Morrowind Analysis | A Quick Retrospective

[Captions are incomplete: read the description for more information.] If you clicked this video out of morbid curiosity about the length, yes, it is real. I want to get the length argument out of the way first, because unlike the original episodic format slowly boiling the Kagouti, here I'm asking for your time up front. ["NOBODY IS GONNA WATCH A VIDEO THIS LONG!"] It always amazes me when people complain about videos being too long when people are perfectly willing to review bomb the second se

ason of 'The Boys' because it didn't come out in an eight hour bingable format. I have actual, objective evidence of people sitting through at least 6 hours of this in one sitting as its original, rough series. They didn't even subscribe which I thought was weird because part seven wasn't out yet, but that's their prerogative. I have a limited amount of time before the average person clicks off so I'll just say this: YouTube rolled out an actually useful feature that they'll probably deprecate i

n two years for no good reason where you can see the sections of the video you are watching. And this video isn't just one long stream of consciousness from beginning to end, I put a lot of effort into building a balanced structure, so instead of one really long video, it's more like a bunch of shorter videos put together. These serve as places to stop and take breaks should you decide to watch the visual aspect of this video, and that brings up another thing. I have a timestamp on screen curren

tly which will take you to the part of this introduction where I actually start talking about the game. In case you're already sold on watching this and you want to skip the parts that are just about the video itself. This is the only time I do this, and that's because with videos like this I tend to listen to them while I work more so than actually watch them, and it can be really annoying to be told to click a timestamp because it means alt-tabbing back into my browser or pulling out my phone

and it's usually gone by then. I made this entire analysis with the thought in mind that more people are going to listen to it in the background than actually watch it. As such, it's fairly light on visual editing and a lot of work has gone into making it a balanced audio experience so you don't have to mess with the volume slider. It was also written to rely on as few visual examples as possible, but they are still present if you do decide to watch. These examples include written versions of na

mes due to Vvardenfell being full of people such as Hlaren Ramoran, a Redoran Councilor residing in Ald'ruhn and Lord of Gnisis. The other main type of visual examples are item descriptions and character sheets, all of which have been sourced from the Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages, which is objectively the greatest wiki to ever exist for a game. ["OKAY, WELL, THE VIDEO IS ONLY LONG BECAUSE YOU ARE AN UNSKILLED WRITER AND/OR ARE DRAGGING IT OUT FOR WATCH TIME."] Oh man, you got me there. I actua

lly wrote in my first draft of this introduction over a year ago that I believed that there was a certain degree of inefficiency in my work. That my enthusiasm for the game was blinding me to certain flaws in my script. I no longer believe this to be the case. Since I wrote those words, I have gone through an extensive redrafting process. Before I would record parts, I would read through the 20 to 30 pages of a script and work on it. Then, even as I was recording, I was reworking the script, a

dding better examples and cutting fat. When I sat down in my editing software I would often realize or fact check information. And even then, I kept a list of topics I didn't cover and points of improvement for the series. This was all on top of, again, an exceptionally sturdy outline that originated before I even started playing the game as nine index cards on a whiteboard planning out my general playthrough. And later imported into the software Plottr. Plottr was intended to be used by authors

for the purposes of planning out novels. Well the script is novel length, so fair enough. Then, when the original seven part run was done, I sat down and watched it again, taking even more notes and making even more improvements. This is all a rather roundabout way of saying that the level of quality assurance in this video would be a massive surprise to current Bethesda administration. There. There's your buggy Bethesda game joke. So, no, I'm not dragging this one out. ["THEN HOW COULD THE VI

DEO POSSIBLY BE SO LONG?"] Because Morrowind is an exceptionally complex game. Because I clocked one hundred and seven hours as someone who routinely plays the game just in the initial playthrough. Because another reviewer, Lorerunner, spent twenty eight hours doing a comprehensive livestream presentation on the game, and, while I disagree with some of the points he made, I have to genuinely respect the planning and presentation that went into that series. It can show how much of an ordeal it c

an be to cover the game if you're doing anything above surface level observations. Now that we're done talking about the video itself, let's begin addressing some common arguments that are made during discussions of Morrowind to help save some time in the comments section. "Skyrim / Oblivion IS BETTER! THE WORLD IS BIGGER AND SO MUCH EASIER TO LOSE TIME IN." Of the three Howard games, Morrowind is the smallest in terms of land area. However, Vvardenfell's design is much more complex than Cyrod

iil's or even Skyrim's. Which isn't a criticism of the game per se, moreso an observation in the geographic difference between temperate forest and volcanic wasteland. Bethesda also had fewer employees when they were designing Morrowind, and it was their first time doing a hand-crafted open world. As to the later games being easier to lose time in, that argument is hit and miss. Steam would back that claim up, until you remember most of my time spent in Morrowind was either on my physical copy,

or more recently in OpenMW which doesn't log hours on Steam like Skyrim will. And, well, is losing time really an argument of quality in the current year, given the number of games released that are effectively skinner boxes designed to keep you playing in the hope that you'll shell out a little extra cash for microtransactions. A lot of people have lost time in Candy Crush and I don't exactly see that game making a lot of people's top ten GOAT lists. That said, the point of this series isn't to

rag on the later games. Much. I do occasionally point out when Bethesda made an idea better or worse in the later games, but this video is squarely focused on Morrowind. ["DAGGERFALL WAS BETTER, MORROWIND DILUTED THE FORMULA DOWN."] Well, contrary to what it may seem, I'm not against games changing, just against games getting worse and concepts going unexplored. Morrowind did take the series in a different direction, and that direction left the Daggerfall fans behind. If you hold this opinion

then it should please you to know that you share it with Douglas Goodall, the man responsible for writing the bulk of the game's quests. You could make the argument that Oblivion did the same thing, that this is justice, but honestly Oblivion is just a more accessible and poorer quality version of Morrowind; whereas Morrowind was a largely different product entirely to Daggerfall. It is a shame you don't see more games like Daggerfall, considering the advances in procedural generation. And I w

ish Peterson, LeFay, and Lakshman the best of luck with The Wayward Realms. "YOU'RE JUST BEING NOSTALRIUS- THESE ARE THE MEMORIES OF A SIX YEAR OLD BOY WHO HASN’T PLAYED THE GAME IN A LONG TIME." When I was six I was playing Doom, Harry Potter, and Jedi Outcast 2. In that order. I played Morrowind when I was older. In fact, I played Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim for the first time all within a five year time period of each other. Also, I'm actually providing evidence to my points, not just a

bunch of subjective anecdotes. But hey, do you really want me to prove that this isn't just nostalgia? Fine. I'll play what is objectively the worst version of Morrowind in order to prove how good this game is. I will play the 360 version. Yes, Morrowind came out on the original Xbox back in 2003. Then when Microsoft made the big backwards compatibility push, they released an emulated version of the game onto the 360. It actually plays worse than the original Xbox copies since emulating the O

G Xbox is weird like that. No quick saving; no godly user interface; played on a controller, with low draw distance, low frames, and in 4:3. I'll be putting some tasteful custom banner ads to fill these black bars. Why do this to myself? Because that's how good this game is. If I can enjoy this, you can enjoy all the luxuries of a vanilla PC copy. Well, mostly vanilla, play on OpenMW unless you are an absolute purist. And I genuinely recommend you don't go crazy with mods your first time. Spea

king of. ["IF YOU MOD Skyrim AND Oblivion YOU CAN MAKE THOSE GAMES BETTER THAN MORROWIND."] Yeah, wow, a modded copy of Skyrim might be better than a vanilla copy of Morrowind, consider me awestruck. And if you work really hard in Unity you could theoretically make a game even better than all three. I know I just recommended using a quasi-mod to play Morrowind, but that mostly falls in the realm of what I consider acceptable as a reviewer in terms of modifications. I use mods to fix convenienc

e issues with games, especially older ones. Where I draw a hard line is at mods that try and change the design philosophy of a game, like for instance, I would never use a mod that changes the hit chance of weapons because hit chance was a part of Morrowind's design. It's inappropriate to judge games based on the modded experience, especially since you could just as easily make a game worse with mods, considering the hassle involved in keeping mods for Bethesda games cooperative with one anothe

r. And this is beside the fact that I don't even need mods to enjoy Morrowind. Skyrim? Well, I'll need the Unofficial Patch, and Script Extender of course, then Alternate Start to skip the long tutorial, SkyUI to fix the UI, Ordinator to fix the stats- ["WHAT EVEN IS PATRICIAN TIER ANYWAYS?"] You're useful, strawbot, because you ask all the questions I need you to. I consider Patrician Tier to either be exceptional games in all categories, or exceedingly excel in specialized categories. Gamepl

ay, story, sound, aesthetic design, worldbuilding, and everything specialized there-in. Patrician Tier isn't a 10/10, however. They aren't 99's either, since many Patrician games usually have flaws that prevent them from being perfect. They are good games that tried something new or did something established better than the norm that deserve to be commemorated, studied, and emulated. Honestly, my hope is that one day someone makes a true sequel to Morrowind. I don't want to say it's the greates

t game of all time, I want to say that it paved the way to a generation of great games that learned lessons from it. But I can’t say that. So, with all that to-do done, let's get started. [VVARDENFELL] Morrowind is an open world game, and the world of Vvardenfell is just as much a character in this story as any other, if not moreso. Morrowind is, however, deceptive in its name. Perhaps as is tradition in the Elder Scrolls series, where Arena was anything but, Daggerfall was just a city in a who

le country, Oblivion was a dungeon and Skyrim wasn't an Elder Scrolls Game. ["Oh that's clever, that's very clever, oof"] The broader province of Morrowind has been stripped away and the focus has been placed on the island of Vvardenfell. Although unlike Arena, this time the lack of a name change is probably down to the fact that Morrowind is a better game name than Vvardenfell. There's a certain love video games have for islands. They are areas where invisible walls do not need to exist. Whe

re there is no boundary or limit that players will hit while exploring. Vvardenfell, as a game world, is tight. Strip back the iew distance, or look at any map, and realize that just over the crest of any hill is a rapid change in scenery. You can go from low level civilization to high level volcanic nightmare areas in less than a hundred meters, but the terrain of Vvardenfell is its greatest asset. I have seen some theories made on this before. That the slow movement speed, plus the low view

distance, makes Vvardenfell feel bigger than it actually is. Well the slow movement speed isn't always the case, and one of the more common modifications I see I see people using strips back the view distance limitations, so I don't think there is merit in this argument. No, the reason Vvardenfell feels like a big place, despite its small size, is that there isn't any wasted space. Ever play a space game where you land on a planet that's procedurally generated and it's like any other spot on th

at planet? You quickly realize that the area isn't actually that big, because the entirety of the planet can be summarized in that one spot. You can't go in any direction for very long without running into something, and oftentimes that something may be related to another questline you aren’t actively doing. It’s interesting to play one character and pass a ruin, only to get a quest to visit on the next character. It’s this compacted level design that makes Morrowind feel larger than it really

is, not the illusion of movement speed. The Bitter Coast region is the first region that every new player starts in. As such, it's occupied by what are generally the weakest of creatures on Vvardenfell, like Mudcrabs, Kwama Foragers, and Scribs. It's a swamp alongside the islands Southwest coast, and its geography has not been conducive to the construction of settlements. There are three towns in the region. Seyda Neen, Hla Oad, and Gnaar Mok. Seyda Neen is the starting town, which we'll go

into more detail later. Hla Oad and Gnaar Mok are both fishing villages with diverse populations of Outlanders, an affection term for non-Dunmer not native to Vvardenfell. They are also both hubs for smuggling activity on the island, given that Vvardenfell is currently under a quarantine for the Blight and Corprus disease. This smuggling activity is reflected in the region, with many caves being occupied by smugglers. The swampy soil has not stopped Daedra worshippers from building ruins in t

he area, although the fate of Boethiah's long lost shrine is an indicator of these ruins' futures. North of the Bitter Coast, the West Gash forms a shelf along Vvardenfell's northwestern shores. It's a maze of ravines and jagged terrain. The lack of farms in the area suggesting the land is not as fertile as other regions this region's hosted towns such as Gnisis, Khuul, and Ald Velothi operating as trade hubs between traders from the coast and Ashlanders from the interior of the island the area

is home to many outcast Ashlander bandits and its proximity to the channel that leads towards Skyrim means a fair few of the structures on the coastline seem to be built more militaristically a sign of the prior wars between the Nords Dunmer and Chimer during the days when the land was named Resdayn. It makes sense then that the factions that primarily operate here are more militaristic in nature with the Imperial Legion recruiting in Gnisis while House Redoran protects its settlements and the

Tribunal temple keeps the roads safe for pilgrims from predators like nix hounds and kagouti Naturally, a part of Vvardenfell's volcanic ecosystem are the fertile lowlands at the base of Red Mountain. The Ascadian Isles forms a breadbasket that supplies the island This is one of many things I appreciate about Morrowind: the fact that it painstakingly shows where the region's food supply comes from and it isn't just the odd farm. Large-scale plantations operate in the area such as the Dren pla

ntation Khajiit and Argonian slaves working the field is a common sight in the area. It should be no surprise then that the abolitionists keep their headquarters in this region. The region is populous with giant mushrooms providing shade and peaceful netches can often be seen floating around, as well as the odd guar grazing in the area. the regions host to Pelagiad on the road from Seyda Neen to Balmora. It appears to have originally operated as a way station for Imperials to travel from their

dock to Moonmoth Legion fort and further into the interior of the island from there. Pelagiad now, however, is a community of farmers and traders capitalizing on a popular route Suran borders the edge of the Isles and Molag Amur. It's a walled city of Hlaalu affiliation Suran is notably the home of a pleasure house and serves as a launch pad for excursions into the ash wastes to the east. Opposite Suran, Ebonheart sits as the head of government operations in Vvardenfell housing representative

s from the Great Houses and the Duke Vedem Dren. And of course across the water from Ebonheart: the great city of Vivec, home to the titular god of the Tribunal. The eastern shore of Vvardenfell is Azura's Coast, its name likely attributed to the open shrine to Azura at its apex. Owing to its treacherous terrain, the coast is scarcely populated. It's a series of small islands and reefs, with a guarantee that the odd island large enough to host life will host life. Since Vvardenfell's waters ar

e plagued with slaughterfish and dreugh navigating the area by swimming can be dangerous. This appeals to the isolationists in Telvanni who leveraged the region's dangerous nature to protect them. As the Telvanni once said condescendingly: you can fly, can't you? The Zarifbel Bay is an often forgotten region of Morrowind as its geography is fairly similar to Azura's Coast I actually forgot this area in my first draft and the only reason you're hearing about it now is because both the Unofficia

l Elder Scrolls Pages and the Elder Scrolls Fandom Wiki do not consider it to be an actual region distinct from Azura's Coast. Well it's marked on the physical Game of the Year map with the same text that all the other regions are running along the eastern shores of Vvardenfell, the bay is primarily occupied by the Telvanni with settlements at Sadrith Mora, Tel Mora and Tel Aruhn. The Grazelands form the northeastern shore of Vvardenfell despite their fertility the area remains in the hands of

two separate major Ashlander tribes the Zainab and the Ahumessa while one of the younger Telvanni lords has taken up residence along the coast at Tel Vos the Grazelands are bordered to the west by a perfect north to south mountain range along the foyada, a geographic feature formed by lava flows during the eruptions of Red Mountain the area claims the largest diversity in wildlife with a range from nix hounds and guar to alit and kagouti the area also has more dangerous residents with Daedra ope

nly wandering the surface as there isn't really anyone here to stop them. The lack of access to the region is reflected in its ruins with sparse Chimer, Dwemer and Daedric areas. And filling out the final shore of Vvardenfell; the northern shore of the island is restricted by an archipelago named Sheogorad. These are the backwaters of the region, a remote area with little value claimed by few people. It's only settlement at Dagon Fel being a community of the miserable. The land is difficult t

o farm and the waters are rough to fish. There is little of value for lawful residents, making the region a haven for the various sects of Daedra worshipers that inhabit it. And speaking of undesirable areas, the Ashlands. Existing in the shadow of the volcano, the Ashlands are in a perpetual state of being covered in fresh coats of ash. Since the land is not particularly valuable, it is primarily home to the Ashlanders whom subsist in it. Bordering the Ashlands is Ald'ruhn, capital of the Gr

eat House Redoran, forced on the retreat through years of trouble until their backs were up against the Red Mountain. What lives in the ashlands? Daedra, and their worshipers. Vampires, and their thralls. Sixth House cultists, necromancers, the undead, rogue members of House Telvanni; the Ashlands are really a home to anyone uncommon enough to be able to survive in an area where food doesn't grow, where sea access is limited, where trade routes change constantly due to ash storms and where ev

eryone is a constant state of warfare with everyone else over what resources do exist. And this goes doubly so for Molag Amur Molag Amur is all of those aspects that made the Ashlands untenable, if the Ashlands also happened to be a giant maze network full of lava pools that was even farther from civilization. If the people lived in the Ashlands because it was remote and isolated, but still close enough to civilization to buy their groceries, people live in Molag Amur because they outright hate

civilization. That's likely why it has been named after the Daedric Prince Molag Bal. Molag Amur sits between the Ascadian Isles and the Grazelands. There's only one settlement here, Molag Mar, which exists solely for pilgrims to prepare for pilgrimages up to Mount Kand. It's a dangerous area, only for the bravest aka highest level characters. Red Mountain is Molag Amur but vertical, full of monsters, fenced off from the rest of Vvardenfell by a giant wall the Ghost Fence and constantly in t

he midst of a giant Blight storm What's a Blight storm? It's an ash storm that spreads Blight The area is full of Sixth House cultists and Corpus beasts with the primary structures in the region being Dwemer, Red Mountain is thusly the most dangerous of the regions. I have ordered the regions of Vvardenfell in order of how terrible they are to be in. Naturally the last of these regions is Vivec itself. Vivec is a large city separated into nine cantons: the Foreign Quarter, Hlaalu, Redoran, Telv

anni, the Arena, St. Olms, St. Delyn, the Temple and the Palace of Vivec. These cantons are then separated by bridges from one another. The cantons are large structures with multiple layers. Atop them is a plaza, usually host to manors and wealthy businesses. Below that is the Waistworks, with more average businesses and commoners. And below that a Canalworks with services like the Temple or tombs, and finally sewers full of criminals. Vivec is unpleasant for several reasons. The first is

that its large scale at the time it came out on PC, and to this day on Xbox, posed a technical challenge for the game. Which is surprising considering it's just a series of static cantons with the complicated parts going on inside the city itself. Barring the frame rate issues, there are still problems. The interiors of the cantons can only be reached from the second level this means you need to run up to the giant ramps just to get inside. You then have to run around to the outside of the

second level to reach the plaza, or in the case of the Foreign Quarter, around the canton, up another ramp, around the canton again and then up to the plaza. Worse still, while the core four cantons Redoran, Arena and the two Saint cantons are connected to the second level, the Foreign Quarter, Hlaalu and Telvanni are not. To travel between these cantons you need to go all the way to the bottom to cross. Some cantons are connected via a gondola system, however these gondolas only connect the l

ower levels of the cantons. So assuming you arrive at Vivec to go to Hlaalu canton by a boat or strider, you arrive at the northernmost point of the city have to run around the Foreign Quarter bottom, cross a bridge into Redoran, run around it, cross another bridge onto Hlaalu, and then run up the ramp and either enter the Waistworks or run around the second level and enter the plaza. The words I'm looking for here are "wasted space." You may have noticed, if you were looking, that the exteri

ors of Vivec are not ornamented. Seeing NPCs on the outside of the cantons are rare, and there are no market stalls. In fact it can be difficult to tell at any point in Vivec where the hell you even are. This is only natural, like I said, the city barely runs on the Xbox and barely ran back on the day in PC. I have a sneaking suspicion the plazas were originally intended to be exterior cells but had to be closed up due to performance issues. God bless if you decide you want to use the merch

ant services in Vivec, there's no advantage over just going to the people you know outside the city. Most of them are oddly poor, they have a limited selection, and it's hard to just stop and go "I want to go to the alchemist" and figure out where the nearest one is even supposed to be. Like in Balmora, "where's the alchemist?" Probably near all the other businesses. In Ald'ruhn: "where's the alchemist?" Probably near all the other businesses. In Vivec, "Where's AN alchemist?" Maybe it's in

the Waistworks, maybe it's in the Canalworks, maybe it's in the plaza, maybe it's in another canton. This isn't just an issue of me not knowing the city, it's an issue of the city being poorly laid out. And everything looks the same. Since everything is made out of the same adobe material, the principal colors of Vivec are brown and orange interiors, with dark brown exteriors. While most of the game uses the same principle of using cookie cutter pieces together to build interiors, nowhere di

d I feel the downsides of that design philosophy more than Vivec. Is this the studio apartment of a down-on-his-luck gay pauper, or is it the secret hideout of the head of a criminal organization? So you know, the NPCs just play coy like "teehee, don't worry player, we get lost too" like that's the excuse of a defeated designer, it's not funny or cute when the end result is such a dreadful city. And if it was known at Bethesda that Vivec was such a terrible end result, of what was an ambitious

idea, then why are there still so many quests that entail navigating it? It's a shame too, between Vivec and the Imperial City over in Oblivion, I think Bethesda became scared of trying to create large cities, so they went the inverse in Skyrim and had its capital be smaller than Balmora. To that I say, big cities don't need to be full of ornamented symmetry or repetitive architectural design which create most of the problems people have when playing in them. Most big historical cities were cha

otic messes that were poorly planned out. Create a capital city like that instead of assuming the city planners of Tamriel share such clear common values. Part of what makes Vvardenfell feel alien is the unique wildlife inhabiting the island. Trade in your standard wolves and bears for a land full of strange creatures. To start we have a host of two-legged creatures. Guar are the beast of burden of Vvardenfell, operating as pack animals wild guar are fairly rare, probably because they have ca

nonically lost fights with mudcrabs. Alits and kagouti, on the other hand, are not domestic animals. Alits are omnivores, foraging alone, while kagouti are pack hunters, plaguing the roads. And speaking of plagues: Vvardenfell is full of large rats carrying the diseases endemic to the region split into common and Blight-- okay fine, cliff racers. Everyone loves the meme. It's a perfect combination of factors, from the sound they make, the fact that they're surprisingly hardy and can do a lot

more damage than you would think, and that they live in every region across the map. I believe the idea was that cliff racers were meant to be an enemy for players bypassing the roads with levitation and flying over mountains, hence their hardiness, but they weren't tuned right and ended up harassing every passing traveler in startling numbers. But I don't think they're bad enemies, largely because they're one of the few creatures that it isn't a waste of time to hunt. Their plumes are both

valuable and light, whereas most creatures either drop hides or meat that are both heavy and almost worthless. It's actually surprising to me how worthless it is to hunt creatures outside of their applications in alchemy, which is admittedly one of my weak points. Cliff racers having a valuable drop means I'm never really mad when I get attacked by a flock, because I'll always be walking away just a little bit richer. Honestly I find random animals stopping me from resting more annoying than c

liff racers, since cliff racers at least make themselves fairly obvious to find. This leads into Vvardenfell's other resident flying creatures, netches: basically just flying jellyfish. Their friendly nature means you don't really have to fight a whole lot of them, although there is the odd quest to do so. This leads into the aquatic creatures: mudcrabs and slaughterfish will be nothing new to Elder Scrolls regulars, although they may be surprised by how big the mudcrabs of Vvardenfell are, esp

ecially the dead mudcrab whose shell makes up the capital of House Redoran. Slaughterfish are the common aquatic nuisance, not really posing much of a threat even at low levels and with high numbers. Dreugh, on the other hand, pose a substantial threat when underwater. Which is fitting given their mysterious nature. Dreugh are the true descendants of Aldmeris, but they can be soul-trapped so more likely they're just Daedra larping as water elves. Shalk are giant fire beetles which are always wo

rth fighting because they're guaranteed to drop their valuable resin. Lastly, nix hounds are large insects that feast on blood, and are fairly easy to beat. Morrowind's OST was composed by Jeremy Soule, who has had an interesting career in the game industry. Did you know that Morrowind's OST lost an award to a Medal of Honor game? We've been listening to Morrowind's soundtrack in the background, and it creates a great ambiance. But after a hundred hours of playing Morrowind I have had to turn

it off. The soundtrack is divided into two sections: explore tracks and battle tracks. This is honestly the best way to refer to them. See when Morrowind's Collectors Edition came out the soundtrack was remastered, complete with new titles for all the tracks. Most people know this song as Nerevar Rising [Morrowind Main Theme, Nerevar Rising] Well it was originally titled 'Call of Magic'. How about this one: it's called 'The Road Most Traveled' or mx_explore_3. Or, as it was originally titled,

'Main Theme'. No, I'm not sure why the explore tracks are 'mx_explore' but the battle tracks are mw space battle and yes, 'Battle Track 6' is missing. Did you know that 'Explore 7' was named the 'Ending Theme'? I have a theory and this isn't based on anything real, that Morrowind's OST was probably a slap job that was later reformatted into a more functional soundtrack after Morrowind didn't flop on release. I say this based on some context that will become apparent later in this video about B

ethesda's financial state during Morrowind's development. Now to be clear, this isn't to say it's poorly composed, just that Jeremy Soule composed it and then sent Bethesda the files and let them format the soundtrack. Hence the strange names and odd formatting. I mean, one of the songs names is 'Trick Suspense'. Then when Morrowind was successful and people were buying the soundtrack, Soule quickly realized this and came in with some much needed name changes. Not that it matters anyway, sinc

e I'm sure the average person who knows this soundtrack probably knows the Dragonborn version. Onto the soundtrack proper. Call of Magic is fairly well known since elements of it were later lifted for Skyrim's theme. [Skyrim Theme] [Morrowind Theme] [Oblivion Theme] We'll handle the exploration tracks first. Dark Cavern sounds nothing like a dark cavern. [Dark Cavern] Peace at Last has a defining melody [Peace at Last] The main theme, confusing right? This part has always stood out to me: [Expl

ore 3] Separation features a beautiful string piece, which is fitting given the elvish setting. [Separation] While there are guar skin drums and you will be hearing drums in the battle themes, the explore themes give that proper feeling of exploring a world much older than you are by letting the rhythm of the player's footsteps as they adventure serve as the percussion instead. Rise to Reality thus starts with a dominant horn piece: [Rise to Reality] It would be interesting to know how much Jere

my Soule knew about Morrowind at the time he was composing the soundtrack, because while it would be nice to say this is a theme for the Imperials, I can't. Love Lost shows how well the soundtrack flips between a couple instruments to an orchestra and back again: [Love Lost] This element to the soundtrack is important because what you are hearing can't be allowed to overpower what you are seeing. Morrowind's music sounds magical because each chord is leading you through the progression like a r

oad going through a hilly countryside. This is the reason I didn't use music from the ESO Morrowind soundtrack because this song is called Ascadian Idyll [Ascadian Idyll] And you can say, well that's taking it out of context. Okay here's some more: [Ascadian Idyll] The word Idyll, I mean you could probably guess what it means, but if you can it means peaceful, picturesque. Every time we get peaceful the composer takes another 50 milligrams of Ritalin and shoves another layer into the song. The

theme isn't allowed to sit with the player before we're pushing in another complex idea. You're overworking it: you're trying to make a movie score for a video game. Sorry I literally got off track. Ending Theme has this playful little part that persists through the song: [Ending Theme] I don't get what about this song made them title it Ending Theme. So we go on to the Battle Themes which the game switches to whenever an AI detects the player. Interestingly, Desperation features a reprise of

the Main Theme of the game. [Desperation] Unity, which is an odd name for a battle theme, is the answer to Rise to Reality. [Unity] You like horns? Well horns are the sound of battle. Traveling Fanfare is fairly similar to the previous two tracks. [Traveling Fanfare] It should be stated that Morrowind was very primitive in terms of how it incorporated music, as Bethesda didn't use any adaptive music solutions. Instead opting to switch which mp3 file is playing contingent on whether the player is

in combat. So if a fight lasts longer than two minutes then you need to play another combat mp3, meaning there's a lot less room to change things up between songs. Which makes Choices Made interesting, because it ends with a fade out which can leave an awkward silence in the music. Still a good piece though. [Choices Made] Trick Suspense has probably the most aggressive percussive piece of the soundtrack. [Trick Suspense] Break the Cycle is the seventh battle track, which should upset your bra

in and actually has a fitting title due to this section. [Break the Cycle] That's almost a reprieve of an exploration theme in the midst of a battle track, but it doesn't last. [Break the Cycle] 'Forever There' was retitled 'Drum Beats of the Dunmer' for a good reason, because I can imagine the banging of the Ashlander guar skin drums in the background. [Forever There][Drum Beats of the Dunmer] This leads into the game's 'special tracks'. Introduction plays during a beginning cutscene, which ma

kes it unusual to listen to without hearing Azura's voice. [Introduction] 'Darkened Depths' plays during another cutscene later in the game. [Darkened Depths] And 'The Prophecy Fulfilled' played at the end of the Main Quest. They don't really add anything, they just serve a utility function. Finally there's a short piece that plays every time you level up. There's also a death track and, no, please, it's not my fault- Now that the world has been introduced, we can talk about transportation. T

here is no simple one-click fast travel option in Morrowind, which was in fact the exception since the game's before and after rely on it. In the case of Daggerfall, because the world was so large. In the case of Oblivion, because Bethesda was afraid kids on the Xbox would get bored. Instead transportation becomes a major concern in the world of Vvardenfell. Every quest, once received, requires the simple thought process: How do I get there? What do I need to get there? And what will I need

once I'm there to avoid needing to come back before I'm done? So let's introduce some of the ways of getting around quickly. Silt Striders are the first pillar of Morrowind's transit system. They are large insects with hollowed-out shells that are ridden inside. They fill the bulk of the transportation needs from the West Gash through the Bitter Coast, and into the Ascadian Isles, ranging as far as the northern village of Khuul down to Molag Mar. While you ride, in game time passes, usually o

nly a couple hours, and it counts as resting time. The caravaneers can serve as information hubs for the areas you arrive in. They have an independent disposition to their local factions, meaning you can't alienate them accidentally. Boats are the second pillar of Morrowind's transportation system. Circling the entire island, and hitting all major fishing villages and ports save Seyda Neen, the boat system is robust, but is also time consuming and expensive to boot. Still some remote areas li

ke Dagon Fel can only be reached via boat, and most of the Telvanni settlements are connected only by boat. Like the caraveneers, the ship's captains are independent of faction affiliation. The Mages Guild serves as the third pillar. In five cities, a mage will facilitate instantaneous transportation. These cities include each Great House capital, Balmora, Ald'ruhn, and Sadrith Mora, as well as Vivec and Caldera. While robust, they do carry a downside: the Mages Guild, as a faction, can be in

fluenced by membership and deeds in other factions, and can be alienated into higher prices or even denial of service. To give an example, House Telvanni and the Mages Guild are at odds, and membership in House Telvanni may require you bribe, admire, or charm the guild guides into providing services again. Since transportation is instant, you also don't regenerate health or Magicka, which is another downside. That said, the Mages Guild is the only fast travel service in Caldera, and also can

bypass several boat trips when heading out towards Sadrith Mora. The fourth pillar of transportation: teleportation magic. The Mysticism skill, may it rest in peace, had a few handy spells that were actually really important, even in non-spell casters. The first two are Almsivi and Divine Intervention. These spells teleport you to the nearest shrine of their relevant god; Almsivi to Tribunal Temples and Divine to Imperial shrines. Now, while the nature of the spell sounds like it should be r

eserved for emergencies, it shouldn't. Once business is finished and you are townward bound, Interventions get you back to civilization quick. On the western half of the map, Almsivis are better. Divines tend to take you to Moonmoth and Buckmoth Forts which, while near Balmora and Ald'ruhn respectively, both those towns have their own Tribunal Temples. On the flip side, Divine Intervention is very useful when operating in the eastern side of the map, since it can be used to quickly get to Wol

verine Hall, in Sadrith Mora, and from there basically anywhere on the map. These spells are also available in scroll form, and even as amulets for those who can't muster up the skill to cast the actual spells themselves. However, the stars of the show are Mark and Recall. Mark, when cast, sets a marker where you're standing. Recall then teleports you to that marker. This greatly expands your options, since you can mark stuff like merchants, quest givers or master trainers, and quickly retur

n to them. Propylons are a neat idea, but in execution are only really a reward for the sort of people that read the wiki, or who install the Master Propylon Index plugin. We will be discussing the Master Index plugin in more detail in a couple hours, when we discuss all of the downloadable content. Each Dunmer stronghold has a Propylon chamber with two teleporters. If you have the index that corresponds with the teleporter, you can use it to travel to the next stronghold. The strongholds for

m a loop, but if you are missing any of the indexes then you're forced to stop. The indexes, however, are rare, and I suppose the original idea was that they would serve as both a reward for long-term players but also an option for vampires and criminals to get around? The indexes locations are rather obscure. Only a few of my characters I played for this video ever actually found an index, the most one character found was two. The Master Propylon Index converts a Mages Guild NPC into a ques

t giver, who will point you in the right direction for all 10 indexes, and as a reward, will give you a Master Index. This turns Caldera into its own hub, where you can go to any stronghold. However, this itself is only circumstantially useful. If you need quick access to one of the Ashlander tribes, or a fast way out of a remote area back to civilization, I guess. Okay, now this is a tangent, but in the Dawnguard expansion in the Forgotten Vale, there were these teleporters that could quickly

teleport you around the area, but you needed to unlock them. Now I thought, "hey, that's pretty cool, maybe Bethesda will go back to incorporating diegetic fast travel." Then Fallout 4 came out and basically killed that notion. Travel in Morrowind is itself interesting. It's not just running or walking around an area to go do stuff. Along the way you can encounter unexpected quests, like lost pilgrims, or naked Nords that have been tricked by witches, etc. You'll have to contend with monsters

like cliff racers, or unexpected contractions of diseases from cliff racers, or even just taking the time to explore a dungeon of cliff racers you find along the way. How you get there takes a good deal of planning. If you are tasked to go from Balmora to Ald Velothi, you could just walk out the door and start hiking, or you could stop, take the guild guide to Ald'ruhn, then strider to Khuul and walk a much shorter distance. I think you can get most anywhere in about 10 minutes provided you kn

ow how to take advantage of the fast travel. There are exceptions, of course, like the Ashlands or Molag Amur, but most of the time this rings true. So why do I consider the superior to a fast travel system, if in the end fast travel is more convenient and lets me get to the meaty action faster? I will tell you in story form. I was contracted to take care of a bounty. He'd been spotted near Tel Mora, but this was old information. I find out in Tel Mora that his hideout is in a remote part

of Sheogorad. So, I now need to plan to go up there. I need Water Walking and Cure Disease potions, I need to decide if I should pay boat fare to come from Dagon Fel, or if I should go there from Tel Mora. After a short hike I'm at the spot. Only the bandits are not. The cave itself leads into an Ancestral Tomb, inside which is a vampire. This is not an enemy I'm prepared to fight, but from my perspective, it's possible that my target is behind the vampire, and so I need to fight her. This

is a tough fight and the tension builds as I know that while going back to town is a possibility, that would entail preparing and performing the journey all over again. I could set a Mark but then I would lose the remote master trainer I have it set to. Even though I can save at any time, that doesn't lessen the tension any because it just means I'll either be wasting my time walking back up, or wasting my time save scumming until I kill her. Let's compare the situation with Oblivion or Skyri

m. First of all it's very rare that I would be put in a situation where I wouldn't be able to attrite an enemy down anyways, but assuming this isn't the case, and the enemy poses enough of a threat that I need to return to town, it's as easy as one button click. Then when I'm ready I can instantly be back at the dungeon, because not only can I teleport back to town effortlessly, I can teleport to anywhere on the map as well. Any tension that is created as a consequence of having to repeat a jo

urney is lost because at any time, I can just fast travel to safety. Further, tension can't be built up in the first place because I could have just fast traveled up to a nearby point on my first trip up there. This also applies to housing and quest givers. What's the point of carefully selecting a place to live out of if, at the end of the day, I can instantly fast travel there. What's the point of planning how I do my quest so I can complete multiple objectives while in the same region if I c

an always just fast travel to my objectives instantly? It's not even like in Daggerfall where there are time limits on quests, making the act of losing time a consequence in of itself. The world is always willing to wait for you. Oh, a hermit living in the middle of nowhere is the only person who can train you in Marksman past skill level 70. Well come on stupid, just use a nearby cave as a fast travel point to get to him. I could go on, but I think I've illustrated my point. Diegetic trave

l systems in Morrowind helped Vvardenfell feel like a real world, because you understand how it was that people get around. I'm not demonstrating my mastery of the systems as some Freudian way of self-admitting that I secretly long for fast travel, I'm demonstrating it because I want you to understand that this is a game that rewards you for learning how to navigate in the space effectively. Travel is an unspoken part of every single quest we'll be doing in Morrowind. Before, during, and after

every single story point I will be making decisions related to travel that I won't be telling you about, but will play a part of the story. Editing can cut out what is otherwise a massive part of the role-playing experience of Morrowind, hence why it deserves its own section up, front and center. This is where they want you head down to the dock and I'll show you to the Census Office. Dedicating an entire section of one of these parts to a single town may seem somewhat unnecessary, as though I'

m artificially padding out the length to the video, however in this case I'm only doing it because of all my playthroughs, they have this one point in common: Seyda Neen. The game starts simple enough, with a cutscene of Azura hinting at the plot, and then you awake to a shirtless man asking if you're okay and inquiring your name. After this, you're led onto the top deck, where a guard asks where you're from, selecting your race and customizing your character along certain preset faces and hair

styles. You're then led inside where you're processed you're first asked about class where you can fill out a questionnaire, select from a list, or create your own, You then select your birth sign, are shown your character sheet and asked to confirm the information, before being given documents and sent onwards. In the next room you're given the option to swing in a free iron dagger around his practice. Craftier players can loot the place, or even use the lockpick on the table to unlock the

chest filled with a small amount of gold. Outside, you're told to take a magic ring out of a barrel, introducing magic. Once inside the final room, you're introduced to dialogue. Dialogue in Morrowind is almost entirely text-based. Beyond the odd quest, most NPCs have a stock vocal greeting based on race and disposition, but 99% of dialogue is performed in this window. Morrowind is a lot of reading, and I know that bothers some people, particularly the people that play while sitting on a couc

h with their brains turned off. I think if you're committed to watching the series you probably are not the sort of person. Now I know reading can be difficult, but believe it or not, there are some good reasons it is superior. Dialogue is split into topics, you can then ask about a topic, and the NPC will elaborate on it. "Wait, did you say that text based dialogue is superior? Well that can't be true..." Well it is, and here's why: First of all, text-based dialogue is friendlier to a low bud

get game. Modern Elder Scrolls may be a top dollar production, but back when Morrowind was coming out it was a risk that Bethesda took to save the company from an eternity of producing shovelware titles after Battlespire and Redguard underperformed. And although it looks like a lot, it really isn't. 400 words is just over three minutes of speech. For instance, since I've started talking about this tutorial, I have said about 400 words. I believe most people see a disparity between how long i

t takes to read the written word versus listen to it. I can't knock listening versus reading entirely, considering you are listening to my words, not reading them, but while you may look at the dialogue on screen and say "yeah [ __ ] all that". Consider that something that is written is not limited by the reality of it being spoken aloud. In fact, a great deal of the strengths presented in Morrowind's storylines owe themselves to the detailed explanations one can receive. I can't help but th

ink that Morrowind is impossible to remaster, for the simple fact that Bethesda would have to change so much just to make the dialogue all fit on any hard drive made by man. Because naturally something Bethesda would try to do in a Morrowind Remaster is voice acting. However there is another reason, and it has to do with logistics. It is not just a coincidence that stuff like directions to the quest location disappeared around the same time voice acting came about. Oblivion's voice acting wa

s a nightmare for Bethesda because it meant that everything had to be written with the idea in mind that it had to be spoken aloud, saved, and take up file space. So no longer could you have quest givers explaining how to get to a spot because they likely couldn't afford much more than the bare essentials. When it came to voice acting, quest markers were as much a consequence of laziness on the part of players as it was a consequence of laziness on the part of Bethesda. This was one of the re

asons I was horrified at the prospect of player voice actors in Fallout 4. Not because being spoken for bothers me, but because it meant that there had to be a severe limitation on what the player could now say. I mean Bethesda's developed games hardly ever provided more than four options in dialogue, but now they really couldn't if it meant paying a voice actor for the extra words. Just as I said that 400 words was three minutes, 400 words of written dialogue was now three minutes of voice act

or pay, assuming they didn't flub up the lines in the process. You can't afford to have voice actors talk about the latest rumors, or little secrets, or advice, or give directions to somewhere specific, or someone in particular, or casually elaborate on topics because that costs money, and that is money that could be spent on hiring expensive voice actors for set-piece quests. Once outside into Seyda Neen proper, we're given a small stipend and directions to go to Caius Cosades house in Balmora

. Now, of course, you could just beeline it there. The Silt Strider in town goes straight there for much less than we got, but let's talk about short form tutorials. There are two kinds of tutorials: long form and short form. A long form tutorial gradually introduces all the mechanics, how they work, and make sure that there is nothing that can surprise the player because the developer is afraid they won't see it, they won't engage with it. Short form is then naturally less insulting. Morro

wind's tutorial does not take you aside and teach you about magic because not all characters are going to use it. Likewise, it doesn't force you to use security, because some players might see stealing as a bad thing. When it introduces the plot elements, it doesn't have a dragon swoop down from the sky to save you from an execution, it just tells you "hey the Empire's releasing you on parole, provided you complete these conditions," that can be easily ignored. It doesn't have the Emperor get

assassinated by Mehrunes Dagon cultists as he hands you the Amulet that is protecting the world from invasion by demons with the instruction to find a priest at a priory and help him find his illegitimate son. It's just like explore this port town and get used to how things work, and it does so in a way that isn't going to hurt you in the long run. Seyda Neen has barely anything to do with anything after you leave town, so hurt feelings get left behind. Speaking with people, you can meet Fargoth

, who mentions he lost his ring. Sure enough, the one you found is his, and returning it to him gives you a disposition boost with both him and the town trader, netting better prices. While at the trader, you can meet a Nord who wants to collect Fargoth's debt, who tells you you can watch from the watchtower and to see where his hiding spot is. Then you can take the money and leave. This teaches some good lessons: it teaches you that doing good things in the world, even for unimportant people

, can get you bonuses. It also teaches you that sometimes the best quest reward is the one you don't turn in. Another quest in Seyda Neen starts after you find a body in the swamp. Turns out it's a local tax collector. If you're honest and turn in the money he was carrying, you'll be tasked with solving the murder. If not, you keep the money, but end up with a net lower reward. Asking around, you find out the tax collector was in a relationship with a lady in the lighthouse, who says that

he got in a fight with a guy and asks you bring her ring back. You can confront him and he will admit it, giving you a choice kill him and get paid or spare him and get nothing. So the choice is yours. Then, should you kill him, you get the ring but remember sometimes the best reward is the one you don't turn in. You can leave Seyda Neen with over 1500 gold, provided you do things right. Quests teach lessons while introducing ideas in a safe manner that isn't going to affect your faction re

putation down the line. Seyda Neen is the second best tutorial I've played in an RPG. To me, it can be a fast affair, done quickly before I get into the meat of what I really want to do, or it can be done slowly by a new player learning the ropes of the world. As for the best well, it rhymes with Spoodgrings. Getting to Balmora can be done three ways: go north and follow the river. Go south and go by Pelagiad, or take the silt strider. Each one has its own benefits. The silt strider is the fa

stest, but costs money north can lead you by some valuable loot, south can take you by some interesting quests. Once in Balmora, you'll be directed to the Corner Club to learn where Caius Cosades lives, and there you'll be told about certain opportunities that will come up in part three. And finally, once you meet Cosades, he says those golden words: "Go out on your own, look for freelance work or trouble, then when you're ready, come back, and I'll have orders for you." For open world games,

this is such a simple thing that is so often forgotten. In so many of these games I wonder when am I supposed to actually engage with the world, because so often they drag us quest to mission with the utmost urgency. I'm the sort of person to do what is the most urgent matter first, you know, a reasonable person. And so often I can burn through an entire game before looking back and realizing "hey, wait a second, when was I supposed to actually engage with the world?" So, word of advice if

you're making an open world game and put some measure of effort into making the world interesting, please give people an opportunity to step off the train and play tourist for a little while. Let's talk about character creation. Since I went through it seven different times, both for Morrowind, and in general really. I see lots of people spend tons of time agonizing over every detail of character creation and worrying if they have created the perfect character, if they need to- Stop, just stop

. Here's how you create a character in Morrowind. Step one: create your character. Step two: find problems. Step three: recreate the character having addressed the issues. For example, if you think your movement speed is too slow, take the birthsign 'the Steed' that makes you faster. If you think your character is too fragile, reconsider your race. If you find out you like maces and not swords, set Blunt as one of your skills. Just identify a problem you have and see if you can fix it. Mor

rowind's intro is so short it can be redone fairly quickly. In fact, if you already know what you're going to do, you can be on the world adventuring in a matter of minutes. And it's not the end of the world if a character isn't perfect either. If you decide later down the road you want to use a different skill, all it costs is money to train that skill up to a usable level, and there is plenty of opportunity to make money in Morrowind. Morrowind has 10 races that you can play as. Each race ha

s certain specialties and weaknesses and these can vary from gender to the gender as well. For elves there are Altmer, Bosmer Dunmer and Orsimer. Altmer are mages, Bosmer thieves, Orsimer are fighters, Dunmer are a bit of a mix of everything. You can be iconoclastic, making an Altmer barbarian or an Orc wizard and you will experience some short-term difficulties, but nothing that kills it in the long term. For men there are Bretons, Imperials, Nords, and Redguards. "But Redguards aren't actua

lly Atmoran desce-" Shut up. Bretons are good at magic, Nords and Redguards are good at fighting, Imperials are good at conning people. Not quite the RPG triangle, but then again, Morrowind was more about accurately reflecting these people to the lore and their cultures, than it was about balance. Lastly, there are two beast races: Argonians and Khajiit. Races are distinguished in a few ways, attributes change to favor certain specializations with certain races, and some magic oriented races

get a bonus to their overall Magicka pool. Races also see bonuses as certain skills again relevant to their specialization, so a Bosmer who selects Marksman as a major or Khajiit with a major in Acrobatics or Redguard with a major in Long Sword will all have the highest of net relevant skill at the start of the game. There are also resistances to consider. Some races claim a substantial resistance to disease, others see resistance to spell effects. Using fire on a Dunmer or frost on a Nord do

esn't work because, logically, they come from those climates. Altmer, on the other hand, boasts a substantial weakness to certain kinds of magic rather than a resistance. Another factor to consider is disposition. Members of the same race as you will have a slightly higher disposition towards you. Remember that the average person is a Dunmer and you can see certain advantages in playing one. Gender can also be a factor. Your attributes can differ based on gender although it tends to be balanc

ed so you're actually just trading one attribute for another with the counterpart sex. There are also certain quests that go differently based on gender, but I don't think there are any quests that differ outcomes based on race. Each race has abilities catered towards their specialization: Imperials have an ability that makes them more persuasive, while Orcs and Redguards have abilities that help them fight. simple stuff like that I'd usually forget they were there by the end of a playthrough, s

o yeah, one simple way of making a decent character would be syncing their choice in race and class to what makes sense like, you know, Orc Wizard. Birthsigns are another part of character creation. This is basically a mix of the starter gift and modifier idea from past games. Originally I was gonna spend a few minutes listing all the signs but it was kind of dry and boring so I'll just highlight a few. The Steed makes you run faster, the Warrior and the Lover can boost your chances with hit ch

ance. The Mage, Apprentice, and Atronach increase your amount of Magicka with increasing downsides the more magical you get. You'll do better in conversations with the Lady and with the Ritual you'll get a massive daily healing power. Which sign is objectively the best? Well the Atronach is a bit broken and I'll demonstrate why later. It's honestly hard to say because all of them besides, the Atronach, become very circumstantial in usefulness past level 5. Morrowind isn't the sort of game th

at makes later playstyles impossible due to early bad decision making. Bad decision-making mostly just impacts how quickly you'll reach the inevitable power threshold, not whether or not you'll cross it. But if you are somebody who has a serious stigma against Morrowind because it's too slow or you dislike hit chance, there are baked in solutions to the problem to help you out. So I did the little survey that tells you which class to play and I got monk, sounds about right. The survey is a pe

rsonality test that tallies your responses and compares them with the stereotypes of the class so fighting heavy responses get fighting heavy classes, but since it's mostly moral choices I don't really put too much stock in it. You can also pick from a list of presets, and I mean the classes are going to operate about how they sound but you have to think about it. Like if you pick knight, you have to use the weapons knights would use, or you're in for a rough time. This is why the class creat

or is the best option, although it's also obviously the option that requires a bit of knowledge about the- No, no, it doesn't require knowledge about the game. If you want to use swords, put Long Blade in the major skill box. All skill names operate basically at face value. Specialization corresponds to the three archetypes of RPGs, giving skill buffs in those fields. Attributes are again fairly self-explanatory, you don't really need to understand the nuances of how the skills and attributes

work to craft a functional class that will work for you. Provided you stick to the skills you select or train the new skills you have at a trainer, but I will give some handy advice. First off, always take Speechcraft and Mercantile. This is because these two skills will be useful regardless of play style and the completion of quests and acquisition of wealth. With eight skills left I generally have a hard time picking enough skills per playstyle. No, really. Endurance is handy in generatin

g some extra health per level early and personality can help with the early game gold grind. The rest of the attributes will raise up as you level and they aren't really a concern from any other standpoint. So I hope you see that creating a character isn't really a big deal in Morrowind, in fact, because the Great Houses are exclusive to one another, to see all the content you have to play multiple characters, barring that one glitch that lets you join two houses. New game is a prevalent optio

n in the main menu at all times because Elder Scrolls is meant to mirror your tabletop gaming experience where you don't just stick with the one character, unlike the later games which were made literally with the design philosophy of avoiding players feeling the need to restart because of the character they created, which is absurd because even if you make a bad character it's not at the end of the world in Morrowind. There's training and a difficulty slider. If you've made it this far and yo

u feel tempted to play Morrowind I can give you three template characters that will make the game fairly easy for new players. Each template follows one of the three archetypes: the first is a warrior who uses the most common weapon and armor with a Long Blade of 50 and an Agility of 65, as long as you use a sword you'll be able to hit monsters and with a Strength of 50 do some decent damage. Endurance and Personality have also been selected to help with gains and conversation. The second is m

age, again Endurance and Personality have been picked over Intelligence and Willpower, resulting in a smaller Magicka pool but also a less fragile character, with bases touched in all the early game magical skills. This class shouldn't have issues in the early game with casting magic. Breton plus the Apprentice gives you a large pool of Magicka to work with. The third is a Thief, focus has been put into marksman and light armor. This is the most fragile of the three but an Agility of 75 and a

