TES III Morrowind Retrospective and Analysis | The most Immersive Elder Scrolls Game as of Yet

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Over 70 hours of gameplay and this is about how  much I've explored of Vvardenfell. To say that   Morrowind is a massive game isn't exactly an  understatement. Sure, the later games in the   franchise -- Oblivion and Skyrim -- both flaunt  worlds that are much much bigger than this,   hell Daggerfall's world map is bigger than  Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim COMBINED! And   even that is just the second largest map in the  Elder Scrolls series! However, the difference   in size wasn't the only notable change in  TES3, rather the difference in ambition was. The intro cinematic, if you can call it that, in  Morrowind is nothing short of iconic. It's short,   -- barely a minute long -- cryptic and oddly  eerie, but it so perfectly sets you up for your   adventures in the Vvardenfell region of Morrowind  and it feels like there's so much beneath the   surface that you've not been told. The voice  speaking to you in your dreams is that of Azura,   one of the many daedric princes of this universe,  and she is the one that will be your guide   throughout the game. Well, I say throughout the  game, but really this is the first of two, maybe   three times you'll hear from her until the end of  the game. The important part is that you have been   chosen. For what exactly is unclear as of yet,  but it is slowly revealed throughout the game. Morrowind introduced what would become a  staple throughout the Elder Scrolls series,   "the walkthrough tutorial". Basically you're  lead through the character creation process   with a series of events rather than creating your  character from the get-og. As you leave the ship   and head for the docks a guard will stop you and  ask where you're from. Before you're released into   the world you're asked for your profession and  birthsign. It all feels very organic and it's   not entirely without personality either *play clip  "Yes, confused?"*. When it comes to the appearance   of your character the creation tool isn't exactly  up to snuff with todays' standard, but honestly   if you're like me and don't care about how big  the space between your eyebrows are it's fine   for the most part. Each race has its own pros and  cons depending on which way you want to take your   avatar. If you, say, want to get up close and  personal choose a race that has a bonus to melee   skills. If you want to blast your enemies with  powerful magic or sneak around without getting   seen, choose a race with the appropriate bonuses.  If you want to shoot people from afaar with a bow,   don't. Look, I don't really understand the  hate that marksmen get in this game, I mean,   I KINDA do. Bows are pretty much useless  untill you reach about 70 in the marksman   skill and have a bunch of agility. Personally I  really like it, but anyways more on that later. After you enter the cencus office you're  greeted by a man that lets you pick your   class. Essentially this will determine  what you're going to be good at. This   will determine your characters' progression  since, and they don't really tell you this,   every level in a minor or major skill will  give one point towards a level-up. So,   since this is a pretty important choice, for  a first-timer it's recommended that you either   choose from the pre-made list or answer the  questionaire -- which has some incredibly   weird questions --, or you can make a class  of your own. Honestly as long as you don't   pick acrobatics or athletics as major or minor  skills you should be good. That is honestly the   worst mistake you can make here. Like I said,  the custom class option should only be used by   experienced people that won't choose acrobatics  or athletics as major or minor skills. Ever. This tutorial also teaches you a  lot about the world. For example,   stealing is allowed as long as you're not seen.  Even if you are seen, exploiting the fact that   you're new to this land will let you get off  scott free if only once. Just make sure to drop   whatever you stole so that you can pick it back up  immediatly after the guard turns his back on you.  You're then instructed to talk to the  knight errant Sellus Gravius where you   learn how conversations in this world works.  This is probably the most important tutorial   in the game to be honest. I cannot overstate  the importance of learning how to ask about   stuff in this game. Basically how it works  is you click these highlighted parts of the   text to get to know more about the topic.  This will be how you accept most quests,   learn new information about the land around  you and figure out where to og. All of this   is shown here. By clicking the different  topics and working your way through the text   you gradually learn that you have to deliver a  package to Caius Cosades who lives in Balmora.   This is the first instance of why this game can  be so immersive if you let it. You're not told   exactly where this person is, after all not  everyone keeps track of everyone else, but   you ARE however told where you can look for info  about his whereabouts. You're given the package,   a letter containing directions to Balmora and a  small disbursal of 87 gold… Wow, thanks I guess. And so you are finally free, just gotta og through  this door and, oh. Just gotta pick up this ring,   og through this door and the entire island of  Vvardenfel is is your oyster. All this nature   to experience, all these caves and cities to  explore, all of these friendly people to--   Well it was nice while it lasted. Yeeeaah,  Morrowind isn't exactly the most welcoming   province of Tamriel. Actually the people here  are mostly sceptical towards new folk and like   to keep to themselves for the most part. If I had  to describe it in one word it would definetly be   passive-aggressive. That IS one word, right?  Especially the dark elves are very xenophobic,   but that is explained through lore. For  the rest of the inhabitants though, well,   I guess life on Vvardenfel requires a  certain pessimistic outlook. Thieves,   bandits and smugglers run rampant, there's  been a steady incline of monsters, people lie,   decieve and plot against each other for their  own benefit and people in general are as corrupt   as can be. But hey, when they first start to  like you they REALLY like you so there's that. There's so much going on in this place that  you could talk about it for days. The small   town you start in, Seyda Neen, is no exception.  If you do what the developers intended for you   to do and og and talk to every person in sight  you'll learn a plethora of things. Let's start   with Fargoth here since he was standing right next  to us when we first exited the cencus building.   In most cases he would be the first NPC a new  player talks to and this is 100% intentional.   He mentions that he believes the Imperials took  his ring. If you probe further he tells you that   the guards regularly harrass him and that the ring  is a family heirloom. You can straight up lie to   this guy and tell him that you have no idea what  he's talking about or you can give him his ring.   Giving him his ring will win you favour with the  trader Arille, so now his disposition towards you   is a bit higher than if you hadn't helped Fargoth  which means he'll sell you his stuff for cheaper.   Funnily enough, asking Arille for the latest  rumours will have him point you towards a guy on   the second floor named Hrisskar that wants you to  find Fargoth's hidden stash of treasure and give   it to him as payment for Fargoth's gambling depth.  What a friend. Also, if you gave Fargoth the ring   before doing this quest you'll find it along the  money in the hollowed out tree-stump. Turns out   it was actually Hrisskar who stole the ring and  dumped it in the barrel for newcomers to find,   it's a neat little explanation of how it got  there really and it makes everything in the   world seem more deliberate rather than "oh hey  look at this randomly random thing I found". Exploring the world around you almost always  yelds some kind of result. Talk to Vodunius   Nuccius and you'll get a discount on a trip with  the silt strider if you tell the operator that   he sent you. Ask around for the latest news  and you'll learn that a local tax collector   has gone missing recently and if you choose you  can og find his dead body in a ditch somewhere.   Walk the opposite way of where you're supposed  to og and some guy just falls from the sky out   of nowhere. That scared me half to death the  first time it happened. The best part of it   is that you can kinda see how the whole event  transpired. He has 3 scrolls of icarian flight   which fortifies your acrobatics skill by 1000  for 7 seconds making you leap great distances.   The flaw is that the enchantment doesn't last  long enough for you to reach the ground and   as such you instantly die from fall damage. The  book is already on the ground when you find him,   so I like imagining him standing there with the  book in his hand before activating the scroll   and then as he jumps, the force is greater  than expected so the book just kinda falls   down while the guy rockets into the air.  These scrolls are actually a pretty nice   means of transportation, well that is if you  can manage to hit the water on your descent. What I really like about these small moments  is that they are not pointed out to or hinted   at you by anyone at all. There are examples  like these littered all throughout the game,   but you NEED to explore to come upon these things  and they're literally just a small detour from   whatever it is you're currently doing. Most  are assigned as some kind of quest, some of   my favourites being delivering letters between two  orcs, getting tricked into collecting a ring in a   pool of water and then being attacked, escorting  a merchant and then being rewarded with a pair   of "Boots of Blinding Speed" which LITERALLY  blinds you and of course you can't forget the   two instances of thirsty nords getting robbed  naked and paralyzed in the middle of nowhere.   