PounceDeLeon

This could either be truly epic or the worst thing ever but you guys know the Skate games? (Skate, Skate 2, Skate 3) They took the old button pushing mechanics of Tony Hawk and made all the moves based on movements with the analog stick, I think the recent hockey games do this too (but I don't know how well). Anyway, I think sword fighting in games is LONG overdue for an innovation. With a decent lock on a character that switches the control mode over (again this could totally suck or be SUPER awesome, you gain full control over your weapon with the analog stick. You don't wave it around like old games that tried this do like some limp wand, you have moves that you actually learn like in Skate. This is what was awesome about Skate, a starting player who knew how to pull the moves off could do them, your character doesn't advance, the PLAYER does. To parry, you snap the right stick towards the direction a blow is coming from, to make a downwards crushing blow, you bring the weapon to the top position and sweep it downwards, you can disarm with a circular parry, stab by click in the stick, make quick slicing strokes through a zigzag pattern etc. With a bow you pull back and release. Maybe you even have to nock an arrow first. The point is to make the combat actually physical and dynamic not number crunching. Sure, your strength stat will make your blows land harder, and your parry skill will allow your parrying to be quicker and more accurate, but you are ACTUALLY reacting, you miss and you get cut, level 48 vs. goblin or not. This could also solve the old menu mages dilemma. It's so immersion breaking to be a powerful mage that has to pause and go to a menu to switch from a fire spell to a shock spell... ugh. What if as a mage you actually learned gestures for your spells, more complex spells are more complex gestures, a fire spell might be top right to bottom left, but if you first do that and then zigzag up before releasing it, you can launch a fireshock spell or something. Harder spells are actually harder for the player to cast, not just that you need to level up first. Spells could become infinitely combined and everything would be quick and intuitive. (This worked for Skate, the moves felt real and visceral and you felt like you DID them, not commanded your PC to do it by pressing XXYB etc. This takes the learning by doing formula of TES and makes it apply to the player, don't shoot off a hundred fireballs to increase your destruction skill, shoot them off so you get good at doing it in a jam! Practice fighting at the fighters guild so that you become better as a player with swordplay. Multiplayer could even become possible because it won't be a calculator doing the fighting, it's player skill based, with help from stats and special weapons. Also if the combat is now physics based and not stats based, the terrain can become important, can't beat a guy who parries all your blows? Drive him back with lots of hits until he loses his balance and falls down a hill, then kill him. Triggers and bumpers on the consoles or modifier keys on the keyboard like q and e could be used to perform special moves like pulling back or lunging forward, shield bashing or kicks and dirty tricks. Again, it could be a disaster or it could be the first REAL sword fighting mechanic in a game that compares to the shooting mechanics of a first person shooter. Make player skill more important and perhaps, if we are truly lucky could bring meaningful multiplayer combat to games like these. EDIT: Before people complain that it's not RPG like, if you are a level one and a deadric prince takes a swing at you, you can get your sword in front of it but your puny arms would shatter and you'll be crushed. Strength of the blow would become critical, and your strength in blocking them too. Same for magic, your spells still cost Magicka, so just because you know HOW to cast a powerful spell doesn't mean you can afford to, or to cast more than one anyway. Bows would be more powerful the whole time, since it will take significant skill to put an arrow between the eyes of a daedric prince regardless, but again, the strength you put behind the arrow and the quality of the weapon will be very important. A role playing game should allow you to play a role, so you should get to feel like you are REALLY slicing up a Daedra, not pushing buttons. my 2 cents.

I've been thinking and I think that because Skyrim is kind of small compared to Cyrodill and they are doubtless going to push the territorial boundaries with a new engine, that Skyrim will probably be expanded a quarter province in every single direction. So Skyrim of the Nords is in the center/north but we have a bit of Highrock, a bit of Hammerfell, a bit of Cyrodill (at least down to Pale Pass ,or maybe not) and a bit of Morrowind. It wouldn't have to follow the borders of the old provinces, would make the game feel even bigger than it physically is (being able to visit 5 completely different provinces in one game) without them being obligated to include TOO much content. The allows for some more cultural differences than would appear if it is just Skyrim and makes a world as big as they want it to be. We could have Dragonstar, the Dragontail mountains, and so forth, it also gets us around some of the "only" mountains and snow issues everyone is worried about. It's named Skyrim because that's the central and most important part for the plot, plus it's the only province included 100% My 2 cents. p.s. this also plays well into my massive 3 way civil war theory.

