#from oblivion

[lupmon]

[b1ttersweet-dreams]

if i disappear, whos to say that i was here? (my part of an trade with @pigswithwings ^_^)

[inspectorspacetimerevisited]

Even though the Inspector recognises that the Comeuppance is a unique lifeform,

is it really necessary to save it from oblivion that the Nurse intends for it?

[getvalentined]

Thinking a lot recently about the constant comparison of Oblivion to Skyrim, particularly claims that Oblivion is superior in every way strictly by virtue of quest length and the greater grandiosity of the organizations in Oblivion, and I think there's been a fundamental misunderstanding of what's actually going on with Tamriel during the time period of Skyrim. Even though it's like...one of the core concepts of the main storyline.

Putting most of this under a cut for length, but I just...I think people misunderstand what's going on here. This is not a "One Game Good Other Game Bad" post, it's an analysis of a major, key difference in story basis between the two that I think gets lost in the (frankly asinine) argument about which is superior.

See, everything in Skyrim sucks. Every organization you can align yourself with is falling apart. Literally every single one.

That's the point.

To summarize:

The Companions (equivalent to the Fighters' Guild) are about a dozen strong, literally cursed, and their most beloved leader gets murdered very early in the storyline.

The College of Winterhold (equivalent to the Mages' Guild, not to the Arcane University) has seemingly only been saved from collapsing into the sea because a master of Restoration fused himself with the structure itself when the Sea of Ghosts tried to tear it down a little under a century ago and his presence is constantly physically "healing" the foundation.

The Thieves' Guild has lost the favor of every possible patron deity, having been outright cursed by Nocturnal after one of her Nightingales murdered another and stole the gift she offers her champion, while the boon that the organization's founder claimed from her in ages past (the cowl) is missing.

The Dark Brotherhood has been all but completely dismantled, the Night Mother's tomb in Bravil having been raided and struggling to persist without a Listener for over a decade; the bodies of the Night Mother's children have been lost and she's essentially being smuggled from region to region in an attempt to find a safe place to continue operations.

The Empire itself has been kneecapped, forced into a traumatic treaty by a fascist regime determined to strike the beliefs and culture of anyone not Altmer off the face of the planet; the Thalmor have gone so far as to torture and radicalize the figurehead leader of the Nords in order to use their own nationalism and superiority against the Empire, sparking a civil war that will further weaken the Empire and allow the Aldmerri Dominion to destroy it wholecloth.

This extends out into the rest of the world, too! We have confirmed existence of Hist-deaf Argonians. The Dunmer are floundering to recover after the quadruple-whammy that is the fall of the Triumverate, the destruction of Vivec City when Baar Dau finally made impact, the Red Year, and the Argonian uprising. The Bosmer are literally endangered due to habitat loss following a super-isolationist cultural shift due to wars with the Khajiit and Altmer. The Void Nights were devastating to Khajiit culture and population in ways that have yet to be fully explained.

The world is falling apart. Everything is dying.

And then Alduin shows up.

We all kind of talk about Alduin carrying on as World-Eater through the course of the Skyrim storyline like it's him being a piece of shit, since he'd started it ages ago and was just displaced in time to land on the Last Dragonborn's head in the Fourth Era, but I don't think that's the case.

Based on the state of things, I think Alduin arrived right on time. I think it's the end of the world. The only reason he "should" be stopped is because the Last Dragonborn has the capacity to stop the world from ending in a more down-to-earth sense than just defeating Alduin: they can't save everyone, but they can "fix" every single organization that's holding "the world" together.

They can align with the Imperials and keep the civil war from further crippling them, keeping the Empire from being too weak to push back against the Aldmerri Dominion.

They can save the College of Winterhold, the only group in the right place at the right time to stop the Eye of Magnus from opening, and in doing so make sure that the Psijics are able to put it somewhere nobody else can find it.

They can lead the Companions, cure the curse for those members who don't want to run with Hircine after death, which bolsters their spirits enough to keep doing what they can even when everyone else is trying to kill each other. A single neutral martial force in the middle of a civil war.

They can regain Nocturnal's trust for the Thieves' Guild, restore the Nightingales, and in doing so they can return the luck that was stolen from them as punishment for Mercer Frey's transgression. They can even reclaim the Crown of Barenziah and award the guild with a paragon to increase their newly-regained luck.

They can hear the Night Mother, becoming Listener for the Dark Brotherhood to restore the balancing force of Sithis in the world, purify the most broken Sanctuary the Brotherhood has ever had, and finish a story set into motion way back in the Third Era—Emperor Titus Mede II is murdered under the order of a Motierre, a descendant of a mark the Brotherhood specifically kept from dying during the Oblivion Crisis.

