How do I play Morrowind?

[Multidirectional]

Play with your dick.












Faggot.

 

[Reapa]

You don't, it's garbo.

your mother

 

[Black]

You're not Black

 

[Jarmaro]

Spoiler

I played entire previous day without posting, so I may do couple of mistakes

So I went to Ald'ruhn and gave Edwina her book. Then she wanted me to bring her potion from Sadrith Mora. After that she ordered me to go to Maar Gan and check some guy house, beceause something was not right. Went there, killed scamp and met naked guy in the storage, where scamp closed him. He wanted to be amazing mage. Well, shit. Back to Edwina, she wants me to steal book from Vivec guild. Nothing hard, but it was strange to just walk into mage room, open the doors and take book, all while she was looking on me. Returned book to Edwina, she wanted me to turn book where I stole it. Easy again.

I made custom levitation spell, very easy to cast and not mana hungry. Now everything will be easier. My next quest is to find Dwemer Tube in dwemer ruins. So I took slider to Gnisis and went there. During my travel I came across woman who wanted my help. She said she lost ring in the pond down there. I looked for ring, but for unknown reason bitch attacked me. And she had help of invisible archer. Killed them, turned out archer had 80% chameleon for 60 s Amulet of Shadows. Broken af. By the way, woman had pretty convincing story, she said she can't water her clothes beceause she's dancer. Continued journey to ruins, saw daedra ruins on the horizont. Decided to go there. There was bandit camp nearby, 2 easy guys. Dunno what did they want to Achieve here.

Daedra ruins was pretty fun. Deadroth on the start, then Dremora with Daedric battlexe, some wizard. In big chamber I had to fight 2 dremora lords and mage. Coudln't do it so used Amulet of Shadows. Broken, I could walk right into them and they couldn't find me. Caught Winged Twilight soul, maybe I can enchant osmething powerful now. Looted much valuable staff here, daedra weapons, ebony, constant effect items. Marked place and used Almsivi to go back to Balmora and store staff. It's a pity I can't walk with Daedra staff, like in Gothic 3 when oyu could use staff as weapon but when in exploring mode it was still in your hand and character was using it to walk.

Recalled, went to dwemer ruins. Nothing really important, just another linear dungeon. Yes, there are some opportunities to use levitation but mostly in single rooms fors ome additional treasures. Found dwemer tube and went back to Edwina. Now she ordered me to go to another dwemer ruins for report. Hit on another Daedra ruins while traveling. Nothing interesting, just bunch of human warriors, dremoras and daedroth. Eventually I reached dwemer ruins, guy inside told me they are missing someone and I have to find him to ger report. I had to pull trigger in chamber with boilers, not very hard riddle but tricky. In lower ruins I killed some dwemer machines and found lost guy body. Delivered information about him, got report and recalled. Wanted advancment, she told me I can pay 5k drakes for required wizard staff or take on from wild mage near Dagon Fel. She also said that she needs dwemer blueprints from dwemer bleprints from Dagon Fel. So we go to Dagon Fel.

In the meantime got very depressing levle up screen. All others were optimistic and encouraging, this made me sad. Anyway, took boat to dagon fel. People here told me about necromancer in nearby tower. Went there, killed some people, looted nice ebony Sain't Sword. On the top of tower I fought necromancer, pretty tough. He dropped mask of Clavicius Vile. +30 personality, too bad I am khajiit. Found Daedric dagger as well, but it's worse than my bound dagger. Talked with some people in nearby shop, they were suprised by my exclusive clothes as I am khajiit. Went to dweme rruins, some tough fights with orcs. Later I found wizard's cave I looked for. Some skeletons and eventually easy wizard with my staff. Recalled, got advance. Turned out I forgot about blueprints, Fuuuuu... Went back to dwemer ruins, took blue prints and found strange book by accident, 1k worthy Egg of Time. Recalled, fave her blueprints, she gave me another mission. Yet again I have to bring her dwemer blueprints, this time from eggmine in Gnisis. Went there, found blueprints.. and another strange book written in dwemerish.

Spoke about advancment, they told me only Arch-mage is above me. And that they didn't like him. Spoke to him, his only answer was challenge me for duel to death in arena. I expected something diffrent from Mage guild. Fought in arena, guy died after one spell. Much challenge Looted very ncie amulet from him, Necromancer Amulet. Buff to Intelligence is very nice. And... that's it. Entire Mage Guild plot. Diasspointing. Arch-mage title is empty, most guild members except Edwina and other quest givers treat me like a stranger and don't care about me being archmage. It feels stupid. Another thing to check while playing oblivion. At this point I didn't know what do with myself beceause I didn't want to start main quest now, so just went to Balmora. Saw I have no mana, so I went to bed. And then assassin attacked. Tough. But he had Daedric Wakizashi, weapon I had been looking for entire time exploring Daedric Ruins. Well, eventually got it.

