[i]This is the 27th of Last Seed, the year of Akatosh 433 and though few realize it, these are the closing days of the Third Era…

It all began on that one fateful day, a day that perhaps for you it was of no importance until the moment everything changed, or maybe it had been something you had done to become a catalyst. For most Imperials leading up to it, there was no difference between this day and the last, nor certainly the next for that matter. The only notable difference was the exhibition match between The Gray Prince and a visiting Companion from Skyrim. Thousands flooded the arena to behold their own champion facing off against one of the Nords of Skyrim and the tensions between Cyrodillic Nords and their brethren began to boil as the hours passed and each bout brought them closer to the feature match.

Neither was supposed to take the fight seriously, it was just supposed to be an exhibition of the strength of the Empire as a whole, but as blood was spilt and the crowd became more and more violent, all it took was a single brick thrown amongst the refuse. Both men withstood the debris as they knew it was surely a match to inflame the rivalries between provinces, but the plan had always been to clasp hands and proclaim the Empire as the true victor. And that was when a brick struck the Gray Prince and sent him to the sands, a bellowing roar of indignation from the collective crowd as for a moment when he stood it seemed as if the initial intent of non-lethal combat was off. Keen to keep the fight from getting out of hand, the Arena officials called it then and there, quickly ushering out the spectators and getting between the two combatants.

Of course as it was the Arena and even the slightest thing can get two men to fighting over their differences, a palpable tension was in the air as irritable citizens poured from the Arena stands and into the nearby bars to drink and eat away their anger. It was there in Daggerfall Dan's Bar and Grill that a group of people had gathered, unknowing of the fate they shared, you among them. Dozens packed in as the food came hot and fresh, the wait staff doing their best to ease the worries of the crowd but knowing it was a tinderbox just waiting for that first spark.

And it came with a single spilled drink, a roar of outrage, an Altmer of the mages guild flung out of the second story window and a bar brawl that would send a group of men and mer off to their fate…[/i][hr]

We stand now upon the precipice of one of the most decisive moments in the Elder Scrolls setting. A time when the Empire was at its height, when peace and prosperity was widespread and the people looked towards each day with a renewed purpose after centuries of instability. Yet there is a stirring in the background. The peace seems too idyllic, and while there is still the occasional civil war in High Rock or the dispute between Morrowind and anyone else, there is a feeling that a storm is approaching.

This is where our characters will come in to fulfill a role that was set for the player character in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Where we begin is in a jail cell after a rather rough and potentially injurious bar-brawl in the Arena District, waiting out the night until the Emperor Uriel Septim VII has need of using the secret escape tunnel in our cell. From there is where the RP will start and yes, we will be thrust directly into the plot of the game from the very beginning of this RP. Now, I'll go more in depth below but will cover it for but a moment here, but I would like to say clearly that while we will be following closely along the story beat of Oblivion, we are not going to be chained to it.

My goal for this RP is a little more than just the recreation of the game that brought the Elder Scrolls into the mainstream. While my love for Oblivion serves as the base for this RP, there will be various points where the party is intended to go off the path, perhaps even go against the main story in some ways, and we will of course have our moment where we realize that we may have fucked it. But more than that, there is the intention that this is not just the story of the Oblivion Crisis from the perspective of a bunch of random idiots tossed in a jail cell, this is in a way intended to be the origin story of our characters. While I'm not saying that the varied characters can't have their own highlights from before the bar brawl, and I'm not opposed to someone with actual skill having gotten caught up in this, there is an overarching character type that I am looking for here.

That is the idea of our characters being quite a bit out of our depth and the only real qualification for most having been in the wrong place at the wrong time. I mean sure, we will have a half-orc paladin in the way of one of my characters, a devout man of the nine and intended to provide a bit of moral and religious support for most… My man hasn't ever been to the planes of Oblivion. Very few in setting actually have, and for those unfamiliar with TES4, that is kind of the main focus. Our first foray into The Deadlands is meant to be a rather terrifying experience and the most traumatic thing to have likely happened to our merry band of idiots. We are dealing with what is essentially hell invading Tamriel and a host of daedra intending on murderburning everything and everyone in their path.

