Hi and thanks for stopping by! My name is Alek and I make old fashioned Elder Scrolls analysis videos, mostly of Morrowind and Skyrim, two games I play the most. My content is often lengthy and I take my time getting to the point, so be warned. I do everything by myself (writing, editing & narrating) so content is subjective and is an expression of my personality and style of writing. Also, english isn't my native language.
As for the reason I'm doing all of this, I started making content after being diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer in late 2021, so in a way this channel reflects my journey and battle with the disease. Returning to my favorite game helped me a lot. I never thought of myself as a content creator, yet here I am. So, don't take my videos too seriously and enjoy the ride.
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Fr I always wished the silver hand and vigil were joinable factions
Love that story about your first run in with a Vigilant duo. The game always has those nice moments I suppose that stick in your mind. For me it was the Necromancer Bounty Officer (not actually a thing, just a weird implication of how the game works with the "Hired Thugs" event being able to be sent after you for a crime you committed against someone already dead), and the first time I saw a Legion Patrol on the road (Helped me kill a Saber Cat that was just a bit too tough for my level 2 butt to take) and following along with them as they talked about the War, and why they're there, and their hopes and dreams. Nice little moment.
Near as I could figure myself (not some "Lore Master" or anything, just following along with stuff in games)... Magnus was apparently a mortal who ascended to godhood kinda like Tiber Septim. And it was his ascension that poked holes in Aetherius to create Stars (and the Sun) from which magic flows to Nirn. It's weird because it's all based on stuff from the Mythic Era and most stuff I see about the Mythic Era kind of reminds me of White Wolf's Mage: The Awakening. Which if you don't know, the backstory to that is long long ago, in the before time... reality kind of... didn't exist? Or rather didn't exist in a permanent state. Basically anyone with the will to overpower anyone else nearby and the imagination could make up what reality was at their whims. If they wanted to say the world was all made out of Chocolate Pudding and that 1930s Cartoon Physics of everything being alive and gooey/stretchy was the norm... then it was. In a highly localized area. Until someone else could rest it away and decide that the world should be entirely made up of free flowing energy and no one has a solid body/presence at all... and so on. So think of a time where physical laws didn't exist. Gravity didn't exist. Electromagnetism didn't exist. Everything we know was subject to "Whatever some local sorcerer king asshat thinks at the moment". And eventually in Mage: The Awakening that was fixed by a cabal of people who decided to tap into the minds of the common man to create what they called "pattern". Basically the physical laws of reality so that anyone trying to warp them would get a snap back in "Paradox" instead of changing reality at a whim (Funny enough they're the villains of the game, the people who decided to create the idea of SCIENCE! and permanent reality instead of complete and total anarchy). And from what I understand the chaos of the Mythic Era was basically ended by Shor/Lorkahn doing a similar thing. Creating laws of reality for that setting so the world had permanence (and I guess similarly the Elves see him as the world's greatest villain for doing that). But it's all based in a time where stuff was pretty insane. And thus hard for me to follow. Because most everything you "know" from the setting kind of didn't exist or existed in flux or wasn't really a thing (like Aedra and Daedra didn't exist back then really?).
