So I was just curious how many Bombers out there are in this for the lore, seeing as 4chan and (obviously) the Official Forums contain a great many lorefiends in addition to average players. I came up with a list of twenty esoteric terms - metaphysical, divine, sorcerous, historical - to test one's judgment of the deeper lore that perhaps can't be grasped from ANY game. I have purposefully omitted most Skyrim content, as the Nightingales and Ysgramor and Potema and such will be familiar to a great many who would otherwise ignore such history. Anyone who knows ten of these knows their stuff:

Enantiomorph. The Wheel. Ehlnofex. Vehk. Zero-Sum. Dreamsleeve transmission. The Scripture of Love. Muatra. Trinimac. The Potentate. Ordinators-in-Mourning. The Prolix Tower. PSJJJ. Michael Kirkbride. Dragon Break. Baar Dau/Lie Rock. Yokuda. Cyrus. Duke Brindisi Dorom. Tsaesci.

How do you fare?

EDIT: Badly. Oh well, it's the wrong audience. Just for kicks, have a read-through of this and tell us what you think:

http://pastebin.com/xXk4YYXj

JUST FOR KICKS, and to satisfy anyone I mystified, here all ALL of those terms, laid out:

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Enantiomorph - One of the Walking Ways to Reach Heaven by Violence. It involves emulating the original mythic struggle between Anu and Padomay, to gain power from it; Walk like them until they walk like you; Talos is Arctus is Ysmir, etc.

The Wheel - The Aurbis; the eight spokes being the Aedra, the sixteen spaces between the spokes the Daedra, and the hub at the center being Nirn. Everything.

Ehlnofex - The language of the Earth Bones, the Ehlnofey, the original mortal race of Mundus.

Vehk - Vivec, the Magic Hermaphrodite, Master of Morrowind, and Warrior-Poet of the Tribunal.

Zero-Sum - the only way to die in the Aurbis.

Dreamsleeve transmission - top-secret, quasi-long-distance communication protocol involving the Dreamsleeve, the 'recycler' of Souls.

The Scripture of Love - Sermon 35 of The Thirty-Six Lessons of Vivec.

Muatra - Vivec's "spear".

Trinimac - Auri-El's champion, who was eaten by Boethiah and transformed into Malacath; his followers became the Orsimer.

The Potentate - the Second Era Akaviri ruler of Tamriel, who masterminded the assassination of Emperor Reman Cyrodiil and ushered in the Second Era.

Ordinators-in-Mourning - the Indoril warrior-priests of Necrom, tasked with guarding that sacred city of the Tribunal.

The Prolix Tower - Another of Vehk's Walking Ways to Reach Heaven by Violence; little is known of it, aside from it involving a lot of talking.

PSJJJ - the most sacred of the Eleven Forces, which was corrupted into "Psijic" and later "Sithis". Unpronounceable.

Michael Kirkbride - the developer who wrote ALL this shit.

Dragon Break - a sundering of Time; a temporary event wherein Akatosh loses control of Time and it becomes non-linear. A small Dragon Break was what caused Alduin to be flung into the future.

Baar Dau/Lie Rock; either flung to Vivec City or the child by anal sex of Vivec and Molag Bal; it is a rock hanging above Vivec City in the form of the Ministry of Truth.

Yokuda - the original home of the Redguards, mysteriously destroyed.

Cyrus - Redguard hero, protagonist of TESA: Redguard.

Duke Brindisi Dorom - Duke of Mournhold, killed at the end of the First Era by a temper tantrum of Mehrunes Dagon that also happened to destroy Old Mournhold.

Tsaesci - the vampiric snakemen of Akavir, of whom the Potentate is their most famous individual.

Dovakhiin means dragonborn.

There are cat people in the Skyrim game.

All I know is that Trinimac is some sort of god, Yokuda is another continent, Cyrus is the protagonist of the Redguard game and the Tsaesci are an insectoid race.

And I don't know who they are, but I assume Duke Brindisi Dorom is who Plaza Brindisi Dorom in Mournhold is named after.

I looked up some of the ones I didn't know and I would have known Baar Dau/Lie Rock if you said Ministry of Truth.

I know hand to hand combat controls like shit in Tamriel, that count?

Horses are the most powerful beings in Tamriel.

I read a book about molesting a lizard or something.

The Dark Brotherhood jester killed The Adoring Fan, it's why I killed him.

There was a dude called Septim and his sons were named Septim and they ruled the land. Septim. 
 
Septim.

