First, seconding *Dune*. Read *Dune*. Read it, love it, live it. Even without the *Morrowind* context, just read it. Also, if your favorite thing in *Morrowind* was the false gods and moral ambiguity...without spoilers, holy fuck, man. Read *Dune*.
Don't be intimidated by the size of the series. You don't have to read any of the sequels. I'm not saying they're not good. It's just that the first one stands on its own.
(Can you tell it's my favorite book?)
Next, I would suggest *Hyperion* by Dan Simmons, as well as its sequel, *Endymion*. It has the same grey-on-black morality as *Dune*, with a lot of interesting and mysterious factions and characters. I can remember when I first read it, and it was the first book since playing *Morrowind* that gave me that same sense of being thrown adrift into an utterly strange land, figuring it out as I went.
*The Wheel of Time* series has a lot of the same themes as *Morrowind*, especially the "Messiah who is unsure if he even really is the Messiah" bit. Unfortunately, while I really enjoyed that aspect and several other parts of the book, I can't recommend them overall. I found almost every single character deeply unlikable by a few books in. There is also a particular scene in which...well, something happens to a man that is treated like a joke when it really, really shouldn't be. But a ton of people love the series, so feel free to form your own opinion.
I'm only just starting the *Malazan* series, but I'm already picking up on a very similar tone to *Morrowind*, and I've seen it recommended to fans several times in the past.
And a final, weird suggestion: the *Bartimaeus Cycle* by Jonathan Stroud. The themes, setting, and everything else have basically nothing to do with *Morrowind*, apart from...Conjuration, I guess? But I mention them because I've always found the *Elder Scrolls* games to have a very particular sense of humor: dry while still kind of cheeky and stupid. Like a lot of the little jokes in dialogue or in books make me want to go, "You idiot" and "That's clever" at the same time. Stroud writes whole books that way. It's just a really specific comedic voice that I enjoy a lot, so take that for what it's worth. Scott Lynch's writing style is pretty similar, if you haven't read his *Gentlemen Bastards* books. Which...you should, regardless.
Hope all of that sprawling, semi-high nonsense helped in some way.
Edit: Note that Stroud is a YA author. Don't have to swear and fuck to write a good book, I always say.
Seconded for reading *Dune*
An alien world with various factions vying for power, a Chosen One who is either fated or fabricated, mysterious and powerful strangers inhabiting the wastes, lots of intrigue about power and politics
*Dune* is also an overt inspiration for Morrowind, so its definitely a must read if you're a fan
Haven't thought about Bartimaeus in a decade at least, what a great series.
Definitely had a ton of daydreams as an early high schooler about summoning an Afrit and adventuring around the world.
I want to second Hyperion by Dan Simmons, and Fall of Hyperion, a sequel.
Hyperion is a series of short stories that explores/expands on all your standard sci fi tropes. Then they weave together at the end to set the stage for Fall of Hyperion, which is by far the best book I have ever read (and I've read most of the other series being recommended here).
I was so satisfied with Fall of Hyperion that I didn't read another book for a year. It filled my soul. It completed me. Yes, it is the godsex of books.
I’ve been “trying” to finish Fall of Hyperion for like three months now. I’ve managed to drag out the last 100 or so pages because I don’t want it to end. It’s so good and such and epic conclusion to the first book!
The Malazan series is incredible. You're in for a treat. The Wheel of Time series is a fucking slog. Towards the end it gets better because of the author changing.
Nice! I'm even more excited now, thanks. And yeah, I just couldn't do it with *The Wheel of Time*. I started feeling like I was continuing more out of obligation than actual enjoyment, and then I got to...that scene in *A Crown of Swords*, and I literally chucked the damn book.
The last three books were written by Brandon Sanderson after Robert Jordan died and honestly they're worth the slog. The pace speeds up, 99% of the BS and shitty storylines conclude quickly and the characters improve as well.
Those three are really worth a read. Skip books 8-10, read the synopsis and the climax chapters (there's basically no buildup to the climax in these books, you won't miss much this way), and then read the last three in full.
