Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-108.253.68.177-20131021030335/@comment-42.191.145.196-20181225145203

69.172.152.109 wrote:

ANYWAY...

Bethesda keeps things vague and uncertain about former PCs because they want to preserve our ability to have "our own" versions and ideas of these characters. My TES heroes have always been women, for instance, and "canonical" male versions of these heroes would make "my" versions suddenly no longer count, which would rob something from my experience of the games... something that kind of annoyed me about the strong implication that Sheogorath in Skyrim is HoK and Neloth's possible reference to Nerevarine as male (at least Septimus didn't specify). My Nerevarines were, likewise, a Dunmer thief of the Bal Molagmer and a Breton sorceress of the Mage's Guild, with tentative allegiance to House Telvanni. I wouldn't want to hear the Nerevarine was a male Dunmer warrior. And my Dovahkiin were an Orsimer wisewoman, a Redguard werewolf warrior, and a Dunmer vampire assassin, and each made specific decisions regarding the factions they aligned with, which Daedric princes they were willing to involve themselves with, whether or not they killed Paarthurnax, which side (if any) they supported in the Civil War and why, etc. If Bethesda made a specific canonical Last Dragonborn and defined their decisions, again, it would rob me of my sense that the "timelines" of my own Dovahkiin are legitimate and "real".

Bethesda are, as usual, just being really really smart and following their defining mission statement of allowing each player to play their own way, make their own choices, and ultimately have their own "version" of the game and it's story. Whatever the individual player likes and chooses. It's a brilliant approach, it serves them well, it keeps the game extremely inclusive, and it's the absolute best thing about TES. They aren't going to throw that away on a silly "Returning Champion" motif or providing definitive answers to questions that don't need to be answered like what exactly happened to The Nerevarine after you, or I, or anyone else, stopped controlling their path..