» Thu Oct 06, 2011 5:51 pm Confirmed Information and Discussion Thread
This thread is a repository for gathering and discussing confirmed faction-related information as well as speculating on the various possible factions of Skyrim and how the player will interact with them.
Q: What exactly is a "faction"?
A: A faction is simply a group of allied actors, which can consist of NPCs, animals, monsters, Daedric Princes, and/or the player. Each faction can contain as little as one member or as many as hundreds.
Some Skyrim factions have already been confirmed, and there a number of additional factions we can deduce from information revealed in previous interviews, videos, concept art and Skryim lore.
I. Guild Factions
The kind of faction many of us are most interested in are the guild-type factions, which the player can join and advance through a set of ranks, receiving quests and new spells along the way. For purposes of discussion in this thread, we will refer to these factions as "Guild Factions," merely as a way to differentiate them from the other categories.
1-1. Confirmed Skyrim Guild Factions
- The College of Winterhold
- The Companions
- The Thieves' Guild
- The Dark Brotherhood
1-2. The College of Winterhold
The College of Winterhold is one of the three "major" factions revealed by Todd Howard at E3 2011. He did not describe them, other than that they will be based in Winterhold and an important faction for mage characters.
Here is what the lore has to say about the College of Winterhold:
Winterhold, Solitude's ancient rival, has also experienced a renaissance of power and influence. Refugees from Morrowind, far from burdening the eastern city, have brought with them new ideas, enriching her culture and stimulating its old mercantile spirit. Scholars from all over Tamriel have descended on the county since it became home to the Ysmir Collective, a library rescued from destruction in the east, and the cornerstone of academic life at the College of Winterhold.
1-3. The Companions
The Companions is one of the three "major" factions revealed by Todd Howard at E3 2011. Based in Whiterun, they will be an important faction for warrior characters.
There is some very interesting lore regarding the history of Skyrim that suggests a possible liink or influence from the 500 Companions of Ysgramor, the orginal Nedic hero who drove the Mer out of the land of Skyrim:
"For a time, relations between Men and Elves were harmonious, and the Nords throve in the new land, summoning more of their kin from the North to build the city of Saarthal, the site of which has recently been located by Imperial archaeologists in the vicinity of modern Winterhold. But the Elves saw that the vital young race would soon surpass their stagnant culture if left unchecked, and fell upon the unsuspecting Nords in the infamous Night of Tears; Saarthal was burned, and only Ysgramor and two of his sons fought free of the carnage and escaped to Atmora.
The Elves, however, had reckoned without the indomitable spirit of the Nords. Gathering his legendary Five Hundred Companions (whose names are still recited every Thirteenth of Sun's Dawn at the Feast of the Dead in Windhelm), Ysgramor returned to Tamriel with a vengeance, driving the Elves out of Skyrim and laying the foundations of the first human Empire."
1-4. Thieves' Guild
The Companions is one of the three "major" factions revealed by Todd Howard at E3 2011. They will be based in Riften and an important faction for thief characters.
The only mention of a Thieves' Guild in Riften I'm aware of is in The Real Barenziah:
"Barenziah and Straw settled into Rifton for the winter, taking a cheap room in the slummier section of town. Barenziah wanted to join the Thieves Guild, knowing there would be trouble if she were caught freelancing. One day in a barroom she caught the eye of a known member of the Guild, a bold young Khajiit named Therris. She offered to bed him if he would sponsor her membership. He looked her over, grinning, and agreed, but said she'd still have to pass an initiation.
"What sort of initiation?"
"Ah," Therris said. "Pay up first, sweetne"
1-5. The Dark Brotherhood
Todd Howard confirmed the return of the Dark Brotherhood in a few European gaming magazine interviews, such as the http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1161723-dutch-cover-story-interesting-info/. It was reported that a February podcast interview with Todd Howard also confirms this [pending review of the podcast].
Later at E3 2011, Todd described College of Winterhold, Companions and Thieves' Guild as the three "major" factions, which caused a great deal of consternation among fans worried that the DB had been removed from the game. However, in a subsequent E3 interview, Ashley Cheng indicated something to the effect that there are three "major" factions and "a fourth is hinted at in the demo," referring to a section of the demo where a letter mentioning the Dark Brotherhood is found on the corpse of a Khajit bandit.
More about the letter here, from a journalist walkthrough of the Park City 45-minute demo:
http://www.gamingtruth.com/2011/06/12/e3-2011-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-demo-impressions/
"Shortly after the battle with the pack leader, the player came across a random Khajiit bandit. It was here that the graphical differences were most apparent from it’s predecessor. The level of detail in the mancat’s design was astounding. At this point, the player used the quick-select system to swap out his shield and sword combination for a trusty bow and arrow. Two shots later, and the bandit had been felled. This is a far cry from other Elder Scrolls titles, where using ten arrows to kill an enemy was common place. Archers should be very happy with the change. Upon searching the body of the Khajiit, the player found a note, which he then examined using the 3D modelling system. Of note here, was that the note was from someone in the Black Hand, well-known to long-time players to be from the Dark Brotherhood.
II. Location Factions
Each Hold will comprise a separate faction, with a distinct way to track the player's bounty and reputation within that hold. According to Todd, you can be a wanted criminal in one hold and "who's that?" in another.
If previous Bethesda open world sandbox games are any indication, there will also be separate factions for each city and perhaps even smaller location-specific factions to define the NPCs in these areas, such as waterfront area, castle area, skooma den, etc.
Whether these various Location Factions will be used as a means to determine rules for player disposition and things like helping out the player or other NPCs during combat (as was the case in Oblivion), or whether they will be more dynamic, with a reputation system that has a greater impact on gameplay (as was the case in Fallout New Vegas), we do not yet know.
2-1 Location Factions Pertaining to Each Hold (with Capital)
(Source: http://i.imgur.com/rYmI4.jpg)
- Haafinheim (Solitude)
- The Reach (Markarth)
- Hjaalmarch (Morthal)
- White Hold (Whiterun)
- Falkreath (Falkreath)
- Winter Hold (Winterhold)
- The Pale (Dawnstar)
- Eastmarch (Windhelm)
- The Rift (Riften)
2-2 Major Cities of Skyrim
- Falkreath
- Riften
- Solitude
- Whiterun
- Winterhold
2-3 Towns and Settlements
- Dawnstar
- Morthal
- Dragon Bridge
- Dunstad Grove
- Granitehall
- Green Wood
- Karthwasten
- Kynesgrove
- Laintar Dale
- Markarth Side
- North Keep
- Riverwood
- Oakwood
- Stone Hill
- Sunguard
III. Minor Factions
In the Bulletproof Pixel radio show, Pete talked about the fact that there are four "main factions" and then there are smaller groups. Based on the descriptions of groups such as the Stormcloaks, the Imperial Legion, the Shield-Brothers, Riverwood Tavern Warrior Clan, Vigilants of Stendarr, Necromancers and the Bard's College of Solitude, some of these groups have been confirmed to be joinable by the player and others might be involved in quests in some way, without being joinable. As for the Stormcloaks and the Imperial Legion, these "minor" factions could turn out to play a larger role in Skyrim's main quest than the Guild Factions.
The lore also mentions a number of organizations and factions that have played an important role in Skyrim in the past and might still be around.
Complete transcript of Bulletproof Pixel radio interview:
Spoiler
Episode 148 of Bulletproof Radio.
PH = Pete Hines
OD = Option Disabled
BL = Bob Lobblaw
SV = Steel Valor
OD: Tell us a little bit about what we can expect in Skyrim?
PH: As you said, Skyrim is the sequel to Oblivion, it's been five years since we put out an Elder Scrolls game. So it is the next in a long line of big, "go anywhere you want, do anything you want," epic role playing games. You get to create whatever kind of character you'd like and we give you a big fantasy sandbox to go and play in. And it's all about - the kind of vibe we were going for is kind of - Nordic, barbarian warriors fighting dragons in the snow and mountains.
OD: Now when you say "Nordic," SteelValor perks up immediately.
PH: I know he does, that's just for him. [laughs] This game, honestly is really more of a tribute to him than anything else.
SV: It's true, because I've been begging for your games since - Morrowind won GOTY, I believe.
PH: We won GOTY in 2006 for Oblivion and it's also a bit of a follow up for FO3 which was GOTY in 2008 and it's also a "go where you want, do whatever you want game and so we learned a lot of things from that game as well that we've taken and instituted in Skyrim.
BL: It's really hard to believe that you actually went on the record and said that the game is for Steel because now, not only does he tell us about his family lineage every show, but now --
OD: -- going back to Charlemagne --
SV: It's gonna be my ringtone [laughs]
OD: Well, tell us what you can about what has happened since Oblivion. You mentioned dragons and Nordic people, what's going on there with the story?
PH: Skyrim takes place 200 years after the events in Oblivion.. so I hope I'm not spoiling anything for follks who haven't finished Oblivion or are going back to play it. If you haven't finished Oblivion, you might want to turn down your radio for a second.
Obviously, the line of emperors ends at the end of Oblivion when Martin Septim sacrifices himself to save Tamriel from the threat of Oblivion. 200 years has passed, the Empire has kind of fallen off. Skyrim takes place in the province of Skyrim, which is the northernmost province in Tamriel and it tells the story of the prophesied return of Alduin, who is the one who is said will come back and eat the world.
While dragons have been talked about in all the Elder Scrolls games, they've never actually been in any of the official Elder Scrolls games. They were in Redguard, but that was kind of an off-shoot. So, the dragons are back and it has to do with the one Dragonborn, who happens to be you, who is said to be the one who can return and save Tamriel from the threat of Alduin and the dragons.It doesn't continue the exact storyline of Oblivion and what was going on in that game, it's part of the overarching story of what's going on in the world of the Elder Scrolls.
If you want to learn a little bit more about what takes place between the time of Oblivion and Skyrim, you should read the two novels, the first novel that came out, the Infernal City and the Lord of Souls, the second novel which is scheduled to come out next month, I believe. And both of those novels take place in the intervening time, they don't follow the exact storyline but they tell a bit of the story in between. We like for every Elder Scrolls game to stand on its own. So you don't have to play any of our previous games to come in and know exactly what's going on in this one.
OD: That's a good thing, too, because when I played Oblivion, I had no idea what the Elder Scrolls were, even though I've played many PC games, so I like that aspect of things.
BL: I know you guys have had a lot of games, you've had a lot of success and I know you're talking about the protagonist in this game. What are some of the characteristics that you find resonate the most with the game players, that they connect with the protagonist, whether specific attributes or character flaws or abilities that you find that people connect to more than others?
PH: One of the things that we are very careful about with the Elder Scrolls is that we are very careful to never define "you." That is, we're never going to put too much of a wrapping around who you are or what you've done or what kind of character you're playing. because we want that to be all about you and we want you're choices, your actions to define your experience in the world. We talk about TES games being massively single-player games. And the reason is that it's like an MMO in that it's this big massive world and there's all these characters that you can go and talk to. But unlike an MMO everything revolves around you and what you do.
We want ultimately the story of a game like Skyrim to be your story. If you want to play the main quest, go ahead. There's 25 hours, you know, plus or minus, of stuff you can do just playing the main quest. And then there's all these factions you can join. And then there's all these miscellaneous and side quests. And then there are 100-some dungeons -- 150 -- I don't even remember what the number is anymore, I've lost track. All those things are up to you. If you want to play the game for 30 hours picking flowers and making potions, go ahead. If that's what you want your story to be, go ahead. We don't want to define who you are or what you have to be in this game.
And I really think that freedom is something that has resonated with people. That they get to be who they want in the game and we don't do it for them. I think that's really key and I think people enjoy sort of pushing the boundaries of, what does "go where I want" really mean? And I think the more they see that and play that the more they're like "Wow, I really CAN do whatever I want."
OD: One of the hallmarks of your game is having an avid fan base, obviously, and we've gone to your forums and checked out some of the questions and this one comes straight from the forums. Apparently it's one that they say has never been answered and maybe we can get an answer out of you now. Is there going to be a survival or hardcoe mode in Skyrim, in other words is there an option for us to be forced to eat, drink sleep in order to stay alive, kind of like in Fallout New Vegas.
PH: We do not currently have anything like that planned. As of right now, no. And I appreciate there's probably folks out there who would like that, otherwise they wouldn't be asking. But I think folks need to appreciate that with a game as massive as this is. And let me state this unequivocally, it is the most ridiculously huge game we have ever undertaken -- that adding a new mode that now changes a whole bunch of things that you have to test and and worry about is not something that we felt we could take on and do justice to. It is simply so huge as it is that it is a yeoman's work to get it done as it's currently designed.
BL: One of the other questions and it seems that it gets repeated over and over again. At first we weren't sure we wanted to ask it, but it's been asked so many times that we have to throw it out there. Will there be Arenas? Can you say yes or no, unequivocally.
PH: We don't have really the Arena like it was designed in Oblivion. There isn't like a big gladiator thing. That was kind of a specific thing to Oblivion. So -- lots of other stuff to do.
