Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

Character creation
Morrowind begins with the player's character, having been imprisoned, arriving in Morrowind by boat in order to be pardoned. This is a common introductory segment throughout the main installments of the series. A well-received tutorial depicting the prisoner's release moves the player through the process of character creation. The player is successively asked questions by a fellow prisoner, an officer, and a bureaucrat as the player is registered as a free citizen; choosing, in the process, the player character's name, race, gender, class, and birthsign. These affect the player's starting attributes, skills, and abilities. In a throwback to the Ultima series, the player has an opportunity to answer a series of moral questions to determine his class.

Skill system
The player character's proficiency with a skill is increased either by practice, training or study. Practice involves performing the specific actions associated with a given skill, which gradually raises the character's proficiency in that skill. Raising weapon skills requires striking an enemy with the appropriate weapon; raising armor skills requires being struck while wearing the appropriate type of armor; etc. Training involves paying cash to NPCs in exchange for immediate proficiency increases in that skill. Study requires reading books found in the game, some of which will immediately raise a skill when read. Weaponry skills (viz. Short Blade, Long Blade, Axe, etc.) affect the character's chance to hit. Armor skills (viz. Heavy Armor, Light Armor, Unarmored, etc.) affect the defensive strength of the armor. Other skills (viz. Alchemy, Athletics and Security) affect proficiency at other actions such as potion-making, running, lockpicking, etc.

Morrowind, like its predecessor Daggerfall, makes a distinction between "attributes" and "skills"; skills being those individual proficiencies in particular schools of battle or with particular armor classes, and attributes being broader proficiencies, such as "strength" and "endurance", which are either tied to important features unconnected to any skill, (viz. Health, evasion chance, etc.) or improve the efficiency of a wide variety of skills. Strength, for example, improves the damage of any physical blow dealt by the player character. Attributes, however, are improved only when the player levels up.

The player levels up their character by gaining levels in ten pre-determined skills, listed as "major" and "minor" skills. Each time the player levels up their character, they can select three attributes to augment as well. The player is better able to augment attributes related to their skill set, as each level gained in a particular skill adds to the multiplier by which the attribute is augmented.

Combat
A screenshot from the game, demonstrating Morrowind ' s first-person combat.On a PC, the simplest melee attack, a chop, is performed with a left click. The slightly more complex slash and thrust attacks are performed by clicking in unison with tapping a directional key, though by turning on the "always use best attack" option, players can eliminate the moving element, freeing them to focus on the combat. A melee weapon's damage potential is rated for each of these attacks. Reviewers found little value in choosing between the three types of attacks for most weapons, and recommended the "always use best attack" option. Hidden arithmetic modifiers, applied to each combatant's skills, determines whether or not the attack hits. In the game's original release, the player was given no indication of the amount of health left in their enemies, and no indication of the strength of the player's attacks. Reviewers took the absence badly, wishing for more visible feedback.[16] [20] [22] Bethesda eventually added enemy health bars in patch 1.1.0605, released one month after Morrowind ' s initial publication.[23]

Free-form design
Morrowind, following the tradition established by its predecessors in The Elder Scrolls series,[24] attempts to establish a completely free-form world, with little constricting boundaries on the player's actions. From the beginning of the game, players are put in a world where they are left to roam, steal, quest and explore, without necessarily following the main quest.[25] Lead Designer Ken Rolston, asked prior to Morrowind ' s release what he thought were the "core, untouchable design elements" of the Elder Scrolls series which "set them apart from other games", responded immediately: "Free-form experience."[26] In Rolston's view, the game's central plot is a chance to introduce the player to a cross-current of conflicting factions, background themes, and to the characters of the game, rather than the primary focus of the player's experience.[27] "Every TES game has to let you create the kind of character you want, and then do the things you want. We would never have a TES RPG force you to be a certain character or go down a certain path."[26]

To allow for this behavior, Morrowind, in addition to creating an extensive main quest, provides detailed discursive quests for a variety of factions, including various guilds, religious organizations and aristocratic houses, in addition to side-quests found by mere exploration.[28] [29] Even the main plot itself may be undertaken in a number of ways. There are, in the words of critic Craig Lindley, "a very specific set of central plot points within this main plot. But the plot points are partially ordered: seven high level tasks must be completed, but their constituent sub-tasks...can be accomplished in any order, and this is repeated for the sub-tasks involved in those sub-tasks." The choices the player makes in their performance of these tasks thus become methods of character interpretation; a set of dramatic tools establishing the player's newly created self-identity.[30]

