This project is a monumental exercise in digital archaeology that treats fragmented game lore with the scholarly rigor of classical literature. It brilliantly highlights how deep narrative architecture remains the true, silent protagonist of the Elder Scrolls series.
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I rated every book in Skyrim. ever. (part 1)Added:
So, I read every single Skyrim book ever and then rated them. As an Elder Scrolls fan and as someone who learned how to read playing these games, this was only ever canon. This is something that I've wanted to do since first playing Skyrim over a decade ago now. I never actually did it because like most people, swinging a sword and casting fire is so much more fun than reading in a video game. And I'm saying that as a writer.
But about a week ago, the spirit compelled me, or you could say Talos inspired Nordic strength in me to read 300 Skyrim books in one week, which actually now knowing the lore fully and too well, I would know that Talos would not inspire a Nordic strength in an elf.
And the fact that I know that and can say that with such confidence.
Anyway, I figured if I was going to do this, I should put this knowledge to good use and make a video about it. In this day and age with literacy rates falling and attention spans plummeting, I realized that reading every single book is something that most people are not going to do. But maybe you've been curious about what all the 300 books are about in the game, cuz that's a lot of books. That's a lot of lore. Anyway, my curiosity got the better of me. But in case you're curious and you don't want to read all of them and maybe you just want to play something in the background even, then this is the video for you. So rather than just covering the worst books or the best books or the most interesting or the most important lore for Skyrim, I'm going to cover all of them. That's right, even the one titled Chorus Pie, a recipe. No book will be left unopened and no letter will remain unsealed. No letter will remain sealed.
Obviously, I'll have more to say about some books than others. Some of them are 22,000 words, by the way, which is approximately 60 pages in a traditional book, while others are as short as 100 words, which is like a paragraph if even. So, how did I do this? Well, I spent a total of 76 hours collecting every book in Skyrim. No, I didn't actually do that. That really would be insane. I actually used the Library of Skyrim as well as the Imperial Library to read all of the books. Both are fantastic websites and thank you to the people who made those. I organized this video into 13 parts split by the categories of the books for each part along with this intro, a brief discussion about the writers, and then my final thoughts. The rating system I used is based on my opinion. This is not to seriously dissect or offer real literary criticism for these books. Um, because as much as I like to waste my time and yours, I have my limits. So, I'm rating them one through five. One being the lowest, five being the highest. Five represents, wow, that was really amazing storytelling andor world building. I'll probably even reread this. Four is I really like that. That was super fun to read. Three, it was kind of fun. It kind of expanded my knowledge on the world. Two, I don't really know how to rate this, but world building. And one being I would rather be stuck in a loading screen that felt like homework. I hated that. And the last thing I'll say is thank you to all the people who wrote this content. As a writer, I know how tedious writing can be. And for a library of this type of content to exist means that there had to have been love and passion behind the project. So, just a big thank you and credit to anybody involved if you happen to watch this video. Part one, the Council of Writers. I want to briefly talk about who wrote all of this because there's actually some pretty interesting lore behind it, which I will dive deeper into throughout the video. But for now, if you do a quick Google search, you'll find that the writers credited for nearly all of these books amount to about 6 to 12 people, depending on how far you go back. Now, I watched Polygon's video where a guy named Brian read all of the Skyrim books, too, and then picked out his favorites. It's a great video, by the way. But he named about eight people who are responsible for the quests, the story lines, dialogue, writing, and the game, which I found after my research actually involves way more people. And this is expected when trying to credit every writer on a video game of this size, which is openw world and has taken years to develop, and also is a continuation from previous games that go as far back to 1994. Some of the books in Skyrim are actual relics that are 30 years old in Earth years. The lines are so blurred when it comes to credit because then you get into the process of a draft being written by one person and then handed off to another to be edited or a portion of what is written is then finished by somebody else. When I tried to search for some of these credited writers, I struggled to find concrete information.
There are people such as Matt Daniels who is credited for working on multiple games and specifically for The Elder Scrolls. They are listed as writer, designer, and additional quest design and writing, which could mean a multitude of things. I can say that Ted Peterson, who worked for Bethesda since Arena, is credited for editing all the endgame books in Daggerfall and about 85 in-game books across the Elder Scrolls series. Michael Kirkbride is another writer who is credited for writing about 26 in-game books across the series.
These two writers appear to have written the most in-game lore in the form of books that I could at least find online.
There's so much overlap regarding who specifically wrote what and how much, especially when it comes to a video game. There are also writers who left while the game was still in development.
Some of their writing was cut, but they posted it on fan forums. Other parts didn't get cut, but the authors received a special thanks as credit, which is to say that the credits are as murky as the black marsh in Argonia. God, this is so nerdy of me, and it's not even that good of a simile. But you know what? By the end of this video, you too will not only understand my Elder Scrolls references, but you will be speaking in its jargon as well.
Or maybe not. I have linked my sources for the writer's credits and any other writing credits I could find down below.
So, with all of that said for now, let's get into it. Part two, biographies. This is the section I started off with first, honestly, because this is the first section in the Skyrim library. There wasn't much critical thinking there.
There are 23 biographical books in Skyrim, but a lot of them really are just one big story split into various volumes. This is a common method in the game, which I assume is done to make the library in Skyrim feel larger. But to be honest, the sheer volume of writing in The Elder Scrolls is insane, even if the books aren't split. I counted how many books there are if you don't split them, and it comes out to around 250. Also, the authors listed for these books are not real people or actual names. I just want to put a disclaimer. That might seem obvious, but you never know. Okay, the first book I started with is called The Biography of Baron Zia by Stern Gambboge. Now, this story takes place in the second era. And for the record, Skyrim takes place in the fourth era.
So, the start of this story is 1500 years before Skyrim even begins or our journey in Skyrim. There are three volumes to this series. And in volume 1, we learn about a dark elf named Baron Zia. She's also really important, not just in this book, but quite literally across the Elder Scrolls lore. You would be shocked. I was shocked. Okay, so remember her because she comes up quite often. And she also comes up in one of my favorite books from the series.
Anyway, she's a noble from Marowind, but she becomes a refugee and is placed under the custody of a war veteran that the emperor trusts. She lives in Darkmore for most of her childhood, which is actually in Skyrim and you can visit it, but on the map it's not called Darkmore. It's technically Fort Greymore now, which is just past of the Western Watchtower. She has a decent life and is being prepped to one day resume some position at court. But then a boy comes along and ruins it all for her. His name is Straw, and he lies to her, telling her that her family is going to sell her off because no one in Skyrim will marry her for her dark skin. Racism is prevalent in this world, as you will come to learn. So, Straw convinces her to run off with him. Volume two begins with Baron Zia and Straw, or as the book calls him, wicked orphan stable boy, settling down in Riftton. And surprise, Straw gets involved with some criminals in Riftton, which I mean, who could have seen coming from the wicked orphan stable boy. Baron Zia doesn't agree with this and she actually tells on him to the authorities there. And it turns out that one of these authorities is actually searching for her and then whisks her off to the Imperial City.
That is where she spends many years learning the ways of court and eventually she becomes the queen of Mournhold in Marowind. In volume three, we learn that Baron Zia marries Imperial General Semicus, who was actually the man searching for her in Riftton and is the one who brought her back to the Imperial City. And we learn that after quote, several hundred years of marriage, they finally decide to have children. She had queenly things to do.
You know, this is also where our author Stern Gamboge really loses the plot because suddenly we time jump again and there's a staff. There's this staff.
Okay, it's really important and we don't know anything about it other than that it's really important and it's called the staff of chaos. It's just there and some bard named Night Andale steals it.
We get no backstory about Night and Gale or this staff but there's political unrest. Okay, and that's what you need to know. Apparently, people are unhappy in the empire and Baron Zia goes to the emperor for advice about this. She travels to the Imperial City from Marowind, only to learn that Uriel Septum IIIth, which is the emperor from Oblivion, is an impostor. That's right.
It's not him. The impostor is none other than the Night andale.
I know it's crazy. And apparently, Night Andale has many alter egos. His real name, at least the one that we get in this book, is called Jagar Thorne. And he's actually a villain in the arena game. to my emperor.
>> Fun fact, we learn that Uriel Septum II is actually imprisoned in an alternate dimension. Again, we don't elaborate on this dimension or what it even is. So, he also doesn't seem to find Jakar Thorne to be quite as villainous as Straw, the wicked orphan stable boy. He actually kind of praises Jakar Thornne or the Night and Gale for his clever ways. I think he has a vendetta for farm boys. Stern skips over a lot again. And basically after months of scheming, we're told that Baron Saiiah outsmarts Thorne and also is reading his diary secretly and Uriel Septum the seventh is suddenly saved. They don't explain how.
I guess Thorne wrote instructions on how to escape a dimensional prison in his diary. Uh also Baron Zaya's husband died. um he died at some point throughout all of this, but it's okay because we learn that she remarries and lives a quote happily unremarkable life unquote. And that's the biography. I rated this book three stars. You can actually play a quest involving Baron Zia in the game Daggerfall, which takes place about 200 years prior to Skyrim.
There is actually another version of this book which I also read and it doesn't offer much of a difference other than like modifications here and there which is to show that a lot of the writers passed off the writing to lead writers for editing. I think that was the case with this. But in both versions, Straw is referred to as the wicked orphan stable boy and I think it's important we all know that. Moving along, our next book is the biography of the wolf queen by Qatar Arafanes. This story takes place in solitude and follows the noble lady Potma, also known as the wolf queen. Her upbringing, we learn, is rough. She has unloving parents and an older brother who is a notorious drunkard and womanizer. And after her father dies under suspicious circumstances, poison, her womanizer brother takes the throne. The author Qatar describes her brother's reign as quote nearly pornographic. When PMA's brother finally dies, rumors swirl that she killed him through magic, but the author claims that the evidence for this is lost to the sands of time. So, I guess we'll never know. Qatar actually includes a famous speech by PMA and suggests it as a model for quote students of public speaking unquote.
Now, this is interesting and my favorite part of the book because usually famous speeches that I've heard that were taught usually uplift people. They make them feel inspired, hopeful, positive.
Even Potma had a different agenda in mind. She said, "No [ __ ] in the slums of the city spread out on more beds than the empress. Had she attended to her duties in the imperial bed chamber more faithfully, we would have a true heir, not that half-wit milk bastards who call themselves the emperor's children.
The level of shade is ahead of its time.
I will say that from here the history speeds up. Uh after PMA's son dies, PMA goes full necromancer. So she loses her mind. She begins to summon Dra to resurrect her enemies. And she eventually amasses a zombie and skeleton army that turns Solitude into a land of death for a time. Bet you didn't know that about Solitude. Legends say that her madness is so infused in the blue palace that it infects the kings who rule after her. Ooh, some foreshadowing.
She dies eventually, but as the book says, the wolf queen must surely have had the last laugh. But you can actually fight Potama's spirit in Skyrim and then you can have the last laugh. I rated this 2.5 stars. Then we have Galarian the Mystic by Ascrim Koulsk. Loving these names. This is going to be really fun for me. This is the story of Venus Gallerion. He grew up as a surf under the cruel lord or under a cruel lord who forbid his workers to learn how to read or write. But his father secretly taught himself and Venus, which is sweet, right? Except he was found out and he was left hanging for weeks during the hottest summer of the year. Venus ran away and was eventually in danger and nearly died on his journeys of running away, but he was rescued by a group of musicians and poets. And one of them was actually a soothsayer who saw a genius in Venice and sent him to the aisle of Artam. there. He trained with a magical group of mages called the Sijic Order.
They're very magical. You might remember them if you played the Winter Hold or the College of Winter Hold quest line.
Uh those guys. And anyway, Venus studied with them for many years and eventually became the first arch magister of the Mag's Guild. He sort of credited as creating the Mag's Guild. I rated this book 2.5 stars. There wasn't much to be said. It was pretty short. Moving right along, we have Life of Uriel Septum IIIth by Rufus Hayne. So, this book is about our famous emperor from the game Oblivion, which I was quite excited about to read. I always liked Uriel Septum IIIth. I felt so bad when he gets murdered. This book changed my mind. We learn right off the bat that the Uriel Uriel that Uriel Septum, that sounds so wrong, the Uriel is actually quite an idiot. Not only does the book start with him being fooled into another dimension by the night and gale, which we talked about in the biography of Baron Ziah, but we also learned that he was quote snared by his wife through her feminine ws unquote. They seem to have a really toxic relationship too, always trying to hurt one another. We learn about that in this book. And honestly, as much as they paint his wife as the problem, we also learn that Uriel had two illegitimate sons. And rumor has it that the mother of Martin Septum, who is a key player in Oblivion, right? His most important son, you could say, his mother, the mother of him, was possibly quote removed unquote by the Emperor, whatever that means. It does really make the Emperor's death feel a lot more triumphant in Oblivion, to be honest. And, you know, I'm actually on the dangerous side here for that one. Like, I'm cheering them on, and I'm stepping all the way back when they come in to murder him in Oblivion again.
I'm not for the record on their side with the whole portals to hell thing that I'm against. But murdering the emperor, that's fine. We also learn that Uriel Septum II was quite arrogant and prideful, which is how Jagar Thorne or the nightingale tricked him. He used his pride. Through this book, we learn that the alternate dimension was actually oblivion. Apparently, this imprisonment changed the emperor. It's said that he became more conservative and pessimistic when he returned. The book ends with talking about his work with the blades to push and shift politics in the empire and through the blades he also established the faith of the nine divines as a dominant religion and that's basically the life of him. He was an arrogant fool in a toxic relationship who got trapped in an alternate dimension that shockingly traumatized him and ultimately he became shrewd and conservative but he also established a religion. A tale as old as time really.
I rated this three stars because I like a good comedy. Then we have The Madness of Pelagius by Satanise. So this is like a spin-off sort of of the Wolf Queen.
Something I didn't mention earlier is that remember the Wolf Queen's inspiring speech, the really good one. Uh well, she was trying to stop the throne from going to her brother's children. That's why she was calling the empress all those names and saying that the children are illegitimate. One of those children is Pelagius. Okay, so this is his story.
Now, Pelagius became king of Solitude.
And I'm not really one for long family trees of betrayals and like butts on thrones and all that stuff. So, this is what this book is all about. It's literally like one big family tree. But the only interesting part, and I'm going to skip the whole confusing bits, is that Plagius is like kind of crazy. He apparently locked himself in a room with young royalty and even took off all his clothes during a speech at a local festival. All right, and that's just the the not so crazy parts. Okay, that's when he was kind of sane. Some of my favorite notable weird things he did, and these are my personal favorites.
I'll list them in order. He insisted on speaking only in grunts and squeaks when an Argonian ambassador visited. He apparently pooped on the ground while servants worked, though that might just be a rumor, but what's the fun in that?
And then my personal ultimate favorite.
He began biting and attacking people in the palace, which my theory is it's just a vampire fetish. But anyway, eventually enough was enough. Maybe when it was the biting started happening. But Pelagius was eventually sent off to an asylum and died there. And on the rumored date of his death, which is the second of Sons Dawn, the people celebrate Mad Felagious Day, where foolishness of all sorts is encouraged and accepted, which is like so fun. There's also a quest in Skyrim that you can do involving him. You actually get to go inside Pelagius's mind and find yourself at an exceptional tea party in a forest inside his brain.
Anyway, I rated this book 3.5 stars. The Nightmother's Truth by Gaston Belelfort.
