Agreed. The twists are usually so boring, and easily found. Like the main bady of this expansion talks in this annoying and suspicious tone like he's the villain. Turns out he is. Omg who wouldve known??? And don't even get me started on Greymoor... Seems the story quality is plummeting to the gameplay quality

In large part, I think you answered your own question. The cults who have a wealthy, powerful patron are supplied and protected by said patron. Feudal Lords could get into a lot of mischief on their own land. Meanwhile, the chaos of a war zone makes it a lot easier for bandits and rogue groups like cults to flourish.


To get into some specific examples:

In Imperial regions, I think most of the civilians and higher-ups have decided that between the armies marching and the daedric forces gathering power during the Interregnum, that the cults really are their best shot at some semblance of safety. In safer areas they stuck to the Divines, but it's worth noting that the Longhouse Emperors fully supported Daedric worship. That led to Varen's rebellion, and explains why the Worm Cult and Dagonist cults flourished in the Empire.

The Veiled Haritance is a particularly obvious example of leaders supporting a cult since they are basically Altmer nobles in revolt against the Queen with a gloss of Daedric worship. They have preexisting rank and position which they've used to raise their own forces against the Queen.

The Reachmen "cults" likewise are more like various tribes in a loose alliance against anyone's who's not them. The Bloodthorn and the Icereach Coven are basically part of the Reachmen tribes that periodically explode out into the surrounding regions whenever those nations aren't strong enough to suppress them. Skyrim is fractured in this time period, Orsinium is fighting over whether or not it'll unify, and the Covenant is stretched thin, with the result that all three areas are dealing with Reachmen invasions (some of whom are allied with the Worm Cult or the Gray Host).

The necromancers in the Alik'r hold a powerful grudge against the king. Notably, the majority of their soldiers are undead, which goes to show that they aren't pulling in lots of support from the Redguard population, which despises necromancy.

The Dunmer have a lot of cults in their areas, but we can blame TES III for that. Despite the Dunmer worshipping the Tribunal right now, there's always been a strong countercurrent of Daedric worship in Dunmer culture whether that's the Anticipations or the House of Troubles. (It's worth noting that the plague cult in Deshaan is specifically related to Boethiah who opposes Almalexia and that they are hiding their presence from her.)


So sure, there's a lot of cults. The Interregnum is a period when the veil between Oblivion and Nirn is torn and the Daedric Princes can interfere on a much greater level than before. It's not terribly surprising that cults worshipping them are common at all levels of society.

Sililos wrote: »

6Kyojin6 wrote: »

Seems the story quality is plummeting to the gameplay quality

Sadly i dont think its plummeting, Its always been this way, Right now im finally getting around to slowly doing Cadwels Silver and im noticing a real trend per zone that its almost always a cult of some sort with a massive population causing the problems.

To be fair regarding cads silver and gold, long ago the game wasn't quite as free to roam as it is now in the sense that unless you had the imperial edition (which was not free) you couldn't choose any race/faction. Each faction had its 5 regions but each faction story always lead to the same end; Coldharbour.

So the game was built around this concept, so that despite joining different faction the player could still be the hero of the same main story and seeing as daedric princes seem to love their mortal minions - useful idiots basically - it would make sense to use mortal cults in abundance as large armies of daedra would likely unite everyone, so considering what they were going for at the time to give everyone generally the same main story but with their own different themes, flairs and general cultures I'd say they achieved that goal.

I do agree that now it does seem rather repetitive but in terms of a base game that they were aiming to achieve story wise i'd say they achieved their goal. Though I do struggle to understand how the worm cult became so large so quickly though I suppose the soulburst and the time passing since it occurred (10 years?) would of allowed them enough time to amass followers. As for the other cults, it could be argued the soulburst just created an opportunity for the other princes, Dagon in auridon, Boethia in deshaan, Vaermina in Stormhaven etc

From what I remember and what I see now (I am on gold on my magnecro atm) it usually follows the same trend;

- Factional group that is in league with a daedric prince, usually 1 or 2 regions
- Worm Cult (everywhere some how)
- Imperials usually the last region.

I dont really know what to say about the DLC cults though they dont follow the same formula or not in such a linear fashion.

oldbobdude wrote: »

I know, and for each one I kill, another takes their place.

This is one of the reasons I like to think we don't actually kill anything when we're killing stuff. More like beating them into submission, checking their pockets, and moving on. They'll stand up again in a few moments. Of course that clashes against looting animals for body parts, quest bosses who we definitely should be leaving dead, and those unfortunate enough to be reduced to a pile of dust after an elemental attack. But it works wonders for world bosses, the undead, and the such. The Blade of Woe sadly can't really be justified.

If we're to think that every single enemy we've killed is staying dead for good, well, there ain't enough people in Nirn for that. I mean. Look at the actual houses with actual civilians living in each city. You can generally count them with the fingers in one hand. The Worm Cult alone would have "summon [ed] the blood sacrifice" enough times to wipe the face of Tamriel clean.

Anyone notice yet?

Daedra Worship = Cult

Aedra/Not Daedra Worship = Civilian.

Before the Battle of Red Mountain and the Three's betrayal, the Chimer/Dunmer were a Daedra worshipping people. The whole society, a "Cult".

Anywho, the legit reason there's so many is because they're an Enemy type, and we need things to whack. The canon reason, Cults are just people following a Daedric Prince, which usually ends up being a negative, socially disruptive act, hence the term Cult. Many of these groups are supported by wealthy Nobles with secret agendas and kinks.

I think in that world life is really boring and joining a cult is just a way to do something different. Not everyone wants to die under a tree reading a boring book.

You have two options in tamriel. Become an adventurer, or a cultist