Within the series' fictional universe, each game takes place on the continent of Tamriel. The setting combines pre-medieval real-world elements, such as a powerful Roman-like Empire, with high fantasy medieval themes, including limited technology, widespread magic use, and the existence of many mythological creatures. The continent is split into a number of provinces inhabited by humans and humanoid fantasy races such as elves, orcs and anthropomorphic animals. A common theme in the lore is that a chosen hero (represented by the player's character) rises to defeat an impending threat, typically a malevolent being or an antagonistic army.
Prior to working on The Elder Scrolls series, Bethesda had worked predominantly with sports and action games. In the six years from its founding to Arena's 1994 release, Bethesda had released ten games, six of them sports games,[8] with titles such as Hockey League Simulator, NCAA Basketball: Road to the Final Four ('91/'92 Edition), and Wayne Gretzky Hockey,[9] and the remaining four adaptations from other media,[8] primarily the Terminator series.[9] Bethesda's course changed abruptly when it began working on its first action role-playing game. Designer Ted Peterson recalls: "I remember talking to the guys at Sir-Tech who were doing Wizardry VII: Crusaders of the Dark Savant at the time, and them literally laughing at us for thinking we could do it."[10] Ted Peterson worked alongside Vijay Lakshman as one of the initial designers of what became known as Arena, a "medieval-style gladiator game".[10][11]
Peterson and Lakshman were joined by Julian Lefay who, according to Peterson, "really spear-headed the initial development of the series".[10] Peterson, Lakshman, and LeFay were longtime aficionados of pen-and-paper role-playing games,[10] which greatly influenced the creation of the world of Tamriel.[11] They were also fans of Looking Glass Studios' Ultima Underworld series, their main inspiration for Arena.[10] Initially, Arena was not to be a role-playing game at all. The player, and a team of their fighters, would travel the world, fighting other teams in their arenas until the player became "grand champion" in the world's capital, the Imperial City.[11] Along the way, side quests of a more role-playing nature could be completed. As the process of development progressed, however, the tournaments became less important and the side quests more.[10] Role-playing game elements were added, as it expanded to include cities outside the arenas, and dungeons beyond the cities.[11] Eventually it was decided to drop the idea of tournaments altogether, and focus on quests and dungeons,[10] making the game a "full-blown [role-playing game]".[11] Although the team had dropped all arena combat from the game, all the material had already been printed up with the title, so the game went to market as The Elder Scrolls: Arena. Lakshman, who then worked at Christopher Weaver's Bethesda Softworks, came up with the name of The Elder Scrolls[10] and the words eventually came to mean "Tamriel's mystical tomes of knowledge that told of its past, present, and future".[11] The game's initial voice-over was changed in response, beginning: "It has been foretold in the Elder Scrolls..."[10]
Bethesda missed their Christmas 1993 deadline for releasing Arena, and the game was released in the first quarter of 1994 instead, a "really serious [mistake] for a small developer/publisher like Bethesda Softworks". The packaging included a scantily clad female warrior, which further contributed to distributor concern, leading to an initial distribution of only 20,000 units. Having missed the Christmas sales season, the development team was concerned that they "had screwed the company". Nevertheless, sales continued to grow, month after month, as news of the game was passed by word-of-mouth.[10] Despite some initial software bugs,[10] and the formidable demands the game made on players' machines,[12] it became a cult hit.[8] Evaluations of the game's success varied from "modest"[12] to "wild".[8] Still, the game maintained traction with its audience. Game historian Matt Barton concluded that "the game set a new standard for this type of role-playing video game, and demonstrated just how much room was left for innovation".[12]
A first-person screenshot from Daggerfall, demonstrating the user interface and graphical capabilities of the game
