The Elder Scrolls Universe: Deep Dive, Lore & More Guide 🐉📜

Part 1: The Soul of a Universe – What Makes the Elder Scrolls Unique? 🌌

Welcome to the Dream: Your Journey Begins 💤🗝️

You open your eyes. You’re in a prison. ⛓️🔒

This is how your journey in The Elder Scrolls almost always begins. You’re a prisoner. You’re shackled, unnamed, and stripped of all identity. This isn’t just a lazy trope. It’s a profound metaphor. 🤯 In this world, you’re a prisoner of fate, a blank slate waiting for a story. Your first act isn’t one of heroism, but of escape. 🏃💨 You’re being set free, not just from your cell, but from the very concept of a predetermined path.

This guide is your key. 🔑 It’s a map to a universe that operates on a different set of rules. We aren’t just here to talk about dragons and magic. 🐉✨ We’re here to talk about philosophy, history, and the very nature of reality. 🧠⏳ We’re here to explore why this universe feels so different, so “real and magical” at the same time.

So, let’s get this out of the way first. 👇

This Isn’t Your Grandfather’s Fantasy 🧙‍♂️🚫

If your fantasy diet has been a steady stream of elves, dwarves, and orcs fighting over a magical ring, you need to prepare yourself. 💍 Much of western fantasy is a wonderful, decades-long conversation with J.R.R. Tolkien. The Elder Scrolls started there. It uses many of those “Tolkien-esque concepts”. It has elves (Mer), men, and orcs (Orsimer). It has magic and empires. 🏰⚔️

And then it gets weird. 🌀🍄

This universe is a place of profound “weirdness,” and that’s its greatest strength. One fan on the internet, when asked what makes The Elder Scrolls unique, put it best: “After a certain point, it basically runs on magic mushrooms”. 🍄✨

This is a world where:

🤖 Robots & Mystery: An entire race of elves (the Dwemer) vanished all at once, leaving behind only their advanced, steam-powered robots.
🌑 Dead Gods: The two moons you see in the sky are the literal, rotting corpse of a dead god.
😵 Divine Digestion: A god was formed when another god was tricked, eaten, and… excreted by a different god.
🍖 Ritual Cannibalism: The jungle-dwelling elves (Bosmer) are ritually-mandated cannibals who can’t harm a plant, so they eat their enemies instead.
🐱 Lunar Cats: The native cat-people (Khajiit) come in over a dozen forms, from house-cat-sized to 10-foot-tall bipedal tigers, all based on what the moons were doing when they were born.
🍄 Giant Mushrooms: The homeland of the Dark Elves (Morrowind) is an alien landscape of giant, building-sized mushrooms, where the primary mode of transport is a creature that looks like a 50-foot-tall flea.

This isn’t a world of simple “good versus evil”. 😇😈 It’s a world of gray. It’s a world of deeply flawed gods, biased mortals, and competing truths. We’re here to give you the shovel to dig in. ⛏️

Why The Elder Scrolls Feels Different (And Weirder) 🥴💭

The “magic mushroom” vibe isn’t just for shock value. It’s the surface-level symptom of a much deeper, more complex philosophical core. The Elder Scrolls stands apart from other fantasy settings because of its foundational principles. It builds its world not on objective fact, but on subjective belief. 🧠✨

This is a universe that dares to get “weird, but still managing to appear serious”. It explores a “surprising amount of theology and philosophy that isn’t surface-level”. But the single most important concept, the master key that unlocks this entire universe, is something called the “Unreliable Narrator.” 🗣️🚫

The World as a Story: The Genius of the Unreliable Narrator 📖🤨

History Is a Lie (Or Just… Really, Really Biased) 🤥📜

This is the most important lesson you’ll ever learn about The Elder Scrolls. Grasp this, and the entire universe opens up to you.

There is no objective truth. ❌

In most fantasy worlds, there’s a “Word of God.” An author, a creator, or a core rulebook tells you exactly what happened in history. The Elder Scrolls has no omniscient narrator. There’s no single book, no one character, and no developer-written text that you can take as 100% “canon” truth. 🙅‍♂️

Every piece of lore you find in the games—every in-game book, every historical text, every line of dialogue—is written or spoken by someone living in the universe. And people, as you know, are fallible. They lie. They have biases. They have political agendas. 🏛️📢 They misremember. They write propaganda.

You’ll find one book that says a great hero was a saint. 😇 You’ll find another, written by his enemy, that calls him a genocidal tyrant. 👿 You’ll find a third, written 500 years later, that gets all the dates wrong and claims he was secretly a dragon. 🐉

Which one is true? 🤔

That’s the point. The “truth” is a puzzle that you, the player, must assemble. You aren’t a passive observer of history; you’re an active historian. 🕵️‍♂️🧩

This design philosophy isn’t just for flavor. It’s a brilliant solution to a very real game-design problem. The Elder Scrolls is a series made by hundreds of different people over decades. The story of one game sometimes contradicts the next. Instead of panicking and “retconning” (retroactively changing the facts), the developers weaponized their plot holes. 🕳️🔫

They made the contradictions a feature. This philosophy allows them to change history between games, to honor all the different player choices from a previous entry, and, most importantly, it makes the world feel real. Real history isn’t a clean, simple story. It’s a messy, contradictory, biased collection of narratives. The Elder Scrolls is the only fantasy universe that truly, deeply understands this. 🌍🧠

Case Study: The Battle of Red Mountain (No Spoilers) 🌋⚔️

This is the ultimate, perfect example of the Unreliable Narrator in action. You’ll hear about this event constantly, especially in the game Morrowind. It’s the single most important historical event since the creation of the world. It’s the “Battle of Hastings” and the “Crucifixion” of this universe, all rolled into one.

Here is what everyone agrees on: ✅

It happened a long, long time ago (around 1E 700). 🕰️
It was a war between the Chimer (who became the Dark Elves) and the Dwemer (the “Dwarves”). 🧝‍♂️🆚🧔
At the end of the battle, every single Dwemer in the universe vanished instantly. 💨❓
The Chimer leader, Nerevar, died. 💀
Nerevar’s three advisors—Vivec, Almalexia, and Sotha Sil—became living gods. 🌟
The Chimer were cursed by the Daedric Prince Azura, their skin turning to ash and their eyes to fire, becoming the Dunmer (Dark Elves). 🔥👁️

That is where all agreement ends. 🛑 The why and how are a mess of beautiful contradictions.

Here are the primary, conflicting stories you’ll find: 📚⚔️

🙏 The “Temple” Version: This is the official, orthodox story told by the Tribunal, the new living gods. In this version, the Dwemer were malicious dwarves who found the Heart of a dead god (Lorkhan) and tried to use it to build their own god. Nerevar led a holy war to stop them. After a noble battle, Nerevar died from his wounds, and his three loyal advisors bravely guarded the god-making tools, eventually learning to use them to become gods and protect their people. It’s a heroic, clean, inspiring story.
⛺ The “Ashlander” Version: This is the “heretical” version, told by the nomadic Dunmer who never accepted the Tribunal. In this version, the Tribunal aren’t heroes. They’re murderers. This story claims that after the battle was won, Nerevar’s three trusted friends—his wife Almalexia, his general Vivec, and his advisor Sotha Sil—murdered him so they could steal the god-making tools for themselves, breaking a sacred oath they all swore to him. The Daedric Prince Azura, furious at this betrayal, cursed the entire race.
❄️ The “Nord” Version: This version is found in an epic poem called the “Five Songs of King Wulfharth.” The Nords (the Vikings of Skyrim) couldn’t care less about the elven civil war. Their story is all about their god, Shor (their name for Lorkhan), and their king, Wulfharth. In this wild, mythological telling, the battle was a cosmic clash between gods. The “Devil of Dagoth” (Dagoth Ur) tricked everyone, the mountain was thrown onto Shor, and it was all a giant, tragic betrayal that had almost nothing to do with the “official” history.

So, what really happened? 🤷

You aren’t supposed to know. The point is that you, the player, are dropped into this world 3,500 years later and forced to pick a side. Do you believe the established, powerful religion? 🏛️ Or do you believe the “heretics” who’ve been oppressed for telling their story? ⛺ The “truth” is a puzzle you have to feel out for yourself. This is what makes The Elder Scrolls lore so compelling.

Myth Makes Reality: The Power of Your Belief 🧠🌌

The Unreliable Narrator concept goes even deeper. In The Elder Scrolls, it isn’t just a storytelling device. It’s a fundamental law of physics. ⚛️

Understanding Mythopoeic Forces ✨🛐

In our world, belief is a powerful social force. In The Elder Scrolls, belief is a powerful physical force.

This is the “mythopoeic force”. In the universe of The Elder Scrolls, if enough people believe something, or if a powerful-enough will believes something, that belief can retroactively shape reality. Faith is a hammer, and reality is the anvil. 🔨🧱

Gods themselves can be “shaped by the mythopoeic forces of the mantlers” (their worshippers). This is why the same god can appear as “Akatosh” 🐲 to the human Imperials and “Auri-El” 🦅 to the High Elves. Their cultural perceptions of that god have shaped it into two distinct “mirror-brothers.”

This philosophy is the “why” behind some of the most profound events. The Dwemer weren’t just building a machine; they were trying to use “tools to shape mythopoeic forces” to create a new god and make their entire race immortal. Their sudden disappearance is believed to be the result of this experiment. Did they succeed and ascend to a new plane? 🚀 Or did they fail and “utterly destroy” their entire race? 💥 The lore supports both.

