Follow TV Tropes

Following

Headscratchers / The Elder Scrolls

Go To

  • In many of the older Elder Scrolls Games, they had very large Maps to begin with. With games like Morrowind and Skyrim, they are nothing compared to Daggerfall and Arena. How would you explain this canonically?
    • The player character only remembers the important places they saw, and the unimportant ones are just lost memories. Hence the province seems a lot smaller than it actually is.
    • We don't. Space Compression demands Suspension of Disbelief by definition.
    • The simplest explanation is indeed Space Compression. One can readily assume that while we're traveling between each notable location, the wilderness we're moving through is actually many miles across, and that we're only seeing the notable parts. For example, the distance between Whiterun and Rorikstead would almost certainly take days or weeks to cover on foot (the books on Barenziah make this clear, as the distance between Whiterun and Riften is said to take weeks, even with a guarded caravan with horses and wagons), and we're only seeing the events and parts of the landscape that catch the player's interest. It's fair to assume that once you hit the rough border regions between each county or hold or region, you've entered the vast wilderness between each regional capital, and what stretches between those regions is more of the same as what you've already encountered, i.e. mountains, forests, rolling plains, nameless farmsteads, rivers, and so on, just with nothing interesting there.
  • If the guy you meet at the start of Morrowind killed off all the Cliff Racers at the beginning of the Fourth Era, then why does Mjoll the Lioness in Skyrim say she used to go to Morrowind and hunt them with her father? Unless Mjoll is a lot older than her appearance would suggest, it doesn't make sense.
    • Given that some of the descriptions of what Jiub did specifies that it was in Vvardenfell, presumably Jiub didn't kill all the Cliff Racers — there might have been colonies left to be hunted on Morrowind's mainland long after Jiub's death and Red Year.
    • Accounts in the lore mention that Jiub drove them away from Vvardenfell, not kill them. The logical place for them to escape would be the mainland Morrowind.
  • How are there so many Divine beings in the Elder Scrolls verse? Could the Aedra and Daedra actually count as race of people since they're so numerous?
    • Why not? Anyway, the Altmer actually believe that they're descended from lesser Aedra. That's why the Thalmor hate Talos, he represents Man, who is local to Nirn, and Lorkhan, the trickster-god who trapped them and bound their power to Nirn.
    • Did you know that Hinduism has over 300 million deities in it, total? Classical mythology has dozens, Norse mythology has dozens. It's not that unusual.
    • In terms of active major gods, the elder scrolls universe only seems to have the daedra (17 since the events of oblivion), the nine divines (9 in total), light and logic (2), Magnus, Ebonarm and Mannimarco. That's only 30 major gods, which, as the above poster pointed out, is very little compared to many real life polytheistic religions
    • They (the et'Ada) seem to be either a race or several races of beings with God-like powers.
    • (Lore Explanation here; be aware that, since the Lore seems to change every two weeks, the details may or may not vary) - First there was Anu, the force of order and stasis. Then, there was Padomay, the force of chaos and change. From them was born Nir. Nir became pregnant with Anu; Padomay, in a rage, beat Nir, who then died of childbirth, birthing the Twelve Worlds. Anu then battled Padomay and cast him outside time. Afterwards, Anu went to sleep. When Padomay returned from outside Time, he saw creation and hated it, destroying the Twelve Worlds. Anu then woke up and battled Padomay; the battle ended with Padomay's death and Anu falling into sleep outside time. In Anu's sleep, he became the Amaranth, everlasting hypnogogic, a Godhead of his own world. Anu then dreamed of another Anu and Padomay; these two were mindless forces with no will of their own. The interplay between the two created an Aurbis; the original, primordial living spirits that inhabited the Aurbis are known as the Et'Ada, which includes all of the Aedra and the Daedra. To get an idea of the actual numbers; look at the sky. The stars, specifically. Each one of them is a hole created by one of the Magna Ge who realized that the creation of Nirn (Mundus/The World) was stealing their divinity. Not only that, but all mortals are descended from Et'Ada, all physical laws are built upon the bones of Et'Ada, and all lesser Daedra are just as well described as lesser Et'Ada. They are a separate "Race". Not a species, just a massive amount of gods. We don't see most of them because the majority want nothing to do with Nirn.
