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Interesting role-playing concept: The Warrior Saint
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Author:  Locutus [ Tue Jul 16, 2013 4:42 pm ]
Post subject:  Interesting role-playing concept: The Warrior Saint
I've often thought it more than mere coincidence that the player's new character is accompanied by Saint Jiub on the ship to Morrowind. Suppose you started the game with the assumption that your character and Jiub are "comarades in arms," so to speak, or linked by purpose in some significant way. This idea led me to do some research on the concept of "warrior saint." Surprisingly enough, there is a quite a bit of information about this very topic on the web. Here's an example from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_saint

I found other interesting historical references like an actual Imperial Cult (Roman Empire) and an actual Roman emperor named Septimius! It seems that Bethesda drew upon quite a few historical references in creating the lore for the Elder Scrolls universe.

So I thought I'd present this to the forum as a discussion topic. If the concept of a Warrior Saint appeals to you as a role-playing idea, how would you play the role? What would your character's back story be? What attributes/class would you build into your character in the character generation process? What would you name him or her? Would the use of magic fit the role, or would your character consider that an evil/occult practice to be avoided? Would your character continue as a Warrior (ala: Crusades, Jihad), or would he undergo a conversion and disavow arms as a result of his conversion? What would the conversion look like (for example: abandon the "pagan" Imperial Cult, and adopt--what, exactly?)

So many possibilities....
I look forward to reading all your ideas on this topic.
Author:  Demiverse [ Wed Jul 17, 2013 3:49 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Interesting role-playing concept: The Warrior Saint
I wouldn't say Bethesda "drew upon" historical references. I'd say they completely assimilated real historical cultures, almost to the point of plagiarism, without making even the slightest effort to disguise it. This is most glaringly evident in the case of the Imperials.

As for the roleplaying idea; why not roleplay Jiub himself?
Author:  caralampio [ Sun Jul 21, 2013 12:00 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Interesting role-playing concept: The Warrior Saint
Author:  Demiverse [ Sun Jul 21, 2013 4:09 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Interesting role-playing concept: The Warrior Saint
I'd say the Redguards are actually closer to Arabs than Africans. They appear to have been based on ancient Persians or Turks.

We know for a fact that the Ashlanders were modeled after Assyria/Mesopotamia. Ashlander names were taken directly from the Assyrian/Akkadian language. As for the House Dunmer, it's a bit more ambiguous. We know that they're essentially "cultured" Ashlanders, but it's hard to say if they're based on an historical culture independent from that of Mesopotamia. I don't know if anyone has been able to draw parallels between a real language and the language of Dunmeris, either.
Author:  Glyre [ Tue Jul 23, 2013 12:56 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Interesting role-playing concept: The Warrior Saint
Why do TES cultures need to be based on anything?

Ashlanders may have Assyrian names, but unless there is a direct quote from a developer we certainly do not "know for a fact that the Ashlanders were modeled after Assyria/Mesoptamia." They also live in yurts and are led by khans—why, then, do we not know for a fact that they are based on the Mongols?

Sorry if this sounds needlessly confrontational, but I have never been a fan of attempting to find the real-world inspiration behind the races of TES. Sure, the Imperials have quite a few similarities with the Romans, but they also have a lot of unique lore (PGE stuff, for instance). The brilliance of the TES races, especially the Dunmer (simply because we know comparatively more about them than a lot of the other more exotic races), is that they are almost wholly unique and free from large-scale real-world parallels. It's true that we can find similarities to real-world cultures in that of the Dunmer, but nothing that obviously points to any one culture. The Dunmer culture is the Dunmer culture. This is why people are so fascinated by it, because it's so authentic and unknown. Because it's not just "fantasy Mesopotamia" or "fantasy China," etc. Such constructs will inevitably pale in comparison to their real-world bases and prove to be far less captivating.

I'd also like to point out that Turks and Persians are not Arabs :wink:
Author:  Kerr [ Tue Jul 23, 2013 2:01 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Interesting role-playing concept: The Warrior Saint
You're already a saint in Morrowind. Patron saint of warriors (and statesmen) too.
Author:  Br3admax [ Tue Jul 23, 2013 2:20 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Interesting role-playing concept: The Warrior Saint
How do you plagiarize history? It belongs to all of us.
Author:  Demiverse [ Tue Jul 23, 2013 7:17 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Interesting role-playing concept: The Warrior Saint
Author:  caralampio [ Tue Aug 27, 2013 2:07 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Interesting role-playing concept: The Warrior Saint
No wonder they made Jiub a saint. He exterminated the cliff racers! I hate those things. Not particularly hard to kill just annoying like hell.

Oh and I think I've figured the (admittedly loosely) inspiring race for the Argonians: American Indians.
Author:  Secret Magic User [ Mon Jan 20, 2014 5:29 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Interesting role-playing concept: The Warrior Saint
Surprisingly enough, I think my main Character already falls under this notion of Warrior Saint.



Skills are:
MAJOR - Medium Armor, Long Blade, Athletics, Unarmored, Blunt Weapon
MINOR - Restoration, Mysticism, Destruction, Speechcraft, Illusion
Author:  Demiverse [ Sun Jan 26, 2014 2:49 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Interesting role-playing concept: The Warrior Saint
@Secret Magic User
That's almost the exact same build and character arc as my War Priest.
Author:  Secret Magic User [ Sun Jan 26, 2014 4:06 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Interesting role-playing concept: The Warrior Saint
@Demiverse
Clearly, we know how to roll great classes and stories.
Author:  Demiverse [ Sun Jan 26, 2014 11:50 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Interesting role-playing concept: The Warrior Saint
I'm all about dat character development. Here's .
Author:  OblivionDuruza [ Wed Feb 05, 2014 6:25 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Interesting role-playing concept: The Warrior Saint
Personally, I'm equally fond of applying the concept of the Warrior-Priest to the Dunmer's Tribunal Temple and the Great House Indoril.

Just as the Imperial Cult provides you with the opportunity to take on a more classical Crusader or Paladin styled role, the Temple and the associated lore factions provide the scope and rationale that could drive a hunt for abominations (such as Vampires), the pursuit of heretics and other profaners of the Temple faith, and the service of the common people of Vvardenfell through the completion of a variety of miscellaneous chores and other services.

With that in mind, you can do a lot with the concept, integrating a range of different combat styles and different magics, covering the pure and altruistic to the zealous and dogmatic, and everything in-between.

Edit: The Chrome spell-checker and Shakespeare would not get along :roll:
Author:  Demiverse [ Mon Feb 10, 2014 1:30 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Interesting role-playing concept: The Warrior Saint
I much prefer the fanatical end of the spectrum myself. If you're going to be a religious freak, you might as well pull out all the stops. Plus I find it excessively difficult to practice altruism in vidya games.
Author:  OblivionDuruza [ Sat Feb 22, 2014 7:14 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Interesting role-playing concept: The Warrior Saint
It's for that reason that adding both the elements of roleplaying for realism (sleeping, dealing with injury, in-character knowledge, etc.) and roleplaying 'altruism' an add a not insignificant amount of challenge to a game like Morrowind.

Not stealing, or even taking items that aren't explicitly your own, is a good way to avoid acquiring too much wealth too early on in the game, and often times the self-sacrifice involved in altruistic activities (while inadvisable in the real world) can impose handicaps and other disadvantages that will make things more difficult for your character.

It all goes to making the roleplaying experience more engaging, and often more interesting and enjoyable.
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