This video was the culmination of over 60 hours of effort! I really hope you guys enjoy this one as much as I did making it. This might be my last Morrowind/ESO video for a while... but never fret... I see Daggerfall on my horizons...
I especially appreciate the dialogue with Sotha Sil at the end of the questline when he talks about Almalexia believing her own lies, Vivec accepting both his truth and his lies as reality and Sotha sil himself seeing the walls of the jail cell but being unable to see the door and therefore only being able to stabilize the walls so they wouldn't come crashing down on them. His interpretation of "the prisoner" and his nods towards chim and the "dream" were really fascinating and showed me that despite the many different cultures and religions in the TES universe the writers in ESO are still capable of giving us some tidbits of lore that tie back all the way to Michael Kirkbride.
Three things I want to mention about the Clockwork City DLC: 1. When Sotha Sil talks to the Vestige in the garden about "unsteady walls", it is likely that he talks about being in a video game. He thinks the Vestige could be the "player" since we seem to understand we are in a game. Sotha Sil seems to understand something is amiss, but hasn't yet understood that he is in a video game. This is why he talks about "having to be here, in this moment" - he is an NPC with no free will. When he talks about Vivec, he essentially says his brother wants to be the player character with the freedom to be whatever they want to be. He doesn't dislike Almalexia for the way she is because... Well... She is programmed to be so. He doesn't like his sitaution but seems to have accepted it and built the Clockwork City in case anything happens to the game (which is extra meta since this is an MMO). It's really cool, and it also feels like Sotha Sil is trying to convince us/himself how he shouldn't be blamed/feel bad for killing Nerevar since he "didn't have any choice", though we know he still feels remorse (both when he mentions Vivec and him being bound by regret, and the antiquity with the message "forgive me"). 2. The sidequests paint an interesting picture of Sotha Sil, we see a garden where the apostles have resorted to killing apprentices so they can grow fresh fruit. This is because Sotha Sil abandoned the project. This, I think, is meant to differentiate him from the other two living gods. Almalexia is about cementing their positions as gods, rewriting the past. Vivec lives in the moment, with no care for the future (i.e. giant boulder hanging over his city on purpose). Sotha Sil looks towards the future, ever inventing and tinkering. However, he doesn't stay to maintain his creations and simply moves forward, leaving his apostles behind to figure out how to solve the problmes themselves. Seeing as there are homeless people living in his city with dangerous animals roaming around, it is safe to say that Sotha Sil's perfect city is... Imperfect. The Dunmer you've been meeting during the DLC even talks about this and puts forth the idea that perhaps Sotha Sil wants his subjects to question him and become more independent so that when he dies, they can continue to maintain the city on their own. 3. The voice we hear from all the factotums are from Sotha Sil's sister, Sotha Nall. He has a shrine to her in the garden with a plaque that has the following inscription: "A soul that deserved transcendence. May her song be heard in the hiss of every piston and the sigh of every spring." I believe, just like the saints, he took her soul and somehow used it to create the voice for all factotums. Whenever we speak to them they always start off by saying strange things: ""Dreaming …. Fish pond. Skipping stone." "Dreaming …. Pottery wheel. Laughter." "Dreaming …. Flower garden. Bird songs." "Assessing threats to Master Sil. Dreaming … open window. Sunlight through glass." "Dreaming … Torchbugs. Overturned jar." "Dreaming …. Familiar smell. Wrinkled hands." "Dreaming …. Storm clouds. Wind." "Dreaming …. Scrib jelly. A rainy day …. I am a first generation analysis model factotum, specializing in gathering and analyzing data for and about the citizens of the Brass Fortress. "Dreaming …. Soiled tablecloth. Washboard." "Dreaming …. Discarded Flowers. Empty Cylinder. "Dreaming …. One netch. Two netch …. Prophecy complete. "Dreaming …. Glowing embers. Wool blanket." "Dreaming …. Burning tapestry. Screaming." "Dreaming …. Familiar embrace. Moonlight." This both incredibly sweet and dark, as all the dialogue seems to show that the factotums are remembering things from Nall's life as a child, which makes you wonder: Is it the same with her as the saints from the trial? Is her soul trapped inside the mechanical husks, forced to carry out the duties Sotha Sil has ordered? He wants to keep the memory of her alive I suppose, but this is just... Really dark. Sotha Sil is really isolated, likely by choice. Perhaps this is his way of keeping his sister and by extension his only family, alive. Even if it really is wrong to do so this way.
I don't think he knows he's in a game. He just understands the concept of CHIM mentioned in previous TES games. Meaning that he knows that the entire reality is the dream of Godhead, and there's no way to escape the limitations brought on by individuality other than reaching CHIM and beginning lucid dreaming as Lorkhan mentioned. He's also what's described as Laplace's devil in philosophy. He's smart enough to understand every law of physics and magics, that the world is a deterministic existence in which the future is determined by the past, so he knows that free will is an illusion, and he's able to predict the future perfectly based on past events and the mechanics of reality he's perfectly understood and can use in his calculations of future events. He also knows in advance when and how he's going to die. He also knows that he'll never be able to reach CHIM, or do anything he's not meant to do. When you're a god who can see the future and the present and always act in the most efficient and logical way possible, you're in a prison of your own making, because you're unable to choose anything for yourself and your future other than the most logical action you've already decided and chose in the past when you've 'seen' or rather calculated the future. And no door can save you from this prison unless you're saved by a previously unknown, unpredictable, incalculable entity. Clockwork city is actually an allegory for how Sotha Sil sees the world. Because clocks and mechanical contraceptions are perfectly predictable. That's how the entire reality is to Sotha Sil. All this lore is just what Michael Kirkbride wrote for Morrowind back in the day. The guy was a real life philosopher and theologian who had academic training in those fields.
The lore and characterization of Sotha Sil in this DLC is definitely the pinnacle of ESO writing, when you first meet Sotha he just feels like a generic op wizard (cocky, eccentric and rude), but then you find out he is being impersonated, beat the DLC and when you meet the real guy he really feels like a GOD, like Vivec in og Morrowind, a extremely powerful and WISE being that is making his best efforts to communicate with a mortal without destroying his mind, sadly you then meet him in the Summerset DLC and they turned him into Jimmy Neutron, just saying big scientific words without anything to say.
