Michael Kirkbride | |
---|---|
Role(s) | Designer, writer, artist[1] |
Softworks tenure | 1996–2000[1] 2001-2006 (contract)[1] |
Alias(es) | MK[2] Merry Eyesore the Elk[2] |
Game credits | The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard[3] The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind[4] The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion[5] |
Michael Kirkbride is a video game designer, writer, and artist who worked on Redguard,[3] Morrowind,[4] and Oblivion,[5] as well as providing additional uncredited contributions to Daggerfall,[6][7] Knights of the Nine,[8] Skyrim,[9][10] and The Elder Scrolls Online.[11]
The Elder ScrollsEdit
—Michael Kirkbride[12]
1996–2000: Design, Art Direction at Bethesda SoftworksEdit
Kirkbride joined Bethesda Softworks in April 1996[1] after he responded to a job advertisement in Next Generation magazine and was hired by then-Lead Artist Mark Jones.[12] His earliest work on The Elder Scrolls was a minor role working on textures for Daggerfall.[6][7] He quickly bonded with designer Kurt Kuhlmann, who was hired on the same day that he was, over a shared interest in "weird-fantasy" such as the works of Gene Wolfe.[12] While pre-production for The Elder Scrolls III began after Daggerfall's release, the scope of the game was determined to be too large for the team to handle at the time, so was put on hold[13] and development efforts were divided into two smaller Elder Scrolls projects in the interim.[14] According to Kirkbride, he and Kuhlmann pitched a "pirates-on-mars" game to Todd Howard which ultimately became Redguard,[12] with the trio as writers,[3] while a separate team developed Battlespire.[14] Aside from overseeing all aspects of the game's writing, Kirkbride also produced levels and graphics for the game.[15] During this time, Kirkbride and Kuhlmann wrote A Pocket Guide to the Empire[16] to be shipped as a physical pamphlet with Redguard,[12] and in doing so largely redesigned the basis of The Elder Scrolls lore.[17] Kirkbride later quipped that he took interest in The Elder Scrolls lore when he "decided its gods made no sense at all."[18]
—Ken Rolston, Lead Designer of Morrowind[12]
Ken Rolston, Lead Designer of The Elder Scrolls III, stated that he "inherited" Morrowind's design from Kirkbride and Kuhlmann, who had devised the story and setting.[19] While Daggerfall's team had an initial design for The Elder Scrolls III prior to its postponement that set the game in Summerset Isle, the new team felt it was "boring", and Kirkbride pitched a new design set in Morrowind to Project Lead Todd Howard, who was "immediately hooked".[12] According to Kirkbride, Morrowind writers had a saying that "anything that was boring was automatically wrong."[20] With planning for Morrowind occurring alongside production for Redguard,[21] Kirkbride was often distracted from his work on Redguard drawing concepts for Morrowind, and during production of that game the walls of Bethesda's offices were covered in his illustrations.[12] As the Art Director during Morrowind's design stage,[22] Kirkbride was the dominant influence on Morrowind's aesthetic.[12]
2000–Present: Contracting, Unofficial ProjectsEdit
In a move to California, Kirkbride departed Bethesda Softworks circa June 2000 and shifted to ZeniMax's e-Nexus Studios[1][23] (also known as Bethesda West).[24] Responding to fan concern over his absence, Gary Noonan confirmed that Bethesda Softworks remained in "close touch" with Kirkbride and continued to consult him remotely.[25] Sometime in 2001, Kirkbride was contracted to write in-game books for Morrowind after having left the studio[26] (as were Ted Peterson and Kurt Kuhlmann, both of whom had left years prior).[27][28] He produced at least 53 books which appear in the game, including the seminal lore texts The Monomyth, Varieties of Faith, and The 36 Lessons of Vivec,[29] which established the deities and mythology of The Elder Scrolls. Having been asked to write 50 skill books, Kirkbride had originally allocated for six of them to cover "Vivec's Bible", but resulted in 36 because he found he could not stop writing them.[30]
