Julian LeFay, “Father of The Elder Scrolls”, has passed away

It sucks to hear when someone passes away, especially when it comes to someone so legendary in their own right. Julian LeFay, who previously worked on Bethesda’s earlier titles, passed away on July 22nd. He was 59 years old.

At the time, LeFay was working on a new game, The Wayward Realms, with a new studio, OnceLost Games. OnceLost Games includes other veterans in the gaming sphere like: Elder Scrolls co-founder, Ted Peterson and The Elder Scrolls: Arena and Daggerfall composer Eric Heberling. OnceLost Games created a Kickstarter for The Wayward Realms in 2024, and reached their goal within the 30-day timeframe Kickstarter gives.

Through their Kickstarter, the team announced the passing of LeFay. Last week, the team posted a YouTube video announcing that LeFay is stepping back from his role at the company as he’s been battling cancer for “the last several years”, as stated by Victor Villarreal, the creative producer of The Wayward Realms. In the announcement, Villarreal said that LeFay is using the rest of his time to be with loved ones, with Peterson’s own words about his colleague and friend in the description of the video.

But now, OnceLost Games has updated backers and fans of LeFay’s passing through their Kickstarter, noting his status within gaming history, as LeFay is known by many as the “Father of The Elder Scrolls“, due to his work on The Elder Scrolls I & II: Arena, Daggerfall and Battlespire. Adding that LeFay’s vision for their upcoming game is “deeply embedded in every aspect of our development process… We are not just continuing his work, we are honoring it by ensuring that his vision becomes the reality he dreamed of”. It’s a touching tribute to LeFay, with many backers sending out their condolences and memories of playing their first Elder Scrolls game.

Since the news came out about his passing, Bethesda Studios published a tweet about LeFay. From Todd Howard himself, he spoke of LeFay as “the driving force in the creation of The Elder Scrolls and the foundations of Bethesda as a game studio. Simply put, without Julian, we would not be here today”.

Life is short, and sometimes you never know what’ll happen. So make sure you tell the important people in your life that you love them. Checkpoint Gaming is sending our condolences to Julian LeFay’s family and the team at OnceLost Games.