The Elder Scrolls: Difference between revisions
m
→top: clean up, replaced: Pieta Plagiarism → Pietà Plagiarism
No edit summary |
m (→top: clean up, replaced: Pieta Plagiarism → Pietà Plagiarism) |
||
Line 2:
[[File:elderscroll_7680.jpg|frame|[[You Cannot Grasp the True Form|This is what you think an Elder Scroll looks like.]]]]
Popular series of computer and console [[RPG
The principal games in the ''Elder Scrolls'' series are:
* ''[[The Elder Scrolls: Arena|Arena]]'' (1994). [[The Emperor|The benevolent Emperor]] of Tamriel, Uriel Septim VII, is secretly overthrown by his own [[Magic Knight|Battlemage]] Jagar Tharn, who traps him in Oblivion, assumes his appearance, and reigns in his stead. However, the ghost of his late apprentice Ria Silmane teams up with a loyal Imperial guardsman (the [[Player Character]]) to fight the usurper. Together, they travel through all provinces of Tamriel to [[Gotta Catch Them All|collect all pieces]] of the [[Dismantled MacGuffin|Staff of Chaos]], which the PC then uses to kill Tharn and restore the rightful Emperor. The game was originally going to be about, well, arenas, but that idea was scratched in favor of adapting the developers' home-brew [[Dungeons and Dragons|D&D setting]], Tamriel, into a computer game. The fast-paced gladiatorial combat style remained, though, and ''Arena'' was much more action-oriented than other [[RPG
* ''[[The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall|Daggerfall]]'' (1996). The PC, a personal acquaintance of Uriel Septim VII, is sent to the Western province of High Rock to investigate the ghost of its former King Lysandus, who now haunts the city of Daggerfall. Cooperating with the [[Secret Police|Emperor's Blades]], the PC uncovers a sinister plot to reactivate the [[Lost Superweapon]] Numidium, which was originally used to forge the Third Tamrielic Empire. Several factions in the region enter the fight for controlling the Numidium, and it depends on the PC who wins it. Also of note is the emphasis on side-
* ''[[The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind|Morrowind]]'' (2002). A convict from the Imperial City Prison (the PC) is released in the North-Eastern province of Morrowind on the Emperor's direct orders. Guided by the Blades, the PC fulfills countless local prophecies and is acknowledged as the [[Chosen One]] who will save the land from [[The Plague|the Blight]] (no, not [[Dragon Age|that Blight]]). Tracing the Blight to the evil god Dagoth-Ur, the PC destroys the source of his (and other local gods') [[Immortality]] and kills him, bringing relative peace to the province. It was significantly smaller in scope than its predecessor (a "mere" 18 square miles as opposed to hundreds, and a non-infinite number of side-quests), but managed to come off as much more epic anyway due to the quality of the writing and the [[Scenery Porn|diverse, exotic landscapes]]. It's also notable for being much, much weirder than the rest of the franchise, being set in an alien landscape populated by Dunmer, dinosaurs, giant bugs, and tiny Cthulhu lookalikes.
Line 53:
** Most of the inhabitants in the Dark Brotherhood Cheydinhal Sanctuary in ''Oblivion'' can be quite charming.
{{quote|"Hey, I don't know who the Night Mother is, but she pays me to kill people. My own mother never loved me so much!"}}
* [[A Homeowner Is You]]: Except in ''Arena'', all games of the main series allow you to either buy or build homes. ''Morrowind'' uses them as rewards for climbing up in the hierarchy of certain factions; ''Daggerfall'' and ''Oblivion'' lets you buy them if you have enough money. ''Skyrim'' is a bit of
* [[A God Am I]]: Dagoth Ur.
{{quote|What a fool you are. I'm a god! How can you kill a god?! What a grand and intoxicating innocence!}}
Line 106:
* [[Call a Smeerp a Rabbit]]: A metal used since ''Morrowind'' for high-quality heavy armor is called ebony, with no relation to the real-world wood.
