Hello

When did you have that moment of clarity when you realised that your character was no longer a character, but a person and companion who led themselves, as you as a spectator? And how did it make you feel?

I am also, I think, wondering how some of us, and I think I can stress "some" - since not all of us do this - create new characters, in multiple situations - Do you feel guilt? Sadness? Relief even?

Do you frequently create "failed" characters that never have that spark with you?

Yes. I have questions.

I cannot say, personally, I have ever had that "special someone" in Oblivion - Has it been the world, is it too light - hearted for me? Maybe my characters were just shallow husks of my own enjoyment. I have tormented myself with such a question many times. For an outside looking in, it is rather strange, although it is indeed less strange to me now, to see someone have a character for Months or even Years. It seems like a remarkable attachment to that avatar, a great amount of patience and also, one of the things which I think bothers some of us, the acceptance that there will not be "Another one" - and so you have self-limited your full experiences of a game.

Last October, I then discovered Uthred . Many of my questions were answered. After around a year of playing Skyrim with all sorts of interesting people to the maximum, I finally found Uthred. He has been, and remains to be, completely and utterly loved by me. He is a companion, a strong man, one who is uncompromising but soft as I know at heart. A man of feasting, the Nordic religion and the old ways, but also reluctant Imperialism, since he knows that Skyrim's independence is not time yet. It saddens him in some ways, but he made his decision a long time ago, one influenced by that and the fact that the hall he grew up in was burnt in a malicious and cowardly attack by Ulfric's father, with Ulfric sat on his saddle laughing and joking at it, and in the morning digging up the silver horded beneth the halls floor.

Since then, one whole year of enjoyment, so much as happened, I truly feel like we will keep going for years. Even if every venture, cave and ruin has been exhausted, I could never "retire" him - Not ever. I have an idea in my mind, something that im keeping a secret from him. But instinct is telling me one of his sisters, Thyra, did survive that fire and was brought back as a slave to Windhelm... So maybe, in another form, another element of the Osbern family may grow one day.

Martha Osbern does have a special place in my heart, because her family, her past and future, really mean something to me. I have discovered, and I think I was pushed subtly by Uthred by this - All about the Osbern family. How they supported Potema and Uriel during the war of the red diamond ( Which is ironic, since Uthred dealt with the last visages of Potema in Skyrim) - How they are, at heart, thick - blooded Colovians. Patriotic to the death. So much, and yet I wonder how Martha, Uthred's distant relative, fits into this - What will her history be.

I think, because of that, im very much compelled to find out more about this family which has utterly left me spellbound to the plains of The Elder Scrolls.

Now it's your turn

Good questions all, though when confined solely to Oblivion only the first applies to me. As for my decrepit avatar, the answer is that there is no clearcut answer. He was something of his own man from almost the start. As stated numerous times, he was conceived as a throwaway character with which to learn game mechanics. We somehow bonded and have remained together ever since. It might have helped that, throwaway though he was, I treated those early sessions with respect and seriousness, doing nothing to cheapen either my avatar or the gameworld itself. I thus had no overwhelming reason to want to eradicate him and start afresh.

Our separateness in one demonstrable respect deepened as his adventures progressed. Even as recently as late 2010...one month into my second (current) play-through...I reported on him here in first-person, as my old "Thoughts on My Second Play-through" thread attests. I thought the switch from first- to third-person reporting occurred sooner. Was quite surprised when I noticed constant first-person dialog while rereading the thread several months ago!

I might add more later, but this'll do for now.

-Decrepit-