Maintenance for the week of October 13:
• PC/Mac: No maintenance – October 13
• NA megaservers for maintenance – October 15, 4:00AM EDT (8:00 UTC) - 12:00PM EDT (16:00 UTC)
• EU megaservers for maintenance – October 15, 8:00 UTC (4:00AM EDT) - 16:00 UTC (12:00PM EDT)
• ESO Store and Account System for maintenance – October 15, 4:00AM EDT (8:00 UTC) - 12:00PM EDT (16:00 UTC)
• https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/683901
• PC/Mac: No maintenance – October 13
• NA megaservers for maintenance – October 15, 4:00AM EDT (8:00 UTC) - 12:00PM EDT (16:00 UTC)
• EU megaservers for maintenance – October 15, 8:00 UTC (4:00AM EDT) - 16:00 UTC (12:00PM EDT)
• ESO Store and Account System for maintenance – October 15, 4:00AM EDT (8:00 UTC) - 12:00PM EDT (16:00 UTC)
• https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/683901
The writing for the upcoming story content - some thoughts on the latest news article
-
metheglyn✭✭✭✭✭I wasn't talking about his first ever job in his youth. I was talking about the first time he gained a position of any influence. Who wanted his advice/counsel, and why? Those types of positions aren't generally given to mysterious mages who just show up one day, so he was probably building connections somewhere, somehow. I'd be interested to know how he got his foot in the advisor door, as it were.
It would certainly be interesting.Besides, Mannimarco doesn't strike me as someone who takes "jobs."
He must have lived off something during the first few months or even years. Also, some jobs might be interesting in terms of establishing connections or getting useful information.
You could say...he wormed his way into the position.
I'll be here all week.
Lol! It's worms all the way down with that guy.shadyjane62 wrote: »I think Syldras ans metheglyn need to get a room.
That's pretty much what this thread is.
I tend to ignore the Witch's Festival, so I don't anticipate any conflict of time/interest for me. I had forgotten there was a Golden Pursuit to go along with the event, but when pursuits are paired with events, they seem fairly low-stress to complete if you're already doing the event. Well, we'll see how it goes! I'm hoping for fun; I accept there might be some irritation.
So - your impression so far?
My first impression of the event: too crowdy. That was to be expected, especially on the first day.
Going through the repeatable quests the first time, and listening to the dialogue and immersing myself in the story was interesting enough, though afterwards it just becomes a skip past the dialogue game--can I hit the enter key before they get so much as a syllable out? Sometimes!
The siege camps are boring to do at this point, because of the crowds and the way everyone is spamming their aoe and the mobs die immediately on spawning. Would they be more engaging if there weren't so many people massed at them? Likely. I do enjoy taking down dolmens on my own or with only a few others, so I would probably enjoy the siege camps under similar situations. Not that I could solo the camps, I think; at least not the end boss, but if there were maybe ten others or so, it'd be doable.
I didn't have the problem with the vitrified souls dropping that seemed to plague others, but collection quests aren't that engaging, so I did that one twice yesterday and was annoyed to see the quest giver wanted me to do it again. I guess you can do each of those repeatable quests six times a day, but no thanks to that. I found it interesting that the guest giver for the vitrified souls is concerned about letting down Midconjurer Mirmal--was more interested in what relationship they have than anything about the quest. I guess Mirmal is kind of a big deal in Solstice circles? It made me realize that we don't really know anything about him.
As for the gathering bits from animals quest: just no. l was iffy on doing it when she gave me the quest, because I really dislike the "slaughter all the animals quests!" that MMOs are so keen on. But, war effort, I thought. I'll give it a go. Then I went to one of the areas deemed suitable for hunting, and it was just a bunch of people running around, killing everything on sight, so I quick-time abandoned that quest and won't be doing it. Good job, war effort: the animals are all extinct. The funny thing to me is one of the reasons she sends us to murder every animal in Tamriel is so the Fellowship can sell the excess to replenish their coffers. If it's money she needs, why can't I just donate to the coffers instead? I'd gladly do that.
