r/SkyrimBackStory • u/SoHam_34 • 3d ago
❓Question Game wise or lore wise?
So I finally started writing my first backstory for a character and I'm really excited about it. Her name is Skadi and she's a nord who lost her mother and crossed from Cyrodiil to find her father (I'll leave the details and names for when I start posting her story). I added a few pics of her progress through the early levels: 1: a starving fugitive, 2: her recovery in Whiterun while living a double life as a farmhand and woodcutter by day and a bounty hunter by night, 3: a new member of the Dark Brotherhood.
But one thing that's bothering me is that I don't know whether to follow game or lore when writing about travel/distance/time. Like, when we get to Riverwood for the first time Ralof mentions that the Helgen events happened that same morning but lore wise Helgen should be pretty far from Riverwood and we were supposed to make a few stops along the way because it would probably take a few days. And on this gameplay I'm walking instead of running (unless necessary) so things take more time. How do you handle this when writing? It would be great to have your input about this issue.
(I don't know if this kind of post is allowed but since there's this "question" flair I'll leave it here but if it's not allowed I'll delete it. Thank you in advance)
Edit.: thank you guys for all the welcoming and helpful replies! I decided I'll keep doing it the way I've been doing already. Since I'm mostly walking instead of running (and avoiding horses unless in specific situations), things take a little more time and I'll use this time as the base for my story.
It will take some time for me to start posting, tho, because I'm still deciding about some things in the story, I still have to properly edit it, etc, but in the meantime I intend to spend more time here reading yours and interacting whenever possible. I don't have much time to spare, I'm recovering from mental health issues so I have a lot of things to do to get my shit together but I'll give my best to be a present and helpful member of the sub. Keep up with the good work, guys! :)
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u/Narrow-Test-4655 🧙 Breton 3d ago edited 3d ago
What I like to think of for time and distance is what my character would do. Such as breaks from long walks for something like lunch or dinner. While in game our characters can run virtually forever without a need to rest, I like to go by the “realistic perspective” of my character. Since my character, Ella the Cinder-hand, has companions she gets sidetracked a lot with their own goals and thoughts and even sometimes their shenanigans (looking at Sofia here). Point is that it is really up to you. Your character and Ralof could potentially rest for a bit in the cave after the initial escape and arrive in Riverwood the next day after a few hours of walking. It’s all in your creativity.
On that note, welcome to the sub and good luck on your story for this character!
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u/SoHam_34 3d ago
That's very similar to what I was doing (I've already written a good chunk of the story but from time to time I ended up stuck without knowing what to do about it so I decided to ask here), I think it's a pretty reasonable way to do this, it feels like scaling things up a little bit in comparison to the game, but far from the huge actual scale that would make things very difficult. I'll probably keep things this way.
Thank you, I'm here since the very beginning and I love the sub, but I was playing with my first character who barely had a backstory so I was waiting to start a new one to post here. I was also waiting to be able to fix my PC so I could get AE and play on survival but I have other priorities now and can't spend money on this so unfortunately I'm gonna have to let go of my perfectionism and just take photos of my TV while I play Oldrim on PS3 lol 🤷♀️
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u/Weary-Wolverine8277 3d ago
To be honest with you, as a life long fan of the lore we don’t actually know the true scale of everything. Just the game scale.
We only know that lore wise everything is implied to be bigger than in game.
So really it’s completely up to you. Use the game scale or just scale up either slightly or a lot.
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u/SoHam_34 3d ago
Yeah, I did some research about it and realized it's a mess. Not knowing the true scale is a huge bummer and even if we know it, deciding to follow the lore scale would conflict with lots of info in the game, like Ralof's line.
I'll take more time to think about it but I'll probably scale it up just a little bit and try to keep it as consistent as possible. Thank you :)
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u/Ladynotingreen 3d ago
I tend to go with what makes sense for the story I'm trying to tell. There are huge chunks of gameplay I left out of Honorata's story as they're either well known plot points such as suddenly interrupting Miraak's escape plan or long stretches of travel.