C0DA: Why Your Story Is Canon 📚🖊️

This all leads to a fascinating, meta-textual philosophy embraced by the lore community, known as “C0DA“. C0DA began as a ‘comic book’ script written by one of the original developers, but its idea has become a core part of the Elder Scrolls experience.

At its simplest, C0DA means that your story, your “headcanon,” is its own valid canon. ✅

The lore is “open source”. Did your character in Skyrim join the Stormcloaks? 🐻 Then the Stormcloak victory is your C0DA. Did your character join the Imperials? 🐉 That is also your C0DA. Did your character ignore the war entirely to collect cheese wheels and become the secret master of the Thieves Guild? 🧀💰 That is your C0DA.

The Unreliable Narrator means there’s no single “truth.” The mythopoeic forces mean that belief shapes reality. C0DA is the synthesis of these two ideas: your journey, your beliefs, and your actions are what shape the reality of your game. 🗺️👣

Do not let anyone on a forum tell you your version of the story is “wrong.” In the universe of The Elder Scrolls, it simply isn’t. 🙅‍♂️

How The Elder Scrolls Compares to Other Giants 🥊🌍

This unique philosophical foundation is what separates The Elder Scrolls from its peers.

vs. The Lord of the Rings: A World vs. A Story 💍🌋

Tolkien’s Middle-earth is a “Legendarium”. It’s a massive, deep, and complete history. It was written by one man, a brilliant linguist, who “was rather selective in which periods… he covered”. The result is a beautiful, static painting. 🖼️ It has a definitive truth, a complete history, and a clear moral structure.

The Elder Scrolls is the opposite. It’s a “bigger” lore, but it’s also “vague and contradictory”. It’s built by a team of multiple people over many years. It isn’t a painting; it’s a sprawling, chaotic, living city. 🏙️🚧 It’s all “Minutiae” (the small details) with very few “complete” answers.

The Lord of the Rings is about history. 📜
The Elder Scrolls is about historiography (the study of how history is written, and why). 🧐

vs. The Witcher: The Blank Slate vs. The Defined Hero 🐺⚔️

This comparison is about protagonists.

The Witcher (both the books and the games) is “like reading a book”. You play as Geralt of Rivia. He is a “premade character”. He has a history, a personality, a job, and a complex set of relationships. You’re an actor, making choices within the framework of his story. 🎭

The Elder Scrolls is about you. Skyrim and the other games want you to be the hero. As we saw with the prison intro, you’re a “character with a clean slate”. You decide your race, your gender, your skills, your morality. The “freedom” to ignore the main quest and become a sneak-thief who steals bread is the entire point. 🍞🏃‍♂️

The Witcher tells you a story. 📖
The Elder Scrolls gives you a world to tell your story. 🌍🖊️

Table: Clash of Universes – The Elder Scrolls vs. The Competition ⚔️📊

Feature	The Elder Scrolls 🐉	The Lord of the Rings 💍	The Witcher 🐺
Core Philosophy	The “Unreliable Narrator.” Truth is subjective and contradictory. 😵‍💫	The “Legendarium.” Truth is objective, historical, and mythic. 🏰	The “Dark Fairy Tale.” Truth is cynical, grounded, and political. 🥀
Protagonist	The “Blank Slate.” You’re a prisoner with no past, defined by your choices. ⛓️	The “Defined Hero.” You follow Frodo or Aragorn, who have a set destiny and history. 👑	The “Defined Hero.” You’re Geralt of Rivia, a premade character. 🤺
Lore Style	“Minutiae” & “Open Source.” A sprawling, messy collection of in-world texts. 📚	“Complete.” A deep, top-down history and linguistics created by one author. ✒️	“Novelistic.” A world built to service a central narrative and protagonist. 📖
Primary Medium	Video Games. The lore serves the player’s experience of freedom. 🎮	Books. The world was created first, the stories second. 📕	Books. The games are an adaptation and continuation of a book series. 📚➡️🎮
Tonal Vibe	Profoundly “Weird.” Metaphysical, “magic mushrooms,” and deeply alien. 🍄👽	Mythic & Formal. A “high fantasy” tone of epic, good-vs-evil struggles. ⚔️	Grounded & Gritty. A “low fantasy” tone of monster-hunting and prejudice. 🩸

The Genius of the Philosophy: A Developer’s Best Friend 🛠️🧠

This entire, deeply profound, and “weird” philosophy was born from a practical problem.

The second Elder Scrolls game, Daggerfall (1996), had seven different endings. 7️⃣ The player’s actions could lead to one of seven different political powers gaining control of the region. This created a massive continuity problem for the sequel, Morrowind. Which ending was “canon”? 🤔

Bethesda’s solution was an act of lateral genius. Instead of picking one, they said all of them happened at once. 🤯

To justify this impossibility, they invented the “Dragon Break“. 🐉💔 This was an in-lore event where the Dragon God of Time broke for a few days, causing a “Warp in the West” where all realities and all possibilities “did happen at the same time”. When time stitched itself back together, the political map was changed, and everyone’s version of history was (sort of) true.

This mechanical solution to a plot hole was so elegant that the developers made it the core philosophy of the entire universe. ✨

The Unreliable Narrator, the conflicting histories of Red Mountain, the idea of C0DA, and “myth making reality”—all of these profound ideas are a thematic doubling-down on a brilliant, mechanical “get out of jail free” card they created to fix a continuity error in 1996. 🃏

They weaponized their plot holes and turned them into the deepest, most engaging lore in video game history. That is the true genius of The Elder Scrolls. 🧠💖

Part 2: The Aurbis – Cosmology and the Laws of The Elder Scrolls 🌌🔭

If the Unreliable Narrator is the how of The Elder Scrolls, the cosmology is the what. This is where the universe comes from, where the gods fit in, and where the “magic mushrooms” really start to kick in. 🍄✨

Prepare yourself. This is the deep end. 🏊‍♂️

The Godhead: You Are Living in a Dream 😴💭

This is the deepest, most fundamental secret of The Elder Scrolls universe.

The entire Aurbis—all of reality, every planet, every god, every person, every sweet roll you steal—is the dream of a sleeping god. 🧁💤

This entity is known only as the “First Dreamer” or the “Godhead“. This entity is said to be “plagued by fragmentation and split personalities”. Everything you see and do is just one fragment of its divided consciousness. If the Godhead ever wakes up, the dream ends. And so do you. 😱

This is the ultimate metaphor. Who is the Godhead? Some fans theorize it’s a metaphor for the game developers at Bethesda, who “dreamed the series… into existence”. A more popular and personal interpretation is that the Godhead is you, the player. 🫵 The world only exists when you turn on the console. It only moves when you’re there to witness it.

Either way, the central, mind-bending premise is this: you’re a figment of a god’s imagination. And the most powerful beings in this universe are the ones who realize it. 👁️✨

The Primal Forces: Anu and Padomay ☯️⚡

Within this great Dream, the Godhead’s “split personalities” manifested as two primal, opposing forces. They’re the “binary thing” that defines everything. They’re often called the “Two Brothers“. 👬

⚪ Anu: Represents Stasis, Order, Light, and Being. Anu is.
⚫ Padomay: Represents Change, Chaos, Darkness, and Not-Being. Padomay changes.

Their eternal “interplay” (a very polite word for a cosmic war) is what created everything. ⚔️ The interplay of stasis and change created the “Aurbis,” the universe. This conflict is the source of all the other binaries you’ll see: Man vs. Mer, Aedra vs. Daedra, Life vs. Death.

From these two forces, their “souls” were born: 👻

Anu’s soul became Anu-iel (or Auri-El), the “soul of all things,” the concept of Order.
Padomay’s soul became Sithis, the “Dread Father,” the concept of the Void, Chaos, and absolute, unending change.

All the “gods” you know are just the “blood” (lesser spirits) spilled from the battles between these two primal forces. 🩸✨

The Divines: The Aedra (The “Good” Gods) 😇🏛️

The spirits who were born from the “blood” of Anu (Stasis) are generally known as the Aedra.

The Gods Who Sacrificed 💖

The Aedra are the “gods” you’re probably most familiar with: Akatosh (Time) ⏳, Mara (Love) ❤️, Kynareth (Nature) 🍃, Dibella (Beauty) 🌺, and so on. They are called the “Eight Divines” (or Nine, with Talos).

These are the spirits who, long ago, were convinced by a trickster god named Lorkhan to help him with a new project: the creation of a mortal world, Mundus. 🌍

They agreed. They poured their own divine power, their own very essence, into this new world to give it laws and structure. They became the laws of physics, the earth, and the sky. They are the “bones of the cosmos”. 🦴🌌

Why Are They So… Quiet? 🤫

This great sacrifice is why the Aedra are so passive. They are bound to their creation. They are their creation.

This act of creation weakened them immensely. It “cost them their power”. This is why they are often referred to as “dead” or “sleeping”. 💤 Their influence is no longer active and direct. It’s passive. Their power is a fundamental part of Nirn itself. They are “content to just have a passive existence”.

A divine intervention from an Aedra is extremely rare. When it does happen, it’s a world-shaking event. 🌍💥 The most famous example is the appearance of Akatosh’s avatar at the end of the “Oblivion Crisis”. For the most part, they can’t and don’t interfere. They gave too much of themselves away.