According to Gamasutra's Matt Barton, some have argued that these changes put Morrowind closer in spirit to the original Dungeons & Dragons tabletop game, where players take a more creative role in their play, and where players are left to decide for themselves the "right" action.[31] This is a view paralleled by Rolston, who has stated that "The goal of every TES game is to create something that resembles a pen and paper RPG on the computer."[26] The sheer number of quest possibilities, combined with what developer Ken Rolston identified as a lack of "narrative urgency", left many critics dissatisfied with the main plot. Ken Rolston later stated that the main quest might have been presented with greater force, in the style of the game's successor, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, without losing the free-form design of the series, but such concerns were not addressed prior to Morrowind ' s release.[32]

Story
While Morrowind contains many quests and storylines, the central plot revolves around the reincarnation of the Dunmer hero, Indoril Nerevar. The incarnate of Nerevar, referred to as "The Nerevarine", has been prophesied to oppose and defeat the rise of the malevolent deity Dagoth Ur and the remnants of his followers. These followers are encompassed in a forbidden faction named "The Sixth House", and are mainly located within the volcanic region of Red Mountain in the center of Vvardenfell, the island on which the game takes place. Dagoth Ur has used the Heart of Lorkhan, an artifact of great power, to make himself immortal and now seeks to drive the Imperial occupiers from Morrowind using his network of spies, as well as an enormous golem, powered by the Heart of Lorkhan, which Dagoth Ur had originally been tasked to guard.[8] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Plans_9-1">[10]

After a storm and a strange vision in his dreams, the player begins fresh off a boat from a mainland prison in a town called Seyda Neen, freed by the string-pulling of the current ruler of the Tamrielic Empire, Emperor Uriel Septim VII, with the task of meeting Caius Cosades, a member of the Blades, a secret group tasked with the protection of the Emperor and the Empire.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Arrival_14-1">[15]

Cosades inducts the player into the Blades under orders of the Emperor, and sets the player on various quests to uncover the mysterious disappearances and revelations that the citizens of Vvardenfell have experienced, particularly the Sixth House and the Ashlander prophecies of the Nerevarine. It is later revealed that The Sixth House, and Dagoth Ur, has been directly influencing the people within their dreams, including attempts to invade the player's mind.

Prophecies from the nomadic people living in the Ashlands, The Ashlanders, predict that Nerevar's incarnate will fulfil a set of seven prophecies. The first two prophecies are that Nerevar will be born on a certain day to uncertain parents, and will be cured of Corprus disease. Fulfilling these, the player seeks to complete the third prophecy, a test to find the Moon-and-Star, the symbolic ring worn by Nerevar, which would instantly kill any other who tried to wear it. Once the player finds and equips the ring, he receives a vision from Azura, the ancient Daedric Queen of the Dawn and Dusk, who confirms that the player is Nerevar's incarnate. Nerevar completes the fourth and fifth trials, which are to rally the Great Houses and Ashlanders of Vvardenfell under one banner. After receiving the support and being declared "Hortator" of the Great Houses and "Nerevarine" of the nomadic Ashlander tribes, the player is officially, albeit reluctantly, called "Nerevarine" by the Tribunal Temple, who normally persecute anyone who claims to be the Nerevarine and sentences them to death.

Nerevar is invited to the palace of the poet god-King Vivec to discuss the assault on Dagoth Ur's stronghold in the heart of Red Mountain. Vivec presents the player with the artifact gauntlet Wraithguard, an ancient Dwemer artifact that can use the tools of 'Sunder' and 'Keening'. The ancient implements will destroy the fabled Heart of Lorkhan, but without having the Wraithguard equipped, it will deal a fatal blow to whoever wields it.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-32">[33]

The player travels into Red Mountain to Dagoth Ur's citadel. After talking with Dagoth Ur, who attempts to sway the player to his side with the claim that he is merely following Nerevar's final orders, the player and Dagoth Ur fight. Besting Dagoth Ur, the player breaks the Heart of Lorkhan with Kagrenac's tools, destroying the source of Dagoth Ur's power and killing him in the process. Akulakhan's Chamber where Lorkhan's heart resides is destroyed, and in turn Red Mountain is cleared of blight and The Sixth House falls. Upon escaping from the chamber, Nerevar is congratulated by Azura, who appears before him to reward his efforts of fulfilling the prophecy.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-33">[34]

