An Introduction to Daggerfall and Privateer's Hold

Initially conceived as an expansion for Arena, Daggerfall was intended to be set in Morrowind with emphasis on the city of Mournhold. Internal decisions coupled with the limitations of Arena’s engine and technology of the time eventually shifted the second Elder Scrolls game away from this idea, leading us to Daggerfall as we know it.

Unlike Arena, which while advanced for its time, now exists mostly as a slice of history for hardcore fans, Daggerfall slaps. It’s here where many of the staple components of the Elder Scrolls series take shape, such as factions, an emphasis on a single fleshed-out province, and a skill-based progression system.

Due in no small part to its free release on digital platforms and the publicity of the Daggerfall Unity project, the game has experienced something of a renaissance over the last few years. Many new players are experiencing the monolithic scale and interminable dungeons on display here for the first time. I can think of no better time to revisit this classic myself for Tamriel Eternal.

Setup and Mods

As of today, there is no better way to play Daggerfall than the aforementioned Daggerfall Unity. This massive undertaking has reconstructed the entire game in the Unity engine while upgrading to modern resolutions, improving performance, crushing bugs and inconsistencies, and introducing a host of quality-of-life features. Everything that made the game great has been retained while objectively improving the framework. If for whatever reason you wish to play the original DOS version, the second-best option is Daggerfall Setup which, much like its Arena equivalent, installs the game ready-to-go out of the box and includes several optional, yet highly recommended patches, utilities, and quest packs.

Arguably the greatest benefit of Daggerfall Unity is the included mod support. Modding the game is simple, and the loyal community has created a whole host of mods that improve graphics and audio, introduce new gameplay features and content, and add quality of life and additional bug fixes. I won’t include an exhaustive list of every mod I’m using unless requested, but below I’ll note some of the most prominent. These are usually easy to install and load order is rarely an issue here (with a few exceptions), but one should always read up on the descriptions, required settings, and install instructions for each mod as a best practice.

• Fixed Dungeon Exteriors by Cliffworms + Unofficial Block Location and Model Fixes by XJDHDR + Fixed Paperdoll Skin by mmuniercmoi1523: These three mods each fix some of the remaining graphical and environmental issues retained from the original game.
• Daggerfall Expanded Textures by FireFlyness + New Paintings by PRAEst76 + Famous Faces of the Iliac Bay by Cliffworms: The first two mods are simply prerequisites for the third, which introduces unique sprites and faces for prominent characters that were cut from the original game due to time and budget constraints.
• Improved Interior Lighting by ShortbeardDFU + Darker Dungeons by Ralzar: The former mod makes all light sources in the game give off a warmer and more natural light. Flames like candles, torches, and fireplaces flicker realistically. Darker Dungeons snuffs these light sources in dungeons where humans are not present for added realism and atmosphere. In the launcher settings under “Enhancements” I would set both Dungeon Ambient Light and Night Ambient Light to 0.5 and set Interior Light Strength to 1.0 in the mod settings for Improved Interior Lighting. Together these settings strike a balance between realism and convenience. Dungeons will be dark but not interminably so if you need to extinguish your torch to sneak, nighttime will have a reasonable degree of moonlight, and houses and shops won’t be inexplicably dark in the process.
• Better Ambience by joshcamas: Different modular features that enhance atmosphere such as reverb effects and improved footstep and movement sounds. I play with the fog module disabled as the brightness of the fog contrasts sharply with the darkness provided by the two previous mods.
• Roleplay and Realism by ajrb + Roleplay and Realism - Items by ajrb: Together these two mods introduce a host of new immersion focused mechanics, fixes, and items into Daggerfall. This includes obvious stuff like usable bandages and wild animals dropping meat or fur instead of gold or weapons, but also includes balance changes to fix some of the mechanical inconsistencies present in the original game. See the links above for a full list of features.
• Travel Options by ajrb + Climates and Calories by Ralzar: Travel Options allows you to travel from place to place in (accelerated) real time rather than fast travelling via loading screen. This is a prerequisite for the main draw here, Climates and Calories. This adds survival mechanics such as hunger, thirst, sleep, and climate to Daggerfall.

Many more quality mods exist, and these are just a few of the ones I use. I like the old-school graphics and presentation so don’t touch that aspect of the game much, but many choose to do so and it’s worth looking through the extensive options available to curate your perfect selection. This spreadsheet from Jwlar is somewhat out-of-date and requires some discretion but provides a great overview of the different mod offerings. For a new player, less is more. I’d advise against overdoing the mods on your first playthrough until you know what you really want from the game, as something like Climates and Calories can add a great deal of complexity and difficulty to an already daunting game. Daggerfall Unity provides a significant upgrade to the original experience on its own.