This one is a throwback to the Morog Tong, which is the OG Assassin's Guild from Morowind. So, this was before the Dark Brotherhood. Back in that game, you could actually be expelled from the guild if you messed up, which I wish they brought back or I wish they had that in Skyrim. I hope they bring it back in the next game. Like, being expelled from a guild is so funny.
Anyway, we learned that the Dark Brotherhood split from the Moro Tong, but the Y is a mystery. So, the Dark Brotherhood is like a branch off of the Morog Tong, apparently according to this book. Now, author Geston Belelfort claims to have the inside scoop. Okay.
According to him, the Nightmother was once a mortal woman living where the city of Brail stands today. She was the highest ranking female member of the Morog Tong and earned the title of Nightmother. The story goes that the dreadf father Cyus visited her, resulting in five children from one night, which is crazy. She then murdered them to send their souls to him, which is even crazier. And the local villagers understandably freaked out and burned her alive in her home. Anyway, 30 years later, she started whispering to a man in his head, creating the first listener. This is where the Brotherhood officially ditched the more honorable Morog Tong vibes for my favorite line in the book, which is quote, "The Dark Brotherhood would marry business with death." I rated this four stars for solid investigative journalism. And fun fact, if you've played Oblivion or are playing Oblivion, you'll know the lucky old lady statue in Brail. That's sitting on top of the crypt where her charred remains and her children are buried. So, like a nice spot to visit. And we're back to Baron Zia. Remember I said that she's going to be mentioned a lot. Yep.
So, we have another book, another biography I suppose, which is called The Real Baron Zia by Plutinius Miro. So, for the record, all of these books that I've talked about so far have been between 500 and 3,000 words. This book, this is 22,471 words, and I godamn read all of it. This is a series that's split into six volumes, and I'm going to try my best to summarize it, but this is a wild ride.
So is Strain. Volume one, we start with some backstory on Semicus, okay, who was Baron Zia's first husband. the day of Baron Sai's birth in Marowind. Remember, she was a noble. She was actually a princess. But anyway, he was running through the streets searching for a priest or a mage to help his dying mother, but no one helped him because it was the day of Baron Xiah's birth and she was a princess and everyone needed to be in attendance. No one helps him and he swears a mighty oath that he'll marry Baron Ziah and have her children.
This is sort of super random, but he swears this oath. His mother dies unfortunately and a priest who came to try and help him didn't do anything at all but then takes his gold anyway. So naturally Semicus beats him to death with a stone. We then switch to Baron Zia's experience. They suddenly have to evacuate Morowind. Also she has a stuffed wolf cub named Woof. I just think it's very cute. Then there's some racism again. And then this racist woman throws Woof in the fire which is a crime. The book dives into Baron Zia's psychology a lot. She's pretty much a spirited and intelligent girl around a bunch of not very spirited and intelligent people. Here we get a different description for the wicked orphan stable boy from the biography remember straw. So this author also seemed to be passionate about this character because he chose a lot of adjectives for straw as well. But in this book he's referred to as quote a big muscular blonde lad clumsy gentle affectionate and rather simple. But here it sounds like there was no deception on Straw's part to get Baron Zia to run away. This is different. Baron Zia in this book apparently hated living with the people that she was living with and didn't want to be sold off to some man.
So she ran off with Straw on her own and Straw liked her. Also, we get this word yol which I thought was funny at first because I thought it was a typo and it also sounds like yodel. I looked it up and apparently it's super offensive. But the author refers to straw as this word.
Poor Straw. He just doesn't catch a break even in both novels. Also, Straw and Baron Xiah make love in this book a lot. They have sex in White Run and you can actually visit the place where No, I'm kidding. You can't. But Miro, our author, uh, writes that they quote made love vigorously on the narrow [ __ ] That's one hell of a way to make love for a yokal, but good for Straw. I feel like he needs a win here. Anyway, it was so passionate that they fell into a dreamless sleep. And good for them. They apparently have a very passionate affair in the first volume of this book. And we learn that Baron Zia is also quite a badass. She's kind of like an Arya Stark. She's like pretty great. But during this part, she does eventually get the ick from Straw because she realizes he's not very ambitious and he is a peasant with peasant dreams. Those are her words. Baron Zia leans into her free spirit even more. Throughout this time, we learn, quote, she was sure she could earn a modest living by sleeping with the soldiers. She'd had a few adventures of that sort as they crossed Cryim when she dressed as a woman and slipped away from Straw. She'd only been looking for a bit of variety. Straw was sweet, but dull. I only tell you this because this book spends a lot of time on Baron Zia's sex life. Like, so much time. There's a bit of writing where Baron Zia sensed Straw's jealousy and encouraged him to seek out other women, but he said he didn't want anyone else but her. She told him candidly she didn't feel that way about him, but she did like him better than anyone else.
And that's how volume one ends. Volume two starts off just as the first one ended with Baron Zia's sex life. We get this little passage about Baron Zia wanting to join the Thieves Guild and sleeping with a member named Theis who in the biography was just referred to as a criminal. This was the criminal actually in the biography that Straw was working with and that he got in trouble for doing that. The facts here are different. They're not facting. Also, apparently this section of the book was quote censored by the Order of the Temple unquote. What did Platinius Smeiro write? Anyway, to be honest, this sounds a lot like fanfiction. Like, this feels like a fanfiction about Baron Zia, which is kind of an interesting book to have in Skyrim. Like, I was not expecting this at all for this game. We learn Baron Zia befriends this cool magical woman named Katisha and learns the dark arts and then there's this potential threesome that almost happens but then doesn't. Anyway, volume two may as well just be smut. Then finally, Semicus returns and honestly shows up like every main character in a romantic.
He's tall, dark, and slightly mean to our female protagonist. He's also kind of arrogant. This really does read like a fanfiction. I'm going to call this a fanfiction. Skyrim has a fanfiction.
Anyway, uh Baron Zia goes away with Semicus and she ends up living with him in the Imperial City and she struggles to identify with her dark elf roots and misses the Nordic way of life. Also, Straw lives in the story and isn't put to jail or anything, but his tongue does get cut out, which is actually pretty sad. Seekus was the one to do it, continuing to excel as the bad boy love interest. Baron Zia has this farewell with Straw in this volume and Straw actually gets a farm at Baron Zia's request and The dies though. This is slightly different from the biography where Theos and Straw both die. Straw does actually live in this story. Then we get to volume three. Baron Zia and Semicus bond. He gives her good advice about how to impress the emperor. But we learn here that the recount in the biography stating that Straw lied to Baron Xiah to sneak her off was actually a fabricated story conceived by Semicus for Baron Zia to tell the emperor.
Interesting. Anyway, her and the emperor bond in this book with the emperor being quite old, like so old, and Baron Zia being like so young, but they bond, and he's often telling her stories, and they're taking these walks in the garden. And I'll just read it to you.
Quote, "His blue eyes would light up as he stared into his dream, and Baron Zia was delighted just to sit and listen to him. If he drew close to her, the side of her body next to him would glow as if he were a smoldering blaze. If their hands met, she would tingle all over as if his body were charged with a shock spell. One day, quite unexpectedly, he took her face in his hands and kissed her gently on the mouth. Baron Xiah and the emperor. Baronza feels guilty about this, but the emperor pulls her closer.
And we get this scene. We have a consort, he said. She is a good and virtuous woman, the mother of our children and future heirs. We could never put her aside. Yet there is nothing between us and her. No sharing of the spirit. She would have us be other than what we are. We are the most powerful person in all of Tamriel. And Baron Ziah, I think I am the most lonely as well. He stood up suddenly. Power, he said with sublime contempt. I trade a goodly share of it for youth and love if the gods would only sanction it. Anyway, after that powerful speech, they agree to have a sexual affair. So that's fun for them. Baron Zia is enjoying the attention, even the gossip. But her affair has caused strain with the emperor's wife and his children. Then surprise, Baron Zia gets pregnant, which is even more scandalous because apparently dark elves in the Elder Scrolls actually don't get pregnant at a young age because they live so long, like hundreds and hundreds of years.
They usually get pregnant in human years, like at the age of 50. And in this part of the book, Baron's eye is like maybe 20. The emperor freaks out and commands his healer to undo the pregnancy. Baron Zia freaks out because she doesn't want that to happen. This part in the book is quite intense actually and really sad and dark. The emperor says, quote, "No, it is now but a possibility, a might be. Not yet gifted with a soul or quickened into life. I will not have it, so I forbid it." unquote. This is even more sad because apparently elves may only have like four kids max, and it's rare to even have one. So, if they terminate this one, she may never get pregnant again. But the emperor worries that if she has his child, it will challenge his son's claim to the throne. Anyway, they knock out Baron Zia and force dark things to happen to her. So, that's unfortunate. The emperor sends her gifts though afterwards. So, anyway, we don't like him. Their affair ends after this and Baron Zia is sent back to her original home, Warhold in Marowind. And that's the end of volume three. Volume four starts with a banger line from Baron Zia. Everything I have ever loved, I have lost. For surely worth is measured by the price we pay. Baron Zia is now celibate. She's not into men or love. She's into studying. She likes history and culture now. The emperor and her are actually on good terms, surprisingly. But then he dies and his son Pelagius takes the throne. Also, Semicus is back and he's always saying a like AI in every dialogue, which is a choice. It goes away in later volume.
So, maybe he's like going through a phase.
>> I'm weird. I'm a weirdo. I don't fit in.
>> Sort of like when girls dye their hair or something. Sean Kiss kisses Baron Zia actually after telling her that the emperor died. Surprise, he died. but she had only ever seen him as a friend. So, this is really weird for her. And when he kisses her, I just have to read it to you because she'd never thought of him in that way. And yet, undeniably, an old familiar warmth spread through her.
She'd forgotten how good it felt that warmth. Not the scorching heat she'd felt with the emperor, but the comforting, robust aror she somehow associated with with straw. Straw. Poor Straw. She hadn't thought of him in so long. He'd be middle-aged now if he were still alive, probably with a dozen children, she thought affectionately, and a hearty wife who hopefully could talk for two. Then Simakiss asks her to marry him, and she says, "Why not? I love her." Life is nice for a while for them. And there is this funny dialogue between her and the Sparred Night and Gale. Oo, I think it's worth reading for the writing alone, the dialogue between her and the Spard. My true name, Mady, I am no one. No, no. My parents named me no man. No, no. My parents named me Noan. Or was it Nobody? What matters? It It matters not. How my parents give name to that which they know not. Ah, I believe that was the name. No, not. I have been the night and gale for so long. I do not remember since oh, last month at the very least. Or was it last week? All my memory goes into song and tale. You see, my lady, I have none left for myself. I'm really quite dull. Where was I born? Why, nowhere. Baron Zia is charmed by him and she seduces him and they kiss. She's still married, by the way. And then she admits she wants passion and children because she's been struggling to get pregnant during this time, but she wants passion as well.
Baron Zia then gets totally played by this bard, though, who eventually seduces her. Oh, how the tables have turned into helping him pull off a highstakes heist in the royal mines where he promises her an artifact that holds the passion and freedom she desires. But the bard lies and steals the staff of chaos. Then he vanishes into thin air, leaving her heartbroken with Semicus running to her rescue.
Semicus scolds Baron Xiah for cheating on him and getting this really important staff stolen by having sex with her. And this actually gets her pregnant with a son. Anyway, Baron Ziah falls in love with Semicus again, and they have a daughter, too. And that's the end of volume four. Volume five begins with Uriel Septum mad about the stuff of chaos getting stolen. and Semicus is suspicious of the new imperial battle mage Jagar Thorne whichun dun dun is the night and gale. There's tension in Mournhold where Baron Zia and Semicus live and rule. Life is getting difficult. So Baron Zia goes to the emperor in the imperial city to seek his counsel. A lot of this volume is much of the same as the biography, just more elaborate and there's dialogue. But it does paint a picture knowing that Baron Ziah was in love with the night andale that's revealed to us here. So when she confronts the night andale there's a bit of flirting actually. Now while Baron Ziah is in the imperial city dies because the night andale posing as the emperor I know that's really messy forced him to make policies that made his people really angry at him. So Semicus' people actually ended up killing him which is very Game of Thrones this whole thing. It's a mess.
Anyway, that doesn't really stop Baron Zia's affections for the Night and Gale because the flirting quickly turns our rated as it always does in this book.
And so they have this like passionate affair. Night andale actually professes his love for Baron Zia, stating that he couldn't be with her before cuz it wasn't the right time, but now it is because he has all this power. Anyway, Baron Zia goes through this existential crisis in this moment. The affair continues which causes strife between her and her children obviously. But then she gets pregnant again. 6 months into her pregnancy. She figures out where the staff is because this entire time in between all the passionate love making she was actually scheming against the night and gale. Okay. She was having her cake and eating it too kind of thing.
She discovers where the staff is and she leaves him and gives birth to her child.
And obviously the emperor is saved and rescued and things go back to normal.
Sort of. Baron Zia never sees the night and gale again. She actually remarries this other guy named Iadawired whatever he's not important. And also she didn't really love him. She claim like she professes that but she was fond of him. So that was enough. And the story ends shortly after this, but it actually ends quite nicely and in a full circle kind of way, which I was not expecting from this book because throughout the entire book, she looks down on Straw and Semicus, who she thinks has peasant dreams. This actually makes sense considering her very strong attraction to the emperor, who is a powerful man or was a powerful man, and the night and gale, who was a powerful mage, both of whom ruled empires at one point. So, character consistency, we love that. At the end of the book, it states, quote, she had no doubt it was going to be a long life yet. And during it, she wanted peace and quiet and serenity of her soul as well as her heart. Peasant dreams. That was what she wanted. That was what the real Baron Ziah wanted. That was what the real Baron Ziah was. Peasant dreams.
I rated this 4.5 stars. Sacred Witness by Enrich Milness. This one is another nightmother tale. But the interesting part about this book is really the author. It's a confessional of anything.
He meets the infamous nightmother, or so he claims, and expects a monster, but instead he finds this sweet looking old lady. She reveals to him that she was actually a thief in the Thieves Guild before she realized it was just like easier to kill the homeowners than like breaking in. But the Thieves Guild rejected this idea. They're not into murder. So she left them and started her own group. In this book, it's mentioned that there is no public evidence of whether the dark brotherhood came from Morog Tong, but the Morg Tong worshiped the Nightmother. So there's this like connection. They're trying to bridge it together. Anyway, she's explaining this stuff to him, and there's this line from our author, which I like, and he says, quote, "I have the natural curiosity of the born writer. When I see a strange new animal, I must observe. It is the writer's curse." I just like that line cuz like I get it dude I get it. So this is why he's like speaking to her even though he knows he shouldn't. So she lets him live knowing this information on one condition that he helps the dark brotherhood with some very dark favors.
Obviously this later haunts our author and the ending is actually so cryptic and sad. He confesses his guilt for all that he's done to help the Dark Brotherhood and his last words are after he's fled them. It will be the last thing I ever write. This I know and every word is true. Pray for me. I rated this three stars. And our final book in the biography section is The Wolf Queen by Wolfen Jarth, who is my favorite author, possibly in the Elder Scrolls world. I love Wolf and Jarth. He has written some of my favorite books, which we have yet to get to. This is not one of them. This was actually a bad introduction to him. I did not like The Wolf Queen. I didn't like it. So, this book is technically eight books long and it's like 6,000 words, which isn't as long as The Real Baron Zia, but it's like not a fun read. There's so much information packed in and then it's paced really weird where you're jumping around with dates and the dialogue and writing is sort of like trying to capture the the dialogue of that time.
