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The future of Bleakrock Isle

  • Member
    July 26, 2018

     

    Ah, Bleakrock Isle. The story that unfolds there during the very beginning of the Pact questline can tug at your heartstrings and not let go through the rest of it. If you have not yet played through the Pact questline, please note--spoilers ahead.

     

    THE CULTURAL QUANDRY

    For context, I've recently rolled a new character, a Nord Warden tank, so this is sort of at the front of my mind right now. To preface this, let me start by saying that I always make sure every missing villager is accounted for before evacuating the island at Captain Rana's command; honestly, I just never had the heart to leave anyone behind. I'm fairly sure there are no lasting effects if you tell Captain Rana to evacuate early.

     

    First and foremost, this quest for evacuating and fleeing Bleakrock just doesn't seem right to me; it doesn't feel like the Nord way. Nords are warriors, and if they die in battle they believe they'll join the honored dead in Sovngarde. Now, I know that not all Nords are warriors, but it just feels like you don't really see much of that at all on Bleakrock when it comes to this particular invasion. To run from the Covenant just feels a bit off to me. Where I see that conflict embodied the most is in Tillrani Snow-Bourne. She was a pretty memorable character for me because she's clearly conflicted about the best way forward, but she doesn't act on it. In those small interactions, she seems to exemplify those Nord warrior sensibilities. She's also a Nord solider for the Pact, and though her hands are sort of tied by Captain Rana as the Covenant ship approaches, she does her best to keep the villagers calm rather than rallying them to fight.

    To me, that tension and disagreement between the old guard and new, Nord and Dunmer, feels like a bit of a missed opportunity--that the story could have had two possible routes:

    1) Listen to Rana, gather all the citizens for evacuation in an attempt to save lives, flee the island and lose control to the Covenant; OR...

    2) Listen to Tillrani when she says there's a different protocol established, light the signal early and then find and rally soliders/civilians to launch an attack and try to defend Bleakrock.

     

    Admittedly, parsing those two options together to create a coherent outcome might have required some additional creative writing in terms of how you get to Bal Foyen, and honestly, it would probably have to turn out that Bleakrock would be lost either way. But I'd at least like to have the choice of just trying to fight for control rather than being chased out, and personally I think most players might find that more gratifying. I could also see how if you're playing through as a Dunmer, you might choose to follow Rana, but if you're playing as a Nord, encouraging people to leave their homeland when they could stay and fight might feel a bit off.

     

    A POSSIBLE SOLUTION

    Even after the events of Bleakrock, throughout the EP questline you encounter surviving Earth-Turners from Bleakrock. You're reminded fairly regularly of the what happened there, that their children were lost and that they've had to make due in this new reality of having lost their home. I mean they are farmers turned soldiers! In terms of the writing, I think it's a nice touch in weaving that story back in throughout, but it always made me feel a bit sad. So after the defeat of Sinmur, Jorunn sends you on your merry way... but what I would have loved to see (somehow) was an additional quest to fight the Covenant back at Bleakrock and establish Pact control over the island once again. Tactically speaking, its right on the Pact's doorstep, and I would think they would want to retake that area. I know that would sort of break with the established pattern a little, but hell, so does the way the quest ends in the Bleakrock Isle zone!

    Leaving it under Covenant rule just feels a bit unfinished to me and not like the Nord way. There are other quests in ESO where you have to defeat an enemy alliance and after that quest is completed, the townsfolk pick up the pieces and start to rebuild. Not so with Bleakrock. It's left abandoned and overrun with Covenant soldiers. That lovely little crafting center and banker are basically lost resources, and there's no real reason to ever go back. I hope one day we see a quest to restore Bleakrock, but I'm not counting on it. I mean who wouldn't love a little player abode along those icy shores?

    Practically speaking, I know it's an intro-zone and they want to keep you moving through the content, but overall it just feels off to me. On this new character I've found all the villagers, but honestly I'm dragging my feet a little on turning in this quest because I know once I light that signal fire, there's no going back for Bleakrock.

     

    What are your thoughts on how Bleakrock was handled? Do you think the story there sort of wraps up as it should? Or did you feel like you were left wanting more out of that area? 

  • Member
    July 27, 2018

    Sure the Nords value dying in battle, but they also aren't stupid. Bleakrock is full of farmers, blacksmiths, children, ect., at best there are some hunters, but none of them are really trained warriors. Where on the other hand the Covenant has sent a warship full of soldiers. The Nords of Bleakrock know they stand no chance and so choose to listen to Rana and flee, which if I remember correctly results in very few deaths. Aera Earth-Turner; the Nord I think your talking about who shows up in later quests, loses family not on Bleakrock but in Bal Foyen when we must chose which location to help protect.

  • Member
    July 27, 2018
    I remember meeting an npc in Eastmarch from Bleakrock who lost most if not all of her family members in the invasion. She was talking about how she had been depressed for a long time before deciding to become a soldier in the Pact in order to try and make sense of it all. I've never thought of leaving the island this way. I think it would've made sense to have a fight or flight option. Though I am pretty sure the outcome would've been the same. You'd see that you're fighting a losing battle. Some people would stay behind and distract the Covenant while you make your escape to the sea.
  • Member
    July 27, 2018

    Noodles said: I remember meeting an npc in Eastmarch from Bleakrock who lost most if not all of her family members in the invasion. She was talking about how she had been depressed for a long time before deciding to become a soldier in the Pact in order to try and make sense of it all. I've never thought of leaving the island this way.

    That would be Aera, and what members of her family she loses is based entirely on the choice you make in Bal Foyen. You run from a relatively minor invasion right into the middle of the main assualt, not the greatest planning.

