Unless you got the Wizard Tower plugin.

But until you use fast travel after teleporting, your horse will still be at Frostcrag. A definite disadvantage to teleportation-based travel.

You can't teleport anywhere in Oblivion, your character presumably walks, rides, or runs everywhere, the process just isn't shown when you fast travel much as how many movies will skip some redundant or boring parts with no relevance to the plot that no one wants to see. And you can't fast travel just anywhere, you can only go to places you've already visited, or major cities, which your character presumably has visited before going to prison, and are generally connected by roads, which would generally be relatively safe and straightforward traveling, so you still get the traveling across deadly landscapes, or you would if Oblivion HAD many deadly landscape to speak of.

It was just a joke, for the people who dislike fast-travel.

Hey dude, I really know what youre talking about.

It doesnt need to be magical technology, but something like Harry Potter movies. You see magick trees, magick steps, and other "enchanted" stuff. TES Universe doesnt show us that. No magical teleport towers or anything like that. I REALLY want to see more magical structures in the next game, wich add some kind of mysteri.

The tower/stronghold you get by purchasing the Wizard's Tower DLC has a platform on the top that allows you to teleport to any Mages Guildhall of your choice. Except Kvatch of course. It's temporarily in ruins.

Yeah, I totally get what you're saying about the lack of magic structures. There could be, for example, a bunch of mages that use magic to make mushrooms grow to absurd size and make them hollow so that they could live within. Just an idea! Or, there could be automated spell dispensers; for example healing altars that'd work like vending machines: insert coin in slot, select healing spell, get it cast on you.

Or, they could have put teleporter pads instead of doors in the Arcane University... Put strange glowing menhirs here and there all across the countryside, which gives you strange powers if you approach them when the stars are right... Old relics of bygone civilizations that absorb ambient magicka and let you resplenish your strength from them... Any of those would have conveyed the kind of mystery that comes with having enchanted stuff.

It's really sad that none of these things are found in TES.

I'm not sure I'd call Harry Potter a good example of the logical advancement of magic. Some of the things wizard's do in that series seem rather unnecessary and seem only to be done to make it seem more "magical", not because it actually makes sense for them to do it.

Granted, I'd say the same with there being no stairs in Telvanni towers, ultimately, it seems all it accomplishes is make them waste magicka getting to their bedrooms when they could easily just walk up if they bothered building stairs.

But I guess Telvanni are so lazy they don't want to go through that trouble.

And as Gez's sarcastic post indicates, the Elder Scrolls has a lot of very magical things too, and the post didn't even mention things like the Dunmer using undead to guard their tombs, or things like the Battlespire, or the wooden sticks that basically function as the magical equivalent of guns, or the many enchanted items that can do various things like make you stronger, or burn your enemies, and such, those seem pretty magical to me.

I'd say the design of their towers has more to do with them not wanting the common folk who can't levitate or afford magical levitation items to barge in and disturb them than any laziness.

Which is part of their awesome outlook on life. If you can't fly, there's nothing you could say that would interest me.

To the OP: your question actually has a real answer, which has not yet been given. What you are essentially asking is, with presumably a thousand or more years of continuous study of magic (the Mages Guild has, to the best of my knowledge, an unbroken line of existence that predates even the Akavari Potentate), why does Tamrielic society not display more examples of magic in daily life? As presented in-game, teleporters seem to be limited to transporting an individual and as much as he can carry; soldiers seem ill-equipped in a world in which magic weapons and armor are potentially cheap and plentiful; manufacturing and agriculture, which could ostensibly benefit greatly from magical assistance, seem to be done using only the crudest and rudimentary of methods. Magic seems to be limited to traditional "wizard" roles, when, in fact, it could probably do so much more.

The first, most obvious answer, is that, being an adventure game, the game implementation is limited to things that would be of interest to the average adventurer: ie. combat and personal transport. However, I believe certain features of Imperial society suggest that, in fact, economic development in general (which is what you seem to be asking for) would be limited to marginal growth. Entrepreneurship, the act of introducing new methods and organizational models which affect people's very ways of life, is a thing that is, in most societies, restrained by authority.

The activity of an entrepreneur (such as a man who invents and markets a new farm implement which utilizes alteration magic to speed plant growth, or an engine that cleverly uses destruction magic to turn a turbine) benefits society in the long term. This innovation spurs others, freeing laborers from more menial tasks to higher tasks. Society ends up awash in new products and services, most of which are within reach of the expanding middle class that results from this process, many of which are available to the poorest. The standard of living of ALL is raised, in the long term.

