I had this idea where when you join a faction, eventually (as you progress through the ranks) you might be given the option to join a sub-faction -- a faction/guild/job within the main faction. You could also think of it as an "elite" faction. These would have limited (three ranks) or no faction progression.

For instance:
Temple Faction sub factions <<>>
- Groundskeeper (name still in the works): your duty is to clean out ancestral tombs of invasive NPCs or creatures, and possibly to add new guardians to the tombs. You'd have an item that makes all Undead (and possibly some daedra?) passive toward you because you are not an enemy, you are an ordained official come to uphold the sanctity of the ancestral burial chambers.
- Armiger: your duty would be to hunt down Blight monsters that escape the Ghost Fence, and to make forays into the Fence to cull the burgeoning blight beasts and 6th House monsters. Other duties might include special missions from Vivec himself.
- Ordinator: duties include hunting down heretic Daeda worshippers and clearing out daedric ruins of such heretics. Other duties (before Main Quest completion) would involve apprehending heretics (Tribunal-deniers) and bringing them to Lie Rock; patrolling the Vivec cantons and apprehending criminals, clearing out the waterwork's daedric shrines; dispatching any creatures that enter the lower cantons from the waterworks.
- High Ordinator (Tribunal): an "upgrade" of the Ordinator, I'd think this would be less a separate faction and more of an "advancement," perhaps offered by Almalexia before she goes completely bat-crap crazy and tries to kill you. You would never be a "Her Hand" that wouldn't make sense. But as a "High Ordinator" you would act as a guard in Mournhold; track down criminals, smugglers, heretics. Other missions could involve clashing horns with Helseth's Royal Guards, doing Temple-things over on Vvardenfell, etc.

Imperial Legion and Cult
This would utilize the unused http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Imperial_Knights faction, and tweak it so that the player could pick a specific http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Daggerfall:Temples to pursue. Missions would be for the glory of your gods and emperor, and butt heads or negotiate with native Dunmer officials and prominent figures. Other missions would tie in the Cult and Legion members and areas - example, protecting or establishing a new Mission center. I'd need to think about missions that would be suitable.
- Census and Excise faction : This is an unused faction, but totally set up with ranks and brimming with potential for missions. You could track down smugglers, corrupt importers, impound contraband, collect taxes (and try not to get killed), take a census, etc. I'm not sure how to implement it. Of course it would only really make sense if someone in the Legion or Cult joined, but the favored skills for C&E would need to be vague enough so that they'd overlap but not exclude the required favored skills for those two major Imperial factions.

Great Houses <<<<>>>
This is a tricky one, I haven't given it as much thought as some of the other subfactions.
- Royal Guards: House Redoran and House Hlaalu members could be invited by Helseth (or the guy in charge of the Royal Guards) to become a Royal Guard. Missions would involve catching criminals and the like, but also things like butting heads with the Temple officials and running "special" political missions.
- Commona Tong: only available to House Hlaalu members. Missions would be typical of a crime syndicate: smuggling, subverting Imperial law, theft, money laundering, political power-playing and blackmail, etc.
- I can't think of anything else at the moment. I had this idea for "specialties" within House Telvanni. One would involve talking with Lesser Daedra and being involved in their politics, making business contracts, etc. Another specialty might involve unconventional research (enchanted items, alchemy and ingredients, new spells, etc.).



Just some ideas I had. Discuss!

EDIT: I know quests and factions aren't easy to make. So, this is more of just a big idea I have. If anyone wants to try to tackle one of these, I could try to write up specific quests and maybe some faction guidelines/lore.

I think for the Telvanni, instead of elite classes, they would have different fields to specialize in. Daedric Research, Dwemer Research, etc.

Perhaps you could incorporate the "Grow your own Telvanni Tower" mod with a field specializing in Housepod growing, perhaps by learning from Llunela Hleran, or something. Of course, you'd have to get the maker of that mod's permission, but it would be interesting.

Yes + a few secret sub factions please! =) with secret agendas and everything that comes with it. Some even with free activeties outside of the main rules.

The biggest problem I see with these, is that many of them don't have much sense from the Lore viewpoint
- The various Knightly orders had nothing in common with the Legion (although they could work as a subfaction for the Cult, where you serve the nine gods (instead of only one)
- C&E would work best as a separate faction (at least for me)
- Royal Guards are chosen for their loyalty to Helseth, being in a Great House isn't connected with this in any way; also, you get a full suit of their armor at the end of Tribunal's main quest - getting it earlier would make it less special
- Cammona Tong is strictly restricted to native Dunmer - they do not have any outlander members
- similiar seems to be true for Ordinators & Armingers...

