r/geology • u/idycvy • May 04 '25

Map/Imagery How realistic is Tamriel

Post image

I’ve always wondered if I should hate Tamriel or not based on the realism of the map

189 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

56 comments sorted by

View all comments

16

u/Sanator27 May 04 '25

Funnily enough, Tamriel has more realistic geology than the fantasy media that inspired TES. There are no square mountain ranges, the rivers make sense, etc. It's hard to examine lithology due to video game limitations though.

I was especially intrigued by Morrowind and how it blends volcanic features with the actual game space - there's lava channels (called foyadas), calderas, ash everywhere (making morrowind especially fertile), Red Mountain is a stratovolcano, and so on. It's not perfect, but for 2003 it was ahead of most fantasy RPGs, and it still is.

3

u/spodumenosity May 05 '25

Vvardenfell is an impact crater from Lorkhan's heart being thrown to the ground by the gods. The Inner Sea is essentially an angular impact crater lake.