Have you ever wondered where the alchemy shops get all the bloodgrass, harrada, and spiddal stick they sell? This stuff grows only in the Planes of Oblivion, and I haven't noticed many NPCs dashing in to harvest it. Are some Daedra supplementing their incomes by disguising themselves--perhaps as oddly-colored, deformed Argonians--,slipping into towns at dusk, and peddling it to Falanu Hlaalu and Claudette Perrick without Mehrunes Dagon catching on? Or perhaps M.D. himself is financing his invasion by clandestine trade in contraband herbs? I think the Imperial Watch should look into this at once.

I tend to see Oblivion as an artistic representation of the "real" Cyrodiil. As in landscape paintings, many details are left out for the sake of a pleasing composition. I don't take the details of the game too literally.

So things like this don't usually bother me too much. I just assume that there must be folks going into the Deadlands. They're just not represented in the game, that's all.

Maybe someone actually grows it (in a very hot greenhouse). Remember that Wossname who built Frostcrag Spire grew a small patch of Oblivion plants, could be others are doing the same...

Aren't the Mythic Dawn in touch with some inhabitants of Oblivion? I'm actually asking this because I don't know the answer.

Assuming they are, it's possible they could be stashing this stuff in quantity here and there. Some adventurer(s) (not our characters, some other NPCs we never meet) could raid this stash, and over time some of it makes its way into shops.

All right, I confess. I've been sneaking into the deadlands, and selling the stuff to your local merchants. They ask me no questions, and I tell them no lies.

I’ve played some characters who can’t pass a bloodgrass clump without checking every stem, so I tend to blame it on them. And the whole time it was glargg!

Hey, the next time you are there can you see if you can get me a Twilight? My pet has gone missing since I left Vvardenfell and I really would like another.

Jeez. It's one thing to sneak in and grab a basket full of plants, and it's another thing to try to kidnap something that bites back. Although, come to think of it, that Harrada...

I also use this to explain the lack of people in the big Imperial City; they′re just elsewhere where I′m not

They're all at that party in Cheydinhal that you never get invited to.

Ha!

I blame lack of people on the Oblivion Crisis. No trade, no travellers, hardly anybody blazing new trails, etc. Then when the crisis is solved, everybody feels like it's okay to come out again. It's how I 'explain' the sudden appearance of Better Cities (and other mods) in my 4th Era games.