Help needed! 1- Is this your full mod list in the right order ? 2- What is the cheapest budget PC I could play this exact build on? I found a very cheap HP elite desk G1 with 16gb ddr3 pc3-12800, 256gb SSD, I7 4770, however, with no dedicated GPU, only an Intel HD Graphics 4600. Would it be enough ? Thanks
The Simulacrum was the events of Arena. Where Jagar Tharn took over by disguising himself as Uriel Septim the VII, after banishing him to the void. It's interesting that Tamriel Rebuilt's team would reference it. Bethesda themselves basically refuse to touch that time period with a 10 foot pole beyond saying "the Eternal Champion saved the day". Mostly because a lot of what we saw/experienced in Arena got retconned out of existence. Like the only things that that stuck around was... Dagoth Ur (It was the location of Red Mountain in Arena and one of the plot related dungeons) and the existence of the Mage's Guild. One might nitpick to say other things like "The Blades" existed but not really. As the Blades in them were just a street gang in a particular city, not what we know them as now. Oh, I suppose the College of Winterhold also. But yeah, just weird because Bethesda doesn't really reference it at all. Mostly because Arena had a very strict canon which the rest of the games didn't. Like your character is a known figure in Arena. While you can make up anyone you want the manual and everything says exactly who you are. Talin Warhaft, adopted son of General Warhaft (Who you might recognize as a name from the guy who penned in game the books the Manual of Arms and Manual of Armor in later games). And Talin was supposed to have a role as being Uriel's right hand man after saving him and help with ruling the Empire. A role that went to Ocato instead. And had a lot of things that just were dropped and forgotten entirely. Like religions that existed in there like the Brotherhood of Seth. Or Relics that never carried on like King Orgham's Coffer (which to be fair, wasn't the most impressive relic, but it was one). Or cities that never got referenced again. Or Kings and Rulers who never got referenced again (though they did suggest in Daggerfall there was a lot of bloody... house cleaning...). Daggerfall gets referred to as "The Warp in the West" starting with Morrowind's base game. Where they created the idea of the "Dragon Break". Because Daggerfall itself had 7 distinct endings the player might have chosen. And Bethesda staff had said they were so afraid that people would feel "betrayed" if they picked one or established a canon for that game at all (A bizarre belief to me, I've never seen that happen in RPGs with multiple endings, where the fan base boycotted or otherwise abandoned a series because a canon option was picked), and boycott the game over it, that they created the in game book "Where were you when the dragon broke?" in Morrowind to say that basically every single ending both did and did not happen in this confusing jumble of time shenanigans. Though plus side the "Warp in the West" did mean good things. For example the Warp in the West is why Orcs are a playable race in Morrowind onward (One of the ending was the Orc King Gortwog getting the power to basically establish orcs as a recognized citizen race of Tamriel instead of just as monsters for people to fight). Also why Oblivion's Mage's Guild plot exists (Mannimarco became the Necromancer's Moon and thus allows the creation of Black Soul Gems as we see in that plotline, while also NOT becoming the Necromancer's Moon so you can have a really disappointing boss fight against a pathetic version of the guy from Daggerfall). But on the flip side it meant the three "main" Kingdoms of the Illiac Bay (Daggerfall, Wayrest, and Sentinel) basically deleted every other Kingdom and annexed them (Which will be sad if the Elder Scrolls 6 does go back there, it means a less rich and varied world with the idea of different Kingdoms and cultures).
Yeah that's one thing I remember from another person streaming Tamriel Rebuilt content (still haven't done it myself). That part of the map being filled with daedra like every 10 steps. Absolutely insane. I also hate Ancestral Tombs in Morrowind. mostly because they're filled with enemies that damage strength and that's just... a pain in the ass to deal with. It's one of those effects like Burden which exists purely to annoy the player because enemies seem to never be bothered by it (I've never damaged strength on an enemy enough to matter, and I've never seen them succumb to a burden spell).
Necrophelia must be somewhat... not common but not rare. There's the one in Skyrim and one in Oblivion. That or a writer has a fetish they're writing into the game.
Just one hold? Ehhhhh
Some of the only new lore i love about Skyrim is the dragon cult, falmer, and forsworn. I hope that the mod implements some of the new lore mixed with the old lore. So this mod can feel very lore friendly even in the modern elder scrolls lore.
Though the "Seen any elves? HA HA HA HA!" voice line got a lot creepier for me when I was playing Skyrim: Home of the Nords. Because well... there's not many elves around at all. Comes off more like bragging that they slaughtered them all and buried them in a mass grave outside of town. Yeah. I do hate that with the Factions in Morrowind. From "You slept in the wrong bed inside our faction base with beds for members" and you can't actually tell which one is "Free for Members" and which one is "Kick you out for using it" at times, to "You picked up a blank piece of paper from a desk". Slight benefit to Oblivion and Skyrim I suppose. While they'll kick you out for similar reasons you can't sleep in a bed that isn't yours to use (so that's no longer an issue), and things are marked as if you're Stealing or Not so you know "oh this is free for members" and "This will get me expelled".
