[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Instead of thinking that he, um, is, you know, a part of this Godhead and he's not real, he thinks kind of everything is him. And then he kind of wants to spread everything, like spread his blood, his Ashgul, and he's coming from the dream sleep and consume everything. So I guess just consuming everything with his big light.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I wonder if it's some like alternative like, amaranth kind of situation, so instead of like either sort of becoming the new godhead or whatever, he kind of does by believing everything is and spreading himself to every corner of the universe until he kind of consumes it or is it or something like that. I dunno.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, Pelinal Time Travelling Robot, I think this one's very kind of well known as like the deep lore kind of like, it's the kind of the first like, all and all kind of thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And his, you know, there's their people reference like his heart, like, you know, like as a, there's a gemstone, but they like as a cybernetic sort of, you know, there's a lot, there's a few things in, in the songs of Perl and all that you can go, oh, maybe he's like, it's like cybernetic kind of superhuman stuff and he's wearing armor from a future time. And then he calls out the name of Reamon who does- Yeah, that's what I was gonna say.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He's in a, he's in a bucket. I think, uh, was it Harold Harry Briggs or Ysbyr the Fox? He's had other names from before him that he went around building kingdoms. I like that one. Harold Harry Briggs.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Raymond, uh, Raymond Ebenam equals Reamon. So that was an idea too that like, so the Emperor Reamon of the second empire and so on, the idea that Ebenam is actually kind of like the, the God form of Reamon because Reamon was said to be worshiped as a, as a cultural God kind of thing. And then.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I guess the idea that, so you know, Riemann is from basically, doesn't have a reference outside of.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Post Daggerfall, it doesn't really get referenced anymore. But he's a god of war, wearing ebony and stuff. But yea, it's a cool enough theory.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's not just someone that mantles someone. Well, it's kind of like, um, related to like kind of mantling parts of the duality, I guess, isn't it? Um, I don't remember.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like, hadame, chaos order. Yea, chaos order is, is not. Then, you know, the daedra, as, you, derivatives of it, yea.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, so there, isn't that the, uhm, Lorcan being Lor- like, uh, not Lorcan, uhm. Or is it Lorcan? I forget whether in the Khajiit mythology there's the two moons and then there's this hidden dark moon behind it, Lorcan's body or something?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, uh, maybe, I can't remember. Hold on. What's a main?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, cause Lorcage is called the Moon Prince as well. And like the Khajiit version of Lorcage.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, where are we now? The Walkabout. The Walkabout. So that's like the Yakudian


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so they basically, they end up being able to survive each kalpa. So, so the greater spirits of the gods can survive the different kalpas by doing the walkabout. And then I'm pretty sure it becomes a cultural sort of thing that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Your curtains and red guards and stuff will do as well as a sort of like a, kind of like a pilgrimage-y type of thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's interesting that it's only like one of the only examples, cause you don't see it much, but like the, um, indigenous Australian, like Aboriginals, um, being, having some of their mythology put into, um, like game mythology or something. Yeah. Cause you don't really see it. Um, white gold universal doomsday device.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sounds a little wack. Yeaah. Let's just bail that one. Jib was the Nerevarine. So Jib is that guy that you meet on the boat when you come off in Morrowind and that's about all he does until the Dawn Guard DLC where you meet him in the Soulcan and realise that- Yeaah. The guy that killed all the cliff racers. Yeaah, I don't think he was.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I guess so, yeah, once the first council was formed, but I guess at one point, there's the whole idea that they were a split from the Chimer and just one of the houses of the Chimer that came to Dwemer. I don't think that's outdated, it's not a particularly good theory anymore with new stuff, but uhm, yeah, I guess they were just referred to as house Dwemer.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, right. Oh, yeah, yeah. So like, Dago Thur, the idea is he's dead, he's in the dream sleeve, but he's dreaming his existence into reality. Right.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Rather than, cause when you're supposed to be dead, you're asleep, you're in the dream sleeve, like, you're supposed to be gone, but he's kind of like, conscious there, dreaming himself into existence. Cause that's when you kill Degothur, or, or, there's no remnants, it's gone, it just ceases to be, and, there's more complicated stuff than that, but yeaah. Uh, Khajiit ended the Murethic era.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you, if you take it instead of less literal about the time, like the Merethic era was obviously a time of like Elven dominance. So is it saying like that the Khajiit had something to do, like there was some kind of key event that the Khajiit were part on that stopped Elven dominance.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, so at the end, it's all mundane and stuff, but then it's going to rapidly, you're going to have some apocalypse. He kind of heaps of magical stuff going. It's going to shoot. It doesn't a hundred percent stack up, but it's interesting.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you actually imagine it quite literally as a snake eating itself, when it gets closer and closer to the end to eating itself, it's getting smaller and smaller. And maybe that's like an acceleration of time, kind of. So if like a snake was eating itself, so it gets quicker and quicker and quicker.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which one was that? Oh, okay, yeah, that was the Parabellic Alpha. Uh, Sithus, secret lesson of Vivert.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and kind of like semi-semi-coder, like, um, canonises it, kind of. But it does, like, mention a lot of stuff that happens in coda, and then, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, sermon zero, actually can't remember what that is exactly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One second. Yeah, yes. I'm just going to keep the 36 letters open. Yeah, that's a good idea. Uhm, yeah, I mean there's sys.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I always love that the orcs too, like Trinimax seems to be like kind of like the civilization kind of god. Cause every time they've tried to form Orsinium, there's a lot of Trinimax, uh, cult stuff involved in it. Whereas all the real tribal orcs are really like Malacath sort of focus. Just a cool.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So the next, the aedra are dead. Uhm, which is a pretty reasonable sort of theory.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's the idea that the aedra aren't, they're kind of dead. The other I've heard like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not really, but there's little bits of their influence in magic. I guess one of the ideas is that, that if you envision them as like sort of the planets or the earth bones or like they're dead pieces of, of old gods, but


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Basically, because they're in that sort of kind of unconscious state, it allows