OD: Oh yeah. Tell us a little bit about your interaction with fans. Because it seems like you're actually pretty proactive with it, putting stuff out there on Twitter.
PH: I try to be. If I'm being honest, one of the things that as this company has grown over the years and as my role has evolved and changed somewhat, the hardcoe fans could tell you about the days way back in 99 and 2000 when I was always on the forums every day, talking to folks and I do enjoy that interaction, and you know, my time is just not such that I can wade into the forums. You guys have been on there and you knwo that it is not something to be undertaken lightly.
And so, I like the fact that via twitter I can try and help clarify -- if anything I get more questions than I could possibly [answer] I don't think folks understand number one that if I try and answer them all it's simply all I would do and I notice that when I do answer questions, all it gets me is more questions.
And the other problem is that we try and walk a very careful line. So many people ask about spoilers and they fail to appreciate that we try very hard to have there be lots of things that you find out once you get into the game, so that you don't know about everything going in. For us that's a buzzkill -- that nothing you come across or stumble across is a surprise because absolutely everybody has asked us about everything. I don't like avoiding answers, I don't like having to evade questions.
OD: It's easier just to give the answer but at the same time you're trying to protect the integrity of the game.
PH: Exactly, it ends up where people then know everything but then the game just isn't -- trust me when I tell you it's never as fun. We found this with Morrowind and ever since MOrrowind we started pulling back more and more on how much we reveal or talk about because we want there to be a lot of discovery when you're playing the game that hasn't been revealed in a hundred press interviews or podcasts like this one.
BL: And one of things that's funny is, sometimes fans get upset because you won't answer the question and then when you answer the question they get upset because it's a spoiler - it's a fine line that you have to walk --
OD: -- that's a fine line between love and hate right there.
PH: Exactly, so I try to clarify things that have come out, more than anything, like little nuances that we have shown folks or I know press guys have seen or probably have written about or at least know about, to clarify little things, but I try as best I can to avoid stuff and sometimes I don't answer questions even when I could give a simple "No" just because I don't want to spoil it for folks whether or not stuff is in the game that they may or may not know about.
OD: If you don't mind, we've got a couple more questions that have been submitted to us. Of course some people found out that they were going to be able to interact - of course we are the only interactive gaming and technology radio show.
Can you actually alter character's appearances such as hair, face paint or facial hair later in the game after exiting the character creation menu?
PH: We have a ton of of stuff that you can do when you create your character. You guys have probably seen some of the character stuff we've put out. I will give you a nice little tease for your audience and for all of our TES fans listening, which is that Todd Howard came up with this genius idea for some screenshots to put out that we are gonna be putting out very soon and are absolutely awesome. So if you are into characters and races and what they can look like, you definitely want to stay tuned to Elderscrolls.com and the Elder Council on Facebook because we have some really cool stuff coming up really soon.
However, to answer the actual question, once you create your character, no -- there is no further modifying it afterward. So be sure you're really into that face paint, those scars you picked, the hairstyle you want, once you pick it, you pick it.
SV: Do you really want that blonde ponytail I think is what you're getting at
PH: That's what I'm saying, do you really want that dark eyeshadow on your male Nord because you may come to regret it.
BL: --do you really want that chin squirrel like SteelValor
SV: Hey back off my chin squirrel [laughs]
OD: Stemming off of that is there going to be -- are you planning on releasing a character generator before the game to kind of bide people's time and build a teaser for
PH: No, but if you want to wrap your head around some of the possibilities of things, stay tuned for Todd's Great Idea, that will certainly show off a lot of what is possible. But releasing something that allows you to create the character outside of the game and then pull it in, or even trying to pull off what we do in the game in some kind of web-based utility is just not something we've got the time to do, so no.
BL: We've another question that just keeps coming up over and over again. Beast children? Beast race?
PH: You know what, on that one, I'm gonna say, let them wait. They'll find out one way or another when they play the game.
OD: Yes! we have a bell for that very purpose. Oh boy and that may be a little bit gold for some of our listeners, but that's OK, they'll figure it out.
BL: He's doing you a favor guys, but the lack of spoilers when you actually get in the game.
OD: Let's talk a little bit about the game itself. They were asking about beast children for some reason, but what about the monsters? How many monsters -- different types do you think we're gonna see?
PH: Is a lot a number?
OD: Is that more than a breadbox, is that more than 50? More than 5? Less than 2000?
PH: More than 5, less than 500. We do a lot of different variations on stuff, so a skeleton or a draugr, there isn't just one type and you'll come across different types of those. There are some really cool new creatures that you'll face that you haven't seen or fought before. I think you've probably -- hopefully you saw -- we put out a screenshot of the Ice Wraith very early on, which is just a super cool new creature that you're gonna face that's specific to Skyrim. There are some other ones that you're gonna see.
I'm toeing a little bit of a line here also just because we have cover stories coming out in a bunch of magazines around the world, like any time now. And so I'm also loathe to steal thunder from those guys who have the scoop on some cool new stuff and stuff they got to play and I don't want to be revealing details that they kind of wanted first shot at. But there are a ton, they are really awesome. The dragons clearly are the ones that have gotten a lot of attention, but we've also shown things like giants and mammoths which are also super cool, not necessarily hostile to you, so you can decide whether you want to take on the challenge of beatin' down a mammoth. But there's a lot of cool stuff and it's very varied.
And then all the NPCs - I think that gets overlooked often when you're talking about opponents - but one of the things we've done with this combat system and having dual wielding and magic and weapon combos and all of that is that all of those are now options for NPCs that you're gonna face. It's not just going to be either a magic caster or a guy with a sword and shield, that it will be folks who will mix and match and that makes combat and enemies much more varied as well.
OD: How many dungeons and caves are we looking at here? I"m gonna put you down again for a number anywhere between 5 and 500, the more specific you can get --
PH: How about this for a number. I'm gonna say that there are -- the size of the space is about the same as Oblivion, but there is just a ton more content within that same space than ever before.
OD: Oh wow, so you have about the same kind of explorable area there --- Did I lose you?
PH: No, I'm still here. It is probably several times larger than Fallout 3 in terms of the number of quests, I want to say, like the number of quests, well just miscellaneous, freeform quests all told there's about 6 or 7 times as many in Skyrim than in Fallout 3.
And the number of dungeons is somewhere in the hundred - something, I don't even remember what the last number was I saw. But there are just a ton of them and they are some of the best gameplay in the game because we have so many more level designers working on dungeons than we did on Fallout 3 or Oblivion. So I think folks are really gonna enjoy the variety and the challenges that they're gonna see in dungeons.
OD: I got a question, what kind of star power can we expect in the audio? Who is actually doing voice overs.
PH: An excellent question and one that we are going to answer very, very soon. I think I just saw a draft of the press release come across my desk the other day and that announcement is forthcoming soon.
OD: Pete, we weren't supposed to talk about that. I thought I was under an NDA for that.
PH: [Laughs] Linda Carter has already talked about the fact that she is working on the game again. We love Linda and use here as often as we can, so it's probably safe to mention her. You probably recognize the voice of Max von Sydow in the teaser trailer and the full trailer that we put out. He is involved in the game, but there are some other really great names that you will be impressed with. And the total VO cast for this game is significantly bigger than any game we've worked on in the past. So whereas in Oblivion the number of voice actors was somewhere in the teens, on Skyrim it's in the 70s. So we spent a lot of time - we had three studios working around the clock for a couple of months, just to get all the VO recording done. So it is well worth your time to give it a listen.
BL: You're listening to Bulletproof Radio and we are talking to Pete Hines, the man, the myth and the legend, and he is talking all about Skyrim. Now Pete, one of the other questions that resonates with the community is mod tools. PC and Xbox, or just PC, or maybe no mod tools at all?
PH: Definitely PC, so we are putting out what is called the Creation Kit. Our new engine is called the Creation Engine, the mod tools we are putting out are the Creation Kit. And as with our previous game, they are the tools we use to build the game and put the content in the game, you will be able to use on the PC to mod to your heart's content. We love our mod community and the stuff that they do and want to continue to support them.
If we could make them available for Xbox and PS3, we definitely would, but those consoles quite honestly just don't work that way right now in terms of being able to use the kind of tools we do on PC and then put that content on Xbox.
SV: I have a question about music. Oblivion and Morrowind have been known for their phenomenal soundtracks. I'm wondering if with Skyrim being a Norse mythology kind of game, are you going to employ any Viking Metal such as Tier, Corporal [unintelligible], Eisengaard, etc.
PH: Are those bands? I'm going to assume those are awesome bands that I'm simply not yet aware of. I think what I'm going to do is let you set your own soundtrack to the game. You hop your iPod....put on whatever music you feel and it will be better than the humble offerings we include with the game.
SV: I'll send you a link.
OD: We had some questions about combat and I'm not going to go into too many specifics here, but what kind of combat changes are we gonna see, or is it going to be the same kind of combat as we had in Oblivion. There was one question specifically about doing damage to other people around you.
PH: Damage around you like, friendly fire kind of thing?
SV: Locational damage.
PH: Locational damage we don't do. So, we don't distinguish between arms and legs and torso and heads and so forth. Our game is complicated enough as it is without trying to calaculate all that stuff....Yeah there is friendly fire, so be careful with your bows and arrows and magic spells so you don't zap the wrong guy. And generally speaking you'll find that companions, allies or guards, things of that nature, will be a little bit lenient, so a wayward mace strike that accidentally conks them, will not have them attacking you right away, but if you keep it up they're going to assume you're going after them and that will be your problem to deal with.
I talked a little bit about the combat, but obviously, like I said, with all the different options for dual wielding and weapons and so forth, you're gonna see a lot of varied enemies in terms of the kinds of challenges you're gonna be facing. Using different kinds of spells, combinations of weapons, switching from one to the other, all of that stuff. So, I think folks are gonna really like it. And we wanted it to feel, both through the combat system and through the animation system, we added Kill Moves, I don't know if you guys are aware of that. Kind of like we did with VATS in Fallout, including the ability to get randomly when you go to finish somebody off there's a chance you'll get special kill moves, depending on what kind of weapon you're carrying, what kind of enemy you're fighting, whether - you get a different one for a person, vs a wolf, or a dragon - but we'll cut to different first and third-person animations and camera shots that kind of make the combat feel just more visceral, instead of just big guys wearing armor and whacking on each other.
OD: Speaking of armor, one of the questions that we have from the old school Oblivion is, "Is there going to be horse armor in this game?"
BL: I bought it
PH: I was about to say. That's a running joke. The funniest part about that is when I decided I had my genius idea for an April Fool's joke a couple years ago, where I made all the Oblivion DLC half price except for Horse Armor, which was twice as much. The number of press guys who emailed me to ask me if it was actually true, because they had all bought Horse Armor and verified the price for themselves. I was like see, you son of a guns, you laughed at us and then you went out and bought it. I would say unless I can come up with a really good way to make that a really good joke, probably not horse armor.
OD: You know you can make it like My Little Pony and that would be just epically awesome right there. It would combine two of the best games ever, Elder Scrolls and of course, Barbie Ponycorn Adventures.
PH: Coming together in one unholy alliance.
BL: Unholy for sure.
OD: Yes. And the questions they keep coming in. One of them that we're kind of interested about is whether or not you prefer console or PC as far as playing the game yourself.
PH: Personally, I prefer console, because of my setup at home, I prefer flopping down on a couch. I stare at a PC all day and I prefer having a wireless controller and sitting in my big reclining comfy couch and playing on Xbox. That's my platform of choice. But I do play on PC as well, I play on PC at work, but at home my preference is 360.
OD: I kind of like the 360 myself. That's my wheelhouse as they say. Pete can you stick around for a little bit? I think you mentioned you might be able to stay just for a little while longer, right?
PH: Sure, as long as you need me.
OD: Hey...we've got a new guest host, don't we, guys?
BL: He replaced Bill Roeper.
OD: We can never replace Bill. Alright folks, we'll be right back. You're listening to bulletproof radio.
****
SV: The world's only terrestrial gaming and news call in show. You're listening to bulletproof radio. And you asked for it, so that's a little bit of metal for you right there.
OD: French metal
SV: French metal, that's all you need to know. I love how there are all these people in the chatroom saying all these questions that have been asked before. Yet, we've asked what, ten of the questions that were in the forums that have never been answered before?
PH: Wait a minute, are you trying to tell me that we've done what they've asked and they're not happy? I have to say in the 12 years I've been at Bethesda, this is the first time that has ever happened. That is so weird. I was gonna go to the forums but then I got sidetracked
[jokes about the commercials]
OD: You're a Charlette native, aren't you?
PH: I consider myself a Charlette native, I wasn't born there, but I grew up there.
OD: I'm just north of that in Statesville, NC.
PH: I know it quite well.
[jokes]
OD: For those of you just joining us, we're talking to Pete Hines. He's basically the man behind Bethesda as far as the PR goes, right, you handle all the PR and all the good stuff?
