General:The Elder Scrolls: A Brief History of Tamriel
| The Elder Scrolls: A Brief History of Tamriel | |
|---|---|
| (link) | |
| Medium/Format | Print Magazine |
| Date | June 2006 |
| Interviewee(s) | Todd Howard |
| Hosted By | Game Informer |
Ever since we unveiled it back in October of 2004, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion has been one of the most talked-about next generation games around. Gamers couldn't wait to explore the gorgeous virtual world of Tamriel and face the epic challenges that awaited within. Oblivion was recently released to hugely positive reviews and sales nearly as epic as the game itself. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is on track to be the most popular game in the series yet, as well as one of the Xbox 360's biggest hits to date. The sales of Oblivion have been so strong that it's obviously reaching many gamers who never touched an Elder Scrolls title before. Thus, there is no better time to revisit the past of Bethesda Softworks' flagship series, and bring gamers up to date on the franchise that brought them the first smash hit next-gen role-playing game.
To unravel the story of the Elder Scrolls franchise, we spoke with Todd Howard, the executive producer of Oblivion. Howard joined Bethesda right as the first Elder Scrolls game (Arena) was shipping, and was happy to explain how that game evolved and of it how the world within it developed. "The nucleus was actually that a bunch of people here were playing a Dungeons and Dragons campaign in a universe that a couple of the guys had made that was Tamriel," explains Howard. "The first game, Arena, started as a gladiator game. At the time Bethesda was doing Terminator Rampage in 1993, and it was 'Hey this is another game that's going to be first-person 3D, kind of Wolfenstein/Doom era stuff! It was going to be this big gladiator game, and you have a team of guys and go from city to city, and there are champions in these cities from different areas of this fantasy world, and you rise to the head of this arena circuit. Over time, very quickly, as more things got added to the game, we were like 'Oh, maybe you can leave the city, and you can wander out and explore and do things.' It just kind of steamrolled, and we said 'Hey, let's just make this a huge RPG! Eventually, the party got dropped. There was a version of Arena where it was Wizardry-like, where there were four guys following behind you at all times. Eventually, it got to the point where we said 'Let's do Ultima Underwold on a grand scale' There's another game that came out around the same time called Legends of Valor, which was very, very good, and if you look at that game, there are a lot of things that you can see in Arena that are very similar to that game."
Howard and the rest of Bethesda are still quite proud of Arena, and view it as quite a good game for its day. However, it wasn't until The Elder Scrolls Chapter II: Daggerfall that the world of Tamriel began to form into something distinct and identifiable. "The world itself started, if you play Arena, as a generic fantasy setting," admits Howard. "Then in Daggerfall, that's when the books showed up." As fans of the series know, The Elder Scrolls titles are filled with tomes that flesh out the games' world and history. While it's certainly not necessary to read them, doing so lets curious players learn details of Tamriel that they might not encounter otherwise. "We had a bunch of people do a lot of writing [for Daggerfall], and that's when the lore started getting fleshed out," continues Howard. "And Daggerfall to Morrowind, it really jumped again, as far as having a lot of background. Oblivion adds some, but not as much, because so much was built up in Daggerfall and Morrowind that we wanted to spend more time in Oblivion connecting the dots." Not only does the history of the world become more and more fleshed out over the course of the series, the gameplay itself has grown and evolved. "With each game, we kind of pick a few things and push on them," explains Howard. "From the first game to the second, we wanted to push on the character system. In Arena, the character system is very, very strict, and there are experience points. In the other Elder Scrolls games, you just use your skills [to level up], but it's not like that in Arena. So in Daggerfall, we pushed on the character system. We added all these skills, and you level with the skills, and it was a much better role-playing experience for your character. From Daggerfall to Morrowind, what we really pushed was the world around you. In Daggerfall, it's very repetitive, you see the same things over and over again. It doesn't feel real. Your character feels real, but the world doesn't. So in Morrowind, we focused on the world around you. After Morrowind, we thought the world felt good, and your character felt good, but the other characters felt kind of dead to us. So we said in Oblivion, 'We're going to push on the other characters now! We fine-tuned all the other things, but our next focus is the other people in the world. They're moving around the world and talking and doing things. I honestly don't know what's next. We'll find something. But that's a good synopsis of how the games evolved."
Between Daggerfall and Morrowind, Bethesda released two spinoffs, Battlespire: An Elder Scrolls Legend, and The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard. "Both were spinoffs, both were trying to do simpler, more action-focused genres," says Howard. "And both games have their merits, and their bad points as well. We just sort of realized making those games that what the audience wants from us are giant, big RPGs, so let's stick with that. Battlespire is closer to the traditional Elder Scrolls than Redguard; it's a first-person 'run around and kill things' game. It has a nice little story, but it's a very simple game. It came out after Daggerfall, so we went from something very complex to something very simple. And Redguard, which we were making at the same time, is kind of a mix of Tomb Raider, Prince of Persia, and King's Quest. It does a lot of things that we like the Elder Scrolls for, it's got a lot of lore stuff, and it plays differently than anything else - it's a third-person game. But, it didn't commercially do very well at all. It was right after Redguard shipped that the group that made it moved onto Morrowind, that was kind of the start of Morrowind."