Through the Antiquities system, you can dig up an item in Clockwork City that suggests that Sotha Sil regrets what happened to Nerevar. "Is this a pot? Or a vase? Or an urn of some kind? I've never seen such an oddly shaped vessel. It appears to be made of some strange, striated stone. Something artificial no doubt. It's almost like the craftsman built it in layer-one on top of the other. And what's inside? Roland's Tear flowers, perfectly preserved. And a note, as well? It simply says, "Forgive me." How perplexing. Nonetheless, this would likely fetch a king's ransom in a Vvardenfell auction house. Quite a find!"
Aw man that's so cool. I love the fact that he's somewhat remorseful for what he did (and still isn't a super nice guy comparing what he did to the lesser saints).
Clockwork City imo is fantastic in either game its in. In Morrowind its a fascinating Glimpse into the mind and ambition of Seth, while in EsO that Glimpse turns into a window. Plus its aesthetically the best Area in either game.
Sotha Sil's only appearance in TES3 was as a corpse, so his character was never really fleshed out until 2017, and I love this DLC because in an ESO where writing is one of the weakest points, Sotha Sil's brief appearance makes him a fully fleshed out, three-dimensional character. I found the character of the teacher, who is worshipped like a god like the Buddha in Buddhism, the choice of regret instead of turning away and self-rationalizing, the fatalist, and the philosophy that can be interpreted as an indirect parallel to CHIM Lore through the concept of the Prisoner. I hope that someday Almalexia will be reintroduced as a three-dimensional character like Sotha sil and that her story will be enriched.
Clockwork City hype! Regarding The Imperfect: There's actually a little mini-quest in Deshaan from base game that goes into this. Basically, you build your own imperfect following the instructions of an avatar of Sotha Sil, who then commands you to destroy it. The Imperfect is supposed to be more a thought experiment Sil uses on himself: it represents the Pinnacle of his work. It's larger and stronger than the factotums. It's capable of its own independent thought. It's self powering unlike the dwarven mechs he based his earlier designs on. All in all, it is greatest thing he will ever create. But nothing is "perfect" as perfection is an unattainable goal. So he endlessly destroys his imperfects, the next iteration being marginally superior than the previous incarnation, chasing after a goal that can never be realized. As for the Asylum Sanctorum Saints, Sil's plans were actually a little more benevolent. He wanted Llothis, Felms, and Olms to be immortal because he saw their looming deaths as a great loss to the Dunmer people. Also, in one of the side quests you learn a bit about Sil's past and how he lost his family and why he has a bit of an obsession with machines and ending death. In order to allow their spirits to inhabit new factorum bodies, he copied a Dwemer design that used a soul gem to power the machine (note: if you look at Dwemer automata in ESO, you can usually find a soul gem somewhere on their body, such as the large one between the two head plates on the spiders). What he overlooked was the fact that, over time, their souls would be slowly consumed as fuel to power their machine bodies, resulting in their minds slowly being destroyed over time. The Asylum Sanctorum was created to be a place to house them and keep them away from others while he attempted to figure out a way to fix the damage he had done to their souls. In fact, you can't actually "kill" them, as their factotum bodies repair over time (seen in the hard mode encounter as Felms and Llothis keep coming back even if you reduce their HP to 0), and unless you destroy the soul gems, their souls will continue to exist. Basically, he's too attached to put them out of their misery, but he's too ashamed of his failure to let them be free, which really just about sums up 90% of the shit the Tribunal do. Lol. Oh, and regarding sneaking feeling like a chore: sneaking in this game is actually very gear dependent. If you just try to sneak normally, it's an awful experience. I would seriously recommend twisting your own rules a bit regarding only using gear you find in the zone for this one thing. Buy 5 equipment slots of Night Mother's Embrace, 3 slots of Night Terror, and 4 slots of Darloc Brae (these numbers give an additive -2m sneaking detection radius each for -6m total), and you'll find you can basically sneak in front of people and not have any issues. Thanks for another video! Can't wait to see the next one!
Where is it said the black soul gem's consume the souls of the Dunmer Saints? in A Most Complicated Machine it is implied the damage is entirely psychological as a Clockwork Apostle (Sovor Sayori) who is transferred into a Factotum handles it a lot better, Saying "Yes … it's sublime, this … order." in the same quest a Bosmer who wasn't an apostle was transferred into a Factotum and was instantly in a constant state of panic, when the player finds him he says things like "I can't breathe. I can't breathe. I can't breathe." Sovor remarks upon taking his new form "I-I can't breathe … I don't breathe. Instead, I whir and click. It's not so different."
Dang, I must've missed that. I did 100% Deshaan but maybe that was before I did morrowind and understood it's significance. Thanks for the info on sneaking; I think if I make a new character it'll be a nightblade. I know Sotha Sil had "better intents" with the soulgems; it's the fact he yoinked them without permission and slotted them into machines he wasn't 100% sure would work that got me. Even the keeper of the Asylum says it was basically just an experiment to see what he could do. Interesting to know Sotha Sil is the creator of the black soul gem though.
I've been going through a bender of your content this weekend. Keep up the amazing work. I'm not an ESO player; I just enjoy the lore. Personally, I love the miniature Clockwork City. I understand why it's easily accessible for an MMO, but I think it should be near impossible to find. And keeping it miniature ensures it would be hard to find and would last in perpetuity. It also shows how Sotha Sil has a meticulous hand in his designs.
Please play Morrowind/oblivion/Skyrim your own brain will thank you later and If you've never played a fallout game start with fallout 4/fallout NV not fallout 76 that game is terrible
The Clockwork City DLC overall was a blast but there's 2 moments I carry with me that stand out in a collection of great gaming memories. 1. AIOS, presented in the package of an AI with knowledge that moves into Kirkbridian territories but hides the sinister suggestion that this sentience was once a person, which falls well in live with what we learned in Asylum Sanctorum. It's been speculated that it's even Sotha Sil's sister's soul who made the basis for AIOS. 2. Sotha Sil's final dialogue, I'm happy that you mentioned it but I wanna highlight why adore it so much. Sil's final dialogue points out that me/we as players/main characters are fundamentally special on a metaphysical level. One interpretation of it is that he knows we are a character with a player behind it, that we are beyond the scopes of the game and he is not because he's an NPC. Sil both expands some of the more overarching lore of the game, the Prisoner, and gives lore to explain "game mechanics" which I absolutely love. Like in the delve that with lore explains respawns.
Never done anything related to the Clockwork City, but I really like the idea that the globe in ESO just transports you to a parallel dimension where the actual city is located. Also, great video! As always, I love seeing the comparisons you make between the different games and the experiences that they provide.
