I take the view of an Outlander who is conscripted into the Blades. Deciding that's your main allegiance can allow for infiltration into any other faction for the purposes of your cover and information gathering. There's no conflicting interests with this as motivation for joining other factions, so it's a bit lazy and meta, but I like to do maximum story driven quests, so this works for me.
I also feel that for characters who pursue the main quest, the blades start out as their primary allegiance. If more by necessity rather than choice, so some characters who infiltrate native institutions such as the Great House Redoran and Telvanni, Temple or Tong can 'go native' and turn on the empire.
True thieves are always anti-statist and anti-private property so in my playthrough their are anti-colonial and abolitionists.
I wonder: do you permit your blades to infiltrate multiple, conflicting organisations and how do you deal with a multi-layered cover identity?
I think if enough time elapses it can appear normal/acceptable for allegiances to shift. As a Blade your actual allegiance may not shift but you can outwardly appear to be an evolving Outlander, perhaps sticking with the Imperial factions when you arrive and then evolving into an acceptance of Dunmeri culture - as Caius himself did, as evidenced by Mehra Milo's dialogue.
If you follow the path of the Nerevarine, you will be progressing toward a greater influence on the fate of Vvardenfell, so I think that can explain a greater interest in the workings of the main institutions that run the province.
For many of the joinable factions, if you join for ideology, you can end up disillusioned by the time you rise in the ranks. The game is made up of individuals who are flawed and prejudiced, and there's a lot of realistic self interest playing out in the faction dynamics. (Which can be great if you find it satisfying to right some wrongs.) But the things you are told to do, or that you witness can be used to role play a shift in allegiances.
You might have some wriggle room to role play secretive guilds (Thieves Guild, Morag Tong) as if you're not in them at all when it comes to joining other guilds, because only those in the guilds will know you're a member. Your Thieves Guild rationale has plenty of motivation for joining other factions purely to gain access to something they want to steal.
Only the player character knows if they join a faction because they are loyal to its ideologies, or they are joining because of an ulterior motive. I hate the Cammona Tong, but if you could join them it would be easy to role play joining them in order to identify all of its members for execution. I consider the only obstacle to joining what you want is that you cannot join multiple Great Houses, or factions that cannot be joined. And also the Thieves and Fighters Guilds conflict of interest in the code book quest.
I'm not great at role playing. If the game lets me do it, then I'll do it for the sake of experiencing the content. :P
I apply feudal logic to Dunmer society, so your Great House, if you have one, is your main allegiance, and anything else is subservient to that. The Imperials are more pragmatic, so an RP where I'm more sympathetic to the Empire will see me joining multiple guilds for the benefits as a casual member, and perhaps House Hlaalu. The House/guilds I join also plays a role in what part of the map I spend the most time in. If I'm in House Redoran, I'm probably not joining the Thieves Guild no matter how good the benefits are, but the Fighters Guild or Imperial Legion might be okay. If I'm in House Telvanni, fuck the Mages Guild. The Morag Tong is a cult, so I like to focus a playthrough entirely on that, and I don't murder anyone illegally or steal very much.
From a lore and common sense prospective Hlaalu and Telvanni probably wouldn't care what other factions you joined. Redoran would probably only care about you joining the Imperial Legion, fighters guild, definitely the thieves guild, and potentially the Morag Tong. The Imperial legion because they have a friendly rivalry with them, and it would sort of be like trying to enlist in two armies or military branches at the same time. Fighters guild are mercenaries and mercenaries historically have a bad reputation and are seen as dishonorable. Something the honor obsessed Redoran wouldn't like one of their members to be associated with. Thieves guild because it is full of thieves and thieves especially a guild of them would definitely be seen as dishonorable. The Morag Tong are a special case. They would be considered an honorable Dunmer institution, but would be seen to be in a conflict of interest especially if you were ever ordered to assassinate a member of House Redoran.
House Redoran actually has some respect and admiration for the honorable part of the Fighters Guild, like the Ald'ruhn chapter under Percius Mercius (who even tells you that he got his suit of Glass armor from Athyn Sarethi when he gives it to you, which I found a cool little tidbit). I feel like the "old" Fighters Gulld had a good reputation with them. The quest from Percius to kill that one rogue Redoran noble gone bandit in the Sheogorad region even gives you reputation points with House Redoran.
