Hello everyone. Another newby, but have lurked here since 12/10/2010 when I first started playing Oblivion. I was more of your typical
urban gamer more interested in staying at the top of the smackdown/ NBA 2k / GTA leaderboards. I did play a little casual Fable 2/3
until someone suggested Oblivion. It is my favorite game, and I eagerly anticipate Skyrim like most of you here. I play vanilla on Xbox.
I have the PC/Steam version on my laptop to check out mods, but prefer the vanilla console experience.

I started with a male redguard character. He was some sort of sneak/assassin when he escaped the tutorial cave. He was weak and
kept getting his rear end handed to him, but he taught me what not to do. I didn’t really enjoy bashing things and became intrigued
with magicka. Then, I restarted with Azreal, who is modeled after one of my best wrestling divas. She is a beautiful tanned Breton Mage with 100’s in
willpower, intelligence, conjuration, destruction, illusion and sneak. She is arena grand champ, archmage and champion of cyrodil. She is only a
swordsman in fighters guild and bandit in thieves guild. She is your typical sneak, conjure & go invisible character. She is a level 27, and
although she is a master sneak, she now insists on struting through the caves, forts and lands of cyrodil fearing nothing. She only wears her
enchanted white/red or black robe with sixy enchanted sandals. She also wears purple finery looted from si & enchanted with
personality for social functions. She carry’s Umbra & Azura’s star.

I fell in love with her character when she accidentally wandered into the Kvatch gate at level 3. She was scared witless and had no
‘clue what she was supposed to do in there. Sneaking and pure wits allowed her to explore the gate and find the exit to emerge unscathed.
The experience traumatized her so she went to the USEP and studied gates. She absolutely loathed them, and made it her business to
close everyone she found. If she encountered a gate during a quest, she would stop what she was doing, and shut the xxxk’er
down. Around level 14 or 15 she refused to lower herself to sneaking and absolutely strutted through them. She closed 47 gates
before completing the main quest and she misses destroying them since no more will spawn.

She owns every home fully furnished, including Frostcrag Spire. Skyngrad is decorated with Umbra armors; Manimarco, Traven &
Carranya’s robes and many other collectables. The Bravil home has all of the SI ingredients, books and souvenoirs. The cupboard next
to the alchemy table in the Wizards tower has like 200 apples, 135 bloodgrases, etc. With all of the abundance, her favorite home is
the waterfront shack which is filled with her favorite foods and books. She reads by the fire, and loves being able to walk a few steps
to put her toes in the water, or go for a swim. She is a good girl. Very religious. She does not sleep well unless she has prayed to her
favorite Goddess Dibella daily. But, she is a pragmatist and does not tolerate folks messing with her. I will not go into detail about how
she turned those silly, irritating pirates against each other and watched them all drown on the waterfront. Given her beauty, good heart
but skills in the dark arts, I have had to accept the fact that in essence, she is a serious witch.

Besides being unable to close any more gates, the only issue that Azreal has in Cyroldil is that she is lonely. I have read all the threads. I know there
Is “no role for romance in a serious rpg.” Azreal works & plays hard. She role plays. As archmage, she has glitched a cute male apprentice
that waits in the bedroom of every home she owns. Very unsatisfying. Oblivion is the only game I ever played that I seriously role played.
I have no control over her. She kind of liked Varnardo @ Best Defense in IC. She would go out of her way (& better profit) by visiting him
to sell her loot from quests & dungeons. On one occasion, he declined her offer. She checked the settings… disposition was 100 like always,
so she put on her finery & cast AzKiss (charm spell). He said no deal & was quite nasty about it. Before I knew what happened she became
enraged; tapped him with her fist; summoned & went invisible. She sat & continued to conjure and frenzy while remaining invisible and
watching the show. Guards came & the frenzy lasted about 20 minutes. Afterwards, she surveyed the bodies and damage. She reanimated
Vernardo with the staff of worms and just looked at him, asking what she had done for him to reject her. After watching him relive his
demise several times, she asked me to reload. She allowed Varnardo to live, and went to Moravyn’s Peacemakers in Anvil to sell her loot.
She prayed to Dibella, then went home to Benirus and went to sleep. She has never visited Varnardo since.

