My Level 4 Imperial "Paladin" (Warrior Sign; Majors: Armorer, Athlethics, Alchemy, HtoH, Mystic, L Armor, Marksman) is now well into the Knights of the Nine Quest Line, and I'm having a blast with it! [ No Spoilers Please! ]

I'm aware of the page on Wiki for roleplaying a Paladin, and it has been a great source of ideas for me. However, I'd like to add another level.

Whenever my guy is near a wayshrine or chapel he makes a point of going in, kneeling down (sneak) and praying for a good hour ( T key ) and then leaving offerings at the altars. So far I've just sort of left some flowers (Sacred Lotus, Flax, Redwort, or whatever I had on hand at the time).

What I'd like to do is make the offering(s) for each God more specific. For example, Zenithar being a God of prosperity and commerce would seem to be particularly fond of having ingredients whose primary effects are to enhance Personality or perhaps Intelligence? I was gonna browse Wiki and come up with my own list of in-game items that would be appropriate offerings for each of the Nine Divines but thought I'd ask here and see if any of you experts have any suggestions?

ADDIT: obviously the simplest solution is just to make offerings to each God that are fortifiers of the attribute they favor

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Fortify_Luck

But maybe some of you guys have additional ideas to expand on that?

Having reviewed the Lore a bit more on Wiki here is what I'm coming up with at first. For some of these attributes, there are many ingredients that fortify (let alone the ones that restore) at higher levels of alchemical ability. It seems unlikely however that average people would be aware of those expert or master level ingredient characteristics (let alone even the apprentice level ones). However, it would make sense if particular in-game ingredients were commonly associated with the God as an ideal offering. Just limiting it to the one, or in some cases two lowest level fortification/restoration ingredient that seems appropriate:

ADDIT: added secondary non-ingredient items

Akatosh Supreme God, speed, Pear, Light Armor

Arkay, life/change/death, health, Mutton, Healing/Restorative Potions

Dibella, women/art/eros, personality, Imp Gall, Jewelry

Julianos, wisdom/learning, intelligence, Clouded Funnel Cap, Books

Kynareth, nature/elements, agility, Leek, Animal Pelts/Teeth/Horns

Mara, love/compassion/fertility, willpower, Lavender, drawing a blank

Stendarr, righteous rule/merciful might, endurance, Crab Meat is an Endurance Restorer, Heavy Armor

Talos, Hero Demi-God, strength, Monkshood Pulp (seems to be most approprirate Str Restorer) Melee Weapons

Zenithar, commerce/wealth, luck, Green Stain Shelf Cap, Repair Hammers

I think that technically, offerings should have real value, so the idea of sacrificing the various clutter items (calipers, brooms, tongs, etc.) seems a bit flawed, but maybe there is something to think about there too?

I would also like it if there was at least one "flower" type ingredient associated with each God.

you could always offer julianos a book since he is the god of wisdom/learning

Talos is the god of strenght so perhaps a weapon that you value.

same for zenithar but no weapons but an other item like neklace of great value.

Zenithar would love a repair hammer

Good ideas guys, I'm adding them to list in the 2nd post, and that also sparks ideas for secondary non-ingredient items for each God.

Hmmm? Zenithar and repair hammers? In game of course, repair hammers are only for Armorer which is an Endurance skill, which would place them with Stendarr. However, Stendarr seems more like a Kingly type than a Hephaestus "God of Smiths" type. With that in mind, I see your point, and agree that Repair Hammers, if taken to represent tools involved in commerce in general, are a good fit for Zenithar

Food is also a common offering in religious rites. Likewise with drink like wine. He might simply leave a loaf of bread and pour some Tamika's on the wayshrine. In ancient Greece the goddess Hekate was honored by leaving a meal at the crossroads at the end of every month. As Aristophanes wrote in his play Frogs: "Ask Hekate whether it is better to be rich or starving; she will tell you that the rich send her a meal every month and that the poor make it disappear before it is even served."

Sadly, the poor people in Tamriel don't seem to take any interest in the morsels that I leave at the Wayshrines nor the Chapels! :cryvaultboy:

Wow, I really like the idea of offering different items & food to different Divines! I may just have to steal that idea! My paladin throws various items (books, gems, cheap items etc) into the altar, too. But she doesn't go as far as yours.

