What do you love most about the Elder Scrolls story and world? What sets it apart from all those other fantasy RPGs out there? We all know that it is simply better, but for what particular reasons do you think this?

What unique facets strike your fancy just so and get your mind all a-tingle with delight?

Can you describe it? Or is it the implacable synthesis of all the perfect pieces that come together into a beautiful tapestry of culture and mythology?

I place this in the Lore Sub-Forum rather than that for the series itself for two reasons. One is that it deals specifically with the lore of the franchise, rather than the general franchise itself. The other is a secret.

Probably because it's pretty nuts.

I learn somethingnew about a fictional world everyday. What's not to like?

this

What nuts are your favorite? What gems of knowledge made you the most delighted or awestruck when uncovered?

MK turned the Elder Scrolls from well done generic fantasy to a weird wonderland of cosmic forces and stuff.

The books. I have never seen a game with so many texts in it before. The best part is that they are all there for me to discover on my own, unlike most other games where they are shoved in my face, and thus dumbed down so that any player can understand it. In TES, the books range from simple to esoteric.

The books, the Kirkbride, the perpetual discovery...

Good answers, all, but let us sharpen the focus. Adjust the lens, as it were. Can you recall the moment when you said to yourself "Yes?" What first converted you from a casual player to a dedicated fan?

If I actually played the games in order, then Battlespire. That had Dreamsleeve, Space Stations, Protonymics, made the Daedra more than two-dimensional villains... But as for me, it was when I first went on the Imperial Library in search of books. That lead me to a whole new world.

My introduction to the series was Oblivion. I felt something behind the surface and decided to give Morrowind a try. The combination of stepping into Seyda Neen and stumbling upon the sermons for the first time sealed the deal.

From the very instant I heard the Morrowind Theme, I was hooked.

Really, the reason I think The Elder Scrolls are special is that they are the last of a dying breed. The massive Single Player Fantasy Game programmed with Love instead of C++.

Sure Love is buggy, but it makes the best games ever.

I have come to regard the Elder Scrolls (generally, conceptually) as a fully fledged esoteric society, manifest in the integrity of their members to the principles and practice of the "Old Ways" which are reflected in their design of worlds. That it is an entirely virtual endeavor in the physical sense to me only strengthens the potential, by multiplying opportunity, for participation and independent experimentation free from the consequences of effects on others in the shared of physical, and fostering awareness of that risk and responsibility as the reason it is important and essential work, in the context of our time.

There is much skepticism in a world of literalism and expectant ritualism perpetuating our mortality and the limitations of our physical domain, however I believe the Elder Scrolls honestly and without contempt or malice seeks to unify the aim of mysticism with the personal, individual emergence, in a way that would multiply our potential shared perspective as a species on this world, technologically, spiritually, intellectually, and in that aim, I believe they have succeeded.

Are you, by any chance, actually a Dwemer, 'cus that sorta fit...

Good, good, much better answers!

The cultures themselves. It matters more to me, for example, a cultures view on the Endeavor more than the Endeavor itself.

Divine Metaphysics.

TES is just the right fantasy world for me.

Lore's fascinating. Sometimes trippy, always beautifully crafted.

I stopped being a casual player of TES once I got hooked up on Morrowind. I played it first for a few hours (my PC couldn't handle Oblivion at that time) at didn't like it at first, but I played on. I began to love the story and hate the 'Quit" button. Soon enough it became my favorite game ever. Still is. Coming across games with lore so deep was unexpected.

Morrowind, i had Daggerfall under my belt but it wasn't anything particular.

Can't recall the exact moment when i fell in love with it, was probably during ashstorm in middle of deadric ruins somewhere near Red Mountain, that thing was intense, alien, exotic, terrifying and beautiful. Next thing was cultural and religious tensions between factions plus the N'wah spitted at my face by almost every Dunmer, i felt that i'm truly undesired alien in alien world. I could resist to look deeper into it that why they hate me so much and found lore so interesting and deep (and conflicted) that i got hooked.

What first got me hooked was the vaugly roman Septim empire, since I'm deeply intested in ancient roman history, but it's long since moved past that into something altogether ... Different.

Same here.

Morrowind. Kirkbride. Vehk. Telvanni. Dissident priests. Sotha Sil. Dwemer. Dwemer. Dwemer. Dwemer. Argonians. Daedra. Lorkhan.

CHEESE, CHEESE FOR EVERYONE

Sheogorath is my favorite. I absolutely adore that we become him! OR did he become us? Or did who become where and when married how!?

For me, the thing that turned me into a fan was uncovering the Ayleid culture. The beauty, the majesty, the splendor of this lost civilization...I liked that. And then it got even better when I found out that the Ayleids were actually sadistic taskmasters to their human slaves.

Or so they say.

For another thing I love about the Elder Scrolls games is that much of what we know is circumstantial. Most texts have bias and few tell the whole story.

One word: Argonians

Hlaalu bonemold armor.

Massive, detailed, hand-crafted worlds.

On realizing how big the map in Morrowind really was, I was so exicited *This is going to take me ages!*

I really, really miss the awe and mystery I felt when I first played Morrowind, 8 eight years ago. I don't think I'll ever find a thing similar.