It's trying to be very like formal and fantastical in a way where they're like, "Oh, my lege," you know, all of that stuff, which like I don't mind. I like, but combined with a bunch of names and information I'm not fully aware of yet is just like not the most fun. So, I'm going to give you the cliff notes. She had a rough upbringing. She ends up becoming this like lockpicking genius and this like black mailer. Uh, she's always scheming even at an early age.
Family members die. her brother dies, right? She's angry at the empress. She doesn't want her brother's children to be on the throne. She wants her son to be on the throne. But her son is actually captured and burned alive by an angry mob. And she kind of loses her motivation. Like I said, she gets into necromancy. It's pretty much like a more drawn out version of the other Wolf Queen book we read, but this one's supposed to be a little bit more sort of like what the real Baroness Zia was, which there's like actual dialogue and like there's sort of a fictional quality to it. Anyway, that's it.
Those are my notes and I'm sparing you.
So, I rated this two stars and that was the end of our biography section.
Yay.
Part three, instruction and research.
There are 56 instruction and research books in Skyrim. And our first one that we're starting with is an Accounting on the Elder Scrolls by Quintis Nurvis.
First, love the name. Anyway, he's quite pretentious, which I think was given with a name like that. The book is written from his perspective and he details his experience as an Imperial official who is annoyed that the moth priests who tend to the Elder Scrolls.
We see them in the game Oblivion don't have a basic inventory on the Elder Scrolls. So, he decides to take matters into his own hands. After a year of mapping everything out, he realizes the monks aren't crazy like he originally thought and that the scrolls literally change location and quantity whenever they feel like it. Pretty crazy. A monk there that he once looked down upon actually proves this point by having him count 14 scrolls in Iraq only for there to be 18 just seconds later. To which Quintis gasps, "Now there are 18." And the monk replies, "And in fact, there always were." He realizes that human logic doesn't apply to the magical space-time scrolls, so he gives up his quest of organizing and joins the moth priests as their oldest novice ever. I rated this book 3.5 stars. Our next book is The Advances in Lockpicking by Anonymous, our first anonymous author. Exciting.
This book gives you an increase in your lockpicking skill. So, it is a skill book, which is nice. I'm sure a lot of you have picked this up and you've never once even glanced the first sentence. We learn that apparently weird springs become normal if you hold a torch to them because making them hot makes them quote not weird which is kind of like a metaphor for life. It would be cool I was thinking about this while reading this book if in the next game the environment was actually interactive like this so where you would have to use a heat source to bypass a difficult lock. That would be really really cool.
I really would love to see that in an Elder Scrolls game where the environment is a lot more interactive, especially since it's mentioned in this book. I rated it 3.5 stars because of this line at the end of the book, which is quote, "If you can't read, get someone to read this book to you. It'll make more sense then." All right. Oh my gosh, my ear fell. Well, if I do this, it's like you don't even know. Amongst the Dger by Bernardet Banten. Bernardet spent seven months hanging out with Dragger. She figured out that they have a daily routine where they wake up, they clean the tomb, they pray to the dragon priest and they actually transfer their own life force to keep the priest alive forever. All right, that's why they look so wrinkly and shriveled and gross after thousands of years. I gave this book three stars because I'm not that interested in the jogger to be honest and I'm definitely not interested in research notes. But I do really like this explanation we get for why gear and loot that we find in these caves even exist cuz normally it's just like a game mechanic. Like you don't even question it. It's like there's loot there, right?
Why is there a chest in the middle of this empty cave or this corner of the empty cave? like who put that there and left it there, right? We don't question it really because it's a game. However, this book actually gives an explanation as to why, which is so cool and amazing, and props to Bethesda and the team for adding this little detail. So, we get the explanation that the gear from adventurers who don't survive and got killed in these places is put to chests and urns scattered around the ruins by the jogger themselves. They actually take out people's things and place it around. Anyway, I like this touch. Three stars. Good job, Bethesda. The Apprentice's Assistant by Aram. This book is essentially a textbook that teaches you the philosophy of spellcasting. You can actually find this author, Aram Ril, in The Elder Scrolls Online, okay? And she claims to be Valen Wood's most prestigious spellcaster.
Anyway, I rated this two stars. Arcana restored a handbook by Wapna Nustra Preceptor Emiretus.
What a name. The writing here is what I have coined as Skyperian. That is a play on Skyrim in Shakespeare. This is from the book. quote, "Make sure that thou havest with you this excellent manual, so that thou might speak the necessary words straight away and without error, so that thou not in carelessness cause thyself and much else to disccorporate and disorder the world with your component humors." This book is actually a relic from The Elder Scrolls Battle Spire. And when you read this book, if you only play or have only played Skyrim and this is the first time you're reading this book, it makes absolutely no sense. It gives you nothing. But this book is actually teaching the player how to enchant weapons using a mana fountain in Battle Spire. So that's that's what this book was for. And I think it's kind of cute that they brought it into Skyrim when it has absolutely no purpose. But it's like an old relic from the developers, which I think is like fun.
Anyway, I rated it 2.5 stars because it was actually fun to read out loud. All right, next we have The Art of War: Magic by Zuran Arctis at all. In Skyrim, we only have chapter 3 of this book, and it's obviously a play on the art of war.
Surprise, it's a skill book that increases your destruction magic. I really love the last piece of advice it gives and it says, "Those commonly believed to be the greatest practitioners of war magic are almost always those with the least skill. The true masters are not known to the multitude." That was really the most interesting piece of advice this book gave, so that's why I'm sharing it with you. Everything else, I don't even remember. Oh, I rated it 2.5 stars. But our next book is Atlas of Dragons by Brother Mathnen. Mathnan. This is a short and useful lore book regarding the dragons you fight in Skyrim. Brother Mathnan tells us where the storydriven dragons are located and gives us some backstory on the ones that were actually killed in the past that we don't necessarily fight. I gave this book 2.5 stars because while I appreciate the lore, I do wish it gave more information about the dragon's personalities and histories because in Skyrim, the dragons actually have personalities and in deep historical lore, right? But anyway, that's it. Then we have Atron Forge Manual by Anonymous. They're back again.
This book seems to take place before the partial destruction to the College of Winterhold. Uh the author is writing to his nephew who is about to attend the college and confesses that he had a secret project there called Atronok Forge. He tells his nephew not to talk to the faculty about it, but he asks him to ask his or he tells him to ask his peers about the miden. And if you've played the College of Winterhold quest line, then you know exactly what that means. Uh he gives a few instructions on how to actually create atronox using the forge which you can use to actually craft drich armor as well. And we learn from this book that the forge might be dri because of the symbology or the symbols on the forge itself are apparently drich. I rated it 2.5 stars.
The buying game by abel Timar data son.
This is a fun little book about the customs of bargaining. The only piece of advice you really need to know from this book is occasionally impulsiveness is the best buying strategy, which is a great way to justify my shopping habits.
This book also increases your speech craft. I gave it 1.5 stars cuz there really wasn't much there. Then we have Catalog of Armor Enchantments by Ivonne Ben Sinod Researcher. Sinod researcher.
It is actually pretty interesting though because it breaks down enchantments from the most common to the least common. And I'll just tell you that the rarest enchantments are those that actually increase your health, magicka, or stamina. This book is also a skill book that increases your enchanting skill. I gave it two stars. Cats of Skyrim by Aldi Tul. I was actually interested in this book before I started reading it, and I was interested to learn that the saber cat meat is apparently tasteless and not worth much, which gives an explanation as to why you can't loot the meat from the saber cat when you kill it. You can only loot the tooth and the pelt. And that's the book. It doesn't talk really about anything else. This book offers so little about the cats. I'd give this book half a star because it's lazy journalism. I love cats and this guy didn't even mention the coolest cat which is the veil saber cat. Do better.
Then we have chorus pie. And I don't care if it's chorus cowis chorus. I have no idea how to pronounce it and I did look it up. I did try to find a way and it seems we're all confused. Chorus chorus cowis pie. A recipe by Niels.
First of all, Niels insults Breton right off the bat. He calls them pony, which I know I'm wearing elf ears, but in my heart, I'm a Breton. When I played my most thorough playthrough, it was with a Breton character, so I took that personally. I actually found some community discussions about this book, and that was more interesting to me than the actual book. So, I want to talk about that because Niels claims that this is a Nordic recipe. All right. But chorus chis are scary, gross, poisonous creatures that live in the deep, dark caves, right? They're like underground.
And so the effort required to even find one of them and kill it and risk your life to even make this recipe for dinner is insane. And so people have debated whether this is actually a Falmer recipe that the Nords stole, which I thought was h and someone pointed out that there are ancient Nordic ruins down in Black Reach. So, a chorus recipe might have been passed down from the era when Nords actually built crypts down there, which is like an I think a decent theory, right? Anyway, it's fun to think about how much we speculate on history in general and then how much we do it even in a video game. I rated it 2.5 stars because The Hidden History of a Bug Pie is just funny to me. Darkest Darkness by Anonymous. This book is about Dra and honestly I used to think Dra was just one thing but they're actually like a pantheon of Greek gods. You've got your Zeus and your Prometheus. There are the good Dra and the bad Dra according to anonymous. Now, tying this back to my earlier research or reading of the nightmother's truth, right? The Morag Tong allegedly worships the Drich prince Methala, who is considered one of the quote good Dra in Marowind, at least according to this book. But the Dark Brotherhood, and this is where they're different from one another, the Dark Brotherhood and the Morak Tong, the Dark Brotherhood worships Cyus, who isn't a dri prince at all. So interesting, right? Because this is uh different information than we're getting. And there's a lot of mystery and confusion around the Dark Brotherhood. Even though people compare the two guilds, their religions are actually quite opposite.
This book is actually carried over from the game Marowind. So, there have since been more Dra added to the game since that game. So, this book is a little bit outdated to be honest. The only Dra mention that we actually see in the Skyrim game in this book is Shio Gorath, the prince of madness. Is he doing the fish stickick? It's a very delicate state of mind.
>> My favorite. But this book calls Shiogorath a bad dra by the way. Anyway, I rated this book 2.5 stars. Right. Then we have Dragon Language Myth No More by Hela Thricefirst. This one is about D.
No, dragons. Not Dra. No, wait. It's not about dragons either. This one is about walls.
Yes. Spread throughout Skyrim. Dot dot dot. There are walls. That's an actual quote from the book. It's worth noting that five people died to gather information for this book. I rated this one star. If you're confused about why I keep saying it's about walls, take a take a peek at it. The Dream Stride by Anonymous. They make another appearance. Love to see them. This book is basically astral projection, but Skyrim's version. There is this rare potion called verminus torper torpour that puts you in a state known as the dream stride. It allows you to experience the dreams of another as if you were actually there. That is such a cool concept. I really hope we get like a thoughtout quest in the next game or something regarding that. Anyway, I'm giving this book 3.5 stars because I love the cover art first of all and it's one of the more unique books in the game. You can only find it in one location actually in Skyrim as part of the Dawn Star quest, Waking Nightmare. I love anything dream related, so this is just like a personal favorite. I was just personally interested in this concept. Dwarves by Cal Selmo, scholar of Markarth. Something about me, I love Dwmer history in the Elder Scrolls.
Also, dwarven and Dwmer refer to the same thing. Dwmer literally means people of the deep. And Cal Selmo actually admits in this book that he uses the term dwarven and dwarves even though he doesn't prefer it out of sympathy for his readers who he assumes aren't as smart as he is after 200 years of study.
This is a book with three volumes. Okay.
Volume one discusses their love of longlasting metal over fragile materials. the the Dwmer's love of long-lasting material. Not super riveting. I think they're interesting.
So, this was fun for me. Volume two explains that dwarven metal cannot be replicated. It also describes the centurions centurions. Centurions. Uh, they're like the robotic metal creatures you can fight. They're pretty cool.
Volume 3 reflects on the mystery of their disappearance, the Dwmer's disappearance, and the need for further study. I rated this book 3.5 stars.
Dwmer Inquiries by Theelwi Galian Scholar. This one focuses more on the different types of Dwmer across Tamriel.
Also, it's split between three volumes, too. Volume one, he proposes that the Dwmer had tech so advanced that they could have hidden cities even better than the ones that we've already found in Skyrim. Meaning that there could be undisturbed sites all over Tamriel. I hope we see them in the next game. We shall see. Volume 2 has some translated Dwmer language. I appreciate this touch because it uses the language to explain the culture unlike that of the other dragon language book. We learn that Dmer actually dabbled in magic even if they were scientists at heart. In volume 3, he actually talks about Black Reach which is so cool because if you read this before you ever go to Black Reach, it is like kind of like a fun Easter egg. Okay, so he's trying to translate the phrase ba ba zardamden, which you can find carved into metal frames in ruins like alfand. Anyway, he translates this to mean blackest kingdoms reaches, but can't figure out what it means, but we know. I rated this four stars purely for the lore. I loved reading this personally. Right. The effects of the Elder Scrolls by Justinius Polius and Anus Metim these names. Anyway, this book is about the effects of reading an Elder Scroll and they categorize the effects into four distinct groups of people. So, it's basically like a risk versus reward chart. All right. The first group of people are people who would look at the scroll and it just looks like weird doodles and star charts to them. There's like no cosmic secrets revealed to them.
They also don't go blind from looking at the scrolls. Uh it's just like essentially a very confusing expensive piece of paper. The second group is smart enough to read the scroll. They get one single fragment of supreme knowledge, but they'll never see again.
You know, interesting question. Would you would you take that risk? Would I take that risk? I'll tell you at the end of the video. All right. The third group is the cult of the ancestor moth. All right. We talked about them before.
Their vision gets blurry and foggy, but they can still like make out shapes and they can still read normal books, but they don't get all the info from the Elder Scrolls. They get some info, but they have to meditate for a long time to understand what it means. And our final group is the Elder Moth Priests. These monks go into seclusion to prepare for this moment. They read one last scroll, get a massive dump of cosmic knowledge, and then go totally blind. except they actually understand the vision in their minds that they see. This is a pretty interesting read. I rated this four stars for the lore. A primer on enchanting by Sergius Terrainness. This is a skill book that increases enchanting. 1.5 stars. Just kidding. One star. The Falmer. A study by Ursa Urax.
What a fun name. We learn about a new race. All right. The snow elves, but in Skyrim, we know them as the goblins of Black Reach, right? Those ones that always attack you down there. This lore is incredible because surprise, it involves the Dwmer, my favorite. A long time ago, the snow elves were a proud race. We learned that they lost a massive battle against the Nords and the survivors fled underground. They asked the Dwmer for help. The Dwmer said, "Sure, but only if the snow elves ate this mushroom, which turned out to be extremely toxic, and it permanently blinded them. and the Dwmer turned them into a slave race from this. Even making the fungus part of their permanent diet so that their children would be born blind, too. Now, again, I don't love the Dwmer in like a way where I'm like, "Wow, like we should bring them back.
They're so amazing." I just mean they're so interesting to me and the lore around the Dwmer is really interesting to me, including the Falmer as well. I rated this book five stars because I just was like, "Wo, reading this.
