Greymoor Story

Kesstryl · February 2022

I liked Greymoor and Blackwood overall, contrary to opinion here, but not without gripe. For Greymoor, the story itself did suffer from tropes and bad decisions, but I did like some of the characters a lot, and I especially loved Fennorian. It's too bad his debut came with a mediocre story. Svanna was a terrible character, and yet another princess we had to somehow save. Granted I ended up liking her enough towards the end, but these impressions don't leave good memories for a lot of people. I think the story needed more polish and less handholding, and it could have been good. At least they raised the bar with Markarth and had the whole arc go out much better than it began. The whole Count Ravenwatch character arc was very moving. I actually ended up playing through the Greymoor story arc on two characters because I love the Ravenwatch gang. I guess good characters can make up for mediocre stories, but lets not make that a habit.

Blackwood actually had some good ideas story wise, but the player character dialogue responses were so so so bad. How many times does my character have to ask to be reminded again of something he or she was just told? It was nauseating. I didn't mind Eveli as much as others here, though I have to agree with the consensus that wood elves in general are too dumbed down. I loved Lyranthe and some of the other draedric characters (Arox!!!) It was interesting to learn the culture and psychology of dremora in general. The original-ness of Blackwood and Fargrave ended when you find out the 4th ambition is another long lost princess. Puke! Who keeps writing this stuff? I liked the rest of the Fargrave and Deadlands locations, it was nice to be in other realms of Oblivion. For the sake of my TES IV character, I did love making her ancestor kick Mehrunes Dagon to Oblivion.

FrancisCrawford · February 2022

Sylvermynx wrote: »

The way things have gone, I'm starting to wonder if they're going to mess up Jakarn, who is one of the very few characters in the entire game who has been fully realised as a functioning human being.

No need to ask, as per the PTS.

The very first time we see Jakarn in the prologue he charmlessly identifies as a thief. That's not the Jakarn we knew before.

The bit after the first zone jump was consistent with that. I stopped there.

Supreme_Atromancer · February 2022

Monte_Cristo wrote: »

BlueRaven wrote: »

There is a lot to Greymoor that contributed to its poor story.

I am going to put up a spoiler warning although I am not sure it’s that needed on older content.
1)
2) the princess character’s initial action does not make sense, unless…
So your the only child to the high king, and somehow you feel neglected enough to spend all day at the taverns feeling sorry for yourself, instead of being the least prepared for your future role.
However, give her an older sibling who is the next online for the role and suddenly her actions make sense. She never saw herself as ever being in a position to become a ruler so she spends all day at the tavern hiding her depression by drinking.

Point 2 is basically King Jorunn's backstory.

Well, he's a Nord! Everyone knows that Nords must be drunk and/or stupid. Mead, amiright?

Seminolegirl1992 · February 2022

BOctober25 wrote: »

I admit, I am behind on the stories for most expansions. I finished Blackwood first and I thought it was excellent. But, I am playing Greymoor now and I am finding it is quite bland compared to Blackwood. Feels like I am playing WOW more with go talk to this person, go find me these items and less action overall. I am thinking correctly on this? Thoughts would be appreciated. I figured vampires would be really cool for any story. But, not as much on this story.

It's worth doing because Markarth's story is so freaking good. I just finished it and it had me in the feels. HIghly recommend.

Northwold · February 2022

Supreme_Atromancer wrote: »

Monte_Cristo wrote: »

BlueRaven wrote: »

There is a lot to Greymoor that contributed to its poor story.

I am going to put up a spoiler warning although I am not sure it’s that needed on older content.
1)
2) the princess character’s initial action does not make sense, unless…
So your the only child to the high king, and somehow you feel neglected enough to spend all day at the taverns feeling sorry for yourself, instead of being the least prepared for your future role.
However, give her an older sibling who is the next online for the role and suddenly her actions make sense. She never saw herself as ever being in a position to become a ruler so she spends all day at the tavern hiding her depression by drinking.

Point 2 is basically King Jorunn's backstory.

Well, he's a Nord! Everyone knows that Nords must be drunk and/or stupid. Mead, amiright?

In absolute fairness, that was Skyrim's doing. Skyrim had a similar issue that the writing was seriously poor (it doesn't take a huge amount of reflection to realise that the game expects you to sympathise with racist, loutish ethnonationalists, but apparently that passed Bethesda by).

Roukoru · February 2022

And what did you expect, the level of Homer - Shakespeare - Dostoevsky - Li Bo - Murasaki?
imho, not everything as bad as it could be. Moreover, it is surprisingly good and consistent. For a game.

CP5 · February 2022

"For a game" is an insult to the games that not only do stories well, but extraordinarily. Stories you can predict from the start, with repetitive, time padding arcs, that's bare minimum to just move things along.

Northwold · February 2022

CP5 wrote: »

"For a game" is an insult to the games that not only do stories well, but extraordinarily. Stories you can predict from the start, with repetitive, time padding arcs, that's bare minimum to just move things along.

I returned to ESO to do Greymoor from Cyberpunk, where every character's every word embodies a distinct personality and half the storytelling is subtext that no character ever spells out. It was quite a shock and I refrained from forming an opinion on Greymoor for a long while as a result because it felt so unfair.

Seraphayel · February 2022

Roukoru wrote: »

And what did you expect, the level of Homer - Shakespeare - Dostoevsky - Li Bo - Murasaki?
imho, not everything as bad as it could be. Moreover, it is surprisingly good and consistent. For a game.

Maybe at least be as good as the previous storylines? Instead they gave us regurgitated tropes of former storylines, but overall worse.

Hurbster · February 2022

Roukoru wrote: »

And what did you expect, the level of Homer - Shakespeare - Dostoevsky - Li Bo - Murasaki?
imho, not everything as bad as it could be. Moreover, it is surprisingly good and consistent. For a game.

Something that didn't insult our intelligence, perhaps?

VaranisArano · February 2022

Northwold wrote: »

Supreme_Atromancer wrote: »

Monte_Cristo wrote: »

BlueRaven wrote: »

There is a lot to Greymoor that contributed to its poor story.

I am going to put up a spoiler warning although I am not sure it’s that needed on older content.
1)
2) the princess character’s initial action does not make sense, unless…
So your the only child to the high king, and somehow you feel neglected enough to spend all day at the taverns feeling sorry for yourself, instead of being the least prepared for your future role.
However, give her an older sibling who is the next online for the role and suddenly her actions make sense. She never saw herself as ever being in a position to become a ruler so she spends all day at the tavern hiding her depression by drinking.

Point 2 is basically King Jorunn's backstory.

Well, he's a Nord! Everyone knows that Nords must be drunk and/or stupid. Mead, amiright?

In absolute fairness, that was Skyrim's doing. Skyrim had a similar issue that the writing was seriously poor (it doesn't take a huge amount of reflection to realise that the game expects you to sympathise with racist, loutish ethnonationalists, but apparently that passed Bethesda by).

I mean...TES III Morrowind. The fantastic racism of the Elder Scrolls series is kind of a feature, not a bug in the stories they tell.

Northwold · February 2022

VaranisArano wrote: »

Northwold wrote: »

Supreme_Atromancer wrote: »

Monte_Cristo wrote: »

BlueRaven wrote: »

There is a lot to Greymoor that contributed to its poor story.

I am going to put up a spoiler warning although I am not sure it’s that needed on older content.
1)
2) the princess character’s initial action does not make sense, unless…
So your the only child to the high king, and somehow you feel neglected enough to spend all day at the taverns feeling sorry for yourself, instead of being the least prepared for your future role.
However, give her an older sibling who is the next online for the role and suddenly her actions make sense. She never saw herself as ever being in a position to become a ruler so she spends all day at the tavern hiding her depression by drinking.

Point 2 is basically King Jorunn's backstory.

Well, he's a Nord! Everyone knows that Nords must be drunk and/or stupid. Mead, amiright?

In absolute fairness, that was Skyrim's doing. Skyrim had a similar issue that the writing was seriously poor (it doesn't take a huge amount of reflection to realise that the game expects you to sympathise with racist, loutish ethnonationalists, but apparently that passed Bethesda by).

I mean...TES III Morrowind. The fantastic racism of the Elder Scrolls series is kind of a feature, not a bug in the stories they tell.

Indeed. I think my issue with Skyrim was that in Morrowind you could hate them for it whereas in Skyrim it's just assumed, either way you play, that you'll feel some sympathy because otherwise the story doesn't work. Er, no, these people disgust me.

Jusey1 · February 2022

Northwold wrote: »

In absolute fairness, that was Skyrim's doing. Skyrim had a similar issue that the writing was seriously poor (it doesn't take a huge amount of reflection to realise that the game expects you to sympathise with racist, loutish ethnonationalists, but apparently that passed Bethesda by).

Except, the game really doesn't. Skyrim always made the racist Nords shown off as bad terrible people and we are suppose to sympathies with their victims. For example, when you first enter Windhelm you get to see a few Nords picking on a Dunmer and you instantly sympathies with the Dunmer, talking to her and essentially getting pointed toward a few quests to help the Dunmer and Argonians of Windhelm.

I think the problem is that people misread Nord culture a lot, and on top of that Nord culture is clashing with Dunmer culture heavily... The two don't mix very well. Both Nords and Dunmer are very stubborn, Dunmer are also way too prideful as well which hurts their relationship a lot in Windhelm as a big part of Nord culture is proving yourself and honor. Nords are extremely big on that and you have to actually take part in this to get on their good side. There is even an Altmer in Windhelm who flat-out says this. Despite being the race of what would argue be the Nord's greatest enemy right now (Thalmor and AD are primarily Altmer, obviously)... She is treated way much better by the Nords than the Dunmer in Windhelm, and a lot of this has to deal with that whole idea of proving oneself and showing honor to their culture...

Which makes sense. I, as an American, shouldn't just go visit a place like Japan and start demanding them to make adjustments to my own culture. I should be the one honoring their culture and showing interest in their culture, giving it the proper respects cause I am the visitor. Same thing applies to the Dunmer. The Nords gave them a new home, but the Dunmer still have to honor and respect the Nordic culture as well, but they don't due to their own stubbornness and pride. Thus, the two groups have a lot of issues between them. This also applies to other culture mixtures happening in Skyrim too, but it makes sense. Culture differences tend to cause the most racial tension in real life but most of the time, it isn't racist why a lot of these tensions are big but rather it is due to conflicting cultures and religions happening a lot. Elder Scrolls as a whole series does portray this pretty well, and you do see it a lot in ESO. Yes, you also see a lot of true real racism as well, cause that does happen but true racism is always portrayed as a borderline bad thing in the entire series.

Northwold · February 2022

Jusey1 wrote: »

(cut only for space)

Honestly, I think they got it wrong with Skyrim. Whatever message they thought they were sending, what came out was deeply, deeply unappetising. And I don't put that down to a misreading of the plot. It was a seriously ill-judged glorification of toxic macho behaviour and xenophobia.

Now that doesn't wholly matter because you don't play mainstream Elder Scrolls games for their plots -- they're almost invariably rubbish. But it did not leave a good taste in the mouth.

Jusey1 · March 2022

Northwold wrote: »

Honestly, I think they got it wrong with Skyrim. Whatever message they thought they were sending, what came out was deeply, deeply unappetising. And I don't put that down to a misreading of the plot. It was a seriously ill-judged glorification of toxic macho behaviour and xenophobia.

I do not see this at all in Skyrim. Honestly, it felt very tamed compare to Morrowind, since a lot of that toxic elitist behavior is more commonly found in the elven races, especially in the case of House Dres and House Telvanni when it comes to Dunmer culture. Nordic culture doesn't have that kind of behavior in it, and when it does... It's just individual Nords being terrible people, and they are usually shined in a "black light", as the saying goes, in the game. Like, even toxic macho itself... Where you are getting that from in Skyrim? I don't see it. Are you talking about how the Nords take huge pride in fighting for honor, killing tough opponents, and what not? Cause, that's part of their culture and all Nords are like that, it's not a macho or men thing... That's just a culture belief of combat which people of all genders in the culture do to some degree.

As for xenophobia, I don't see that at all. Nords are stubborn and have a hard time trusting others sure, but I don't see a big xenophobia with them. I see that more in Morrowind since the Dunmer people of Vvardenfell literally treats you like scum for being an outsider... The Nords don't treat you like that, not commonly at least.

The only issue I can this applying to would be the Khajiit Traders but that is because of illegal drugs. They do sell moon sugar and skooma, which is considered illegal in lore by most other cultures... Very obviously that the Nords wouldn't want them in towns, but they aren't hostile to them at all funnily enough. Just, not allow in towns due to drugs.

YstradClud · March 2022

I didn't really enjoy Greymoor proper but I did like the Reach story. I can relate to the Reachmen.

AcadianPaladin · March 2022

Some of the things that, for me, contribute to enjoying DLC/Chapters less than the original zones:

- Recycling characters (Lyris, Sai, Tharn, Evili, etc). Too lazy to create new ones?
- A zone whose indigenous people are so pompous/condescending/arrogant there is no quest on Nirn that could make me wish them anything but failure (Morrowind, Summerset).
- Cliff-blocking frustrating navigation that sucks the fun out of traveling (Wrothgar).
- Recycling the 'save the world from another Daedric Prince or three'.
- Ugly uninviting zones that make me just want to finish quickly and move on (Deadlands).

At the end of the day, though no DLC/Chapter measures up to, say, Greenshade or Auridon in my book, Murkmire comes closest.

SerafinaWaterstar · March 2022

On the acting, in the Reach the Scottish accents were execrable and I had to turn the sound off (I'm not joking; it may not matter if you're American but to a Brit the voices were so bad they were excruciating -- some of the actors sounded like they imagined adding some Irish mid-sentence into a heavy Russian-Canadian accent would produce a Scot; no, it produces Mrs Thompson from number 42 playing Violet in the village play).

@Northwold

Apart from Brendan (?) who was beautifully voiced by Billy Boyd (a Scot).

Northwold · March 2022

SerafinaWaterstar wrote: »

On the acting, in the Reach the Scottish accents were execrable and I had to turn the sound off (I'm not joking; it may not matter if you're American but to a Brit the voices were so bad they were excruciating -- some of the actors sounded like they imagined adding some Irish mid-sentence into a heavy Russian-Canadian accent would produce a Scot; no, it produces Mrs Thompson from number 42 playing Violet in the village play).

@Northwold

Apart from Brendan (?) who was beautifully voiced by Billy Boyd (a Scot).

Indeed and I think in some ways having a real Scottish accent in there made most of the others sound very much worse!!

SerafinaWaterstar · March 2022

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

Northwold wrote: »

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

Northwold wrote: »

I get that they are running out of map. I get that they have listened and that this year's story supposedly will be different. But I really think they need to ditch the year of X format. It has resulted in some seriously, seriously lacklustre content.

We aren't even running out of map if the damn map was accurate and less of a giant mess. BroughBreaux's thread "I remade the map - this time, everything is perfect" is an easy and good way to see this for those who are not familiar with it.

I do sympathise, though, that there are a limited number of cultures in the game's world and a limited number of geographical environments.

So not every DLC can be a Northern Elsweyr or a Murkmire (and, varying opinions on their content aside, the design work in those two really stands out as being different and carefully thought out), and Greymoor and Blackwood were always going to look similar to things we have seen before.

And to be fair in both they still made obvious effort, with Blackreach and Fargrave, respectively, but both felt completely suffocating whereas the world above was just... Bland.

Blackwood shouldn't have looked so bland and similar to things we have seen before. Instead of repeating issues and problems from before they could try fix them and do better. Like the generic-medieval-european-fantasyitis TES:IV Oblivion suffered from, and was then repeated in ESO's base game everywhere, and repeated again in Blackwood, and looks to be repeating more with High Isle, because from just the trailer it's looking way too similar to Imperials and Leyawiin. Like we are back to base game and they are just recolours of eachother style-wise.

Don't get me started on the portrayal of the Niben River.

Still trying to work out how the big ships you see wrecked by IC in Cyrodiil actually managed to get there …….

Ragnarok0130 · March 2022

Kesstryl wrote: »

I liked Greymoor and Blackwood overall, contrary to opinion here, but not without gripe. For Greymoor, the story itself did suffer from tropes and bad decisions, but I did like some of the characters a lot, and I especially loved Fennorian. It's too bad his debut came with a mediocre story. Svanna was a terrible character, and yet another princess we had to somehow save. Granted I ended up liking her enough towards the end, but these impressions don't leave good memories for a lot of people. I think the story needed more polish and less handholding, and it could have been good. At least they raised the bar with Markarth and had the whole arc go out much better than it began. The whole Count Ravenwatch character arc was very moving. I actually ended up playing through the Greymoor story arc on two characters because I love the Ravenwatch gang. I guess good characters can make up for mediocre stories, but lets not make that a habit.

Blackwood actually had some good ideas story wise, but the player character dialogue responses were so so so bad. How many times does my character have to ask to be reminded again of something he or she was just told? It was nauseating. I didn't mind Eveli as much as others here, though I have to agree with the consensus that wood elves in general are too dumbed down. I loved Lyranthe and some of the other draedric characters (Arox!!!) It was interesting to learn the culture and psychology of dremora in general. The original-ness of Blackwood and Fargrave ended when you find out the 4th ambition is another long lost princess. Puke! Who keeps writing this stuff? I liked the rest of the Fargrave and Deadlands locations, it was nice to be in other realms of Oblivion. For the sake of my TES IV character, I did love making her ancestor kick Mehrunes Dagon to Oblivion.

I too enjoyed those story lines. I was leveling an alt recently and in the saving Tharn from Mannimarco's dungeon I found a lore book written by the Anchorite. I'm not sure if that book was there from the game's 2014 launch but if it was that's some nice long term planning.

NotaDaedraWorshipper · March 2022

SerafinaWaterstar wrote: »

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

Northwold wrote: »

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

Northwold wrote: »

I get that they are running out of map. I get that they have listened and that this year's story supposedly will be different. But I really think they need to ditch the year of X format. It has resulted in some seriously, seriously lacklustre content.

We aren't even running out of map if the damn map was accurate and less of a giant mess. BroughBreaux's thread "I remade the map - this time, everything is perfect" is an easy and good way to see this for those who are not familiar with it.

I do sympathise, though, that there are a limited number of cultures in the game's world and a limited number of geographical environments.

So not every DLC can be a Northern Elsweyr or a Murkmire (and, varying opinions on their content aside, the design work in those two really stands out as being different and carefully thought out), and Greymoor and Blackwood were always going to look similar to things we have seen before.

And to be fair in both they still made obvious effort, with Blackreach and Fargrave, respectively, but both felt completely suffocating whereas the world above was just... Bland.

Blackwood shouldn't have looked so bland and similar to things we have seen before. Instead of repeating issues and problems from before they could try fix them and do better. Like the generic-medieval-european-fantasyitis TES:IV Oblivion suffered from, and was then repeated in ESO's base game everywhere, and repeated again in Blackwood, and looks to be repeating more with High Isle, because from just the trailer it's looking way too similar to Imperials and Leyawiin. Like we are back to base game and they are just recolours of eachother style-wise.

Don't get me started on the portrayal of the Niben River.

Still trying to work out how the big ships you see wrecked by IC in Cyrodiil actually managed to get there …….

Yup! Or how all those ships mentioned in books, dialogue and other mentions has sailed from the Imperial City/Bravil etc out to sea.
That book they added that mention how all big ships stop at Leyawiin and their cargo is transported to smaller boats to travel up the river makes things more dumb.

Sailor_Palutena · March 2022

Now if you pick ESO soundtrack to give a listen to the main theme, you will also notice that Greymoor has the worst music overall as well, so it should already give a hint:

1 - Elsweyr
2 - Summerset
3 - Blackwood
4 - Morrowind
5 - Greymoor

If High Isles main theme is good, hopefully the story will be too. Its like showing the commitment.

Jusey1 · March 2022

AcadianPaladin wrote: »

- Recycling the 'save the world from another Daedric Prince or three'.

-5 DLCs/Expansions where a Daedric Prince is the main threat...
+Base game for Molag Bal.

-8 DLCs/Expansions where the main threat is something else... This will go up to 10 since we know that the next storyline is about the Three Banner War and an organization that wants to keep the war going as the main villain.

AcadianPaladin wrote: »

- Recycling characters (Lyris, Sai, Tharn, Evili, etc). Too lazy to create new ones?

Or perhaps they want to put more investment into characters that they have? They do make new characters all the time anyways, it's just nice to have familiar faces too with the new ones.

peacenote · March 2022

Sylvermynx wrote: »

I don't ever want "recurring personalities". Everyone I "met" in the main game MQ drove me bonkers. And people like Eveli - oy, gag me with a spoon for chrisakes! I hated her from the beginning in Orsinium (and I've never finished that DLC because I can't ever get by "whosis frozen ass" whose name I don't now remember....) and having her pop up in Blackwood was almost enough to cause me NOT to do that questline. Such an annoying stupid git of a bosmer.... (Yes I did get through the questline, and except for Eveli, I enjoyed it.... But why should I have to put up with some total git of an npc? Is this some dev's alter ego or some damn thing? *gag*)

/grumble

I should just go back to writing my own fiction.... At least I can SELL that....

Thank you. I was having a tough day and I cracked up laughing at "gag me with a spoon."

She was definitely annoying, haha.

I just finished Greymoor and I wasn't as disappointed as some people were. I think it is because I heard the criticism beforehand and my expectations were low. Also I liked the Irish-y accents or whatever they were.

My biggest gripe was actually ... here is spoiler, just in case:

... the treatment of the 5 companions as they returned.

I thoroughly enjoyed Abnur coming back, I actually like his "mean-ish" comments and his back story. However every FIVE minutes in Elsweyr there were hints about him not doing so great. Oh I'm feeling weak. Oh that took a lot out of me. Oh let me rest a while. As a result I wasn't shocked at all that they killed him off. I'm hoping somehow he can return again, but with less of the "I'm getting old" comments every two seconds. They weren't in character in my opinion.
Lyris and Sai. I've never been a big Lyris fan, and I'm not sure why, but the ridiculous defensiveness that she and Sai might have some kind of connection got old REALLY fast. I mean, good for them, they almost didn't exist like a million times, can't we get a story line where it's out in the open and a little bit nice and happy? It would have been a better counter play to the "world is ending" stuff. But Lyris's fighting spirit came off as just kind of negative and "so what if we took a few moments to chat" and... I rolled my eyes a lot.

I'm doing Blackwood now and my issue with that one is I keep thinking "why am I HERE?" as we have been too late one too many times, lol. I guess it could be considered a change of pace but I feel like we should be earning the "Inept Hero" title or something at the end of this one.... not done with it yet though.

Northwold · March 2022

peacenote wrote: »

Also I liked the Irish-y accents or whatever they were.

American. :-D

peacenote · March 2022

Northwold wrote: »

peacenote wrote: »

Also I liked the Irish-y accents or whatever they were.

American. :-D

LOL. Well America is a big place. All I know is I originally lived in the Midwest and those Reach witches sounded nothing like me.

I am not very skilled at placing accents. I am pretty decent at recognizing people from the timbre of their voices though. You know how people will watch a show or a movie or say "WHERE do I know that person from?" I never notice from watching them but I often recognize people who look completely different just based on on their voice.

But I don't want to de-rail the thread. Point is, I enjoyed some of the voice acting.

Northwold · March 2022

peacenote wrote: »

Northwold wrote: »

peacenote wrote: »

Also I liked the Irish-y accents or whatever they were.

American. :-D

LOL. Well America is a big place. All I know is I originally lived in the Midwest and those Reach witches sounded nothing like me.

I am not very skilled at placing accents. I am pretty decent at recognizing people from the timbre of their voices though. You know how people will watch a show or a movie or say "WHERE do I know that person from?" I never notice from watching them but I often recognize people who look completely different just based on on their voice.

But I don't want to de-rail the thread. Point is, I enjoyed some of the voice acting.

Worry not the accent thing appears to be isolated to British people who know those accents. They were literally the worst "Scottish" accents I have ever heard and so bad i couldn't listen, which is why I commented on them. I'm not normally fussed by mediocre accents (I can even cope with the Australian wood elves though it's a bit grating). But they were truly awful -- not just bad, but some of the actors were literally skipping between three continents as they went through each sentence, seemingly at random.

Sylvermynx · March 2022

peacenote wrote: »

Northwold wrote: »

peacenote wrote: »

Also I liked the Irish-y accents or whatever they were.

American. :-D

LOL. Well America is a big place. All I know is I originally lived in the Midwest and those Reach witches sounded nothing like me.

I am not very skilled at placing accents. I am pretty decent at recognizing people from the timbre of their voices though. You know how people will watch a show or a movie or say "WHERE do I know that person from?" I never notice from watching them but I often recognize people who look completely different just based on on their voice.

But I don't want to de-rail the thread. Point is, I enjoyed some of the voice acting.

Heh. I'm not interested in VA at all, so I mute dialog and have subtitles. Far better than wincing at the VA/incredibly awkward accents all the time.

I haven't done the quests in Greymoor or The Reach, and I won't. I never play vampire/werewolf content; I don't have any interest in it at all. The ONLY books including vampires I've ever read and enjoyed are April White's Immortal Descendants series - because the rationale for that form of vampirism makes wholly internal sense in a quasi-scientific way - for fantasy fiction.