PH: I do. And on the internal stuff that we've done, being BGS, Morrowind, Oblivion, FO3 and now Skyrim, I've always had a specific role in that where I'm the one who generally speaking, does the demos. I just got back from 12 days in Europe doing cover stories and demos and interviews and stuff. So I play a more specific role on those titles, but for all of Bethesda as well.
OD: One of the questions we were asked about is, the biggest challenges that you all have faced as far as developing this game. I know that's kind of a trite question, but give us some examples of one of the biggest hurdles that you've had to do.
PH: The biggest hurdle we have to overcome is always the size of the game in and of itself. It is difficult to appreciate the literal infinite number of things - combinations of things that one can do in the game. And having to go through and account for all of those. Everything that comes up and trying to test a game this huge and tweaking one little number, one little variable and then suddenly finding that it has wreaked havoc in various parts of the game in ways you couldn't possibly contemplate because of this, that or the other.
The amount that a watermelon can roll and that's suddenly causing havoc because watermelons are going rolling off of carts and causing horses to collide with them or carts are now tipping over - who knows? So, just the size of the game and all of the stuff and trying to wrangle that and make it all behave itself is a monumental task.
One that we've gotten better and better at we continue to make these games, but I think it can't be overstated enough - just what a huge task it is for the team to pull all this content together and make it work and make it polished. They do an awesome job, but it's a ton of work.
BL: We have another question that no matter how many times you try to ignore it, it just keeps coming back. You may or may not be able to answer it. Obviously we are spoiler-free. Necromancers - faction and can we use their spells in Skyrim?
PH: Necromancers - yes, there are Necromancers in the game. The four main factions - four main factions? Yeah, four "main" is the right way to phrase that because there are some smaller groups that you can see and come across, but the four main factions that you actually join and have stories and stuff related to them are the Warrior's Guild, the Mage's Guild, the Thieves' Guild and the beloved Dark Brotherhood. There is no Necromancer's Guild. That shouldn't be a surprise to anybody. But they're in the game, they do have spells and they are spells that you can find and use.
OD: Again, since we have this interactive opportunity here to take questions - by the way, we appreciate your candor in this, we appreciate your answering the questions that we throw at you. That's a hard job, I know, but it is kind of your job to answer those questions.
PH: [laughs] Kind of. Other than it being the title of my job...
OD: Somebody was asking about specs for the PC. What is the basemant that we're looking at there as far as what do we have to have in order to run it, do you think?
PH: We aim for Vic20 and anything above that...[laughs] I would say that number one there's a reason we don't give out specs, which is that we are in the process right now where we are trying to finish content and move to a phase where we are just optimizing, bug fixing and balancing and once we get into that you're able to do more testing on the PC and find out what will actually run it.
I would say that if you have a PC that is the equivalent of a 360 - if you're enough of a PC gamer you probably know what that means - then you'll be fine. If you have a really awesome PC or a brand new graphics card that you just bought, we will take full advantage of that thing and you can change all your graphics settings and draw distance out to ridiculous things and it will look and run awesome.
OD: With DX11 and all that?
PH: Yeah, so the newer your PC, the better. If you're five years old, you could be in a little trouble, but you know I don't want to cause anybody to run out to Dell and buy a new machine right now - Unless you're using this as an excuse to tell your wife or whatever - by all means tell her I told you you had to, otherwise I would wait and we will put them out just as soon as we can and let everyone know, but we don't like to give false info and we want to make sure we properly define what the min spec is and what the recommended spec is
[jokes]
OD: One of the hallmarks of your games are the game guides. There's a question about whether or not we're going to have a hardcover edition of a game guide. Now is that something that you all handle on Bethesda's side, or do you usually farm that out to someone else?
PH: The answer is sort of both. We are working with Prima again on a strategy guide for Skyrim. I don't think we've actually talked about this at all, so here's another tidbit that everybody can talk about. We are using David Hodgson to write our strategy guide again. He wrote the guides for Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas. He is my absolute favorite strategy guide guy, ever. He obsesses over our game like we obssess over our game. And he puts in a Herculean amount of work to write these amazing guides. He's done an amazing job on the Skyrim one. We'd love to do a CE version of the strategy guide like we did for Vegas and Fallout 3. I don't think that's been announced yet, but you would be right to assume that if we can do one, we will.
OD: Feel free to say no comment on this one, but it's another one that comes up. Vampires and Werewolves.
PH: Let them wait.
OD: There you go. You're gonna have to wait for the game.
PH: Stop trying to spoil the whole thing before it comes out. And as I've said before the show, I'm giving that for answers where I could very easily say, "no," but I'm giving that answers because I've reached the point on some of this stuff where I'm just not going to answer even if I could say no - sometimes you just don't want to spoil stuff one way or the other.
BL: Sleepless nights are a good thing when it comes to anticipation.
PH: It's honestly not out of meanness or spite. It's literally just like - can we please have a few things that are not known about the game before it comes out, when it comes to some of the bigger stuff, or even some of the smaller stuff, like are there beast children or not.
OD: What about a crafting system? Is there going to be crafting in this and if so, tell us a little bit about it.
PH: Oh do we have crafting! We got crafting out the wazoo.
OD: Is that a new perk, that you can have it out the wazoo?
PH: I take that back they're gonna run off and quote that. Crafting we have includes a variety of things. There is a Smithing skill in the game. The way Smithing works is, you can find a pickaxe and go mine ore and veins of different types. There's probably a dozen or so different materials that you can mine. And you can mine those things, then take that ore, turn it into ingots or bars. You can then take those bars and use them at a variety of things like a forge, like a workbench and you can do any number of things.
You can create new armor and weapons. You can strengthen, sharpen or improve existing armor and existing weapons. So the Smithing skill, the more perks you pick in the Smithing skill, the more types of materials you can work with to create new armor and weapons.
OD: Can you even go so far as to make "epic" weapons? Can you craft epic stuff?
PH: You can take it the whole route, where you kill a bear, take its hide, take it to a tanning station, skin it, turn it into leather and leather strips, go out with your pickaxe, mine metals, get awesome at Smithing, create some awesome dragon armor, or daedric armor and then take that and go enchant it using your enchanting skill and enchant it using your enchanting skill, then put some awesome enchantment on it, go back and sharpen it , improve with other -- it's ridiculous. So if you're into that, absolutely, you can -- Enchanting is a whole other skill where you can take items and disenchant them to learn the enchantments. You'll then be able to apply those enchantments to other items. Getting better at Enchanting makes you better at using enchanted things, so you get more use out of them. You also pick the perks you get better at enchantments and the enchantments that you can do.
Alchemy is back, you can pick ingredients, make potions, make poisons. There's another crafting thing that we have. You can now cook. You could always find food in previous TES games, find venison off of deer or whatever, but you can now take those food items and when you find certain cookfires in the world, you'll get a list of recipes you can make and each recipe has the ingredients you need. So you go out and find those ingredients, it will tell you which ones you have and which ones you don't and then you can cook food and those cooked foods will give you way better benefits than if you would have just eaten the raw ingredients. So you can eat some vegetables and venison raw and you'll get a little bit of health back, but if you took that stuff and made venison stew with it, you'll get this awesome thing that will restore your stamina and health one point every second for like 720 seconds or whatever it is. So it's almost like a potion in a way. And there's no skill associated with that so you can just cook as one of the things that you do.
So all of these are things that you can spend as much or as little time as you want in the game depending on what you're into and what you want to do.
OD: Where the screenshots that were released that show a pauldrons - was that kind of an example of that kind of thing?
PH: Um-hmm, every type of armor you can wear in the game, you can make. You start off being able to make a few simple kinds of things like leather and armor, but then if you want to get better at it and use better materials, then you need to pick the perks in your perk tree for Smithing that will allow you to work with those materials and then those will be unlocked so the next time you go to a forge, you can work with steel.
OD: You wouldn't want to work with Steel. He's a pain.
PH: In a nod to this game which is really an homage to him
BL: You just made his day.
PH: It must be that soft
SV: Wait and see what happens when you polish me up.
BL: There's been some questions about the AI and some of them say, do the guards know everything? And some are just asking about the A.I. in general. What can you tell us about the AI in Skyrim?
PH: The guards know everything thing - it is true that once you commit a crime, if you're spotted doing it, then it's something that guards know about. It's far too confusing a gameplay mechanic to see guards and have one of them at this gate know what you did and one of them at the other gate not know. It's just a big mess.
One of the things you can do is if you commit a crime, we will tag which people are witnesses to that crime and if you actually go and kill off all the people who were witnesses, we will tell you that the last witness has been eliminated and your bounty or crime sort of gets wiped off. You're no longer accountable for what you did because you removed all the witnesses. So it's kind of a cool, creepy, if you want to be nefarious and knock off people who can finger you..
OD: So you can be a jerk in this?
PH: Oh yeah, we wouldn't create a game where you couldn't -- we got the Dark Brotherhood for goodness sake, it's a shadowy group of people who kill for fun and profit.
OD: And it's an homage to Steel Valor, so it has to be a jerk.
BL: Aw Steel is just the softest guy ever
SV: I'd take a bullet for you, Pete
[discussion of legal matter]
OD: Pete, we'd like to thank you - you spent a lot of time with us this evening, we got a lot of questions answered. When does Skyrim come out, can you tell us the approximate date?
PH: No matter where in the world you are, you will be playing the game on 11-11-11 this year. On your pC, your Xbox and your 360. And we just announced that we will have a hands on for consumers at PAX, so if you are going to PAX, I will be there. I hope you will come by and play Skyrim, play Rage - we will do a special one-time demo of the game on Saturday.
Episode 148 of Bulletproof Radio.
PH = Pete Hines
OD = Option Disabled
BL = Bob Lobblaw
SV = Steel Valor
OD: Tell us a little bit about what we can expect in Skyrim?
PH: As you said, Skyrim is the sequel to Oblivion, it's been five years since we put out an Elder Scrolls game. So it is the next in a long line of big, "go anywhere you want, do anything you want," epic role playing games. You get to create whatever kind of character you'd like and we give you a big fantasy sandbox to go and play in. And it's all about - the kind of vibe we were going for is kind of - Nordic, barbarian warriors fighting dragons in the snow and mountains.
OD: Now when you say "Nordic," SteelValor perks up immediately.
PH: I know he does, that's just for him. [laughs] This game, honestly is really more of a tribute to him than anything else.
SV: It's true, because I've been begging for your games since - Morrowind won GOTY, I believe.
PH: We won GOTY in 2006 for Oblivion and it's also a bit of a follow up for FO3 which was GOTY in 2008 and it's also a "go where you want, do whatever you want game and so we learned a lot of things from that game as well that we've taken and instituted in Skyrim.
BL: It's really hard to believe that you actually went on the record and said that the game is for Steel because now, not only does he tell us about his family lineage every show, but now --
OD: -- going back to Charlemagne --
SV: It's gonna be my ringtone [laughs]
OD: Well, tell us what you can about what has happened since Oblivion. You mentioned dragons and Nordic people, what's going on there with the story?
PH: Skyrim takes place 200 years after the events in Oblivion.. so I hope I'm not spoiling anything for follks who haven't finished Oblivion or are going back to play it. If you haven't finished Oblivion, you might want to turn down your radio for a second.
Obviously, the line of emperors ends at the end of Oblivion when Martin Septim sacrifices himself to save Tamriel from the threat of Oblivion. 200 years has passed, the Empire has kind of fallen off. Skyrim takes place in the province of Skyrim, which is the northernmost province in Tamriel and it tells the story of the prophesied return of Alduin, who is the one who is said will come back and eat the world.
While dragons have been talked about in all the Elder Scrolls games, they've never actually been in any of the official Elder Scrolls games. They were in Redguard, but that was kind of an off-shoot. So, the dragons are back and it has to do with the one Dragonborn, who happens to be you, who is said to be the one who can return and save Tamriel from the threat of Alduin and the dragons.It doesn't continue the exact storyline of Oblivion and what was going on in that game, it's part of the overarching story of what's going on in the world of the Elder Scrolls.
If you want to learn a little bit more about what takes place between the time of Oblivion and Skyrim, you should read the two novels, the first novel that came out, the Infernal City and the Lord of Souls, the second novel which is scheduled to come out next month, I believe. And both of those novels take place in the intervening time, they don't follow the exact storyline but they tell a bit of the story in between. We like for every Elder Scrolls game to stand on its own. So you don't have to play any of our previous games to come in and know exactly what's going on in this one.
OD: That's a good thing, too, because when I played Oblivion, I had no idea what the Elder Scrolls were, even though I've played many PC games, so I like that aspect of things.
BL: I know you guys have had a lot of games, you've had a lot of success and I know you're talking about the protagonist in this game. What are some of the characteristics that you find resonate the most with the game players, that they connect with the protagonist, whether specific attributes or character flaws or abilities that you find that people connect to more than others?
