» Wed Apr 13, 2011 8:10 am
It's a shame we couldn't meet Vivec in his actual prime as a god, fully charged from the Heart Chamber, maybe in his Giant Form or with his fire-hair. That would have been more epic. What we see is a severely drained, almost mortal person who doesn't even have the strength left to come back to life again if killed.
What's worse and emasculates him even more as a character is that he's straining to use what little remains of his power to maintain the Ghostfence and keep Lie Rock from destroying Vvardenfell, since Almalexia and Sotha Sil abandoned him.
His priests and Ordinators pretty much run completely out of his control and do what they please in his name - probably a lot of stuff he'd never approve of in good conscience. He strikes me as the kind of monarch who is tough, but fair - the best kind of dictator a person possibly could live under, if one finds one's self under such a system of government. All the rooting out of heretics and witches and Daedra worshipers and the like strikes me as more zealotry from the priesthood than actual doctrines passed down from Vivec himself. He seems like he'd be pretty nonchalant about such things in his prime.
Almalexia on the other hand...It's strange how much more powerful she's represented as in-game than Vivec. Do you guys think the ash storms in Mournhold thing had something to do with that? If it caused the people to pray harder and fear her more, would that have literally charged her physical and magical powers back up a bit? Nowhere near her former divine status but perhaps to a level above what most mortals can achieve? That's the best explanation I can think of that she'd be that much stronger than Vivec, besides game mechanic.