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The Tales of Tamriel Podcast is approaching its 300th episode! We sat down with two of the hosts of the long-running podcast to celebrate their accomplishments and learn more about their history with The Elder Scrolls Online.
Arkhaniir, LotusOfDoom, we’re so excited to have you with us here today! Please share your ESO journey with us. What brought you to the game?
Arkhaniir: I’ve been a huge fan of the Elder Scrolls franchise since 2006 with Oblivion’s launch. The idea of experiencing it on the massive scale of an MMORPG while playing alongside friends was more compelling than anything else I've previously experienced in video games. Eight years later and here we are!
LotusOfDoom: I started my Elder Scrolls journey back with Morrowind on the original Xbox. I came to ESO shortly after console launch because I had wanted to play the newest entry in the series. I played around during the BETA, but it really “clicked” for me when it launched on console. It has been my main game ever since!
What inspired you to start a podcast focusing on ESO?
Lotus & Arkhaniir: Technically speaking, neither of us started Tales of Tamriel. We were both fans of the show from its early days when Aggelos, the original host, launched the show. Both of us (Arkhaniir and Lotus) went from being a listener and a fan to eventually main hosting it. So, you could say Tales of Tamriel inspired us to keep Tales of Tamriel going!
Was it challenging to make that transition from listener/fan to podcaster?
LotusOfDoom: It was definitely a bit strange to switch from listener to podcaster, but luckily I have no problem just talking … like a lot haha! But learning to try to articulate exactly what I mean, and knowing people are actually paying attention to what I’m saying, is something I still try to improve on, and the only real drawback is re-listening to the show. It is definitely strange hearing myself on it each week.
Arkhaniir: By Divines, it was. With the exception of streaming very rarely, up until that point I wasn’t a content creator. To be brought on a show that meant so much for me and to co-host alongside people I look up to was really nerve-wracking. I can still remember my heart pumping as if I just ran away from a dragon and was struggling to put my thoughts into words. Week by week, I got more comfortable with it, though, and I made true friends along the way, even if we never met each other in person. I am grateful I didn’t shy from it when Aggelos first offered to have me as a guest, regardless of how anxiety-inducing it was.
What topics do you cover during the show? How has the podcast grown and changed over the years?
Lotus & Arkhaniir: The main concept of the show has always been “What have you been up to recently in the big, wide world of Tamriel?” Our tales, so to speak. However, over the years we also got more and more into deep mechanic discussions, news, providing feedback and criticism, etc., resulting in several-hour episodes. The “tales” section still takes the cake though!
Hitting 300 shows is an incredible milestone. How will you celebrate the achievement?
Lotus & Arkhaniir: We’ll just ramble on and on for hours and probably get more than a little emotional, ha-ha! We’ve been gathering favorite memories from the community as well to reminisce during the episode. We’re also preparing a BIG announcement to make on the 300th episode, but we can’t reveal that just yet…
Many hosts—one podcast!
How do you ensure your podcast is always compelling?
Lotus & Arkhaniir: Honestly, we just enjoy rambling on and on as friends talking about everything Elder Scrolls-related and hope that the community enjoys it as well. We are a lot more chaotic in our recordings compared to some other TES podcasts out there. The Elder Scrolls series is so massive, with more stories and adventures being added all the time, that we have a lot to work with. The show generally being a dumpster fire has also been an inside joke for so long that we even have fan art from the community to represent that, ha-ha!
Is there a unique community that has developed around Tales of Tamriel? How have they helped the show?
Lotus & Arkhaniir: Tales of Tamriel has been around since before the launch of ESO and was hosted by over a dozen different people in that timespan, so our community is a long-established one. There are people with so many varying interests who joined at its varying stages, and everyone has unique memories regarding the show based on when they first found it thanks to the amount of people who’ve supported it over the years. It’s that very involvement that got us to the grand milestone of episode 300. Every time the show came close to the verge of ending, people rallied in various ways (including becoming hosts/co-hosts lol) to keep it going.
Fanart by U_Alatalo
Do you have any advice for would-be podcasters who are interested in producing their own ESO show?
Lotus & Arkhaniir: Find something you want to talk about without worrying too much about what others might want to listen to. There is an audience out there for basically everything, and if you enjoy what you create, people will too!
You also don’t need an expensive setup. Grab a budget USB microphone, any recording software, and you are good to go. Give it a try. After all, you’ll never know if you never start!
How supportive is the ESO/ES podcasting community? Are there any other podcasts you’d recommend?
Lotus & Arkhaniir: The ESO and Elder Scrolls podcasting community is without a doubt one of the most supportive and friendly communities out there. Every podcast supports one another and collaborates whenever possible. We share resources, ideas, hosts, and more. There are many active ESO podcasts to check out, but a few we’ve had the pleasure of collaborating with recently are Elder Scrolls Lorecast, Red Diamond Courier, Written in Uncertainty, UESP Podcast, and A Skyrim Addict.
Thank you both for chatting with us today, and congratulations on this massive milestone! If you know an ESO content creator who you believe deserves a spotlight, don’t hesitate to share them with us via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We love sharing the amazing things the ESO community creates with the rest of the #ESOFam.
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