So, first with an apology. An error with the website database ate my old post. I'm afraid this one will not be nearly as entertaining and a bit shorter. EDIT: A kind contributor managed to get my original post back! Spoilered here for now because I am lazy...though I think you may be more entertained by the writing in the original, I've updated my thoughts a little on the Dragonknight class, so I will keep the second version of this post as the "main" one to prevent further confusion.
Title: ESO Lore Overhaul: Character Creation Edition
Author: Kevaar
Date: Fri, 04 May 2018 14:52:55 +0300
Link: https://tamriel-rebuilt.org/content/eso-lore-overhaul-character-creation-edition
First, a...
Note from the Blogger
Before I really get into it...
So I know this is probably an exercise in insanity, but I was inspired today by playing a little through ESO and seeing some of the wheat among the chaff. Given my propensity for procrastination and starting projects that I never finish, or only finish years later, I'm not sure how far I will get in this. But for now, I'll dedicate this blog to notes on the lore (or lack thereof) from the vanilla (non DLC) zones in ESO, and my impressions on minor tweaks Zenimax could make to bring their lore into line with the rest of the TES canon.
Please note that I am not going to tackle the DLCs in this blog series, or at least not at present. Although there are still some stupidities in those (RIP Telvanni towers), on the whole Zenimax's writing and tone has improved, and I'd like to give credit there were credit is due. (Sort of. Sorry, Zenimax, but I still detest the mushroom cancer you inflicted on my beautiful towers...)
Please also note that I am not going to tackle some of the bigger decisions that ESO made that I think were stupid or that have proven to be unpopular, such as Argonians allying with Dunmer or the Planemeld. Perhaps with enough support, Zenimax may one day take me up on the changes I propose here (this one is allowed to dream, yes?), and it's much easier to tweak dialogue, lorebooks, and place names here and there, rather than have to go and rewrite the entire structure of the game. I've also found that details can make or break the best ideas, and can have an enormous amount of influence on a world's tone and atmosphere, so it makes an ideal starting place for turning the TES lore boat around from where it's gotten mired (in my overly elitist opinion of course!).
Finally please note, that, as with anything that I write here in the blogs, the following are my own opinions and are not be taken as the official stance of Tamriel Rebuilt, Project Tamriel, or related projects...
And so to begin. The first stop is at Character Creation, otherwise known as tweaks to racial appearances and the class aesthetics.
Suthay-Raht, You Say?
The Issue: In the Elder Scrolls games up until TES4 (Oblivion), the changes to the Khajiit appearances were explained as their coming from different furstocks, or Khajiit "species", like the Ohmes and the Ohmes-Raht. In TES4, TES5, ESO, and ES:L, the Khajiit have taken on the forms of cat people with plantigrade feet, and we are either not given their furstock's name or they have been retconned in as Suthay-Raht. The problem with this is that Morrowind's artwork established Suthay-Raht as having digitigrade feet, so the plantigrade Khajiit cannot also be Suthay-Raht by this logic.
The Proposal: Pick a furstock we haven't seen yet to be the furstock of these new plantigrade cat-people. My research (too long for this little nitpicky post, I'm afraid) points to Suthay as being the most likely candidate. My proposal is to add this into the race description on the Character Creation screen, something along the lines of "In the Second Era, the most common furstock to travel outside Elsweyr is the Suthay..."
Red Eye Correction
The Issue: Dunmer, or Dark Elves, are specifically stated in older games to have only red eyes. In ESO, they can now have yellow, white, gray, brown, and purple eyes. I feel this is an obvious knock-off of D&D's drow and have to shake my head and tutt disapprovingly at ESO, but I think there may be a fix...
The Proposal: Dunmer's gray skin color is supposed to symbolize the ash of Morrowind, while the Dunmer's red eyes symbolize embers and lava. ESO could make use of this trope to say the yellow variations are another color of fire. They could add color variations of orange and perhaps a blue-outlined yellow to carry on in this theme. And while I would prefer they take out the purple, brown, and gray eyes altogether, I know by this time there are probably players very much attached to these colors, so the best thing I can come up with is that they should clarify that the gray and brown eye colors reflect the colors of ash and lavarock, while purple eyes are Dunmer cursed blessed by Daedra. (Or something. Okay, sometimes a dumb decision has to be justified by an equally dumb explanation...)
Green Around the Gills
The Issue: In ESO, Orcs have brown skin that at a glance can be confused for the gray of Dunmer skin. While I actually think this is a fantastic nod to the fact that Orsimer origins are closely related to that of the Dunmer and Altmer, in the other TES games, Orcs very clearly have green skin.
The Proposal: Add various tints of green-gray, green-brown, and green-yellow to the Orc customization options.
Who Put This White Person in My Game?
The Issue: Altmer (can) have Caucausian skin and blue or green eyes. This is another one of those times I shake my head disapprovingly for ESO adopting D&D tropes instead of sticking to TES lore, where Altmer have variants of gold, yellow (and perhaps) gold-brown skin, and typically only yellow eyes.
