Solstheim <3

Morrowind-esque architecture <3

Fucking Cthulu-helmeted proto-Dragonborn <3

 

Eldritch abominations <3

 

Fantastic trailer. Not sure I'll buy the DLC, but I'll certainly be buying the soundtrack.



The Flesh Atronach.

This is from Online, not Dragonfire, but is seriously so fucking cool I thought I'd post it.

 

Ooh, going back to Morrowind. Well, part of Morrowind. I'm interested.

 

Hm. I'm both excited and nervous. The Dawnguard DLC kinda messed badly with some of my hopes for post-Skyrim events (no Falmer event, no surviving Snow Elf community,) while still being good (expansion into vampire/werewolf powers, crossbows), and Hearthfire was basically a house-building mod. This Dragonborn DLC... It'll probably mess up my fanon for post-Red Mountain Morrowind & Solstheim, but the idea of a rogue pseudo-cannabilistic Dragon Priest is interesting, as is the fact that he was the first Dragonborn (killing your predecessor has all sorts of awesome connotations to it). The new monsters, weapons and architecture is also interesting, but I'm still hung up on what the lore developments might be...

 

We might see more of Morrowind than just Solstheim. It wouldn't actually be as hard as you think it might be. Remember, 95% of the island is covered in diseased volcanic ashflow now. Where before, the Ghostfence just kept it contained to Red Mountain, now it would be more like whatever Ghostfence replacement they have, it's surrounding one or two cities and maybe a few square miles of dirt and mushrooms. Everything else is covered in Ash Vampires, Ash Zombies, plain old ordinary ash, and probably Corpus, with a sprinkling of lava for flavor. It's not a pleasant place, even by "I live on an iceburg and fight dragons" standards. If we're even allowed to explore it (and we may not be, and I would be fine with that, because there's a totally plausible reason to fence off the last few livable areas completely), it would just be a bleak ashen hellscape occasionally broken up by lava flows, mutant monsters, and the rare broken ruin that protrudes out of the ash and stone.

Basically exactly like the Soul Cairn, only everything's red-tone instead of blue.

Remember, if the Dunmer had somewhere else to go that was actually livable, they wouldn't be camping in a frozen stone city run by a racial supremacist. Recreating Morrowind as it existed in TES: Morrowind and putting it into Skyrim would be a massive undertaking. Creating as it logically would be now, though, would be a piece of cake. It's one, maybe two decently sized settlements on the coast, and the rest is like Mordor, but with more undead.

 

So it's been out a couple days. But here's links to the first screenshots from the Dragonborn DLC.

Skaal
Dragon Skeleton
Bull Netch
Oblivion
Raven Rock
Redoran Guard
Seeker
Dragon Peak
Ash Spawn
Black Book
Cultist
Redoran Tavern

So we're seeing a lot of Redoran shit goin' on. Really want to know how shit developed in Solstheim with the fall of the Telvanni family, and if we get Brand-Shei involved in this at all. Because that'd be cool as.

 

Here's to hoping that Skall stuff is an actual armor set, and not 'just' clothes, because it looks way better and more realistic than any of the fur armors in the game currently. That actually looks like Eskimo battle gear. And that's really cool.

It's not surprising, if you think about it. The Argonians raped the Telvanni into the ground, and House Hlaalu was always strong supporters of, and were in turn supported by, the Empire. And the Empire isn't doing so hot right now.

House Redoran is probably the only major power of the three left. It's logical to presume that they would be the ones imposing order on the wild west that Solstheim has likely become.

Also, the Stalhrim equipment doesn't look completely retarded. Grant you, it's not how I want it to look (bulkier blue glass armor with black steel trim, Nordic emboss carved in as decoration, and a black steel helm with polished Stalhrim horns), but after some of the armors in Morrowind and most of the Armors in Oblivion, I'm more than willing to embrace passably decent with open arms. Honestly, I'm just curious if it's Light or Heavy. It was originally Medium, but that armor type got axed with the passing of time. Did they bump it up, or down? Or, dare I even dream, is there a Light and a Heavy version?

Also, I question our location in Oblivion this time. I'm pretty lore-savvy, and to my knowledge, there is no Oblivion realm that is characterized specifically by green skies and shadows.

There are a couple of things it could be, but if we assume it is a Lord's realm, we can rule some of them out. For instance, while we don't know for certain exactly what Coldharbour looks like, merely what can be found within, it stands to reason that if we were going to visit there, it would have been during Dawnguard, and not now. Also, there aren't enough people on fire, people screaming, people being raped, people being eaten, and people that are screaming and on fire that are being eaten while being raped.

Molag Bal isn't exactly a nice guy.

