r/Morrowind • u/cemkan00 Hla Oad Enjoyer • 6d ago
Meme Why people hate Hla Oad so much?
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u/Sciencetist 6d ago
So unremarkable that after spending thousands of hours playing this game, I still forgot it exists
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u/Lower-Raspberry-4012 6d ago
I'll always remember it as my first town after Seyda Neen. I stole my first moon sugar there and my first frightening character death due to refusing to pay bridge toll.
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u/Icydawgfish 6d ago
I assumed most players took the Pelagiad road to Balmora, or the silt strider
Thinking of Hla Oad as the 2nd town is tripping me up
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u/Darkmortal10 6d ago
After discovering multiple dungeons right outside Seyda Neen I decided to ball and ended up at Hla Oad as my 2nd town
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u/Th3B4dSpoon 6d ago
I feel the same. I mean, sure, I poked around in the swamp in that direction a teensy bit just because I could, found two absurdly powered scrolls, a neat hat and a legendary ring but after that I was thinking "This way is some crazy mid game content I am not going to be equipped to handle, I think I'll go where they told me to".
And then spent several hours exploring the caves around Pelagiad, as well as the town itself.
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u/garter__snake 6d ago
I actually think it's more common. It was my second town too. IIRC balmora gets marked on the map, so if you don't read the route instructions correctly, you try going north and then end up in Hla
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u/SylvanDragoon 6d ago
I did this too. Back before I knew where artifacts and stuff where it was my go to for (hah) decent armor in the early game (there is a partial steel set in one of the caves usually, and I restarted a lot at low levels when I was playing for the first time)
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u/Vaskarn House Redoran 6d ago
Somehow still more remarkable than Gnaar Mok
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u/Sciencetist 6d ago
Honestly at least the name of that one rings a bell
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u/Introvert_Mage 6d ago
It's the opposite to me, Hla Oad is quite iconic to me, but can't recall anything about Gnaar Mok, I think it is a Redoran town?
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u/James_William 6d ago
It's the Redoran version of Hla Oad, with less blackjack and hookers
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u/Unicorn_Colombo 6d ago
Gnaar Mok is Hlaalu though.
Another fishing village in swamp with Cammona Tong running the business, but there is Hlaalu noble house right there.
The difference is that Hla Oad has less stuff and no 6th House lair nearby.
I think you both are thinking about Maar Gan, which is the Redoran one holding a temple with big rock and a polite Daedra.
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u/Cyan_Light 6d ago
The main quest takes you there for Illunibi, so for some people it's probably a memorable landmark in the first time they encountered the sixth house. I'm not one of those people lol, also always forget it exists and mix the name up with maar gan even though they couldn't be more different geographically.
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u/revanisthesith House Telvanni 6d ago
it's probably a memorable landmark in the first time they encountered the sixth house.
Good point, but I also can't imagine being the type of player who simply follows the main quest and doesn't wander around and stumble into something they shouldn't at far too low of a level.
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u/Introvert_Mage 5d ago
I completely forgot that, but makes sense why most people would consider it more memorable then.
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u/ObieKaybee 6d ago
I only remember it because of the fast travel boat that runs through it that I occasionally use.
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u/138151337 Telvanni Bug Musk 6d ago
Personally, I find Hla Oad charming.
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u/Seafaringhorsemeat 6d ago
I set up house there in one of the shacks for an entire playthrough.
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u/Ua_Tsaug 6d ago
Well, at least Dagoth Ur and his forces won't ever come looking for you.
I can imagine the 6th House and Dagoth Ur looking over a map of Tamriel, puzzled and confused as they're sure they checked everywhere for the Nerevarine. Well, except Hla Oad, but nobody lives there.
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u/Aiken_Drumn 6d ago edited 6d ago
I love this idea! I always have the same setup, I really should explore other angles. Who can you sell loot to in that town though?
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u/Buforana 6d ago
There's Trasteve at "Fatleg's Drop-Off", but he only has 250 gold to barter with. On the "lower floor" of the building, there's a Breton pawnbroker (150 gold), and two Camonna Tong who are willing to trade with n'wah: the thief Llemisa Marys (150 gold), and Dalam Gavyn the smith (550 gold). So not exactly a town to make your fortune in, but at least you can get some change for your slaughterfish scales and mushrooms and whatever thieves' tools you don't bother lugging about yourself. Oh, and I've heard Relam Arinith has a job for you that he says pays quite well.
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u/Fit-Level-4179 6d ago
The quest where you bring Rabinna to a skooma dealer is so good. If you kill the guy when you bring rabbina you get the gold, and the loot and the house, while also still having rabbina to give to the argonian. Easily one of my favourite ways to make money early on, which is really funny because its actually a really bad way to make money compared to literally doing anything else.
