I mean not all of them deserved being slaughtered, and besides Pelinal was absolutely insane and wanted to kill all mer regardless of whether they were ayleid or not.
@@DeDoDoDoDeDaDaDa Oh right, totally good point. Not all mer need to be slaughtered. Of course the Altmer with their high and mighty supremacy definitely need to go since every time they get REMOTELY powerful they become a massive issue for everyone else, but the rest are fine. The bosmer definitely aren't home to a large weirdo cannibalistic florida man tribe who in exchange for living with the trees swore to only eat meat. And come Nerevar, the Dunmer surely have never done anything wrong that would want even one of their own to wipe them all out.
“Men were given over to the lifting of stones, and the draining of the fields, and the upkeep of temple and road; or to become art-tortures for strange pleasures, as in the wailing wheels of Vindasel and the gut-gardens of Sercen; and flesh-sculpture, which was everywhere among the slaves of the ayleids in those days; or, worse, the realms of the Fire King Hadhuul, where the begetting of drugs drawn from the admixture of daedrons into living hosts let one inhale new visions of torment, and children were set aflame for nighttime tiger sport.” - The Adabal-a by Morihaus Gee I fucking wonder why the men of the first empire killed all the ayleids?
I think it fits in well with the motif of the story, and my favorite fan theory of how the hero of kvatch is canonically able to be the leader of all the guilds, it's about insanity.
So many questions.... 1) Why did Umbacano want to resurrect the Ayeid empire? 2) Is Umbacano secretly part of the Thalmor plot? 3) Why did the liches turn on him? 4) Is the crown haunted? 5) How did Umbacano get wealthy so fast? 6) Who in their right mind writes a list of questions about a side quest?
I think the reason the litches turned on him was because he had the crown of lalorion dynar so they thought he as lalorion but when they saw him the realised it wasn't lalorion so they killed him
I remember doing this quest for the first time and how I thought it was so cool. I have the guidebook for oblivion on Xbox 360 and it told where to find the correct ruins, I love that guidebook it covers everything in the base game and uses Witty humor as well.
That’s amazing! I actually was reading that the guidebook has an error listing on an ayleid statue location! It apparently lists a ruin that doesn’t have the statue in it! Must’ve been infuriating back in the day looking around for it!
@@ABardsBallad oh man yeah I remember that now, I remember it showed the wrong one in the quest section so I had to look in the POI section and read each ruins individual description to find it
I had a Morrowind guidebook (thank god) and I also recall it being rather amusing and humorous aswell. One line that sticks out to me is during the Blood moon quest line when u encounter the draugr for the first time that no indeed their name is s not a typo and you should kick their ass and remind them their name looks like such lol
It's just beautiful how throughout the whole video the NPCs always blame the character for not adhering to the Holy Crusader's principles. Pure comedy gold.
I love how Pelinal Whitestrake is remembered as this saintly individual but was a genocidal maniac who was halfway through the Khajit before someone managed to tell him they weren't in fact elves and regularly screamed at the gods to stop watching him. Mind, the Ayleids had it coming but a paragon of virtue he was not
@@darthbrooks4933 Morrowind had the most interesting world, Oblivion had the best quests and Skyrim had the best game mechanics (stealth for example). They all have something to offer, I enjoy all 3 games but Skyrim is a bit worse than ES 3 and 4 imo
"Oblivion's most VILE High Elf" Please, we all know the most vile High Elf in Cyrodiil is Voranil of Cheydinhal. He adamantly refuses to give you an invitation to one of his "super parties", on the grounds that you're not a "somebody", even if you're the Grand Champion, Guildmaster of the Fighter's Guild, Archmage of the Mage's Guild, Hero of Kvatch, etc. In all seriousness though, this Questline has always been a personal favorite of mine. I've always found the idea of treasure-hunting to be really cool (to the point where I went out of my way to download a "more immersive loot" mod in Skyrim). And in Oblivion, Ayleid ruins were always my favorite ruins to explore; I just _love_ how bizarre and somewhat twisted their design is. A lot of people seem to dislike this quest, as you're given no directions (at least, not at first). But as someone who loves exploring Ayleid ruins just for the sake of it, the fact that this quest practically requires one to explore a bunch of them was just a bonus. Although I will admit that most of Oblivion's Ayleid ruins look pretty much identical, so if you're not a fan of them, this quest can get on your nerves pretty quickly. And even in my case, I only do them in short bursts (around two or three dungeons), simply because after a while, they start to feel a bit "samey" (for lack of a better term). Side note: That's something I'm *REALLY* looking forward to in Skyblivion, as they've gone on record stating that they don't want a single area to feel generic. And as an Ayelid ruin aficionado, I'm quite looking forward to it :D I've always killed Claude and his mercenaries the instant they demanded the carving. *ALWAYS.* Largely because I always assumed you'd simply fail the quest altogether if he got away with the carving. So, I never even realized that you could simply surrender the carving and continue on. I still don't see myself ever actually doing so, but it's still an interesting tidbit. I especially love the idea of him being forced to fight alongside you, all while awkwardly trying to apologize for trying to kill you. As for Umbacano himself, the most charitable interpretation of his actions at the end of "Secrets of the Ayleids" is that he has a very romanticized view of the Ayleid Empire (Especially seeing as he described the fall of the White-Gold Tower as "brutal"). As such, for all his education and intellect, he's basically a delusional idiot who's blinded himself to the truth of how utterly abhorrent many of the Ayleid kingdoms were. And when he sits down on the throne while wearing the crown, he gets possessed by the spirit of the evil Ayleid King, and his old personality gets destroyed. This is evidenced by his name becoming "King of Nenalata". Not "King Umbacano", or even "Umbacano of Nenalata", _just_ the "King of Nenalata". Sort of like what eventually happens to the poor shmucks who wield Umbra for too long. That being said, he still voices an interest in restoring the glory of the Ayleid Empire, so even if everything had gone according to plan, you still would've had to kill him. P.S. I rarely experience serious issues with inventory management. I always go out of my way to only take things I absolutely need, in case I find some epic loot or something. I learned that lesson the hard way as a kid, after having to leave behind one too many rare items due to my god-awful inventory management. On top of that, I always play on Survival Mode when I play Skyrim, which cuts your Weight Limit _in half._ So, instead of starting out with a Weight Limit of 300 or so, you start off with _150._
*has twenty morbillion septims, is archmage, grand champion, guildmaster of the fighter's guild, the gray fox, listener of the dark brotherhood, hero of kvatch, and is currently mantling both Pelinal Whitestrake AND Sheogorath at the same time* Voranil: "who in oblivion are you?"
