Join ZeniMax's Lawrence Schick for a peek behind the lore curtain

This has been a what you might call a whirlwind week for The Elder Scrolls Online. 

First, there was a major press embargo lifted, with our very own Jarimor getting some hands-on time with the game which you can read about here. Yesterday, the fine folks at ZeniMax Online Studios launched an all-new website for the game, stocked with concept art, screenshots, videos and more.

Today, they offered an update to that brand-new website in the form of a peek behind-the-scenes how the story of The Elder Scrolls Online comes together, with the honors falling to Loremaster Lawrence Schick. I don't know about you, but I don't know many people that aren't NPCs who carry the title of Loremaster -- so when they speak, I listen!

Loremaster Schick spent some time detailing what his gig entails, but dives head-first into explaining why the team decided to tell the story of The Elder Scrolls Online in the era that they did:

"First of all, it’s so we’re not treading on Bethesda Game Studios’ heels. BGS needs the leeway to continue their amazing series of single-player games without getting boxed in by or tangled up with ESO’s storylines. By setting our game in the series’ distant past, we avoid placing constraints on future BGS titles."

After settling on the Interregnum as the period in which to set the game, they then had to figure out how to show the various cultures and constructs that players were familiar with from the single player games were in their infancy. Not to mention, take us where no Elder Scrolls game has gone before:

"Our task, then, is to recreate the world of Tamriel as it existed in the year 2E 583, as established in existing Elder Scrolls lore, but showing you these cultures and institutions when they were still rough-hewn and new. We’re also bringing you parts of Tamriel that have never been shown before, taking you to people and places that have previously only been hinted at."

There's so much interesting stuff, I don't want to spoil it all for you here. Be sure to head on over to the official The Elder Scrolls online website to check it out. And bookmark it while you're there -- we're sure it's going to be a familiar haunt for all of us fanatics very soon!

Bill "Lethality" Leonard