Proposal: Tamriel Main Quest

The Mad God · Post by **The Mad God** » Mon Mar 15, 2004 9:00 pm

Background:
During the reign of Jagar Tharn, he had in place a network of alies and supporters. This group was instrumental in preventing the truth of Tharn's usurping the Emperial Throne from coming to light. When the Eternal Champion defeated Jagar Tharn, only Tharn himself was stopped. His network of supporters continued to exist and operate behind the scenes, hoping for another chance to make a play for power.

In the book series, the Real Barensiah, it describes an incident in which Barensiah is impregnated by Jagar Tharn. As this lose end is never followed up with either a live birth or an abortion, we will assume for the purpose of this project that Tharn's son was born to Barensiah and later taken in by the network of Tharn's supporters.

Summery:
The conspiracy of Jagar Tharn's supporters are making anothr grab for power using Tharn's son as a figurehead. In each of the provinces of Tamriel, they are nurturing the local problems that will ultimately weaken the Empire enough for a complete takeover to be possible. It is up to the player to discover the root cause of the provincial problems, to stablize the Empire, and to destroy this conspiracy once and for all.

Progression:
Upon entering a new province (or the Morrowind Mainland) the player will recieve a note from a local operative of the Imperial Intelligence Service (The Blades) requesting a meeting.

At this meeting, the Blades operative gives a general indication of the kind of problem the province is facing (the threat of a house war in Morrowind for example). Rather than serving as the primary quest giver, the Blades Operative indicates that the player should speak with someone with more detailed knowledge of the current situation (ex. Hesleth in Morrowind). The person the player is sent to see starts the player off on the Provincial Main Quest.

Each Provincial Main Quest is centered around averting some disaster in the local province and uncovering the workings of the Conspiracy in the events.

This will mean a lot of quests centered on figuring out who you can trust, keeping tensions between involved parties from spilling into violence in the streets, and general cloak and dagger work.

As the player advances through each of the Provincial Main Quests, he gets indications that Tharn's heir is growing from just a pawn and a figurehead into a true leader. (This occurs regardless of the order the Provinial Main Quests are done in.)

Once certain key events take place (the player completes all of the Provincial Main Quests), the player recieves a letter from Uriel Septim VII asking him to report to the palace for an audience.

There, Uriel explains that he has been made aware through varius sources that the conspiracy under Tharn's heir is nearing completion of the Numidian. (Some events in the Provincial Main Quests should revolve around the conspiracy recovering the broken, unpowered Numidian as well as other artifacts such as the Staff of Chaos.) To counter this building threat, he tells the player that he has heard rumors of a Second Numidian being constructed in Morrowind.

It then falls to the player to recover the pieces of Akulikhan and complete the golem. The quests at this point involve getting together a labor force (that can be trusted with this), finding a secure place to do the work, and eventually figureing out a way to power Akulikhan without the Heart of Lorkhan (Tharn's heir is using Jagar Tharn's life force from the Staff of Chaos as his Mantella and the Staff itself as his totem).

To construct a Mantella and Totem for Akulikhan, the player must learn (through varius sources) the probable locations of the final resting places of the Robotic Master Enchanters mentioned in the Feyfolken tale. The player will then need to find several of these machines which are damaged beyond repair, retrieve a few parts from each, and eventually build a functional one.

This robot will act as an Enchanter (normal services), but when asked to construct a Mantella or Totem it will send the player out to look for refference material. It will then need certain raw materials and souls once it has its refferences.

Once Akulikhan is activated (under the players control), an army is rased to face off against Tharn's heir. The battling Anumidia and clashing armies serve as a backdrop for the final battle between the PC and Tharn's heir.

Akulikhan should be given comands directly by the player through the totem. (More useful than normal companions, including walk forward/back, turn left/right, Physical atack, Magical atack, Rase Magical defenses, etc.) The player will need to get Akulikhan to the battle, giving him the chance to use it on the trip. If the player loses posession of the totem at any time, Akulikhan goes Berserk attacking and almost certainly the player (a reminder that he's playing with fire).

The army masses outside the citadel where Tharn's forces are staging for their assault on the Empire. This location was only recently located at the cost of many Blades lives.

Imperial Battlemages seal the area from teleportation preventing the Heir from escaping (and preventing the player from escaping). The battle does not begin immediately. First, the player must infiltrate the citadel and deactivate some of the more potent defenses.

