I personally intend to avoid this place for a while once TESV is released to avoid being exposed to major lore spoilers I don't wanna see. I made the mistake of not doing that when Oblivion and its expansions came out and I felt a bit cheated. I'm just really into discovering all of this for the first time on my own. Does anyone else feel this way? I'll probably beat as many quest lines as possible to make sure I didn't miss anything big before returning. Of course this is hypothetical since the game hasn't even been announced, but it's something interesting to think about.

Who else feels this way?

I'm too curious for my own good. Spoilers won't be able to keep me away. But on the other hand, I find the best way to learn a new game's lore is to play the game, and experience everything for myself. Having a Construction Set will help a lot too. I might even end up pre-ordering TES V.

And staying away while I play TES V will help me to avoid the 4-minute flood control that'll likely be implemented following TES V's release.


DISCLAIMER: Crimson Paladin does not necessarily oppose or endorse the opposition, in any shape and form, of the increase in "cooldown" time in between posting that typically is implemented in the BSGF immediately following the release of a major Bethesda Softworks title.

pre-order? [censored], i'm holding up gamestop...

and I won't be able to read every book, do every quest, or visit ever cave. So spoilers are fine for me. That way i can keep up my lore discussion.

Yes you will..you've just...gotta believe.

I thought I wouldn't look at the forums or spoil anything for myself following Oblivion and Fallout 3, but when New Vegas came out, I stayed on the New Vegas forums and looked around. I can't not look, and I'm the type of person who just can't, in any game, play as anything other than the one type of character I wanted to play as. In Arena, I always play as a Dark Elf knight. In Daggerfall, I always play as a Dark Elf knight who lives in Wayrest, is a member of the Knights of the Thorn, and some other factions. In Morrowind, I always play as a Dark Elf knight who is a part of House Redoran. In Oblivion, I always play as an Imperial Knight who becomes Pelinal's successor as a Shezarrine and the leader of the Knights of the Nine. I typically join the Mages' Guild with my characters, but only while mostly staying at lower levels of rank and only for the bits of restoration, mysticism, and illusion (in Oblivion's case for illusion) my knights/paladins use. I've never done much with the Mages' Guild, I've never done much with the Dark Brotherhood, and I've never done much with the Thieves' Guild in Oblivion. In Morrowind, I've never done much with the Tribunal Temple, Houses Hlaalu and Telvanni, the Mages Guild, and the Morag Tong. I've got all this undiscovered content just sitting there, but I don't play through the content, and I wonder if I ever will, as I still haven't after two years of Oblivion (being used as an example as I've been playing Oblivion for the longest time) . However, I know what happens during the questlines for these factions because of spoilers. I would have never learned the lore behind these things or even other things that, while I have no objection to doing, never fully saw if it werent' for the internet and reading about lore on the internet. I might try to go a few days without coming to the forums, but now, during the school year, a few days most certainly won't be enough to do what I want to do without spoilers being read by me. Perhaps it has watered down my gaming experiences, but without spoilers, finding that specific thing I want or getting answers about that topic that's been lingering in my head would be too tedious.

I'm not saying I'm like never coming back or anything lol Just maybe hanging back for a week or two when it comes out. TES is like my favorite game franchise, ever. Probably my favorite fictional universe/lore universe. I regret having spoiled certain plot elements of SI for myself, like the Sheogorath/Jyggalag thing by reading topics too soon after it came out.

And I don't typically have that problem you have. I usually pick a well rounded character right from the start with no particular strong moral affiliation so I can do all the guilds and quest lines. I'm interested in soaking up the story first hand. I always regret finding out something awesome second or third hand. That's why I bought Infernal City rather than simply reading the discussions about it on here. Things can be misrepresented if you get your information through a middle man.

I'll be avoiding the lore forums just so I don't feel like a [censored] for liking the game. I made the mistake of jumping on the forums after I played Oblivion for the first time, and after seeing the first few dozen "Oblivion Lore svcks" threads, I felt guilty for liking the game.

I intend to stay away from the forums in general until I've played TES V half to death. Unfortunately, I know tons more about TES lore now than I did back when I was engorging myself on Oblivion sooooo, I'll probably be quick to start chastising Bethesda for ruining this or changing that or something.

I'm already feeling a sense of foreboding about TES V though. For some reason, I have this feeling that it'll take place in Morrowind again but on the southern part of the mainland. I guess it's because Bethesda likes to keep things familiar, now that the company is pretty well-known.

Really? All hints are pointing at Skyrim having something to do with the next game. But who knows?

Based on all the Skyrim and Atmoran lore, I seriously hope it's in Skyrim. Based on the Pocket Guide alone, there are plenty of factions and conflicts available, but since it will undoubtedly take place after Infernal City, in which most of the Skyrim lore will probably be 'amended'.