When production began for Oblivion, Kirkbride was again contracted to provide in-game books and supporting writing for the game and its expansion Knights of the Nine.[1] He wrote at least nine texts[29] as well as dialogue for the Main Quest antagonist Mankar Camoran.[2] Ted Peterson recollected that Kirkbride was offered to write A Pocket Guide to the Empire, 3rd Edition—a physical booklet to be shipped with the Collector's Edition—and declined,[31] but Kirkbride corrected that he initially accepted the offer before "begging" Peterson to take it on due to his other commitments at the time.[32] Kirkbride reflected that writing for Oblivion without the same creative control he had on previous titles was difficult and he did not play the game for many years after its release[33]—though once hoping it would be "written off",[17] he would later call it "rad".[12] Kirkbride was involved in early plot and design concepts for Skyrim as a consultant[9][34] and wrote for the announcement trailer.[9] Concern among fans that lore written by Kirkbride would be missing from the game prompted Kurt Kuhlmann, Co-Lead Designer of Skyrim, to reassure fans of Kirkbride's influence on the title.[35] After Skyrim's release, Kirkbride expressed his disappointment with the removal of the Nordic religion[36] and would have liked more detailed worldbuilding when it came to the Dragon War[37] but otherwise regarded the game fondly.[38]
In celebration of Redguard's 15th anniversary in 2013, Kirkbride collaborated with the game's original cast and crew on a project titled Captain Tobias' Sword-Meeting with Cyrus the Restless with Michael Mack reprising his role as hero Cyrus,[39] but while voiceover work was recorded, the project was not finished.[40] In 2014, Kirkbride released the script to C0DA, a metafictional Elder Scrolls graphic novel set on Masser in the Fifth Era.[41] The story of C0DA was written as a conclusion to the overarching story of Morrowind and presented as a potential future of The Elder Scrolls universe. Described as "a story that doesn't want to be told in the main TES franchise",[42] the work also served as a vehicle for Kirkbride's view that labels such as "canon" or "official" are not applicable to The Elder Scrolls lore[43] and stimulated conversations within the community around how those concepts should be regarded in connection with The Elder Scrolls.[20] In 2017, Kirkbride contributed 36 Lessons of Vivec, Sermon 37 to The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind.[11]
Kirkbride is noted for his high level of fan interaction from the 1990s to 2010s, and has posted in online Elder Scrolls communities consistently since Redguard's development,[2] frequently answering questions about development and the lore, sharing lore texts that have not yet been seen in-game[44][45] and ideas that had not made it into a game's final version.[46][47] Out of all The Elder Scrolls writers, Kirkbride has provided the most out-of-game lore texts to the community.[48] His latest external text was released in 2015, with his plans to release further writings having been abandoned.[40] Kirkbride's interaction with the fandom and series has dwindled as of the 2020s, and he has stated that he does not talk about the Elder Scrolls as much as he used to.[49]
Drug Use HoaxEdit
In 2018, a faked snapshot of a UESP page was shared online which falsely stated that, during production of Morrowind, Kirkbride was found under the influence of psychoactive drugs by Todd Howard after being absent from work, paired with a photograph it claimed was taken by Howard of the incident.[50] In truth, no such UESP page ever existed; the story is a fabrication.[50] The image was taken from a music video, fat, that Kirkbride had filmed and uploaded to YouTube in 2013, many years after his time working on Morrowind (the video depicts Kirkbride lethargically overeating as Wesley Willis' I'm Sorry That I Got Fat plays).[51] Lady Nerevar said of the video's misuse, "If you told me that a dumb video we made for fun was going to generate a wholeass conspiracy theory that real life people would ask me about [...] None of that happened in any way, shape, or form".[52]
With regard to the hoax and exaggerated accounts of his writing The 36 Lessons of Vivec, Kirkbride said "You know that comes from a Photoshopped image, right? [...] that's all a lie. I've already given an account of how the 36 [Lessons] were written: a week of bourbon, smokes, and solitude."[53] Kirkbride has repeatedly refuted internet myths that he used recreational drugs[53][54][55][56] and has said that the myths annoy him "more than a little bit".[57] Related rumors that he was dismissed from the company are likewise unfounded; Kirkbride left Bethesda for Zenimax's studio in California,[1] remained involved in the production of Morrowind after leaving the studio,[25] and continued to contribute to subsequent titles.[1][5][9][11]
Outside of The Elder ScrollsEdit
