Uhh, genius...they'll always have the Daedra. You can put a game in the dingy men's bathroom of an airport, and they'll still have the daedra. It's become a standard of TES. But, it's not about frequency.

The same can be said about SI.

Grand Theft Auto is not an overly alien environment apart from the amount of violence that takes place, whereas Cyrodiil still holds an element of alien to it. If your question was, "What would you think if you saw a nix-hound-esque creature in Oblivion", I'd say I was delighted to see a familiar creature, and I'd enquire as to whether or not they were indigenous to the area.

They're still among the beastiary.

And your point? It doesn't make the creatures more creative-looking just because they decided to put it in. Scamps, clannfear, spider daedra, scamps, daedroths. They were all in previous games. But, they weren't supposed to belong there except as supernatural demons.

They're otherworldly creatures. Most otherworldly creatures don't belong in whatever setting they're portrayed in, but they're still elsewhere anyway.

Cyrodiil is a forest. Therefore, it has wolves, bears, boars, and spriggans.

Spriggans, imps, minotaurs, trolls, goblins, even a unicorn... Seem pretty overrun with mythical and folkloric creatures to me.

Much more than Morrowind where you had fantasy creatures that, while not necessarily entirely original (the floating jellyfish concept has been done before) were at least not taken from old tales. Nix hounds, alits, kagoutis, netches, cliffracers... These things looked nothing like real creatures.

Guar, Alit and Kagouti are reptiles, lizards, crocodiles and dinosaurs on two legs, with a big head. Cliffracers look almost exactly like those non-dinosaur flying dinosaurs, whose name I'm too lazy to look up. Nix hounds are big insects with four legs. They resemble real creatures just as much as let's say... the Horkers from Bloodmoon. Or the Tusked Bristlebacks. And those look quite a lot like real creatures, don't they?
The thing is, they're special to the TES universe. They do not appear in every other fantasy universe. It's not that hard to come up with new, possible creatures that could fit a Cyrodiilic land. It's just variations of real creatures. Even just not calling them something as common and clich? as imp or trolls (and don't get me started on what I think trolls really should be like :yuck:) would help a lot. That is the only problem I have with the Cyrodilic fauna, the "fantasy" creatures. Real life animals (deer, wolves, bear etc) fit the setting exactly. They have always been in TES, and hopefully, they always will be (well, except for in Morrowind and perhaps Argonia).

Anyway, the creature I like best from Morrowind is the Kwama, because of how they were portrayed, with all the different stages and roles in Kwama "community". Things like that are very seldom seen in games, and all fantasy fiction for that matter, where beasts only seem to exist for the protagonist to kill.
That is also something I missed in Oblivion. The fauna does not feel realistic. As in, realistic to that world. There were far too many predators. Too many creatures attacked on sight. Surely, the devs could have made them more realistic and natural if they wanted to. They could have shown more of the creatures "culture". That would have really added to the game's originality.

(And I'm sorry for possible grammar mistakes. I feel like my English knowledge has left me today.)

In Morrowind you are more likely to be killed by an NPC or creature such as Daedra or Sixth House. That's how it should be I think. Not killed by an animal when you a have weapon, and the animal dosen't.

I couldn't count how many times I've been killed by some animal in OB.

Yes, but the point is that this is a fictive universe, which means it is not about what I trust, but what I want to trust.


Indeed. Again, I'll say, New Zealand.


"I wonder if I could steal this."


That reasoning makes little sense. Suspect me of a kiwi predilection, but I will again use New Zealand as a simile, because it is a fine example of so-called "alien" biodiversity. Until humans arrived on the islands, ecological niches comparable to those of rodents, grazers and large predators were filled by reptiles, insects and, quite predominantly, birds. A certain ecosystem does not necessitate certain animals, just animals that can fit the ecological mold well enough to survive.

I always interpreted that as two eyes and a marking on the forehead. Meh, to each his own, I guess.

Trolls have had three eyes since trollbone armour in Morrowind.

No one is speaking Swedish here, so don't sweat it. (even thoguh I am sure some people are capable, but my bets are on them not being American or British)

Trolls should have only as many eyes as they want to.


Well, I felt as if I kept repeating the same words over and over.
I hate that.
Though I realise that hasn't got so much to do with grammar.

I'm Swedish so I speak Swedish.

And I know how it feels Villfarelse.

Hey, I grew up in Sweden as well (not born, but still) and thus speak Swedish as well. There is more of us than I thought.

Yeah, swedes are the cliffracers of these forums.
Only more adorable.

Ha ha! Brilliant. We're the scourge of the Bethesda Game Studios Forums!

I always assumed the winged twilights were harpies?

I don't speak Swedish... I sense I do not belong here.


Heheh. I can speak bits of Hungarian, which is far more similar to a Scandinavian country than the rest of central Europe.

Look at me, being the non ignorant British guy, I just lap it up. Most of us are idiots. Hehe.

Cyrodiil is not New Zealand. It is surrounded by other lands much different from it, while New Zealand is composed of islands.

Although most of this is true,and I rarley defend Oblivion.Being a bow hunter my entire life it was nice to be able to hunt deer and bear in game and actually track them down once you get a blood trail going,just like you would really do.That did take some well thought out developing.But as far as fantasy monsters Oblivion was quite lacking.

New Zeland has weird animals because it is made of islands. As such, its creatures evolved differently from those on other landmasses.

This is not the case with Cyrodiil.

Besides, Cyrodiil's normal fauna helped make the Daedra seem more alien. The first time I saw a Daedra in Morrowind, I didn't think twice; it was just another freaky creature like all the others.

I agree, I didn't even realize that scamps, clannfears, and ogrims were daedra until I read about the book about different types of daedra and the prince they're associated with.

Ok, fine. Tapirs, Chacoan peccaries and vicu?as in South-America. Ostriches, giraffes and aardvarks in Africa. Kangaroos, wallabis and duck-billed platypi in Australia. I probably shouldn't go into what outrageously weird, gigantic or undersized creatures walked the land in prehistoric times.

A little outside-the-box thinking isn't that hard.

I'm a bit puzzled by this. If Cyrodiil is "surrounded by other lands much different from it", then wouldn't that mean different ecosystems? And can't geography be as much a barrier as oceans? As far as I can tell, Indian elephants, European bison and Asiatic black bears aren't really concerned about historically defined borders, but you still won't find them outside of certain areas or ecosystems. And the provinces in TES are far bigger in reality. Big enough that entire cultures could develop, that are, you know, diferent, and could survive largely in isolation from each other...