It makes me think Voranil is an imposter and he's saying you're not invited to a party just because he's a prick and he doesn't actually throw any parties.
I really like the theory that Umbacano was decended from The Ayleids. After the fall of the Ayleid Empire,most of the one's who didn't go the remaining city states in Cyrodiil either fled into Valenwood and assimilated into the Bosmer and their culture over several generations,some fled to High Rock and likewise interbred and assimilated into Direnni and Breton cultures and it is speculated some went back to Alinor. This would make sense and it would be interesting to have some modern Altmer be decended from said Ayleid refugees and in the case of Umbacano,he became fascinated with Aylieds and their culture and eventually developed ambitions beyond mere historical collecting and documentation and had a dream of ressurecting the Aylied Empire
Instead of abruptly ending the quest once you gave him the crown, they should have done it so after you gave him the crown and escaped the ruins. Undead would begin spawning around the area near Nenelatha. And after a couple of ingame days have past the player would recieve another quest to return to the ruins and kill Umbancano who by this point had turned into a full Lich. The undead around Nenelatha would comtinually respawn untill he was killed. That is if you gave him the right crown.
First one I ever found was in Vilverin. Exited the Imperial Sewers for the first time and saw the ruin across the water and could not resist. I swept the place clean.
Right after exiting the sewers?? That is quite impressive. Vilverin is a tough one for a low level character. I got my ass stomped a few times before deciding to come back later hahaha
Level scaling patch? When I used that mod the only tough enemies were the Bandit boss in the first level and a Skeleton Archer with paralysis arrows with an enchanted dwarven bow with stamina damage literally near the Elven Statue. Everything else was just basic math.
Such a good quest that doesn't hold your hand. More quests should have structured like this. If you already the book of the Hige Fane you can tell him and he'll be glad you already know and wouldn't talk to the competitor. He holds your hand but only if you didn't already know. Again this is something that should have been done much mkre often.
I am an elf apologist for most fantasy realms. Warhammer, I get it. Shit's complicated, and things are murky with the elves. Lord of the Rings, their interests extended beyond the physical realm, and they wanted to save their people's culture, history, and entire way of life. DnD? You bet your ass I am on that grind trying to call out the unnecessary racism that Men lob at Wood Elves, High Elves, and non-Lolth Drow alike. Elder Scrolls? Don't say shit about Dark Elves, and we're good. Wood Elves are weird cannibal people, but also leave em alone they just like trees. Valenwood seems cool, I'd like to go there in one of the games, the description reminds me of Kashyyyk from Star Wars and that shit was dope. Snow Elves or Falmer, fucking tragic. The Nords destroyed those people, and the Dwarves fucking experimented on the survivors. Completely fucked up. High Elves? Genocide is bad. As a rule. And that applies to every High Elf that has consistently tried to commit genocide because of "bloodline superiority" and shit. So when Umbacano, another high elf aspirant to the "glory days" of the Ayleid tries to restore that regime? Thalmor? History deniers, actually manipulated the story to omit the Hero of Kvatch to claim that the Thalmor stopped Mehrunes Dagon... in order to consolidate power and used the crisis to assassinate political opposition (blaming it on demons... which the Thalmor were also summoning) and then started a religious war with the Empire with the goal of enslaving every race that isn't a High Elf. And they're also racist to Dark Elves, which I don't fuck with. Dark Elves are hands down the best race in Elder Scrolls and their lore is so much more interesting. Maaaaybe Bretons with their link to magical bloodlines and chivalric culture, and the Forsworn in Skyrim (very Arthurian kind of stuff going on there between knights, druids, magic bloodlines and shit) WHICH THE HIGH ELVES ALSO HATE. Fuck the High Elves.
You would think a High Elf of his intellect would respect the Decisions of the Gods that High Elves claim to be directly descended from. They helped Humanity several times. I don't remember anyone helping high Elves besides themselves and the Daedra.
That's the thing about people who claim to be descendants of some "higher authority" though: they count themselves among their number, thereby justifying any action they take.
I love that the whole "Crown of Nanalata's" original owner being evil and all that Oblivion proposed turns out to be one of the most noble, sincere, and just Ayleid kings (and considering how messed up they were lore-wise, he might as well be Santa Claus in comparison) in ESO and even sacrifices himself in order to save Nirn from Molag Bal. I wonder if the writers of ESO did that on purpose or if this was just one of Oblivion's pulling the old "unreliable narrator" tricks that Ted Peterson and Kirkbride like to pull in Daggerfall and Morrowind. Granted, knowing how the writers of ESO would fudge things I don't even know if I can give them that kind of credit tbh...
Did you know that you get a different type of crown depending on which one he wears when he sits at the throne? The special effects get enhanced, depending on which crown he wears. Because these crowns have different enchantments, it makes a slight difference in whether or not you give him the right crown or not.
Umbacano was just pissed because he failed as a landscape painter in Anvil. The significant Wood Elf and Redguard population no doubt drove him over the edge. It's no wonder he turned to the Ary--, I mean Nordic butler, to fulfill his dreams.
The worst thing about this quest is that it's only triggered if you sell what looks like a quest item of some sort. Even if you find more than one of them, you'll be convinced that they're needed for something and will probably hold/store them and never think to sell one. They're just too unique.
i've gone out of my way to get the statue from vilverin at the start on almost every playthrough thinking someone would eventually approach me because i remembered doing this quest years ago, i never realised you had to sell it
Also it’s really neat to give him the right crown that way it activates it’s true power, and then get the other crown as well just to have your own collection after this quest. Not to mention the Nenalata(?) one looks really really cool
I don't know why I always, loved these quest. I think it has to do with having the player explore old ruins and dives into the lore. Anyways great video.