It was dark but so interesting and I've played this game for so long and I've done like everything regarding regarding the Dwmer like actual gameplay and like I had no idea about this. I only learned this from reading the books. All right, the firmament by folk. So this is essentially Tamrielic astrology complete with a 13th zodiac sign. We are taught that the seasons of these constellations only last one month each. There is a whole mythos here. Okay, here we have three of the 12 signs known as the guardians and each guardian has three charges. To make this more interesting, I decided to link the zodiacs in Skyrim to the ones that we have. So, we start off with the warrior, which is the first constellation and the first guardian, meaning it's probably an Aries. I'm an Aries. We are the first sign in the zodiac. We are bullish, stubborn, and usually primed for a fight, or at least a heated debate that could turn into one. The warrior's charges are the lady, the seed, and the lord. We'll get to them. Then we have the mage, who I think is a cancer. Their charges are the apprentice, the atron, and the ritual.
The thief is the last constellation, and the last guardian. I think this is a Scorpio. Their charges are the lover, the shadow, and the tower. Specifically, I think the lady is a Libra, the steed is Sagittarius, and the lord is Virgo.
The apprentice is Gemini, the atron is Pisces, and the ritual is Aquarius. For the thief's group, the lover is Leo, the shadow is Taurus, and the tower is Capricorn. And then there's the serpent, the 13th constellation. It has no fixed season and wanders the sky. The book says, "Those born under the sign are the most blessed and the most cursed." Wow, what a riddle. I rated this four stars because I love astrology personally, so this was like fun to read. This book actually dates back to the game Red Guard, which in that game they had photos in these books. I wish they brought that in to this game, but that's fine. Anyway, four stars. Forge, Hammer, and Anvil by Thorbold Adulus Eretius.
This is a skill book that increases your smithing surprise, and it is an absolute gem. Here we have notes originally written by a blacksmith named Thorbold with added commentary by Adulus Eretius.
You can actually visit Thorbolt's home in Skyrim and trigger two really interesting quests. Though, you won't find this specific book in that house.
So, it is really cool if you do read this book and then find him.
Anyway, the portion written by Thorbold is full of misspellings and is honestly so fun to read. Thorbold was rumored to be illiterate, so his assistant wrote the book for him, but the assistant wasn't exactly a master with words as well. So, there's just like typo and error after error and typo. But I loved this book. It's so charming because the assistant sneaks in little snarky notes about his own thoughts on what Thorbald is saying. But the best part is the postcript. It says, "The last page had a large streak of ink and a few splatters of blood. It would be a fair conclusion that Thorbald beat his assistant. We have no way of knowing if Thorbold ever discovered the extraneous comments added in his script." Now, I don't condone this violence. I just This book was like really interesting. It had so much personality. I rated this five stars because I was thoroughly entertained reading this. I literally laughed out loud when I was reading the little snarky comments. I wasn't expecting that from this game. It's so nice to have books with genuine personality and aren't just like dry history. Plus, when you consider the quest ti or the quests tied to his home, it makes the experience of reading this so much more satisfying and worthwhile. So, five stars. Guide to Better Thieving by Wolf Mar Shadowcloak. So, this is another skill book and it increases your lockpicking skill. It covers the basics of picking locks and pickpocketing, but the most interesting thing about it is Wolf Mar himself. In the book, Wolfare claims that he's the one who stole the Elder Scroll from the White Gold Tower.
Now, if you've played the game Oblivion, you know that this is the quest, the ultimate heist, where your character in Oblivion steals the scroll. Okay, this is part of the Thieves Guild quest. This means one of two things. Either Wolf May is lying through his teeth, or it proves a theory that in the Elder Scrolls lore, major quests are canonically completed by quote someone, but not necessarily the protagonist. Personally, I prefer the first option. Anyway, I rated this book two stars. It was like super short.
There wasn't much to it, but that was like the most interesting part. It's just like the fan theories surrounding this book. The book itself not that great. Next, we have Harvesting Frostbite Spider Venom by Anonymous, a return from our favorite author, one of them. Jarth, is still the best, but we'll get to him later. This is a short little book about frostbite spiders.
Crazy. The book actually warns against getting caught in spiderw webs, which I hope to see in the next game. I rated it two stars. Heavy Armor Forging by Sven Two Hammers. This is a skill book that increases smithing, but I have to say I much prefer Thorbald's book over this one about smithing. This one essentially says the same stuff that Thorbold tells you in his book, just less of it. So, it's not that much fun of a read.
There's not really personality to this book. It just goes over the types of armor, like iron, steel, all of that.
Um, but anyway, one star. Give me Thorbald's drama over Sven's technicalities any day. Next, we have Herbalist's Guide to Skyrim by Agetta Falia. We have pictures immediately five stars just for the artwork alone. I appreciate that extra touch. I appreciate an artist coming in to draw beautiful graphics for a game. Honestly, there's also a lot of really great world building here. Um, I loved the voice of the narrator, too. Like, it felt like a very nerdy herbalist sharing their passion. There's also a lot of great tips in here if you're actually like into alchemy in the game. Plus, it's a skill book, so it bumps up your alchemy level while you look at pretty drawings.
I gave this five stars easy for the pictures alone. All right, next we have Urbane's Beastiary, which is technically three books. And so, in those three books, he talks about automatons, highravens, and ice wraiths. And the author is Urbane. Uh he just goes by one name, sort of like Madonna. Now, the opening line is pure gold. He says, "The dwarfs have been extinct for many ages, and perhaps for the best. To see men and women the size of large children, all with beards, would be the most disturbing sight. Still, whatever wrath the dwarves brought from the gods that consumed an entire civilization surely must have been an awe inspiring thing to witness." Damn. This book is through the lens of an adventure, which actually makes introducing these creatures like so much more fun. Later, Orbane also says, "I could have taken the dwarven artifacts and metal, but left them there for others, for I would not hex my journey with the possessions of dead men, and maybe that is where countless others go wrong." I rated this book five stars because the writing is genuinely so immersive. It really paints a picture of what it would feel like to encounter these things in a way that's different than just like fighting them in the game. like it actually felt like reading a book and you're like seeing the picture play out of like if you encounter these beings and there was tension there and I really liked it.
Also the personality of herbane top tier. Uh this was like a really fun book to read if you want a short I don't know a short Skyrim book to read or dive into. All right then we have Horker Attacks by Hydemir Starkad. This book is essentially just one story about a Hawker attack involving a man named Grim. The author makes it seem like there are going to be more attacks that he's going to talk about, but we just get told this one. So, I'm docking points for a misleading title. I'll give it 1.5 stars just because I like workers. Immortal Blood by Anonymous.
Anonymous Returns and they delivered a 10 out of 10 book. Okay, five out of five because that's our rating system.
But this is a must readad. I won't spoil the plot, but it's a story about vampires and I just the ending was like worth reading through. It's not that long of a story and but when I finally got to the end, I was like, "Oh, all right. I see what you did there.
It's cute. I liked it. I genuinely enjoyed it." Um, I would even reread it again. This book was actually first introduced in the Oblivion game, by the way. But one of the main characters from this book is actually in the Skyrim game, and you can interact with them.
So, I'll just leave that there. Imperial report on Sarth by Hessa Corinis, major skilled scholar assigned to Imperial archaeologist Centius Floronius. Saying that was like reading this entire book.
Okay, so this one feels less like a book and more like a collection of rambling diary entries. Uh he complains that his superiors and the Imperial archaeological team are wasting their time on studying early early Nord cooking habits and bathing habits instead of actual magic. It really wasn't that interesting. I gave it 1.5 stars. Killing Before You're Killed by Eduardo Corvvis. Surprisingly, this isn't a skill book. It basically just talks about melee game mechanics, which isn't super useful if you've already played the game for like 5 minutes. One star. All right, then we have Light Armor Forging by Rivas Cvani. This is a skill book that increases smithing, and it's surprisingly interesting. The smithing books are going crazy with the lore and like the fun read. I was not expecting this. I would have thought it would be like one of the sword fighting books, but no. It gives you a great to-do list, first of all, on what to collect if you want to craft elven armor one day. So, it's genuinely useful, especially if you're just like running around and you're selling a bunch of stuff, you need specific items. And we learn how the secrets to elven armor were actually leaked. And we learn that they were leaked by a dark elf slave who stole the secret from his master as revenge for centuries of cruelty. He revealed to the rest of Tamreel that the two keys to the crafting of elven armor are using moonstone and quenching the metal in saltwater. Crazy. 3.5 stars for such a short book. That build of world building was like genuinely really interesting. All right. Then we have liinal bridges by Camille Lonoi of Alenir. This book explains the theory of traveling between Mundus which is the mortal plane in the Elder Scrolls and Oblivion. We learn that liinal bridges are temporary portals and that liinal barriers are what separate Ner, which is technically Earth in the Elder Scrolls from Oblivion, but we learn that these barriers are weakened during the events of the Oblivion Crisis. This book is actually carried over from the Oblivion game, which makes sense. I rated it 2.5 stars. Mace Etiquette by Anonymous.
They're back and not with a riveting book. This might be their worst book.
Uh, can we just agree that the mace is the least fun weapon in the game? Okay, maybe not the least fun, but like the least chic one to use. And obviously chicness is important in battle. All right, Sun Su said that in the art of war, Skyrim, it's a one star for me. All right, then we have magic from Sky or Lav Gerol. This one is a nice throwback.
A lot of the lore in this book is tied to quests from the Oblivion game, and the author is actually a character that you can meet in the game. He mentions the Alids, which are super relevant to the game Oblivion, but not at all in Skyrim. Um, the Alids are an ancient extinct elven race. Uh, and in Oblivion, they had these things called Alid Wells and Alid Ruins. Now, if you've played Oblivion, then you'll appreciate the nostalgia of this book. I gave it three stars for the interesting lore and the trip down memory lane for me personally.
All right, then we have mixed unit tactics by Cotus Colonus. Surprisingly interesting. This is about Kaji fighting techniques which are very different from the Nordic techniques that we use as game mechanics. I feel like the Kajit are just such a fascinating race and since we've only really been able to visit their homeland in like ESO, these little snippets of their culture are cool to read. As a whole for this book though, it was 2.5 stars for me. On Oblivion by Morian Zenis. This book is actually not a carryover from the Oblivion game. It was written specifically for Skyrim and it gives us an updated look at the Drich princes. It even covers some etmology like Dra is actually the plural form while the singular form is Droth. I bet you didn't know that. And I'll be honest, I'm not going to remember that little detail, but I thought it was cool. Also, this book doesn't categorize the dra as good or bad like in our previous Dra book.
Instead, this book looks at them as different types of entities altogether.
For example, one dra might cause an earthquake to vent their anger, while another is just destructive by nature without anger needed. I really like this author's take on them. He was very observant and pragmatic, and this was genuinely interesting to read, like I didn't feel like it was very textbook or bogged down with so much information.
So, four stars for top tier data lore.
All right. Then we have Physicalities of Werewolves by Reman Krux. I honestly forgot you could even be a werewolf in this game until until I came across this book. All right, so this author is I'll just read you what he writes. He says, "No werewolf killed my family. None ever threatened me personally. My obsession is born out of simple curiosity with a strong dose of hatred for the unnatural.
It is possible to hate something without having been done harm by it. I am no philosopher and thus here ends my introduction on with my studies." But then the book takes a really dark turn.
Reman Krux is a researcher who uses extreme cruel methods of torture to get his facts about werewolves. Um, it's a very short and intense read. I'm giving it 3.5 stars, not because I condone Remis' methods, but because it was genuinely gripping. Proper lock design by Anonymous. Rather than telling you how to pick locks, this book is about how to design one uh to keep thieves out. Ironically, it's a skill book that increases your lockpicking skill.
Obviously, if you know how a lock design is going to work, you're going to be able to know how to pick at it. 1.5 stars. Notes on racial fogyny and biology by the Council of Healers. Uh, so this is a controversial book, but it is interesting for its lore. It's clearly meant to come off as biased.
This book explores how reproduction and genetics work across Tamriel and the different races. Its main conclusion is that all human and elven races are interfertile, meaning they can have children together, but the offspring typically take on the racial traits of the mother. It also notes that innerbreeding involving Argonians and Kajit remains undocumented. So, also orcs aren't really well documented either. Um, I rated this three stars for its essential lore. It's definitely biased and incomplete, but I genuinely didn't think that The Elder Scrolls would give us a book like this talking about the fogyny of the races, but it was interesting to read. Reality and Other Falsehoods by Anonymous. Our friend is back with a skill book that increases alteration. This book finally explains the why behind the magic, specifically the difference between illusion and alteration. While illusion is only in the mind of the caster and the target, alteration actually changes physical nature to create a reality that everyone recognizes. And I really love this paragraph. It says, "To master alteration, first accept that reality is a falsehood. There is no such thing. Our reality is a perception of greater forces impressed upon us for their amusement. Some say that these forces are the gods. Others say that they are something beyond the gods. For the wizard, it doesn't really matter." Loved that. I gave this four stars because I just love the philosophy here. Souls, black and white by Anonymous. This is a book about soul gems. Anonymous explains to us that in the Elder Scrolls, the true nature of the soul is unknowable.
But souls themselves are a source of mystic energy that can be harvested. I'm giving it two stars. It didn't really elaborate on much, which I guess it's like the soul is not knowable, but then like if we're harvesting them for soul gems, I just figure with how often soul gems have been seen and used in the Elder Scrolls games, we should get like a little bit more about them. Anyway, Svenguard, a re-examination by Berit Berit just Oh boy. All right. This book starts off with a massive hook. Death. It is something we all face. Or do we? It explains that Sovenguard isn't a physical place on Ner, right, which is Skyrim or Elder Scrolls Earth, but an afterlife realm reachable only through an honorable death in combat. We actually get to go there during the main quest in Skyrim. And fun fact, the author is actually an NPC from Morowind, and this book was first introduced in the Blood Moon DLC from Morowind. I do love that the lore for the main quest in Skyrim was technically written like 20 years ago over that even or no I guess when the game came out it was when did the game came out? 2011. Morowind came out in like 2002. Okay. So like not 20 years I guess like 9 years right.
Anyway, math. Okay. Um I just like the consistency here but I rated this three stars. There be dragons by Torhal Boric.
Uh, and there do be dragons. This book is technically wrong because it claims dragons are extinct, which obviously not. But it does make an interesting point about dragon biology. Uh, it mentions that no real dragon eggs have ever been found and the eggs that they claim are dragon eggs are really just reptilian eggs. There is also speculation that the title is a nod to an actual fantasy book called Here There Be Dragons by James A. Owen. So, a fun little meta fact lore for you. What am I saying? Sorry, I've been talking so much. I gave this book 2.5 stars. While the information is inaccurate, I do love it when Bethesda includes like unreliable narrators or conspiracy theorists, it does make the world feel more real and like lived in, you know, especially when not every author is a perfect scholar. And then we have Troll Slain by Finn. I actually vividly remember reading this when I was first playing Skyrim. I think it's one of the books I actually did read and mostly because it has a picture on the front of it. I love a picture book. Um, this book details exactly how to defeat a troll and then harvest their fat. It surprisingly to me adds a lot of immersion, which I do think this is a very personal opinion about this book. I don't know why, but I like actually really loved this book. I just thought it was a really good example of how to world build creatures within a game narrative. Uh, for example, it gives you like useful tips. The narrator also has an actual voice, like it feels not just like a textbook or like a developer. Uh, it does feel like a character and the tips are not overly technical where it sort of strips away the fantasy feel, right? It also adds a nice detail about the process of harvesting troll fat, which is just an automatic loot mechanic in the game. But this little detail about how he describes how to harvest it, I don't know, adds flavor to the text that I really appreciated. This also gave me an idea for the next Elder Scrolls game. I'd love to see a system where you can only harvest certain rare ingredients if you've actually like read corresponding books or reached a specific skill level. or maybe like a harvesting miniame that you can eventually like skip if you get a skill level high enough. I don't know. It was making me think about a lot of things.
