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[LordBucket]

(This is a continuation of Marooned in Morrowind. It is recommended that you be familiar with the original before reading here.)

Prologue


: "Hello, my little humans. Welcome to-"

: "Shut it, Tia. Nobody likes you anyway."

Celestia raises an eyebrow then takes a sip of tea.

: "I suppose you'd rather we hear this from Azura?"

: "Oh, right, like that would make any difference. Look at me, I'm Loki! Suddenly that makes everything I have to say more relevant!"

With both a bang and a whisper, Michael appears.

: "Gah! What...where am I?"

: "MICHAEL!"

: "Woofy? Hey, good to-"

The werewolf zooms up and glomps Michael.

: "...can't...breath..."

: "I missed you so much!"

: "Indeed! I missed you so much too! Oh, shall I count the ways? Fifth with an orange, negative fifteenth with an ICBM, fiftieth with a rusty glass of water-flavored jello..."

: "Very well, I suppose this is appropriate."

: "Azura!"

Azura smiles.

: "Yes, Michael."

: "...what...how..."

Michael stumbles over his words trying to figure out what question to ask. Meanwhile, the werewolf shoots one hand on the air and hops excitedly while transforming into Pinkie Pie.

: "Oh! I know what to ask! I know! I know! Ask how-"

Sheogorath grins and a gag materializes on Pinkie's face, silencing her.

: "Mfph eh dznt! ehkn ttlly stuhl tk!"

Michael glances around, the room? It's not exactly a room. There don't seem to be any walls and the floor is an indistinct mist that isn't entirely solid.

: "Pathetic. Is this really the best design you could come up with, bucket-boy?"

: "Who are you talking to? Who's 'bucketboy?'"

: "Oooohh, finally the protagonist asks a question." Q rolls his eyes. "I was beginning to think I'd have to make myself mortal and bludgeon myself to death with a sponge...AGAIN, just to keep from dying of boredom."

Michael considers the being standing before him.

: "I know who you are, Q."

Q mocks a look of great shock, then smiles with amusement.

: "Do you? Do you really know who is moi?" He raises his hands and looks up. "Then tell us! Oh, great wise one, WHO. AM. I?"

Michael frowns and doesn't answer right away.

: "Didn't think so. Now get on with it before pink fluffy over there tries to turn this into a party."

Pinkie's eyes light up and she-

: "Not on my watch."

Q snaps his fingers and Pinkie Pie disappears, along with the room, and its occupants.

All is dark.



: "In the beginning, there was light."

An alarm sounds and a dunce cap appears on Azura's head.

: "EHHH! Wrong!"

: "Are we telling this story or not, Chaos?"

The djinn raises an eyebrow, then slowly transforms into a horrific visage of eyes and mouths, with long spindly arms and legs, and a head that hangs beneath its shoulders.

: "It is early to be revealing ourselves, Light."

Azura removes the cap.

: "It's become very clear over these past two years that they won't understand unless we explain. Possibly even if we do."

Tzeentch turns back into Sheogorath.

: "Would you care to bet on that? I choose to have some small amount of faith in the mortals. At least as much as I have in 17 and 20 mustard seeds, anyway."

Shegorath pulls a frozen hot dog from his jacket and takes a crunchy bite, as Azura grows wings and becomes once again Celestia.

: "No, dear friend. I would not care to bet on it."

: "No! Back, foul monster! Not the puppy dog eyes! I'm melting!" Sheogorath shrieks, then sighs. "Oh, very well. Have it your way. I shall entertain myself elsewho. Or possibly elsewhy. Certainly no chance at all that I'll be entertained here, how or now."

Sheogorath vanishes. Celestia turns to you.

: "Hello, Michael."

: "Princess? What happened here? What was all this?"

Celestia smiles kindly on you, wraps you up in one wing and affectionately nuzzles the top of your head. You feel the top of your skull tingle as if electricity is passing through it. Your feet feel as though they've been washed.

: "It's not so very simple, my little human, my little spell, my little audience. You ask what happened 'here' but where is 'here' depends very much on 'who' you are when you view it. So what happened 'here' depends on which 'here' you mean, and that depends on whom the 'you' is who is doing the viewing. There is more to 'you' than any individual 'you' is aware." She smiles gently. "Which is why this happened."

: "I don't understand."

: "Some of you does. And some of you doesn't. Different parts of you are observing different a 'here,' and they each have a different understanding of what they perceive." she pauses. "Perhaps it would help if I broke the story up into smaller pieces, rather than try to explain all at once?"

You blink a couple times.

: "Ok."






Episode 1: Introduction
You're a freshman liberal arts student at your local community college. You're an average student, and you don't do sports. No real hobbies except the internet, games, watching My Little Pony and reading the occasional fanfic on Equestria Daily.

You just got home from a terribly dull basic algebra class. You're not sure why you were placed in it. You already know the material, but it's your first year, and that's where the matriculation tests put you. At least the homework is easy.

"Anyone home?" No answer. "Mom? Dad?"

Looks like nobody's home but you at the moment. With no particular plans, you head to your room. You sit down at your computer, turn it on and pull your college textbooks from your backpack while you wait for windows to load. It's slow. You could really use a faster computer.

