ELDER SCROLLS: Why is Elsweyr a desert!?

[Mutie]

This is a bit of an odd one... But from my research in the back-story and canon of the Elder Scrolls I've always understood Elsweyr, the land of the Khajiit, to be a tropical rainforest of sorts. This fits in pretty well with the general positioning of the crountry, with the dry deciduous / evergreen forest of Valenwood to the West and the Stagnant marshy tangle of Black Marsh to the East. Not to mention the temperate, provincial lands of Cyrodiil to the North. This is also reflected by the fact that one actually walks the paths of both Elsweyr and Black Marsh in the form of the Ninbenay basin; displaying marshy and be-forested land.

HOWEVER. In skyrim all the Khajiit are sudden dressed in traditional desert wear, describing their home as a "Land of arid sands" etc. etc. Now this could be for several reasons... Personally I think it's their hinting at the next mothership title being far more centered around Southern Tamriel. Hel, just playing through Oblivion there is a shameless amount of crêpe pertaining to Skyrim in the texts and lore dotted around; especially in the opening parts of the game.

I'm looking at a map of Tamriel just now, from around Obliv's time, and Elsweyr is clearly a forest... Is 200 years really long enough a time period for such a massive climate change? It's bad enough that the desert of Hammerfell is just kinda sellotaped onto the side of the world, between Italy, France and Norway >.<

This kind of canonical inconsistancy really bugs me, I was just wondering if some of you more learned escapists (I only have experience with Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim) could shed some light / opinions on this.

 

[XMark]

Is there supposed to also be a large Khajiit population around Hammerfell? Maybe the Khajiit in Skyrim are from Hammerfell instead of Elsweyr? It would make sense because Hammerfell is right next to Skyrim. Not sure if any of them actually mention Elsweyr as their homeland.

 

[Rose and Thorn]

I thought half of the province was arid desert and the other half was tropical forest? I could be wrong, but I remember reading something like that when I was doing research on all the races.

Edit* I looked it up and the geography of Elsweyr says this: The northern part of Elsweyr contains arid badlands; the southern part is a lush sub-tropical environment with many forests. Only a few cities have been established, and most of the settlements are small villages.

That would make sense if Khajiits come to Skyrim, they are probably coming from the northern part of their province, which would be the desert part.

 

[Treeinthewoods]

"Elsweyr (pronounced "ELSE-where") is a region of the continent of Tamriel featured in the game series The Elder Scrolls. It is home to the Khajiit, a playable beastial race in all of the main series of The Elder Scrolls so far. It incorporates a desert like badlands to the north, fairly similar to that of Hammerfell, whilst in the south is a variety of dense jungles and woodland. This generally small nation is bordered by both Valenwood & Cyrodiil."

That's from the wiki, not sure how reliable you find that but it makes sense to me.

 

[Evonisia]

It could be both. Cyrodil has features of snow, temperate, marshlands, mountainous and english countryside in it. What stops Elsweyr from being the same (but with deserts/marshes)?

 

[Elfgore]

Go this article and read the summary:http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Elsweyr

To those to lazy, Elsweyr is mix of desert, jungle and woodland. With the former in the north and ladder in the south. Hammerfell is also not pure desert. It also has grasslands and mountains.

But, I think you're looking to much into it. Bethesda shits on their own lore whenever it pleases them or is the easy way out. Or they want to make a cool gameplay feature.

 

[Muspelheim]

If I recall correctly it's about half desert and half tropical. The desert regions are in the north, below the mountains bordering to Cyrodiil. The tropical regions are along the coasts and along Valenwood.

I'd wager that the northern regions are similar to the real world's Afghanistan, while the southern tropical regions are more like coastal India or South-east Asia.

Go this article and read the summary:http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Elsweyr

To those to lazy, Elsweyr is mix of desert, jungle and woodland. With the former in the north and ladder in the south. Hammerfell is also not pure desert. It also has grasslands and mountains.

But, I think you're looking to much into it. Bethesda shits on their own lore whenever it pleases them or is the easy way out. Or they want to make a cool gameplay feature.

