I Just Realized The Elder Scrolls can be considered Sci-Fi

[ImperialSunlight]

Considering the creation myth in the Elder Scrolls games (which is pretty much confirmed to be true to at least some degree), Earth cannot exist as we know it in the Elder Scrolls Universe unless something completely ridiculous happens in a future game (which it probably will, but w/e). Thus The Elder Scrolls cannot be Sci-Fi as Sci-Fi is only based on remotely "plausible" things. A completely other universe where the Earth does not exist in any way and the metaphysics of the world work completely differently is not Sci-Fi, it's High Fantasy.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

It's fantasy. But it's too weird to be classified as anything strictly. Did you know that the developers are a part of the lore as well? As well as the Creation Kit. So everything you create in the Creation Kit, no matter how "lore breaking" it may seem, it's actually not breaking lore. Even if you have a lightsaber mod installed. It's awesome.

 

[Daverson]

Now, you see, this is the problem with Sci-fi today, you kids are so saturated with "Sci-fi" that's just fantasy in space that you've lost all conception of what real sci-fi is! Heinlein would be spinning in his grave!

Not his original grave, of course. [http://dresdencodak.com/2010/06/03/dark-science-01/]

 

[Jaeke]

Well I've always thought of Fantasy being under the Sci-Fi category since magic and mutations are pretty derivitive of "Science Fiction".
I mean magic by definition is science we haven't discovered/comprehended yet, and fantasy races are all anatomically human at their core but with their own mutations.
The Witcher series, I think, examplifies this really well. For example, Geralt. By definition he's a human, but because of his Witcher Mutation he isn't considered human by most of the unaffected human population.

 

[Zac Jovanovic]

And, by extension, the Fire & Ice series, Middle-Earth series and countless others can be considered Sci-Fi too.

The two genres are quite similar. Not entirely sure I get your point.

The first book of ASOIAF that I have has "SF novel of the year" on the cover.

 

[FEichinger]

Well, teeeechnically we have the Dwarven creations that don't necessarily run on magic, so ... it's more Steampunk-ish ... and you can certainly twist it to turn it into Sci-Fi, but ... personally, I'd stick with the general Fantasy, and nowhere near actual Science, thus Sci-Fi. So ... nope.

inb4 Chim. Anyway, if you refer to Chim, the Elder Scrolls is actually a dream just taking inside someones head.

Depending on your view on D/Aedra, that whole "Mundus/Nirn is just a dream" thingy may actually be the case in the Elder Scrolls lore, btw.

 

[Keneth]

Any sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from magic.

Any sufficiently understood magic is indistinguishable from science.

Also..

Spoiler

 

[Entitled]

Only slightly more on topic, where does something like steampunk fall then? It's technologically based, but it's a time that never was and never will be? A lot of what I have read tends to be more in the vein of alternate history. Is that Sci-Fi or Fantasy? Or is it something else entirely? I'll throw William Gibson's The Difference Engine out there. It's all very plausible, so I'm not sure Fantasy fits, but it doesn't quite seem to match with science fiction either.

I don't think that Alternate History has to be categorized as either sci-fi or fantasy, it's a separate thing.

In fact, there are many genres of speculative fiction that don't fit into either of these two.

For example, what about the zombie genre? They can be explained as a virus, but also as explicitly supernatural, with no effect to the plot.

Also, the superhero genre. Vaguely scientific, except when not even that.

 

[Mr F.]

Huh.

I thought I was going to read an interesting post with some major deconstruction of the elder-scrolls universe.

Instead I got halfbaked logic.

I am sad.

No, the Elder Scrolls is not Sci-Fi. Peter F Hamilton is Sci-Fi. Asimov is sci-fi. The Elderscrolls is not.

 

[thesilentman]

Oh come on guys, OP has a point here. The only issue in logic that I see is that science fiction is based around BLATANT science thrown in a mixed for the author's benefit. Fantasy doesn't jump that much.

