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What Should Happen? TESVI

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cpt.Od's picture
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I'll go first.

We begin as one of many Dominion prisoners, on escort through the jungles of Valenwood, from occupied (your race's province). When after a brief "who are you?" a discordant slaughter of native birds cry. The trees ache sideways, as if bowing to their lords. We hear the rock drum the beat of something near... something large and many - the Wild Hunt!

Everyone's horrifically butchered, except for us. The forest is mangled so terribly, its impossible to tell what was bone or once tree, or what was always red. A nearby village of Bosmer is our only refuge. We've heard the Green Pact are cannibals, but whatever spared us is still out there - and closing. [Enter combat: something revolting and starved for our flesh chases us away from the Cyrodiil border]

The village closest to us is abandoned, but the critter's dead, and Thalmor are leagues away. Today's our lucky day. At this point, the murder has spread to Skyrim, where the Dominion and kings of man have been at war for years. The game commences as it should; contact with surviving Blades being made through Dreamsleeve missive, upon meditation or rest.

The Thalmor are winning in Skyrim, thanks to the Wild Hunt, so we end up positioned alone in Valenwood, nearest the Dominion's buried Heart. Gameplay throughout the mainquest will focus on subterfuge, secret murder, and evasion. To turn the tide of this war, we need to sabotage the enemy in Valenwood - we need a Tower. The mainquest divides in two.

One act is about disrupting the Thalmor and Dominion in Valenwood, side quests to gain trust, and rallying Y'ffre's children. Act two is all about using that renown, to enter the esoteric lore of the province, through it's wisemen. Upon digesting the secrets of the Graht Oaks, we awaken them, and they call the Wild Hunt to recede in upon the Dominion. The Aurbis is channeled, there's a great battle between Camorans and the Dominion, etc.

Tailin Sero's picture
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So, I was thinking that... We find the emperor's hire, who uses an Elder Scroll to go back in time to stop the bad guys from using a god's heart to awaken an ancient dwemer construct and make themselves gods, so we can free the emperor from his imprisonment in oblivion to stop the end of the world... How does that sound? I feel like I've might have seen this before, but I'm not sure where. Oh! And we also become a Daedric Prince. And we close shut the jaws of Oblivion, too.

Fiore1300's picture
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LiquidHurlant wrote:

I'll go first.

A few suggestions:

* We're not far in the future, the Second War hasn't happened yet.

* The Wild Hunt is causing havoc throughout Valenwood. SOMEBODY performed the ritual, apparently with the intent of disrupting Dominion affairs. At some point in the first half of the MQ we help Dominion soldiers and local Bosmer defend a city.

* The Camoran family is split. The current Camoran king/queen is a former disenfranchised member of the royal line and takes orders from the Thalmor ruling body (made up of Altmer and Bosmer). The exiled Camorans, formerly the leaders of civilized Valenwood, have found refuge with the "barbaric" tribes of the interior.

* The tribes of the interior have long resisted the Camorans, the Empire, and now resist the Dominion without ever skipping a beat. The exiled Camorans find themselves now more in touch with their heritage and work with the tribes against the Thalmor.

* The Thalmor believe the Camorans and their backwards allies are responsible for calling the Wild Hunt. It is this initial inquiry that sends the player in contact with them, but the PC soon finds that they aren't responsible either and are fending off the Wild Hunt themselves.

* Things are amiss in Cyrodiil following the death of Titus Mede II several years ago. The province is in civil war, and one of the warlords is gaining advantage. As it turns out, Imperial agents of his are responsible for summoning the Wild Hunt although by what means they convinced the local Bosmer are yet unknown. But yeah a  elf  human did it! 

* No talking to the trees or having them stop the Hunt. This is too Hist-y and should be scrapped.

I feel these changes make the situation more complex and ambiguous. The Big Bad is the Wild Hunt, but as the player finds a way to stop the monstrosities from killing everyone, there is wiggle room for the player to role play and follow their character's own moral compass. The PC finds opportunities to be ingratiated into the ranks of either major faction as well as the chance to sabotage and resist.

 

cpt.Od's picture
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Fiore1300 wrote:
I feel these changes make the situation more complex and ambiguous. The Big Bad is the Wild Hunt, but as the player finds a way to stop the monstrosities from killing everyone, there is wiggle room for the player to role play and follow their character's own moral compass. The PC finds opportunities to be ingratiated into the ranks of either major faction as well as the chance to sabotage and resist.
Noted. More of this is needed. So we can throw in with the Cyrodiil, with the Dominion, or the locals. Let the choice be ours.