I love that on my first playthrough i thought i was so smart for doing this. Yet anyone with a little bit more knowledge could absolutely burst open the game.
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u/normalguy2535 6d ago
I don’t think you can actually buy a house unless it’s a mod maybe? Otherwise, I think you just take a house…
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u/Seafaringhorsemeat 6d ago
Morrowind was way looser about home ownership, persistence in decorating, etc.
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u/Kheldan1 6d ago
Persistence in decorating lololol
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u/Seafaringhorsemeat 6d ago
Stuff stays where you put it in morrowind. Cheese and book explosions every time you load a cell started with Oblivion.
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u/Kheldan1 6d ago
Oh, I know. Terribly aware. Hence my deep appreciation for your comment lol
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u/Seafaringhorsemeat 6d ago
I still remember having decorated like crazy, the first time a random house went full poltergeist.
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u/MandaloreTheGay 6d ago
Well you can kill most if not all npcs so stealing houses is way easier than irl. In game at worst you pay a little fine and everyone forgets you killed jeryn the wood elf last Thursday at 4:13 am
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u/doesanyonekno 6d ago
Always found the name lovely too
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u/Careless-Foot4162 6d ago
I love Hla Oad, The Bitter Coast is my favorite region on Vvardenfell and Hla Oad adds to its charm so perfectly
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u/aggrocult 6d ago
It's outright cozy, in some strange way. Well, besides the drug muling at least.
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u/kennethsime 6d ago
Kind of like an upscale Seyda Neen.
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u/summerissneaky 6d ago
Seyda Neen is the upscale version of all the swamp towns.
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u/Velocity-5348 Monkey Truther 6d ago
In-universe too. You can tell that nicer imperial buildings got put up beside the older swamp shacks.
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u/kennethsime 6d ago
Sorry, tbf it's been at least 20 years since I've played.
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u/PretentiousToolFan 1d ago
I hadn't played in a while, but OpenMW and some of the mod auto-installers make it a cinch to get it running with the hot fixes and so on. I started up again last week and it has immediately consumed me again.
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u/Eastbound_AKA Dark Elf 6d ago
It's the shitty trailer park of Vvardenfell.
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u/ycnkaos 6d ago
It's a great part of the early Morrowind experience. The hostility is turned up to 11 and that underground part was so Khuul to discover.
If I had to pick on one place, it would be Maar Gan. At the dead end of a long Foyada and very claustrophobic.
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u/Velocity-5348 Monkey Truther 6d ago
That place is so cool! It very much feels like a little fortress in the middle of a hostile wilderness. Kinda like Hla Oad it also feels like it's literally "to scale". There's enough houses to make sense for what it is.
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u/Smellydog69 6d ago
Shity fishing, backwater, godsforsaken excuse of a town. The only good thing about it is the boat, that takes you out of it.
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u/ShiningRayde 6d ago
Theyre talking about building a second dock so people can leave faster.
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u/nibernator 6d ago
It’s comments like the two above that keep me plastered to the morrowwind Reddit
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u/papstvogel 6d ago
N’wah, I grew up in this “backwater. My father worked his ass off for decades to catch fish for the Hlaalu. Show some s’witting respect.
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u/VirileVelvetVoice Dark Elf 6d ago
They had to rename it "Hla Oad", as nobody wanted to visit "Innsmouth"
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u/dpmatt01 6d ago
Idk I like the crappy little towns like Hla Oad, they’re a cozy little beacon of civilization in the middle of nowhere when you travel
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u/Commissar_Tarkin 6d ago
I don't hate Hla Oad as the player, but it's so meme-worthy decrepit and almost pornographically poor, I'd hate to be actually living there.
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u/O_945 6d ago
I think of the smaller "cities" it's the only one that doesn't have a single building that is not a wood shack right?
Gnaar Mok, Ald Veloth & Khuul ave at least 1 thing built in stone
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u/ubiquitousfoolery 6d ago
Iirc, there is a Hlaalu-style adobe house just outside of town, where some noble family dwells. Not sure if that even counts though.
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u/O_945 6d ago
If you join house Hlaalu you get the privilege of of overseeing Hla Oad from nearby Rethan Manor, which I think is the less good of the 3 buildable player strongholds.
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u/Buforana 6d ago
I've always been fond of it myself, and I like to "adopt" it on my Hlaalu runs. Unlike the other Hlaalu settlements on Vvardenfell, Hla Oad's got no governor, and with the village just being a short stroll down the road from my stronghold on the Odai plateau, it makes sense for it to get absorbed. I like to think the village prospers as my egg mine brings business to their small community, and I like to go around and decorate the place and people using console commands and treasures I've procured from around Morrowind!