Yes. They surely shit over their own lore with a sense of glee and malevolence, while picturing the tears running down the player's cheeks.

 

[Dragonbums]

The Khajiit population is very diverse.

As such it is safe to assume that the Khajiit you run into from Skyrim are from places that are predominately desert like.

 

[SajuukKhar]

snip

As pointed out by others already, Elsweyr is a mixture of desert and jungle, with the desert being in the north, and the jungle in the south.

Most Khajiit we see are from the north, and thus mention the desert, because the northerners are typically nomadic by nature, and have been for ages.

The southerners are the ones who usually live in more normal cities, and stay in one place, thus we see fewer of them.

You can even see the forest stops slightly over half way up Elsweyr from the coast on the old world maps.

The division area is around the above line, and the map included with the TES anthology shows the same

 

[Mutie]

snip

snip

Ah right, that makes sense (and I include you kind people who posted this answer prior to this one, also). This does, however, beg the question as to why in Oblivion one cannot see said desert, as opposed to forests across the boarders But that's just nitpicking!

With this revelation, this has only bolstered my suspicions that it could likely be the location of the next mothership. We learn a lot about Khajiit culture in Skyrim, more so than we have before, and the land would certainly make an interesting location! A lot of peeps say they'd prefer Elder Scrolls VI - TAMRIEL. But personally I don't think they're ready yet.

 

[Albino Boo]

can I just say I love that their country is literally called "else-where"

like

"where do those weird cat people come from?" "I don't have a fucking clue, but not here"

I have always thought that Bethesda nicked that from Moonglum of Elwher in Michael Moorcock's Elric novels. Moorcock was the George RR Martin of the 1970s and 1980s.

 

[J Tyran]

Not only is Elsweyr broken up into different geographical regions you have to remember the Khajiit you see in the Elder Scrolls games are Cathay, one of the several sub races of Khajiit. They all tend to favour different parts of Elsweyr, the Tojay for instance prefer the jungles and the much larger Pahmar live in the mountains. Cathay tend to live in the deserts and are the only ones that really travel outside of Elsweyr at all, there are about 20 different sub races of Khajiit iirc and its determined by the phases of the two moons at conception and at birth which they become.

 

[Mutie]

can I just say I love that their country is literally called "else-where"

like

"where do those weird cat people come from?" "I don't have a fucking clue, but not here"

Yes, I've always like the Khajiit and their homeland for that reason But I like to play characters more canonical to the games setting... Hence why I hope for Elder Scrolls: Elsweyr!

Not only is Elsweyr broken up into different geographical regions you have to remember the Khajiit you see in the Elder Scrolls games are Cathay, one of the several sub races of Khajiit. They all tend to favour different parts of Elsweyr, the Tojay for instance prefer the jungles and the much larger Pahmar live in the mountains. Cathay tend to live in the deserts and are the only ones that really travel outside of Elsweyr at all, there are about 20 different sub races of Khajiit iirc and its determined by the phases of the two moons at conception and at birth which they become.

And, my... Thank you for this information! This is gonna make building Khajiit characters far more interesting!!

 

[Alorxico]

Is 200 years really long enough a time period for such a massive climate change?

Took a look at the map from Oblivion real quick and I saw Elsweyr butts up to Cyrodil around the area where Kvatch is, and that's an area of few trees, tall wheat-like grass and big rocks. The swamp I think you are remembering is down near the Black Marsh area.

Still, 200 years is a lot of time and there have been a fair number of ... well ... violent natural and unnatural upheaval (cough ... explosions ... cough) since the end of Oblivion. I mean, Red Mountain, Winterhold, Cloudrest (I think. There are two canonical books that mention some city between Nirn and Oblivion blowing up and affecting the world); so the desert might be bigger now than it used to be.