So, I actually rated this book five stars. I don't know if that's like true.
I mean, this is all my opinion. This is not me breaking down the books in a very precise way to like give you an accurate rating score. My gut rating score for this was five stars apparently. So, I don't know. This one did it for me. Is this our first five star? No, it's not.
That's not That would be embarrassing if it was. All right, then we have The True Nature of Orcs by Anonymous. Um, this was some seriously great lore. I didn't know any of this about orcs before reading this. We learned that orcs, which are also called Orsamer, are not just beastfolk. They are actually the mutated descendants of the Alt Mary, which is the high elf ancestor spirit triname. So, I'll say it again. They are the mutated descendants of the Altameir's ancestor spirit Trinac.
Triname was an ancient elf who embodied strength and honor. Uh but he was consumed by the drich prince Boathia which we will talk about later. After that his followers were transformed into the orcs we see today. So they are essentially or the orimer or orcs are essentially cursed misunderstood followers of Malikath another dri prince and there is so much bad blood between the orcs and the high elves because of this. I rated this book 2.5 stars because while the lore is like very interesting, the book is a bit sparse and I had to go do my own research outside of this book on Trinamac and Boathia to like fully get the picture.
So, I wish the author had included more context because it was confusing.
The Uncommon Taste by Gourmet. I feel like this might be one of the most read books in Skyrim. Um, so this is a cookbook featuring high-end Breton cuisine. It offers recipes that you can actually make. No, wait, sorry, that you can't actually make in real life. Like a sule without eggs, except in the steps section of the sule, the author tells you to beat the eggs, but never lists the eggs or how many in the ingredients.
So, who published this book? But you can actually meet the author as part of the Dark Brotherhood quest line. And while there isn't much lore here regarding what this book offers, um the fact that the author of this book is like a renowned celebrity in Skyrim adds a nice touch and you'll find NPCs talking about him. He's like a very hot topic. So, it's kind of fun to be able to like read his book, you know? I gave this book three stars mostly because I wish there were more than just two recipes. I feel like they should have had at least three. The sule recipe calls, by the way, for a cupful of ground nutmeg.
Yeah, a cup full, which is enough to actually poison someone. Fans pointed out that spoiler alert, I guess. I feel like if you're watching this, anyway, that goes without saying, but fans pointed out that the author, the gourmet, that's what he's called, is actually an orc. So maybe his pallet is just like very strong, as strong as his spirit, you know? Um, or maybe he has a ghost rider. A signed copy of this book is actually obtainable in the game, which is pretty cool. I think it might be the only book that you can have an autograph of, unless like you mod the game. Varieties of DRA by Arania Drethan. So, this book starts off with three straight paragraphs of questions.
She clearly didn't have an editor. This book actually originated in the game Oblivion, so the information is more relevant to that game's plot than Skyrim, but it's still cool lore for the like Elder Scrolls in general. Um, it breaks down the hierarchy and behaviors of the Dra, noting that their rules change depending on time and place. We learn three key things. That gods speak in riddles, mortals don't know enough, and dra are famous liars. Also, atronoxs are actually highly intelligent creatures. We learn that they don't usually care to socialize, but they are very smart. Uh, so you could just say they're like introverts, wall flowers, you might say, or raven claws. Um, and if you summon one, you should know that they're probably silently judging you.
3.5 stars. The writing is a bit all over the place, but the information is solid.
And then we get to our final book in this section, The Wisp Mother by Matus Etien. I love the name Etienne and Matus. Matus Etien. Etien. It's just nice to say, you know. Anyway, okay.
This text explores the nature of the Wisp mother, which is a rare and dangerous female entity found in the frozen northern northern parts of Skyrim. Now, folklore dismisses them as like just vengeful ghosts or the spirit of ancient snow elves, so the Falmer, but this book focuses on two possible theories as to what the Wisp mother is.
Uh, so one theory is that they are a calculated form of like lichdom from a forgotten first era cult maybe. And then another views them as sort of this elemental manifestation of Ner itself, similar to like spriggins, which are a creature in the Oblivion game. Let me know which one you think it is. Um, I rated this three stars cuz it was interesting lore and it was very specific to Skyrim. So, I enjoyed reading it. And that is the final book of this section. We got through the instruction and research part of Skyrim's library. Lovely. On to the next part four. Politics and law. This hat is insane. I'm trying to channel Shio Gorath with this hat. Okay, the look is like if I were attending Shiogath's tea party. Like it would I think I think it fits. There are seven politics and law books in Skyrim. And we start off with antecedants of Dwemer law by anonymous.
Okay, so this was actually a pretty fascinating book because it tells us that Dwemer law actually has deep roots in early ultimary, so high elven customs. We learn that in the early days, if your slave or animal killed someone, you simply handed over that slave or animal to the victim's family.
But because the Dwemer had advanced mechanics and technology, their laws had to adapt in ways that other societies didn't. For example, if a centurion, so basically a giant robot, killed a man, the victim's family had 30 days to go to the workbench, tear the robot apart, and keep its scraps as repayment. I liked this book. I thought it provided some of the most unique lore that I've come across. I rated this book four stars.
Our next book is The Code of Malikath by Amanda Aaliyah. Ela Aaliyah, one of those. All right, so this book is about orc strongholds. We learn that these communities are 100% self-reliant. So, every person is able to defend themselves. All gear is forged in house and all food is hunted by the clan. The social structure is intense. Uh there is one chief who makes all the decisions and owns many wives. The only woman not married to the chief is the forge wife or the wise woman who handles spiritual and healing duties. They follow the code of Malikath which we talked about in the true nature of orcs. This means that if you break the law, you pay in blood.
There's actually an online debate about this book. Uh, some players argue that Bethesda wrote themselves into a corner uh with the orcs because having a single male father of all the children in the stronghold would eventually weaken their society uh through a lack of genetic diversity, which fair point. However, others argue that the failure of the code is actually the point. So, Bethesda didn't really write themselves into a corner. it was intentional and that Bethesda is showing a culture struggling to evolve. Both very interesting points.
I rated this book 3.5 stars um because I thought it was incredibly relevant to understanding Skyrim. I think in Skyrim, it's the first time we really get introduced to orc strongholds. In Oblivion, there weren't any. I don't remember any in Marowind. So, I thought that this was important to have and I it was honestly interesting to read. All right. Next, we have The Dunmer of Skyrim by Athal Sus. This book is an angry book. This is an angry, unapologetic response to the racism the Dunmer face in Skyrim from the Nords.
Just listen to this opening paragraph.
you, the white-kinned, jaundice-haired apes of this god-forsaken, frozen wilderness. To you, Nords, we are the gray ones, the ashen skinned, the dark elves of Mororrowind, who have as much place in your land as an infection and an open wound. Athal is clearly putting his foot down. He does make a fantastic point by referencing another in-game book, which we will get to soon, Nords of Skyrim. He points out the hypocrisy that while the book claims Nords welcome everyone, their actual behavior toward anyone non-Nord is the exact opposite. I do love to see in-game books like talk to each other or reference each other.
Uh it feels just like more immersive. Um so I rated this four stars actually. I thought it was incredibly relevant to understanding Skyrim in a better way or just giving like added information, added flavor to the conflicts in Skyrim, especially if you spend any time in the Grey Quarter and Windhelm. So yeah, and also it was really interesting. I like the voice, the character, the emotion behind this book. And then we have Nords of Skyrim by Rothand Wolfhart. Okay, I told you we'd get to it soon. uh the highly controversial book itself, at least if you're a Theresas. Honestly, this book isn't too bad on its own, which makes reading it after uh the Dunmer of Skyrim even funnier. Rothman Wolfhart just comes off as a very proud Nord. uh he has deep pride in his brutes which I was reading some online forums and people were saying that they think Athal Seris struggles with that because of the tragic state of Morowind currently when Skyrim the game is taking place and I thought that that was an interesting point to me this book is actually kind of sweet uh and serves as a great introduction to the province I'm rating it four stars as well but don't tell cuz I'm scared of him Scourge of the Grey Quarter by Fril Horserebreaker.
These names, man. Oh man. Okay, keeping up with the complex drama between the Dunmer and the Nords, we have this gem.
This is where things get interesting.
How many times have I used that word?
Because just like the last two books, this book is totally unreliable. All right, this book is a social commentary from the perspective of a very traditional old way Nord. For example, Frill blames all of Winheld's current problems on too much charity and a lack of firm leadership from past Yles. This directly contradicts everything Aaleris says and complained about in his book.
It's pretty interesting to read these three books back to back to back to back because you just get so many different perspectives. Athal is angry and makes good points. Rothund Wolfhart comes off friendly and proud of his roots. And then you have Frillgeth, Horserebreaker, who seems to not have any sympathy for the Dunmer. But then the Dunmar seem to only hate the Nords, at least from a Thaw's perspective. And again, these are just one person writing about it. So you have this sort of mixed bag of opinions, and I quite like that in a game because it makes it feel very real. Four stars again because I like the he said, she said kind of thing happening here. I find it to be flavorful lore.
I what am I saying? All right, our next book, Skyrim's Rule by Abdul Mujib Abbab Ben. This book explains the feudal holdbased system of Skyrim. Uh Skyrim is divided into nine holds, each ruled by a Yarl and they are all overseen by hiking, usually based in Solitude. The author notes that the high king is often seen as an imperial puppet. Some shade.
This was written before the outlawing of Talos worship, so prior to the events in Skyrim. But the author nearly predicts the Civil War, or at least warns that the current tension could lead to one.
Honestly, this book offers vital information without feeling like a dry technical manual. It has a clear voice and historical context, so I appreciate that. Uh, I'm giving it 3.5 stars for being truly relevant and I think pretty well executed. The author also mentions that they're heading back to Hammerfell, which is the rumored location for The Elder Scrolls 6. So, I thought that was pretty interesting. If that's intentional, well done. And our final book in this section is The Talos Mistake by Leonardo Leonora Venadis.
Okay, this is pure political propaganda.
It advocates for the ban of tallows worship arguing that recognizing the mortal tyers septum as a divine was a massive mistake. It basically exists to justify the white gold concordant which is the central conflict fueling the civil war in the game. This is clearly backed propaganda I think designed to manipulate the people in the empire. 3.5 stars. All right. And that is the end of our politics and law section. short and sweet, which is amazing because we still got a few parts to get through. Part five, travel. There are 11 travel books in Skyrim, and the first one we're starting off with is Ancestors and the Dunmer by Anonymous. This book explains the complex and slightly creepy relationship between the dark elves and their deceased relatives. We get this quote from the book. Spirits tell us that the other world is more pleasant or at least more comfortable for spirits than our real world, which is cold, bitter, and full of pain and loss.
The book also explains that spirits are sometimes bound to protect family shrines. If they didn't serve their family well in life, they might be bound against their will, resulting in dangerous and insane ghosts. which kind of explains why whenever you go into a tomb, everything tries to kill you. It's a 3.5 stars for me for the lore. Our next book is Children of the Sky by Anonymous. Again, in this book, we learn that Nords see themselves as children of the sky and historically took the tongues of their enemies as trophies.
But really, this book is about the th shouting ability you get as dragon born in Skyrim. It claims the greatest Nords can call to people over hundreds of miles away or even teleport by casting a shout in a pairing where it lands, which we get that ability. There's actually an online theory where some fans argue that modern Nords have been quote tamed by the Empire and have lost their mysticism and barbaric power of their ancestors, which is quite a bold statement to make.
Hopefully, no Nords hear them. I rated this book 3.5 stars. Speaking of Nords, do you want to see my Nordic battle axe?
Battle mace, battle weapon.
Oh my gosh, it's heavy.
Oh my gosh.
Look, it's maybe as tall as me. Let's see.
Tada. Okay, this is my height. It's almost as tall as me.
Our next book is The City of Stone by Amanda Aliyah Mercenary. This is a travel log for Markarth that points you toward general quest locations without being overtly technical. Um, I actually really like this travel log. I like how she explains the rough nature of Markarth and the unspoken rule of sort of like keep your head down, keep your mouth shut. I feel like if I had read this book prior to going to Markarth playing the game, this would have like made it even more intriguing. And for the next game, I actually do think I'm going to start reading the books in there prior to doing certain things cuz I'm starting to see the merit of actually doing that. Three stars. Our next book is An Explorer's Guide to Skyrim by Marcus or Marquus Carvane Viccount Bruma. Brumma. Do you all remember Bruma? So, this guide is the calculated perspective of a ceridilic noble who views Skyrim as a coarse uncivilized province. But he does say that Skyrim has some nice rocks, which is true. I actually thought this guide was a cute touch by the writers as sort of like, you know, a nod to Skyrim from the past game Oblivion, like a perspective of, you know, you're transitioning from Oblivion into Skyrim.
And I feel like maybe for some people who are like, I miss Cidil cuz it was so green and lush and beautiful and Skyrim is cold and gray and rocky, I feel like that was the sentiment behind this from the develop from the developers, but I don't know if that's true. Anyway, I thought it was a cute book, especially as someone who loved the Oblivion game.
And when I first played Skyrim, I was like, where where is the grass? Where are the green trees? Why is it not green? Anyway, three stars. Then we have A Gentleman's Guide to White Run by Michael the Bard. Male the Bard. Uh, this is another guide obviously, but it's actually written by an NPC that you can find in the Bannered Mayor and Whiterun. Is it Michael? I'm gonna call him male. I don't remember. Male is involved in three different side quests actually in Skyrim. And him writing this book feels less like a guide and more like a gossip forum. This book just feels like the cherry on top of it all if you do interact with him and play his quests. There's so much that actually goes on with him. And when I was doing research for this video, I was like kind of surprised uh because I've always like sort of ignored him on my playthroughs.
But this book offers a lot of insight into his ego rather than white run. I rate it four stars because I appreciate the variety. Then we have Glories and Laments by Alexander Hardard. Uh this book is all about the aids and the ruins. I rated this 3.5 stars. Okay, we got The Hanging Gardens by Won Coridale by what? Oh my gosh. No, that's not a name. Okay, it's the hanging gardens of wasten coridale by anonymous. It's important to note the opening of this one. It says, "This book was apparently written in Dwmer and translated to Aldaris. Only fragments of the Aldaris are readable, but it may be enough for a scholar of Aldis to translate fragments of other Dwmer books. This is a text that originated in Marwind is actually part of a quest. I really enjoy the gimmick of a book acting as like a translation key, which is what this book is. Also, there's this fantastic line that says, "But neither words nor experience cleanses the essence of the strange and terrible ways of defying our ancestors transient rules." I rated it 3.5 stars. I felt like this book offered a unique flavor instead of just like info dumping. And then speaking of info dumping, we get the holds of Skyrim by Anonymous. It provides a lot of relevant geographical information and even touches on war tactics, which is a nice touch if you're playing through the Civil War quest line. This one, because we have two holds or two books about the holds, so this one is more about the actual geography of the holds, uh whereas the previous one is a little bit more about the politics like the Yals and the hiking and how all of that works. So, I do like that they split it up because they could have really put all that information into one book about the holds, but I appreciate that they didn't do that cuz it would have been like a lot of information for one read. I rated this three stars. And then we get mysterious Aavir by Anonymous. That's three for three by Anonymous in a row.
