Adventurer Pack Upgrade question. Role-playing characters in other alliances.

jlmurra2

Players with the Adventurer Pack Upgrade can play any race, in any alliance. So my question is for those who do so, and are role-playing.

Why does your character fight with another alliance?

Mine is a Redguard who is a Crown. His goal is an independent Hammerfell that embraces, and honors the ancient Yokuden culture.
The Daggerfall Covenant's ideal is to create a new empire that Hammerfell would be a part of. He is fundamentally opposed to this, So he joined the Ebonheart Pact due to their ideal of preserving their homelands' independence. He wishes the same for his homeland, and this will not happen if either the Covenant, or the Dominion are successful.

starkerealm

Something worth knowing about Tamriel. While each province has a native race, and that race accounts for the vast majority of the population there, they also have stable populations of the other nine races. These are people who are, effectively, native to that province, and whose families may have lived there for generations. Why fight for their ruler? Because it's their home, their ruler.

essi2

The different races live all over the place, there is no reason RP or otherwise a Dunmer living in Daggerfall or a Breton living in Skyrim wouldn't fight for their homes rather then some far off place they may never even have been to.

Nestor

People defend the home they have right now, not the home their ancestors had generations ago.

jlmurra2

starkerealm wrote: »

Something worth knowing about Tamriel. While each province has a native race, and that race accounts for the vast majority of the population there, they also have stable populations of the other nine races. These are people who are, effectively, native to that province, and whose families may have lived there for generations. Why fight for their ruler? Because it's their home, their ruler.

I know. I am asking about your specific character's reason.

essi2 wrote: »

The different races live all over the place, there is no reason RP or otherwise a Dunmer living in Daggerfall or a Breton living in Skyrim wouldn't fight for their homes rather then some far off place they may never even have been to.

Of course, mine does not fight for the place he has never been to, but the culture that lives on with his people.

Nestor wrote: »

People defend the home they have right now, not the home their ancestors had generations ago.

Right, but that doesn't address the threads topic of your character's reason. Mine is defending his ideal for Hammerfell, not Yokuda. I thought that was clear in the first post.

These are some of the reasons why it is great we have the option to choose with the upgrade. What I am curious of is your character's reason if you have one. Any of those quoted are good.

VaranisArano

I have a variety of character races, but all of my characters that PVP do so for the Ebonheart Pact.

My most recent character, an Altmer who I made for Summerset, is EP. She's done the Summerset quest and is currently loyal to the Dominion, but as she explores more of Tamriel she's going to discover that the Dominion isn't all its cracked up to be and will gradually shift her allegiance to the Pact.

The Altmer I made before that is fully allied to the Dominion for PVE purposes and questing. He's a former Veiled heritance guy who lwill gradually rise to power helping Razum-Dar and Ayrenn save the Dominion after deciding the VH wasn't so great. But he's got some "alternate universe" versions of himself running around, like the version of him that's having fun in the Below Level 50 Battlegrounds and eventually the version that will PVP for the Pact.

My Imperial stam sorc isn't attached to any alliance, as she works for Abnur Tharn to bring about the reunification of the Empire. As such, she works for the Pact because they are the most fragmented of the alliances and thus will be the easiest for the remnants of the Imperial Legions to take on should the Pact conquer Cyrodiil.

jlmurra2

VaranisArano wrote: »

I have a variety of character races, but all of my characters that PVP do so for the Ebonheart Pact.

My most recent character, an Altmer who I made for Summerset, is EP. She's done the Summerset quest and is currently loyal to the Dominion, but as she explores more of Tamriel she's going to discover that the Dominion isn't all its cracked up to be and will gradually shift her allegiance to the Pact.

That sounds like an interesting one. Thanks for sharing.

