Why I love Morrowind

Now that I've returned to my home in my own home country, I thought I'd celebrate my return to hot and humid weather by looking back on a game that involves exploring a land dominated by a giant volcano that is very dear to my heart. And before the reader says anything, it has nothing to do with any of Tolkien's works so read the title once more before searching for it online.

The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind was THE game for me. The game that finally won me over to the whole concept of gaming and made me an individual that could see gaming as more than a mere hobby or past-time. It gave me an immersive experience that I'm still fond of and once in a while, I go back to Morrowind again. My previous experiences in gaming prior to Morrowind were real-time strategy, first person shooter and Sport games which I enjoyed but felt were lacking till Morrowind came along. It was also the game that wound up establishing my preferred genre of gaming, namely RPGs and single-player games for the immersive experience that allows any player to experience their own story despite the preset story missions being the same for any playthrough. I can understand the appeal of other genres but Morrowind made me a RPG player (along with Kingdom Hearts but that's another side, another story... *nudge nudge, wink wink)

Anyways, here are my reasons why I love Morrowind. Perhaps one of the readers could relate to these reasons or could gain some insight to another person's opinion.

1) The environment

One thing that was odd about Morrowind was the alien flora and fauna of the land. Rather than the typical cattle, horses and wolves, Morrowind had guar, silt striders and nix-hounds that dotted the land filled with peculiar looking plants, especially in other regions. This immediately caught my attention back when I was a child, nervously booting this game that was given to me as a present. The sky was bizarre with two moons that had relevance to the lore of the series (especially the larger one). The alien environment is then left open to the player to explore and understand either by dialogue, in-game books and in some cases, self-comprehension. While Skyrim and Oblivion have given me open worlds rich with lore and back-stories, Morrowind was alien enough to the typical countryside or northern lands to intrigue me for a very long time. In addition, the Morrowind Overhaul mod can be used to update the in-game graphics (which are admittedly dated) to close to current-gen and in my opinion, those graphics do hold up.

2) The thrill of discovery

As I said before, the environment of Morrowind is an alien one that demands exploration. Thus, one has to step forward and travel. This game existed before the age of fast-travel and while I have wished for fast-travel at times (since I was late for family dinners), I can appreciate the lack of fast-travel. This lack of fast-travel forced you to walk around, see the sights and feel the scale of the landscape around. A perceptive eye could even spot the occasional NPC with a quest available or by chance, notice a cave, ruin (of differing types) or even a quest location (that can even be completed early on for convenience). Back before the extensiveness of video walkthroughs and wikis, all people had to rely on were written walkthroughs (at least that's what I wound up relying on) so the world was still left open to imagination. One could read the words of a walkthrough and could still get a mistaken impression of the places described, even more so with the creatures (as I did with my first Dremora). The best kind of player for Morrowind is the first-time player (though having some experience with Skyrim and Morrowind will help in adapting to the world slightly) as they are still fresh and ready to seek out new things (and stumble upon funny occurrences that simply rain from the sky). As a result, there is a thrill to discovering more about this alien land and eventually, figuring out its culture. The sense of progression is felt often with each new lore-relevant place and book being discovered before examined thoroughly.

3) Progression

This is probably where Morrowind differs from its future counterparts. Unlike Oblivion and Skyrim, Morrowind's culture is not favorable against outlanders (or foreigners). Since your player character is a person born outside of Morrowind (as stated to you in the tutorial sequence), you will be treated with disdain (unless you have a high Personality stat). Unlike the penniless adventurer of Oblivion and Skyrim, the adventurer in Morrowind is treated akin to dirt by the local Dunmers (and worse than dirt by some). With the game even telling you (via dialogue) to seek out other activities to do before the main quest, the average player (who read the dialogue) would be inclined to do so (seeing as the Elder Scrolls series has allowed player freedom in progressing the main story). By joining guilds and factions along with completing the occasional side-quest in a town, the player gains a reputation and begins to shift perceptions around them. Suddenly, the town-guard who called you scum might speak in a more polite manner or certain Morrowind locals might greet you favourably than before. As a result, the player can feel greater progression as your actions have contributed to an outcome that you had some degree of control over. Completing certain faction story-lines might even aid you in the main quest (it does help with the politics somewhat) and even locking off other faction story-lines due to conflict of interests between rival factions.

