Reviewing Monsters: The Elder Scrolls IV - Oblivion, Part 3: Shivering Isles

The final part of my coverage of Oblivion enemies is going to take us to the final expansion pack for Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, which is Shivering Isles. The story of Shivering Isles, without going too far into spoilers (because the storyline is actually pretty neat!) revolves around your character journeying into the realm of the Mad God Sheogorath, and trying to fix the many problems that is plaguing the titular Shivering Isles.

And, of course, with a new area, we get a completely new smattering of enemies! Interestingly, though, despite being supposedly the domain of insanity and madness, we don't actually get any enemies that are actually as thematic as the actual insanity the realm is supposed to represent. I genuinely feel that even with the engine limitations of the time, Shivering Isles really could've gone far, far more creative with their creature designs.

But we're not here to discuss what could have been, but rather what is included in Shivering Isles. And to be fair, the creatures of the Shivering Isles are easily my favourite of anything in Oblivion. Anyway, here goes!
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Baliwog

A neat little homage to D&D's Bullywug, a race of frog-people, the Baliwog is perhaps one of the weaker enemies in Shivering Isles, being these fun little... beasts. I always love it when combining different aspects of animals end up in something that you can vaguely describe as a "reptilian beast" and not, say, an obvious combination of animals. Like, you'd describe a gryphon as a "lion-eagle", but the Baliwog combines features of amphibians, reptiles, fishes without leaning too hard towards any of them, and looking genuinely ambiguously weird enough. "Baby Kaiju", I guess?

The Baliwog is clearly amphibious, though, dwelling in the many rivers and lakes that dot the Shivering Isles, regenerate health while swimming in the water, and tend to inflict poison or diseases when attacking. Interestingly, depending on various in-game books, the Baliwogs are either the juvenile forms of the Grummites or the Scalons -- two in-game bestiaries disagree vehemently about this, and the game never actually shows any sort of confirmation otherwise. I actually do like this little ambiguity, and considering how much real-life taxonomy tend to make mistakes and misconceptions like this, I did like this little detail.

Grummite

Grummites sort of take over the role as one of the more common humanoid enemies, I think, basically filling in the roles that generic bandits or skeletons take in regular Oblivion. They're vaguely humanoid... well, they're not quite fish-men (Scalons in this game, and Lurkers in Skyrim, fit "fish-men" far better) but I do like the fact that the Grummite does look like some sort of swamp-dwelling troglodyte or something. That's a pretty ugly-ass face! Like the Baliwogs, the Grummites tended to be clustered around water sources, guarding their eggs, but they're also as likely be found in ruins, or in random camps, and they are highly associated with a specific ore known as Madness Ore.

Grummites show up in all three normal variations that you tend to find in humanoid enemies -- warriors, mages and archers. I really do like, though, that unlike humanoid enemies, the Grummites are always consistently shown with their unique set of armour and weapons, which really helps to sell how their race has their own unique culture, something that vanilla Oblivion doesn't do particularly well with practically everyone pulling from the same pool of available equipment.

Now's probably a neat time to mention that the lands of Shivering Isles are divided into two parts, mania and dementia, representing... bipolar disease or something, I guess, and that plays into the factions that you can choose to help. Visually, this is most evidently seen from how the trees and surroundings of Dementia are far more drab and dreary, while that of Mania are far more vibrant... and that extends to the colouration of the enemies as well.

Scalon

Whereas Grummites are more akin to deformed humans with vague fish or reptilian features, Scalons are far more explicitly fish-people, just being this lanky, long-armed humanoid form with giant claws and an ugly fish head stapled to their necks. They are basically far more feral than the Grummites, who, while primitive, at least seemed vaguely tribal-like in their behaviour. Scalons are just beasts that will jump at your face and bite it off.

Interestingly, despite being fish-people, Scalons are actually easier to fight in the water, because the Scalon's more powerful abilities is the ability to turn invisible, a pretty wacky ability to give to the fish-men of the setting. But in water, invisibility doesn't do you good since the Scalons still cause ripples to form. Anyway, I kinda think that I prefer the Scalons to the Grummites, by simple coolness factor.

Elytra

The Elytra is one of my favourite enemies introduced in Shivering Isles, and anyone who's followed my monster reviews for any amount of time will probably know that I really, really love bug monsters. The Elytra -- named after the scientific name of a beetle's wing case -- are giant, mantis-wasp hybrids with a pretty creepy looking face that has... ear-horn things? Multiple eyes? Long, mustache-like antennae? That face is really what, I think, separates the Elytra from just being another neat bug enemy. It just looks so alien. Throw in some standard giant hornet-like abdomen, mantis claws and creepy clattering legs, and the Elytra is a pretty cool-looking bug monster! They are, interestingly, especially vulnerable to magic.

They even have a couple of dedicated dungeons that reveal that the Elytra build their nests inside gigantic root tunnel systems that run through deep inside Shivering Isle's massive trees, and that addition of unique-looking dungeons built for them adds so much extra flavour to them. Also, while the mania and dementia variants of the scalon and grummite don't look super different, I really do love how the mania variant of Elytra are brightly coloured like many real-life insects... while the dementia variant of Elytra are dull-coloured, also like many real-life insects that prioritize camouflage.

Gnarl

Tree monsters! Are these the genesis for Skyrim's far more tree-based Spriggans? Whatever the case, though, the Gnarl are far, far cooler than either Oblivion or Skyrim's Spriggans, being just walking trees, but I really love the sheer misshapen-ness of the Gnarl's limbs and body. That torso isn't symmetrical, the arms are bent in awkward angles, the three legs are arranged in a way that looks bizarre and unnatural... but it really, really works and sells the illusion that a tree just got up and walked about, ready to unleash the wrath on nature on us fleshbags.