Dude I’m so glad I found your channel. I’m in love. This game shaped who I am today and it still makes me feel like I can be a better person or be anything no matter what age. *FAREWELL*
Having an Atronach Sign character in oblivion atm really highlights the need to get easy magicka top-ups with my currently low level alchemy; Welkynd Stones. Aedra bless the Welkynd Stonoes.
i mean, mankar camoran was pretty vile too, supposedly he wasnt even born a highelf, he made deals with dagon to swap his race, then his blood so he could be dragonborn as well
There’s a cool bug you can do if you have both crowns in your inventory after completing the quest, you can have it to wear one of the crowns will have the stats of both crowns which is stupidity broken if you’re high leveled
For someone who never played Oblivion im really grateful you make such in-depth videos. Its a shame you only got 7.9k Subscribers because the content is such good quality. Keep up the good work :)
You should definitely check it out 😊 it's a really good game, it has its quirks and it's a bit dated but I still play it simply because it's a fun game with lots of things to do. In fact I've been playing it off and on since it released and I still find new content every time I play.
I remember first doing this quest. My character had encountered Rigmor and her mates in the Roxey Inn before and wondered who all those mysterious bruisers were. and so all through the game I kept popping in for a drink and engaging them with the Speech minigame. When I finally encountered them under the employ of Claude Meric, I yielded to them and they all 'remembered' me from the pub and refused to fight! I think Claude rode off or ran away. And Rigmor and her guys went back to the Roxey and lived to fight another day. I loved this game for that sort of depth, such great memories!
Oh wow I remember doing this quest when i first dicovered it! Pretty much raided my first Ayleid ruins after leaving the prison starting zone, found a secret path that took me to find the statue. Didn't think much of it in the past as I thought it was just another trinket you sell like in Morrowind for extra cash. imagine to my surprise when I got approach by Jollring that led me to one hell of a goose chase across Cyrodiil XD
I only found out about this questline about a year ago from a random funny moments video when Umbacano was blabbering that random Ayleid language nonsense before he tried to became Ayleid king :D. I was like wth, this is in original game and I somehow missed it? Thanks for covering it!
For the Morrowind reference - an interesting point is that the mine you find Umbacano is inside the Ghostfance. There’s sort of a parallel in that he dug deep in the Red Mountain to draw the power to make himself into a god (got a bunch of money mining glass and then went to Cyrodil for the artefacts)
These were my favorite quests. I could see something similar to this being the main plotline of a game, with a wealthy patron guiding you across the land for various treasures, and a few double crosses along the way.
FYI the Lindai crown gets destroyed if you give it to him and he does the ritual with it thus becoming a paperweight, that's why it's best to get both crowns and give him the real one that way you get both.
Would have been cool to see Umbacano survive, become a new Alyid king, awaken the ruin and restore it, and begin a campaign against the Empire. That the player then takes part in on either side
Funny enough I decided to give Umbacano the right crown so that when the quest was over I could keep both of the crowns. The character I did the quest with uses heavy armor though, so maybe I’ll do it again in my magic or stealth characters so that I can actually use them. Another thing of note is that after completing the questline I noticed that the carved panel was still in my inventory and marked as stolen for some reason. I haven’t see any documentation of this bug online and I’ve got idea how it happened, but I’m tempted to go back to an old save and see if I can prevent it from happening
Blimey, i never expected to be hooked on this video ahha, the thousands of hours i spend on oblivion, i never actually completed this questline, very good video look forward to seeing more
Every playthrough I do I always just swim across to Vilverin and grab the statue in there. I also liked how it wasn't just a typical fetch quest. It added in other characters and different plot points like having to convince the one scholar and meeting Claude Maric. I could never save Claude Maric at the end though.
Just found your channel and wanted to say awesome work man! it's so good to see quality oblivion content out there still since the game is sadly neglected.
Great video as always! By the way if you don’t kill Claud he will join up with you and Umbacano during the final dungeon crawl during the questline. If he survives all that, you two part ways after the finale. I’m writing this during the dialogue to go get crown from the rival collector so not sure if you talk about it yet or not 😅
Wow I had no idea this was such an in depth quest and storyline. Like most I'm sure, I was just never bothered to find the Ayleid Statues in order to progress the story further.
The crowns are intesting. The Crown of Lindai has fortify alteration, fortify illusion and resist magic. The Crown of Nenalata has fortify alteration, fortify conjuration and reflect spell. Reflect is a much more interesting enchantment.
I love this questline, the Gold for one, the leveled items are pretty nuts for two and for 3 I just enjoy this quest ❤ hearing the lore and exploring my options calling it a "mere" 1000 gold to acquire the crown is insulting btw, this questline is one of the most handsomely paying in the game since saving the World(main quest) Pays nearly nothing, and no Thieves guild questline or fighters guild quest pays half as much as 11k while taking longer to complete as well to simplyfy, its easy money, and belittling it is the same as saying every quest reward in oblivion has terrible rewards 😂
Fun fact (or maybe my game was bugged) about the crown of Lindai, you can repair it an infinite amount of times so it’s a great exploit to increase your armorer skill. At least after looting it off of Umbacano in Nenalata. (That’s the ending I chose) I’m unsure if it’s able to be repaired if he didn’t die due to the quest, since upon picking it up, it had the ‘broke’ icon next to it, but for anyone wanting to try, it’s worth it! I’ll have to go take the crown from herminia and see if it’s possible on that one as well. 🤔
I can imagine if the Hero of Kvatch wearing Pential Whitestrake's armor while Pential is thinking: "I got some unfinished business with the last king of the Aeylids." While heavily breathing. LOL
I always do this questline in endgame. Even though I always do it like every playthrough, some of those statues are really tricky to find yo! Getting about 13000 Gold is certainly always worth it though. Basically the most gold you can make from any quest etc.