The Schemers: The Daedra (The “Evil” Gods?) 😈🌌

The spirits who were born from the “blood” of Padomay (Change) are generally known as the Daedra.

Meet the Daedric Princes 👑

The Daedra are the spirits who, when Lorkhan pitched his “create a mortal world” project, said, “No, thank you. That sounds like a terrible deal”. 🙅‍♀️

Because they refused, they didn’t sacrifice their power. They aren’t bound to Mundus. They remain at full power, immortal, and in full control of their own dimensions, known as the planes of Oblivion. 🌋

This is why they are so active and interfering. They have all the power in the universe, and they’re bored. 🥱

It’s crucial to understand that the Daedric Princes aren’t “evil” in the human sense. They aren’t demons. They are “immortal entities which are… equivalent to their oblivion realms, and concepts they embody”. 👹💭

💡 Meridia isn’t “the goddess of Life.” She IS the concept of Life and living energy.
⛓️ Molag Bal isn’t “the god of Domination.” He IS the concept of Domination, in its purest, most brutal form.
🤪 Sheogorath isn’t “the god of Madness.” He IS Madness.
🌇 Azura IS Twilight and Prophecy. Boethiah IS Conspiracy. Mehrunes Dagon IS Revolution and Destruction. 🧨

When they meddle in the mortal world, they aren’t being “evil.” They’re just… being themselves. A flood isn’t “evil” for being wet. 🌊 Molag Bal isn’t “evil” for trying to dominate things. That’s all he can do.

It’s All a Matter of Perspective 🧐

The very words “Aedra” and “Daedra” are mortal inventions. They are elven terms.

Aedra means “Our Ancestors”. 👴👵
Daedra means “Not Our Ancestors”. 🚫👴

This is a “meaningless distinction” to the gods themselves. It’s a label created by mortals, based entirely on that one decision: who helped create the world, and who sat on the sidelines. It is, as one god puts it, a “matter of perspective”. 🤷‍♂️

The Great Betrayal: The Creation of Our World 🌍🗡️

This brings us to the most important story in The Elder Scrolls cosmology. This is the “why” behind everything.

Lorkhan’s Big Idea 💡

Lorkhan (also called Shor by the Nords, or Lorkhaj by the Khajiit) is the “trickster” god. He is the spirit who convinced the Aedra to create Mundus, the mortal plane.

But why? What was his plan? This is the central, philosophical divide of the entire Elder Scrolls universe.

Mundus: The Mortal Prison (or Opportunity?) ⛓️🎁

When the Aedra began creating Mundus, they realized too late what Lorkhan’s “trick” truly was. This new world wasn’t just a fun project; it was a trap. It was siphoning their divine power, binding them to a new set of rules: mortality, life, death, and time. ⏳💀

They were furious. 🤬

They convened at the “Adamantine Tower” (the oldest structure in existence). They “killed” Lorkhan. They tore his Heart from his chest and threw it from the Tower. ❤️☄️ It landed in a distant land, and the volcano of Red Mountain formed where it struck. Lorkhan’s body was ripped apart, becoming the two moons, Masser and Secunda. 🌑🌒

This single event is the central conflict of The Elder Scrolls. The entire war between Men and Mer is a philosophical war over Lorkhan’s “betrayal.”

🧝‍♂️ The Elves (Mer) see this as the ultimate tragedy. They believe they are descended from the Aedra, the “Old Ehlnofey”. Lorkhan tricked their divine ancestors and trapped their immortal spirits in mortal flesh. They see Mundus as a prison. Their entire philosophy, especially that of the “Thalmor” in Skyrim, is based on un-making Lorkhan’s “mistake.” They want to wake up from the dream and return to their original, static, divine state.
🧔 Humankind sees this as a heroic sacrifice. They believe they are descended from Lorkhan, the “Wandering Ehlnofey”. Lorkhan liberated them from the boring, static prison of divinity. He gave them a world where their actions mattered, a world of change, struggle, and opportunity. They see Mundus as a gift. They want to live in the dream and shape it to their will.

This is it. This is the whole ball game. 🏈 Every war, every political conflict, every quest you go on is, at its core, a battle in this great philosophical war over the nature of reality itself: “Fix the Dream” (Men) vs. “Wake from the Dream” (Mer). 🛌🆚🌅

The “Weird Stuff”: Core Metaphysics of The Elder Scrolls 🧠✨🌀

This is where the lore gets truly strange. If you can grasp these next few concepts, you’ll have mastered the “deep lore” of The Elder Scrolls.

CHIM: The Universe’s “Lucid Dream” 👁️🧘‍♂️

We established that the entire universe is the dream of the Godhead. 💭

We established that the ultimate conflict is whether to stay in the dream (Men) or wake up (Mer).

CHIM is the third option. 3️⃣

To “achieve CHIM” is to realize you’re a figment in the Godhead’s dream… and do nothing.

When a mortal in The Elder Scrolls universe achieves this enlightenment, they have two choices:

They realize “I AM NOT” real. Their individuality dissolves into the boundless “everything” of the Godhead. They “zero-sum.” They cease to exist, instantly and retroactively. They never existed. 💨🚫
They realize “I AM NOT” real… but they have the supreme, god-like arrogance to look the Godhead in the eye and shout back, “I AM“. 🗣️💪

This second state is CHIM. It’s “lucid dreaming” within the fabric of reality.

A person who has achieved CHIM (the “CHIMster”) understands the paradox: they are “everywhere and therefore nowhere,” but they still maintain their individuality. They understand that “I” is an illusion, but they choose to be “I” anyway.

What does this do? It gives them control over the dream. They can “reshape the land”. ⛰️ They can edit reality.

This is the in-lore explanation for one of the biggest “retcons” in the series. In early Elder Scrolls lore, the province of Cyrodiil (where Oblivion is set) was described as an “endless jungle”. 🌴 When Oblivion was released, it was a temperate, European-style forest. 🌲 The lore explanation? Tiber Septim (the founder of the Empire, who became the god Talos) achieved CHIM. He didn’t like the jungle, so he rewrote reality and changed Cyrodiil from a jungle into the forest we see in the game. ✨

That is the power of CHIM. It is the ultimate “I AM.”

Dragon Breaks: When Time Itself Shatters ⏱️🔨

This is the other great “meta” concept.

Akatosh is the “Dragon God of Time”. 🐉 A “Dragon Break” is what happens when Akatosh… well, breaks.

During a Dragon Break, linear time ceases to exist. The “flow” of time shatters, and “all possibilities” happen at once. 🌀 It’s a period of pure, nonlinear chaos.

This, as discussed, was Bethesda’s brilliant tool for fixing plot holes. The “Warp in the West” at the end of Daggerfall was the first Dragon Break, where all seven mutually exclusive endings happened simultaneously over a few days, fundamentally re-shaping the map of Tamriel. 🗺️

Another major Dragon Break, the “Middle Dawn,” supposedly lasted for 1,008 years. 🤯

A Dragon Break is the ultimate expression of the Unreliable Narrator. If you find two historical texts that completely contradict each other, who is to say they aren’t both true? It’s entirely possible a Dragon Break occurred, and both contradictory events actually happened in the same “time”. It’s a historian’s worst nightmare, and a lore-lover’s greatest dream.

The Elder Scrolls (The Artifacts) 📜✨

So, with all this talk of The Elder Scrolls, what are the actual Elder Scrolls?

What Are They? 🤔

They aren’t scrolls.

They are, as one in-game scholar so perfectly puts it, “plot mcguffin-anomalies”.

They are “artifacts that exist outside of time”. ⏳🚫 They are “4-dimensional beings in a 3-dimensional universe”. They don’t predict the future. They are the future. And the past. And the present. All at once.

They aren’t “written”. They are fragments of creation itself. Their “context is always changing,” meaning what they show isn’t fixed. They are, in essence, the “source code” of the Godhead’s dream. 💻🌌

Reading the Scrolls (And Why It’s a Bad Idea) 🤕👓

Reading an Elder Scroll isn’t like reading a book. It’s an act of “gazing” into the “forbidden knowledge” of the universe. 👁️🔥

Only a specific, monastic order known as the “Moth Priests” are trained to read them. 🦋 To do so, they must perform a long, arduous ritual.

And every time they do, they pay a terrible price. The “forbidden knowledge” they gain costs them their sight. Eventually, all Moth Priests go completely blind. Some also lose their grasp on reality. 😵

The Scrolls are the perfect plot device for The Elder Scrolls universe. They are a physical manifestation of the Unreliable Narrator. They show a truth, but not the truth. They do whatever the writers need them to do, at a terrible cost, and “It Just Works™”. 😉

Part 3: A Journey Through History – The Eras of The Elder Scrolls 📜🕰️

The history of Tamriel is vast, broken, and contradictory. To make sense of it, scholars broke it into “Eras.” Think of them like “Ages” in other fantasies, but each one is defined by a major event, not a set length of time.

The Dawn Era: The Land Before Time 🦖🌅

This is the “prehistoric” era. This is the time of myth.

Time: Did not exist. Or at least, it wasn’t linear. It was “soupy,” chaotic, and nonlinear. 🍜
What Happened: The Gods walked Nirn. Lorkhan was “killed,” the Aedra were bound, and his Heart created Red Mountain. The “Convention” was held at the Adamantine Tower, where the gods set the physical and magical laws of Mundus. The “War of the Ehlnofey” (the ancestors of Men and Mer) set the stage for all future conflict. ⚔️

The Merethic Era: The Age of Myths 🧙‍♂️🐉

This is when “a linear timeline can be discerned”. This is the age of legends.

