monganfinn

Well they ARE warrior monks IMO, just of a different sort than what we would recognize as clerics. The reason they don´t have shields is in universe is probably that they prefer the versatility of magic over shields, and that flesh spells offer better protection on cloth is the reason they don´t wear armor. They are a militant clerical circle more akin to fictional inquisition than the knight templars. Far more surprising is how the Dawnguard, an offshot of the Vigilants if one thinks of Isran, has enough money to set up shop in the largest fortress of Skyrim while the Vigilants live in a dingy woodden house.

A question on the troop strength - I always read that the only legion operating in Skyrim is the ninth. Now that makes very little sense to me. If you read the ingame book The Great War: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:The_Great_War then you will notice that the author is a legate and in ancient Rome the legates were the one to command legions. The author goes on to clearly state that he commanded the 10th so I assume that as in RL history a legate commands his own legion, correct? How can then there be a single legion in a province that has 9+ legates?? Or is the ninth legion just speculation and imagination? This is further cememted IMO by the same book that cites that General Jonna brought "the legions of Skyrim" south. Implying that each province has several legions, and there also were several legions in Hammerfell. Both of the provinces have Generals, so IMO a general commands several legions by default and each province has a general. I also always hear how the legion is understaffed in Skyrim, because the legates say that they recruit locally: well the legions of General Jonna were titled as "Nords" so IMO the legions are always majorly recruited from the locals of the province? Which would mean that the imperial forces in Skyrim aren´t really that small, at least not smaller than they should be without the allocation of outside reinforcments which would weaken the other provinces. Tullius says that the empire´s other legions are posted on the border to the Dominion in the south, thus that mean that they really decided to transport legions from the other provinces into Cyrodiil? Which would explain the "apparent" shortage of soldiers in Skyrim but seems really, really dumb. If however the legions in Skyrim are at regular strength, then Tullius deeds of bringing about a stalemate against the Stormcloaks, who previously had been quite successful apparently, after he took over command seem far less impressive considering that the Stormcloaks at the time didn´t even have the troops to attack Whiterun. - Remember that Tullius debunked Rikke´s fears of the Stormcloaks attacking Whiterun with the words "they don´t have enough men". I hope you can clear up my questions - as they also would shed some light on the current military state of the empire, 25 years after the Great War, it would also influence the pro empire argument that the Empire is the better force to fight of the Dominion.

I would argue that you cannot complete the battle of whiterun and still have the meeting, because the insecurity of Whiterung due to the war is the whole reason why Balgruuf doesnt cough up his cooperation without a meeting. Does Vignar even have the dialogue for wanting a meeting? But I don´t really know.

Rather than another dimension I would say the wooden mask transports you into a slice/pocket in time. You travel back into a static and enclosed pocket of time in which Konahrik recides. Because of that you don´t really change anything beyond the presence of Konahrik inside the sculpture. The time bubble isn´t touched/destroyed/or brought to the present so there isn´t a reason for the present to change in any way. After all you don´t change time, what you did either already happened or the time bubble is outside the regular timestream of Nirn to begin with, like Alduin in his Elder Scroll induced exile. That Konahrik is still in the shrine however has interesting implications for the Dragonwar: why did the 8 priests not unlock it and use its power in the war against the rebeling Nords? IMO because when they used their wooden mask and went into the bubble Konahrik had already been taken away by you. Otherwise I don´t see why they wouldn´t have used a mask called Warlord during the war.

well if someone still follows this thread: there is a racemenu tattoo scar mod on the nexus (though the amount of scars and versatility are sadly quite limited)

Cool looking! Are the bright "bulbs" animater perhaps? To have the lights change might make it more organic looking.

Looks stunning! Glad to hear that you still have the motivation to complete it. The best of luck! both in RL and modding! ... and well for us too :tongue:

Mythologically speaking the boss should be an avatar of Arkay for mortals, because he is the god of mortality itself before you even reach your races afterlife. The problem with the DB is that his soul would be eaten by any random Dovah in the vicinity, unless we say the DB is like Alduin and ends up with Akatosh - which would be the hardest to implement IMO. There is little reason to have to take the Daedra into consideration, the only ones who may have a real claim on you are Nocturnal, Hircine and Molag Bal; anyone else only made you a champion and made bargains with you which did not involve the DB´s soul. Furthermore the Aedra would have a greater link to the souls in Mundus than a Daedra so the possibility that you would end up in Sovngarde either way is high. Sorry to all the fans of non human races but the status as Dragonborn and the Thu´um are all tied to humans in general and Nords in particular. So even if you play as a non human, historically speaking it is likely you would have had a Nord ancestor. That is unless the Akatosh wanted an unique last Dragonborn?! So Sovngarde, not the Hall of Valor, seems to be a safe bet for me. Alternatively we could use the Corridor of the Dead, to those who don´t know what I mean: it is a space in Skyrim which can only be reached with console commands where all the dead NPC are gathered. Add another room with a rebirth-gate and voilà!