The Proposal: Honestly, beyond simply removing these colors, you'd have to do something pretty ground-breaking to fix this. Lore has established that half-breeds take on the characteristics of the mother in TES, so you can't reason that these peachy-skinned Altmer are just half-Bosmer, for instance. Instead I'd suggest crafting new lore that these Altmer have a relation to the Direnni, the Ayleids, the Ancient Falmer, or the Left-Handed Elves; whose skin color has changed or is changing in the same way that Dunmer and Orsimer skins changed after their philosophies and peoples began to diverge from their ancestors in Summerset. If Ayleids are chosen, this might also explain the origins of the Bosmer Caucausian skin color as well.
I Can Has More Black People?
The Issue: To be honest, this is more a nitpick with the video game industry than any lore, but here goes--Redguards look too much like Caucasians! (In lore, this is actually more or less accurate, as the Redguards are just as much Middle Eastern in their depictions as they are African.) Still, almost all "humans" in video games are Caucasians, or, if they have dark skin, still have Caucasian facial features. It's very hard to make your character into a nice black man or woman in the gaming world, and ESO has the opportunity to correct this staring them right in the face!
The Proposal: Add some darker, richer skin colors to Redguards! Without changing the mesh of the race itself and potentially upsetting those players attached to a certain look, I'm not sure what you could do with the facial features, though. There are already some nice African-eqse hairstyles, so that's a good step in the right direction.
But I Don't Worship Aedra...
The Issue: One of Templar's skill lines is specifically described as being Aedric in nature. This is a over-simplification of the Tamrielic pantheon (where neither Aedra nor Daedra fall happily inside a good vs. evil dichotomy) and for some of the races, is also just plain illogical. Khajiit, for instance, venerate the moons, which may or may not be pieces of Lorkhan himself, while Orcs and Dunmer worship Daedric Princes. It's also in question whether the various gods of Tamriel gift their followers with magic outright (such as they do in D&D settings) or if instead the healing and offensive magic of Tamrielic priests is normal magic studied in a normal matter, just under the tutelage of learned priests instead of learned mages. The Aedra are dead and most of their power is in the world itself in the form of the "magic" of physics, time, gravity etc; that is why they are called the Earthbones. Magic, aka powers typically unknown and unnatural to Tamriel, instead come from the Daedra or the remaining Magne-Ge; as far as the former, I think we're all in agreement that Templars shouldn't be go around wielding Daedric magic though! (For one thing, that is the purview of the Sorcerer class.)
The Proposal: For those Templar abilities having to do with Light, rename and/or re-describe them to reflect their connection to the Magne-Ge, who are the elder spirits who fled Nirn by punching holes in the sky and hence creating the stars and the sun. "Aedric Spear" can become "Magnus' Spear" or "Spear of the Magne-Ge"/"Spear of Magnus" to avoid the awkward apostrophe; "Dawn's Wrath" could become "Wrath of Aetherius", etc. Lorewise, this means all Templar spells now instead harness the power of Aetherius, or plain old Magic in layman's terms, rather than the Aedra. Those who want to claim their power comes from the Aedra still can as well, for Aetherius is where the Aedra orginated from.
Where Do the Warden Animal Companions Come From, REALLY?
The Issue: The warden's animal companions all come from Morrowind. Morrowind's creatures are specific to Morrowind and its volcanic climate. And yet, wardens also have a bear for their Ultimate ability, and mammals are unhead of in Morrowind.
The Proposal: The Gold-Star Million-Dollar-Prize method of fixing this would be to add new "skins" to spells that players could collect and customize through the Appearance tabs. Just think of the money Zenimax, c'mon... The warden default should then be returned to normal "Earth" animals that are common across the rest of the continent: Hawk instead of cliff-racer, Beetle or Spider instead of shalk, Hornets instead of fetcherflies, Bats, Owls, Wolves, or Serpents instead of netches (sorry, I was blanking a little in coming up with an animal that would be "magical"). The bear would then not be out of place among the other warden abilities, but for Morrowind wardens, they could be offered a Kagouti spell skin as well.
My other proposal would be less animation-overhaul intensive and probably much less popular, but it might also help explain some of the new Morrowind animals ESO added like the nix-ox and fetcherfly golem, as well as explain why almost every Valenwood province has a quest to do with kwama, despite...well, you know. That proposal goes like this: When Dagoth Ur awakened, Red Mountain erupted. Dagoth Ur and his Blight is associated with mutation (see his Sixth House cultists), a'la radiation poisoning. It could perhaps be explained that this eruption and the subsequent release of Blight magic is what changed the creatures we see in ESO to their versions (or lack there of) in TES3. Changes that could be explained in this way are including, but not limited to: why alits are giant mouths with legs, why kwama foragers don't exist in ESO, why nix-hounds are much bigger and green, why cliff-racers have no legs and have longer sails on their backs and chests, and so on. Working backward from this logic, it could then perhaps be implied that the Morrowind-esque creatures in ESO are actually native to ALL of Tamriel (as we see guar in Black Marsh and alits in Auridon), but with the eruption, they have died out in Morrowind proper to be replaced with those we all know and love in TES3. Finally, for all we know, the ESO species may then still exist outside of Morrowind during the TES3 time period--though I might also suggest something along the lines of the Dwemer's disappearance for them to be wiped out of existence, because if I am being honest, ESO should have never taken Morrowind creatures outside of Morrowind, and that is that!