@@ABardsBallad I forgot to say, I normally hand in all the statues in at once to get that long quest over with right at the beginning, technically before it even really starts. It somehow doesn't feel as long to me doing that way, instead of doing them one by one. Another great gold maker I use though out the playthroughs, is selling vampire ashes!
You can permanently keep the enchantments of both crowns accept getting the other crown equip either crown and get arrested go to jail you keep the enchantments permanently whichever crown you give to umbacano you can do this with necromancers amulet or any quest item with enchantments
I did interpret ending of the quest as Umbacano willingly turning evil and summoning the undead. I think he imagined his ritual would resurrect the ayleids and then the crown or the spirit of the king possessed him. He's a recless fool rather than an evil maniac
28:36 this gave me flashbacks lol I did this quest with a redguard 2 hand build, I got through this part but I burnt through 3 glass claymores and an ungodly amount of mutton (I ran out of healing potions doing something on the way there and was too lazy to fast travel into town)
Lucky for us this character happens to be proficient in destruction magic and zombies (undead) have a weakness to fire. Not to mention the magic he uses to cast said spells happens to be infinite.
"It's a pity these people don't know you like I know you, Belloch." "Perhaps you might warn them, eh? If only you spoke Xovitos. Heheh. And so you see, Doctor Jones, there is nothing you can possess which I cannot take away." (Also, it's a-LESS-IA, not a-LEE-sia. Why can no one ever pronounce this correctly? It's written right there!)
I think the crown and spell made the spirits think he was lalorion dynar the king if nenelata and champion of meridia but when they saw umbacano they realised it wasn't him so they turned on him. And how did your one get her hands on his crown you'd think he would've been buried with it. it also makes me think os umbacano an alyeid probably not but it would he cool anyway great video
![[MV] A leap of faith...ความเชื่อใจครั้งสุดท้าย (From "Petrichor the series")](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/U1piZH2CNXA/mqdefault.jpg)
"Humans BRUTALLY sacked the Ayleid capital."
Damn bro, why'd they do that Umbacano? Why. Did. They. Do. That.
“One day. Suddenly, for no reason at all, The Divines sent down Pelinal Whitestrake.”
I mean not all of them deserved being slaughtered, and besides Pelinal was absolutely insane and wanted to kill all mer regardless of whether they were ayleid or not.
@@DeDoDoDoDeDaDaDa Oh right, totally good point. Not all mer need to be slaughtered. Of course the Altmer with their high and mighty supremacy definitely need to go since every time they get REMOTELY powerful they become a massive issue for everyone else, but the rest are fine. The bosmer definitely aren't home to a large weirdo cannibalistic florida man tribe who in exchange for living with the trees swore to only eat meat. And come Nerevar, the Dunmer surely have never done anything wrong that would want even one of their own to wipe them all out.
@@DeDoDoDoDeDaDaDaIs wanting to kill all mer supposed to be a bad thing?
“Men were given over to the lifting of stones, and the draining of the fields, and the upkeep of temple and road; or to become art-tortures for strange pleasures, as in the wailing wheels of Vindasel and the gut-gardens of Sercen; and flesh-sculpture, which was everywhere among the slaves of the ayleids in those days; or, worse, the realms of the Fire King Hadhuul, where the begetting of drugs drawn from the admixture of daedrons into living hosts let one inhale new visions of torment, and children were set aflame for nighttime tiger sport.”
- The Adabal-a by Morihaus
Gee I fucking wonder why the men of the first empire killed all the ayleids?
The elves in oblivion always seemed to be more crazy than in other entries in the series
Yeah I noticed that too 😂
It is the only game where they walk into barber's shops and ask for the Oily Onion haircut?
I think it fits in well with the motif of the story, and my favorite fan theory of how the hero of kvatch is canonically able to be the leader of all the guilds, it's about insanity.
Idk bro the thalmor are pretty crazy
@@Beaufranpretty sure they’re just racist. Insanely racist, that is.
Just wanna let everyone know that in Portuguese Um bacano is literally “a cool guy” “a nice dude”
só percebi agora kkkk, "bacano" é de foder
brazilian portugese or mainland portugese?
@@whs1pmjazz both.
Oh the irony
Don’t worry everybody, he’s a cool guy 👍
So many questions....
1) Why did Umbacano want to resurrect the Ayeid empire?
2) Is Umbacano secretly part of the Thalmor plot?
3) Why did the liches turn on him?
4) Is the crown haunted?
5) How did Umbacano get wealthy so fast?
6) Who in their right mind writes a list of questions about a side quest?
They’re all valid! 😂 I wish I had answers, I’m stumped on some of them too!
He was foud mining in Morrowind. Maybe was that?
I think the reason the litches turned on him was because he had the crown of lalorion dynar so they thought he as lalorion but when they saw him the realised it wasn't lalorion so they killed him
@@ABardsBalladWhat happens after Umbacano is Possessed and you Yield to him?
@@KingOmnifarious He still insists on killing you, essentially the fight happens regardless
I remember doing this quest for the first time and how I thought it was so cool. I have the guidebook for oblivion on Xbox 360 and it told where to find the correct ruins, I love that guidebook it covers everything in the base game and uses Witty humor as well.
That’s amazing! I actually was reading that the guidebook has an error listing on an ayleid statue location! It apparently lists a ruin that doesn’t have the statue in it! Must’ve been infuriating back in the day looking around for it!
@@ABardsBallad oh man yeah I remember that now, I remember it showed the wrong one in the quest section so I had to look in the POI section and read each ruins individual description to find it
The guide is written as it is because Emil P wrote it, or rather, is one of the primary authors.
I have the fallout 3 guidebook, but it's not in great condition anymore
I had a Morrowind guidebook (thank god) and I also recall it being rather amusing and humorous aswell. One line that sticks out to me is during the Blood moon quest line when u encounter the draugr for the first time that no indeed their name is s not a typo and you should kick their ass and remind them their name looks like such lol
It's just beautiful how throughout the whole video the NPCs always blame the character for not adhering to the Holy Crusader's principles. Pure comedy gold.