So yeah, that's the brief overview and what I hope is the expectations set for everyone. It's going to be a bit of a hectic romp through the Elder Scrolls setting, where things will start pretty metal and very likely end incredibly metal.

[h3]RP Guidelines[/h3]

Right, my least favorite part of the RP aside from writing up a CS. While I would like to say that people should conduct themselves to a reasonable standard, that I can assume that everyone knows what is and isn't acceptable… Well, I've been proven wrong on that so many times in some rather incredulous ways of late. So yeah, just some things I would expect of people looking to join the RP going forward. Will say though that these are really just guidelines, not really hard and fast rules. I consider myself to be pretty fair, flexible and reasonable with people, so like keep that in mind.

- First and foremost, I am asking you, my brother in christ, to not be a dickhead. It's really not that hard an ask, and it makes the entire RP more enjoyable for everyone if there isn't that one person being an ass just because they can. Your character can be a dick all day long and while the party will hate them, as long as *you* are not being a raging cocknobbler over it and understand that there are consequences to such things, I feel like everything will be gucci.
- Secondly, communication. Also not a difficult ask to be honest, if you have a question, if you're irritated about something, or for whatever reason there may be a need to communicate… Then do so lmao. There have been so many times in not just my own RPs but in others, where an issue has blown up way out of proportion because someone sat on something that irritated them for days to weeks and then got mad because nothing happened… Because they never communicated it and just expected it to be fixed. I've got my DMs open both here on the site and on discord. It takes like five seconds.
- This is a story, not a game. On the first point of this, I would like to impress upon anyone joining that the entire point of *most* roleplays is to build a collaborative story, not to compete against your fellow players. Player conflict is not discouraged, but it's also not the entire point. We're not in the arena or the NRP section.
- And to continue on the prior point, as a whole we're only using TES4 as a guide and not a rail. Game mechanics will probably not come up at all unless there's some kind of lore-based reason and I would prefer greatly if everyone understood that to begin with. That will mean that we're not limited by a sixteen year old game in terms of what we are able to do, such as the entire party won't be frozen in place when some weird dude crawls out of a wall. That also means that there will be cases where the actual world will be expanded upon greatly. The province of Cyrodiil is mentioned to be the most populous province in Tamriel and the Imperial City home to millions.
- Absolute knowledge is not required. I'm not really looking for the most esteemed of loremasters of the Elder Scrolls to be honest, I kind of expect most people to have middling at best knowledge of things. I mean, let's be real, Morrowind is a *wild ride* from start to finish. The lore for the setting can start kind of basic in places and get so bizarre that you really start to question if Pelinal was some kind of cyborg sent from the future to murder elves. So yeah, if you know your stuff cool. If not, also cool. Oblivion was the game that brought a lot of people into the setting after all, so it would be kind of shitty to deny people based on that.
- The discord is not required, but it does make communication significantly easier. Like seriously, I'm usually on my phone when I'm not at the PC and so can usually respond fairly quickly to any questions or concerns brought up in the discord. Not only that, several of the confirmed players have an understanding of how I work already so it's not that hard to have an idea on how something will go.
- I'm going to forget things or things will happen, so this isn't exactly final. So do bear that in mind.

[h3]Character Creation Guidelines[/h3]

So with all that hopefully understood, there's some things I do want to touch on before slamming down the CS and giving my final words. Following are just a few things that I want everyone to keep in mind when building a character for the RP in addition to the footnotes in the CS template.