Dragon What?
The Issue:Â One of the Dragonknight's skill lines is called Draconic Power, and some of the line's abilities mention things like having dragon blood and dragon scales. So...wait, what? You mean my Dunmer MagDK is half-dragon? How does THAT work? But, oh wait, there's more! The tooltip in character creation says Dragonknights base their power on Akaviri martial arts. But, but... I thought Akaviri were incredibly rare and only really given to teaching the Imperials their stuff? (Or shall we say, the Imperials stole their stuff after defeating the Akaviri when the latter tried to invade...) Except... the Imperials in ESO's timeline are brainwashed by Daedra and hostile to pretty much everyone, and so further not given to teaching anyone these incredibly rare and mysterious powers. So how in the world does one fifth of the player population know these abilities?
The Proposal: Re-name and/or re-describe this class. In TES lore, we already have a brand of magical-wielding warriors that go around in heavy armor, and they are called Battlemages. ESO would even have an opportunity here to write some nifty new lore, for the famous Imperial Battlemages came into being during either the Reman or Alessian empires, one conveniently right before the ESO time period, and one conveniently right after. Oh, yeah, and one of the ESO plotlines centers around the Empire and Imperials and a war they fought--you see where I'm headed with this?
But I know, I know, the name "Battlemage" might confuse the ickle casuals who would wonder why there are two cloth-wearing archetypes among the five ESO classes (the other one being the Sorceror), plus it would outdate a huge amount of online guides and enflame a whole generation of future elitists on the ESO forum that would be hounding after people for talking about "DKs" instead of "BMs". Quite a calamity. So I guess that suggestion's out.
Instead, I might go for a more dumbed down option. I think we've established that a large number of Tamrielic citizens knowing Akaviri combat techniques would be a bit shakey, so let's scrub the mention of Akaviri out of the class description. After all, the number one rule of the Akaviri is that you don't talk about the Akaviri, for that is how they remain mysterious. Second, is to retool the descriptions of the dragon abilities. Until 4th Era Skyrim, dragons were as common on Tamriel as they are in any other fantasy setting; the commander who conquered Stros M'Kai for Tiber Septim in the 3rd Era even had a dragon at his beck and call. Perhaps instead of being inspired by Akaviri, Dragonknights are inspired by dragons instead. (Who woulda thunk it?) The operative word here is inspired: Dragonknights don't actually have scales or dragon blood, and they may not have even seen a real dragon in their lifetime at all. Just like Dunmer basing their martial arts on water plants and Khajiit on the moons, Dragonknights base their techniques on that mighty creature, the dragon.
And that's it. That HAS to be it, because unfortunately, tying the Dragonknights any closer to, say, the religion of Akatosh or to the Skyrim Dragon Priests would be doing the same thing as the Templar's Aedric abilities do now: assigning a religion to races for whom that religion makes little sense. In my way, it is left up to the player's interpretation of just where their character received dragon-like abilities, whether from an Akaviri, a disciple of Akatosh, the writings of a longdead Dragon Priest, their own poetical flair, or even a dragon themselves.
(Though, really, Dragonknight should just be renamed, not least because they are often confused with that other tanky magical MMO class, the World of Warcraft Death Knight. My DK belches fire, not maggots, mmkay?)
So, what do YOU think?
Now to explain (again) what this is. With any luck, this post will be the first of a series, that points out errors or poorly written lore in ESO and then makes small, easy proposals on how to fix them. The small and easy are the operative words, for with any luck or maybe just a little smoozing, Zenimax may take these proposals seriously and thus mold ESO into a game even us diehard haters of the newer lore can enjoy.
To that aim, I am following these rules for myself:
1) I will be focusing mainly on vanilla ESO, aka the mainland zones, none of the DLCs. This is because vanilla ESO has the weakest writing in general, but also serves as the largest batch of content in the game that new players are corrupted by experience.
2) With some exceptions, I won't be touching on lore issues that would require a massive overhaul of the game, such as the problems with the PvP racial alliances. While there are many many things that could be said about the unholy marriages of mechanics and lore in this game, the point of this is constructive criticism, not bashing with no point.
3) What I write here are my opinions, not the official stance of Tamriel Rebuilt, Project Tamriel, Beyond Skyrim, or related projects.
4) For the purpose of researching canon lore and citing sources, I am treating anything from ESO or ES:L as highly suspect in its validity (you can't use the word you're trying to define in the definition of the word, after all...). I may also reference popular headcanon from time to time based on the Cool Factor, but this takes a backseat for now to canon sources or dev interviews.