There are different kinds of Khajit. Some are literally like tigers, being that they aren't bipedal and don't function like humans. That count?

I think the answer is no.

Skyrim is a game

Shit, around Morrowind I used to know a lot of the lore. Forgot almost all of it by the time I started Oblivion. Now I just know most of the basic stuff.

Fuck Elves.

@jillsandwich said:

Fuck Elves.

Tight-wearin' fairy bastards.

I had a dreamsleeve transmission once, ruined that pair of boxers.

4chan is where I go to fell bad about our future.

I'm a huge fan of the Elder Scrolls series and I've been following it since Morrowind but a lot of the lore is just terrible. I've got all of the in-game books on my Kindle and while they are nice to find lying around in the gameworld, they are terrible from a literary standpoint.

No. Just no. Even the moment I dropped into Oblivion I knew, "This lore is going to be fucking impenetrable." Star Wars, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Fallout, can keep up on all those lores but fuck Tamriel and its needless depth. Just tell me who I can stab and how to most efficiently stab them.

@Blackout62 said:

No. Just no. Even the moment I dropped into Oblivion I knew, "This lore is going to be fucking impenetrable." Star Wars, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Fallout, can keep up on all those lores but fuck Tamriel and its needless depth. Just tell me who I can stab and how to most efficiently stab them.

Am I the only one that wouldnt play TES if the lore wasnt there? In fact, besides The Witcher 2, TES has the best fantasy lore around. The lore "grounds" the game. Without it, Skyrim would feel like an MMO. Not to mention they have been doing the lore justice.

The GB community is something else...

@Law313 said:

@Blackout62 said:

No. Just no. Even the moment I dropped into Oblivion I knew, "This lore is going to be fucking impenetrable." Star Wars, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Fallout, can keep up on all those lores but fuck Tamriel and its needless depth. Just tell me who I can stab and how to most efficiently stab them.

Am I the only one that wouldnt play TES if the lore wasnt there? In fact, besides The Witcher 2, TES has the best fantasy lore around. The lore "grounds" the game. Without it, Skyrim would feel like an MMO. Not to mention they have been doing the lore justice.

The GB community is something else...

Yep. No one else gives a single fuck about TES's lore. Todd Howard and Co. care about you so much that they wrote all of it just for you. Wasn't that nice of them?

Talos became the 9th divine and some people aren't cool with that.

Everything surrounding Dragonbreaks, Vivek, and the not-so-subtle breaking of the fourth-wall where the two are concerned is fascinating. However, I don't really enjoy digging too far into such territory in-game. Obscure TES lore and TES games tend to be separate things for me.

I play TES games for the exploration, not the lore. Everything I know is a result of osmosis, not a result of me reading every single scrap of paper that blows past in the snowy winds.

Once in awhile I pick up a book in skyrim and it sounds cool so I read it. Read one about a mage that got trapped in a plane of knowlege (endless library)and it was from his apprentices perspective. It was a cool story. I also like lusty argonian maids.

If there is one Lore aside Amalur that sucks, it's@Law313 said:

@Blackout62 said:

No. Just no. Even the moment I dropped into Oblivion I knew, "This lore is going to be fucking impenetrable." Star Wars, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Fallout, can keep up on all those lores but fuck Tamriel and its needless depth. Just tell me who I can stab and how to most efficiently stab them.

Am I the only one that wouldnt play TES if the lore wasnt there? In fact, besides The Witcher 2, TES has the best fantasy lore around. The lore "grounds" the game. Without it, Skyrim would feel like an MMO. Not to mention they have been doing the lore justice.

The GB community is something else...

To be honest, I never cared for TES' lore, so much that I litteraly avoid anything that has to do with its lore. It's very similar to Amalur. It's there for those who wants to dig in it but the way it's presented makes it very uninteresting. To me, Skyrim is a soulless sandbox and that's it.

You picked some obscure topics there! I've been playing since Morrowind, but the only ones you mentioned that I'm really familiar with are Triminac as well as the Dragonbreaks.

I love the comments on this thread.

I like the fact that the lore is there, but I dont really get into it a lot because:

Knowing every single lore fact would take me out of the world they´ve crafted instead of plunging me deeper into it, I think. Some dude sentenced to death is not supposed to be a walking encyclopedia, I like learning some of the stuff and at the same time getting the feeling that all of that shit is underneath it.

Let's start light, shall we? CHIM.