Marksman of 50 means that you aren't going to miss shots with a bow. And Short Blade has been selected as a backup weapon. Sneak and Illusion are also selected, to make stealth oriented playstyles work. Playing outside of these archetypes is easily possible, but I recommend playing inside them for your first time just to get a handle on how skills work, before trying anything crazy like Orc Wizard. [THIEVES GUILD] I will say up front that thievery oriented playthroughs tend to be my least fa

vorite when it comes to Morrowind, partially because a little bit of thievery is expected in all playthroughs, and a little bit because thievery just doesn't quite work right. Despite that, both my Thieves Guild and my House Hlaalu characters actually ranked as my more favorite playthroughs that I did for this series. Steals-Your-Wallet, a Khajiit thief, took his stipend and figured the only real goal worthy of life was the acquisition of cash cash money Up front, Steals-Your-Wallet is a bit dis

tinguished from the other characters as a beast race. Or as we say in 2019, as a furry. ["Khajiit better than lizard."] In particular I find it funny that since all characters start with shoes, and furries can't wear shoes, that Steals-Your-Wallet came to Vvardenfell with one of his few possessions being a pair of common shoes he can't wear. This isn't the only limitation placed on furries and scalies however. Another is the inability to wear closed masked helmets due to the structural limitati

ons of the Khajiit and Argonian faces. Perhaps a note on beast races is the fact that Vvardenfell has institutional slavery. Although outlawed in the Empire, Vvardenfell, and the broader province of Morrowind, were never actually conquered by Tiber Septim, instead signing an armistice. A great many things were hold-overs of the pre-empire Morrowind; as a consequence one of these was slavery. Now, while technically any race can be enslaved including native Dunmer; the ones you'll generally see be

ing used for slave labor are the two beast races I should note that it is impossible to be enslaved. Unless you spend time in an Imperial Corrections and Rehabilitation Center. There is an abolitionist questline and you are able to free most slaves you encounter. While there are sometimes different quest paths based on your character's gender, it does not seem to matter much your character's race. You can join and become a leader in most xenophobic factions as an Argonian. Steals-Your-Wallet, tr

ue to his name, enlisted with the Thieves Guild. Now, while other, later games would establish the Thieves Guild as an ancient establishment, Vvardenfell is quite different, as I said earlier Morrowind was not conquered and so the Imperial Thieves Guild has only recently entered the scene on Vvardenfell. Now, what is the function of a Thieves Guild in Imperial society? After all, what government could support the existence of a faction devoted to crime? Well, generally, the Thieves Guild operate

s within certain rule sets to only really bother those with excess. Not the broader public. They serve as a watchdog against other less nuanced criminal organizations. And, of course, they pass on profits to Imperial authorities in the form of bribe money. Vvardenfell's local criminal organization is the Camonna Tong. I've heard them described as a mafia-esque organization. I would say the Camonna Tong is closer to a cartel. Mafias tend to operate on crimes like protection rackets, extortion, an

d blackmail, like the Thieves Guild. Whereas cartels operate on smuggling, corruption monopoly, and robbery. The Tong is also politically motivated against outlanders and the Empire, and curiously enough, forms the backbone of the Imperial- aligned House Hlaalu. So while the early quests of the Thieves Guild will have you performing general contract crime, later quests typically involve taking steps to protect the guild from the Camonna Tong, and uncover intrigue that can be used against them

. [Automatic subtitles continue from here.] Crime in the Elder Scrolls has largely been unchanged since Morrowind. Probably the greatest of later games changes being that each county would have its own bounty, and witnesses could be bribed or killed. The first of crimes is theft: [Merchant: "What are you doing?"] The value of your bounty being established by the value of the item stolen. So, for example, an early game quest involves stealing a Redoran Master Helm from Miner Arobar of House Redor

an. a Redoran Master Helm is worth three thousand gold. If I were to walk up and take the Helm, I would ' receive a 3 000 gold bounty. [SYW: "Ah, another pointy-eared king of-"] It is worth noting that murder is a 1 000 gold bounty, meaning that I am now as wanted as a serial killer with just one crime. It is actually considered less of a crime for me to murder Miner Arobar and his guard and just take the helmet with zero witnesses than it is to just grab the Helm and run away. Theft translatin

g value into the bounty isn't always consistent, however. At one point I stole a soul gem worth over 50 000 gold but did not get a 50 000 gold bounty. That crime spree did end up at a 19 000 gold bounty overall, after looting an enchanting merchant and an alchemy merchant of all their valuables. So how does one get rid of a bounty? The obvious way is to just pay it off. Turning yourself in can even get you a lessened price; usually around 10% off and worth noting as a guard is charging to arrest

you, it is possible to spam the dialogue prompt and have it count as turning yourself in. However you aren't often able to sell items for their full value; so if you steal a 100 gold item, you get paid 50 gold for it and then have to pay off a 90 gold bounty. You have clearly lost money One perk of the Thieves Guild are certain NPCs who can make bounties go away, at a cost of half the value of the bounty. Constantly resolving bounties this way does eat into your profits quite heavily, so it is

better to steal stuff and not be detected. I simply say all this as a way of assuaging the idea that you need to constantly save-scum and avoid bounties at all costs like the later games. In part, this is because every guard in 5 miles will not attempt to arrest you for bounties under 1 000 gold. [Wes Johnson: "STOP!"] For some other crimes: there's trespassing. Which is actually not trespassing like the other games but just trying to break into an area. As long as you aren't caught breaking in

, you're free to hang out in people's houses. I would like to add in editing that since interior NPCs generally don't move around; as a rule shopkeepers who have merchandise around a corner will often have a guard in their shop watching said merchandise. This was a quirk notable of Balmora, Pelagiad, and Caldera. I don't recall many instances outside of those areas using this technique to detect crime. Other shopkeepers would just keep all their merchandise in view of them. The problem with this

which gets into the early game exposure to crime, is that you have an immediate response if you try to steal from these shops. And I don't really think the town would appreciate one of its merchants getting a full-time town guard dedicated to preventing theft because the merchant was too lazy to watch their stuff. Sleeping in an owned bed is a fun one, especially when you do it accidentally, trying to pick up something off the bed. ["You violated the law."] Pickpocketing has a lot of nuance in

how it gets counted as a crime, but do not worry, because Steals-Your-Wallet will never successfully pick a pocket in his entire career. And neither will you; because of a mistake in the code, the skill checks for pickpocket are so punishing that there is only a 56% chance, maximum, of successfully picking a pocket. And that is only when you're at a high skill level. Value plays a heavy factor as well so certain gold values are impossible to pickpocket. Pickpockets never really worked in Elder

Scrolls. In reality it's generally seen as a low level crime, but is so reliably caught at low levels in game, that I would think most people would just avoid pickpocketing entirely beyond the odd gimmick here or there, like reverse pickpocketing. So while Oblivion onwards would fix the odds of a pickpocket, they also made the penalties for pickpockets so high, in the form of hyperactive guards, as to make the venture completely un-worthwhile for low-level criminals, but worth a laugh for high

-level ones. Which is just bass ackwards. I'll get into the other two crimes of assault and murder later. For now, let's talk about some Thieves Guild quests. Balmora is the logical place for most players to embark on their careers in the Imperial Guilds. Being the first town they're sent to after all. The player is even directed to ask at the Corner Club the Thieves Guild hides in for directions to Cosade's house. The first three quests of the Balmora Thieves Guild rather elegantly display s

ome of Morrowind's problems with thievery, however. And very quickly I might add. The first quest to the Balmora Thieves Guild is to steal a diamond from Nalcarya of White Haven, the local alchemist who is quite wealthy. As the first quest of the Thieves Guild, this is quite a challenging proposition for new players, as the diamonds in question are directly in front of her. Now, some people are going to say some usual arguments for how these quests should be done, generally involving magic. I a

sk you then how new players to Morrowind fresh off the boat are supposed to figure these things out for this quest. The reality is that this quest is a trap and teaches important lessons that work for the rest of the game. the first lesson is that quest givers generally do not care that you specifically give them what they ask for. A diamond is still a diamond to Habasi; she does not need a specific diamond. And the second lesson is that purchasing a diamond from Nalcarya is a perfectly acceptab

le solution for the quest. Worth noting, and this is something I'm learning as of now, there are diamonds upstairs above her bed in a locked chest. This information is not relayed to the player and while it is my fault for not exploring, plenty of people have fallen for the trap that is this quest. Me personally, I just purchased them while selling contraband I stole from the Mages Guild, so I made a profit anyways. The second quest of the Balmora Thieves Guild is to acquire a key to Nerano mano

r. There are two keys in question: one on the manor's owner Ondres Nerano, and one on his manservant Sovor Trandel. Either can be pickpocketed if such a thing is possible. I actually save-scum for about 15 minutes, just to see if it was and not once did I actually succeed in stealing the key off of either man. Both can be killed for the key. While there is no extra consequence for killing the manservant, killing the owner does have some consequence. Since it's hard to get use out of a key when t

he owner is no longer alive, however legally killing Sovor is difficult, because generally the only option available to players is going to be taunts, which at this level, take an exceptional amount of time to actually work. You can also convince Sovor into giving you the key, either with admiration, or with bribes. But again since the player is new admiration may not work, and bribes may quickly surpass the rewards of the quest. The third quest of Balmora's Thieves Guild is to acquire dwemer ar

tifacts off another Khajiit Ra'Zhid. Ra'Zhid cannot be convinced and his tricky position makes cleanly stealing the artifacts in question a difficult proposition. In attempting to do so I earned a bounty for defending myself from Ra'Zhid. These three quests expose a massive fault in the thievery playstyle. That being the extreme difficulty of leveling thief skills naturally. Sneak only levels when you sneak around NPCs who can detect you. Since you aren't going to often be doing this, because tr

espassing of the later games hasn't been implemented yet, and there is no need to sneak around non-hostile NPCs. I never once saw sneak level up outside of trainers. sneak can be leveled relatively quickly by successful pickpockets, but again, such things may not be possible in mortal lifetimes since you can get 1/50th of a level for every successful pickpocket, and you can't level sneak on enemies very well because the second they detect you you aren't going to lose them. Leveling speechcraft o

rganically will typically involve ruining dispositions with a lot of people or spending a lot on bribe money. Illusion magic can be a solution for hybrid classes provided you cast the magic in question quite a bit. Using trainers is an option, but I should stress these are the newbie quests, they don't pay particularly well, and getting these skills high enough to be functional is more costly than the rewards given by the quests thus, I view the early game Thieves Guild quest as likely the worst

aspect of the Guild. It does get better, much better in fact, but this early part is very weak which is a surprise given the extra effort the Thieves Guild seemed to receive compared to some of the other factions. So what can be done? Unlike the later games there isn't one path to completion in the Guild. If you find yourself unable to complete a quest you could always find a new job in a different guild hall. The Ald'ruhn hall is about as forgiving. It starts out innocuous. The local Mages Gui

ld is out on a Vegas trip and is apparently empty. We need to grab an enchanted tanto and, while we're there, we can help ourselves to anything we find. Only the Guild hall isn't empty. Someone was left behind and he immediately assumes we're a thief. Unlike later installments of the guild, there is actually not much of a penalty for killing people while on the job, with exceptions where killing someone might complicate future work, like with Ondres Nerano. This is because the Thieves Guild unde

rstands that sometimes in B&E (Breaking and Entering) things happen, and the job still needs to get done. They prefer murder not be the first solution that members think of, but more of a reactionary measure taken. Unlike a later Guild who had exclaimed that they don't allow killing because they aren't the Dark Brotherhood. ["Second, never kill anyone on the job. This is not the Dark Brotherhood."] ["There's something not right about you, maybe you should go."] Security is another thief skill bu

t it does not suffer the issues the other skills have. You only need a Security level of 40/100 to unlock any chest in the game provided you have a master pick. Anything beyond that just means you open stuff in less attempts. Of course lock level 100 is fairly uncommon, with the average lock being closer to around lock level 50. So this ended up being the only quest where I ran into the "lock too complex" message Since I quickly got my hands on some master picks and out leveled all the locks. I

suppose I should mention the lockpick levels - they follow the levels of: Apprentice, journeyman, master, and grandmaster. Grandmasters are uncommon, so I'd use them for the special occasions. Lockpick quality translates to effectiveness - another factor in the equation that is lockpicking that was cut from the later games, in favor of a more universal pick. Lockpicking is not done through a mini-game but rather by clicking on the lock while holding the pick in your hand. So it's done in real ti

me, which means should you lack the skill in lockpicking and consistently fail it means you have to take into consideration guard patrols and the like. This is another way that skill levels differentiate the masters from the apprentices. There are also traps, but they all have a standard level so any probe in the game can break them. Magical classes can, of course, use alterations to unlock chests. For the spell "open" its level directly translates to what it opens. So an Ondusi's spell will ope

n all locks up to level 50. This may seem more effective provided you have the Magicka and aptitude to cast such spells. Traps can be bypassed with magic, provided you know the spell telekinesis, since activating the trap from a distance will cause it to miss. Traps can range in effectiveness, sometimes they instantly kill you, sometimes they just cast a low level burden effect. There's really no telling from the outside what any one trap is going to do. In fact, I don't even think that they're

consistent. As for fighting classes your best bet is to use a scroll of "open". Of which there are two types; Ondusi's Unhinging, and Ekash's Lock Splitting. They carry the upsides of magic, with the downsides of weight and monetary cost. If there is a level 75 lock you'll have to use your expensive Ekash's Lock Splitter to open it. I think a particular failure of the game is the inability of fighting classes to open a lock without a magical or thief related ability. This creates a lot of situat

ions for role-playing characters, who avoid sneaky measures from opening certain chests, as there's not always a key. Those born under the sign of the Tower can use a daily ability to open a level 50 lock. Which is ironically more useful to fighting classes than it is to thief or mage classes. Since it's ridiculously easy for both to have the necessary skill level and tool set to unlock a level 50 lock. It also comes with "detect key" and "enchantment". Which are the saddest spells ever since th

e quest and level designers never created any situations where you would need those effects. Back on the topic of the Thieves Guild - our next quest is to steal that Redoran Master Helmet I mentioned earlier. Arobar's guard can occasionally path out of the room if you leave the door open. Then you can shut the door on her to keep her out. ["What? You must be joking."] Now you're down to Arobar but he's a bit politically significant to just kill. Luckily NPCs can be distracted. By getting NPCs t

o speak towards you you can control the direction they look. This isn't always reliable, since sometimes NPCs are positioned up against the wall, but here it is necessary. For our next job - we're then tasked with stealing a smut book from Miner Arobar's daughter aaand... [No words can describe what you see. Or what you think you see.] ["Oh my god"] ["This is absolutely depraved..."] ["I LOVE it"] Now, somebody has a grudge against Arobar, and it's strange because, this plot point doesn't come u

p again, not even in the House Redoran quest line. Over in Sadrith Mora we get a job to steal a potion recipe for the benefit of the local Mages Guild. We can, of course, ask for the recipe, to which we'll be told: ["No, I don't think so."] Naturally she forgets we asked after we take it. Or maybe we make a copy, either way this quest is actually really easy, so naturally the next one is quite difficult. We are to steal a rare grandmaster's retort from a trader in Tel Mora. This is difficult, as

the retort is in clear view of the merchant. She's willing to sell it, but isn't in a in a selling mood until somebody deals with the health and safety violation upstairs that is a Corprus monster. The zombie has a good deal of health, but is trapped behind some clutter, so we can pick it off from a distance safely. There are other retorts, and they are about as difficult to acquire as this one. The wiki actually suggests you kill Berwen which is pretty psychopathic. ["But he's a bit politicall

y significant to just kill."] I just buy it off her and trade some contraband I'd stolen earlier to make up the capital It's better for everyone that way. Our next task is to help improve the defenses of the Guild hall by hiring a battle mage. We ask around the local Mages Guild and come to a deal - four pieces of ebony for a battle mage. Ebony is a controlled substance in the Empire, which naturally poses some challenges in acquiring it. At this point we're getting the beginnings of a clue that

this is more than just go to X place and steal Y thing. If we go to the big city - Vivec - you'll find people a lot less knowledgeable about where the Thieves Guild is. In the east Canalworks, below the Waistworks of the Foreign Quarter of Vivec, is a bookshop belonging to Simine Fralinie. Behind a locked door inside his shop are the headquarters of the Thieves Guild. I feel no shame in marking this position as to avoid trying to find it every time. Jim has two questlines; a final one for the T

hieves Guild, and one for those who've messed up the earlier quests and need the reputation. We'll start with that one: the Bal Molagmer So in Dunmer culture there was a group called the Bal Molagmer who would steal from the unjust and give to the needy, stunningly clever and original, I know This faction exists, like I said, for reputation points but also for that group of people who can only allow themselves to be criminals if they're doing it for what they perceive to be "justifiable reasons"

. There is no reward for these quests, there isn't even really the opportunity to steal valuables while doing these quests, and there is no ceremony at the end, merely acknowledgment that you're now qualified to do good on your own. Still, the questline is enjoyable. Most of them start with Stacy explaining an injustice that has occurred, or is in the process of occurring, and the steps we can take to correct it. Also necessary is wearing a pair of gloves that are iconic to the group, and signif

ying in conversation that we are acting on behalf of the Bal Molagmer. At first nobody cares, but as the deeds go on, people start to recognize the name and the actions. You can catch Hlaalu counselor Yngling Half-Troll in an act of corruption, accuse him, and then kill him in self-defense, or it can be as simple as stealing a locket and returning it to its owner. Perhaps most interesting about the questline is the thought process of whether or not Jim Stacy is having you do this out of genuine

interest in restoring the Bal Molagmer, or simply as a ploy to generate goodwill with the people of Vvardenfell. It's a theme that's reflected in the main storyline as well, so let's get into the end game of the Thieves Guild questline. This starts with the process of building up the guild. In Balmora, we free a member from prison by tricking a guard into self-admitting that she was taking bribes. Then we find a master of Security hiding in Balmora, and convince him to step up, and help secure t

he Corner Club. After this quest, Habasi will perform a free wipe of your bounty, which served as a fantastic opportunity to rob everyone blind and get away with it for free. 19 000 gold bounty - gone. In Ald'ruhn, we collect the scrap metal to build a Spider Centurion and collect the Darts of Judgement from a Redoran Guard. The Dart quest is interesting because the amount of reputation and pay you get depends on how many you return. They aren't really worth keeping though so it isn't really a c

hoice. Now let's talk about Marksman - Steals-Your-Wallet preferred ranged combat, but also kept short bladed weapons as backups. Marksman is a mostly simple affair you take a bow, arrows, and shoot people. Projectiles generally travel in a straight line, and your chance of hitting is pretty much guaranteed at a Marksman level greater than 50. Vvardenfell however, sees wood at a premium, and so favor bows made of chitin and laminated in resin, or bows made of steel. This is to say that the selec

tion is rather weak. Basically jumping from Bonemold to Daedric. Some nuance does come with the arrow selection, however, and arrows do have travel time, and enemy marksmen are actually really easy to dodge, since they are easily tricked into leading their shots. Crossbows are another option - the Steel crossbow is the mass-produced Imperial Legion version and there is a Dwemer version as well. I always found it strange that the Empire just forgot about crossbows in Oblivion, and then they were

rediscovered in Skyrim, then again they never managed to rediscover the spear, you know one of the most basic weapons in human history. There are also throwing weapons, but sadly they are under-appreciated. It's hard to appreciate a weapon that disappears after you use it, especially when said weapon is one of the only ones that exists in the game. Using the Darts of Judgment isn't a wise move, because you can't retrieve them if you miss, and have a very low chance if they hit, and even if you d

o hit, they don't do standout damage. As for lesser throwing weapons - a stable supply of anything greater than steel was pretty unreliable. They're actually kind of fun, since they massively scale with your strength, but have way too many downsides to consistently use. Hey, this is me and post - I just want to add one of the reasons throwing weapons are so much fun in Morrowind is because of their slow travel time and high damage on impact - so you feel like a ninja when you throw one, and stra

fe to a side, watching as the projectile you threw connects with the target. But for love of God - please bring back the throwing weapons. I get the battlemage hired, and am tasked with stealing a Redoran cookbook. An odd sounding quest, I know, I feel as though the Sadrith Mora quests were a bit out of order. The final Sadrith Mora quest is to steal an Ebony Staff from Felen Maryon, a Telvanni wizard living in Tel Branora. She's moreso giving the job to satisfy a personal grudge and doesn't rea

lly care if we decline it or accept it. It's actually pretty easy, I just get behind the shelf and grab it. This quest has two big rewards - a telekinesis ring, and another bounty reset. Telekinesis allows you to interact with objects at a distance which includes: picking locks, and stealing objects. I think they intended the final quest of each hall to reward something useful: the location of a master trainer in Balmora, a quote unquote 'powerful' ranged weapon in Ald'ruhn, and the TK ring in S

adrith Mora, as well as bounty resets at the end of each line. The problem is that these are, for the most part, not that useful as rewards. The master trainer might let us raise a skill up easily but said skill is Security - the one that does not need to be as high. The Darts are better off being turned in for gold, and the telekinesis ring, while useful, is coming far too late in the questline, given how the following quests play out. The bounty resets are nice, but are also not telegraphed to

the player when you'll get them. Meaning it's entirely probable players never actually get to use them the way I did. This leads us into the final chain of events. Have you wondered why all the masters took steps to shore up the defenses of the guild halls? Well, it's because it's known to members of the Guild that the Fighter's Guild head Sjoring Hard-Heart is working in service of the Camonna Tong, and is making moves against the Thieves Guild. Jim Stacey starts us down the path of retributio

n with an investigation into the disappearance of a Guild member. Turns out Nads Tharen is in his studio apartment - dead. A short, optional, investigation reveals the murderer to be a bar maid over at the Elven Nations Cornerclub. Arvama Rathri - who happens to be a Hlaalu retainer. Accuse her and she'll admit it, and she'll also admit that she's going to try to kill you. We return to Stacey and we get a bonus for taking out Rathri. Our next objective is to speak with Percius Mercius of the Ald

'ruhn Fighters Guild. He was the old Guildmaster before Sjoring, and is more principled. If you have a decent disposition with him he'll even give you some information. He was the Master of the Fighter's Guild before the Camonna Tong made a move. Hrundi was the second in command and, is against the Tong, but might not help out the gate unless we leverage a love affair he's involved in. Eydis Fire-Eye at the Balmora Fighter's Guild is a competent fighter, but she's a worshiper of Clavicus Vile an

d, impossible to blackmail. Sjoring Hard-heart is in great debt to the Camonna Tong and will likely have to be killed. If you've never played an Elder Scrolls game before I envy you, but I should also explain that the Fighters Guild, like the Thieves Guild, is an Imperial organization that does as its namesake implies. It is a join-able faction, and is in the next section of this video. So having a quest line where you murdered their entire upper management, is to players of the later games, a h

ighly unusual affair. Imagine a quest where the Companions are ordered to take out the College of Winterhold, for example. To take care of Eydis we have to get our hands on a Clavicus Vile artifact - the Bittercup. This provides a non-lethal solution to dealing with Eydis, at the cost of the Bittercup. What does it do? It raises your highest attribute by 20 points, and lowers your lowest by 20. Not the most useful thing, but it is necessary if you want to min-max your health. The real value of t

his quest, however is - oh no, wait no hang on, NO! [DEAD] Okay so, one naked skeleton War-Wizard later, and uh, as I was saying - The real value of this quest is something the skeleton is carrying called the Vampiric Ring. It's an enchanted ring that absorbs a massive amount of health and fatigue from enemies on touch, it's quite deadly. Give Eydis the Cup, and she pledges her allegiance. Jim notes that she'll likely be troubled down the line, but for now she's no longer a problem. Our next ste

p is to convince Hrundi over in Sadrith Mora to join us. He can be made amicable to the idea, but can also be convinced if you figure out who he is choreographing an affair with, and threatening her life to him. Finally before we can make our move, we need to take out some top level enforcers in the Camonna Tong. Yeah, this is a straight up assassination mission. Vvardenfell's Thief's Guild does not [__] around with trying to be the better man. ["Second, never kill anyone on the job. This is not

the dark brotherhood."] ["Animals and monsters can be slain if necessary"] Of course, we aren't going to go out of our way to kill Orvas Dren, he is the Duke's brother after all. But his two goons that pose a threat are free game. The game actually bugs out. One of the brothers is supposed to teleport behind you when you start the fight, but ended up teleporting inside a door. This made killing the first brother easy, but I was somewhat stuck. I could still teleport out with magic, obviously, I

just didn't want to. Eventually he got free. This guy is a bastard he has a jinx blade that paralyzes for longer than it takes to swing it So he can basically score a bunch of free hits until the enchantment runs out of a charge. Luckily that new Vampiric Ring is very lethal and restores our health. And finally for our end game, we're tasked with taking down Sjoring Hard-Heart. We're warned that he's a competent fighter. ["Head on"] ["You will die where you stand!"] ["You are clumsy, snowman."]

So what are the conclusions? The Fighters Guild threat against the Thieves Guild have been eliminated. Not entirely sure who's gonna run the Fighters Guild now, but at least it's not being run by somebody in debt to the Camonna Tong. The Tong itself has lost its top enforcers, while the Guild has built up its defenses and position in Vvardenfell, appearing more culturally relevant, thanks to their Bal Molagmer revival, than the xenophobic Camonna Tong. Stacey figures this is an adequate positio

n to retire in, having found a successor in Steals-Your-Wallet and hands us the Skeleton Keys to the Skeleton Car. Okay, I'm sorry. The Skeleton Key works like a normal lockpick with 50 uses and 5 times the effectiveness. I prefer Morrowind's Thieves Guild line to its other incarnations, it does feel like helping to maintain your criminal family without any metaphysical connotations. I'm not Steals-Their-Wallet - protector of the people and hero of the poor. I'm Steals-Your-Wallet, known crimina

l overlord. Sadly this is where the story of Steals-Your-Wallet ends. He never achieved his namesake, and there wasn't really anything logical to do with him as a follow-up, like the other characters, which is a shame because, I did like him. Apparently not enough to notice that his name was actually Steals-Wallet however, you can't do dashes on the Morrowind Xbox. [Fighters Guild] Mace was a meme character. His class name of Jedi Knight and his propensity to bash people in head with the blunt s

ide of his weapon didn't really help much to assuage that fact. I was originally going to call him "Metal Bat", because he uses a metal bat, and has the whole fighting spirit thing going on. How do I get this tangent back on track? The Fighters Guild is a rather straightforward organization - you sign up, you get a contract, you fight, you get paid. What we'll typically be doing is a reflection of the area you're in, i.e. in Balmora you start off with normal contracts and move on to shadier busi

ness. Since we just covered this in the last section we have to operate with some sense of dramatic irony that says the Fighter's Guild isn't corrupt. This does become apparent by our third contract, but I get ahead of myself. Our first job is to take care of some rats: the first one is simple enough, the other two not so much. These rats have a lot more health than your standard large rodent and 2v1 is a bit of a challenging proposition for early game builds. Luckily we have racial abilities t

hat generally turn the tide of fights like this. Our next contract is to take care of some kwama egg poachers? ["What?!"] Okay, so in Morrowind the main food the Dunmer eat is giant eggs harvested from insects living in caves that are the size of bears. ["What?!"] And when people are desperate they poach the eggs. ["What?!"] We make our way to the mine, and some of the miners say that the egg poachers are in the back, near the queen, and ask that we try to avoid killing any of the kwama, since t

hey won't be used to our scent, and will attack us on site. I could pontificate about lessons taught in these quests, or we could call them what they are - filler. Now filler isn't bad, and there could always be more generic, but scripted, basic level contracts to do, but I'm not going to pretend it's something greater than it is when, in this case, it's not. Our third contract however, is where things get interesting. Eydis tells us to take care of some "Telvanni agents", of course, when we ask

about these Telvanni agents it turns out that they aren't Telvanni, they're Thieves Guild. Perhaps working for Telvanni, but all Thieves Guild nonetheless, and one wonders at the need for deception. It is also entirely possible that less attentive players, who aren't curious enough to ask about the targets, will miss the subtext of this quest entirely so it is nice that the writing isn't so on the nose as to make absolutely sure we are aware that Eydis is deceiving us. You have to actually role

play as somebody who asks questions to figure out that something is wrong, and if you don't, you get led down the lemming path. I go out and meet the guys, their lookout greeting me friendly enough, but turning hostile when he realizes I'm with the Fighters Guild. I defend myself, and figure I might as well finish the job. It ain't nothing a little Adrenaline Rush can't handle. Eydis' next contract is even more sketchy. She wants me to get my hands on a Thieves Guild code book from the local Gui

ldhall. I figure I'll look for a different contract, and meet Percius Mercius. He says he doesn't have any contracts for members at my rank, but he does offer advice for jobs, and suggests I speak with Hrundi over in Sadrith Mora for good ones. He figures the code book contract might be legitimate, but advises that we avoid a lethal solution. I decide to go to Hrundi, and his jobs are a lot better. His first job is to provide support to a witchhunter hunting a Daedroth in Nchurdamz. This first e

ntails getting to Nchurdamz, which is a remote location that takes a bit of water-walking to get to. Although the circumstances of getting to this quest can be difficult, the quest itself is quite good. It's a great introduction to combat with a necessary crutch for players in the form of Larienna, she's a capable warrior, with unique audio dialogue, who is able to heal the player if they get wounded, and could generally handle the creatures inside Nchurdamz. Nchurdamz has early access to some D

wemer gear, and ends in the mini boss of Hrelvesuu. This is what should have been Morrowind's introduction to the Fighter's Guild Morrowind's combat is very straightforward, but I see a lot of people who pick up this game get overwhelmed and mentally over-complicate something that can really be as basic as point and click to do damage. The problem boils down to the fact, that people will pick a basic class like knight, then take that dagger in the census office, go off to fight a mud crab, miss

and start immediately complaining that they should have hit the crab, because the models collided. Hit chance is a part of Morrowind, playing Morrowind without hit chance is not playing Morrowind. Weapon skills are a reflection from 0 to 100 of how proficient you are with using said weapon. Believe it or not but swords aren't as simple as swing sword - hurt person. Ideally, if your system is set up right, the footage of someone playing as an unskilled weapon user should differ from the footage o

f someone playing as a master in that skill. Right? Well here's what an amateur in Morrowind looks like: As you can see I'm having a hard time landing hits using a weapon I've never used before. And here is what a master looks like: As you can see I'm landing hits consistently, and ending the fight quite quickly This is a proper contrast between apprentice and master. Let's contrast this now with Oblivion's allegedly revolutionary and entertaining combat system. Clip 1: Alright, and clip 2: Now,

tell me, which one was the master clip, and which one was the apprentice clip? This is not a trick, where I switch the clips, or they're both the same skill level, I've kept all the conditions the same - same enemy, same difficulty. The first clip is skill level 5, the second clip is skill level 100, and yet they are practically identical, because unlike in Morrowind, there is no progression in feel of combat, only in the raw numbers of damage you do. The way skills work in Morrowind is that th

ey determine your chance to hit. Your damage is then affected by the weapon you're using, and your strength, in Oblivion and Skyrim, however, all your skill effects is just a damage increase. The first enemy you fight with a weapon, all the way to the last enemy, will be exactly the same, because all you have to do is make models intersect. With manual blocks, parries, and more intelligent AI it can be a more interesting or dynamic melee combat system, but it's not a melee combat system that ac

curately reflects skill levels with weapons, or a combat system that is reflective of an actual progression of character skill, something that is important in a 'role-playing' game, because there's one thing I've left out of all of this: the enemy has skills too, because of course they do. NPCs can be more, or less dangerous, as a result of their own back-story and training. This includes their own chance to hit, as well as various defensive skills, that determine your chance to hit them. Perhap

s this just comes down to a matter of preference, but rather than tying our preference to nostalgia, let's consider what meaningful difference there is between a hit chance oriented combat system like Morrowind, versus a percentage damage oriented combat system like Oblivion and Skyrim. In the hit chance system, should you be far superior to an enemy, you're able to kill them quickly and efficiently. There is a clear progression from the first enemy you fight to the last. You're encouraged to sp

ecialize and invest in a particular weapon, rather than switching arbitrarily, to ones that have bigger numbers than the last. In a percent damage system you cannot be superior to an enemy, as scaling will eliminate your advantages. Increasing your skill is not a matter of gaining an advantage, but keeping up with the world, rather than becoming incrementally better at landing hits, you are becoming incrementally better at doing slightly more damage. The skill is less so a reflection of you, or

other characters proficiency and mastery, but a stagnating progression where combat is identical for the entire game. All this lost, because some people complained they couldn't hit mudcrabs with a weapon their character had never picked up before I hope you can forgive me, but I am going to speed up, particularly as a number of Fighters Guild quests are not noteworthy. These are as simple as go to place, kill or do thing. One quest type I particularly like is the fact that the Guild has been co

ntracted by the Empire to deliver alcohol shipments to miners in remote areas. Something that feels like a legitimate contract such an organization would receive. Our next notable mission is to rescue, and escort, a researcher investigating a Dunmer stronghold - Telasero I have mixed feelings on escort quests, which is quite a surprise as I, and this is a fairly reasonable position, vehemently dislike them in most contexts. I think Morrowind's escort quests work, because they allow you to lead,

and listen to your commands to stop and let you do your job. They are also fairly rare, and when they do pop up, they are short and designed in such a way to be painless. So it turns out that the researcher, her name is Sondaale, went in ahead of us. And this is a Sixth House base. What happens at Sixth House bases? She's in a side room hopped up on a table, because some giant rats are harassing her. I mean they're the size of dogs, I'm sure they could get up there. I find the Sixth House hammer

, which is interesting, because its damage can range from a peck one might give a lover, to a pair of school buses set in a head-on collision Sadly it's also really heavy, so I don't have any room for it in my life. We're then tasked with taking care of a bounty in the local Sadrith Mora. Engaer has taken up residence up in Tel Naga, particularly as a prisoner of Master Neloth. I have to taunt the guard into attacking me, which is a tall order for my speechcraft level. Neloth then gets rather up

set when I kill Engaer, perhaps mad I shortened his life as a prisoner, but as per Telvanni law, it's a-okay because I managed to escape the building. Let's take this opportunity to talk about the AI in Morrowind - it's bad. It prioritizes casting the worst spells like minor burdens or blind, it only repositions to avoid damage if using ranged, then it runs full speed backwards, which makes archers in open environments, a nightmare. Melee AI will just book it towards you until death, only runnin

g away if you go invisible or start flying out of their reach. AI is an area that the later games improved without question. Hell, as early as Morrowind's first expansion they had AI who could drink potions, which means that for the entirety of the base game, potions are a distinct advantage held solely by the player. This is one of the reasons I don't like to do everything in one playthrough, because Morrowind reaches a point where the AI stops being a challenge. When you are working within the

limitations of the early game finding creative solutions around problems that's when Morrowind is interesting. Some of the most fun I've had in Morrowind was during a Mages Guild quest, where I had to kill an enemy who was 10 levels higher than me and could one shot me. Whereas, if the Mages Guild was just the third faction I joined, I'd already be higher level than the NPC unable to take the hits while killing them in three, maybe two hits. Anyways - Hrundi is out of real contracts, but has on

e mission that he believes, is in all likelihood [ __ ]. Apparently there are seven eggs of gold inside a legendary mine, the Pudai Egg Mine, somewhere on, or around the island of Sheogorad. He's willing to pay quite a bit, should the eggs actually exist. So this entails some time exploring Sheogorad, and I take the chance to do some dungeon crawling. I found some Malacath worshipers and got a few full sets of Orcish (armor). I ended up finding an Arena being used for slave fighting. They weren'

t appreciative of me, and so I got a powerful legendary sword. And in one of the earlier quests I had slain a vampire who was wearing a powerful ring. This is a point in every Morrowind playthrough I call the power threshold, if you have a graph, there's a line for the progression of the difficulty, and a line for the progression of the character, the power threshold is when the character line intersects, and becomes greater, than the difficulty line. Once characters cross the threshold, they've

become powerful enough to handle the challenges of the game. It's rewarding and, at the same time, a sad part of Morrowind, because it means that the challenge is over. You can turn up the difficulty, but all that does is make enemies hit a little harder, and make you a little more fragile. Orcish armor is some of the best medium armor in the game, the sword - the Ice Blade of The Monarch, is extremely powerful, even for a character that is specialized in blunt weaponry. And the ring provides s

ome serious defensive enchantments, reflecting and resisting damage. All turning up the difficulty really does now, is push me to use my adrenaline rush ability more often. I do eventually find the mine, which for an abandoned mine, still has lit torches. I mean okay, I've worked with the editor, you have to place a prop a light source and a sound source so either someone created the mine, unaware of what quest it would involve, someone created the mine, was aware of the quest, and didn't see an

ything wrong with torches in an abandoned mine, or my favorite possibility someone copied the mine from elsewhere, and made the bare essential modifications for the sake of the quest. Down all the way at the back, behind the queen, are the seven eggs which all weigh 30 pounds. 30 pounds. So - getting back is a challenge, but it's a challenge that's met by magic. Hrundi, surprised we even found the cave, pays us 10 000 gold for the job, which is quite a big payout. He is out of work for us and re

commends us to Percius Mercius back in Ald'ruhn. And Percius does have work for us now. He wants us to help a Buoyant Armiger take care of a necromancer at Vos. Said necromancer is a member of Telvanni, so one wonders at the political nature of the situation. The Armiger is willing to give us a recommendation, provided we don't hit her in the fight. I don't, but I do take an accidental swing at her ancestor ghost, look I didn't even hit him it's fine, but it's enough to be a problem and I get pa

id a lower rate. Our next job is to take care of a bounty of someone living in a place called Sargon. That's the only reason I mention this quest it's otherwise by the book. We take care of some more bounties, we deliver some more liquor, and then I go ahead and meet the guild leader Sjoring who gives me 5 000 gold, and instructs me to take care of the three masters of the Thieves Guild in Balmora, Ald'ruhn, and Sadrith Mora. Percius, on the other hand, decides it's time to ask, and asks we take

care of a few corrupt Fighters Guild members Eydis Fire-Eye in Balmora, and Lorbumol gro-Aglakh in Vivec I go with Percius, since he's been the more reasonable option. Eydis Fire-Eye attacks me as soon as I enter, and gro-Aglakh declares that he'll be guildmaster soon enough. Then we're tasked by Percius to take care of Sjoring. He gives me access to full sets of Orcish and Glass armor, and tells me that Sjoring is one of the toughest fighters on the the island. ["Sjoring is one of the toughest

fighters on the the island."] And he wasn't even wearing his armor. The Fighters Guild fizzles out towards the end. For all the intrigue behind the Thieves Guild relying on the Fighters Guild to be interesting and lasting throughout the entire storyline it's a shame that there weren't more missions in the Fighters Guild side of the story where you can play the other side, and it's a shame that these quests were so on the nose with it. It's very difficult to see anybody being tricked into going

against the Thieves Guild, unless they just aren't paying attention and thinking about what they're doing, or they don't care Should you side with Sjoring and kill the three masters he'll then task you with killing Jim Stacey, before then attempting to kill you, so in the end, all roads lead to Sjoring Hard-Heart's death. I could say that the Fighters Guild has some appeal in that it pays, but it doesn't even pay all that well for the work. You go from running errands and performing contracts, t

o decimating the leadership in one quest. The shadow war with the Thieves Guild is only hinted at if you decide to play the stooge, and the Camonna Tong doesn't even come up from the Fighters Guild perspective. [Mages Guild] Our Mages Guild character started off by picking everything from Seyda Neen to Balmora, and once she got her free 200 Gs from Caius, joined up with the Mages Guild. Turns out the early Balmora quests deal with picking mushrooms and flowers, that I happened to grab - who coul

d have seen this coming? Uhm well, me, because I've done this before. Between the collection of mushrooms and flowers, we're tasked with replacing a Soul Gem with a fake in our boss's rival's desk, slowing her research. She'll come downstairs, and due to her faulty AI, this means I'm free to leave the cell and come back, and that traps her downstairs, forever, which is a more convenient location. I'm not sure about these early quests. They aren't introducing alchemy - asking the player to create

a potion with the ingredients, or anything like that. It's just go out and fetch some ingredients. As for the soul gem quest - it isn't usually the case that static NPCs move around during quests, so that isn't introducing anything new either. You also don't need to use magic, it might have been handy to have a quest involve learning a low level unlock, like five points, to unlock her desk to perform the switch. As it stands, it feels like the designer is showing off that they can script NPCs t

o move around during quests, which again, isn't useful information for the player, since it doesn't happen again, nor is it impressive from a technical standpoint, since all it does is highlight the fact that NPCs don't work on a schedule, and just stay in the same spot all day. it would be like me bragging that I can edit out all these coughs. [*COUGHING SOUNDS*] Our next quest is to take 10 gold and buy a ceramic bowl. This is so that the cell can reset, so that when I return stolen reports wi

ll have spawned. We're then tasked by a panicking Ajira to find said reports. This is the closest the game comes to teaching a lesson and the lesson is just look around the environment, and you can find stuff. And that's it for now with Ajira. I know I've been hard on these five quests, but that is more from an analytical standpoint, than anything else. The Thieves and Fighters Guild have you playing out these fantasies, but the Mages Guild plays more like assistant busywork. We're presented a

choice, work with Ranis Athrys in Balmora, or Edwinna Elbert and Ald'ruhn. Ranis' quests are a bit more oriented towards the Guild as a magical regulator, while Edwinna's quests are oriented towards the Guild as a research institution Ranis first asks we take care of a Telvanni in Sulipund, either recruiting him to the Mages Guild, or killing him. While we're out here, we're also to collect dues from a member in Punabi. Over in Ald'ruhn we're tasked with taking 250 gold, and finding a copy of th

e 'Chronicles of Nchuleft'. And turns out, in Vivec, the Archmage has duties for us. He wants us to solve the disappearance of the Dwarves. No leads or anything, just solve this ancient mystery, that people have been investigating for centuries, and also three games. The trip out to Sulipund and Punabi is a bit of a drastic shift in difficulty Ajira was really onto something when recommending us against doing Ranis' tasks, since we're tasked with journeying into Molag Amur. If only there were qu

ests prior to this, that could have prepared us for combat I get to the first cave and Manwe, the person who has been dodging their dues, is performing research out here. She owes 2 000 gold in dues, apparently, and is not willing to pay, unless she likes us, which can be afforded for 200 gold. That's 'The Art of Deal'. Then we go and meet with the Telvanni, he's one of dozens of "rogue" Telvanni living out on the frontier doing their own thing. I put quotes around rogue, because, honestly, taki

ng a place and making it your own is THE Telvanni way, nothing roguish about that. He doesn't want to join the Mages Guild, complaining about how outlanders are ruining Morrowind, but naturally this means he can be bought for 200 gold. Morrowind's quests leave a lot to be desired in terms of convincing people through dialogue, you may have noticed that, in most dialogues there aren't often conversation options, and when there are they tend to exist in a binary. The concept of dialogue in Morrowi

nd having multiple options is actually fairly alien for the series. When I discuss options for quests it tends to be in what you can do to complete it through gameplay to get different endings, that have minor knock-on effects but, actual dialogue tends to be rather lacking in these choices. Morrowind's text-based dialogue seems like the perfect place to do an in-depth conversation system, yet it doesn't happen. Why? Well, in part this has to do with the way quest scripting works. The appropriat

e response given to dialogue prompts is determined by a quest stage variable. However, go on many quest pages on the Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages, and you'll see full bug sections that are consequences of what happens if you do something slightly wrong affecting journal stages. Now, I never ran into the issue of bugging out the journal stages, I also never ran into a situation, where I needed to use console commands to progress a quest, which is fortunate, since I didn't have access to a conso

le to do so, but I can speak from experience outside of this review series that it does happen. The journal stage system was new in Morrowind, and at its most primordial. Bethesda also seemed more concerned with filling out all the content, than doing the work necessary to take full advantage of the system they had created. Oblivion would have been the opportunity to expand on the text-based dialogue system providing a wide swath of potential dialogue options for players and responses since it's

text only you don't need voice actors but, instead the decision was made to scrap the dialogue system and hire voice actors. Bethesda has stuck with the same engine, and that means the same journal stage system, although they're called quest stages now, since the journal got peeled back, even Fallout 76, which I haven't played, utilizes this system. And yet its advantage of potentially providing alternate paths for quests has been used sparingly by Bethesda If you want a full demonstration of i

ts potential just look at a random Fallout: New Vegas quest. You can see alternate paths, endings, and rewards tied all in there, and most New Vegas dialogues are full of optional paths, despite being voice acted. Bethesda, even with the time and grace provided to them to create Skyrim, still couldn't muster the effort to improve its dialogue system in quest staging to provide options beyond: yes I will do your quest, and no, but leave the door open so I can come back and do your quest at a late

r time. Anyways, I happened to grab a copy of 'The Chronicles of Nchuleft' while I was convincing that Telvanni to join the Mages Guild and so, I started doing more tasks for Edwinna, since she seemed the most reasonable of the options. She has me FedEx of potion over to the Skink-in-Trees-Shade at the Wolverine Hall Introducing another quest giver who teases at orders once I finish this quest. Edwinna now wants me to steal a book called 'Chimarvamidium' And we might have to cast magic to do it.

