Minister of Justice whose job is to observe that the the Juris Imperator Tamrielicus is obeyed throughout the province in all matters. This impossible task has left her somewhat wry and cynical. She also acts as the supreme judge in the province to which all Imperial citizens can complain about the unfair treatment they've suffered in the hands of the local courts (another absurdly large task).
Bravilo Jilianian
Belisatha's aide
Dels Sur-Enaren
Native and a former member of the Great House Dres. The plan to have the Dres warm to the Empire by having one of their own working with the Empire backfired since the reformist Dels Sur-Enaren has been branded a traitor by his kin and his entire existence is denied by the Dres.
Guards
imp_guard, imp_guard_s, m3_OE_JusticeGuard
Menervius Venius
An elderly battlemage-turned-diplomat who's the Minister of House Telvanni Affairs. He was chosen for the job with the notion in mind that the Telvanni lords would rather listen to the words of their fellow mage, a notion which turned out to be false. Menervius hasn't had much contact with the Telvanni Council since he first tried to invite himself to one of their irregural meetings -- a meeting that was immediately magically relocated to a nasty pocket realm from which the battlemage barely made it out alive.
Mols Hlarsis
dunmer hlaalu member, standing in front of a map of tamriel
Parandil
Minister of the Treasury. Nervous and pedant by nature, the Wood Elven calculator suffered a slight mental breakdown after the vaults of OE were recently broken into by forces unknown. (Note: this is a quest hook for the OE Mages Guild who are responsible for the castle vaults' magical defences; the perpetrators are an unnamed Tong, quite possibly Indoril-sworn Guild of Daggerlads)
Rascar-Zhaal
a Storm Atronach whom the Telvanni have sent to act as their "ambassador" as a mean-spirited joke--doesn't talk in any understandable language.
Thaisa Arkaniil
aides to the treasury minister
Vattorica Jeralf
aides to the treasury minister
Offices East
Aramius Marolus
Minister of House Indoril Affairs. The Minister is married to Llethe Marolus, a Dunmer belonging to a minor Indoril-sworn family, which was thought to ease his work with the Great House but did the exact opposite. His son, Potemus Marolus, is the young Admiral of the Imperial Navy.
Guards
imp_guard, imp_guard_s
Llethe Marolus
the Indoril ambassador who is also the minister's wife, doesn't have much contact with her House anymore. (Their son, Potemus Marolus, is the admiral of the Imperial Navy)
Nerasa Veran
minister of Temple affairs, a native and a former priest of the Temple. She is currently unable to perform her duties as normal because of an ongoing Ordinator investigation about her alleged connections to the Dissident Priests. (The Temple considers her to be an apostate)
Rumus Stannicus
Nerasa's bodyguard
Offices West
Glaucia Rumariil
Imperial, is the young Minister of House Hlaalu Affairs chosen for the task for her extrovert and curious nature. Fascinated by what could be described as a form of 'Morrowindish orientalism' she's satisfied with her post thinking it's the easiest of the five which is true, but with a downside -- in fear of insulting and ruining the friendship she thinks she's gained with the Hlaalu she'll much rather turn a blind eye to the few issues the Empire's might have with them (slavery, for one).
Guards
imp_guard, imp_guard_s
Hjortyn Silver-Tongue
Nord, is the Minister of House Redoran Affairs; her appointment was thought to be a clever political move by the Imperial government due to the large Nord populace in the Redoran controlled territories and her deep understanding (by Imperial standards) of the Redoran culture. Unsurprisingly, neither her being a Nord or a bookwise scholar with little prowess in battle has won any favors from the Redoran Council, though only a handful of the meetings with the Great House have ended in bloodshed.
Ji'Risdirr
an ambassador for the Khajiit people.
Maalna Balur
the Redoran ambassador
Polsirie Dalomo
the Hlaalu ambassador, good friends with the minister and has great influence over her
Rald Hearth-Friend
the Hlaalu minister's aide
Svarti Two-Knives
ambassador of the Nord populace of northern Morrowind--doesn't get along with the Redoran ambassador for obvious reasons.
