Very well summarized! Good to have all that was discussed in the old forums on one post.

Few things:
- The Mages Guild is not present in the Ebon Tower (the tower formerly known as OE Castle): they have their guildhall in the Old Ebonheart town.
- Captain of the Townsguard is already an NPC in the town (stationed at the main gate towers).
- Admiral of the Navy is already an NPC in the town (at the Navy Command Post).

First off, thank you for taking the time to organize all of this, ThomasRuz. Overall, I don’t have many objections to the current concepts, other than the suggestions listed below:

*Provincial Governor leads the provincial government in Morrowind, acts as the superior for the Dukes (except the Duke of Mournhold, the King) and the Ministers in OE. 

I’m not entirely sure we should have the Dukes report to anyone other than the Emperor and his direct reprensentatives (the Pro-Consul and Lord General). Otherwise, they come across looking rather impotent if they have to report to a mere governor.  That said, I do like the idea of having a Provincial Governor who is in charge of the Ministers, and through them the province’s bureaucratic administration. Basically, I suggest we copy Province Cyrodiil’s division of authority between nobles and administrators:

Imperial Nobility
The blood nobility of the Empire, comparable to the function of the Great Houses in Morrowind. The Imperial Nobility has two subfactions: the Colo-Nordic nobility (Colovian rulers who descend from the Nords, and uphold Nordic ideas on duty, chivalry, and religion) and the Trebatine Hierophants(Nibenese Battlemage aristocracy, influential sorcerer-families with blood ties to the Akaviri). They make up most of Cyrodiil's rulers (Dukes, Counts, Barons). Aligned with the Emperor against the Elder Council.

The Curia or Imperial Administration
A nobility of merit: scribes, administrators, prefects, politicians and diplomats who keep the Empire running. The Census & Excise Office is a subsidiary branch, as are many other offices, councils, and authorities across Cyrodiil. Strong rivalry with the traditional nobility. Plagued by corruption. Aligned with the Elder Council against the sole authority of the Emperor.

Source

*Mayor of OE - come up with a title, other than a Duke since there already is a Duke in Mournhold District

Going off of Province Cyrodiil’s local leadership in Stirk (see the dialogue quoted below) Old Ebonheart could have a Prefect in charge of administrating the local government and/or a Baron who heads the local nobility. These two would likely conflict with each other over who has the most authority.

“Cocious Hassell is the Prefect of Stirk, meaning that the Empire has entrusted him with the practical governance of Stirk. He has a manor close to the chapel, but spends most of his time in Town Hall. Hassell was an administrator in the Imperial City, but got this post after the last Prefect became unfit to rule.”

“​​​​​​​I am Gracchus Helvor, Baron of Stirk, heir to the Helvor line and protector of Stirk by virtue of the true Colo-Nordic blood. My ancestor, Skalgar Hellebore, conquered this island in the name of the Shore-King and Empress Alessia, who granted him the title of Baron, to be passed down to his rightful heirs forevermore, Akatosh willing.”

A couple of things from the Cyrodiil side:

Basically, Imperial Governors appear to be direct apointees of the Emperor (or perhaps Elder Council), and the Empire appears to have generally favoured replacing the governors in the long-term with Empire-friendly (or that’s the hope anyway) nobility, with the perception that the latter would be more easily accepted by the local populace.

Governors would definitely be Council-appointed. The instatement of “new” nobility was an Empire-wide thing: Tiber Septim tried to rationalize the different noble institutions of the provinces into a kind of Napoleonic system which placed supreme authority with the position of Emperor. In the same vein, the old kings of Colovia were ousted and replaced by the counties (deemed insufficiently loyal, of course).

I do not think the Proconsul was ever intended to be a robust position; the Proconsul represents the Emperor in Morrowind, but so as not to be perceived as heavy-handed the Empire exercises most of its power on Morrowind through the nobility. The Proconsul is essentially a glorified liaison.

This is generally something I agree with, though the relation between the Emperor and the Elder Council is more complex and volatile. In Cyrodiil, the Emperor acts through the nobility because they are most loyal to him, while the Elder Council influences affairs through the Curia, the courts of administration. The Proconsul, then, would represent the Elder Council – as Consul, he actually has a seat on the Council or in one of the sub-choirs.

the Blades. Important note: I do not think they should serve as the Emperor’s bodyguard.