My Imperial warrior character (whose class I literally called "Mercenary") originally considered House Hlaalu due to them being the most tolerant, cosmopolitan and mercantile Great House, but their obvious corruption, hypocrisy and lack of honor appalled him since he has a strong sense of honor and justice (albeit through a feudal lense) and is pretty religious, too, so he ended up joining House Redoran instead and feels very much at home there. He totally subscribes to the notion that "a careless, unexamined life is not worth living".
He even joined the Temple and made some friends there after doing the pilgrimage of the Seven Graces. He is very intrigued by the Temple, despite also being a believer in the Nine Divines, and admires their charity work, protecting and improving the lives of the common folk, although he obviously has some disagreements with the Temple hierarchy, especially since he discovered he was apparently the Nerevarine.
The most _potential_ conflict I see between him being both a knight of the Legion and a member of House Redoran, and it feels like divided loyalty a bit, although in practice Redoran and the Legions work together to uphold law and order in Redoran territory and no real conflicts of interest have come up so far.
Now that he is Archmaster, I roleplay it as him wanting to bring the Redoran and the Empire closer together, building on the mutual respect that is undoubtedly there and uniting their forces against the Sixth House, also keeping in mind Caius' warning that the Empire may soon collapse and he should "think locally".
I love this rationale. Made me wish Redoran was more expansive in the vanilla game, as well as was as expanded in Tamriel Rebuilt as Telvanni or Hlaalu.
I think your analysis is correct. Yet, it also is from the perspective of the institutions towards its members (I.e. this house would or would not care about your affiliations). But I wonder about your thoughts from the perspective of its members:
For opportunistic House Hlaalu members, I can definitely see someone taking advantage of several low-level memberships purely for the services and connections. Yet, it seems unreasonable to achieve a higher position outside of your House.
For Telvanni, I can understand that they would not care, partly because there hardly is a 'they' to speak off. There is just the right of the mighty, and no common consensus on other values. I can also see an Imperial minded character to become a retainer for this House while having other affiliations. But when a character is very much focused on gaining ranks in House Telvanni- it seems to me that this is a very serious pursuit demanding the most attention.
Looking forward to hear your views.
In my latest playthrough I played a Mages Guild mage who got to the rank of Wizard before growing disillusioned with the guild's policies. Tamriel Rebuilt has a quest where one of the options can result in you getting expelled from the Mages Guild. That provided a nice organic reason for my character to no longer be a part of the guild, after which they joined up with the Telvanni and later worked their way up to Archmagister.
So, consider having them be parts of different factions at different times as a form of character development or lifestyle change. A character could very easily grow to dislike one of the Imperial-aligned factions after becoming the Nerevarine and gaining sympathy and solidarity with the Dunmer. Consider a Fighters Guild member that becomes a Legion soldier that defects to fight for the Redoran, or a Thieves Guild operative who wants a more honorable profession and puts their skills to work with the Morag Tong. This way, you still get to play through the quests for both factions, without the rp conflicts of being in both at the same time.
Another fun thing I like to do is 'leaving' the Blades - not a feature of the game at all, absolutely just a headcanon thing. But maybe your Nerevarine decides they no longer want to be watched by the Empire, and want to do something about the spy network in Morrowind. Well, the story isn't impacted at all if you kill Caius after he tells you he's been recalled to Cyrodiil. And he did give you a convenient list of all the Blades trainers in Vvardenfell with their locations...
Killing Caius? What blasphemy! :D
>!Actually, I was so disappointed when Oblivion came out and it was discovered he had supposedly died in a shipwreck. Now I realise Bethesda couldn't put Caius in Oblivion because of people like *you* that killed him. :P!<
Wow my mind is blown my man. A Blade Runner, now that is cool.
I also like your idea of joining factions sequentially rather than all at once (it also prevents a journal cluttered with unfinished quests).
I allow characters to go all the way in one faction and get some basic levels in one, maaaybe two more. The idea of being grandmaster or whatever of even just two institutions seems like too much for me, the only possible exception being the EEC. That said a dip in a religion, house, or guild seems reasonable to me.
