What is an Elder Scroll?

Every scroll is a story, and one of those stories is yours.

What is an Elder Scroll? Maybe it's just a cool sounding title for a video game. But not so fast. In the games, they are a real thing. They are amazing artifacts of great power – but not as rare as you'd think. There are many Elder Scrolls. They are described as containing fragments of the cosmos. They are, in short, stories.

Imagine if everything that could possibly be imagined happened somewhere within the multiverse. There's a version of you who made ever so slightly different choices.

We as players each live out our experience within such a fragment. We each get to tell a story which is uniquely ours. It is said that in general, no one can read a scroll and not be blinded by it. And there is an allegory there. We each have our own scroll - our own legacy, our own unique way of looking at and understanding the world.

It works for us - but it isn't anyone else's tale. It's ours. It is both incredibly rare and special, but also ordinary: because while individuals are not rare, you will never find any two which are the same. In the ethos of the Elder Scrolls, the Scrolls represent the players. They represent an endless ocean of stories which are told, and untold.

If you dig deep enough, you will conclude that each scroll is a monument to all the things that make us unique. Together, they represent the harmonious truth underlying all things, and each one is a thing of power and mystery. Nor are these principles original. In eastern philosophy and in Norse mythology, such allegories of universal harmony are certainly well woven into the ethos of Civilization.

Whether you are playing The Elder Scrolls or watching Lord of the Rings, going to work on Monday or church on Sunday - It is comforting to know that despite mixed metaphors, all our beloved stories are connected to the same universe.

But if there is a cautionary tale - it is that the scrolls are not meant for mortals to open and read. Which hints at the fact that when we focus less on our own adventure and more on others, less on the present and more on what could be or might have been, we may drive ourselves mad; for It is not wise to dwell on dreams and forget to live.

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"Eventually all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over the rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks, are the words. And some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by waters.”

A River Runs Through It | 1992 Film