I added two more books: Knightfall and The Old Ways.

I'd like to officially announce my departure from TIL and the The Elder Scrolls Community. This is my last day here as a Librarian.

I assume some of you want to know why I'm leaving. Well, there are two main reasons.

First of all, Oblivion has disappointed me greatly. I really don't like the game. I think it's too darn mainstream. It doesn't even feel like an RPG to me. More like a hack and slash game for the action gamers. Sure, there's a lot of eye candy in the game, but I think the gameplay is really bad.

I admit I didn't have high hopes for the game - anyone who has read my recent to semi-recent posts on the Official Forums knows that. But I did have high hopes for the ingame books. I have to say that I'm disappointed in that department as well: half of the books, if not more, were in former TES games (In Morrowind, mostly.). Also, I believe the new books are not nearly on par with the old ones.

So yes, I think Oblivion sucks. So bad that I've decided to leave. I know most people think it's a masterpiece. But folks, I don't want to argue with you. Please, respect my opinion and I'll respect yours.

Second of all, I'm getting married with my pregnant girlfriend. The point is that, once I become a father, I won't have a lot of free time anymore. Certainly not enough to keep working on this site, Oblivion's disappointement aside.

I initially wanted to write a much larger announcement to explain in more detail why I'm leaving. But brief is good. There is no need for melodrama.

You probably have questions, though. Feel free to contact me using the site's contact form. The Librarians have agreed to keep my name on it for several days (But, as you can see, I am no longer on the About Us page.). If you have anything to say to me, this is your last chance to say it.

But let me say this again: please respect my opinion about Oblivion. If you want to e-mail me just to tell me what an idiot I am for not liking Oblivion, don't. I've been honest about the reasons of my departure. Don't make me regret it.

I'd like to wish the Librarians all the best. Guys, thanks for putting up with me for so long. I hope you can eventually finish the Bestiary - I wasn't able to.

Goodbye. :)

P.S.

It seems some folks think this is an April Fools Day joke. The dates don't match, but their argument is that they didn't match last year either (Last year's TIL April Fools Day joke was made on the 2nd of April.).

So I'll explain why I have chosen this date.

I wanted to leave a few days ago, but I had unfinished business. As you can see, I'm a judge in this contest, TIL's representative. The contest ends today.

Hopefully, that clears things up a bit.

The Mara Appreciation Project

Most of you are familiar with the Nine Divines. And you all should have heard of Mara, the Mother-Goddess and the Goddess of Love. What you may not know is that Mara was named for Marilyn Wasserman. Marilyn is best known as the author of The Real Barenziah and King Edward.

Several weeks ago, Mara made a comment at the Forums about not being paid for her writing. She jokingly said that she would accept a copy of Oblivion as compensation. As I said, her comment was made in jest, but that didn’t stop us! And so. . .

. . .The Imperial Library, on behalf of The Elder Scrolls lore community, would like to present Mara with a check for $60.00 for her contributions to Elder Scrolls lore.

Thank you for allowing us to do this for you! Buy yourself a copy of Oblivion, Mara.

I have added three more books: Mannimarco, King of Worms; Mysticism: The Unfathomable Voyage; and Origin of the Mages Guild.

More books added: A Bloody Journal, Aevar Stone-Singer, A New Guild for Fighters?, A Poorly Scrawled Note, Akaviri Diary Translation, Agnar's Journal, Advances in Lock Picking, A Less Rude Song, and A Short Life of Uriel Septim VII.

Have added the new book Thief Of Virtue. The main character is my kind of Thief.

Have also added the old book Vernaccus And Bourlor.

I've added my four favorite new books (Notice: "favorite new books", not "new favorite books".): Beggar, Thief, Warrior and King. They're part of what I call The Eslaf Erol Series.

I know what you want to say (Or maybe I think I know what I think a very small portion of you want to say.): the word "beggar" starts with a "B" (I assure you that this "B" is completely unrelated to the Librarian of the same name.), while the word "king" starts with a "K". "B" and "K", like everyone who knows the alphabet knows, are not in the S-Z portion of the alphabet. And "Eslaf" starts with an "E"!

My judgement: it wouldn't have been Fair and Nice to add just two of the books, given the fact that they're part of a series.