As the battle rages outside, the player makes his way deeper into Tharn's citadel. The player is involved in several skirmishes similar to those in Ald Daedroth which represent the larger battle. (The whole time the player is recieving updates on the battle against Numidian through his totem and needs to issue orders to Akulikhan.) As the player penetrates deeper into the citadel, he fights with less and less support until he finds Tharn's heir (who is in command of Numidian).

They talk (with little of substance coming of it) then they fight. The Heir should be incredibly powerful and in posession of several artifacts.

The player makes his way out of the citadel walking over the corpses of fallen soldiers.

Results:
The Third Empire of Men is held together a bit longer.

The Anumida should be removed from play for several reasons.

First, the danger of Akulikhan going berserk should have even the most powerhungry player hesitent to keep the thing as a companion.
Second, Anumida wandering around for the personal use of a player character (dealing with his petty ambitions) just kills game balance.
Third, the emporer would probably want the Anumida for himself (and we don't want the player destroying the empire he just helped save).
There are many more reasons which I'll leave to everyone's imaginations.

The mechanism for removing them from play could range from the Anumidia destroying one another (the least preferable method) to the player defeating Numidian using Akulikhan and giving up his totem to agents of the emporer. Numidian can't be used by anyone but one of Tharn's Bloodline (so it has to be destroyed because it will just go berserk without Tharn controling it) and Akulikahn should have similar protections (perhaps using the Moon and Star as the basis for the protections). I believe that the perferable method is for the player to surrender the totem willingly (noting reasons one and two), but the details can be worked out later as this will likely be one of the last things we do.

Notes:
This is the Tamriel Main Quest idea that has resulted from the discussion in the thread entitled Tamriel Main Quest.

I created a sepirate thread for two reasons:
1.) Because the Tamriel Main Quest thread is 13 pages long. It is filled with several rejected ideas and basicly is cumbersome at this point.
2.) Because I had hoped that by forming the current idea into a proposal we might be able to finalize our idea and get to work on planning for specifics. The Morrowind Main Quest, for example, relies heavily on whatever is decided for the Tamriel Main Quest.

Morden · Post by **Morden** » Tue Mar 16, 2004 5:40 pm

I say we accept this idea as the first draft of the TR Main Quest outline.

Like any draft we should continue to brainstorm with this idea, and possibly revise certain plot points, if we think of something that fits better for storytelling purposes...after all, nothing is set in stone, but this proposal should accepted as the basis for the MQ.

I guess what i'm trying to say, is that this should serve as our first step towards and official TR MQ, and lets concentrate on it. Lets see how it evolves further through our brainstorming.

Morden · Post by **Morden** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 8:06 pm

Any mods or admins wish to comment on this proposal?

TR MAIN QUEST.....-
.....-
.....Provincial Quests
............- Morrowind
............-
...............House Quests
..................-Indoril
..................-Redoran
..................-Telvanni
..................-Hlaalu
..................-Dres

Hahaha look at my horrible, pointless organisation chart for big quest structure...kinda serves as a *bump* for this proposal.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 8:17 pm

I dont think the house quests should tie to any main quests. Of course they should be players but not in such way

Legolas55 · Post by **Legolas55** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 8:25 pm

Maybe they can give you clues about the main quest, like the ash statue quests for Redoran.

Assassinace · Post by **Assassinace** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 8:37 pm

Well since the MW main quests storyline is linked with the house storylines there is some crossover but I don't think they should be dependant on each other.

Sparky · Post by **Sparky** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 11:58 pm

I like it but the final battle is kinda a stretch, still very good!

Morden · Post by **Morden** » Thu Mar 18, 2004 1:00 am

It can all be worked out.

This is an outline... basically it tells us that there will be a final conflict, which will serve as the backdrop for the PC's confrontation with Jagar Tharn's heir.

The Mad God · Post by **The Mad God** » Thu Mar 18, 2004 4:21 am

A few thoughts:

1.) I'm not suggesting this story line be set in stone (just in mud). Of course further discussion is needed to flesh out the parts of the story not yet written. And if a better idea comes out of our discussions, it should of course be used. I just think that we need to have a story in place (even if we change it later) so that subsequent quests can have a consistent feel to them.

2.) I agree that the Great House faction quests should tie into the Morrowind Main Quest (to be discussed further in that thread), but I don't feel that they should tie in much more significantly than they do with the Original Main Quest.

3.) I know there are things that need to be worked out about the final battle, but that is part of why this thread exists. If anyone has any suggestions on how to improve the final battle, please post it here.

4.) Is this the right way to get a proposal like this to the Core?