Really love these videos, Frost! Your effort shines in the vids, I completely get why it takes you a bit to make these. Literally went back and watched your backlog the other day. Please keep it up, you're one of my favorite YTers and I know you'll get to the point of this becoming your primary income.
Great video as always! It’s always nice to see you enjoy the game in these videos - looking forward to your future vids and hopefully some more ESO later on!
Man, this is my favorite DLC for ESO, and maybe any MMO! It only got downhill from here though, but despite that, the way I felt during this questline was worth the 100 hours of mostly boring content.
Really looking forward to seeing you run Summerset. I would recommend doing Rivenspire region first because a bit of it does tie in. But, easy for me to say, as I'm not the one putting in dozens of hours to create vids each region. Anyhoo, thanks again for the work.
My theory is the Clockwork City is Sotha Sil's plane of Oblivion in a sense. He's a god now and was always a top tier mage who has spent a not insignificant time on Artaeum, it makes sense he might have the power to open up a pocket dimension of his own. It's somewhere out there in the Aurbis, floating next to Coldharbour or whatever. Of course, that idea does fall a little on its face when you consider you can access it after he's been cut off from the heart of Lorkhan and killed, but who's to say a plane of Oblivion disappears immediately, maybe it just slowly fades when its god dies, or maybe it sticks around. There's no precedent, we cannot know.
Well as I said in the video; TES Legends says he made a mechanical heart of lorkan which kept the realm running even in his absence. So perhaps that's the reason
Yeah the fetch quests were kinda a bore but any quest with Divayth fyr is awesome. Really loved the talk with Sotha Sil tho! Even felt it was a bit short lol.
19:35 I can't tell you if he knows but he heavily suspects. I don't recall in what quest this is, but in the bowels of the city Seht has a console that hints at him having safeguards against her or something like that.
Ilona's illustration's are amazing, her way shrine project is beautiful too! really love that you gave her such a prominent credit, i instantly found her portfolio :D
Seriously, your videos have so much quality you deserve a million subs. For that intro alone you could expect this to be a big channel. I truly hope you get to those heights soon, man. Keep up!
ESO's Clockwork City was one of the most underrated dlcs ever. It was sandwiched between Morrowind and Summerset which were both much larger expansions with a new class in the former (Warden) and new skill lines in the latter.
I believe The Clockwork City underneath Mournhold was the Clockwork City's very first iteration, Sotha Sil constructed its base and its tower, then they diverge as Sotha Sil deposits it into its own plane and begins his work with his Factotum's
I believe Sotha had a study of sorts buried beneath Mournhold, but much smaller than the city. The city itself was a model, on a table (or in an orb), but also a miniature realm. Saying you'd have to shrink yourself wouldn't be far off but the city certainly isn't a part of Nirn. It is, however, a part of Mundus.
People love to hate on ESO, for some good reasons, but I think the Clockwork City DLC is unquestionably one of the best written and best visual designs in the Elder Scrolls series. It was like a love letter to Elder Scrolls 3’s Tribunal DLC … except I think it surpasses Tribunal in every respect. I LOVE the characterization of Sotha Sil.
These last days I’ve watched all your last videos starting from the morrowind video, i’ve really enjoyed all the effort you put into them, thank you. Felt like fate when the last one uploaded yesterday just as i was finished with the last one !! I’m a skyrim player that loves the ES lore and that spent definitely more time in UESP pages than in game, and at first i stumbled upon your first video trying to see if i could play morrowind with my limited gaming skills. Still not sure about that (or maybe with mods?), but i definitely appreciated very much all the wonders you shared with us. Thank you again Subscribed and looking forward to watching your swtor video and also all your ESO vids actually, i really enjoy how you share the story with us (and how you put a lot of screenshots so i can pause and read the dialogue!) Also if you see this have you thought about playing kotor? Morrowind (not ESO) very much gave me that exploration and old school rpg vibe i enjoyed when playing it (and seems way less clunky, i played it easily)
It seems you editing improves with every video. Good work. And i'm glad you had fun with the dlc. Steampunk isn't my favorit, so naturally on my list this zone is a bit further down, but I agree that it is still a good story.
Skyrim was my first Elder Scrolls game, I adore everything about it. But damn, the dunmer really are the best race in that franchise. Soooo much interesting stuff, this dlc made my character (and I) completely fall in love with Sotha Sil and his weird, anachronistic philosophy. Yes, I'm the kind of weirdo who roleplays in ESO
3:21 Boo's Mansion go brrrrrrrrrrr 6:47 Part 3 of Almalexia being weirdly evil and paranoid long before she has any right to. One of the writers for Tribunal actually had some regrets making her go crazy because "the 1 female of the group loses control and slowly goes nuts" is kind of uncomfortable, but going for it was the right call and she's a compelling character. Problem is now ESO has just made her crazy. I prefer the original Clockwork's blocky yet advanced design but I can't complain about the new one. It'd just be petty to argue against. ESO Clockwork makes me think of Fallout a lot. I found Almalexia harder than The Imperfect but I was also a Redguard heavy armor spellsword. 8:10 Me, A Nightblade: I don't see the problem man. Just go invisible. iirc correctly wishing for power gives you an experience scroll. The story goes a little crazy but it's good for what it is. I'm sure there's plenty of people who appreciate the struggles of gaining citizenship more than fighting another demi-god...Summerset's MQ meanwhile is insane and not in a good way. 19:49 A conversation so good and full of so much lore that it has come back to bite ZOS a couple times now for contradicting it afterwards. 23:09 tbf reading "Truth in Sequence" (Sotha Sil's equivalent to the Sermons of Vivec), Alamlexia did most of the work. Even Sotha Sil was impressed and he only gave support and finished Dagon off. Also, bonus points to ESO for making the Truth in Sequence series. They really wanted to push Sotha Sil as having as much "stuff" as the other Tribunal and I'd say they succeeded.
I think one of the things that interested me the most about the dialogue with Sotha Sil was the concept of the "Prisoner." It's more meta than it should be, considering this is the one coincidence that unites all the Elder Scrolls protagonists: Prisoners. Besides that, there are many amusing personal implications in his dialogue, from his inability to achieve CHIM to his hatred of what he did to Nerevar, yet believing he couldn't have "followed a different path." I really liked Sotha Sil. It's a shame they downplay the character so much in his future appearances.
Just found your channel tonight, those morrowind vids are getting a lot of exposure lol, but we were born in the same year and I find you opinions and attitude towards gaming is very similar to mine, I hope to see your channel flourish
I stopped playing ESO a few years ago, but I remember Clockwork City was the best the game had to offer in terms of story. Morrowind, Summerset, and Orsinium were pretty good as well.
