The developers of The Elder Scrolls Online have always wanted to unveil a great secret that players of Skyrim and Morrowind have always been interested in: The true fate of the Dwemer people. But there was a veto from above.
What secret is it about? Anyone who has played a game from the Elder Scrolls series surely knows what the Dwemer are. Or rather were, for this mysterious elven race vanished without a trace from the world of Tamriel centuries ago.
Especially in the games Morrowind and most recently Skyrim, you could often encounter the remnants of the Dwemer. Among them the famous Blackreach, where the twisted Steampunk sites of the Dwemer could be found in its underground caverns.
Since you often come across the Dwemer and their mechanical artifacts, many players wonder what has become of this people of inventors and mages.
Bethesda’s head forbids the solution to the great secret
What did the developers wish for? In an interview with GameInformer, Creative Director Rich Lambert also spoke about the wishes of his design team. When they were developing ESO, one idea was high on their list of cool things to include in the game: Unraveling the mystery of the Dwemer’s disappearance. Because so far there are only vague rumors about the final fate of the Steampunk elves.
But that didn’t happen. For Bethesda’s lead developer Todd Howard himself stepped in and clearly said “No!”.
We had a point in development where we were exploring Dwemer stuff. Everyone wants to know about it, and we wanted to know too, and we dug deep into the lore. And Todd kindly reminded us that this is something we will never do, we will never [come out with the secret] and spoil the mystery and secrets of the Dwemer. But we did explore it [at least internally], just to have a good idea of what might have happened.
Will we never know what happened to the Dwemer? One cannot say that either, as many a secret from the Elder Scrolls series has come to light at some point. And who knows, maybe the Dwemer will be the big topic in the upcoming 6th part of the Elder Scrolls saga?
Apart from the secrets of the Dwemer, there are many other curious lore elements in the vast world of The Elder Scrolls Online. The remaining races all have original traits that set them apart from the often generic species and cultures of other fantasy worlds. A good example are the feline Khajiit, of which there are 17 different forms and kinds.
