Morrowind Forum Roleplay

[Imehal]

"Morrowind is the third installment in the Elder Scrolls series. The game takes place on the island of Vvardenfell, a district in the Dunmeri province of Morrowind." - Taken from http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Morrowind

So, as the title so clearly states, there are a few of us around the site that apparently would love to do a Morrowind-based roleplay. Basically, the premise, compiled by myself, Cthu and a few others in the chat that I can't seem to remember the names of... -_- (Forgive me), is that we're going to have eight or nine 'characters', one of each race all being present in the town of Balmora, possibly after the events of Oblivion. The plot is still sketchy though we do have a roleplayer willing to run the opposition, but I think we're going to keep things as simple as can be.

It will be done on the forums, though if people want to do non-essential/night camp roleplay on the chat, we can use the tab's chat for that.

As far as I can recall, we have Dudebro (Khajiit), Riverstyx777 (Bosmer), Frozen_Soul (??) and myself (Altmer) interested already and I apologise sincerely if I missed anyone out.

So, for anyone interested, there's a few questions to fire around.

1) Do we want to try and implement a character template that will keep characters balanced alongside one another and their roles in the group/s?

2) Would we prefer one/two good groups made up of the main players or perhaps a few groups of different loyalties/alignments?

3) If you're interested and weren't one of the original enthusiasts, what would you consider playing?

Alright, I think that's everything. I'll add and edit things if needed!

Imehal x

[Duchessa]

First off, I'm interested!

Secondly, at least some form of basic character template would probably be a good idea to give a benchmark to work from. As to the grouping question, that entirely depends on how many people/characters join in and on the plot itself. If there are just a few joining, then a single cohesive group of the main players makes more sense than spreading everyone out, although I'm much more in favour of having several competing/complimentary groups (especially if more characters join in.)

Thirdly, I'd consider playing a Dunmer for preference, and probably a Telvanni at that. I can't be more specific really until I know a little more about the overall plot and pacing the roleplay would take.

I look forward to seeing where this will go.

[Village Alchemist]

I love Morrowind. In fact, I just started a Let's Play of it earlier today, so what a strange coincidence that this topic came up! Watch my videos! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2LuUuIq4Ks

Anyway, I'll join your game.

1) Do we want to try and implement a character template that will keep characters balanced alongside one another and their roles in the group/s? Nah, sounds too complicated. Just give us a standard character skeleton.

2) Would we prefer one/two good groups made up of the main players or perhaps a few groups of different loyalties/alignments? I find that roleplays tend to go much more smoothly if everyone is working together rather than against one-another.

3) If you're interested and weren't one of the original enthusiasts, what would you consider playing? I am not sure what you mean. Are you asking what sort of character I want to play as? Eh, I'd have to see the roleplay to decide.

[Imehal]

Yikes.

People responded. This is a new one for me, especially seeing as it wasn't really my idea in the first place. Well then!

Thank you both for posting interest, straight off. We seem to have a slight difference of opinion on character sheets, so I'll try and make sure that the rules/character sheets give a good enough outline of what is expected of everyone, though if there's just going to be a few of us, it'll be easier to manage.

Looking at numbers, we're probably gunning for a single, cohesive group that's working towards goals/against an enemy and now that I've got some definite interest, I can start seriously prodding my partner to think up some plot. He's not terribly familiar with Morrowind, but he's a fast learner.

I do have a question though Duchessa; what do you mean by pacing? As in posting speed or storyline progression?

And yes, Village Alchemist, I was asking exactly that!

So, I'll get on getting some plot whipped up; would people be okay with an initial meeting of characters in Balmora and any preference on time in Elder Scrolls storyline? I suggested after Oblivion earlier.

Also... Duchessa, English girl! =D

[Duchessa]

A bit of both, Imehal, in truth, although I was mainly thinking in terms of storyline progression. After Oblivion sounds fine to me - are we talking straight after the Crisis or some time period after that (months, years and so forth), though?

[Imehal]

Well, I -like- to do my story lines in fun little sporadic dashes. As in, I'll finish a day or two and perhaps skip through another two days with a brief synopsis if nothing of worth happened, you know? So as long as we post fairly frequently, I predict good story progression, unless you guys prefer a more detailed pacing?