😂 it always made me chuckle when I would talk to a stranger and they would just bad mouth me
I love how Pelinal Whitestrake is remembered as this saintly individual but was a genocidal maniac who was halfway through the Khajit before someone managed to tell him they weren't in fact elves and regularly screamed at the gods to stop watching him. Mind, the Ayleids had it coming but a paragon of virtue he was not
@@jacksmythe2187nah, he was right about the khajit. Whitestrake did nothing wrong (except not finishing the job)
@@Kivlorglory to the aldmeri dominion! Mer should rule over men, and if you don’t like it you can go back to atmora.
@@DeDoDoDoDeDaDaDa Redguard: 🤨
This is why I prefer Oblivion to Skyrim. The quality of the quests was just on another level
Lemme tell you about Morrowind….
Might have been a janky ass game with an unbalanced level up system but damn it wasn’t one of the best memories of my childhood
Agreed, Skyrim is downright boring and empty when it comes to most side quests
@@darthbrooks4933 Morrowind had the most interesting world, Oblivion had the best quests and Skyrim had the best game mechanics (stealth for example). They all have something to offer, I enjoy all 3 games but Skyrim is a bit worse than ES 3 and 4 imo
Good thing opinions only matter to those who speak them :)
"Oblivion's most VILE High Elf"
Please, we all know the most vile High Elf in Cyrodiil is Voranil of Cheydinhal. He adamantly refuses to give you an invitation to one of his "super parties", on the grounds that you're not a "somebody", even if you're the Grand Champion, Guildmaster of the Fighter's Guild, Archmage of the Mage's Guild, Hero of Kvatch, etc.
In all seriousness though, this Questline has always been a personal favorite of mine. I've always found the idea of treasure-hunting to be really cool (to the point where I went out of my way to download a "more immersive loot" mod in Skyrim). And in Oblivion, Ayleid ruins were always my favorite ruins to explore; I just _love_ how bizarre and somewhat twisted their design is. A lot of people seem to dislike this quest, as you're given no directions (at least, not at first). But as someone who loves exploring Ayleid ruins just for the sake of it, the fact that this quest practically requires one to explore a bunch of them was just a bonus.
Although I will admit that most of Oblivion's Ayleid ruins look pretty much identical, so if you're not a fan of them, this quest can get on your nerves pretty quickly. And even in my case, I only do them in short bursts (around two or three dungeons), simply because after a while, they start to feel a bit "samey" (for lack of a better term). Side note: That's something I'm *REALLY* looking forward to in Skyblivion, as they've gone on record stating that they don't want a single area to feel generic. And as an Ayelid ruin aficionado, I'm quite looking forward to it :D
I've always killed Claude and his mercenaries the instant they demanded the carving. *ALWAYS.* Largely because I always assumed you'd simply fail the quest altogether if he got away with the carving. So, I never even realized that you could simply surrender the carving and continue on. I still don't see myself ever actually doing so, but it's still an interesting tidbit. I especially love the idea of him being forced to fight alongside you, all while awkwardly trying to apologize for trying to kill you.
As for Umbacano himself, the most charitable interpretation of his actions at the end of "Secrets of the Ayleids" is that he has a very romanticized view of the Ayleid Empire (Especially seeing as he described the fall of the White-Gold Tower as "brutal"). As such, for all his education and intellect, he's basically a delusional idiot who's blinded himself to the truth of how utterly abhorrent many of the Ayleid kingdoms were. And when he sits down on the throne while wearing the crown, he gets possessed by the spirit of the evil Ayleid King, and his old personality gets destroyed. This is evidenced by his name becoming "King of Nenalata". Not "King Umbacano", or even "Umbacano of Nenalata", _just_ the "King of Nenalata". Sort of like what eventually happens to the poor shmucks who wield Umbra for too long.
That being said, he still voices an interest in restoring the glory of the Ayleid Empire, so even if everything had gone according to plan, you still would've had to kill him.
P.S. I rarely experience serious issues with inventory management. I always go out of my way to only take things I absolutely need, in case I find some epic loot or something. I learned that lesson the hard way as a kid, after having to leave behind one too many rare items due to my god-awful inventory management. On top of that, I always play on Survival Mode when I play Skyrim, which cuts your Weight Limit _in half._ So, instead of starting out with a Weight Limit of 300 or so, you start off with _150._
Ok
*has twenty morbillion septims, is archmage, grand champion, guildmaster of the fighter's guild, the gray fox, listener of the dark brotherhood, hero of kvatch, and is currently mantling both Pelinal Whitestrake AND Sheogorath at the same time*
Voranil: "who in oblivion are you?"
It makes me think Voranil is an imposter and he's saying you're not invited to a party just because he's a prick and he doesn't actually throw any parties.
Glad to see Oblivion content is still being produced. You and Dark Lore Dash scratch the itch!
I’m glad you’ve been enjoying the content! :)
I really like the theory that Umbacano was decended from The Ayleids. After the fall of the Ayleid Empire,most of the one's who didn't go the remaining city states in Cyrodiil either fled into Valenwood and assimilated into the Bosmer and their culture over several generations,some fled to High Rock and likewise interbred and assimilated into Direnni and Breton cultures and it is speculated some went back to Alinor. This would make sense and it would be interesting to have some modern Altmer be decended from said Ayleid refugees and in the case of Umbacano,he became fascinated with Aylieds and their culture and eventually developed ambitions beyond mere historical collecting and documentation and had a dream of ressurecting the Aylied Empire
Instead of abruptly ending the quest once you gave him the crown, they should have done it so after you gave him the crown and escaped the ruins. Undead would begin spawning around the area near Nenelatha. And after a couple of ingame days have past the player would recieve another quest to return to the ruins and kill Umbancano who by this point had turned into a full Lich. The undead around Nenelatha would comtinually respawn untill he was killed.
That is if you gave him the right crown.
First one I ever found was in Vilverin. Exited the Imperial Sewers for the first time and saw the ruin across the water and could not resist. I swept the place clean.
It must be 100% deliberate that they placed it there.