In the short term, however, while those who use the new machines either before or better benefit from the innovation, those who continue with traditional methods... ie. society's formerly well placed skilled workers, are displaced from their positions, generally falling into the category of an unskilled laborer if they are unwilling or unable to adapt to the new methods. Between this and the fact that mechanization can provide motive power previously provided by men working at a level little higher than animals, the unskilled laborers are also displaced. If all this happens too quickly, and a large, self-conscious underclass of unlanded, unemployed proletariats develops before the inevitable newer, more productive jobs appear, the advances can be completely undone, even undermined for as long as the memory can last, by violent revolution. Without an outlet for people who would otherwise be displaced in the meantime (such as an entire continent to explore and colonize), most cultures develop institutions designed to discourage entrepreneurship for precisely this reason.

Such institutions include a network of crafts guilds which will, when necessary, oppose (even violently) the establishment of new methods which could threaten existing stakeholders. In-game, we see that even adventurers have a network of guilds which institutionalize the methods of adventurers: The Fighters' Guild, the Mages Guild... even thieves and assassins have guilds designed to protect the interests of their members by enforcing a comfortable status quo. Witness the immediate suspicion of the Blackwater Company, which dares to compete with the monoply of the Guild.

There are, however, snippets in the lore that suggest that even the most modest of craftsmen have their guilds, and the Imperial patronage of Zenithar's order suggests a culture which regards labor as a virtue in and of itself, independent of the fruits thereof. The generally Anuic stance of the official Imperial cults suggests a preference for the conservation of existing institutions over the establishment of new ones. In other words, the Empire has a tightly integrated system of guilds and professional and religious organizations designed to defend established interests, and the expense of emerging interests.

In addition, trade in any materials that could destabilize is also regulated by Imperial power... through the chartering of any new corporations. This includes trade in ebony and glass (materials that if put to industrial use could presage all kinds of new, better devices)... but of particular interest is trade in Dwemer artifacts. If it were legal for these to be traded around in impunity, the recovery of some of the less explicitly mythopoeic methods by would-be inventors (reverse engineering) could turn the Empire's economy upside-down, threatening the welfare of established interests (up to and including Imperial rule, itself). To prevent this, the Empire requires that you ask for permission before doing anything outside the guild structure.

In short, in a well established society such as that of the Empire of Tamriel, the institutions necessary to entrench established interests by preventing innovation would be (and appear to be) quite mature at this point. The Empire has been politically and militarily unified for some time, with no external threats, meaning even innovation at the military level likely stopped centuries ago.

I am thinking of how to represent the concept of "creative destruction" (the destruction of old institutions via displacement by new ones... see Joseph Schumpeter for details) using Tamriel's mythic structure, and I'm thinking the only one that really applies is Lorkhan himself, who made something new that destroyed the old ways. Not quite Daedra who generally focus on directly undermining existing institutions, nor Aedra, who generally focus on maintaining existing institutions, Lorkhan's tale is the tale of one who had an idea, had the means to bring it about, but was destroyed when his helpers learned the new order would benefit them personally less than the old order... regardless of potential benefits to society's future heirs.

That makes sense, I suppose, I hadn't thought of that. Not that it can keep every unwanted guest out, at least it ensures that if anyone can get up to their quarters, it means they either have some skill in magic, or enough money to afford levitation items, either way, Telvanni would probably consider that person a little more worthy of their time than commoners.

I guess it might help to protect against thieves too if they keep all the good stuff up there, though a Telvanni worthy of that house would surely have more defenses against thieves than just a vertical shaft that can't be scaled without magic, or any other conventional means. Even if the game might not support this, even Tel Fyr, with the whole "plunder the dungeon" thing, is fairly easy for anyone who can endure the attacks of a few corprus beasts and has the patience to keep trying the keys and chests. Of course, normal thieves wouldn't have the luxury of already being infected with corprus, therefore not needing to worry about contracting the disease, and even if the player goes there before reaching that point in the main quest, the fact that you can't actually get corprus except through that quest makes it seem less dangerous than it would be in reality.

Tamriel has plenty of high mountains, some rich people with nothing better to do and plenty of well-organized institutions (the Empire, the Legion etc.) and has had all these things for centuries. I therefore find it highly unrealistic that Tamriel does not possess an Imperial Mountaineering Foundation.



The sentences above try to make a point.

The point that because it's "just a game" the underlying fiction is not subject to critical anolysis?

Or perhaps, because there isn't a reason as to why magic is not being used for everything. Just as the developers have yet to show an interest or want to create an Imperial Mountaineering Foundation, they too don't want everything to rely upon magic.

