Elder Scrolls thread

I have a question about Daggerfall, why are there so many kingdoms? What's the significance of each one? Why does the Main Quest not even go to any of the Swamp tile Kingdoms as far as I am aware?

Not really the board for this but I'll answer anyways.

1. There are only three kingdoms Daggerfall, Sentinel, and Wayrest. The rest are minor lords. However, the kings have lost most of their control over these lords causing the whole region to fall into chaos (originally the game was going to have the provinces all randomly wage war on each other but this was scrapped). Basically due to the misrule of Jagar Tharn a few years back the entire realm has fallen into anarchy and both the empire and regional kingdoms are failing to regain control, which needless to say is percieved as a great threat by the Emperor.
Beyond this the reason there are so many provinces is just to provide a general sense of scale and depth to a world that doesnt really have much. They give a reason for the world to be large, which wouldnt be found if all those locations were just thrown into say a single tile named daggerfall. It's also very likely that Bethesda originally intended for said provinces to have a deeper purpose but simply scrapped the ideas by the end (Daggerfall was a very ambitious project).

2. The main quest does go to some of the offshoot tiles, Ykalon, Menevia, Wrothgaria, and Dragontail off the top of my head.

I think the only actual swamp climate in the game is in Tigonus.

Also, the independence of the minor realms isn't just because of Tharn's intentional misrule. Just look at the history of Dwynnen, or its allies in the war against the Camoran Usurper.

According to Palaux Illthre, the realms of High Rock were unable to properly unite against the Usurper in 3E 266.
The traditionally important realms (the kingdoms) either had young rulers or were paralysed by issues of succession. At least eight rulers made secret deals with the Usurper to save themselves, and the arguably important role of Lord of Reich Gradkeep was held by a dying man.
It took a combined effort between the rules of Dwynnen, Ykalon, Phrygias and Kambria to actually turn against the Usurper, and finally defeat him.
So chaos and independent rule did occur before Tharn.

Also the rules of peerage and titles differ from realm to realm, making it hard to compare rulers.

Is there any place with a lot of lore and differences about the kingdoms? A lot of them seem the same to me on the surface and only seem different mechanically, and I've noticed about 4 biomes, Mountains, Woodlands, Desert, and Jungle/Swamp

There has been an Elder Scrolls general active at all times on this board for the past several years.

I am writing a campaign set in Elsweyr and I'm doing some worldbuilding of my own seeing as there is not as much lore about Elsweyr as I would like. These are some points I came up with based on my understanding of the Khajiit. Some of them are logical deduction and not explicitly based on the lore. I'd appreciate if anyone knows of any sources that contradict any of these points. (Aside from ESO sources, I really don't care about it.)

>The Khajiit have no organized religion. Worship is personal and private, sometimes clan-related.
>No distinction between Aedra and Daedra. All are children of Fadomai. (Although obviously some are favored and the worship of some are discouraged, but Khajiit generally do not care what someone does in private as long as it hurts no one else.)
>Buildings in the North, where forests are scarce, are made mostly of stone or clay. Buildings in the jungled areas are usually made of wood, on raised stilts with thatched roofs and partially open walls. Some of the larger port cities on the coast are made of limestone. The nomadic tribes use animal bones and skins to create portable yurts, while those that farm may make mud dwellings with thatched roofs.
>Culture various slightly by clan. Many are matriarchal. Kings and Queens are equal in power, with bloodline being the most important indicator of status. The Mane can be either sex.
>Clan titles do not work like last names. (If a man enters his wife's clan he will take that clan title and vice versa.) Not all Khajiit have clan affiliations, and they have fallen out of favor with the Khajiit aristocracy who are more culturally Imperial.
>The Mane is a spiritual leader/figurehead who can not really influence the law.
>They believe that moon sugar grants them the ability to commune with Lorkhaj and view the future.
>Ta'agra utilizes gendered 1st & 2nd person pronouns.

Also, Khajiit mythology is confusing me a bit. If Jone and Jode are Lorkhan's body, then what is the Ja-Kha'jay, why does it have a separate name?

It's the same as with any other TES thing. You have to read a lot of in game texts. Few things are really unified.
Also the Daggerfall Chronicles have some stuff.

You're right in that a lot of it is very surface level. Which shouldn't surprise anyone that knows a bit about how chaotic Daggerfall's development was.
Places like Daggerfall, Wayrest, Sentinel, Dwynnen and Anticlere have a fair bit of lore to them, but for many realms we know little more than the name.

There's six climates.

>I am writing a campaign set in Elsweyr
That's pretty much my dream campaign.

>The Khajiit have no organized religion
They do. Read up on the Mane and Clan Mothers.

>No distinction between Aedra and Daedra
There is some distinction, the Aedra being the first and litter of Fadomai, and the Daedra being the second.

>The Mane is a spiritual leader/figurehead who can not really influence the law
The Mane is a powerful political leader. Look at Rid-T'har-ri'Datta's influence.

>They believe that moon sugar grants them the ability to commune with Lorkhaj and view the future
Why would you commune with the Moon Beast?

You're mixing mythologies. Lorkhaj, importantly, is beyond the Lattice.
The Moons are aspects of the ja-Kha'jay.

So what are the subtropical climates? and also is there any good sources on Daggerfall's development?

I can't remember where the borders for the climate zones go. I think there's a greyscale map someone made once.

>and also is there any good sources on Daggerfall's development?
Off the top of my head, the interviews with Mark Jones is a good place to get a general impression. Reading the Daggerfall Companion and comparing it to the actual game is another, and there's always all the strange things you find when looking around the game files.

