1 part Jack Vance's humour and love of rogues. 1 part M John Harrison's honed craft and affection for the bizarre and the wrenched. 1 part William Burroughs's experimental madness. 1 part Jorge Luis Borges's metaphysical cunning. 1 part Joseph Campbell's affinity for myths, and another part Robert Graves's poetical manipulation of them. And a considerable portion of something indescribably distinct and separate that sets himself apart from all of these; an unique turn of phrase, a master ventriloquist's manipulation of voice, a knowing twinkle in the eye of a storyteller, expanded into a bright light in prose.

That's MK.

In the name of all that's holy man, don't forget the Bourbon.

What Albides said plus add two parts bourbon. :celebration:

As always, Albides' efforts show mine to be inadequate. I have to concede defeat, and add that MK should hire you to be his literary agent.

I am confused

Does he write poetry as well?

If you haven't already, take a gander at http://imperial-library.info/mwbooks/lessons.shtml, and http://www.imperial-library.info/obbooks/songofpelinal.shtml, and maybe you'll like http://www.imperial-library.info/obbooks/mythic_dawn_commentaries.shtml Oh, http://www.imperial-library.info/obscure_text/5th_era_loveletter.shtml one I really like.

He does a bit - he knows how to do so. Mostly he destroys poetry because he finds it does not satisfy his urges, which are twisted in upon themselves, where he lost the child that he was. He's trying to recreate that which he has been destroying within himself without rediscovering what he really is and loves. Instead -fleeing the pain he opens himself to that which displays the harm he decries and believing in the truths of what he does that harm becomes his message = tortured soul. That is something that many see as poetic.

HA HAHA!

Don't get me wrong, I love MK and his works. But is all the Ego Stroking good for him, because you know hes reading this, and I don't want the man to feel hes completed his task on earth or something. No, I want him to remain unsatisfied, hungry, ever fighting for more and better literature to make the rest of us read in awe, and debate like pvssyring chimpanzees.

So....MK. Get ta werk ya bum!!!

Well work-wise he could do worse than get to know Davebninja above for Nord source-material if indeed Skyrim is the destination. The quote above is of a rare quality and the translation is quite strong both as English and as to content - basically a lot of the stuff that remains from mediaeval 'Norse' is very dry and dusty and ... boring? The more stirring stuff you read is Victorian and later take-offs of the style. No shame in consulting a scholar.

Look, I love Fred Zeleny more than someone who dyes their hair in "zany" patterns probably deserves, but Shakespeare he ain't. These guys are good - among the best in the world - but let's not get ahead of ourselves here.

Now, if MK is Todd Howard levels of hot and made entirely of some sort of sentient form of Belgian chocolate, then I could understand the adulation, but I'm with Rumple on this one.


Yup. Unlike Emil, who is Legend. :bowdown:

I was more describing him in terms of guessed inspirations and patterns. The mentioned names are amongst my most favourite writers. But at the risk of sounding sycophantic, I stand by the master ventriloquist statement. Even great writers don't pull off voice half as well as MK does. Even the talented New Weird writers, don't pull off prose or Weird as well as he does. This is me, thumbing my nose at China Mieville.


Probably because they're not Norse, they're Nords. What I mean is that writing fiction is not and should not be about truth, but verisimilitude.

How Christian - you may have a point there - being a skald or a bard is about truth, whereas poor fiction is accepting of any old lie. But that's no excuse for passing up on quality scenery. Davbninja is clearly looking at his expectations rather than having a go at MK or the Devs - and with some justification as it takes all sorts to MaKe a world I hope he will find the time to have a larf about the comic side of the Norse character too. (refers Davbninja to 'Spies Like Us' = outrageous fan fic satire on Norse and Tamriel generally.)

There's no doubt but Nords are based on the Norse (of which the Icelandic are a sub branch maybe mixed with eskimo) - their landscapes, their culture, their pysiogomy. You may feel that they should be poor imitations - not sure that is what will really hit the spot though.

So long as you view them from another culture's perspective then any distortions or gaps can be taken as seen through the eyes of that other culture.

However in Solstheim we came upon something else entirely - it was far more Nord/Norse than Dagon Fell ... so I am going to be expecting that Skyrim will be even moreso - with its own peculiar twist.

If MK can rise to that challenge then he has earned his place in TESV - and he is the one with the audacity to write about the 5th Era.

i for one pray that Skyrim will not be scandinavia. if i want to play a historical simulation ill go and buy one. i dont however, so i want Nords that have farting contests and paint cows and scream people to death. the devs can base skyrim on the Incan empire for all i care, as long as its cool.

Carbon copying RL cultures for games can be okay... if they actually copy a culture and not the idiotic postcard comedy talkshow interpretation of it! 90% of Vikings resemble Conan the Barbarian more than Norse. TES aside, it would be very interesting to see the Caucasus or Andes in a game.

You know what?

I think we've established who Michael Kirkbride is ("just some guy" who writes lore in the games), so we can lock this now, before it turns into irrelevant pvssyr about cow-painting and farts.

:D