After the Main Quest's completion, the game does not end. Vvardenfell is however affected in many different ways. The Blight Storms cease to plague the land, and the weak minded followers of the Sixth House are re-awakened, remembering nothing of their ordeal. The Dreamers who harassed Nerevar fall silent, and Nerevar becomes widely known as the savior of Vvardenfell. The quintessential consequence of defeating Dagoth Ur was the destruction of the Heart of Lorkhan. Due to their immortality linked to the heart, Vivec and the Tribunal become mortal again, leaving Vivec's future in question and up to the player to determine his fate. The loss of divinity among the Tribunal is the main concept for the game's expansion, "Tribunal". It has since been rumored that the hero pursued an expedition to the continent Akavir.

Setting
Parts of Vvardenfell region of Morrowind controlled by Hlaalu, Telvanni , and Redoran housesMorrowind takes place on Vvardenfell, an island in the Dunmer province of Morrowind, far from the typically "European" lands to the west and south depicted in Daggerfall and Arena. Along with graphical improvements, one of the most obvious differences between Morrowind and the earlier games in the series is that Morrowind takes place in a much smaller area than the previous games. While Arena featured the entirety of Tamriel as an explorable area, and Daggerfall featured sizeable portions of two provinces of Tamriel, Hammerfell and High Rock, Morrowind includes only the "relatively small" island of Vvardenfell within the province of Morrowind.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-IGN3_19-3">[20] The change was a result of a conscious choice on the part of the developers to feature more detail and variety in the game. Whereas Daggerfall and Arena ' s dungeons were randomly generated, each area in Morrowind was specifically detailed, and each item specifically placed. As a result, reviewers were generally impressed with the game-world's variety, as this maintained the perception of an "enormous" game-world.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-IGN3_19-4">[20] The game area expands to Mournhold on Morrowind's mainland in the Tribunal expansion, and to the island of Solstheim to the northwest of Vvardenfell in the Bloodmoon expansion.

Morrowind ' s developers, rather than developing the common Medieval European setting of fantasy games, chose a more eclectic route, taking elements from Egyptian, early Japanese, and Middle Eastern cultures,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-QWE_34-0">[35] with Middle Eastern architecture cited in particular for its major influence on Balmora's Hlaalu architecture.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Rockville_35-0">[36] Executive Producer Todd Howard felt that the use of Morrowind as a backdrop was integral in the development of the game's style. While admitting some elements of the partially medieval Imperial culture more typical of fantasy to retain familiarity with the earlier installments of the series, Morrowind ' s dark elven setting "opened huge new avenues for creating cultures and sites that are not traditionally seen in a fantasy setting".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-36">[37] The development team also gave particular credit to the Ridley Scott film Gladiator, high fantasy, The Dark Crystal, and Conan the Barbarian as influences.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-VOODOO_37-0">[38]

The game has over 300 books (not counting scrolls). One particular compilation of the text was 1,241 sheets of 8.26 by 11.00 paper.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-38">[39] PC Gamer weighted the in-game text as equal to 6 standard-size novels.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-PCG_24-1">[25] Many of these books provide long, serial stories, and provide hints as to the background and history of the game.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-UGO_11-2">[12] One critic in particular, Phillip Scuderi, remembered Morrowind for its great literary richness. To him, the in-game literature and its integration within the game was Morrowind ' s "most original and lasting contribution to the history of games", one that would place it beside Planescape: Torment as one of the most important games of all time.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-39">[40] Such themes are echoed in other responses to the game, such as that of RPGamer's Joseph Witham, who found a story "discreet" in its progression, with a dungeon-crawling feel, standing alongside a "whole world of unique history" with books forming the greater part of the player's interaction with that world.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-40">[41] Most of the books were reused in Oblivion.

The game has a great deal of geographic variety in climate, flora, and, to some extent, fauna as well. Beside that there is also some variety in politics and culture among the in-game population, combination of which adds to the uniqueness of different parts of the island. On top of that there is an archaeological aspect to the game, which gives a certain degree of depth to the story as well as the option for further exploration. Additionally, there are various kinds of limits in visibility such as fog and dust, which are countered with "clear day/night" effects that also enhance visibility to some extent.

The in-game exploration is chiefly based on walking and running; however, there are instances when swimming and sometimes flotation is involved. Transportation of other kind is limited to teleportation and traveling by boat or on the back of giant flea-like creatures named "Silt Striders".

Gallery
Click here for the gallery for Morrowind