Kirkbride attended the University of Alabama in Huntsville[1] where he studied creative writing, painting, and comparative religion[58] before doing video game work with friends from college[12], stating that he "lucked into games".[58] He joined United Software Artists and worked on their planned MMORPG Roamad, which was later retooled and released as the mainly singleplayer Amulets & Armor.[15] As a freelance illustrator, Kirkbride worked with RPG publishers such as Chaosium and Atlas Games providing his illustrations to several sourcebooks, and contributed artwork to the Tékumel website,[15] even being given a name in the Tsolyáni language by Tékumel's creator M. A. R. Barker.[59] Kirkbride's first credit with Bethesda was SkyNET.[60][61]
Following his time with Bethesda Softworks, Kirkbride joined fellow Elder Scrolls writer Ted Peterson at Savage Entertainment[27][62] and worked for a number of video game studios after, mainly in design roles.[1] Outside of his work on The Elder Scrolls, he is best known for his time with Telltale Games for which he was the Lead Designer on four titles.[63][64][65][66] Following Telltale's closure, Kirkbride remained the Lead Designer for The Walking Dead: The Final Season to complete the series under Skybound Entertainment.[67][1] before joining Ascendant Studios as their Lead Writer.[1][68]
Influences and StyleEdit
Kirkbride emphasises that how a video game looks and feels is more important to its lore than its accompanying prose.[33] A method inherited by mentor Ken Rolston, he aims to tell the "dog story" and the "god story",[12] stating "what's it like for the peasant? How does magic seep down into the lives of everyday people? War, famine, things like that. To me, that's equally interesting to warfare between the gods, sometimes even moreso."[33]
Favoring texts which read like artifacts of the world they inhabit, his writing is often dense and makes heavy use of invented terminology which is intended to have allusive rather than definitive purpose. Gene Wolfe, who is known for such a prosaic style, is regarded by Kirkbride as an influence.[12] He pointed to a passing reference to a beverage called "peppered chocolate" in The Book of the New Sun, stating, "That's a perfect example of what I try to do [...] Your eye can just slide right over that, but if you're paying attention, you say, 'wait, what?' That gives you that sense that it's a fantastical world, that it's something unfamiliar to us. Little things like that really add up."[33] Also like Wolfe, Kirkbride makes heavy use of unreliable narrators in his work—on the writing for Morrowind, he stated that writers were purposely contradictory about in-universe information, recalling "we just built this way of working where the only info that would come out of Bethesda about the world had built-in plausible deniability".[12] Ted Peterson, comparing it to his own "grounded" approach, described Kirkbride's writing as "almost prose poetry, very cool but almost incomprehensible".[27]
Kirkbride cited the works of Jorge Luis Borges as a "huge influence".[69] As Borges does in his works, Kirkbride often toys with the idea of truth and reality in fiction, denying the reader a definite understanding of events. The Republic of Hahd in particular is a nod to Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius,[69] and Kirkbride has also paid homage to Borges by posting online a Morrowind-themed version of Argumentum Ornithologicum.[2] On Morrowind's narrative, Kirkbride stated "a 40 hour narrative whose main character is only ever referenced is almost Nabokovian in aspiration, and prophecies whose truth is determined only by the player is akin to Borges if he only had been born with a USB port in the back of his beloved neck."[2]
Kirkbride recalls that he began worldbuilding at age five in a Montessori classroom using his principal's original Dungeons & Dragons manuals.[70] He credits the work of Aaron Allston, particularly on the Gazetteer series, with inspiring his "need and drive to create A Pocket Guide to the Empire for The Elder Scrolls."[71]
He saw David Lynch's Dune in theaters on its opening day and claims that it influenced all of his writing thereafter,[72] including Morrowind,[12] jesting that "any discussion of anything in TES should include some reference to Dune".[73] Kirkbride has pointed to Dune's concept of kanly as an inspiration for the Morag Tong,[17] the Guild of Navigators as an inspiration for Lyg being folded space,[74][75] and that Thu'um was born from imagining vikings "doing the David Lynch Dune thing" (referring to the "Weirding Module" featured in the 1984 film).[76]
