The Elder Scrolls: Difference between revisions

 

* ''[[The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion (Video Game)|Oblivion]]'' (2006). Emperor Uriel Septim VII is assassinated by the [[Religion of Evil|Mythic Dawn]], but not before seemingly accidentally freeing yet another convict from the Imperial City Prison (the PC). The PC then joins the Blades in their search for the last remaining heir to the Empire, Martin Septim, against the backdrop of [[During the War|an ongoing invasion]] from [[The Legions of Hell|Oblivion]] by the Daedric Prince Mehrunes Dagon, whom the Mythic Dawn worships. Eventually, the PC, Martin, and the Blades manage to repel the Daedra but... [[Bittersweet Ending|at a price]]. This was the first big-name RPG for the 7th generation of consoles, and made full use of the Xbox 360's and Playstation 3's technical abilities. However, some complained that it had been dumbed-down for casual gamers, what with arrows pointing to your objectives and simplified role-playing elements.

** ''Shivering Isles'' (2007). The PC is summoned by the Daedric Prince [[The Mad Hatter|Sheogorath]] to help prevent the [[Eternal Recurrence|regular destruction]] of his Oblivion realm.

 

** Lycanthropy, once a night you turn into a several hundred pounds of flesh, fur, claws and teeth capable of killing even the most powerful creatures, but have to at least kill (devouring is optional depending on the game) a sentient humanoid every night or suffer crippling withdrawals when you return to normal. Skyrim also revealed that Werewolves, upon death, are kidnapped to Hircine's realm, even if they don't want to, for an eternity at Hircine's side as one of his pack hounds (which, if you're fine with all of the above, probably won't be an issue for you).

*** In addition to not receiving the well-rested bonus upon sleeping in your own bed.

** 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 shout--so there's a good chance you'll accidentally FUS RO DAH while trying to decorate your house, sending items flying every which way.

** This was the same on the [[PS 3]] which used the R2 key to move items, also remapped to use shouts. Coupled with natural lag on the [[PS 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.

* [[Hegemonic Empire]]: Tamriel, while initially forged with the iron fists of Imperial Legions, is held together only through massive schemes of the last Emperor. It finally falls apart prior to the fifth game.

* [[Heroic Sacrifice]]: {{spoiler|Martin}} in ''Oblivion''.

* [[Hide Your Children]]: Every installment except for ''Daggerfall'' and ''Skyrim''. ''Daggerfall'' also provided the image on the [[Hide Your Children]] page.

* [[The High Queen]]: Azura and Almalexia, both heavily deconstructed.

* [[Humongous Mecha]]: The Dwemer ruins often have [[Steampunk]] mechas. There's a huge ''thing'' that serves as the sub-boss of Tribunal.

** Numidium, the entire point of ''Daggerfall'', though it's arguably a [[Physical God]].

* [[Hyperspace Arsenal]]: You can carry enough to supply an army.

* [[Incredibly Lame Pun]]: In ''Morrowind'', the {{spoiler|Boots of Blinding Speed}}, of course!

* [[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 higher--The majority of locations, even random, out-of-the-way dungeons, will probably have some unique features or a quest.

* [[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.

* [[Loads and Loads of Characters]]: Each game has hundreds of unique (in the [[Flat Character|loosest]] [[Only Six Faces|sense]]), individual characters to interact with, plus dozens more in the back story.

* [[Reckless Sidekick]], [[Leeroy Jenkins]]: The NPCs in [[Escort Mission|Escort Missions]], including a possible [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshading]] in which one of them goes charging straight into a deathtrap.

* [[Recurring Riff]]: Starting with ''Morrowind'', the "Elder Scrolls theme". Dun dun dun, dun dun dun, dun dun dun, da da dun dun dun...

** Also the skies over Red Mountain in ''Morrowind'', especially during a particularly nasty ash storm.

* [[Redemption Equals Death]]: Possible to avert, but difficult...Eldamil in ''Oblivion'' makes a [[Heel Face Turn]] just in time for a [[Mook Rush]] followed by a battle with [[The Dragon]].

** [[Mind Screw|Sithis Is Not.]]

* [[They Call Him "Sword"]]: The powerful sword Umbra is cursed and tends to possess its owners, resulting in them becoming obsessed with the sword and adopting its name as their own.

** ''Morrowind'' has two, though the second one, the Cammona Tong, isn't joinable (they are a bunch of xenophobes, and you're a foreigner).

** Mentioned by random characters in ''Arena,'' but not actually shown.

* [[Thriving Ghost Town]]: The Imperial City and Vivec are each home to ''maybe'' 200 unique NPCs, while settlements like Gnaar Mok have an apparent population of about ''five''.

** This trope is averted in ''Daggerfall'', where settlements are realistically sized and have appropriate populations. Of course, they're also randomly generated...with multiple citizens who are virtually ''clones'' of each other. And let's be frank - most of them aren't useful in the least bit.

** Male Golden Saints and Dark Seducers are the same height as Imperials, whereas the females are as tall as Altmer and Dremora, which are the tallest races (playable or otherwise) in ''[[The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion|Oblivion]]''.

* [[Token Evil Teammate]]: Mehrunes Dagon is the only Daedric Prince that can be considered evil, or at least comes the closest to being evil. Naturally, he's the main antagonist of several games, including Battelspire and Oblivion.