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They're shaped by mythology more so than the Daedra are because the Daedra have a lot more like personhood in the way that they can come in and they go like, yeah, I'm shaped like that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, Diveaith fear was the battle mage.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cause Battlemage is kind of like originates, like kind of like a rank for, in the Imperial armies a lot of the time before it was like a broader classification.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All I know is, I just think Zerun Arctus is one of the most significant battle mages, I would say, in terms of like, you know, his essential, like, the whole thing with him. Well, was Dyvath Fears Zerun Arctus? No, I don't think so. I'm just trying to like, throw him a bone here, you know?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hmm. Oh, and then what, maybe those three of them? Instead of just one?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, this one's kind of weird. Oh, no, this makes sense, I guess. Uhm, so the Underking killed Pelagius I. So Pelagius I is the grandson of Tiber Septim, and that's the closest, like, direct line. So the idea is the Underking, as, you know, getting Xehanortis, getting revenge for, for, you know, uhm, what happened in the Arcturian heresy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They're all direct descendants of Tiber Septim's brother, uh, Agnareth or something. It's, um, it's a, it's a funnier. Which one was plagiarist the first? Was that the guy with the hip bone that went crazy? No, that's plagiarist the third.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The next one we could talk is historical star inconsistencies and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I feel like it also people could use that to support the ideas of like, uh, you know, different calipers or times. Like, so if you couldn't star maps from another calipers bringing their star maps, they're not going to align with these. Or it's just another gameplay thing where it's like, they whipped up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I've heard of that vaguely, and then- But then, grouping in star orphans is just a magnet key, isn't it?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, Magna Gate, also called literally the Children of Magnus and Star Orphans, are a family of divine beings, yadda yadda.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know what they mean. I know ne- the mnemily thing gets mentioned in the thesis. Mnemily, yeah. Mnemily.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We also have, maybe Nimly doesn't actually appear in the 36 lessons.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm like just fondled by Amazmore. Well, he went, he goes up to the book to the Ogna Infinium and then I guess then he goes, Oh, that's crazy. All that. And he says some crazy stuff about shit that's happening to him. And then he turns to Ash. And interestingly, like, I guess there was other examples. I think there were.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Does he like go and vanish or does he? He says some goobily gook stuff and then just goes turns into a pile of ash. Oh, he does turn into ash? Yeah. I remember the pile of it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Once again, it could also be a limitation of, uh, of like the game engine. They just go, oh, we need to.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, but that's what's interesting too, because you can summon Arnielgain as a ghost, and there are those Dwemer ghosts as well, and the idea that maybe, but they could have also died before the whole zero-summing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is that not just what they call the Nord's call tomorrow? Yea, it is. Yea.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm pretty sure it's just referencing him in his divine form, I dunno.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, well, this is the, this is, you know, obviously the cope dragon break lore, but the idea that, that he, in one timeline, they all get reconciled into one timeline, all the different versions.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So that he both became a god and stayed mortal. So the idea is that the mages guild and oblivion quest line, you're fighting the mortal form of Manamaco. Whereas there's another form from another timeline that became the necromancers moon, which is the same moon that you use to make the black soul gems. So, okay. It says he's not a god.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is that actually a thing that was added? I thought it was sort of... No, it's in the, it's in the game. You can find it in Tel Branora, or Vivek's private quarters in Vivek's palace.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But, uh, you have discovered the 37th Sermon of Evek, which is a bending of the light, long past the chronicles of the Hortator, who wore inconstant faces, and ruled however they would until apocalypse. Like that's talking about the Nerevarine, the different-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh my god, what'd they say at the end of every Vivec one again? Yeah, ending of the words is Elmsevi, but yeah, the, it's like, it kind of like the, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Thematic ending to the 36 Lessons of Effect, but it's from the future, so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] happening all at once. So future, past, present stuff. So like this is a writing, he's writing about it, but it's something that's going to happen in the far future.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which is the dude that becomes the new godhead apparently.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think pretty sure I've seen analysis of it, it's referencing semen, like it's from the valleys, like the flying way. Cause Michael Kirkbride writes heaps of satchel undertones to all of his, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, there's a whale flying in the background and snow flying everywhere and stuff. Actually, maybe Joy Snow could be like a cocaine. You know, maybe they just like blow cocaine out of their blowholes and it's like, eat themselves.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And because it's been a missing art. Actually, I never thought of, by the way, that the Pankratas sought as a reference to Hiroshima, just because like so much of Yakudan, like history is literally just Japan transposed into Yakudas stuff. So much, like the more you learn, the more ridiculous it just looks like they completely ripped off Japan.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's all, like, I mean, in essence anyway, the idea of coda is kind of establishing this kind of idea that, uhm, that everything's very, like, highly interpretable anyway. Like, it kind of is trying to be an anti-canon kind of, uhm, piece anyway. So it's trying to, anyway.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Wow. This is gonna take a fair few more episodes. The plan was to get to two and a half, but it's already been like two and a half hours to get through two, so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean people do it, leave it, leave it to eldest girls fans to do that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeaah, I know, I know. Where are we? We-we-we'll get through this again. We've only just started the Vivek picture.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So Morrowind would have been your first Elder Scrolls game then.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's no mods either, so you can't go and fix the, like, I don't like the luck to hit chance thing. The chance to hit. I like if I actually strike something that it hits them, but even in, I sometimes forget that Morrowind has that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But you know what, it really makes me appreciate that I did play Oblivion first, because I know for a lot of Morrowind players, it would have been a massive shock to see the Dark Elves change so much, among other things.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, yeah, yeah, like I would have been pretty angry, but because it was my first experience, I can love Oblivion so much as my first Elder Scrolls game. You know, and then I can go back and love Morrowind as well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yep. They're like, oh, by the way- Wait, you gotta spoil it for everyone? By the way, here's the Revan reveal, yeah. Got that one. Now we know there's a Revan reveal.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Does that video still exist? I think it does, yeaah. If you go and watch when we got 100,000 subscribers on YouTube, we put up like a thank you video that shows Scott and I as young kids fighting with lightsabers. So if you haven't seen that...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Doesn't matter, it's hands down the subjective favourite. You can go back and look at things like Phantom Menace and especially Attack of the Clones and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because we watched it when we were much, much younger. You just can't believe what you're seeing that you thought this was cool back then. Like some of the effects and stuff just look truly ridiculous. But, subjectively, just like it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's just classic accountability. You're accountable to someone who's not yourself. Cause when you're accountable to yourself, I mean it depends what kind of personality you have, but it is easy to just be like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How bad am I gonna feel if I don't do it today? Not that bad, but like, you know, if someone's waiting, especially if they're paying you money, like, you'll get it done.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, I went through, I went through your entire Soundcloud. I've heard every single song on there. Every single YouTube video as well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A good old choice and consequence rant about how we want to change the world in games.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, it's good, cause it's, it's subtly funny, but if you forget that you're listening to something that's satirical, you can kind of just enjoy it unironically. Yeah. I feel like, uh, you feel the chill energy coming from it. You kind of want to join in. Ooh.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, but you know what I mean, it's, it's like a... Yeah, no, dude. Vibes. Thank you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, it's alright. Look, if you've made me a bosmer, I'll probably look hilarious.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is a very informal podcast. I will say I tend to look like a bit like a deer in the headlights on camera. I don't know why I'm just never really.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know, the second that there's a camera on me, even if I feel calm mentally, like now I feel pretty chill, but there's just something about my face that says he's not chill right now. You kind of have to forget that the camera's on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I was just gonna say while we're talking about that video, I really like when, uhm, Perlinal looks and scans the screen. So it kinda looks like he scans you as the viewer. When the light goes over it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Drew's a left-hander, like me. So, we're disappointed you took away our left-handed character.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's fair enough, if you're gonna put in all the effort, you want it to be the exact artistic vision that you want it to be, especially when you start animating high level stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It just completely comes down to what you want. And the other thing anyway is, especially as you get a bigger following, you can't please everyone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and even listening to some people, it will harm your style.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like, I feel like it's important to have your own, um, opinion base.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I'd say definitely where those kind of roads cross together, like the hit a big audience and do what you want. Definitely. I mean, I like to err on the side of do what you want. Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What led you, I'm just curious, this is a bit random, but what led you to make the surf album? The eldest girl's surf album. I love it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's a very, that's a very good, uh, yeaah. I like that. Splash into a pond with the surf out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And we'll be in one. We'll be featuring in one soon, or it might already be out. And massive thanks to anyone watching still. You've made it the whole way. Look at you. Yeah. Let's, let's, let's give one.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I thought I saw you two together. No, uhm, apparently he created his wife from his favourite stories. So I'm wondering if his wife is literally the book.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, is that, that's to do with the moods being Lorkhan's body, right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And sovereign guard is Lorkhan's little area.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At least that's in some concept art. It doesn't have any game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The guy you meet in Skyrim that owns Rorikstead, he said that after the war, he bought that land and built Rorikstead. But then there's a book in Skyrim that references Rorikstead like 3000 years earlier in the exact same spot. And then there's theories that like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which there's some, uh, semblance for because...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I can't, I think all the women in the town are infertile or died during childbirth. And then in this place where it's like really arid soil, they have this flourishing farm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cause I've always wondered if that's the doing of the deity that owns them, or if it's the actual artifact doing it itself. Like if it's...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was wondering about this, cause when you fight Almalex here at the end of Tribunal, she explains how she killed Sotha Sil, and she says that even when she went to kill him, he still defied her and wouldn't say anything, and he just looked at her silently.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's interesting, apparently this, uh, that, so the, so the, so the SIL's last words, text, there's a line, even gods dislike the absolute for its stinks of something larger than themselves. It was actually used as a Elder Scrolls Legends loading screen.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then it says, in January 2021, additional sections of Sothisil's Last Words were rediscovered from archives of Lorana's RP by staff of the Imperial Library. However, parts of the original thread are still inaccessible.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, there's a town in the living called Hackdirt and you have to go there to save like an Argonian woman. And you go there, the town's super weird. Every, everywhere you go.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they have a chapel. If you go into it, there's a big book called the, the Bible of the Deep Ones. When you open it, it's all Daedric text. And if you translate the Daedric text, it's actually, uh, an exact copy of the, what's that, uh, slowed book? The Nagada Nagasta? What's it called? That one.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then it's all like caved in, like there's all rubble in the way, so you can't get past. But if you stand there, you can, there's a unique audio file that plays of like this super low growling rumbling sound.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That isn't used for any other creatures, so they've created a unique audio file to represent the sound of these deep ones that the, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That these people have hacked at worship. And we don't know where they are.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think I did. Yeah. There's nothing there yet. There's nothing there at all. Um, what are the theories that Daedra slowed is another one because that's that the Bible, the deep ones when translated from Daedric is all a slowed text. I can't remember the other theories if there were any.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh dude, actually the whole thing is straight, it's a reference to the Shadow of Innsmouth, which is a HP Lovecraft thing, where this town worship these things called the Deep Ones, and there's heaps of little nuances and things that are taken straight from that. And the Dunwich Quarry thing is also HP Lovecraft, copy and pasted.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The northern part of Morrowind, south of Vvardenfell. Deshaun. Yeah, the Deshaun.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was thinking, because there's 16 different types of Khajiit, one of them is the Alfik, which is literally a sentient Khajiit, just as a cat. But I was thinking, are there, are there house cats in any Elder Scrolls game? Apart from ESO.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is that a, is that an alien dune word? Not alien dune, what is it called? The language that's used in, uh, the 36 lessons all the time. The all caps thing. Altadune?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's just like, ehh. And even if it is true, who cares, whatever.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Did you guys know that, uh, Cold Harbor is the remains of League?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is that just like a diss? Okay. Like his mom was a cow. I think this is just a nut job.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's that dude, we were talking about that in the last episode, Talons. It was the three Talons. Yeah, one of the Talons.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As in the, was it the char, the player, the, the character you play in Arena is called Talons, and then your character's dad is called Talons, and then some other dude called Talons who is called Warhaft.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Do you reckon that's to do with like, given the Red Guards are the Yukudans descendants and they came from the last Calpa cycle. The Far Shores is the Red Guard afterlife, right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So instead of going to the next Calpa, they actually all just died and this is like Redguard heaven.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes, in Morrowind, when you run into the ghosts, the ghosts are exactly the same height as wood elves in Morrowind.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, they're not. They are short, but they're not dwarfs. And I have some memory of a poem written by a giant where he was talking to a Dwemer and the Dwemer was referenced as a dwarf because it was from the point of view of a giant.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's literally it. That's about it. Each tower has a stone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So between High Rock and Hammerfell, there's the Iliac Bay, and in that, that's the Isle of Balfeira, which is the island where this tower is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Alduin is the first one to acquire the oldest mytho-po-poic incarnation of the Time Spirit. One of your re-emergers.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The colds... Yeah, that's the default, isn't it? The left-handed elves weren't left-handed, in case you're wondering.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, being left-handed was considered like a medieval times, I should say. It's like a side of magic and evil spirits and stuff. So the, and, and because the Yekudans hated them, they called them the left-handed elves, meaning like the evil elves, the sinister elves or sinistral. I can't remember what sinistral, I think sinistral does mean left-handed literally.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I thought it was always- I was thinking about Nadal, Raphael Nadal in tennis. Cause he's left-handed and like everyone else is right-handed. I feel like you'd have such an advantage cause he is used to playing right-handed people, but every right-handed person isn't used to playing him who's left-handed. He's got this mad advantage anyway. No. Kamal, you left-handed? You? I feel like one of you is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cause there's that thing of, oh sorry, I was just gonna say, at the right hand of God, and then at the left hand of God, that kind of thing, the left is bad.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was thinking about, um, Dagathur as, is this just called Dagathur, the heart chamber? No, what does he say? No recall or intervention will work here. But then you can still use spells in there, so that doesn't make any sense.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In the city underneath, underneath two piles of ash in a bed with a Dwemer tube between them and a bottle of Dwemer oil, which it's, it's a console name is Dwemer lubricant. So there's a bottle of lube, a phallic object between two people in a bed. But.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But the problem with that is... And maybe they were just doing maintenance anyway.