I don’t care for the silly six/romance in Fable. I don’t care for it in DA, although Isabella is a tempting character. I don’t even care for Estris
and some of the six/bikini mods for Oblivion PC. But I enjoyed the sirens/Anvil quest and Eyja/Rosethorn backstories as implemented by
Bethesda and think they could do a credible job adding romance as an “OPTION.” I don’t expect everyone to like or want it, but, I wish it
could be implemented like the DB mission strand. Azreal is a good girl, although a bit of a [censored]. She will not do the DB strand. It was
presented, but she could ignore it if she chose to. Most players love killing wild boar with their bare hands & eating bloody meat in a nasty
bedroll under the stars, but ignore other natural urges that accrue while role playing in this extensive, realistic world. Azreal insists on
repolishing the nail polish she chipped while destroying conjurers in Sancre Tor. I have just two pet peeves about my Oblivion experience
and wishes for Skryim.

1. Treat the character with the respect they have earned. As champion of cyrodil, you should not be concerned with folks trying to
arrest you if you mistakenly pick up a dagger, while trying to inspect it. All members of the mages guild should know when the
Arch mage has arrived…. Not just randomly. Mage scholars should be in no position to diss their arch mage. Azreal does not tolerate
It.

2. Azreal is coming to Skyrim. She is very…………………………..………….”lonely”. Please don’t make me turn her a loose like this.

Remember…. “Dibella loves you.”

Hehe, I liked what you wrote there!! And I like your character too! Well done!! And welcome to gamesas! It was also fun to read!

~The Unknown

Just out of curiosity, why vanilla on Xbox if you've got an actual computer? Nothing wrong with this, and I'm vanilla/PS3 myself, I'm just curious.

Yea, I've fallen in love with the game too. Can't say I've fallen in love with one of my characters yet, though. :wub:

I've also had to deal with the "loneliness" factor in Oblivion. That's the prob with vanilla, imo, after awhile it seems like you've spoken to everybody (all the NPCs) and there just isn't any sort of a "connection" with any of them after awhile. I've played Sims to death (Sims, Sims 2, Sims 3, Sims Castaway) and would like to see some sort of a romance angle in Skyrim, but I'm not holding my breath. I would disagree that there's "no room for romance" in an RPG. We played D&D back in the days, and we had rules for relationships and stuff. It only adds to the game to have this stuff. :shrug:

At least we can get companions, though, while we're adventuring...that is definitely confirirmed.

Wow, that was an enjoyable read Azreal. It's nice that you could introduce your character to us like this. To be honest, I actually never felt the lack of a romantic set of options in Oblivion. Most of my characters are loners or outcasts, and don't even have friends, let alone actual partners.

For RP's sake if my character needs a friend, he'll use a companion I guess, I haven't actually thought it through. One of my characters has a crush or two, but he's too shy to act upon them. Oh yeah and, since you have the PC version, I'm sure there must be a mod around that can add a romance option.

This may sound like a strange suggestion, but if that doesn't satisfy you, you could always try the RP section here. I once joined a Fallout RP on these forums and my character was a bit of a player. One of the female members of the RP thought it would be cool if her character was the one that mine finally settles down with, and so we roleplayed out their relationship (though while abiding by the forum regulations though. I still managed a risque post now and then. )

So, you could always have your character join an RP here and do that. Once I'm done with my exams I'll have all the time in the world, so I'll probably join an RP or two as well.

1. Unknown: Thanks for the kind comments. Azreal is just sharing her heart and 2 gold’s worth. A true TEStament to TES because we normally don’t do forums.