The completion meter moves more slowly than I thought it would, but in a way I think that's good. This way everyone has a chance to participate and hopefully that subdues the FOMO devil that always seems to plague people about these events. Since I don't care at all about the competition of "which server gets there first?" I think the slower pace is ideal.
No comment on the various bugs. These things always have bugs when they go live, so it was to be expected. Happens in every MMO I've ever played. They're not game-breaking and they will get fixed.
As to the story quest, I enjoyed that one a lot. Spoiler tag just in case.I think they did a pretty good job with Darian's dialogue--especially the emotional heft of his feelings for Gabrielle. (Seeing how that was written made me wonder if perhaps Prince Azah just isn't the type to express emotion or show grief--which wouldn't be a strange characteristic for someone to have, but since his dialogue was somewhat clunky, his lack of emotion over Merric was very startling.) I thought the way we progressed through the quest--using Darian's mysterious Meridia energy--made as much sense for the world as anything ever does when it comes to Daedric princes and their shenanigans. I also liked the various comments Darian made as we made our way through the various areas. I think they wrote him really well and he seems to have matured over time from the base game quests--a nice little progression I enjoyed. I also like that he was willing to play the dummy so the player character didn't have to.
As to the end of that quest, I was surprised. Not that Mannimarco showed up with a goatee, but that Darian's inner light of Meridia was just yoinked out of him. Since I've already accepted that Mannimarco can do whatever Mannimarco needs to do to when it comes to magic manipulation, I'll allow that he likely knows how to take someone's inner essence away from them. What interests me is where this leaves us/Darian, since the whole point of bringing Darian back was the 'Meridia's champion' thing. I'm guessing that Mannimarco taking Darian's light was part of Meridia's plan all along.
However, I think the pacing of the quest doesn't really fit with the event. Since the quest is about weakening the wall so we can break through, and we do that, and disrupt Mannimarco's 'repair the wall' spell, and Mannimarco tells us 'I don't even need the wall anymore anyway, chumps'...well, after that, it's odd to complete the quest and the event meter for phase one is sitting at 0.1%. If this is the bridge quest, though, I think it'll fit nicely.
Also, I encountered a small bug with this quest. There was a point where I was told to talk to Midconjurer Mirmal up by the lens, but Mirmal was down by the animal-slaughter quest giver, and talking to him there didn't progress the 'optional' part of the quest. I'd go up to the lens and it would seem to advance, but Mirmal wasn't up there to talk to, so I'd go down to where he was, and the quest would regress to 'find Mirmal'. So I ended up just finishing the quest without taking the optional step of talking to Mirmal. Maybe by the time I go through that on another character, it'll be fixed and I'll finally find out what Mirmal has to say.I think the livestream is a strange concept, really. The only ESO streams I watch are the announcements and the ones where they talk about upcoming game news. I never watch a stream of anyone playing the game and I don't have a twitch account, so I don't even pay attention to the twitch drops part of it. I've also seen people mention they have multiple screens running when they play the game (not always ESO live streams, just other things on) but I've never done that.
Who knows, maybe that's the whole "problem": Things getting designed with the expectation that many people don't really pay much attention anyway but do who knows what on the side?
Maybe, but I hope not. From the streams I have watched, I believe they put them together with the idea that people are paying attention--they interact with people in chat, for example.I think plenty of people don't watch all the way through--they just set it up to get the drops and go do something else. At least, that's the idea I've gotten from things people have said. I understand that people might enjoy watching the stream if they can't be in game when the event goes live, but to be in game and watch the stream? *shrug* Not for me, but to each their own.
From what I've heard, many don't watch at all but just leave the stream running on their phone without looking... Does that serve the purpose of a stream? That probably depends.