The Last Dragonborn can't do anything outside Skyrim—there's nothing they can do for the Argonians or the Bosmer or the Khajiit, and they can only do very little for the Dunmer via work in Solstheim—but they can work with every single guild or guild-adjacent group, strengthening the Empire to stand against the biggest threat to Tamrielic culture since the First Era, and in doing so they can make it so the world isn't ready for Alduin to eat it.

The Hero of Kvatch exists when Tamriel, and presumably Nirn as a whole is in the prime of its life, that's what makes the Oblivion Crisis such a big deal. This is a world that isn't ready to give up, it still has the strength to fight, it just needs someone standing at the head to direct it. The Last Dragonborn comes into the story when everything is falling apart and nothing really feels worthwhile, when it's hard to see why the world is worth saving. They have the chance to prove that there's still some life left here, that the world isn't too far gone to save—Alduin arrived right on time, it's the Last Dragonborn's job to change that.

I can see how coming from Oblivion to Skyrim would feel disappointing and hollow, but I'm pretty sure that's literally the point of the story.

Oblivion tells you the world is worth saving because it's got so much left to live for, even with the odds stacked so high against it. Skyrim asks you whether a world that's dying is still a world worth saving, and it's up to you to prove that it is.

[the-skooma-den]

"They would not fucking say that"

Girl this is an elder scrolls character. They got 5 lines at MOST

[venusmage]

who’s this guy

[artbyblastweave]

Elder Scrolls is fascinating to me because the vast majority of the background information of the setting is very obviously written by people with an admirably clear-eyed understanding of how history is mainly just groups genociding the shit out of each other before constructing post-hoc rationalizations of why that was a cool and good thing to do, if they bother justifying anything beyond the level of Might Makes Right. And then the actual main quest plots are often operating at Sword Hero Cleanses The Undesirables levels of These Are The Bad Guys, Kill Them Because We Said So

[aniniskyrim]

hi heres my worst post

[captain-price-unofficially]

[alarts]

martin ....

[mmadnesss]

martin septim seeing the hero of kvatch for the first time and immediately being drawn to them

and when they say they’re here for him? that he’s the son of the late emperor, and they’re bound to sweep him away to jauffre? the way they look at him, like he’s the one thing that matters in the Nine’s almighty world. oh, that will take some getting used to.

he is cautious at first, of course— he knows because his time before he was a priest that the instant allure of anything is something to be wary of. by the time they’ve almost arrived to weynon priory, the two have made camp out in the wilderness beneath the moons of Nirn so many times, shared a campfire for warmth between their bedrolls night after night, he can tell when they’ve fallen asleep by the sound of their breath, the characteristic twitches of their legs.

he also knows how to tell when his hero is having a nightmare, the plane of oblivion come back to haunt them even in their sleep. knows when to wake them up, to lull them into a calmer state of sleep with a little conversation, perhaps telling them stories of his youth, his days as a farmer’s son. sweet nothing tales of him chasing runaway chickens around the yard. anything to keep the daedra from visiting them in their sleep. when the hero asks him to pull his bedroll closer to theirs, he knows it’s over for him.

oh, he’s smitten. completely gone. but the hero doesn’t know; how could they? they’re bound by their word to uriel, their late emperor, the father he never knew. that was all this was, wasn’t it? first, he was their mission. then, he was just someone familiar. someone who knew at least a fraction of the horror that the hero experienced inside the oblivion gate because he bore witness to the siege of kvatch.

nothing would come of these feelings he had. nothing could.

until the night before they’re to arrive at weynon priory, he hears the hero mutter his name in their sleep. so softly at first, that he could have been hearing things. but then when the hero repeats themselves, a few minutes later… well, perhaps his situation wasn’t as hopeless as he thought. he can’t help the grin that tugs at the corners of his lips as he closes his eyes, falling asleep to the sound of his hero’s breath.

[slumberingsinh]

oh martin looking one last time at the hok im gonna be sick

[pinessydr]

My take on Dibella. Not satisfied with this one, but I like the concept of a blind goddess of love

[grandpa-swamp]

The Hero prepares to enter the Great Gate at the Defense of Bruma

[blackmetalsnake]

Lucan for @lucien-lachance ❤️

Don't want to be too dramatic but I would die for him

-> Speedpaint -> Tips

[unfit-and-drunk]

Oblivion, talking about grief since 2006.

Aiden, my HOK OC.

Started as heavy armor user, then abandoned armors after being able to cast(craft) few nice elemental shield spells. Spell effectiveness yeah. Wrist irons. Seems a bit mad but great reminder of your progress. Also enchantable. Nice.

Done main quests first, then proceeded with other DLC/faction/minor quests. Was wearing daedric cuiress and boots + Umbra helm, gauntlets, and greaves by the end of the main quest. Oblivion daedric armor is absolute pain in the ass to draw. Bladeturn hood and spellturn cloak are much better. Good looking too.