Right after exiting the sewers?? That is quite impressive. Vilverin is a tough one for a low level character. I got my ass stomped a few times before deciding to come back later hahaha
@@esotericbrain2689 really? that was always the first thing i did...
@alexrau2857 clear vilverin entirely right away? Where was your difficulty bar set to haha
Level scaling patch? When I used that mod the only tough enemies were the Bandit boss in the first level and a Skeleton Archer with paralysis arrows with an enchanted dwarven bow with stamina damage literally near the Elven Statue. Everything else was just basic math.
Such a good quest that doesn't hold your hand. More quests should have structured like this. If you already the book of the Hige Fane you can tell him and he'll be glad you already know and wouldn't talk to the competitor. He holds your hand but only if you didn't already know. Again this is something that should have been done much mkre often.
I agree! A very fun and reasonably challenging questline!
I am an elf apologist for most fantasy realms.
Warhammer, I get it. Shit's complicated, and things are murky with the elves.
Lord of the Rings, their interests extended beyond the physical realm, and they wanted to save their people's culture, history, and entire way of life.
DnD? You bet your ass I am on that grind trying to call out the unnecessary racism that Men lob at Wood Elves, High Elves, and non-Lolth Drow alike.
Elder Scrolls? Don't say shit about Dark Elves, and we're good. Wood Elves are weird cannibal people, but also leave em alone they just like trees. Valenwood seems cool, I'd like to go there in one of the games, the description reminds me of Kashyyyk from Star Wars and that shit was dope. Snow Elves or Falmer, fucking tragic. The Nords destroyed those people, and the Dwarves fucking experimented on the survivors. Completely fucked up.
High Elves? Genocide is bad. As a rule. And that applies to every High Elf that has consistently tried to commit genocide because of "bloodline superiority" and shit.
So when Umbacano, another high elf aspirant to the "glory days" of the Ayleid tries to restore that regime? Thalmor? History deniers, actually manipulated the story to omit the Hero of Kvatch to claim that the Thalmor stopped Mehrunes Dagon... in order to consolidate power and used the crisis to assassinate political opposition (blaming it on demons... which the Thalmor were also summoning) and then started a religious war with the Empire with the goal of enslaving every race that isn't a High Elf. And they're also racist to Dark Elves, which I don't fuck with. Dark Elves are hands down the best race in Elder Scrolls and their lore is so much more interesting. Maaaaybe Bretons with their link to magical bloodlines and chivalric culture, and the Forsworn in Skyrim (very Arthurian kind of stuff going on there between knights, druids, magic bloodlines and shit) WHICH THE HIGH ELVES ALSO HATE. Fuck the High Elves.
Nah! The other Elfes are also really fucked up.
Yeah dude for fucking real. Thats fucking fucked up. They really fucking have no fucking idea what the fucking fuck theyre doing. Fuck yeah.
ONG. I hope TES:6 has us taking down the thalmor. Would be the best game ever (skyrim is gonna be hard to beat along with oblivion. Another banger.)
People in cyridil are mad. No wonder sheo could open the door there
😂 for real!
The question begs if they were mad before or after Sheo opened his gate
@@AmaryInkawult Definitely before.
Well, let me tell you something, friend. Cyrodiil is a long way from here, and in Skyrim, we will never forsake mighty Talos!
@@PriorPethran, please, for the love of Talos, stop talking.
You would think a High Elf of his intellect would respect the Decisions of the Gods that High Elves claim to be directly descended from. They helped Humanity several times. I don't remember anyone helping high Elves besides themselves and the Daedra.
I guess that’s one of the charms of the Altmer race 😂
That's the thing about people who claim to be descendants of some "higher authority" though: they count themselves among their number, thereby justifying any action they take.
Meanwhile the Ayleid Lichs straight murder him because Altmer are inferior
I love that the whole "Crown of Nanalata's" original owner being evil and all that Oblivion proposed turns out to be one of the most noble, sincere, and just Ayleid kings (and considering how messed up they were lore-wise, he might as well be Santa Claus in comparison) in ESO and even sacrifices himself in order to save Nirn from Molag Bal. I wonder if the writers of ESO did that on purpose or if this was just one of Oblivion's pulling the old "unreliable narrator" tricks that Ted Peterson and Kirkbride like to pull in Daggerfall and Morrowind. Granted, knowing how the writers of ESO would fudge things I don't even know if I can give them that kind of credit tbh...
Did you know that you get a different type of crown depending on which one he wears when he sits at the throne? The special effects get enhanced, depending on which crown he wears. Because these crowns have different enchantments, it makes a slight difference in whether or not you give him the right crown or not.
Umbacano was just pissed because he failed as a landscape painter in Anvil. The significant Wood Elf and Redguard population no doubt drove him over the edge. It's no wonder he turned to the Ary--, I mean Nordic butler, to fulfill his dreams.
The worst thing about this quest is that it's only triggered if you sell what looks like a quest item of some sort. Even if you find more than one of them, you'll be convinced that they're needed for something and will probably hold/store them and never think to sell one. They're just too unique.
i've gone out of my way to get the statue from vilverin at the start on almost every playthrough thinking someone would eventually approach me because i remembered doing this quest years ago, i never realised you had to sell it
It’s my first play through of oblivion and the first ruin I entered had one n I immediately sold it
You can actually just hear about umbacano and go to him with the statue. You don't need to sell it
You can go straight to Umbaccano or hear about him and get led there. Until this day I never knew selling it would trigger the quest also.
Sort of makes sense though, how would he know you had them?
Also it’s really neat to give him the right crown that way it activates it’s true power, and then get the other crown as well just to have your own collection after this quest. Not to mention the Nenalata(?) one looks really really cool
I was thinking that too! That we likely would’ve had a neat choice of which crown to give him!
If you spare Claude Maric, he'll join you in the final quest and can be great help in holding back the liches for you to escape
I don't know why I always, loved these quest. I think it has to do with having the player explore old ruins and dives into the lore. Anyways great video.
Dude I’m so glad I found your channel. I’m in love. This game shaped who I am today and it still makes me feel like I can be a better person or be anything no matter what age.
*FAREWELL*
“The Aylieds did nothing wrong.”
