kynesgrove wrote: »

But an Argonian necromancer would have to have a worldview closer to Vastarie. It has been made very clear that most Argonians abhor necromancy.

Necromancy is against kuvastei (the need for change), they are literally stagnant and do not change and rot (especially if souls are bound to the dead). Being undead is being resistant to Sithis' will, which is to rejoin him through the Hist and then rejoin the cycle of rebirth.

Argonians views on things can vary a lot from tribe to tribe and we only know a few.

Also, necromancy is a very vast category of magic. It's far from just raising the dead and and binding souls. Other common uses for it is communicating with spirits, both willingly and unwillingly, and can be used to help spirits move on. Something we see a couple of argonian characters do.
So a more traditional argonian "necromancer" is fully possible and would even be quite interesting and show necromancy from a different view. Just have to think outside the stereotype of a necromancer.

Although a Veeskhleel companion would be interesting too.

Here’s my hopes:
Male High Elf Necromancer
Likes:
•Murder
•Necromancy skills
• Visiting graveyards
•undead pets
•Dark Brotherhood quests (maybe he is a member?)
•Loves visiting Blackreach
•thievery
•Daedric shrines
Dislikes:
•Helping civilians (light fires, preventing robberies etc)
• fighters guild
•praying at shrines (attribute etc)

Male Wood elf
Likes:
•Having a pet active
•Mounting non dead pets
•Visiting nature filled Points of Interest
•Petting dogs
•Visiting the King Wood Elf guy…
•playing music
•Visiting inns
Dislikes:
•Killing harmless animals (deer, rabbits, scuttled etc)
•harvesting wood or alchemical ingredient!**
•Murdering NPCS
•Fishing
•undead mounts
•undead pets

Breton (reachman) Werewolf (turns werewolf in combat)
Likes:
•Visiting shrines to hircine
•Wolf pets and mounts
•visiting daedric realms
•visiting the Reach
•Killing harmless animals
•werewolf ultimate ability
•Killing Bretons and Nords
•infecting people with lycanthropy
Dislikes:
•Reading (they can’t read)
•undaunted enclave
•killing wolves or werewolves
•speaking to a member of the silver dawn
•wearing any silver dawn armour

Vampire (unsure of race. Orc? But maybe a member of the Volkihar clan!)
Likes:
•Murdering NPCS
•Exploring at night
•Vampire abilities
•Loves the vampire ultimate
•Bat and death hound pets
•Feeding
•Killing priests
Dislikes:
•Praying to Arkay
•Losing a fight
•Fighters guild abilities
•Food made with garlic
•staying in major cities for too long

On Necromancer Companion Considerations:
What skills would they have. I am expecting, that none of "criminal act" to keep consistency.
ESO has some fight with witness, where players refrain from using such skills, but it would be complicated with necro-companion.

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

kynesgrove wrote: »

But an Argonian necromancer would have to have a worldview closer to Vastarie. It has been made very clear that most Argonians abhor necromancy.

Necromancy is against kuvastei (the need for change), they are literally stagnant and do not change and rot (especially if souls are bound to the dead). Being undead is being resistant to Sithis' will, which is to rejoin him through the Hist and then rejoin the cycle of rebirth.

Argonians views on things can vary a lot from tribe to tribe and we only know a few.

Also, necromancy is a very vast category of magic. It's far from just raising the dead and and binding souls. Other common uses for it is communicating with spirits, both willingly and unwillingly, and can be used to help spirits move on. Something we see a couple of argonian characters do.
So a more traditional argonian "necromancer" is fully possible and would even be quite interesting and show necromancy from a different view. Just have to think outside the stereotype of a necromancer.

Although a Veeskhleel companion would be interesting too.

A tribal necromancer would be awesome idea to explore too.

To add on to what you were saying, my initial proposal stated that the Argonian in question was struggling to reconnect to the Hist. We have seen in Murkmire how that can drive someone toward madness and lusting for power or complete control. There's also unique and peculiar Argonians like Walks-Softly who were brought into slavery so young that his former owners even have his egg shells. This is pure conjecture, but in the image I have of Walks-Softly in my mind, I'm positive he has zero regard for the Hist- I'm pretty sure he doesn't even talk about the Hist at all- and as you can tell from his actions, his morals are dubious at best, though he strives for a sense of karmic revenge in some of what he does, he never once mentions kuvastei. From the Walks-Softly example it's clear that you can't miss what you never formed an attachment to.

However, our Argonian in question isn't Walks-Softly. He knows what having a connection to the Hist is like and would clearly have to be an outcast. This Argonian cares less for it as his scope and perspectives on things broadened as he traveled distant lands, experienced different cultures, and learned taboo knowledge to best his enemies.

But the inverse is also possible if you go the Shadowscale route and try to abide by kuvastei- there is such a thing as mastering the enemy's weapons so you know better how to defend against them, and he could have been this person- and his mastery resulted in him being shunned by others. Maybe this ill-treatment instilled sociopathy in him and matter-of-factly sees members of his tribe as possessions.

I can also imagine stories about him telling us how he had to learn necromancy due to his training and how he used it to murdered someone's wife, reanimate her, and make her kill or poison husband as part of a job he had to do, or allowed himself to be undercover as a slave for years until a specific, elusive target appeared before the house he was serving for him to kill in a specific manner. And maybe, as an undercover slave, this is where he learned his necromancy- maybe he LOATHES using it, but he practices it as it is a means to an end. Our companion's story begins to write itself with these conditions in mind.

I would love to see him get framed due to his infamy as a necromancer for trying to kill off and zombify his own tribe, only for it to be a traitor/rogue Shadowscale who veered from the path and made a deal with a daedric entity for their own purposes (generic scenario: Molag Bal will return the Haj Uxith in exchange for the subjugation of a new tribe and their Hist tree). In this scenario, the rogue Shadowscale would be the last of their tribe, and our Argonian and his Hist would likely be the last of their tribe- maybe with the only survivors being eggs waiting to be hatched as bait/hostages, and perhaps one non-threatening egg-tender also held as hostage, and the rogue Shadowscale is forced to break Shadowscale/Brotherhood Tenets to complete his deal with Molag Bal by killing our companion. With intent to murder clearly there and the last step being to break the final tenet, it becomes a struggle, as an issue like this is supposed to be solved by a third party assassin- do you let the rogue Shadowscale get away with it and murder your companion so you can murder them in return? Or do you try to persuade your companion and interpret some of the actions the rogue committed as tenets being violated already to invoke the wrath of Sithis to justify the kill? After all, our Argonian may be written as possessive- if he saw members of his tribes as possessions, and the rogue Shadowscale killed them off, is that not stealing/destroying another shadowscale's possessions, thus violating Tenet IV? Or maybe you interpret what he did as a betrayal of the dark brotherhood, breaking Tenet II. Maybe he desecrated or preaches ill of the Night Mother, violating Tenet I? If you are a DB Silencer, you could also give him a direct order for him to stop- that he would disobey- breaking Tenet III. Knowing the rogue shadowscale is about to break Tenet V, you could also just kill him first and trust the Dread Father makes the right decision. Or perhaps you let the rogue kill your companion, but in that same moment a manifestation of the Wrath of Sithis literally takes the soul from the rogue's body, and your companion- dying- puts as much of his will, essence, memories, and soul into the traitor's body, using his mastery of necromancy- and continues on as your companion in this new vessel. With switched bodies he may decide to cast his old identity as a villain and say that justice was done, and return his own body to the Hist as he wasn't fully transferred and a piece of himself remains in his original body. This plants an idea for the future, that what remains of him may one day reincarnate and that the Hist itself knows the truth having reclaimed the body though the soul still wanders, so that future generations do not hold a grudge over the events.

This kind of story is lore-friendly, has stakes, and writes itself, is self contained but can plant the seed for future stories. I really look forward to seeing what sort of stories they can come up with (the only jump in explanation here being the one outcome where bodies were swapped). What the makers of this franchise did very well is world building. Within this world situations are created, you put people of different backgrounds into those situations and you have a character in a story. The hard part-world building- has been done already, with a bit of story boarding and some writing from the talented writers they have on staff, they can develop a compelling companion story arc just as easily.

A non-binary Bosmer vampire with cute antlers that makes cute noises whenever a bat is summoned.

I would add a few items to the mix, Bastion and Ember want to be Magika DPS, Mirri wants to be a Ranged Stamina DPS and Isobel wants to be a Tank... they can do other things, but that is how their stories start out.

With this in mind, the Classes not yet represented are Warden and Necromancer and the missing Races are Altmer, Bosmer, Orc, Redguard and Argonian and the missing Desired Role is Healer.

Vampire and Werewolf can be problematic, both have actions that can be criminal, as does the Necromancer Class, so steps would have to be taken so your companion does not land you in hot water (that is our job, not the companion)

I am not sure if a Warden or Necromancer Healer would be better as a companion, but I lean toward the Warden. leaving the Necromancer to be the Melee Stamina DPS.

Looking at the available races, Orc, Redguard and Bosmer would be best for the Stamina DPS roll, Altmer and Argonain for the Healer role...

I am less concerned about the sex of the companion as the personality, the Healer could be "Good" the Stamina DPS could be questionable (something I would like to see) even to a point that murder is acceptable, even praised...

And as others have stated, whomever they are, they need to learn how to not stand in stupid.

None, other Tales of Tribute worst system in the game.

I posted some more specific ideas earlier in the thread, but in general my thinking is we've got one nice, non-threatening man and three pleasant women, I'd like to see some companions with stronger personalities. When they add more there will be enough to choose from that I think it doesn't matter too much if someone dislikes or feels threatened or overshadowed by a companion because they can choose to use a different ones.

This would also tie into the idea of having a necromancer, assassin, werewolf or vampire companion - someone whose world view will be very different to a lot of Tamriel and one not all players or their characters would be comfortable with, but could be ideal for characters who aren't a good fit with any of the existing companions.

Also I agree with the idea someone had earlier in the thread that it would be nice to see their story actually develop through their quests and maybe change based on your choices, rather than just being a linear pre-determined thing that unlocks as you gain rapport.

Finally I also like the idea of companions that don't fit the playable races or classes, because there's no reason they have to and I agree that could be a good opportunity to explore areas of the lore they're unlikely to let us play - like other werebeasts or bards.

jle30303 wrote: »

I'm guessing there are likely to be a couple of Companions with next year's content...

So. We've had a Dragonknight (Bastian), a Nightblade (Mirri), a Sorcerer (Ember) and a Templar (Isobel). Which suggests that we might get a Necromancer and a Warden next...

Also, we've had an Imperial, a Dunmer, a Khajiit, and a Breton, so we're likely to get different races...

And we always get one more "honourable" (Bastian, Isobel) and one more "dishonourable" (Mirri, Ember - although Mirri doesn't like you getting caught thieving, it's the getting caught she objects to, not the thieving.)

And we need to finally have a Companion that actually *likes* the Dark Brotherhood. Since Ember actually gets bonus rapport from doing Thief heists, why not a companion that gets bonus rapport from doing DB sacraments?

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So... how about an Argonian Shadowscale worshipper of Sithis. Perhaps they could even be the necromancer-type since Argonians, like Dunmer, seem to have fewer scruples in that direction?

And perhaps pairing them up with something like a Bosmer Warden who is a Green Pact fanatic :-)

(Then we'd still have Redguards, Altmer, Orcs and Nords to go, and have to start either inventing classes or repeating them.)

An Argonian Shadowscale worshipper of Sithis who is a necromancer is coincidentally one of my toons....

It's funny, because my Breton Templar has the same hairstyle as Isobel (and same class/race as well). I have to wonder if ZOS is sneaking into my room and peeking through my diary some days, lol....

Malthorne wrote: »

What if we were able to create our own companion through the character creator menu? We could choose everything from appearance, voice, tendencies, general disposition, likes/dislikes, morality etc etc..

Blasphemy. You will take this cookie cutter companion and you will like it.

I am really looking forward to seeing what ZOS comes up with for the next two Companions, assuming they're planned for next Chapter.

That said, I'm hoping that we eventually get a werewolf and a vampire companion. I get the feeling that implementation of a werewolf companion is a lot more involved, so I can see that being put off until we get a more relevant Chapter (like somewhere in central Skyrim or Solstheim).

My top picks for a Warden would be a Nord or a Wood Elf, and my top picks for a Necromancer would be a High Elf or an Argonian.

Dremora that encourages us to kill....
I can imagine them using sayings from the Emperor in SW

"I don't want to live as ordinary beings live."
"Power! Unlimited power!"
"Good. I can feel your anger."
"And you, young **IGN**. We will watch your career with great interest."
"And if I ever need your services again, I will not hesitate to clone you."
"Those who do not serve my ends, no matter how powerful they are, will be eliminated."
"Your feeble skills are no match for the power of the Dremora."
"I have died before."
"Wipe them out. All of them!"

Danikat wrote: »

could be a good opportunity to explore areas of the lore they're unlikely to let us play - like bards.

...Explore the lore of being a musician?

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

Danikat wrote: »

could be a good opportunity to explore areas of the lore they're unlikely to let us play - like bards.

...Explore the lore of being a musician?

Would the bard beat mobs with their lute?

I know you guys are joking, but tonal magic is very much a thing in TES lore. Music and sound literally has power. It's why things like shouts, sword singing, spinning, tonal architecture etc are a thing.

It's just, ya know... most bards tend to look like that one in Gonfalon Bay.