Is there any kind of IRC community centered around Bethesda, Elder Scrolls, or even Elder Scrolls modding? Just curious.

There used to be one, not sure if it's still around. I think it was #elderscrolls.

The channel is useless without the server as well, in case you don't know how IRC works

The server was chatspike.net

irc.chatspike.net/elderscrolls

(stupid forum software not allowing linking to other URIs besides http and mailto)

Just checked, it's still going strong (stronger than usual by the looks of it, actually)