@believer258 said:

@Law313 said:

@Blackout62 said:

No. Just no. Even the moment I dropped into Oblivion I knew, "This lore is going to be fucking impenetrable." Star Wars, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Fallout, can keep up on all those lores but fuck Tamriel and its needless depth. Just tell me who I can stab and how to most efficiently stab them.

Am I the only one that wouldnt play TES if the lore wasnt there? In fact, besides The Witcher 2, TES has the best fantasy lore around. The lore "grounds" the game. Without it, Skyrim would feel like an MMO. Not to mention they have been doing the lore justice.

The GB community is something else...

Yep. No one else gives a single fuck about TES's lore. Todd Howard and Co. care about you so much that they wrote all of it just for you. Wasn't that nice of them?

No one else that replied to this thread seemed to know (or care) very little about it.

@Klei said:

If there is one Lore aside Amalur that sucks, it's@Law313 said:

@Blackout62 said:

No. Just no. Even the moment I dropped into Oblivion I knew, "This lore is going to be fucking impenetrable." Star Wars, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Fallout, can keep up on all those lores but fuck Tamriel and its needless depth. Just tell me who I can stab and how to most efficiently stab them.

Am I the only one that wouldnt play TES if the lore wasnt there? In fact, besides The Witcher 2, TES has the best fantasy lore around. The lore "grounds" the game. Without it, Skyrim would feel like an MMO. Not to mention they have been doing the lore justice.

The GB community is something else...

To be honest, I never cared for TES' lore, so much that I litteraly avoid anything that has to do with its lore. It's very similar to Amalur. It's there for those who wants to dig in it but the way it's presented makes it very uninteresting. To me, Skyrim is a soulless sandbox and that's it.

Weird, but understandable. What made you buy Skyrim if it wasn't the world(lore included)? Was it loot? The enemies? What!? The sandbox nature of the game? The story?

Maybe its just me, but I need more "meat" to sink my teeth into. I can't mindlessly go about killing everything for no reason. The way its presented could be changed for the better, I agree with that point absolutely.

The lore of the Elder Scrolls games never really grabbed me, especially compared to Mass Effect and some others (even Fallout).

Dwarves are Elves. Therefore I can never like The Elder Scrolls lore.

@Law313 said:

Weird, but understandable. What made you buy Skyrim if it wasn't the world(lore included)? Was it loot? The enemies? What!? The sandbox nature of the game? The story?

Maybe its just me, but I need more "meat" to sink my teeth into. I can't mindlessly go about killing everything for no reason. The way its presented could be changed for the better, I agree with that point absolutely.

To be honest, I bought Skyrim because it was Skyrim. Everybody kept saying how it was the gaming perfection, the world's best role playing game and everything. In the end, I got Oblivion in snow with dragons. I spent nearly 88 hours in the game, which means I actually enjoyed it, but really, all I really enjoyed was adventuring. Going from point A to point B without fast traveling and sticking to my iron-banded armor and steel sword even though I could upgrade to these ugly and grotesque daedric and ebony armors.

I didn't need reasons to go and do things, and honestly, the game don't really give you any reasons to do anything. It's just offered to you. There's a lack of drive in TES games that always bothered me. There's nothing to push you in the back. They want you to be as free as possible, and in one sense, it makes me nonchalant towards the game. Still, I managed to play it for nearly 90 hours, but that's because I've got one corrupt file and needed to restart all over.

I think that stories and lore are interesting when they're tempting your curiosity. When they're slowly creeping in your mind and makes you wondering. Unfortunately, that didn't happen with me and Skyrim.

I didn't expect anything from the story, because Oblivion and Morrowind's stories were very basic to begin with. Skyrim did little to change this. Sure, it feels epic at times, but the whole thing is just '' you're another prisoner who also happens to be the savior of the world and who will kill the big evil last boss. ''. I didn't feel like my actions had any impact, even if they tried to record as many audio lines as possible to make you believe that your actions vibrated throughout the world. I didn't feel like I was being part of something. Whereas in Witcher 2, I felt totally involved in its convoluted plot and characters to the point that I bought the books.

@Klei said:

@Law313 said:

Weird, but understandable. What made you buy Skyrim if it wasn't the world(lore included)? Was it loot? The enemies? What!? The sandbox nature of the game? The story?

Maybe its just me, but I need more "meat" to sink my teeth into. I can't mindlessly go about killing everything for no reason. The way its presented could be changed for the better, I agree with that point absolutely.