    • Time for confusing metaphysics explaination time. “God” in the elder scrolls is an extremely mutable concept. At it’s most basic, the term refers to the “et’ada”, or orignial spirits, and is USUALLY used to specifically refer to the ones who helped create mundus. The thing is, those guys are dead/comatose. The only real difference between them and the daedra is that the daedra chose not to participate in the creation of mundus. Another subgroup of et’ada are the elhnofey, of which mortals (any living creature on mundus is actually, even trees)are a further subgroup of. Of all of these beings? They’re all fragments of an insane godhead dreaming reality, along with every other creature. All of these creatures, but the dead gods especially, are subject to a force called “mythopea”, which is the process of making myths and stories, the power of belief basically. IT affects the dead/comotose ones more than everybody else because theyre not in a position to contest it. There are a limitless amount of et’ada, and mortals can ascend to become “gods” as well. The vast majority of methods of ascending to godhood involve becoming so similar to one of the existing gods that the godhead can’t tell you apart, so you become the god in its eyes. Talos and Auriel are two good examples of mortals ascended this way - Auriel took up the mantle of Aka (time dragon of which akatosh and alduin are pieces of) , Talos filled Lorkhan/Shors spot. This is a dramatically simplified explaination of the process of how gods work, i highly suggest you check out teslore or the official lore forums to learn more.
  • The legal system bugs me. You can go on a killing spree and then simply pay a fine! How the smeg does that work in terms of justice? Its basically enforced anarchy in a system that favors the rich!
    • Murder is a fine, but if you steal the original manuscript of the Bible (i forgot what its actually called, its been a while since i played. the native book of sermons thing that has copies all over the place. the original manuscript, worth 5000 gold is in a shack guarded by a monk guy) the penalty is instantly death.
      • It's the original manuscript of Saryoni's Sermons.
    • The rich would not have a problem with that, and the poor don't get a choice.
    • Why does it only apply to you? How can it be "Realistic" and "Immersive" if I can't watch other people resist arrest or get arrested because they are asleep on the roads and the guards tell me, "Move along citizen" when there's an enraged elf trying to punch me to death? That's just nitpicking though but I would love to see random events where guards have to break up a bar fight or street brawl, or part of a story-quest where one could to start a riot and then steal stuff for the Thieves' Guild while the guards are asking for everyone to pay fines or go to jail for a couple days.
      • Apparently ideas like this were considered but the AI, when made so "dynamic", encountered all sorts of bugs. Judging by how badly the AI handles in the vanilla game, even when going through preset motions... it's probably just as well. Also while it may have been more "immersive", it would be frustrating if you could not start or progress in a quest because a crucial NPC was in jail due to events beyond your control.
    • If I recall correctly, the actual legal system employed by the Norse worked something like that - one found guilty of murder was obliged to pay a fine to the deceased's kin, and if they couldn't pay they were jailed or exiled.
      • Yes, the Westrogothic Law had a fine for murder set at 21 marks—equivalent to the value of a small farm plus serfs and livestock.
    • I'm going to presume the OP lives in a Common Law Country- The most ancient law of the Common Law is that killing a man requires a Weregild of two cows to the victim's family or gold or goods of equivalent value in compensation. That rule still exists (obviously with more contemporary payouts), and it's the Tort of Wrongful Death (The one they got OJ Simpson on.)
    • In Daggerfall if arrested you actually go on trial. And depending on how high your personality skill is, you can defend yourself in court. If not, the Thieves Guild or Dark Brotherhood (If you are a member to either or both) will threaten the judge to let you go.
    • Feudal systems of justice genuinely did tend to run on a justice system that favored the rich. And indeed, this was an improvement over the older legal systems of places like Rome, where the justice system boiled down to "Don't fuck with the Emperor or the Legions." Weregild - the blood-price for a murdered man - was a broadly-accepted legal recourse to pay the dead's family, and if you didn't pay, you got outlawed and sword'd. Elder Scrolls' simple legal system is entirely in line with early Middle Ages Scandinavian/Saxon/Celtic culture.
  • Why does the "detect life" spell cause golems and undead to light up? They're not alive.
    • I assume it detects a soul present in a creature. Undead are souls bound to a corpse, and golems are souls bound to a structure. So, it does make sense. Of course, with this, maybe you should be able to detect filled soul gems with detect life. Maybe the nature of the soul gem makes the soul inactive or something, unlike when it is bound to a corpse or something like that.
    • That doesn't explain why it works on the robots in Morrowind.
    • Life refers to animation.
    • Skyrim has now separated "detect life" and "detect dead" spells, neither of which detect constructs. There is a nebulous concept of "Aura" in the form of a shout which detects both though.
  • How can a bow made out of metal be functional?
    • Except they totally can. Most bows today are fiberglass, metal, or laminated wood. Even the ancient Hindus had metal bows according to some archaeologists.
      • Bows are basically leaf springs, and can therefore be made out of the same materials as leaf springs (e.g. steel). The catch is that a longbow made entirely out of steel would have such a high draw weight that only a gorilla could properly use one (unless you put a crank on it and call it an arbalest).
    • If I recall correctly, the bows' cores are made of metal and are thin enough to be flexible. The surrounding material is still wood. Which doesn't seem to make much sense for glass, but... Yeah.