Work on The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall began after Arena's release in March 1994.[13] Ted Peterson was assigned the role of lead game designer.[10] He endeavoured to make Daggerfall's plot less "clichéd" than Arena's and involve a "complex series of adventures leading to multiple resolutions".[10] With Daggerfall, Arena's experience-point-based system was replaced with one rewarding the player for conducting role-playing activities with their character.[13]Daggerfall came equipped with an improved character generation engine, one that included a GURPS-influenced class creation system, offering players the chance to create their own classes, and assign their own skills.[10][14]Daggerfall was developed with an XnGine engine, one of the first truly 3D engines. Daggerfall realized a game world the size of Great Britain,[13] filled with 15,000 towns and a population of 750,000.[8] It was influenced by analog games and literature that Julian LeFay or Ted Peterson happened to be playing or reading at the time, such as Dumas's The Man in the Iron Mask and Vampire: The Masquerade.[10] It was released in September 1996.[15] Like Arena, Daggerfall's initial release suffered from some bugs, leaving consumers disgruntled.[12] These early anomalies were fixed in later versions. This experience led to a more prudent release schedule for future games.[16]
Battlespire and Redguard
Following the release of Daggerfall, work began on three separate projects at once: An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire, The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard, and The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. Battlespire, originally titled Dungeon of Daggerfall: Battlespire, was the first of the three to be released,[17] on November 30, 1997.[18] Originally designed as an expansion pack for Daggerfall, it was eventually rebranded as a standalone game. Battlespire focused on dungeon romping and offered multiplayer gaming in the form of a player versus playerdeathmatch mode, the only series title to do so[17] prior to the release of The Elder Scrolls Online in 2014. Redguard was the second of the three titles to be released, on October 31, 1998.[19] It was an action-adventure game inspired by Tomb Raider, Prince of Persia, and the Ultima series.[20]Redguard did not offer the player the chance to create their own character. Instead, players would play the prefabricated "Cyrus the Redguard".[20] Both games did poorly with Bethesda's target audience. Players used to the vast open spaces of Daggerfall did not take well to the reduced worlds of Redguard and Battlespire. Based upon its customers' clear desire for massive role-playing game worlds, Bethesda redoubled its efforts to build the next major chapter.[8]
A third-person screenshot from the game, demonstrating Morrowind’s advanced graphics: pixel-shaded water; long render distances; and detailed textures and models.
The third title in The Elder Scrolls series was conceived during the development of Daggerfall.[21] Initially designed to encompass the whole province of Morrowind and allow the player to join all five Dunmer Great Houses, it was decided that the scope of the game was too much for the technology available at the time.[21] At publication, it covered the province's central isle of Vvardenfell and allowed the player to join three of the Great Houses. The XnGine was scrapped and replaced with Numerical Design Limited's Gamebryo, a Direct3D-powered engine with transform, clipping, and lighting capacity,[22] 32-bit textures and skeletal animation.[23] It was decided that the game world would be populated using the methods the team had developed in Redguard; with the game objects crafted by hand, rather than generated using random algorithmic methods.[24]
The project took "close to 100-man-years to create". Bethesda tripled their staff and spent the first year developing The Elder Scrolls Construction Set. This allowed the game staff to easily balance the game and to modify it in small increments rather than large.[21] Ted Peterson, who had left following the release of Daggerfall, returned to work as an author of in-game material, and as a general consultant on the lore-based aspects of the work.[25] The PC version of Morrowind had gone gold by April 23, 2002,[26][27] and was released on May 1 in North America,[28] with the Xbox release set at June 7.[29] On January 3, Bethesda announced that game publisher Ubisoft would take control of Morrowind's European distribution, in addition to those of eight other Bethesda games.[30]
The expansion packThe Elder Scrolls III: Tribunal went gold on November 1[31] and was released, with little fanfare,[32] on November 6.[33]Tribunal puts the player in the self-contained, walled city of Mournhold, which can be teleported to and from Morrowind's land mass.[31] Development on the expansion began after Morrowind shipped, giving the developers a mere five-month development cycle to release the game. The prior existence of the Construction Set, however, meant that the team "already had the tools in place to add content and features very quickly".[34] Interface improvements, and specifically an overhaul of Morrowind's journal system, were among the key goals.[34][35]Morrowind's second expansion, The Elder Scrolls III: Bloodmoon, went gold by May 23,[36] and was released on June 6.[37] It had been worked on since the release of Tribunal.[38] In the expansion, the player travels to the frozen island of Solstheim and is asked to investigate the uneasiness of the soldiers stationed there.