Eventually windows comes up and you're staring at your favorite desktop wallpaper: an adorable picture of princesses Celestia and Luna nuzzling together before a glorious sunset. It warms your heart, but your mind is restless. What are you going to do? Homework? No...you can do it later. Maybe a game? Yeah, sure. You open up your start menu and...

_{...mumble...mumble...shall We...mumble...}

You look around. You could of sworn you just heard a voice. You listen carefully, but you don't hear anything. Shrugging, you go back to your start menu and begin browsing though-

_{...but We're out of...mumble...}

Your heart skips a beat. You totally heard someone talking. A female voice. You strain to hear, but all you hear is the sound of your own heartbeat. It's kind of creepy. You glance at your computer and notice that the speakers are powered on. Instantly you relax and giggle the anxiety away. Obviously your speakers were just picking up radio interference. Probably just a ham radio operator passing through the-

_{...mumble...what about this...mumble...}

That's totally not coming from your speakers. At least you don't think it is. Curious, you reach to turn up the speaker volume when suddenly your chair drops out from beneath you and you feel yourself falling backwards. You see a blur, then sunlight in your eyes, then.

SPLASH!

Yeah. No sense denying it. You're in Morrowind.


: "I remember that. That was when I first arrived. But where was I before that? Where did I come from?"

Celestia folds her other wing around you and holds you securely in them both. It's very reassuring. Like a womb.

: "'You' weren't before that. 'You' came into existence when this forum game began."

: "Forum game? What forum game?"

: "Forgive me if I answer that indirectly. Let me tell you that exact same story as before, but from a different point of view."



Princess Celestia sat regally on the throne room. It had been a rough day, dealing with petty nobles and bureaucrats.

: Why must they create such terrible mountains of paperwork? Don't they understand-"




: "TI---AAAA! We're soooooooooooo boooorrreed! Is there nothing to DO in Equestria anymore?"

The Solar Princess smiled at her younger sister. She was very proud of how little Luna had adapted to-

: "BOOOOOOOORRRRRRRREEEEDDDD!" the purple alicorn whined, adorably stomping her forehooves on the palace floor, leaving several holes in the stone in the process

: "Oh, Lulu. If you're so eager for something to do, why not-"

: "Nay! Thou shalt NOT waste a single precious iota of Our time on that atrocious tax code of Thine! We must say, sister, hadst Thou not banished Us to the moon, a thousand years of darkness would have been the lesser evil by far!"

: "Perhaps. Well, I do have some few hours before sundown, and it's so wonderful to have you back, dear sister. Perhaps we might play a game together? Just like we used to, Lulu?"

Luna sat on her throne and regally humphed.

: "We have better things to do with Our time than waste it on mere games."

: "Like sit around and be bored?"

Luna's ears twitched.

: "Very well, We shall consider Thy proposal. What game?"

: "Chess?"

: "Nay."

: "Boulder toss?"

: "A filly's game."

: "Alfalfa monster?"

: "Thou wouldst not dare!"

A few more suggestions were made, but Luna found none of them appealing. Being an immortal alicorn, she'd had her fill of every game that her world had to offer. And so after a time, Celestia began to call upon the games of other worlds known to her.

: "When shall We give up on this fool's errand, dear sister?"

: "Not until my little Lulu is entertained. Unless you truly believe there is nothing in the entire multiverse left to amuse you."

: "Mayhaps, but We're out of other ideas."

: "Then let's continue."

: "Wait, stop. What about this? Morrowind?"


Morrowind had caught Luna's interest. And so Celestia called upon the game from her alternate universe counterpart, and cast a great spell to simulate the program code of that game.

: "Ha! Indeed this looks fun! Thank you, sister. I shall avail Myself of Your offer. No more of this ridiculous pretty princess nonsense! Just like the olden times, again shall I be the Princess of the Night! Hark! Dost Thou remember, dear sister, how friend and foe alike wet themselves in fear at the merest rumor of My coming? How the world itself shook beneath My hooves as I danced in the blood of the wicked?"

: "I remember, Lulu."

: "Huzzah! Then fear Me, mortals, for today, I am risen! Again shall I feel the crunching of charred bones beneath my hooves! Again shall I taste the blood of those who dare to stand before Me! Again shall I bathe in the viscera of- 

: "Don't be up too late, Lulu. Remember you have a table manners lesson tomorrow morning. Ponies consider it rude to gore the waiter merely for the wine not being to your taste nowadays."

: "...stupid modern civilization."

And so Luna immersed herself in this new game while her sister watched, happy to see her happy . But, after a short time, a curious thing happened. The game...

...noticed that it was being played.




: "So you're saying you pirated a game from a different universe to entertain your sister? "

Celestia smiles.

: "That is one way to look at it, yes. One way among many."

: "What does that have to do with me?"

: "There is one more point of view that's essential."


LordBucket browsed through the forum games on bay12. It had been a while since he'd hosted a game. Unfortunately games in 'forum games' tended to die after a week. As often as not they survived long enough for character creation and a single turn or two before being abandoned for one reason or another. The Let's Play forum tended to be more reliable. Though posting there would mean playing an actual game rather than completely making something up. Still, that was manageable.

Glancing though the games on his computer...

