The first of two volumes in the Tales of Tamriel set came out yesterday, and I thought I’d describe what it’s like in person. In case you haven’t heard of it, this is a compilation of lorebooks from ESO; the entirety of it is text that you can read in-game (or on our wiki!). Skyrim will have a similar set, containing three volumes.
So here’s a brief description of it:
The Cover: This is a hardcover volume. The cover itself has a smooth, soft sort of feel, the logo is embossed, and the text and design around the edge are shiny silver – pretty high quality. That brown stripe that you see in the above image is something along the lines of a dust cover I think, rather than just being something to throw away; the text and image on it are glossy. Here’s what the book looks like without it:
The Content: This volume focuses on the three Alliances and their homelands, as well as some creatures; it contains both books and also some journals and the like. A table of contents for this volume can be found here, on the wiki. The text is as it appears in-game. It’s in a decent, readable font too; that’s one thing I like: the font in the Improved Emperor’s Guide to Tamriel, which came with the collector’s edition of ESO, was made to look like it was handwritten, and it’s somewhat difficult to read (nigh impossible, compared to other font, for a while after I first had eye surgery) and I appreciate this being a more regular font.
So much to read!
The Images: The book has illustrations on nearly every page. While we’ve seen some of them before in concept art, and wallpapers, and so forth, the majority are brand-new. There are both sketches and colored images.
All in all, it’s a nice, high-quality collector’s item for those who are fond of the lore and who want a physical copy.