2. Rene: I have read several of your posts and enjoyed them.
- No rocket science on the platform. Started on Xbox; Prefer controller to mouse, although I know there are utilities to adjust to use on PC.
- Also, I am a IT guy who & writes web articles. Had to do several on TES Construction kit; nifskope, etc. “Had to” install it on my PC. Normally do not like PC gaming. Prefer xbox for that.
- I found most Oblivion romance/six mods on PC to be kind of shallow. I think only Bethesda could implement it well. I was being sarcastic when I used quotes saying that there
“no place for six/romance/companions in Oblivion” mocking the majority of threads here. Like you, I disagree, and tried to use my character’s roleplay as exemplar.

3 Holy Assassin: I have never checked out the role play section, but will do so upon your suggestion.

Another thought/comment: I know that multiplayer is another "no-no" for such an extensive single player rpg such as Oblivion, and I understand the rationale for this more than
the rationale for a no romance/companions option. But...... Azreal cannot help but to wonder what it would be like to run across "Buffy" and her bow & precious mare, in a multiplayer,
Skyrim, as well as some of the other excellent role plays I have enjoyed on this forum. Would we be friends & get along working together.... "or what?"

If Azreal ever met my character Heartless (info on him is in my profile) he'd probably blink for a moment, shake his head, and then just keep walking.

Ah, thanx, bout the "read your posts comment".

I guess that's it for me, too. I dig the controller. I'm so used to it after being on the PS2 for 10 years.

Also, I usually play Oblivion while literally kickin' back. Lying in bed or in a comfy chair (the comfy chair!...MOnty Python reference). I couldn't imagine playing at a desk or even on a laptop, trying to balance everything without it falling into my cheese dip.

Some peeps here have told me it's possible to get Oblivion playing on PC so that a controller can be used (and therefore I'd be able to kick back), but I just dread going into a computer shop...the girl about to get fleeced by some floor tech who's just looking for a commission. I can't justify the cost, either, not while I have other expenses and a kid. I would spend all this money, get home, not be able to hook it all up, have to call one of the guys I work with to help me figure out how to hook up my computer so I can play a video game

It's too much work. I'd screw it up. :rolleyes: Vanilla works for me, so...



COol. Like I said, back in the day, we had rules we picked up (or made up) for relationships, so that Randorf (dual-sword fighter) was Justine's beau. Justine was a mace-wielding fighter, but she died at some point.

But see, that's just it. I have two PCs who are in love. Randorf was had a substance abuse prob (forget what it was). These two characters fight together, they spend time together. Without getting into too many details, I really got hooked in by their little soap-dramas. Then Justine died, I forget how...she was overwhelmed by some big ogre or something.

After she died, Randorf obviously went into this depression, started hitting whatever substance he was using even harder. I don't remember specifics here, this all happened back in the '80s. But here's Randorf, the big, bad sword fighter, finally feeling a connection to somebody who's like a mirror for him. Then she dies.

It only adds to the game, all this extra stuff. In my opinion, I don't even mind if it's a little cheesy and/or shallow. As long as there's something else other than hack & slash, loot & steal, cash in...repeat. Granted, I love that aspect of Oblivion...but I'd love some Yin with all the Yang, know what I mean?



Dude (or chick?) that just sounds awesome. As the saying goes, there's probably a mod for this, though. If there is, at least you have the software & hardware to try to explore it.

I played Everquest for awhile on the PS2. I also agree that TES should not become a MMORPG or whatever it's called, but I can't help also wondering....

There's

Reading about Azreal was heartbreaking for me. She is so much like Sarrah.

I play dead-is-dead. With more than 500 hours in the game, Sarrah died in a lava flow but her memory still haunts me. Her sense of loneliness was as epic as her heroism. There was a moment in the game when, to my horror, she considered suicide. I would not have stopped her but I was able to convince her to just stop for a bit; watch some sunsets, hang out with friends.

The problem was that she was in full bloom and very much a woman. Without love and only fighting she turned to fantasy and often became aroused during combat. When she realized that her fantasies had made her a killing machine she was devastated.