    • Actually they can. They are very different from wooden bows (generally the shoot "straighter" but they drop off faster), but a metal bow is just as feasible as a wooden bow. You'd be better off complaining about how a glass bow works.
      • "Glass" is actually rare metals studded with glass made from volcanic ash.
      • Glass bows are built out of alloys of moonstone and malachite, both of which are flexible metals. Moonstone provides the strength and spring to the bow, while the magical TES universe's version of malachite has the ability to absorb shocks and allows for draw weights that would likely break a normal spring-steel bow.
    • Keep in mind that all of the metals used in these bows' construction are explicitly magical metals in a setting where use of magic and alchemy in crafting is a common thing. Also keep in mind that you can build bows entirely out of metal; crossbows ran on the entire idea of building their bows out of spring steel. The main drawback to entirely metallic bows was that they were really damn heavy, which was one of the reasons why crossbows were mounted on those frames.
      • And in a world with magic and supernatural smithcraft, it's quite possible that the draw weight and physical weight could be solved.
Alternative theory: In most cases, the bow itself isn't made of metal. The fittings are, and that's a general indicator even to a relatively unaware hero that one is of higher quality
  • If the Cammona Tong are a xenophobic Dumner nationalist/supremacist criminal group, why is it they not only have a Nord in their ranks, but also have that same Nord in charge of one of their biggest operations?
    • The enforcement of equal-opportunity law is just as strict as enforcement of anti-theft law, and they figure acting otherwise is more trouble than its worth and they can kill the Nord later on?
    • Possibly Morrowind's history as part of the First Empire of the Nords, and its border with Skyrim, means the enmity towards Nords is a little different to that felt to the other races. Dagon Fel, of course, is mostly Nords, so it's possible he isn't an 'outlander' per se. One could argue that the dislike should be stronger, seeing as a war was fought to kick them out, but as that was a very long time ago, any descendents of those Nords or those now associated with that ethnos may be accepted as natives, moreso at least than the resented Imperials and those associated with them.
    • The Camonna Tong's policies extend beyond being racist - there are real-life anti-immigration groups which have members from ethnic minorities. The Cammona Tong do not like foreigners but, while most of their members may be racist, "officially" they "only" want an outlander-free Morrowind. It could be that they hired a Nord and promoted him to a notable position to combat allegations of racism in the past and to possibly garner more sympathy for their cause... they're bigoted, but they're not stupid, and they know that they're campaigning for an unpopular cause.
    • Maybe they couldn't afford to pay the fines.
    • Also, it's possible they have a skewed view of "Outlanders", and said Nord has proven himself enough of a Morrowind native that he's accepted. Similar to how the Stormcloaks are willing to accept and promote non-Skyrim individuals who prove themselves "true Nords"
  • So...How would they have an Elder Scrolls without Uriel Septim?
    • Easily. Since the Elder Scrolls actually have nothing to do with the Emperor.
      • It's a joke..but seriously, have you ever noticed how the emperor is practically involved with either starting the "main quest" or ordering you to do something that leads you to the main quest, somehow? He's more or less the reason you're even doing stuff in Arena, sends you to start the quest in Daggerfall, pardons you and sends you to Morrowind, then pretty much starts the quest in Oblivion.
      • Guess TES 5 will involve finding (or maybe becoming?) the Emperor - perhaps in Akavir where there is an emperor unaccounted for that may have had descendants? Or, perhaps, the Nevarine who was also suspected of going there? Good job for a prisoner as well ... "Go to this continent that eats people and find someone that may or may not exist."
      • Skyrim is actually about the fact that the Empire (and thus Skyrim) is tearing apart with the end of the Septim dynasty at the end of Oblivion. So even 200 years later, Uriel is still making prisoners escape into the outside world to smack some bandits' faces in.
  • In Morrowind, the Daedric Face of Inspiration (daedric_fountain_helm) looks like a leering demonic face, while the Daedric Face of Terror (daedric_terrifying_helm) looks like a fountain. Did the graphics files get switched?
    • Taking a second's look at the filenames you have posted there I can say, yes, the names were switched for some reason, probably accidentally. Why is that an issue?
  • Wait, how exactly is the fact that the PC of Morrowind is The Chosen One ambiguous? Throughout the main quest, you are plagued by nightmares, all concerning the Blight Storms, House Dagoth, etc, and last time I checked, dreams weren't part of Azura's portfolio. Not to mention that many of Dagoth Ur's servant's including his right-hand man, all refer to you as Lord Nerevar.
    • Just because Dagoth Ur thinks you are does not make it true. Remember, Dagoth Ur is the man who thinks that you'd appreciate being infected with painfully disfiguring doom-disease and has been living alone in a Volcano for the last few centuries brooding over how his mates betrayed him (and Nerevar).