An in-game screenshot showing Oblivion'suser interface, HDR lighting and long draw distance, changes made as part of a goal to create "cutting-edge graphics"
Work on The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion began in 2002, after Morrowind's publication.[40]Oblivion was developed by Bethesda Softworks, and the initial Xbox 360 and PC releases were co-published by Bethesda and Take-Two Interactive subsidiary 2K Games.[41][42]Oblivion was released on March 21, 2006.[43] The game centers around an event referred to as "The Oblivion Crisis", where portals to the planes of Oblivion open and release hordes of Daedra upon Tamriel. Developers working on Oblivion focused on providing a tighter storyline, more developed characters,[44][45] and to make information in the game world more accessible to players.[46]Oblivion features improved AI,[47][48] improved physics,[49] and improved graphics.[50][51][52] Bethesda developed and implemented procedural content creation tools in the creation of Oblivion's terrain, leading to landscapes that are more complex and realistic than those of past titles, but had less of a drain on Bethesda's staff.[53][54] Two downloadable expansion packs, Knights of the Nine and Shivering Isles were released in 2006 and 2007, respectively.[55][56]Knights of the Nine added a questline surrounding the search for a set of Crusader relics, while Shivering Isles added the eponymous plane to the game.
In August 2010, Todd Howard revealed Bethesda was working on a game that had been in development since the release of Oblivion, and that progress was very far along. While the game was conceptualized after Oblivion's release, main development was restricted until after Fallout 3 was released.[57] In November, Kristian West, then the editor-in-chief of Eurogamer's Danish outlet, reported overhearing a developer on a plane talking about the project; a new The Elder Scrolls game,[58][59] although Bethesda did not comment on the report. At the Spike Video Game Awards in December, Howard appeared on stage to unveil a teaser trailer and announce the title of the game.[60]The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was released on November 11, 2011, to widespread critical acclaim. It was awarded 'Game of the Year' by IGN,[61] Spike[62] and others. The game is set after the events of Oblivion, when the great dragon Alduin the World Eater returns to Skyrim; a beast whose existence threatens all life in Tamriel. The setting is heavily based on Scandinavia, as seen in the climate and creatures the character encounters. Three pieces of add-ons were released on PC and Xbox 360 in 2012 – Dawnguard, Hearthfire and Dragonborn, with a PlayStation 3 release in February 2013. Dawnguard added two joinable factions and an associated questline revolving around Vampires and the Dawnguard, a group of vampire hunters, while Hearthfire added more home customisation options including a house creation kit and the ability to adopt children. Dragonborn added the island of Solstheim to the northeast. On October 28, 2016, Skyrim – Special Edition was released.[63] In 2016, on the fifth anniversary of Skyrim's release, Zen Studios developed and released a virtualpinball adaptation of the game as part of the Bethesda Pinball collection, which became available as part of Zen Pinball 2, Pinball FX 2[64] and Pinball FX 3,[65] as well as a separate free-to-play app for iOS and Android mobile devices.[66] On November 17, 2017, Skyrim VR was released for PlayStation 4.[67] On June 10, 2018, Skyrim: Very Special Edition, a voice-activated text adventure game poking fun at the game's many releases, was released for Amazon Alexa devices.[68] The player character, Dragonborn, is a downloadable Mii fighter costume in the Nintendo crossover fighting game Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.[69]
The Elder Scrolls Online and Legends
On May 3, 2012, The Elder Scrolls Online was revealed. The Elder Scrolls Online was released for Windows and macOS on April 4, 2014, with the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions initially slated to follow in June 2014 but later delayed until June 9, 2015.[70] The game originally required a subscription to play, but this requirement was dropped on March 17, 2015.[71] There is however a subscription service entitled "ESO Plus" which grants access to all current and future downloadable content (DLC). The DLC is otherwise available for individual purchase in the Crown Store. Additionally, the optional subscription grants various perks that allow players to progress slightly faster than a free player, and grants them a payment of 1650 crowns per month.[72] On June 14, 2015, The Elder Scrolls: Legends, a collectible card game, was announced by Bethesda during the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2015. It was released on March 9, 2017, for Microsoft Windows and is in beta for Android, iOS, and macOS.
