Ice Golems!

There are three types of golems that we know of: Ice, Stone and Iron. Whilst I am not sure whether we'll see all of them in Skyrim or not, it has however been revealed that Ice Golems will make an appearance. Be happy!

Having not been seen since Arena, the golems make a glorious return. I am sure that we all share great love for golems, similar to the love between Cruella De Vil and pelts, meaning that we take pleasure in murdering them and plundering their bodies. Over the years, there have been many different depictions and takes on what a golem is and looks like. One of the more creative ones have been the one given in Dragon Age: Origins, where golems are created trough transforming dwarves with some special anvil, but they can however be annoying and dull to fight, which they in fact are in most games. I do believe that Skyrim might remedy that, due to their combat system which is ever so enjoyable.

I don't have a picture of Skyrim's golem,
so enjoy this Pokémon one instead.

Unlike Dragon Age, golems here are created by taking a raw material, shaping it like a humanoid and finally sparking it up with some magic, which is nice, since most universes use mechanics for golems.

But hey, that is it for now - Ice Golems. Hopefully there'll be more, just for the kicks.

Mammoths!

Why didn't i write this months ago? Let me tell you now, mammoths are in the game! Knew that already? Well, pretend that you did not, just like Bush pretends that he has done nothing wrong.


Better known as the elephant with tusks among everyone, the mammoths will be travelling the tundras of Skyrim. Given their awesomeness, they are often herded by Giants, whom take the time to carve symbols into their tusks.

Should you come upon these magnificent bastards and their giant masters, travelling the tundra together, you may get the urge to hurt them, you know, just to see what is up - Well, don't! The entire group will turn on you like the other students turn on Britta at Señor Chang's command! So you might want to think twice!

I do have a theory that you find mammoths wandering alone, since an example of the world ecology, depicts a pack of wolves working together as a team in order to take down one of them. Come to think of it, wouldn't it be quite strange if Giants had tamed all mammoths? Yes, yes it would.

As I've mentioned previously, no, no arena

...Thus sounded the reply from Pete Hines, who were asked whether or not there would be an Arena in Skyrim. I've personally been aware of this fact for months, but evidently it ain't out there yet.

The arena in The Imperial City was one of the major Cyrodiilic attractions in Oblivion, allowing us to rise trough the different Gladiator ranks and eventually beat The Gray Prince and take his title as The Grand Champion. Maybe you performed his task as an easy way out of battling him, or maybe you stood up to him like a man and got your ass kicked - Never the less, you got there eventually.

After claiming championship of the arena, 2 things happened: first off, you could return each week to battle creatures and earn money for it, but more importantly you got an adoring fan; A small, chubby Bosmer with nothing but a need to be in your presence and follow your every command, most commonly resulting in having the player drag him to the top of a mountain, shoot him in the head with a well-placed arrow and watch with glee as he went all "rag-doll" down the mountain. Then we loaded and did it again.

Will we get an equivalent to the Adoring Fan in Skyrim? Who knows?! All we know so far is that there will definitely not be an Arena and I feel like maybe Pete Hines would appreciate it if people stopped asking. Just a guess, though.

Mudcrabs!

A Morrowind Mudcrap

The most deadly enemy of the prior games makes a return! Be it because the devs find them a decent excuse for a petty enemy for the low-leveled player, or because they have several fan-groups bigger than Johnny Depp's throughout the internet, Mudcrabs will be making a return! Of course we risk that dragons will seem puny compared to this, but I guess that's a risk we'll just have to take, isn't it? Yes, yes it is.


Making their debut in Morrowind, the Mudcrabs have since struck fear in the hearts of their enemies and have on occasion also been known to make children cry. The nerve. I guess that's why we like them.

Another reason as to why we like them is that there is usually special versions of them. In Morrowind there was a Mudcrap Merchant and in Oblivion there was both a giant Mudcrap and a Spectral Mudcrab!