    • Also, don't forget, the wise woman of the nomadic Ashlanders said that you were not physically Nerevar reincarnated, but she went on to say that that couldn't stop you from collecting Neravar's artifacts and claiming his title through skill, rather than birth. Also, the dreams were the effect of Dagoth Ur's blight: the sleepers and dreamers were all people who got these dreams, but were either corrupted by it, or saw a chance for a new beginning in them and joined Dagoth Ur's cause. You, obviously, were not a weak-minded commoner.
    • A LOT of people were thought to be the Nerevarine, and displayed different signs of this. It is possible that Azura just kept sending dreams and prophecies to people until SOMEONE pulled through. And Dagoth Ur got into the habit of infecting everyone who might pose a threat with the Corprus Disease; meaning that either his enemies would become horrible, brainless bloated monsters that everyone would either run away screaming from or kill on sight, or their brains would be warped enough for him to take over so he could turn them into Ascended Sleepers. Or Ash Vampires...
    • In many Buddhist traditions, reincarnation is not necessarily rebirth. It can be that one takes on the nature of the famed figure and BECOMES the reincarnation of said figure. I always figured that's how it worked in Morrowind. Either you pursue this prophecy and become the Nerevarine, or you don't and you aren't. *shrug*
      • That's actually a concept in the setting - it's called Mantling.
  • If Jyggalag is the Daedric Prince of Order, where does that leave Peryite?
    • Jyggalag is, essentially, the Void of change. He is immobile, dead, order. Peryite is just orderly order, similar to a hive mind or somesuch.
    • Peryite has also been attributed to "pestilence" and the "commanding of the lowest orders of Oblivion as the Taskmaster."
    • So, Peryite's really just a classic reference to Middle Managment and Lawyers.
      • He is considered canonly the wimpiest of the Daedric Princes despite his form being a dragon.
    • Peryite can best be described as the Daedric Prince of orderly tasks and operations. Jyggalag is the Daedric Prince of enforcing control and order on everything. Think of Jyygalag as the Prince that's all about the process of drawing up the laws and structures of something and issuing the commands to set them up. Peryite is the Prince that's all about the individual workers going about setting up and maintaining that order. They're different aspects of orderly operations, much like how Mara and Dibella are both Divines of love, but of different aspects of love (Mara being the Divine of romantic love, devotion, and affection, with Dibella being the Divine of passionate and intimacy).
  • How is an axe a blunt weapon? It's got a big honking blade!
    • I can't recall where, but I saw it explained as a matter of similar weight balance. Axes and maces both have heavier heads, while Blade weapons are balanced closer to the middle or hilt. Forgot the exact details though.
    • The main point is in the way they do damage; you don't simply hit things with a sword; when you make contact you pull the blade along the surface so it can cut/carve through. With an ax, you don't do that. You simply crush through, using the blade as a focus point for the pressure. Swords carve and axes crush, which is the same as a hammer or club, just that the damage is more focused.
    • It's better to consider them the difference between long-bladed weapons that cut and hafted weapons with the weapon head being on the end. A long-bladed weapon, as noted above, performs its cutting by sliding the edge along the target, while a hafted weapon with a heavy head delivers its damage via swinging all of that weight into a focused point on the end of an arcing swing. Skyrim further splits this apart by specifying if weapons are swords, axes, or maces/hammers, with swords being quick with a critical hit chance, axes being middling while dealing bleeding wounds, and hammers being slowest but piercing armor.
    • From a martial perspective, it's also a matter of weight distribution. Swords and similar weapons have their weight more evenly distributed (thus partly the existence of the pommel), wheras "Blunt" weapons put the majority of the weight into the striking section (the axehead/macehead). So acclimating yourself to using a weapon with most of the weight to one end applies both to a hamner or a battleaxe
  • The Khajiit forms being related to the phase of the moon when they're born thing doesn't make a lot of sense. The child has been developing, growing inside the womb for a number of months, one assumes it is going to have a predefined body shape before it actually comes out. What happens if labor's induced or the child is cut out before the full term? Would make more sense if it were determined by the phase of the moon during conception rather than birth.
    • Maybe it is determined by conception, but everyone calculates it wrong and the actual dates are nine months earlier. Say, for example, a Kahjiit Ohmes-Raht during one moon phase, and they call that phase the Ohmes-Raht phase, but the actual Ohme-Raht cycle really happened nine months earlier. They don't notice the inconsistency because all of their calculations are off by the length of the average pregnancy.
    • It's mentioned that when Khajiit are born, they are much smaller and less developed than the children of other species, but have a growth spurt afterwards. Presumably, its only during the growth spurt that they take their final form.
