Factions - Part II

One of my first posts in June was about the factions available to us in Skyrim - A number which has since grown and thus deserve a new, glorious post of awesomeness! Unfortunately I couldn't get Neil Patrick Harris to write a piece on it, so I have to do it instead.

A thing I noticed in August was how ahead I was, news wise, than some others - I've known since June that The Dark Brotherhood would be in the game (Todd let it slip one time, if I recall correctly,) but most people didn't find out until QuakeCon. Yet another reason to hang around, eh?

As last time, I will be writing a small section for each faction, covering what the heck they are all about (apart from being awesome,) but first I will mention some "overall" stuff, which shall be briefly covered as there is next to nothing to talk about on that end and therefore you should expect a lot of adjectives and synonyms, provided I can think of some.

Morrowinds faction-life was tedious, to say the least. It was anything but enjoyable if you ask me. They did remedy that in Oblivion, where they really got every factions quest-line to feel like a sort of epic story, not unlike that of the main quest, although, less influential. They all had one thing in common: They had some great endings with a welcome twists or two, making us go: "OMFG, what an epic adventure I embarked on!," be that whether you stole an Elder Scrolls from the heart of the Imperial City, Cleared Lucius LeChance's name and earned the title as The Listener in the process, or maimed that horrible excuse for The King of Worms (Okay, maybe that wasn't as epic as it could have been.)

Another thing they also had in common, was that you always ended up being the leader of said faction, but apart from being able to be a messenger boy for The Night Mother, there wasn't really anything to it. It was more dull than watching "Open Water." Nah, I don't mean that - Nothing is as boring as "Open Water."

Crappy movies aside, Pete Hines and Todd Howard have both mentioned that this time around, it wont' stop there: We will, much to our joy, be able to do stuff afterwards, but exactly what that entails, I have no idea of - the most important thing is the awesomeness and nirnroot (you know, for a random reason.)

As this post drags on, I become decreasingly aware of how much I am forgetting to write about the factions, so we better move to that part now, or the world will be forever lost. Probably.

The Companions

First up, we've got the companions! Skyrims alternative to The Fighters Guild, which we saw in Cyrodiil. A preview of the game has revealed to us that you can encounter a bunch of them fighting a giant, near some sort of farm if I recall correctly - should you help them out, the leader of the group (some woman,) suggests that you go join The Companions. Although centered around Whiterun, Skyrims former capital city (when they had a king,) The Companions will also be elsewhere to be found, as they have at least one known sub-division called "The Shield-Brothers" and possibly more.

The College of Winterhold

The College of Winterhold, which I will now abbreviate to CW, which amusingly enough is the opposite of WC, is the Mages' guild of Skyrim, which ensures that us spellweavers also have something to do. As they are centered around, you guessed it: Winterhold, I don't know how influential they'll be across the land, but hopefully it won't all be local play. Winterhold, which is a city rich on culture, knowledge and economy is the perfect setting for CW (teehee,) if you ask me.

The Dark Brotherhood

I'd expect to see a riot, should this not have been included - No wait! A full scale, bloody war!! You know, to make up for the lives we didn't get to take for our favorite guild: The Dark Brotherhood! Being a secretive organisation comprised of often maniacal and homicidal assassins with disregard for all human life, the brotherhood serves as a great stress relief for the scorned player. It is, as always, lead by The Black Hand, with a person to symbolize each of the human hands fingers, with the thumb, being the listener whom communes with The Night Mother, in order to find new potential and other random crap. The Speakers then go recruit the mentioned people and takes care of administrative stuff, as well as give contracts to their very own most trusted assassins, hand-picked due to skill and a befitting personality.

We haven't seen much to them so far, during the various hands-on previews we with eager have read through, raping word by word - However: In the demo video shown at QuakeCon, and as far as I know, also the HD video version of it, which will be released today, we see a folded note from the Brotherhood, in the inventory of our friendly neighborhood Dovahkiin. It shows a drawing of their symbol, a black hand, and the short, direct message: "We know," making me think that Todd may have murdered an innocent at some point, which he is in his full right to, being god and all.

