General:Marilyn Wasserman's Posts

Marilyn Wasserman's Posts
Medium/Format	Online Forum
Interviewee(s)	Marilyn Wasserman
Hosted By	The Imperial Library

These are a few notable comments from Marilyn Wasserman, part of the Council of Wisdom and the namesake of Mara, on The Elder Scrolls setting. These comments were originally archived by The Imperial Library.

Wasserman went by Ramara on the official forums.

Undated

On two Barenziah books that she wrote

I wrote the Real Barenziah, then the Official Version to condense it since not everyone wants to read a novella in the middle of a game.

On the editing of the Official Barenziah Biography

I believe the Official Barenziah books in Morrowind were heavily edited by one of the Bethesda guys - at least they read better than I remembered writing them - but I've never tried to compare them

On The Ebon Arm

I believe Reymon Ebonarm was pictured as a Nord. He was worshipped as a minor deity, or hero saint if you prefer, in the Iliac Bay area. There's at least one shrine to him in TES: Daggerfall. Daggerfall was the last city that the Nords ruled during the First Era.

Ebonarm is another of the Daggerfall beta testers' alter egos, in this case that of Raymond Whit Crowley, who wrote 'Ebon Arm'. His online handle was Barak Halfhand at that time, but that name came from a book so could not be used in TES.

2004

On King Edward, its continuation and its historical accuracy (2004-09-29)

Glad you enjoyed the King Edward books. I'm afraid you've read all there is of them. That series, like many of the Daggerfall books, was written by one of the beta testers (me, in this instance) before there was any Daggerfall to test. (I was one of a group of testers left over from the post release effort to debug Arena.) Once Daggerfall testing got underway Ted Peterson asked me to write the Queen Barenziah series. Between that and testing I was too busy to do more with Edward & co. With Daggerfall's release the books became the property of Bethesda Softworks. These books should be regarded as historical novels, not official lore or history.

2006

Tamrielic race relations (circa 2006)

Just make everyone hate everyone else and you won't be too far wrong....

1) High elves look down on everyone else, but pity them more than hate them. Think Greeks to the Romans. The culturally superior people got conquered by louts (Cyrodiil who are a cross between Romans and the English of the Empire).

2) Dark elves think of the beast peoples (Khajiiti and Argonians) as inferior to elves and humans. They believe they know the one true way to live (and die) and view others as outsiders. Try a cross between Jews (for their history) and Indians (of British colonial India) for their present situation.

3) Wood elves think other races are good -- to eat.

4) Bretons are intelligent and individualistic. They have ancient rivalries with the other human races but I doubt they actually hate anyone except orcs.

5) Nords are well organized but really not that smart. They don't hate anyone which doesn't stop them from warring with them since they enjoy a good war. They were an aggressive and expansionist people and were prone to genocide along the lines of European colonists (and the Borg): assimilate or die.

6) Redguards are survivors who fled their old country and found themselves in a new and harsh environment. They fight with the Bretons, more or less like England and France.

7) Cyrodiils: think Roman or English empire. They don't hate anyone, they just want to exploit everyone through trade on terms favorable to themselves.

8) Khajitti: natural stealth predators with an ancient rivalry with the Bosmer (they view each other as dinner) and a fear of the slave raiding Dunmer. It's believed that they were once Bosmer but have gone even more feral than the wood elves.

9) Argonians prefer to live deep in their swamps so little is known of their native culture. However they are highly intelligent and physically strong and agile and capable of viewing the world with detachment and objectivity. Btw my personal theory is that they evolved from crocodiles, who are social and waterloving and care for their young, not lizards.

10) Orcs. Hate everyone but they respect strength. Klingons? Welcome to the Empire, guys. Imperial gold coins had dragons on them long before Tiber Septim.

2008

On Black Roses (2008-07-07)

Black roses were first mentioned in the Arena character generator, sorry, don't remember the exact quote. But that's where I got the inspiration for the above quote from TRB.

Mara

2009

On Gods (2009-08-23)

Auri-El is an elven deity who was merged into the Akatosh persona when Alessia "created" the cult of the Eight. Lorkhan was omitted from the cult because of merish problems with him.

I'm no expert but I believe one notion of the Eight was that they sacrificed themselves to create Nirn. They're dead in the sense that they cannot manifest in Nirn. In another sense they ARE Nirn. Maybe that makes them "mortal gods" to Umaril. Or maybe they're just the gods of mortals. /shrug

Have you checked out The Imperial Library? You can find a lot of reading on your issues there. Some of it is contradictory. That's the way it is in TES. Some questions don't have definitive answers.

Mara