I guess, if the purpose is just to get 'views' (or whatever metric makes it look popular on twitch).I'm surprised to hear you missed a quest or two the first go round. Could it maybe have been that they were added later? Well, however it turned out, that's a hint to me to be even more exploratory in my exploration. I do remember them saying in the stream that there were some quests kind of out of the way, not in obvious places (or something to that effect).
I seriously did wonder whether they were added later - since me missing a quest would really be unusual, as I do explore zones rather thoroughly - but here was no statement about that, so I don't know. In any way, paying closer attention to the bigger Coldharborized areas that, at first glance, look like there isn't much at all, might be useful.
I consider myself duly notified!That's true. But there's also the reverse, where new light is shed on topics because of a discovery of some sort. Someone will uncover a cache of correspondence between Mannimarco and someone else, someone highly unlikely to have been thought of as being in Mannimarco's confidence (which, really, could be just about anyone: dude's an island).
I wouldn't be averse to that at all. I'm just not sure whether we'll ever see anything like that, sadly.
Probably not. They seem to have decided that Mannimarco's total character is "evil necromancer guy.""Some manner of wealth" doesn't equal "amassed wealth" in my mind, but I was thinking mostly along the lines of inherited wealth. We know nothing about his family, so we don't know if there was anything for him to inherit, but if he had inherited anything, he might have had that set aside somewhere. I imagine his expenses on Artaeum were minimal. I just don't think his youth rules out him having money.
You're right. I really don't know why we never get any lore on that. It's not like Mannimarco's background needs to remain a mystery like what happened to the Dwemer. There's no narrative reason to keep it a secret like this.
The Dwemer disappearance has to be kept a mystery because there's no explanation they can give that would satisfy. If they ever did have an explanation (which I doubt they did, because the whole thing comes across to me as: we don't want dwarves in our game, so let's just say they disappeared mysteriously and leave it at that), they waited too long to give it, and too much speculation has occurred since for any explanation to work.
I sometimes think they don't give any background on Mannimarco because they don't want anyone to relate to him. Even just saying he has/had a family seems like too much information for them to commit to.You'd probably have to set up some kind of watch on the place. The Great Mage portals in and out like it's nothing, and they probably always have his favorite food ready to go so he can pop in, pick it up, and pop back out. You don't expect him to stay in the tavern to eat, do you?
Didn't he say he would do such a thing - no matter how mundane it might seem - in the Summerset prologue?
Probably. I don't recall his exact words. He was kind of annoyed that his lunch plans got interrupted, I think. But portaling to Alinor to pick up his favorite food doesn't necessarily mean staying to eat it. Tamriel take-out, as it were.
Where are they getting all their funds?
You're right, I wouldn't! But at some point I'm going to go over there and find out...oh, but by that time the party will probably be over. I hope.Your homes must be impossible to navigate. How many mages do you suppose get trapped under clutter?
A lot. I'd guess it might make up about 40 percent of all magical-artifact-related injuries or deaths. They say some Telvanni Masters only levitate because they don't know where to step in their homes. My tower looks fine, though. The chaos is limited to the attic. I need to be a little cautious, after all, as a responsible Bosmer-owner.
But how do you keep the Bosmer out of the attic? I mean, he trips over tea-kettles, so either he's clumsy, or you have too many tea-kettles. And since he likes climbing, and an attic is up, well...seems like a tragedy in the making.
I actually think it would sound cooler.shadyjane62 wrote: »I think Syldras ans metheglyn need to get a room.
We do in fact have one. But that's only for conspirational meetings. Can't discuss spells that destroy the boundaries of time and space in public, after all. Tamriel has endured enough world-ending threats. For now.
Shh! You weren't supposed to mention that! And I thought Telvanni understood discretion....Edited by metheglyn on October 14, 2025 3:34PM0 -
Syldras✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭My first impression of the event: too crowdy. That was to be expected, especially on the first day.
Going through the repeatable quests the first time, and listening to the dialogue and immersing myself in the story was interesting enough, though afterwards it just becomes a skip past the dialogue game--can I hit the enter key before they get so much as a syllable out? Sometimes!