Uh they are booked and busy, pun intended. So, Aavir is the continent across the sea from Tamreel. Fun fact, Akavir actually means dragon land and Tamreel means dawn's beauty. And it is ironic considering that the entire plot of Skyrim is dragons. This book also introduces us to some new races like the monkey folk of Tango and the tiger folk.
This book was actually written back in the '9s. So, it is a relic, like a quite an old relic from how the developers back then imagined the Elder Scrolls world. So, I do wonder if the tiger folk like developed into the Kajji or I just like I wonder where their heads are now with that. Um, I rated this three stars.
It's a really interesting relic that does capture a specific time in Bethesda's development before Oblivion skyrocketed the studio. Uh, it's also good fodder for imagination, especially since it's one of the few times we hear about the world outside of Tamriel. On Stepping Lightly by Sigillis Justice.
This book is a survival guide for navigating ancient Nordic ruins. It basically introduces the new game mechanics in Skyrim regarding environmental kills. So like setting oil on fire or activating trip wires or ambush strategies. I gave this 2.5 stars. It reads a little bit too much like a technical manual. Then we have Walking the World volume 11 by Spacer Munius. This one is about solitude and its architecture, and it provides extra content you wouldn't just get by looking at the buildings or even talking to the NPCs. For example, the author notes, you can see a small hint of Erling's preference for a more rounded style of architecture that we will see later in the castle daer extension as well as the interior arch and the windmill. While this might not be the most interesting content to read, it does make the city's design feel intentional. I do feel like this and a gentleman's guide to whiter run are really good examples of how to provide information about your world without it being like info dumping or sounding too technical. They do it in different ways. This one's more professional and scholarly while the other is like a lot more casual and misleading, but the variety does make the library feel real. Um, I rated this 3.5 stars because I will actually probably walk around solitude thinking about what I read in this book. And that is the end of our travel section. Onto the next part six, factions. There are nine faction books in Skyrim. And the first one we're starting off with is oh my gosh, just in one go. I'm not even going to try it again really fast. Azirra by Anonymous. We learn about the Kajit perspective directly from an anonymous Kajji author I'm assuming and it is packed with some pretty riveting quotes.
It's witty, rebellious, very Kajit. That is the official review. Some of my favorite lines from this book are quote, "When I contradict myself, I am telling the truth. We believe in justice but do not follow laws. Life is short. If you have not made love recently, please put this book down and take care of that with all haste. And my personal favorite quote from this book, in the time we have, we do not want our closest comrades to be dorless, sober, and virginal. If we did, we would have joined the Emperor's Blades. Five stars. It's pure personality. Then we have The Brothers of Darkness by Pelari Asi. This book goes all the way back to the second game in the series, Daggerfall. Uh it details the evolution of the dark brotherhood from the Morag Tong into the professional business enterprise we see today. This book suggests that the split between those two factions happened because of the nightmother. So this is a little bit more consistent or the more consistent thread we see throughout the book so far. According to this book, apparently the nightmother taught that Mafala prefers murders fueled by hate rather than greed. And the deaths of the great leaders or any great leader are more important than commoners. So there's a hierarchy to death. We get a pretty crazy Tamreel timeline too. In the second era 324, the Morog Tong murders a political figure and writes Morog Tong on the wall in his blood leading to their banishment. Then in the second era from 360 to 412, they reemerge as the dark brotherhood acting as secret weapons for the royal families. In the second era 430, they murder an emperor and his entire family in a single night, causing the collapse of the empire and sparking 400 years of chaos. I rated this book 2.5 stars because it's a lot to digest and it was such an info dump, but it is a cool relic from an earlier game. Then we have Fall from Glory by Nethilis Leidari. This book dives into the current crumbling state of the Thieves Guild in Riftton. The author proposes two theories and spoiler alert, he's definitely on the right track in this book. There is a popular fan theory online that Sapphire, our NPC, one of the members of the Thieves Guild, actually wrote this book. Uh though I'm not sure I buy it, and I think it's because she has it in her room or she's like seen near it or reading it. I don't think that's true, though. But more interestingly, people have pointed out that the author's name, Nathilis Leari, might be an anagram for something along the lines of nihilist layer. Maybe liar.
Nihilist liar. That would be my guess.
But the book itself I rated 2.5 stars. A Kiss Sweet Mother by Anonymous. This one is so dark and so sweetly short. It's an essential how-to guide for the Black Sacrament, which is the ritual used to summon the Nightmother and contact the Dark Brotherhood. Uh, it's incredibly creepy and perfectly sets the stage for how you actually discover the Dark Brotherhood in Skyrim. I do actually like this book because it proves you don't need a lot of pages to be compelling. This book gives you atmosphere, the ritual, and like a bit of eeriness just from a few paragraphs.
So, I rated this 3.5 stars. And then we get to The Night and Gales by Gallas Dissidenius. Gallasinenius. This book, possibly truly my favorite book from the entire series, but not for the reasons that you'd expect. We get a book from Gallas, a character who's central to the Thieves Guild plot line or the quest line in Skyrim. Uh, but we don't actually really meet him ever alive.
There are two volumes to this book. And the first volume is honestly just a complete info dump about Nocturnal and the Night and Gale ritual, which is like helpful if you just completely zoned out during the dialogue of like the main quest, but other than that, it's like not very interesting. But volume two is where the world explodes. In volume two, Gallas has a voice in it finally. It doesn't just feel like a wiki page. She actually feels like a character. And in volume two, we get a mention of the book The Real Baron Zia. Remember when I said that she kind of like shows up everywhere? I meant that. So that was the book that was like 22,000 words, the one that was like a fanfiction. That book is mentioned here. So Gallas mentions this book and the uncensored version, which then led me to do some digging. So I actually found the uncensored version, which is originally in the game Daggerfall. And in that game, it's split into like 10 volumes.
And it's like a little bit longer than the one in Skyrim, but like not by much.
And I found the part of the book that was censored by the temple. If you remember that from back way back earlier in this video, there was a censored part and it said by the order of the temple.
Okay. So, I read that part without it being redacted. And before I started reading it, I thought that the devs did that as like a quirky little funny addition to kind of like suggest the temple is conservative and like they were trying to be like this book is so provocative because it like already reads like a fanfiction. But no, no, I genuinely I don't even know how to talk about it without getting demonetized. I'll be so honest. Um, and I physically like can't even brain myself to describe what that scene is, but I totally get why it was censored in Skyrim because that is not for me. I'll just say that. Um, all I can say if you like 50 Shades of Gray, but if you swap the male lead with a Kajit, you might enjoy that scene. But that's not what I really want to talk about here. Uh because after finding this out and after reading this scene, I was so curious about who wrote this book, the real Baron Zia, the longest book in the game. Especially considering that now in this book by Gallas in Skyrim, so many years later since the real Baron Zia was written, it was mentioned. And I just kept thinking, I keep hearing about Baron Zia. She's referenced so much. now she's in the Thieves Guild plot line somehow. And I was like, I need to know who wrote this story. And so I was searching for the developer and I was reading through every developer's name looking for any type of credit. And it turns out it wasn't a developer who wrote this story.
It was a woman by the name of Marilyn Wasserman. And she was a volunteer beta tester for Bethesda in the '9s when Bethesda was Bethesda Softworks. And guess what everyone? Remember when I said that story read like a fanfiction?
Remember I was like, "This literally is a fanfiction." It turns out that while beta testing for Elder Scrolls Arena in 1994, some of these testers began writing their own fiction in the world of Tamriel. Wasserman was one of these people. Ted Peterson, who was Daggerfall's lead designer, recalls this having first begun as a fan initiative.
So, it was all fanfiction, which I think is so cool. And Bethesda should outsource more writers that are fans to write cool stuff for their games. So, just an idea. You are welcome to contact me. It would be great if Bethesda saw this video. Anyway, these fanfictions were pulled into the game, and this is really kind of sweet what I'm about to share with you. Peterson was also quite fond of actively having fans participate in crafting the games and having a strong feedback loop between developer and player. And for these reasons, this core group of players, including Wasserman, were dubbed the Council of Wisdom. That is just so freaking cute.
So, Wasserman wrote not only the real Baron Ziah, but the biography of Queen Baron Zia as a non-fictional condensed version of events. The biography, I guess you could say, is canonically accurate, and the real Baron Saiia is supposed to be fictionalized. These stories were heavily edited before being implemented in Marowind by Douglas Goodall. And Wasserman said that quote, "They read better than I remembered writing them." End quote. Now, you might be wondering, what was the Council of Wisdom? They were obviously a group of beta testers for Bethesda's earlier Elder Scrolls games prior to Marind. And at the time, Bethesda apparently didn't have the resources to pay for their services. So, in return for their help, the developers immortalized the testers names and characters in the canon of the game and encouraged them to write their own stories about the setting, which the developers edited together and then included in the final game as readable novels. Isn't that so cool? And they named the goddess of Mara after Wasserman, Marilyn Wasserman. She actually replied on forums under the aliases Mara 001 and Ramara and Marilyn Wasserman actually passed away on January 5th of this year. I did try to find other information about the other writers of the Council of Wisdom and it is difficult to I couldn't find anything recently. If I miss something I do apologize. I did try to find other people and tried to dive deep into who wrote what. Um, but a lot of information I could find really centered around Marilyn Wasserman. And I really do just want to say that I think we should all just take a moment to thank these incredible fans who wrote this content and dedicated so much time because of the love that they had for a game and the potential of it. I think it's just really touching and beautiful and just to think about how collaborative and passionate people were making games at that time especially um and to see it be used not only in newer games but to be expanded on which I just think is so wonderful. So going back to the night and gales uh from Gallas or by Gallas we actually get some pretty crazy lore drops from this book. Uh, so you remember the bard night and gale from Baron Saiia's story? Well, we learn some new information and I believe that this version of events that Gallas is telling us is the canon version of events. We learn that the real identity of the night andale was not some bard. It was actually someone by the name of Draven Indorel Indorel who was one of the greatest master thieves in Skyrim. He pretended to be a bard that Baron Zia met and he did try to seduce her for her to reveal the location of the staff of chaos which worked. After the staff was given to Jagar Thorne, who was also a real person, the Emperor's Imperial Battle Mage, that's who he was, uh he attempted to eradicate Draven, but Draven's night andale abilities helped him escape. Jagarth did search for Draven, but eventually had to abandon this pursuit in order to enact his plans involving the emperor. Gallas also in this book has the opinion that this distortion of actual events is very typical of Baron Zia herself with the pressure of the lame falling squarely on her shoulders for the Uriel's imprisonment. She twisted the truth and created the notion that the bard named Nightingale was Jagar Thorne himself. So this is how all these events got so twisted. It was for Baron Zia to sort of save her reputation. Uh she felt the tale of being enthralled by a master sorcerer held a more forgiving if not romantic notion than simply being seduced by a master rogue. Some also further speculate that eliminating Draven from history was her attempt to protect the reputation of Jagarth Thorne. And it is rumored that she was actually quite fond of him. But it gets crazier. Baron Xia's other daughter is actually with Draven and not Jagarth Thorne as the real Baron Zia story claims. And this is sort of like Baron Xia's secret daughter or secret child.
uh and her daughter when she got older left home and took a false name Geralce in search of her father who had moved to Riftton in Skyrim or not Riftton he moved to the rift in Skyrim at shore stone which you can visit in game she actually found him and he taught her the ways of the night and gale she later had a daughter of her own and if you've played the thieves guild quest then you've met her daughter you've met the granddaughter to Baron Zia. Carlayia.
It's Carla. It's crazy. After reading all these books and the Thieves Guild quest line was one of my favorites that I played and when I finished it, I was genuinely obsessed with Carla as a character and an NPC. Like I was just obsessed with her purple eyes. I literally downloaded a mod to get purple eyes cuz of that. So, because of this book, it's like a 10 out of 10 for me because of everything that we discover from this or discover about this. When I finished reading this book, this is the type of stuff that makes reading the books so much more rewarding and satisfying. It was this moment that I realized this. I was like, "Wow, I'm so glad I did that as like a fan of Skyrim or The Elder Scrolls." And I would have had to have read basically all of them to really have this all connect. And I mean, should you have to read all the books for all of this to be cool and make sense? No.
Is it necessary for you, too? Does it make the game less fun if you don't? No.
But it is kind of fun that if you want to do something like this, as I did, there is like actual merit to it and it does feel like solving a puzzle and there are moments where it's like, whoa, that's crazy. I do also really love how the developers took a fanwritten book and implemented it as part of a main quest in a faction. Uh it's sort of like a love letter to another person's creative work. How do we even move on from that? And then we move on with Nords Arise by Anonymous. Oh, Anonymous.
It's good to see a friendly name after going down memory lane. This book is a rallying call to join Ulfri Stormcloak.
It's pure political propaganda in favor of the Nords and driving the elves out of the province. Uh, I gave it 2.5 stars. There's nothing particularly great about the writing, but it definitely captures the Stormcloak's energy. All right. All right. All right.
All right. And then we have Pension of the Ancestor Moth by Anonymous again.
So, this is about the blind priests who tend to the Elder Scrolls. Uh, but we finally learn why they're called the Moth Priests. It's a bit on the nose actually because these monks raise special moths called ancestor moths.
They sing to them and then harvest their silk which is later spun into cloth. But this cloth is not what makes the Elder Scrolls. It's actually what they wear.
Um and apparently the clothes that they wear in this silk has wondrous power uh because of these special moths. They embroider this silk with the genealogies and histories of their ancestors which also helped to create this power. I gave this book four stars because I really liked reading this. I thought the lore that we got was super interesting and I didn't feel bored by it. All right. And then we get a neat little book by Delvin Mallerie. Uh he's from the Thieves Guild, an actual NPC. And this is like a neat little code book uh regarding the symbols associated with the Thieves Guild. There are even pictures, which I love. I think it's especially cool because you can actually see these symbols in game and they're etched on buildings and they're all around Skyrim.
And I really appreciate those little details. I gave this book five out of five for uniqueness and utility and illustrations.
>> Part seven, history and lore.
All right, let's get through it. The first book we have on our list is 2920, the last year of the first era by Carlvac Townway. The easiest name I've had to say so far. Okay, this is our first textbook. This is the second longest book in the series I've read for Skyrim. Uh, second only to The Real Baron Zia, nothing will beat that one.
While that one was at 22,000 words, this book clocks in at 20,000 words. Yep.
Yeah. split across 12 volumes, each corresponding to a month of the last year of the first era. All right, so this tells us the story of the war between Morowind and the Seridelic Empire. It's written in short story format and is honestly it's not that bad. Like this one's really really not that bad. Where the real Baron Saiia was like a salacious fanfiction, this book is more like traditional fantasy, I would say. There are politics, there is some beautiful pros truly, and it's decently paced. I will say that this seems to be a favorite among some fans that I saw on like online forums. So, personally for me wasn't my favorite, but anyway, eight out of 12 of these volumes are actually skill books for various skills and I rated it at 3.5 stars. I would get into all the heavy details, but it's not that worth it. So, we're going to skip ahead. Okay, our second book is Adabal Aabala by Anonymous. This book I respect the writer's effort to make this intentionally confusing. For example, this is a line. This is this is from the book. Or to become art torturers for strange pleasures as in the wailing wheels of Vendastel in the gut gardens of Cersen and flesh sculpture which was everywhere among the slaves of the aids in those days or worse the realms of the fire king had hoo where the beginning of drugs drawn from the ad mixture of drons into living host let one inhale new visions of torment and children were set a flame for nighttime tiger sport.