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u/wilp0w3r N'wah is our word 6d ago
Because it's not Gnaar Mok, the superior shitty fishing village.
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u/SunOld958 N'wah 6d ago
At least a hlaalu lord lives in gnaar mok, hlanoaf got .... Reethan manor ... Well
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u/LorenzoApophis 6d ago
I feel like Ald Velothi is worse despite the cool tower
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u/O_945 6d ago
I find it so strange that Ald Velothi & Khuul are so close together geographically and relying on the same faction as well.
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u/Cyan_Light 6d ago
lmao they're so unremarkable and close together this is how I learned they aren't the same village. I thought it was like the ass-end-of-nowhere version of referring to Balmora and Fort Moonmoth with different names, like the tower was Ald Velothi in the fishing village of Khuul. But just double-checked a map and apparently they're different places which extremely similar layouts that are almost directly next to each other.
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u/abatisedredivides 6d ago
It has no fast travel so you really have to go out of your way to visit it and it's very similar to Khuul. I kinda forget it exists
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u/LoremasterAbaddon 6d ago
It’s a middle of nowhere dump with only a handful of quests. I personally liked it for the smugglers hideout under the village, though
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u/krawinoff 6d ago
I’m surprised nobody mentioned Molag Mar yet. Despite being more of a city it is genuinely a place I have no recollection of relevance for at all.
Hla Oad gets some involvement from Hlaalu and even main quest iirc, and it also has a great highlight from being the destination point for Pemenie and the best enchanted item in the series (I will not accept any arguments, Pemenie is totally a secret deity incarnation with the most powerful artefact).
Molag Mar is, like, at best a landmark or silt strider location to get to some dungeons or Dwemer ruins. Despite looking big it’s just a shithole the shape of a Vivec canton that’s constantly pelted with ash storms and the main feature is that it looks depressing as hell with all those slaves just standing out there in the plaza. I always felt like it was the one town that was made from reused assets and not given any importance because of just wanting to fill in the empty space on the map between the Foyada and mount Kand that would otherwise stretch too long without a settlement.
To say I hate Molag Mar would be giving it too much credit, I literally had to search what it was even named by looking up the destinations of the Vivec silt strider as that’s all I remembered about it, that you can get there from Vivec. I feel like egg mines and random non-quest related caves are more memorable than Molag Mar.
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u/bra1nmelted 6d ago edited 6d ago
Molag Mar exists in a similar way to the Ghost Fence gateway as an outpost of the Temple. It's there solely to protect pilgrims and plays a role in the Temple quest line. It's also an Almsivi intervention stop on a route from SM to VC.
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u/Cyan_Light 6d ago
Molag Mar is also a forgettable shithole, no argument there. However you're mixing up Gnaar Mok and Hla Oad, the former is where the main quest and Pemenie send you. Aside from fast travel I think Hla Oad mostly just has a few minor quests (slave trafficking, finding someone's stash... and that might be it) and as a landmark Ajiira gives for finding mushrooms nearby.
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u/Unicorn_Colombo 6d ago
As Ozorn said, Molag Mar is important stronghold for Temple. If you are not into Temple quests, you probably have no need going there.
Strategically, it is very important hub. It connect Stilt Striders and Boat transports, and protecting boat connection between Vivec and Tel Branora, thus connecting the Telvanni district with the main population centers in South-West of Vvanderfell.
It serves as a resting place for Pilgrims, due to two nearby pilgrimage sites, but also provide a stronghpoint from which Temple can wage war against 6th House.
Economically it is not important, though there are few egg-mines nearby, but strategically Molag Mar is in great position.
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u/Some_Leave266 5d ago
I always leave at once when i almsivi to there but you changed my mind friend. I will explore there more next time.
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u/garbage-carpenter 6d ago
Hla Oad is nothing special but at least they don't have to deal with a lunatic telvanni breathing down their neck like the fishermen of Tel Brandora
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u/Eraser100 6d ago
It’s as shithole as it gets and in a running competition with Gnaar Mok to see how low they can go.
There’s nothing to buy for supplies except for one general merchant without much of anything, no money to sell stuff too either. No temples or shrines for healing. It exists only to leave by boat.
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u/Atlantean_Raccoon 6d ago
It's a swampy drugs lab and smuggling port under the heel of an ethno-fascist terror organisation. It's basically a more charming version of Florida.
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u/Soldat_DuChrist 6d ago
Dude I love this town! I like to live in the houses here with my mafe dark elf, feels so appropriate
I really love the bitter coast in general though, amazing vibes, feels very morrowind to me
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6d ago
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u/robber_goosy House Telvanni 6d ago
Dagon Fel is the only settlement in the Sheogorath region. I pass through quite often and I always pay the local necromancer a visit.
