Is Something Different With Hermaeus Mora? (SPOILERS)

randconfig

So I finished the gold road questline and after sealing away Ithelia, Hermaeus Mora's tone of voice is much more evil/angry, while his appearance is much deeper and darker green... Very different from how he has been since the start of Necrom. He seems very upset that we made him change, and like he has a hatred of Ithelia despite her doing the right thing...

So I guess does anyone know more lore on Hermaeus Mora? Is this typical of his behavior, or is the ending of the storyline hinting at something more, like Hermaeus Mora becoming corrupted?

Also, am I the only one who feels sad/like something is missing with Ithelia being gone? Like all of the West Weald feels wrong after the ending, and I just want Ithelia back. Since Abolisher was given the power to cut ties with the path Ithelia went on, wouldn't it be able to re-open the same path? I guess I'm kind of desperately looking for a way Ithelia could return, it just feels unfinished and sad the way it's ended. ):

EDIT: In hindsight, I also feel like I was being gaslit/manipulated into doing what Mora wanted the whole time. Every NPC, every dialogue: Ithelia bad, stop Ithelia. No choice. It feels like the story was building to a big surprise/plot twist where we find out Mora has been controlling us all along, and we end up siding with Ithelia to stop him, but it never happened... I really hope ZOS expands on this and we get to free Ithelia/stop Mora in some plot/twist follow-up. I need closure, and that's the only way I could get it.

WhiteCoatSyndrome

Hermaeus Mora is still a Daedric Prince. This is the same entity that requires the death of one of his own followers in order to keep his collection of mortal souls complete, and outright murders a Skaal fellow in ES:V Skyrim after the fellow in question gave him the information he wanted.

randconfig

WhiteCoatSyndrome wrote: »

Hermaeus Mora is still a Daedric Prince. This is the same entity that requires the death of one of his own followers in order to keep his collection of mortal souls complete, and outright murders a Skaal fellow in ES:V Skyrim after the fellow in question gave him the information he wanted.

So then maybe he is the bad guy and everything was just as forced as it felt. I really hope ZOS revists this storyline in the future... Honestly, even if Mora is not involved, I just want Ithelia to return.

fall0athboy

randconfig wrote: »

So I finished the gold road questline and after sealing away Ithelia, Hermaeus Mora's tone of voice is much more evil/angry, while his appearance is much deeper and darker green... Very different from how he has been since the start of Necrom. He seems very upset that we made him change, and like he has a hatred of Ithelia despite her doing the right thing...

So I guess does anyone know more lore on Hermaeus Mora? Is this typical of his behavior, or is the ending of the storyline hinting at something more, like Hermaeus Mora becoming corrupted?

Also, am I the only one who feels sad/like something is missing with Ithelia being gone? Like all of the West Weald feels wrong after the ending, and I just want Ithelia back. Since Abolisher was given the power to cut ties with the path Ithelia went on, wouldn't it be able to re-open the same path? I guess I'm kind of desperately looking for a way Ithelia could return, it just feels unfinished and sad the way it's ended. ):

Thank you for putting into words my thoughts about post-Gold Road. It does feel like something is missing. The profound wrongness of the situation, what Mora did to everyone's mind is wild.

NotaDaedraWorshipper

He's a daedric prince. They are neither good nor evil, they just are what they are, which is ancient eldritch beings from before time and mortals that embodies their spheres.

Mora like any prince is quite dark and not really nice from mortals views because princes are selfish beings who mainly are about their stuff. Because again, they are not mortals but closer to Cthulhu. Making mortals do what they want and what aids them is their favourite hobby. Mora wanted this solved according to his views and he was going to make some mortal or mortals do it one way or another.

As for Ithelia I personally don't find anything missing. I frankly dislike the addition of her to the lore in the first place, and find a lot of the writing of her along with the other princes appearing in Necrom and the story quite bad.

fall0athboy

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

He's a daedric prince. They are neither good nor evil, they just are what they are, which is ancient eldritch beings from before time and mortals that embodies their spheres.