Now, here's an embarrassing factoid; I've never actually finished Oblivion. Don't get me wrong; I 'know' how it ends and everything... I just, never started Kvatch and thus never did the Oblivion Gates. So, I'm not entirely sure what kind of impact would have been had. I was thinking... perhaps a few months, when the dust has settled a bit... maybe even a touch of alliance making going on between the two realms?

[Gasmask]

Well, I'm dudebro and I'm happy with the turn-out. Still don't see Arrow or River in here, but that's okay.

Alright, guys: I was thinking after the storyline of oblivion.

I think we should do something with the Umbra Blade.
Unless anybody has other ideas.

Now a fore-warning, My khajiit plays to his strengths, so keep a hand on your purses and a lock on your box of moon-sugar. :)

[Village Alchemist]

*pops in again to demonstrate nerdiness*

There is a book set 45 years after Oblivion. It is kind of vague as to what happened during the time-skip, but at some point in that period:

-The Mages' Guild dissapears and is replaced with two (vague) groups called the Synods and the College of Whispers.
-Southern Morrowind is invaded by Argonians. The invasion goes poorly, though, because...
-...Red Mountain erupts and Morrowind is trashed.
-A group called Penitus Oculatis is doing the job that the Blades once did. It is not clear if they are working simontaneously with the Blades or if they are their replacement.
-Some fellow named Titus Mede has declared himself Emperor, and is now in charge of Cyrodiil.

The plot actually already involves Umbra. I don't feel like summarizing the whole thing, though, so....meh.

EDIT: Typos! I hate making typos. I said that the Emperor was noT in charge of Cyrodiil! I meant that he was noW in charge of Cyrodiil! >.<

[Gasmask]

Ah.

Well, that makes the land of morrowind a little more interesting then, eh?

Hm.

We could make it quest to restore morrowind to it's former glory, you know..Using the good daedra as plot-points?

[Duchessa]

Yes, indeed! That would be interesting, very interesting...opportunistic characters and daedra, the world gone mad...sounds like the Elder Scrolls right enough :)

And, of course, that then gives us scope to perhaps play with whether we mean 'restore Morrowind to its former glory as a good little province of the Empire' or 'the nation of Resdayn.' It all depends on your perspective.

[Village Alchemist]

Ooh, very interesting. I love it.

[Imehal]

I must say I approve, though if we're basing our general plot off this book, does that mean we have to read it or are we just going vaguely off a similar premise?

Restoring Morrowind back to its former glory, whatever that entails for each character - their purpose and motivations - suits me right down to earth. I just need to be quite certain what I'm writing as a plot before I can pop off and make a tab.

I spoke to 'Team Evil'... Lolindir is his username and he's happy using the less moral Daedra to try and steer the characters in ill directions. Sheogarath and his ilk, if that's alright with everyone? I assume they'll be acting through mortals on the world rather than manifesting in Morrowind, so it'll create interesting plot.

How does that sound?

[Duchessa]

That all sounds perfectly fine for me! I think we should just know the general premise of the latest canon developments in Morrowind, really - rather than necessarily reading the whole thing.

I look forward to the interesting plot you weave :)

[Gasmask]

Oh.

I might be switching over to Dunmer myself. Probably an extremely paranoid farmer turned warrior, due to the state of morrowind currently is in. But if you want Duchessa, you can have the dark elf race all to yourself, I'm fine with it. :)

[Duchessa]

Oh, I don't think we need to be mono-player and hence monolithic in our portrayal of the races, do we? After all, if I play a Telvanni wizard-lord (or lady, of course) I'm going to have a jolly different viewpoint and take on things than you might with a farmer turned warrior. The only way that it might be a bit of a problem is if Imehal takes issue with it; her first post said a character from each race.

Personally, though, I have no problem with it at all. It'd show more facets of the Dunmer race than if just I had it.

[Imehal]

Exclusivity in the races was purely a primary 'it could be fun' idea so I'm perfectly open to playing more than one of a race now.

I'm still thinking Altmer but I'm toying with not playing a mage. I'll see what hole might need filling in the 'party' and cater to that. As long as it's not a warrior... Ooh, Cthu did that. I'm safe!

[Gasmask]

I think we need in the party to have diversity. So we already have..

Two Dunmer of very different heritages. One Telvanni, and probably one Ashlander/Azura's coast farmer
An Altmer of unknown classing? Maybe you could go spellsword/thief, eh Immie? That would be fairly unique.

