[Ysabelle]

I agree, the levitation act was a lame joke.

Magic in Tamriel is basically magic anywhere else in fantasy. There's a "mystical source" (often the sun, in real-world mythology) of creation, and the mage channels this by will power. The story of its origins is aesthetically different. It's only confusing when the Mages Guild is involved. Bureaucrats.

[Irmacuba]

Goodness, how do they expect people to remember everything that happened in the first installment if they wait so long for the second?! Its been almost a year since I read Infernal City and I'll prolly have to read it again before the second one.

Based on when it was announced last year, we should be getting news soon, right? Anyone heard any rumors?

[amhain]

I would also love to see what happens here affect the next game. Hopefully Umbriel gets taken down over Solthseim, so we can make a visit to it northeast of Skyrim in TESV.

If it does get taken down, hearing pvssyr of the people and possibly meeting either Attrebus or Annaig would be pretty cool. If it doesn't (Keyes seems like the kind of guy who would let Vuhon off easy) then meeting Vuhon and doing some quests for him could be interesting.

I actually really like the way the setting is. Hopefully the agents that Colin works for (forgot the name) is a joinable faction. The Mages Guild no more, instead there's two groups with different ideals. Makes it more interesting. Sort of like in Morrowind, my mage would never join the Mages Guild if I joined House Telvanni.

I hope Keyes doesn't completely conclude the book with a definite ending. By that I mean "everything is 100% solved and none of this will matter at all in TESV." I don't see him doing that, and I see the events of the next book being a hot topic in TESV, but it would be a shame if this became simply a piece of lore and not something we can jump into and explore more with our next TES characters.

[Craig Martin]

I know that, but why does it say at the end that Attrebus has this feeling he had when travelling to Oblivion and why does it say Umbriel dissapears?

Maybe Sul managed to get it from Tamriel to the rest of Clavicus Vile's realm.

The way I see it is that it dissapeared from Attrebus' sight, since he was the perspective character at the time. It basically means Sul teleported them out since they were still in Oblivion, further in the very area where his shortcut began, in order to escape. We'll need to wait for book two to see where they teleported to, exactly.

[Ian White]

Goodness, how do they expect people to remember everything that happened in the first installment if they wait so long for the second?! Its been almost a year since I read Infernal City and I'll prolly have to read it again before the second one.

Based on when it was announced last year, we should be getting news soon, right? Anyone heard any rumors?

Maybe Keyes has "writers block".

[Guy Pearce]

Maybe Keyes has "writers block".

I don't think he does; judging from his record, he's relatively prolific and has written in both the genres of science fiction and fantasy. What I'm more worried about is if "The Infernal City" didn't sell enough copies, maybe they won't publish the second novel (actually the second half of the novel, it looks like).

I'll check Google, but I don't think there have even been rumors of a second novel's publication date.

If there is a second novel, I don't think it will be the setting of TES V; but Keyes may be setting the stage for TES V. The long-standing rumor is that TES V will be set 200 years after the Oblivion Crisis. Again, that reminds me of Guild Wars 2, which has been confirmed as being set 250 years after Guild Wars 1. But as for TES and Keyes' novels, it's all speculation still.

[Danial Zachery]

Either that or Keyes took up writing children stories. Did you know that Clifford the Big Red Dog was colored red only because Norman Bridwell didn't have any other colors with which to paint him?

[lillian luna]

What I'm more worried about is if "The Infernal City" didn't sell enough copies, maybe they won't publish the second novel (actually the second half of the novel, it looks like).

I'll check Google, but I don't think there have even been rumors of a second novel's publication date.

That is a possibility that didn't occur to me and boy is it scary. Is there any way to look at how many books were sold?

[D IV]

A while ago someone e-mailed him and he said he was nearing completion of the actual writing. I e-mailed him myself later and while the manuscript was done it was only just beginning the editing stage, so there would still be a while before it's ready for announcement. So rest assured that it is occurring, but be aware that there will be a wait.

[Kitana Lucas]

A while ago someone e-mailed him and he said he was nearing completion of the actual writing. I e-mailed him myself later and while the manuscript was done it was only just beginning the editing stage, so there would still be a while before it's ready for announcement. So rest assured that it is occurring, but be aware that there will be a wait.

Thanks Tengen, that is reassuring to hear.

To continue on a side note, I'm surprised at the parallels between the Guild Wars mythos and TES. Guild Wars 2 will be set 250 years after the cataclysmic events of Guild Wars, and the 5 or 6 gods are noted as having become more distant from their creation. If there is a TES V, it will probably be set 200 years after the Oblivion Crisis, and the Aedra seem to have been distant from mortals for a long time, even during the events of "Morrowind" and "Oblivion" (though you do see three avatars while playing MW). The final expansion of GW was set in the far North, including a Nordlike race (though they're also giants and shapeshifters), while TES V is rumored to be in the similar region of Skyrim. Well, maybe most of this is coincidence.