** Similarly, Skyrim features a ''solid'' metal called "quicksilver".
* [[Card-Carrying Villain]]: Egregiously so in ''Oblivion''. ''Morrowind'' was much more morally ambiguous, with even the local assassins' guild operating within legal framework and according to [[Even Evil Has Standards|a strict honor code]]. There was also less of the trope in ''Skyrim''
** The Daedra can look like this at
* [[Catfolk]]: Khajiit.
** Actually zigzagged at first. In ''Arena'' and ''Daggerfall'', the playable Khajiit where a subspecies known as Ohmes-Raht Khajiit, which were basically humans with a few vague feline features. From ''Morrowind'' onwards, the dominant Khajiit sub-species has been the Suthay-Raht, which are your standard [[Catfolk]].
Line 117:
* [[Choice of Two Weapons]]: Too many different combinations possible.
* [[City of Canals]]: The city of Vivec from ''Morrowind''.
* [[Conspiracy Theorist]]: A side quest in ''
** This is apparently a VERY common trait with the Dukes and Duchesses of Dementia.
* [[Contemptible Cover]]: The promo and cover art for ''Arena'' and ''Daggerfall'' had [[Rob Liefeld|Rob Liefeld-esque]] female warriors dressed in outfits that consisted solely of a few black leather straps. The modern ''Elder Scrolls'' games from Morrowind onwards have been more sensible in that regard.
Line 136:
*** In addition to not receiving the well-rested bonus upon sleeping in your own bed.
* [[Damn You, Muscle Memory!]]: Go from any installment to ''any other'' installment and you'll run into this problem, guaranteed.
** Worst off is probably ''Skyrim'' (on the PC at least)--the Z key was the button used to pick up and move objects around in ''Oblivion'', but was in this case remapped to trigger a
** This was the same on the [[PlayStation 3]] which used the R2 key to move items, also remapped to use shouts. Coupled with natural lag on the [[PlayStation 3]] at higher levels, and the lag brought on from processing the bytes that make up the items flying around the room, this can be incredibly agonizing.
* [[Darker and Edgier]]: ''Battlespire'' is possibly the darkest ES game, despite being only a spinoff. Unlike virtually every other game, you're utterly alone, trapped in a horrific [[Fire and Brimstone Hell|Oblivion Realm]] filled with equally horrific monsters just waiting to tear you to pieces. Throughout the game, you are subjected to various nightmarish imagery, forced to fight against seemingly impossible odds as the [[Big Bad]] viciously taunts you the entire time.
Line 219:
** Metaphysical mumbo-jumbo is boring, right? Nobody will ever read the obscure and confusing ''Lessons of Vivec''. Sermon 14 of the series describe an orgy that happened when Vivec decided to teach "the ways of belly-magic" to the "King of Rape". There was much "biting of spears" and "piercing of the second aperture".
** One alchemist in ''Oblivion'' asks you about the punishment for necrophilia in Cyrodiil. "No reason, just curious." She'll be very happy if you tell her it's just a fine, even for repeated offenses. (Note that the alchemist was a Dunmer from Vvardenfell, where religious law gives ''any'' tampering with the remains of the deceased an ''extremely'' harsh sentence.)
** Moon Sugar and Skooma are [[Fantastic Drug
** It's quite obvious what Mirabelle Monet in Anvil gets up to behind closed doors. She even says that the beds in her inn are [[Incredibly Lame Pun|reserved for seamen]].
** And of course, everyone's favorite play, "The Lusty Argonian Maid".
Line 269:
** Taken to a new extreme in Skyrim, where one can make a couple thousand "hide" items to increase their Smithing skill to 100 easily.
* [[Lawful Stupid]]: The Imperial Guard can be outright ''vicious'', even for minor infractions. Mostly due to [[Artificial Stupidity|AI limitations]], though. The town guards of Skyrim are more lax, and will merely note "Wait, I know you" if you've committed minor crimes. Also, if you're with the Thieves Guild, [[Screw the Rules, I Have Money|you can bribe them to look the other way]].
