#es lore

Language is innate to the Dov, the Dragons. To them, to be powerful is to be right; a verbal argument is a battle.

The language of the Dragons, commonly called Dovahzul by fans, has an alphabet the consists of 34 letters (excluding C), of which 20 are consonants and 14 can be considered vowels. Each letter has a rune with an angular, claw-like appearance, implying that the runes were designed so that they could be written by a Dragon’s claw.

To Dragons, their language is inherently magical. To mortals, years, perhaps decades of training is required to harness some of the magic of the Dragon Language in the form of the Thu’um, or the Voice. A Dragonborn has the advantage of being able to learn Words of Power instantly; however, they still need to find and learn them first, unlike the Dragons, who know them intrinsically.

Note: while the letter C has a glyph, officially, it is not used in the Dragon Language, and only appears in transliterations from The Elder Scrolls: Legends.

On the graphics, the letters surrounded by slashes are phonemic transcriptions in IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet), which provide a more accurate representation of the pronunciation of a letter.

For help with IPA, see the IPA Pulmonic Consonants Chart with Audio and IPA Vowels Chart with Audio on Wikipedia.

Shadowmarks are markings that are used by the members of the Skyrim Thieves Guild in the Fourth Era to leave various messages to each other at particular locations. Usually, Shadowmarks are engraved into door frames.

Below is what each of the marks mean:

The Guild: the symbol of the Thieves Guild

Safe: the location is safe

Danger: the location should be avoided, or approached at your own risk

Protected: the location is protected by the guild and should not be burglarized

Fence: the person nearby is a fence and can buy stolen goods

Thieves Cache: items left by the guild to aid fellow members

Loot: there are valuables nearby

Empty: there are no valuables at this location and it can be avoided

Escape Route: usually found in dungeons and jails

A timeline of the Elder Scrolls games in the order of when they are set on the Elder Scrolls timeline along with the years of their release. 

Calcelmo’s Stone is a Dwemer artifact found in Calcelmo’s Tower in Markarth. It features both Dwemer and Falmer writing which describes the fate of the Falmer who sought the protection and refuge of the Dwemer from the invading Nords during the First Era.

While the translation does not appear in TES V: Skyrim, it was posted on Reddit on the /r/TESLore subreddit, sent from Kurt Kuhlmann: co-lead designer of TES V: Skyrim.

To the Dunmer, the Good Daedra are Azura, Boethiah, and Mephala. However, despite being called the Good Daedra, they are not all benevolent; they are called so because of their deeds for the Dunmer and the Chimer before them and the Velothi before them, which helped shape and define their society, culture, and morals.

During the time of the Tribunal, the Good Daedra were also known as the Anticipations of ALMSIVI, and were considered lesser than the Tribunal. However, after the disappearance of the Tribunal, the Dunmer returned to worshiping the Good Daedra, and they are also called the Reclamations by the New Temple.

Although the exact definition of what a Kalpa is in The Elder Scrolls is unclear and fraught with conjecture, the most common theory seems to be that a Kalpa is a period of time between two significant metaphysical events related to time that repeats itself and forms a cycle.

A Kalpa perhaps begins at Convention, a convening of the Aedra to decide the fate of Lorkhan during the Dawn Era, and perhaps ends when Alduin eats the world. The rest of the timeline occurs between the beginning and end of a Kalpa.