Ok, I believe that there is so much more being told in the images and poems and lore books than people are realizing. I'm following the threads provided to their natural ends and coming to some stunning conclusions which I will here present: Examine the history of the gods across the cultures of Tamriel, who reveres which god and which god supports which race? The lines are actually pretty clearly drawn, with just a few confusing twists (akatosh is the enemy of the nords, while Talos is their hero Ysmir, Talos and Akatosh are both heroes to the Imperials). There is an ancient war between the gods which divides along the lines of those who support the Mer or the Men, then you have wildcard races like the beast races and the Orcs who may go either way. I believe the race you choose in Elder Scrolls V is going to be a VERY important choice between three major allegiances. The Altmer want Akatosh to destroy the world, the Nords don't. The unity of the empire is shattered and now the races religious beliefs will tear the world apart. We're looking at a civil war, not just in Skyrim and Tamriel, but in the Divine planes as well!!!! Who is a villain depends entirely on the perspective you have. This is a genius plot with at least 3 unique replays all the way through! The Dragonborn is Ysmir who originally defended High Hrothgar from a dragon attack and slew the orcs who joined them. Ysmir defeated Akatosh but it was merely a delay, and now Akatosh is back to destroy the world and Ysmir will be reborn to stop him. Especially now that the heart of Lorkhan is buried, because this is really ALL about Lorkhan vs. Akatosh like it was in the very very beginning! The gods will be helping you the whole time depending on which side you are on, and the gods will also be hindering your progress as well, the divines are divided and the Daedra have been pushed out by the sealing of the oblivion gates with the destruction of the Amulet of Kings. I have tons of evidence for this but I don't want to have a wall of text so first, what do you think? I can back up points depending on what you dispute I think. I'm pretty confident I'm onto the important themes here. Ok, looks like somebody smarter than I am came to the same conclusion on the official forums: http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.php?/topic/1152130-the-story-behind-skyrim-v20/ Go THERE for a much more detailed post on the same theory. He doesn't go to the same sources I do and doesn't seem to have caught the cool information on the wall carving (being the story of Ysmir) but he got the same result. I still say the best way to back it up is realizing how many of the different cultures of Nirn have this same dynamic in their proto-history. On the other forum someone even suggested that the Akaviri battle between the Tiger and Snake People is equal to the Mer vs. Men on Tamriel. Maybe the monkeys and Beast people of Tamriel are also equivalents. The Yokudans have a helpful perspective too.

Did you guys see my latest reply on "interpreting the Dragonwall?" I think I found out something even MORE interesting and exciting than just Akatosh/Alduin!!!!

Oh my God, I think I cracked a new mystery!!! Read the Five Songs of King Wulfhearth (Ysmir, the Dragon of the North) http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Five_Songs_of_King_Wulfharth It says here in the second song: The second song of King Wulfharth glorifies his deeds in the eyes of the Old Gods. He fights the eastern Orcs and shouts their chief into Hell. He rebuilds the 418th step of High Hrothgar, which had been damaged by a dragon. When he swallowed a thundercloud to keep his army from catching cold, the Nords called him the Breath of Kyne. We have an orc on the left (which I called a goblin earlier), and dragons destroying the steps of High Hrothgar, then a mighty hero shouting... I think we know what the image depicts now exactly!! But there is MORE: Wulfharth defeats Alduin (temporarily) in the 3rd song! The third song of King Wulfharth tells of his death. Orkey, an enemy god, had always tried to ruin the Nords, even in Atmora where he stole their years away. Seeing the strength of King Wulfharth, Orkey summoned the ghost of Alduin Time-Eater again. Nearly every Nord was eaten down to six years old. Boy Wulfharth pleaded to Shor, the dead Chieftain of the Gods, to help his people. Shor's own ghost then fought the Time-Eater on the spirit plane, as he did at the beginning of time, and he won, and Orkey's folk, the Orcs, were ruined. As Boy Wulfharth watched the battle in the sky he learned a new thu'um, What Happens When You Shake the Dragon Just So. He used this new magic to change his people back to normal. In his haste to save so many, though, he shook too many years out on himself. He grew older than the Greybeards, and died. The flames of his pyre were said to have reached the hearth of Kyne itself. Ok: so Alduin's defeat was merely a delay, at the time Dragons and orcs were destroying the Nordic kingdoms and Ysmer fights back and defeats them. Read the book I linked, because a lot of this has to do with Lorkhan too... I think we have the meaning now.