At Bethesda's E3 2018 press conference, Todd Howard announced The Elder Scrolls: Blades, originally planned for release in Q3 2018, and it was originally expected to be released for Apple and Android phones first, followed by PC and console, including VR. The player is able to play as a member of the faction called the Blades, who has returned home to their town to find it destroyed. There are survival, arena, and town-building modes, with multiplayer support through its arena and town-building mode, as well as cross-platform. The game is also able to be played in portrait mode, unusual for a role-playing game.[73][74] The early access of Blades began March 27, 2019 for those who pre-ordered the game. Blades was expected to be fully released some time in early 2019,[75] before being released for Android, iOS and Nintendo Switch in May 2020.[76]The Elder Scrolls: Castles, a mobile spin-off game similar to Fallout Shelter, was released for Android on September 28, 2023.[77]
Elder Scrolls VI was first announced as being in pre-production during E3 2018,[78] along with Starfield.[79]Phil Spencer said that TheElder Scrolls VI would be coming out after Playground Games' Fable title.[80]
Gameplay
The Elder Scrolls games are action role-playing games and include elements taken from action and adventure games. In Arena, players advance by killing monsters (and thereby gaining experience points) until a preset value is met, whereupon they level-up. However, in Daggerfall, Morrowind, and Oblivion, the series took a skill-based approach to character advancement. Players develop their characters' skills by applying them and only level-up when a certain set of skills have been developed. Skyrim took a new approach, where the more a skill is leveled, the more it helps to level the character. This shifted the focus away from character creation and more onto character development. The flexibility of the games' engines has facilitated the release of game extensions (or mods) through The Elder Scrolls Construction Set.
The Elder Scrolls main series of games emphasizes different aspects of the gaming experience than most role-playing games. A brief article by Joystiq in early November 2006 compared BioWare's creations to Bethesda's by noting a difference in emphasis. Bethesda's creations focused on "aesthetic presentation and open-ended adventuring"; BioWare's on a combat system and modular architecture.[81] This overarching aim has been noted by their designers as well. Bethesda has described their motivations in creating the first series game, Arena, as those of any good pen-and-paper role-playing games: creating an environment in which the player could be what the player wants and do what the player wants.[82]Daggerfall's manual begins with a design manifesto, declaring the developers' intention to "create a book with blank pages" and "a game designed to encourage exploration and reward curiosity". Choices, in the form of paths taken by the player, to do good, to chase after evil, are left open to the player, "just like in real life".[83] This design trend continued with Morrowind, following the hiatus of similarly epic games in the interim, though Joystiq's previously noted insistence on graphics came again to the fore. During the development of Morrowind, Bethesda tripled its staff, so as to perfectly color its newly hand-made world. In their own words, "We knew we had to exceed the visual polish of the other games on the market, and we made it our goal to put The Elder Scrolls back into the forefront of game innovation."[84]
Series overview
Setting
Map of Tamriel, c.4E 201 (beginning of Skyrim)
The Elder Scrolls takes place in a high fantasy world with influences from real world cultures.[85]:138 Like most works of high fantasy, The Elder Scrolls games are typically serious in tone and epic in scope, dealing with themes of a grand struggle against a supernatural or evil force. Many races exist in the world of The Elder Scrolls, some typical of high fantasy works, such as humans, orcs and elves; some atypical, such as the lizard-like Argonians and cat-like Khajiit; and some subversions, such as the extinct Dwemer, known colloquially as "dwarves", who follow the high fantasy stereotype of being subterranean, skilled metallurgists and masons, but are actually classified as a variety of elf who are highly technologically advanced. As is also typical in high fantasy works, magic and sorcery, mythical creatures, factions with their own political agendas, walled medieval cities and strongholds, and plot elements driven by prophecies and legends are common.