It's strange, but fighting with this weapon feels worse than with Bound Dagger. Maybe it's beceause bound counts as enchanted. I had nothing to do, so decided to explore coast. I planed it for a long time, I will just start from Vivec and travel all the way to Sheogorath Isles. First I found... Daedric Ruins. Again. This game isn't much diverse. Cave with bandits, ancestral tomb, dwemer ruins, 6th house strongholds or daedric ruins. That's all so far. I found nice items inside, yet have to say that Dremoras felt more powerful than before. Little level scalling? Anyway, found nice constant effect items for me. Left ruins and continued journey.

Saw little tomb, nothing special. Not so long after that I found Stronghold. I still don't know what is that room with pylons for, it says I need "Index". Anyway, explored stronghold, found nothing interesting.

I think I'll jsut continue my journey.

Spoiler

Yeah, it was a lot of text to write today. It gets easier the more I do it though.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

This thread needs more DraQ bitching and patronizing.

Please.

 

[octavius]

It's so weird (but wonderful) seeing someone playing a normal character, instead of the usual scantily clad female vampire with anime hair that comprised 99% of the character screenshots thread at the Bethstapo forums.
Almost makes me wanna replay Morrowind again now.

 

[Invictus]

It's so weird (but wonderful) seeing someone playing a normal character, instead of the usual scantily clad female vampire with anime hair that comprised 99% of the character screenshots thread at the Bethstapo forums.
Almost makes me wanna replay Morrowind again now.

Hehe I started out a spell mage kind of char, I probably have not played unmoded (save for Code Patch) Morrowind; it runs okish on my laptop and honestly 1024 resolution look fines with vanilla textures
Stil my favorite TES game; Daggerfall is nice but feels a bit too generic, the artstyle and tone of Morrowind is still unmatched even among current game... it really makes you feel like a visitor oj a foreign land

 

[Invictus]

Download this mod.

It will make the vanilla textures more detailed without actually being a "retexture".

Left: original, Right: uncompressed textures from my mod.

I used this on my laptop and it made things look better while keeping the vanilla look, the ground textures still look a bit rought but overall pretty good

 

[Elwro]

Thanks for this thread, jarmaro , and do continue please!

 

[Jarmaro]

Spoiler

I see I wrote some vast digressions today, don't mind me

The surroundings looked diffrent for a momet, many tall rocks coming out of the water, on the gorund too, they looked like teeth. Walked a lot (actaully levitated, beceause it's damn useful, can't believe one can not use it) and eventually reached Molag Maar. Rumors, talks, that sort of thigns. It reminded me of something Ajiira said, about Staff Of Magnus nearby Molag Maar. So I'll look for it. At one point I saw Daedric Ruins, but I was tired of them so I just passed them. Don't know why I decided to explore another Tomb, on the other hand. It was actually worth it, found awesome constant effect robe with Feather spell. Looks nice, except for some reason there's hole in it, lack of testure at on place. But it's little, so it doesn't matter. Morrowind's dungeon design is mostly very simple, but it feels as if they wanted to do something with it, make it more diverse. I cannot remember dungeon in skyrim in which one had to go underwater. Or even had to swim.

Continued looking for Mount Kand, in which Staff was. Saw another Daedric ruins, this time I explored them. Nothing new. There's problem with Morrowind terrarin, everything (at last the most) looks the same. I cannot remember a single orientation point, if game had far draw then it would be Red Mountain, but except buildings you can count only on map. Or maybe I am just newfag, beceause I spent some time looking for entrance. I simply didn't understand which hill was mountain. Anyway, found cave. Few mages to kill, not a big deal. Nice design touch, last mage with staff was in large cave, but to get to mage you had to use levitation, like a real mage you were. Staff wasn't as good as I thought, but still nice. Went back to my journey.

Explored one tomb. Saw YET another Daedric Ruins. Don't know why I went there. That was a mistake that made me rage. Inside I fought few mages and warriors, as always, but that last game drave me insane. He simply started punching me. I couldnt go away beceause I had no fatigue and his range of hit was so ridiculous I couldn't do anything. But that was only a begining, eventually I casted levitation and that motherfucker started to running around. I never used target spells beceause touch ones were much more economic and mana-wise, so had only one casual fireball from shop. And couldn't hit single one beceause I was slowed beceause of long levitation and he was running like maniac here and there. At last I killed him. I wish I could defile corpses in this game.
By he way, if Dremora can tell me that it will kill me and then rape my body, why cannot I say the same? Game doesn't allow me to give my character any sort of personality, I can only chose yes or no, everything happens in my head.

Went back to Molag Mar to take slider and store stuff, stopped for a moment when saw group of argonians and khajiits slaves in the corner. You can really see slavery thing here, even those bowls they eat from on the right. In dialoges you can't straight ask people about slavery (at least I couldn't), but you can ask them about khajiits or argonians. In that case they tell you that they are beats and savages, thus they don't care. It's little strange when you play as Khajiit like me and you can't react. They are slaves from other races though, yet much fewer. It's normal view on Vvardenfell, yet it's rather subtle from the perspective of player. At least that was my experience.

