Tamriel Rebuilt

And while the Telvanni teach us several spells and shower with enchanted items, the Guild gives us hardly anything. True. Instead, the Mages Guild's more ambitious members are actively stealing and cheating eachother. Think of Ajira's bitter rivalry with the Bosmer enchanter Galbedir. Ajira sends t...

Has Balmora’s Mages Guild chapter never struck you as a little… odd?

I mean - Wasn’t Ranis Athrys a pretty cold character - almost Telvanni like in her ruthlessness?

Look at the kind of quests she gave us:

- Convince an ex-Telvanni to join the Mages Guild.
- Escort a High Elf scholar to Pelagiad to get his notes, thought she didn’t actually care how you got the notes (murder’s fine).
- Persuade a reclusive mage, obviously uninvolved in the MG, to pay 2000 septims in Guild Dues.
- Force an independent Argonian alchemist to close up shop, possibly through murder, because he’s operating in Mages Guild territory…

Of course, Ranis is not representative of the entirety of the guild, what about the Guild Stewards of Ald-Ruhn and Wolverine Hall?

Skink-in-Tree’s-Shade aks you to murder an ex-member for breaking rules, while Edwinna Elbert sends you on a strip-mining mission to pillage native ruin’s of their indigenous riches.
And not to forget one of the final quests of the guild for becoming Archmagister: a blatant and crude power grab achieved by killing all of the Telvanni councilors.

Does this strike you as a collective of quirky semi-autistic smartypant hippy scientists, as mage archetypes are typically portraid in fantasy - or as a moblike and imperialistic union expanding and enforcing its monopoly?

The feeling I had for the Mages Guild, when I first played Morrowind, is that they were the “Good Magesâ€Â￾, while the Telvanni where the “Antihero/Bad Magesâ€Â￾. They somehow came across as the underdog in the Mages Guild vs. Telvanni rivalry. But what if there was more to it? There’s a reason why one of Master Aryon’s quests is breaking the Mages Guild’s monopoly in Redoran territory. The MG has a lot more power, and a lot more bussiness-like ruthlessness, than one might initially think.

What if we ran with this as a backdrop for designing the MG. We’re not playing with an innocent collective of quirky mages - we’re playing for an imperialistic organization looking to expand its power, stripmine magical artifacts and steal the knowledge of the Telvanni. Specifically that would mean more quests where you pursuade independent mages to join, more collecting of guild dues under the threat of violence, more extortion of non-member mages - either to exile them from MG territory or demanding tribute, and more.

(This also fits the broader theme of role-reversals found in Morrowind; Fighters are typically portrayed as moral and upright - Morrowind’s FG is entirely corrupt; Thieves are typically portrayed as shady and selfish - Morrowind’s TG are noble thieves; Mages are typically portrayed as idiosyncratic and out-of-touch - Morrowind’s MG is a down-to-earth corporation expanding power.)

I enjoyed reading this. "philosopher-princes" is a cool concept, and the paragraph on Sotha Sil's curse of silence is gold. For some reason this text makes me think of Old Ebonheart as Carthage (burned to the ground and rebuilt, an empress, Phoenicians = Nords, Shezarr = Baal). "Massa...

5- I think we can all agree the vanilla questline, which consists in killing NPCs and that's about it, isn't very engaging. I see two ways of mixing things up: - make fun, well thought-out assassination quests involving tricks, stealth, spectacle, ... this requiring planning even from the interiors...

I think that something we could take away from this is that we could use a better welcome wagon for new members. Unintentionally, the scattergun spread of information across the forums leads to some members being more up to date than others, which may give the impression of a clique of those "i...

For the discussion and brainstorming of Andothren Section Characters & Dialog. some sample dialog: [Khajiit Imperial inspector of goods] Plenty of legal produce enters the docks every day. It's what leaves the docks that's of interest. This smells a bit... sugary. [Camonna Tong thug] It takes gu...

Congratulations!

I don't like making posts like this as it feels like drawing too much attention to oneself. But in any case I have to write my thesis this coming half year, as well as follow two courses on the side these coming months, in order to get my bachelors degree this year. So I have less time alround. But ...

but i really want a term to refer to non-House Dunmer other than "non-House Dunmer". in the worst case scenario we'll have to call them NHD's

I always thought "Velothi" was a catch all term for non-House Dunmer? But if it isn't it would be nice to have a term that refers to non-House Dunmer.

Nog een verlaat gefeliciteerd!

Cool topic rot. I especially like where this could go with the Thieves Guild. Giving them a lot more slang along the lines of "gold hats" could be cool. edit: so would they call guards Mold Hats ? (as in: bone mold ) @ Melchior: I've never seen "nchow" before? Where did you find ...

sorry I figured it would be obvious that it was made up

Rather than say: "maybe the Proconsul moves to Narsis because of Camonna Tong threats, thinking he's safe in Narsis while in fact he's just walking into the claws of the Hlaalu", I tried to make it more story like.

Concerning your idea of moving him from OE to Narsis at some point in the Hlaalu quest line, I don't think even House Hlaalu has the clout to convince a high-ranking Imperial official to suddenly change their seat of governance, especially within such a short time frame. That seems like something t...

I think this is a good idea, despite the valid objections that you've raised.

I've never liked mmorpgs, but I would love to play some Age of Kings or Empire Earth matches over GameRanger!

