Will ES:O have an effect on lore?

[KryptonianBlood]

The landscape is my biggest concern. Even though it isn't suppose to launch with all of Summerset Isles available, they likley will be added in expansions at some point. If they make it boring run-of-the-mill fantasy, I doubt we will ever see the crazy buildings made of starlight described in the books when the SP games get around to it. This is my biggest fear.

[Dark Spark]

O/T - presumably you don't think much of Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith then.

'Ya kidding? Bail Organa should've been the catalyst to Anakin's fall to the Dark Side, rather than some cushion Amidala could drop one of her babies upon.

[Mattbott]

O/T - presumably you don't think much of Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith then.

'Ya kidding? Bail Organa should've been the catalyst to Anakin's fall to the Dark Side, rather than some cushion Amidala could drop one of her babies upon.

lol i think there's so much wrong with the prequels it requires a complete re build. Bail Organa ? hmm...

Spoiler:

i did think the Sith movie was ok, particularly the scenes with Ian McEwan the Emperor - i thought his plan to knock the jedi out of power was imaginative and daring and very nearly failed, relying wholly on Anakin doing the 'wrong thing' at a crucial time - this part of the story overshadowed everything the good guys did in any of the prequels for me, although i don't think that's what Lucas intended back in 1979. The whole thing suggests the legend about Anakin dies come true, that yes he does bring balance back to the force, and the force needs more Sith going on, which kind of takes the wind out of all of Luke's sails in Episodes 4,5 and 6. It's a very strange story really, its presented as a black and white / good vs evil but betrays that premise imo - either through muddled storytelling or an unfathomable moral uncertainty. Apologies for wall of text

[Musicman247]

Alright, folks, back on topic.

[GodsBePraised]

Absolutely. It will add new lore, just like every game. I'm pretty excited to see what it has to offer. It's my opinion that too much has been made about some of the questionable lore bits and not enough regarding the promising aspects.

[Minor Edits]

No army of Morrowind or Black Marsh has ever threatened the security of any other Imperial province, let alone the security of Cyrodiil itself.

It's stuff like this that reemphasizes that ESO is being shoe-horned into the TES lore. And while we'd all prefer that this addition be a harmonious one, the fact is that it's not. Sometimes, it's like they're trying to put an addition on a house by throwing bricks at the siding. The mere premise of ESO seems to contradict the above. ESO is handing us quite a few tough pills to swallow, and I think we're too busy trying not to choke to focus on the benefits. But I'll be happy to focus on the promising. When I see it.

[Marelo]

It's worth pointing out that The Eastern Provinces concerns itself with the Septim Empire, which didn't even exist at the time of TESO. If "Imperial province" is restricted to that Empire, then TESO doesn't contradict it at all.

[GodsBePraised]

Yeah, what Marelo said. The author is saying the Empire shouldn't be occupying Morrowind and Black Marsh because they largely keep to themselves and have never shown the desire to threaten other nations within the Empire. That hardly applies to the events and timeframe within ESO.

[Mattbott]

i think that's why thy chose the era they did - seems pretty safe

[LoneWolfEkburg]

cannon

When it gets right down to it, the notion of "canon" in fiction is given way too much importance. Stories are made up, and serve purposes other than self-consistency. It's not like a real history of an extant world. The official presentations of any fiction belong to the author(s), but your experiences with them are yours and yours alone. Take what you like. Forget what you don't, or fashion it anew into something you can like.

I disagree with your notion when it comes to literature, but agree with you when it comes to video game fiction (especially one like TES, that already has contradictions that were patched up by the developers with varying degrees of internal plausibility).

[OblivionDuruza]

Some of the things I saw from ES:O during the beta both inspire confidence in the lore writing behind the game and make me a little uneasy. It seems to me that there is a slight gap between the people that write the lore for the game (the books, relevant dialogue, etc.) - which is very strong - and those that have designed the game-world.

In Morrowind, for example, I read a number of great books that build upon the Dunmer society and culture, including one that details the patron saints of each of the five Houses (Nerevar for Redoran, Olms for Indoril, Veloth for Hlaalu, Llothis for Dres and Vorys for Telvanni). Regarding that particular titbit I have no complaints, and although I might find Nerevar being House Redoran's chosen patron over Felms a little odd, I think it actually adds to the depth and intrigue of the lore, and certainly doesn't really contradict anything I had expected or thought that I knew.

In contrast, the city of Ebonheart seems to be led by House Dres, and yet is patrolled by House Redoran guards in-spite of this. Similarly, the Indoril settlement of Davon's Watch is patrolled by Dres guards. This struck me as odd, because I would have expected Ebonheart to be Indoril or Hlaalu controlled, and I would have expected ruling Houses to have at least some presence in the cities which they control. I guess I'm able to put this down to a combination of the state of the Pact and the rule of the Tribunal superseding the conflicts of the Houses, in unifying Morrowind, but it still seems a little odd.

[Minor Edits]

First of all, I'm pleasantly surprised by the quality of the ESO lore overall (the benefit of being a cynic). There's some excellent new books. I'm sure I will have problems with how some cultures are portrayed (really, I'm not a fan of seeing Summerset at all, as I think the Altmer are better off retaining some mystery), but I'm satisfied that Zenimax hasn't "butchered" the series.

However, there have been a couple incongruities noted thus far. First, Herminia Cinna, an Imperial who appeared in Oblivion, is mentioned in Exegesis of Merid-Nunda. Second, Empress Kintyra, who wouldn't be around for another three centuries, is mentioned in Varieties of Faith: The Khajiit. More mistakes are likely going to surface.

[Pilaf The Defiler]

Sounds like a challenge for Copout Man.

"Contrary to popular belief, the Kintyra mentioned in Varieties of Faith is not in fact Kintyra Septim, but a forgotten Empress of the Alessian Order. At the height of the Nibenean cultural zeal of that order, many nobles were completely covered from head to toe in sacred tattoos whose ink contained Ancestor Moth dust. Rajhin's removal of this tattoo actually reflected his mastery of Speechcraft more so than any stealth abilities, as he had to convince the Ancestor spirits on the Empress' neck to shift their allegiance to him."

Got anything else for me? I can do this all day.

[Minor Edits]

The fact is, even when they don't miss something, they're retconning an awful lot. You can bend over backwards to explain away every departure, but you shouldn't bother.

[Pilaf The Defiler]

The fact is, even when they don't miss something, they're retconning an awful lot. You can bend over backwards to explain away every departure, but you shouldn't bother.

So says you. I see the value in it. We have a series and a fiction worth attempting to preserve here.

[Minor Edits]

Well, they have pretty much killed the idea of immersion in ESO for me. I'm one of the people who's been going through the books, cataloging every difference in old texts I've come across while trying my best to give them the benefit of the doubt at every turn. But due to the sheer quantity of the changes, suspending disbelief is like trying to scale a building as it's falling over. At some point, I gave up on explaining away the mistakes and instead have been focusing on ignoring them so they don't tarnish my love of TES in general.

[kertaw48]

For me, it's the quality of retcon that matters. Remember that the Maruhkati Dragonbreak was just an explanation on why there were virtually no events in the second millennium of the First Era.

I understand what you mean, though. Too many of them, even if they're actually good, can ruin the feeling of continuity between games.