Just kidding, we're given a scroll with the necessary effect on it. Bethesda if you keep holding my hand I'm gonna start to think you like me. This is where I go off on a tangent because Bethesda just hates the idea of of magic themed quest lines requiring players actually cast magic they've learned beforehand, but, I just went on a huge tangent already and I'll let it slide for now. So we go to the Vivec guildhall, sneak into a closet, and steal the book. Don't worry, we'll return it later. Bu

t before we do that, we need to deal with the situation developing up in Maar Gan, apparently there's a disturbance at Huleen's Hut Sure enough we find the place trashed and a Scamp's running loose. An apprentice to Huleen apparently summoned it to prove his worth, but the scamp was only pretending to be under his control, and stole his clothes and locked him in the basement. I kind of like this quest, Edwinna is less than thrilled that her time was wasted on something like that. Now we return t

he book, which I just give to its owner and she's surprised at its return and that's that. Now we need to source a dwemer tube from a place called Arkngthunch-Sturdumz She doesn't actually need any specific tube, just a tube will do. So while we're on the way up to the ruin let's talk about the Xbox. The Xbox had a severe effect on the difficulty of the game. Turns out playing the game at a low frame rate compromises the experience, who knew? The biggest culprit of deaths would be when I would p

ress a button, only to not get a response, because the button pressed happened to correspond with a stutter, so the input would be lost, and my character would just impotently stand there and take their beating. Another offender is weapon and magic stancing. Those unaware may be used to the idea of pressing a button to draw a weapon, well in Morrowind you have a separate stance for casting magic, this stance was removed in Oblivion and I have a suspicion about why that was. See, among the inputs

that can be lost in stutters or the transitions from your normal stance to magic stance, or to your weapon, or to switch between them both. I got frustrated more than a couple times when my character would refuse to switch stances. This would have been a standard experience on the Xbox, since it didn't fare much better than the 360 when running the game. It's not much of a secret that the Xbox copy of Morrowind served as a testing ground for ideas for Bethesda. The new multi-panel UI being adap

ted into Oblivion, for example, before being reverse ported onto PC players - much to our chagrin. The lack of response simply made magic stance too much of a hassle to keep in the game. Hence the new cast button that allowed you to use magic at any time I actually prefer Skyrim's system of having two independent hands, even if the magic [TANGENT REMOVED] So what are some other quirks of the Xbox? Well, the AI stopping and taking a think happened quite a bit. It seemed the game prioritized keepi

ng itself running over the AI pathing. However, this wasn't consistent, if the AI knew what it was trying to do and then the game stuttered, the AI would continue on its collision course, independent of my ability to respond, button presses being ignored, and of course, since this is being played sub-optimally - on a controller this ended in a fair few deaths that wouldn't have happened if I was playing with a keyboard and mouse. I do this for love. Ranged combat, in particular, was quite diffic

ult. At a high resolution it's easy to spot enemies from the environment, but squeeze that resolution, in knock it down a few hundred pixels, sprinkle on some aliasing, and bad lighting and all of the sudden target acquisition in Morrowind is quite difficult. And aiming with a controller, I mean my God, I don't want to harp on the weaknesses of controllers this much, but trying to aim with some measure of precision was a nightmare Especially since the projectile trajectories and collision models

were built with the idea of being used with a mouse first Moreover, playing with a dominant strategy is encouraged because of the loading screens. Loading is near instantaneous on a modern PC, as is expected, but on the Xbox I spent probably hours of my life just waiting. Optimally it was a good time to take notes, but sometimes when I was just forced to reload because I kept dying on difficult fights, it was less than appreciated. So playing in unorthodox ways was discouraged. Let me give you

an example. Ever notice how every Skyrim playthrough you see ends up being stealth archery at some point? Dominant strategy. The upsides of the strategy always present themselves as an option, should the downsides of the situation impede progress. For Morrowind, the dominant strategy is to use enchanted items with powerful on touch effects to nuke enemies to death. And then run back and forth timing the enemy's attacks and swinging in between rounds. As long as I had room to maneuver in Morrowin

d, victory was guaranteed. The fun then came from trying to play in new or interesting ways, trying unconventional Magicka effects, or summoning or, or, and then I die for the fifth time, and I say - 'looks like I'll have to get a little bit serious.' Overall, playing on the Xbox made me hate this game, and at the same time, appreciate what exactly about Morrowind would cause me to waste so much time analyzing it. To me it's the ultimate testament of respect, as the thots say: "If you can't hand

le her at her worst, you don't deserve her at her best", even if sometimes her best, is also her worst. Now that we've got the tube, we're tasked with checking in on a Dwemer ruin expedition. This is, naturally, in the middle of Molag Amur. Luckily, Edwinna gave us a couple handy Intervention amulets to facilitate the travel. Turns out the site's guide has gone missing deeper inside the ruin and worst of all, he had the report Edwinna wants. Some investigation reveals the test of pattern. There

are three lights, each with a corresponding lever. Two lights are broken, one light is not. Which lever is the correct one to pull? Well don't worry, it's the lever that is across the room from the hidden wall, as shown on the minimap. Yeah the Dunmer guide is dead, but he did manage to find a book before dying. The Mages Guild rep isn't too bothered by his death and we take the report to Edwinna, who says the book might be useful, if we knew somebody who can speak Aldmeris. Our next task is to

acquire some Dwemer scarab plans from the ruin of Nchuleftingth up in Sheogorad. And this is a little high level, as evidenced by the fact that all the Orcs can one shot me. I won this fight eventually by using a paralyze spell to freeze the Orc then cast a spell that had a 50% chance of working to nuke him to death. This took quite a few attempts and involved a trip back to make the nuke spell. Now I have the plans, but in for a penny in for a pound, surely there's something valuable here. Well

, there's more Orcs, luckily I found a use for the 'lock' spell. Why do you want a spell that locks doors and creates future hassle? Because NPCs can't unlock them, and can be hit through them A tactic I discovered early on was the locked door tactic. The enemy's AI path-finding would lead it through doorways, but can only account for obstacles like doors by opening and traveling through them. To the AI, it should be paradoxical that they can detect someone through a locked door, as if the door

is locked, then the player can't have come in the room. That's obviously not how it actually works, but the point is from a design perspective what I'm doing only works thanks to an exploitation, or rather, a clever use of game mechanics. the only other thing you can use 'lock' for is, if you care to level your security up, and you really shouldn't do that. However, the other half of this is a ranged spell with an area of effect. I always felt it was a shame what happened to spell making in the

later games. In Oblivion it got relegated to a high level reward for Mages Guild members, or DLC, while in Skyrim it was cut entirely. Using the spellmaker allowed me to make a fire spell that was perfect for hitting through locked doors, maxing out the area and setting it to low damage, high duration, making it Magicka efficient as well. Then I just nuked the door until I stopped hearing footsteps on the other side. It's a beautifully stupid tactic but hey - it works. I like to imagine I'm just

heating the room up until the people inside burned to death, which is brutal but hey - shouldn't have been the one shotting me. In addition to the Scarab plans I find a book named 'The Egg of Time.' Edwinna thanks us for the plans and recommends we speak with Hasphat Antabolis in Balmora about the book. He says the book is written in Aldmeris, which is a dead language, so we should take the book to one of the older Telvanni, but he doesn't have a recommendation who. Edwinna says the miners in t

he Gnisis egg mine found a Dwemer ruin in the mine, and she asks us to find anything that's down there specifically, you know, plans. I have to bribe the door guard for the key, and another guard, lower in the mine, threatens to kill me if I don't leave. So I leave... In the direction of the ruin. It still counts. Near the entrance I found some Dwemer Airship plans, as well as a book named 'Divine Metaphysics.' Leaving the mine I hear some rumors that Gnisis has a rogue Telvanni wizard living in

town, so I pay him a visit. His name is Baladas Demnevanni, and sure enough, he can read Aldmeris. 'The Hanging Gardens' was written in both Aldmeris and Dwemer, so it's able to be used to translate the other two books 'The Egg of Time' is a refutation of a theory from the time of Resdayn and Nerevar. The theory said that using the power of The Heart of Lorkhan carried more risk than reward, and 'The Egg of Time' figured that the reward was worth the risks. 'Divine Metaphysics' is about how the

Dwemer tried to make a new god using Kagrenac's Tools, and using sacred tones on Lorkhan's Heart. So extrapolating meaning from these two books, we can conclude that the dwemer tried to make a new god using Lorkhan's Heart, that the great risk that was warned about came true, and then the Dwemer disappeared. Thus having discovered both the plans to a functioning airship, as well as solving the mystery of spontaneous extinction of the Dwemer, We will return for our rewards. Edwinna has none. She

's disappointed because she wanted the plans to build a robot, not an airship. Trebonius the Archmage also has no reward. Taken aback that someone had actually managed to complete one of his missions, let alone a mission that entailed solving a centuries if not millennia old mystery. You do get some reputation, so more people know your name, but scholarly work itself pays very little. Despite this, the mystery of the Dwarves is one of my favorite quests. The fact that it starts off giving you ze

ro information to use but is perfectly solvable just by paying attention, while doing other quests, is just... It's just fantastic. So where do we go from here? Well, one rank requires we pay our dues so that's a couple hundred gold gone. You'll also need a wizard staff to reach the rank of Wizard, so we can either pay 5 000 gold we don't have, or we can "ask." Yeah, ask a former guild member for one, who lives in a cave called Sud in Sheogorad. I don't think she'll let us ask. Once we got the s

taff we can get promoted, oh but hold those horses, because we have something big to talk about. Training. One of my favorite aspects about Morrowind is that factions require you have the necessary skills to properly fill your rank. Every faction has attributes and skills they prefer. Now assuming you're being a logical person and playing to the specialization of the faction these are reasonable skill requirements, however, this is an instance where the game is just twisting that knife into me,

and that is due to my format. Had I played the one character, doing all the factions, I'd have been alright. It'd have been fine, it'd've had two contractions when I should not have been using any. Point is: I have seven characters and for six of them the same thing happened at least once. They out-quested the requirements. Now, if you play this game like a god damn normal person you're doing stuff like adventuring, freelance quest work, even working for other factions. That's what a reasonable

person, who isn't playing faction by faction in order to make a video series, does. We have enough faction reputation to complete the final quest and become the Archmage. But we're severely under leveled. I need to gain 30 levels in a single skill to reach the requirements. This happened to Steals-Your-Wallet, and to a minor extent, Mace as well. Mace was actually very close to the necessary requirements in his blunt weapon ability and that's because fighter skills tend to level really well comp

ared to stealth and magic skills. So in order to progress I need to use a trainer. Trainers are a bit different from the later games, later games put stipulations that you can only train five times per level. Morrowind has no such requirement, cash provided, you can train from level 1 to max level, whatever that should be for your character, at trainers. But it isn't that easy. Like the later games, the trainers themselves have their own skill levels, corresponding to their lower level of master

y. You need these master trainers because only they can train you past skill level 70. Most skills, and mind should be paid to the word 'most', most skills have master trainers. some don't appear, some do appear but don't offer training, and some just don't have trainers. Of the ones who do exist and do work, only about two-thirds of them are mentioned anywhere. The rest have to be found, hell, some of them may only be mentioned. One is hidden in a locked room, another is hostile and attacks on

sight, having to be calmed, two require a high rank in a specific faction. So not only are the trainers rare people, but training costs money, and high level training costs lots of it. I'll talk about making money in part four when I discuss House Hlaalu. Just bear in mind that large stopping point in every playthrough, besides my final main quest playthrough, was stopping and setting aside time to farm money and skills in order to meet the requirements to level up, again this doesn't normally h

appen, unless you're laser focused on completing factions as fast as possible with new characters. So once I finally reached Destruction level 80 Edwinna says that I should talk with the Archmage Trebonius about stepping down, as I'm clearly more committed to scholarship than he is. I ask him and he accuses me of lusting after his position, and demands we settle this via duel to the death in Arena. ["Let's see what you're made of!"] And it's a pretty cool duel. Turns out he had an artifact calle

d the Necromancer's Amulet that made him such a powerful wizard. Edwinna said he was a strong battlemage, but he hardly met the conditions of battlemage Anyways, the Mages Guild, scholarly institution, settles its management disputes via trial by combat, and I am now the Archmage I'm not sure if I'm going to get a letter in the mail from Ocato telling me I'm being replaced. The Imperial Guilds of Morrowind are the bridge between the tutorial, and the broader content of Morrowind, since Caius pre

tty much flat out tells you to go join one. Which is why it is important to pay attention to the starter quests, since this is likely to be the first impressions of everyone who played Morrowind past the first mudcrab. The intrigue of the Thieves Guild line, the fun stuff like the Pudai egg mine, and the golden eggs, or accidentally running into a powerful vampire in the Fighters Guild, and the mystery of the Dwarves quest, requiring a bit of astute problem solving or internet research to figure

out. Despite how hard I may have gone on these guilds they actually are pretty good. But when the Thieves Guild throws you into the deep end of crime, the Fighters Guild starts pitting you in unfair fights, and the Mages Guild engages in bureaucratic busy work it colors people's impressions of the factions. One thing to mention, because of the non-linear approach to faction quests to Morrowind. My experience of the guilds is slightly different than what yours can be. I mentioned Skink-in-Tree's

-Shade, but looking back I never went and did his quests or, that many of Ranis Athrys's quests either. This non-linearity is what I love about Morrowind, and at the same time, is the biggest risk in terms of personal enjoyment. Which is probably one of the big reasons Oblivion onward focused on linear questlines leading players by the nose into controlled experiences. The Imperial Guilds in Morrowind are a strange thing between the Fighters and Thieves Guild war and, the rather straightforward,

if simple Mages Guild you hit the three archetypes of role-playing games. In the next part we'll be discussing the Great Houses you see those same three archetypes, but a lot more political intrigue. I think if love was shown to any of the factions it was the Great Houses. Still, the guilds serve as a great starting point for any character, especially for players new to Morrowind. ["HOUSE HLAALU"] Time will give context to the name Rethan. He's an Imperial spellblade, although I jokingly named

his class 'Conman'. As such, he went up to the largest building in Balmora, which turned out not to be a manor, but a council hall for House Hlaalu, and upon attempting to enrich myself, I decided to join up with the House. Of the three Great Houses, Hlaalu is the friendliest to outlanders. This is not just evident in some kind of lore sense, but by the fact that they are themselves the most accessible to new players, who are outlanders in a way to the game of Morrowind. Of course, there is no w

ay to not be an outlander and it plays somewhat in part in the story of Redoran, while Telvanni does not really care. Hlaalu is a merchant establishment sucking up to the Imperial government on one hand, and engaging in a dirty war for monopoly with the other. After joining you're given the sort of task that is emblematic of Hlaalu. You're given the disguise of a recently deceased Redoran and tasked with deceiving a Redoran quest giver into giving you information. Not only is it a perfect repres

entation of the sort of faction warfare that you'll be getting with Hlaalu, and the lack of values that would cause them to adopt such a tactic. It's a direct interplay with the Redoran questline. Our next objective is to take down a business rival in Vivec. A great deal of House Hlaalu can involve walking around in Vivec, and being at least somewhat conscious to this, I chose the Steed as my birth sign. This gave me a 25 point boost of speed, which made my character quite quick. It was in fact

jarring to go from a character like Wiz, who was very slow, to one like Rethan, who is very fast. The quest itself has a complication, we are stealing an alchemy recipe from an alchemist who has stolen business from the Hlaalu alchemist in Vivec. It pays to do business with Hlaalu. Said alchemists cannot be convinced to give us the scroll, and to further complicate matters, she lives and works in a one-room studio apartment. There are three scrolls that can be stolen the first in a locked chest,

the second on her person, and the third on the table by the door. This early in the game this job is quite difficult, but on the plus side, guards don't try to chase you down for sub 1000 gold bounties, which naturally means I can just take the scroll off the table, turn around, and walk out the door, and the guards aren't going to come from every corner of the Vivec to arrest me for it. We were instructed, while we were here, to meet with Edryno Arethi. She's an alternate quest giver. Between

the two you have enough room to pick which is more convenient, and still advanced in the faction Arethi's missions tend to be more focused towards work as an enforcer, while Dorvayn's missions tend to be more business focused. Missions can be as simple as deliver this report across the hall to the treasury, or they can be like - take out a rival businessman's egg mine. But you can report this to him for a reward and not mess up the local economy. I'll give you some highlights for this part and n

ot detail every quest. We're asked to convince a Guar hide salesman to buy hides from House Hlaalu. He protests that Hlaalu hides are dried out because they have to be shipped from the mainland, whereas Redoran hides come locally from Vvardenfell. The first Redoran quest happens to involve one of the local Guar herders we're putting out of business, which helps set the tone of each house. This is where the speechcraft system can come into play, It's one of those things that most people I've seen

on YouTube don't realize made the big difference in how the games played. In Morrowind, and Oblivion to some extent, every NPC has a disposition with the player This is influenced by the player's reputation, their bounty, the faction relationships and some quests. This disposition can influence the turn of how quests proceed NPCs with low disposition do not like you, and are less likely to comply with your requests or questions. NPCs with very low dispositions may even refuse to speak with you

on topics and deny you access to their services. Disposition can be directly influenced via speechcraft. Now in Morrowind speechcraft takes the form of four options: You can admire, intimidate, taunt, and bribe. Admire and bribe both raise disposition, but admiration's more difficult than bribery Most people in Vvardenfell are prepared to accept free money and the Ashlanders even see it as a thoughtful gift. Intimidate on the other hand is rarely useful. It relies on you being higher level than

the person you're intimidating. As such, it doesn't work at lower levels, and since it doesn't work, it's easy to forget that it's an option when it would work. There is the odd quest where intimidation can be a solution like this one. It is entirely possible to intimidate the Guar merchant into doing business with Hlaalu, but since bribery and honey-coded words are often more reliable, and easier, intimidate becomes unnecessary. And Bethesda, rather than solving the redundancy by making intimid

ate more valuable, saw fit to remove it. I won't even go off on a tangent about speechcraft in the later games, although I will say, in having recently replayed the game to get back into the groove of making these videos, I was able to find a bit more use out of intimidate when I would pair it with calm spells in order to calm NPCs who were hostile down. you could intimidate them, which would lower their attack value, and then they would become peaceful. Other options for disposition are as foll

ows: charm spells can temporarily raise a disposition, and since time stops for conversations in Morrowind they only need to last a couple seconds to be effective. Imperials also have a racial ability to charm once a day, which I used a bit as a money and a time saver, although it becomes unnecessary later when you get better at speechcraft. Personality can also influence disposition, so if you fortify Personality with a spell or with something like Telvanni Bug Musk or just by having a high Per

sonality you can raise your disposition in the process. Trading is another option each time you successfully trade your disposition will go up. Unfortunately this is only temporary, so temporary in fact that leaving the dialogue window and immediately re-entering it will lose all that disposition. So merchants can be convinced into anything by selling a bunch of a single item repeatedly to them. I like the idea of building a relationship with merchants based on repeat business, but I would chang

e this in two regards: make the disposition boost permanent, or at least longer lasting, but give a cool down to transactions to avoid the cheesers who will sell one arrow at a time from becoming best friends with all the merchants. Back to Hlaalu. There's a mission where we deliver orders to a Redoran clothier living in Ald'ruhn as a Hlaalu spy. There's a quest where we have to solve a local murder of a Hlaalu noble. This quest is interesting because there are two principal suspects but no effe

ctive evidence that really exonerates either suspect, so the resolution can be done entirely by judgment. I think most people would agree that the Argonian that stands accused due to racism against the scalies would be the lesser suspect, since the Dunmer suspect was described by a witness, but I know, as a player of this game, that there was no witness. Otherwise the suspect would have had a bounty and been arrested the second he left the manor. The final quest in Balmora entails maintaining th

e Hlaalu monopoly on Ebony. The East Empire Company in Ebonheart is threatening to buy ebony from Redoran unless we cut our prices, so we have two options: convince the head of the EEC to renew the contract for another year, or go assassinate the head of Redoran's only ebony mine and shut down their operations. To be thorough, I did both. Renewing the contract is much easier since that's simply a disposition check. Assassinating the head of mining operations, Darns Tedalen, is more difficult as

he is a capable spellcaster. Our reward for being thorough though, is a comfy suit of glass boots, greaves, and a cuirass. Glass armor is a very rare reward, and I appreciate it being the rewards you get for going the extra mile on this quest. On the Arethi side of things in Vivec our first notable quest involves reinforcing Hlaalu fighters who went to Odirniran to kill a rogue Telvanni and rescue their prisoner. the Hlaalu sent have messed up the situation, forcing a stalemate between the two s

ides. I will note now that the other side of this quest is to be dispatched by Telvanni to kill the Hlaalu fighters. This can be a bit of a challenge. Odirniran is remote, and both the Telvanni wizard, and one of his summons, a Dremora, can pose quite a challenge to new players. To complicate matters still; you can't actually rest in the tower, due to there being an inaccessible room full of ghosts preventing resting. It's a neat trick. The wizard Milyn Faram has a key to the prisoner's cell so

once he's defeated it's simply a matter of returning the lost sister back into the Hlaalu forces hands. We also get dispatched to convince the Zainab Ashlander camp to sell their ebony to House Hlaalu. Apparently they've recently entered the market with their own source. Well, upon arriving at the camp, which tended to bug out and not spawn, we get directed to their Gulakhan Ashibaal. We can either compliment him, or be direct with obvious results. Then we can hit them with some market logic. If

we both sell ebony the price will drop, this is good for both Hlaalu and the Zainab, as it means that more smiths would be able to access the material, which would result in increase in sales, and it would weaken the imperial monopoly on the resource. He will agree to this, if we plead we don't have enough, he will simply end the conversation. Arethi's next quest is to find a sunken wreck and recover its valuable cargo, a Daedric wakazashi. The rather obvious reward of this quest is the blade i

tself, rather than the gold. There is only one quest beyond this from Arethi, and more than enough reputation to go around to simply not turn it in and still advance, So I don't. As this is a decent weapon to hold onto for the time being. But to advance in House Hlaalu past the third rank, we need a sponsor. This is true of all houses, and since we're always an outlander this is the general response: ["NO."] There is one counselor who would dare to sponsor us, a man famous for writing the 'Lusty

Argonian Maid'. Yes, the short blade skill book. He has a lesser known work, a play called 'The Three-legged Guar'. Wait, Guar are bipeds, how would they...? Oh... This man is Crassius Curio, and he's willing to sponsor us for a price. If we strip off all our clothes, he will sponsor us. He doesn't explicitly want anything from us other than our nude figure so it's kind of a half #MeToo moment, anyways, Curio sponsors us and gives us the instruction to go to Caldera and work for Odral Helvi, an

d keep Curio updated on what Helvi has us do. This is good and all, except for the fact that Curio lives atop the Hlaalu canton in Vivec, which means we'll get a lot of trips to the city. And by the way, Hlaalu canton is pretty much as far from fast travel as you can get Helvi's in charge over in Caldera, we dealt with him in the Thieves Guild questline, stealing his prized history book collection, and donating it to charity, and we'll be dealing with him in the Redoran questline His first order

s are to deliver a sealed document to Tenisi Lladri in the Hlaalu vaults. Under no circumstances are we to deliver them to the head of the treasury: Baren Alen. There are a few ways about this quest. The lemming route is to do as he asks, as directly as possible. You net a very small reward of only 100 gold. You can also go to Baren Alen, who will pay you 500 gold for reporting to him, but this reflects negatively with Helvi. You can also report it to Rovone Arvel, another Hlaalu counselor, alth

ough how exactly you'd figure out to go to him is beyond me. Finally, you can report it to Curio, as he requested initially, you get the 500 gold reward, and he's discreet enough not to let the news of your deception reach Helvi. His next task is to figure out who has stolen the Caldera mining contracts from the Caldera mine, retrieve them, and kill the thief. We have two suspects but can easily narrow it down to one. Elmussa Damori, and at a high disposition she will admit the theft, and give y

ou the documents, however she'll ask you let her live. Also if you're part of the Thieves Guild she will admit it to you freely. Curio concurs noting that Damori is actually a member of the Thieves Guild, adding intrigue to the situation. He suggests I let her escape. I do, and I deceive Helvi as to her identity. He is disappointed. But this does not strain our relationship with the Thieves Guild, whose services I've used to clear bounties and the like during this playthrough. Helvi then asks us

to replace some erroneous land deeds of the Ascadian Isles in the Hlaalu records office. The deed is fake and can be dealt with in three ways. Again, there's the lemming option, where you do the task and replace the deed. You can report to Curio, who will have you "buy the deed" from Baren Alen for a small sum. Convincing Helvi that you did the job while changing nothing. The last option is to report it to the landowner, who is Ravone Arvel. He has the best reward - an invisibility ring, and al

so suggests we copy the real deed and deceive Helvi Helvi's next task is to collect rent and taxes from two farmers in the Isles. They both owe 50 gold each, and we are to kill them if they refuse. The lemming route can go one of two ways: The first is that they obviously can't pay the debt: they're farmers, and you kill them. The second is that you can accept one of the farmer's Guar - Corky. Who can then be sold to a Guar herder for 200 gold which settles the debt. Or you can go to Curio or Ar

vel. Curio will give you 500 gold to settle the matter, suspecting Helvi simply wants the farmers dead. Arvel will give you 100 gold and his appreciation. Lastly, you can simply pay out of pocket. This is the fast thing to do. Finally, Helvi has a big request he wants us to smuggle well... "covertly transport" five pieces of raw ebony to Drinar Varyon in Ald'ruhn. Now, ebony smuggling is illegal, although you can't get caught, you can report it. You can also go the lemming route smuggling the e

bony, and getting paid 500 gold. Curio suggests we take the ebony to Segunivus Mantedius at Buckmoth Legion Fort. We have to convince him. This entails giving him the ebony and implicating both Varyon and Helvi. Now, note here, if you don't have the ebony in your inventory but "give" him the ebony it reduces your encumbrance by 50 points regardless: The weight of the ebony. This means I can still sell the ebony, and become even lighter, although this is obviously an exploit. This is Helvi's fina

l mission, as he gets sent to prison afterwards, if you go the Curio route. I'm not really sure what happens if you go full lemming with him, I guess he just sticks around and Curio proceeds to give you missions disappointed at how much of a pushover you are. While we're on the topic of ebony smuggling, let's talk about Vvardenfell's controlled substances. Ebony and glass smuggling are illegal as they are rare materials used by the Empire for weapons and armor. Moon Sugar and Skooma are dangerou

sly addictive substances that plague non-Khajiit societies. Dwemer artifacts are illegal, I assume to discourage the desperate from going on dangerous missions to Dwemer ruins. And Ash Statues are illegal, as in Vvardenfell the Temple is trying to curtail the spread of the Sixth House. Some merchants will refuse to do business with you if you're in possession of Moon Sugar or Skooma. The exceptions generally being Khajiit like Ajira at the Balmora Mages Guild, who bought half of Vvardenfell's Mo

on Sugar supply that I recovered in drug busts during my playthrough. This was an occasional inconvenience since I would try to do business with a merchants and happen to be in possession of these substances, so they would refuse. I think there's a missed gameplay opportunity with these substances. For instance - how cool would it be if travel services like boats, Silt Striders and teleporters would refuse to transport you if you were in possession of a controlled substance. Suddenly the quest t

o implicate Helvi becomes a lot more nuanced, because you actually have to smuggle ebony to complete it. You could even add features like guards confronting you if you're carrying materials, taking bribes to look the other way, or adding a bounty if you're caught smuggling. Then later, when you're a high-ranking member of an official organization, you might be able to acquire a license to possess some of these items, that would raise the restrictions. Although clean merchants still might not dea

l in them. Drugs and ash statues would still be illegal. Unfortunately, later games would go in the opposite direction, the idea of controlled substances was dropped, likely due to players complaining about how inconvenient that merchants wouldn't do business with them while they were carrying drugs. And the Empire stopped enforcing its laws. Anyways, Curio's first mission involves getting an outlaw to pay smuggling fees to Hlaalu. Oh, speak of the devil. Most of the quest's is finding the outla

w who is aboard his ship by Hla Oad and getting him to pay his protection money. I've heard the argument that Curio is anti-corruption. If anything, he is just as corrupt as the best of them, he's simply better at blackmail and deception, being a scheming, conniving Imperial after all. We're in the endgame of house Hlaalu now. First, we need to start our stronghold construction. You can do this very early, and I believe the idea was that you could build your stronghold concurrently while doing t

he quests, as much of the stronghold process is simply waiting for the actual construction to be done. Each Great House builds a stronghold and involves some basic steps. First - the Duke Vedam Dren has to assign a construction contract, he does this simply with the request that you have Vvardenfell's best interests at heart against the threats posed to it. then you'll have to pay a member of your House to oversee the project. With Hlaalu you can haggle with a merchant to get the price down, and

even trade for it, which is a mechanical demonstration in line with how the faction operates Mercantile is a broken mess of a skill. It's a shame too, considering how prevalent it is. I don't like the idea of universal skills in Elder Scrolls, those being skills that every class has to engage with. For example, bypassing a lock can be done multiple ways tied to multiple different skills. Convincing somebody can be done through speechcraft or illusion. Mercantile, however, is a bottleneck for al

l play styles. There's no build that cannot benefit from having the skill but, at the same time, it's broken. For instance, there's a sweet spot of the skill at around level 70. Past this spot and trades will actually offer less and less if they have a high disposition. It's weird. Prices can sometimes be better for players with a low mercantile and bribes, which are influenced by Mercantile, but instead give experience to Speechcraft. Mercantile also levels in a backwards fashion. You would thi

nk that you would get more experience turning a 2500 gold transaction into a 3000 gold one. But no, you get more experience proportional to the percentage change meaning that turning a two gold sale into a three gold sale is a better display of mercantilism than a 500 gold increase on an individual sale. Making money is an important part of Morrowind, More so than Oblivion or Skyrim. In those games you can simply play and acquire more money than you can ever spend. This is primarily due to train

er costs more than anything else. So - how does one make money in Morrowind? Well, generally the transaction system is fairly robust, every item has what is a fair value. When you try to sell an item the sale price will be lower than the fair value. When you try to buy an item the sale price will be higher. The spread on these prices is dependent on your disposition and mercantile, in addition the amount you spend or receive from a transaction can be influenced. The amount you can influence is d

etermined by your mercantile skill. Merchants have a fixed amount of gold to spend on transactions, this amount can be temporarily increased should you use their other services like training or enchanting. This is important as many items in Morrowind's late game will exceed the value available to most, if not all, merchants in the game. Thus, trying to get the full value on these items is tricky, but possible. For instance, getting a custom enchantment that costs 50 000 gold, then selling a Daed

ric weapon at that price is effectively trading that Daedric weapon you aren't going to use anyways for a useful enchantment. But what are the two exceptions I mentioned? Those who've played Morrowind before are likely screaming at me to mention Creeper and the Mudcrab Merchant. Unfortunately, I didn't get any footage of Mr. Merchant on the Xbox, since he's fairly remote, and I didn't want to make the journey but that's okay he's just a drunk mudcrab, he looks like all the others. Creeper is a s

camp living with Orcs who has 5 000 gold. He generally buys most items barring alchemy ingredients, clothes, and literature. Since he's considered a creature merchant, he has no disposition, and will buy and sell items at their fair value no haggling necessary. The mudcrab merchant has similar stipulations, but has ten thousand gold to trade. His downsides being the journey across the water and non-descript appearance. There isn't really an in-game reason for these characters provided, barring a

vague reference to the mudcrab from M'aiq the Liar, so if you aren't reading the wiki chances are pretty good it could be a long time, before you ever run into one of these characters. Assuming you didn't kill the mudcrab while you were passing by. I guess the museum in Mournhold bears mentioning. In Tribunal there's a museum which can purchase certain artifacts. Most artifacts in the game are priced in the tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of gold range. They are all exceptionall

y valuable, as the base value of items is meant to signify those items rarity. These are the sort of things that end up in the hands of a head of state. Of course, you can acquire many of these items and, most of my characters naturally came into a possession of a fair few of them. They can be sold for half value up to 30 000 gold at the museum of artifacts. 30 000 gold is generally sufficient to meet all my characters' training needs. Although my lack of Xbox footage as of writing this indicate

s I never did use the museum services to make money. After a few days we're tasked with checking in on the stronghold. This is a way of giving you the location, which for Hlaalu is the Odai Plateau, southwest of Balmora it's the most convenient of the three locations. After checking in with the foreman, and returning with the news, Phase one will be complete after a few more days. Phase two will entail solving some problem. For Hlaalu it's increasing the land value by investing in a kwama mine.

We have to cure the queen of Blight and recruit some miners. After that, a few days has passed, and phase two is complete. To complete the Great House questlines you only ever have to reach the end of phase two, although phase three does have some extra benefits. After phase one, Curio will tell us that Redoran has constructed their own stronghold at Bal Isra without getting a contract from the Duke. Since this stronghold is an illegal expansion he sends us to deal with our counterpart in house

Redoran - Indarys. At Bal Isra, Indarys isn't much of a fight. He has quite a collection of valuables, and his guards can be killed for even more. Afterwards, Curio figures we need more support in House Hlaalu and sends us to get the support of Dram Bero Bero is hidden, so after a small investigation we're told he's somewhere in St. Olms Canton. A search of the plaza reveals a haunted manor, inside which is a locked door concealing Bero and his guards. Bero is willing to support you if we can de

feat his champion Garding The Bold. After a fight in the Arena, in which Garding concedes at low health, Bero supports our nomination Following this, and phase two of our stronghold, Curio has another mission. This time house Telvanni has constructed their own illegal stronghold. Again. And we're to eliminate it. We're sent to Tel Uvirith, to take on the wizard of the same name. Again, this is not a tough fight, although Uvirith does not have as many valuables as Indarys did, which is weird beca

use Telvanni are usually the ones with the valuable stuff. We are now a House Father, and Curio directs us to further work under the Duke Vedam Dren. Thus ends our... 'professional' relationship with Crassius Curio. The Duke, himself a former leader of Hlaalu, has some work. Berel Sala, leader of the Ordinators, has been a pain to House Hlaalu. So why are the Ordinators harassing Hlaalu? While it's not directly stated, the Ordinators are the militant religious branch of the Temple, and are membe

rs of the Great House Indoril. House Indoril has no territory on Vvardenfell, being located entirely on the mainland, and are opposed to the Imperial law. So while under the pretense of opposing the Sixth House, Indoril is likely using the opportunity to try and expand into Hlaalu territory on Vvardenfell. The Duke asks that we speak to Archcanon Tholer Saryoni on the matter. He agrees to help control the Ordinators provided we recover the robe of St. Roris. An artifact the Ordinators themselves

failed to recover. The artifact is inside of Assemanu, which is strangely enough not the only cave or name that is a reference to the assman. Curiously enough, Saryoni left out the fact that the cave is occupied by Sixth House cultists. Dagoth Hlevul here is in control of seven sleepers who will give you one rep a piece for talking to them, thanks to breaking the hold Dagoth Ur has over them. But there's not really a way to know who the sleepers are, it's just one of those happy rewards you get

for talking to everybody. The robe isn't all that powerful, It's slightly better than the average healing enchantment you can find at enchanters, but it's not really worth trying to keep. We return the robes, embarrassing the Ordinators who failed in recovering it, and Saryoni promises to speak with Berel Sala about the Ordinators' relationship with House Hlaalu. Dren, impressed, says that advancement to Grandmaster is contingent on control of the Camonna Tong, due to the sway it holds over the

rest of Hlaalu's political functions. It is unfortunately in the hands of Orvas Dren - the Duke's brother. He would greatly prefer we find a non-lethal solution to the problem, but admits it is a last-ditch effort. Orvas will doubt our ability to run an enterprise like the Camonna Tong, and wants to know how he can trust us. I use my natural Imperial ability to temporarily deceive him into agreeing. Just as Tiber Septim did with Vivec. A potential, alternate solution for if the enterprising Hla

alu who somehow sucks at speechcraft which, should be rare, is to find a note that implicates Orvas in a conspiracy to assassinate his brother for interfering with his smuggling business, and use it as blackmail. The last solution is to kill him, which displeases the Duke, but he will still promote you. This can potentially be a part of the Thieves Guild, and Morag Tong questlines, there's quite a few quests that will correspond here, even the Main Quest. And thus, we become the Grandmaster of H

ouse Hlaalu. Now Rethan's story is not finished, he will feature again in part five. I'll also be going into more conclusive thoughts into Hlaalu after discussing the other two houses but until then; House Redoran ["HOUSE REDORAN"] Jiub Indarys was a saint. He was known as Saint Jiub the Eradicator. He went down in history for his feat of driving the Cliff Racers out of Morrowind. Hey, yeah, this is me in editing, I was planning on doing the Saint Jiub stuff like two months before the young scro

lls EP came out, so serendipitous thinking, I guess. Saint Jiub is a rather comical reference to the first character you meet in Morrowind, having been put through the Skyrim retcon-ia into becoming a hero. But are Cliff Racers really as annoying as people claim? Yes. They are faster than 300 speed, they can block your attempts to rest, they make an ungodly noise, and tend to gang up on you when working around the Ghostfence. All the while being difficult to actually hit. It's very little surpr

ise they are hated and that a gag character was created to jokingly drive the species extinct. Jiub Indarys is then fittingly our protagonist in the story of House Redoran. The early years on his path to sainthood. House Redoran is, in a sentence, the 'honor' house of Morrowind. Although they would say this is because of their virtue, I attribute this to the fact that their historical holdings are very close to the Nords. They are home in Ald'ruhn and thus, must be traveled to from Balmora, in o

rder to join. Our first quest working under Redoran is to take care of some Mudcrabs that have harassed the citizens' Guar herd. This is a quest that requires specific attention be paid to the navigational directions given, since it's very easy to get lost on the way there. And sure enough, mudcrabs have been killing and dragging guar off into the swamp. We kill them, and get paid by the herder in weed. As for our reward from Neminda, our steward, nothing, we get nothing. Our next task is to del

iver a cure disease potion to Ald Velothi. It's a remote fishing village lacking any fast travel options, although it is fairly close to Khuul. We are told, while we're up there, by the ranking member of Redoran that he may have further work for us but for now to return to Neminda. Our reward, is again, nothing. While up near Ald Velothi we find a woman who dropped her ring. She offers to pay us in sexual favors if we get it for her. Only it's a trap, and Azura herself points out the folly of ou

r actions. ["No good deed goes unpunished, outlander."] Luckily players good enough to survive, or good enough to exploit the AI, are rewarded with the amulet of shadows, which gives an 80-point chameleon effect. Basically turning us invisible when we use it. A traitor went missing near Maar Gan or Gnisis. Nobody in Gnisis knows anything but the people in Maar Gan do. Apparently a recent ash storm hit, and it was bad by Vvardenfell standards. A trader apparently ended up going near an ancestral

tomb west of town. Right before the storm hit. Sure enough we find the trador in the tomb, the door apparently had gotten stuck during the storm. We take him back to Maar Gan, and get our reward, nothing. Next we're tasked with retrieving a Founder's Helm stolen by Alvis Teri of Hlaalu. He stole the Helm from an ancestral tomb, and has taken to wearing it at a bar. We need to maintain our House honor, and avoid simply murdering him and retrieving the Helm. I sexually assault him, grabbing his as

s incurring a 25 gold bounty, and apparently, also the legal right to murder him. I don't think this normally works, it's not supposed to, but hey, we got the Helm and it didn't count as murder. I even do the honorable thing of stripping his corpse of all his armor and selling it to a merchant. Then I turn myself in, pay off the rather small bounty, and walk free to claim our reward, nothing. The Guar herder is having trouble again, this time with bandits stealing Guar. Neminda remarks most band

its in Vvardenfell are outcast ashlanders, but it actually turns out to be a diverse bunch of outlanders. This is where I really demonstrate how broken the Amulet of Shadows is since, the AI can't really handle dealing with an attacker who is invisible, and stays invisible when in chameleon. So I should explain. There is invisibility, and there is chameleon. Invisibility is a flat effect, if you have it you are fully invisible, however, interacting with anything, and I mean anything, breaks the

effect Talking to someone, going through a door, picking up an item, anything. Chameleon has a point value, meaning Magicka costs can vary based on the effect value. Chameleon improves your chances of not being detected, so it's more costly than invisibility, but has the benefit of allowing the effect to continue through actions. An 80 point chameleon is effectively invisible. Most NPCs in the game cannot see you with it on. And it doesn't break when we attack, meaning NPCs can do nothing except

try to run away when I use this amulet. It is quite powerful. Although it is also limited by its charge, taking a bit to recharge enough to use again, so I don't solve every problem with it If we return to the herder, she'll pay us in more weed. Neminda doesn't pay us at all for the work. Let's sidetrack and go to Ald Velothi. Our first mission there is to take care of an old menace that has returned to plague the village. Old Blue Fin. It's a slaughterfish, and a tough one, although its height

ened abilities are still limited by the fact that, while I'm on land I do not exist to aquatic creatures, and get this: in exchange for dealing with a threat to public safety I get paid. Albeit in 10 Dreugh Wax but hey, Dreugh Wax is worth 100 gold a piece. Albeit this is a fighter character so he's not going to get anywhere near that, but it's still a payment for services rendered. Actually Redoran itself wasn't even going to pay me, it was the fishermen in the village who all pitched in to rew

ard me for taking care of a problem. Next we're sent to the Ashimanu mine to deal with an infected shalk. Another trip to the assman cave. It's really that simple, and, of course, we aren't paid for the job. We're then sent to deal with a Kagouti den near Ashimanu mine, but instead of the Kagouti and the den triggering the quest, we have to kill a Kagouti on the road near it to do it properly. No reward. We're asked to check in on some soldiers sent to Shishi, a Telvanni base. After a fun trip u

p there, we meet up with the men. They say they've cleared the base, although the lead wizard has yet to be found. You can turn the report in now, although you can also ask another man who keeps hearing sounds somewhere downstairs. Turns out with some exploration, that a Breton skull reveals a hidden basement, where the wizard is hiding. With him taken care of we return to Ald Velothi for a reward, of nothing. At this point, our path forward in the House is to seek a sponsorship. Lucky for us At

hyn Sarethi is under attack from assassins, we go and defend him. And, although there is no reward, he does offer to sponsor us. No no, wait there is a reward, we get paid the standard guard rate of 200 gold. So why have I been pointing out the fact that Redoran has been so stingy in paying us for our work. Factions in Morrowind have a requirement, that the factions of later games lacked, skill requirements. Each faction has a list of skills they favor, and requirements to meet to climb those ra

nks. The real stopper is that the highest ranks of factions require skills be higher than 80. For most people, this is easily attainable just by playing the game. Pure mages may need to train a bit due to magic skills training slowly, but for anyone using a skill that involves bashing things, playing the game like a normal human being is good enough. None of my characters, however, were played like normal human beings. Because of the way I took notes, and the recording limitation of hard drive s

pace, each character was played generally focusing down one faction at a time. This means that every character inevitably fell short when it came to skills. The way you're meant to offset this in Morrowind is through trainers. This, however, is costly, and I feel as though the real victors of Morrowind's story are the skill trainers who became rich as a consequence. ["What would you do if you had an eternity to do nothing but wait?"] ["Do you keep busy? do you daydream?"] ["Do you freak out?"]

["He trained."] ["How can someone get so into something that nothing else matters?"] Some guilds provide adequate enough income to achieve this. House Hlaalu often paid out 500 or even a thousand gold for tasks completed . While the Thieves and Fighters Guild provided plenty of opportunities to make money while questing. House Redoran does not. The average quest for house Redoran has no reward. There quickly came a very real problem where I simply could not advance in the House due to skill limi

tations that were caused by the fact that I wasn't being paid Now the way that a normal person deals with this is to go adventure. which I generally did not do due to recording. Or to go do another faction that does pay, which I also could not do due to my note-taking So when House Redoran refused to pay me, I forced them to. See at a point you are recommended to go speak with Faral Retheran in Vivec. He has a decent number of quests for the House. However, finding Retheran was a pain, I wasn't

given adequate directions. And I searched most of Redoran Canton for the bastard. Then I found the Redoran Treasury. It turns out they've been holding out on me. They were not poor, these were not hard times, and I was not doing charity work. They're rich. Like real [ __ ] rich. And turns out in the process of getting to the treasury, I had stolen a key that could unlock the door. Gradually the ordinators would path out, and I would close the door behind them until none were left in the room. Th

en I looted it. I got a free set of ebony armor and a ton of valuables, went to Creeper and offloaded it. suddenly what was my poorest character became my richest, and then I spent 25 000 gold training my skills to become high enough. That I wouldn't need to worry about it again. So you see, it wasn't a matter of me acting dishonorably, and acquiring large amounts of material possessions, it was me satisfying the needs of the guild for strong leadership, while compensating myself for the sweat o

ff my back. Since I got my hands on a full set let's talk about ebony armor. Armor in Morrowind is divided into three classifications: light, medium, and heavy. Clothes also count as unarmored, I guess, but you wear those under your armor. It works simply enough, the better the protection offered by armor the heavier it is. Lighter armor meant you could carry more but it also meant sacrificing armor value. Medium armor was a happy medium but it was offset by the fact that it was rare to find. Eb

ony is heavy armor, and it is heavy. but it is also good at protecting the body, provided you had the skill to wear it It's not as simple as equipping Daedric armor and then being protected, you had to be conditioned to wear the armor to see the benefits. Characters in light armor will score a higher armor value if they have a high skill, compared to characters in heavy armor, with a low skill. Ebony is also some of the best heavy armor we'll be getting. Daedric is better but it's also exception

ally rare. Equipment in Morrowind isn't as simple as saying: "Oh well this has the biggest number so I'll wear that." Wearing partial sets means you have more room in your inventory to carry loot. It can also mean you move faster since you weren't as weighed down. Equipment was also made with the idea in mind that it should be appropriately rare. It's a sign of mastery and danger to see an opponent wearing glass or ebony armor. Almost exclusively will you see guards wearing bonemold, Orcs wearin

g Orcish, and Ordinators wearing Indoril armor. Ranks with Legionaries can be told by their armor set. Morrwind's design philosophy towards armor seems more so geared towards lining the armor skills up with the armor that is diegetically a part of the game world, rather than designing armor assets around the mechanics in tiers. I think this is better, as it can feel a bit stilted how the world gradually escalates its usage of armor types in Oblivion and Skyrim. While I discuss armor, I should al

so mention durability. Durability, in the eyes of some, is an annoyance that must never again enter the design of video games. I disagree. Durability is a factor to consider in the preparation before trips. It's also an element that can introduce surprise into a situation. A piece of armor or weapon breaking forces the player to adapt to what is an unexpected situation. However I can understand why durability is disliked. It can be seen as tedious to maintain equipment, and video games aren't su

pposed to be more tedious than real life, right? I guess. And to some extent, Morrowind does fall victim to durability falling on the side of tedium as a mechanic. Higher-end items are more durable as traits, which in turn means a reward for good gear is not having to repair it as often. If that is a reward then why have the mechanic? I did like the Oblivion idea of allowing skilled armorers to boost their durability above 100 percent, although, again that ultimately begs the question of why bot

her with the mechanic if the reward is to not have to deal with it? To me, durability should represent the prospect of potentially losing an item if it's broken. This would make routine preventative maintenance more rewarding, but obviously, this also creates the risk of losing something valuable, potentially even irreplaceable. That does, however, reward the higher end items with high durabilities, since it decreases the chance you'll lose the item since you would have such a long window to rep

air it. Think of it like this: Lots of games, including Elder Scrolls games now apparently, have hunger mechanics. Why do hunger mechanics exist? Like durability, they are an intentional annoyance that is dealt with in an arbitrary fashion. Proponents however argue that hunger is a good mechanic because it rewards preparation. Or because it can make a tough situation where there is limited access to food or repair more tense as a consequence. It also carries the consequence of death as a failure

state, which is more punishing than the consequence of simply losing an item, even temporarily. Durability is an intentional annoyance but, intentional annoyances are kind of the point of video games. What is an enemy in a game but an intentional annoyance standing between you and hollow victory. Saying that durability being removed from Skyrim is justifiable because it was only annoying anyways opens a rather nasty can of worms When it comes to the question of why we even play video games in t

he first place. Anyways, let's get back on track with House Redoran since we should be done training by now. To start, we need to get our sponsorship from Sarethi, and advance far enough to start our stronghold. I learned from my last playthrough to not put it off, and to start it as so I can do it while I'm also doing the quests. Like before, we need the construction contract from the Duke. He has the same request, our pledge to help Morrowind against its enemies. The person overseeing our cons

truction also needs 5 000 gold to finance the process. Unlike Hlaalu, this is non-negotiable. Luckily we have plenty of cash to spare from robbing the Redoran treasury so, in a way it is free. Now that the process has started, we can get to work for Sarethi. He will sponsor us provided we can rescue his son from Bolvyn Venim, who has kidnapped him. Sure enough, a note in Venim's manor reveals that they are entertaining a special guest, and it is Sarethi's son. The guards get mad if we try to let

him out, although using chameleon kind of breaks this quest. Anyway Sarethi, reunited with his son, promotes us, although there is still no reward, we also no longer need it. Our next task is to deal with the principal reason Sarethi's son was kidnapped. He has been accused of murder. Well, maybe let the Imperial guards handle it, it's what they get paid to do. Athyn claims that his son is innocent, as the victim was friends with his son. Even though there is a witness Athyn figures his son may

have been under a spell, and requests we check his room. Sure enough, we find a suspicious ash statue. Varvur will say he's been having odd dreams since he received the statue and asks us to take it. We then get directed to take the statue to Lloros Sarano over at the Temple. Who asks you to arrange a meeting with him and his son and exonerates Varvur of murder, since he was likely under the influence of the Sixth House, this was likely done as Sarethi's house is friendly to outlanders, a stanc

e the Sixth House does not tolerate. Now that Sarethi's house has been sorted, we can get back to the real work, which is defending House Redoran from slander. Our contact in Vivec gives us a similar mission, and here's how they contrast: Ondres Nerano a Hlaalu noble, notable as he had his key stolen from him by Steals-Your-Wallet, has been slandering house Redoran. We are to honorably duel him, emphasis on honorably, as simply killing him would be a PR nightmare for Redoran. He accepts the duel

, but is woefully unprepared and loses. Contrast this with Meril Hlaano, who is accusing a Redoran counselor of adultery. Hlaano will not honorably duel anybody, and is likely just saying that as he is under the influence, I decide to handle the situation appropriately. I murder him. Naturally this looks bad so allow me to explain my logic. The way Meril wants you to deal with the situation is to either stoke his ego until he accepts to withdraw the slander, or to bribe him. These are positive r

einforcements for negative behavior, and would only encourage other rowdy youth of Hlaalu to join in on the slander. Since blood would eventually be drawn on a larger scale from such an outcome, nipping this behavior in the bud is important. We positively reward Nerano by not killing him as he abides our traditions, and faces us in a duel. We negatively reward Hlaano by murdering him as he acts dishonorably. So, although the reputation of Redoran is hurt in the short term by this action, in the

long term we have saved lives, and preserved our honor. That's not how the game sees it. I figure I'm not going to hear the end of it from Retheran for this, so I just go back to Sarethi. Next he wants me to deal with smugglers in Shurinbaal. This is an easy affair, although the cave in question is remote. while I'm out I check in at Ald Velothi. Virith has a new request. A local Daedroth worshipper named Gordol is wanted by the people of Ald Velothi. This should be a challenge. However, my spea

r, and his broken AI, actually make it quite easy. He's also wearing a full set of ebony. I think this was intended to be the turning point in Redoran where you start to gear up since the reward for this is an enchanted ebony spear, a free set of ebony armor that Gordol was wearing, but I already have his free set of ebony armor from the Redoran treasury sooo. I know this is a bit of a non-sequitur, but let's talk about my spear. Spears are great, they allow you to do damage at a distance, at t

he cost of being long and unwieldy. To use naturally something as varied and unconventional as a spear in an RPG setting was cut from the later games for the usual swords, axes, and maces. I suspect spears were cut from Oblivion due to the skill crunch, that being the reduction in the number of skills from 27 to 21. Each specialization went from nine skills to seven. Axe and blunt were combined, medium armor was cut from the game, but to facilitate the cuts in stealth spec hand to hand got moved

into combat, while short blade was combined into blade. This meant that combat specs still had one more skill to reach the desired seven. So the spear was lost from the game. Spears as weapons are historically associated with formation fighting, something that generally never came about in the Elder Scrolls setting due to the prevalence of Destruction magic. Their popularity instead is owed to regions that routinely have to deal with disease. Valenwood and Morrowind. For Morrowind in particular

the threat of Blight and Corpus makes spears a popular option amongst the Buoyant Armigers, as it allows them to stay out of reach of the sick. Since the Imperial Legions generally don't engage in formation fighting there wasn't a pressing lore reason to keep spears around in Oblivion. The other argument is that spears simply were not popular, although I personally disagree I can imagine that swords are handily the most popular, since as a weapon they are by far the most publicized. However, it

's a situation where Bethesda engineered their unpopularity. Spears are uncommon and upgrades few and far between. Contrast this with swords, which are very common with many opportunities to upgrade, and with many of the game's most powerful weapons being swords. It's the same story with medium armor. It was given the short end of the stick in Morrowind, so people didn't use, it so it wasn't popular, so it got cut. Rather than try and keep spears, medium armor, and well, throwing weapons for tha

t matter in the game, and fixing the issues they had, while abandoning the ridiculous idea that each specialization needs to be balanced in a single player game, the skills were simply dropped. The weapon skills of Morrowind provide a great deal of nuance for fighting characters you can't just pick up any weapon you find out in the world, and use it like a master. Short blades, long blades, axes, blunt weapons, spears, and hand-to-hand were all different skills that played almost like martial ar

ts. Short blades are fast and light, so they can work as backup weapons, long blades are slower, two-handed long blades especially slow. Axes are great for chopping, although their historical value of breaking wood, and shields, and fortifications is underappreciated. Blunt weapons don't serve their purpose of breaking armor. Spears provide a longer reach. And hand-to-hand, hand-to-hand damages fatigue until knockout, and then does damage, you can also go straight to damage using paralyze. It ha

s the obvious upside of having no weight. I think they should have expanded on hand-to-hand. I know in Oblivion they added the special attacks which is cool, But I'm thinking like special techniques that work like spell creation, like paralyzing fist, just something that works like a martial arts anime, but lets you use a spell maker to make your own moves. instead what was the most distinct fighting style, at least from its counterparts at the time, Was cut come Morrowind. I suspect it's anothe

r in the long list of victims of scaling, where in an effort to fix the problems posed by scaling mobs in Oblivion, instead of fixing scaling they "fixed" everything else, just another victim of the skill crunch, although for hand-to-hand its day came between Oblivion and Skyrim. Sarethi has a new request. A Redoran noble has gone mad and has taken up residence in a cave called Milk. Harassing travelers, and demanding tribute. We need to solve the situation, however, the noble in question is a f

riend of Sarethi's, so we need to do this non-lethally if possible. He suggests I speak with his father in Ebonheart. While I'm in Ebonheart I hear a rumor about unrest in Cyrodiil City, Something about the legitimacy of the heirs, I don't think this will be relevant. I meet with Mandas' father, who says his son went mad after his granddaughter was kidnapped by the Telvanni lord Divayth Fyr, He thinks finding and returning the daughter should cure his madness. This entails a trip to the remote t

o Tel Fyr, there's no fast travel points, as the man in question can't be bothered to do something so foolish. Once inside we meet with Divayth, who doesn't actually care if we take Mandas' daughter, he's far too busy. We let her out and she gives us an amulet to take to her father. We do, making liberal use of chameleon to dodge his guards, who have taken to dealing with intruders with the sharp end of the sword. And when we give him the amulet, he says he'll stop demanding tribute to calming t

he guards down Sarethi says, that in order to advance, we need support from other councillors. He suggests we start with the counselors Morvayn and Ramoran Morvayn, or rather Morvayn's wife, requests that we clear out her manor of Corprus beasts. Turns out they had killed her husband after they had received an ash statue, and not only did House Redoran take the time to decide to let her take his spot as councilor, they haven't dealt with the manor full of Corprus beasts that is drawing more to i

t on the edge of town. Our man Sarano is in the Temple, and is willing to destroy the Ash Statue after we retrieve it. Ramoran wants a bit more, he wants us to go up to Gnisis and collect taxes. 60 gold pieces, and if we pay out of pocket he'll refuse to give us support and soft lock our game. So after the round trip to Gnisis, we're then tasked with finding a girl he's lusted after for years, turns out she has a similar name to his personal bodyguard, who happens to be lusting after him, and at

that suggestion offers his support. You know three paragraphs ago I was at a tower where the guy cloned himself four times, and spent his days researching a cure for Corprus, and lowkey banging his clones so, I'll let this slide. Anyways, we're a councilor now and to advance we need more councilors to support us as well as phase two of our stronghold. We need guards and are directed to the local Fighters Guild master, Percius Mercius to recruit them. He says he's willing to waive the fee if we

free his friend from prison. Sadly there is no option to just pay him, and we end up going to Vivec freeing his friend, killing an Ordinator, and returning. As for the councillors we need the support of Llethri and Arobar. Venim will never give his support due to his vehement opposition to outlanders. but as long as we have the support of all the other councillors we can stand to claim the title of Archmaster. Llethri is willing to support us, provided we can shut down the Caldera mining operati

on. This is not as simple as going and wiping it out we need to do it honorably. So we start with trying to find proof of corruption. Odral Helvi local corrupt overlord of House Hlaalu, has some secret ledgers hidden in his room that provide such proof. And with evidence in hand, we can now shut down the mine. We're saving the evidence in the event, that Duke asks any questions about why we took these actions. We learned from Caldera locals that if Dahleena, a slave at the mine, were to be freed

, or killed, that the slaves would revolt. I free her. Llethri says it was an unconventional solution but it did end the Hlaalu market domination. as for Arobar he seems preoccupied and refuses to speak on the subject of our support. Sarethi figures he may be getting influenced by the Telvanni and we need to figure this out to gain his support. Asking around Telvanni town reveals that Master Neloth in Tel Naga is holding Arobar's daughter hostage. Those damn an-caps keep stealing our daughters.