The Gnarl's Mania variant is pertty dang cool, with white bark and autumn-orange leaves, whereas the Dementia Gnarls just look like walking dead trees. Pretty sure this is my favourite dementia/mania variants. The Gnarl also have a wacky mechanic going on -- if hit with a magic spell, they 'eat' the magic and grow larger, becoming essentially immune to the element it was just struck with, but becoming weak to other elements. It's something that's never really explained and doesn't really make particular sense for a tree monster, but I guess that's where the "madness" comes in?

The Gnarls play a crucial role in one of the final main story quests of the Shivering Isles, with the central tree or whatever being maintained by Gnarls -- some of whom work alongside us, while some are corrupted by the forces of order. We also learn that the Gnarls are incubated in these weird chrysalis pods within the giant tree, which is just such a bizarre and almost insectoid contraption. While it might just be "the game designers didn't do their research and thought it'd be cool", I do like that pretty alien little feature.

Hunger

This dude is a returning species of Daedra from Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, and, interestingly, don't actually seem to be native to the Shivering Isles. We don't get "variations", for one, and previous and subsequent lore establishes that Hungers are creatures that tend to reside in the realm of a different Daedric Prince, Boethiah, the prince of deception.

Whatever the case, though, I do really like the design of the Hungers! They look really, really emancipated, with those gangly limbs and really flesh-on-bones abdomen really selling a 'hungry' demon, and I really do love that disturbingly shaped head with the vertical mouth. Also, it attacks by lashing out its tongue, while casting an ability that drains your fatigue. Not really all that much to say, but I do like this creature. It does look pretty damn creepy-cool.

Skinned Hound

Among the many bizarre Daedra in Sheogorath's realm are... the Skinned Hounds. They're basically reskinned (heh) versions of the wolves from base Oblivion, but look so much cooler with the skull-head, glowing red eyes, and the general look of a half-desiccated corpse. Some people in Shivering Isles even keep them as pets! Not really much to say here, but undead hounds are always a welcome addition to any game.

Shambles

Aw, shit, now these are cool. I've noted how much potential there are in undead enemies, and how I'm sometimes disappointed with Elder Scrolls games for just including the mere basic variations of undead enemies... but here we have the Shambles! And I really, really love how the whole concept of the Shambles is basically "what if we made a Frankenstein's Monster, but instead of limbs, we use bones"? And I really, really love how at a glance it's just a huge skeleton with a creepy beast head, but upon a closer look, everything in the Shambles' anatomy are actually not made up of proper bones of their anatomy. Their 'ribcages' are made out of long arm or leg bones, they have random pelvis bones near their chest, their 'kneecaps' are made up of human skulls, which is pretty awesome. Also love how both arms end in different kinds of claws. They're also pretty massive, towering almost twice the height of the average person in Oblivion, and when they die, as a final dick move they explode.

The Shambles' attacking animation is also pretty neat, too, with some parts of their chest and head bones dislocating and acting like some sort of weird fang-like protrusion... a pretty damn cool skeletal monster, and I really, really love how the "Decrepit", weaker variants actually tend to missing their arms, or horns, or head, or part of their head. Easily one of my favourite enemies in the Shivering Isles.

Flesh Atronach (also, Gatekeeper)

The Flesh Atronachs are some of the more rare enemies, tending to act as bosses or mini-bosses... and they're, well, basically actual Frankenstein's Monsters. Not sure why they are called "Atronachs" when the game explicitly shows some characters constructing them, but hey, I guess being built in a daedric realm counts? They're massive dudes with scars and magical runes, as well as metal chokers and accessories. Not particularly interesting for me personally, but a fantasy trope that I don't mind them including. My favourite part of them is their animation, because once in a while they do this ridiculous kick that basically has them doing a split, something that is so bizarre to see a stitched-up strongman doing.

The one on the right is the Gatekeeper, one of the first bosses you encounter in the Shivering Isles storyline that bars your way from entering the actual Shivering Isles, and he's basically a modified version of a Flesh Atronach with a big fuck-of blade for an arm, and being twice as large as a Flesh Atronach. We actually get to rebuild him, Frankenstein-style, as part of the main quest storyline, which is neat!

Golden Saint (a.k.a. Aureal)

While the Shivering Isles is populated by a lot of monsters and random humans and elves, two specific Daedric races serve Sheogorath and act as his own personal army-slash-police-force, each of them being in charge of a specific half of the Shivering Isles. As with most Elder Scrolls games, you will have to choose a side to assist as the story goes on. The Golden Saints, or the Aureals, are associated with the Mania side of the Shivering Isles, and are... well, basically golden-skinned women with more intricate armour.

Whichever side you choose, though, really doesn't end up mattering, as both Golden Saints and Dark Seducers are all but visually the same. You'd think the Golden Saints are the 'nice' ones, but no, they're as dismissive to all mortal races, as rude, and as fanatical to Sheogorath as their Dark Seducer counterparts. Both Golden Saints and Dark Seducers are also near-universally female, and the males of their races are extremely rare, and also noted to be weaker and in a much lower caste. Both of them also are apparently tied to the realm via a 'wellspring' that gets shut down by the bad guys in a main quest storyline, and every single one gets turned into rock immediately afterwards. It's an interesting detail, for sure, but I do think that the game doesn't really do enough with these bizarre extra-planar Daedra stuff in-game.