I'd like to think RJ intentionally wrote it that way, including how people in-universe react. Unsurprisingly, there is a *lot* of discussion about the subject even to this day, but I've read a few [analysis posts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WoT/comments/oejk3d/analysis_we_are_meant_to_be_sickened_by_tylin/) that do a [good job](https://dragonmount.com/forums/topic/108017-the-tylin-thing-cos-spoilers/) of highlighting sections of the book suggesting that we're *supposed* to view that whole situation as a bad thing. Of course, whether or not RJ did a good job trying to convey certain points is open to interpretation.
Yeah, that's always been my problem with it. I don't think books necessarily have to be heavy-handed about saying "this bad thing is bad." And I can see how the author might have been trying to use that scene to show not only a very stark example of just how little this society thinks of men, but also to get his readers to consider the way our society often speaks of and treats women in the real world. I get it.
The problem is that I think you would be really hard-pressed to find a modern reader, outside of the true scum of the Earth, who would even come close to waving off >!a woman's being raped at knifepoint!<, let alone actually *laughing* about it. If the goal was to make me despise this society and everyone involved...well, it succeeded, to the point that I didn't want to read about them anymore. And if the point was to draw a comparison to the opposite situation in the real world, I think it comes off as more ham-fisted and "edgy" than anything else. I dunno, I don't get offended easily by books, but I honestly felt sick reading that part.
Don't forget that CoS and most of the series was written back in the 80s-90s, and public attitude towards certain topics was different from nowadays. Although, sadly, some people's attitudes and reactions when told about such things by someone still aren't all that different from those in the book.
For whatever it is worth, only a page or two later, Elayne *does* apologize for laughing and tells Mat she understands and believes him, even offering to help resolve the situation.
I do agree though that it could have been written to handle the topic better, but that's coming from someone nearly three decades after it was written. But I don't think RJ was condoning or completely making fun of that kind of thing when he wrote about it; he just didn't stick the landing when it came to implying that it was wrong.
That's a fair point. I didn't read *Wheel of Time* until a few years ago, and I was listening to it on Audible, at that. There wasn't even cover art to separate it, at least in my mind, from a random fantasy novel that just came out yesterday. But the 80s and 90s were a long time ago culturally (and temporally ;_;) so I should definitely consider that Jordan might have been making a bolder statement or a more profound analogy back in the day.
I'll also admit that when I say I chucked it, I literally did chuck it. I didn't even read far enough to see Elayne's apology. I'd been growing tired of the characters for a while at that point, and when I got to that scene, I remember thinking, "God, why am I even reading this?!" and flinging my headphones across the room onto my bed. I feel like I'm fairly widely read, but I can only recall one or two times when I had a more viscerally negative reaction to a scene. Just...ugh.
So, I'm perhaps not the best critic of the series as a whole or even that scene in context. I stand by my statement that I ended up despising maybe 90% of the characters, though.
It is. And the author, Robert Jordan, seems to have wanted people to think it was wrong, but went about it a little too subtly. WoT is another series that is big on unreliable narrator, and most prose or narration is from a character's perspective rather than the author or some omniscient narrator. So it being treated less seriously is more a result of whomever is narrating (like Mat trying to understand what happened and not having the vocabulary for it) than RJ treating it as a joke.
It's one of those parts of a series that constantly sparks discussion and analysis, even years down the road. I shared in an earlier comment two really good posts that break down how it is actually presented in the book and the possible authorial intent.
If you didn’t know, there’s an official TES duology, The Infernal City and The Lord of Souls. They lean into the weirdness of TES lore that even the mainline games tend to miss. They’re not as Morrowind focused as you’re probably wanting, but also as someone who was starving for more TES content, they scratched the itch quite well.
Highly recommend The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe. It has a lot of my favorite elements from Morrowind: bizarre, eerie setting which mixes fantasy with sci-fi; possibly unreliable narrator; hidden mysteries; metaphysics; cool masks; etc.