The Thieves' Guild

I know squat apart from the fact that there is a Thieves Guild in Skyrim. Delighted as I am that it's a part of the game, I can't help but fear that we once again with be introduced to so few and unambitious quests as in Oblivion. Granted, the final quest was as awesome as can be and the one in Skingrad castle were quite entertaining as well, but the others were nothing but disappointment - Quests in this "Thiefy" theme should include more unforeseen plot twists and greater stakes. Huzzah!

Will the leader of the guild once again be the grey fox? Has the cowl passed on during the 200 years of hiatus we've been through? I guess we'll have to wait and see about that.

The Stormcloaks

Now here's something new: The Stormcloaks, which functions as sort of a rebel group in Skyrim. Now I know that there are 9 holds, which are like counties, and I bet they all have different ideals and goals, so I must admit, I don't quite see how The Stormcloaks fit into all of this, but they sure are welcome. If you ever played Gothic 3, you'll know that there is nothing better than liberating an entire city for the rebels, not that this is an option here, mind you, but still we can conclude: Rebels are fun! And they almost always have a stick up there ass! Some of the PAX and QC players came by a group of military-guards, transporting a Stormcloak captive, which they were able to either ignore, free, or give a weapon to. Some also ran into a guy, in Riverwood I think, offering the player to join the Stormcloaks. Glee!

The Imperial Legion

Rad it is, rad it is. Now the empire have been take over and are governed by Altmers, thanks to Tidus Mede, so I am not sure if the Imperial legion refers to the legion serving The Empire, or the legion serving the Imperials as a race - either way: Cool. I must admit, I am hoping for the first option, 'cause I really want the opportunity to meet Titus, but if not, it is still fine. They are 100% joinable and the more the merrier, I say.

The Blades

Finally we have The Blades. I assume that The Blades, like in Oblivion, will be a joinable faction with no quests and so minuscule benefits that even Danny DeVito is laughing at us, but I seriously hope I am WRONG. The Blades are thinning out, but are still as dedicated as always. Esbern, their current leader, is the one to rescue you from your execution and enlist your help as The Dragonborn. It is thus known that The Blades will be an important part of the storyline, as they always are for some reason, but whether you can actually officially join them, or if they have their own quest-line, is unknown.

What can't we do?

The Elder Scrolls is all about immersion. We all need to feel like we are in Tamriel and we can do whatever we want, with no boundaries or limits (synonyms are good fillers BTW.)  Players always subconsciously pick up on this at some point and then they develop needs and demands, which is totally not a bad thing, but it can sometimes be hard to meet all of the expectations, which has led Bethesda to leave out a few things which a concentrated group of fans really wanted.

This post is not news, as much as a list of stuff that Skyrim won't allow us to do (without mods, which will eventually come to consoles) and this list will be updates, should I recall the many things I have obviously left out. Apart from the things we will miss, I will also quell a few of the rumors that are 100% NOT TRUE!

So essentially, all the following statements are --> untrue: <--

• You can ride a dragon
• You can only play as a Nord
• There are spears
• There are short, medium and long swords instead of one- and two-handed
• There is mounted combat
• You can levitate
• There are crossbows
• There are throwing weapons (Shurikens, knives etc.)

2 months left

With only 2 months left before the release of Skyrim, my mind begins to wander the magical, never-ending plains of imagination: WTF should I do with this website afterwards?!

As you might know, I created this site back in the beginning of June, because I figured I'd do something for my fellow Skyrim fans, mostly because a lot of them didn't have the willpower to use google when they wanted to find the latest news - not that it is always easy, mind you; Most of the time I look for the same news several places to confirm, contact Dutch people with gaming magazines that may have had news or interviews with our favorite deity: Todd Howard and I'm also to known to not having a problem with listening to podcasts, watching videos and learn lore to make it all seem more interesting.

All this was interesting and fun, although sometimes it was tedious. Alas, it was nothing compared to what I totally hate spending my time doing: Advertising; Letting people know that there here is a database and that I will fill it with all they want to know, be that shattering your dreams by telling you that there are no polearms and that you can't ride dragons, or by informing you what Todd Howard ate for breakfast (Roasted squirrel.)
It's beginning to sort itself out, so I don't care enough to go around throwing my site out everywhere, especially since I get linked to mostly by some strange Spanish site, I've never even been to - It's overwhelmingly strange. I am digressing!

on 11.11.11 Skyrim will be out and our lives will be complete, or at least we will think so until The Elder Scrolls VI which will probably fill us with so much ecstatic joy that we will die a blissful death. Right now, a pre-concern of mine is simply, and you might have guessed this, what the hell I should do with this website, once the game is out.