Dunno who alchemist is going, we kinda lost contact with the others so..

I might even switch to Imperial or Breton, I've been juggling some ideas in my head.

Breton duelist, you know..Rapier and all that.
or an Imperial Knight. But I think I like my Dunmer farmer turned warrior idea.

[Gasmask]

Alright. I had a chat with Imehal about the events in Morrowind, taking the events Alchemist already listed.

To bring the characters together I thought of this.

Azura contacts the intrepid adventurers in their dreams, Like the original time she contacted the Neravaine. Only with multiple people involved, each dream personalized to each member. So as in, my farmer is told that in reward he shall be given the means to save his family from poverty and death. A wizard-lord like Duchessa's is told she will be given knowledge that would make her lusted after her by her piers for her knowledge and also advancement within the guild itself.

Now here is a list I thought up has gone on during the events listed:

-Vivec becomes a wanderer, rumors of a blue and gold tattooed dark elf spread throughout the land. The party come across him, and try to convince him to return to his own city because...
-...Vivec's city has become a ruin. The Ordinators slain and the occupants forced to flee or die during a highly organized bandit attack, cantons are sunk(St.Olms, Vivec's own canton, and Redoran.) The bandits also now rule over the city with an iron and merciless fist.

-Red mountain has erupted, consuming many of the closest Dwarvish ruins and releasing a dragon that was slumbering for millions of years beneath Morrowind(Yes, there were dragons in Morrowind decades ago.) and ash-storms and lava rivers become more common. While the dragon becomes the scourge of all life near the graze-lands and ghost-gate. Thus...
-...It forces the Ashlanders to flee the graze-lands and setup camp near Balmora, thus setting the local balmora dwellers on edge, conflict threatens both people, seeing as Ashlanders think that Balmora is ruining the nature around the region they live in. Hlaau and the Ashlanders want to get rid of both each-other.

-The factions suddenly roar to life using the chaos erupting to take active war with each-other. Telvanni and Hlaau becoming brutal enemies and executing Telvanni members in Hlaau territory and Vice-versa. Telvanni tries and fails to resurrect slavery. Telvanni members drop, their corpses used as warnings. Redoran comes across an ancient dwarven dock, awakening a dwarvish pirate-lord, his wraith rebuilding an air-ship and taking to the skies, assembling a ghostly crew to plague the Redoran cities and armies, Redoran reacts to this new threat by hiring a swathe of new members.

-The dark brotherhood slinks into Morrowind, burning Pelagaid to the ground and using the imperial castle as a hide-out. Morag tong find out about this, an almost 'Invisible' war is then launched against the two rival factions. Dead brotherhood and Morag tong members are found in the streets of many a city.

-The current Telvanni leader is killed in said faction wars. The spot is empty, the apprentices and elders fight each-other for the spot. Their actions angering many a citizen.
-The current Hlaau leader is killed in said faction wars. His spot taken by a man who never takes off his helmet. Suspicion is raised, the Hlaau apprentices claiming that the new leader is a vampire.
-The current Redoran leader comes across dwarven armour in said dock, he wears it and becomes a violent force, killing Hlaau and Telvanni alike, carving a bloody swathe towards the air-ship and his obsession with the air-ship becomes dangerous.

-Vampires are rising up from their dwarven hide-outs due to the eruptions, people in the outskirts of cities disappear over night. Families are found drained of their blood and alike. Vampire hunters start killing off fledgling vampires only to find that the elders are back to stalking the lands by night and hiding out in Ancestor tombs. A new guild is assembled to combat the thread. The vampire hunting guild, it isn't very large due to people avoiding it.

-The fighters guild merges with the new guild formed. The vampire hunting guild becoming a sub-path. The fighter's guild has an influx of new members, although weak and no knowledge of fighting what-so-ever. Just joining for the simple desire for protection.

-The synods and college of whispers are not given guild halls, thus angering them.
-The synods and college of whispers jointly form up in the balmora guild hall, The telvanni respond by sending spies and such, causing high regards of treason and suspicion. They are nearly wiped out by the Telvanni, thus forcing them out into the wilderness to form their own separate guild halls.

-Balmora is turned into a haven for non faction members and alike, Telvanni and Redoran and hung on the spot when found, people learn not to wear guild or faction badges.