Anyways, I free her and the guards take exception to this. But since the non-aggression pact is at the heart of Telvanni law, there are no questions asked about the dead guards. And since I successfully stole her she is now my property. At least until we get back to Redoran territory. Arobar gives us our support on the council, and a Redoran master helm, well a replacement helm anyways, the original was stolen. And, after some waiting, our stronghold finishes phase two. And Sarethi fills us in o

n Bolvyn Venim Bolvyn was a successor to a long line of incompetent Redoran leadership. He was the one who, after the armistice, brought Redoran into Vvardenfell, he effectively brought the house back from the brink of ruin he, however, did so via strength of arms, and a hatred of outlanders, and in the modern era, this has put Redoran in a bad position. The House's view on tradition and honor has allowed it to be taken advantage of by Hlaalu and Telvanni. In two instances, Redoran was forced to

deal with slander from Hlaalu, who abused the fact that Redoran took their honor seriously. In two instances, Redoran nobles had their children stolen by Telvanni, who abused the fact, that Redoran followed the law so strictly. Sarethi hopes for someone to lead Redoran who shares his quality of strong martial prowess, and military leadership, but better understands the modern Redoran situation needs to treat its citizenship with kindness and justice, rather than alienating them. And, as a counc

ilor, with support of all the other councilors, he figures that we are fit to rule, but Venim will not allow an outlander to become Archmaster. Thus, we must challenge him to an honorable duel. Venim initiates the conversation with his own challenge to fight at the Vivec Arena. This is the logical action, as Venim is likely confident that he is stronger than Indarys, and if he wins, he can remove an outlander from the council. He's a tough fight full ebony with a Daedric weapon. I suspect this q

uest involved a free full set of ebony and ebony spear were likely preparatory for this conflict. It also helps them high level thanks to rank requirements. Did you know that Redoran consider looting the bodies of those you defeat dishonorable? So you don't get paid for your work, theft is dishonorable, looting is dishonorable, and stronghold payments are non-negotiable. You're just supposed to make whatever meager sum you can, die, pass it on to your kids, who combine it to their meager sum, un

til after a thousand generations, your descendants have enough to maybe get sponsored. Is it actually possible to maintain your honor and make it to the end of your Redoran questline? Maybe it's some kind of mechanical storytelling. Anyways we're Archmaster as soon as we defeat Venim You, Morrowind regulars, might recognize that this playthrough did not engage in the House Wars quests, this is because they were subsequent to the one slander quest where I murdered the guy, which was unappreciated

. You are able to complete Redoran without fighting the other factions I believe this is also possible in Hlaalu, but I'm not sure about Telvanni. Jiub Indarys will return in part 5, as for now. ["HOUSE TELVANNI"] Uvirith was inspired by one of the characters on the Xbox loading screens. This guy. Yeah, you PC players, might recognize the ones with the monsters, but there are a few new ones with characters on the Xbox. Since I spent so long on loading screens, I thought of a few memes that these

screens are perfect for. Anyways, I was inspired by one with an Altmer vampire mage holding a Daedric dai-katana. Originally I was planning on having Uvirith be a vampire, vampires in Morrowind are excluded from most factions on principle except Telvanni, because an-cap rules, but, upon further inspection, some of the quest scripting gets broken due to vampirism. Specifically due to certain quests, which rely on introductory text which gets replaced when you are diseased, so sorry guys, I ended

up not getting any footage of vampire gameplay. So I'm gonna throw this in post-com to try and explain why vampires are broken in Morrowind. There's a hierarchy of greetings that NPCs will use when meeting the player, which are either specific to them, quest related, or general greetings that are shared among multiple NPCs. This hierarchy is based on the logical importance of the greeting with stuff like locations, clothes, and classes, having lower priority over quests factions and combat-rela

ted greetings. This is why in the next part, a certain questline is broken, if you approach NPCs naked. Now, when you contract vampirism most NPCs will get a general hostile greeting. Telvanni on the other hand gets a friendly greeting. The problem has to do with how you progress a certain quest, because one quest relies on a custom greeting, that is always replaced with the vampirism greeting you will never receive it. In addition, the aforementioned stronghold quest that is standard for each G

reat House is also impossible as the Duke will not speak to you if you're a vampire. I have zero basis to say this but, I'm fairly confident that vampirism was a late stage feature that was added to the game, as it is very basic and your options as a vampire are fairly limited, but I am surprised that, since it was supposed to be a feature that vampires could join Telvanni, that this issue was not noticed. I know it's a meme to say Bethesda doesn't do QA, but if you have any experience working w

ith the construction set, you'll know they would have had to have been doing some because of just how many lollipop sticks and [ __ ] this engine's made out of. to fix this issue all you have to do is take this intro from greeting 5, and put it in greeting 1, so it takes priority over the vampirism greeting and greeting 2. Although this wouldn't fix it on the Xbox version since it has a special patched version, and actually now they think about it they did fix the Dark Brotherhood glitch between

the PC and Xbox releases, but I guess nobody had tried playing vampire and House Telvanni during that time period or, or if they did, they didn't complain on the internet. Anyways, back to the scheduled analysis. Uvirith spent the short stint with the Balmora Mages Guild getting some basic spells set up for our future plans with House Telvanni. Telvanni starts in Sadrith Mora, which is an interesting town in its own right. For starters, I think you're supposed to come into the town by a boat, g

o through the Gateway Inn, and be introduced to the hospitality papers which is a scam being run on outlanders. Only I would wager most people get to Sadrith Mora for the first time through the Mages Guild at Wolverine Hall, since it's the superior form of travel. What stands out about the town is its buildings. Truly, in the world of identical adobe structures, the mushroom house is king. Telvanni buildings are often twisted, conforming to the demands of nature, rather than any functional desig

n. Perhaps a reflection of the more naturalistic philosophies of Telvanni. Seeing the strengths of individuals as more important than the needs of common folk. While Balmora, Ald'ruhn, and especially Vivec, are heavily populated urban centers, Sadrith Mora is lacking in commoners. Almost every person in Telvanni, which is more racially diverse a faction than even Hlaalu, possesses entrepreneurial spirit, or a talent of some kind. You'll find that there is a surprising lack of Sixth House sleeper

s in Telvanni territory. An affliction caused by a weak sense of individuality that allows the Sixth House to control the sleepers. In the same vein the Tribunal Temples of Telvanni are token gestures, the masters of Telvanni are as old as the gods themselves so the Temple has little place in their society. You can also perceive this as a negative since the Temple does perform services for the poor, but there aren't many poor in Telvanni society. Thus, Telvanni's society is, in fact, very progre

ssive. But, for how ideal it sounds, it has its flaws, as will be demonstrated. Joining Telvanni involves entering the council house and, well, the frame rate is not good in here on Xbox. Telvanni has a very unusual quest structure for Morrowind. Most factions in Morrowind will typically send you quest giver to quest giver, each one have five or six tasks to complete. For the early days of Telvanni you simply contract through the Mouths or the masters themselves. Members of the Telvanni council

are represented by Mouths in Sadrith Mora, they represent the interests of the Telvanni, while their lords can continue their research in their towers. Tasks requested of you include things like retrieving alchemical ingredients, finding artifacts, and performing deliveries. And the rewards for these quests, rather than being gold, are often spells or artifacts. In fact, you can learn Mark and Recall very early in the House. I greatly appreciate that a magical faction actually teaches magic as p

art of its quest structure. so instead of having two quest givers each giving five quests you have five quest givers each giving two quests. The progression is also much more forgiving. You don't really have to complete all the quests to get to the sponsorship stage. Early on I am asked to deliver a skirt to Mistress Therana of Tel Branora. I am advised by her Mouth to be prepared to use an Intervention spell, should anything happen, this is because Therana has gone crazy. She keeps a naked Khaj

iit as a pet, and when you offer to give her the skirt she accuses it of being cursed, and asks you to put it on to prove it isn't, only to then attack you for doing so ["You will suffer greatly!"] Another task entails delivering a note to Tel Fyr and returning, it sounds unremarkable until you realize that Tel Fyr has no fast travel services. Water Walking is an Alteration spell, I mean, without Water Walking what else is there? Looking at you, Skyrim Alteration, looking at you. It plays an esp

ecially important role in Morrowind, since so much of the terrain has been geared towards aquatic travel. Now, while Oblivion did have the ability, it really wasn't as important since there wasn't much need for it. I mean sure there was an inland sea, but honestly with fast travel, and the lack of need to go out on the water again, you don't need it. Skyrim was much the same way, there were some attractions out off the coast, but for the most part water walking was unnecessary. But lack of neces

sity doesn't mean the spell should just be cut. Speaking of cuts; Levitate is another good option for avoiding the swim, it also performs the function of vertical access, such as in Telvanni towers which don't have stairs, or in dungeons with secret areas. Levitate was cut from Oblivion, the reason being exterior/interior hybrid cells. The cities would be in cells separate from the overworld in order to help with performance and Levitate would expose the fact that the cities and the countryside

were not seamless. I think there were better ways to handle the issue. Mournhold and Tribunal, for instance, didn't allow levitation for much the same reason. So perhaps there could be a magical [ __ ] lore reason to stop people from flying over the walls. I think most players would understand the limitation. The real reason they wouldn't, and perhaps, won't adopt this rule set is a shift in dungeon design. I made a game of noting dungeons in Oblivion and Skyrim that would feature drop-offs near

the entrance that would lead to the end of the dungeon, leading to a circular loop design. The need to deposit players near the entrance of the dungeon by the end, quickly, without giving crafty players the ability to take the back entrance simply necessitates the restriction of vertical navigation hence why Jump spells and Acrobatics went as well. I disagree with this need, I think if anything, the new dungeon design could be complimented with a proper use of Mark and Recall to return to the d

ungeon entrances, but then again, did I make the most successful RPGs of all time? I didn't think so. Now while I'm on the subject, eagle-eyed viewers may have noticed I'm using a couple spells named 'Efficient Waterwalk' and 'Efficient Levitate'. Ignore the letters I just used those to organize the menu. Those are custom spells, designed to give me a more Magicka efficient version of the effects. Water walking is basic, mostly its magic and needs translates to the duration you'll be water walki

ng. The nice thing about setting this duration to 10 seconds is that it allows me to duck under the water quickly, without waiting around, and it only requires one Magicka to cast which is very nice The Levitate spell is much the same, although it's a little more expensive for a little more convenience. Levitate's Magicka costs are tied to its duration as well as its strength. Levitate strength affects how quickly you move a one point Levitate is simply way too slow. But on the flip side, you ca

n become very fast using a 100 or even a 500 point levitate scroll, although casting those spells would be very demanding on Magicka. And, as I said, many Televanni homes have a vertical tube between you and its master. Levitate sort of serving as a filter in Telvanni society. Spell creation can be quite versatile and even broken. You might wonder how so? I posit Fortify Attribute and Skill. I didn't get any footage of me abusing these spells fully so let me explain. Lots of variables in Morrowi

nd, and Oblivion for that matter, are tied into complex formulas. Since these formulas don't have any kind of cap to them you can very quickly boost your skills into the hundreds even temporarily to some amusing effects. For one second you can boost your Speechcraft or Mercantile, and get a good deal or convince NPCs of basically anything. You can boost your Speed and move very quickly. Perhaps the most infamous example commonly known Are a trio of scrolls labeled as 'Icarian Flight', which temp

orarily boosts Acrobatics 1000 points for 7 seconds,. This can send you soaring across the map, but the effect doesn't last long enough for the landing, as evidenced by its creator's fate. One of the reasons I don't mind escort quests in Morrowind is the fact that I can Fortify other people's Speed, and make them move faster. With custom spells you can tailor Illusion effects like Frenzy or Calm, or other effects like Command to specific humanoids. Also notable are custom Destruction spells You

can have a on touch death spell that targets all elements. Tailor custom spells to specific races to avoid resistances, such as a frost spell for Dunmer, and a fire spell for Nords. Create a spell that can snipe a specific opponent. Or a spell that targets a wide area. And the amount of Magicka spells require is the great limiting factor. On a hand-to-hand character I had a spell that would damage fatigue to speed up the process, or spells that would absorb other people's fatigue into my own poo

l. Spell creation tickles the wizard fantasy quite well. Unfortunately, it was too limited in Oblivion, and removed in Skyrim. In Oblivion the spells you could create and cast were hard limited in effectiveness by your skill level So for example, if you create a spell that does 100 points of damage health on touch in Morrowind, your limitations in casting the spell are: the amount of Magicka it costs, and your chance of casting based on your Intelligence and Destruction. If you don't meet the Ma

gicka requirement you obviously can't cast a spell, unless you find a creative solution around that. Such as fortify Magicka potions. If you don't meet the skill requirement you still have a chance at casting it. And, barring that, you can still find the ways to boost the necessary skills to create a chance. In Oblivion it's simply a threshold of: you have met the level requirement, you are now permitted to cast this spell. And even that is better than Skyrim's: "There's a handful of pre-selecte

d spells that everyone casts and you may not deviate from that option." Now that we've completed the trip from Sadrith Mora to Tel Fyr back to Sadrith Mora, I'll tell you a bit about that note we just delivered. The Mouth's master Aryon is asking his former master Divayth Fyr to join the Telvanni council due to the incompetence of the current council members threatening the future of House Telvanni. Divayth notes that Aryon has a personal stake in the matter, and mentions that it doesn't really

matter, Telvanni does not need him to survive. The note doesn't mention that Divayth is busy with his clone daughters, although seriously he is busy with Corprus, which is a bigger threat to Vvardenfell as a whole than the collapse of House Telvanni. Another task is to deliver a Cure Blight potion to Tel Vos, and we have to acquire the potion ourselves. This is simple enough, but while I'm there I follow up on a lead from master Aryon's Mouth, who in the interest of moving on in his career, says

that Aryon may be willing to sponsor us. After delivering the potion, I fly up to meet Aryon. A note about Tel Vos: It's one of the more interesting locations I've seen in an Elder Scrolls game, since its design is a reflection of the character of its owner. It's a fusion of the new Imperial architectural designs with the classic Telvanni tower which goes well with Aryon, who has a Telvanni who's willing to bring outlanders into the House. It's also a nightmare to navigate and figure out where

the services are. Aryon says he's willing to be our patron, provided we convince Baladas Demnevanni to join the council. Now, funny thing, after this conversation I immediately recall to the council hall and speak with Aryon's Mouth, who apparently has already spoken with Master Aryon about my delivery, despite me actually, quite literally, teleporting from Aryon to him. Hmm, maybe that's the reason Mark and Recall got removed. Anyways, we journey to Gnisis ["What do you see Gnisis, outlander?"]

to meet with Demnevanni. We start with the questions, Demnevanni's response depends on his disposition, Since this is my first meeting it's actually quite low, and he gives me the obstructive answers, basically telling me that people like Gothren, who have no interest in academics, really should not concern themselves with the Dwarves. Should he like you he basically gives you some theories that get confirmed during the Mages Guild questline, so hey, we formed a nice connection. We move on to t

he subject of him joining the council. He says it wouldn't bother him provided we collect some literature for him. We need three books: 'Nchunak's Fire and Faith', 'Atecedents of Dwemer Law', and 'Chronicles of Nchuleft'. I won't bore you with the details, but after collecting the books he agrees to join the council and gives us Ondusi's Key, and the Amulet of Admonition. The amulet paralyzes for 30 seconds while doing one to two points of frost damage for that time. This makes it quite powerfu

l, since it can paralyze so long, but a double-edged sword should it reflect. Ondusi's Key is a ring that opens 50 points on touch basically magically opening most locked doors and chests but not all of them. I complete another task of Aryon's Mouth who wants me to deliver some Daedra skin to Aryon, and get taught paralyze for it While I'm out there, Aryon promotes me to Mouth, giving me a staff and new chores, I need to go cure his Kwama Queen of Blight. This is convenient, since I'm heading ou

t that way on a new task from Gothren's Mouth to collect some plans from Nchuleft. I collect the plans, cure the queen, and return to Aryon who gives me a skill book in return. Skill books are good rewards, both for quests, and for completing dungeons. Since skillups are important to progression in Elder Scrolls, it seems like a good way to ensure players are properly leveling up up to keep up with the requirements in their faction, but then again, that hasn't been important in a long time. Aryo

n insists I go and learn some basic wizard spells, see a magical questline that highly emphasizes, and requires the usage of magic. We need levitate to get to Aryon, we had to cure the Kwama Queen with a spell, and we have to learn Recall, Fireball, and Levitate to continue progressing. Fireball is actually the only one I don't know. While going out to learn I turn in the Scarab plans and get a Cephalopod helmet. This is another great reward as it allows you to summon a Dremora. We then get anot

her skill book as a reward for learning the spells. You can probably guess that Telvanni is my favorite faction. It's objectively the best, it has competent rewards, the best rule set, the best quests, it even has the lowest skill requirement of all the factions in the game only requiring you get a single skill up to 70. We're tasked by Aryon to assist Milynn Faram, who's being attacked by Hlaalu at Odirniran. I know it was a long time ago, but yeah, we're crossing over with Rethan right now. I

actually forgot this happened, but it's right here in my notes, my recording got cut short because I needed to charge the controller. Just one more reason I hate playing on the Xbox. So, me and my new Dremora clear out the tower and I do a bit of soul trapping. Soul trapping in Morrowind is a somewhat minor thing. You can use souls to recharge enchanted items which we'll talk about, but also to enchant items. The only problem is enchanting isn't all that great. It was actually a bit busted on Mo

rrowind, and not in a good way. There are two ways to go about enchanting: you can take out a small loan of tens of thousands of gold to enchant at a services provider. Or you can enchant yourself and usually fail. Your success of enchanting is tied to your enchant skill, but even maxing out your Enchant skill and Intelligence still results in a high chance of failure when enchanting. Enchanting also requires soul gems which aren't as common as the later games, especially the higher tier ones. W

ell, they sort of are, just not at the levels I'm recording at. Now, when you hear about people breaking Morrowind, it tends to involve enchanting. This involves a healthy amount of exploiting the game, and grinding your soul to eventually become useful. But I know I'll have the regulars sending me angry letters should I leave out the fact that, yes, you can create an outfit that instantly restores all damage taken in constant effect restore health enchants. Just as spell creation allows you to

utterly break this game, enchanting can take it a step further. No, right, this section is labeled soul trapping. You cast soul trap on a monster when it dies its soul fills a soul gem. Enchanted items are Morrowind. You can't have a Morrowind playthrough that does not eventually make a big point about them. They start out simple enough, utility jewelry that can do something small like restore a little health, restore some stamina, maybe if you're fancy, you have a Recall or Intervention amulet.

Then you get something like the Vampiric Ring that drops enemies, while healing you, or the Amulet of Shadows that allows you to disappear. And you realize enchanted items are awesome. It's a perfectly viable build to just collect enchanted damage rings you can spam on enemies until they stop moving. Your carryweight could be nothing but rings, amulets, and clothes, that perform these functions. And the only downside is that your spell menu would look absolutely atrocious. Enchanted items are g

reat rewards and more quests should give them, however, enchanted items are only as strong as the magic system supporting it , since using an enchanted item is basically casting a spell without the Magicka costs attached. Items have charges sure but that comes back with time, so as long as you aren't spamming the items constantly you'll be fine. One downside I noticed with enchanted items is that if you are wearing a constant effect ring, that you might eventually take it off the ring to make wa

y for another. So it would be annoying to occasionally realize I'm no longer wearing the One Ring, because my character took it off to use the Common Ring of Ironing Clothes or something. Another thing is that it can be quite annoying to be using an enchanted weapon that has run out of charge, since it will constantly make this pleasant sound: While informing you that yes you have indeed run out of charge with the weapon. Hey, Morrowind, you know that the upside of an enchanted sword over, say,

an enchanted ring, is that when the enchantment runs out it still has the functions of a sword, right? So, somewhere in the plot we're tasked with ending the Mages Guild monopoly on magical services in Redoran territory. What function this serves, I don't know, I don't think the Redorans are the type to use magical services all that often. Also I decided to jump the gun on that stronghold business, we need a construction contract, as usual. And two strong souls such as Winged Twilight, Golden Sa

ints or Storm Atronachs This is to power of the growth of the mushroom that will become my home. ["It just stood there, holding its tail and whispering. What did it say?"] Excuse me? So we go to talk with Sarethi at Aryon's recommendation and says he does not trust my intentions, nor does he particularly like me, and he says goodbye. His tone changes at the bribe of a 100 gold. Which is honorable, and I just feel that certain people should be impossible to bribe. He sees most of the councilors,

barring Bolvyn Venim will support the resolution opposing the Mages Guild, provided I make an appeal to fairness. And sure enough, Llethri and Ramoran are on board once I appeal to fairness. One vow to protect Vvardenfell to the Duke later, and we've got the construction contract. Aryon gives us one of his gloves as a reward for taking care of the Redoran thing aaaaand... Okay so, Aryon is known for enchanting a pair of powerful gloves, this is one of them, and it's known as Aryon's Dominator. I

ts effect is to control humanoids up to level 15 for two minutes. Sounds innocuous, right? However, remember that NPCs generally don't move from their spots and when I say command I mean follow you through doors, follow you through fast travel, journey with you across the map. Command humanoid is basically the ability to abduct people, and bring them anywhere you want which is especially powerful, since it can be done to people who provide services. Master trainers are generally around level 25

so they can't be affected. But yeah, don't like where the services are in a town? You can now move them. Aryon wants me to save Faves Andes over in Shishi from Redoran attacks, which is another crossover quest, this time with House Redoran. I turn in the soul gems, which I appropriated from certain vendors, and get my stronghold on way. As you can see in this footage I'm making full use of the Dominator in a tactical sense. However, and this point applies to summons as well it's not that effecti

ve. The problem is the AI. Even on PC, even without the slow computation speed, pitting two AI against each other is a miserable affair. This makes Conjuration one of my least favorite skills since half of the skill is about pitting AI against AI. Now don't get me wrong, I see the tactical advantages of summoning. But relying on summons and dominated creatures to fight for me? That's not happening. Only problem is that on occasions where I would try to use summons to distract a tough enemy the t

ough enemy would just prioritize killing me anyways. As though it was aware that killing me ends the fight quicker. So dominating and summoning, while an amusing distraction, was pretty rare for me. It's certainly a viable playstyle, but I'd only recommend it if you're the sort to watch like AI fights on youtube. Once we get to shishi we clear the place out. I actually managed to crash the game here, I dominated one of the Redoran soldiers, while using a Dremora to fight another, then when I tri

ed to kill the last soldier, my dominated one, my Dremora turned on me, assuming I had betrayed the cause. The second he killed me my game crashed, as though it was thoroughly confused, and realized that that probably should not have happened. So yeah, add that to the list of reasons I don't use conjuration. Faves, now free, gives me some skill books he says he studied them thoroughly which makes sense, he's been in this basement for a while. That does beg the question, though why you wouldn't j

ust intervention out, you're a wizard. This must be why you're living in Shishi Aryon says in order to advance, I need my own Mouth on the council, and says he's heard of a televani in Balmora that was promising. Sure enough, one of the Hlaalu guards figures 'Fast Eddie' is the man, An Edd Theman is willing to be my Mouth, but he needs a Silver Staff of Peace. Did I mention that earlier? Yeah, when I became a Mouth I got one, luckily I kept it. I can imagine a few players being slightly inconven

ienced after having sold theirs. Anyways Edd becomes my Mouth and I get told to check on my stronghold at Uvirith's Grave. It's a bit macabre of a name, isn't it. Anyways, the foreman says it's going to be fine, and I check out a Dwemer ruin while I'm there. I find some schematics and a Dwemer crossbow and spend a few days selling loot to a Clavicus Vile minion in Caldera. Then my stronghold manager says I need to post 5000 gold and any schematics I find in a ruin named Mzanchend Just so happens

I found the plan she's looking for I, uh, I may have looked at the wiki for this quest beforehand. As a reward for finding my Mouth Aryon gives me his other Glove and I'll tell you about this one later. Aryon is impressed we've risen so quickly, which is an understatement as I've soared to the ranks of Telvanni in about two weeks. He figures the only way forward is to take care of some up-and-comers in the other Houses. A Hlaalu has constructed a stronghold without contract at the Odai Plateau.

Sure enough, I take on Rethan at Odai, which was an easy fight. She tries to silence me but silence doesn't work on enchanted items. And behold - Aryon's helpers. Yeah this right here lags my game, but it is quite effective. A Flame, Frost, and Storm Atronach summoned simultaneously. Our next task is to take down another stronghold. This time in Bal Isra and kill the Redoran Indarys. I decide to have a little fun and treat this one like a battle. His guards are willing to just let me go down an

d murder him, but I make them fight me. I steal some clutter which angers everyone in the manor. Then use Aryon's helper, and the Dremora summon and turn the manor into a giant [ __ ] Just watch. Aryon is naturally impressed with this. I suppose I should talk about the House Wars. Each Hreat House has quest to assassinate your equivalent in the other House The rising stars who are doing the quests you get locked out of. I named each character after their version so Hlaalu was Rethan, Redoran was

Indarys, and Telvanni was Uvirith. In retrospect considering how fantastically Uvirith's attack on Rethan and Indarys went I want to say it's canon, but sadly it can't be. Because Rethan and Indarys are in part 5 but Uvirith, Uvirith didn't get a follow-up. Tel Uvirith became Uvirith's grave, sadly Rethan killed him, while Indarys didn't engage in the House Wars. So what happens in the non-canon timeline? Well, Aryon says that there are two paths. We can become a Master, like Aryon, and hold a

spot on the council, or we can become a Magister, which announces that I am worthy of the rank of Archmagister. I think there's only one choice. We go to Tel Aruhn and confront Gothren, he has nothing to say to us, and so begins the wizard duel. I silence Gothren, send in the squad who fights Gothren's own duo of Dremora, and kill Gothren with my special mysticism technique of absorbing health. It's a good fight, a damn good fight. Fittingly there's a book titled 'The Final Lesson' in his tower.

And with that Aryon names me Archmagister of House Telvanni. This, however, is fanfiction Gothren yet lives, and Uvirith sadly doesn't. The Great Houses of Morrowind are a really great storyline, emblematic of the game. To contrast, Oblivion was originally intended to allow you to become the count of Kvatch following its destruction. But this was cut according to Todd Howard because it apparently detracted from the main questline. Skyrim had the civil war, a literal red versus blue fight betwee

n two factions that were both kind of right, although the Stormcloaks were better, suck it reds. The Great Houses though. To have not one, but two, separate questlines that become exclusive when you pick one. I mean modern Bethesda loves the whole 'only create one character and experience everything' design philosophy. Even when they have multiple factions like in Fallout 4 they [ __ ] it up by having all the factions still complete the same story beats. Each faction is also properly represented

in their quests. Hlaalu is about being sneaky and conniving and you make a ton of money doing it Redoran is about honor, and honor doesn't pay. Telvanni is all about the acquisition of power, and rewards you with powerful artifacts. However, a problem I have with the Houses is that they don't quite fit with hybrid classes. It makes sense for each guild to correspond to its specialization, you know, fighters to Fighters Guild, thieves to Thieves Guild, mages to Mages Guild. But then the Houses d

o the same exact thing. It'd be great if, for example, Heavy Armor was a part of the philosophy of House Telvanni but secretly all Telvanni cheat and bind theirs. It certainly made Divayth Fyr fully clad in real Daedric armor much cooler as a consequence. Or Illusion magic is a part of Hlaalu, or Mysticism a part of Redoran. Just something that makes Telvanni feel more like a faction instead of just the Mages Guild for Dunmer hipsters. If you look on most of Morrowind's materials you see the thr

ee House names on them but you also see the name Indoril. I think it was pretty smart to keep Indoril out of Morrowind I personally think it would have crowded the space to have a fourth Great House. Same goes for House Dres. I feel if the greater mainland of Morrowind had been a part of the original game then it would have fit in as a sort of competing mainland powers. Perhaps a story of Tribunal traditionalists versus Daedric worshipers as is technically already the case. But as it stands, Hou

se Dres only gets paid lip service in Morrowind which was a shame because well it was retconned into being destroyed in Skyrim. I mentioned Indoril and Dres because they helped to fill out the roster for House Dagoth, the forbidden Sixth House. For years, I've heard a rumor that Bethesda originally intended to let the player join the Sixth House. Researching this was difficult, since there are mods that entail this that muddy the waters. Some have alluded to the content being in the game files,

but this is not the case as according to both the UESP, and The Cutting Room Floor, no such quests or scripts exist in the game files. I've searched around for some hints at interviews that would suggest this information or where this misconception came from, but alas, I couldn't find any. If joining the Sixth House was in a design document, it got cut very early. As for the main three, a good balance, I handily ranked Telvanni at number one, while Hlaalu and Redoran tied two for a variety of re

asons. Redoran has some better quests, but the lack of payment really dragged it down. Hlaalu has some more menial quests but it has enough intrigue to entertain. [IMPERIAL LEGION] In this section we'll be seeing the return of a few prior characters, to play through these factions, for the Imperial Legion I chose Mace, the Master of the Fighters Guild. He made the most sense as a fighter and as an outsider to the Great Houses. The Imperial Legion is a strange faction. The only ones recruiting is

the Legion in Gnisis but you don't really join as a legionnaire more as an agent. But the ranks in the uniform imply that we are a common soldier. I mean we obviously can't spend days patrolling town as a guard while we earn our rank so. We start off getting tasked by General Darius himself to acquire a deed from a widow in order to open a port. Only it turns out the widow's husband was recently murdered, and she says by a legionnaire no less. And so, we an Imperial Legion recruit, set out to s

olve the murder. He recently died while inside the local egg mine. We get let in by the door guard and some snooping reveals an Orc in the lower levels who threatens to attack us if we don't leave. He threatens to count to 10, oh no, please, go ahead. ["I want nothing to do with you, Orc"] ["I'm going to enjoy this!"] ["It's your last chance, run or die!"] I eventually find a pool with a body and an axe that I somehow intuit belongs to the Lugrub, wait they never found the body? How did they kno

w he died then, and didn't just go skip town to go to the Suran House of Earthly Pleasures? And sure enough, there's a ghost of the widow's husband, who is there to detail the murder. The Orc was sleeping on duty, woke up to find him there, and killed him to cover up his insubordination and General Darius believes our story. He even rewards us with a free broadsword for taking the initiative and solving the case, no, no thank you. As you might be able to tell, this quest is written a bit differe

nt, than the other factions I've detailed in this series. That's because it has a different writer, and said writer clearly had a different perspective on writing. To give a clear example, I reference an earlier murder mystery quest we've done. For House Hlaalu we're tasked with solving a noble's murder Asking locals in Balmora points us to an Argonian suspect. Asking the servant of a noble points to a Dunmer man. You know what doesn't enter the evidence pool? A murder weapon with the name of th

e murderer still on it, still planted in the skull of the victim and the victim's ghost certainly doesn't pop up from the grave to recount the events of the murder. I mean, all is fair, right? The murderer is an Orc, so he might be prideful enough to carve his name in his weapon and then dispose of it poorly, and sure, ghosts do exist in the setting. I'm not saying the circumstances are implausible but well this is a problem with the later games too. Instead of creating an actual mystery, that r

equires detective work, where there is no actual way of knowing with absolute certainty who the murderer is, this quest was written with the desire of creating an emotional payoff. And having the ghost of the victim show up means that there is no speculation on the part of the player, on why the murder happened in the first place. For the Hlaalu murder, you weren't actually given solid motive for either suspect. There's a lot of evidence that the Argonian is only suspected by people because of h

is race, and the Dunmer ends up being the more likely suspect, but just as easily we could be missing out on a whole other story. A story where an Argonian man has an affair with a servant of a racist noble, whom is killed in a conflict between the two, and to cover up the crime of her lover, the servant implicates a man who, while still a criminal, is not guilty of this crime. Pretty interesting, right? Well just as easily the story could be that of a Camonna Tong thug, murdering a pro-abolitio

n Hlaalu noble, then spreading rumors that it was an Argonian-free man who did the deed. Do you want to know why Mr. Ghost here got murdered? Because he woke up in Orc who was sleeping on the job, and the Orc didn't want to get in trouble with his boss. See the problems with having the murder victim posthumously explain the crime? Just as easily you could solve the crime by saying: 1. Vabdas' last known location was inside the mine looking for food 2. inside the part of the mine where the food i

s is an Orc who's threatening to kill people for trespassing. even his fellow members of the Imperial Legion. And 3. deep inside the cave is a skeleton in an unmarked imperial weapon, a weapon that the Orc is missing. Players who fail to find point 3 might still be able to figure out that the Orc has a history of violent confrontations. maybe he's on strike 2 of 3 from losing his job As for motives, besides being an Orc, he is standing right next to a bed roll in some empty mugs so you can fill

in the blanks. This is a very dramatic first quest, for a faction that, generally, does not match the tone of the other factions in the game. Our next task is to cure the Blighted Kwama Queen Oh no, do I really need to detail this one? We've done this quest twice already. Next we need to rescue a pilgrim who's been kidnapped. Some outcast ashlanders are living near Ald Velothi, trying to collect ransom money. Unfortunately for them this is non-negotiable So I kill them and free the hostage. A lo

cal tax collector went missing trying to collect taxes from a Telvanni living in Gnisis. Old Baladas Demnevanni of Mages Guild and House Telvanni fame. Fun fact, the wiki says that the summoning room key unlocks the dungeon cell door. it doesn't, at least not on the Xbox. You know, I can't blame Morrowind fans are not playing it on the Xbox. Baladas isn't thrilled. He says that he imprisoned the tax collector because she's collecting taxes for a false Empire. And that he only really tolerates th

e people of Gnisis. I respond that everybody pays taxes he rebuffs this. Presumably, I mentioned that if he wants to be a sovereign, he needs to have the power to back up his claims and we fight. Rest in peace, Baladas Demnevanni, a true OG. "Don't think I ever get out of that place." Wow, the Imperial Legion was not shown love or an editor. Alright, fine, I'll talk about the writer. Todd Howard (5'6") For the most part, up to this point, we've been working with the writing of Douglas Goodall. S

eriously, he wrote all three Imperial Guilds all three Great Houses, as well as the Morag Tong, and the Tribunal Temple questlines. He also had mostly worked out the beats the Imperial Legion questline, but fell behind. Having a falling out can do, that so Todd Howard stepped in and finished it. This may be one of the big reasons the Imperial Legion, and the Imperial Cult for that matter, feel so different compared to the rest of the factions. Goodall was clearly more interested in a low fantasy

writing style about mundane everyday living, while writers like Michael Kirkbride and Ken Rolston focused on the more high fantasy and esoteric concepts of the game So what's the deal with Howard? I mean we all know the meme of him is the liar that over-promises and under-delivers of today but turns out his favorite of the games with his name on it is Morrowind. He doesn't want to remaster it, he wants people to play it for what it is. And I certainly agree, but why? Well that's where we get in

to the context behind this game. Daggerfall did well enough but Bethesda had gotten a little mismanaged in the 90s. Between Battlespire and Redguard the company had overextended itself to little reward. There was a very real threat of Bethesda either becoming a shovelware company or going under. So when you hear stuff like Morrowind saved Bethesda Yeah it's true, for a time Bethesda was a success story in a gaming industry that tries to snuff out innovation and creativity for safer, secure, and

exploitative designs. I think part of the reason people like to rag on Howard is partly because it's a fall from grace. More than anything, it's an unabashed greed that goes into something like Fallout 76 that bothers people. I think Howard over promises and oversimplifies the modern games because he doesn't want his company to ever go back to its dark times of the late 90s. It certainly lines up with the fact that Bethesda, the developer at least, is one of the few AAA dev studios that doesn't

abuse their employees with crunch periods, Howard knew what it was like to work under crunch. It's part of the reason I'm interested to see Starfield. I mean, if the claims are true, and this is what Howard has been wanting to make, for a long time it'll either be a return to form that we've been waiting for or it'll be a disaster from a man who's lost touch with his original fan base. It'll be fascinating either way. As for Todd's work on the Imperial Legion, I mean, the guy's talent is using O

rk magic to make his games work, not as a writer or a designer. He wants to tell exciting stories, and isn't really interested in exploring the culture of the Legion, like, did I mention the Legion of Gnisis as mostly made up of Orcs? That never comes up in this questline. Our final quest for Darius involves investigating the local Talos Cult. Rumor has it that Oritius Maro is in the cult, and when bribed 200 gold, he invites us to join and gives us a key to a secret shrine. Sure enough, there's

a shrine and some investigation reveals a note saying they need to strike soon if Emperor Uriel Septim the Seventh, yes, the big man himself, is going to come to Vvardenfell. The shrine guard doesn't appreciate me snooping, and neither does Maro, so hey at least I get my bribe money back. This is probably the fastest a literal conspiracy theory has ever been debunked. And thus ends our work with General Darius. We're high enough ranked to operate as free agents of the Legion but, something feel

s off. I think it has to do with the fact that all of these quests took place in and around Gnisis The quest tried to be more than just go to X and do Y, opening with a literal murder mystery and all but, it feels superficial, because this isn't the kind of work a new recruit should be doing. Especially in contrast with the other factions that do give you the right kind of work for new members. I accidentally activated Darius's bed, while trying to pick up some gear, earning a small bounty in a

building full of guards. Yeah, and maybe it'd be nice to the bounty triggered after you actually tried to start resting, not just when I hit the bed by accident. That said, it means I got some good footage of me stripping down and running around naked for a while while I was wanted. Darius, once he's calmed down about our heinous crime, says for further orders I need to check with the Knight Protectors at each Fort. We're told in Moonmoth that the Buoyant Armigers have challenged us to a hunt. A

nd the Ordinators say they're going to get a piece of Corprus Weepings, while we need to get a piece of scrap metal to prove our superiority to the Tribunal Temple. Okay Todd, those aren't all synonymous groups. So I take a run up the hill, and ask the nearby Dwemer ruin for a cup of metal and turn up the difficulty while I'm here. Turning up the difficulty does breathe a little bit of new life into the playthrough, since Mace was starting to become unstoppable. Personally, on the PC, I find the

max difficulty to be the most fun, but that's with the benefit of near instant loading screens for when I die. We do get paid 500 gold for the work so hey, it's already better than Redoran. Our next task is to rescue a missionary who went missing while preaching the good word, of quite literal Imperialism, to the Erabenimsun camp. Hostage situations aren't very pressing, so I go look for work elsewhere. Over in Ald'ruhn, at Buckmoth, we're tasked with finding evidence of Drinar Varyon being a s

muggler. I presume this is after Rethan implicated him in the Hlaalu questline, as while he did provide evidence Odral Helvi was smuggling the Legion, only has his testimony that Varyon was involved. Varyon isn't the best at hiding his shadiness, he claims he is practicing pottery. Although, I guess I could believe him, since I see pots in every building, but so far Varyon is the first potter I've met. Unfortunately for him, I apparently don't need a warrant to search his home and hidden amongst

his pottery is a Dwemer tube. And yeah, that's enough for a conviction hook him boys. ["Stop! You violated the law!"] Next we're told that one of our own is being held for ransom in a Daedric ruin and we need to rescue him. Hostage situations are a pressing matter, so off we go. [*Humming*] Let's talk about Daedric ruins. They tend to be varied, having very alien names, like Ashurnibibi with jagged architecture, and a comfortable blood red color, full of Daedra and Daedric accessories, and if

you see a shrine, I will warn you now to leave their donations alone. We don't talk about what happens if you touch the donation. Quests that involve actually going to Daedric ruins are pretty rare though. They are a source of entertainment you have to be proactive, and seek out on your own. The benefits of the ruins are access to valuables, which can be used or sold for money and inevitably turned into training and levels, which is smart, up until you realize that most Daedric ruins are too dif

ficult for characters lower than level 10. Which is unfortunate for me, as most of the time I was playing, and in need of cash for this video, Daedric ruins were out of the question. This is assuredly a "me" issue, a "making a long analysis video" issue. So after killing a bunch of tough Orcs and Daedra, we find Joncis who thanks us for killing his captors, and tells us he'll find his own way out of the ruin. Our next task from Buckmoth is to recover a token of a maiden. A rogue Telvanni, at thi

s point which ones aren't rogue, a rogue Telvanni Varona Nelas is blackmailing a Buoyant Armiger with an embroidered glove. At first this doesn't really seem an issue for the Legion, until we go to the assman I mean Asumanu and recover the glove. The Telvanni in question has a secretary who informs me that I'll need an appointment to meet with Nelas, and like the brave initiative taking Redguard I am, I just go in anyways. Varona Nelas says she's only willing to discuss the glove with a friend,

something that will cost me, the thing is, Mace doesn't do blackmail, and the situation ends poorly as a result. Yeah so, if you were wondering why the Legion cares about this glove, it's because it's embroidered with the name Ilmeni Dren who happens to be the Duke's daughter. Sadly, there is no reward, nor really any intrigue about the Legion covering for the Duke's daughter. Over in Ebonheart we're tasked to deal with a slanderous Buoyant Armiger, who says we lack courtesy. We're told to get o

ur hands on 'The Red Book of Riddles', and go correct the issue. And sure enough, the Armiger Salyn Sarethi is willing to concede we have wit, provided we can win a contest of riddles. and Sarethi just quotes said 'Red Book of Riddles' verbatim. Kinda weird the quest giver somehow knew this book would be relevant. Fun fact - we returned Salyn Sarethi's dagger to him during the Thieves Guild questline. Next we're tasked with dealing with a traitor who is working for a den of sorcerers and Daedra

worshipers in a remote area. What is that? No, no, get away from me! Meet the Greater Bone Walker, or as they're more affectionately known, why Bethesda never gave an enemy a damage attribute effect ever again. Kind of a weird name, but absolutely fitting. See attributes in Morrowind are important. In Daggerfall they were life or death, but in Morrowind, you can live through having one knocked down to zero, it just enters its equations with said value of zero. Only problem with that would be str

ength. See Strength in Morrowind dictates how hard you hit and your encumbrance. Encumbrance is 5 times the value of your Strength. Question though, what is 5 times 0? Next question: Which playstyle generally has the greatest carry weight, and do they regularly come in melee range? And the Bone Walkers are rather quick to cast the spell, so unsuspecting players are going to find themselves completely unable to move in a short manner of time. Now, the first instinct might be to reload a save. I'm

on the Xbox so no quicksaves. And, for reasons that don't go bearing into, in this video Bethesda prioritized taking feedback from the Xbox players, when it came to the design of Oblivion. which is why, rather than improving the effect, they just stopped using it. There are two ways you're supposed to circumnavigate the problem. The first is by carrying a restore strength potion in your inventory. That would, however, make it unique as the only restorative that is completely necessary to carry

to avoid soft locking your game. the second is some method of getting back to town, Interventions, Recall, or just dropping everything and running back naked and unarmed. If I was designing it personally, I would have had damaged attributes recover through resting, offering a non-magical solution to dealing with damage attributes that makes sense and still carries some consequence for lack of preparedness. Your strength would naturally come back over time. Or, I would have it so that the most yo

ur attributes can get damaged is say 50% so you can still feel the negative and the lasting effects of getting cursed without it trapping you completely. Or just have the value that represents strength be five times plus 25 so even at a value of zero you still have 25 units of weight to work with so you can carry a weapon and clothes on your walk of shame back to town. Back in the synopsis, turns out the broken level geometry here has prevented the trader Honthjolf from being a threat. While we'

re over here, I decided to finally go rescue that missionary I've been putting off. So the Erabenisum locals say they told him that the Mabrigash wanted to hear all about that Imperial lifestyle of living in the soon-to-be retconned jungle. One bribe later, and he tells us that the Mabrigash are when their wise women leave the tribe to go off stealing men's vital essences to become more powerful. so now we have to go rescue this guy from literal semen demons. Thankfully, he left a trail of book

pages to follow to the camp. And, on the way, I meet with a lost slave who is saying he needs to get home, but isn't too enthusiastic to actually ask me to help, so I leave him in the middle of the wasteland. He's part of a quest for the Twin Lamps faction that Ilmeni Dren heads that is dedicated to slave abolition, I didn't play it, because it's just two quests. I find the camp and the situation feels very familiar to earlier in the questline. I ask what they want and this time it's not ransom,

they just say they need a man for their magic to work, and insist that if I want Jocien back, I'll need to replace him. With a man from the tribe. I decide to use the business end of my sword and- Oh, God, that's non-sexual, doesn't it? No, Okay, no. I didn't [ __ ] down the wise woman. I killed her. And not metaphorically from over pleasure. Literally, from over death. Jocien has learned nothing from this encounter, as he wishes to continue trying to preach the good word. Good luck with effect

ing any measure of generational change on a society of people that live three times as long as you. Our next orders are to rescue another hostage from some bandit ah jeez. Yeah, just generic bandits. And either I didn't do this quest, or this quest is so lackluster that I didn't take any notes on it. Thankfully, at this point, we're high enough rank to apply for a job in the Knights the Garland of the Order of Ebonheart. Provided we can track down two of the orders artifacts and remember their s

illy name. The first artifact is the Lord's Mail Which lord? Oh, the Armor of Morihaus. It was being kept in a shrine in the Imperial Commission, Then it got stolen. One of the folks in the shrine suggests with someone named Rufinus, who himself figures that it was Furius Acilius who stole the armor. The first piece of evidence is his unfortunate name, Furius, which is just bound for trouble. The second piece of evidence was that Furious was talking a lot about the armor and about a cave below t

he castle and recently got fired. Motive and opportunity In the shrine itself are track marks leading to a hidden door. Cool, but I must be the first person investigating this case because how would you miss that? We need a key. Because my security skill is basically nothing on this character. And, after spending an embarrassing amount of time looking for Furius' room, the hidden door reveals access into the cave. Where Furius and his rat army are holed up. One fight later, and we return the arm

or to Varus Vantinus. If that quest sounds short and stupid, it kind of is. I mean, if you don't see a problem with a guy named Furius stealing a precious artifact, going through a hidden door, feet from its shrine, locked by a key, a copy of which is sitting in his room, so that he can live out the rest of his days starving to death in a cave below a castle and stylish plate armor. Then I guess you're not going to see a problem with anything. Good news. Bethesda has made two whole Elder Scrolls

games appealing to people like you. You'll also enjoy this next quest. The other artifacts were tasked with grabbing is Chrysamere. It got stolen by another knight, And now it's in the hands of a rogue Telvanni by Sadrith Mora, that's also apparently so scary, she's frightened Telvanni into daring not speak her name. Kill her, take the sword, give it a Varus. Okay, first of all, is there anybody in this Legion who isn't a traitor? Oh, what's that Varus wants to do? Okay. hang on, dude, seriousl

y. There's a tad too many quests that involve knights murdering locals, knights engaging in petty faction warfare, knights getting captured, knights betraying the cause to go work for rogue Telvanni. And, by the way, can I just say that I am sick of hearing about rogue Telvanni Doing this or that? Oh, no, A rogue Telvanni has built a stronghold in the middle of uncontested wasteland. Oh, no, The Duke's abolitionist daughter is being blackmailed by a rogue Telvanni into admitting that she had a r

elationship with a prominent member of a religious faction that doesn't practice abstinence. Their love, is not forbidden. Fact: If Draramu Hloran was terrorizing the city of Sadrith Mora, living a stone's throw away from multiple powerful wizards, and she was hoarding powerful artifacts. more than likely Master Neloth, Arch Magister Gothren or Lord Divayth Fyr. would have, at a minimum, asked her to knock it off, or more likely, either killed her or tasked some poor Telvanni player with the job