Imperial Treasury Vault
Guards
OE_TreasuryGuard1, OE_TreasuryGuard2
Top Floor
Guards
imp_archer
Hall of Justice
Guards
imp_guard, imp_guard_s, m3_OE_JusticeGuard
Ritaria Gravia
a scribe
Yagathon
redguard master-at-arms
Lore
Ministers
The Ministers are civil servants who are responsible of their respective fields, elected for life by the Proconsul.
Ministers of House Affairs
The Ministers of House Affairs are not proper members of their respective house, rather they are Imperial bureaucrats charged with keeping the lines of communication open with each of the Houses. They meet and converse with the ambassadors occasionally sent by the Houses as well as keep tabs on what is going on in the far corners of the province by doing official visitations/inspections as the Proconsul's representative. The ministers that have been appointed each represent the Empire's fundamental failure to understand how the Great Houses really think and work.
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.
First, a general note on the Curia: as is noted here, the Curia are not merely a bunch of scribes, but consider themselves enlightened bureaucrat-scholars and noblemen. In essence, they are based on the example of Imperial Chinese bureaucracy, the Mandarin system. This should be kept in mind when writing their dialogue and character.
With that in mind, the Cyrodiil system doesn't really apply here since the minister are appointed directly by the Proconsul, who derives his mandate directly from the Elder Council. While some of the ministers of their lower ranked servants are probably recruited from the ranks of the Cyrodiilic administration, most are likely direct poltical appointments by the Proconsul, often from outside the Curia. As such, it might be worthwile to consider the relation between each minister and the Proconsul, as their appointment was probably a sign of favoritism, politically motivated, or forced upon the Proconsul by outside forces.
With Morrowind's reputation as a troublesome, unruly backwater, most Curia members would not be here willingly. Some may consider it a disgrace or a punishment to be assigned here, far away from the centers of power. Others may have deliberately sought out this exile, to get away from their enemies or to seek out an early retirement.
A note on Belisatha Mede: the Mede family is conceptualized as lower Colovian nobility with a claim on the city of Sarchal. I would suggest that her station in Morrowind is part of a powerplay as mentioned above: Heartlands established factions who don't want a Colovian getting in their way. Would fit well with the rest of her character.
Finally, I do want to object to yet another occurrence of the "Bumbling Imperial Syndrome". this is something I've noted before: the tendency of TR writing to flanderize Imperial-Dunmer relations and depict them all as a bunch of incompetent buffoons with no power over or understanding of the Dunmer. The original game, in my opinion, was much more nuanced in this, with, for example, some mutual respect between the Legion and the Redoran, or Master Aryon's interest in Imperial culture. In this case, every single one of the ministers is on bad terms with the area of his expertise, often because, despite some naive diplomatic overture, the Dunmer have threatened or even assaulted them, basically the same character trope repeated several times in different situations.
In general, the Imperial attitude which most often causes their diplomatic efforts to fail is one based on arrogance, a belief in their own superior strength, and a lack of respect for local culture compared to their own. I'm not getting that from these ministers: in fact, the way they approach the Houses seems more in line with that of foreign diplomats, not that of administrative agents of a central authority. This can be nuanced: while some ministers might worry about appeasing the House and looking for their approval, I would see others more used to simply dictating what heeds to happen. I mean, they have a mosaic of Vivec kneeling for the Emperor.
Another way this is important is that the actual task of the Curia is not to talk to House Councils (that's more Helseth's line of work if anything): they are administrators, bureaucrats. In that vein, the Hlaalu minister would for example not have to worry about slavery too much (although Abolitionists would still likely target her with petitions): as a matter of law and authority, this is completely out of her hands, something the Elder Council would decide on.
Remember once again that the Imperials are masters of diplomacy: the iron fist of the Legions is backed by a velvet fist of diplomacy. While they are not as good as they once were, there should still be a legacy of some sort in this. The way the ministers currently approach the Houses could be seen as this kind of soft diplomacy, were it not that, in the face of its failing, the Imperials would have switched to another, more forceful approach a long time ago.