I kind of disagree. It is true that there is an Imperial/Duke’s Guard, but their role in Imperial politics is closer to that of the Praetorian Guard. The advantage of the Blades is that they are fanatically loyal to the Emperor, and are not corrupted by the normal chain of command. Which is why the Emperor favors them for his own protection.

Its oracles (I think we agreed on this) receive one-way Dreamsleeve transmissions from the Elder Council.

That is … honestly not really something I can work with for Cyrodiil. In general, I think it is a bad idea to try and recontextualize vanilla quests in this way, especially if their nature is inherently ambiguous. It would be an interesting plot point for TR to feature an Oracle who is allied to the Elder Council or is unwittingly exploited in this way, but to say that all Oracles of the Nine Divines are shills for the Council is a bit much. Remember that the Divines are actual presences in the world, who do in fact send down manifestations and the like (the player even meets a couple of them). This idea also only works within the framework of Morrowind’s united, Empire-focused missionary cult, where every temple is inside of a Legion fortress. In toher provinces, the Imperial Cult is much more scattered and factionalized, and would not be an effective political tool (if it even is one in Morrowind). Not to mention that the Council itself is factionalized, and would not unanimously support the Emperor’s Blades-directed prophecy-scams (if they know of it).

From How the Talos Cult Came To Be posted on the old forums...

I like the basic concept you’ve hammered out for the Talos Cult as a lower-class, common troopers affair, tying into the mythology of Emp Zed and Tiber Septim. I am hoping to implement the cult in Cyrodiil’s Colovian Legions in line with TR’s Talos Cult. However, I can’t take this book serious as a physical object. It would just about work as a piece of dialogue, but never as a printed or written pamphlet. The weird vernacular dialect, the spitting and tongue-clicking sounds, the ending where he keeps on writing as they break down the door… My apologies if this comes across as rude, but this isn’t a book, it’s an audiolog. This would work much better if it was written as a clandestine pamphlet printed for and shared by troopers, aimed at spreading the faith in simple, easy to understand language and metaphors. The folksy dialect could be replaced with spelling errors and such.

Governors [...]

This works as far as I’m concerned. I do get the impression Tiber Septim personally selected governers back in his day, but I doubt the Elder Council was much of a force back then and that’s ancient history as far as our projects are concerned anyway.
As a side note, I would assume that in the provinces locals would talk about ‘the Emperor’ a lot when meaning ‘the Elder Council’, effectively as shorthand, whereas in Cyrodiil people would tend to be more familiar with the workings of the Empire and differentiate between the two. This would probably especially be the case in Morrowind where the Empire often seems to be perceived less as a complex political body and more as a sort of abstract, foreign, often antagonistic force.

This is generally something I agree with, though the relation between the Emperor and the Elder Council is more complex and volatile. In Cyrodiil, the Emperor acts through the nobility because they are most loyal to him, while the Elder Council influences affairs through the Curia, the courts of administration. The Proconsul, then, would represent the Elder Council – as Consul, he actually has a seat on the Council or in one of the sub-choirs.

I think this is certainly one case where we can play on the complexity of Emperor-Elder Council relations. I think cutting the line too sharply between nobility and – essentially – civil servants would be a bit too simplistic; nobility always require a body of appointed servants to function anyway, and even assuming Morrowind’s nobility were loyal to the Emperor the Emperor would still need a channel of communication with said nobility.
Perhaps, similarly to governors, the Proconsul was originally intended as the Emperor’s liaison but, with the rise in power of the Elder Council, the position has often become coopted by them, and by now has effectively become a puppet of Empire internal politics, appointees either being loyal to the Emperor or the Elder Council depending on which one of them currently has the upper hand in their eternal power struggle.
Though as a matter of fact, I’d assume that the Hlaalu Council Company and consequently most of Morrowind’s nobility probably have historically had closer ties to the Elder Council – I’d imagine a small number of Hlaalu would sit on the Elder Council – than to the Emperor ever since Symmachus died. Which is a point largely rendered moot by Helseth, who I doubt is particularly close to either.

I kind of disagree. It is true that there is an Imperial/Duke’s Guard, but their role in Imperial politics is closer to that of the Praetorian Guard. The advantage of the Blades is that they are fanatically loyal to the Emperor, and are not corrupted by the normal chain of command. Which is why the Emperor favors them for his own protection.

