Game 572: The Elder Scrolls: Arena (1994)

 

The title screen has "Chapter One" in the title and a "The" before "Arena," but the game box and manual do not. My policy is to go with any two of those sources that agree.

         

The Elder Scrolls: Arena

United States 

Bethesda Softworks (developer and publisher)

Released 1994 for DOS

Date Started: 9 March 2026

         

It is with a little trepidation that I begin Arena, the first entry in the RPG series that I would likely choose if some psychopath told me I could only play one RPG series for the rest of my life. And probably the only reason I'd hesitate is because of another (now) Bethesda series: Fallout. It's not so much that I think Bethesda makes superlative RPGs but rather that I think they make superlative games that happen to have RPG elements. I am addicted to RPGs, yes. I hope the "Game 572" part proves that without further elaboration. But in addition to RPGs, I'm addicted to open-world, sandbox games full of histories, mysteries, and lore. That's why when I'm not playing Morrowind or Skyrim or Fallout 4 on my console, there's a good chance I'm playing Red Dead Redemption or Far Cry or Assassin's Creed. Put them together, and I don't need the RPG part to be perfect. I just need another obscure tome speculating on the inhabitants of Akavir, a battered journal with notes on the disappearance of the dwarves, or an NPC waxing about the true nature of Sheogorath.

      

I have tempered my expectations and don't expect to find much of this in Arena. I know the game takes place across the entirety of Tamriel, but my guess is that it's pretty shallow. (Even still, I nearly squealed when I opened the game map and found that the geography and names of the provinces were all established here in 1994.) I'm guessing that much that I like about the series' mythology will be absent, underdeveloped, or contradictory. I will try to focus on it as its own game rather than the beginning of a series. But a part of me can't wait to see what bits of lore—like those province names—that were established right here at the beginning. 

     

A map of the world from the character creation screen. It is essentially unchanged 32 years later. 

        

The name most associated with the Elder Scrolls, Todd Howard, wasn't present for this first outing. He wasn't hired until several months after it hit the shelves, in time to spend some time playtesting the CD-ROM version released later that year, but not to contribute to any of its story and mechanics. Most of the credit goes to developers Ted Peterson, Vijay Lakshman, and Julian LeFay (what a great name for someone developing fantasy worlds), who started with the intention to create a game about traveling gladiators who would fight in—you guessed it—arenas. Somewhere along the line, an idea developed to let the gladiators engage in RPG-style side quests in between gladiatorial matches. Then the side quests took over the game (apparently too late to print new boxes and marketing materials). The developers were longtime fans of tabletop RPGs as well as Synthetic Dimensions' Legends of Valour (1992), so perhaps the change was somewhat inevitable. 

 

This quote comes after the title screen and seems more appropriate to the original vision for the game.

        

(Lakshman left the company after Arena, LeFay after Daggerfall, and Peterson after Oblivion, but the trio reunited in 2019 to form OnceLost Games and to announce The Wayward Realms, a "spiritual sequel" to Daggerfall. LeFay died of cancer in July 2025, but the game is still reported to be in development.)

         

It was Bethesda's first role-playing game. The company was eight years old by then, having been started by Christopher Weaver in his Bethesda, Maryland kitchen, funded by a cash infusion from the profits of his engineering and media consulting firm. In between contracts, Weaver and his employee, Ed Fletcher, began messing around with a football simulator that they later sold as Gridiron (1986). For the next eight years, they specialized primarily in sports games (Wayne Gretzky Hockey; NCAA: Road to the Final Four) and action movie tie-ins (Home Alone; The Terminator). In fact, their Terminator series featured smooth continuous-movement and a three-dimensional perspective during the same year that Wolfenstein 3D and Ultima Underworld were getting all of the accolades.

             

The start of the backstory. I didn't realize Tiber Septim was canon from the beginning.

      

It was a bit thrilling to experience the opening cinematic and read the opening paragraphs of the manual, full of names, places, and terms that would become as familiar in the mouth as household words: Gaiden Shinji, Tiber Septim, Uriel Septim, Tamriel, the Amulet of Kings, "Last Seed." The backstory awkwardly explains the title of the game: During the wars that unified the empire under Tiber Septim, the land became so violent, existence so much of a struggle, that the people forgot the world's original name, Tamriel, and began calling it "the Arena."