Constant burn/cut-skin textures like that exist in the mod BiPhenotypes. My post was pretty much in reply to the dynamic wounds. Sorry :pinch:

There is a mod with raven companions like that. From BadGremlin I believe.

Or you somehow have to escape from the afterlife, in Skyrim´s case Sovngarde. You could have to defeat Tsun each and every time you die, after a round of drinking in the Hall of Valor! Probably more immersive if the PC only gets dropped somewhere random in Skyrim.

Wouldn´t it be able to be done via a magic skin effect like Ebony flesh which automatically displays if the health bar drops beneath a certain point?

It kind of sounds as if Indoril Nerevar would be the Dunmer/Chimer version of this concept and not only as Nerevarine, an old folk hero who comes/is formed again to save or "make way" for his race. I know that the Nerecarine is said to be the reincarnation but perhaps mantling could have been misinterpreted here as such? As the Dunmer are "ancestor worshippers" they might see it that way? I just read "Whereabouts of Ysgramor the returned", has anyone ever counted the amount of names cited there? That text is more convoluted than a law codex!

Thanks! Though am I to understand if it´s one of the walking ways, his "persona" or legend becomes something akin to a spirit/god, physically immortal or does he simply not vanish from the universe and his data is stored somewhere to be called down in times of need like Wulfharth by the Nords?

I have a question Lachdonin: correct me if I am wrong but I believe to have read a post from you on another thread where you wrote that "the prophecy fulfilled" would somehow liberate the "hero" from the reincarnation cycle? And well I don´t understand how that would work :mellow:

Well yeah, either Ancano acted on his own or knew the Thalmor endgame but his personal goal with the eye was quite clear. That the majority of the Thalmor are only bigoted racial supremacists makes them in my book even worse than those that at least have a higher goal - as crazy as that goal is. Srlsy the sight of Alduin eating the world is something that I hope will be shown in TES... it could truly be a sight to see!

Exactly! Srew the lives lost, but how dare the Thalmor take away our playground! What did big ol Al do to Dagon to destroy Nirn? And to Kestrellius last question: it is the beauty of TES or at least Skyrim that none of the great factions are totally evil they are all grey! After all if the next quest would be to help out the Thalmor and they give us enougth incentive and teary eyed backstories how the evil men killed they 3000 year old family members and how they are suffering on the mortal plan and just want to achieve their past glory, many will do the quest according to the will of the Thalmor. Nonetheless, it might be fullfilling a stereotype, but ambushing the Thalmor patrolls is one of my more amusing pastimes in game.

Didn´t know that. Good to know. Yeah, I know TES ancient history is ... incomplete anyway. And rather than the naming I based this theory more on the connection of time/dragon - though the Dawn era would probably suffice, but then the cave wouldn´t be really something pecial, and that the Throat of the World has been Alduin´s seat of power for the longest time. Furthermore it kind of sounds right to me that the dragons as "sons" of Akatosh would kind of be connected with one of the locks on Nirn. Thanks for your input.

True, I wasn´t aware that they really brought change/destruction whereever they went, even in RL such an argument would likely hold. After all overcoming such a deeply ingrained existential fear and anger can only be overcome by forgetting it, which at cannot be said for the mer. And even now they still may fear, rightfully if we look at history, that this "ability" of the wanderers exists withing their descendants, after all they always change the status quo. On the other hand, the reported ability of the wanderers, is told to us via the texts of the mer so a form of bias is quite likely, it could very well be that there wasn´t any real power behind the change they brought but that ... well new people bring new things with them, so change is inevitable if they appear, not to speak of the different life expectations and livestyle they probably already had. Furthermore their view point was imo drastically different, the old Ehlnofex probably looked with even more fervor into the past as the mer do today and the wanderers probably wanted to build a future for themselves and strived forward, thus conflict was inevitable and the elven chronists might have interpreted that as a "fate". Unless I am totally wrong about your sources, I admit to not know much about ESO. The Thalmor and even less the other mer are evil for evils sake, nevertheless the difference between them and the mankind is akin to a murderer and a bully, if we take the species as individuals. I do have a question concerning the Snow-Throat Tower, is it plausible that the "cave of Shor" where he met himself is actually inside Satakal/Alduin as he ate the world in a past calpa? The inside of a dragon, especially Alduin could be linked with time as they are fragments? of Akatosh. Furthermore the naming of "... Throat" is also an indication. If so could the destruction of Snow Throat be the scenario that neither Alduin nor another Dragon doesn´t reside there?