. We aren't talking about Balmoran peasants here, this is House Telvanni, they don't consider Dagoth Ur a threat, so why would they be scared of some witch with a giant sword? And finally, the duel. We've been putting artifacts in the hands of Varus only for him to turn around and use those artifacts to one shot me while in my adrenaline rush. Whatever, at least this one has his armor on. But yeah, this guy is hitting like a monster truck at the local playground, which means I used what is proba

bly the dirtiest and most underhanded way to beat an opponent yet. Step one: charm. Step two: buff. Step three: Get in a few swings before he even reacts. You might think that honor should be an aspect in this, but thing is sending out to go collect artifacts that you proceed to use against me as kind of a [____] move. I mean, I get it. I possess the Ice Blade of the Monarch so getting your own magic sword is fine by me, but not the Armor of Morihaus. I don't like the Imperial Legion in Morrowin

d. I realized, upon reflection, that it's much more misanthropic than most of the other quest lines. The Legion is lording over a conquered people, and sending missions out to preach their lifestyle to the indigenous population. We're one quest away where we hand out Corprus blankets from outright commentary. Thing is, that could have worked, because unlike Amerindians or the sand landers, the Dunmer culture is much more capable of repelling foreign influence. But I kept getting the feeling that

whomever wrote this, I presume Todd actually wrote the questline, wanted it to be a story of the player cleaning up the Legion's ill intents on their way up to the top. I think that could worked, however, the questline lacked a real narrative. It was much more a bunch of isolated instances of demonstrating how incompetent these colonizers were or how morally bankrupt members could be. And it wasn't exactly subtle. From the Orc killing a native man to cover up his laziness on the job to all the

posturing to the Armigers, to the knights who abandoned their cause for self-gain. I mean, do I have to stress that his name was Furius? There is one unique aspect I have to praise, and that's the uniform system. Legionaries, even the player are expected to wear their uniforms when speaking to a superior officer. And the player is given a number of different cuirasses that qualify in this respect. This means that heavy armor isn't just an expected skill of members, It's outright mandatory to com

plete the questline. The order of the 'garlic' are the Duke's guard. They're underexplored. It's a very short time between joining the upper echelon of the faction to outright leading it, so there aren't any quests where you go out and do knightly things. Unlike other factions, where Quest are reflections of the values and principles of said factions. The Imperial Legion stands alone as the faction that could be most described by the phrase: Go to X and do Y. [IMPERIAL CULT] The Imperial Cult is

a bit of an oddity. While Douglas Goodall wrote most of the factions, and started on the Imperial Legion questline that was later finished by Todd Howard. The Imperial Court questline was done by Ken Rolston. Goodall, in an interview, said that initially the Cult was going to be a potential expansion, or plugin material. I suspect this was because it was written after Main Questline was mostly finished Or written concurrently with the main quest to give Rolston a break from writing one project

for too long. And I understand that feeling, believe me. That said, a questline written by somebody else gives the game an entirely different feeling. But, unlike the Legion with Howard, it's kind of a good one. Goodall's philosophy to quest writing was to make quests similar to Daggerfall. Rolston, on the other hand, created a series of more interesting quests, but the faction itself is also smaller in scale. To start, this is a continuation of Wiz, our Mages Guild character. I had a hard time

justifying why a character would line up with the Cult, or with the Temple for that matter, so let's just say she found the Divines in her research. It was her, Uvarith there was no way to Telvanni was going to convert. I cheated a bit and did a bit of preparation, prior experience with the questline tempered me to what to expect. Amusingly can gain quite a bit of rank without needing to leave this room. One of the first quest givers asks you to collect alchemical ingredients. He will give speci

fic directions for areas where you may collect these ingredients. But, as with most quests in Morrowind, this is entirely superfluous, as any rat meat or natural leather will suffice. So if you purchase the necessary alchemical ingredients in advance, you can quickly complete his entire questline. Another quest giver deals with collecting donations for the Cult. This is primarily gold, about 2000 or so, but also some brandy and a shirt. Again, adequate preparation can blast you through this ques

tline in record time, and all it costs is money, this is mostly just time saving. While the quests are interesting, there isn't really any reflection to be had with them. Yes indeed, there are quests I'm not doing in this analysis, I know it might not seem like it. In addition, I collected 100 scrolls of Divine Intervention. Just because. You do need to donate 50 gold to join the cult, a preventative measure, I suspect since certain Atronach related characters can take easy advantage of the shri

nes otherwise. But, 50 gold is nothing in the grand scheme of things. Diseases are an intentional annoyance, similar to durability, and like durability, It was drastically reined in in the later games. Overworld enemies scale, usually getting a little tougher, but notably becoming more infectious, presenting a chance of catching the disease. I most commonly contracted common diseases, I do not think in my entire history of playing this game that I've ever actually contracted a Blight disease. An

d we'll talk more about Corprus in part six. This is a mixture of becoming powerful enough to not get hit by blighted monsters, and not coming in contact with too many blighted creatures outside of the main questline. And I'll spoil this now, there's a reward, a third of the way through the main quest that provides total immunity to all diseases, including Blight. So the main questline that chances catching Blight the most, will make you immune to it. So, if immunity is a reward, why have the me

chanic? It's another one of those questions of intentional annoyance, It's an added concern that has to be prepared for prior to an adventure, and a punishment for those who came unprepared. Disease is also a part of the story of Morrowind, more so than the later games. There's a canon reason you can't leave Vvardenfell, and it's because the island has been quarantined due to Blight. Corprus is a biological weapon that is being used by the Sixth House against the Tribunal and the Outlanders. Man

y quests involve curing, or providing the cure, to various ailments the island. So in this case, I can forgive the later games, easing up on diseases, making them rarer, reducing them down to one category, etc. Because their stories aren't about disease. That said, if the next game were to be set in, say, the Black Marsh or Valenwood, then I would hope a special mind be paid to the disease system, perhaps making spreading the disease more robust, like sharing it with NPCs and infecting entire to

wns with careless behavior. And, by the way, this entire section was written prior to the human malware. Shrines can perform other jobs. They can restore attributes, and the tribunal shrines can provide even more functions. The only problem is, all the services provided by shrines are done so in a more convenient form by potions and scrolls. Shrines are cheaper, sure, but you can cure a disease or restore an attribute out in the field with a potion or a spell. I was never in such a dire financia

l situation as to not be able to justify buying a cure common disease potion. So one of the perks of acquiring a rank in the Cult, free shrine usage, is not a standout reason to drop everything and go do the questline on all of your characters. A quirk of the Cult questline is how quest givers introduce themselves. They'll often spring quests on to you as soon as you open the dialogue, chastising you if you return early, or having completed your objective yet. So you can't use their services, if

you're presently working for them, or they'll assume you've been derelict in your duties. But, they also tend to provide a lot of choices in dialogue. Sure, some of these choices are: 'I have failed and must be flagellated'. But other choices, especially with the gold collection quests, give you the opportunity to go above and beyond for extra rewards. I think between Howard, Goodall, and Rolston, Rolston used the dialogue system fully coming the closest Elder Scrolls ever has to a branching di

alogue. So, after you get done with all your gold in ingredient collection, you'll find yourself with access to the upper level of the Cult. You'll notice we're spending quite a bit of time here in this one room, that is functionally the entire faction. Fits in line with the idea that this was originally going to be an expansion. Still, this is our first real quest. Well, Lalatia Varian says that she has visions from the Nine, and wants me to solve them. She says she has seen 'the Ring of the Wi

nd' upon a Dark Elf's hand and tells me a riddle, and sends me to ask a Dunmer savant and scout about it. Now, these quests present the opportunity to use the services of savants and scouts, who have unique information to share about the world. This is a pure Rolston idea, as he uses this a lot in the main quest as well. While Goodall tended to just have quest givers themselves provide the directions to locations. There should have been a lot more opportunities to use these services. And this go

es triply for Oblivion and Skyrim, with their quest marker philosophy. That said, I think it is a shame that the puzzles can't be solved by the players own knowledge about the world. Especially considering the people were directed to ask are located in Vivec. So we had to where she had the vision, a cave called Namu. I had turned the difficulty up during the Legion, but Wiz was far lower along the power threshold compared to Mace was getting my ass beat. But paralysis works in a zinch. After a w

izard duel, I get the ring and meet a guy named Jon Hawker. He says he was taken hostage by the wizard to be sold as a slave, and that we must have been sent by the Zenithar himself to save him. He's actually a manifestation of Zenithar. Another difference between Goodall and Rolston. He asks to give him a Divine Intervention scroll, of which there are plenty in the cave in case you came unprepared. I have over 100 or so already, and indeed I give over 100 scrolls to him. Every time I give him a

scroll he gives me a pair of gloves and a reputation point. Every time. So after hundreds of button presses, I have 113 reputation, and 104 pairs of gloves. At fair value, this is 412,000 gold. And I can admire anyone into liking me instantly as I am the most famous person on the entire Island, if not all of Tamriel. Obviously this is an exploit. Since Hawker didn't close the dialogue box after teleporting out, allowing me to give him all these scrolls. And I'm going to add in here, that this i

s an exceptionally easy problem to fix. As in, since I started the previous sentence, I've already spoken more characters than it takes to close a dialogue box in the editor. So chalk this one up to forgetfulness, and this quest having been created late in development. there's actually another opportunity to do this, but I'm not going to, Since the process of buying 100 scrolls of Divine Intervention, and subsequently giving them to them, is absolutely awful on the Xbox. Let's just say that, for

all the dynamic and interesting ideas Rolston had, they can be equally with the strange quirks of his quests. Speaking of, Varian has another vision, this time of 'the Boots of the Apostle'. They're in a Dunmer stronghold named Brandis, which has not one, not two, but three Winged Twilights for me to fight. Talk about an escalation in difficulty, I was here for quite a while Oh well, I mean, these are flying enemies, Can't they just fly at me? I guess there must not be any flying enemies in Mor

rowind. Oh, yeah. Yeah... Speaking of flying, we now have the 'Boots of the Apostle'. The boots the big man Talos wore as he descended from the throne of the world, that are for some reason here in Vvardenfell. And, if you're attentive, you'll notice that there are some ledges at the top of the cave with someone up there. It's an aspect of Mara, and like Hawker, she wants a scroll of Divine Intervention. It's kind of awkward that this idea was repeated only once. Hawker was obvious, with scrolls

present if you came unprepared, while Ama Nin here is more obscure, and with no scrolls nearby. Again, I'm not sure why Rolston decided to have this encounter twice. Technically, there's a third encounter in the same vein as this, but it happens during the main quest. Let's take a break from prophecy and seers visions, to do some other high level work for the cult. We're tasked with recovering a Limeware Bowl that was sto- Okay, prophecy time it is. Varian asks us to recover the Ice Blade of Th

e Monarch. Which Mace had acquired while working for the Fighters Guild. So, while we didn't find the blade, we did manage to rescue some slaves. One woman, Adusamsi, asked us to grab her ring, which casts Divine Intervention, and she leaves with it. We get that same ring as a reward later, and obviously we also have the Ice Blade, But, that's not as fun. The Cult has a great questline early on, but, even from an experienced Morrowind player, I don't really understand how people with fresh chara

cters are expected to match the rapid change in difficulty and significance from gathering money for charity, to battling wizards, Winged Twilights and Daedra worshipers. Thankfully, our next quest from Varian is a bit more of a blue milk run. We're just going to recover some scroll nothing too crazy, but I think Varian is overcompensating for not having an actual artifact for me to recover this time. I know the scroll isn't actually an artifact, because a healer was sent to a Deadric ruin to tr

y and kill an old Altmer with it. We go to the ruin, and there is a handy side passage you can sneak through to get through to the scroll first, for sneaky characters, who might not be able to handle the mandatory horde of Daedra and highly talented warriors of Mehrunes Dagon. You know, just monk things, the scroll one shots the priest not because it's any good, but because he's actually really weak. You'll be seeing more of him in the next part. Oh God, I'm in summary mode. At least it's the la

st quest and no, there hasn't been a theme to any of these. It's just, kind of an inane list of tasks, which I don't know, I'm thinking about, It might be commentary on religion. Food for thought. While I'm poorly digesting it, let's get into Varian's final task. Long ago, in a distant land, the Nords invaded, and a smith, Hilbongard made a powerful warhammer named Skullcrusher. The hammer was lost in a buried Deadric ruin, and in all this time, nobody has bothered to actually excavate the site.

Okay. Not sure why a Nord was hanging out in a day, jerk ruined during the days of the Nordic occupation of Resdayn. Or why Telvanni living a stone's throw away from it never bothered to go pilfering. I honestly think Goodall was the only one at Bethesda who understood what the hell Varney were all about. We get directed by a scout to look for Dunmer tombs near the ruins through which we discover a pathway into the ruins. There's some cool stuff here. Literally. There's a patch of ice that a Fr

ost Atronach is hanging out on. And the dungeon is very vertically oriented, which is good, as the Boots of the Apostle allows us the power of flight. Once we find the forge, and I should stress that once we find it, it's in a floating chest in the middle of the forge. Varian, for some reason, notes that Hammer isn't cursed and declares her questline to be finished. And that's where I stopped playing the Cult because I ran out of quests, and really wasn't interested in doing a bunch of go to X a

nd do Y quests for the Shrine Sergeant. The Imperial Cult is unique, definitely. In fact, I'd say it's pretty well fleshed out. Beyond the Limeware Bowl Quest is four more interesting quests, involving a witch hunt, two hauntings and a really bad puzzle. That said, it definitely feels like a faction that was bolted on to the game towards the end. The faction has little to add to the existing Imperial shrines in the world, and, outside of one example, there isn't really any instances of faction c

rossovers. It is, however, another faction that lacks an overarching narrative. And it's in an inconvenient location, being set in the Ebonheart Chapel atop a castle. And as I noted, there is a drastic ramp up in difficulty from the first half to the second, which is one of the reasons I decided to use a preexisting character instead of creating a new one. Ultimately, however, it does not compare to the other factions, and especially not with the other religious faction I'll be discussing, the T

ribunal Temple. So let's get into the Dunmer factions, starting with the Morag Tong. ["MORAG TONG"] We all know the triangle of RPG specializations, right? You have the hulking warriors of legend, the studious mages and wizards of antiquity. But is the third corner a thief or an assassin? There's a pretty big difference, one that isn't really there for the other corners. And it's not just a difference of morals either, the skill set is completely different. So who gets to claim to be the third c

orner of the triangle, and where does the other one go if it's not them? I say this as we're discussing the faction of the Morag Tong Mephala worshipers turned legal assassination administration. The Dunmer who historically worshiped Mephala, have incorporated a legal way to employ hitmen. I find this detail to often be the straw that breaks the camel's back when discussing the Dunmer with people not familiar with Elder Scrolls. Because, I mean, criminal organizations, all cultures have had them

at some point. And unique geographic features like giant mushrooms, or alien creatures aren't really outside the realm of imagination. But a legally recognized religious organization dedicated to the art of murder that isn't entirely made up of psychopaths? That's a new one for some people. Sure, groups have existed, but usually they didn't hold residents in offices and their actions were immediately by law enforcement and acquitted. See, it's a side effect of Tamriel is interpretation of murde

r. Obviously, murder is illegal, but for whatever reason, there is no crime you can't pay your way of. I suppose this is the Empire's way of dealing with affluenza, allowing legal murder, at a hefty price. Or it's just a mechanical way to discourage casual murder at the cost of a small bit of immersion. The Morag Tong is also different from other actions in terms of gaining membership. Most factions are over inclusive, offering casual membership at the drop of a hat. For the Morag Tong, however,

membership is exclusive to those who can find their headquarters in Vivec. It's hidden in the Arena, just to give that canton something to do when it isn't hosted in the quest of other factions. Once you sign up personally with the Grandmaster Eno Hlaalu, you can get most of the jobs in any of the Morag Tong offices, which are, conveniently, in all the main towns. Although honestly, you're just better off setting your mark here and working out of Vivec, since it's here that you can receive all

of the major quests for the faction from one quest giver. So how does the typical job for the Morag Tong work? To test out our skills, we are given a writ and a name Feruren Oran. He's a patron over the over Elven Nations Cornerclub. He doesn't like the way I'm looking at him, so I pull out my knife and kill him. Everyone in the bar is shocked, I'm a wanted man, and as I leave, I'm confronted by a guard. How does a Tong handle bounties? Now, the Morag tong does have it slightly easier than most

when it comes to legal human extermination, but let's start with the basics. When you kill someone, you earn a 1040 gold bounty. 1000 for the murder, 40 for the initial assault. From then on, you'll be hounded by guards presenting you with the choice of prison time, paying off your bounty, and summary execution. Remember, in Morrowind, guards are only excited by bounties over 1000. Bounties over 5000 aren't given the option of paying their bounty off, their only recourse being to use the Thieves

Guild. Presuming the reason you're wanted didn't involve killing all of them. However, there are still ways to get away with murder. In my opinion, it's easier with the radiant AI systems to commit murders, since in Morrowind most NPCs have static positions. With that in mind, it's still pretty easy. The first recourse is to just pay the bounty. This comes with a big downside, namely confiscation of stolen goods. If you've seen me strip down before talking to a guard, yeah, that's the reason. B

ut even characters whom I generally did not steal with, like Mace during the Imperial Legion, questline would still strip down. And this was because what you might consider stolen, and what the game considers stolen, will not only differ, you won't be told what the game considers stolen. And this was a genuine on the part of Oblivion. For all of these reasons, the rest of these solutions are much more attractive. The core of more weapons legal system is reliant on who initiates a lethal confront

ation. If you're attacked, you can kill people in self-defense, and that's A-OK. Using speechcraft taunts can be used to initiate conflict. It's a strange beast of a system. Whether or not taunts will succeed is contingent on their disposition. But in a parabolic shape, where it's more effective the closer to an average of 50, than it is to an extreme like zero or 100. People who loathe you, and love you, are less likely to be goaded into fighting you. But taunts lower your disposition, whether

they succeed or fail, and they are dice roles themselves based on your speechcraft skill. Very commonly attempting to taunt people to stir them into action would fail because it would grind their disposition down. In a twist of common sense, people can be taunted, bribed, and taunted repeatedly. Then, after you kill them, you get all of your bribe money back. This means in Dunmer culture, a love of money supersedes basic self-preservation instincts. Taunt bribing is a tedious method, however, es

pecially on the Xbox. So let me present another option: under the illusion discipline you have the frenzy spell, a mostly useless spell for traditional playstyles, frenzy is an easy way to initiate conflicts without issue. Strangely, casting magic to influence people is not considered a form of assault. So those with the skill and magic can make a frenzy spell 70 points for 2 seconds. Enemies' violent tendencies don't drop off after those 2 seconds are up, and those 70 are sufficient to anger ev

ery NPC in the game. However, for this situation, I did none of these things. That is because the Morag Tong, as a function of its organization, is allowed to create honorable writs of execution which guards, even non Dunmer Imperial guards, will recognize and remove your bounty. I present the writ, and walk away a free man, and you can do that for the rest of the quests. There's an added monetary reward for those who can perform the assassinations without needing to use the writs. And even thou

gh I am playing a character who already has enough money to buy one of the moons, I actually oblige this request, since Rethen considers himself a professional assassin. The Morag Tong tends to hand out writs in pairs rather than one at a time. This is good because many of the writs are just go to place, kill person. This makes the questline notes rather short, since none of the quests are really multi-stage or complex, let's make this more of a highlight reel. Our first two marks couldn't be mo

re different. One is living in the city of Vivec, atop a door and plaza in a manner, the other is living in a yurt near Tel Fyr in Azura's Coast. The one thing they share, however, is that they both attack us on site, rightfully suspecting us of being Morag Tong assassins. This is a problem I have with the later assassins' questlines, as well as the Morag Tong, where everyone somehow intuits you're an assassin trying to kill them, but nobody else says anything about it in your general life. I co

uld just as easily be the leader of Hlaalu, reaching out to the community. I mean, I am the leader of House Hlaalu, and the Camonna Tong for that matter. But whatever. Somehow people know, because I can't just push my murder boner back down into my pants long enough to blend in. Our next set of targets are similar. One target is living with outlaws in Molag Amur. The other two are in Vivec, living in Telvanni Plaza's temporary housing unit, the Telvanni targets won't give us the time of day, pos

ing a challenge for players who rely on speechcraft to provoke their targets. This is a good progression of mechanics, forcing players to seek new ways to do the work. Option one is just killing them, netting a lower pay but being the easiest option. Option two, which I don't have footage of, is the strip down, open the dialog to get an alternate greeting, then taunt them. Luckily, frenzy will work just fine, Eno figures the cave in Molag Amur. Where our targets are hiding is obscure. But it's a

ctually pretty easy to find. I even used a bit of stealth to get through the cave. In the next phase were tasked with killing a member of House Redoran with an influential family member. This poses new problem for the player, as now targets may be members of factions risking expulsion for trying to outright murder people, even if otherwise legally acceptable. What I find funny is that Eno mentions that the Dark Brotherhood is operating in Morrowind. ["Young Scrolls - DAGOTHWAVE"] Yeah, you don't

say. So Eno wants me to make contact with the Brotherhood that they might come to some. mutual understanding To start, we're directed to meet with Miun-Gei, a Mehrunes Dagon cultist, who directs me to his contact - Tsrazami. A Khajiit in the Foreign Quarter. She says she won't betray the Brotherhood for empty threats or gold, but eventually does, thanks to my uncanny ability to charm. And she is totally going to survive her meeting with Eno. Trust me. So this is my target, a Dunmer lady wearing

a robe and you're thinking how tough can she be? She's only wearing full ebony armor under that robe. See, that's part of what makes Morrowind's armor system great, as you can accessorize with robes and skirts without being a pre-baked model. We get another mission, This time to take out the Ienith boys living at the Dren plantation, And, yes, this is the third part in a row to feature a quest that involves killing these guys. I kind of blew through the writs, but honestly, it's just some work

for you to do, which fits the factions motif nicely. Somehow, the Morag Tong is one of the few factions that isn't plagued with trouble, and it pays decently too, as long as being a servant of Mephala doesn't bother you. While it is a nice progression of difficulty, unfortunately it's surrounded its fellow factions, notably the Thieves Guild and House Hlaalu. All three factions pay extremely well. The factions that actually need the Morag Tong as supplementary income, most notably house Redoran,

make the least diegetic sense to join. Thankfully, we're getting into the latter half of the Tong and it features a good storyline. To start Eno request that we track down 25 artifacts of Mephala, the Threads of the Webspinner. They were actually created by Sanguine, but he gave them to Mephala. About three quarters of the artifacts can be found during the events of the Morag Tong questline. The other half are found spread out across Vvardenfell You don't need to complete this quest to progress

, but you do have to complete it before you finish off the faction for the reward. Our next task from Eno is to recruit an agent of the Dark Brotherhood, Movis Darys Should I fail, I'll need to kill him honorably. Darys doesn't really contest the job offer, saying that the dark Brotherhood lacks honor, and gives us a Sanguine peace in a show of good faith. Eno now, asks we deliver an ultimatum to Carecalmo. Remember him? He was in this video an earlier part. He was the Mehrunes Dagon worshiper w

e killed during the Imperial Cult questline. I tried to chat with him, which actually works, since I'm invisible and he gives me some good advice suggesting I stay away from Daedric Ruins because they are nasty and Daedric worshipers are even nastier. Yeah, he says that because it's generic advice. Anyways, I deliver said ultimatum, to which he gets [____] and I kill him. Just as easily as I did in the Imperial Cult questline. Funny, our next quest is basically the same. We go to another ruin, r

ecover a ring, and the guy tells us how nasty you Daedric ruins are. Next we are to kill Durus Marius, a leader in the Brotherhood. Who has set up a hideout in the Underworks of Saint Olms. And finally we stab at the leadership of the Brotherhood. Going after the Night Mother herself, Severa Magia who's holed up in Ald Sotha. Ald Sotha is a Daedric ruin right next to Vivec, which just the smartest place for your faction of assassins to hide. Jesus, these guys are so stupid. I hope this is the la

st of the Dark Brotherhood we ever see. Six of the Sanguine items are here in Ald Sotha. I suspect this was a fallback place to put relics that couldn't find homes and broader Vardenfell. And with that, the local Dark Brotherhood chapter has been destroyed. Eno gives us the Black Hands Dagger, which is a powerful weapon. And, here it comes... Eno Hlaalu is going to challenge us to a duel to determine the future leadership of the Morag He offers to step down? While it is tradition in the Tong for

power transfer by combat, he actually wants to retire and sees us as a worthy successor. What a pleasant surprise. Why is it that a faction that primarily deals in killing people ends with a peaceful transfer of power? But most of the other, morally better factions, end with violent confrontation, betrayal and slaughter? I refuse him though, two reasons: The first is that if you accept Eno Hlaalu will disappear, making the Threads of the Webspinner quest unable to be completed. The second is th

at the only benefit of becoming Grandmaster are the Grandmaster Writs, which only handed out if you complete the main quest for some reason. Targets include: Larrius Varro of Moonmoth Fort, Baladas Demnevanni of House Telvanni, Dram Bero of Hlaalu, and Mistress Therana of Telvanni Varro is a dirty cop who works in Balmora. He doesn't really have anything to do with the main questline. Demnevanni dying early can break three different questlines for the Mages Guild, Telvanni and the Legion. Dram B

ero can break Hlaalu and the main quest. Therana doesn't really break anything, seeing as she's likely to be killed in the Telvanni questline. So why these raids are handed out after the main quest is really anyone's guess. Obviously, I don't have any footage of me doing them, since I wasn't going to change my main quest plans, which did not include Rethan. The Morag Tong is one of the more interesting factions in Morrowind. Their main conceit, a legal assassination organization you can only joi

n if you figure out where they are, is pretty interesting. They pay well, There's a good story in here and they got a lot of interesting quests that reward creative uses of the game's mechanics. It would have nice if the Threads of the Webspinner quests was able to be completed just by working for the Tong. I managed to find 17 of the 25 missing pieces and it kind of sucks just coming up short. It also has the added detriment that the more pieces you find, the harder it gets remembering which pi

eces you already have. I also wish the Grandmaster writs were available prior to completing the main quest since, you know, murders are supposed to have consequences. One complaint I have is that I have been showing off the Vivec branch, but the Tong actually has offices in all major cities. I said earlier that it didn't make sense to work out of them however, as it's better to complete the questline taking writs and assignments from Eno in tandem. It makes the questline feel very small, because

instead of having Balmora contracts on Balmorans, we get contracts on whomever from a singular location, and the player is incentivized to work from Eno because, well, he's the guy you have to talk to to get the job. It feels more like the Tong were given buildings in each of the cities in order to make sure players found out about and knew that the Tong were there, as an option. it's a missed opportunity because each office could have had different issues to deal with during their particular q

uests lines. Balmora could have been about deceit. Perhaps clients that are trying to get out of paying contracts, or have the assassins whacked by other criminals, or we have to compete with the Camonna Tong enforcers. Ald'ruhn could have placed special emphasis on performing jobs honorably as the Tong might be at risk of being expelled from the traditionalists and notably anti-Daedra Redoran. Sadrith Mora could have had the Tong at its most difficult, routinely getting jobs to settle grudges i

n Telvanni against powerful wizards. Postscript Hey, I get why it's called that now. One of the early divining quests involve finding a ring that's in possession of somebody at the Telvanni Morag Tong hall. The guy who has it refuses to hand it over to you without violence. But if you do outrank him in the Tong, he will give it to you. It wasn't a big quest in Telvanni but I thought it bears mentioning here, because another good example of logical faction interplay but that's all irrelevant now

for we must discuss our final major faction. ["TRIBUNAL TEMPLE"] Of everything I was going to cover for this video the Tribunal Temple is what I was most looking forward to. I never actually done it before, even though I have played Morrowind a great many times, there is always something new that I get to do in this game. I never actually played through the Tribunal Temple. The main reason being a roleplaying perspective. Morrowind is hostile to outlanders and your status as such non-negotiable.

I find this somewhat limited roleplaying, but not by much. House Redoran stretches the limits, but I think it somewhat justifies why an outlander is allowed in an otherwise hostile faction. The Temple, on the other hand, isn't really a logical choice in my books for players, especially if you go down the main questline. That said, it is a very interesting and unique faction for the game. It also contrasts nicely the Imperial Cult. The Cult is a more radical group as they are a religious minorit

y on the island, most associated with outlanders and taking up residence in Imperial forts. On the flip side, the Temple the official state religion of the Dunmer. The Temple is given a lot of nuance. Sure, they are an antagonistic force in the game and are guilty of religious persecution of their dissidents. Caius Cosades himself also admits they have an admirable dedication to helping the poor, which is something that is corroborated by some of the quests you do for the faction. The Temple als

o happens to be the main entity that is combating the spread of Blight Corprus and the Sixth House, and none of the main Temple figures you interact with are shown in particularly malevolent lights. I think it's a responsible representation of a religious organization, although perhaps it should be stated that unlike the Divines, the Tribunal Temple has the benefit of having their gods personally interact with them and help to manage to protect their society. And so continues the story Jiub Inda

rys, Archmaster of House Redoran, on his rise to sainthood. Starting out in the Temple, you will be tasked with completing the Pilgrimages of the Seven Graces. These are seven pilgrimages that introduce some key ideas and lore about the Temple. These pilgrimages are also an effective measure of filtering out commoners for the more difficult tasks done by higher echelons in the Temple. It's also a big part of culture on Vvardenfell so there are plenty of quests that involve pilgrims, generally to

help them out. The first, and by far the safest, pilgrimage is to the fields of Kummu, at this shrine you will donate a piece of muck. This is the Shrine of Humility, where the God Vivec had worked out in the field as a beast of burden for a farmer whose Guar had died. Our next stop is the Shrine of Justice in Gnisis. For this one, you donate a potion of cure disease and touch the Ashmask. Attention should be paid to the shrine itself, as it turns out, the real Ashmask is hidden, which, when us

ed, teaches a cure common and blight disease spell on touch that is very magicka efficient, and will be useful for later quests. Our next stop is the Koal Cave, near Gnisis, which we actually visited during a quest I didn't mention during the House of Dawn section. This is the Shrine of Valor where Vivec could fight the king of the Dreugh, Dreugh. It doesn't matter because the king got killed. You can get a free set of armor if you follow Vivec's actions at the shrine by slaying a Dreugh in the

cave, which is nearly as exploitable as the Divine Intervention scroll exploit in the Imperial Cult line. But I was content just donating one piece of Dreugh wax. Our next stop is the Shrine of Pride, which is located about 100 feet inside the Ghostfence of Red Mountain. It's basically just Dunmer daring each other to enter the haunted house, which is being occupied by very real zombies and satanists. To knowledge this is one of only a few quests that involved going inside of Red Mountain, outsi

de of the main questline. The shrine requires a donation of a Soulgem, any value, which includes Azura's Star. So in a fitting twist, work for the Tribunal can steal your reward for working for Azura. And in another fitting twist, Azura's Star happens to be just big enough to steal the souls of Vivec and Almalexia. Really though, the shrine accepts the permanent donation of Azura's Star because of bad scripting. There are other quests that will do this as well, such as the Telvanni Stronghold Qu

est. This is because, for whatever reason, the game tries to take the largest value Soulgem out of your inventory, which is always going to be Azura's Star should you possess it. Our next few stops are in Vivec itself. The Shrine of Generosity accepts donations of 100 gold for a small boost to Luck and Mercantile. Have I talked about Luck? Most of Morrowind skills and mechanics are reliant on complex mathematical equations. This factors in a multitude of attributes, skills, and fatigue. Luck ten

ds to be a minor influence on these equations. I didn't really play any character long enough to demonstrate what difference a decent amount of Luck can be for various playstyles. I didn't play with my Luck because has no skills, meaning it can only be raised one point per level, which also means you can't level up another attribute. If I wasn't able to put multiple points in another attribute, then I would default, raising my Luck. But I don't think I ever actually raised it past 50. If you're

a save scammer, Luck is the attribute for you, because it tends to influence your chances with things you would save scum like Alchemy, Speechcraft and lockpicking, Even stuff like Hit Chance, both offensive and defensive. Another shrine in Vivec is the Shrine to Stop the Moon. There's a large celestial body hanging over the city. It turns out long ago, after the switch from Resdayn to Morrowind and from Daedra to Tribunal, Sheogorath Have you come to be of service to Sheogorath? Sheogorath thre

w a massive rock at Vivec City. Vivec using his divine power, stopped the rock in place. Although spoiler alert, he didn't stop the velocity of the rock, just froze it in time. ["Technically, he's not actually moving slower,"] ["He's moving at the same speed just over a longer period of time."] ["Huh?"] ["It's relativistic, his fist still travels at the same velocity."] ["We just view it from a faster timeframe, therefore it looks slowed down."] ["But theoretically it should still carry the same

force."] ["force, force..."] ["Madness - this pleases me..."] This is the best shrine, both in name backstory and benefit. In exchange a levitation potion you get a 48 minute 100 point levitation effect. 100 points is very fast more so, the higher your speed is. Levitation potions range in price, but the cheapest you can donate can be found for less than 50 gold. And, in terms of location, the shrine is right next to an Almsivi Intervention point in Vivec, meaning a possible navigation option f

or the city, is the Almsivi, donate a cheap levitate potion, and fly around the city. Although it's worth noting that the actual effect time can be run down if you wait. Like, use the wait function, not sit there for an hour. Our next shrine is in the Puzzle Canal, a neglected area of the game. Despite what Vivec will say, the only hidden treasure here is the shrine. The shrine here is the Shrine of Courtesy. But it will only give the crypt tokens to breathe the water to make the way clear. When

we awake, we find the room has changed. There's a new shrine, but to use it, we have to give a silver longsword to a very, very bored Dremora. I brought my own, but he keeps a selection of swords on hand, presumably because he doesn't want to have to haggle with pilgrims who come in prepared and demand to speak to his manager. Sadly, despite how detailed the shrine is, its effect does not match. You get water breathing and Swift Swim for 48 minutes. Remember, outside this palace and in an easil

y accessible area is a shrine that will give you the power of flight. And here we get a fairly weak swim bonus and water breathing. And those were the Seven Graces. If it seemed easy, that is a consequence of me doing a little preparation, and playing a character that's already been broken in. So we return to Tuls Valen in Ald'ruhn who welcomes this as an acolyte in the Temple. A common trend, when working for the Temple, involves several quests that will have us curing people of disease. Many o

f these quests will emphasize the need to maintain humility. One of the quests even entails curing a Daedra worshiper in a Daedric ruin, full of hostiles on the side of a cliff. This is where knowing the spell Vivec's Touch from doing the Seven Graces comes in handy. Quite a few of the quest, rewards are skill books, which I definitely approve of, although I think having actual training as rewards might be slightly better, since literature tends to also double as a monetary reward, which is not

in line with the Temple's values. Also a difference between the Xbox and PC copies of the game, have to do with skill books. On the PC you can use the inventory screen to pick up books without reading them, meaning you can stash them for later, More expensive levels. Here's my library on my latest PC playthrough of skill books I've collected from playing every faction aside from Redoran. Now is a fair point to mention the 36 Sermons of the Vivec. Morrowind is full of ancillary literature, like,

for example, the 2920 series, which is 12 books detailing the events of the final year of the first era. Some of my information that I've generally sourced to the UESP is itself sourced to some of this work. Most of the books are short stories with some insight into the world and culture. Not the 36 Sermons. The sermons are longat 16,000 words and difficult to read in one sitting, due to the various changes in prose, structure, and logic. It also conflicts heavily with actual historical accounts

, which Makes sense given Vivec has been playing historical revisionist for over a millennia at this point. What the books themselves are about is almost irrelevant. It's a revised story of the origin of Vivec in his relationship with Indoril Nerevar the nature of which will be revealed in greater detail during the main quest. What is significant about the books is that they, even today, serve the series primary example of its foundation on the concept of the unreliable narrator. The series is a

n increasingly complicated web of lore and theory crafting that allows for effectively any interpretation of the setting to be correct. A good example of this would be the fate of Atmora, the original homeland of humanity. Atmora is said to have been frozen over. But what this actually means depends on the account. One account would suggest that it literally froze over. Another account suggests that the Dragons, who represent corporeal time left Atmora and the Continent was subsequently frozen i

n time. Or perhaps the apocalypse hit and Atmora was frozen in time in the sense that no one lives there anymore. So nobody bothers to make the trip because the player's never able to visit Atmora themselves it's impossible to say which interpretation is correct, and that is the point because it's a reflection of human writing as well. Michael Kirkbride wrote the 36 Sermons, but he wasn't alone with his philosophy, as Douglas Goodall is quoted as saying: 'Ken Rolleston wrote a dozen different ac

counts, apparently without any' 'personal preference, to which, if any, was accurate and ignored the contradictions.' End quote. I feel that far too many people Morrowind's writing to Kirkbride, which like the sermons, isn't necessarily an accurate truth. He wrote the sermons, and while the sermons are an iconic part of Morrowind, they are not Morrowind itself. Let's get back to the Temple, then. In early Quest I was tasked with was to deal with all Elvil Vidron who was claiming to be something

called the Nerevarine. Don't worry, that name will never come up again. We are asked to convince them otherwise, but should this prove impossible, to kill him. Sure enough, he has his shirt off, and is ranting in the street about the Blight spreading from Red Mountain. Nothing I can say will convince him. So I kill him, and on his person is an ash statue We're then tasked with making another pilgrimage. This time where to go to Maar Gan and mimic the events that occurred at the Temple there Long

ago... Mehrines Dagon Yes, that's how it was spelled. Mehrines Dagon was going to throw rock at some Dunmer. The Dunmer people have had more rocks thrown at them than the dinosaurs. Anyways, Vivec taunted Dagon to throw the rock at him instead. Well, I doubt Mehrunes is in the area, waiting to throw around rocks at pilgrims. Given he's currently planning his invasion of Tamriel in, what, seven years? So I asked the local priest for help and he's the one to tell us to reenact this drama. I have

to you to taunt a dremora in the room into fighting me, he threatens to [___] my corpse, I touch the giant rock and the ritual is complete. You know, I'm really starting to find faith here. The Tribunal Temple is a very populist, a very populist religion, because the pilgrimages are all about physically imitating the actions of their idols. But not everybody can toil at the Fields of Kummu, or slay the Dreugh king, or stop a meteor from starting the redcon year or in this case, get Mehrunes Dago

n to focus their attention on them. Hard left. We are tasked with convincing a pilgrim, Tanusea Veloth, who is popular in the city Vivec of leaving town, as she's contracted Corprus. She's hanging out in the Arena, presumably watching all my characters and, all their various duels and impressed with my battle with Bolvyn Venim, leaves when I ask her nicely. Fun fact, if you kill her and search her body, you contract Corprus disease. It's incurable will completely break your game as NPCs refuse t

o speak with you. Also, for anyone in the audience who might not already know this, you're completely capable of spreading diseases that you show no symptoms for. Do not be like Tanusea Veloth. Our next quest has us take an oath of silence and journey to the Sanctus Shrine. Let's see, We're in Vivec, which is in the south of the map here. And the shrine is... uh... This entailed a long journey on foot, as I was not able to speak to anybody, including fast travel services. Well, on foot as in my

feet were atop the air as I journey through the sky, battling Cliff Racers. Yeah, that shrine that gives a 48 minute levitation effect came in real handy, but good try at an interesting quest. We do get four skill books as a reward, which is pretty substantial as it's maybe 4/10 of a level of those skills are in your class. We cure some people, deliver some food, lowly busybody work, and finally were tasked with making another pilgrimage, this time to Mount Kand, which is, I think, the second ta

llest mountain in Vardenfell, The low draw distance makes it hard to tell. Up at the Mount we're approached by a Flame Atronach who challenges us to solve a riddle. A medal, neither black nor red, as heavy as man's golden greed. What you do to stay ahead with friend or arrow or steed? The correct answer is lead. I think keeping the rhyming as the riddle here, as I don't know what color lead is supposed to be, nor do I have any inkling how heavy Daedric, Glass, or Ebony are compared to lead. Furt

her in the cave, we meet a Frost Atronach with another riddle. If you lie to me, I will slay you with my sword. If you tell me the truth, I will slay you with a spell. And I tell him you'll slay us with a spell, Catching him in a paradox and earning our passage. Remember, people who stake life and death on riddles are entirely irrational, and will likely kill you if you try to invoke a paradox on them. Finally, we meet a Storm Atronach with its own riddle. My fellow Atronach, Zedias-soko was sla

in. The Altmer claims the Dunmer is guilty. The Dunmer says the Khajiit did it. The Orc swears that he didn't kill Zedias-soko. The Khajiit says that the Dunmer is lying. If only one of these speaks the truth. Who killed Zedias-soko? And I actually figured this one out without using a wiki. Okay, basically, the Orc it because that's what Orcs do. The actual logic is the Dunmer accuses the Khajiit and the Khajiit says the Dunmer is lying. Both of these people can't be right, because only one pers

on telling the truth, which means they can both be ruled out. The Orc and the Altmer are thus lying, and since the orcs lie is about the murder, that makes him the suspect. I like that each of races basically summarizes how those races are characterized in this game. And also this is kind of a reference to the two murder mystery quests in this game. This opens the way to the shrine and completes our pilgrimage. But wait, we're missing the fourth challenge. Where's the Watermelon Atronach? We get

tasked with some real work to take out a necromancer working near Molag Mar. Guess what factions he's a part of. Oh, that was supposed to be a joke, Because it's not in my notes or in the quest page that he was a rogue Telvanni. I mean, he's the lowest rank of the faction, but still. Sotha Sil... One of the priestesses has a vision of an artifact, and not one of the Lalatia Varian brand visions where I need to hire a consultant to figure out what means. She knows that it's right across the pond

at Ald Sotha. Oh, yeah, I have an amulet that basically renders me invisible. I somehow forgot about that. We're then tasked wiping out a Sheogorath cult here and Vivec in the ra.. I mean, the sewer level. I kind of panic because I get attacked as soon as I enter and realize I haven't saved in a while. But it goes okay. Sheogorath is even thrilled to see me. Fetch the fork of Horripilation from the mad hermit near Ald Redaynia. Take care with him. He's not the most stable man. And so, I have do

ne enough menial, and perhaps not so menial, labor to earn my way up to the near top where I get to meet the Archcanon Tholer Saryoni He Wants to retire, on the condition I make some pilgrimages to the Four Corners of the house of troubles So, when the Temple was starting out, they had to pay lip service to the old gods of the Dunmer, who were called Chimer back then. The Daedra The Chimer were kind of unique in having their entire pantheon be Daedra, as opposed to most Meric cultures that worsh

ip Aedra. But like all Mer, they do agree that Lorkhan was kind of a prick for pulling that whole mortality stunt. The Chimer pantheon were split into two groups based on temperament. The good and the bad Daedra. The good Daedra were the anticipations. Boethiah, Azura and Mephala. The anticipations were meant to back up the Tribunal, Boethiah is the anticipation of Almalexia She was the one who defeated Aedric god Trinimac in combat and ate him. Mephala is the anticipation of Vivec. Teaching the

Dunmer in trickery and political organization Azura is the anticipation of Sotha Sil. She is who they mistakenly attribute their change from the Chimer to the Dunmer as being a gift. We'll get to that next episode. The other side of the anticipations are the Four Corners of the House of Troubles. These are Mehrunes Dagon, Sheogorath, Malacath and Molag Bal. Fans will recognize why these guys have their reputations. With Dagon and Sheogorath in particular earning their reputations in this very q

uestline. Malacath is alleged to be Trinimac, although even he himself will admit this is a far more literal interpretation than reality. He represents the ostracized, which makes a great deal of sense considering much of the old Dunmer culture was founded on Veloth being contrary to the Aldmer Molag Bal well, let's just say there's multiple stories about Molag Bal earning his title as the King of [___], in more than one meaning of the word. Each of the Daedra worshiped the Dunmer make a degree

of sense in terms of their culture, Boethiah for their martial culture, Maphala for the politicla guile Azura for prophecy, Mehrunes Dagon for the Spirit of Warfare, Sheogorath, Malacath for their history as spurned Mer, and Molag Bal for their sense of superiority over other races. So why in the world are we making pilgrimages to the bad Daedra? Well, I can guess a few reasons. The first is that, generally, the Temple trusts its upper echelon to be faithful enough to deal with the Four Corners.

