The D&D campaign that eventually helped shape Skyrim has been unearthed, as The Elder Scrolls legend's lost RPG notes are archived

Original RPG notes that helped shape the lore of The Elder Scrolls series have been uncovered and archived, offering a look at how the world of Tamriel was brought to life by its creators.

In a joint effort, two Elder Scrolls archival projects - the Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages (UESP) and The Imperial Library - have shared campaign notes from games of D&D played inside the world of Tamriel. These notes come from the estate of Julian LeFay, the Bethesda veteran described as "father of The Elder Scrolls" who died in July 2025, and detail two campaigns he ran during the development of The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall.

The second of the two campaigns is relatively well-known, having contributed to the naming of several characters and locations throughout the series. It was never completed, but its narrative was wrapped up in an in-game novel, The Fall of the Usurper. The notes are minimal, but feature region and dungeon maps for Daggerfall's Dwynnen area.

It's the first campaign, however, that's more interesting. The Dwynnen campaign was better known because parts of its story contributed to Daggerfall, but the other campaign was not known until the discovery of LeFay's notes. Across more than 8,000 words, LeFay describes characters, religions, and the Sumurset (Summerset) Isles, home of the High Elves. One of the player characters in this campaign was Vanus Galerion, who still features as an NPC in The Elder Scrolls Online.

The Imperial Library notes that a longstanding community myth suggests that the devs' D&D campaigns actively established the setting for The Elder Scrolls. That's not true - these notes stem from the Daggerfall era, and don't predate Arena - but tabletop roleplaying clearly made a substantial mark on The Elder Scrolls, with LeFay's original maps shaping the entire world of Tamriel. Thousands of words of notes mean it might be a little while until we realize just how important these documents were to the rest of the series - including The Elder Scrolls 6 - but it's clear this is a T(r)E(a)Sure trove.

Todd Howard says Elder Scrolls 6 "most definitely" has more trees than Skyrim, and now I'm pinning Valenwood to the location conspiracy board.