      

It is now 492 years later, and Emperor Uriel Septim VII (whose death will later kick off the events of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion) is betrayed by his own Imperial Battlemage, Jagar Tharn. Tharn imprisons the emperor in another dimension, where time passes much more slowly than on Tamriel. (Why doesn't he just kill the emperor? Because the Amulet of Kings serves as some kind of alarm that would alert the High Council that the emperor was dead.) Tharn has also killed his own apprentice, Ria Silmane, to prevent her from warning the High Council. Adopting the emperor's guise, Tharn sits on the throne and begins his malevolent rule.

        

Me: "Who's this Talin doofus?"

      

I was surprised to see that the player character has a canonical name and backstory: He is Talin, leader of the imperial guards. Tharn has Talin thrown into the imperial prison after the opening events. He is awakened (here we shift from the opening cinematic to the manual) by the ghost of Ria Silmane, who tells Talin what has transpired, conjures a key to the cell door, and tells the bewildered guard to escape through a magical gate in the southwest corner, which will take him to another city. ("Teleportation between cities is common enough," Silmane says. I was about to object to this, but I then remembered the Mage Guild's teleportation chambers in Morrowind. They were gone by Skyrim, but then, so was the Mage's Guild.) Talin steels himself and opens the door. I suppose if you create something other than a male named "Talin," you can imagine that Talin immediately died, and Ria Silmane moved on to the next cell.

         

Right. "Captured."

      

The next pages of the manual explain that the main quest is to rescue the Emperor by recovering the eight pieces of the Staff of Chaos. But after introducing this fact, it spends a couple of pages encouraging the player to ignore the main quest if he or she wants to. These paragraphs are the father of the Bethesda "open world" approach:

   

If you wish to become a thief who robs innocent nobles, fine. If you wish to play a warrior who makes it his mission in life to kill these thieves, that's fine, too. All we did is give the computer all the parameters of the Land, from NPCs and their motivations, to monsters and their treasures, to nobles and their quests. The rest is up to you.

         

The Elder Scrolls games that I'm familiar with, Morrowind through Skyrim, make this kind of ignore-the-main-quest freedom a real possibility with meaningful side content and interesting mechanics and graphics. I'm curious if Arena does the same. 

       

Is this a daedroth?

       

Back in the game, we enter character creation. The game offers 18 character classes, a list that will remain mostly unchanged until Skyrim: acrobat, archer, assassin, barbarian, bard, battlemage, burglar, healer, knight, mage, monk, nightblade, ranger, rogue, sorcerer, spellsword, thief, and warrior. (Morrowind changes burglars to "agents" and rangers to "scouts" and adds "crusader," "pilgrim," and "witchhunter.") I enjoy the deft blend of classic RPG classes (e.g., warriors, thieves, mages) with some interesting archetypes we see rarely if ever, particularly the acrobat, burglar, nightblade, and spellsword.

     

You can choose the class through one of two ways: just picking it directly or going through an Ultima IV-style questionnaire. I thought I'd do the latter and see the result.

   

Your father delights in telling you stories of his travels in his youth. In one memorable tale, he tells you about a primitive island he visited where a young child was sacrificed once a year to appease Arius, the God of Fire. Whenever the natives neglected the sacrifice, the island volcano would erupt, killing hundreds of villagers. You immediately tell your father:

 

a) You do not believe in any such volcano God. Civilized men should intervene, find the nature cause behind the eruptions, and stop the sacrifices.

 

b) The God Arius must be evil to demand child sacrifice. The villagers should find some way to combat this god, instead of just giving in to his demands.

 

c) It is tragic, but the death of one small child is preferable to that of many villagers. If it works, they should keep the tradition. Gods are not to be toyed with.

   

My answer would be (A) in the real world, but in a fantasy world in which some kinds of supernatural powers exist, I have to go with (B). Deontology! 

     

One month after Tales and Tallows, you look at the horde of treats you have collected and find lots of brandied plums, a treat you particularly dislike. You know your younger sister likes them. Do you:

       

a) Give her all your brandied plums?

      

b) Trade the brandied plums for something she does not really like but you do? 

     

c) Pretend that they are excellent brandied plums and see if she will give up something really good in exchange? 

 

I like to be generous. I go with (A), but I'll accept a trade if she offers it. Honestly, though, I think I would really enjoy brandied plums.

     

You and your best friend buy your first daggers together, a matched pair. You loan him the amount since he doesn't have enough gold, and he agrees to pay you back later. After leaving the shop you and he sit down to marvel at your new weapons. To your dismay you notice that there is a small notch on the blade of the dagger you selected. Your friend asks you to please watch his weapon for him while he runs an errand. Do you:

 

a) Wait for your friend's return then point out the flaw in your dagger and return to the weapons shop to demand a refund.

