Origin of the Mages Guild v6
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| File name: | OriginoftheMagesGuildV6.7z |
| File size: | 20.62 MB |
| Downloads this week: | 1 |
| Downloads total: | 3,732 |
| Date Added: | 12-02-2008 |
| Popularity: | 7% |
Short description:
Revamps the mages guild, explains game lore, adds quests, Requires CURP, see docs.
Origin of the Mages Guild V6 Final For Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion.
Required = 1.2 Patch for Oblivion
Required = The Shivering Isles (may work with out it, untested)
Required = Cyrodiil Upgrade Resource Pack v1.4.7 or newer.
Link to CURP http://www.novazone.karoo.net/cuoCyrodiilUpgradeResourcePack.htm
Creator's = giskard
Website = http://www.novazone.karoo.net/
See the website above for Download links, screenshots, movies, disclaimer, license etc.
Disclaimer
The disclaimer for all our mods can be found at the link below.
http://www.novazone.karoo.net/CuoDisclaimer.htm
About Origin of the Mages Guild
Important: This is a strict Lore Mod and is designed primarily for lore fans and the type of game they usually play. Any player can play it, Audio speeches exist for all areas covered by this mod so you can use this mod to brush up on your game lore if you wish. More detailed information is found mainly in various lore books in the game. Any info not found in books is found in the game by talking to various NPCs, doing various quests, finding various notes in secret places. Also the addon Vile Lair provides some lore for this mod but that plugin is not required by this mod. I would recommend you get it if Vampire lore interests you. For lore purposes, consider Vile Lair to be a Black Marsh Clan Addon due to the sleeping NPC and it's location in the Black Marsh.
This mod allows you to Restore the Mages Guild back to its former glory after Travens years in power had brought it to the brink of ruin. The mod is based on the book "Origin of the Mages Guild" and it is the guild described in that book that you will be recreating in this mod. By completing various quests you will see the Guild slowly live again, with visitors, students and others coming and going as old areas are reopened, new staff hired and new research implimented for the good of all.
The mod will work right from the start of the game and if enabled when you create a new character will slowly reveal areas of the guild that got shut down as a result of Travens Policies. If enabled it after you become Archmage, access to most areas is granted but if you lack the right skills, some areas may remain off limits until you reach at least Apprentice in all schools of Magic. By the time you are Archmage, you will not only have a reason to study magic but you will know what you want to restore and when you finally have the power to do it. I present you with quests that allow you to do just that.
Before the end of the last quest you will have a fully function STRICT LORE Guild to be proud off and will have been introduced to several lore based topics via audio briefings available from various characters through out the mod.
The other thing you may stumble across is a few FREEPLAY quests that just happen when you stumble upon them. All come complete with extra Audio to explain game lore and all can be done by anybody, even players that never joined the Guild. One adds the Cyrodiil Vampire Clan back to Oblivion so they finally have a real presence in side the Imperial city as they should have and explains Vampiric Lore and the differences between various clans.
You will end up wishing some of the improvements where available to you when you did the recommendation quests but this hind sight and desire is perfectly ok, it shows you finally understand how far the guild had fallen before you came along and fixed it.
Expect to see lots of Necromancers, Ghosts, Zombies, Skeletons and Vampires are you progress through this mod, as well as the usual go here, do that type quests.
About Game Lore
During my research I found 75% of all Oblivion lore is outside of Books and desparately wanted to use all the game lore and not just the 25% found in the books that tell about previous games lore. I was keen on making a modern lore mod, one that understood what was happening TODAY in the Imperial city and rather than one that told about what happened 30 years ago in the Imperial city.
But lore fans could not agree on Modern Oblivion lore so I had to stick to OLD MORROWIND STYLE BOOK LORE for this mod.
2 areas I refused to give up on were Mannimarco GOD OF WORMS because it was clearly explained 3 separate places in Oblivion (that I found) and in Necromancers Moon, a book that any player doing the Mages Guild mod must have at least opened once to advance the quest. So this point is proven and all aguements about Daggerfall endings have been answered in Oblivion for those who care to look. There is infact a wealth of information on this, presented in Oblivion, enough to create an entire sub story behind the King of Worms story we all played in the quests. The Akatosh Jills, Dragons Break (Warp in the West) and the Numidium. Its scattered all over the play so you can have fun following the trail of clues I left in this mod for lore fans to follow.
The other is Daedric Summoning lore which only appears to have been debated when I brought it. I expected this to be old news, known to everybody but it appears not many had even thought about it. The Everscamp quest, Daedric summoning clues, rumours and notes and several books including "The Doors of Oblivion" as well as the Mages in those ruins called Conjurers that look like exciled Mages Guild members and Summon Daedra was considered by some lore fans to be areas Beth screwed up in. But after doing some research and after looking closely at the facts and talking to other lore fans, I found it all made sense.
Daedra are summoned inside Guildhalls like Chorrol and Bruma, but never outside by members of the guild. Members of the guild who try and help others who summoning daedra like in the Everscamp quest outside the guildhalls clearly feared being expelled from the guild. Were as those who did the summoning and were not mages only feared being branded a Daedra Worhshiper by others. The conjurers who look like Mages Guild members were clearly not members any more. To me this was an untold story, probably one Beth never finished and it was clear to me the Mages Guild had rules about this sort of thing being done in public and "The Doors of Oblivion" seemed to provide the rules they followed and the conditions where Daedra Summoning was considered acceptable, even if beth had not fully implimented it in Oblivion. The Imperial charter for Guild comes up in one book as allowing Daedra summoning within the Empire so the Mages Guild can continue to study Daedra. So it all fitted pretty neatly and was not a screwed up idea as some had suggested. At least I did not think it was screwed up.