Yeah that's something I missed from the later Universally Scaling games and such. There's a nice feeling when you run into someone who can kick your ass. So you run away. You do the movie style training montage of getting stronger, then you come back to crush them. It's a nice feeling that's missing when every enemy in the world is equally tough to you and such.
There is also the Guy in the Dwemer Ruin. I forgot his name. The Peryte Quest, i mean.
Very good choices, from interesting story telling to just challenges to cover the world without speaking from one end to the other.
Story writing in bethesda's games really began falling off the cliff part way through oblivion, take the dark brotherhood's storyline in oblivion after a certain point, started off with a bit of darkness which grew until it ended with a whimper,
Well the Imperial Cult is probably my favorite faction overall in Morrowind's base game as well. I love that the Faction tells you, right from the start, "You can never be a real member of it and you will never lead it, because you're an adventurer and we only take life long devotees to the ranks. But you can be a lay worshiper and lay cleric". And they stick to it. There is no arc where you randomly murder the crap out of your boss to steal his title like you're Star Trek's Klingons. It's such a stupid moment in every other quest line when it happens I roll my eyes. Because well, as one piece of Star Trek fiction wrote (Trying to backpedal that whole idea)... "No Klingons don't. Because you could see the brightest engineer in a century die to someone with half his IQ but twice his brutality.". It's a horrible way to work out leadership. I'd cut some slack for the Dunmer factions because overall the idea they keep showing in the story is that they're based on backwards tradition and inefficiencies and bad ideas, but can't change because the regressive forces are literal Gods among their people enforcing it. So it makes sense that say, that the Tribunal Temple wants you to murder your way to the top. It's a regressive "Might makes Right" philosophy that their Tribunal embraces. As that's the very nature of their godhood, they stole the ability to use the tools on the heart and become gods. They are gods because of force of arms. But it annoys me when Imperial Factions like the Legion do this "Duel to the death over a title" thing, or the Fighter's Guild, or Thieves' Guild, or Mages' Guild. Because these are institutions in what is then a modern and reformed continent spanning empire that should recognize taht Rule of Law and virtues are more important than "... well I can beat you up in a fight..." for figuring out leadership. Granted it'd also be nice if leadership MEANT anything. They're all empty titles. I mean I can be the Grandmaster of the Morag Tong and still get kicked out of the Morag Tong for sleeping in the Grandmaster's bed... Then you have the Imperial Cult. They don't make you the leader of a faction that you'd be incapable of leading anyway. I like that. They also provide you multiple paths to progress up the ranks until the finale arc. So multiple types of characters can advance from those who are Charisma Focused, or Magical Focused, or Fighter Focused. It's a nice touch that I wish more factions did. Like I don't mind that the Fighter's Guild doesn't have a "Be a Mage" path. But you'd think the Great Houses for instance could have borrowed that. Or even the Tribunal Temple. You got three gods, three different things they do, embrace it. But also all the deeds you do are pretty much just good deeds. Like the Tribunal Temple will tell you to do sketchy stuff like murder a guy who thinks he's the Incarnate. But the worst thing I remember the Imperial Cult asking you to do was... steal back something that was already stolen from them. Plus their faction will take you to find some interesting things and rewards like Mara's gear or the Boots of the Apostle which I first found doing the Imperial Cult. The only complaint I ever had about the Imperial Cult is the difficulty spike in the Shrine Sergeant path. First one is easy. Go to this little village and get back a thing (Silver Engraved bowl I think?). You don't even have to fight really. Second one though kicked my butt as it went from that to the Caldera house where you fight Ghosts and Skeletons that will wreck your day if you haven't been serious about working out and gaining power.
