PounceDeLeon Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 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... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PounceDeLeon Posted January 5, 2011 Author Share Posted January 5, 2011 (edited) 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) Edited January 5, 2011 by PounceDeLeon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaylock Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 I think it is not waves but clouds on top of the mural. This would makes sense as it would then mean that the place depicated is Hrothgar, and it's 10,000 steps. Also, this is relevant as a man shouting can be seen, the nords have priests who have magical voices that are very powerful and this would be them useing their voices to defend. The main 'wizard' may represent Tiber Septim, who was a nord who was renowned for his great power of voice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadMike710 Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 A bit unrelated but can anyone spot the Oblivion logo in that image?Hint: Try to find it for yourself if you can, if you can't, click this: It's near the top right Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaylock Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 The deadric O is pointed out in the teaser trailer as soon as the narrator says ' oblivion' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadMike710 Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 The deadric O is pointed out in the teaser trailer as soon as the narrator says ' oblivion' You mean the Oblivion O?Well that's unfortunate for me then... For about a week my YouTube stopped working. And after that I forgot about the teaser so I never saw it. o_O Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PounceDeLeon Posted January 6, 2011 Author Share Posted January 6, 2011 I think it is not waves but clouds on top of the mural. This would makes sense as it would then mean that the place depicated is Hrothgar, and it's 10,000 steps. Also, this is relevant as a man shouting can be seen, the nords have priests who have magical voices that are very powerful and this would be them useing their voices to defend. The main 'wizard' may represent Tiber Septim, who was a nord who was renowned for his great power of voice. 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PounceDeLeon Posted January 6, 2011 Author Share Posted January 6, 2011 Also, nobody has any opinions on the goblin bottom left? This is the strangest part to me, since dragons and goblins are hardly friends. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaylock Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 I cannot see any goblins, perhaps a localised jpeg would help? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PounceDeLeon Posted January 6, 2011 Author Share Posted January 6, 2011 I cannot see any goblins, perhaps a localised jpeg would help? 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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