Morden · Post by **Morden** » Thu Mar 18, 2004 8:29 am

It would be best to send some of them a private message to check out your proposal... or to send it to them directly. I think only Arcadea checks here.

Eraser · Post by **Eraser** » Sat Mar 20, 2004 1:12 pm

Of the quest proposals I've read, I like this one better than most of what I've seen. Of course everything needs fleshing out and editing but overall it sounds pretty acceptable.

Bringing back the numidium and akulakhan after one dissapearing and one being destroyed seem a little far fetched though.

As an alternative, maybe the non working imperfects from Sotha Sil could be used?

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Tue Mar 23, 2004 12:49 pm

We need to give the player options

C-GenX · Post by **C-GenX** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 3:16 am

I've been avoiding these "Main Quest" threads because they're so amazingly verbose! >_< It takes time and energy to read... and considering that I was failing English not too long ago (not because of lack of skill mind you

), I don't have a 5 hour block devoted to reading these proposals, so pardon me if my little suggestion has already been... well... suggested...

I think that all of us here have either stopped playing MW (to devote more time to modding) or completed most of the quests on Vvardenfell. It seems that we may (may = I haven't read through all the proposals! >_<) have lost sight of one key issue. We were in a Cyrodiilian prison before being released on the Emperors orders for the purpose of rising to the post of Nerevarine. We NEED to address this. I don't give a sh*t if the character has completed the main quest and knows about the Nerevarine prophecy... They should know from the very beginning that they were in some sort of prison for some sort of offense, and they were released by an Imperial mandate (from the emperor himself, suposedly). Something needs to be included referencing this. It doesn't need to be completely explained. It would just be cool if we linked Tamriel's Mainquest to the original Bestheda creation. I just want to make sure that the transition between Morrowind and TR is seamless and that TR doesn't seem like a bolt-on as opposed to an extension of the game.

Again, my appologies if this has already been mentioned.

Ps. Randomly creating Sotha Sil inventions to serve out purpose seems a bit contrived. It's almost like making an object a Dwemer machine when it doesn't fit into lore. It might be just me but it feels like, "I know it doesn't fit into lore, but can't we do it anyway with some sort of trite excuse?"

Jacurutu · Post by **Jacurutu** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 4:50 am

Hehe, you did a double.

C-GenX · Post by **C-GenX** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 5:24 am

damn it! >_<

Eraser · Post by **Eraser** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 2:55 am

Double post gone

I just remembered something, the network of jagar tharn's supporters would actually fit very well. I remember there was an altmer who was one of his followers in a daedric shrine as part of one of the Morag Tong quests, so chances are, there are more left over.

Indoril · Post by **Indoril** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 3:37 am

Didn't the administrators and moderators agree to involve the fall of the empire in the MQ?

Indoril · Post by **Indoril** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 3:41 am

I just had a thought though. I'm all for this idea, but also, I think that the player should be able to meet up with Caius Cosades again. After all, he is like the second-to-main charecter, or so it seems.

Indoril · Post by **Indoril** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 3:42 am

By second-to-main charecter, I mean in TES3 Morrowind's Main Quest, none of our stuff.

Morden · Post by **Morden** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 4:44 am

Actually, thats a pretty cool idea indoril. What does everone else think? Should Caius have a little cameo appearence? I don't think he should be a major player, but just running into that old sugar-tooth would be good nostalgic turn for one of our quests.

Oh... and please use the "edit" button Indoril... that way you can avoid the triple post.

C-GenX · Post by **C-GenX** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 4:55 am

I do think that we should try to tie in our Main quest with that of the original Morrowind's, to make it seem more seamless. Having Caius make an apearance would definitely be cool, but we need to make sure its natural (ie not forced for the sake a cool idea) and that its not banal.

Indoril · Post by **Indoril** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 7:42 am

Assassinace · Post by **Assassinace** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 1:53 pm

It might be usefull especially if the Main player does something against the empire Cious could come in to try and steer you back to the path.
@Indoril I don't think the mods agreed with the fall of the empire but as always I could be wrong.

Hermit · Post by **Hermit** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 4:19 pm

The mods are undescided, I think. One camp among them doesn't want anything that *might* spoil TES4, the most prominent and outspoken member of this faction being Kothloth. For those, TMG's MQ proposal is perfect, as we can always create another time warp explanation as to why TR's MQ contradicts stuff that will be made up for TES4. Though, with Michael Kirkbridge gone, I think Morrowind will remain the pinnacle of the series, story-wise, but that's only me.