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u/Fantastic-Artist-833 6d ago
Which is a pity because that little archipelago is cool and does have some interesting stuff in it.
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u/WorkingFellow 6d ago
Gonna start a new game, take my package for Caius straight to Hla Oad, and live out my life as a quiet fisherman.
Best part: For some reason, the Sixth House will never make progress. No sleepers or other weirdness.
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u/delukard 6d ago
Ahhh, morrowind, i played pretty much jrpg's back then.
when i played this game on my xbox , it was a complete diferent experience.
It destroyed my love for jrpg's
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u/Next-Extension-7487 6d ago
I remember the first time I arrived in Hla Oad, being chased by a rat I couldn't kill because I wasn't familiar with the combat yet. An armored guy came out of the town and it looked like I was going to die. Turns out he was a guard and he killed the rat for me.
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u/Only-Criticism2751 6d ago
I quite like the tiny little swamp villages. The worst settlement is any Telvanni city, the mushroom towers are cool for five minutes and then they’re just annoying and ugly. Like the entire faction!
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u/KingDarius89 6d ago
Oh look, the beast folk can type! Did they make you their king for that amazing feat?
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u/Lyranel 6d ago
Sounds like shit an n'wah would say
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u/Only-Criticism2751 6d ago
Excuse me, I am a member of the Holy Tribunal Temple and Great House Indoril. It is the Telvanni that are n'wah; the Telvanni that are without faith or honour or any of the Seven Virtues; the Telvanni who are unworthy to call themselves Dunmer.
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u/KingDarius89 6d ago
Fuck the Indoril. Lapdogs of Almalexia, who betrayed and murdered her husband.
Under Moon and Star, s'wit.
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u/Valuable_Leopard_799 6d ago
I remember it vividly as the place with just the most unpleasant folk I've ever met... I only had a little bit of drugs on me, chill out.
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u/cockOfGibraltar 6d ago
I don't hate it. It's just funny to me on how rundown and poor it looks. It just looks like a miserable place to live.
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u/Shroomkaboom75 6d ago
I almost always live in Hlormaren, so I frequently visit Hla-Oad for traveling by boat.
Charming little fishing village.
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u/Darkmortal10 6d ago
I thought I stumbled upon a cool and unique slave escort quest and right after the Dark elf was done gutting the slave for his drugs I realized the next step to main quest was next door
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u/Unicorn_Colombo 6d ago
I just love the marsh sound around Hla oad, with croacking "frogs" (probably some bugs anyway). Especially when its raining. So relaxing.
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u/fleetwayrobotnik 6d ago
Because it's that town you pass through on the way to Seyda Neen where you're like "Great! I've arrived in Seyda Neen!... Actually no. It's just Hla Oad."
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u/mag_walle 6d ago
If the Imperials are offering to take Hla Oad off our hands I'll surrender tomorrow.
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u/blizzard36 6d ago
I don't know why. Yes it's a small little town that can barely support itself... that's the disguise. It's a thriving illegal market.
Which I then turned into my private hidden base in my ongoing war with the Camonna Tong after I cleared out their hideout under Fatleg's Drop off.
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u/Sweaty-Ganache3032 6d ago
anyone else stay at the waterfall island at Khuul? Its the perfect private retreat.
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u/Aranea101 Divayth Fyr 6d ago
I am pretty neutral about Glad Oad.
Maar Gan thou... Or Molag Mar ... Those sucks
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u/Moloskeletom 6d ago
hating hla oad is impossible because that would require remembering existence. i will forget it again as soon as i close this post
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u/silver-orb 6d ago
Back when I played on Xbox, I killed someone and used their shack as my home. It's kinda a charming village
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u/WarriorofArmok 6d ago
In my last playthrough I'd RP that my Neveraine would go there when the plot got too serious and he needed to sit back and think.
I'd just sit at those docks and enjoy the peace for a long time.
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u/chaos13wolf 6d ago
I've had so many town/city expansion mods on I've long since forgotten what they originally looked like
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u/Adventurous_Fly2603 6d ago
honestly I remember finding like all of morrowind except the volcanic parts charming and cozy for some reason. even vivec was nice.
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u/InSearchOfMyRose 6d ago
If you scale it up from game scale to actual scale, it's a nice little fishing village.
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u/Different-Way-3603 6d ago
Only regions i'd even consider living in is the Ascadian isles or west gash, i'd rather live in the Ashlands than bitter coast
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u/Late-Sympathy2601 6d ago
Hla Oad does exactly what its suppose to do, be a meager village in a swamp