Went back to my journey, to make proper island contour on the map traveled by water. Saw some strange Ald'ruhn architectonic-like building. Inside I fought some people who attacked me for no reason, in the other part of building I found corpse with awesome levitation enchanted dagger. Not constant, but 50 pts for 60 second and 1100~ charge is much. Outside I walked until I saw statue. Turned out it's Azura's shrine. Inside, her second statue gave me task to stop Sheogorath from cheating in their divine bet, no problem... except one thing. I have to mention one stupid thing about this quest. She said I have to go on little island near Dagon Fel. I don't know, maybe this BITCH HAS NEVER SEEN SHEOGORAD REGION MAP. THERE ARE MANY LITTLE ISLANDS. Had to use internet to discover which island she meant. Anyway, went there and first saw Golden Saint near the shack.
She had sheogorad ring with her, so I assume if Sheogorath gave me this quest that's what I would get as reward. Purged island from Sheogorad monsters and went back to Azura. She gave me Azura's star, awesome soul gem. Not sure if that was worth the effort.

Back on the road. Explored Dwemer ruins, at this point nearly every Ruins looks the same. It may be beceause they are all built from the same textures, no diffrences between each. Another Daedric ruins, usuall stuff. Ancestral tomb, same. In the sand storm I strayed and found Ashlanders Camp. They weren't much talkative. Sand storm changed into Red sand storm. Found some strange pages from book, but didn't find owner. However, i found Argonian slavee who escaped. He asked me to take him to Argonian mission in Ebnoheart. I did it with Rahini, so will i with him. It's worth it anyway. They pay much. Traveling with people is very annoying, especially when you have 100 speed and must stop every second and wait for them. Especially when pathfinding is bad and you are swimming to Sadrith Mora. In Sadrith we took boat to Ebonheart. As before, argonian ambassador(?)
rewarded me, this time with artifact.

At this point I lost my need of adventure and decided to do Main Quest. Went Cassious Cossades and took my first orders. When he said me to make some contacts and join some guild he probably didn't expect me come back as Archmage. Well, happens. He ordered me go to guy in fight guild and ask him for informations about Nerevarine Cult and Sixth House. He said first I must do something for him and sent me to nearby Dwemer Ruins for Dwemer Box. Went there without hesitation.

Further events shall be described in next episode.
To Be Continued...

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

Oh, the Dwemer box. Good luck finding it without a walkthru, lol.

The main quest is seriously fun, do it.

 

[Jarmaro]

I remember killing Nord mage on the bridge, he was hard enemy beceause he was strong on his own plus I was attacked by Cliff Racer. If someone went main quest right after coming from Seyda Neen, that would be even harder. My first hard enemy was doors. Specificly, stone doors(sphere?) to Dwemer ruins. Took me minute to find "lever". Inside were only low level bandits, I wiped them out. Liked how it looked, that big cave and ramp your going down. Started from second floor, found Dwemer Box at once. Well, that was quick. I remember when I first time played Morrowind years ago (and threw away after few hours, as I mentioned before) and big problems I had with finding this box, I think I used walktrough that time. I heard about hard to find Dwemer Box meme and my own problems with it, while it just lays right on the start, which leads me to other topic: What did designers think when they were making this dungeon?

I've seen many Dwemer ruins in this game and so far it may be the most complex of them. Why did they do so big dungeon and place box right on the start? They wanted to make it easy and leave all "treasures" for those who have desire for it? Or maybe it was only a clever trick, to put it on the start where noone will look for it? Or simply bad design choice. Or wonderful desgin choice beyond my comprehension. During my Dwemer artifacts hunting for mage guild I always found them in the last room. Maybe somewhere in internet makers spoke about it, will check it later. Anyway, I explored entire dungeon, really liked large flooded cave on the end of one paths. It had many levels and I needed to levitate to reach them. It's a pity I haven't seen more things of that scale later. Destroyed place with lava was nice too. But my digression went too far, time to go forward.

Eventually I went back to guy in fighters guild, who told me some about Nerevarine cult and 6th gouse, gave me his notes as well. Back to Caiuss, he needed more informations so I was sent to another informator, she-orc scholar in mage guild. I decided to regenrate through sleeping, had a interesting dream (you can see it above). Orc in mage guild said she won't give me info until I bring her a skull from some tomb. So called "Fetch quest". But wait, haven't I found such skull? Turned out I've actually found her before and had it in inventory beceause it had name so I thought I can give to someone. Very pleasant coincidence. She gave me her notes, I went back to Caiuss. Now he sent me to Vivec, I have to find another 3 informators.

To be continued...

Spoiler

This one is short, beceause it's late. Tomorrow morning I am going to write more.

