History VideoGame / TheElderScrollsIVOblivion

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* HighTurnoverRate: The Imperial City is this for law-enforcment. No less than three different captains-of-the-guard end up getting replaced, one for corruption, one for crossing the thieves guild, and one due to a Dark Brotherhood contract.

* HornedHumanoid: The Dremora.

* HundredPercentHeroismRating: You have to settle for the occasional compliment ("You're the one who closed the demon gate! The Hero of Kvatch!"). Although you get these based on your actions regardless of your fame or infamy. [=NPCs=]' disposition towards you also increases as your fame rating increases. Oh, and you do get a statue of your character built (it's essentially a copy of your character model at the time the quest was completed but stone textured) which is modeled with the most valuable items you have with you when you do this. There is a very nice and thus valuable dagger you get from the Brotherhood, which will take precedence. It just looks silly - full regalia, big armour, giant shield, ramming a 3 inch dagger [[StabTheSky into the sky]]...although, apparently, if you have enough torches in your inventory at the time of completion, your weapon will be [[IncendiaryExponent on fire]]!
** ''Oblivion'' tracks fame and infamy separately so you can be greeted heartily when you approach a guard and then be chastised for being a thief when you talk to him.
* HungryWeapon: the warrior Umbra holes up in an Ayleid ruin mostly to isolate her sword (also called Umbra) from the souls it lusts for. Of course, you, [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential the bastard that you are]], will kill her and take this evil thing for yourself.

* SuperNotDrowningSkills: Argonians can breathe underwater. PC's can breathe under water using spells or rings.
* SupportingTheMonsterLovedOne: In "Shivering Isles", the conspiracy theorist Muurine lives with her uncle Leo. Uncle Leo is a zombie locked on the second floor of her house, and it appears that she still loves him and feeds him (judging by the fact that the zombie is non-hostile, he's well fed). Muurine also appears to be unaware what exactly is wrong with Uncle Leo, saying he's only "not feeling well".
* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
** The "Imperial Corruption" sidequest consist in investigating (justified) accusations of extortion againt Audens Avidius, one of Imperial City's captains of the guard. Unsurprisingly, trying to confront him without backup from other guards and ironclad proofs results in a failure and earns you a bounty.
** Trying to perform a BareHandedBladeBlock without an adequate level in the Block skill will cause you to take a fair bit of damage. Averted once your Block skill improves.
** In the ''Shivering Isles'' expansion, you are sent on a vital quest by Sheogorath to save his realm from destruction. If the player goes back to Cyrodill and then begins Sheogorath's daedric quest, he will be upset that you are wasting time rather than completing the tasks he has given you. [[spoiler:If you do so after being made the new Sheogorath, Haskil will appear and comment on you leaving offerings to yourself, as well as criticize you for wasting time if you have no yet resolved the threat facing the Isles.]]
** If the player attacks Sheogorath he will instantly kill them by teleporting them into the sky and letting gravity do the rest. What else would you expect to happen when you attack a god in his own realm?
** In the Shivering Isles, there's an Orc who's terrified of cats being followed by a Khajiit. Because of this he can hire the PC to get rid of them. That is, unless you are also a Khajiit, then he'll just have his guard dog attack you.

* BigBad:
** Mehrunes Dagon.
** Also, Umaril in Knights of the Nine, [[spoiler:Jyggalag]] in Shivering Isles, Frathen Drothan in Mehrunes' Razor, the Yellow Team Champion & Agronak gro-Malog in the Arena questline, Mannimarco in the Mages Guild questline, Ri'Zakar in the Fighters Guild questline, Hieronymus Lex for most of the Thieves Guild questline and [[spoiler:Mathieu Bellamont]] in the Dark Brotherhood questline.

** Late in the Dark Brotherhood quests, you are given assassination contracts by dead drop, which a traitor intercepts to trick you into killing Dark Brotherhood members instead. Even though the change in the letters' tone is obvious and several targets have Dark Brotherhood gear in their homes, even though you can visit your boss at home for a chat between killings, StupidityIsTheOnlyOption: you have to kill most of your superiors, get caught by your boss, and weather his WhatTheHellHero speech.

* ViceCity: Bravil is home to a den that sells the otherwise highly regulated/illegeal addictive substance - skooma. In addition there are at-least three bars selling various intoxicants.

* WhamLine: Mankar Camoran's monologue to the player: "The Principalities have sparkled as gems in the black reaches of Oblivion since the First Morning. Many are their names and the names of their masters: the Coldharbour of Meridia, Peryite's Quagmire, the ten Moonshadows of Mephala, and... and Dawn's Beauty, [[spoiler:the Princedom of Lorkhan... misnamed Tamriel by deluded mortals."]] Even after the release of Skyrim, it's still unclear if Mankar was lying or not.

* FlatEarthAtheist: Zigzagged with Else God-Hater in Skingrad. [[spoiler:Her involvement with the Mythic Dawn]] might make this seem like a subversion, but she does mention that she has no trouble believing the [[spoiler:Daedric Princes]] exist, on the grounds that "they do things. Bad things, mostly, but things you can see." Yet she isn't convinced by the actions of the Nine Divines despite the consistent and measurable magical effects caused by praying at altars.