[Enny Labinjo]

Thanks Tengen, that is reassuring to hear.

To continue on a side note, I'm surprised at the parallels between the Guild Wars mythos and TES. Guild Wars 2 will be set 250 years after the cataclysmic events of Guild Wars, and the 5 or 6 gods are noted as having become more distant from their creation. If there is a TES V, it will probably be set 200 years after the Oblivion Crisis, and the Aedra seem to have been distant from mortals for a long time, even during the events of "Morrowind" and "Oblivion" (though you do see three avatars while playing MW). The final expansion of GW was set in the far North, including a Nordlike race (though they're also giants and shapeshifters), while TES V is rumored to be in the similar region of Skyrim. Well, maybe most of this is coincidence.

I'm just going to butt in. I don't mean to sound rude or anything. You keep talking about how Guild Wars and Elder Scrolls are related, for the simple fact that their next installments happen a few centuries later.

To be honest, what I see is no direct relation, but just a common...I don't know the best word to use...plot twist maybe? Basically, a device used to change around the traditional setting. Accomplished quite well between Morrowind and Oblivion, which are radically different based on setting alone. Skyrim - if the case is that Skyrim the next game - is just snowy Cyrodiil. You need to change more than the region for that to feel like a new game.

If you must compare ESIV and ESV t a different series, I'd say a better example to use is Fable II, an amazing 500 years after Fable I, where the world completely changed. A little too much, in my opinion, because it feels like nothing from the first game actually happened aside from wall paintings in this one room you spend a good 2 minutes in at any one time. But aside from the theme of a "governing body" being replaced by a new order, the series also share nothing in common.

What the year gap serves to do is make the game feel like you're playing Elder Scrolls V, not a gigantic expansion to Elder Scrolls IV. Environment alone, Skyrim (And just going off of speculation with that example) would probably be too similar to Cyrodiil; just take the forest and cover it with snow, and make more cities look like Bruma. If the rest of the world was still felt the same, then you aren't playing a new game, you're playing Elder Scrolls IV: Skyrim. Fable II changed the formula, that's why it deserves to be called "Fable II" and not "Fable: 500 years later...". Now, look at Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas. I played both of them. And while playing New Vegas last night, I had this same thought - Fallout New Vegas is the biggest expansion to a game I've ever played. I don't think it was ever the intention to make a new game in the first place, really. That's why it's called Fallout New Vegas and not Fallout 4. Things may be more brown than green now, and a few people speak in western accents, but it really feels like the same old wasteland. My character from the first game may as well have taken a long bus ride west and did the entire thing over again.

Now, take the things we know and love from Oblivion, like the Mage's Guild, the Empire, and then take the entire province of Morrowind, and just...*poof*, gone. It's no coincidence that these things changed the most. They want to specifically remove the things we are most familiar with. We saved Morrowind in Elder Scrolls III. We saved the Empire in Elder Scrolls IV...except not really, but you get the idea...They want to make things new, and not just expand the things we already know. That's why Guild Wars II takes place so long after Guild Wars I, and why things are so different. Because change, for better or worse, makes the experience different. Stagnation kills series.

[Nymph]

Because change, for better or worse, makes the experience different. Stagnation kills series.

I guess that's true. For TES V, I would rather see Hammerfell or Argonia than see Skyrim -- after playing "Bloodmoon", I feel as if I've already seen Skyrim's geography. But the idea of skipping ahead a couple of centuries seems new to me in games. I haven't played JRPGs, so maybe that's not unheard of in that genre too.

Yes, when I think about it, Bethesda had to change the Dunmer and Morrowind -- there would be no point in returning to the same society and landscape in a future TES game.

[JUan Martinez]

To be honest, what I see is no direct relation, but just a common...I don't know the best word to use...plot twist maybe?

It's a trope called http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture and every TES game so far has included it as an element, albeit never quite 200 years, unless you count Redguard which took place centuries ago.

I suppose http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TimeSkip might be more accurate, but I prefer the humor of "twenty minutes in the future", especially since over the massive time period all TES games encompass there's been very little to no meaningful advancement in architecture or technology.

[kirsty joanne hines]

Yes, timeskip fits it more closely, but still not perfectly. Although it is easier to say than "each game is united only by being in the same universe and by some common themes and occasional characters."

[Bryanna Vacchiano]

I apologize if this has been discussed before, but because of the An-Xileel, Elsweyr pulling out of the Empire and the Altmer taking Valenwood, does that mean Argonian, Khajiit and Bosmer will no longer be playable races in the games(unless of course this is all resolved in the next novel)?