PH: One of the things that we are very careful about with the Elder Scrolls is that we are very careful to never define "you." That is, we're never going to put too much of a wrapping around who you are or what you've done or what kind of character you're playing. because we want that to be all about you and we want you're choices, your actions to define your experience in the world. We talk about TES games being massively single-player games. And the reason is that it's like an MMO in that it's this big massive world and there's all these characters that you can go and talk to. But unlike an MMO everything revolves around you and what you do.
We want ultimately the story of a game like Skyrim to be your story. If you want to play the main quest, go ahead. There's 25 hours, you know, plus or minus, of stuff you can do just playing the main quest. And then there's all these factions you can join. And then there's all these miscellaneous and side quests. And then there are 100-some dungeons -- 150 -- I don't even remember what the number is anymore, I've lost track. All those things are up to you. If you want to play the game for 30 hours picking flowers and making potions, go ahead. If that's what you want your story to be, go ahead. We don't want to define who you are or what you have to be in this game.
And I really think that freedom is something that has resonated with people. That they get to be who they want in the game and we don't do it for them. I think that's really key and I think people enjoy sort of pushing the boundaries of, what does "go where I want" really mean? And I think the more they see that and play that the more they're like "Wow, I really CAN do whatever I want."
OD: One of the hallmarks of your game is having an avid fan base, obviously, and we've gone to your forums and checked out some of the questions and this one comes straight from the forums. Apparently it's one that they say has never been answered and maybe we can get an answer out of you now. Is there going to be a survival or hardcoe mode in Skyrim, in other words is there an option for us to be forced to eat, drink sleep in order to stay alive, kind of like in Fallout New Vegas.
PH: We do not currently have anything like that planned. As of right now, no. And I appreciate there's probably folks out there who would like that, otherwise they wouldn't be asking. But I think folks need to appreciate that with a game as massive as this is. And let me state this unequivocally, it is the most ridiculously huge game we have ever undertaken -- that adding a new mode that now changes a whole bunch of things that you have to test and and worry about is not something that we felt we could take on and do justice to. It is simply so huge as it is that it is a yeoman's work to get it done as it's currently designed.
BL: One of the other questions and it seems that it gets repeated over and over again. At first we weren't sure we wanted to ask it, but it's been asked so many times that we have to throw it out there. Will there be Arenas? Can you say yes or no, unequivocally.
PH: We don't have really the Arena like it was designed in Oblivion. There isn't like a big gladiator thing. That was kind of a specific thing to Oblivion. So -- lots of other stuff to do.
OD: Oh yeah. Tell us a little bit about your interaction with fans. Because it seems like you're actually pretty proactive with it, putting stuff out there on Twitter.
PH: I try to be. If I'm being honest, one of the things that as this company has grown over the years and as my role has evolved and changed somewhat, the hardcoe fans could tell you about the days way back in 99 and 2000 when I was always on the forums every day, talking to folks and I do enjoy that interaction, and you know, my time is just not such that I can wade into the forums. You guys have been on there and you knwo that it is not something to be undertaken lightly.
And so, I like the fact that via twitter I can try and help clarify -- if anything I get more questions than I could possibly [answer] I don't think folks understand number one that if I try and answer them all it's simply all I would do and I notice that when I do answer questions, all it gets me is more questions.
And the other problem is that we try and walk a very careful line. So many people ask about spoilers and they fail to appreciate that we try very hard to have there be lots of things that you find out once you get into the game, so that you don't know about everything going in. For us that's a buzzkill -- that nothing you come across or stumble across is a surprise because absolutely everybody has asked us about everything. I don't like avoiding answers, I don't like having to evade questions.
OD: It's easier just to give the answer but at the same time you're trying to protect the integrity of the game.
PH: Exactly, it ends up where people then know everything but then the game just isn't -- trust me when I tell you it's never as fun. We found this with Morrowind and ever since MOrrowind we started pulling back more and more on how much we reveal or talk about because we want there to be a lot of discovery when you're playing the game that hasn't been revealed in a hundred press interviews or podcasts like this one.
BL: And one of things that's funny is, sometimes fans get upset because you won't answer the question and then when you answer the question they get upset because it's a spoiler - it's a fine line that you have to walk --
OD: -- that's a fine line between love and hate right there.
PH: Exactly, so I try to clarify things that have come out, more than anything, like little nuances that we have shown folks or I know press guys have seen or probably have written about or at least know about, to clarify little things, but I try as best I can to avoid stuff and sometimes I don't answer questions even when I could give a simple "No" just because I don't want to spoil it for folks whether or not stuff is in the game that they may or may not know about.
OD: If you don't mind, we've got a couple more questions that have been submitted to us. Of course some people found out that they were going to be able to interact - of course we are the only interactive gaming and technology radio show.
Can you actually alter character's appearances such as hair, face paint or facial hair later in the game after exiting the character creation menu?
PH: We have a ton of of stuff that you can do when you create your character. You guys have probably seen some of the character stuff we've put out. I will give you a nice little tease for your audience and for all of our TES fans listening, which is that Todd Howard came up with this genius idea for some screenshots to put out that we are gonna be putting out very soon and are absolutely awesome. So if you are into characters and races and what they can look like, you definitely want to stay tuned to Elderscrolls.com and the Elder Council on Facebook because we have some really cool stuff coming up really soon.
However, to answer the actual question, once you create your character, no -- there is no further modifying it afterward. So be sure you're really into that face paint, those scars you picked, the hairstyle you want, once you pick it, you pick it.
SV: Do you really want that blonde ponytail I think is what you're getting at
PH: That's what I'm saying, do you really want that dark eyeshadow on your male Nord because you may come to regret it.
BL: --do you really want that chin squirrel like SteelValor
SV: Hey back off my chin squirrel [laughs]
OD: Stemming off of that is there going to be -- are you planning on releasing a character generator before the game to kind of bide people's time and build a teaser for
PH: No, but if you want to wrap your head around some of the possibilities of things, stay tuned for Todd's Great Idea, that will certainly show off a lot of what is possible. But releasing something that allows you to create the character outside of the game and then pull it in, or even trying to pull off what we do in the game in some kind of web-based utility is just not something we've got the time to do, so no.
BL: We've another question that just keeps coming up over and over again. Beast children? Beast race?
PH: You know what, on that one, I'm gonna say, let them wait. They'll find out one way or another when they play the game.
OD: Yes! we have a bell for that very purpose. Oh boy and that may be a little bit gold for some of our listeners, but that's OK, they'll figure it out.
BL: He's doing you a favor guys, but the lack of spoilers when you actually get in the game.
OD: Let's talk a little bit about the game itself. They were asking about beast children for some reason, but what about the monsters? How many monsters -- different types do you think we're gonna see?
PH: Is a lot a number?
OD: Is that more than a breadbox, is that more than 50? More than 5? Less than 2000?
PH: More than 5, less than 500. We do a lot of different variations on stuff, so a skeleton or a draugr, there isn't just one type and you'll come across different types of those. There are some really cool new creatures that you'll face that you haven't seen or fought before. I think you've probably -- hopefully you saw -- we put out a screenshot of the Ice Wraith very early on, which is just a super cool new creature that you're gonna face that's specific to Skyrim. There are some other ones that you're gonna see.
I'm toeing a little bit of a line here also just because we have cover stories coming out in a bunch of magazines around the world, like any time now. And so I'm also loathe to steal thunder from those guys who have the scoop on some cool new stuff and stuff they got to play and I don't want to be revealing details that they kind of wanted first shot at. But there are a ton, they are really awesome. The dragons clearly are the ones that have gotten a lot of attention, but we've also shown things like giants and mammoths which are also super cool, not necessarily hostile to you, so you can decide whether you want to take on the challenge of beatin' down a mammoth. But there's a lot of cool stuff and it's very varied.
And then all the NPCs - I think that gets overlooked often when you're talking about opponents - but one of the things we've done with this combat system and having dual wielding and magic and weapon combos and all of that is that all of those are now options for NPCs that you're gonna face. It's not just going to be either a magic caster or a guy with a sword and shield, that it will be folks who will mix and match and that makes combat and enemies much more varied as well.
OD: How many dungeons and caves are we looking at here? I"m gonna put you down again for a number anywhere between 5 and 500, the more specific you can get --
PH: How about this for a number. I'm gonna say that there are -- the size of the space is about the same as Oblivion, but there is just a ton more content within that same space than ever before.
OD: Oh wow, so you have about the same kind of explorable area there --- Did I lose you?
PH: No, I'm still here. It is probably several times larger than Fallout 3 in terms of the number of quests, I want to say, like the number of quests, well just miscellaneous, freeform quests all told there's about 6 or 7 times as many in Skyrim than in Fallout 3.
And the number of dungeons is somewhere in the hundred - something, I don't even remember what the last number was I saw. But there are just a ton of them and they are some of the best gameplay in the game because we have so many more level designers working on dungeons than we did on Fallout 3 or Oblivion. So I think folks are really gonna enjoy the variety and the challenges that they're gonna see in dungeons.
OD: I got a question, what kind of star power can we expect in the audio? Who is actually doing voice overs.
PH: An excellent question and one that we are going to answer very, very soon. I think I just saw a draft of the press release come across my desk the other day and that announcement is forthcoming soon.
OD: Pete, we weren't supposed to talk about that. I thought I was under an NDA for that.
PH: [Laughs] Linda Carter has already talked about the fact that she is working on the game again. We love Linda and use here as often as we can, so it's probably safe to mention her. You probably recognize the voice of Max von Sydow in the teaser trailer and the full trailer that we put out. He is involved in the game, but there are some other really great names that you will be impressed with. And the total VO cast for this game is significantly bigger than any game we've worked on in the past. So whereas in Oblivion the number of voice actors was somewhere in the teens, on Skyrim it's in the 70s. So we spent a lot of time - we had three studios working around the clock for a couple of months, just to get all the VO recording done. So it is well worth your time to give it a listen.
BL: You're listening to Bulletproof Radio and we are talking to Pete Hines, the man, the myth and the legend, and he is talking all about Skyrim. Now Pete, one of the other questions that resonates with the community is mod tools. PC and Xbox, or just PC, or maybe no mod tools at all?
PH: Definitely PC, so we are putting out what is called the Creation Kit. Our new engine is called the Creation Engine, the mod tools we are putting out are the Creation Kit. And as with our previous game, they are the tools we use to build the game and put the content in the game, you will be able to use on the PC to mod to your heart's content. We love our mod community and the stuff that they do and want to continue to support them.
If we could make them available for Xbox and PS3, we definitely would, but those consoles quite honestly just don't work that way right now in terms of being able to use the kind of tools we do on PC and then put that content on Xbox.
SV: I have a question about music. Oblivion and Morrowind have been known for their phenomenal soundtracks. I'm wondering if with Skyrim being a Norse mythology kind of game, are you going to employ any Viking Metal such as Tier, Corporal [unintelligible], Eisengaard, etc.
PH: Are those bands? I'm going to assume those are awesome bands that I'm simply not yet aware of. I think what I'm going to do is let you set your own soundtrack to the game. You hop your iPod....put on whatever music you feel and it will be better than the humble offerings we include with the game.
SV: I'll send you a link.
OD: We had some questions about combat and I'm not going to go into too many specifics here, but what kind of combat changes are we gonna see, or is it going to be the same kind of combat as we had in Oblivion. There was one question specifically about doing damage to other people around you.
PH: Damage around you like, friendly fire kind of thing?
SV: Locational damage.
PH: Locational damage we don't do. So, we don't distinguish between arms and legs and torso and heads and so forth. Our game is complicated enough as it is without trying to calaculate all that stuff....Yeah there is friendly fire, so be careful with your bows and arrows and magic spells so you don't zap the wrong guy. And generally speaking you'll find that companions, allies or guards, things of that nature, will be a little bit lenient, so a wayward mace strike that accidentally conks them, will not have them attacking you right away, but if you keep it up they're going to assume you're going after them and that will be your problem to deal with.
I talked a little bit about the combat, but obviously, like I said, with all the different options for dual wielding and weapons and so forth, you're gonna see a lot of varied enemies in terms of the kinds of challenges you're gonna be facing. Using different kinds of spells, combinations of weapons, switching from one to the other, all of that stuff. So, I think folks are gonna really like it. And we wanted it to feel, both through the combat system and through the animation system, we added Kill Moves, I don't know if you guys are aware of that. Kind of like we did with VATS in Fallout, including the ability to get randomly when you go to finish somebody off there's a chance you'll get special kill moves, depending on what kind of weapon you're carrying, what kind of enemy you're fighting, whether - you get a different one for a person, vs a wolf, or a dragon - but we'll cut to different first and third-person animations and camera shots that kind of make the combat feel just more visceral, instead of just big guys wearing armor and whacking on each other.
OD: Speaking of armor, one of the questions that we have from the old school Oblivion is, "Is there going to be horse armor in this game?"