* [[The Law of Conservation of Detail]]: The five major games are a shining example of this trope. ''Arena'' has a ludicrously humongous world the size of Europe, but most of the villages that are not major or plot-significant are automatically generated. ''Daggerfall'' later limted the world to only two provinces, Hammerfell and High Rock, but made the world way more detailed and less repetitive, ''Morrowind'' then scaled further down to part of the eponymous province while making every single village significant and adding all sorts of detailed features to the terrain. ''Oblivion'', while ''slightly'' bigger by raw space than Morrowind, is less detailed, as everything is computer generated outside of towns. ''Skyrim'' is about the same size as ''Oblivion'', but the level of detail is noticeably
* [[Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards]]: Making a class's specialization "Combat" (and Stealth in Morrowind) wastes a good number of skills (as there is no point in multiple weapon types, making the bonus wasted), while "magic" specialization has none of the skills contradict.
* [[Lizard Folk]]: The Argonians. ''Arena'' also had lizard men deemed too brutish to be related to the Argonians, but they have not appeared in later games.
Line 282:
* [[Master of None]]: Medium Armor in Morrowind is the worst armor type, having few obtainable sets and nothing comparable to the best options for light and heavy.
** At least partially fixed in Tribunal, with the addition of Adamantium armor. But the sheer difficulty in obtaining a full set- you are forced to scrounge in dungeons for various 'veins' of ore surrounded by high-level monsters and then are forced to pay out the nose for each individual piece to even be MADE- means that its still not as easy to obtain as, say, Glass armor, the best light armor set. Or you could commit, you know, MURDER.
* [[Mayfly-December Romance]]: Just about any relationship between mer and man would count, but the relationship between Barenziah and Tiber Septim is a canon example (also a [[
* [[Meaningful Name]]: Zurin Arctus' The Art of War Magic is, naturally, written in a style reminscient of Sun Tzu's The Art of War.
* [[Metafictional Title]]: The series as a whole.
* [[Misplaced Vegetation]]: Evidently Tamriel's a hybrid of Europe and America; because they not only have cacti, but nightshades growing amongst the edible ones like potatoes and tomatoes, and Corn amongst other things. See [[All Deserts Have Cacti]].
* [[The Mole]]: {{spoiler|The leader of the Fighters Guild to the Camonna Tong in ''Morrowind''.}}
* [[Multiple Endings]]: ''Daggerfall'' had seven possible endings depending on your actions in the game; ''Morrowind'' takes at least five of them as [[Canon]] through some very weird [[
* [[Murder, Inc.]]: A considerable number of organizations qualify, including the Morag Tong (a government-sanctioned assassin's guild in Morrowind Province) and the Dark Brotherhood (a fully criminal offshoot of the former).
* [[Needle in a Stack of Needles]]: The ''Shivering Isles'' expansion.
Line 307:
* [[Our Dwarves Are All the Same]]: Subverted rather ingeniously. TES Dwemer actually ''are'' very dwarfy - they're reclusive, they live in underground strongholds carved into the mountains, they're superb metalsmiths and engineers, they don't get along with the (other) mer, and they have big, long beards. Bethsoft managed to keep the archetype almost completely intact, yet the way in which a simple change of the visual portrayal makes it new and unique and exciting again is quite remarkable.
** And they're also as extinct as the dinosaurs. Despite being so much more technologically advanced than everyone else in the world, for some mysterious unexplained reason they all died out, and all the Dwemer are officially dead and gone by the time the Elder Scrolls games take place.
*** The prevailing theory is that they essentially [[Brown Note|Brown-Noted]] themselves out of existence. That's what happens when you start [[All Myths Are True|screwing with the fabric of reality]], especially when that reality includes [[Physical God
** Their size is also ingeniously subverted. According to historical evidence, they were no smaller than the average Mer. The reason for their "Dwarf" name was due to giants interacting with them and viewing them as short. This eventually made it into common knowledge of all of Tamriel.
* [[Our Orcs Are Different]]: They started out as [[J. R. R. Tolkien|Tolkien]] Orcs, but [[Character Development|evolved into Blizzard Orcs]] later on.