-The thieves guild learn of the gray fox and shake their heads. A new Khajiit thief has found the ring of the Khajiit and performing amazing robberies and alike, it is rumored his next target is to steal Volendrung from the corpseanium.

-Ash storms become common in places where there were none.

-Solsthiem is taken over by the nords, driving out the imperials and dunmer. No outsiders except that of nord heritage are allowed in, The Imperials launch a full scale invasion, the first wave of imperial troopers killed and looted. A new wave of shock-troopers arrive, orcs and nords. Their racial hate is escalated, the soldiers abandoning their gear for their bare hands, violent combat is started with orcs and nords constantly fighting each-other.

-Militia is formed to fight off the bandit's in Vivec, lead by the morag tong. Leading guerilla tactics and fighting in the sewers of viviec, setting up camp in sunken cantons which are magically enchanted by some mages of the college of whispers to keep air in. Under the agreement that the morag tong would denote them a canton of their very own, which they happily did.

-The Synods travel to the burnt remains of Pelgiad forming a deal with the dark brotherhood to setup camp in the ruins, thus establishing another city there.

What do you guys think? Tell me what you disagree with and alike.

For the starting period between our characters meeting. I have thought of this between our characters Duchessa.

The Telvanni wizard-lord..(Or woman) is found out by the public and dobbed in to the guards, she is due to be hanged by the morning.
My farmer turned warrior arrives. He sees no reason why the Telvanni woman or man should be hanged, he tears off one of his iron gauntlets and runs onto the stage, slamming it upon her wrist, thrusting her arm into the air forcefully and claiming they should instead, enslave the Telvanni. The public agree. The farmer turned warrior informs the telvanni woman that she is not a slave at all and it was just a feint to trick the public but she has to wear the bracelet to continue the trick. They then head off to Eight plates to discuss the Azura dreams.

Then the rest of the characters can come in during or after that?

Discuss.

[Duchessa]

1. Vivec’s a mortal now, surely, so might I enquire what use it is getting him back to the ruins of his city?

2. The area where Vivec city once stood was hit by a ballistic moon, so surely there wouldn’t be so much as a canton left of Vivec and it’d all be under water? It is called Scathing Bay, after all...

3. I do like most of it, but perhaps more should be made of the ruined state of Morrowind? Red Mountain’s blown its top completely, and it’s a HUGE volcano after all – perhaps have more towns ruined and rebuilding in progress, with all the tensions that brings?

4. I take it we’re ignoring the Argonian invasion, or have they simply not got as far as Vvardenfell just yet?

5. Playing off points 3 and 4, if we assume that the Telvanni Isles were (largely) destroyed by the eruption (ie swamped by ash and water) and that House Hlaalu’s capital, Narsis, has been overrun by Argonian forces, along with Blacklight, that would give us the massively-increased tensions between factions on Vvardenfell, along with the damage they’d have suffered. Just a thought.

5. Pelagiad being burned to the ground doesn’t sound particularly like the Dark Brotherhood; they work in secret as assassins, rather than charging in to put an entire city to the torch, no? I like the idea of an ‘invisible war’ between the two factions, though.

6. I like the whole Ashlanders-mixing-with-settled-Dunmer thing – there’d be a LOT of tensions there, and the Tribunal’s only recently fallen too, only adding to the chaos.

7. My character as a 'slave', oh, that’s good :)

8. We could make more of the invasions by Nords and Argonians perhaps...

Just a few thoughts to chew on, hmm?

[Imehal]

So much plotting!

I can safely say that quite a lot of those names and places went straight over my head, but I get the general premise of the background and setting so I think I'm cool. I'll just have to do some more reading up it seems, especially when you two seem very knowledgeable.

Most of it seems to be material we would use to create a world around our characters; a setting of high tension and hidden and open combat. Fun, to be sure!

I like the opening for the plot involving the two Dunmer characters and it might actually be better if I insert my character after the initial meeting stage. I'm going to go with Cthu's suggestion somewhat and make a 'spellthief' with more emphasis on the thieving, sneakier spells. How to weave her into the other two will be tricky, but I'll be posting from the start with my own mini-plot so that I don't feel like I've just been 'sitting' around whilst you two post along.

The dream idea is good; it ties us all together. I can't see my girl, no matter if Azura herself gives her a dream, willingly putting herself outside her comfort zone, which is shadows and secrecy but that's the joy of plotting.

And apparently, it's Borakan not Lolindir. >_>