It's hard to point out one place in particular, because it's been common knowledge for the last twenty years that the development of the game was an exercise in unchecked ambition and feature creep.
There's a good reason that more than twenty artist left during development, that the official guide mentions mechanics and features that re not in the game, that features that were pretty much completed were left out, changed or forgotten, and that the official story contains characters they actually have in the files, but for some reason scrapped from the game.

>You're mixing mythologies. Lorkhaj, importantly, is beyond the Lattice.
Could you clarify? Why would Lorkhan not be in Mundus where his heart and body are?

>They do. Read up on the Mane and Clan Mothers.
None of the books or UESP wiki pages mention organized religion, as far as I can tell. Beliefs aren't the same as an organized religion with canonized doctrine.

I noticed there are features missing, the ones I notice are that tell me about feature was supposed to also have topics related to quests and there is supposed to be more interaction with the palaces even though you don't get quests from palaces apart from Sentinel/Daggerfall/Wayrest

The Winter Woodland in the picture only totals up to 90.

>Could you clarify?
First of all, you need to realise that the Khajiit don't believe that Lorkhaj's body are the Moons, or that he is the ja-Kha'jay. Though Lorkhaj and ja-Kha'jay are both from the same litter, they are not the same.
Because Lorkhaj, like Ahnurr, doesn't know the First Secret, he cannot cross the Lunar Lattice. Unlike Ahnurr however, the Children of Fadomai tore out Lorkhaj's Heart and thrust it deep into Nirni. From the wording in "Words of Clan Mother Ahnissi", it seems most correct to say that Lorkhaj is beyond the Lattice, but that some aspect or echo of him is walking Nirni.

>Beliefs aren't the same as an organized religion with canonized doctrine
Let's view this from three angles, and talk about institutions.

First of all the Mane, which is a reincarnated divine being and spiritual leader that has been perhaps the definitive fixture in Khajiiti history. Not only is the Mane a (largely) permanent religious institution, he's also steeped in tradition and power. He has a palace, attendants, and scholars attached to him. The Riddle'Thar is a religious/philosophical dogma, and the belief in the Mane is itself another example of deeply entrenched and organised religion.

The Clan Mothers are not only the bearers of oral tradition and religious stories, but are a social class. Notice how Jobasha mentions them as leaders in the same vein as city governments and tribal leaders. The act of a Clan Mother telling her secrets to a Favoured Daughter is pretty much mirroring the divine relationship between Fadomai and Azurah.

Temples, like the Temple(s) of the Two Moons Dance offer martial training, but to quote "Master Zoaraym's Tale": "there is a prescribed order of training we at the Temple have designed over the years in concordance with the way of Riddle'Thar". Which clearly shows them as religious/philosophical institutions with an established creed. Even though they value philosophical debate, there's a dogmatic basis for Khajiiti temples.

I really don't see how you reached your conclusion.

>Also, the independence of the minor realms isn't just because of Tharn's intentional misrule
You're misinterpreting the text. The very line you are referencing "The primary powers of the Bay were ruled by particularly inept monarchs" insinuates that these provinces were indeed dependents of the regional powers, and expected them to defend the realm, however, said monarchies were weak and unstable at the time and so the vassal lords pooled together and acted upon the issue themselves.
Just because a lordling is subordinate to a higher ruling body does not mean they completely lack self-reliance. This instance of vassals taking a situation into their own hands does not adhere to the political situation seen in Daggerfall, where the Bay kings have lost complete control over their subsidiary territories. If anything its just a contributing factor to the eventual collapse (though the main factor still remains Jagar Tharn's poisonous misrule).

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying High Rock has never seen its chaotic periods. Hell, pretty much its entire pre-imperial history looks somehting like that Daggerfall map, and even after it was never politically stable (the Camoran Usurper period is often pointed to as a period in which the Bretons actually managed to achieve something together for once). The reason why the political situation in High Rock was such a dire issue for the Empire was because the main ruling bodies of the realm, the Emperor's own depencies, had lost control of the region and left it a mess of petty lordships that did not necessarily bare any allegiance to the Emperor if you catch my meaning. And if the introduction to Daggerfall is any indicator, similar (perhaps not as extreme) situations were implied to be going on in other parts of the Empire as well, posing a significant threat to its continued existence.

Which phase of the moon is "googly eyes"?

What happened to TGESG? Am I retard or is it not here?

Shits fucked yo. It's Sunday and there's no TGESG.

Well, Monday 02:00, but still tfw no late night lore discussion

Is the lunar lattice and the liminal barrier the same thing? And do the towers reinforce the liminal barrier?

>And do the towers reinforce the liminal barrier?
That was, at one point, a very prominent theory. Turns out it's most likely incorrect.

>Turns out it's most likely incorrect.
Based on what?

New lore, reevaluation of existing lore, "word of god". Towers are important, but they're not that important. Nu-Mantia Intercept is the go-to text.

>The Towers of the terrestrial plane have had their histories cloaked in lies and misinterpretations.

What the fuck is up with Reman/Emperor Zero?
Actually, what was up with Reman's empire in the first place? I've barely read anything about it.

>Is the lunar lattice and the liminal barrier the same thing?
Probably not.

Reman was the Son of Cyrodiil itself, born from a hill impregnated by Colovian king Hrol. He united the land for the first time since the fall of Alessian Order, and subjugated all the Tamriel except for Morrowind.

Emperor Zero is Cuhlecain, the guy Hjalti originally served under and later backstabbed to become an Emperor.

I don't think that Reman conquered the Summerset Isles

>The restructured Imperial legions, which learned an unparalleled measure of coherence, logistics, and discipline from the Akaviri, began to easily overwhelm the other regional armies; soon every region in Tamriel belonged to Cyrodiil except for Morrowind.