Now to the overhauls. This first post will focus on what errors can be found in the Character Creation screen, and has to do generally with racial appearances and class aesthetics.
Red Eye Correction
The Issue: Dunmer are specifically described as having ash-gray skin and red eyes in all TES games before ESO (with a small detour in Skyrim, which also allows them to have black eyes). ESO gives Dunmer gray, brown, yellow, and purple eyes, which just screams drow knock-off to me. Tut tut.
The Proposal: The Dunmer's gray skin symbolizes the ash of their homelands, while their red eyes symbolize fire and lavarock. My proposal is to make further use of this symbolism, and to add more eye colors that are the color of fire: oranges, golds, yellows, yellow with a blue rim, etc. While I would prefer the gray, brown, and purple eyes to be removed, let's face it, there are players who are probably very attached to these eye colors now, so it's not something ESO could feasibly take out. Instead, I would explain the gray and brown eyes to be in line with the lavarock metaphor, while purple eyes may be related to the Dunmer connection to the Daedra (which ESO gave the color scheme of purple, blue, and gray).
Green Around the Gills
The Issue: Orcs in ESO have brown or gray-brown skin, which sometimes is mistaken for Dunmer skin at a distance. While I believe this is a fantastic reference to how Altmer, Dunmer, and Orsimer share origins, the Orcs in other TES games are clearly green skinned.
The Proposal: Give more skin tone customization options to Orcs: namely yellow-green, brown-green, and gray-green. No need to remove the brown or gray skin tones, though I'm afraid there will always be some orcs I will have to stare at rudely while I verify that they do indeed have tusks!
Suthay-Raht, You Say?
The Issue: Khajiit have different furstocks, or species. In earlier games, this lore was used to explain the stylistic changes made to Khajiit. (In Arena, Ohmes Khajiit were basically tattooed Bosmer; in Daggerfall, Ohmes-Raht Khajiit bore a resemblance to anime catgirls). In Morrowind, we are introduced to the furstock of Suthay-Raht, who have the appearance of cats standing on their hind legs, digitigrade style. In Oblivion, Skyrim, and ESO, Khajiit have the same appearance of cats walking on two feet, but they have plantigrade feet instead of digitigrade.
The Proposal: Though there are some dev interviews that specify that later-game Khajiit are still Suthay-Raht, I would argue that the change from digitigrade to plantigrade is enough of a style change to justify the use of a new furstock. My research into Khajiit furstocks and how they work would suggest this "new" furstock should be the Suthay. This would be an easy change on ESO's part: just add "The most common Khajiit furstock to venture outside of Elsweyr in the Second Era is the Suthay..." to the Khajiit description.
Who Put This White Person In My Game?
The Issue: In ESO, Altmer (can) have a Caucasian skin tone and blue or green eyes. In older games, Altmer can only be yellow, gold, or gold-brown in complexion, and only have yellow eyes.
The Proposal: Like the issue of Dunmer eyes, I'm afraid you couldn't just rip out these skin colors without major upheaval from the player base, although that would be MY preference, certainly. Instead, I would suggest crafting new lore that tie these Caucasian Altmer into the lore of the Direnni, the Falmer, the Left-Handed Elves, or the Ayleids. The three-pronged origin story of the Altmer, Dunmer, and Orsimer show that mer skin color can change in accordance to their change in philosophies or culture. Thus, a shift to Caucasian skin color from the normal gold tones would mean a cultural shift for ESO Altmer. If Ayleids are chosen as the race to which Caucasian Altmer shifted into (or from), this might also help explain why Bosmer have Caucasian skin as well.
I Can Has More Black People?
The Issue: This isn't really an issue with the lore persay, as Redguards are just as much Middle Eastern in flavor as they are African. Still, most video games are completely neglectful in representing black people when they create "human" races, or if they do have black people, they are offscreen, or their skin tone doesn't reflect the rich dark colors associated with many of those living in Africa. Given the Redguard lore, ESO has a perfect opportunity to turn this dynamic around and add more black people representation to video games!
The Proposal: Add more dark, rich skin colors to Redguards. Also clean up or add more "mid-range" skin colors so they have the right undertones, rather than looking like white people with a tan or sunburn.
But I Don't Worship the Aedra...
The Issue: Templars have a skill line that is named and described in such a manner that insinuates templar spells are granted to them by the Aedra. This is iffy for two reasons: one, there are some races that don't worship the Aedra, like the Orcs, the Dunmer, and (some) Khajiit, and two, the Aedra don't grant powers in the way we are used to in D&D, where a priest prays to their god, who then answers and gives them spells. The Aedra in TES are dead, and their powers are now latent in the earth as natural laws: physics, gravity, energy exchange, time, space, etc. Magic as taught in Temples of the Nine Divines is instead normal magic learned through normal means, albeit through the tutelage of learned priests instead of learned mages.