Others, like Eraser, have more or less grudgingly accepted the Fall of the Empire idea, but never really liked it. Thus, those core members (as Eraser said) will propably also tend to like TMG's ;Q proposal more.

It's fitting perfectly in lore, it can be connected ti the MW MQ without drastically changing anything in the game and it's two expansions, it take up loose ends left after previous TES games that apparently noone bothered about, what else can we want?

As for Caius, I'd love to see his home in Cyrodiil. Heh, we could even make him a more or less vital part of the Cyrodiil MQ. While I'm at it, we could - should - also make the Imperial Prison of Cyrodiil - the one which you are taken from (as Azura explains in that opening FMV), and have guards there recognise you and treat you accordingly ("Scum, if'n I had had me way, ye'd be rottin' in ere chambers till the moons die and mundus freezes o'er!"). That'd really add to the experience. Generally, one could add in some token things from the PC's past, like then orphanage you grew up in, ect.

But, I'm digressing, that's for the Cyrodiil main quest.

As for the two Anumidia being far fetched, Eraser, a large part of the TMQ would be to retieve their lost parts, some degin scetches, and raw materials, as well as Mantella and Totem.

Oh well, I say give this MQ a go, and let us start fleshing the story out and working it into the citzies while they're still in production!

- hermit -

Morden · Post by **Morden** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 4:37 pm

I say we should go for this quest..i mean.. its a good starting point, and who knows how TR will evolve. We'll never totally satisfy everyone no matter what idea comes out. If a certain mod or admin has a problem with it I think we deserve to know. Its all about communication

Speak to us please, to the public, or forever hold your peace.

Indoril · Post by **Indoril** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 8:56 pm

Guys,

Do you know what this Caius Cosades Idea of mine means? I actually had a good Idea for once!!!!!!!

Jacurutu · Post by **Jacurutu** » Sat Mar 27, 2004 8:59 am

I've said it before, but MAN, you do go overboard with the emoticons.

Hermit · Post by **Hermit** » Sat Mar 27, 2004 12:54 pm

Indoril, well, noone said you have only bad ideas, right?

Keep 'em coming!

Assassinace · Post by **Assassinace** » Sat Mar 27, 2004 1:44 pm

Just need to do more research so you put out a few less that are comletely against lore and are somewhat feasible.

Eraser · Post by **Eraser** » Sat Mar 27, 2004 8:41 pm

Found another perfect lead in from TES3. When Caius is called back to Cyrodiil, that woman who helps you in the vivec temple says she thinks he's involved in something dangerous and secret. this keeps fitting in better and better.

Veet · Post by **Veet** » Sat Mar 27, 2004 8:59 pm

Of all the overarching main quest ideas Ive heard I like this one best....its feels the most TESish (to use a totaly made up word

) Of course it needs to be fleshed out quite a bit especialy the first parts which would eventualy become the Morrowind main quest, but ultimately this has that right mix of mundane and supernatural that will give it the right setting for the world we are creating.

The Mad God · Post by **The Mad God** » Sun Mar 28, 2004 3:52 am

Well, it looks as though my idea is being well enough recieved.

I did my best to go over evry bit of lore I could stand. (My Morrowind Character Dispon still has a whole library worth of collected materials I haven't gone over yet.) I wanted to make sure that the ideas I came up with were the most consistent with existing lore.

I hadn't considered a thrid Numidian Time warp explaining away the inconsistencies, but that is really a good idea. (I'm smarter than I thought I was.)

I do like the idea of having Caius make a Cameo appearence in Cryodiil (especially if he can chew out the player for not thinking locally).

On the subject of being an Imperial Prisoner, I don't think we should get too much more specific into the player's background. Guards could know you, or people could have seen you being transported out of the city, but I don't think we should explain what the crime was.

"What did you do? Why're you asking me? It's your life. You can't expect me to keep track of it. You were pardoned by the emporer, and that's all I need to know. (Confidentially I wouldn't be reminding people you used to be a prisoner. Bad for the reputation.)"

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Tue Mar 30, 2004 7:13 pm

i think it cant hurt to attempt to make it non-linear, branchin gout the main quest and adding in options that effect outcomes later on, so in one game you could help save them empire as an example, adn with your next game try to bring it down and suceeding or something. This way it lets you role play a certain alignment... my brother was quite frusterated in morrowind and expansions that he couldnt be overly evil and become a supreme evil ruler himself, itd probably be alot of work but for the sake of making the greatest ever mod for any game in history, an extensive non-linear main quest or even the entire mod would be very cool

(and obviously extremely time consuming) and when it comes to tying back into TES lore (tes4?) we have covered both angles of what may happen about the human empire etc.

