The Third Era doesn’t make sense.
I recently completed a review of the Third Era lore page, and added several discrepancies in the Notes section. In addition to all that, the introduction in TES Arena also says the following:
Now, 492 years after Tiber Septim took control and kept the peace, the land of the Arena has a new threat. The Emperor, Uriel Septim VII celebrates his forty-third birthday. But jealous hearts desire the throne and plot his downfall.
Obviously, we know now that the Third Era only lasted 433 years, and that Arena started in 3E 389. So that leaves us with a 103-year discrepancy. Even if we assume that it was dating back to when the Tiber Wars began, not when the Third Era began, we’re left with a gap.
I honestly think someone just ran out of steam when writing A Brief History of the Empire during the development of TESII: Daggerfall. “Seriously, 492 years? Can we trim that down a bit? Cut me a break, here, boss; we’ve got enormous bugs that need fixing.”
Anyways, I started this series because the blog was nascent, but that doesn’t seem to be an issue currently. Other contributors are coming out with some really interesting stuff, which I’m hoping to see more of. And you can’t add a new blog post without calling attention away from the previous one (sorry, thuum, looking forward to the rest of your Civil War series!). So, I’m cutting the Lore Lapses series back to biweekly, maybe monthly if activity stays up.
If anyone’s interested, it’s Sunday morning, and that means Classic Elder Scrolls has just started! Of all the Elder Scrolls podcasts and videos I’ve watched (and trust me, I’ve watched or listened to a ridiculous amount), this and Elder Scrolls Off the Record are the ones I’ve enjoyed the most. A lot of TES video/audio series are focused on informing, which gets old fast, while others are poorly planned out. The QGN team finds a fantastic middle ground, and really gives great coverage on virtually everything TES. Occasional developer interviews, lore, news, gameplay tips, mods, comparisons of the games, etc., etc. Every once in a while I have to shake my head at some lore oversight, but they’re always entertaining, and the product placement is tolerable.
