There's actually a lot of background on Valenwood and the Bosmer in Elder Scrolls lore, though you may have to dig a little to find it. After Empress Alessia's 'slave army' drove the Ayleids from Cyrodiil, many of them took refuge in Valenwood, so Ayleid ruins are actually rather common in the southern jungles. A History Of The Elder Scrolls Series Now a vastly popular MMORPG, The Elder Scrolls series has come a long way since the arena combat game released in 1994. The world and lore has expanded. The Elder Scrolls Series has an incredibly rich lore present in all of its games, through in-game books, manuscripts, dialogue, and more. True fans of the series are sure to spend many an hour learning more about the fictional though incredibly interesting world of Tamriel. How well do you know the history of the Elder Scrolls world?
There's actually a lot of background on Valenwood and the Bosmer in Elder Scrolls lore, though you may have to dig a little to find it. After Empress Alessia's 'slave army' drove the Ayleids from Cyrodiil, many of them took refuge in Valenwood, so Ayleid ruins are actually rather common in the southern jungles. The community has lore questions about Dragons during the time of The Elder Scrolls Online, and we h Lore Loremaster's Archive Dragonhold 09/2019.
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Welcome to the Imperial Library, your source for Elder Scrolls lore since 1998. Browse our collections to the left, or join the discussion on the Storyboard above.
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Today is Turdas, 7th of Morning Star
Call to Arms Interview and Exclusive Scenario
This past week in collaboration with UESP we had the pleasure to interview Modiphius, the developers of The Elder Scrolls: Call to Arms tabletop wargame. You can listen to the interview on the UESP podcast here. Listen to the end of the podcast to hear a special announcement from Modiphus regarding their next Elder Scrolls product they are working on.
The Imperial Library also received an exclusive Call to Arms scenario to expand your game. This scenario finds the Stormcloaks and Imperial Legion fighting to gain allies in Riverwood to prepare for the coming civil war. You can find this Scenario below.
ESO Markarth Books & Highlights
Benefactor recently completed the monumental task of adding all upcoming Elder Scrolls Online: Markarth books to the library! There's a ton of new information (including juicy details on the Reachmen's history and culture), but if you're overwhelmed by the idea of reading 90+ books, here are a few highlights.
New Daedra concept art
We've added several Daggerfall-era concept images to our gallery, featuring early designs for the Daedra princes. While these drawings are very similar to their final sprites, there are some notable differences in the names, such as Moloch Baal for Molag Bal and Mala-Car for Malacath. Thanks to Mark Jackson for drawing these back in 1994 and allowing us permission to rehost, and to TheRockWithAMedecineCupOnHisHead for bringing them to our attention.
Antiquities, Documented
The upcoming Greymoor chapter for Elder Scrolls Online comes with a brand new system that focuses on digging up all manner of ancient artifacts. With those artifacts come reams and reams of lore, covering every conceivable topic from Ayleids to Yokuda, and diving into topics previously only covered in our Obscure Texts section.
While Greymoor is only available on the test server (and thus some of this may change), I've just completed documenting all the codex entries and item descriptions for the Antiquities which you can unearth. With the exception of a few, most items also have images, most of which have graciously been provided by AzureAlay and KwarcPL.
Head on over to read them all.
Greymoor Preview Books
Do you like books? Of course you do! We'll be posting a new book from the upcoming Elder Scrolls Online Chapter, Greymoor, every day until the chapter's release on the public test server.
Elder Scrolls Timeline
Check back to this post daily, or follow us on Twitter and Facebook, to stay in the loop. And make sure to hop on PTS on Monday the 20th to help test the chapter before it is released.
- The Song of Gods — a poem about ancient Nordic totems.
- Cheeses of Skyrim: Hjaalmarch, Haafringar — sampling the historical cheeses of Western Skyrim.
- Research Notes: Chaotica Vampiris — a vampire's notes on a new, genetically engineered vampire bloodline.
- How to Pronounce Dwemer Names— your definitive guide to this difficult language.
Elder Scrolls Online: Greymoor Preview -- Answering Your Questions
I wanted to wrap up our coverage of Greymoor by doing a short Q&A session to answer some of the lore related questions you may have had. This preview is a bit spoilery, so click through if you'd like to know more!