BL: I bought it
PH: I was about to say. That's a running joke. The funniest part about that is when I decided I had my genius idea for an April Fool's joke a couple years ago, where I made all the Oblivion DLC half price except for Horse Armor, which was twice as much. The number of press guys who emailed me to ask me if it was actually true, because they had all bought Horse Armor and verified the price for themselves. I was like see, you son of a guns, you laughed at us and then you went out and bought it. I would say unless I can come up with a really good way to make that a really good joke, probably not horse armor.
OD: You know you can make it like My Little Pony and that would be just epically awesome right there. It would combine two of the best games ever, Elder Scrolls and of course, Barbie Ponycorn Adventures.
PH: Coming together in one unholy alliance.
BL: Unholy for sure.
OD: Yes. And the questions they keep coming in. One of them that we're kind of interested about is whether or not you prefer console or PC as far as playing the game yourself.
PH: Personally, I prefer console, because of my setup at home, I prefer flopping down on a couch. I stare at a PC all day and I prefer having a wireless controller and sitting in my big reclining comfy couch and playing on Xbox. That's my platform of choice. But I do play on PC as well, I play on PC at work, but at home my preference is 360.
OD: I kind of like the 360 myself. That's my wheelhouse as they say. Pete can you stick around for a little bit? I think you mentioned you might be able to stay just for a little while longer, right?
PH: Sure, as long as you need me.
OD: Hey...we've got a new guest host, don't we, guys?
BL: He replaced Bill Roeper.
OD: We can never replace Bill. Alright folks, we'll be right back. You're listening to bulletproof radio.
****
SV: The world's only terrestrial gaming and news call in show. You're listening to bulletproof radio. And you asked for it, so that's a little bit of metal for you right there.
OD: French metal
SV: French metal, that's all you need to know. I love how there are all these people in the chatroom saying all these questions that have been asked before. Yet, we've asked what, ten of the questions that were in the forums that have never been answered before?
PH: Wait a minute, are you trying to tell me that we've done what they've asked and they're not happy? I have to say in the 12 years I've been at Bethesda, this is the first time that has ever happened. That is so weird. I was gonna go to the forums but then I got sidetracked
[jokes about the commercials]
OD: You're a Charlette native, aren't you?
PH: I consider myself a Charlette native, I wasn't born there, but I grew up there.
OD: I'm just north of that in Statesville, NC.
PH: I know it quite well.
[jokes]
OD: For those of you just joining us, we're talking to Pete Hines. He's basically the man behind Bethesda as far as the PR goes, right, you handle all the PR and all the good stuff?
PH: I do. And on the internal stuff that we've done, being BGS, Morrowind, Oblivion, FO3 and now Skyrim, I've always had a specific role in that where I'm the one who generally speaking, does the demos. I just got back from 12 days in Europe doing cover stories and demos and interviews and stuff. So I play a more specific role on those titles, but for all of Bethesda as well.
OD: One of the questions we were asked about is, the biggest challenges that you all have faced as far as developing this game. I know that's kind of a trite question, but give us some examples of one of the biggest hurdles that you've had to do.
PH: The biggest hurdle we have to overcome is always the size of the game in and of itself. It is difficult to appreciate the literal infinite number of things - combinations of things that one can do in the game. And having to go through and account for all of those. Everything that comes up and trying to test a game this huge and tweaking one little number, one little variable and then suddenly finding that it has wreaked havoc in various parts of the game in ways you couldn't possibly contemplate because of this, that or the other.
The amount that a watermelon can roll and that's suddenly causing havoc because watermelons are going rolling off of carts and causing horses to collide with them or carts are now tipping over - who knows? So, just the size of the game and all of the stuff and trying to wrangle that and make it all behave itself is a monumental task.
One that we've gotten better and better at we continue to make these games, but I think it can't be overstated enough - just what a huge task it is for the team to pull all this content together and make it work and make it polished. They do an awesome job, but it's a ton of work.
BL: We have another question that no matter how many times you try to ignore it, it just keeps coming back. You may or may not be able to answer it. Obviously we are spoiler-free. Necromancers - faction and can we use their spells in Skyrim?
PH: Necromancers - yes, there are Necromancers in the game. The four main factions - four main factions? Yeah, four "main" is the right way to phrase that because there are some smaller groups that you can see and come across, but the four main factions that you actually join and have stories and stuff related to them are the Warrior's Guild, the Mage's Guild, the Thieves' Guild and the beloved Dark Brotherhood. There is no Necromancer's Guild. That shouldn't be a surprise to anybody. But they're in the game, they do have spells and they are spells that you can find and use.
OD: Again, since we have this interactive opportunity here to take questions - by the way, we appreciate your candor in this, we appreciate your answering the questions that we throw at you. That's a hard job, I know, but it is kind of your job to answer those questions.
PH: [laughs] Kind of. Other than it being the title of my job...
OD: Somebody was asking about specs for the PC. What is the basemant that we're looking at there as far as what do we have to have in order to run it, do you think?
PH: We aim for Vic20 and anything above that...[laughs] I would say that number one there's a reason we don't give out specs, which is that we are in the process right now where we are trying to finish content and move to a phase where we are just optimizing, bug fixing and balancing and once we get into that you're able to do more testing on the PC and find out what will actually run it.
I would say that if you have a PC that is the equivalent of a 360 - if you're enough of a PC gamer you probably know what that means - then you'll be fine. If you have a really awesome PC or a brand new graphics card that you just bought, we will take full advantage of that thing and you can change all your graphics settings and draw distance out to ridiculous things and it will look and run awesome.
OD: With DX11 and all that?
PH: Yeah, so the newer your PC, the better. If you're five years old, you could be in a little trouble, but you know I don't want to cause anybody to run out to Dell and buy a new machine right now - Unless you're using this as an excuse to tell your wife or whatever - by all means tell her I told you you had to, otherwise I would wait and we will put them out just as soon as we can and let everyone know, but we don't like to give false info and we want to make sure we properly define what the min spec is and what the recommended spec is
[jokes]
OD: One of the hallmarks of your games are the game guides. There's a question about whether or not we're going to have a hardcover edition of a game guide. Now is that something that you all handle on Bethesda's side, or do you usually farm that out to someone else?
PH: The answer is sort of both. We are working with Prima again on a strategy guide for Skyrim. I don't think we've actually talked about this at all, so here's another tidbit that everybody can talk about. We are using David Hodgson to write our strategy guide again. He wrote the guides for Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas. He is my absolute favorite strategy guide guy, ever. He obsesses over our game like we obssess over our game. And he puts in a Herculean amount of work to write these amazing guides. He's done an amazing job on the Skyrim one. We'd love to do a CE version of the strategy guide like we did for Vegas and Fallout 3. I don't think that's been announced yet, but you would be right to assume that if we can do one, we will.
OD: Feel free to say no comment on this one, but it's another one that comes up. Vampires and Werewolves.
PH: Let them wait.
OD: There you go. You're gonna have to wait for the game.
PH: Stop trying to spoil the whole thing before it comes out. And as I've said before the show, I'm giving that for answers where I could very easily say, "no," but I'm giving that answers because I've reached the point on some of this stuff where I'm just not going to answer even if I could say no - sometimes you just don't want to spoil stuff one way or the other.
BL: Sleepless nights are a good thing when it comes to anticipation.
PH: It's honestly not out of meanness or spite. It's literally just like - can we please have a few things that are not known about the game before it comes out, when it comes to some of the bigger stuff, or even some of the smaller stuff, like are there beast children or not.
OD: What about a crafting system? Is there going to be crafting in this and if so, tell us a little bit about it.
PH: Oh do we have crafting! We got crafting out the wazoo.
OD: Is that a new perk, that you can have it out the wazoo?
PH: I take that back they're gonna run off and quote that. Crafting we have includes a variety of things. There is a Smithing skill in the game. The way Smithing works is, you can find a pickaxe and go mine ore and veins of different types. There's probably a dozen or so different materials that you can mine. And you can mine those things, then take that ore, turn it into ingots or bars. You can then take those bars and use them at a variety of things like a forge, like a workbench and you can do any number of things.
You can create new armor and weapons. You can strengthen, sharpen or improve existing armor and existing weapons. So the Smithing skill, the more perks you pick in the Smithing skill, the more types of materials you can work with to create new armor and weapons.
OD: Can you even go so far as to make "epic" weapons? Can you craft epic stuff?
PH: You can take it the whole route, where you kill a bear, take its hide, take it to a tanning station, skin it, turn it into leather and leather strips, go out with your pickaxe, mine metals, get awesome at Smithing, create some awesome dragon armor, or daedric armor and then take that and go enchant it using your enchanting skill and enchant it using your enchanting skill, then put some awesome enchantment on it, go back and sharpen it , improve with other -- it's ridiculous. So if you're into that, absolutely, you can -- Enchanting is a whole other skill where you can take items and disenchant them to learn the enchantments. You'll then be able to apply those enchantments to other items. Getting better at Enchanting makes you better at using enchanted things, so you get more use out of them. You also pick the perks you get better at enchantments and the enchantments that you can do.
Alchemy is back, you can pick ingredients, make potions, make poisons. There's another crafting thing that we have. You can now cook. You could always find food in previous TES games, find venison off of deer or whatever, but you can now take those food items and when you find certain cookfires in the world, you'll get a list of recipes you can make and each recipe has the ingredients you need. So you go out and find those ingredients, it will tell you which ones you have and which ones you don't and then you can cook food and those cooked foods will give you way better benefits than if you would have just eaten the raw ingredients. So you can eat some vegetables and venison raw and you'll get a little bit of health back, but if you took that stuff and made venison stew with it, you'll get this awesome thing that will restore your stamina and health one point every second for like 720 seconds or whatever it is. So it's almost like a potion in a way. And there's no skill associated with that so you can just cook as one of the things that you do.
So all of these are things that you can spend as much or as little time as you want in the game depending on what you're into and what you want to do.
OD: Where the screenshots that were released that show a pauldrons - was that kind of an example of that kind of thing?
PH: Um-hmm, every type of armor you can wear in the game, you can make. You start off being able to make a few simple kinds of things like leather and armor, but then if you want to get better at it and use better materials, then you need to pick the perks in your perk tree for Smithing that will allow you to work with those materials and then those will be unlocked so the next time you go to a forge, you can work with steel.
OD: You wouldn't want to work with Steel. He's a pain.
PH: In a nod to this game which is really an homage to him
BL: You just made his day.
PH: It must be that soft
SV: Wait and see what happens when you polish me up.
BL: There's been some questions about the AI and some of them say, do the guards know everything? And some are just asking about the A.I. in general. What can you tell us about the AI in Skyrim?
PH: The guards know everything thing - it is true that once you commit a crime, if you're spotted doing it, then it's something that guards know about. It's far too confusing a gameplay mechanic to see guards and have one of them at this gate know what you did and one of them at the other gate not know. It's just a big mess.
One of the things you can do is if you commit a crime, we will tag which people are witnesses to that crime and if you actually go and kill off all the people who were witnesses, we will tell you that the last witness has been eliminated and your bounty or crime sort of gets wiped off. You're no longer accountable for what you did because you removed all the witnesses. So it's kind of a cool, creepy, if you want to be nefarious and knock off people who can finger you..
OD: So you can be a jerk in this?
PH: Oh yeah, we wouldn't create a game where you couldn't -- we got the Dark Brotherhood for goodness sake, it's a shadowy group of people who kill for fun and profit.
OD: And it's an homage to Steel Valor, so it has to be a jerk.
BL: Aw Steel is just the softest guy ever
SV: I'd take a bullet for you, Pete
[discussion of legal matter]
OD: Pete, we'd like to thank you - you spent a lot of time with us this evening, we got a lot of questions answered. When does Skyrim come out, can you tell us the approximate date?
PH: No matter where in the world you are, you will be playing the game on 11-11-11 this year. On your pC, your Xbox and your 360. And we just announced that we will have a hands on for consumers at PAX, so if you are going to PAX, I will be there. I hope you will come by and play Skyrim, play Rage - we will do a special one-time demo of the game on Saturday.
3-1. Confirmed Minor Factions
- Stormcloaks
- Imperial Legion
- Necromancers
- The Bard's College
- Riverwood Tavern Warrior Clan
- The Shield-Brothers
- Vigilants of Stendarr
- Greybeards
- Racial Conflict Groups
3-2. Possible Skyrim Minor Factions Described in Lore
- The Horme
- Whiterun Witches' Coven
Arena Teams(no Arenas confirmed by Pete Hines in Bulletproof Pixel radio interview)- Volkihar Clan
- Haafingar Marines
3-1. Quest Related Groups
This framegrab of a http://www.scharesoft.de/joomla/almanach/images/1/1f/Artwork_-_Art_of_Skyrim_-_Himmelsrand-Karte.jpg strongly suggests distinct EMPIRE and REBEL factions controlling different parts of Skyrim. Information from the QuakeCon hands on preview articles seems to confirm this.
