Hearthfire is just too good. I remember being level 8, just starting out my adventure as a nobody. Then it happened. I hit level 9. The tier of true legends. Before hearthfire, there was no recognition for my level 9 godhood. But then the DLC came out and the Jarl of Falkreath finally understood true power. Most rewarding feeling ever.
To be honest though, I think Dawnguard is my favorite. Crossbows, elder scrolls, cool perk trees for vampires and werewolves, and I just really liked the story more than Dragonborn. Dragonborn seemed so final, but Dawnguard feels more open to being done at any time at your leisure.
I'm very confused at the fact that Dawnguard is anywhere close to Shivering Isles...Ya'll obviously need to be play more Oblivion because as an expansion, it alone makes Oblivion the best Elder Scrolls game, without it...well I'd say it's in my top 6 somewhere
Shivering Isles is my vote, it's the perfect combination of adding more content, expanding the Lore, being awesome, giving us more of Sheo's wacky, wacky behaviors (and perfecting it damn it) and being a hilarious and quite thought-provoking story.
Honestly, Dragonborn is high up there, but it's more Morrowind Nolstaglia, and the thing about Morrowind is that you can play it by itself just fine (though...to be fair, kicking Almalexia's ass is just way too much fun, ooh and everything about Bloodmoon). Oblivion is kind of mediocre and I believe Shivering Isles is what puts it over the edge as a good game.
I didn't know you were so into Knights of the Nine! I loved that DLC so much. It inspired me to write an Oblivion fanfiction way too many years ago with Ender's Game-esque heroic conflict and moral dilemmas. The horror of finding that you had been laid to rest with all of the other dead crusaders was really compelling to me.
I loved The Shivering Isles. It was a glorious little Twilight Zone episode that granted you some nifty powers and a very epic sort of ending for the Hero of Kvatch.
I actually bought a copy of Morrowind and its DLCs, but the game has not aged gracefully or well, and I'm having a bear of a time making myself slog through it to see the content.
Don't get me started on KotN, I could very well bore you to death with my enthusiasm and tales of just how much it made me love TES Suffice it to say that nowadays anything containing a knightly theme or the names Alessia, Morihaus or Pelinal inspire an almost fanatical excitement in me.
So your description of your story has now inspired an almost ridiculous level of need to read it
Oh don't get me wrong, I love Oblivion, but honestly I think it's one of those games that because it's so easy to mod even on my shitty Laptop, I've conditioned myself to only enjoy it modded.
Also, never mention Oblivion near Karver and me, I still owe him an Oblivion Build
I love Oblivion (which is the only TES game I could get running at 30 fps, modded!) more than Skyrim. The only problem is that I had to force myself to break one of my golden rules of role-playing: Fast travel. Somehow travelling across Cyrodiil on horse-back feels... dull.
Ugh... I need to get back to Oblivion.