The Elder Scrolls Online developers talk about working with Bethesda so they don't ruin the lore in future games.

The Elder Scrolls Online, an MMO approaching its first decade, has always been a favorite of mine because it can represent, in a sense, miniature versions of different continents and styles of the setting. It's even more impressive that it can do this at a faster pace than the mainline franchise, which last had a proper entry 13 years back.

Matt Frior and Rich Lambert, the studio director at Zenimax, were present when I met with them. We discussed the process of negotiating Todd Howard, as well the process for adding to the lore of the series without compromising it.

Frior responded that the developers have been thinking about this issue since the beginning. "When I first set up the project, Todd Howard and I spent three months discussing how to avoid that situation. We decided to place the game 700-1,000 years before the other Elder Scrolls mainline games.

"That was a part of lore that wasn't well known--there wasn’t much lore in there." Todd wanted us to be able to tell the stories we wanted, without having to rely too heavily on what had already been done. He thought that would make it boring.

Lambert says, "We also get a great deal of latitude." Over the years, Bethesda has developed a really awesome working relationship. They understand what we do, and they trust our work. We get to revisit old places, add our own spin to that, and we get to create a new lore.

Ithelia is a new Daedric Prince, and a welcome addition to the game's canon. Ithelia, who was introduced to the MMO last year in the Necrom expansion, will get some more development in The Gold Road.

Lambert also shares a story about working with Bethesda’s Emil Pagliarulo, who worked on the Oblivion quests: "I worked in Oblivion, so it was easy to say hey, Emil. Can you read this?" We sent him a three-page document, and I sat with him to go over it. He said, "Let me think about this a bit."

"He sent me back seven pages of information--like here's your mistake, here is what you did right, and here's all the nuance behind this stuff." We can share ideas.

I'm just glad that Bethesda is taking its time. ESO is a huge success and has a large community despite being released at a time when many would-be WoW-killers tried and failed to make the next big MMO. It has carved its own niche in a highly competitive ecosystem. It received its 43rd major upgrade on August 19.