That was one sentence. And you know, it is actually kind of beautiful writing.
This book actually originated in Oblivion. And since the game deals heavily with the Alid history, the text details the rebellion against them.
That's what this book is about. Um, I actually gave it three stars because I do like the creativity of it and the writing made me feel like I was high, which was kind of fun. All right. Then we have The Athereum Wars by Taran Drath. another Dwmer book and of course I liked it. This one is actually a possible explanation of why the Dwemer like vanished from Skyrim, specifically Skyrim. Uh apparently it was due to infighting over a rare luminescent blue crystal called Athereum. Uh the four Dwmer citystates in Skyrim actually united for a time to like find a way to extract this crystal because up until then no one really knew how. But once they were successful, they built this forge called the Athereum Forge. And then the Alliance crumbled, their civil war left them so weak that the High King of Skyrim at the time was able to sweep in and conquer them. And so, if you have the Dawn Guard DLC, reading this book actually triggers a massive quest where you get to discover the forge yourself.
I gave it 3.5 stars uh because I did want more specifics, but to be honest, this was like a pretty interesting read.
I do wish we had learned more about the crystal's nature in the book, but anyway, that's not like the biggest deal. The Amulet of Kings by Wen. Oh my gosh. W when Mahana why this book originated in Oblivion, but it's essentially the prequel to Skyrim. It explains the divine origin of the Empire and the supernatural contract that keeps the world safe from drich invasions. We learned back in the day the Alids ruled Siridil using drich armies, which is pretty interesting because all throughout the books that we read in Skyrim, the Alids are pretty much remembered as horrible. And this is not really helping with that reputation.
A woman named St. Allesia led a slave revolt and prayed to the gods for help.
She's super important in the Elder Scrolls history, uh especially with like the Oblivion game. So, Ackatosh, the dragon god of time, literally gave Allesia his own blood, which turned her and her heirs into dragon born. Yeah, that's right. The book states that as long as the dragon born sits on the throne and keeps the dragon fires lit, the gates to Oblivion will stay locked. So, the center of the gem of or the center gem of the amulet, the red diamond, represents Allesia's blood. The emperor from Oblivion is actually seen wearing it. The book ends with a warning that if the bloodline fails, the barrier fails, and this is exactly what kicks off the plot of the game Oblivion. Uh, but it kind of ties in with Skyrim with the whole dragon born thing. So, that was pretty cool. I actually didn't remember that or know that. So, when I read this book, I was like, whoa, it all connects. I actually gave this book five stars. Um, it explains the backstory to the franchise like or to the last game so well. Uh, and I really do like the context it gives around people like St. Allesia and Saridel. I feel like this is one of the better history books to read and I feel like this book does history for a game quite well. I wish a lot of them kind of did it this way because sometimes you're reading and there's just a bunch of names and you have no idea what's going on. This one's not like that. It actually gives context which is great.
We love context. Our next book is The Anols of the Dragon Guard by Brother Anulis. This is actually the third most valuable book in Skyrim in terms of septums. The first one is none other than The Night and Gales by Gallas.
Yeah, that book, my favorite one, is apparently the most valued book in Skyrim. This book is valued at 200 septums at the highest. And the Gallas book about night and gales is valued at 500 septums at the highest. In this text, we learn about Aldwin's wall, which is 2,000 years old. We also get a bit of old history about Skyrim, and a lot of it involves bad leadership. Who would have guessed? I rated this three stars. Then we get the Arcturan Heresy by Emer.
Yes, we're going with it. This book is about a conspiracy theory. It suggests that Tyber Septum Talos was a total fraud. It claims he used two other people, a battle mage and a man named Wolfhart who could shout to win all of the battles. Uh, all of it was staged to make it look like Talos was doing this all these crazy cool stunts, but it's not true. According to this, the real Talos was a guy named Hijalty Early Bear Earlybeard. He supposedly murdered his own king to seize the throne and cut his own throat and faked an assassination attempt to gain sympathy. So when they said like why can't you shout anymore?
He was like ah my well he didn't say it but he like was you know his throat was cut so that's why he couldn't. He then trapped his allies who helped him in a soul gem to power this giant robot robot called the Numidium that allowed him to conquer the world. It's crazy. Uh, the writer of this text, like the actual developer, the actual writer person, human person, not an NPC, Michael Kirkbride, said that this was the worst text he had ever written, not because of the content, but because of the writing style. And it is, and I'm saying that because I get a pass because he said it himself. How I described all of this might have sounded interesting because I summarized it in a way that was cohesive. how it was actually written.
What I read was not that I rated this one star. This is my problem with the history section here. We got the battle of red mountain by VC and Minur Omain.
Um, this is narrated by Lord VC himself and this serves as the official like temple approved version of Dunmer history. To be honest, it's so hard to explain this book without breaking down a massive amount of lore that I had to like research outside of this book to make sense of it. So, we will come back to the Dunmer later. Um, I rated this 2.5 stars because it does give a lot of information, but it was like so much information. So, we're going to come back to the Dunmer, but this was pretty much like the approved version of their history. All right, we have the battle of sincere tour by anonymous srtor. I don't know how to say it. Battle that battle. This is more political propaganda. Um, and this one is about Talos again, but this puts a completely different spin on him from the last one we read. Here in this book, he is the hero who overcame a larger allied Nord Breton force by bypassing the impregnable sincere to fortress. You can actually visit the battle site in the game Oblivion. So, you can't visit in Skyrim. This is also a skill book that increases your two-handed skill. I gave this 2.5 stars. The Bear of Mararth by Aranus Aras. So, we get a book about the forceworn finally. Um, and they are the natives of the Reach. Here, the author does not like Ulfri Stormcloak. The book paints them as a savage war criminal who brutalized the forceworn who, contrary to rumor, were actually living peacefully at the time and just trying to be a real kingdom. According to this author, 3.5 stars because this was actually really interesting and fun to read. I really liked the author's edge in this book. Before the ages of man by Aantar of Shim Shimarine shimmerine this book introduces us to two distinct time periods in the Elder Scrolls, the dawn era and the Marathic era. The dawn era is the period before mortal time even began. So where the feats of gods took place and then the Marathic era is the era of elves. And all you need to know about the transition is that magic left and that transitioned into the morphic era. But when I say left, it didn't really like leave leave. It just like changed. It's kind of confusing. This book didn't explain it very well, but pretty much like magic was super free flowing and then suddenly it was like oh no, there's rules now. So anyway, and that led to the Marathic era. So there was a lot of stress among the gods. We learned during this transition, one god's heart was torn out and tossed out of a tower which formed a volcano.
Eventually, like I said, magic returned, but I think it just changed. And uh the elves learned how to manipulate and use it. Also, Saridil uh the setting for Oblivion was apparently once a vast jungle, which is crazy. Also, there have been typos in some of the books that I've read so far. I haven't mentioned them because like they they've been like few and far between to be honest. This one though uh has the word understood.
I gave this 2.5 stars. It was really interesting at the start of the book but then it got really bogged down with information especially in the middle.
All right. A brief history of the empire by Stronach Cthage III. Yes. Okay. So this is four volumes. Volume one, we start with Tyber Septum Talos who is painted as the absolute man. He's the man, the manliest man of men, of all time, of men, of every man men. His rule is regarded as a golden era. And then we move into a blur of like more rulers. And honestly, the volume one's not very interesting.
Volume two, though, this is when it finally gets kind of good. We get into Pelgius III. You might remember him from the madness of Pelgiius uh in our biography section, right? Well, we learn in volume two that on one occasion, Pelgius III marked the end of an imperial grand ball by attempting to hang himself. Volumes three and four, I'm clumping together because they are boring. Unless you enjoy reading about a confusing amount of names and Roman numerals, I will spare you. I am promise you when I'm summarizing these books, I am sparing so much. It's it's like not worth it. It's just not worth it. And a lot of these names don't really come up again. I will be talking about the ones that do come up. Anyway, in summary, the Empire is basically 400 years of people arguing about who's in charge and who the real Septum is and occasionally being murdered by their own staff or replaced by a magical imposttor. Uh, that's pretty much the entire history of Tamreel. I rated this 2.5 stars. The chronicles of new left the the na new left by anonymous. It's a Dwmer story that I didn't like. This is sad. This one recounts a first era story between Dwmer counsillors and the colony of there's a betrayal plot, but to be honest, it's just like not very interesting. This was a one star. All right, we're taking a break from the HUD because I think we're coming out of the slog of stories and we're actually getting to some interesting ones after this one book which is The Cleansing of the Fain by Anonymous. This is another book that summarizes the battle during the uprising against the Alids back in the first era. It is a single paragraph, 1.5 stars. But then we finally get to a pretty interesting book. Okay, the Dragon Break by Fal Dru. Before we even start, Fal Dru is an anagram for Darn Fool. This book discusses the dragon break, which is a concept where linear time literally shatters.
Contradictory events can occur at the exact same time before eventually converging into a single timeline.
That's what Dragon Break is. Okay, so it's this theory that time breaks and all these different choices. For example, a video game like The Elder Scrolls, that's Dragon Break. Okay, you got all these different timelines, millions of people playing a game doing different choices. They're all canon, right? But then a developer comes out with a new game, and they say, "Wait, but this is the events of everything, and and this is actually where we're at, regardless of what you did. This is the This is what they all converged to create one timeline and it's the new game. That's Dragon Break. In the real world, this concept is created by or was created by Bethesda to basically use as a narrative device to make sense of contradictory lore or like multiple timelines and player endings uh ensuring that everyone's playthrough is like technically true. The author of this book though argues that the idea of a dragon break is actually a lie constructed by religious sex in the third era to explain away missing historical records. Uh it's basically just a conspiracy theory about the nature of time itself. Fun fact, this book is actually owned by Deline and Eburn both. I just think this is like a fun message from the developers.
Clearly, they wanted us to find this book putting it in both like very main character NPCs like within their room.
So anyway, I rated this 3.5 stars. I like the creativity and the concept and the humor from the developers. Okay, we have Dwmer History and Culture by Hasfit and Tibololis. This book is about debunking past ideas regarding the Dwmer. The false ideas about the Dwemer were actually made popular by an author who went by many aliases, but his real name in the Elder Scrolls is Gore Felm.
And there's a quite a bit of a story here more interesting than the book.
Basically, Gore Felm took a bunch of tales that he heard at bars and published them as history books. He painted the Dwmer as being just like humans, not fearsome or dangerous. And our author currently in this book has fat antibis tells us that this is totally false. He explains that Goreelum got away with this because he published it at a time when Tyber Septum was on the rise and this was a time of so much war and chaos. So like no one really bothered to fact check this guy cuz like it didn't matter like in the grand scheme of things this was not important which is an interesting thing to think about in our own lives like outside of the game how misinformation turns into fact over time during times of chaos.
Hopefully that won't happen to us.
Hazfat clarifies that the Dwmer were actually terrifying and remarkably unlikable. I rated this book three stars because the concept is really interesting, but the writing in this book like was making my brain melt at a certain point. All right, The Fall of the Snow Prince by Loheim. This is the story of the final battle and death of the legendary snow elf prince that we've been hearing about throughout our books somewhat. And this happened during the Marathic era. So this was a battle between Nords and elves that took place on Soulstein, which you can visit in Skyrim. The snow prince shows up on a literal white horse. And even the Nords were like in awe of him. Like they were like, "Whoa, this dude is amazing." The battle was turning in the snow elf's favor because of this until a young Nord squire, a 12-year-old girl by the name of Finna, watched the prince kill her mother. She picked up a sword and like threw it into his chest and it killed him instantly. Uh, talk about an Arya Stark. She is Arya Stark. This led to the Nords winning the battle. And even though the Nords won the battle, they actually took the snow prince's body and like buried him respectfully because of how much they admired his skill. I rated this book four stars. I really enjoyed the story. It was super easy to follow and like a decent one in our history section. Then we have The Father of the Nibbon by Floren Jalil and it's translated. So this is like a Louiswis and Clark story for Tamreel. Okay. It's about an ancient elf named Tal the Pilot who is known as the father of Nibbon. He sailed down or he sailed from the Somerset Isle and discovered Tamriel during the Moric era. It's a confusing piece of literature to be honest because to Paul's writings about his journey in Tamriel claims that there were orcs here which doesn't make sense to other historians because according to their research orcs didn't exist yet. Also, his ship was named Nibbon. That's why it's called Father Nan. I rated this three stars. All right. Then we have The First Hold Revolt by Mavius Sai. So we have a fictional retelling of history here. Um, this is about the political drama in the Somerset Isles and it's or the Somerset Isle and it's basically an episode of succession. We have our key players, two women. We have Queen Morgaya, the black queen she's called.
She's a dark elf ruling over a high elf kingdom. Also, she is the daughter of Queen Baron Zia. Also, we then have Lady Gilene. She is the king's mistress, and she's tired of being like the side piece and wants Morga's crown. Her and Morga seem to actually have like a on the surface decent relationship, but Gila is plotting against her. Also, Gilaine loves Hookah. She's always inhaling Hookah in the story. There's a rebel attack and it's secretly led by Gila, but Queen Morgaya knows this and tricks her by telling Gilaina her fake plan to win the fight. Anyway, Jillian's plan backfires and basically she's deported and Queen Morgaya reigns and she actually gains favor and like this is like a big win for her. I rated this three stars. All right, then we have Fragment on Artam by Tors Il and Selma.
This is a travel guide to the most exclusive membersonly island in Tamriel.
It's home to the Sic Order, which is a bunch of ancient monks. We've talked about them already. And at the start of the second era, right when the mag's guild was starting, like being formed, the whole island just vanished. And it turns out, we learn from this book, that the island is constantly moving. There are a bunch of theories about this, and one another one is that the council moves it themselves. Anyway, no one really knows where it is. There is a postcript from the author stating that they are currently on the aisle of Artam by the gracious consent of the Sic Order. So, I wonder if we'll ever hear from him again. Yeah, I gave this 2.5 stars. All right, we have Frontier Conquest and Accommodation by University of Willm Press. This is a book that tells us that while the Nords love to brag about being the first humans in Tamreel with Egor, it's not true and everyone else was already here basically. I rated this two stars. Great Harbingers of the Companions by Swike the Long-Sighted. This is a short and concise little book about the leader, but not really the leader. It's just like a handful of notable harbingers throughout the ages. I rated it 2.5 stars. The Great War by Justanius Quintis Legate. Uh, this book explains why Skyrim is currently a disaster zone of civil war and religious tension. I rated this 1.5 stars. Need to put my hood back on. We're back at it again.
All right, let's get through it. This book is somewhat tied to a quest about searching for lost artifacts. It's about the lineage of a secretive group formed after the Oblivion crisis, and they're tasked with with hiding broken pieces of every dangerous drich dagger to to prevent it from being reforged. 1.5 stars. We have The Last King of the Alids by Herminia SA. This is a look at the fall of the Elven Empire in Sidil.