Time: Exists, but is counted backwards, starting from ME 2500 and ending at ME 0. 🔙
What Happened: This is when the “prehistoric beastmen” (ancestors of Khajiit and Argonians) and elves “were number one”. The ancestors of Men, the “Atmorans,” sailed from the frozen continent of Atmora and settled in Skyrim. 🛶❄️ The ancestors of the Elves, the “Aldmer,” settled in the Summerset Isles.
The legendary Dragon War occurred. Humanity, enslaved by dragons, rebelled. They used the Elder Scrolls and their own “Dragonborn” heroes to defeat Alduin the World-Eater. 🐉💥

The First Era: Empires Rise and Fall 🏛️📉

“Proper history begins”. This is the “ancient history” of Tamriel.

Time: A very long era, lasting 2,920 years.
Major Events:
- The Alessian Revolt: Saint Alessia, a human slave, leads a rebellion against her masters, the “Ayleids” (Wild Elves) who ruled Cyrodiil. She forges a pact with Akatosh, creating the “Amulet of Kings,” and founds the First Empire of Men. 👑
- The Battle of Red Mountain (Approx. 1E 700): As discussed, this is the pivotal moment. The Dwemer vanish. The Chimer are cursed and become the Dunmer. The Tribunal—Vivec, Almalexia, and Sotha Sil—become living gods, beginning their 3,500-year reign over Morrowind. 🌋
- The Second Empire of Men: Founded by Reman Cyrodiil.

The Second Era: The Long Interregnum ⚔️🩸

This is an age of chaos, collapse, and competing powers.

Time: Begins with the assassination of the last Reman emperor. 🗡️
What Happened: The Empire of Men collapses. Tamriel splinters into dozens of warring states.
This is the setting of The Elder Scrolls Online. 🎮
The main story of ESO, the “Three Banners War,” takes place in 2E 582. Three great alliances (the Daggerfall Covenant, the Ebonheart Pact, and the Aldmeri Dominion) fight for control of the empty Imperial throne, all while the Daedric Prince Molag Bal tries to invade the world. 😈
The Era ends when Tiber Septim (a Dragonborn general) uses the “Numidium” (a giant Dwemer god-robot) to conquer all of Tamriel by force, forging the Third Empire. 🤖👑

The Third Era: The Age of the Septim Empire 🕊️⚜️

This is the “classic” era of The Elder Scrolls. It’s the age of the Septim Dynasty, founded by Tiber Septim (who, upon death, became the god Talos).

Time: Lasts 433 years.
What Happened: This is when most of the mainline games take place.
- The Elder Scrolls: Arena (3E 389 – 3E 399): The “Imperial Simulacrum,” where the Emperor Uriel Septim VII is imprisoned in Oblivion by his court wizard, Jagar Tharn. 🧙‍♂️🔒
- The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall (3E 405 – 3E 417): The player is sent to High Rock, an event that culminates in the “Warp in the West” Dragon Break. 🌀
- The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (3E 427): The player, a prisoner, is sent to Morrowind and becomes the prophesied “Nerevarine,” a reincarnation of the ancient hero Nerevar. 🌋
- The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (3E 433): The “Oblivion Crisis.” The last Septim heir is assassinated, breaking the Amulet of Kings. This allows the Daedric Prince Mehrunes Dagon to invade Tamriel. The era ends when the last heir sacrifices himself to stop Dagon, “stopping of the Oblivion Crisis”. 🚪🔥

The Fourth Era: The Current Age 🛑❄️

This is the modern, “current” era of The Elder Scrolls. It’s an age of decline, civil war, and the return of legends.

Time: Begins immediately after the Oblivion Crisis.
What Happened:
- With the Septim bloodline gone, the Empire is “crumbling”. 🏚️
- The Aldmeri Dominion (led by the supremacist High Elves, the Thalmor) rises to power. They wage the “Great War” (4E 171-175) against the weakened Empire. 🧝‍♂️⚔️
- The war ends in a stalemate with the “White-Gold Concordat.” This treaty outlaws the worship of Talos (Tiber Septim).
- This ban infuriates the Nords of Skyrim, who see Talos as their greatest hero-god. This leads directly to the Stormcloak Rebellion, the civil war at the heart of Skyrim. 🐻
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (4E 201): 200 years after Oblivion, Alduin the World-Eater, the first dragon, returns as prophesied. A prisoner is discovered to be the last “Dragonborn,” the only one who can stop him. 🐲🗣️

Table: A Timeline of the Eras in The Elder Scrolls 📅⏳

Era	Key Events	Main Games Set Here
Dawn Era	Creation of Mundus, “War of Gods,” Lorkhan’s “death.” Time is non-linear. 🌌	None
Merethic Era	Elves and Men arrive in Tamriel. The Dragon War occurs. 🐉	None (Prologue events of Skyrim)
First Era	Alessian (Human) Revolt, Battle of Red Mountain, Dwemer disappear, Tribunal become gods. 🏛️	None
Second Era	“Three Banners War,” Molag Bal’s invasion, Tiber Septim’s conquest. ⚔️	The Elder Scrolls Online, Redguard
Third Era	The Septim Dynasty reigns. Warp in the West. Nerevarine prophecy. The Oblivion Crisis. ⚜️	Arena, Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion
Fourth Era	The Great War, Talos worship banned, Stormcloak Rebellion, Alduin’s Return, the Last Dragonborn. ❄️	Skyrim, Blades, Legends

Part 4: A Tour of Tamriel – The Lands of The Elder Scrolls 🗺️🧭

Tamriel is the main continent where all The Elder Scrolls games are set. It’s a land of nine distinct provinces, each with a unique culture, climate, and geography. The geography of these lands is the “why” behind their geopolitics and culture.

A Continent of Conflict and Wonder 🌍✨

A “Pocket Guide to the Empire” is given to you in many games, and for good reason. Understanding the land is the key to understanding its people.

Cyrodiil: The Heart of the Empire ❤️🏛️

The Land: Cyrodiil is the “cradle of Human Imperial high culture”. It’s the temperate, fertile “heartland” of Tamriel. The Imperial City is built on a massive island in the center of it all. 🏝️
The “Jungle” Retcon: But it wasn’t always this way. As we’ve learned, older lore and The Elder Scrolls Online describe Cyrodiil as an “endless jungle”. 🌴 The change to the temperate landscape of Oblivion is the single greatest physical example of a “mythopoeic” event. Talos, the man-god, used CHIM to “reshape the land”, retroactively deleting the jungle from reality to make it more hospitable for his human armies.
The Culture: This is the home of the Imperials. Their culture is cosmopolitan, organized, and bureaucratic. It’s heavily based on the Roman and Byzantine Empires. They are traders, diplomats, and soldiers. 🤝⚔️

Skyrim: The Land of the Nords ❄️🏔️

The Land: The rugged, frozen north. Skyrim is a land of “snow-capped mountains,” “icy wasteland,” and “harsh climate”. It’s beautiful and brutal.
The Culture: This is the home of the Nords. They are a “hardy people”, heavily based on Scandinavians and Vikings. 🛶 They are honor-bound, suspicious of magic (which they see as “clever” elven tricks), and passionate about mead, combat, and their gods, chief among them being Shor (Lorkhan) and Talos. 🍺

Morrowind: The Alien Homeland of the Dunmer 🍄🌋

The Land: This is where The Elder Scrolls gets weird. Morrowind is an alien landscape. The island of Vvardenfell is dominated by the massive, “volcanic Red Mountain,” which spews a constant “blight” and ashfall. 😷 The land is covered in giant, building-sized mushrooms, and the “animals” are bizarre insects and reptiles. 🐛
The Culture: This is the home of the Dunmer (Dark Elves). Their culture isn’t traditional fantasy. It drew inspiration from “Middle Eastern and South Asian cultures”. It’s xenophobic, insular, and built on a foundation of ancestor-worship, Daedra-worship, and obedience to their (formerly) living gods, the Tribunal. 🙏

High Rock: The Land of Bretons and Politics 🏰👑

The Land: A temperate, rainy, and “Mediterranean” climate. High Rock isn’t a unified nation. It’s a “politically fractured” land of “countless small kingdoms”.
The Culture: This is the home of the Bretons. They are the “half-elf” race, born from the “Aldmer and Nedic interbreeding” (elves and men) long ago. Their culture is defined by this split. It’s a “Franco-Brittonic” world of feudal politics, “courtly intrigue,” knights, and castles. Thanks to their elven blood, they have a deep, innate affinity for magic. ✨🗡️

Hammerfell: The Desert of the Redguards ☀️🌵

The Land: An “arid desert”. This massive province is defined by the scorching Alik’r Desert.
The Culture: This is the home of the Redguards. They aren’t native to Tamriel. They are human refugees from the “lost continent of Yokuda,” which was “swallowed by the ocean”. 🌊 Their culture is based on Moors and Sub-Saharan Africans. It’s a proud, warrior-ethos society, deeply divided between the “Crowns” (traditionalists who cling to their lost Yokudan heritage) and the “Forebears” (cosmopolitans who have embraced Tamriel and the Empire). ⚔️