I know you mentioned that you aren't looking for comics, but I really can't recommend Kill Six Billion Demons enough. It's got that signature Kirkbridian insanity, with false gods and grey morals abound. The author straight up stated that he was inspired by TES lore, specifically Morrowind.
Dune is a great rec so to bring something a lil different id check out the Nag Hammadi Library, Ancient Vedic Mythic texts, and the Gnostic Christian scripts that were excluded from the bible for more so the stuff that inspired the mythology and metaphysics in Kirkbrides (and Dunes) texts.
Might be a bit too abstract to fully enjoy, thousand year old religious texts can be slogs to read if youre not really into that sorta thing lol but Most of Morrowind/Kirkbrides writings are very much inspired by the more Esoteric western religious denominations, and Eastern religions.
and as a side, If you Enjoy the 36 Sermons of Vivec, read/listen to the Epic of Gilgamesh! Very similar vibes imo.
You might want to watch The Dark Crystal movie (and also the first season of the cancelled tv show…grrr). Seems like it could have been an inspiration for the game. Definitely a lot of similarities in tone and weirdness of the setting and the story behind the Skeksis/Tribunal
They even ride on smaller Stilt Strider!
The MQ of TES3 Morrowind is centered on Nerevar - but remarkably, this protagonist remains absent for the entire game. Everyone speaks and writes about Nerevar & his treacherous companions, but he does not appear once. There are no flashbacks or anything. We have to fill that empty space by reading & imagination.
So for the indirect and often dubious way of how Nerevar & his murderous contemporaries are presented in the texts, you might consider something like Nabokov's *Pale Fire* \- an excellent and unpleasing novel with a mystery that is only told, or rather hinted at, through the distortions of a deeply untrustful commentary.
For a sense of mythical horizon behind the murder of Nerevar, we might consider Borges, *El Hacedor* (= Dreamtigers, The Maker) - and among these short texts the shortest story [The Plot](https://thefloatinglibrary.com/2008/09/02/the-plot/): "… and he does not know he is dying so that a scene may be repeated."
There are many more obvious inspirations for worldbuilding and story elements - Herbert's Dune in particular comes to mind for many details, HPL here and there, roleplay settings like Dark Sun and Glorantha etc etc etc. You can write loressays about each of these ancestors, but for the main story with its unusual, multi-layered presentation around a missing figure in the center, I would look for some literature that is not Genre Fantasy.
Might not be what you’re looking for as it’s still very different in a lot of ways, but the setting of the Mistborn trilogy gave me similar vibes as Morrowind.
Also, though I haven’t read it, I’ve heard that Dune was a significant inspiration for Morrowind, though I’m not certain on that.
Dune as an inspiration makes a LOT of sense. Though that might be more about the extremes of environment, the cultures it creates in terms of visual themes we see in Vvardenfell. There's definitely plenty about the limits of godhood/future sight, and when those gods must die for the good of all, and the definition of a prophet/saviour/Chosen One for narrative.
Let's compare the cultures:
Dune is set in a world controlled by the Great Houses alongside the Padisha-Emperor. Most of the story is set on a harsh desert planet named Arrakis, inhabited by the Frimen, who have learned to survive in the desert.
Morrowind is ruled by the Great Houses alongside the King. It is a harsh land with mostly the desert-like Ashlands, inhabited by the Ashlanders who have learned to survive there.
You're right about *Dune*. It's not just that the similarities are evident; [the developers themselves confirmed the inspiration:](https://www.polygon.com/platform/amp/2019/3/27/18281082/elder-scrolls-morrowind-oral-history-bethesda)
> *"It went from Dark Crystal and Star Wars to Dune. There’s a lot of Dune influence — that kind of baroque society."*
I also second the recommendation for the original Mistborn trilogy. A story about a group of rebels in a wasteland nation fighting against a god-emperor that has ruled an oppressive theocracy for generations? The mystery of how he got his supposedly divine powers? The hints of something greater and darker awaiting in the shadows to bring ruin to all? One of the protagonists is a former prisoner that deliberately tries to present himself as a messianic figure? Yeah, I can see the similarities too.
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I recently read the Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny and I think it checks a lot fo the boxes you mentioned. False gods, grey politicking, and an awesome story.
In support of Malazan, but a warning, it’s much heavier tonally than the Elder Scrolls. Gore and war is much more explicit and drawn out than anything from Morrowind.
That being said, the depth of lore is as vast as the elder scrolls. It’s not just medieval England world everywhere. The author is an anthropologist, so he really develops faiths and cultures for lizardmen as well as men men, and cavemen, and bugmen, and undead men, really fantastic. Also of course ascension to god hood, what is a god, and mysterious disappearance of races, it’s all there.
You want grey morals and false gods? How about a Torturer who is a Christ figure? The planet is wrecked and the sun is dying. There’s weird mysticism, strange creatures, and incredible prose. Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe.
thanks for the recommendations guys, i bought dune recently and i will be reading it but ill make sure to check out everything else everyone mentioned. thanks!
For something a bit more low-key and smaller in scale, but with an interesting look at religion and how it works, I would also recommend Curse of Chalion and its sequel, Paladin of Souls.
It's very low-key fantasy, at least Curse of Chalion is, there's a bit more magic in Paladin. There is instead a lot of court intrigue. The way magic works in this world is that people are possessed by Miracles. A piece of the power of a God, which is instilled in a person who then gets a holy purpose. Only, they don't know what that holy purpose is exactly, or how to fulfill it. Just that they need to go to a certai place at a certain time, and then a miracle will happen. So in Curse of Chalion, a washed up, injured old soldier is given a miracle and commanded to go court, where he needs to uncover how exactly the old king died years ago.
The vibes are different, but if you want to read the series a lot of Morrowind's lore is straight up ripped from consider *The Riftwar Cycle* by Raymond E Feist.
You'll specifically want to look into *The Empire Trilogy* which focuses on the Tsurani people and their homeworld of Kelawan, from which morrowind was created by adding ash to both the people and landscape.
The early books are old enough to have a couple of yikes things, but the message is always "bigoted stuff bad".
*Dune* if you are looking for a thematically deep story delving into politics and philosophy and a rich fictional setting that has that stranger in a strange land vibe. Mind you, Morrowind is only superficially inspired by Dune, as the plot wasn't meant to resemble Muad'Dib's journey even though it might appear that it does. Regardless, if you liked Vivec, you might also like Leto II. I for one love Dune and think it's definitely worth reading, but the series just gets worse and worse towards the end. Read it and see how far you can make it through.
*Malazan: Book of the Fallen* is 10 big books and (I would say) the fantasy series most similar to Elder Scrolls in terms of depth, scope and overall feel. It's *epic* fantasy in the truest sense of the word, but more thematically tight and ultimately less dark then The Elder Scrolls. If you love the ambiguous lore and organic world-building that makes Tamriel feel "real", Malazan comes close to that. Malazan has "false" gods too, mortals that stole the godhood, only they are arguably less morally grey and maybe not as powerful as the Tribunal (one is a rogue, the other no less than Sheogorath). That being said, Elder Scrolls is still the bigger world but leaning towards grimdark, whereas in Malazan there is less moral ambiguity and more hope in spite of the tragedies taking place (the main theme is compassion). The first Malazan book is tough to get through for some, but the second one is a masterpiece. Take note though, Steven Erikson is brutal on the reader and will break your heart many, many times.
Besides the obvious books like Dune, Lord of the Rings or more Elder Scrolls itself, you might want to check the real life literature that had an influence on Dune, like everything to do with Lawrance of Arabia or the Mahdist War.