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[Assistant] Prism. Text. Racked. Text. Racked. Text. Racked. Kirkbrite. I love her at the point where we're like, oh, it's Kirkbrite again.


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[Assistant] I think the in game stuff is cool because it has other stuff to kind of tie it down. And here it's just like helium balloons flying into you.


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[Assistant] It's actually an easter egg, you're gonna regret laughing. One of the developers' dads died and he put these ashes in the game.


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[Assistant] Zal Nur, the slaver, Zal Thak, and Zal Ethics.


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[Assistant] There's one called Zalno the Slaver who is a giant Argonian. Dude, he looks...


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[Assistant] It looks like a teenage, like, uh, what was that show, Mutant, the Street Sharks? He looks like one of the, he looks like a lizard version of one of them.


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[Assistant] Is it just called the Staff of Chaos because Yagothan used it to cause chaos?


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[Assistant] That's the thing, anything that seems simple this far down, I'm like, there must be some crazy deep log thing that I'm not getting, but, uh, that can go screw.


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[Assistant] Like he's, like, in terms of writing it's good, but when you're actually playing, you're like, this guy sucks. I hate this guy.


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[Assistant] The god of luck, oh I know why, because his luck, he is the hardest enemy in Morrowinds, because his luck is set to 800, and it's basically impossible to hit him.


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[Assistant] We talked about it last episode, but my understanding of it is the scarab that transforms into the new man is someone in the dream transforms into the dreamer itself becomes a new Godhead. Yeah.


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[Assistant] I'm checking with you guys in case you like, ummm.


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[Assistant] I've seen, there's some graph where it's like a bunch of circles overlapping, and in the centre is Talos, and each circle represents a different character. And I think one of them is the Underking.


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[Assistant] It is a thing though. I think, I think it is in a Kirkbrite.


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[Assistant] I think so. I feel like thought used to mean something else because when I played World of Warcraft when I was like 12, like the website that had all the World of Warcraft information was called Thoughtbot.


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[Assistant] He trolls us, but then holds it for like 10 minutes and then we're all arguing with him and then he's like, no, I'm just kidding. Like, oh, you remember the sashi? The sashi discussion?


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[Assistant] He was telling us he pronounces sushi as sushie.


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[Assistant] And then he's like, well, tell me another word, whereas U S H I as Ushi. And we're all like, god damn it, he's right. I can't think of-


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[Assistant] One of the explanations is it's Malakath's dung that he flung through space.


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[Assistant] I'm pretty sure that it was just like, Badao is this, blah blah blah, some theories say, and then there's just like six random theories, the last of which is that it's Malakath's dog.


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[Assistant] Other lesser known tales and theories vary widely as to Badao's origins, with one identifying it as a former Magna-Gi named Una, another insisting that it was an egg from which one day the, uh, would emerge the nightmarish offspring of Vivec and Moloch Baal, and yet another, uh, and another is claiming that it's Malacaster.


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[Assistant] The Imperial Red Dragon. Is he the dragon on the banners? Is that him?


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[Assistant] I guess that's just referring- Totally makes sense. To the st- that they're not mammals and they have breasts. And breasts are for milk. Yeah.


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[Assistant] I, I never, I only have like a texture mod. You forgot the vanilla game. Bro, I gotta look into that though.


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[Assistant] I feel like they do have some slight breast thing going on, but when you, when you take, yeah, when they don't have mammalian like clothes, it's just like scaled armor skin.


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[Assistant] What is up ladies and gentlemen? Welcome back to Fudge Muppet. This is the Elder Scrolls Podcast. I'm Scott here with Michael and Drew as always and today we are diving into a discussion all about the Thieves Guild. We're gonna be talking broad strokes, we're gonna be talking about all the games and just sort of the characters and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The little metaphysical bits and pieces here and there. So where would you guys like to start?


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[Assistant] I guess the closest things you can get to sort of a unifying feature is, A, they're thieves, and they're an organized bunch of thieves, but their other thing is sort of, uh, nocturnal. They're the patron of thieves and so on, so you'll see her, you know, with the grey cowl of nocturnal, she's involved there, but she's not even like, and it's, you know, they'll go like shadow hide you and things like that, and they're sort of like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The whole deal with the Twilight Sepulcher and, uhm, the Nightingales and so on. But it's not necessar- it's like, Thieves' Guilds can operate, cause I'm pretty sure the one in Abba's Landing doesn't have anything explicitly to do with Nocturnal like that. And I don't know if the ca- and I don't think that's the case in Morrowind either.


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[Assistant] I wonder if an unreasonable comparison is almost kinda like a, like a workers union.


