History VideoGame / TheElderScrollsIVOblivion

* DeadpanSnarker: The Prophet from Knights of The Nine, believe it or not.
--> '''Player''': Yes, I am the hero of Kvatch.
--> '''Prophet''': Well then, "Hail, Hero of Kvatch!" Let me add one more voice to the neverending chorus of praise. I'm sure one of your many devotees will able to guide you on your way to find the Crusader's Relics.
** This lovely dialogue option sadly does not appear due to a bug (but there are bugfix mods for the PC, thank goodness):
--->'''Player:''' Yes, I am the Arena Grand Champion.
--->'''Prophet:''' Oh my, the Grand Champion of all of Cyrodiil! By Azura indeed! Surely there can be no better preparation for becoming a holy knight than [[YouBastard a career spent slaughtering for the public's entertainment]].

** The Prophet in ''Knights of the Nine''.
** The Stranger in Anvil.
*** Justified due to the fact that [[spoiler:he's the Gray Fox and the curse of the cowl he wears strikes the wearer's identity from history]]. In fact [[spoiler:he even tells you his name a few times but thanks to the curse you still only know him as a stranger]].

* GodWasMyCopilot: It's strongly implied in ''Knights of the Nine'' that [[spoiler:the Prophet is, in fact, Tiber Septim (Talos). He even looks like Uriel and Martin Septim.]]

* SecretTestOfCharacter: During the Knights of the Nine quest chain, you have to talk to the Prophet. He fills you in on some evil that's plaguing the lands, and then talks about recovering some relics. He asks if you're worthy enough to find them, but if you say anything other than "no/not ready", he [[ButThouMust mocks you and says that you don't need his help in finding them since you're already such an awesome hero]]. However, if you say you're not ready, he tells you that a humble heart is the first step and allows you to continue the quest chain.

* SoapboxSquare: The "Knights of the Nine" expansion adds a [[MagicalHomelessPerson mysterious Prophet]] who spends his days in the gardens of Anvil, preaching about the return of Umaril the Unfeathered to anyone who'll listen.

* CosmicRetcon[=/=]HandWave[=/=]AWizardDidIt: A rare InUniverse one. Behold the kingdom of the Red King [[ChaosArchitecture once jungled!]] Apparently, a god (or the White-Gold Tower, or the Emperor, or the Emperor using the White-Gold Tower, because canon and lore are confusing) decided that Cyrodiil should be a deciduous forest rather than a rainforest like in previous installments of the series.

** The Adoring Fan is absolutely crazy for the Hero of Kvatch. At night, given his crazy zeal for the Hero of Kvatch, he may be [[StalkerWithACrush holding a torch for them]] in more ways than one.

* GameGourmet: Downplayed. Food items (both real and fantastical) are present in the game and can be eaten directly for mild effects (mostly Restore Stamina). They are treated as standard [[AlchemyIsMagic alchemical ingredients]] and can be used to make potions with various effects.

* BadassBaritone:
** Any badass character with the deep, melodious voice of Wes Johnson.
** Uriel Septim also qualifies, being voiced by Creator/PatrickStewart, whose warm baritone is very memorable.

* TeamPet: The Dark Brotherhood Cheydinhal sanctuary has Schemer the rat, the blue team at the Arena has Porkchop the boar, The Anvil branch of the Fighter's Guild has a dog called Mojo, and Anvil's Mage Guild has an imp/Scamp called Sparky.

* UndergroundLevel: Lots of them.

* SpaceCompression: The explorable area is 16 square miles (41.4 square kilometers), larger than the precedessor ''VideoGame/{{Morrowind}}'' but still orders of magnitude smaller than what the province's size is claimed to be in background material. City Isle, which is about the size of Great Britain on the world map, is scarcely large enough to contain the Imperial City, which is as big as a large parking lot. With the visibility set to maximum and fog options turned off, a player can still see the Imperial City's central tower when climbing mountains near the border. The level of vertical exaggeration applied to said mountains is fairly incredible, too; the road from the Imperial City up to Bruma is almost all at a 30 degree (or more) slope. Despite the map being larger, the level of compression is actually greater than in ''Morrowind'' - Vvardenfell represented a bit less than half of a mid-size province, while Cyrodiil represents almost all of the largest by far province.

* StupidStatementDanceMix: Here's a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR7B5YCvBus Glarthir]] one. There's one with the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_2Jduxc2P8 Imperial Guards.]]

** The Staff of Everscamp quest, "Whom Gods Annoy", is a LiteraryAllusionTitle to the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS3E14WhomGodsDestroy Whom Gods Destroy]]".

* SticksToTheBack: Averted completely with bladed weapons (daggers, shortswords, and longswords), although instead it becomes "sticks to the ''side''", since the scabbard sticks to the character's hip with nothing visibly holding it in place. The same goes with maces and axes. Played completely straight, however, with two handed weapons, bows, and arrow quivers.

* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: The climax of ''Shivering Isles'' pits you against [[spoiler:Jyggalag, the Daedric Prince of Order]].

** The [[ReligionOfEvil Mythic]] [[{{Cult}} Dawn]]. Killing the Emperor, worshipping [[GodOfEvil Mehrunes]] [[OmnicidalManiac Dagon]], and plotting to [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt summon him]] isn't a good indicator for... well, good.

