Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Elder Scrolls series has sold more than 90 million copies worldwide. Three of its five main games, Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim, have each won Game of the Year awards from multiple outlets.
The name was coined by Vijay Lakshman at Bethesda Softworks before the first game shipped, and the words were later given the in-universe meaning of Tamriel's mystical tomes that foretold its past, present, and future. The scrolls themselves play only a limited role in most games, typically appearing as a framing device in the opening narration.
The Elder Scrolls: Arena released in the first quarter of 1994, after Bethesda missed their Christmas 1993 deadline. The initial distribution was limited to 20,000 units before growing through word-of-mouth into a cult hit.
Arena was originally designed as a medieval gladiator game in which the player led a team of fighters through arena tournaments across Tamriel to become grand champion. Role-playing elements were added as side quests, then gradually took over, and the tournament concept was dropped entirely before release.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was released on the 11th of November 2011. It won Game of the Year from IGN, Spike, and other outlets, and received widespread critical acclaim on release.
The Elder Scrolls Online is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by ZeniMax Online Studios, released for Windows and macOS on the 4th of April 2014. Its mandatory subscription requirement was dropped on the 17th of March 2015, after which the base game became free to play.