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Varen has a different lines if you sacrificed him.

ZOS handwaved it with Sai. Essentially he's back, but he doesn't recall how. They'll probably do the same for Lyris. I call it "revived by the power of nostalgia".

VaranisArano wrote: »

Varen has a different lines if you sacrificed him.

That's interesting. I always sacrifice Varen (well, 'always' as in "the two times I actually completed the main story line"), so I didn't even know that. What happens if you play Orsinium with a character that hasn't advanced the main quest that far? Maybe I should just go and find out, but does anyone happen to know?

ghastley wrote: »

The death (of whichever companion) is required to fill the Soul Gem that is the Amulet of Kings' stone. The soul is released by its use against Molag Bal, and is free to return after that.

I only see a problem if you found a way to get that far through the quest and skip out without completing it. Then they're trapped in the unused Amulet.

That's a good theory actually. Being a soul gem that's bound to the will of Akatosh, he could theoretically do whatever he wants with the soul that was used to power it, including just returning it to its host.

DMuehlhausen wrote: »

RaddlemanNumber7 wrote: »

Sai's reappearance after being sacrificed to Akatosh has all the signs of divine intervention. Gods can do that sort of thing without needing to explain themselves. There are God(s) in TES. There is no Lore problem with Sai's reappearance at all.

That's all fine and good, but don't ya think Sai would mention something about you killing him, or being a little peeved about it? Or there should be a text you apologize for it, but it's good he was returned or something. This just picks up like nothing happened.

Keep in mind that all of the available Companions wanted to be chosen, and Sai considered it an honor to give his life for the Emperor and the cause of saving the world. So he probably wouldn't be peeved or expect you to apologize for it. They probably could have gone a little farther with having him and/or the Vestige react to it in general, but like Varanis said ZOS decided to just handwave the whole thing.

I think it has less to do with anything lorewise and more the, now, non-linear story telling. They are sticking to the notion that all of this occurs in the same in game year. So a new character may start Elsweyr or the prologue first, without having completed the main quest and therefore Sai, Lyris or Varen would not have been sacrificed yet.

This puts veteran players in a bind, and they did drop the storytelling ball in this case. Also, the fact that even if you complete the main quest and sacrifice Sai after Elsweyr, he is still happily alive in the dragonguard sanctum.

Plenty of plot holes still, but they did this with new players, not veterans in mind.

Broken lore...weird lore.

Dunmer are too short. In general the size ranges for each race are too "small" (not enough range, more need to be overlapping).

Morrowind shrank in the wash since TES III.

Argonian legs.

I think it can be explained by the way time works in Oblivion when that very important choice happened where you had to pick to sacrifice one of them. The way it might have worked could be that every one of them got used for the Ritual where all three died in different versions of the same event and all three didn't die in different versions of the same event given the nature of time in Oblivion. This also caused all three of them to not be sacrificed since all the different outcomes and choice all came true so all three maybe made it out.
Basically no matter who you choose to sacrifice all three possibilities happened and didn't happen. The prophet we see in Orsinum could be one that did die and was sacrificed but yet there could be one that also exists and still alive somewhere out there in the world. Still alive living as a hermit like Yoda and still regretting his choices. One way Mannimarco escaped from Coldhabour and is causing terror and havoc somewhere or licking his woulds while one might still be trapped in Coldhabour suffering. So its kinda like a dragonbreak but not a dragonbreak.

Something Darien says that is also most interesting.
"This might sound like a strange question. In fact, depending on how you answer it, it is a strange question.
Do you—do you remember me? I'm not talking about here in Summerset. I mean—from someplace else."
If Summerset is the first location you meet Darien, the dialogue will be following:

Not that I can recall. The first time I saw you was when you were wearing your golden armor.
"You don't remember me? I was afraid of that. Meridia told me that time worked differently in Oblivion, but I didn't believe her. What's happened to me hasn't happened to you yet.
That doesn't matter now. What matters is I found you."

Basically if you want to think of it this way Time is Funky it doesn't work like real life time and that explains why they are alive again even if you sacrificed them. So think of it less like divine intervention and more like Time being all screwy. You can even think of this as a lore friend way to explain it. Elder Scrolls is weird like that.

Dusk_Coven wrote: »

Yes but they didn't need to recycle any of the Companions. Just because Abnur Tharn is there doesn't mean the rest of the gang has to be involved in any way. Just write up some new characters?
No I think it's a thinly-veiled ploy to try to bring back "player favourites" … but in doing so they cheapened one of the few "choices matter" moments in the game.

Pretty much this imo. They didn't have to bring back any of the other Companions for any of these expansions. Bringing back Abnur made sense, so both the player and Abnur himself could get closure after he But bringing the others back? I don't see any real reason or need behind it other than fanservice, tbh, and like you said it ends up cheapening the decision you have to make near the end of the MQ.

Aristocles22 wrote: »

Argonians and Khajiit have had human-like legs and feet since Oblivion. While I personally prefer those kinds of characters to go shoeless (to take advantage of their claws), it hasn't been that way for a long, long time with these games.

Actually, there are furstocks of Khajiit that still have digitigrade legs. If you look at that one Suthay statue irc the name of, the placement of the ankle and how the legs are shaped make it look a lot like it has digitigrade legs, not plantigrade ones. I also don't think there's any concrete lore that states whether Suthay are 100% one or the other. And seeing as Argonians also have different 'furstocks' (scalestocks?) there could very well be different forms of Argonians that have the digitigrade legs, and we just haven't seen them. Also "will of the Hist" is a thing that exists, so if the Hist wanted it could make ANY Argo have the crazy lizard legs haha.

When meating up with Sai in the Dragonhold prologue(I think), if he was chosen, you do have a chance to talk to him about it.