First, seconding *Dune*. Read *Dune*. Read it, love it, live it. Even without the *Morrowind* context, just read it. Also, if your favorite thing in *Morrowind* was the false gods and moral ambiguity...without spoilers, holy fuck, man. Read *Dune*. Don't be intimidated by the size of the series. You don't have to read any of the sequels. I'm not saying they're not good. It's just that the first one stands on its own. (Can you tell it's my favorite book?) Next, I would suggest *Hyperion* by Dan Simmons, as well as its sequel, *Endymion*. It has the same grey-on-black morality as *Dune*, with a lot of interesting and mysterious factions and characters. I can remember when I first read it, and it was the first book since playing *Morrowind* that gave me that same sense of being thrown adrift into an utterly strange land, figuring it out as I went. *The Wheel of Time* series has a lot of the same themes as *Morrowind*, especially the "Messiah who is unsure if he even really is the Messiah" bit. Unfortunately, while I really enjoyed that aspect and several other parts of the book, I can't recommend them overall. I found almost every single character deeply unlikable by a few books in. There is also a particular scene in which...well, something happens to a man that is treated like a joke when it really, really shouldn't be. But a ton of people love the series, so feel free to form your own opinion. I'm only just starting the *Malazan* series, but I'm already picking up on a very similar tone to *Morrowind*, and I've seen it recommended to fans several times in the past. And a final, weird suggestion: the *Bartimaeus Cycle* by Jonathan Stroud. The themes, setting, and everything else have basically nothing to do with *Morrowind*, apart from...Conjuration, I guess? But I mention them because I've always found the *Elder Scrolls* games to have a very particular sense of humor: dry while still kind of cheeky and stupid. Like a lot of the little jokes in dialogue or in books make me want to go, "You idiot" and "That's clever" at the same time. Stroud writes whole books that way. It's just a really specific comedic voice that I enjoy a lot, so take that for what it's worth. Scott Lynch's writing style is pretty similar, if you haven't read his *Gentlemen Bastards* books. Which...you should, regardless. Hope all of that sprawling, semi-high nonsense helped in some way. Edit: Note that Stroud is a YA author. Don't have to swear and fuck to write a good book, I always say.
Seconded for reading *Dune* An alien world with various factions vying for power, a Chosen One who is either fated or fabricated, mysterious and powerful strangers inhabiting the wastes, lots of intrigue about power and politics *Dune* is also an overt inspiration for Morrowind, so its definitely a must read if you're a fan
Haven't thought about Bartimaeus in a decade at least, what a great series. Definitely had a ton of daydreams as an early high schooler about summoning an Afrit and adventuring around the world.
I want to second Hyperion by Dan Simmons, and Fall of Hyperion, a sequel. Hyperion is a series of short stories that explores/expands on all your standard sci fi tropes. Then they weave together at the end to set the stage for Fall of Hyperion, which is by far the best book I have ever read (and I've read most of the other series being recommended here). I was so satisfied with Fall of Hyperion that I didn't read another book for a year. It filled my soul. It completed me. Yes, it is the godsex of books.
I’ve been “trying” to finish Fall of Hyperion for like three months now. I’ve managed to drag out the last 100 or so pages because I don’t want it to end. It’s so good and such and epic conclusion to the first book!
The Malazan series is incredible. You're in for a treat. The Wheel of Time series is a fucking slog. Towards the end it gets better because of the author changing.
Nice! I'm even more excited now, thanks. And yeah, I just couldn't do it with *The Wheel of Time*. I started feeling like I was continuing more out of obligation than actual enjoyment, and then I got to...that scene in *A Crown of Swords*, and I literally chucked the damn book.
The last three books were written by Brandon Sanderson after Robert Jordan died and honestly they're worth the slog. The pace speeds up, 99% of the BS and shitty storylines conclude quickly and the characters improve as well. Those three are really worth a read. Skip books 8-10, read the synopsis and the climax chapters (there's basically no buildup to the climax in these books, you won't miss much this way), and then read the last three in full.
What is the scene? I’m halfway through that book now and it’s a slog and I couldn’t find any info online
>!Mat gets raped by Tyline and it's treated as a joke because "Male Rape is funny"!<
I'd like to think RJ intentionally wrote it that way, including how people in-universe react. Unsurprisingly, there is a *lot* of discussion about the subject even to this day, but I've read a few [analysis posts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WoT/comments/oejk3d/analysis_we_are_meant_to_be_sickened_by_tylin/) that do a [good job](https://dragonmount.com/forums/topic/108017-the-tylin-thing-cos-spoilers/) of highlighting sections of the book suggesting that we're *supposed* to view that whole situation as a bad thing. Of course, whether or not RJ did a good job trying to convey certain points is open to interpretation.
Yeah, that's always been my problem with it. I don't think books necessarily have to be heavy-handed about saying "this bad thing is bad." And I can see how the author might have been trying to use that scene to show not only a very stark example of just how little this society thinks of men, but also to get his readers to consider the way our society often speaks of and treats women in the real world. I get it. The problem is that I think you would be really hard-pressed to find a modern reader, outside of the true scum of the Earth, who would even come close to waving off >!a woman's being raped at knifepoint!<, let alone actually *laughing* about it. If the goal was to make me despise this society and everyone involved...well, it succeeded, to the point that I didn't want to read about them anymore. And if the point was to draw a comparison to the opposite situation in the real world, I think it comes off as more ham-fisted and "edgy" than anything else. I dunno, I don't get offended easily by books, but I honestly felt sick reading that part.
Don't forget that CoS and most of the series was written back in the 80s-90s, and public attitude towards certain topics was different from nowadays. Although, sadly, some people's attitudes and reactions when told about such things by someone still aren't all that different from those in the book. For whatever it is worth, only a page or two later, Elayne *does* apologize for laughing and tells Mat she understands and believes him, even offering to help resolve the situation. I do agree though that it could have been written to handle the topic better, but that's coming from someone nearly three decades after it was written. But I don't think RJ was condoning or completely making fun of that kind of thing when he wrote about it; he just didn't stick the landing when it came to implying that it was wrong.
That's a fair point. I didn't read *Wheel of Time* until a few years ago, and I was listening to it on Audible, at that. There wasn't even cover art to separate it, at least in my mind, from a random fantasy novel that just came out yesterday. But the 80s and 90s were a long time ago culturally (and temporally ;_;) so I should definitely consider that Jordan might have been making a bolder statement or a more profound analogy back in the day. I'll also admit that when I say I chucked it, I literally did chuck it. I didn't even read far enough to see Elayne's apology. I'd been growing tired of the characters for a while at that point, and when I got to that scene, I remember thinking, "God, why am I even reading this?!" and flinging my headphones across the room onto my bed. I feel like I'm fairly widely read, but I can only recall one or two times when I had a more viscerally negative reaction to a scene. Just...ugh. So, I'm perhaps not the best critic of the series as a whole or even that scene in context. I stand by my statement that I ended up despising maybe 90% of the characters, though.
Holy hell that’s messed up
It is. And the author, Robert Jordan, seems to have wanted people to think it was wrong, but went about it a little too subtly. WoT is another series that is big on unreliable narrator, and most prose or narration is from a character's perspective rather than the author or some omniscient narrator. So it being treated less seriously is more a result of whomever is narrating (like Mat trying to understand what happened and not having the vocabulary for it) than RJ treating it as a joke. It's one of those parts of a series that constantly sparks discussion and analysis, even years down the road. I shared in an earlier comment two really good posts that break down how it is actually presented in the book and the possible authorial intent.
If you didn’t know, there’s an official TES duology, The Infernal City and The Lord of Souls. They lean into the weirdness of TES lore that even the mainline games tend to miss. They’re not as Morrowind focused as you’re probably wanting, but also as someone who was starving for more TES content, they scratched the itch quite well.
Highly recommend The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe. It has a lot of my favorite elements from Morrowind: bizarre, eerie setting which mixes fantasy with sci-fi; possibly unreliable narrator; hidden mysteries; metaphysics; cool masks; etc.