Summerset Isle: The Shining Home of the Altmer ✨🏝️

The Land: A “shining” island, separate from the mainland. It’s described as beautiful, idyllic, and “perfect.”
The Culture: This is the home of the Altmer (High Elves). Their culture is based on Colonial British and Imperial Japan. It’s a society obsessed with “purity,” lineage, and their “divine” (Aedric) ancestry. They believe they are the direct descendants of the Aedra. This “purity” complex is what makes them see all other races—especially Men, the “children” of the “traitor” Lorkhan—as inferior. This supremacist ideology is the engine of the Aldmeri Dominion (the “Thalmor”), who seek to “unmake” the mortal world they see as a prison. ⛓️

Valenwood: The Walking Forest of the Bosmer 🌳🏹

The Land: A massive, “impenetrable” jungle. The trees are said to be sentient and, in some cases, “walking.” The capital city, Falinesti, is a “walking city” that migrates around the province. 🚶‍♂️🏙️
The Culture: This is the home of the Bosmer (Wood Elves). They are an animist, “shamanic” culture. Their entire society is defined by a religious promise called the “Green Pact.”
The “Weird” Part: The Green Pact forbids them from ever harming or eating any plant from their home forest. This has two major consequences.
1. They are strict carnivores. 🍖
2. They must import all their wood for bows and houses.
- The Pact demands they eat their fallen enemies. This is ritualistic cannibalism. It’s the 1-2 combo of “funny and profound” that The Elder Scrolls loves. It’s a bizarre, horrific tradition born from a place of deep, spiritual reverence. 🙏🥩

Elsweyr: The Lunar Lands of the Khajiit 🌑🏜️

The Land: Elsweyr is a “land of two halves”. It’s a northern “badlands” (Anequina) and a southern “jungle” (Pellitine).
The Culture: This is the home of the Khajiit. Their culture is entirely based on the two moons, Masser and Secunda (Lorkhan’s corpse). Their gods, their philosophy, their traditions, and their very biology are tied to the “Lunar Lattice“. 🕸️ They are a “beast race,” and their obsession with “sugar” (Moonsugar) is a central part of their religion and their economy (it’s refined into the drug Skooma). 🥣💊

Black Marsh: The Alien Swamps of the Argonians 🐊🌿

The Land: A vast, “poisonous,” and “impenetrable” swamp. The air is toxic to non-natives. It’s the most alien and unknown part of Tamriel.
The Culture: This is the home of the Argonians (or Saxhleel). They are a “beast race” of lizard-folk. Their culture is based on Central/South Native American (Aztec/Mayan) cultures. They are, without question, the most distinct race. They aren’t part of the Man/Mer conflict. They have a “hive-mind” connection to the “Hist“—a network of sentient, psychic, spore-puffing trees. 🧠🌳

Part 5: The People of Tamriel – Races, Factions, and Faces 👥🎭

Now that you know the lands, let’s meet the people. The inhabitants of Tamriel are broadly divided into three main groups: Men, Mer (Elves), and the Beastfolk.

The Great Divide: Men, Mer, and the Beastfolk ⚔️

This isn’t just a biological distinction; it’s a philosophical one.

The Children of the Wandering Ehlnofey (Men) 🧍

Who They Are: Nords, Imperials, Bretons, and Redguards.
Their Origin: They are the “Wandering Ehlnofey”. They are the descendants of the spirits who “wandered” and lost their divinity after Lorkhan’s “trick.”
Their Philosophy: They are the children of Lorkhan. They embrace Mundus. They see mortality as an opportunity for greatness, change, and mastery. They are generally “more robust… and shorter lived” than elves. 💪⏳

The Children of the Old Ehlnofey (Mer) 🧝

Who They Are: Altmer (High Elves), Bosmer (Wood Elves), Dunmer (Dark Elves), and Orsimer (Orcs).
Their Origin: They are the “Old Ehlnofey”. They are the descendants of the spirits who clung to their Aedric ancestors and their lost divinity.
Their Philosophy: They are the children of Auri-El (the elven Akatosh). They resent Mundus. They see it as a prison that “trapped” their divine spirits in mortal flesh. Their ultimate goal is to escape mortality and return to the divine. They are generally “more gracile, magical, and longer lived” than men. ✨⏳

The Beastfolk: The Great “Unknowns” 🦎🐱❓

Who They Are: Khajiit and Argonians.
Their Origin: This is the great mystery. They aren’t part of the Man/Mer conflict. They “were present on Tamriel before the elves and men”. Their own creation myths are completely different.
Their Philosophy: This is the true wildcard of The Elder Scrolls. The Man/Mer conflict is a fight over “Fixing the Dream” vs. “Waking from the Dream.” The Beastfolk represent a third path. 3️⃣
- The Khajiit are tied to the Moons (Lorkhan’s corpse) and were “shaped” by the Daedric Prince Azura.
- The Argonians are tied to the Hist, a “third group of original spirits” that are separate from the Aedra/Daedra conflict. The Hist are a collective hive-mind of trees that are also trying to understand reality.
- The Beastfolk are the “bystanders” who seem to be playing a completely different game. They aren’t trying to “fix” or “wake from” the dream. They may be trying to understand it… or replace it with their own. 😼🧠

The Playable Races of The Elder Scrolls 🎮🏃‍♂️

Here is a quick-start guide to the ten playable races you can choose from in The Elder Scrolls games.

Nords (Atmorans): ❄️
- Province: Skyrim.
- Real-World Counterpart: Scandinavians/Vikings.
- Core Identity: Hardy, honor-bound, resistant to cold. They are proud warriors who excel at two-handed weapons and are deeply suspicious of magic.
Imperials (Cyrodiils): 🦅
- Province: Cyrodiil.
- Real-World Counterpart: Romans/Byzantines.
- Core Identity: Cosmopolitan, disciplined, and diplomatic. They are the “jack-of-all-trades” race, skilled in diplomacy (Speech), heavy armor, and supportive magic.
Bretons (Manmer): 🏰
- Province: High Rock.
- Real-World Counterpart: Franco-Brittonic/Celtic.
- Core Identity: The “half-elves”. They are defined by their “elven features” and a powerful, innate resistance to magic. They make fantastic mages, sorcerers, and spellswords.
Redguards (Yokudans): ⚔️
- Province: Hammerfell.
- Real-World Counterpart: Moors/Sub-Saharan Africans.
- Core Identity: A proud warrior-race from a lost continent. They are famously gifted with all forms of weaponry, especially swords, and have a natural resistance to poison.
Altmer (High Elves): ✨
- Province: Summerset Isle.
- Real-World Counterpart: Colonial British/Imperial Japan.
- Core Identity: The “most Aldmeri” (purest) of the elves. They are tall, golden-skinned, and arrogant. They are masters of magic and have the largest natural pool of Magicka (magic energy).
Bosmer (Wood Elves): 🏹
- Province: Valenwood.
- Real-World Counterpart: Animist/Shamanic cultures.
- Core Identity: Small, agile, and curious. They are the best archers in Tamriel. They are bound by the “Green Pact” (the cannibalism one) and can command animals to fight for them.
Dunmer (Dark Elves): 🔥
- Province: Morrowind.
- Real-World Counterpart: Bronze Age “Fertile Crescent” cultures.
- Core Identity: The “cursed” elves, with ashen skin and red eyes. They are xenophobic and insular. They are balanced between magic and steel and have a natural resistance to fire (from living in a volcano).
Orsimer (Orcs): 👹
- Province: Orsinium (a city-state, not a province).
- Core Identity: The “pariah” race. They are also “cursed elves”. They are renowned as the finest armorers and smiths in Tamriel and are ferocious shock-troops. Their “Berserker Rage” makes them terrifying in combat.
Khajiit: 🐱
- Province: Elsweyr.
- Real-World Counterpart: No direct one; draws from Southeast Asian and Hindu cultures.
- Core Identity: The “cat-people” of Tamriel. Their biology is tied to the moons. They are agile, stealthy, and masters of unarmed combat. They are often mistrusted as thieves and “Skooma” (drug) dealers.
Argonians (Saxhleel): 🐊
- Province: Black Marsh.
- Real-World Counterpart: Central/South Native American (Aztec/Mayan).
- Core Identity: The “lizard-folk” of Tamriel. They are deeply alien, connected to the “Hist” trees. They are resistant to poison and disease (from living in a swamp) and can breathe underwater.

Creation Myths: Where Do We Really Come From? 🐣🌌

We know the Man/Mer story (Lorkhan vs. Aedra). But the Beastfolk myths are far more interesting.

The Khajiit and the “Great Cat” Azura 😼🌕

The Khajiit creation myth is beautiful and strange.

It doesn’t distinguish between Aedra and Daedra. To them, all gods are “original spirits” with a role to play.

They believe that in the beginning, there were forest people (like the Bosmer) “in a shapeless ooze”.

The Daedric Prince Azura (whom they call “Azurah”) was tasked by “Fadomai” (Padomay) to create a new people.

Azurah “closed the ears” of the other gods so they wouldn’t hear. 🙉 She took the shapeless forest people and changed them.

She bound their new forms to the “Lunar Lattice”—the “Jode” (Masser) and “Jone” (Secunda). 🕸️

This is why a Khajiit’s physical form is determined by the phase of the moons at their birth. A Khajiit born under a full moon becomes a bipedal “Suthay-raht” (like you see in the games). One born under a different phase might be a “Pahmar-raht” (a giant tiger) or an “Alfiq” (a house cat, that is still just as intelligent as any other Khajiit). 🐈🐅

The Argonians and the Mysterious Hist 🌳🤯

This is, by far, the weirdest origin story.

