Elder Scrolls Lore » Discussions


Dealing with inconsistencies: Clan Volkihar

  • September 1, 2015

    When did the Dragon war actually end?

    Timeline says 1000 ME - men came to Tamriel

    Boom! 1E Events in Valenwood. 

    1000 years is a lot of time for crap to happen. But let's talk about Kodlak Whitemane, who may help us at least narrow down the Dragon War, which narrows down Durnehviir a teensy bit.

     Kodlak Whitemane says the Companions are "nearly 5000 years old", which would indicate that the Return occurred sometime in the last five centuries of the Merethic Era.

  • September 1, 2015

    An acolyte perhaps got a bit too close to the frozen shore one day on his way to the chapel?

    Auri-El is no friend to Molag Bal. An ongoing war between the two factions?

  • Member
    September 2, 2015

    Found her dwemer stuff for ya, Phil. Generic dialogue, but she says this exclusively around Dwemer ruins. 

    "Is this a dwarven city? I can't believe they'd let it get so run down." Inside a Dwemer Ruin.
    "I always wondered what the dwarves actually looked like. I hear they're like elves, but with beards."

    blah, blah, blah! Problem is that she mixes tenses. She says is a Dwarven city instead of was a Dwarven city. They're is open to be either they are or they were, though sentence before is past tense. 

    It's silliness. You can imagine trying to do fanfiction off of this.

    I was thinking about what someone else said. I said that the sundial was Elvish make, which is backed up by her dialogue, though blah, I can't seem to find it right now. 

    But if we can agree that the house has elements of Falmer architecture, then why would the moondial be different. Unless...

    When it was a sundial - built by Falmer, cause why would you have a Falmer house with a Dwemer sundial, though granted, they kinda did coexist. 

    When Valerica converted it to a moondial, which we know she did - hired a Dwemer? Or another type of Elf? That would explain the Dwemerish look, and would it maybe fit in the time frame? I'm too tired to go back up in the thread and look. 

    We can all agree, it is Elven. Mebbe it's both? Maybe it's none of them, hahaha, and an Altmer made it. I almost put a similar sundial in the home of one of my protagonist's good friends and he would have recognized the construction upon entering Volkihar. He recognizes the construction of the castle regardless, as it does share similar features that are present in Elven architectural styles.

    Said Lissette. (I couldn't find the reply button)

    That dialogue is confusing and the part where she expresses disbelief certainly seems to imply she doesn't know they disappeared. That in itself is pretty odd and hard to reconcile with my theory. It's only that she the reveals she may know of their disappearance when she wonders what they looked like in a past tense. Are there any other clues from ancient places which may reveal something?

    So what is the consensus on the Moondial apart from

    Do we know Rana's exact dialogue? Are there any clues there?

  • Member
    September 2, 2015

    This is why my story focuses on present events. No need to be immaculate in lore or details.....much.

    Part of me is terrified of how in depth TES lore is. It's horrifyingly astounding, like being faced with the open sky with nothing below you but more sky.

  • September 2, 2015

    Well, it's true, when enough people reply to a particular post, I'm not getting the reply option, only send message. 

    Haha, morning meme made me laugh. When in doubt, blame the Ayleids. 

    I couldn't find it in my usual sources, but my character's always asking questions, so I replayed that section and turned on the subtitles. I died several times for the benefit of this thread.  Volkihar Castle is no walk in the garden on Requiem. Get it! Walk in the garden! HAHA.

    Dragonborn: What's so special about the moondial? 

    Ugh, he doesn't talk like that in my narrative, but whatevers... 

    Seranawana: Well, as far as I'm aware, it's the only one in existence. The previous owners of the castle had a sundial in the courtyard and obviously that didn't appeal to my mother. She persuaded an Elven artisan to make some improvements.

    Well, there you have it. At least we know it's an Elf who made the improvements. Now, who made the original sundial? That's still up for speculation. I say it takes an Elf to make changes to something an Elf originally did and not majorly screw it up. I love Nords, but no.

    So... Dwemer, Falmer, Ayleid, Altmer, Chimer, Dunmer, Orsimer, Bosmer, Maomer, left-handed Elves, right-handed Elves, ambi-dexterous Elves, Aldmer... which one?

    Phil, I am very intrigued by the possible older tale, did you see my response to that?

  • September 2, 2015

    To quote Nord bandits.

    "I love a challenge!"

    If I can reconcile lore with my story I will, but I'm a history professor (music history is still history), so it's in my blood to do this. 

    Maybe I'm wrong and should relax more, because your story is certainly very good. 

  • September 2, 2015

    Or maybe Midderland? 

  • September 2, 2015

    The good thing about writing Elder Scrolls stories is lore is dictated by the people who witness it. If you're writing about your average nord or breton or whatever I doubt they would care much for the deep history of their world. They would only care about what they can see in front of their face and what their modern culture tells them to believe.  

  • September 2, 2015

    The slight problem is that the person I'm writing about is a 243 year old Knight of the Crystal Tower who had memorized the entire contents of its library, has lived in Cyrodiil for over 100 years, and is a Hyperthymesiac. Granted, he won't know about everything, but he sure knows a lot. 

  • September 2, 2015

    Haha yeah, you are like me where you kind of force your characters to be super knowledgeable about the world