The siege camps are boring to do at this point, because of the crowds and the way everyone is spamming their aoe and the mobs die immediately on spawning. Would they be more engaging if there weren't so many people massed at them? Likely. I do enjoy taking down dolmens on my own or with only a few others, so I would probably enjoy the siege camps under similar situations. Not that I could solo the camps, I think; at least not the end boss, but if there were maybe ten others or so, it'd be doable.
I do find the whole thing a bit too repetative (and yes, once one has heard all new dialogue,...). Maybe it would be more interesting if at least the rewards were good, but except for the few golden boxes, it doesn't seem to be much. And even from the golden ones I only got 4 pet parts so far, no styles, no furnishings or plans. I truly don't see any reason to do the quests more than once a day, let alone 6 times each. Of course they count towards the golden pursuits, but considering how long this event will probably take, even doing them once a day will clearly be enough. So there's no motivation to do more.
When it comes to the world events, I have done a few of them at night, so there weren't that many people around. That was quite fun then, actually. Probably mostly because of the novelty effect (despite them being nothing more than dolmens - it's still something new to see for a while, at least, with a few new boss enemies). We'll see how I'm going to feel about them in a week or two... or in a month. Right now I think they won't be able to hold my interest for a longer time.I didn't have the problem with the vitrified souls dropping that seemed to plague others, but collection quests aren't that engaging, so I did that one twice yesterday and was annoyed to see the quest giver wanted me to do it again. I guess you can do each of those repeatable quests six times a day, but no thanks to that. I found it interesting that the guest giver for the vitrified souls is concerned about letting down Midconjurer Mirmal--was more interested in what relationship they have than anything about the quest. I guess Mirmal is kind of a big deal in Solstice circles? It made me realize that we don't really know anything about him.
I had that problem and it was truly annoying. I've only been able to farm them in peace during a time where almost no people were around (even if it's no problem for me to log into ESO for a bit before going to sleep: organizing your time like that isn't really fun - I don't want to think about such aspects when playing an event). But even then, the drop rate was horrible. I don't get why they don't increase it to a non-frustrating level? Getting people to stay logged in for longer is one thing, but at some point people will just lose interest and then don't play that content altogether.
That bit about Mirmal also caught my attention somehow - and yes, we really don't know anything about him. I mean, we don't need to know in detail about every npc that comes up, but for an npc that was a regularly returning character during the current story, they could have given him a bit characterization, at least.As for the gathering bits from animals quest: just no. l was iffy on doing it when she gave me the quest, because I really dislike the "slaughter all the animals quests!" that MMOs are so keen on. But, war effort, I thought. I'll give it a go. Then I went to one of the areas deemed suitable for hunting, and it was just a bunch of people running around, killing everything on sight, so I quick-time abandoned that quest and won't be doing it. Good job, war effort: the animals are all extinct. The funny thing to me is one of the reasons she sends us to murder every animal in Tamriel is so the Fellowship can sell the excess to replenish their coffers. If it's money she needs, why can't I just donate to the coffers instead? I'd gladly do that.
I'm not sure whether I've seen that one yet. I've had one about troll fat (those are a threat to travellers, at least), one about spriggans, and I've already accepted one for tomorrow that is about zombies somehow.The completion meter moves more slowly than I thought it would, but in a way I think that's good. This way everyone has a chance to participate and hopefully that subdues the FOMO devil that always seems to plague people about these events. Since I don't care at all about the competition of "which server gets there first?" I think the slower pace is ideal.
I'm wondering how bored people might be in 3 or 4 weeks. Would many people still be participating? The meter will probably continue moving nonetheless... And at least one doesn't miss much when skipping the quests for a few days...As to the story quest, I enjoyed that one a lot.