Mora like any prince is quite dark and not really nice from mortals views because princes are selfish beings who mainly are about their stuff. Because again, they are not mortals but closer to Cthulhu. Making mortals do what they want and what aids them is their favourite hobby. Mora wanted this solved according to his views and he was going to make some mortal or mortals do it one way or another.

As for Ithelia I personally don't find anything missing. I frankly dislike the addition of her to the lore in the first place, and find a lot of the writing of her along with the other princes appearing in Necrom and the story quite bad.

I have to ask, what was bad about the writing for Peryite, given that he's basically the most under-written Prince?

randconfig

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

He's a daedric prince. They are neither good nor evil, they just are what they are, which is ancient eldritch beings from before time and mortals that embodies their spheres.

Mora like any prince is quite dark and not really nice from mortals views because princes are selfish beings who mainly are about their stuff. Because again, they are not mortals but closer to Cthulhu. Making mortals do what they want and what aids them is their favourite hobby. Mora wanted this solved according to his views and he was going to make some mortal or mortals do it one way or another.

As for Ithelia I personally don't find anything missing. I frankly dislike the addition of her to the lore in the first place, and find a lot of the writing of her along with the other princes appearing in Necrom and the story quite bad.

Hard disagree, I loved the setting and story, I just wanted more of it...

KingArthasMenethil

randconfig wrote: »

So I finished the gold road questline and after sealing away Ithelia, Hermaeus Mora's tone of voice is much more evil/angry, while his appearance is much deeper and darker green... Very different from how he has been since the start of Necrom. He seems very upset that we made him change, and like he has a hatred of Ithelia despite her doing the right thing...

So I guess does anyone know more lore on Hermaeus Mora? Is this typical of his behavior, or is the ending of the storyline hinting at something more, like Hermaeus Mora becoming corrupted?

Also, am I the only one who feels sad/like something is missing with Ithelia being gone? Like all of the West Weald feels wrong after the ending, and I just want Ithelia back. Since Abolisher was given the power to cut ties with the path Ithelia went on, wouldn't it be able to re-open the same path? I guess I'm kind of desperately looking for a way Ithelia could return, it just feels unfinished and sad the way it's ended. ):

EDIT: In hindsight, I also feel like I was being gaslit/manipulated into doing what Mora wanted the whole time. Every NPC, every dialogue: Ithelia bad, stop Ithelia. No choice. It feels like the story was building to a big surprise/plot twist where we find out Mora has been controlling us all along, and we end up siding with Ithelia to stop him, but it never happened... I really hope ZOS expands on this and we get to free Ithelia/stop Mora in some plot/twist follow-up. I need closure, and that's the only way I could get it.

From a story point it feels very odd that we never seem to question Mora and we just take his word for things even when he contradicts himself. Like he says he cannot perceive the actions of Ithelia which only asks how the hell he even "knows" that Ithelia is a "threat" to reality. It gets more silly that in alternate timeliens we see that Mora is the cause of the Ithelia even being a threat to reality.

The whole situation is just very weirdly written just so ZOS can keep their status quo (because "thanks" play in any order).

The whole thing has ended up being Mora harassing Ithelia for something he does not know. The writing never has you question it and has you following blindly.

mdjessup4906

: In hindsight, I also feel like I was being gaslit/manipulated into doing what Mora wanted the whole time. Every NPC, every dialogue: Ithelia bad, stop Ithelia. No choice. It feels like the story was building to a big surprise/plot twist where we find out Mora has been controlling us all along, a

M personal headcannon fr. My arc was livid at being led around by the nose by mora, being fucntionlally powerless to find a diffferent way through. The too trusting player dialouge didn't help in the least. This one is def gonna be a sour note in his gut for a long time.

Meta wise tbf i don't know how they could have ended it any other way. Good story makes you feel stuff right? Impotent rage is definetly a feeling lol.

