The Elder Scrolls Online: Tales of Tamriel, Book I: The Land

The Elder Scrolls Online #1

by Bethesda Softworks

For the first time in print, step into the fantasy world of The Elder Scrolls Online. Tales of Tamriel - Vol. The Land takes readers on adventure throughout the war-torn landscapes and battlefields of Tamriel, featuring a horde of in-game texts and exclusive artwork. Lavishly bound and produced, this series of books is the definitive guide to lore from the Elder Scrolls Online.

Genres: Fantasy, Video Games, Gaming, Games, Comics, Fiction, Media Tie In

232 pages, Hardcover

First published March 17, 2015

About the author

Bethesda Softworks LLC is an American video game publisher based in Rockville, Maryland. The company was founded by Christopher Weaver in 1986 as a division of Media Technology Limited, and in 1999 became a subsidiary of ZeniMax Media. In its first fifteen years, it was a video game developer and self-published its titles. In 2001, Bethesda spun off its own in-house development team into Bethesda Game Studios, and Bethesda Softworks became a publisher only. It currently also publishes games by ZeniMax Online Studios, id Software, Arkane Studios, MachineGames, Tango Gameworks and Bethesda Game Studios Austin.

Reviews

[Katie Konneker · Rating 4 out of 5]

The creatures section was mostly meh, and not all of the races have interesting lore (mostly the human races, let’s be honest). Still, I really enjoyed this, especially as someone currently playing through the MMO. Loved the presentation and the pretty pretty pictures.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A partial compilation of all the readable books in ESO combined with some of the great illustrations and concept art for the game. Well worth it for the fan of Elder Scrolls lore and anyone who wants to read through some of the cool texts featured in the game without actually sitting at your computer or console.

[José Carlos · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reconozco que me ha costado pillar la premisa de "multiples origenes del universo" con sus paralelismos con la realidad de los mitos de Adan y Eva o la Evolucion de especies.
Mas allá de eso este libro es denso como el solo, añadiendo todos los libros y segmentos de libros de los videojuegos lo cual hace que su lectura sea lenta como patada de astronauta.
En algunos libros se contradicen varios puntos de la historia principal pero lo solucionan con el "cada cual tiene su punto de vista de los hechos, vencedores escriben relatos, vencidos abonan campos"
La motivacion de los Dwemer para hacer eso a los Elfos de las nieves la verdad es que tiene menos sentido que aplaudir cuando aterrizan los aviones, Bethesda curratelo mas.

[S. Policar · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll start by saying I'm a huge Elder Scrolls Online fan. When this duology released I had to have it. This isn't written like a story like the two Elder Scrolls series are, instead it's written as almost a documentary of Tamriel, it's people, the three alliances, and the histories of the regions. I think my favorite thing about it is that it was written to look like a collection of lore book pages that you find scattered throughout the game. It does give a lot of information on the races that aren't really found in the game too.
I think this book and the second are vital reading material for fans of the game honestly.
I give this book 5 of 5 Paws.

[Rowdy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is one of those books you should put on the shelves because it looks good and sometimes you can wander through the pages and admire the illustrations. Just never, and I mean never start reading it. It isn't worth your time. The lore is not as captive as you may hope. And thit is from a player who has played the game from Arena t0 The Elder scrolls online.

[Denise Montgomery · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you’re a fan of the Elder Scrolls world, you’ll enjoy this. If you’re not, you’ll experience a collection of snippets that may sound interesting but taken out of context, may be difficult to enjoy. I am a fan of the game series, so when I read these short glimpses into the world of Tamriel, I have experiences to draw from to appreciate the lore and fill in the visual blanks.

[maddie · Rating 5 out of 5]

i love nearly anything to do with the tes universe, so..

[jimmyjams · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m well and truly in my elder scrolls phase and while also playing the game this book has been a perfect tool to gain additional lore and appreciate this world even more

[Nina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm relatively new to the expanded Elder Scrolls universe so bits and pieces of this were a bit hard to digest. I found myself perusing lore items that had key words I had encountered in games and bypassed ones that held little to no meaning to me (yet). I will definitely have to revisit this one once I have a bit more of the base lore under my belt. Seems to be more appealing to folks already deeply immersed and less so for folks newer to the space. The book was very nice looking though! Lots of care into the look and feel of the pages + illustrations.

[Charlotte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Completely forgot to mark this as read when I finished it, whoops. Will write up a review soon.

Edit: Giving this 3.5 stars. The content was light and enjoyable to read although I was scratching my head over some of the lore. I have never played ESO and some of the lore is completely different from the main Elder Scrolls game and collides with the main games. I could list many examples of this, BUT this review would end up being super long.
Another rate down to 3.5 is that the presentation was lovely, but at times it felt crammed for the sake of putting in a lot of concept art. This book felt like a hybrid between art and lore (which is fine), but there were so many occasions I began feeling distracted from the text due to the crammed in art.

[Elin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Being a fan of both ES and ESO I enjoyed this book. The tales are light and mostly enjoyable. Sometimes they become a bit repetitive (same story, different versions through different eyes) which drops the grade a great deal. Sometimes I found bits of fact that didn't match previous games with ESO's lore, such as the ever-annoying fact that Argonians and Khajiit were slaves in Morrowind, but for some reasons they aren't in ESO although Morrowind takes place in 3rd Era and ESO in 2nd Era...

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing is terrible, amateurish schlock, but you'd expect that from a collation of in-game books and notes written by computer game developers. The beauty of this book is in its sumptuous illustrations and tome-like texture. Certainly worth a flick through, and looks great on your shelf!

[p1ka2So · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good quality of the book (design, prints, material) but translation into Russian is awful (especially typos).

[Chuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

--Bias Alert--
I am a huge Elder Scrolls fan and so this book gets an extra star even when it realistically probably shouldn't.

My only complaint is that the stories in this feel a bit abbreviated and slight by Elder Scrolls standards but considering the excellent quality of the art and design of the book itself I can't fault it too much. The Elder Scrolls setting needs a lot more actual paper books to explore it's amazing world.

[The Art and Making of · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full flip through and in-depth video review at: The Art and Making of