So you know how Daggerfall had hundreds of thousands of NPC's, and Morrowing and Oblivion only had a few thousand?

Is this a result of shrinking population? Maybe because of wars? Disease? Some form of Birth control or abortion? Or famine ETC?

No, it's just a gameplay thing. Games like we have now cannot have the number of NPCs games then could have.

But should we take the older games mre seriously? Or the newer ones?

What do you mean by that?

I mean should we take the newer games (OB MW) or the older games (DG Arena) more seriously in lore terms.

Not that they don't count but maybe they're updated and changed things, and some people don't even consider Oblivion to be canon...

You should in-game books as the highest canon, sine they can reflect population. But I can gurantee you, Cryodiil does NOT actually have a population of a mere thousand.

So what do the books have to say about population? I haven't read any that sai anything about population, but theres mentioning of some battles that sound pretty big.

You have to infer things. To put it simply, Tamriel DOES have a large population, and is not some massive continent with only 10,000 peole on it.

Both should be 'taken seriously', but if you're wanting to know which is more to scale then go with Daggerfall - think real life. It has nothing to do with lore, its just game mechanics.

Each new game updates and changes things. Very little from Arena is still around apart from what's derived from the main quest. Most things from Daggerfall and Morrowind still hold true.

Nobody considers Oblivion to be non-canon, to do so is just ignorant, however certain things in Oblivion can be dismissed because well, they svck. Of course you can stand by those things if you want your game world to svck, but chances are you don't... Basically, if nothing from a newer game contradicts it, then its solid. If something from a newer game does contradict it, go with the cooler one...

And that's why Daggerfall wins most of the time.

I'll stick with that, sorry but theres no way a population with only a thousand people has 20 people dying a day in Arena matches...

I have actually been working on a theory for the population but I am very reluctant to put that theory here of all places where I would get shot down without a moments notice from the lore guys who would controdict everything I say and disregard me as blessed by sheogorath that is if they don't already from several very maddening theorys I have already posted. so I think I'll keep this one to myself until I have enought proof.

Just share it, so we can even see if it's credible or not.

They should all be taken "seriously." You simply have to recognize that there's a difference between the "world" upon which the games are based, and the models created for the games themselves. Daggerfall was an attempt to model the world as closely to a 1:1 scale as could be done with the technology of that era. It had lots of space and lots of NPCs, but not quite the geographical definition that was realized in Morrowind and Oblivion. Morrowind and Oblivion, on the other hand, while having a more fully interactive environment (with things like true altitude, flora and fauna you could actually make a game out of) are much scaled down.

The "world" described in The Elder Scrolls is fictional, but we attempt to infer, from in-game documentation, from the games themselves, and from documents outside the games, what this world would be like if it were real. Some of the games (like Redguard) are a bit like looking at a photograph: you get a lot of detail about a very small area. Others (like Daggerfall) are like looking at a map: you get a lot of general information about an entire region. Others (like Oblivion) are like a book of snapshots roughly placed against a map: capturing the flavor of various areas, getting a sense of how they are related geographically, but hardly conveying all the information that could possibly be known.

well it involves mergeing the fallout and TES universe. lets just say haven't found enought to go on a complete theory but there are some things that seem to be able to put together. but its probalby nonsense and I'm makeing it into something more then it is. just a few cousindences

Yes, I agree completely.

I should change my name to sheogorath with these theorys of mine. but anyways a more logical explaination is like everyone else said gameplay mechinicisms the same reason we don't see children or able to fight on horse back its not because you can't and they don't exists its just not implemented in the games. except daggerfall

The username is already taken anyway...

Crossover fiction. Whee!

Madgod's blessings unto you, friend.

I think of the TES games, particularly Morrowind and Oblivion, as representations of Tamriel, not as accurate portrayals of it. Just think about it, there's no way IC, the capitial of the mghty Septim empire, has a population of ~90.

4E 34, 7th of Rain's Hand
Valenwood

The swirling vortex ended abrubtly when John Doe, a member of the Brotherhood of Steel, popped out. The visor of his power armor was messed up, all he was seeing was green. Removing his helmet, he was met with a peculiar site. Trees!

"[censored] just got real, yo."

see told you would consider me crazy anyways the only things that had the theory going is dates of the redguards that match or closely resemble dates from fallout that match major events. but anyways I'll save that for another day.

check out redguard, their History and Their Heroes. look at the dates and then look at when the great war began in fallout and look at the date fallout 2 began....anyways until next time

redmer the crazy nord/elf

Nope, they're not the same universe.

I can't believe this isn't a mod or fan fiction...

@redmer- That theory is hardly insane, you've got a ways to go yet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wPcXnt-J0g

Yeah, but the Yokudans counted their years differently than the other peoples of Tamriel.