 

[Jarmaro]

Do you like this form of posting? Or maybe you want me to change something? Feel free to say.

 

[Old One]

You're doing just fine in my opinion!

 

[Campion]

I don't visit this website often but this thread makes me happy. Keep doing it!

 

[North Gibraltarian Dog]

Good job jamaro. Every thread about the Codex 7th all-time favorite "crpg" will be welcome.

Anyway, I want to comment some things you said:

but worlds feels a little empty and speaking of views except cities there's nothing to remember, outside towns everything looks the same

and

There's problem with Morrowind terrarin, everything (at last the most) looks the same. I cannot remember a single orientation point, if game had far draw then it would be Red Mountain, but except buildings you can count only on map.

And this is very, very doubtful. Most other mediocre aspects or lacks in the original dynamics that you cite, are subjective opinions (some ot, I'm agree with) or obvious facts, but Morrowind is whatever you want less "empty" or with very little variety in anything, specially in comparison with... well, near every other game. (more places density ever, and more item/statics diversity than most).

I see two main reasons at least for this feeling of disorientation that you as a lot of players experience (and that many love):

1. The landscape design is intentionally "confusing", or more exactly intend to hide landscape elements (with all these annoying, little, longitudinal hills with many courves along the paths and the profussion of ugly trees, bushes, muh mushrooms or rocks deliberatelly placed). This for both, gameplay dynamics and purely landscape design purposes, yes separately, because Morrowind really focus the world representation as a true goal itself, the miriad of subtle non gameplay dependant world details -as DraQ has shown magistrally ocasionally- being another good example of this orientation in Morrowind design toward worldbulding itself.

2. The game don't help the player with strategic very visible landmarks (there are, and very "unique", but equally "hided" and in the same style than other elements of the geographic or cultural zone) offering also a very compartmentalized landscape, that works as a soft "labyrinth", a simbolic and scaled representation of a way bigger (10.000? 50.000 times bigger?) "real life" island. In comparison, in Skyrim for example, the developers work on a similar ultra-scaled map but without trying to represent the landscape diversity or different parts/spaces of the 1:1 scale, 500.000 square kilometers country. In Skyrim or Witcher 3, you walk around an extremly small map representing entire countries, but without all the enormous quantity of visual barriers, diversity of places and compartmentalization of the big spaces, and not even a simbolic scaled representation of diverse possible routes.

Morrowind did all this (in a very primitive manner, but as no other game...) and in consequence not only some people experimented this feeling of disorientation, or emptiness (remember MW have more places than SKY/TW3!), but the smaller Morrowind map (reaaaaally smaller) feels and indeed is experimented, in temporal sense, as equal or even bigger than SKY/TW3.

 

[Invictus]

Yup that box is a doozy and maybe the main culprit for the damn quest markers in subsequent TES games
I can see Todd coming up with that fix "why cant we just have this huge marker" and his minions looking at him shinning with Godrays
Jarmaro
Looks like you are having fun and yeah Morrowind's dungeons are kind of simple in design and smallish but since most have a quest related to them and hand placed items you can get at least a few quality items out of a trip

 

[Barnabas]

When I first played Morrowind I was a book thief. Septims can be hard to come by early on and books are worth quite a good sum. There is a stronghold in Solthesism that had a lot of books.
I always went back to Seyda Neen and visited Fargoth, he was my best friend there (he probably wondering if I died).
I usually steal the dead nobles house in Balmora and lay my loot out on the tables (I spend quite a while arranging things (in case Fargoth comes to visit unexpectedly).
If you're fancy like me you will always have an exquisite set of clothes that you wear once you enter a friendly city. Most people in the province will judge you but once they get to know n wah they realize the error of their deep prejustice.
Stick to the roads first as you are weak and you can always trust your kin, the Kjheits.

I've tried to get the overhaul mod to work countless times and it's never been successful. Reading your walk though makes me want to play again.

 

[Jarmaro]

1. The landscape design is intentionally "confusing", or more exactly intend to hide landscape elements (with all these annoying, little, longitudinal hills with many courves along the paths and the profussion of ugly trees, bushes, muh mushrooms or rocks deliberatelly placed). This for both, gameplay dynamics and purely landscape design purposes, yes separately, because Morrowind really focus the world representation as a true goal itself, the miriad of subtle non gameplay dependant world details -as DraQ has shown magistrally ocasionally- being another good example of this orientation in Morrowind design toward worldbulding itself.

Why would they make not interesting landscape? What has world representation to do with this? I've seen DraQ showing us details as people clothes or hidden details, but I don't remember him speaking about landscape or wilderness.

The game don't help the player with strategic very visible landmarks (there are, and very "unique", but equally "hided" and in the same style than other elements of the geographic or cultural zone) offering also a very compartmentalized landscape, that works as a soft "labyrinth", a simbolic and scaled representation of a way bigger (10.000? 50.000 times bigger?) "real life" island.