      

b) Switch the daggers, rationalizing that since you paid for them you should get the first choice, and that if your friend ever notices the notch, you could always take him back to the weapon shop and get a refund?

      

c) Keep his dagger safe until his return, then switch the daggers with your best friend's knowledge, justifying it with the fact that you paid for them, and then offer to accompany him back to the weapons shop?

      

Which friend? Corey's the only one I know who would like a dagger, and he never pays me back for anything. Screw Corey. But I'm not going to be surreptitious about it: I'm going to switch the daggers while looking him right in the eyes. (C). 

           

I didn't take many screenshots of these questions. Here's one.

      

You are at weapons practice with Armsmaster Festil. He is very old now, but takes his teaching very seriously. In fact you have heard him comment that it is all he has left in life. Today he has ceaselessly taunted you at every mistake. Finally he asks you to attack him with the same technique you just did, in an effort to show you the proper execution. Do you:
     

a) Do the technique just fast enough so that he can block it, knowing that it is more important to allow the master to retain dignity, regardless of your personal feelings?

      

b) Attack him at full speed, knowing that you could probably score the hit and justify his unfair treatment of you by showing the class that you were actually doing it right?

      

c) Refuse and leave practice, unable to compromise your anger with his dignity, and realizing that whatever course you choose would cause you to lose respect for either him or for yourself?

     

This feels like a toxic relationship. Best just to walk away. (C). 

           

Your mother is terribly ill and you have been sent with a few gold pieces to buy some rare, medicinal herbs for her. As you reach the door to the apothecary's, you realize there is a hole in your purse and all the gold has fallen out. Do you:
      

a) Enter the store, tell the apothecary your dilemma, and promise on your honor to pay him back for the herbs your mother so desperately needs.

      

b) Attempt to steal the herbs from the apothecary's. You know the old man who works in the store will not be able to catch you, and your mother lies sick. 

      

c) Run back home and admit the loss, hoping that your father will have more gold. You know you'll be punished, but you will neither be in debt to the apothecary, nor will you be a thief. 

    

Jeez, Arena. Way to hit close to home. I'll trust the apothecary and I can come to some kind of arrangement and choose (A). There's no follow-up question to ask what I'd do if the apothecary said no. 

    

Your parents are having a party for several relatives. While helping around the house, you see your cousin slip into a darkened room. Curious, you follow and discover him slipping a silver candlestick into his jacket. He is an honorable boy, but you know his family has suffered some recent financial hardship. He has not seen you yet, do you:
      
a) Clear your throat and tell him to put the candlestick back, reassuring him that your parents can help him if his family is in trouble, but he should not resort to stealing.
     
b) Close the door behind you and say nothing. Your family can live without the candlestick, but your cousin's family obviously cannot.
       
c) Treat him like any other burglar. Lock him in the room and call for your father. If he chooses to be merciful because of your cousin's poverty, that is his decision. It is your father's candlestick, after all.

    

I can already hear my reaction: "Come on, man. If you need money, just say so. What you're doing is just pathetic." (A). 

     

The senior student in your weapons class has trounced you unmercifully for the past several years. Today is the Tournament of Students and you find with dismay that you are paired against him for your first match. As you prepare your friend approaches and offers to tell you of an injury the senior student suffered in yesterday's sparring class, which you missed. Do you:
      

a) Accept the offer, knowing that it would allow you to concentrate on the injured area and greatly increase your chances of beating him?

      

b) Refuse the offer, knowing that win or lose you would rather do it through your own skill and not some extra knowledge in what should be a fair and honorable fight?

      

c) Accept the offer, reasoning that it is better to have the knowledge in case you need it, and realizing that having the knowledge does not necessarily mean using it?

    

In order, I would rather a) win honorably; b) win; c) lose honorably. Thus, (C) seems like a good option. Plus, the other guy's probably collected lots of intelligence on me. 

       

Armsmaster Festil introduces a new student to the class: a small, awkward boy named Tys who does not seem to have any natural talent at all. The class is divided into two sides for a mock battle and, as one of the "generals," you are to assign your soldiers to positions. Tys is one of your men. You decide to:
      

a) Put Tys at the frontline with the other fighters, rationalizing that in any realistic battle, he would probably be a casualty anyway, and that there must be some sacrifices. 

       

b) Use Tys as a scout, rationalizing that because of his small size he would probably be good at sneaking in and gathering information on the enemy. 

      

c) Assign Tys to several posts during the course of the battle, staying near and helping him so he can gain valuable experience and improve.

