The Arena of the Gods
So I finally found out why the first Elder Scrolls game is called Arena.
It's because Tamriel (the continent every game takes place on) is considered the arena of the gods, where heroes are chosen and debates among the gods are settled by combat. Like, the mythos includes that they created the mortal world to settle conflicts amongst themselves.
That is just a really interesting idea from a writing perspective, not to mention the fact that it's meta as fuck for a video game series. It's kind of blowing my mind because that thinking could be applied to almost every fantasy story ever.
It's an idea (in one form or another) I've seen a lot of in fiction recently. The Dresden Files recently discussed the difficulties of solving conflicts among immortals, because no one ever dies, so special battlegrounds have to be established where they can die. Hickman's run in Avengers has a whole spiel about how Earth is important because it is the axis upon which the multiverse rotates. It's why heroes are so important in the Marvel U, theoretically, because Earth is the battleground that defines reality. In the last Beka Cooper book, Mastiff, Pounce describes the events at the end aka chaos as a "storm of fate" where the world could take different paths depending on the outcome of events.
The idea of mortals in a fantasy world being created by gods with the expressed purpose that they will fight and die, simply because they can fight and die, is extremely messed up and I love it.
I'm so happy right now as a writer.
It's because Tamriel (the continent every game takes place on) is considered the arena of the gods, where heroes are chosen and debates among the gods are settled by combat. Like, the mythos includes that they created the mortal world to settle conflicts amongst themselves.
That is just a really interesting idea from a writing perspective, not to mention the fact that it's meta as fuck for a video game series. It's kind of blowing my mind because that thinking could be applied to almost every fantasy story ever.
It's an idea (in one form or another) I've seen a lot of in fiction recently. The Dresden Files recently discussed the difficulties of solving conflicts among immortals, because no one ever dies, so special battlegrounds have to be established where they can die. Hickman's run in Avengers has a whole spiel about how Earth is important because it is the axis upon which the multiverse rotates. It's why heroes are so important in the Marvel U, theoretically, because Earth is the battleground that defines reality. In the last Beka Cooper book, Mastiff, Pounce describes the events at the end aka chaos as a "storm of fate" where the world could take different paths depending on the outcome of events.
The idea of mortals in a fantasy world being created by gods with the expressed purpose that they will fight and die, simply because they can fight and die, is extremely messed up and I love it.
I'm so happy right now as a writer.