Line 318:
* [[Petting Zoo People]]: Argonians and Khajiit, [[Lizard Folk]] and [[Catfolk]] respectively. There's also a few other "animal" races in the lore, such as the ape people/Imga, monkey people/Tang Mo, fox people/lilmothiit and slugmen/Sloads, but only the Argonians and Khajiit have appeared in the main series, and the only one of the others to appear in ''any'' game are the Sloads (one can be found in ''Redguard'', as a villain).
* [[Physical God]]: ALMSIVI, and Dagoth Ur as well. The Daedric Lords to a certain extent. Also, {{spoiler|the player at the end of Shivering Isle}}.
* [[
* [[Plant Person]]: Dryads and Spriggans.
* [[Powered by a Forsaken Child]]: Depending on how empathic you are, normal Soul Gems can qualify for this seeing as how they use a monster's soul to power magical items. Black Soul Gems certainly fit the trope, being that they use the souls of mortal races to power magical items. Mortal souls count as Grand Souls, which can make the most powerful enchantments.
Line 335:
* [[Reality Is Unrealistic]]: Response to some of the criticisms of the [[Lizard Folk|Argonians]] being plantigrade in ''Daggerfall'', ''Oblivion'' and ''Skyrim''. Actually...''Morrowind'' is the most unrealistic; seeing as Reptilians and amphibians walk plantigrade in real life.
** For those of us without a medical degree, plantigrade is walking with the foot flat against the ground as opposed to walking on the toes with the heel raised (digitgrade). The latter is used in Morrowind.
* [[Reckless Sidekick]], [[Leeroy Jenkins]]: The NPCs in [[Escort Mission
* [[Recurring Riff]]: Starting with ''Morrowind'', the "Elder Scrolls theme". Dun dun dun, dun dun dun, dun dun dun, da da dun dun dun...
* [[Red Sky, Take Warning]]: The Deadlands of Mehrunes Dagon (Oblivion) in ''Oblivion.''
Line 377:
** Subverted only in ''Skyrim'' - talking does not pause the world around you. Feel free to chat about the Civil War while a dragon burns everything around you.
* [[Talking to Himself]]: The voice actors hired have no range, and generally, two characters of the same race and gender will have the exact same voice. This can lead to something literally sounding like someone talking to himself. This can cause a pretty sharp decline in gameplay enjoyment if you're into immersion.
** The problem was present in ''Morrowind'', but minimized since there was so little voice
*** One of the more amusing examples is an old man who asks you to find his sons and help them fight off goblins. His sons, naturally, are both males of the same race, and when you first meet them they begin holding a conversation with each other that you can listen in on. Since they're the same race and gender, they sound identical, and this is made even more strange by the fact that, unlike most NPCs (who simply have random conversations using stock greetings and responses when they run into each other), this example of an actor [[Talking to Himself]] was ''fully scripted.''
** As noted by ''[[Zero Punctuation]]'', in ''Oblivion'' a single character will sometimes have two completely different voice actors. An old beggar woman on the street croaking at you for coins will switch to a far younger and less infirm woman when you actually stop to talk to her.
Line 406:
* [[Unique Enemy]]: These are liberally sprinkled throughout the games. In ''Oblivion'' there's the unicorn, the giant mudcrab, and the painted trolls who inhabit their own unique little pocket dimension that looks nothing like the rest of the game.
* [[Unreliable Narrator]]: Most of the series lore is based on this, for several reasons.
** The character is given a limited perspective of events before talking to the player character. An example would be someone like the Fighter's Guild Grandmaster in Oblivion, or most of the random [[NPC
** The in-game book was written by a limited-perspective character. This is the most common, but also easiest to spot. For example, most accounts of Nerevar's death in Morrowind, the ''Commentaries'' in Oblivion, or also from Oblivion the "Guide to City X" books.
** Widespread Propaganda, such as Biography of Barenziah, History of the Empire, and the Tribunal's account of what happened to Nerevar.
Line 455:
[[Category:Wide Open Sandbox]]
[[Category:Action RPG]]
[[Category:
[[Category:The Elder Scrolls]]
[[Category:Video Game]]
| |||