I also make my characters live with whatever happens in the game except for glitches. If they kill a guard, they will have to deal with the consequences. Very much a lady, Sarrah was shattered when she was falsely accused of being a thief and cried herself to sleep that night after the humiliation of arrest and being hauled to the Skingrad castle to pay a fine. She was also a prankster and exacted revenge by heavily cloaking in chameleon and then giving the Skingrad guards a hot-seat with a flare spell. We both laughed as they jumped and then ran around like their pants were on fire. Her cloaking prevented her little prank from escalating and no-one was permanently hurt; just good, clean, outdoor fun.

My relation with Sarrah was an interactive one. When she learned that I could resurrect an NPC she refused to leave any 'named' citizen found murdered on the road until I resurrected them. She once stood over a body and refused to defend herself from the bear that was mauling her until I resurrected the NPC. She knew she could die and that if she did, I would never bring her to life again. But she was ready to risk that to save someone else.

Sarrah loved to invent her own mini-games such as seeing how many staffs she could fit into an open topped barrel in her basemant. At around 6 staffs, they start to rattle around and at some point they will all come flying out. I think her top score was 8. She also enjoyed triggering land mines with a flare spell.

Thank you for sharing Azreal's story.

^Damn, bobg. I am (for once) speechless. Edit: in a good way...

I'm so glad that you have found Azrael!

Buffy did not know Sarrah, but Acadian did. Fortunately, Buffy does know Sarrah's younger sister Angel.

Oblivion can be a lonely game. What helps Buffy is the spirit of the old paladin (Acadian) who lives in her head and her precious mare (Superian). Those two spirits are intertwined with hers. Even alone at her campfire on the road, she can be a pvssyrbox with those two. She travels an awful lot. Much of it used to be to feed her voracious appetite for exploring, but more and more it is to visit friends that she has spread all over Cyrodiil.

Acadian tells Buffy that love is a part of life and, as he would wish for his own granddaughter, he hopes she will experience everything life has to offer. That is why he is pleased that she is smitten by Savlian Matius. In fact, much of her efforts, lo these past hundreds of hours, have been to amass knowledge, skill and even helpers to close that Oblivion Gate. She cares not for the Empire, but she sure does wish to see that brave man with the heart of a lion who defends Cyrodiil against the gate finally be able to stand down from his arduous vigil. Maybe then. . . .

I kinda play dead is dead. Varnardo was an exception since she acted irrationally & was sweet on him. Azreal had only died twice, very early in the game.
The first time, she was learning to use “AzHorsey” (Shield/invisibility/Restore health/Calm) on target and got sloppy when juggling bandits & protecting
her black horse. She has given that up, and stables her black horse safely while walking/running/exploring. This has boosted her athletics.
At level 27, she plays at 4notches past the normal difficulty. She knows that given her badass attitude, if she slips up. She is through.

She takes her responsibilities as Arch Mage seriously. The mage scholars diss her (too busy?), so somehow the university is short on them under her
tenure. Accordingly she attempts to train mage apprentices herself. She enchants clothing with shield, chameleon and extra magicka and reverse
bound pickpockets them onto the apprentices at zero weight. She creates “AzHush” daggers for them, and takes them with her to dungeons and caves.
She constantly casts shield and health at them, but they simply cannot withstand the elements she faces @ level 27. Finally she resorted to taking them
and making them “wait” at the entrance. She would ignore all the chests/loot & eliminate all of the evil elements herself. Then she would return
to the entrance so they could accompany her and learn the cavern layouts & loot locations. In one of the Ayelid ruins she either overlooked or some
additional wraiths had re-spawned. They took out her apprentice after all of her preparations. This is the point that she gave up on training her
apprentices, and simply put all the cute ones out to stud in her bedrooms. Bless their hearts, they cannot even do that well.

