I was just wondering about this... the giant eyed freaks and the hackdirt peasants worship the "deep ones" do they worship the Dwemer?

no. the Hackdirt quest is just a homage to H.P. Lovecraft's http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shadow_Over_Innsmouth. the deep ones aren't Dwemer.

it's not very high on the scale of relevance to TES lore.

/disappointment

The best tie-in to the lore that we've got is that the Bible of the Deep ones is an excerpt of Ngasta, Kvatka, Kvatkis which, among other infamous tangents, is related to the Sload. That's about it.

Actually the N'gasta itself is really just a random Esperanto webpage slightly altered a bit:

Kva! Kvak! is the newsletter of the La Ranetoj. It is send to paying members and other individuals who, in some way, are involved in la Ranetoj's activities. In it there firstly is information about the locations of the monthly meetings, but of course also concerning the latest activities of the club. Sometimes it also includes other educating or entertaining material.

The Internet-based Kvako are on the one hand another distribution channel for the contents of the paper version. But on the other hand, not surprisingly, the contents of the different versions cannot and even must not always be 100 percent the same. For instance, in little circulating paper versions you can publish illustrations that, for copyright reasons, cannot be used on the Internet. Yet on the other hand the low costs of the Internet version lift the space limits and allow more content, not to mention being always to date."

These circumstances influence the web-based Kvako, which will also serve as the general homepage of the 'La Ranetoj'.

So, yeah. The "Deep Ones" are not meant to be anything, really.

This quest may have been a joke, but i think it backfired by showing that the non-joke quests were pretty shallow and unsatisfying themselves.

Wow, i just realised the hostility that i hold towards Oblivion. It feels good to let it out.

I never even did the quest, just heard about it and poked around the town. Definitely one of Oblivion's more atmospheric and intriguing quests, and inspired by a respected author of supernatural horror. If it was meant to be a joke, as compared to "Oh noes!!1! the daedra!1!1" the joke is on them, not us.

It would have been interesting to link the deep ones to the Sload as just throwing a entire new race around and never touching it again is shallow.

They're called "Easter Eggs."

I just hated that in Oblivion that towns were created not to add the the fullness of Cyrodil, but as a vehicle for a one-off mission(s). Hackdirt was one of the better examples.

Well, look at it this way, it takes a lot of effort to build one tiny stinkin' village complete with NPC's, loot, and AI pathgridding and all that. Wouldn't you want the player in some way to remember their visit to this place? Reward them for exploring a new area?

However, I do agree with you that the villages suffered even more than the cities did from Oblivion's chronic 'every place is a cultural island, separated from the rest.'

I was a bit dissapointed with this quest(dissapointed with most of em in fact) and not because it doesnt have anything to do with TES lore

its because I really adore H. P. Lovecrafts work and they couldve seriously done a better job here... it was a simple rescue mission but it could have been much more with just 1-3 more quest stages evolving around the old ones and the weird village people.

Many famous writers like Stephen King got their inspiration from Lovecraft and if you have ever read any of his works (especially Shadow over Innsmouth) or played Call of Chthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth(one of the best horror games imo) you probably know how atmospheric, scary and creepy these stories can be.

Few small things that would have enhanced this quest:

*There shouldnt have been any grass or trees with leaves around the village, it was burned down before and now for some mysterious reason nothing grows there anymore. Or the town should have been placed somewhere along the coast in the first place because Innsmouth is a fishing village. (and Oblivion seems to be short on those)

*Adding a second level cave there which is darker and has a huge pit which is supposedly used to toss stuff down to feed "something". Jumping down there would cause instant death. Maybe throw in a unique monster in there too something like those dagoth ur priests from morrowind because I am 99% sure they are based off lovecraftian horror.

*After reading or seeing something weird in the village the character experiences weird and creepy dreams related to the village and its inhabitants but if he comes back to hackdirt he finds it burned down again but survivors or dead bodies are nowhere to be found. Well something like that.

And I'm sure there is always a way to connect this all with some deity from TES lore, for example Nimira or whatever is the name of that daedra princess that sends you off to kill some sleeping mage in his tower could be behind this because she seems to be the mistress of nightmares, she created the image of old ones and is manipulating the villagers that way.

I though the whole point of Lovecraftian horror was to never show you anything.

Bethesda's commitment to the easter egg was minimal, and the quest left almost half-finished. I had to make a mod that adds a creepy pit in the cave with lots of negative light.

Well yes but he does show enough weird things or events so the main character finally goes mad. Adding a pit would have been a really good idea. We aren't supposed to know exactly what is down there and we cant descend either without dying but we know they throw down people and animals to satisfy something.

Not really, the CS actually makes it pretty easy, and I'm not even exceptionally good with the CS - if I can do without much trouble it should be a breeze for the guys who get paid to do it (and probably have a version that isn't buggy as hell)...

Exactly what I did lol

Easy, yes. But it does take time. Unless I just take a lot longer to construct and clutter places than most people.

There doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to alot of clutter so surely it doesn't take that long. It is a step up from Mournhold though, 'effing silverware everywhere. :yuck:

:turtle:

Dagoth Ur's priests were based off Lovecraftian horror? Which priests in particular, and in what way?

Maybe I am wrong might be just a coincidence.

Lovecraft is the oldest writer I know who created these evil entities who corrupt and drive its followers mad. Same with Dagoth Ur, his fanatics slowly deform and go mad. But its probably a coincidence after all.


Anyway connecting Hackdirt to Dagoth Ur somehow would have also been a neat idea. The dreamers could take ships from Morrowind to mainland and try spread corprus there.

The madness of Dagoth's followers is subjective.

I recall one Dagoth priest speaking of Azura in the same manner many users see her now: as a petty entity using the Nerevarine as a cat's paw to settle a vendetta that bruised her ego.

depends on what you think about the ash creatures with things growing out of their heads.

Considering that most of the dreamers (at least the ones I've seen) were dunmer and that hackdirt consisted of imperials (humans) I find that theory unlikely. Plus werent the dreamers being mind controlled by Dagoth Ur I would think that would stop once he was dead.

The dreamers did stop dreaming once you destroyed the near by Sixth House base, and they went up and thanked you for freeing them from the nightmare.