Joun_Lord wrote:I kinda play as a berserker. If I see the enemies I tend to charge at them and slaughter them. I really hate Ulfric's boys, really really hate the wannabe Nazi Aldmeri, and just plain think bandits are scum, really stupid scum. If there were slavers in the game I'd be reserving a special place in my black heart for them like I do for the Legion of Fallout. Its funny, in Elder Scrolls I'm all "Legion For Lyfe" while in Fallout I'm like "Death to the Legion, Death to Caeser, NCR for......eh they're good enough".
I think Beth whitewashing the slavery in Fallout and Elder Scrolls is weak. Siding with the slavers in Fallout 3 just to get the achieves (then immediately loading an older save) made me feel like a skeeze. I like choices like that because it gives me the option to not only be a dick, but also be a hero.
I'm not saying we need only black and white choices, but having those scattered around a game along with the grey gives a game more depth.
I do understand why Ulfric is rebelling, even can understand the racism to a degree. Its possibly a case of 21st century sensibilities looking at a different age, the real world era Elder Scrolls is based on no doubt has different views of racism. Still don't like it though.
The problem becomes, it's not even about 21st century sensibilities: there are marked differences between Elder Scrolls races. In earlier games, Nords and Redguard actually had Intelligence penalties that made it hard to be an effective mage with. Nords are actually dumber and more violent than Bretons and Imperials due to actual racial differences. Reguard, Orsimmer, and Nords are also more physically powerful than many other races. Altmer are naturally taller, but weaker, than many "human" races. This excludes the insanity of Khajit and Argonians.
And, in fact, even a lot of their cultural differences are due to influences of actual gods and demigods. So, while there are actual real-world parallels to be made, many are a really hard fit.
The Aldmeri are actually
afraid of Talos. They aren't just using him to sow dissent among the Nords, he actually has influence the more he is worshiped.
My main thing about Ulfric is the fact he is doing the Aldmeri's job. He's so wrapped up in his own shit, so guilty about thinking he sold out the Imperial City, so filled with righteous indignation about not being able to worship Talos that he's selling out all of the Empire including his beloved Skyrim, he's destroying the Empire Talos built, he's letting the hated Aldmeri Dominion win the 2nd Great War before the first sword is drawn.
I like it because he doesn't know that even though I, the player, do. His motivations actually make a lot of sense to me. If Beth hadn't added in the "he's been brainwashed" bit, I might have had an actual decision to make.
Ulfric is such an idiot that he doesn't see what banning Talos worship buys them, time. He doesn't understand that something relatively small gives them a chance to build back up their strength, to give the Aldmeri false confidence. No he'd rather thumb his nose at the High Elves and do stupid shit and act like the Empire betrayed him when they stopped his stupid shit so it didn't ignite the Great War again.
The Empire bids it's time while Nords are executed for worshipping their God by Aldmeri who hunt said Nords with impunity across his land. That has to be an extremely hard pill to swallow especially since Talos worship is centered in Skyrim and Nords.
The fact that the Empire NEEDS Skyrim in their inevitable next war adds to this. While Reguard and Orsimmer are just as warlike and tough, The Nords are actually organized into a large army and not prone to tell people who ask for help to "fuck off" like the Reguard are. And they already lost a shitoad of Nords in the first dust-up even though Skyrim itself was left untouched.
The Empire banning Talos worship and arresting Ulfric when he tried to resurrect it in Markarth (possibly on the dead bodies of the slaughtered natives) was not them betrayed him, he betrayed them and all his dead comrades who he said he cared about and all their brothers and sisters, sons and daughters who would have been killed if the Aldmeri Dominion decided to say Markarth invalidated the White Gold Concordat.
The Empire cut a deal with Ulfirc, then went back on that deal and arrested him when he left the city. Whatever Ulfirc did in the Reach, he has zero incentive to trust the Empire after that.
And even with his crazy, he is able to sit at the table and work out a cease-fire while we stomp Alduin. Honestly, the Empire was in a position to negotiate with him to bring Skyrim back into the Empire (fully). I always thought it was weird there were never talks of marriage between him and Elisif. She does like.. fucking nothing in the game anyway. They could have been an interesting plot-point. Yea, he killed her husband, but we are talking about a guy with enough support to kick the Empire out of Skyrim if you side with them (and the 20 or so NPCs that show up for the fights). Real life leaders married off to bitter rivals in the past on Earth all the time.
Man, I think I like talking ES lore more than playing the games.
Honestly I never had a problem with the UI for Skyrim. Its not perfect but never thought it didn't work well enough for a keyboard and mouse.
It's still better than the Oblivion UI, but it's also still garbage. SkyUI is such a vast improvement, I have issues dealing with the default UI.
Might try that. Install old Skyrim, grab the mods and toss them at the new Skyrim and see if they work.
If it does, please let me know. I have plans to clean up a bunch of stuff in my install and possibly grab a few mods I can only find on the Workshop. If it doesn't work, then I don't have to bother with some of it.
EDIT: Damn, I actually use the word "actual" way too fucking much.
