Skyrim Fan's Real-Life Journal Tells an Epic Tale

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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Skyrim Fan's Real-Life Journal Tells an Epic Tale

The creator of this leather-bound, hand-drawn journal that chronicles his adventures across the lands of Skyrim estimates he spent one hour working on it for every two hours of gameplay.

The Khajiit mage M'Bhasa, no-more-informatively known in the real world as Wula the Imgur user, is a serious Skyrim fan. How serious is he? Serious enough that he decided to record his in-game experiences in a leather-bound book, complete with illustrations, using a calligraphy pen. He says he almost always wrote in the book after playing, and even kept notes after "particularly detail heavy" sessions.

The penmanship is rough at the beginning, as the author acknowledges, but it really starts to come together right around his discovery of Mehrunes' Razor. The detail on the Ebony Mail illustration is even more impressive, and his efforts to learn the dragon language letter-by-letter are perhaps a tad obsessive but still very cool. The journal ultimately clocks in at 84 well-stuffed pages and ends on just about a perfect note - I won't spoil it for you, but I will say that I can't imagine a better way to wrap it up.

[gallery=1541]

Like many good gamer nerds back in the day, I used graph paper to map my progress through games like The Bard's Tale and Eye of the Beholder, and I thought that made me pretty hardcore. But the glory of this work makes me realize that I was playing in the minor leagues the whole time. So bravo to you, M'Bhasa - wherever you may be.

Source: Imgur [http://imgur.com/a/06q4x#0]


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Scentedwiind

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Nov 13, 2009
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I had tried to do this last summer but with mixed success. It is a really hard task to draw so well and so often as is required.
 

ImSkeletor

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Feb 6, 2010
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I got to say I was really interested in reading some of this. Then I saw the handwriting. I thought mine was bad.
 

Fappy

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Jan 4, 2010
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Page 200: "After returning her daughter to her I came to one final conclusion... there are more draugr in Skyrim than there are people."

This is a neat idea, but I'd have done it for Morrowind. By that I mean print out the in-game journal 'cause, you know, it's an actual journal XD
 

Renegade-pizza

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Jul 26, 2010
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God! I love gamers! The crazy and awesome stuff people do is so damn cool. Yes, I would've preferred black ink too, but this is still pretty frackin awesome.
 

josemlopes

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Jun 9, 2008
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Was he being mauled by a wolf while writting this. My handwritting sucks but its not like I am going to show off anything that depends on it.

And either way the content that is in there is just your usual Skyrim gameplay, I just wonder if he will include the bugs.
 

ShadowGandalf01

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Oct 3, 2011
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This is like something i'm planning on soing sometime.. not anything quite as detailed, just a simple diary of my Skyrim exploits. On a new save file of course, it's far too late to do it for my current run. I've already put 135 hours into it and done most of the major quests. I'll get around to it someday.
 

synobal

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Jun 8, 2011
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Daystar Clarion said:
I like it, but the I think the pink ink kind of ruins the aesthetic for me.
Ya it's neat but like why write an epic journal, in the style like that but go with Pink for the color. It's baffling.
 

Thyunda

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May 4, 2009
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Ronack said:
"And then I got another cave. And then I got another dragon. And then I got another cave. And then I got another dragon. Some guard had his knee capped. And then I" seriously, there's nothing to Skyrim's lore to warrant this ...
Not with that attitude there isn't!
 

Brother-Link

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Dec 6, 2010
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I agree pink ink probably wasn't the best choice. I feel like doing that now since I've threatened to in the past, but I'll bust out the quills I had used for an old art project, but I do like the artwork that went into it, drawing in pen can be tough because it's permanent.

I'll probably do this when I do my first play through on my PC when it's up and running and I get the mods I want installed just for that extra layer of immersion.
 

Maerx

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Sep 15, 2010
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Just finished reading it, wow it's quite good. It really feels like he was role-playing while writting that.
 

IamLEAM1983

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Aug 22, 2011
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Ronack said:
"And then I got another cave. And then I got another dragon. And then I got another cave. And then I got another dragon. Some guard had his knee capped. And then I" seriously, there's nothing to Skyrim's lore to warrant this ...
It's really a question of immersion. If you start reading the books and genuinely take your time, you can spend months fleshing out your character. If your objective is to clean out your quest log, you can blow through three or four faction quests in a single play session.

To each his own.

Space Jawa said:
Maybe the pink ink means he used dragon's blood as ink?
Maybe it's Blood Dragon ink?

AWW YEAH.
 

Sewa_Yunga

I love this highway!
Nov 21, 2011
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Hmm, the only thing I ever did for Skyrim was deciphering Mercer's journal by hand, though I'm pretty sure that I can't read it fluently anymore.
Daedric on the other hand... Daedric I can still read :D

Edit: The book looks nice though. Aside from the pink ink[footnote]I would've used a reddish brown ink if I had the perks to craft something like this :)[/footnote], the drawings hit just the right spot between crude and detailed to fit into a journal like this. The journal itself could do with a more "used" look, but the leather binding and strips make up for that.

Almost makes me want to start playing Skyrim again, but my last binge was not too long ago :)