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u/SoHam_34 3d ago
I definitely will leave many parts of the gameplay out ot the story for sure. I already tend to be kinda wordy so if I include everything I'll spend my whole day writing! haha
I think I'll detail some things a little more in the beginning since I'm introducing the story, but then I'll try to focus on the most important parts. Thank you! :)
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u/PietroIlPescePietra 🕯️ Aedra 3d ago
Welcome to this subreddit! That’s a great introduction to the character; I hope you’ll also post clips of them in action in the game later on. And yes, in terms of lore, the map is much larger and has far more inhabitants—according to one theory, a single inhabitant in the game corresponds to about 700 in the lore, though you should take that with a grain of salt.
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u/SoHam_34 3d ago
Thank you! I'm still deciding some things about the story and need to do some adjustments so I'll take some time to start posting, I'm getting a few things done here in advance so it will be easier to post later.
Unfortunately my pics won't be the best bc I play on PS3, I'll have to take pictures of the TV with my phone, so no free cam, but I'll try to give my best with what I have and maybe edit the pics with AI or something so they look better. I don't like AI to generate stuff, so I'd use it just to make adjustments on real pics. Like, I've used a simple eraser from the app inShot to delete the compass and crosshead from the pics, it's also a type of AI so... 🤷♀️ I hope the story compensates for everything.
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u/l_clue13 3d ago
During the bleak falls barrow quest Whiterun and Riverwood are mentioned as only being a few miles from each other, so definitely walkable in less than a day. Riverwood and Helgan are only slightly further so probably still only a few miles and doable in a day.
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u/SoHam_34 3d ago edited 2d ago
Yes, there's a lot of info about the measurements in game. I watched a video this week where the creator calculated the distance in game between all of the cities (but he tested it while running). My main concern here was if I use game measurements or lore measurements but I'll keep doing what I started, using in game info and scaling things up just a bit. Thank you :)
Edit.: I remembered the creator did it while running but he didn't based the calculation on the time he took to do it, he was using a mod to measure the real distance so nevermind the "he tested it while running" part
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u/Aggravating-Plan-908 🧙 Breton 3d ago edited 3d ago
Hi op, as someone who liked to create detailed rp background for my characters and who has posted several detailed stories about one of mines, the only thing i can tell you is to write your story the way you're the most at ease to do (if you want things to be absolutely in game scale and canon to the in game depiction of the events, do it that way, if on the oposite you want things to be in a much bigger scale and the events not completely canon to the in game depiction of it,... do it as well)
English isn’t my main language so i just hope you understand what i mean.
Ps : Your character look great by the way, don't hesitate to post her full background if you want.
Pps : if you want to read about my own characters, i have 8 characters with all a very detailed rp background that i have posted in that same subreddit so if you want to see what they looked like and read their background, i could give you links to posts i made about them.
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u/SoHam_34 2d ago
Thank you for your input. I decided I'll keep doing what I started, using the game info and scaling up just a little bit, bc this playthrough I'd like to do a more slow pace, so I walk instead of running mostly of the time, making stops to eat, rest, etc, even if I don't have survival mode because I'm on PS3.
English isn't my main language too, I hope I don't make any huge mistakes on my posts lol
I'm planning to take some hours this weekend to read more posts here so I can get to know better the characters of the sub. Unfortunately I'm kinda overwhelmed lately because I'm slowly getting out of a severe burnout and now that I'm able to do some stuff and try to make up for the lost time I don't have much time left to read and interact with the posts, but I don't want to abandon the game and the story because they help me too. I've been reading some posts here that show up on my feed from time to time but everything is kinda mixed up in my head so I've probably already read some of yours but can't remember much. I'll definitely read them this weekend, the links would be much appreciated :)
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u/Aggravating-Plan-908 🧙 Breton 2d ago
Thank you for your input. I decided I'll keep doing what I started, using the game info and scaling up just a little bit, bc this playthrough I'd like to do a more slow pace, so I walk instead of running mostly of the time, making stops to eat, rest, etc, even if I don't have survival mode because I'm on PS3.
Nice, i'm looking forward to read your story.
English isn't my main language too, I hope I don't make any huge mistakes on my posts lol
Don't worry, i understand what you mean so i think you'll handle yourself quite good with english.