Also related to the main quest, there will almost likely be separate (probably non-joinable) factions for the Greybeards and the intelligent, speaking dragons. Here is a http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8613775/Skyrim/LedererPics/Esbern%20or%20Sorcerer.jpg.
Certainly there will be a number of side quests involving various smaller factions. Todd Howard mentioned in the German Gameswelt interview that a few quests may involve a racial conflict between some racist Nords and Elves.
As for the Stormcloaks and the Imperial Legion, some http://www.xbox360achievements.org/game/elder-scrolls-v/achievements/ suggest that the PC will play a much larger role in the Civil War, or at least certain achievements are earned based on which side you choose to help.
3-2. The Stormcloaks
From information revealed during the QuakeCon demos, we have some new details about a faction known as The Stormcloaks, which would perhaps seem to be the Rebel forces shown http://www.scharesoft.de/joomla/almanach/images/1/1f/Artwork_-_Art_of_Skyrim_-_Himmelsrand-Karte.jpg, which clearly shows REBELS based at Windhelm and EMPIRE based at Solitude.
From Andrew Reiner's Walkthrough:
An encounter with Stormcloaks on the banks of a river, north of Riverwood, in White Hold:
"Continuing down the path on the other side of the river, I stumbled across a group of Stormcloak soldiers escorting a prisoner. When I approached the group a hostile soldier blurted out, "Citizen, I'm warning you." Then I was presented three of choices. I could do nothing, free the prisoner, or free the prisoner and give him an item, which I assumed in this case would be a weapon so he could defend himself against his captors. Considering that there were three guards with their swords drawn and I was a mere level one character, I opted to stay out of it. As soon as I moved away, the soldiers returned their weapons to their sheathes."
Source: http://www.gameinformer.com/games/the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim/b/xbox360/archive/2011/08/05/skyrim-hands-on-impressions.aspx
The dialogue "Citizen, I'm warning you," suggests this faction is quite powerful, at least in the region of White Hold where the encounter took place. They seem to be an established military authority, rather than a group of rebel agitators lurking in the shadows.
Who do you think the prisoner is? An important member of the Loyalist Empire faction? If you help him escape, do you think that would that make it impossible for you to join the Stormcloaks later?
Also, upon review of the Skyrim map, there is river that winds its way north of Riverwood, meandering to the Northeast, eventually pouring out into the sea North of Windhelm. Do you think the Stormcloaks control White Hold as well as Eastmarch (the Hold containing Windhelm)? Link to fan-created political map: http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/1641/skmapxyzpoliticalif7.jpg
Since the Companions are based in Whiterun, they must certainly come in contact with the Stormcloaks from time to time. Do you think they will be in conflict with them, supportive or neutral?
The description of this encounter suggests more nuance and shades of grey in terms of whether the Stormcloaks or the Empire are "good" or "bad". Granted, this is a small encounter and we know little about the motivations for these factions, but do you think this offers hope for some sort of moral ambiguity?
From Kevin Kelly's G4TV Walkthrough:
Rumors of the Stormcloak rebellion whispered by townspeople in Riverwood:
"Nearby was the town of Riverwood, where some inhabitants began telling me about the Stormcloak rebellion, and I was given a task to find and join that rebellion."
Source: http://www.g4tv.com/games/xbox-360/64714/the-elder-scrolls-5-skyrim/articles/75197/the-elder-scrolls-5-skyrim-hands-on-preview-time-flies-when-youre-dual-wielding-fire-spells/#ixzz1UD8fGnef
This would certainly seem to suggest it is possible for the PC to join the Stormcloaks - one more joinable faction confirmed. Since the game is set against the backdrop of a civil war, this is not surprising. Hopefully, the player will be able to play an active role in this central inter-faction conflict, for example choosing to support one side or the other.
3-3. The Imperial Legion
From Dan Webb's PAX hands on preview: http://www.xbox360achievements.org/news/news-9529-The-Elder-Scrolls-V--Skyrim-In-Depth-Hands-On-Preview-%E2%80%93-The-Long-Road-to-Falkreath.html
Joinable Imperial Legion Faction (enemies of the Stormcloaks)
"we reached Falkreath and it must be said, it was probably the most disappointing aspect of the hands-on, mainly because what we had come to was an ex-fort that acted more as a military town of sorts. Even after contributing to the locale’s economy by doing a spot of milling – basically just a series of button clicks at various places on the wood mill – the locals looked down on our reptilian warrior and treated him as an outsider. We were offered a quest to join the Imperial Legion here though, so it’s not all doom and gloom."
3-4. Necromancers
Todd Howard and Craig Lafferty have both mentioned Necromancers in various interviews. According to Todd there is an exterior POI scene with an altar and "some necromancers." Quite possibly, they are not a faction the player can join; however, we do not yet know.
Update: there is no Necromancer "guild," also "smaller groups" confirmed.
In the Bulletproof Pixel radio show, Pete discussed the fact that there are four "main factions" and then there are smaller groups, and the Necromancers could be one of these smaller groups - hopefully at least they are not automatically hostile, mindless enemies, but rather some sort of possibility of dialogue options and maybe even some quests involving this group.
"Necromancers - yes, there are Necromancers in the game. The four main factions - four main factions? Yeah, four "main" is the right way to phrase that because there are some smaller groups that you can see and come across, but the four main factions that you actually join and have stories and stuff related to them are the Warrior's Guild, the Mage's Guild, the Thieves' Guild and the beloved Dark Brotherhood. There is no Necromancer's Guild. That shouldn't be a surprise to anybody. But they're in the game, they do have spells and they are spells that you can find and use."
3-5 The Bard's College
According to Todd's interviews with UK and French OXM magazine, the Bard's College of Solitude has been confirmed to make an appearance in Skyrim. It is not known whether this faction will be joinable or not.
"In the northern parts of Solitude is the Bard's College. The city is a busy port and there's an event similar to bonfire night where they burn of an effigy of King Olaf."
Source: http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1165346-oxm-uk-new-info-screens/
Also, forum member Vixulation describing in his Eurogamer hands on demo experience that after speaking with a bard in a tavern in Falkreath, he got a quest to visit the Bard's College of Solitude. This suggests a slightly greater likelihood that the group might be joinable by the PC.
"I found a bard and asked him to sing me a song too which he went to a corner and began to chant a tale of some ancient hero, From the crowd two people got up to listen too him and once he finished he received a round of applause. I then spoke to him and asked him about his background and he told me about how he studied at the Bard's college and then I got a quest update sending me to the Bard's college."
Source: http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1232670-my-eurogamer-experience/
This is what the Pocket Guide has to say about the Bard's College:
"Founded during Skyrim's long Alessian flirtation, the Bards' College continues to flaunt a heretical streak, and its students are famous carousers, fittingly enough for their chosen trade. Students yearly invade the marketplace for week of revelry, the climix of which is the burning of "King Olaf" in effigy, possibly a now-forgotten contender in the War of Succession. Graduates have no trouble finding employment in noble households across Tamriel, including the restored Imperial Court in Cyrodiil, but many still choose to follow in the wandering footsteps of illustrious alumni such as Callisos and Morachellis."
"Carousers" suggests perhaps some interesting entanglements in quests with the new romance features, or a possible Bard companion NPC.
More descriptions of Bards, thanks to Rhanyan: :foodndrink:
Bards are more than musicians. They sometimes go on adventures which can inspire new sources for songs, poetry, stories and etc. Perhaps, to include, but not be limited to, other forms of artistic endeavor, such as lore studies, painting, dance, and foreign languages. Bards in past TES games have used both song, spell and sword.
Morrowind in-game description description: Bards are loremasters and storytellers. They crave adventure for the wisdom and insight to be gained, and must depend on sword, shield, spell and enchantment to preserve them from the perils of their educational experiences.
Oblivion in-game description: Intelligent and personable, they prefer to accomplish tasks with their words first, and sword second.
Lore Books describing Bards:
- http://www.imperial-library.info/content/daggerfall-dubious-tale-crystal-tower
- http://uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Biography_of_Barenziah,_v_3
- http://uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Jagar_Tharn
- http://uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Divad_the_Singer
- http://uesp.net/wiki/Lore:King_Edward,_Part_IV
- http://uesp.net/wiki/Lore:King_Edward,_Part_X
- http://uesp.net/wiki/Lore:King_Edward,_Part_XII
- http://uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Surfeit_of_Thieves
- http://uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Fools%27_Ebony,_Part_the_Sixth
- http://uesp.net/wiki/Lore:2920,_Sun%27s_Dawn_(v2)
- http://uesp.net/wiki/Lore:The_Black_Arrow,_v_2
3-6. Riverwood Warrior Clan
In the JeuxVideo.fr QuakeCon hands on preview, a new joinable faction is confirmed. The PC can join the "clan" of a group of warriors hanging out in the Riverwood tavern
"Au détour d'une taverne, nous rencontrons également quelques guerriers qui recherchent des volontaires pour rejoindre leur clan "
Source: http://www.jeuxvideo.fr/jeux/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/preview-test-the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim.html
(in Riverwood) Passing through a tavern, we meet a few warriors looking for volunteers to join their clan.
3-7. The Shield-Brothers
One more new joinable faction has been confirmed in the Quakecon GI hands on preview : The Shield-Brothers. It seems that The Shield-Brothers have a special relationship with The Companions, as the PC must obtain the permission of the leader of The Companions in order to join The Shield-Brothers.
"Heading north again, I ran into another farm. This was a much bigger plot of land, with several gardens. In the middle of this farm a group of three humans were battling a massive giant. Rather than joining the fray, I decided to just sit back and watch. The battle raged back and forth, but eventually the humans prevailed. Afterwards I met Alea the huntress and her sidekicks Farkas and Ria. My first interaction with her was a statement about the battle – I could say "You don't look like you need any help," or "I tried to help." When I chose the flattering option, she thanked me and explained that her band was a part of the Shield-Brothers. I was then prompted to inquire about joining the group or wryly responding "Sounds like a waste of time." Alea told me that if I wanted to join the group I would have to ask the leader of the Companions."
Source: http://www.gameinformer.com/games/the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim/b/xbox360/archive/2011/08/05/skyrim-hands-on-impressions.aspx
3-8. The Vigilants of Stendarr
A summary of nformation from the Nov 2011 EDGE magazine preview posted by member Helion Tide mentions a new faction, the Vigilants of Stendarr. It is not yet known whether they are joinable by the player, or even involved in any quests.
"The player runs into a couple of mages while traveling who claim to be "Vigilants of Stendarr", a sect devoted to the banishment of demonic worship. "
Source: http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1232438-skryim-in-edge-magazine-november-2011/
3-9. Racial Conflict Groups
The history of Skyrim is a history of conflict between Mer and Man. In the primeval era, a group of Nedic peoples left their homeland in Atmora and arrived on the coast of Skyrim. These were the first humans to reach Tamriel, which at that time was populated by Mer. In the Gameswelt TV interview, Todd Howard described the role that racism plays in Skyrim and mentioned that there will be some quests involving conflict elves and racist Nords.
"Exactly when the Nords first crossed the ice-choked Sea of Ghosts from Atmora, their original homeland, is uncertain. As recorded in the Song of Return, Ysgramor and his family first landed in Tamriel at Hsaarik Head, at the extreme northern tip of Skyrim's Broken Cape, fleeing civil war in Atmora (then rather warmer than at present, as it seems to have supported a substantial population). These first settlers named the land "Mereth", after the Elves that roamed the untamed wilderness which then covered the whole of Tamriel.
For a time, relations between Men and Elves were harmonious, and the Nords throve in the new land, summoning more of their kin from the North to build the city of Saarthal, the site of which has recently been located by Imperial archaeologists in the vicinity of modern Winterhold. But the Elves saw that the vital young race would soon surpass their stagnant culture if left unchecked, and fell upon the unsuspecting Nords in the infamous Night of Tears; Saarthal was burned, and only Ysgramor and two of his sons fought free of the carnage and escaped to Atmora.
The Elves, however, had reckoned without the indomitable spirit of the Nords. Gathering his legendary Five Hundred Companions (whose names are still recited every Thirteenth of Sun's Dawn at the Feast of the Dead in Windhelm), Ysgramor returned to Tamriel with a vengeance, driving the Elves out of Skyrim and laying the foundations of the first human Empire."
It seems that as of the year 4E 200s, there is still a significant amount of racial tension in the land of Skyrim. In an interview with Gameswelt TV, Todd Howard mentions that racism against Elves will be a prominent story element in Skyrim and that there will be a few quests involving some racist Nords (and presumably the Elves toward whom they are behaving in a racist manner).
In addition, it is very interesting to note that the base of power for the rebels seems to be in Windhelm, at least according to http://www.scharesoft.de/joomla/almanach/images/1/1f/Artwork_-_Art_of_Skyrim_-_Himmelsrand-Karte.jpg. It has also been reported that there will be a large community of Dunmer immigrants in the same area.
