Morrowind talk:Epony Trade

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Epony vs. Ebony[edit]

This page should really be renamed "Epony Trade" instead of just having a redirect, because that is the name of the quest. It's "epony" instead of "ebony" because the guy's name is Canctunian Ponius. I'd do it myself, but I have no idea how.— Unsigned comment by 69.14.250.191 (talk) at 09:46 on 7 October 2007‎

Edit: I figured it out. :)— Unsigned comment by 69.14.250.191 (talk) at 09:49 on 7 October 2007‎
Edit, someone else: It's not "the name of the quest", it's the name of the script. The QUEST shows up in the Journal as "House Glali: Ebony Trade". With a b. Not a p. The only name players see for the quest is "Ebony", not "Epony"... seems like the page title should reflect the in-game name, not the script name.— Unsigned comment by 75.164.199.133 (talk) at 04:33 on 6 September 2012‎
I agree with the one above, the name of the quest is House Hlaalu: Ebony Quest. Not Epony. It's not even a word. And all sources indicate that the script name may be misspelled. We should change it. — Unsigned comment by Hlaalu66 (talkcontribs) at 12:18 on 10 August 2013
The name of the quest in the base game is Epony Trade. This is a misspelling, yes, but we do not correct misspellings from the game. A third party mod, say the Morrowind Code Patch, may have corrected the name of the quest in your version of the game, but we do not use the third-party mod corrections as a basis to change existing information on the wiki. Jeancey (talk) 19:30, 10 August 2013 (GMT)
Sorry to rekindle an old debate, but the "notes" part of this page that mentions the name of the quest really ought to be changed to better reflect the conversation above. Currently, it states that the name is "correct" and "believed to be a combination of 'ebony' and 'Ponius,'" but that seems to me to be unsubstantiated speculation. All we really know is that the vanilla game reflects that spelling for the quest name, and that it may or may not be a typo. So I'm not sure anyone is at liberty to call it "correct," and in any case, the conversation above is a more interesting bit of trivia than what's currently on the page (especially since it brings to light the fact that a correction was made by MCP, which apparently many aren't aware of). Thalass (talk) 19:39, 12 August 2015 (UTC)

A few notes just so people aren't misinformed: The quest is named "Epony Trade" in the game files, and this is what is visible to the player in the journal (technically it's only named in the Tribunal expansion; quests do not have names in the base game). There are no scripts associated with this quest. The Morrowind Code Patch makes no changes whatsoever to this quest. Since the UESP aims to provide accurate information, "Epony" in the page name is obviously correct.

However, the current revision of the page states the name "is believed to be" intentional. As for consensus on this, there are three comments on this talk page which state it is intentional wordplay on Canctunian Ponius's name, one which says it could be intentional, and one states that opinion is that it's intentional. On the other hand, there have been at least 26 attempts by editors to change the spelling to "Ebony". I think that shows where opinion actually lies on this issue.

As such, I've edited the note to remove the statement that it's "believed to be a combination of" two words, and simply stated that the name reflects how it appears to the player when in-game. 147.147.216.84 15:10, 28 February 2020 (GMT)

For the curious...[edit]

Number of times links to this page have been incorrectly "corrected" to say "Ebony":

Page Times
Hlaalu Quests 13
Sudanit Mine 2
Reputation 2
Nileno Dorvayn 4
Canctunian Ponius 1
Quests in Ebonheart 4
Total 26

It really seems like more than that, maybe I'm missing something somewhere, but that's all I could find. --TheRealLurlock Talk 15:40, 28 January 2009 (EST)


Well, if you want to lessen it, perhaps (if allowed) put quotes around Epony. I know I wanted to "fix" it, but quotes would make me understand it is intentional. Though I understand maybe not everyone thinks that way. Merely a suggestion. 173.52.92.163 15:36, 29 March 2010 (UTC)

Try using a sic tag. 76.232.79.64 23:40, 30 September 2011 (UTC)

I just updated the counts out of curiosity. The Hlaalu Quests page at least is now protected from non-registered editors given how crazy that was getting, so it shouldn't get any higher unless registered editors start doing it. But the other pages also saw an increase since the last count. In total, we nearly tripled the number in 3 years. Yay for Bethesda's bad wordplay joke causing unnecessary work... --TheRealLurlock Talk 01:58, 3 June 2012 (UTC)

Prerequisite Quest[edit]

After taking the quest to escort Tarvyn Faren and talking to him, I opened up the "ebony trade" discussion topic before properly getting the quest. Then, I was able to convince Canctunian to trade with House Hlaalu and also get my 1,000 reward from Nileno. If I first talked to Nileno, the "ebony trade" topic doesn't show up.

I finished the Ralen Hlaalo murder quest, but not the next Orphan of Arnesia quest, so I think there are more prerequisites to this quest. Talking to Nileno about "business" before convincing Canctunian only leads to Orphan of Arnesia discussion.

I'm not sure exactly which quest is the direct prerequisite for this quest yet since I didn't finish the Orphan quest. Also, I'm not sure if one can kill the mine head and also get the bonus reward since I haven't gotten to the mine yet.

71.194.76.252 15:48, 23 September 2009 (UTC)

Low level players[edit]

Should a note be added advising low level players that the guy in the mines Darns Tedalen is hard to kill be added? 67.172.84.166 05:42, 9 January 2011 (UTC)

No. Low level characters should already be trying diplomacy, if they are given a choice. --Brf 14:49, 9 January 2011 (UTC)
that's not true, he's not that hard to kill. My char had him killed at level 4 or 5. Summoned skeleton minion to distract and dai-katana, 50 in long blade, 50 in light armor, set of db armor and generic steel dai-katana with minor frost damage. Also he will run back and forth if you're on the ledge, so you'll have plenty of time to cast restoration spell or boost your stats with potion. If you have a bow, he become and easy target :P Oxyk 02:28, 10 January 2012 (UTC)

Moved note.[edit]

  • The name of this quest may look like a typo, but it's actually a pun on Canctunian Ponius's last name.

I moved this note to have the opinions of the other editors. I just don't see how it is a pun on his last name. Do any of you ? JackTurbo95 09:15, 28 April 2011 (UTC)

I can see how it could be a pun, Ebony and Eponius. But I think that the main purpose of the note was to prevent more of the many edits of mostly anons changing the name to The Ebony Trade. They are quite annoying. Of course it is possible that it was truly misspelled in the Construction Set, but this is as much speculation as calling it a pun. --DKong27 Talk Cont 13:09, 28 April 2011 (UTC)
It's not really a pun, just some rather weak wordplay. I don't think the note is worth keeping though - people keep changing the damn name even though it's there. rpeh •TCE 13:44, 28 April 2011 (UTC)
Well just put the spelling thing which I have no idea how to do. You know the one what tells people that it is like and intentional mistake. JackTurbo95 13:48, 28 April 2011 (UTC)
How about adding [sic] to the title. Should do it, or am I off?212.187.68.69 18:28, 31 December 2011 (UTC)
No. You would not want to put [sic] in the middle of the page name. The page name is its internet address, and is used to look it up. Besides that, [sic] is used to point out a misspelling, and the opinion is that this name is not really misspelled. --Brf 03:13, 1 January 2012 (UTC)