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[Culise]

Dragon priests in particular are themselves also the undying remnants of the most powerful dragon-worshippers from the era when dragons roamed the lands, ruling and conquering as they saw fit.  Like the draugr, they're going to be by nature rather unhappy with any trespassers, and they in particular will dislike a trespasser who also happens to be destined to defeat the most powerful dragon among those they worshiped, and who also happens to be able to go around and eat the souls of any dragons he or she kills.  While they don't leave their barrows, if you happen to (intentionally or otherwise) deliver yourself to them, they won't look a gift horse in the mouth.

[Neonivek]

Ever get the impression that... We aren't exactly the good guys raiding everywhere?

[Rolan7]

Welllll... not because of killing the dragon priests.  The age of dragons sounded pretty awful, and these guys were sorta traitors.  Like Aztec high priests sacrificing to the gods and getting phenomenal personal power along the way.

Raiding the ancestral burying mounds though?  Totally.  There's even that quest where you help a Nord enter his ancestral mound, and if you loot he's like "Hey what the HELL dude these are my honored ancestors!".  He forgives you because a necromancer is actively doing *worse*, but yeah, I think most draugr are just preserved ancestral mummies that aren't at all evil.

It's just that some of the ancient preserved people, the dragon priests and draugr deathlords, almost certainly were evil in life and carried that into death.

That's one reason I wish illusion magic wasn't so useless without singleminded dedication though...  With my Breton character I wanted to pacify the typical guardian draugr.

[Silverthrone]

Think of the economy, with all that gold and wealth left to rot in caverns and ruins. We're circulating wealth, and all those trips to the shopkeepers must be a pretty nice growth stimulus. Although I wish there was a quest where you could open and fill a museum.

I do like to think of the ES-heroes as partly cosmic repo-men. They muscle their way through old ruins, gathering power as they go, and usually rack up a nice collection of artefacts, putting them back into use and making sure they change hands. Can't have a powerful, fabled artefact lying around in an old ruin for the rest of eternity, after all, that'd be a hideous waste.

[Neonivek]

What is odd is when you think about it you get so much treasure in these games that you flood the market with wealth.

All the shops, stores, and fencers in all of Skyrim cannot cough up enough cash to pay for your goods.

I would be interested to know what the economic ramifications of that would be...

---

Think of the economy, with all that gold and wealth left to rot in caverns and ruins. We're circulating wealth, and all those trips to the shopkeepers must be a pretty nice growth stimulus. Although I wish there was a quest where you could open and fill a museum.

I do like to think of the ES-heroes as partly cosmic repo-men. They muscle their way through old ruins, gathering power as they go, and usually rack up a nice collection of artefacts, putting them back into use and making sure they change hands. Can't have a powerful, fabled artefact lying around in an old ruin for the rest of eternity, after all, that'd be a hideous waste.

With what I know about how it went in real life... Not really...

I am not exactly sure why, but wealth tends not to trickle down very well in these societies.

[Teneb]

I imagine that an adventurer would ruin the economy with all that tax-free loot.

Ninjad

[forsaken1111]

I imagine that an adventurer would ruin the economy with all that tax-free loot.

Ninjad

Fair point. One of the things I (oddly) enjoyed about my old Hackmaster games was that our DM would ensure consequences of that nature if we flooded a region with riches. We owed a 'delving tax' for removal of wealth from a dungeon within a nation's borders and then prices would suddenly rise for even basic goods because we just dropped ~100,000 gold pieces worth of loot into the market. It got so we had to hire accounting goons and form a trade company to distribute the wealth overseas to avoid local hyperinflation

Our DM was an economics major...

We ended up forming a specialty acquisitions service and hiring out jobs other teams of NPCs while we did our own quests

[LordPorkins]

I imagine that an adventurer would ruin the economy with all that tax-free loot.

Ninjad

Somehow I doubt that taxing would fix this...

http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/10/85/11/1085116aaf69ee00518d54b0eb4f353a.jpg

[Silverthrone]

Well, true. Good points. Suppose it's mostly a good thing that most of my loot sits around in my mansion. I can't get around looking for a merchant with some money left to unload it on. Nonetheless, Skyrim's already strained economy will probably be in ruins for decades. Until bandits and kings and whatnot has managed to divide it up and squirrel it away underground.