    • All Khajiit kittens look exactly the same when they are born. It is only in the months after they are born that they start to develop into whatever morphology they will have later in life. So they all develop the same in their mothers' wombs, but when born, the arrangement of the moons alters them after they come out of their mother and results in what they'll be later on.
  • Glass weaponry. Wouldn't a glass sword shatter if you hit it against something?
    • Sigh. Once again, in the world of Elder Scrolls, the material 'Glass', does not refer to the same glass-made-of-sand. It's a volcanic material, similar to Ebony. It's used to make weapons and armor due to its flexibility, durability, and lightness.
      • You mean, similar to 'Ebony' (scare-quotes required). Because real-world ebony is a type of wood, whereas in-game 'ebony' is a kind of volcanic glass that looks like obsidian but behaves entirely differently.
      • Bleh, I was hoping someone would catch this now that Skyrim is out. Now that you have the ability to make weapons and armor yourself, you actually see that 'glass' is a colloquialism for weapons/armor forged using a form a malachite. 'Ebony' is still used in a manner inconsistent with our own real-world ebony, but I suppose artistic licensing can let them do that.
      • Lore wise, Ebony is actually the blood of Lorkhan. The reason its so plentiful in Vvardenfell is because his heart was tossed into Red Mountain; blood splattered all over the continent creating ebony deposits in various provinces. The reason its so strong is speculated in that because its the blood of a 'trickster' its super resiliant against physical 'mortal' harm. Doesn't wholly explain why its so prominent in other planes of Oblivion what with Daedric construction methods. Falling into the idea each plane of Oblivion is a planet, perhaps Lorkhan's Heart splattered on a few planets, too, let alone the mess Masser and Secunda probably made.
      • I think you're confusing real world "ebony" with real world obsidian. Ebony is, as mentioned, wood, and obsidian is volcanic glass. That being said, the ingame material malachite is apparently very different from real world obsidian, which while exceptionally sharp is also extremely brittle. The Aztecs used clubs lined with obsidian blades that were largely one use only weapons as the blades would shatter on impact.
      • For the record, it was clear since Morrowind that glass was some form of mineral rather than glass as such. There were glass mines in that game, remember? We just didn't know the proper name of the mineral.
      • Actually, the Aztecs used a certain type of jade (it's name escapes me at the moment) to make sharp blades, similar to obsidian.
    • "Glass" is a generic term for a specific alloy of the fantastic material malachite and the equally fantastic metal moonstone. Glass armor and weaponry is essentially an alloy of moonstone with malachite, as moonstone gives it shape and strength while the malachite allows the armor or weapon to absorb shocks from impacts.
  • Okay, so in terms of game world size, how big is Skyrim compared to Morrowind and Oblivion?
    • Roughly the same size as in Oblivion, but with fewer empty areas.
  • So what's the average lifespan of someone living in Tamriel? Do people in this world live about as long as we would have in a similair setting? Do all races live for about the same length of time? Do all Elves live to be 200 or more? What about Khajiit and Argonians?
    • I don't think definite numbers have ever been set down; Uriel was pretty spry for an 87 year old but didn't look like he had much left in him, so I'd put humans down for real world lifespans adjusted for region and access to restoration magic. You do meet at least one elf in Skyrim, a dunmer, who mentions that she's been around for over two hundred years and most elves imply they live considerably longer than humans. Orcs are implied to have somewhat shorter life spans than humans (a very likely allegorical ingame book says that all humans once lived as long as elves, that they were cursed with accelerated aging by one of the gods, and that another god took the bulk of that curse and slapped it on the orcs, drastically reducing their own lifespan).
    • Dunno about the beast races, but Dunmer are known to be quite long-lived (no word on the other elf races that I'm aware of). Queen Mother Barenziah was born during the reign of Tiber Septim, and looks to be in her mid-forties (in human terms) in Tribunal, several hundred years later. Then there's Divayth Fyr, that Telvanni wizard in eastern Vvardenfell who runs the Corprusarium. His Opposite-Sex Clone Alfe Fyr says that he's over four thousand years old, which unless I'm very much mistaken would make him a contemporary of Nerevar.
      • He was a contemporary (he was born before Nerevar, actually), but Telvanni wizard-lords are not the most reliable way to decide lifespans - they explicitly have access to and use life-lengthening magic of sorts that goes beyond the pale for ordinary people (and powerful wizards tends to live longer in general). A problem is that we do have words on the lifespan of the other Mer (at least, the Altmer)... but those words are connected to an average lifespan for the Dunmer that Skyrim repeatedly contradicts as being too low.
  • Why is it that people will use the strongest locks available to safeguard used paintbrushes, worthless earthenware, and spools of yarn?
    • To mislead thieves that look for the hardest lock, see worthless junk and decide that the other locks have equally useless junk and leave?