“Gut gardens.”
Having an Atronach Sign character in oblivion atm really highlights the need to get easy magicka top-ups with my currently low level alchemy;
Welkynd Stones. Aedra bless the Welkynd Stonoes.
i mean, mankar camoran was pretty vile too, supposedly he wasnt even born a highelf, he made deals with dagon to swap his race, then his blood so he could be dragonborn as well
Bro used console commands
There’s a cool bug you can do if you have both crowns in your inventory after completing the quest, you can have it to wear one of the crowns will have the stats of both crowns which is stupidity broken if you’re high leveled
*ThE LeSSeR RaCeS*
For someone who never played Oblivion im really grateful you make such in-depth videos. Its a shame you only got 7.9k Subscribers because the content is such good quality. Keep up the good work :)
You should definitely check it out 😊 it's a really good game, it has its quirks and it's a bit dated but I still play it simply because it's a fun game with lots of things to do. In fact I've been playing it off and on since it released and I still find new content every time I play.
As someone who loves playing as either a scholar or merc in elder scroll games, Umbacano was always one of my favorite NPCs to go to.
I remember first doing this quest. My character had encountered Rigmor and her mates in the Roxey Inn before and wondered who all those mysterious bruisers were. and so all through the game I kept popping in for a drink and engaging them with the Speech minigame.
When I finally encountered them under the employ of Claude Meric, I yielded to them and they all 'remembered' me from the pub and refused to fight! I think Claude rode off or ran away. And Rigmor and her guys went back to the Roxey and lived to fight another day.
I loved this game for that sort of depth, such great memories!
Loving the longform videos! Tysm! ❤
I’m glad you’ve been enjoying them! :)
I’m with you, keep up the long form content. My gaming and sleeping time thanks you
The fact you didn’t go to the ruins directly across from the sewers when you exit the into is absolutely bonkers, bro. My hands are shook.
I... Sithis take me, I've never known of this quest. This is the coolest quest so far and I've never seen it...
Oh wow I remember doing this quest when i first dicovered it!
Pretty much raided my first Ayleid ruins after leaving the prison starting zone, found a secret path that took me to find the statue. Didn't think much of it in the past as I thought it was just another trinket you sell like in Morrowind for extra cash. imagine to my surprise when I got approach by Jollring that led me to one hell of a goose chase across Cyrodiil XD
YOUR THE GOAT FOR DOING THIS QUESTLINE!!!
I hope you enjoyed it! :)
I am glad you covered this Questline my friend. I remember doing it and the ending is crazy
I’m really glad I did it and got to experience it like this! :)
I only found out about this questline about a year ago from a random funny moments video when Umbacano was blabbering that random Ayleid language nonsense before he tried to became Ayleid king :D. I was like wth, this is in original game and I somehow missed it? Thanks for covering it!
I’m really glad I got to cover it! I never got as far as Nothing you can possess so the whole ordeal was really cool!
Had never heard of your channel before, TH-cam algorithm did me well introducing you to me.
Man, this really takes me back!!! Great video!
I appreciate it! Glad you liked it! :)
For the Morrowind reference - an interesting point is that the mine you find Umbacano is inside the Ghostfance. There’s sort of a parallel in that he dug deep in the Red Mountain to draw the power to make himself into a god (got a bunch of money mining glass and then went to Cyrodil for the artefacts)
I just love listening to content like this. Gives me intense nostalgia.
These were my favorite quests. I could see something similar to this being the main plotline of a game, with a wealthy patron guiding you across the land for various treasures, and a few double crosses along the way.
That questline is wild. I'm glad that you covered it because I never actually focused on getting them all. What a ride
FYI the Lindai crown gets destroyed if you give it to him and he does the ritual with it thus becoming a paperweight, that's why it's best to get both crowns and give him the real one that way you get both.
Would have been cool to see Umbacano survive, become a new Alyid king, awaken the ruin and restore it, and begin a campaign against the Empire. That the player then takes part in on either side
Funny enough I decided to give Umbacano the right crown so that when the quest was over I could keep both of the crowns. The character I did the quest with uses heavy armor though, so maybe I’ll do it again in my magic or stealth characters so that I can actually use them.
Another thing of note is that after completing the questline I noticed that the carved panel was still in my inventory and marked as stolen for some reason. I haven’t see any documentation of this bug online and I’ve got idea how it happened, but I’m tempted to go back to an old save and see if I can prevent it from happening
Thank you. Loving these videos. Perfect presentation. I'd watch more let's plays if other creators did it this wag.
Thank you for the support! I’m glad to hear your liking the videos! :)
Is it me, or oblivion has way more unique items that Skyrim?
Oblivion has pretty much more of everything, except dragons.
@@blarfroer8066 thats not true
Sometimes it feels like the walking can
Drag on
Tends to happen when a game has more passion put into it
Blimey, i never expected to be hooked on this video ahha, the thousands of hours i spend on oblivion, i never actually completed this questline, very good video look forward to seeing more
Every playthrough I do I always just swim across to Vilverin and grab the statue in there. I also liked how it wasn't just a typical fetch quest. It added in other characters and different plot points like having to convince the one scholar and meeting Claude Maric. I could never save Claude Maric at the end though.
Just found your channel and wanted to say awesome work man! it's so good to see quality oblivion content out there still since the game is sadly neglected.
love this game..played it so many times and keep returning, now I'm playing with the oblivion xp mod and having a real blast❤
It’s a shame you can’t wear The Crown of Nentala. After, the high elf’s vile transformation.
Bit of a late response but I’m pretty sure that’s the other crown but it respawns in Lindai
@@brunobaron458 No, it’s Nentala! It can’t epuipped ,after Umbacano transforms!
@@Digidragon55it can be, sometimes it glitches out
You can actually. You just have to drop it and pick it up again, it worked for me
Great video as always! By the way if you don’t kill Claud he will join up with you and Umbacano during the final dungeon crawl during the questline. If he survives all that, you two part ways after the finale. I’m writing this during the dialogue to go get crown from the rival collector so not sure if you talk about it yet or not 😅
I sort of wish I kept him alive! 😂 would’ve been really interesting to see him there with us at Nenalata!
