The topic title pretty much sums it up.

Nothing, probably. They just record history, not influence it in any way.

Indeed. They record and predict history, not control it. It's not like if you destroy the Elder Scroll that details Tiber's rise, Tiber never rose. It's just any information in that scroll is lost.

To those who control it though, it helps to know what many paths the future may hold for one event.

I thought the Elder Scrolls contained within them the knowledge of every god/mortal/daedra's actions past present and future?

Yes, but as SI showed, there's an element of personal choice involved.

Question, I recall seeing in a book that all but the wisest can only make out glimpses of a given moment on a scroll because it shows all alternatives for future events, but anyone could read a scroll set to the past if they understood the writing? Is that true or did my brain just pop that out?

The Scrolls only show potential futures, and even then its nebulous and ever changing.

Bipp, I'm sorry for semi-derailing your thread but it's semi-related

Who created the Elder Scrolls? The Aedra? Did/do they serve a purpose?

It's fine, my question has been answered. I think it was the Aedra, but I do not know the true purpose.

edit: If these scrolls were divine, I wonder how the Imperials got their hands on them...anyone care to clarify?

I don't think we know, but I don't think its the http://www.imperial-library.info/content/oblivion-lost-histories-tamriel. Contrary to the series name, the scrolls have never played a major part, so they haven't been developed.

Maybe. =) Consider this: TES games are meant to be played in many different ways, by many different people. There is never one "true" hero, just as there is seldom one "true" outcome of events. Indeed, the way events unfold throughout the course of a TES game mirror the scrolls in their manifold and nebulous nature. So, while the scrolls may appear to play a relatively minor role in the games, it could be said that they serve as a metaphor for the games' overall design philosophy. In other terms, you, the player, are the author of history. The contents of the Elder Scrolls hinge upon your agenda.

Really, I'm just pulling this out of my ass. But, it's a fairly valid justification for why the series is named after something of little import in the game world.

Well said.

I think it is like a Nostradamus kind of thing.

My guess for who created them Xerxes. Not Haermaeus Mora, the Daedra, or the Nine.

When an Elder Scroll is destroyed, your CD becomes scratched and you can no longer play the game.

I'm guessing only computers (alongside the data code reading Moth Priests) are the only ones that can translate Elder Scrolls too.

I was thinking maybe Akatosh created the Elder Scrolls, since he is the Time Dragon.

Xboxes can too, but when the Moth Priests first made the transition hordes of moths stormed through White Gold screeching bloody murder in protest.

And then High Chancellor Ocato killed all the moths. Afterwards the Moth Priests gathered the moth carcasses and proceeded to weave Moth Priest Gowns from the Moths' special silk to give to new initiates.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Ancestor_Moth_Cult

I vaugley recall seeing them referd to as the Ayleid Elder Scrolls somewhere. I haven't a clue where. Maybe they 'came with' White-Gold Tower?

That is interesting, that would explain why they are there in the first place.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsTRxXvQY0s

Don't forget Playstations.

Nope, it doesn't. First off, which kind of Elder Scroll are you talking about?

Whatever kind you stole at the end of the thieves guild questline in oblivion, I imagine.