I've added two old books (To the Oblivion Books section, obviously, but from now on I will no longer mention the section, because mentioning it implies - in my mind - linking to it. And giving too many links to something is bad, especially when you want to run away from that thing, to pretend it doesn't exist. Not saying anyone should pretend that section doesn't exist or anything like that, just saying that if I keep linking to it it will seem like it is the only important thing on TIL or something of that sort. Well, not really. It's just that... I'm not like Noel Gallagher. Not saying that mentioning something means praising that thing. But when you mention it too many times... Well, things just get bad. It's not really something utterly completely horrible, not something that you can't mention - for example, I can't mention The Backstreet Boys - actually, wait, darn! I MENTIONED THE BACKSTREET BOYS. NOOO. But, well, you now know what I meant. Plus, it's redundant to keep mentioning something. Pointless. I mean, ok, fine, I admit! Today when I saw Xan's update I didn't click on Oblivion Books - darn, I mentioned it again! - in the list, the navigation bar on the left, but instead I clicked on the link in Xan's announcement. No idea why, but I still think it's pretty redundant. Not saying Xan or B or anyone else can't do it. Heck no, that's definitely not what I'm saying. They can do it all they want. I just don't want to do it anymore. The question is: what will I do if I add a book from another game? Won't things get confusing? Actually, now that I think of it, back when I was adding stuff to Battlespire Books, I didn't announce a single book! Why? Because Battlespire is OLD and I thought no one would be interested. So I guess that problem isn't actually a problem. But there is another problem: what about the books that were in Morrowind or any of the other games and are in Oblivion as well? Should I announce them as if they're something new and cool? Nah, it just doesn't seem RIGHT. Actually, I WILL announce them, but whenever I will add something old, I will try to add something new as well, to not feel like I'm making announcements for no good reason. There's no point in filling the front page with useless stuff, right? Actually, now that I think of it, this whole parentheses thing is rather pointless. Darn. Why didn't I think of that? Why didn't I figure out I would be wasting people's time by writing such a long and boring and completely useless announcement? Did it actually not occur to me?): Withershins and Words And Philosophy.

Also, a genuinely new book: Ten Commands: Nine Divines.

A mixed of old and new books are added to Oblivion Books section. They are "A Children Anuad", "A Dance in Fire", "Collected Essays on Dwemer History and Culture, Chapter 1: Marobar Sul and the Trivialization of the Dwemer in Popular Culture", "De Rerum Dirennis", "Game at Dinner", "Ahzirr Trajijazaeri", "The Argonian Account", "A Hypothetical Treachery" and the two last chapters of "Commentaries On The Mysterium Xarxes" which is now titled "Mythic Dawn Commentaries" as it is named in the game.

Have added two more essential books in Oblivion Books: Sacred Witness: A True History Of The Night Mother and The Warp In The West. I've also added Souls, Black And White and Way Of The Exposed Palm, but the latter one isn't interesting.

I have been asked to add S-Z books. That means I can't add more of the really interesting books - you'll have to wait for those (The Doors Of Oblivion was the sole exception.).

Thank you, Lady Nerevar of Tamriel Rebuilt, for giving us Oblivion's Books.

I've added The Doors Of Oblivion to the Oblivion Books section. I think it's a must read. Have also added Varieties Of Daedra. That one is for Dremora fans.

Three new articles are added in the Forum Scholars Guild. Two articles are done by Xui'al, they are Basic Guide to Telvanni Construction and Psijic Conspiracy; and the last one but not the least is article done by Fief, titled Fief's Guide to The Status, Culture and Preperation of Saltrice. The Oblivion Books section is also updated, the second part of Commentaries On The Mysterium Xarxes is added.

Ever read the Real Barenziah? Love the story? Just for your information the author is Marilyn Wasserman (aka Mara aka Ramara), and she was not paid for the great book! So here we are gathering all the fans to at least give her a reward for what she has done for TES Community. We try to reward her with a copy of TES4: Oblivion Collector Edition. Check this thread.

Gamer with Jobs has very interesting article regarding the books of Morrowind, titled The Literary Achievement of Morrowind. People has to read to realize the vastness, the greatness, the.. you name it.. of the TES world and the storylines. I quote the post done by vaanic~one in this thread:
"That's a very nice article, unfortunately he failed to mention that with the books in place, the Storyline of Morrowind tranforms into a magnificent story with more twists than MGS, agendas that we have yet to uncover, and an ending that will forever split us in two halves because we're not even sure who the good guys actually are."

A new forum that discusses and studies the Daedra has been established. Check The Academy of Daedric Studies. If you are interested with these immortal and powerful beings, just step in and join.

Great news! Oblivion has gone gold! You can read all about it here.

I added an article by Astion, titled Dragon Break at Red Mountain in the Forum Scholars Guild section. Apologize to Astion, as I'm very busy at the moment.