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TES 25th Anniversary Discussion - Favourite Book

Tags: #TES25 
  • March 30, 2019
    Omg i forgot about that one! It’s so funny. I love it. I found it first time in Jorrvaskr and thought that strangely appropriate, given their adorably simple approach to most everything.

    Even though my view on Farkas isn't quite as severe as how you see it sometimes (Stupid Farkas) I always thought the idea of him arguing with the writer would be hilarious. But it's definitely appropriate in Jorrvaskr, hints of Nordic Lore with a simplistic approach that sticks it to the 'Milk-Drinkers' of the world :D 

  • Member
    March 30, 2019

    ilanisilver said: Yes! Mara’s Tear is more like a storybook than a textbook, so it was the one for me. And it gave me confidence to enter that story in TIL’s contest. I don’t do lore, so it was nice to see other folk tales out there.

    Pfft, don't do lore. Nonsense xD You're a writer, you do lore naturally just a different aspect of it :) A bit less breaking things apart to see how they work and a bit more interpretation as to how/if a concept is believable within the setting. TES might have a "standard model" like our own universe that explains what the world is and how it's held together, how it all works, but it's buried across hundreds of sources and never overt. And that's more or less the least fun stuff, too - the real fun is in how that standard model is presented through fables and stories such as Mara's Tear or The Light and the Dark, how cultures and individuals in the world explain how things work and what they are. That's a very emotional and story/character-driven approach which is the best way, imo, because it allows so much freedom because we can be just like those in-game characters and see the world our own way. Your story for the TIL contest is believable because it works, feels like it could have happened and only enhances the setting by adding a dash of magic and a sprinkling of mystery to the now-familiar landscape.

    Dragonborn2021 said:

    That's fair, I'm more of a fan of the Lore-Heavy books that are on the weirder side (especially some of the OOG books because they can get crazy) but storybooks are a close second for me, or really anything that's written in-universe fully. Alduin is real and He Ent Akatosh is amazing, and utterly hilarious because it's just...damn funny :D

    Oh, good call! That really is a genius book. Before we had TES V, all we really knew about Alduin came from Varieties of Faith which told us Alduin was the Nordic version of Akatosh. Then we played the game and stuff got complicated very quickly when we're told we're Dragonborn and blessed by Akatosh so that we can defeat Alduin who is Akatosh and... huh? So it really helped break it down in a very funny way. That said, the other big Akatosh book to come out of the game was The Alduin/Akatosh Dichotomy which is also great because the last paragraph asserts that Alduin is Akatosh, so for our characters we have justification to choose either/or. Maybe the truth lies somewhere in the middle :D

    Golden Fool said:

    I find this question hard to answer since I remember so few of the books that I've read in TES games (they are all also very short and so would be horrible to have as my only source of entertainment), the first two to come to mind are very... in character for me... volumes VI and IX of the 16 Accords of Madness, back when I first read them I was amused by Sheo's ability to best Hircine and Vermina by pretty much doing nothing.

    Lol, of course you pick this series :D Just light bedtime reading for Korysha. I think my favourite could be V XII about the Orc and the cursed blade, although that's mostly because it's an example of a character who is the spawn of a Daedric Prince so becomes justification for others to explore that idea for their own characters. There aren't many examples of that sort of thing happening so it stands out as being interesting for that.

  • Member
    March 31, 2019

    Paws said:

    Lol, of course you pick this series :D Just light bedtime reading for Korysha. I think my favourite could be V XII about the Orc and the cursed blade, although that's mostly because it's an example of a character who is the spawn of a Daedric Prince so becomes justification for others to explore that idea for their own characters. There aren't many examples of that sort of thing happening so it stands out as being interesting for that.

    I said it myself, they are very in character for me :P Now that you mention it Volume XII certainly does open up the ability to roleplay a demi-god (demi-daedra?). Also it seems odd to me that it is so rare with the Daedric Princes since unlike the Aedra they interact with mortals... which prince would you say is most likely to be Deadric Zeus? And how many animals have they turned into?

     

  • Member
    March 31, 2019

    Golden Fool said:

    I said it myself, they are very in character for me :P Now that you mention it Volume XII certainly does open up the ability to roleplay a demi-god (demi-daedra?). Also it seems odd to me that it is so rare with the Daedric Princes since unlike the Aedra they interact with mortals... which prince would you say is most likely to be Deadric Zeus? And how many animals have they turned into?

     

    It is rare, or at least there are scant few reports of Demiprinces. That said, it's common enough for it to be a thing. perhaps most of them don't really care enough about Tamriel to go strolling around there when most have their own pocket realms to play in. I'm reminded of Haskill's snark in Interview with Denizens of the Shivering Isles: "I can tell you, speaking only for myself, of course, that sometimes entire minutes pass without me thinking of mortal affairs."

    A Daedric Zeus. Hmm. I going with Sanguine as I reckon he's spread himself out a bit from time to time xD Not sure on how many animals. I'm gonna say seven. Seven animals.