Encyclopedia Tamrielica

Lord Elias · Post by **Lord Elias** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 6:26 pm

Few weeks ago,I was reading a book in Morrowind.it was about some stupid king or something,but,what drawned my atention was:ENCYCLOPEDIA TAMRIELICA

So,i thought to make a page with everuthing:arhicecture,history,geography Of Tamriel.Why?becous it would be helpfoll for quest makers,book writers,modelers...It could be just a simple site with a database,and everyone could send some data,and for month or two we will have a much usable data.I m sugesting this becouse when you whant to find something,you need to visit dosens of sites,if you could have it all on just one place,it would be cool.what do you have to say on that?
_____________________________________________________________
Nerevar is making up with some Dunmer girl.Sudenly,Almalexia
enter the room.''What you are doing?''she says.''You stupid women!
cant you see i m cheating you?".Almalexia:O i m sory.

8) 8)

Stalker · Post by **Stalker** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 6:31 pm

TIL: Pocket Guide to Empire

Savant · Post by **Savant** » Sun Oct 09, 2005 8:05 pm

Hmmm... Its been a good year since this forum has been written on. Practically dead on arival. I know the imperial lybrary and the pocket guide work just a well as the "encycopedia tamriellica" would as a database, but I'm thinking more along the lines of constructing an in-game encyclopedia. If the literature department really is reconstructing all the books of tamriel, why wouldn't they pay attention to writing the books that are actually talked about in lore. all we would need to do is start out listing the information already in Vvardenfell from the TES3 encyclopedia, and add creatures, places, lore, etc. as we go along building the rest of tamriel. I'm thinking this page could be revived.

Xui'al · Post by **Xui'al** » Sun Oct 09, 2005 8:06 pm

Savant's right. Where do we start Earl?

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Sun Oct 09, 2005 8:31 pm

Good idea...you would want to get a few people on it though. This could be a decent vehicle for our concept art too...illustrations.

Inconsistancy is not a problem, the 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Brittanica was the best for a long long time and had real experts writing about every topic...they got an anarchist to write about anarchy, a surgeon to write about surgical tools...

Graff · Post by **Graff** » Sun Oct 09, 2005 8:48 pm

Dibs on the musical section :p

Graff.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Sun Oct 09, 2005 8:50 pm

Ill take the legion entry!

Heh heh heh

Savant · Post by **Savant** » Sun Oct 09, 2005 9:10 pm

If we're going to divide the job up into sections, though, we might want to think first about what sections we would include first.

lets see, what could you include in an encyclopedia?

architecture
history
geography
politics
literature
art (graff)
music (graff)
science
religion
warfare (jale)
illnesses
ingredients
flora
fauna
weaponry
culture (graff)
miscellaneous vocab
am I leaving anything out? (I'll edit stuff in as we go along)

Oh, yeah, and dibs on science!

Xui'al · Post by **Xui'al** » Sun Oct 09, 2005 9:10 pm

How many books should we put this in? Even a book for all "A" or "B" entries seems like too much. If the books are too long, people won't want to read them. We should try and keep the articles short. If your entry could be a book in itself, it is probably too long.

I will take the Great Houses of Morrowind. I would assume that we add a small amount of bias depending on the race and affiliation of the author?

EDIT: Lets call the Great Houses of Morrowind something along the lines of "Eastern Tamrielec Politics." I wouldn't mind on doing a section on alchemy, as well as minerals (I could quote my own book!!:):) ) Give me law as well!

Savant · Post by **Savant** » Sun Oct 09, 2005 9:24 pm

yeah, what would be the affiliation of the author? Do the people who contribute to encyclopedia entries (as jale said) comment on just one subject (like "house televanni") or an entire section (like "great houses)?

Graff · Post by **Graff** » Sun Oct 09, 2005 9:25 pm

I might take the art and culture sections as well then.

As far as seperating articles goes. I'd suggest:

Volume 1
-Politics
-History
-Religion

Volume 2
-Art
-Culture
-Music

etc...

Graff.

Xui'al · Post by **Xui'al** » Sun Oct 09, 2005 9:33 pm

Graff definatly has a good way of doing this. I would say lets go his way. At least for now.

We may have to make a Morrowind edition, and just update it later on. If it is "Encyclopedia Tamrielica" then it needs to be about all of Tamriel, and there is alot more we need to know. We can start now, do Morrowind, then do Cyrodiil in a short while when TESIV ships. We will just have to keep on adding things to it.

As for bias, you said above something about having anarchy written by an anarchist, for an example. I will break it into 5 seperate houses, each by a member of their house. We should keep these short though, a paragraph or two. This should be a summnation of all information, not a rewriting of it. Ideally this would have good info on everything, but force the player seach out specific books (we can include references) should they want more info.