        

The character begins the game alone in a dungeon cell.

      

It's funny that all these scenarios could fit within the life of a single person. I'm starting to get a picture of him: upper-middle class, parents probably involved in professional positions at court in some way, trained and tutored from a young age, generally privileged. There's a version of these questions that go: "You have a slice of bread and a dead rat; which, if either, do you feed to your little sister?" But I'll keep working in this paradigm. In this case, answer (B) comes to mind before I even read the answers, so that's what I go with.

        

Entering town you find that you are witness to a very well dressed man running from a crowd. He screams to you for help. The crowd behind him seems very angry. Do you:
      
a) Rush to the man's aid immediately, despite your lack of knowledge of the circumstances?
     

b) Rush to the town's aid immediately, despite your lack of knowledge of the circumstances?
      

c) Stand aside and allow the man and mob to pass, realizing that it is probably best not to get involved?  

         

I don't like any of these. I agree that acting without knowing the circumstances is a bad idea (C), but that doesn't mean I have to stand aside. I'd put myself between them, demand in a loud voice that everyone calm the hell down, point to someone, and ask him to explain what's happening. Lacking that option, I guess one guy needs defending more than a crowd. (A). 

       

You are told that a young man has been caught by the village guards and accused of murder. Apparently, his brother was killed by a group of four ruffians in a local tavern, and in his grief, the young man tracked each of them down and murdered them. Upon reflection, you believe that:
     
a) The young man acted honorably in avenging his brother's death. The village lord should let him go free. 

    

b) Even as you sympathize with the young man, vigilante law cannot be tolerated if there is to be peace.

      

c) The young man's only mistake was getting caught while exacting vengeance. For that, he now must accept whatever fate has in store for him.

    

Twenty-First Century developed world: You let the police handle it. "The Arena":  I'm impressed by the man's initiative. (A). Let me note here how thankful I am that Bethesda went with "you are" rather than "thou art" (or "thou durst," as the author of Ring of Elanor might have said).

     

Finally, the game tells me that I would do best as a battlemage, a balance between a mage and a warrior, with very little thieving ability. Consulting the manual, I see that battlemages can use any weapons, some shields, and only leather armor. They specialize in offensive spells. I worry about how I'll get doors open, but it otherwise sounds good to me. Incidentally, the materials are inconsistent as to whether it's "battle mage" or "battlemage." I prefer the latter, so that's how I'll render it.

          

It's also inconsistent as to whether the class should be capitalized.

        

There is an extent to which Arena is doing nothing more than the recently-completed Dark Designs: Passage to Oblivion by offering a long list of classes that are basically just combinations of the core classes. For instance, a nightblade is something of a mage-thief, while a spellsword is a warrior-mage. The answers to the questions above are aspected to the three "core" classes: warrior, mage, thief. If you overwhelmingly favor one, the game assigns you to that pure class. Every other class is based on combinations. I became a battlemage by offering six "mage" responses and four "warrior" responses. If I had done the opposite, I would have been (oddly enough) a barbarian. Six mage responses and four thief responses would have made me a nightblade. An even spread would have made me a monk (3,3,4), spellsword (3,4,3), or acrobat (4,3,3). You can find all the combinations at the Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages.

      

These formulas do not quite mean, however, that each class is purely defined as a combination of mechanics from its constituent classes. Although there are no skills in the first outing (characters in Arena gain levels through traditional experience), each character class does have different starting attribute ranges, rates of experience gain, levels of health and mana, and types of weapons, armor, and shields they can use. I think some classes get bonuses on certain types of activities; for instance, thief-derived classes gain a bonus when using the "pilfer" action. 

       

The next options are name, sex, and race. Looking for a slightly more dignified name than my real one, I go with "Rochester." I make the character male. The race takes me a little while. The same races that all Elder Scrolls fans are familiar with are all here, except for orcs and imperials. (The Imperial Province exists, but you cannot click on it to choose your race.) Khajiit and Wood Elves are natural thieves; Nords and Redguards are natural warriors; Bretons and High Elves are natural mages. Argonians blend magic and stealth while Dark Elves blend magic and weapons. The manual details specific bonuses that the races receive; for instance, Nords take half-damage from cold attacks, and High Elves are immune to paralysis. As with later games, it's hard to beat the Breton's 50% immunity to all magic, with a further chance of shrugging it off entirely.

     

The game's description of Bretons.

     

It's worth noting that the beast races are very different here than in later Elder Scrolls games. Khajiit are not cats, but rather humans with cat ancestry who sometimes paint their faces to look like cats. Argonians have scaly skin but also hair, and they don't seem to have tails or tridactyl feet. 