The Legion was hit and miss for me in Skyrim. I liked that it was the one faction that actually had a clear sense of ranks to move up through. That was nice. Even if the ranks were meaningless titles it felt nice to get told "You're a Queastor now" and such. I liked Tullius, I thought he was a great, well written character with some serious charisma that most don't give him credit for. I liked Rikke as well as Tullius's counterpart, a far more interesting dynamic than Ulfric Stormcloak and "Might as well still be Ulfric, they think they same way" Galmar Stone-Fist. But by the time the faction gets to "Do this short task, storm the fort, repeat" and all the running back and forth to report in every step of the way? It kind of lost me. I think the game could have used more Random Encounter events. like Imperials and Stormcloaks on the road CAN fight each other. It's just rare that you'll spawn the two factions in two random encounter locations nearby enough to have it happen. But I feel like that sort of chaos was really needed. To do what Fallout 4 did so well. Don't just TELL us "X is Happening" but SEE it happening. Also think it could have used some counterattacks in it and feeling more like a back and forth instead of whatever side you are on marching straight to victory. Because... all the lore and characters around the Civil War are interesting. The Thalmor's involvement with Ulfric Stormcloak and inspiring him to take the path of rebellion. the Markarth Incident and how it furthered things towards chaos. The fact that they mention the reason there's so many abandoned forts and Bandit Holds out there is because the Civil War is draining their resources to protect the roads. The bitterness you see on display as people who used to be close to one another are now sworn enemies. But there's so much more they could have done with it. And I would have appreciated if say, the Skyrim Civil War almost borrowed from Morrowind's Imperial Cult quest structure. Where you have multiple paths up the ranks and then a finale to it. So if you were a Sneaky Thief character you might get spy and assassination missions and covert activities. If you were a Warrior you could have those Fort Battles if you wanted. If you were a Mage you might have quests to support the army with your magics. Maybe let crafters help by using their skills as well (and giving a good context other than "Grinding" to leveling up those skills). Like we know the Legion and Stormcloaks are both say, commissioning every blacksmith they can to make weapons and armor for them. So it's not even a huge leap. So instead of people crafting a ton of Iron Daggers (I tend to do arrows/bolts myself when grinding) for no good reason have them go and make gear for the Legion. Maybe actually have that reflected with them. Like if you start giving them better than Legion Gear they start showing up on missions using it. Or by crafting potions suddenly Legion Patrols you run into will have them to use. Or instead of them having an Imperial Sword, a Fire Enchanted Sword. I just think it could have had a lot of fun taken with it but it feels like after the Battle of Whiterun the quest writer for it just kind of gave up. Like going after the Jagged Crown was fun. I liked the idea of trying to politic by having secured this symbol and having a Stormcloaks vs Imperials vs Draugr dungeon. The Battle for Whiterun feels tense the first time you do it as suddenly all this stuff has changed with barricades, catapults, waves of soldiers, etc. It just needed some attention that I don't think I've ever seen a mod really attempt to fix. Like I've seen ones that try to fix the "Back and Forth" thing or making there be more big battles. but not things like "Well I'm a thief by skills... maybe I can be a spy for the Legion and Assassin and Scout?" instead of just fighting in big battles.
I figure the slow speed of leveling you mentioned is just the skills you have as Major and Minor. You're not using three of them at all really (Enchant, Medium Armor, and Restoration). Block is hard to level initially as well because you only get XP for it when you actually block, which at low levels you won't so much. And Speechcraft just takes a ton of effort to level up to the point where when I have characters trying to level it I basically have to try to Admire every single NPC I ever come across (in the base game) until either I've ruined their disposition so much that it's basically impossible to progress or I've maxed them out. And even then after doing that for most of the settlements in the base game I'd only have leveled it up like 15 times. Armorer is also one of those skills I've noticed levels very slowly normally. I mean you've done quite a bit of Speechcraft and Armorer and I don't think you've leveled it once by this point? Yeah. Odd mix of basically skills you're not using and skills that are hard to level or skills that require you to let things happen (like Heavy Armor). Probably compared to other runs where you either had skills you were naturally grinding (like Restoration because why not) or were easier to grind (like Athletics and Acrobatics) as Major/Minor skills. Magic Skills in particular (outside of Enchanting where you get a pittance of XP every time you use an enchanted item) level up absurdly fast compared to things like armor skills or Speechcraft/Mercantile so if you ever ran people using a lot of magic in their Major/Minor you probably noticed that as well. It's just a weird thing in the game I've noticed about what levels up at what rate with basically Weapon Skills being the fastest (Hand to Hand in particular), Magic Skills (Outside of Enchanting) the next. Then Athletics and Acrobatics. And then you have the rest that can be a pain in the ass to level up outside of getting Training. Which is a good part of your list.