Graff · Post by **Graff** » Sun Oct 09, 2005 9:37 pm

For the music and art, it's going to have to be part lore, partly enlarging upon the lore with common sense. For the culture section, I was thinking of the activities/hobbies, the styles and sort of a "who's who?" guide to the different social groups.

Graff.

Savant · Post by **Savant** » Sun Oct 09, 2005 9:42 pm

I think we still could organize the volumes of the encyclopedia alphabetically, like most real life encyclopedias are, but we couldn't just do it based on one letter per section (volume I- A, volume II- B). letters like E or S would get all the articles, while some like X would have none. So encyclopedias have to break it up a bit (like volume I- Aaron through axil, volume II- axil through bun). Okay, I'm just making up stuff now for my examples, but you get the idea.

Sload · Post by **Sload** » Sun Oct 09, 2005 10:45 pm

Hey, hold your horses. This is a major concept that hasn't been approved yet.

Who would write this? Imperials? They already wrote it in the PGE. Altmer? Yeah, like they're going to write a guide for you. Dunmer? No way. Bosmer? They're not even scholars. Bretons? They're way to busy fighting with the Orsimer. Orsimer? See Bretons. Redguards? They aren't scholars either. Argonians? No way. Khajiit? Nope.

Which leaves us with....no one to write this.

Face it, there's a reason the PGE is a propogandic pile of horse shit. No one would waste their time writing the "Encyclopedia Tamriellica" because there's no benifit for them.

Or you could write yourselves an enormous encyclopedia on some silly website, but that's not TR.

-Sload,
pissing on the parade :-\

Post by **Haplo** » Sun Oct 09, 2005 10:51 pm

The Nords could write it.

Sload · Post by **Sload** » Sun Oct 09, 2005 10:53 pm

Ammendment: The Nords? Yeah, like a bunch of drunken naked men with huge abs (keep dreaming Haplo) will sit down and write an encyclopedia.

-Sload
who has to make fun of Haplo for pointing out his mistake

Post by **Haplo** » Sun Oct 09, 2005 10:54 pm

They could dictate it to Imperial scholars in a sing-song voice.

Gez · Post by **Gez** » Sun Oct 09, 2005 11:02 pm

Sload wrote:Who would write this? Imperials? They already wrote it in the PGE. Altmer? Yeah, like they're going to write a guide for you. Dunmer? No way. Bosmer? They're not even scholars. Bretons? They're way to busy fighting with the Orsimer. Orsimer? See Bretons. Redguards? They aren't scholars either. Argonians? No way. Khajiit? Nope.

It wouldn't be redacted by a race, but by a faction. I'd say the Mages' Guild.

As for the length and breadth of the encyclopedia, keep in mind that in the Elder Scrolls world, a 1-meter tall in quarto contains at most the equivalent of 10 letter-format pages, written in font size 14.

So, you could do one book per letter, plus a few extra... And each book would have at most two dozen entries, each described by a single paragraph not exceeding six or seven lines.

Xui'al · Post by **Xui'al** » Sun Oct 09, 2005 11:22 pm

And yet it exists in the ES lore...

Savant · Post by **Savant** » Sun Oct 09, 2005 11:30 pm

Sload wrote:Who would write this? Imperials? They already wrote it in the PGE. Altmer? Yeah, like they're going to write a guide for you. Dunmer? No way. Bosmer? They're not even scholars. Bretons? They're way to busy fighting with the Orsimer. Orsimer? See Bretons. Redguards? They aren't scholars either. Argonians? No way. Khajiit? Nope.

Which leaves us with....no one to write this.

The official, lore accurate account from "The Dragon Break reexamined" explains that the Encyclopedia tamriellica does exist and was written in 3E12 by "human scholars" without acces to the Alinor archives. And of course, it isn't set in stone whether the Encyclopedia is or is not biased in some parts to the humans. That should pretty much settle it.

Sload · Post by **Sload** » Sun Oct 09, 2005 11:36 pm

Alright, so there is an encyclopedia. I can tell you one thing, it isn't this. an encyclopedia made under Tiber Septim would be little more than a second PGE. It would not include articles on culture and architecture and music and all this other stuff.

Besides that, it would be a monumental task for you to write it which would have no benifit. Unlike, say, fixing Map 1...

Nomadic1 · Post by **Nomadic1** » Sun Oct 09, 2005 11:38 pm

As far as I can see, the EncyclopÃƒÂ¦dia Tamrielica could not be written by us. In the year 3E12, the authors would not have access to the records of the elven realms (so no Morrowind edition), TR has not created a detailed and coherent history, we have no information on the Imperial province that would constitute writing it in the first place, we have no knowledge of how the Empire writes and records music (if they do at all), etc., etc. Not only that, but it would likely by Imperial propaganda bullshit and would not likely be found in any Elven province.

