Elder Scrolls historians needed.

Post » Mon May 07, 2012 3:06 pm

The Future is uncertain. Not even the Elder scrolls can speak with certainty about what the future holds, they can only speak of possibilities and what may be.

I feel like that is said in the game somewhere, but I'm really hesitant to believe that. The Elder Scrolls are unfathomably deep, and I think if they can keep up with several dragon breaks in the recognized past, they can keep up with this literal dragon break (and I do think that the events of Skyrim have caused another) at the current point in our timeline. Because honestly, what makes the World-Eater event any different from the Oblivion Crisis or the Nerevarine Prophecy? The Dovahkiin was specifically included on Alduin's Wall. Hence the prophecy seemed to recognize that the end of the world would be stymied.
User avatar
luis dejesus
 
Posts: 3451
Joined: Sun Aug 19, 2007 7:40 am

Post » Mon May 07, 2012 9:40 pm

We can't be certain of what the future may hold for Heroes of the Grey Maybe, but we can be certain of this much: there will be zombies, and we will kill them with fire.
User avatar
Lauren Graves
 
Posts: 3343
Joined: Fri Aug 04, 2006 6:03 pm

Post » Mon May 07, 2012 7:23 pm

I feel like that is said in the game somewhere, but I'm really hesitant to believe that. The Elder Scrolls are unfathomably deep, and I think if they can keep up with several dragon breaks in the recognized past, they can keep up with this literal dragon break (and I do think that the events of Skyrim have caused another) at the current point in our timeline. Because honestly, what makes the World-Eater event any different from the Oblivion Crisis or the Nerevarine Prophecy? The Dovahkiin was specifically included on Alduin's Wall. Hence the prophecy seemed to recognize that the end of the world would be stymied.
. The prophet who reads the scroll sees one version of what might be. Another prophet might have a different vision with equal veracity.
User avatar
Auguste Bartholdi
 
Posts: 3521
Joined: Tue Jun 13, 2006 11:20 am

Post » Mon May 07, 2012 6:27 pm

The Elder Scrolls are unfathomably deep, and I think if they can keep up with several dragon breaks in the recognized past
http://imperial-library.info/content/where-were-you-when-dragon-broke...
No one understands what happened when the Selectives danced on that tower. It would be easy to dismiss the whole matter as nonsense were it not for the Amulet of Kings. Even the Elder Scrolls do not mention it -- let me correct myself, the Elder Scrolls cannot mention it. When the Moth priests attune the Scrolls to the timeless time their glyphs always disappear. The Amulet of Kings, however, with its oversoul of emperors, can speak of it at length.
User avatar
lucile davignon
 
Posts: 3375
Joined: Thu Mar 22, 2007 10:40 pm

Post » Mon May 07, 2012 1:36 pm

Hm. That makes sense, actually.

Still, reading the intelligible book that Urag gro-Shub provides in the College of Winterhold (I can't seem to find it at the moment), I got the distinct impression that the Scrolls could see past a Dragon Break, mainly from the comment that the Scrolls can see "forward and backward, but also up and down." From the standard theoretical model of a dragon break, a straight line diverging up or down, this seems to suggest the Scrolls' ability to see these alternate time lines.

Still, it is definitely plausible that they couldn't see past the end of the world... but I mean, if that's the case, what happens now? SOMEBODY has to know what's going to happen.

EDIT: I guess it was gro-Shub that said it, but the book I was thinking of was Effects of the Elder Scrolls.
User avatar
Killah Bee
 
Posts: 3484
Joined: Sat Oct 06, 2007 12:23 pm

Post » Mon May 07, 2012 6:17 pm

Making some pre-defined story would

1. ruin future games
2. restrict Devs ideas.

niehter of which is good.

Why does it do that? Planning out the future means the events in a game can have an even greater impact because it's understood what it will lead too. I also don't see how it limits developers. We've seen the most interesting things come from those limitations. Daggerfall had seven endings and they all happened. The resulting metaphysics are interesting to say the least.
User avatar
Liv Staff
 
Posts: 3473
Joined: Wed Oct 25, 2006 10:51 pm

Post » Mon May 07, 2012 7:34 pm

Why does it do that? Planning out the future means the events in a game can have an even greater impact because it's understood what it will lead too. I also don't see how it limits developers. We've seen the most interesting things come from those limitations. Daggerfall had seven endings and they all happened. The resulting metaphysics are interesting to say the least.

