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I have always been a fan of the Elder Scrolls series but haven't taken the time to go in depth with the lore. In anticipation of Skyrim, I'm interested in taking the time to get to know the lore behind the series. Anyway, I was wondering if any of you know of any online resources that would help me in my quest to learn. I feel as if a good knowledge of ES lore would further my enjoyment of previous Elder Scrolls games, as well the upcoming fifth installment. So, any help would be appreciated.
Going to warn you something. Try to ignore opinion pieces and summaries. I cannot tell you with the vast amount of people led completely astray with lore and facts due to reading a bad summary. Your best bet is books and the game. Obscure texts are debatable, but they don't conflict with lore, as of now but I highly suggest you don't read them till you have some foundation. Also, stick around and participate in this place. Ask as many questions as you like.
I would definitely say in-game books are a good place to start, there's a wide variety of books in the series and many can give good looks at lore. Just remember that the books are written from the perspectives of people in the setting, and there are fiction and non-fiction books, much like in real life. Obviously, all books are fictional in the sense that the things described in them are not part of our real world, but what I mean to say is that they're fictional in the context of the setting, so even in the Elder Scrolls world, what they say may not be all true, and even non-fiction books may not be completely accurate because they contain misinformation on the writers' part, deliberate or otherwise, therefore, not everything you read in books in the game is necessarily completely accurate, in some cases, multiple accounts may be given on a subject and it's kept ambiguous which one is true.
This is not to say that you shouldn't believe anything you read in books, of course, it just means that not everything you see is necessarily objective fact in the lore. And if there's anything you don't understand, feel free to ask here, after all, questions about the Elder Scrolls lore is one of the purposes of the lore forum. Just be warned that sometimes, posters here may write in terms that could be confusing to someone who isn't well versed in the lore, and depending on how much official information there is on the subject you ask about, you may end up getting a fair amount of speculation, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, you just have to maintain the distinction between official canon and fan speculation, and don't confuse the latter for the former.
The other nice thing about just stumbling onto books in game is that they are usually the most straightforward and/or basic. I would also suggest varieties of faith. It will give you a basic idea of how all the different gods are related. I would also caution against reading through some of the more complicated topics in the forum. If you don't have a solid base to follow the topics things can get really really confusing in the same way that the obscure texts mentioned above can.
I have not read Campbell extensively, if at all, since he largely ruminates on theories such as the Mythos exposed by Aristotle or Jung's sub-conscious world-understanding. I would also be careful about applying real-world theories to a dietetic world, one which is essentially of what we are familiar with and not but still lifeless once turned off. Bearing that in mind I would also disregard writing which has been created outside of the game, apart from that of actual player's experiences. Lastly, "Sophie's world" is still a good book if reading something like the 'Edd' or Norse mythology is too demanding.