Kirkbride regards Glorantha as "the second biggest influence in the structure of TES' mythos".[77] Ken Rolston, a prominent writer for RuneQuest, stated that Glorantha was a "shared language" between himself, Kirkbride, and Kurt Kuhlmann during writing for Morrowind.[12] Kirkbride noted that Glorantha's Gbaji and Arkat were inspirations on his characterisation of Tiber Septim.[78] The world of Tékumel has also been cited as an inspiration, with Kirkbride stating that M. A. R. Barker's "concentration on non-white cultures puts most post-Dunsany fantasists to shame with their airport-safe Anglo-tropes".[59]
Kirkbride is a fan of Star Wars, and his first pitch to Todd Howard for Morrowind was "Mad Max meets Star Wars meets The Dark Crystal".[17] He takes pride in having written for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed,[79][80] has a Star Wars tattoo,[81] and together with Kurt Kuhlmann and Ken Rolston wrote a fanmade 12-episode television series titled Star Wars: Rebellion in 1999[82][83] (the origin of the name "Titus Mede", later reused for a character in The Elder Scrolls).[84]
Kirkbride stated that the best fictional book he has read is Moby-Dick,[85] and he has compared his characterization of the Dwemer with the titular character of another of Herman Melville's works, Bartleby, the Scrivener.[86][87] He has cited Stormbringer's Pan Tangians, as portrayed in the sourcebook Sorcerers of Pan Tang, as providing his "personal inspirations of the Ayleid Hegemony",[88] and the Data Gods of the Numenera supplement Celestial Wisdom as an inspiration on the Hist.[89] Other influences cited by Kirkbride are the works of Michael Moorcock,[90] R. Scott Bakker,[91] Khalil Gibran,[92] David Bowie,[92] Carl Jung,[93] and elements of Hinduism.[94] He studied comparative religion in university[58] and described himself as a "Gnostic heretic", stating this to reflect in his writing.[77] Kirkbride has also stated that his synesthesia has an effect on his writing.[95]
Video games which influenced Kirkbride's work on Morrowind include Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee and Out of This World.[12]
Texts AuthoredEdit
This list is non-exhaustive and includes only texts of which Kirkbride is known to be a primary author.
- ^ Though Kirkbride wrote Varieties of Faith, he states that did not make up the name given to its in-universe author, "Mikhael Karkuxor" (a pun on his own name), and that it was likely Ken Rolston.
GalleryEdit
Redguard ConceptsEdit
See also: Redguard:Concept Art
A Pocket Guide to the Empire, First Edition IllustrationsEdit
-
From the section on Hammerfell[105]
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From the section on Cyrodiil[106]
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Dragons over the Nibenay, unused in PGE1[107]
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From the section on Skyrim[108]
-
From the section on Skyrim[108]
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From the section on Skyrim[108]
-
Guri Nail-Face, Lord of Skerd[108]
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Fort Boar, unused in PGE1[109]
-
Wayrest[110]
-
Noble of Daggerfall[110]
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The Horse-People of the Bjoulsae River, scarcely mentioned in text[110]
-
From the section on High Rock[110]
-
Wood Elves of the Wild Hunt, 1e369[111]
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From the section on the Aldmeri Dominion[111]
-
From the section on the Aldmeri Dominion[111]
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From the section on the Elsweyr Confederacy
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From the section on the Elsweyr Confederacy
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From the section on the Elsweyr Confederacy
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Ragman of Tear
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Velothi dust merchants leaving G'nisis
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From the section on Morrowind
-
From the section on Morrowind
-
A Dunmeri slaver of House Dres near the Argonian border
-
From the section on the Wild Regions
Morrowind ConceptsEdit
See also: Morrowind:Concept Art, The Art of Morrowind
-
Ashlands[114]
-
Akulakhan[115]
-
Dunmer Warrior[13]
-
Templar of the Imperial Legion[13]
-
Vivec vs. Ruddyman[13]
-
Scout in full netch-leather[13]
-
Morag Tong Assassin[118]
-
Foreign helms[121]
-
Foreign helms[121]
-
Foreign helms[121]
-
Foreign helms[121]
-
Native helms[122]
-
Native helms[122]
-
Native helms[122]
-
Emperor Parasol trees[13]
-
