credit to the late neale davidson for the creation of this font: his site

"Wake up, we're here. Why are you shaking? Are you ok? Wake up."

"Stand up... there you go. You were dreaming. What's your name?"

"Well, not even last night's storm could wake you. I heard them say we've reached Morrowind, I'm sure they'll let us go."

"Quiet, here comes the guard."

"You better do what they say."

Hello if you've found your way here I hope you're ready to hear a lot about a game that came out around 25 years ago, in fact it came out roughly 5 years before I was even born. The game if it wasn't clear by the charming background as well as the wonderful art around is "The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind."

Despite my only discovering the elder scrolls series when I was around 12 (which I guess is actually pretty young now that I think about it), starting with the fifth installment Skyrim, instantly when I started the game I was drawn into the world around. I remember being in awe of the different choices for character creation and the grandiose of the opening of the game in general. However I didn't really fall in love with the series at this time, I fell off the game after a few hours or so and didn't really venture into the game that often for the next couple years. Until one day my step brother was over and we were casually talking about some games and I brought up Skyrim, after hearing I never got that into it he immediately recommended Oblivion, the fourth game in the series, following his recommendation and seeing as how the game only cost around 5 dollars on sale that night I decided to try it out.

Oblivion was the first time I ever truly became "interested" in the world of The Elder Scrolls. Previously I was excited and curious about the world of Skyrim, sure, but I was young and didn't look any further into the lore and history of the world than what was right in front of me.
This changed after playing through Oblivion. Suddenly I could see the things I couldn't in Skyrim, the characters around me and all the cities felt alive, the world itself was expansive! That's an understatement honestly the world of Oblivion is truly large it still remains the largest map between all the Elder Scrolls games (barring Daggerfall of course considering its procedurally generated world practically eclipses the size of all Great Britain) the devs truly put their heart and soul into this game and it shows, remaining a wonderful source of joy for me, despite all of it faults which there are many. Every city and every major landmark has an intentional history and legacy shown in its architecture and residents, the culture of the imperials really shows through throughout the providence Cyrodil.
That being said it is a bit upsetting after I had gotten even deeper into the lore and history of the games, as well as their developments, to learn that Oblivion could have been much different. Don't get me wrong Oblivion has a wonderful vision and the weird exotic nature of the Elder Scrolls still shines through in many areas however its undeniable that the game was quite a departure from the much more eccentric and bizarre previous game. (which I will get around to talking, and gushing, about don't worry, this is still a Morrowind shrine at heart although maybe I should just have it be an Elder Scrolls shrine and call it a day?) What I mean to say is that its obvious Oblivion has a somewhat generic high fantasy direction, I mean the classic medieval architecture in the buildings of the imperial city as well as most other major cities in the game, the flora and fauna being somewhat typical of any fantasy series, and the whole environment evoking a somewhat Tolkien-esque atmosphere. Preceding Oblivions release/development, the Heartland was described a bit differently.

"Cyrodiil is the cradle of Human Imperial high culture on Tamriel. It is the largest region of the continent, and most is endless jungle. The Imperial City is in the heartland, the fertile Nibenay Valley. The densely populated central valley is surrounded by wild rain forests drained by great rivers into the swamps of Argonia and Topal Bay. The land rises gradually to the west and sharply to the north. Between its western coast and its central valley are deciduous forests and mangrove swamps.""