Originally Posted by
Mehrunes
Fair enough. Though the universe changing/timelines crashing isn't usually due to retcons (though occasionally it is, like in case of Cyrodiil's ecosystem), but to cover things like multiple endings of Daggerfall (where they all somehow happened despite being mutually excusive). Or sometimes just for world building that had nothing to do with in-game events, like the first Dragonbreak. I wouldn't personally call the Daedra not being treated as fodder as trippy though. Just a deeper take on things than "hohoho you disagree with Anduin so you bad".
Though that's not to say I dislike TES background lore. Not in the least. There's a reason why I chose my nickname after a Daedric Prince, after all. But personally the biggest strength of it is that TES realized there are going to appear divergent takes on history, especially parts of history that are parts myth and legend. Which is pretty organic. So we have conflicting creation myth, various stories about Tiber Septim, different views on Lorkhan's treachery and so on. And then there's the part that there is no "while some cultures believe X, Y is what factually happened" shoved in there. Because mysteries like that are not only good, but also make sense because things get lost in time.
As for the Godhead thing, it's all Kirkbride's stuff that he wrote years after leaving Bethesda altogether. And while Bethesda occasionally throws his fans a bone by making some character use some of the terminology appearing in Kirkbride's work like CHIM, personally I'd say there's kinda a reason why most of the time the character they choose for that is a lunatic like Mankar Camoran (who was quite clearly wrong about certain things he preached about, like Lorkhan being a Deadra or Nirn being a plane of Oblivion) or that annoying priest from Whiterun.
And speaking of Kirkbride, looping back to what I think is one of Elder Scrolls greatest strengths when it comes to the story, the reason I find Kirkbride so annoying is that whenever he approaches a topic where there are multiple conflicting sources his one and only solution is LEL THEY ARE ALL TRUE AT THE SAME TIME. Who's the Underking, Zurin Arctus or Ysmir Wulfharth? Why, the both of them together, of course. They are also both Talos together with Tiber Spetim, because why the hell not. Different races call the same god by different names, which is a completely natural phenomenon? Akshually, they are all separate gods! That are also a part of the greater god! Which creation myth is real? Obviously all at once, and not in the simplified fashion of the in-game Monomyth book.
And if he did that shit occasionally, that'd be one thing. But he does it all the time, which turns it from a weird aspect of TES lore like the Daggerfall ending to utterly cheap gimmick that goes against the very nature of TES lore. And just as Blizzard did with the Chronicles, he also commits the sin of answering every mystery, even when it cheapens things (which also goes against the very nature of TES lore). The above is already an example of that.
But let's look at parts of Kirkbride's stuff that appear in the game as well without being preached by crazy people. Like the towers. While in game the towers are referred to in prophecies, more or less vague books and equally vague Thalmor plans in Skyrim, in Kirkbride's work they are also thoroughly answered, leaving no room for imagination or mystery. When all towers fall, Nirn is unraveled and the state of the cosmos goes back to before Lorkhan's treachery so that the Mer can go back to being divine (because their creation myth is objectively factual, like all the others). That's all. Yay. Glad I had the metaphysical stuff laid out on the table for me.
Hell, the aforementioned Godhead is also an example of him explaining what really didn't need to be explained. In canon TES lore the answer to "how the universe came to be" is "here's 50000 different takes on that that may just well all be wrong". In Kirkbride's work it's LEL 'TIS ALL A DREAM, . It's the same kind of pointless fluff that in the end only cheapens things like when Blizzard decided to spell it out that the universe came to be when the Light and the Void bumped uglies by accident. Not to mention that to me the Godhead always slightly reeked off an attempt at a fourth wall break of "this world isn't real because it's actually a game".
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