So being new here, I have a question. I feel it would be nice for the owner/inventor of the forums/.com here to share with us the story of how/why these forums began, and what caused such love for the name in particular ?

I know or should I say assume the name (Chorrol) originated from the city in Oblivion ? Am I correct ?

And if so, I am just curious as to what inspired that one, considering how many other cities/names/possibilities there were from Daggerfall to Skrim I am just dying to know why Chorrol was the choice for this person.

Not that I do not like it, I am just curious. Hopefully others are too, so this thread can be of some use and maybe pan out to a cool story.

I don't have all the answers but will share what I know about the forum, its history and origin.

The forum was created in early 2005 by Alexander and stargleman. Both have moved on to other interests but stargleman has kindly allowed us to continue to make our happy little web home here. He is the lead Administrator and will still occasionally drop by but has designated others among us to take care of the day-to-day Admin/Mod business of the forum. He is still very much required on those rare occasions when an electronic steam pipe malfunctions or the hamsters run low on food to keep the place running.

The forum was formed in anticipation of the soon to be released TES IV. Hence the banner across the top 'Waiting for Oblivion'. I do not know the history behind the choice of Chorrol for a name. Most of the early members were TES III fans anxious to try Oblivion. I believe much of the forum's early traffic was info relating to TES III & IV as well as related fan fiction.

In 2010, the official BethSoft forums underwent a format change that was decidedly unfriendly to fanfic. I and quite a few others there were invited by treydog to move to Chorrol and we did so. We are called 'treybabies' and can be recognized by our March 2010 join date. That breathed quite a bit of life into what had become a comfortable but quiet forum - especially the Oblivion fanfic section.

Over the years, we have evolved to support members with interests in other games - particularly those related to Bethesda (ESO and the Fallout series).

Stargelman and/or treydog could certainly provide much more answers/insights - especially on the early history/origin of the forum.

That's a good question, Infa Red. Why is this place Chorrol.com and not Skingrad.com or Cheydinhal.com? Perhaps it has something to do with Chorrol often being the first town outside of the Imperial City we go to, after being tasked with delivering the Amulet of Kings.

Glad you made it here, by the way, have a Fishy Stick (yess!!!!!)


From what I remember, Bethsoft's forums purged a lot of content in 2010 or thereabouts, right? I remember BobG being pretty upset because he lost his fan fiction writings with Snape (I think) and Sarrah.

SubRosa invited me here way back in 2012, after noticing some of the schizophrenic stories I was writing in the old Beth forums. I don't think I actually joined until 2013 though. I like it here. The beige background is more conducive for reading (for me) and is not so jarring to the eye as some other forums.

Bethesda's last purge was in September, 2009. But I don't think that is what Acadian is referring to. A purge is different than a format change. In 2010 Bethesda implemented a massive update to the the forum software, adding new features (such as a chat in our profile pages), eliminating others, and making a few of the existing features harder to use. I'm guessing that is what he's referring to.

My first account at Chorrol was made a few days after it went live and my recollection of the history of the site is the same as Acadian's. Alexander was a huge presence on Bethesda's forums during the years 2002 to 2005. He was one of the first members of Bethesda's forums to write 10,000 posts. He seemed to be everywhere back then. Very nice guy, always helpful.

Acadian has it right. Prior to the release of TES IV, the actual forum title was also "Waiting for Oblivion"- because that is what we were doing. Most everyone of us "early" members split our time between here and the official Bethsoft forum, often posting the same fan-fic stories in both places.

One of the big attractions here was the... "coziness" would be the best word, I suppose. We had far fewer members, most all of whom had gotten to know one another pretty well (in an online sort of way). That made it easier to keep up with each other and also to avoid the epic flame wars that seemed to break out at Bethsoft with some frequency.

As for Chorrol being the name, Renee is correct- it is the first town the player spends much time in while playing Oblivion, and it also had the same "feel" that Alexander and stargelman wanted for this little corner of the web. My memory is a tad fuzzy- I do not recall with any accuracy whether the name change occurred after some of the trailers and demos were released or upon the release of Oblivion itself.... I lean towards it being in response to something like an E3 gameplay demo...

The "Great Migration" (great for those of us who benefited, at least) was due to a format change that made the text window at Bethsoft much smaller. That was great for the usual short-form, one or two sentence posts- not so much for fan-fics, with posts that routinely check in at 1500-3000 words. And that shrinking of the text window did not add any functionality- it just used a lot of screen real estate for borders and etc. I got a tad... annoyed... a thing that rarely happens. But in this case, I had a constructive option-waiting4oblivion.com later to be chorrol.com.

It has been a constant source of joy to me that many of the folks here arrived during that time are still here. And it also gives me great pleasure to welcome new folks too. So- Lena_Wolf and Infa Red- so glad to have you here. Pull up a chair near the fire, enjoy a beverage of your choice, and perhaps partake of some excellent stories being spun by our wonderful and imaginative resident writers.

I knew that, as an original member, treydog had first hand perspective of the forum's founding and am so pleased he was able to add much more depth to Chorrol's history.

I'm also pleasantly surprised to learn of Pseron Wyrd's long association with Chorrol. He was certainly one of the 'Ancients' over at BethSoft but I didn't realize he was also well aware of Chorrol before joining us much later.

Thanks, Infa Red! This is indeed a good thread and I'm glad you started it.