Not sure what do you mean, I've seen typical green areas, vulcanic, islands (I think there's diffrence between Azura's coast and Sheogorad) and Bitter coast, they help me say in which part of the world I am but that's standard. I must disagree about skyrim, I remember it having many diverse landscapes. Speaking of scale, I cannot say it's very important. Daggerfall done something like that and I think Morrowind's way was better.

In comparison, in Skyrim for example, the developers work on a similar ultra-scaled map but without trying to represent the landscape diversity or different parts/spaces of the 1:1 scale, 500.000 square kilometers country. In Skyrim or Witcher 3, you walk around an extremly small map representing entire countries, but without all the enormous quantity of visual barriers, diversity of places and compartmentalization of the big spaces, and not even a simbolic scaled representation of diverse possible routes

What? Skyrim had diverse landscapes as well as Morrowind and map was probably bigger. Morrowind was symbolic too and had better illusion thanks to short draw distance. SKyrim wasn't very good in this matter, but it's objective that it was better than Morrowind.

You can say Morrowind had more places than Skyrim, but entering this topic and comparing many skyrim and morrowind locations and their quality would be lethal for morrowind.

 

[North Gibraltarian Dog]

Hi jarmaro,

Why would they make not interesting landscape? What has world representation to do with this? I've seen DraQ showing us details as people clothes or hidden details, but I don't remember him speaking about landscape or wilderness.

I'm not talking about "not interesting" (very interesting for another people, indeed) but rather complex "rugged terrain" with a lot of strategically placed obstacles, intentionally designed to make the landscape more compartmentalized or with spaces not so clearly linked or not visible at all, one form another.

In Skyrim we have mountains than mostly are bigger than Morrowind ones, but also big open regions, with a enormous amount of visible areas, that for me is a great mistake when your map is 37 km2 or less counting playable areas (and representing an entire country, way bigger). When we walk across the Whiterun tundra or the hot springs area in the East or even the mountain areas, we have a clear vision of a big part of the game total landmass (not only by distant vison as I will explain later) and we can go "to the northern mountains" or "to the big lake" only, but without a real separation of the small regions, only for the big ones (and sometimes, even different big regions, -real life Ireland size- are visible). In Morrowind we have the big regions, with different climate, flora, etc, but, also there are smaller spaces "separated" from the rest of the world by hills, rocks, "trees" or objects. For example Caldera mining company "valley" is just beside Balmora (only two cells to the North!) but in-game seems to be a totally different moderate distanct region, because to arrive to this "valley" you need to take an indirect route, pass Caldera town, go East and finally South to "enter" the valley, and because its vison (even with distant land enabled from MGE) or placing is "hided" by the mountains, rocks, etc:

The Caldera mine and another random example:

Spoiler

You see?

And about Worldbuilding (you know, "create a new world", in videogames, literature or whatever) and the relevance of their representation in Morrowind and DraQ reference, I simply note how all the small details not being really importants to playability (all the clothes and other stuff that sometimes DraQ remember) and the terrain complexity that I'm trying to show you are examples of why in Morrowind the worldbuilding itself is equally important (or more) than pure gameplay features/playability.

Not sure what do you mean, I've seen typical green areas, vulcanic, islands (I think there's diffrence between Azura's coast and Sheogorad) and Bitter coast, they help me say in which part of the world I am but that's standard. I must disagree about skyrim, I remember it having many diverse landscapes. Speaking of scale, I cannot say it's very important. Daggerfall done something like that and I think Morrowind's way was better.

Well, I was not speaking of big geographical and climatic regions, but the little separate (in Morrowind) parts inside these regions, the "compartmentalized terrain" that I describe before or we can see in the images. And about scale, Daggerfall didn't "better", because simply hadn't scaling at all, DF is 1: 1, true size (primitive and semi-procedural, but true size) map. MW as Skyrim or any other open world, that are ALL scaled, is not real sized, and therefore in a scaled representation of a real world of enormous size is better when we include some symbolic representation of the enormous inner variation of real world bigger spaces (countries as Poland or France or islands as Great Britain...) and we need some "trick" to make the map seems more like a real country that a small shire with a couple of kilometers in each direction. And Morrowind did this with the "compartmentalization", the rugged terrain, long hills, rocks and roads placing that help to "hide" the places (not only visually, but you really you need to walk more to arrive...), trying create the illusion of being in a real big island, and forgotting that you are in a really tiny videogame island 15 times smaller than Manhattan.

You can say Morrowind had more places than Skyrim, but entering this topic and comparing many skyrim and morrowind locations and their quality would be lethal for morrowind.

I disagree, Morrowind not only have more locations than Skyrim, but more diverse styles and design, minor elements and decorations, detailed interiors, dungeons design, but this is another discussion. If you like we can open another thread some day and discuss over the quality (that is not only "diversity" of course, intelligent design or innovation too) of MW and SkY locations.

