The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion was my introduction to modern, open-world RPGs. Before that, I mostly played CRPGs like my all-time favourite Baldur’s Gate series and Neverwinter Nights. Bethesda’s approach felt new and stimulating: The sensation of freedom granted by the open-world map was a shock compared to the limited areas in those other games.
However, Bethesda games are about more than a vast expanse filled with NPCs and quests. This is something that any developer with enough money can try to emulate. That elusive sense of freedom and awe that made the Elder Scrolls and Fallout series so popular comes from somewhere else. It’s not about how big these games are, it’s about their depth. And Oblivion taught me this right off the bat.
Back in 2006, the biggest Elder Scrolls wiki was already up and running. (The Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages is actually older than Google!) So, when I started wandering Cyrodiil as the Hero of Kvatch, I had a few hints of where to head after failing to save the Emperor and getting a tour of the imperial sewers. The ancient sages whispered of a fabled sword called Umbra, a daedric artifact with the highest base damage of any one-handed weapon in the game. And in Oblivion, it’s possible to get one long before you’re supposed to. Kind of. I never actually managed to get the sword, but the missed chance of getting a game-breaking item so early is not the only reason I’m still thinking about this game 20 years later.
Umbra is held by an NPC with the same name, located in the Elven ruins of Vindasel. In theory, retrieving this sword is part of a quest given by the Daedric Prince Clavicus Vile, but Vindasel is conveniently located close to the Imperial City, so you can quickly get there at the start of the game. Umbra (both the sword and the NPC) will be there even if you haven’t started Clavicus Vile’s quest, so it’s a popular strategy for players to get there at the start of a playthrough and snatch the mighty weapon to make things easier in the early game.
There’s only one tiny wrinkle, however. Umbra (the NPC) is pretty kickass. She is level 50, pretty much the highest level an NPC can have in the game, and wears a suit of Ebony Armor in addition to her bloodthirsty sword. Luckily, this is an Elder Scrolls game, meaning that, either by design or by accident, there’s often a sneaky way to overcome seemingly impossible challenges. In this case, the ruins that Umbra hangs out in are filled with pillars and other environmental hazards that the not-so-heroic Hero of Kvatch can exploit to keep the NPC at bay while raining down arrows or spells on her. It will take a very long time to wear Umbra down with the measly damage of a low-level character, but it’s doable. Not by me, however.
I never managed to kill Umbra before I got tired of trying. Perhaps my pillar-climbing skills are not optimal. But this encounter left a long-lasting impression because it captures what makes Bethesda’s games so unique and unforgettable.
No one does exploration as well as Bethesda. Even if you never read an Oblivion wiki or guide, you can still stumble into the Vindasel ruins while exploring the surroundings of the starting area. Sure, you may not know that the NPC wandering inside is holding a powerful weapon. But that surprise is there, quietly waiting to be discovered. Moreover, The Elder Scrolls 3 players might find Umbra familiar, as a character with the same name and the sword both appear in Morrowind too.
Digging deeper into the lore, you’ll learn that this cursed sword was created to trap souls. Whoever wields it ends up losing their sense of identity to become a slaughter machine, until they die a gruesome death and the sword finds a new owner. The Umbra you meet in Oblivion is a Bosmer woman once called Lenwin. When she realized what the sword was doing to her, she isolated herself in the abandoned Vindasel ruins to stop the killing and put an end to the curse. It’s an elaborate backstory for an NPC you’re supposed to just kill and rob. You get most of this information from the Clavicus Vile quest, but Umbra’s presence in other games and the fact that you can find the NPC independently of the quest make this one of the best examples of Bethesda’s approach to its RPGs.
The Elder Scrolls world (and the Fallout one too) feels lived in because of the details that emerge organically from exploration. The games reward players’ curiosity not just with treasure and loot, but with discovery. As you explore the map, it feels like you are unearthing things: characters, items, but also stories, details about the world, and interactions you wouldn’t expect. Umbra is there waiting for you to discover her, regardless of whether she’s a quest objective, an exploit to get a powerful item, or one of the threads that connect the Elder Scrolls games. Getting the chance to hunt for powerful items at the beginning breaks the linearity that most open-world RPGs maintain, despite their best attempts at giving the player “freedom.”
More than a decade after my first playthrough, I fired off a new game of Oblivion and, of course, the first thing I did was try to assassinate Umbra again. Still no luck. I still haven’t played Oblivion Remastered, but if I ever do, I have a feeling that my story with Umbra isn’t over yet (and that she’s going to kick my butt again).