Some very knowledgeable Lore fans help me Iron out the facts from the fiction and the version presented here is in line with the facts fans could not blow apart with counter arguements. I consider this to be strict lore even though its not explained in any single book. Facts for this are spread all over the game and thus some lore fans may or may not have seen all the clues. But now they have the chance to check my facts, its all presented here, theres even a library in the Daedric studies department to help them.
The thing I want players do here is question the daedra summoning rules within the Mages guild and look at the proof they see in the game and draw their own conclusions about it as I have. My own pet theories are much deeper than the ones presented here, the one you see above is very simple and easy to follow compared to my complicated version that I believe is true. But the version above still tells the same story minus the detail that may or may not be right. So enjoy and if you feel like talking over these points with me, just make a post in the forum and tell what you think.
BTW if you have no theory of your own or have nothing to add but just wish to rip in to other peoples work, then do not bother. Im interested only in talking to people with alternative theories they wish to share.
Installation:
Just extract the zip into your Oblivion Folder (NOT THE OBLIVION DATA FOLDER). Any textures or meshes added are found in the OriginoftheMagesGuild folder inside oblivion/data/textures and oblivion/data/meshes. So you can easily find them and delete them if you want too.
If you're updating, say yes to any requests to overwrite files. Only "Origin of the Mages Guild's" own files will be overwritten.
Features
Version 1
NPCs
56 new NPCs at the last count, more now but I have not counted again
Restored positions at each Guild Hall that were previously missing
Restored positions at the Arcane University that were previously missing
Lots of NPCs added to handle odd jobs added in this version
Locations
New or expanded sleeping quarters at every Guild Hall
New Council Chamber that's big enough to actually hold a council meeting
New Council Sleeping Quarters and Lobby
New Knights of the Lamp Sleeping Quarters and Lobby
New Vault, Prison and ArchMage's Tomb
New Deep Vault for those dangerous relics
New Teleport room (Quest)
New Bruma Guild (Quest)
Quests
1 Required Quest to restore the Council
1 Required Quest to restore Bruma
1 Optional Quest to build a teleport system.
Change Log
V2
Fixes several spelling mistakes
Moved the Knights of the Lamp into the Training Area to stop them from killing each other accidentally with staves
Created a Daedric Studies Department
Created an Ancient Studies Department
Added voice overs to explain some aspects of the game lore
Added Easter Egg for freeplay quest that expands on the game lore mentioned above
Added 1 new REQUIRED quest and 1 FreePlay Quest
Added commands to the Knights of the Lamp
Created a Conjurers Training Chamber.
Created an Ayleid device for purposes I'll not explain, figure it out yourself :)
Rebuilt the Upper Vault after the old one got deleted
Created a new Tomb Area to replace the one that got deleted
Created a new Prison Area to replace the one that got deleted
Tweaked the Teleporter Chamber so it's more authentic
Lots of additional Guild Life AI tweaks to make the Guild feel alive
Added several new greetings for key staff
Added several new NPCs
Made the Cupboard at the end of the ArchMage's bed "No Respawn" so you can use it
This version has clues to unscripted (Freeplay) Quests for you to follow.
V3
New Quest for the Ring of Vanus
New Quest for the Robes of Vanus
New Quest for the Staff of Vanus
Mannimarco lore explained
Vanus lore explained
Vanus vs Mannimarco lore explained
The Numidium lore explained
New companion named Mary
Training feature for Mary to allow you to customise her skills to suit you (ONCE)
Each class you can train her in is unique with advantages and disadvantages
Customise Mary's Equipment via a chest that prevents exploitation of NPCs during quests (No Donkeys to carry everything here).
Full in game documentation explaining the training available
"Summon Mary Spell" to call her to you at any time
Orders that can be used to send Mary to any Guild Hall or the Arcane University (amongst other things)
Sneak order actually removes Armour so she can sneak quietly
Plans to expand Mary's abilities in a future version exist
V3.1
Added the missing word in the Vanus Ring briefing
Added a letter by Paw-Prints-in-the-Mud to Bruma
Corrected various grammatical errors
Added Lost Spires Dwemer artifacts (thanks to LiquidGraph for those)
V3.2
Released "as is" due to illness, some new features may not be listed here, my brains fried so I do not remember much right now. This is the version I have been using in my own game and its fine, no problems here at all.
Changed all the Master of Initiates to support an idea put forward by brucevayne regarding Morrowind and Skill Requirements.
New Class Rooms Added to the AU (No Teachers yet, see skill locks idea)
New Doors for the class rooms added so you can see what the class room teaches without entering it.
Started working on Skill Locks for doors that prevent unqualified people from accessing further eductation until they are at the required level.
Many Misc fixes and typos fixed.
V4.0
Added Teachers to the Class Rooms to finish off the skill lock system.
Added Training up to Journeyman to the Teachers.
Added Spells up to Journeyman to the Teachers.
Added a large Freelplay Quest anybody can do without being a member of the Mages Guild.
The Freeplay quest is actually the biggest in the mod and starts the moment you find the first location, an easy clue isprovided for you to find in order to get started. This also version features the first Deeper Dungeons style adventure and a few old school dungeon tricks during the freeplay quest above. Arkays Mockery is a major part of the Deep Dungeons idea and the levels before that are an example of old school RPG levels. Feedback on these are more than welcome.
V5.0 RC1
Fixed tresspassing issue in the Temple of the Blood Matron.
Fixed the door in the magicka studies lobby that prevented low ranking players from leaving.