Hullo, think I've gotten on something there. I was going at it the wrong direction. The fact that so much wealth ends up hidden away in tombs and ruins is probably the saving grace for the overfed economy. It's the circle of life for a goldpiece, or a gem or an enchanted sock. They're out in circulation until someone stuffs them away in an old vault, where they simmer for a few centuries. And then maybe a treasure hunter finds it and puts it back on the market. All nice and balanced.
Then the Hero comes along, and tips the market right over, knocking over hoard after hoard, pouring in several decades worth of tomb raiding loot on the market over a few months. No wonder Cyrodiil got so pwnd by the Elves, with that kind of inflation going on. Morrowind should be happy that the volcano destroyed so much of their excessive wealth, by and large.

The Gods give, the Gods take away.

But then again, Lord knows how Tamriel's economy work, with big fat slabs of gold being the main currency and everything.

[forsaken1111]

Perhaps the dungeons, tombs, etc which are filled with monsters and traps are actually an economic control built by the state. Amateur adventurers buy goods such as weapons and armor, go into these dungeons, and they die. This removes the goods from the economy, effectively lowering the overall wealth available. Later a hero retrieves them and sells them because they are inferior to his own equipment.

[Rolan7]

The Empire shouldn't be vulnerable to inflation, though, because gold is a precious reagent for arguably the greatest power in all of Mundus:  The Altar of Spellmaking!  Along with its cousin, the Altar of Enchanting.

Though only the greatest of fetch-questors are allowed to use the great Altars, it still gives a significant inherent value to money - along with a massive potential sink.  If the Empire found itself with too much gold, all it would take is a new tax, and then ASOTIL and friends get to be battlecasters.  (what could go wrong)

[LordPorkins]

Well the empire is gonna be a bit busy for a little while considering a mysterious, handsome stranger ripped out the trachea of the Emporer
(Huehuehuehuehuehue)

[xaritscin]

Also: Morokei is most useful mask. I mean Goddamn that +100% magic regen is insane.

dont forget Otar, if you max lvl smithing it can be a good adition to any warrior since its a heavy armor and the enchant allows you to tank against magic a bit.

as for the Barrows and other burial places.

each barrow has a different story in the game. for example there's that about a dragon priest that is awakening and you help the ghost guarding the place to destroy it before it revives ot its full potential.

Dragon Priests and their servants were put on the barrows in order to keep them at bay in case the Dragons returned.

there's also the thing that some Draugr arent actually prisoners, but keepers. they are basically the automated defense system on the barrows. so it makes sense for them to attack everything that seems to be an intruder on the place.

not all of them awake of course, there are cases where you can traverse a chamber and they wont notice, or only a few will awake in order to defend the place.

finally, most Nords seem to have a respect for the burial mounds. as its expected, they are the ancestral grounds and as such mortals shouldnt be messing around down there.

most of the folks that you find on the barrows are either bandits trying to get a living by raiding the barrow and looting the riches, or setting up base on it. to spellcasters practicing netromancy or even vampires using the place as a secret lair.

there are only a few cases where you see a nord or normal citizen related to the barrow, like that woman trying to find some heritage papers or the guy saving his buried family members from that elven necromancer.

now, raiding seems to just be something looked down upo by Nordic society. they dont really have any policy about it. its most about respect and fear than any other thing.

[xaritscin]

also, gosh, enemies with two handed weapons are a nuissance in legendary, starting because you cant kill them from afar with bows, poisong doesnt to much damage atm and going melee is suicidal against them.

i mean, you expect them to be slow to attack, not fail a hit and then do a power attack a second later. WTF with that....

[Ultimuh]

Everything I find goes directly into the Dragonborn Gallery.
Unless they are the useless normal crap every bandit, forsworn, or dark mage carries. That stuff, I just leave on their corpses.
However.. If they are worth at least 500 gold or more, I might consider carrying it to the nearest store I come across.