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The Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire Storyline

Author: 
Sinder Velvin

So, you want to find out what the storyline of Battlespire is. Or, in case you've played Battlespire, you want to refresh your memory about the storyline. I have absolutely nothing against you refreshing your memory, and I have absolutely nothing against you finding out what the storyline of Battlespire is, either, but in case of the latter I must warn you that here you will stumble upon many spoilers. It's always nicer to discover the story all by yourself, but if you absolutely certainly positively must read on, be my guest.

 

Battlespire Readme

"I don't think we're in Tamriel anymore, Toto."

Veterans of Arena and Daggerfall! Warning! Battlespire is Extra Not Like Arena and Daggerfall, for one thing, and Battlespire takes place in a place Not At All Like Tamriel.

Arena and Daggerfall are Huge, Sprawling Persistent Worlds. There are towns with guilds for training and quests, and places to sell loot and buy equipment. When you run low on health and spell points, you sleep, and voila! Back to 100%.

In Battlespire, the only ways to increase skills are to use them, or spend build points between levels. There is only one quest -- Find your companion, and get out alive. There's no place to sell any loot you can't use, and there's a limit to what you can carry from level to level. Use it, or lose it. And you can't sleep to heal. You CAN often find nice blue gems which restore health and spell points when you click on them or run into them. [These blue gems kinda disappear for a while as they recharge, but they return. Honest.] And you will be Very Glad to find Cure Health and Restoration potions, or magic items with Healing or Magica Resartus powers.

Furthermore, your poor character is stranded in the Daedric Realms. This is not very much like the comparatively benign and picturesque lands of Tamriel.

The Daedric Realms are populated by immortal Daedra, not mortal beings. When you destroy their forms, they are cast into Oblivion for a while. This is No Fun, but it isn't like dying, and it makes Daedra kinda casual about wading into a dustup. And the Daedric Realms are weird. There's plenty of magical energy around, and this makes for a rather strange geography. Also, Daedric architecture and workmanship are fairly eccentric, mostly because Daedra are, by and large, crazy as rats in a drainpipe.

So. This is the World of the Elder Scrolls, and much of what you see will be familiar, but much will be not at all familiar, and sometimes bewildering. We're sorry. But it's just those darned Daedra. Really.

The game takes place in the Third Era, during Jagar Tharn's imposture. The player's character is an aspiring Imperial Battlemage who enters the Imperial Battlemage war college, the Battlespire, (Which is in a pocket dimension in Oblivion.) through the Weir Gate, supposedly for his/her final admittance test. Instead, he/she quickly finds out that the Battlespire's staff are dead and that the war college has been overrun by Daedra. There is no way back to Tamriel, because the Weir Gate is blocked by a Daedric sigil. His/her only friend is an agent (Who is female and is called "Vatasha Trenelle" if the player decides to use a male character and who is male and is called "Josian Kaid" if the player decides to use a female character.) who keeps leaving notes and equipment around for the player.

The plot is rather ambiguous at times, but I'll do my best to present it to you in a way that makes sense. I will not, however, describe every single chamber like I did in the Redguard Storyline, nor will I describe the layout and geography of the places in the game, first of all because I don't even know the purpose of some places, second of all because it's not really worth it. As for the dialogue, while in conversations the player can usually choose between several things to say, I've decided to only include the funniest options (When all options lead to the same result.) or the option that leads to the most information being revealed. Know that there is only a limited number of possible conversations on each level for each monster. Meaning that if you talk to a Spider Daedroth and get a certain conversation, you will probably get the same conversation later on. Therefore, if I claim that a Spider Daedroth says something, he's not the only Spider Daedroth who says that unless I say that it has unique dialogue.

Because I played a male character throughout the game, the name of the main character's friend will appear as "Vatasha Trenelle".