The Elder Scrolls series began with the release of Elder Scrolls: Arena in 1994, developed by Bethesda. The game was initially intended to be a gladiatorial game but was later transformed into an open-world role-playing game. The series has since grown in popularity, with each new installment introducing new features and expanding the game's world size. The Elder Scrolls games are known for their vast lore, which includes a complex universe with multiple continents, moons, and planes of existence. The games also include many Easter eggs and references to other games, literature, and pop culture. Bethesda has also been known to engage with its fans, including a promotion where a child named Dovahkiin would receive free Bethesda games for life.
Here are the key facts extracted from the text:
1. The Elder Scrolls series is an open-world action role-playing game series developed by Bethesda.
2. The franchise began with the release of The Elder Scrolls: Arena in 1994.
3. Arena was not originally intended to be an RPG, but a gladiator-type game where the player would fight in arenas.
4. The game was changed to an open-world RPG during development, with the addition of side quests.
5. The Elder Scrolls: Arena was not a commercial success when it was first released, but it gained popularity through word-of-mouth.
6. The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall has a massive map size of over 160,000 square kilometers.
7. The Elder Scrolls: Arena has an even larger map size of over 6 million square kilometers.
8. Bethesda used procedural generation to create the vast maps in their early games.
9. The Elder Scrolls series is known for its expansive lore and universe.
10. The games take place on the continent of Tamriel, with the exception of Arena, which lets players explore the entire continent.
11. Tamriel is one of several continents on the planet Nirn, which also includes Akavir, Atmora, and others.
12. Nirn has two moons, Secunda and Masser.
13. The Elder Scrolls Online will eventually encompass the entire continent of Tamriel.
14. The Elder Scrolls series has a vast and complex lore, including the creation of the mortal plane, known as Mundus.
15. The Mundus was created by the divine being known as Anu, with the help of other immortals known as the Aedra.
16. The Aedra became the eight planets and moons, also known as the eight diviners.
17. The Daedra, who did not help create the Mundus, exist in the realm of Oblivion, which is separate from the mortal plane.
18. The mortal plane is interpreted as the vast black nothingness of space, with the stars being holes that go straight through the realm of Oblivion to the realm of Aetherius.
19. Aetherius is a realm of pure magic, and the holes in the mortal plane permit magic to reach the mortals on Nirn.