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[Assistant] In the way that they're all thieves, they're all there for their, you know, obviously they, you know, work for themselves. They're not like part of a, like a faction, like as much as a lot of them, you know, they have the individual interests, they'll go off to their own things, but they mutually benefit from having shared resources, shared connections. And they do have like a little bit of a, depending on the thing for Nocturnal, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That was a major shift, and this is another example of how they can be different, but in Oblivion it was a really strict sort of like explicit, we're not the Dark Brotherhood, we don't do killing, you'll be punished for killing. Whereas, it's a similar-ish thing in the Skyrim Thieves Guild, but like one of your first missions is like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But what if, what if her counter to that was sort of like, then they kind of end up monopolizing the crime and getting too much power, like look what happens with Maven Blackbriar, like she gets into the position of Jarl, if you take it over for the Imperials, she gets, you know, a bad person in position of literally the Jarl of a, of a city, she gets a world title.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In Morrowind, I think, um, yeaah, it was the Kumana Tong that Thieves Guild were fighting against. Uhm, so that was like an example where there is like sort of turf war kind of stuff, and I mean like in the Thieves Guild.


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[Assistant] This is, this is my, my two cents on anything, but like, you know how we're always like, you know, let's do something like, don't do the fighters guild, do like, you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The companions or house of Redran or something interesting and like contextual to the place. Uh, it's like, I find the Kumana Tong far more interesting than just the thieves guild and like, I kind of wish if, if they did do it, like I wouldn't be opposed in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They will do the thieves guild and so on, but it would be interesting if they had like a thief crime faction, like that you can be part of, like a gang or a mafia type thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But that's the complete reverse for Morrowind's situation, where Morrowind just had the corner tong and the Thieves Guild pushes in on their territory. Because of, uh, imperialist conquesters, you know?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At least in the example of Oblivion, that the lowest rungs of society benefit from it because they get looked after. But that is also quite a utilitarian sort of agreement because the Grey Fox and Thieves Guild will sort of get beggars and stuff to be their eyes and ears.


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[Assistant] But it's, it's not like, it's, do you know what I mean? It's kind of got a use to it. It's not just altruism.


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[Assistant] Yeah, it's, it's just making me think of like.


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[Assistant] Imagine playing the Thieves Guild in Oblivion, but imagine, like, being inside, um, Hieronymus Lex, his eyes and so on, and like, all he was doing, like, cause you, I have such, like, a villainous sort of point of view of him, but he's actually just a,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But so, outside of, I guess, the, the simple kind of aspects of them, like being thieves and so on, there's a few, like, metaphysical kind of ones. Like, I guess, like, everyone would be most familiar, I imagine, with the Nightingales. So that whole function, but that's like a, like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where, like, it's interesting that in Skyrim, Nocturnal is sort of like a blessing or giving them luck explicitly, like, and that's why the Thieves Guild is so down in the dumps right now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, at the time of the start of Skyrim, because uhm, the Skeleton Key's been taken, and you know, so therefore the Nightingales have violated their oath, they're supposed to protect it, and as long as they protect it, you get all the luck for the Thieves Guild. But it's, that's quite an explicit contract with, with uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The Nightingales, whereas if you are with, sorry, Nocturnal, and comparison to Oblivion, where uhm, it really was just the original Grey Fox stole it from Nocturnal.


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[Assistant] That's about it. And they all sort of like, you know, shadow hide you and like wish for luck, but it's not such a, like I've made an actual contract with you. You know what I mean? It's a bit more just, oh, you know, she's a patron of thieves. So of course we worship her. It's a little bit of a different.


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[Assistant] Unless it's kind of like, uh, I guess, um, maybe a bit, a bit like the craft or something of it that they love the competition because you can also look at things like the hall of fame. Yeah. And like, so, you know, the gray fox is in that forever because he, you know, stolen elder scroll is the kind of, um, the, the deal there. So it kind of, you'll go down in history for stealing something. It's kind of, but I still get.


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[Assistant] And there's, I mean, like, and the only other one I can, actually the only other real thief I can think of is like The Nightingale as in the gallus dystenius guy that stole the staff piece for J-Gothon and, but even that's not really like a,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Long standing like super famed kind of thing. It feels weird to, I guess like fame, like maybe it's just a more personal sort of goal setting, you know, it's like, oh, I could steal from.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, it's even like in Skyrim, like most of them aren't really even aware of nightingales kind of beyond a myth. Like it's a real inner circle thing that are doing this. Like the lower ranked thieves and stuff aren't like, oh, I want to be a nightingale one day. Do you know what I mean? They're sort of, they're just a collection of


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah. I mean, look, if you've watched our nocturnal podcast, like you'd know my feelings on nocturnal. I don't think she's a good person. I think she's just


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I wonder how they'll go ahead with all of the uhm, in, in the Elder Scrolls 6, cause I know they're gonna do a Thieves Guild, and they're gonna probably bring up Nocturnal in some way or another.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I wonder how they'll do it now, like, and this kind of applies to a bunch of the princes, to be honest, is how they'll contextualize it now in the new game with the knowledge of Elder Scrolls Online and how they've expanded them, because like Nocturnal before, like some people get a little cranky with the change, well, not changes, but I guess like additional information.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That uhm, how it treats Nocturnal and makes Nocturnal seem a bit more like a, like a bigger, more metaphysical presence, not just like,


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[Assistant] But for me, I think that's perfectly on brand for a thief, which is a very individualistic, I want a lot of money, like for her being, you know, a patron of thieves, she's almost like an ideal to formulate yourself after, you know, like to sort of mantle.


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[Assistant] Yeah, such a hard thing to wrap your head around. Like if you take the idea that the gods are just experiencing everything all at once, like past, present, future, like, do you know what I mean? Like, cause everything becomes, you know, in, in context, this future event might not much matter to you because something past or present sort of, you know, it's all there present, but you know what I mean?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like, one of the things with the thieves, cause if you actually like strip a lot away from the, uh, like if you just look at the thieves guild or what it is, it's kind of, oh, it's a guild for thieves and they steal things. It's like a very like function based guild, whereas like some other guilds might have like more interesting sort of, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Metaphysical or philosophical things about them, but the Thieves Guild


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[Assistant] I don't know whether Bethesda intentionally does this, but they do make a lot of the characters quite stand out and good, and they do a similar thing for the Dark Brotherhood, which is really a pretty straightforward, like, you know, Sith is worshipping, we're just evil assassins kind of thing, but they put a lot of effort into


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, creative characters, they're just characters that you would become attached to. Whereas like if you think about like the Fighters Guild or Thieves Guild in Oblivion, like, oh sorry, Fighters Guild or Majors Guild, there's less characters that I really like feel attached to by comparison, but they're obvious like, you know, Majors Guild.


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[Assistant] At least. And that one Dunmer that's like, I used to be a member of the Morang Tong. Oh yeaah. That is such a- I don't know how that stuff gets passed.


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[Assistant] I think, you know what, I think it actually is, because Mercer, you know, he's an older dude at this time. It was 25 years. Yeah, because remember, Carlaya, they're elves, so age is different. Like they, they, you know, Carlaya could be like 80 and you wouldn't know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They did add some interesting, like even, like even I can just think of, I don't know his name, so it's obviously not that memorable, but the guy that was the jailbreaker, that he- Yea, he's really cool.


