For a while now I've been playing with this idea inspired by the town of Split from the shivering isles.

The story will be somewhat futuristic and focus on a long-time social experiment where people are cloned, so there are two of them and each of the two children is raised in a half of an expansive city.

One half of the city is completely free from law and order, living in deprivation and forced to fend for themselves, where as the other half of the city is wealthy, lawful and generally well off.

The idea is that we, the readers, are the observers of this social experiment, although as the story progresses things are revealed and the plot becomes complex as the two clones interact with each other.

My point of this thread is wondering if this is maybe a bit too close to the idea of Split. What do you think?

It sounds like a fine and fun idea, Rihanae! Who cares if it is inspired by Split? That merely anchors it to TES. I'm assuming you're talking about a fanfic where there is no problem borrowind the ideas and resources of TES. Good luck!

It's actually for a novel i want to work on completely unrelated to TES haha. I just loved the idea of two people genetically identical in every way forced to live in separate, extreme conditions and seeing how that develops them as a person.

The main plot points of my story include the 'Bad' side planning to overtake the 'Good' side of town (which, upon realisation if pretty much a direct copy from the quest, so I have to work on it to make it original).

A sub-plot involves a clone from the 'good' side being forced to go undercover in the 'Bad' side as her 'bad' counterpart, for a reason I haven't worked out yet.

Sounds interesting; and handy for the lawless side to have plenty of people to rob right there in the same town,

If you are talking about legal rights in a book you intend to publish, that does tend to get a bit sticky. It is okay to be inspired by someone else's work, but not to use their ideas - if I am not mistaken. In which case, it may be just a tad too close to Bethesda's property. You can always run the idea by their legal department to find out if that would be stepping on their toes. They are the ones who would be the injured party, so they would know best what injures them.

Yeah that's what i was thinking. I'n my story they're not going to be living so close to each other as 'Split'. I imagine a big wall or something separating the two. And that neither know the other side or their clones exist.

EDIT: I think once the story is written in its first draft I will find a way to run it past Bethesda. I refuse to pretend it was completely original and just happens to be similar. I love the fact the game inspired me so much, so i will give credit where it is due.

The idea for alternate universes is not new or Bethesda's; in Jerry Seinfeld's show which came out later they had the "Bizarro world" where there were clones of themselves that were totally opposite.

Betty Davis had a movie where she played one good twin and one evil one - opposite clones are not new.

The thing is, it is all in how you present how they came about in whether you are using Bethesda's idea.

Like that "Boys in Brazil" where one Nazi organization was cloning Hitler and placing the babies up for adoption so they would be raised all around the world and grow up to take over their area - but although they all displayed amazing similarities to Hitler in their actions and thinking, their environmental training was a strong influence as well, so it was a toss-up for how they would react when contacted by the society, etc.

Make a good cloning story for how they came to be and move them further apart than being in the same city - and I think it would be your story and not an infringement.

That is why I said to ask Bethesda's legal department at what point it would be stepping on their toes so you don't cross that line.

A social experiment that is observed and studied.. Why am I thinking Fallout more than TES?



So are you planning to publish this in a way, you mean? Or just here?

Split is from Shivering Isles, most def TES.

Yeah, but the social experiment thing made me think of Fallout

The vaults,

I'm planning on publishing traditionally as a novel

Awesome! Good luck to ya!