Character Creation and Backstory

Much like its predecessor, Daggerfall begins with a map of Tamriel where you select your race. Once again, we choose a Breton of High Rock, which is only fitting as this is the focal province of the game.

Afterwards, we choose our class. You can choose from a selection of pre-made classes. Alternatively, you can avail yourself of the custom class creator, which is the stuff of gaming legend. The choice here is obvious.

The class creator lets you name your class and pick the primary attributes and skills that define it. You can modify your starting reputations with several of the prominent factions around the Illiac Bay, and you can also select from a bevy of advantages and disadvantages that add unique positive and negative effects to your character like bonuses against certain creature types or the inability to use certain types of equipment.

The player character of Daggerfall acts as an agent of the emperor, so I created the “Agent” class around this concept. This is a pre-built class in later titles but not here. Next is background, which you can generate randomly or answer a series of background questions which also affect the abilities, reputations, and starting equipment of your character. You choose a name and face, which as you may have guessed are still butt ugly, and then roll your starting attributes and skills. Lastly you choose “reflexes” which determine how fast enemies react in game. I’ve never used anything but “very high.” I imagine lower settings give the game a more turn-based feel.

The questions we answered earlier generate a backstory for the character. Sadly, the result is rarely satisfying or logically consistent. As such, I wrote my own.

Born in 3E375, Lazare Valtmarc was orphaned at a young age and spent most of his childhood years as an urchin on the streets of the Imperial City. Quickly turning to thievery to survive, his natural agility and street smarts kept him alive and fed, but never much more than that. Always looking for his big break, he grew overconfident and reckless, eventually culminating in his most brazen attempt yet, a burglary on the Imperial Palace itself at the tender age of ten.

Eluding both the Elder Council and the Imperial Guard, Lazare stole into the royal bedchambers, stuffing his pockets with grand gems and jewelry before being caught by none other than Emperor Uriel Septim VII himself. Amazed by the audacity and skill of this child, Uriel saw great potential. Rather than consigning the thief to the dungeons, he instead took the child under his wing, enlisting him as an Agent of the Blades.

In the employ of the empire, Lazare flourished. Granted private chambers within White Gold Tower, he became a fixture at court. Schooled under the finest tutors, secretly trained under the Imperial Assassins, and taught in the ways of illusion magic by Jagar Tharn, his natural abilities were honed to a sharp edge. He found purpose in duty, equal parts ambassador, courier, and spy, yet always treated as a friend by Uriel who took a fondness to the boy.

In the years of the Imperial Simulacrum, things took a darker turn for the young Agent. After a lengthy assignment in the court of Skingrad in 3E389, he returned home to the palace. Uriel, normally a warm and welcoming presence, now seemed cold and aloof, his ever-present advisor Jagar Tharn mysteriously absent. Lazare’s talents were put to tasks of assassination and discord. His complaints fell on deaf ears, and his sense of loyalty to the man who elevated him above poverty, held him to this dark work.

In 399, the ruse was dispelled, Jagar Tharn was defeated by the Eterrnal Champion, and the true Emperor returned to the throne. Elated as he was to see his old friend and leader returned to his rightful place, Lazare was haunted by the deeds he had committed under the reign of the Usurper, a guilt which took many years of service to the true Emperor to put behind him.

Now, the year is 3E405, and Lazare is called to a private meeting with Uriel deep within the dungeons of the Imperial Palace, an even more secretive locale than usual. He has no idea that this meeting will come to define his destiny.

A Mysterious Assignment

After character creation, the game opens with a pair of introductory cutscenes. The first provides some in-universe context for the story.

Afterwards, an iconic live-action scene plays out. Emperor Uriel Septim VII and his advisor Chancellor Ocato are lit by torchlight in a dark chamber. Foreboding music plays as Uriel sets up the main quest. Lysandus, the recently deceased King of Daggerfall, does not rest easily. His violent spirit haunts the streets of his former capital. Uriel sets us to the task of finding what keeps Lysandus’ ghost from the peace of death and to put his spirit to rest.

The Emperor has one other task for us. Uriel sent a letter of a “personal and sentimental nature” to Queen Mynisera, widow of Lysandus. The letter never arrived. He asks us to find it and destroy it. With that, he snuffs out the torch and sends us off to the Kingdom of Daggerfall, and the game truly begins.

Privateer's Hold

The last echoes of a thunderous boom begin to dissipate as the final chunk of mud-covered rock settles over the cave entrance. There is no way out. Through the dripping walls of the cavern, the distant crash of the great thunderstorm which sunk Lazare’s ship can still be heard. Shivering, he pulls himself closer to the meager fire he managed to build with the few scraps of dry brush and driftwood he could find. Curling up as close as he can without burning himself, a semblance of comforting warmth begins to return to his bones, and he sinks into an exhausted sleep.

