So, apparently the ministry of truth crashes into Vvardenfell and destroys it. Pretty random. Yet, even though the author makes it fit with the characters and stuff in the novel, I'm still worried as to the reason why this was made canon. It perplexes me that Bethesda would want Vvardenfell to be destroyed when Morrowind still has so many fans...I just don't understand why it had to be done.

Really, the closest parallel I see is with 4th ed Forgotten realms in D&D, where so many cities, characters, etc. were killed off in order to give the world a more "dangerous" feel. With the forgotten realms, I thought this was a stupid move. With Vvardenfell, I'm not so sure, though I'm sad to see the setting for one of my favorite games of all time go down the tubes.

My thought questions are

1) Why do you think Bethesda felt Vvardenfell had to be destroyed and/or was ok with the idea?
2) Do you think it was good for the game world?

Its a very good thing that they blew up Vvardenfell and turned morrowind into a twisted hellscape with boiling seas. It shows that they have the guts to actually evolve their world, which the lack of such guts can be a real problem in fictional settings.

Yes, as opposed to a twisted hellscape with bubbling lava, much improvement... bliviongate:

:turtle:

Actually, massive alterations to the world/jumping tens or hundreds of years into the future can also be interpreted as them being incredibly insecure about their lore, with the "base content" not being able to deliver sufficiently so they have to slowly mutilate it until they can milk more out of it. Final Fantasy, for instance. Maybe I have the wrong idea as I haven't really played any of the games extensively, but to me it seems that the original DnD-esque fantasy adventure game had guns, airships, and robots added to it just because there wasn't any sufficient plot/lore/purpose to start with. Which is bad.

Not really random. Thats been destined to happen from the beginning, its another consequence of your actions in Morrowind.

Ummm honestly, since I can ASSUME we won't be back in Vvardenfell in any game anytime soon, it would be very reasonable to believe that you know, maybe in elder scrolls 5 you could hear that yes, it sploded and everything is dead, and chaos ensued there; Elder Scrolls 6 would say something along the lines that things have died down, and there is more land (somehow) they are rebuilding, or some race has taken over the lands, OR that a army of -name random faction that was created after the island was destroyed- took control of the area and is now rebuilding and planting plants on the volcanic soil, and now everything is coming back to life, and then MAYBE, in the FAR distant future if they EVER decide to return to Morrowind, it shows a new area thats not just a rehashed morrowind with better graphics, that was made just to make fans happy that they are coming back; NO, its a totally new area reshaped with new factions, people, towns, everything. THAT is my interpretation of there ideas, and that they aren't just very insecure of there lore.

I think that Bethesda realized that in order to build a series around a massive open world and progress it accordingly, you're going to have to wipe the slate clean very often as to avoid a conflict of histories among gamers. That's why no one talks in-depth very much about the heroes of the past games and why they had to do a dragonbreak after Daggerfall. This time, they thought ahead and put a ticking time bomb on Vvardenfell just so that they could wipe the slate clean for the next game and progress the series. The fans falling in love with Morrowind on a large scale came after the thought to destroy it.

The Final fantasy series has never had its stuff together. They usually abandon interesting concepts shortly after their introduction. I'd say there is no real parallel between the incredibly indecisive lore of the Final Fantasy series (which consists of little more than a series of tropes/tech/animals) and the devs blowing up morrowind. We already kinda knew that morrowind, and specifically the city of Vivec, had a dagger to itself since, well, Morrowind. I don't see it how it can be dev insecurity when we've known that some cataclysmic event was a possibility since it was revealed to us in the sermons.

It's about as random as a person catching fire...after being doused with gasoline and touched with a lit match.

Was sad that Vvardenfell have been destroyed. Hopefully that is colonized by another race (like Argonians)

I think some of the Dunmer will return from their diaspora after a few generations and recolonize part of Morrowind. The disaster surprised me at first also, but after reading the threads discussing it, I can see some of the possibilities for future games.

To me, it was far more random when the recent "Star Trek" movie destroyed Vulcan except for a relative handful of survivors. That one came out of nowhere.

Perhaps, but Bethesda seems to particularly enjoy picking on Morrowind. I'd understand sometimes these major turning points are for the better, and I must give Blizzard credit as they are particularly good at these (aftermaths of Warcraft 2 and 3, respectively). But first Vivec goes missing, then Ald-ruhn gets levelled by the Daedra, and now Vivec gets flattened as well. Just "bad luck", eh?