The second guess would be that the Temple only discourages Daedra worship as they don't trust common Dunmer to do it safely. The third guess would be that it is a necessary function of an Archcanon to know the Four Corners well enough, prior to a situation where he would need to know them, as seems to happen frequently in Dunmer history. Our first pilgrimage is to Malacath and requires the donation of four Daedra Hearts, which are actually pretty easy to get in this game. The shrine is surround

ed by hostile worshipers. Luckily, I can just avoid them and we recite a giant block of text. Basically, the Temple was built on a bad foundation, four pillars of trouble, or the Daedra and yet the Dunmer through faith, still serve the latter thanks to the Temple. Next, we journey to a shrine of Mehrunes Dagon, which happens to be at Ald Sotha We have to kill his worshipers this time and we recite a poem. Then we go to Molag Bal, who's over at Bal Ur, and after clearing out the Nord populace, I

hear the distant sound of someone getting hurt, which is pretty spooky. This one teaches me a command humanoid spell, which is a slightly overpowered spell if used properly. So thanks, Uncle Molag. The fourth Corner is Sheogorath And Saryoni and he tells us that we need to renew our pact with him. Kind of indicating my third guess as being correct. We have to do this by locating something called the Gambolpuddy and donating it to him at his shrine at Ald Daedroth where a giant battle is occurrin

g. Here we get to meet some Ordinators, and actually, we've been seeing them for a while. I spoke in the last episode. They're the members of House Indoril, serving as the militant arm of the Temple. They aren't to be confused with the Buoyant Armigers who work up at the Ghostgate fighting the Sixth House. Ordinators are the guards of Molag Mar and apparently go out on missions such as this one. Ordinators are some of the toughest guards in the game, and particularly notable, Ordinators become h

ostile if you adorn their armor. Which is some of the best medium armor in the base game, and will put you on their permanent [____] list. This, their terrible attitudes, ["We're watching you, scum"] and their proclivity to summarily heretics has given them a bad reputation. But that's the order of inquisition. This is the order of war. Who are responsible for fighting Daedra and the Sixth House. They're apparently bad at their job, since to this point their only known mission outside of this on

e was to recover the Robe of St. Roris and they failed in that regard. They aren't faring too well here either, being matched in combat by Sheogorath worshipers. And mind you, one of the Orcs here thinks he's a cat. We managed to meet the head of the cult who says we're welcome, noting that the Ordinators are currently trying to crash the party. I hang around for a bit and then slip and Orc some Moon Sugar who tells us there's something under his pillow for us, The sugar fairy. Sure enough, ther

e's the Gambolpuddy. Always the first place you look. We give it to the statue and it fortifies random attributes as a reward. Saryoni congratulates us on our work, and has one final pilgrimage before promoting us to patriarch, not Archcanon? Oh, right. You're part of the main quest, so we can't replace you. His final task is to recover the Ebony Mail The Mail is an artifact of Boethiah, and is located at a shrine atop Mount Assarnibibi. This is levitate one: And this is levitate 100: And this:

This is levitate 500: I better knock that off before the Xbox crashes. Anyways, we just activate the shrine and boom, free Ebony Mail, which is arguably the best armor in the game. We even get to keep it and get our promotion to Patriarch. But was that really it? Just climb a mountain and activate a shrine, mo puzzle, no intrigue? Kind of a letdown. I have mixed feelings about the Tribunal Temple. On the one hand, it's a well fleshed out religion that represents the Dunmer well. But, on the othe

r hand, it's another questline with no overarching narrative. Which is sad, after the Seven Graces and the quests dealing with the false incarnate, I would have hoped that the Temple had been a bit more exploratory in some of its big themes, like the secret authoritarian Police thing, or its battle with the Sixth House. Even maybe just a questline where we try to repair the Temple's presence in Telvanni territory It's ironic that some of the most interesting aspects of the Temple from the main

quest aren't featured at all in the actual Temple questline itself. That said, I do appreciate where the game was going with the pilgrimages. I wish all of them as intricate as the one where you had to drown yourself in a display of faith. The way the final pilgrimage ends. No riddles, no challenges. Just activate a shrine and get your reward. There are some quests I didn't do that are combat oriented, including one that is basically a 'ding dong ditch' at Dagoth Ur's house. And another one that

involves wiping out the head of the vampire clans. One that involves killing the head of a Sixth House cult, and a final one that involves killing some Daedra worshipers in Vivec. But I got away without doing them because with how the action is paced, you'll end up getting enough rep to end up finishing the faction before you're told about them. So ultimately, your experience with the faction can be rather dry since the big combat quests it's building to are functionally optional. The four fact

ions I covered in this section, the Imperial Legion, the Imperial Cult, the Morag Tong, and the Tribunal Temple round of the Final Four are the major factions of Morrowind. The Legion, somewhat unlike the Fighters Guild and House Redoran, is a true warrior faction that requires its members don heavy armor. The Cult and the Temple are for monk players, providing multiple options for meaty, religious factions, while also being a good fit for mage characters. And the Tong sits as the game's only av

enue for assassin characters. Although House Hlaalu can somewhat fill in that niche. There are a couple more technical factions that bear mentioning that didn't get any coverage. The Twin Lamps is an abolitionist organization with a few quests. To join you need to free 21 slaves. Many slaves can be found in various smugglers' caves, a few in Telvanni territory, but the bulk of slaves can be found in Hlaalu territory. While many Dunmer will give their opinions on the topic of abolition, it seems

that either the idea wasn't able to be fully implemented into a full faction, or the implication is that abolition has only recently become a cause, Due to how recent the Empire's arrival in Vvardenfell was. Either way, I think Bethesda wouldn't have had to dance around the issue of slavery so much later on if they had done a proper abolitionist questline in the first place. There are also three vampire clans that are functionally similar, their only difference being their stat alignments. They

each only have two quests. I was originally going to work them in, but honestly I realized they would just be unnecessary weight for the analysis. There's a questline where we get a Khajiit girlfriend and Captain Varro at Moonmoth Fort has a couple of quests where we dish out some vigilante justice in Balmora. I hope that, at this point, it becomes apparent just why I'm so disappointed in the later games faction choices. Douglas Goodall did a good job of showing how the various can interplay and

wrote in logical solutions to a few quests. The quest lines are also far less linear, providing unique paths, that each repeat playthrough can go down. Even so far as having completely alternate ending, such as in the Fighters Guild, and the sheer number of them. Three guilds, three Houses, two Temples, a military and a Cult. And then you throw in the main quest on of all that. There are also no dynamic quests, as they haven't been implemented into the engine yet. This means each quest is handc

rafted, for better and for worse. That said, there are some quests that are pretty boring, but even that can add to the experience and help with roleplaying. Not every faction should feel super high stakes in its conclusion. And one thing I should note that doesn't seem to come off in my videos is that this isn't an example of Morrowind being the perfect Elder Scrolls game. Just that I wish it had actually received a sequel instead of a downgrade. The factions unfortunately provide little to do

after conclussion. This is a problem that is universal in Elder Scrolls. Once you take over, the questline is over. Another problem is that being the leader of certain factions would provide resolution to certain issues that it doesn't. The Black Jinx Quest is a nice example of where that works, but many examples where it doesn't are present in the main questline. Let's just say that if you do the main quest after completing even one of these factions, you will raise your eyebrow at some point i

n some of the problems. For instance, being the leader to the Tribunal Temple would resolve some of the stakes in the questline, but the game cannot account for all the combinations of possibilities. This is likely one of the reasons Bethesda would strip back the number of factions in the later games, for example: It's doubtful that Odral Helvi would ask the highest ranking member of the Imperial Legion to smuggle Ebony. House Telvanni would not accept the membership of a prominent member of the

Mages Guild and vice versa. There's a clip on YouTube where the guy that challenges you before entering Sovngarde Gaad will respond to some of your achievements in your playthrough, and and people are actually impressed that there are voice lines responding to your achievements in a game with five factions. My dream for an Elder Scrolls game is one where these faction combinations would logically play out. I like the idea of exclusivity between factions, and I hate the idea that the main charac

ter of each game is also the character that is supposed to have completed those factions. Each faction should require a new playthrough, so that each playthrough can fully explore a different playstyle without having to compete with already built characters. That's part of the reason why I made seven different characters for this analysis. And what I definitely want are factions that you can actually lead. They kind of got close with this with the Arena faction and Oblivion. Where's the ability

to create and assign writs of execution? At the risk of angering the Mephala. Or handle assignments in the guild, or make political decision in the houses? I thought the war conference scene in Skyrim could have gone so much harder into faction relations if the threat in the main questline threatens the world, then all the prominent factions should be involved. But I understand it's a lot of work. And it's easy for me to spout ideas on the internet when I don't have much in the way of real exper

ience in game development. Bethesda needs to get back to making good Elder Scrolls games before they can start to focus on improving their formula. Because what I want isn't Morrowind, It's a true sequel. And I think all the goddamn money they've made that it's about time we got one ["DAEDRIC QUESTS"] Indarys had encounters with the Daedra near the end of his journey. So let's see those same Daedra from the perspective of a Daedra worshiper Inbetween the original release of the series and this c

omplete edition, there was a new character, an Orcish warrior known only as Umbra. Morrowind has seven Daedric quests. Rather than including the entire pantheon, only Daedra relevant to the Dunmer culture are worshiped on Vvardenfell. These Daedra are predictably the good and bad Daedra of the Tribunal Temple. Let's tackle the good Daedra first. Azura shrine sits in the open air at the apex of the island's southeastern shoreline. Despite Being the most visible, the shrine is empty due to its dis

tance from civilization. Speaking with the statue, Azura made a bet with Sheogorath, that one of her worshipers could live in isolation for a century and retain her sanity. Well, time's almost up and wanting to win Sheogorath has gone and sent a bunch of Daedra to her shack to defraud the wager. ["You have come here for a reason, though you may not know what it is."] Now, the quest designer made this nice area where you would fight through waves of Daedra up the hill to the shack. Except I would

be willing to bet pretty much everyone who has ever done this quest came at it from the East because they travel to the island from Dagon fel. Anyways, kill all the Daedra and grab a signet ring of Sheogorath. You can actually fail the quest if you go inside the shack, which is a good touch. You get two rewards from this quest, first being the signet ring. Like most things Sheogorath it comes with an up and a downside. Upside is a ten point personality fortification, while the downside is a ten

point willpower penalty. The ring is still useful since you can equip and unequip it dependent on the situation. The other reward is a Azura star, a versatile throwing weapon. Wait, is that right? ["For you our thanks and blessing.'] ["Our gift and token given."] ["Come, take this thing from the hand of God."] ["Take this, and use it wisely."] ["Let's see what you're made of."] Okay, then. Azura star is actually a reusable soulgem, which is especially useful in Morrowind because you don't get r

eliable access to grand level soul gems for a long time. Even in general, the star is useful given the high probability of failure when enchanting. It's also the only soul gem capable of capturing the souls of... moving on. Boethiah's quest. It's an easy quest once you igure out how to start it. Unless you spend a lot of time swimming along the coasts, the only non internet related way to find the shrine is to meet M'aiq the Liar and chat with him. Most of what he says is either bull[____] or is

channeling the Rod God Todd himself, except for discussion on the shrine. Once you find the shrine at the bottom of the ocean, she'll ask you rebuild her shrine in exchange for a fancy sword. ["What do you want with me, mortal?"] ["My shine is in ruins, my priests have forgotten me."] ["Will you rebuild my shrine, mortal?"] Her only clue is to find a sculptor in Caldera, which will eventually take you to the Ghorak Manor an Orcish home, which happens to house the scamp Creeper, which is fitting

since M'aiq name drops Mister Mudcrab but not Creeper. Anyways, you meet the sculptor and he says he'll need 2000 gold and three weeks to build the shrine. He's not kidding. Three weeks pass which I spend doing other quests in the shrine is complete. The quest really is that simple, as the bulk of it seems to be finding the shrine in waiting the time. It's fitting that all Boethiah wants is a new shrine to hand over her legendary sword Goldbrand. ["You have done well, the shrine is a worthy one

,"] ["and my power will again be felt."] She doesn't have any other shrines on Vvardenfell and she hands over her only other notable artifact, the Ebony Mail, to the patriarch of the Temple, just as easily for being able to treat with a bad Daedra and stay loyal. Ordinarily, Boethiah is usually involved in deception. I'm guessing her characterization here is meant to reflect the fact that, of the three 'good' Daedra Boethiah has the worst PR. Azura is openly worshiped by the Ashlanders and Mepha

la has an entire legal cult in the Morag Tong. Meanwhile Boethiah's shrine has probably sat at the bottom the ocean since the end of the first era. I mean, it's sitting squarely in the channel, which was sunked after Red Mountain's eruption during the Battle of Red Mountain. Finally, Mephala, unlike Boethiah and Azura, her shrine is located in one of the faction hubs, which makes sense, given her relationship with the Morag Tong. Mephala's secretary tells us that she wants us to take care of a M

orag Tong assassin who's been doing some unauthorized freelance work. We have to break into his Balmora home, which doesn't show up on the map without, getting within a certain distance of him. And poison his kettle before escaping. This quest is more dynamic than the average Morrowind Quest, although it also has a hefty list things that can go wrong if you don't do things exactly right. ["You have done well, mortal."] ["There are some things that must be done to preserve the order,"] ["and it w

ill be amusing for me when this business comes to light."] ["I look forward to it."] Our reward is the ring of Khajit, which gives a beefy 30 second invisibility and fortify speed 10 to 20 points for 30 seconds. Mephala's counterpart representation in the Morag Tong was a collection quest to find a bunch of Sanguine artifacts that she had given out. Mephala isn't much of a character since she speaks through someone else instead of speaking directly to the player. The only Daedra in the game to d

o so. But she is the Shadow Queen. This leads into the bad Daedra. Let's handle this in the same order as the Tribunal Temple. Malacath wants a four Daedra heart donation in the Temple questline while he just wants us to find his shrine at Assurdirapal. This is significant because there are eight different shrines to Malacath in Morrowind. Zergonipal, Kaushtirari, Shaspilamat, Ashurnibibi, Ashunartes, Dushariran, and the Shrine of Malacath we visit in the Temple questline. There's not really clu

es which shrine is the one that Malacath is taking calls at so you might end up killing one or 20 orcs before you find the right one. Orcs love Malacath, and Malacath loves them back. Malacath requests we clear up the matter of a Dunmer hero Oreyn Bearclaw, who was falsely credited with the deeds of his Orcish ally, and we clear this by wiping out his bloodline. He actually has two separate intros, contingent on if you're an Orc or not. Our character happens to be an orc. ["You have summoned me,

orc?"] Have you come to restore the honor of your people? Malacath sends you to Vivec, which in turn leads to Gnaar Mok. Turns out that Farvyn Oreyn is pretty weak, and his bodyguards do the bulk of the heavy lifting, like progenitor like successor. Even now the Oreyns are taking credit for others work. The helm you get is a really solid heavy helm with some impressive stats to boot. ["You have killed the false hero, and ensured there will be n more to follow."] You have helped bring back honor

back to the Orcish people, ["and for that I am glad."] Malacath's quest here fits his characterization as an orc fetishist. ["I'm just trying to get out premium Orc content to myself"] ["because I [____]ing love it, pal, and it looks so [____]ing good"] ["it's just that, that tight green skin."] ["Oh, [____]!"] Can I just say that I love orcs? One of the books in the game is a story about the King of the Orcs Gortwog gro-Nagorm, who faught a duel against a Breton Prince for Orsinium, Except one

of Gortwog's supporters taught the prince how to fight in Orcish armor so that Gortwog would have a challenge. Apparently, Gortwog believed that Malacath was sabotaging the Orsimer to keep them as a loyal but outcast society, and officially only Trinimac was recognized as the God of the Orcs. I mean, he's absolutely right, and it's also convenient that his Orsinium fell during the Oblivion crisis. The next corner of the House of Troubles is Mehrunes Dagon, whose shrine is at Yasammidan. Now I c

ould list all the Mehrunes Dagon shrines, but we actually came here during the Morag Tong Questline to grab one of the Threads of the Webspinner. Mehrunes would like us to go to a tomb in Molag Amur and retrieve Mehrunes Razor. ["Why do you call on me, little mortal?"] ["Do you seek your death so soon?"] ["I should crush you where you stand"] ["If you show mettle by even approaching me,"] ["how ambitious are you, little one?"] ["My Razor, slayer of man and mer,"] ["scourge of all who stand befor

e it lies dormant."] ["Stolen by an unworthy bearer, an Elf of little courage or consequence."] ["It lies unused, gathering dust in the Alas Tomb near Molag Mar."] ["Return it to me, mortal."] We only find a rusty dagger, which we return to the shrine, And it's magically transformed into the Razor. ["You found my razor. Good."] ["Can you feel its hunger?"] ["Can you feel its frustration?"] ["Now I will make it again what it once was,"] ["what it shall always be."] ["Draw a line of blood across t

he land in the name of Mehrunes Dagon."] You might ask if that is it, and the answer is yes. I'm not sure why this quest is so short. I mean Mehrunes Dagon is probably busy planning that whole invasion of Tamriel thing, and maybe he just wanted someone to bring the blade back into the fold. But the quest proper doesn't really have anything to do with the themes or character of Mehrunes Dagon. Which is similar to the Counterpart Tribunal Temple questline. Even his voice actor sounds similar to a

certain other demonic entity in Morrowind. ["What a fool you are."] Perhaps they weren't quite sure what they wanted Mehunes Dagon to really be. Molag Bal is the third corner. His Shrine, the relevant one anyways, is at Yansirramus His counterpart quest in the Temple took place at Bal Ur, a more fitting name, and ended with a command humanoids spell. So that's the quest to beat. Molag Bal says that one of his minions, Menta Na has been obeying the Temple stay at home order instead of going aroun

d terrorizing the population. ["Why do you summon me now?"] ["I have no time for your pleadings weakling."] The Daedroth is living in a cave in the heart of the Ashlands and we go off to kill it. The reward is the mace of Molag Bal, which is a solid mid-tier weapon. I mean, it's the best mace in the game, meaning that it's outclassed by Ebony and up along swords. This is a pretty simple quest that is also missing substance. ["Ah, you have freed the soul of the Menta Na!"] ["Torment will be his."

] ["Endless agony is all he will know until the end of time."] The final corner is Sheogorath. He had the most developed of the Tribunal quests as we were renewing our subscription to Dunmer sanity. Well, the shrine we need to visit is Ihinipalit. Which we cordially visit and subsequently wiped out during the Temple questline. Even if you kill all the worshipers, Sheogorath is willing to request that we go up to Sheogorad. Meet one of his guys, and get the Fork of Horripilation in order to take

out a Giant Bull Netch plaguing his worshiper. ["What is it, mortal?"] ["Have you come to be of service to Sheogorath?"] ["That in and of itself speaks toward your madness."] ["This pleases me."] This can be a bit of a challenge, especially if you aren't skilled with Short Blade. You just need to land the killing blow with the Fork, but it's still a bit of a challenge. Your reward is the Spear of Bitter Mercy, which is not a Sheogorath artifact. It's a Hircine artifact that was created by Mehrun

es Dagon. ["Perhaps you've gotten a taste of madness as well?"] ["Do not believe madness to be a curse, mortal."] ["For some, it is the greatest of blessings..."] ["A bitter mercy, perhaps, but mercy nonetheless."] Speaking Hircine, his artifact, the Savior's Hide is at Divayth Fyr's tower. Except Malacath worshippers, like with all things, contend the Hide is actually a Malacath artifact. In either event, its properties were designed to protect the wearer from the Spear of Bitter Mercy. Well, d

on't worry, because we'll be getting more Hircine content in the Bloodmoon expansion. It's interesting how much of a variable the Daedra quests are. It feels like the core of the quests was spaced out to be filled in later and 'later' only came for a couple of the quests. Of course, there are only seven Daedric quests compared to the typical 16 in most of the games for the purpose of filling the appropriate Daedra for the Dunmer culture. Peryite just doesn't fit in. but I feel like getting less

than half of the Daedric princes could only be validated if all of the quests were as meaty as, or meatier than, the Sheogorath quest. So let's go on a quest, a real quest, which doesn't have any journal entries. Let's get a full set of Daedric armor. There are only two complete sets in the game. One is in the possession of Telvanni Lord Divayth Fyr, who is level 65, has a thousand health, and is wearing said set of powerful Daedric armor. So we're off to complete the set. Starting with the gaun

tlets, A pair can be found deep in the ancient Dunmer stronghold of Kogoruhn. This is one of the main dungeons of the main quest, and is full of Sixth House cultists. Onto the pauldrons, the right pauldron can be found in the tower of Castle Karstaag over on Solstheim. Yeah, there are a couple pieces that couldn't be found in the base game outside of Divyath Fyr himself. The left pauldron is found inside Norenen-dur, a dungeon located in the city of Mournhold in the Tribunal expansion. This one

takes the most effort because you have to do about half of the Tribunal questline in order to open up the dungeon. And even then, actually finding the pauldron is difficult given the low light conditions. I can easily imagine a situation where players cleared this dungeon and didn't realize they were missing out on some fantastic loot. A pair of Daedric boots can be found in The fortress of Galom Daeus a vampire stronghold, home to clan Berne. You are guaranteed to visit the clan during the hou

se Telvanni questline and can potentially visit it during the Tribunal Temple questline. Moving on to the greaves, there are three potential pairs to get. The first is a reward from mistress Therana of House Telvanni which will be enchanted with a 50 point feather effect. This could help with the immense weight of Daedric equipment. The second option is at Druscashti, the stronghold of the vampire clan Quarra. Outside of typical adventuring, the player is only likely to come here if they become

a vampire and either join their patron clan or work for House Telvanni. Then the third option is at the Dren plantation, sitting on a shelf behind Camonna Tong leader Orvas Dren. A number of quests send you here, so the greaves are probably the one piece of the Daedric set most players have gotten their hand on. It's not even that difficult to steal, with this convenient pole next to Dren. But the cuirass has two options, and only one of them belong to the base game. It's also a reward from Mis

tress Therana with its own 50 point feather effect, covering about half its weight. The other option is inside Norenen-dur Next to where we got the left pauldron. Finally, we have the choice of not one but three different Daedric helms called Faces, in order of lowest to highest armor rating, the Face of Inspiration, the Face of Terror, and the Face of God. The face of inspiration can be found in three places. One is worn by Galdal Omayn, the leader of the Buoyant Armigers. Another can be found

in Mamaea, a large Sixth House base and a third can be found in Ibar-Dad, a sorcerer's cave that leads into an ancient tomb. The Face of Inspiration is a fitting reward for whichever trial you should wish to face. Being the second strongest Face, there are only two Faces of Terror. One is worn by Enar Dralor, a high ranking Buoyant Armigers. So as long as you're willing to eat the bounty of wiping out the Ghostgate, you could take care of two Faces in one go. Your other option is at Anudnabia,

which is a Daedric ruin we uncovered during the Imperial Cult questline near Sadrith Mora. As the strongest face, there is only one Face of God. In exchange for some Mazte, a Nord in the Telvanni canteen will tell you of a First Age Nord was buried in Tukushapal, and will provide a key. Tukushapal is an impressive dungeon. There's a maze which is invalidated by levitate. So, maybe the designer didn't know about the spell when he made the area. Except the Face is hidden on a ledge requiring levi

tate to reach. It's weird, but just go with it. It should probably be reiterated that a complete set of Daedric armor is prohibitively cumbersome. At just under 300 pounds, you need 60 strength just to wear the armor, without any weapons or additional inventory. Luckily, our character for this run was strong enough to wear the full set. Daedric armor is pretty unique due to its rarity, rather than armor being tiered in a vertical progression, It's more so a representation of the characters wea

ring the armor. Ebony is common among nobles, fitting since Ebony is a valuable material for crafting equipment. You can find plenty of Orcish armor once you start meeting sects of Malacath worshipers. In Endoral armor is plentiful if you spend time fighting the law. Glass is the second rarest armor in the game, most easily found at the Ghostgate. Otherwise, you'll only encounter odds and ends of the set, which is generally a shame as the dark Brotherhood set gets delivered to the player for

free. So moving on, we've got one more big adventure to go on, but first: This is Umbra. Umbra remarks he's traveled the world, killed many creatures and people alike. Despite everything, he has yet to die. And all he wants now is a warrior's death. His sword is also named Umbra, which because he figures that given his accomplishments at this point, he may as well be named after his weapon. Yagrum Bagarn says the sword was enchanted by a witch to steal souls, but the sword would later be ret

conned into being a Clavicus Vile artifact. Clavicus Vile's mask is actually in the game, In a random side quest up in Dagon Fel, which weird because it's one of the best helms for orcs since it fortifies personality. Anyways, Umbra is a powerful two handed sword. While there are other swords that can potentially do more damage, Umbra will consistently hit harder as its damage range starts at a minimum of ten damage compared to a Daedric Dai-katana's range starting at a minimum of one. While t

he concept of the old warrior wishing for a death he's too powerful, or too skilled in combat to receive is a bit of a cliché, I find this is a good fit for Elder Scrolls setting. Umbra serves as an analog for the fate to the player character once you close the game that last time. Similar to the concept of Hollowing from Dark Souls In fact, Umbra is largely a metaphor for myself, someone who has seen everything the world has to offer. The world so far as Vvardenfell anyways. Imagine you're tr

apped playing the same Morrowind character forever. You're probably a good person, and you probably project an idealistic aspect into your decision making. Maybe in reality you don't have the power to make things right, but in a fantasy world you have the opportunity to bring justice to a situation. But play long enough and you'll eventually be drawn to a dark side. The number of ordinary people I talk to who casually admit they killed this or that annoying NPC in an Elder Scrolls game for no

reason other than being annoying is proof enough of this concept. Regardless of morality and where you end up, there will eventually be a point where the only thing a player character has left to do is die. But hey, at least we aren't simulating pain and hunger for the purposes of making more realistic video game AI and then wondering why God would allow such evils to exist in our own world. Let's steer this philosophical nightmare back and discuss vampirism. There are three vampire clans on V

vardenfell, And all vampires on the island belong to one of those three bloodlines. Thus, which bloodline infects you determines which type you will become. This is your standard RPG triangle fare of warriors, thieves, and mages. and the clans are exclusive per playthrough, Since once you get cured, you can't go back to being a vampire. Don't worry though. Unlike the Great Houses, there isn't a wealth of content for you to choose from. Each clan you try to join them will shun you and will only

give you two quests with which to ingratiate yourself into their ranks. I joined Clan Quora, which suited my warrior playstyle best. It should be noted that my joining required meta knowledge of the game while our vampires belong to a bloodline, which bloodline is not relayed to the player? So if you're trying play while using the whiskey as little as possible, it's going to be a gamble If you decide to keep your poor fear of hemophilia, which clan, you'll actually end up being aligned with vamp

irism. A significant change to playstyle. Travel changes completely now that you still strider care of a nurse and boat captains refuse to speak with you. I suddenly found myself using the pylons, get around and complete my goals while I was a vampire. This can be a problem again for the person playing without a wiki. Since as I've stated before, the repellent indexes are fairly obscure difficult to find. I doubt players without access to the wiki or the master index plug and could find all of t

hem. That's because many of them are hidden in plain sight in the shop. You pass by every time you go from the Caldera Mages Guild to creeper, for example. Would anybody even think to carefully inspect attend to the Wise Women of the Year shellacking tribe to find the index for the stronghold closest to two of the vampire bases? Is this a failure in the system or is this meant to heighten the difficulty for vampires without making it tedious? I suspect to a certain of meta knowledge is expected

for vampires and Morrowind because it's meant to cater to players who have already mastered the game to some extent. If you're playing this game just because you're a vampire enthusiast, don't. This is an area where Bethesda marginally improved, if only by merit of not just having vampirism be an afterthought. They were obligated to include because dagger. Fall also had vampires. Where Bethesda succeeded with more weapons, vampires was in turning the player into a superhuman monster. The player

will see a significant improvement strength, speed, fatigue management and a handful of combat and magic skills, immunity to paralysis and common disease resistance. Normal weapons such as iron and steel and the to absorb health. There are downsides, such as losing the ability to regenerate health when resting, a weakness to fire attacks and taking damage from the sun. Oh yeah. And almost everyone on board fellow refused to talk to you. Even if you managed to talk to people, you'd be unable to d

o quests or use services. Now, while I would understand a of personnel penalty, these limitations mean that vampirism is not a meaningful choice for the player. You'll never sit there and go, Man, if I become a vampire, then I can finally beat this quest, which is kind of the point. It's both the curse and a boon of Moloch ball. It's nature changing based on how you interpret it. Sometimes it happens to people against their will. Being powerless as a vampire dominates you and turns you either in

to cattle or sires you into a vampire. And sometimes people choose it thinking they can control the temptations that come with it. The choice simply isn't there for Morrowind, which is a shame. That said, it is still mechanically interesting. It's the perfect challenge if you decide to issue city life and just crawl more weapons dungeons. So how are the quests? Let's summarize. You'll get one quests to kill someone who's wronged the clan in one quest to fetch an item that may involve killing som

eone while the vampire quests might not be worth going into detail. They are somewhat interesting due to the challenges created by having to relearn how to travel. This is some ingrained knowledge we're talking about. The most interesting of the vampire quests is ironically a cure for vampirism. It starts with getting advised to track down the book Vampires the Varden fell to. Curiously, despite its rarity, the book is available in a number of familiar locations away from the majors, guild or do

nor, and from Hello until Barney Voss from the Thieves Guild. It seems the player intentionally meant to encounter the book, at least in some playthroughs, so they know where to find it. The book details a small piece of Tamriel esque lore regarding vampire hunters and ends with a paragraph telling of a buoyant armature who had been cured of vampirism. While Gallery Rossi wrote a more detailed account of this copies of which are found in the hidden archives of Clan burned the House and the Tribu

nal temple. Vampires have often failed to actually says enough to figure out the cure. This involves going to the Shrine of Valor and requesting more oddball curio so you do not enjoy the blood on little beach. It's the warmth of the sun. But I'm not sure why his other shrines don't qualify. But I didn't make the rules. Since we've done prior freelance work from all evolve before and have a positive rating, we get preferential treatment in the Diedrich version of Fiver and Moloch Ball gives us a

quest. He has us kill his daughter while a grinder who's run off with some at your neck. This simple task will see us being cured of vampirism vampire. It was not easy for me to, but I was able to play it. After some discussion, we lose most of our newfound power and are given a chance to reintegrate into society. It's just that easy. Again, the later games would improve the vampire experience. Vampires of vardenafil notes How the cure to vampirism is a secret to discourage people from intentio

nally becoming vampires. But Morrowind makes the cure look easy. Skyrim at least made it so you had to dam someone by soul trapping them to get cured. But because you can be reinfected and cured again, it undercut that theme in the same breath by treating the cure for vampirism like a prescription rather than the human sacrifice it's supposed be. Umbra will see a return for the blood moon expansion. For now, I hope you see that there is more to vardenafil than just a dozen or so faction quest li

nes. Umbra was in fact able to carve out an entire adventure out of side dungeons and random quests. Morrowind is a rich world to explore outside of its semi scripted Questline experiences. We are finally shaking the yoke of these black bars and terrible resolutions. I'm using open M-W instead of playing the base PC copy because the base game is in four by three. It's a stylized part of the game though, right? Well, no. Unlike a hand-drawn art style, Morrowind is a 3D game. It can afford to fit

my. And now your screens. So what do we get for playing on PC cheats that I didn't need or ever use? I've had a few quests bug out over the years, like a playthrough where my tail varney stronghold never actually appeared. Or common longer term play through issues like silt Strider guides falling off their platforms. But I've honestly had a pretty stable time playing Morrowind for the series. I suspect this is in part because of the fact that I avoided playing a single character for everything.

So because none of my characters got more than 20 hours in game. There wasn't enough time for any game breaking bugs to happen because remember, I was not playing on an exactly stable part of the game until now. I playing in what should have been its bug iest incarnation. Another perk of the PC is this godly user interface and one right click and instantly all the interface could need for any situation on the Xbox. There were four separate panels that you navigated with the black and white or on

more modern controllers bumper buttons. That is because your average Xbox is playing from across the room, sitting on their couch and needs to be able to see information on screen, meaning that the smaller text and icons on the PC version won't cut it Here on PC. If I say I want to cast a spell, I just right click. No need to switch over to another panel and the screens are customizable. You're able to change the size of the windows so. Non Magic players can diminish their magic menu. You can a

lso sticky one of them onto your screen so you can continue seeing your map while you play. But of course, that convenient and godlike user interface was traded in for the inefficient, divided panel based system in all Bethesda games going forward because console parity. We also get a steady frame rate the AA will no longer forget what they're doing for multiple seconds and I will no longer lose button presses into the void of stuttering frame rate. Overall, we're in for an immensely enjoyable e

xperience as I begin to and break this game in every way I can. I'll be brief because if you know anything about Morrowind, you know about the Alchemy snowball. In effect, the effectiveness of any created Alchemy potion is determined by a few factors. One of those factors being intelligence. Some merchants in Morrowind restock in ingredients immediately after in in dialog with them, and some of those ingredients fortify your intelligence. So grabbing a free set of master's alchemy equipment sitt

ing unsupervised. Any caldera Mages Guild. We go to work. The early game will look like this. I repeatedly buy ten Alchemy ingredients until I have a few hundred or so spammed to create potion button, sell the byproducts and profit. Once I have a decent chunk of cash, I go and buy hundreds of ACM as and nets leather, which is used to fortify intelligence. Fortify intelligence increases. The effectiveness of potions created in the value of potions are determined based on their effective values, m

eaning that I'm grinding these useless drain personality potions out and their value is gradually increasing, decreasing the intervals between when I arrest and allow now carry to restock her cash supply and so more ones market was flooded with useless drain personality potions and my pockets were flooded with cash. You can go further with this. These fortify intelligence potions increase my magic by tens of thousands in a game where a thousand magic is close to the normal limit. However, the re

al draws for training. While doing this, I gain skill points in, alchemy. Then I go train armor skills like heavy and medium armor and a third attribute skill. So every level I'm getting max points and intelligence endurance and a third attribute like speed or strength. Your overall health in Morrowind is determined by endurance in particular. However, it's determined by your endurance at all levels. Endurance affects starting health as well as health gain per level. So if you have 50 endurance,

you gain five health a level. Our goal is to get to 100 endurance or ten health per level as fast as possible. This comes pretty quick as I strategically decided that heavy and medium armor were not major or minor skills. This meant training was cheap since I was starting at skill level five, by the time I start playing around level 20. I have several hundred hit points magica of fatigue and high levels and skill and many weapon and armor types, as well as utility skills like speech craft and m

ercantile. And this isn't even the most you can min max in Morrowind, but it is pretty close. So let's go a step farther. With a handful of artifacts, we can take our character to the next level. Again, this isn't the most min max to build in Morrowind. You can go farther depending on what you want to accomplish. The first is the apprentice ring, which is pretty close to where we start inside sight unseen. This is basic stuff, plus ten to intelligence and willpower. This helps the early game alc

hemy snowball and helps us with some magic issues. Our next grab are a pair of boots going north out of Caldera. Meet a woman desperate for escort to Na Mark. You'll notice she's quite quick and sure enough, after the escort, she's willing to part with her magic boots. What makes these boots magic are? Two effects. Fortify speed 200 points. Blind 100 points. By default, the boots will make you very fast and also make the screen look like this. And your game will sound like this. Luckily, there i

s a resist magica effect which works for negative spell effects, but not the positive ones. Meaning that if you were to reach 100% magic resistance, you could resist the blind effect. But 100% magic resistance must be pretty difficult to reach due to being overpowered, right? Well, no. We're already at 50 by default on this character. We have the acronym SIGN, which removes our ability to naturally generate MAGICA, but we get two times the max magica and can absorb 50% of hostile effects. In add

ition, we are a Breton, which comes with an additive 0.5 times to our magica and 50% magic resistance. Long story short, we can resist half of the effect by default, dimming our screen to 50%. In addition, if we can cast a one second 50 point resist magic effect, then put on the boots we fully resist the blind for the rest of the game. And it's a cheap spell effect because the game never updates to check if the resist magica effect still nullifies the blind effect. Our next stop is to the Bloodm

oon expansion doing the Tim Vale in the well quest. It's pretty easy to dodge the higher level enemies given we have 200 plus speed and Tim Balls willing to series and easily giving us the mantle of woe. The mantle of woe has a great many effects. It fortifies magica five times, which is additive to our 2.5 times. It also fortifies conjugation 50 points. In exchange, we have a 20 point weakness to normal weapons, 100 points drain personality, setting it to zero and sun damage 20 points, which tu

rns us into a vampire. But, but, but. But. We don't need to wear the robe all the time, which means we can get in fights and access our near 1200 points of magic. Then take it off the rest of the time. One more artifact. The necromancers amulet, which you get from Arch Major Bonia Sartorius, resists normal weapons. 25% fortifies intelligence 25 points more. Magica restores health one point on self and absorbs spells 25% on self. So now we have regenerating health, 75% spell absorption and a part

ial normal weapons resistance. Yeah, this build wasn't worth it. This is because more wind will rarely rise up to the challenge issued. And that's part of the charm. Later, Elder Scrolls games bent over backwards to try and balance the Big Three specializations out. Morrowind was unapologetic and allowed Wizards to really shine. The more creative and more able to take advantage of the game systems you are, the more you're allowed to get out of the game. And it's great. So let's get started with

this main quest quest They have taken you from the Imperial City's prison, first by carriage and now by boat to the east. Tomorrow, we fear not fear. I am watchful. You have been chosen. One month after our arrival, we returned to Caius, who had given us 200 gold to start our work. We're now a member of the blades, a secret intelligence agency working in service of the Emperor. Our first few tasks seem inane, but from the very first quests, we're going to be introducing concepts and ideas that a

re important throughout. Caius will insist you acquire some experience, and I think this is going to reinforce it. Our first two quests will involve going to the local guilds for some information. You know, just in case you haven't joined them yet. It's no coincidence that as most new players will commonly pick fighter characters. Our first task is to meet has that on to bullets over in the fighters Guild and ask them about the new Riverine and Sixth House Colts. We've dealt a bit with the six h

ouse cult before, but the New River in Colts is a new one. I promised that that name wouldn't come back up and I lied. Unfortunately, Hachette doesn't have much info on them, but he can tell us about the Sixth House in exchange for a small favor. He wants us to get our hands on a dimmer puzzle box located in the nearby ruin of Archon land. This is a great first quest. In order to find a ruin, you have to pay attention to the directions given. That said, it's also a safe quest. If you get in over

your head, you're right next to a legion fort with all the necessary amenities to meet snowy greenness, or, as I call him, the bridge wizard. He's a gear check. If you try to play Morrowind the same way you would play Skyrim, Brainiest is your rude awakening, and Caius warned you. On the surface, he's little more than a wizard bandit. He's only level three. He knows some basic destruction spells and can summon a skeleton. But because he is ostensibly the main quests first mandatory combat encou

nter, he's garnered a reputation. Obviously, he's no match for the monster I've created, but he deserves recognition. Because if Morrowind had those Dark Souls bloodstains, they'd be right about here. Before we enter the ruin proper, we have to figure out how to open the door. I could be wrong, but I think house that has a throwaway line about it. This crank here opens the door. Archon Sand is an all right little first dungeon. It's basically two dungeons, the first abandoned area. The second, a

more traditional dilemma ruined our objective. And indeed, the only reason you're sent here is actually right by the door. Tucked away in an area not immediately drawn to the eye. You could explore this entire dungeon reaching the end, a large vertical area and not find the puzzle box only to realize it was by the door. The whole time. This is owing to the fact that Dungeons and Morrowind are non-linear. But that isn't even entirely true. Some dungeons and Morrowind are non-linear, and some dun

geons and Morrowind are a single hallway leading into a room. Dungeons and Morrowind are realistic by the standards of the universe because. In what world would the leader of a group of bandits put his living space as far as possible from the door? And in the real world, some people were buried in a mausoleum. And some people were buried the pyramids. Once we returned the box to Antibalas, he gives us some notes on the Sixth House and recommends we speak with Sean Gramercy Cobb. You can read the

notes at any time as we'll be getting them back. Indeed. Casey's next orders are to speak with Sean Grams garb, a local alleged necromancer working out of the major's guild. Again, this is Bethesda, subtly, the player towards a faction if they haven't already joined. She'll tell us what she knows about the new traveling colt in exchange for a small favor. She wants us to visit an ancestral tomb, grab the skull of one level and rhino and bring it to her. Read into this. She wants us to defile a

local tomb, steal the skull of a native, and give it to an all but confirmed necromancer. Yeah, get used to that feeling. She does give us some tools to handle the undead in the tomb, which is a nice introduction to the concept of creatures who are immune to normal weapons like iron and steel, as they aren't going to be going away. I don't have as much to say about this quest as the other one. It's more of the same. Go to place, grab a thing. The tomb is much smaller of a dungeon, easier to get

to and more linear. I guess there is something to be said for making absolutely certain players are prepared for the coming escalation in difficulty. We get some notes in the near over in court and report back to Caius case as an academic wants us to corroborate our findings from the last two missions with a big and complicated mission to collect intel in the big city Vec. I like questioning Vivek, and yet I like this quest. First, it matches the theme of the blades as an intelligence organizati

on collecting information and doing favors. Second, each leg of the quest follows the same format but does something unique. Third, each leg is set in a different part of avec not just different cantons, different sections of the cantons, making them distinct in a way. Most Vivek quests just aren't. We're looking for three people. Hillier, Adhir Inir and Mira Milo. Hillier is in the foreign quarter and is about to be the victim of a hate crime. Before we step in. You can persuade them to leave h

er alone or just kill them. Afterwards, you escort Hillier across the canteen and he gives you some notes on the delivering court. Adhir near hanging out in the sewers of St ORMES. This isn't for fun. She is actually hiding down here and finding her will entails searching the canton she's hiding due to a census. An excise agent looking for. We deal with the issue and she tells us that the Sixth House has become a big client for smugglers. But nobody knows why. Mary Milo is in the library up at t

he Temple. Asks. We follow her into the back where it's more secluded and tells us a bit about the near riverine cult and suggests we find a copy of the book Progress of Truth. She even establishes a code word we can use in the event something goes wrong. Like this is a proper spy story. The book can be found in a variety of locations, but the easiest is to just buy it at the local rare book store. You happen to have escorted Julia to its rarity, as though to the fact that it has been officially

banned by the Temple for heresy. If you're curious where this is going, don't worry. We have one more quest before the big reveal. K.S. is now interested in establishing an informant with the Ash Islanders nomadic tribes native to the island. He suggests we find and talk to Hasse, our Shabani, a former Ashland, are working as a merchant. Case notes that the islanders have gift giving customs and suggests we try to learn more about that. We meet up with Hasler and discuss business with him. We f

ind out that he enjoys reading poetry and the local bookstore sells three different books that qualify. He already owns all three, but appreciates the gesture and is willing to tell us what he knows. He has some information in the near Evergreen Cult and on Ashland or Customs. Mind you, none of that is really signposted. You don't get the words by the book on your screen with a marker pointing to the local bookstore. You have to figure all this out on your own. And with that, we finally learn wh

at cases game is. He isn't just collecting information for the sake of academics. We were here by the Emperor himself. Big you, a controversial figure noted for certain seizure powers. We were released from serial city prison because we had met certain conditions of the near prophecy. A prophecy that foreshadowed the reincarnation of St near of our case admits skepticism at these claims. But as time has gone on and we have gathered information, he is somewhat less skeptical. However, Caius makes

an important distinction that separates this game from other chosen one style narratives. The Emperor isn't just sending us over because we are the chosen, but because there is a need to stop the Sixth House. the Temple is failing, the tribunal is growing weaker and Vardhan fell is under quarantine for a disease that could threaten the rest of the continent. Whether we are actually the new riverine or not is ultimately irrelevant. The Emperor is just hoping we can solve the situation and as an

added contingency, should we fail his legions entrenched in strategic positions across the island to take over. We are not the only person capable of stopping this crisis. We just happen to be the cheapest. At 87 Gold As to the situation at present, there are two courts on the island that relate to the current crisis, the new river in court and the Sixth House. The Dunmore people generally believe in the idea of the river in the same way my country casually believes in Revelations. That is to sa

y, your average Dunmore is ultimately unconcerned with the reincarnation of this ancient figure and the imminent apocalypse. There ever in court is more interested in this topic, and in particular cataloging information forbidden by the tribunal temple. At this point in the quest, the motivations for the Temple to discourage belief in the riverine and punish false incarnates is an unknown. Case is hopeful to meet the court and is dispatching us to meet its alleged leaders in the urge a lack of c

amp. This a rather significant foray into hostile territory up into the ash lands in the north of the island. From a story perspective, it makes sense. From a gameplay perspective, it can cause whiplash. We go from our first quest having a tough dungeon, our second quest having an easier dungeon. But then our third and fourth quests are about finding people and figuring out how to get them to tell you what you want. And now we're on Quest five, and it's meant to be an escalation in challenge. Wo

uldn't it make more sense to start with the talky, talky missions, then move up to the easy dungeon and then the hard dungeon than the long trek north? Maybe people will get bored. All that said, the Ursula camp is one of my favorite quest lines in a Bethesda game. You have to figure out how to work your way into this, but rather than having victory assured by presence, you have to do so using knowledge of said society. Knowledge that is not told directly to you by the quest giver, but in a prio

r quest. This is just one of many reasons players who try to play on autopilot don't like Morrowind because it isn't as simple as walking up to the wise woman and declaring the chosen one. You are the stranger and no one here has any cause to believe in you until you prove yourself to earn your way up. You have to take into consideration you learned about thoughtful gifts, but it isn't as rigid in formula. Other means of convincing people such as persuasion or charm spells are still just as vali

d a means of convincing the residents arrange a meeting. It's a direct interplay of mechanics and storytelling without any kind of arbitrary restrictions were first directed to Zorba mind, the second to saw mature. He needs to be convinced, and there are a variety of options. You can try to intimidate him, which is dependent on your level. You can try to boast of your deeds, dependent on your reputation. You can offer a tribute or should you be practiced in speech craft, You can speak of what yo

u've learned on your way here. This is one of the few moments where the writer Ken Rolston demonstrated understanding of just what the text based dialog system was capable of in terms of skill checks. Unfortunately, it was underutilized and ironically, it was Douglas Goodall who criticized Bethesda for not using skill checks and choices in Morrowind despite himself never actually using them either. But I got to cut him a break because he wrote enough material to fill two and a half hours of vide

o to Zorba mind. Once convinced sends you to meet with saw mature. He says in order for him to adopt us into the tribe as a clan friend, we need to pass an initiation. Right. And recover his father's boat at the Ursula Gabriel Caverns. It's interesting to consider how the ancestral tombs are advanced versions of this tribal burial cavern concept. It's the little details that make this game great. The Caverns are a fairly complex dungeon, but you'll eventually find the ghost of Seoul, Singapore w

ho, on his defeat, drops his bow. This makes us clan friend and Soorma tool permits us to speak with the wise woman near Bani Mesa. And so begins a long dialog with nobody. She has a great deal of important insight that plays into the story a bit too much. So much, in fact, that the Mani even offers to cut to the chase and answer if we are the new riverine. She figures that we are not at present, but may be comments based on some of the qualifiers in the prophecies that she knows when earth is s

undered and skies choked black and sleepers serve that. Yeah, this is way too long for pretentiousness like that. The big takeaway is that there are seven trials and to present we've met the first which is the one described at the start of the game in the first cut scene. We're born on a certain day. Which day it is isn't clear, but it's a reference to our birth sign. We're also born to uncertain parents, so the near riverine is an orphan born under a sign. Trial to Remarks on immunity to diseas

e. Trial three refers to a Zora as well as Moon and Star. The fourth trial says that three houses will call us horchata. The fifth trial says the four tribes will call us in the riverine. The sixth and seventh trials are not particularly clear. And with both the stranger and the seven visions, we have been told all, nobody knows. She remarks that there are lost that she doesn't know. That may be in the hands of the Temple. With that, we head back to Kai as Kai is, takes our notes and informs us

he has a new assignment. One he warns, is going to be tough. This is another progression in the difficulty and expectation that the player is supposed to be out and about performing other work for the sake of self-improvement. The reason this works, especially compared to Oblivion in Skyrim, is that even though this is a plot about a chosen one, stopping an ancient threat said ancient threat is as dangerous as he has been for decades, and we have no basis to assume he's even in the final stages

of his plans in Oblivion in Skyrim and actually in Fallout three and four as well. There's A constant drive to go from Main Quest to main quests. There are rarely laws in the action that allow you to disengage from the main quests and engage with the world instead. Whereas Morrowind is more masterful in providing multiple opportunities for the player to diverge and actually play the game. So to give an example, in Oblivion, you watch the Emporer die in the tutorial giving you specific directions

to go to Wayne in Priory, and when in Priory you're given explicit directions to hurry. Took a village to save Martin. Once you escort Martin to Cloud Ruler Temple, you given further urgent orders to investigate the mythic dawn before they summon Satan in the four horns of the Apocalypse sound. I can detail similar lines in each subsequent Bethesda game. The urgency you find in Your father in Fallout three. The Urgency of Dealing with the Dragons in Skyrim. The Urgency of Finding Your Son in Fa

llout four. Urgency Removes Agency in an open World game, and it's the mistake that is often made by writers not realizing the storytelling opportunities presented by the interactive medium. Instead, they want to write engaging movie plots that build tension, which means that the world is neglected in the process. You cannot play a character that doesn't have these urgent issues in the back of their mind without undergoing some form of mental gymnastics. But I understand the desire to generate t

ension in a storyline, and Morrowind begins its dramatic rise with this quest. From here on, it becomes much more difficult to ignore the pressing threat of the Sixth House, which is not a bad thing. What I'm arguing for is simply early stepping off points in the story. Of course, our broken character is more than ready for the situation. According to Caius, a Legion patrol found a Sixth House base. So we need to locate it, take it out and see what we can learn. We go to meet with Racer and Beck

with, and she tells us of the base's near near Mock. The original party was entirely wiped out with a single survivor shambling back to the base afflicted with Corpus. Barely Eking out the caverns location at Allenby, asking the locals in Na Mark. We managed to find the cave and it's a nice place, you. This is Degas, Garris. He's an ass school. Garris tells us that we should go to Red Mountain and meet Dagga thoroughly with open arms, and that the Sixth House will continue to be at war with us u

ntil then. Then he attacks us. He's a tough cookie. A fitting challenge to the rising escalation. But with his dying breath, he curses us with corpus, an infectious, incurable disease that will gradually deform us into a zombie. Kai has figured this would happen and refers to Dr. Fear, the principal researcher of Corpus on the island. There's a missed opportunity to have fast travel services refuse to serve. You diegetic reinforcing the seriousness of this infection with a mechanical inconvenien

ce. Diphtheria is. He lives in a remote area with his four cloned daughters and contributes to the society by caring for the victims of and trying to cure corpus disease. But while he hasn't it yet, what are the odds of him curing it in time to save us? I mean, it'd be a bit contrived. Go down in the corpus area and meet the last living dwarf. Ask any questions you want. Take some levitation potions up to divots, get a potion poured down your throat. And while not getting cured, the negative eff

ects are removed, rendering us immune to disease. Okay. There's a lot going on. Device fear is an ancient Dunmore wizard, hence the skepticism of the seriousness of events. He lived to see the fall of the dimmer, the rise of the tribunal and the change from Rosedale to Morrowind. He's seen his share of occupations and the occasional dagger crisis. We also meet Young from Bagan, who claims to be the last living dwarf. He says that while he was out in Oblivion at the time of the disappearance and

spent a great deal of time looking for his people to no avail. Eventually, he was afflicted with Corpus and found in the false role of the disease by David Thier, who restored him to some partial sanity. The corpus affliction for both him and us is a bit advantageous. While it causes less than desirable growths all over the body and mental degeneration to dementia, it also stops the progress of aging. This renders its victims effectively immortal. One of the reasons despite diagrams health years

so long live it. Obviously There are some questions. No, the treatment we are given doesn't work for others. If you return to device, you will remark that it killed the other patients he tried it on. Even if it had our objective is to stop the source of corpus, meaning that its applications as a reproducible way to become immortal or non-existent. We might have gotten some more info in the years following Morrowind. The Red Con year never happened. As to why it works for us, I'm just going to a

ssume Divine Intervention from his era. Just keep this little corpus thing in the back of your mind. Moving forward on our return to QC informs us that we're being promoted to operative. This is the highest rank he can afford us at this time as he is being recalled to serial city for events possibly related to Elder Scrolls four, but not to worry Operative makes us the ranking blades member and vardenafil at least the Kaiser's knowledge. This marks the beginning of our operations as an independe

nt agent. This is one of the big reasons I like Morrowind because as the chosen one, we don't have to answer to a boss like the other games. Oblivion was absolutely terrible in this regard. Skyrim was a bit better by turning our bosses into mentors, but let's be honest, we still didn't have any agency chaos. This final standing order is to find the lost in the riverine prophecies and bring them to the mighty Mesa. Our first step then, should be to meet with Mayor of Milo and Vivek again and shar

e what we learned from the Urschel, AQ, Ashland or tribe. However, Mara is missing and in her quarters she has left a note to Amaya. My brain's on autopilot. I don't remember what a mayor is supposed to mean. What do? Well Luckily we have the journal. I may hype this game up to be hardcore and require some serious mental firepower to solve mysteries that only smarty pants, big brained boys myself can do. That's not really true. The designers were generally pretty smart about using the journal to

relay critical information to the player. Or you could just be lazy and use the wiki. This creates a near constant sense of dramatic irony where the player character is remembering and intuiting information that the player might not. I didn't use the journal a lot, but that is to my experience with the game. Occasions when I did use the Journal were immensely helpful, especially since the player character often notes down directions to places in the journal. One problem I do have that was intro

duced in a patch for Morrowind is the quest log. This allows you to keep an active tab on all the quests you have at any given time. It's pretty ubiquitous for roleplaying games, right? And it makes sense. Finding journal entries for a quest you accepted two weeks prior can be difficult, but I suppose it comes down to a difference in philosophy. To me. I tend to play very focused characters doing quests in order of urgency and often saying no to quests that are out of my way or are uninteresting

