I found the book http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Skorm_Snow-Strider%27s_Journal Journal in Skyrim today, which was written in the First Era, and in which the author marks the entries '1E139' etc. I was just wondering if this was an oversight on the part of whoever wrote the text for the game, or did people in the first era know that dates were going to be demarkated by different eras in the future (through prophecy or whatever)? That is, did people in the First Era refer to it as the First Era?

Sorry if this has been asked and answered before - I did a quick search of the forums and the wiki but couldn't find anything.

Wow, good question. I'd like to know this too.

Most likely not though because they have no way of knowing, i don't think they did the era time period for the empire until the second one..Its probably just a writer's mistake.

That's what I thought. Pity it slipped through, if so. I had wondered whether the Elder Scrolls referred to future events by date or something.

The dates on the book would be evidence that they did, unless for some reason it were a forgery, which doesn't make sense given the context. Writer's mistake or not, it's lore now!

In Skyrim, I was reading a book which described a date in the First Era. It's some kind of research note (can't remember where its from) and when dating an event he says something along the lines of "1E2123 (4243 in the old calendar)". It's possible that when the Aylieds started their own independent state, they thought they were so good that they started their own calendar - The era of the almighty Aylieds or something similar. When the Allesian rebelliion happened, they decided to keep the calendar, but rename it the first era - as in the first era of men (after the merethic era).

That rings a bell - I think I've read the same note. You might be on to something... Maybe originally it was 'The Merethic Era' and 'The First Era of Men' and the second, third, fourth eras followed on naturally from that.



Fair point. Just like 'Elsweyr' is lore, even though I'm sure modern Bethesda writers wish they could get rid of the bad pun in their serious fantasy setting

I was under the impression that the traditional calendar arose with he independence of ayleid white gold .

http://imperial-library.info/content/first-era. It could be that later on during the first era other people took over and started a new count from that moment on. Kinda like Europe did with Jesus.

Still it seems rather likely that they would have started refering to the 1st era as the 1st era at some time. Otherwise, how could they possible know how long it lasted.

Didn't the Ayleid's use the foundation of that Dynasty to break away from the influence Alinor, so both events pretty much happened simultaneously.

I don't know, it seems a little negative to name your own dynasty 'the first era' - as if in expectation that eventually it will fall, and a new dynasty will take over. Though maybe the Camorans were just very humble.

It is the first era after the Merethic era, the era of Mer.
As the first era of man, it makes sense they would call it that.
It is a symbol of their victory over the elves.

Exactly. The "First Era" isn't really the first era in the history of the world. The whole "Era" concept was created by men.

Writer's mistake. Ysgramor's heirs would not have given a flip about the founding of the Camoran dynasty. If they didn't use an even older Atmoran dating system, they would have counted years from something like the sack of Sarthaal, the return of the 500, or Ysgramor's death.