User:Yunvich/Roleplaying Ideas

Knights of the Nine exclusives

(Lifestyles-type Roleplaying)

The mighty Divine Crusader

The Nine shall give me strength!

Race:I whould say Imperial and Hight Elf are the best for this one, as they both are considered full of pride.

Attributes: Endurance and Strength: you are a warrior, not a great thinker.

Specialization: Combat: same reason as above.

Skills: Blade, Blunt, Heavy Armor, Athletics, Block, Armorer, the basics skills every Knight should know, and maybe Speechcraft, so you can make yourself loved.

Weapon and Armor Only wear the sacred relics.

You have saved the world from Umaril, so why should you not be proud about it? You are not a humble priest, you are a great knight, and you are pretty much repeating the errors of the old Order. You always wear the relics, they are a simbol of your greatness, and think quite hight of yourself, being choosen by the Nine Divines as their Crusader. Always wander around with one of your knights to show people that the Order stands united and strong, and it shold be respected as such. Remember though: you might be full of pride and honor, you are not evil, you might threthen those who insult you or the Order, you shall never hit, or worse kill, them.

The Nine's Servant, the prior of the Nine.

May the Nine watch over us all.

Race: Any race is good, but Humans whould be the more traditional choise and Mer might put a bit of irony into it.

Attributes: Strength, Intelligence. You are a knight, but you are also a wise man.

Specialization: Combat or Magic, but most of your skills should still be knight-like.

Skills:Blade, Blunt, Heavy Armor, Athletics, Block, if you want to have a martial background, Alchemy and Restoration as you are always willing to help a wounded man. A couple of Calm or Charm spells might be useful to maintain the peace in Cyrodiil.

Weapon and Armor Fight with the sacred relics, but remember to fight the enemies of the Nine, not your own. For the rest of the time you might wear monk robes, white ones look good with the red blason of the Knights, or a black robe, like Prior Malborel.

You have taken down Umaril, who was an enemy of the Nine and was thretening their power, and now live a peaceful life at the Priory of the Nine. Respected by the other Knights as the Divine Crusader, the people of Tamriel know not your face, only that of the sacred Helm of the Crusader. You do not strive for your glory, but that of the Nine. When you meat a person in a town, they think about you as a monk devoted to the Nine, and not as the Champion of Faith. Your only true desire is too see suffering and pain chased from this world. Always available to help the needy, fill the pocket of a beggar with a smile on your face. While performing your heroic feats, always wear the relics: it is the Nine and their Order who must be glorified for them, not a single individual. While you do not have ways to aid your cause with more direct manners, remain at the Priory, helping the Knights train and smiling when they narrate your feats.

Real World's Inhabitants

(Lifestyles-type Roleplaying)

A few lifestyles taken from our world and inserted into Tamriel.

Western Life Your average middle age Europe.

High and Mid Class Life

High Middle Ages Noble.

I will participate in the crusades and fight for my god!

Race: For realism, men (or maybe even mer) are the most suitable. Orcs, Cats or Lizard-people were not really appreciated at the time. Redguards will be spoken off later, not good for this kind of warrior. Women are not unacceptable, but except Joan of Arc, you don't hear about many women who went to war in that time, do you? Also Dunmer might not be preferable.

Attributes: Endurance and either Strength or Personality.

Specialization: Combat: In the High Middle Ages, ignorance was the watchword, and almost every noble had learned how to wield a blade.

Skills: Blade, Blunt, Heavy Armor, Athletics, Block. A Noble wont be a squire with a shortsword and a chainmail as his only defense, he would probably be a Knight, proudly showing his arms on his shield and a religious symbol on his cuirass. Marksman might also work, weapon training might have been poor on your average soldier, a Noble will have coin and physique required to get a full training, sometimes it will even be imposed by his father. Also Armorer would not work with the kind of character we are trying to role-play: if I have a smith to do my dirty work, why should I do it? No magic skill will go either: you don't want to end up being burned alive. Of course you could say it is a miracle, and you are a Saint, but that's up to you.

Weapon and Armor The Relics of the Crusader are the most realistic middle age armor in the game, but Legion armor and Steel can go all right too. If you don't want to become the Holy Crusader (which would actually suit this role-play idea just fine, as god was the only war that united the land at the time), Legion armor may be better than Steel, which is pretty flashy and overly decorated.