Well ZOS seems to be finally recognizing that the overland questing experience is stupid easy and that a veteran version of it has been one of the most requested features
The Clockwork City being like an impossible pocket dimension just makes sense. Lorkhan created Mundus, and Sotha by extension used the powers gained from Lorkhan's heart to create his own minature mundus to work on. People complaining about the tech to me are stupid. The exact game this place is based off of had a giant faux god being remade, originally from the most advanced race who still even though they're all but one gone are ahead technology wise, their abandoned works being under constant study. How surprising an engineer who achieved godhood was able to make even more advancements than them
@@FrostbreakYT Don't force yourself if you don't feel it but know that Summerset is the ending of the storyline started in ESO: Morrowind (and hinted earlier) so it might be a good idea to do it before the memories fade.
What's the most painful experience in the world you ask? Wanting to watch the new Frostbreak video, but not being able to, because you want to play the story yourself first... Pray to God to give me strength fellas.
I think it makes some sort of sense that there isn't much left in Morrowinds version of the clockwork city. Think about it, Sotha Sil has been left alone, slowly going more and more insane. Genius in isolation is never a good thing.
The reason the locations are so divergent between Morrowind and ESO is because Sotha Sil's divinity waned. It's like a pseudo plane of Oblivion in ESO. He thought that he was supporting his knowledge of Dwemer technology with his divinity, but Sotha Sil was simply reshaping reality based on his presumptions. He had some knowledge although it wasn't as extensive as he thought. This is why his body is merged with a Dwemer Centurion in Morrowind. As Sotha Sil's god status was dwindling, he used what knowledge and divinity he had left to integrate Dwemer technology into himself.
I really enjoyed the Clockwork City. I am currently on a break from the game. I was trying to get through all of the expansions and my main toon is in Blackwood now. I do not like how the Dark Brotherhood is handled in Blackwood at all. It broke my immersion with how the story I've experienced so far deals with them. Maybe its because my main is a member of the DB but I just do not like it. If I ever replay the expansions with a different toon I'll do the DB questlines after I finish Blackwood. I also hate how Eveli is written in the expansion. I enjoyed her in Orsinium. In Blackwood I find her annoying but that may be because of her views of the DB and my PC being a member. I won't go into detail for spoilers but it honestly put me off finishing the expansion and that's why I've put the game down for over a year now. Still seeing the CWC and Sotha Sil does make me want to play again.
i mean, the city itself wouldnt be designed any different just because 700 years passed, it was built by the dwemer, wasnt it? meaning it was built like thousands of years ago or something? i think its fine to update old games into new styles, and reimagine them entirely. some things are lost for sure, but dont let nostalgia get in the way of something awesome
Clockwork City is a city created entirely by Sotha Sil. Official Lore says that Sotha Sil was fluent in Dwemer technology and created the technology and blueprints for CWC from the ruins of Kemel-Ze.
@@jitaek01 yeah i was wondering after i made the comment. i didnt get to the tribunal dlc yet so i was just guessing based off what i knew about dwemer stuff and i was confused, but yeah that makes more sense.
I hate ESO, not for it's implications on the lore, but for its implications on what Bethesda, via ZOS, consider to be acceptable monetization practices for the franchise going forward. Also in general, the dialogue and storytelling of ESO is laughably uninspired. This observation isn't helped by ZOS' decision to make every story available at any time, but even if one plays through the content "chronologically," the dialogue is still often disjointed. The Vestige appears to suffer from some form of short-term memory loss, with how often they need to be reminded of people, places, and events - many of which the Vestige was involved in.
that is only happening to remind you of the story in case you haven't played for a while or remember your quests .take it as some kind of summary and not a serious dialogue option
"Why did she just tell me all of Clavicus Viles plans?" Because the writing of ESO is dogshit, as is so much modern game story writing, and its exactly the reason why people like me dont accept the story of Skyrim and ESO as canon, it disrespects the lore established of previous games.
Every Elder Scrolls game disrespects the lore established in previous games. Daggerfall disrespects Arena, Morrowind disrespects Daggerfall, Oblivion tears apart Morrowind, and Skyrim disrespects Oblivion too. This is the perpetual cycle of Elder Scrolls :)
![BOWKYLION - วิงวอน (ex-change) [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/cLdnZWDaO-w/mqdefault.jpg)
This video was the culmination of over 60 hours of effort! I really hope you guys enjoy this one as much as I did making it. This might be my last Morrowind/ESO video for a while... but never fret... I see Daggerfall on my horizons...
youtube really buried the dlc video, i only found out about cause you mentioned in this video
@@Yuri-gf6bw oh dang. That's good to know; thanks for telling me.
Oh yeah another Frostbreak video!!!! Question though what will you do when you run out of Elder Scrolls content?
@@matymatthias Fallout is on my list; along with other Bethesda games. But who knows!
Oh god, you aren't going to play through TES 2, are you? :D That game is MASSIVE
I especially appreciate the dialogue with Sotha Sil at the end of the questline when he talks about Almalexia believing her own lies, Vivec accepting both his truth and his lies as reality and Sotha sil himself seeing the walls of the jail cell but being unable to see the door and therefore only being able to stabilize the walls so they wouldn't come crashing down on them. His interpretation of "the prisoner" and his nods towards chim and the "dream" were really fascinating and showed me that despite the many different cultures and religions in the TES universe the writers in ESO are still capable of giving us some tidbits of lore that tie back all the way to Michael Kirkbride.
Yeah it cements clockwork city in the hall of fame for ESO dlc
Shame tat the writer responsibly for Clockwork and Sotha no longer works for ZoS. He left this year.
The writing was way better than a story about a lost Daedra Lord who just wonders around confused before leaving Nirn for good.
@@samuraichicken2315 I thought Gold Road was neat. I'd just liked to see more of Mirrormoor.
The convo with Sotho Sil at the end made the campaign worth it to me.
It's like 30 minutes of pure dialogue but totally worth it!