The Argonians weren’t created by Aedra or Daedra.

They were “created” or “uplifted” by the Hist.

The Hist are a “third group of original spirits” native to one of the “12 planes of creation”. They aren’t Ehlnofey (ancestors of Man/Mer).

They are a sentient hive-mind of psychic trees.

Long ago, the Hist found the “lizards” of Black Marsh. They mutated these creatures by having them “ingest” their magical sap. 💧

This act gave the lizards sentience and “linked” them to the Hist-mind.

To this day, Argonians must ingest the Hist sap when they are born. If they don’t, they “would just remain as non-humanoid lizards”.

This makes the Argonians, in essence, the “flesh-puppets” or children of a trans-dimensional tree-mind. Their connection to the Hist is everything. 🔗

Table: The Ten Playable Races: A Traveler’s Guide 🧳🗺️

Race	Home Province	Also Known As	Core Identity
Altmer	Summerset Isle	High Elves	Arrogant, supreme mages, “pure” elven stock ✨
Argonian	Black Marsh	Saxhleel, Lizard-folk	Alien, stealthy, water-breathing, bound to the Hist trees 🐊
Bosmer	Valenwood	Wood Elves	Agile, master archers, carnivores, ritual cannibals (Green Pact) 🏹
Breton	High Rock	Manmer, Half-Elves	Gifted mages, resistant to magic, feudal and political 🏰
Dunmer	Morrowind	Dark Elves	“Cursed” elves, xenophobic, balanced fighters/mages, fire-resistant 🔥
Imperial	Cyrodiil	Cyrodiils	Diplomatic, organized, “jack-of-all-trades” soldiers 🏛️
Khajiit	Elsweyr	Cat-people	Stealthy, unarmed masters, biology is tied to the moons 😼
Nord	Skyrim	Atmorans	Hardy warriors, cold-resistant, suspicious of magic, mead-lovers 🍺
Orsimer	Orsinium	Orcs, “Pariah Folk”	“Cursed” elves, master smiths, ferocious berserkers ⚒️
Redguard	Hammerfell	Yokudans	Master swordsmen, athletic, from a lost continent ⚔️

Who’s Who: The Major Factions of The Elder Scrolls 🤝🚩

No matter who you are, you’ll end up working for someone. Factions are the lifeblood of The Elder Scrolls questing.

The “Big 4” Joinable Guilds 🏆

These guilds appear in almost every game. They are your “career paths.”

⚔️ The Fighters Guild: A Tamriel-wide guild of mercenaries. They are warriors for hire. If you have a problem (like rats in your cellar), and you have coin, they will solve it.
🔮 The Mages Guild: The “official” school for mages. In most of Tamriel, they control access to magical learning. They are academics, researchers, and magical police.
💰 The Thieves Guild: A criminal organization of… well, thieves. They operate in the “shadows” of most major cities. Their morality ranges from “Robin Hood” to “just here for the money.”
🖐️ The Dark Brotherhood: A notorious, continent-wide assassins’ cult. They aren’t just “assassins for hire”. They are a quasi-religious order that worships Sithis (the Void) and the “Night Mother.” They kill because they believe they are doing the Void’s work.

Political & Military Powers ⚖️👑

The Empire of Tamriel: The human-led empire, currently headquartered in Cyrodiil. By Skyrim, it’s a shadow of its former glory and “falling apart”.
The Aldmeri Dominion: The elven-supremacist empire, led by the Thalmor from Summerset Isle. They are the “rising” power in the Fourth Era and the main antagonists of Skyrim’s political story.
The Stormcloaks: The Nord rebellion in Skyrim, fighting to secede from the Empire and restore the worship of Talos.
The Great Houses of Morrowind: The main political “factions” of the Dunmer. These aren’t guilds, but “clans” you can join. They include the noble warrior House Redoran, the magically-reclusive (and mushroom-living) House Telvanni, and the political House Hlaalu.

Obscure Factions You Should Know 🕵️‍♂️📜

The Morag Tong: The legal, guild-sanctioned assassins of Morrowind. Unlike the “heretic” Dark Brotherhood, the Morag Tong has government contracts. They are a “respectable” part of Dunmer society.
The Psijic Order: The oldest, most mysterious, and most powerful group of mages in the world. They are “neutral” monks who live on a “secret” island that “disappears” at will. They see the Mages Guild as “children” playing with “toys.” They only appear when the entire universe is at risk. 🔮🏝️
The Moth Priests: The “cult” of scholars who dedicate their lives to reading the Elder Scrolls. As we know, this practice eventually blinds them. They are the keepers of the ultimate, forbidden truths. 🦋
The Knights of the Nine: A “lost” order of holy warriors dedicated to the Aedra. They are the “King Arthur’s Knights” of this universe. ⚔️🛡️

Part 6: The Culture of Tamriel – Daily Life in The Elder Scrolls 🏺🍖🎶

A world isn’t just its history and gods. It’s the people. It’s what they eat, what they sing, and what they wear. The Elder Scrolls is rich in this “minutiae”.

Aesthetics, Fashion, and Trends 👗🛡️

The “style” of Tamriel is as diverse as its people.

Imperial: The “Romanesque” look. Functional, organized, and ornate. Lots of polished metal (Imperial Legion armor), togas, and mosaics. 🏛️
Nord: The “Viking” look. Fur, fur, and more fur. Riveted leather, iron and steel, and heavy, warm cloaks. Their architecture is “rustic,” heavy timber and stone. 🪵
Dunmer: The “Alien” look. Their armor isn’t metal. It’s made from the carapaces of giant insects (Chitin) or “bonemold” (a resin). Their fashion is organic, “steampunk”, and spiky. 🦴⚙️
Altmer: The “Crystalline” look. Flowing robes, “gleaming” armor that looks grown, not forged. Their architecture is all impossible, beautiful, crystalline spires. 💎
Bosmer: The “Primal” look. Because of the Green Pact, all their armor is made from bone, leather, and hide. No “plant” material. This includes their bows. 🦴
Argonian: The “Mesoamerican” look. Bright feathers, stone-and-pyramid aesthetics, and tribal body paint. 🪶🗿

The Music of Tamriel 🎵🪕

Music is everywhere in The Elder Scrolls. You’ll spend dozens of hours listening to bards sing “Ragnar the Red” in Skyrim‘s taverns. But the lore of music is, naturally, cosmological.

More Than Lutes and Flutes 🎼⚡

Music isn’t just “entertainment” in Tamriel. It’s a fundamental force.

The trickster god Lorkhan (the “dead” god) is also known by the title “The Doom Drum“. His “beating” heart is the “drum” of the mortal world. 🥁
The Mad God, Sheogorath, is credited with “giving music to Tamriel”. 🤪🎶
The “Sharmat” Dagoth Ur (the villain of Morrowind) claims to be “older than music”.This implies that music isn’t just sound; it’s a divine, structuring force of reality itself. A “bard” in The Elder Scrolls is tapping into something far deeper than a simple melody.

How the Races Make Music 🥁🎺

Each culture’s music reflects its environment.

Bosmer (Wood Elves): As mandated by the Green Pact, they can’t make a wooden flute. Their instruments are made from animal parts. This includes “giant bat bone whistles,” “alit bone ceremonial shawms,” and “gem-studded carapace castanets”. 🦇🦴
Altmer (High Elves): Their music is “Old”. It’s ceremonial, ancient, and complex. 📜
Nords: Their music is folk music. Lutes, flutes, and drums, all to accompany epic, “Viking-style” sagas of heroes and mead. 🍺
Argonians: They have their own instruments, including “Vvardenfell” wind-chimes and “shell” drums. 🐚

Cuisine: What to Eat in Tamriel (A Traveler’s Guide) 🥘🍽️

You can’t be a proper adventurer on an empty stomach. The “cuisine” of The Elder Scrolls is one of its most “fun” and “profound” aspects.

Nord Feasts: Mead and Mammoth 🍗🍺

Nord cuisine is “rustic” and “reflects the harsh climate”.

The Food: Since farming is hard, the diet is “a significant portion” wild game. This means “large roasts of mammoth, horker (a walrus-like creature), and assorted game meats”. You’ll also see a lot of fish, especially “salmon”. 🐟
The Drink: Mead. Lots and lots of mead. “Nord mead… has developed a reputation for its strength”. 😵

Dunmer Delicacies: Ash-Yams and Beetle Cheese 🍠🐞

This is where the menu gets truly alien. Dunmer food is based on “non-real substances”.

The Food: Their staple “vegetable” is the “Ash-Yam,” a tuber that grows in the volcanic ash. Their “leaf vegetable” is “hackle-lo,” which they just peel off a tree-like plant.
The “Weird” Part: A “delicacy” is “Scuttle.” This is a “beetle cheese“. Their “potato chips” are “fried slaughterfish scales”. It’s a cuisine only a Dunmer could love. 🤢

Khajiiti Cuisines: Sweetness and Moonsugar 🍭🍬

The Khajiit are obsessed with one thing: sweets.

