Cyrodiil was a lot different beforeOblivionwas released in 2006. The Pocket Guide to the Empire described it as an “endless jungle”, with the Eastern socialites adorned in “garish costumes, bizarre tapestries, tattoos, branding, and elaborate ceremonies”, while the Colovians of the West were said to “prefer immaculate uniforms”.
The heart of the Empire was supposedly home to cults “too numerous to mention”, among them worshipping the Ancestor-Moth, Heroes, Tiber Septim, and Emperor Zero. Villagers would “wing their dead down the rivers” in paper hako skiffs, while homes were decorated with Akavari motifs. Dragons were even said to “circle overhead” at the Imperial City while the Emperor looked down on his people from the spires dotted along the walls.
Thousands of workers ply the rice fields after the flooding, or clear the foliage of the surrounding jungle in the alternate seasons.
However, when Oblivion finally reared its head and we stepped foot into the Emperor’s domain after 12 years, we saw none of this. Cyrodiil was made up of vast plains and mountainous crags, drawing on Roman culture and other high fantasy tropes; the “endless jungle” had been stripped away completely, and the only cult of note wasthe villainous Mythic Dawn.
As reported byGamesRadar+, many were surprised at how stark a difference the Cyrodiil mentioned in past games was to the Cyrodiil they were exploring now, including lore master Kurt Kuhlmann. Speaking in an interview withReece “Kiwi Talkz” Reillyon YouTube, he revealed that he had returned “during the end of pre-production” when the world-building had already been completed, and that he and former designer Michael Kirkbride had envisioned “a much weirder place than what you see in Oblivion.”
The Lord Of The Rings Completely Changed Oblivion Lore
Kuhlmann, who was hired by Bethesda the same day as Michael Kirkbride in 1996, towards the end of Daggerfall’s development, reminisced that he was able to tap into “Dune vibes and the Dark Crystal vibes” when working on Morrowind, one of the most alien fantasy RPGs in gaming history. He, along with Kirkbride, also penned the previously referenced Pocket Guide duringthe development of Redguard, and it was even shipped as a physical pamphlet alongside the game.
However, he left only a couple of years after leaving his mark on the series in 1998, during Morrowind’s pre-production, though he still wrote several in-game books in 2001, earning him a “special thanks” credit. Kuhlmann and Kirkbride laid the foundation for much of The Elder Scrolls' lore, but upon returning in 2003 for Oblivion, a lot had changed. Kuhlmann credits this with the popularity of The Lord of the Rings, and that Todd Howard “gravitates not towards the weird stuff”—hence the more streamlined fantasy.
That being said, Kuhlmann doesn’t begrudge Howard or the changes (he later worked as co-lead designer onSkyrim). Fully understanding the reason why, he said, “If you’re in charge of spending all this money and you want your studio to continue to exist nd pay salaries for people, you have to make a successful commercial product.” He also admitted that Skyrim wasn’t “all that weird”, though it did have “more dark corners than Oblivion”.
Nevertheless, it’s hard not to mourn the Cyrodiil that could’ve been.