Because, let's not forget, Imperial rule over Morrowind is not a new thing (as it to some degree is on Vvardenfell). All these ministers are written as if this is the first time they make contact with these people (the Telvanni one, especially), when relationships between the Houses and the Curia should be hundreds of years old. This should be a story of old grudges, not fresh faces. At the very least, I would expect the Imperials to have cracked two or three Houses, ensuring their grudging cooperation in the day-to-day administration.
These ministers and the Proconsul himself would also not simply ignore insults or injuries done to them. They are only two or three levels removed from the Emperor himself, and thus carry a nearly direct mandate. Events like bloodshed with the Redoran or the Telvanni almost killing their minister are much too direct signs of insubordination, which would result in punitive measures from the - let's not forget - permanently garrisoned occupation force present in the province. The storm atronach, by comparison, is a much more appropriate and subversive way of protest.
In short: current plans for the ministers are OOC and too passive. Give them more overt agenda's, make them active, intelligent players in the field instead of simple dupes.
I agree the current blurbs on the ministers are too flat - "Bumbling Imperial Syndrome" as you say -- but I do like some of the basic ideas on an individual level, so this will be a bit of apologism/trying to tweak the current concepts to be workable.
Dels Sur-Enaren - this concept I'm not very keen on, but it's also a bit silly the Empire's choice for minister here is presented as a misstep. They managed to get a Dres to work with them; that is better than I'd expect. That means they at least have someone with real insider knowledge of the Dres and their ways. It's not like an orthodox Dres would agree to become an Imperial minister, what was the Empire supposed to have done? I think the only more suitable choice to go with would be a Hlaalu with experience bargaining with Dres.
Menervius Venius - I don't see a problem with him almost dying due to the meeting being relocated; for Telvanni, I think that still has the plausible deniability of 'we felt like holding the meeting here instead, it's not our problem if the environment didn't agree with the Empire's envoy'. It's pretty much how Telvanni treat each other for that matter. And I can't think of any meaningful punitive measure the Empire would be able to undertake against House Telvanni short of open war, other than messing with the locals the Telvanni council doesn't care about or the upstarts the Telvanni council doesn't care about. I also don't really think the Empire's stated approach to choosing a minister is wrong or naive as such; sending a mage, as long as the mage is powerful enough, is not a bad move. I see two possibilities: either Menervius Venius is capable, but just got fed up with the House's latest antics and basically returned to OE to sulk for a bit like Achilles in his tent, or he's really just being a legitimate Telvanni and isn't bothering to stir from his tower, in which case he might know how to communicate with the council via the storm atronach or whatever other means just fine, and it's just everyone else in OE who is perplexed by the storm atronach.
Aramius Marolus - same deal as the Dres fellow; I find the concept very meh, but at the same time it's not actually a bad choice. By marrying an Imperial, the wife would have lowered herself, but for that the husband gets raised above other Imperials, and is married to someone who knows the ins-and-outs of Indoril society, which is huge: it's so easy to commit a faux pas when dealing with Indoril, and their concept of laws are generally very hard for outsiders to understand. Unless a more interesting concept comes along, the only thing I'd consider changing is making the minister some other (non-beast, not Nord to be on the safe side) race, as OE has too much Imperial-is-default for my tastes (more than I think is reasonable).
Nerasa Veran - this one I like, and I think is pretty legitimate. She is actually a Dunmer familiar with the Temple and corresponding with Temple theologians. The problem is that some of the latter become associated with Dissident Priests, which is a recent development the Empire could not have foreseen when appointing her.