 

[Jarmaro]

In Vivec I started from looking for Argonian Huleeya. Found her in some club. There were 3 dunmmers who were harrasing her. She said that she doesn't want to make trouble her firend, club owner., so I should convince her to leave her alone. Mabe I had big enough personality and speechcraft, beceause they agreed jsut as I talked tot hem. I asked them what's wrong with her being argonian,they said noone likes lizards. That felt somewhat shallow. Nevermind, took her to near bookshop and there she gave me her notes. My next target was Khajiit Addhiranir, member of thiefs guild. Talked with people, thye told me she's hidding in sewers beceause taxman is hunting her. Well, so I went there and found here. She said she won't tell me anything until I get rid of taxman. So I went there and had interesting choice, I could lie about her escape to mainland or say where she is. That's strange, we are blades member and she's our informator. Why would we? That's directly opposing Caiuss orders. Of course, if someone is role-playing righetous character then he has possibility to do this, but then why go on with Caiuss orders in first place?

Anyway, got notes and went to Temple canton. There I foud my last informator, Mehra Milo. She said I need to get book, The Progress of Truth. I could get from rare book shop, or steal ti from Ordinators' secret library. Of course I went to library. Took me some time until I found hidden hatch in private chambers. Room was rather small, but full of books. Guard told me I shouldn't be here, but didn't react in any way. But I found here not only Progress of Truth. I discovered 3 important notes that showed me how good is the story here.

First, Nerevar at Red Mountain. Story of Dunmmer's war with Dwemer which happend beceause of Dwemer blasphemy. They wanted to make their own god using Heart of Lorkhan, powrful ancient artifact. Dunmmers won the war with Dwemers, thanks to Dunmmer Hero, Nerevar. Ashlander's part of story is that Vivec, Almalexia and Sotha Sil killed Nerevar, so they could use Dwemer tools to become false gods and Dagoth Ur was tragic character, who was sent by Nerevar to protect tools, but was defeated by Tribunal and couldn't stop them.

Second note, Battle of Red Mountain, is story told by Vivec to one of dissident priests, heretics who oppose Temple. His version of the story is similiar, but they didn't kill Nerevar, only break their oath that they never use Dwemer Tools. Strange thing is, in his story Vivec doesn't really tell what happend to Nerevar. His last mention on him is when Tribunal went to Red Mountain with Nerevar to take Dwemer Tools, but Dagoth Ur gone mad and Nerevar and his soldiers used force to take tools and achieved it, but Dagoth escaped. It is not clearly stated by him that Nerevar died beceause of that last fight. Anyway, he says Sostha Sil convinced him and Almalexia to became gods better than Daedric ones. And that's how Tribunal has been created. By the way, they went to war with Dwemer beceause of Dwemer's blasphemy. But after they defeated them, they commited blasphemy themselves by creating gods from themselves. Ironic, isn't it?

Third note is diffrent, it's Dagoth Ur's plans which Temple has discovered. It contains his short and long term objectives, like creating God Akulakhan to establish theocracy in Morrowind, and then using his power to extend their influences on the rest of the world. Very interesting text, gives Dagoth reasons and objectives he works for. But it's the logic of those plans what makes it so wonderful. It's so... realistic.

It took my some time to read it all, I haven't read so much text in game about main story for a looong time. I really appreciate this game for it. Too bad when I came back to Caiuss I couldn't show him those notes. If game says I can get P. of Truth from secret library, then why cannot I show the most important things in this library, secret notes which lay on free view so it's sure player will see it, to Caiuss?
I went back to Caiuss and gave him all informations I got. His next order is to go to Ald'Ruhn and find Ashlander trader. In the meantime I had second dream (screen above). In Ald'ruhn I found the trader (yet it took me some time, those stairs to room under bar were hard to notice), he told me it's traditiona mong Ashlanders to give someone gift as symbol of respect. By it he meant he won't tell me anything until I give him something he likes. He mentioned he likes poesy, so I went to nearby book shop and bought him Ashlnaders Hymns. He liked it and give me informations I wanted about Nerevarine. Back to Caiuss. He confessed I am someone who matched prophecy and that's why Emperor released me from prison and sent to Morrowind. His next order for me is to go to Ashlander Camp and found their Wisewoman to find out if I might be true Nerevarine. Got another dream in the meantime.

