The Elder Scrolls is a series of action role-playing video games created mainly by Bethesda Game Studios and released by Bethesda Softworks. The games allow players to explore large open worlds with many choices. Most games in the series have been very popular and well-received by critics and players. 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 over 90 million copies worldwide.
In the fictional world of The Elder Scrolls, all games take place on the continent of Tamriel. The setting mixes elements similar to ancient real-world settings, such as a powerful empire like ancient Rome, with fantasy themes like magic, limited technology, and mythical creatures. The continent is divided into provinces where humans and fantasy races like elves, orcs, and anthropomorphic animals live. A common story in the series involves a hero (played by the player) who must stop a dangerous threat, such as a powerful enemy or an army.
The series began with The Elder Scrolls: Arena in 1994. It has since released five main games, with the last three having additional expansions. Several related games have also been made. In 2014, a game called The Elder Scrolls Online was released. This game allows many players to play together online and was made 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 movies or other media, like the Terminator series. Bethesda’s focus changed when it began making its first action role-playing game. Designer Ted Peterson said, "I remember talking to the team at Sir-Tech who were working on Wizardry VII: Crusaders of the Dark Savant at the time, and they laughed at us for thinking we could make a game like this." Ted Peterson worked with Vijay Lakshman as one of the first designers for Arena, a "medieval-style gladiator game."
Peterson and Lakshman were joined by Julian LeFay, who, according to Peterson, "led the early development of the series." Peterson, Lakshman, and LeFay were fans of pen-and-paper role-playing games, which greatly influenced the world of Tamriel in The Elder Scrolls. They were also inspired by Ultima Underworld, a game from Looking Glass Studios. At first, Arena was not meant to be a role-playing game. Players and their teams would fight in arenas until they became "grand champions" in the Imperial City, the game’s capital. Along the way, players could complete side quests with role-playing elements. As development continued, the tournaments became less important, and the side quests grew more significant. Role-playing features were added as the game expanded to include cities and dungeons. Eventually, the team decided to remove tournaments completely and focus on quests and dungeons, making Arena a full role-playing game. Although the team removed arena combat, the game was already printed with the title The Elder Scrolls: Arena. Lakshman, who worked at Bethesda Softworks, came up with the name The Elder Scrolls, which later meant "Tamriel’s mystical tomes of knowledge that told of its past, present, and future." The game’s opening voice-over was changed to begin: "It has been foretold in the Elder Scrolls…"
Bethesda missed its deadline to release Arena by Christmas 1993. The game was instead released in the first quarter of 1994, which was a "serious mistake" for a small company like Bethesda Softworks. The packaging included an image of a scantily clad female warrior, which worried distributors. Only 20,000 copies were initially sent to stores. Missing the Christmas sales season made the team worried they had "screwed the company." However, sales grew over time as people talked about the game. Despite some bugs and high system requirements, the game became a cult favorite. Reviews of its success ranged from "modest" to "wild." Still, the game remained popular with its audience. Game historian Matt Barton said, "The game set a new standard for this type of role-playing video game and showed how much room was left for innovation."
Work on The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall began after Arena was released in March 1994. Ted Peterson became the lead game designer. He aimed to make Daggerfall’s story less "clichéd" than Arena’s and include a "complex series of adventures leading to multiple endings." Daggerfall replaced Arena’s experience-point system with one that rewarded players for role-playing with their characters. The game used an improved character generation system inspired by GURPS, allowing players to create their own classes and assign skills. Daggerfall was built with the XnGine engine, one of the first truly 3D engines. The game’s world was as large as Great Britain, with 15,000 towns and 750,000 people. It was influenced by books and games like The Man in the Iron Mask and Vampire: The Masquerade, which Julian LeFay or Ted Peterson were reading or playing at the time. Daggerfall was released in September 1996. Like Arena, it had some bugs at first, but later versions fixed these issues. This experience led Bethesda to plan future game releases more carefully.