Battlehorn Castle would make it simpler to role-play, but people who play on the PS3 (like me) can still do it. First of all, choose what kind of noble are you: maybe you are the son of a count, fighting to keep high your name. If you are the first son of a count, Chorrol might be a nice place: helping your lonely mother administrate the county and being the general in the times of war is not a bad story. If you complete Sins of Father quest, you can receive a nice shield with your family's emblem on it. Otherwise you could be a cadet son, and go to war to make your fortune as a Knight. You may be the second son of count Leyawiin, and he helps you in your road to fame by creating an order of Knights for you and giving you a safe shelter. You might even have fought off the Daedra/Eritics and saved your elder brother, the future count Cheydinhal or he might have fallen in battle leaving you the throne of the County. To put some spice he also might have "sadly died" in battle, with his friend strangely disappearing too. Remember: Whatever you choose to fight for, Middle Ages people were highly religious, so pray often. They were also pretty racist, so you might kill a few Redguards/Sarrasins for good measure. Duels also where quite famous at the time, and while you cannot use horses to fight, you can use a spell to make your opponent attack, oops, let's call it "challenge" your opponent, so you can slaughter each other in pure Medieval style.

High Middle Ages Noble Women.

Men fight for god, and for me.

Race: As above, men (except Redguards) and mer are perfect for it. Of course female.

Attributes: Personality and Luck.

Specialization: There is no specialisation perfect for this one but I would say stealth for the speechcraft and mercantile bonuses.

Skills: Speechcraft, Mercantile, Sneak: the life of a High Middle Age noble woman (young and unmarried) was mostly waiting for your father to choose a husband for you. Maybe a bit of Blade so you can use a dagger in the worst case, and some Alchemy not for brewing potions (you still don't want to be burned alive) but you have to know your wines and picking up flowers might seem more exiting that sitting next to your important parents. Nothing stops you from taking up arms, well except your family, your being a woman, your love for your pampered life, still, nothing you cant just step on: your father may hate you, if you become a Paladin of God he might think better of you.

Weapon and Armor Unless you really want to play knight girl (if you do just check the character just above), you will be probably wearing High Class clothes and jewelry, with maybe a dagger hidden in your inventory/corset.

Pampered and loved since the moment you were born, you don't know much hard work or fatigue, and your chances in life have always been either marriage or a life in a monastery. You can play the character in five main ways. You could just stay with your parents, the Counts of whichever city you choose, play a rich life, with little to no care about the populace, or you could get married to a Count (or probably a Count's son), move to his city and live there a happy life, being well loved (or hated) by the townspeople. You can refuse the life your father laid out for you, and go seclude yourself in a monastery, Gottlesfont Priory is perfect for this. You can of course take over as the new Countess but that would require you to first make the selected father (or mother) inessential, and kill him. Last is the less realistic, military figure. I flagged it as the less possible, but, who knows, you might become famous as one of the strongest and wisest women in the realm.

Ecclesiastic Career

The mass has ended, go in peace.

Race: as all of these Middle Age characters: Men and Mer, no Redguard or Orc or Khajiit or Argonian. Call it racism, you are right, not my fault, but that was the situation.

Attributes: Personality, Intelligence, Willpower.

Specialization: You could go with all three actually. Stealth could help you with your silver tongue, Magic could make you a living saint, or perhaps a skilled healer. Combat is not so obvious, but you could enter the order of Talos. Let's not forget that some ecclesiastics have been military geniuses too, like cardinal Richelieu, you could be a high ranked priest and thus the church may have placed you as a Count to better control the Empire.

Skills: Speechcraft and maybe some Illusion spells like calm and charm as basics, and then it all depends on you. Do you want to be a skilled healer, knowing Alchemy and Restoration or perhaps a Saint, doing miracles like Alteration's Water Walking, or perhaps you might take the unique martial Ecclesiastic kind of life, knowing Blade, Heavy Armor.

Weapon and Armor All depends on your rank in the church: you might want to wear a Black Robe if you are a priest, a monk's robe if you are but a devout follower of the divine(s) or even dress up in an elegant red robe and become a powerful Cardinal. To follow the Warrior Cardinal idea, you could wear a red robe with under it heavy armor (steel or ebony, pretty elegant, but surely not Daedric or orcish, which have nothing to do with priesthood and finesse) and a sword at your side.

You have decided to devout yourself, mind and body to Faith. You might be just a poor man, stroke by the wish to help people, and you are now rewarded with a shelter over your head and a (not very) hot meal in front of you. You live simply, with no wish to fight, and want to seclude yourself from that corrupt world. You could have been a bourgeois, or a noble with no wish to go up in the ranks of the overly treacherous thing that is the Middle Ages church. You live in a chapel, say the mass there, and from time to time share your knowledge with the less fortunate. You also have entered the church with a clear intent: gaining power. Wherever you pass with your red cardinal's robe, people say: "That is a powerful man, that is a man of god". You could be satisfied with the power given you by the church, or you could wish to become an essential man to the Empire, by serving it as a general of its armies, thus becoming not only respected as one who says the words of the Divine(s) but also a one without who the Empire would have crumbled. You might one day discover you are not like the others, showing special powers. Rather than being feared as a witch or an enchanter, you are venerated as a Saint, one to whom the Divines allowed to show light in the darkened eyes of the inhabitants of Tamriel.