The Proposal: Though I'm told "Aedric" can mean "coming from Aetherius" as well as "coming from the Aedra", I think this is too easily misconstrued, and a little bit wrong. While it's true Aedra come from the realm of Aetherius, Aedra as a term typically means the Earthbones, and the "Aedra" who still in Aetherius are instead called the Et-Ada or the Magna-Ge. My proposal is to reword this skill line to make it more clear that it is the power of the Aetherius that Templars draw on, not the Aedra. Corrections would include removing the mentions of "godly power" or "divinely inspired", and renaming "Aedric Spear" to "Aetheric Spear". (Yes, it's a word, and even already in use by ESO!)
I'm a Warden and I'm From Morrowind
The Issue: The warden Animal Companions skill line features animals that are native to Morrowind. And Morrowind only. Yet their Ultimate ability takes the form of a bear, which don't live in Morrowind. Do you see the issue?
The Proposal: One solution that would take the most work but also possibly open a new line of profit for Zenimax would be to give players the ability to customize their spell appearances with new "spell skins". They could then replace the Morrowind-eqsue warden spell skins with animals that make more sense for all non-Dunmer wardens: hawks instead of cliff-racers, spiders or beetles instead of shalk, wolves, bats, serpents, or owls instead of netches (I was struggling a little to decide which animal would be the most "magical" here). Then the bear ultimate would fit right in. They could also then offer a kagouti spell skin for the Ultimate, for those wardens who still want to keep their Morrowind theme.
Another solution would be to rewrite the lore surrounding these creatures. First, I point out that the Morrowind fauna we see in ESO and the Morrowind fauna we see in TES3 are different: in ESO, there are no kwama foragers, nix-hounds more closely resemble orange grasshoppers then they do green hounds, alits have smaller mouths and a proper body, and there are some new species like the nix-ox and fetchfly. Furthermore, some of the creatures we have been taught to only expect in Morrowind can be found outside of Morrowind in ESO: guar and kagouti run around in Black Marsh, Khenarthi's Roost has an infestation of alits, and almost every Valenwood zone has a questline involving kwama.
This could be explained by a great extinction event. When Dagoth Ur awoke in the Third Era, Red Mountain erupted and spread the Blight across Morrowind. Blight is frequently associated with mutations. The ESO Morrowind fauna could have been wiped out or mutated to resemble their TES3 counterparts. You could even take it a step further, and say that the ESO "Morrowind" fauna actually still lives outside of Morrowind in TES3 times, with the old ESO looks instead of the Blight-inspired TES3 looks. IMO, that's taking it a little too far though, and this would also be an opportunity to play with the world-bending weirdness that is the Heart of Lorkhan, and say that the other Morrowind species disappeared simultaneously across Tamriel in a manner similar to the Dwemer.
Dragon What?
The Issue: Some of the Dragonknight's abilities specify that the Dragonknight has draconic scales or blood. The closest lore we have to explaining this phenomenon are the Dragonborn, but the Dragonborn are rare, a once in a generation kind of thing, and nor do they have physical draconic features. It doesn't make sense for one fifth of the player base to be running around as Dragonborn, but where else would a mortal get draconic abilities?
Another issue is that the class description for the Dragonknight describes Akaviri as being the inspiration for many of the Dragonknight abilities, and this begs the question of why so many varied races of Tamriel know the Akaviri spells and fighting techniques. Although the Fighters Guild has a strong tradition of Akaviri-style battling and the Akaviri have recently invaded in ESO's timeline, on the whole, the Akaviri are still a mysterious race who live across the sea and do not give up their secrets easily. The other classes of ESO (excepting the warden and templar, which I explained above) are built to fit within multiple cultures and religions. Putting a heavy emphasis on Akaviri I argue shoehorns Dragonknights characters into a certain culture and style of fighting that may not fit them. Many races, too, like the Dunmer and the Argonians, should already have spells similar to the obsidian shields and poison breath of the Dragonknights without dipping into Akaviri culture at all.
Can my Dunmer MagDK have DK abilities without needing to be an Akaviri-loving half-dragon thing? That's the real question here.
The Proposal: Reword the abilities in this skill line so that the draconic abilities are not based in a literal connection to dragons, nor a direct inspiration from the Akaviri. Instead, broaden their lore and say they are simply inspired by dragons, and leave it up to the player just how this inspiration worked for their case. Perhaps, like the current class description, the player learned their techniques from the Akaviri. But maybe instead, they learned it from the old writings of a Dragon Priest, through a priest of Akatosh, through a dragon themselves, or even perhaps they just named their signature moves after dragons via a poetical flair of their own.
Another proposal is to sidestep this issue and rename the class to Battlemages, Crusaders, or Spellswords, which are all classes already in TES lore that describe heavily armored warriors who also make use of magic. Unfortunately this would have the effect of outdating multiple online guides and forever enable forum trolls to go after those who talk about "DKs" rather than "BMs" in years-old posts, and so this is a stretch of a proposal at best.
