Disturbing Dreams

Since the blog seems to have deteriorated into a mix of misanthropic scribblings about politics or despair, or both, I've decided to lighten the mood a little with a few comments on Morrowind. Although I've got roughly half an hour to describe why this is the best game of all time.

"Every event is preceeded by prophecy, but without the Hero, there is no event."
- The Underking.

Morrowind is home of the Dark Elves, or Dunmer, as they call themselves, in Bethesda's Elder Scrolls Series. It is the third game in the Elder Scrolls, and possibly the best game of all time, in my limited experience of RPG's. Let me break it down for you.

Morrowind is a great game, quite simply, because everyone it is so grim. You have to work hard, everyone argues with you, overcharges you for things and won't pay much for your loot. Unlike a lot of other RPG's, including Oblivion, Morrowind doesn't shelter you from the extreme realities of your position. You are a criminal, an Imperial spy, and an outsider trying to make his way in a world filled with Corpus zombies, ash storms, mushroom cities and Imperial occupation. Justice is short and predictably brutal, the religion is supersticious, jealous, and overzealous. Although there is competition from the Imperial Cult - human gods, and the Daedra - incomprehensible nightmare monsters and best described as daemons, the main religon of Morrowind, and the focus of both Morrowind and the Tribunal expansion's main quests are the living gods - Vivec, Almalexia, and Sotha Sil. The action takes place on the island of Vvardenfell, which is so far up the creek it isn't even funny.

Vvardenfell

Vvardenfell - which I just love to type out repeatedly, is an island within the Morrowind Provice. It is a huge thing, taking days to cross, fully free-roaming, and most importantly, free from most of the cliche's that affect games like Oblivion, Fable, and Dragonage. Morrorwind is an alien world. The variable weather affects include ash storms, the cities are created from giant mushrooms, the shells of huge crabs, and the more traditional 'western medievil' style we are used to. Also there are quite a few arabic influences, which basically gives the game a diversity of culture and interesting locales that other RPG's can only dream of. Favoured travel is either by teleportation, or riding on the backs of giant beetles, known as silt striders. Forget horses, there are none. They probably got eaten by the local fawna, which consists largely of carnivorous lizard-birds, overgrown insects and aggressive bipedal creatures that resemble big angry frogs.

Vvardenfell, as I've said, is in a lot of trouble. Dagoth Ur, enemy of the Tribunal and lord of the Forgotten House and the Tribe Unmourned, is using his power - drawn from the heart of a dead god, Lorkugan, to spread ash and blight storms across the island, driving people insane with nightmares and corrupting the flesh with incurable diseases. Our bastion of hope, the Tribunal, limit his influence through the construction and upkeep of a magical barrier, designed to prevent the worst of Dagoth's influences being unleashed on Morrorwind.

Morrowind itself is under Imperial occupation, something the locals largely resent. It is ruled by five Great Houses - Indoril, Dres, Hlallu, Redoran, and Telvanni. The latter three play the biggest role in the politics of Vvardenfell. There are three religions struggling for precedence - the waning power of the living gods, the Tribunal, the Nine Divines, and the Daedra. Throw in a legal assassins guild - the Morag Tong, opposition to Necromancy - which is quite prevalent - Slavery, racial tension and backstabbing, and Vvardenfell is seems ready to just about come apart at the seams, doomed to fall to the growing evil within the heart of the Island, that threatens a return to daemon worship, zombie horrors and genocide, just to name a few of it's negative points.

The Tribunal

The tribunal are the alleged heroes of the game. They have guided the Dunmer for many thousands of years, living gods granted their power in a mythical age before memory. But, unfortunately as you find out, the Tribunal aren't entirely with it. Vivec seems to be the nicest, living in his floating palace on Vvardenfell and generally doing his best to keep things at bay. Alamexia, the goddes of loving and healing, is of dubious morality, ruling over the city of Mournhold from her giant temple. Sotha Sil, the wisest of the three, has desended into depression and locked himself away in a place known as the Clockwork City.

Sleepers Awake

Not long into the game, your character undergoes a series of extremely disturbing nightmares, caused by the evil that flows from Red Mountain. At night strangers will approach you in the street, prophecying the coming apocalypse with the cryptic words:

"Red Mountain spews ash and blight! Sinners gather at the House! The time of the Incarnate is nigh!"

Suspicious strangers with dodgy goatee's hang outside the major population centers, watching and waiting as the cities begin to panic. The Tribunal Temple cracks down hard on dissenters, either those maddened by nightmares or despairing at their living gods apparent loss of power. Because the real secret is, the Tribunal draw their power from the same cursed artifact as Dagoth Ur. It is inherantly evil, corrupting them, and so long as it remains in control of their mortal enemy, the Tribunal cannot make their trip to the Heart of Lorkugan, to strengthen and retain their powers. Subsequently, they diminish, unable to stop the evil that is sweeping the land.

The Time of the Incarnate

It should become apparent, if you didn't know when you bought the game, that you are the Incarnate. The saviour of Morrowind and the reincarnation of the long dead Dunmer hero, Indoril Neravar. Neravar was around when the Tribunal were still mortal, and together they found the heart. Some say that Neravar died of his wounds sustained in the battle at Red Mountain, when the Dark Elves fought the Dwarves for control of Vvardenfell. Others, suggest a more sinister demise, stating that when Neravar refused to use the heart to gain godlike powers, he was murdered by his three closest friends - his counsellor, Vivec, his mage, Sotha Sil, and his wife, Alamexia. The Tribunal, who stole the power of Lorkugan for themselves.

The rest, as they say, is history.

So without delving too deeply into the story of Morrowind, it is probably the most fantastic game ever as regards RPG's, at least for it's time, if not for many years after. The voice acting is good, and the fact the game relies on most information as text based means that there is an awful amount of cool stuff you just don't get in voice acting, because it'd take far too long to say or do. The in-game books, which are readable, consist of the equvalent of 6 novels worth of writing - a minimum of 300,000 words. The creatures are alien, the settings are alien. Too many times we've played RPG's that consist of walking around fighting real and traditional mythical creatures, set against a backdrop of medievil Europe. A prime example of this is oblivion.

The graphics are decent, if not dated, although the physics and combat engines are almost non-existant. However, despite the graphical shortcomings, Morrowind has great playability. Decisions you make influence your ability to complete other quests. Some involve the deaths of characters, the stealing of objects, or just being outright disliked for joining the wrong faction. I'd love to go on, but the time is all but gone. So I'll conclude by saying that if you want to play an RPG, however dated, that is engaging, fun, and completely malicious, then you have to play Morrowind.