Three things I want to mention about the Clockwork City DLC:
1. When Sotha Sil talks to the Vestige in the garden about "unsteady walls", it is likely that he talks about being in a video game. He thinks the Vestige could be the "player" since we seem to understand we are in a game. Sotha Sil seems to understand something is amiss, but hasn't yet understood that he is in a video game. This is why he talks about "having to be here, in this moment" - he is an NPC with no free will. When he talks about Vivec, he essentially says his brother wants to be the player character with the freedom to be whatever they want to be. He doesn't dislike Almalexia for the way she is because... Well... She is programmed to be so. He doesn't like his sitaution but seems to have accepted it and built the Clockwork City in case anything happens to the game (which is extra meta since this is an MMO). It's really cool, and it also feels like Sotha Sil is trying to convince us/himself how he shouldn't be blamed/feel bad for killing Nerevar since he "didn't have any choice", though we know he still feels remorse (both when he mentions Vivec and him being bound by regret, and the antiquity with the message "forgive me").
2. The sidequests paint an interesting picture of Sotha Sil, we see a garden where the apostles have resorted to killing apprentices so they can grow fresh fruit. This is because Sotha Sil abandoned the project. This, I think, is meant to differentiate him from the other two living gods. Almalexia is about cementing their positions as gods, rewriting the past. Vivec lives in the moment, with no care for the future (i.e. giant boulder hanging over his city on purpose). Sotha Sil looks towards the future, ever inventing and tinkering. However, he doesn't stay to maintain his creations and simply moves forward, leaving his apostles behind to figure out how to solve the problmes themselves. Seeing as there are homeless people living in his city with dangerous animals roaming around, it is safe to say that Sotha Sil's perfect city is... Imperfect. The Dunmer you've been meeting during the DLC even talks about this and puts forth the idea that perhaps Sotha Sil wants his subjects to question him and become more independent so that when he dies, they can continue to maintain the city on their own.
3. The voice we hear from all the factotums are from Sotha Sil's sister, Sotha Nall. He has a shrine to her in the garden with a plaque that has the following inscription:
"A soul that deserved transcendence. May her song be heard in the hiss of every piston and the sigh of every spring."
I believe, just like the saints, he took her soul and somehow used it to create the voice for all factotums. Whenever we speak to them they always start off by saying strange things:
""Dreaming …. Fish pond. Skipping stone."
"Dreaming …. Pottery wheel. Laughter."
"Dreaming …. Flower garden. Bird songs."
"Assessing threats to Master Sil. Dreaming … open window. Sunlight through glass."
"Dreaming … Torchbugs. Overturned jar."
"Dreaming …. Familiar smell. Wrinkled hands."
"Dreaming …. Storm clouds. Wind."
"Dreaming …. Scrib jelly. A rainy day …. I am a first generation analysis model factotum, specializing in gathering and analyzing data for and about the citizens of the Brass Fortress.
"Dreaming …. Soiled tablecloth. Washboard."
"Dreaming …. Discarded Flowers. Empty Cylinder.
"Dreaming …. One netch. Two netch …. Prophecy complete.
"Dreaming …. Glowing embers. Wool blanket."
"Dreaming …. Burning tapestry. Screaming."
"Dreaming …. Familiar embrace. Moonlight."
This both incredibly sweet and dark, as all the dialogue seems to show that the factotums are remembering things from Nall's life as a child, which makes you wonder: Is it the same with her as the saints from the trial? Is her soul trapped inside the mechanical husks, forced to carry out the duties Sotha Sil has ordered? He wants to keep the memory of her alive I suppose, but this is just... Really dark. Sotha Sil is really isolated, likely by choice. Perhaps this is his way of keeping his sister and by extension his only family, alive. Even if it really is wrong to do so this way.
I don't think he knows he's in a game. He just understands the concept of CHIM mentioned in previous TES games. Meaning that he knows that the entire reality is the dream of Godhead, and there's no way to escape the limitations brought on by individuality other than reaching CHIM and beginning lucid dreaming as Lorkhan mentioned.
He's also what's described as Laplace's devil in philosophy. He's smart enough to understand every law of physics and magics, that the world is a deterministic existence in which the future is determined by the past, so he knows that free will is an illusion, and he's able to predict the future perfectly based on past events and the mechanics of reality he's perfectly understood and can use in his calculations of future events.
He also knows in advance when and how he's going to die. He also knows that he'll never be able to reach CHIM, or do anything he's not meant to do. When you're a god who can see the future and the present and always act in the most efficient and logical way possible, you're in a prison of your own making, because you're unable to choose anything for yourself and your future other than the most logical action you've already decided and chose in the past when you've 'seen' or rather calculated the future.
And no door can save you from this prison unless you're saved by a previously unknown, unpredictable, incalculable entity.
Clockwork city is actually an allegory for how Sotha Sil sees the world. Because clocks and mechanical contraceptions are perfectly predictable. That's how the entire reality is to Sotha Sil. All this lore is just what Michael Kirkbride wrote for Morrowind back in the day. The guy was a real life philosopher and theologian who had academic training in those fields.
The lore and characterization of Sotha Sil in this DLC is definitely the pinnacle of ESO writing, when you first meet Sotha he just feels like a generic op wizard (cocky, eccentric and rude), but then you find out he is being impersonated, beat the DLC and when you meet the real guy he really feels like a GOD, like Vivec in og Morrowind, a extremely powerful and WISE being that is making his best efforts to communicate with a mortal without destroying his mind, sadly you then meet him in the Summerset DLC and they turned him into Jimmy Neutron, just saying big scientific words without anything to say.
Couldn't have said it better myself. Still haven't done Summerset yet!
Through the Antiquities system, you can dig up an item in Clockwork City that suggests that Sotha Sil regrets what happened to Nerevar.
"Is this a pot? Or a vase? Or an urn of some kind? I've never seen such an oddly shaped vessel. It appears to be made of some strange, striated stone. Something artificial no doubt. It's almost like the craftsman built it in layer-one on top of the other. And what's inside? Roland's Tear flowers, perfectly preserved. And a note, as well? It simply says, "Forgive me." How perplexing. Nonetheless, this would likely fetch a king's ransom in a Vvardenfell auction house. Quite a find!"
Aw man that's so cool. I love the fact that he's somewhat remorseful for what he did (and still isn't a super nice guy comparing what he did to the lesser saints).
Clockwork City imo is fantastic in either game its in. In Morrowind its a fascinating Glimpse into the mind and ambition of Seth, while in EsO that Glimpse turns into a window. Plus its aesthetically the best Area in either game.
Absolutely. As I said; this might be one of my favourite areas in any elder scrolls game I've ever played. I just love the design.
I'm so happy you liked it !
Me too! I was afraid it was overhyped
Sotha Sil's only appearance in TES3 was as a corpse, so his character was never really fleshed out until 2017, and I love this DLC because in an ESO where writing is one of the weakest points, Sotha Sil's brief appearance makes him a fully fleshed out, three-dimensional character.
