Why is every enterable dungeon/fort/ayleid ruin underground?

[billypnats]

Why isn't there any fort that is working? I remember in morrowind where there ws this fortress thing and it was awesome. but now everythings undergrounds, is this one of those "lore" things?

[SrJoben]

That is an amazingly good question.

[AssyMcGee]

As far as I can recall the Ayleids lived underground, so those are "cities" you are in, even though it looks like a giant catacomb, really not sure how a city functioned down there, and as for the forts, I really dont know.

[WoogieMonster]

Maybe it's just a matter of Bethesda taking the rarely seen step of "helping by getting out of the way." When they made Morrowind, there was a need to fill the world with massive awe-inspiring structures and architecture. Then users started making their own items to be placed in the world, which created a problem: real-estate. So in Oblivion the game makers may have been trying to help the modding community by putting everything underground. That could also explain the open empty areas beyond the invisible borders.

[Ethre]

Id guess its, in a large part, due to ease of construction (above ground they'd need to make careful note of layouts/etc to preserve immersion).

 

They Ayleid cities had to have been partially above ground though, given the extensive ruins. As to the forts, that is one problem I really had with vanilla oblivion - I mean, tons and tons of old forts around, but not a single functioning one? Come on, what's the point in that.

 

Though perhaps its meant to be indicative of the decline of the empire?

[Khadir]

Though perhaps its meant to be indicative of the decline of the empire?

 

The empire would have to be declining for a few centuries for all of the forts to look this way - plaster crumbled into nothingness, no signs of the typical above-ground structures like stables or forges remaining and so on.

[Naikado2]

We don't necessarily know from what time period the forts are from... Er, I don't, and I spend a LOT of time on the wiki reading plenty of lore... :P

 

Anyways, they could be from shortly after the Ayleids to a day before the game takes place, though there may be one single piece of lore I've been unable to find about forts... Eheheh, time to search them on the wiki! 8D

[Matoyak]

IIRC, one of the books in the vanilla Oblivion (360 GotY version, haven't found it in my PC GotY modded version) stated that the Ayleids lived above ground, but their fallback fortresses were underground, and as their society crumbled, they abandoned the upper parts of the cities for the safety of the underground forts. Where they eventually went mad(er).

 

That's all paraphrased.

 

As to why the forts are... yeah, there's not a single good explanation for that one. Sure, they could all be from way back in da day, but even then the Empire should have kept at least SOME of them maintained. Even with the decline of the empire that we've seen, there's still no good reason for all the forts to be the way they are unless the rulers are incompetent, and the game seemed to stress that Uriel the assassinated one was a rather good emperor, as were the two in front of him. Granted, the forts could be even further back than that but you'd think that any empire would keep a fort or two in it. Ah well.

 

(Granted, I must guess it was a gameplay concession in terms of rendering numbers of soldiers (guard's barracks, anyone? Now imagine a fort with that many or more guards)

[Javalin]

I always wondered why everything was underground aswell. I mean, I understand Ayleid ruins being underground, as their cities were Underground aswell.

 

I don't understand why the forts were always made to go deep underground, and every one of them look the same pretty much. I feel as if Bethesda pretty much lost the will to live with trying to make the Ayleid ruins or look differently. I mean, some Ayleid ruins were different, but most of the forts were the same, repeated over and over.

 

As WoogieMonster said, it was probably done for Real Estate.

The Morrowind Land wasn't quite as large as Oblivions. But then, the reason for that was because of Fast Travel and Mounts.

 

Morrowind was much more fun in the sense of exporation. As stated below :P

 

Godmode and the Scroll that gives Increased Acrobatics by 1000 - I could jump from the lowest point of Morrowind, and up to the far north end of Solsteim. It was fast, and reliable (Sort of) I just had to make sure i didn't massively overjump it. There was a couple of times i had the boots of Blinding speed on, but ended up going WAAAY too far, and it took me like 20minutes to get back to land - also I never saved my game for awhile before it :P

 

 

Kind Regards.

 

Javalin

[3rdtryguy]

I have an idea about this.

 

First, these old forts were once useful back when the men & mer were both fighting for control of the area, but once the elves finally fell, the forts were no longer needed after the area got politically stabilized and homogenized. The outer provinces have forts still, but here in the core of the empire they are no longer useful, and have been decommissioned.

 

As for why everything is underground? Well, the old magics were a lot more potent than the magic of today, probably capable of laying waste to anything above ground with ease. In fact, my guess is that the underground stuff we see is simply what remains of what were once areas with plenty of above-ground stuff. Much of the forts were possibly built underground to make them more fort-like and secure, like bunkers. There is also the temperature control aspect; underground structures are easier to keep warm and/or cool than aboveground ones, and the weather is rarely a concern. Overall, it's a good idea.