DirkRavenclaw

I have 8 Characters, a Khajiit Family, Father, my main, a Stam NB and Vamp, his young *** Son, a Mag NB Vamp Khajiit and the Mother and Father,Pet Sorcheress Khajiit and Stam Warden Werewolf Khajiit. All my Toons are AD by the Way, in the Knaten Flu Days, we Khajiit got a lot of Help:) Ok, that is my Family, then there comes the hired Help, a High Elf Mag DK Lady, who did first the Prophet, then Vvardenfell and Cads Silver and does now Summerset, a Imperial Mag DK who gets daily better in PVP, a Imperial Templar Tank, Im still experimenting with him and last but not least a Imperial Templar Healer/Support DPS. My Main Home is Ravenhurst in Rivenspire but i have 19 more Homes, all bought with In Game Gold.Eventuell all my Toons have there individual Space.

casparian

Every one of my characters is either one of the Direnni or a retainer hired on by the family.

DocFrost72

My main character is an ambitious breton and coin is coin. He can't afford fealty to the alliances, he needs to feed his family and keep his wife in luxary. Thanks to a fairly standardized currency and the Tamrielic equivalent of globalization, I can be anywhere on the map to make said universal coin. Turns out, if you say you're not scared of a few spooky ghosts, people won't ask your banner but instead will ask your price.

adriant1978

My Daggerfall Covenant Altmer is of the Direnni clan.

I'd both love and fear a Balfiera DLC, as it would likely invalidate my backstory, but more Direnni lore would be awesome.

mikemacon

Yep.

As has been pointed out, each Alliance has stable populations of each of the nine races.

That said, I like to have at least a vague RP outline as to why my characters are who/what/how they are.

I only play DC; so my DC dunmer magblade was actually born in Vvardenfell, but hates the caste system and dunmeri slavery. He defected to DC.

I'm not remarkably creative, so my DC Khajit stamblade is pretty similar; can't stand the @#$% "high" elves. Loves killing them. Makes for a difficult life under the Dominion, but that same murderous drive makes him valuable to the Covenant.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

EvilCroc

My argonian NB shadowscale hates Pact because of dunmers. AD is the best option for her.

jlmurra2

mikemacon wrote: »

Yep.

As has been pointed out, each Alliance has stable populations of each of the nine races.

That said, I like to have at least a vague RP outline as to why my characters are who/what/how they are.

I only play DC; so my DC dunmer magblade was actually born in Vvardenfell, but hates the caste system and dunmeri slavery. He defected to DC.

I'm not remarkably creative, so my DC Khajit stamblade is pretty similar; can't stand the @#$% "high" elves. Loves killing them. Makes for a difficult life under the Dominion, but that same murderous drive makes him valuable to the Covenant.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Right, but population of races within territories was not in question. Without the Adventure pack you are locked into an alliance unless you are an imperial. The question was meant to be now with the upgrade that you get to choose another alliance, if you did what is the reason. It could be for any reason already posted. I hope that is understood now.

Anyway back on topic. Interesting back stories of your characters. You seem to have some good ideas.

Danikat

I have 3 characters in a different Alliance to their race and their reasons are all different.

My khajiit templar does not trust elves (something that started in TES III where most the altmer she met were at least as bad as the dunmer). She really doesn't trust elven governments coming into Elsweyr and telling everyone they're going to keep them safe from foreigners. She left home just ahead of the soldiers and headed north where she found nothing but war. She skirted west around Cyrodiil to avoid the worst of the fighting and kept going until there was no more north to run to. Fortunately around that time she met my breton warden and the two travelled together for a while (head-canon only obviously) and eventually she adopted Highrock as her new home. She still says it's too cold, too rocky and too open (she's from the Tenmar forest) but she likes the people.

My dunmer sorcerer hasn't been back to Morrowind since he was a very small boy and that was almost 200 years ago. The family moved to Summerset for his father's research and that took longer than expected and then little Ilorwerth was in school and well...between one thing and another they never left. He may visit Morrowind (if I ever get around to doing the Pact areas & the expansion on this character), but Summerset is home and although he's not particularly concerned about the war he feels more loyalty towards the Dominion than the Pact.

