So, about the original game quests and the soulless one

FabresFour

In both the quests of Khenarthi's Roost and Betnikh, the NPCs make it very clear that for us to continue our journey we must be soulless...

But with this "new" tutorial, well... We keep our soul until we get to Daggerfall/Vulkhel Guard (after Stros M'kai and after Bal Foyen).... I mean... Kind of confusing, right?

Danikat

This has been a problem since Morrowind was released - it's entirely possible to make a character who skips the start of the main quest and so never loses their soul, but there's numerous places through the game where your character not having a soul is referenced as part of a quest.

I think according to the lore, you shouldn't even be able to use wayshrines until you lose your soul, because it's that disconnect from Nirn which makes it possible.

SeaGtGruff

If I understood the lady in the new tutorial, we shouldn't be able to absorb the energy of skyshards, either, but we can. Clearly there's something very odd about us-- something done to us by one of the Daedric princes, perhaps, that we can't remember?

phaneub17_ESO

Danikat wrote: »

I think according to the lore, you shouldn't even be able to use wayshrines until you lose your soul, because it's that disconnect from Nirn which makes it possible.

Why do Wayshrines exist at all if 99% of the common folk have their souls intact? They seem like a decent source of materials and magical energy to salvage and repurpose for other uses

NotaDaedraWorshipper

phaneub17_ESO wrote: »

Danikat wrote: »

I think according to the lore, you shouldn't even be able to use wayshrines until you lose your soul, because it's that disconnect from Nirn which makes it possible.

Why do Wayshrines exist at all if 99% of the common folk have their souls intact? They seem like a decent source of materials and magical energy to salvage and repurpose for other uses

Wayshrines are just shrines and similar things for the common folk.

jommerryrth

the most confusing part is that you dont have a soul, you are a soul. dust of the ground and the breath of life forms you into a living soul. all this soul/souless crap is utter nonsense.

ZOS_Hadeostry

Greetings,

After further review we have decided to move this thread to a category we think is more appropriate for this topic, as it's quest related.

Thank you for your understanding

zaria

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

phaneub17_ESO wrote: »

Danikat wrote: »

I think according to the lore, you shouldn't even be able to use wayshrines until you lose your soul, because it's that disconnect from Nirn which makes it possible.

Why do Wayshrines exist at all if 99% of the common folk have their souls intact? They seem like a decent source of materials and magical energy to salvage and repurpose for other uses

Wayshrines are just shrines and similar things for the common folk.

At Vulkhel Guard its even an Khajiit lady cleaning it.
But you can use wayshrines even after finishing the main quest for very obvious reasons.
And you would get the same problem for people finishing the main quest early.
Now with the Cadvel silver and gold you probably do and bit of an alternative reality but this is the sort of problems you get in an older MMO, old systems who is out of place and quests not updated.

Jimbru

In Bal Sunnar, the quest NPC mentions something about seeing our origins and says, "Oh, I didn't realize that about you." So apparently our character is more special in ways that even we don't know about ourselves. Personally, I just chalk up the inconsistencies to the game being very different now than it was back in the early days, for which we should be extremely thankful.

Credible_Joe

We're all over thinking this. Especially me. I've thought about this a lot.

The Vestige is the title of an unknown hero who appeared with the Soulburst, and apparently had a hand in every momentous event that's occurred since, spanning an unknown amount of time.

It's absolutely ridiculous to assume one person toured every crisis on the continent, consecutively as they happened, but that's what's assumed by the story, and is even true for those of us with lifetime mains.

But I'm pretty sure that's not the case. I think the simplest explanation is a dragon-break(ish) phenomena that consolidates the actions of many into the soul of one.

It doesn't matter who did what, or in what order. In this story's span of time, all of us did all the things, resulting in a very confusing timeline with absolutely no continuity.

So yes, at that moment, you personally definitely had a soul. But whether you know it or not, some iteration of you out there had just busted out of the Wailing Prison, and is standing in your shoes, having the exact conversation. Both realities are true.

RaptorRodeoGod

ESO probably resides in a Dragonbreak, an event in which all possibilities/events happen simultaneously. Kind of like the timeline splitting from one to infinite, then reassembling itself into one again later down the line

LunaFlora

RaptorRodeoGod wrote: »

ESO probably resides in a Dragonbreak, an event in which all possibilities/events happen simultaneously. Kind of like the timeline splitting from one to infinite, then reassembling itself into one again later down the line

no it doesn't.
https://reddit.com/r/teslore/s/67H3olUDcG

BenTSG

Well I did read one person mention that, after the main storyline, you get imbued with the light of...Merdia? (Forgive me if I have this wrong), who, to her, 'Time is relative', and that the light given to you via the shard allows you to 'time travel' in a sense, and that events aren't actually happening one after the other/all at the same time, just that different zones are in different times.

Althought reading on some breif lore on her, it says the light lets people see *alternative timelines*, which is what she says to you and how you can experience the other alliances (or was how you did it post OT), so how true that could be is beyond me, though it was a interesting concept. It doesn't explain disconnects in the story though as OP mentions if you haven't yet done that in the first place though.