Dark Seducer (a.k.a. Mazken)

The Dark Seducers, a.k.a. the Mazken, are... well, basically purple/gray-skinned humanoids with a spikier, Gothier and more revealing outfit. They guard Dementia, and... and basically everything I said about Golden Saints apply to them, just switch Mania and Dementia as required. I really, really wished they had done more. Even if they didn't want to make one side more 'good' than the other, at least make them actually represent mania and dementia well! The uniqueness of their armour sets are neat, but everything else about the lore behind the Mazken and Aureals, especially their storylines, are honestly pretty disappointing.

EDIT: Previous games have had the Golden Saints basically be "angel-like demons", while the Dark Seducers be actual shape-shifting succubi. None of them are particularly creative, but both of those are genuinely far, far more interesting than the generic, fanatical police force that we got.

Knight of Order

The main campaign villain for Shivering Isles are these dudes, the Knights of Order. See, the Shivering Isles is a realm of madness and unbridled creativity, while the Knights of Order serve the Daedric Prince of Order, Jyggalag, and want to return everything in Shivering Isles to nothing but rigid order, summoning giant metallic crystal towers. The actual Knights of Order themselves are basically similar to the Aurorans, being walking suits of armor, but the Knights of Order are more... static, I guess? Less ornamented and far more rigid, which doesn't make them the most attractive enemies, but points for working within the theme of their lore. Not much to say here, although the way you stall Jyggalag's advance is pretty neat. Kill the knights as they are spawned from the obelisks, and then shove their hearts into the obelisks to stop them.

Priest of Order

The 'bosses' of the Knights of Order are the Priests of Order, who are a bit more... intricate, I guess, having black robes with metal stuff gilded onto them. I do like the faceless mask they have. The Priests of Order, instead of being walking suits of armor (or crystal, or whatever the Knights are) are explicitly noted to be Sheogorath's citizens that have forsaken him and have joined Jyggalag. Basically, they're spellcasters and are straight-up immune as long as the obelisk they are bound to is active, resurrecting endlessly, meaning you have to close the obelisk by doing the whole "throw hearts into the obelisk" thing. It's a fun little mechanic that makes fighting them slightly more intricate than the hack-and-slash enemies that populate Oblivion... the Priests are resurrected by the obelisks when they die, and the priests themselves, if left alive, will channel a spell to reactivate the obelisk.

Overall, not a particularly memorable design, but definitely a fun mechanic. We don't actually have any more variants for the forces of Order, unlike the many Daedra that plague the main Oblivion storyline, but since the whole point of Jyggalag is the lack of creativity, there's an in-universe reason for that and I approve.

Jyggalag

Without spoiling too much of the story, Jyggalag, the Daedric Prince of Order, is the final enemy of the game, being this embodiment of logic and order that is determined to absolutely crush the realm of madness. It's a fun inversion of how fantasy settings tend to have you fight for order instead of chaos. I do feel that the game probably could've done a lot better to show off just how much more creative and fun madness and chaos can be, but we're here to criticize the monsters as opposed to the game or storytelling.

Appearance-wise, he's what you'd expect from the boss of all of those Knights of Order, a bigger, spikier, scarier metal knight, with additional powers and whatnot. The boss fight isn't super-exciting, and I do think that they definitely could've done more with the actual appearance of Jyggalag... but, eh, he's neat enough, I guess. A good chunk of what made Jyggalag memorable is the build-up and the storyline, which makes me really satisfied when I actually challenge Jyggalag at the end of the campaign. It's a case of an enemy's design being just... kinda there, not bad but not spectacular, but the story surrounding him is neat enough that I don't mind.

And... and that's it for Shivering Isles! I'm going to see what other game I am familiar with to criticize the monsters of. I'm not familiar enough with Morrowind to really talk about that game, so... so we'll see.

Reviewing Monsters: The Elder Scrolls IV - Oblivion, Part 2

Part two of my review of monsters from The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion! This one is mainly going to cover the Daedra, which are the setting's equivalents to demons, and the main antagonists of the game's main storyline. Not much to say here in this intro that I haven't done for Part 1 of this.
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Humanoid NPC's (Bandits, Necromancers)

I don't really have much to say here -- but humanoid NPC enemies make a pretty significant amount of Oblivion's enemy population as the daedra and the other random animals and beasts living in Cyrodiil. They're neat, and certainly necessary to actually give antagonists that are, y'know, actual antagonists as opposed to just wild animals. But for the majority, a good chunk of them just fall into basically the same sort of enemies. Bandits and the necromancers of the Worm Cult tend to comprise probably the largest proportion of non-unique humanoid NPC enemies, I think.

Anyway, I'm not dissing these NPC enemies. They're very important for the feel of the game and as antagonists in questlines and stories, but without actually delving into specific characters and storylines, I really don't have much to say about the humanoids.

Scamp

And now we go straight into the Daedra! The Daedra are basically reduced to basically just Atronachs and Dremora come Skyrim, but in Oblivion they are the main antagonists of the setting, so they make up a vast, vast amount of the enemies you're going to face, especially in regards to the main questline. And it's maybe why so many of the other enemies feel kind of mundane -- it's to contrast against the far more... demonic and exotic-looking Daedra.

The absolute weakest of the Daedra are the Scamps. Two main variants exist, the weaker Stunted Scamps, the regular Scamps. The Scamps basically fill in the role that most other games attribute to "imps" -- they're the archetypal little, goblin-like demons that don't seem to have much intelligence, and just look brutish and mischievous. To play with the whole demonic theme, the Scamps attack by either whacking you with their arms, or by launching fireballs.

