Skyrim Offshore, and humano?d creatures

Post » Wed Sep 01, 2010 12:29 pm

The Dreugh had a city in the Illiac Bay before Vivec destroyed this. After the fall of the Tribunal, and the vanishing of Vivec's Power, one could consider a major hinder for the rebirth of a Dreugh civilization doesn't hold anymore.

The possibility of a Dreugh partially underwater city (and maybe of a little kingdom) lies in the intersection of two matters which are in my opinion of high interest.

First, Skyrim has access to the Sea of Ghosts. Obviously, the first word that pops in one's mind when associating the Sea of Ghost and Skyrim is Roscrea. This Island isn't likely to be in the game, but I think we can hope visiting it in an expansion. Moreover, some sort of Seafarers' Guilld sponsored by a royal house in Solitude, would be in my opinion a great faction, which would organize exploratory missions in the Sea of Ghosts, and wouldn't disagree with the existing lore (to be convinced, just have a look at the third edition of the Pocket Guide to the Empire).

Second, many humano?d creatures live in Skyrim. Many of them seem to be able to speak (there were language skills in Daggerfall) and to craft things (I think there were some dreugh weapons in Morrowind, but I'm not sure). Some of them even seem to be very intelligent (I especially think to centaurs). Thus, many of them seem to fulfill the seminal requirements underlying the development of culture and civilization. However, they don't earn any form of imperial citizenship or recognized rights, so that little to nothing is known about their possible culture. We just sometimes have a glance at it (I think to a quest in Oblivion involving Goblin tribes and some sort of religious totem).

In my opinion, it would be very interesting to learn more about these so far overshadowed possible cultures, religions, and maybe even civilizations. Not only would it give the game more depth and complexity, but it would also create more diversity, for example in the design of weapons and armors. Moreover, making these creatures more intelligent and able to use weapons would rise the challenge for the player. Their weapons would be worth fighting for, but only to the cost of more difficult fughts with ennemies that aren't easy to defeat and may chose to run away.

I'll just write down some examples that tend to form nice pictures in my mind.

I already mentioned a Dreugh city. If Dreughs are able to build a whole city (and they once were), it wouldn't be astonishing for them to have some crafting abilities. And since tridents are often associated with the realm of oceanic waters, the picture of a Dreugh holding an awesome Dreugh-fashioned trident is just one step further.

Another humano?d creature I love, is the Spriggan. Would you like to find a very well hiden Spriggan village in the deep Skyrim forest, possibly suspended in high black ironwood trees? I can't figure out a Spriggan using a trident. I think vicious strategies would fit them pretty well. Engraved wooden blowguns, war whips made with poisonous or enchanted brambles and garrotes would suit these treewise beings, in my opinion. I would quite easily imagine one of them seemingly fleeing to catch the PC in an ambush, with other Spriggans dissimulatid in a dense, misty forest, and shooting poisonous little arrows at the careless player.

In the very same way, one can imagine a peacefull community of goblins in some very great cave, living in a little city at the shore of an underground lake, centaurs gathering around great cromlechs (by the way, I think a centaurian Lochaber axe would be great), or even Udyrfryktes attending a bestial religious ceremony related to their Matron.

The only boundary for the possibility is set by the developpers'creativity. (Hum... after one second of intense thinking, financial reasons may appear as a more effective limitation.)

So, what do you think about the Sea of Ghosts and what it should or shouldn't contain?

And what do you think about the possibility to discover the culture of some humano?d creatures?
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Cesar Gomez
 
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Post » Wed Sep 01, 2010 4:54 pm

The Dreugh had a city in the Illiac Bay before Vivec destroyed this. After the fall of the Tribunal, and the vanishing of Vivec's Power, one could consider a major hinder for the rebirth of a Dreugh civilization doesn't hold anymore.

The possibility of a Dreugh partially underwater city (and maybe of a little kingdom) lies in the intersection of two matters which are in my opinion of high interest.

First, Skyrim has access to the Sea of Ghosts. Obviously, the first word that pops in one's mind when associating the Sea of Ghost and Skyrim is Roscrea. This Island isn't likely to be in the game, but I think we can hope visiting it in an expansion. Moreover, some sort of Seafarers' Guilld sponsored by a royal house in Solitude, would be in my opinion a great faction, which would organize exploratory missions in the Sea of Ghosts, and wouldn't disagree with the existing lore (to be convinced, just have a look at the third edition of the Pocket Guide to the Empire).

Second, many humano?d creatures live in Skyrim. Many of them seem to be able to speak (there were language skills in Daggerfall) and to craft things (I think there were some dreugh weapons in Morrowind, but I'm not sure). Some of them even seem to be very intelligent (I especially think to centaurs). Thus, many of them seem to fulfill the seminal requirements underlying the development of culture and civilization. However, they don't earn any form of imperial citizenship or recognized rights, so that little to nothing is known about their possible culture. We just sometimes have a glance at it (I think to a quest in Oblivion involving Goblin tribes and some sort of religious totem).

