Well, if people were paying attention this was expected the moment they anounced Zenimax Online Studios in 07. And a year ago they even announced the customer support offices for the game were opening in Ireland.

And ofcourse the rumor of a few weeks ago. Elements of the rumor made me sceptical but they are now confirmed: Lion/Eagle/Dragon factions. My scepticism was warranted since grouping the provinces in 3 factions that are to a certain extend trivial (this race would never work together with that race, but here they do because they are neighbours). But it will include faction-versus-faction-versus-faction ( realm versus realm: http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/r/rvr.htm ). And having all the races/provinces going against each other would be too chaotic but would be more in-line with Lore but very difficult to acomplish in an MMO.

Well, I'm glad BGS keeps focussing on the single-player games. And the story mechanic of a Warp in the West-scenario ensures that BGS doesn't have to canonize anything Zenimax Online does.