There really are a lot of quests in Morrowind and  you can for the most part tackle them however you   want, though most times the quest givers have a  certain way they want their business to be handled   and if you deviate from that you either fail  the mission outright or get a decreased reward The most important quest though is of course  the main quest. Starting out from Seyda Neen,   Balmora is merely a short jog along a well  marked path. You're encouraged to take the   Silt Strider by that one NPC, but honestly I  much prefer walking when it's the first time   you're heading somewhere. The reason for  this is that the devs strategically placed   caves and such along the path of most of your  objectives essentially guiding you to places   of interest that you might want to stop by on  your way. They do this ALL the time throughout   the adventure and while it's not required at all  you kinda feel this force pulling you towards the   entrances because you're either hungry for  exploration or curious of whatever could be   inside. And the best part is that there's always  something inside, be it money or better gear,   exploring is consistently being rewarded whenever  you're traveling off the beaten path. This lessens   the feeling of having wasted time if you get lost  considerably, "oh well, I guess this isn't the   place I'm supposed to be, but I might as well  explore this cave while I'm here". Of course,   this doesn't completely negate the frustration  of having climbed mountains for 30 minutes just   to realize that you're supposed to be on the  other side of the map, but hey, it's something. When you eventually do get to Balmora and stop by  the South Wall Cornerclub you're told that Caius   rents a small apartment in the North-west part  of town. Caius is, well, kind of an exhibitionist   drug addict I guess? He's also a member of  the Imperial Blades and work directly under   the emperor and we're told to serve under him  as a Novice in the Blades. This is most likely   your first meeting with one of the many factions  in Morrowind, of which Caius will gladly explain   more about to you along with the locations of some  exclusive blades trainers that will train you in   a set number of skills. Funnily enough, if you  ask Caius for orders he'll just tell you to og   out and explore. Make a cover story for yourself  by joining a guild and rising in the ranks or   simply travel the world and look for people to  help. I've never really seen anything like this   been done since Morrowind, it's like if the first  time you meet Zelda in OoT she's all like "Yeah,   okay? Uh listen I'm really busy standing here  looking through this window right now, so if you   could just og out and do some fishing or whatever  for a few days that'd be great." In actuallity   though you can just og outside and wait for an  hour or so then og back in and start the quest. But hey, let's do this the proper way.  Personally I tend to join the Fighters   Guild and Thieves Guild to start off, but  there are a plethora of other factions each   with their own quest lines, including  the Mages Guild, the Imperial Cult,   the Imperial Legion, the Morag Tong  (if you can find their hiding place),   the Temple or any of the 5 great houses of which  3 are present on Vvardenfel. House Hlaalu are   the mobsters of Morrowind and probably the  more forward-thinking of the 3 houses. House   Telvanni is compromised mainly of egocentric  mages who care nothing for others and tend to   live in isolation while House Redoran values  the settled dunmer traditions, specifically,   the way of the warrior. Bear in mind though, when  you join a house the disposition of the members of   other 2 houses plummets to the point where they'll  flat out refuse to speak to you in certain areas. So after you feel you're ready to take on whatever  lies ahead returning to Caius sees him give you an   order to find out more about an important dunmer  figure called Nerevar and the emergence of the   Sixth House. Of course, information is never free  so you're tasked with retrieving a dwemer artifact   from an old dwemer ruin just outside of Ald Ruhn.  On the way here you'll encounter your first real   enemy, often dubbed the "first boss" of Morrowind  by players and with good reason too. If you're not   prepared this mage will straight up murder you  in 5 seconds flat. Morrowind is much like other   RPG's where enemies are set at a certain level  no matter how weak or powerfull you yourself   are. This is something I think they completely  dropped the ball with in Oblivion where they   introduced level scaling on everything, even  unique weapons, but more on that when I get to   that game. There IS a certain level scaling system  for Morrowind too, but the base levels of enemies   never og down to fit the player. It seems more  to me that it places higher level enemies and   better loot at certain points if you're past  a certain level, meaning the game never really   takes into consideration what your actual skills  are, just how high your level is which is yet   again why you don't choose Acrobatics  or Athletics as major or minor skills. The dwemer is an extinct race of dwarves that  no one really knows what happened to. You get   a few hints along the way but it's never really  enough to ascertain exactly what happened so as   of yet it's still a mystery. I do have a theory of  course, but more on that later. Dwemer artifacts   are special because not only were the dwemer as  a race exeptionally more technologically advanced   than the rest, they're also extinct meaning that  there's a limited amount of stuff left. Take into   consideration that the dwemers as a race are  highly considered the big bad in Morrowind and   it makes sense that the commerce of these items  are heavily regulated by the empire. Selling or   even altering a dwemer artifact through improper  channels will at best net you a huge fine or at   worst have the entire Mages Guild try to kill  you. Entering a dwemer ruin is like walking   into a sauna after being trapped in a blizzard  for an hour. Not only in the metaphorical sense,   but also because the dwemer were really into  steam technology. Most of this stuff is still   running but no one seems to know how it works and  haven't manage to replicate it in the thousands   of years since the disappearance of the dwarves.  Most of the time these ruins have been scavenged   by looters looking to make a quick buck. Despite  the heavy regulations, dwemer artifacts are highly   sought-after items for smuggling and collecting.  After returning with the puzzle box you get   the info required and report back to Caius who  tells you to seek another piece of information   concerning the Nerevarine Cult and yet again  you need to do a favour to gain what you seek. This time you're tasked with recovering a  skull from a tomb. For what exactly is unclear,   as it often is, and you're required to fight  ghosts. Since etheral beings aren't effected by   normal weapons the game has the foresight to give  you an enchanted weapon before sending you in,   however if you're not efficient in short blade,  the Fireblade that Sharn gra-Muzgob gives you is   pretty much useless. Attacking in Morrowind works  a lot like a classic table-top RPG like Dungeons   and Dragons. Without getting into too much detail,  when you click the attack button a dice is cast   and depending on the result you either hit or  miss. This is of course swayed by your stats,   most previlently the Agility stat, the enemy's  stats, your skill in the weapon type you're   using and most of all your current fatigue. Even  when starting the game you'll be missing a lot,   which is one of the main complaints people have  regarding the combat and also why so many give up   within the first few hours. Personally I don't  really mind, but it's easy to get annoyed when   you're almost killed by a couple of rats even  though you're attacking them with the weapon   your most proficient with. Later on in the game  you'll be able to hit enemies more consistently,   but at that point you'll be at around level 15  to 20 with a 70+ weapon skill. This is also why   som many people don't like being a marksman.  Even if the arrows hit your target dead center   they won't take any damage whatsoever unless  the game decides to register it as a hit and   your arrow is still considered used. Not  only is there a problem with hit chance,   but a lot of the time the NPC's have very  erratic movements which can make it super   easy to miss a ranged attack. Of course, you can  also take advantage of this. Dodging projectiles   in this game is laughably easy as long as you're  far enough away. Enemies aim their projectiles   where they calculate you're going to be given  that your trajectory and speed stays the same,   which is why you see me moving so much back  and forth whenever I'm fighting an archer or a   ranged mage. As long as you alter your path  the second after they fire you'll be safe. After returning to Caius with the info gathered  for giving the skull to Sharn you're told to   travel to Vivec and meet up with some informants  that lives in the city. If you haven't already   reached level 3, Caius will tell you to take  a hike and og train some more before you're   ready to take on this task. This is one of the  two hard level requirements for the main quest,   the other being that you're required to be level  6 to start the final part. Anyways, this is yet   another example of why I really like the main  quest. You're essentially sent to every major   city or point of interest on Vvardenfel. In a way  it serves more as a introduction to the world,   merely touching on the surface of the culture, the  people and the mythology, rather than a complete   history and if you want you can easily delve  deeper into it after or during the main quest.   