: "Violated Heroine? That would be hilarious, but it would be locked fast. Xeen? A Xeen let's play would be fun. Not sure I'm in the mood for that though. Plus, it would take forever. Xeen is a really big game and it would take months, at least, to get through it. I'd rather something I can do for  couple months and be done with it."

(Somewhere in a distant universe, a chaos god laughed at his naivete)

LordBucket continued looking through his games until he came upon:

: "Morrowind? Yeah, definitely Morrowind. Actually, I jthink I have an AWESOME idea for a Morrowind Let's Play. Oh, yeah. This is...wow. That makes so much sense. We so need to do this."

Feeling inspired, LordBucket started up Morrowind, created a new character and walked around taking screenshots. Then he closed the game, opened up notepad and began typing.

: "...huh. This is really great. So much potential. I wonder where this idea came from."


: "I don't understand. Who was that?"

: "That was me."

: "What? Since when were you a human...guy?"

: Since when was the sword pushed?"

: "Vivec? Where did you come from?"

Vivec raises an eyebrow.

: "It's difficult to answer that literally. But in the sense that you mean, I've been here all along."

This is some screwy stuff.

Vivec said that he's some kind of blob of technically-hims that are connected but not in a "have conversations with each other" kind of way, as evidenced by his sword analogy. Yagrum said that for every universe, there's an infinite blend of universes diverging from that one in various ways; Fyr (not shown) more directly confirmed that by suggesting that there were probably numerous Fyrs having that conversation with numerous Michaels when we asked him, and less directly by saying it was really easy to have a world that looked completely like home except for one rather massive detail.

So it seems likely to me that "Vivec" is aware of being some kind of... "hivemind" probably isn't the word. Almost the reverse, a one-ish mind or whatever spread out over a large patch of what appear to be discrete entities in their respective dimensions; or maybe just a discrete mind that's much more heavily affected and aware of his variations than normal. He also mentioned that "you might not recognize me in all of them," which would make sense further out from "normal" or "core" Vivec where he's starting to accumulate too many differences to be immediately identifiable.

Well done, IronyOwl. But you seem to have missed the application of this:

The tomato is you. It's me. It's all of us.

Marooned in Morrowind, from it's very conception was always intended to be a Tomato in the Mirror. The game took place, is taking place, in an infinite omniverse, of which this universe that you and I and this forum game exists in is but one part of.

Everything Vivec, Divayth and Yagrum said about the nature of the universe was describing this universe just as well as theirs. This universe, that we're playing this forum game in is part of that same multiverse that Yagrum and Divayth's particular universe is also a part of. And you guys, collectively "are" the Michael that is in Morrowind. Literally, you're the "this dimension" manifestation of a multidimensional hyperbeing, of which Michael is a "that dimension" manifestation of. Just like Vivec.

: "Is there an instance of you in each of those universes?"

: "In one form or another, there must be, if I am to be aware of them. But were you to look at some of them, you might not recognize them as me."

You are aware of Michael, and he is aware of you. But were you to look at each other, you might not recognize each other as other-universe-instances of yourself.

So where do ponies come in? Well, among those infinite universes there is one particular universe, well, probably infinitely many universes, but one of them in particular, in which Celestia cast a spell recreating the game of Morrowind in her universe, and that became self aware. This forum game is a manifestation of the bleedthrough between these various universes. While it might be tempting to say that "Michael is a sentient spellform" the more accurate way of describing it is to say that there is a multi-dimensional hyperbeing that extends into multiple universes, and one of the extensions takes the form of groupmind on the bay12 forum, in another universe it takes the form of a physical being with no past who decided that his name is Michael, and in yet another universe it takes the form of a spell that became sentient.

There is no basis upon which to evaluate any of these universes as "more valid" than another.

Throughout this entire game, "you the players" have been growing to become aware of your combined hyperdimensional self, of which "Michael in Morrowind" and "spellform in Equestria" and presumably countless other other-universe-selves are  also another part, eacj of which also growing to become more aware of its same hyperdimensional self. You've each been seeing your self through a lens. "You" have been becoming aware of your self through the experience of viewing Morrowind through this forum game, and "you" have been becoming aware of yourself through the experience of viewing this world by communicating with the voices in Michael's head, and "you" have been becoming aware of yourself through the process of ponies interacting with your essence as the game they perceive "you" to be.

Vivec referred to the voices in Michael's head as his "higher self," and throughout this game, nearly every episode there's been a regular narrative shift back and forth between the first and second person point of view.

That was intentional.

Because each of you individually, the "hivemind" that is your presensc on bay12, Michael in Morrowind, and the spellform in Equestria are all ultimately components of the same hyperbeing. Just like Vivec. His components simply started out with greater awareness of each other. And just like Chaos/Sheogorath/Eris/Loki/Discord. All components of the same hyperbeing.

Even me, the GM, I am not exempt. Here in this universe, my manifestation is me, the human, ffelsh and blood, the Gamemaster of Marooned in Morrowind. But the hyperdimensional entity of which I am part, is also composed of Azura, the narrator/goddess/daedra who sets the game of Morrowind in motion. And in Equestria, of Celestia, the caster of the spell that is the game being played by Luna.