Glaucia Rumariil - this is a case where I think the Empire should know better than to send someone impressionable, but again, maybe it's not a bad choice. The post that introduces the ministers with all their quirks also outlines their purpose: "[...] they are Imperial bureaucrats charged with keeping the lines of communication open with each of the Houses. They meet and converse with the ambassadors occasionally sent by the Houses as well as keep tabs on what is going on in the far corners of the province by doing official visitations/inspections as the Proconsul's representative." Now for Hlaalu, that's superfluous. The lines of communication are overflowing, the Empire garrisons its legions in Hlaalu towns rather than separate Legion forts in Narsis District, and the Proconsul himself is located in the Hlaalu capital of Narsis. So filling an otherwise meaningless post with a harmless and friendly sycophant is better than having some kind of bull-headed moral crusader or something who constantly tries to rock the boat.
Hjortyn Silver-Tongue - the bloodshed bit is indeed silly; among other things, Redoran councillors and their retainers don't randomly mug people they don't like. I can't think of bloodshed that wouldn't be a legal duel or assassination, and in both of those cases Hjortyn wouldn't have made it back alive. Hjortyn having to beat a hasty retreat to avoid a duel or assassination? Maybe. But this also starts to look a bit like the Telvanni minister background. Her being weak would probably mean she isn't taken seriously, and her being a Nord would gain her some animosity, but Redoran have been living side by side with Nords for thousands of years in a harsh environment, and while there's been a lot of violence, there's also trade, employment (one group is having trouble feeding all its population, the other doesn't have enough labourers to deal with certain tasks, guess what happens), and so on. As she's supposedly savvy about Redoran customs, I see absolutely no reason Redoran councillors would fly into a rage after interacting with her, and in fact I see no reason to think she wouldn't be able to perform her duties perfectly satisfactorily. So again, the Empire picked someone who actually knows a lot about House Redoran, though as House Redoran is on the border of Morrowind it's not exactly mysterious in the first place. They could have easily gone with someone who isn't a Nord, but choosing a Nord is in some ways actually quite savvy and actually prescient, as the Redoran questline will be about local Nords, supported in the shadows by High King Thian, staging a revolt. Having established that Redoran don't go into frothing genocidal rages upon seeing Nords, that means Hjortyn is actually really well-placed as a mediator.
Yeah, I agree on these points. I should maybe emphasize I don't want to see the old concepts discarded entirely, just adjusted a bit and have their interests in Morrowind be made more proactive. In case of the Telvanni minister, I would maybe emphasize his personal agenda. If he's anything like the native Nibenese battlemages, he would seek to advance his personal power and that of his political faction back in the heartlands by claiming more arcane power and knowledge - the Niben b'mages operate on a hodgepodge of Ayleid, Marukhati, and Akaviri secrets. The Telvanni are one of the few remaining bastions of magic not infiltrated by the Imperials - it would be a great boon to gain access to their secrets. For the Redoran, the active focus could maybe lie on the Empire's immediate concerns on Vvardenfell. We know that the Blades are investigating the Bitter Coast as a beachhead against Dagoth Ur. Passage through Redoran lands - or even active military support from them - would be very valuable. Maybe the Emperor would prefer to entast a discreet administrator with these negotiations, rather than rely on boastful nobility or untrustworthy diplomats.
Comments
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Google Spreadsheet for quest devs to work on lines: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iUzLGwUzBcfRzuEwa_OfwALNHS3jVqCLO7GUHIf8hOk/edit?usp=sharing
Ping me on Discord / send me a PM to get permissions to edit the doc.
Please read the topic on the forum: https://www.tamriel-rebuilt.org/forum/imperial-leadership-morrowind
List of NPCs with summaries:
List of NPCs in the CS
First, a general note on the
First, a general note on the Curia: as is noted here, the Curia are not merely a bunch of scribes, but consider themselves enlightened bureaucrat-scholars and noblemen. In essence, they are based on the example of Imperial Chinese bureaucracy, the Mandarin system. This should be kept in mind when writing their dialogue and character.
With that in mind, the Cyrodiil system doesn't really apply here since the minister are appointed directly by the Proconsul, who derives his mandate directly from the Elder Council. While some of the ministers of their lower ranked servants are probably recruited from the ranks of the Cyrodiilic administration, most are likely direct poltical appointments by the Proconsul, often from outside the Curia. As such, it might be worthwile to consider the relation between each minister and the Proconsul, as their appointment was probably a sign of favoritism, politically motivated, or forced upon the Proconsul by outside forces.