Morrowind has an interesting way of conveying  lore. Basically a lot is told to you via NPC's,   but there are also a bunch of written accounts  detailing different phases of history and other   events. HOWEVER most of these books are written  from the perspective of the one writing them, of   course, so there is a bunch of either conflicting  information or intentional mis-information going   around. Combine that with the fact that there's  a lot of information just missing and we get a   timeline that is at best erratic and at worst  false. I'm not gonna delve much deeper into it   than that, but there's a lot that can be  learned on the web if you're interested. Vivec is a huge city, possibly the biggest  in the game and it can be absolute hell to   navigate through on your first visit, but  using the world map to your advantage makes   it managable. There's a lot of blatant racism in  Morrowind. This is thrust in your face when you   og to talk to the Argonian informant. Argonians,  Kajit and Orcs are heavily discriminated against   by dark elves especially, but also by the other  races. This isn't exclusive to Morrowind either   and takes place all over Tamriel. They're looked  at like nothing more than animals to be bought,   sold and done with as you please. Slavery is very  common in Morrowind and chances are that if you   meet a slave it's either of Argonian, Kajit or  Orcish descent. One quest involves escorting   an Argonian from Hla Oad to Balmora. "There's a  lot of money in these slaves" he tells you, and   when you reach your destination the one awaiting  the slave starts attacking her immediatly. Now,   I'm not sure if that's because we literally broke  into his house, but I won't stand idly by and let   someone I'm tasked with escorting get killed  so down he goes. Afterwards the slave, Rabinna,   tells you that she's carrying drugs in her stomach  and the guy was planning to gut her to get it out.   After this you can guide her to the Argonian  mission in Ebonheart next to Vivec. Anyways, the   Argonian informant is surrounded by pissed dark  elves and since it seems like they'll attack if he   tries to leave our options are either to persuade  them into not or killing them when they do. Speechcraft is the skill that governs how good  you are at interacting with other people and   it's possibly the most OP skill in the game.  When it comes to normal people their disposition   towards you decides wether or not they are  willing to divulge certain information or,   in some cases, do as you ask. You can increase  this either by admiring, intimidating or bribing   them. *Play speechcraft skit 1 (Some things can  only be shared amongst friends *throw gold* If   you think you can bribe me young man let me  tell you *throw gold* my whole life story   friend)*. Although shopping is governed by the  Merchantile skills, you can also bribe merchants   and increase their disposition to get better  deals on items. *Speechcraft skit 2 (Sorry,   can't og that low *throw gold* fine, here's your 2  gold discount, jackass)*. Though that might not be   as rewarding as being a good haggler. Succesfully  increasing the disposition of the thugs will let   you get off scott free, but you could always  taunt them into attacking you too. Alternating   between bribing and taunting makes it possible  to kill almost anyone without suffering the legal   consequences that comes from murdering someone.  The way the law works in Morrowind is that as   long as you're acting in self defence, that is  to say someone attacks you first, killing is   completely acceptable. Using the taunt option to  facilitate combat means that as long as you can   talk to someone, you can kill them in the middle  of town in broad daylight without getting in   trouble for it. And even if you do get in trouble  for it you could always pay the miniscule fine to   get off quickly. Life is cheap in Morrowind.  After talking to the three informants you're   sendt back to Caius and then told to og talk to  ANOTHER informant, but this time in Ald'ruhn. This guy is a succesful trader and a defector  of sorts from one of the Ashlander tribes. The   ashlanders, or the Velothi people, are a group  of dunmer nomads that traditionaly hail from   Morrowind's wildernesses. They differ from the  settled dunmer in that they don't aknowledge the   power of the Tribunal. The Tribunal consists of  the three living gods of Morrowind: Almalexia,   Sotha Sil and Vivec. The belief amongs the  settled dunmer is that the Tribunal are the   real protectors of Morrowind and as such deserves  to be revered and worshipped while the Velothi   people follow the prophet Saint Veloth who is  believed to be the father of the dunmer and the   one that lead their race to Morrowind way back in  the day. They also see the Tribunal as false gods   that has allowed foreigners to take over Morrowind  and believe that their war leader will come back   to drive the foreigners from Morrowind. This  guy explains to us the customs of the ashlander   tribes. This is actually really important to  remember since it will 100% come into play later   and if you make a misstep they will not hesitate  to attack you. To exemplify these customs you're   expected to find out that he really likes poems  and you need to find a book store to buy one for   him. I feel like they kinda cheaped out later  when you actually get to the tribes. The only   thing they really care about is gold which you  probably always carry on your person anyways,   but it was probably for the best. After  all, imagine having to travel all over   the place just to find some dumb book  or a specific piece of clothing or-- oh. Speaking of books, there are a lot of  interesting ones to read all over the   place. If anything you should always read  through the books that gives you skills when   you open them. They are usually a pretty good  read. Whenever I watch a video about Morrowind   they never seem to mention the books for  some reason. It's kinda weird honestly,   so to offset that balance here are some of  my favourite picks. ABC's for barbarians is   a must-read, thankfully it's not very long as  it only covers the first three letters of the   alphabet. Chance's Folly is a story about a thief  looking to gain great riches by robbing a tomb,   it has a great buildup and keeps you on  the edge of your seat all the way until   the end. A short history of Morrowind tells  you everything you need to know about current   day Morrowind condensed into a few pages. Trap  is a thriller about a young man who wished he   hadn't succumbed to his impulses and the Capn's  Guide to Fishy Stick is the definitive reference   to fishy sticks in all of Tamriel… Well, if you  can get the fishy stick sauce out of the pages. Where were we? Right. After returning to Caius  with the info you've gained about the ashlanders   he reveals to you that the reason you're here  is because the emperor believes you are the   reincarnation of Nerevar, the same Nerevar  that we've been searching for info on so far,   or at least he believes that we are  in a position where we can fulfill the   Nerevarine prophecies and they plan to use us to  controll the ashlanders and the other dunmer of   Morrowind. You are promptly sendt on your way  to one of the more civilized ashlanders camps,   Urshilaku. It's pretty much out in the middle of  nowhere, so walking is the only option. If you   haven't already, at this point you are almost  guaranteed to encounter the worst enemy in all   of gaming. Whenever you enter combat the music  will change. Slightly at first then gradually   more and more noticeable as a combat tune. The  normal music is usually atmospheric and calm,   but when the drums kick in you know you're in  trouble. The Cliff Racer is the only flying enemy   in the game and thank god for that. These things  can seemingly spot you through both mountains   and trees from a kilometer away and there are  never less than 3 of them present at all times   in the mountainus regions of Vvardefell. Not  only are they masters of dodging but they also   possess teleportation abilities. Cliff Racers  not getting stuck in tree branches is more of   a miracle than a regular occurence and they  always seem to find you at the worst possible   time. In summary, fuck Cliff Racers, use the  console commands to erase them from existence. When you get to the camp and eventually gain  audience with the ashkahn he tells you that you   must prove yourself and you're sendt to retrieve  a bow that belonged to his father. The dunmer are   very concerned with venerating their ancestors.  As such it's only fitting that you meet the ghost   of Sul-Senipul and claim his bow from him at the  end of the dungeon. The dungeon itself is pretty   long too, maybe the longest one in the main  quest aaaand it can be somewhat of a slug. The   enemies are mainly undead and there's not really  much happening here. Actually if you've explored   one dungeon you've pretty much explored them all.  There's a bunch of unique set pieces in the main   quest ones, but other than that they may throw  in an underwater section or some lava or some   unjumpable gaps that you have to levitate over.  Since the dungeon is so long and since you'll   be visiting the Urshilaku camp a bunch of times  after this, I always like to put down a mark in   the middle of camp. The mark spell allows you to  use the recall spell to return to that point from   anywhere you might be, though it's worth noting  that if you use the mark spell again you lose   the previous mark. When you return you're finally  allowed to see the wise woman so that she can tell   you that "eh, maybe you're the Nerevarine, maybe  you're not. Who the hell knows not me seeya!". Well, she DOES give you some useful information  though. You get a written copy of the seven   visions and the stranger which you actually have  to write yourself since the ashlanders primarily   pass their traditions down orally, but whatever.  The seven visions lists the trials one has to og   through in order to become the Nerevarine. As  of now we only have an extended knowledge of   the first trial, The Stranger, which is fulfilled  by us being born under a certain sign to uncertain   parents. This sign is of course always the  one you choose in the beginning of the game.   The rest of the known ones are the third trial,  but she refuses to tell us about it. The fourth   trial which describes the nerevarine uniting  three of the five great houses of Morrowind.   