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Assuming Umbriel (or is it Umbra?) isn't to large, it appears to have not hit any major cities in Argonia or Morrowind except Alten, Seaspring and Ebonheart. Ebonheart is a pile of rubble now, so it's not like it matters. And even if Alten and Seaspring were pretty big, it wouldn't be a major blow to Argonia.

Actually, it had a good amount of political focus, if you were keen to keep a watchful eye. I'll mention some right here:
* The mane has been assassinated in Elsywer (huge deal)
* The altmer are trying to rebuilt the Aldmeri Dominion (huge deal)
* Argonians are decimating Morrowind (huge deal)
* The dunmer have been driven away from Morrowind (huge deal)
* Skingrad has insurgency problems with pro-mer factions
* Hell there are pro-mer factions that are trying to cut the legs off the empire, using terrorists

And the Mage Guild collapsed, replaced with the Synod and the College of Whispers. The Blades seem to be gone, replaced by the Penitus Oculatis (sp). The replacements seem similar to their predecessors, though we don't know much about them yet. Maybe it was only to drive home the fact that we're in a new Era now -- not sure.

Speaking of the Blades, it was nice to see Cloud Ruler mentioned in the book, and Akaviri architecture in general. The agent Colin remembers seeing Cloud Ruler as a child. I wonder who, if anyone, is left there? Elderly caretakers, Talos priests? I hope we find out if the Blades still exist in some form.

I can't confirm which cities were affected - however, if one were to start on the south coast of Argonia starting at Lilmoth, and then trace a straight line north to Vivec, that seems to be the path of destruction. I don't believe Umbriel would have wasted any time arriving at its intended destination, as the destruction of people wasn't its primary goal.

Yes i noticed the things you have mentioned but what I meant was that I was hoping for the plot to be focused around these things the collapse of the empire, the new aldmeri dominion, and the new emperor but instead it focused on a less exciting and hardly realistic plot of a flying city eating souls.

I wouldn't be surprised if the second book focuses more on that. The first book stirred things up, and the second book will talk about the effects of it.

I agree with the fact that the political background of Tamriel was dealt lightly in the novel and I would like to see a third book about it and only it or a online new PGE. But if the game is really two hundred years after Oblivion they will need a lot of back story to link the new game with the older ones.

I would actually be surprised if the second book delves deeply into the Aldmeri Dominion, Elswyr, or the larger geopolitical scene of the Empire. I imagine it's going to focus on the 5 main characters.

Then again, I heard that TES:V might be set in 4E 200, so maybe Keyes has all the room he wants to play with things.

All in all, decent book for the fans, and it gives me hope for news about TES:V.

Well, it's a fantasy setting. One can't expect the plot to remain firmly grounded in reality.

Yea that's pretty much one of my main problems with fantasy setting stories, changes can only occure in epic scale. No "collapse of an empire" but "empire is crushed in a epic war of millions", no "borders have been moved" but "The country blew up".

to be fair, there is tons of small change, its just not shown in games. the wars and border shifts during the imperial simulacrum, for example. or the annexation of elsweyr land to cyrodiil shortly preceding oblivion.

Both! A Prince is, in a way, His realm. Also, it was apparently only killing the Assimilated.


I bet they'll come out of the woodwork. Come back when Mede has united Tamriel under his banner.


Add to that the games, being massive free-roaming environments, have more space and freedom to deliver background information not essential to the main story than a novel. 'Member what I said thread 1? It does lose a bit at first due to the change in medium, but easily gains it back. Less freedom to explore because the medium is totally story-dependent, but at the same time the only limits are Keyes' imagination and our own.

I can't tell you how glad I am to hear you say that. I will try to buy the book immediately, but unfortunately, it isn't in any local bookstores near me.

Thanks. Lycanthropic Nerevar, would you say I'm correct? It didn't seem like a hack job to me, though I wish it had been longer.

By the way, I still recommend Keyes' series "The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone". The first book "The Briar King" even has a mage queen who's similar to Alessia.

I agree completely on both points, but remember the sequel. Together I think it'll wind up being as long and deep as we need for now.

The one thing that I was not looking forward to about this book... there are no mods to prolong its entertainment value beyond what lies within the pages. I am seriously going to go crazy during the wait for the sequel. Thank god Dan Brown came out with The Lost Symbol so I at least have something to read.

The novel was "gay"? I wasn't aware novels had sixual orientations...

And how severaly racist and stupid of you. What did the Argonians ever do to you?

I'll tell you what the Dunmer did to them -enslaved them and treated them as subhuman for generations. Wouldn't you feel a little angry after that, too?

What they did wasn't so different from the Alessian slave uprising - they even had their own Deus Ex Machina similar to Pelinal, except theirs was a giant asteroid.

In addition to a crippled military, thanks to the Oblivion Crisis, and morale shot down, due to their former gods and heros never appearing during the invasion.

I think you know what he meant by that...

LOL! Wow and I thought I took the game too seriously. Breathe in, breathe out lizard lover. I'm not a real life racist, just an in-game racist and I'm smarter than you because I understand connotations and you don't.

He understands sarcasm, though.

And either way, what I said earlier holds true: fix fics and snuff fics are not good, it sounds like a snooty way of saying "I can do better than an acclaimed author" when that may or may not be true. Vvardenfell got blown up, deal with it. The Argonians paid the Dunmer back in full.

You have full right to your opinion, but I very much disagree that having the Dunmer have to do stuff is a bad thing.

i was not aware of this book. i dont read. but this will make me read

On that lovely note, the only thing I feel vindicated about is the obvious failure of Helseth's emancipation policy and his dismantling of the great houses which made the Dunmer completely vulnerable to Argonian aggression after big rock made landfall. I made a topic about this long ago. It was a refutation on the rise of Helseth and how his abolitionist policies would've resulted in a very large Argonian population that was free to vent its anger against their former masters.

On the other hand though it seems the book ignored the current events in Morrowind as described above. If Helseth was the King of Morrowind and he freed the beast races from slavery than the Argonians would've had no just cause for war with Morrowind. Helseth and Barenziah...they were big name characters and they're not mentioned even once.

You don't think generations of slavery is just cause for retaliation?

Less cause if a country abolishes it than a country that keeps on doing it. Are you not following?