 The Oblivion Crysis; the High Rock Response |
The Old Ye Bard
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Registration Date: 2006.05.25
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 The Oblivion Crysis; the High Rock Response |
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Furtherest away from Cyrodiil, yet closer to the crysis than anywhere
else, seeing as High Rock is very imperialised, and the rulers of
atleast one city (Shornhelm) have a somewhat legitimate claim to the
throne.
How is Highrock affected by the Crysis? We know Oblivion gates have
opened up all over Tamriel, so we can't just avoid the issue.
Personally, I think we should not have gates opening up in the
Wilderness, but rather only outside cities (in particular, Daggerfall
(being the Capital of High Rock) Shornhelm (for having a ruler who
potentially could relight the dragon fires, but as already has been
established has no wish at all to do, rather fears the mythic dawn
assasins) and the Dirreni Tower/Adamantine Tower, as it is one of the
'towers' and holds metaphysical significance to the gates being open,
in a round-a-bout way).
One posible way of 'adapting' the Oblivion crysis to our benefits would
be to use it in conjuction with the Witches covens, and have the
Witches opening gateways to their respective Patron Dardric princes
(Boethiah, Hircine, Namira, Nocturnal, Mephala, Vaernima would be good
to do, though TR are doing gates to Vaernima's plane, we could pick
prehaps three princes to have witches opening gates to, with one
dungeon/small exterior to go with it).
This post has been edited 1 time(s), it was last edited by The Old Ye Bard: 2008.10.02 09:50.
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2008.10.02 05:47 |
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Deeza
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Registration Date: 2008.06.03
Posts: 1,066
Location: Procrastination
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I think you're right - we should avoid Vaermina. I've seen TR's work in
progress for her plane of Oblivion, and there is no way we could avoid
looking amateurish in comparison.
I think that if we're going to bring in a visit to a new Daedric Plane,
it should be Malacath's, for two reasons. First, Orsinium is in the
province, and their King, Gortwog, has been really pissing off Malacath
recently in all sorts of ways. Furthermore, there are a LOT of orc
shamans who hate Gortwog's guts and have the knowledge and power to
open a gate to Oblivion.
Secondly, Ashpit would be quite easy to do, relative to the other
planes. It's basically just a massive desert with a constant choking
ash storm raging, whilst the air whispers about betrayal and despair.
Elseweyr already has desert textures made, and there is an ash storm
weather system already created by a French team that I am acquainted
with.
I like the idea of most of the regular MD gates being around Shornhelm.
It would be fun if all the roads leading to it were blocked and you had
to break through the Daedra lines to get to the city. |
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2008.10.02 20:04 |
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Deeza
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Registration Date: 2008.06.03
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I'd love to see some concepts, and I'm sure the rest of the core would too.
Here's some more detailed information about Malacath's realm to inspire you:
Malacath holds the hardest to access of Oblivion’s extant lands, the
Ashpit. As Prince Patron of the disenfranchised and cast out, it is
only reasonable that the pathways to his domain take on a
characteristic level of concealment. Orsinium, kingdom of the Orcs,
gives Malacath its highest esteem, which is surprising when one
considers the normal Orcish revilement of Daedric spirits. One might
conjecture then that the rumors of Malacath not being a true Daedroth
but an imprisoned aetherial spirit are true. It would certainly fit the
Prince of Exile that he be one himself.
'Dust,' he whispered to me on the first day of his voyage. Despite the
inherent dreariness of the word, I could hear his excitement in his
voice, echoing in my mind. 'I can see from one end of the world to the
other in a million shades of gray. There is no sky or ground or air,
only particles, floating, falling, whirling about me. I must levitate
and breathe by magickal means ...'
Zenas explored the nebulous land for some time, encountering vaporous
creatures and palaces of smoke. Though he never met the Prince, we
concluded that he was in Ashpit, said to be the home of Malacath, where
anguish, betrayal, and broken promises like ash filled the bitter air.
I think the most important thing you could design would be some kind of
unique Ashpit Gate, based on an altered mesh of the standard one. It
would need to be suitably difficult to get into, perhaps having a
transparent texture like the Will o'the Wisps?