The fifth trial describes the nerevarine  uniting the 4 ashlander tribes. The second   trial is a bit cryptic, but that's really  all that's known about it while the sixth   and seventh trial is steeped in mystery since  the Velothi won't for the life of them write   this down even though their whole belief is  basically based on it. Anyways, Nibani Maesa   requests for you to find the lost prophecies, but  right now it's high time we report back to Caius. So Caius is all like "hey what's up og murder a  cave of people" and suddenly we have corprus. This   is actually scripted so it's unavoidable and you  automatically get it when you kill Dagoth Gares.   The cave, Ilunibi, is actually full of loot and  as far as caves og it's pretty unique. There's   also what feels like a massive spike in difficulty  here. I remember the first time I got here I was   destroyed by Dagoth Gares, there's a reason  he's called 'the second boss of Morrowind',   but this time I killed him without any problems.  The cave is also full of nasty enemies that will   either deal heavy damage or sap your strength  stat. The strength stat is pretty important   and these guys just strip you of it in the  course of seconds, making you have to either   carry a bunch of restore strength potions, of  which you probably won't have, or drop most of   your gear to continue. The worst part is that  this isn't something that's fixed over time,   you need to either drink a restore strength  potion or go to an altar and pray the pain   away. It's all worth it though as you can find the  'Fists of Randagulf' in here. They're pretty much   one of the best enchanted gauntlets in the  game giving you 20 strength AND 20 agility. There's so much equipment in Morrowind, more  than in Oblvion or Skyrim, and enchanting lets   you customize any piece with a magical effect.  This is done by infusing a soul into the item.   Souls are stored in soul gems and are aquired  by having an empty gem in your inventory when   killing someone under the effect of a 'soul  trap' spell. Certain souls are worth more   than others depending on how powerful they  were in life and also decides how much you   can enchant one single piece of equipment.  You can do this yourself for free, but at   the chance of it failing and the soul gem getting  destroyed, or you can pay someone to do it. This   is something I kinda like. Whatever you want to  do, even if you don't have the skills to do it,   there's always a roundabout way to get it done.  Be that either by paying someone else to do it,   using scrolls instead of training spell  casting or training your skills until   you're proficient enough. Most of the time  that also requires money since the easiest   way is just to buy training from any  of the many trainers on Vvardenfell. After returning to Caius once again he's all  "oh you have corprus that's too bad you should   probably og talk to this crazy telvanni mage  to have it cured." All the Telvanni mages,   or at least the councilors, live in these big  fungus towers in different parts of the east   coast of Vvardenfell. Divayth Fyr lives in Tel  Fyr, and his tower grows around a old fort. It's   truly an alien sight, but so is the rest of  the landscape of Morrowind if you haven't   already noticed. While the west coast is  full of giant mushroom trees and littered   with mountains and swamps, the east coast  consists mainly grasslands and a bunch of   small seperate islands. It's all very pretty  honestly, not something you'd expect to see   in a game nowadays but it is helped by the  mods I have enabled. I have MGSO installed,   which is basically a huge compilation of mods  with the intention of upgrading the game to   todays' standard graphically. There's also a  bunch of bug fixes and optimizations in here,   but I have tried to keep everything as close  to the original as possible when it comes to   extra stuff. The mod community for Morrowind  is actually still pretty active, so if you're   interested in seeing what they come up with you  should visit the nexusmods site. Anyways, while   doing some task for Divayth we end up meeting  the last remaining dwarf in the corprusarium.   His comments on the dwemer boots of flying really  highlights just how advanced the dwemer were. This   enchantment is considered TRASH by his standards.  Just, wow. Returning to the mage with the boots   promts him to give you the experimental cure and  somehow it works. Now, we're not exactly free of   the disease per se, but at least the symptoms are  gone and we're also resistant to all diseases AND   age. Looks like we have inadvertantly  fulfilled the second prophecy as well! If you're tired of me starting a sentence with us  returning to Caius, boy are you in luck because   this will be the last we see of him in the  entire series as of yet. He informs us that   there are some pressing matters to be taken care  of back in the imperial city and has been summoned   back there to deal with issues regarding the  succession of a new king. (More on that in TES   IV). Or possibly because of the fact that he's  a skooma addict. Good old Caius, I'll miss you   pal. His final order is for us to find the lost  prophecies by contacting Mehra Milo in Vivec. He   also promotes us to the rank of Operative which  means that we're currently the head of the Blades   in Vvardfell. This doesn't actually make any  difference to what you can do, it's really only   just ceremonial if anything. He also gives you  his clothes which have some helpful enchantments.   Normally I wouldn't wear someones worn clothes,  but it's not like he used them anyways. When we get to Vivec and og to Mehra's quarters,  we find that she's been jailed in The Ministry of   Truth, that giant rock floating omniously over  the city. This rock is actually a small moonlet   from Oblivion called Baar Dau which was flung at  the city by Sheogorath but stopped in it's place   by Vivec himself. So, as I explained, Vivec is  one of the three mangods of the Tribunal. As we   learn later the Tribunal's power comes from the  heart of Lorkhan, an old god, but also from the   whorship of the people, to a degree. As a means of  forcing the people to worship him Vivec left the   meteor up in the sky as a show of force. At one  point Vivec temporarily lost his powers and the   meteor got even closer to the city to the point  where it's at now, and still he won't move it,   or maybe he can't? The fact that the moon rock  moved proves that it still retains its momentum   and is merely halted, which means that when Vivec  loses his powers the meteor will hit Vivec city   with it's full force, probably obliterating the  entire thing and everything around it. In later   times the ordinators started hollowing out the  rock and made a prison within it and this is   where Mehra Milo is being held. In the letter she  left at her quarters she specifies that you bring   at least two scrolls of divine intervention.  The scrolls of divine and almsivi intervention   teleports you to the nearest imperial cult  shrine or tribunal temple respectively,   so they're nice to have in a pinch. You need  a levitate spell to get up to the ministry,   so it's yet again nice of the devs to give you  a pair of pants that grants you exactly that.   There's a bunch of ways to get through this  place, if you're for example a high ranking   temple member you can just walk through most  of it without any problems. You can also bluff   your way through by posing as a guard, it's  a very nice example of how there's a bunch of   ways to do any single quest. I just ran through to  Mehra's cell and teleported out of there though. Mehra tells us to meet her in some secret society  off the coast or whatever. To get there we are to   take a boat from the docks of Ebonheart which  is pretty convenient seeing as this is where   the scroll of divine intervention will take  us. Once there you og talk to that woman on   the docks that was ADAMANT she wasn't anything  but a fisherwoman. Well I guess she actually   is? She asks if we want to og fishing and hell  yeah, I love fishing, but instead of giving us   a fishing rod she gives us passage to some boring  island. I'm not proud to say that I got stuck here   when I played the game for the first time. I had  no idea when dusk or dawn was supposed to be and   I'm pretty sure it bugged out too because I'm  sure I waited there 1 by 1 hour for 24 hours,   so I kinda left and went to do other stuff then  never went back there. Inside we find Mehra Milo   with Gilvas Barelo, the leader of the dissident  priests, and he gives us the forgotten prophecies. These texts are kinda interesting. The Lost  Prophecy just describes what the Nerevarine   must do to win over the sixth house or whatever,  but the Seven Curses contains the real meat here.   This seems like a list of what opposes the seven  trials of the nerevarine. They also describe the   steps at which the power of Dagoth Ur grows. The  first curse seems to be Dagoth Ur awakening and   the seventh curse seems to signal the apex  of his return to power, meaning a crisis is   imminent. The first and second curse concerns the  ash storms that originate from the Red Mountain,   the big volcano near the center of Vvardenfell.  The curse of flesh suggests blight diseases,   especially corprus. The curse of ghosts, seed and  despair seems like they're more in the background,   but personally I think it has something to do with  the metamorphing of the corprus disease. The ash   vampires and all the other horrible creatures  we saw in Ilunibi are all dunmers that have been   inflicted with corprus and have apparently gained  power shared from Dagoth Ur which transforms them.   The weak willed become corprus stalkers and the  strong become ascended dreamers. The last curse,   the curse of dreams, is actually something that  has been with us almost as soon as we started   the game. At some point during the main quest when  you rest you'll have these weird dreams that wake   you from your sleep and is noted in your journal.  This happens a bunch of times as you progress and   only when you sleep. A lot of the time it will  be Dagoth Ur almost speaking to you directly,   trying to win you over to his side. There are  also these half naked people that start appearing   around the world known only as "Dreamer"s.  