The False Saint - A Quest Idea

[Joe Venice]

I have started this thread with the hope of fostering interest in a minor quest I have been musing over for about 3 months now. It is based principally on the document outline I compiled currently titled "Confessions of a Blasphemous Prophet," it is currently located in the Lit. Development forum of this site. For those who have/will not read it, I will provide a short (yeah, right) synopsis;

The personage now referred to as "Saint Jiub" was a falsity perpetuated by the remnants of the Tribunal and Helseth. He was raised as an orphan in Morrowind and gravitated towards a life of crime and hardship. He was arrested as a highwayman in Cyrodil and imprisoned in the Imperial City. Due to the events surrounding his birth and parentage, he (along with several other prisoners) fulfilled the requirements to become the reincarnation of Nerevar. Most of these potential Nerevarines died during the journey to Vvardenfell, but those two left included Jiub and the Morrowind PC. Lore states that the PC was chosen to fulfill the prophesy so Jiub was sold into slavery. During his servitude he was found to have a knack for killing cliff racers. The Temple (with the backing of Helseth) freed the slave and labeled him a prophet. Under the firm control of his handlers, Jiub was used to restore the peoples faith after the events of the Morrowind main quest. With the invasion from Oblivion, it was decided that Jiub would better serve as a temple martyr and he was sacraficed in the retaking of Ald'ruhn. He was then canonized as the newest Almsivi Saint.

Essentially I linked his short appearance in the tutorial of Morrowind with the Easter egg in Oblivion. It is somewhat convulted but it works I suppose. I am trying not to be presumptious with this, I know that there are other more important elements to your mod that need to be hammered out before work can begin on the smaller parts. I was hoping to get my ideas down early, however, so that some of those small elements would mesh with my ideas (yes, I'm self-ish.) Feel free to give suggestions or point out any parts that conflict with those ideas you have already established.

Given a flyer on the streets of Ebonheart, the PC is directed to talk with the official head of "The Imperial Scholarly Board's" Morrowind branch. After making it to the back corner of a warehouse (or some other out of the way place) the PC finds a Breton named Wallace Brim surrounded by piles of papers and books.

Brim is surprised to find someone answering his job listing and is more than willing to quickly put them to work, his resources are stretched painfully thin, he swears the Imperial Guard Guild is purposefully ignoring him.

?With all the trouble in Cyrodiil, I would have expected the grant money to dry up; but last month another stipend arrives from the Imperial City. I knew it was my duty to perceiver-- at least until they realize their error.?

Brim's main job is to catalogue the social history of Vvardenfell, and he tasks the PC with obtaining accounts of several temple saints. The initial quests have them "fedexing" pertinent documents on several saints back to Brim. While scanning through the compiled reports, Brim notices that there are several conflicting elements in the life and activities of St. Jiub.

"Curiouser and curiouser. We must delve deeper, much deeper. I want you to give this your full attention; I will provide you with all the resources I have at my disposal.?
(PC: ?Curiouser??)
?It?s probably nothing. Or it may mean something, which is...something.?


(I will post the rest later, the server would not allow me to include the rest of my outline. I suppose I should be a little less "wordy." Thanks for reading what I have so far.)

[Arbiter]

Hmm....... this reminds me of Jiub. Possible sub-plot?

[Joe Venice]

Originally posted by Arbiter
Hmm....... this reminds me of Jiub. Possible sub-plot?

It is Jiub.

I apologize for not getting back to this sooner, its been a pretty crazy week and I haven't had a lot of time to work on my writtings (possible lesson on cooks stirring to many pots and what have you.) I'll edit this post ASAP to include as much of the outline as I have remaining. Hope it will spur some interest/discussion.

[KuKulzA]

actually... I think it is a good way to begin the real MQ...
there is the Great House war, a small MQ or a big questline.. but afterwards, people will examine their causes and religions and their situations... and the Temple and the secret Dagoths... and I think a beginning to the Temple side could be recovering artifacts of Jiub... a very recent saint hrug:

[Saint Twidus]

Artifacts? Like what? His pants, the Imperial Prison Ship? St. Jiub's Cliff Racerskin Boots?

[KuKulzA]

like Jiub's lock-pick, Jiub's Racer-bane hatchet, Jiub's garments, Jiub's Tribunal medallion, etc. hrug:

[Joe Venice]

Continued (Sorry I can't answer any of your questions right now, I just got out of work and am headed to a party. Need to drink away the shame of my beloved spartans losing...to UM...for a fifth time...God *bleep*
:wasted:Later.)

The next quests are the meat of the story, they catapult the PC through a web of conspiracy and deception. These include the raiding of Jiub's burial tomb (which he does not currently occupy), a journey to the High Fane, and the recovery of Jiub's armor from the plane of Oblivion.

Jiub's ebony armor, given to him before he undertook the crusade for Ald'ruhn, is found in Oblivion but without the mer inside it. The PC can take it into his possesion, but it would not be suggested he wear it (it is enchanted with numerous spells of dubious effect) Brim wonders if the temple purposefully gave Jiub such armor in order to ensure his death.

The PC hears rumors of a prisoner (Mo?Kafii) being removed from the High Fane. He has been accused of insanity and preaching heretical doctrines. The rumor is accompanied by a pamphlet listing his beliefs and qualms; one is relevant to Jiub (stating only ?The Saint Jiub??) Each temple official will turn the PC away upon requesting an interview, stating he has been undergoing treatment and is now fine. After completing a favor for one ambitious inquisitors, the PC is given access to the High Fane to meet with the prisoner.

