some random author surely has no input into the development of the TES games..

yet I keep seeing people talk about the events of the book and how they will inpact the lore in future games.

why is the novel considered official canon? have the devs at bethesda said it so?

They asked him to do it. It's canon.

Yep, Bethesda asked for the book to be written, and they've said a few times that they consider it canon.

I thought this hatchet had been buried some time ago. Meh, considering how people still think there should be dwemer, or wonder where they were, I'm going to assume that people will jump in from time to time and ask if the TES book is canon.

Easy way to know that gamesas asked keyes to write the novel:

They didn't sue him.

Or the kept it very quiet. So quiet that they retroactively made it look like he was working for them all along. You can do that kind of stuff when you're based in DC, comes with the terrain.

The Bethesda Blog has stated that the novel is in fact cannon.

Honestly, we've had fewer arguments about the canonicity of random monkey truth than about this book.

The random monkey had decent writing.

Some random author didn't.

An author specifically chosen by Bethesda did.

I'm sure this is correct, in any case, since Bethesda has the Elder Scrolls license, the author would likely not be able to officially publish a book set in the Elder Scrolls universe, unless Bethesda gave him permission to do so. To write an Elder Scrolls book, publish it, and sell it commercially would just be asking for a law suit otherwise. So we're not just talking about some random fan fic writer here, we're talking about a professional writer who published an Elder Scrolls novel with Bethesda's permission. I'm not sure how much Bethesda dictated the author's writing, but I would assume that they add least give him some information as to what sort of lore should be included in the book, after all, if they just let him write whatever he wanted, there would be nothing except his own judgement stopping the book from contradicting all previous lore, and they certainly have the right to decide if the book is canon or not, and right now, their stance seems to be that it is, so it's rather pointless to debate whether Infernal City has any canon value or not. You can talk about whether it's good or not, or what it means for the future of the series all you want, or you can discuss the new lore from it all you want. But asking whether it's canon or not is like asking whether chickens have feathers or not.

Actually, IIRC, they asked Keyes to write two novels.

At the start of the book, he thanks the Imperial Library for all the lore he found there. So, he had to look outside of Bethesda for the most obscure lore.

From the Imperial Library's interview with Greg Keyes:



And from Bethblog's interview with him:

Here is an interview with Pete Hines from the Shack as well:

Shack: With respect to the two Elder Scrolls novels by Greg Keyes, is Bethesda looking to increasingly leverage its franchises in this sort of way?

Pete Hines: In so much as we can find stuff that feels right for whatever particular brand or series we're talking about, in terms of what it is and how it's executed and stuff, yeah, I think so.

This was something that was born out of a conversation I had with folks that work on our strategy guide. They're also owned by the same parent company, and they eventually put me in touch with some of their book folks. And I talked with them a bit, and talked to a few of our guys on the dev team about it.

It was an initiative that really [Bethesda senior designer] Kurt Kuhlmann and I sort of ganged up and hounded [Elder Scrolls director] Todd Howard like, "We really need to do this, you need to let us do this." And Todd finally sort of came around. It's not that he didn't want to do it. He just worries about distractions to his team, and getting away from the focus.

But you know, we talked to him about it, and worked through a long list that they had suggested, and ones we had suggested to them. And we read Greg Keyes' book, and just loved it, and were like, this is the kind of guy who in our world could do some really great stuff. So not just doing the book, but doing it in the right way with the right author.

So in so much as we find opportunities like that where it just feels like a good fit--the right person doing the right project for a game--then, yeah. But at the same time, we're pretty selective, so if we don't find any of those, then there won't be any. It's not like go find five projects like this in the next year. We evaluate each one as it comes in and see whether it's worth doing or not.

Shack: These will be books that stand alone, but use the Elder Scrolls world as their setting?

Pete Hines: No, actually part of our thing is, if you're going to write it, then it needs to fit into the Elder Scrolls lore and canon.

Shack: So future games will take this fiction into account?

Pete Hines: It's hard to say. Hard to say, because we haven't gotten to future games yet. Certainly the reason that these two key guys--well, three: Bruce [Nesmith], Kurt and Todd are all involved in it--is to make sure that [Keyes] doesn't write anything that messes with the lore. "That race would never do that," or "those guys would never work together"--everything has to fit. But beyond that, we are doing it as if it's part of Elder Scrolls lore and canon.




This was before they announed TES V

How did you know about our secretive K street dealings? You haven't found out about our secret gate to hell have you?

Or just used it for easy reference/used it for what people already knew.

The alternative to be calling up a dev every time he had the slightest of questions... :jammasterjay:

http://static.zenimax.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/turtle.gif

What, you mean Congress?

On a more related topic with the book being canon, is anyone dissapointed that essentially all their work in Morrowind has been for naught with Vvardenfell being destroyed and what not? Plus there is rumor and all of the Nerevarine going to Akavir, which hopefully will have some effect on Skyrim, although probably only in mention since it will take place at least a couple of decades after Morrowind.

The entire main quest of Morrowind served the purpose of weakening the barrier between Oblivion and Mundus. That's what was accomplished. It was the set up to Oblivion.

Comes with the territory, history major - we're required to know everything about everything. I'm afraid Johnny Depp and some hot blonde chick beat me to the hell-gate.

You played Morrowind didn't you? Did you enjoy it? If so, then their work was not for naught.


Also, you're the Nerevarine, he goes wherever you want him to, nowhere else, even if the devs were to say he did (which they won't). And if they do, proving them wrong will be as easy as turning on your computer.

Developers once mentioned that every new worker MUST visit that website and learn about the lore. So why wouldn't they send Keyes there as well?

Really? Kewl.