Little Secret

Secrets of the Land

  • The Well of Whispers: Deep in the most desolate, cursed part of the desert, where the malevolent rain falls hardest, lies a perfectly preserved well from the Old World. Its water is not poisonous, but every drop holds the psychic memory of a soul that has been unmade by the Savagery. Drinking from it grants temporary knowledge of a lost era, but at a terrible price to the drinker's sanity.

  • The Silent Grove: There is a small, hidden grove of trees whose bones are not twisted like the rest of the cursed flora. These trees are not dead; they are merely in a state of suspended animation, preserved by a psionic ward created by the early Lemurians. This grove is the only place in Evil Land where a living being can find true, unburdened silence.

  • The Corpse of the God: The Savagery of Evil is not just a primal curse; it is the living, decaying corpse of a divine being that was killed in the cosmic event that made Evil Land. Its organs and bones are the landmarks of the world. The mountains are its spine, the canyons its desiccated arteries, and the pulsing, foul swamps are its decomposing heart. Every plague and curse is an infection from a dying god.

Secrets of the Factions

  • The Empire's Traitor: Moff Varis's chief engineer, Doctor Cygnus, is not just obsessed with Old World tech. He is secretly in communication with the Borg, providing them with schematics of Imperial weapons in exchange for data on the Borg's energy shield technology. His goal is not to help the Empire, but to create a personal, impenetrable sanctuary where he can survive the inevitable collapse of all the major factions.

  • Irenicus's Caged God: Deep within Irenicus's catacombs, a secret chamber holds a captured entity: a powerful Lemurian psionic, held in a state of torment by a magical device that Irenicus has reverse-engineered from his past life. He is not trying to steal their power; he is trying to use their connection to Evil Land’s psychic core to open a new, more powerful pathway to his lost divinity.

  • Zeon's Doomsday Device: The Principality of Zeon did not just arrive with a mobile fortress; they arrived with a "Zionium Bomb," a weapon capable of amplifying the energy output of their mobile suits to unimaginable levels. However, it can only be activated by a specific rare element found in Evil Land, and the Zeon leadership has kept its true purpose a secret from their own engineers, fearing they would betray them to the other factions.

  • The Sorcerer-Kings' Sickness: The Sorcerer-Kings' power is not infinite. Every time they use their "defiling" magic, they suffer from a subtle, internal corrosion that slowly turns their bodies into the very blight they create. They are not immortal; they are slowly dying and becoming a part of the land itself, and a single, unified pact among them is to find a way to stop this process before they cease to exist entirely.

  • Lemuria's False Flag: Commander Rylos is not simply trying to convince her people to act. She has already used her psionic abilities to subtly influence the minds of Moff Varis and his generals, making them more aggressive and more confident than they should be. She believes that a swift, decisive battle between the Empire and the Sorcerer-Kings, even if it harms the land, is better than the slow, agonizing death of the planet from constant defiling.

  • The Borg's Blind Spot: While the Borg is a terrifying, logical collective, it is fundamentally incapable of understanding the illogical. It cannot comprehend the nature of art, emotion, or heroism. A small, hidden community of Old World survivors and a handful of American soldiers, led by a charismatic figure who can weaponize hope and creativity, have been able to successfully evade Borg assimilation, as the Borg's sub-routines simply fail to comprehend their irrationality.

Generic

"If you're thinking of traveling up country, near Sheogorad, or out Molag Amur way, or inside the Ghostfence, you need to know about corprus. It's a disease that turns normal creatures into beasts. Turns men into twisted, mad lumps of flesh, superhumanly strong, and full of hatred. You get corprus from fighting with diseased creatures. It's hard to get corprus, but harder to get rid of it. In fact, I hear there is no cure."

"Buy from merchants and traders who like you. You get better prices. Members of your own factions usually like you best."

"If someone attacks you first, you have the right to defend yourself. If someone DOESN'T attack you first, you're going to break the law if you attack him."

"Talk to everyone. Talk is cheap. Ask questions. You don't ask, you never learn."

[If NPC is male, not a Dark Elf, and not part of the Ashlanders] "Vampires are not as much of a problem here as back in the West. Here, the Dark Elves burned them out centuries ago, and the Temple makes sure they don't come back."

[If NPC is female] "They say they don't have much of a problem here with vampires. From my experience, that's the truth in the settled parts of Vvardenfell. But in the backcountry, you hear rumors. Out near Dagon Fel, Maar Gan, Molag Mar, you hear people talk of running into vampires in Dwemer ruins, and in ancestral tombs. Best to be careful. You don't want to run into those babies. And if you do, you want a nice, crisp copy of Divine Intervention so you can get safe, fast, all in one piece."

[If NPC is female and a Dark Elf] "In Morrowind, we don't like to hear about vampires. We know that, back West, the Mages Guild helps them hide. The Mages Guild is full of necromancers, and we don't like that one bit. If we see a vampire here in Morrowind, we put him on a stake and roast him. Well, truth be, we tell the Ordinators, let them take care of it. Private citizens have no business fighting vampires. They're too dangerous."

[If NPC is male and not in Balmora, Vivec, Ald'ruhn, or Sadrith Mora] "Daedra? You know what they are, right? Well, Daedric shrines are where Daedra cults worship Daedra. Bad people who summon bad Daedra. Stay away from them. Why? Because Daedra are nasty. And the folks that worship them are even nastier."

"How do you recognize a Daedric shrine? Well, they've got long, funny names, like Ashurnibibi or Zaintiraris. Some are well-known sites, like Ald Sotha and Bal Fell. And stone and architecture is unmistakable. Big, dark, grey-green stone ruins, funny angles, funny markings and patterns on the stone. Weird oval crooked doors. And inside, all funny angles."

[If NPC is female, a Dark Elf, and not in Balmora, Vivec, Ald'ruhn, or Sadrith Mora] "What are the most dangerous places in Morrowind? Well, probably the ash vampire citadels inside the Ghost Fence, on Red Mountain. But outside the Ghostfence? I guess the Daedric ruins would be the worst. They're all over the place, and full of bad Daedra, and the crazy folks who summon them. I hear vampires are pretty bad, too, but I've never seen any, personally. And the Dwemer sites are pretty bad, too."

[If NPC is female, a Dark Elf, and not in Balmora, Vivec, Ald'ruhn, or Sadrith Mora] "You're an outlander, maybe you don't know about the kinds of Daedric ruins we have here in Morrowind. Daedra cults worship the Bad Daedra. You can learn more about that at the Temple. Anyway, long ago, before the Temple put a stop to it, people used to worship bad Daedra -- Molag Bal, Malacath, Sheogorath, and Mehrunes Dagon -- at Daedra shrines. But lately, since the Empire came in, some people have taken up worshipping the bad Daedra at these old sites. And I warn you. These are dangerous places."