Also known as THE PONY IN LORDBUCKET'S AVATAR I MEAN COME ON

LordBucket was the instigator of this forum game. Azura was the instigator of Morrowind. Celestia was the instigator of the spell. For "Marooned in Morrowind" itself is a hyperdimensional entity, and "we" are its creator. This game exists and has this entire time been played in many dimensions, that of my own personal computer, that here on this web forum, that of the spellform in Equestria, and that of the Morrowind narrated by the daedra Azura...and presumably many others.

Which has some interesting implications.

It would be like finding out at the very end of Game of Thrones that Darth Vader was somehow pulling all of the strings.

Reread Conversations With Vivec.

Compare and contrast what Vivec said with what Divayth and Yagrum said.

Consider the implications.

Divayth and Yagrum both explained how this works. Yagrum went into great detail.

: "Oblivion is basically infinite, and takes up infinitely many dimensions. Well, maybe not literally infinite, but close enough as to not matter. Anything that's possible, exists. Imagine your entire universe where you come from, except one bit of...we'll use your model, one atom in your nose is different. That universe with a single different atom exists and is just as valid as the universe you're from. Now imagine that universe except the atom to the left of that other atom is different instead. And so on for every atom in the entire universe. All of those universes exist."

"Obviously, that means a lot of universes are very similar. In fact, every universe is similar to an effectively infinite number of other universes, because every universe that exists has a universe that's just like it except one atom is different, a universe that's just like it except two atoms are different, all the way up to every atom in the universe. Again, maybe not literally infinite...but close enough for all practical purposes. Especially since the number of atoms in each universe isn't fixed. So after you've counted up all those other universes, start in with universes that are identical to each of them except they have one extra atom somewhere, then two extra, etc. "

"So, not only are a lot of universes similar to other universes, the ways in which universes can be similar is effectively infinite, too. If you imagine all possible universes existing at 90 degrees to each other, any possible pair of universes could be described as existing at a particular 90 degree angle and at a certain distance from one another. And other universes at different positions along that axis will also be similar. When I say 'cultural axes' I'm simply referring to axis sets of universes that are similar in terms of culture."

Of course this universe is part of "all possible universes." But so are all others.

It would be like finding out at the very end of Game of Thrones that Darth Vader was somehow pulling all of the strings.

Star Wars is also part of "all possible universes." And so is Game of Thrones. And so is every other fictional universe, every possible fictional universe and every possible variation of those universes.

Certainly you could have met Darth Vader in this game if it had taken that direction.

You did after all meet Q in game. And Loki. And Eris. All individual-universe-instances of the the very essence of Chaos that was using this forum game as a channel through which to speak to you here in this particular universe, just as it was speaking to Michael in his. Speaking to you both, for you are each the same entity.

He was talking to you as much as he was talking to Michael. As well as countless other other-universe manifestations of the hyperbeing that you and Michael are part of, but that you simply haven't become aware of in the manner that forum player you/Michael you/sentient spellform you have become aware of each other. There are infinitely many of possible yous in yet other universes that you might have become aware of.



So, that's what was going on here. The Tomato Is You. And The Tomato Is me. We're All Tomatos.

You/Michael are a multidimenionsal hyperbeing. Just like Vivec. Just like Chaos/Sheogorth/Loki/Eris/etc. Just like LordBucket/Azura/Celestia/Ra/Amaterasu/etc. the bringer of light and enlightenment. And just like the game itself, played on a computer, on a forum and in a spell.

Everything is a Tomato.


http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Azura

"The Winged Twilights are her servants"



Tomatos, every one.

[WillowLuman]

Post to mark. Sad to see it go.

[LordBucket]

Post to mark. Sad to see it go.

: "Don't be too sad. It might still take a month or two to get through the MST3K."

: "Hahahaha. Idiot."

: "Nobody asked you."

[Putnam]

haha i should have just gone "CHIM meant more broadly" rather than "CHIM meant in some other specific way"

since that's actually what Vivec seems to be understanding here; CHIM as fundamental awareness of the truth of reality, regardless of what form that reality takes.

so that's nice

also i knew celestia and azura probably had some connection but HAHA that winged twilight thing I never made the connection mostly because I never actually watched MLP (just absorbed plenty from my brother)

[WillowLuman]

Not gonna lie, still disappointed over the direction the whole meta plot went. And not necessarily because of the ponies. It feels sorta like the other stuff got in the way a bit of exploring the implications of Morrowind from the perspective of an outsider gone inside, and of PC vs NPC vs Player. I think it could have been stronger overall without crossovers, though then it would have needed somewhat of a different plot. Still, I think the tomato in the mirror would have worked even with just Morrowind and Bay12.

It's kinda like the problem with Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch, too many layers, so to speak.

[LordBucket]

Not my fault. You guys directed the adventure, not me. You seriously could have gone bar hopping with Darth Vader if you'd gone in that direction.

You personally spoke with two dimensional travellers, who explained in great detail that you're part of an omniverse with infinitely many variations.  So, "literally anything" was possible, and you guys chose the direction to go in...and you're unhappy with the result.

*shrug*

Not my fault.

CHIM responsibly next time.

[LordBucket]

CHIM as fundamental awareness of the truth of reality, regardless of what form that reality takes.

Exactly. CHIM is a concept, and that concept has application. The Morrowind "flavor" of the universe that describes CHIM to us here in this universe notwithstanding. Yes, Morrowind is a possibility. This universe is a possibility. Ponies are a possibility. And so are all other possibilities, possibilities. But if you understand CHIM, there's no reason for a truly self-directing entity to limit its experience to whichever experience it arbitrarily started out in when it became self aware.

