Is selene evil?

JinMori · June 2020

I was wondering, done the web and maarselok dungeon, and while it seems that the warlock is not a good fell i have to give the benefit of the doubt since i read some thing about selene.

So who is right? If anyone knows.

Mr_Wolfe · June 2020

We don't really have a lot of information, but generally?

Warlock Carindon basically led a death squad into Selene's territory, proceeded to murder and torture her and her followers--and even stole Selene's soul. All of this in violation of a treaty between Selene and the Mage's guild. He tries to justify it later by claiming that Selene is dangerous and was manipulating people, but there's no evidence to support that. In fact, when you talk to him during the first quest he says he's there for knowledge, not to stop a dangerous forest spirit--and even acts surprised that Selene's bosmer followers reacted violently to...a heavily armed group trespassing in their home? Who wouldn't react violently to that?

From what we saw, Selene and her followers never acted aggressively. They just tried to defend themselves from someone who very clearly meant them harm. There was also no indication that Selene was mind controlling them the way Carindon claims, and plenty of evidence that he's more than willing to lie and break his word to get what he wants.

Selene may not be particularly friendly, and she's definitely dangerous to her enemies, but she seemed perfectly willing to keep to herself. For my money she was just a victim who was justifiably pissed off by what Carindon did.

prof-dracko · June 2020

Selene actually originated in the first game, Arena, where she was unmistakably and antagonist. She had an army of dead thrall and waged a war against Valenwood. She might not be evil in ESO, but it's probably easy to assume Carindon provoked her a lot.

JinMori · June 2020

Mr_Wolfe wrote: »

We don't really have a lot of information, but generally?

Warlock Carindon basically led a death squad into Selene's territory, proceeded to murder and torture her and her followers--and even stole Selene's soul. All of this in violation of a treaty between Selene and the Mage's guild. He tries to justify it later by claiming that Selene is dangerous and was manipulating people, but there's no evidence to support that. In fact, when you talk to him during the first quest he says he's there for knowledge, not to stop a dangerous forest spirit--and even acts surprised that Selene's bosmer followers reacted violently to...a heavily armed group trespassing in their home? Who wouldn't react violently to that?

From what we saw, Selene and her followers never acted aggressively. They just tried to defend themselves from someone who very clearly meant them harm. There was also no indication that Selene was mind controlling them the way Carindon claims, and plenty of evidence that he's more than willing to lie and break his word to get what he wants.

Selene may not be particularly friendly, and she's definitely dangerous to her enemies, but she seemed perfectly willing to keep to herself. For my money she was just a victim who was justifiably pissed off by what Carindon did.

I am 100 % sure that we will have at least a third dungeon involving those 2, and i guess third time is the charm, where we actually see who is the antagonist here, but yea, if we were only going with eso i would say that the warlock is definitely the *** here, but knowing that selene in arena was really evil, i have to give him the benefit of the doubt.

FrancisCrawford · June 2020

prof-dracko wrote: »

Selene actually originated in the first game, Arena, where she was unmistakably and antagonist. She had an army of dead thrall and waged a war against Valenwood. She might not be evil in ESO, but it's probably easy to assume Carindon provoked her a lot.

So she started out OK and turned bad?

Sounds like Almalexia.

JinMori · June 2020

FrancisCrawford wrote: »

prof-dracko wrote: »

Selene actually originated in the first game, Arena, where she was unmistakably and antagonist. She had an army of dead thrall and waged a war against Valenwood. She might not be evil in ESO, but it's probably easy to assume Carindon provoked her a lot.

So she started out OK and turned bad?

Sounds like Almalexia.

Isn;t arena before eso?

Checked, and nope, eso is before arena.

i think i have a possible idea of what will happen then, and this prettytells me that the warlock is most probably the antagonist, or it could be that she is using us to get to something to then turn evil on everyone.

Smaxx · July 2020

I think Selene is – at least at the time of ESO – pretty much isolated and doesn't care too much to wage war against any outsiders, Bosmer or not.

The game features more ancient spirits like her in some of Valenwood's story lines, I just don't 100% remember where it was. There's one Bosmeri village, I think in Malabal Tor, where it's explained that the Bosmer and these old spirits from chaotic times exist next to each other and the quest evolves around them trying to live in peace and distanced, without violating the others' territory or something along those lines.

The story told during Selene's Web is clearly that of an invasion, out to trap and enslave Selene, although she clearly trapped and enslaved people previously invading her domain. I have yet to complete the Scalebreaker dungeons, but from what I can tell, she's aware that Maarselok is a threat to both her own domain as well as Valenwood as a whole, so she'd clearly pick sides with players there, despite the enslavement. Just don't forget these events were all indirectly triggered by humans and elves (freeing the "initial" dragons from Halls of Colossus)

But what happens in the future? No idea. We'll see, I hope.

Supreme_Atromancer · July 2020

Selene is a manifestation of the sinister aspect of nature - deadly and unforgiving. The first dungeon heavily suggests she has mind-controlled the bosmer around her. Carindon is an ambitious guildmage unhindered by even basic morality.

Neither are good, rather primarily driven by self-interest, and honestly I enjoyed this story because that moral greyness marks it as something very Elder Scrollsy, for me.