Malyore

mdjessup4906 wrote: »

Meta wise tbf i don't know how they could have ended it any other way.

They could have ended it later, which would have given them more time to make her whole story better. As soon as she was announced we all knew she was gonna not be part of the game by the end of the chapter. But there is around 800 years between this game and the next– plenty of time to have some breathing room in lore, especially when it's supposed to all get forgotten anyways. We could have had her around for a few more content updates before getting her story resolved.

Gold road was extremely generic and boring. (I'm still flabbergasted that they thought an interesting quest would be fetching well water for a bartender when there's a literal new daedric prince sitting in the room.) I personally think it would have been much more interesting if the feeling after gold road was a sense of what awaits us now, with the prince of possibilities unleashed?.
Since this game is a prequel it should be about making an experience and story for the player, not about tooting threat level horns. We know the game world isn't gonna end. Pretending otherwise for 10 real-life years is not exciting.

As for mora, his expression in this game is a symptom of this game. He is not supposed to be your friendly neighborhood Eldritch monster. If he seemed at all more menacing, I'd bet it's not intentional. They like pretty bows in this game, not character (except for zerith-var. Love that dude). Mora gives you a pat on the hat and revives all the people that died along your journey and even says he'll let you remember Ithelia because you're a good little player. That's the outcome they wrote. That is the version of him they intended.

Trejgon

KingArthasMenethil wrote: »

The whole situation is just very weirdly written just so ZOS can keep their status quo (because "thanks" play in any order).

And it fails at that still, because the story about trying to keep Ithelia secret does not make any sense, after seeing her in action and already helping her to recover some of her memories and power.

The whole concept of "you can play story in any order and it will make sense" is a nifty idea for marketing, that has no chance to work longterm.

As for Ithelias arc in overal, as far as my opinion goes, making a big deal of whole new daedric prince is a waste of breath, if the exact same release that "hypes up" new daedric prince ends up with said prince removed from the picture indefinitelly. That arc should have lasted longer for the hype to make sense.

sans-culottes

randconfig wrote: »

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

He's a daedric prince. They are neither good nor evil, they just are what they are, which is ancient eldritch beings from before time and mortals that embodies their spheres.

Mora like any prince is quite dark and not really nice from mortals views because princes are selfish beings who mainly are about their stuff. Because again, they are not mortals but closer to Cthulhu. Making mortals do what they want and what aids them is their favourite hobby. Mora wanted this solved according to his views and he was going to make some mortal or mortals do it one way or another.

As for Ithelia I personally don't find anything missing. I frankly dislike the addition of her to the lore in the first place, and find a lot of the writing of her along with the other princes appearing in Necrom and the story quite bad.

Hard disagree, I loved the setting and story, I just wanted more of it...

I’m glad you liked it, but I found it a slog. Introducing and then sidelining a new daedric prince was incredibly lazy, particularly the attempt to wrap things up in a little bow. Another poster mentioned this enabling the already wish-washy timeline to remain muddled—that’s probably more accurate than not.

This was a missed opportunity. Gold Coast was the first expansion I didn’t bother to finish. What a mess.

colossalvoids

sans-culottes wrote: »

randconfig wrote: »

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

He's a daedric prince. They are neither good nor evil, they just are what they are, which is ancient eldritch beings from before time and mortals that embodies their spheres.

Mora like any prince is quite dark and not really nice from mortals views because princes are selfish beings who mainly are about their stuff. Because again, they are not mortals but closer to Cthulhu. Making mortals do what they want and what aids them is their favourite hobby. Mora wanted this solved according to his views and he was going to make some mortal or mortals do it one way or another.

As for Ithelia I personally don't find anything missing. I frankly dislike the addition of her to the lore in the first place, and find a lot of the writing of her along with the other princes appearing in Necrom and the story quite bad.

Hard disagree, I loved the setting and story, I just wanted more of it...

This was a missed opportunity. Gold Coast was the first expansion I didn’t bother to finish. What a mess.

