Fuck em, not getting any more of my money.
Finally it’s out for PC…hopefully when they release Redguard it’ll be simultaneous on all platforms now that the damn stupid whoring exclusivity has finished.
I like the DLC but I do think it’s made my Dovahkiin into either an amnesiac, incredibly stupid or possibly narcoleptic. Naturally wanted to see if the DLC had installed properly immediately, so straight away loaded up and…
[spoiler]headed to Windhelm, straight off to Solstheim. Netches! Silt Striders! That Morrowind music and Red Mountain erupting in the background. Great stuff. Had trouble finding the main quest but didn’t care, too busy exploring and doing sidequests. Eventually one of said sidequests (from Naloth, another blast from the past) directed me back to Skyrim.
Picked up what I needed and was attacked by Cultists who I’d been occasionally slaying on Sosltheim. Pick up the quest “Dragonborn”. :smack:
Guess I should have been more patient. Anyway, my Dovahkiin then goes into stupid mode and asks the captain of the ship I’ve used twice if he’s the captain of the ship and talking to Neloth, who I’ve done about 10 sidequests for, like I’ve never met him (and vice-versa, so the stupid disease is evidently contagious even to other powerful mages).[/spoiler]
Here in his shrine
That they have forgotten
Here do we toil
That we might remember
Something mentioned on another forum is that the Unofficial Skyrim Patch bugs Dragonborn, so if you have it you should also get the Unofficial Dragonborn Patch (which is why the latter is out so quickly).
I have a Khajit mage. I know this isn’t really… optimal. But… but… KITTY.
ETA: Can somebody give me a run down of TES lore? I’ve tried to look for it online, but either it’s so sparse as to be useless, or a summary about 5 novels thick. It seems like an interesting universe, but despite having played 3 games (albeit not really paying attention to the plot) I don’t really get it. Also, why is Morrowind so freaking weird? Every other area seems boring and normal, then you’re in Morrowind and suddenly GIANT MUSROOMS AND STUFF.
There’s too much lore to do a quick rundown. The best you can hope for are some highlights.
The third era is when the Nerevarine appeared and killed Dagoth Ur. After the events in The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind, he went on an expedition to Akavir for unknown reasons, and was never heard from again.
A few years afterward, Tamriel (the giant continent in which all the games have taken place) experienced the Oblivion crisis. Mehrunes Dagon attempted to enter the world in his true and terrible form, but was stopped by the last of the Septim line of emperors, Martin Septim (who sacrificed himself in the process).
A few hundred years afterward, the Altmer (high elves) finally united their kingdoms, and invaded Cyrodil (the area of the continent where the Empire started, and where you played in The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion). The Altmer called themselves the “Aldmeri Dominion” and absolutely fucking crushed the Empire, laying siege to the capital city itself. They were finally stopped before they could conquer the Empire once and for all, but the struggle left the Empire very weak and vulnerable. The Aldmeri Dominion won terms in the peace treaty which punished the Empire severely, and Skyrim in particular. As a result, there’s a lot of resentment in Skyrim toward the Empire, for failing to protect Skyrim. A significant movement is even in open rebellion, calling themselves “Stormcloaks” after their leader, Ulfric Stormcloak. The Stormcloaks think that without the Empire holding them back, they could drive the Aldmeri dominion out of Skyrim and reunite their various fiefdoms. Most people consider this time the beginning of the Fourth Era, as the Empire falls into decline.
My character was a Khajiit, because cats are cute and seeing in the dark is handy. I guess he was mostly a sword and shield, light armor warrior, but he had most of the Stealth perks as well.
I started out trying to use destruction magic, but – just like in Morrowind and Oblivion – it seemed that hitting people with a weapon was way more efficient.
Both times I’ve rolled a mage ended up as a spellsword early on because of how phenomenally crappy destruction magic is at the beginning (especially with all the magicka limitations). But after mid-game or so I’m almost a pure spellcaster (especially once you start getting those quest rewards with +100% magicka regen and stuff).
Dual casting and impact perks make a big difference for destruction. Enchanting your clothes and jewelry with Fortify Destruction can make spells free to cast, which is obviously abusive but potentially fun.
A few nitpicks, but only because they go to the heart f some of the themes of Skyrim and it’s a very well-written aspect of the game.
The Aldmeri were brutalized in that war and actually lost much more than the Empire; while the battles didn’t take place on their soil, they basically lost everything they put into the fight. This is why a peace treaty was possible: the Empire was exhausted, but the Aldmeri were broken, and implicitly had to use all their resources just to keep themselves stable. The Khajit and Bosmer have little-to-no loyalty to the High Elves.
Yes and no; the one big thing the Aldmeri got was for the Empire to stop officially worshipping Talos - they believed\ir iwas insulting to Elven dignity or some nonsense (Talos is a god and you can actually meet in Morrowind). However, as the current Imperial line has basically no connection to Talos, they felt it was a worthwhile trade for peace. The impression given by the Emperor in Skyrim (there’s a way to meet him, after a fashion) is that he’s very much trying to keep peace on this continent, although it’s hard to see how all the politics fall out.