For the sky, we could use one of the nebula modder's resources that
fills the whole sky with shifting gases of different colours. This post has been edited 1 time(s), it was last edited by Deeza: 2008.10.03 10:14.
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2008.10.03 10:13 |
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The Old Ye Bard
Princess
Registration Date: 2006.05.25
Posts: 3,663
Location: Post-Feminism
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| quote: |
Originally posted by Deeza
I'd love to see some concepts, and I'm sure the rest of the core would too.
Here's some more detailed information about Malacath's realm to inspire you:
Malacath holds the hardest to access of Oblivion’s extant lands, the
Ashpit. As Prince Patron of the disenfranchised and cast out, it is
only reasonable that the pathways to his domain take on a
characteristic level of concealment. Orsinium, kingdom of the Orcs,
gives Malacath its highest esteem, which is surprising when one
considers the normal Orcish revilement of Daedric spirits. One might
conjecture then that the rumors of Malacath not being a true Daedroth
but an imprisoned aetherial spirit are true. It would certainly fit the
Prince of Exile that he be one himself.
'Dust,' he whispered to me on the first day of his voyage. Despite the
inherent dreariness of the word, I could hear his excitement in his
voice, echoing in my mind. 'I can see from one end of the world to the
other in a million shades of gray. There is no sky or ground or air,
only particles, floating, falling, whirling about me. I must levitate
and breathe by magickal means ...'
Zenas explored the nebulous land for some time, encountering vaporous
creatures and palaces of smoke. Though he never met the Prince, we
concluded that he was in Ashpit, said to be the home of Malacath, where
anguish, betrayal, and broken promises like ash filled the bitter air.
I think the most important thing you could design would be some kind of
unique Ashpit Gate, based on an altered mesh of the standard one. It
would need to be suitably difficult to get into, perhaps having a
transparent texture like the Will o'the Wisps?
For the sky, we could use one of the nebula modder's resources that
fills the whole sky with shifting gases of different colours. |
It would be nearly impossible to do make a plane by that description,
and Sheogorath mentions in the SI that the 'backbone' of his world is
an actual backbone, which is step in a completely different direction.
There's also the problem of having too many Alphas, which causes the
bug of one layer becoming solid, or invisible, which looks rather
horrible, and would happen a lot if we were to make everything out of
transparent ash clouds.
I suggest we still have ash storms, etc, but have a ground (meaning
it's in an exterior world space), perhaps with burrows/caves for the
reptilian creatures of the Ashpit (Clanfear, Ogrim), all made of soot
and ash still though.
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2008.10.03 11:13 |
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Deeza
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Registration Date: 2008.06.03
Posts: 1,066
Location: Procrastination
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definitely yes to all those ideas. Obviously it would be impossible to
make Ashpit literally as described, I just thought I'd show you the
lore, so that we can take that and turn it into something that's
possible to do in the game engine. 
Planes of Oblivion are very big anyway, so who's to say that there
aren't solid islands floating around somewhere in Malacath's zone?
For our exterior spaces, would it be possible for you to make a texture
for an ocean of ash, which looks like the bubbling mudpits you
occasionally get in the ashlands in Morrowind? |
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2008.10.03 11:43 |
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The Old Ye Bard
Princess
Registration Date: 2006.05.25
Posts: 3,663
Location: Post-Feminism
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| quote: |
Originally posted by Deeza
definitely yes to all those ideas. Obviously it would be impossible to
make Ashpit literally as described, I just thought I'd show you the
lore, so that we can take that and turn it into something that's
possible to do in the game engine.
Planes of Oblivion are very big anyway, so who's to say that there
aren't solid islands floating around somewhere in Malacath's zone?
For our exterior spaces, would it be possible for you to make a texture
for an ocean of ash, which looks like the bubbling mudpits you
occasionally get in the ashlands in Morrowind? |
Yes, I'm pretty sure I could do that
Though, it would most likely take abit more time than the stuff I
usually churn out , I have only a little knowledge about animated
textures, and it's not exactly something necessary until much later on,
however I'm not saying that I won't, or can't do it, I'll probably just
end up doing some modeling for it first.