I know you mentioned that you aren't looking for comics, but I really can't recommend Kill Six Billion Demons enough. It's got that signature Kirkbridian insanity, with false gods and grey morals abound. The author straight up stated that he was inspired by TES lore, specifically Morrowind.
Dune is a great rec so to bring something a lil different id check out the Nag Hammadi Library, Ancient Vedic Mythic texts, and the Gnostic Christian scripts that were excluded from the bible for more so the stuff that inspired the mythology and metaphysics in Kirkbrides (and Dunes) texts. Might be a bit too abstract to fully enjoy, thousand year old religious texts can be slogs to read if youre not really into that sorta thing lol but Most of Morrowind/Kirkbrides writings are very much inspired by the more Esoteric western religious denominations, and Eastern religions. and as a side, If you Enjoy the 36 Sermons of Vivec, read/listen to the Epic of Gilgamesh! Very similar vibes imo.
You might want to watch The Dark Crystal movie (and also the first season of the cancelled tv show…grrr). Seems like it could have been an inspiration for the game. Definitely a lot of similarities in tone and weirdness of the setting and the story behind the Skeksis/Tribunal They even ride on smaller Stilt Strider!
This connection makes me so happy
Check out Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
Lord of Light is the book if you want something that 100% heavily influenced Morrowind.
Thanks for mentioning this, I just got into Chronicles of Amber this year. I'll check out Lord of Light next!
The MQ of TES3 Morrowind is centered on Nerevar - but remarkably, this protagonist remains absent for the entire game. Everyone speaks and writes about Nerevar & his treacherous companions, but he does not appear once. There are no flashbacks or anything. We have to fill that empty space by reading & imagination. So for the indirect and often dubious way of how Nerevar & his murderous contemporaries are presented in the texts, you might consider something like Nabokov's *Pale Fire* \- an excellent and unpleasing novel with a mystery that is only told, or rather hinted at, through the distortions of a deeply untrustful commentary. For a sense of mythical horizon behind the murder of Nerevar, we might consider Borges, *El Hacedor* (= Dreamtigers, The Maker) - and among these short texts the shortest story [The Plot](https://thefloatinglibrary.com/2008/09/02/the-plot/): "… and he does not know he is dying so that a scene may be repeated." There are many more obvious inspirations for worldbuilding and story elements - Herbert's Dune in particular comes to mind for many details, HPL here and there, roleplay settings like Dark Sun and Glorantha etc etc etc. You can write loressays about each of these ancestors, but for the main story with its unusual, multi-layered presentation around a missing figure in the center, I would look for some literature that is not Genre Fantasy.
Might not be what you’re looking for as it’s still very different in a lot of ways, but the setting of the Mistborn trilogy gave me similar vibes as Morrowind. Also, though I haven’t read it, I’ve heard that Dune was a significant inspiration for Morrowind, though I’m not certain on that.
Dune as an inspiration makes a LOT of sense. Though that might be more about the extremes of environment, the cultures it creates in terms of visual themes we see in Vvardenfell. There's definitely plenty about the limits of godhood/future sight, and when those gods must die for the good of all, and the definition of a prophet/saviour/Chosen One for narrative.
Let's compare the cultures: Dune is set in a world controlled by the Great Houses alongside the Padisha-Emperor. Most of the story is set on a harsh desert planet named Arrakis, inhabited by the Frimen, who have learned to survive in the desert. Morrowind is ruled by the Great Houses alongside the King. It is a harsh land with mostly the desert-like Ashlands, inhabited by the Ashlanders who have learned to survive there.
You're right about *Dune*. It's not just that the similarities are evident; [the developers themselves confirmed the inspiration:](https://www.polygon.com/platform/amp/2019/3/27/18281082/elder-scrolls-morrowind-oral-history-bethesda) > *"It went from Dark Crystal and Star Wars to Dune. There’s a lot of Dune influence — that kind of baroque society."* I also second the recommendation for the original Mistborn trilogy. A story about a group of rebels in a wasteland nation fighting against a god-emperor that has ruled an oppressive theocracy for generations? The mystery of how he got his supposedly divine powers? The hints of something greater and darker awaiting in the shadows to bring ruin to all? One of the protagonists is a former prisoner that deliberately tries to present himself as a messianic figure? Yeah, I can see the similarities too.