An Oblivion Mudcrap

In fear of being the cause of a Mudcrap celebration parade, I shall write no more on this topic, but know that the Mudcrap have always been and will always be in our hearts. Mudcrap is Legion, for Mudcrap are many. Mudcrap is awesome, for Mudcrap just is.

Critters!

Whilst it should have been an obvious pass-time since birth, I first became aware of the potential joy of hunting down critters once I started playing World of Warcraft - Even more once they made it an achievement to hug them. Of course I didn't hug them. I'm a pattern breaker; I killed them.

Hunting was always one of the more entertaining aspects of Gothic III, although it had loads of potential to be greater, as it had in Oblivion, where the deer were mostly just for show. Luckily, Todd's team has seen a brighter path, filling the land of Skyrim with magnificent, harmless moving targets - And a bunch of different kinds!

Of course they're not just for show! It'll be funnier and more rewarding to hunt them down and most importantly, they add to the ecological system crafted for Skyrim - As in the example of a fox hunting a rabbit.

But lets look at the critters of Skyrim, shall we?

Rabbits

The most obvious candidate, the rabbit, can be found various places throughout Skyrim, although I am guessing that they won't be hanging out in the Volcanic Tundra. These are mainly prey for all predators, which is why they'll be hunted down and killed by wolves, foxes and the like. Fun fact: Rabbits and Hares can see in a 180 degree angle - An ability they evolved (Look up evolution,) to be able to escape predators.

Foxes

Foxes may be a predator kind of animal, but they are nothing compared to the mighty Dovahkiin, therefore they count as nothing more than simple critters, which we hunt down for food and pelt - Like Kraven the Hunter, whom I just have to say, has a great mental stability.

Deer & Elk

Well, this is just gravy. My greatest wish is only to be able to loot the Elks' antlers and wear them as a weapon on my head - Can you guess what game I am referencing to?

Fish

This was a major issue for me in Oblivion - The only thing to find underwater were slaughterfish and that was just plain dull and stupid - Plus, they were unusually durable in spite of being fish. Skyrim's lakes and rivers will be filled with various kinds of fish, that you can catch with your hands and eat - might wanna cook them first, though.

Birds

Although I am fairly sure that they just are some animations you can see when you look up (not that I know that,) I guess they still deserve the title of being critters - I really hope you can shoot them down.

And finally you might claim that butterflies are critters too, but nay I say! Butterflies counts as ingredients in my book! Seriously, you can grab them and use their wings as ingredients. You might be able to do that with other bugs too. And I am not totally sure about this, but Horkers might be critters too.

Crafted by hand!

Closing in on 11.11.11 - Or as I've named it: Joyday, I'd like to emphasize the beauty of Skyrim's visual goodness, making our eyes shiny with tears and increasing our drooling rate by 5 times. The key to this beauty has been detailed hand-crafting throughout the world.

Whilst in most games, the team behind makes a generator, or copy previous textures and place them right next to each other (like the forests in Oblivion,) but now Bethesda says no! They've examined each are of the game and edited every tiny little detail to make the game as beautiful and immersible as possible! No longer will we pass by a row of identical trees and rocks! No longer will we be forced to endure the painful experience of walking the same plains over and over until we finally reach our long-awaited destination!

Everything is now beautifully hand-crafted! Every tree, rock, passage, dungeon, road, village, lake and castle! If it wasn't because it would be completely irrelevant, I'd shout "EUREKA!"

Ice Trolls!

It's scary, I know - Different kinds of Trolls. Kinda like different kinds of Justin Bieber, only dangerous, not annoying. Unlike their cousins from Oblivion, these guys are actually dangerous and live in the snowy regions of mighty Skyrim.

Fry dat Ice Troll, mon!

As far as weaknesses go, my logical guess is that this one's weak point matches the Cave Troll's - Fire! Which is great, 'cause who doesn't like breaking out your flamethrower spell and frying themselves some troll meat? No one. None at all.

Equivalents of elementary school aside, in spite of seeing a sole Ice Troll in the released video footage, Todd Howard mentioned that we could run into an entire nest of them, suggesting that they might be pack animals. Not much more to say on this topic, other than we should all look forward to fight them, 'cause it seems exciting!