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2008.10.03 11:49 |
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nick_op
Baron
Registration Date: 2008.05.02
Posts: 446
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I could create some ash storms for you when you need them. I think it
would be interesting to have a 'calm' weather type for Malacath's plane
where ash just falls serenely from the sky. That would be fairly easy
to do as well.
I imagine it will be a while until you need them. Just let me know when you do.
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2008.10.03 12:42 |
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Deeza
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Registration Date: 2008.06.03
Posts: 1,066
Location: Procrastination
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Thanks nick_op, that's a good idea and a very kind offer.
I suspect this will be in the concept stage for a while yet, but
someone will definitely PM you once we've agreed on everything.
Plus: here is an Ash Atronach somebody already made, which would look right at home in Ashpit:
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=13201
For other enemies, perhaps a retextured Will o'the Wisp, so that it's a cloud of ash particles instead of little lights?
An Ogrim could perhaps be made from an ogre model? They are fairly
close in appearance. Apparently, ogres are Malacath's Daedra as well,
or at least they are linked to him and he cares about them, so we could
have a few of them scattered around.
Otherwise, we would need, apart from the statues and rocks you mentioned:
Some kind of Tower (these are needed for the gate to work)
A Sigil Stone (I suggest a lump of soot, floating in an animated cloud of ash particles)
This post has been edited 3 time(s), it was last edited by Deeza: 2008.10.03 15:00.
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2008.10.03 14:22 |
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The Old Ye Bard
Princess
Registration Date: 2006.05.25
Posts: 3,663
Location: Post-Feminism
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| quote: |
Originally posted by Deeza
Thanks nick_op, that's a good idea and a very kind offer.
I suspect this will be in the concept stage for a while yet, but
someone will definitely PM you once we've agreed on everything.
Plus: here is an Ash Atronach somebody already made, which would look right at home in Ashpit:
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=13201
For other enemies, perhaps a retextured Will o'the Wisp, so that it's a cloud of ash particles instead of little lights?
An Ogrim could perhaps be made from an ogre model? They are fairly
close in appearance. Apparently, ogres are Malacath's Daedra as well,
or at least they are linked to him and he cares about them, so we could
have a few of them scattered around.
Otherwise, we would need, apart from the statues and rocks you mentioned:
Some kind of Tower (these are needed for the gate to work)
A Sigil Stone (I suggest a lump of soot, floating in an animated cloud of ash particles) |
Ogres aren't Daedra 
For a tower, I think we should try thinking out-of-the-box, it doesn't
hae to be an actual tower, it can be something representing a tower
(which is due to the metaphyicis of the Elder Scrolls, which I won't
get into here), e.g. we could have a large statue being the 'tower', or
something even vaguer, prehaps a giant gnarled ash-tree?
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2008.10.03 23:32 |
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Braggi
Seigneur
Registration Date: 2006.09.23
Posts: 287
Location: B.C. Canada
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 Development so far on
the Oblivion Crisis |
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I need to add a reply on this particular subject. I'm glad you brought it up folks!
The current overall design work for the mod does have development for
this particular question, including a trip to another plane with it. I
can't give out the the details yet, pending a design discussion with
Gyssar, but I can say the following:
1. The idea does not involve creating a new plane of Oblivion
for a named Daedra, so it will avoid any worries about having us look
amateurish or creating major Lore conflicts with future Beth
development.
2. It helps tie up some of the questions about what happened in
with the Warp in the West and the wreckage of Numidium after it was
used.
3. It will also help explain some of the geographical anomalies
(as seen in the various official maps of the province) between the High
Rock of today and the High Rock of 20 years back.
Regarding how the Oblivion Crisis affects High Rock, here are some ideas we have to play with:
1. Oblivion gates are indeed opening around the province. They
are both near cities and in the wilderness, but following a pattern in
some wilderness cases (see point 2 below).
2. Witch covens are likely going to play a major role in some of the gate opening sites. See my witch coven article "Witches in High Rock" (mid way through the first page of the thread) for possible ideas as to why.