I think local lore  should be played up. Have each tribe's grant oaks be these maps of memory: bonsai attuned to the Aurbis, like the Emperor's garden hedges  in  the Pocket Guide. They won't talk, instead they're read - from the chirps of roosting birds to the snaking of gnarled roots. They'd function as Word Walls, only reading the lore increases reputation with the natives, and leads us to treasure, or ... yeah.

Proweler's picture
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Fiore1300 wrote:
The PC finds opportunities to be ingratiated into the ranks of either major faction as well as the chance to sabotage and resist.

You're gunning for a Warp of the South by South-West aren't you. :D

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I don't think the main quest will have much to do with the wild hunt. Not because its a bad idea I think because it wouldn't work as a marketing standpoint. One of the most successful games of last year was the the witcher 3 wild hunt which mq revolved around the wild hunt. I think game sites and the general community would try to call bethesda copiers so it won't happen. I think at some point they have to stop trying to top the previous mq villain from an oh shi#* run for your lives factor. They've used a daedric prince and a god of destruction for the past two games and they're have to realize that at some point they just won't be able to surpass it . I think they should do something like an evil thalmor plot to destroy the tower in valenwood and you have to stop it. Not quite the gimmicky ultra mega doomsday villain but something more subtle and equally as relevant. I also think they should to a dual province between valenwood and alinor

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Proweler wrote:

Fiore1300 wrote:
The PC finds opportunities to be ingratiated into the ranks of either major faction as well as the chance to sabotage and resist.

You're gunning for a Warp of the South by South-West aren't you. :D


I actually think that that's what bethesda will do with the civil war . You kinda have to admit bethesda is kinda afraid of a canon choice or letting the person create his personal canon by allowing imports across game. So every time a big major event with multiple options happens they dragonbreak it. I think that's also why they keep their mqs so linear as to avoid complications in the lore. However I think that's something they should change non linearity is always a wonderful thing

cpt.Od's picture
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I suspect the long wait will offer leeway for another Wild Hunt. You just can't have Valenwood w/o a Wild Hunt. This is assuming the setting's Valenwood. Anywhere is probably going to ren fair. They've lost their touch.

Fiore1300's picture
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Proweler wrote:

You're gunning for a Warp of the South by South-West aren't you. :D

Well...yes. Although I have faith that clever enough writing wouldn't have need for an actual Warp.

KingofBlades wrote:
snip

What does the Wild Hunt consist of in the Witcher games? Is it close to the Wild Hunt from Germanic/Norse tradition? Either way, we're looking at several years between the two games.

cpt.Od's picture
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Witcher's Wild Hunt is a lich with an airship, if I'm not mistaken. I admit, that's hard to top.

Oh, and to be the hero, we have to eat the Wild Hunt, drawing sustenance from Y'ffre's children. It would be like absorbing a dragon soul, and every type of monster we eat would give us some transformation.

TLDovahkiin's picture
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Fiore1300 wrote:

Proweler wrote:

You're gunning for a Warp of the South by South-West aren't you. :D

Well...yes. Although I have faith that clever enough writing wouldn't have need for an actual Warp.

KingofBlades wrote:
snip

What does the Wild Hunt consist of in the Witcher games? Is it close to the Wild Hunt from Germanic/Norse tradition? Either way, we're looking at several years between the two games.

It's from Slavic mythology, the Witcher is based on Slavic culture. Slavs also had their Wild Hunt, quite similar to the Germanic one.

Fiore1300's picture
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The Lusty Dovahkiin wrote:

It's from Slavic mythology, the Witcher is based on Slavic culture. Slavs also had their Wild Hunt, quite similar to the Germanic one.

Well then the Wild Hunt of the Witcher and the Wild Hunt of the Elder Scrolls don't really share much in common. And I would imagine Bethesda is conscious enough of copyright law that they wouldn't name TES VI "Wild Hunt," but rather "Valenwood" or something similar. 

Damn, all this talk reminds me of the lore I want to start generating for Valenwood. And I mean serious stuff like real world building. Maybe some retconning. Who knows?

Cordate's picture
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The ability to turn on every major faction and still have something to turn to. Like Fallout New Vegas 

cpt.Od's picture
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The ol' No Gods No Masters ending? Classic.

Tailin Sero's picture
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In the next TES game i would like to see something similar to Fallout 4 settlement building. I've never actually played Fallout 4, myself, and I've heard mixed feelings about the settlement building, but it would still be something really cool to see in the next TES game. In Oblivion and Skyrim the games start with a town being destroyed (Kvatch and Helgen) it would be cool if you could rebuild the town as your own, on your own time, and NOT have it apart of the main quest, or any of the major side quests, either.