Sounds like a good proposal to remove the ext and retain the int for later use.

I dont know if its better to replace it with something low level, or just keep the islands peaceful.

I like Kngchend, sounds a bit more distinct. I'm for a thieves guild hideout. The rest Gnomey mentions sounds sensible.

I agree the plantation should be shrunk. The plantation should be shrunk as it is possibly the largest plantation in Morrowind atm, and for many saltrice fields it isn't even clear if they are associated with Rethil or not. Some points: 1) Maybe we should change the crops from Saltrice to Comberry o...

For discussion of the Dwemer Ruin overlooking Andothren. (Also needs a name). Previous postings in the Andothren [City] thread. There are a lot of ways to go with this. I believe there are plans to create a Dwemer lighthouse. It also seems implied that the location of Andothren used to be a Dwemer s...

why bother posting if you dont care, names are very emotionally loaded issues you know I like both Strangled Fen and Grey Meadows for the ash swamp. Grey Meadows is perhaps more neutral while Strangled Fen sounds hostile. Is there a policy on NOT giving regions Dunmer names? Because Shipal-Shin soun...

Gol Mok gets my vote.

Also if it's any consolation I did put your suggestions in my name bank, where I keep all decent names for later suggestion/use.

I like all of those, most of all Gol Mok and Hla Doro.

don't tell me you want to name it "Mundrethiville"!

EDIT: The final name for this village is GOL MOK

Proposal name for island Shackville east of Andothren:

"Hlavan"

1) I agree with Sloads idea for the taverns: one TG, two CT, one "unaffiliated"? 2) To me extorting and cheating & bilking seemed the same type of thing, but that was a mistake. Scuzi. 3) I try to read every post made, I just happen to have a different opinion for the Dwemer Ruin. My a...

This is a good question to ask. I'd say I'm open minded to adding a new dungeon type. But this would require a lot of work, probably creating new models at the very least to create a new interior/exterior set. And to be fair, the current selection Melchior posted is already quite a lot of choice, so...

Proposal for the i4-64 area: We make this Andothren's nasty area. This would be the hub where the Camonna Tong hang out. Also some kind of a smuggling den where they keep moon sugar and other goodies. The area's proximity to the docks makes it easier to smuggle. The area would look like a bunch of i...

Or maybe he's just a Hlaalu who represents House Hlaalu by displaying House Hlaalu tropes. Can't we just make two Hlaalu plantation owners memorable by being exactly that: Hlaalu plantation owners. They don't have to be exiled Redoran married into Telvanni turned into Dres slaves sold to House Indor...

Of those choices, I'd say Mudrethi (not Mundrethi? Not a big difference) and Oran. It's really not too important, though. It isn't necessarily bad if Mudrethi sounds Indoril. Maybe House Mudrethi was a minor House in Indoril lands that joined House Hlaalu. Or maybe the plantation owner Mudrethi is ...

Kickass job Gnomey! The manor i4-90 seems to be the right location for the Andothren boss, with the attached i4-91 being a nice place for a backdoor smoke filled room where the secret Hlaalu action happens. i4-124 "The Dancing Cup" is a bit of a boring name, right? I'd also like to have on...

So you only want to break one trend at a time. Ulen is just far too similar to Ules, imho. I fail to see why plantation names must be short when they're simply named after the family which owns them. Does this mean that the Telandas, Andrano, Sarothren, Dorvayn, and Othreleth families are banned fr...

There are high-ranking Hlaalu members in the vanilla with their names ending with i 's (Omani, Llethri, Helvi, Orethi, Arethi, Serethi, Nerethi, Farethi, Sedrethi; all of them House Cousins or higher). Basically this is proof that the -i suffix already has more than enough representation in House H...

Mundrethi is yet another overuse of "th". The "i" seems more Indorilesque. It is not Hlaaluesque at all (too long). It combines to many name staples at the same time: "nd", "th", ending with an "i". Also there is an argument for changing the name in ...

Well the Oran's are a pretty lucky family. Having a Councilor in Suran, AND a big ass plantation along the River Thirr. Serjo Avon Oran, of course, is the son. While Tharer Oran is an old racist slaveholding ass who runs the Oran Plantation. Proposal: Rename Rethil Plantation to Oran Plantation Rena...

I'd like to know what presence the Camonna Tong currently have in the city, and whether it should be increased. It would also probably help with general planning to have an overview of what the city actually contains. (Because people love quotas). I'd like to see three Camonna Tong cornerclubs. The...

I once read in my psychology text book that people are driven by emotion and use arguments made up on the fly to justify their underlying emotional position. This process is known as "rationalization." When discussing Almalexia I've mostly seen people throwing around rationalizations and n...

Before we go ahead with all this I want to bring up a few more points 1) I've heard mentioned that House Hlaalu would have Tongs as well. If so, what kind of Tongs do we want to have in the city of Andothren. About 2 or so should be sufficient. 2) What about cornerclubs? Are these a distinctly Hlaal...

How do you reckon we take care of the dialog aspect of things? Make a separate proposal thread in Andothren - Thirr? And do we use a google drive doc accessible to everyone? Excel or just a doc?

Bosmora basically means "Woodwood". That's just not a good name. I think someone somewhere proposed "Lan Murha" which seems like a good alternative.