Cave Trolls!

According to me (don't call me Jim,) the most annoying enemy in Oblivion was the cave / forest troll. It was big and incredibly fast, not to mention hard to kill unless you had a firespell at the ready. I'm pretty sure that it was meant to be scary, but it was mostly annoying.

They do make a return in Skyrim, although seeing them now turns everything around - They're still fast, but not as in the annoying way in Oblivion; It is bigger; It will definitely be hard to kill, I'd say!
We've seen video footage of it's icy counterpart, and it is at least terrifying enough to make Hugh Grant cry - Not that he sets the bar very high.

PC requirements - Remember to check in!

With barely two months away from the release of Skyrim, the long sought PC requirements will most definitely soon be released. Around two weeks ago, Pete Hines was asked about when we would be informed of them and to this he partially answered: "I don't know. A month?"

The specs for Rage were released about a month prior to release, I believe, therefor I am now reminding you: Check in! As soon as the PC specs are up, I'll post them on this site, and if you are not to keen on IT, I'll gladly answer questions for you if you are a confused turtle.

So personally I am guessing in 2-3 weeks, maybe earlier, maybe later, but that is my guess. Be on the lookout.

Bandits!

This may seem a bit redundant, but I hate to leave stuff incomplete, so I've decided to add bandits to our little encyclopedia of enemies.

Although known for a long time, I hereby declare that bandits are in Skyrim, obviously!
Come to think of, I've never seen an RPG without bandits! There were bandits in FFVII right?
That aside, so far we've only seen the ones called "Bandit" - No marauders, hedge wizards or highwaymen, not that I am doubting their presence in Skyrim at all, so fell free to consider them a part of our adventure.

Like in Oblivion, bandits will, unless scripted, draw their weapon and attack you on sight, not leaving you with a chance to surrender you possessions and leave in blissful peace. As always they will probably be a welcome morning exercise for swinging our blade and wielding our flamethrower firespell. Basically they are just cocky canonfodder.

McBraas responds: Thoughts on the 20 minute demo video - Part I

It is the inevitable truth that we will all have regrets at some point in our lives and I think one of mine is not speaking out enough. First due to being 5, then due to low confidence and now because most people are so incredibly stupid on atomic levels that I don't even want to bother. With that in mind, I will now express my feelings on the Skyrim demo video that Bethesda just released.

It's not footage we haven't seen before, 'cause it's the same video at QuakeCon, although there were some small parts I missed. Plus, it's in HD, so it's easier to pay attention to detail, which I dare say is stunning.

That aside, lets start at the beginning and work our way forward on the longest literary journey since The Lord of The Rings.

The first thing we see, is Todd, our chaotic neutral deity, prancing around, down a road in the hills. Throughout the video, Lord Todd will occasionally narrate, making sure that we focus on what he probably think we'll leave out, as well as making us understand what's going on. All of the stuff he says are already known facts, but his narration is still welcome, since he has a soothing voice that we, not I, we want to hear as much of as possible.

But where was I? He was walking in the hills, showing us the detail in every plant, log and rock, and you know what? Saying that they are beautiful would be wrong, since it's an incredible understatement. Every little piece of anything looks absolutely hand-crafted and carefully placed in as stunning a way as possible, ensuring not only that they won't pull an Oblivion, making everything look like the same dull piece of land, but also that it looks as real and engaging as a fantasy world can get. I am seriously serious: I actually want to walk around to every dark corner and every rock, log and flower, in order to properly examine every little minuscule particle of beauty.

As Lord Todd journeys on, he passes by, but ignores, a fox chasing a rabbit, showing off their new ecological system, which is clearly not getting enough attention. A thing I don't quite understand is why he can ignore such an opportunity - if it was me, I'd have chased the fox, sending a steel arrow to its skull, saving the rabbit in the process. The rabbit would most definitely thank me by offering me its treasure in such a situation, I think; Alas, I don't know if they included such a realistic feature. Not unlike what you may have guessed, I would then brutally murder the rabbit in order to acquire its foot, for luck; But I digress.

