Let me say first of all that I may be getting ahead of myself; I’ve only had a chance to view and experience a very small slice of ESO. I have no idea what they may have planned, and I may be misinterpreting things.
That being said, ATTACK IN THE NAME OF THE EBON ARM!! SHOW NO MERCY!!
I noticed that ESO included a new version of From The Memory Stone of Makela Leki, a wonderful, rich, often-overlooked text from the ancient days of TES II: Daggerfall. I was delighted, as it was one of the many older texts which I had been hoping to see again in a TES game.
Then I read the changes in the new version.
Many of the changes were insubstantial (not to mention entirely unnecessary and maybe even detrimental, but I’ll save that rant for another day). But one change was substantial, and it really bugged me: they killed Ebonarm.
If you’re unfamiliar with Ebonarm, see the link above. He’s a God of War in the Iliac Bay region. Or at least, he was. He hasn’t been mentioned since Daggerfall, but that’s hardly surprising. Many, many things have disappeared from TES, only to return with gusto a few years later. That is what many of us have always loved about TES: the integrity and detail of the vast, strange world it presents to us. Almost every little thing about it seems to be carefully thought out and meticulously incorporated (almost; spare me the list, lore masters). The deeper down the rabbit hole you go, the more wonders you will find; that is TES. So naturally, on the wiki, we presume things remain “true” from game to game unless and until they are controverted.
Well, with ESO, Ebonarm’s existence is now controverted. We’ve all been busy with ESO preparations, so I didn’t even notice the absence of Ebonarm until I saw that mentions of him were actively omitted from Memory Stone of Makela Leki. But, looking back, I realized that Ebonarm’s not mentioned in Varieties of Faith in Tamriel, or anywhere else I could find where a mention of a god of war would be expected. He has been written out of TES.
NO.
I’ve had plenty to grumble about with ESO (see Legoless’ forum discussion and my previous rant), but it’s mostly been over relatively small mistakes and similarly inconsequential changes. But this is different. The only gods I can think of in a similar situation are Seth, a god from Arena who has not been heard from since (most likely an abandoned concept), and Sai, a god of luck whose story is somewhat intertwined with Ebonarm’s (meaning that if Ebonarm has been erased, Sai is most likely gone, too).
But unlike Seth, Ebonarm is actually an interesting character, and one with significant backstory. Take a look at the books The Ebon Arm and Oelander’s Hammer. He’s an enemy of all Daedric Princes. There were temples dedicated to him in TES II, for ****s sake. More importantly, he has room to grow. It’s not just what they’re throwing out that I find objectionable, but what they’re failing to add. Ebonarm’s a diamond in the rough, filled with potential. And what I expect, nay, demand, from The Elder Scrolls series is that they polish their diamonds, rather than chuck them into the trash.
I was resigned to simply add this to the list of black eyes ESO has given to the lore, until Pilaf the Defiler inspired me to fight back. So here we are. Don’t tacitly accept the end of Ebonarm. Demand an explanation! Push for a reversal! Next time Zenimax wants to have a Q&A, chant the name of the Black Knight. When they ask what you would like to see, request the ebony-clad ginger with the mightiest of swordarms. Fight for the Black Knight. Shout from the rooftops that we’re mad as hell, and we’re not gonna take it anymore!
Or, at least, add this userbox to your user page.
Pilaf also pointed me to this dissertation on Ebonarm from IceFireWarden over at the illustrious Imperial Library. Speculative, but definitely worth a read.
And now for something completely different, courtesy of AddictedtoMorrowind on the forums:
