/tgesg/ - Weekend Elder Scrolls General

>something about vampires hiding under ice
These ARE the original Volkihar.
uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Immortal_Blood

Oh, huh, I guess it was from Oblivion, not Morrowind.

>Interestingly enough, this title is evocative of Skyrim, which has been referenced as "The Rim" on occasion.

I remember reading a theory that Akavir doesn't actually exist and all the info on it is just a misunderstanding of ancient texts about Tamriel.

I can't find the Alessian era map of Tamriel that would support the notion, but the truth might be closer to this that we might think.

The Imperial invasion of Akavir kind of disproves this theory.

Yeah and Tamriel is flat, it's all a conspiracy.

Well, if you believe the drug coffin writings, Akavir is the future.

Nerevarine might of just fucked off into the future, and in MK's case, Jubal might've been MK's Nerevarine who killed Ur, instead of 'a' Nerevarine.

The theory says this invasion was a myth and he actually died in Black Marsh while pacifying a Naga rebellion.

But of course, this theory is as crackpot as it gets and was originlly posted on April 1st to boot.

fullrest.ru/universes/elderscrolls/akavir-that-does-not-exist-389

Just because you go somewhere doesn't mean it's actually a place.

We actually have no idea what-

Wait, uh, Tamriel is flat. Tamriel is the continent, not the planet. Unless you count the mountains.

No, even going into C0DA at face value Jubal isn't THE Nerevarine. In C0DA, THE Nerevarine comes back from Akavir to fight the Numidium at Landfall, giving the Dunmer enough time to escape, but ultimately fails.

...

>can travel to the fucking moon
>don't know if a certain continent exists

...

Yup.

What am I even looking at
jesus christ

...

>meanwhile at CERN MK describes what variables are needed to accurately simulate Nirn

youtube.com/watch?v=9JYkMhQ9gf8

>hey magnus can you come up with a plan to make reality
>he does this and fucks off

ruseman

Omg did we die?

well, if you take into consideration that spacetime goes on for ages the further south you sail, it could converge to a sort of 'edge of infinity' where nirn literally becomes where the spokes meet. then, if you consider the moebius strip posted, and fractalize it for the concurrent landmasses like lyg and akavir, you get this wobbly wheel structure that exists outside of time but each version adheres to time.

>The Akaviri army was caught at Stonefalls between the Nords and a Dunmer legion led by Almalexia, but the outcome of the great battle hung in the balance—until a surprise intervention from a phalanx of Argonian shellbacks, led by a trio of reptilian battlemages.
>Argonian shellbacks
Playable turtle argonians when?

Same day we get playable wizard lord kittens.

A kappa is fine too

ESO argonians are turtles

So what regions should the next game be in?

Hammerfell
Elsweyr

Mainland Morrowind + northern Black Marsh and Cyrodiil again that has been turned into a jungle again because Sheoro of Kvatch memes

Black Marsh. Want more lizards.

It doesn't really matter.

This will happen with Tamriel Rebuilt and Project: Cyrodiil before Bethesda tries anything similar and it will be better than what Bethesda would ever do.

>tfw replaying Morrowind
I think what the later games are missing that Morrowind had isn't even necessarily the interesting lore, it's the quest-relevant NPCs being amusing and memorable.

Nah, it's definitely the interesting lore. Though you have a point too. In a morrowind-esque Oblivion, that alchemist lady with the necrophilia fetish would have been incredibly relevant in the main quest.

Morrowind was unique.

Skyrim and Oblivion were just more european fantasy land.

Voice acting with such a small cast killed the characters in Oblivion and Skyrim. In Morrowind on the other hand, if you could tolerate reading, every character sounded unique (I wish there were more options for face and hair in the vanilla tho, but I can't complain).

Yeah, Oblivion at least had some fun random people (Falanu Hlaalu, Glarthir, that Fighters Guild guy who did the shitty painting, etc) but none of them were used for the main quest. And Skyrim didn't even have good random NPCs unless you're counting the ones whose repetetive greeting phrases became minor memes.

I think that Cameron/Dagon and Alduin could easily have made for plots as unique and cool as Morrowind's, but they just weren't presented in ways that made them seem interesting.

Elsewyr is the environment Bethesda would have the least trouble reproducing and as such the least chance of fucking up.

If they made valenwood, then the colossal moving trees on which cities are built would turn into an interpretation mistake or some shit and just become regular trees with huts near them somewhere.

Black Marsh would require the entire concept of the region(only argonians and other monstrosities survive the poisonous gas) to be retconned.

The only thing they can fuck up in Elsewyr is ignoring some variations of Khaijit.

The main plot of Oblivion is actually really cool, but it's as you said, lacking slightly in presentation.

Dagon is probably the best villain in the series, all things considered, better than Ur even.

Camoran got into some pretty trippy stuff if you read the books, but reading the books had zero relevance outside of that one quest where you had to get the code from them.

I think Dragonborn was a nice return to some of the trippier lore. Herma Mora's domain was well done.

Or, they could do Hammerfell and use swordsinging as the new thu'um gimmick.

>Old Elf, not so good speak.
>I'm a lovable rogue, a silver-tongued devil with a taste for the better things in life.

Morrowind had some great dialogue but man, shit like the wiki style conversation system could really fuck things up

What if Beth will just go back to the Morrowind-esque weirdness now that they've made a bunch of money off of Oblivion and Skyrim and firmly established TES as a mainstream franchise
What if TESVI will just be a Daggerfall/Redguard/Battlespire/Morrowind renaissance for the series
What if, boys

It would be painful to me for them to reduce sword singing to "press z to dash forward real quick!"

Mankar's metaphysics do come into play a little more when you get to Paradise, but understanding them is never really important to proceeding in the plot, sadly.

And in Skyrim you talk about kalpas with a dragon on top of a Tower, so it's not so bad.

also works. One issue with Elsewyr is that I doubt they want to have a game where most of the NPCs are Khaijit(TOO WEIRD RIGHT), so I guess Hammerfell would be more welcoming.

There's nothing inherently wrong with voice acting, as long as you adapt by having good character writing and voice actors. Though it's going to require a bit of a change in the way they approach characters.
See Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines for a good example of how you can have voice acting and end up with memorable characters.

>The only thing they can fuck up in Elsewyr is ignoring some variations of Khaijit.
They're going to fuck up a whole lot more than that.

My issue with voice acting is that it's incredibly expensive to do well for the type of games we're talking about. So far we've ended up with less dialog, of a lesser quality, with voice acting, because of that expense.

I figured they would utilize a sort of 'construct your weapon' gimmick with swordsinging, like weapon customization in fallout 4, or even work in tandem with the weapon you're already using. Basically like an OP way to buff your weapon, and eventually, not even need a weapon.

Only kind of lore related, but what house would a loyal imperial in the imperial legion join? Hlaalu seems like the obvious choice, but I like the idea of an imperial soldier joining Redoran as a gesture of good faith or something.

Anyone seen any of this guy's videos? Basically him giving a rundown on how the last four games could've been improved, a lot of it focusing on the lore aspect.
youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9qQ3PJcmlrfRTor4KZZsPcmUS8-eJzRd

>firmly established TES as a mainstream franchise
There's your answer

most of the time I just skip dialogue anyway because I read the subtitles way faster than the VA speaks, and I've yet to see a VA that can motivate me not to just skip it.

Either of those two would be the only realistic answer. Assuming this is late 3E Vvardenfell.

gonna be painful to watch with that smug guy in a suit talking on my face, but I'll give it a shot.

Don't tell me it's Zaric
>it's him
Jesus, I like some of his shit but he's such an awkward pompous twat goddamnit

Khajiit seem to have interesting views on thievery. It almost seems acceptable in their society, so long as you accomplish it in a skilled way on an impressive target.

I found him a few days ago lol. His videos are quite interesting desu

>less dialog, of a lesser quality, with voice acting
Holy fuck I tried a bit of Dawnguard for the first time in ages the other day and that dialogue with Serana when you first meet her
It's just horrendous, like legit fucking terrible
Beyond awful, absolutely dogshit

Exactly my thoughts. He knows his shit but I can't stop fucking cringing.

Are all argonians supposed to be hist puppets to some degree?

yes

If they were exposed to the hist at birth, they are. And culturally speaking, even one free of the subtle mind control might feel pressured to obey.

Neat lore concepts almost always seem underwhelming when they appear in the games themselves
In all fairness to Beth, shit like using a sword to split an atom is hard to portray satisfyingly in a video game, but it is too bad that the best lore is inherently stuff that wouldn't work as a game mechanic because no engine could make it look as impressive as it should be

thats why swordsinging would turn into a pseudo-prototype mechanic that goes beyond just using swords

>the pc is so good at sword singing that he is able to fly around
>you see those islands? you can fly to them!

Kind of, though it's important to note that the most revered Khajiiti thief (revered to the point where he's a god) is known for having stolen from someone who is both in a position of power and non-Khajiit. Likewise the god of banditry is mainly worshipped for his application of cunning against non-Khajiit on behalf of the downtrodden Khajiit.

I'm saying this because some people seem to be of the idea that because Khajiit worship gods of thievery and banditry, they're okay with everyone stealing from everyone, which doesn't seem to be the case. These gods, who are in addition fairly obscure, represent the triumph of the cunning over the strong or powerful, as well as triumph over some menacing "other".
Even the Renrijra Krin, which I have some problems with as a source, named their manifesto after their principle of "justly" taking/stealing, which sort of implies that doing the opposite would be unjust.

It's also important to note that every race has some sort of clever-man tradition, which for the Khajiit seems to be tied to cunning, and likely to ideals such as religious secrecy. Obscuring the truth has a very special meaning for the Khajiit.
So you end up with idealised thieves that both represent some suppressed popular ideals, as well as something that ties into their cultural ideals.

But again, the thieves the Khajiit revere aren't common bandits that pray on common folk. It's like the gangster romanticism of the Great Depression, just mixed with religion

Sailing boats in real time would be a cool addition for an Elder Scrolls game.

we need more boats in general

I love old boats and ships and it's hard to explain

The idea sounds alright, but the execution would undoubtedly be poor.

There's nothing wrong with that, user. It's perfectly natural.

You summed up Bethesda games in a sentence.

There is a mod for that.

Birdmen of the heartlands that precede any mer emigration to Tamriel and the Ayleid being bird-boos
What's the connection, tegesugu?

I am aware. I just think that having it as a main part of the game could be interesting. Sailing from island to island, exploring the coastlines, etc.

Ayy lmaos displaced birdmen and appropriated their culture.

>In Morrowind on the other hand, if you could tolerate reading, every character sounded unique
Don't kid yourself, most of Morrowind's dialogue was just the same copy pasted spiel everyone else gives.
I also agree that having voiced dialogue is a massive crutch when it comes to developing thorough characters (especially for modders).
But Morrowind failed to take advantage of what are the clear perks of not having to record and pay for everything you fucking write.

Have you not seen the noses on Imperials?
Clearly they were the proto-Imperials that after centuries of elf-rape lost their feathercoats and came to resemble mer more

Morrowind's townsfolk were copy/pasted nobodies, but the main quest NPCs were all good and that matters more to the game as a whole, I think.

>Solstheim

A terrible place.

HAVE YOU HEARD?

Only tangentially related, I suppose, but

I had the idea that an immersive method to interacting NPCs would be to require certain phrases and parts of speech that have contextual meaning, ie greeting a priest with a temple saying, things like that

Then it struck me; imagine using a microphone and actually speaking to the NPC, and having them respond? In some sort of stock responses, sure, but I think it'd be wild.

Someone made a mod where you can control Skyrim with your voice.

dude fus lmao

reminds of of In Verbis Virtus

So rather than get into the civil war, here's a topic close to it:

Was Raggvar or whatever justified in letting Ulfric leave solitude after slaying the High King?

I mean he just saw/heard about Ulfric shouting the king to death. Would you stand in a dudes way knowing that they might be able to shout you to death, too?

Ragvar is just the scapegoat for the ineptitude of the palace guards. They were all probably drunk.

But is Ragvar's interpretation of the law/ethics of the situation correct? He states at his execution that Ulfric killed the king in fair combat, and therefore there was no crime.

Depends on if he really did challenge the high king and the high king voluntarily accepted without being forced, and if Skyrim still considers it acceptable to duel for the throne

Probably, considering Nordic armies used to be able to shout. Shouting wasn't uncommon in old Skyrim, so maybe he is referencing some ancient Nord law about fair combat.

Obviously it wasn't (((fair))) when one of them was trained in the voice and used it after he had basically already lost as a clutch

It's like I agreed to fight someone in a fist fight, got my shit kicked in and then pulled out a gun and shot the other guy

A common soldier like Roggvir has zero right to deny Ulfric, a fucking Jarl, for any reason unless he was ordered by his superiors to stop Ulfric.

More like you took a gun to a retirement home.

he was fucked the moment he decided to go to work that day.

>let him out
>beheadded
>don't let him out
>while Ulfric awaits trial, he's assassinated by someone allied to Ulfric

Not how structure works. Ulfric is the jarl of a different hold and has no authority to give orders to the gatekeeper of another hold. He has to give him the respect he deserves but isn't under obligation to take security orders from him without leave if his own jarl.

But isn't Ulfric descended from Ysgramor or some shit?

That wasn't a problem of orders, that was a problem of authority.
Doesn't matter where he is, a Jarl is a Jarl and a diplomat is a diplomat. You don't have to obey the one that isn't yours, but you for damn sure aren't gonna boss around the others.