Bethesda “lore master” of 29 years would’ve made The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion weirder like Morrowind, but what could you do when The Lord of the Rings was doing so well?

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It’s well-known that Oblivion didn’t have the same level of surrealism as Morrowind, Bethesda Game Studios veteran Kurt Kuhlmann believes there’s a valid explanation for this.

During a chat with Reece “Kiwi Talkz” Reilly on YouTube, the esteemed game designer known as the “lore master,” who joined Bethesda in 1996 and created iconic titles like Skyrim, shared that he re-joined the company during the final stages of Oblivion’s pre-production. To put it simply, most of the world-building for Oblivion had already been completed when he began working on it.

Upon coming back, Kuhlmann was taken aback to discover that Oblivion didn’t embody the Cyrodiil he and designer Michael Kirkbride had initially conceptualized as detailed in their “Pocket Guide to the Empire”. In contrast to what is depicted in Oblivion, their vision of Cyrodiil was a significantly more peculiar and unusual landscape.

However, despite the oddities, Bethesda seemingly embraced them without any particular justification. As Kuhlmann remembers, Todd Howard, in contrast, appears to be less drawn to the unconventional aspects of things.

While the developers of Morrowind, Kuhlmann and Kirkbride, successfully incorporated elements reminiscent of Dune and The Dark Crystal, aspects that Kuhlmann would have included more if given the chance – into the game, the Oblivion team opted for a more conservative strategy in their design.

If you’re managing these funds and aim to keep the studio running while ensuring everyone gets paid, you’ll need to create a profitable commercial product, as suggested by Kuhlmann.

Kuhlmann isn’t completely certain that a more unconventional interpretation of Cyrodiil might not have fared as favorably, but Bethesda’s Oblivion being less intense compared to Morrowind wasn’t solely due to this. According to the ex-designer, Lord of the Rings was also highly popular during that time because of the Peter Jackson movies.

Although he acknowledges that Skyrim wasn’t particularly bizarre, he believes it had a greater number of mysterious or hidden areas compared to Oblivion.

Being an ardent Elder Scrolls enthusiast like myself, Kuhlmann’s remarks pique my interest – to what extent will The Elder Scrolls 6 deviate from the norm when it eventually launches? The answer lies in the future.

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2025-07-14 19:39