    • The coding for distributing lock difficulty and container contents if often wildly different, at least as far as random distribution goes in dungeons. A lock set to be leveled to the player might not have it's container set to pull items from a leveled list that matches the player's current level. I.e. one guy designing the house or dungeon went in and set all the locks to level with the player. A later level designer who was setting up a quest in the dungeon or house went in an set the leveled lists for the containers to cut off a lower level than the player. With so many interior cells in the games and the sheer amount of stuff to do, this sort of thing happens.
  • So all the et'Ada get together and form Mundas. At some point Magnus leaves and tears a hole in space that becomes the sun. A bunch of others also leave, each one tearing their own hole, which become the stars. Why is Magnus' holes so much bigger than all the other guy's holes?
    • Magnus was one of the three main players in the creation of Nirn, the other two being Lorkhan and Auriel (the three represent the warrior/rogue/mage archetype). His being so powerful probably means he's bigger than the Magna-Ge (the other spirits who fled to the Aetherium).
    • Magnus was presumably one of the most powerful et'Ada, along with Lorkhan. Maybe power somehow translates to size?
    • One theory holds that the hole Magnus punched is considerably closer than the others. Mind you - they're all still infinitely far away, one just has to remember that not all infinites are equal.
    • It's said the Magnus brought with him all magicka in the world. Maybe he took some with him when he left? Actually, if the tears in reality only occurred when the et'Ada left does that mean Mundas is where they used to live or did they manage to not rip a hole in reality on their way in?
      • Magnus left before most of his powers were drained by Nirn, and the others followed afterwards.
  • A thought occurred to me recently. Why is Daedric armor considered valuable? Glass armor provides just as much protection provided you're good enough at wearing light armor, glass armor is lighter, and it's easier to make.
    • It's valuable because it's rare. Supply and demand.
    • But even then, why would it be so widely used? Light armor is just as effective, is less expensive, and easier to make.
      • Just as effective at a legendary level of skill.
      • Light armor is just as effective if you're skilled in light armor rather than heavy armor. If you're better with heavy armor, that light armor might be useless (and the weight wouldn't matter at a certain skill level. Besides, no matter what light armor doesn't take a Daedra's heart to make.
    • All that, and Gameplay and Story Segregation. Daedric and ebony provide much better protection (though less mobility) than glass, no matter what the games may say.
    • The basic simplification here is that heavy armor is stronger and better at taking a direct blow, and when you're learning how to wear heavy armor, you're learning how to move with something that's relatively heavy and restrictive; you can still run and leap and do cartwheels and such in it, but it's still heavy, unyielding metal plates and mail that you've got to learn to move in. Heavy armor skill is all about positioning yourself so that if you take a hit you'll get hit in the toughest location on the armor. Light armor is about evading an attack and turning just so that a glancing blow will deflect off your armor, and with the light weight and freedom of movement the armor offers, it's much easier to do that. Ultimately, they do the same thing: reducing damage by taking a hit on your armor. Whether you're twisting your chest so that the center of your ebony breastplate takes the swinging sword hit instead of your more vulnerable arm, or twisting aside so a swinging axe clips your glass hauberk instead of chopping your flank open, you're still maneuvering to minimize damage, just in a way that favors the type of armor you wear.
  • Orsinium will be a province in The Elder Scrolls Online. Now, I'm not complaining about this as orcs are far and away my favorite race and I've been wanting to see Orsinium for a long time, but as ESO takes place in the second era, this creates a bit of an issue as Orsinium was destroyed in the first era and not rebuild and given provincial status until Daggerfall, late in the third era.
    • The official line on the Kingdom of Orsinium is that it was constantly destroyed and rebuilt dozens of times over the eras. It was never considered a province, however, only a kingdom.
    • Given the Orsinium DLC involves you rebuilding Orsinium and the general Doomed by Canon nature of much of the game, it's probable that this Orsinium doesn't last long enough to 'count'.
    • The region of Orsinium has been constantly rebuilt and destroyed throughout Tamriel's history. In the ESO timeframe, it's one of the periods where its being rebuilt. In other words, Orsinium getting rebuilt is Tamriel's Tuesday, and it getting demolished is Tamriel's Thursday. And that's basically the Orcs' lot in life.
  • In The Dragon War, a book in Skyrim, it's mentioned that the Dragon Cult originated in Atmora, and the Tamriel Cult turned evil. So, a few questions. Do dragons still exist in Atmora? Do they still exist peacefully with humans? Where any of the Atmorans Dragonborn?
    • a) We don't know. b) As far as anybody can tell, there are no humans left on Atmora. So even if there are dragons, nobody knows what they think of humans. c) Yes. Ysmir Wulfharth definitely was, and some believe Tiber Septim was too. If you are asking if any of the pre-Return (that is, the return to Tamriel) Atmorans were Dragonborn, we don't know. Miirak is reputedly the first, but we are given no time-frame nor location of his birth.