[Ross Thomas]

I apologize if this has been discussed before, but because of the An-Xileel, Elsweyr pulling out of the Empire and the Altmer taking Valenwood, does that mean Argonian, Khajiit and Bosmer will no longer be playable races in the games(unless of course this is all resolved in the next novel)?

Attrebus mentioned having many Khajiit guards, so I can only assume that barring an event which causes racial hatred powerful enough to ban beast-races from the empire, all races will still be playable.

[BEl J]

I read on another thread recently, someone mentioned Keyes had finished and submitted a draft "a few months ago." There were no other details. Has anyone heard of this? If so, when was "a couple months ago" and are there other details?

[kevin ball]

I read on another thread recently, someone mentioned Keyes had finished and submitted a draft "a few months ago." There were no other details. Has anyone heard of this? If so, when was "a couple months ago" and are there other details?

I read Keyes' response to an email, and he as much. I also heard that that means the 2nd book should be ready around February, if the norm holds for publishing this particular book (keeping in mind that Bethesda probably has the last say as to when it's published).

[Dean Ashcroft]

I apologize if this has been discussed before, but because of the An-Xileel, Elsweyr pulling out of the Empire and the Altmer taking Valenwood, does that mean Argonian, Khajiit and Bosmer will no longer be playable races in the games(unless of course this is all resolved in the next novel)?

There are Chinese Americans and Iranian Americans, aren't there?

I doubt the Empire would ever exclude citizenship based on race. I doubt any individual province would, to be honest.

There are still humans and elves living in Argonia, even after they seceded.


Most of the wars in Tamriel aren't racially motivated. It's more ideological differences.

Hell, at one time, Akaviri potentates ruled Tamriel and hardly anyone batted an eyelash. These are the same vicious invaders who threatened the safety of all people. If a Tsaeci can rule Tamriel then I don't see why a Bosmer couldn't be a citizen in Cyrodill or Skyrim.

[Steve Smith]

Repost from the Storyboard:

http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/3318/morrowind4e.jpg

http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/6225/morrowind4eterrain.jpg

Based on info in the book as well as Morrowind topography.

[Mrs shelly Sugarplum]

If the new game actually does take place 200 years after the fact, the island should be habitable again.

Red Mountain erupted once before, and there are multiple instances of massive volcanic explosions in the real world in which entire islands are covered in lava but teeming with life again in a few short years.

The only "what if?" factor is the supernatural nature of The Ministry. The fact that the oceans are still boiling years after the fact either indicates this is going to be a permanent problem or that the spell takes years to wear off.

[Mason Nevitt]

If the new game actually does take place 200 years after the fact, the island should be habitable again.

Red Mountain erupted once before, and there are multiple instances of massive volcanic explosions in the real world in which entire islands are covered in lava but teeming with life again in a few short years.

The only "what if?" factor is the supernatural nature of The Ministry. The fact that the oceans are still boiling years after the fact either indicates this is going to be a permanent problem or that the spell takes years to wear off.

I assumed that the impact actually opened up the ocean to the lava beneath, and since Red Mountain is more than just a volcano it wouldn't simply harden again and cool down. Although we'll see, after 200 years.

Anyway, I'm assuming we'll get some word on book 2 before the end of this month.

[Sammygirl500]

Afair, the last know eruption of RM was in 1E700, and large chunks of Vvardenfell were still ash 3000 years later. Habitable ash, sure, but ash none the less.

There are also references to the Scathing Bay and the extreme weather conditions in the Loveletter, which takes place in 5E911. While we managed to (apparently) avoid that specific future, I take it as a clue that everything won't be peachy 200 years down the line.

[Tanya Parra]

Afair, the last know eruption of RM was in 1E700, and large chunks of Vvardenfell were still ash 3000 years later. Habitable ash, sure, but ash none the less.

There are also references to the Scathing Bay and the extreme weather conditions in the Loveletter, which takes place in 5E911. While we managed to (apparently) avoid that specific future, I take it as a clue that everything won't be peachy 200 years down the line.

I wonder if the unique wildlife and plants of Vvardenfell are completely gone. I hope we eventually hear (maybe in a TES V in-game book) whether the extinctions on Vvardenfell were total. Unfortunately we can probably assume all of the Ashlanders, who were already in decline, are gone.

[Emily Rose]

Unfortunately we can probably assume all of the Ashlanders, who were already in decline, are gone.

Surely a couple accompanied the Nerevarine to Akavir. Really, though I'd expect there would be lots of folks with stories about how they came to be elsewhere at the time of the tragedy. And others would have stories about folks who traveled to Vvardenfell at the wrong time.