Comments
Replies and Thoughts
I agree with a lot of this, but not all of it. I think that a lot of stylistic choices are just stylistic choices, and sometimes they don't necessarily mean anything beyond art choices. I think the big thing about TES that we have to realize is that it is a game first and a setting second, which admittedly makes life more difficult for lore buffs. A lot of big changes as well can be attributed to changing technology, and better graphics. I think that ESO's Telvanni towers are better, and fit in well to the aesthetic of Morrowind, especially compared with its concept art. But that's another topic. A lot of changes ESO made as compared to earlier games where graphic changes, and gameplay changes.
I would argue that the eye color of the dunmer isn't not just not a big deal, but also that it's more a case of better character customization in TES games. In Morrowind we had just a few heads and hair styles to choose from, so of course fairly universal eye colors where helpful. ESO is a modern game that has a more robust character creator than any other TES game. Beyond that, the eye colors we see are all shades of red. They are all very warm colors with a red tint. I think that the dunmer eyes were an improvement.
The orcs can be green, though they're not as shrek like as they were in other games, which I think is an improvement, but I guess that's more of a matter of taste. I think this is also a case of expanded customization helping the game rather than hurting it.
The Altmer are another thing all together. They ended up limiting the character creator a bit here. Same with Bosmer. There are no dark skin options for Altmer or Bosmer, which is honestly disappointing at best, and whitewashy at the worst. I agree, they could have done better here, but I don't think it's necessarily a lore faux pas.
Khajiit lore has been messy from the very start. No one has ever been sure what the heck is going on with their forms as they relate to the moons. The first source to mention the khajiit furstocks was to my knowledge, the Pocket Guide to the Empire v1 (https://www.imperial-library.info/content/pocket-guide-empire-first-edit...), which offers a pointed and biased look at the khajiit at best. The most convincing source that the khajiit truest do have different sub breeds, and possibly the most accurate representation of such comes from the Interview With Three Booksellers (https://www.imperial-library.info/content/interviews-3-booksellers) in which Jobasha describes the furstocks similarly to how the pocket guide described them.
In ESO though, a lot of these obscure texts have been missed. The early ask us anything interviews flounder with the lore, suggesting that Altmer only live to 300, and that the khajiit you see in game are suthay-rhat (https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/307). Which is a little silly honestly, and I personally believe it to be because who ever was answering these questions just didn't have a solid grasp of the lore. The Khajiit in ESO appear to be Cathay like the ones in Oblivion and Skyrim.
Going further though, there is suggestion in ESO that the furstocks aren't as dramatically different as the early sources suggest, and if this is the case, it's possible that Bethesda and Zos are slowly trying to retcon the idea of furstocks entirely. In this interview which seems to be better researched, it's suggested that there aren't really house cat or tiger shaped khajiit and that it's all an imperial exaggeration (https://en.m.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Moon_Bishop_Hunal_Answers_Your_Questions). Which would explain why we've only seen one type of khajiit per game, and why they call the khajiit in ESO suthay-raht and not Cathay as they appear. ESO and Bethesda by extension are probably trying to phase out the idea that there are 20+ different kinds of khajiit in order to make game design easier on them. Which makes sense, and I see why they are doing it as the lore is fairly convoluted to begin with, but it's arguable that this sort of move takes away from the flair and magic of the khajiit. It's incredibly likely that this will be left purposefully vague so they don't have to explain it.
As for the redguards, a lack of darker skin tones and limited hair styles and facial features are probably less due to any lore muck up, and more to do with systematic racism and underrepresentation of people of color in video games in general. I doubt Zos/Beth will change it because in doing so they will admit to doing wrong in the first place, which is upsettingly rife with controversy. Really, it's so mind boggling to me that we have 4 playable human races in TES and three of them are white-European. You can tell from the early games that TES started as a white boys club and grew from there. It's really part of a larger, more complicated discussion about race in media that needs to be had.
Classes in ESO where in my opinion, a big mistake. It was clearly a way to make ESO appeal to a wider MMO audience, and make it feel familiar to players. The whole game in general plays like an MMO instead of an Elder Scrolls game, which I understand is on purpose, but upsets me. There was some shoddy lore layer over the class abilities and descriptions, but I don't think that these classes and powers really hold any sort of place in lore. I consider them game mechanics only. But I agree with you, why they decided to go with the made up classes they chose instead of the classes and skill based system in the other games was a stylistic choice that I think hurt ESO in the early days. They've gotten back to their roots with the updates, but at launch they felt like an Elder Scrolls flavored WoW clone, which did not do them any favors. It would be awesome if they re hauled the classes, but that's very unlikely.
This was a fun blogpost! It was really nice reading through it and nodding along to some and shaking my head at other parts. It really opened some discussion I think. Lemme know what you think too! I could also be completely wrong and I want to hear feedback.
Thanks so much for the reply!