       

An Argonian (left) and a Khajiit (right), the latter of which looks like a superhero named Cat Man.

      

The last bit involved in character creation is to distribute a bonus pool of points to the eight attributes: strength, intelligence, willpower, agility, speed, endurance, personality, and luck—a list that will remain unchanged until Skyrim jettisons attributes completely 17 years later. (Let us now stop to contemplate a time in which Bethesda released five Elder Scrolls games in a period of 17 years.) You can reroll stats as many times as you like. The attributes are on a scale of 0 to 100, with plenty of room to grow. I re-rolled about 20 times just to get a sense of the range, and I never got a score lower than 36 (strength) or higher than 68 (intelligence). My combined attribute total, including bonus points, ranged from 406 to 434. I guess the Breton drags strength down a bit, so I put most of the bonus pool into that attribute.

       

The game suddenly gives me a "thou wilt" when it comes to changing the appearance. I got 10 possible heads for my Breton battlemage, none of which I liked. I finally went with the guy with an eyepatch.

             

Come on, Bethesda. Don't go down that road.

         

The game transitions into a cinematic of Ria Silmane speaking to me, relating substantially the same material as written in the manual. The full-motion video is accompanied by voice dialogue; reportedly, Bethesda programmer Jennifer Pratt played the character. (I have the CD-ROM version of the game from later in 1994; I'm not sure whether the voiceover accompanied the original or not.) When the narration finishes, the character is alone in his cell, and I can start playing.

         

What is this land, some kind of arena?

       

Some readers will want me to mention the music, which is more atmospheric than melodic. The title screen theme is almost all percussion, suggesting a march towards a perilous duty. Once the game begins, the score is characterized by long minor-mode chords, isolated notes, and distant rattles—very moody and appropriate to a dungeon. It feels very similar to something I've heard before. I turned it off, of course, but I promise that I listened for a good two or three minutes first. I'm a bit annoyed to find that it won't actually turn off; even at a volume level of 0, you can still faintly hear it.

    

The graphics appear to owe a lot to Ultima Underworld, as does basic movement. You can move and turn with the arrow keys or numberpad, or by  clicking on the edges of the visible screen. The rest of the interface is original enough, with buttons for brandishing weapons, viewing the automap, stealing, checking the date/time/location, casting a spell, viewing the journal, using an item, or camping. Controls are kept to a minimum (no redundant GTFO cluster) so as to maximize the exploration window, which is significantly larger than either Ultima Underworld or Legends of Valour. 

          

I'm sure I've seen that wall moss and blocky stone furniture before.

       

Most mouse commands have redundant keyboard shortcuts, with the sole (and important) exception of attacking, which must be done with the right mouse button. 

    

The world isn't quite as interactive as Ultima Underworld. For instance, when you see an item, you can double-click on it to take it, but you cannot drag it from one place to another. I'm not sure the engine supports pulling on chains, flipping switches, or otherwise manipulating puzzle mechanics.

   

I unlock the cell with my key and start exploring the world. Combat, which I will naturally cover in more detail later, comes upon me almost immediately, in the form of two goblins in the hallway outside my cell. The character attacks by brandishing a weapon and swiping with the right  mouse button, different gestures doing different attacks. He casts by clicking the spell icon, choosing a spell, and clicking the screen. Easy enough. Skyrim isn't so different. 

     

Killing my first goblin.

         

The automap is based entirely on Underworld, complete with a quill pen and the ability to write your own notes. It lacks an eraser, alas. There's also a logbook, but it's empty for my character.

      

Even the fonts are the same.

         

Over the next few minutes, I kill a few goblins and a few rats, I find pieces of armor that my battlemage cannot use, plus some gold, several castings of the "Mark" spell, and an elven longsword.

       

I was excited about this pile of treasure outside my cell door, which seemed to have a bit of everything. But it turns out that all treasure looks like this, regardless of what the pile actually contains.

        

To equip items, you go to a separate character window, accessed by double-clicking the character portrait. It has a "paperdoll" figure, but instead of dragging items to the doll, you double-click on them in the inventory.

    

     

I hit Level 2 and get five points to invest in my attributes. My hit points get  low, and while I'm trying to rest to restore them, a goblin shows up and finishes me off. 

         

Ria appears again when you die.

         

That's good enough for the first session. I'll hear everyone's opinions about character classes and restart fresh next time. Good start. The reason for the name would not have convinced me even as a teenager, though.

   

Time so far: 1 hour