General:The Elder Scrolls

''The Elder Scrolls (commonly abbreviated to TES) is a franchise created by Bethesda Softworks. Set on the vast continent of Tamriel, the award-winning Elder Scrolls'' video games are renowned for the level of unprecedented control given to the player over his or her character's destiny, establishing themselves as benchmarks in immersive, independently-living worlds for the RPG genre.

Franchise Title Origins
When Arena transitioned from an action combat game into an RPG, "The Elder Scrolls: Chapter I" was added to the title, not only to evoke that it was an RPG (which was a prerogative), but also to say that other Chapters would be "written into" these "Elder Scrolls" down the road; this system would have acted very much like Dungeons & Dragons campaign packs, with varying Chapters big and small being added to the original game over time (what today we would call an Expansions or Add-Ons). However, at the time of this thought experiment, the company really didn't have the infrastructure to implement and support such a system, and seemingly opted to designate future Chapters as being the mainline games of the series.  

A few Chapters were actually designed for Arena: whole adventures on the open ocean, reimplemented gladiatorial arenas, and a vampiric castle called Mournhold which was sort of like Ravenloft, which was originally The Elder Scrolls: Chapter II, before it was decided to make a brand new game instead of a campaign. Mournhold and Morrowind were still intended on being the setting of an Arena sequel,  but this was changed very early in development, with things being moved to the Iliac Bay and Daggerfall for Chapter II instead. 

Games
The main series consists of five games and their respective add-ons:
The Elder Scrolls: Chapter I - Arena (1994)
The Elder Scrolls: Chapter II - Daggerfall (1996)
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (2002)
The Elder Scrolls III: Tribunal (2002 / Morrowind expansion pack)
The Elder Scrolls III: Bloodmoon (2003 / Morrowind expansion pack)
Official Plugins (2002-2003 / Morrowind plugins)
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2006)
The Elder Scrolls IV: Knights of the Nine (2006 / Oblivion download)
The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles (2007 / Oblivion expansion pack)
Official Downloads (2006-2007 / Oblivion downloads)
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011)
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Dawnguard (2012 / Skyrim add-on)
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Dragonborn (2013 / Skyrim add-on)
Official Add-ons (2012-2013 / Skyrim add-ons)
Creation Club (2017-present / Skyrim Special Edition add-ons)

 Apart from the central storyline, a wide range of spin-off games have been set within the world of The Elder Scrolls, including:
An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire (1997)
The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard (1998)
The Elder Scrolls Travels: Stormhold (2003)
The Elder Scrolls Travels: Dawnstar (2004)
The Elder Scrolls Travels: Shadowkey (2004)
The Elder Scrolls Travels: Oblivion (2006)
The Elder Scrolls Online (2014-present)
The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind (2017 / ESO Chapter)
The Elder Scrolls Online: Summerset (2018 / ESO Chapter)
The Elder Scrolls Online: Elsweyr (2019 / ESO Chapter)
The Elder Scrolls Online: Greymoor (2020 / ESO Chapter)
The Elder Scrolls Online: Blackwood (2021| / ESO Chapter)
DLC Game Packs (2015-present / ESO DLC)
The Elder Scrolls: Legends (2017-present)
The Elder Scrolls: Legends Asia (2019-2020)
The Elder Scrolls: Blades (2019-present)

There have also been a few games that were in development but have since been canceled:




Gameplay Universe
The world of The Elder Scrolls is well-known for its attention to detail and realism, replete with an interconnected structure of various societies, cultures, and religions, each backed by a thorough historical basis, revealed to Elder Scrolls aficionados (who often assume the title of "loremaster") through in-game literature and deep, multi-tiered conversations.

Set within the mortal realm of Mundus, the Elder Scrolls games are invariably placed within one or more of the nine provinces of the continent of Tamriel, these being:
Black Marsh - homeland of the Argonians
Cyrodiil - homeland of the Imperials and the extinct Ayleids
Elsweyr - homeland of the Khajiit
Hammerfell - homeland of the Redguards
High Rock - homeland of the Bretons and Orcs
Morrowind - homeland of the Dunmer and the presumed extinct Dwemer
Skyrim - homeland of the Nords and Falmer
Summerset Isles - homeland of the Altmer
Valenwood - homeland of the Bosmer
Furthermore, many titles&mdash;especially An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and The Elder Scrolls Online&mdash;take place partially within the alternate, Daedra-ruled, Planes of Oblivion.

While it is known that continents other than Tamriel exist, players have yet to visit them in any official game.

The Elder Scrolls Themselves
 

External Links
The Elder Scrolls official homepage
Bethesda Softworks homepage

References