The Elder Scrolls XV: This is my Thu'um Stick

[LibraryOgre]

Well Daggerfall takes place on something like the entire Imperial-held territory, so it's only natural that it will take more time compared to the other games that take place in smaller areas.

Arena covers everything.
Daggerfall takes part in High Rock and North Hammerfell.
Morrowind takes place on one island.
Oblivion takes place in the Imperial Province.
Skyrim takes place in Skyrim.

[Resileaf]

Ah, my bad, confused which of the early series was which.

[Yora]

I decided to give Skyrim another shot. Maybe it's a better game if I go into it with different expectations.

By which I mean, not expecting a plot.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Re: Elven lifespans, my personal theory is that all their ravings about the purity of their bloodlines isn't entirely unfounded, and the shorter-lifespanned individuals have a tiny bit of human ancestry, thus bringing down their max age to closer to a human lifespan.

That, and there aren't many centuries that go by without SOME kind of plague, war, or Daedric invasion occurring that kills a lot of people and drags the average life expectancy down.

Then throw in some life extending magics on top of that and it's plausible to have expected lifespans all over the place.

[factotum]

I decided to give Skyrim another shot. Maybe it's a better game if I go into it with different expectations.

By which I mean, not expecting a plot.

If you only follow the plot then Skyrim would be a rather small game--there really aren't that many plot missions. Realistically you're *supposed* to start doing sidequests as soon as given the opportunity to!

[Triaxx]

I mean... The plot exists, but is the least interesting part of the game. No reason not to save it for last.

[LibraryOgre]

So, a bit speculative:

What do life-extending magics look like in Tamriel?

I'm not talking about the various forms of undead conversion; vampirism and lichdom. I'm talking "I continue to have biological function for a very long time" kinds of magics, like Divath Fyr and such.

[Caelestion]

Divayth Fyr was the only person to have ever cured Corprus and the oldest person to have ever drawn breath (older even than the Tribunal), plus he even created life in the persons of his three 'daughters', so I imagine that his life-extension magic is based around Restoration and Alchemy.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

I suspect it has something to do with mucking about with divine energies similar to how Corprus works (not an actual disease but a divine blessing the average mortal body is too weak to handle).

On a side-note, ELDER SCROLLS LORE! IS! WEIRD!!!

[Resileaf]

I suspect it has something to do with mucking about with divine energies similar to how Corprus works (not an actual disease but a divine blessing the average mortal body is too weak to handle).

On a side-note, ELDER SCROLLS LORE! IS! WEIRD!!!

Yeah, but it's the good kind of weird. Where it just embraces its weirdness, so it doesn't break suspension of disbelief.

[LibraryOgre]

I suspect it has something to do with mucking about with divine energies similar to how Corprus works (not an actual disease but a divine blessing the average mortal body is too weak to handle).

On a side-note, ELDER SCROLLS LORE! IS! WEIRD!!!

It's a lot weirder if you came up from Arena. Arena started out pretty standard-seeming, and I don't think Daggerfall was too out there... then you get to Morrowind, and have to stop and say "Wait, what are you talking about?"

[Rynjin]

Yeah, but it's the good kind of weird. Where it just embraces its weirdness, so it doesn't break suspension of disbelief.

I've picked up a lot of ES deep lore over the years (and more since I started running my Elder Scrolls Pathfinder game a few months back), and I never regret learning any of it.

The fact that Pelinal Whitestrake is a time traveling cyborg racist demigod never ceases to amuse me.

[Morty]

Daggerfall is very generic on the surface, but the cosmology, history and all that are weird. Morrowind stands out from the other games in that it's also weird on the surface. It's a shame that Oblivion and Skyrim headed right down into genericsville in this regard.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

It's a lot weirder if you came up from Arena. Arena started out pretty standard-seeming, and I don't think Daggerfall was too out there... then you get to Morrowind, and have to stop and say "Wait, what are you talking about?"

See, and Morrowind was where I STARTED, it's just that I was a young idiot back then and barely paid attention to things beyond the surface level. Once you start REALLY reading the in-game books, THAT'S when the silt strider takes off for Super-Abstract-Land and doesn't look back!