The Elder Scrolls is known for its attention to detail, including extensive lore, scenery and back story. There is no omniscient narrator. Instead, the lore is presented in-universe, as written by the fictional scholars who inhabit the world, and it is subject to their biases and speculation. Players are encouraged to form their own interpretations of the lore and have developed extensive fan works. The developers avoid invalidating or overruling fan theories through canon. Internal inconsistencies are explained as errors in scholarship. Some inconsistencies, such as incorporating mutually exclusive endings to earlier games, are intentionally introduced and explained as magical paradoxes.[86] Other elements of the lore are intentionally contradictory or made ambiguous to allow players to decide for themselves what is true. Players can, for example, deny being a prophesied hero or accept the role.[87]
The first game in the series, Arena, featured little in the way of lore and lacked many elements that would come to define the series.[88] An elaborate system of gods and myths were introduced in the second game, Daggerfall.[7] The lore's complexity came from a desire to improve on the writing in Arena, which had been criticized as lackluster.[89]
After Daggerfall, the designers focused on further expanding the lore once they realized they still did not know much about the world's fictional history or religions.[87] The series' fictional cosmology is inspired by Gnosticism.[90] There are contradictory creation myths, one of which claims that some of the gods were tricked into creating the mortal world, surrendering a portion of their power. These became the Nine Divines (also known as Aedra), who are worshipped as benevolent deities. A separate pantheon of more demonic deities known as the Daedra retain their full power and reside in Oblivion, a separate dimension.[91] Individual Daedra are not necessarily evil, though they are often depicted as lacking empathy.[92]
The Elder Scrolls games primarily take place on the continent of Tamriel, located on the planet of Nirn.[93] The exceptions are An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire, which is set in a different dimension; portions of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and the entirety of its expansion, Shivering Isles, which take place in Oblivion;[94] quests in Oblivion during the Dawnguard and Dragonborn add-ons of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim; and further quests in Oblivion from The Elder Scrolls Online. Other continents exist on Nirn aside from Tamriel, such as Akavir, Pyandonea, Yokuda, and Atmora, but the people of Tamriel have little to no contact with these other continents and therefore do not possess much verifiable knowledge about them.[95]
Tamriel comprises nine provinces, each of which is dominated by a distinct race: Black Marsh is home to the Argonians; Cyrodiil is home to the Imperials; Elsweyr is home to the Khajiit; Hammerfell is home to the Redguards; High Rock is home to the Bretons; Morrowind is home to the Dunmer, or Dark Elves; Skyrim is home to the Nords; Summerset Isle is home to the Altmer, or High Elves; and Valenwood is home to the Bosmer, or Wood Elves. A tenth race, the Orsimer, or Orcs, reside in settlements scattered across Tamriel and, at some points in history, a kingdom inside High Rock known as Orsinium.[96]
Although various empires have controlled Tamriel over its several thousand years of recorded history, most games in the series have taken place during the Third Cyrodiilic Empire, which initially unites the entire continent under the reign of the Septim dynasty. In Arena, players are tasked with freeing the Emperor Uriel Septim VII from a magical prison engineered by his court wizard, who has usurped the throne and magically disguised himself as the Emperor. In Daggerfall, Uriel VII tasks the player with finding a powerful artifact. The player can give it to any of several factions, which will use it to reshape the regional power structure. In Morrowind, the player is prophesied to be the reincarnation of a great elven hero. Taking advantage of this, the Empire tasks the player with stabilizing the province of Morrowind by putting down a rebellion by a would-be god. In Oblivion, a religious cult opens a dimensional gate to a Hell-like realm and throws the Empire into chaos by killing Uriel VII and all of his known heirs. Although the player assists an illegitimate royal heir in closing the dimensional gate, the heir's heroic sacrifice brings an abrupt end to the Septim bloodline, causing a succession crisis that devastates the Empire and reduces it to a rump state. In Skyrim, the Empire (now ruled by the Mede dynasty) is recovering from a horrific war against an elven separatistethnostate the Aldmeri Dominion which covers most of southwest Tamriel, and whose terms of surrender have weakened the Empire even further and ultimately led to an ongoing civil war in the province of Skyrim. Amid these mounting tensions, Tamriel has to face the return of a legendary dragon known as "the World-Eater", long after dragons were thought to have gone extinct.