With Morrowind's reputation as a troublesome, unruly backwater, most Curia members would not be here willingly. Some may consider it a disgrace or a punishment to be assigned here, far away from the centers of power. Others may have deliberately sought out this exile, to get away from their enemies or to seek out an early retirement.
A note on Belisatha Mede: the Mede family is conceptualized as lower Colovian nobility with a claim on the city of Sarchal. I would suggest that her station in Morrowind is part of a powerplay as mentioned above: Heartlands established factions who don't want a Colovian getting in their way. Would fit well with the rest of her character.
Finally, I do want to object to yet another occurrence of the "Bumbling Imperial Syndrome". this is something I've noted before: the tendency of TR writing to flanderize Imperial-Dunmer relations and depict them all as a bunch of incompetent buffoons with no power over or understanding of the Dunmer. The original game, in my opinion, was much more nuanced in this, with, for example, some mutual respect between the Legion and the Redoran, or Master Aryon's interest in Imperial culture. In this case, every single one of the ministers is on bad terms with the area of his expertise, often because, despite some naive diplomatic overture, the Dunmer have threatened or even assaulted them, basically the same character trope repeated several times in different situations.
I agree the current blurbs on
I agree the current blurbs on the ministers are too flat - "Bumbling Imperial Syndrome" as you say -- but I do like some of the basic ideas on an individual level, so this will be a bit of apologism/trying to tweak the current concepts to be workable.
Dels Sur-Enaren - this concept I'm not very keen on, but it's also a bit silly the Empire's choice for minister here is presented as a misstep. They managed to get a Dres to work with them; that is better than I'd expect. That means they at least have someone with real insider knowledge of the Dres and their ways. It's not like an orthodox Dres would agree to become an Imperial minister, what was the Empire supposed to have done? I think the only more suitable choice to go with would be a Hlaalu with experience bargaining with Dres.
Menervius Venius - I don't see a problem with him almost dying due to the meeting being relocated; for Telvanni, I think that still has the plausible deniability of 'we felt like holding the meeting here instead, it's not our problem if the environment didn't agree with the Empire's envoy'. It's pretty much how Telvanni treat each other for that matter. And I can't think of any meaningful punitive measure the Empire would be able to undertake against House Telvanni short of open war, other than messing with the locals the Telvanni council doesn't care about or the upstarts the Telvanni council doesn't care about. I also don't really think the Empire's stated approach to choosing a minister is wrong or naive as such; sending a mage, as long as the mage is powerful enough, is not a bad move.
I see two possibilities: either Menervius Venius is capable, but just got fed up with the House's latest antics and basically returned to OE to sulk for a bit like Achilles in his tent, or he's really just being a legitimate Telvanni and isn't bothering to stir from his tower, in which case he might know how to communicate with the council via the storm atronach or whatever other means just fine, and it's just everyone else in OE who is perplexed by the storm atronach.
Aramius Marolus - same deal as the Dres fellow; I find the concept very meh, but at the same time it's not actually a bad choice. By marrying an Imperial, the wife would have lowered herself, but for that the husband gets raised above other Imperials, and is married to someone who knows the ins-and-outs of Indoril society, which is huge: it's so easy to commit a faux pas when dealing with Indoril, and their concept of laws are generally very hard for outsiders to understand. Unless a more interesting concept comes along, the only thing I'd consider changing is making the minister some other (non-beast, not Nord to be on the safe side) race, as OE has too much Imperial-is-default for my tastes (more than I think is reasonable).
Nerasa Veran - this one I like, and I think is pretty legitimate. She is actually a Dunmer familiar with the Temple and corresponding with Temple theologians. The problem is that some of the latter become associated with Dissident Priests, which is a recent development the Empire could not have foreseen when appointing her.
