That, for me, is the best way to have future ages be more advanced. That and maybe schools beyond the Arcane University, once the common un-magical person can practice science.

I think the humans definately improved since the merethic era, but sometime during the first or second era, all technological advancement seemed to stop. Strange.

Actually, Tiber Septim's Empire has a great interest in dwemer technologies. Just remember how much efforts Tiber have made to find out anything about dwemers and their machines - the great excavations on Stros M'kai, the Numidium... The matter is they haven't understood how to make all those things work. So, the Empire left all researches for the enthusiasts from the Mages Guild, which are few in number - the mages have got a lot of other problems, from Mannimarco to the prices on the most asked-for spells for commoners...

So, while no one is interested in the scientific researches, there is no necessity in further researches and thus - no progress...

Well, considering that during the time of the Alessian Emperors, leather was apparenty the only armor able to be made by humans, it's safe to say that Nirn (at least Tamriel) has stagnated.

Don't believe me about the leather? Read Rislav the Righteous.

However, the Telvanni seem to be doing all sorts of crazy things. Diyvath Fyr made his "daughters" from studying Corprus disease for example. It seems advancment won't come in the form of technology, but in the form of advanced magical processes.

I like Tarvok's answer. Tamriel might go the way of the Roman Empire - shattering into a bunch of little kingdoms, ending up in an eventual explosion of advancement for some reason (i.e., Renaissance), or like the Arabic and Chinese Empires, assuming the current Empire holds. Or something else.

Keep in mind that 'development' has a slightly different connotation in the Elder Scrolls. The main difference being magic. More complex magic can develop, but the technological advances humanity has made were done out of necessity - necessity that in Nirn may be met with magic much more easily. But TES hasn't done a fantastic job with tapping into the potential of magical development, even to this point. There has never been a fantasy setting that has. But that is a topic for another day...

Edit: How could I forget the Telvanni? Bless them.

Dude, there's already gods who fly around in spaceships the size of megatowers (one of which, by the way, we've explored in Daggerfall), astronauts (or Mananauts, as the case may be), robot paladins from the future, and apparently a mytho-technological singularity event (the "Landfall", whatever that is). You just haven't looked hard enough.

MK once joked about TES V taking place on a moon base on Secunda. Though he was joking, the fact that Cyrus the Redguard already visited it centuries ago only proves that there's more to the lore than "ZOMG MEDIEVAL TECH LOL".

Gotta give mad props to crazy Mad Scientists who live for thousands of years through methods we would probably rather not know.

How's that happen? The events of Redguard aren't that old. And I read the storyline, he doesn't visit any moon bases...

Four hundred years is centuries. I don't recall lunar bases, but that's because it was a joke by MK.

http://www.imperial-library.info/obscure_text/viveccyrus.shtml

I didn't catch that the last time I read it, nice find :trophy:

The fact that Masser is anything like Morrowind, added to the fact that it's half the carcass of a dead god, makes me salivate for TES V: Moon Base Adventures.

I thought that was going to be TES VII, the game following TES VI: Escape From Ninja Mountain.

Then TES VII: MBS is followed by TES VIII: Mudcrab Merchant REVEALED (the Extended Director's Cut Edition)