So far I've covered about 1:30 minutes of the video, so I should move on to the wolves. First off, Todd engages the fierce "Alpha Wolf." If you know anything about etymology, you'll instantly recognize the 'alpha' as a pretty good sign that this wolf is the pack leader. Todd takes it down and kills 2 more and much to our amusement, he use a finish move to remove one o' them. Unlike previous games, especially Oblivion, Bethesda is making engaging enemies more fun, by putting them in groups that match your strength. Now, lone wolves do exist, but they are extremely rare and most often die, so to have them in packs is a gift not to be neglected. 

Im'a skip some time and just say that before he reaches Riverwood, the things worth noticing is the branches which are rustling in the wind, the incredible water effects, that he came by some guardian stones and took care of a bandit who turned out to have an unlucky day, running into our lord and all. Eventually he reaches the little, cozy town and if we pay attention, we can hear an old lady claiming that she saw a dragon, but she is quickly hushed by her either concerned or embarrassed son, whom doesn't want the townsfolk to think of her as a crazy old hag. Passing by conversations like that is an incredibly effective immersion tool; Bethesda is known for making the world look alive and they are surely perfecting this with their creativity! It's even better than in Oblivion, where they just spewed the same random nonsense all the time.

I am ending this article and continuing later, but lets just sum up what we've seen:

• Impressively and beautifully hand-crafted world
• New dynamic features
• Wolves :D And they're in packs!
• Townsfolk having conversations
• Fox chasing a rabbit (The best part)

Factions - Part II

One of my first posts in June was about the factions available to us in Skyrim - A number which has since grown and thus deserve a new, glorious post of awesomeness! Unfortunately I couldn't get Neil Patrick Harris to write a piece on it, so I have to do it instead.

A thing I noticed in August was how ahead I was, news wise, than some others - I've known since June that The Dark Brotherhood would be in the game (Todd let it slip one time, if I recall correctly,) but most people didn't find out until QuakeCon. Yet another reason to hang around, eh?

As last time, I will be writing a small section for each faction, covering what the heck they are all about (apart from being awesome,) but first I will mention some "overall" stuff, which shall be briefly covered as there is next to nothing to talk about on that end and therefore you should expect a lot of adjectives and synonyms, provided I can think of some.

Morrowinds faction-life was tedious, to say the least. It was anything but enjoyable if you ask me. They did remedy that in Oblivion, where they really got every factions quest-line to feel like a sort of epic story, not unlike that of the main quest, although, less influential. They all had one thing in common: They had some great endings with a welcome twists or two, making us go: "OMFG, what an epic adventure I embarked on!," be that whether you stole an Elder Scrolls from the heart of the Imperial City, Cleared Lucius LeChance's name and earned the title as The Listener in the process, or maimed that horrible excuse for The King of Worms (Okay, maybe that wasn't as epic as it could have been.)

Another thing they also had in common, was that you always ended up being the leader of said faction, but apart from being able to be a messenger boy for The Night Mother, there wasn't really anything to it. It was more dull than watching "Open Water." Nah, I don't mean that - Nothing is as boring as "Open Water."

Crappy movies aside, Pete Hines and Todd Howard have both mentioned that this time around, it wont' stop there: We will, much to our joy, be able to do stuff afterwards, but exactly what that entails, I have no idea of - the most important thing is the awesomeness and nirnroot (you know, for a random reason.)

As this post drags on, I become decreasingly aware of how much I am forgetting to write about the factions, so we better move to that part now, or the world will be forever lost. Probably.

The Companions

First up, we've got the companions! Skyrims alternative to The Fighters Guild, which we saw in Cyrodiil. A preview of the game has revealed to us that you can encounter a bunch of them fighting a giant, near some sort of farm if I recall correctly - should you help them out, the leader of the group (some woman,) suggests that you go join The Companions. Although centered around Whiterun, Skyrims former capital city (when they had a king,) The Companions will also be elsewhere to be found, as they have at least one known sub-division called "The Shield-Brothers" and possibly more.

