Why the lack of novels?

[TelvanniScrubLord]

For such an incredibly rich universe, The Elder Scrolls has practically no material outside of the games themselves. I'm a huge fan and grasp for every bit of lore and story I can so I would love to have more novels. It's such a wasted opportunity, the ES world is so full of detail the possibilities are endless.

The only reason I can think of is that they want to keep tight control over lore, which is understandable, but look at ESO. It constantly makes up new bits and pieces; some are good, but some feel like generic MMO tropes shoehorned into the ES universe so they must not be too protective of the lore as a whole. Also, not every novel has to be some great, lore changing event. There are endless possibilities for characters, setting, and plots that can stand on their own, away from any world-changing events while still fleshing out the world and giving us more windows into it.

The two existing novels get a lot of hate, but I personally think they're decent. It wasn't fantastic writing, it jumped around too much, but there were tons of new bits of lore that I loved discovering (not to mention Sul was an absolute UNIT). But then, I'm a bit biased since they're the only books I have to cling to :/

What do you guys think?

[Imbalance]

I can't argue, but for me, personally, I'm more than satisfied with the amount of in-game lore to discover in the limited amount of time I have to enjoy such things. Ever since Morrowind, I found myself collecting books, and even today I'll spend time re-reading The Rear Guard or Chance's Folly when I don't feel like questing. It's all the more immersive when the book is about someone in the world, as when taking on Potema or meeting a master trainer who has had tales written about them. Out-of-game sources of lore can be interesting, but with TES they aren't all that necessary.

[Lord Timster]

Interesting question. I wonder if the story-telling style of novels isn't a good fit for the way they want people interacting with TES lore?

As far as I can remember the in-game lore is all written as a collection of stories, personal opinions and scholarly musings - none of it gives you the 100% objective truth of anything. It is up to the player to read it all with a critical eye and come to their own conclusions... You might even say it's a clever way to get the player more imaginatively involved and invested in the TES world.

But a novel is different - it will tell you, often definitively, who said what and what really happened. Which you kind of have to do so that people can follow the story - but it leaves a lot less room for 'creative interpretation'.

So maybe it's less about wanting to keep 'tight control over lore' and more about not wanting to reduce the 'player-centric creative agency' of the lore?

Dunno.

Now I'm going to have to read the novels...