. Most people seem to rack up great number of quests simultaneously, excepting every quest that gets thrown at them. So for most people, a quest log is necessary to keep track of all that information. I think it's to promise to do quests only to just let it sit in your log for weeks, if not months. Are you really going to let that rancher's guar get attacked by mud crabs while you work on your dissertation on the dwarves? I think the topic system they also introduced in that patch was a much mor

e effective means as it allows you to find all the information you have kept entries on in one location, giving the player easy access to old information without making it too easy for players on autopilot. Anyways, Milo's missing and we need to find her. Her note is pretty explicit. She's tied up at the Ministry of Truth. She left a few levitation potions for me and wants me to bring some divine intervention scrolls. We also get directed to speak to Alveolar Ciaran, which is one of the door gua

rds. So where is the Ministry of Truth? Oh, it's the currently crashing meteor hovering above the city. You? It's a very dunmurry idea to imprison your thought criminals and a giant floating meteor instead of maybe gradually mining the thing out of the sky. This is a stealth mission. As indicated by the stealth equipment Kai is helping to give us before he left. Or rather, this would be a stealth mission. If anyone other than me were playing it and I. Whether you want whether you want sci fi guy

, sci fi channel, we meet up with Milo. She's one of the prisoners up here, and she takes a scroll of Divine Intervention and says, I need to meet her at the dissident Priest monastery. Hollow. Am I? And I can get there from Evan heart through a woman named Bella to Hysteria. We go fishing with blotter and arrive at the monastery, which is currently closed. The shield guarding Hollow, a mayan only opens at dusk and dawn, a reference to Azura. So we wait until it opens and head inside. Mara think

s it's for freeing her and directs us to speak with Master Barolo who heads the dissident priests. He gives us three pieces of critical information the lost prophecy, the seven curses and information on the next tours. You might recall during our Mages Guild investigation into the disappearance of the Dwarves that CAG, Rennick and his tools had come up. Yeah, they might be important. The lost. I'll let you read it and I'll discuss the big points. The first refers to being born in an ancient fami

ly foreign to Morrowind and Dragonborn. Dragonborn, in this case, just refers to from somewhere in Syria, though not the Retconning, meaning where the Dragonborn are the universal chosen one format that learning the dragon language. The prophecy goes on to discuss what the Outlander incarnate will do going beneath Red Mountain, countering the seven curses, his star blessed hand wielding a blade thrice cursed to punish the unmoored or Sixth House. So are the seven curses. The note we're given. Li

st them as follows The curse of fire, of ash, of flesh, of ghosts, of seed, of despair and curse of dreams. Fire in ash. It is a volcano island. Flesh is corpus which we've beaten. Ghosts, seed and despair likely to refer to curses yet afflicted. And the curse of dreams refers to dreams. Our character, as well as other people named Dreamers, have been afflicted with. One example being Bill withdrawn from the Temple, who mistakenly believed himself to be the near reveling. One thing I could not m

ention in the tribunal temple section was that being there near Riverine is a potential solution to that particular quest as you can prove that he is not near Avar incarnate. However, this particular solution is rather confusing, as it's a very short window where you would actually be able to complete the quest in this manner. Another dreamer is Varvara Serenity from the Rudoren Questline, whom was corrupted by an ash statue into killing his friend. There are also a host of named NPCs in the wor

ld who exist as normal civilians who will gradually become dreamers as you do the main quest. What about the Blade curse Thrice? This is in reference to one of Kagan ex tools keening. He had three tools Wraith, Guard keening and thunder Keening is probable as the blade as it kills any who wield it without guard. We gain some additional juicy details. According to the dissident priests, the dwarves disappeared at the same time as the Battle of Red Mountain for entirely unrelated reasons, at this

time, near Avar and Agathe, her went into the mountain, finding the tools as well as the heart of lore. Can one of the Adra, who was punished for creating mortality near Avar, had test tagus with protecting the tools, and went to speak with his counselors whose name may be familiar the VEC. I'm Alexia inside the cell or the tribunal. When the tribunal led by neira var went to Red Mountain, Daggett had apparently gone mad and refused to hand over the tools. He was driven off and the tools were re

covered. Each swore to never use the tools, but following their of hours timely and convenient death, the tribunal went to law Khan's heart and use the tools to gain divine power that Geth eventually returned himself, also having divine power and took control of the heart keening Sunder and the Red Mountain, and ever since then has fought a shadow war with the tribunal. Temple Dag author is unable quickly win as he does not possess Wraith guard and the Temple are unable to win as they can't acce

ss the heart. the Temple thus censors the dissident priests, the new riverine cult and the false incarnates, as there is some measure of shame felt for their inability to properly control the situation. However, the dissident priests are not against the Temple. They recognize the real enemy and being together. So with these three pieces of information, we go to the Mani mesa. This is the beginning of the second act of Morrowind, and it begins with our return to the earlier likely tribe. We tell

their lost prophecies to Nomani until she memorizes them. She then sets us down path of completing the seven trials. Trials one and two are done but saw the tool is the one who knows of the third trial before he will share the third trial, he wishes us to pass a Warriors test by journeying to Koga Ruin, a Sixth House stronghold. We are to acquire a corpus weeping, a house de goth cup and the shadow shield. Koga rune is an extensive dungeon featuring three separate environments and a lot of monst

ers. Koga Rune is a logical progression of difficulty from a Luna, B being longer, more populist, far from resupply. I suspect many will have given up on Morrowind long before now. If a Luna B was the final test. Koga Rune is the job you get after graduation. It really a great dungeon. Upon our return to Silver Tool, he tells us the riddle of the third trial. The eye of the needle lies in the teeth of the wind, the mouth of the cave in the skin of the pearl. The dream is the door and the star is

the key. I wish I could experience solving this riddle for the first time again. Unfortunately, I know exactly where this riddle ends. The eye of the needle is our objective. The teeth of the wind refers to a coastal entry point into the island. The skin of this pearl is the most obscure part, but it is supposed to refer to a bright rock that can guide you. This quest is one of the reasons I disagree with the sentiment. People, including the Skyward devs, have about waypoint markers in particul

ar that if you don't like them, you can simply turn them off. The problem with that sentiment is that when games get frustrating, if you suffer through, there is an eventual sense of catharsis at solving puzzle. However, if the option to have the answer shown to you is always available, then when the moment of frustration arrives, rather than earning that sense of catharsis, you take the easy way out. I know this to be true because it is something that happens to me as well. I like the game dish

onored a bit. I know it's a non sequitur, but it took me a while to understand why people I knew didn't like the game until I realized I had made it a change in the menu options that most people had not. I was given a good piece of advice before starting the game to turn off the waypoints. This made the game way more since I was fully exploring the levels and actually finding my objectives, not just following a waypoint. The only reason it worked for Dishonored and not other games, however, is t

hat Dishonored is fairly linear game that also specifies directions to locations in the game. Whereas most modern games rely on waypoints because there simply isn't time to do that in development. Now, imagine Morrowind with waypoints. A lot of the quests I've described in this line as well as in the other parts immediately begin to suffer because of a lack of intrigue and a lack of catharsis for figuring it out. Not just the big quests like this, where the whole point is to discern a location b

ased on a riddle. But other quests like the quest to find Tell Fear during the Cure, Or how about the quest to find the informants? They become a lot less interesting if you have a waypoint leading you directly to the source. The cavern of the incarnate, once found, can only be entered at the hours of dusk and dawn. A staple for zero in the dawn hour under a Zora's star, the door is opened. Inside is a statue of her and a ring within her hands. This triggers a cut seen there of all reborn incarn

ate. Your First, three trials are finished now. Two new trials lie before you seek the Ashland ash cans and the Great House counselors for tribes must name you Nara Varin. Three houses must name you Halt at all. My servant Narbonne. The mesa shall be your guide. And when you are fought at all and never Varin when you've stood before the false gods and freed the heart from its prison. Heal my people and restore Morrowind. Do this for me and with my blessing. Sadly, Morningstar is somewhat underpo

wered. It's a constant effect of the fortifies, personality and speech craft. Five points. It's meant to signify two things near a vast supernatural power of persuasion and proof of identity. Most people won't care or acknowledge if we wear the ring and said supernatural power pales in comparison to the power of the bribe. I mean, really, you couldn't have afforded the legendary Ring of Nero Vare to be absolutely ridiculous, like 25 or 50 points fortified. There are random items given to us by p

revious incarnates who were not in a riverine with more use than Moon and Star like these levitation bands. From here on Morrowind, Questline becomes non-linear. The next obvious step and what I did would be to return to the Urshela you inform them of what happened and seek to be declared their new riverine. Silma to all grants us this title in the Bonnie. Although a zero labeled her our guide only really has some basic information for moving forward, after which we never have to speak with her.

Important to note, however, is that from here on the Temple and house four door and becomes somewhat hostile as we are being persecuted as a false incarnate. Thus, let us begin the journey of becoming Wichita and the riverine, starting with House. Hello. I ask about the horchata and Al Mora and get given a book with all the councilmembers listed and for a 50 gold bribe I get directed specifically to Uncle Curio. These horchata requests are going to have a lot of overlap with the house quests th

emselves. I enjoy this aspect and appreciate the effort. Whether or not you are a member of one of the houses or even its leader has an impact on how these quests proceed. If you are the leader of a House, then you are pretty qualified to be their auditor, but remember that they are also exclusive, so you still have to experience the other two. I go to meet craziest curio and ask to become horchata. If you have a disposition of 70 something, I was just too short of something. I was just too shor

t of. Just too short of what is it, peasant? I am not amused. He is willing to vote for you in exchange for a kiss. Otherwise it costs 1000 gold. What I like about the horchata request is that it introduces you to the cultures of the factions you're meant to be representing in a way that is consistent with the culture of the faction. Hello in particular will involve a great deal of bribery and, political manipulation, something that also happened, a great deal to reffing. One thing I had conside

red doing for this video since I was on PC and have some experience with the editor, was making a small that put my custom characters as faction leaders who would name is horchata in order to skip any redundancies, since for the most part the horchata process is nearly identical to the in-game questline of each Great House becoming. Hello. Horchata will entail finding the councilors and gaining their vote. DRAM bro will vote for you if you manage to find him, although at least this time we don't

have to bare knuckle cage match his pet Nord Yngling half asks for money which I oblige him. The craziest suggested we kill him. The remaining two councilors Nirvana, us and Belinda Armani, are under the control of one Orvis dren. This part of the quest will be new material. Since my conversation with Dren goes a bit differently than reference conversation. Did I tell him I want to become Wichita to defeat together, and he attacks me, saying the tribunal betrayed the Dunmore when they signed th

e armistice with the Empire and that dagger author had already made him a better offer. You can't actually convince Orvis to peacefully support you. But considering Orvis Dren is responsible for a lot of suffering on vardenafil and he doesn't recognize Tiber, Septum was as powerful as the tribunal when they signed the armistice, My decision was easy. There is no escape. Die, after which Willis and Amani are receptive to the idea of supporting us. And with that crass US names as horchata. Somethi

ng I'll note is that of these horchata are in the river. Inquests give the unique magical item like the hollow belt at the horse tour that gives a constant 20 point magic a bonus. But a lot of them aren't really notable, and I did not use them. Our next stop was the house for Dawn in Aldrin. I know it's kind of late to ask, but is the correct spelling with an apostrophe or a dash? In order to become Red Dawn portraiture, we need to figure out if any of the counselors can get our foot in the door

. Most will be hostile to the idea, but through process of elimination, you'll eventually meet Athens. Dorothy, who will say that all but one council member will support us both in Venom. But first, he wants us to rescue his son Viscera from Venom Manor. This is similar to the redrawn version of events, except I was a lot more violent than Jim and Doris was with you in. You can talk briefly. Society says that if we defeat bovine venom in an honorable duel that the other councilors will find no r

eason not to support us as horchata. These honor games are an important part of our dawn culture, but they are just as willing to commit duplicitous acts. Society certainly stands to gain politically from us taking care of venom. The other councilors are willing to support us as Hawks tour despite everything, because we are willing to fight together and thanks to sorority's good word. Minor error Bar mentions that there were rumors us being an imperial spy, which is simply ridiculous. And so aft

er gaining the support of the councilors, we confront Venom and he initiates the dual challenge. This means going out of our way to go to the Vivek Arena. Because why would a faction that frequently has honor duels be host to an area to have said duels? And because, of course this game is going to pit us one last time in the. Things go a bit differently on PC than they did on Xbox division Hill in anyways Serenity now confirms this is horchata and gives us a sealed package. The note basically sa

ys that while we are committing high acts of heresy, the Temple holds that if we are acting in the best interest of our anvil and are able to become more true to our near riverine, then I can myself to Arch Cannon ceremony for a private meeting. Taiwanese door to door process is a little different from its questline. Like the other houses the council has the unanimously agree on the appointment for the t11e questline proper. However, Ueberroth never actually had to meet the entire council as his

custom without having any one potential solution to becoming horchata. Should a councilor not support me would be to simply kill them. I believe you can do this in any order, but Master Aryon is the only unconditional vote and he's willing to explain other councilors for you. Master No has an ill temper. Probably from those mock based ointments his mouth keeps using. Mistress Teresa hates men. Mistress Theron is crazy. An arch magister goth or animal Stalin definitely for no reason likely needi

ng to be killed, an outcome everyone admits is beneficial to him. You? I've already said this before, but each councilor lives atop a tower that can only be accessed with a levitation effect. So even without doing the terrifying quests, you have to engage in this quirk of Tiffany society. No authors receptive to us being horchata are in exchange for a 1000 gold bribe and also us going away, Serrano confirms, is his horchata provided we perform a party trick for her driver. Even after a few thous

and golden bribes isn't too receptive on account of our masculinity, you guys. And with that, Arianne gives us the useless robe of the horchata. A simple questline but fully reflective of telephonic culture. Now we're starting on the three remaining tribes that must name us near riverine for the trials to be complete. We start with the Ahimsa tribe who live in the grasslands near the coast. One Of the tribesmen recommends I speak to one of the Gula Khans. They pass me up to the wise woman. Appar

ently they ahimsa have no ashcan. So she speaks for the tribe. She is willing name as near everyone. However, the ahimsa are in need of a safe place. Whenever there himself have been threatened, she says they would go to all today draw. It's worth noting that this is a lowkey admission that the ahimsa are danger worshipers. But now a full time Shigaraki cult have taken up residence in the shrine. I am to go to all day, drive and make it safe. What defines safe can actually vary? In another Elder

Scrolls game. Safe would be the complete and utter annihilation of the current population. All day draws much like in the Temple. Questline is currently in a state of war between a group of ward neighbors and some sugar breath worshipers. I love when the game intersects quest lines like this. It just as easily could have picked another unused brick ruin to set this. You want another one? When one of the later Mages Guild quests has you setting up a meeting with this same, ahem, as a wise woman.

Here, I run into you and have to talk with your neighbors who. Want me dead. What makes this quest interesting is that I can speak with the leader of the Sugar Breath cult, and he can be convinced or coerced into allowing the ahimsa to use all day wrath as a refuge. In fact, all these sugar breath worshipers are named NPCs, unlike other games that would simply name them cultists or bandits or what have you. It was post Morrowind tribunal that Bethesda went back to using generic names for enemy

NPCs. So begins the process of us demonstrating the safety of all day dross. Now the ruin is across the water, the tribe. But luckily the wise woman can water walk. Funnily enough, she's also a spell creator and since I no fortify attribute, I cook up a little fortify speed spell to make this go by quicker. This proceeds to immediately backfire. When she gets distracted by an underwater enemy she can never reach and goes sprinting off into the sunset at high speeds. Walton's demise reduces the c

rown to the sea, where destiny, once upon never alarm and warrior home is looked upon by the grand Thunder. I.e. all because I'm a dog is not something from been reborn over. We laughed it up. After a few minutes we arrive and having proven the shrine safety relatively at least cinema is willing to make us the enemies in the riverine. Deeper into the interior of the grasslands is the ZAYNAB tribe. To quote one of their own tribesmen, our great chief does not stand on ceremony. Indeed, the Ashkin

doesn't care as much as others about going through the Geula cans or thoughtful gifts. We met the Zainab during the Hello Questline. He's skeptical of the idea of an outlander being the new riverine. So he dispatches us to deal with a vampire named Calvary Vario Di. And that's that. I have no more quarrel with you opening w way more stable than vanilla. Anyways, Guichard is thrilled we killed Khavari on sensing the opportunity to take advantage of an unwitting hero. Something I'm surprised didn

't happen more often. Gives us his most ridiculous request to mind. He wants us to find him a Highborn tell Varney bride a pretty one with big hips and bring her back for marriage. He suggests I go to the Tell Varney Lords. Well, the ones left anyways and inform them of the significant political opportunity of marrying off one of their daughters. He wants us to consider the many daughters offered and choose for him the finest. And suggest we consult the wise woman to learn of his tastes. Son Emi

le, the wise woman is realistic. No t11e Lord is going to marry their daughter off to an Ash islander, Ash Khan, or otherwise. I don't think any of the t11e Lords are even specified to children. Instead, and I want you to listen until I say otherwise. Instead we are to go to her friend civil, a main, a slave mistress at Tela, run by a slave, dress her up as a member of high society and bring her back to the camp and presented to Quichotte as a highborn Giovanni bride because he won't know the di

fference. All right, you can pause the video and leave your comments now. Of the more morally dubious things we've done in this questline, I'd say this is about as worse as it gets. It's kind of a necessary of the new refereeing quests. This tribe is the longest, most intricate and pointless. You already had the call. Various quests. Just make that one more complex. I guess the point is that in order to save the day, we have to engage in a little local culture. Slavery. Anyways, the slave in que

stion doesn't really seem to mind situation. We get her some nice clothes until funny bug mask, which fortifies personality and escort her back to the village. She's happy to have nice clothes and she is technically going be set free, even if that is into a life of rearing children. Gachet adds in impressed and names as near covering for our work. I think this is what good All was complaining about when it came to Rolston's writing, being more grounded in historical parallelism. Generally speaki

ng, marriage societies have different conceptions of personal relationships and reproduction on account of their longer lifespans. The dunmurry the type of culture that would focus on trying to produce higher quality children rather than a higher quantity like the races of men do. This is also the game's only instance of a nine beast being enslaved, which is technically canonical. The tavern were supposed to keep slaves of all races, even the Dunmore, but Rolston was the one exploring that idea

with this quest and the John Harker character, while good, all seem to maintain the idea that only the beast races were being enslaved. Of the four tribes, the Arab in Assam, the least plussed about the new riverine, one of the tribespeople suggests we skipped talking to the Ashcan and Geula cans and go straight to the wise woman as the cons see the prophecies as foolish, superstitious The wise woman says as such. The ashcan. Julius Paul hates Outlander's, and she says that he is a bad leader. S

he says that while he is the ashcan, the Arab in will love war and hate outlander's. So in order to change things, we need to kill the leadership of the tribe and install Helen Amoo, one of the more peaceful hooligans as. Ash Can I go to argue with Paul who makes the mistake of attacking me when I mention in the riverine prophecies? And so I'm forced to kill the leadership of the tribe. Then the wise woman has me go to hand Amoo who accepts the artifacts I collected from the other coins and beco

mes Khan. And he names us near the end of the era beneath them. Well, if I am funny as the bleed over of gameplay elements into the story, we give him an ax that boosts his strength and amulet to boost his willpower and a robe that boosts his intelligence. And then boom, he's stronger, bolder and smarter. That said, this is also the most undercooked of the new riverine quests. Its simplicity, I suspect, can be owed to the remoteness of the camp and the general undercooked Miss nature of the regi

on the camp is in. The only real crossover with the tribe is the Legion Quest, where they let a missionary get kidnaped by the Madagascan. And so in a short span, we have become horde to tour of three houses near Riverine of four tribes. The water to our quests give us a taste of the houses we represent. While the new river inquests introduce us to the value system of each tribe. It's not lost on me that the number of factions in this is the same as the number of dadra in the traditional Dunmore

pantheon. Three houses for the anticipations and four tribes for the four corners. Well, the houses are pretty straightforward. I, for the life of me, couldn't tell you which tribes are meant to correspond to which dadra. While the synopsis of the section was short, it's important to note that the player is expected to complete all six of the other faction quests completely independently of any specified direction. You have to figure out where to go, who to talk to by yourself. So for someone d

oing this for the first time, assuming they aren't using any kind of guide, this series of quests will genuinely take some time. Or if you're level 20 and have 50 reputation, you can entirely this phase. Level 20 is easy. A few of my X-Box characters like Idris got their but 50 reputation will require playing a significant number of the factions to reach it. It's actually more work to complete the quest in this way, but it's nice to see the game rewarding general heroics as a potential avenue, e

ven if it's at odds with my general distaste towards characters who are used to complete all of the content. And so we start the sixth trial by kicking off the beginning of the third act of Morrowind. We start by heating the message of the arch canon and meeting with Daniel in Dallas, who informs us of a method to sneak into the private quarters of the Arch Khan in tholr ceremony. The Arch canon lays out the situation. the Temple is duty bound to oppose false doctrine, and our association with,

the empire, has hurt our credibility. Yet we have been chosen horcher to our the riverine and the Temple is now in crisis, with Dag Arthur failing to protect art and fell from the growing Sixth House threat. This is represented by the number of dreamers across the island and the number of quests and other factions that involve the Sixth House. The situation is bad and Siri only informs us that the best person to talk to would be Vivek himself and warns us against encounters with the auditors. Ga

te moving as you can see, open hostility. Thus begins our conversation with Vivek. And there is a lot to unpack here. He starts by informing us that he is ending the persecution of the the riverine in the dissident priests, mentioning that it was the zeal of Beryl Sala that led them down that path. A fact confirmed in the house Holo Questline Vivek will proclaim us near Avar and Carnet to all of Morrowind, and he is doing this whether we like it or not. Second, he proposes to give us Wraith guar

d to do with what wish? Under oath, we are free to break, to defeat together and preserve more wind. Vivek gives us a simplified plan. We go to Red Mountain, we acquire Sunder from and keening from a dro. Sal take keening thunder and wraith guard to together the location. Find the heart of Lakhan and sever Agatha's connection to the heart ending Blight. To do so, we have to strike the heart at least once with thunder three times with keening while wearing Wraith guard. Vivek is then willing to h

ost a great deal of questions about deg author. For starters, he has seven brothers who share his power of immortality. Resurrecting after death at the heart DEG author was of the same age as Lord Navarre. He is highly intelligent but extremely delusional, able to invade dreams to influence the lower ranks. After the defeat of Dagger Third, Vivek will have a great deal to say. For now he is focused on protecting vardenafil. However, there is another path that must be discussed. Morrowind has no

essential NPCs. This means that any NPC whom you desire dead or by some circumstance is well dead. This can pose an obvious problem if Quest NPCs die but isn't too big an issue because it is an exceptionally rare circumstance that an whose life is outside of the player's control. This circumstance I refer to, or the two instances in earlier quests where we escorted an essential NPC through a hostile area. When people about essential NPC, as I understand both sides of the argument, there is a deg

ree of player freedom that is lost when you're unable to kill whom you choose. This is especially bad when what the player considers a valid choice are told that their choice is invalid because for the moment that NPC is invincible. However, the other side of the issue is the more dynamic NPCs of a post. Morrowind Elder Scrolls game. A lack of essential NPCs worked for Morrowind because again the player has total control over when NPCs die. This is fundamentally untrue in something like Oblivion

, where NPCs beholden to schedules or more complicated quests such as battle scenes. It is disingenuous to make the statement that Oblivion, Fallout three Skyrim or Fallout four are better games with one simple fix sad fix being the removal of all essential flags. That said, I will say that it should always be within the player's hands to choose if NPCs may live even if if functionally it breaks the game. I would propose this be as simple as NPCs being unable to be killed unless the player deliv

ers the killing blow. I can already hear the counterargument. Yeah, but what if the player a blow and accidentally killed an important dead PC? That's what saves are for. Or you can live with the consequence of being terrible at the game. Besides such circumstances would be much, much rarer than the current situation of players realizing they lack freedom when an NPC is simply knocked down instead of killed. However, a critical piece of the design that comes with total player freedom is what I w

ill call the quest of last resort. In Morrowind it is called the back door and in Vegas it is the yes man route. In Fallout four, it is the Minutemen in Morrowind. If an essential NPC dies, a message reads out. With this character's death, the threat of prophecy is severed. Restore a saved game to restore the weave of fate or persist in the doomed world you have created. This is an effective means of relaying to the player that they have killed an essential character without the hard limitation

of stopping the player. However, even if you get this message, it doesn't actually mean you're locked out of ending the game. In order to take the back path, it starts with how much you know and figure out about how to defeat Agatha. We need to acquire the unique Dreamer artifact off of the Vex corpse. The information you need to intuit this effect is in possession of Wraith. Guard appears as late as our encounter with the dissident priests making the back path a possibility. But honestly, I con

sider it a high improbability that anybody actually figured out it even existed without the editor. Anyways, assuming you have killed Vivek and found the artifact, you are not told what to do next. Consulting the Chief Dreamer Expert Diagram McGahn is the step. He will only help you if you have more than 20 reputation and will ask you to grab your journal and plan book from two separate ruins inside of Red Mountain. But what if you Grimm McGahn, was the one you killed in speed runs on Morrowind?

You can see people bum rush keening and thunder and using them without needing Wraith guard. If I remember correctly, this works because. The deadly part of these weapons are a script that requires you hold the weapon for a certain amount of time. Something they bypass with hotkeys. Another solution would be to just have so much health or active healing to mitigate damage. In any case, should diagram fixed Wraith guard. The artifact will require a permanent 225 point loss in health, a significa

nt sacrifice, but will allow you to wear Wraith garb without worry? It's actually a glitch. The health loss was meant to be a check to verify the player was an appropriate level, not a sacrifice. Again, this is another basic fix. From here, you will have to figure out the basics of the plan from the Vex Library in a set of notes in this chamber that detail how to defeat Doug Arthur. So from here, both the main questline the back door converge into the end sequence of Morrowind. The Citadel's of

the Sixth House is unfortunately where the game ultimately falls apart. The plans involve a series of raids across Red Mountain to assault the Sixth House and defeat the Brothers of Dagger author. In theory, each brother defeated will weaken Agatha. In practice, the script is broken because dig author has not been loaded into the game yet. Scripts cannot modify his stats. According to the unofficial Elder Scrolls pages, you can visit him first, then kill his brothers. But there are some obvious

thematic and priority issues with doing that. Part of the speculation surrounding this game was the theory that the Sixth House was going to be join evil. This is alluded to in the questline when we meet DEGROFF Garrus. If this was the case, it was cut very early in development. I suspect originally we were to have met with together. I made a decision regarding our allegiance at some point before now in the main questline. However, because this never happens, they got there is never loaded and t

he script doesn't work. This leaves little reason to visit the ash vampires beyond the artifacts they carry. While they are somewhat varied in power. None of these artifacts are so interesting that I'm tempted to drop everything to go get them. The original spirit of the quest, as was written in the dialog, was going to be a true war, with the Sixth House involving series of excursions into Red Mountain and complex battles with Ash vampires. Instead, it is as simple as peeking our heads inside t

wo dungeons, then walking straight up to Agatha. The failure of this quest ultimately led us down the earlier sections of the game. It is functionally irrelevant for us to be haunted tours of any house or near severing of any tribe beyond taking off an artificial box that tells Vivek we are the new riverine. There is a crippling sense of isolation because not even the buoyant armatures are ordinate or stationed inside the Ghost gate. Help. In our quest, we are completely alone, and this crushing

sense of isolation, coupled with a complete lack of reward for our efforts, undermines Red Mountain entirely. The entire game this entire video I have barely discussed the region that is Red Mountain. And now that we're in the principal part of the rain quest for which this large section of the map was reserved, I have almost nothing to say because I honestly spent so little time here. In fact, I even forgot to meet the avatar of Tiber Septum that shows up at the Ghost Gate. I feel like I've au

tomatically failed as an analyst for this, yet I honestly can't fault myself because of how disappointing Red Mountain is. If I was to propose a fix, a fix, I may well work on at some point. I would start by giving the player the option to go to the leaders of each faction to ask for assistance. You could then assign each faction to one of the citadels inside red Mountain. This would place a camp for each faction in front of the Ghost Gate, and there would be parties at each stronghold. Strongho

lds would be reworked to be high level endgame content, and each brother of gatherer would be a boss fight. By getting the help of each faction, NPCs was born in the stronghold to fight the forces of the Sixth House. And you may even get companions from each faction to fight alongside you for a boss fight. Killing each brother would also be essential to battle dig author as I would buff him to be absurdly difficult to kill while his brothers still live. I would also rework their artifacts to be

more useful with these changes. Becoming the wartime leader of each faction actually has a functional use. These are just ideas. So if any Morrowind fans have made it this far, please propose some ideas for me down in the comment section. And so we go to the mouth of the volcano to confront Dig Author come of our friend or traitor. Come, come and look upon the horror and the cooler controversy and bring go. I have come to the heart chamber. I wait for you there where we last met countless ages a

go. Come to me through fire and war I Welcome, welcome Moon and star. I have prepared a place for you. Come bring regard to the heart chamber together Let us freedom Curse of false gods Welcome there Revival Together we shall speak for the law and the land and shall drive the mongrel dogs of the Empire from Morrowind. Is this how you enter the Sixth House and thrive on Morn? Come to me openly and not by stealth. Welcome star to this place where destiny is made. Dig author is a location in additi

on to a guide. They are thorough. The dungeon is a sad dungeon, functionally being a straight line from, the entrance to the man himself after and then to Luna be the Earth HQ burial cavern in Koga Rune. It's fairly disappointing, but remember that lover from Aachen thinned this is what it was preparing you for an entire dungeon to teach the player to use a lever to open a door. Given this is our only chance to converse in the magnitude of the situation, Dig Author has been given probably the br

oadest and longest conversation in the game in which a great many topics come up. He asks if we are truly near of our reborn. How you answer is up to you in the spectrum of options represented from true belief that we are the new riverine to skepticism of the entire notion. He then asks for our intentions with the heart of Lacan, and finally he asks that if had offered to let us join him, would we have surrendered Gagarin X Tools, after which we're free to ask our questions of him, his plans for

the heart, the Sixth House and the Dunmore. He justifies his actions as a sovereign entity. He shares that he has little knowledge of what truly happened to the dreamer and his use of the giant robot in the next room. Once the conversation over Doug Arthur acknowledges us as the challenger and offers us the first blow, You couldn't even get that right. What a fool you are. Did you get the boss copy of Morrowind together is on the level of some medium tearing pieces from Fallout New Vegas. It's

hard for me to be so blunt about something I like, but it is true. It isn't. Until you get to tag Arthur with varied conversation response options and having responses to your responses that the missing potential of the text based dialog system is fully realized. There is absolutely no reason that NPCs couldn't have had more dialog options and responses baked into the game because it is easier to write out dialog in a text box and it is the voice act. It It is worth stressing that the in the dia

log menu are meant to indicate when the player asks something. While you can ask a lot of questions. It is sadly true that in a riverine like the hero of Cavorted in the Dover, Ken are another in a lineage of protagonists who are spoken to rather than using an active voice. And so Doug Arthur is defeated. If it seems strange for me to not comment on the boss fight, it is because there isn't really one we still have to deal with. The hearts together opens up his console and types in t GM in this

section. So we need to focus on getting to the heart and I guess destroy it it. Can you do it? What? You do a full stop. The bitter bitter that then is there it comes passes on the head while downplaying the fact that this was effectively a long term revenge scheme on the tribunal for killing her mortal husband. So she gives us the ring of Azura with a constant night eye and restore fatigue effect, which is an actual reward. And so the main quest of Morrowind is complete you no longer bear the b

urden of prophecy. You have achieved your destiny. You are free to do Dumas folly lore, Degas temptation, the tribunal seduction. The gods heart freed, the prophecy fulfilled, all fates sealed and sins redeemed. If you have pity, mourn the loss, but let the weeping cease the Blight is gone and the sun's golden honey kills the land Hail, savior water to a net of green. Your people look to you for protection. Monster and villains, great and small still threatened the people of garden found enemies

evils abound yet indomitable will might read Morrowind all its ills for you our thanks and blessing our gift and token given come take this thing from the hand of God. The Blight is gone. The Sixth House defeated, the sleepers awoken and the people Varden fell are thankful to us for saving them from dig author. And like most games of this formula, nothing to do now that you have won. It's kind of a paradox with these games. On the one hand, the main plot should have been done last. A final ulti

mate story is saving the world you've spent so much time living in. But on the other hand, these main stories are usually so pervasive and urgent can't rationally justify ignoring them. Morrowind being the exception for reasons I've already outlined. Here's the genuine question Would you prefer the start of a game that did everything right but blundered feet before the finale or a game that barely stumbles its way in the beginning but competently wraps up its ending? I say this because I firmly

believe if Morrowind had truly in its third act, if it had justified rallying the people of Morrowind by showing them fighting alongside you against the Sixth House, if it had scaled up its difficulty to require becoming in power and in its finale, it drew into question everything you have been fighting for, then I would have no hesitation in calling more wins. The greatest game of all. One of the mysteries of the game is the truth behind what really happened. Scenario. Are the Ashley under say

that he was betrayed alongside Arthur by the tribunal so that they may seize power from the heart. The Vex says that neither of our had died naturally and dig Arthur says that neither of our had betrayed him. This is a solid exploration of the idea of unreliable narrators, and it seems that Dig Arthur wants to go to other roots. He challenges the morality of working for the empire against what he believes are the best interests of the Dunmore people. But at the end of the day, dig Arthur in the

Sixth House are so patently evil there is little justifiable reason why anyone would want to go inside with him. It's clear that even in the event they got there, had originally been a good man who had been betrayed all those years ago. Today he is insane and his desires are unconscionable. The intrigue of the main quest, the questionable actions from grave robbing to slave trading do not pay off in a reasonable or satisfying manner. And that is in part because despite the memes and despite the

dissertations written on the topic, at the end of the day, we have to work with what we have and what we have is underwhelming. The saddest part, however, is that Bethesda Secure, in their success, have never taken the opportunity to deliver on the vision behind this quest, rallying the people of the land, undertaking ancient prophecies and making deals with people to affect outcome of a war, not a final battle that decides the fate of the world and actual war. Ironically, the closest this has c

ome to being realized was in Fallout New Vegas, and that wasn't even a Bethesda game. I'm listening. Please go. Originally, I was not going to cover the plug ins and the reason is that I never really played with them. And so the master index plug in, but they are official Bethesda content. They're available free download and there is some intrigue to be mined out of them. So I booted up my main character back before we fought Doug Arthur. Two of them lay firm in Adamantium. Just add new armor se

ts for sale and vardenafil adamantium armor is from tribunal while they Pharma's original adamantium was meant to alleviate the lack of it in game media, marmoset and Morrowind. I mean endure or is there but ordinate ears are scripted to get mad if you wear it even after being proven to be the reincarnation of the guy it was named after by one of their gods. Both tribunal and Blood Moon would try make up for this problem before the idea of medium armor was ultimately abandoned to come Oblivion.

I didn't actually get Latham to work, so you'll just see some pictures. The plugin was meant to add more armor options for female characters, adding two new sets as well as female versions of an Imperial Steel imperial chain, steel and niche leather. But then the plug in botched it and forgot to actually implement the new model. So tribunal ended up being the expansion to actually do it, which is why you might recognize some of these female versions, even if you haven't used the before. The two

new sets are dominant and gold armor. We'll start with Domina, a new light armor set if all is below glass. And the Dark Brotherhood added in tribunal that every ever will have delivered to them in the form of an assassin. So unless you want your character to look like a moloch ball worshiper, I probably pass on the set. Considering its stats gold armor is yet another attempt to fix the issues with medium armor in the game. Which is admirable, except it's not a full set. There's only three sets

of medium armor in the base game that come with Greeves and for some gold armor came out from only the waist up. One theory is that it was meant to replace the inaugural chest and helm. They get the auditors mad, which would be fine, but at that point you're just wearing the boots in arms of the inaugural set and it gets better. The guy that's meant to sell it to you won't because whichever intern they settled this plugin on didn't set the merchant's inventory correctly. Okay This takes some exp

laining. Merchants generally don't have the stuff they sell in their inventory. They instead use a container that you're flagged as owning NPCs will wear the best armor in their personal inventory and they won't sell anything that they are wearing. So if you add a character that you want to sell, say, Dedrick armor to cite a need and you put it in their inventory directly, they equip it instead of selling it to you. What makes this even funnier, though, is that one of the goals of this plugin wa

s to correct a previous mistake Bethesda had made with this same character. The serial is. Sarkis was meant to be a master armor trainer here in vardenafil having a reputation as a famous Smith from Serra do, but they forgot to actually make him a trainer and they didn't bundle the fix with the tribunal Bloodmoon or game of the year edition. But they did take the time to put the female armors from this blog in in like what the final Armor seemed to plug in is the helm of token which was a preord

er bonus if you bought more went from EB games. Yes a 2000 to preorder DLC and all things considered it's not bad you ask for the latest rumors up and dig on fell and you'll get a quest to go to in this era Once there you meet two brothers you have an argument that devolves into a fist fight. The winner is supposed to come you. But the quest bugged out and both brothers ended up following me, noticing a pattern with the bugs. Anyways, you clear out this fairly short gauge of ruin and find a ches

t at the end containing the adamantium. I'm helm of Token. The only point of this quest is to give you the key to this 100 point lock. As far as the helm goes, it's a standard adamantium helm whose sole notable property is its high engine value, higher than even the data it faces, meaning that you can make it one of the most powerful artifacts with the right enchantment. The entertainer's plugin adds the ability to make a small amount of cash and providing entertainment to the patrons of the eig

ht plates in Balmoral, which is the same bar where in dollars killed that. Hello Noble. Considering the most you get paid is 100 gold and it's dependent on your skills and items it's a neat concept, but it's not really a stand out Bitter Coast sounds as a bunch of sound files of the Bitter Coast area. Effect Arrows adds a new shaft of effect which specializes in enchanted ranged weapons that do area of effect damage and nothing else which will come in handy for the siege a fire might plug in sho

uld you choose to use them. So each fire month adds a new island and quests centered around taking back an old Imperial Fort that's being held by a lich. It's a new concept, but in the execution it's a good example of the merits of restraint and level design. You meet the seller's gravitas inside A to who dispatches you to lead a small task force of heroes across the island chain don't get attached that are all going to die from a literal horde of skeletons. There are no less than four skeletons

per pack. The only challenge of this mine was avoiding the temptation to recall to go get more magica, get into the key proper and you find this room. What purpose this room served before the skeletal take over is a mystery. Then there's this room with less than 30 rats, all infected with wet Bane. Good thing we caught Corpus last episode. You go through the caves with a ludicrous amount of ebony before arriving at the final boss area. This is an unbreakable force, unstoppable, a wall kind of s

ituation. The witch has endless health and magic. APPLAUSE And I have an absurd amount of spell absorption and magic of resistance. I can't do enough damage to bypass this regeneration since all my spells were designed to damage over time and he can't consistently damage me enough to pose a substantial threat. All he does is cast spells, which 75% of the time I absorb into my magic. I then heal with. All right, let me break this down. Generally, more wins level design was structured around a sma

ll number of enemies who pose a large amount of threat to the player. This was the work around more mechanics. Stealth focused characters are going to be even more useless here than ever before. Spell Casters Rule one and magic of Fast and Warrior characters will get body blocked by sheer numbers. There's No items in the environment to help the player, no potions, no scrolls, no tools. Fire math is only difficult on account of the fact that it's radically different in design from the rest of the

game. And it's more of a tedious kind of difficulty where I just started dodging and running around all the enemies instead of fighting them. The end reward of this plug in is the ward of abacavir, which isn't even a new item. It's just a dragon scale shield with a constant 4 to 525 point effect. This whole plug in is a waste of time. No better. Its primary usage is something that can be pointed to as an example of how not to design a dungeon. All right, now let's turn this around with a plug i

n that should have been in the game of the year edition. The master index plugin is a rework of the line on system of the base game, which I talked about all the way back in part to, the original idea of the system was to have a circuit. A teleporter is activated by keys found in the environment of Morrowind. In practice, nobody ever explains the concept to the player, and most characters are generally to only find a couple during their adventures. The Master Index plugin fixes this by adding a

quest that will have you finding every index and creating a master propellant index that can be used to teleport to every pylon chamber. It's a nice and simple Quest line forms morale in the cold Air Images Guild will dispatch you directly to each index his location. He's a little clairvoyant in the quest Could stand have a little more instances of the player actually having to figure out their locations. My other gripe is that once you turn in an index, it's gone, even after completing the mast

er index. So the old function teleporting chamber to chamber will be replaced with teleporting to caldera, which can be a problem for the criminally inclined. This rounds are the official Bethesda content not included in the physical of the year edition. So let's get into the proper expansion content with tribunal. We're back to our main character following the downfall of Digg Author. I have mixed feelings on tribunal. When I think about it casually, that's when I have feelings of nostalgia, my

time there. But when I think about it more analytically, I start to see the flaws really quickly. The first, which is an endless source of hilarity for me, is the issue with the dark Brotherhood. Assassin's attacking you literally out the gate When you start at Morrowind. This is actually fixed somewhat on the Xbox game of the year edition, where the events will only happen after level six, But on the PC copy to this day, it remains unpatched. But we do finally get to answer as to why the assas

sins are coming after us. It starts with us reporting the attack to the guards. Who gives some vague directions to some guy in urban heart a palace. Matyas is the man and he points to the mainland being the likely suspects, though he doesn't mention that the local Dark Brotherhood chapter to get wiped out recently. Anyways, we use a teleporter guide person who can transport us to more and hold on the mainland and you can get teleported back at no cost. It's a bit of a cheap workaround. Get us to

the city, but I'll let it slide. The first striking thing about the city is the architecture. It's quite different and I attribute it to the changes in color palette from Adobe Browns to teal greens and maroon reds. You also notice that the city is open air interior sells something that isn't present in the base game but will become a staple of cities in subsequent Elder Scrolls games. Is tribunal an expansion or an extension? I think it's a good question. I would say Blood Moon is undeniably a

n expansion. While some of the plug ins like the Master Index, are for fire Moth art DLC, it would only be a few years later that Bethesda would be trying to sell horse armor and have 13 different pieces of DLC for sale in Oblivion. But is Morrowind just behind magical distinction? I certainly remember the days when this content was made available physically. I actually had an original base game on PC and I remember seeing copies of Tribunal and Bloodmoon being sold in stores. My current copy is

a slightly older game of the year edition, but yes, my Zoomer friends, there wasn't internet before 2007 and yes, the content was downloadable. I don't think tribunal has a lot of the connotations other DLC carry, even by Bethesda's standards. We'll see. Though the entire DLC takes place in the city of Monroe. City of Light. City of Magic. Yeah, that. Anyways, the city is divided into smaller districts, the main areas being God's reach the great bazaar in the Temple courtyard. Most of the NPCs

have new unique dialog. In fact, a lot of people have voice acting relevant to their situations. Fact that's strange. I suppose it's possible that my master knew this man, but being an Ashland and my master being of the house of Tiffany. Well, you'll pardon me for being flippant, Sarah Jo. I don't think they would be friends. That said, a lot of people also really only play one part in Quest. Barring some of the major players in the city, I didn't really do a whole lot of side quests and and tri

bunal. So I'll be focusing on the main tribunal content. And yes, I am aware of the high luck ELF quest. Our main focus for now will be looking for the dark brotherhood and that leads us into the Sue was one of the immediately apparent problems with tribunal that if a quest requires or involves combat in any fashion, it can't justifiably happen on the surface. Then it gets relegated to the sewers. And I'll be honest, the sewers are just awful. A detail about tribunal is, rather than being scaled

to vardenafil, it's designed to be played by people who have beaten the main quest of Morrowind. This has the hilarious knock on effect of making people of more and hold appear to be much stronger than the people of vardenafil. So not only are the common enemies on average as tough as some of the bosses in the previous part, or even heads of factions from vardenafil, they're also in a confusing mess of an area. The sewers are darkening closed. Their layout is not intuitive. Often the structured

parts break off into repetitive cave networks is very easy to get lost and if something involved the sewers, I would just consult the wiki. Once you do find the dark brotherhood hideout and fight through the assassins, you will encounter dangerous volleys. Dangerous volleys is higher level and has more health and dig author. Let that sink in for a moment. This is an example of vertical progression. Rather than providing more content for the player to explore laterally, it is providing a higher

level of challenge for players to go through. It makes a degree of sense considering tribunal is meant to be after more wins. Sure, but it dare I say this justifies the scaling system of the later games. Azura Forgive me nonetheless, enemies becoming tougher isn't actually a problem. Enemies becoming tougher in conjunction with an ugly area that isn't fun to explore or fight in and is difficult to learn. Map out is a massive problem. Anyways, we're done flying blind now as we have found a contra

ct that's marked with the letter H guards will direct us to Tania stylish Ian, who will admit that it was the new king Health Seth who ordered the hit and he doesn't really care. The tribunal questline is a bit confusing. I would say it provides options, but in reality six of the quests can be skipped. Just going to another quest give early. We investigate rumors surrounding the new king, investigate the Temple, investigate the guards, investigate the dead King's widow, investigate some journali

sts, then meet the Queen Ziya, who suggests we go up to the Temple and meet Federer's Hillier. I went through these quests quickly because and I'll be blunt here, there's not much substance to them. And I actually completed all of them in under half hour. They don't make much sense to do, considering Delicious and will blow you off for asking about the Dark Brotherhood attacks. In any case, thus begins the Real Quest line of tribunal up at the Temple. Federer's Hillier wants us to track down a G

oblin army being prepared by the king and wants us to kill two war chiefs in their ALZNER trainers. This involves going down into the sewer. Our Next task involves escorting a temple priest so that he may cleanse the shrine in the sewer. Now we need to track down a powerful Lich barrel czar who is taking up residence in the sewers. Seriously. I'm tired this joke. But we really our task three times back to back with going deep into the sewers, the first involving a convoluted maze, the second an

escort quests and the third another ludicrous Lich fight. After a period of 24 hours, the main players as attacked by strange mechanical creatures. We go to aid the alternators and Royal Guards in defending the city, after which the Royal Guards direct deletion and the audience orders direct is to Hillier. Both ask us to investigate a hole that has opened in the plaza inside which is a dimmer ruin where the new fabric enemies are battling the dimmer occupants. This is where a choice is presented

to the player, but not really. The issue is in whether you chose to speak to an auditor or a Royal Guard. I happened to speak to an auditor and was directed to Hilaire. If I had spoken to a Royal guard and gone to deletion, our next two quests would have been different. This is an awkward attempt to introduce branching quest lines done very, very poorly. It is not a conscious decision of the player which path they want to take, but a chance the player is in aware of based on the costume the gua

rd speaking to is wearing. I really hope the Bethesda didn't shy away from running branching quest lines because of this. Going to the Temple has this meeting. I'm Alexia, one of the tribunal guides whom wishes squash a new call to the end of times. Now, I know you guys are two centuries early. Its leader reveals a path to enlightenment, which angers Alexia. So she has this use a dilemma, whether deep within the newly revealed ruin to create ash storms in the city. Now the doom. Her dungeon is b

ig and pretty. All right. But it's a bit of an obvious logical leap for people to assume freak weather must be a subsequent punishment for a minority of people forming a suicide. Cult doubt is forming about Alexia. However, people in the Temple are scared of her, and one of her hands has become frustrated and his wandering God's reach. We have to fight him. And he is a tough fight because he introduces the rarely used concept of NPCs utilizing health potions in OML zero is with a choice of three

pretty decent abilities. Helm Alexia, now believing us to be Navarre incarnate, tells us of two Blades hopes Fire and True Flame. Both Blades, a gift from the King of the dwarves. Do Mark, whom Navarre had allied with against the Nord's hopes fire was her blade and True flame was the blade of Nero of our it was lost at the Battle of Red Mountain, but she has found a piece of it. She suggests we rebuild the sword. One piece is at the Museum of Artifacts and can only be if we donate two artifacts

to the museum. The other piece, we're told, is in possession of Carat, one of the Kings Guard. We do don't care. Odd. He's tough, but fun. Then hell, Seth asks me to work for the Temple to gather information about them. Yeah. This branching questline really worked out, huh? If you're confused, the game seems. Think we've just arrived from the courtyard section and is telling us to do the quests that lead to this point where we get the quest two dual care odd. With both pieces found, we find a c

raftsman. This is a famous city, so one yaga could grow. Gluck, a master Smith lives in town and he can fix the blade, but he wants to also restore the enchantment. We dive into the ruin, the ghost of Braddock's Dungeon Thumbs, a drummer who asks us to get some pi royal tar for the blade. We find some tar of a dreamer, a lord deep in the ruin, which was a little dungeon with the tar and blade. We have Reforged True Flame. And I'm Alexia, congratulate us. Alexia then tells us of South Özil, whom

she claims has gone mad, is behind the attack and has become a danger to all of Morrowind. True Flame is capable of killing Cipher and it's up to us to stop him. We're transported The Clockwork City stuck here until we escape. And so begins the Clockwork City. Unlike the labyrinthine sewers or repetitive swimmer ruins, there's actually an interesting and a suitable and logical progression in difficulty for a character who reasonably will have completed the main quest. This includes the monstrous

imperfect, a giant mech boss fight. Finally, we get to see Arthur Kill. And guess what? He's dead. And here it ends. This clockwork city was to be your death. You to be my greatest martyr. The heroic Varin sacrificing all to protect a moral win from a mad, selfless team by. But you live here. You there. You're not. I will tell the tale myself. When this is done, I will tell my people. How? With your dying breath you proclaimed your devotion to me. The one true God, your death end this prophecy

and unite my people again under one God, one faith, one rule by my Divine law, The puppet King will lay down his arms and bow to my will. Those who do not yield will be destroyed. The amazed band has allowed me to travel to this place. Here I sluice the seal. Here I summon the fabricantes to attract more and hold. I will be the savior of my people. I alone will be their salvation. None may stand in my way. Not you, and certainly not Vivekh. He is a poet, a fool. I will deal with him when I have

finished with you. And so far cell. He always thought himself our better shunning us, locking himself in his hole. He spoke not a word as he died, not a whisper. Even in death. He mocked me with his silence. But I think you will scream mortal For now. You face the one true God here. Loss of divinity has had a negative effect on her. She's a tough cookie. But once she's dead, we get her sword Hope's fire and use the maze band of barrels. Ah, we got from one of the sea requests. Teleport back to m

ourn Hold. You have done well, mortal. The death of Alexia is a boon for all of Morrowind. Though it may take for this to be understood. He would have betrayed the donor. Surely, if she had betrayed all those whom she loved. This was her curse and her undoing. Weep not for self. Assume you shared his mortality long ago. And I am certain his death was no small relief to him. These girls live with the burden of a power no mortal was meant to possess. Your work in Morrowind not finished now to bury

the Vex still lives. But I believe his time will surely protect my people. Defend these lands. The skies of the clear once again meet these people suffer no longer. Now go mortal embrace your destiny and go with my blessing Hell, Seth will give us a full set of this Royal Guard armor for doing the job and thus ends tribunal. I posed the question near the start of this about whether tribunal is an expansion or an extension. Tribunal is solidly an extension and there's nothing wrong with that. My