 

[Engel Stam]

i hope the next big Elder Scrolls game is gonna be located is Elsweyr to clear things up a bit. for now, i think it´s like what you see in Skyrim, cause in the game there are different kinds of Cold climate landscapes: tundra, hot geyser swamps, high snowy mountains, misty forests etc. etc.
And i guess it's the same with Elsweyr but instead of many variations of cold landscapes many variations of hot landscapes: deserts, rainforests, canyons etc.
that's my theory. but all i want is another Singleplayer elder scrolls game located in Eslweyr cause in both Oblivion and Skyrim the Khajiit talk a lot about their homeland and it really makes me want to know what their land is like. also Skyrim was great at making weapons from different places really look like they were from a different culture. imagine what they could do with armour and weapons from Elsweyr.

 

[Rinshan Kaihou]

This is a bit of an odd one... But from my research in the back-story and canon of the Elder Scrolls I've always understood Elsweyr, the land of the Khajiit, to be a tropical rainforest of sorts. This fits in pretty well with the general positioning of the crountry, with the dry deciduous / evergreen forest of Valenwood to the West and the Stagnant marshy tangle of Black Marsh to the East. Not to mention the temperate, provincial lands of Cyrodiil to the North. This is also reflected by the fact that one actually walks the paths of both Elsweyr and Black Marsh in the form of the Ninbenay basin; displaying marshy and be-forested land.

HOWEVER. In skyrim all the Khajiit are sudden dressed in traditional desert wear, describing their home as a "Land of arid sands" etc. etc. Now this could be for several reasons... Personally I think it's their hinting at the next mothership title being far more centered around Southern Tamriel. Hel, just playing through Oblivion there is a shameless amount of crêpe pertaining to Skyrim in the texts and lore dotted around; especially in the opening parts of the game.

I'm looking at a map of Tamriel just now, from around Obliv's time, and Elsweyr is clearly a forest... Is 200 years really long enough a time period for such a massive climate change? It's bad enough that the desert of Hammerfell is just kinda sellotaped onto the side of the world, between Italy, France and Norway >.<

This kind of canonical inconsistancy really bugs me, I was just wondering if some of you more learned escapists (I only have experience with Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim) could shed some light / opinions on this.

Others have posted the map. Here is a direct quote from elderscrolls.wiki
"Elsweyr (pronounced "ELSE-where") is a region of the continent of Tamriel featured in the game series The Elder Scrolls. It is home to the Khajiit, a playable beastial race in all of the main series of The Elder Scrolls so far. It incorporates a desert like badlands to the north, fairly similar to that of Hammerfell, whilst in the south is a variety of dense jungles and woodland. This generally small nation is bordered by both Valenwood & Cyrodiil."

 

[J Tyran]

Not only is Elsweyr broken up into different geographical regions you have to remember the Khajiit you see in the Elder Scrolls games are Cathay, one of the several sub races of Khajiit. They all tend to favour different parts of Elsweyr, the Tojay for instance prefer the jungles and the much larger Pahmar live in the mountains. Cathay tend to live in the deserts and are the only ones that really travel outside of Elsweyr at all, there are about 20 different sub races of Khajiit iirc and its determined by the phases of the two moons at conception and at birth which they become.

And, my... Thank you for this information! This is gonna make building Khajiit characters far more interesting!!

Its a shame we have only seen the one race of Khajiit so far really, they have a lot of backstory and some of the sound damn cool. Like the way other Khajiit ride the largest (nearly the size of a horse) into battle and other stuff like that, I hope if they ever do set a game in Elsweyr they don't retcon a load of fluff like they did in Cyrodiil. Just read the descriptions of the Imperial City and other places in Cyrodiil in the books you find in Morrowind.

 

[SajuukKhar]

Ah right, that makes sense (and I include you kind people who posted this answer prior to this one, also). This does, however, beg the question as to why in Oblivion one cannot see said desert, as opposed to forests across the boarders But that's just nitpicking!

Because the forests of Cyrodiil would only gradually turn into the deserts of northern Elswyer, and we don't see far enough to see the change.

That, and its likely Beth didn't consider making desert textures for only one part of the map, that people likely dont even both really looking at, to be cost-worthwhile.