Author: Lady Nerevar Lady Nerevar

The Imperial Library is a huge collection of books, articles, media, and behind the scenes information, and, as such, can be a bit confusing to a new member. But we're here to help! This guide outlines the basics of finding things in the library, browsing the stacks, and searching for specific information. If you've got questions after, or if you'd rather just ask right away, head on over to the Storyboard, our humble forum.

The Collections

All content in the library is organized into collections, seen in the menu to the left. While most are self-explanatory, here is a breakdown of what each contains. You can also mouse over each item in the menu to see a description of it.

Topics This page is a catalog of books sorted by topic. Only the important books are included, so this is the perfect place to start if you want to read the vital pieces of information about a particular topic. Random Book Randomly spits out a book from one of the games. Pocket Guides Full text and images from the Pocket Guides to the Empire, released with Redguard and Oblivion. This is another great place for an aspiring scholar to start. TES Game Books All the books from all the games, sorted by game. Clicking the All category will give you all the books from all the games. You can sort the lists by Category (the default), Alphabetically, or by Author. TES Storylines Transcriptions of the main quests of each game. Expansions are also covered where applicable. Novels Notes and excerpts from the two Elder Scrolls novels: The Infernal City and Lord of Souls. Geography & History Tamriel Calendar Tamrielic months, their lengths, and corresponding birthsigns. Tamriel Timeline A very detailed timeline of each era of history. Cartography Maps of all regions of Tamriel and beyond. Maps are labeled as official or fan made. Cities of Cyrodiil Descriptions of all the cities. Guide to Solstheim Geography, inhabitants, and other notables of this far-flung island. Notes on Vvardenfell A collection of in-game dialog from TESIII: Morrowind Major Realms of the Iliac Bay Political divisions and landscapes as seen in TESII: Daggerfall People & Society Races of Tamriel In-game descriptions for the various races Khajiiti Physiology An outline and graph of the various Khajiiti forms and their corresponding lunar phases Guide to Akavir Overview of the Akaviri races and their interactions with Tamriel Guide to the Dwemer Overview of the Dwemer Guide to Psijic Order A comprehensive guide to the Psijic order and Artaeum Guilds of Cyrodiil The guilds and their storylines TES Characters Bios of various quest givers and other important game characters Language & Arts Gallery of TES Concept art and screenshots of the TES games Daedric Alphabet The Daedric alphabet (font) and background Aldmeri Alphabets Dwemeri, Ayleid, and Falmeri, as well as background and translations of texts in these languages Translation Dictionary Translations of Ta'agra, Yoku, Ayleid, Kothri, and any other language found in lore Religion & Mythology Astronomy and Astrology Information on the moons and constellations Genesis Creation stories of the various races The Nine Divines In-game information on the Nine Divines Guide to Daedra Comprehensive guide to the Daedra princes, minor Daedra, and Oblivion in general Developers Obscure Texts Texts written by Developers but, for various reasons, not included in the games. Forum Archives Backups of important and interesting threads Mad God's Masque and Bellicose Ball Poems by Ted Peterson roleplaying as Sheogorath The Interviews Interviews with developers and in-game characters Special Collections Book of Spells All the spells from the games Go Blades! Back when Arena was a game about gladiators, all the cities had their own team. These are descriptions of them. TES Riddles Riddles from all the games Dog Ate My Homework Easter eggs and other weaseling by developers The Elder Scrolls Treasury A series of PDFs with all the books from the games, as well a all Tamrielic names, journals, and dialog. Collaboration About Us History of the Library and a little about the librarians who maintain it TES Elsewhere A collection of other TES fansites Forum Scholars Guild Articles about lore topics written by fan scholars

Searching the Library

By default, the search function looks only in the collections. If this yields too many results, you can use the advanced search to narrow it down. If what you want to find is in a book from the games, without including articles, select the game(s) in the category dropdown. You can also use the dropdown to search through the forum only. You can select any combination of search criteria, looking, for example, for every Elder Scrolls Online book in the Fiction category containing information on Redguards.

If you're looking for books on a specific topic, the Topics are another way to go. Any books containing significant information are tagged with a topic, like "molag bal" or "morrowind" - and will show up in the list. This is particularly useful for big topics and words that'd show up in texts that might not necessarily contain any relevant information.

If you still can't find what you're looking for, head over to the circulation desk and someone will help you out.

What's in a Book?

A short rundown of all the way a book appears in the library, and how to use it.

1 - The book's title

2 - The Librarian who submitted the book, and when they submitted it. In most cases, this is not the same person that wrote the book or article.

3 - The various topics associated with the book. Click any one of them to be directed to a list of all books tagged with that topic. Some books will have no tags.

4 - The category in which this book appears.

5 - The game(s) in which this book appears. Books that were released as part of a game's publicity on a website or in an interview will be tagged with the game's name, despite not appearing within the game itself. While the categories are named for the main games, they include any and all DLCs, expansions, pre-release content, or anything else.

6 - The author that wrote the book. If no author is known, it will simply say "Anonymous"

7 - Some books contain Librarian Comments. These comments might be about changes in the book between games, the way things are displayed, references to other books, or just about anything else.

8 - The actual text of the book. Often, this will include subheadings. In the case of multi-volume books, each of the headings can be clicked to access the individual volume.

A Few More Things...

Here are a few more random tips for using the library.

Sorting by Author is a great way to see all books in a particular series, or to discover an author's personal bias or outlook.

At the top of any book, right below its title, are listed the tags it belong in, the book type it is, and which games it is found in. This is a useful way to jump between books and topics in a more organic, surf-y manner.

The Recent Posts button in the top menu shows you every new and edited article on the site and post in the forum. As such, it is a great way to read along with newly added books as they are being uploaded.

We hope that the site makes a bit more sense now. If you're still confused, if you've found something that needs fixing, or if you have any suggestions, please head on over to our forums. Welcome, again, to our Library!