Television shows have something called a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible_%28writing%29. It's a reference document that is used to ensure http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Continuity within a series. (Not that the continuity doesn't a tendency to get [censored] anyway).

A wonderful example is the http://www.he-man.org/cartoon/exclusivefeatures/exclusive-mastersseriesbible-1.shtml from 1983.

Does anyone know if such a document exists for the TES-series?

Another good example is the Fallout Bible (Google it.).

It would be great if someone made a TES Bible.

I don't think there's one, canon in TES is not very well defined.

I'm not sure if a TES canon Bible is possible, let alone pragmatic. Lore is rife with paradoxes and seeming contradictions, and many parts are deliberately dubious. Setting out and canonising an official timeline might well take away what made the lore interesting to begin with - the grey areas that were left to the imagination.

Not to mention that it must be pretty amusing to watch fans argue endlessly over what you make up.

Remember that several plot devices, such as Dragon Breaks and Warps, were invented by the Devs to continually update Lore.

What was set in stone in Arena is not necessarily still relevant. Things change all the time. For all we know, history may have shifted again a bit with Martin's Apotheosis. Whenever Akatosh makes an appearance, things are bound to change. (He symbolically usually represents the changing from one era to another, in this case the end of the Third and the beginning of the Fourth).

We may discover that the Fourth Era of Tamriel has a slightly different history from the Third, due to metaphysics.

I presume nonetheless that MK thought of more than made its way into the game. I can imagine he wrote outlines and presented them to the Beth management, before the actual texts were finished.

I suspect presuming anything about MK's process of creating his take on lore would be a mistake Nor is what MK or any other single developer, executive, consultant, etc. says the last word on any point of lore.

While there isn't now, it would be interesting for a fan (preferibly a 'Lore Master') to make one.

Well, there's this http://www.imperial-library.info/mwbooks/approaching_vivec.shtml on The Imperial Library.

Well, I think you can write a TES Lore Bible... but you would have to roleplay in order to do it, be biased.

For example, "Argonian Lore Bible" or something like that...

Wasn't BlueDev or MSFD supposed to have a Secret Lore Database or something like that?

An even better example is the http://5years.doomworld.com/doombible/.

Just an example:

In the game, you're a Space Marine acting on behalf of the UAC (Union Aerospace Corporation), intervening in laboratories on the dwarf moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos.

Everything else is like that. Video game bible = development garbage. Does it exist for TES? You bet! Where do you think http://www.imperial-library.info/maps/concept_morrowind.jpg and http://www.imperial-library.info/maps/vvardenfell_map.jpg come from?

Did you know the Fallout bible is not canon? Yup, it isn't!

All because we do.

I'd expect a TES Bible to contain something like this:



I'm making fun of it, sure. But the fact remains that important parts of Tamrielic history are rooted in paradox and take place in non-linear time, and therefore trying to order it on a linear timeline is doomed to failure.

As far as canonicity and original writers go, the canon exists outside of the world and the mind of the creator, and resides primarily in the "public domain".

If they were to write one, the next Dragon Break would see it thrown in the trash. Linear time is a temporary and unnatural state in TES. Sometimes, it hiccups.

-That- was cool. I couldn't help cringing at the use of the word "demon" though. Someone hasn't read "On Oblivion"...

"Demon" is a perfectly acceptable word in TES lore. Insisting on always calling daedra daedra and never demon is just being overzealous. By the way, "demon" is also sometimes used to refer to the likes of Vivec or Dagoth Ur; where "daedra" would most certainly not apply.

Meh, its used in-game, of course, but these lroe discussions are mostly out-of-character. And there such statements conatining judgment have no place, IMO...

A TES bible? I doubt this. Too many differneces and style breaks between Arena, Daggerfall, Morrowind and Oblivion...