It won't hurt to have it standing around and I briefly thought of making it a kind of "Skyrim Wikipedia," but not more than 3 seconds passed until I realized what an utterly retarded idea that was, since we have uesp, which is also known as "The Bible."

I was also thinking of making a Skyrim Journal, detailing my first experiences in Skyrim, written with an element of rolepay and a twist of humor - I saw it done once, with Oblivion, and it was more glorious than watching a rainbow or eating Kinder chocolate for that matter. I remember a that he wrote about wanting to kill a woman due to her horse prices, which were way too high, and of course also the brutal deaths at the hands of a wild swine, which naturally harbors evil intentions, 'cause all pigs do.

But we all recognize the evolution of swine as the doom of mankind, so I don't really need to get into that. Another thing I was thinking of instead of writing about Skyrim, was making a "Let's play Skyrim" video series, but I don't know how much fire there is under that pot.

If you have any ideas, let me know and I will try not to totally ignore everything you do or say.
Huzzah!

- [Join the facebook page "Skyrim Coverage" or feel the inglorious wrath of the pigs!]
McBraas

Dragon Priests!

This is old news, but this is a database, not a news station! Or well, it's also sort of a news station... Snap.
...
...
... That aside, lets talk Dragon Priests.
As you may have noticed, dragons are quite common in Skyrim all of a sudden, much to our delight. In fact, Nords worshipped Dragons many, many years ago, which is why there are still dragon temples, such as Bleak Falls Barrow, scattered around the land.

Every temple needs a priest, and thus they were bestowed with their very own version of a wicker, which as you may have guessed, eventually came to be quite dead. Sure, like with Michael Jackson, it is a sad loss and they are missed, which I guess they've sensed, 'cause they are coming back in a rather unfriendly manner, which I am sure you've already spotted. They return as Draugr, still going by their old title: Dragon Priest, and they function as sort of a boss fight, as seen the the Skyrim demo video, where one of these guys floats out of a coffin with the goal of butchering our little, innocent hero, through whatever dirty means he can!

Luckily, our hero prevails, robs him blind as his just reward, and takes off.

I'm Essential; You're essential; This whole courtroom is essential!

Who did I just quote? Can you guess?

Giving that we're getting closer and closer to the release date, It seems that the first for knowledge increases mildy, day by day. Therefore I will let this info on the "essential" rules be your morning orange juice.

In Oblivion we had something called "Essentail Characters," meaning that they were involved in a quest somehow, or "essential" to the story if you'd prefer, and could therefore not be killed. Not even by Johnny English. Of course, once the quests they were involved in were over, they lost their essential status and we could play (torture) them as much as we'd like, but some fans (me included) still found it somehow stressful that there were so many immortal characters, since it in some way killed part of the immersion.

Luckily Bethesda has come to our hour of need on that part, not that I sent them any threatening letters whatsoever and any accusations against me are fully and completely untrue. My magical real life adventures aside, Bethesda has manage to severely decrease the number of essential characters there will be in Skyrim, by using Radiant story.

Radiant story will essentially (haha!) just take a bunch of variables created from our exploits and take NPC's filling certain requirements and put them in the role of the quest-giver or bad guy and so on. Should you kill a quest giver like that, a family member of that NPC might take over the quest-giver role, not that I am entirely sure how that would work TBH.

But whilst there is gravy to this meal, there is also broccoli. There has to be some essential characters, that is hard to get out of. There are some side-quests that has them and those crucial the the main quest will definitely be essential as well. To that, there is no middle-ground.

But middle-ground has been found in some aspect. There is yet another kind of "essential" that aren't quite as "essential" as other "essential," meaning that they are probably not that "essential." These are called "protected characters" and protected they are - there are a lot of strings (variables) in Skyrim, which could mean that one NPC might get mad and end up killing another, evidently also whilst you're not around. The protected characters are the NPC's that can be killed by no one but you and I could imagine the radiant story quest-givers to be "protected" whilst the quest is active.

So that was rather essential, right?
Yes, I thought so too.
Unfortunately our time is up, so hasta luego - until next post