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[Assistant] Yeah, he'd get paid to- like they did make an effort with-


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[Assistant] Uhm, implementing the lore in the actual like environmental kind of things and putting it in front of the player but like the shadow marks are never really, they're just like a little world building piece and oh there's a few places around with it but there's never really a situation like in a main quest or anything where you're like kind of like


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I wonder, cause like, you did the Thieves Guild compared to Skyrim vs Oblivion one, and like Skyrim has a lot of good things, but there were obviously more of those.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Even though, like, if you put it on paper, there are actually, like, quite both thievy sort of thieves guild, but there's a lot of, um, just dungeon crawl sort of ones in Skyrim, but there is still lots of stuff. I just, I feel like part of it is the...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The, the positioning, cause you can do the entire main story of the Thieves Guild and not have to do any of the sort of explicit sort of like steely kind of side job feeling stuff, whereas in Oblivion it puts you front and center, so the Thieves Guild experience is being a thief in like your staging, so you feel like you earned it, whereas you can just kind of, you know, ignore all the side stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is the other thing for a big part of the game too, in Skyrim, is that just looting dungeons as a warrior or a mage or any other sort of playstyle, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Generally far more profitable. Anyway, if you get a pickpocket skill, there's that thing where it's like there's enchanted jewelry in their pockets all the time and you can, you can kind of, of just random civilians so you can really crank up your, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's actually fair, if you put like a one-liner, like, what, what, what's that?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What's the storyline about? Oh, the storyline is about getting revenge on Mercer and returning the Skeleton Key to Nocturnal. If you compare that to the Thieves Guild, it's like what's the storyline about? Like building your way up the ranks and doing the big grand heist to, you know, stealing something no one has ever stolen before. It's very thief-centric versus...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like, you already know Mercer's gonna kinda betray you, get that feeling, and he betrays you real quick, and it's like, oh, okay, but like, I feel like betrayals are much more impactful if you kind of grow with a character, and like, maybe you're actually learning to like, like for example, in Oblivion, you know the Khajiit guy that's so, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He doesn't know, but it, it feels more impactful when you go, oh, now I don't really want to kill him. Cause he's like, oh, finally we've kind of grown together. The kind of feeling would be if you were with Mercer and you were doing some cool thieves guild stuff throughout it. And then, you know, later more so like the two thirds kind of part of the play through.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It feels like all of a sudden he, you know, you, the betrayals revealed, then it would feel more impactful cause you kind of.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, you like him and you don't necessarily want to or you might kinda like, you know what I mean? Instead of just being like- Also- Yeah, go.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's their kind of like thing, like everyone, and I maybe thematically, I guess it's on point for Skyrim in terms of like, yeah, land of barbarians. Everyone's jacked as hell. Like everyone's even the skinniest people are just, you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you look at their muscle, they're shredded and they've got bulging traps and everything. But uhm, I really hope in the newer games they do actually have just like a muscle slide, like you can be like softer looking.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I, I, I, you know, dude imagine the role playing build potential by being able to make fat characters, bro. So I'm like, big belly worries.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think too, the other thing too is if you have to do any of those uhm, like with, to actually become a proper master of the Thieves Guild, you've got to do all of those radiant things, but it can actually, at least in my experience, it felt tedious because I generally did it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like, after I'd done the main Thieves Guild main sort of stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I feel like it would be, I don't know, maybe I'm overstating how simple it is or something, but I feel like, you know, if you're Bethesda and the quest designers or whatever, you just go, okay, why is the player joining the thieves guild?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So like, how are we going to structure the storyline so that you can be a thief? Like, that's the fantasy they're living out. In the same way that if you're living out an assassin fantasy, you want to be an assassin or a noble warrior or a mage.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's what, that was just quickly those, uh, that was one cool part about it. The whole Baron Zaire crown sideline and getting those little things. Like I know I always wanted to fill out the, all of the side things. Like that was a cool little addition and they should do more of those things and like you're saying, more focus.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On them, but I think overall, it's like the whole idea of advancement, I feel like they really went like cinematic with it, like we're gonna, oh, get them into the meat of the story and that's what's cool, but like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The whole mentality of a player earning something is really what makes the reward feel, you know, earned. Like, you know, if you create a powerful build and a powerful character, you feel like you've earned it by using your brain and leveling up in the right combination of gear and all this stuff that you've acquired and put together and now you've got this masterpiece build.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, in, in a similar sort of way. It's like, you know, you've built up all of this sort of advancement, now you kind of earn the big prize rather than trying to like... Do you know what I mean? I feel like they take, they take...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You shouldn't be the listener. You didn't earn it. Like, you know, you shouldn't be like the harbinger. It doesn't feel earned. And to a degree in the thieves guild, I know they add the whole radiant side thing, but I guess maybe that's more like to become the guild master, but I guess that's more of a, um, it's just the problem is it's on the side.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Why aren't I being told? From a game design perspective too, like having that like makes a player feel good, like in the same way that you feel good when you're level 5 or level 10 or whatever, when you're like upping those ranks and you get a visual stimulus of like, oh I got this back, I'm here now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It feels good when you're like, ooh, I'm now, uh, you know, a foot pad, or now I'm a shadow foot. And you know, even especially too, if they drip feed you things like, oh, now you get access to these benefits of the guild because you're a higher rank. Like how it felt in the Mages Guild when you finally get to the Arcane University in Oblivion, you're like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, now I'm a member and now I get a staff and now I get access to these different things. You know what I mean?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I will, just cause I feel like it's now getting too popular to...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, and like to basically shit on bad consumer practices and stuff like that. So I feel like, and they're coming from a place where they've kind of got a save face now. Like if they, if they do this next, they will get a lot of lash back, you know?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I can be entirely like, uh, if I'm being like completely and entirely honest and this isn't a good consumer practice thing, but I can see how people, like how it's successful because if a game's really, really good,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] More good stuff. I love it. And I know that's such like a consume more, more, more kind of thing mentality, but it's just too true in the way. All it's got to be is good. The worst thing is when it's bad.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah. See, this is the real, like, meta conversation. We're talking about the thieves guild, and we're talking about the real thieves, the corporations stealing our house.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Actually, here's a final comment, which I think is a good, like, since we're on the topic of expansions in DLC, is like, good, like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Expansion design, I think, is when it feels interlinked with the original thing. It's not just a side. Like, I do like the side thing, but little things to call back. And with the whole, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Glover Mallory, his brother being on Raven Rock, and then you got the revelation about Sapphire, you know, him being her father. Like that was just like cool tie-ins that helped just connect the DLC to the setting of the larger world. So there's an-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then she's, and then Sapphire is basically like, Oh, well, maybe you should have kept a, you know, a better iron or security or something like that because she stole the shipment that he knew that he was trying to get to her to pay her debts. And it's just like, you scum. Like it's actually the way scummy sort of.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, I mean, if you, if you look at the way that factions were, I mean, in Oblivion I liked how you had


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Obviously they could do like a combination of both, but if I had to pick, I would agree in the sense of it's like, let's add more with their own plotlines. Like if we're being realistic, I'm not saying this is our ideal Elder Scrolls 6 factions take, but if I was being realistic, imagine if Skyrim just had more factions to join, like for example Daedric


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Worshipping cults for multiple Daedric Princes that have their own storylines or, uhm, you know, even Aedric things with certain temples and stuff like that, or- Like being able to join the vigilance of Stenar having a questline.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I fully agree. I think that's what, uhm, Bethesda should really keep in mind as they design factions is that these facilitate to serve player identity as well as obviously like world building and lore and being intertwined with other things in the world. You don't want the factions to feel like they exist just to facilitate the player.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I mean, that's the easy part, make a faction that doesn't facilitate the player, that's fine. But make enough factions so that every player can, you know, show their true colors and-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And be who they want to be. I mean, if you look at our ideal, uhm, Elder Scrolls 6 Hammerfell video, highly recommend you listen to that if you haven't.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, we, for example with magic, let's just use that as the example. I think we had the, was it circle of magi who were like a group of mages who were serving like the forebears or the crowns or both, but kind of like advisors to


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Exactly, exactly. Versus, if you didn't want to be like that, uhm, there was this other faction called the Red Scuttle, who were heavily involved in the mirror worship.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they, you know, if you want to be a dark mage, they had their own unique spells and dark magic and necromancy and unique summons that you could only buy there. So if you wanted that more, I am a mage, but I don't want to feel like I am like, off to save the day and I'm a good guy. You don't have to. And that needs to be considered with everything, perhaps not with assassins.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, but definitely, you know, you could have multiple guilds for like thieves guild, for example, you can have a more Robin Hood type guild or you can have a more mafia feeling guild. Although the way I see it, I wouldn't be surprised and I'd be completely happy with there just being one thieves guild that you can shape in different ways, which is why at the start when


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If, if I were to pick, I would be like, yeah, make more factions. But I think you can definitely do a combination of both. Uhm, just hold on, just because a lot of factions that I would want them to add don't have to be as big as the Dark Brotherhood and don't have to have that much choice in how you change them. For example, say there is like a...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Secret Talos cult faction, right? Doesn't have to be able to change that one, but let's just say it gives you five extra quests and a plotline and you get a thing in the menu that says I'm a leader of the Talos cult in Hammerfell that, or wherever.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On the topic of that, I will say two things, but quickly, I'm all for essential characters, because I think as gaming gets crazier and crazier, you're gonna have