 

[Frotality]

yes, as has been said they are very similar genres. they both are founded on the concept of introducing fantastical elements to reality and logically creating a world around how that would effect it, the core difference is that sci-fi tends to take a small few theoretical ideas while fantasy takes a shit ton of complete fabrications.

the difference is simply scale. genres exist for shorthand, not strict definition. it wouldnt be any kind of art if that were the case.

 

[TheLycanKing144]

I still see it as fantasy, I mean it seems like kind of a stretch to call the Elder Scrolls sci-fi, but to each his own. Personally I would love to see a game like Elder-Scrolls set in the future (or space), you could create your own character and discover other planets and fly space ships, I think it would be successful if done right.

 

[Brainpaint]

I've always believed it to be part sci-fi. I explain why to my dad so I can get him to try playing Skyrim, but he's set in his ways. Won't play anything other than Halo.

But think about it. Read the in-world books!
In-world evolutionary theories regarding the origins of the mer and man races, planet and moon orbit cycles, archaeology, palaeontology and even more.

In a way, it's more SF than Star Wars. In the original movies they don't explain the force and don't talk about HALF of the workings of the solar systems and universes, languages and species as much as TES games do.

It's part of the exploration aspect of these games. In exploring the world, you encounter people that want to know more about it. People who are basically scientists. Some use real-world science, others use a tweaked version to explain away the magical side of things or to represent that some of these people may be wrong or some facts are lost over time. Science and fact is very malleable. Even in real-life.

I kept one of every book I could find in Oblivion and Skyrim. After reading a good few of them it was pretty obvious I was playing a fantasy that had a good amount of sci-fi elements to it.

If you can get a sci-fi horror and sci-fi comedy, you can sure as hell have a "sci-fi fantasy".

 

[Olas]

No, I'm sorry but no. Science Fiction is a very clear cut genre from Fantasy;

No it's not, the two are essentially different shades of the same genre. As writers associated with both have pointed out "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"[footnote]Arthur C. Clarke[/footnote] and "any sufficiently rigorously defined magic is indistinguishable from technology"[footnote]Larry Nivens[/footnote] so really they're only separated by different story conventions associated with each, and even those conventions can be easily mixed together such as with Star Wars where you have swords and sorcery (the Jedi) as well as space battles, which is why it's often classified as 'Science Fantasy'.

 

[Charli]

The blurry line between Sci-fi and Fantasy tends to wane more you think about it.

But in terms that most humans can understand, there are literary boundaries for each category visually and story wise.


But you're technically correct yes. The two genres tend to blur the more you delve into the concept.


Example. World of Warcraft. On the surface as cartoonily fantasy as you can get. Dive into the lore and deeper aspects of it, suddenly space travel, interstellar wars and cosmic beings. It's probably the most simplistic example I can think of. But most stories that start with either fantasy or sci-fi, and want to go the long mile will eventually step on each others toes.

 

[bigfatcarp93]

It all depends on whether Magic or Science is the driving factor behind a world's development. And the world of the Elder Scrolls is mostly built on Magic. Ergo, it's not Sci-Fi, it's Fantasy.

 

[Happiness Assassin]

Neither does the worlds of Song of Fire and Ice, LotR, Dragon Age, Witchcer and damn near ever other fantasy game. You could interpret that our Earth is a part of the same universe in every single one of those worlds, but that doesn't make it sci-fi. Sci-fi follows a fairly consistent set of scientific rules that is more or less plausible and is focused on technology, whereas fantasy shows a notable lack of technological development and is often less consistent in terms of the magic that is present.

 

[Winnosh]

Scifi and Fantasy are normally catagorized together. The separation is something that readers and fans make up on their own. Scifi and Fantasy are subgenres of each other. Hell walk into any library or bookstore and they are in the same section.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Congratulations, you have discovered that science fiction and fantasy are essentially the same genera with different explanations for the unexplainable stuff that happens. The only real difference are in the particular styles that are usually used to tell the story. Its easy to find many stories that muddle the two.