Aethgar

See, I can't agree with the OP. Ulfric's speeches and actions seem less a crazed megalomaniac and more a resigned man who genuinely believes he's doing the right thing, but has had to be egged on extensively to act. "I fight for the men I've held in my arms, dying on foreign soil! I fight for their wives and children, whose names I heard whispered in their last breath... I fight so that all the fighting I've already done hasn't been for nothing! I fight... because I must." He's not saying that publically for others to hear. He's arguing with a men he trusts with his life, in his own palace, in his war room. He argues also against just killing Balgruuf the Greater, and constantly seems reluctant to act. After everything, he's again not exactly bouncing up and down to go talk to his men and rally them. He seems depressed but again, resigned, and seems to surprise even his general when he calls for a Moot in the traditional acclamation of the High King. All in all, while I agreed with Tullius's dying speech about Ulfric having served the Aldmeri in offering up human lives to be destroyed.. I also had to agree that Ulfric wasn't WRONG to do so. He wasn't right, either, but then again... neither side is. This game is for me a pinnacle of well told gray vs. gray morality. Neither side is the good guys.. or the bad guys. Both are undeniably flawed, and both are trying to do the right thing which they believe is right. And I can't decide if it's good or bad. If Ulfric wins and consolidates the Nords, who's to say that he couldn't do a Talos himself and conquer Tamriel as that Nord general long ago did? If the Empire wins, could it consolidate enough to throw off the Thalmor? I don't think so myself if only because having the bastards everywhere means no plans can be hatched without their spies finding out, so their overthrow is next to impossible for the Empire as it stands. And a few more generations to remove the deified Nord Talos/Tiber Septim, and people might start believing the Altmer crap about men not being as good as the ancestor spirits who are Aedra to the Mer. I just don't know, but having done one side to date, I found it bittersweet but also understandable. And I have no doubt that when I muster the iron stomach to join the Imperials on another play through, a similar exchange will be heard at Ulfric's death about who the good and bad guys really may be.. and I'll be as bittersweet as I am now about it all. Edit: Also to those saying Ulfric's use of the Shout was wrong, he used Disarm. It's the only Thu'um he ever seems to use, which backs up his side of the story. And why didn't Toryyg possess a Thu'um? Why couldn't he climb the nine thousand steps? Balgruuf did. Wasn't he enough of a Nord, or was he merely a puppet? I think that was the point of Ulfric's display there. He killed him with steel, but he used the ancient Nord Thu'um without a Shouted reply. It shows Ulfric's dedication and training to have mastered the single Shout he has.

I couldn't make myself join either side on my first few characters. I made a Nord solely to have a reason to try out the Stormcloaks, and I actually liked them. Why? Because even though Tullius is right that the Empire aren't the bad guys.. they failed to hold the Thalmor in check. Those fascist bastiches are the actual monsters, and the Aldmeri Dominion's hatred for a man who became a god, and was also the founder of the Empire.. bleah. Sorry, but I refused to support an empire that denied ITS OWN FOUNDER. It's time a new empire was born in Skyrim, and a new Nord conquered a weak and divided continent. Ulfric seems intent on being that, and I found his rant to his much more rabid 2IC was enough to merit my wanting to join on the Nord anyway. His reluctance to fight, but his determination to fight in order that all the dead men and women he fought with against the Aldmeri hadn't died in vain.. was fairly noble. The fact that the claims of him 'murdering' the High King when he fought him in a traditional combat, using a weapon ANY DEDICATED NORD CAN USE.. those claims aren't valid. He did it by the book. And he didn't 'shout him to death'. he used 'Disarm'. That was also the only Thu'um I watched him use at all during the final battle, which tends to support his claim there. And it suggests that the High King was a less of a traditional Nord not to have been able to Shout back. I don't ultimately like either, but Ulfric seems to be a genuinely honourable guy. He's not power hungry when he says quietly that he'd retire from the world if men could rule by words and peace. He constantly has to be egged on by his general, and demands a Moot acclaim him High King - he doesn't just take it. I think he's wrong to do what he's done, but after playing it through, I definitely see his point. I DO wish the game let you somehow keep the honourable Jarls, like Idgrod Ravencrone. I have yet to play any character that doesn't want to kill every damn Thalmor I see. Having to tolerate those poncy scumbags is a primary reason I.. just can't join the Empire. When the one in Markath tries to make you play spy on an honourable old Bard? Yeah no. Not gonna. I just hope we get an expac where we can break the power of the Thalmor. >=) Also, the fact that the Thalmor ambassador Elenwen is THE SAME TORTURER WHO HELD AND TORTURED ULFRIC... man, I so wanna kill her. Makes him refusing to talk if she's in the room at High hrothgar that much more intence once you read that in the dossier...

Looks great! Something to consider if you set it in the hot springs (which is a GREAT idea btw) is mold. Some hand painted mold between bricks high up on pillars or walls would help immersion, since every stone built ruin in Slyrim has a moss problem it seems. It would be humid as heck I would think... ironic as Khajiit and Argonians don't get on. Hm. /ponders Not a 3D artist here, but AM a professional Africanist Historian, so let me try and think of north african influences along the sahelian belt between desert and jungle.

