» Wed Sep 28, 2011 12:09 pm http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1234079-spoilers-mccools-lore-research-at-eurogamer-expo/
Like the really rather great sammuthegreat, I spent my time at Eurogamer finding out all the juicy details about Skyrim I could, forsaking actually playing around with the game. Unlike sammuthegreat I completely ignored the gameplay elements and tried to see how much lore I could soak up in one day's worth of queuing and playing. Actually most of this information is from queuing, as the best source of info by far turns out to be the game's gorgeous loading screens, which each allow to you look at a 3D item, often a statue, with a tidbit of info to read.
My technique for trying to get a different Skyrim perspective was to get as far away from bloody Riverwood as possible, by sprinting to the horse carriage at nearby Windhelm, and fast traveling from city to city from there (a technique I heartily recommend if anyone gets the chance). Being a player mainly interested in the story and gameworld, I spent my time trying to investigate these two things. All info is as best I can remember it, much was only glimpsed from another's screen
Information regarding quests and events that happen in game are in the spoiler'd Quest section, the Lore/Politics section contains more general info, mostly from loading screens. New information not in the last thread is in bold.
Lore/Politics
- There are Eight Divines again. Worship of Talos, the God of Man is now banned throughout the empire
- Akatosh is confirmed as being worshipped and usually depicted as a dragon The loading screen points out his dragon avatar is one he choose to use to at the end of the Oblivion Crisis
- The Empire only managed to end "The Great War" against the Aldmeri Dominion with the Concordat of White Gold
- Windhelm now has a Dunmer population, who are looked down upon by some of its citizens
- All of the Daedric Princes seem to have returned, including Sheogorath. Some, such as Azura and Meridia are described as being not inherently evil.
- Bosmer are described as heralding from the eastern forests of Valenwood, suggesting they may have been pushed out of the Aldmeri Dominion, or at the very least there is some political divide in Valenwood.
- Each city in Skyrim has a cult of Arkay devoted to the respect of the dead
- Draugr are suggested to possibly have been Nords who betrayed mankind for the Dragons in a past war
Places
- Windhelm, the old capital of Skyrim mainly consists of ancient ruins, with newer buildings also present.
- The College of Winterhold is a huge castle that overlooks the town, resembling something between Sadrith Mora's Wolverine Hall and the Mage's tower from Dragon Age Origins. It has a strong university feel to it. As I found it in a blizzard, I can't vouch for the size of the town itself, it seemed the settlement was small in comparison to the College itself.
- Solitude, Skyrim's current capital is a large, regal castle town, something like a grander Ebonheart as seen in Morrowind, mixed with Skingrad's castle. Below this level there is a port, and more buildings.
- Falkreath is made of similar buildings as found in Riverwood, and has no loading screens for entry. It is a rugged town surrounded by deep forest, with wooden barricades patrolled by guards
- Dawnstar is, well, blizzardy. The weather was too much for me to be able to make out much, but it seemed to vaguely resemble a seaside Bruma.
- Whiterun I choose not to enter (as I knew enough others would), but from what I glimpsed over someone's shoulder it is somewhere between Bruma and a much prettier Chorol. It has a garden with channels of running water in it.
- The outskirts of Whiterun contains farms, a mill and a brewery, at least. It seems to flow more seamlessly into it's surroundings than any Oblivion city, actually looking like a fortified town.
Quests
Spoiler
- There is a spree of murders in Windhelm
- A guard is being publically executed for helping the Stormcloaks in Solitude
- The residents of Dawnstar are being plagued by bad dreams
- There is a rivarly between two female mages in the College of Winterhold
- A fellow called Ulfric Stormcloak has killed the high-king of Skyrim right at the start of the game. This happens in Solitude, Skyrim's capital, and it appears he himself has a claim to the throne due to the ancient rights of the Nords. The Stormcloaks claim this was not an assassination but a duel.
- Some holds have already pledged their alliegence to the Stormcloaks. It is likely Windhelm will be their base of operations, Solitude that of the Imperials
- The librarian at The College of Winterhold is an aggressive Orc in his underpants, who provides quests involving rare books
- Windhelm's dunmer are resented for not taking sides in the Stormcloak rebellion
- Thalmor, High Elf agents of the Aldermi Dominion are found throughout Skyrim. Some have been found with prisoners, one claims that they are merely there in peace, to help Skyrim through this period of transition (Possible foreshadowing of the main quest?)
Other Stuff
- Windmills now rotate the right way(!)
- Some cities, such as Solitude and Windhelm are walled, others such as Falkreath are not. Those that do seem to have more buildings outside their walls than in Oblivion.
- I received the impression that the stock accent for the Nords appears to be Scandinavian, though not all Nords have this accent. Wonder Woman is back.
- It seems the Thieves Guild is joined in the same way as in Oblivion.
- Some NPCs, such as Thalmor, are too powerful for a Level 1 player to take on.
- Mudcrabs are baaaaack, and offer Mudcrab Chitin when killed. Craftable Chitin Armour? Let's hope so.
- There is a Nord in Riverwood called Sven who I swear 50% of the players who saw him tried to kill. One guy spent his entire 15 minutes on this. Is he the new Fargoth or something?
- You can harvest bees(!) by literally plucking them out of the air. Bees are an ingredient for Alchemy
- One person was not allowed into Whiterun for some reason, but while talking to the guard there was an option to use a special dialogue option with a persuassion check, Fallout 3 style. The player picked this option and it succeeded, and was let in.
- An in-game redguard is portrayed in a loading screen in Arab dress, wielding a scimitar
- Spriggans guard strange dome shapped structures found in forests. However there seemed to be a bug with the Spriggan, meaning it would cast one spell and then be unable to do anything else.
- There are hunters you can find on the road with whom you can barter with
- There are several different shapes and sizes of dragon, one loading screen showed a tall, lanky dragon with a fin on it's head, and another lower on it's back, resembling a dinosaur
My impressions of the game generally where overwhelmingly positive. If graphically it isn't a million miles better than Oblivion in every respect, it seems a lot more attention to detail has been given, from the design of the cities (far more logically set out, and different from one another not in a superficial way as in Oblivion but in a way that makes sense). The voice acting, in particular the use of Nordic accents makes a big difference here too. I very much felt like I was traveling through a place with a strong sense of identity (or more many places with several different identities), ala Morrowind. Really the game feels like a sequel to Morrowind set in Oblivion's engine (only with far better realised NPCs!). If anyone has any questions, or has played the game themselves and can help/correct me on anything please feel free.