Bloodmoon is an expansion and we'll get to that. Tribunal is unique among Bethesda DLC, as they generally aren't sequels to the main story. I'm Alexia was the wife of Nirvana after all, so her absence from the base game was somewhat strange, especially considering she tends to be the one that personally handles matters of war in modern Denmark Culture Part six ended on a sour note due the final quest at Red Mountain that was purposefully taken out of context of what would happen in tribunal. Tr

ibunal is a continuation of Morrowind providing a somewhat satisfying gameplay and even story conclusion that Dig author in the Sixth House was lacking. However, tribunal is also reliant on you having played more wins main quests to work play either in a vacuum and they don't function. You can wave away. I'm Alexia calling you the new Riverine as part of her being mad if you haven't done the main quest. But then it's hard to really care or understand. Alma, Lexi motivations. If you don't know ab

out the mystery behind what really happened to Navarre and why she's diminished in power without tribunal, Morrowind just ends. You never get a resolution, two of the tribunal guides, and you don't really have any activities to complete as near covering. Part of the reason I think most who enjoy Morrowind don't have an issue with this finale is that for the most part, tribunal is the real finale of more wins Main Quest. Even with that context, however, tribunal has some fatal flaws. Being limite

d to the interior of the city means that the area doesn't have a lot of options for places to send the player, hence the many quests that involve going down into the sewers. I think another missed opportunity would have been continuations for various factions from the base game. For instance, how would it be to see some extra quests from Red Dawn in Halo related to the recent succession of King Health? Seth or some Tell Varney quests where they are the political underdogs, the Imperial and Colt

could have had some representation and there would have been some obvious opportunities for the tribunal temple or a return of characters who left at the end of their quests. Lines like Jim, Stacy and Inu. Or how about some new factions, like an opportunity to learn more about House dress and House and Oral House dress as danger worshipers would have been a perfect opportunity to explore would become the Reformed tribunal of post Morrowind, that being both the Fall and Asura. I would have prefer

red getting to explore their culture rather than the hell Seth stuff. He's mostly just here so his mom can pay lip service to Dagger Fall anyways. And while that's fine, his presence is just annoying because he makes at least three attempts on the near offerings life and we're just supposed to be cool with it. I get that. The idea was that he was being proactive and taking out any potential political threats. Tribunal, however, also doesn't really work with our Morrowind. I literally. Yes, but f

or example, you could theoretically just teleport up to sole slime and start playing Bloodmoon. It'd be challenging at the start, but it's possible and it makes sense. Tribunals linked to Morrowind in such a way that it can't stand on its own despite its best attempts. I think what beautifully Ties Tribunal together is that after slaying Alexia every NPC in the game is given a topic about her and you can inform them about her death and even you killing them and those NPCs, regardless of their be

liefs on the matter, will take offense at that. Yes, even a Bonnie Mesa and a zero worshiper who denounces the false tribunal takes offense at the notion of us having killed them. All I ask for is a pair of boots. How hard could it be after playing Morrowind for so long, coming to a more recognizable land of forests with wolves and bears feels alien and unlike tribunal, this is an open landmass source flame itself is actually pretty small. The entire island of being about the size of one of Mori

son's biomes. Even without the excessive speed I have, it does not take long to traverse the island, yet it feels like a wild wasteland. There are only three places of refuge in between. All that is a lot of wildlife that is going to try and kill you. However, unlike tribunal, Bloodmoons is up. The difficulty. It can still be a challenge. So you'll want some experience before you jump in. But Bloodmoon isn't expecting you to have beaten or even played more twins. Main Quest. It's perfect for cha

racters who may have just beaten one of the guilds or Great Houses and are looking for new content. And this is where I discuss expansions. Bloodmoon is an expansion. There's a good deal of new land to explore, some new factions to play with a lot of new items and creative quests and two separate quest lines, each with branching paths and clear progression that don't rely on random and unforeseen choices. Most of the pieces in the base game near the start will rattle off a rumor about soul slime

, all of them. It can be kind of annoying because the soul slime rumors will supersede the normal. They'll mention that it's a miserable land and that there's boat transport up and cool. They can take us there. Once we get there, we arrive at four Frost moth. Both Questline start here and we're going to focus on the main questline first, which is in my opinion, the lesser of the two. Although it's still a solid questline. In this line we meet with Captain Curious, who wants us to uncover the cau

se of the low morale and his troops lately asking the guards, it becomes apparent there's some sort of ban on liquor at the fort and offering drinks reveals that the issue is that the captain ordered the fort become dry. Karius says it wasn't his decision. The alcohol just stopped coming in. He suspects the priest who denies having anything to do with it, blaming the captain, going to the priest's office reveals that he's been stashing alcohol for what he claims to be the benefit of the troops.

I tell the captain the truth and he congratulates us next. Karius is worried that some weapons being smuggled out and sold back on vardenafil. We have a choice of working with two of his men on the matter. And so I work with Saint Lucius. He's sort of a proto companion that would pop up in the later games. Lucius is useful for the investigation as he makes it easier to solve the case, but he sucks in a fight. We meet with the Smith Xeno Faustus and he says he overheard soldiers talking about a w

eapon stash in a nearby cavern. Sure enough, there's some legionaries in the cave who are hostile to us. After a lot of attempts of trying to keep Lucius alive, we get to the smuggler's galtieri a spurious with a name, and he offers to leave peacefully. I don't allow this. However, on our return to the fort, we find it has been attacked. Curious as missing. And whichever proto companion we don't choose asks us to go to the Skull tribe on the north side of the island and ask if they know anything

about the attackers. The skull or to the north is what the Ash Islanders are to the Dunmore. This makes them a fairly distinct entity. I meet their leader, Thurston Hart Fang. Like the Ash Islanders, he has issues with the Imperials, believing them to be corrupting the land sends us the course to win. Die for more information, of course, gives us a copy of the story of Avar Stone singer and a map of the locations, the various stones around the island in. Order to ingratiate myself into skull cu

lture. I need to complete the rituals, which involves traveling almost the entire island. This is obviously very similar to the pilgrimages of the Seven Graces, a quest where I'm guided around the island of Arden Phil and introduced the custom of the Dunmore people. What I don't understand is why Bethesda doesn't emulate the style of Quest more often. I have mentioned the quest, the Forgotten Vale in the Dawn Guard extension for Skyrim. The Quest Cleansing the Stones from Dragonborn, however, is

a perfect example of Bethesda not understanding why this kind of quest worked for Moon. In Cleansing the Stones. You go to each of these same stones, except instead of learning about the culture of the skull, you just shout at them and move on. The skull test of loyalty starts with the ritual water. We touch the stone and emulate the events as they occurred forever following a Black Hawk or through a great deal of water. Until we arrive at an underwater cave deep below the surface, we find the

waters of life bottled up and bring it back to the water stone. The ritual of Earth involves solving a musical puzzle inside a barrow ignored burial tomb with Droga inside it oh boy. Dragger The ritual of beasts has us assisting the good beast. A giant polar bear fight off a pack of right cleans. We either have to heal bear or set aside it as it heals. The ritual of trees has us assassinating or wriggling to acquire some strange seeds, making the force brigands escorting the Reich lean friendly

to us and taking the seed back to the clearing so that it may grow. The ritual of the sun has us encountering general strange ice creatures. And once we acquire a flaming II from its corpse, we activate ice wall and free the sun. Finally, the ritual of the wind involves entering another burrow to free the winds from the greedy man's bag. These rituals introduce us to the skull and his soul. Simon Fantastic way. I cannot understate that. Well, the quest sounds simple. And they are. There are two

elements to all of them that make them work. The first is that you have to look at the map in your inventory rather than simply having the stones marked on your regular map. This makes the quest immediately different since it relies on you cross-referencing the general layer of salt. Same a hand-drawn approximation of the stones locations. The second is that you need to read the story of Avar Stone singer in order to fully understand your objectives rather than following the directions of a guid

e character or intuiting the directions from a waypoint marker. The point of the exercise is to emulate the actions of Avar by actually reading the story. And This contrasts nicely with the Seven Graces, as well as the quests that introduce us to each Ashley and her tribe. In the Seven Graces there are enslaved are begrudgingly playing the parts you're meant to emulate over and over. For the skull, however, it's much more naive and innocent. Like the skull. Culture and its circumstances align we

ll enough that you can emulate the story perfectly. You also meet many of the new enemies along the way, see many dungeons and sidequests that you can do and generally become more savvy to the layout of the island. It feels like completing the ritual, is genuinely earning our way into the tribe in ways that the Ashley Indian River inquests did not. We don't just learn the customs of the tribe and do them some small favor. Obliging these people and performing their rituals shows a level of dedica

tion. The other people who have come to this island have not. Which leads nicely into our next quest. Thurston wants us to prove our wisdom by investigating a crime. Rig more half hand claims that in our eyes mean has stolen furs from his home. You know how much I love investigations? Asking around in GA appears to not have any good motives. The skull living a communal lifestyle. And if you needed furs, the tribe would have provided. Ricci in Gaz wife states in Gaz innocence ing claims that some

body may have framed in guarded disgrace him possibly rig more rig more says he doesn't know why in GA would steal his furs. Although you will find a note in the ice home indicating a short affair between Ricci and Rig more. Thorstein, armed with this information allows us to choose. We can either exile Rick more or send him to the wolves. These Are nord's so obviously wolves are the correct option. It'll be your blood here. Not tonight, Thurston now asks. We prove our strength, and we meet with

course near the lake. The lake being on fire. Thurston believes, a drug lord, is causing this phenomenon. While Course two believes it's a sign of the Bloodmoon prophecy. You no longer bear the burden of prophecy. You have achieved your destiny. You are free. The lie detective determined that was a lie. We go to investigate and find the drug lord asleep. He tells us he was a mage, became a dragger so that he may prevent the incursion of Frost Thatcher next. Don't you mean you became a dragon in

service of the dragon priests? He asks us to help and I oblige. We wipe out the Adirondacks and we get a cool ring from him before he embraces death. Having completed his goal, of course, congratulated us on ending the threat and we return to the Skull Village only find it under attack by werewolves. We defend the town, and upon entering the Great Hall, we find the honor guard dead. And Thurston Missing, of course, returns informing us that we have contracted lycanthropy and in three days will

become a werewolf. How this works. Considering that whole corpus thing. I don't know. We're banned from the village until cured. And this is a big choice for the Questline. And unlike tribunal, it's rather obviously a choice. If we're cured, we become blood skull and further our relationship with the tribe. If we become a werewolf, we take a working for the day jerk prince here scene. Now, while we may have cured ourselves, Umbra has returned to looking for more dangerous work to complete outsid

e of taking the other side of the frost moth smuggler quest, his early stages are mostly the same, but when he's infected with lycanthropy, he chooses to become a werewolf. This is the main point. The player is encouraged to become a werewolf, but you can also get infected by any of the werewolves who start wandering the island after this point. Unlike vampires, werewolves are actually well designed and playable to start. During the day you are your normal self, but at night you transform into a

werewolf with a host of set stats. You are a proper one man wrecking crew as a werewolf. Although if anyone witnesses the transformation, then your secrets out. You have to kill a human that night or you'll lose a large chunk of health the next morning. Luckily, Cell slim is rife with plenty of useless bodies feed on, so it forms a nice gameplay loop. Wake up quests during the day, settle down in the cave at night and then go out hunting, then return to a cave and wake up again. Unfortunately,

because Umbra was not cured, we have been exiled from Skull Society. Originally I didn't have much to say about the first branching quest as I had played the perspective from their side. The quest is just to go into a tomb and fight a bunch of werewolves to retrieve a totem, go to ax kill. Why collect Z? But for the werewolves here, scene dispatches us to that same cave with the objective to stop the skull hunters from retrieving the totem. There are over a dozen hunters to stop. They will all s

earch the cave for the totem until they find it and will try to leave once they take it. You could even fail if they managed to successfully steal it. This quest is awesome. Probably in part because the designers had a reasonable idea of how powerful the player would be due to them being a werewolf. Of course, it's easy to choose if you just wait into your human form. But. Nurse nine Then where to perform the Reichstag? A ritual to try and curry favor with the skull. A spirit bear has been summo

ned and we need to slay it and return Its hard to course before daybreak. The hunting pack makes like a horror movie and we split up, even going so far as to gradually get slaughtered. I may joke, but I like this quest is a tad more interesting than the prior quest, where it was literally go to ax kill. Why collect Z? From the werewolf perspective, it's less interesting. You just have to track down and kill a bunch of hunters and then kill the spirit bear ourselves. It'd be cool to see that aren

't from the other perspective as horror monster that's killing the isolated hunters. Once we return, the hardcore first wants us to investigate another side of the Bloodmoon. A bunch of dead walkers on the coastline. He wants us to go ask the folks over at Castle Kah Stag. What's going on? We make our way over there in the ice castles locked up tight. There's a back door underwater, and we meet one of the people living in the castle Chris. Chris is a recycling. Reclines are the true incarnation

of the old Mary. This message has been censored by the sound or the master of the castle went missing and another recycling doc took over. Chris tried to get a bunch of girl to work with him, but they isolated him to the back of the cave. We start by taking out the gravel in the basement, then go up to the banquet hall we meet Doc, who affirms that car stag is missing. Of course, it is worried about the situation on the island and gives us the weapon he says will be useful for fighting. Brawl. N

ot Castle. Car. Stag was the final time I was going to ever fight them for Umbra here scene since is to go clear out a bunch of rebels at castle car stag. There's not really good reason for why he cares unless the implication is that car stag was a piercing worshiper before he was a missing person. Anyways, we meet with Doc who asks We will wipe out Christian all the girl in the basement. You don't get as clear an explanation for what's going on from the werewolf perspective, Probably because th

e writers assumed most players would align with the skull. First, of course, tells us of the Bloodmoon prophecy, the signs of which have struck the land. The first is fire from the eye of glass. The second is the tide of woe and the third is the Bloodmoon. These signs indicate the coming of the hunter here and his hounds. And this event happens once an era. The next time we sleep, we're awoken to a bunch of broken werewolves. This begins a long, long, long finale. This area has no escape, no res

upply. There is no escape. No recall or intervention can work in this place. Yeah. That worse, the area is filled with powerful werewolves. According to the USP, there are 31 werewolves inside the labyrinth. All of them level 70 with 700 health. Contrast this with Dave Arthur's immortal incarnation, Level 35 with 300 health. The area is an absolute gantlet and is very difficult. It is effectively the final game playtest for Morrowind. To start, we encounter Captain again who wants to work togeth

er while he serves some use as a companion. Those who wish to keep him alive have a much harder time as you have to heal him. The game quickly becomes about resource management. Worst for me, it's the game and magic of management because I can't generate magic through resting and because you have to kill a dozen werewolves every level to even rest at all. I had to carefully managed by magic throughout this entire sequence. There are no spell casters either, and I never got around to learning the

ancestral ghost summon thing. The Chiefs and Magic are back. Carefully and slowly. I have to utilize the recharge rates of my enchanted items to survive. However, the worst part is this awful sound. That sound plays whenever armor is broken, which doesn't happen often to this Royal Guard armor. Except there's one piece I've been wearing this entire game that has very low maximum durability. The boots of blinding speed these werewolves can destroy boots in a single hit. And there's a chance whic

h piece of armor gets hit. Meaning my magic, enchanted items, health and my repair tools have to be rationed as well. The lack of space operate in, and for this first part, trying to keep curious alive. Yeah is a challenge and it's great. Eventually I make it to the center. Curious says he's going to stay behind Thurston's in the next maze and he's willing to work together. He does eventually betray us, though, so getting him killed is not exactly a big concern. The big issue of the maze is the

cramped space makes movement. Very difficult for werewolves. This area is even more difficult. Your stats are set rather than augmented by your affliction. So even though we are high level, we're far too weak to handle the hunt in our werewolf form. But as a werewolf we are exceptionally fast and jump really high so we can actually just bypass all the werewolves. Since Umbra doesn't really care about keeping curious alive. Otherwise you'll have to wait until you turn human again to even stand a

chance of fighting your way through the area. So while werewolves get a slightly more disappointing outing in, the final quest, their earlier quests are a lot more fun. Luckily, the next area opens up car stacks here. It doesn't have much to say to us, just the taxes on site once he's down here seeing shows up. So you are aware you have escaped the hounds and beat back the other challengers. I had rather expected the giant to prevail. But no matter, you have proven yourself a worthy hunter and,

you have earned the greatest honor that can be bestowed upon a mortal. You are to be my prey. I ask, though What is it that makes a hunter great? Is his strength the speed with which he strikes? Or is it his body? The ability to outwit his prey and start being be mortal and decide your fate. So you have chosen and so shall be your fate to face it all my glory would be less than sporting, so you shall face. But one of my aspects, the one you have chosen. We have little time. The Bloodmoon six low

in the sky. Prepare yourself, mortal. For now You are the object. The whole point of this exercise was to try and determine who on time is the toughest with the leaders of the Imperials skull, Drake leans down. That leaves us a foreigner. He wants to fight us now, but not with his full power. Instead, as one of his aspects. Shame is I could have likely taken at full power. I choose this aspect of guile and got his Spear of the hunter, which is a cool weapon. Shame amount of stuff to deal with i

t though. The more track Glacier where the whole shebang took place breaks up. We take a course of our victory and defeat of Thurston. And Curious is back at the fort. A bit of a mediocre end. The mazes were a great final challenge, but it's a shame they couldn't make here seem more challenging. It's also a bit of a thematic letdown after the excellent quests introducing us to the skull culture, the chain just kind of goes off the rail and forces us into another prophecy sequence. But I said ear

lier that it was the weaker of the two quest lines on stilts time and I mean that now. I don't want to give the impression that I did these quests line separately. Rather, they were intertwined with one another and done concurrently. So the here scene fight was fairly close to the end of the entire playthrough. Back at Fort Frost Moth, when we arrived at the island I met Corniest. Mangas is a member of the East Empire Company is here on Soul's climb to set up a colony at Raven Rock. He offers to

let us join the faction, and our first assignment is to escort some workers to the site. It's not too far, but it is through a forest We meet with Falko Glennis at Raven Rock, who asks. We get four samples of every order to give the colony in order to convince investors to fund the construction. We get paid in stock, and what follows is an interesting questline. After a few days, Cornelius will dispatch us to deal with some nored who's raving about ruining the land, which is in line with the sk

ull. We need to remove. Falco wants us to just knock him out. Corniest doesn't care if we knock him out, Falco will pay us. And if we kill him, Kani is will pay us. After another three days wants us to retrieve a shipping manifest. Falco says the ship hasn't arrived yet. And when asking around, we find out there was some light from the northwest. Checking it out, we find a shipwreck beset dragger and rescuing a surviving woman who returns to the camp. A few days passed and we're given a choice.

If we side with Falco, he'll want us to keep Kani s in check. If we stay with, he offers to make us rich. And the choice is signposted. It's not based on something arbitrary, like talking to guards. The player also understands the mechanics of both. Unlike the skull werewolf choice. Which one you choose offers a different questline. I sided with Falco, while Umbra, who also happens to be invested in Raven Rock sides with corneas. Now I'll be upfront unless I say otherwise. The quest will have go

ne the same for both characters. First, we're asked if the new settlement should have a smithy or a trader. I Ask people and they vote traitor, especially since there's already Smiths on the island. Yes, that is a quest. And yes, I think I have found some hearthe fire and Fallout for DNA in here. Falco That a ship captain's demanding extraordinary payment to ship her ebony or to the mainland. We need to convince him to keep his side of the deal. Barrow here mentions his fellow ship captain El Bh

arath, apparently unaware that El Bharath crashed Upshaw in his ship, attacked by Drager. Speaking with the village bicycle boy rescued from said ship, She gives me Obara saber. I confront with the saber barrow shook by my intimidation, and he backs down. He seems like the type to double cross us midshipmen. But that's the company's problem. Someone's stealing more from the mine. No. The most interesting part of this quest is that said Thief after being caught ends up committing suicide in their

cell. After our conversation with Kani is this is the first big departure between Carneys and Falco. Falco had us discover who was stealing the OR. While Cornelis wants us to help steal the OR, we start by removing evidence from the thieves house and then distract the guard. He can steal even more. After a few days. Wait, let's talk about that. A fair few of these quests require real time to pass between them. I actually tried to do both quest lines at the time, and I only got to the part where

the quest branches before I had finished the main quest Bloodmoon. It is kind of like a more advanced version of the Stronghold Quest from the base game, but for an entire questline I actually like this, even if it leads to my character just standing around for a few days. Most of my playthroughs ended with me becoming the leader of a faction in less than one month. After joining that faction. Hell, the new in went from immigrant to incarnate in two months. I think if done properly, it can enco

urage people to branch out and play other content as time passes. If you don't use the weight function and actually go out doing dungeons, you'll probably visit most of the island by the end. People focusing on quest lines can just wait through the time people roleplaying can explore the content or fill in the time doing generated radiant quests between bigger missions. Anyways, no stalling. Falco says someone in the bar has been picking fights in Raven Rock. The guy wife is outside. She asks. W

e don't hurt her husband. He attacks us, gets tired out and begs us to kill him. I don't I'm not as heartless as you might think, but I am obligated to say I was compensated well for not killing him. Unlike Falco, Carneys is still willing to pay if you kill the old man. So turns out we dug too deep and have discovered Barrow. We need to consult some local expert about some impenetrable ice. And to me, one of the bodies, the. The expert doesn't really care for us until an imperial assassin attack

s for our help, he pays us with an ancient Dominic Pickax and asks. We bring a sample of what he calls in back to him. We do. And he offers to create us armor and weapons from the material. I kind of already have a pair of legendary blades in the Royal Guard armor, but this is a nice opportunity to allow players who are playing Bloodmoon independent of the main quest and tribunal, to keep with the escalation in difficulty, Carney has decided Quest is a lot less complicated, instructing us to go

and kill the Star and crafter and his apprentices and take his Nordic. This doesn't mean you lose access to storeroom weapons and armor, but as no one else is experienced in working with the material, it will take twice as much to get the items. This unfortunate consequence is unavoidable and seems like an unfair punishment. Really, the whole concept kind of flops as we're being presented with access to storeroom very late in the expansion. Ideally, you'd want players finding and collecting stor

e room as they cleared dungeons from the start, but I'm sure many people just sat confused at this random material. They couldn't collect because they weren't enough to give the player the pickax earlier. Our next task is to deliver a report to Corniest and I only have 5 hours to do it and if I fail, I'm permanent. Expelled from the East Empire Company. What we have here is an interesting quest idea and absolutely no way of integrating it into the storyline in a way that makes sense. What about

this enterprise requires report be time sensitive. I Divine Intervention back to the fort. But oh no. Carney is out walking along the beach and his new assistant activates a trap that's supposed to slow me down if I hadn't absorbed the effect. It's a clever use of magical mechanics, Carney says in one of three random locations. This is fun little quest. But again, it doesn't make sense unless the intended message is that Fargo's working with Carney is to cut me out of my stock option. Carney is

side of the quest is interesting as it involves staging the murder of a messenger from Falco to prevent his critical message from getting out. This is the return of the peripheral dar who is confirmed to have used a recall ring to escape us the last time we encountered him. Anyways, for all their can manipulate wolves to make it look like the messenger was killed by nature in turn, Giraldo gives us a note from Carney as who requests We now eliminate Emerald Hour. I wonder if all this double cros

sing is going to go anywhere. Go to AX, kill Weisberg ends, find Z roots and poison them. If I sound exasperated because it's like the fifth time I've had to run to the bottom of the mine and then back up to the top again. Next, we need to hire some guards for Raven Rock. This involves asking everyone in town. I find three volunteers, and after a few days, they're equipped. I actually appreciate this quest more than spring Quest despite spending less time talking about it because, eh, I don't ha

ve to go to the back of the mind again. And B, it involves interacting the people of the settlement. There are lots of opportunities to do this. Like when we figured out if we wanted to trade or her. Smithy And it's interesting to see how the characters have changed with time. After Flacco says the mining isn't really for him, so he's willing to try out being a guard. Garner supervillain says that his ambitious attitude has gotten this far, and he figures it can get him farther. Gratian Chiarell

i says that he was talking tough about how someone needs to protect Raven Rock and is willing to take responsibility. These characters progress, change, and maybe it says a lot about how NPCs were generally static Morrowind more than it has a mark of quality for Blood men. But it's the little things like that that elevate what would otherwise be in a mundane questline. After a few days, Falco says, someone's trying to kill him and asks us to protect him. Not long later, a group of nerds attack.

While we prevented the assassination attempt, Umbra was assigned to take down Falco. We take position in a tower, draw a bow, signaling a mercenary to run up and distract the guards. Then we use the special arrow to kill Falco. Days after that, Falco says, Carney has received silver weapons, likely due to the recent werewolf threat, but isn't delivering them to us. Upon our return from the fourth, the settlement has apparently been attacked by the skull and the forces holed up in the mine. This

is in line with the skull who have complained of imperial influence on the island. But it turns out that none of them are recognizable from our encounters. As we clear out the mine. We find a note indicating they're actually mercenaries. Falco has to take this information to Carney, who confesses and attacks us. Carney is a businessman, has more health than dig. Author That's all I have to say on that. We kill him in self-defense. And Falco promotes as de facto leader of Raven Rock, leaving us i

n charge of the operation in umbers case. We're tasked with supplying a merc group with weapons to appear as skull. We head out to deliver the goods and pass out the equipment only for them to betray us and attack us. Carney is wants us out of the way. Unfortunately for him, Umbra is a lot tougher than six mercs. We return and Carney is surprised to see us, fights us. That's it for differences we get made factor of Raven Rock and. It's all the same from here. Now, in most games this is where it

ends. But we have one whole quest as a leader, and it's literally just deciding where we want a house to be built. A house we aren't going to out of because this is the last piece of gameplay I played for the series. Looking back, the way I describe the questline makes it sound boring. Raising a colony from nothing, a pre-scripted fashion sounds boring compared to the dynamic and radiant settlement system of Fallout four. But on the other hand, the pre-built questline and time investment involve

d, including an actual stock investment that ranges in value based on how you've managed the colony, makes Raven Rock far more interesting than any of the settlements I could not possibly name for you from Fallout four. I Also liked it in these two pieces of DLC that are steeped in prophecy and divine metaphysics. A long questline exists where you set aside the time to participate in an entrepreneurial venture, a land that everybody else dismissed. I suspect the same way I found the Royal Palace

Quests and Tribunal more interesting than temple quests is indicative of the sort of person I am. It Also says something about the main quest of Morrowind. The primary Quests, Lines of Tribunal and Blood Moon pertain very little to the remainder of the content in their expansion. Your status in Raven rock or how much work you've done for Health saith ultimately has no bearing on the world compared to the new riverine story. Most of the minor factions and storylines and Morrowind play some part

in Queen Questline perhaps a small part, but a part nonetheless. You could say there simply isn't enough material and tribunal or Bloodmoon for this to be the case, and I'd have to concede Bethesda was more concerned on being a launch title for the seventh console generation than going all out on post-launch Morrowind content. For instance, there is an entire faction of Raiders living in Saul's time that I didn't mention, and I know some people might have an issue with me not mentioning some of

the more notable quests from Bloodmoon, such as the Thirsk Mead Hall. Some of this content was the work of one a Pagliarulo who got his start at Bethesda with this expansion, working on side quests, side quests that include a reference to Timmy in the well, Bay Wolf and Cocaine Santa. Still, we're nearing the end of the conclusion of the series here. So I have to give some credit. Like tribunal, The Bloodmoon features a great deal of unique voice acting. The ambition of having multiple paths, ev

en If those multiple paths are centered around the same scripted events, just in reverse is still impressive. And so ends parts of Oh [____], I forgot about the werewolves. Right? Werewolves get an additional quest for being cured of their disease. It starts with a rumor located near the dock at Fort Frost Moth, a common travel point on the island. So you're guaranteed to run into it. The notes simply that witches have come to salt slime and have been spotted at the altar of Thrawn. Sure enough,

they have a raven speaks with you offering to help cure your lycanthropy, which you can refuse. She'll set you on the right path. And even if you kill her, she'll drop a note detailing the ritual. First, we need to get a flower which grows to top the highest peak on the island. Then we find some ripened belladonna berries. Finally, we have to sacrifice an innocent naught and take out her heart. Cast a spell and put the heart back in. The Nord will transform into a werewolf that, when killed, ma

rks the end of our curse. From then on, the player's only option to be a werewolf will be here. Scenes ring which we recovered from Thurston. However, because werewolves are weaker than high level players, this is ultimately a novelty for all players and really not much else. [CONCLUSION] So we're finally here. This has been a long time coming, both in run time for first time viewers and for the subscribers who've stuck it out since the beginning of the first parts. Originally, this was going to

be my break, a quick little series on a game I know and love well, and then I would get back to trashing console games. I didn't anticipate how much of a time investment this project would become. What's funny is that, at points, it started to sound like I didn't like the game. That's because it's a lot easier to write negativity than positivity, and negativity sells. That's the sad fact of what I do. Is Morrowind to Patrician Tier? Well, yeah, I mean, what have we been doing if it wasn't? If B

ethesda had made a true sequel to Morrowind improving on the formula instead of stripping components away to broaden appeal, then I probably wouldn't think so. In that timeline, Morrowind would have been a unique little oddity that paved the way to a generation of greater games. Instead, Morrowind is best symbolized by a Dwemer ruin: a sign of something that was once great that ultimately usurped itself, paving the way for lesser successors to come along and wonder, in between bouts of bashing e

ach other over the head with their clubs, just what it was that made them so special? And why did they go away? The answer is more complicated than simply saying that Bethesda got greedy. Bethesda kneecapped their vision for the sake of achieving the highest valuation possible for a future sale. When you hear Todd Howard talk about Morrowind, it means something to him. That's because Bethesda came very close to the edge when making the game. Howard is a driven person. His persistence is what g

ot him a job at Bethesda. His desire to improve the system made him a leader. He stole Julian LeFay's series and transformed it into one of the most recognizable gaming franchises. And he probably did it because he didn't want the employees under him to ever have to deal with what Bethesda, of the late nineties and early aughts had to deal with. In a sense, a compromised vision is preferable to sustained crunch periods and the looming threat of failure leading to unemployment. I spent over a ye

ar working 70 to 100 hours a week, gained about £50, and had turned a obnoxious vitamin D deficient zombie. My health and sanity were failing. I became someone I didn't like. Douglas Good. We've been through again. A lot of people here have done it for a long time, so we've been through every type of crunch you can imagine. And long ago, some ones that were very, very for a lot of us, you know, personally in your time and your health and things like that. So let's take this section by section mo

re. Women's combat is clunky and awkward, but really only in the beginning. It relays a true sense of progression to go from struggling to fight wildlife to one shotting powerful foes on the hardest difficulty. But from an action perspective, it leaves a lot to be desired. This isn't a problem of mechanics, it's a problem of tuning tune the formula to make hits just a little more frequent each more frequency is ten critics who wouldn't have noticed the system in the first place. Morrowind Stealt

h is similarly badly tuned. Pickpockets Impossible. Stealth difficult. And the one thing that worked about it real time lock picking was replaced with a mini game. Morrowind Magic System is amazing. As long as you're prepared to spend a lot of money training to unlock its full potential. Yet another problem that are variable in an equation being properly tuned might fix. Not having the time and resources to finish tuning the game is the source of all its faults or the vampires and abolitionists

underwhelming. While there's not enough time to finish the content. Not enough options in the dialog. While the writer had too much other work to finish before he could flesh that out. Is Red Mountain a mess? That's a cost benefit analysis. How many players are even going to get that? Far better to nail the lead in and have players interested in buying Oblivion than nail the conclusion and be a dead company? It's honestly amazing, given the circumstances, that we got a game as intricately woven

as Morrowind. Every single Questline has intersections and connections to other quests lines, at least at the surface level. I've given plenty of examples in this video. Even the mechanics woven together. Strength and endurance may be the hallmarks of a warrior, but then agility is important to hit stuff and willpower helps with stamina. Management and personality is important Once you get back to town. And then suddenly players are growing and developing themselves in ways they didn't originall

y anticipate because maybe they want to get better with a new weapon or use a new mechanic. They originally thought they wouldn't like. I really don't have to explain this because it's the series central mechanical conceit, the concept that your character isn't being ramrod it into a preset class, but rather developing in a free form way. The game also presents a unique esthetic. There's a reason my profile picture has always been a whirlwind character, even in abstract version. Something about

the early 3D low polygon style of characters. It's not a beautiful esthetic. It's rustic, reflecting the rough world of vardenafil. It's why I'm always bothered to see people using mods that turn characters into dolls. Actually, no, that's a pretty good metaphor for standing down the edges of Morrowind. Vardenafil has some pretty striking scenery as well. Mushroom trees are the obvious go to. It would have been nice to see more lava in the open world since everywhere it shows up looks really nic

e, but they couldn't really do angled liquid surfaces yet. So no flowing lava for you orders. They probably also decided against it since the for you orders tend to be central pathways around the island. Maybe at the start of the third act you could have had Red Mountain have a minor eruption and filled the 40 orders again, making a sudden navigation obstacle for the player. Speaking of things Bethesda couldn't do yet, model levels of detail now of any game. Morrowind was the game to do view dis

tance fog. Since most regions have a decent excuse for low visibility like foggy shorelines and ashy wastelands. But it's hard to appreciate Red Mountain outside of the imagination when you can't see it. While the overworld adventure and sites can be seen can be impressive, there's a lot left to be desired when you start to notice the repetition and interior design. Now, I'm not going to be a pleb and leave it at that. Morrowind Interiors are made up of many parts, like Lego pieces that can be p

ut together in a variety of combinations. The system was created like this because originally Morrowind was going to procedurally generate much of its world. But then Howard saw the workflow potential of having an easy system for designers to make content in. It's literally so easy. A child me could use the complementary construction set that came on a disc with the game to make a dungeon or a house. Except for the scripter, that abomination can suck off a shotgun. Morrowind Storytelling is fasc

inating. It's a shame that the possibilities of a purely text based system were squandered due once again to the nature of the game's development. What's interesting is you can very easily tell the divisions in writing responsibilities based on what quests you're playing. You can even tell if it's Rolleston, Goodall, Nelson or Howard riding the quest based on how they approached certain ideas. For instance, Rolleston experimented heavily with using greetings and goodbyes in the Imperial Cold Que

stline and would also dramatically page breaking dialog using the continue function. Goodall's quests were much simpler from a script perspective, but would intertwine characters and plots, which is one of the perks of having one guy writing so many quests lines. Since Goodall was the writer of the Thieves fighters Guild House, Willow, Morag Tong and more, he could easily intersect all of them with a character like Orpheus Dren that would also be possible if each faction had a different writer,

provided There was a lead writer making those connections, something missing from the later games. That's why later factions felt like independent puzzle pieces rather than a connected pattern of storylines. Todd Howard was responsible for finishing the Imperial Legion. It suffers the most from that faction distinction problem as the imperial forts feel like isolated sections of the world. There is the crossover where you can tell Goodall made the quests like the one to investigate the ebony smu

ggler from the house or Loa Questline. But otherwise I've already detailed the oddities of Howard's. What I haven't mentioned is that Howard is also responsible for the tutorial. That thing I praised heavily. Yeah. Todd Howard is the man behind it. I'm not sure of his part in ends when you walk out the door of the Census Office or if he is also responsible for the broader site and in tutorial. Douglas Goodall did say that Mark Nelson was responsible for Fargo's. Mark Nelson is also responsible f

or the daydream and vampire quests. He used the least dialog in traditional writing and used the most voice acting for his quests. Bill Berkman, apparently a tester who also did one of the Better Fighters Guild quests. And speaking of old interviews, let's go over some promotional material. One of the reasons make the liar jokes about multiplayer is the inordinate number of times Bethesda got asked if Morrowind was going to be multiplayer. When discussing guilds, Rolston says the Dark Brotherhoo

d was going to be join a ball when. Actually, quite the opposite ended up being the case. Actually, Rolston talks a pretty big game in this interview, despite the fact that the 10 to 15 promised factions hadn't even been written yet. Given that their writers started at Bethesda six months after the interview, he also details a group of quests called the Grand Council Resolution Quests, which sound like an awesome idea and are nowhere to be seen in the finished product. The area and even the NPCs

for such an idea are all present in urban heart, but it never got made likely because it was far too ambitious for what they were capable of. In another interview, he states that they are going to reveal the origin story of vampires, which wasn't true. Now, in fairness, Bethesda at the time, we're trying to sell the game to both gamers and purse holders, so it's not really that unreasonable for them to sell a big game. Howard also spends a lot of time explaining how combat going to work, which

is all present in the game. The chop slash thrust system is in the game and the reason I didn't talk about it is that it's completely and utterly irrelevant due to one, they apparently didn't anticipate that there was going to be an objectively best category for each weapon. There was even an option patched in to just use the best option for every swing. What's funny is that this isn't a bad idea. It works for more how they just decided it wasn't worth developing and dropped it. There's also thi

s picture which floated around every promotional article. Let's just take a second to admire this. First, Magica is called Spell Points and it has a green bar while fatigue is blue. Player name is in the game at all times. Naturally, Top writes as the spell name as well as showing the icon. At least you can tell that's a picture of a guy walking on water. Bottom left says the cell name and has an auto map which isn't accurate to the area and actually gets reused in other screenshots. Bottom righ

t is the inventory, which besides some quality passes, is actually pretty much the same in the release version and the dialog window. They certainly didn't advertise how much reading there was going to be. Services and persuasion are actually tabs in the release version just more subdued. SCHULKE Ashin Barbee is an NPC in the released version, and they are indeed a merchant iness. Although they didn't keep their gender, I'm not sure building this is. It doesn't look like anything in the game. I

mean, barring the actual merchant is a street vendor. This interior is way more complex than the adobe structures in the base game. Very interesting. Overall, while the interviews are interesting and provided some insight on the development process, Howard and Rolston tended to keep their cards close to their chest. When asked questions. They did expose on occasion that they were promising ahead of their development, but I wouldn't say there were outright lies and deceptions and more wins. Marke

ting is Vivek visually much more complex in the promotional material? Yeah, and I've already explained why the original vision of Vivek wouldn't have worked back then. Morrowind even had a six month delay. It was originally supposed to be released in the winter of 2001, but got delayed to May of 2002. With tribunal coming in November of oh two and Bloodmoon in June of 2003, and finally the Xbox of the year edition in October of oh three. Tribunal and Bloodmoon are interesting creatures in their

own right. They represent Bethesda still following the schema of Morrowind, but having learned the lessons from the original game, they also feature some experimentation for ideas that would become part of the core design of Oblivion. But for reasons I'll explain when you're older, they learned the wrong lessons. So we've reached the end of this video. There's only one thing left to do. Near the start of the game, we found some scrolls called I Carry in Flight that will throw you across the map.

I figure it's fitting. We step off the dock. We helped to build and leap off into the horizon for a new adventure. This has been a long project, so forgive me for adding this little personal section at the end. Everyone who made it here. Here's your reward. If you want, you can subscribe. This video isn't going to be standard on this channel. In fact, I'm not even entirely sure I'll never do another project as long as or in-depth as this video. This really was a product of passion. I want to th

ank some folks. First, I want to thank Bethesda specifically who had a hand in making the game I spent so long covering. Thank you. I know for some of you there was a point where the process was difficult, so I can only hope you enjoyed making the game as much as I and many others have enjoyed our time with it. A big thank you goes to the unofficial Elder Scrolls pages. Seriously, if all I had was Elder Scrolls fandom, I probably wouldn't have been able finish the video. I cannot understate how

much of a gold standard the USB p should be for a game like yours. Thanks. Also go out to the guys working on the open MWP even if it straddles the line of adding convenience features. You guys are doing good work. If you are curious, I was using version 43 and I think they're on 46 now. The software plotter was crucial to structuring the series out. Go check it out. If you do any kind of creative writing work, I would recommend it. Finally, I want to thank the Elder Scrolls community. Some of y

ou guys, anyways, some of you've got terrible taste from the hardworking modders, the people who compile information in easy formats, the people who write and essays worth of material and lore, conversation that are considered casual, and the artists who create beautiful art, rendering the world, re-imagining the music and making great memes. Seriously, if any fan base deserves to be catered to and deserves a true sequel, it's the Morrowind fandom. I hope my video has been a worthwhile addition

to the community. I suppose a final question comes up is this my final playthrough of Morrowind? At this point I may have finally drained everything out of the world. My original plans were to continue on to Tamriel, but I decided I would probably be too harsh on those guys. It's an ambitious project and I'm looking forward to its final release in 2121. Then I was going to cover the Dragonborn DLC and go on to Skyward eventually. But no, you'll have to wait until the day I cover Skyrim for that.

I wish this guy when devs luck with their project like a lot of luck. Seriously, finish the [____]ing thing before the Microsoft acquisition finalizes and you get a C&D. I also wanted to talk about the red year, how it felt like an angry trying to get revenge on the evil xenophobic gunmen and of all the tell, wanting to bring back whitey. But as the choose master nil off. I know this fear is controversial, but Master was literally the perfect candidate. No, life isn't live in vaudeville just be

cause the island exploded. And I was going to cover the Morrowind DLC for ESL, but that would require playing so and I'm not thrilled at the prospect. All right. Silence. I'm out of things to say, so I guess it's credits time. The footage you're seeing was some videos I recorded of character resolutions I wanted to include but failed to finish. So they fit in here. Firstly, music Jeremy Soul's Morrowind soundtrack was of course used. I also used the Oblivion soundtrack during the tribunal sectio

n and the Dragonborn soundtrack during the Bloodmoon section. I use the song Escape an Idol from years, so just to make a point, and two songs from Skyland there rendition of Near of Our Rising and a song titled Zephyr Belle Bay. I also used a couple of young scrolls tracks as well as the song Dig Under and Art. Yeah, I'll be honest, I just raided my Morrowind Meme folder. I have no clue who made a bunch of this stuff. I guess if you want to take credit for something, contact me and I'll post it

in the description. Not that anybody will read it anyways. I do know this map of major shrines was made by someone named Superstar. The animation of yoga in the garden in Diva Fear is titled Heart and it's by zirconium. There's also going to be a book of archive links in the description. These all go to the interviews and articles used for this video. They aren't in any order of appearance, but they are titled. I only take sourcing half seriously and I started doing that much halfway through th

is project.