i
Developer	Bethesda Game Studios
Publisher	Bethesda Softworks
Genre	Action role-playing
First release	1994 (Arena)
Platforms	PC, consoles, mobile
Setting	Tamriel (Mundus)

Games Developed by i
i i i

i

[ Expand · Collapse ] Main Series Arena Main I 1994 Daggerfall Main II 1996 CompUSA Expansion Morrowind Main III 2002 Tribunal Bloodmoon Oblivion Main IV 2006 Knights of the Nine Shivering Isles Remastered Skyrim Main V 2011 Dawnguard Hearthfire Dragonborn Legendary Special VR Very Special Anniversary VI Main VI TBA Spin-offs General Battlespire · Redguard · Eye of Argonia · Paradise Sugar · Blades · Castles Travels Stormhold · Dawnstar · Shadowkey · Oblivion Mobile · Oblivion PSP Online Guilds and Glory: Imperial City · Orsinium · Thieves Guild · Dark Brotherhood Daedric War: Shadows of the Hist · Online: Morrowind · Horns of the Reach · Clockwork City · Dragon Bones · Summerset · Wolfhunter · Murkmire Season of the Dragon: Wrathstone · Elsweyr · Scalebreaker · Dragonhold Dark Heart of Skyrim: Harrowstorm · Greymoor · Stonethorn · Markarth Gates of Oblivion: Flames of Ambition · Blackwood · Waking Flame · Deadlands Legacy of the Bretons: Ascending Tide · High Isle · Lost Depths · Firesong Shadow Over Morrowind: Scribes of Fate · Necrom · Scions of Ithelia · Gold Road Seasons of the Worm Cult: Fallen Banners · Solstice · Feast of Shadows Legends The Fall of the Dark Brotherhood · Heroes of Skyrim · Return to Clockwork City · Houses of Morrowind · Isle of Madness · Alliance War · Moons of Elsweyr · Jaws of Oblivion Strategy Guides Arena Manual · Codex Scientia · Daggerfall Manual · The Daggerfall Chronicles · Battlespire User's Guide · Battlespire Athenaeum · The Redguard Companion · Volume R · Morrowind Manual · The Morrowind Prophecies · Oblivion Game Guide · Skyrim Game Guide · Hero's Guides to The Elder Scrolls Online Books The Origin of Cyrus! · Pocket Guide to the Empire, First Edition · Pocket Guide to the Empire, Third Edition · The Infernal City · Lord of Souls · The Art of Skyrim · Tales of Tamriel (The Land | The Lore) · The Skyrim Library (The Histories | Man, Mer, and Beast | The Arcane) · The Official Cookbook Vol. 1 · The Official Cookbook Vol. 2 · Online: The Official Survival Guide to Tamriel Merchandise Merchandise · Call to Arms · Bethesda Pinball · Skyrim Monopoly · Fortnite · Skyrim Mash-Up Pack (Minecraft) [ Regions ] Tamriel — Provinces Cyrodiil Imperials Imperial City Skyrim Nords Solitude Morrowind Dunmer Mournhold High Rock Bretons Wayrest · Daggerfall Hammerfell Redguards Sentinel Black Marsh Argonians Lilmoth Elsweyr Khajiit Senchal · Torval Valenwood Bosmer Falinesti Summerset Isles Altmer Alinor Notable Sub-regions Islands Vvardenfell · Solstheim · Stros M'Kai · Auridon · High Isle · Artaeum Territories Wrothgar · Orsinium · The Reach · Imperial City · Alik'r Desert Planes of Oblivion Coldharbour · Deadlands · Shivering Isles · Apocrypha · Quagmire · Hunting Grounds Other Continents Akavir · Atmora · Yokuda · Pyandonea · Aldmeris · Lyg

The Elder Scrolls (often shortened to TES) is a fantasy role-playing video game franchise created by Bethesda Softworks. The games take place on the large continent of Tamriel and are known for giving players an unusual amount of freedom to shape their own character and choose how their story unfolds. This open, "living world" approach helped set a standard for the role-playing genre.

The franchise began with the game Arena. While Arena was being made, it changed from a combat-focused action game into a role-playing game. To make this clear to players, the phrase "The Elder Scrolls: Chapter I" was added to the title. The word "Chapter" was chosen to make the series feel like a book or tome, one that new "chapters" could be added to over time.^[1][2]

The original idea was modeled on tabletop Dungeons & Dragons campaign packs, with large and small "chapters" being added to the first game over time, similar to what players today would call expansions or add-ons. However, the company did not yet have the technology to support that kind of system, so future "chapters" became full standalone games instead.^[1]

A few of these planned "chapter" campaigns were originally designed for Arena, including adventures set on the open ocean, gladiator arenas, and a vampire castle called Mournhold. The Mournhold idea was first meant to be "The Elder Scrolls: Chapter II" before the team decided to build an entirely new game. The setting was later moved to the Iliac Bay region and the city of Daggerfall, which became the second main game.^[1]

The main series consists of five released games, with a sixth confirmed to be in development.

The Elder Scrolls Online is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) that has continued to grow through yearly story "Chapters" such as Morrowind (2017), Summerset (2018), Elsweyr (2019), and later releases, along with regular downloadable content.

Beyond video games, the franchise has expanded into other formats, including:

• Books — novels, guides, and other publications set in the series.
• Merchandise — physical media and official products.
• Board games — tabletop titles including The Elder Scrolls: Call to Arms (2020), Skyrim — The Adventure Game (2023), and Betrayal of the Second Era (2025).

The world of The Elder Scrolls is known for its detailed setting, with interconnected societies, cultures, and religions, each given its own history. Players learn about this world through in-game books and detailed conversations with characters. Fans who study this material closely sometimes call themselves "loremasters."

The games take place within the mortal world of Mundus, and almost always within one or more of the nine provinces of the continent of Tamriel:

Some titles—especially Battlespire, Oblivion, and The Elder Scrolls Online—also take place partly within the Planes of Oblivion, alternate realms ruled by powerful beings called the Daedra. While other continents are known to exist beyond Tamriel, players have not yet visited them in any official game.

Within the fiction, the "Elder Scrolls" are also a set of mysterious, ancient artifacts that the series is named after. They are prophetic objects said to contain knowledge of the past, present, and possible futures, and they play a role in several games' stories.

• The Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages (UESP)
• The Elder Scrolls Wiki (Fandom)

1. Source: The First Podcast — Everyone is a Hero of Their Own Story (with Vijay Lakshman). [https://audioboom.com/posts/7102926-everyone-is-a-hero-of-their-own-story-with-vijay-lakshman audioboom.com]
2. Source: The Elder Scrolls — 10th Anniversary article, originally published on elderscrolls.com.