A Norwegien village under Roman control will have Roman law, a Nord village under Imperial control... Imperial law. If the empire dissolves in Skyrim, I think it's safe to say there will be factional gaurds but no overarching police force like in Oblivion. Maybe you join a faction and they let you steal "over there" as long as you don't steal "over here". The people "over there" won't like it, but you can always come back "over here". They could double the villages in the game but really only make it possible to be "welcomed" in half of them, with a quarter being hostile but allowing you to do basic things in them, and a quarter being the equivalent of dungeons that you can raid and kill to your hearts delight. Play again and maybe this time you can side with someone else and raid your old "friendly" villages. This would make replayability go through the roof!

woah, I think you actually got it more or less... given the new material from GameInformer.... nice.

I hope it's not just the lyrics to that song in some other language...

wait, are you guys not seeing the large version? When I click on the image on this forum it opens it in mega size. I am going to attach here a small detail of the "goblin" in question though.

What I really want is some adventures of true exploration. Too many things are marked on the map, you are always just discovering something that someone else already drew on a map... I want a large unmapped forest which you can truly get lost in, encourage people to stay on the paths and inside your hand made content not through invisible walls but by creating large high risk wilderness areas. Maybe I plunge into the forest and for hours I find nothing and get lost and fight off wolves and beasts just to survive, but maybe just maybe I follow the right markings on trees or stones and find an ancient tower in the middle of the forest, filled with treasure or a very powerful wizard with a special spell etc.. These could make the game world huge without needing to be full of totally unique content. A massive forest with randomly generated wolves, but with some awesome unique content buried in it will encourage us to go digging. Take all the space from Oblivion that they shoved underground and in Oblivion gates and put that into horizontal real estate. It'd be the same amount of content, but make it feel like we have to really hike it to get from one end of the world to another, that there was a whole world for us to explore. Imagine Just Cause 2 with only horse riding and walking, and with Elder Scrolls gameplay, you'd feel like there was always more space for you to explore. A hike to Leyawiin from the Imperial city should have felt like an accomplishment and a long journey, instead everything felt like a suburb with random forest in between. Also rivers, PLEASE have RIVERS AND BOATS ALREADY

Also, nobody has any opinions on the goblin bottom left? This is the strangest part to me, since dragons and goblins are hardly friends.

I believe you're right, although at first I disagreed based purely on the forms because they look more like waves to me and an Akaviri invasion would be at the coast of course; but I think the other evidence could point to clouds. I began thinking about how they could design High Hrothgar and determined that it probably would need to look like what is depicted in the mural, being built in the high mountains and not in a valley below. This makes more sense than sea cliffs. This could give us a picture of what High Hrothgar looks like in the game as well. I think this also create problems with the Akaviri invasion theory, because if they are attacking High Hrothgar, they would have nearly conquered the whole of Skyrim... which to my knowledge never happened. Anybody know of any lore regarding attacks on High Hrothgar? I also recommend to all to read the books of King Edward from Daggerfall, I've been reading them recently and believe I see an interesting possibility with the center character and Akatosh. In the books Akatosh is a dragon who comments that at first they didn't get along with the "new gods" who came along, and none of the dragons got along with them. Over time they had peace but there is some sort of ancient tension between dragons and the gods. Akatosh and his mate start a village in Skyrim for dragons and people to live together peacefully they hint that there are about 9 or so of them living there, with space for about 3 dragons more, but at no point is the place named, I believe it to be the origins of Dragonstar in Hammerfell. If this is the case, I believe that Dragonstar (in the middle of a Skyrim conflict just before Oblivion) will now be conquered by Skyrim again, and will be part of the ingame territory, potentially with large parts of the Dragontail mountains of Hammerfell. The dragons of this Akatosh village may be scattered now and angry with the gods or people or something. I was hoping for more discussion on a thread like this, I think there is a lot of material to delve into with this mural.

nvm I didn't realize this is in Hammerfell, could still be important though, the war was very close to the Oblivion crisis and so maybe the borders of Skyrim are going to be bigger than we are used to from current maps. 200 years of warfare could change a lot.

