Since they announced The Elder Scrolls: Online the factions have been smack in our faces, technically.

[img]http://www.technologytell.com/gaming/files/2012/05/the-elder-scrolls-online.jpg[/img]

The Lion, The Eagle, The Dragon.

Boom.

Yeah it's been noticed

Yes we know, the Ebonheart Pact, the Aldmeri Dominion, and the Daggerfall Covenant.

The three factions lion + eagle + dragon thing was actually leaked at the same time someone said TESO will be announced in may.

Yup we know

Ebonheart pact : Nords, dunmer, Argonian =Dragon
Aldmeri Dominion: Bosmer, Altmer and Khajiit = eagle
Daggerfall covenant: redgaurd, orc, Breton = Lion

I'm not super into the lore, but isn't the Aldmeri dominion incredibly soon, the dunmer shouldn't be dunmer yet and the Nords, Argonians and Dunmer should hate each other? Seems very out of place, given it's supposed to happen way before Elder Scrolls titles we've had so far.

Did I miss something?

Yes and no. This is the first Aldmeri Dominion, which is appropriate for the time.


The Dunmer changed from the Chimer back in the First Era, so we're still good.


Ah...now there's where things start to get strange. Those three are pretty much mortal enemies of each other, so....

Your history is a bit off. The Dunmer are very much Dunmer at this time, and the Aldmeri Dominion has existed in one form or another for a very long time. As far as the Pact goes, the Nords helped the Dunmer refugees out of compassion in Skyrim, I see no reason why they couldn't work together to fight a common threat to their existence, even with them still hating each other.

Yeah from what I heard its about 1000 years before Skyrim takes place, so I think that makes it about beginning of the 3rd era. (Don't kill me for not knowing lore please)

That's a change specific to Skyrim.
I asked because I know the lore but not the dates, hence it seems the first two I got wrong.
The Nords, Dunmer and Argonians hating each other though? No, the argonians used to be enslaved by the Dunmer, they recently [censored] their [censored] up the moment the Dunmer were in trouble and the Nords and Dunmer used to hate each other before Skyrim.

Indeed, but this isn't really breaking lore so much as using lore to create an interesting faction and conflict within that faction. Having a bunch of guys who hate each other forced to team up due to circumstance is much more exciting than using more predictable alliance patterns. Now if the Argonians allied themselves with House Targaryan, that would be breaking lore.

Or it's asinine and a total retcon for the sake of sales and convenience.

I have no idea what the Dragon faction represents, but I'll probably join them because Dragons are cool.

Can I interest you in my most recent screenplay, "Everyone is Friends with Everyone and Nothing Changes For 120 Minutes"? The title contains hints about the plot.

This would be the case if I could believe that circumstances had indeed forced the Argonians to side with the Dunmer. I don't see anything so trivial as a Daedric invasion of the mortal realm causing that to happen, personally.

Come to think of it, shouldn't the Orcs, bretons and redguard have conflict too? IIRC, the Redguards made it on the continent by declaring all-out war on the orcs (they really didn't have much choice), then the Orcs struggled making their own nation in High rock. No word of them HATING each other but obvious conflicts there.

Am I wrong on the timelines again? Or the wars?

Honestly, Orcs and Redguards makes about as much sense as Dunmer and Argonians.

No you're correct there are massive Lore inconsistencies every other race hates someone else in the same faction around that time

The Nord Hate Dunmer Hate Nords Hate Dunmer Hate Argonians Hate Dunmer.

The Redguards Hate Orcs hate Redguards with Bretons...

The Bosmer hate Khajiit, Hate Bosmer allied with Altmer forming the DOminion.

the times are off and it would have been better if this was 1000 years AFTER skyrim...it would fit with the IC description of Molag Bals Realm "a Future version of Tamriel destroyed"

So what if its specific to Skyrim, it means it happened. Our very own history is full of examples of enemies forming alliances to fight common enemies. We even have a phrase you may have heard, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." Now... do we expect this relationship to be ideal and Dunmer, Nords, and Argonians patting each other on the back over pints of beer? HELL NO! But that doesn't mean they can't kill some undead Imperials and glower at each other, all the while probably maneuvering for the moment they will betray each other.

Its actually a hell of a lot more logical than saying for thousands of years these races have NEVER ONCE worked together despite their hatreds of each other.

I'll agree that it's a stretch, and the reasons behind it need to be damn good or else it could be laughable. It's a little too neat that each faction contains exactly 3 races, to be sure, but all of this can potentially be made interesting and believable.

I think you unwittingly hit the point. None of the races are particularly fond of any of the others, and they all have good reasons to hate each other. Hatred however, does not mean you cannot have cooperation for common goals, especially if you are hoping your nation will come out on top at the end of such alliances.

I want to hope. I really do.

Unfortunately, I'm panicking, so I can't really bring myself to think this is going to work out well.

You didn't. Zenimax did.

My point is you're making excuses to defend crappy writing and disloyal writers. It doesn't work like that. It's not like the writers said "ok so we should align the factions based on what's logical based on existing lore?" and then Stan in the back said "NO that's what they'd be expecting! It makes much more sense to completely contradict our existing lore! Fans will LOVE the constant inconsistencies and how unreliable we are about giving them facts and trends they can rely on! EVERYONE will understand that we thought this through and how times change!"

No that's crappy writing.

Besides, the Dunmer will never ally with anyone during the second era. I mean who needs allies when you have 3 gods on your side?