Added an Uninstall/Reset Quest
Improved the Council Meetings
Added the Idle Anims for some new NPCs, preying, drinking etc.
Added several new NPCs to the IC streets.
V5.0 Final
Fixed Tonys Note
Added Vampire Ash to the Cyrodiil Vampires
Restored the Archmages Lobby to it's original size for compatibility reasons.
Fixed the Scholars upper door spawn direction, now you appear looking at the stairs.
Fixed VicenteValtieri after it was accidently edited, solved the mystery of the extra vampire priest :D
Fixed the Councilors lobby door and the Knights of the Lamp door to stop NPC grouping around them.
V5.1 Final (Maintaince Release)
Removed Race Edits as per the advice of Wyre, this should allow beauty mods to work before or after OMG.
Fixed the missing invest quest so it now appears (thanks Dev).
Removed the fix for the respawning drawer at the bottom of Travens bed. This means any items in that drawer will be lost every 3 days again. Thank OOO for that, it rather stupidly made a cupboard everybody edits a quest item, and OOO breaks if OMG or any other mod fixes that buggy drawer. So to avoid issues, I have had to remove the fix for OOO users benefits. To say I am deeply pissed about having to do this is a massive understatement.
V6 (Now Requires the Cyrodiil Upgrade Resource Pack)
Added additional lines to that infamous AC guard that things your the new guy all the time & updated various items to use CURP. Created a new Ice Witch Coven to test drive a new witches coven idea, this is a friendly witch, the rest will be hostile in later mods. Added a black cat, new curses (spells), new witches potions and various other things to build up the witches as a faction in the game. Replaced the Drawer in the Archmages quarters (that was marked respawn) with one that does not respawn to stop the player losing his stuff every 3 days. 33 other cells use that drawer so it cannot be edited, it has to be replaced to maintain compatibility with mods. Previously OOO and Fcom people bullied me in to giving in to their demands and making a patch for the rest of the world that did not even have OOO nor even suffer with this problem, they did not want to fix the mod that caused the problem eg OOO, they wanted every other mod on the planet not to use it so OOO could have it's dirty little edit. Well that changes, I am no longer fixing OOOs mistakes or putting up with their crap. I told them how to fix it 10 months ago so if they ignored me, then that is their problem. The old cupboard fix returns as part of OMG V6 for all you NONE OOO users. So you can stop using that cupboard fix from v5.1. But before you update, empty that cupboard because V6 replaces it with a new one. Please note that this is a common fix, other mods may also fix this bugged cupboard this way, so you may end up using the other mods fix not mine or have 2 cupboards occupying the same space. That is perfectly fine, as long as1 mod fixes it, that is all that counts. Providing they are not stupid enough to edit the original drawer or make it a quest target that is. That would cause potential problems in 33 other locations and be a bad move over all. This version contains built in support for the Witches and WitchHunters addon that I plan to make.
Lore references
See the included ArchmageTravenStory.txt file (lots of default mages guild plot spoilers) that I have added to this mod. It is a draft version of my research in story form that you can read and see how all the lore references fitted together to make the Mages' Guild Story in Beths original Quests. I have not used too much detail and leave it up to you to check my facts yourself if you have doubts. Enough info exists for you to do that. I think it will be an eye opener for some of you to say the least.
Imperial Library and Game Lore.
When I started studying the game lore I first learnt about a website called the Imperial Library. I have since asked many questions and received lots of help from that website and the users on it. Unlike fans elsewhere, these people care enough about the game lore to write articles about it and talk about it with each other. That means they take it seriously and if they do not know something, the chances are nobody does. They have gone a long way towards making me into a Game Lore Fan, whilst I am perhaps not their type of fan yet, I have a much deeper appreciation of the game's lore than I did have because of them.
So if this mod catches your interest and you want to learn more about game lore, visit the website below.
URL = [url=http://www.imperial-library.info]http://www.imperial-library.info[/url]
Some "Origin of the Mages Guild" Mod Lore References
Not all references are found in books and not all books tell the whole story, some info must be heard in the game whilst doing the Mages' Quests or hanging about the Mages' Guild branches or University during or after doing each quest. So this is not complete, but it is a great starting point for those who want to "study up" and check my facts.
The Mages' Guild
[url=http://www.imperial-library.info/cyrodiil_guilds/mages_guild.shtml]http://www.imperial-library.info/cyrodiil_...ges_guild.shtml[/url]
Origin of the Mages Guild
[url=http://www.imperial-library.info/mwbooks/originmages.shtml]http://www.imperial-library.info/mwbooks/originmages.shtml[/url]
Imperial Charter of the Guild of Mages
[url=http://www.imperial-library.info/obbooks/mages_guild_charter.shtml]http://www.imperial-library.info/obbooks/m...d_charter.shtml[/url]
The Black Arts On Trial
[url=http://www.imperial-library.info/obbooks/black_arts_on_trial.shtml]http://www.imperial-library.info/obbooks/b..._on_trial.shtml[/url]
Galerion The Mystic
[url=http://www.imperial-library.info/dfbooks/b066_galerion.shtml]http://www.imperial-library.info/dfbooks/b066_galerion.shtml[/url]
Manifesto Cyrodiil Vampyrum
http://www.imperial-library.info/obbooks/lairvilevampiremanifesto.shtml
Opusculus Lamae Bal ta Mezzamortie
A brief account of Lamae Bal and the Restless Death (Vile Lair Book)
http://www.imperial-library.info/obbooks/lairvileopusculuslamae.shtml
Necromancer's Moon
(One of 3 pieces of evidence proving there is a God of Worms).
http://www.imperial-library.info/obbooks/necromancers_moon.shtml
About Jills of Akatosh and the Dragons Break (Warp in the west) concerning Mannimarco.
http://www.imperial-library.info/cyrodiil_guilds/mages_guild.shtml
I should add many obscure references exist to expand on this that I have not included here.