** Countess Alessia Caro despises the beast races. Her speech towards you if you play a Khajiit or Argonian barely even tries to disguise this. [[spoiler:She also has a secret TortureCellar made specifically for Argonians]]. [[VideogameCrueltyPotential Which makes it so]] [[KickTheSonOfABitch much fun to kill her]] [[AssholeVictim over and over again.]][[labelnote:elaborate]]Unless you've finished all the quests she's related to, at which point her NPC immortality vanishes and you can kill her for good.[[/labelnote]]

* JerkassGods: A few of the [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Daedra]] [[EldritchAbomination Lords]], namely [[NightmareWeaver Vaermina]], [[PersonOfMassDestruction Mehrunes Dagon]], [[TheChessmaster Boethiah]], [[TinTyrant Jygg]][[LightIsNotGood alag]], and [[BloodKnight Mo]][[GodOfEvil lag]] [[TheSocialDarwinist Bal]]. However, not all of them: Sheogorath, Hermaeus Mora and Sanguine [[BlueAndOrangeMorality work on their own brand of logic]] rather than evil; Hircine, Nocturnal and Namira usually mind their own business and some like Peyrite, Azura and Meridia actually seem [[DarkIsNotEvil nice]].

** The male Dremora, in addition to being fierce warriors, are exceptionally hammy when it comes to their various battle-cries. It certainly helps that they're voiced by the same actor as the Imperial males. Averted with the rare female Dremora, which due to an oversight in the game's development, [[ShrinkingViolet are]] [[TheQuietOne completely]] [[TheVoiceless silent]]. Unsurprisingly, all of the above, except the Nords and Orcs, are voiced by the same actor, Wes Johnson.

* LightIsNotGood: Umaril and the Aurorans in ''Knights of the Nine.'' Also, Sheogorath's [[{{Jerkass}} Golden]] [[CantArgueWithElves Saints]].

%%** The Radiant AI system is commendably ambitious, but it does fall flat very frequently and very visibly. Part of the problem is that NonPlayerCharacter behavior is driven by ''motivations.'' One quest involving vampire hunters can be botched if the vampire hunters get too jealous of each other's inventory items, whereupon they'll start pickpocketing one another until they're all angry enough to draw weapons. In some cases "good" characters will murder unarmed innocents simply because they've been blocked into a corner.

** Start a fight with one NPC in the marketplace or resist arrest for picking up an apple. In a matter of seconds the whole market district will erupt into one giant gang war, with Citizens attacking guards, citizens attacking each other, and guards slaughtering citizens and each other left and right.

** Speaking of Daedric princes, [[spoiler: Jyggalag and Sheogorath suffered this. The other Princes, fearful and envious of the former's power of Order and growing influence, combined their own abilities to transform him into the exact opposite of his aspect--namely, Madness. To make matters worse, they deliberately eradicated the victims' memory of this, trapping them in an endless cycle wherein Sheogorath senses the forces of Order are coming, prepares for them, remembers that he himself is Jyggalag, and transforms briefly, only for the whole routine to start up again. It isn't until the Player Character comes along and defeat Jyggalag in battle that the spell is lifted, allowing him to return to his former self.]]
** The Gray Fox [[spoiler: specifically Emer Dareloth, the first Gray Fox]] stole the Cowl of Nocturnal from Nocturnal herself. As a Daedric Prince, she cursed the cowl to literally eradicate its user from history, meaning that no one can remember who he really is or even his own name. The Gray Fox is trapped in a world of people who can never know anything about him, rendering him unable to form permanent connections [[spoiler: and separating the current one, Corvus Umbranox, the Count of Anvil, from his wife--he could ''stand in front of her'' and she wouldn't be able to recognize him.]] The Gray Fox [[EarnYourHappyEnding earns his happy ending]] when, with the player's help, he figures out how to break the curse and finally rejoins the world.

* JerkassGods: A few of the [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Daedra]] [[EldritchAbomination Lords]], namely [[YourWorstNightmare Vaermina]], [[PersonOfMassDestruction Mehrunes Dagon]], [[TheChessmaster Boethiah]], [[TinTyrant Jygg]][[LightIsNotGood alag]], and [[BloodKnight Mo]][[GodOfEvil lag]] [[TheSocialDarwinist Bal]]. However, not all of them: Sheogorath, Hermaeus Mora and Sanguine [[BlueAndOrangeMorality work on their own brand of logic]] rather than evil; Hircine, Nocturnal and Namira usually mind their own business and some like Peyrite, Azura and Meridia actually seem [[DarkIsNotEvil nice]].

* GrimUpNorth: The Viking like culture of Skyrim has been absorbed into Bruma and the local culture is very much about toughing-out adversity. On a Narrative level, Bruma will play host to Mehrunes Dagon's main force is set to invade Tamriel. Making the snowfields of Bruma a possbile preview to the end of the world if you fail.

* LevelScaling: Oblivion uses one of the most extreme examples of this where most encounters level with the player upto a certain (high) level.

* TheGuardsMustBeCrazy: Actually subverted, especially in the case of the Imperial Guards. They are actually rather good at keeping the peace - because, as anyone who has played the game longer than a couple hours can tell you, ''they are legitimately insane''. The number of videos online showcasing Imperial Guards doing bizzare, inexplicable, hilariously ridiculous things cements these guards as ''actually crazy''.

* ElaborateUniversityHigh: The Arcane Univesity is the second tallest structure outside White-Gold-Tower, and so big it is it's own district of the Imperial City.

* BritainIsOnlyLondon: In-universe, Outsiders seems to think the Imperial City is the entire province, but the game makes it clear, it is just a capital city, if a busy one. There are citizens who move to the Imperial City and never set foot outside it's walls, because they think they have seen it all.

* ConvectionSchmonvection: Invoked and subverted. The areas of Oblivion you go to seem to be small islands in an ocean of lava, yet one [=NPC=] points out that while he'd expect it to be hot, all he feels is a deathly chill.