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Dynamically changing worlds. It's the classic thing of like, in Skyrim, I don't want a dragon to come kill an essential character.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But, I mean, you can just make them essential, but only killable by the player, and I guess that fixes everything and allows you to do what you're saying. Kind of like exactly how the companions work. Yea, exactly the same. You know, if a companion gets down, but if you kill- Man, I killed Lydia when she was down by accident, cause my- my force shout just tapped her.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She just went down. I didn't have a save for ages. This was like really early on a 360 and it was like a really hard choice, but I'm like, I'm not loading perk.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Goodbye. Uhm, but yeaah, on the topic of the Dawngarde DLC, uhm, I thought that was really great DLC.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I didn't mind that both of them have you do roughly similar things, but I would say that in Elder Scrolls 6, I would prefer that that wasn't the case.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, I don't mind overlap, it's kind of like, you know in Morrowind how the guilds have overlap, like you can get cancelled out of one guild because maybe in one of their end game missions they're like, oh, not this exactly, but go assassinate the head of this guild or something like that. Like there's no way you can join that other guild or do their storyline because you've ruined it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, that's all fine, but you don't need to have guilds that follow the same path and then the ending is kinda just like fighting, like almost like Hoover Dam. Like there's just two sides on the same thing playing the same battle. They can be completely different. Not that there's anything wrong with that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I would really encourage them to make it really different. Perhaps with small crossovers that cancel out some things if you want to. But they, you don't see them coming. It's not like you play, say, the Telvanni guild and you get to hear,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then you know, oh, if I go and play the mages guild and get to here, I'm going to have to kill them because I just did the mission where I killed this person on the other team. So I can full out four.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But, but it shouldn't be obvious is also what I'm getting at. You shouldn't be able to play one and then already know what the closeout point or quest is gonna be in the other guild. Like it should just be completely unexpected and different involving different characters or a different thing. You change the course of the universe in a different way. But, but it still goes with the choice and consequence angle.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know what I mean? And there doesn't always have to be that. And this is the thing as well, like we talk about Bethesda wanting to let players to do everything in one playthrough. Well, in theory, as much as I want there to be choices within some factions to shape some factions, the advantage of having multiple factions


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Let's just say potentially are just linear, but there's multiple. It means you kind of can get, if you, if you're the kind of person who wants to get a feel for everything, you can. You can go and join a Warrior's Guild, a Mage's Guild, and a Thief Guild, and an Assassin's Guild.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Maybe not all the guilds, because if there's multiple mages guilds, you know, you may get locked up, but you can still get an extremely well-rounded experience if you want to try everything in one playthrough. And feel, kind of feel like you did everything.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was going to say, it works in their favor as well, because I mean, it's like that classic, um, engagement algorithm, but it's kind of like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If everyone's arguing and debating about different things in your game, like you generate so much noise, like so many more people probably heard about Skyrim because somewhere they saw an Imperial vs Stormcloak's meme or comment or debate.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or like, Skyrim for the Stormcloaks, as a tweet, or something like that, but how many people do you see, honestly think about it, how many people do you see writing a tweet like, Skyrim for the majors, for the College of Winterhold, Skyrim for the Companions, or like, The Companions Will Win, or some kind of,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For those of us who are very deep in the lore, it's not one sided. Like, there are so many like strong points on both sides of the argument. And so if you do that for something, I think it's, I think it's good.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And we all like that in our builds, like imagine a vampire build who's on a quest, they desperately want to cure the vampirism they got afflicted with while fighting a vampire because they want to join the vigilance of Stendarr. And they've got this almost self-hatred because they planned on being this kind of pious, uhm, maybe, you know,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Destroyer and smiter of all things unholy. Uhm, you know, there's cool opportunities. Choice, I guess choice is the thing that drives a lot of community talk and a lot of exposure for the game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So that's in Bethesda's interest, but it just makes it way more fun for us as well. Like even like you're saying with the racers, what is it? It's a choice. What race did you pick?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What did you do in this quest? Like these kinds of things, like they really push the game out to more people and for people like us, we enjoy the game ten times more.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well that's why they tried to force it down your throat in Skyrim's main story, like they send you to the college, they have you talk to Brynjolf so you can find Esbern, which I don't really agree with, but like, like you're saying, I can see why they did it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, I was gonna say as well with Daedric Princes, uhm, I think a cool way to do that is exactly the same way we talk about factions. I made a- I made a video on it, uhm, although it didn't get too many views, so I better let everyone- I better let everyone know, because no one watched it. Uhm, I mean, I don't know, not- low compared to normal views, I suppose.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We had this idea where it was like, um, each Daedric Prince could actually have multiple quests. Cause let's be real, Elder Scrolls 6 is going to be like, not the last Elder Scrolls game, but like, you're not getting Elder Scrolls 7 for a long time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But then, later on, they can call you up, maybe 20 levels later, like, you get, Mehrunes Dagon's voice booms out to you, and he's like, come back to my shrine, we've got something to discuss. And then it allows you to get another artifact. Uhm, but this all links back to what I'm saying about factions, is because eventually it would have choices. So we had this idea where it was like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Let's say you can do every or most aedric princes quest, but then,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You get a new quest later, where you have to pick between two, who are at odds.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So maybe, you know, uhm, Daegon's at odds with Molag Baal, and you have to go, if you want to side with Daegon, and you go and you wipe out this coven of Molag Baal worshippers, and one of them stole his Daedric Crescent and corrupted it, and you get it back.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They kind of did it in Skyrim a tiny bit with Daedric Prince quests, like they're kind of like, oh, you're going to kill Barbas or not, or you're going to get the Rufal Axe or, but people like that. I mean, the execution was poor because the Rufal Axe sucks. It just objectively sucks. So like compared to other things. So it's kind of like, you know, what's the point.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, but if I actually balanced it more, you can have choices in the first Daedric Prince quest in the example I used.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But, but that's just a choice of what artifact you get. But then the second quest you can get another artifact and also have to choose which Daedric Prince you're gonna help over another one. Maybe there's three Daedric Princes at odds.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know what I mean? Then you have to pick between three outcomes, hoping that you get some really cool artifact. And, like I said before, they can just bring more artifacts into the world. And with factions, in general, more factions is just more world building. Like, it's just better for the lore.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, no, I was gonna say, my, my response to that is that I actually like a mix of all of it. So I like some factions that's just not in their own vacuum. I love that. Because I can just go, for example, imagine this is a really silly example, but like, let's just use the example of like, there's a mage's guild and a necromancer's guild and then,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know, the necromancers guild just happens to be empire aligned, or it's like, it's like, well I'm a stormcloak, but I also want to do necromancy. So it's, you get, not the best example, but you get what I'm saying, you don't want to add so much ideological complexity into one faction that it puts some players


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Off because they don't fit in anywhere, is what I'm saying. But I like the idea in general.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's a bit, it's a bit off topic, but I think that's the same benefit of when you have a really, uhm, a really convincing companion. Like, like in a Fallout game or where the companion's good and then say they have a, I dunno, an anti-brotherhood of steel stance, maybe you didn't before, but now you kinda do, cause they're persuasive and you like them and you don't wanna disappoint them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Disappoint them because you're, I dunno, playing a character that wants to have a good relationship with them or whatever your reasons are.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I mean, like, simply put, look at Skyrim, like, you have a game where you can become faction, uh, sorry, Thane of every whole.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's like, if they do away with that, it actually feels like you have impact. Like, no, I am the Thane of this hold. I can only have a house here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or build a, a settlement castle type thing in this one area in this specific hole because I picked it and maybe you only unlock, maybe you can later unlock the other areas to build, but only if you helped your kingdom like conquer the others.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But, you know, things like that, perhaps not that exactly, but along those lines. And I'm not like 100% keen on there being settlement building.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Castle, depending on your standing with a certain, potentially like a political faction who owns that area.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then that's alright. I just wouldn't want it to be that whole, like, every side location now is like a settlement without cool characters and cool quests.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Especially if you were Thane already. Like you'd be the number one pick. You're Thane and you're a super, in this case, strong Stormcloak supporter.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It is interesting when you talk about factions, you can actually have