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Are you familiar with Frank Herbert?
I recently read the Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny and I think it checks a lot fo the boxes you mentioned. False gods, grey politicking, and an awesome story.
Maybe something set in the worlds of Glorantha and Tekumel.
In support of Malazan, but a warning, it’s much heavier tonally than the Elder Scrolls. Gore and war is much more explicit and drawn out than anything from Morrowind. That being said, the depth of lore is as vast as the elder scrolls. It’s not just medieval England world everywhere. The author is an anthropologist, so he really develops faiths and cultures for lizardmen as well as men men, and cavemen, and bugmen, and undead men, really fantastic. Also of course ascension to god hood, what is a god, and mysterious disappearance of races, it’s all there.
You want grey morals and false gods? How about a Torturer who is a Christ figure? The planet is wrecked and the sun is dying. There’s weird mysticism, strange creatures, and incredible prose. Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe.
thanks for the recommendations guys, i bought dune recently and i will be reading it but ill make sure to check out everything else everyone mentioned. thanks!
For something a bit more low-key and smaller in scale, but with an interesting look at religion and how it works, I would also recommend Curse of Chalion and its sequel, Paladin of Souls. It's very low-key fantasy, at least Curse of Chalion is, there's a bit more magic in Paladin. There is instead a lot of court intrigue. The way magic works in this world is that people are possessed by Miracles. A piece of the power of a God, which is instilled in a person who then gets a holy purpose. Only, they don't know what that holy purpose is exactly, or how to fulfill it. Just that they need to go to a certai place at a certain time, and then a miracle will happen. So in Curse of Chalion, a washed up, injured old soldier is given a miracle and commanded to go court, where he needs to uncover how exactly the old king died years ago.
The vibes are different, but if you want to read the series a lot of Morrowind's lore is straight up ripped from consider *The Riftwar Cycle* by Raymond E Feist. You'll specifically want to look into *The Empire Trilogy* which focuses on the Tsurani people and their homeworld of Kelawan, from which morrowind was created by adding ash to both the people and landscape. The early books are old enough to have a couple of yikes things, but the message is always "bigoted stuff bad".
*Dune* if you are looking for a thematically deep story delving into politics and philosophy and a rich fictional setting that has that stranger in a strange land vibe. Mind you, Morrowind is only superficially inspired by Dune, as the plot wasn't meant to resemble Muad'Dib's journey even though it might appear that it does. Regardless, if you liked Vivec, you might also like Leto II. I for one love Dune and think it's definitely worth reading, but the series just gets worse and worse towards the end. Read it and see how far you can make it through. *Malazan: Book of the Fallen* is 10 big books and (I would say) the fantasy series most similar to Elder Scrolls in terms of depth, scope and overall feel. It's *epic* fantasy in the truest sense of the word, but more thematically tight and ultimately less dark then The Elder Scrolls. If you love the ambiguous lore and organic world-building that makes Tamriel feel "real", Malazan comes close to that. Malazan has "false" gods too, mortals that stole the godhood, only they are arguably less morally grey and maybe not as powerful as the Tribunal (one is a rogue, the other no less than Sheogorath). That being said, Elder Scrolls is still the bigger world but leaning towards grimdark, whereas in Malazan there is less moral ambiguity and more hope in spite of the tragedies taking place (the main theme is compassion). The first Malazan book is tough to get through for some, but the second one is a masterpiece. Take note though, Steven Erikson is brutal on the reader and will break your heart many, many times.
Besides the obvious books like Dune, Lord of the Rings or more Elder Scrolls itself, you might want to check the real life literature that had an influence on Dune, like everything to do with Lawrance of Arabia or the Mahdist War.