4:57 the only way to play a game where you create your character is to make them as WILD as possible, well done
I love these videos man. I wish I had the know-how and was as good at story telling. I guess I just need to try
I love the Indiana Jones refrence from this quest (which Wilburgr also made a custom voiceline for)
Wow I had no idea this was such an in depth quest and storyline. Like most I'm sure, I was just never bothered to find the Ayleid Statues in order to progress the story further.
Man! You said you’d do it, but I wasn’t expecting it to be THAT quick!
😂 I hope you enjoyed my friend! :)
Absolutely did!
The crowns are intesting.
The Crown of Lindai has fortify alteration, fortify illusion and resist magic.
The Crown of Nenalata has fortify alteration, fortify conjuration and reflect spell.
Reflect is a much more interesting enchantment.
Great video. I love this game and have put quite some time into it including mods. I never completed this quest, thanks for covering it.
Fond memories from the first time discovering this quest line.
Great video! I never did this quest because i always held on to the statues when i came across them. Nice job!
I love this questline, the Gold for one, the leveled items are pretty nuts for two and for 3 I just enjoy this quest ❤ hearing the lore and exploring my options
calling it a "mere" 1000 gold to acquire the crown is insulting btw, this questline is one of the most handsomely paying in the game
since saving the World(main quest) Pays nearly nothing, and no Thieves guild questline or fighters guild quest pays half as much as 11k while taking longer to complete as well
to simplyfy, its easy money, and belittling it is the same as saying every quest reward in oblivion has terrible rewards 😂
One of the best quests in the Elder Scrolls.
Just a tip, conjured summons are not affected by the difficulty damage nerf. They also don't take extra damage.
I always get my first Ayleid statue in Vilverin, the first Alyeid ruin you see when you emerge from the sewers
Fun fact (or maybe my game was bugged) about the crown of Lindai, you can repair it an infinite amount of times so it’s a great exploit to increase your armorer skill. At least after looting it off of Umbacano in Nenalata. (That’s the ending I chose)
I’m unsure if it’s able to be repaired if he didn’t die due to the quest, since upon picking it up, it had the ‘broke’ icon next to it, but for anyone wanting to try, it’s worth it! I’ll have to go take the crown from herminia and see if it’s possible on that one as well. 🤔
Seeing him with the other crown on and get blasted to bits is pretty amusing.
i never knew about this quest. very cool!
I can imagine if the Hero of Kvatch wearing Pential Whitestrake's armor while Pential is thinking: "I got some unfinished business with the last king of the Aeylids." While heavily breathing. LOL
I always do this questline in endgame. Even though I always do it like every playthrough, some of those statues are really tricky to find yo! Getting about 13000 Gold is certainly always worth it though. Basically the most gold you can make from any quest etc.
Very true! The gold is definitely worth it for this questline!
@@ABardsBallad I forgot to say, I normally hand in all the statues in at once to get that long quest over with right at the beginning, technically before it even really starts. It somehow doesn't feel as long to me doing that way, instead of doing them one by one.
Another great gold maker I use though out the playthroughs, is selling vampire ashes!
I’ve never seen a chad garden gnome as the Hero of Kvatch
Loving your oblivion content
You can permanently keep the enchantments of both crowns accept getting the other crown equip either crown and get arrested go to jail you keep the enchantments permanently whichever crown you give to umbacano you can do this with necromancers amulet or any quest item with enchantments
I did interpret ending of the quest as Umbacano willingly turning evil and summoning the undead. I think he imagined his ritual would resurrect the ayleids and then the crown or the spirit of the king possessed him. He's a recless fool rather than an evil maniac
Oh the sweet nostalgia!!!
Never got around to this quest so its so cool to see how this plays out. Great video man!
29:05 "and one to grow on!" 🤣
Finding the statues is very similar to no stone unturned in skyrim
Very true! :)
Missread and though this was 5 minutes long 😂 clicked on it during smoke break. i'm not complaining tho
“Peering back over our shoulder”
…Your character looks easy to draw 🤣
28:36 this gave me flashbacks lol I did this quest with a redguard 2 hand build, I got through this part but I burnt through 3 glass claymores and an ungodly amount of mutton (I ran out of healing potions doing something on the way there and was too lazy to fast travel into town)
4:58 a look only a mother could love XD
Not opening the door behind the Lich was just……. Infuriating
In all my Oblivion playthroughs, I’m not sure I ever gave Umbacano the right crown! 😂😂😂
4:58 Oh my, what a handsome young lad
I’m happy with getting mine to at least look like a cartoon version of Aragorn
The moment I saw your characters face I nearly choked to death on my breakfast omfg lol
Lucky for us this character happens to be proficient in destruction magic and zombies (undead) have a weakness to fire. Not to mention the magic he uses to cast said spells happens to be infinite.
Drakes the type of guy that becomes the opposite of Chuck Norris jokes.
Interesting,i'm done this quest (but i choose to give Umbacano the Crown of Lindai instead)
I was really torn up on which route to take!
9:56 ouch, Jollring. Ouch.
😂 my man Jollring deserved better!
"It's a pity these people don't know you like I know you, Belloch."
"Perhaps you might warn them, eh? If only you spoke Xovitos. Heheh. And so you see, Doctor Jones, there is nothing you can possess which I cannot take away."
(Also, it's a-LESS-IA, not a-LEE-sia. Why can no one ever pronounce this correctly? It's written right there!)
Rigmor Is the ancestor of Rigmor of Bruma from the Mod Trilogy
Damn I missed the upload, but hey NICE another video
he used to think you were a hero. a holy knight and all that
I think the crown and spell made the spirits think he was lalorion dynar the king if nenelata and champion of meridia but when they saw umbacano they realised it wasn't him so they turned on him. And how did your one get her hands on his crown you'd think he would've been buried with it. it also makes me think os umbacano an alyeid probably not but it would he cool anyway great video
I think you’re on to something there! And very true, she got it somehow!
Have you heard of the high elves?