- To reiterate, this is a story not a game. This comes in the way of not only would I rather not set up stat sheets and have to keep track of them, but I would greatly prefer it if characters weren't made as if competing against others. We're all building a story here and there will be moments where certain characters fall short and others shine. Flaws make for more immersive and interesting characters after all.
- *On that note*. With some very minor exceptions, the party is really not intended to be a high level party. We're not rolling with arena champions, the chosen of daedric princes or Vivec's bestie. To be completely honest, in a way the party is kind of a bunch of losers and some people who were really just in the wrong place at the wrong time. That's kind of intended to be the theme of things, in that while some are capable in their own ways, we are so far out of our depth on this.
- Though I did say that knowledge of the lore wasn't necessary, do try to keep within the confines as much as possible. There is a rich history of strife between most of the provinces and several thousand years of daedra trying to fuck with things. A worshiper of Mehrunes Dagon would quite obviously be right out, but a devotee of Azura could potentially be alright. Just the same, there are reasons why certain groups don't get along. Just kind of understand that when making your character.
- If there are any questions on your character, *ask*. Like honestly, I'm pretty flexible and if you've got an interesting idea I'm more likely to be cool with it if it is brought up to me first before just yeeting out a thousand year old Maormer veteran of the Legion. On that note though… Please try not to get *that* wild with your character ideas. I like weird and sometimes nonstandard things, and I'm willing to defend outlandish ideas but only to a point.

[hider=The Character Sheet]
- Basic Information
Name:
Age: (Your character's age, appropriate to their race. Mer typically live two to three times longer than an average Human, and the Beastfolk generally line up with Human lifespans. )
Race: (Choose from one of the standard ten races. Nord, Imperial, Redguard, Breton, Bosmer, Altmer, Dunmer, Orsimer, Khajiit, or Argonian. Anything beyond this should be cleared first.)
Appearance: (A written description is preferred, but a picture can be found acceptable. )
Personality:

- Abilities (From basic survival skills to what kind of magical talent your character has, this section will give more of a direct view on what the character is capable of in any given scenario.)
Skills: (Be reasonable here. The UESP can be a good reference as well as the actual games in terms of baseline skills, but it's not something required or expected. Anything not listed here or in the magic section will be assumed as unskilled or baseline. Alchemy would be listed here as opposed to in the magic section.)
Magic: (Again, use reason and the understanding that this isn't meant to be a one to one with the game. Someone with very little experience shouldn't have a large repertoire of spells, if any at all. On the other hand, someone who has spent their life in the Mages Guild should likely know more spells than they know what to do with. For magic focused characters please denote schools of magic and their proficiency in such, in addition to spells of note. For everyone else who may have some magical ability, note which ones they have on hand. Also again, you do not have to use actual in game spells. This does include enchanting.)

- Equipment (Depending on their physical ability your character can only carry a certain amount of gear on their person. This includes bags, pouches, sacks and other containers. Heavy armor is heavy, and light armor is light. Take that into account when equipping your character. Arrows additionally have weight and are not infinite. This category is intended to stand on its own and is broken down into three sections, the latter two of which are optional. )
Personal Items: (These are items and clothing that your character has on their physical person, what they were wearing when they were put into the cell. Do keep in mind that this may be a very limited list, and would not include any weapons that could be discovered via a simple pat down.)
The Lock Box: (As may be assumed, this section is intended to list out what the guards confiscated from your character before placing them in the cell with the rest of the party. This is where things like weapons and such would go, anything that the guards wouldn't want in a cell full of assumed drunks and rabble-rousers.)
Stored Items: (What isn't on your character physically or confiscated by the guard. This is pretty much for anything of importance that may be found at your character's residence, whether that be an actual home in the Imperial City, a room at the inn, or an heirloom somewhere else entirely.)

Background: (Short history of your character to give an idea as to their past, and how it shaped them as a person.)[/hider]

All that out of the way I do hope that regardless of the interested parties we can all fit in the same jail cell and have a good time of things. I'm not really going to be implementing a limit on characters out of the gate, or a post requirement, only that people be aware of each other while going forward. That aside, I'm looking at starting everything in three weeks from this post or when everyone is ready to go, depending on how I'm doing at the time. Understand I can kind of write slow at times, so we're not exactly going to be fast paced and hit a thousand by the end of the year lmao. So, that said I hope to see everyone in the discord and hear what ideas are floating about.

[url=https://discord.gg/3BY69KmjAN]Shadow of Oblivion Discord[/url]