Renaissance Noble

I know a nice little place where we can continue this conversation quietly, bring a second and your sword, if you please.

Race: here we go again, Men and Mer, no Redguards.

Attributes:Personality, Intelligence or Strength.

Specialization: Combat or Stealth.

Skills: Speechcraft, Blade, Athletics, maybe Heavy Armor and Illusion, respectively to become a military figure and to challenge your opponents (use command to bring them to a secluded place, and frenzy to throw the challenge). Acrobatics doesn't hurt.

Weapon and Armor Wear High class clothes, and depending on you character, you could also have a sword (steel, ebony or silver) at your side.

You where born in a time where looks and intelligence are considered much more that in the past. You are elegant and consider honor above all. The time where the nobles had great lands and warred at each other is passed, and now most nobles have small lands or estates, like Cropsford or Aleswell. You of course have a great many houses in the realm, perhaps even an old castle. Who knows, you might just have chosen to rest on your laurels and live the life that your ancestors have earned for you. Or you could have been born in a family where the service of the realm i highly considered, and your father sent you to be part of the army. Any way, you consider your honor to be very important, and should someone insult you in any way, it is quickly done: you invite him in a secluded place and ask him to draw, so you can settle it with a fight. Duels are not like in the High Middle Ages any more, and you don't charge your enemy with you armor on while riding a horse. You just wear a normal dress, elegant or not, and have just a sword and your skill to defend yourself.

Squire or Soldier

Guess risking my life in a battle is better that dying here from plague or a bandit attack.

Race: Men and Mer.

Attributes: Endurance and either Strength or Speed

Specialization: Combat.

Skills: Blade and/or Blunt, Light Armor, Athletics, Block, Marksman.

Weapon and Armor Chainmail armor, maybe a cuirass on it if you want to play Squire. A sword or a mace if you are a soldier and both if you are a squire.

You could be a low ranked noble, and while you could not have Knighthood as a boon or as part of your heirloom, you choose to be a Squire, serving a great Knight in the hopes of doing great deeds at his side, and perhaps gaining a high position in society yourself. You are trained in managing weapons, and you can serve well your master. You could also become a Soldier, preferring to put your life at stake and have a little coin rather than putting a hoe on your shoulder and eating what the landlord does not take as taxes. The pay is not fantastic, but the people recognise you as on who fights for their city, something that you have never felt before. Who knows? You might even show your skill and rank up in the army! Or you could end up dead... For both of these roles, the best "army" is the Fighter's Guild, but you may also become Sir Mazooga's Squire, making you the intermediary between Mazooga and the count. That is a bit unrealistic, considered this is supposed to be about real life, and the Knight is an Orc, but many backgrounds (a curse or something of the sort) can be put to it.

Eastern Life All that goes from the Holy Land to distant Japan.

High and Mid Class Life

Saracen Warrior

Infidel, you shall not win this sacred war!

Race: as the opposing faction to the High Middle Ages Noble, only Redguards allowed here. Female warriors, here too, are not recommended, but some female sarrasin warriors have been noticed in poems.

Attributes:Endurance and Strength

Specialization: Combat, we are speaking of warriors.

Skills: Blade, Athletics, Heavy Armor/Light Armor, Block, Marksman and maybe Armorer.

Weapon and Armor A cutlass seems the best weapon, even if it is not at all a perfect Sarrasin blade. Daedric shortsword also looks a bit like a scimitar. As an armor, here too, there is nothing that really suits it, with chainmail and orcish getting close to it. Probably there is a mod for PC, but i do not know it. The Skingrad guard armor also looks nice as the moon on it might remember the moon so widely known as the symbol of Muslim faith.

You are one of the proud and strong Sarrasin Warriors, fighting against the crusaders for the possession of the Holy Land, which both faction want as a symbol of their religion. You hate the church and its servants, direct or indirect may they be. You often fight against the members of the Legion, who have made war to your country. What are your goals in the enemy's capital? Do you seek, alone, to weaken it from inside? Did you desert the army, and now turn to the rival for safe harbor? Or are you a spy, sent from your chiefs to survey the situation?

Samurai

Should I die, i will die with honor!

Race: Altmer have the more Japanese look, maybe they are too tall, and Bosmer can go too. A very Japanese hair cut it the high knot wich, cut short, can look a bit like the samurai hair cut. Thinning and gathered hair might go too for an older Samurai, and hair and eyes should be dark, unless you want an old Samurai with grey hair.

Attributes: Strength, Personality.

Specialization: Combat, the Samurai where the nobility among warriors.