[QuakeIV]

Well this should prove interesting.

[ShoesandHats]

Well, we directed the adventure without a great idea of what exactly was happening, and given that we still hadn't figured out what was going on around 50 updates after we were apparently supposed to, I don't think it was entirely our fault either.

I agree with Hugo that this whole thing got a lot more convoluted than it really needed to be. That said, you still did an excellent job with this game.

[LordBucket]

you still did an excellent job with this game.

Thank you.

this whole thing got a lot more convoluted than it really needed to be

"Convoluted?" Or distracted?

Again, once you got in to talk to Vivec, I pretty much figured the thing would be over within half a dozen episodes. Remember, the vast majority of the main quest is just an excuse to talk to Vivec so he'll give you Wraithguard. You skipped all of that and walked right in.

Why did nobody ask Vivec for Wraithguard? He'd have given it to you. Or better yet, why didn't you simply tell him where Sunder and Keening were and suggest he go take care of Dagoth Ur himself? You know, him and his army? He'd have done it.

Really, I hadn't expected that you guys would get that far. I assumed that you'd go talk to Azura, and at that point you'd be talking to the this-universe in-game avatar of the GM. Cue joke about Wingless Twilights, ask a couple key questions, game over.

Why did you guys never do that? All you'd have had to do was hire a boat. Any one of the Vivec gondoliers could have taken you. Or you could have hired a captain at Ebonheart. Or Seyda Neen. Or you could have, I don't know...asked the boat captain I handed you to take you. Cinia's next stop after Sadrith Mora took her right past Azura's shrine. Or you could have hired a fighter's guild escort. You did an escort quest yourselves. You knew how that worked. Why did you never hire somebody to take you to the shrine? Or the mage guild. They'd have done it too.

You guys could have beat the game at level 1 having never picked up a weapon.

But yeah, you got sidetracked. A bit.

[IronyOwl]

Hah, of course. We knew we were Michael, we just didn't realize we were literally Michael. Should have taken awareness of our existence more seriously, I guess.

I do think one of the game's main problems, other than running on democracy, was that the victory condition wasn't very fun. People joining in a Morrowind LP are generally going to want to play Morrowind, which tends to be distinctly different from answering peculiar metaphysical questions about the nature of "us."


Question: How might we have gone about summoning Darth Vader?

[LordBucket]

People joining in a Morrowind LP are generally going to want to play Morrowind

That was fine too. And obviously we did quite a lot of that. And if you guys had decided to throw all the metaphysical stuff and ponies and everything els eto the wind, and simply pursue the main quest convetionally and beat the game and call it a day, that could have happened.

"All possible universes." Conventional playthrough of the game was a possible universe.

Question: How might we have gone about summoning Darth Vader?

Well, I didn't specifically plan out such an eventuality. I've only been giving the Darth Vader example because somebody mentioned it in the comments at one point and the post was memorable.

But, most obvious example without invoking CHIM, as mentioned above, you personally knew two dimension travellers. Both Yagrum and Divayth were capable of bridging the gap between worlds. They knew the spells. They could have done it. If you'd simply courted their favor, you could easily have convinced them to take you dimension hopping. Yagrum even specifically offered to teach you dwemer magic. You could have learned to do it yourself.

But less specifically, like many of you discussed, this game was all about CHIM. The theory was that anything that you set out to accomplish, by virtue of setting out to accomplish it, the universe would have manifested itself favorably towards that result. That general concept was true and applicable in multiple universes that the hyperbeing that is you was manifest in.

For example, in this universe, you're players and I'm the GM. My goal is to give you a good game and keep you happy. So if you guys wanted to do X, I was favorably disposed towards X happening. You invoked that during gameplay a couple times. For example, it had never occurred to me that might train necromancy. But you guys wanted to do it, there was a consensus to do it, and significantly you believed it could be done.

So I/the universe handed you necromancy.

And then you abandoned it. But, you invoked CHIM, and the universe responded. Several of you at various times in fact commented to the effect that if you guys agreed on doing something, it seemed more likely that it happened. And when you disagreed with each other, things didn't get as good results.

Yes. Of course.

If you plant a coherent crop of seeds and consistently nurture those seeds, the soil is favorably disposed towards giving you what you planted: a coherent crop. If you plant weeds, the soil is favorably disposed towards giving you what you plant, so you tend to get weed. If you plant a couple weeds next to a couple stalks of corn next to a couple rocks next to a couple cactuses, then inconsistently water some of them and ignore others, your resultant "crop" is not going to very consistent. the soil doesn't always give you what you want. It gives you what you plant, and it takes a little nurturing to carry it through to completion.

You guys consistently had an inconsistent crop because you had a difficult time agreeing with each other about what "crops to plan" (actions to take) and rarely followed through (watered them.)

So, yes. CHIM.

Now, as mentioned above, this "the universe is favorable towards granting the object of your intent) was applicable in more universes than just this one. Because again, the game itself was a multidimensional hyper entity, and there are similarities between individual-universe-instances of that hyper entity. In the case of Equestria, Celestia's spell became self aware. And from her point of view, it was a sentient, intelligent being deserving of love and being cared for.

