It just occurred to me recently that it would be nice if the Great House questlines accommodated a bit more character diversity. Don't get me wrong - I like that the Houses themselves are focused, so that they favor different archetypes (mage/warrior/thief), and I'm glad advancement is restricted to certain skills and attributes.

But sometimes I don't want to advance in a faction, per se.

My current character is a Nord Reaver (custom class) - basically a wandering adventurer/arsenal/looter/skullsplitter. Of course, you can't just jump off the boat at Seyda Neen, brandish a battle axe, and start pillaging. You need to work up to that.

As part of getting his footing in this strange landscape, he has taken on various odd-jobs. Hired muscle for a pilgrim to an alien shrine dedicated to a god named "Vavek" or some nonsense. Knocking off some local thugs in Balmora. Along the way, someone gave him a tip that the Telvanni prefer to hire Nords (and Wood Elves - what's the connection there?) as mercenaries. Sounds like some good coin to be had.

Well, all well and good - but what my character doesn't know is that the Telvanni don't have too many jobs available for people with his ... talents. Not a magickal bone in his body. Intelligence 30, Willpower 40; very little chance of those increasing.

Of course, it would make sense for the Telvanni - and any House, really - to offer a more or less continuous stream of low-level paying jobs to new hirelings. Sort of like the radiant quest system in Skyrim, it would be nice if the Houses just kept you busy with the day-to-day affairs, while players who really wanted to advance would need to meet the requirements. Even wizard-lords need their thugs, after all. Escort an apprentice to some ruin, see that Payment X gets to Client Y, go check on that noise coming from the basemant, go visit those Ashlander barbarians and look scary.

That stuff would be perfect, wouldn't it?