My paladin (Dyan phor-a-Cauz) will also spend ALL DAY or most of the day in a Chapel if it's Sundas and she happens to be in a town. I've noticed quite a lot of other NPCs will join her in Chapel, too, if it's Sundas. Nice touch. It's kinda like a Quaker meeting, though. Nobody really preaches anything. Everyone stands around or sits around mostly in silence. Main difference is: instead of bringing up inspirational thoughts (as Quakers do) the NPCs in Oblivion (if they speak at all) wind up saying all the usual random crap they always bring up.

Anyways...here's some more ideas...my paladin...

> wears the commoner clothes if she's not dressed for battle, not the stuff royalty and upperclass NPCs wear.

> Has a very low ego. She does good works for the Empire and for the NIne Divines...occasionally for another NPC (quest), but never for self-serving reasons.

> She "tithes" to church members, and gives a tip to stable-hands, poor members of society, etc. I do this by pushing the "Bribe" option, although I'm pretending it's not a bribe.

> She NEVER passes a beggar who's asked for "a coin" without giving. One excpetion is if the beggar happens to be a lizard-person or cat-person, then it's like "Come on...you can get out in the world and hunt" Human beggars in the game usually LOOK as though they're sick or ailing and in need of assistance...

> No murders.

> No assaults (not intentional, anyways).

> No stealing

> No bounty (obviously). Ever.

>she only keeps enough money on-hand to equip a basic amount of sustenance/weapon/armor upkeep. She's gonna be my first character who isn't in this for "the money" or the fame, basically.

> No displays of excess. She's going to buy the Waterfront shack and Bruma house (she's a Nord) but not fully decorate them. Again, to me it seems a paladin is not on an ego-trip. Not trying to show how great he or she is with this giant, expensive house.

>The one exception to the "no excess" rule is that Dyan does occasionally carry an enchanted or silver sword, or enchanted armor. She like heavy armor, too. But all of this is in support of the Empire & Nine DIvines.



> According to D&D rules, Paladins also can have limited magical powers, too. In Oblivion, this translates to: various Restoration spells, Convalecense (however you spell it), Detect Life, Turn Undead, Light, and possibly Sheild spells on occasion.

> She uses scrolls & potions to augment her sword skilz, occasionally, too, but mostly she's all about the Blade!

While cheap clutter items make lousy offerings, they do work well as decoration of your own little shrine to a god in one of your houses or something like that. For instance, if your Paladin favors Arkay, a set of scales would fit well, not to be left for the god, but to be kept by your character.

Also, gold and silver nuggets seem a good offering for Zenithar.

I don't remember what I'd leave for Dibella, might have been lavender because the character thought it looked and smelled pretty. Dragon's Tongue seemed appropriate for Akatosh, and I'd offer ectoplasm and vampire dust to Arkay after hunting.

It is an interesting paradox of sorts. Would Arkay prefer to have items / materials indicative of his nemesii sacrified at his altars (remains of undead) or would he prefer to have non-sacriligious fairly common items that reflect his favored attributes?

The concept of extracting power from the remains of an opponent is quite common in many cultures, but I think this is rather absent from the Judeo-Christian tradition. I guess Jesus doesn't really have any "enemies" per se, but in any event, I cannot imagine anyone ever sacrificing some Roman relics to Christ.

Now if we consider Greco-Roman tradition to be more the base for Oblivion (which seems appropriate in many respects) then the idea of sacrificing totems of defeated enemies does seem to be quite fitting.

I guess it depends on how you want to play it.

I do like the idea of sacrificing enemy materials, but the idea of them sitting there more or less permanently on Arkay's Shrine is the part that seems hard to accept. Its too bad there seems to be no way to destroy things in the game (other than dropping stuff in the Oblivion Lava). What would be really cool is if: you pray at Arkay's Shrine, you leave an offering like pork chops or whatever, then you turn around and heap a bunch of Vampire dust, and ecotoplasm on some sort of bonfire and pray some more!

:shrug:

To be honest, it just seemed like a good idea at the time lol

I do agree about wishing they didn't stay there permanently. Seeing a pile of flowers on Dibella or Mara's shrine is one thing, but a mound of body parts is quite another.

Isn't there a console command on PC that allows you to delete an item from the game? You could use that to remove the sacrificed items after a while. I don't remember what the command is. I also don't know if you're on PC or not, so I apologize if you are not.

just click the item and type disable

Sacrifice the evil demon child of the adoring fan

Blood sacrifice would be cool.

Yeeea!