Board Thread:Future TES Titles/@comment-24037162-20180612082752/@comment-4708902-20180707041722

If so, this means bringing in elements from Arabic, Middle-Eastern and possibly Northern African mythology and folklore. Now we the people of the Western World know little about the mythology and folkore of those lands. So Bethesda will have to go straight to the source and turn to 1001 Nights and ''The Quran. ''Using this, Bethesda can populate Hammerfell with creatures and monsters found in Middle-Eastern folklore and mythology, and allow western gamers(Which I'm assuming are most of Bethesda's customers) to experience fantasy elements they may be unfamiler with.

Now of course they are some elements of Middle-Eastern folkore that is known in the Western world, such as the Jinn, AKA, the Genie. You've probably seen Robin Williams(Rest his soul) genie from Aladdin and other similar genies that come from lamps or bottles and can grant eishes. And while it is true they can grant wishes in middle eastern folklore, that only scratches the surface. Genies, according to the Quaran itself are half phsyical, half spiritual beings who have free will, can marry, and even die after a very long life. In other words, they are half supernatural, half natural. The only times they would grant wishes were if a powerful sorceror imprisoned them inside some sort of container, and forced them to do whatever they desired, not by wishing it, but by ordering it. And if the genie were freed, they would either grant a number of wishes to whoever did so as a reward of gratitiude, or take revenge on whoever did it. It should be noted that genies were not actually oblidged to give wishes to whoever freed them, the wish granting was more of a way of saying thank you.

So if genies were in Hammerfell, they would be more unpredictable and would only give you what you want if you free them from a prison and they are feeling grateful to you, or if you yourself imprison them similar to stealing souls and storing them into soul gems. There would of course have to be limits of what you could wish or order a genie to do since this is a video game, and even the most advanced games have limits.

Other middle-eastern fantasy creature include the Simurgh, which a bird with the head of a dog. According to Middle Eastern lore, it is the wisest creature in the whole world, speaks all languages, lives in the Tree of Knowledge, and knows all that has been and all that will be. This could make the Simurgh a vital character in the main quest as a mentor character. Perhaps in keeping with Elder Scrolls lore, the Simurgh is an Aedric creature related to the Divines.

The only other Middle-Eastern folklore creature I know of is the Roc, a giant bird with a wingspan of 50 feet. Folklore says they can pick up elephants with their talons, and can even eat them. Roc eggs are said to be the size of domed buildings. Now for an Elder Scrolls game Rocs would have to be shrunk in order to be fought, and in a way to put them into Tamriel, perhaps they are related to other deadly bird species like the Cliff Racer.