      • According to some texts on the Imperial Library, and from the infamous Michael Kirkbride (Whose opus is arguably the 36 Sermons, Vivec, and countless other ingame texts) Atmora stands literally frozen in time, and I am paraphrasing here "without the imagery of snow or color", so there probably aren't any dragons in or on Atmora, as well as humans. The origins of the Dragonborn as an actual being are hazy at best, but it can be inferred that the culture of both cults was corrupted either by the loss of communication between Atmora and Tamriel, or the gradual misinterpretation that succumbs with anything that is radicalized or ages poorly; numerous examples in religion let alone contemporary ideologies are proof of this.
  • The big towers in the Elder Scolls like White-Gold Tower and the Crystal Tower are well known, but are there any really big walls in Elder Scrolls lore? Something comparable to the Great Wall of China, or perhaps "The Wall" from A Song of Ice and Fire?
    • There was the Ghostfence, as seen in Morrowind. Walls don't have the same mythic symbolism as towers in Elder Scrolls lore, so they tend not to come up as often.
  • I get that some of the Dwemer technology is too advanced or magical to be reverse engineered, but what about things like pipes, or elevators, or hatches?
    • Without a way to create and control steam, what use would the pipes be? And if Alteration Magic were used as a substitute, why use Dwemer technology at all? The mechanical contrivances of the Dwemer don't do anything more efficiently than bog standard magic. I think the Dwarves used steam punk rather than direct magic for its sophistication, coupled with a high-handed attitude towards the natural laws - instead of observing the way the Earthbones dictate reality, they favor bending the rules to their will.
      • Pipes have uses for things other than steam, like indoor plumbing. And magic isn't everywhere while simpler dwarven technology could be put everywhere.
      • Also, the Dwemer denied reality collectively; using magic would be associating with Magnus. If anything, the pipes would probably be resonance chambers to cull and manipulate certain frequences they used to defy physics via Tonal Architecture. Their metal alone uses this, hence why it cannot rust or be recreated, and why Dwemeri technology still functions. It wouldn't be too far a reach of the imagination that the pipes might just be able to produce their own steam, and them being near geologically active areas is just them 'tuning' to the frequency Nirn is on to manipulate it, like a bassline of sorts.
    • Pipes, elevators, and hatches do seem to be in some use across Tamriel, it's just that in a lot of the cities there's no need for elevators.
  • In the Elder Scrolls Novels (Infernal City/Lord of Souls) why would the Emperor waste all that time building up his son to be a fake when he could have actually been teaching him real lessons in combat/leadership or have someone else do it properly. Instead he wastes his sons best years filling him with bad information and terrible combat technique. Why? What is even the point?
    • From what we can see, it was less "Make him think he's trained right while actually training him wrong," and more "Make him look better than he really is until he's experienced enough to be effective." Attrebus is basically a talentless fop who wants to be a hero and who the Emperor can't really control, so he arranges for everyone to protect Attrebus and make him think he's good and to make the common people think he's a skilled warrior, at least until he's out of this stupid hero-ing phase and he can be taught properly.
  • You see, Aedra are known by similar-yet-different name and aspect in every Tamrielic culture but why is the Daedric Princes are known by the same name and aspect in Tamriel ? Because Daedric Princes can go to Mundus and announce their presence directly, not unlike Aedra whom is known from great-great-great-great-grandpa's story and by the different recollections and different dialects became different aspects (i.e. Orkey is hated by Old Nordics but everyone else is okay with Arkay)?
    • The Daedric Princes generally known by a single name are the very aggressive and active ones, or ones closely worshipped by one culture or another. Then again, some cultures refer to the Daedric Princes by different names and even insist that their names are different entities. For example, the Bosmer make a distinction between Herma Mora and Hermaous Mora. The Khajiit, for example, call Sheogorath Sheggorath, and Sanguine Sangiin. The Redguards call Malacath Malooc.
  • It's strange that gunpowder (Or black powder if you're non-American) and gunpowder weapons don't exist in TES. Especially since Sulfur and Charcoal exists in Tamriel. Not helping matters is the Nord's dislike of magic, despite them not having an alternative to magic, besides archery or the Dwemer, one of, if not, the most advanced races, having ranged weapons no-more advanced than single-shot crossbows. Granted, I'm likely looking too deep into something not in TES. Besides, saltpeter, the oxidizer for gunpowder, found no relevent results on the TES Wiki. Who knows? Maybe in the next TES game, we could have muskets or flint-lock firearms, bombs or, perhaps explosive bolts for crossbows.