In general, the Daedra are really inhabitants of other realms and dimensions, and are unable to come into Tamriel/Nirn without the aid of summoners... unless they pass through an Oblivion Gate. Now those gates don't normally form due to the cosmology of the world, through a fair amount of intricate rules that involves the God of Time and the royal bloodline of the Septims. I'm not going to go too deep into this, but it's something that the main villains of Oblivion's storyline, the cult of the Mythic Dawn, are attempting to break down. Your character will have to contend with Daedra that have spilled into Cyrodiil, as well as spend a fair amount of time charging into the depths of Oblivion and fight the Daedra on their own realms and close the gateways leading to our realm.

Clannfear

Slightly stronger than the Scamps are the Clannfears, who also come in runt and non-runt variations. And I do like the Clannfears! They have the body of theropodal dinosaurs, but the frill and beaked head of a non-horned Ceratopsian dinosaur, like a Protoceratops or something. It's honestly quite rare to see the token dinosaur in a video game or fantasy setting to not be a T-Rex or Velociraptor.

Anyway, I do like the Clannfears! They're such unexpected choices for 'demons', being just similar enough to a real creature in the living world, while at the same time combining aspects of different ones that just makes them look unsettling enough to look like they don't really belong. Not much to say here, but I do really like them a lot.

Fire Atronach

The Daedra also fill in the role that normal fantasy settings would fill with "elementals", and, well, it sort of plays that at a certain point, the distinction between "extra-dimensional being summoned from another realm" sort of blurs. D&D has very strict rules and cosmology about their elemental planes and the nine realms of hell and all that jazz, but in the world of the Elder Scrolls they're all just "Daedra".

The Flame Atronachs are the fire variant, and they're... they're faceless women made entirely of fire. They're pretty fragile, but tend to attack from afar. It's unfair because my mental image of a Flame Atronach is the far cooler, far more iconic one from Skyrim. That's not to say that Oblivion's Flame Atronach don't work for the limitations of the game, but sometimes a depiction of a creature just really sticks with you, y'know?

Frost Atronach

Oblivion's Frost Atronach is also significantly different compared to Skyrim's, although they functionally are based on a similar concept -- big, burly masculine icy humanoid to contrast with the sleek, feminine flame. But where the one in Skyrim looks far more primal and rough-cut, there is something to be loved about Oblivion's Frost Atronach, which actually looks like a gigantic ice sculpture someone carved eyes and musculature onto. Sure, the Frost Atronach still has two glorified clubs for arms, but ultimately, the final result looks far more knightly and a completely different sort of "tough and bulky" compared to Skyrim's walking iceberg. Definitely a fan of this one.

Daedroth

And then you have the Daedroth... which are just giant, walking crocodile-men. Okay, then! Not the most creative of monsters, admittedly, and it is basically what you expect from a humanoid crocodile-man, but it does fit the neat niche of the big, burly enemy among the Daedra ranks. It also spits fireballs, because, well, spitting fire is something that most Daedra apparently just do. Interestingly, and I wouldn't have thought it when I first saw the design, but Daedroths actually begin battle by casting a defensive spell around itself, which is definitely not something I expected from giant crocodile-men. I guess I shouldn't judge. I do have, for whatever reason, a huge love for summoning Daedroths as a meat-shield while playing through Oblivion.

Spider Daedra

While the Daedroths are the huge meat-tank enemies that are hard to bring down, the Spider Daedra are sort of the 'sneaky' ones that are just a huge pain in the ass to deal with. They're basically Driders from D&D, giant spiders who have the upper body of a woman growing out of where a spider's head should be. Spider Daedras also have some really neat-looking headresses. Despite being based on spiders, though, they jump aoout a whole lot instead of scuttling around (or leaping in a more realistic way that Skyrim's spiders do). It is sort of justified by the fact that they're just demons that look like spiders instead of being actual spiders.

Fighting them is a gigantic pain in the ass, though, because they will summon little copies of herself, Spiderlings, that will paralyze you, which means you just drop immobile for a couple of seconds. It wouldn't be so problematic if you're just fighting a single Spider Daedra, but she tends to have buddies. And sometimes you just fall into a pool of lava. In addition to that, Spider Daedra are able to heal themselves, as well as cast a whole ton of spells that are often more debilitating than damaging.

Anyway, spider ladies are always cool and pretty creepy. Not a whole ton to say beyond that.

Storm Atronach

The final and most powerful variant of the Atronach, the Storm Atronach, doesn't show up until relatively later, and they look far, far cooler than they did in Skyrim! They are these long-armed humanoids made entirely of stone held together by electrical energy. Looking at this static picture makes you go "huh. A rock dude. Not impressive"... but in-game, the animations they gave the Storm Atronach is particularly impressive. Instead of walking, the Storm Atranoch moves around by disassembling all of the rocks and spinning around like a little tornado, and when attacking, it will launch part of the rocks that are in his body at you. Far more than the floating rock from Skyrim, Oblivion's Storm Atronachs just really sell the fantasy of a physical manifestation of a storm taking the form of a bunch of rocks that it's holding together.

Xivilai

The Xivilai are one of the more powerful versions of the Daedra, and basically the most powerful without going into DLC stuff or the higher-ranked Dreamora. And despite looking humanoid and clearly sentient, they are still classified under the "monster" category, something that's relevant because the type of souls you soul-trap is particularly relevant to charge your magical weapons.