Heres extract from the book above that determined which Daggerfall Ending is true in Oblivion and why I adopted this ending.
During the Warp of the West, Mannimarco mysteriously gained the Mantella, a powerful soul gem that fueled the Numidium. With its power Mannimarco ascended to Aetherius and became the God of Worms. Later on, some scholars and Akatosh' priests claimed that the Jills of Akatosh mended the results of the time break (Dragon Break) in the Warp of the West. It was believed that Mannimarco was split in two. He transported back to Tamriel as a mortal, continuing his previous role as the King of Worms, but yet the God of Worms still exists in Aetherius.
Those books are where the lore for this mod came from, other sources exist, too many to name but I started there and it lead me to the other sources so anybody keen on checking my facts needs only start with those books.
Known Issues and Solutions
Magic mods.
This mod makes no changes to spells or spell/enchantment altars. I felt that those areas are the domain of Spell/Enchant mods like Midsa Magic and others, and felt the player may like to choose which spell mod to use with Origin of the Mages Guild. So all Spell mods should be compatible with this mod. All they have to do is place their own merchant in any room in the Arcane University (other than the Archmages Tower which is modified heavily) and their spells and NPCs will blend in with this mod perfectly. I suggest avoiding editing any NPCs from the Mages Guild to be sure of avoiding issues with Origin of the Mages Guild. Other than that, you will find most default areas within the AU have only had minor alterations done to them to allow other mod makers to add their mods to the AU as well.
Better Cities & Unique Landscapes
I am not aware of any problems with these mods but I am 100% sure some problems will exist. Whilst individually these mods deal with 1 area, every mod I make deals with several areas and would need several patches to fix things on a per mod per player, what you have installed basis. If all those "per"'s confuse you now, imagine how I feel. Also both these mods (mainly Better cities) fill up entire areas with eye candy leaving very little room for the rest of us mod makers to work in. This does not make those mods easy to be compatible with and whilst making a house mod compatible with them might be as easy as moving a door and saving off a new version of the mod. A quest mod is a vastly different ball game and any attempt to simply move things can seriously screw up your saved game in ways even the original mod maker would find hard to predict. .
For this reason I will not be attempting to be compatible with either of those mods.
They are both perfectly good mods, no major issues and the mod makers have a right to mod anything they like, but the undenyable fact remains is this, they will cause problems with quest mods due to the vast areas they do edit. So players should expect problems in this area.
Since I know somebody somewhere would relish the challege of trying to make my mods work with those mods, I here by give those who wish to try permission to do so with my blessing. I insist you rename the mod (add word to the end of this mods name or something), so it is not confused with my own releases. I will answer questions over PM to help you if need be but I will not be directly working on the solution my self. I know how big a task it is even if you do not :)
Also if people wish to merge my work with those mods and try and solve problems that way, im fine with that too. Go a head, let me know if it worked or not. If you do that, I ask you place a link in your readme to my website where guides for my mods can be found.
You will need to tell your users to perform a mod reset to avoid any problems when switching versions from mine to yours.
I have no problems with others trying to make mods compatible and will support that effort with advice as needed.
Compatibility information
No Mages' Guild Quests have been edited for this mod. So any mod that edits them will still work with this mod.
NPC's Julienne Fanis and Raminus Polus are both used by thus mod and should not be over ridden by other mods. Other NPCs can safely be overridden but it should be noted the original Danel and Skaleen are disabled by this mod and enabled again by the uninstall quest from Mr fix It at the AU.. Also the Archage Mages Tower is changed considerable by this mod but other areas have very few changes. Most new stuff was put in new areas for compatibility reasons.
Credits & Thanks
Thanks to Ren and Soya for the Hair
All the fans who let me add their books to the scholars Library in this mod, they are credited in the books they wrote.
The Imperial Library Website where most of my research was conducted.
All the people on the Imperial Library Website for being so helpful
All the guys on my Website, too many to mention here at this time.
Coldone for trying to help, sorry it did work out mate
Paw-Prints-in-the-Mud for additional character building via submitted written material.
Talkie Toastier for explaining how to change companion's inventory
Liquidgraph for allowing me to use the Dwemer Centurions from his excellent Lost Spires Mod
DaveR
Ismelda Lasombra
Wrye
Spelling and Gramma
Misnomer for helping spell/grammar check the mod.
Voice Actors
Ibsen's Ghost for some dam good voice work.
Giskard (me), I make Ibsen sound even better because my voice is crap
Tess (the Wife)
Jaster
Cyrodiil Upgrade Resource Pack Credits
Here is a link to my Resource Pack Credits.
http://www.novazone.karoo.net/cuoCyrodiilUpgradeResourcePackCredits.htm
Special thanks to my regular mod users.
Some of you are starting to feel like old friends now on Mechstorms forums and on Beths forums, total strangers that turn up time and time again to download anything I make. I am deeply honoured that you like my work that much and appreciate you all sticking by me as you have done. I know quest mods are not as popular as "Traven in hot pants wielding a new sword" type mods would be, so it means even more to me that you regulars exist and like my work. I want you to know that my work is a team effort, you players usually provide the ideas and inspiration for the mods I make and I would encourage you all to keep posting those ideas and not worry if I appear not to be interested. I often return to an idea months later without ever saying a word. So it is worth posting ideas even if you know I will not use them in the current mod. I may even make a mod based solely on your idea if it is interesting enough.
