Weirding Indoril

[rot]

Mournhold is a pocket plane!
edit: seriously, there's only so much you can do differently on the ambience of Almalexia without an explanation. Mournhold is a very cosmopolitan business, with a good portion of Imperial-leaning dunmer, an Imperial Cult mission in the Royal palace...

How do you call someone who prays? A prayer? Anyway, some never stop: you now have skeletons kept animated by their faith; the Endless Prayers.
shame to pass up on the occasion to have undead in civilian settings, but maybe Almalexia isn't the best place for it...

[Gez]

The best place for undead in a civilian setting would quite obviously be Necrom. Possibly Tear, as they follow an old branch of the Temple that cares more about the ancestors than the Tribunal. (Alternatively, Port Telvannis, with undead slaves toiling away just to show how much the mage lords don't care about the Temple's ludicrous ban on necromancy.)

[Lud]

House Indoril and House Dres are the two Great Houses without holdings or interest in Vvardenfell. Indoril District occupies the heartland of Morrowind, comprising the lands south of the Inner Sea and the eastern coast. The city of Almalexia is located in Indoril District, and the Indoril are orthodox and conservative supporters of the Temple and Temple authority. House Indoril is openly hostile to Imperial culture and religion, and preserves many traditional Dunmer customs and practices in defiance of Imperial law. Dres District is in the south of Morrowind, bordering the swamps and marshes of Black Marsh. House Dres is an agrarian agricultural society, and its large saltrice plantations rely completely on slave labor for their economic viability. Always firm Temple supporters, House Dres is hostile to Imperial law and culture, and in particular opposed to any attempts to limit the institution of slavery.

Given that "imperial law" is only defined in-game as "don't start fights, don't steal, everything else's fair game", what traditional Dunmer customs and practices could be in defiance? The Empire already tolerates slavery (normally outlawed) and does not defend necromancy (normally tolerated, though by the time we got to see Cyrodiil the Mages Guild decided to ban it) in the province, so it's not related to slave-owning or killing necromancers.

Would this be a quest hook? What with Imperial Legion quests centered on stopping some Indorils from practicing Mysterious Tradition Unelaborated Upon #27; and in reverse you'd get Indoril quests centered on thwarting Imperial attempts at disrupting the performance of MTUU27?

Imperial law also prohibits the trading of skooma and moon sugar. What could be an interesting concept, if properly executed, is for the Indoril to make use of some sort of sacred drug in their practices of worship. This would be frowned upon by the Imperials, but there would be little that they could do about it.

"The nectar of the horn lily's tear is one of Mother Ayem's many gifts to her faithful people. Our blessed Illuminated Elders partake of this bounty when they need the guidance of Almsivi."

Additionally, something interesting could also be done with the control of inappropriate literature by the Indoril. In vanilla, we are told that some books are censored by the temple (eg: Progress of Truth), but this doesn't seem to impinge too much on finding such books. If anybody is going to take stamping out such heresy seriously, it would be the Indoril, and it would be interesting to see them searching for such contraband. It would be trivial to have them scripted to search the player at certain points too, with a night in the cells as the penalty after the first warning.
It would also fit with their social structure for them to combine this with almsgiving among the poor. The most pious would be best cared for, etc.

[Kaz]

Something I wondered about was whether "in defiance of Imperial law" might apply to punishment instead of what's considered a crime. It seems clear that the Empire *has* enforced Empire-standard punishments for at least things like theft or murder across the province (given how it works in the game and that it's the only way I can think of to explain why you'd get the same bounty for theft in Telvanni, Temple or Hlaalu territory). Maybe the consequences of being convicted of a crime used to be far different in Indoril lands? Whether that's capital punishment for theft, convicts being sold into slavery or something far - well - weirder.

[Yeti]

I think it would be best if we didn't overtly define the "traditional Dunmer customs and practices" that are "in defiance of Imperial law". Anything we come up will just end up being too bland and conventional due to the limits of what we can represent in-game. Best to leave a little mystery and enigma to what that line is referring to, imo.

[immortal_pigs]

Vows and oaths are more valuable than gold and are exchanged on a stock market.

Exile is far worse punishment than death. Exiles are ostracised and their existance is denied. When exiled any trace of your name, your creations, your titles and so on are erased. Being exiled on purpose is part of a quest.

There are lots of bans on various books. For a foreign book to be accepted, it is first thoroughly reviewed by the clerical caste gro-Dhal mentioned (educated altmeri and dunmeri slaves). Banned books are drowned as opposed to burnt. Ordinators may arrest for the possession of illicit literature.

Indoril cite legal/religious articles in common dialog.

[asking for directions]
You wish to find the ruins of Bthungdadung? Be wary, for Sermon Eight teaches that 'I have traveled out of my way to warn you of the deceit of our enemies, the Dwemer, but I have learned much on the journey and have changed my mind'.

[no gold to buy what you want]
In accordance with article 3:84, Book of Commerce, this transaction cannot be completed.

[alex25]

I really like having the Indoril cite various religious parables in their dialogue. What I don't really like is having a 'slave' caste as a powerful bureaucratic counterpart for the Ordinators (who are mainly comprised of highly respected members of house Indoril). Slaves are either n'wahs or criminals- people who have very little honor and who aren't going to be placed in charge of anything as sensitive as censoring books (the Order of Deed and Doctrine are probably the guys who decide what gets censored). Why would xenophobic Indoril place slaves (honorless people) in any position of trust? Also we don't want to overuse the slave thing- not everything dunmer has slave in it.