Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-9062114-20150428153757/@comment-9212235-20150531175752

It definitely holds its origins with D&D and when Arena came out the uniqueness that we not crave wasn't a thing Morrowind, and to a degree Redguard, we're the first ones to really push TES away from its D&D origins while still maintaining what had been there. Kirkbride said he wanted to spice up the pantheon while specifically not wanting to change the existing one (RIP Ebonarm). Point being, yes, just like all the other fantasy world's out there is still holds true some of the more common aspects of fantasy that have been established by Tolkien. And just like most fantasy writers, inspiration was taken from him. Hell, just yesterday Kirkbride jokingly called me an illiterate looser for not liking Tolkien. The inspiration exists cuz it's good.