He gave me package I brought to him, decoded. It's letter. It says I am probably Nerevarine and Caiuss has to use me to gather informations about this.
Now I have to talk about Caiuss as spymaster. He first sent us to fight guild to some random guy, and later to mage guild scholar for more accurate info. In both missions we risked or life. Problem? Caiuss is spymaster, I assume he was on Vvanderfell for a long time, beceause he has his skooma user disguise and his own house. Dagoth Ur and Nerevarine cult exist for 1000+ years. How could he not have even basic info? Things we learn in first two missions were common knowledge. Not to even mention that Nerevarine Cult is unlawful. Shouldn't he know it? He's terrible spymaster. Of course, I know that it was done to familiarize player with plot and world. But it could be better!
Why didn't Caiuss told us that we must prove ourselves useful and first gather basic informations about topic we are about to get into. He could only give us a hint, like "magic users tend to have scholar knowledge about things" so we could find out we need to ask people in mage guild. And those first 2 quests? Caiuss could be person ordering them, we could get dwemer box and skull for him so he could give it to other blades for unknown purposes. Quest with informators in Vivek didn't need changes, finding 3 persons who have detailed informations about topic that became important not so long ago wasn't bad.
Am I wrong?
Anyway, my next order is to go to Ashlanders' camp and find out if I am true Nerevarine.

Spoiler

Sorry for low quality and general chaotism of this post, but I've been writting it within 10+ hours and had hard time making words. Maybe my tommorow's will be better.

 

[Jarmaro]

I'm not talking about "not interesting" (very interesting for another people, indeed) but rather complex "rugged terrain" with a lot of strategically placed obstacles, intentionally designed to make the landscape more compartmentalized or with spaces not so clearly linked or not visible at all, one form another.

You generally convinced me with everything you said, but you know that much of this ilussion may fade when you start using levitation? At some point of the game I started using it all time, probably as all others.

 

[Elwro]

I also enjoyed this bits of lore you could discover in the game. Thanks for the reminder! And iirc, the next part of the main quest was quite interesting...

 

[Jarmaro]

Took slider to Maar Gan, from there travel was rather easy. Quite a barren, empty place the north is. Reached Urshilaku camp. Talked with most important person, Wise Woman. When I said that I am Nerevarine she wasn't convinced, she wasn't even sure if outlander can be Nerevarine., so she sent me to their leader, Askhan. First I had to go to his guard and ask him if I can go in. Of course he didn't like me so I had to bribe him. As for savages they have pretty civilzied corruption.
Sul-matul said I have to join Nerevarine Cult, thus I had to pass Initation Rite. Got to find bow of his father in their clan tombs. Took me some time to find the netrance, ash storms and same looking landscape again. I think I start to understand my problem with it, my brain simply cannot remember any place here. When I turn around I don't see any diffrence, north and south the same. I am possibly broken inside. Anyway, found tomb. Nice place, seems only complex and interesting dungeons can be found in main quest. Found ancestor spirit and killed it, took bow from its corpse.

This made me think, why did Askhan order me to profane their tomb and ancestors' bodies? I thought Dunmmers are serious about their ancestors cult, escpecially those conservative Ashlanders. Actually, why would intiation rite look like that? Ashlanders probably grow in their Nerevarine cult, so they are in it simply by being Ashlanders. Which leads me to question: Why would he give me so hard (from his perspective) quest? He knew tomb was dangerous. Others probably didn't even have to do initiation rite.
So looking back I must say: He wanted to get rid of me. No other explanation. He saw some stupid outlander who said he's Nerevarine and was serious about that. What to do? Oh, let's pretend it has any sense. Let's send this idiot to clan tombs. He won't dare or will die trying. Problem? Solved. Too bad I went back with bow. Which proved that not only I dared, but I am dangerous beceause I survived.

Sul-matul said I am worthy to join Cult and sent me to Wisewoman. She told me I am NOT Nerevarine, but MAY become him. Well, that's pretty convienient interpretation of prophecy. She gave me some old prophecies about Nerevarine as well. I went back to report to Caiuss. Next order: Guards patrol found 6th House shrine near Gnaar Mok. Go there and wipe motherfuckers out. Ok Caiuss, but it was entire patrol killed. You think I am so strong I can do what they didn't? As you wish. Spoke with guard captain in Moonmoth fort and went to shrine. As before, this cave system is pretty big. I came across remains of patrol, nice touch. By the way, I fought with ash slaves before but holy shit, I thought they have mask. I realized they have no face there, just hole. Ash ghouls have some sort of trunk there. Final stage, Ascended Sleepers, look like human elephants.
After exploring entire dungeon I encountered Dagoth Gares, who was pretty courteus. He gave me message from Dagoth ur. Dagoth Ur wants me to help him drive out outlanders from Morrowind. It seems Dagoth Ur doesn't have problem with Nerevarine being outlander. Unlike Ashlanders.
Anyway, Dagoth attacked me and before he died he infected me with Corprus Disease, which is some sort of Vanderfell's HIV. Went back to Caiuss, he said I did good job, but was worried about disease. He actaully made research about curing it in case I got it and found someone who can help me. I must go to Tel Fyr tower near Sadrith Mora, there I will find Dagoth Fyr who can help me. Caiuss even gave me Dwemer Artifact I have to give him, beceause otherwise he won't want to talk with me.