The College of Winterhold

The College of Winterhold, which I will now abbreviate to CW, which amusingly enough is the opposite of WC, is the Mages' guild of Skyrim, which ensures that us spellweavers also have something to do. As they are centered around, you guessed it: Winterhold, I don't know how influential they'll be across the land, but hopefully it won't all be local play. Winterhold, which is a city rich on culture, knowledge and economy is the perfect setting for CW (teehee,) if you ask me.

The Dark Brotherhood

I'd expect to see a riot, should this not have been included - No wait! A full scale, bloody war!! You know, to make up for the lives we didn't get to take for our favorite guild: The Dark Brotherhood! Being a secretive organisation comprised of often maniacal and homicidal assassins with disregard for all human life, the brotherhood serves as a great stress relief for the scorned player. It is, as always, lead by The Black Hand, with a person to symbolize each of the human hands fingers, with the thumb, being the listener whom communes with The Night Mother, in order to find new potential and other random crap. The Speakers then go recruit the mentioned people and takes care of administrative stuff, as well as give contracts to their very own most trusted assassins, hand-picked due to skill and a befitting personality.

We haven't seen much to them so far, during the various hands-on previews we with eager have read through, raping word by word - However: In the demo video shown at QuakeCon, and as far as I know, also the HD video version of it, which will be released today, we see a folded note from the Brotherhood, in the inventory of our friendly neighborhood Dovahkiin. It shows a drawing of their symbol, a black hand, and the short, direct message: "We know," making me think that Todd may have murdered an innocent at some point, which he is in his full right to, being god and all.

The Thieves' Guild

I know squat apart from the fact that there is a Thieves Guild in Skyrim. Delighted as I am that it's a part of the game, I can't help but fear that we once again with be introduced to so few and unambitious quests as in Oblivion. Granted, the final quest was as awesome as can be and the one in Skingrad castle were quite entertaining as well, but the others were nothing but disappointment - Quests in this "Thiefy" theme should include more unforeseen plot twists and greater stakes. Huzzah!

Will the leader of the guild once again be the grey fox? Has the cowl passed on during the 200 years of hiatus we've been through? I guess we'll have to wait and see about that.

The Stormcloaks

Now here's something new: The Stormcloaks, which functions as sort of a rebel group in Skyrim. Now I know that there are 9 holds, which are like counties, and I bet they all have different ideals and goals, so I must admit, I don't quite see how The Stormcloaks fit into all of this, but they sure are welcome. If you ever played Gothic 3, you'll know that there is nothing better than liberating an entire city for the rebels, not that this is an option here, mind you, but still we can conclude: Rebels are fun! And they almost always have a stick up there ass! Some of the PAX and QC players came by a group of military-guards, transporting a Stormcloak captive, which they were able to either ignore, free, or give a weapon to. Some also ran into a guy, in Riverwood I think, offering the player to join the Stormcloaks. Glee!

The Imperial Legion

Rad it is, rad it is. Now the empire have been take over and are governed by Altmers, thanks to Tidus Mede, so I am not sure if the Imperial legion refers to the legion serving The Empire, or the legion serving the Imperials as a race - either way: Cool. I must admit, I am hoping for the first option, 'cause I really want the opportunity to meet Titus, but if not, it is still fine. They are 100% joinable and the more the merrier, I say.

The Blades

Finally we have The Blades. I assume that The Blades, like in Oblivion, will be a joinable faction with no quests and so minuscule benefits that even Danny DeVito is laughing at us, but I seriously hope I am WRONG. The Blades are thinning out, but are still as dedicated as always. Esbern, their current leader, is the one to rescue you from your execution and enlist your help as The Dragonborn. It is thus known that The Blades will be an important part of the storyline, as they always are for some reason, but whether you can actually officially join them, or if they have their own quest-line, is unknown.

What can't we do?

