Anyone else think that Morrowind's ending could have been better?

[ZeroCore]

So I just reinstalled Morrowind (after a LONG time of not having played it) and went through it again (even installed the graphics overhaul). After playing through it again, I feel like I need to say this; the ending was just plain sad (sad as in depressing, not as in ridiculous). Think about it for a second: Dagoth Ur WAS betrayed by Nerevar all those years ago while he and the Tribunal were taking their time to figure out what to do with the Heart of Lorkhan.

 

Yes, Dagoth Ur DID go insane by messing around with Lorkhan's heart, but I think they still could have done otherwise than to just outright attack him and try to kill him.

 

Then, during the events of TES III Morrowind, Dagoth Ur comes back, and what does he do; he spreads corprus across Vvardenfell. Everyone may say that this is proof that he is evil, but consider this; those who do come down with corprus disease and mutate into a lame corprus, corprus stalker, or some other mutation brought on by the disease become immortal (time can't kill them). I don't think it's terribly unreasonable to think that Dagoth Ur WAS genuinely trying to make the native inhabitants of Morrowind immortal as he was.

 

On top of that, all throughout the game, up until half way through the final boss fight with him, Dagoth Ur STILL considered Nerevar his friend, perhaps his best friend, and urged the Nerevarine to join him instead of fight him. I think he was less mad by the player-character's actions and more saddened (after all, this would be the SECOND time his best friend killed him). And, by destroying the Heart of Lorkhan, you destroy the power of the rest of the Tribunal which gets two of them, if not all of them, killed (and, you know, there is the whole "red year" even that happens after the end of TES IV Oblivion that kind of, oh... DESTROYS all of Vvardenfell...).

 

 

I've been trying to find a mod which allows a more peaceful ending (so far the only one I found was the Great House Dagoth mod which let you side with Dagoth Ur, but it still falls short of my expectations since it has you eventually going on a conquering spree across Morrowind). I was hoping to find something that lets you do a bit of negotiation between Dagoth Ur and Vivec in order to calm the maddened Dagoth, and eventually reforge the broken friendship between the God-Kings of Morrowind (so far I haven't found any, and between my work schedule and my lack of knowledge of how to mod Morrowind, I don't see myself making a mod that lets you do so any time soon).

 

But, back on topic, I'm curious about this; am I the only one who thinks this way about the ending for Morrowind?

Edited June 30, 2013 by ZeroCore

[AnuAurielAkatosh]

I mostly feel the way you do. I would prefer peace by and large, but i consider it beyond plausible (canon wise) that the empire, tribunal, and dagoth ur would ever live in harmony. Maybe some progress in some ways could be made, but somebody would end up dead. In all honesty though, I don't like the tribunal much at all, so they'd be the ones I'd sacrifice in that equation. They seem the most Machiavellian / ill-intentioned of the bunch. Emperor cant help if some officials are corrupt or some of his predecessors jerks, and dagoth seems mad.

I cant seem to find any mods at the moment, sorry. I doubt it exists. I was considering at some future point of making a mod with more options on how you finished the questline, perhaps i could try to work your idea in? I'd be worried about realism concerns (important to me) though...

Edited July 31, 2013 by AnuAurielAkatosh

[mythicdawnmaster]

Hmm, I personally felt the ending was satisfactory, you know ending the blight and fulfilling the prophesy blah blah, but I couldn't help but feel a puppet of Azura and the Emperor.

 

As for a more 'peaceful' ending, included in the Great House Dagoth mod is the rather elusive means of joining the Tribunal by defeating Dagoth Ur and either handing over the tools to Vivec or having them destroyed, OR becoming the one true god and eliminating all factions involved... which confers peace after a lot of violence.

 

But I can't find anything else, as Anu above me says I really doubt anything like that does exist, and I also agree that peace is beyond plausible, unless of course the Nerevarine could somehow tap into the spirit of Nerevar and have him talk down Dagoth Ur and have him go all pacifist, but then there would still be the matter of the Tribunal and the Imperials at each-others throats if Ur could somehow reconcile with the former.

 

I do wish you luck should this Mod idea bear fruition, I'm no modder so I doubt I could be any help with that, but I'll keep my eye open :)

[pheo3309]

Actually Dagoth Ur essentially was the first to betray, being that he told Nerevar to destroy the tools, Nerevar left them in Dagoth's possession to protect for a short time, and not only did Dagoth experiment on the tools, but he stole some of their divine essence and refused to give them back to Nerevar. So pretty much Dagoth had it coming, he wouldn't relinquish what he stole. Not to mention the whole passing a divine contagion around doesn't help with the case that his power was spreading and would essentially keep spreading. Even with the erection of Ghostfence, blighted creatures could still get out, either by flying over it or by navigating the catacombs under it.

 

 

Edit: Further lore clarifications.

Edited August 1, 2013 by pheo3309

[SiNNeR]

you described exactly what I love about the Morrowind story. Dagoth Ur isn't the usual generic bad guy who plagued RPGs at the time of Morrowind's release, in his own mind he's the hero of the story. the Tribunal aren't the usual council of good guys or corrupt leadership either, they're mostly well intentioned but with realistic character flaws of selfishness, greed and jealousy

nobody in Morrowind wants to just destroy everything like Mehrunes Dagon and Alduin (although they of course do have lore explanations for those desires), all the important characters have personality and depth lacking in many other games (something that for the most part was carried on in later TES games thankfully) and it's hard not to feel some sympathy for the various villains

 

I'd have loved for vanilla Morrowind to provide more choices, such as siding with Dagoth Ur or trying to negotiate a peaceful resolution, but I never felt that the lack of those options hurt the game too much like it does in other games where you're railroaded onto a specific path with no true choices

[billyro]

To me, Dagoth Ur is someone who sends ash zombies to you in your sleep, and therefore must die. I'm a very straight-forward person.

 

The ending was lacking in the sense that I didn't really feel like much had changed. Sure, the sky becomes blue everywhere and all the people respect you, but there's not really much more to it.

 

Meh, it's the journey that counts, not the reward.