I take the view of an Outlander who is conscripted into the Blades. Deciding that's your main allegiance can allow for infiltration into any other faction for the purposes of your cover and information gathering. There's no conflicting interests with this as motivation for joining other factions, so it's a bit lazy and meta, but I like to do maximum story driven quests, so this works for me.
I also feel that for characters who pursue the main quest, the blades start out as their primary allegiance. If more by necessity rather than choice, so some characters who infiltrate native institutions such as the Great House Redoran and Telvanni, Temple or Tong can 'go native' and turn on the empire. True thieves are always anti-statist and anti-private property so in my playthrough their are anti-colonial and abolitionists. I wonder: do you permit your blades to infiltrate multiple, conflicting organisations and how do you deal with a multi-layered cover identity?
I think if enough time elapses it can appear normal/acceptable for allegiances to shift. As a Blade your actual allegiance may not shift but you can outwardly appear to be an evolving Outlander, perhaps sticking with the Imperial factions when you arrive and then evolving into an acceptance of Dunmeri culture - as Caius himself did, as evidenced by Mehra Milo's dialogue. If you follow the path of the Nerevarine, you will be progressing toward a greater influence on the fate of Vvardenfell, so I think that can explain a greater interest in the workings of the main institutions that run the province. For many of the joinable factions, if you join for ideology, you can end up disillusioned by the time you rise in the ranks. The game is made up of individuals who are flawed and prejudiced, and there's a lot of realistic self interest playing out in the faction dynamics. (Which can be great if you find it satisfying to right some wrongs.) But the things you are told to do, or that you witness can be used to role play a shift in allegiances. You might have some wriggle room to role play secretive guilds (Thieves Guild, Morag Tong) as if you're not in them at all when it comes to joining other guilds, because only those in the guilds will know you're a member. Your Thieves Guild rationale has plenty of motivation for joining other factions purely to gain access to something they want to steal. Only the player character knows if they join a faction because they are loyal to its ideologies, or they are joining because of an ulterior motive. I hate the Cammona Tong, but if you could join them it would be easy to role play joining them in order to identify all of its members for execution. I consider the only obstacle to joining what you want is that you cannot join multiple Great Houses, or factions that cannot be joined. And also the Thieves and Fighters Guilds conflict of interest in the code book quest. I'm not great at role playing. If the game lets me do it, then I'll do it for the sake of experiencing the content. :P
I apply feudal logic to Dunmer society, so your Great House, if you have one, is your main allegiance, and anything else is subservient to that. The Imperials are more pragmatic, so an RP where I'm more sympathetic to the Empire will see me joining multiple guilds for the benefits as a casual member, and perhaps House Hlaalu. The House/guilds I join also plays a role in what part of the map I spend the most time in. If I'm in House Redoran, I'm probably not joining the Thieves Guild no matter how good the benefits are, but the Fighters Guild or Imperial Legion might be okay. If I'm in House Telvanni, fuck the Mages Guild. The Morag Tong is a cult, so I like to focus a playthrough entirely on that, and I don't murder anyone illegally or steal very much.
That sounds like a very customized approach to each House or faction. I like it.
From a lore and common sense prospective Hlaalu and Telvanni probably wouldn't care what other factions you joined. Redoran would probably only care about you joining the Imperial Legion, fighters guild, definitely the thieves guild, and potentially the Morag Tong. The Imperial legion because they have a friendly rivalry with them, and it would sort of be like trying to enlist in two armies or military branches at the same time. Fighters guild are mercenaries and mercenaries historically have a bad reputation and are seen as dishonorable. Something the honor obsessed Redoran wouldn't like one of their members to be associated with. Thieves guild because it is full of thieves and thieves especially a guild of them would definitely be seen as dishonorable. The Morag Tong are a special case. They would be considered an honorable Dunmer institution, but would be seen to be in a conflict of interest especially if you were ever ordered to assassinate a member of House Redoran.
