Shoddycast: Elder Scrolls Storyteller

I met Shoddycast’s Josh entirely by chance when we both appeared on an influencer stream about Elder Scrolls Online’s alpha preview. Shoddycast was already a very popular channel and in the middle of their second season of Elder Scrolls lore videos. I came on board to proofread and fact check the scripts for the remainder of the season.

For season 3, they decided to pivot from an omniscient narrator to the in-universe Storyteller format that they used for their Fallout show, and Josh brought me onboard to write the show. I worked with him on the tone, outline, and content for the season, wrote each episode, and provided the actors references for pronunciation of all those fictional nouns.

The show followed the titular Storyteller and his young Companion as they travel Skyrim and try to scam people. The idea was to have a mentor character and an audience stand-in, but to stay away from the expected teachers, lore masters, or wizards. My hope was to convey the unreliable narrator which is a major feature of TES lore, though looking back this did not always work as intended (especially since the previous two seasons took a very authoritative omniscient tone). Twenty episodes were originally planned, but we had to pivot halfway through the season due to negative community reaction to the Companion character. Unfortunately the show never had a chance to finish due to unforeseen company circumstances.

Here’s a Playlist that’ll take you through each episode of the season.