One thing I would like to point out is how superior the guild and faction-based questlines here feel compared to Skyrim due to the simple presence of restrictions, at least in my opinion. In order to advance in rank in a guild or faction, the player must have a certain skill level to do so and failure to do so will lock the rank away. This meant that the player must be worthy of having that rank rather than being given the rank all because you completed the faction's story. In Skyrim, I was often left perplexed at the fact that my Nord warrior (who has mastered the art of stealth somehow) was so quickly elected as the College of Winterhold's Archmage even though he only knew how to cast a healing spell that could only manage a boo-boo and a fireball spell that left most enemies irritated by the unexpected warmth that fades too quickly. This criticism could also carry over to Oblivion but at least the faction story-lines were longer and had depth to them (at least the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood did). While the story for the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood in Skyrim (I'm beginning to notice a pattern here) were detailed with some depth, they were shorter and had excessively rapid progress (also going to point out the Companions for the rapid development from newbie to Inner Circle member). I admit that it was rather tedious but it made the experience better as the moment when you reached a higher rank would feel like an accomplishment rather than a mere add-on to your list of titles.

4) Main Quest

This might be a stretch and I can certainly understand why with the lack of an oncoming threat (a mod fixes this somewhat) by the game's main antagonist but there was something to this game's main quest that I feel is superior to Skyrim and to a lesser extent, Oblivion.

Warning SPOILERS WILL BE PRESENT. The game centers around the Nerevarine Prophecies which speaks of the reincarnation of the ancient Chimer hero, Indoril Nerevar who will unite the land and banish the threats to it's people. You are a prisoner (as per the norm of an Elder Scroll game) who was born on a certain day (when a special constellation was in the sky) to uncertain parents that is being released to Vvardenfell, a major part of Morrowind (though not it's capital). Immediately on release, you are sent to the local leader of the Blades (the Secret Service and spy group of the Septim Empire) to be recruited as a member of the Blades. After a few quests (that provide background and opinions on the lore of the land along with the lore regarding the prophecies), you are told of your purpose. The prophecies state that the initial signs of an incarnation is the individual being born on a certain day to uncertain parents. You happen to fulfill these characteristics so the Empire sent you to fit the bill to make sure that the fabled hero that will drive away the threats of the people will not drive off the Empire, that has occupied Morrowind, seeing as they have an employment contract. As all this is going on, there are signs of a resurgence of the Sixth House, a long-lost faction that was thought to have been wiped out long before the events of the game that belonged to the game's antagonist, Dagoth Ur. A visit to the local indigenous nomads(the Ashlanders) confirm that you are a potential incarnation but nothing more as of the moment though they do provide their own perspective and views on the status quo in Morrowind. After an encounter in a Sixth House base that leaves you with Corprus (an incurable and fatal disease) while marking you as an enemy of said faction, you are cured of said disease and are left with a degree of immortality (namely being unable to die of old age or sickness nor being able to age or get sick which is a basic side-effect of the disease).

