balketh

Eggbug was here. Eggbug mattered.

Goblin Party @ My Brain 24/7 | A week shy of 33 before Cohost closed. Cis, ACAB forever, Trans Rights Are Human Rights forever.

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I feel like the MSQ of Morrowind should have revolved around the relationship betwen Voryn and Nerevar more.

Like, it shouldn't have been up to Azura and the Cavern of the Incarnate to bar the passage of the prophecised true Nerevar. That's too pointlessly direct for Azura when she's also the one choosing the Nerevarine to die in failure in Vvardenfell... Kinda fuckin pointless IMO. Should have been Voryn, instead.

He's such an under-explored villain. He's just kinda like... 'Bluh! Woe and blight upon the land I'm supposedly trying to save!' and like, there's a LOT of rich story behind his reasoning and decisions, and his worldview is NUTS, but like... You only get that by reading like 12 in-game books at the same time, and it's just not a good way to deliver a narrative. When you play the MSQ straight, it's... Very generic. Go here. Do this. Gods say do that. He's eViL. You're pRoPhEcIzEd. Go kill him. WheeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

Like, why doesn't Voryn pester the Nerevarine constantly? He's aware of your presence on Vvardenfell, why not have him be involved more in your time? Why not have him be the reason you try to find out what happened to Nerevar (leading into Tribunal/etc)? He should try to turn you against ALMSIVI, and against the Empire.

Give us some flashbacks to the battle for Red Mountain. Tender embraces. Why is Dagoth Ur being so deferential to you? Why is he listening to you? Like you're allies? Why are Vivec and Almalexia and (who the fuck is that guy lol) talking to him like nothing is wrong? Why are we all gold-skinned? Swap between the model of Dagoth Ur and Voryn, cut between the different interpretations of the events to show the Dragon Break happening in 'real time'. Make it an actual mystery you uncover as you awaken to the truth that you ARE the Nerevarine. Make Dagoth Ur the reason false Incarnates don't make it past the Cavern. "I WILL NOT BE FELLED BY ANY HAND BUT MY MASTER, MY BROTHER, MY LOVE. I PROMISED HIM I WOULD WAIT, AND SO I SHALL WAIT UNTIL THE ENDING OF THE WORDS ALMSIVI."

Tell me that wouldn't be infinitely more compelling.


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in reply to @balketh's post:

On a gameplay level I imagine ultimately they still needed a general purpose villain to base mid to high level enemies off of and the Daedric princes were on lunch or something.

Story wise I agree completely. I have no idea why Azura even let the Tribunal exist, being that they were kinda supplanting her worship and all that good stuff.

Really everything would be on track for Voryn and the Nerevar to BOTH be on the right if the former didn't start going a little crazy with the blight stuff.

I totally understand them not wanting the Empire in Vvardenfell.

Like most gods, the Daedric Princes do have their inscrutable limits, and Vekh's later-but-always CHIM realisation makes him always difficult to deal with, so I can understand Azura coming at him from a place of real guilt worn into him over time, like water over stone.

As for the Blight stuff, that was how Voryn went basically from the get-go at the culmination of the Battle of Red Mountain; his corrupted inverse realisation of the godhead through his manipulation of the tools tethered him to the heart, and without protection or knowing, his desires were corrupted in such a foul way.

They wouldn't have to change too much about the game's general progression and Voryn's purpose as a big-bad-boss, but I think an actual representation of the absolute insanity of an in-progress Dragon Break, the magnitude of the power at play in the Heart, the actual threat of Numidium alone, let alone Akulakhan born of such a selfish view of the godhead, would go a long way to shaping up the ailing back half of the MSQ.

Emotional attachment and history between Nerevar and Voryn in playable segments would also help to connect your Nerevarine with Nerevar himself, it would make the discovery of Foul Murder even more impactful, and give the player a direct reason to want to go against the Tribunal later on. Even that gets given more depth, as we would get to see Almalexia as your wife and confidant, Vivec in his pre-post-always-CHIM-prime, and even a hint of who the fuck Sotha Sil was, let alone deeping the emotional impact of Voryn as your brother-in-arms, your general, your friend.

A gruelling and gripping narrative of the broad and inscrutable cruelty of the Daedric Divine, of betrayal, of the closest bonds being torn apart by the ways power and context manipulate our choices. To come face to face with dear Voryn, who has never slept a night without thinking of your return, of sweet, loyal Voryn who waited, and waited, and waited, and when he finally could act, to prepare Resdayn for your return through his most cunning plans and clever sorceries, who took up the mantle of leadership in your absence, but deep down, only temporarily...

Only to find you oppose him, because he won't just stop at Vvardenfell. You might even agree with him academically, or morally, or ethically, but it cannot be. Akulakhan is being made to rule over all, and that is no different, in any measure, to the Empire, to the Aldmeri, to all who vie for dominion. To have to cut down your dearest brother, who wanted the best, in his heart, for all your peoples, but whose mind could not withstand knowing the Truth, and fell into dangerously deep ruin.

Now that's something I wanna play.

Morrowind mod for MGS3 tbh (I kid)

I suppose something like that could only be done through either a lot of dialog, world building like books and such, or a mixture of both.

Something you'd really kinda need Michael Kirkbride for but if it was a fan project; you make do. Cuz all of this seems totally reasonable to do as part of a mod.

Obviously I'm not that well versed in all this so I'm only about half sure here.