Good points, and quite valid.

- The Knightly Orders do make more sense for the Cult than for the Legion. Do you have any advice as to any special ranks (sub-factions, special forces) within the Legion?

- I agree, C&E would work best as its own faction, ideally with a full set of quests, a network of guilds and members, and interaction with other factions.

- If not the Commona Tong, then maybe another crime syndicate? It would be interesting to turn some of those bandits and smuggler NPCs into guild members, and to fully flesh out what seems to be a thriving smuggling industry (of both slaves and goods). There's that one quest where you have to recover that Caldera Nord lady's jewelry, and you can even chat with the Khajiit smuggler. Of course, not all smugglers would be friendly - competition would create rival cartels. As such, perhaps there could be a system of major crime ring factions, not unlike the various Vampire Clans.

Missions would involve smuggling goods, helping maintain the black market, thwarting (or even killing) law enforcement, knocking off competition, pleasing clients (with stolen goods), robbing merchant/Legion/etc caravans, and so on. Naturally, the PC takes a big disposition hit with most people (Redoran, Hlaalu, Legion, Cult, Temple, Fighter Guild, Mage Guild, but maybe not Ashlanders, Thieves, Morag Tong, and Telvanni - I can imagine those factions might employ smugglers to import/ship illegal/hard-to-find/contraband goods, or just not really caring).

- Okay, so Ordinators and Armigers might be out of the question, as well as Royal Guards. What other things could Temple Members do? I am rather fond of my idea of the Temple role including the upkeep and maintenance of the ancestral burial tombs, including the totally-not-necromancy part involving stocking up a tomb with ancestral guardians (bonewalkers and the like). It would provide an opportunity to expand upon the Ancestor Worship of the Dunmer.

What about leading heretic-hunts, like I described the Ordinators doing? Or even running/participating in the Lie Rock facility? When the MQ reaches the point where Vivec decides to stop persecuting the Dissident Priests, then quests could focus on releasing those NPCs (but, of course, still detaining those pesky Daedra Worshipers), building up ties with the DPs, and doing missions to promote Vivec's new stance on this whole Nerevarine thing.

@Mask: Good idea! I was trying to think of specialties, but I've never joined the Telvanni, so I'm not really familiar with what they do, mission-wise. Various study-focus makes sense. Let's see... Daedra, Dwemer... what else? (What's the Telvanni stance on necromancy, by the way?) Maybe Corprus research with Fyr?

A quasi-samurai elite faction for House Redoran would be awesome!


It's good that Daggerfall already did the work (with special quests too):
Order of the Hour — The military arm of the Akatosh Chantry
Knights of the Circle — The military arm of the Order of Arkay
Order of the Lily — The military arm of the House of Dibella
Knights Mentor — The military arm of the School of Julianos
Kynaran Order — The military arm of the Temple of Kynareth
Maran Knights — The military arm of the Benevolence of Mara
The Crusaders — The military arm of the Temple of Stendarr
Knights of Iron — The military arm of the Resolution of Zenithar

No Talos though...

I'd totally make a character named Willy to join the groundskeepers

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1112318-psycholexs-ordinator-ascension/

Go nuts

The Telvanni stance on necromancy is I'd say... neutral. My guess is that Telvanni Guards will arrest you for it, but only if in public. Take the mod Blasphemous Revenants for example. I'd say the Telvanni wouldn't care if you practice necromancy, as long as you leave them alone their studies, but I don't think they promote it.

Also, on the subject of Great House Redoran being able to join the Royal Guards, that would seem strange if they did attacks on the Temple. Great House Redoran are strong supporters of the Temple. Not all of them, but most of them. Don't get me wrong, they're friendly towards the Imperials, I just don't think the honorable warriors of Redoran would go against their faith.

The Imperial Battlemages? While they did train in the Battlespire, that place is in ruins, so they could be said to recruit without the requirement for formal training in one chosen facility. And perhaps a group of light infrantry (Scouts?) dedicated to chartering all the caves and such (to know where criminals could hide).


This I can agree with


I'd say the thieves under Gentelman Stacey might be (even if slightly) opposed to the smugglers - especcially since they deal with slaves and such (not to mention the situation when the smugglers start stealing (like the Khajiit). And Morag Tong is fiercely honorable and lawful.