Skills: Blade, Athletics, Heavy Armor/Light Armor (you must choose, as there is no true Japanese armor in game), Block, Speechcraft. A bit of Illusion might make sense, if you want to have a high ranked Samurai, you might want some lesser rank ones to follow you. Marksman is okay too, as bows were used by Samurai, among other weapon.

Weapon and Armor Akaviri Katana/Daikatana seems like the most obvious choice, along with the two Daedric artifact katanas, Ebony Blade and Goldbrand. Venerating Daedric Princes is the closest thing to Shinto that Oblivion can offer, even if the Samurai had a more Buddhist or Confucian view on things. You can also carry an Elven Shortsword and use it as a shōtō, representing the longsword and shortsword pair used by Samurai. As per armor, there is really nothing that can relate with Japanese armor. Blade armor has something that says Orient, and male Glass armor might look a bit like it.

You are a Samurai, a warrior above all others. The Bushidō is your way of life. You can either be a warrior at the service of a Feudal Lord, or one serving a land unified under the control of the Shōgun, the military dictator, the head of the state. Or you could have come into Cyrodiil in this difficult time to transform the Empire in a Shōgunate, with yourself as its leader. The Samurai have almost always been considered as martial nobles, often as a caste. They have always respected the Way of the Warrior, so becoming a thief is not exactly coherent with this kind of character. Honor bound the into doing performing Seppuku a ritualistic suicide by disembowelment should they shame themselves or to prevent them from being killed in battle. This was often done while wearing white robes, and it could be good for roleplaying to use a cursed item to kill yourself if you have earned infamy or if you have dishonored yourself (maybe failing to rescue the Knights of the Thorn?). If you decide to start a blood feud to imitate the Sengoku jidai in Japan, you might want to render the guards your chosen "enemy city" frenzy before killing them, so you will not get a bounty or infamy.

Rōnin

My master is gone, i am now ashamed, but I will not surrender.

Race: As all Japanese characters I recommend Altmer, with loose haircut being accepted too for this one: a Rōnin has lost his master and no longer submits to the Bushidō, and while some of the most famous ones like Musashi still kept the typical Samurai-cut, nothing stops you from giving your Rōnin a more tattered look.

Attributes:Strength, Endurance or Speed.

Specialization: Combat: you are, after all, a dishonored Samurai.

Skills: Blade, Athletics, Block. Perhaps one of the armor skills, even if Rōnin are sometimes depicted not wearing armor at all. Marksman as bows where the basic "low cost" weaponry.Speechcraft and Mercantile as the Rōnin often where mercenaries.

Weapon and Armor The Rōnin did not always have the coin to purchase armor, and where sometimes forced to use a wooden staff to fight, but they generally had the typical two swords of the Samurai.

You once where a Samurai, but your master died or chased you, and refusing to commit Seppuku for this shame, you continued on living, serving mostly as a mercenary, a bodyguard, or even a bandit. You serve where you can, sometimes even regaining your position as a samurai in the army of a feudal lord in need of soldiers. Much like a mercenary, you take any job that is proposed to you, from helping an army to assassinating a man. You might have a moral code ore not, you could aspire to become something greater or you could be content with your situation, this is a pretty neutral character. One thing for sure, unless you find a stable master, you'll be travelling a lot.

Ninja

Why must one lie siege to a castle, while i can burn it from inside with ease?

Race: here too, Japanese-Altmer. Here hair cut in not a problem, as you rarely even see a shinobi's face.

Attributes:Agility, Speed.

Specialization: Stealth: the Ninja was a spy, an assassin.

Skills:Blade, Marksman, Acrobatics, Athletics,Alchemy and Destruction can be used to make poisons or, in the second skill, to act like it you had poisoned your target by draining his health or fatigue, or that you had thrown a bomb at him (a fire spell). Sneak and Security are a must have. Illusion and Alteration might make your character less realistic, they still are useful.

Weapon and Armor Even if some paintings and popular culture think of them as dressed in black with shady hoods, it is only half true: surely, to hide in the shadows a the typical tight, dark dress might be useful, but Ninja mostly just disguised as normal people, with the most famous disguises being priests, fortune tellers, monk, Rōnin or minstrels. The Shrouded armor might come useful i you really care about the shady assassin part of it, but Ninja should serve a Lord, not be mercenaries, so don't keep on with the DB quests.

You are a shinobi, a spy, an assassin, a saboteur. You can serve your lord in many ways. Not the traditional warrior, you can eliminate enemies in other ways. If your lord's enemy is planning an attack, it you who will know first. You can be seen but not noticed, if that is, you are seen at all. You can appear like a beautiful maiden or a sick beggar, but never will one be able to guess who you really are.

Folklore, deities, fairy tales Now, let's look into our world's fantastic part: even if we want to make things realistic, we can't waste the Fantasy part of this game, can we?