Written Dovahzul looks a lot like ancient cuneiform, but it's actually got a different source of inspiration: the dragons themselves. Unlike English, for example, Dovahzul verbs don't have tenses.Īdamowicz helped Pagliarulo come up with Dovahzul's written form, which consists of a 34-letter alphabet, each of which represents a unique sound.

Pagliarulo started by studying Old English, specifically as it's found in the medieval epic Beowulf, and then started paring down the rules to keep things simple. That meant making a language that could rhyme in translation from English lyrics, and that was complicated enough to sound authentic while remaining easy to learn and speak.

Bethesda's team wanted Dovahzul to be flexible enough to support multiple uses, including Skyrim's orchestrated main theme. Arena's marketing materials had already been printed, however, so someone proposed 'the idea that the Empire of Tamriel, because it was so violent, had been nicknamed the Arena.' Lead designer Vijay Lakshman tacked on the Elder Scrolls name ('I don't think he knew what the hell it meant,' Peterson admits), and one of the biggest franchises in gaming history was born.ĭovahzul wasn't easy to make, either. Eventually, the arena was dropped altogether. As Ted Peterson, one of Arena's two main designers, explains, 'The initial idea was that there was a series of tournaments in arena, and your character fought in a team to win the coveted title against other teams.'īut Peterson and the rest of the crew started adding RPG-style side-quests set outside the arena and quickly realized that those were more interesting. It was going to make an action game, with a healthy dose of sports on the side. So, when The Elder Scrolls: Arena rolled around, Bethesda wasn't planning to make an RPG, something that it hard no experience doing.

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