Hmm, interesting observation. Your link seems to be broken, but I'd love to look into this more. Incidently did you see my recent extensive post on the dragonwall? Perhaps some of the information from the high resolution image I created could shed light on this and vice versa. I don't remember seeing Dragonstar on the map of Skyrim though... Could this be the city mentioned in the books of King Edward that Akatosh started in Skyrim (in the book they have not settled on a name yet, and Akatosh wants to call it Section 22 for some reason.)

I think probably the most likely site for the city on the left is Solitude, or more anciently known as Haafingar from an older game map. Any lore besides the wolf queen Potema that could point to a Dragon invasion at Solitude? Ysgramor could also be the first figure standing up to the dragons. The lore is a hazy spot here so they could easily put in a first era dragon invasion that was forgotten. (especially if no one believes in Dragons anymore)

If you've been to the official website for Skyrim, we see a massive wall that you can scroll around with a torch to examine in more detail. I am convinced that there are hints on this exquisite artwork as to the next game, since it is clear (as a graphic artist myself) that they paid a lot of attention to detail in producing it. I am probably a little bit too excited about this game and so even though I always just skimmed the books in game, I spent some time digging in the UESP wiki and reading through the lore books for hints, and then carefully restitched high resolution screenshots of the details on the wall to produce a Jpeg file that includes everything, I also brightened and sharpened it to pull out some hidden details. I'd love your feedback on my analysis, as there are still some mysteries... my theories could be totally wrong, but we'll all see in time. I'm linking the large version here, since it is telling me the limit is 250k. I hope it displays correctly: http://j.imagehost.org/0643/Dragonwallhigh.jpg Alright, on to the analysis, as any good art critic ought, I will approach the piece first without any exterior knowledge of the Elder Scrolls, letting it tell its own story before trying to fit it into the larger narrative of the series. First off, the obvious, the design is panoramic which leads me to believe it tells a sequence of events (common in ancient tombs and pictoglyphs), and as things are normally read from left to right and top to bottom, I assume the same intention here. Again, with all knowledge of the Elder Scrolls lore put aside, you have a beginning story of a city set in a cliffside being ravaged by multiple dragons breathing fire. Brightening the image revealed waves above the city, suggesting this is a city on a Northern coast set in the cliffs by the sea. The people are clearly overwhelmed by the dragons and they are fleeing. On the bottom left is what appears to be a goblin or something fighting alongside the dragons and joining in the slaughter (or a Lord of the Rings style orc). Someone of minor importance (having a face carved unlike the other faceless figures) tries to stand up to the dragon, but others flee in the depths of the earth below the city. It looks like a dwarf or a short man with a beard is fleeing with the others, a skull lies on a rock which could be important. It appears everyone is trying to reach a tower, but many are falling. A figure of major importance is featured next and is facing forward in the story not back at the dragons, he has something coming from his mouth almost like a dragon, he is probably shouting something, he also has a staff or scepter so he is a leader or magician in some fashion. Whatever he does it seems to bring on a new era of some sort and the first story is over. In the center is obviously someone of critical importance, all the lines point to him and the abstract dragon above him appears to be a part of him and his power rather than attacking or fighting him. Either the dragon became a man, or the man became a dragon. The man is old and powerful, a wizard or a god. Next a new sequence of events unfolds, in series of 3's. There are three major figures along the top, and three heroes on the bottom. First is what appears to be a wizard or figure surrounded by roots or tentacles, second is a large goliath like creature or statue, and third is a symbol or gate (ok we all know what it is...) . The three heroes on the bottom are large and important but faceless, they seem to correspond to the three images on the top, having their swords up in the air towards the other glyphs, perhaps being the heroes that held back the tide against these three events. In the middle is some sort of war and death between men. Lastly you have the final and most important figure, a knight holding off a dragons fire with a shield while others are scorched in the fiery blaze. He has some sort of horns or feathers on his helmet. Essentially, with no outside information, the glyph tells us that long ago dragons attacked and ruined the land, a hero rose up, and someone entered a pact with a dragon and became one, stemming the tide. Three heroes fought against three titanic foes and much blood was spilled, but now the dragons are back and only one fourth hero can hold them back. Ok, but we know more than that from game lore, so here's where I think the details