Glaucia Rumariil - this is a case where I think the Empire should know better than to send someone impressionable, but again, maybe it's not a bad choice. The post that introduces the ministers with all their quirks also outlines their purpose: "[...] they are Imperial bureaucrats charged with keeping the lines of communication open with each of the Houses. They meet and converse with the ambassadors occasionally sent by the Houses as well as keep tabs on what is going on in the far corners of the province by doing official visitations/inspections as the Proconsul's representative." Now for Hlaalu, that's superfluous. The lines of communication are overflowing, the Empire garrisons its legions in Hlaalu towns rather than separate Legion forts in Narsis District, and the Proconsul himself is located in the Hlaalu capital of Narsis. So filling an otherwise meaningless post with a harmless and friendly sycophant is better than having some kind of bull-headed moral crusader or something who constantly tries to rock the boat.
Hjortyn Silver-Tongue - the bloodshed bit is indeed silly; among other things, Redoran councillors and their retainers don't randomly mug people they don't like. I can't think of bloodshed that wouldn't be a legal duel or assassination, and in both of those cases Hjortyn wouldn't have made it back alive. Hjortyn having to beat a hasty retreat to avoid a duel or assassination? Maybe. But this also starts to look a bit like the Telvanni minister background.
Her being weak would probably mean she isn't taken seriously, and her being a Nord would gain her some animosity, but Redoran have been living side by side with Nords for thousands of years in a harsh environment, and while there's been a lot of violence, there's also trade, employment (one group is having trouble feeding all its population, the other doesn't have enough labourers to deal with certain tasks, guess what happens), and so on. As she's supposedly savvy about Redoran customs, I see absolutely no reason Redoran councillors would fly into a rage after interacting with her, and in fact I see no reason to think she wouldn't be able to perform her duties perfectly satisfactorily.
So again, the Empire picked someone who actually knows a lot about House Redoran, though as House Redoran is on the border of Morrowind it's not exactly mysterious in the first place. They could have easily gone with someone who isn't a Nord, but choosing a Nord is in some ways actually quite savvy and actually prescient, as the Redoran questline will be about local Nords, supported in the shadows by High King Thian, staging a revolt. Having established that Redoran don't go into frothing genocidal rages upon seeing Nords, that means Hjortyn is actually really well-placed as a mediator.
Yeah, I agree on these points
Yeah, I agree on these points. I should maybe emphasize I don't want to see the old concepts discarded entirely, just adjusted a bit and have their interests in Morrowind be made more proactive.
In case of the Telvanni minister, I would maybe emphasize his personal agenda. If he's anything like the native Nibenese battlemages, he would seek to advance his personal power and that of his political faction back in the heartlands by claiming more arcane power and knowledge - the Niben b'mages operate on a hodgepodge of Ayleid, Marukhati, and Akaviri secrets. The Telvanni are one of the few remaining bastions of magic not infiltrated by the Imperials - it would be a great boon to gain access to their secrets.
For the Redoran, the active focus could maybe lie on the Empire's immediate concerns on Vvardenfell. We know that the Blades are investigating the Bitter Coast as a beachhead against Dagoth Ur. Passage through Redoran lands - or even active military support from them - would be very valuable. Maybe the Emperor would prefer to entast a discreet administrator with these negotiations, rather than rely on boastful nobility or untrustworthy diplomats.
I like both of those ideas,
I like both of those ideas, especially the battlemage.
I’ve written some dialogue
I’ve written some dialogue for the various Curia NPCs and added it to Jani’s spreadsheet. I’ll upload what I’ve written so far later today.
Yo, can I get a claim?
Yo, can I get a claim?
Rawr.
v1.0: -Everything on the
v1.0:
-Everything on the spreadsheet has been implemented, nothing tested yet.
Rawr.
Fixed the 2 issues found on
Fixed the 2 issues found on Discord. Make sure to use the "Actually Clean OE Curia Dialogue v1.0.1" instead of "Clean OE Curia Dialogue v1.0.1".
If that's all the issues on this then I'd say this is Ready for Final Review/Merging.
Rawr.