Ashlanders hunting a netch[13][124]
-
Redoran buildings[125]
-
Redoran buildings[125]
-
Subo-Lathla Skyport[127]
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Sload Floater (Gasbag Mass Transit)[128]
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Daedric shrine ruins[129]
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Morrowind sketchbook page, featuring a Sload druglord[130]
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Vivec's Birthday[13]
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Hovering Telvanni wizard[135]
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Sketches of game elements to be used in initial screenshots, and the resulting shots[136]
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Greater Bonewalker - Proxy dog[138]
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Kwama variants[139]
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Temple imagery[142]
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Nord Barbarian[147]
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High Elf Spellsword w/ Orc Mansteed[147]
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Elf of House Dres[13]
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Daedric helms[148]
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Daedric helmet scale[149]
Other ArtworkEdit
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Vivec with Red Diamond, likely actual MW concept art[156]
CreditsEdit
Indicates The Elder Scrolls titles |
Video GamesEdit
Year | Title | Credit(s) | Studio |
---|---|---|---|
1996 | SkyNET | Graphics / Artwork Documentation[60] |
Bethesda Softworks |
1997 | Amulets & Armor | Additional Art[157] | United Software Artists[† 1] |
1998 | The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard | World Art, Design & Writing Manual Writing & Art[3] |
Bethesda Softworks |
2002 | The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind | Concept Art Additional Writing & Quest Design[4] |
|
2002 | Defender | Designer Story & Dialogue Sound Designer & Direction[158] |
Seven Studios |
2003 | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | Designer[159] | EA Redwood Shores |
2004 | The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age | Designer[160] | |
2005 | James Bond 007: From Russia with Love | Additional Designer[161] | |
2006 | The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion | Additional Writing[5] | Bethesda Game Studios |
2007 | Shrek the Third | Additional Designer[162] | Amaze Entertainment |
2008 | Iron Man | Mission Designer[163] | Secret Level |
Golden Axe: Beast Rider | Level Designer[164] | ||
2009 | Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - Ultimate Sith Edition | Special Thanks[165] | LucasArts |
World of Zoo | Thanks[166] | Blue Fang Games | |
2010 | Iron Man 2 | Lead Mission Designer[167] | Sega Studios San Francisco |
2015 | Game of Thrones | Designer[168] | Telltale Games[† 2] |
Minecraft: Story Mode | Lead Designer[63] | ||
2016 | Batman: The Telltale Series | Lead Designer[64] | |
2017 | Batman: The Enemy Within | Season Lead Designer[65] | |
2018 | The Walking Dead: The Final Season | Season Lead Designer[66] | |
2023 | Immortals of Aveum | Lead Writer[169][170] | Ascendant Studios |
|
Tabletop GamesEdit
Year | Title | Game | Credit(s) | Publisher |
---|---|---|---|---|
1993 | Melniboné: Dragon Isle and Dreaming City | Elric! | Interior Illustrations[171] | Chaosium Inc. |
1994 | Herald of Doom (fanzine) | Elric! | Contributing Art[172][173] | Pale Prince Publishing |
1995 | Surviving on the Edge | On the Edge | Illustrations[174] | Atlas Games |
The Unknown East: Forgotten Foes of the Bright Empire | Elric! | Illustrations[175] | Chaosium Inc. | |
1996 | Sailing on the Seas of Fate | Elric! | Interior Illustrations[176] | |
1997 | Players Companion | Fading Suns | Art[177] | Holistic Design |
2003 | d20 Character Codex | Fading Suns | Interior Art[178] |
See AlsoEdit
Relevant InterviewsEdit
- Jun 2000: Game.EXE: Bethesda Softworks делает очередную правильную игру из классической серии The Elder Scrolls
- Jun 2000: Game.EXE: Morrowind Developer Interview
- Oct 2013: TIL: Michael Kirkbride IRC Quotes
- Nov 2013: Reddit: Michael Kirkbride AMA
- Jun 2014, Memospore: Selectives Lorecast 02: Lorkhan
- Aug 2014: RetroGramer: A History of The Elder Scrolls
- Mar 2019: Polygon: Morrowind: An oral history
- Nov 2019: USgamer: What Makes Good Video Game Lore? The Scribes of Elder Scrolls, Divinity: Original Sin, and More Weigh In
ReferencesEdit
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Michael Kirkbride. LinkedIn.