At the very least it's ended now, back to more canonical elder scrolls hopefully.

fall0athboy

colossalvoids wrote: »

sans-culottes wrote: »

randconfig wrote: »

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

He's a daedric prince. They are neither good nor evil, they just are what they are, which is ancient eldritch beings from before time and mortals that embodies their spheres.

Mora like any prince is quite dark and not really nice from mortals views because princes are selfish beings who mainly are about their stuff. Because again, they are not mortals but closer to Cthulhu. Making mortals do what they want and what aids them is their favourite hobby. Mora wanted this solved according to his views and he was going to make some mortal or mortals do it one way or another.

As for Ithelia I personally don't find anything missing. I frankly dislike the addition of her to the lore in the first place, and find a lot of the writing of her along with the other princes appearing in Necrom and the story quite bad.

Hard disagree, I loved the setting and story, I just wanted more of it...

This was a missed opportunity. Gold Coast was the first expansion I didn’t bother to finish. What a mess.

At the very least it's ended now, back to more canonical elder scrolls hopefully.

Ithelia is canon; I'm not sure what you mean here.

NotaDaedraWorshipper

fall0athboy wrote: »

colossalvoids wrote: »

sans-culottes wrote: »

randconfig wrote: »

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

He's a daedric prince. They are neither good nor evil, they just are what they are, which is ancient eldritch beings from before time and mortals that embodies their spheres.

Mora like any prince is quite dark and not really nice from mortals views because princes are selfish beings who mainly are about their stuff. Because again, they are not mortals but closer to Cthulhu. Making mortals do what they want and what aids them is their favourite hobby. Mora wanted this solved according to his views and he was going to make some mortal or mortals do it one way or another.

As for Ithelia I personally don't find anything missing. I frankly dislike the addition of her to the lore in the first place, and find a lot of the writing of her along with the other princes appearing in Necrom and the story quite bad.

Hard disagree, I loved the setting and story, I just wanted more of it...

This was a missed opportunity. Gold Coast was the first expansion I didn’t bother to finish. What a mess.

At the very least it's ended now, back to more canonical elder scrolls hopefully.

Ithelia is canon; I'm not sure what you mean here.

That prince that appeared only during one year, takes part of different princes and treat them as new, completely ignores the already existing 17th prince Jyggalag, and was then forgotten again? It may be canon, but it was such a pointless write in.

sans-culottes

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

fall0athboy wrote: »

colossalvoids wrote: »

sans-culottes wrote: »

randconfig wrote: »

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

He's a daedric prince. They are neither good nor evil, they just are what they are, which is ancient eldritch beings from before time and mortals that embodies their spheres.

Mora like any prince is quite dark and not really nice from mortals views because princes are selfish beings who mainly are about their stuff. Because again, they are not mortals but closer to Cthulhu. Making mortals do what they want and what aids them is their favourite hobby. Mora wanted this solved according to his views and he was going to make some mortal or mortals do it one way or another.

As for Ithelia I personally don't find anything missing. I frankly dislike the addition of her to the lore in the first place, and find a lot of the writing of her along with the other princes appearing in Necrom and the story quite bad.

Hard disagree, I loved the setting and story, I just wanted more of it...

This was a missed opportunity. Gold Coast was the first expansion I didn’t bother to finish. What a mess.

At the very least it's ended now, back to more canonical elder scrolls hopefully.

Ithelia is canon; I'm not sure what you mean here.

That prince that appeared only during one year, takes part of different princes and treat them as new, completely ignores the already existing 17th prince Jyggalag, and was then forgotten again? It may be canon, but it was such a pointless write in.

Totally, 💯. This was a mess for quite a few reasons, and you have succinctly highlighted the main issue I’ve had with this “storyline.” Not only does it end up feeling like a missed opportunity to expand the lore in a unique way, but it ended up with things going back to the status quo. It was a strange, quick resolution to something that should’ve felt more impactful. A missed opportunity.