And then there's Sayel - the bosmer nightblade. It's probably not surprising that a vampire assasssin, Thief & pickpocket who once murdered a man in cold blood for having an annoying voice* is no longer welcome in his home province. What might be surprising is that none of that is the issue. He won't say exactly what happened, just that it was "only a stupid sapling" and his sister completely over-reacted and now he's forbidden from ever returning to Valenwood. (And yes I do RP that - he won't be doing the AD quests...although I wouldn't put it past him to try and sneak in if he really wanted to.) He doesn't exactly have a home and doesn't consider himself stupid enough to commit to one side in a war with opportunities all over the place, but he fled to Blackmarsh and eventually Morrowind and spends most of his time around the Pact lands.

*To be fair the guy did have a really annoying voice.

I also have an Imperial crafter, who I picked AD for because his story is he's a retired soldier and he wanted somewhere quiet and peaceful to live. After nearly 4 years on Auridon he's finally been granted permission to move to Alinor...as soon as he can afford their insane house prices. Fortunately my sorcerer has agreed to share a place - as long as the crafter's workshop is well away from his study - and they've found the perfect house, they just need the gold for it.

jlmurra2

Thank you Danikat. That is exactly what this thread was intended to be. Those are some well thought out characters. Thank you.

RebornV3x

My main character is a High Elf who was kidnapped at birth and raised in the Ebonheart Pact but hes a mercenary fighting for anyone that has the coin to pay and occasionally fights for EP in Cyrodill but in reality he has no faction loyalty since he can't defect from EP he stays

(being a merc is the only way to make sense of the story and being able to go to any zone at any time post One Tamriel.)

Ghanima_Atreides

These are some cool stories, it's interesting to see how others have imagined characters who for some reason or another left their native Alliance behind.

I have a few as well; I hope you don't mind the addition of pics, I just find it much easier to visualise a character this way:



The spotted young Khajiit known as Fancy-Fur left her home of Elseweyr when she was little more than a kitten, together with her family. She had a different name then, not spoken in a long time. They we merchants, and had the idea to make their fortune in Morrowind and Skyrim, where Khajiiti wares were rare and exotic. Although many of their kinsfolk resorted to various underhanded deals to make coin, the Bright Moons Trading Company was entirely legal...and paid the price for it.
They had barely made it to Deshaan when they were nearly destitute; Fancy-Fur's older brother borrowed gold from a moneylender which the family wasn't able to pay back, so they all became indentured to him...another word for slavery, almost. They were put to work according to their abilities; the moneylender in question had his fingers in many pies and secured a place for Fancy-Fur in a brothel which catered to patrons with...unusual tastes. Theoretically she would be free to leave one she'd paid her debt...but Fancy soon realised the cost was so prohibitively high she would never be able to pay it from her meagre wages, which meant she was a slave in all but name.
She had an idea, however; she began pocketing various small valuables from her clients as they slept or stealthily picking the pockets of well-to-do visitors to the town which she then pawned off in secret, until nearly 2 years later she was able to pay her way out of her contract. The look on her "patron's" face was priceless.
That was the moment Fancy-Fur decided that crime does pay after all, and some time later she was co-opted into the Abah's Landing Thieves Guild. She kept the name she had been using over the past five years, as a reminder of who she had become.



Elijas the Elder is a Nord mage of prodigious intellect and power. He is also utterly ruthless and incapable of empathy, seeing others as either rivals to be eliminated or merely pawns to be used and discarded. If it were up to him, the whole of Tamriel would be a barren place, quiet, where he could conduct his endless experiments undisturbed, where the clumsy hands of lesser minds could never touch priceless relics again...
It's really no wonder that such a man left Skyrim as soon as he could, given that the home of the Nords isn't exactly a haven for wizards, particularly ones as eccentric as him. He has travelled far an wide, but in recent years has made his base of operations in High Rock, among the more magic-friendly Bretons.
His true interest lies with the long-vanished Dwemer and their technology, however, which he has been researching for decades, obsessively poring over arcane tomes few in Tamriel could even read and tinkering with bizarre contraptions.