This does seem to be a point of disagreement, certainly. I still think that the Blades should strictly be the Emperor’s spies, and that while, certainly, some Imperial Guards might serve as Blades and some Blades as Imperial Guards, (for instance to keep an eye on the other Imperial Guards and ensure that they remain loyal to the Emperor), being a Blade should not automatically make you a bodyguard to the Emperor.
I also think that any organization with a position of power and access to the Emperor would be at risk of corruption. While a rough comparison, to my understanding the Janissaries were established because the Ottoman rulers did not trust the tribal warriors at their command, who were often more loyal to their tribes. The Janissaries, as slave soldiers taken as children from Christian families and trained to be faithful to the sultan, were free of such ties. They ended up forming their own ties within the Janissary corps, though, and became a powerful faction in their own right, which came to challenge the power of the sultan as the tribes had done before.
I think providing the Blades with visible, recognizable positions, uniforms and especially a stronghold like Cloud Ruler Temple and such would be more of a liability than keeping them a looser clandestine organization specifically appointed by the Emperor. Certainly it would be harder to try and bribe Blades if you weren’t able to identify any of them, and it would be harder for Blades to become a faction in their own right if its members don’t know any members outside of their own cell.

[...] Oracles [...]

I should have linked the original discussion thread, really. As arvisrend said at the end, I think the ideas work together, and (a point I forgot), if the communication is specifically from the Moth Priests one could still argue the Oracles are ultimately receiving ‘transmissions’ from the gods. (Really, in a sense, the Moth Priests themselves serve as oracles in TES). I could well imagine that this use of Oracles would be more common in Morrowind, which through the Armistice maintains a greater degree of autonomy from and ambivalence towards the Empire, than in the other provinces where the Imperial Cult would, as you say, have become more scattered and factionalized. Not to mention that, with more people worshipping the Nine Divines in the other provinces, the chance of those provinces producing genuine Oracles is much higher than in Morrowind, where most of the Oracles were probably specifically sent there.
Also, just to be clear, I doubt we’d expand on the original Oracle quests and recontextualize them explicitly; this belongs to the category of planning that doesn’t necessarily make it into the game other than through implication. For TRs purposes, for instance, this might affect the sort of quests Oracles would give the player, and astute players might notice a pattern in the quests, but I doubt we’d have people explicitly acknowledge that the Oracles are receiving Dreamsleeve transmissions, not in the least because only very few people would even know that and most of them wouldn’t be in Morrowind.

Infragris

I don’t see the use of diluting the definition of a consul or proconsul by having his origin or loyalties divided between Emperor and Council. The Emperor has his own liaisons in the governors, the legion, and the nobility, who can fill any narrative purpose that a Consul could. Also, it would be more in line with the actual definition and origin of the title to tie it entirely to the Council: a proconsul, during the Roman Republic, was a magistrate appointed by the senate specifically to manage the administration of conquered territories: pretty much exactly what you have here. Even the word is derived from consulare, to take council.

Hm, yeah, I do see how this could work. And also how the alternative could quickly toss the concept of conservation of detail to the wind. Though there may be potential in exploring the idea that the Emperor was formerly more autocratic before the Elder Council (re)established itself as a counterweight, and how that transition might have played merry hell on preexisting structures like the Proconsulate, Tiber Septim lived almost four centuries ago and the Elder Council has probably long settled into its current position.

Infragris
Almost all official Morrowind representation in the capital is probably done by Hlaalu associates, save perhaps a confused Indoril or Redoran somewhere. A Hlaalu should definitely sit on the Council (not to mention their influence in Cheydinhal and along the Blue Road).

We’re certainly on the same page here, down to the possible confused Indoril or Redoran.

Infragris
I’ve flip-flopped a bit on the role of the Blades in Cyrodiil, but currently they fill the same role they had in Morrowind: spies, hidden among the population. Some (trusted) Blades are bodyguards or the Emperor (and otherwise dispersed in secret through the court), but this is not their natural role, and may be a recent development. I still think places like Cloud Ruler Temple are needed, but these can be disguised as monasteries for one of the many eclectic cults of the Nibenay.

Ah yeah, I could certainly see the Cloud Ruler Temple being better disguised in P:C’s Cyrodiil than it was in Oblivion’s. We seem to be on the same page here as well. At least currently.