The history books usually say the Alids were wiped out in like one go by the slave queen Allesia. They actually lingered for some time. So, this book is saying that they didn't just like disappear after this rebellion against them. Uh, I rated this two stars. The Knights of the Nine by Caroline of Solitude. This is your classic rise and fall story about a group of knights who went on an epic scavenger hunt for the crusaders relics. It's legendary gear of palenol white strake which we'll talk about him later. So we're going to going to put a pin in that for now. They never actually found all of it leaving the order to fade in obscurity. But a certain hero in Oblivion might just be the one to change all of that since this is the backstory for the Oblivion DLC. I rate it at two stars. All right. The legendary sanser sansier tour by Mata Chapel. This is a history text about Sanansir, the site of the big battle in Siridil. This is also a skill book to increase your two-handed skill. It's a bit of like a sad where are they now about a fortress. I rated it two stars.
The Legendary Scourge by Anonymous. All right, this one is about a maze called Scourge, which is a legendary drich artifact forged from sacred ebony. I did learn a new word from this book actually though, brain pan. I also totally misread a few words uh in this book after reading so much. This one I was really struggling with and I may or may not have confused fickle dire with fire dick. 2.5 stars for my brain pan melting because of reading so much. All right, the madman of the reach by Iranius Aerys. This is another look at the forceworn but it's a much more sympathetic take. This book portrays them as fighting for their native land and freedom that the Nords took from them. And honestly, I'm swayed. Uh, Aranius, you know what? Let's take off the hood because I like this book.
Aranius Aerys convinced me with this book. And I'm not trying to like downplay the human sacrifices and dro worship from the forceworn at all. I just I like to stick up for the underdog. So, love them or hate them, this speech spoken by a forceworn, I think it's incredibly motivating. Uh, they say, "You want to know who the forsworn are? We are the people who must pillage our own land, burn our own ground. We are the scourge of the Nords, the axe that falls in the dark. Go back and tell your empire that we will have our own kingdom again, and on that day, we will be the ones burying your dead in a land that is no longer yours."
3.5 stars. I like this and the speech alone was pretty great. The speech alone is the entire rating actually. All right, we get kind of a cool book. Um, this is about a legendary mage called or named Shalidor who constructed a massive maze called Labyrinthian. It was used to test potential arch mages. The book even has a picture of an insolvable hourglass in it, which I thought was kind of fun.
Eventually though, the College of Winterhole decided that like death mazes were not like really great for the students. Maybe it was like a bit too much, so they stopped using it, but you can still visit the ruins as like a cultural site today. I rated this 3.5 stars. All right, we get Night of the Tears by Drraanor Salith. This is an ancient conspiracy theory book. Uh, Sarthall, right, was we you can go there. This is a place in Skyrim was the first big Nord city and their original capital. Apparently, everyone knows it was burned down, I guess, by the elves during the night of the tears or night of tears, which is what led to Egrimore and his 500 companions coming back to kick the elves out. Uh, but this book asks why did the elves actually do it?
The author thinks that the territory dispute is an excuse and that elves back then were like super sophisticated and would just like throw a tantrum over land. He suggests the Nords found something very deep underground while building Sarthall and tried to keep it a secret and the elves found out and wanted it. Basically, the night of the tears wasn't a war. It was a heist and the author was right. Uh, you can discover exactly what they were after during the College of Winter Hold quest line. Uh, but fun fact, the cover of this book actually features the symbol of the Saridol Mages Guild. I'm giving this book three stars for solid detective work. All right. And then we have The Oblivion Crisis by Praxis Sarorum. Uh, this is the big one, right?
This is the turning point that basically ended an entire era of history. Uh, this book is essentially the entire plot of the Oblivion game condensed into a very short text. Because so many players obviously had different characters and storylines in that game, uh, the developers clearly wanted to keep it vague. Okay, so I actually came up with a like more fun idea of how I would have written this book uh, for this game. I would have done it from the viewpoint of a skeptical fan and I would have had that be the name of the author. Uh, and it would have been the skep the skeptical fan of the hero of Kavach, which is your character in Oblivion. And I would do this because I would imagine that the author was like a meta ironic version of the adoring fan in Oblivion who heard rumors that the hero of Kavach was actually in the Dark Brotherhood or that he once traveled through a magical painting. Maybe he stole the Elder Scrolls. Like I would have played up on that. So it would be kind of like a nod to all these things we did or that you might have done in Oblivion. uh while also like acknowledging a very fan favorite NPC, the adoring fan, uh without making any actual concrete statements. So that was my idea. Like if I had written it, that's what I would have done. But for this book, the one that we got, I think it's fine. It's definitely like, you know, pretty basic.
Uh I gave it 2.5 stars. Okay. But then we get another fun one. This is called Of Crossed Daggers by Dwin Windle. This is about the history of Riftton, which I had no idea about any of this. Okay, but apparently Riftton was once like solitude, which is crazy to imagine now, but it was lavish, safe, and beautiful.
It was also much larger than what the game has now. Um, it was a massive trade hub between Skyrim and Morwind. But everything changed when a man named Hoskun Cross Daggers took the throne likely by assassination. Uh he ruined everything by imposing high taxes, oppressing the people. He cut off trade so he could build himself an even prettier castle. This went on for 40 years. The people finally had enough and they rioted and burned down his castle with him inside. But the wildfire spread out into the streets and out into Riftton entirely and nearly burned the entire city down. So that's why Riftton today is so roughly built and so much smaller because it was pretty much demolished. Anyway, I rated this 3.5 stars. Okay, then we get Olaf and the Dragon by Adonado Leonetti. Okay, this is the ultimate history is written by the winner story. It's about the origin myth of Whiter Run's Palace, Dragon's Reach. This book recounts the legendary duel between King Olaf WE and the dragon Numx. This is a direct quote from the book. Using the awesome powers of the dragon language, Numx and Olaf engage in an epic shouting duel at top Mount Anthor, which I wanted to share that because it sounds very Brandon Sanderson to me. Anyway, okay. But to be honest, the conspiracy around this book is more interesting than the book itself. You can actually meet this author of this book, Adonado, in Skyrim, and even help him with a quest. A bard named Zvakne wrote a counter book about King Olaf called King Olaf's verse that called the whole thing a lie. Olaf threw Zvakne in prison for it and tried to erase the books from history completely. Now, I actually love this book because the book is tied to various NPC encounters and quests. This book specifically, if you meet up with Adonado, um he'll give you a copy of his book to deliver to the Bard's College. And if you read the copy he gives you, it's actually different from the standard versions found out in the Skyrim world. Um, and if you continue down this quest, we learn that one of Zakir's slanderous books about King Olaf actually still exists and you're tasked with going to retrieve it.
So, if you decide to do this, you can actually find Zakir's ghost haunting the tomb where he was buried alongside King Olaf, who he hated, which was done as punishment. And if you actually finish this quest line before the end of the dragon born quest line, you can find Zakir's soul in Sovenguard. Um, you can also meet Keen Olaf oneey in the Hall of Valor where he admits he actually wants to meet Zakir as a worthy foe. I thought this was all such a cool like these were all such cool details involving this book. It's one of the few times too I've noticed where a quest in Skyrim, the timing of how or when you do it actually changes like the result of the quest or has consequences. I rated this four stars. Okay, we have Orinium and the Orcs by Mena Ghost. Uh, this book captures the exact moment the orcs or the Orsamer went from being monsters in the woods to like a political power in the eyes of the empire. Um, there's actually huge discussion online about how this book was like a calculated decision by Bethesda to like bridge the gap between Daggerfall, where orcs were like generic enemies, and Marowind, where they became a complex playable race. Some fans credit this shift to the dragon break at the end of Daggerfall, uh, literally rewriting reality, so like the orcs were always more complex, uh, than they originally appeared. Others argue that this is just realistic like sociology and that history books are often inaccurate and biased. Anyway, uh the online discussions were more interesting than the book itself. So, I just wanted to share that. I rated the book two stars. Then we have Pig Children by Tist or Tyen Bane. Keeping on with the orc lore. This book originated in Daggerfall and it is pure unfiltered racism. Uh this is just a racist hit piece about orcs. That's it.
I'm giving it two stars because I can't condone the propaganda, but I do appreciate like the worldbuilding aspect that this book offers. All right, then we get to The Refugees by Gyros Alre. I was really hooked at the start of this book. I thought the start of it was so atmospheric and haunting and eerie and I was really excited and I lost interest so fast. It became a massive info dump.
This book is actually a skill book for light armor, but this one person really liked this book a lot more than me. Uh, they posted on Reddit. I think I just read about the birth of Manar Cameron and another person replied, "Cool."
Which is exactly how I felt reading this book. So, for those of you who didn't play Oblivion or like me forgot, Manar Cameron is like well is like one of the main villains. Uh, he's the leader of the Mythic Dawn, which is part of, you know, the quest in Oblivion. And this book ends with a refugee woman naming her newborn baby man car which is to say that this is sort of like his villain origin story. But I gave it 1.5 stars.
All right. Then we get Ramanada by Anonymous. At this point in reading this book I hit history fatigue. I wrote that in my notes. History fatigue. So I'm just going to read you the first few sentences of this book. And in those days the empire of the ciridils was dead save in memory only for through war and slug famine ini and iniquitous rulers the west split from the east and the earth was sick with the sundering. I truly wonder if this was written by Shioora like this book specifically. At one point in this book the author tells us a guy tried to get close to the emperor because he was being instructed by a pig. What was the story about? I don't know. I couldn't tell you. All I know is that I read about the Blades being bloodrinkers and snake people. I'm actually gonna rate this 2.5 stars because it's so weird that I kind of liked it even though I mostly hated it.
Okay, then we get The Rise and Fall of the Blades by Anonymous. Um, this is like a little book report on the Blades, but I think we know about the Blades enough. I thought an interesting detail about this was when they talked about the Akavari armor that the blades wear, which is like Asian inspired obviously with like the katanas they use. Um, and they were originally the blades were originally the dragon guard from Akavir uh which is the other continent right across from Tamriel or on the other side of the sea. And there they hunted dragons until they literally ran out of dragons to hunt there. So, they followed the fleeing dragons to Tamreel in the late first era. Um, it also mentions that the Blades have a hideout in Hammerfell, which is the rumored setting for The Elder Scrolls 6. So, that's cool. Three stars for decent lore and for being actually easy to follow. Okay.
And then we get a short history of Marowind by Janette Sit. In this one, we learn that Marowind is the rebel child of the Empire. We have the red mountain which is spewing like ash vampires and there's a giant magical shield keeping the monsters trapped inside but the magic is fading. 2.5 stars. Okay. And then we get the song of polal by anonymous. Do you remember when I said that we would come back to him? So this is an eight volume series about him during the Allesian slave rebellion. The first five volumes of this series are creative and I appreciate the effort to make this feel like or I I don't know if this was intentional, but in my opinion, this read like the Skyrim version of the Iliad or like sort of attempting to be that um because it is hard to follow and it it's written in a way that's supposed to feel like poetic poetry more than pros or pros that feels like an epic.
I'm gonna kind of skip over some of the volumes and just go to the one that I love the most, which is volume six. It is beautiful and how it is written in this epic poetic metaphorical pros um in a way that I found to be easy to follow.
So, I'm going to read you some of it.
Still others say that beneath the pelin's star armor was a chest that gaped open to show no heart, only a red raidshaped diamond fashion singing like a mindless dragon and that this was proof that he was a mytho and that where he trod were shapes of the first urging.
Uh, we also get this amazing line at the end when Palino is asked what madness feels like and he responds like when the dream no longer needs its dreamer, which I really love that line. Uh, Penel White Strike is basically a divine timetraveling crusader who single-handedly slaughtered the Alids to liberate humanity from slavery. And we learned that he cleared the land of elves and sacrificed himself. Anyway, I rated this 3.5 stars because I loved the creativity. Uh, even if the first five volumes were hard to get through, the hood is back on just because I want it back on, but also because this book, War of the First Council by Agria funus funus.
This book is about a first era conflict between the Dwemer and the Chimer, who are the ancestors of the dark elves. Uh, the conflict is what eventually led to the battle of Red Mountain.
Unfortunately, we are back to our old friend, The Info Dump. I rated this 1.5 stars. All right, then we have The Third Era Timeline by Jaspis. This is a simple little bulleted list of dates and events in order for the third era. I do like the opening line to this book, which says, "Citizens of the Empire who make the same mistakes as their forebears deserve to suffer the same fate." I don't know. I rated this book two stars.
All right. Then we have touching the sky by Parmian Salor. This is a translated Falmore text and it reads like a cautionary tale. Uh it's about a pilgrimage that the snow elves used to embark on and it tells us so much about the snow elves or the Falmore culture because they were driven underground by the Nords. And we learned that they valued loyalty and suffering as the only true way to prove you deserved to reach the light. Prove how much value you had.
It wasn't about being the greatest warrior to them. It was about how much pain you could endure and that was what made you valuable. Um, those who failed at this concept apparently were forced to live in the shadows of those who succeeded. I just really thought this story was a really like beautiful metaphor. And this book is also part of the Dawn Guard DLC and you can actually perform the pilgrimage that this book talks about as a quest. Uh I rated this book 3.5 stars. We have treaties on aidilic aid a okay that cities by anonymous. Yet another book about the al-IDs that doesn't paint them in a good light. Uh, this one tells the story of a massive labyrinthian city built to guard a drich dagger called the razor. 2.5 stars. All right. Then we have The Wild Elves by Kier Joe Chvak. This book goes all the way back to Daggerfall and surprisingly it's the first one to shed positive light on the Alids. Oh my gosh.
We learn that they are often called wild elves. Uh while the high elves, wood elves, and Dunmer have all assimilated into modern Tamrielic culture, the Alids preferred to isolate themselves and keep their old ways alive. Uh even still speaking old ciridilic. Um our author here is being or seemingly being an objective scholar uh because they seem to like weigh both sides of how the eyelids are seen. Um, also since this is written before Marind, I do wonder if this is supposed to be a more canonical about the al-IDs or regarding the al-IDs. Um, the subtext suggests that while outsiders see them as cold, their actual culture is incredibly diverse.
This book even cites an actual al-ID sage. We get a quote from an actual Al-ID uh by the name of I'm not going to try. Okay. He said he said the nature of the Alid tribes is multi-hued their personalities often wildly different from their neighboring tribes. Book is actually cited like a real academic paper too which is a really cute detail.
I haven't seen that yet or as of right now we really haven't gotten that from any of the other books. I did try to actually look up the source that they site just to see but I can find anything obviously. I rated this book 3.5 stars.
And that was our last book of the history and lore section.
My god, that was so amazing. Um, it is hard to read through these books without doing outside research. While reading, I was looking things up online because I was very confused. Let's move on. Hi.
Okay, it's editing me. So, this is a project that I thought would maybe be maybe an hour long.
Anyway, it did not turn out that way.
Um, but I'm committed to finishing this.
Um, but my point is is that I obviously am splitting this up into two parts. And this is where I'm going to end it because I feel like we concluded the Baron Zia journey for the most part. And part two is what I consider to have some of the best stories. That is going to be fiction and poetry and riddles and a lot more of I guess like the more fun stories. uh whereas part one definitely is a lot more history and or historical and just like a lot of information. So this is going to conclude part one. Um if you liked it so far, please let me know. I've never done a video like this before. Also to answer the question, cuz I said that I would answer a question at the end of the video. If you know what question I'm talking about and you remember it, you are my favorite person.
Um, my answer is yes. I would risk it.
Okay, bye.
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