Bob, I think your story about Sarrah (full bloom, etc) made me realize that Azreal’s attitude & strutting is all a result of the fact that she is frustrated.
Although she is a witch, she is very beautiful and very much female. She desparately needs someone who can pull her hair and make her…..
whatever. Not in a sleazy mod way, but a meaningful implementation that involves real emotion, risks, rewards and adds depth to her experience.
In the interim, wysiwyg. Like I said, I enjoyed reading all of your posts and stories even before Azreal was born. I did not plan her. She just evolved,
but I am certain that many of the exploits I read here subconsciously played a role in her development. Accordingly, you folks are just as responsible
for whatever she is, as I am. Thanks for all of the great feedback.

A great story. So you into Kvatch gate at level 3? Did you clear Kvatch as well? You should of went in there at level 20.

Thank you Gerza71. I couldn’t make all this stuff up. It is a TEStament to the effect this game has had on me. I think it has drawn out many
elements of my own spirituality that transferred to this character. Anyway, Azreal did not “go” into the Kvatch gate at level 3. She was
exploring and stumbled in there. She did not know what it was, why it was there or what she was supposed to do. She was horrified at
what she saw in there. She was deep into the gate and survived by sneaking, running, hiding & using cover effectively. At level 3 she was
In no position to clear anything. I was simply impressed that she could maintain her composure and use the map to find her way out alive.
When she returned home, she used her crystal ball (in true role playing vernacular) to access an alternate reality. The USEP.
That is when “we” truly connected with Oblivion.

I am a Christian. I am certainly not perfect, but I worship Jesus Christ and know my primary mission here on earth is to war and witness
against spiritual wickedness in high places. That gate was a very realistic implementation of hell on earth. It HAD to be destroyed. This
child studied the levels, layouts, traps, keeps… all things Oblivion gates. As a God fearing child, she literally shuddered every time she
encountered one and would stop what she was doing to destroy it. I cannot remember the exact level when she returned and closed
it but suffice it to say she knew all the weaknesses of her enemies (shock, etc) and it was a no brainer. The fact that they kept re-spawning
gave her character serious motivation and a sense of purpose in the game. When she became Champion of Cyrodil, unfortunately she
lost her primary motivation. Many of the side quests (run and fetch) simply didn’t make sense anymore. The DB quests go against her
morals and she will not do them. As a pragmatist, she did enough of the thieves guild quests to understand what they were about and
earn fencing privileges. She is a serious mage but has minimal blunt, armorer, etc. All that stuff damages her manicure so she avoids
it. She doesn’t like archery as an offense, but thought she might try hunting as a hobby. The cupboard in Benirus/Anvil (near the stairs)
contains dozens of enchanted bows, arrows, and robes she enchanted with archery and athletics. The retail value of the cupboard is
over 100k gold. She thought she might just go out and try it, but so far she is not interested. With over 460k gold, every home fully
furnished, Fame of 406 and infamy of 0, there isn’t much more she can find that is “meaningful” to her. She spends most of her time
trying to find new caves for new spell tomes and books, rather than treasure. This posting that I am sharing really serves as her
memoir.

Except…. For the destruction of the Chapel of Dibella in Anvil. How ironic. As a Christian, I worship my savior Jesus Christ and
know that idolatry is a sin. However, I believe that I can separate my gaming from reality. Azreal is beautiful, vain, flirty and even
a bit of a [censored]. However, the Bible states that the bed cannot be defiled between a husband and wife. This is the only other aspect
of Oblivion that I found lacking. It’s absence actually shaped her character (the strutting, being a badass, etc). Azreal adores
Dibella. She has not completed this quest on purpose. She has all of Pelinal’s writings in her study in Anvil, and has retrieved some
of the relics. She is taking her time with this one, because it is really the only emotional tie she has left to Oblivion. Azreal is
semi-retired. When she finally avenges her godess Dibella, she will retire.

Remember, Dibella loves you.
Azreal adores Dibella

May GOD bless you all.