General:Andrew Young's Posts

Andrew Young's Posts
Medium/Format	Online Forum
Interviewee(s)	Andrew Young
Hosted By	Twitter

These are a few notable comments from Andrew Young on The Elder Scrolls setting. Young is known as @myrix on Twitter and Vagabond and Relic on various other platforms.

2019

I saw a blind Ashlander near the Deshaan Plains. He said he was following the moons south to the land of the cats. (2019-01-25)

ɨ ֆǟա ǟ ɮʟɨռɖ ǟֆɦʟǟռɖɛʀ ռɛǟʀ ȶɦɛ ɖɛֆɦǟǟռ քʟǟɨռֆ. ɦɛ ֆǟɨɖ ɦɛ աǟֆ ʄօʟʟօաɨռɢ ȶɦɛ ʍօօռֆ ֆօʊȶɦ ȶօ ȶɦɛ ʟǟռɖ օʄ ȶɦɛ ƈǟȶֆ.

Screenshot of Vakka-Bok Xanmeer, captioned with its translation (2019-01-28)

Bowl of the Sun.

Screenshot of the ocean (2019-04-18)

ⁱ ˢᵃʷ ᴴᵉʳᵐᵒʳᵃʰ ⁱⁿ ᵗʰᵉ ᵗⁱᵈᵉ
ⁱ ᵃˢᵏᵉᵈ ʰⁱᵐ ʷʰᵉʳᵉ ᵗᵒ ᵍᵒ
ʰᵉ ˢᵃⁱᵈ ᵘᵖ ᵗᵒ ᵗʰᵉ ᵐᵒᵒⁿˢ ᵃⁿᵈ ᵇᵃᶜᵏ
ᵘⁿᵗⁱˡ ʸᵒᵘ ˡᵒⁿᵍ ᶠᵒʳ ᵐᵒʳᵉ

2021

On the cat in Markarth making bread (2021-05-17)

Young's cat, Beans

He is a good boy and a key developer of Markarth! He was there every step of the way.

On Wayward Guardian Motif (2021-04-14)

Hope you all dig this one. The art team graciously put up with a lot of my picky direction to bring it to life. I think it's my favorite motif to date.

2023

Adopting a new cat that inspired Ja'kh (2023-05-28)

I rescued a new baby boy. Meet One-Eyed Jack! 😊

2024

Anniversary AmA (2024-04-02)

The anniversary of ESO feels strange to me somehow. I started on the project in 2012, implementing no more than simple side quests and populating areas with NPCs I hoped would be more interesting than they had any reason to be. The journey from there to here is probably a story I should save for a memoir.

Regardless, I find myself wishing I could engage with the community on something to celebrate this game together. Some of you have played it for a decade. I gave it a decade of my life... and more.

I wonder, are there any questions you would ask of me?

What zone story is your fave/most proud of?

Markarth because it's the only zone story I ever got to fully plot out myself. Not saying it's perfect. I know the resurrection is divisive. I'm proud of the end result though, especially considering the pandemic sent everyone home as we began dev on it.

I was usually put in charge of endings. Which is interesting to think back on. Constantly trying to wrap up stories—often other people's stories—can be exhausting.

That said, I feel like I wrapped up CWC, Murkmire, and Deadlands well enough.

CWC ending is the perfect coda to the entire story which for me elevated it to being my fav expansion bar Elsweyr

Thanks. Fun fact: directors hated the ending I pitched at first and wanted a big "ewok party" in the Brass Fortress. I was so adamant that we end it with an intimate solo conversation with Sotha Sil that I think they thought I'd quit if I didn't get my way. I still stand by it.

That's amazing! The relaxed intimacy of it really made it much more thought provoking. I don't know if you'd intended this but the way Sotha Sil addresses the Vestige made me feel like he could see through the illusion of the game and was coyly talking to me directly, the player.

Thanks. It was definitely intentional.

That will always be a special conversation for different reasons to me than the players. I'd crafted the time and place and tone. I had a blank box ready to begin writing the conversation. And all I could see was 17yo me crushed that Seht was already dead when I reached him in Tribunal. I had wanted to talk to him so badly. Anyway, Leamon did a fine job. And I wrote a book instead.

Which NPC is most memorable and why?

Sotha Nall. Or Aios? Either way, she's with me forever now.