The Elder Scrolls is all about immersion. We all need to feel like we are in Tamriel and we can do whatever we want, with no boundaries or limits (synonyms are good fillers BTW.)  Players always subconsciously pick up on this at some point and then they develop needs and demands, which is totally not a bad thing, but it can sometimes be hard to meet all of the expectations, which has led Bethesda to leave out a few things which a concentrated group of fans really wanted.

This post is not news, as much as a list of stuff that Skyrim won't allow us to do (without mods, which will eventually come to consoles) and this list will be updates, should I recall the many things I have obviously left out. Apart from the things we will miss, I will also quell a few of the rumors that are 100% NOT TRUE!

So essentially, all the following statements are --> untrue: <--

• You can ride a dragon
• You can only play as a Nord
• There are spears
• There are short, medium and long swords instead of one- and two-handed
• There is mounted combat
• You can levitate
• There are crossbows
• There are throwing weapons (Shurikens, knives etc.)

2 months left

With only 2 months left before the release of Skyrim, my mind begins to wander the magical, never-ending plains of imagination: WTF should I do with this website afterwards?!

As you might know, I created this site back in the beginning of June, because I figured I'd do something for my fellow Skyrim fans, mostly because a lot of them didn't have the willpower to use google when they wanted to find the latest news - not that it is always easy, mind you; Most of the time I look for the same news several places to confirm, contact Dutch people with gaming magazines that may have had news or interviews with our favorite deity: Todd Howard and I'm also to known to not having a problem with listening to podcasts, watching videos and learn lore to make it all seem more interesting.

All this was interesting and fun, although sometimes it was tedious. Alas, it was nothing compared to what I totally hate spending my time doing: Advertising; Letting people know that there here is a database and that I will fill it with all they want to know, be that shattering your dreams by telling you that there are no polearms and that you can't ride dragons, or by informing you what Todd Howard ate for breakfast (Roasted squirrel.)
It's beginning to sort itself out, so I don't care enough to go around throwing my site out everywhere, especially since I get linked to mostly by some strange Spanish site, I've never even been to - It's overwhelmingly strange. I am digressing!

on 11.11.11 Skyrim will be out and our lives will be complete, or at least we will think so until The Elder Scrolls VI which will probably fill us with so much ecstatic joy that we will die a blissful death. Right now, a pre-concern of mine is simply, and you might have guessed this, what the hell I should do with this website, once the game is out.

It won't hurt to have it standing around and I briefly thought of making it a kind of "Skyrim Wikipedia," but not more than 3 seconds passed until I realized what an utterly retarded idea that was, since we have uesp, which is also known as "The Bible."

I was also thinking of making a Skyrim Journal, detailing my first experiences in Skyrim, written with an element of rolepay and a twist of humor - I saw it done once, with Oblivion, and it was more glorious than watching a rainbow or eating Kinder chocolate for that matter. I remember a that he wrote about wanting to kill a woman due to her horse prices, which were way too high, and of course also the brutal deaths at the hands of a wild swine, which naturally harbors evil intentions, 'cause all pigs do.

But we all recognize the evolution of swine as the doom of mankind, so I don't really need to get into that. Another thing I was thinking of instead of writing about Skyrim, was making a "Let's play Skyrim" video series, but I don't know how much fire there is under that pot.

If you have any ideas, let me know and I will try not to totally ignore everything you do or say.
Huzzah!

- [Join the facebook page "Skyrim Coverage" or feel the inglorious wrath of the pigs!]
McBraas

Dragon Priests!

This is old news, but this is a database, not a news station! Or well, it's also sort of a news station... Snap.
...
...
... That aside, lets talk Dragon Priests.
As you may have noticed, dragons are quite common in Skyrim all of a sudden, much to our delight. In fact, Nords worshipped Dragons many, many years ago, which is why there are still dragon temples, such as Bleak Falls Barrow, scattered around the land.