The Elder Scrolls Online serves as a prequel to the Third Empire storyline, taking place in the middle of a 600-year interregnum between the Second and Third Cyrodiilic Empires. The initial game follows the player, who has been sacrificed by followers of the Daedric prince Molag Bal, as they manage to return to the mortal plane with the help of a former Emperor masquerading as a prophet. The player must join one of the three different military alliances that are vying for control of Tamriel in the Three Banners War, but is ultimately tasked with uniting all three factions against Molag Bal's attempt to assimilate the entirety of the planet Nirn into his realm of Coldharbour.
The Elder Scrolls themselves play a very limited role in the storyline of the series, usually only as a framing plot device (i.e. "[the events in this game] were foretold in the Elder Scrolls..."). The Elder Scrolls are rarely referenced in the games. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion marks the first appearance of the Scrolls in the final quest of the Thieves Guild quest-line.[7] The Scroll appears as an incomprehensible chart containing luminous glyphs. Oblivion further introduces monks who dedicate their lives to the study of the scrolls.[97] In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, the Scrolls are integrated into the series' creation myth and are portrayed as potentially causing insanity when deciphered. The Scrolls are used in the main quest to travel back in time and learn how to defeat the antagonist, an immortal dragon.[98]Skyrim's Dawnguard expansion adds a quest to acquire the Scrolls to either assist or stop a vampire from blotting out the sun.[99]
Future
At E3 2016, Bethesda Game Studios director Todd Howard reported that the studio was already working on a sixth installment in The Elder Scrolls franchise, although it would still be "a very long way off"[100] and at E3 2017, Bethesda Softworks vice president of public relations stated that no new title was in active development, and that they have "at least two major titles" to complete before this would change.[101] In an interview in June 2023, Todd Howard stated that The Elder Scrolls VI will come after Starfield, and it may be the last Elder Scrolls he makes.[102]
At E3 2018, Howard presented a short teaser trailer for The Elder Scrolls VI and announced that it would be released following Starfield.[103]
Other media
In 2009, science-fiction author Gregory Keyes released The Infernal City, a novel set approximately 40 years after the Oblivion Crisis. Lord of Souls was released in 2011 as Keyes's second novel in his The Elder Scrolls book series.
Reception
Critical reception
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (September 2012)
In 2012, Complex ranked The Elder Scrolls at number 20 on the list of the best video game franchises.[156] In 2013, The Elder Scrolls was voted as the Greatest Game Series of the Decade on GameSpot, beating out 64 other competitors. The Elder Scrolls reached the final round, beating the Grand Theft Auto series by a margin of 52.5% of the vote for The Elder Scrolls to 47.5% for Grand Theft Auto.[157][158]
Controversies
The fourth main game of the series, Oblivion, was initially released with a Teen rating by the ESRB, but after reports that its developers failed to disclose content that would not be encountered through normal gameplay but would be inconsistent with that rating, the ESRB took a second look at Oblivion that took the obscured content into consideration and in an unprecedented move that drew large public attention, raised the game's rating to Mature.[159]
In August 2011, Bethesda Softworks contacted the developer of Minecraft, Mojang, claiming that the intended trademark of the title Scrolls for its new game breached Bethesda's trademark on The Elder Scrolls.[160] On March 10, 2012, Markus Persson tweeted that the two had come to an agreement over the use of the name. The agreement prohibits Mojang from using the title Scrolls in any future sequels of the game.[161]
In May 2019, Bethesda Softworks released a promotional free tabletop role-playing game titled Elsweyr. It was accused of being plagiarized as it shared a very similar plot to the Dungeons & Dragons adventure "The Black Road", written by Paige Leitman and Ben Heisler, and contains reworded text that substitutes some words for synonyms.[162][163] After Leitman posted about the similarities on Facebook[162] the game was removed from their The Elder Scrolls Online Facebook page.[164]
The Elder Scrolls III: Bloodmoon is the second expansion pack for the 2002 video game The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, developed by Bethesda Game Studios and released for Windows in 2003. The expansion was later released as part of the Morrowind: Game of the Year Edition for the Xbox in 2004. The expansion adds a landmass to the game, Solstheim, a setting modelled on Norse mythology. The primary questline of Bloodmoon involves the investigation of the Bloodmoon Prophecy that foretells the return of the demigod Hircine. A secondary features a new faction, the East Empire Company, which tasks the player to establish a mining colony. Bloodmoon also provides the player with the ability to become a werewolf, a feature closely embedded in the main storyline and quests. The expansion features more detailed environments, including weather shaders such as snowfall and blizzards.
