Silgrad Tower from the Ashes

hmmm...
rethinking mainquest.....

3 objectives...

1. show the burst of the tensions leading to war
2. the end of the Temple as we know it and the birth of the new
3. the uprisings of the 6th House

so the Atronach quests are a foreshadowing of both the Great House War and the Temple
the Helseth quests will be a factor leading to the Great House War...
then of course the Great House War itself...
then I think there should be a Temple thing...

maybe this is the new timeline?
Relative stability, tensions present as always but not sparking large conflict
Atronach mini-MQ questline
tensions rise, riots break out, raiding and political intrigue
Helseth mini-MQ questline
guild wars (ie. Cammona vs. Thieves; Telvanni vs. Mages; DBhood vs. Morag)
open war breaks out, Vvardenfell is ravaged by fierce struggle
Great House War MQ
the fierce war ends on a stalemate,
1 of 3 factions has the upper hand but no one is the victor
'losers' resist although confined to towns
(conclusion of Great House War)
Temple realizes it must fulfill its role as the unifying aspect of Dunmer life
and must end the struggle before it reignites all over Morrowind
Temple / 6th House Mquests
siezing its chance, the 6th House re-emerges and stages an uprising
Temple vs. 6th House

of course... this may be too long...
the two mini-MQs are basically short but elaborate quest-lines... hardly larger than any minor faction's
the Great House War will be big but have little consequence aside from deaths
the Temple must act, but the 6th House is rising
of course in this one you chose your side, Temple or 6th House
if you are sixth House it is likely you still can be in the Great House war since your outside affiliations might lead you to be on 1 of 3 sides...


my vision for the mainquests was to show to Temple rising up to set things right and to adapt to the new changes... because of the Temple's slow loss of control, Imperials are in charge and helping to get the House affairs get out of hand, political intrigue unchecked, and then war
the point of the MQ is to show the Temple and how it will change... the Great House War is a by product of it all

Good streamlining. So, perhaps what we need to do is work backwards. We want everything to stream into these two quest-lines at the end, so we need to decide on what we want to happen in them (more than just Temple vs. Dagoth). Then we need to write quests for these two factions leading up to that point (maybe around 5-8?). Once we've done this, we can go back to the feeder factions (Great Houses and Ordinators) and figure out the integration point for their quest-lines. (Note that Dagoth will probably not really integrate, just have a shift in strategy such as previously covert then cut those ties and come out in the open for the final bit). Then come up with a major quest series, again working backward more or less, for the factions (20 quests each?). At this point, we work on the integration points for each faction from their sub-factions (with the exception of the Ordinators which can only come out of the Temple or be sparked on their own if the Temple is unplayable). Repeat the back-tracing process for the sub-factions (10 quests or so). Then, we read over it all again so as to make certain it works so that we can proceed to in-depth breakdowns of each quest with dialogue scripts, etc.

So, first up: What do you want to happen specifically between the Temple and House Dagoth? Do we want a showdown at Ghostgate, a Sixth House multi-pronged assault accross Vvardenfell? Ideas?

I haven't read this one until now, but it's a good idea.

Hi Hi Hi Hi Hi Hi

Hello. Interesting screen-name by the way; it conveys a very odd mental image.

Just to start off this brainstorming on the final Temple vs. Dagoth thing, here are my current ideas.

Realizing that House Dagoth has been manipulating House events throughout the build-up of the war, the Houses now allied with the Temple decide to send some of their best against Red Mountain. The PC is chosen by whatever faction he is a part of. Upon arrival though, it becomes apparent that the Houses underestimated the amount of power that Dagoth posesses. The elite strike team is initially successful, but is soon overwhelmed and forced to retreat to Ghostgate. Having lost their concealment, House Dagoth then counter-strikes in some way, either raiding nearby settlements or assaulting Ghostgate. There are two or three battles that the PC gets to participate in as the Temple alliance defends their territory and then strikes at the heart of Red Mountain in a more decisive fashion, either with better strategy or a lot more troops (depending on what the engine can do).

For House Dagoth, I suggest that the PC has previously been undercover in another House and in the Temple's initial attack on Red Mountain, is given the opportunity to come out and fight for their true alliegance. If they start killing Dagoths, then they are automatically kicked out of House Dagoth and retain their alternate membership with the House they have been undercover in. If they start killing Temple personnel, then the opposite occurs. Either way, this is the final decision point for the PC in House Dagoth to switch sides. The rest would go how you expect from the earlier synopsis, with of course more development in specifics once Stage 1 is complete and we have an agreed-upon final stage of the storyline.

Please ignore my friend. Hes trying to irk me

Also, we can pull another Cammona Tong / Thieves' Guild functional exclusion here. In the first assault on Red Mountain (before it goes really badly) we can have the PC opposed by the recruiter for House Dagoth. If the PC kills him, them there is no longer the ability to join the House, and thus no capability of messing up the main quest by trying to play both threads in one game (that's why this attack has to be at the start of the final MQ section). Similarly, if the PC has been playing as House Dagoth, he must throw off his cover and kill one side or the other at this point or fail his quest. Thus all other options are excluded at this point in the game. (At any time prior, the PC should be able to switch sides and I have an idea for how to do that, but I don't really want to bring it up until we get to the point of discussing the Great House quest-lines at a later Stage).

now... lets talk about... Helseth.... :yes:
let us get the smaller quests that lead to the big ones out of the way

I think he will spark the war... his agents will cause something to happen that will cause Hlaalu to be scared and consequently send an ultimatum to Redoran and also sending a warning to Telvanni not to interfere and to let them use their terrirtoy should war come. Hlaalu's ultimatum is so dire that the Redoran are offended and cannot comply... and so a great wra begins... (lots of influence from WWI )
but Helseth's meddling is what we are focusing on...

so what does his agents do? change documents? assassinate local officials? frame people? steal ebony?
the Helseth section of the MQ is weaker in the sense that there i less PC involvement... so we need to elaborate...

You probably don't know me, but I was reading through this and I have a suggestion:

Play Oblivion first. Seriously, I think Caius Cosades is going to be in Cyrodiil, which takes out any chance of him appearing in this mod.

We've heard the same thing and are thus planning not to use Caius. We are also trying to withold any solid plans for characters or places that might be mentioned or developed in Oblivion. Thanks for the word of caution though.