[LibraryOgre]

Daggerfall is very generic on the surface, but the cosmology, history and all that are weird. Morrowind stands out from the other games in that it's also weird on the surface. It's a shame that Oblivion and Skyrim headed right down into genericsville in this regard.

I'll be honest, I am kinda done with Vikings.

[Morty]

I'll be honest, I am kinda done with Vikings.

So am I... well, let's be fair. A game about actual Vikings, or fantasy equivalents thereof, would be cool. Or if not actual Vikings, then a good spin on their themes - Banner Saga is a fine example. Surface-level "mead, fighting, horned helmets" takes have got old quite a while ago.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

If I were to do a deep dive into Elder Scrolls stuff, what would be the best experience for an overarching narrative approach in you folks' opinions? Playing them in numerical order? Chronological order? Backwards chronoligical order? It seems like the vibe I'm getting here is "Just skip the first two games and start in Morrowind" but I feel like I'd be cheating myself out of a deeper understanding of the history that brings you TO Morrowind and beyond...though if I want to go TRULY chronologically, that would mean starting with ESO, which I fear would be less of a COMMITMENT and more of a LIFESTYLE, like what all MMOs demand of you...

So am I... well, let's be fair. A game about actual Vikings, or fantasy equivalents thereof, would be cool. Or if not actual Vikings, then a good spin on their themes - Banner Saga is a fine example. Surface-level "mead, fighting, horned helmets" takes have got old quite a while ago.

Soooo...Thrones of Britannia: A Total War Saga?

[Keltest]

If I were to do a deep dive into Elder Scrolls stuff, what would be the best experience for an overarching narrative approach in you folks' opinions? Playing them in numerical order? Chronological order? Backwards chronoligical order? It seems like the vibe I'm getting here is "Just skip the first two games and start in Morrowind" but I feel like I'd be cheating myself out of a deeper understanding of the history that brings you TO Morrowind and beyond...though if I want to go TRULY chronologically, that would mean starting with ESO, which I fear would be less of a COMMITMENT and more of a LIFESTYLE, like what all MMOs demand of you...


Soooo...Thrones of Britannia: A Total War Saga?

Start with Morrowind. Managing the first two games all the way through quickly passes from "this is an interesting experience" to "this is more work than my actual job, why am I doing this?"

[Rynjin]

So am I... well, let's be fair. A game about actual Vikings, or fantasy equivalents thereof, would be cool. Or if not actual Vikings, then a good spin on their themes - Banner Saga is a fine example. Surface-level "mead, fighting, horned helmets" takes have got old quite a while ago.

I quite liked the new God of War; best game I've played in years.

Not a game, but if you want real-ish vikings, watch or read Vinland Saga. One of the best anime/manga released in recent memory. I was surprised by how good the anime adaptation was considering the general treatment Seinen properties suffer. It even fixed some pacing issues with the manga by putting things in chronological order instead of having the big flashback arc after pretty much everything it was relevant to was already resolved.

If I were to do a deep dive into Elder Scrolls stuff, what would be the best experience for an overarching narrative approach in you folks' opinions? Playing them in numerical order? Chronological order? Backwards chronoligical order? It seems like the vibe I'm getting here is "Just skip the first two games and start in Morrowind" but I feel like I'd be cheating myself out of a deeper understanding of the history that brings you TO Morrowind and beyond...though if I want to go TRULY chronologically, that would mean starting with ESO, which I fear would be less of a COMMITMENT and more of a LIFESTYLE, like what all MMOs demand of you...


Soooo...Thrones of Britannia: A Total War Saga?

Just start with Morrowind and read the in-game lore books covering the events of Arena and Daggerfall.

[Morty]

I quite liked the new God of War; best game I've played in years.

I definitely wish I could play it, if only it wasn't PS4 exclusive. But I can take or leave the Norse setting.

I also agree with those saying to skip Arena and Daggerfall. Just read up on the lore instead.

[halfeye]

What do life-extending magics look like in Tamriel?

I don't believe there is any aging in Oblivion or Skyrim, so anyone alive who avoids accidents is potentially immortal.

[Aeson]

Regarding life-extending magics in the TES setting, I believe that the Telvanni wizard-lords are said to have extended their lives through an application of some form of necromancy in Morrowind.