Infragris
Involving the Moth Cult does not solve anything, in fact it more problems for me. The Cult of the Ancestor Moth interprets the Elder Scrolls (which are explicitly not of a Divine nature), but are otherwise focused on the death rituals surrounding the moths and the production of ancestor silk. They are a completely different kind of faction from the official Imperial Cult and the Elder Council (in fact, they predate both of them). Trying to combine these three in some kind of illuminati conspiracy needlessly complicates things, and does not make a whole lot of sense. I understand that, for TR’s purposes, Imperial culture needs to conserve detail, but this is the wrong way to go about it.

I honestly do not see the need to change the nature of the Oracles from what they are: receivers of actual Divine visions. Obviously, we can weird them up a bit. Have them blitzed on Nibenese sacred narcotics, huffing sulfurous gases, insane, or catatonic when not in use. Maybe there’s an undead oracle somewhere because a Divine messed up and transmitted his wisdom on the wrong point of the timeline. Or two oracles giving contradictory tasks because they receive visions from conflicting fragments of Akatosh. Have the player sabotage Tribunal rituals because the Dunmer soul traffic is interfering with Divine transmissions. Use the Oracles to explore the nature of the cult and the inherent weirdness of the Divines, instead of as a vessel for other factions and storylines. As I said, I like the idea of an Oracle highjacked by some other power (Elder Council? Telvanni? Sload?) through dreamsleeve, and frankly it would be a waste not to use it for a quest. But it doesn’t fit as background for every Oracle.

Ah, I’d frankly not considered or looked deeply into P:C’s more in-depth treatment of the Cult of the Ancestor Moth. That naturally changes things. That the Elder Scrolls are explicitly not of divine nature is new to me, though; I’d thought they were given to man by a divine, probably Julianos, but admittedly can’t find the source at the moment. (Darn you Bethesta for naming your fanchise after an obscure set of artifacts you rarely mention, and darn you Zenimax Online in particular for calling your MMO The Elder Scrolls: Online and further muddling up the search results).
Anyway, one way or the other the basic concept is that some part of the Empire transmits messages to the oracles over the dreamsleeve. It would not be a grand conspiracy, it would merely be a classified practice, which is something massive countries tend to have in spades. The Blades themselves are a massive secret organization with members in all provinces hidden among the populace at all levels of society, something on a far larger scale than what is being suggested with the oracles, but I generally wouldn’t describe the Blades as a kind of illuminati conspiracy. They are simply a secret organization, whereas the transmissions to the oracles would merely be a clandestine form of government communication, both of which governments like to have.
I do agree this shouldn’t be the background of every oracle, and shouldn’t solely define the position of oracle either, but especially for an unruly province like Morrowind I think this idea has more potential, especially as the Empire is sometimes viewed as – and I think should sometimes act like – an oppressive, totalitarian state, and as it – in my opinion – should not only exert its powers by mundane means, whether military or diplomatic, but also (again, as illustrated by the Blades) through covert means and through more arcane means. Tiber Septim himself has occupied all of those roles, to a greater or lesser extent depending on which account you follow, and his shenanigans with the Numidium, association with dragons, the Thu’um and mantling are arguably those he is known best for.

Hm. Elder Scrolls = old design documents of Bethesda?

Perhaps you could do something toeing the middle of the line. Since Morrowind is about corruption and decay, the oracles are slowly being replaced by these puppet figures who speak from the mouth of the Empire and not the Divines. Through the course of the Imperial Cult quest, the player helps put the real oracles back in their place (orrr perhaps help the puppets slowly usurp them—without or without the player’s knowledge).

Just a thought. What about Nolus Atrius? You know, leader of Balmora that doesn't exist. He could be either added to actual Balmora (since there will changes to Vvardenfell right?) or he could just be in Old Ebonheart for some kind of meeting.

Atrayonis

Undertaker

Just a thought. What about Nolus Atrius? You know, leader of Balmora that doesn't exist. He could be either added to actual Balmora (since there will changes to Vvardenfell right?) or he could just be in Old Ebonheart for some kind of meeting.

Several mods add him back in. It would create unnecessary incompatibilities, unless you have a really really good idea about how he could be used

I found him mentioned in this summary discussing Hlaalu ("Nolus Atrius — a NPC mentioned in the original game who wasn’t actually present — is Balmora’s (corrupt) magistrate, and lives in Andothren.") Is this still up to date? Sounds like a good idea to bring Vvardenfell and mainland together, although this appears to be more Hlaalu than imperial business.
 

Feeling inspired, I decided to try my hand at updating the list with feedback and ideas from recent Discord meetings. The following should capture most of the important characters living in the castle who would need unique personlaities. Any new bios are just my own proposals.