Oblivion

I first played Oblivion around the time it launched back in 2006 and I will never forget the experience. I’d just escaped the Imperial Sewers and was exploring the ruins nearby when the ATI Radeon 9800 in my Dell desktop decided to crap out on me. The computer kept working, somehow, but refused to ever run another game, and so thereafter was relegated to writing college papers and piping tunes into my tiny apartment. A few years later when I replaced the graphics card the entire rig was well past its prime.

Perhaps it’s fitting, then, that when I finally got around to playing Oblivion again this year, the most memorable moments revolved around corpses.

Yes. Corpses.

If we consider my GPU to be the first corpse, than the second would be that of poor Prior Maborel. He died early in my playthrough and forever after lay prone before Wenyon Priory’s front door. I’d converted one of the priory’s many chests into a storage spot for my loot, and every time I visited to organize my gear, Prior Maborel was there to greet me with his lifeless eyes. More alarming still was the way his fellow clergymen walked past him, oblivious to his existence. Perhaps they felt that if they avoided acknowledging his death, he would never truly be gone.

Then there was my encounter with Else God-Hater, an unfortunate lass whose life was ruined by love of the drink. Late in my quest to save Tamriel, as I was seeking room and board in Skingrad, Ms. God-Hater drew her blade and violently lashed out at me. With assistance from the inn’s many patrons I soon subdued her, at which point she fell to her knees beside the bar, one arm splayed across the counter. In that moment, she was the splitting image of a lush who’d imbibed a few pints too many. Was she really a Mythic Dawn agent, or just a raging alcoholic, venting her emotions before the stupor hit?

If only I could’ve checked her pulse.