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Such a diversity of different types, like we've talked about, where instead of thinking, perhaps, like, I need to be able to join every faction. It's kinda like, no, you can't join every faction. But also, like, we were thinking, should there be some factions that are more tied into the main story?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Some of those factions can be the ones that you can't join but you help.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it is like New Vegas in the sense of, oh, I didn't go and like, I'm not a boomer. Like I just, I'm just not, but I helped them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's funny they're called the boomers now. But, but, but like, you help the boomers.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they come and fly their boomer plane over and bomb Hoover Dam to help you. Like stuff like that could be cool for a main quest, but obviously don't skimp at all on all the joinable cool quest stuff we want. This is just kind of like some garnish on top if they have the potential to do stuff like that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was just gonna say like Outer Worlds, well they actually did do that, but they did it wrong in the sense of you can just end up getting super high reputation with everyone and doesn't really matter. And like if you've watched our video, like we like enjoyed the Outer Worlds.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You can't not have consequence. Like you can give choice, we sit here and go, we want choice, we want choice, but you gotta have the consequence.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's what I was gonna say, but I mindblanked on it earlier, is fail states is such a cop out. Cause I feel, I feel like it's not, like fail states are fine if there's other choices. I mean, I don't personally feel like I need fail states, but I think a lot of game companies or RPG makers, they like to be like, oh, you can fail.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And everyone goes, whoa, consequence, but it's like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's not a meaningful consequence, usually. Like, if I can, if I can play, uhm, I don't know, the Thieves Guild story, and there's no choice whatsoever, but...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I can also go in and kill all the thieves guild members in the ragged flag and fail the plot completely because now it's unplayable. I can appreciate that, but that's not what we talk about when we say choice. It's, so fail state is like, you know, whatever.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Don't let fail state be this glorified thing, especially in faction choices. Cause it's like, you want to be able to play the game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, missing- missing out on stuff should be like, I helped this gang, therefore I miss out on the benefits of the other gang that I could have helped instead.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't mind fail state if it like continues. Like for example, let's say that you're playing, cause I do like some like hard consequences for stuff ups, but I feel like it should be more like, oh, a character died that didn't have to die. Not like, oh, your quest ends here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like, that's just boring. Like, if you want to give me consequence, say if you're like really good and managed to fend off, um, the mythic dawn at the start of oblivion that, um, captain, is it Renault? The, who's the female one who dies? Yeah. She does. Um, like, okay.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But you can't stop that from happening. It would be cool if you could stop that from happening and then later she has a quest that you can do. That you can only do if she didn't die. But that doesn't cut you out of anything. It's just like, you know what? You get what I'm saying? Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Fail states that are just like a full stop and like, yeah, just nah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Depends where it's set, I mean if it's set in Hammerfell, I would, and it's, it also depends how long after Skyrim it's set, like if it was just recently after Skyrim, I would, even if it wasn't, I feel like I'd prefer it not to be the Dark Brotherhood.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like, we, we came up with a cool assassin guild in the ideal Hammerfell video we made that was, I think it was called the Salotep or something, but they're like, Sadokal worshipping hyper redguard culture assassins.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's so much potential for Hyrule, and I mean, like, you can't really take everything Todd Howard says, like, you know, that's true. But it would be cool if it's as ambitious as they kind of hint at, and it is like just a two province game without any sacrifice to the depth in those provinces.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I mean, I hope Starfield is a super ambitious, crazy sci-fi epic like Todd makes it out to be. You can't, I feel like you just can't call it a sci-fi epic and it's like exploring a space asteroid to mine iron ore, which is exactly what Starfield sounds like. It's just...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just can't do that, it's misleading. Um, but then again, so are the other statements, but yeah, I, I am just.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just wanna know what a scroll sticks now, man. Just, I'm ready to join a faction.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And yea, it's crazy, it's probably still 2024. Could be. You know, it's funny, but like, I am actually like, and I'm not an expert on this stuff at all, so this could be a bad take, but I feel quite happy about the Microsoft acquisition just because I'm like money, speed, like just


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Make Elder Scrolls games faster. Obviously at the end of the day, I would prefer a long release time, but it's the best game ever. But I feel like recently with Bethesda, it's been like long release time and, well, 76 wasn't good or like...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think they got Starfield online going already. An MMO version.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Let's be real, if I was, if I had full control over this I would say put every single resource into producing Elder Scrolls 6 and from then on the purely single player games we all love. That would be my call. This is my subjective preference.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I wouldn't, I wouldn't complain, but again, like, I'm just like, I don't know, just focus on Elder Scrolls 6. Whatever money you'd pour into that project, pour it into Elder Scrolls 6. Hire new developers so it's faster.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You will though, eventually like 20 years in the future. I don't think they bought the rights just to like, do one last game and say, see you later.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Ah yea, there we go. Makes sense. We were on topic. We don't need to circle back because we were on track all along. Alright, do you boys have anything else to say about factions? Because uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Definitely agree. Well, thank you everyone for watching. If you want to help support this podcast, you can use a link in the description and get one of these fudge muppet teas.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know what I mean? Well, from a lore perspective, the only reason I can see you'd ever want to become a vampire is for the immortality, which obviously in a game setting doesn't matter too much, seeing as you just reload your save if you die anyway, but...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, they are kind of just glorified zombies, really. You know, they, they do say, oh, you know, we don't, there's no necromancer involved, so we're not, you know, we're, we're different to the other undead, but really, Molag Bal is just their necromancer.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm not super, like, uh, I mean, vampires, I'm not, I don't love vampires, but you know, some of the lore in this is pretty cool and original.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, like they're just having withdrawals, but when they're, you know, when they're fueled up, they can kind of blend in with greater society.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, cause that is kind of the appeal, isn't it? Like, uh, you know, the idea of having to invite in the monster who seems like a charming, good person at first. You know, you don't want them to look too monstrous, but then the ability to become really monstrous. It's, without derailing, it's one thing I really liked about.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The Witcher 3 game's interpretation of them with like Regis and Detlaff that they can totally blend in, they just look a bit goth.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But then when they go absolutely berserk, the creatures they become are really awesome. And it's the same with the vampire lord form in Skyrim.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, the spiteful element is very strong in it because, you know, the fact that they're immortal I think is what makes them...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is one of the main things that at least makes them reprehensible to the gods, like, mortals dislike them because they're kind of, you know, they're beastly creatures that want to feast on their blood, but uhm, if any aedra worshipping society


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, is generally going to look down on vampirism because you're, you're removing yourself from the, the revered cycle of life and death, RK's process of, you know, like, burial rites and all of this, you're taking yourself out of it, as well as being a menace to society.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, well I think it, you know, as a general rule, it's why getting into Daedra worship can become so enticing to mortals across like a bunch of cultures because the Daedra are always gonna be more involved with daily life for a mortal than


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then the, then the aedra, unless you're kind of seeing their spheres manifest and kind of take that as their intervention, but actual aedric intervention is very rare.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I feel like most of the times you figure out that you've contracted vampirism is just because you'll try to turn in a quest and someone will hate you or be really rude to you, and that's your, like, way of knowing that you've contracted this. It's- Oh, yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's a proper conspiracy theory, isn't it, like the idea that the vampires have infiltrated imperial politics and stuff like that, and it's like, it's pretty explicitly said in their manifesto that it's all about, you know, it says here, by the virtue of imperial structure and bureaucracy, we're, you know, we're not


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Paranoia and wives tales and things are really, uhm, ingrained in the idea of vampires because, you know, I think it's in, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What's the Dark Brotherhood vampire's name in Oblivion? Vicente?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, so it's like, there's the belief that vampires are weak to garlic, but he just actually has an allergy to garlic. And like, we're gonna talk about the vampire clans now, but a lot of what they do seems like terribly impractical. The kind of thing that you'd imagine