This winds up fulfilling yet another criteria of an actual reincarnation and this time, the circumstances become murky. While the prophecy states said criteria will be held by an actual incarnation, your own immortality was artificially made by an ancient and powerful wizard. This becomes even more murkier when at a later visit, he reveals that the cure he used on you failed on every other test subject after. Is there divine intervention that is allowing you to fulfil these criterias or is it chance or is the prophecy actually true in your case? The next quest then reveals another twist that the game has hinted at explicitly: the teachings of the Tribunal Temple (the main religious body of the land) may be false and the gods (Almalexia, Sotha Sil and Vivec) worshiped might be frauds that have usurped their original ancestors' positions (the Daedra). This flips the established lore of the land (if it was not already flipped for the people that did not read between the lines) and makes you ponder at the truth while showing off the fact that history was written by the winners (as it is in real life at times). One might wonder if the Ashlanders were completely right about their beliefs or the Tribunal have been accused of something they are innocent off (though their jail and sentences for religious dissenters may suggest otherwise) or like most things, it is somewhere in the middle. After you fulfil more and more quests, you wind up obtaining the ring of Moon and Star, the mark of the true reincarnation that only Nerevar or the Nerevarine may wear. Once again, one might be left pondering if there is actual validity to this prophecy, or was it circumstance or divine providence that allowed you to fulfill it? After fulfilling the rest of the prophecy (I have gone on too long and need to shorten this), you met one of the Tribunal, Vivec who gives you his personal account and a possible interpretation to the truth of the Tribunal's divinity and the claims of the dissident. After that, you defeat Dagoth Ur and finally fulfil the prophecies (or the initial duties of the prophecies). The Tribunal expansion expands a bit more on this while Bloodmoon simply provides a new sandbox with its own main quest to explore after the aforementioned two.

Immediately after the main quest, NPCs act differently to you. They greet you with reverence and respect, knowing you are the savior of the land and are in complete awe. This also took place in Oblivion but in Skyrim, only the guards will acknowledge you as a hero. The other NPCs do not even react to you. This was the main flaw to the main quest in Skyrim for me as your actions seem inconsequential to the land and its people. In Morrowind, defeating Dagoth Ur does affect the game as Sixth House NPCs are restored to normal (the ones in town) and the Blight storms are stopped for good (though ash storms will still persist.) In addition to this, the main quest has added complexity to it that could leave a player pondering the validity of being the Nerevarine and the truth to the history of the land (involving the War of the First Council). What helps (which I failed to mention in my long paragraph of the main quest) is the fact that books and documents along with dialogue by quest NPCs have provided more information that, while subjectively biased, has some degree of truth to them and added to the collected information that built my opinion on the subject. In my case, I wound up believing that there was some divine manipulation involved in my character becoming  and that the god, Vivec was mostly (and note the phrase mostly) truthful in his account of the truth. SPOILERS OVER These complex notions and actual NPC reaction have been lost in Skyrim and part have been lost in Oblivion though the latter did improve with an actual incoming threat by the game's antagonists. The main quest was good enough to keep me interested in following it whereas Skyrim lost me after a while. 

4) Soundtrack
Just going to bring this up seeing as the entire soundtrack is in my liked video playlist on Youtube. The music is well-suited for travelling and exploration with the main theme of Morrowind influencing future Elder Scroll games. I personally enjoy it and have used it as music for morning/evening walks (until the combat music rolls in, then it becomes a frantic jog from some imaginary figure of terror). One of my memorable experiences in real-life was walking the walls of York while listening to the Morrowind soundtrack which made the strenuous walk feel exotic and relaxing at times. 

Summary
Overall, I liked Morrowind for these main four aspects and more that my sleep-deprived mind may not be able to remember (I guess I forgot customisable enchantments and spell-crafting...). I do acknowledge that the game has flaws; the combat system, the dated graphics, the base game's assets (animations, bodies etc.), wall of text dialogue and various bugs. Yet, I still love this game and would gladly play it even when I have become old and weary (unless Elder Scrolls 6 blows me away which it may not). Skyrim fans may be able to experience Morrowind via the Skywind mod (that is not fully available at time of writing) but for me, I will return to a (modded) Morrowind where I can think up plausible ways for my character to be a member of two rival guilds.

P.S: I never completed the House Telvanni faction quests as my save with said Telvanni mage was corrupted. That dark-haired Dunmer maiden would be forever locked in a coma until I remake her again...