** When fightng in the arena, the best strategy is to stay in the starting area and pick off your enemies with a bow and arrow as they [[ArtificialStupidity run directly toward you]] instead of, say, hiding behind one of the many pillars in the arena.
** Kathutet invokes this on the Player if he/she chooses to fight him for the Bands of the Chosen instead of doing his task.
-->'''Player''':''"I'll take this key from your corpse."''
-->'''Kathutet''':''"Your mind follows the simple path ... the choice of an animal. You see an enemy and you attack it, unthinking. But you have courage, at least. To slay a bold animal like you is not without glory."''

* MasterForger: In the ThievesGuild quest line, the only person capable of forging a transfer recommendation for an Imperial Guard Captain is a mysterious "Stranger" who works out of an abandoned shack. His skill and anonymity are explained by [[spoiler:him being the [[KingOfThieves Gray Fox]], bearer of the Cowl of Nocturnal.]]

* MedicationTampering: One of the Dark Brotherhood quests requires you to assassinate a sickly bandit leader that way.

* MoleInCharge: The vampire hunter organization [[spoiler:The Order of the Virtuous Blood's own leader is a vampire using it to deflect suspicion off of himself.]]

''Franchise/TheElderScrolls IV: Oblivion'' is a RolePlayingGame developed by [[Creator/{{Bethesda}} Bethesda Softworks]] and released in 2006 for PC and Xbox 360 and one year later for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation3.

* CitadelCity: Imperial City.

* ColdSnap: The time you spend in Bruma will be fairly well defined by it's snowy enviroment both in and around the town.

--> "What's with all this sneaking about? I'd much rather look my target in the eye and say something scary like, 'I am the deliverer of death!' and hit them with a [[DropTheHammer hammer]]."

* DropTheHammer: Oblivion has a range of warhammers, heavy two-handed weapons which deal damage just as heavy. Notably, some minotaurs use them as one-handed maces.

* GiantMook: The Xivilai, massive daedra who wield battle axes and [[DropTheHammer warhammers]] in ''one hand''.

* FameGate: The Heaven Stones, which can only be activated and grant you their Greater Powers after the sum of your Fame and Infamy reaches a certain value. Also, the ''Knight of the Nine'' expansion has an {{inversion}}; it requires your character to be free of any infamy, which means (unless you've been an absolute saint for the whole game) you have to go on a pilgrimage to every single shrine in the game to receive a blessing.

** Also, Umaril in Knights of the Nine, [[spoiler:Jyggalag]] in Shivering Isles, Frathen Drothan in Mehrunes' Razor, Mannimarco in the Mages Guild questline, Ri'Zakar in the Fighters Guild questline, Hieronymus Lex for most of the Thieves Guild questline and [[spoiler:Mathieu Bellamont]] in the Dark Brotherhood questline.

** Also, Umaril in Knights of the Nine, [[spoiler:Jyggalag]] in Shivering Isles, Mannimarco in the Mages Guild questline, Ri'Zakar in the Fighters Guild questline, Hieronymus Lex for most of the Thieves Guild questline and [[spoiler:Mathieu Bellamont]] in the Dark Brotherhood questline.

The game launched during a turning point in the medium, and served as a guinea pig of sorts for the Xbox Live Marketplace and DownloadableContent, receiving a significant amount of new content, ranging from player homes, to a whole new story arc in the form of ''Knights of the Nine'', which was eventually released on PC as well. The game also received a full expansion called ''Shivering Isles'', dealing with Sheogorath, the Daedric prince of madness, in 2007.

The game launched during a turning point in the medium, and served as a guinea pig of sorts for the Xbox Live Marketplace and DownloadableContent, receiving a significant amount of new content, ranging from player homes, to a whole new story arc in the form of ''Knights of the Nine'', which was eventually released on PC as well. The game also received full expansion called ''Shivering Isles'', dealing with Sheogorath, the Daedric prince of madness, in 2007.

What follows is a lengthy quest to save the province of Cyrodiil, heartland of the Empire which spans the whole continent of Tamriel, from destruction at the hands of Mehrunes Dagon, the Daedric prince of destruction.

** Also, the Utherfrykte Matron. The Utherfrykte was an obscure BonusBoss in the "Bloodmoon" expansion for ''Morrowind.'' In relation to this is an NPC from Bloodmoon, the foxy Svenja Snow-Song, who became your character's second in command at the Solstheim Mead Hall. In Oblivion, you can find her husband's journal at Dive Rock, detailing numerous nightmares she had regarding the creatures. Having enough of it, the two decided to venture to Cyrodiil to slay their Matron, only for Svenja to get eaten alive by the creature before getting off a shot. Her husband watches in horror, and is mortally wounded soon after, being able to make it back to their nearby camp to finish writing. You can find the husband's body and journal at the camp, and can also slay the Matron once and for all. Inside its body is Svenja's bow... along with her mostly digested corpse.

* BonusBoss: This game has a few of these, and finding each one of them generally is a GuideDangIt moment.
** Erandur-Vangaril (a lich). He can only be found in a specific cave that none of the game's quests lead you to, and can only be fought there once your character reaches a certain level.
** The giant slaughterfish, who shows up in one of the dungeons you explore in the Thieves Guild questline, but chances are you won't ever see this one if you don't fully explore the place.
** There's also the Uderfrykte Matron at Dive Rock.

** OrderReborn: The Knights of the Nine