I found the character of the teacher, who is worshipped like a god like the Buddha in Buddhism, the choice of regret instead of turning away and self-rationalizing, the fatalist, and the philosophy that can be interpreted as an indirect parallel to CHIM Lore through the concept of the Prisoner.
I hope that someday Almalexia will be reintroduced as a three-dimensional character like Sotha sil and that her story will be enriched.
8:08 I keep invisibility + speed potions on hand for situations like this. Makes things way easier.
Clockwork City hype!
Regarding The Imperfect:
There's actually a little mini-quest in Deshaan from base game that goes into this. Basically, you build your own imperfect following the instructions of an avatar of Sotha Sil, who then commands you to destroy it. The Imperfect is supposed to be more a thought experiment Sil uses on himself: it represents the Pinnacle of his work. It's larger and stronger than the factotums. It's capable of its own independent thought. It's self powering unlike the dwarven mechs he based his earlier designs on. All in all, it is greatest thing he will ever create. But nothing is "perfect" as perfection is an unattainable goal. So he endlessly destroys his imperfects, the next iteration being marginally superior than the previous incarnation, chasing after a goal that can never be realized.
As for the Asylum Sanctorum Saints, Sil's plans were actually a little more benevolent. He wanted Llothis, Felms, and Olms to be immortal because he saw their looming deaths as a great loss to the Dunmer people. Also, in one of the side quests you learn a bit about Sil's past and how he lost his family and why he has a bit of an obsession with machines and ending death. In order to allow their spirits to inhabit new factorum bodies, he copied a Dwemer design that used a soul gem to power the machine (note: if you look at Dwemer automata in ESO, you can usually find a soul gem somewhere on their body, such as the large one between the two head plates on the spiders). What he overlooked was the fact that, over time, their souls would be slowly consumed as fuel to power their machine bodies, resulting in their minds slowly being destroyed over time. The Asylum Sanctorum was created to be a place to house them and keep them away from others while he attempted to figure out a way to fix the damage he had done to their souls. In fact, you can't actually "kill" them, as their factotum bodies repair over time (seen in the hard mode encounter as Felms and Llothis keep coming back even if you reduce their HP to 0), and unless you destroy the soul gems, their souls will continue to exist. Basically, he's too attached to put them out of their misery, but he's too ashamed of his failure to let them be free, which really just about sums up 90% of the shit the Tribunal do. Lol.
Oh, and regarding sneaking feeling like a chore: sneaking in this game is actually very gear dependent. If you just try to sneak normally, it's an awful experience. I would seriously recommend twisting your own rules a bit regarding only using gear you find in the zone for this one thing. Buy 5 equipment slots of Night Mother's Embrace, 3 slots of Night Terror, and 4 slots of Darloc Brae (these numbers give an additive -2m sneaking detection radius each for -6m total), and you'll find you can basically sneak in front of people and not have any issues.
Thanks for another video! Can't wait to see the next one!
Where is it said the black soul gem's consume the souls of the Dunmer Saints?
in A Most Complicated Machine it is implied the damage is entirely psychological as a Clockwork Apostle (Sovor Sayori) who is transferred into a Factotum handles it a lot better, Saying "Yes … it's sublime, this … order."
in the same quest a Bosmer who wasn't an apostle was transferred into a Factotum and was instantly in a constant state of panic, when the player finds him he says things like "I can't breathe. I can't breathe. I can't breathe."
Sovor remarks upon taking his new form "I-I can't breathe … I don't breathe. Instead, I whir and click. It's not so different."
Dang, I must've missed that. I did 100% Deshaan but maybe that was before I did morrowind and understood it's significance. Thanks for the info on sneaking; I think if I make a new character it'll be a nightblade. I know Sotha Sil had "better intents" with the soulgems; it's the fact he yoinked them without permission and slotted them into machines he wasn't 100% sure would work that got me. Even the keeper of the Asylum says it was basically just an experiment to see what he could do. Interesting to know Sotha Sil is the creator of the black soul gem though.
The quality of your videos is insane man, it’s gets better every single time. Keep it up 🤞🏼
absolutely love how you structure and pace these videos, i love your content frost, keep it up!
Thank you Cami :)
I've been going through a bender of your content this weekend. Keep up the amazing work.
I'm not an ESO player; I just enjoy the lore. Personally, I love the miniature Clockwork City. I understand why it's easily accessible for an MMO, but I think it should be near impossible to find. And keeping it miniature ensures it would be hard to find and would last in perpetuity. It also shows how Sotha Sil has a meticulous hand in his designs.
Please play Morrowind/oblivion/Skyrim your own brain will thank you later and If you've never played a fallout game start with fallout 4/fallout NV not fallout 76 that game is terrible
Actually said "let's go" under my breath when I saw this upload
We need a bloodmoon video btw
One day Tyrone, one day.
Shrinking down into the clockwork city is really reminiscent of shrinking down into the city in a snow globe in that Fable dlc in my opinion.
The Clockwork City DLC overall was a blast but there's 2 moments I carry with me that stand out in a collection of great gaming memories.
1. AIOS, presented in the package of an AI with knowledge that moves into Kirkbridian territories but hides the sinister suggestion that this sentience was once a person, which falls well in live with what we learned in Asylum Sanctorum. It's been speculated that it's even Sotha Sil's sister's soul who made the basis for AIOS.
2. Sotha Sil's final dialogue, I'm happy that you mentioned it but I wanna highlight why adore it so much. Sil's final dialogue points out that me/we as players/main characters are fundamentally special on a metaphysical level. One interpretation of it is that he knows we are a character with a player behind it, that we are beyond the scopes of the game and he is not because he's an NPC. Sil both expands some of the more overarching lore of the game, the Prisoner, and gives lore to explain "game mechanics" which I absolutely love. Like in the delve that with lore explains respawns.
Never done anything related to the Clockwork City, but I really like the idea that the globe in ESO just transports you to a parallel dimension where the actual city is located. Also, great video! As always, I love seeing the comparisons you make between the different games and the experiences that they provide.
OOOohhh youre in for a treat in Summerset!!! Have fun!!! I love these videos so much, keep up the great work!!!
Really love these videos, Frost! Your effort shines in the vids, I completely get why it takes you a bit to make these. Literally went back and watched your backlog the other day. Please keep it up, you're one of my favorite YTers and I know you'll get to the point of this becoming your primary income.
Great video as always! It’s always nice to see you enjoy the game in these videos - looking forward to your future vids and hopefully some more ESO later on!