They preach the gospel of Dagoth Ur and as   the curse progresses and grows in power they  will often attack you on sight or when you try   and speak to them. This also means that the  seventh curse is in effect which means the   crisis is fast approaching. If you didn't feel  the pressure yet, now is probably the time. So I guess it's time to get our asses in  gear. Returning to our resident wise woman   prompts her to nudge us towards Suul-Matuul  who will inform us of the third trial,   but noooot until we og kill a cave of people.  Oh, sorry, a stronghold of people. This place   is like a manifistation of madness truly fit for  a sixth house base. There are chairs stacked as   far as they og and gold strewn about the floor in  uh, various, patterns. After this Suul tells you   a riddle you must solve to find the cave of the  incarnate. You can ask around in the camps for   the answers to this riddle, but honestly I never  once understood how to follow these directions   so I just ended up levetating straight up in the  vicinity and find it that way. The entrance is a   pair of giant stone doors with intricate  markings, impossible to miss. Actually,   something that I've never thought of until now is  how much more enjoyable spells make the Morrowind   experience. Not just the intervention and recall  spells, but water walking for example is so much   better than swimming it's not even funny.  If you're able to use a spell that gives   you levitate at 20 points or more odds are that  you'll be moving much faster than your ordinary   running speed and you're able to fly at the same  time. Though, if you have a spell that lasts for   more than a minute consider also investing in a  dispell on self because that levitation spell you   get by donating a potion of levitation in Vivec  lasts way too long. Another nice thing about the   spell system in Morrowind is how customizable it  is. You can og to any spellmaker and make a spell   with a known effect. Say you already have the  Fire Bite spell, you can then make a spell with   the fire effect but you're not limited to it being  a touch spell like Fire Bite is, you can make it   a ranged spell if you like and there are also a  bunch of other options to mess with. The icing   on the cake though is that you can combine  other effects into the same spell. The only   real limit is how much magic is required to cast  it. Combining a bunch of elements into one spell   really makes for an interesting lightshow and it  can be incredibly OP for a relatively low cost. There's a trick to entering this place too.  I don't know why they decided it would be a   good idea to have it also be waiting for dawn  or dusk. I guess it makes sense since this is   actually Azura's shrine, but they could have  spaced it out maybe? Or did they maybe think   that the line 'the dream is the door and the star  is the key' was way too cryptic because yeah,   it totally is, so I hope you paid attention during  the last part or you'll be screeewed. Actually,   now that I think about it this is probably where  I got stuck and gave up. It always felt weird   how these two parts are so close to each other.  Sure, there's a medium sized dungeon in-between,   but if you wanted this to be a clever riddle  why give the answer to it only an hour before   the riddle comes up? Well, maybe it was  to distract from the fact that there's   something seriously wrong going on here. When  you enter the shrine you meet Azura. Well,   not in the flesh but a via her statue and she  hands you the moon-and-star which triggers a   short cut-scene. *play cut-scene* This cut-scene  always gives me the heebie jeebies for some   reason. It's not because it's literally just  a capture of someone walking around the world,   I mean you can see the jerky movement that happens  when you walk over stuff, there's just something   about Azura's voice that gets to me. Also, she in  no uncertain terms calls you the 'reincarnation   of Nerevar' but littered throughout the cave are  the supposed souls of the previous incarnations? Now, I might be wrong here, but doesn't  reincarnation refer to the process   where your spirit re-enters the world in a new  body? In that case, why are the spirits of the   so called 'previous incarnations of Nerevar' stuck  here in this cave? I don't feel like 'stuck' is   the right word either, more like.. Imprisoned by  Azura for failing to live up to her expectations.   Because Azura IS the mastermind behind this  after all. Let's take a look back at the intro   cinematic. "Fear not, for I am watchfull. You  have been chosen". Now, she might refer to the   fact that you have been chosen by the emperor  to be sent to Morrowind to exploit the fact   that you might fulfill the role of Nerevarine,  but I believe that it was in fact Azura who   personally chose our main character here to do her  bidding. Just as she chose the others. The ring   is supposed to signal the true reincarnation of  Indoril Nerevar. If anyone else were to wear it,   that person would die. We know for certain that  not everyone who claimed to be nerevarine got   to the point where they'd try their hand at  wearing the ring, so that's not how many of   them died. If any of these people died by trying  on the ring, well it's not described anywhere,   which is why I think that the instant death  is either untrue or Azura can grant anyone   she chooses the privilige. In the end I guess  she's trying to stop the imminent threat from   Dagoth Ur and save her people, but something  tells me she's got something else in mind too. Anyways, once we return with the Moon-and-Star  we're told to be named Nerevarine of four tribes   and Hortator of three houses. This is the part  which I have stopped at way too many times.   Personally I find this part really dreary, or  well, at least I used to. This time around I   found it tolerable. There are a few notable parts  here though. First of all, the moment you're named   Nerevarine by any of the ashkahns the entirety of  Morrowind suddenly knows about it and the Telvanni   especialy starts to dislike you. You'd think that  would pose a problem if you're trying to be named   Telvanni Hortator but that is swiftly fixed by  merely murdering anyone that stands in your way.   That's Morrowind in a nutshell for you, if it  can't be solved with money, murder is the only   option. But whatever they were all crazy anyways  and hey, it's a Telvanni custom to kill each other   too. This really shows how little life is worth  in Morrowind, even amongst the higher ranking   members of society. Hell, even if you're found  out you only get a small bounty and this pretty   much goes for whoever you kill. Another "fun" one  is where you have to find a "high born Telvanni   bride" for one of the ashkahns. Now, if you didn't  already know the settled dunmer kinda don't like   the ashlanders very well and that goes tripple  for the Telvanni. The wise woman of the tribe is   well aware of this and immediatly says "nah fam  that ain't gon' work". And sends us to buy him   a slave to pose as a noble instead. Two things.  One, this woman would rather spend the rest of   her life with an ashlander, whom she believes  are all barbarians, rather than being a slave   which explains what life as a slave is like. And  two, this is the longest escort quest in the game. Out of all the quest types, these are the absolute  worst. Yes, even worse than collecting mushrooms.   The quest where you get the boots of blinding  speed wasn't too bad since it's pretty much a   straight road. However, there are no roads from  Vos to the Zainab camp and the pathing for these   NPC's are the worst! Merely running over a hill  can be a herculean feat for these people, and if   you run too far ahead, which you are pretty much  guaranteed to since they're so slow, they'll just   end up running in circles until you come back and  get them. There are a couple of these that suck   almost as much, but this one's in a class of its  own just because of how long you have to travel,   and your reward is a goddamn thong. A THONG! And  it's classified as an amulet! You're literally   wearing a piece of underwear around your neck I  cannot deal with this! You actually get a unique   piece of equipment for each time you're named  Nerevarine or Hortator, but I never ended up   using them much because I had better options.  Quest rewards are generally helpfull, but since   you can pretty much get endgame equipment without  even starting the main quest these things can be   either extremely usefull or not at all. Then again  this is true for all quests. Their rewards don't   really change as you level up so if you want to  get a downright game breaking weapon early look   no further than Boethia's Quest. There's an NPC  that can point you toward his shrine in Dagon Fel,   but it's also possible to just stumble upon  like I did by spotting a pair of glowing eyes   on the seabed. Interacting with him sees him tell  you to restore his glory by finding a sculptor   in Caldera to build him a new shrine since his  current one has problems keeping its head over   water. In Caldera you'll find an Orc looking  to prove himself as a great sculptor and after   giving him a some funds he runs off and starts  work on some big rock that a famous orc jumped   off of and killed himself or whatever. Actually  constructing the statue takes 3 weeks of in-game   time and once it's done you can just walk right on  up and accept your reward. There are other quests   that can be done for different daedric princes but  honestly this one is the only one I bothered with. Speaking of quests I had to bother with. The rest  of the hortator/nerevarine ones are kinda drab.   