Elder Scrolls game caught using fan art without permission

In July 2020, artist Relan Daevath drew a piece by Elder Scrolls Online fan art and posted it on her tumblr account. Now, three years later, they’ve discovered that the exact piece appears to have appeared in the game itself, only they had nothing to do with it.

keep writing TwitterDaevath says:

July 19, 2020 I posted this #tesonline Fan art on tumblr. Now, in 2023, I see my art… in the ESO crown skin called BODY ART THE MERCYMOTHER (why Almalexia? Here it’s Sotha Sil). Do you see ANY difference? @TESOnline , Hello. It’s my art, but I don’t even get credit?

Here is the art as it was released in 2020:

And here’s a screenshot of the game from April 2023 showing a character skin called Mercymother’s Body Art. If you look over the shoulders of the skin you can see the face and head from the left Daevath’s graphic above, flipped and then mirrored on both sides:

There is also a hand in a triangle, just like in Daevath’s art, but in the case of the skin it doesn’t look much like the shoulder, what appears to be literally glued from the 2020 fan art.

Daevath’s tweet quickly gained traction online, resulting in a popular Reddit postand as a result, the developers of the game were made aware of this and subsequently issued a statement stating:

We are aware of the situation with the ESO Fan Artist. It was never our intention to include community fan art without proper attribution. We are in contact with the artist and will work with them to ensure there is an appropriate resolution.

Hopefully this resolution includes at least an apology and an acknowledgment!