Man, this is my favorite DLC for ESO, and maybe any MMO! It only got downhill from here though, but despite that, the way I felt during this questline was worth the 100 hours of mostly boring content.
Really looking forward to seeing you run Summerset. I would recommend doing Rivenspire region first because a bit of it does tie in. But, easy for me to say, as I'm not the one putting in dozens of hours to create vids each region. Anyhoo, thanks again for the work.
My theory is the Clockwork City is Sotha Sil's plane of Oblivion in a sense. He's a god now and was always a top tier mage who has spent a not insignificant time on Artaeum, it makes sense he might have the power to open up a pocket dimension of his own. It's somewhere out there in the Aurbis, floating next to Coldharbour or whatever. Of course, that idea does fall a little on its face when you consider you can access it after he's been cut off from the heart of Lorkhan and killed, but who's to say a plane of Oblivion disappears immediately, maybe it just slowly fades when its god dies, or maybe it sticks around. There's no precedent, we cannot know.
Well as I said in the video; TES Legends says he made a mechanical heart of lorkan which kept the realm running even in his absence. So perhaps that's the reason
Yeah the fetch quests were kinda a bore but any quest with Divayth fyr is awesome. Really loved the talk with Sotha Sil tho! Even felt it was a bit short lol.
19:35
I can't tell you if he knows but he heavily suspects. I don't recall in what quest this is, but in the bowels of the city Seht has a console that hints at him having safeguards against her or something like that.
great video as always! Very happy any time i see a new video pop up from this channel
Ilona's illustration's are amazing, her way shrine project is beautiful too! really love that you gave her such a prominent credit, i instantly found her portfolio :D
Yeah she's great! I reached out on Twitter first to ensure she was okay with it. I always make sure to ask permission first :)
Seriously, your videos have so much quality you deserve a million subs. For that intro alone you could expect this to be a big channel. I truly hope you get to those heights soon, man. Keep up!
ESO's Clockwork City was one of the most underrated dlcs ever. It was sandwiched between Morrowind and Summerset which were both much larger expansions with a new class in the former (Warden) and new skill lines in the latter.
I believe The Clockwork City underneath Mournhold was the Clockwork City's very first iteration,
Sotha Sil constructed its base and its tower, then they diverge as Sotha Sil deposits it into its own plane and begins his work with his Factotum's
Oh okay that's interesting
I believe Sotha had a study of sorts buried beneath Mournhold, but much smaller than the city. The city itself was a model, on a table (or in an orb), but also a miniature realm. Saying you'd have to shrink yourself wouldn't be far off but the city certainly isn't a part of Nirn. It is, however, a part of Mundus.
Interesting. I have not heard this theory before but that would make sense too
People love to hate on ESO, for some good reasons, but I think the Clockwork City DLC is unquestionably one of the best written and best visual designs in the Elder Scrolls series. It was like a love letter to Elder Scrolls 3’s Tribunal DLC … except I think it surpasses Tribunal in every respect.
I LOVE the characterization of Sotha Sil.
Hey Frost I enjoy the tone of your mic (and the video, this ruled). What mic do you use? I'm thinking of upgrading in the new year.
These last days I’ve watched all your last videos starting from the morrowind video, i’ve really enjoyed all the effort you put into them, thank you. Felt like fate when the last one uploaded yesterday just as i was finished with the last one !! I’m a skyrim player that loves the ES lore and that spent definitely more time in UESP pages than in game, and at first i stumbled upon your first video trying to see if i could play morrowind with my limited gaming skills. Still not sure about that (or maybe with mods?), but i definitely appreciated very much all the wonders you shared with us. Thank you again
Subscribed and looking forward to watching your swtor video and also all your ESO vids actually, i really enjoy how you share the story with us (and how you put a lot of screenshots so i can pause and read the dialogue!)
Also if you see this have you thought about playing kotor? Morrowind (not ESO) very much gave me that exploration and old school rpg vibe i enjoyed when playing it (and seems way less clunky, i played it easily)
The Clockwork City is, if you would have done youre research , officialy, of course, inside the head of Caius Cosades....
What a grand and Intoxicating innocence. shame on you sweet Nerevar.
Ah man, I love your videos. You're so dedicated - thx for that.
My pleasure! Glad you enjoyed :)
It seems you editing improves with every video. Good work.
And i'm glad you had fun with the dlc. Steampunk isn't my favorit, so naturally on my list this zone is a bit further down, but I agree that it is still a good story.
Skyrim was my first Elder Scrolls game, I adore everything about it. But damn, the dunmer really are the best race in that franchise. Soooo much interesting stuff, this dlc made my character (and I) completely fall in love with Sotha Sil and his weird, anachronistic philosophy. Yes, I'm the kind of weirdo who roleplays in ESO
3:21 Boo's Mansion go brrrrrrrrrrr
6:47 Part 3 of Almalexia being weirdly evil and paranoid long before she has any right to. One of the writers for Tribunal actually had some regrets making her go crazy because "the 1 female of the group loses control and slowly goes nuts" is kind of uncomfortable, but going for it was the right call and she's a compelling character. Problem is now ESO has just made her crazy.
I prefer the original Clockwork's blocky yet advanced design but I can't complain about the new one. It'd just be petty to argue against. ESO Clockwork makes me think of Fallout a lot. I found Almalexia harder than The Imperfect but I was also a Redguard heavy armor spellsword.
8:10 Me, A Nightblade: I don't see the problem man. Just go invisible.
iirc correctly wishing for power gives you an experience scroll.
The story goes a little crazy but it's good for what it is. I'm sure there's plenty of people who appreciate the struggles of gaining citizenship more than fighting another demi-god...Summerset's MQ meanwhile is insane and not in a good way.
19:49 A conversation so good and full of so much lore that it has come back to bite ZOS a couple times now for contradicting it afterwards.
23:09 tbf reading "Truth in Sequence" (Sotha Sil's equivalent to the Sermons of Vivec), Alamlexia did most of the work. Even Sotha Sil was impressed and he only gave support and finished Dagon off. Also, bonus points to ESO for making the Truth in Sequence series. They really wanted to push Sotha Sil as having as much "stuff" as the other Tribunal and I'd say they succeeded.
I think one of the things that interested me the most about the dialogue with Sotha Sil was the concept of the "Prisoner." It's more meta than it should be, considering this is the one coincidence that unites all the Elder Scrolls protagonists: Prisoners.