Anyway, I do like the Xivilai. They are these tall humanoids with a loincloth and a neat set of minimalistic demonic jewelry. They tend to be portrayed as powerful spellcasters that like to summon their own Clannfear buddies, while also wielding either powerful fire spells or giant two-handed weapons that they wield with one arm.

Dremora

The Dremora are basically the main sentient race of Daedra that live in Oblivion, and tend to play the role of commanders and overseers in the ranks of Mehrunes Dagon's forces (that's the name of the big Daedra Prince that serves as the final threat of the story). And the Dremora are basically a fair bit more... ugly compared to their Skyrim versions, but I do enjoy both portrayals of the Dremora. Oblivion's Dremora have far more pockmarked and disfigured faces -- partially caused by the limitations of the Oblivion engine -- as well as demonic horns. They exist in basically as many variations of classes as other NPC's in the game do.

Also, while I placed the Dremora at the very end of the "generic" Daedra from the vanilla game, the Dremora's power levels vary extremely highly, with the weakest among them being barely stronger than Scamps, while the strongest ones among them able to give any given enemy in the game a run for their money. This is displayed in game by different power levels of Dremora having different ranks depending on their caste -- which, in order, are Churl, Caitiff, Kynval, Kynreeve, Kynmarcher, Markynaz and Valkynaz. And the common syllable in the stronger variants of the Dreamora is "Kyn", which is the Dremora's word for their own people, sort of equivalent to the English language's usage of the word "men". Like, y'know, fire-men, police-men and the sort.

Anyway, they make for pretty decent demonic antagonists. I do sometimes wish that the Dremora's voice acting was just a wee bit less scratchy than what they actually got, though.

Siege Crawler

The Siege Crawler is a one-time boss that most Oblivion players remember for being a huge part of the opening cinematic. One of the final quests of the main storyline involves you going into a Great Oblivion Gate and stop the Siege Crawler from blowing up a city, though, and... and it's neat to see that the Dremora rely more than just brute force and numbers to crush humanity. The Siege Crawler's a pretty neat being, too. In addition to that gigantic cannon-drill thing prominently displayed in that image, it's a gigantic horizontal column with loads and loads of centipede-like legs that slowly crawl and move around. What is it about demonic forces in fantasy setting often associated with sentient infernal machinery? I guess machinery in and of itself sort of play into the sheer unnatural-ness that we tend to associate with demons, huh?

Anyway, I appreciate that there's at least a couple of unique bosses in Oblivion, even if the Siege Crawler isn't an enemy you'll actually physically fight. I mean, you can, but you'll just be killed.

Mehrunes Dagon

Mehrunes Dagon is the main antagonist of the game, although he doesn't really show up until like the eleventh hour. For a good chunk of the game you contend with the leader of the cult worshiping him, Mankar Camoran, who actually does have a personality and monologue a fair bit. That, or an Easter Egg hunt throughout Cyrodiil to find magical items for the rituals needed to stop Dagon. Of course, as with any given giant force of destruction, Mehrunes Dagon will eventually show up and lay waste to a part of the Imperial City. He ends up being more of a piece of scenery that can damage you than anything, though, since you don't fight him so much as run away and try to set up a trap to defeat him via cinematic.

And... and I guess his design works as an arch-demon? It's simple enough to work off of the same humanoid skeleton that a vast majority of Oblivion's enemies work off of, and having four arms just makes him distinct enough from the run-of-the-mill Dremora or Xivilai. I just don't find him super-impressive, but at least he looks distinct. That, and that he's like Godzilla-sized when he walks around in the Imperial City.

Auroran

I'm going to briefly cover the new sort of enemy added in the "Knights of the Nine" DLC, which involves your character travelling to re-assemble an ancient holy set of armour, while fending off Daedric servants of a reincarnated immortal Ayleid-elf warlord, Umaril. Umaril struck a bargain with Meridia, the Daedric Prince of light and life, to make himself immortal, and while Meridia herself remains neutral in the conflict, she does lend her minions, the Aurorans, to help out in the crusade.

As such, the Aurorans are... interesting beings, technically Daedra but looking pretty 'holy'. They're basically golden suits of armour wielding giant axes, and they're pretty neat! Not a particularly novel enemy concept, but they're pleasant looking for what they are, and definitely look pretty different from most of what we see in Oblivion.

Umaril, the Unfeathered

Umaril the Unfeathered himself is sort of just the same model with Aurorans, only he has a unique helmet and a whole ton of spikes jutting out of his shoulders. He doesn't actually say much, and in Elder Scroll Main Villain fashion tends to stay offscreen and only known from other NPC's and in-game books describing him. The history of Umaril is pretty neat, though, and I do appreciate the journey that it took to defeat him -- especially the particularly memorable bit where after slaying his physical body, you go to a plane in the skies, like heaven or some shit, to put down his immortal soul permanently.

Again, though, shame that he doesn't really have that much of a personality beyond "rawr ancient evil out for vengeance". I'll always remember him for the sheer ridiculousness of his title being "Unfeathered", though. No, Umaril isn't some Destroyer or World-Eater or Souldrinker or any old main villain title. He's the Unfeathered.

And with this Unfeathered villain, I'm going to close this particular article. I don't really end up talking too much about these as I thought I would -- the Daedra of Oblivion fall into a ball of neat, safe designs for the most part. And that's honestly what I really feel about Oblivion as a whole -- up until the Shivering Isles, it just feels so much like the designers are just playing it safe. Nothing about it is particularly bad or problematic (relatively speaking), but not a lot of it really feel like they're just including the most basic versions of any given fantasy monster enemy. 