Thanks so much for the reply! I like that this has gotten some neat thoughts and discussions going! Replies to your points, in no particular order:
As far as the "three white races" and Redguards--some of this is also due to how Oblivion changed the lore surrounding the Imperials, I think. In older lore, one branch of the Imperials was the Nibenese, who had strong ties with the Akaviri and hence a Chinese/Japanese flavoring. Oblivion took the Empire theme a little further to make Imperials more Roman, and while I don't think is a bad design direction, RIP all those awesome Asian aesthetics. To most lorebeards I've talked to, the Roman-esque Imperials we see in games are understood to be the Colovian branch of Imperials, who share more cultural roots to the Bretons and Nords than the Nibenese, explaining their white guy syndrome. Nibenese are probably still around, the same way the Khajiit furstocks are still around--blame gameplay and cut content for us not being able to see them, I suppose.
Redguards, too, get a little bit of a pass, where they are divided into the Crowns/Na-Totambu and Forebears/Ra Gada (depending on which time period you're talking, but the general themes of the two groups are the same). The Crowns follow more closely the traditions of ancient Yokuda, which I assume are more African in appearance and manner, while the Forebears have begun to adapt and take on characteristics of the Caucasian High Rock cultures, and so this also probably comes out in their skin color.
About Khajiit--I wanted to throw this in here since it's a common misconception I've been hoping to clear up as TR works on implementing (playable) furstocks: The Oblivion and Skyrim furstocks are not Cathay--I'm told that one wiki has it wrong and is going off of headcanons, for there are no solid mentions on what the furstock is in the later games beyond that one interview you linked about claiming the ESO ones are Suthay-Raht.
I guess I might as well go into my logic of why Suthay here in all its delicious detail, too. It's based on two dimensions that can be inferred from the canon on Khajiit forms:
1) The non-Raht furstocks are more humanoid in appearance--it's not (always) just a different in size. See Ohmes vs. Ohmes-Raht, and Senche vs. Senche-Raht (where I believe the longer forelegs may have at one time been meant to be a more ape-like configuation, similar to how TES trolls are now). Having plantigrade feet is fairly "humanoid", so the later games' furstock is probably not a Raht (or is possibly paired with a much more human furstock we haven't been introduced to yet--Tojay??)
2) The interview lore says that Suthay are smaller than Suthay-Raht, while Cathay are bigger than Suthay-Raht. In Morrowind, the for-sure Suthay-Raht we have are about the same height as Bosmer, when they are not standing fully upright on their digitigrade feet (they become much taller if one were to stretch those legs out). In later games, the unknown furstock is the same height as the other "average" man races, but that is without the implied extra height of digitigrade feet. So, whatever this furstock is, is smaller than Suthay-Raht, hence probably not Cathay.
And, well I also by 3), my own rule--that Cathay merely being another humanoid furstock is boring, and when in doubt, Elder Scrolls lore should be alien and unique to all other similar universes. Furstocks is that unique thing for the cat-like beast races, but so far I feel official and fan interpretations has fallen a bit flat here, and has not made use of other neat combinations of human and cat features available to us from mythology--man-faced lions like manticores or sphinxes for instance, or in TR we are going with Cathay looking like Bast, the Egyptian god: cat head, human body with no tail or fur. The strength of mods like Tamriel Rebuilt and Project Tamriel is not working on a budget, so we can get some of these weirder ideas to work ingame. Having to animate for 10 unique races in each Elder Scrolls game is a big undertaking without adding 15 other Khajiit sub-species (think of similar games like Neverwinter, who have a bunch of humanoids who can all use the same skeleton and mesh with tweaks), so I don't really blame them for trying to leave furstocks behind. It's just a shame.
One of my dream projects is that they make Elsweyr and its furstocks into a game all by itself, as one of those traditional party RPGs like Baldur's Gate. Instead of classes, though, there would be different furstocks: a big ol' Senche-Raht as the warrior, a little Dagi or Alfiq as a mage, the Ohmes as the diplomat, the Senche as the "mule" that carries all the loot...and so on.
And that's a very good point about wiping classes entiely. The Nightblade and Sorceror are classes that have appeared in other TES titles so I don't begrudge ESO those, but certainly I wish that my Sorceror Altmer, for example, could access the Warden frost line, the Templar Aetherius (cough Aedric) line, or the Dragonknight fire line, if only for thematic purposes, instead of being restricted to just Shock magic. I'm not sure what it would do to class balance to open up all skill lines to everybody--they already have the new skills advisor implemented so you'd think it wouldn't be that hard to guide new players along their way into choosing skill lines that complement each other. The major downfall to sandbox-y multiplayer games is it becomes so easy to gimp your character (I'm looking at you, Asheron's Call), so I can get why they'd want to put a few curbs on the system.
Hmm, maybe I'll dedicate one of these blog posts to "massive overhauls" and hit the class system along with the PvP alliance deal....just for funsies, of course.