Besides that, there are many amusing personal implications in his dialogue, from his inability to achieve CHIM to his hatred of what he did to Nerevar, yet believing he couldn't have "followed a different path."
I really liked Sotha Sil. It's a shame they downplay the character so much in his future appearances.
Just found your channel tonight, those morrowind vids are getting a lot of exposure lol, but we were born in the same year and I find you opinions and attitude towards gaming is very similar to mine, I hope to see your channel flourish
This is a great series, please keep it up!!
I want to point out that the music in this dlc top notch. Reflects beauty in artificial creation in my opinion
I stopped playing ESO a few years ago, but I remember Clockwork City was the best the game had to offer in terms of story. Morrowind, Summerset, and Orsinium were pretty good as well.
glad you got that OBS stuff fixed, missed you Frostbreak
Thanks :)
Well ZOS seems to be finally recognizing that the overland questing experience is stupid easy and that a veteran version of it has been one of the most requested features
Great vid as always :)
I really love this series and would love to see you play summerset isles
In case you didn’t search it, the option of asking Sotha Sil for power just gives you a 2 hours 175% experience scroll, so yeah pretty useless
ah thank you very much. I did not look it up but I'm glad I know I picked the "good" option
It is a typical nondecision. Your answer only changes the flavortext on the experience boost you recieve.
Ah, so you finally found the crows!
The Clockwork City being like an impossible pocket dimension just makes sense. Lorkhan created Mundus, and Sotha by extension used the powers gained from Lorkhan's heart to create his own minature mundus to work on. People complaining about the tech to me are stupid. The exact game this place is based off of had a giant faux god being remade, originally from the most advanced race who still even though they're all but one gone are ahead technology wise, their abandoned works being under constant study. How surprising an engineer who achieved godhood was able to make even more advancements than them
True, that's a good explanation for where/what the clockwork city is. I agree; I think the technology in CC vs Morrowind is done well in both games.
Remember Indoril Nerevar was married to Almalexia and she still killed him.
Man I was so shocked when she told me that in Tribunal. I feel like I should've known that beforehand but you learn something new every day
I feel like the crow parts of this dlc really dragged on to me but otherwise it was great
Yeah I can understand that. Kinda added a "silly" vibe to an otherwise serious story.
Any inconsistencies in canon can be explained by dragon breaks
Now do Summerset!
I think I'm stepping away from ESO for a while; but summerset is on my list!
@@FrostbreakYT Don't force yourself if you don't feel it but know that Summerset is the ending of the storyline started in ESO: Morrowind (and hinted earlier) so it might be a good idea to do it before the memories fade.
@@FrostbreakYTalso I think Summerset is the best ESO Chapter. It‘s awesome.
What's the most painful experience in the world you ask?
Wanting to watch the new Frostbreak video, but not being able to, because you want to play the story yourself first...
Pray to God to give me strength fellas.
Let’s go!
woohoo!
I think it makes some sort of sense that there isn't much left in Morrowinds version of the clockwork city.
Think about it, Sotha Sil has been left alone, slowly going more and more insane. Genius in isolation is never a good thing.
Im shadowbanned by TH-cam so one will ever see this, but thanks for making these great vid
The reason the locations are so divergent between Morrowind and ESO is because Sotha Sil's divinity waned. It's like a pseudo plane of Oblivion in ESO. He thought that he was supporting his knowledge of Dwemer technology with his divinity, but Sotha Sil was simply reshaping reality based on his presumptions. He had some knowledge although it wasn't as extensive as he thought. This is why his body is merged with a Dwemer Centurion in Morrowind. As Sotha Sil's god status was dwindling, he used what knowledge and divinity he had left to integrate Dwemer technology into himself.
I really enjoyed the Clockwork City. I am currently on a break from the game. I was trying to get through all of the expansions and my main toon is in Blackwood now. I do not like how the Dark Brotherhood is handled in Blackwood at all. It broke my immersion with how the story I've experienced so far deals with them. Maybe its because my main is a member of the DB but I just do not like it. If I ever replay the expansions with a different toon I'll do the DB questlines after I finish Blackwood.
I also hate how Eveli is written in the expansion. I enjoyed her in Orsinium. In Blackwood I find her annoying but that may be because of her views of the DB and my PC being a member. I won't go into detail for spoilers but it honestly put me off finishing the expansion and that's why I've put the game down for over a year now. Still seeing the CWC and Sotha Sil does make me want to play again.
my dude that achievment would basicly negate one of your rules. so in that case it dose not count YOU DID NOT FAIL that is all
Thanks
If you want some more bait, let me know if you're on PC NA. I'll send you some
i mean, the city itself wouldnt be designed any different just because 700 years passed, it was built by the dwemer, wasnt it? meaning it was built like thousands of years ago or something?
i think its fine to update old games into new styles, and reimagine them entirely. some things are lost for sure, but dont let nostalgia get in the way of something awesome
Clockwork City is a city created entirely by Sotha Sil. Official Lore says that Sotha Sil was fluent in Dwemer technology and created the technology and blueprints for CWC from the ruins of Kemel-Ze.
@@jitaek01 yeah i was wondering after i made the comment. i didnt get to the tribunal dlc yet so i was just guessing based off what i knew about dwemer stuff and i was confused, but yeah that makes more sense.
Lets G O
Woo hoo
so whne you quitting job and become full time yt elders scroll boy haha jk
Not for a while but I appreciate the optimism :)
I hate ESO, not for it's implications on the lore, but for its implications on what Bethesda, via ZOS, consider to be acceptable monetization practices for the franchise going forward.
Also in general, the dialogue and storytelling of ESO is laughably uninspired. This observation isn't helped by ZOS' decision to make every story available at any time, but even if one plays through the content "chronologically," the dialogue is still often disjointed. The Vestige appears to suffer from some form of short-term memory loss, with how often they need to be reminded of people, places, and events - many of which the Vestige was involved in.
that is only happening to remind you of the story in case you haven't played for a while or remember your quests .take it as some kind of summary and not a serious dialogue option
"Why did she just tell me all of Clavicus Viles plans?"
Because the writing of ESO is dogshit, as is so much modern game story writing, and its exactly the reason why people like me dont accept the story of Skyrim and ESO as canon, it disrespects the lore established of previous games.
Every Elder Scrolls game disrespects the lore established in previous games. Daggerfall disrespects Arena, Morrowind disrespects Daggerfall, Oblivion tears apart Morrowind, and Skyrim disrespects Oblivion too.
This is the perpetual cycle of Elder Scrolls :)
What kind of microphone do you use @FrostbreakYT