Diavyth Fyr is some ancient mage who wears heavy armor. Seems he know advantages of dual class. Showed him artifact, he said he will test his new curing formula on me, but it may kill me. But first I have to know what corpus does to body so he sent me to Corpusarium where people with Corpus "live". I had to find Yargrum, last living Dwemer. Had some little chat with him. He gave me dwemer boots of flying which I must give to Diavyth. 1 to 100 levitation for 30 seconds, would use it but of course khajiit cannot use boots. Fuck my life, foots and moon phases. Diavyth said he will give potion but only if I drink it in his presence. We have option to tell him that:
1.We will drink it in his presence.
2.He should give us potion but we will drink wherever we want.
3.We are not ready.
Game not for the first time gives me illusion of choice, "No" in this game often means "No, until I change my mind and say Yes". But I will talk about it later. We can take only option 1, others doesn't matter. Turned out potion not only cured me, but also left advantages of the curse with me, so I am immune to blight and diseases. Nice. Went back to Caiuss. He said he had been recalled to Imperial city and must leave us alone. His last order was to find Mehra Milo, temple informator I spoke with before and continue inspecting Nerevarine case. He also left me his house and promoted me to Operative, so I am the highest rank Blade on Vvanderfell. And I didn't even speak with any other Blade except Caiuss. Well, except that guy in Caldera. So it's rather empty title.

Went to Vivec. Couldn't find her where she was supposed to be so I went to her room. There I found letter to Amaya (which was our spy code) in which she said she wants me to go to Ministry Of Truth (big meteor flying above temple, put there by Vivec (or more corectlly stopped here by Vivec after Sheogorad threw it onto city)) and free her plus bring 2 scrolls of divine intervention (nice touch that the scrolls are divine intervention, not almsivi). So I levitated to the rock. Nice view, I have no idea why I didn't make screenshot. So I give you nice looking Hlaalu guardian instead. Ordinator at the entrance was Mehro's friend, so she gave us key. But from this point we were supposed to avoid killing any ordinators while looking for Mehro. I used my awesome Amulet of Shadows. They didn't even notice me. I found Mehro in one of prison cells (nice concept of place, we are in dungeon, it looks like we were underground, while we are above). She said she's grateful for freeing her, that she's with Dissdent Priests now, and we should go to Ebonheart to fisherwoman who will take us to secret monastery. Gave her scrolls and used second myself.

Fisherwoman took me to monastery and then I had wait until dawn to enter (Doors open only at dawn and dusk). Not really signifact change with this doors opening system (but I bet it makes problems if you have fire inside and can't get out), yet it was interesting and brought some soul to the world. Inside I found Dissident priests and Mehro with their leader (not sure about that leader, didn't talk with him much). They gave me copies of lost prophecies, like one that says Nerevarine will be outlander (noone thought outlander may be Nerevarine to this moment, now we even have proof of that, what a coincidence, isn't it?). Urshaliku Wisewoman told me to get back once I found prophecies, so I recalled to her. She was happy to read old prophecies and sent me to Ashkhan.

To be continued... Tomorrow.

Spoiler

What happens next gives even more evidents to my theory that mutherfucker wants us dead, you will see

 

[North Gibraltarian Dog]

but you know that much of this ilussion may fade when you start using levitation? At some point of the game I started using it all time, probably as all others.

If you use levitation constantly, yes. And the same with the speed, the boots... Generally the game has a ton of mechanics to over-exploit. Becaming a living god easily, was a big design mistake and boring as fuck. Is pretty usual in most of games, but in Elder Scrolls is specially present this abuse of game dynamics. In my case, not with levitation, but in my first gameplay I became near invincible, horrid loot accumulator, abusive alchemy user, etc. After this, replaying, I use everytime extra-difficulty mods that really are not so difficult, mostly simply "hinder" the abuse of game mechanics (not easy money, not easy break alchemy, not "easy" overpowering in general).

And still, the Morrowind landscape design is vastly preferable for a scaled 3d game, for a lot of reasons. Just look again to the places number in Morrowind, only possible without feeling overcrowd in this tiny island with some "trick" in terrain design (the segmentation and rugged terrain), or in the opposite point of view, remember all the "large barren, empty areas" feeling, that's totally an illusion, the terrain has more places/npcs/items by area than any other videogame in History. Talking of Npcs, what's your feeling about their presence in general in the Island (think not only in the towns but the wilderness too)? Seems a weakly populated island isn't? Well, actually has a density of aprox. 750 pop./Km2 (more than double than Japan or Belgium, far more than Netherlands or Taiwan)... I think the illussion of the "subtle" scaling is reached in Morrowind better than in any other game. For MW flaws and lacks (many) we have to look to other aspects (ai, over-powering, unique dialogue, not enough original shared dialogue, linear questing, simple puzzles -far from Skyrim level yet...-, etc, etc).

Sorry for kidnap your thread, continue jarmaro