I think the most likely are either Meridra's Colored Rooms, about which we know absolutely nothing, or, perhaps more likely, Hermaeus Mora's Apocrypha. Apocrypha is an endless library where all hidden and forbidden knowledge can be found. Every book is titleless and bound in black, and ghosts of all descriptions haunt the halls.

It could also be the Scuttling Void, which we also know nothing about, but I question why Namira would involve herself in what admittedly little we know of the events of the DLC. Apocrypha makes sense. We may very well need to plumb knowledge that now exists only in Mora's realm to find a way to stop the Elder Dovakiin, but there is no reason for the Daedra Lord of Decay to be involved.

 

The Daedric Realm in the trailer has apparently been confirmed as Apocrypha. Hermaeus Mora is definitely involved.

 

That certainly fits in with the eldritch horror, ancient secrets theme going on here. I'm more enthusiastic about this than I ever was for Dawnguard.

 

If it's been confirmed as Apocrypha, then shit has officially just gotten real. This isn't a DLC about vampires or werewolves or whatever. This is a Lovecraftian Horror DLC, in which a divinely-inspired violation of the natural order (PC) must plead the help of one of the Great Old Ones for assistance against an undead progenitor abomination that devours the immortal as a matter of course.

And that is awesome. Dawnguard can suck it, this is going to be amazing.

 

I had a thought. A really awesome thought.

Do you know what was really underwhelming about Skyrim?

The Dark Brotherhood. It wasn't nearly as cool as the one in Oblivion, in my opinion.

Do you know who we might be seeing in this DLC? Who might show up?

I'll give you a hint. They formally disbanded when the Argonians invaded, but "vowed to one day rise again."



All these murderers and criminals can kiss my ass. Amateurs, the lot of them. They're just bloodthirsty psychopaths.

What Skyrim needs is a professional. Someone with overwhelming skills, a talent at magic, the deftest of touches, and the panache to bring it all together.

Skyrim needs the Morag Tong. Because nothing says class like painstaking planning, meticulous infiltration, flawless execution, and then walking out like you own the place, flashing your writ, because that was totally legal. It's his fault he couldn't stay alive until the mark ran out.

 

- We will be getting new spells and Shouts that will allow us to deal more damage in combat and also make our other Shouts stronger. At least one of these is going to be called "Dragon Aspect."

- We will be venturing into a "new Daedric realm" where we will find books of forbidden lore (<- all but confirmed to be Apocrypha) that will allow us to "choose new paths for our skills and abilities."


So buff spells and shouts, a bunch of stuff is going to be dragon-themed, and stuff in what can only be Apocrypha will let us meddle around with our skills and perks.

Also, a bunch of enemies have been officially confirmed. We already knew most of them from the screenshots, but it's nice to know for a fact that we'll be seeing Ash Vampires, Ascended Sleepers, and Riklings.

Corpus is still on the fence as to whether or not that's going to be a thing. Nothing's been said either way in what I can find.

 

God I want to go back to playing this so bad, but after opening up Nexus and seeing how much stuff I'll have to update or replace, I think I'd be better off starting a new game entirely instead of potentially breaking my old existing game I haven't touched in months.

 

Yeah, the last time I went back to try and play some more it took me literally 3 days to get everything working and updated. Gah.

 

Whenever I get the urge to play Skyrim, I spend hours trying to figure out my mods and by the time I'm done I no longer want to play.

Some day I'll really get back into it.

 

Man, I can't believe I won't be able to play this DLC any time soon. Goddamn exclusives!

 

I started a new game just to prepare for this DLC. I've been meaning to run a serious Warmage for some time now, and this was the perfect excuse for it.

If any of you have been meaning to get around to running a Rogue or a Wizard or something, but haven't gotten to it, now would be a great time.

Protip: Hearthfire is not worthless. It is, in face, a godsend, because it gives you nearly all the resources of a town or city, without you having to go to a town or city. Which means that any vampire attacks are directed at your house, and not at the city you just walked into. Since vampire attacks can only happen when the player is actually around, this means zero civilian casualties until you can get around to completing the Dawnguard questline, at which point the vampire attacks stop happening.

I went on some dungeon raids at low level, clearing out a gold mine and the bandit camps around Whiterun. I sold everything, made jewelry and then sold that, and had barely enough to afford to buy the Lakeview Manor property and construct a small cottage with a bed, a chest, and some wall sconces. It was worth every septim, and I haven't looked back since.

Also, the first vampire raid against my house ended horribly for the vampires when they spawned at the same time as a Wandering Giant.

 

But I don't know if I can justify buying Hearthfire, when there's a dozens free mods that add entire player houses. What benefit would I have buying Hearthfire?

Edit: Dawnguard, 10$ Steam PC. Buy. Bought.