- ^ a b c d e f Michael Kirkbride's Posts, The Imperial Library
- ^ a b c d Redguard credits
- ^ a b c Morrowind credits
- ^ a b c d Oblivion credits
- ^ a b Kirkbride, M. [MKirkbride]. (20 June 2020). Comment on "Could the Ebony Warrior be the author of the "Herbane's Bestiary" volumes in Skyrim?". Reddit.
- ^ a b Edwards, M. (17 July 2014). A History of The Elder Scrolls. Retro Gamer, 131, 68.
- ^ Memospore. (2014, June 29). Selectives Lorecast 02: Lorkhan [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2I2hIgmRGE
- ^ a b c d [ladynerevar]. (10 May 2014). Comment on "Has Bethesda Reacted to non cannon [sic] material?". Reddit.
- ^ Kirkbride, M. [MKirkbride]. (5 June 2019). Comment on "From an interview with Todd Howard". Reddit.
- ^ a b c d Kirkbride, M. [MKirkbride]. (11 July 2019). Comment on "Do I understand Lorkhan/Shor/Shezarr correctly now ?". Reddit.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Kane, A. (27 March 2019). Morrowind: An oral history. Polygon.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n (2002). The Art of Morrowind. Bethesda Softworks.
- ^ a b The Elder Scrolls 10th Anniversary: Battlespire. elderscrolls.com. Archived from the original on 9 June 2007.
- ^ a b c Resume. Michael Kirkbride's home page. Archived from the original on 5 November 2011.
- ^ Kirkbride, M. [MKirkbride]. (7 January 2020). Comment on "(Prolly repost idk) Why is Morrowind lore so eccentric compared to every other entry?". Reddit.
- ^ a b c d e Edwards, M. (17 July, 2014). A History of The Elder Scrolls. Retro Gamer, 131.
- ^ Kirkbride, M. [MKirkbride]. (27 November 2013). Comment on "Official TESlore Survey". Reddit'. "When I decided its gods made no sense at all."
- ^ (July 2005). Games That Changed the World—The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. PC Zone, 156, 141.
- ^ a b Chan, K. H. (26 November 2016). "The battle to control what's fact and fiction in the elder scrolls' lore". PC Gamer.
- ^ Kirkbride, M. [MKirkbride]. (13 June 2020). Comment on "How much of the Dunmer lore was established before Morrowind?". Reddit.
- ^ [ladynerevar]. (14 December 2014). Comment on "anything in the way of behind the scenes lore development?" . Reddit.
- ^ Game.EXE 2000-06
- ^ [ladynevevar]. (29 December 2018). Comment on "Any idea what Michael Kirkbride will do next?". Reddit.
- ^ a b Noonan, G. [WormGod]. (4 December 2000). "TES Fan Concerns". Archived from the original on 16 February 2001. The Elder Scrolls Forums.
- ^ Douglas Goodall's Posts
- ^ a b c Ted Peterson Interview - Part II. Morrowind Summit. (9 July 2001). Archived from the original on 17 July 2001.
- ^ Kurt Kuhlmann. LinkedIn.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa Who Did What?, The Imperial Library
- ^ Kirkbride, M. [MKirkbride]. (24 May 2019). Comment on "Eurogamer's 36 Lessons of Vivec article - May 23rd, 2019". Reddit.
- ^ Peterson, T. (2 October 2018). Ted Peterson Interview - Designer & Writer on Arena, Daggerfall, Morrowind & Oblivion [Video]. YouTube. "Michael Kirkbride wrote the first Pocket Guide to the Empire, which I guess must have come out with Redguard, and then I wrote the one that came out with-- either Oblivion or Morrowind was based on that. So, I never went, like-- what Kirkbride wrote in the Pocket Guide to the Empire is great, but there were different directives of what we were gonna do with the second one, and I think he was offered it and wasn't interested or had a problem with the dictates, and it was fine with me."