One involves killing a bunch of orcs in a daedric  shrine, another you basically kill the leaders of   a tribe to name a new one and merely speaking to  Suul-Matuul will have him name you Nerevarine of   the Urshulaku. The Hlaalu hortator quest sees you  interacting with, maybe the best NPC in the game,   Crassius Curio. Funnily enough I had more  trouble finding the Dren plantation outside   of Vivec than finding Dram Bero who is supposedly  extremely secretive. It seemed like everyone knew   where he was in contrast to the fact that not  a single person could point me in the direction   of the Dren plantation. This kind of problem  only comes up a couple of times in the game,   but whenever no one tells you where a certain  thing is it's almost impossible to find it.   To start the Redoran questline you have to  save one of the council members' son from   a fellow redoran council member just across  the street. It all ends with having a duel to   the death with one of them. The Telvanni you  already know about so that officially makes   us the leader of all three houses and all 4  ashlander clans. Great, time to meet Vivec. If you were like me you were probably just  as flabbergasted when you got to meet Vivec   in the flesh. What? Meeting a god? I never really  experienced anything similar in other games up to   this point and to be honest, they do make it  a special occation. It feels like this is it,   this is the endgame. Vivec gives you the plan  to take down Dagoth Ur which basically boils   down to you going in alone while the others do  fuck all. It also specifies that you need two   divine artifacts called Keening and Sunder  to sever the connection between Dagoth Ur   and the heart of Lorkhan. Of course this will  also sever its connection to the tribunal but   apparently that is a risk worth taking.  Remember Vivec has that giant meteor to   ensure the worship of his people. To wield  these artifacts you need a special glove   made to withstand the powers if these artifacts.  Touching them barehanded will overwhelm anyone   and cause death. Vivec puts us in some sort  of pocket dimension to learn us how to wield   the glove without repercussions, but if you  were to kill Vivec instead there's actually   a backdoor to complete the main quest though  it has its price. Going the back route will   see you bring the unfinished wraithguard to the  last dwemer and have him unsuccesfully fix it's   enchantment making you permanently lose about  200 health. This makes it possible to complete   the main quest even if you've messed it up, but  it also makes it significantly harder thanks to   the health loss. When you have the gauntlet  it's time to raid Red Mountain and it's many   sixth house citadels… If you want to. They have  some really good equipment in them, but the only   things you really need are Keening and Sunder.  After that you can just og straight to Dagoth Ur. The entrance to his citadel is in the center of  the volcano and leads far underground. All along   the dungeon, Dagoth Ur keeps speaking to you,  seemingly trying to win you over to his side. I   really like him as an antagonist actually. He's  pretty much surrounded in mystery for the most   part of the game, but he has a certain charisma  to him. You meet him in a chamber where he's   willing to answer your questions. Whether or  not these are all lies is up to interpetation,   but one would think there is at least some truth  to what he says. Basically everyone in this game   has it in for no one but themselves so when we are  offered the chance at the first strike that too is   a lie of sorts. You might think oh that was easy  when Dagoth falls, but this is just the beginning.   In the next chamber we meet the real one and boy  is he strong. Not very smart though. I pretty   easily trapped him running in place, honestly it  wasn't even on purpose, but that makes it pretty   easy to get down to the heart. I guess the devs  saw this coming so as soon as you strike the heart   Dagoth Ur teleports down and starts attacking  you. The documents described for you to hit   it once with sunder then a bunch of times with  Keening. This results in the heart disappearing,   or well, that's what should have happened, and  when you cross the drawbridge back to safety the   entire statue that contained the heart falls to  pieces. If there's one thing I don't like about   this it's the music. Basically the music  stays the same throughout the entire game,   but sometimes that can feel a bit jarring.  It has a knack of getting to the epic parts   whenever you're doing something cool, but here  it was just really mellow and anti-climactic. And that's pretty much it. No fanfare, no  great escape sequence, just Azura greeting   you near the exit to say that the people of  Morrowind needs our help still. It all seems…   unsatisfying. From now on whenever an NPC  has the conversation topic "Nerevarine"   its disposition against you will og up by  10 until it's at 60. You could continue to   explore Vvardenfell for a good while, but  if you're like me and felt a bit tired of   the same old scenery, well, good thing then  that we have two whole expansions to cover! Tribunal was the first expansion to come out and  adds Mournhold, the capital of Morrowind. How you   get there though is kinda cryptic. Whenever you  sleep outside of Seyda Neen there's a chance you   get disturbed in your sleep by an assassin sendt  to kill you, presumably. Unless you're at under   half health when he wakes you up you miiight be  at risk of dying. This is also very broken since   their armour sells for waaaay too much for how  easy it is to get your hands on. In any case,   reporting this attack to any guard will prompt  them to tell you to report it to some guy in   Ebonheart who will then refer you to a mage that  can teleport you to the mainland. The reason   that the only way is via teleportation is because  they're concerned about the blight and ash storms,   but if you're doing this after the main  quest there's really no reason for this   to be the case since it's gone, but I  digress. Mournhold is a huge city and   to be honest I thought it'd be refreshing to  experience something more condensed than our   adventures in Vvardenfell. However I found that  I got tired of it pretty quickly. The cause of   that is the huge cave known as Old Mournhold.  This is the bane of my existence it's sooo   boooring. Everything feels the same and the  enemies seems to respawn the second you gain   a level. They're also overly strong, just  look at the stats on these goblin swords! But I'm getting ahead of myself. When you  first arrive you're plopped right into the   royal castle. A little side-note here. This place  is the perfect example of why you should be able   to walk through NPC's. It happens elsewhere in  the game too, but here especially seems like a   hot spot for colliding into everyone and their  mother whenever you're trying to move through a   tight hallway. This is probably the most annoying  aspect of the game by far. NPC's have a habit   of positioning themselves either directly in  the center of a hallway or in the middle of a   doorway. This means that you have to stand around  and wait in real time for their script to say that   they should move about and a lot of the time they  will merely move literally two steps forward then   two steps back again, ending up at pretty much  the same place. In the palace I got so tired of   it I ended up killing a guard via the console,  but it turns out that the game still puts the   blame on you even if you never laid a finger on  them. The captain wasn't too happy about that. Since this is the capital of Morrowind this  is also the place you'll find the king of   Morrowind. Now, he's not present when you  arrive but he will be later. For now when   you inquire about the Dark Brotherhood as  they're called you're told that they have   a base down in the sewers. After you og there  and kill their leader you find a contract for   your death signed "H". After this you're told to  report to the captain of the royal guard. He has   a few quests for you but you don't really have  to do any of them I think. I ended up doing a   few until I felt that I didn't get anywhere and  started looking around and found Fedris Hler,   Almalexia's steward and leader of the Hands of  Almalexia. Almalexia is another member of the   Tribunal and the "ALM" in "ALMSIVI" were Sotha  Sil is "SI" and Vivec is "VI". As of now the only   way to progress the main quest is by following  his orders. First you're sendt into the sewers   to fight some goblins which takes way too much  time because the sewers suck and then you're   tasked with escorting a young priest down into  the lair of undead to bless an ancestoral shrine   there. It feels weird that Almalexia herself  ordered this greensprout to traverse such danger   when there must certainly be more experienced  priests available, no? Next you're tasked with   retrieving a ring called Barilzar's Mazed Band.  Supposedly a incredibly powerfull ring capable   of horrible things, so much so that the creator  himself has been cursed with eternal life as he   puts it and has decided to do everything in  his power to keep it underground. When you   bring the ring back you're granted audience with  Almalexia and she grants you Almalexia's Light,   which restores every attribute by 25, as a reward.  Immediatly after there are reports of a monster   attack in the plaza which uncovers a pathway to a  lost dwemer ruin. This place has some incredibly   powerfull darts that are also being shot at you,  but if you can salvage them for your own use and   you have a decent marksman skill you will be  invincible. You also find several piles of ash   in these ruins which is probably what happened  to the dwemer if you ask me. After they used   Kagnerac's tools to harvest the energy from the  heart of Lorkhan to link every dwemer with the   divine power and attempt to highten the race  to Anumidium, it would seem that the process   had some unforseen side effects and simply  eradicated them turning their bodies to ash.   