I heard a rumor around here that TES V will take place 200 years after TES IV. Which would be about 160 years after The Infernal City.

It probably depends on how busy I'll be. I remember when Oblivion was released I was in the middle of a (theatre, yes I do theatre out in real life does that really surprise you?) production and that coupled with not having a computer that could run it for about a month, I didn't visit. But when SI was released I wasn't very busy and did in fact more or less ruin the ending for me. To echo Seti18 up there, though, it took a long time before I did the mage's guild questline and I still haven't finished the Fighter's guild, so it's helpful to know about that stuff. Well, unless you count combing through the source material in the CS.

Morrowind on the other hand I've pretty much done everything. And I mean everything. That game practically chewed up a year of my life.

80% chance I'll spend the first weeks uploading books to the library, and at that point theres no point in avoiding the lore forum.

I want to see a game that takes place circa Loveletter, aka The Time Machine.

and I'll be reading them as fast as you'll be posting them.

To be honest, I'm only on here now because of New Vegas. After I've played that to my satisfaction, I will be gone while TESV and F4 won't even be announced for a long time. By then, I will have far less free time to spend here.

You played Fallout 1 too apparently.

But of course! I actually only recently got into Elder Scrolls in the past year while waiting for New Vegas. I had played Morrowind when it first came out, but I might as well have been playing fir the first time. Before 2010, my closest experience to TES was Fallout 3, which is regularly described as 'Oblivion with guns'.

regularly, and ridiculously.

Have you ever played Arcanum? I ask because it's practically identical to the first two fallout games in terms of gameplay; and has an incredible and interesting fantasy setting, like the elder scrolls.
I was utterly addicted to it, till New Vegas came out.
New Vegas is eating my life, 70+ hours already.
But I've put -literally- THOUSANDS of hours into TES.

When TESV comes out, I'll have to make sure I'm unemployed so that I'll be free to abandon this world.
I certainly won't be on the forums much, I enjoy *completely* immersing myself in the discovery of the game extensively the first time around... and then *rediscovering* it upon perusing the lore forums, much later.

For instance, I never realized or appreciated the deeper aspects of the KOTN expansion - all that fascinating stuff about Pelinal/Shor, the Ayleids, etc - until reading about it on the lore forums. Going back and playing KOTN with all that in mind was awesome. But I was glad for the gap between my initial enthusiasm and that discovery; it refreshed my sense of wonder.

Same here. I didn't appreciate most of the lore until I started reading the threads on the forums, and I've been playing TES for a long time, dating back to when my friend told me he had a game he described as being,

"DOOM, but like medieval and like in this a this big-ass world with magic and sh!t."

Haha, that's pretty much the exact same way I started playing Daggerfall. My cousin had it, and insisted that I play it to help get him out of a dungeon, since I'd just helped him beat a game on the playstation (spyro the dragon, I think). I had no idea what it was, and his description was "It's like Doom, but with swords".
What an awful description.

At the time, it wasn't that far off the mark. I remember basically playing to go dungeon hunting or civilian killing spree. It got to the point that one of the first game sequences I memorized was the opening dungeon. It was about 5 years later that I discovered it actually had a plot and then a year after that to discover it had a giant mecha in it. And I've been here ever since.

Really?

I'm a book junkie. When I got the KOTN expansion one of the first things I noticed was the new books in the game world. "Abdal-a? What the heck is that?"

Collecting every volume of the Song of Pelinal was as important to me as collecting the armor and weapons. Morrowind got me started on that..with its books in several volumes. My proudest accomplishment in that game was collecting all the Lessons and reading them in order, as well as the Brief History of the Empire and The Real Barenziah among other books. So when Oblivion came out, the lore was a huge part of it for me. So I was really confused when people on these forums claimed there was no good or new lore in Oblivion. It was chock full! Especially the expansions but even the basic game was awesome. The Commentaries especially were a highlight of the vanilla game.

Ada = Spirit
Bal = Stone

Adabala = Spirit-Stone = Amulet of Kings.

Little known fact but it has the souls of all past Emperors in it.

Yeah sorry. I forgot the precise spelling. It's a great book, and it does tie in with the "Trials of Saint Alessia" too, which I believe was part of the vanilla game. The whole deal with the Amulet of Kings and the Covenant is all new lore. I don't think it existed pre-Oblivion. And it's very good lore, I think. It fleshes out the history of the world and gives it some extra substance.

Also, hill-[censored].

Oh yeah, I'm a book junkie as well; I noticed, read, and collected all of the new books immediately. I just didn't understand the significance of their contents.

On a side note, I don't think I've ever collected all the Lessons... I've made several attempts, but there's always just too much to distract me in Morrowind. I've certainly *found* all of them, at one point or another, but I've never managed to have them all together at once.
I've gotten every book in oblivion, though, and practically flooded Rosethorn Hall with my collection.