I love how so many people do kind of have the default races they go to. Since Morrowind introduced them, it's always been Imperials for me. Since before that there weren't really Imperials and the lore for Cyrodiil was that it was just basically a massive melting pot of every other race. But in Oblivion, Skyrim, and even ESO they're my default go to. Even though I recognize they're less useful in Morrowind compared to Ice Immune Nords or Fire Resistant Dunmer or really most any other pick. Too much of an "all rounder" to really stand out. But probably another part of why I like them. Their all rounder status fits well for the learn by doing grow as you will style.
That comment about how weird it feels to play Axe is kind of one of those systems in Morrowind I really loved. Every weapon felt different and had its advantages. Like Axes were all about Chop damage so you had to plant your feet before committing to an attack. As opposed to most Longblades that were about Slashes so you had to be sidestepping into an attack. Or spears being about Thrusts so you had to be moving forward or backwards while attacking. Or Staves being relatively weak all around but they had the most Enchantment charges on them to make up for it long as a fight didn't drag on too long. It gave each weapon its own subtle combat style. Which most people bypass by turning on "always use best attack" in the options menu, sadly. So if I'm using a War Axe and shield character I am distinctly playing the game and its combat differently than if I was using a Dai-katana. And then you look at the future games where really there isn't a difference. There's slight variations in base damage and weapon speed but they're also designed to average out so the DPS is the same regardless if you're using some one handed sword or two handed warhammer. I know it's weird because most people say "Combat is the worst part of Morrowind" but I always felt it was actually the best part and best in the series. Because To Hit chances are tied heavily to weapon skill it means Skill Trainers are actually valuable and useful (Unlike Oblivion where I never used them, and Skyrim where I only used them for Pickpocket because your odds are so terrible starting out you NEED training to have better than a 40% chance to pinch your first coinpurse, spending up towards 800 gold in training so you can have better than a 50% chance to steal someone's 8 septim coinpurse... man the series really hates pickpockets for some reason and always has). They're also plentiful (in say, there's almost as many trainers for the Axe skill alone as there are total skill trainers in Skyrim and Oblivion). And as you learn combat and favor weapons it means you approach situations very differently on that fundamental level. Because Axes require you to plant your feet to Chop, well you're more likely to invest in Heavy Armor or Block. Knowing you got to let people take a shot at you and you can't dodge so much. Because Spears are all about zoning and poking you can try to dance away from some attacks and might favor lighter (or even no) armor to keep your speed up, etc. It all kind of ties in where every combat system feeds another. From the need to keep Stamina up (And thus the advantage of training Athletics), to what your weapon kind of forces you to do in combat, to how that impacts armor choices, etc.
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Harbinger "The cicle of revenge can't continue" Companions minutes later "Let's kill them aaaaall!"