So many thinks and big hugs and kisses to the ladies, manly handshakes and a deep voiced hello for the guys :)
PS Why do my mods docs always end up this long ?
ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Giskard
Required = 1.2 Patch for Oblivion
Required = The Shivering Isles (may work with out it, untested)
Required = Cyrodiil Upgrade Resource Pack v1.4.7 or newer.
Link to CURP http://www.novazone.karoo.net/cuoCyrodiilUpgradeResourcePack.htm
Creator's = giskard
Website = http://www.novazone.karoo.net/
See the website above for Download links, screenshots, movies, disclaimer, license etc.
Disclaimer
The disclaimer for all our mods can be found at the link below.
http://www.novazone.karoo.net/CuoDisclaimer.htm
About Origin of the Mages Guild
Important: This is a strict Lore Mod and is designed primarily for lore fans and the type of game they usually play. Any player can play it, Audio speeches exist for all areas covered by this mod so you can use this mod to brush up on your game lore if you wish. More detailed information is found mainly in various lore books in the game. Any info not found in books is found in the game by talking to various NPCs, doing various quests, finding various notes in secret places. Also the addon Vile Lair provides some lore for this mod but that plugin is not required by this mod. I would recommend you get it if Vampire lore interests you. For lore purposes, consider Vile Lair to be a Black Marsh Clan Addon due to the sleeping NPC and it's location in the Black Marsh.
This mod allows you to Restore the Mages Guild back to its former glory after Travens years in power had brought it to the brink of ruin. The mod is based on the book "Origin of the Mages Guild" and it is the guild described in that book that you will be recreating in this mod. By completing various quests you will see the Guild slowly live again, with visitors, students and others coming and going as old areas are reopened, new staff hired and new research implimented for the good of all.
The mod will work right from the start of the game and if enabled when you create a new character will slowly reveal areas of the guild that got shut down as a result of Travens Policies. If enabled it after you become Archmage, access to most areas is granted but if you lack the right skills, some areas may remain off limits until you reach at least Apprentice in all schools of Magic. By the time you are Archmage, you will not only have a reason to study magic but you will know what you want to restore and when you finally have the power to do it. I present you with quests that allow you to do just that.
Before the end of the last quest you will have a fully function STRICT LORE Guild to be proud off and will have been introduced to several lore based topics via audio briefings available from various characters through out the mod.
The other thing you may stumble across is a few FREEPLAY quests that just happen when you stumble upon them. All come complete with extra Audio to explain game lore and all can be done by anybody, even players that never joined the Guild. One adds the Cyrodiil Vampire Clan back to Oblivion so they finally have a real presence in side the Imperial city as they should have and explains Vampiric Lore and the differences between various clans.
You will end up wishing some of the improvements where available to you when you did the recommendation quests but this hind sight and desire is perfectly ok, it shows you finally understand how far the guild had fallen before you came along and fixed it.
Expect to see lots of Necromancers, Ghosts, Zombies, Skeletons and Vampires are you progress through this mod, as well as the usual go here, do that type quests.
About Game Lore
During my research I found 75% of all Oblivion lore is outside of Books and desparately wanted to use all the game lore and not just the 25% found in the books that tell about previous games lore. I was keen on making a modern lore mod, one that understood what was happening TODAY in the Imperial city and rather than one that told about what happened 30 years ago in the Imperial city.
But lore fans could not agree on Modern Oblivion lore so I had to stick to OLD MORROWIND STYLE BOOK LORE for this mod.
2 areas I refused to give up on were Mannimarco GOD OF WORMS because it was clearly explained 3 separate places in Oblivion (that I found) and in Necromancers Moon, a book that any player doing the Mages Guild mod must have at least opened once to advance the quest. So this point is proven and all aguements about Daggerfall endings have been answered in Oblivion for those who care to look. There is infact a wealth of information on this, presented in Oblivion, enough to create an entire sub story behind the King of Worms story we all played in the quests. The Akatosh Jills, Dragons Break (Warp in the West) and the Numidium. Its scattered all over the play so you can have fun following the trail of clues I left in this mod for lore fans to follow.
The other is Daedric Summoning lore which only appears to have been debated when I brought it. I expected this to be old news, known to everybody but it appears not many had even thought about it. The Everscamp quest, Daedric summoning clues, rumours and notes and several books including "The Doors of Oblivion" as well as the Mages in those ruins called Conjurers that look like exciled Mages Guild members and Summon Daedra was considered by some lore fans to be areas Beth screwed up in. But after doing some research and after looking closely at the facts and talking to other lore fans, I found it all made sense.
Daedra are summoned inside Guildhalls like Chorrol and Bruma, but never outside by members of the guild. Members of the guild who try and help others who summoning daedra like in the Everscamp quest outside the guildhalls clearly feared being expelled from the guild. Were as those who did the summoning and were not mages only feared being branded a Daedra Worhshiper by others. The conjurers who look like Mages Guild members were clearly not members any more. To me this was an untold story, probably one Beth never finished and it was clear to me the Mages Guild had rules about this sort of thing being done in public and "The Doors of Oblivion" seemed to provide the rules they followed and the conditions where Daedra Summoning was considered acceptable, even if beth had not fully implimented it in Oblivion. The Imperial charter for Guild comes up in one book as allowing Daedra summoning within the Empire so the Mages Guild can continue to study Daedra. So it all fitted pretty neatly and was not a screwed up idea as some had suggested. At least I did not think it was screwed up.
