A Pocket Guide to the Empire and its Environs by Bethesda Softworks

Michael Kirkbride actually penned a section of the guide that was cut, called the Census of Daedra Lords, which was to be the Imperial Geographical Society's breakdown of the Daedric Princes and their spheres.

Lore such as the Sun Birds of Alinor and the Imperial Mananauts were invented by him. In his own words, Kirkbride stated he only wrote about eighteen lines or so for the final Pocket Guide.

Michael Kirkbride was originally contracted to create a new Pocket Guide for the then-upcoming Oblivion release, as he had done with previously for Redguard.

There are then detailed sections on each of the provinces of Tamriel, which take up the vast majority of the book, before a final section on Other Lands, that briefly describes Thras, Pyandonea, Akavir, Yokuda, Aldmeris, and Atmora. The book opens with a history of the guide itself, before devoting sections to the universe, Oblivion, Aetherius, birthsigns and History. It was a rewritten version of the Pocket Guide to the Empire: 1st Edition that had shipped eight years earlier with TESA: Redguard, but while the old version had been stridently pro-Imperial in its tone, the new version was much more even-handed and less propagandist.

A Pocket Guide to The Empire and its Environs (Being a Description of the Lands and the Chief Features of their Histories) (commonly shortened to Pocket Guide to the Empire: 3rd Edition or PGE3) was part of the Collector's Edition package for TES IV: Oblivion.

A Pocket Guide to the Empire and its Environs by Bethesda Softworks