Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-62.31.43.199-20131118141224/@comment-24590102-20140322142951

Thanks,Dovahsebrom, for the Xal-Gosleigh Letters link. I did notice the Kemel-Ze reference - although, strangely, the two correspondents seemed to avoid sharing academic specifics with each other. From experience, I know that it generally does not work that way - although the dispatch of a "demon from the east" does seem to allude to something which does happen when two friends with a shared viewpoint correspond about some controversy. However, that "demon from the east" usually takes the form of some fact or perspective which is entirely unanticipated by the other party to the controversy.

The funny thing about good literature (which, in my world, includes good film and good games) is that you can read quite a lot into it because, whether intended or not, the constructs within the plot take on forms which the author has experienced in real life. For example, Tolkien points out, in the 1966 Foreword to the Second Edition of The Lord of the Rings, that, "As for any inner meaning or 'message', it has in the intention of the author none [...] neither allegorical nor topical" and yet he admits that "An author cannot of course remain wholly unaffected by experience." We can see in the work of Tolkien, for example, a strong counter-eugenics theme which emerges in the examples of "weak" characters without whom all would be lost. Although, taking Tolkien at his word that such "meaning or 'message'" is not intended, it has still become one of the most powerful themes of his work. Possibly the most explanatory example of the unintended theme comes to us by way of Tolkien's "Scouring of the Shire" which is, actually, the most important chapter of the entire series because it details the outcome at the pinnacle of everything written in the series from the notes which later became The Silmarillion through The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien pointed out that "The Scouring of the Shire" did not reflect the situation in England at the time he was finishing his tale but, rather, that it was an essential part of the plot which was "foreseen from the outset". With or without Tolkien's commentary, I could not agree more because it was very much the expected conclusion of an epic saga which, throughout, incrementally built on the empowerment of the "weak". "The Scouring of the Shire" was, in The Silmarillion & The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings series, very much the cocoa in the chocolate. My point is that themes are often unintended artefacts of author experience and, if we can accept the uncertainty of author deliberation with respect to themes, we can get a great deal more from our reading of the literature.

Likewise, when we treat other uncertainties for what they are which, not to belabour the point enough, is uncertain, then there is a lot more room left for what we can say about those details of which we can be certain. For example, we cannot say from the Xal-Gosleigh Letters whether either correspondant was particularly knowledgeable about the Dwemer but we can say, from Xal's repeated request, that there was certainly a perceived relevance to Kemel-Ze carried by the Adompha scroll. However, in view of Xal's description of a local event involving the folk, we cannot be certain whether that Adompha scroll bears this perceived relevance in the context of this event or in the context of the ruins for which Kemel-Ze is famous. This, in itself, carries a mystery which may be worth pursuing in ESO - but if we jump to conclusion ahead of the facts, the mystery can be lost and, along with it, the opportunity to benefit from investigating that mystery. This is not so much a matter of reading deeply into the lore but, on the contrary, limiting what we read into the lore to those things of which we can be certain.

Effective reporting of folklore focuses on the facts and, so, presents us with what the narrative of the folk is, in context, rather than asserting it as some form of truth. The same can be said of reporting the opinions and conclusions of people thought to have expertise - if only because the history of various disciplines teaches us that such people are just as fallible as the folk. If you are interested, an excellent example of lore reporting and analysis is, in my opinion, offered by this article:

Luciani, L., 2013, Borrowed, Not Fabricated: The Valley of 'Gesufa' in the Sicilian Prayer 'U Vebbu', Folklore, Vol. 124, pp. 270-288

You don't have to write thousands of words, however, and the reason I'm citing this article as an example is because I think it shows what can be done by sticking to the facts and their direct inferences without reading much into things at all.