Then again, Morrowind is the only province that has fairly developed lore at this point, and the only one besides Cyrodiil we've seen in great detail (Arena and Daggerfall's portrayals of the provinces don't do them enough justice lore-wise). I guess you can't nuke, say, Elsweyr, since the devs haven't used it considerably. But that leaves Morrowind and Cyrodiil. And if Oblivion's forrested Cyrodiil is canon, meh, I wouldn't mind having that destroyed.

Yeah, but blowing up the center of a continent would have far more drastic consequences then simply blowing up the north-eastern coast in terms of the environment. (and blowing up morrowind led to a giant floating soul eating city in a bubble of Vile's realm attacking tamriel...I wonder how cyrodiil would top that?) I'd imagine that part of the reason they pick on morrowind is that, like you said, its well developed. People would actually care if it went all explody on everyone.

Yes we recognized the floating rock held by Vivec's power early on but I didn't think Bethesda would you use the rock to destroy Morrowind. It's a really low ball way to make a "clean slate" of everying--erasing the history of the place. The travesty of the novel broke the continuity of the series for me. The destruction of Morrowind literally left a big gaping hole in the lore. If the Nerevarine's mission was the protection of Morrowind and its people, wouldn't subduing the floating rock of Vivec be a higher priority i.e. cramming tons of Dwemer satchel charges and blowing it to bits ala Armageddon style? The immediate annihilation of Vvardenfell's inhabitants and its natural resources is a far greater tradegy than Dagoth Lords lording over a blight infected Vvardenfell. There is a big disconnect there e.g. the Rainbow Six commandos that kill the terrorist bombers but leave their handiwork to blow up the hostages.

I agree with StoneFrog, Bethesda is not comfortable with or doesn't have a good grasp of their own lore and the series suffers from it which is a shame.

No, that would go against lore. Vivec refused to let the Ministry of Truth be removed, saying that he would keep it there as a reminder to his people that if their love for him ever died, so would they. If the Nerevarine "blew it up," it would go against Vivec's wishes, and it would likely destroy a bit of Vivec City in the process.

It's a good thing Bethesda destroyed a huge chunk of their lore. Like DarthRavenger said, it shows that they aren't afraid to alter and evolve the world they created.

Yep...more proof that Vivec was just as evil as Dagoth Ur and Almalexia albeit moreso because his little rock finally destroyed his people. But that was the whole point of the Nerevarine prophecy to turn the Tribunal religion on its head and defy the false gods but obviously the main quest didn't go so far as nixing the Ministry of Truth. Some say the changes are bold, others say the changes are reckless. It's debatable.

Destroying Morrowind, which half of it was already wasteland, feels redundant. I'm not sure you'd call it evolution when half of Tamriel is taken over by lizard abominations.

I really don't get why people are saying it destroyed Morrowind. It did not. It caused catastrophy and volcanic eruption, but only to Vvardenfell, not Morrowind as a whole. And besides, it's still extreme to say "destroyed". Destroyed implies that you can't get it back. Vvardenfell has faced great trajedies before, the land can always be re-settled, re-irrigated, etc. Sure, not any time soon, but it's not lost forever.

Being at uni for the last three months means I've missed the publishing and the reading of this book. I hope to read it soon, but I'm cavalier with spoilers.

Vvardenfell's destroyed huh? So much for Azura's lovely vision of a nice Vvardenfell. Vehk was right though, which is nice.

I actually like the fact that the Argonians got revenge and now control the east coast of Tamriel. Of course, our opinions differ on that. :shrug:



Yep. Southern Morrowind is just fine, it's just most of northern Morrowind that is in ruins. But it will be re-settled eventually, just not for quite a while.

[2]

Just missing someone come here saying that the Argonian will form a new empire... ops

I mean... :rolleyes:

Although I like the Dunmer paying for what they did with the Argonian, I do not want that all of them die, and the Dunmer no longer exist.

Well no, I mean I don't think anyone wants them to become extinct. But I'm all for the Argonians getting more power. Of course, I wouldn't want them ruling the empire, because it wouldn't be the Argonian's ruling it, it would be the Hist, and the Hist don't exactly have the best intentions for non-Argonians and unpure Argonians.

This

The fact that it's a remote ash heap with little outside contact makes it a safe area to get nuked.
I just disapprove because I like Morrowind too much.
How many world-wide shoulders would shrug when the word gets spread that 1,800 Dunmer and 2,600 Ash Ghouls were killed in a matter of minutes?

Does Corprus Disease ended together with Vvardenfeel?

As far as I can tell from being around these forums, new cases of corprus disease ended when the Nerevarine stopped the Sixth House in "Morrowind". There were probably still ash storms after that, but not a Blight.