Yes, YES! I couldn't possibly agree more without enthralling you!

If there's is one thing I can't stand in a story, is a one-sided Black & White conflict. All that does is promote ignorance in favor of relatable ideals. And quite frankly, it's dull and boring. A good villain, I think, is someone that despite their methods and actions, their motivations can be "accepted" to an extent. You can look at them from an unbiased perspective and go: hmmm the lunatic may actually have a point here... I see where they are coming from...

This doesn't mean we have to condone and accept them, just that we can see where they are coming from. And who knows? Maybe you can actually relate to them, as far as role-playing goes. It adds dynamics.

It's possible that Oblivion was being conceptualized even further back, during Redguard's development. The game was released in 1998, and in the opening movie there's a fly-by with some books, which are titled in order, "The Elder Scrolls: Arena", "The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall", "The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind", and "The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion". There was also a fifth book after that, titled "The Elder Scrolls: Romanelli".

That's an interesting coincidence, but we've read in various interviews that the original title for TES III was to be "Tribunal" and concern the Summerset Isles. The finished game and the term Tribunal ended up meaning very different things after MK's influence in Redguard's world building. Perhaps Redguard's trailer was conceived after this design change was made, but I doubt they had it planned out years and years in advance.

'

You happen to have the exact source for the Isles thing? If you remember, I was asking about this here as well - http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1453644-how-oblivion-was-announced-in-1997/

glad someone remembers that.

I found a screencap of the intro in this thread: http://www.betaarchive.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=16245&start=75

I wonder what the name "romanelli" stands for.

that would be a good idea! but i dont think the thalmor will conquer Alot of people are against them unless they can do something good to change minds or unless its like for the next games Rebells agains the Elven Empire