Just before reaching the prison cells, the PC encounters an old khajiit being led by a pair of Ordinators. A brief questioning filled with muddled, nervous responses leads the Khajiit to whisper, ?Beware my friend, these rocks have many eyes and ears...and mouths.?
(PC: "Mouths?')
?Yes! Yes! But rocks, they say nothing. Like teeth that clamp down on the words before they can be heard...but behind the teeth the seeker may find a tongue; and it speaks volumes.?
(PC: "What tongue? What are you talking about?")
"Search behind the teeth."

Conversation ends and he looks to one of the Ordinators, ?Let us hurry, Mo?Kafii wish to feel the sun and see his prayers answered. But if it rests on the horizon, will Mo?Kafii know whether to give thanks to the Dawn or the Dusk??

The player enters the now vacant cell. One stone in the wall seems loose and if activated will yield the prompt, ?Your eyes do not deceive you, this one is weaker than the rest.? By pulling on the rock (the same as picking up clutter) the rock falls away revealing the confessions.

Brim becomes highly excited after reading the confessions and after the PC repeats what Mo'Kafii told them. He seems curious about the reference to "the Dawn and Dusk" by both the confessions and the Khajiit. Brim tells the PC to investigate the Daedra Azura leading the PC to her shrine in the southeast of Vvardenfell. A sidequest gives the PC an audience with the prince but she will not reveal anything about Jiub until the PC completes a dangerous quest for her (my thought is the extermination of some threat in the Cavern of the Incarnate but it can be anything as long as it requires a high level.)

Upon completion, the Daedra informs the PC that it would be wise to leave her followers alone and that Saint Jiub is dead (...but what about plain, old Jiub?) She "does not care to be troubled with the final, desperate gasps of a cult built on the corpses of False Gods." She then removes the negative enchantments from the ebony armor and bids the PC to leavel.

Returning to Brim, the PC discovers he has been threatened by Ordinators* and has filed for an immediate transfer out of Morrowind. He says that he no longer cares about the mysteries of the Dunmer.

?They can carry their damned secrets with them to the grave; I certainly don?t want to. But...?
(PC: But what?)
?But I wonder?... Make your way to Khuul and ponder this on the way, ?What would Jiub have been in another lifetime???

In Khuul the PC would come across a one-eyed fisherman who, when shown the confessions, admits to his identity. He recounts his harrowing escape from Ald'ruhn after closing the gates and the kindness shown to him by the Azura worshipers, though the goddess does not recieve his devotion.

He still feels no remorse for his actions but is at peace in his new life. He willingly gives the PC the armor (?What does a simple fisherman need with such implements of strife? Besides, I never felt comfortable with them anyway...I would rather have a sharp knife and the darkness....?) and asks that the PC not tell people what became of him.

This is all I have right now, hopefully I be able to get more ideas down soon. Thanks for your time, I realize that is a lot to read.

?Here lies a toppled god. His fall was not a small one. We did but build his pedestal; a narrow and a tall one?

*(I realize that there are already plans to include the Ordinators as a joinable faction and I do not wish for this quest to conflict with that. I would suggest that these Ordinators be a small subfaction that helped install Jiub as a saint and are afraid of being found out. The Temple as a whole may believe that Jiub is legitimate.)

[Saint Twidus]

I like it, not that that matters. Full ebony? It's a darn good reward, too. The Temple could afford to let it go, it wouldn't be a drop in the bucket, compared with all their wealth. But they might have had the armour and saw a good oppritunuty to kill two birds with one stone.
I think that they should have given him something like fur armour, or iron or something, and told him that it was ancient enchanted armour worn by Vivec at Red Mountain, that way definately slaughter him. But the ebony armour could be enchanted to drain heavy armour 100 or something like burden, lol. I still think that he should ask you if you would rather have the cliff-racer armour he has, in case you're a light armour (or perhaps medium armour) person. But that'd take away valuable time that could be used on something constructive.
I like Mo'Kafii's dialogue very much. What's that at he bottom:

?Here lies a toppled god. His fall was not a small one. We did but build his pedestal; a narrow and a tall one?

Is that a referance to Vivec? If the Temple said this about Jiub, or Mo'Kafii said, 'They said of him, ?Here lies a toppled god. His fall was not a small one. We did but build his pedestal; a narrow and a tall one?.'
Except Jiub isn't a god. I don't see how a reference to Vivec would relate to anything, unless that poem got Mo'Kafii in jail to start off, but that's blasphemey, not insanity. Ha, I way over-analyzed that!

I like it all-in-all.

[Joe Venice]

KuKulzA: I'd be honored if part of my quest idea was used to kick off the main quest, however I believe it would need heavy editing in order to align with your plans. What are your ideas?

Saint Twidus: I chose ebony because it is highly revered by the temple, therefore perfect for a false saint. I was thinking along the same enchantments as you, anything that confers weakness on the player.

I think that they should have given him something like fur armour, or iron or something, and told him that it was ancient enchanted armour worn by Vivec at Red Mountain, that way definately slaughter him.

You must realize that they are not trying to trick Jiub, in his confessions he is told directly that he is being martyred. The special armor is more for the benefit of those who do not realize he is simply a conman. I hadn't even thought about a seperate reward for those who wouldn't use a heavy armor, good suggestion (worst case, they could always sell it for booze money)

In terms of what I have outlined, does anyone have any opinions? I tried to use elements already supported in game but I suppose there may be issues with finding voice actors (ex, how to deal with Azura? Instead of trying to match voices, possibly have her speak through a disciple?) I am unsure how much my quest would contridict official and MOD lore (at least so much as was already exploited in the "Confessions" story.)

[raggidman]

:bananarock: St Jiub and Joe Venice! Great Story, keep it coming!