User:Daric Gaersmith/TES Fan Fiction Collection/Gaersmith Legacy/Reference Material

01:09, 27 May 2014 (GMT): I'm back playing Skyrim once again. I am not in ESO, so please don't ask. Userspace Links Cartography Gallery Genealogy In Game Characters Modding on the XBox Status Update Templatery TES Fan Fiction Collection To Do List Sandboxes — working on Alfwyn's map of Solstheim. — Apocryphal - the language on the Diiv Word Wall. — adding a referencing stylesheet to the Cite web references. — Empty or undefined. — Rewriting the proposed "guidelines" for DLC namespaces. See The Silencer's sandbox for more details. — new content for the Geode Vein page.

introduction   This page contains links to the reference material that I use for creating The Gaersmith Legacy tale. This allows background information about places, characters, and items that are not within TES Lore to be linked to from within the tale. Having this here helps me with internal consistency for my fan fiction, as my tale will span numerous eras of Tamrielic history. People Here you will find links to the various characters of The Gaersmith Legacy, whether they are unique characters or existing NPCs from one of the Elder Scrolls games. Each character that is mentioned in The Gaersmith Legacy is going to have their own wiki page. This is being done to aid internal consistency within the storyline. It also gives the opportunity for additional fan-fic related information to be added to NPCs from the ES games without it affecting the gamespace information on the wiki. Places Some places that are especially important to the storyline of The Gaersmith Legacy will have their own wiki page. As with the characters of the story, places may be unique, such as Travendon Hall, or they may be existing places from one of the Elder Scrolls games. Keeping a page for each place mentioned in the storyline aids internal consistency. It also gives the opportunity for additional fan-fic related information to be added to places from the ES games without it affecting the gamespace information on the wiki. Items Sometimes it will become necessary to document a particular item that is relevant to The Gaersmith Legacy. Whether they are unique items or items borrowed from one of the Elder Scrolls games, if information pertinent to the Legacy storyline is needed, this is where you will find it. This is being done to aid internal consistency within the storyline, and it gives the opportunity for additional fan-fic related information to be added to items from the ES games without it affecting the gamespace information on the wiki. Concepts Abstract concepts such as emotions, beliefs, and traditions are not something that are portrayed well in a computer game like the Elder Scrolls series. They can, however, be described and entertained in a fan fiction story. One of the most important tools you can use when writing fan fiction is to ask yourself "why?" repeatedly. Why did your character do that? Why is that important to your character? In this section you may find the answers to some of those questions in The Gaersmith Legacy, but most importantly, it is a place to keep such issues internally consistent with the rest of the storyline. Chronology Each volume that I write will be focused on one member of the Gaersmith family lineage, and will fit into the TES chronology for the particular game of the Elder Scrolls series that I'm playing at the time. My in-game character for each game is the character which I will be writing about in my fan fiction tale, and each one is a member of the Gaersmith family lineage. For example, Daric Gaersmith is the main member of the family who is alive during the second century of the 4th Era, the time in which the game Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is set. Each game in the TES series will then bring about new revelations about the Gaersmith clan. To keep this all in order and consistent, I have created my own copy of the timeline pages, dating from the First Era. History First Era — Events of the First Era that may affect the Gaersmith clan. Second Era — Events of the Second Era that may affect the Gaersmith clan. Third Era — Events of the Third Era that may affect the Gaersmith clan. Fourth Era — Events of the Fourth Era that may affect the Gaersmith clan. Rulers — A list of the rulers of the Empire. Mede Dynasty — A list of members of the Mede Dynasty. Reman Dynasty — A list of members of the Reman Dynasty. Septim Dynasty — A list and lineage chart of members of the Septim Dynasty. Wars and Conflicts — A list of all conflicts in Tamriel. Lore As a former high-ranking member of a Lord of the Rings fan forum, I am very well acquainted with issues pertaining to lore. Fan fiction writers and loremasters often don't play too well together. I want to set out from the outset of this project that I am keen to be as accurate and exacting to detail as I possibly can be in my fan fiction writings. I welcome input from those more experienced in TES lore to guide me, by using