Elder Scrolls Online: Greymoor Preview -- The Bard's College
Mythical Musical Instruments
Exploring the Bard's College
In the high school movie version of Tamriel, the Antiquarian Circle are the kids that eat lunch in the library, and the Bard's College are the band nerds, complete with club drama that seems petty to outsiders and deadly serious to those in the know. The drama, in this case, is a big debate over whether their historical instruments should be actively played or carefully preserved, and the subsequent theft of those instruments by a now-dead former member who just wanted everyone to get along.
When the player arrives at the scene, they are quickly recruited by the College to solve a riddle embedded in a song, and return all these mythical instruments to safety.
The first loot you collect is, naturally, a lute. After that, the questline follows in the footsteps of Orsinium's House of Orsimer Glories or Summerset's Vault of Moawita: find relic, return relic, get a lore-filled description. Here are three of my favorites:
Jarlsbane
When the player arrives at the scene, they are quickly recruited by the College to solve a riddle embedded in a song, and return all these mythical instruments to safety.
The first loot you collect is, naturally, a lute. After that, the questline follows in the footsteps of Orsinium's House of Orsimer Glories or Summerset's Vault of Moawita: find relic, return relic, get a lore-filled description. Here are three of my favorites:
Jarlsbane
This tablestrings was presented to King Svargrim by a delegation from Lord Vivec of Vvardenfell. Not accustomed to Dunmer tonal structures, the court musicians declared it 'grossly untunable and overly complicated.' For many years the instrument sat the Jarl's hall as a curiosity until it was discovered by Master Bard Endroni Selvilo of House Redoran.
King Svargrim generously donated this instrument to the college to further the understanding of the Dunmeri arts.
('Still sounds like shrieking eels!' is scratched into the metal plaque.)
Lodestone
Revered as the tool of choice for Master Bard and Nirn-renowned musician Callisos. Instalar acrobat pro dc. This instrument toured Tamriel with him for decades.
Callisos would often tell the tale of how he tricked the Mad God himself into giving him this lyre. Encountering Sheogorath, Callisos, already an skilled bard, played the most arousing love song Sheogorath had ever heard. Callisos convinced the Prince of Madness that his plain lyre had been imbued by Dibella with her raw passion.
Sheogorath wanted it, and in exchange gave Callisos an instrument he called Lodestone. A lyre that he tied to Callisos soul as he claimed it would bring him glory and fame — which it did.
After some time, Callisos' great deeds and talent became legendary among the Bards College alumni. However, one morning Lodestone was found in a practice room at the College and Callisos was never seen or heard from again. It has long been surmised that Callisos constantly toured Tamriel to escape Sheogorath's wrath, but he was finally caught.
Shriek-of-Silk
Brought by one of the few famous traveling Argonian bards, Soft-Beak, in the 3rd century to spread its teachings, it is regarded in the College as one of the most difficult instruments to master.
Over centuries, it was more often used for hazing than playing — at one point senior students would tell fledgling bards that they should take up the vossa-satl, as it was easy to learn and certain notes would make any Argonian swoon in their favor. If it didn't make the right sound, it was because they weren't blowing with enough spittle.
Bards College staff did eventually put a stop to this, and this particular vassa-satl was taken up with pride as the favorite instrument of the current Adjunct Professor of Argonian Music Theory, Twains-the-Night.
In addition to these three, and the Petraloop which you have to liberate from an auction to join the College, the collection contains more than a dozen other instruments, including a war drum from Reman's march against the Akaviri, a Khajiiti esraj, Yokudan tanbur, and a flute made out of human bone. Each reveals a little (or a lot!) about the culture that constructed it, and gives us a little glimpse into the everyday lives of Mundus. In a world full of apocalyptic harrowstorms and vampire-werewolf-witch alliances, it's great to take a break and focus on the mundane things every once in a while.
Elder Scrolls Online: Greymoor Preview -- Lore & Story
I'm not a fan of vampires (or werewolves, for that matter), I've played a ton of TESV, and Rivenspire wasn't my favorite part of the Daggerfall Covenant. So, when this year's big chapter was revealed to focus on vampires in Skyrim, I wasn't anywhere as excited as I had been for Sload and Psijics in 2018's Summerset, or Khajiit and Blades in last year's Elsweyr. At the same time, I'm a huge fan of Elder Scrolls in general, and I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity for more content based solely on marketing.
The Elder Scrolls Online Lore
So, does Greymoor hold value for someone like me? Short answer: yes.