Every temple needs a priest, and thus they were bestowed with their very own version of a wicker, which as you may have guessed, eventually came to be quite dead. Sure, like with Michael Jackson, it is a sad loss and they are missed, which I guess they've sensed, 'cause they are coming back in a rather unfriendly manner, which I am sure you've already spotted. They return as Draugr, still going by their old title: Dragon Priest, and they function as sort of a boss fight, as seen the the Skyrim demo video, where one of these guys floats out of a coffin with the goal of butchering our little, innocent hero, through whatever dirty means he can!

Luckily, our hero prevails, robs him blind as his just reward, and takes off.

I'm Essential; You're essential; This whole courtroom is essential!

Who did I just quote? Can you guess?

Giving that we're getting closer and closer to the release date, It seems that the first for knowledge increases mildy, day by day. Therefore I will let this info on the "essential" rules be your morning orange juice.

In Oblivion we had something called "Essentail Characters," meaning that they were involved in a quest somehow, or "essential" to the story if you'd prefer, and could therefore not be killed. Not even by Johnny English. Of course, once the quests they were involved in were over, they lost their essential status and we could play (torture) them as much as we'd like, but some fans (me included) still found it somehow stressful that there were so many immortal characters, since it in some way killed part of the immersion.

Luckily Bethesda has come to our hour of need on that part, not that I sent them any threatening letters whatsoever and any accusations against me are fully and completely untrue. My magical real life adventures aside, Bethesda has manage to severely decrease the number of essential characters there will be in Skyrim, by using Radiant story.

Radiant story will essentially (haha!) just take a bunch of variables created from our exploits and take NPC's filling certain requirements and put them in the role of the quest-giver or bad guy and so on. Should you kill a quest giver like that, a family member of that NPC might take over the quest-giver role, not that I am entirely sure how that would work TBH.

But whilst there is gravy to this meal, there is also broccoli. There has to be some essential characters, that is hard to get out of. There are some side-quests that has them and those crucial the the main quest will definitely be essential as well. To that, there is no middle-ground.

But middle-ground has been found in some aspect. There is yet another kind of "essential" that aren't quite as "essential" as other "essential," meaning that they are probably not that "essential." These are called "protected characters" and protected they are - there are a lot of strings (variables) in Skyrim, which could mean that one NPC might get mad and end up killing another, evidently also whilst you're not around. The protected characters are the NPC's that can be killed by no one but you and I could imagine the radiant story quest-givers to be "protected" whilst the quest is active.

So that was rather essential, right?
Yes, I thought so too.
Unfortunately our time is up, so hasta luego - until next post

Marriage - Broken down at the beginning of September

"Marriage is neither Heaven nor Hell, it is simply Purgatory" - Abraham Lincoln

Wise words, but apart from being able to create and play as a different person in a different world, Skyrim puts a little twist on marriage - there's no downside.

At first when I head there was going to be romantic relationships, I tracked it back to the "Troll post" I've mentioned before, meaning that it was a joke - Which I was fine with; I didn't like the idea. Luckily it turned out to be true in the end, and I say luckily because I've actually come around to the idea and I think that that is because it isn't handled Bioware-style (Dragon Age, Mass Effect etc.) not that there is anything wrong with that, mind you, but it just isn't right for this game.

But since the news was released, I've made 1 post about it, but there have been many updates on the topic ever since - so lets get to that, shall we?

Relationships in Skyrim are neat and has benefits - not only does Radiant Story look at whom your friends and enemies are and then gives them specific roles in quests, but having a good relationship with someone could also make them think twice about calling the guards on you, should you have the nerve to steal their fruit (and the likes.)

Once you've build up a relationship with one of the more than hundreds eligible bachelors, then no matter the gender and no matter the race, you can wear an amulet  to signal that you're ready for the next step: Purgato... I mean marriage. I guess it's one of them cool Nord traditions; And we know that that'll turn out well! Just look at how great the dragon-worshipping went!

Once you've courted whomever you want to court and have become man and wife, man and man, or wife and wife, you're new partner does more than just hold that honorable title. Once a day, your spouse can cook you a meal to restore your strenght <3 If you have a house, your new love will move in with you, or if you so desire, he or she will become your companion, aiding you in your travels, be that by fighting at your side, or giving you some neat perks.