In my opinion, it would be very interesting to learn more about these so far overshadowed possible cultures, religions, and maybe even civilizations. Not only would it give the game more depth and complexity, but it would also create more diversity, for example in the design of weapons and armors. Moreover, making these creatures more intelligent and able to use weapons would rise the challenge for the player. Their weapons would be worth fighting for, but only to the cost of more difficult fughts with ennemies that aren't easy to defeat and may chose to run away.


I always thought that Dreugh were just savages, attacking every wanna-be hero who's taking a swim. The weapons of the dreugh are another story. It would be hard to use a dreugh staff with the crab-like claws the Dreugh have. The most logical reason would be that the weapons and armor are created by men and not the Dreugh. Ever seen a dreugh wielding a shield/cuirass/helmet?

I'll just write down some examples that tend to form nice pictures in my mind.

I already mentioned a Dreugh city. If Dreughs are able to build a whole city (and they once were), it wouldn't be astonishing for them to have some crafting abilities. And since tridents are often associated with the realm of oceanic waters, the picture of a Dreugh holding an awesome Dreugh-fashioned trident is just one step further.

Another humano?d creature I love, is the Spriggan. Would you like to find a very well hiden Spriggan village in the deep Skyrim forest, possibly suspended in high black ironwood trees? I can't figure out a Spriggan using a trident. I think vicious strategies would fit them pretty well. Engraved wooden blowguns, war whips made with poisonous or enchanted brambles and garrotes would suit these treewise beings, in my opinion. I would quite easily imagine one of them seemingly fleeing to catch the PC in an ambush, with other Spriggans dissimulatid in a dense, misty forest, and shooting poisonous little arrows at the careless player.


IMO, Spriggans are just forest spirits protecting their trees from invaders. Their ancient tree magic would protect them enough so they had no reason to creat weapons. If they were some kind of female mystics, they would use weapons. But they are just life-embedded trees to me.

In the very same way, one can imagine a peacefull community of goblins in some very great cave, living in a little city at the shore of an underground lake, centaurs gathering around great cromlechs (by the way, I think a centaurian Lochaber axe would be great), or even Udyrfryktes attending a bestial religious ceremony related to their Matron.


It would be hard to built a civilization without notice from the outer world. How did the goblins gain their food, for example. I can't think of some kind of farm in a cave. Maybe they breed rats for their food, but it is unlikely that a few rats are enough for a large population of goblins. How do they reproduce? I haven't seen any goblin love, yet. Oblivion was a step forward for tribes/caves/cities, but it wasn't perfect. Also, uderfryktes are just monsters, like ogres, trolls etc. I don't see any kind of culture fit here, except for a clan structure (matriarch, patriarch, children).

The only boundary for the possibility is set by the developpers'creativity. (Hum... after one second of intense thinking, financial reasons may appear as a more effective limitation.)

So, what do you think about the Sea of Ghosts and what it should or shouldn't contain?

And what do you think about the possibility to discover the culture of some humano?d creatures?


The only thing I would like to see is a kraken. Enough said. :hubbahubba:
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Tiffany Castillo
 
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Post » Wed Sep 01, 2010 1:12 pm

And what do you think about the possibility to discover the culture of some humano?d creatures?


I think Skyrim is a culture of humanoid creatures. And frankly I question the idea of how "humanoid" Dreugh are- more like some sort of squid-centaur. :shrug:
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Misty lt
 
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Post » Wed Sep 01, 2010 1:23 pm

The topic creator likely means "anthropomorphic" (which can mean mentally too and does not necessarily mean human shaped).
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Steve Bates
 
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Post » Wed Sep 01, 2010 9:05 pm

Goblins breed rats and fungus for food or do you miss the rather oviously placed pens in ob?!
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Ridhwan Hemsome
 
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Post » Wed Sep 01, 2010 2:56 pm

I think this was a very well thought out post. Good job OP! I'm intrigued by your suggestions. I don't play on PC but saw a video for an underwater dome mod for Bravil and it looked pretty cool. I could see an underwater Dreugh city being interesting. For Spriggans, I'm not sure that they would have built villages. It would be cool though if they did act more like the protectors of trees instead of some random encounter. Since there is supposedly woodcutting being incorporated into Skyrim, maybe random trees can have a spriggan protecting them, so when you start chopping one down, the spriggan comes out to defend the tree, or the spriggan just happens to be in the area where you start chopping at a tree and attacks you for your transgression.

I am currently playing OB again. On a side note, I'm getting much more out of the dialogue and random NPC pvssyr now that I've read up on more Skyrim lore. It's really adding to the experience and making it even more enjoyable this time around. Anyway, I was spelunking through the caves and thinking, do all caves have to contain evil or bad things? For that matter, do all camps need to be inhabited by bandits? I think it would really add to the immersion to stumble upon a friendly camp or a secret society hidden in a cave. Someplace you can go to trade goods, eat/sleep, train and maybe even get some side quests.

Maybe they do have places like this in OB but I can't recall from the first playthrough and haven't encountered anything like this this time around. If they are in there, maybe I have to do some more spelunking :)
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Joey Avelar
 
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