Reviewing Monsters: The Elder Scrolls IV - Oblivion, Part 1

A while back, we did a review-talk of all monsters in Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, taking place in the frigid northlands of the continent of Tamriel. This time around, we're going to be covering the monsters and enemies of Skyrim's predecessor, Oblivion, a critically acclaimed game that takes place at the heart of Cyrodiil, the quasi-Roman province that is located at the center of Tamriel, and home to the Empire that rules over all of Tamriel... at least, prior to Oblivion. In the main storyline of Oblivion, the Emperor is assassinated by a cult that's hell-bent on causing the destruction of the entire mortal plane and bring about the invasion of the Daedra -- the setting's equivalent to demons.

Oblivion was released in 2006 and is considered to be one of the most revolutionary RPG games of the time. Not going to harp on too much about the game itself, as that would probably take up a fair amount of time, but here we go as I try and obsessively talk about every single creature in the game.

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Rat

As with what we did in Skyrim, I'm going to start by quickly listing off the "normal animals" found in any RPG setting. Rats and Mudcrabs are basically the 'critters' that die after a couple whacks of your sword and are about as threatening as a bucket. You do kind of need rats in any given RPG, even if Cyrodiil's rats are apparently a lot more cuter and pet-like than the nasty, mangy Skeevers of Skyrim.

Mud Crab

Mudcrabs (parsed as Mud Crabs in this game) are the other stock 'weak monster', and they are significantly different than the Mudcrabs in Skyrim! These don't hide and pretend to be rocks, and have far, far smaller claws and far more prominent and elongated legs as compared to their body. This actually makes them look more like some species of deep sea crabs in real life as opposed to mudcrabs. Like rats, though, the mudcrabs occupy a unique 'nuisance' tier of enemy that are basically just there for flavour. Unlike rats, though, when mudcrabs appear in, like, an Ayleid dungeon or a bandit camp, there tend to be far less justification, which is something I appreciate about Skyrim -- monsters only show up in thematically appropriate locations.

Dogs & Wolves

And, right on cue, here are the wolves and dogs of the game. Dogs (left) tend to be non-hostile and found among humans, although they're otherwise near-identical to wolves. Wolves are... well, they're wolves! Two main variants roam Cyrodiil, the buck-standard Wolf and the Timber Wolf. I think that they tend to hunt in packs, making them a wee bit more annoying compared to bears and boars. They're easily the weakest beasts in the game that aren't rats and crabs, though.

Bear

Bears! I don't really have much to say about here. Two variants exist, with the black bears being exactly half as weak compared to brown bears. Not much to say here. As in most RPG's, bears and wolves tend to occupy a niche of animals that feel like a threat since they are far more powerful than humans in real life, but aren't actually threatening once you start leveling up and challenging, like, demons and dragons and shit.

Boar

It's interesting that boars are portrayed as always-hostile in this game! Real-life boars tend to be about as irate and hostile to humans anyway. Not much to say here, it's neat to sell the 'generic Western RPG setting' feel of Cyrodiil, but I forgot that boars are even in this game until I looked up a list of monsters.

Mountain Lion

Basically the equivalent of Sabrecats in Skyrim, Mountain Lions are the fast but fragile predator to contrast the bear's slow but sturdy deal. They're... they're lions! Only female models are around in Cydoriil, because it's not a particularly important enemy that deserves multiple models, and Oblivion is a pretty old game. I do remember that these are the first enemy you fight in the Fighter's Guild storyline, in a fun subversion of a 'kill the rat' quest, you're instead supposed to protect a woman's rat pets from a starving mountain lion.

Slaughterfish

While the Slaughterfish in Skyrim are like this cross of piranhas with a crocodile-inspired mouth, the Slaughterfish of Cyrodiil are... they're just a long fish that's like a small pike or some shit, but with that row of nasty, stabby teeth. These come in many sizes, and move in a way similar to eels... but where Slaughterfish were far more annoying in Skyrim, in Oblivion your character can actually swing their sword underwater, making actual combat with these fishies a possibility. I do find that the fact that the Slaughterfish from Oblivion and Skyrim look so different is a neat bit of "sure, why not?" After all, we tend to use blanket terms to describe creatures in real-life anyway.

Non-Hostile Animals

Oblivion doesn't really go all-in with making a whole ton of non-hostile animals like Skyrim does, but they do have a couple. Deer, sheep and horses are around, with the deer basically prancing around the wilds, sheep found in farms and horses... well, you buy horses and then ride them around, although the horses are significantly less useful than they are in Skyrim.

Goblins

That's all of the regular animals done, so let's get to the actual monsters! As with what I did with Skyrim, I'm leaving DLC enemies and the Daedra for a second part, so as not to make this article too long. The goblins are completely absent in Skyrim, but are everywhere in Cyrodiil, acting as some of the first enemies you meet. Unlike some franchises that feature intelligent goblins (World of Warcraft being the primary thing that comes to mind), the goblins of Oblivion are just bestial little shitbags that are always hostile and only screech at you and try to murder you.

Five main variants exist -- in order of the images here, these are the regular Goblin, the Goblin Skirmisher, the Goblin Berserker, the Goblin Shaman and the Goblin Warlord. The goblins tend to be straightforward in their attacks and just charge into battle, and while they tend to be able to deal decent amount of damage, all of their equipment are always pretty shit, or even unlootable... although I guess they are smaller than your character, so their armour might simply just not fit.