I found that one decent as well. Most interesting part of the event so far, for me. Well, not surprising - it has story and lore.I think they did a pretty good job with Darian's dialogue--especially the emotional heft of his feelings for Gabrielle. (Seeing how that was written made me wonder if perhaps Prince Azah just isn't the type to express emotion or show grief--which wouldn't be a strange characteristic for someone to have, but since his dialogue was somewhat clunky, his lack of emotion over Merric was very startling.) I thought the way we progressed through the quest--using Darian's mysterious Meridia energy--made as much sense for the world as anything ever does when it comes to Daedric princes and their shenanigans. I also liked the various comments Darian made as we made our way through the various areas. I think they wrote him really well and he seems to have matured over time from the base game quests--a nice little progression I enjoyed. I also like that he was willing to play the dummy so the player character didn't have to.
I think this was actually well-written and yes, I also liked the dialogue bits while just walking around. Now, if all emotional situations were written like this,...As to the end of that quest, I was surprised. Not that Mannimarco showed up with a goatee, but that Darian's inner light of Meridia was just yoinked out of him. Since I've already accepted that Mannimarco can do whatever Mannimarco needs to do to when it comes to magic manipulation, I'll allow that he likely knows how to take someone's inner essence away from them. What interests me is where this leaves us/Darian, since the whole point of bringing Darian back was the 'Meridia's champion' thing. I'm guessing that Mannimarco taking Darian's light was part of Meridia's plan all along.
I was just as surprised...Mostly, because I didn't expect that what we saw was possible, lore-wise. But then, Mannimarco just does whatever he's supposed to do or a story, I guess... Another thing he has in common with Vanny It's not only a goatee, by the way, he also has a moustache. More precisely, he has the same beard style as Gothren now 
I guess it's the cool thing among ruthless wizards right now.However, I think the pacing of the quest doesn't really fit with the event. Since the quest is about weakening the wall so we can break through, and we do that, and disrupt Mannimarco's 'repair the wall' spell, and Mannimarco tells us 'I don't even need the wall anymore anyway, chumps'...well, after that, it's odd to complete the quest and the event meter for phase one is sitting at 0.1%. If this is the bridge quest, though, I think it'll fit nicely.
I think this is the bridge quest (at least it completes quest 6 in the main questline). And I was surprised that it was already obtainable now - I fully expected it to only pop up in phase 3. Anyway, I think as a bridge quest it works well.
It's still a pity the Fortress will be removed from the world again after the event. It could remain as a public dungeon or so, at least.The Dwemer disappearance has to be kept a mystery because there's no explanation they can give that would satisfy. If they ever did have an explanation (which I doubt they did, because the whole thing comes across to me as: we don't want dwarves in our game, so let's just say they disappeared mysteriously and leave it at that), they waited too long to give it, and too much speculation has occurred since for any explanation to work.
There are a few hints in all of the singleplayer TES games, although I think the background idea might have changed over time. In TES 3 Tribunal, when you venture into the Dwemer city under Mournhold, you do find physical remains of dead Dwemer, after all. Which was eerie, by the way. But it contradicts other accounts that they had vanished without a trace. Which makes me think that the initial idea might have been a different one.I sometimes think they don't give any background on Mannimarco because they don't want anyone to relate to him. Even just saying he has/had a family seems like too much information for them to commit to.
Well, doesn't work, though He's interesting. Maybe he'd even be less interesting if he officially had a totally boring background.Probably. I don't recall his exact words. He was kind of annoyed that his lunch plans got interrupted, I think. But portaling to Alinor to pick up his favorite food doesn't necessarily mean staying to eat it. Tamriel take-out, as it were.
I'd just send my servant.Where are they getting all their funds?
Selling furniture. Probably also carriage building.You're right, I wouldn't! But at some point I'm going to go over there and find out...oh, but by that time the party will probably be over. I hope.
Unfortunately! It's a really nice party right now.But how do you keep the Bosmer out of the attic? I mean, he trips over tea-kettles, so either he's clumsy, or you have too many tea-kettles. And since he likes climbing, and an attic is up, well...seems like a tragedy in the making.
I just keep the hatch locked. The one to the attic, I mean.I actually think it would sound cooler.
That's because weasels are cool. But they're not edgy. Or at least not edgy enough for a necromancer cult in a TES story.Shh! You weren't supposed to mention that! And I thought Telvanni understood discretion....
Maybe it's a ruse. It might or might not be @Syldras | PC | EU
The forceful expression of will gives true honor to the Ancestors.
Sarayn Andrethi, Telvanni mage (Main)
Darvasa Andrethi, his "I'm NOT a Necromancer!" sister
Malacar Sunavarlas, Altmer Ayleid vampire
Soris Rethandus, a Sleeper not yet awake0 -
metheglyn✭✭✭✭✭My first impression of the event: too crowdy. That was to be expected, especially on the first day.
Going through the repeatable quests the first time, and listening to the dialogue and immersing myself in the story was interesting enough, though afterwards it just becomes a skip past the dialogue game--can I hit the enter key before they get so much as a syllable out? Sometimes!
The siege camps are boring to do at this point, because of the crowds and the way everyone is spamming their aoe and the mobs die immediately on spawning. Would they be more engaging if there weren't so many people massed at them? Likely. I do enjoy taking down dolmens on my own or with only a few others, so I would probably enjoy the siege camps under similar situations. Not that I could solo the camps, I think; at least not the end boss, but if there were maybe ten others or so, it'd be doable.
I do find the whole thing a bit too repetative (and yes, once one has heard all new dialogue,...). Maybe it would be more interesting if at least the rewards were good, but except for the few golden boxes, it doesn't seem to be much. And even from the golden ones I only got 4 pet parts so far, no styles, no furnishings or plans. I truly don't see any reason to do the quests more than once a day, let alone 6 times each. Of course they count towards the golden pursuits, but considering how long this event will probably take, even doing them once a day will clearly be enough. So there's no motivation to do more.
When it comes to the world events, I have done a few of them at night, so there weren't that many people around. That was quite fun then, actually. Probably mostly because of the novelty effect (despite them being nothing more than dolmens - it's still something new to see for a while, at least, with a few new boss enemies). We'll see how I'm going to feel about them in a week or two... or in a month. Right now I think they won't be able to hold my interest for a longer time.
Right now my attitude towards the event is that it's entertaining enough for what it is, and I plan to drop in now and then to do some of the quests. I've already done enough to get the first reward from the pursuit, but I'm actually not that interested in the pet or mount, so completing that is not a draw for me. If I ever do find myself in game at a low population time (though, really, for events I've never found one) I might find it more enjoyable.I didn't have the problem with the vitrified souls dropping that seemed to plague others, but collection quests aren't that engaging, so I did that one twice yesterday and was annoyed to see the quest giver wanted me to do it again. I guess you can do each of those repeatable quests six times a day, but no thanks to that. I found it interesting that the guest giver for the vitrified souls is concerned about letting down Midconjurer Mirmal--was more interested in what relationship they have than anything about the quest. I guess Mirmal is kind of a big deal in Solstice circles? It made me realize that we don't really know anything about him.
I had that problem and it was truly annoying. I've only been able to farm them in peace during a time where almost no people were around (even if it's no problem for me to log into ESO for a bit before going to sleep: organizing your time like that isn't really fun - I don't want to think about such aspects when playing an event). But even then, the drop rate was horrible. I don't get why they don't increase it to a non-frustrating level? Getting people to stay logged in for longer is one thing, but at some point people will just lose interest and then don't play that content altogether.
That bit about Mirmal also caught my attention somehow - and yes, we really don't know anything about him. I mean, we don't need to know in detail about every npc that comes up, but for an npc that was a regularly returning character during the current story, they could have given him a bit characterization, at least.
I think drop rates for quest items need to be at 100%, full stop, especially with repeatable quests. Isn't it enough that people can do these quests six times each day? That'll keep them in game long enough. There is no point in frustrating players with this low drop rate nonsense. It's not like we're after rare materials, so there's not even a lore justification for them having a low drop rate. And if vitrified souls are meant to be rather rare, then we're kind of stupid for building our entire wall-busting plan around having a steady supply of them.As for the gathering bits from animals quest: just no. l was iffy on doing it when she gave me the quest, because I really dislike the "slaughter all the animals quests!" that MMOs are so keen on. But, war effort, I thought. I'll give it a go. Then I went to one of the areas deemed suitable for hunting, and it was just a bunch of people running around, killing everything on sight, so I quick-time abandoned that quest and won't be doing it. Good job, war effort: the animals are all extinct. The funny thing to me is one of the reasons she sends us to murder every animal in Tamriel is so the Fellowship can sell the excess to replenish their coffers. If it's money she needs, why can't I just donate to the coffers instead? I'd gladly do that.
I'm not sure whether I've seen that one yet. I've had one about troll fat (those are a threat to travellers, at least), one about spriggans, and I've already accepted one for tomorrow that is about zombies somehow.
If I'd been told to go kill trolls or spriggans or zombies, I would have most likely stuck with it longer, but from what I've read here on the forums, the drop rate for these things is really low, too. So chances are I would have judged it not worth my limited gameplay time and dropped those versions of the quest as well.The completion meter moves more slowly than I thought it would, but in a way I think that's good. This way everyone has a chance to participate and hopefully that subdues the FOMO devil that always seems to plague people about these events. Since I don't care at all about the competition of "which server gets there first?" I think the slower pace is ideal.
I'm wondering how bored people might be in 3 or 4 weeks. Would many people still be participating? The meter will probably continue moving nonetheless... And at least one doesn't miss much when skipping the quests for a few days...
I don't know. People seem to have an endless capacity for this kind of repetitive content. At least if the Auridon and Alik'r dolmens are anything to go by. Well, we'll see.I think they did a pretty good job with Darian's dialogue--especially the emotional heft of his feelings for Gabrielle. (Seeing how that was written made me wonder if perhaps Prince Azah just isn't the type to express emotion or show grief--which wouldn't be a strange characteristic for someone to have, but since his dialogue was somewhat clunky, his lack of emotion over Merric was very startling.) I thought the way we progressed through the quest--using Darian's mysterious Meridia energy--made as much sense for the world as anything ever does when it comes to Daedric princes and their shenanigans. I also liked the various comments Darian made as we made our way through the various areas. I think they wrote him really well and he seems to have matured over time from the base game quests--a nice little progression I enjoyed. I also like that he was willing to play the dummy so the player character didn't have to.
I think this was actually well-written and yes, I also liked the dialogue bits while just walking around. Now, if all emotional situations were written like this,...
Ha, right? But it's nice to see it, and to hope that they'll continue to provide this quality of writing.As to the end of that quest, I was surprised. Not that Mannimarco showed up with a goatee, but that Darian's inner light of Meridia was just yoinked out of him. Since I've already accepted that Mannimarco can do whatever Mannimarco needs to do to when it comes to magic manipulation, I'll allow that he likely knows how to take someone's inner essence away from them. What interests me is where this leaves us/Darian, since the whole point of bringing Darian back was the 'Meridia's champion' thing. I'm guessing that Mannimarco taking Darian's light was part of Meridia's plan all along.
I was just as surprised...Mostly, because I didn't expect that what we saw was possible, lore-wise. But then, Mannimarco just does whatever he's supposed to do or a story, I guess... Another thing he has in common with Vanny It's not only a goatee, by the way, he also has a moustache. More precisely, he has the same beard style as Gothren now I guess it's the cool thing among ruthless wizards right now.
Regarding Mannimarco...I was trying to recall what Wormblood's face looked like in that one part of the quest where he shows up via projection without his mask on. I don't think he had any facial hair, but maybe he did. Either way, looks like Mannimarco touched up his new body to make it more his own. Facial hair growth could also be a sign of time passing. Funny to think there's a prevailing style among ruthless wizards. I figured the goatee was just because all evil geniuses have to have one; I think it's in the evil genius charter. As far as his ability to suck Darian's Meridia light out, I figured he learned that in Mor Naril. Or maybe when he was floating around in Coldharbour in spirit form he picked up a few new tricks by eavesdropping on Molag Bal.However, I think the pacing of the quest doesn't really fit with the event. Since the quest is about weakening the wall so we can break through, and we do that, and disrupt Mannimarco's 'repair the wall' spell, and Mannimarco tells us 'I don't even need the wall anymore anyway, chumps'...well, after that, it's odd to complete the quest and the event meter for phase one is sitting at 0.1%. If this is the bridge quest, though, I think it'll fit nicely.
I think this is the bridge quest (at least it completes quest 6 in the main questline). And I was surprised that it was already obtainable now - I fully expected it to only pop up in phase 3. Anyway, I think as a bridge quest it works well.
It's still a pity the Fortress will be removed from the world again after the event. It could remain as a public dungeon or so, at least.
Having not experienced the Fortress, I can't say whether or not I think it'll be missed by me. If the point of the story is that we wreck whatever purpose it has, keeping it around for public dungeon points might seem odd. Just thinking of story cohesion, and not MMO mechanics. I'm aware plenty of things remain even after we've "cleared them out" or "took care of the issue" or "settled the trouble." I just think it'd be nice if, for once, our big efforts to do something were actually reflected in-game.The Dwemer disappearance has to be kept a mystery because there's no explanation they can give that would satisfy. If they ever did have an explanation (which I doubt they did, because the whole thing comes across to me as: we don't want dwarves in our game, so let's just say they disappeared mysteriously and leave it at that), they waited too long to give it, and too much speculation has occurred since for any explanation to work.
There are a few hints in all of the singleplayer TES games, although I think the background idea might have changed over time. In TES 3 Tribunal, when you venture into the Dwemer city under Mournhold, you do find physical remains of dead Dwemer, after all. Which was eerie, by the way. But it contradicts other accounts that they had vanished without a trace. Which makes me think that the initial idea might have been a different one.
I was just being a bit snarky earlier. While I do think the whole Dwemer disappearance thing got away from them, I'm sure they had some idea why or how it happened when they first came up with it. Still, it does have that vibe to me of a narrative shortcut they didn't give a whole lot of thought to at the time and never expected to become such a thing.I sometimes think they don't give any background on Mannimarco because they don't want anyone to relate to him. Even just saying he has/had a family seems like too much information for them to commit to.
Well, doesn't work, though He's interesting. Maybe he'd even be less interesting if he officially had a totally boring background.
It's the Dwemer disappearance conundrum all over again! Seriously, though, I have enjoyed our discussion about him, and I doubt it would have gone on so long or been so interesting if some of that background was filled in. Not that I think they did right leaving him such a blank.
Of course you would. But I don't think the Great Mage has any servants.
Who buys their furniture? And how? Where does a nefarious cult set up shop? Aren't those carriages just for themselves?
Hmm...pretty sure we have different interpretations of what makes a "nice" party.But how do you keep the Bosmer out of the attic? I mean, he trips over tea-kettles, so either he's clumsy, or you have too many tea-kettles. And since he likes climbing, and an attic is up, well...seems like a tragedy in the making.
I just keep the hatch locked. The one to the attic, I mean.
Is he not skilled at lockpicking, then? Seems like he would be. Bosmer. Right of theft. You know.
Are worms edgy? I mean, they're useful. They literally turn food garbage into good soil. Or are they using 'worm' in the sense of dragon or serpentine creature? Not sure that's very edgy, either.
Um, yes, it is! Or wait...no? Uhh...I should know the answer to that, shouldn't I?
0