I don't know what happened to their souls, but  we sometimes meet ghosts of dwemer so maybe it   was just their bodies that went poof while their  souls moved into their machines or something? Anyways, after this is where Almalexia starts to  reveal her true nature. There's a cult forming in   the city called The End of Times which believes  that the Tribunal are losing their powers,   and they are. They also preach that the  gates of Oblivion are about to open and   that the daedra will walk the land. Yeah right,  and this city is actually out in the middle of   the ocean, hahaha Ha.. Haaa… So levitation is  prohibited here and this is why. This entire   city is actually just a standalone interior cell  with nothing but water around it. Seems kinda   lazy to be honest but whatever. So to show  the non-believers she makes us og into the   dwemer ruins to activate a weather machine and  use it to cause an ash storm in Mournhold. So,   if you weren't already convinced  that the Dwemer were hyper-advanced,   they made a weather altering machine. That works.  Interestingly not a lot of the NPC's have anything   to say about the ash storms unless you interact  with them. There are a few new voice clips in   this expansion but overall they seem unfazed  by most things when you just walk by. *Another   wonderful day in mournhold*. This is true for the  rest of the game too, you don't really know how   a NPC feels about what you have done unless you  talk to them or they attack you. *Play "Tell your   friends" clip*. Of course, when your disposition  with people are high enough they'll change their   demeanor around you, but that's pretty much it.  When we get back Almalexia continues her descent   into madness. One of her hands has gone rogue and  we're tasked with killing him. Exactly why he's   gone mad isn't known, but he mentions something  about how Almalexia has changed. Like Dagoth Ur,   Almalexia also got her divine powers from  the heart of Lhorkan. Powers which corrupted   Dagoth Ur and drove him into madness. One  would suspect that this is also true for   the Tribunal and the ones they share their  powers with. The hands of Almalexia have   actually had their bodies and souls fortified  by that same divine power which could explain   why Salas Valor has gone mad. This guy is a  pretty tough fight, I got by pretty easily   by using those dewemer darts I mentioned and  I'm pretty sure I would never have made it   if not. You're meant to og here when you're  around level 15 to 20 and that really shows. Knowing this you'd think we'd be more  suspicious of the motive of the god,   but she's kinda hot so who cares. Almalexia  used to be the wife of Indoril Nerevar after   all so I'd guess are chances with her are  pretty high. *ehem* anyways. Next we're told   to reassemble Nerevar's sword, Trueflame.  Almy gives us the first piece but tells us   to seek out the remaining two ourselves.  One of them is simple enough to obtain,   all you have to do is duel Karrod, the kings  champion, and then ask him about his sword.   The other one is a bit weird. There's a museum  in God's Reach that collects artifacts and shows   them off to the public. You need to donate three  artifacts to get your hands on the third piece,   but if you've been talking to the curator and  asking about compensation before this she'll   never really mention that you'll get it if you  donate three pieces of equipment which is why I   got stuck right here. I eventually figured it out  tho, but the problem is that you need to donate,   not sell and the game wasn't clear enough about  this. Once you've re-assembled the sword it's   time to confront the so-called source of  the monster attacks earlier, Sotha Sil. According to Almalexia, Sotha Sil has gone mad  and needs to be put down, so she teleports you to   his clockwork city for one final encounter. This  place is pretty cool from a design perspective,   but these door move way too slow and these traps  are way too easy to avoid to prove much of a   challenge. There's a bunch of cool architecture  to look at here and the place is swarming with   these dino cyborgs from the plaza earlier.  They're really powerful but also really dumb   so they can easily be lured into the traps for  a quick and easy kill. When we finally confront   Sotha Sil we find that, oh, he's already dead?  Before we're able to ponder his fate any more   Almalexia appears before us and goes into a long  ass monologue before she tries to kill us. She's   really powerfull too and again what saved me  were the dwemer darts. On her body she has   Barilzar's Mazed Band which allows us to teleport  to Vivec, Mournhold or Sotha Sil which explains   why she wanted the ring so badly. She needed  it to get rid of Sotha Sil. With the death of   Almalexia only Vivec remains of the Tribunal and  as explained by Azura his time is running out. But hey, if you thought the main quest was  the only thing you could do in Mournhold   you're wrong! This place actually has some fun  quests. One of them has you act out a play as a   stand-in for one of the actors. You recieve  the script by the playwright and are told   to read through it in a couple of minutes, but  of course since time is stopped when you pause   the game you actually have all the time you  need. You're then thrust onto the stage and   need to actually pick the right lines as if you're  acting and you even get paid for how well, or bad,   you do. It all ends in an assassination  attempt though so the play is cut short,   but it's really interesting while it lasts  and the play itself is a fun read too! Then   there's the wizard that just suddenly appear  in front of you and attacks. It has a really,   like, maniacle super-villany feel to it and  it's super fun when it happens. If you visit   the local tavern you can be hired as a bouncer  and be tasked with checking on the patrons and   eject anyone that's too drunk. You're explicitly  told not to kill anyone but my stupid follower   immediatly drew his dagger and stabbed him dead.  Escort missions suck. There's also Forstaag the   Sweltering who's just standing around shirtless.  Of course because of my previous encounters with   naked Nords I made a B-line to him, but it  turns out he's actually just really warm. There's a bunch more to experience in Mournhold,  amongst that the quests you get from king Helseth,   but at this point I was so tired of this stupid,  closed in, claustrophobic city that I hauled ass   over to Solstheim where the events of the  second expansion, Bloodmoon, takes place. The second you ask ANYONE about the latest rumours  you'll be told of a ship that has recently started   carrying passangers from Khuul to Fort Frostmoth  in Solstheim. Now Solstheim is an island a stone   throw north-west of Vvardefell which borders to  Skyrim, hence the cold climate. So, why exactly   would you travel to to this desolate wasteland of  ice and snow? Uuuuuuuuh. So when you get off the   boat at the docks an argonian there will suggest  you talk to Captain Fals Carius or Carnius Magius   at the fort and you'll pretty much be unable  to properly talk to anyone else until you do.   Tribunal was what introduced this annoying feature  where if the game decided you wouldn't be able   to speak to someone, well then you couldn't, but  they give you some generic text where the only way   to progress is to exit out of the dialogue box by  clicking the red text. The game used this kind of   red text previously mainly for long walls of text  that would take up too much space if it was all   revealed at once, or when asking questions and,  most prevalent, confirming decisions. It signaled   that this choice is final and that it's likely to  affect your character or whoever you're speaking   to. Doing it like this also means that you won't  be able to use the persuade option regardless of   how the character might feel towards you. The  worst case of this is, although it's not in the   Bloodmoon expansion but Tribunal, probably the  quest where you're tasked with killing this guy   and steal his weapons, but as he's a red-text you  can't really taunt him and whatever you do while   attacking him it'll get the attention of the other  people in the inn, so I just ended up skipping it.   It's the same here, every single guard just  tells you to og talk to their commander. Seems like the people here are sick and tired  of this place and he wants us to find out why.   Speaking to one of the soldiers will reveal  that they're so thirsty for a drink that they   can literally smell the alcohol through an  unopened bottle. Turns out they've been told   by Antonius Nuncius that the captain himself  stopped the shipments. If you search Antonius'   desk you'll find proof that he's been seizing  the alcohol as soon as it's arrived for the   past months. You can actually choose not to  report this to the captain and get a key from   Antonius that opens his closet which contains  10 of each basic drink, but ratting him out has   the funnier outcome as the captain punishes him by  extending his assignement at the fort indefinetly   prompting him to say this always every time  you walk past him. *Play clip of Antonius* Next up we need to find a bunch of soldiers  turned smugglers. For this quest we're assigned   one of two people. One of them a warrior and  the other a negotioator. Choosing the latter   will get you faster to the end, but he's no  good in a fight. Regardless of who you choose   you'll eventually end up at the same end except  if you chose Saenus you can let the leader if   the smugglers og in exchange for a Nordic Axe  of Paralysis. At this point in the game it's   damage is gonna be kinda bad though it's always  nice to have something that can paralyze. The   real event starts when you return to the fort.  It has been attacked and the captain is gone.   Apparently they were attacked by werewolves???  What's really cool is that the fort is noticably   damaged and some interior halls have caved in  as a result. Whoever of the two you didn't bring   tells you to og to the Nord Skaal Village  at the north end of the island and talk to   Tharsten Heart-fang. It's pretty far and the  wilderness is full of new enemies and animals.   