[Divayth Fyr]

Regarding life-extending magics in the TES setting, I believe that the Telvanni wizard-lords are said to have extended their lives through an application of some form of necromancy in Morrowind.

That is indeed said about Dratha and Therana. Though we don't really know if all use the same methods. Therana clearly didn't age well, Dratha has her quirk (which ESO felt needed to be justified... ) and Fyr is just... Fyr ;)

Aesliip also used necromancy to survive the ages, but obviously went a wholy different route.

[Vinyadan]

So am I... well, let's be fair. A game about actual Vikings, or fantasy equivalents thereof, would be cool. Or if not actual Vikings, then a good spin on their themes - Banner Saga is a fine example. Surface-level "mead, fighting, horned helmets" takes have got old quite a while ago.

Rune II is coming.

[Caelestion]

Well, you could try out Daggerfall Unity with some modern texture mods if you just want to mess around, but if you want to actually play a game, then start with Morrowind.

[Vinyadan]

So, a bit speculative:

What do life-extending magics look like in Tamriel?

I'm not talking about the various forms of undead conversion; vampirism and lichdom. I'm talking "I continue to have biological function for a very long time" kinds of magics, like Divath Fyr and such.

I seem to remember that one of the versions is that the Elves, unlike Men, are actually of the same stock as the Aedra, and that joining Lorkhan's creation they were tricked to lose their divinity. This is why Lorkhan has more sinister connotations in Elven accounts. So maybe Elves have an innate potential for immortality, they just need to activate it.

It's hard to give an answer, however, because I don't think we know much of how life and souls work. If there were a metaphysical component of e.g. the Daedra that makes them immortal and could be ported to a mortal... but maybe that's how vampires work. Corprus is also a soul sickness. Kinda like how you can infuse ebony with a daedra to create daedric weapons.

What I find interesting is that Zurin Arctus used his own heart instead of that of Lorkhan to make the Numidium work. So maybe one could use his heart to make himself immortal.

And Mannimarco was a thousand years old and unaging. I don't think he was undead in Oblivion.

Spoiler: Dialogue By Baladas Not About Himself (Guess About What)

Show

"It was unfashionable among the Dwemer to view their spirits as synthetic constructs three, four, or forty creational gradients below the divine. During the Dawn Era they researched the death of the Earth Bones, what we call now the laws of nature, dissecting the process of the sacred willing itself into the profane. I believe their mechanists and tonal architects discovered systematic regression techniques to perform the reverse -- that is, to create the sacred from the deaths of the profane.

Continue

As the Dwemer left no corpses or traces of conflict behind, I believe that generations of ritualistic 'anti-creations' resulted in their immediate, but foreseen removal from the Mundus. They retreated behind math, behind color, behind the active principle itself. That the Dwemer vanished during a conflict with Nerevar and the Tribunal is merely coincidence."

_____________

"The Dwemer language is unknown, perhaps unknowable. Some Dwemer books, especially records dating from after the founding of Resdayn, were written in Aldmeris, making them accessible to modern scholars. However, even in Aldmeris, many Dwemer terms remain uncertain. As the books and other artifacts in Dwemer ruins rarely show signs of wear or age, I believe that the Dwemer knew of a preservative effect, perhaps a device still active which denies or controls the Earth Bones governing time and decay.

By the way, Rayna Drolan is spending 100 years alone in Morrowind (maybe a One Hundred Years of Solitude reference). And old Baladas Demnevanni is super old. Older than the Empire, and he expects to survive it. So he at least was alive during the Second Era.

[Triaxx]

I mean, we keep mentioning old elf wizards without ever touching on the Neloth in the room. Mr Totally Unphased by an Exploding mountain.

[Keltest]

Mannimarco, at least, was a Lich, including in Oblivion (sort of). He was also a completely separate being who may or may not have qualified as a god, or at least godlike. Dragon Breaks are weird.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

via Imgflip Meme Generator

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-7xjtzIwbs

[Kareeah_Indaga]

IIRC Abnur Tharn in ESO is supposed to be ~120 years old. He's had some moments of weakness he claims were age-related, but is still apparently spry enough to go traipsing around Tamriel throwing his magic around for the most part.

I haven't played Arena or Daggerfall and I don't believe my lore knowledge has suffered for it; I read a lot of the lorebooks on the wiki and the Imperial Library instead.