Morrowind, the third title in the main series, was the biggest hit in the franchise yet. For the first time, the series expanded to consoles, selling over a million copies on the Xbox. Both the original and Game of the Year editions of Morrowind became part of the console's Platinum Hits line, and yet Howard explains that Bethesda decided to veer away from referencing it too directly in Oblivion. "Originally, there were a lot more references to Morrowind in part IV, because it was so popular, and we were rolling right off of Morrowind into Oblivion," says Howard. "It's kind of natural in your designs to be adding things that reference it, and we started taking a lot of them out, because it felt too much like 'Hey, I didn't play that game, I don't understand that' We didn't want that to be the case, we want each one to be its own thing. There are more references to Morrowind in this game than the other ones, but they're not that important, they're kind of set dressing. You'll hear people talk about Morrowind or read a book about the character you played in Morrowind. You'll hear references to what your character did if you played that game. But other than that, in the original story for Oblivion, we had characters that were from Morrowind and things like that, but we sort of thought it felt wrong and changed it."
As Oblivion is the latest chapter in this long-running series, it's obviously rife with references to the previous games. The fact that you can fight in the arena in Oblivion is a reference to the first game, but there are far more obvious connections between the two titles. For example, both games start not only in prison, but in the exact same cell. "The starting cell is actually the starting cell from Arena," reveals Howard. "The two chains are hanging there, and there's a gate. And the person who lets you out [in Arena] says 'Watch out, there are rats and goblins down there,' and that's exactly what you find in the beginning of Oblivion." There are several characters in Oblivion who appeared in the previous titles, such as Emperor Uriel Septim, who has had some sort of presence in each of the Elder Scrolls games. "He does not appear visually in Morrowind, but he's referenced," says Howard. "He appears in Arena, Daggerfall, and Oblivion. And now he's dead. Fans didn't seem to care much. I think it's because they knew. Morrowind really bangs home this subtext of 'the Emperor's dying, the Emperor's dying' The empire's on its last legs in Morrowind. I only had one or two people point out that this is a really bad thing. I think that you have to had played them all and rescued this Emperor in Arena and helped him in Daggerfall to really feel sad about it. I think a lot of people started Oblivion and were like 'Go ahead die, let's go. Get me outside, In want to see the forest." Since Oblivion is such a gigantic game, some players will encounter other recurring characters like the King of Worms, who is a character in the Mages Guild quest and who was also an enemy in Daggerfall. But given the scope of Oblivion, there are many references to the series' past that some players catch and others miss entirely.
That's fine with most fans, however - the hugeness of the Elder Scrolls games is part of what appeals to players the most. With each entry in the series, Bethesda has been working towards creating a virtual fantasy world, one that lets players live out a romantic notion of life in another time and place. Every release has found a wider audience than the last, and with Oblivion, it seems the series is finally on the track to blockbuster status. After years of devotion, growth, and intricately-crafted lore, Tamriel has become one of the most compelling destinations in the gaming world.
Battlespire: An Elder Scrolls Legend was originally planned as an expansion pack for Daggerfall, but changed enough that it became its own game. The original title was Dungeons of Daggerfall: Battlespire.
In Oblivion's arena, there is a quote inscribed on
the water pool in which you wash your hands after a fight. This quote, attributed to the first Blades master, was the first thing players saw after initially installing the first Elder Scrolls game, Arena. What does it say? Visit the arena to find out.
While there is a ton of information about Tamriel in the books and scrolls of each Elder Scrolls game, not all of it is right. Occasionally, mistakes are made. However, since all text in the games is credited to a citizen of the world, any inaccuracies in them are attributed to the in-game author of said text.
Bethesda actually created a PS2 port of Redguard, but decided not to release it, as the company wasn't happy with how it turned out. At one point, a sequel to Redguard was planned, entitled Eye of Argonia. Observant fans somehow discovered this title, and assumed it was the name of The Elder Scrolls V. The Fighter's Guild quest has a mission that is based on the plot of the scrapped game, but we won't say what it is here - no one likes spoilers!
While every employee at Bethesda is well-versed in the Elder Scrolls universe, a few are designated "Lore Masters," and are consulted when something from a previous game is referenced. The Lore Masters go back and research to find all references to the subject in previous games.
The collector's edition of Oblivion comes with a Pocket Guide to the Empire, which contains a brief history of Tamriel. Battlespire [sic] also came with a pocket guide, although it has different content that Oblivion's guide - Battlespire [sic] takes place 400 years earlier in the Elder Scrolls timeline.
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