ESO Live held an interview with Loremaster Lawrence Schick and Writer Designer Zach Bush during their 18th episode (49:52-56:03) in May 22, 2015.
Lawrence: Hi, and welcome to this episode of Tamriel's funniest lore questions, where we're going to go into some lore questions about Tamriel that are funny. Anyway I'm Lawrence Schick. I'm the Loremaster for The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited, and this is ... what was your name again?
Zach: Zach Bush.
Lawrence: I knew that, yes.
Zach: Yes, I'm a writer designer for The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited.
Lawrence: So what's our first question?
Do Trolls Poop?Edit
Zach: The answer is yes.
Lawrence: Do they ever?
Zach: Yes. I'm sorry for asking you this question. I am to blame for this question, but I needed to know as it was very, very important. I needed to know if someone could refer to troll dung in a particular objective.
Lawrence: Had you just thought about the fact that traditionally in The Elder Scrolls, the thing that trolls drop when you kill them is troll fat? Then you realize that of course they're creatures of meat and bone.
Zach: This is true, but it is a strange wonderful magical place, and who knows what can happen? I mean are there any standard creatures that you run into throughout The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited who do not poop?
Lawrence: Well certainly creatures that come from somewhere else like atronachs. I mean yes, they're only temporarily on this plane made up of some sort of substance that they've accreted to themselves magically as they arrived, and so you know they do not have a need to poop.
Is Hircine the Daedric Prince of Fishing?Edit
Zach: The answer is that it's not one of his known titles. So originally there was someone from systems who was interested in coming up with a fishing reel, a special fishing reel that also doubled as a Daedric prayer wheel to Hircine, and wanted to make sure if that could actually be fit in. So yeah, that was one of the weirder ones.
Lawrence: So let me just speak a little bit to this point. A lot of people have a simplistic view of Oblivion. You got the Daedric Princes up here, and you've got zillions and gajillion's of lesser Daedra beneath them, but it's more complicated than that in most cases. You've got many hierarchies of different Daedra, and up near the top you've got very powerful Daedra that are not as powerful as the Princes, but they're called the Daedra Lords. Some of them have their own spheres or realms of Oblivion that they handle and rule. Others are minions of the Daedric Princes, and manage the sub-spheres of the Daedric Prince's greater spheres. Now Hircine is one of the latter. Hircine has Daedra Lords who report to him and manage other areas, and one of those Daedra Lords is the Lord of Fishing. However, that's all I'm going to tell you about him or her because I don't want to reveal any spoilers, because we've got plans for the Lord of Fishing.
Zach: We can't just give them a little hint?
Lawrence: The Lord of Fishing has a distinctive aroma.
Zach: Oh, I see, fair enough. Okay, very well.
What is the name of the governing body of the Aldmeri Dominion?Edit
Zach: The answer is the Thalmor Inner Council. They basically handle all sorts of the things that don't necessarily require constant attention of the Alliance leadership. So when Queen Ayrenn is running off and getting in crazy adventures, the Thalmor Inner Council can still operate without her there, and make the important decisions that the Dominion needs to make. Originally, this came up in a quest because we had believed that there was a Thalmor inspector who had showed up at a particular area, and we weren't entirely sure why Queen Ayrenn herself would have sent one of these people to go handle all this stuff. So we ended up needing the Thalmor themselves to do the day-to-day operations. So, actually come to think of it, that wasn't very funny. It was just sort of I don't know.
Lawrence: Well there's always our faces.
Zach: Yeah there's always our faces
Lawrence: So let me elaborate a bit on this because there's been you know, funny or not, a lot of questions about the Thalmor since a whole lot of people played Skyrim, and first encountered that term there. There's a big difference between the Aldmeri Dominion of our period, the Thalmor of ESO's period, and the Thalmor of Skyrim which happens a thousand years later in Tamriel's history than The Elder Scrolls Online does. We're the First Aldmeri Dominion in The Elder Scrolls Online. In Skyrim it was the Third, and between the events of ESO and Skyrim, there's been a thousand years of conflict between Summerset in Tamriel. The attitudes of the Thalmor by that time have hardened and embittered so that the Thalmor that you run into in Skyrim are really big jerks, whereas you know in ESO it's much different, only about two-thirds of them are jerks.
Zach: Yeah, and whenever I'm creating a character that is in the Thalmor, the way I tend to think of the Dominion particularly is that it's the struggle between what Ayrenn is attempting to create, and what some people in our government which is more closed-minded are attempting to create. So it's generally about that particular struggle, whereas in Skyrim it's the struggle that was lost.
Lawrence: So now we just have to make it funny.
Zach: Yes.
Lawrence: Where's that pie?
Zach: I don't know.
Lawrence: So players of Tamriel Unlimited, do you have any funny lore questions? If so send them in to this address. (Community@Elderscrollsonline.com) This one right here, and we'll see if we can get them on the air for you.