Assassinace · Post by **Assassinace** » Tue Mar 30, 2004 7:19 pm

Actually if you do it right you can become a supreme evil character that takes over pretty much everything. The only problem is good or evil you can't become a ruler or anything because it's not in the game. Actually a purely good or purely evil character is difficult to do in the game (Much as in real life)

Kothloth · Post by **Kothloth** » Tue Mar 30, 2004 7:32 pm

Sorry for spoiling, but I'm not sure there even will be a main quest for Tamriel itself. Provincial mainquests, perhaps. But I don't think we'll finish Tamriel for TES3. Rather 2-3 provinces if we're lucky. Then the work will continue with TES4. Thus I rather thing we should concentrate our efforts for now on developing the story for *Mainland Morrowind*. That's what we need at the moment, and quests for the different houses.

Morden · Post by **Morden** » Tue Mar 30, 2004 7:43 pm

Even ifthere is going to be a TES IV in the future, we're still going to need a main quest. There's no point in worrying about the future and what may or may not happen.

Assassinace · Post by **Assassinace** » Tue Mar 30, 2004 8:13 pm

Regardless a concrete main quest isn't necissary because it's a ways off. Right now we need to focus on the MMQ and the House quests ect.

Morden · Post by **Morden** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 11:26 pm

I agree. We will be releasing this mod on a Province by province basis, so its more important to have a solid morrowind province. We could create all the house quests, and other things which have nothing to do with the TR MQ... then drop the TR MQ over top of it later.

Though, I think that working on an outline for the TR MQ is still healthy.

Hermit · Post by **Hermit** » Thu Apr 01, 2004 2:01 am

Well, we should implement stuff for the TRMG already, so that we won't have to go after everything again when we finish enough provinces to get the MQ going. Realistically, I don't think TR will ever come farther than four provinces, then TES4 will be out, and everyone will move on to that game.
And, not to be rude, but who says there will even be an editor with TES4? And, who says TES3 files will be compatible with TES4? This is a TES3 mod, and so long as Bethesda doesn't say that it will make TES4 compatible with Morrowind (and release another edition of TESCS), I think we'd better not count on it.
Oh, and this MQ would work well with three or four provinces done too. Besides, the Morrowind Main Quest should tie in with the TR MQ, too. We cannot have all quests too detached from one another, especially not the really big, main quests. Besides, we need some main quest to interest people in playing our mod. Nobody wants to install a huge mod to only do tons and tons of errand quests and small-scale stuff.

Legolas55 · Post by **Legolas55** » Thu Apr 01, 2004 2:26 am

I found a lead that I said a few times on this forums, yet I'll say it again.

In Bloodmoon, you meet a guy named Geilir the Mumbling. He is a Nordic seer who lives in a cave. A few misc. quests involve him, and they both eventually overlap to finding a friend of his that turns out to be a skull that speaks to him. Once you return the skull, he says it will tell your future, but the only thing that comes out doesn't affect your future, but everyone's. Its quite interesting. Here is the prophecy:

"Something very cloudy, something that could affect us all. When the dragon dies, the Empire dies. Where is the lost dragon's blood, the
Empire's sire? And from the womb of the void, who shall stem the blood tide? I...I do not know what this means. It is very unclear...."

Perhaps the dragon is refering to the emperor, or maybe even Tiber Septim, but I'm interested in the other parts. If the dragon is refering to Tiber Septim, then that means the blood, which could mean the decendants, are lost. The empire's sire, which means father, the father of the empire is Tiber Septim since he forged it. Womb of the void I'm unsure about, but a womb is where a fetus develops, and void refers to nothing, so it could mean "from nothing"; "...stem the blood tide" means come out or derive from the lost blood of Tiber Septim. So basically, in my perspective, this prophecy is saying that an heir, probably the first after tiber septim, of tiber septim was lost and its suggesting that this heir will come out from nothing. It says nothing about what this heir will do however. The first part may mean that if the blood of Tiber Septim dies, the empire will fall.

This can be applied to the current idea well I think. When Jagar Tharn betrayed the Battlespire and became the imposter emperor, he may have secertly replaced the true heir of Tiber Septim with one of his, making every emperor or heir up to now fake. The true emperor could be a poor farmer in Cyrodiil, and you may have to find him, kick out Tharn, and restore the the true bloodline of Tiber Septim.