belong. Long ago the dragons attack a northern Skyrim city by sea (potentially Akaviri dragons or people from Akavir) and devastate Tamriel. We might even be able to find out which city, if we know of a city that is built into the cliffs along the ocean (didn't see that in the lorebooks but I just started looking). There are more than one dragon, and they appear to be allied with goblins (I don't think that's an Elder Scrolls style orc) this is problematic for the Akaviri people because the Akaviri snake people eat goblins and hardly would be allied with them. Somebody stands up to them but I don't see them in the lore (or this dragon invasion, though from the trailer it sounds like this happened before). People are fleeing to an important tower, and I believe there was a tower of the gods or something (adamantium?) in High Rock that is important but unexplored. This could potentially mean High Rock will get into the game as well, or at least the tower. The hero who is shouting, I believe is using the ancient nordic art of "The Voice" which Tiber Septim was known to use, which is a nordic form of magic which involves speaking words to do powerful magic (could be a redesign of the magic system in this game). Skyrim's ancient followers of the voice are supposedly today hidden away in caves in the high mountains, gagged and sworn to peace. (probably a main quest element will involve learning the powers of the voice from these ancient enclaves and convincing them to use their powers for warfare again. This artistically is a nice way to fight dragons who breathe fire, by breathing magic right back at them through the "Voice". Also just thinking from a technical standpoint, slaying a dragon with a sword in a video game will either be very hokey and unrealistic (slash slash slash) or they have some outrageous new system of swordplay making it possible, or they are going to only let you kill them with "the Voice" while defending yourself with a fireproof shield. We also have prophets called the "Greybeards" on high hrothgar who the player will probably visit, just like Tiber Septim did. In the middle I believe is Akatosh, I don't fully understand the lore of Akatosh but I know he is a god and a dragon. I also know that in Oblivion Martin brings Akatosh into the fight with Mehrunes Dagon, and so it is likely that if this is a direct sequel to Oblivion, Akatosh will play a vital role as perhaps the "good dragon" who fights evil dragons... Either way, somehow this combination of man and dragon in the center stops the dragon crisis. Next is the three figures, I believe the first is the King of Worms from Daggerfall (my theory is weakest here since Arena isn't included), the second is the Numidium from Morrowind and Daggerfall http://images.uesp.net//3/3d/MW-concept-AnumidumBW.jpg who is powered by the heart of Lorkhan and the third is the oblivion gates from Oblivion, set in front of the White Gold Tower in this image. Each crisis was averted by a hero pictured below, a faceless one because it was you the player in each case. Though I think this is reinforced by the armor of the third hero, which looks like the Champion of Cyrodill set of armor at least in the helmet. Another potential meaning for the heroes at the bottom is the 3 ages, and now we are in the fourth age, thus the larger size on the fourth hero. Now the dragons are back in the final phase of the petroglyph and a last hero even more powerful is standing to face it. In the trailer this figure is called Dohvakin, so I believe that solves the mystery of whether or not Dohvakin is the player or not, if the three other figures were the player, then so is Dohvakin. Last but not least, the last hero is also shouting, and looks the same as the first hero from the original crisis, to the left of Akatosh. To me potentially signifying that the central element to defeating these dragons is "the Voice" which will also be a key new gameplay feature. Unrelated, I also think that the levitate spell will be back, because they will want to feature flying mounts already in the new engine and will need to eliminate the cell loading issues (a dragon mount probably is on the table...) and it will allow them to solve some of the fast travel annoyances of the past. If instead of fast travel they have a really fast way of getting around that is visually stunning (imagine swooping past the high mountain peaks but not worrying about being attacked 400 times between one place and the next) but still convenient compared to the annoying but cool Morrowind system, and the unrealistic and too easy Oblivion system. They made changes like the auto leveling and fast travel in Oblivion to give us more freedom, and it backfired a little bit, but the freedom is a good idea. Let people explore from the beginning, even in a dangerous world don't make me feel like I CANT go there. So let me fly there and then get ripped to pieces when i touch the ground, freedom yes, good idea no. Well this has gone on long enough and I should probably finish my "lunch break..." heh heh. I want to hear other opinions from people who actually know the lore! I hope this new brightened high resolution image will help us unravel the mysteries! It's almost as fun guessing as having the answers given to us! Oh, by the way, this is my first post on the forum. I've been lurking long enough...