They're your archetypal angry, screeching goblin enemies. I do like the fact that some shamans carry around staves that are topped with the skull of another unfortunate goblin. Interestingly, and this is a mechanic that I genuinely wasn't aware of until it was pointed out, there are multiple goblin tribes in the game -- the Bloody Hand, the Bitterscale, the Rockbiter, the Three-Feather, et cetera... and they are based around their own settlements and caves. They don't really wander around too much since the NPC system isn't anywhere as intricate as Skyrim's, but if they meet, they will fight. Pretty neat!

Imp

I'm not sure what's up with Imps. They're pretty distinct from Scamps (which are counted as Daedra) and Goblins. They're just like these little, well, humanoid creatures with wings that fly around, and are pretty dang weak. And there really isn't much to say about them. I do like how they look, but as one of the weakest enemies in the game, you would tend to over-level the 'random enemy generator' that code for Imp enemies or whatever.

Trolls

Hey, it's Trolls! Trolls are basically the same as they were in Skyrim, three-eyed monstrous ape-like beasts that are always hostile, attack quickly, able to regenerate health, and are weak to fire spells. There aren't much to say about them, but I do notice that there are significantly more trolls in Cyrodiil than they are in Skyrim, with entire cave networks tending to be populated by trolls. There are a bunch of troll variants in the game to tie in with quests. Not much to say beyond that, since I've said all I had to say about this design in my Skyrim reviews.

Will-o-the-Wisp

Will-o-the-Wisps are always interesting creatures because they're one of the most weird and variable things that fantasy settings always do differently, due to the existence of comparable phenomenon in different folk tales of different cultures. Playing with Oblivion being more akin to a more Middle Ages setting, Will-o-the-Wisps are basically just glowing light entities that flicker in and out of sight that live in swamps or marshes, and are completely hostile. They will float near your character, and then use magical spells that will absorb your health and magicka. I do love how they are completely invisible and will flit in and out of existence. It's a bit primitive compared to modern games, but I do appreciate the thought given to this enemy.

Will-o-the-Wisps also operate by 'ghost rules', something that's kind of dropped in Skyrim. Ghosts and Will-o-the-Wisps are only able to be damaged by enchanted or silver weapons, and normal weapons and poisons have absolutely no effect on them. I also like the bizarreness of the Wisp corpses apparently being just a bunch of crystal-like shards, which... which aren't really explained. Do like this thing! It's a scary life-draining ball of light that's not undead, but somehow works on undead rules.

Minotaurs & Minotaur Lords

Humanoid mosnters are probably a bit easier for the designers to program, since they kind of work off of the same sort of movement skeleton as the actual humanoid NPC's in the game. Or maybe it's as hard to program these in. I don't really know, I'm not a game programmer. But Minotaurs populate the land of Cyrodiil as some of the stronger enemies, which... I guess fits in with the quasi-Greco-Roman theme that some parts of the Oblivion ruins seem to have?

There are two variants with distinctly different forms, with regular Minotaurs having shorter horns compared to the Minotaur Lords, who have far, far curvier horns. Both of the pictures show minotaurs with hammers, but some of them spawn without them and just run around headbutting you. It's... it's a pretty neat depiction of a minotaur, honestly, even if the colouration does admittedly make it look more like a dude wearing a bull's head for a mask. Not much to say... it's a standard minotaur enemy, but sometimes you just need to have some standards thrown in there.

Spriggan

While the Spriggans of Skyrim are badass-looking women made literally out of branches and ivy, the Spriggans in Oblivion are more akin to fairy women with Poison Ivy style plant clothes. And very, very long fingers. Spriggans in Oblivion are a whole lot weaker than their Skyrim counterpart, lacking some of the more frustrating abilities that the Skyrim Spriggans are able to do. They are still able to make your life hell, though, able to summon bears and cast curses that damage your health. And as with any self-respecting nature spirit, Spriggans are weak to fire.

While Spriggans are still basically just treated as nature spirits and doesn't quite receive as much focus or dedicated dungeons as their Skyrim counterparts, I do like the random detail that Spriggans are programmed to not be able to approach bodies of water. It doesn't really matter for gameplay purposes, and the Spriggans aren't involved in any of Oblivion's storylines, but it's a neat little detail that fits into the whole fae theme that this Spriggan has going on.

Ogres

Sort of the equivalent to Giants in Skyrim, the Ogres are... they're just big humanoids with giant bellies and arms, doing absolutely nothing beyond physical punches and just being kind of slow and bulky. Also, a weakness to poison, which isn't something that's particularly intuitive, but okay. Ogres are one of the few enemies to continue to level up with your player character, making them almost always a threat to you, and probably why ogres are the bosses of a fair amount of quests. It's a pretty neat looking, if not particularly innovative, ogre. I don't really have many comments about this design, but also not a lot of complaints. I guess that's what I feel about a vast majority of Oblivion's enemies. They're just... classic designs that are done right, but aren't particularly exciting or innovative.

Land Dreugh

...other than this dude! The Land Dreugh is apparently a variation of an enemy in Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, simply called Dreughs and are basically monster-mermaids with octopus tentacles. With a whole lot less focus on aquatic combat, though, and the Slaughterfish being practically the only underwater enemy in Oblivion, the Dreugh is updated as a land monster, being this gigantic crab-lobster man that walks around with four crustacean legs, two that poke out of his shoulders, and reptilian claws. That disturbingly humanoid torso makes the Dreugh far more uncomfortable looking than if it was just a giant crab mutant. Later lore in subsequent games would tell us that apparently the Land Dreugh and the Water Dreugh are the same species in different stages of its life cycle, and apparently the Dreughs are aquatic creatures that transform into this crab-spider form to go on land to reproduce. Cool!