Floriel is nominally still part of the Aldmeri Dominion, but she hasn't been to her home of Valenwood or indeed any Dominion lands since The Incident which killed her lover and changed her forever.
Floriel hails from a remote village from the deepest and wildest part of Valenwood, where the Green Pact is enforced religiously and Queen Ayrenn's Dominion is little more than a vague notion. Here, life flows as it has for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years. But occasionally there are visitors even to his dense jungle; such was a Nord anthropologist by the name of Solaf - strange occupation for a Nord - who had come to Valenwood to study the Bosmer inhabitants and their culture. Solaf and Floriel fell in love; given to grand gestures, one day the Nord decided to violate the Green Pact in order to pick his beloved a bouquet of flowers. Floriel, although shocked at the blasphemy of it, loved the forbidden gift.
Solaf believed no-one would ever know; he was wrong. His actions had been observed by unseen scouts who captured and delivered him to the village elders who sentenced him to a summary execution the following morning; in that part of the jungle, justice was swift and often violent.
Floriel herself was imprisoned pending her own punishment for accepting the flowers; on the eve of her lover's execution she sat, desperate and angry and terrified in her cell, which is when she did something unforgivable: she changed. Invoking the Wild Hunt, that untamed spirit that lurked inside every Bosmer, she was able to break out of her cell, but she couldn't control the change and she ended up rampaging through the village, killing everyone in her path, including Solaf. The part of her that still knew who she was tried to pull back from it, to regain her Elf form, pleading with Y'ffre for help, but it was someone else who finally offered salvation, of sorts: the Daedric Prince Hircine. He allowed her to change back, but the monstrous wolf-like creature she had become remained part of her, always eager to come to the fore.

newtinmpls

Well, my characters of the Pact are mostly loyal in general to the idea of freedom from interference in general.

My characters in AD are mostly loyal to the queen as a leader they will follow, and want to follow and trust to lead them well.

My DC characters mostly it's "I was born/live "here"" and so far don't have enough reason to look elsewhere. It's more about fighting for friends and family than for any grand alliance.

eso_nya

I do not really rp, but i like the topic.

The easiest "excuse" would be "u dont get to pick the place u r born in".

Theres alot of possibilities on how to get stranded in a place before events prevent you from returning home. Business trip and holiday would be the most likely.
Born there or moved there, once u cant or dont want to leave, there is a lot of reasons again, on why u would join anybodies cause. Most likely, friends, family, ppl u care for, or someone expecting/persuading u "its the right thing to do". Like your whole class enlisted, and u r "one of us" even if u have the wrong skincolor. Some priest telling u stendar demands it. Getting an uniform in an attempt to get laid. Money.

Your highelf parents took u on a trip to visit the mages guild in sentinel. Got killed by zombies. Now there u r, 1 goldcoin in your pockets, no weapons, no fighting skills, lvl 1 char, in an elegant disguise w/o any armor rating. How r gonna get back to summerset? Maybe u r lucky, Ms Benele takes u in and teaches u some basic spells. Shes a great fan of Queen Emeric the Skaldking, manages to get u a "job" w/ the special forces after u been a great student for ~15 years. And nooooo, we not gonna fight the highelves (for now).....

Another story would be different fractions, who do not care for their rulers (veiled heritance, telvanni, 90% of the orcs, every npc tagged "bandit" and so on).

TheShadowScout

jlmurra2 wrote: »

Players with the Adventurer Pack Upgrade can play any race, in any alliance. So my question is for those who do so, and are role-playing...

Despite having had that back from the start, I have never ever felt the desire to actually make a cross-alliance character, exactly -because- it felt a tad "off", backstory wise...

Of course, if I had known about cadwells back then, I might have been tempred to make my "lets try the other alliance storyline" characters in the pact as well...