The Aldmeri may have planned to use this beforehand, because they set about using it to manipulate key forgures into starting a brutal rebellion that could destabilize the Empire. So the Aldmeri may have deliberately demanded something they guessed could destabilize the Empire.
More because they saw themselves as close allies to the Empire, part-n-parcel of it, and the No-Talos-Worship issue cuts right to the core of their identity as a people. Skyrim itself lost nothing in the fight, and in fact provided the crucial edge which gave the Empire victory.
Not exactly. The Stormcloaks are explicitly banking on the fact that the Aldmeri are far-off. Since they don’t need to think about them being nearby, they believe Skyrim would be safe, and even if the Dominion attacked it couldn’t do much at such a distance. The only Aldmeri in Skyrim are a few patrols and a couple ambassadors, although they’d be strung up by their pointy ears lickety-split.
But the really intriguing part is behind the scenes. You can find some very intereting reading material about exactly how the Stormcloaks got started, and who benefits in the long run…
Well into the Fourth Era, actually.
On the subject of builds, my favorites are dull things like orc berserkers with warhammers. There are some cool builds available, like the “bronze sentinel” which is based on the Atronach Stone plus some dwarf flavor or the “bloodletter”, which makes a lot of use of the Equilibrium spell.
Can anyone suggest an ENB for me?
So many to choose from!
I use whichever one Climates of Tamriel recommends, I think it’s just called “Project ENB.”
I used the file without DOF blurring, though. It looks pretty but it had some weird focusing bug where I couldn’t make my character because the mod insisted what REALLY needed to be focused on what the wall in the back.
I guess I’ll run a few play sessions with a few of 'em. I got Project ENB’s one up and running, and I’m also trying the bleak an unbleak.
I’m kind of liking Un-Bleak right now:
http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/1119413188597870137/81D18760CB3186EE1FD67199A7436E2B3CA443B6/
http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/1119413188597871843/D518CDF22B7097C0CC3A659E801090CFD8AE315D/
Yeah, I’m in love.
No performance hit from these either.
By no means were the Aldmeri “broken.” They gained large swaths of land in Hammerfell, while the Empire lost the entirety of Hammerfell, both to the treaty or secession. White tower was looted, and the Elder Scrolls were scattered to who knows where. Everything the Aldmeri demanded from Titus prior to the war, they got in concessions from the treaty.
I agree, except that I think the point of outlawing Talos worship was more for political reasons (as you mentioned) and not really because the elves were actually offended by the practice.
Not entirely true. During war with the Aldmeri, the Foresworn were able to take advantage of the situation and capture the Reach, which they managed to hold on to for a couple of decades until Ulfric’s militia drove them out. You could say that Skyrim lost quite a lot, politically. The Aldmeri didn’t actually conquer any part of Skyrim, but the province went from a strong, stable, powerful part of the Empire to being their biggest adversary as a result of the war.
I’ll concede that.
Yeah, I read up on it and I know it’s possible. It just seemed like I was choosing between:
- Wizard = “It’s tough slogging at first, but eventually you can kill everything in the blink of an eye!”
- Fighter = “It’s not tough slogging at first, and eventually you can kill everything in the blink of an eye!”
To be fair, I’m not a big fan of delayed gratification in my video games. 
So I started Dawnguard…
Man, those xbows! The first one I’m given easily doubles the damage output of my LONGBOW with fire enchantment.
Looks like the drop off for them is less than standard bows, and probably about the same as longbows.
Any downside to these things? If not I guess I’m switching focus from longbows to these suckers.
The Aldmeri army was effectively wiped off the face of Tamriel- and the High Elves don’t breed that fast. Their Hammerfel posessions are few and in chaos IIRC, bringing them nothing but eating time, money, and lives. Not, of course, that I expect TES writers to have the ability to do math. The Aldmeri shot their wad, and only the sheer scale of devastation kept the Empire from turning around crushing them.
The Emperor was a complete fool to give up anything because they couldn’t possibly follow-up on it… but then we wouldn’t have Elder Scrolls Online. Oh wait - he was a horrible fool for giving up anything, and I hate him forever.
Don’t think they really separated the two. Certainly they hated the idea of a human being greater than an Elf.
No. The king of Skyrim evidently could have wiped out the Forsworn had he the desire. he enver even tried despite having vastly superior military forces; Ulfric did it with a pretty small force in the end. And Skyrim isn’t an enemy of the Empire - big chunks of it are still loyal. It’s Ulfric (who isn’t exactly pure as the driven snow and whose relationship with the Aldmeri is… dubious) who aims to turn it against the Empire and is causing the chaos.
Yeah, I have to agree that the Almeri were the big winners of the war. The empire gave up a province, gave up the one god that gave humans an equal footing with the other mer, and have allowed the Aldmeri to establish an inquisition that roams empire sovereign territory rooting out heresy. Those are all pretty big wins for Aldmeri.