I decided to finally play Morrowind. Oblivion was my first ES game, but Morrowind may become my favorite. I am not that far in, still doing quest for the mages guild. Just got sent waaay up north to assasinate someone. Ran into a big blue magic wall on my way.. Pretty EPIC if you ask me. I hope to see some of the creativity from Morrowind make it into Skyrim. I do feel like I am lacking in my knowledge of ES lore and would like to brush up a bit. Is there a good overview somewhere of the world of ES? Something that covers the basics of the history?

For starters, one of these two threads and a subforum might do wonders for ya curiosity:

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/15282-elder-scrolls-lore-faq/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1112211-how-to-become-a-lore-buff/

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/forum/16-elder-scrolls-lore/

When it comes to lore and such, I've always found the UESPWiki to contain a lot of useful information. http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:History Check that out as well as the multitude of other pages.

Have fun with Morrowind! I myself have been itching to reinstall it these past few weeks, maybe I should? Ah the temptation....

Try www.uesp.net Its a Wiki that covers the whole of the Elder Scrolls world.

I started Morrowwind a couple of weeks before Skyrim was announced. I am soooo glad I did. I am having a lot of fun.
That said, as an Oblivion/Fallout player I found it very hard but you have the community to help you.
I would never have tried, or persisted with out the help and encouragement of the good guys on the ign ES threads. They helped a lot, and in fact that is how I found this Forum.

http://www.imperial-library.info/content/pocket-guide-empire-and-its-environs-third-edition should help you out as a primer. It was, however written after the Morrowind events, so you might want to try the 1st edition, even if there is some bias in it.

Also, do not listen to those who are using UESPwiki. Sure, you can use it to search for in-game books, but everything else about that site when it comes to lore is often wrong (save for gameplay, walkthroughs, hints, tips, etc)...hell, opinion pages and summaries are things you should just avoid when it comes to lore.

Instead, use http://www.imperial-library.info/ as your source for lore. Contains all the in-game books, in-game dialog of the main quests in the games, and the obscure texts.

My best advice is to just play the game. All of it. As many factions and quests as possible. Never pass an opportunity to read a book. Read as much NPC dialogue as possible. Never ignore a blue topic, ever.

You can not experience the entire game with one or even two characters. You have to play this game at least three times to experience everything without cheating. Literally. You can only join one Great House with each character and those quest lines are absolutely essential for understanding the culture of Morrowind.

The expansions are awesome too.

Honestly, I think one of the best ways to get a full grasp of the lore is by cheating - that is, cheating in order to join every Great House at once. The reason I suggest it is because you get a better look at the inter-House relations, mainly at places where there are quest conflicts between various Houses (for instance I distinctly recall there's a Velothi tower that one House wants you to defend against raiders, whereas if you're a member of a different House you're ordered to raid the place). You don't notice it as much if you play through with separate characters, however when you play through with the same character you're forced to notice it since you'll be having to force journal entries and bring people back to life who you killed under orders from other Houses.

I second this. The UESP is great for everything else. But for lore the only place is the http://www.imperial-library.info/ A lot of confusion gets caused by people taking the UESP lore stuff as fact.

And that kids, is why you're not allowed the drive the Dragon until you're grown up. You might just break it. :whistling:

What if that's my intention? :chaos: