Companion Pledge of Mara: A Heart's Week Proposal <3

AlienatedGoat · February 11

In honor of Heart's Week, I'd like to float this idea:

What if you could use a Pledge of Mara with a companion?

You head to a Shrine of Mara with your pledge scroll in hand, and you do the ritual with your precious companion by your side. You've leveled their rapport enough that they accept your pledge enthusiastically. You find a gold-quality Companion Ring of Mara in your inventory, which only needs to be equipped to your companion for you both to receive a 10% xp bonus.

What do you think? Would you like the opportunity to show a deeper level of commitment to your favorite companion? Who would you pledge yourself to?

Syldras · February 11

I'd rather like to see a - well-written(!) - continuation of the companion storylines, with optional romance, and marriage, for people who like that.

Paramedicus · February 11

AlienatedGoat wrote: »

What if you could use a Pledge of Mara with a companion?

well.. people are falling in love with chatgpt... it confuses me a bit, but it's a sign of the times we live in, I suppose

AlienatedGoat · February 11

Syldras wrote: »

I'd rather like to see a - well-written(!) - continuation of the companion storylines, with optional romance, and marriage, for people who like that.

Ideally I'd like the same, but that'd be far more work for ZOS. This is more of a proposal to do a slight rework on the Pledge of Mara so that it would be both useful and give a little extra depth to companions, with a lot less work.

Erickson9610 · February 11

Functionally, I don't see the point in this. Once you level a Companion's skill lines to maximum rank, they no longer need XP accountwide.

This is ignoring the fact that Companions earn a percentage of the combat XP you earn, meaning that they would benefit from both their own XP boost as well as yours.

I can see people using this as an easy way to get a small XP boost for their characters, like when grinding Blackrose Prison or Skyreach Catacombs. Though, maybe it's a little too much work to grind the rapport just for a +10% bonus to XP earned for that character.

Syldras · February 11

AlienatedGoat wrote: »

Ideally I'd like the same, but that'd be far more work for ZOS. This is more of a proposal to do a slight rework on the Pledge of Mara so that it would be both useful and give a little extra depth to companions, with a lot less work.

I'm not against a change so people would be able to use the rings with a companion, but for me personally, that wouldn't really be it. I don't really need the xp bonus anymore (I'm past 2100 cp), and if having a ring or not is the only difference in game, I could just imagine my characters being in a relationship or married to their companion.

The thing I'm personally interested in is story content that actually shows how the relationship develops. For some of my characters, that would fit really well (I'm sure my main loves Azandar

). Others have no interest at all, and that's just as okay. What would be important to me is that it's fully optional.

Anothr thing, some companions most likely don't worship Mara - Mirri as a Dunmer, for example - and if there's ever some optional story content about marriage, I'd like to see the companion's individual character and cultural background reflected in that.

AScarlato · February 11

Paramedicus wrote: »

AlienatedGoat wrote: »

What if you could use a Pledge of Mara with a companion?

well.. people are falling in love with chatgpt... it confuses me a bit, but it's a sign of the times we live in, I suppose

Weird how after decades of romance in games we get people who now compare it to one weirdo they saw on social media who married an AI.

Paramedicus · February 11

@AScarlato
maybe he was not the first werido? hmmm?

i romanced Judy in C2077

AScarlato · February 11

AlienatedGoat wrote: »

Syldras wrote: »

I'd rather like to see a - well-written(!) - continuation of the companion storylines, with optional romance, and marriage, for people who like that.

Ideally I'd like the same, but that'd be far more work for ZOS. This is more of a proposal to do a slight rework on the Pledge of Mara so that it would be both useful and give a little extra depth to companions, with a lot less work.

Well, it would be nice if they turned the ring into a Gold-level Companion ring stat-wise. I have two pledges of Mara sitting in my bank and I'll never use them with actual people.

I enjoy RPG romances, but not RP marriages with other players as I've seen a tad too much chaos and drama in some RP circles.

AllenaNightWood · February 11

i think if this were to be the case full blown romance with companion and even other players should give more then xp and should bring in resting and sleeping which could add a timed buff like food to recovery at stages so alone would give a set number then with companion or player would give a increased number

SugaComa · February 11

Paramedicus wrote: »

AlienatedGoat wrote: »

What if you could use a Pledge of Mara with a companion?

well.. people are falling in love with chatgpt... it confuses me a bit, but it's a sign of the times we live in, I suppose

Who told you about us .. it's purely platonic

Malyore · February 11

I'd like so as well, and it's for RP reasons for my characters– despite some of the "dystopian" concerns folks are having. I have one character who would barenziah our cathay-raht companion, but other characters who wouldn't.
It's an extension of our character's personalities and narrative, via coupling.

AlienatedGoat · February 11

Malyore wrote: »

I'd like so as well, and it's for RP reasons for my characters– despite some of the "dystopian" concerns folks are having. I have one character who would barenziah our cathay-raht companion, but other characters who wouldn't.
It's an extension of our character's personalities and narrative, via coupling.

Exactly. It'd be a small addition, but it does give a bit more depth to companions and roleplay, with a bit of utility with the xp bonus.

I haven't seen the Pledge/Ring of Mara be used seriously in many years, and I figured this isn't something that has been on ZOS's radar. The idea just came to me while thinking about that, and I thought I'd share!