the discussion pages for my stories. I am open to criticism, and I value the time that anyone gives to read my writings and to point out any inconsistencies I create which conflict with the established canon of Tamrielic lore. I am aware of the furore caused by Greg Keyes' published fan fiction novels, and I hope to avoid such a backlash to my own writing by establishing here and now that... My writing is primarily for myself I share my writing freely for the enjoyment of others I acknowledge the contributions that others may make to my works I will never earn a cent from The Gaersmith Legacy series After considering any submissions on lore issues, I reserve the right to depart from the canon where appropriate, at my own discretion This last point is important to understand. The basic premise of my fan fiction tale is, in fact, a departure from TES canon. There never was a character named Daric Gaersmith in any of the TES games, to my knowledge. So even giving him life within the land of Tamriel could bring me into dispute with those who uphold the sanctity of TES lore. While I will try as best I can to stick within the confines of TES canon, I need to break out every so often for my own creativity to flourish, otherwise there is no point writing fan fiction at all. When I do depart from canon, it will mostly be in areas where there is little or no extant information that I can refer to. One of the key elements that I wish to investigate further through my writings, is the concept of a "War Mages" gladiatorial team. This oft overlooked factoid is a piece of the missing (non-canonical) lore from TES I: Arena, as mentioned on the Imperial Library website. I look forward to seeing how I can weave this small fragment into the tale of The Gaersmith Legacy, and what bearing it might have, so many centuries later, on the current hero of my tale, Daric. For more discussion about the "War Mages" gladiatorial team, please see the discussion page. Style Guide There is nothing worse, as a reader of fan fiction, than trying to work out what is going on with the written words. I want to concentrate on the action, the storyline, not be bothered with how the words look on the page / screen. If I'm reading something, for instance, that suddenly changes to italics for no good reason, it just annoys me immensely. See what I mean? Here I intend to set out a style guide for my own fan fiction writing. I don't expect it to be extensive, just some simple rules that I want to follow throughout the volumes of The Gaersmith Legacy for consistency's sake. NZ English Spelling: All my writing will be written in New Zealand English. I live in NZ, so it is more natural for me to write in NZ English. See Wikipedia for more details. My writing has colour and flavour! Grammar: I will endeavour to follow good English grammar principles, including capitalisation, and proper use of punctuation. I will not attempt to obey any strict sentence structure rules, however, such as English clause syntax. My fan fiction writing needs to be clearly readable by the general public, but it isn't intended to be marked as a written English assignment. Perspective: Personally, I cannot stand reading fiction that is written in first-person perspective. It drives me nuts. With the sweeping epic nature of The Gaersmith Legacy, the perspective I intend to adopt is third-person, omniscient. This puts me squarely in the position of story-teller, holding all the cards. Tense: I will be constantly swapping between past and present tenses during the telling of the tale, as I switch between narrating the tale and quoting the characters. All quotations, where a character in my tale is either speaking or thinking, will be in present tense. Most everything else will be written in past tense. Speech: I will adhere to proper grammar for speech, with each new speaker beginning a new paragraph. "Speech will be enclosed in quotation marks", he said, but will have no other adornment. Thought: As an omniscient narrator, I may reveal the unvocalised thoughts of a character. Whenever this happens, I will italicize it, but it will not be wrapped in speech marks, nor treated as a quotation. This allows me, as the narrator, to step into the body of the character occasionally. This is not a game: One of the key principles in my writing is that I am not writing about TES V: Skyrim or TES IV: Oblivion, or even TES III: Morrowind. I am writing about Tamriel, the fictitious world of the Elder Scrolls. My protagonist is not the Last Dragonborn, the Champion of Cyrodiil, or the Nerevarine. I will try to avoid having my fan fiction characters do anything that would have been done by the in-game heroes. Lore and the history of Tamriel are built upon the actions of the in-game heroes, so I will no doubt make reference to such events as the slaying of a dragon near Whiterun, or the Thalmor attack on the College of Winterhold. However, while my characters may be involved in such events, they won't be the hero of the situation. References