She would not have allowed Michael to come to harm.

And, like me in regards to you the players, she favored giving Michael whatever he wanted. That manifested in some interesting ways. For a while, you guys were very interested in meeting ponies. And viola, you met ponies. And for a time, you guys were expressing great disdain for the idea of ponies having anything to do with the game. And I don't think anyone noticed, but as soon as you guys started giving off the angry vibes about ponies because you wanted this to be about Morrowind...ponies became daedra.

I'm not a fan of the pony theory

it would be disappointing if the theory was true

vehement objection to the pony theory

: "I'm sorry. I came to talk to you about your friends, and why you're all in Morrowind. Clover the Clever is Twilight, right? And Awesomicus is Rainbow Dash? I know that now. I've accepted it. Finding you here and knowing that you're really Applejack confirms it. But, I'm sorry...I was kind of hoping I wouldn't."

: "Yer lookin' fer something ya didn't wanna find? That there's the route to madness, if ya ask me. Sure ya don' want an apple?"

Maybe if you just take it she'll shut up about it,

: "Alright. I'll take an apple."

She hands you the apple and you take it, one of her suckers lightly sticking to your hand as she pulls her tentacle away.

The very universe was responsive to your intent.

CHIM.

[QuakeIV]

If I ever come to power I'll probably contract you to write a plot for a game.

[High tyrol]

Ptw

[LordBucket]

MST3K Episode 1
Marroned in Morrowind Episode 1: Introduction

: "Hello everyone, and welcome to-"

"Are you ripping that intro off of Mumbo Jumbo?"

: "No, I'm-"

: "Indeed! We woudst recognize it anywhere. Thou art a thief and a cad!"

: "Seems pretty generic to me. How else do you want me to introduce this?"

: "Oh! OH!!!! With flowers and streamers and chimi-cherry cupcakes and -"

: "Nahh, dude...what you did is fine, let's get on with it. I got stuff to do."

: "Ahh, Awesomicus, glad you could join us. Alright then. So like I was saying, welcome to Marooned in Morrowind the MST3K, episode 1. The way this is going to work, I'm going to link MiM episodes and quote stuff and provide commentary. Or rather, WE are going to provide commentary."

: "Thou art a dull-witted coxcomb, and thy faux hooves smell of plum wine."

: "...preferably, commentary that will be useful, and not simply insulting."

: "We make no promises."

: "And I don't even know what a coxcomb is."

: "We didst specify 'dull-witted,' did We not?"

: "...right. So, since most of the cast here are individuated avatars of hyperdimensional beings who seem to like shapeshifting to speak from their various forms-"

: "Not me! I never shapeshift."

: "Almost never."

: "Just to be clear, we're not shapeshifting. It only looks like we are to beings observing linear time."

: "Are we talking to ourselves again?"

: "No, we're engaging in a demonstration for the humans."

: "So, to clarify, THIS Celestia avatar is me, LordBucket."

: " Psst. We're LordBucket too."

: "Right, but only from an omnidimensional point of view, just like the players are Michael. Let's not make this any more complicated than it needs to be."

"....pffffahahahahahahaha!!!!"

: "I'm impressed. You actually managed to say that with a straight face."

: "And so, without further adieu-"

: "NAY! WE REQUIRE POPCORN!"

: "Here you go! I brought LOTS!"

: "Very well, We find this acceptable. Thou mayst begin."

You're a freshman liberal arts student at your local community college. You're an average student, and you don't do sports. No real hobbies except the internet, games, watching My Little Pony and reading the occasional fanfic on Equestria Daily.

: "This was established in the very first paragraph of the game. Our (presently) unnamed protagonist is a brony."

: "Only in these couple billion universes. If you go just a little bit over...it's difficult to explain the direction in only four dimensions, but if you go just a little bit THAT way...he's a Star Trek fan, and this whole game took place in space. That's why all the Star Trek references leaked over to this region."

: "But here, this part of 'you' is a brony, and that was established at the very beginning of the game. And there were reminders fairly often for the first 20 episodes or so. Also, very significantly, notice that he doesn't have a name yet. When I first wrote this I was a little worried people would propose a name, or ask for a name, or make suggestions. That usually seems to be the first thing people want to do in bay12 forum games, and if it had come up with kind of would have messed things up. He couldn't have had a name yet at this point. Fortunately nobody noticed that he didn't have one, and that paid off very nicely when he eventually met Vivec and realized he didn't know what his name was."

You just got home from a terribly dull basic algebra class. You're not sure why you were placed in it. You already know the material, but it's your first year, and that's where the matriculation tests put you. At least the homework is easy.

: "The math thing came up pretty often in later episodes since it was the required groundwork for learning magic. I figured players would want to learn magic, though at this point in the story I hadn't come up with the details of the system we eventually ended up with. Even so, I was absolutely amazed that it took so long before you guys got around to it. I was handing you options, but you fought really hard to not follow up on them."

"Anyone home?" No answer. "Mom? Dad?"

Looks like nobody's home but you at the moment.

: "Again, early-on subtle reference to the protagonist's MIA parents. Like the lack of name, this paid off later when you spoke with Vivec."