Savant · Post by **Savant** » Sun Oct 09, 2005 11:47 pm

so basically, we've got until they start making the books for Skyrim (a human province). I'd say that's a decent amount of time for us to write such a large compilation of books, particularly when we divide it up into section for people to work on. By then, we'd get what we know from TES3, and we could fill in any gaps of what we know with what we learn from TES4 and the imperial province.

And if no one would like to fill in some things for music, we could always just drop that topic altogether.

Oh yeah, and as for elven realms, 1) it would be written when the imperials knew of elvish provinces, after they had just spent the last 40 years trying to unite tamriel, and 2)we could assume that the Encyclopedia would have at least filled in some information in a new edition over the past, oh say, 400 years.

Xui'al · Post by **Xui'al** » Sun Oct 09, 2005 11:50 pm

No, we need to still do books for Morrowind. Or as Sload says, fix map 1...

Sload is right about the encyclopedia. Shall we let this topic die....

Savant · Post by **Savant** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 12:39 am

*Sigh* unless I could do the book by my lonesome, Rest in Peace.

Actually, that might not be a half-bad idea...

Morden · Post by **Morden** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 12:43 am

Take an exterior detailing claim on Map 1

You know you want to. Then put your book in a barrel at the bottom of a pond.

zabuza · Post by **zabuza** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 1:52 am

The way I see an encyclopedia is not really as a book. We shouldn't expect people to sit down and read it. Players would buy them and leave them in their houses (stolen houses I presume) and when they hear about a person or place on a quest they might go home, look it up [the encyclopidia would need a quick find feature] and learn about all they need to know for the quest.

Vernon · Post by **Vernon** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 3:05 am

Sload wrote:Bretons? They're way to busy fighting with the Orsimer.

B.S. That is just you being Sloady, Sloady, Quite Contrary, how dost thou garden grow. The Bretons could have written this, no problem. What, they're all fighting Orsimer? Gimme a break... :)

I'll take Architecture if this ever comes to fruition.

Sload · Post by **Sload** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 3:25 am

I don't get you Vernon. At all.

However, you're right. The Bretons were the most likely to write this. This is irrelevant now though, so I don't see why you're bothering me with this.

Vernon · Post by **Vernon** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 3:43 am

*pokes Sload*

Savant · Post by **Savant** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 3:57 am

Hmm, How many people outside Sload are against this, though? Shouldn't this normally come down to majority rule? (please don't hurt me for this)

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 7:33 am

The PGE is pretty much just about geography and is just that...Pocket sized. This would be the Guide to the Empire, Unabridged.

Lud · Post by **Lud** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 5:47 pm

How about this:
Thousands of years ago, Tiber Septim commissioned a project to document all available useful knowledge in Tamriel. This project was named "Encyclopedia Tamriellica". The work was lost some time in the second era, however the work was stolen/lost in the depths of time. You would be able to find various bits around Tamriel.Each would be a valuble book and would get a good price from a dealer. Only a few volumes of the original thousands would have survived. (it would have filled an entire library)

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 7:09 pm

Its more likely it is just a really big set of books, not much of which has made it into morrowind. Might as well call it the Guide to the Empire, of which the PGE is a much abridged version.

Savant · Post by **Savant** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 9:02 pm

Exactly, Jale. All we'd do is just a little less than one book per letter, mostly filled with material copied from something like the world of tamriel ( http://www.uesp.net/tamriel/tamriel.shtml ), or the Imperial library ( http://til.gamingsource.net/zeph/ ). It could still be used in Morrowind, but it would have far less standing than in the Human Provinces. As for similarity to PGE--It would be SO much more.

And I'm not sure this forum really should be placed in the Lore dept. as much as it should be in the Literature section. We already know the lore involved from the Dragon Break revisited (i.e. it was not a collection of a gazillion books made a thousand years ago). It is only a question of if and how we should write it. Does anyone agree with me?

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 9:13 pm

Savant wrote:similarity to PGE--It would be SO much more.

Yes...the PGE is sort of the travellers version, with all the niceties taken out and boiled down to jsut the bare facts to make it pocket sized. It would be like reading the blurb of a book rather than the book itself....

Essentially it means we can copy loads of it

TÃƒÂºrelio · Post by **TÃƒÂºrelio** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 3:34 am

[quote="Jale"]Good idea...you would want to get a few people on it though. This could be a decent vehicle for our concept art too...illustrations.
quote]

I like the sound of that. Could definintly be good for a few illustrations.

Resadyn · Post by **Resadyn** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 3:53 am

I'd help out on this, weaponry is my topic though.