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Stories around a campfire to try and scare you of, of vampires. Cause there's a lot of paranoia when it comes to vampirism.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's definitely a controversial topic, but I'm sure there are ethical ways to do it, or at least more ethical ways. Like, you know, you've got the Wetfang tribe of Black Marsh who, it says, capture victims alive and keep them in a magic-induced coma, allowing the vampires to extract blood at their own leisure.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I put that on the more unethical side of the scale, but there, you know, there may be alternatives, like even just donations.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If they're weakened, then that kind of makes up for it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sanguin, which is their version of sanguin, as the blood god.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, uh, you can kind of see the connection, because in elsewhere, as well as the rest of Tamriel, Sanguine is associated with, you know, distractions and vices, and to them, it's taking you off the path. So the path to the heavens, to the sands behind the stars, if you stray from the path,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which, it makes sense because if you become an immortal vampire, you're straying from the path, the process of dying and ascending to the heavens. So, as well as him being the blood god, it makes sense for him to be the patron of vampires because becoming immortal is inherently to stray from the path.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, well, I mean, that goes all the way to the top, doesn't it, with like, Anura and Fatimae, is that the, the, the primordial force of light is kind of the more negative one in their creation story.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On other races is much more likely to kind of have the negative effects and drive you a bit mad, but even Khajiit, if they abuse the substance too much, will have more powerful negative effects.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I guess that's where it's kind of like, if you, if you take too much moon sugar, if you get too into the skooma, then, you know, you're heading to the Shiver Niles. I feel like it would have to be the skooma.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] See, this specific example is kind of what I was getting at with the paranoia and the wives tales, like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Imagine you just want to, to feast on some blood. You could pretty much just kill the family outright, but the idea of, you know, taking and eating the kid when they're on their own and then replacing the kid and mimicking them and infiltrating the family, making them love and trust you and then killing them after like potentially years seems a little bit extreme and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You also have the Yeketh clan, who apparently swallow men whole, which could be just a story, but it also makes you think a bit of the Sayesee snake men of Akavir, the idea of kind of like, like a serpent just engulfing the entire person.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I guess it's like, yeah. Why not other light? Yeah, well it's interesting. It's like the difference is fire light gives them away, but not sunlight. Which is weird, isn't it?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, I think it's the case that ESO kinda just needs new enemy types. It's the same with the Blood Knights, the idea that they've kind of absorbed other vampires seems a bit unusual when these, you know, you don't really have these kind of like, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Kinda yeaah, like the idea that they absorb other vampires to become uber vampires.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, it's like he probably wouldn't have even created vampires were it not for RK's fear. And that, you know, the importance of the cycle of life and death and things like that. He does a lot of things in spite.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that's kind of, you know, is how his domination should be is that he puts in this insidious illness or something like this that spreads among mortals and corrupts them all. And that, that's a better way of getting domination than just coming in with a big whip, like putting everyone in chains and stuff. But yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What is up ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to Fudge Muppet, I'm Scott here with Michael and Drew as always, and today on the Elder Scrolls podcast we are talking all about lancanthropy, that's werewolves, wereboars, werebears, anything were, pretty much.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In Blood Moon and in earlier games, it was connected to the sort of like the night cycles and moon cycles and stuff like that, and it was sort of an involuntary, involuntary thing. And I think...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, you could do it in a way that perhaps if you were like, I feel like maybe if, you know, in future games, if they did this to make a more compelling experience, if it was a more random thing that happened to you, but perhaps there are artifacts like her scene's ring that allows you to gain control over it or, or like it kind of like, do you know what I mean? I feel like her scene's ring feels diminished when it's not actually, when it's pretty easy to play a werewolf and just use it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I kinda, I wish they would bring that back. That is something I think would be a cool thing and even if there was certain like, uh, ingredients or enchanted things or something or all these kind of methods or whatever of getting


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like imagine even if there was like, sounds funny, but like, like a mini game or like a quick time issue kind of vibe thing or something of you trying, you can attempt to try and control it. So say if you're in the city and then it's all of a sudden starting, you can try and like, you know, maybe there's a certain amount of things.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, it could just be a cool thing. And then obviously then maybe as you get later, like perks later on, it becomes easier to control because you're a more experienced werewolf that it actually gives you maybe like, you know, a wider quick time thing or like rapid or perfect reload or whatever. You know what I'm getting? Like whatever system you use.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But uhm, as we know, like, uhm, I think most people's experiences with werewolves would be uhm, the companion's questline, where you voluntarily become one by like, consuming the blood of...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, well we can, uhm, I guess too, like, I think, like, this is the coolest part, I think, is we can talk about the different kinds of, of were-creatures and so on, because werewolf is like the poster child.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cause he, cause he, cause people were asking about werewolves and I think he, he tried to deny it's like, nah, there won't be werewolves. Todd Howard said there won't be cause there were, he was just trying to like keep her.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But the werewolf is like the main one and the one you see the most and that the people are most sort of familiar with but funnily enough


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For as, I think, for as long as werewolves have been in the Oldest Scrolls series, were-bores have been in there since Dagger 4.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Was it the, it says, I know it says here, that uhm, they're the second most common, but I'm pretty sure originally they were supposed to be like the dominant one, in uhm, in front of which book it is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But the thing is there is just like they obviously like kind of swapped out for Skyrim and the rationalization now is that they're the second most common just because they just, they're just not there. The werebears. But we got them in Solstheim that you see some of them, but uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I wish, um, like similar to how we were talking about with the vampires, how I like liking some of the peripheral elements about them or the little like folk tales around them, like inviting them into your house or stuff like that. I like the superstitions surrounding these sort of monsters and creatures and things that I wish they did.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Show and do like things like rubbing and smearing mechanics fruit in your home so a werebear doesn't attack you like, but we never really saw a lot of that in Skyrim or those kinds of-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, superstitions and so on. I wish, I wish we saw that a little bit more front on. And I like that when you have those specific kind of herbs or things that affect certain creatures. But, um.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I think it's uhm, I think it's supposed to be affecting werewolves, but I don't know if it actually does. And then they just made it an undead thing. But you can sort of, yeah, you could assume that silver is supposed to, in lore, be more effective.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, bringing in a little bit more of that sort of, like, obviously, Witcher is about a monster hunter, so obviously there's gonna be lots of these kind of details, but those kinds of details add so much personality to all the different monsters, so if you have a similar sort of thing,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Playing a, a monster hunter or using sort of specific kind of things in game, like whether it be attacking undead, you're playing a damplight character or you're a werewolf hunter or a vampire hunter or, or some other kind of area. It's, it's just cool when there are these specific kind of things, ingredients or, or things that you can use.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Silver Daedric or Enchanted I think also. But like that, those kinds of things are so cool. Like the idea that you can just hit a ghost, some specter with just like an iron sword, kind of kills the fact that it's a ghost because it functionally becomes like a human.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One strange, one other quick thing, I was just gonna say another way of doing it is,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Certain materials, in the same way they're supposed to be used, like silver better against undead, other ways is they could draw on other real world mythologies and add things in. So for example, iron weapons are really weak and they're like not that great, but imagine if there are any sort of fairy kind of characters, so like, there's like Irish kind of mythology stuff where they would


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, you would make like an iron key or something and put it under your, uh, your, your baby's bed so that the fairies or like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's just lots of ways to make enemies more fun and engaging to play with, and also, it merges the gameplay more with the lore, because like how, with your lore knowledge, like, you know, canister, it's more effective against a, a werebear. It, do you know what I mean? It kind of gives you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I just think those things are kind of cool and it would be interesting.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, well, let's, let's talk about some of, so, were-boar, were-bear, uhm, were-wolf have all been in the games, and then we also get some more, I think, so we can talk about the were-bat, which is kind of, seems to be like a generic enemy in ESO. Uhm, and it's kind of weird, because,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I remember there was some weird lore about that. There was some weird lore about it, but I think since then it's been used, uhm, in the Grey Host. So the big vampire slash werewolf army of, uhm, of, uh, in the Greymoor DLC. Like, so, I don't know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And because they're an enemy type and you see them just around, they don't seem like, oh, they're a human that have just turned into it or something, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they're, uhm, just, I don't know if we mentioned it, but they're, uhm, native to Valenwood. And also the other sort of flying type, which you just mentioned, Drew, is, uhm, the, like, were vultures as well, are also native to Valenwood.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Apparently there were so many of them that they were, that uh, Lentilus Inventius of the Order of the Thorn thought they were enough of a threat that he sought out werebears to help challenge them so that they didn't spread out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I think for the most part they would be. It's cause, cause in the same way that like, I mean, to be fair, most cultures are against lycanthropy everywhere. Like, it's not necessarily, it's usually the people in the fringes of society. The only-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The only culture that I can actually think of, like actual, like macro, like big size culture, uhm, is the Reachmen, the Reachfolk, because they hearse in such a big part of their, their thing, they, they see it as a useful gift and, and position, position differently.