Something important to keep in mind though is the timeline. The Morrowind we all loved is long gone. Buried under the ashes of Red Mountain and the fall of that asteroid/moon. Any remake HAS to keep those changes in mind, as part of staying true to the world AS IT IS NOW. If anything, that both increases the artistic challenge and also makes it more cool!

My dream mod would be for one of the taverns in Skyrim to somehow engage with the Steam community we're all forced to be part of. A chat box would need adding, but essentially, you could in theory allow for roleplay or immersion whilst within the RP tavern. It's about the only thing I EVER miss in Skyrim is the chance to write stories with another player. The game's style doesn't seem to really permit true multiplayer, and I know the combat system would be totally messed by it, but just day to day Tamrielic existence being sharable would rock. I know there's http://skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=3592 Has anyone tried it?

I assume people are cross posting to http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.php?/topic/1270631-crashes-during-gameplay/page__st__840 or that a Bethesda dev reads this forum? Anyone know?

On the Khajiit, if I'm able to recall: Main Quest - complete. Has NOT allied with Imperials or Stormcloaks. HAS joined the Companions, but hasn't done anything for them. Is Listener for the Dark Brotherhood, that questline totally completed. Is a Nightingale of Nocturnal. Did enough quests for the mages to unlock the ruin permitting me to complete the Gauldur Amulet. Has completed the Daedric questline for Meridia, Barbas the daedric doggie, and Sheogorath. Has returned Amern's sword, cleared out White River watcher, Lost knife Hideout, and saved the Redguard woman from her pursuers. I've done a LOT more than that thanks to having wandered around rather a lot going 'Oooo' excitedly like a kid in a candy shop. Hence being 41 before even entering Sovngarde. Did enough quests to be a Thane of Markarth and of Whiterun with properties in both cities. On the Imperial: Is a vampire. Has cleared out the vampires from Morthal. Is in the Mages' guild. Has returned Amren's sword and cleared the bandits from that twin tower complex. Has also cleaned up the necromancer in the family town also nearby. Does not own a house. Is in the Dark brotherhood but has done no killings yet. On the Redguard: Is a werewolf. Has freed the Redguard woman of her Al'ikr pursuers. Has returned Amren's sword, and returned the second piece of the Companions' hammer o awesome. The only points of comparison are the redguard woman questline, though my Imperial has not finished it, and Amren's sword.

I began experiencing the freezes when I went back and started playing my low level characters specifically. My redguard and Imperial are both crash-constant. As for the Khajiit, the last few things I did with her were to tinker with ways to force a marriage with a male Khajiit, with no luck. <.< Prior to my unsuccessful and unsaved attempts to console up some Nords or some Khajiit, I completed the main quest, and befriended the Khajiit follower NPC. On the Imperial, I got him vampired, and the redguard got werewolfed (I couldn't make myself werewolf a cat person >.<), and then it started crashing as of early this week that I noticed. My husband's Argonian is lvl 32, and he's finished the main quest, and the Winterhold Mages' quests, and not much else. Interestingly, I went in and deleted a bunch of old games from the Khajiit, and managed to play for almost 30 min on the Redguard before I black screened again.

Would mods have anything to do with it either? I have a lvl 14 Redguard, a lvl 12 Imperial, and my 44 Khajiit, for the poster above theorizing on level and savegame data causing this - trying one runthrough stealth, one using spells, one barbarian-style. I run the detailed face thing and the high res water. Are there vanilla game players who're experiencing the same crash? My husband's playing it umodded on a Windows 7 laptop in the other room and while his game crashes, it doesn't do the black screen lockup mine does.

I've only just starting having this problem since the patch. I run with a Vista Home Premium setup, 32 bit. Acer Aspire M5620 Intel Core 2 quad CPU 3.00 GB RAM. My video card is a NVidia GTS N250. Older machine but after some car trouble, the money I intended to spend on a new system got used so I get to wait til the savings can permit an upgrade purely for my leisure time as opposed to work. Now I played through to lvl 44 on my Khajiit, with VERY few troubles. Last week roughly, I started getting crashes intermittently - like I'd go get a drink, come back, screen's black, monitor light's idle, and no way to resume activity. Music gone. The only solution being a hard shut down. Now I know my puter's old and honestly a bit shaky and wierd. I know my monitor's in need of replacement. So for a while I assumed the issue was with my hardware, not Skyrim. But reading these boards and checking that yes, it ONLY happens due to Skyrim? This makes me think. I run with High res water and No more Blocky Faces for mods, and I run the game full screen. I've updated all drivers, run virus scans, CC cleaner, and today, memtest. Nothing registering on my end, and no change. The crashes happen indoors and out, during magic cast sequences or during a dungeon crawl on my warrior. It's a bit annoying, and only really something I started noticeing this week - post patch. It may have happened earlier, but not in such a significant way that I found the game so unstable as to make me question launching it, which is where I'm at right now.