Some very knowledgeable Lore fans help me Iron out the facts from the fiction and the version presented here is in line with the facts fans could not blow apart with counter arguements. I consider this to be strict lore even though its not explained in any single book. Facts for this are spread all over the game and thus some lore fans may or may not have seen all the clues. But now they have the chance to check my facts, its all presented here, theres even a library in the Daedric studies department to help them.
The thing I want players do here is question the daedra summoning rules within the Mages guild and look at the proof they see in the game and draw their own conclusions about it as I have. My own pet theories are much deeper than the ones presented here, the one you see above is very simple and easy to follow compared to my complicated version that I believe is true. But the version above still tells the same story minus the detail that may or may not be right. So enjoy and if you feel like talking over these points with me, just make a post in the forum and tell what you think.
BTW if you have no theory of your own or have nothing to add but just wish to rip in to other peoples work, then do not bother. Im interested only in talking to people with alternative theories they wish to share.
Installation:
Just extract the zip into your Oblivion Folder (NOT THE OBLIVION DATA FOLDER). Any textures or meshes added are found in the OriginoftheMagesGuild folder inside oblivion/data/textures and oblivion/data/meshes. So you can easily find them and delete them if you want too.
If you're updating, say yes to any requests to overwrite files. Only "Origin of the Mages Guild's" own files will be overwritten.
Features
Version 1
NPCs
56 new NPCs at the last count, more now but I have not counted again
Restored positions at each Guild Hall that were previously missing
Restored positions at the Arcane University that were previously missing
Lots of NPCs added to handle odd jobs added in this version
Locations
New or expanded sleeping quarters at every Guild Hall
New Council Chamber that's big enough to actually hold a council meeting
New Council Sleeping Quarters and Lobby
New Knights of the Lamp Sleeping Quarters and Lobby
New Vault, Prison and ArchMage's Tomb
New Deep Vault for those dangerous relics
New Teleport room (Quest)
New Bruma Guild (Quest)
Quests
1 Required Quest to restore the Council
1 Required Quest to restore Bruma
1 Optional Quest to build a teleport system.
Change Log
V2
Fixes several spelling mistakes
Moved the Knights of the Lamp into the Training Area to stop them from killing each other accidentally with staves
Created a Daedric Studies Department
Created an Ancient Studies Department
Added voice overs to explain some aspects of the game lore
Added Easter Egg for freeplay quest that expands on the game lore mentioned above
Added 1 new REQUIRED quest and 1 FreePlay Quest
Added commands to the Knights of the Lamp
Created a Conjurers Training Chamber.
Created an Ayleid device for purposes I'll not explain, figure it out yourself :)
Rebuilt the Upper Vault after the old one got deleted
Created a new Tomb Area to replace the one that got deleted
Created a new Prison Area to replace the one that got deleted
Tweaked the Teleporter Chamber so it's more authentic
Lots of additional Guild Life AI tweaks to make the Guild feel alive
Added several new greetings for key staff
Added several new NPCs
Made the Cupboard at the end of the ArchMage's bed "No Respawn" so you can use it
This version has clues to unscripted (Freeplay) Quests for you to follow.
V3
New Quest for the Ring of Vanus
New Quest for the Robes of Vanus
New Quest for the Staff of Vanus
Mannimarco lore explained
Vanus lore explained
Vanus vs Mannimarco lore explained
The Numidium lore explained
New companion named Mary
Training feature for Mary to allow you to customise her skills to suit you (ONCE)
Each class you can train her in is unique with advantages and disadvantages
Customise Mary's Equipment via a chest that prevents exploitation of NPCs during quests (No Donkeys to carry everything here).
Full in game documentation explaining the training available
"Summon Mary Spell" to call her to you at any time
Orders that can be used to send Mary to any Guild Hall or the Arcane University (amongst other things)
Sneak order actually removes Armour so she can sneak quietly
Plans to expand Mary's abilities in a future version exist
V3.1
Added the missing word in the Vanus Ring briefing
Added a letter by Paw-Prints-in-the-Mud to Bruma
Corrected various grammatical errors
Added Lost Spires Dwemer artifacts (thanks to LiquidGraph for those)
V3.2
Released "as is" due to illness, some new features may not be listed here, my brains fried so I do not remember much right now. This is the version I have been using in my own game and its fine, no problems here at all.
Changed all the Master of Initiates to support an idea put forward by brucevayne regarding Morrowind and Skill Requirements.
New Class Rooms Added to the AU (No Teachers yet, see skill locks idea)
New Doors for the class rooms added so you can see what the class room teaches without entering it.
Started working on Skill Locks for doors that prevent unqualified people from accessing further eductation until they are at the required level.
Many Misc fixes and typos fixed.
V4.0
Added Teachers to the Class Rooms to finish off the skill lock system.
Added Training up to Journeyman to the Teachers.
Added Spells up to Journeyman to the Teachers.
Added a large Freelplay Quest anybody can do without being a member of the Mages Guild.
The Freeplay quest is actually the biggest in the mod and starts the moment you find the first location, an easy clue isprovided for you to find in order to get started. This also version features the first Deeper Dungeons style adventure and a few old school dungeon tricks during the freeplay quest above. Arkays Mockery is a major part of the Deep Dungeons idea and the levels before that are an example of old school RPG levels. Feedback on these are more than welcome.
V5.0 RC1
Fixed tresspassing issue in the Temple of the Blood Matron.
Fixed the door in the magicka studies lobby that prevented low ranking players from leaving.
Added an Uninstall/Reset Quest
Improved the Council Meetings
Added the Idle Anims for some new NPCs, preying, drinking etc.
Added several new NPCs to the IC streets.