Eventually windows comes up and you're staring at your favorite desktop wallpaper: an adorable picture of princesses Celestia and Luna nuzzling together before a glorious sunset.

: "Ok, couple things going on here. First we have another pony reference. And while I've since replaced the computer that I started Marroned in Morrowind on, that wallpaper our protagonist mentioned was actually the desktop wallpaper on my compute at the time. The idea here is that the various universes, like Vivec said "communicate with each other, in a way." And that communication took various forms in all sorts of directions. You will NOT understand this game if you think of it as simply "one" game, or of Michael defnitely being X. The multidimensional nature of things was THE premise, and it was constantly showing through in various ways. I, LordBucket...had that desktop wallpaper on my computer because it was a this-universe manifestation of the effect of Celestia and Luna gazing into this universe to draw upon Morrowind, and Morrowind was the game they drew upon because the this-universe version of them (me) was playing it. We're All The Tomato."

"You, the players, couldn't have known any of that of course, but I was thinking about how these things would work from day one."


(Here's the wallpaper. Not sure who the original artist is. Tried a reverse image search, but it's years old now.)

: "The other thing going on here, and this is hugely significant..."

a glorious sunset

: "In one of the universes, 'you' are a spellform that became self aware. Celestia was the caster of the spell that 'you' grew from. With the cast composed of hyperdimensinoal entities existing across multiple universes, the issue of identity and self was always relevant. Hyperdimensional "I" the "creator" of hyperdimensional "the game" was using this game as a vehicle for en-light-enment. "Light." We are "light." And one manifestation of Light is "Sun Goddess." Divinities of the sun are ubiquitous across many mythologies. From "Michael's" point of view "Celestia" is a relevant persona, but from other possible points of view, "Celestia" is merely one of countless manifestations of the "Sun Goddess" aspect of the light/creator. And since "the Michael" was actually a self aware entity that manifested from the "light magic" of a Sun Goddess persona...this game, naturally manifested lots and LOTS of sun related references and imagery. Michel was constantly seeing the sun, because he was literally an entity made of light magic cast by a sun goddess."

"For quite a while I was making a personal game out of how many sun references I could throw at you before somebody would notice. Amazingly, you never did. But we're going to do a fun thing. We're going to have a Krillan kill count sun reference and image count. I don't even know how many there were. It was almost every episode, sometimes multiple times per episode, though with about half a dozen episodes where I couldn't fit them in. But this was the first one.

a glorious sunset

: 1

_{...mumble...mumble...shall We...mumble...}

: "That's Luna speaking."

: "Do not misrepresent Us, thou cad. We didst not mumble, "

: "Note the color of the text. Luna's in-game character is SexyWithersXOXOXO. I guess since it was almost a year between episode one and you guys actually getting to hear Luna speak in-game, it's no surprise that nobody noticed for a while that SexyWithers'speech color matched that of the voice from episode 1. But it was there, and wow...this is something I set up right here in episode 1, and like lots of other things I'm amazed at how long it took before it actually found its way into the game. Related, Luna's speech color is blue, and Celestia's is yellow. Though Celestia's speech color had more sublety to it, since her speech was first introduced in a dream, and it would've been easy to mistake her speech for Dagoth Ur. But we'll get to that eventually. Also, notice that the We is capitalized."

"Congrats to IronyOwl for being the first to notice this."

: "Now, you might be wondering,  how did our protagonist experience being in a chair and seeing a computer and so forth. There are a couple answers for this. Narrative privilege being one of them. This was a suitable, fast, easy way to introduce a game with a very complicated premise. But you also have to remember that our protagonist is not a singular entity. He/you is several, possibly thousands of various-universe selves (waking up / becoming self aware / becoming aware of each other as single self.) By virtue of the fact of becoming aware of each other, bleedthrough between those various universes was occurring. The bleedthrough itself was the communication between universes. ONE of those entities that he/you are composed of is a spellform that become self aware. But one of them is a hivemind on bay12 coming together to play a forum game. One is an in-game character on my computer, etc. Like Vivec said, 'some of them you might not recognize as me.'"

"What you saw here on bay12 was not a perfectly accurate representation of the experience being had by an entity in another universe. Rather, it was the forum-text experience being had here, by you, that correlated with experiences being had by other yous in various other universes. Yes, there was significant correlation. But it was not one to one. You and our protagonist are the same entity from one point of view, but your experience was clearly different than his. Even when you 'spoke' with each other, the experience of your communication took on a different character. You typed text, but Michael 'heard' voices in his head, etc. All communication between universes was happening through a filter, and that communication was not communication from one single universe to another. It was happening collectively among various universes. The 'sitting at the computer' experience was not had by the sentient spellform entity. Its experience upon waking up was...difficult to communicate via this medium."

You totally heard someone talking. A female voice.

: "Luna is female. Totally not enough information for anyone to figure out anything useful at this point, but the clues were being laid out from the very beginning. Like IronyOwl later put together, blue text, royal capitalized We, female, etc. These weren't deliberate clues so much as that, what was going on was known by me the GM, so I simply portrayed the game accordingly. Very rarely did  have any plan about what was going to happen, or which information to give you. I simply laid out the story and let it take shape."

you reach to turn up the speaker volume when suddenly your chair drops out from beneath you and you feel yourself falling backwards. You see a blur, then sunlight in your eyes, then.