The Food: Khajiit vendors are known for competing with “variations of their food using normal sugar”. Their diet is full of sweet-meats, puddings, and candies.
The “Weird” Part: This obsession with “sugar” is a cultural echo of their religious substance: Moonsugar. This is a “sacred” crystal that falls from the moons. It’s their holy communion… and it’s also refined into the highly addictive, illicit drug Skooma. 💊

Redguard Spices and Argonian… Grubs 🌶️🐛

Redguard: Their food is complex and spicy, reflecting their “arid” desert home.
Argonian: This is “bush tucker”. Their diet was once a “fad” in High Rock. What did it include? “Boiled beetles” and “warm grubs in their own sauces,” which are described as being “like mildly spicy, green baked beans”. Delicious. 😋

Society: Love, Life, and the Law ❤️👮‍♂️

Beyond food, the cultures of The Elder Scrolls are defined by their daily lives.

Rituals, Traditions, and Superstitions 🎉

Love & Marriage: In Skyrim, marriage is simple. You find someone, you put on an “Amulet of Mara” (the goddess of Love), and if they are interested, you get married in her temple. 💍
Festivals: Tamriel is full of holidays. ESO features many of them, such as the “Witches Festival” (their Halloween) 🎃, and the “Jester’s Festival” (their April Fool’s). 🃏
Death: Burial rites vary wildly. Nords are interred in massive, ancient “crypts,” often with their weapons. The Bosmer, due to the Green Pact, can’t bury their dead (it would “feed the soil”). So, they eat their dead. ☠️🍽️

Crime and Punishment Across the Provinces ⚖️⛓️

Crime is a core pillar of The Elder Scrolls experience. Stealing is a “feature.”

The Law: In most “civilized” provinces (like Cyrodiil and Skyrim), if you’re caught, a guard will approach you. You can pay a fine, go to jail, or resist arrest. 👮‍♂️
Morrowind: The law is different. If you steal, you might be attacked on sight. There is no “paying your bounty.” ⚔️
“Criminal Acts”: In The Elder Scrolls Online, this system is even deeper. Certain magical acts, like Necromancy, are considered a “criminal act”. If you use a necromantic skill (like raising a skeleton) in a town, the “guards will comment”, and you’ll get a bounty. This forces you to “sneak around guards” just to use your own class skills. 💀🤫

Part 7: The Power of Tamriel – The Magic of The Elder Scrolls ✨🔥

Magic in The Elder Scrolls isn’t just “spells.” It’s a fundamental, cosmic force. It’s the “starlight” of creation. 🌟

How Magic Works: A Gift from the Stars 🌠🎁

In The Elder Scrolls, magic isn’t a “dark” or “unnatural” art. It’s the literal, raw energy of creation.

Magicka, Aetherius, and the Sun ☀️

Aetherius: This is the “immortal plane,” the “origin of all magic”. This is the “realm” of the Aedra.
Magicka: This is the energy from Aetherius. It’s magic.
The “Holes”: How does Magicka get into the mortal world (Mundus)? It leaks. 💧
Recall that when Lorkhan “tricked” the Aedra, some of them fled before they were trapped.
The “Architect” of Mundus, the god Magnus, was the first to flee. When he “tore” his way out of Mundus to get back to Aetherius, he ripped a massive hole in the fabric of reality.
That hole is the SUN. ☀️
The other, “lesser” spirits who fled with him (the “Magna-Ge”) tore smaller holes.
Those holes are the STARS. ✨
The “Photosynthesis” of Magic: The sun and stars aren’t “fiery balls of gas.” They are holes in reality that leak the raw energy of Aetherius into the world.
“Magicka,” therefore, is starlight.
A mage, as one scholar notes, “works like photosynthesis”. They are absorbing the ambient light from the sun and stars and focusing it, through their will, into a spell. 🧙‍♂️✨

The Schools of Magic: A Quick Primer 📚🔮

Magic is, at its core, “reality warping”. “All magic is essentially just altering reality in some form”.

An Artificial System 🛠️

The “Schools of Magic” (Destruction, Restoration, etc.) aren’t fundamental laws of the universe. They are “artificial categories”. They were created by the Mages Guild and the “Shad Astula Academy” as a “curriculum” to study magic. 🏫

The “only limit is, literally, the end of your conceptual reality”. If you can believe and understand something, you can do it with magic.

What the Schools Do 🔥❄️

Destruction: The most straightforward. This is destroying things with “fire, frost, and shock”. 💥
Alteration: Bending physical reality. This includes “waterbreathing,” “armor” (making your skin like iron), or “paralysis”. 🛡️
Illusion: Bending perception. This affects the mind. This includes “invisibility” (making others perceive you as not there) or “frenzy” (making an enemy “perceive” their friend as a threat). 👻
Conjuration: Summoning things from other planes. This is how you call “Daedra” (like an Atronach) or “summon” a “bound weapon” from Oblivion. 👹🗡️
Restoration: Repairing reality. This is the “healing” school. It’s also the school used to harm “undead,” as they are an unnatural violation of the laws of reality. 🩹✨
Mysticism (Defunct): This was an older school. It was about manipulating magic itself. It was “de-classified” by the Mages Guild because it was too abstract. Its spells were absorbed into the other schools. 📜🚫

Crafting Your Own Power 🧪⚒️

You aren’t limited to “casting” magic. You can imbue it into objects.

Alchemy: Mixing Plants for Fun and Profit 🌿💰

Alchemy is the art of distilling the magical properties of ingredients into potions.

This can lead to some… interesting results. In Skyrim, the infamous “Resto-Loop” (or “Fortify Restoration” exploit) is a perfect example of The Elder Scrolls lore in action.

“Fortify Restoration” potions are meant to make Restoration spells stronger.
But… “Enchantments” (like “Fortify Alchemy”) are also considered Restoration-school spells.
This creates a loophole. ➰
You craft a “Fortify Restoration” potion.
You drink it. 🥤
This strengthens your “Fortify Alchemy” enchantment.
You can now craft a stronger “Fortify Restoration” potion.
Repeat. 🔁Within minutes, you are crafting potions that “go beyond the 29% cap” and “fortify” your skills by millions of percent. You’ve become a god by exploiting a loophole in the laws of magic. This isn’t just a “glitch.” It’s what a true master wizard would do. 🧙‍♂️✨

Enchanting: Trapping Souls in Your Stuff 💎⚔️

Enchanting is the art of binding a “soul gem” (a trapped soul) to an item to give it a permanent magical effect.

You disenchant a magical item to learn the “knowledge” of its spell.
This destroys the item. 💥
You then take a new item, a filled soul gem, and “imbue” that knowledge into the new item.
This is “lore-friendly.” In-game “Spell Tomes” (the books that teach you spells) are described as “enchanted items” that are destroyed on use, as the “magic… flow[s] into the mage, imbuing him with the knowledge”. 🧠✨

The Dragon’s Voice: The Thu’um 🗣️🐉

This is crucial. The “Shouts” you use in Skyrim aren’t magic.

How Shouting Is Not Magic 🚫✨

Magic uses Magicka (the “starlight” from Aetherius) to bend the laws of reality. It is external.
The Thu’um (or “The Voice“) uses your own soul to command the laws of reality. It is internal.
When you use magic, you’re asking reality to change. 🙏
When you use the Thu’um, you’re telling reality to change. And it obeys. 😤👊

Tonal Architecture: Hacking the Aurbis 🎶💻

The Thu’um is a form of “Tonal Architecture“. This is the “deep magic” of The Elder Scrolls.

The Aurbis (the universe) is a “Song“. It’s the “music” of the Aedra, sung into existence. 🎼
Magic is singing along with the Song. It uses the “notes” that are already there (Magicka).
Tonal Magic (like the Thu’um, or the Dwemer’s “music”) is picking up your own instrument and changing the melody. 🎸
This is why the Thu’um is “more basic” and “more powerful”. It doesn’t “cost” Magicka. It costs effort. It is “literally commanding the earth bones” (the laws of the Aedra) to your will.
For Dragons, language and power are the same thing. When a dragon “breathes fire,” it isn’t a “physical thing.” It is “magical,” and they are speaking a Shout. The word for “Fire” is “Fire”. 🔥
A “Dragonborn” (like the player in Skyrim) has the soul of a dragon in the body of a mortal. This is why they, and they alone, can “absorb” a dragon’s knowledge and “Shout” with the same reality-bending power.

Part 8: Your Journey Begins: The Media of The Elder Scrolls 🎮💿

You have the lore. You have the philosophy. You’re ready to dream. So, where do you start your journey? 🧳

The Elder Scrolls is, first and foremost, a video game series. But it also includes online games, novels, and more.

Where to Start? Playing the Games 🕹️

While there are many games, the “big three” modern titles are the best places to start your adventure.