3-10. The Horme
According to the lore, there is an important bandit faction in Skyrim that has played a role in politics, supporting secession from the Empire. Hopefully they are still around as of the year 4E 200s
"The Horme, also known as the Horme Bandits, was a powerful quasi-miltarial bandit and maurauder organization that existed during the Third and Fourth Eras. The Horme was originally founded as a way for Potema Septim, the Wolf Queen of Solitude, to increase her military strength by recruiting bandits, marauders, and mercenaries. The Horme fought in the War of the Red Diamond where it was defeated, but not destroyed, by the Imperial Legion. Potema and Uriel Septim III did not survive this conflict and the Horme scattered into the Jerall, Valus, and Velothi Mountains. Eventually, they were reforged by a high ranking member of the Horme, and set about raiding and destroying Imperial interests in the provinces of High Rock, Skyrim, Morrowind, and northern Cyrodiil. After being united again, the Horme gained members and eventually became one of the major organizations rebelling against the Septim Empire, and later the Republic of Tamriel."
3-11. Whiterun Witches' Coven
According to the lore, there is a Witches' Coven in Whiterun, that may or may not still exist as of 4E 200s. The use of magic does have a tendency to draw out one's lifespan, so it maybe be possible that Jsashe, or some of the other witches have survived, or trained replacements.
"Whiterun has not been as fortunate as its coastal northern cousins. A dynastic feud, attacks by Horme bandits and frost trolls, and a series of annihilating winters of alternating floods, droughts, and fires have crippled the area that was once considered the Imperial City of Skyrim. The population blamed and then curiously exalted the leader of the local witches' coven, Jsashe, a self proclaimed priestess of Lorkhan. The Witch Queen of Whiterun, as she is called, now wields effective control of the county, though her magic has not brought it prosperity as of yet."
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8613775/Skyrim/LedererPics/WitchQueenConcept.jpg
CVG has posted an article from Xbox World Magazine that claims Whiterun has a "witch problem."
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/318715/previews/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-bigger-better-and-more-dynamic/
Skyrim instead has five major hubs dotted about its landscape: central city Whiterun, which has an unfortunate witch problem; wealthy northern stop-off Winterhold; the port of Solitude; the old capital Windhelm, near the border to Morrowind; and Markath Side to the far west of the map, where people study the art of the Voice.
Considering the other comment from this same article regarding werewolves that seems to be more speculation based on lore, I would be hesitant to take this as anything more than speculation until we get more substantial confirmation. Jsashe's Witches' Coven based in Whiterun could certainly be in the game; however, I believe the author of this article is merely speculating based on the info in the Pocket Guide to the Empire.
[Arena Teams omitted following Pete Hines Bulletproof Pixel radio interview]
The http://www.imperial-library.info/content/go-blades and http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Skyrim#Notable_Places both mention numerous Arena teams that once existed in each Skyrim city.
In this http://www.bethblog.com/podcast/ (Podcast #08 April 1, 2011) Emil Pagliarulo mentions the frustration the Oblivion dev team experienced after completing individual Arenas in every city of Oblivion with separate quests and recorded voiceover dialogue, only to be told there was not enough room to fit all the audio on the disc and they were forced to scrap all the Arenas except for the one in the Imperial City. This would suggest a greater likelihood of Arenas in more than one city in Skyrim.
List of historical Arena teams
- Whiterun: Devastators
- Snowhawk/Markath: Frost Demons
- Rifton/Riften: Furies
- Windhelm: Paladins
- Winterhold: Annihilators
- Haafingar/Solitude: Ravagers
- Dawnstar: Avengers
- Falkreath: Dark Shadows
3-12. Volkihar Clan
One of the lore books, Immortal Blood, mentions a tribe of so-called "Ice Vampires" known as the Volkihar Clan, based in the Eastern part of Skyrim. Considering their long lifespan, as well as http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_4lrm97dBqNo/TUFlxQiW7CI/AAAAAAAAAZM/n_xn6TWnSA8/s1600/artofskyrim_013_femmonster.jpg?__sf=1303445029 it is quite possible they are still around in 4E 200s. Whether they are a joinable faction, or associated with any quests is anyone's guess.
"He wanted to know about the vampires of eastern Skyrim. I told him about the most powerful tribe, the Volkihar Clan, paranoid and cruel, whose very breath could freeze their victims' blood in the veins. I explained to him how they lived beneath the ice of remote and haunted lakes, never venturing into the world of men except to feed.
... but you should know that the Volkihar have an additional ability you didn't mention. They can reach through the ice of their lakes without breaking it. It was quite a nasty surprise, being grabbed from below without any warning."
3-13. The Longboat Legions / Haafingar Marines
There is one mention in the lore of a naval infantry group based in Haffingar (Solitude):
Tobias was born in the Colovian west, near the battlefield of Sancre Tor. His Nordic father, Borgas, had served as the captain of the House Guard of Far Falkreath Estate, a merchant family with ties to the Holds of Skyrim. Borgas eventually married a Colovian daughter, but died in the Sack of Old Hrol'dan scarcely two years later. Tobias grew up with stories and romantic notions of his "father's fair Skyrim," a land of savagery and battle far different than the relatively civilized Colovian west. As soon as he could, he traveled to Haafingar to serve as a marine in the Longboat Legions of the Wulfharth Heirs. Ultimately, he deserted the ranks and became a smuggler, working the runs of the Iliac Bay.
IV. Creature Factions
The purpose of various creature factions is primarily to ensure certain groups of creatures are friendly to each other. Keep in mind, every creature in the game needs to belong to one or more factions in order to govern its disposition toward any other actors it encounters.
It is interesting to note that Todd Howard mentioned that certain species will hunt other species (for example, a pack of wolves will hunt mammoths, and foxes will hunt rabbits, etc.). This suggests a greater number of creature factions compared with Oblivion, this behavior did not take place in previous TES games.
V. Inter-Faction Conflict
There will be a great deal of inter-faction conflicts, as in previous TES games. In Skyrim, as a result of the civil war, hopefully this conflict will manifest in more meaningful conflict between NPC factions and perhaps between a number of factions in which the player can participate, such as the Empire vs. Rebels, since certain Holds will likely be allied with one of the sides in the war.
5-1. Conflicting Memberships
It is interesting to note that any individual NPC can belong to numerous factions simultaneously.
For example, an NPC who is a member of the Companions might belong to
- Whiterun Hold Faction
- Whiterun City Faction
- Companions
- Rebels
This raises questions, such as how would a situation be resolved where a particular faction, such as the Companions, sides with the Rebels in the civil war, but the city, or Whiterun Hold, were to side with the Empire? How does this impact an NPC who is a member of Companions and a member of Whiterun Hold?
This didn't seem to be an issue in Fallout New Vegas, because most of the communities outside of Legion territory was friendly with the NPR and hated Caesar's Legion. The groups that could be persuaded to help the Legion or NPR seemed to only have an impact on the Battle at Hoover Dam, rather than daily interaction with Legion members in their community. (With the notable exception of Karl, the Legion emmissary based at the Great Khan's camp.)
VI. Logistics Factions
There has always been a need in Bethesda's open world sandbox games to make use of certain factions to solve very specific problems, such as to resolve ownership problems for certain objects, or to ensure that one or two specific NPCs don't attack each other, etc.
VII. How Many Factions?
If Oblivion is any indication, there will most likely be several hundred factions in Skyrim.
For reference, see below a list of the factions in Oblivion.
Complete Listing of Oblivion Factions (331 total)
Spoiler
Adrian Decanius Faction
Adventurer Faction
Agarmir's Faction
Aleswell -- people Serethi sisters dislike
Aleswell faction
All the dremora guards and torturers
Amantius Allectus Door Owners
Amantius Allectus House
Ancotar's faction
Anvil -- Count's Arms faction
Anvil - Enilroth lovers faction
Anvil - Foc'sle faction
Anvil - Heinrich Oaken-Hull's house
Anvil - Inventius family
Anvil - Jesan sixtius faction
Anvil - Morvayn's store faction
Anvil - Newheim faction
Anvil - The Serpent's Wake faction
Anvil Beggars
Anvil castle residents
Anvil Citizen
Anvil Flowing Bowl
Anvil guard faction
Anvil Harborside warehouse
Anyone wearing Bands of the Chosen
Arano Family
Arcane University
Arena
Arena Bloodworks Dwellers
Arena Champions
Arena Hopefuls
Arena Player
Arena Spectator Combatants
Arena Yellow Team
ArenaFanFaction
Athram Family
Atius Family
Azura
Baenlin's Faction
Bandit Faction
Bantien
Barren Mine tribe
Beggars
BenirusFaction
Best Goods and Guarantees Merchants
Black Bow Faction
Black Horse Courier Vendors
Blackwood Company
Blades
Bleakers Way Faction
Boethia Faction
Border Watch Resident
Bravil - Lonely Suitor Lodge faction
Bravil - Silverhome faction
Bravil Beggars
Bravil Castle faction
Bravil Faction
Bravil guards faction
Bravil Loche family
Bravil Skooma Den faction
Bravil Stables
Brolus family in Bruma
Bruiant Family Faction
Bruma Beggars
Bruma Cheydinhal Bridge Inn
Bruma Citizens
BrumaStables
CG Creature Faction
CG goblins
Character gen Blades faction
Chestnut Handy Stables
Cheydinhal Castle
Cheydinhal Citizens
Cheydinhal Guards
Cheydinhal Newslands Lodge
Cheydinhal Orum's Gang
Cheydinhal Peasants and Serfs
Cheydinhal Riverview faction
Cheydinhal Stables
Cheydinhal Willow Bank
Chorrol Beggars
Chorrol Citizen
Chorrol Guard Faction
Chorrol Stables
ChorrolCastleFaction
Claude Maric's personal faction
Claude Maric's Thugs
Claudius Arcadia's Faction
Clavicus Vile Faction
Conjurers
Cracked Wood Hollow tribe
Cropsford faction
Daedra monsters in the caves
DAGenericFaction
Dalvilu FACTION Peace
Dalvilu FACTION War
Dark Brotherhood
Dark Brotherhood -- Won't Call Guards
Dark Brotherhood Elite
Dark Brotherhood Generic Evil Faction
Dark Brotherhood No Guards Allowed Club
Dark Brotherhood Player Hate Faction
Dark Brotherhood Player Secret Faction
Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary Dwellers
Dark Brotherhood Underlings
Dark06 Hotel Faction
DarkBrotherhoodRitualFaction
Deadite
Derelict Mine tribe
DoranFamilyFaction
Dovyn Aren Faction
Draconis Family Faction
DradFaction
Dro'fahr Faction
DulgroShug Faction
Eight Cities Couriers Customers
Elven Gardens Horse
Emperor faction, for Uriel and Martin
Escaped Prisoner
Everscamp Faction
Evil -- no affiliation
Faction for all friendlies in MQ16
Faction for creatures friendly to Ancotar
Faction for final MD assassin in CG
Faction for First Edition NPCs
Faction for roving MD assassins
Fathis Ules Faction
Fences
FGC03 Hrota Thieves
FGC06 Goblins
FGD08GoblinFaction
Fighters Guild
For ghost blades in Sancre Tor
Fort Nikel Team A
Fort Nikel Team B
Fort Ontus Mage Faction
FrancoisMotierreQuestFaction
Friend of the Imperial Legion
Friends of Itius Hayn
Generic Owner
Gilen Norvalo's House Faction
Glarthir Faction
Goblin Jim's tribe
Gogan's Family Faction
Gottlesfont Faction
Graman gro-Marad's House Faction
Hackdirt monster faction
Hastrel Ottus' House Faction
Havilstein Hoar-Blood's Secret Faction
Henantier's Faction
Hermaeus Mora Faction
Herminia Cinna Faction
Hircine Faction
Honmund's house in Bruma
Horse Whisperer
IC - Best Defense
IC -- Bit and Bridle
IC - Three Brothers
IC Beggars
IC Citizens
IC Palace faction
Ida Vlinorman Faction
Imperial City Arena Monster Faction
Imperial City Waterfront Resident
Imperial Legion
Imperial Legion Battlemage
Imperial Legion Outside Faction
Imperial Trading Company
Imperial Watch
Iniel Sintav Faction
Inn of Ill Omen
Irene Metric Faction
Jailors
Jair Family
Jakben Family
Janus Hassildor Faction
Jastia Sintav Faction
Jemane Family Faction
Jerall View in Bruma
Kalthar Pet Faction
Kastus Sintav Faction
Kathutet's personal faction
Knights of the Thorn
Knights of the White Stallion
Kurdan gro-Dragol's Faction of EEEEvil
Kvatch citizens
Kvatch Creatures
Kvatch Guards
Kvinchal Family
Kyn
Lachance Dungeon Faction
Leyawiin Beggars
Leyawiin Castle Faction
Leyawiin Faction
Leyawiin Guard faction
Lirrian family in Bruma
Litte Family
Lord Drad Faction
LuronkFriends
Luther Broad Boarding House Faction
Lythandas Family
Mage Conversation Guild
Mages Guild
Malacath Faction
Malacath Ogre Faction
Manheim and Rufio Faction
Mankar Camoran faction
Mankar Camoran haters
Mankar Camoran lovers
Marauder Faction
Marillin Family
Marinus Catiotus Faction
Martin's faction
Mazoga Friend
Mehrunes Dagon faction
Mephala Faction
Meridia Faction
Methredhel's House
Mogens Wind-Shifter Faction
Molag Bal Faction
Moth Caretakers
Moth Priests
MQ10 allies
MQ12 Goblin Faction
MQ12 Undead Faction
MQ13 allies faction
MQ13 Daedra faction
MS27 dungeon crawl friends
MS31 Blackwater Brigands
Mucianus Zombie Faction
Mythic Dawn
Mythic Dawn for CG
Mythic Dawn immortals in the Garden
Mythic Dawn prisoner faction
Namira Faction
Necromancers
Necromancers Cult
Nenalata Undead faction
Nine Divines
Nobility
Nobody hates deer
Nocturnal Faction
Nord Winds in Bruma
Oblivion Creatures
Oblivion gate daedra
Oblivion Pals
Odiil Family
Olav's Tap in Bruma
Ontus Vanin
Order of the Dragon
Order of the Virtuous Blood
Othrelos Faction
Owner and Employee of The Dividing Line
People Glarthir Hates
People who live in the Private Quarters
Peryite Faction
Pirates
Pirates of the Sea Tub Clarabella
Player Faction
Player Vampire Faction
Player's Horse
Prey creatures
Prisoner of Hackdirt Brethren
Prisoners
Pundered Mine tribe
Purification Faction
Put the player or anyone hated in this faction
Ra'jiradh's Price
Rats hate the goblins
Raynil Dralas Faction
Refugees in the Kvatch Chapel
Regner's house in Bruma
Renrijra Krin Faction
Roderic Pierrane Faction
Rohssan's Family
Roxey Inn faction
Salomon Geonette's House Faction
Sanguine Faction
Seed-Neeus Family
Serethi sisters (Aleswell)
Seridur House Faction
Seridur Is Evil Faction
Shadowmere's Faction
Sheogorath Faction
Shuravi and Caelia's Faction
Sintav Family
Skingrad Beggars
Skingrad Castle Faction
Skingrad Citizen
Skingrad Guards
Skingrad Stables
Sleeping Mare Faction
Soldiers at Oblivion gates
Sparring faction
Stealth Test Guards
Surilie Brothers Faction
Surius Afranius' House Faction
Talos Plaza Horse
Tamika Winery Faction
Temple District Horse
Tertius Favonius Faction
Thamriel's House
Thaurron Pet Faction
The All Saints Inn Faction
The Anvil Sirens
The Black Hand
The Blackwood Company
The Doomed House Guests
The I Hate the Player Faction!