Becuase if back when ES1 was made they said ohh yeah ES6 will be about X and wrote it down in a bound published book with details like the poster asked, but in the years between ES1 and ES6 they came up with a btter idea they would be forced to use the [censored]tier lesser idea or change it and basically admit to lieing and then have a clamoring of fans claiming they are liers.



trying to plan out a series over such long terms is silly, Bioware could hardly do it with a short series like Mass Effect.
User avatar
Matt Bee
 
Posts: 3441
Joined: Tue Jul 10, 2007 5:32 am

Post » Mon May 07, 2012 1:25 pm

It's easier to improvise if you had a plan to begin with. You can draft a plot-arc, laying out the major events, and add secondary plots and add details later on. That's how the TV series Babylon V was written, for instance. As you go on, you can think of ways that earlier secondary plots may influence later events that you didn't think of at the time you introduced them. And you can even modify the major plot-arc elements you laid out in the beginning if that seems called for. It's not published until it's published.

At least as early as TES II, we were told directly that we were seeing the story of the end of the Third Era; TES III was full of references to the end of the Third Era and the rise of a new one. I would guess that they had some such metaplot outlined -- the decline of the Third Era and triumphant rise of the Fourth -- all along.
User avatar
Katy Hogben
 
Posts: 3457
Joined: Mon Oct 30, 2006 12:20 am

Post » Mon May 07, 2012 2:54 pm

It's easier to improvise if you had a plan to begin with. You can draft a plot-arc, laying out the major events, and add secondary plots and add details later on. That's how the TV series Babylon V was written, for instance. As you go on, you can think of ways that earlier secondary plots may influence later events that you didn't think of at the time you introduced them. And you can even modify the major plot-arc elements you laid out in the beginning if that seems called for. It's not published until it's published.

At least as early as TES II, we were told directly that we were seeing the story of the end of the Third Era; TES III was full of references to the end of the Third Era and the rise of a new one. I would guess that they had some such metaplot outlined -- the decline of the Third Era and triumphant rise of the Fourth -- all along.

then the fall of the fourth with landfall and the rise of the 5th and so and so on, and [censored] goes on till the 9th era at least


Meta-plot usually equates to "bad guy tries to kill the world hero stops him, repeat 5 times, new Era."
User avatar
benjamin corsini
 
Posts: 3411
Joined: Tue Jul 31, 2007 11:32 pm

Post » Mon May 07, 2012 8:58 pm

Beware the Elder Scrolls Library. Unprepared visitors have been known to go missing shortly after entering. :yes:

Seriously pack a lot of supplies before delving in the library. You could spend more time there then in the game.


http://www.imperial-library.info/

I like UESP for guides etc but the Imperial Library is the best place to find lore.

You won't find anythig about the next game though lol, wouldn't really make sense, especially since there is no defintive answer to who wins the civil war, and many other events in Skyrim.
User avatar
Stu Clarke
 
Posts: 3326
Joined: Fri Jun 22, 2007 1:45 pm

Post » Mon May 07, 2012 5:43 pm

Planning out the future means the events in a game can have an even greater impact because it's understood what it will lead too.

This was huge when I read back into history and found that so much of the story of Skyrim has been around for years. Plot for the next game is guaranteed to be floating around in lore somewhere; they typically source a lot from what we/they know. And I'm sure they already have a story at least outlined, too.
User avatar
Myles
 
Posts: 3341
Joined: Sun Oct 21, 2007 12:52 pm

Post » Mon May 07, 2012 8:30 pm

This was huge when I read back into history and found that so much of the story of Skyrim has been around for years. Plot for the next game is guaranteed to be floating around in lore somewhere; they typically source a lot from what we/they know. And I'm sure they already have a story at least outlined, too.

See, I always thought that Bethesda never really had a highly specific direction with the meta-storyline; in fact, I always thought that they would create some lore for one game, then when it came round to developing the next game they though just thought: "Hmmm, this specific event or area we devised in the last game has some potential to be fleshed out some more, let's expand upon this and base the next storyline around it." I thought Skyrim was a good example of this, where they looked at all the previous games and thought that they would make the events of said games mean something, and thus Alduin's return was suddenly mentioned as being predicted by the events of the last games - with the exception to Adventures.
User avatar
Prue
 
Posts: 3425
Joined: Sun Feb 11, 2007 4:27 am

Post » Mon May 07, 2012 8:39 pm

This was huge when I read back into history and found that so much of the story of Skyrim has been around for years. Plot for the next game is guaranteed to be floating around in lore somewhere; they typically source a lot from what we/they know. And I'm sure they already have a story at least outlined, too.
The best settings are so full of plot-hooks that plots and characters spring easily from the material, which in-turn feed more plot-hooks. You know you're barking up the wrong tree when you have to invent a ton of new concepts for your plot (unless, of course, this is the first entry in your setting).
User avatar
Jeneene Hunte
 
Posts: 3478
Joined: Mon Sep 11, 2006 3:18 pm

Previous

Return to The Elder Scrolls Series Discussion