Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-9062114-20140217190926/@comment-24999978-20140805161733

Draevan13 wrote: Wow, it's been a while since I commented on this thread :P

I forgot to bring up something regarding the two Elder Scrolls novels, Infernal Cities and Lord of Souls. There are two possibilites regarding them and both of which mean they're cannon. As I mentioned, the novels contain characters/plot points (the Thalmor, the Red Year, the Argonian Invasion of Morrowind, and the Mede Dynasty) despite it being published 2 years before Skyrim was released and they were first introduced in-game. This can only mean 2 things:

1) Bethesda liked Keyes' writings so much they decided to incorporate them into their games, meaning they're canon.

2) Bethesda flat out told him what was going to happen to make sure his novels followed their cannon, obviously meaning they're cannon. This seems the more likely of the two as he mentions working with Bethesda in the novels' forwards to ensure the accuracy of his novels.

And, since all the points which first appeared in the 2 novels then appeared in Skyrim, the novels are in fact cannon, beyond any doubt. And considering this website has articles for the books; their characters and events, we here at the TES wiki consider them to be cannon.

A bit off topic, I know, but I just wanted to clear this up. That's all. The latter, predominantly. Greg Keyes confirmed that Bethesda did indeed make sure that the novel was lore friendly, and that he was constrained by needing to stick to the lore, but obviously some of his own flavour was present in the novel. In case you are interested, the interview is here: http://www.imperial-library.info/interviews-greg-keyes

Besides, some of those ideas were made by others, anyway, like (as I think I may have mentioned before) the Third Aldmeri Dominion (Second, at the time, as this was before TESO) was envisioned by MK.