To be honest, I bought Skyrim because it was Skyrim. Everybody kept saying how it was the gaming perfection, the world's best role playing game and everything. In the end, I got Oblivion in snow with dragons. I spent nearly 88 hours in the game, which means I actually enjoyed it, but really, all I really enjoyed was adventuring. Going from point A to point B without fast traveling and sticking to my iron-banded armor and steel sword even though I could upgrade to these ugly and grotesque daedric and ebony armors.

I didn't need reasons to go and do things, and honestly, the game don't really give you any reasons to do anything. It's just offered to you. There's a lack of drive in TES games that always bothered me. There's nothing to push you in the back. They want you to be as free as possible, and in one sense, it makes me nonchalant towards the game. Still, I managed to play it for nearly 90 hours, but that's because I've got one corrupt file and needed to restart all over.

I think that stories and lore are interesting when they're tempting your curiosity. When they're slowly creeping in your mind and makes you wondering. Unfortunately, that didn't happen with me and Skyrim.

I didn't expect anything from the story, because Oblivion and Morrowind's stories were very basic to begin with. Skyrim did little to change this. Sure, it feels epic at times, but the whole thing is just '' you're another prisoner who also happens to be the savior of the world and who will kill the big evil last boss. ''. I didn't feel like my actions had any impact, even if they tried to record as many audio lines as possible to make you believe that your actions vibrated throughout the world. I didn't feel like I was being part of something. Whereas in Witcher 2, I felt totally involved in its convoluted plot and characters to the point that I bought the books.

When I tried to put my finger on exactly what draws me into the Elder Scrolls games, it was this. I don't much care about the lore or the people in the world, I just want to adventure around. See that tunnel? Look for stuff! Find a bandit's camp? Kill 'em all before they kill anyone else! Want to become a better mage? Join the Mage's guild!

@Canteu said:

Dwarves are Elves. Therefore I can never like The Elder Scrolls lore.

So are the Orcs, too-technically .

@Klei said:

@Law313 said:

Weird, but understandable. What made you buy Skyrim if it wasn't the world(lore included)? Was it loot? The enemies? What!? The sandbox nature of the game? The story?

Maybe its just me, but I need more "meat" to sink my teeth into. I can't mindlessly go about killing everything for no reason. The way its presented could be changed for the better, I agree with that point absolutely.

To be honest, I bought Skyrim because it was Skyrim. Everybody kept saying how it was the gaming perfection, the world's best role playing game and everything. In the end, I got Oblivion in snow with dragons. I spent nearly 88 hours in the game, which means I actually enjoyed it, but really, all I really enjoyed was adventuring. Going from point A to point B without fast traveling and sticking to my iron-banded armor and steel sword even though I could upgrade to these ugly and grotesque daedric and ebony armors.

I didn't need reasons to go and do things, and honestly, the game don't really give you any reasons to do anything. It's just offered to you. There's a lack of drive in TES games that always bothered me. There's nothing to push you in the back. They want you to be as free as possible, and in one sense, it makes me nonchalant towards the game. Still, I managed to play it for nearly 90 hours, but that's because I've got one corrupt file and needed to restart all over.

I think that stories and lore are interesting when they're tempting your curiosity. When they're slowly creeping in your mind and makes you wondering. Unfortunately, that didn't happen with me and Skyrim.

I didn't expect anything from the story, because Oblivion and Morrowind's stories were very basic to begin with. Skyrim did little to change this. Sure, it feels epic at times, but the whole thing is just '' you're another prisoner who also happens to be the savior of the world and who will kill the big evil last boss. ''. I didn't feel like my actions had any impact, even if they tried to record as many audio lines as possible to make you believe that your actions vibrated throughout the world. I didn't feel like I was being part of something. Whereas in Witcher 2, I felt totally involved in its convoluted plot and characters to the point that I bought the books.

The Witcher 2 is my personal favorite RPG ever so believe me when I say Skyrim has nothing on that! Besides the story though, did you get involved in the lore of that universe? Your point(regarding Skyrim) is the exact reason WHY i latch on to the Lore in TES games so much- there isn't much else their.

@Law313: Yeah, they are. But I need my dwarfs to be dwarfs.

@GunslingerPanda said:

Let's start light, shall we? CHIM.

Char?

But yeah, fantasy tends to not be my thing. I made it through the first couple examples before I had to yawn and look at something else.

If y'all want to know just what 'CHIM' is, then the "Metaphysics of Morrowind" articles are a great explanation of why Elder Scrolls lore is more than just rote Tolkien-esque drivel. Seriously, even if you can't tell an Aldmer from an Altmer ( or care why they're different) you should spend a little time reading them.