Thank you for the work you do for the game!
Here's a question! Are there any fun stories from the development you can tell? Maybe an unusual solution to something, or a strange bug that occurred!
Thank you so much :D

In pre-production for Dark Brotherhood the main resource challenge was the animation team being tasked with creating various assassination animations for each weapon type individually. It quickly became a real concern as to how achievable it was. 3 years into the job I think the first time I really spoke up was to say "Why don't we just use the Blade of Woe?" The rest is history. 🗡️

So many questions I could ask but I can think of no question more important that this. What are you most proud of accomplishing?

Maybe pre-ri'Dattan Khajiiti mythos followed closely by the heavy lifting I did on Markarth for the Reachmen.
And, well, some new stuff.

Do you or did you ever have any say in diologue options that the player character can choose?

I always wrote both responses and dialogue for my quests. When I turned them over I considered them "complete" as if I had created a mod for release. Editors then come in behind and do as they wish, so how much of me survives is hit or miss across ESO.

Yeah, what NPCs did you include back then in 2012? I recently found some very interesting NPCs in main game locations with neat mini stories I learned to appreciate (Like a husband getting bite by the dog if his wife and wants to get rid of the dog but the wife doesn't.)

Honestly too many to name. I remember my very first task on ESO was populating Riften. I can't even recall what I did there, but I know a lot of my dialogue did survive on the throwaway NPCs. I make no promise of quality, but if you wander Riften and speak to the locales you are traveling back in time to hang out with me.

On NPC creation process (2024-07-23)

Hmmmmmm what if I brought back Ardanir for more of an actual story than just bestowing dailies? 🤔

Whenever I create an NPC I always do a one-sheet of them, sort of how I begin crafting my own tabletop characters. I have a whole backstory and other stuff about Ardanir (and Arana, and...) that could be fun to explore.

On Nahfahlaar (2024-07-23)

I love partysnax. I studied his dialogue, cadence, and performance (by the incredible Charles Martinet) before writing my parts for Nahfahlaar in Dragonhold. I wanted the player to feel a bond of respect growing between them and the dragon, so he is more reverent in Act 3.

I didn’t know you wrote parts of his dialogue! Super super cool! (2024-07-23)

Yeah! I only wrote him for "The Pride of Alkosh" and "The Dragonguard" since we split up the content into two quest assignments each back then.

Divayth Fyr in the Clockwork City DLC (2024-08-21)

I enjoyed getting to write that Fyr is so powerful he lights up like a beacon in the Evergloam when he travels there and sets off even Nocturnal’s alarm bells

Lady Belain's pretty privilege as a disguise (2024-08-23)

Haha I remember getting feedback that it was really, really obvious that Lady Belain was a vampire. I told them I know. I liked the idea that she was so threatening she only put minimal effort into hiding her nature. Everyone else acquiesced.

This is also why I didn’t bother waiting beyond the first quest to reveal her. I knew the player was smart enough to know too. It wasn’t meant to be a twist, but a hook into the rest of the plot.

On the Tenmar zone (2024-09-11)

I just know a Central Elsweyr DLC would go so hard. I know it's thin, but we've been given tiny islands that were a whole Chapter. It could work. Imagine Corinth, Alabaster, and Torval.

I was so mad about this lol esp Torval... you know, the capital city and religious center of all Elsweyr

oh well

Torvesard and Lyranth (2024-09-11)

Wish Torvesard and Lyranth could have met. I love them both so much.

Yeah, me too

Zerith-Var Profile (2024-09-11)

This was the last bit of content I worked on at ZOS, alongside the wonderful @okcryptidd who soldiered on during a time of personal turmoil for me and brought it home after I was gone. I am grateful he was left in good hands. And, well, I hope you like him. And Ja’kh. 😸

the cutest and furriest and most noble of all soul-stealing, blade-wielding, death-defying warrior monks to have ever licked a bowl (2024-09-12)

Spitballing possible TES spin-offs (2024-09-11)

half of my brain: i don't even want to make AAA games anymore

the other half: wait but what if tes adventures returns as a third-person action series and what if in one you're a claw of boethra during the time of hunt-lords and the sixteen warring kingdoms and--

I still hold out hope for The Eye of Argonia.

You and me both.

Hopefully they’ll remember me for Paradise Sugar.

About books (2024-09-23)

Any joking aside, I’d love to write a novel bridging TES:V and VI. Not some all-encompassing “here’s what happened between games” story but something that connects the narratives in an unexpected way. Like here’s how these political decisions spilled out into what you see in VI.