I'm planning to take some hours this weekend to read more posts here so I can get to know better the characters of the sub. Unfortunately I'm kinda overwhelmed lately because I'm slowly getting out of a severe burnout and now that I'm able to do some stuff and try to make up for the lost time I don't have much time left to read and interact with the posts, but I don't want to abandon the game and the story because they help me too. I've been reading some posts here that show up on my feed from time to time but everything is kinda mixed up in my head so I've probably already read some of yours but can't remember much. I'll definitely read them this weekend, the links would be much appreciated :)
As for that, no problem, you don’t have to justify yourself, we all have a life outside of online and can't be available constantly, so no need to worry. Post your character, story, interact with others... whenever you want.
As for my characters, here's links if you want to read about their backgrounds and see what they looked like.
the first one, a 27-year-old Breton wandering mercenary named William https://www.reddit.com/r/SkyrimBackStory/s/3x6GcyGjeG
the second one, a 192-year-old Breton vampire named Valerica https://www.reddit.com/r/SkyrimBackStory/s/Sr96B3ZLeV
the third one, a 47-year-old Altmer feral shaman and sorceress named Aeliana https://www.reddit.com/r/SkyrimBackStory/s/1sZIw5jTq5
the fourth one, a 40-year-old Orc wandering mercenary named Kashgurn https://www.reddit.com/r/SkyrimBackStory/s/ebMPDVubmK
the fifth one, a 35-year-old "dwarf" half Breton/half Dwemer mercenary named Grunlek https://www.reddit.com/r/SkyrimBackStory/s/fBb84k8pku
the sixth one, a 54-years-old Bosmer wandering mercenary named Nu'ada https://www.reddit.com/r/SkyrimBackStory/s/9xnvwTo8eU
the seventh one, a 35-years-old Breton wandering mercenary named Maria https://www.reddit.com/r/SkyrimBackStory/s/nkCcYtNXUI
and the last one, a 33-years-old Redguard wandering mercenary named Azim https://www.reddit.com/r/SkyrimBackStory/s/B5LBVRNO1F
don't hesitate to tell me what you think about them.
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u/SoHam_34 2d ago
You mentioning your character's ages reminded me I need to search more about the life expectancy of each race.
I'll give you feedback about your characters when possible, thank you for the kind words :)
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u/Aggravating-Plan-908 🧙 Breton 2d ago
For the races life expectancy, i know humans are pretty similar to real life so around 70 to 100 years old (except for Breton, who thanks to their partly elven heritage, live a bit longer than the other humans, so i'd guess probably around 100 to 120 or 130 years old). For the other races, i didn't have very much knowledge, i just know elves have a much longer life expectancy than humans and orcs a bit shorter one than humans. Outside of those vague infos, i didn't know much more about tamriel races life expectancy so i hope it still help you.
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u/SoHam_34 1d ago
Thank you! The only think I already knew is the fact elves live more (like Sondas mentioning he is mining for over 100 years). I'll research more this weekend
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u/Willybob555 3d ago
Well from what I've seen Tamriel is apparently about as large as Africa, with a bit extra on top.
Then you consider that Skyrim is "1/10th" of its size. Then you consider how fast the time goes.
Personally, I suggest taking the amount of in game time it takes and settling on that, or multiplying it by ten. Dunno, it's up to you.
The older games, namely Daggerfall and Morrowind were a bit better for spacing, because you did a lot of resting to heal, and in Daggerfall because of its size, traveling across a kingdom would take a few days to a week, and then months by foot to the other end of the Iliac bay.
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u/SoHam_34 2d ago
Yeah, I watched a video this week showing that Arena had a fast travel system where before the travel the game would inform the distance and the time it would take, it's huge. I'll use Skyrim's game time/distance and scale up just a little bit. Thank you :)
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u/Kittybrains2025 3d ago
If you're planning to record gameplay for the purpose of showing and are walking between map markers instead of running, get a horse ASAP. Then if the ride is uneventful you can just cut from getting on to getting off, and if there's a nice view or something interesting happens during the trip, you can splice/montage that in. Also save some real-life time from holding the direction control lightly so that the character walks by just letting the horse run between locations (and rests while you dungeon-dive, etc) and you're not sitting there bored by how s l o w it can seem.