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (2002) 🍄

The Vibe: The “deep lore” classic. This is the “magic mushroom” game.
Why Play It: This is where the truly “unique” and “weird” parts of The Elder Scrolls were born. The world-building is unparalleled. It’s “Dune” meets Dungeons & Dragons. It’s an alien world that hates you.
Heads-Up: This is an “old-school” RPG. There are no quest markers. People will give you directions like, “Go past the big rock and turn left at the spooky tree.” 🌳 You have to read your journal. You will get lost. And it will be the most rewarding experience of your life. 🗺️❤️

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2006) 🏰

The Vibe: The quintessential high fantasy adventure. It’s bright, colorful, and “generic” on the surface.
Why Play It: The quests. While the world is a bit “plain” (it’s the “retconned” temperate Cyrodiil), the stories are the best in the series. The Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild questlines are widely considered masterpieces of video game storytelling. 📖✨
Heads-Up: Do not skip the Shivering Isles expansion. It’s a 40-hour journey into the realm of the Mad God, Sheogorath. It’s the perfect 1-2 combo of “funny and profound”. 🤪🎭

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011) 🐉

The Vibe: The global phenomenon. The “Viking” game. This is the one everyone has played, and for good reason.
Why Play It: It’s the most accessible, polished, and “modern” of the single-player games (especially the Special Edition or Anniversary Edition). The world is vast, beautiful, and packed with content. This is the “gateway drug” to The Elder Scrolls. It’s a “Trojan Horse”—it looks like a simple dragon-slaying game, but it hides all the deep, weird lore you just read about inside. 🐴🎁

The Online World: The Elder Scrolls Online (2025 State of Play) 🌐⚔️

What if you want to explore Tamriel with friends? The Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) is a “Massively Multiplayer Online” (MMO) game set in the Second Era.

Is It Worth Starting ESO in 2025? 🤔

For a New, Solo Player:YES. ✅
- ESO is a “solid MMO” with thousands of hours of content. Unlike other MMOs, every quest is fully voice-acted. 🎙️
- You can play the entire game as a “solo” experience, just like Skyrim or Oblivion. It has a “great state” for beginners, with “an amount of content that will blow your mind”. 🤯
For a Veteran, Endgame Player:It’s… Complicated. 🫤
- The “vibe” for veterans is mixed. ZeniMax Online Studios (ZOS) has moved to a “smaller seasonal” content model, releasing smaller chapters more frequently.
- Many veterans feel this new model is “light” on content. There are also rising complaints in 2025 about “exclusionary behavior” in the hardcore endgame (Trials and Dungeons). 🛑
- If you’re a new player, you won’t encounter this for hundreds of hours. Do not let it scare you off.

The BIG News: The Timeline is Moving! ⏩📅

This is the biggest news for ESO in 2025.

For over ten years, ESO has been “stuck” in the same year: 2E 582. Every new “expansion” (like Gold Road in 2024) has happened in that same year.

The 2025 News: In interviews at Gamescom 2025, the new leadership team at ZOS confirmed that the ESO timeline will finally move forward in 2026. This is a massive deal for the community and means the world will finally start to change. 🔄

Crossplay is (Finally) Coming! 🤝🎮

The other huge announcement from 2025: “long-awaited crossplay support” is officially in the works. This means that (eventually) players on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation will be able to play together. 🎉

The Future: The Elder Scrolls VI (All Confirmed News) 🔮🐉

And now, the one everyone is waiting for. The Elder Scrolls VI.

What We Know (Which Is… Not Much) 🤷‍♂️

The Elder Scrolls VI was officially announced at E3 in 2018.
We have one 36-second teaser trailer, showing a landscape and the title.
That is all.

The (Painful) 2025 Update: “Still A Long Way Off” 🐢

In November 2025, Todd Howard (the director at Bethesda) gave a “wild” interview with GQ.

He confirmed that The Elder Scrolls VI is “still a long way off”. ⏳
He “preached patience” and told fans he “doesn’t want fans to feel anxious”.
Bethesda’s focus has been on Starfield and its upcoming DLC. TES VI is next, but it isn’t close. 🚀

Release Date Rumors and “Shadow Dropping” 🤫🗓️

The Rumor: Industry insiders and reports are targeting a 2028-2029 release window.
The Implication: This means The Elder Scrolls VI will not be a PS5/Xbox Series X game. It will be a next-generation (PS6 / new Xbox) title, or at the very least, a “cross-gen” release. 🎮🆕
The “Shadow Drop” Theory: Todd Howard hinted that his “perfect version” of a release is to “shadow drop” the game—that is, “one day, the game will just appear” with little to no marketing buildup. He even mentioned that the (hypothetical) Oblivion Remastered shadow drop was a “test run” for this strategy. 🥷📦

Will The Elder Scrolls VI Be on PlayStation? 💙🤔

This is the billion-dollar question since Microsoft bought Bethesda.

Originally, it was assumed to be an Xbox/PC exclusive. 💚🖥️
HOWEVER: In 2025, Microsoft’s gaming strategy changed. They began bringing their “exclusives” to PlayStation.
This, combined with the (hypothetical) Oblivion Remastered being multi-platform, makes it “more likely that Elder Scrolls 6 will also follow suit”.
The most likely scenario: It will launch day one on Xbox Game Pass (a “game-changer”), while “PS5 owners will have to buy the game at full price”. 💸

Beyond the Games: Novels and Other Media 📚🎬

Want to dive into the lore without a controller?

The Infernal City & Lord of Souls: These are two official novels by Greg Keyes, set in the Fourth Era, before Skyrim. They are fantastic and tell the story of the “Umbriel” crisis. They are essential reading if you want to understand the true nature of the Hist trees. 🌳📖
The Hero’s Guides to The Elder Scrolls Online: A set of three in-universe collector’s books, including an alchemist’s journal and a guide to armor styles.
The Official Survival Guide to Tamriel: Another in-universe book with “survival tips”.

Table: The Elder Scrolls Media in Chronological Order 📅📀

This is your “watch order” for the entire universe. This is the in-lore chronological order, not the release order.

Era	Year	Media (Game or Novel)	(Notes)
Second Era	2E 582	The Elder Scrolls Online	The “Three Banners War”. ⚔️
Second Era	2E 864	The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard	A classic action-adventure game. 🏝️
Third Era	3E 389-399	The Elder Scrolls: Arena	The “Imperial Simulacrum”. 👑
Third Era	3E 405-417	The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall	The “Warp in the West”. 🌀
Third Era	3E 427	The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind	The Nerevarine Prophecy. 🌋
Third Era	3E 433	The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion	The Oblivion Crisis. 🚪
Fourth Era	4E 40	The Infernal City & Lord of Souls (Novels)	The “Umbriel” Crisis. 👻
Fourth Era	4E 180	The Elder Scrolls: Blades	A mobile game set after the Great War. 📱
Fourth Era	4E 201	The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim	The return of Alduin and the Last Dragonborn. 🐲
TBA	TBA	The Elder Scrolls VI	The future…. 🚀

Part 9: The Journey Never Ends: Where to Go From Here 🚪🌄🏃‍♂️

This guide isn’t an ending. It’s an invitation. We have given you the map, but you must take the journey.

Continuing Your Adventure in The Elder Scrolls 🛡️🏹

You are now, officially, a “lore-seeker.” Your true “next step” is to join the community that has been obsessively chronicling this universe for 25 years: the fan wikis.

The Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages (UESP): 📜
- This is “the OG wiki”. It’s the gold standard.
- The UESP community and its founder, Dave, are legends in the fanbase.
- This is your first, best, and most “reliable” source for all things Elder Scrolls.
The Imperial Library: 📚
- This is the other major lore repository.
- The Imperial Library is where you go for the deep cuts. It hosts all the “out-of-game” texts written by the developers, the “C0DA” script, and the most esoteric philosophical discussions.
- UESP is the encyclopedia. The Imperial Library is the archive.

Exploring Similar Universes 🌌🔭

You have taken your first step into a “weird” new world. If you loved what you found, here is where to go next.

If You Loved the Deep, Weird, Metaphysical Lore: 🧠🌀
- Read: The Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson.
- This is the #1 recommendation. It’s the closest thing to The Elder Scrolls‘ weird, contradictory, “gods-are-people” vibe in novel form. It’s massive, complex, and will ruin all other fantasy for you.
- Read: The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez.
- A newer recommendation that has “morrowind lore vibes. It’s weird, philosophical, poetic and dark”.
If You Loved the Atmosphere and “Learn By Doing” Storytelling: 🔦🗺️
- Play: The Dark Souls / Elden Ring Series.
- Dark Souls tells its story in the same way as The Elder Scrolls. The “truth” is a puzzle. The lore isn’t told to you; it is hidden in item descriptions and “visual lore” for you to piece together.
If You Loved the High Fantasy and Deep Magic Systems: ✨⚡
- Read: The Cosmere Universe by Brandon Sanderson.
- This is a massive, interconnected universe (including the Mistborn and Stormlight Archive series) with “hard magic” systems that are as deep and “physical” as those in The Elder Scrolls.
If You Loved the Sprawling World and Faction Politics: 👑⚔️
- Play: World of Warcraft.
- If you want a massive world with decades of “dark” (despite the “cartoony” aesthetic) history, WoW is the other “giant” in the room.
- Read: A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) by George R.R. Martin.
- If you loved the political maneuvering of the Great Houses or the Stormcloak/Imperial conflict, this is the series for you.

Final Thoughts: The Dream Is Yours 💤✨💖

We began this journey in a prison. You were a “blank slate”.

We have ended it here, at the “Tower.” 🗼

You now know the secrets of The Elder Scrolls.

You know that the universe is a Dream. 💭

You know that all history is a Lie. 🤥

You know that Belief shapes Reality. ✨

And you know that your story is Canon. ✅

The Elder Scrolls isn’t just a game. It’s a philosophy. It’s a collection of “vague and contradictory” stories that invite you to be the one who finds the truth.

The journey isn’t about finding the “truth.” It’s about building your own. 🧱

Welcome to The Elder Scrolls. Your prison cell is open. 🔓

Go write your story. ✍️🌍