I'd ask why my wedding gift was regifted to another on TIL. Oh, the ridicule I endured. (Insert self pity face here.)

TWM

I don't remember this... would it be rude to ask to retell the story?

Welcome back, btw

And here I thought MK was married to his work.

Merchant's wedding, not MK's, I presume.

And here I thought WM was married to his words.

I am. Gives new meaning to "oral six", no? Anyway, I'll avoid the story for now. I never like putting ppl on the spot. But, that being said, hey, Mike, give a bruhthuh a yell! I've gotta know how to explain this one to the wife, man. (And your old email doesn't work.)

I would ask him how a writer with no technical aptitude can get into the games industry. I'm planning on going into an MFA program soon, and its own of the things I'd like to explore after that, but it seems like you need to do things to get started that I'm completely unfamiliar with. Like, there was a writing position with BIoware advertized, but you needed to use the Neverwinter Nights creation kit (or something like that) and I couldn't figure out if I had to buy it or what, and eventually I just gave up.

Then I'd ask him about his favorite novelists and poets, and probably about his personal worldview (which I think would probably be more instructive to understanding the world he helped make than any specific question). Then I'd probably ask him about Tolkien and Faulkner and the concept of world-building. Er, and I guess that's about it.

Look, man, I did a Search and Replace. And there was a gun pointed to my head.

Good to see you, Word.

I'd give him the night of his life.

And then I guess I'd ask him about the Dwemer or something.

I'd kindly ask him to explain to me where he hid the calipers

I think it was Tedders who hid the calipers. They fall within his Sphere iirc.

You guys are amateurs. The first question to ask a guy tied to a chair is, "What's your pin number?"

It's all good. A quick role-play with me as Vehk and my "better half" as Azura at The Trial silenced that quickly. Mmmmmmmuatra!

No, for real, ain't no big thing. (The topic...not Muatra.) Good to see you too, Elk Man. Hope all's well on your end. Keep 'em comin'. (Sly smile.)

TWM

Might as well go strait to the social security number.

Simple, really: I'd pull the trigger and absorb his soul. Then stand next to a stone wall inscribed with the 'dagga until I hear manly men chanting. His power is now mine.

MKborn acquired.

Get his SSC, driver's license number, pin number, and his face. Become the MK.

Thanks, spammer, but I'm inclined to let MK keep his hair.

Strange how that post coincides with http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/9045/shadowyforumclique.jpg.

Im sure Im going to get flak for this, but who is MK?

The guy who created your favorite god.

Mike Michael Kirkbride. He's done a great bit of lore writting for Beth and was a Dev once upon a time but now does free lance writting for the Beth. He also graces us with tid bits and insite on lore here and there.

I've always wondered. Red King once Jungled. Whhhy!? I understand that through CHIM its supposed to be possible to reshape the land and what not, but it came at a time when it sounded like such a copout for simply not shaping Cyrodiil the way it should have been.

MK is the spiffy fan-jargony name we use to refer to one of our favorite Elder Scrolls developers: Michael Kirkbride. MK was part of the Bethesda dev team, influencing most notably Redguard and Morrowind. He left the company before Morrowind was finished, but he still is revered and he still keeps in touch. MK's influence was a key shatterpoint in the Elder Scrolls' departure from a more cliche Tolkienesque D&D type setting to the more three-dimensional and deeply fascinating fantasy universe we got. His alien, esoteric artistic flavor and his florid prose molded the aesthetics of those two games, and with that he left his mark on the series. Many of the more seasoned lore buffs in the community regard him as the father of the complex mythology, mythopoeia and apotheosis that shapes the series so profoundly, and for good reason. Many in-game books were written by him personally (someone posted a list of them all a while back).

Kirkbride is most especially beloved on these forums for many reasons, one of which being that he keeps in touch with his fans. You can see him prancing about the forums under his new pseudonym Merry Eyesore the Elk, spitting riddles and not having a care in the world. Not only that, but MK is the Lore community's number one source of renewable material for in-between game releases. While not officially employed by Bethesda any longer, they have paid him to do writing for Oblivion and its expansions, not sure about Skyrim. His most beloved works in this community, however, are his stories. Every now and then, when we have worn thin our anolysis of every in-game book, dialogue and meaningful glance we can squeeze from the latest installment of the Elder Scrolls series, jolly old MK posts one of his excellent http://www.imperial-library.info/content/michael-kirkbrides-texts (labeled Obscure Texts) for us to read, ruminate over, dissect and enjoy thoroughly. Just this past New Years Day, MK posted a great number of short stories that were really fun to read.

There has been controversy season unending over whether or not MK's independent works are "canon" (ignoring how little that word means in relation to the Elder Scrolls) and my answer to that eventual inquiry is this: Nothing in the Elder Scrolls is canon if you don't want it to be. Every history, every novel and account is colored by bias in this fantasy universe. It is up to you to interpret that information as you will. Ninety percent of the Elder Scrolls Lore is anolysis and interpretation, and there is very little fact one can shake a bug-armor-spear at. MK's works allow us to understand some of the finer nuances of the clockwork complexity of the Elder Scrolls universe from the perspective and knowledge of one of the chief designers of that complexity. I'm sure there are very few of us who take at face value the assertion that there is a colony of Khajiit living on one of the two moons, and that they balled up a lot of their hair to make a third. But in that weird-ass depiction of a half-reality, there are things we can glean, ideas we can refine and fun we can have.

It may have been smarter to end that answer after the first few sentences, but I hope the long answer can nip some of your later questions in the bud.

As for his involvement in Skyrim, Heimskr, the priest of Talos in whiterun square, quotes one of his works (many-headed Talos). "let me show you the power of Talos stormcrown... ...for I love you."

This goes out to MK:

Please please write some more Talos stuff.

I think that's exactly what it's a commentary on.