V5.0 Final
Fixed Tonys Note
Added Vampire Ash to the Cyrodiil Vampires
Restored the Archmages Lobby to it's original size for compatibility reasons.
Fixed the Scholars upper door spawn direction, now you appear looking at the stairs.
Fixed VicenteValtieri after it was accidently edited, solved the mystery of the extra vampire priest :D
Fixed the Councilors lobby door and the Knights of the Lamp door to stop NPC grouping around them.
V5.1 Final (Maintaince Release)
Removed Race Edits as per the advice of Wyre, this should allow beauty mods to work before or after OMG.
Fixed the missing invest quest so it now appears (thanks Dev).
Removed the fix for the respawning drawer at the bottom of Travens bed. This means any items in that drawer will be lost every 3 days again. Thank OOO for that, it rather stupidly made a cupboard everybody edits a quest item, and OOO breaks if OMG or any other mod fixes that buggy drawer. So to avoid issues, I have had to remove the fix for OOO users benefits. To say I am deeply pissed about having to do this is a massive understatement.
V6 (Now Requires the Cyrodiil Upgrade Resource Pack)
Added additional lines to that infamous AC guard that things your the new guy all the time & updated various items to use CURP. Created a new Ice Witch Coven to test drive a new witches coven idea, this is a friendly witch, the rest will be hostile in later mods. Added a black cat, new curses (spells), new witches potions and various other things to build up the witches as a faction in the game. Replaced the Drawer in the Archmages quarters (that was marked respawn) with one that does not respawn to stop the player losing his stuff every 3 days. 33 other cells use that drawer so it cannot be edited, it has to be replaced to maintain compatibility with mods. Previously OOO and Fcom people bullied me in to giving in to their demands and making a patch for the rest of the world that did not even have OOO nor even suffer with this problem, they did not want to fix the mod that caused the problem eg OOO, they wanted every other mod on the planet not to use it so OOO could have it's dirty little edit. Well that changes, I am no longer fixing OOOs mistakes or putting up with their crap. I told them how to fix it 10 months ago so if they ignored me, then that is their problem. The old cupboard fix returns as part of OMG V6 for all you NONE OOO users. So you can stop using that cupboard fix from v5.1. But before you update, empty that cupboard because V6 replaces it with a new one. Please note that this is a common fix, other mods may also fix this bugged cupboard this way, so you may end up using the other mods fix not mine or have 2 cupboards occupying the same space. That is perfectly fine, as long as1 mod fixes it, that is all that counts. Providing they are not stupid enough to edit the original drawer or make it a quest target that is. That would cause potential problems in 33 other locations and be a bad move over all. This version contains built in support for the Witches and WitchHunters addon that I plan to make.
Lore references
See the included ArchmageTravenStory.txt file (lots of default mages guild plot spoilers) that I have added to this mod. It is a draft version of my research in story form that you can read and see how all the lore references fitted together to make the Mages' Guild Story in Beths original Quests. I have not used too much detail and leave it up to you to check my facts yourself if you have doubts. Enough info exists for you to do that. I think it will be an eye opener for some of you to say the least.
Imperial Library and Game Lore.
When I started studying the game lore I first learnt about a website called the Imperial Library. I have since asked many questions and received lots of help from that website and the users on it. Unlike fans elsewhere, these people care enough about the game lore to write articles about it and talk about it with each other. That means they take it seriously and if they do not know something, the chances are nobody does. They have gone a long way towards making me into a Game Lore Fan, whilst I am perhaps not their type of fan yet, I have a much deeper appreciation of the game's lore than I did have because of them.
So if this mod catches your interest and you want to learn more about game lore, visit the website below.
URL = [url=http://www.imperial-library.info]http://www.imperial-library.info[/url]
Some "Origin of the Mages Guild" Mod Lore References
Not all references are found in books and not all books tell the whole story, some info must be heard in the game whilst doing the Mages' Quests or hanging about the Mages' Guild branches or University during or after doing each quest. So this is not complete, but it is a great starting point for those who want to "study up" and check my facts.
The Mages' Guild
[url=http://www.imperial-library.info/cyrodiil_guilds/mages_guild.shtml]http://www.imperial-library.info/cyrodiil_...ges_guild.shtml[/url]
Origin of the Mages Guild
[url=http://www.imperial-library.info/mwbooks/originmages.shtml]http://www.imperial-library.info/mwbooks/originmages.shtml[/url]
Imperial Charter of the Guild of Mages
[url=http://www.imperial-library.info/obbooks/mages_guild_charter.shtml]http://www.imperial-library.info/obbooks/m...d_charter.shtml[/url]
The Black Arts On Trial
[url=http://www.imperial-library.info/obbooks/black_arts_on_trial.shtml]http://www.imperial-library.info/obbooks/b..._on_trial.shtml[/url]
Galerion The Mystic
[url=http://www.imperial-library.info/dfbooks/b066_galerion.shtml]http://www.imperial-library.info/dfbooks/b066_galerion.shtml[/url]
Manifesto Cyrodiil Vampyrum
http://www.imperial-library.info/obbooks/lairvilevampiremanifesto.shtml
Opusculus Lamae Bal ta Mezzamortie
A brief account of Lamae Bal and the Restless Death (Vile Lair Book)
http://www.imperial-library.info/obbooks/lairvileopusculuslamae.shtml
Necromancer's Moon
(One of 3 pieces of evidence proving there is a God of Worms).
http://www.imperial-library.info/obbooks/necromancers_moon.shtml
About Jills of Akatosh and the Dragons Break (Warp in the west) concerning Mannimarco.
http://www.imperial-library.info/cyrodiil_guilds/mages_guild.shtml
I should add many obscure references exist to expand on this that I have not included here.