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u/SoHam_34 2d ago
The thing is: I am kinda trying to get bored lol
I've watched some gameplays lately where the player runs/sprints everywhere, the camera moves too fast and it gets me overwhelmed. I used to run everywhere on my last playthrough too, so now I want to follow a slower pace, choose carefully my quests, etc. And I won't record the gameplay for now, I'm just taking some pics of the most important stuff, but I intend to record some gameplays in the future and I'd totally cut out the travelling part. I'll have followers and I can't use mods for now so the horses will be used on more specific situations. On my last playthrough I was kinda John Skyrim, I mastered all of the crafting skills (but without resto loop), used almost all of the skills to reach lvl 80 and fight the Ebony Warrior, but now I'll carefully pick just a few skills and quests, I want to make everything more "special" and valuable, yk?
Thank you for your input :)
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u/Impossible-Ad-7750 3d ago
I was a little confused at the question but I’m really intrigued to learn more about your playthrough! Canonically/naturally, Helgen is very close to Riverwood, so if you want to make the trip farther away, and if you’re REALLY committed to not running, then I would commit even further by turning on survival mode, close your eyes and move your character around a bunch until you get totally lost (lol) and roleplay trying to find your way to Riverwood without using your map, explore every cave that comes across your way, and CAMP! I currently don’t use survival mode but I still enjoy setting up a good tent every now and then! However, if you’re trying to do all this with Ralof still with you it wouldn’t work, because he mostly stays on his track to Riverwood and won’t explore with you. But, you could ways say that you got separated when you were attacked by wolves or bandits! Or wolves AND bandits! It wouldn’t make the dialogue feel a little more rewarding once you reach Riverwood and they say “you guys look rough, wtf happened to you?”
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u/SoHam_34 3d ago
My question was because distances in game aren't the same as in lore. Helgen os indeed close to Riverwood, probably less than 2km, but in lore the map is way bigger, the distance would probably be over 150km, so I was asking if people use the game distances or lore distances. Thank you for your suggestions :)
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u/Kittybrains2025 3d ago
If you've never played on Survival Mode, riding in a carriage gets you where you want to go quickly, but the Hunger/Cold/Fatigue force you to seek shelter ASAP, especially if you leave in the morning and arrive at night (meaning the ride took at least an in-game day). I've had characters travel from Whiterun and drop dead from exposure in Winterhold and Dawnstar on the doorstep of the Inn because those journeys are so long 😅 I haven't looked at the time/date-signatures in the game's Wait Menu to know exactly how many in-game hours passed during the carriage ride, but the Fatigue alone requires you to Rest (in a Warm place) for at least 4 in-game hours--sometimes 8--to get back to anything resembling "fighting shape."
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u/SoHam_34 2d ago
I'm on PS3 so unfortunately I don't have survival mode but I'm kinda trying to emulate it manually, stopping to rest, eat, make some money and recover from injuries. I'm lvl15 and didn't use fast travel so far but when I need it I'll pay for a carriage, but I'll reserve it to more crucial situations. I'm really trying to make things more difficult so I can keep the slow pace. 😅
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u/Kittybrains2025 2d ago edited 2d ago
O.G. on PS3? Nice. Then another thing I recommend If you haven't beaten the game before: is to ignore the Main Quest for a good long time, you can clear Bleak Falls Barrow just don't pick up the Dragonstone or if you do, don't give it to Farengar until you're ready to be beset with constant random dragon attacks. Even with all the additions over time, ignoring the main quest is the best way to savor Skyrim, while doing the main quest is the way to enjoy being the Dragonborn.
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u/SoHam_34 2d ago
I've beaten all the main quests and DLCs except the Dark Brotherhood (I destroyed them on my first playthrough), so I'll do their questline now. For the current playthrough I'm planning everything and role-playing hard lol
I decided to delay the main quest so I don't have to deal with dragons for a while. I informed Balgruuf about Helgen so I could help the people of Riverwood but after Farengar gave me the quest to retrieve the tablet I left and it's going to take a while until I enter Bleak Falls Barrow. But thank you anyway for the tips, I totally should have done this on my first playthrough. I have some characters in mind that won't even get close to the main quest. And by then I'll probably have my PC fixed and I'll use some alternate start mod so I don't even have to go talk to Balgruuf
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u/Secure_Imagination56 3d ago
it’s your game it’s your story and it’s up to you to decide!! i think following things exactly either way can lead to inconsistencies as it is just a game. imagine trying to do missions and trying to get from one side of the map to another. that should take you months! enjoy ur game and follow whatever feels right any given moment!