#TES: Blades

[shandars-sorrow]

It. Just. WORKS.

[videogame-ocs]

So I downloaded Blades on my new Nintendo switch and this is my character, her name’s Lysandra.

She’s in her mid 20s and is the mother of my Dragonborn, Sofie who is two years old at the time of Blades and was raised mostly by her father and so only has very little memory of her mother (more on her in the future).

[babyblueetbaemonster]

"HA HA HA HA HA! I'M LITERATELY AIMING MY FINGERS!!!"

"This kid is going places..."

[elderscrollsconceptart]

Caius Cosades

Art for The Elder Scrolls: Legends

*Artist Unknown* if anyone knows the artist, comment below!

[spooky-donut-ghost-house]

"The child of a mixed race couple will always be the race of the mother-"

N O

[jack-the-killler]

ITS JUST BETTER AND THE SCARS HIT DIFFERENT.

[igorlevchenko-blog]

Oblivion: Portrait of Baurus, the Blade.

So many good armour design ideas buried underneath this ungainly painting. For one, the golden boss on his chest is actually a clasp—cords and straps can be laced through its mouth, eyes and nostrils. Intended to depict the face of a Tsaesci, it rather looks like a pug, because Imperial don't know what Tsaesci look like exactly.

Digital painting. Made in Krita. Feel free to repost, reupload etc.

[skyrim-forever]

rip Blades Questline, imagine what you could of been

[wolfofwhiterun]

Delphine

Another personal favourite character, Delphine has always fascinated me as both a more grounded and blunt parallel to the Greybeards mentor role in the Skyrim narrative, as well as her past as a war survivor and her life leading up to the events of The Dragon Crisis, and what she might have had to go through to survive until now. I tried my best to reflect that in this design, taking big inspiration from the wonderful interpretations created by @dawns-beauty and @jiubilant! This would have been my last entry for Day 8 of @tes-summer-fest but alas, the file got corrupted right near the finish line and I had to start this piece from scratch unfortunately. Either way, super pleased with this second draft, expect more Delphine content in the near future, plus a piece I'm currently writing involving her and everyone's favourite Whiterun Housecarl :D Oh and if you want this scary old lady to hang up in your room, she'll be up on my Inprnt page very shortly.

[feykrorovaan]

You would think with the amount of time I've invested into Skyrim, that I would know my way around the Ratway,but I,in fact, do not.

[shandars-sorrow]

On my Blades bullshit again. FINALLY gathered enough gold from the free Sunday gold chests to build another town building, upgrade all of my gear and be able to progress in the main quest.

I still have two more buildings left to build in my town. Plus all of my jobs right now are only one skull difficulty so maybe I can actually complete them without dying? Worth a shot.

[moodcrab]

Fixing Delphine

This bitch.

I actually like that they made a character that is on your side but is somewhat unlikable, Delphine is Team Dragonborn, but she's not really one of the good guys. And that's cool, conflict means drama. So what's the problem? Well unfortunately, this drama is surface level and isn't used to drive the story, so It's kind of just annoying.

People oversimplify their hatred of Delphine into "She wants you to kill Paarthurnax," because unlike Delphine, people actually like Paarthurnax. Understandable, but barely scratches the surface. We'll get to The Paarthurnax Dilemma in time, but that quest is a symptom, not the illness itself.

If I could sum up Delphine in a word it would be "inconsistent." For example, she's a fugitive waging a one woman war on the Thalmor from the shadows, who's only survived this long from sheer paranoia - but she also uses her real name and leaves a note in Ustengrav for whoever happens to pick it up with directions and a pass word to her secret hide out.

She needs to go through her super secret contact Farengar to use the Jarl's resources to go into Bleak Falls Barrow, a tutorial level dungeon she can see from her house, and she's impressed that you did it - but she also goes personally to the other side of the country to delve alone into the massive Ustengrav to steal the Horn of Jurgan Windcaller, no issues, just a quick in and out twenty minute adventure.

She takes the fact that you found her Ustengrav note as proof you're the Greybeard's new guy and not some Thalmor plant even though she herself, a non Dragonborn, had also completed Ustengrav and taken the horn proving it's totally possible. She even points this out in her own dialogue then demands we prove who we are, even though that was the whole point of the Ustengrav note. It's also a pretty big assumption that just because I'm the guy the Greybeards call Dragonborn that I can't ALSO be with the Thalmor.

We are left with this awkward sense that the writers are flailing to make us think this woman is competent and objective, without actually having her do anything that clever. Just act like the dumb thing was smart and have her act like a cocky brat if questioned about it.