After Daggerfall was released, Bethesda started working 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. It was meant to be an expansion for Daggerfall but became a standalone game. Battlespire focused on dungeon exploration and included a multiplayer deathmatch mode, the only series game to do so until The Elder Scrolls Online in 2014. Redguard was released on October 31, 1998. It was an action-adventure game inspired by Tomb Raider, Prince of Persia, and the Ultima series. Unlike Daggerfall, Redguard did not let players create their own characters. Instead, players controlled a pre-made character named "Cyrus the Redguard." Both Battlespire and Redguard did not do well with Bethesda’s audience. Players who liked the large open worlds of Daggerfall were not happy with the smaller worlds in these games. Because of this, Bethesda focused more on creating a new major game with a large world.
The third Elder Scrolls game, Morrowind, was planned during Daggerfall’s development. At first, the game was meant to cover the entire province of Morrowind and let players join all five Dunmer Great Houses. However, the team decided the game was too large for the technology available at the time. Instead, the game covered the central island of Vvardenfell and let players join three of the Great Houses. The XnGine engine was replaced with Numerical Design Limited’s Gamebryo engine, which used Direct3D for lighting, textures, and animations. The game’s world was created by hand, using methods developed for Redguard, rather than random algorithms.
Creating Morrowind took "close to 100-man-years" to complete. Bethesda tripled its staff and spent the first year developing The Elder Scrolls Construction Set, a tool that let the team balance the game and make small changes easily. Ted Peterson, who had left after Daggerfall, returned to help write in-game material and advise on the game’s lore. The PC version of Morrowind was completed on April 23, 2002, and released on May 1 in North America. The Xbox version came out on June 7. On January 3, 2002, Bethesda announced that Ubisoft would handle the European distribution of Morrowind and eight other Bethesda games.
The expansion pack The Elder Scrolls III: Tribunal was completed on November 1, 2002, and released on
Gameplay
The Elder Scrolls games are action role-playing games that combine features from action and adventure games. In Arena, players gain experience points by defeating monsters until they reach a specific number, which allows them to level-up. In later games like Daggerfall, Morrowind, and Oblivion, character progression focused on developing skills through use. Players only level-up after mastering certain skills. Skyrim changed this by making skill development directly influence character level, shifting the focus from initial character creation to ongoing development. The games' flexible systems allowed players to create game add-ons, called mods, using The Elder Scrolls Construction Set.
The Elder Scrolls series highlights different aspects of gaming compared to most role-playing games. A 2006 article by Joystiq noted that Bethesda's games, like Arena, emphasized "beautiful visuals and open exploration," while BioWare's games focused on combat systems and flexible game structures. Bethesda's designers aimed to create a world where players could shape their own experiences, similar to pen-and-paper role-playing games. Daggerfall's manual stated the developers wanted to make a game that "encourages exploration and rewards curiosity," allowing players to choose their own paths, whether good or evil. This approach continued in Morrowind, where Bethesda expanded its team to enhance the game's visuals and innovation. They aimed to make The Elder Scrolls stand out as a leader in game design.
Series overview
The Elder Scrolls is set in a high fantasy world inspired by real-world cultures. Like many high fantasy stories, the games often have serious tones and large, epic stories. They explore themes like a big battle against a supernatural or evil force. Many races live in the world of The Elder Scrolls, including common ones like humans, orcs, and elves. Other races are less typical, such as the lizard-like Argonians and cat-like Khajiit. Some races, like the extinct Dwemer, known as "dwarves," challenge stereotypes. Though they are often seen as subterranean, skilled builders, the Dwemer are actually a type of elf with 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 extensive stories, settings, and background. There is no all-powerful narrator. Instead, the world's history is written by fictional scholars within the game, and their perspectives may be biased or uncertain. Players are encouraged to interpret the lore themselves, and many fans have created their own stories and theories. The developers do not confirm or deny fan ideas, even if they seem incorrect. Some contradictions in the lore are explained as mistakes in the scholars' work. Others, like different endings to earlier games, are described as magical paradoxes. Some parts of the lore are intentionally unclear so players can decide what is true. For example, players can choose to believe they are a hero from a prophecy or reject that idea.