An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire is an action role-playing video game developed and published by Bethesda Softworks, set in the world of The Elder Scrolls.
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind is a 2002 action role-playing game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is the third installment in The Elder Scrolls series, following 1996's The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, and was released for Microsoft Windows and Xbox. The main story takes place on Vvardenfell, an island in the Dunmer province of Morrowind, part of the continent of Tamriel. The central quests concern the demigod Dagoth Ur, housed within the volcanic Red Mountain, who seeks to gain power and break Morrowind free from Imperial reign.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is a 2006 action role-playing game developed by Bethesda Game Studios, and co-published by Bethesda Softworks and 2K Games. It is the fourth installment in The Elder Scrolls series, following 2002's The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, and was released for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 in 2006, followed by PlayStation 3 in 2007. Taking place within the fictional province of Cyrodiil, the game's main story focuses on the player character's efforts to thwart a fanatical cult known as the Mythic Dawn that plans to open portal gates to a demonic realm known as Oblivion.
The Elder Scrolls: Arena is an open-world action role-playing video game developed and published by Bethesda Softworks. The first game in the Elder Scrolls series, it was released for MS-DOS on March 25, 1994. The game follows the player trying to uncover a conspiracy against Emperor Uriel Septim VII.
The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall is an open-world, action role-playing game published by Bethesda Softworks. The second video game in the Elder Scrolls series, it was released on September 20, 1996 for MS-DOS, following the success of 1994's The Elder Scrolls: Arena. The story follows the player, sent by the Emperor, to free the ghost of King Lysandus from his earthly shackles and discover what happened to a letter sent from the Emperor to the former queen of Daggerfall.
Todd Andrew Howard is an American video game designer, director, and producer. He serves as director and executive producer at Bethesda Game Studios, where he has led the development of the Fallout and The Elder Scrolls series. He was also the game director for Starfield.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles is the second expansion pack for the role-playing video game The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Announced on January 18, 2007, the expansion was developed, published, and released over the Xbox Live Marketplace by Bethesda Softworks; its retail release was co-published with 2K Games. It was released for Microsoft Windows in a boxed retail edition on March 26, 2007, while the Xbox 360 version was released digitally on the Xbox Live Marketplace. Shivering Isles takes place on the eponymous isles ruled by the Daedric Prince of Madness, Sheogorath. The player becomes Sheogorath's protégé, and together they try to defeat the Daedric Lord of Order, Jyggalag, thus preventing the isles from being destroyed; this main quest can be ignored for as long as the player wishes to interact with the new world. It is often considered to be Bethesda's best expansion, as well as one of the best expansions in video game history.
The development of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion began in 2002, immediately after its predecessor, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, was published. Rumors of a sequel to Morrowind started circulating in June 2004; the sequel's title was identified on September 10, 2004, the date of its official announcement. Oblivion was developed by Bethesda Game Studios, and the initial Xbox 360 and personal computer (PC) releases were co-published by Bethesda Softworks and Take-Two Interactive's subsidiary, 2K Games. According to interviews with Bethesda staff, the publisher-developer relationship—one of the few independent relations in the industry—worked well, and Bethesda was not subject to excessive corporate guidance. Initially scheduled for a November 22, 2005, release, in tandem with the Xbox 360's launch, Oblivion was delayed to a March 21, 2006, release for Windows PCs and the Xbox 360.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is a 2011 action role-playing game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is the fifth main installment in The Elder Scrolls series, following The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2006), and was released worldwide for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 on November 11, 2011.