The Wrath of Sithis Secret Faction
Thieves Guild
Tiber Septim Hotel faction (IC)
Timberscar Cave tribe
Tired of being in the Eternal Garden
Two Sisters Faction
Tyrellius is Evil Faction
Ulfgar FACTION Peace
UlfgarFACTIONWar
Umbacano Faction
Undead
Unicorn Faction
Used for MQ06 dialogue conditions
Vaermina Faction
Valen Dreth's EEEVIL faction
Vampire Faction
Vampire Hunters
Veyond Bandits
Wenderbek Cave tribe
West Weald Inn (Skingrad)
Weynon Priory Citizen
Worm Anchorite Faction
Adrian Decanius Faction
Adventurer Faction
Agarmir's Faction
Aleswell -- people Serethi sisters dislike
Aleswell faction
All the dremora guards and torturers
Amantius Allectus Door Owners
Amantius Allectus House
Ancotar's faction
Anvil -- Count's Arms faction
Anvil - Enilroth lovers faction
Anvil - Foc'sle faction
Anvil - Heinrich Oaken-Hull's house
Anvil - Inventius family
Anvil - Jesan sixtius faction
Anvil - Morvayn's store faction
Anvil - Newheim faction
Anvil - The Serpent's Wake faction
Anvil Beggars
Anvil castle residents
Anvil Citizen
Anvil Flowing Bowl
Anvil guard faction
Anvil Harborside warehouse
Anyone wearing Bands of the Chosen
Arano Family
Arcane University
Arena
Arena Bloodworks Dwellers
Arena Champions
Arena Hopefuls
Arena Player
Arena Spectator Combatants
Arena Yellow Team
ArenaFanFaction
Athram Family
Atius Family
Azura
Baenlin's Faction
Bandit Faction
Bantien
Barren Mine tribe
Beggars
BenirusFaction
Best Goods and Guarantees Merchants
Black Bow Faction
Black Horse Courier Vendors
Blackwood Company
Blades
Bleakers Way Faction
Boethia Faction
Border Watch Resident
Bravil - Lonely Suitor Lodge faction
Bravil - Silverhome faction
Bravil Beggars
Bravil Castle faction
Bravil Faction
Bravil guards faction
Bravil Loche family
Bravil Skooma Den faction
Bravil Stables
Brolus family in Bruma
Bruiant Family Faction
Bruma Beggars
Bruma Cheydinhal Bridge Inn
Bruma Citizens
BrumaStables
CG Creature Faction
CG goblins
Character gen Blades faction
Chestnut Handy Stables
Cheydinhal Castle
Cheydinhal Citizens
Cheydinhal Guards
Cheydinhal Newslands Lodge
Cheydinhal Orum's Gang
Cheydinhal Peasants and Serfs
Cheydinhal Riverview faction
Cheydinhal Stables
Cheydinhal Willow Bank
Chorrol Beggars
Chorrol Citizen
Chorrol Guard Faction
Chorrol Stables
ChorrolCastleFaction
Claude Maric's personal faction
Claude Maric's Thugs
Claudius Arcadia's Faction
Clavicus Vile Faction
Conjurers
Cracked Wood Hollow tribe
Cropsford faction
Daedra monsters in the caves
DAGenericFaction
Dalvilu FACTION Peace
Dalvilu FACTION War
Dark Brotherhood
Dark Brotherhood -- Won't Call Guards
Dark Brotherhood Elite
Dark Brotherhood Generic Evil Faction
Dark Brotherhood No Guards Allowed Club
Dark Brotherhood Player Hate Faction
Dark Brotherhood Player Secret Faction
Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary Dwellers
Dark Brotherhood Underlings
Dark06 Hotel Faction
DarkBrotherhoodRitualFaction
Deadite
Derelict Mine tribe
DoranFamilyFaction
Dovyn Aren Faction
Draconis Family Faction
DradFaction
Dro'fahr Faction
DulgroShug Faction
Eight Cities Couriers Customers
Elven Gardens Horse
Emperor faction, for Uriel and Martin
Escaped Prisoner
Everscamp Faction
Evil -- no affiliation
Faction for all friendlies in MQ16
Faction for creatures friendly to Ancotar
Faction for final MD assassin in CG
Faction for First Edition NPCs
Faction for roving MD assassins
Fathis Ules Faction
Fences
FGC03 Hrota Thieves
FGC06 Goblins
FGD08GoblinFaction
Fighters Guild
For ghost blades in Sancre Tor
Fort Nikel Team A
Fort Nikel Team B
Fort Ontus Mage Faction
FrancoisMotierreQuestFaction
Friend of the Imperial Legion
Friends of Itius Hayn
Generic Owner
Gilen Norvalo's House Faction
Glarthir Faction
Goblin Jim's tribe
Gogan's Family Faction
Gottlesfont Faction
Graman gro-Marad's House Faction
Hackdirt monster faction
Hastrel Ottus' House Faction
Havilstein Hoar-Blood's Secret Faction
Henantier's Faction
Hermaeus Mora Faction
Herminia Cinna Faction
Hircine Faction
Honmund's house in Bruma
Horse Whisperer
IC - Best Defense
IC -- Bit and Bridle
IC - Three Brothers
IC Beggars
IC Citizens
IC Palace faction
Ida Vlinorman Faction
Imperial City Arena Monster Faction
Imperial City Waterfront Resident
Imperial Legion
Imperial Legion Battlemage
Imperial Legion Outside Faction
Imperial Trading Company
Imperial Watch
Iniel Sintav Faction
Inn of Ill Omen
Irene Metric Faction
Jailors
Jair Family
Jakben Family
Janus Hassildor Faction
Jastia Sintav Faction
Jemane Family Faction
Jerall View in Bruma
Kalthar Pet Faction
Kastus Sintav Faction
Kathutet's personal faction
Knights of the Thorn
Knights of the White Stallion
Kurdan gro-Dragol's Faction of EEEEvil
Kvatch citizens
Kvatch Creatures
Kvatch Guards
Kvinchal Family
Kyn
Lachance Dungeon Faction
Leyawiin Beggars
Leyawiin Castle Faction
Leyawiin Faction
Leyawiin Guard faction
Lirrian family in Bruma
Litte Family
Lord Drad Faction
LuronkFriends
Luther Broad Boarding House Faction
Lythandas Family
Mage Conversation Guild
Mages Guild
Malacath Faction
Malacath Ogre Faction
Manheim and Rufio Faction
Mankar Camoran faction
Mankar Camoran haters
Mankar Camoran lovers
Marauder Faction
Marillin Family
Marinus Catiotus Faction
Martin's faction
Mazoga Friend
Mehrunes Dagon faction
Mephala Faction
Meridia Faction
Methredhel's House
Mogens Wind-Shifter Faction
Molag Bal Faction
Moth Caretakers
Moth Priests
MQ10 allies
MQ12 Goblin Faction
MQ12 Undead Faction
MQ13 allies faction
MQ13 Daedra faction
MS27 dungeon crawl friends
MS31 Blackwater Brigands
Mucianus Zombie Faction
Mythic Dawn
Mythic Dawn for CG
Mythic Dawn immortals in the Garden
Mythic Dawn prisoner faction
Namira Faction
Necromancers
Necromancers Cult
Nenalata Undead faction
Nine Divines
Nobility
Nobody hates deer
Nocturnal Faction
Nord Winds in Bruma
Oblivion Creatures
Oblivion gate daedra
Oblivion Pals
Odiil Family
Olav's Tap in Bruma
Ontus Vanin
Order of the Dragon
Order of the Virtuous Blood
Othrelos Faction
Owner and Employee of The Dividing Line
People Glarthir Hates
People who live in the Private Quarters
Peryite Faction
Pirates
Pirates of the Sea Tub Clarabella
Player Faction
Player Vampire Faction
Player's Horse
Prey creatures
Prisoner of Hackdirt Brethren
Prisoners
Pundered Mine tribe
Purification Faction
Put the player or anyone hated in this faction
Ra'jiradh's Price
Rats hate the goblins
Raynil Dralas Faction
Refugees in the Kvatch Chapel
Regner's house in Bruma
Renrijra Krin Faction
Roderic Pierrane Faction
Rohssan's Family
Roxey Inn faction
Salomon Geonette's House Faction
Sanguine Faction
Seed-Neeus Family
Serethi sisters (Aleswell)
Seridur House Faction
Seridur Is Evil Faction
Shadowmere's Faction
Sheogorath Faction
Shuravi and Caelia's Faction
Sintav Family
Skingrad Beggars
Skingrad Castle Faction
Skingrad Citizen
Skingrad Guards
Skingrad Stables
Sleeping Mare Faction
Soldiers at Oblivion gates
Sparring faction
Stealth Test Guards
Surilie Brothers Faction
Surius Afranius' House Faction
Talos Plaza Horse
Tamika Winery Faction
Temple District Horse
Tertius Favonius Faction
Thamriel's House
Thaurron Pet Faction
The All Saints Inn Faction
The Anvil Sirens
The Black Hand
The Blackwood Company
The Doomed House Guests
The I Hate the Player Faction!
The Wrath of Sithis Secret Faction
Thieves Guild
Tiber Septim Hotel faction (IC)
Timberscar Cave tribe
Tired of being in the Eternal Garden
Two Sisters Faction
Tyrellius is Evil Faction
Ulfgar FACTION Peace
UlfgarFACTIONWar
Umbacano Faction
Undead
Unicorn Faction
Used for MQ06 dialogue conditions
Vaermina Faction
Valen Dreth's EEEVIL faction
Vampire Faction
Vampire Hunters
Veyond Bandits
Wenderbek Cave tribe
West Weald Inn (Skingrad)
Weynon Priory Citizen
Worm Anchorite Faction
VIII. Discussion Questions
Please share your thoughts regarding the factions of Skyrim, joinable or non-joinable, major or minor, and how you intend to interact with them.
Since the Empire has traditionally had a more tolerant, "melting pot" approach toward the various races, while the Nords of Skryim have a long history of conflict with Elves, how do you think this will affect the perspective of the Elven races in Skyrim on the Imperial Legion and Stormcloak factions?
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1204720-factions-of-skyrim-unofficial-guide/
