The Elder Scrolls is a series of action role-playing video games created by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. The games allow players to explore open worlds and make their own choices during gameplay. Many games in the series have been very popular and well-received. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (2002), The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2006), and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011) each won Game of the Year awards from several sources. The series has sold more than 90 million copies worldwide.
In the fictional world of the series, all games take place on the continent of Tamriel. The setting mixes elements from real-world history, such as a powerful empire similar to ancient Rome, with fantasy themes like magic, limited technology, and mythical creatures. The continent is divided into provinces where humans and fantasy races, such as elves, orcs, and anthropomorphic animals, live. A common story in the series involves a hero, played by the player, who must defeat a dangerous enemy or army.
The series began in 1994 with The Elder Scrolls: Arena. It has since released five main games, with the last three each having two or three expansions. Other games in the series include spin-offs. In 2014, a multiplayer online game called The Elder Scrolls Online was released by ZeniMax Online Studios, a company connected to Bethesda.
Development history
Before working on The Elder Scrolls series, Bethesda mostly created sports and action games. From its founding in 1986 until the release of Arena in 1994, Bethesda made ten games. Six of these were sports games, such as Hockey League Simulator, NCAA Basketball: Road to the Final Four ('91/'92 Edition), and Wayne Gretzky Hockey. The other four were based on other media, like the Terminator series. Bethesda’s direction changed suddenly when it started making its first action role-playing game. Designer Ted Peterson remembers: "I remember talking to the guys at Sir-Tech who were working on Wizardry VII: Crusaders of the Dark Savant at the time, and them literally laughing at us for thinking we could do it." Ted Peterson worked with Vijay Lakshman as one of the first designers of Arena, a "medieval-style gladiator game."
Peterson and Lakshman were joined by Julian LeFay, who, according to Peterson, "really spear-headed the initial development of the series." Peterson, Lakshman, and LeFay were longtime fans of pen-and-paper role-playing games, which greatly influenced the creation of the world of Tamriel. They were also fans of Ultima Underworld by Looking Glass Studios, their main inspiration for Arena. At first, Arena was not meant to be a role-playing game. The player and their team would travel the world, fighting other teams in arenas until the player became "grand champion" in the Imperial City, the world’s capital. Along the way, players could complete side quests with role-playing elements. As development continued, tournaments became less important, and side quests became more significant. Role-playing game features were added as the game expanded to include cities and dungeons outside the arenas. Eventually, the team decided to remove tournaments completely and focus on quests and dungeons, making the game a "full-blown role-playing game." Although arena combat was removed, all the printed materials had already been made with the title Arena, so the game was released as The Elder Scrolls: Arena. Lakshman, who worked at Christopher Weaver’s Bethesda Softworks, came up with the name The Elder Scrolls. The name later meant "Tamriel’s mystical tomes of knowledge that told of its past, present, and future." The game’s initial voice-over was changed to begin: "It has been foretold in the Elder Scrolls…"
Bethesda missed its 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 caused distributors to worry, leading to an initial distribution of only 20,000 units. Missing the Christmas sales season made the team worried they "had screwed the company." However, sales grew month after month as word-of-mouth spread. Despite some early software bugs and high system requirements, the game became a cult hit. Evaluations of the game’s success ranged from "modest" to "wild." Still, the game remained popular 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."
Work on The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall began after Arena was released in March 1994. Ted Peterson was assigned as lead game designer. He aimed to make Daggerfall’s plot less "clichéd" than Arena’s and include a "complex series of adventures leading to multiple resolutions." With Daggerfall, Arena’s experience-point-based system was replaced with one that rewarded players for role-playing activities with their character. Daggerfall included an improved character generation engine with a GURPS-influenced class creation system, allowing players to create their own classes and assign their own skills. Daggerfall used the XnGine engine, one of the first truly 3D engines. Daggerfall featured a game world as large as Great Britain, with 15,000 towns and a population of 750,000. It was influenced by analog games and literature that Julian LeFay or Ted Peterson were reading or playing, such as The Man in the Iron Mask by Dumas and Vampire: The Masquerade. Daggerfall was released in September 1996. Like Arena, Daggerfall had some bugs at first, which upset customers. These issues were fixed in later versions. This experience led to a more careful release schedule for future games.