The upcoming Chapter has plenty to offer fans of vampires, werewolves, and general gothic spookiness, but if you're ambivalent towards all that there is also tons politicking, many references to pre-Eight Divines Nordic religion, Reachmen, Dragon cult(s), and no less than four books on cheeses. The Antiquities system (which I wrote about in detail here) and the Bard's College offers even more for the lore-minded player and roleplayer, and, as always, Western Skyrim is full of distinctive, larger than life characters for fans to fall in love with.
Click through below to read my full first impressions of this new Chapter.
A quick note on spoilers: while I will discuss some of what you'll do and who you'll encounter in Western Skyrim, I'm going to be vague about any specific plot revelations. Nonetheless, if you want to be completely surprised, you may want to skip this preview.
Elder Scrolls Online: Greymoor Preview -- Antiquities
That belongs in a Museum!
Antiquities and the Antiquarian Circle
When Graymoor was announced in January, the Antiquities system is what had me the most excited. I've played a lot of Skyrim, and am pretty meh on vampires, but the potential of an endlessly extensible minigame that's also a lore delivery vehicle? Sign this nerd right up!
After getting to play around with Graymoor last week, my enthusiasm hasn't wavered. While the system was not complete in the preview build we were given (the UI was still very much work in progress, and there were comparatively few artifacts to excavate), it'll be a great way to spend time doing something that isn't just murder. And the Antiquarian Circle -- the guild introduced alongside the system -- will surely become a favorite among roleplayers and lore scholars alike.
Check out below the break for my overview of the Antiquities system and its rewards, as well as a look at some of characters you'll encounter in the Antiquarian Circle.
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One of the elements that have drawn fans into The Elder Scrolls franchise over the last couple of decades is the universe's detailed lore. One of the things that sell the world is Bethesda's dedication to documenting not just the kingdoms and ruins players explore in every game but the complex, intertwining sagas of the different playable and non-playable races featured throughout the series.
From the catlike Kajit to the long-missing dwarven Dwemer, every culture encountered on the world of Nirn has an elaborate backstory traceable through in-game conversations and written histories. While specifics about some of the more mysterious races, such as the Dwemer, may still only be known to Bethesda's writers, with enough digging, you can learn plenty about any species featured in the series — even things that only adults would notice aboutElder Scrolls.
While there is a lot to discover in-game about every race in The Elder Scrolls universe, one group stands out as difficult to pin down. The elves, whose otherworldly appearance differentiates them from their pop culture brethren, comprise multiple playable and nonplayable species. This is the untold truth of The Elder Scrolls' elves.
The Elder Scrolls' elves have a divine history
The different races of elves that players encounter in Skyrim, Oblivion, and every other Elder Scrolls game share at least one thing in common — a heavenly ancestry. There are constant references to two divine ancestors, the Aedra and the Daedra, throughout every Elder Scrolls adventure. Those two terms come from Elvish, 'Aedra' translating into 'our ancestors' and 'Deadra' translating into 'not our ancestors.' As such, the majority of Elves believe they are descended directly from the Aedra.
Elven historians assert that life on Nirn began when their singular ancestor, Lorkhan, gave up his immortality to create the entire universe of The Elder Scrolls series. While the elves are only descendants of immortal beings, that lineage may explain their centuries-long life cycles.
Elder Scrolls Storyline
The Elder Scrolls' elves' place at the beginning of history makes it possible for them to trace their lineage to the beginning of recorded time on Nirn. This long history gave the elves a chance to impact every other society in the world, either culturally or genetically.
Elves in The Elder Scrolls intertwine with almost every other race
The original race of Elves was known as the Aldmer, or first folk, and settled on the Summerset Isles of Tamriel. As the elves began to migrate across the continent, subraces such as the Maormer (sea folk), Altmer (high folk), Bosmer (forest folk), Alyyeid (high heartland folk), Dunmer (dark folk), and Falmer (snow folk) all emerged. Many of these races are playable in various Elder Scrolls games, and even those that aren't are often encountered as NPCs.
However, the elven lineage also traces itself through many non-elven species. The long-gone Dwemer, assumed by many to be dwarves, are an offshoot of the Aldmer. The human race Bretons, originally called Manmer, are a half-elven species.
Even some of the least elfin creatures in The Elder Scrolls world can connect their heritage to that of the Aldmer. Orcs trace their lineage to a group of elves led by a champion named Trinimac. However, the Daedra Boethiah ate Tinimac, physically transforming him into the Daedric Prince Malacath. Malacath's followers likewise underwent a dramatic transformation, becoming the aggressive although often misjudged Orcs featured in every significant Elder Scrolls game.