The first game in the series, Arena, had little lore and lacked many features that later games would include. The second game, Daggerfall, introduced a complex system of gods and myths. This was done to improve on Arena, which had been criticized for weak writing. After Daggerfall, the developers focused on learning more about the world's history and religions. The series' fictional beliefs are inspired by Gnosticism, a religious idea. There are conflicting creation myths, one of which says some gods were tricked into creating the mortal world and gave up part of their power. These gods became the Eight Divines, who are worshipped as kind deities. A ninth divine, Talos, was added after the death of Tiber Septim, who united Tamriel into one empire. Talos's creation remains controversial, especially among elves, and is a major conflict in Skyrim. A different group of gods, the Daedra, are more powerful and live in a separate realm called Oblivion. They are not always evil but are often shown as unfeeling.
Most games in the series take place on the continent of Tamriel, which is on the planet Nirn. Exceptions include An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire, set in a different dimension, and parts of Oblivion and its expansion Shivering Isles, which are in Oblivion. Some quests in Skyrim and The Elder Scrolls Online also occur in Oblivion. Other continents exist on Nirn, such as Akavir, Pyandonea, Yokuda, and Atmora, 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), live in scattered settlements and once had a kingdom in High Rock called Orsinium.
Though many empires have ruled Tamriel over thousands of years, most games take place during the Third Cyrodiilic Empire, led by the Septim dynasty. In Arena, players help free Emperor Uriel Septim VII from a magical prison. In Daggerfall, players find an artifact to reshape the world. In Morrowind, players are prophesied to be a reincarnated hero and help stop a rebellion. In Oblivion, a cult opens a portal to a hellish realm, killing the emperor and causing a succession crisis. In Skyrim, the Empire is recovering from a war with the Aldmeri Dominion, a separatist group, and faces the return of dragons.
The Elder Scrolls Online is a prequel to the Third Empire, set during a 600-year period between the Second and Third Empires. The game follows a player who is sacrificed by followers of the Daedric prince Molag Bal and must join one of three alliances in a war to stop Molag Bal from conquering Nirn.
The Elder Scrolls themselves play a small role in the games, usually as a background story. They are rarely mentioned, except in Oblivion, where they appear as an unreadable chart with glowing symbols. In Skyrim, the Scrolls are part of the world's creation myth and are said to cause madness when studied. They are used in the main quest to time travel and defeat an immortal dragon. The Dawnguard expansion adds a quest to use the Scrolls to help or stop a vampire from destroying the sun.
At E3 2016, Bethesda Games announced new details about the series.
Other media
In 2009, science-fiction author Gregory Keyes published The Infernal City, a novel 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 placed The Elder Scrolls at 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 competitors. The Elder Scrolls reached the final round of voting, receiving 52.5% of the votes, while the Grand Theft Auto series received 47.5%.
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 tell the ESRB about some content not encountered during normal gameplay but inconsistent with the Teen rating, the ESRB reviewed the game again. In an unusual action that gained public attention, the ESRB changed the rating to Mature.
In August 2011, Bethesda Softworks contacted Mojang, the developer of Minecraft, stating that Mojang’s use of the word "Scrolls" in its game’s title conflicted with Bethesda’s trademark for The Elder Scrolls. On March 10, 2012, Markus Persson, a leader at Mojang, announced that the two companies had reached an agreement. The agreement stated that Mojang cannot use the word "Scrolls" in any future Minecraft games.
In May 2019, Bethesda Softworks released a free tabletop role-playing game called Elsweyr. The game was accused of copying the plot of a Dungeons & Dragons adventure titled "The Black Road," written by Paige Leitman and Ben Heisler. The game used similar text with some words changed to synonyms. After Leitman shared the similarities on Facebook, the game was taken down from the The Elder Scrolls Online Facebook page.