First try at a book: 'Prophecies of the Forbidden'

[Archanix]

Hi.

I'm fairly new at joining this site, but I've been working on mods for quite a while. One that I put the most work into was my mod to expand the literature of Morrowind. Doing research on the Elder Scrolls history, I came up with this:
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Prophecies of the Forbidden
by Jonasha Thorin

The once-ruling giants reptilians called Dragons have been banished from the plane of Tamriel thousands of years ago, and many thought their exsistence would be cleansed from the world forever. But a prophet, lost to ancient historical records, once wrote of a vision he had that told of the return of Dragons in Tamriel. He wrote that there would be five hidden and unexpected signs before dragons returned to the mortal plane:

'A boon of chaos lost to pieces of eight,
An ancient construction risen to expelling state.
The strike of the ashen house rises to engage,
The portals of torment opened by a Lord's rage.
The final sign is winter war at feast,
And then be risen the forbidden beasts.'

The first line has been believed to be the shattering of the Staff of Chaos, when eight pieces of the artifact were spread all over Tamriel. Originally, many thought the term 'pieces of eight' referred to the ancient seaman chant, but if it was so, it would have been discovered long before the Staff of Chaos shattered.

The second line is thought to refer to the appearance of Numidium, or the Anumidum. This was the gigantic golem constructed by the Dwarvish Lord Kagrenac. It is widely believed that this was tied to the disappearance to the dwarves, and is thought to be no coincidence; being masters of technology, the dwarves could prevent future signs if they still exsisted by using their skills. Therefore, many thought that they were removed from the world by the Nine to prevent them for severing the lines of fate.

The third line is unclear, but research believes this refers to one of the Great Houses of Vvardenfell. There is no current sign that points to any particular one.

The fourth line is believed to be the rage of a king or Daedric Lord that will be unleashed upon the land, though no reseach has shown any likely ways. There is a secretive cult in the city Mournhold called the "End Of Times", which seems tied to this particular line.

The fifth sign is widely pointed at a fierce war during Frost Fall. The war could refer to anything; from opposing lands or races to the weather fighting against itself. When or where is completely unknown, as there are no current signs that could be tied to this line.

The final line is majorly clear. After the fifth line, dragons will once again walk upon the land, like they did thousands of years ago. It is believed that once the Dragons return, they will become the dominant species of Tamriel and the rest of the world. Many believe that if Alduin was to return, the world will come to it's end.

Another documentary, also written by Jonasha Thorin, tells about the dragon Alduin, along with beliefs, history, and other related subjects.
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I'm not too sure if this is good enough. This is my first try, and there are a few thing I was wondering over it, like if dragons should be capitalized or not, and if it was thorough and detailed enough.

Anyway, there you go. My first try at Tamriel literature.

[Boethiah]

I'm new to TR (this is literally my first day) so I can't really critique how this effects lore, but there were a few things that stood out to me about the writing itself. One thing is that it could use a little grammatical editing (i.e., "The once-ruling giants reptilians called Dragons have been banished from the plane of Tamriel thousands of years ago" should instead be, "The once-ruling giant reptilians called Dragons were banished from the plane of Tamriel thousands of years ago", or "...Dragons had been banished from the plane of Tamriel for thousands of years". Also, you might want to try to emulate the voice used by the authors of the morrowind books created by Bethesda. For example, instead of "Dwarvish Lord Kagrenac", maybe "Dwemer Lord Kagenac" (using the proper name). Essentially, just read as many of the books as you can to really get a feel for the voice to use. Finally, it was fairly apparent that the bit about Alduin and dragons was inspired by the upcoming release of Skyrim. While it's okay to reference these things, it's good (in my opinion, and again, I'm new, so experienced members feel free to correct me if I'm wrong) to keep it as unspecific and mysterious as possible, leaving most of fit up to the reader's imagination. As far as the lore itself goes, you're probably going to want to consult a lore master to have it proofread. In general, it's a good idea and stick with it. [/b]

[Why]

I like the tone of your storytelling, and I agree with what Boethiah said. Also, we're not really that into creating links to releases after Morrowind. You might see a few Easter eggs, but as far as lore and the story is concerned, only the events that happened during the vanilla game and those before it in the TES timeline are considered canon for our project. Sure, we might, for instance, consider the abolishing of slavery as something that can happen in the next few years, but that doesn't mean you're gonna see any of it in our releases. We're not George Lucas.

[Nanu]

Welcome to TR!

The only thread on the forums in which the markup tags are needed is the one for writing requests. With that said, I fixed your post.

Here's a few things to consider:

• Please spell-check your posts. Most modern browsers have this built-in.
• Don't change tenses, and history is always written in the past tense.
• Look up the correct modifier if you're unsure. (Is it Dwarvish? Dwarven? Dwemer? The Imperial Library is the best resource ever.)

With that said, I'm very reluctant to recommend anyone for a promotion on the basis of a literature submission alone. Like I have with virtually every lit showcase, I'm going to ask you to consider trying your hand at interiors, exteriors, questing, modeling, concept art, or literally any other department or need that we have.

While this might not seem fair, it's been my experience that individuals promoted based solely on their writing skills tend to leave almost immediately after joining. Not implying that this would be the case with you, but if you can write a good story, you can write a good quest. We need questers; we don't need writers.

As to your actual story, this book can't even exist inside of Morrowind's universe, considering half of the things the book addresses doesn't happen during the game. All of what Why said is absolutely true.

Thanks for your submission, and I hope you pick up the construction set and have fun with it.

Good luck and happy modding.