Creation Engine is a 3D video game engine created by Bethesda Game Studios based on the Gamebryo engine. The Creation Engine has been used to create role-playing video games such as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Fallout 4, and Fallout 76. A new iteration of the engine, Creation Engine 2, was used to create Starfield. The Creation Engine has been tailor-made for large-scale open-world RPGs.
The Elder Scrolls Online, abbreviated ESO, is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by ZeniMax Online Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. The game is a part of the Elder Scrolls series. It was released for Windows and macOS in April 2014, for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in June 2015, and for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in June 2021.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Dawnguard is a downloadable content add-on for the action role-playing open world video game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. It was developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. The Xbox 360 version of Dawnguard was launched in English-speaking territories on June 26, 2012, and in France, Germany, Italy, and Spain in mid-July 2012. It was released on Microsoft Windows via Steam on August 2, 2012. Due to performance issues, the PlayStation 3 release of Dawnguard was delayed until February 26, 2013.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Dragonborn is the third and final add-on for the action role-playing open world video game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. It was developed by Bethesda Game Studios and released by Bethesda Softworks on the Xbox Live Marketplace on December 4, 2012. The Microsoft Windows version was released on February 5, 2013, and the PlayStation 3 version was released on February 12, 2013.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Hearthfire is the second downloadable content add-on for the action role-playing open world video game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. The game was developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. The Xbox 360 version of Hearthfire launched on September 4, 2012. It was released on Microsoft Windows via Steam on October 5, 2012. It was released for the PlayStation 3 on February 19, 2013, in North America and February 20, 2013, in Europe.
"Dragonborn" is the theme song for the soundtrack of the 2011 role-playing video game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim from Bethesda Softworks, composed by the American composer Jeremy Soule. The composition is Nordic-influenced classical in style and features a chorus singing lyrics in a fictional language, Dragon-tongue, that was created by Emil Pagliarulo for the game. The composition borrows heavily from "Nerevar Rising", the theme from The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, as well as elements from music in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, both of which were also composed by Soule. "Dragonborn" was lauded by critics and audiences alike. It is featured in orchestral performances and spawned numerous covers, many of which combine the song with an in-game, English-language composition "The Dragonborn Comes". One such cover, by Lindsey Stirling and Peter Hollens, holds the Guinness World Record for most viewed cover version of a video game soundtrack.
Tamriel Rebuilt is a third-party modification for the Bethesda Softworks 2002 role-playing video game The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. Founded in 2001, the Tamriel Rebuilt project is a long-term, collaborative effort by volunteer modders to expand the content of Morrowind to include wider settings consistent with the setting of the Elder Scrolls' universe of Tamriel. Since foundation, the project has published eight releases for Morrowind, described as 'expansions', that allow the player to travel to and explore the mainland of the province of Morrowind, featuring new factions and quests. In 2006, Tamriel Rebuilt briefly launched a secondary project to recreate the province of Hammerfell in the succeeding Elder Scrolls game, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, although the project was cancelled in 2009. Publications have praised Tamriel Rebuilt for the scope and detail of the project, the faithfulness of its additions to the source material of the original game, and noted their content has since eclipsed the size and features of the original game. The current release, Andaram, was published on 31 October 2023.
The Wayward Realms is an upcoming open world action role-playing video game developed by OnceLost Games. The game's development is being led by Ted Peterson and Julian Lefay, both former Bethesda Softworks developers best known for their role in creating The Elder Scrolls series. The game is intended to serve as a spiritual successor to The Elder Scrolls: Arena and The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall.
↑ Qwerty (July 2001). "Interview with Morrowind Developers". The Interviews. Game. EXE. Reprinted in The Imperial Library. Archived from the original on September 28, 2010. Retrieved October 18, 2010.
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