After Daggerfall was released, Bethesda started work on three projects at the same time: An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire, The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard, and The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. Battlespire, originally called Dungeon of Daggerfall: Battlespire, was the first to be released on November 30, 1997. Initially planned as an expansion for Daggerfall, it was later made a standalone game. Battlespire focused on dungeon exploration and included multiplayer gaming in the form of a player-versus-player deathmatch mode, the only series title to do so before The Elder Scrolls Online was released in 2014. Redguard was the second title released on October 31, 1998. It was an action-adventure game inspired by Tomb Raider, Prince of Persia, and the Ultima series. Redguard did not allow players to create their own characters. Instead, players played the pre-made character "Cyrus the Redguard." Both games did not perform well with Bethesda’s target audience. Players used to the large open spaces of Daggerfall did not enjoy the smaller worlds of Redguard and Battlespire. Based on customer feedback, Bethesda focused more on creating large role-playing game worlds for the next major project.
The third title in The Elder Scrolls series was planned during the development of Daggerfall. Initially, the game was meant to cover the entire province of Morrowind and allow players to join all five Dunmer Great Houses. However, the scope was too large for the technology available at the time. At release, the game covered the central island of Vvardenfell and allowed players to join three of the Great Houses. The XnGine was replaced with Numerical Design Limited’s Gamebryo, a Direct3D-powered engine with features like transform, clipping, and lighting, 32-bit textures, and skeletal animation. The game world was populated
Gameplay
The Elder Scrolls games are action role-playing games that include elements from action and adventure games. In Arena, players gain experience points by defeating monsters until they reach a set number, which allows them to level-up. However, in Daggerfall, Morrowind, and Oblivion, the series used a skill-based system for character growth. Players improve their characters’ abilities by using them, and they level-up only after developing specific skills. Skyrim introduced a different method: leveling a skill helps the character level-up more. This change shifted the focus from creating characters to developing them over time. The flexibility of the games’ engines allowed players to create and share additional game content, called mods, using The Elder Scrolls Construction Set.
The Elder Scrolls main series highlights different aspects of gaming compared to most role-playing games. An article from Joystiq in November 2006 noted that Bethesda’s games, such as The Elder Scrolls, focused on "aesthetic presentation and open-ended exploration," while BioWare’s games emphasized combat systems and modular design. Bethesda’s designers aimed to create environments where players could freely choose their actions and shape their own experiences, similar to pen-and-paper role-playing games. The manual for Daggerfall stated the developers wanted to "create a book with blank pages" and "a game that encourages exploration and rewards curiosity." Players are given choices, such as doing good or pursuing evil, which reflect real-life decisions. This design continued in Morrowind, even though the focus on graphics became more important again. During Morrowind’s development, Bethesda increased its staff threefold to enhance the game’s visuals. The developers aimed to create a game that looked better than others and to position The Elder Scrolls as a leader in game innovation.
Series overview
The Elder Scrolls is set in a high fantasy world inspired by real-world cultures. Like many high fantasy stories, the games are serious and large in scope, focusing on battles against supernatural or evil forces. Many races live in the world of The Elder Scrolls, including common ones like humans, orcs, and elves; less common ones like the lizard-like Argonians and cat-like Khajiit; and some that challenge stereotypes, like the extinct Dwemer, who are sometimes called "dwarves" but are actually a type of elf known for advanced technology. The games also include magic, mythical creatures, political groups, medieval cities, and stories based on prophecies and legends.
The Elder Scrolls series is known for its detailed world, including stories, settings, and history. There is no all-knowing narrator. Instead, the stories are written by fictional characters in the game world, and their opinions may affect how the lore is understood. Players are encouraged to create their own ideas about the world, and many fans have written their own stories. The game developers do not confirm or deny fan theories, and some differences in the stories are explained as mistakes made by the fictional scholars. Other differences, like conflicting endings from earlier games, are described as magical mysteries. Some parts of the lore are intentionally unclear so players can decide what is true. For example, players may choose to believe or deny being a hero from a prophecy.
The first game in the series, Arena, had little lore and few features that later games would include. A complex system of gods and myths was introduced in the second game, Daggerfall. The lore became more detailed because the developers wanted to improve on the simple writing in Arena.