The Telvanni stance on everything is "Do what you can to get power - as long as you don't get caught/are strong enough to deal with those who might want to catch you"

As for the Temple, I'd leave the military actions to the Ordinators. Though it is hard to think of something for that faction - perhaps the group which is responsible for taking care of the poor?

*snaps fingers* That's right, the Battlemages! That would be an interesting faction - sort of a mash-up between the Mage's Guild and the Legion, I guess. I don't know much about Battlemage lore - any in-game books or articles you can think of that I should start reading?

Should the BMs be their own separate faction? I can think that the skill overlap with the Legion's favored skills would be minor, since Legion skills don't include spell schools. Would a Mage's Guild member be able to join? A Telvanni or Temple member... that wouldn't make sense.


Okay, thanks. I've only joined the Legion, so I don't know much about the other guilds "from the inside" (as a member of that faction).

Hehe, okay. Maybe instead of just working with the undead, there could also be focus on "black soulgems" and perhaps even just portraying soul-trapping like it was in Daggerfall - a "soul trade" (read the DF description for Azura's Star).


Good idea. Let me think... how do these areas sound?
- dealing with the poor, charities, healing, delivering potions to towns with an outbreak of an illness/disease, managing Temple locations (like that under-funded Temple in... is it the Telvanni Canton?)
- investigating reports of heretics/necromancy/etc within towns and cities. Includes role as support caster for Ordinators who hunt down daedra worshipers in daedric ruins (I can't get out of my head that one Ruin that has Ordinators assaulting it). Another possible role might be to escort groups of pilgrims to shrines and other religious locations.
- and, of course, the idea I had about ancestral tomb upkeep and even the process of creating guardians.

Can you think of any "elite" sort of faction for the Fighter's Guild, Thieves Guild, Mage's Guild, and Morag Tong? I did have one idea for the FG - something to do with being hired on at the Arena and training people. I'm not sure. :unsure2: Maybe... being a hired body-guard? Mercenary? But, that's already kind of in the FG job description. For Mages Guild... would it be too far-fetched to try to revive the Psijics?

Oooh this could be really fun!

Some idea for Mages Guild subfactions:

Alchemists = given missions to find rare alchemy ingredients, given missions to create new/powerful potions with a set list of properties, commissioned to craft so many of a certain type of potion (like a batch of cure blight disease potions to give to the Imperial Cult)

Loremasters = find and catalogue as many historical/ancient documents and texts as possible and bring them to a safe location to be guarded/duplicated for study, rescue certain documents from potentially threatening owners/locations, deal with native dunmer who might have useful lore but might not write it down (like the ashlanders).

Enchanters = kinda like a combo of Alchemists and Loremasters, in that enchanters are charged with discovering and retrieving ancient artifacts and returning them to the guild for study (could possibly conflict with Temple and/or Cult missions) and also crafting their own unique enchantments with effects x, y and z, or an effect at a certain magnitude, and also capturing souls of specific creatures and returning them to the guild for further study and enchanting use.

There isn't much - we know they accepted recruits from the Mages Guild (it was mentioned in Redguard), that they are also called the "Shadow Legion" and could have a "tour" of the Battlespire. Since the Spire is no longer functional, and this recruitment would be on the frontier (so to speak) they could work as a faction for those both in the Legion (which would prove their dedication to the Empire) and the MG. As for Telvanni/Temple members - perhaps allow those with a high reputation and a higher rank in the Legion (after swearing an additional oath of loyalty to the Empire)?


Soul trading would definately work for the Telvanni


I'd skip escorting pilgrims (the pilgrimages for the Temple should be a personal endavour, not a guided tour ) - other than that, the ideas would work. A (very difficult) quest could be persuading a Telvanni Magelord to allow a temple to be built in/near his Tel.


The Thieves Guild has a few quests for http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Bal_Molagmer which is similiar to the idea of subfactions, and I can't think of anything else for them. Being hired for the Arena could work for the Figter's guild. For the Morag Tong I can't think of anything ATM. And Psijics should definately be left out.

A subfaction of the Mages Guild could be related to studying daedra, daedric ruins etc. We could even use the guild members already present in Bal Fell (which currently have no purpose). Another idea is to have a ring of "spies" working for a ranking member of the Guild (Skink?) - there are several NPCs belonging to the MG placed in taverns in various towns (and a majority of them belong to the Telvanni)...