First of all, don't read any further if you haven't finished Lord of Souls yet, and want to avoid a minor spoiler about the ending.

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One of the aspects of Skyrim I was most looking forward to after finishing the novels was to see how the in-game books would describe the invasion of Umbriel, since it took place ~150 years ago I believe. At the end of Lord of Souls Attrebus convinces his father to lie about him being the true hero, and to instead pretend that the Synod were responsible for saving Tamriel. I've yet to come across any books in the game that reference Umbriel though, and talk about the Synod and Attrebus.

Has anyone found anything yet? I'd also like to know if there are any books about Attrebus' life after the event. Did he become Emperor? Was he popular?

I've not come across anything in adding books to TIL, and I believe we've covered most of the important ones by now. A quick search through the extracted book files doesn't yield anything either. So unless there's something in the game's dialog or quests, I don't believe the novels are ever followed up on.

Then they really missed a trick there. Would have been great to read about the courageous acts of the Synod and the College of Whispers in defeating Umbriel, and knowing full well that it was a small band of heroes that saved the day, with the mages only being given credit to further political agenda. Odd that it isn't mentioned at all, when it was clearly a catastrophic event in the fourth era's history...

For what it's worth, the Synod gets a total of three mentions - two books on enchantment are authored by one Yvonne Bienne, Synod Researcher, and a Lydette Viliane is mentioned as having done research on the whispmothers. The College gets no mentions at all, and neither to Umbriel, Annaig, or Attrebus.

All data obtained by using a computer search through the extracted files, so error is technically possible.

I can see how it could have been left out - it happened 150 years ago and in another province. I am sad to not have seen anything, though.

The synod makes an appearance during a quest, as well.

For things from the novels, I've only come across two things so far:

First, the emperor in Skyrim is Titus Mede II; not a direct reference, but it's still something.

Second, when I joined the College of Winterhold, there was a brief mention of the Synod and the College of Whispers; one of the other new recruits (the Khajiit, I think) mentions that those two groups are too much about the politics, and that why he came to Winterhold for his training.

That's about it, so far.

Aye, I noticed the Khajiit mentioning those groups as well. I've checked UESP's timeline for the fourth era, and although they have a date for when Titus II is crowned, they don't mention any emperors before him and after Titus I. So essentially, we can't even be sure Attrebus became emperor at all. There's nothing there.

Very strange given how big a push the novels were to expand the series into other media. And with Attrebus being a character of many lovable flaws in the novels I had expected big things for him in his future. It's as though they just abandoned him and the entire Umbriel story. It may as well never have happened.

Gander a guess, maybe they weren't popular enough to mess with.

Didn't help that I couldn't find them anywhere, had to buy mine online.

If they're not gonna actually sell them, it's no wonder they weren't popular.

I'm not surprised there are no references to the actual plot of Infernal City. Bethesda started working on Skyrim immediately after Oblivion, and considering that Keyes' first novel was released 2 years after that, I think it would have been difficult to wait on Keyes novels in order to ingratiate it with the plot/dialogue/whatever of Skyrim.

True.

I suppose there's always DLC. I really, really want to find out what Attrebus's reign was like.

Remember how much lore Tribunal added. There is enough time for the devs to add references to the novels.

or forget they happened erahugh *cough**cough*

Why? The novels were outstanding. Did you even read them?

To the OT, I was really looking forward to lore connecting to the novels as well. Seems kind of silly to write them, and not connect the events to the world. Knowing the current emperor is still a Mede is cool, though.

Without getting into the spoiler territory, the ending left it up as something I'd like to know more about. :/

As to the novels coming out after Skyrim was in production, well, Bethesda had to know what they wanted in the story. I'm sure they provided and worked with Keyes, so that doesn't really provide a good explanation why nothing was included.

The novels, unless stated somewhere else, are canon. The fact, as mentioned above, a Mede is still ruling is enough proof for me.

I wasn't expecting it to be mentioned in the main plot, any of the side quests, or even voice acted by a passer-by. I was expecting a book or two, 3 or 4 pages long, talking about the invasion of Umbriel as a historical event, either to document history or anolyze how it came to be / how it was defeated. Adding a book or two about the subject wouldn't have been difficult, and neglecting to reference it at all seems like a really odd decision. Now I'm not sure if Bethesda are even intending to count the books as canon. If they are, they certainly aren't being very supportive about it.


I wouldn't call them outstanding, but as an Elder Scrolls fan they were certainly a good read. If I knew nothing about the series and its lore, then I'm not sure I would have finished the first book though.

Ohhhh laudy forgive me for havin an opinion. Yes, after having come into several conversations that spoke of the books and me not fully knowing the situation I did give them a read, and I simply did not find them all that good nor some of the new lore presented.

Really? I got mine at Hastings, both of them, and they were still selling copies of The Infernal City when Lord of Souls came out.

I can't see this being the case, simply because I doubt Keyes just got to make up the plot on his own. Before he even started Bethesda no doubt had to approve the general layout of the plot, and knowing that much is all they would have needed to throw in a reference or two - besides, how long would it have taken after the book was released to throw together a few paragraphs and call it book which could be put in the game. If their CS is anything like the previous ones my guess is about two minutes (or just add a line to that book about the Telvanni, really, I expected it to be mentioned there if anywhere).

I would like to pretend they didn't happen. <_<. R.I.P Vvardenfel.

I was eagerly looking for some references. Disappointed a bit by the lack of them. I do plan to name my female orc after the badass from LoC.
Would have been interesting talking to Malacath about things referenced in the book. Heck, Vile could have mentioned Umbriel or whatever.

*cast Raise Zombie on thread*

A mention to the city is made in Whiterun from Ysolda. At Sleeping Tree Camp, in the cave, you find a note on a bandit about "Sleeping Tree Sap" which boost Health by 100 for 45 seconds [Or the other way around]. You take it to Ysolda in Whiterun and she basically says

"No one knows where the Sleeping Tree came from, some think when Vvardenfell erupted a piece landed there, then again others claim it fell from some floating city years ago, if the rumors can be believed"

Same story and conclusion here. =/

-DL :chaos:

I think the devs want to tell a story on their own.
Even if some things of the books may be seen as canon, I do think that they try to ignore it and/or reduce the refernces to a minimum.