There are even huge bears! Being a Nord up here  holds a huge advantage since most magic here   seems to be ice or shock based and Nords have an  immunity to frost and a 50% resistance to shock,   which is nice. Tharsten knows nothing  about the attack though he do know that   the imperials have upset the natural order and  that someone must take responsibility! Of course,   that someone is us, possibly because we  were the closest person at the moment. To restore the balance we need to perform six  different rituals at six different points on   Solstheim. They're all detailed in a tale  which we get from the village shaman. You   don't need to do them in the same order, but  it does make everything more digestable. So   since this will take a considerable amount of  time, doing other quests in between can be a   good way to be more effective with your time.  Especially the East Empire Company quests can   be done simultaniously since you often have  to wait a bit between each part. The East   Empire Company is looking to start up a mining  operation on Solstheim and the one in charge   of this is Carnius Magius. This chain takes  you through establishing a brand new colony   and then either protecting it or destroying it.  So about four parts in you're asked to take a   side. You can side with either Falco Galenus  who wants the colony to succeed or Carnius,   who wants the colony to fail. Carnius is actually  here just for the Stahlrim, a magical ice that you   can only mine with a special pick. As soon as  you have that pick the colonists have outlived   their usefullness in his eyes and decides to  take som drastic measures to get it disbanded,   ultimately resulting in a fake Skaal raid on  the small town. The unique part is that you   can choose to either play the hero or the villain  here depending on who you chose to follow. This is   kinda refreshing when compared to the main quests,  all three of them really, where you're pretty much   railroaded throughout the whole thing. Sure there  are small events here and there where it might   seem like your choices matter but ultimately  you'll always arrive at the same conclusion.   Here though you'll end up either killing all  the members of Raven Rock or saving them. Speaking of the main quest, after finishing  all the rituals we're still not worthy and   need to solve a mystery in the village to prove  our wisdom *pick up paper* well that was easy.   Then a big geysir of yellow light starts spewing  out of a lake and we need to meet the shaman there   to discuss our options. So, you're supposed to  meet him at a specific point near the shore of   the lake, but I went there and he was nowhere to  be found for some reason and then he just appeared   after a while so idunno what happened. Seems like  there's a draugr lord, Aesliip, in a cave down   there. Heh, don't you mean awake?? *ehem* Anyways,  we're tasked with putting him to rest but once we   get down there it turns out he's actually good  and has been keeping a number of Frost Atronachs   sealed away down there so that they won't murder  the Nords of Solstheim. You can choose to either   help him or kill him, the quest doesn't  care, but here's a question. I touched upon   the Nord's inherent immunity to frost earlier.  Now, how would FROST Atronachs kill a bunch of   Nords who are immune to frost? Sorry, dude. I  think you've spent the last eternity in vain. After we're done reporting to Tharsten the  village is attacked by werewolves too and in   the ensuing chaos Tharsten disappears. Yet  again, just lie with the corprus, there's a   scripted disease being placed upon you here. This  time it's lycantrophy which will turn you into a   werewolf if you let it take it's course. It can  easily be cured by a cure common disease though,   the only problem is that none on the villagers  will talk to you as long as you're sick,   so you're forced to og all the way back to the  fort ooooor you can just steal a potion from the   medicine man. This disease will affect you even if  you have immunity to diseases. It's still possible   to complete the main quest if you turn into a  werewolf but I went for the faster route which   I honestly kinda regret. Being a werewolf gives  you some cool features. After this he tells us   to retrieve a powerful totem for use in another  ritual, the Ristaag, which is supposed to bring   favour from the All-Maker on the Skaal. Yet again  you need to og find some people by the lake,   but this time they're NOWHERE NEAR WHERE THEY  SAY THEY ARE. I spent a good 10 minutes looking   for these bozos before I gave up and had  to look up where they were, and get this,   they're waaaaay into the forest as far away  from the lake as possible. After the hunt   begins our companions gets killed off one after  the other before we manage to hunt the spirit   bear. We rip it's heart out and return to  the shaman who seems rather displeased. Turns out there's been som ominous signs surfacing  lately that suggests the Bloodmoon prophecy is   underway. At this point if you head to the north  coast you'll see a bunch of dead horkers and this   is what disturbs him. He wants us to investigate  Castle Karstaag to see if it is it's inhabitants   that are doing the slaughtering and we're  recommended to enter through a undersea cavern.   It's really the only option you have though  since the main entrance is locked. Inside you're   supposed to meet with a freindly Riekling and  escort him through the cave to gain entrance to   the castle. HOWEVER, this guy looks exactly like  the other Rieklings who attack you the instant   they see you. The game kinda conditions you to  instantly attack any percieved enemy you notice,   especially if you're a marksman, so that you won't  have to bother with fighting them in close combat.   So that's exactly what I did. Now NORMALLY in the  other main quests you'd get a notice saying that   the thread of prophecy has been severed and yada  yada yada to let you know that the main quest has   failed and is impossible to proceed with. Here  though you're told nothing of the sort until   you eventually figure it out when you reach the  entrance and are told that you're not allowed   in without an invite of its owner. So console  commands it is. But you also need that specific   Riekling with you later, so now you also have to  modify the quest flag. It's so weird that this   happens when every single important NPC in the  other parts prompts this message when they die. After exploring the castle we find  that Karstaag the giant is also gone,   abducted by werewolves apparently. When you  return to the shaman you are told of the   Bloodmoon prophecy and it turns out everything  is in order for it to be fulfilled. Hircine,   the daedric prince of the hunt, the huntsman and  the father of the manbeasts will walk the earth   once an era and initiate a great hunt where he  is the hunter and whomever he chooses is to be   the hunted. Once you og to sleep you will wake and  be surrounded by werewolves and then teleported to   the Mortrag Glacier. In here you are expected to  fight your way through a labyrinth consisting of   werewolves and the other 3 that had been abducted.  This is by far the hardest stretch in the entire   game. This place is filled to the brim with  enemies giving you little to no time for rest so   make sure to bring a lot of potions and your best  gear. There are 3 areas you need to get through.   In the first we meet the captain who helps us  and voluntairs to stay behind to have our back.   Next we meet Tharsten who Carius warned us about  since he got a bad vibe from him and sure enough,   he already has the key and attacks us halfway in.  Next is a big hall with the frost giant Karstaag   standing in the middle. He'll attack us on sight  and after he's dealt with Hircine himself appears. He asks you to choose the hunter's most  important attribute. I chose the aspect of guile,   but I don't know what's supposed to happen. I  think it might have something to do with his   fighting style, but I'm not entirely sure, they  never really made that clear. I just killed him   like I've killed all the other gods, by running  around and pelting him with darts. Be sure to   loot everything from him though, because the  minute you exit the box his body disappears.   I missed the spear, but honestly spears suck  so it's not a big deal. It's just the best   spear in the game after all. Once you leave  through the portal you get this incredibly loud   cut-scene and that's it. Again, it feels kinda  anti-climactic, not gonna lie. There's no Azura   to greet us this time around either, we're  just dropped into the middle of the tundra. But that's the thing about Morrowind. It never  really ends. The main quests are there just to   show you around. Show you the places you can  og and sights you can experience. There's no   real time limit either, which means you can  stop in the middle of whatever you're doing   and og do something else instead. The  real game starts when the main quest   is over. The entirety of Vvardefell is at your  disposal. Help the people, read up on the lore,   become grandmaster of any number of factions you  choose, the sky is the limit. You don't have to do   this all with the same character either. Create a  new one, og for a completely different play-style,   do things out of order. The most fun you'll  have in Morrowind is when you know what's   about to happen. If you're looking for new  content there's a wealth of add-ons out there,   one that even aims to make the entire region of  Morrowind accessable. And when you've exhausted   that too, og into the construction set and make  a spell that will kill the entirety of Balmora! The replay value of this game is immense, and  every time I replay it I get sucked into it's   world. Morrowind is probably the most immersive  RPG I've ever played. Whenever I sat down I   instantly lost track of time, and there truly  aren't many games that do that for me these days. So I guess the only thing left for our hero  is to continue helping out the people of   Morrowind until the end of time… OR he can just  fuck right off to Akavir… Thanks Bethesda..
Info
Channel: FromHerotoZero
Views: 184,603
Rating: undefined out of 5
Keywords: FromHerotoZero, from, hero, to, zero, video, game, review, Morrowind, The Elder Scrolls, Bethesda, Retrospective, PC, Oblivion, Skyrim, Steam, Bloodmoon, Tribunal
Id: E2CAa-ygaQg
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 83min 12sec (4992 seconds)
Published: Sat Nov 30 2019
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