After Daggerfall, the designers worked to learn more about the world’s history and religions. The series’ fictional beliefs are influenced by a real-world idea called Gnosticism. There are conflicting stories about how the world was created, one of which says some gods were tricked into giving up part of their power to create the mortal world. These gods became the Eight Divines, who are seen as kind and worshipped by people. A ninth god, Talos, was added after the death of Tiber Septim, who united the continent of Tamriel under one empire. Some people, especially elves, disagree with Talos being a god, and this disagreement is a major conflict in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Another group of gods, the Daedra, are more powerful and live in a separate world called Oblivion. While Daedra are not always evil, they are often shown as unfeeling.
Most games take place on the continent of Tamriel, which is part of the planet Nirn. Exceptions include An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire, which is set in a different dimension; parts of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and its expansion Shivering Isles, which are in Oblivion; and some quests in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and The Elder Scrolls Online. Other continents exist on Nirn, like Akavir and Yokuda, but people in Tamriel know little about them.
Tamriel has nine provinces, each ruled by a different race: Black Marsh is home to Argonians; Cyrodiil to Imperials; Elsweyr to Khajiit; Hammerfell to Redguards; High Rock to Bretons; Morrowind to Dunmer (Dark Elves); Skyrim to Nords; Summerset Isle to Altmer (High Elves); and Valenwood to Bosmer (Wood Elves). A tenth race, the Orsimer (Orcs), lives in scattered settlements and once had a kingdom in High Rock called Orsinium.
Although many empires have ruled Tamriel over thousands of years, most games take place during the Third Cyrodiilic Empire, led by the Septim family. In Arena, players help free Emperor Uriel Septim VII from a magical prison. In Daggerfall, players search for a powerful artifact that can change the balance of power. In Morrowind, players are believed to be the reincarnation of an elven hero and must stop a rebellion. In Oblivion, a religious group opens a portal to a dark world, killing the emperor and causing a crisis. In Skyrim, the empire is recovering from a war with an elven group, and the return of a powerful dragon threatens the world.
The Elder Scrolls Online is a prequel set during a 600-year period between the Second and Third Empires. The game follows a player who is sacrificed by followers of a god called Molag Bal but returns with help from a former emperor. The player must join one of three alliances fighting for control of Tamriel and later unite them to stop Molag Bal’s plan to take over the world.
The Elder Scrolls themselves rarely play a major role in the games, usually only as a background story. They first appear in Oblivion as an ancient, unreadable text studied by monks. In Skyrim, the Scrolls are tied to the world’s creation and can cause madness if read. They are used in the main quest to time travel and defeat a dragon. The Dawnguard expansion includes a quest to use the Scrolls to help or stop a vampire from darkening the sky.
At E3 2016, Bethesda Games announced new details about future projects.
Other media
In 2009, science fiction author Gregory Keyes published The Infernal City, a book set about 40 years after the Oblivion Crisis. In 2011, Keyes released Lord of Souls, which is the second book in the The Elder Scrolls series.
Reception
In 2012, Complex listed The Elder Scrolls as number 20 on its list of the best video game franchises. In 2013, The Elder Scrolls was chosen as the Greatest Game Series of the Decade by GameSpot, out of 64 other competitors. The Elder Scrolls reached the final round of voting, winning 52.5% of the votes compared to 47.5% for the Grand Theft Auto series.
The fourth main game in the series, Oblivion, was first given a Teen rating by the ESRB. However, after reports that the developers did not share information about content not normally encountered during gameplay but inconsistent with the Teen rating, the ESRB reviewed the game again. The ESRB then raised the rating to Mature, a rare action that received significant public attention.
In August 2011, Bethesda Softworks contacted Mojang, the developer of Minecraft, stating that the name "Scrolls" for its new game might conflict with Bethesda’s trademark for The Elder Scrolls. On March 10, 2012, Markus Persson, a leader at Mojang, announced that an agreement had been reached. The agreement prevents Mojang from using the name "Scrolls" in any future Minecraft sequels.
In May 2019, Bethesda Softworks released a free tabletop role-playing game called Elsweyr. The game was accused of copying content from the Dungeons & Dragons adventure "The Black Road," written by Paige Leitman and Ben Heisler. The game included text that closely resembled the original, with some words replaced by synonyms. After Leitman shared details about the similarities on Facebook, the game was removed from The Elder Scrolls Online’s Facebook page.