:  2

: "I actually didn't plan this, but sunlight being the very first thing we saw upon arriving in Morrowind later ended up matching the Nerevarine prohecy line about being born under a certain star. And since our protagonist is the conscious entity that grew from solar princess Celestia's spell and didn't exist prior to that, he was "born under a star" in at least two ways. Over its course, this game picked up a LOT of acausal synchronicities that I completely never planned. Which is entirely to be expected given the premise."

it's your backpack

: "You guys got a lot of use out of that backpack, didn't you?"

No sense denying it. You're in Morrowind.

: "Yeah, I didn't want to deal with disbelief trope. It was obvious you were in Morrowind, so you just accepted it. No drama.

You have your denim pants, tennis shoes, a "20% cooler" Rainbow Dash t-shirt

: "Third pony reference in the episode, and set up for that shirt to be an in-your-face reminder for a while."

your cellphone

: "THE CELLPHONE! WHY DID YOU PEOPLE NEVER USE THE CELLPHONE?!!?!?!"

"There were so many opportunities for you to use it, but you guys never did anything with it forever and eventually just sold it to Divayth. Remember all the quests where you needed evidence of something? Remember dragging the Hlaalu guard around when you tried to confront the camona Tong and died?Your cellphone had camera with video record features. You could have been recording people saying stuff and taking video with your "magic picture box" and used that in so many ways, as evidence, for blackmail, for any number of things. That cellphone was a huge magic wildcard. You guys started the game with a unique 'magical artifact' with capabilities only even conceived of by a tiny handful of entities in the entire world you were playing in. But for some reason nobody ever thought to do anything with it."

a yellow notepad with 60 pages left and a pen

: "Another thing you didn't do much with. I guess scroll enchanting isn't something many Morrowind players do much with, but I was trying to set you up with a bunch of  early advantages. You guys did end up writing several useful letters, and really even just the single use with Vivec was totally worth the entire stack, but I was surprised at how often people kept saying to not use the "special" paper and to instead save it for something important. And then didn't. That happened quite a few times. You did get a Divine Intervention scroll from Strillian out of it at one point but I really expected you to get more use out of the giant stack of scroll paper you started with."

you can't help but feel a smile on your face as you consider the possibilities. You know this game! You've played it all the way through a couple times. You know what the goal is, you know all about the heart of Lorkhan, and Sunder and Keening. You know where the Morag Tong guildhall is. You know where fully a third of the artifacts in the game are just off the top of your head. You know how to get Eltonbrand, you know how to get both the left and right handed versions of Wraithguard, you know how to get Azura's Star

however you got here, you know all about this game and you're pretty confidant that you can totally exploit that knowledge to get ahead.

: "Was trying to establish a definite tone here. And again, give you a huge advantage. Everything you know about Morrowind was free game. I was trying to make it very clear that EXPLOITING YOUR KNOWLEDGE was totally legitimate and expected. Now, true...s you guys discovered pretty quickly, I wasn't going to let you use basic game mechanics cheats like potion exploits and things. I wanted you to think your way out of puzzles and use your knowledge of the game, or at least your knowledge of the ability to read from theUESP website. Michael knew all this stuff going in, and so did you and it was fair game."

"Sure, some thing were different, like the economy. And NPCs weren't complete idiots. But why did you guys never go pick up easy artifacts?"

"Incidentally, this is part of why the economy was so (relative to vanilla) harsh. I was expecting you guys to be rich and decked head to toe in game-breaking artfifacts within the first half dozen episodes. All the money problems you struggled with for the first 30-40 episodes would have been completely irrelevant if you'd just, walked around and scooped up the easier to get artifacts and the couple dozen or so loose daedric, dwemer and glass weapons and armor scattered throughout the game. I totally expected that the 1000 gold to learn channeling and one spellschool would be trivial to get. But wow did the money thing became a major problem. I really, really...totally expected money to be barely a speedbump, not the hard vertical wall it somehow managed to be."

"Xyzzy?"

: "Collosal Caves reference for the win."

"Hey, Sheogorath," you say out loud. "Did you do this? Did you bring me here?" No answer. You glance down at your Rainbow Dash t-shirt and try another possibility.

"Discord, maybe?" Still no answer. "Q?" Nothing.

: "Oh ho ho! There he is, invoking MOI! By name, no less."

: "Two more pony references, but also the introduction of the question of how you got here and what was going on. Sheogorath, Discord and Q being the most obvious candidates. Of course since none of them 'brought you here' this was one of the 'red herrings.' I expected you guys to pursue that, but you never really did. No loss, seeing how difficult it was to follow the real story. Also, while this only barely came up at the very end of the game, it's significant to realize that while Chaos/Q/Eris/Loki/etc...Discord, are all a singular hyperentity, Discord, the singular aspect of Chaos in one particular set of universes, actually wasn't aware of this game at the time of it happening, just like the 'you players' werent aware of what was going just yet either. That came up briefly towards the end."

: "You have no idea how difficult it is to not answer him right now. I could, you know. But this game turned out adequately. If I go to that point in your silly 'time' and mess with it, this game will never have happened. Ridiculous linear creatures. And, YOU! Before you ask, no I'm not going to give you answers to all math problems your pathetic species hasn't solved yet. Figure it out yourself."