Can't recall 'exactly' when I became active in the Beth forums, other than for sure it was during 2009, that being when I bought Oblivion, the game that broke me of my years-long MMO addiction. I definitely remember that I just missed some sort of 'bloodbath', but not its aftermath. As I recall, there was one prominent modder, who broke with the forums. He was not to be mentioned by name. Since I enjoyed a number of his mods, I began referring to him as 'he who shall not be named' or 'he who is not named' whenever a question was posed that somehow tied in with his mods.

They deleted my original account because I didn't post enough. So I had to make a second account in 2013.

I just missed the big fight too. but I think I know who you are speaking of.

I was a Chorrol lurker for a long time. The stories here are what drew me to frequently log in. I came close to signing up several times but I didn't know how I could contribute. Then I started posting simple little what I did in Cyrodiil in the Bethesda forums. Far a long time tmar and I where the only ones there. Posting stories became fun. In 2017 I renewed my interest in Chorrol only to find the doors closed. I just missed it by that much.
Then 2020 along came Renee with an offer to sponsor me. I gladly accepted.

As for the name Chorrol I know nothing. I just assumed that it got that name because that's the region where the Jandaga spent his adolescent years.

Wow, thanks for all the replies guys and gals. I like the history lesson here ! Totally cool.


Thanks Acadian for some of that background. Definitely interesting stuff. Glad stargleman held on and also appointed some to carry the torch.



And yes Renee, haha, that's exactly my thoughts... so many cool names from the TES series that I was itching to know why Chorrol took the win. But apparently treydog has cleared that up and now yes, it makes sense.

As far as just cool names over the entire series, I always liked: Ebonheart, Vivic City, Ascadian Isles, Grazelands, Blackwood, and Dragontail. Blackwood just sounds bad a$$ !! I like that.


OMG !! Haha thanks, I forgot all about the Fishy Stick. Being a newb here, that was appropriate. LOL You, are obviously O.G. baby !!! I like it.


treydog, thanks for the details ! Ahhh yes, thats what that Waiting4Oblivion means up there in that banner huh ?? Ok, making sense now. I see the correlation with Chorrol and here and why they felt that way - Yea I agree, it does feel "cozier" here than other places. Feel like kickin off my Ten Pace Boots and staying a while.

BTW Good to see you hear Pseron Wyrd. I feel at home now !

Yes, I don't think I've ever seen Alexander here, but if you go back far enough into the 2000s you can find some posts he made. That is one thing bout this site... it's got a long memory.




This is it. This is Chorrol.com in a nutshell. It's so cozy here.

I mean, I also enjoyed Bethsoft's forums. I enjoyed the unpredictability of those forums, always new people roaming through, even the trash talk could be fun to read (if it was kept to civil notions).

Thank you, treydog! I am already lost in The Argonian Account. Started from the beginning, seemed like a good place to start... but I have to put it down from time to time as I overhear conversations in the room... someone stop the time, please!

NGL, the best one I've read so far, literally in my entire life is Lena's stuff. I was actually surprised that was even in a forum. Hell thought it was a legitimate book by some famous author ! Took me a while, but after reading it, I would be lying if I said I wasn't entirely impressed.

I am not putting down any other writer here at all. Others are excellent that I have come across so far, and for sure have not discovered you all yet. But right now, WOW, after Lena's epic saga, I had to back up, sit my cup down, and regain my balance !!!

Dayyyymn !!!!

I can write (as I write songs) but I can no where near write like that as far as story level and seriousness to captivate the essence of a tale with the vocabulary she uses. I always use swear words and pop slang too much ! haha. I could write for a Seth Rogan/Vince Vaughn/Ben Stiller movie, with lots of poop humor and sexual oddball awkward stuff, but not the serious stuff like she can. And I like that.

So Lena, I tip my hat to your skills and I hope to read more soon.

Wow, Infa Red - thanks so much!! <blush> Glad you like it, because there's a lot more to come... There is also a lot more on my blog page, in case you want it, also some stuff from outside Tamriel, although not much there yet. Hit Archives in the menu to see the list...

As for Lena being famous... Well, she is in some circles. She knows her way around Sheogorath's Palace, she's intimate with Sanguine and she's got Hircine's unicorn in her bedroom (literally - in Skingrad). And may be other things goo. Oh, what's that Dragon Legion armour doing gathering dust in the corner? Mmmm.... too flashy, she much prefers black robes, really.

I had a interesting idea. Take it or leave it. But what about taking this idea of naming the forums Chorrol due to its mood, etc.. and taking it further as a theme to the entire forum ?

As in, Chorrol is the place of web address and overall name sure. But then each sub forum is named another city or place in any of the installments. And the topics in those shall follow the mood of that particular city too. Furthermore, this would cause for voting for the names as we build out on this idea and that's always fun !!

For instance The Rat Way and there, that's where all the PG17 type talk could go. (not really but you get the idea)

Or Vivic City, and that's where all the high ranking admins talk about stuff they need to due/announcements, etc..

You get the idea. Those just off the top of head..

Then its like the whole forum becomes interactive is a sense to the games we love.

Can I be in the Shivering Isles, please?

Of course ! Good idea

So.....Chorrol, because it is the first town one typically visits upon leaving the sewer tutorial in TES4.

Good job the chosen location was “first town”

Because otherwise this forum might have been called “Bandits at Vilverin”

Adella

Actually that has a nice ring to it ! I like it.

I like Bandits of Vilvern too.