Yesterday (November 11) saw the world celebrate the ninth birthday of the original release of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and, in celebration, a fan has translated the original developer notes of Todd Howard.
Todd Howard was the director of Skyrim and is now executive producer at Bethesda Game Studios, but he’s also known as the face of The Elder Scrolls and Fallout.
It doesn’t matter how a video game begins whether it’s big or small, they all come from an idea often written down on paper.
So to celebrate the ninth birthday of Skyrim a fan of The Elder Scrolls and host of The Fallout Feed podcast, Jessica-Star, has translated some of the original notes on the game from Todd Howard. (Note, we say ‘translated’ – Howard just has really hard-to-decipher handwriting, apparently).
Jessica-Star said in a tweet that Howard’s hard-to-read handwriting in the notes is “basically the same” as her Dad’s, so she was able to translate the notes for us to enjoy.
“A few years ago Bethesda Studios published a really neat page with Todd Howard’s earliest notes for Skyrim,” Jessica tweeted. “Some people had trouble reading it–but his handwriting is basically the same as my Dad’s, so I did a typed translation”
Much of the ideas seen in the notes we know about, because they made their way into Skyrim in some form or another. However there’s something special about seeing these very early ideas knowing what they’ve become.
The notes reveal the idea of Skyrim being set “100 years after Oblivion” with a collapsed Empire as well as featuring a “radiant story and quests”.
In the notes it is also revealed that some of Todd Howard’s ideas of epic monuments in Skyrim were inspired from The Gates of Argonath from The Lord of the Rings.
We also learned in the notes this is where the “Fus Ro Dah” was inspired by the Star Wars Jedi power.
Fus Ro Dah is a powerful chant in Skyrim which grants the player to use a Force Push-like power against your foes.
In the notes it also reveals that Dragons were always meant to play a prominent role in Skyrim which resulted in the games epic opening moments
Over the years modders have replaced Dragons in Skyrim with the likes of “Macho Man” Randy Savage and Thomas the Tank Engine. Are you still playing Skyrim nine years later? Show your love on its ninth birthday by reacting to our Emoji’s below.
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Featured Image Credit: Bethesda