However, it would be remiss of me not to mention one-time Bethesda developer Michael Kirkbride, author of the 36 Lessons of Vivec, and many other Elder Scrolls texts, both ingame and out. “It was one dev, naked in a room with a carton of cigarettes, a thermos full of coffee and bourbon, and all his summoned angels.” – Michael Kirkbride on writing the 36 Lessons of VivecĪ brief digression: Bethesda games are collaborative efforts, and from the players’ perspective, they see only “the game”, knowing nothing of which individual designer or writer contributed which part. Yet for poetry to seize the heart, it must ring with the chimes of truth.” – Sotha Sil’s Last Words Trust not the words of a poet, as he is born to seduce. Vivec ponders the mystery of his missing chair.

Pardon me if I came across as rather contemptuous there, but I have little sympathy with players who try slaughtering him. Unless they’re one of those players, in which case he’s “dude I killed just to see if it was possible, and if he had any neat stuff on him”. He is all these things and more, although many players will only know him as the latter. Weird floating dude who gave you a glove during the Morrowind main quest. Warrior, poet, general, thief, lover, liar, mystic, murderer. Vivec, also known as Vehk, plays many roles. The person sitting on top of the fourth wall, possibly some inches above the actual wall, would be Vivec.

I wrote, in the introductory post, that the Elder Scrolls series “does very strange things to the fourth wall, not so much breaking it as morphing it, moving it, twisting it, painting it purple and sitting on top of it laughing”. I am a letter written in uncertainty.” – Vivec, 36 Lessons, Sermon 4 “Certitude is for the puzzle-box logicians and girls of white glamour who harbor it on their own time.

This is a piece of textual criticism, describing the relationship between the player and the game.ĭivine CHIMistry, or: How Vivec Accessed the Construction Set.

Also, because I’ve seen people on Reddit getting confused about this, THIS ESSAY DOES NOT CLAIM TO ACCURATELY DESCRIBE THE INGAME LORE. HERE BE SPOILERS, and I also apply the standard Elder Scrolls caveat that it is truly more fun to play the game, read the texts, and figure out your own interpretations. Third (belated, apologies!) part of a look at how the metaphysics of Morrowind reach out beyond the game to drag extraludic, metagame phenomena into the fiction of the world… or is it the other way around? Here are parts one and two.

Morrowind egg of time