Some time later he awakens. The fire, burning dangerously now, gives off just enough light for him to make out his surroundings. The last of his tinder smolders before him and the flint he used to start the fire is lost in the gloom. The entrance he crawled in through is well sealed by mud and rock. He’d never be able to dig himself out. At the opposite end of the cavern, he can just barely make out a passage leading deeper in. “Only one way forward,” he thinks.

He draws an iron dagger from the strap on his right thigh. Aside from the blade and his underclothes, tattered but now mercifully dry, all he has on him is his coin purse which had miraculously held on to the loop at his waist. Little good would it do him here.

Taking a few cautious steps towards the passage, fumbling in the rapidly diminishing light, the scrabbling fingers of his left hand note the change from natural rock to brick, and soon find the grip of a torch resting in a wall-set sconce. Amazed by his good fortune, he quickly pads back to the dwindling embers of his fire. He shoves the torch into the embers, and the oil-soaked cloth wrapping the wood quickly catches flame. Torch in one hand, dagger in the other, he returns to the passage with renewed hope. The soft clap of his bare feet on the stone echoes faintly off the walls as he strides into unknown depths…

Daggerfall begins in the notorious dungeon of Privateer’s Hold. Though small in scale compared to the massive complexes that await us, these halls have claimed the lives of many would-be adventurers with their confusing layout and dangerous foes, some of which cannot be damaged by the usual starting equipment.

With little more than a cheap dagger and some basic clothing, we’re forced to avoid and run past some of the nastier foes in this dungeon, including an imp and human bandits of varying class. Lazare does succeed in his first combat though, a life-or-death struggle against the most vaunted of RPG enemies, the large rat.

Though a noted elevation from Arena in many ways, the basic gameplay of Daggerfall is not too dissimilar to its predecessor, so I will keep the gameplay commentary to a minimum moving forward unless it’s something of an interest. Back to the story!

The tunnels seem to stretch on for miles in this place. Fortunately, aside from an overly large and hungry rodent, any denizens of these halls seem to be absent or warned away by the light of his torch. After what seems like hours, he comes to a warped wooden door at the end of a corridor. The rusted hinges scream like a banshee in the quiet dark. He enters a vast great hall. Huge statues, features worn away by time, loom down at him from the darkness above. On his right, a grand staircase flanked by stone pillars leads up into blackness. He ascends, painfully aware of the sensation of being watched.

At the top of the stairs sits a great wooden throne on a raised dais. He stops for a moment to catch his breath, still feeling the exhaustion of his narrow escape from the storm. Straightening, the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as from behind him, he hears a quiet shuffling rattle.

From a side chamber atop the stairs comes a walking skeleton, its eye sockets burn red with a cruel, unnatural light. Mouth agape, a violent, impossible scream erupts from its jaws. Frozen by fear, Lazare narrowly avoids decapitation by a vicious swipe from the skeleton’s rusty sword by throwing himself backward, crashing into the dais as he does so. Leaping to his feet, he stands atop the dais, swiping his torch back and forth at the undead menace. Not dissuaded, the skeleton continues to advance.

Looking for some escape, he notices a lever aside the dais he failed to notice before. He kicks out at it. With the creak of an ancient mechanism, the dais rises out of reach of the skeleton, its unsettling red orbs following him up as he goes. Upon reaching a landing above, the dais ceases its ascent. Gingerly stepping from the platform, Lazare follows a small corridor leading uphill for some time. His torch burns out, and he is forced to climb by feeling alone. Hands stretched out in front of him like a zombie, his fingers find cold stone. A forceful push swings the stone door outward, which opens into cold silver moonlight.

Gothway Garden

This Morning Star night is freezing cold, the packed snow torture on Lazare’s bare feet. At some point he tears strips from his shirt and pants to tie around his numb appendages, but these are soon soaked through and even worse off than before. He wanders aimlessly for hours, looking for some trace of civilization in the High Rock wilderness, sheer willpower pushing his frozen body forward. In the distance, he spots the glow of firelight over a small hill. Steeling himself, he carries on.

He crests the hill and comes to a small hamlet, a nearby signpost dictating the name “Gothway Garden.” Trudging through the cobblestone streets, he sees light in the windows of a large thatched-roof building ahead, smoke belching from the brick chimney into the night sky. Blessed warmth greets his skin as he nearly falls through the door of the Dancing Chasm. His vision swims at the shocked faces before him.

He barely perceives the hot cup forced into his numb fingers; the dry blanket draped over his shoulders. The strong hands of the innkeeper guide him to the fireplace where he sits down besides an elderly man, hands stretched out to the flames. Lazare bites back a scream as the warmth brings stinging life back to his frozen feet. Draining the achingly hot tea in the cup before him, he slumps over on to his side, and he knows no more.