I dunno, the timeline is confusing for newer characters/players, and I just wish everything just felt more connected.

NotaDaedraWorshipper

zaria wrote: »

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

phaneub17_ESO wrote: »

Danikat wrote: »

I think according to the lore, you shouldn't even be able to use wayshrines until you lose your soul, because it's that disconnect from Nirn which makes it possible.

Why do Wayshrines exist at all if 99% of the common folk have their souls intact? They seem like a decent source of materials and magical energy to salvage and repurpose for other uses

Wayshrines are just shrines and similar things for the common folk.

At Vulkhel Guard its even an Khajiit lady cleaning it.
But you can use wayshrines even after finishing the main quest for very obvious reasons.
And you would get the same problem for people finishing the main quest early.
Now with the Cadvel silver and gold you probably do and bit of an alternative reality but this is the sort of problems you get in an older MMO, old systems who is out of place and quests not updated.

Nothing suggest the Vestige wouldn't be able to use the wayshrines after they have got their soul back. We actually have no idea what change, if any, that caused for the Vestige.

NotaDaedraWorshipper

RaptorRodeoGod wrote: »

ESO probably resides in a Dragonbreak, an event in which all possibilities/events happen simultaneously. Kind of like the timeline splitting from one to infinite, then reassembling itself into one again later down the line

Credible_Joe wrote: »

I think the simplest explanation is a dragon-break(ish) phenomena that consolidates the actions of many into the soul of one.

There is no Dragon Break happening during ESO. There's even a quest where we stop a thing that could have caused one to happen.

It's strange how much attention Dragon Breaks gets and are used as some reasoning in Elder Scrolls, considering how rarely they have happened.

Credible_Joe

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

There is no Dragon Break happening during ESO. There's even a quest where we stop a thing that could have caused one to happen.

It's strange how much attention Dragon Breaks gets and are used as some reasoning in Elder Scrolls, considering how rarely they have happened.

I'm not saying there's a full-on dragon break happening. That would result in simultaneous contradictory histories and retconned persistent memories.

I'm saying that the Vestige could be a unique phenomena that has no singular path, but instead resides in the actions of many being attributed to one, with both scenarios being true.

One figure emerged from Coldharbor, ended the planemeld, saved the Guardians from the Serpent, saved Vardenfell from the Failed Incarnate, saved clockwork city from Nocturnal, saved the Lost Village in Murkmire, saved Summerset from the infernal cabal.. Etcetera.

And, a throng of heroes escaped the Wailing prison, ended the planemeld, and went their separate ways, on separate adventures, becoming involved in all of these events. Schrodinger's Protagonist.

I would even suggest this is evidenced by the cinematic Alliance Heroes, along with the chapter-unique, nameless cinematic protags. The Redguard Warden from Vvardenfell. The Redguard, uh... I think she was a Dragonknight in the Gates of Oblivion trailer? And of course, the newest Dunmer Arcanist.

All of these player stand-ins, none of them clearly identified as The Vestige.

Either way, just my head canon. I'm aware there's been concrete communication that there isn't a dragonbreak from the studio, but that doesn't preclude other quantum nonsense that could explain such conflict-dense history in a short time, all with a forgotten hero in the center as a fulcrum.

FabresFour

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

zaria wrote: »

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

phaneub17_ESO wrote: »

Danikat wrote: »

I think according to the lore, you shouldn't even be able to use wayshrines until you lose your soul, because it's that disconnect from Nirn which makes it possible.

Why do Wayshrines exist at all if 99% of the common folk have their souls intact? They seem like a decent source of materials and magical energy to salvage and repurpose for other uses

Wayshrines are just shrines and similar things for the common folk.

At Vulkhel Guard its even an Khajiit lady cleaning it.
But you can use wayshrines even after finishing the main quest for very obvious reasons.
And you would get the same problem for people finishing the main quest early.
Now with the Cadvel silver and gold you probably do and bit of an alternative reality but this is the sort of problems you get in an older MMO, old systems who is out of place and quests not updated.

Nothing suggest the Vestige wouldn't be able to use the wayshrines after they have got their soul back. We actually have no idea what change, if any, that caused for the Vestige.

I need to agree here, this is because despite recovering our soul, our body is still made of Chaotic Creatia, we are still essentially a creature apart from the world we live in, completely different from everything that walks in Tamriel.

Honestly, the Vestige is much more like a daedric creature with a soul than a mortal.

FabresFour

LunaFlora wrote: »

RaptorRodeoGod wrote: »

ESO probably resides in a Dragonbreak, an event in which all possibilities/events happen simultaneously. Kind of like the timeline splitting from one to infinite, then reassembling itself into one again later down the line

no it doesn't.
https://reddit.com/r/teslore/s/67H3olUDcG

This response from Matt is SO weird. Being within a dragonbreak does not prevent something from being canon.

Daggerfall essentially ends with a dragonbreak and everything there is canon. The fun of dragonbreak is precisely this: everything is canon.

It seems like he assumes that a dragonbreak prevents something from being Canon, it's VERY weird.