For some bizarre reason, the dreughs do shock damage, which... I'm not even going to try to think about too much. It's also got magical resistance, which probably makes a bit more sense. Dreughs appear relatively late into the game, when you've reached a certain level threshold, and can basically spawn anywhere in the world. Pretty badass stuff.

Anyway, easily and by far my favourite thing on this page.

Unicorn

The Unicorn is a unique creature that appears exactly once, as the target of Hircine's Daedric Quest -- to those that are unfamiliar with Elder Scrolls lore, there are many, many Daedric Princes, sort of like the gods/demons of the setting, and they all have their quests scattered all over any given Elder Scrolls game that tended to be themed around the Daedric Prince's sphere of influence, and always rewards a unique and powerful item. Hircine, previously an antagonist in a Morrowind expansion, is the Prince of the Hunt, and basically sends you off to hunt a unicorn.

It's basically a horse with a horn, but it is neat to have this fun lore behind it where apparently you just hunted down and killed the final Unicorn just to appease a god and get a set of armour. I also love the fact that the Unicorn is an extremely aggressive beast that will attack everything on sight, not just the player, and is apparently accompanied by three Minotaurs that specifically are identified as its bodyguards.

Skeletons

Undead enemies now! One of the most common enemies in dungeons are the undead, and that's true because a lot of the villains are necromancers -- including basically every single villain in the Mage's Guild storyline. The land of Cyrodiil is also dotted with Ayleid ruins, which are the ruins of an ancient elf race, the wild elves. Because the appearance of the Ayleid is still meant to be a mystery, all that remains of them are their reanimated bones and corpses.

One of the most classic undead enemies is the humble skeleton, and it's... well, it's a skeleton. Comes in three variants -- the Skeleton, the Skeleton Guardian, the Skeleton Hero and the Skeleton Champion, and the player can summon one of their own. The Skeleton Champion can even summon its own Skeleton minion! Not much to say here. They're neat bony enemies.

Zombies

Slightly stronger than their Skeleton equivalents, the Zombies tend to be able to tank more hits than their Skeleton equivalent, and often deal extra damage thanks to their ability to inflict diseases. Zombies are also extra-weak to fire, but immune to poison and resists most forms of magic. Unlike the "zombies" in Skyrim that are just reanimated NPC's, the Zombies in Oblivion have a far cooler looking model with exposed bone and muscles!

The three Zombie variants are the regular Zombie, which is just a corpse, the Headless Zombie, which, well, doesn't have a head (and also an extra arm), and the Dread Zombie, who's missing an arm but glows green and is a goddamn pain to bring down. Definitely love the fact that the variants actually do end up having different models as opposed to just swapping out weaponry.

Ghosts

We've hinted at the uniqueness of Ghosts in this game when I talked about Will-o-Wisps, but to recap... they are immune to normal, unenchanted weapons, as well as poison and frost damage. Only magical weapons, spells and silver weaponry can damage them, meaning that they are extremely deadly to a novice character since all you can do is to use the shitty spells you have to try and damage the ghosts. Hilariously, though, due to an oversight, your fists apparently count as enchanted weapons. Whoops!

Two variants of the Ghosts are available, the regular Ghost and the Ancient Ghost, and they are basically the upper half of an old person's body that just hover around trailing clouds of mists. A lot, lot cooler and more unique than the silly "NPC run through a transparent filter" bullshit that Skyrim has for their ghosts. Anyway, they're not particularly threatening, but pretty dang cool.

Wraiths

After a while, though, the Ghosts are replaced by Wraiths, which have the most annoying sound ever, but do have a pretty cool design. They behave similarly to ghosts, but have a different model that are clearly cloaked, and they wield swords and are particularly powerful casters that love to shoot out debilitating spells to fuck you up. The most annoying ones can drain endurance, or silence you. I'm pretty sure 99% of the times that my character in Oblivion has to go to a temple to pray away permanent stat damage was thanks to wraiths.

Three variants exist -- the Faded Wraith, the regular Wraith and the Gloom Wraith -- and I absolutely love how each progressively more powerful version of the Wraith seem to be more and more materialized, gaining more colour and more vivid detail compared to their weaker counterparts. Pretty damn awesome attention to detail in a game that tended to just shrug and adjust stats for different enemy variations. Wraiths have the same amount of 'ghost rules' as Ghosts, and if they didn't have such an annoying voice I'd love them more.

Liches

The most powerful of all undead monsters, and the ones that tend to be the bosses in a dungeon, are the Liches. They appear in two forms, the half-invisible Nether Lich, and the fully corporeal Lich. They cast spells with staves from afar, which tend to be insanely destructive, and are themselves armed with spells of their own if you somehow cause them to run out of charges for their spells. Liches are also able to summon other undead, and are able to absorb spells and are immune to both poison and frost.

Other than a couple specific bosses (one at the end of a particularly notable haunted house mission, for example), they don't quite any lore beyond being powerful undead sorcerers, though, which is a shame. Presumably they work on the same sort of lich logic that any D&D-inspired setting is, but unlike the Dragon Priests of Skyrim, there is absolutely nothing that makes any given lich more interesting than any given gloom wraith. Still, a pretty neat design for an undead sorcerer, in any case.