Jun 13, 2025
The Kingdom of Anvil
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The Kingdom of Anvil
Let's appreciate wild horses in Cyrodiil
Aspera, chimeri-quey disaster. Eats dreugh for breakfast.
So my thing with Aspera was that I wanted to make Big Axe Hit Hard, but also tanks are boring, so to spice up her build I decided to make her a speed-focussed tank. Lift axe over head, charge in with a devasting attack, skip nimbly backwards. Supplement with magic as needed. Also skooma. Skooma's great. Basically, since she doesn't have the Marksman skill, she IS the ranged weapon.
What I did not know going into this—this being that she is a Project Cyrodiil character—is that you need a lot of smooth-talking to excel in the Kingdom of Anvil. Her backstory is: she's so socially inept that her Chimeri-quey merchanting family-ship dropped her off at Anvil and politely asked her not to come back aboard again. Being 20-something curious cat who never really fit in there anyway, she took this very pragmatically and set off to seek her fortune. (Nearly everyone thinks she is a very, very strange Altmer. Altmer are Perturbed when they meet her.) HOWEVER, the fun thing about Cyrodiil is that a bunch of the booze fortifies personality. So she just chugs a ton of wine before talking to anyone. (This is extra fun with a drunkenness effect mod.)
Playing her is an absolute blast, mechanics-wise. She's very strange.
Aspera's little home in Charach, featuring a smattering of loot and a modest Ayleid collection.
Honestly, the Abecean Shores release is so fucking good???
I would have said, prior to my 'lol I'll just roll up a rando character and explore Anvil for a few minutes' moment, that I kinda lowkey hated Cyrodiil and the Empire.
...but you know what, actually it's fucking dope! The team is doing a splendid job making Cyrodiil so cool! I am Obsessed with Ayleids now, whereas I found their dungeons kinda boring and bland in Oblivion. (Oh yeah, TORTURE ARTS? That's just catnip to me. Why don't I remember about the torture.) Having unique enemies I don't remember from Oblivion in Ayleid ruins is so good.
Both the Kingdom of Anvil & Itinerant Priest factions were a surprise, I didn't even know those was a thing going in. I barely remember anything about Anvil in Oblivion; in this mod I hardly want to leave it (except I do, because exploring is so fun. Also, Charach is charming AF.) I'm going to have to roll up a whole new thief charater just to do the Thieves' Guild stuff.... but maybe after I've taken Aspera off to Skyrim & Solstheim. Which is going to be a while yet because I'm just pouring hours and hours and hours into Cyrodiil.
Also I love the change from counts & countesses (Oblivion) ruling the various places to queens and kings (Project Cyrodiil). Having The Kingdom of Anvil as a contained unit makes not having the rest of Cyrodiil yet make sense. Also makes the Empire feel more Imperial. Also, jungle.
I'm so sorry Narsis, I'll get back to you eventually.
The thing that gets me to me, with mods like Project Cyrodiil or S:HotN, is that I want them for their respective games (I.E. Oblivion and Skyrim).
I think it’d be awesome if someone were to try and make Oblivion and Skyrim weirder and stranger. Would it take more effort? Absolutely, but only in some areas while others wouldn’t change.