This idea was mooted in the build up to Oblivion's release too, though for some reason it fell apart. If memory serves, a lot of books were submitted.

Ever read all the books in Morrowind or http://www.imperial-library.info/content/elder-scrolls-iv-oblivion? The sheer volume is astounding. I imagine for Skyrim the same books will be recycled again with new ones added in the mix, giving us probably thousands of pages to read.


The idea of the Library of Tes F'rum is to collect together books written by forum members between now and release. They can be two-page short stories, fictional almanacs, archaic herbalist guides... Whatever you can think of. Come release, a team of people will convert the collection into in-game books, build a grandiose library to house them in, and release it as a mod.


Who's interested?



For now, if you wish to submit a book PM it to me and I will collect them together. Once a decent number start coming in we'll find a better way to organise them.

I'd certainly like to contribute a story or two.

Well... we'd need a bit of lore for Skyrim before we can start serious work (or else some things won't fit (maybe you accidentally wrote about something that touches Dragon Born's history?)

Easily done. Books are submitted into a set category. One category can be for books which tie in with potential Skyrim lore. As details are released, the author or mod team can review whether the book fits in with the lore. If so, it drops into the "historical fantasy" or "historical fact" box. If not, it drops into the "pure fiction" box. After all, we have real books that don't tie in with our own universe's "lore"

This. Sounds. Interesting.

Do the stories have to be related to Skyrim itself? Surely a few dramatized accounts of the Oblivion Crisis riddled with laughable inaccuracies would be a good addition?

I like this idea. I'll try to sit down and get a story together, I get better every time. My last one is just a ghost story about a haunted road in Cyrodiil, it probably carries over just as easily.

I'm doing an encyclopedia type thing for Oblivion at the moment written in the point of view of my character, I hope I can manage to document all things found in Cyrodil and oblivion (alchemical ingredients, bestiary, etc.) and I hope to finish it before Skyrim. So unfortunately it can't be inculded in this library.

I'd also like to do one for Skyrim though when it comes out and provided the idea is still alive i'd like to contribute it (provided I still have the motivation )

Anything. Any short stories related to the TES universe. Anything. http://www.imperial-library.info/content/morrowind-surfeit-thieves was one of my favourite Morrowind books, and it didn't really tie in with any of the games' storylines. It was just a good read.

*Thumpity bumpity back to first page*

Right, if this is going to work, we need to be organised. We need somewhere for authors to upload their material to without others being able to read it. PMs would work, but it would just be all-round inconvenient. Emails are equally easy to lose. Anyone any ideas?

Well, if you want to keep them from the public until TESV is here, you'll need to have one/some receivers that sit on the texts. Public sharing will be quite counter-productive =). Preferably people with english as their first language for proofreading, and preferably some with basic modding skills to implement them (Don't know how much Gamebryo has changed, but IIRC the similarities between MW and OB give some clue).

This sounds like a good idea. I keep on telling myself that I need to get back into writing short stories, but I never make time to sit down and write something.

I'll see if I can write up a story or two to contribute.
I might also be able to help with proof-reading, but I'm not too handy with modding, as I'm an Xbox gamer primarily.

I sent Gstaff a PM asking if he could give any indication on what the book formatting convention for Skyrim is, to see if we could maybe format them to display in Oblivion and just copy it over or if there was a template we could use, but he said it was too early to say. Hopefully we can get a hold of it before release though so we can do formatting in advance. Then all we need to do once the CS surfaces is build the library itself and write the quests. I envisage there being two versions of the mod. The first, with the library and books all pre-placed to go in and read. The second, as a "find the rare books" quest mod, where you collect for the librarian. Books will be buried away in foreboding dungeons, in the hands of travelling book merchants, or something like that.


Get writing!

Making books in-game is easy, it's just time-consuming. Building a grandiose library and writing/scripting quests would be more difficult.

Maybe I'll write something.

Sounds interesting. I may have myself a go at a story or two.

So we just write a story?

It hasn't been 24 hours since TES V was announced with a simple trailer and people already want to mod in new books.

Pretty much


:P



I'll need a few helping hands with this - preferably hands which have a good TES modding CV behind them.

I enjoy writting and would very much like for a chance to have one of my humble stories be submitted. PLEASE keep in touch with me by PM and I will try to help as much as I am able. (High School/College, Work)

According to lore, there is a library in Winterhold. That'd be a perfect place to put the books, if its in the game. If not, mod it in!

I would help with this, most defiantly!

Y'know, if you're interested, we'd need someone to lore-check books once they start coming in


In what way? Contributing books, formatting, or modding?

Ah, I ment contributing books. Im a freelance writer in my spare time. I would be able to proof-read articals if you needed me to, though I have no experience in modding.

Gotta love the irony here.

Hey, I'm not Shakespeare, Word is a valuable tool. Anyway, British vocabulary differs from others. :thumbsup:

But seriously, we cannot start thinking about the location of this 'library' until we have modders and contributers ready.