[WIP] [Spoilers] Great House Indoril quest line

[Why]

I'm gonna go to bed but when I wake up I'd love to see some criticism of my ideas here because if you'll let me write this thing by myself it's going to be awful.

[rot]

Posting stuff talked abt on IRC:

- requiring that the PC get some sort of approval from the Temple before advancing to a certain rank (before Oathman?). Could be sent to make a pilgrimage (or 3) if the PC isn't already in good standing with the Temple, but without forcing them to join the Temple.
- more thorough requirements to attain high ranks in Indoril (maybe even Temple membership? especially for beasts?)

- expulsion from the House: how many times can you get back in? Closest Vanilla equivalent is House Redoran which lets you fuck up once only.
- making amends: some charity task like giving bread to the poor...



And some very vague quest ideas: since House Indoril fancy themselves the leaders of the Dunmer, some quests could involve other Houses (not just quarrels with the Hlaalu) to reflect that attitude-

- at a high rank (Councilor...), some suitably arrogant diplomatic quest sending you to the leaders of all Houses (including the Dres later) for some reason
- intervening on other Houses' territory on trivial matters (bandits), messing with the smuggling ecosystem on Hlaalu lands...
- trying to settle disputes between other Houses / meddling with the Hlaalu-Redoran thing?

^ most of those would need more of the Mainland to be completed, so could just be kept in mind for later with inactive placeholders.

[Terrifying Daedric Foe]

There should be a quest involving Old Ebonheart. The Indoril know they can't get it back from the Imperials, but a lot of them will still feel bitter about it. Perhaps some negotiating to try to challenge Hlaalu influence with the Imperials? Modify import/export duties to penalise Hlaalu trade? Giving charity to poor Dunmer living in the city to prove how nice they are compared with the Imperial Cult?

[Sload]

So my main concern with the Indoril is that they're not weird enough. TR has gone all-in on their religious stuff, but in a really suburban way. They're all about rich people giving money to charity. I want to look at the darker side of what Indoril could be, the less immediately acceptable to the player audience. This is not specific to anything that's been posted, but its my main thought right now.

Also, I think all house plots should be structured to reinforce the central narrative of Morrowind, but I'll make another post on that later.

[Why]

For the record: at this point I'm mostly looking for criticism on my outline, and overall narrative things a la Sload's post. Individual quest ideas are fine and we'll need those, but mention them and move on - we'll discuss individual quests in-depth at a later stage. Stay focused on the overall outline and the identity of the House for the moment.

[arvisrend]

Two things I had to cut out of M3A8, not being able to implement them fast enough, which could be parts of the Indoril questline:

- Vissamu is a cave on the Isle of Gorne with some tomb int pieces (frescoes, particularly) and some destryoed 6th House infrastructure (6th house bells, ash pillars etc.). This cave used to be the entrance to a tomb of some 6th house bloodline or a family close to it (intermarried?). It contained some artefacts valuable to the 6th House and thus was sealed by the Temple after the war so as to avoid the artefacts being discovered. Several times, the 6th House (generally inactive on the Mainland) sent some shock troops into the cave to break the seal (the seal should be the fresco at the end of the cave -- at the moment, there is nothing behind it, but we could add a whole tomb and turn the fresco into a false wall). They were unsuccessful, but when the player progresses in House Indoril, something happens: either another delegation of sleepers arrives to try the same thing, or some bored kid from Gorne tries to prove his strength by breaking the seal with a pickaxe...

- A gang of thieves have been robbing homes in Almalexia(?). They've been caught, but the victims cannot agree on what stuff was stolen from whom. It's not as much an issue of money as one of face, since the victims have started accusing each other of theft and perjury. The player is to intervene.

[Sload]

These thoughts are heavily indebted to Why's wonderful notes.

First, a restructuring of the ranking system: hireling is outside of the faction, then the lowest rank (Oathman) is the stage of initiation, the next rank (Kinsman) is a normal member, and - because Indoril are cruelly hierarchical and ordered - the next rank is the theoretically unattainable lowest rank of nobility, Creedman.

This would deviate from Why's notes mainly in that: 1) there would be an initiation quest that would probably be highly ritualized in some way (think of a pilgrimage quest). 2) the arranged marriage would occur before becoming Creedman, rather than councillor.

I also wanted to explore the possibility of a forking path: what if the player could side with Sandil or Ilvi?

In this case, the early stage of the quest would take place with a neutral party. Having this be the Akamora stuff and Tomaril be the neutral party seems like a logical path. Then the player somehow is given a choice to side with Sandil or Ilvi - possibly by who their marriage is arranged to, possibly by which Tong they join, who knows? Sandil is desperately trying to keep the House together by hiding Sevuro's death, Ilvi is convinced that the House is in mortal danger and that something is up with Sevuro.

The cat comes out of the bag at some point around here and Indoril collapses into a House War, possibly with Hlaalu and/or Telvanni involvement. I don't know exactly where we go from there, but it ends with the player at the head of the house of course.

And obviously this has plenty of opportunities to lace Indoril stiff-neckedness into it.

[Why]

Discussion Sload and I had regarding this questline. I apologise for posting it as a .txt file but I don't have time to summarize it, I've got deadlines to work on.