Inconsistency. It's her thing. Does she hate the Thalmor? That would make sense given what we know about her. But that gets dropped half way through the main story and suddenly she hates The Greybeards, for absolutely no reason at all. She gives a reason, but it's bullshit.

In her own words, "If the greybeards had their way, the dragonborn would sit on a mountain talking to the sky." But that's not true is it. We know The Greybeards, they encouraged us to fulfill our destiny. Even if you say you want to follow their Way of the Voice, they'll be glad to hear it but warn you not to let it get in the way of what needs to be done. Delphine even uses Tiber Septim as an example, which is even stupider because The Greybeards actively encouraged Tiber to conquer Tamriel. Have I read more in game books than the dialogue writers??

But that's not the end of it, when it becomes convenient for the plot this hatred is flipped once again from The Greybeards onto dragons. Not Alduin. All dragons. Despite the fact that, as a Blade, she should know about Nafaalilargus, a dragon ally of the Empire and the Blades for thousands of years, and the Blades don't just indiscriminately kill all dragons no matter the circumstances, and that Tiber Septim himself almost certainly met Paarthurnax at some point, she suddenly seems to be acting like she has a personal grudge against dragons. Which brings us to the Paarthurnax Dilemma...

See here's the thing, you could easily write off the frustration everyone feels towards this quest as Bethesda's crappy design, where there is no conclusion other than to kill Paarthurnax, or else leave an unfinished quest languishing in the menu. Bethesda apparently didn't consider the idea that anybody would actually prefer to turn on the Blades, even though the Blades have become a bit of a running joke among the fans, or that anyone would take umbrage with Delphine giving out orders and ultimatums.

But no, it's so much worse than that. Delphine being a surly unlikable c u n t from the day we met her is one thing, but the fact that she has been wrong about almost everything she's ever said in game, and still having the AUDACITY to treat us like her work bitch and us never, not once, getting the opportunity to put her in her place... That's not poor quest design, that's the game gaslighting us.

Let's do a quick list of every one of Delphine's theories, and how many were actually correct shall we:

You are not the Dragonborn ❌

The Greybeards shouldn't be trusted to identify a Dragonborn ❌

The dragons aren't just coming back, they're coming back to life ✅

The Thalmor have something to do with the dragons returning ❌

Esbern is dead ❌

The Greybeards just want the Dragonborn to sit on a mountain and meditate ❌

The Greybeards wanted Tiber Septim to just sit on a mountain and meditate ❌

Paarthurnax, having lived in exile for thousands of years, deserves corporal punishment ❌

As ACTING Grand Master of the Blades, she gets to boss around the Dragonborn ❌

She deserves a seat at the peace negotiations ❌

And these are just the things that are factually wrong, leaving aside opinions on her morality and shitty attitude. This is the woman the game presents to us as a shrewd strategist.

BUT I CAN FIX HER!

Like I said I like the idea of a character who is on your side but is somewhat unlikable. It actually won't take much to make Delphine endearing to the fans. We have to do a Boromir on her. A Lot of people dislike Boromir throughout the Fellowship of the Ring but weep at his death. We have to tweak three things to have the same thing happen to Delphine:

1. Make her actually competent and useful so that while we don't agree with her we can see why she does the things she does, and desire to keep her around.

2. Have her mistakes called out and have consequences.

3. Have her redeem her mistakes with a badass honourable death.

[babyblueetbaemonster]

Another day another slay

[elderscrollsconceptart]

"Alduins Wall"

Full Resolution render of Alduin's wall as seen in the trailer and promotional materials.

Credit for the render is unclear, but the design is directly based on a piece by Adam Adamowicz

This is the highest resolution image of the wall that I have ever seen. Even with Tumblr's compression, seriously, zoom in and check out the details.

[spooky-donut-ghost-house]

So y'all know all those theories about M'aiq being a god or a shezzarine or perhaps the various M'aiq's we meet in the games are different people all within the same bloodline

Well I decided to throw my hat into the ring and give my take on M'aiq

To put it simply who or what is M'aiq The Liar?

He's M'aiq

Now that may sound odd like ofc he's M'aiq that's his name or so he says but that's not what I mean

For those of you who might be familiar with LOTR specifically the books not the films you may be familiar with a character named Tom Bombadil who's honestly the most mysterious creature in Tolkien's lore given how he has many numerous unexplainable powers such as not being tempted or affected by The One Ring and being able to hide Frodo from the nazguls while in Tom's presence

This is basically how I see M'aiq he's a being that nobody knows exactly what he is he's just simply is

He's not a god, he's not a shezzarine, he's not a different person in each game, he's M'aiq there's only one M'aiq and that's him

He's the most powerful being in The Elder Scrolls universe and he spends his days trapezing about Tamriel telling lies to anyone he comes across