Also, magic is not something that, in the lore, you can learn overnight. You need specialisation and must put in a lot of hard work, and sometimes you can only succeed if you have a born ability.

Thanks people, specially Tarvok, that was the answer I was expecting.

When the Industrial revolution began in England, guilds were abolitied. So, to start "magic revolution" guilds must dissapear? Would this be the cause for destruction of staments, nobility, houses, and practically the whole political system of Morrowind?

I don't believe it. This is not preindustrial England, and the lore makes it clear that magic is totaly unrealistic. Even if you didn't notice that from the word magic. The real answer is this: the lore is not limited by an engine and a cap on development monies like the game is.

Magic is also quite dangerous in the hands of the untrained person. It does take years of study and training to be a competent mage, and even then, spells do backfire, summons do turn on their owners, and teleporting from place to place does cause you to occationally wind up in the middle of no where...naked.

The reason why the PC can easily just case a few fireballs and be master of magic in a short time is: 1) allow us greater freedom, and 2) the PC is special. Also, even if you wanted to cast a master level fireball as a noob of magic, doesn't mean you really can, unless you are REALLY lucky, and even then, it will be VERY taxing (see MW).

Guilds in England were simply replaced by trade unions, an organisation created to benefit and enhance the rights of its members. I would imagine Morrowind's entire political system would not disappear, as you haven't factored religion into the equation. People might rise up against an unjust king, but will they do that against a God they have been taught to revere? Plus, Galerion's Guild was supposed to be the magical revolution, by making spells, scrolls and enchantments available to those without decades of magical learning like the Psijics. They didn't destroy the ruling classes then, yet the change in availability was similar in scope to the one you are suggesting.

I had never thought of it that way. That could be one of the most unrelentingly awesome life philosophies I can think of.

Thats why 97% of Tamriel can use it.

Medicine is hard to use. 97% of Earth can apply a bandaid, but far less can preform gastric bypass surgery.

The title of this thread is so wonderfully absurd that I want to put it on a protest sign and hang it on my wall.

Good thread with a lot of interesting stuff here - where to begin?

Someone mentioned that the Mages Guild pre-dates the Akaviri Potentates - the Mages Guild has a very strong views on the use of Magica - read up on them. Maybe stuff like Galerion the Mystic would help. The general gist is that they do not want to see Magica abused. That was the whole purpose of setting the Mages Guild up - the safe spread of study and use of Magica according to the principles laid down by Galerion.

Look at the social, economic and cultural developement of the Tamriellian Cultures and what you get is Renaissance/Mediaeval mainly with touches of something older, deeper and far more cogent.

Think feudal - only the Nobility were owners of land at one point ... and apply that to Trade and the Albigensian Crusade - that was basically a highly successful military campaign to wipe out the language, religion and culture of the people in the South of France when they got a bit too progressive and temptingly rich. Now even assuming that everyone in Tamriel is nicer than that (remember Haymon Camoran) the Emperor and the Nobles of the Empire as well as the Cultures that they have conquered are not likely to welcome too much progress lest their own positions become threatened. These are people who kill thousands of other people because they want to control their lands and properties too ...

Magica requires intelligence right? There is a vast difference between the Intel of the Hero at L15 and that of the average or even above average civ in Tamriel. So that sort of puts magica of any power and reliability into the rare category. Added to that you have to keep on studying and practicing or you lose it ... example = "sure I will teleport your exceedingly rare artifact to your shop - umm not done this one for a while, no problems I am the famous Hoochpoosie, give it here ... here we go ... oops, sorry I miscast the spell, but I know where it is ... Where? At the bottom of the lake surrounding the Imperial City. Retrieving it will cost extra. What you don't trust me? Suit yourself". Nah - does not quite work.

In the Mages Guild they have highly trained people and hugely expensive teleportation gates or platforms. What we do not know is how they work but you may have played or heard of Battlespire? That was kept in place by Vast magical Anchors - the losing of which caused the destruction of that massive Artifact. That kind of thing is not going to be handed over to civs and no Lord wants thieves teleporting into his bank vault or even lifting the family heirlooms off the walls etc ... and I wonder what the other Guilds might think of their specialities being taken over?

The difference between Modern Tech, Mediaeval Tech and Magica? A question of proportion, but how many folks do you know who have their own portable nuclear reactor? And how many working Atomic Bombs are in civilian hands? etc

edit: ps kinda hard to cheat in a practical magica exam - so you get fewer cheats ...

Honestly, comparing fireballs to bandaids is absurd.