    • Magic generally serves as a stand-in for gunpowder, and the material to make gunpowder might not even exist. In Kirkbride's texts, it's implied that later Eras will use far more exotic weapons, including cannons that nullify existence and alter possibilities, so it's far more likely that we'll see cannons using magic and muskets firing lightning in a future era than we will see gunpowder.
  • Why didn't Mehrunes Dagon take revenge against the Champion? Sure he/she becomes Sheogorath but it's implied the change took place over either a few months or a few years, as you stay a mortal human after gaining the rank(at least in gameplay). It seems trivial to invade the Shivering Isles with an army. Was he too badly injured from Martin biting him on the throat until the change happened? Did the other Prices step in and threaten Dagon/side with the Champion to prevent a war? It's safe to say the Champion earned some favor with them through shrine quests. Or was Dagon simply afraid to directly attack another realm for fear of the others not taking too kindly to the act?
    • It is not a "trivial" matter to invade another Daedric Prince's realm. The player may have taken the mantle of Sheogorath, but Sheogorath is the Shivering Isles, which means that any invasion by Dagon's hordes will first have to break through into the Isles (which other Daedric Princes will not be happy about) and then be fighting the full strength of the Lord of Madness. And while Dagon is doing that, other Princes will be sharpening their knives as well. The Greymarch only worked on the Isles as well as it did because Jyggalag and Sheogorath were the same being, just swapping roles; Greymarch forces were part of Sheogorath's realm being converted by Jyggalag as he was changing. Dagon would not be converting anything; he'd have to take it by force, and within a Daedric Prince's realm, their will is absolute.
      • More evidence for this can be found in Online: Mephala and Clavicus Vile show up in Nocturnal's realm and the player is powerless to resist them. Once Nocturnal shows up, she effortlessly banishes them both in an instant despite them each being at least equal in power to her. Why? Because a Daedric Prince is basically omnipotent inside their own realm.
    • This also assumes three things; one, that Dagon cares about revenge - he doesn't, he cares about destruction. Two, that Dagon would consider the Champion the cause of his downfall, which, maybe. Skyrim gives more of the credit to Martin and it's possible that Dagon also viewed Martin as his enemy while the Champion's arch enemy was Mankar Camoran, but that's more speculation on my part. Still, it was Martin who actually stopped Dagon in the end, not us. And three; that Dagon considers the Champion and Sheogorath to be the same individual, which isn't necessarily the case. From our perspective, the Champion assumed the mantle of Sheogorath, but from the alien & godlike perspective of a being like Dagon, it might be more the case that Sheogorath consumed & overrode the Champion of Cyrodiil, effectively, that Sheogorath killed the Champion. But that's a whole, metaphysical and semantic argument.
  • Why did the Dwemer blind the Snow Elves? It makes sense that they'd want a slave race, but why do they want their slaves to be blind? Not only does that not make the Falmer better servants, it makes them worse at many tasks.
    • Blind slaves can still do menial tasks like carrying things or pulling levers, and more importantly, blind slaves cannot fight back when you do things like start taking their souls to power your machinery.
    • It may not have been intentional, so much as due to cruel negligence. They forced the Falmer into the dark subterrane for so long without respite that their eyes simply atrophied away into nothingness.
    • There are some indications that the Falmer were not used as slaves and that their blinding was not part of an effort to subjugate them. There is a translation of the Dwemer tablet in Calcemo's Tower in Markarth that indicates that the Dwemer did not view the Falmer as slaves but that in eating the fruits of the underground, their souls were being freed in some manner, and that the blindness was a side effect of the process.
    And as your vision clouds, as the darkness sets in, fear not. Know only our mercy and the radiance of our affection, which unbinds your bones to the earth before, and sets your final path to the music of your new eternity.
  • I'm going off memory here since it's been a few years since I've played Dawnguard, but do we have an idea why the original falmer broke with the altmer/aldmer? The ayleids, chimer, and dwemer split due to religious differences with the ayleids & chimer being okay with incorporating daedra worship into their culture where as the altmer were opposed to it, and the dwemer being opposed to all worship. And the bosmer were apparently a bit less hung up on the racial purity thing than the altmer were, what with the mannish wives & what not. But from what I recall the falmer apparently didn't have any major religious differences with the altmer. Which leaves plenty of room for cultural differences, I'm just curious as to what those might have been aside from a preference for cooler climates.
    • That's pretty much it as far as we are aware. There is some indication that the Falmer were more martially inclined compared with other Mer cultures; the Snow Prince's tomb was built and guarded by the Nords who killed him as a way to honor his bravery and prowess in battle. They appeared to also be tougher and hardier than other Mer, going by the nature of their shrines and the pilgrimage between them in the Forgotten Vale. And unlike the Ayleids or Dunmer, the Falmer seemed to have worshipped the Aedra. In many respects they seem not too different from the Nords who took over their lands after Ysgramor led his Falmer-killing party.

Top