Interesting points, and I'm
Interesting points, and I'm afraid my reply is more subjective than substantive:
For Dunmer, one could always draw an association between purple eyes and ebony, as that is volcanic glass. That said, I think just as variety in customization is important, so are distinct characteristics in making the races unique and stand-out, and I think it's a pity that that was downplayed in the case of Dunmer eyes. It's already the case in Skyrim that it can be hard to tell at a glance if an NPC is Dunmer, Bosmer or sometimes even Altmer; in part, the reduction of size difference between races contributed to the issue. The grey skin and red eyes of Dunmer are supposed to clearly set them apart from other races and make them alien. While that does limit customization, Morrowind put an emphasis on things like tattoos, facial scarring and facial structure (Dunmer with very prominent jaws and small noses, Dunmer with virtually no jawline to speak of and large noses, etc.) to compensate.
Similar deal with Altmer skin-colour. While I don't think there are any real sources for it, I generally think of Ayleids as having darker skin than Summerset Altmer, a deeper gold as opposed to the Altmer pale and sometimes vaguely greenish gold. I also imagine Direnni as perhaps being a bit more silvery in skin colour, and more caucasian tones would not be out of place for them either to my mind. Either way, though, I think Altmer having a relatively limited range of skin-colour does fit with their characterization and identity. They are specifically not a diverse race, and their culture is generally characterized as racist and intolerant. Just like Dunmer largely being pro-slavery in most lore, while there can and should be positive aspects to the Altmer, I think lore pretty clearly establishes that they have aspects to them we would consider very negative. That said, Altmer being more caucasian instead of golden does certainly draw attention to the negative implications, which along with Skyrim's nazi Thalmor starts getting really unfortunate.
Bosmer are completely different, characterized as being extremely diverse in appearance, far more so in concept art than any game managed to represent. There's no reason to limit their skin options, quite the opposite.
All of which is to say that while I agree with your comment that removing customization options now that they're there would be undesirable, I do think it's a pity, as the choice and range of customization options can flesh out (unintentional, I swear!) a setting quite a bit by itself.
As far as Dragonknights are concerned, I can't say too much on them without reading up more, but I will say that as a whole I think Akaviri influences rather than draconic influences would work for a wider range of races. Dunmer don't have much to do with dragons, for instance, but did have a lot of contact (admittedly often negative contact including full-scale invasions) with Akavir, including the invasion ten years before ESO takes place. Akaviri raiders reached the shores of Hammerfell, and Akaviri potentates ruled over most of the continent until about 150 years before the game is set. Tsaesci are also scaled, and having Akaviri blood is prided upon by some Nibenese noble families, so one could perhaps very tenuously try and translate some of the dragon stuff over in that way.
Edit: Actually, I have a few more points, also in regards to your original post (thanks for the pastebin rouanth!):
- for wardens, a variation on your idea might be to have distinct animal companion skins for the different factions by default. Ebonheart Pact gets Morrowind critters, the other alliances get their own. Perhaps you can unlock access to another alliances skins for money or however MMO economies work. Also, boo to trying to make sense of Morrowind critters being found outside of Morrowind.
-re: your original post, Battlemages are specifically characterized as wearing heavy armour, so they wouldn't be a cloth-wearing archetype.
Ah, my poke at Battlemages
Ah, my poke at Battlemages being cloth wearers was a tongue-in-cheek comment about how most RPG players look at the word "mage" and think "robes". Although any class can wear any of the armors in ESO, I think they were clearly going for the heavily armored "tank" with some magical capability in the Dragonknights (versus the healing cleric in Templars, or the robe-wearing wizard in Sorceror, say).
Hmm, I like your point on the purple eyes being a nod to Ebony. (In that case, could they also have green eyes to go along with glass/malachite?) The Daedric connection I suggested was one of my shrug-my-shoulders-and-go-oh-well, because saying some Dunmer have purple eyes because some Daedra paid them some special attention along the way is just begging for Mary Sue characters, even if it does help illustrate the relationship Dunmer and Daedra have with each other.
Your points on Akaviri are good ones, and I've been hearing similar from other lorebeards, which is why I edited that section a little in my second go-through. I don't think tying the class to dragons is necessarily any better of a choice than tying them to Akaviri, to be fully honest, but if we're assuming the class name can't change, then "Dragonknight" clearly implies dragons, and dragons can maybe can be taken to mean something other than the Akaviri angle--while Akaviri is still very specific to Akaviri only. Akatosh is a god that stretches across several cultures for instance, and depending on how common you believe dragons are pre-Skyrim, it may be possible many races have encountered them on their own. There's also their connection to the Empire, of course, and the Akaviri: to me this becomes a much wider base of possible explanations of why a character would call themselves a Dragonknight, rather than focusing in on one particular culture, no matter how wide-spread that culture may be.
Though if they ever introduce a Monk class that features Khajiit style kung fu in its class description, I may have to eat my words about not tying classes to one culture, because Khajiit kung fu is so awesome why wouldn't everyone want to study it? ;)
so read the text here, read a
so read the text here, read a guide there and what class should I pick again? it's so confusing...