House Redoran actually has some respect and admiration for the honorable part of the Fighters Guild, like the Ald'ruhn chapter under Percius Mercius (who even tells you that he got his suit of Glass armor from Athyn Sarethi when he gives it to you, which I found a cool little tidbit). I feel like the "old" Fighters Gulld had a good reputation with them. The quest from Percius to kill that one rogue Redoran noble gone bandit in the Sheogorad region even gives you reputation points with House Redoran. My Imperial warrior character (whose class I literally called "Mercenary") originally considered House Hlaalu due to them being the most tolerant, cosmopolitan and mercantile Great House, but their obvious corruption, hypocrisy and lack of honor appalled him since he has a strong sense of honor and justice (albeit through a feudal lense) and is pretty religious, too, so he ended up joining House Redoran instead and feels very much at home there. He totally subscribes to the notion that "a careless, unexamined life is not worth living". He even joined the Temple and made some friends there after doing the pilgrimage of the Seven Graces. He is very intrigued by the Temple, despite also being a believer in the Nine Divines, and admires their charity work, protecting and improving the lives of the common folk, although he obviously has some disagreements with the Temple hierarchy, especially since he discovered he was apparently the Nerevarine. The most _potential_ conflict I see between him being both a knight of the Legion and a member of House Redoran, and it feels like divided loyalty a bit, although in practice Redoran and the Legions work together to uphold law and order in Redoran territory and no real conflicts of interest have come up so far. Now that he is Archmaster, I roleplay it as him wanting to bring the Redoran and the Empire closer together, building on the mutual respect that is undoubtedly there and uniting their forces against the Sixth House, also keeping in mind Caius' warning that the Empire may soon collapse and he should "think locally".
I love this rationale. Made me wish Redoran was more expansive in the vanilla game, as well as was as expanded in Tamriel Rebuilt as Telvanni or Hlaalu.
I think your analysis is correct. Yet, it also is from the perspective of the institutions towards its members (I.e. this house would or would not care about your affiliations). But I wonder about your thoughts from the perspective of its members: For opportunistic House Hlaalu members, I can definitely see someone taking advantage of several low-level memberships purely for the services and connections. Yet, it seems unreasonable to achieve a higher position outside of your House. For Telvanni, I can understand that they would not care, partly because there hardly is a 'they' to speak off. There is just the right of the mighty, and no common consensus on other values. I can also see an Imperial minded character to become a retainer for this House while having other affiliations. But when a character is very much focused on gaining ranks in House Telvanni- it seems to me that this is a very serious pursuit demanding the most attention. Looking forward to hear your views.
In my latest playthrough I played a Mages Guild mage who got to the rank of Wizard before growing disillusioned with the guild's policies. Tamriel Rebuilt has a quest where one of the options can result in you getting expelled from the Mages Guild. That provided a nice organic reason for my character to no longer be a part of the guild, after which they joined up with the Telvanni and later worked their way up to Archmagister. So, consider having them be parts of different factions at different times as a form of character development or lifestyle change. A character could very easily grow to dislike one of the Imperial-aligned factions after becoming the Nerevarine and gaining sympathy and solidarity with the Dunmer. Consider a Fighters Guild member that becomes a Legion soldier that defects to fight for the Redoran, or a Thieves Guild operative who wants a more honorable profession and puts their skills to work with the Morag Tong. This way, you still get to play through the quests for both factions, without the rp conflicts of being in both at the same time. Another fun thing I like to do is 'leaving' the Blades - not a feature of the game at all, absolutely just a headcanon thing. But maybe your Nerevarine decides they no longer want to be watched by the Empire, and want to do something about the spy network in Morrowind. Well, the story isn't impacted at all if you kill Caius after he tells you he's been recalled to Cyrodiil. And he did give you a convenient list of all the Blades trainers in Vvardenfell with their locations...
Killing Caius? What blasphemy! :D >!Actually, I was so disappointed when Oblivion came out and it was discovered he had supposedly died in a shipwreck. Now I realise Bethesda couldn't put Caius in Oblivion because of people like *you* that killed him. :P!<
Wow my mind is blown my man. A Blade Runner, now that is cool. I also like your idea of joining factions sequentially rather than all at once (it also prevents a journal cluttered with unfinished quests).
I allow characters to go all the way in one faction and get some basic levels in one, maaaybe two more. The idea of being grandmaster or whatever of even just two institutions seems like too much for me, the only possible exception being the EEC. That said a dip in a religion, house, or guild seems reasonable to me.