Heres extract from the book above that determined which Daggerfall Ending is true in Oblivion and why I adopted this ending.
During the Warp of the West, Mannimarco mysteriously gained the Mantella, a powerful soul gem that fueled the Numidium. With its power Mannimarco ascended to Aetherius and became the God of Worms. Later on, some scholars and Akatosh' priests claimed that the Jills of Akatosh mended the results of the time break (Dragon Break) in the Warp of the West. It was believed that Mannimarco was split in two. He transported back to Tamriel as a mortal, continuing his previous role as the King of Worms, but yet the God of Worms still exists in Aetherius.
Those books are where the lore for this mod came from, other sources exist, too many to name but I started there and it lead me to the other sources so anybody keen on checking my facts needs only start with those books.
Known Issues and Solutions
Magic mods.
This mod makes no changes to spells or spell/enchantment altars. I felt that those areas are the domain of Spell/Enchant mods like Midsa Magic and others, and felt the player may like to choose which spell mod to use with Origin of the Mages Guild. So all Spell mods should be compatible with this mod. All they have to do is place their own merchant in any room in the Arcane University (other than the Archmages Tower which is modified heavily) and their spells and NPCs will blend in with this mod perfectly. I suggest avoiding editing any NPCs from the Mages Guild to be sure of avoiding issues with Origin of the Mages Guild. Other than that, you will find most default areas within the AU have only had minor alterations done to them to allow other mod makers to add their mods to the AU as well.
Better Cities & Unique Landscapes
I am not aware of any problems with these mods but I am 100% sure some problems will exist. Whilst individually these mods deal with 1 area, every mod I make deals with several areas and would need several patches to fix things on a per mod per player, what you have installed basis. If all those "per"'s confuse you now, imagine how I feel. Also both these mods (mainly Better cities) fill up entire areas with eye candy leaving very little room for the rest of us mod makers to work in. This does not make those mods easy to be compatible with and whilst making a house mod compatible with them might be as easy as moving a door and saving off a new version of the mod. A quest mod is a vastly different ball game and any attempt to simply move things can seriously screw up your saved game in ways even the original mod maker would find hard to predict. .
For this reason I will not be attempting to be compatible with either of those mods.
They are both perfectly good mods, no major issues and the mod makers have a right to mod anything they like, but the undenyable fact remains is this, they will cause problems with quest mods due to the vast areas they do edit. So players should expect problems in this area.
Since I know somebody somewhere would relish the challege of trying to make my mods work with those mods, I here by give those who wish to try permission to do so with my blessing. I insist you rename the mod (add word to the end of this mods name or something), so it is not confused with my own releases. I will answer questions over PM to help you if need be but I will not be directly working on the solution my self. I know how big a task it is even if you do not :)
Also if people wish to merge my work with those mods and try and solve problems that way, im fine with that too. Go a head, let me know if it worked or not. If you do that, I ask you place a link in your readme to my website where guides for my mods can be found.
You will need to tell your users to perform a mod reset to avoid any problems when switching versions from mine to yours.
I have no problems with others trying to make mods compatible and will support that effort with advice as needed.
Compatibility information
No Mages' Guild Quests have been edited for this mod. So any mod that edits them will still work with this mod.
NPC's Julienne Fanis and Raminus Polus are both used by thus mod and should not be over ridden by other mods. Other NPCs can safely be overridden but it should be noted the original Danel and Skaleen are disabled by this mod and enabled again by the uninstall quest from Mr fix It at the AU.. Also the Archage Mages Tower is changed considerable by this mod but other areas have very few changes. Most new stuff was put in new areas for compatibility reasons.
Credits & Thanks
Thanks to Ren and Soya for the Hair
All the fans who let me add their books to the scholars Library in this mod, they are credited in the books they wrote.
The Imperial Library Website where most of my research was conducted.
All the people on the Imperial Library Website for being so helpful
All the guys on my Website, too many to mention here at this time.
Coldone for trying to help, sorry it did work out mate
Paw-Prints-in-the-Mud for additional character building via submitted written material.
Talkie Toastier for explaining how to change companion's inventory
Liquidgraph for allowing me to use the Dwemer Centurions from his excellent Lost Spires Mod
DaveR
Ismelda Lasombra
Wrye
Spelling and Gramma
Misnomer for helping spell/grammar check the mod.
Voice Actors
Ibsen's Ghost for some dam good voice work.
Giskard (me), I make Ibsen sound even better because my voice is crap
Tess (the Wife)
Jaster
Cyrodiil Upgrade Resource Pack Credits
Here is a link to my Resource Pack Credits.
http://www.novazone.karoo.net/cuoCyrodiilUpgradeResourcePackCredits.htm
Special thanks to my regular mod users.
Some of you are starting to feel like old friends now on Mechstorms forums and on Beths forums, total strangers that turn up time and time again to download anything I make. I am deeply honoured that you like my work that much and appreciate you all sticking by me as you have done. I know quest mods are not as popular as "Traven in hot pants wielding a new sword" type mods would be, so it means even more to me that you regulars exist and like my work. I want you to know that my work is a team effort, you players usually provide the ideas and inspiration for the mods I make and I would encourage you all to keep posting those ideas and not worry if I appear not to be interested. I often return to an idea months later without ever saying a word. So it is worth posting ideas even if you know I will not use them in the current mod. I may even make a mod based solely on your idea if it is interesting enough.
So many thinks and big hugs and kisses to the ladies, manly handshakes and a deep voiced hello for the guys :)
PS Why do my mods docs always end up this long ?
ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Giskard
