Advanced politics and intrigue

[TenShadows]

I was always a little disappointed about how simple the whole political system of Morrowind is, despite being rather a large selling point and still overall fun to play with. Especially the famous and supposedly heavy racism doesn't really show. So, I've come up with a number of ideas and suggestions for mods, or just to discuss about, all in the general theme of diplomacy and politics. I'm somewhat wondering about how difficult it'd be to mod these things in, but mostly I'd just be looking for some discussion.

 

Try not to expect too much coherency: I'm mostly rambling.

 

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Firstly, to summarize like half of the entire issue for me, being a high-ranking faction member, or in charge of one - or even several - doesn't seem to have much impact at all in the game. No one outside the faction doesn't even notice, and within the faction it's summed up with a few kind words and a disposition increase.

 

If I'm in charge of the Mages Guild, it'd be nice if the other factions and people noticed it too: said stuff about how it is an honor or welcoming me or whatever, slightly increased disposition and better prices - or, if I went and joined another guild at this point, advicing me to not expect any special treatment and that I'd have to start from the bottom like everyone else.

 

Also, if I were a high-ranking Redoran retainer going to talk to some Hlaalu bunch, it actually doesn't make much sense for them to throw dirt at me, talk condescendedly, and refuse services - as much as you hate the other guy, that's just really poor diplomacy and can have heavy consequences. Rather, I'd imagine their disposition to be increased close to as much as my own faction's - but it'd be the grudging, reluctant, and highly sarcastic sort, with a lot more veiled insults and clever wordplay rather than a simple "Bugger off, Redoran".

 

Besides being able to only join one house, some more restrictions on joining would be sensible as well: with such deep hatred going on, it would make extremely little sense for a character to be a member of - or in charge of! - both the Mages Guild and House Telvanni at the same time - and nearly as little sense for them to belong to the Tribunal Temple together with either Imperial Cult or the Mages Guild. Hell, the three houses don't hate each other as much as those guys do!

 

Finally, assassinations: king Hlaalu Helseth wouldn't be the only one wanting you dead as your deeds and reputation grow. Once you're in charge of a faction, expect to start having to dodge knives every now and then, especially in the territory of factions that hate yours. The more factions you're in charge of or highly ranked in, the more there will be assassins - up until the point where you cross a certain line, like four or five factions, at which point they suddenly stop: you'll be considered to have gathered far too much power for yourself, and become too indispensable to the political field of Vvardenfell, to be simply removed from play without massive backlash and unintended political disaster. Vetinari Job Security, if you will.

 

(And if you're also a part of Morag Tong, there could be a humorous scene where you're ordered to assassinate yourself. Or at least warned about an impending assassination, if you're of high enough rank.)

 

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Then there's the racism, as I already mentioned. You'd think it would be a pretty large part of the game, but it hardly shows up at all. At the very least, I'd expect a heavy disposition decrease if I happen to be of the wrong race, including racial slurs and other verbal dirt being thrown at me, and price increases or even outright refusal of services. Likewise, I find it a little funny that an orc or a khajiit or whatever can just go ahead and become the Telvanni Archmagister without anyone batting an eye: you'd think there would be at least some complications in the matter, having to raise the promoter's disposition really high, etc.

 

The dunmer, this being their land, would likely be more or less neutral to their own kind, but feel prejudiced to some extent towards just about everyone else - argonians and khajiiti especially are going to have a hard time dealing with them. With the other races it'd be the opposite: they would not care about seeing another dark elf in their shop, but another member of their own race would, in this strange and foreign land, always receive a little disposition bonus. Then you'd add up some more specific guidelines - bretons and redguards don't really like each other much, just about everyone hates orcs, etc. - and you're starting to get a reasonably complicated racial system.

 

Some people would have their own unique preferences - Crassius Curio, for instance, wouldn't mind at all what race you are, sweetie - and in some situations there'd be some more unique dialogue or situations depending on your race: for instance, why wouldn't absolutely anyone care if the Nerevarine is supposed to be a dirty thieving khaiit? You'd think a lot of people might oppose to that. Why don't the dunmer harassing Huleeya find anything strange about you being an argonian yourself, maybe start bullying you as well? (If it's a female argonian, at that, then I want to be able to answer positively to their question of wanting to kiss him.) And you'd think if you were playing an orc, then at least Caius Cosades would be decent enough to add a "No offense" when he's talking about Sharn gra-Muzgob and saying she's pretty smart for an orc. I could come up with dozens of this sort of things.

 

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I can play and love the game just fine even not considering any of this stuff, but it does sometimes rather bother me: for such a high-immersive, heavily-modded game as Morrowind, this sort of flaws become particularly glaring.

[tewlwolow]

COOL

[RubberMan01]

The things you are suggesting are quite easy to apply. Dive into the dialogue and add some bits and your wishes will come true.

 

I'm in the midst of writing a fairly political mod myself and it is easy to skip things that don't seem important at the time.

Edited September 12, 2017 by RubberMan01

[RubberMan01]

Try Rise of House Sadras in my signature mate. Hopefully you will like it :)

[gnarly1]

Besides being able to only join one house, some more restrictions on joining would be sensible as well: with such deep hatred going on, it would make extremely little sense for a character to be a member of - or in charge of! - both the Mages Guild and House Telvanni at the same time - and nearly as little sense for them to belong to the Tribunal Temple together with either Imperial Cult or the Mages Guild. Hell, the three houses don't hate each other as much as those guys do!

I agree with you almost unreservedly. However, with regard the comment above, I think sometimes we rely too much on the game artificially imposing roleplaying restrictions on our characters when we're free to impose those restrictions on ourselves if we so wish. You don't have to join every available guild/faction but you can if you want. From a development perspective it's easier to give the player the freedom to play as they want rather than wall off large swathes of content due to player choices, although I tend to think that imposing some restrictions does create a more immersive world and improves replayability.