- ^ Kirkbride, M. [MKirkbride]. (16 April 2023). Comment on "Oblivion glass armor". Reddit.
- ^ a b c d Wright, S. (15 February 2015). What makes good video game lore? the scribes of elder scrolls, divinity: Original sin, and more weigh in. USgamer.
- ^ Kirkbride, M. [michaelkirkbride]. (7 September 2015). "The Nords' Totemic Religion". Tumblr. Archived from the original on 14 April 2016.
- ^ Kuhlmann, K. [Maturin]. (10 August 2011). Comment on "Michael Kirkbride". Bethesda Softworks Forums. Archived from the original on 15 October 2016.
- ^ Kirkbride, M. [Merry Eyesore the Elk]. (21 December 2013). Comment on "The Only Route?". Bethesda Softworks Forums. Archived from the original on 13 February 2020.
- ^ Kirkbride, M. [MKirkbride]. (22 May 2020). Comment on "Vivec has a modified Indian name?". Reddit.
- ^ Kirkbride, M. [MKirkbride]. (3 November 2013). Comment on "I am Michael Kirkbride. Ask Me Anything.". Reddit.
- ^ Kirkbride, M. [MKirkbride]. (26 November 2013). "Captain Tobias' Sword-Meeting With Cyrus the Restless". Reddit.
- ^ a b Kirkbride, M. [MKirkbride]. (4 January 2021). Comment on "What happened to Captain Tobias' Sword-Meeting with Cyrus the Restless?". Reddit'
- ^ a b c Kirkbride, M. (14 February 2014). C0DA. Archived from the original on 18 June 2016.
- ^ [ladynerevar]. (6 January 2015). "What is C0DA? An Answer". Reddit.
- ^ Kirkbride, M. [MKirkbride]. (15 February 2014). Comment on "C0DA". Reddit.
- ^ The Monomyth, The Imperial Library.
- ^ a b Shezarr and the Divines, The Imperial Library
- ^ Kirkbride, M. [MKirkbride]. (23 February 2014). Comment on "Is there a reason why the Imperial Dragon emblem is broken for the Skyrim logo ?". Reddit.
- ^ Kirkbride, M. [MKirkbride]. (18 March 2015). Comment on "Are there any details (or speculations) about the history of the Seyda Neen Lighthouse and its architecture?". Reddit.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae Obscure Texts, The Imperial Library
- ^ Kirkbride, M. [MKirkbride]. (14 January 2023). Comment on "I don’t talk much about TES these days.". Reddit.
- ^ a b Svn, Tiago. (31 July 2022). Mythbusted: Morrowind's Creators Didn't Make It On Shrooms. Cracked.com.
- ^ Memospore. (2013, August 8). fat [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfX-CMsftWI
- ^ [Lady Nerevar]. (18 January 2024). Comment on The Imperial Library Discord.
- ^ a b Kirkbride, M. [MKirkbride]. (18 July 2020). Comment on "What is the most interesting wildlife in the Elder Scrolls world?". Reddit.
- ^ Kirkbride, M. [MKirkbride] (16 July 2020). Comment on "What is the most interesting wildlife in the Elder Scrolls world?". Reddit.
- ^ Kirkbride, M. [MKirkbride]. (16 July 2020). Comment on "How would you feel about a "Sci-fi" Elder Scrolls in e.g. the 8th Era and how would magic and the Gods work in such a setting?". Reddit.
- ^ Kirkbride, M. (MKirkbride). (9 September 2020). Comment on "Cocaine?" Reddit.
- ^ Kirkbride, M. [MKirkbride]. (12 August 2020). Comment on "Cocaine?". Reddit.
- ^ a b c Kirkbride, M. [MKirkbride]. (3 November 2013). Comment on "I am Michael Kirkbride. Ask Me Anything.". Reddit.
- ^ a b Kirkbride, M. [MK]. (21 December 2009). Comment on "What are these?". Bethesda Softworks Forums. Archived from the original on 13 February 2020.
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