The idea of an Ashlander Language is nice. It's one of those things I missed from Daggerfall going onwards. Where Daggerfall actually had a lot of different "Speechcraft" skills. Etiquette which helped with Nobles and Merchants, Streetwise which helped with Peasants and Criminals, then minor languages like Daedric, Nymph, Dragonish, Giantish, etc. Including like I did in my last run, being able to even resolve quests through them (Fighter's Guild sent me to kill a Giant but I apparently passed a Giantish Check and got to talk to them and convince them to leave instead of just outright murder). It's one of those things I'd love to see come back. Gives some much needed Roleplay in that not only can you have alternate solutions to quests (like with that Giant for me in Daggerfall), but it also lets you better define and play your character. Are you being some British Tourist basically who when confronted with Natives thinks that speaking your language Slower, Louder, and with Arm Gestures will make them magically understand you? Or are you struggling because you only know some passing phrases and aren't fluent? Did you pick up fluency in something like Nymph and why? Do you speak like an Aristocrat or a Peasant? Etc. But I guess the reference in Morrowind to that one NPC is the last we're going to see if Speech skills being more interesting.
I think Fjola saying that we'll meet again just meets that we might come upon her bandits and assumedly they'd know to leave us alone
Rigel reminded me of one line that Xelzaz sometimes says fighting bandits, "What drove you to bandicy? Poverty? Violent tendencies? Absent parents? All of the above?"
Thank you for sharing ! Skyrim forever 😊
I hoped you would read Kodak’s journal to kind of spread some light on why he chose you as the harbinger.
With the anniversary giving the mission "Unholy Vigil" gave us 4 heavy armour sets, enforcer, veteran, corrupted and silver-hand, I like to think that they are still very active in High-Rock and Cyrodiil and we may see something of them in ES6.
Loved the fist one excited for this one
Great video mate I resply enjoyed it
Not a big deal in the long run, but making a video about bandits and having very few bandits in it is quite funny. Still subbed
Great shots. Your cinematography is excellent
When they make the silver hand wield silver weapons but the silver is pointless and doesn’t do extra damage to werwolves… they do extra damage to undead creatures… Like wtf I wanna see the silver sword catch fire if we equip it as a werewolf or something cool lol but nooooo the developers gave up halfway through everything…
"THE CLAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWW!!" {/threeeyedspacealien}
Great video. I’m a big fan of the Vigilants. They’re close to paladins, which I always gravitate toward.
Fjori and Holgeir are just Skyrim’s versions of Oma and Shu from Avatar the Last Airbender. Change my mind. (You can’t.) P.S. This is 100% just me being silly at 1am. Don’t take me seriously.
Both stories are basically Romeo and Juliet. But R&J isn't supposed to be a romantic tale; it's a story about how vengeance destroys everything beautiful, even love.
The Thalmor Dominion loathe anyone who is not of "pure blood"
The Airships are interesting. Because we see crashes of them twice now. But it seems like one of those things that gets mentioned but will never be in the games. Like going all the way back to Arena they had a question for character generation about Telepaths. Which stuck through all the way to Morrowind. But you never actually run into a Telepath really (with a few dubious questions that I might count like Lu'ah al-Skaven in Skyrim, who communicates with you through the dungeon? But they never frame that up as Telepathy). Similarly even with the next game supposedly being in the Illiac Bay again, I don't expect to see Redguard Swordsingers. Or Airships. Or Telepaths. Sad. It's almost more intriguing because they don't actually show it off. But since the concepts keep being mentioned and (in a limited sense) shown off... I often wonder if it's even a real thing in setting (in regards to Telepathy or Swordsingers and such). Or if it's just some flight of fancy people have in Tamriel about it. Entirely fictional to the setting with some people convinced there is a "Real" version there.
I have say, I wouldn't mind an NPC named "Snowberry". Comes off as a nice insulting nickname that someone might have given a character, and they didn't realize it was insulting.
Ebon-light enjoyers eating good soon
Maybe windhelm couldn't bare to have claw anymore so a payment or gift take it.
There's a mod that adds the Berserkers and Frye's Hags back into Skyrim.
i think another explanation for dunmer vigilantes, beyond a natural predeliction for their skillset is that a lot of Skyrim dunmer would likely have been refugees from morrowind, or have some experience related to that and of any group in Skyrim likely to help refugees, the cult of the apparently quite popular divine of mercy is probably up there, and you can obviously see how this could lead to some taking up the otherwise odd role of wandering skyrim to protect the locals