3. We would like to have several side quests revolving around
closing Oblivion gates. In Vanilla OB, gates were either main quest
items or random, do-it-yourself adventures with only one or two side
quests involving them. We'd like to keep that idea of having gates play
an important role, but we'd also like to have some gate-closing quests
to give the player a stronger sense of involvement on behalf of the
province as a whole.
4. The Mages Guild will definitely have a role to play in
getting some of the gates closed, especially given that they summon
named daedra as part of the game Lore from TES2. Once again, there is
the potential for some serious side or branch quests here.
With all of that said, I am quite intrigued by the concept work you are
doing here for a Daedric plane. If we can add this in, it would be a
lot of fun. Creating a unique Oblivion realm to adventure in would be
great, so long as it isn't too difficult to implement and finish.
Addendum
Speaking of this whole question, we also need to start looking at
Daedric Shrine quests. The covens act as the shrine keepers... we are
going to need a number of different lesser artifacts as rewards for
completing the shrines, along with quests to go with them. We might
want to get a seperate thread going so I can list off the known
artifacts we have to play with and which ones have a spot in
development already. This post has been edited 1 time(s), it was last edited by Braggi: 2008.10.04 00:12.
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2008.10.04 00:09 |
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nick_op
Baron
Registration Date: 2008.05.02
Posts: 446
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| RE: Development so far on
the Oblivion Crisis |
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| quote: |
Originally posted by Braggi
3. We would like to have several side quests revolving around
closing Oblivion gates. In Vanilla OB, gates were either main quest
items or random, do-it-yourself adventures with only one or two side
quests involving them. We'd like to keep that idea of having gates play
an important role, but we'd also like to have some gate-closing quests
to give the player a stronger sense of involvement on behalf of the
province as a whole.
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That sounds cool, as long as they are not the same repeated maps used for every other Oblivion gate in the game.
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2008.10.04 01:35 |
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Deeza
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Registration Date: 2008.06.03
Posts: 1,066
Location: Procrastination
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I would suggest Hircine and Azura for starters, since they both seem to
be quite big in High Rock. Plus Malacath obviously, since he's still
worshipped by most orcs.
Regarding our plans for Ashpit, we're trying to keep it simple and easy
to make. Most of the assets we'd be using have already been made, or
will require only minor modifications, so it shouldn't require too much
work or take resources away from High Rock itself. |
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2008.10.05 23:46 |
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The Old Ye Bard
Princess
Registration Date: 2006.05.25
Posts: 3,663
Location: Post-Feminism
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| quote: |
Originally posted by Deeza
I would suggest Hircine and Azura for starters, since they both seem to
be quite big in High Rock. Plus Malacath obviously, since he's still
worshipped by most orcs.
Regarding our plans for Ashpit, we're trying to keep it simple and easy
to make. Most of the assets we'd be using have already been made, or
will require only minor modifications, so it shouldn't require too much
work or take resources away from High Rock itself. |
Well, actually I can make totally new assets for it, and rather fast if I go by my concepts 
IMO, I don't think Malacath should have a 'usable' shrine in the game
for quests, since we are making his realm, though still obviously
actually have a physical shrine in game, or a couple for that matter,
just not ones you can receive quests from.
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2008.10.05 23:50 |
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Deeza
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Registration Date: 2008.06.03
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| quote: |
Originally posted by The Old Ye Bard
Well, actually I can make totally new assets for it, and rather fast if I go by my concepts
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That's fantastic!
Have you made any sketches that you could post?
I will find the links for the resources we could make use of.
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2008.10.06 00:13 |
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The Old Ye Bard
Princess
Registration Date: 2006.05.25
Posts: 3,663
Location: Post-Feminism
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2008.10.06 00:21 |
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Deeza
Editor
Registration Date: 2008.06.03
Posts: 1,066
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Sounds good.
I can't wait to see your results.
By the way, I was thinking about the Tower question. As I recall TR was
making a tree for Vaermina's realm to act as the tower, so I thought we
could do something different and perhaps have a rock pinnacle of some
kind, like the ones in Monument Valley in the US? |
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2008.10.06 11:38 |
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