While I have to agree that the elves have their reasons born out of embitterment from over the ages, as does mankind, the Septim empire would have been a possible end to said hostilities. That the human heroes are all homicidial lunatics is not really something to contest. Furthermore never! did men try to wipe out all of the elven nations, as do the Thalmor today. However the it is fact that the advance of mankind led to the formation of the Dominion. However apart from the cycle of hatred, which probably gave birth to the current situation, mer look at men as savages as their culture is generally more advanced. This also leads to the Thalmor believe that they know more about the universe than men, hybris as they know less than we but tot he TES humans it would be true. We can rightfully claim that the Thalmor are idiots but in verse there is little indication that they should know better. That which mankind in TES really can hold against the Thalmor is their hybris as they justify their acts with mere believes. But if you see it from a Thalmor perspective and if you are convinced your believes are right, their crimes become more understandable as it would seem the Thalmor are simply doing what is necessary for the betterment of all. If mankind truly wants to be better then them and not make the same mistakes they would have to chose to not retaliate and well talk with them, establish a selling point for their own different world views. Kudos to Bethesda for the creation of a fantasy world where there are little real evil people, even the Thalmor are more "misguided" than evil. Hell, even the daedra are ambigious sometimes. As far as I remember the first conflict was between the wanderers and the old Ehlnofey as the wanderers were chased out from Aldmeris for some petty reason, but that would have to be before the Convention. Atmora the old Ehlnofey were chased out by the wanderers led by Shor, probably also before the Convention. But the history of those conflicts clearly show that none of the major races of Nirn are inherently evil, they all have their faults and that is a point of view in which we can be more sympathetic with the Aldmer for their deed don´t necessarily stem from being evil, racist or whatever else but faulty information and their own experience as well as true differences between the species. And those are possible to point out in TES as the races have clear characteristics. In lotr if I say Orks are evil, I am very right, they probably aren´t completely and have a bit of their own culture and are only as evil as they are becaus of Sauron but no one would contest an elf from Middle Earth saying as such. If I say in TES that Aldmer are arrogant, a trait even augmented by their longer lifespans, I would mostly be right as well, nonetheless there is no one really evil on Nirn they all have their reasons, as bigoted as they are. They all are, for the lack of a better word, "human".

As long as I am not very very wrong the armor should be from Common Clothes: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/51813/?

Damm it´s been long! You have to see the Thalmor from a different angle: in their opinion they have the grand goal to achieve immortality. Which would benefit everyone and is more or less also the will of their gods/ancestors, as Auri-El told them to regain their Et´ada state, however now man comes along and their very existence makes it impossible for you to achieve said goal, furthermore those crude monkeys were allies of the criminal Lorkhan and in former times slaughtered many far more civilized elven nations. In the eyes of the Thalmor humanity are merely upstarts and vile mutations and as they don´t acknoledge/know of CHIM they also have nothing to strive for that would require mortality. And after all if they would succeed none of those humans would ever have to die as they would simply have never existed. As such how can the Thalmor be anything but condescending to humans, as long as they really believe this. And thus why should they take into consideration the opinions of beings that in their opinion only exists to keep them from their liberation? Many call Ulfric racist but the Thalmor humanity as something that should have never even existed!

How is that bad news? Those that were pacient and waited until today won´t have an issue waiting a bit longer :thumbsup:

Not that I have anything against the Kraken... but why is there a kraken symbol on a daedra´s "sealing" tombstone? Sorry, but I forgot if you adressed this point in the lore thread. Looks amazing by the way.

So the Thalmor were not aeroscythed in the kirkbride c0da? And, since I doubt Bethesda will just throw the money of future games away, how about the possibility that c0da and Landfall refer only to a possible future? Still, question Dragonborn: recognized by the Numidium or other selection mechanism as human or dovah?