     

  • July 27, 2018

    Bleackrock...hmm haven't ever thought about it. I actually did really enjoy the way that they weaved the events in with the general playthrough of the Pact Questline, it made it feel real when you were seeing the Earth-Turners through the first main area, made me feel like there was a bit of a connection between my character and them. I went through a lot of effort saving them and I thought they were really well maintained early on...Oh and the way you (at some point) have to sacrifice some of the family and save other members, I can't remember the exact situation but I know that some of them were fighting at the docks while...I guess others were in the city? Either way you have to sacrifice some f the family and that always kinda felt...real to me.

    But was I satisfied with it? Yeah I think I was. As Goldie and Noodles said I think that the reality of the situation was obvious that even the most knuckle-headed Nord would rather flee than fight a battle they couldn't win. If they were trained warriors? That'd obviously be different, but for a civillian, yeah it just makes sense. I think it would be interesting to work in the idea of a 'fight' scenario but I think the only logical conclusion would be to have everyone die... so yeah. 

  • July 27, 2018

    This is perhaps uncertain to tell you but I think you would like to know that Beyond Skyrim: Morrowind officially has set internally and externally the New North as their pre-release, in a similar vein to Bruma for Cyrodiil. The New North will contain Bleakrock and a few other islands to the obvious north of Morrowind and Vvardenfell. Taking cues from ESO it will answer almost all of these questions you have in the most lore-friendly way we can have possible. I too enjoyed Bleakrock (not as much as I enjoyed Khenarthi's Roost, my favourite place in Tamriel, personally) but I thought it was rather interesting. Regardless I would like to let those of you who are unaware know that quite a few of your questions will be answered by New North, when it releases. 

  • Member
    July 27, 2018

    aFjallvarg said:

    This is perhaps uncertain to tell you but I think you would like to know that Beyond Skyrim: Morrowind officially has set internally and externally the New North as their pre-release, in a similar vein to Bruma for Cyrodiil. The New North will contain Bleakrock and a few other islands to the obvious north of Morrowind and Vvardenfell. Taking cues from ESO it will answer almost all of these questions you have in the most lore-friendly way we can have possible. I too enjoyed Bleakrock (not as much as I enjoyed Khenarthi's Roost, my favourite place in Tamriel, personally) but I thought it was rather interesting. Regardless I would like to let those of you who are unaware know that quite a few of your questions will be answered by New North, when it releases. 

    Looking forward to it! I'm still questing in Bruma. You guys do terrific work! If I didn't know better, I'd have said that the mod was made by Bethesda. The voice acting is probably my favorite part, so much professionalism!

  • Member
    July 27, 2018

    Golden Fool said:

    Noodles said: I remember meeting an npc in Eastmarch from Bleakrock who lost most if not all of her family members in the invasion. She was talking about how she had been depressed for a long time before deciding to become a soldier in the Pact in order to try and make sense of it all. I've never thought of leaving the island this way.

    That would be Aera, and what members of her family she loses is based entirely on the choice you make in Bal Foyen. You run from a relatively minor invasion right into the middle of the main assualt, not the greatest planning.

     

    I'm probably going to revisit the pact story with my new Altmer Sorcerer...

  • Member
    July 27, 2018

    Bleakrock is a wonderful location, I'd love a little house there. Is it me or does it feel more like a Norse/Viking village than anywhere in Skyrim? Like, more true to real-world inspirations than we're used to seeing? So I agree about feeling hesitant to let it go to ruin by completeing the story there. I think my Warden actually went to Wrothgar rather than face that so soon. Or it could be that I wanted to go through the rest of the game without hearing, "do you have any idea how long I've been looking for you?" each time I step out of a wayshrine.

    What sort of bothers me is how we learn almost immediately that Captain Rana was assigned there after she made a bad mistake in her last command. This time she decides to send every soldier in the village out in a single boat to investigate, and that boat is presumably blown out the water by the invading forces leaving the town completely un-guarded. That's just really silly, but I can't say I have much more respect for Tillrani. I mean, she was replaced by Rana and remains a bit bitter by that. So she starts rabble-rousing - which is a completely understandable emotional reaction, and quite Nord-like to be fair.

    However, she's an experienced commander. At what point does she think division and undermining is a better strategy than unification? Yeah, Rana messed up big time, but shit, Tillrani risks making the situation worse, not better. Bad calls are made and mistakes happen, but even a hot-headed Nord should know the value of discipline over mutiny. And like, her last words are "tell Rana I forgive her." I get she wanted to take charge and bring order to the chaos, but I can't shake the feeling her motivations are more from her own pain than a desire to do what's best. If she truly wanted to help, roll with it. Respect the commanding officer and support her.

    At that point I become a bit confused, the emotional impact has walloped me, and I just feel sad that this whole mess even happened. So in terms of story, it has a strong element of futility, a message that sometimes bad stuff happens and not even a Hero can make it right. If anything, that sort of feeling is one of the strengths of the EP questline and its writing, almost Nordy in it's sense of fatalism - although one that leaves the player feeling a little unfulfilled at the end.

    I think it's also more apparent now than in the past, newer content feels a lot tighter in terms of resolution and narrative cohesion. That could be partly why I do gravitate towards the Aldmeri Dominion as, to me, it has the strongest and most consitent plot. Nothing to do with Ayrenn, honest! The base game already does a good job of providing moral dilemmas and in-character moments, but Orsinium set a new standard in terms of how the game handles making those choices seem to carry more weight.

    So I'd relish the opportunity to set things right in a Bleakrock revisit. I hold out hope that West Skyrim, empty on the world map, will one day get fleshed-out, and maybe then we'd meet some old friends from the little fishing village and get a bit of closure on it all. Something must have been done right, though, if this small starting area stays with us long after we say our final farewells to the Skald-King at Trollhetta.

  • July 27, 2018

    Ha, they should make a quest to retake the island. :D Song of the Return in miniature!